#hate to say it though but the design itself. it slays severely. but the fact that its kamoshida makes it. rlly bad. morally speaking.

[5-pp-man]

Kamoshidaman's concept art for PQ2 is still so crazy to me. they almost made the predatory guy have a gay as hell final boss form. in 2018. it's like they learned nothing since Kanji.

[sny-bylle]

Personal Dark Souls rankings

World Building:

DS1 > DS2 > DS3

Let’s start with an quite obvious one. I agree with many fans that DS3 is more linear, while the other two games allow more exploration. 

What gives DS2 the lower place is the fact that sometimes hidden paths are SO WELL hidden that I actually lost orientation at some point. I couldn’t find the next location or simply couldn’t recognize if a place actually was a dead end or not. That way I really was unsure whether I was making any progression in the game or not. 

DS1 linked the levels perfectly. At the beginning, I immediately tried out all paths from Firelink Shrine. And I had no problems memorizing the several locked / accessible entrances and where they (might) lead.

Soundtracks: 

DS3 > DS1 > DS2

You mainly hear Music played either when you’re in a Boss Battle or at Firelink Shrine / Majula. And while I consider Majula’s Soundtrack better than the Shrines, I can’t say the same about the rest in its game. 

Generally you’re too busy focusing on the boss to pay much attention to the Soundtrack. But in DS3 it happened often enough that I still noticed some bosses’ melodies. First it was at the Cryszal Sage battle, where I thought: Man this music is creepy and intense! Then in the Abyss Watchers battle I thought: Holy sh*t the bell and the violins and the voice! Absolutely badass! These are only a few examples of many times I caught myself focusing more on the soundtrack than the Boss. Yes, it cost me many lives, but it’s worth it! 

DS1 didn’t have many soundtracks I really noticed. But still, after some boss battles I had an earworm. Right while I’m typing this, I have the Gaping Dragon’s soundtrack in my head. 

And DS2... In short: There isn’t a single soundtrack I had really memorized. Majula is the only great exeption. 

Level Design:

DS2 > DS1 > DS3

When I think of it, DS2 generally has he biggest world. And due to this size, so many different locations could fit into the game. We have a great underground “labyrinth”, stormy mountains with Dragons flying around, sand pits, giant castles built at the edge of the ocean, simple forests and don’t get me started on Drangelic Castle. I think from all levels in EVERY Dark Souls game, Drangelic castle has to be my favourite... Okay, next to Anor Londo. 

All places in DS2 are noticeable and memorable in their very own way and I love that! I could never look my fill when I traveled from one location to the other. Even the Gutter has its own uniqueness. I still hate it. 

Now to DS1. It’s lower placed because in my opinion the levels are too bound to the Dark Medieval Fantasy theme. The game mainly consists of Castles, Dungeons, Catacombs, ruins of Castles, evil lairs filled with fire, abandoned Cities, maybe a forest. The only exceptions I can think of right now, are the Crystal Cave and Blighttown. But I think that’s it. 

Now to DS3. I don’t dislike the levels at all. I just think they’re... not quite diverse. Just like DS1, we have our ruins, catacombs, castles, forests, etc. But plus to this, another detail makes almost every location similar to each other: Everything is in ruins. Destroyed. Far past its glory. Abandoned. And full of freaking candles. Again, not that I dislike it. But I feel like so many levels follow the same style. Of course there are some exceptions here and there. Sure, it might have something to do with the lore in DS3. But it is as it is.

Bosses:

DS3 > DS1 > DS2

As I mentioned before, what makes bossfights far more enjoyable for me than in the other games, is the soundtrack. That already is a big plus point for DS3. Apart from that I appreciate the variety of the bosses. With that I don’t only mean the species, but also the sizes. From a group of old men up to one gigantic skeleton. 

Also I think DS3 has the most cutscenes for its bosses. Altogether I feel like most efforts were put into DS3 bosses than in the other games. And the fights themselves are often enjoyable. I can’t think of much that really frustrated me in the game, except the Curse Rotten Greatwood. But again, there I like that you have a different fight mechanic, where you have to hit specific spots to deal damage. Heck, I even like the fight against the Ancient Wyvern, just because the mechanics are different. 

The fights against DS1 bosses was also often fun. Except Bed of Chaos. But here you mainly just have the “beat it until it stops moving” fight. Pretty simple. Not that I complain though, it doesn’t make the fights less enjoyable. 

What I like the most about DS1 bosses, are the bosses themselves. With that I mean their character, their design, and most importantly: Their lore. I already knew Sif’s story before I started to play any Dark Souls just because he got so famous. I like how we have our four main bosses introduced in the beginning cutscene. With Gwyndolin you have the chance to freaking challenge a god. In the DLC you get into the role of the fairytales’ noble knight, who saves the land from evil forces, and who slays the big monster to rescue the pretty princess. Also the fight against Artorias is one of the best fights in the entire series. 

