voyage to mars
Happy Halloween!
I have managed to write three half-finished blogs this past week, but I never seem to find the time to actually finish, edit, and post one. Bad Ragnar. Blame a) sickness; b) the busy; and c) San Andreas. I'll make a concerted effort to catch up with things tomorrow. In the meantime: don't conjure up any vengeful pumpkin demons (we had enough of those last year, thank you very much), don't give out poisoned candy (ditto), and don't, for the love of god and all things godly, vote for Bush.
Gizmodo has a
great article regarding the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD battle, and, not surprisingly, they herald BD as the format of the future. Does HD have
any support whatsoever? It appears unlikely that the format will succeed against the superior Sony-backed alternative, though any consumer confusion in this arena will hurt the future of high definition home cinema.
So now it's a good idea to let just anyone
switch my TV off because they think it's "bad for me"? Let me be absolutely clear on this: if anyone decides to save me from myself during
Lost, I won't be a happy puppy. I foresee a new era of entertainment terrorism, where cultural commandos roam the streets terminating reality shows and sitcoms in favour of interpretive dance. Okay, so maybe not, but for some reason it still annoys the hell out of me.
Great idea. Now, if they could only find a way to incorporate torture into that, it'd be perfect. Oh wait, they did? Lovely.
The web devours voraciously. Especially time. It eats time. Every day, millions of hours, consumed and stored inside its bloated maggot stomach. Some day the web-maggot will spew all those lifetimes, those endless oceans of time, out through its infinitely expanding anus, creating a wave that will wash across the universe like a Biblical flood, reverting everything to absolute zero, the beginning, the end...
Or maybe I just ought to spend less time online. It begins with honest research and it ends, bleary-eyed, with www.screenhead.com. At least TV was an honest time-eater. You plonked yourself down on the couch, you didn't pretend you'd be working. I sit down with my coffee in the morning, boot up my PowerBook and Word, and five minutes later I'm neck deep in Ain't-It-Cool-News getting annoyed with Talkbackers and trying to remember why there's an empty Word document running in the background.
Phew.
Project #2 is kicking into high gear again, after a relatively quiet period. There's still loads of work left on
Dreamfall, but there's life after next autumn (and not just the third - and likely final - chapter in the TLJ saga). You know it as 'NBT', I know it as 'TSW', but come E3 all will be revealed. Maybe. It all depends on how fast things happen between now and May, but I remain cautiously optimistic. More on that in the months to come.
Review time. The new TV season is well underway, and through the magic of the internet, I've managed to catch, and keep up with, a few of the shows that are debuting this autumn. Now remember, kids: piracy is theft. But when you're fresh out of options and don't want to wait a year (or two - or forever) for local networks to pull their thumbs out of their arses, BitTorrent is Your Friend. Just don't copy something you can buy, because there's no excuse for that. As for me, I'll probably pick up most of these on DVD down the line:
Lost (ABC). The best of the new:
Jurassic Park meets
The Lord of the Flies, but without the dinosaurs and the kids. Twists & turns aplenty, and we've just begun. I watched the pilot back in early August and loved it to death, and when a fresh episode hit the airways last week, it didn't disappoint. In fact, it keeps up the pace and manages to deliver a few genuine surprises and proper scares in a mere forty minutes. The cast is appealing, the locations lush, the writing fine, and the effects solid. I haven't watched yesterday's episode yet - saving it for the weekend - but I'm definitely with this one for the duration of the ride. I can't wait to see where they'll take us.
Veronica Mars (UPN). I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The positive buzz got me watching it, and the first two episodes were fantastic. Think Nancy Drew meets Buffy, but without vampires and magnifying glasses. It's quirky, it's dark, it's funny, and Kristen Bell is very cute. I can't imagine it'll last the season, so let's appreciate it while it's still around.
Father of the Pride (NBC). Meh. It looks great, it really does. Top notch production values, great actors, and the
premise works better than it sounds...but it hasn't yet hit its stride, and I don't know if it ever will. It's raunchy, sometimes funny, but despite the solid cast, the characters are pretty bland and the writing is so-so. I thought
Shrek 2 was hit-and-miss, and this one confirms the suspicion that PDI's got some amazing artists and animators, but they're sorely lacking in the story department. It's an expensive show, and the ratings have been so-so, so look for this one to get the boot at the end of the season.
