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mizufae · 2 months ago

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New Zelda game is extremely cute, if anything even cuter than the links awakening remake upon which the engine is built for this one. So far it feels like a nice hybrid of very classic Zelda gameplay (dungeons and caves, nostalgic monsters, open world exploration with separate interiors, gathering of equipment/abilities over time, goofy npcs) with a lot of the worldbuilding and quality of life improvements from the modern Zelda games (a cooking system for potions, lots of nods towards the sheika and other references/designs, difficulty adjustments), and then there is the new echo conceit of Zelda’s magic rod thingy. There is another ability that basically makes block pushing puzzles more like telekinesis puzzles, and a sort of time limiter on your moments of classic combat so you are forced to engage with everything in a puzzle way first and by stabbing last.

By the time you’ve gotten through the first dungeon where you get your new abilities of stuff movement and using Link’s sword for a bit, you should have at least over a dozen objects and monsters to echo, and that number increases often. They almost all serve different purposes too, and so far everything seems solvable in a few different ways, so a good chunk of the “solving this puzzle in the most fucked up way possible” vibes from botw and totk remains, just so far with less orbital lasers. It certainly is not a hard game so far, but I do think it is a lot more sophisticated than its aesthetic conveys.

The cute little companion Tri gives interesting worldbuilding implications, also, because their voice effect sounds a lot like Fi who lives inside the master sword in other games, and Tri engages in some kind of as-yet-unexplained glitch repairs/dimension fixing/world degaussing stuff with their other cute glowy friends and apparently has been up to this for quite some time. There are some aspects that remind me of Twilight Princess, too. I wonder if/when there will be allusions to Link to the Past and Windwaker.

When you get to the end of the first dungeon type thing you are given a choice of two main storyline directions, the Gerudo in the west and the Zora in the east. I decided to go to the dessert first because I was curious if there would be jokes about Zelda being allowed in with no issues because she is a girl. Haven’t heard any so far but I just got to the little dessert oasis and decided to stop for the night. But the thing I’m really curious about is the Zora. The character who suggests you go there says that there are two flavors of Zora, river and ocean. So I guess there are saltwater and freshwater Zora in this game! I wonder if that means they give some kind of groundwork for the Zora to Rito thing that happened in Windwaker, or if some will be monsters like in the older games and some will be sexy fish friends like in the 3D games.

It is fun! It is so far a nicely polished super cute Nintendo game, I’m just not sure if it’s going to be a whole 200 hours of whacky shenanigans like botw and totk just with a very different aesthetic, or if it’s going to be more like a self contained smaller adventure.

#Zelda #echoes of wisdom #echoes spoilers #echoes of wisdom spoilers #THESE ARE JUST MY ONIONS

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jennywboman · 4 years ago

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It Takes Two’s Creator On Love, Endings, And A $1,000 Pledge

It Takes Two’s Creator On Love, Endings, And A $1,000 Pledge:

Introduction

Josef Fares is a passionate man. The filmmaker-turned-game-developer’s first sport, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, is a exceptional fable in regards to the energy of household. While that sport’s high quality spoke for itself, Fares took to the stage for follow-up A Way Out, memorably taking on Geoff Keighley’s 2017 Game Awards broadcast by addressing the digicam and saying, partially, ‘F— the Oscars!” It was a profane moment, to be sure, but it also showed Fares’ exuberance and pure aptitude for the outrageous. Hazelight Studios’ upcoming mission, It Takes Two, tackles the oddly underrepresented topic of affection. And after speaking to Fares in regards to the co-op journey, it’s clear that he has rather a lot to say about, effectively, every little thing.

“Video games are not always about fun; that’s a misconception that many people say, ‘Is this fun?’” Fares says. “The best moments of my life in video games haven’t been about ‘fun.’” The sport director and Hazelight founder cites experiences like Journey or moments from the opening sequence in The Last of Us to underscore his level. His personal sport, Brothers, memorably ends with a strong second that clearly isn’t meant to be enjoyable. “Some parts of gaming are fun, but I would say that more, depending on the scene, it should be engaging.”

That’s all to say that It Takes Two begins at a spot that’s decidedly unfun: the specter of divorce. Cody and May are a married couple who’ve fallen out of affection. Nothing particularly heavy has occurred, Fares says, however the grind of every day life has worn them down, they usually’ve determined that it is likely to be greatest to go their separate methods. Their younger daughter, Rose, shouldn’t be a fan of the concept.

