Behind The Scenes

Dead Space Devs Talk Story

Finally something about EA's horror sci-fi game Dead Space beyond simply telling us it is scary and in space. I've been worried about the game's story since I first heard about the title, but seeing the developers discuss the amount of work and detail they've put into the main character's back story alone makes me feel a great deal better about the whole thing. The most reassuring bit of all was their acknowledgment of that universal truth...sci-fi and horror work against each other, so you have to tone down one for the other to work. Alien did so well because it was a horror movie that made you forget you were in outer space. Jason X, on the other hand, failed because...well, because it was Jason X, but the point still stands.

8:00 PM on Tue May 6 2008
By Mike Fahey
1,776 views, 29 comments

Latest by Bernard McGraw: They talk about it like they've just invented the concept of a story in a videogame; but I'm still really looking forward to this. more »

behind the scenes

Iron Man: One Man Army

The star-studded behind the scenes Iron Man action continues as Sega gathers Stan "The Man" Lee, John Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., and a cast of thousands sing the praises of the upcoming game, due out at the end of this week. There really isn't all that much more they can say at this point. Stan likes it. John likes it. I myself am mildly fond of what I've seen so far, while awaiting having the full game in my hands before I pass any sort of final judgment. I think we've seen just about everything we're going to see before the movie and game come out, so now we wait. And play GTA IV.

11:20 AM on Mon Apr 28 2008
By Mike Fahey
2,772 views, 36 comments

Latest by ratix240sx: To those moaning about the controls: You sound like a bunch of causual gamers. At least try to learn the controls. more »

behind the scenes

Behind The Iron Man - The Armor

Personally I don't know why Sega and Secret Level keep putting these things out, seeing as we already posted the definitive Iron Man video on Friday, but at least this behind the scenes look at the making of the game deals with what we can probably all agree is the best-looking part of it - the armor itself. Having played the demo some 20 times more over the weekend after my initial impressions, I can say that I am a good bit excited by the potential of the title again. I think I could find a great deal of fun in upgrading the armors and customizing the suit to my liking. I would have liked some cosmetic customization, but that wasn't going to happen. The game is due out May 2nd with the movie, and with my birthday May 1st, I shall procure it as a present for myself. That way if it isn't as good as I hope it'll hurt that much more. Woot!

8:00 PM on Mon Apr 21 2008
By Mike Fahey
3,344 views, 16 comments

Latest by freespeech: @YUYU: LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! more »

behind the scenes

Age Of Conan's Fighting Is A Bloody Mess

I've gotten two things from this developer diary for Funcom's Age of Conan MMO. First off, it is open season on heads in AOC. If you have a head and plan on playing the game, I highly suggest you either reinforce it with a steel neckpiece of some sort, or perhaps pre-detach your head with some sort of velcro solution so it can easily be retrieved and reattached. Secondly, Funcom Senior System Designer Andrew Griffin has some amazing hair. You wouldn't think a guy with such great hair would have anything to do with all of this rampant decapitation, but there you go.

8:00 PM on Thu Mar 20 2008
By Mike Fahey
7,169 views, 37 comments

Latest by angrymob: I've played it. I was most underwhelmed. "Fast paced combat". If you mean pressing a button repeatedly then yeah, it really is a rollercoaster. It looks pretty but some of the models are fugly. Its going to flop and that more »

behind the scenes

Condemned 2 Voice-Over Sessions

As a guy who dreams of one day doing work in the field of voice acting, clips like this always tickle me to no end. The video shows voice actors doing their thing with the characters of Condemned 2: Bloodshot, the sequel to Sega's psychological horror game. In a way I suppose it ruins the mystery - you never would have figured MadTV's Phil Lamarr as the voice of LeRue - but then the truest test of voice work is having it blend with the action so well that you don't picture these people in your head as you play.

