Joystiq

Bungie talks Halo 3 downloadable content, in-game baseball

Ross Miller — 2007-09-13T12:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters

Yesterday, select members of the gaming press were invited to play a little bit of Halo 3 before its impending release. None of them can talk about their experience until September 23, but in the meantime Chris Remo of Shacknews sat down with Bungie content manager Frank O'Connor to discuss the State of the Developer.

Unsurprisingly, the team is already considering what downloadable content to add to the game. "For example," said O'Connor, "we already now see there will be a need for more smaller symmetrical maps ... I think [content packs] will be, if not more frequent, more predictible and smoother."

Also discussed was the map tweaking of Forge, where 23 hours prior to the interview, O'Connor reveals that testers created a baseball gametype with rocket launchers and gravity hammers. "They even got bases in," he said. If only The Sandlot used rocket launchers, then they'd never have been afraid of that ill-tempered dog. How about a game of Krikkit, anyone?

The super-secret Peter Jackson project was also briefly mentioned. All O'Connor would say is that it "continues on pace" and that Bungie producer Curtis Creamer and cinematics director CJ Cowan managed to crash a Warthog into a wall.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Rumor: Halo movie script leaked

Ross Miller — 2007-09-11T11:54:00+00:00

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters

A 128-page PDF file allegedly containing Alex Garland's original Halo film script has leaked onto the internet. Garland famously was paid $1 million to write up the first draft for the movie, although the script has since been rewritten by D.B. Weiss and John Olson (A History of Violence).

So is this really Garland's writing, or is it just well-written fan fiction? 1UP thinks it's legit, and provides a few sample pages of the ending (including the cliché post-credits sequel teaser) from the file. We haven't read the PDF, but the sample pages do thematically match what Latino Review wrote about Garland's draft back in November 2005.

Still, we're hesitant to call this real -- and, even if it is, the script is an early draft of a project at least twice-rewritten that may never go into production in the first place. Head over to 1UP to peruse a few selected pages from the alleged script.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Halo animated series squashed, transcription error to blame

Ross Miller — 2007-06-08T14:50:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters, Machinima

Bungie and Peter Jackson plan to work together on a Halo animated series once Halo 3 is done, revealed Microsoft Games Studios' Shane Kim in an interview with GameSpy. When asked what the developer is working on after Halo 3, Kim replied that "they have the collaboration with Peter Jackson on the animated series."

Update:

We regret to inform you that the Halo animated series which briefly flitted about in your imagination solely came about due to a transcription error. We spoke to GameSpy's editorial director, John Keefer, and confirmed that Shane Kim only labeled the upcoming project as an "interactive" series. GameSpy "regrets the error" and has now appended an editorial note to the article.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Jackson doing Halo film only if Blomkamp is director

Ross Miller — 2007-05-28T19:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters, Business

That ever-elusive Halo film may soon see the light of day, according to attached producer and Hobbit scholar Peter Jackson, but that he'll only do it if Neill Blomkamp stays on as director.

Jackson said in an interview with OnFilm that he believes movie studios 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures, who backed out of funding the movie, will have renewed interest spurred by the impending Halo 3 onslaught.

Speaking with Joystiq earlier this month, Bungie's Frank O'Connor said that Blomkamp, a relatively unknown director, was still attached to the project. "That was one of the rumors. It's a lot more complicated than that. But Neil Blomkamp is still working really closely with Peter Jackson," he said.

"We wouldn't want to do it with anybody else. It'll be Neill's call," said Jackson.

If Fox and Universal still don't interest, Microsoft should produce more than enough funding come September 25.

[Via Cinematical]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Peter Jackson working on episodic Halo content

James Ransom-Wiley — 2007-03-07T15:56:00+00:00

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Online, GDC

During the second annual "Blogger Breakfast," Microsoft's Shane Kim revealed that Peter Jackson's forthcoming Xbox 360 projects will be episodic. "Peter Jackson is developing two episodic series," said Kim, reconfirming, "the first is in the Halo universe." Both projects are still lingering in their early design phases, but Microsoft hopes they will eventually serve as models for other developers to follow.

