While we're certain that Blizzard is enjoying the 10 million or so World of Warcraft subscribers forking over $13 to $15 each month in fees, it would be interesting to peek into the alternate universe where WoW was funded by ads.

While we're on subscriptions, Pardo said that one of the reasons behind MMOs failing to take off on consoles is the bite that console makers want to take out. In addition to a "lack of hard drive space, and difficulty in certifying patches" taking a percentage off the top is, literally, laughable to Pardo. Many more Pardo-isms at the full report.

Paris GDC: The Rob Pardo Experience [Gamasutra]

Valve Publications [Valve via GameSetWatch]

We're proud of the mature plots that we build into our games. They're really appropriate for the type of story we're trying to convey. And romance is part of that. It's part of life. It's part of an interaction — a healthy relationship with other people.

Bioware Talks Video Game Romance In The Post-'SeXbox' Era [MTV Multiplayer]

The group covers a variety of topics, including the responsibility of a game journalist, the role of the reporter versus that of a critic, the impact that the emerging casual game market is having on game journalism, and one question from an anonymous contributor about the pay structure of gaming sites. One of the most interesting discussions, though, surrounded the influence giving a score to a game has on not only the game, but whether people will read the article:

"I hate game scores," Crecente said. He cited a film reviewer's quote that if you put a letter or score on a review, no one will actually read it. Keighley agreed that the score-driven culture bothers him because the industry views the score as "objective." "You never hear someone say [that] about a music album," he noted.

On the other hand, I'd think that the game score means a lot to the game industry, since that number (or letter, thanks to 1UP) may be what makes or breaks someone's interest in the game. Those scores are also a factor for advertisers when looking around at what games and publishers to support. Having that score could potentially be what gives other games from a publisher or franchise a future. The rest of the discussion is definitely worth taking a look at.

Best of GDC: The Game Industry Confronts The Press [Gamasutra]

Crook points out some growth challenges to free to play, though he notes these are definitely not deal-breakers for the business model. First, there are virtual property challenges. "At some point that's going to be decided by the courts. Hopefully we're out ahead of it," Crook said, pointing out Eric Bethke's forward-thinking endeavor to create an avatar bill of rights. Second, there are differing broadband speeds. And rising development costs will become an issue now with the advent of Electronic Arts' highly-polished Battlefield Heroes. Larger-scale F2P products are going to raise the quality bar, Crook says.

The talk clocks in at a little over half an hour, but if you're interested in the free to play model, it's definitely worth taking a look at.

The Slidecast from my F2P GDC Presentation [Free To Play]
Adrian Crook Talks Free To Play [Worlds In Motion]

But the entry in the series that Street Fighter IV is largely modeled after, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, was the one that I actually spent the least amount of time with.

Regardless of my familiarity with that entry, jumping into a game of IV was like riding a bike. Sure, the bike was being kicked at by those already more experienced with the newest Street Fighter, and I was saddled with Crimson Viper for my first taste—she's overpowered at this point if I can take take on serious players while reading her move set from the cabinet—but much of the timing felt comfortably familiar.

And while timing, move sets and character rosters may have shifted considerably over the past seventeen years—each properly numbered sequel has its own inherent "feel"—there was much about Street Fighter IV that appealed to the gameplay nostalgic within.

It's hard when seeing Street Fighter IV in person for the first time not be wowed by what proper 3D could do for the series. Seeing Dhalsim, my default, with realistically rubbery extremities helped put aside my 2D purist moaning. Capcom's smart camera work for some of the game's more dramatic moves—say a Final Atomic Buster from Zangief or Houyoku Sen from Chun-Li—add a level of reward for pulling off a successful "ultra move."

The 3D engine adds some lovely effects to many of the characters super moves. Chun-Li's jellyfish-like projectile, for example, looks, well, even more jellyfish-like in three dimensions. Gorgeous lighting effects from Viper's electric attacks cast spooky blue light upon herself and her opponents. Dhalsim's fireballs, however, look wispy and meek.

As I find myself playing more Street Fighter III: Third Strike than anything else in the series these days, it was harder to adjust to the newer, more offense oriented play style. But coming to grips with a lack of parries and adjusting to the new Revenge moves, which add an exciting layer of strategy to IV, I found myself almost dreading going back to III's rules.

One thing I did like about Street Fighter III was its wacky cast of characters, regardless of how clunky characters like Q or flat out bizarre fighters like Twelve turned out to be. But that doesn't mean I'm not a fan of the meat and potatoes offerings on hand for IV. I hope Ono and crew do look beyond the second game in the series for inspiration. Whatever happened to Geki, anyway? And can we get a decent version of Poison to play around with?

I can understand producer Yoshinori Ono's wishes to bring Street Fighter back to the masses after the dwindling appeal of Street Fighter III. As someone who could never compete on a competitive Third Strike level, my best fighting game years well behind me, I appreciate what Capcom is trying to do with IV. It appears to have a welcoming surface, full of big, bright, memorable characters with an impressive depth for hardcore veterans.

My hands-on time with Street Fighter IV, painfully brief as it may have been, certainly made the wait for the console versions that much more distressing. It may not have been exactly what I wanted, as far as a jump from Street Fighter III, but it turns out I may have been wanting the wrong thing. This is a solid fighter, one that I'll be keeping even closer tabs on than before.

