I have a sort of love-hate relationship with Jonathan Blow. I still think he can come off like a pretentious jerk, but after some epistolary exchanges, I think we’re maybe seeing a little more eye to eye on several key issues. But I adore his game Braid. I’m even willing to put up with the fact that it doesn’t play nicely with my Mac: it’s really a pleasure to play, and I’m looking forward to having it on my 360 so I can look at it on something bigger than my laptop. The guys at 1UP did an interview with developers Blow and David Hellman on the subject of Braid; we posted the gameplay montage a few weeks back. Now you have another chance to hear Blow talking about why Braid is pretty awesome. And I will — for once — gleefully concur on a lot of it.
Regular Wii just a bit too vanilla for you? Perhaps you ought to have won Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament! Of course, if you suck at Brawl and think a Wii decked out with 20,000 Swarovski crystals is very much “your thing,” you could possibly just grab one from Crystal Icing, maker of all things crystallised. They’re not currently selling them, but I’m sure if you got them on the phone and asked them to charge four grand to your credit card, something could be worked out.
The Brawl to End Them All… [Crystal Icing]
Gamasutra has a great interview up with Paul O’Connor of High Moon Studios, talking about the challenges and pitfalls of designing games based on movie IPs (in this case, a game based on The Bourne Conspiracy; while not directly tied to any of the films, they are using parts of the films in their game). As he succinctly notes early in the interview, the terrible reputation of movies-turned-games is entirely deserved; while I’ve read a number of interviews tackling this question, this interview is in-depth and a meaty read in a way that most of the others aren’t.
The Cyberathlete Professional League has become the latest pro-gaming operation to close its doors. The organisation announced that it had ceased operations on March 13, cancelling all currently schedule events. The official statement cites “the current fragmentation of the sport, a crowded field of competing leagues, and the current economic climate” as responsible for the CPL suspending operations. General ennui was not mentioned as a factor.
The World Series of Video Games, which shut down in September of last year, similarly pointed to a “very crowded field of competitive gaming leagues.” The CPL, established in 1997, noted that it “intends to continue to pay the 2007 World Tour prizes.”
Jason Rohrer, designer of weird little artistic diversions Passage and Gravitation, has a new column over at The Escapist focusing on prototyping and game design; each month will have a new discussion of a (playable) prototype. I love prototyping discussions, and it’s so much the better when the things are playable; I just think it’s a nice way to illustrate points about game design. This month, he introduces a little (simple) game called Perfectionism:
Looking forward to some new Nintendo announcements? Might want to hold tight until about July, according to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. He tells Geoff Keighley on the newest GameTrailers TV that the company will be announcing the second half of ’08′s line-up at E3. What’s on tap? Mostly misdirection and fanboy teasing, it sounds like.
SXSW hosted what sounds like a very interesting panel on the issue of personal property rights in virtual worlds: this is becoming an ever more important issue, with lawsuits a-flyin’ and people getting arrested for virtual property theft. So, how is this issue going to get nailed down? And when? And by whom? The panel consisted of GoPets CEO Erik Bethke, Live Gamer co-founder Andrew Schneider and attorney Greg Boyd, with Charles River Ventures’ Susan Wu moderating.
The most recent Bungie Weekly Update teases that this Tuesday will see the official word on new Halo 3 Legendary Map Pack details, including a solid release date and a look at the second of three new levels. The first, “Ghost Town“, was unveiled just a few weeks ago. We think it’s a pretty safe bet that the new map will be frosty, as the game’s vehicles have been given a fresh snowjob, with pictures of each new iced out ride over at Bungie.net. Luke Smith also drops word that the Hornet has been given a gameplay nerf, making it “less of an airborne death machine and more of an aerial support vehicle now”.
Bungie Weekly Update: 3/14/08 [Bungie]
How long’s it been since we first saw BioWare’s PC RPG Dragon Age? Nearly four years? That’s an awful long time. So long, in fact, it’s led many people (including myself) to wonder whether the game’s ever going to be released at all. Well, according to BioWare, it is coming out, and it’ll be coming out soon. Well, soon relative to this game’s development, anyways, with BioWare’s Matt Atwood saying the title should be out before April 2009, and that when it does hit, we’ll all be “extremely excited”. Good to hear, though a release date or new info would be gooder to hear. BioWare talks up Dragon Age [Eurogamer]
