The full video is at the bottom of this post.

A very nice German friend of mind and budding contender with Adam Dork for Loveliest Man Alive has recorded, synced and uploaded the interview with and discussion between Jason Rohrer and Chris Crawford. It even has German subtitles so you can learn how to send poorly structured angry emails to the German government at the same time. Practical and exciting!

The interview is an hour and takes a while to download, and it may take a while to kick in if tonnes of people are trying to download it at once. The site is also kinda slow, so click once and be patient. I highly recommend you take a look. Download it here.

Edit: Don't be surprised if this gets taken down soon.

What the fuck is this? I’ll tell you. It’s a thing where I trawl IMDB with the intent to link two games together via their themes, names, cast and crew. It’s not meant to be short or direct, it’s designed to be exploratory; discovering weird shit you didn’t know about. I recommend doing this passively, in your own time. There’s a lot to be discovered.



Sherman Howard worked on Jade Empire, having also worked on a ridiculous number of sequels including Jak and Daxter 2, Devil May Cry 2, Summoner 2 and Red Alert 2. In Red Faction 2, he played the role of chancelor Sopot - the charismatic and well scripted Stalin-esque villain of the game. Quite a number of celebrity voices were used in Red Faction 2, such as Lance Henriksen and Jason Statham, but one actor stands out among the Imdb listings as being the only one without a portrait photo - David Thomas.

This is probably because he seems to exclusively do game voiceovers. His library of work is broad, covering many familiar games in many different genres. Chaos Legion, Enter the Matrix, Gabriel Knight 3 and a Might and Magic game, as well as having worked in other big franchises such as Metal Gear Solid and Diablo II. He also played the lead voice in Freedom Fighters, the first game by IO Interactive that wasn't a Hitman game.

Nicolas Worth played a Colonel in Freedom Fighters, similar to his role as Premier Alexander Romanov in Red Alert 2. He was a charming and charismatic character in the Red Alert universe, however, this was his last acting role as he died in May of 2007. This is why he was tactfully omitted from Red Alert 3.



Udo Kier who plays Yuri, has been in a few recent films, the most relevant to us being Uwe Boll's Bloodrayne and Far Cry films. Incidentally, a name that jumped out at me while browsing the Far Cry game was Robert Burns, who it turns out, played the same character. He also played the excellent role of Pey'j in Beyond Good and Evil, alongside Jodie Forrest and David Gasman. This duo has quite a few common productions; XIII, Rayman, Fahrenheit, Syberia II, Dark Earth and a cartoon series called Code Lyoko. But as you starts to explore this space, it becomes apparent that many of these actors are recycled from one production to the next. Sharon Mann, Allan Wenger, Matthew Géczy, Christian Erickson, Barbara Scaff and Paul Bandey are all also seen in many of the same games and shows.

One for example, is Dark Messiah, which I refuse to afix "of Might and Magic" to because it fuck all to do with that franchise, except the abysmal voice acting. It is a feat how they managed to be completely faithless to the source material except in what is possibly the blandest, weakest area of the game. Speaking of sequels that aren't, Far Cry 2 is notable for its long list of voices, none of whom are credited for individual roles. So let's just pick one at random. Don Jordan. The last video game he worked on, prior to Far Cry 2 was Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

Dwight Schultz provided voice for Double Agent, but using him is like a goddamn wild card. He has done voice for so many games that you can pretty much just pick and choose as you wish. He voiced Paulie in The Darkness, and The Darkness itself was voiced by Mike Patton. He seems to specialise in growly, sinister sounds, which explains why he did the Anger Sphere in Portal, and also contributed to the sounds of the Infected in Left 4 Dead.



So, here is the final and complete list of links:
1. Jade Empire
2. Sherman Howard
3. Red Faction II
4. David Thomas
5. Freedom Fighters
6. Nicholas Worth
7. Red Alert II
8. Udo Kier
9. Far Cry
10. Robert Burns
11. Beyond Good and Evil
12. David Gasman
13. Fahrenheit
14. Any of those people
15. Dark Messiah of Fuck All Y’all
16. Far Cry 2
17. Don Jordan
18. Splinter Cell: Double Agent
19. Dwight Schultz
20. The Darkness
21. Mike Patton
22. Left 4 Dead

Random facts from this list:
- Someone called “Luc Berand” provided voice for BG&E.
- Mike Patton is doing voice for that awesome looking Edge of Twilight game.
- Tyrone Benskin was listed under Far Cry 2. He was the Persian emissary in 300.
- Michael Ironside (Sam Fisher) was also in Tiberium Wars, and Joseph Kucan (Kane) directed the Red Alert series of cinematics.
- David Gasman played both Lucas and Tyler in Fahrenheit.
- Many of the actors in this list are somehow associated with something called Largo Winch, whatever that is.
- I nearly met Udo Kier once. I just couldn't bring myself to walk the 100 metres from where I was to where he was like a shameless fanboy.



I like Left 4 Dead.

read more

It would be naive to assume that this is in-game footage. Aside from the obviously scripted camera, the animation looks a little too smooth, the physics a tad too realistic and the vistas a bit too gorgeous. But scripted events can still be rendered in-engine; they don’t necessarily require a ray tracer. In this complete waste-of-time blog, I hope to provide support for the theory that this footage could be in engine after all.

1. Shaders


Using a raytracer method of shading, you will always have a perfect, flawless finish, unless the raytracer in question is shit. With that in mind, take a look at the screenshot above. Note the bread-knife serrated edge of that shader, something that you would not find in any pre-rendered cinematic, but is highly likely to be found in the typical pixel shader of any recent release you care to mention.