When pried for more details about the as-yet-unnamed second series and release strategies for the content, Kim remained tight-lipped: "I may have said too much already." In reality Kim has added very little to what was already known. The lone revelation: (after all the talk) Microsoft is finally preparing to walk the 'episodic' walk. Good thing Jackson appears to be in shape -- it might be a long trek.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Aussies get 360 HD DVD March 29 for $249 AUD

Ross Miller — 2007-02-02T18:20:00+00:00

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360

In a short but sweet news post, Xbox Zone revealed new details on the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive it discovered from Xbox Australia. The most pertinent news is that Oz will get its chance to pick up the add-on peripheral on March 29 for $249 AUD, which translates to approximately the $200 price tag for the US edition.

The initial shipments of the drive will come with a Universal Remote Control (we presume he means the official Microsoft one) and a copy of King Kong on HD DVD. We're not going to pretend we can gauge the next-gen format market in Australia right now, so anyone hailing from the Land Down Under is more than welcome to contribute observations.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Bungie optimistic about Halo movie's future

James Ransom-Wiley — 2006-10-23T11:25:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Adventure, First Person Shooters

In response to news that Universal and Fox have pulled out of the Halo movie project, Bungie claims there's more to the story than has been reported. For now, Bungie is all "optimism, satisfaction and happiness for reasons [it] can't go into."

In its most recent weekly update, Bungie takes a stab at Universal and Fox, suggesting that the studios were too concerned with "the numbers" to be ideal partners. After all, Bungie reminds us that the Halo film is a delicate "creative process," implying that a reported $200 million budget, in the hands of a rookie director, is an investment worth making when Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, WETA, and Microsoft are on-board -- and, Bungie confirms, they are all still on-board and continuing with pre-production. Sounds like a deal to lure a new partner is already in the works.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Travelers ad imitating Katamari: just coincidence

Zack Stern — 2006-09-28T20:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Interviews, Business

We got in touch with Todd Riddle, Group Creative Director at Fallon about the current Travelers commercial that bears a striking resemblance to Katamari Damacy. The spot (high-quality version) in question shows a mass enveloping people, trees, and cars, as it bounces through San Francisco. Riddle said that there's no Katamari relation, but the spot is connected to Peter Jackson's special effects house.

Riddle has been in advertising for 20 years and has won of dozens of accolades including Cannes, Clio, and One Show awards. We asked him a few questions about games and the spot, titled "Snowball," via email.

What inspired the Travelers Snowball spot?

The creative team that created the ad decided to use the metaphor that life is dynamic and can sometimes snowball -- but if you have the proper insurance, you should be just fine. Often in advertising we'll present a detailed storyboard to a client. In this case, because the visual production would be so detailed, and we weren't exactly sure how we would be able to produce it -- so we presented a single "key frame" that was reminiscent of the old cartoons of characters rolling down a hill, snowballing with everything in their path, and told the client that if the bought the concept, we would find the best people in the world to execute it.

How did the production of the ad come together?

True to our promise, we found the best partners. We worked with Weta Digital Ltd., which is Peter Jackson's Academy Award-winning special effects company based in New Zealand, and a well known commercial director, Dante Ariola from MJZ (Los Angeles). The special effects were created by Weta, the same team that did King Kong (Universal Pictures) and the Lord of The Rings trilogy (New Line Cinema). For the in-camera scenes (meaning scenes that do not require computer graphics), we hired a five-person stunt crew and filmed them as they intertwined themselves intro a human ball and rolled themselves down the sidewalk in San Francisco, forming the base for the "snowball." It took over 12 weeks and 87 people to complete the computer graphics (CG) and post-production work.

Do you play games? Is the spot related to Katamari Damacy?

No. In fact it wasn't until recently that we had even heard of the game.

Have games inspired your other work?

Not personally yet, though I do think the gaming world is becoming much more mainstream as technology is more accessible, and I would imagine it will at some point. But I would add our interactive department created a website for Travelers -- which is part of this campaign called the "In-synch Challenge," which recently won the Most Influential Flash Site of The Year for 2006 at the Favourite Website Awards in conjunction with Adobe. It's worth checking out.