"You can roll this around a map and it's like this clean blank canvas for combat," he said. "When it's driving around it works as a mobile forward spawn point and when you spawn into it you get additional equipment."

Jobe said the APC will also be able to deploy a piece of equipment that is "like the mother of all bubble shields" and is a couple of hundred feet wide.

Enemies won't be able to shoot into it but allies will be able to shoot out and when a Warhawk gets too close to it it came become unstable and explode.

While the APC won't have a weapon of its own it does have a turbo boost, Jobe said, which can turn the entire vehicle into a giant missile of sorts.

"I've had kills before where I've launched through a Warhawk in an APC," he said.

The booster pack will come with a new battlefield which has ten layouts and it will also include new layouts for existing maps.

While Jobe was hesitant to peg a specific date, because the pack is still being play tested, he did say that he hopes to get it out by the end of next month of the first half of April.

While Operation Broken Mirror won't come with new gameplay modes, Jobe said they are talking about creating some and if they do come they will likely be released as free patches.

"I'd hope we would add new game modes, game modes are things I don't think gamers should have to pay for," he said.

I also asked Jobe about the possibility of a single-player campaign being released for Warhawk, which was once meant to include single-player play, either as an expansion pack or episodic content.

"We made a conscious strategic decision to go multiplayer only, If we were to go single player we would probably address it in another product," he said. "As a player I don't know if I would want to play single player through episodic content. I'd be hesitant."

Jobe added that Incognito isn't just 100 percent Warhawk nowadays either.

"Right now we are working on some exciting things," he said. "But we can't make any announcements."

My experience with Street Fighter 2 CE was born entirely in my time first hanging out at arcades and then running one in the 90s in Maryland. I loved the game so much that my time spent playing it is what likely lead to me being fired from the job. I slathered more attention on our big-screen SF2 box than I did every other machine in the place, combined. I regularly replaced the cherry switches and springs on a weekly basis.

But I couldn't have told you who the game's producer was, what sort of lore was buried in the creating of such an indelible franchise or how they came about with the idea of the characters in the game.

That being said, read on.

The first thing I noticed when I saw the game, was the 2.5D effect of the graphics. Described on paper, it sounds immensely off-putting, but in action it manages to pull Street Fighter into the modern age without sullying the gameplay at all. This is done by essentially making both the background and characters 3D but forcing the characters to move on a 2D plane. What you're left with is the best of both worlds.

More importantly, the game's look seems to have returned to its origins. Sure the graphics pop, really pop, but they're very reminiscent of II and not as SNKey as I felt Street Fighter III had become. I know, blaspheme.

While the controls haven't entirely returned to the grandeur of Street Fighter II, they have mostly returned. The same can be said of the attacks. Sure you have to still use two buttons to throw (so annoying) and taunt (so unnecessary) and there are revenge, super and ultra moves, but at it's heart this is a game that strips away the unessentials and returns to what made the Street Fighter franchise so addictive: Timing.

This isn't just my opinion. When I spoke with producer Yoshinori Ono he said that there was a concerted effort to refocus the franchise with this title. Street Fighter had become too filled with moves and had lost its way, he essentially said. What the game was always about was timing, much like real martial arts, not flashy moves.

Playing the game, after years spent ignoring the increasingly annoying character-driven Street Fighter III spin-offs, was like returning to a childhood home to find that it was, in fact, larger, not smaller than you had remembered it.

The game's timing, which plays at about the speed of Street Fighter II Turbo, has been tweaked, deliberately, and I believe the hit boxes (which invisible surround the characters) shrunk, but that just gives me an excuse to relearn the game. There also seems to be a slightly longer delay after pulling off a move, or whiffing one.

In fact, I can honestly say that the only thing about this early build of Street Fighter IV that disappoints me, so far, is that it probably won't be showing up in arcades across America and that's because there aren't arcades across America anymore.

Not only is this the first developer-powered award show to make it to mainstream television, but everyone who attended was entertained by some extremely funny acceptance speeches. Tune in and enjoy.

G4 To Show Game Developers Choice Awards Tonight [Gamasutra]

Jamil Moledina, executive director of the GDC, also issued the obligatory "we're oh so happy about it" quote:

"Every year, the GDC's goal is to deliver tailored learning and networking opportunities for the diverse groups of people who make games... This year's conference not only exceeded our historical attendance record, but also surpassed expectations in terms of content quality and deal-making productivity."

GDC 2008 Breaks Attendance Record with Over 18K [Game Daily]

Disclaimer: these impressions are eyes-on only. No one at the GDC EA event from which this write-up stems had the chance to play.

You launch the game through the website. a big button on the front and center of the page. You go through a series of screens to select your character and join a game, and you're in. Why is this moment so exciting? The start of the game is also the end of all advertising. That's right, in Battlefield Heroes, despite EA drawing their profits from advertisements, players will not be subjected to dynamic in-game billboards destroying the mis en scene.

As for the combat, it's sort of like Battlefield Light. Players choose between 3 classes (soldier, heavier gunman and spy) and let it rip from there. The third-person gameplay is a cross between capture the flag and team deathmatch. Each team races for 50 kills, but capturing a flag gives the successful team a score modifier that will affect the fragcount (meaning a 2x modifier will give your team two kills for the price of one).