CSI: NY (CBS). I never fell for the Miami edition, but this one could grow on me. I'm still a
CSI: Classic guy, and while Gary Sinise is a fine actor, three episodes in he hasn't yet hit his stride - his character is a blank slate - but I'll keep watching this for a while to see where it's heading. They're wearing the franchise a bit thin by now, but some cases are still surprisingly engaging. Good entertainment, then, but not much more than that.
Life As We Know It (ABC). It starts off on the wrong foot, gets worse within minutes, and then - when I'd pretty much written it off - it miraculously begins to redeem itself. It could grow on me, though I'm not holding my breath. The premise? Three high-school boys want to get laid. Well, that's where it starts, anyway. Think
Porky meets any coming-of-age show ever produced...before it turns into something that stretches a bit further than that. Unfortunately, I don't much like the characters - at least so far - but I'll give it another shot to see where it's heading.
...and the less said about
Joey, the better. Hopefully
Lost will be a winner, and one classic show is about all you can expect from a new season. If
Veronica Mars survives, it'll be a miracle, but fingers are firmly crossed.
Ragnar!
Tim finally makes an game that has actual gameplay and tries to push
adventure gaming into new arenas and you tell him he should make
films? :( You need to see the actual game, man! It's as fun to play as
the cutscenes are to watch, at least from my experience volunteer
playtesting a few levels for Double Fine back before E3. Considering
TLJ is all about advancing adventuring into a more realtime
environment with real gameplay instead of odd abstracted mouse-delayed
stuff of the point and click era I would have expected more than "he
should get out of the games industry" really :)Good point. But here's the thing: I have no doubt
Psychonauts will be a fun game. Tim Schafer knows design. I have faith. That doesn't change the fact that the trailer makes me want to see this made into a movie (which, by the way, is a compliment). It's just that kind of trailer. The dialogue, the characters, the story, the music - it all screams "ridiculously expensive CGI feature! Now, dammit!". If Tim Schafer went to Pixar - or PDI, Blue Sky Studios, Disney - it would certainly be a great loss for this industry, but as a storyteller he'd gain a larger audience, more credit, more appreciation, loads of cash, and quite possibly lots of nubile groupies. And that's never a bad thing. (Especially the groupies.)
Still: I'm happy there are writers/directors of his caliber making games. If Hollywood can't see quality writing when it kicks them in the shin, then screw 'em. We'll keep Tim and Pixar be damned. They've got
The Incredibles coming, so I'm good.
I stand in awe. But honestly, wouldn't you rather watch the movie than play the game? The platform action just gets in the way of the brilliant writing. Tim Schafer ought to leave the world of video games behind and start working for Pixar. (And also give me a call when he does.)
Dear Ragnar,
Thank you for The Long Journey. A masterpiece.
April is your valuable property. She could, with proper marketing/PR over the next 18 months start taking over from Lara Croft (especially given the last Tomb Raider game!) as the female gaming character for the 21st century. More hip, less boob job, more IQ, less bum, more sassy.
Problem is, you've taken her out of Dreamfall. Not totally, but to all intent and purposes, she's gone.
Quickly now: What was the name of Gabriel Knight's assistant?
What was the town Sam and Max lived in?
What is the name of the organisation Sam Fisher works for?
You see, it's about characters. Your most valuable property as far as I am concerned is April Ryan. And you are wasting her.
Please reconsider her part in Dreamfall. To have a campaign as much around April as around the other parts that make TLJ/Dreamfall makes so much sense in today's market. Write her more into the story, Let her guide Zoe to where Zoe has to be for Zoe to do whatever. Not have Zoe look for April, find April and then move on. It's just not right! With one strong character taking centre place in all the TLJ games makes it much more likely you'll have merchandising (tee-shirts, dolls, whatever) and much more likely to get movie deals. So much could come from making April the centre of Dreamfall instead of the Periphery!
If April is written out of Dreamfall, as I feel she currently is, then I do not see how you are going to get the coverage and word of mouth you'll need to have a hit with Dreamfall. It is the TLJ fans that will lift this game high. It will be that foundation that will bring other gamers onboard.