[See also: Real life Katamari in Travelers Insurance ad]

Permalink | Email this | Comments

X06 announcements crammed into a single post

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2006-09-28T19:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360

Microsoft's X06 event started off in a thunderous explosion of news, with pieces of informative debris raining down upon the unshielded denizens of the internet since yesterday. If you're feeling clueless or overwhelmed, allow us to subject you to a helpful hail of bullet points:

Peter Jackson reveals a new partnership with Microsoft Game Studios. The king of the rings and his newly established Wingnut Interactive studio will work on an original property for the Xbox 360, as well as an unnamed Halo title. One can only hope that the crappy-game-based-on-a-movie and the crappy-movie-based-on-a-game curses cancel each other out when it comes time to play Peter Jackson's Halo: The Game of the Movie of the Game.
A new RTS, Halo Wars, is unveiled. Set in a time before the first Halo, the real-time strategy game is being developed exclusively for the Xbox 360 by Ensemble Studios. Many confused pundits take the opportunity to point out that the Xbox 360 does not have a keyboard or a mouse.
Grand Theft Auto IV will have two "epic" downloadable episodes exclusively on Xbox 360. Rockstar and Take-Two promise that the new episodes will provide "hours" of new gameplay and will be available "just months" after the game's October 2007 release. The vague wording of the announcement fails to rule out the possibility that the PS3 could receive different downloadable episodes of its own.
The next Splinter Cell game is console-exclusive to the Xbox 360 -- meaning handhelds and the PC are still fair game. Fewer people are upset by this than those who realize Splinter Cell: Double Agent isn't available on anything yet.
Bioshock is exclusive to Xbox 360 and Windows when it releases "next Spring". The wording of the press release says nothing of the game should it release during any other season following Spring. Of course, nobody likes waiting ...
Project Gotham Racing 4 is coming. And the surprise hit gamers with all the force of a linen sheet flapping in the wind.
Rare is working on a new Banjo-Kazooie game. Presumably, players are still keen on collecting all the coins, apples, music notes, beans, feathers, diamonds, pearls, potions, rings, blocks, wrenches and / or yams mysteriously floating around the finely rendered landscape.
Marvel Universe Online is announced for the Xbox 360 and Windows Vista. It's being developed by the folks behind City of Heroes -- perhaps you remember Marvel suing them for creating tools that allowed people to venture online as, err, Marvel characters.
Doom and Sensible World of Soccer join the Xbox Live Arcade lineup. The classic first-person shooter was already available yesterday for 800 points ($10). The Amiga footie title has not been given a release date yet, though the press release insists on using the word "soon."
The Xbox 360 HD-DVD costs $199.99 in North America and €199.99/£129.99 in the UK, France and Germany. It arrives in mid-November and will include the Xbox 360's Universal Media Remote and the HD-DVD version of Peter Jackson's King Kong. And with that, the circle is complete.

Congrats, scavenger hunter, you've found the secret c o d e good for one free copy of B A N K S H O T B I L L I A R D S 2: PRF4Q W798V G7JX9 2RX2W VT94G (Contest ran on 12/30/2006. The code has been redeemed.)

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh to make new Halo game, original IP

Ross Miller — 2006-09-27T14:01:00+00:00

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters

Microsoft has confirmed that the Academy Award-winning duo Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) are set to create two "new interactive series" for Xbox 360 and XBLA. The first is a "collaborative effort with Bungie Studios to co-create the next great chapter in the Halo universe."

"It's not Halo 3," said Scott Henson, Director of the Game Development Group at Microsoft. "It's a brand new game based in the Halo IP. In a phone conversation with Joystiq, Henson disclosed that writing credits will be given to Jackson and Walsh. As for how the full-fledged game will fit within the continuity of the Halo universe among three installments, a real-time strategy game, and a film, Henson was tight-lipped. "It's going to remain a mystery," he said.

The second title will be an entirely new intellectual property -- "completely from scratch," Henson clarified -- created with the intention of "bringing new audiences into the captivating world of interactive entertainment." The game will be made in conjunction with Wingnut Interactive, a new studio created via a collaboration with Jackson/Walsh and Microsoft Games Studio.

