The hit award winning mobile game Contre Jour has been just out of reach for users of Android phones, but luckily today that has all changed for them. Finally being released for the Android crowd, players that haven’t had a chance to can experience both the use of light and darkness as well as environment manipulation through a variety of levels as they try to guide the player creature through the game world.
Those with Android phones can now see what developer Mokus and publisher Chillingo have released and has been described as becoming “an iconic classic as it blurs the lines between interactive art and games.” Players interested in just checking Contre Jour out can watch the trailer embedded below and those wanting to finally get their chance at experiencing this for themselves can find it for Android for $1.99 from both Google Play HERE and the Amazon Appstore HERE.
At the EA Showcase here in Sydney, I had the opportunity to interview Mike Read, the producer of Crytek and EA’s Crysis 3 (hands-on impressions of it’s Hunter Mode can be found here). He, along with Fuse Creative Director, Brian Allgeier, and SimCity Producer, Jason Haber (whom I also interviewed), made the long trip to Australia for this event.
Before the interview, here’s a quick background on Mike Read and his working history:
“A native of Vancouver, Canada, Michael arrived at Crytek after five successful years with CCP Games, where he applied his diverse talents as a Live Streaming Producer, Game Master, Creative Services Production Manager and Conventions Director on titles including EVE Online, DUST 514, and World of Darkness. An avid fan of Team-Based Multiplayer FPS and Action RTS sports games, Michael worked in the music industry for five years before making the switch to videogames and has previously lived in New York City, Reykjavik and Atlanta en route to Frankfurt.”
Without further ado, enjoy the interview!
Am I correct in saying that you came onto the project mid-development? I remember reading that you came on in April of this year.
I did, yeah. I came on in April. So, it took some time to get my visa and contractual stuff organised for my move to Germany, I was living in the U.S. at the time. So it took some time before I was able to fully get over there. But I kinda got started a little before that, probably two months before that, starting to review all the information and troll through piles of documents that they had, and I was thinking “God, my head hurts!”. And I wanted to get over there, so I got over there with about a month before we had to begin to prepare for E3. So I had a month to basically pick up on everything that was going on with the game that had been talked about since. It was kind of a nerve-racking experience, but it taught me a lot about what was going on and helped me to learn very quickly.
Well, that was going to be my next question; how was that experience?, but we got a good idea of it right there! (Laughter)
Yeah, it was challenging…probably one of the most challenging things I’ve done. I like coming onto a project…I mean, I had played the Crysis games and had really liked them. I can’t say that I was a fanatic, but I really liked them, and coming in and meeting the team, and going through that interview process, I was like “wow, I really want to work here”. So, it was like being thrown into the fire; I had all eyes on me in the company because I was doing a lot of external stuff before I came in, but it came together well. The guys I work with on the team are awesome, I mean they are vets in the industry at this point as far as I’m concerned. Some of them have been working there since Far Cry and beyond.
Awesome. Would you be able to tell us how the CryEngine 3 has been altered or improved for it’s use in Crysis 3?
I can’t go too in-depth with that because the R & D and Tech guys will get very upset with my if I say something wrong. (Laughter) But, there’s been an enormous amount of work done on the engine itself. I mean, the amount that the technology has advanced even over the last two years, and the amount that consoles have changed in getting older over those years, has really been a lot. And also, in the two years since the launch of Crysis 2, the CryEngine itself has become a true powerhouse in the industry in terms of how much it’s been licensed. I mean, if you look at the games that have been licensed from CryEngine 1 to CryEngine 2 and up to CryEngine 3, there was a lot of positive things that came out of that and what we had to do ourselves to make Crysis work on consoles. And moving forward, we have over 50 licensees now in all facets of different things from film to architecture to games, so we’re able to build a support mechanism to do that. So we’ve learned a lot from that standpoint, and how to do those deals and what we’re learning from all those partners, but also internally as well. There’s a lot of stuff that’s not in the free SDK yet, that we have internally which we have to figure out how to use these tools to provide them publicly, such as the grass technology. Everybody’s like “oh, I gotta get my hands on that!”.
And that usually takes the most processing power…
It’s surprisingly low. It’s actually one of the lower things on that scale, and a lot of people have asked me a number of times “is this being done on consoles?”, and it’s like, “well fields wouldn’t be fields without grass, right?!” And in the way it looks, it may have to be toned down a little bit for budgets and things like that for consoles. But you saw the video with our tessellated toad tech and all that stuff; a lot of the stuff that’s in there…I mean, there’s a lot of little things that we couldn’t fit in that video, especially tools on the development side that just make it so much easier for our designers to work and have a better workflow. What we refer to it as is “what you see is what you game”, so you can get into the editor and you can build these worlds, build everything on there and then can jump right into it and immediately start playing your new level right through the editor, which is genius. And one of the biggest things is in terms of lighting; we can do real-time lighting on the fly in there and our lighting guy is INSANE! I love sitting there and watching this guy, and watch him work. And a lot of the tools on the lighting end are mainly due to him. Lighting just adds so much…getting that right, which is something that has not really been pushed hard in the industry until lately, along with particle effects, is huge.