Without April you will not have that foundation to anywhere near the same degree. Questions are already being asked in forums around the world. It is not all negative, but handled differently it could be so much more positive, building to a crescendo as Dreamfall comes to market.
Thanks for listening. I don't really expect anything to happen. Maybe playing TLJ four times over five years makes me feel April is a friend that's being stabbed in the back. If other people feel the same way you are going to have a "Long Journey" to making Dreamfall a hit and that is a shame for me, for you, for Funcom and for the adventure market. It could be "the death" of all of us! :(
Good luck
JohnThanks, John. I am quite certain, however, that only a few key people outside the core team have actually read the
Dreamfall manuscript, and the extent of April's involvement in the story has yet to be revealed to anyone else. She is, without question, a key player in the saga, and though she's being joined by two new characters - Zoë and Kian - that doesn't mean she's being usurped. Quite the opposite: the fates of all three characters are closely intertwined. So no worries, John: she's not being written out, left behind, stabbed in the back. On the other hand, we don't want to reveal too much about her role until the game is released, either. I can understand if that's frustrating to you and to other TLJ fans, so we will probably release some juicy morsels this spring, and cast a
bit more light on April Ryan's shadowy future at that time - but for the whole story, you'll have to wait until next autumn.
It's getting chilly, and the sweaters are coming out. Not the people who sweat profusely, mind, but the comfy things you pull over your head when it's cold. And as ancient tradition has it, when the days get shorter and the evenings darker, when October comes knocking, we boot up our Xboxes and PStwosies and settle down on the couch to make up for time lost living life. Here, then, are some long gestating capsule reviews of Games I've Been Playing Lately:
Yes, I've actually
played games lately. It's been a while, but with the deluge of games arriving this autumn, I really had no choice but to invest a few (well, more than a few) evenings and weekends making my way through the pile before
GTA: San Andreas and
Halo 2 hit. So:
Katamari Damacy (PS2). This is my obsession. I sit down to play ten, fifteen minutes, and boom! An hour has passed. This is a work of genius - and art. You play a prince, roll a ball, get bigger, and- well, that's it. Except that's not it at all. The music! The absurdity! The sheer, infuriating addiction! There is nothing greater on this Earth than to start out the size of a mouse and grow to the size of a city, rolling up everything in your path: cars, sumo wrestlers, houses, sushi, chickens, an entire baseball team. You must play this. If you do not have a PS2, buy one, and
then play this. It really is radically different from everything else out there, and it's about bloody time something is. God bless the Japanese, every single one of them.
Fable (Xbox). I started out feeling rather blah about this one, but it grew on me. It's not the Greatest RPG Ever, but it's a fine action-RPG with some stunning scenery, fun combat, easy learning curve, and - well, it's generally solid and fun. From time to time, it even shines, though it doesn't quite live up to all the hype. If you like your fantasy traditional and your RPGs uncomplicated, however, this is the one for you. I'm having fun with it, and I might even finish it. Which is definitely saying something.
Burnout 3 (Xbox). My favourite racing game of all time is
Burnout 2. That hasn't changed. But number three is a brilliant game, no question about it. It's just not a pure racer, and it doesn't get me into the zone in quite the same way as its predecessor. There's a bit too much going on from time to time, and it's pretty much impossible to make it through a race without crashing...several times. Sure, that's half the fun, but it feels somewhat chaotic and random compared to the incredibly tight
Burnout 2. But those crashes - they make it all worthwhile. And it's addictive as hell. Criterion has done a fantastic job ensuring that there's constant progression, that you get rewarded simply for playing, and that the experience - even when you're constantly crashing - is never frustrating. Other developers should pay attention. Gaming is about fun, first and foremost, and
Burnout 3 provides that in spades.
I've also played around a bit with
Colin McRae 2005 on the Xbox, but it's too early to offer an opinion on that one. And I also picked up
Viewtiful Joe on the GameCube - finally - but after spending a rather frustrating hour with it, I'm not yet ready to write a review. Watch out for those at a later time.
I'm finally about to surface after being submerged in one of the busiest weeks this year. We're very close to not one but
two deadlines - the first a week from now, the other in a month's time - and things are hectic. This is that time during a game's development where everyone realises "oh shit, there's less than a year to go" and start sweating. Luckily, we're making good progress, and while more time would always be appreciated, I'm confident that come this time next year
Dreamfall will be on store shelves across the globe. Confident - but still sweating.
I'm about to commence with a thorough 'spring' cleaning of my bloated Gmail inbox. This means tracking back several months through unanswered mail to get you the responses you've been waiting for. With all the travelling and deadlines, I've been ignoring most of my non-work related mail for ages, but the mounting guilt has finally become too big of a burden to carry. We'll see how far the guilt gets me.
Game prices about to
rise?
Fifty bucks is already a lot of money, and a price hike won't do much to expand the market. In fact, it might discourage casual gamers from buying anything but a few major titles each year, and encourage them to copy instead. Sure, the
Maddens and the
GTAs will keep selling regardless, but any title not supported by a well-established franchise and twenty million in marketing expenses will likely suffer an ignoble death through casual piracy.
The article is wrong about a few things, however. First off, inflation hasn't affected all media. With the advent of DVD, for example, movies have become cheaper than ever, and prices keep dropping. Volume and availability are key, and with major new releases sometimes retailing for fifteen to twenty dollars, sales quickly reach multiple millions. In fact, since DVD revolutionised the home video market, box office numbers are often dwarfed by 'ancillary' profits. (In certain cases, a cinema release is merely used as a springboard - and advertising campaign - for the eventual DVD release.)
Secondly, does anyone recall the prices of SNES, Sega Genesis, and Nintendo 64 cartridges back in the late 80s and 90s? Highly anticipated triple-A titles sometimes retailed for more than sixty dollars, especially those that included an extra chip on the cartridge - like
Star Fox and
Virtua Racing. I remember paying an enormous amount of money for
Street Fighter II on my SNES. And let's not forget the decidedly niche SNK NeoGeo console, where ROMs would cost upwards of hundreds of dollars.
On the flip side, computer games in the 80s ranged from less than ten dollars for tape based Commodore 64 games, to almost a hundred bucks - at least in Norway - for big titles on floppy disks, back when that medium was a relative novelty.
Point is: games haven't always cost $50. That's not a universal truth. Since the advent of the CD-ROM console in the mid 90s, however, the prices have admittedly remained quite stable.
Cheap DVD media, larger volumes - big console titles often ship in the millions - and the increasingly mass-market targeting of games mean that the prices should go
down, not up. The ideal price point for 'big' games ought to be between $29 and $39. For thirty buckaroos, I wouldn't hestitate to pick up a game just for the heck of it. At forty, I'm still willing to experiment. At fifty, however, I pick and choose with much more care, and I often end up waiting for the titles I'm not one hundred percent sure about (or the ones that have received excellent reviews across the board) to drop in price.
At $60? Well, I probably won't be buying as many games as I used to. And that's not a good thing.
I was just wondering; were these five posters that were made available on www.dreamfall.com the "something" we were supposed to look out for in September/October?
I refer to a quote from your blogg:
"Speaking of Dreamfall footage: something brand new might pop up somewhere very unusual and unexpected at some point in September/October, but nothing's been decided yet. I'll let you know if it happens, where to catch it, and when. Stay tuned."
I am very much staying tuned, and I can't wait for more information about Dreamfall. I know you said you would let us know and that it would be in an unusual place, but I was worried that with your trip to New York you had forgotten to write about it in the blogg, and if that's the case I will have to stop checking tljns and your blogg consistently for new information :).
I am a sworn TLJ fan, and must have played it through at least 15 times. I will never get tired of the story. I guess the fact that I simply love Synnøve Svabø as April contributes a bit as well (hope you can get her to work with you again!). Anyway, keep up the good work. Hope Dreamfall turns out to be the sequel, sorry, continuation, we're all hoping for!No. I don't think the wallpapers qualify as "brand new", nor our official website as "very unusual and unexpected".
To be honest, I don't even know if this thing is happening or when we'll find out. I am, as it turns out - not surprisingly - completely clueless. At any rate, if it
does happen (and I wouldn't count on it; besides, it really isn't
that big of a deal), you won't be able to catch the whatever-it-is until after Christmas. The operative word is 'mid-season', and the super-secret phrase is 'playing Dreamfall'.
(God, I enjoy being cryptic way too much. It's the storyteller in me.)