"Fran is a really big gamer and really excited about telling stories through games," said Henson. "We haven't talked about any details and we will when we're ready." If the focus is mass appeal, then Jackson/Walsh -- who managed to make Hobbits cool -- are the best people to have at the helm.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Jackson talks about Halo film

Jennie Lees — 2006-09-18T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, First Person Shooters

Over at Ain't It Cool News, there's a lengthy interview with Peter Jackson, covering the director, script and visual effects for the upcoming Halo movie. Jackson's enthusiasm shines through, and it's clear he's aiming at something better than your average "video game movie":

It is original and new and has not been seen before on the screen. It's not Ridley Scott, it's not James Cameron, it's not what we've seen before, but it's something new and fresh and it's cool.

The interviewer suggests the concept of an "adult" Halo movie; fortunately, there's an older interview with director Neill Blomkamp to take your mind off the thought.

[Thanks, WebPimp]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Scrutinize Halo director's CV (with videos) [update 1]

Christopher Grant — 2006-08-09T20:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture

We know a lot of you probably had a sinking feeling in your stomach earlier today when you discovered the just announced director of the highly anticipated Halo movie, Neill Blomkamp, was some commercial director from South Africa of all places (apologies, Ludwig). But we remembered his short film about aliens struggling with integration in Johannesburg and thought the choice was really unique ... so we Googled him. We Googled the sh-t out of him.

We came up with his Wikipedia entry (already updated with the Halo info, natch), his IMDb entry, his music video videography, a Canadian effects company he works with, the production company he works for, and all manner of links in between. In so doing, we've assembled a pretty exhaustive selection of all videos available online that Mr. Blomkamp has created over the past couple years, including some short films, commercials, and music videos.

Notice any similarities? Yeah, the guy digs technology in a serious way: transforming Citroëns, third-world robocop androids, robotic crabs, and alien bodysuits packing some killer gravity-gun technology. We're all ready imagining Spartans and Covenant Elites duking it out in the sun-bleached streets of New Mombasa.

[Update: Added in Tempbot. Thanks for the link Youri Zoutman. Anyone else have any or know of any videos by Neill Blomkamp that we didn't post?]

Alive in Joburg

Tempbot

Yellow - Adidas ad

Alive With Technology - Citroën ad

Tetra Vaal

Evolution of Nike Air

Nike robot crabs

Gatorade Basketball commercial

Gatorade Volleyball commercial

Fluffy Star - Perfect

LiveonRelease - "Let's Go"

Bif Naked - "Tango Shoes"

Permalink | Email this | Comments

DB Weiss takes on Halo script [update 1]

Ross Miller — 2006-07-14T11:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters

Author D.B. Weiss, whose novel Lucky Wander Boy earned him some critical acclaim, recently spoke to GameSetWatch about the success of his book and his current project: the Halo movie script.

What about Alex Garland, who was reportedly paid $1 million for his screenplay? It is not rare for a studio to bring in another author to clean up and tweak a script, and that's our guess for what Weiss is currently doing. Weiss is also working on "an entirely new second draft" for the Lucky Wander Boy adaptation as well as tackling Ender's Game alongside David Benioff.

If nothing else (director, actors, production dates), at least the script is working out.

[via 1UP]

[update 1: In an e-mail exchange, Weiss told Joystiq that, while he can't say much, he is "doing a rewrite on the Garland script for Halo." Also, since a Joystiq commentor was curious about Ender's Game, Weiss said this: "Orson Scott Card wrote an Ender's Game script, as did Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, and myself."]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Joystiq Review: Peter Jackson's King Kong (Xbox 360)

Christopher Grant — 2006-01-26T17:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Nintendo GameCube, PC, Sony PlayStation 2, Reviews, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, First Person Shooters

After disappointment with EA's video game adaptations of his The Lord of the Rings films, director Peter Jackson sought famed game designer Michel Ancel (and his team at Ubisoft's Montpellier studios) to help him create a game for his latest movie, an adaptation of King Kong.

With (the verbosely titled) Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie, the two of them have created the rarest of things: an exceptional movie-based game. The finished product is unusually polished; the graphics, voicework, story, and gameplay have all been scripted into an elegant, if notably short, product.

Monkey Ape Business
King Kong puts you in the first-person perspective of Jack Driscoll as you traverse Skull Island. Your weapons are limited to a single gun at a time, or bones and spears you'll find littered throughout the island. There is no on-screen display telling you how many bullets you have left or what level your health is at. With the press of a button Jack will call out his ammo count, and if hit your screen will flash red until you recuperate. The simplicity of this system eliminates any interference between you and the game.