If I may mention this, that was the thing that caught everyone’s eye on Battlefield 3 and in the Frostbite 2 engine back when it was released. If you light it all properly, it makes everything else look better. And with Crysis 3, I can say it is probably the first game I’ve seen that truly looks next-gen, especially on PC. It’s breaking that barrier.
Well we definitely are and we didn’t…I mean, consoles are sitting at the 8 year mark where’s it’s so behind the curve at this point. And we are able to squeeze some more out of them. I mean, there is a game that came out recently, that I’m not going to mention, that looks really good. I mean, I’m surprised at how good it looks on consoles.
I think I just reviewed the game in question actually. I’m sure I know which one you’re talking about. (Laughter)
(Laughter) So, it’s definitely interesting to be able to say “wow, this is running on hardware that’s 8 years old at this point!”, and to see what they’re able to pull out of that. I mean there’s a whole new set of challenges in dealing with consoles, but we learned a lot from Crysis 2. That was really…a lot of people doubted Crytek’s ability to be able to move into consoles and be able to effectively do all we can with the CryEngine, and we did that. There were certain things that some people were able to point out as flaws, or things that were lacking in Crysis 2, but we had such a barrier with the engine and breaking that down. And the technical barriers that we had were causing design barriers as well, so we weren’t able to push it as far as we wanted to. So with Crysis 3, we know how to develop for consoles now; we’ve analysed that situation and said “ok, so here’s what we need to do” and then eventually take the PC build to the side and say “ok, how hard can we push this?” We had a guy earlier in the year that interviewed Cevat [Crytek’s CEO] at GamesCom, where he said that it will make your PC melt. And then the Alpha came out, and all of the tech sites started doing these assessments to see if that was the case, and they were like “yep, that’s really the case”. (Laughter) It does push PCs hard, but even when you drop it down to medium settings, it still looks really good. But, when you add those extra things in and when you’re running it on the highest possible settings, it adds that much more for those who want to utilise it and have that hardware, or want to upgrade their PCs. The technology is there and beyond.
Well, I think I can run it. I always go Ultra and I upgraded not long ago so I should be good. (Laughter). Now, in regards to the story, of course we can’t speak on specific story details, but do you feel that the 20 year gap is a necessary storytelling device?
It is quite a gap, and it’s definitely a challenge to fill in that gap as to what’s happened during that time, so it wasn’t a throwaway decision. There is a couple of things that we’re working on that will help fill in some of those beats, not that I can talk about those yet, but they won’t be in the game itself. There’s certain things that will be referenced back to in Crysis 3 specifically that will reveal more of that. It is challenging, but it also opens some doors and some different avenues that we can take. So it’s definitely a blessing and a curse in some ways, but I think we’ve done a pretty good job of making it work.
Well I look forward to playing it out and learning more hands-on. Ok, so our last question here will have to be on the 7 Wonders – what was the inspiration in implementing those different environments under the dome? Was it purely a choice in creating a visually diverse game because the previous games were kind of thematically restricted in terms of environmental design?
Well we came back to New York again, mainly for storyline reasons and we wanted to have distinguishable elements of New York but we also wanted to go back and bring in some of the vegetation and jungle environments we had in Crysis 1. So a lot of the early stuff I saw was like “hey, here’s a shot of New York City” and then guys would use photoshop and paint over it, going “yeah, this is it”; taking different areas and defining what they were. And that was defined at a pretty early time in the process and was iterated over time. Our Art Director can go into full explanations and not just visual explanations; he’ll sit you down with a picture and he will explain “yeah, it’s hot, it’s humid, it’s gross, it’s disgusting…think about the Vietnam war and how the soldiers felt” and that kind of thing. He’ll go into really descriptive details about how he feels about the image he’s created.
It’s like a real place.
Yeah, it totally is. He’s really taking that and breaking it down. It’s probably one of the hardest things we’ve done during development – creating these 7 distinct areas. Because if you look at Crysis 2 and Crysis 1, it was very…in terms of the design, it was really the same throughout the whole thing, but just placed a little bit differently. And New York is already pre-defined, but we’ve had to kind of re-imagine it and then take these different environments you’ll find like rainforests and jungles and some of these areas, and break them down to create these 7 distinct areas all the while tying them in with these man-made structures.
It’s an interesting idea just to vary up the atmosphere, mood and environment. And also the game will naturally feel new in each area.
