Blog Style or Sort By Most Bumps This... Day  Week  Month  Life

Bumps:

4

  Email This      0 Comments   

The Game Developers Conference 2008, which is currently scheduled for February 18-11 in San Francisco, has published a list of featured speakers and topics under discussion for each. Here are some big names for the curious:

Peter Molyneux (Head of Studios, Lionhead Studios), on (surprise!) Fable 2 - The Big Three Features Revealed.

• Peter Molyneux's stated ambition as a designer is to make FABLE 2 a landmark game. In order to achieve this three big design features have been added. The inspiration and rational behind these features will be discussed along with their evolution throughout the development process. The wider context of their impact and influence on the RPG genre with also be examined as the ambition is also to evolve the genre itself. The talk will be supported by retrospective videos as well as live game examples.

Ken Levine (President/Creative Director, 2K Boston) on (bigger surprise!) Storytelling in Bioshock: Empowering Players to Care about Your Stupid Story (sign me up).

• Game stories can matter, even in first person shooters. But first we're going to have to give up a lot of our preconceptions about what people care about when playing a game. For too long, games (especially first person shooters) have been stuck in a "game sequence followed by story sequence" mentality. Ken Levine will tell the tale of how the BIOSHOCK took a pointy-headed idea about a pseudo-objectivist utopia and turned it into one of the most compelling and succesful game worlds in recent history. What were the tools used? What compromises had to be made? Where did the shooter end and the story begin? How did we make people give a crap? How did we use story and narrative to become perhaps the most talked about game at the super-crowded E3 2006? What does this all mean for stories in games? And must of all, what hell does "Mise En Scene" mean?

Chris Butcher (Engineering Lead, Microsoft/Bungie) on E Pluribus Unum: Matchmaking in Halo 3.

• The online multiplayer mode of HALO 3 features an automatic matchmaking system to place players into games. Players may join individually or with parties of friends, and are quickly matched into groups. This presentation describes the algorithms behind the peer-to-peer matchmaking model, and its implementation over Xbox Live. It examines the impact of matchmaking on the HALO online community, and provides techniques for shaping the player experience and discouraging cheaters. The tradeoffs of an automatic matchmaking system compared to traditional multiplayer game browsers will be discussed, and illustrated by some results from the first months of HALO 3's operation.

Cevat Yerli (Managing Director, Crytek) on Crysis in the Making.

• This session will offer a look into key areas of CRYSIS development that markedly depart from Crytek's first project, FAR CRY. Main topics include Nanosuit design and gameplay, creating a rich, destructible/non-linear world, and peopling it with dynamic, believable AI enemies that challenge and entertain the player.

You can view the full list of featured speakers here. If you're interested in the keynotes, however, you can find that here.

Bumps:

2

  Email This      1 Comments   

A new patch is now available for Crysis that includes various tweaks, bug fixes and performance upgrades. The patch updates the game to version 1.1 and is sized at 140MB.

Hit the jump for the full list of fixes and tweaks.

Continue reading...

Bumps:

1

  Email This      0 Comments   

Nvidia has posted a demo for Crysis, "the world’s most advanced game and the most important game to come out since Half Life," according to Nvidia's Roy Taylor, vice president of content.

The PC demo contains 45 minutes worth of gameplay showcasing "the most advanced videogame ever created." If you're curious you can give it a go at this link. The game is set to launch in the US on November 16.

I'm curious as to if anyone else has given the demo a go? Any thoughts?

Bumps:

1

  Email This      0 Comments   

Electronic Arts today announced they will bring their first person shooter title, Crysis, to gamers worldwide for the PC.

"Our focus has always been on innovating gameplay and technology, and bringing new experiences to gamers through our original intellectual properties," says Cevat Yerli, CEO & President of Crytek. "Crysis will be a showcase for that commitment and will offer gamers from all over the world the next step in FPS gaming."

"We are delighted to reach the next level in our relationship with Crytek," says Tom Frisina, Vice-President and General Manager for EA Partners. "Nurturing creative talent and bringing original intellectual property to the world of interactive entertainment is a key focus for EA and EA Partners. Crysis will bring an entirely new FPS experience to gamers everywhere."

Crytek Studios are the developers behind Far Cry.

---

Originally written by Tim Grube

Bumps:

0

  Email This      0 Comments