Three Words I Said To The Man I Defeated In Gears Of War That I'll Never Say Again 
New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land 
Why Robin Makes Batman Better 
Resistance: Burning Skies: The Kotaku Review 
Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending Australian Gamer recently caught up with Rob Davis, a game designer over at Pandemic. He’s worked mainly on two titles during his career – Destroy All Humans 2 at his current lodgings, and Ty 3 during a stint at Krome.
It’s a chunky interview, covering Rob’s history, experiences and how he got his break, but it was his view on the local industry that I found particularly interesting:
Well I don’t think we are an enormous industry but I do think we’re a microcosm of the international industry. One thing that makes me think that is that we’ve got a really split development scene in Australia. Like you are either on a project that costs millions upon millions of dollars (BioShock, LA Noire, Total War) or you are on a project that is more of a “Gun for hire” approach (Firemint, Tantalus, Redtribe). I think that’s also happening internationally too (for better or worse) so in that sense we are operating like the rest of the world.
I think it’s great that regardless of whether you’re making massive games or compact ones, you can still be a successful developer in Oz. It goes to show we’ve really come of age.
There’s more from Rob beyond the link.
10 Game Industry Questions – Rob Davis [Australian Gamer, via Sumea]
What about that Metal Gear Solid movie? Before the presser started, I talked to Konami’s Aki Saito, who is handling the film negotiations. According to him, the contract is still being worked out. Kojima will not be directing. However, he will be acting as a producer. Says Saito:
A buzzer just sounded! Literally. The lights have gone down and I’m in the dark. Good thing I have an illuminated MacBook Pro, amirite. There’s an ad for Sony phones and now Uniqlo. Just like before a movie. There’s a funny no smoking ad with MGS theme exclamation points. Hahaha, now there are a bunch of phoney MGS themed ads like for guns and stuff. Great stuff.
Watching the MGS4 opening on a huge movie screen in full Dolby Digital sound. Beautiful stuff. It starts with Old Snake wearing a hooded outfit in the back of a truck. The sound is truly amazing. The credits role as it goes from gameplay to unable. Great mix of game play and cut scenes.
How much of your scarce, precious internal memory will the new WiiWare games take up? About thiiiiiiiiisssss much. Oh, can’t see my “one that got away” fishing-arms size comparison? Then consult this handy chart, put together by the Virtual Console Database, which will tell you exactly how many memory blocks the first round of WiiWare titles will consume. Bear in mind while calculating that your Wii’s got a total of 2163 blocks, but then keep on bearing and remember that if even if you’ve got just a few extra channels and only a Virtual Console game or two, your free space is going to be a lot less than 2163.
WiiWare has launched in the States and, as usual, Australia is left sitting on its hands as Americans throw their Wii remotes around in delight. We do have one point to be excited about – Pop, the bubble-exploding game from Balmain-based developer Nnooo! – made it as a debut title for the service.
Nic Watt, creative director over at Nnooo!, has only praise for Nintendo’s platform for bite-size games, particularly its economical advantages over conventional distribution mechanisms:
The advantages [of]it are: being able to control the whole of the creation process, owning the IP, being able to distribute straight to the consumer, having a far better royalty split than we would ever get on a disc based title.
Microsoft has pushed XNA and Xbox Live Arcade as the perfect package for independent developers. Could WiiWare be a serious contender for the role? Can any developers provide their two cents?
Nnooo!’s press release for the launch can be found after the jump.
Well, PC gamers, it looks like piracy isn’t the only reason developers are cutting back on the number of games they create for the platform. It’s also your expensive, cutting-edge rigs! In trying to explain why Lucasart’s upcoming Force Unleashed wouldn’t be gracing the company’s former home platform, producer Cameron Suey has said: [If we made the game for high-end PCs] , someone with a low-end PC would have a watered down experience, they would have to turn all the settings down and it wouldn’t be the same game. On the other hand if we made that game for as many people as possible then it’s not taking advantage of what those $US 4,000 systems can do.
What a load of rubbish! You’re gonna cut PC gamers out of the loop, Lucasarts, the least you can do is be straight with them. Or at the very least, come up with a better cover story than “we can’t scale the graphics on a PC game”.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Interview [VideoGamer]
Win The Disgaea Collection Thanks To Madman: A quick reminder that today is the last day we’ll be accepting haikus for our Disgaea Collection competition. With five sets to give away, you stand a great chance of winning. All you have to do to be in with a chance is be clever, and I know that comes naturally to you guys. Hit the original post for the specifics. Thanks again to Madman for supplying the goods!
Hey, Facebookers! Ever wondered which Grand Theft Auto protagonist is most like you? Probably not, but if you’re wondering how a lily white nerd like me could find his virtual equivalent to be star of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Victor Vance, maybe then you’ll try out weekend editor Owen Good’s Facebook app “Which Grand Theft Auto Character Are You?” It’s quite revealing, as I always thought of myself as a street dog vendor or TW@ internet cafe employee and this is the sort of stuff I take as gospel. Mr. Good has promised, as a sort of concession for my Kotaku-style app pimpage, that all flaming be directed in his direction.
Which Grand Theft Auto Character Are You? [Facebook]
Nothing planned for May 21, live in Victoria and enjoy a bit of Guitar Hero? The Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) is holding its own GH championships at the Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy. It’s all part of an assessment for the NMIT’s Event & Venue Management students.
You can purchase tickets beforehand at $10 a pop, or cough up $12 at the door. If you feel your skills are particularly excellent, $5 will get you into the competition. An Epiphone SG guitar is up for grabs if your jamming proves the most dazzling.
Hit the jump for more details.
Certainly appears so. There’s a new PS3 ad doing the rounds, one which shows off each of the console’s main features. One of the features shown is the PlayStation Store, and in particular the kind of stuff you can download. Now, I’m not one to go making bold presumptions as to the multimedia plans of Sony corp., but that screengrab above – taken from the PS Store part of the commercial – shows a lot of TV network icons. Which, I don’t know, at least strongly suggests the (entirely feasible/expected) idea of TV show downloads for the PlayStation Store. Pessimists could say no, that they’re just the latest selection of corporate-funded buddy icons, but then, with a Sony press event scheduled for this Friday, pessimists may well be totally wrong. Full ad’s after the jump if you’re interested.
