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I’ve been keeping my eyes open for Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon ever since its demo at Tokyo Game Show in 2008. Something about this Wii game’s beautiful environments and enchanting premise really captured my imagination. You play as Seto, a 15-year-old boy who’s all alone in a post-apocalyptic world until he sets off in search for other survivors like himself. The world is quiet and moody, filled with dilapidated ruins, abandoned trash, and lingering spirits — and all of it is displayed in wonderful detail. In the atmosphere department, Fragile is a success. But on a basic gameplay level, Fragile unfortunately missteps.
You have this creepily serene landscape to explore, complete with discoverable objects that replay the cherished memories of those long since past (I recommend the Japanese voice-overs instead of the awkward and stilted English dub, by the way): it should be a brilliantly captivating journey, one filled with surprising discoveries, or perhaps touching moments, as you hold out hope for finding companionship in a desolate world. And it is…so long as you’re able to get over the clunky and dated design choices.
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Bottling Lightning: Recording the Music of Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Bad Company 2’s audio team tells us how music can bloom on a Battlefield.
By Alex Van Zelfden
While it may not be too unfair to picture game development as a dreary building full of people hunched in front of computer monitors for months on end, the industry certainly has plenty of appealing aspects as well. Obviously weapon demonstrations are a blast; motion capture sessions can be counted on to provide a few laughs for the uninitiated; and don’t forget the occasional company picnic. But perhaps one of the most genuinely dramatic, if not fascinating events that can happen in game development (and sometimes the least understood) is the orchestral recording session.
Imagine a vast room with dozens of musicians positioned before the conductor’s podium at rapt attention. Each one has practiced for years in order to be ready for this day, in order to have the timing and coordination needed to not only play a complex series of notes most have never seen beforehand, but to match the other players in the ensemble note-for-note without error. It’s like gathering 50 gamers together and asking them all to perform identical speed runs of Super Mario Bros. 3 simultaneously without a chance to memorize the stages.
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When you first hear Guilty Party’s premise, you’ll probably think of the classic board game Clue. It’s a turn-based adventure where you piece together clues to figure out who committed some dastardly deed. The cast of selectable characters runs the gamut of pulp mystery clichés: the hard-boiled detective, sassy FBI agent, boy wonder, nosy grandmother, ’70s undercover cop, and precocious teen girl. And trying to figure out what other people you’re playing with know is almost as important as what you can glean on your own. But this original adventure adds a lot more to the mix.
Starting off, you neither have to play competitively nor with any other people at all. The game’s story mode lets you solve mysteries solo or with a friend; you start out in a mansion, but you’ll travel to many different locations (including a train, aquarium, ship, opera house…all the classic places you can imagine a pulpy investigation happening in) as you try to thwart your nemesis, the evil Mister Valentine.
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One short year can make a surprisingly substantial difference in a game. When High Voltage last showed off Wii FPS title The Grinder at E3 2009, it bore a lot more in common with the FPS Left 4 Dead. But since then, the development team has changed direction completely; you’ll still be fighting horror-movie staples with four friends, but now you’re doing it from a top-down, Gauntlet-like perspective. And you’ll be doing it on 360 and PS3.
The team from High Voltage on hand to demo the game explained that, while no one ever asked them to make Left 4 Dead for the Wii, fans had constantly been bugging them to make a sequel to Hunter: The Reckoning. And in some ways, they feel this is their chance to make that game, but without the restrictions of White Wolf’s IP. It’s a similar idea and theme, but Grinder gives High Voltage a lot more creative freedom to throw in whatever kind of enemies and ideas they want (like massive, Cthulian tentacle beasts).
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Even despite some controversy, Final Fantasy XIII is selling well. Square Enix sent word today that the RPG has sold more than a million units in North America, in the five days following its March 9 launch. This makes it set the record for the best first-week sales in Final Fantasy history, which is no small feat considering the pedigree. The name still carries a lot of weight, even as the game is facing some negative feedback based on its departure from the traditional tropes of Japanese RPGs.
