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Expected E3 Titles For Konami/LucasArts
Next Gen has two more articles featuring titles they're hoping to see from Konami and LucasArts. From the latter article: "Indiana Jones - Talk about secretive - LucasArts has not breathed a word of Indiana Jones to the press since last year's E3. Even then, that announcement was pretty bereft of the typical content you'd expect, without a video, a screenshot, or even a plot point to get the mind racing at the possibilities. Basically, all we know about Indiana Jones as a game coming into E3 2006 is that Indiana Jones will be in it, and that he will probably wear a hat."
If the hat is stolen by a floating baddie, will Indiana Jones slowly lose health?
You can mod your friends, you can mod your nose, but you can't mod your friend's nose.
All I want is Knights of the Old Republic III...with a good plot...and a decent ending, perhaps with some closure.
Doesn't Lucas realize he's sitting on a god damn gold mine?
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
I mean, c'mon--prehensile bullwhip!
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Well I hope at least the enemies won't have walkie talkies instead of weapons...
Indiana Jones - Talk about secretive - LucasArts has not breathed a word of Indiana Jones to the press since last year's E3.
Really?
With that said, LucasArts could very well make a really good Indiana Jones game that is in the same genre but is still innovative. But that is difficult since they have to work in the Indiana Jones universe.
I think the games industry has reached a point where they know what is successful. Much like the movie industry, and the music industry and the book industry, and the theater industry, and the comic book industry, and the board games industry, and the card game industry, and the .... ad infinitum. A new industry pops up, finds out what is successful and sticks with that, all the while making improvements. I say improvements because the original Doom in nothing like UT2k4 despite being in the same genre. The gravity gun in Half-Life 2 is nothing like any other weapon previous (I assume because I had never played with anything like it before, but I allow that maybe someone else was first).
I play games for fun and I'm sure you do to. My definition of fun isn't solely based on whether or not something is totally new or even innovative. I enjoyed Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. I even found UT2k4 to be fun despite already having lots of fun with UT2k3, and that despite enjoying the original UT. I thought WarCraft III was fun despite finding StarCraft fun, as well as the old Dune II and some of the older Red Alert games.
They all had minor improvements, and some were original, others were just original ways of incorporating existing ideas into one product, while others were just enhancements. How innovative do you want? Something totally unique that's never ever been tried before? I'm not going to say that there won't ever be a new genre again, or that it's impossible for it to happen, but those kinds of things are rare. People have been telling stories for thousands of years, yet Sci-fi and Fantasy are only relatively recent additions to the genre base. When a new medium arrives, genres pop up quickly. Maybe we've just got to the point where story telling has been for a long time, yet nobody is complaining that there is no innovation in Story telling.
I'll agree, saying that there isn't any innovation in the games industry does sound like a broken record. I'm beginning to believe that there are two types of people saying it though; those who truly believe it, and those who are just saying it because it is chic to say it recently. Maybe people are saying it because they looked at how many new genres appeared during the 90s alone and now aren't seeing that anymore. That is mainly who the above paragraphs are directed toward.
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While I'm still not interested in buying a PSP.. mostly because of its emphasis on PSX remakes I've already played to death.. I have to tip my hat to Konami for reviving the original Silent Hill. They're doing very well with this franchise and I applaud them. I enjoyed the movie despite the fact they changed a few names and had the mother take the lead role, but overall it stayed amazingly faithful to the game's story and even mimicked many scenes from the game, right down to the camera angles and of course the chilling music. Seeing the movie and how thrilled I was about it, made my girlfriend task me with playing through all three Silent Hill games ("The Room" is not canon).. and the bloody hell of emulating the original PSX game on my PC.. the others have native PC versions thank god. I'm halfway through the first and it's amazing how such a crappy platform could deliver an intangibly chilling experience. I remember being creeped out after a few hours of playing, even though the game has a very slow pace it just gets under your skin.
I'm very curious to see how they will translate this classic to the PSP. I tend to think of portable games as little ditties you can pick up for a few minutes at a time, like puzzle games or other granular titles like racing or sports. Silent Hill was more about the experience and getting into hour-long problem-solving sessions.. and the dreaded save points that were few and far-between. I don't doubt Konami's skill but it will be interesting to see how they adapt their franchise.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
You make some good points, and I'll admit that I should have thought more about it before I submitted that comment!