Yeah it does, and the game will feel different and play slightly different through each of the different areas you play-through. If you take the environmental shots and put them all up side-by-side, people would ask “are they seven different games?!” So it was definitely a big challenge.
Awesome, well thank you very much for the interview. The release date is middle of February, is there a global release?
It’s slightly broken up. North American is first in February 19th, and I believe it’s February 21st for Europe and here in Australia as well.
Halo 4 received its first DLC with the Crimson Map Pack adding in 3 new maps and 8 new achievements for players to play on and achieve as well as the added bonus of 1 new gametype specifically for the new playlist of all new maps all the time. Priced at 800 MS Points ($10), but included in the War Games Map Pass and Limited Edition the question comes down to how do the maps look, feel, and play.
Shatter:
The first map up to test its worth is the crystalline mine based Shatter, that is designed with big teams in mind. The map is fairly circular and and provides plenty of cover as well in the form of large green crystals protruding from the ground. It’s probably because of these crystals then that the vehicle use on the map is limited to just Ghosts and a Mantis for each side in its current matchmaking incarnation. The building structures on the map are mirrored to give an equal starting field for both teams and also provide more levels for combat to take place on. Shatter is primarily strong with objectives with it’s layout and is in fact the only map that supports the new Extraction gametype of the three. Outlaying structures spawn and provide good sniping positions, so those wanting to do that can cover the center structures quite well to support their team. The look of the map itself is pretty unique, both the green hue on everything and the particles floating in the air, most likely from the mining of the crystals. The background also gives a lovely view of an erupting green volcano, though players should be sure to appreciate it when not being shot at.
Wreckage:
Looking like something right out of the campaign with the crashed ships and parts strewn about the level, the map provides interesting cover as well as man cannons to easily get around. For the most part flat in terms of combat space there is still a few changes in height to provide different vantages, but no where on the map that has multiple levels. This level is probably the hardest to get a grasp of where you are as at first the destroyed ship pieces look very much the same. If navigation proves difficult the best idea is to use the man cannons as orientation as each sides are visibly different by color. As the map is pretty level and mostly mirrored down the middle lengthwise, it feels better geared towards slayer matches and with the Warthogs and Ghosts provides pretty interesting vehicle combat. Visually the map has a more orange tint with the sun beating down on the dust, but other than that the coloring is fairly generic with the monotony broken up with huge sections of ship.
Harvest:
Technically a a medium sized map taking a page from the Halo fiction and taking place on the first planet where humans met the Covenant. While having more actual structures than Wreckage it has the same many dirt ground, but to make up for it at least there are some pretty nice rock ramps to give a bit of life into vehicle combat. The layout of the map itself makes it better for objective games as the outside provides an easy paths for vehicles to take, while the structures have their own paths for players to take on foot. The map is on the smaller side of medium however, so at the max number of players it can get a little congested, especially with 4 Warthogs and 4 Mongeese. The map may seem a little difficult to orient as well, but as one side has a wall and the other a beautiful vista it gets much easier to navigate.
Achievements:
As with most DLC the Crimson Map Pack adds achievements for Halo 4, though the achievements for it are only good for these three maps and if playing in matchmaking. The 8 achievements that they add focus on the brand new Mantis vehicle and the man cannons with a couple for other activities. For the most part the achievements are nice to see they are all fun and interesting things that can come up in a match or players to seek out if they want to get them right away, such as killing a Mantis or killing players on a Man Cannon or vice versa. There are a few that seem kind of problematic though in terms of gameplay and they somewhat conflict with other achievements for players to get.
Boarding a Mantis? Alright, that’s cool, something that can players can shoot for instead of just keeping their distance. Killing a Mantis? That’s fine, though making it an achievements puts each player in a race against all the other players looking to score the kill. Stomp 20 enemies in a Mantis? Problematic, as players are now gung ho for boarding/killing them. In theory the Mantis could try to stomp everyone trying to board it, but Plasma Pistols are so prevalent they hardly stand a chance. Worse there is only one map with the Mantis on it currently, so it’s also limited by map selection. While this is something that can be achieved over time, 20 still seems like a lot for them to aim for. Maybe if Shatter or other DLC maps appeared in Spartan Ops at some point, so players and fans of that mode could get in on these achievements it could also alleviate all the congestion of players dashing for the Mantis at the start of every match on Shatter, and maybe let players get to having actual fun.
Overall:
At 800 MS Points, the Crimson Map Pack provides 3 new multiplayer maps that are all well designed and provide a fairly varied experience from each other. While the maps play great and each provide a different look as well the achievements range from fun to frustrating with the Mantis stomping, which has teammates fighting over each other to try and get. Halo fans that try keep up with the map packs should find themselves a more varied War Games experience with these downloaded, but achievement hunters should settle in for a bit of a ride.
