GDC Day 2 Wrap
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:37 am
I will preface this by saying that tonight is the big party night for GDC and that my recollection of today’s events may be slightly… blurred. Also, I intend to write lengthier entries on the subjects of Street Fighter IV and Prototype, but in the interests of getting some sleep, I’ll probably keep it short here.
Today started out pretty slowly. That’s probably because the first thing we did after arriving in San Francisco was grab lunch, then hang around the press room. Before too long, Alex and Ryan ran off to go do something, and I caught the session on Radical’s upcoming open world game, Prototype. The duo giving the talk spent a lot of time talking about their approach to building a game for the current generation of consoles, and it was really quite interesting. But they also played the game for around 10 minutes or so, which was waaaay more interesting.
Prototype is a fast-moving game, from the looks of things. Granted, the team’s last game, Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, wasn’t exactly a lumbering, slow-moving game. But something about the way things come together in that game looks pretty magical right now. Watching Alex Mercer haul ass through the streets on foot while getting his parkour on–a very cool use of the silly French running arts that involves your dude doing wall jumps off of box trucks and hopping over and around cars as they are exploding and flying past–was truly a sight to see. Seeing the camera swing around to reveal all sorts of destructive power giving chase drove the point home. Open world games are certainly good at doing chaos, but with all the tanks, choppers, and infected creatures running around New York City–which is still full of civilians trying to stay out of the way, mind you–Prototype seems like it’s operating on another level. It also doesn’t really look that much like Crackdown, though that’s still probably the closest comparison. Also, it has helicopter-jacking. Sold!
After that, it was over to see EALA’s Louis Castle talk about the game that EA has been developing with Steven Spielberg, Boom Blox. It was mostly focused on the process involved in bringing Boom Blox to life, and how the team essentially ignored most of EA’s “best practices” for development for the first 50% or so of development. Lots of iteration, lots of quick prototyping, stuff like that. It reminded me a bit of what Sid Meier had to say yesterday about how valued being able to quickly test out his own crazier ideas without involving a huge team of programmers. I think Boom Blox looks very cool, and hopefully all the work they put into making sure the Wii Remote responded to the on-screen action properly pays off in the end.
From there, Alex and I booked over to a nearby hotel where Capcom had a Street Fighter IV arcade cabinet set up. It was a smallish room that filled up fast, becoming hot, sweaty, and full of dudes. Ryan Mac Donald showed up and we reminded each other about how we used to spend our nights back at CES crammed into the entryway at the Acclaim party, because they always had a Mortal Kombat machine there. It was very much the same sort of deal.
The game itself feels right. That’s not to say it’s tuned and finished or anything like that, Capcom’s still got a ways to go on that front. Some of the move timing and stuff like that currently feels a bit off in spots. But it’s definitely getting there. And it mostly feels like a real Street Fighter game should. Concerns about the switch to polygonal graphics seem sort of silly at this point, because the characters are big, bold, and expressive. I also think the concerns about the character faces looking completely weird will turn out to be minor in the end, too. They look weird in screens, but I think it looked just fine in motion. Long story short, I like the way it looks. Of course, I managed to lose all of my fights, mostly because GameTap’s Jared Rea was playing a pretty mean Zangief. But he apparently didn’t actually win the tournament.
I didn’t stick around to see how that all panned out, though, because I took off with Alex and Giancarlo (who didn’t seem to be eating any potstickers today) to an EA party, where Will Wright was speaking and Ryan Davis was drinking. Both are very good at their assigned tasks. I was convinced that all the time I spent making sure my favorite Ken and Honda tactics still functioned would mean that I wouldn’t get to his Wright’s talk, but we made it just in time.
Many words have already been written about how special Will Wright is, and how much he means to the game industry. I completely agree, and I hope this talk makes its way online at some point because any description of it isn’t really going to tell you what you need to know. Weaving together things like The Sims, Spore, Gilligan’s Island, the Russian space program, James Bond, and Godzilla is no easy task. Will Wright made it look easy. The thing I took out of there was something I’ve been thinking about a lot over the past few years: the slow death of the large-scale “shared experience” and the rapid splintering of pop culture. There are very few things out there that all of us follow. I, as an example, don’t watch Lost. Or American Idol. There are plenty of people out there who I can’t talk about BioShock with, because they haven’t played it. Look at music. What the heck qualifies as “pop” music these days, and who is listening to it? I know way more people that are interested in French house music than whatever MTV is playing these days.