The level we saw tested featured both tanks and planes. The tank was designed to be easy to drive, with each mortar round exploding light a classic Adam West punch. The plane looked just as easy to operate, with the fun option of dive bombing a teammate to give them a seat on your wing. (Note: the pilot can also leave his seat to sit on the opposite wing, in which case the plane will land softly on the pillow-like ground). Yeah, this ain't realism.

Then there's the power-up system. On top of your base skill set, you'll occasionally have access to more powerful techniques. Do things like see through walls or replenish health. It's a balancing system for casual players, and it's one part of the game that actually reminds us more of Shadowrun (R.I.P) than Team Fortress 2.

So are we pumped? Not really. Don't get us wrong, for a free web game Heroes looks great. But for those used to online multiplayer fragfests, Heroes' simple (read: rudimentary) mechanics will grow dull quickly. It's hard to see in the promo clip above, but there's something about the physics and general interface that just feels a generation younger than the current consoles...let alone PCs.

But honestly, we're not so sure that Battlefield Heroes is intended for anyone reading this article anyway. We're betting it's EA's gateway drug for casual gamers to try out shooters. And with that hat on, the game could be quite successful.

Ugh, I wasn't really a huge fan of the original and didn't really have a whole lot of interest in checking it out... but after Tarzaning across a level and using my bionic claw to toss barrels at people and people at barrels, I quickly changed my mind.

The first thing you notice when you pick up the XBLA/PSN title (I played on the 360) is how pretty it is. Just because a game is 2D and harkens back to the bitastic days of old, doesn't mean that it has to be ugly. Capcom managed to give the game a high polish and still include echoes of the classic.

The thing I found most frustrating about the original was that moving diagonally with your claw was never very easy for me, it didn't feel fluid and it was easy to get it wrong. Not so with the remake, I was able to cruise up and down levels in record time with just the claw. And they didn't make it too easy, just smoothed out the process and precision of the controls.

The game really makes use of the HD real estate, but still has levels that feel like they belong in the original. You still can't jump down, you have to drop, you still can't jump up, you have to use your claw. But this time, for me at least, it seems to work better.

I know it's blasphemy to even hint at the fact that a remake of an arcade classic could in anyway be improved upon for a console, but from what I saw in the very early build of the game, Bionic Commando Rearmed might very well do that.

Aoyama explained that a "debate raged for several weeks" until the team came up with what they felt to be a better direction, the play history list.

Aoyama explained, ""instead of instituting some play limit...this allowed parents to monitor and discuss how much their children were playing...this is why you can't erase the play history on the console."

It's interesting to see how two companies making similar products tackled a problem (limiting play time to please parents) in such a different manner. Nintendo hoped that the list would provide constant check-up on children, initiating a parent to child dialogue. Microsoft, on the other hand, went with the more straightforward, less child-trusting approach (the even Iwata initially supported).

Which is better? I love the philosophy behind Nintendo's parental controls, but I'm betting that for most American families, Microsoft's are flat-out more effective. Thoughts?

What if, people wondered, favoritism and nepotism were the rules of the day. Would journalists be blocked from covering E3 if they didn't write positive stories or angered a publisher?

So far, that doesn't appear to be the case, but now both the Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain (DICE) summit and the Game Developers Conference are moving toward an invite only system and the same concern is rearing its head.

But the heads of all three organizations say they're going to great lengths to make sure that doesn't happen.

The Game Developers Conference is moving to a new invite-only system starting next year, the show's director, Jamil Moledina, told me.

"We don't have it nailed down, but we are looking at moving to an invite model for press access at GDC," he said. "It's meant to be a networking event for people who make games, but more and more we are seeing a lot of individuals who are obtaining press credentials who aren't full-time press. It's kind of open to being spoofed, in a way."

In 2006, for instance, about 1,000 press members attended the conference, which had a total admission of just 16,000.

And it's not just that an abundance of press, both professional and amateur, get under foot, it also costs the people putting on the show money.

On top of that, Moledina says he has to worry about maintaining the show's atmosphere.

"Making sure the Game Developers Conference fits its core goals is the main thing we concern ourselves with," he said. "As long as it remains predominantly about learning, thats what we are concerned with."

The problem, Moledina says, is that the show draws some of the biggest names in development every year, which in turn draws quite a crowd of journalists and even more publishers hoping to show off their wares in the "halo" surrounding the show.

"I am concerned that if we don't focus on what makes GDC work we will face some complications down the road," he said.

That's primarily the impetus behind DICE's decision this year to cut down on press attendance.

"The academy's role, first and foremost, is to make sure the academy members are comfortable and that the role of the media is to be there to watch and not participate," said Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, which puts on DICE every year.

This year, the academy decided to cut down on press attendance by assigning the invitee lists to two public relations companies. One handled mainstream press and the other handled enthusiast press and blogs.

The decision came, in part, Olin says, after some misbehavior on the part of invited press in 2006. Some writers were too enthusiastically pursuing interviews, which led the developers to feel like they couldn't focus on the show itself. Olin said he felt like the show had also become a place for writers to find great interviews that could be saved up and doled out over the rest of the year.

