Sega Nerds

Scriptwriter: Condemned 2 movie still in the works

Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris, Interviews, News. Tagged with Condemned, The Unforgettable.

After our interview with Condemned 2 Producer David Hasle turned up very little details about The Unforgettable, the Condemned 2 movie tie-in, I went straight to the horse’s mouth - Kurt Sutter, the scriptwriter for the movie.

With little to no news about the movie after the initial article in Variety, I have to say we began to doubt the theatrical release would ever see the light of day. However, Sutter told me that couldn’t be further from the truth.

I actually just closed a deal to do another big rewrite of the script. There is a director attached. I can’t say who until Warners makes it official. But the project is very much alive (especially after the surprising success of THE 300). In the world of features, a few years to get something into production is the norm.

So there you have it, The Unforgettable is still alive, and it looks like it’s beginning to pick up a little steam with a director being added.

Sega Nerds interview: David Hasle, Condemned 2 producer

Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris, Interviews, Microsoft Xbox 360, News, Sony PlayStation 3. Tagged with Condemned.

Two dozen calls, a break-in, a failed kidnapping and a restraining order later, we now present you with my interview with Condemned 2 Producer, David Hasle. See where a little persistence can get ya?

Condemned: Bloodshot is currently in development for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 by Monolith Productions, the same excellent crew that brought us Condemned: Criminal Origins.

Bloodshot is still slated for an early 2008 release, but while you’re waiting, Hasle talks about the game’s increased focus on forensics, the previously announced movie tie-in and his thoughts on how achievements should be handled in 360 titles.

Read on for the goodness.

Steinberg explains some things… plus new Shadow?

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, Interviews, Microsoft Xbox 360, News, Nintendo Wii, PC, Sony PlayStation 3. Tagged with Rumor Mill, Virtua Fighter 5.

Sega of America Vice President of marketing, Scott Steinberg, recently spoke to NextGen.biz, about a few topics of conversation many Sega Nerds, and (indeed) gamers, have on their mind.

Scott, spoke about some his ‘controversial’ commentsregarding Nintendo’s, highly successful, Wii.  He did try to explain his comments a day or two after his first set of words dropped out of his mouth, though that still left many Wii fans a bit miffed.  So Scott has tried to re-emphasise his exact intentions and feelings, towards the 3 home consoles.

“Are we placing bets [on one particular platform]? No one can tell right now who’ll ‘win.’ It’s still too early. All three consoles have got the right materials for success. That alchemy is there across all three different platforms. I guess that’s being defined a bit differently with Nintendo, but they definitely have their own consumer-oriented track, which we think is great. So I think from a third-party publisher’s standpoint it’s not wise to make bets right now that don’t include all three consoles.”

NextGen, kindly remind us, that right now Sega does, indeed, appear to be backing all platforms (fairly) evenly, with many games being released on the PS3, 360, PC and several big titles (Mario and Sonic, Nightsanyone?) coming to the Wii, this year.

Next topic on the agenda was fairly recent announcement that brought much joy to Xbox 360 owners everywhere, but left a somewhat bitter taste in PS3 fans.  Yes, that’s right, when Sega announced that Virtua Fighter 5 would have full online play for the Xbox 360, something the team had previously deemed impossible, due to ‘unacceptable’ lag, as seen in online fighters.

Iron Man interview at Comic-Con 07

Posted by George. Filed under George, Interviews, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3. Tagged with Iron Man, Unreleased.

When I think Comic-Con, I think hot chicks cosplaying and companies pushing their comic book related junk on the public. Well that’s just what Sega did this year with Iron Man and Bleach.

The interview in the video gives us some information about Iron Man. Apparently, Iron Man will be the only playable character (No War Machine). It will integrate the movie plot line with elements from the comic book. Sounds interesting?

I expect this game to get better looking over time, since its still pretty early into development.

[Thanks for the tip, Yu Suzuki]

Simon Jeffrey talks about everything a Sega Nerd could want to know

Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris, Interviews, News, Sonic. Tagged with Aliens, E3, Golden Axe, NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams.

Wow, I’m really starting to like this Simon Jeffrey character. In an interview with Gamespot, the Sega of America COO talked about everything from how development is going with Golden Axe, why Sega seems to have shifted focus away from its Japanese development teams and he even talked about the changes in this year’s E3.