2. Shadows

It isn’t very clear as a screenshot, so if you want, look at this moment during the trailer. The shadow against the wall is somewhat odd for a video game engine, wouldn’t you say? It seems to be a radiosity shadow, something thus far unique to pre-rendered CG, more or less anyway. However, if you look at detail, you’ll notice that it is, in fact, just one silhouette shadow multiplied a few times, which if I might observe, is fucking clever. Though this may subconsciously contribute to your belief that this is pre-rendered, it is entirely possible in a real-time engine.

3. Assets


The plant in this picture is a bit jaggy. Look, shut up for a second. Pre-rendered trailers don’t use low poly objects - so this is likely an in game asset. Occasionally, pre-rendered trailers will use in game objects and meshes, such as the Left 4 Dead opening scene, but these rare. You can count on something external from the game engine to look far more defined.

4. Look to the ubidays trailer


The trailer at Ubidays was revealed by Ubisoft to be entirely in-engine. There is a similar style and graphical prowess between the footage we saw over a year ago and the video leaked yesterday. Also, notice the presence of all the things I mentioned above in the debut trailer, the shading techniques and the very noticeable vertices in certain areas. I even remember a similar debate over this back then, before we knew that it was in engine.

5. You wouldn’t question it otherwise


If this was CG, you’d know it. Developers spending the money on CG want to make the most out of it; they will make it look far more cinematic and complex. Rendered trailers are approached from an entirely different angle because of their vastly broader potential.

All I'm trying to do here is put across the possibilities and the evidence so that you don't feel quite so stupid when it turns out you were wrong. It will probably turn out that it is pre-rendered and this entire post will have been complete and utter bullshit. At which point, I, as well as everyone else who tried to legitimately defend it, will look like unintelligible reactionary husks and any of us with a sense of dignity will be forced to commit sepuku to get over it. Or possibly just humbly admit fault, but you never know with the kind of psychos that comprise the BG&E fan community.

I kinda feel a little self conscious writing this because it seems a bit self-referential, but whatever. I knew the question would come out wrong on Podtoid, so allow me to clarify. The question I asked boiled down to:
When or how will there be a videogame equivalent of The Godfather?

I wasn't trying to make a point about meaningful story. What I was trying to say is that developers aren't really gearing games towards adults. They're making them for kids or teens. You can see a world of difference between the audiences that go to see films like Power Rangers and Hotel Rwanda. Compare Halo to Half Life 2 however, and there's no immediate difference between the intended audiences of each game. Adults can still enjoy games made or marketed for/at kids, that’s one of the many strengths of the medium. The problem is that the divide between a kiddie experience and a real iconic mature game is almost negligible. I’m sorry to make the comparison; I really am, because I don’t think games should be “like films”. I’m trying to highlight a possible problem that might have gone unnoticed. We all talk about story and meaning and immersion in games, but I think real mature intellect is something that is mostly overlooked.

Beyond Good & Evil, my personal Best Game Evar is a gaming masterpiece in terms of cinematic quality, but there is no doubting that the story is childishly simple. Mass Effect has an excellent complexity in its characters, scripting such varied emotions such as self doubt, assertiveness, apathy, excitement, discomfort, playfulness, hopelessness, distaste and unease, but it all goes to waste on the senseless and clichéd ending. Even Bioshock had a forgettable, almost cowardly ending, like the developers wimped out of making a powerful or memorable point because it would alienate everyone but the 3 non-teens for whom the game was marketed at.

I could have chosen any number of varied films for comparison, but my example was The Godfather. At the risk of sounding like a pretentious bastard, here’s why. This is the opening scene of The Godfather Part II:



This scene shows the funeral procession for the murdered father of Vito Andolini, the boy who would grow up to become The Godfather; Vito Corleone. What should be a solemn and peaceful scene is interrupted but a gunshot. The eldest son (the brother of Vito) is murdered there and then to prevent him from taking revenge. The petrified mother, who has already lost two of the most important people in her life, begs the Don of the local town to not murder her youngest son. He kills her.

Years later and after much character development, Vito returns to this place to get his revenge, to get the revenge that the audience wants him to have. But after all this time, Don Ciccio is an old man - senile, barely capable of hearing, let alone responding to the bewildering queries of foreign men. He barely remembers the man who is going to kill him. It almost feels like cheating.



This is the kind of maturity I would like to see, not just in video game story writing, but in overall design. I want to see a game that doesn’t play like a baby toy, a game that isn’t designed with a teen demographic in mind - in other words, a game that could make me feel all smart because a teenager wouldn’t get it.

But then again, I am only 20. And a pretentious git. Maybe I should go to bed.

Last time I said that Shit be unreal. Right now, Shit be dipping its toe in the waters of real, wearing gold plated armbands of respect and wearing jewel encrusted goggles of some other hip-hop term I’m not down with. Simply, this one is better than the last one, but not as good as the next one.

Computer and Video Games is up next. From issue #198, May ’98, they write:
“Apparently, Sony wants to make the Playstation 2 more than a mere games machine and reports suggest that the PS2 team are working with Microsoft’s Web TV developers to add Internet brosing capabilities to the console.”
What’s more, I hear that it can play NES cartridges and circumvent the issue of accelerating to light speed. It can even read future formats, foreseeing the technology that is yet to come and assimilating it into the console’s library, such as the interstellar spaceman format known only as “Bluu Rai”.



Actually, that last one is bollocks. But to its credit, the article does back up its rumour with evidence, going on to mention something about the then-unannounced Emtion engine and Ken Kutaragi’s intentions for the console, so the article isn’t just speculative drivel. Unfortunately, it’s all for bollocks when you look to the left and see a mock up of the GBC, apparently capable of playing Banjo Kazooie.

Journalism!