"The opportunity to be among so many high-profile signature members of the game-making community is that it creates this opportunity to be, 'There's so and so, I need to go talk to him'," Olin said. "Some of our high profile members said they felt uncomfortable.

While DICE did manage to cut down on press attendance, mostly by limiting the number of those attending for one organization, it also seemed to arbitrarily exclude some sites, including, initially, Kotaku.

Olin acknowledged there were some issues with the vetting process this year and said that it's being looked at for next year.

"We will be reviewing our policies for 2009," he said. "I'm going to get a lot of feedback from our attendees and (journalists)."

The ESA, meanwhile, plans to stick to their invite-only system for E3, which involves getting a list of invitees from participating publishers and developers and creating their own master list.

While last year's show had some hiccups, the downsizing was generally well received.

Rich Taylor, senior vice president for communications and research at the ESA, said the main reason they went to the invite-only system was because the publishers and developers felt they were getting lost in the "swirl of attendance."

"There was a decision to match the need of companies with the goals of the show itself," he said. "We aren't interested in blocking freedom of the press. The selected attendees come from the publishers themselves. The whole point isn't to limit access but to get the information out."

"There is an expanding, exploding universe of folks who have the ability to write or opine about our industry and there just isn't a way to include all of them."

Taylor says there was very little "blow back" from bloggers and mainstream press last year over the invite-only system and promised that if an issue did come up they would be quick to address it.

Taylor added that news that both DICE and GDC seem to be, in some ways, following their lead in this regard is a "validation of a path we chose."

"Across the spectrum there is an increase in the number of people covering events and you can't just keep making larger doors to the convention halls."

I wondered how they would change the jewel matching style gameplay to make this game different from its predecessor and they certainly didn't disappoint. Besides the obvious visual differences in the interface, the style of puzzling has changed as well. The round pieces have changed to hexagonal ones and extra challenge has been added by the movement of the hexagons once you have matched up your three or more. Instead of dropping straight down, your columns slide diagonally, and depending on which piece you move, the columns will fill in either from the left or the right. Gravity will have a bearing on the various movements of the pieces as well making you have to think in several directions at once.

One of the things I asked about was whether the AI was going to be improved over the seemingly punishingly difficult AI of the original Puzzle Quest. I was told that the developers had heard players issues and it was something they were working on. So hopefully this time around, our enemies from space won't have the same kind of luck that will allow them 5 minutes worth of amazing moves while we just sit and watch our health go down.

Like the original Puzzle Quest, Galactrix has an overarching storyline that ties all the puzzle battling together. In the far future, the entire galaxy is run by four mega corporations. It's not long before one of these corporations starts deadly experiments that go awry and threaten the existence of the universe. The player must puzzle battle these enemies of the universe and save us all.

There wasn't much more information given in the short demo that I saw but I could tell from what I did see that D3 definitely has another addicting hit on their hands. The changes from the original game are enough that new players will find it exciting and seasoned players will take to it immediately without feeling like they are just playing the same game over again. Puzzle Quest: Galactrix will be coming to the DS, PC and XBLA later this year, ready to fly its way into your heart and not let go.

As I'm sure you're all aware Valve threw a little party during last week's big show (We weren't invited. I blame our butchering of their song.) and during the tail end of it they brought up Jonathan Coulton to play a set. At the end of his last song he invited the Rock Band folks up on the stage to play Still Alive on their game, a really neat way to announce that the song was coming to the game.

After they finished the crowd went crazy, a Harmonix developer told me the next day. The crowd was so excited, in fact, that one of them burst from the masses and jumped onto the stage. Walking up to the 360 that was home to the song, he plucked out a memory card, plugged it in and started fiddling. At which point one of their larger of the Harmonix guys walked over and asked him if he needed help with something.

"I'm just grabbing Still Alive, everyone needs to be able to play this," he said, if my source's memory serves.

The developer plucked the controller from the rotund man's hands and deftly deleted the song, which he had already managed to grab, from the card. Better luck next time.

The Harmonix guys thought it was even stranger that he later bragged to Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos about it. Personally, I think it's super weird that he happened to have a Memory Card on him.

This year, we heard a really funny joke involving a possible 2008 game release. So funny it made out sides hurt! That fantasyland release day joke was?

In this 15 minute chat we talk about the death of the PC gaming market, how GDC has evolved and what type of character he plays in WoW... among other things.

powered by ODEO

The real treat however was a little surprise waiting on a DS in the corner, Metal Slug 7! I hot footed it over to the corner of the room and practically wrestled the girl playing it to the ground in my attempt to check out the game. It looked great, played better and had everything you could possibly want from a Metal Slug game. So if you are ready for a new Metal Slug experience, look no further than Metal Slug 7, coming soon to a DS near you.

What with all the new fangled HD TV's coming out every day, it was just a matter of time before someone came up with a 3D TV. Meaning one that can be viewed through polarized lenses giving us that good old time 3D movie. While the impact of this kind of TV on games may seem obvious, it wasn't as obvious as you might think. The focus of this demo was not to show off the 3D aspects but its effect of one of my biggest pet peeves of multi-player gaming, the split screen.