The day sort of wrapped back onto itself, because once Will Wright wrapped up and the open bar closed down, most of the EA party seemed to head over to a party for Prototype, which was a loud, overfilled room–exactly how it should be. I kept hearing people say the words “fire marshal” and “overcrowded.” A developer told me that he thinks that aggregate review sites like GameRankings and Metacritic are ruining the game industry. They had hot dogs there. I believe at one point I said “woooo!” Then Alex showed up and we left.
Like I said, I’ll probably have more to say about SFIV and Prototype once I get some time to think about it, but that’s the basic gist of both games. Also, I’m finding that I have faith in the game industry again. Getting out there and meeting some new folks, or seeing some people I haven’t seen in awhile has sort of made me realize that there are still people out there who are at least as passionate–probably more passionate, really–about making games as I am about playing and writing about them. It’s easy to get jaded and start thinking that the whole thing is controlled by a bunch of soulsucking suits who just want to make sure their game ships before the end of the quarter, regardless of quality. That’s not the case.
At least, not yet.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:48 am
“I believe at one point I said “woooo!””
That’s when you [i]know[/i] you’re having a good time.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:49 am
Did you get to see that crazy technology where you play games with your mind? It’s called Emotiv or something.
I don’t get where that guy is coming from when he says aggregate review sites are ruining the industry. How are they, exactly?
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 am
Hey Jeff,
What are your thoughts on the future of gaming?
Read this article but am not entirely convinced:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7258120.stm
Cheers!
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 am
Goddamn, wish I could have been there for that Will Wright thing.
Well, if experiencing what you did today helped restore some of your faith in the games industry, reading you write about that experience helped restore some of mine.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:23 am
word
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:38 am
I think about the same pop culture topics too. How did Will Wright use that in his speech and relate it to game development?
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:49 am
I totally want to see that will wright video now, or at least get a transcript… I hope somone eventually puts up a video on youtube… or something…
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:27 am
Quick question. Wireless or Wired controllers for you?
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:47 am
The longer we can keep the suits and the development side separate the better.
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:33 am
Your descriptions of the parties you went to sounded like passages out of a Brett Easton Ellis novel. Good job!
Keep up to good work, chief.
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:33 am
Hey man what’s up? I was just wondering, since you and all the other main faces of gamespot have now left (aka been ripped from) the site, are you planning on joining forces to create an uber-gamespot, like gamespot 2 or something? You, Alex that other dude (sorry cant remember his name, guy with a beard who helped host on the spot. Is it Ryan?) did pretty much make the show. So why not venture off together and start your own video game website?
P.S.-I go to this website now more than I do gamespot, its just not the same there without ya man.
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:36 am
Thanks for your honest opinion on everything you write. Thanks for the updates Jeff, keep it real.
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:42 am
Another thing Jeff…
Thought about introducing a chat forum on your site?
Could be cool
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 am
Dang, Jeff. I’m impressed you wrote this after partying.
Also, your concluding paragraph couldn’t make me happier. I was going to ask around about that sentiment once GDC was over.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:25 am
Yeah, Prototype looks sweet. Hotdogs? That alone makes me want to get a job in the industry even more.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:50 am
Woot Woot. Prototype is going to be sweet.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:54 am
Horribly outdated Borat impression: Wowwowweewoo!
I really wish I couldve been there for the WW talk. and yes, Prototype looks crazy awesome!
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:13 am
Really excited about SF4 - looking so, so awesome. the game industry at the moment does seem in real good shape, lots of projects on the way that devs and fans really care about like Spore, SF4, Prototype and the WiiWAre and XNA announces are pretty exciting too. Good post, Jeff.