“She created these two small dolls and she tries, as kids do, to talk to them and try to affect them somehow, and they magically transform into these dolls in this fantasy world,” Fares says. From there, it turns into a journey of discovery, each in how the couple rediscovers what initially introduced them collectively, in addition to attempting to rediscover how on earth to get again into their common our bodies. They’re joined by an anthropomorphic Book of Love, who acts as a kind of relationship guru. It’s a cute setup, however Fares and his workforce at Hazelight are utilizing it as a automobile for pushing narrative and gameplay as shut as they’ll probably get.

Building Relationships

Watch the It Takes Two trailer, and it’s exhausting to not get whiplash. It introduces the story conceit, after which flashes a string of gameplay clips collectively at a frantic tempo. That sort of modifying model is comparatively commonplace in sport trailers, however it could be nearer to It Takes Two’s actuality than in a lot of its contemporaries. Fares acknowledges the significance of novelty and shock in video games, and it’s one thing that Hazelight is leaning into in a giant approach.

“Because we’re doing a narrative game, every situation has to reflect what goes on in the game,” he says. “So, if the character needs something, it should reflect the gameplay as well. I think in narrative games especially, repetitiveness is super dangerous. Once you have that, you get the feeling sometimes that designers and writers are doing two different games, if you know what I mean.”

He takes a slight detour, saying that he’s not speaking about video games that depend on repetition, reminiscent of ones the place the aim is to stage up and improve your character. That’s one other dialogue, he says, earlier than sticking in a fast jab: “Because for me, just changing colors and numbers on enemies is just a fake way … I think in 10 years hopefully nobody will do this, just having numbers going up, up, up, up, up.”

Fares believes that for a story sport to be actually profitable, there needs to be a robust relationship between the story and what gamers are doing at any given second. “Whatever the character is going through, it should reflect the gameplay as well,” he says. “It’s going to be insanely varied. I think we’re going to break some kind of world record in the amount of mechanics that we have.”

The actuality of budgets and timelines makes it difficult to completely keep away from repetition, however Hazelight’s earlier work has proven their willingness to search out artistic options. In A Way Out, as an illustration, gamers encounter a number of obstacles whereas attempting to cooperatively escape from a jail. Rather than have them retrace their steps again each time they run right into a locked grate, out-of-reach hall, or no matter, Fares thought it was vital to respect gamers’ time and have the sequences that introduce an issue transition to the problem-solving section, as may occur in a film. That’s one method to keep away from repetition. Another is to gleefully overwhelm gamers with the sheer quantity of stuff they’ll do.

“For instance, we have a level where they need to work on their attraction; as a couple, they’ve lost their attraction,” Fares says. “And that metaphor for attraction is actually a piece of magnet that we break in two so they have sort of a magnetic attraction to each other. And we have another section where they feel like they don’t give each other enough time, as can happen in a relationship.” In that part, Cody can quickly management time, and May – considering she’s unfold too skinny in her life – could make copies of herself. “We tried to marry those two, so they’re connected to their emotional states as well. That’s the way we’re pushing for this game.”

The aim, Fares says, isn’t to introduce mechanics and methods that gamers are anticipated to completely decide to and grasp over hours. Instead, his workforce needs to ship new concepts and ideas shortly, by having Cody and May (and gamers) remedy the issues they face on their journey from their shed by the varied rooms all through their dwelling. That journey contains fantastical detours, reminiscent of a visit right into a snow globe that they bought collectively on a trip. In that occasion, Fares says there’s nearly like a metropolis inside that tumbler dome. That sensation of by no means figuring out what’s coming subsequent makes for a sport that Fares says folks gained’t be capable to put down. “I’m really telling you, that’s a guarantee. I know I sound very cocky all the time, but that’s a guarantee. It’s very important for a narrative game.”

Unfinished Business

Fares needs folks to get along with a good friend or associate and luxuriate in It Takes Two – it could possibly’t be performed solo, in any case. But he additionally needs them to complete the sport. “I do know folks got here as much as me and mentioned, ‘Wow it’s improbable that 51 p.c of gamers in A Way Out completed the sport,’ they usually informed me that that’s an especially excessive proportion quantity, however truly it saddens me. That implies that 49 p.c of individuals didn’t end it. It’s not one thing I needs to be glad about.

“Every journalist right now needs to stop writing replayabilty, because we need to fix the problem that people are not even finishing our games. People are not even finishing the games. Listen to how sick this is: It’s so sick that the developers and publishers are literally focusing on the first piece of the game, because they know that’s what people will play. This is a mass psychosis going on!”