On display was a large Samsung DLP TV showing a racing game utilizing Texas Instrument's Duel View Technology. At first glance the image was a little confusing, looking something like a double exposed film of two different cars running a race track. But, with the addition of some Geordi LaForge-esque wrap around glasses and a little switch box, all be came clear. By utilizing the 3D technology, the screen was able to display each player's car and track full screen by layering the images on top of each other. Once wearing the glasses, the images were separated and each player could watch his own track full screen. By touching a little button, one could switch back and forth between images. Another TV was running a similar example with Halo.

It was a very exciting and interesting use of the technology, especially for gamers who like me, despise the split screen method. The ability to show things in this 3D manner is something that will be built in to all upcoming Samsung DLPs and has been available on some older models since Spring of last year. The Dual Screen technology however, is something that will have to be built into the game by the developers. Is this something we might see put into regular use in the future? I certainly hope so. While it does seem a bit of a novelty at first, I could see this catching on if the price was made right. Now your friend will never know you are waiting right behind that rock to frag his ass to hell.

The DS version will be making use of the microphone to solve puzzles by blowing out torches and also included will be a cooking mini-game featuring the infamous monkey brains scene. Something tells me you won't be seeing THAT in Cooking Mama 3.

With all it's various in-jokes and trademark LEGO humor, I think that LEGO Indiana Jones will be a sure fire hit with fans of the genre and kids alike. I wasn't really on the LEGO Star Wars tip when it came out, but there is no doubt that LEGO Indy will be a permanent part of my game collection when it comes out this summer.

While the above pic may not be of the best quality, we got a few individuals snaps that are much better looking. They're behind the jump, front page visitors, because I'm pretty sure that pic of a pants-less Miyamoto is not safe for work.

Seriously, man. Put some khakis on!

Since Portal is essentially a first person puzzle game, the team initially thought it would simply end on what they thought was appropriate, a puzzle more complex than anything the player had seen before. That solution, they said, was a pain.

Their first proper boss fight attempt, when GLaDOS was just a translucent shimmery cube, was the "Giant Laser" battle. Players had to direct lasers back at GLaDOS to destroy it. It wasn't fun and the lasers were just too difficult to aim.

Boss battle attempt number two, their "Mortal Kombat" stab, was full of intensity. Missing flying, turrets spawning, an out of place firefight than belied Portal's slower paced, cerebral gameplay. It also sucked, according to Wolpaw.

Attempt number three was a chase sequence. But the pacing was horrible and there was no opportunity to communicate to the player.

Around this time, Wolpaw said the Half-Life 2 Episode Two guys excitedly said to the Portal team "Our final battle is gonna have 100 Striders, you're going to get to drive a car and fight dozens of mini-Striders. It's gonna be awesome! What are you guys gonna do?"

With a tiny team on Portal, they simply couldn't match a boss battle that epic, and they ultimately created the time limited incinerator set piece as the final fight.

The Portal team's limited resources also forced them to "trim the narrative fat" elsewhere. Swift talked about a proposed scene involving "The Rat Man" the fellow escaped test subject whose writing and sketches appear in the game's later levels.

As far as Portal's other co-star, the Weighted Companion Cube, its origins lie in addressing player frustration with finishing the "box marathon" level that features the lovable crate. Wolpaw said that he was inspired to give the Cube a little personality by what he'd been reading in de-classified government interrogation manuals. "They're great," he said, pointing to findings that people in isolation become emotionally attached to inanimate objects.

Wolpaw had advice for those trying to write a "funny" game—"God help you." He related his previous experience with Psychonauts, on which he was one of the game's writers. Upon name dropping the cult favorite, Wolpaw was met with a huge round of applause. "More people just clapped than bought the game," he joked.

"Hearing macho tough guy dialogue is annoying enough, but hearing the same joke fifty times, a couple of which may actually be funny can be much worse," Wolpaw said. He called the playtesting of Psychonauts "psychological torture", his comedic script met with silence when being pumped out of 40 monitors in the QA section at Double Fine Productions.

When the two had wrapped up their session, taking questions from the audience, the discussion quickly moved to plans for Portal 2. Swift and Wolpaw mostly dodged the question, with the latter saying "I'm just trying to bask in the moment... without people bugging me about it."

It was as always, a treat to watch. It was also, as always, something that leaves you perhaps with less of an idea of what he's on about than before he started talking.

Check out the clip which shows the talk in all of it's more than 30-minutes glory and stay, at least, until you get to his now infamous Russian Space Minute.

While the bass is a little bit on the easy side, the lead guitar, drums, and of course, singing are all the perfect level of challenging to make it fun. I'm already a HUGE fan of the song so playing it on Rock Band was a real treat. I can't imagine a single person with the game not wanting to pick this up when it hits the consoles.

I was a little bummed to discover that while the original singing is there and can be cranked up enough to cover your truly awful singing voice, there is no modulation for your voice while you are singing. So you can harmonize with a computer, but you can't sound like one... and we all know how awful that is.

While the internal, companywide development platform was originally understood to be built for PlayStation 3 development (specifically, Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy versus XIII), it is being designed with multiple platforms, including the Xbox 360 and PC, in mind. Murata also confirmed that a version is being readied for the Wii, which is still very early, but we don't expect it to kick out visuals on par with the PS3.

APB does have persistence and progression, if done a bit non-traditionally. But customization is one feature that APB has in spades.