You may have seen that last week that a trademark had been filed by Namco Bandai for The Idolm@ster as well as The Idolm@ster Shiny Festa in Europe. Well today Siliconera, who discovered the original trademark filing, has also discovered that Namco Bandai has chosen to file a trademark for The Idolm@ster Shiny Festa and The Idolm@ster in the United States as well.
It is worth noting that Namco Bandai Games has never hinted at any plans for localizing the Idolm@ster games, but these trademarks are certainly interesting, especially when you consider the fact that The Idolm@ster series as a whole is six years old already, so suddenly trademarking the names is definitely strange.
It is also worth noting that unlike the standard Idolm@ster games which involve training idols and having them sing, Shiny Festa only features rhythm based gameplay with the Idolm@ster songs and characters. If you want to see how the game looks in action, check out an older trailer for the game below.
We’ve battled against Arfoire with the CPUs and even the CPU candidates over the past two Hyperdimension Neptunia games and ever since their last victory over the evil organization, the CPUs have had an easier time of things, however that is all changes when Neptune is sucked into another dimension where Gamindustri is only in the 1980s.
During this time period a new enemies has arisen called the “Seven Sages” which want to set the world free from CPU rule and a new CPU has appeared by the name of Plutia. Today NIS America revealed when fans can expect to see Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory in stores, or at least what month they can expect to at the very least.
We now know that Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory is set to be released sometime in March 2013 exclusively on the PlayStation 3 and alongside this release date announcement the company also revealed a number of new English screenshots as well as a trailer, both of which can be seen below.
If you haven’t been looking forward to Metro: Last Light then you will be as soon as you check out the trailer below. You see, THQ released this new trailer which they are calling “Genesis” today and it not only shows how spectacular the game looks, but also how creepy the game will be.
Don’t believe me? Well check out the video below and see how the creepy creatures and dark environments of the first half work so well together as well as the action which takes place during the second half. Currently Metro: Last Light is set to be released sometime in March 2013.
Fancy picking up a rather enjoyable title on the PC for absolutely free? Well you now have the ability to do so thanks to a promotion that THQ is having for Metro Last Light. Anyone who has a Facebook account can simply access the page here and follow the instructions on said page, and they will be given a free Steam code that will download Metro 2033 with no strings attached.
The promotion will run until December 16th and is really as easy as simply liking the Metro Facebook page and redeeming the provided code. So what are you waiting for?
In case you’ve been snoozing, you may already know that Dishonored’s first piece of DLC was going to be available today, but just in case here’s a little reminder. Today Dishonord’s “Dunwall City Trials” DLC pack was made available for download on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
The DLC costs only $5/400MSP and offers players 10 challenge maps which will test their assassination skills by giving them a number of obstacles to overcome and goals to complete. As for actual story DLC, it has previously been revealed that two forms of story-driven DLC are scheduled to be released sometime in Spring of 2013 and one of them will involve Daud in some way. If you still have some reservations about whether or not Dishonored is worth your time, then you maybe our review of the game will change your mind.
PopCap Games is pleased to announce their latest project named “Hidden Agenda”. Currently in beta testing, this point-and-click hidden object title incorporates the very soul of PopCap games while adding a mysterious story. Here’s the pitch straight from PopCap:
Hidden Agenda is a small town mystery where everything is a hidden object game and everyone has a secret. As an up-and-coming private detective, you will encounter a colorful cast of characters as you solve a series of cases filled with suspense and intrigue. The truth is often hiding and no one is who they seem.
So what is in store for you? Expect plenty of mystery at every corner. Hidden Agenda promises that everyone has a secret, and these secrets will nearly tear the town apart. I should mention that the inhabitants of the town are a variety of animals. This will surely make for interesting dialogue and confrontation among the town’s inhabitants. Ran by two feuding families, the town will be clouded in mystery involving its history, business, and blood.
Let PopCap’s history speak for itself as Hidden Agenda spawns from the creators of Bejeweled and Plants Vs. Zombies. Let’s not forget to mention the successful hidden object games that contributed to the new title: Mystery PI, Amazing Adventures, Vacation Quest, and Escape Rosecliff Island.
Hidden Agenda will release in January 2013 on Facebook! Take a look at the screenshots below and leave a comment about your thoughts of the upcoming PopCap adventure.
Indie darlings Two Tribes delivered sad news today, Toki Tori 2 for the Wii U has been delayed again. Originally slated to be a Wii U launch title, Toki Tori 2 was initially pushed back to put the final polish on the game. Unfortunately, Two Tribes decided to push the game further back to the beginning of 2013. The developers are looking to improve what they feel are weak spots in the game that range from game play to the technology Toki Tori 2 uses. It is always great to hear a developer is willing to spend more time working on a game than push out a half finished product.
No firm release date has been announced. Check out Two World’s full announcement here.
