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New Saboteur trailer displays intolerable blimp cruelty
by Griffin McElroy 
{ Oct 21st 2009 at 12:30PM } 
Listen, Mr. Saboteur. We appreciate what you're going for here. Liberating France from Nazis is about as noble as goals get -- but your methods are questionable. Did you know that fewer than 100 zeppelins exist in the world today, placing them near the top of National Geographic's "Top 10 Most Endangered Means of Transportation" list? Well, it's true, and every time you buffet a blimp with a ballistic missile, that number dwindles even more.
Oh, don't try and deny it. We caught your latest act of blimp violence on camera, and placed it in the latest trailer for your self-titled video game, The Saboteur. We're fine with the street racing and the Nazi shooting -- but let's try to keep the rigid airship exploding to a minimum, okay?
Oh, don't try and deny it. We caught your latest act of blimp violence on camera, and placed it in the latest trailer for your self-titled video game, The Saboteur. We're fine with the street racing and the Nazi shooting -- but let's try to keep the rigid airship exploding to a minimum, okay?
Pre-order The Saboteur, get ... a knife
by Richard Mitchell { Oct 14th 2009 at 8:30AM } 
Also, just as a reminder, it's not a real knife. We're pretty sure EA learned its lesson since the last time.
[Via @PandemicStudios]
Interview: The Saboteur's Tom French & Chris Hunt
by Mike Schramm { Oct 1st 2009 at 6:29PM } 
The Saboteur has been catching eyes since its announcement way back in 2007 and now, with the game only a few months from release on December 8th, we got the chance to sit down with lead designer Tom French and art director Chris Hunt to discuss Nazis, their black-and-white recreation of the city of Paris, and killing the one while running around the other.
French did a quick presentation before our interview, where he told the story of William Grover-Williams – the racecar driver-turned-saboteur that the game's protagonist, Sean Devlin, is based on – as well as the cinematic influences on The Saboteur, from Raiders of the Lost Ark to The Third Man. Afterwards, we sat down with both designers to talk about why you'll find plenty of color, but no ghost guns (you'll see) or multiplayer in their upcoming game.
French did a quick presentation before our interview, where he told the story of William Grover-Williams – the racecar driver-turned-saboteur that the game's protagonist, Sean Devlin, is based on – as well as the cinematic influences on The Saboteur, from Raiders of the Lost Ark to The Third Man. Afterwards, we sat down with both designers to talk about why you'll find plenty of color, but no ghost guns (you'll see) or multiplayer in their upcoming game.
Hands-on: The Saboteur
by Mike Schramm { Oct 1st 2009 at 2:28PM }
Previewing a current build, I found that development has continued to progress. For one, you won't confuse The Saboteur with any other title this holiday season. The black-and-white landscape (part Casablanca, part Sin City; as lead designer Tom French describes it) is distinctive, with the "City of Lights" living up to its name and various splashes of Nazi-red creeping in among the buildings. The "look" of this game will definitely win some admirers, even if the gameplay doesn't end up quite as polished.
Gallery: Hands-on: The Saboteur
New The Saboteur media sneaks into view
by David Hinkle { Sep 21st 2009 at 5:20PM }
After checking out the above video, head into the gallery below for some new screens.
Gallery: The Saboteur (09.21.09)
The Saboteur visits brothels, explodes Nazis, has an accent
by Ben Gilbert { Aug 18th 2009 at 5:00PM }
Nothing says, "I'm Irish ... really!" like Flogging Molly. And that's exactly the music that EA's Pandemic Studios chose for the new gameplay trailer of The Saboteur you see above. Sure, we enjoyed the game when we checked it out at E3 2009, even though it still looked a bit undercooked at the time.
And yes, sneaking around WWII-era Paris as a rogue Irishman with a penchant for chaos does sound good to us. But if this music is any indication of the game's attitude, we're feeling a bit wary about it. There's only so much cliché one can take, folks.
Update: EA would like us to point out that the trailer above is "made for Germany" and thus" had to be softened for their guidelines." We're pretty sure that means more blood and actual Nazis when the game ships Stateside. Er, um, not in Germany at least.
Gallery: The Saboteur
Canceled Pandemic Wii title wanted to be 'The Next Big Thing'
by Ben Gilbert { Aug 1st 2009 at 11:30AM } 
Australian Gamer has apparently found footage of the Wii title -- said to still be owned by ex-Pandemic Australia employees -- to be called either "The Next Big Thing" or "No Limits Racing" (depending on your interpretation of the footage). The trailer (found after the break) teases a handful of pseudo-celebrity appearances, the ability to turn existing Miis into in-game characters, and show off your high scores on advertisements in friends' game environments.
EA confirmed to us yesterday that the Australian arm of Pandemic is closed, and said of the trailer, "On any given day, there are a lot of great game ideas under consideration at EA ... not all of them go all the way to market."
The Saboteur wreaking havoc on December 8
by Griffin McElroy { Jul 21st 2009 at 11:14AM } 
Finding it hard to get excited for all the wintertime Nazi brutalizing? Check out our preview from E3! Alternatively, just watch this trailer for Inglourious Basterds over and over again.