DS2 also has bosses which I like, simply because of their lore. Especially King Vendrick and the Ivory King. But what gives DS2 the last place, is the lacking diversity in the bosses. Many of them are... well... Dudes in Armors. Of course I think of the exceptions, too. And the fact that DS2 has so many bosses. But to put it simple: The number of good and enjoyable bosses is heavenly balanced with the number of frustrating / less memorable ones.

DLCs

DS2 > DS3 > DS1

As I said before: DS2 has a great level design. And the same goes to its DLCs. 

Frozen Eleum Loyce with its clear blue sky and buildings covered in snow is one of the prettiest areas in the series. And I love the idea, where you have the option to search for trapped Knights which will then help you to fight against the final boss. And the bossfight itself is also one of he best in the series. Mainly because of the boss stage itself and the Burnt Ivory King’s epic entrance. 

Heck, I even loved the Frigid Outskirts. I can see what it’s so hated by many fans, but I enjoyed the concept of this great field of snow, where you have to navigate trough the storms and defend yourself against demonic thunder horses. The grim Atmosphere is intense. Okay, I didn’t like the bossfight, but that’s actually the only negative point I have. 

While the other two DLCs weren’t that much fun and eye-candy, I still couldn’t stop exploring every corner of the maps. Especially the Sunken King DLC. Also the bosses were great, too. Even if I got really frustrated at the fight against Elana, I still liked her character design. 

So, in short: The flaws in DS2′s DLCs could be easily overshadowed by all the good aspects.

I actually had to think whether I should put DS3 above DS1 or otherwise. But I decided to rank DS3 higher because of the level design. To be honest, it wasn’t really that much fun to navigate through any DLC maps. The Ringes City looks beautiful though. And I liked that the lore about Gwyn was picked up again. The characters all were great and the fight against Ariandel and Friede was epic in every aspect. 

But from all levels in the series, I felt like the DLCs in DS3 are the least obliging. Yes, Dark Souls is known to be hard, I know that. But here it was just frustrating and disheartening. Usually when I die in Dark Souls, I’m thinking: Okay, next time I got this. I need to pay attention to X so I won’t get killed again. I can make it. Challenge accepted. But here I just was glad when I could bring places behind me. I didn’t feel that much of a sense of accomplishment while I fought my way through. It’s definetely the Lore that carried DS3′s DLC to the second place. Also Lorian was mentioned and had a role. Yes, that is important.

The main reason I placed DS1′s DLC last is the location’s design. Mainly it’s just a brighter, dryer version of Darkroot Garden. On the other hand I liked Oolacile and The Abyss. But especially in Oolacile I didn’t have that much fun either. Mainly because of the enemy type you encountered there. What I really liked though, were the bossfights. Okay, the Sanctuary Guardian and Kalameet were very similar to Monster Hunter battles for me. Manus was fun to fight because dodging his attacks felt really rewarding. Plus you had Sif by your side. But Artorias. Dang, he was hard. And Challenging. I died at least 20 times against him. But i didn’t care, just because the fight against him was so fantastic!

As I said, DS3 and DS1 are very close to each other and DS1 could have easily landed on second place, just because of Artorias. You could actually just consider both of them as second.

_________________________________________________

So, for now this will be it. I have no idea if anyone will ever read this list, or even care about my opinion. But I just felt like talking about anything Dark Souls related. Noone in my real life is interested in Dark Souls at all, so I decided to share my thoughts here.

If you want, you can write why you agree or disagree with my views. If you want, you can even ask for other aspects to rank the three games, but it’s totally up to you.

For those who spent their time reading this: Thank you very much for reading. It’s much appreciated!

[agentaw]

Detroit: Become Human - Funny story...

Okay... so Story Time because my friends pointed this out and it’s been fucking with me ever since.

This is the story of how I kinda...sorta wrote/ predicted parts of DBH about...2 years ago. Just hear me out...okay?

So this all started similarly to how DBH started, with that dope-ass demo back in 2012. My 15 year old self became enthralled in it, much like I am now enthralled in the full game. I’ve always loved story telling and had a sort of soft spot for digital modelling. So that demo was a masterpiece to me, it had a great concept and beautiful design. It was a short obsession but it had an impact. 

And that was the last piece of news I’d ever hear about it until a month after they released the full game. I remember hearing some rumour that they weren’t gonna make it a full game or something and left it at that. I didn’t hear anything about it’s coverage at E3 because while I like video games, I become absorbed in different obsessions from time to time. 

