Sunday, May 25, 2008

News

Extended Audio Interview with Niko Bellic’s Voice Actor

8:00AM Owen Good | This interview sounds like it’s taken from the Big O & Dukes radio show on WJFK-FM in Washington. It’s a long and in depth talk with Michael Hollick, the voice actor for Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV. There’s a little too much hero-worship from the hosts, but hey, Hollick is not a controversial guest, I suppose. He gives a really good look at the development of the game, and how the actors match their lines to the motion capture, which sounds almost impossibly hard to manage and remain in character. Newfound respect for this kind of work. Other highlights: He auditioned originally for motion-capture; the game he was told he was auditioning for was called “Frozen.” And he had days where he came in to work to find a script that was “50 pages of just screaming. In these you’re jumping off of something, in these you’re shooting someone, in these you’re being burned alive.” GTA 4 Niko Voice Actor Interview [GameTrailers user Grave, thanks reader Raivis R.] More »

The History of RPGs: The Game List

7:00AM Maggie Greene | I’ve mentioned Michael Abbot’s efforts at putting together a great syllabus for his ‘history of RPGs’ class, which has thus far produced a flurry of discussion and a reading list; he’s now put together a list of games and the number of people who have recommended them (I’m dying to know which ones will make the final cut). He does mention a few key points: More »

Holiday Timewaster: WTF?!

5:00AM Maggie Greene | While I have enough work to kill an ox this weekend, I took some time last night to play with this delightfully silly side-scrolling WoW sendup. Here’s one introduction to a quest: “Now that you’ve begun to get the hang of that most fundamental of skills – killing shit – and started to properly become a bit more class conscious, we can tackle a slightly more disturbing problem.” Karl Marx even makes an appearance (never mind the Mario appearance pictured above). It’s worth checking out if you’ve got some extra time to waste this holiday (in the US) weekend. WTF?! [via Grand Text Auto] More »

Whatever Happened to Colour?

3:00AM Owen Good | TrustyGamer has a point. Photorealism is a good thing, but can it really be an escape from reality — especially for ostensibly lighthearted fare — when the colour palette it draws on represents the depressing colour scheme of our own worlds? Increasingly, that seems to be the case in every title, including EA’s Skate, which “look(s) like shots from a heroin game where you have to skate to get your next fix.” More »

Guitar Hero: World Tour Priced; More Expensive than Rock Band

2:00AM Owen Good | No official pricing info was included in the voluminous news release, but the Band Kit for Guitar Hero World Tour has been priced on Gamestop, which is (of course) also accepting pre-orders. More »

Penny Arcade Game Pimped With Flamebait

1:00AM Owen Good | When a movie’s major, above-the-title testimonial comes from Access Hollywood, Rex Reed, or a television station in New Mexico, chances are it’s going to be a real turd of an operation. Penny Arcade is trying that in reverse with On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One. They’re flacking it with the rantings of an anti-Penny Arcade troll. More »