Jones kicked off the early look at APB with a preview of character customization. One of the design goals for APB was to "let the player make their own action figure", putting character generation in the hands of the user and giving them the ability to make their avatars look totally unique. While deep character customization has become a staple of the MMO, APB's version may feature the broadest set of tools yet.

Jones walked us through a sped up version of the creation process, outfitting his avatar with unique identifiers—facials scars, veins, freckles, tattoos, realistic looking hair, a massive wardrobe. Using a system that might look familiar to serious Forza Motorsport 2 players, APB looks to one-up what Turn 10 Studios has done, with a decal system that has some stunning customization chops. Not only can users manipulate primitive vector shapes, they can apply shaders, textures and pre-made hi-res images to their designs, making for extremely realistic decals. These decals can be applied to anything the player wears, even to his skin, with a realistic tattoo look applied to the player generated content.

Clothing is also fully customizable, with attention paid to fit, layering and even things like tucking or untucking one's shirt.

That unique identity extends not just to your own character, but to your clan and your car as well. Car customization works just like avatar customization, so the decals a player has emblazoned on his jacket can also be applied to your ride.

Jones showed footage from the game, featuring characters fresh to the world—one thug was on an early mission, stealing a TV set in the default noob outfit of white t-shirt and jeans—and characters who were longtime APB vets. The MMO features "dynamic matchmaking" as Jones called it, essentially setting up player versus player missions on the fly. A three-player group of Gangsters were tasked with scoring some loot, then driving it to a safe point to complete their mission, a standard Grand Theft Auto-style mission set up. The moment the Gangsters crossed the line and broke the law, an APB was sent out to the game's Enforcers, the cops to their robbers.

What followed was essentially the MMO version of a Counter-Strike round, with players either driving their respective vehicles or engaging in a third-person firefight. The pair of Enforcers, two player pairs, responding to the all points bulletin eventually tracked down the bad guys, blocking them into an alleyway.

Jones said that these dynamic matchmaking battles in APB wouldn't necessarily pit players of the same level against each other. He showed a clip of a group of new players, with just a single pistol between the four of them, being matched with a very high level Enforcer. He quickly took them down, but not before destroying their low level car with a rocket launcher. Who doesn't like rocket launchers?

What we saw of APB was really exciting stuff. The team looks like they may have something special that appeals to gamers who would traditionally scoff and MMOs, but something that isn't just Crackdown Online or EverQuest In The Bad Part Of Town.

The final feature that Jones showed, was APB's ability to generate great machinima. With a group of wildly customized characters that looked like Cloud and Barret from Final Fantasy VII taking on a Cactuar and something impish, but not immediately recognizable to this FF noob. A turn based battle ensued, which quickly ended when "Cloud" summoned a decked out flaming car, done, of course, to hilarious effect.

We have dozens of screens of the game in motion at GDC, including the mock Final Fantasy VII cinema, in the gallery below. Be sure to check them out.

Microsoft just responded to our request for comment with this statement:

Xbox LIVE Arcade has long been known as the premier destination for digitally distributed original and classic games - making it a very appealing platform for game developers. We don't disclose details on our business contracts, but what we can tell you is that we work closely with all of our partners to provide the Xbox 360 community with the best entertainment possible while making publishing a title on XBLA an attractive prospect.

While not really a confirmation nor a denial, it does sound as if they are reacting to what our multiple indie developer sources told us was fact. We will be meeting with some of the XBLA indie development folks with Microsoft later today and will make sure to follow up with them about this issue.

Stay tuned.

Microsoft Cuts Indie Royalties in Half [Kotaku]

It's on! Masahiro Sakurai takes the stage.

After rolling the operatic trailer for Brawl, and a round of applause, Sakurai belts out his own version of the tune. He's got quite a voice!

Sakurai moves to the make up of the development staff, which required a new office set up in Tokyo. Folks from Game Arts, Nintendo and HAL Laboratories were brought on staff, including a few other unnamed temps. The staff level was about 100, but not all were full time.

He moves on to the Brawl character roster and how fighters were chosen.

Characters were chosen based on their individuality, saying they must stand out in the game. They had to consider developments costs and the time needed to include someone in the roster.

The decision to include Sonic the Hedgehog as a playable character wasn't made until 2007. Sounds like a pretty tight schedule!

Sakurai talks about four of the game's newcomers, Ike, Meta Knight, Zero Suit Samus and Snake. He points out that the suit-free Samus falls in the "supple martial arts" category. Mmmm... supple.

He says, fundamentally we had to use Nintendo's official character models. Putting all these characters in a game, side by side, requires a unified look. You can't for instance, put in someone like Bugs Bunny alongside photorealistic styles like what was applied for Link.

"We tried to reduce the sensation of things not fitting together by unifying the materials," Sakurai says.

But you couldn't modify the look of the Pokemon Trainer and Lucas too much toward some middle ground, or they'd look inappropriate.

Sakurai shows the "official" Mario design, a clean, soft, cartoony look. The Brawl version, he says, has scuffs and wear, details that were important to defining the look of the roster.

They weren't just trying to take advantage of the Wii's visual upgrade, the team simply wanted to add an appropriate level of detail. He shows the same process with Pikmin's Captain Olimar, the original version of which doesn't feature the same details like stitching that Brawl does.