And two years ago I was obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons, the thought of creating a whole world and having others enter it was fascinating. And while I tried to create worlds from scratch, I had a problem. 

I had never been too interested in Fantasy things, I liked fantasy characters but tended to focus on too much of the political aspect of fantasy worlds and not the fun stuff like slaying dragons and stuff. 

The return of an old obsession began to try and take my focus off of DnD but I wasn’t ready to let it go yet. 

So I merged them, DnD didn’t have to be fantasy, I didn’t have to invent a world from scratch and luckily my old obsession had a world pre-designed. Marvel, specifically MCU had a treasure trove of lore and I could take a number of rules from DnD 5e and tweak them to suit the change in genre. 

So I started off with a one shot campaign, set in a HYDRA base. My three player characters would be playing themselves and making decision based on how they’d react. They ‘woke up’ in a white plastic robot body. Singular, all three were in the same body, looking through the same eyes and rolling for control over said robot body. It was entertaining to watch them figure out what they hell was going on organically. They quickly met the first NPC an old doctor/sciencist who was a very nervous person. He explained that they’d all been loaded into the same body by accident and that he was just testing out that his creation (the body itself) was working correctly. So my players decided to answer the jumpy doctors questions and let one of them take control as the doctor got them to walk around while still connected to the computer around them by a bunch of wires connected to the back of their neck. The doctor left the room briefly (to report to his superiors) before returning and calmly explaining that he’d need to shut them down before making the rest of the bodies. Yes, this was heavily inspired by the demo but the players didn’t notice or didn’t comment on it at the time. And they genuinely really like the one-shot. So, I started writing more, growing the campaign and expanding my list of NPCs.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “wow...you ripped off the demo and think that counts as writing a whole game” but I never said I wrote the whole story, that would be mental. But as both me and my players have pointed out, there is a large number of similarities which is spooky because as i already stated I didn’t know anything about DBH until almost a month after it’s full release. 

The first and most profound is Amanda. Or my Amanda, who’s called Ruth LaRue. Dr. Ruth LaRue, the trio’s psychologist/co-creator who acts pleasant (too pleasant) towards them...unless they disobey or resist their training to become Hydra Assets. One of my players is rebellious and LaRue has tried to manipulate and coldly threatened him as a result. While another obeys and gets praise and rewards as a result. Also she looks like Amanda (a character i didn’t even know existed), I originally described her as the same race, hairstyle, though slightly younger. And then I drew her (poorly) for my players to get a better idea of how she looked and Jesus Christ they look the same. 

Another is the fact that I have three player characters. There was a possible fourth player but work and life made it difficult for her to be a part of the game. Also my players are two boys and one girl. And while that’s all freaky, their characters appearances/designs are extra weird. Originally, after all getting their own bodies, they all had white plastic robot bodies, all male design (which female player wasn’t happy about because she missed her boobs). The only way to tell them apart was voice and the nervous doctor had given them different coloured eyes. Creating robots came with the challenge of figuring out how their bodies worked (one player was particularly interested in this). Once again inspiration partly came from the Kara demo, the robots are a water (blue liquid) based system, a pump (heart) transports water, which is collect in bags (lungs) through the robots absorbing moisture in the air (through breathing), around the machine frame (body). The water has two purposes, to thinly coat the white plastic casing (skin), which allowed the robot to feel pressure but not texture and also to keep the pump valves going, which creates the energy the machines (players) are run on. After learning that the white plastic version could be easily broken during training, the nervous doctor created a second batch of models, this time made out of metal (female asked for a female body and therefore the doctor gave her a large dent in her chest plate, she was pleased). They then get a new model, ones that are designed to blend in with humans. And this is where this section gets super freaky. The player got no say in how they looked because in game they wouldn’t. 

The female is the shortest model as well as they palest model with loads of freckles, the similarities with Kara stop there but the female player has been gifted a female kitten (thankfully named Cookie, not Alice) as the reward and is quite paranoid about it being taken off her or harmed (calm down, I haven’t hurt the cat...yet). 

One of the males is only slightly more tanned than the female with considerably less freckles and markings. He’s the tallest and the player has been surprisingly obedient, only "failing” when he doesn’t understand what’s happen or doesn’t think something will benefit HYDRA. Because of this he’s been promoted to team leader by the powers that be. He’s logical and is usually thinking about training and what’s going on in the NPCs’ heads. 

Lastly we have the second male who looks southern European (Spain, Italy, Greece and could probably pass as Mexican but the story is set in central Europe) so a different ethnicity/race to the other two. This is the rebellious player who generally plays pranks, cracks jokes and says “fuck you” to authority. Like I said before as a result, he tends to be the one looked down on and oppressed by the powers that be. He generally has a very clear line which he won’t cross no matter what and is willing to stand up if he views something as drastically wrong (refused to hurt his friends or pick up a gun).

