Category: Required Reading

The Wikipedia of Retro Games: Hardcore Gaming 101

Hardcore Gaming 101

Welcome to Did You See This Wednesday! As part of the GamerSushi Schedule, it is my duty to bring you cool stuff that you might have missed while you were looking at pictures of Grumpy Cat. And if you have any new ones, send them to me.

Today, we aren’t bringing you an article, we are showcasing an entire website, one that I have spent way too many hours on: Hardcore Gaming 101. HG101, as we like to call it, is a site devoted to educating people about retro games and also maybe getting them interested in something they might not even know about. The site is exhaustively well-researched, with tons of screenshots, artwork and information. I have described it as “The Wikipedia of Retro Games” and I think that is an accurate description. On top of that, it’s pretty hilarious to read as well. Just take a look at this description of why Edward from Final Fantasy IV would never work in a modern FF game: Continue reading The Wikipedia of Retro Games: Hardcore Gaming 101

Behind the Demise of Free Radical

free radical haze

One of the biggest stories in gaming over the last few years was the closing of Free Radical, the studio behind the TimeSplitter series, Second Sight, Haze and the oft-rumored Battlefront 3. The studio had a tumultuous time transitioning from the PS2 generation to this one, and their final game, Haze, received a pretty harsh critical reception.

Free Radical went silent after that, working away on Battlefront 3 for LucasArts. That game suffered through a turbulent development and was eventually canned by LucasArts. Screenshots and videos of Battlefront 3 keep coming out, and by all accounts it looked awesome. So what happened?

Eurogamer recently had an in-depth interview with Steve Ellis and David Doak, Free Radical’s two co-founders where they detail the journey of the studio all the way from splitting from Rare after GoldenEye to the problems with Haze’s development. It also explores the issues they had working with LucasArts on Battlefront 3. It’s only one side of the story, but given what the Free Radical guys say, they were hard pressed to find even a basic working relationship with the folks at LucasArts.

It’s a really good article, and I suggested you give it a read. It’s a bit lengthy but it gives a lot of background into the fall of one of the studios that gave us some of the best games of our youth. TimeSplitters is a franchise that I used to love back in the day and I remember being really disappointed by Haze when it came out. I didn’t play it, due to lack of funds at the time, but I wanted it to be a success. I just remember being really drawn in by the premise and the design of the main character.

What do you guys think of the article? Are you impressed that Free Radical lasted as long as they did? What do you think of their time with LucasArts? Go!

Source – Eurogamer

Required Reading: Designing Shadow of the Colossus

Shadow of the Colossus

Shadow of the Colossus is heralded as one of the greatest games of last generation, if not one of the greatest games of all time. That piece of information is of course nothing new to anybody here, or anybody that has played games, for that matter, but it’s still something that is understated due to the emotional impact that it had on so many. Part of what really made Shadow of the Colossus shine was its superior art design, which went above and beyond what many expected out of the PS2 hardware. It just goes to show that great art trumps a massive amount of polygons, and continues to be a stunning example of atmosphere and design to this day.

In some newly translated interviews with the creators found in the official guidebook to Shadow of the Colossus, Team Ico boss Fumito Ueda and the game’s artists discuss the creation of SotC’s world and the ideas behind its design. Both of these articles give a fascinating look into the minds of a truly remarkable video game, and what drove the decisions they made in development. Of particular note is a section where they talk about how the artists and the environmental guys had to work together to create the Colossi arenas, since the way the Colossi functioned hinged so tightly on the arenas themselves.

Anyway, it’s hard to do the damn things any kind of justice, but I know that so many of you are interested in game design. I’ve got a new kind of respect for Ueda after reading both of them. And this is also making me want to put in the Team Ico HD Collection in the worst possible way. So yeah, what are you guys waiting for? Go!

Source – Siliconera and Siliconera