Tag Archive

The Quest Journal: Mysteries of Westgate Interview

Written by Kieron Gillen on June 30, 2009.

We’ve written a little about the Neverwinter Nights 2 adventure pack the Mysteries of Westgate before. But not enough. We grasped the chance to talk to Ossian’s Ex-Bioware head man Alan Miranda about all things to do with the Mysteries of Westgate. Candid and expansive, he expounds about the long route from Darkness over Daggerford, the DRM situation which delayed Mysteries of Westgate’s release for getting on for well over a year, the problems of creating RPGs as a small team, their love for the genre and how audiences differ from country to country. And it all starts below…
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Valve On L4D2: “Trust Us A Little Bit”

Written by John Walker on June 4, 2009.

There has been, it seems, something of a fuss over the announcement from Valve that they’re releasing a sequel to Left 4 Dead this November. The main point of contention has been that many were expecting more new content to be added to the original game, rather than appearing in the form of a full price sequel. This was underlined when an article on VideoGamer was rediscovered in which Valve boss Gabe Newell stated, “So we’ll do the same thing with Left 4 Dead where we’ll have the initial release and then we’ll release more movies, more characters, more weapons, unlockables, achievements, because that’s the way you continue to grow a community over time.”

We spoke to Valve’s VP of marketing, Doug Lombardi, to ask him about the player response. He talks to us about the reasons why L4D2 is a full sequel, why gamers should wait to find out more about the game before making up their minds, and how there are definitely still plans for the original Left 4 Dead.

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Interview: Johan Andersson On Hearts Of Iron 3

Written by Tim Stone on May 31, 2009.

The best way to learn about Paradox’s rapidly approaching grand-strategy leviathan Hearts of Iron 3? Sit down with a gallon mug of tea and a family-size packet of custard creams and plough through the fascinating 30-part developer diary. If you’ve already done that, or don’t have the patience/dunkable biscuitry to take on such a task, try the following Q&A in which Lead Designer and Man of History Johan Andersson fields questions on subjects as diverse as HoI3, gulags, and HoI3.

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Natural Selection 2: Unknown Worlds Explain All

Written by Alec Meer on May 29, 2009.

Well, not all, but a healthy “some”. Mostly regarding that recent teaser trailer for the long delayed standalone sequel to the classic Half-Life mod, which delighted and confused in equal measure. I had a quick chat with Unknown World’s Game Director Charlie Cleveland about the most salient points raised by the trailer. Does the game really look that good? Is it really coming out this year? Which is best, daddy or chips?
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Quick Q&A: FrozenByte’s Lauri Hyvärinen

Written by Jim Rossignol on May 12, 2009.

In typically backward fashion, I managed to arrange a Q&A with FrozenByte’s Lauri Hyvärinen before I’d actually played their gorgeous platform game, Trine. Yeah, I’m a pro like that. Anyway, I’ve had a blast with our preview version of the game, as described here, and Hyvärinen makes things a bit clearer in his replies to my questions. He talks about the nature of non-essential co-op in the game, Crayon Physics, and the possibility of supporting “multiple mice and keyboards” for PC. Read on for more about this intriguing game, which looks like it belongs somewhere on the Venn diagram where Diablo, Lego Star Wars, and Crayon Physics overlap.

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Guild Wars 4th Birthday: Eric Flannum Interview

Written by Kieron Gillen on April 28, 2009.

It’s an anniversary. Four years today the original Guild Wars: Prophecy came out. Seeing this day approaching, we grabbed the chance to have a quick e-mail exchange with designer Eric Flannum about all that time and even let him include “®” symbols in his answers, as the birthday boy can do such things. We also resist trying to make Eric talk about Sacrifice, the other splendid game he was involved with, because this is Guild War’s special day and it’s hardly the time or the place. Questions and answers are found below in an instanced area below.
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Interview: Reakktor Talk Black Prophecy

Written by Jim Rossignol on April 24, 2009.

Having raised a collective eyebrow at the few glimpses of space MMO Black Prophecy that have emerged over the past few months, we thought it might be time to have a quick chat with Reakktor Media’s community manager Chris Schuett. Beyond the jump Schuett discusses the real-time combat nature of the game, and claims that player starships in the game could have “millions” of possible configurations.
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RPS BioShock 2 Interview

Written by John Walker on April 23, 2009.

Making a rare guest appearance on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Eurogamer’s Editor bossman Tom “Tom Bramwell” Bramwell was recently visiting 2K Marin, the developers behind BioShock 2, and interviewed lead environment designer Hogarth De La Plante and senior producer Melissa Miller to find out some more details about what we can expect from the enormously anticipated sequel. They discuss the role the ocean is going to play in the game, how Rapture has changed in the ten years since the original game, why defence is going to play as big a part as offence this time, and what it’s going to be like to be a Big Daddy.

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RPS Interview: Mafia II

Written by John Walker on April 22, 2009.

During my travels to deepest Czech Republic (look countries, can you pick names that work in grammatical sentences please?) I gathered you all the Mafia II information I could carry in my arms, providing what might well be the most detailed preview ever in the history of the universe. But I still wanted more. More! So I got hold of associate producer Alex Cox and had him answer all sorts of questions about the game. We find out about the choice behind the setting, the logic of a narrative game in a sandbox world, the background behind new player character Vito and why AI will play such an important role in the game. Read on.

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Interview: Tørnquist On The Secret World

Written by Jim Rossignol on April 22, 2009.

Funcom’s contemporary dark fantasy, The Secret World, is an MMO with a cliffhanger ending. So says its creator, Ragnar Tørnquist. In fact, it’s claims like this that make this one of the most significant MMOs currently in development. Hell, with CCP not having released any details at all for World Of Darkness, this is probably the most interesting forthcoming MMO we’re aware of. Anyway: braving the nightmarish audio confusion of my echoing speakerphone interview setup, Funcom’s project lead took some time out to talk about the game, with its conspiracy theories and modern mythologies, and his feelings about high heels. Of course I didn’t start by asking any relevant questions, and asked about Anarchy Online instead.

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