Hazelight’s deal with selection and telling an attractive story that ties into what gamers are doing is the studio’s approach of attempting to hook gamers alongside by to the closing credit. It’s not delivering open worlds (“I call them ‘open-repetition games,’” Fares jokes), however as an alternative creating extremely different and extra directed linear experiences.

It’s a guess that Fares is, characteristically, extraordinarily assured in. Early in our dialog, he makes a press release that’s impressively daring: “That’s another thing that I can guarantee you with It Takes Two: It’s impossible, and quote me on this, to get tired of this game. You can put this as the headline. I can literally give 1,000 bucks to anyone who says, ‘Oh, I’m tired of this game now because it doesn’t surprise me.’ One thousand bucks! I guarantee. I’ll give it to everyone who gets tired. But they have to be honest about it.”

Fares’ bombastic confidence is equal components refreshing and entertaining. But it’s clearly coming from a honest place. In an business the place focus testing can usually shave the perimeters off a artistic enterprise till it’s an inoffensive sphere, Hazelight is aiming to carry agency in its concepts and inform the tales it needs to inform – whether or not about jail breaks or romantic breakups.

“We do the game we want to do, and then when we take [the] game [to] players to test it, we want them to like the game we’re doing, not adjust the game for what they want,” Fares says. “It’s different. I think that’s very important instead of adjusting the game for the player. They should understand our game, and not the opposite. I guarantee people will love this. For sure. I have no doubt at all. If people don’t like this game, then I don’t know what to do. It would be nuts. I wouldn’t accept it. It’s unacceptable! Then everybody is wrong!” He punctuates the final sentence with an infectious chortle.

It’s exhausting to not get swept up into Fares’ worldview. He’s charismatic and charming, capable of say provocative issues with out sounding like an entire jackass. In an business the place so many builders seemingly aspire to be movie administrators, Fares involves video games from the opposite path. After spending a decade making function movies in Sweden, he’s turned his artistic vitality towards the medium he loves. Fares says It Takes Two was impressed by a lifetime of peering at video games from the skin.

“It’s almost like a love letter for my love of gaming – especially Nintendo; I’m a big Nintendo fan,” he says. “But it’s time for Nintendo to get some competition.” With that, he cracks himself up utterly, trying round for a number of seconds, maybe momentarily taken without warning by his personal good-natured hubris.

Source Link – www.gameinformer.com

source https://infomagzine.tumblr.com/post/642954269731045376

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netunleashed-blog · 6 years ago

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Ghost Of Tsushima: What We Know (So Far)

