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Resistance: Burning Skies: The Kotaku Review Rob DePetris, vice-president of finance for Canadian developer Silicon Knights, has left the company. His reason?
Right before you go to sleep, ever wonder what it’s like to work for Too Human creator Denis Dyack? Neither do we. But let’s say, hypothetically, that you did wonder that. Read what some Too Human employees say about Dyack:
Carman Dix, Art director of Too Human: Underneath, Denis is still that boy that genuinely loves video games with a passion.
Henry Sterchi, Director of design of Too Human: Denis is sincerely passionate about the quality of everything Silicon Knights does, and with that passion comes some of his outspokenness and desire to interact with the community.
Steve Henifin, Audio director of Too Human: One of the things I like about Denis is that he is a tenacious person and he takes risks. I respect him for that, because I’m the same way.
That’s nice and all… What do you really think?
‘Too Human’ Developers Share Impressions Of Denis Dyack [Multiplayer][Pic]
Too Human is neither as good nor as bad as many have made it out to be. The action role-playing game, nearly ten years in the making, built up quite a storm of controversy and expectations as it tumbled its way to completion and release. The game tackles a retelling of Norse mythology with a cyber twist and works to reinvent the way people play button mashers. In the game the most loved god in Norse mythos, Baldur must contend with enemies on all sides and balance his desire for revenge with thoughts of the greater good.
Too Human set out to be epic and it delivered on at least one level: Denis Dyack’s painfully personal reaction to the previews and reviews made for a soap opera drama of epic proportions on gaming forums and websites international. But what about the game, did it deliver on the same epic level as Dyack’s wounded ego?
Once again that Microsoft has “Never Say Die!” tattooed in neon green across its corporate chest, the company has announced it is sticking by Denis Dyack and Too Human. While the reviews have been mixed at best, Microsoft states:
Microsoft Game Studios and Silicon Knights are committed to finishing the first instalment, but Too Human is an overarching epic with a rich and vast game universe that cannot be told in one instalment.
This game will begin the saga of the god Baldur in the narrative tradition of classic trilogies, such as Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings. We will talk about the full trilogy and we are very excited about its potential.
Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Too Human? All in the same Microsoft breath.
Too Human isn’t just a science fiction reinterpretation of Norse mythology, nor is it just a philosophical look at humanity’s growing reliance on technology, nor is it just a cautionary tale about the nature of war, nor is it just an action game. Definitely don’t judge it as just an action game. No, Too Human is, among all of these other things, a chance at salvation for an entire city in Ontario, Canada. Or thus spake Dyack in a recent interview with his home town paper.
Once again proving that legal metabolism is slow, the Silicon Knights vs. Epic court battle slogs on. It’s been a year since developer Silicon Knights filed suit against Epic, claiming that Epic had “failed to provide a working game engine”. Silicon Knights went on to ditch the Unreal Engine 3 that it had licenced from Epic and finished Too Human with its own engine. Says Dyack:
Well the trial is proceeding, we feel really good about our claims, and we’re hopeful that justice will be done. We all feel really strongly that they have defrauded us, and a major portion of the industry.
The Unreal Engine is still the industry’s most popular third party engine.
Almost a decade and a couple platforms later, Microsoft has announced that, yes, Too Human‘s gone gold. There’s even a demo of Denis Dyack’s game up on LIVE to prove it. It’s apparently been downloaded more than another action demo on LIVE Marketplace in its first week. That’s what Microsoft says! Feel free to download it. Or not. It’s your choice.
Hit the jump for the full press release with pre-order info:
Watch as Silicon Knights’ Denis Dyack exercises Herculean strength of willpower, describing the concept behind his Xbox 360 game Too Human to women in underthings, maintaining constant eye contact. Penthouse Pets Heather Vandeven and Jaime Lynn are wooed and wowed by the concept of cybernetic Norse mythology, a story told in two parts.
You’re not still reading, obviously, but keep an eye peeled for our similar line of interviews coming soon. They’ll feature myself and Mike Fahey in Craftmatic adjustable beds interviewing industry luminaries in our PJs. As soon as someone agrees, we’ll start filming. Any day now…
Denis Dyack Explains Too Human To Our Penthouse Pets, Part 1 [Das Gamer]
Look who’s writing a column in the recently-revamped Edge Online! It’s Silicon Knights’ Denis Dyack, and he’s talking about cut scenes. That’s been sort of a hot-button issue lately, hasn’t it? On one hand, it’s difficult to tell a story without cut scenes. On the other hand, they fly in the face of a video game’s ultimate goal: interactivity.
Dyack recognises this dichotomy, and says that cut scenes in themselves are not a problem, but rather his fellow designers have implemented them poorly:
Over the last five to ten years, so many games have been released where cut scenes are absolutely meaningless. They don’t contribute to the content and don’t contribute to the characters. They’re almost like some kind of reward for completing the level, and that makes absolutely no sense.
As game designers we have to go beyond that. Cut scenes have to contribute to the game. That’s a really good rule for people to follow. And it shows you that the classics, well, we still have a lot to learn from the classics.
So what will he do about cut scenes in his Too Human?
Silicon Knights’ Too Human is coming to our shores on August 19th, and we now know our neighbours in Europe will get the Xbox 360 exclusive precisely ten days thereafter, on the 29th.
The demo was unveiled on Xbox Live last week — were you too caught up in E3 craziness, or did you catch it? We had a lengthy discussion on it here at Kotaku last week, in case you missed it. What do you think, Europe? Looking forward?
And on the off chance you have no idea what we’re even talking about, Microsoft has helpfully offered full details in the announcement after the jump.
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