Hands-on: The Saboteur
by James Ransom-Wiley { Jun 8th 2009 at 4:59PM }
The entire world has been stripped of color, save for those blood-red symbols of Nazism and oppression. As Sean Devlin (inspired by the real Grand Prix star turned SOE special agent William Grover-Williams), I attempted to bring a little color -- what Pandemic calls "Will to Fight" -- back to Paris as I took on a demo mission to destroy a pesky BFG.
Gallery: The Saboteur
Saboteur trailer blurs the good bits but still so sexy
by Justin McElroy { May 29th 2009 at 11:59PM }
... We mean cool. Did we say erotic? No, no. Cool. That's what we meant.
Joystiq impressions: The Saboteur
by Kevin Kelly { May 8th 2009 at 12:00PM }
We spent some time with the game recently (and a slew of other EA titles -- keep your eyes open for further coverage over the next few weeks), and talked to lead designer Tom French, from Pandemic, who guided us through the streets of Paris. Check out the gallery of brand new screens below, and head past the break to read all about this innovative WWII title -- now with vintage racing cars!
Gallery: The Saboteur
Swine Flu-based games becoming an internet pandemic
by Griffin McElroy { May 6th 2009 at 12:15AM }
A GamePolitics article recently turned our attention to two new Flash-based titles based on every news outlet's current infatuation: Swine Flu. The first is noteworthy because it's actually pretty fun -- originally titled Sneeze but now going by the more timely moniker Stop Swine Flu, the game tasks you with spreading a disease among a crowded area by sneezing on as many folks as possible. Though the game was commissioned by uber-charity Wellcome Trust, it's caught a bit of flack from critics for awarding points for infecting toddlers. It's definitely worth checking out.
The other game is also noteworthy, but only because it doesn't make a freaking lick of sense. In Swine Flu: Hamdemic, players must slingshot infected pigs across the U.S. - Mexico border, using a six-shooter to keep said pork suspended in the air. Ah, yes. Of course. The origins of this potent malady have at long last been discovered.
Swine Flu worries? Ian Bogost's Killer Flu will make you feel better
by Ben Gilbert { May 4th 2009 at 7:15PM }
His timeliness is incredible, considering only a few months have passed and we've nearly got a pandemic on our hands with the Swine Flu. Okay, okay, we're exaggerating a bit. If anything, Bogost's game schools our panic-inclined brains to the relative difficulty a virus faces in becoming an actual threat. "The truth is, pandemic flus are rare and unusual strains that are far harder to spread than popular discourse might make it seem," Bogost says in a post about the game on Gamasutra. So hard, in fact, that we lost repeatedly in our attempts to infect a decent chunk of the virtual population. Do yourself a favor: check out Killer Flu and assuage your worries about the upcoming apocalypse. Besides, we all know it's going to be zombies that do us in. Come on now!
[Via GamePolitics]
Pandemic: The Saboteur announced too soon, EA acquisition bought 'more time'
by David Hinkle { Apr 24th 2009 at 2:55PM }
Click image to sneak into our gallery
It's hard to believe, but The Saboteur was announced around this time ... in 2007. Crazy, right? We can hardly believe it's been so long, and since it was announced, we really haven't had much to talk about. Thanks to Tom French of Pandemic, we now know it's because the game was revealed too soon. Sabotaging The Saboteur, amirite?In speaking with VG247, Pandemic's Tom French said the game is pretty ambitious and that the title was just revealed too soon. At the point where it was announced, most of the title was still on paper, with only a "small section of the world even built." Then, EA acquired Pandemic, which French said really helped The Saboteur out, allowing the team working on it to grow through inheriting people from other projects (he cites folks coming on board from Mercenaries, for example). French said the additions to The Saboteur team have helped "refine all those little details that we've been talking about but nobody had time to touch."
Gallery: The Saboteur
Pandemic finds The Saboteur, launches official site
by Randy Nelson { Apr 2nd 2009 at 2:45AM }
Announced sometime around the end of WWII itself, The Saboteur has managed to survive EA Pandemic's recent shake-up and is on track for 2009 release on 360 and PS3. We never really saw much of the game to begin with, so comparisons between how it looks now and did back then are difficult to draw. According to info on the newly launched official site, though, the core gameplay is still very much same as it ever was.
By that, we mean the "Will to Fight" mechanic, where more Parisians will join the player's fight against the Nazis as the city is gradually liberated. The site also makes a bullet-point out of the fact the game is the first to feature an open-world recreation of Paris. Hmm, we'll go with the former as the more exciting of the two "features." Unfortunately, all of the site's screenshots are tragically small and low-quality. Sabotage perhaps?
By that, we mean the "Will to Fight" mechanic, where more Parisians will join the player's fight against the Nazis as the city is gradually liberated. The site also makes a bullet-point out of the fact the game is the first to feature an open-world recreation of Paris. Hmm, we'll go with the former as the more exciting of the two "features." Unfortunately, all of the site's screenshots are tragically small and low-quality. Sabotage perhaps?