Also when asked what they wanted to be called (I.e What’s your name?) The players decided to to sick to what the nice nervous doctor had designated them, i.e the colours of their eyes. Rebellious is Red. Logical is Blue and Female is Purple (name later changed to Violet).

Next is three more NPCs, who have enough in common with the DBH characters to mess with me. 

The nervous doctor, Dr. Thomas Thornley, while having a completely different personality, has formed relationships like Hank. A number of the players refer to him as “Daddy Thornley”, not to his face but when talking to each other in game. And most disturbingly the rebellious player has implied on several occasions that he “ships” the logical male player with father-figure Thornley, jokingly of course. And while in the beginning Thornley may have viewed the robots as a project or experiment, he now appears quite protective and fond of them. Even displaying discomfort when one is broken or completely destroyed. 

Their combat and gun trainer, Agent Woodrow who is ex-military and treats the robots exactly like you’d expect he would, like machines. He could either be Gavin or Captain Allen but either way he’s a genuine aggressor and dislikes/hates the robots. 

The Head of Hydra, Director Malachi Storm who has an air of mystery around him and commands any room he enters. He’s considerable less creepy than Kamski but is an “all-knowing, all-powerful” character. Also I guess I’m technically also Elijah Kamski (a.k.a GOD) and my players pointed out that i have his sadistic, power hungry play style (thanks, guys).

Lastly is a few game mechanics and events i put in the game. The players have always been able to telepathically talk to one another, they can also transfer images to each other. If broken beyond repair (i.e Killed) they now get automatically rebuilt, similar to Connor. I made LaRue give them a morality test which was mostly the “Track dilemma” which is similar to both the driver-less car AIs and the Kamski test. I actually did the motherfucking Kamski test with one or two of my players (but with humans instead of androids lol). Also the players believe they’re alive (which technically they are). They’ve literally been give zero context as to how they are in robot bodies in the MCU, specifically they’re last memories before the start of the game are of going to sleep in their beds in the real world. They are literally three robots walking around stating that they’re alive. 

And yes, I realise that Cage took shit from other movies but it have seen any of those movies so...:P

If I looked hard I could probably find more scary comparisons but a) I don’t particularly want to show all my cards, in case my players read this post, and b) I appear to have written a fucking TED talk out of what was supposed to be a short funny story. 

[dionetaofavalon]

Given all the bad writing and crappy storytelling, is there something good about the Hobbit movies, in your opinion, or something you still like despite evrything bad?

Hi anon! I am so so sorry it took me this long to respond. The short answer is yes, of course there are things I like. I have to like something to keep working with it. When I hate a story (book, movie, tv show), I get bored.

Here’s a slightly longer answer.

What I like about the Hobbit movies:

The cast, for one thing. In fact, I’ve seen several of PJ’s movies, and he routinely casts well. Not to say that he hires the only people who could ever perform those roles, but the actors consistently nail their parts.

The Riddles in the Dark scene, and the Bilbo/Smaug bit—before it became the raging Dwarf hootenanny—were both perfectly realized.

I also love the physical, visual element of world-building—all the parts done by costume, set design, computer graphics, etc. Jackson’s Middle Earth is gorgeous, detailed, and hints at the deeper history of the world (that the writing, unfortunately, fails to deliver).

The music is well-done, and of course, I love the “Misty Mountains” song from AUJ.

And sometimes, Jackson shows his skill as a movie-maker. And even though I’ve come to hate Legolas’s inclusion in The Hobbit movies (despite looking forward to seeing him again), allow me to explain the brilliance of Legolas’s introduction in The Desolation of Smaug (in fact this is the best Legolas stunt in all five movies in which he appears because it’s integrated into the narrative as a transition):

I’m talking about the scene where Legolas swoops down a spider’s dragline, kills the spider, slides under another spider, slicing open its abdomen and killing it, and puts an arrow in Thorin’s face, saying, “Don’t think I won’t kill you, Dwarf.”

Why does this work so well?

One way to breakdown movies—especially an episodic story like The Hobbit—is to consider the separate sections as having their own driving question, rising action, climax, and denouement. In the spider chapter, the driving question is, will the Dwarves escape from the spiders? As soon as Legolas appears, we know the answer is yes. Thus Legolas’s appearance, up the trees, serves as the chapter’s climax. He then proceeds to slay two spiders, showing us how the spiders are no longer a problem—i.e. the denouement.

And then he sticks an arrow in Thorin’s face. Okay, now the Elves are a problem. In other words, we have the inciting incident for the next chapter. Immediate transition.

