Posts Tagged: Assassin’s Creed 2

Industry / News — No Comments
20
Jan 10

This is Week – Compassionate Gamers Edition

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. Continue reading →

Game Design / Industry — 7 Comments
2
Dec 09

The year of thirds

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If 2007 was the year of first person, then 2009 was the year of third person. A simple, and accurate equation, but it is more complex than all that.

With the exception of retro-fuelled nostalgia, the games industry can rarely be accused of looking backwards. From time to time we certainly hold up anointed examples of videogame craft and skill above others, and we regularly pine for a return to our first experiences with Mario, Zelda, and other aged icons.

But it is unusual to see analysis of trends or innovation outside of the gaming canon; even more unusual to look at a year’s worth of games once we’ve wiped our hands of them with obligatory Game of the Year awards. These awards are often contentious and fiercely debated at the time, but rarely do we concern ourselves with the trends of a particular year after we’ve handed out our pats-on-the-back and shown the world just how thoroughly up with it we’ve been in the last 365 days. We rarely even return to the games of years past: unless they’re in the canon, we probably won’t revisit them.

I’d therefore like to return to just two years ago: the year 2007. This, as it was easy to see at the time, was the year of first person. Continue reading →