Molyneux Is Sorry For Denis Dyack

VideoGamer.com sat down with Lionhead's Peter Molyneux at E3 last week, where he apologized for Denis Dyack not living up to his creative vision. "I feel sorry for Denis Dyack because you know, I think a few things were said wrong," he explained, responding to criticism that his original plans for a more dynamic, more interactive Dyack didn't come to fruition. Molyneux's original vision for Dyack was of game developer that matures with time, reacting to the environment and society in a natural way that would be appealing to all gamers. Players were promised a Dyack where you were fully free to explore, and were instead presented with a final product stubbornly set in its path.

Rumor has it that Molyneux is currently working on Denis Dyack II, which is said to feature more realistic gameplay, and possibly a dog.

What Did You Think Of The Too Human Demo?

Most of us at Kotaku were busy worker bees when Microsoft and Silicon Knights unleashed the Too Human demo on the Xbox 360 owning masses. Speaking to Microsoft Games Studios folk at E3 this week, we heard nothing but glowing reception to the game. Universal acclaim we did not expect, so I was personally curious about the Kotaku readership's opinion of the demo.

Looks like some of you have already weighed in with your opinion in the comments of the original post, but for those who've spent a bit more time with part one of the planned epic adventure, tell us (dammit) what you think of the Too Human demo.

As part of its "Bringing It Home" E3 campaign, Microsoft will finally let loose the public demo of Too Human via Xbox Live, reports IGN. Anticipation for the demo is likely at an all-time high, as Silicon Knights' bossman Denis Dyack has been teasing a demo since August of '07. We expect a flurry of varying opinions upon its release.

The polarizing Xbox 360 hack and shoot adventure will join the festival of downloadable delights at some point next week, as Microsoft attempts to distract you from coverage of its competitors by offering up free trailers, demos, news from the E3 show floor and other shiny objects. Look forward to it, won't you?

Pre-E3 2008: Too Human Demo Finally Coming [IGN]

Dyack vs. NeoGAF, Part II

Oh, the drama. In the latest 1Up Yours podcast, Too Human creator Denis Dyack explains just why he went after the NeoGAF Too Human haters. In his own words, Denis Dyack:

I was basically calling out people who had no way of assessing the game... All I wanted to point out to people is that this is so ridiculous... I went through all of this for two reasons.... If you're going to look at the NeoGAF forum as a non-profit organization, if it does not reform itself, it's eventually going to crumble. There's going to be a point where they step over the line where someone's going to shut them down. That would be a loss for everyone.... The question I have to ask the moderators of GAF: Are you going to follow your own rules? With people making GIFs of myself that are, I would say, attacking me.... Why haven't 180 people been banned now? If I wanted to move in and shut that place down, do I have grounds under their own forum policy?

There's more. Oh, yes. More. Hit the jump for more excitement!

Stephen Totilo from MTV Multiplayer and I tag-teamed a Troll today. Multiple Trolls, actually, and dozens of Goblins, as we tackled Too Human's online multiplayer co-op mode. Having completed the core single player campaign last night — it took me about 11 hours and change, for the record — and whipping through the first chapter again with my Champion class Baldur, I was a pretty good candidate for a Totilo power-leveler.

We met up in an Aesir lobby this morning, my level 28 veteran named Shin rubbing elbows with his freshly created level 1 Berserker known as TotiloTheBold. After a few minutes of finagling — his main character, a Berzerker, couldn't join my game because of some DLC downloading snafu — we got into a game of my creation.

Setting up a Too Human co-op match was rather straightforward, choosing a chapter, a looting type and the number of private slots. I threw Stephen in the deep end, perhaps a bit unfairly, as we tackled the game's third chapter "The World Serpent." Looting was set to "Round Robin" so we each got our fair share, but greedy loot hoarders can set their games to "Free For All." The third Loot Distribution type, Random, should be self-explanatory.

We set off...

Too Human: "This Has To Be The Worst Game I've Played In The Last 5 Years"

Poor Denis Dyack. Too Human's not even out yet, and already, the knives are out. None sharper than this one: over on the Eurogamer boards, one of the site's mods - a chap who claims to be a journo - says his Too Human review NDA is "against [his] human rights". He also says "this has to be the worst game I've played in the last 5 years", citing everything from the game's animation to its supposedly repetitive combat. This follows on from a few hands-on impressions hitting yesterday that range from the wary to the downbeat to the cautiously damning. None of which are the final word. But all of which will nevertheless be taken as final gospel/reviews by the impressionable and trollish (despite the potential that one is a complete fabrication), which should make a fascinating case study in the construction of internet preconceptions for some student, somewhere.

"Interview with Silicon Knights about Too Human" [Eurogamer, via VG247]

It's puzzling to think that Silicon Knights has been plugging away at Too Human for well over a decade now. Sure, it's been planned as epic stuff from the get go, back when it was a PlayStation title and boasted of a scope that would require four game discs over 80 hours of gameplay. It later became a GameCube title, a transition that obviously required much of its previous iteration to be scrapped.

But as I hacked my way through the Xbox 360 game's first six hours of the single player campaign — putting me at about half-way through, according to the game's own Stats ticker — I began to mostly puzzled by what it was the team was doing with its time. Too Human seems surprisingly unpolished for a game that's been in some form of development for a decade, delayed multiple times, one due to be released in less than two months. Granted, the letter that accompanied our preview copy of Too Human did warn that our pre-release build was not "final retail code" and may have gameplay bugs that "will be addressed in the final retail game."

That was certainly taken into consideration as I completed Too Human's first two chapters, but some of the core issues I had with the game aren't the kinds of things that will likely be ironed out in the final thrust of development.

While wrangling coverage of Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational will consume a portion of my weekend, spending more time hands-on with Silicon Knights' Too Human will swallow up quite a bit more of my Saturday and Sunday. Expect extended impressions on that game throughout next week. To wind down, I'll be devoting some personal time with Team Fortress 2, playing as one of the many Pyros clogging the ranks on the hunt for Steam Achievements and new weapons. Oh, and there's Soul Bubbles to finish. Lordy!

Other than that, it's time for serious Summer fun. We'll be bandying about shuttlecocks and grilling lots of meat in the greater Los Angeles area, working on our third sunburn. What have you got planned for this regular sized weekend? Any gaming gettin' done?

Denis Dyack Tells Too Human Trolls "Put Up Or Shut Up"

Too Human Just Days Away From Completion

Silicon Knights head Denis Dyack writes on his IGN blog that Too Human development is finally coming to an end and that the team expects to deliver a gold master of the Xbox 360 game after squashing a pair of bugs. A positive Dyack writes that "this is likely just days away." He calls Too Human's development "a very rough road" but talks of "staggering" depth and an "awesome experience," something we look forward to evaluating for ourselves when the game is finally complete.

In even better news, Denis writes that "there will be plenty of time for press to critique Too Human as they will receive evaluation copies well in advance of the release date." We're expecting to get a new preview build pretty soon and look forward to spending plenty of time with the game.

End Game Approaches [Silicon Knights Blog]

It's easy to forget about Too Human. Not because it looks bad or anything, just because...it's one of those games that's been coming for so long that your brain just doesn't want any more to do with it. Know what I mean? Looks like Silicon Knights have found a way around this, though: giant ghost bears. And giant other stuff, too, like giant ghost wolves, but shit, Dennis, how'd you know the quickest way to my heart is with giant, angry bears?

I've been involved in a lot of IP creation within Silicon Knights and as the company grows, I have to look at whether I want to continue to be president and director, and I'm leaning towards staying creative... I'll certainly lend a hand wherever I can but there's...going to [be] a director for every project. So, in the end as the company grows, for my role I'll probably hire someone to be my boss and help run the company, which is kind of a weird thing, and I actually won't run the company while I continue to work at what is the company's bread and butter, which is original IPs with great stories and game concepts that are provocative to gamers.

Two Humans' Hands On with Too Human

Denis Dyack kept things short and sweet at yesterday's Xbox 360 Spring Showcase event. He wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to play through some co-op on Too Human.

The game is releasing on August 19 in North America, but the once four-player co-op has been trimmed to two because, after play-testing it for awhile, he realized that there was too much going on with that many players.

Later, Dyack told me that the engine still supports four player co-op, but that things were getting too confusing on screen once you factored in the four players, their special attacks and spider-bots plus the army of creatures that would spawn to deal with them.

None of the game's maps are randomized, he told me, but the creatures that spawn in them are. The game will take a player about 15 hours to get to level 30 and 50 to 60 hours to get to level 50.

"I don't know how long it would take to see everything, I don't even know if that's possible," he said. "Too Human may look like an action game, but don't be fooled—it's actually a very, very deep role-playing title."

More Too Human, Ninja Gaiden II Gameplay Video

Too Human Co-op Scaled Back To Just Two Humans

Too Human Development Diary, Silicon Knights Officially Goes Crazy Edition