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 am
Awesome summary as most of the things that were due have more or less already been unraveled. Nice to see you being on the positive verge of Prototype and SF4 as those games are presumably shaping up to the extent they need to.
In addition to that I do look forward to Prototype respectively as it happens to be a peculiar attempt of innovating the genre to the extent of formulating an open-world-game, and as you said it’s hard to draw comparisons between that respective title and some other game, apart from the fact that Crackdown probably manages to be the one that gets near even still far away from it.
Nonetheless, it would be interesting to hear you speak about that game more immersive from your personal point of view or maybe make a prediction if it has the potential to see the light of the day. Or what developers should put emphasis on when developing some kind of game among those lines.
I do have to say that I agree with that developer which asserted that the aggregate review sites are ruining the gaming industry, to some degree atleast. Alot of purchases are based on what a guy or an editor thinks about a game.
Hope to hear from you soon Jeff, take care Sir!
February 22nd, 2008 at 8:44 am
Where there is money to be made the suits eventually show up. The developers are passionate but they don’t sit at the money end of the table.
Hope u get sober soon so you can tell us more about SFIV:)
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 am
Sounds like you’re having a good time. It’d be cool if you, Ryan, Alex, and Giancarlo did a podcast together talking about GDC.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:43 am
I want to see that Will Wright speech.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:47 am
Great articles about GDC Jeff. I can’t wait to play streetfighter 4. I may actually shell out for a proper arcade stick for it too, seeing how suck ass the 360 pad is for fighters.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:05 am
faith restored! great writeup jeff. glad to see you are becoming less jaded. i agree that it is easy to be discouraged by the industry trending towards a film studio model….but is that really such a bad model to follow? for every harry potter movie, there is always a pan’s labyrinth. oh and good call on the hot dogs…they are delicious.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:08 am
Woooo, So I am ruining the game industry, huh? lmao
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:23 am
Great blog article. Please do write full & detailed preview of Street Fighter 4, because that’s one of the games that I’ll sell my limbs to get.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:28 am
OMG HOTDOGS!
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:43 am
Both Hulk in IH:UD and the cops in Crackdown had similar strength capabilities in a similar gameplay enviornment. Comparatively, you could do far less with your powers in Crackdown than you could in Hulk because ultimately Crackdown’s aim as a game wasn’t quite as broad. While it was understandably relatively limiting in ability of power due to constraints in the game’s concept, it’s just never fun to feel limited in an open-world game. It did what it set out to do well, but by the end of Crackdown I just ended up feeling like it could’ve been so much more, having played Hulk first (since it came out first). It’s a bit of a shame too because the groundwork and tech in the game easily allowed it to swamp anything Hulk did. That’s not to say that Crackdown was a bad game. I just think it speaks more to the talent at Radical Entertainment for having the forethought to compensate for the incredibly batshit insane ideas a player might want to actualize with aforementioned superpowers (i.e. punting cows into helicopters, doing elbow drops off 60 story buildings, crushing a bus into a flat surface and surfing it into the city, etc.).
I don’t know. I just found Hulk more fun. While I wouldn’t say it’s underrated (Alex’s 8.2 felt appropriate), I would definitely say that it’s under-appreciated.
It’s nice to see Radical continuing and expanding on what they did with Hulk in Prototype. They really made something special there.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:46 am
Great to hear you got your passion back. =)
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 am
I don’t know if aggregate review sites are “ruining the game industry”, but I could see how they might have a negative effect on the industry of game reviews.
As a consumer tool, I find them pretty valuable, especially when trying to talk my girlfriend’s lazy family members out of wasting money on terrible games for her 9-year-old nephew. These people have never read a game review in their lives and aren’t about to start, they usually won’t even bother to look at the age rating on the box.
I do see them as a problem in that they focus too much on a number and a sound bite and discourage people from actually reading well written reviews.
February 23rd, 2008 at 1:04 am
Jeff,
I recorded the Wright speech with an audio feed. Check it out here:
http://rebootshow.com/62/the-rebootgdc-2008-an-evening-with-will-wright
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:23 am
Awesome, thanks for posting that.