MAX PAYNE 3: ‘BULLET TIME’ TEASE

Who doesn’t love themselves some Max Payne? Not just the gameplay and bullet time it’s so well known for, but the actual storyline that comes with it. Each Max Payne I have played has been better than the one before. I know the Max Payne story is good, because Hollywood decided to produce a movie based off of the game. Which I did not see. On purpose. Are you kidding? I’m not going to watch another half-assed Hollywood take on one of my beloved video game titles. Why can’t they do game-movies correctly? Anyone have an answer?

Check out this teaser video of the new Max Payne. Something caught me by surprise and it’s the last part of the video. Did any of you know that Max Payne was going to be released by the end of the year? I sure didn’t. Their website only says ‘coming soon’. I totally expected it to come out in 2010 with all the other delayed games of Fall/Winter 2009. Go figure! Max Payne 3 and Rockstar have the balls to go up against Modern Warfare 2. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

ROCKSTAR SAN DIEGO: GRAND THEFT HORSE

Finally the game has been announced! Back in December 2007, I had an opportunity of a lifetime. I had a phone interview with the guys at Rockstar San Diego and they invited me to their studio in San Diego for a full interview. I was so stoked! I was just 2 months out of game school so I was pretty shocked that I got an interview so quickly. And Rockstar of all companies! Yeeaa! Well, the interview went great. It lasted about 4 hours. I met with the team and the art directors, they took me out to an awesome lunch down the street. I really thought I had the position in the bag. Keyword being, thought. But no such luck. However, they did take me around the studio for a tour and I got to see some early development on Rockstar San Diego’s newly announced game, Red Dead Redemption. I assume since the game has been announced now, the NDA I signed is no longer valid and I can talk about what I saw. I doubt I will be saying anything that you can’t find out on your own anyway. Now, bare with me here as this was well over a year ago and my memory is shitty so I’ll try to describe what I saw.

The artists I talked to described the game as an open world type game kind of like Grand Theft Auto IV. So they started calling it Grand Theft Horse (I was hoping they would stick with that name) but it looks like they settled on Red Dead Redemption instead to coincide with the prior Red Dead Revolver game. Anyway, like I said before, I saw an early version of the game so as they were doing a walkthrough of what they wanted to show me, I saw gaps in the terrain, tumble weeds floating in the air, people and horses walking into walls etc. Very glitchy so, early Alpha stage.. if that. But there were some things I found very cool.

Obviously, since this is the old west, you’ll be traveling mostly by horse. As you do, there are many animals that cross your path, in between creosote bushes, cacti and the normal desert flora and fauna. I remember seeing rabbits and snakes crossing in front as well as more tumble weeds and dust devils which help bring this HUGE open desert landscape come to life. There was a specific part of the game the developer wanted to show me and it kind of took a while to get there. I really can’t say the word HUGE enough times. The mountains, the canyons as far as your eye could see.. it was just immense. He wanted to show me what one of the towns look like so I can see all the people, the saloons, where you “park” your horse, the hookers (OK I don’t remember the hookers but I bet they’re in there somewhere). But as we were coming up on the town, the most magnificent steam train I had ever seen in a game was passing right through the town. Huge smoke stacks rising off it. I wish I was good at explaining the visual that I have of this old school train but I’m not so, you’ll have to imagine what it looks like. Think of the train in “Back to the Future III” and you should be good. But it doesn’t fly or anything, so not that part. Let’s just say it was impressive. Anyway, you can hop on the train and let that be your transportation if you don’t want to ride your horse anymore. So you’ll use the train like the subway train in GTA IV, to get to one place to another which will be much faster than trotting on your horse the whole time. And I think it may be a no brainer that you will likely encounter some outlaws trying to rob the train you’re on somewhere in the game.

I was hoping I’d remember a lot more but I don’t. I’m sure we’ll be hearing plenty more from Rockstar in the coming months as the hype machine builds. I only rented Red Dead Revolver but I remember it being a lot of fun. Now that they have incorporated the sequel in an open world setting, I’m looking forward to seeing what this new western open world can offer. The game is being developed on the RAGE engine (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine; same engine as GTA IV) and since the RAGE engine developers are located at the San Diego location I think they will be able to push the engine even further than they did with Rockstar North’s GTA IV.

The game should be arriving in Fall 2009 but don’t hold your breath. These guys are trying to push the envelope with this one and no one should be surprised to see it delayed. Gamers are getting quite used to that though and it’s totally fine by me that a developer or publisher wants to see their game polished until perfection. Take all the time you need Rockstar. Make this one a must have.

Read the announcement at Take Two…

REALISM IN GAMES: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE "FUN?"

Game developers have strived to create the most realistic games possible. Not all of them, but I would say a majority of studios creating the next gen triple-A titles. Take for instance, Rockstar North’s Grand Theft Auto IV. I could not wait to get my hands on this game! Realistic characters, albeit a bit stylized, realistic remake of a real world city, realistic animations and realistic world physics. What’s not to like about a realistic game like this?

Well, for me, GTA IV was not as fun as I had hoped. Not even close to being as fun as GTA San Andreas. While playing GTA IV, I could not help but wonder why I was not enjoying the experience. It seems like I had to force myself to pick up the controller and finish the game, just to say, “yea, I beat it.” Not because the fun in the game kept calling me back. The “fun” never really started.

Of course the game was gorgeous to look at! It was amazing to be in this virtual world of Liberty City and might be the closest I’ll ever get to seeing what the real New York City actually looks like. Don’t get me wrong, the game had it’s moments of greatness, it is Rockstar North we’re talking about here. However, I feel that adding this much realism in games, actually denies me the total “immersiveness” I am looking for in a $60+ game purchase in this genre. If I wanted to enjoy realism, I wouldn’t be playing games. If I wanted to enjoy realism, I’d go find a real hot dog stand to eat at, I’d ignore my real cell phone when it rings.. annoyingly, and I’d watch my own TV of someone watching TV.

Now, this realization I had of realistic styles of games being the wrong direction to go, hit me while playing GTA IV. But it didn’t truly sink in until I put in a GTA sandbox clone in my 360, Saints Row 2. No more than 15 minutes went by before I was laughing because of this game. Just in the character creation screen alone, before I even started the single player campaign, I was laughing hysterically at this unrealistic character I was creating. I literally had tears running down my face from laughing so hard. Why? Because the character, which Volition gave an incredible amount of options to create, could not exist! There is no way someone that ugly exists in this world! It was in no way a realistic person, and it made the whole Saints Row 2 experience that much more satisfying. The side mission of throwing your character into traffic to rack up money and respect is my favorite. It was quite refreshing to switch from GTA IV to Saints Row 2, as Saints Row 2 does not take itself seriously and in turn I no longer took the sandbox game seriously as I did in GTA IV. I think that is also why I really enjoyed Crackdown, another great sandbox game, minus the “uber-realism.” Was Crackdown overlooked by critics and gamers alike because it wasn’t realistic enough? It makes me wonder.

The video below shows how much closer we are to attaining the level of realism that may be almost too real to decipher real from fake. When I first watched this, I thought I was looking at a real person. The “Image Metrics Tech Demo” shows how far the game and film industry have come in creating realistic CG characters. This is truly an amazing accomplishment Image Metrics have created and I hope they continue progressing in their technology. But the question remains, is this what the game industry needs? Is this what the gamers want? Does realism equal good quality gaming, or is realism in games killing all the fun?