The game is divided into short chapters, each one a small exercise: finding Ann, saving Hayes, or defeating a T-Rex. While these stages are linear - don't expect to wander off the track and investigate Skull Island - they are thrilling. There is a palpable tension propelling you; with a massive T-Rex just behind you or an enormous chasm beneath you, the game excels at pushing you through it.

The few scenes where you play as Kong himself - er, yourself - are as different from Jack's scenes as Kong is from Jack. Playing as Jack, patience and wit help you survive. As Kong, you run, climb and swing with no chance of falling to your death. It too is straightforward and scripted, but manages to capture the size and strength of the massive ape. Playing as Kong during the final scenes in New York City offers a unique point of view both similar to the movie, but perhaps even surpassing it. The initial realization that you are controlling Kong, shackled on screen, is frightening. Breaking free from his bondage and rampaging across midtown Manhattan is thrilling, though fatalistic: you already know what happens, it is inevitable. Being on rails in this stage lends a certain poignancy to Kong's fate.

Perfect Dark Kong?
The games graphics are, for the most part, exceptional. The art direction of the entire game is superb, and is equally owed to both Ubisoft's expertise and Jackson's vision. The scale and detail of the environments, their inhabitants, and the lack of interface obstruction, creates a uniquely immersive experience. Curiously, the admission that the Xbox 360 port was tested solely on high definition monitors, resulting in an image that is often too dark on standard definition televisions, wasn't apparent to this gamer. If anything, many scenes were too dark on both high definition and standard definition screens, with no distinction between the two.

The game has also accrued a reputation for being especially loose with its gamerscore points. You can gather every single achievement the game offers, netting you a cool 1000 points, by doing nothing more than beating it straight through. Even more curious was the revelation there is indeed a second unlockable ending, attainable after completing the game once, and then again while scoring over a certain number of points; a bona fide achievement goal if ever there was one. Despite this obvious attraction, it's hard to recommend the Xbox 360 variant when, at $60, it offers little extra in exchange for that premium price. The title's online scoreboards are outside of the Xbox 360 Live service, and the graphics, while a notable improvement, lend little to the gameplay above and beyond their surface appeal.

Despite being linear and, at six to eight hours, exceedingly short, King Kong never feels simplified. It was designed, in part, for novice gamers, eager to play a polished, cinematic game without cumbersome controls and punishing difficulty. But gaming veterans will also find an elegant and thoughtfully designed game, owing as much to classic survival horror titles as it does to the movie it's based on.

Overall Rating: 8.5 out of 10

At $60, Kong is a very highly recommended rental, if for no other reason than to rack up all of those gamerscore points. But if you're interested in owning one of the best movie based games out there, either pick up a cheaper current-gen version, or wait for that price to come down.

(Update 1: Score has been amended to reflect Joystiq's grading scale using increments of 0.5)

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Making Kong: interview with designer Michel Ancel

Christopher Grant — 2006-01-03T15:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Nintendo GameCube, PC, Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox, Microsoft Xbox 360

Peter Jackson's decision to work with the lauded creator of the unsung (and hidden gem #2) Beyond Good and Evil has earned both men much praise. Ancel proved himself to be a strong, artistic collaborator, and Eurogamer's interview reveals an eloquent and articulate designer.

On developing Kong: "It would be presumptuous to say that our game is an example of a good adaptation. We took some decisions and some risks and sometimes it could have been dangerous. I think that this is the key to achieve successful adaptations."
On a (much requested) sequel to Beyond Good and Evil: "I'd love to, and it's always in my mind. One day maybe!"
On next-gen gaming: "To me, the right direction is interface and gameplay innovations. It will bring new players to the world of games, far more than incredible audio and visuals alone."
The highlight of the interview is Ancel's ruminations on the artistic merit of game design: "My feeling is that a game creator is building a situation in which the player is experiencing emotions. The creation of this 'emotional situation' is very complex. You know, there is a language in game design and a lot of people who don't know this language don't really understand what makes a good or a bad game."

Ancel can talk the talk and walk the walk; hopefully the success of the Kong adaptation will allow him the luxury of pursuing his own interests.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments