Warp Zoned Presents
Author: Josh Griffiths
The Frames Per Second Fight is Just the Return of the Bit Wars… We All Need to Move On
Unlike many in the video game community, I don’t have fond memories of gaming as a child. It wasn’t until I was 13 or 14 when I got a PS2 for Christmas that I got serious about my gaming. Before that, video games were an entirely foreign concept to me, though I did play my sister’s Super Nintendo from time to time. We’d play Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Country, and Paperboy 2; it was the only time when we weren’t trying to kill each other. My dad was into games back then too, playing old adventure games like Riven and Myst.
As my interest in gaming grew, so too did my interest in gaming’s history. Time and time again in my halfhearted and aimless research I became aware of the fanboy subculture. In those days, I was a Sony fanboy, but the art of emotionally investing in a multi-million dollar company that didn’t care about its individual customers was more refined in the height of the Sega and Nintendo wars. (more…)
Double Fine’s documentary chronicling Broken Age’s development has reached its last episode
In early 2012, Double Fine nearly broke the game industry when they introduced the words “Crowdfunding” and “Kickstarter” to many gamers for the first time. The crowdfunding model has become a fixture of the gaming landscape in the years since, and while Double Fine’s campaign may not have been the first, they certainly made it a viable option that developers such as Brian Fargo and Keiji Inafune would eventually use.
Along with the game that would eventually become Broken Age, Double Fine also produced a behind-the-scenes documentary series with 2 Player Productions known as Double Fine Adventure. In Schafer’s words, he wanted to “show us how the sausage was made.”
After more than three years of filming, and twenty main episodes (along with countless extra “Sidequest” episodes), the documentary reached it’s grand conclusion over the weekend. Originally, the series was an exclusive for Kickstarter backers, but as the game neared completion, Schafer decided to unleash the series to the public early.
Regardless of what you thought of the game, the documentary series has made the whole ordeal more than worth it. As someone who backed the Kickstarter campaign all those years ago, I can’t tell you how inspiring and informative these episodes are. Before this, the world of game development always happened behind closed doors, but no longer.
This series has been different. It’s showcased game development from the very start of the creative process to the release of the game, and it’s aftermath, and it did it with a relatively large studio as well. We like to think game development is all sunshine and lollipops and that everything is all fun all the time, but this series goes to show that isn’t the case. I heartily recommend it, even if you’re not interested in game development because it’s so much more than a behind the scenes, how-to documentary, it’s a captivating look into the creative process.
2 Player Productions recently began work on a Blu-ray release for Double Fine Adventure and you can pre-order it at adventure.DoubleFine.com.
Classic JRPG Odin Sphere getting an HD remaster in Japan on PS4, PS3, Vita
Atlus and Vanillaware, the publisher and developer of cult classic PS2 RPG Odin Sphere, announced today that a high defintion remaster is in development for the PS3, PS4, and PS Vita.
According to Siliconera, this will be more than the typical paint job that many remasters from the PS2 era receive. In addition to the expected HD visual makeover, Vanillaware will add “new battle actions, maps, enemies, [and] animations” to game, along with with “an enhanced fighting system and additional features to make the overall gameplay smoother and faster than before.”
The remaster will be known as Odin Sphere: Leifdrasir, a title I’m sure many of us won’t be able to properly pronounce for some time. And we don’t have much time to figure it out as the remaster is scheduled for a January 14, 2016 release in Japan. There has been no word yet on an overseas release, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted when that changes.
The original Odin Sphere was released on the PS2 in 2007. The game was well received, and beat sales expectations in Japan. To date, Odin Sphere has never received a sequel or spinoff, making Leifdrasir a welcome return for players who have missed out on it the first time.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita
Tagged Odin Sphere
Player skill to blame for negative previews of Devil’s Third, says Itagaki
The tumultuous development cycle of Devil’s Third is finally starting to get to Tomonobu Itagaki, the game’s Director. The Wii U exclusive has been beset by the bankruptcy of its original publisher, a rocky relationship with its current publisher, an engine switch, and upgrading to a new console generation in mid-development.
Itagaki, who is no stranger to speaking his mind, took to Facebookto blame Devil’s Third’s poor reception on game journalist’s overall lack of skill:
Guys, At last, I was be able to understand about the reactions. Devil’s Third is the game which reflects the player’s skill directly/vividly. This is truth.
