Here's to hoping for a reasonably priced PSN version for the PSP... Dream on you crazy dreamer, dream on! I predict this to be another $39.WTF99 release for those poor people who actually bought a Go. #dantesinferno
God I hate myself for saying this (the whole paragraph, not the first sentence)...
I loved Dead Space. It garnered much dissent (and much praise) because it mirrored so many survival horror games before it. I thought that the dissent was unfair because it was a breath of fresh air into the genre and rekindled our fascination with the long and forgotten setting of space. Having said that, when I glance at these screens (and the screens of it's older brother versions) I have to enlarge the thumbnails to realize that they aren't GOW pics. If you need high resolution detail to differentiate two games it usually means that one is a pretender. I really hope that V-Games can create a compelling story that distracts from the GOW similarities. I hope I get another Dead Space and not GOW-lite.
No, not convincing. "flawed hero with a dark past, and his determination to save the love of his life from a terrible fate." Come on, man! You can do better than that age-old cliche.
The potential for greatness is about as huge as the potential for catastrophic failure.
There must be an amazing game somewhere in there as there have been amazing books and comics on the subject (Moore's From Hell comes to mind). But if you go at it with the poor man's Hollywood blockbuster approach used for too many video games, you might well end up with something very dumb if not revolting.
See, now since Jack the Ripper was shrouded with ambiguity, this would make for a good historical fiction re-imagining.
But if Visceral makes Jack the Ripper the anti-hero, Assassin's Creed style, then I'm gonna go to the studios, ask the devs to sign a baseball bat for me, then proceed to destroy one of their dev computers.
(On that note, they should probably start working on original IPs. At the rate they're jumping through history, their next game will take place in the Vietnam War.)
For the love of all that is holy I hope the creators plunge themselves into Alan Moore's astonishing graphic novel interpretation of the Ripper case "From Hell" before they set off on this. But given they seemingly didn't actually read the Divine Comedy and clearly only bought the Cliff Notes version I suppose I'm hoping for too much.
If they do it where the player is trying to hunt down Jolly Jack, or where you're a "lady of the night" avoiding becoming the next victim, I'll certainly be interested.
If it's it's just "Manhunt by Gaslight", I couldn't care less and would have no sympathy over the heat they will obviously get.
Anyone remember the game Ripper by Take2, with Christopher Walken in it? I loved that game, and was just discussing it with a friend last week. I still have the discs, I may try to install it with Win 95 compatibility mode or something.
New Jack the Ripper game for the DS!
Pose your victims after you cut them up with the stylus!
Use the DS's bottom screen to write anonymous notes about the murders, BUT BE CAREFUL, don't give yourself away!
CSI style game could work, but not exactly gonna be great critically.
But if they go the dantes inferno route and ignore the story (well not a story in this case) they are drawing from it could be a pretty interesting game.
Just obviously wouldn't be about jack the ripper except in name.
Put on your imagination hats commentors, and try to come up with valid, fun, and commercially viable gameplay ideas that could fit this title.
Remember, he only had a few actual murders that they know of for sure. You might be able to add a few extra, but the total killings should stay under 10.
Degree of Difficulty: Must be viable commercially. It has to have the potential to sell a million copies. So no, you can't say "Grim Fandango in London!" It might be *fun*, but it won't sell.
@Yossarian: I was thinking something much more similar to the way thief 3 was handled. Semi open world with some closed off areas for missions. Aside from investigating the killings (which generally happen during the missions) you have to deal with general thugs and perhaps other factions in the semi open world part.
I honestly don't think playing as Jack would be a good design decision. I don't think most people can relate to/ be content with playing a guy who murders and mutilates people (I could be wrong).
@zlarm: Solid idea, I think. Play a detective who has to deal with all sorts of crime in that time period (maybe do some cross-overs, smush the timelines, and add in some other historical crimes?). Then Jack the Ripper is the main story thread, but not the sole focus.
Are you sneaking around, though? Does it have a combat aspect? Are you a Batman like brawler taking down gangs in between the detective work?
@Yossarian: I don't think brawling would work so well (at least batman style). Firstly I'd probably want to make it first person since there should definitely be some horror aspect to it (and these generally come across much better in first person perspective). Combat would probably resemble that of thief (some first person brawling along with silent take downs and maybe some sort of projectile weapons). And yes in the unsavory districts you'd probably spend plenty of time sneaking around avoiding thugs and the unsavory types; more like a detective (maybe even have some undercover missions or something) than a visible police officer.
@Megamoppy: Jack is really an Agent from the Crackdown-era, so you can jump really far and high to get away after you've killed someone. To stalk the lasses you act like Batman and hide in plain sight on top of conveniently placed gargoyles.
10/27/09
10/27/09
I loved Dead Space. It garnered much dissent (and much praise) because it mirrored so many survival horror games before it. I thought that the dissent was unfair because it was a breath of fresh air into the genre and rekindled our fascination with the long and forgotten setting of space. Having said that, when I glance at these screens (and the screens of it's older brother versions) I have to enlarge the thumbnails to realize that they aren't GOW pics. If you need high resolution detail to differentiate two games it usually means that one is a pretender. I really hope that V-Games can create a compelling story that distracts from the GOW similarities. I hope I get another Dead Space and not GOW-lite.
10/27/09
I agree on all fronts. #dantesinferno
10/09/09
10/09/09
10/09/09
10/09/09
10/09/09
10/09/09
Yeah, obviously harder to win than a Nobel Peace Prize.
10/06/09
There must be an amazing game somewhere in there as there have been amazing books and comics on the subject (Moore's From Hell comes to mind). But if you go at it with the poor man's Hollywood blockbuster approach used for too many video games, you might well end up with something very dumb if not revolting.
10/06/09
But if Visceral makes Jack the Ripper the anti-hero, Assassin's Creed style, then I'm gonna go to the studios, ask the devs to sign a baseball bat for me, then proceed to destroy one of their dev computers.
(On that note, they should probably start working on original IPs. At the rate they're jumping through history, their next game will take place in the Vietnam War.)
10/06/09
10/06/09
10/06/09
If it's it's just "Manhunt by Gaslight", I couldn't care less and would have no sympathy over the heat they will obviously get.
10/06/09
10/06/09
10/06/09
10/06/09
10/06/09
10/06/09
Pose your victims after you cut them up with the stylus!
Use the DS's bottom screen to write anonymous notes about the murders, BUT BE CAREFUL, don't give yourself away!
BECOME THE RIPPER
34.99
10/06/09
But if they go the dantes inferno route and ignore the story (well not a story in this case) they are drawing from it could be a pretty interesting game.
Just obviously wouldn't be about jack the ripper except in name.
10/06/09
Put on your imagination hats commentors, and try to come up with valid, fun, and commercially viable gameplay ideas that could fit this title.
Remember, he only had a few actual murders that they know of for sure. You might be able to add a few extra, but the total killings should stay under 10.
Degree of Difficulty: Must be viable commercially. It has to have the potential to sell a million copies. So no, you can't say "Grim Fandango in London!" It might be *fun*, but it won't sell.
10/06/09
I honestly don't think playing as Jack would be a good design decision. I don't think most people can relate to/ be content with playing a guy who murders and mutilates people (I could be wrong).
10/06/09
Are you sneaking around, though? Does it have a combat aspect? Are you a Batman like brawler taking down gangs in between the detective work?
10/06/09
10/06/09
Seriously though im curious how they're gonna handle this.
10/06/09