Nevertheless, plenty of folks seem to think I was saying that we’ve built half a decade’s worth of excess content (art, quests, additional geography, etc.). Obviously, we haven’t developed five years worth of CONTENT for WAR at the moment. We’ll do that over the next five years (and then beyond!).
The quoted answer was a response to a question about balance - specifically, the boring under-the-hood stuff like experience curves, level progression, etc. that are critical to the game but that are super-dull to read about. Our designers really DO have projections in place for that side of things that lead us well into the future of WAR.
So feel free to correct anybody you see out there in Internetland who’s been confused by the article.
]]>I’m not sure when or how exactly it’ll all come out, but be on the look out for coverage in the coming days.
[EDIT] Vid (wisely) asked for a list of sites that were in attendance. I may have missed one or two, but this is the list I jotted down during the roll-call last night:
]]>But enough whining!
The set up we’ve got over here is AWESOME. It’s an EA Games Label event featuring Battlefield Bad Company, Battlefield Heroes, Mass Effect PC, Left For Dead, Mercs II, Battleforge and WAR. It’s really cool to be doing a major PC-dominated show for once. EA is really dedicated to offering great games for the PC platform, which makes me happy.
We’re each set up in a section of the room, with crazy sets (we’ve got a Marshes-of-Madness set) and a GIANT rotating platform in the middle that the press sit on. The platform moves them around to look at each title in order, which is hilariously awesome to see.
Speaking of awesome. Battleforge. Seriously. You want to play this game. The Hickman came back from a corporate event a few months back absolutely RAVING about it and it did not disappoint. Sadly, their demo was not allowed to be recorded - but they let plenty of folks have hands-on time, so hopefully some bright spark will do a really detailed write up.
Also, the Mercs II guys are a hard bunch to follow when you’re doing presentations. It’s worth your time to keep an eye out for video their presentation online in the coming weeks.
Anywho, pics to follow (assuming I remember to actually take some of the venue tomorrow).
Keep your eyes peeled for even more Yurpian coverage over the next few weeks.
]]>Definitely keep your eyes peeled for videos over at Ten Ton Hammer. Speaking of whom, kudos to the TTH crew who did an absolute first-rate job setting things up. By far the smoothest large-scale presentation we’ve done in months. PLUS, Jeff, Garrett and his super-fox of a wife Padma came through with the New and Improved TTH shirts - which are (if it’s possible) EVEN BRIGHTER than the old ones. With embroidered personalization, I might add.
Ah, the perks of moderate notoriety.
Alas, we are now stuck here at the airport. Paul has disappeared. The Hickman misses his lovely wife and devoted children. Ah, the price of moderate notoriety.
Anywho, enough babbling for now.
* Dear Lunatics,You made The Hickman very happy with your awesome WAAAGHing.
]]>Absolutely fantastic. The Hickman loves it too!
]]>Be there, true believers!
]]>These are shirts that are only given to staff members to wear at shows, so there are maybe a hundred of them in the whole, wide world and owning one will DEFINITELY make you the bees knees in the eyes of your fellow WAR fanatics. And fellas - there’s no shame in wearing a ladies shirt. Or so I’m told.
Oh, and EA Mythic is matching the final auction price, so bid with gusto!
]]>What was the first video game you LOVED? Not the first one you played, but the one that REALLY convinced you that video games were For You. Arcade, PC, console - anything goes. Feel free to throw your answer into the comments or (even better) write a more detailed post on your own site and link to it in the comments.
My answer:
Growing up, my first PC was a TI-994A. It had a decent assortment of titles available and I spent a lot of time playing games on the good ol’ TI, but while they were fun for short periods of time, I never really got hooked by any of them.
My next PC was an IBM PCjr. While the PCjr was market failure, it DID come with a well-ahead-of-its-time wireless keyboard AND was responsible for the development of the original King’s Quest which IBM had commissioned to show off the PCjr’s graphical and sound capabilities. King’s Quest was fun, but still failed to really capture my attention.
Years passed, our PCs started being used - more and more - for things like homework and keeping track of bills. For a few years, I wound up not playing any new games at all. When I did play them, it was always over at my friend Bill’s house (he had the most tricked-out rig in the neighborhood, so we’d pool money to buy new games to play on his PC).
We played a LOT of duds. We played a lot of decent games as well. But Space Quest IV absolutely blew us away. It was gorgeous - with hand-painted environments that really pushed the limits of what PC graphics could do at the time. It was smart and funny and challenging and a little bit subversive. We started playing it on a Friday afternoon and it became clear that I needed to stay at his house until we were finished. Luckily, Bill and I tore through it over the course of the weekend.
From that point forward, I was hooked on PC games. I still have a particular soft spot for Sierra adventure games (Full Throttle remains one of my favorite games ever) and I was really sad when it became clear that the market had shifted so much that those types of games were going to be harder and harder to develop successfully.
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