Game developers claiming any negative reviews are the result of the game journalist’s skill, or lack thereof, is nothing new. But when game journalists are in almost universal agreement that a game isn’t very good, it’s possible the game might not be very good. Criticism exists to inform readers, not to wage vendettas against people the critic doesn’t even know.
Hopefully Devil’s Third will be a good game, and who knows, maybe the people playing it weren’t very good. But we won’t know for sure until the game’s launch this August in the UK and Japan.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Devil's Third
Warner Bros. to release “interim” patch for Batman: Arkham Knight on PC
WB Games announced yesterday (through their Steam Community page) that an “interim” patch is coming for the much-maligned PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight.
In the statement, Warner Bros. said the patch will “address many of the issues” they include in their last update on June 27. Internal documents obtained by Kotaku Australia claim that a full patch won’t happen until September at the earliest, so it looks like this update will be little more than a band-aid.
Still, the next update looks like it will cover a wide range of bugs. The patch will allow the game to run higher than 30 FPS, will improve texture issues, and “improve overall performance,” though what specifically that means remains a mystery. Don’t expect this to be the deus ex machina that fixes all your problems, but it should make the game run a little better if you’ve already had the misfortune of buying it on PC. The full list of planned fixes can be found at Arkham Knight’s Steam Community page.
Sales of the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight were suspended just days after its launch. Pulling a game from online storefronts is almost unprecedented, and can likely be attributed to Valve’s new refund policy on Steam.
WB GAmes has yet to announce when Batman: Arkham Knight will be once again available for purchase on the PC.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Batman: Arkham Knight
Long-lost animated cutscenes from Crash Bandicoot emerge
One of many former mascots for Sony’s PlayStation, Crash Bandicoot, was originally going to feature animated cutscenes between levels. Footage released yesterday via YouTube, thanks to a user named “9Matt2,” gave gamers their first look at the animation, which had been lost for more than 20 years.
David Siller, a Producer on Crash Bandicoot, spoke to Crash Mania about the cartoon:
“It was based on ideas for where we were going with this IP at that time. It was probably too ambitious in nature and was also trying to be humorous. It was never used or even embedded in the game as a hidden ‘easter egg’ treat.
Once UIS licensed the game to Sony for publication, Sony did not want it utilized since they were heavily pushing the ‘3D’ agenda.”
The first segment of the video was supposed to be the game’s intro, while the second part was going to be used for the outro of the game. Crash Bandicoot hasn’t been heard from in a long time, but it’s always fun to get a taste of gaming history.
Posted in News, Retro
Tagged Crash Bandicoot
Bethesda says Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim paid mods “didn’t pan out”
Yesterday, Bethesda’s Pete Hines sat down with GameSpot to talk about the paid mods feature that came to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim back in April. Whether it was due to the ludicrous money revenue split that resulted in modders only receiving 25% per, the lack of quality control, the fact that modders where stealing assets from one another, or simply the fact that people had to suddenly start paying for things that used to be free, no one seemed to like Steam’s paid mod feature. Needless to say, the monetization model proved controversial and received criticism from nearly every corner of the Steam and Skyrim communities.
As a result, Bethesda suspended the program almost as soon as it started, amidst accusations that the Art of the Catch mod was using stolen assets from another mod. In his conversation with GameSpot, Hines explained that Bethesda came up with the idea for allowing modders to charge for their mods after receiving a request from the modding community:
“We had creators who said, ‘I’ve been asking for donations for years and never saw anything, and I made more in one day.’ So why would I not support that?”
In addition to probing Hines about the fairness of the revenue split, GameSpot also asked if there was any way the program could come back. Hines diplomatically said it was possible, but that the company was focused on “bigger fish” (like Fallout 4) at the moment:
“I honestly, genuinely, don’t know what it means for the future. It was an idea we worked on with those guys for Skyrim; it didn’t pan out. It came back down.”
[…]
“I think our stance on it is we’re going to re-evaluate it going forward. I think that we feel like there is a case to be made that people who spend a lot of time working on mods ought to be able to have a way of monetizing what they’re doing.
[…]
“Honestly, [we have] bigger fish to fry right now than sorting that out.”
Even if the program returns in some form, Todd Howard, the Game Director of Fallout 4, previously said (to Kotaku) that there are “no plans” to add paid mods to Fallout 4.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Fallout 4, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim