By Jim Rossignol on April 10th, 2008 at 9:39 am.
Looks like I am in a grumble-place this morning. What is up with the new Prototype website? Could it take any longer to get at actual information? Sheesh. Anyway, I’ve grabbed a bunch of the best screenshots and posted them after the jump. You can click on any of them, including the one above, for the high-res image.
Am I the only one who was confusing this with Dark Sector – I blame too many anger young emo dudes with mutant arms as main characters.
What’s wrong with playing a fat, balding, forty something who’s only super power is asthma? It worked for Eternal Darkness.
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Yes. There are too many power fantasies, not enough weakness fantasies.
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Exactly!
Imagine a game where you played a short, overweight, mortgage advisor from Tunbridge Wells who gets a puncture on the M4 that leads him into a magically world of overpriced mechanics, missed appointments and passive aggressive spouses. The final boss could be a mad scramble to get home in time for Top Gear
It could be the single most life affirming game of all time.
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Heh. I’m sure the young mutants, wizards and cyborgs on planet Awesome all get together and play rousing campaigns of Muggles: The Mundanity when time permits.
I like my escapism escape-y. Also, I like the look of this, but I really fear the hardware requirements.
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Conan, King of Cimmeria hulks despondently in front of his monitor, taking a gulp of mead from the skull of a long-dead foe…
“Just vahnce, I vish to play ein filing clerk mit der sensitivity to air-conditioning… Electronik Ahhts, vhy did you reject my pitch? ‘Der unprecedented relatability of zer lead, combined mit ein flexible open-realm format vill entice zer lucrative und underexploited female eighteen-to-sirty demograhphic’, I tell dem… Vill Wright lahfed at me… Lahfed! If I see ein ‘Sims Filing Clerk’ expahnsion rushed out in sird-quarter 2008, I vill return und slaughter EA like cattle…”
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The backlash against Assassin’s Creed for giving players a docile bartender to control was pretty disheartening. Especially considering he’s clearly got latent murder-powers.
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Dreamweb almost showed how weakness fantasy could work.
You were essentially a painful failure of a main character with no combat skills and eventual access to a bog standard handgun that would get you blown away if you used it in the wrong places. With several personalities disorders came a belief you ought to kill a collection of evil people to prevent the end of the world.
Which of course it does, and surprise, you were some form of kick ass demon slaying chosen one, but in some ways the game would have worked better if they didn’t and you were simply a nutter, revealed at the end to be suffering from a crazed delusion.
Depressing but memorable, it works in films, why not games?
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I want an open city game where all the other characters are living out GTA and I’m the only normal guy.
And I have to get to work.
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@Phil – I bought a copy of Dreamweb as a teen but couldn’t get the bugger working properly. The enclosed “diary” was tremendously atmospheric, though. Do you know if it’s possible to get the game running on a contemporary system / OS?
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@Shanucore, Not sure if it’ll run on XP etc. though if it doesn’t Dos Box normally comes in handy in these situations – try http://www.dosbox.com/
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I hope this game is as awesome as it sounds… I’d love to be able to run around with super-powers in a GTA-like way…. but the more I read about GTA IV, the more I fear for Prototype. Time will tell I suppose.
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I am Jacks entire lack of excitement for Prototype.
-wolfman
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Bad Flash promo sites? You say that as if there were another kind of Flash promo site.
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I noticed a lot of game developers comment on this site, so they can feel free to rip off this idea. Here goes:
Final-Fantasy style battle system, but instead of attacks and magic, you have conversational tactics and body language. A poorly-conducted conversation would end with your whole party getting knifed, and the “Game Over.”
Then again, I liked Republic: The Revolution.
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Damn it, I want to see video! More than any other game except Mirror’s Edge, this is a game where I want to see the action playing out for myself, rather than looking at a handful of screenshots and reading oh-so-cool-sounding explanations from lucky journalists.
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Shanucore: Runs great in Dosbox – with sound, which is at least half the reason I run it at all (pixelated kitties aside).
I think Prototype looks great but I wish it had more emphasis on garden maintenance or lawnmowing.
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Still feel a little squicky thinking about this game. It looks interesting in a Hulk-But-More-AWESOME way, but I can’t help but remember sicking up hearing one description of the bystander-killing action. This is like fighting my instincts, following the hype for this game.
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Excellent, thanks Phil & Terry – when I get my good kit up and running again I’ll look into it. :)
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