The news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that the company had shipped 3 million units to North America and Europe alone, helping the series as a whole cross 96 million units. The game is still readily available in stores and Square is shipping to retailers, so we should see a strong showing in the March NPD data. We may even find a tight race between it and PS3-exclusive God of War 3 for the month’s top seller.
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Playing God of War III can be dangerous business, it seems. Witness one player who apparently got so into the game that they actually managed to break their hand in the process.
Gizmodo has the x-ray, which was sent to them by a physician saying that one of their patients go so “caught up in playing God of War III that he rolled over his hand with his knee and broke two fingers.” The unnamed physician said that it was the first time he had seen “such an extreme gaming injury.”
It’s actually difficult to imagine how this might have occurred. Maybe the injury occurred after he had set down the controller to watch a cutscene?
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Dragon Age: Origins Awakening just dropped this week. Mass Effect 2 is still shy of two months old. That said, many fans are already wondering what’s next for Bioware. UGO’s Tracey John caught up with vice president Dr. Greg Zeschuk and CEO Dr. Ray Muzyka at GDC last week and picked their brains about the future of Bioware’s role-playing franchises.
“We’re planning for 17 games,” joked Dr. Ray when asked how many Dragon Age sequels to expect. “Well, both Dragon Age and Mass Effect are franchises so they have different strategies and different kinds of story arcs but we plan on continuing to make games and worlds and expanding on those worlds in both franchises,” the CEO added, continuing, “Both in different ways, but we want to continue to provide content to fans, whether that be separate games or new adventures that have very different kinds of gameplay. So we have some cool stuff for both of them that we’re exploring that’ll be fun and different for the fans, and yet in a familiar setting at the same time.
Dr. Greg tossed in his thoughts on sequels, as well. “In the case of Dragon Age, it’s exciting because there’s this whole timeline and geography,” explained the Bioware creative officer. “So with Mass Effect, we’re constantly thinking about the trilogy. But with Dragon Age, it’s more open and you can put more all over the place. Seventeen… Sixty-six? Infinite! Infinite games for the Dragon Age universe! (laughs)”
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It won’t be long be long before you get to try Mass Effect 2’s answer to the Mako for yourself. The Firewalker DLC pack will be landing next week.
The pack will feature five new missions based on the brand-new Hammerhead. It will be free to those who have the Cerberus Network.
It will be followed shortly after by Kasumi’s Stolen Memory, which is slated to launch April 6. It will introduce the thief Kasumi along with her loyalty mission, and will be the first paid DLC.
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Developer Harmonix has 10 more tracks ready for next week’s Rock Band DLC. They’ve announced new downloads from L.A. punk pioneers X, former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley, modern pop sensations OneRepublic, and more. Be on the lookout for the DLC next Tuesday, March 23 on Xbox 360 and Wii (Thursday, March 25 on PlayStation 3).
The Rock Band devs also listed the 29 songs that have been added to the Rock Band Network store on the Xbox 360 over the last week. Among the new additions are tracks by Clutch, Third Eye Blind, MxPx, and Left 4 Dead 2’s Midnight Riders.
The four-pack from X will set you back $6.99 (560 Microsoft points) on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Singles will be priced at the usual $1.99 (160 Microsoft points; 200 Wii Points) apiece, with the exception of a pair of Little Fish tracks at 99 cents (80 Microsoft points; 100 Wii Points). Rock Band Network pricing ranges between $1 (80 Microsoft points), $2 (160 Microsoft points), and $3 (240 Microsoft points) per song.
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The first bit of Heavy Rain downloadable content, titled “The Taxidermist,” will come out on April 1 according to the PlayStation Blog. The additional episode, which was released for free to those who pre-ordered the game, will cost $4.99. The episode takes place before most of the events of the game, and features Madison investigating a suspicious house while on the trail of the Origami Killer.
Our experience with the DLC was fairly short, but it puts stock in replaying it in a variety of ways. The episode features multiple endings, and fans of the game might enjoy discovering all the ways this story can go awry. More DLC episodes are said to be on the way featuring other characters both before and after the events of the game. Given the game’s strong sales so far, Sony and Quantic Dream should have a well-established audience for the episodes.
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