<![CDATA[Kotaku: surreal]]> http://tags.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png <![CDATA[Kotaku: surreal]]> http://kotaku.com/tag/surreal http://kotaku.com/tag/surreal <![CDATA[Kill The Silent Protagonist?]]> Over at Midway studio Surreal's 'Surreal Game Design' developer weblog, Rick Luebbers, has found a blight infecting games, and he's not afraid to shout about it. What is it?

This evil, this disease, is the idea of a Silent Protagonist. Its symptoms are easy to diagnose: the protagonist never speaks and as seemingly important events fly by he/she says nothing... further, all the NPCs go to great lengths to talk around the player and advance the story almost in spite of him... It appears as a terrible, horrific, mark upon otherwise good or even great games. Half-Life 2 and Dragon Quest 8 are perfect high profile examples in people's recent memories.

Luebbers believes that "...the whole premise is counter-productive and totally immersion breaking" - but how about you good folks? Are you happy for the main character to shut up and 'be you' while you play?

Kill The Silent Protagonist [Surreal Game Design]

]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=325121&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Midway's Secret PS3 Title... Still a Secret]]> IGN's PS3 arm is getting a little obsessive about Midway's secret PS3 title. The site points out that while a previous interview and job posting let out that Midway's Surreal Software is working on a brand new PS2 title, little else was known about it.

But a new employment ad says that the game is "one of Midway's biggest titles under development" and that it features "a concept which will blow you away."

So there you have it, now we know next to nothing, as opposed to nothing. Brian Crecente

Original PS3 IP from Surreal [IGN]

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