The latest version of the Home Developer Kit was detailed at a GDC session last week and Joystiq has all the juicy details. Finally developers are able to create assets for Home, including trophies, games and environments. This is great news for everyone waiting for the Home open beta; the more content developers create, the sooner a populated and functioning service can be released to the public.
The Joystiq article also includes a good number of photos taken during the session. These show various aspects of Home that we may or may not have seen before. Included is a shot showing a stress test of the new Home Items feature, which allows people to use various objects within the world - in this instance we can see a large number of people dancing around their bubble machines. Speaking of the bubble machine, it was one of the added features in the new Home beta upgrade which goes live this week. Between the improved beta and the almost-fully-functional developer tools, it can't be too long until we finally see Home in the flesh. So to speak.
Did you watch the Insomniac recruitment video? Of course you did. (Download a higher-res version here.) Here's an exclusive for PS3 Fanboy readers. Ryan Schneider from Insomniac joins us to give a few behind-the-scenes commentary for the video. Find out a few new tidbits about the development team and get a few more hints about this Resistance 2 game they have going on.
What was the inspiration for creating a recruitment music video? Well, when you go to things like GDC, everybody has their typical video. In general, everyone has their recruitment video – it's very "been there, done that." We just wanted to do something different. We wanted to create a video that captures who we really are and this video does. It shows that we take our games very seriously but not ourselves.
At Game Developer's Conference, our pal, Richard Lemarchand from Naughty Dog hosted a post-mortem on Uncharted entitled "Amazing Feats of Daring." His talk covered the various challenges the team encountered on their first PS3 project, and the tricks they've learned along the way. The audience was jam-packed, as representatives of gaming's most proclaimed development teams attended the session.
Another week, another visit from your local precinct's Poll Police. Grammatically unsound, ethically clean, and legitimately insane, we ask you questions that you answer and react accordingly. This past week, the Poll Police were on a trip to the Game Developer's Conference. Through the many sites you undoubtedly visited, you got enough information to have vicariously attended the event. So, what did you think?
Sony didn't have a very large presence, but we got enough stuff to keep you in the loop. Even if you aren't a Sony fan, there was definitely a lot of great information presented by Microsoft and third party companies to keep you on the edge of your seat. GDC wasn't the biggest announcement center for non-US companies (Microsoft seemed to blow its wad of titles all in one presentation), but it gives us the notion that the Sony Gamer's Day coming up will really let the PS3-related announcements shine bright. Last week's poll result, as always, is past the jump.
At a GDC lecture Haden Blackman, the project lead on The Force Unleashed, stated that Lucasarts has now learned a valuable lesson from its development of the game. All future multiplatform projects will prioritize development on the PS3 before being ported over to the 360. This is a direct result of problems and delays during the development of The Force Unleashed caused by trying to port the 360 version to the PS3. The game is now, thankfully, on track, despite these delays.
A live demo of The Force Unleashed was also shown and, from what we've heard, it looks absolutely stunning. We can't wait for its release this summer.
You thought you heard the last of Lair, didn't you? While at GDC, a man we will call DugBuzz, states in his IGN blog, seeked out the Factor 5 booth and played around with their new build of Lair that incorporated an analog function. He made a comment about the guy who reviewed the game on IGN after playing the new version: "Greg needs to give them a new score. It was kind of clear that Factor 5 put in the extra effort a little begrudgingly, but the results were amazing. This might push me over the edge into the "must buy PS3" territory."
So there you have it. If you haven't played Lair, or rented it and had a bad taste in your mouth, should this analog patch (which also might fix other things -- just an assumption) come out, we'll let you know. It's then your call whether or not to try it out again, but if this guy has decent tastes, it might just make a potentially great game great. Get it?
Dylan Jobe, in an interview with 1UP, confirmed that Operation Broken Mirror, the rumoured Warhawk expansion, is currently in production. The booster pack will feature a new battlefield (that'll be "Vaporfield Gl..." then) as well as a new vehicle - an Armoured Personnel Carrier that will function as a portable spawn point and equipment producer. Sounds exciting. We're looking forward to seeing more. No doubt Jobe will have a post up on the PlayStation.Blog within the next couple of weeks. He just can't seem to stay away from it.
Jobe also stated that new booster packs will be released "as long as the community exists". New game modes and features will continue to be released in free patches (much like the v1.3 patch that should be hitting the PSN before too long). Splitting content between patches and booster packs means "you can always get free stuff and you always have to option to buy certain content", which we consider to be an excellent philosophy. Finally, Jobe denies that Single Player expansions will ever be released for this iteration of the game, but is definitely something they want to look at for future titles. Whether that's the next Warhawk game, or an entirely different franchise, we look forward to seeing it.
Bionic Commando Rearmed, the PSN remake of the original NES game Bionic Commando (which is receiving a sequel on the PS3 later this year, also entitled Bionic Commando - confused yet?) is pegged to be unleashed onto the PSN Store this May. The news comes out of various interviews during GDC with Capcom representatives. This is a lot earlier than we expected to see it, but we're certainly not complaining!
