Jeremy Brayton

The 360 version of The Darkness is better than the PS3 version because everyone and their mom played Riddick for the Xbox so it makes perfect sense that the 360's version kicks an undisclosed amount of more ass.

Last-gen and next-gen in terms of developmental requirements are an order of a magnitude greater. We're talking 2-5x if not more. This means spending more money up front for a VERY RISKY pay off in the end. Gamers are probably the most picky types of people on the planet, so it's not like we're exactly helping matters.

Personally, I'd rather see them devote current-gen artists and designers but use more next-gen engine/AI/physics considering the same developers don't generally have to spend twice as much work to produce a high-res texture. The problem with this is people will whine about the PS2 look and no one would buy it, which would keep the developer at their current revenue. All it would take is ANY company producing one really good game to give them the revenue necessary to make a really kick-ass next-gen title. The problem is, we're asking them to do so without expanding their infrastructure and to be honest I have no doubt that's why many games are taking so long to complete.

Lastly the PS3 even with the Edge toolkit doesn't quite have something as open as XNA, so none of us without a devkit really know how difficult it is to create games. We assume the Wii is easier because of it's hardware limitation but that's most likely not true either. Because no one expects next-gen graphics with the Wii, it allows developers to focus more on the engine and less on the assets (which some say are more in cost). The nature of the PS3 and 360 demand next-gen or no one will buy those games and when you think about the install base, it makes more sense to go with the leader at this point. There's A LOT of money to lose out of the gate but I think once SE gets a title like FFXIII under their belt, they'll START changing their tune.

They're still pretty much on the money for any start-up dev shops out there. You don't have an XNA to guage how difficult it'd be to create just a simple game, so forking out that much money to "figure it out" isn't exactly smart business sense. Now if Sony were to release an XNA alternative in addition to pumping out more games, start-ups would actually be able to choose a platform without spending too much money up front figuring it all out. They could prototype their game in the framework and if it pans out, buy a devkit and produce it officially provided it doesn't take an entire rewrite to use the devkit versus the "free alternative".

Darkwing Duck? Screw that! Mrs. Beakley FTW

A making of DVD would be nice, perhaps something including how they used the Unreal Engine. A different box doesn't warrant a $10 hike if you compare it to something like Oblivion which included some maps, art book, making of DVD and the retarded coin. This isn't EA or Need for Speed: Carbon so I'd suspect it'd be a little more than what that included.

I think a more logical choice of where this came from is Shadow of Colossus. There is a point before the final boss where an emotional event takes place. I'll try not to spoil it but that event made me act like a little girl at first, heartbroken over a bunch of damn pixels. Then pain turned into rage which was ultimately carried out against the boss. The event is rectified later, but it somehow to this day still leaves me emotionally tied to it. Funny thing is, I rented the game and haven't played it since. I know I'd be called a wuss for saying this but anyone who's played the game through can't say it didn't affect them to some degree.

If Fable 2 can pull that level of emotional attachment off (entirely possible to go beyond that given Peter's vision) then it'll be awesome. I'm not a dog lover myself but it's not really about the species of the animal so much as it is about the deep emotional connection to the companion. I hope you can do interesting things to protect and/or hurt your companion. Kick it, slap it around like in Black and White, or completely destroy it and have it follow you as a ghost. Inversely I'd want to be able to protect it, carry it when wounded (as others mentioned), or if deeply emotionally attached I'd pull a Fable 1 and sacrifice NPCs to bring it back from the dead dark magic style. I'd even turn a 100% moral character into the most vile being in the Fable 2 universe to bring it back, given the right conditions. There were things I simply didn't do in Fable 1 because I didn't want a hint of being evil. Kotor and Kotor 2 followed the same formula. That would introduce choices that I normally don't make in those types of games, which is most likely a portion of Peter's intent.

Reload is most likely left button AND right thumbstick. I know left button works, I use it constantly.

I've been playing the demo ever since 7am the day it came out. I've been taking breaks but I find myself playing it at least once per day. Live co-op is nice in it's current state but you can see where things will fit in. You'll be able to invite friends, your stats will be clearly visible from the Join screen, it looks like you'll be able to just drop into any game. I assume you "live" in the host's sandbox when this happens so any bosses you've beaten will also show up.

As far as the playing time goes in the demo it's 30 minutes after a stat reaches level 2 or 30 minutes after you've been playing for 30 minutes (max time: 1 hour). I generally don't touch a boss until the 30 minute mark because I can beat the minions down to quickly gain stats up to level 4. I can see where this could get old quickly but there's always some obscure hidden orb I discover every play through.

My favorite moments are at strength level 4. Kick cars across the street or onto minions. Kick a minion into a wall, hear the resulting crunch and see the blood splatter on the wall around their head. Kick a minion (or the woman boss) off a roof, jump with him and spray bullets on the way down or throw a charge grenade and detonate it before they hit the ground.

I've gotten explosives up to lvl 2, driving to lvl 2, and firing to lvl 2. Your agent car morphs each level. I'm assuming the higher levels gives you the car with guns. I'm not quite sure if having firing or explosives at lvl 4 will give you the rocket launcher. Otherwise it would be missing from the demo which would really suck. Has anyone gotten explosives or firing to level 4 to confirm it isn't available?

Microsoft could provide a "service" in Vista that emulates Live. It checks the computer for known cheats, or simply doesn't allow the code produced from a cheat through. Remember that whole Live + Mobile + Vista integration thing? If MS required some version of the XNA bits or the XNA Professional (which will have the network code for Live stuff) then they could easily combat most cheats at the code level. They could do audits to see which cheats should be private or public. It sounds like a lot of work but automated testing could combat a lot of this.

Personally I welcome the mouse and keyboard. There are some games it will be better for but having the opportunity to prove you can own people just as bad on a joystick? Bring it on.

The time limit is actually two-fold. It starts either when anything reaches level 2 or you've been playing for 30 minutes. It's DAMN difficult to keep things under level 2 but if you balance everything out then it's doable. An hour to play is a lot better than 30min + whatever time it takes to get to level 2.

I loathe the time limit personally. It's solely based on the fact that you are boxed in and can only play a section of an island. Time complete access to all levels, not a sandbox that may or may not even be as big as the Saint's Row one. At least in SR there was a glitch that made things interesting. I guess I'll just have to be content with playing this over and over until the game hits in a month. It was originally planned to release October of last year and I was well interested then. Now the wait is torture :/.

The maps need to be rather huge. 16 person matches in Lost Planet often results in instant spawn kills because there's so many people confined to one area. 64 people on maps the size of Lost Planet would be unplayable. They'd have to have maps roughly 4x the size if not larger to make it actually fun to play. No sense in spawning and having a team of 8 people pouding your ass into the dirt constantly. That's not my idea of fun.

Here's some math on the limits:
Original memory card size: 64mb
Original XBLA size limit: 50mb
Difference: 14mb

New memory card size: 256mb
New XBLA size limit: 250mb
Difference: 6mb

You're given 14mb of the original card for your profile, saves, etc. With the new limits you're only given 6? Did they determine 14 was too much or something?

Personally I don't think there should be a size limit for Live games, though there should be pressure to keep it as slim as possible. From what I hear, MS is very good about helping developers trim things down a bit but I have no first hand knowledge. I'd like to eventually make a XBLA game but 50mb would have made a crappy game because I'm such a newb. At least with 250mb I can focus more on the core mechanics and add more value to the game itself instead of worrying about compressing textures, music, and other artifacts.