9:20 AM on Tue Mar 4 2008
By Mike Fahey
1,739 views, 42 comments

Latest by Nightsearch: @The_Rabbit: Or maybe Hermes in Futurama. You gotta love that man ... :D more »

behind the scenes

No Ass Monsters In Velvet Assassin

Replay Studios creative director and co-founder Sascha Jungnickel has some very important things to say about their upcoming stealth action game, the recently renamed Velvet Assassin. This game contains no ass monsters, or for that matter - tits monsters. While I am sure he mentions something about hiding in dynamic shadows or the atmospheric lighting, as soon as he drops the ass monster bomb the only thing I hear when watching this clip now is "Ass Monster, ass monster, ass monster." The two phrases shall henceforth be an important part of the Fahey vernacular. Thank you, Mr. Jungnickel.

9:40 AM on Mon Mar 3 2008
By Mike Fahey
3,924 views, 59 comments

Latest by armchairnixon: wishes he had Xbox Live...: Heh, Velvet Assmonster. more »

clips

More Alone In The Dark Tech In Action

The technology Eden Games has integrated into their forthcoming Alone in the Dark continues to impress the hell out of me. From their first installment of their Real World Rules video series, which showed how various objects can be intuitively combined to create weapons and gadgets, to this second episode, which highlights object manipulation on a somewhat larger scale. I particularly love the notion of a health spray that can be used to heal, blind enemies, or be combined with your lighter to create a flamethrower. It might be a long way from fighting undead pirates in a Victorian mansion, but this new AitD could wind up being something just as exciting as the original.

9:40 AM on Wed Feb 27 2008
By Mike Fahey
8,340 views, 90 comments

Latest by essko: can't wait! i love how it doesn't seem so scripted, maybe the first sandbox survival horror to actually live up to the name? the only thing that, like witzbold, i didn't like was that what looked like a regular pistol more »

behind the scenes

Turok - Awakening The Giants Part Four

Part four of Touchstone's five-part making of series Turok: Awakening The Giants is here, and finally they touch on the portion of the game I was most interested in - the voice actors. After a brief bit about level design, we get to see actors like Ron Perlman, Donnie Wahlberg, and Stargate's Christopher Judge take a turn at lending their pipes to to game's heroes and villains. I don't think I will ever get used to seeing Judge without that golden Goa'uld forehead dealie. They seem to have managed to wrangle up every actor with a deep, rumbly voice ever, so expect your bass to get a real workout once Turok launches next week.

11:20 AM on Wed Jan 30 2008
By Mike Fahey
2,574 views, 36 comments

Latest by Leatherneck89: THE HELL WITH YOU PEOPLE SAYING THIS GAME WILL FAIL I PLAYED TWO WORLDS NOTHING WILL EVER BE AS BAD AS THAT! o_O more »

behind the scenes

Turok - Awakening The Giants Part III

Touchstone's Turok making-of series Awakening the Giants continues this week with a look at creating the game's antagonists. The team at Propaganda lay out how the artificial intelligence was developed for both the savage, bloodthirsty dinosaurs and the cunning, strategically thinking human enemies. After a bit of speculation last week I dug around a little bit to discover that it is indeed Electric Playground's Victor Lucas - one of the nicest guys in the industry incidentally - narrating the series. Score one for my super-powered auditory senses! In case you missed them, be sure to catch Victor's VO performance in part one and part two of the series.

10:20 AM on Thu Jan 24 2008
By Mike Fahey
2,684 views, 26 comments

Latest by Mountaincool: This Turok Game has nothing to do with the old ones or the old series. more »

behind the scenes

Turok - Awakening The Giants Part Two

Touchstone and Propaganda games continue their very well-produced behind-the-scenes video series Awakening the Giants: The Making of Turok with part two, which explores the concept stages of the game. Witness early test concepts of the game, the creation of the concept art, and the work that went into giving the game a compelling storyline with deep characters rather than a series of checkpoints and firefights. Still trying to place the narrator's voice. Right now it kind of reminds me of Victor Lucas of Electric Playground and G4 fame, though I might be completely wrong. I'll be sure to find out before the next installment hits. You can check out part one of the series here.

9:40 AM on Thu Jan 17 2008
By Mike Fahey
2,953 views, 34 comments

Latest by --Core--: Liked the narrator's voice. more »

clips

Turok - Awakening The Giants Part One

Propaganda Games and Touchstone have just released part one of six of Awakening The Giants, which goes behind the scenes from concept to the final retail-ready version of Turok. In this first segment the developers grant insight into the reasoning and inspiration behind the resuscitation and re-imagining of the five-year dead franchise while giving a brief glimpse at what to expect as the series continues. It's a highly polished documentary complete with professional narration and background music, and you can tell a lot of work went into it. I'm still not sold on the game, but very nice video.

2:00 PM on Thu Jan 10 2008
By Mike Fahey
2,724 views, 70 comments

Latest by sherpatank: @seiryuu: Sure, let's look at the credits for Gears: [www.mobygames.com] ...oh wait. I count SEVENTY (70) people before any support staff, and then another 30+ contractors (not including any voice or mocap talent). Then there are another 50+ Microsoft support staff more »

clips

Hunting Prototype With The Blackwatch

Radical Entertainment's Prototype is shaping up to be a pretty grey game. Not color-wise mind you, but in the whole good-versus-evil sense. Are you the bad guy of the story? Certainly it isn't the mutants - they're just humans caught up in a viral infection. The regular military is just doing their best to keep the peace. Then there's the Blackwatch, detailed in this behind-the-scenes video clip. A shadowy organization familiar with the virus that causes the whole mess, they aren't above killing innocent civilians who "might" have come into contact with it. Is their motivation really the protection of the species, or are they just a bunch of psychopaths with too much power and too many resources at their disposal? Whatever the case, this is just the sort of detailed background story that gets me all hot and bothered over a video game. Keep it up!

9:20 AM on Wed Jan 9 2008
By Mike Fahey
3,280 views, 45 comments

Latest by youkillyou: This game is going to kick ass. These are the types of games that next-gen means. more »

clips

Making The Witcher - The Story

The second of five making of videos for Atari's PC RPG The Witcher focuses on the story behind the game, explaining some of the back story from the novel series, while at the same time completely spoiling the ending for anyone who hasn't read them yet. Not too big a loss, since the game picks up after the novels, which haven't even been released in North America yet. Hit up Game Trailers for parts 3 and 4 which focus on the art and gameplay respectively, while I continue playing the game itself.

11:00 AM on Thu Oct 25 2007
By Mike Fahey
645 views, 8 comments

Latest by Excalibur: @goddessakasha: What? There are 5 people above you who care about the game, and that's just the minimum! Think of the possibilities! Your inaccuracy makes mathematicians everywhere cry. more »

boom boom rocket

Bizarre Talks Boom Boom Fireworks

Boom Boom Rocket creators Bizarre Studios have posted their latest Studio Update, which delves into the creation of the fireworks used in the game. Stu explores the various types of explosive goodness you'll encounter in the game, which might be the only time you get to see them clearly considering how frantic keeping up with the button presses can be. More »

11:20 AM on Wed Apr 25 2007
By Mike Fahey
727 views, 9 comments

gdc07

GDC07 Party Time - Sam and Max

One of the biggest attractions of the Game Developers Conference for both the game companies and the gaming news media would have to be the parties. Despite many of us being misanthropic shut-ins most of the year, there's just something about the lure of free booze and finger foods that brings out the socialite inside all of us. Take me, for instance. Before starting to write for Kotaku I hadn't been what anyone could consider drunk for the better part of seven years. Now, thanks to the wonderful people at Telltale Games, I have a terrible headache and woke up on the bathroom floor of our hotel room this morning. I feel like crap, but I don't blame the creators of the Sam and Max episodic adventure game series. No, I blame ordering 'something blue', pictured to the right there. More »

8:40 AM on Tue Mar 6 2007
By Mike Fahey
3,898 views, 27 comments

Latest by Brad Dougherty: AMF....take three and call me in the morning. The ultimate cheap drunk. more »

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