1Up is also reporting that the PSN version of Rearmed will feature higher-resolution textures than the Xbox Live version. This is due to Microsoft's 150MB limit for games on Xbox Live Arcade putting restrictions on the file size of the game's textures. It's nice to know that Capcom won't have to compromise the quality of the game for the PlayStation Network. We just wonder whether the game will feature a 5GB install ...
Sony's PlayStation party at GDC08 was one of the most exclusive parties to get into. Just ask MTV's Stephen Totilo, the GameTrailers crew, and the entire team at Insomniac Games. (None of these people were invited, supposedly.) As we described earlier, "There are hula-hoop girls with really short shorts; there's a breakdancing crew getting boogaloo on the dance floor; there's a DJ mashing up 70's throwbacks; there's a barber shop upstairs (no, seriously, they're actually cutting hair)." If you didn't believe us, try watching this video: it'll be like you're there! Enjoy this, uh, VIP access to the show.
Download an HD version (for your PS3) from my Vimeo page.
Posted Feb 21st 2008 10:35PM by Andrew Yoon Filed under: News
At last year's GDC, Phil Harrison made a platform-saving keynote entitled "Game 3.0." The PS3 was under a serious amount of scrutiny, but surprise announcements of Home and LittleBigPlanet recaptured the hearts and imaginations of gamers worldwide. Harrison envisioned a world of collaborative, social gaming, and admits that Sony Japan had been very reluctant to pursue that vision.
Speaking to GI.biz, Harrison lamented: "And our Japanese colleagues said that there is no such thing as social gaming in Japan – people do not play games on the same sofa together in each other's homes. It will never happen. And then out comes the Wii." Harrison, who hailed from SCEE before taking over the PlayStation group at large, noted that social gaming is something he tried to promote heavily in Europe. "It's a very interesting and frustrating thing for me to experience because I have been banging the drum about social gaming for a long time, with SingStar, EyeToy and Buzz." Perhaps if Sony Japan had been a bit more understanding, it would meet much greater success than it has faced so far with this current generation of games. Thankfully, things are turning around.
Posted Feb 21st 2008 6:00PM by Nick Doerr Filed under: News
While it's obvious the 360 version of Capcom's upcoming title Bionic Commando, revived from its classic NES game of the same name, will have achievements, the PS3 will have them too. Right now they're being referred to as "a similar trophy system", which we're sure is just going to get called "accomplishments" officially sooner or later. These will appear when you go through some mini-challenges, like defeating a certain number of a certain kind of enemy or performing certain moves back to back with your bionic arm of destruction.
The story is getting a little hype by Capcom, too, saying there is a message behind the plot. The notion is that it will "explore the idea of man versus machine and comment on the frailty of the lead character when robbed of the power of the bionic arm." Yes, we all can identify with human fragility because we don't have a robotic arm that lets us swing around a city. It bothers us every single day.
The Nocturnal Initiative is essentially an open-source collection of solutions to problems that can be encountered during video game development. By sharing these solutions across company boundaries Insomniac hopes to "allow studios to focus more on what sets their games apart and less on the basic building blocks necessary to create a modern game." As a result games will be made faster and to a better quality. We're excited to watch this initiative grow and hope to see it make a big impact in the game industry.
We thought you'd enjoy seeing some of Sony's GDC presentation at Game Developer's Conference. SCEA reached out to the game development community, attempting to highlight the reasons why the PSN should be a destination for developers. The benefits of network distribution (slide, above) are pretty obvious:
No physical goods
Lower development costs
Keep more of the money!
No used games market
These are all intrinsic to digital distribution. But, Sony's presentation revealed some more interesting points.
You've been waiting for it. New PAIN content is hitting the PS Store later today. For a game that launched with only one freakin' level, that earns a huge sigh of relief from us. Stay tuned for more details on what new content PAIN will earn in today's complete PSN update.
Posted Feb 21st 2008 9:00AM by Andrew Yoon Filed under: News
Quietly unveiled at yesterday's PSN session was PhyreEngine, a new "free to use graphics engine" from Sony Computer Entertainment. According to the presentation, the package includes full documentation, "70+ samples" and "full source code and artwork" of sample game templates. Working on both OpenGL and Direct3D, this engine will allow developers to more easily develop for the PS3 by using PC environments they're more familiar with. A "simple recompile" is supposedly all that's needed to make the game run on the PS3. Sony is promising "ongoing development and support" for the PhyreEngine.
The ramifications of this subdued announcement are actually quite significant. Three titles have been revealed to have used the PhyreEngine for development: flOw, GripShift and DiRT. Of those three, only one is exclusive to PlayStation. It appears that the PhyreEngine is truly cross platform -- Sony is indirectly contributing to the development of PC and Xbox 360 games.
But why make it easier to make games on a competing console? Well, it's undeniable that developers are increasingly focused on multiplatform development. It's been rather commonplace for developers to neglect PS3 with inferior and oftentimes delayed versions of multiplatform games. With PhyreEngine, Sony is making a much more attractive plea: make games on PS3 first, guaranteeing high quality games that will not only match their 360 counterparts, but in many cases can exceed them. Sony's message is clear: start games on the PS3, and they will be better for both PS3 and 360 owners. It appears to us that PhyreEngine is a crucial part of that plan.