http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=19441 Ghost Of Tsushima: What We Know (So Far) - http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=19441 Sony's reveal of Ghost of Tsushima was one of the highlights of Paris Games Week 2017, and what a surprise it was to find out that Infamous and Sly Cooper developer, Sucker Punch Games, is behind the project. The original trailer laid the foundation: a fictionalized take on an actual 13th century Mongol invasion, with a protagonist who transforms from samurai to ninja in order to protect the island his people call home. This year's E3 gave us a first look at live gameplay, and our first real taste of the beautifully realized environments that serve as the backdrop for what promises to be a brutal and unforgiving conflict.We've pulled together everything we know about Ghost of Tsushima so far, including info on combat and details about the island and its inhabitants, and will continue to provide new updates as we learn more.Characters, Story, and SettingGhost of Tsushima is set on the Japanese island of Tsushima, a location that in 1274 was invaded by Mongol raiders. Sucker Punch did extensive research on the actual island, including the study of the original beach where the Mongols first struck land. The team's vision is best summarized as an informed remix of the real island's geography, flora, and fauna. For Sucker Punch, it's all about glorifying the source material to set the stage for equally beautiful and tense moments in a war-torn idyllic countryside.The lead character is Jin Sakai, and Jin will have to take what he's learned after years of training as a samurai and adjust his techniques in order to fend off forces that greatly outnumber the island's inhabitants, let alone the one-man army fighting to protect them. Sucker Punch's Chris Zimmerman described the tone of the game as brutal, but he also clarified that both sides of the conflict will reflect the humanity that so often gets lost in combat-driven games, with both Mongols and Japanese characters that will defy expectations--Masako, the character in the E3 trailer, being a prime example.CombatOne of the primary conceits of Ghost of Tsushima is Jin's gradual adoption of ninja-like fighting and stealth techniques, of which we've only gotten a taste of so far. The majority of the available info on combat is focused on swordplay, either in one-on-one fights or with Jin facing off against small groups of enemies.Despite the prevalence of realism, Ghost of Tsushima is not Bushido Blade, a fighting game where a single sword strike could spell death--just like real life. According to Zimmerman, this model simply isn't fun in the team's eyes. Still, we have seen moments in the available footage where Jin successfully takes off body parts and kills enemies with a flick of his wrist, and it appears this is more likely to happen while fending off common enemies, versus more important battles where opponents can absorb multiple slashes.While Sucker Punch has hired weapons experts to help direct combat and attack animations, the studio is also going to play up traditional techniques by judiciously adding flair for effect. "There are things that Jin does when you're fighting that no samurai would ever do," said Zimmerman. "He does spin strikes, which are fun, they're very showy, they are completely… you would never do that [in real life]. You would never turn your back. There are things that he does even right now that we may continue to edit as we look for that balance. We'll see if we can find the best of both worlds, where it's as real as it can be while still being a video game."You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.Ghost Of Tsushima - Announcement TrailerSize:640 × 360480 × 270 Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos. This video has an invalid file format. Sorry, but you can't access this content!Please enter your date of birth to view this videoJanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031Year20182017201620152014201320122011201020092008200720062005200420032002200120001999199819971996199519941993199219911990198919881987198619851984198319821981198019791978197719761975197419731972197119701969196819671966196519641963196219611960195919581957195619551954195319521951195019491948194719461945194419431942194119401939193819371936193519341933193219311930192919281927192619251924192319221921192019191918191719161915191419131912191119101909190819071906190519041903190219011900 By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's Terms of Use and Privacy PolicyenterHistorical AccuracyOne of the most interesting discussions around the game coming out of E3 was about Sucker Punch's philosophy behind making a fun, fictional game based on dramatic real-life events. Once again, Zimmerman offered valuable insight. The team knows what historians have reported, but only so much of it will be honored--a decision made to cater to mainstream expectations of samurai, informed by movies and games alike.According to Zimmerman: "we're going to deviate from historical truth, we just want to do it intentionally. A lot of the support we get from our friends from Sony in Japan, and our Japanese friends in Sony US, and all the cultural consultants we've assembled to help us do this stuff, is to make sure we don't deviate accidentally. There are things we are going to do that are different and we want to choose those wisely.""If you have an idea about what samurai look like or how they act or how they think we're going to give that to you," he added. "Most people's idea is really based on an idea of samurai which is really more of a 16th-, 17th-, 18th-century idea of samurai; 13th century, historically, is pretty different. In terms of how they fought, what they wore, it doesn't match your expectations. So we're not sticking exactly to the historical truth of Kamakura-era samurai. It's gonna be a little different. The armor that you see him wear, it's not 13th century armor. It's more warring-states-period armor. Because, honestly, the 13th century armor is pretty jarring looking, it's not what you'd expect. It's really boxy. It doesn't look aspirational. And we wanna make sure that what we give you is your fantasy of what being a wandering samurai is."You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.Ghost of Tsushima - Gameplay Reveal Trailer | E3 2018Size:640 × 360480 × 270 Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos. This video has an invalid file format. Sorry, but you can't access this content!Please enter your date of birth to view this videoJanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031Year20182017201620152014201320122011201020092008200720062005200420032002200120001999199819971996199519941993199219911990198919881987198619851984198319821981198019791978197719761975197419731972197119701969196819671966196519641963196219611960195919581957195619551954195319521951195019491948194719461945194419431942194119401939193819371936193519341933193219311930192919281927192619251924192319221921192019191918191719161915191419131912191119101909190819071906190519041903190219011900 By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's Terms of Use and Privacy PolicyenterLanguage OptionsThe E3 gameplay trailer had some of us concerned due to the use of English voice acting, which stood out given the game's historical basis and the stated import of cultural identity. Rest assured, there are language options available for players who prefer to hear Japanese and Mongolian voiceovers with English subtitles.DifficultySpeaking to Zimmerman, it sounds like Sucker Punch will create multiple difficulty settings in order to cater to a wide range of players. "There are difficulty levels and that's actually kind of more important for us than it is for a lot of games, because it's an open world game and lots of different people play those games for different reasons. There are people who are going to say it's beautiful and they just want to see what it's like, and yeah, their experience has to be different than somebody who looks at it like they've always wanted to play a really grounded katana fighting game, and the fantasy for them is about challenge, discipline, practice and precision--that's what they expect of samurai and that's what the game should demand from them as the player."Release DateNeither Sucker Punch nor Sony have committed to a release date for Ghost of Tsushima at this time. Source link

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