Furthermore, Legolas’s stunt provides information. The ease with which Legolas kills the spiders indicates a familiarity, so we realize that these Elves have been dealing with spider incursions for a while. I say incursions because there’s also a certain comfort with the forest itself that suggests that the spiders are on Elf territory (given Elves and nature, though, this might be a stretch). Character-wise, the stunt also shows Legolas’s competency as a fighter without belaboring the point (as they subsequently do with Tauriel). There’s no actual showboating here.

Nor does it take away from the Dwarves. It makes sense that Elves would regularly patrol their own borders, especially against a threat such as the spiders. It also makes sense that the Dwarves, starving, tired, and disoriented from spider venom, would not be able to save themselves (in fact, the Dwarves fight far too well in this scene for what they’ve supposedly endured).

Legolas’s introduction is succinct. It progresses the narrative, communicates character and world-building information, looks cool, and does not waste time.

It genuinely was a beautiful bit.

Things I think are good/understand:

There are also changes that I get. Not necessarily changes that had to be made for a cinematic adaptation, but changes with a sound rationale. Alterations that serve the story, even if other writers and directors would have done something different-and-equally-effective.

For one, the aforementioned Legolas introduction. I think it makes more sense for a single movie than for three. With three movies, it’s better to stick to the book, with Thorin getting caught first, and the rest of the Dwarves suffering the spider attack before getting captured by the Elves. It forces Bilbo to interact with non-Thorn Dwarves, if nothing else. And yet, Jackson’s change is so well-executed that it works.

I understand the logic of having Thorin arrive much later and last at Bag End. It sets him apart and transitions to a more somber tone.

Bard being a bargeman, and thus the first to encounter the Dwarves, also makes sense. Bard slays Smaug, which is no small feat, and one a narrative cannot ignore, especially when it claimed at the start that the Dwarves were to do just that. Bard needs to be introduced as early as possible so that it doesn’t feel like he comes out of left field (the changes to his personality, however, I do have a problem with).

I hope I’ve answered you question, anon, and, again, I’m sorry I took so long.

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Wolfenstein: Youngblood Devs Discuss The Game's Origins And The Series' Political Voice

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/wolfenstein-youngblood-devs-discuss-the-games-origins-and-the-series-political-voice/

Wolfenstein: Youngblood Devs Discuss The Game's Origins And The Series' Political Voice

Following Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Machine Games’ reboot series is going through some significant changes in the next spin-off. In Wolfenstein: Youngblood, the emphasis is still on slaying Nazis and their scumbag allies in gruesome fashion, however, it moves away from the linear, story-driven style of previous games, and instead leans closer to an open-ended co-op shooter. Now focusing on the hero BJ Blaskowitz’s twin daughters as they dismantle fascist, white supremacist rule in 1980s France, you and a partner have greater control in choosing the next stop on your violent warpath.

Machine Games executive producer Jerk Gustafsson recently spoke with GameSpot about the making of the standalone co-op focused spin-off. In addition to detailing the collaboration with Dishonored dev Arkane Studios, he elaborated on what the move to the 1980s means for the series timeline. Also, in light of the current political climate, he shared his thoughts on the changing reception of Wolfenstein at large, and how the series grapples with politics.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.

Can you walk us through the origins of Youngblood? On the surface, it looks like a standalone game in the vein of The Old Blood, but there seems to be a lot more going on than what people are expecting.

Jerk Gustafsson: Yeah, there was a little back and forth on what we should do after New Colossus, to be honest. Initially, we talked about doing a smaller thing in between our bigger games like we did with The Old Blood, but when we got this opportunity to work with Arkane Studios, and we decided to go bigger. As you know, Arkane Studios released the Death of the Outsider in Fall 2017 and then we released The New Colossus after that. We talked with the guys over at Arkane and we decided to do something together. It was a collaboration for the game, but to also learn from each other and gain more experience as developers. So, I think that’s where we decided to go a little bit bigger, do co-op, and have a little bit more of an open-ended structure with Youngblood.

It was all about trying to broaden our experience a little bit. It’s similar to the Cyberpilot VR game. To some extent, we’re trying to work a little bit outside our comfort zone. We have been doing the single-player, very heavily story-driven experience for a while now. So it’s been a long time with this. We feel very comfortable with what we’ve done after all these years, of course, but it was exciting for us actually to do something different.

Would you say that this is a bigger game than The New Colossus?

That can be a difficult question to answer. I would say in terms of gameplay time, yes, it probably is bigger. There are more things you can do now compared to the previous games, and I’m pretty sure players will stay in the game for a longer period of time. It is bigger in terms of content, in that sense, but the story and the main campaign itself had to be tighter. Not only with the cutscenes, but also in tone. When I look at people playing, and when I play myself, we are at a higher number [of hours] now than where we were with The New Colossus. So yes, it probably is bigger.

With the focus on co-op and open-ended structure, was it a challenge trying to set expectations for fans? Especially since Youngblood won’t be released at full price.

Yeah, we did have some concerns regarding that. In the beginning, we had planned to just do something in between, but it turned out to be bigger than we expected. The price for this game was also a result of the development time, as it was shorter [than previous games]. The fact that I have been able to together with the guys at Arkane as well, and that we have been able to produce so much content in this, in this short period of time is an amazing and accomplishment from our teams.

Though the story in the campaign is a bit shorter, the gameplay experience is, at least what we have seen, bigger than New Colossus. So with the game we have now, I don’t know if we would have set that price if we knew what it’s going to be. So it’s a bit hard to answer at this. But I’m very happy that we can do it because it is great value for your money, and especially with the buddy pass, where you can play with your friend completely for free. You will get a lot out of this game and I really hope that people will enjoy it.

Working with Arkane Studios must have been exciting, as they have a clear strength for making immersive sims that have some very sophisticated level design. Was this experience sort of eye-opening for you?

Yeah, I think so. But it also goes both ways as well. I think this game gave us the opportunity to learn a lot from each other, and their level design and their expertise within the field is really, really strong. We have grown on it from this, it definitely helped us to become a better game developer. We have a lot more that we can improve upon for the future, but they have allowed us to take that next step in terms of level design specifically. Arkane Studios have contributed [to] several aspects of the game and they are a great team. So I am extremely honored that we had the opportunity to work with them. I’m very happy with the result.

Speaking to the larger Wolfenstein series, it’s been interesting seeing how people react to it due to the current political climate in the states. As it’s a series about fighting nazis and the larger influence of fascism, it’s always been political. In light of the reception that The New Colossus had, did you and the developers feel inclined to cover this topic on a deeper level?

Well, I can’t really say that it hasn’t affected us, because it has. The game is definitely political when you have Nazis, but we have always tried to stick with the timeline that we had envisioned [beginning with The New Order]. We have this Wolfenstein timeline, the lore of it, and we want to stick to that as much as possible. Even though I agree that it becomes more political in many ways due to real life, we never set out to do a political statement in any way. I get this question a lot and I read some comments [from readers] after an interview, and I said the same thing that I’m saying to you now. Though one comment I saw on a feed was like, “why can’t you just say that you hate white people?” For me, we have to also understand and accept that there are people that will react like that. We will continue to see these type of comments, but for me, there’s no logic to them in any way.

So it’s a hard question even though I have answered it so many times. I still don’t really know exactly what to say, but we want to make an entertaining game, and we want to tell a story about fighting this absolute evil in the world, and that evil is represented by the Hitler regime and the Nazis. That’s where we are basically.

I think a lot of it has to do to the fact that The New Colossus released at such a different time compared to The New Order. I wonder if certain scenes would have landed as hard as they did if it came out three years earlier or if the political climate was different.

Yeah, it was a huge difference, actually. There were so many discussions and so many talking points around that at the time, and the timing was the reason for that as well. So, yeah, absolutely, and I think the way it affected us. It never happened in that way for New Order, as an example. So that was a big difference for us. Absolutely. That’s what I mean by when I say that it definitely has affected us in ways. But we still really try to do our thing. We have our timeline, we have our storyline that we want to follow and we are trying to stick to that as much as possible. I don’t think Youngblood looks different based on that. I can’t say that for certain of course, but I think it would look the same even if we have done YoungBlood after New Order, for instance. I think it’s more of a thing that affects us on the side.

What’s really interesting about this particular take on Wolfenstein is that it has such a strong emphasis on story, despite having its roots in classic FPS design that featured very little narrative. We see a lot of these moments in the last two games that really hit hard and that can surprise, particularly the scene with an extremely unflattering look at Hitler in New Colossus. Will we see him back again in Youngblood?

Actually, Hitler is already dead in Youngblood. This is also part of the entire timeline, and it’s actually what we were thinking about and when we wrote the story for Youngblood as well. We asked ourselves if we should mention that Hitler is dead, or that BJ had already killed Hitler. There is a story to tell about that. When you look at the games that have been released over the years within the Wolfenstein universe, BJ has already killed Hitler once back in the early nineties, so it’s something that has been established in that timeline. It’s another story we can tell in the future [for our timeline] if we get the opportunity. As for Youngblood, he’s not alive anymore in the 80s–he is dead. But I’m really happy that you liked that scene. That was a tough scene to work with. It took a long time for us to get that together.

Looking back on The New Colossus, what were some of the big lessons you learned from that game on a gameplay level, and how did you want to try and do things differently for Youngblood?

Oh yes, one of the big things we were not really prepared for when it came to the feedback was in regards to the difficulty of the game. We had a few places where the difficulty spikes were just too hard. We do have a lot of difficult, challenging levels, and I myself I really appreciate games that can offer that, but one of the things about New Colossus that I wish I could go back and redo was to make sure that it was a little bit more even. It’s a little bit too much, and it really shows. We didn’t have the opportunity to react as fast enough to it. And I think we have a lot there when it comes to the work for Youngblood, hopefully at least.

I think that I would, of course, point to the core of Youngblood. It comes with so many things and since the core forced us to think differently [with the level design and co-op], we actually have managed to tackle that. It’s not only about the core as well, because the core also led us to add AI combined which was also a great challenge for us. So in combination with the things we’re doing with the more open-ended structure and the progression in general, it’s a lot of changes that we have done outside of our comfort zone. I’m very proud that we have accomplished in this much in such a short time.

Source : Gamesport

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Wolfenstein: Youngblood Devs Talk The Game's Origins And The Series' Political Voice

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/wolfenstein-youngblood-devs-talk-the-games-origins-and-the-series-political-voice/

Wolfenstein: Youngblood Devs Talk The Game's Origins And The Series' Political Voice

Following Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Machine Games’ reboot series is seeing another round of some significant changes in the next spin-off. In Wolfenstein: Youngblood, the emphasis is still on slaying Nazis and their scumbag allies in gruesome fashion, however, it moves away from the linear, story-driven style of previous games, and instead leans closer to an open-ended co-op shooter. Now focusing on the hero BJ Blaskowitz’s twin daughters as they dismantle fascist, white supremacist rule in 1980s France, you and a partner have greater control in choosing the next stop on your violent warpath.

Machine Games executive producer Jerk Gustafsson recently spoke with GameSpot about the making of the standalone co-op focused spin-off. In addition to detailing the collaboration with Dishonored dev Arkane Studios, he elaborated on what the move to the 1980s means for the series timeline. Also, in light of the current political climate, he shared his thoughts on the changing reception of Wolfenstein at large, and how the series grapples with politics.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.

Can you walk us through the origins of Youngblood? On the surface, it looks like a standalone game in the vein of The Old Blood, but there seems to be a lot more going on than what people are expecting.

Jerk Gustafsson: Yeah, there was a little back and forth on what we should do after New Colossus, to be honest. Initially, we talked about doing a smaller thing in between our bigger games like we did with The Old Blood, but when we got this opportunity to work with Arkane Studios, and we decided to go bigger. As you know, Arkane Studios released the Death of the Outsider in Fall 2017 and then we released The New Colossus after that. We talked with the guys over at Arkane and we decided to do something together. It was a collaboration for the game, but to also learn from each other and gain more experience as developers. So, I think that’s where we decided to go a little bit bigger, do co-op, and have a little bit more of an open-ended structure with Youngblood.

It was all about trying to broaden our experience a little bit. It’s similar to the Cyberpilot VR game. To some extent, we’re trying to work a little bit outside our comfort zone. We have been doing the single-player, very heavily story-driven experience for a while now. So it’s been a long time with this. We feel very comfortable with what we’ve done after all these years, of course, but it was exciting for us actually to do something different.

Would you say that this is a bigger game than The New Colossus?

That can be a difficult question to answer. I would say in terms of gameplay time, yes, it probably is bigger. There are more things you can do now compared to the previous games, and I’m pretty sure players will stay in the game for a longer period of time. It is bigger in terms of content, in that sense, but the story and the main campaign itself had to be tighter. Not only with the cutscenes, but also in tone. When I look at people playing, and when I play myself, we are at a higher number [of hours] now than where we were with The New Colossus. So yes, it probably is bigger.

With the focus on co-op and open-ended structure, was it a challenge trying to set expectations for fans? Especially since Youngblood won’t be released at full price.

Yeah, we did have some concerns regarding that. In the beginning, we had planned to just do something in between, but it turned out to be bigger than we expected. The price for this game was also a result of the development time, as it was shorter [than previous games]. The fact that I have been able to together with the guys at Arkane as well, and that we have been able to produce so much content in this, in this short period of time is an amazing and accomplishment from our teams.

Though the story in the campaign is a bit shorter, the gameplay experience is, at least what we have seen, bigger than New Colossus. So with the game we have now, I don’t know if we would have set that price if we knew what it’s going to be. So it’s a bit hard to answer at this. But I’m very happy that we can do it because it is great value for your money, and especially with the buddy pass, where you can play with your friend completely for free. You will get a lot out of this game and I really hope that people will enjoy it.

