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Fahrenheit
LukeG writes "As games developers constantly seek new methods of tapping into the mass market, the French team at Quantic Dream have taken their inspiration from the television in developing 'Fahrenheit', what they claim will be the world's first interactive TV series, an episodic 3D-adventure set in New York. Here's a full look at this interesting development." See the company's website (Flash-only, unfortunately); or there are several other previews out there (1, 2).
Its unfortunate because html would be viewable to 100% of people. Did I need to explain that? Theres nothing on that site that makes it NEED to be in flash.
no sig.
I for one was misled by the headline. The company's website explains
"Fahrenheit" is an original concept that sets out to create a video game in the format of a television series. The product will consist of 6 episodes of 6 to 8 hours.
A new episode will be made available every four months as a CD-ROM in the traditional distribution circuits.
Promote proofreading. Don't mod up sloppy posts.
Appanrelty nobody remembers Captain Power!!!!
For those who don't, you'd buy the toys, then sit in front of the TV and shoot at the bad guys to rack up points (or good guys if you had a bad guy's vehicle)... and the TV shot back!!! If you were hit too many times, you're vehicle's pilot would be ejected!
Oh, those were the days.
Max Payne was a pretty boring game with all the gangster/cop/maverick/revenge clichés and dialog that sounded almost like a parody (except it wasn't). I'm not saying it was crap, it had its moments and it was quite fun to play, but it certainly had very little re-playability (except for a bit when you discover the unlimited bullet time cheat :) ). Every month someone releases an 'amazing' new game with 'a plot written by the same person who wrote X movie' and 'multiple story paths that dynamically unfold because of your actions' but in reality it never happens.
:) I just don't think you can call it fully interactive unless the player has a choice. I don't think plots are very compatible with video games.
The games that are _really_ popular are the ones that don't rely on the plot but on freedom, such as the GTA series or almost any RTS game, or MMORPG, this is where the player creates their own plot instead of being fed one like they're watching a movie. All plots are going to be restrictive if you have to follow them - i.e. if you have to make it to some place to advance the game just so the director can show you their amazing cut scene. It would be nice, say, if in Max Payne you could have seen your wife being murdered, and then decide if you wanted to pursue the gangsters that did it and beat them to the ground, _or_ go to the pub
Personally my ultimate idea for a game would be a full 3D city/world where you could do anything you wanted - a fully realistic life sim, where you could lead as boring or interesting life as you pleased except without the consequences, and with _lots_ of config settings (basically, the matrix). GTA3 came as close as anything sofar...
Yes, i know, if i dont like plot based games i shouldn't play them, i'll shut up now.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
oddly enough this reminds me of Quake. I got the shareware off a magazine cdrom and enjoyed the first episode so much I bought the remaining episodes. Now if I could have bought only the second episode instead of having to buy all of them at once perhaps the last three episodes wouldn't have sucked so much compared to the first.
I like this idea - I think it would also be interesting to have occasional episodes where you play different characters, maybe the bad guys for a little bit.
I've experiments to run, there is research to be done on the people who are still alive.
what they claim will be the world's first interactive TV series
In reality that happened here in Columbus in December 1977, with, at the time, the most sophisticated pilot cable TV project ever--QUBE
Read about it here.
From the article:
"The row of five buttons were reserved for responses to Qube's original interactive programming. Each of the five buttons could be assigned a meaning at the headend, allowing up to five answers to a question -- at least 'yes, no or undecided'. The headend could poll all the boxes, collect all the responses, and immediately report to viewers the percentages for each of the possible answers...."And we had interactive games, like a card game where the five buttons were used to play the hands. We had community auctions, too, where items were sold live by an auctioneer in the studio, each incremental bid made through the remote. The bids were locked in by constantly polling the network. An our subscribers also could interact with us directly through special programs called, "Qube at Your Service", which combined phone calls with questions that viewers would answer on their remotes. We always tried to be as responsive to our subscribers as possible."
The article discusses why QUBE failed.
Perhaps the following should be more noted by fellow Columbians:
"Two programs originating in Columbus went national and still flourish today. Pinwheel grew into a new cable channel, Nickelodeon. Sight on Sound evolved into Music Television, known worldwide as MTV."