Inside looks, charitable companies and even more Italy …
The Good
Irrational Behaviour Podcast
There’s a lot more that goes into the creation of a game than what can be gleaned from reviews or the dot points on product packaging. But Irrational (formerly 2K Boston), the design crew behind Bioshock, have begun putting together a monthly podcast (a bit of a trend amongst developers/publishers) aimed at giving the public a closer look at the world of game design. The first episode is out now and it focuses on the excess fat and plain old rotten bits that were cut from of some the developer’s highly regarded games. An incredibly interesting listen, it manages to prove that creating something great is as much about what you put in as it is what you leave out.
The Bad (which brought out the good in people)
Studios Raising Money for Aid
As if life wasn’t already hard enough in Haiti, but with a possible post-earthquake death toll of over 200,000 things are looking pretty grim. Thankfully the heathen masses in control of the videogame industry have more compassion, and a firmer grasp on reality, than certain self-appointed mouths of God. A bunch of iPhone developers under the moniker Indie Relief, Popcap, Bungie, and Zynga, are just a few that have gone out of their way to raise funds for the tragedy in Haiti, which is something even I find impossible to make jokes about. It seems that a lifetime of helping people in virtual worlds gives you some transferable skills. See, games are useful.
The Possibly Too Soon
New Chapter for Assassin’s Creed 2
Remember the time you went to that gig and it was so utterly amazing that you wanted to relive the night over and over again? And then you found out the band was playing the following day, so you turned up and forked out the same amount of cash that already seemed a little too much the first time around? But you knew this was going to be something special, because you revelled in the sheer rock bliss of the singer jumping into the audience, still screaming into the mic as if he’d forgotten to take his meds and proceeded to run out the front entrance, only to appear miraculously back on stage five minutes later still bathed in sweat and dancing around as if the strobes had set off his epilepsy? Only that night, after you turned up with that idiotic anticipatory grin on your face, they played the same songs in the same order with identical ‘spontaneous’ stage antics? And all you felt was deep ripped-offness?
Let’s hope that the newly announced 2010 non-sequel/extension to Ezio’s Assassin’s Creed 2 story doesn’t prove to be as much of a letdown.