One character that underwent "serious" changes was Pit. "This (a 2D cartoon version of Pit) became this (Brawl's totally new 3D model)" The team did twenty years of updating on Pit's look all at once.

Link's progression was much more natural, occurring over many games. A similar design evolution was applied to Pit.

Pit's makeover features golden head and arm bands, with a bit of anime and earnestness applied. They decided to make his scarf a different material than his toga for added character.

"I'm proud of the representation we gave Pit as a winged being."

When Pit's arrow of light is fired, it's controllable. "We made it so that his bow can be made into two parts, and use them as a sword. It's sort of like Darth Maul in Star Wars." His tights were added to give him a "youthful" image, but other costume pieces were targeting "nobility." Clearly, someone put some thought into this.

Sakurai says they gave Pit furry boots for a bit of a leg-warmer look. "We think they look pretty cute."

He moves on from "Graphics" to "Motion." In the beginning, Sakurai says that he based the move sets on what he'd like to see in Brawl. "Just thinking up moves is easy" but balance is required.

Standby, wind-up, strike and follow through are the typical motion components of a particular move. Link's "standard attack" is used as an example. Standby, he says, is the starting point of every standing action. Wind-up is the animation where the character draws back to attack. This gives the player (and his opponent) visual cues that actions are about to happen. It's simple, two-frame animation, but conveys a lot of information. Strike, that's the "meat" of attacking. Follow-through, which occupies the most screen time, and needs to look the least like Standby poses. Now you know how Sakurai breaks down a move.

The animation for Fox's up smash takes less than 3/4 of a second to play out. Realistic moves, Sakurai says, aren't always the best fit, even if you're animating a humanoid character.

How do you convey poses to animators? Sakurai used a Microman poseable action figure. Using these, he snapped photos of many of the poses that would ultimately become final animations. It's clear, even from these photos, whose animations these are, with Pit and Zero Suit Samus standing out.

He compares his Microman photos against the final version of Wario's moves. They look nearly identical. The same is true for Sonic's moves.

Now, Sakurai shows off the final animations that had to change drastically from their Microman originals, mostly to better convey motion.

He moves on to Pit's and Samus' poses. For the latter, he used a female version of Microman, which Sakurai says comes with multiple breast sizes. He unfortunately glosses over this quickly.

"For Snake, I really wanted the character to express weight." For Snake's weapons, Sakurai culled accessories and weapons from official Microman toys. He changed Snake's crawling animation from the Metal Gear Solid original, to give him a more imposing look, with shoulders raised.

Sakurai shows off many of the other characters, ones that don't have the build of a Microman toy, like King Dedede, Olimar, Diddy Kong and Meta Knight. Sakurai busts out one of the Micromen, he says in his "Ken" pose.

"One thing I'd like to point out though, is that there are no Street Fighter characters in Super Smash Bros." Consider us crestfallen!

Sakurai moves on to Parameters, the numbers of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. "Being in the brawl is more than just making the roster" his slide reads, adding that characters need to blend their own original series, Smash Bros and solid gameplay to be good adds.

Character essence, he says, is a key factor. Keeping these rules in mind is some of the most "unglamorous" work of game development.

He then compares the jumps of Mario and Samus, from their appearances in Super Mario Bros. and the original Metroid. Mario's is more realistic on its downward arc, while Samus' jump has more "float" to it. And you can't just explain that by saying that Metroid takes place in space, it has to be carried over to the game.

Similarly, simply believing that Sonic is merely a "really fast character" is an easy mistake to make. Sakurai boots up the Wii, playing Sonic, Pit and Snake on screen. He shows of Sonic's movement, saying that the weight of the character, combined with blazing fast speed, conveys his speed. He calls Sonic's double jump "gimmicky." So humble!

Taking the remote controlling Snake, Sakurai demos the Metal Gear Solid fighter and his move set.

"The more you play Snake, the more cunning your use of his weapons will become and that's how we designed it." He shows Snake applying bombs to Pit and Sonic, using the pan and scan photo feature to get a laugh out of the crowd. Everyone likes to see Pit with a face full of explosives!

Pit is now being shown. "Pit didn't appear in any other game before, but I think we've done a good job putting him in the universe and making him a good fighting game character," Sakurai says.

Sakurai takes a photo of Snake close quarter combat attacking Pit. "Look! It's Snake with wings!" he jokes.

He has Snake whip out his special cardboard box, then has Sonic snatch it away. GDC attendees think that's just hilarious.

Back to the talk. Sakurai tells the crowd that game designers must think before they act. "If you think before you act, you can reduce the workloads of your programmers and artists," the slide reads. Similarly, he warns not to fall back on the excuse "We'll never no before we try."

Sakurai skips to "Getting The Word Out." By this, he means, the Smash Bros. Dojo.

We developed homepages for the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube Smash Bros. games before, but only in Japan.

He says that the Dojo is "possibly the grandest scale ever among official single game sites." It started in May of 2007 and has seen 230 updates. At its peak, it had 1 million hits in a single day, 5 million in one week. Sakurai writes the site himself, with visuals taken by other Brawl staffers. Nintendo decides when the updates go out.

To get the word out, production staff has to take part in selling the game. He says that the game wouldn't have the buzz it does if it weren't for the Smash Bros. Dojo.

Sakuari wraps it up with that sage advice, thanking his interpreter and exiting the stage. Unfortunately, there is no QA session, but if anyone has any questions about what was shown, please make requests in the comments. I'll do my best to better explain when not trying to frantically liveblog.

Thanks for checking in!

The graphics while nice, seem pretty generic in that space opera kind of way we are getting so used to with titles like Mass Effect. Nothing really stood out about them and they really could have been part of any modern space game. Frankly the parts of the gameplay that we did see just seemed to involve raising or lowering grounds to suit your needs and came off seeming a bit like a Mass Effect game with a Populous battle system. There will be a multiplayer mode but if the game continues as is, I doubt that will do much to sell the title. The consensus of the gathered media seemed to be one of general ambivalence so I hope that something can be done to make Fracture a bit more intriguing the next time we see it. I also can't help but think if we had seen this before watching the awesome Force Unleashed presentation instead of after it might not have come off seeming so inferior.

Besides the few clips I'd seen floating around, this was the first extensive experience I'd had with the game. Now it certainly wasn't a "hands on" by any means, but we got to see a fair amount in the half hour presentation. In Force Unleashed you play Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice who has been sent by Vader to involve yourself in nefarious deeds. The game actually takes place between the two trilogies, nestled in between Episodes 3 and 4. There is a heavy theme of redemption and we are clued in that where we start in this game as characters may not be where we end up at the end. And of course, The Force Unleashed has plenty of one thing: The Force!

When creating the title one of the things the developers wanted was the ability to use the Force at all times. "When I hit a button, it better do something with the Force" was their motto and believe me there is plenty to be had. Wannabe Jedis can use Force Pushes to move objects and enemies, they can grab enemies and throw them around like rag dolls. In one of the levels, a TIE fighter construction facility, our character was picking up entire ships and hurling them at enemies, scattering them like bowling pins (there will be an Achievement for destroying TIE Fighters!). Lightning can be harnessed and used to shock enemies as well as turning them into powerful "Lightning Grenades." Just charge that enemy up with lightning and then throw their electrified corpse in the battle and watch the fun. The Force can also be used to solve puzzles and open doors whether that's actually manipulating the locks or just using brute force and knocking the thing down. The Force can also be combined with traditional light saber attacks to create deadly combos. The PS3 and 360 versions of the game will have 24 unlockable combos each. The destructible environments are filled with endless amounts of ammo guaranteeing you'll never be far away from something to manipulate and throw. A special "pay off" camera can also be employed so you can watch what happens to enemies as they skitter off and slam into walls.

But not all enemies can be just tossed about. Many of them have their own Force powers that can be quite something to reckon with. In one battle we watched as enemy Jedis turned the junk and garbage lying around to create powerful Junk Titans to protect them. At the end of each level you will be faced with the inevitable Boss battle, usually a top Jedi with their own over-the-top special Jedi powers that you will have to overcome. Many battles end with finishing moves along the lines of the button pushing endings of God of War battles. However missing a button here does not give you as stiff a penalty and players who get it right the first time will be rewarded with extra points that can be spent on weapon and Force power ups later.

The environments were rich and varied. Besides the TIE Fighter facility we were also able to check out a Clone Wars battle ground as well as the planet of Felucia which is overgrown with giant fungi. The environments, while not endless, certainly have plenty to explore and will be filled with all sorts of secret areas and surprises for those who want to take the time to do a little searching rather than plowing straight through the main game.

We looked a little at the Wii version of the game and as expected the graphics weren't nearly as rich. There will be extra locations and characters in the Wii and PS2 versions, but the overall storyline will remain unchanged across all the platforms. One thing the Wii version will have to itself though, is Duel Mode. Put together like a traditional fighting game, Wii owners will be able to choose from twenty different characters from the Star Wars Universe to battle against their friends. Two players can battle it out to the death while flailing their Wii-remotes about like light sabers. It should be noted however that the Wii controls are not one to one gestures, but have been adjusted to suit the gameplay.

Once the presentation was over the talk reverted to a Q&A which revealed a few interesting tidbits such as the fact that Darth Vader's voice in the game is provided by the guy behind the Chad Vader series of YouTube videos. One fellow asked if limbs would be able to be hacked of like in one of the earlier SW games and we were told that no, beheadings and limb removal would be a thing of the past. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be released as a "T" rated title across all platforms guaranteeing that pretty much everyone will be able to enjoy unleashing their mega Jedi powers on the world.

I played it and Holy shit; Greg needs to give them a new score. It was kind of clear that Factor 5 put in the extra effort a little begrudgingly, but the results were amazing. This might push me over the edge into the "must buy PS3" territory. I also mentioned Greg Miller's name, and the Factor 5 guys burned a hole through my skull with their looks of hatred. I think they'll be alright once the patch is out for a while though.

GDC 2008 Crazy Shit Report #1 [DugBuzz's IGN Blog - Via QJ.net]

That's gotta be one of the best back-handed compliments ever, I'd think, and maybe not entirely accurate. Sure, Nintendo dominates software charts with first party product, but games like Capcom's Resident Evil efforts, Mario & Sonic at the Olympics and Guitar Hero III have done pretty well for themselves on the Wii.

Sony's Harrison: You Can't Get Wii's Whole Audience [Gamasutra]