You mentioned that many new genres sprung up in the 90s, and is it a coincidence that technology seems to have made leaps and bounds in that same period of time? Probably not. So, maybe the main source of the argument that there isn't enough innovation in the games industry is that new technology cannot keep up with demand for innovation. As more technology is available to the general public and the games industry, they will find new games to create using that technology. If that's true, people (such as myself) who want new and innovative games will have to wait for the next technological leap to get it.
Stairs....why did it have to be stairs?
I don't see what you're saying about "the same genre."
The old Indiana Jones games by Lucasarts were all adventure games (with a little bit
of action put in.) The later games were all 3rd person action games.
I think that anyone with a little bit of imagination and the will can make a game
that is unique, fun and has fresh ideas.
I don't know about today's Lucasarts, but the Lucasarts of the past had quite a knack for innovation even in the waning genre of adventure games. People like Tim Schafer continue that tradition, just not at Lucasarts. I hope that this Indiana Jones game will be good, because I've been missing the Lucasarts that had such talent and vision.
I don't think that just because something works, it should stay the same.
I think that people should constantly push the boundaries even when they are successful.
I hope to play games that continue to push boundaries as well as play old favorites and
games done well in general.
It may not be easy to innovate, but I think it is necessary.
There hasn't been a space sim anywhere close to the original Totally Games releases. (Special emphasis on the word "sim")
Bring back X-Wing! (Set of course in the timeframe of the original trilogy. Right between Empire and Return would suit us all just fine!
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This is mostly what I was referring to. Here you say they have innovation within the same genre. I agree. It is completely possible to be innovative in a genre/niche/field/etc. But the guy I was replying to orignally seemed to be saying that because a company was coming out with a "sequel" to a game that there is no innovation in the games industry. Whereas I disagree. Just like the amount of innovation between Wolfenstein and Return to Castle Wolfenstein is huge.
Innovation needs to continue in every industry if it is to stay around. But what is innovation? Does it have to be a new genre? Does it have to be radically different? How unique does something have to be in order for it to be innovative? I tend to think it has to be an improvement. It sounds like a lot of people want innovation to come in the form of radical changes. They want to look at the Wolfenstein --> Half-Life 2 changes and say it should be like that all the time, not considering the number of innovations that came between the two to make those changes possible.
To take that idea further, that's why I think many feel that there was more innovation in the past. We can look back at Wolfenstein 3D and say that was innovation. Wolfenstein was not the first FPS, but the other games that were aren't rememberable by most people and they forget that it was really just an incremental step. Half-Life was not the first game to have an interactive world, but people forget that. I suspect in 10 years, we may forget some FPS-sequels now but say that X was so innovative, when today we say it isn't because Y and Z were doing the same things, just not as memorably.
I hope that makes sense.
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hmm kindof funny that I hear about this on fark.com but from what I've heard this game is going to be sweet. (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/702/702389p1.html ) Right on the IGN website too lol. If this actually pans out I think it could be one of the greatest games of all times easily. Just imagine hitting someone and watching them fall back realisticly and not only fall down but respond to their environment while falling down and possibly even catching themselves all in a natural manner. Anyhow here's a link to the natural motion website http://www.naturalmotion.com/pages/le.htm it even has a non-realtime demo you can play with.
There is no time "between" empire and jedi. The films follow without gaps.
I'd really like them to let go of the entire film thing and concentrate on a different period for once though. That was one of the strengths of KOTOR in my opinion: star wars feel without the annoying movie plots getting in the way.
Pathman, Free (as in GPL) 3D Pac Man
Even if you don't count Shadows of the Empire, didn't Luke have to spend some time making his new lightsaber?
X-Wing already was brought back as X-Wing Alliance, and while it wasn't a bad game by any means, for some reason no one seemed to really notice it.
What would be far more interesting to me would be another TIE Fighter. Though knowing Lucasarts, what we'd actually get if they did another space combat game would involve flying clone trooper ships and jedi starfighters.
You're clearly not a Star Wars geek.
Yes, there are years between Empire and Jedi.
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