Working with Arkane Studios must have been exciting, as they have a clear strength for making immersive sims that have some very sophisticated level design. Was this experience sort of eye-opening for you?

Yeah, I think so. But it also goes both ways as well. I think this game gave us the opportunity to learn a lot from each other, and their level design and their expertise within the field is really, really strong. We have grown on it from this, it definitely helped us to become a better game developer. We have a lot more that we can improve upon for the future, but they have allowed us to take that next step in terms of level design specifically. Arkane Studios have contributed [to] several aspects of the game and they are a great team. So I am extremely honored that we had the opportunity to work with them. I’m very happy with the result.

Speaking to the larger Wolfenstein series, it’s been interesting seeing how people react to it due to the current political climate in the states. As it’s a series about fighting nazis and the larger influence of fascism, it’s always been political. In light of the reception that The New Colossus had, did you and the developers feel inclined to cover this topic on a deeper level?

Well, I can’t really say that it hasn’t affected us, because it has. The game is definitely political when you have Nazis, but we have always tried to stick with the timeline that we had envisioned [beginning with The New Order]. We have this Wolfenstein timeline, the lore of it, and we want to stick to that as much as possible. Even though I agree that it becomes more political in many ways due to real life, we never set out to do a political statement in any way. I get this question a lot and I read some comments [from readers] after an interview, and I said the same thing that I’m saying to you now. Though one comment I saw on a feed was like, “why can’t you just say that you hate white people?” For me, we have to also understand and accept that there are people that will react like that. We will continue to see these type of comments, but for me, there’s no logic to them in any way.

So it’s a hard question even though I have answered it so many times. I still don’t really know exactly what to say, but we want to make an entertaining game, and we want to tell a story about fighting this absolute evil in the world, and that evil is represented by the Hitler regime and the Nazis. That’s where we are basically.

I think a lot of it has to do to the fact that The New Colossus released at such a different time compared to The New Order. I wonder if certain scenes would have landed as hard as they did if it came out three years earlier or if the political climate was different.

Yeah, it was a huge difference, actually. There were so many discussions and so many talking points around that at the time, and the timing was the reason for that as well. So, yeah, absolutely, and I think the way it affected us. It never happened in that way for New Order, as an example. So that was a big difference for us. Absolutely. That’s what I mean by when I say that it definitely has affected us in ways. But we still really try to do our thing. We have our timeline, we have our storyline that we want to follow and we are trying to stick to that as much as possible. I don’t think Youngblood looks different based on that. I can’t say that for certain of course, but I think it would look the same even if we have done YoungBlood after New Order, for instance. I think it’s more of a thing that affects us on the side.

What’s really interesting about this particular take on Wolfenstein is that it has such a strong emphasis on story, despite having its roots in classic FPS design that featured very little narrative. We see a lot of these moments in the last two games that really hit hard and that can surprise, particularly the scene with an extremely unflattering look at Hitler in New Colossus. Will we see him back again in Youngblood?

Actually, Hitler is already dead in Youngblood. This is also part of the entire timeline, and it’s actually what we were thinking about and when we wrote the story for Youngblood as well. We asked ourselves if we should mention that Hitler is dead, or that BJ had already killed Hitler. There is a story to tell about that. When you look at the games that have been released over the years within the Wolfenstein universe, BJ has already killed Hitler once back in the early nineties, so it’s something that has been established in that timeline. It’s another story we can tell in the future [for our timeline] if we get the opportunity. As for Youngblood, he’s not alive anymore in the 80s–he is dead. But I’m really happy that you liked that scene. That was a tough scene to work with. It took a long time for us to get that together.

Looking back on The New Colossus, what were some of the big lessons you learned from that game on a gameplay level, and how did you want to try and do things differently for Youngblood?

Oh yes, one of the big things we were not really prepared for when it came to the feedback was in regards to the difficulty of the game. We had a few places where the difficulty spikes were just too hard. We do have a lot of difficult, challenging levels, and I myself I really appreciate games that can offer that, but one of the things about New Colossus that I wish I could go back and redo was to make sure that it was a little bit more even. It’s a little bit too much, and it really shows. We didn’t have the opportunity to react as fast enough to it. And I think we have a lot there when it comes to the work for Youngblood, hopefully at least.

I think that I would, of course, point to the core of Youngblood. It comes with so many things and since the core forced us to think differently [with the level design and co-op], we actually have managed to tackle that. It’s not only about the core as well, because the core also led us to add AI combined which was also a great challenge for us. So in combination with the things we’re doing with the more open-ended structure and the progression in general, it’s a lot of changes that we have done outside of our comfort zone. I’m very proud that we have accomplished in this much in such a short time.

Source : Gamesport