Monday, December 10, 2007

No More Heroes Censored For Europe

10:30PM Luke Plunkett | Sorry, Europe. You know how the Japanese version of gore-fest No More Heroes is censored? Like, how instead of an enemy spouting fountains of gushing blood after a sword cut, they spout fountains of…black ash? Well, that’s the version you’re getting. No blood, just ash. Yes, we know Suda himself promised otherwise, but disappointment is a currency you and I trade frequently in, so you should be used to it. You can blame Manhunt 2 or, we suspect, fear of the Germans (well, the USK), whichever takes your fancy. [Games Radar] More »

“Diminishing of Core Players”

10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | At one time, Japan was the centre of the gaming universe. What about today? Does that still hold true? Sure, Japan has its fair share of influential software and hardware companies — but, so does the West. Q-Games founder Dylan Cuthbert knows Japan and Japanese gamers. He’s worked directly under Miyamoto and Sony. What’s his take on the scene? Cuthbert says: Video games used to be taken far more seriously than they are now; over here the gaming culture was affected adversely by advancing mobile phone tech., which back in the late ’90s and early ’00s was years ahead of the West. Suddenly people were playing (not games) with their phones and being more sociable than before, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the human race. However, the Japanese still think of themselves as a kind of gaming mecca because they have a few god-like presences. In reality though, gaming has become less central and more a standard commodity; the Wii and DS have proved this with their huge demographic range. People want to play games, but without the huge investment of time and money games used to take up. You could look at it the other way around and consider that games are taken so seriously here they are a “standard” in everyday life. There is just an increasingly diminishing core of hard core game players and increasing number of light, casual, “least-possible-investment” players. Case in point: The DS and the Wii’s Japanese success. Pixel Junk Interview [Newsweek] [Image] More »

Art Direction In Games Is Rubbish, Says Game Art Director

8:30PM Luke Plunkett | Games are making big strides. Least as far as technology goes. But on the art design side of things? Urgh. For every Half-Life 2 there’s a hundred games like Gears of War, whose only claim to originality or uniqueness in their visual design is…well, they don’t really have one. Anyone nodding their noggins in agreement with that above statement should go check out Gamasutra’s interview with Moby Francke, who was art director on Team Fortress 2, where he says stuff like: I think video games are at such infancy in terms of art style, actually developing it. We’re dealing with 4000 years, really, of art and conceptual design. For it really not to be utilised, and for the industry to basically dwell in a certain type of genre which has been around the 1980s up to present time, it’s pretty much all they’re embracing. It’s the same way, you have Star Wars and the original Stanley Kubrick movie 2001. And people embrace that genre of outer space, so to speak. And it’s continued to this very day. Hopefully people will wake up someday. Maybe! Heck, as it stands we’d settle for games that could just match Star Wars and 2001 for design, let alone move on from them. Valve’s Francke: Game Art Direction In Its ‘Infancy’ [Gamasutra] More »