mercoledì 10 giugno 2009

ff7 intro Revisited

I recently watched the intro to final fantasy 7, not for the first or last time, and realized just how great it actually is. Just looking at it cinematically, the amount of character given to the city of Midgar in such a brief intro is a beautiful introduction to the steampunk attitude and depth of mystery that saturates the dark and gritty first few hours of gameplay. The opening cinema transitions directly into gameplay, with a quick train jump thrusting you straight into the explosive tutorial dungeon(materia reactor). The sense of scale constantly fluxing, from stars to an alleyway, to a street, birds eye view of a city, runaway train, back to street level, if nothing else gets the player excited to delve into the game's unique lore.



It's kinda bladerunner-esque, but then again i've been comparing everything to bladerunner since i watched it a few weeks ago. I may also be going off the handle since watching this brings back such sweet memories.

martedì 2 giugno 2009

O, look at the time.

This story just seems important on a socially responsible and comical level. Click PB for the article!
wut, it wasn't at all instigated by some kind of litigation, they just decided, hey this is way fucked up? I kinda like that.

e3, microsoft delivers?

It seems easy to say that the most impressive news from this years E3 is coming from the microsoft camp, although I'm quite skeptical.

Project Natal - In a nutshell, it seems that microsoft is planning on some kind of hardware (now that i think about it, i'm not sure if it would be an add on for the 360 or a new system altogether) that allows for motion sensitive input, and would include a very impressive amount of participation of your entire body in gameplay. However, I can't concieve by what method this would be possible. At first I thought of a wii type of sensor bar, but even that needs a wii mote, this system seems to be completely body controlled. I don't think the final iteration of this idea will look like this, or work as well, or come out any time soon.
"
Of course it is an attempt at getting some of that wii money, expanding the market of games accessible to everyone and their grandmothers, and good luck to microsoft... but they're starting to sound alot like Peter Molynieux, which brings me to my next point!


Milo - Peter Molynieux once again acts as the over promising spokesperson to his latest 'omgthiswillchangeeverything' genre of games, Milo. Which doesn't seem to be a game, its more like a super creepy AI child, which reacts incredibly real in its demo which was 'not acted, but recorded in real time gameplay'.
"
I can understand the notion of simplification making design elegant, but I can't help but disgust at a game that just wants to get rid of the controller, i mean what is a video game without the controller, its the handshake of the game, its what's plugged into your brain via your sense of touch and reaction, I just don't think i'd enjoy a future of gaming without a controller. I also think that just like Fable, this is gonna suck, and then a sequel will be made, and it will be more tolerable.
Is this supposed to be entertainment? art? a science experiment? What is the goal of a game studio creating a game of babysitting? What happens when the inevitable gamer screams loudly and tries to verbally abuse Milo? Anyway, I'll believe this project natal nonsense when i see it in a live demo.
Update!: in this kotaku article, Milo is given a press demo, which explains the mechanics much more thoroughly, but its still far away from completion.