While you can read the full interview at Gamespot, here’s a breakdown of what Jeffrey revealed:

• At E3, Sega wants to show the growth it’s gone through in the last few years, its success with Western publishing and that they’ve “attained the portfolio management approach that [they've] been talking about for a couple of years.”
• Sega considered showing Golden Axe at this year’s E3 but decided against it because it wants to have a grand unveiling. Now plans are to have a special showing this fall and plans to release the game next spring on the 360 and PS3. “It’s looking absolutely beautiful, and it’s got some real good moments from the classic arcade game connect that the gamers will appreciate.”

[Thanks for the tip, Joe]

BioWare talks Sonic RPG

Posted by Nathan. Filed under Interviews, Nathan, News, Nintendo DS, Sonic. Tagged with Sonic RPG.

After announcing Sonic RPG to stunned gamers last week, BioWare has given their first words on the mysterious project to IGN. Unfortunately, the interview doesn’t shed much light on the game or what to expect, but it’s better than nothing.

IGN: Give us a taste of what we can expect out of Sonic’s first RPG. Is this going to be anything like what Square did years ago with the Mario RPG SNES title?

Ray Muzyka: We haven’t announced any specific features yet, but obviously the DS is a very cool platform and we play games on it all the time as fans ourselves. Without giving away too much, we can say that we will be using many of DS’s feature sets and we’ll really be pushing the limits of what the system can do, always striving to innovate in what we deliver, as in all BioWare games.

Above all, we’re committed to deliver a deep, compelling, unique and entertaining experience in this first BioWare RPG for DS. There are many fans of Sonic at BioWare and our love for the IP goes way back - I myself have an autographed (by the creators of Sonic) SEGA Genesis which is still plugged in side by side with my 360, Wii and PS3, and the main games I play on the Genesis when I go back to that system are Sonic I and II :)

Here’s hoping the game is better than not.

[Source: IGN]

Interview: Paul Mottram, Zoë Mode senior producer

Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris, Interviews, News, Sony PSP. Tagged with Crush.

Now I understand why the Crush developers wanted their name changed from the boring Kujo Brighton to the humorously curious Zoë Mode. Only people who are insanely crazy yet remarkably brilliant would do such a thing.

After playing Crush for a few minutes, it’s crystal clear the guys and gals at Zoë Mode know how to make a great game. And as reviewers and gamers are still buzzing over the release of the amazing puzzler, Zoë Mode’s senior producer Paul Mottram took a break from his busy schedule to answer a few questions the Sega Nerds just had to ask.

Sega Nerds: Crush is such a unique and innovative puzzler. How did the idea to create such a game come about?
Paul Mottram: For years, we’ve wanted to make a game where you could switch between 2D and 3D and effectively lose a dimension, an idea which originated from some drunken nights out, the work of M. C. Escher and a desire to try and do something more original.

It was initially a concern as when you have an idea like this you start asking yourself “Why hasn’t it been done before? It’s so obvious. We must have missed something.” It took us a while to figure out how we could restrain such a powerful mechanic and come up with a set of rules which meant we didn’t have to create levels that were not just tens of simple platforms spread all over the place.

Submit your questions for Monolith interview, win Condemned: Criminal Origins

Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris, Interviews. Tagged with Condemned.

We have an interview lined up with the guys at Monolith to discuss Condemned 2: Bloodshot. However, I’d like to allow our dear readers a chance to submit questions that I’ll make sure get answered by the development team.

Feel free to submit as many questions as you wish, and I’ll pick 7-10 of the best ones to send to the team. Keep in mind, they’ve already talked with IGN and have discussed the game a bit, so let’s try to send them some questions they haven’t answered yet.

To make the deal even sweeter, if you submit a question, you’ll automatically be entered in a contest to receive a copy of Condemned: Criminal Origins. Now you can never say that we don’t love you.

Spill more homeless blood in Condemned 2

Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris, Interviews, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3. Tagged with Condemned.

Those bastards at IGN beat us to the punch by getting the first interview with the developers at Monolith. However, they asked some really great questions that shed some light on what we can expect from Condemned 2: Bloodshot.

Here’s the CliffsNotes version for those of you with ADD:

• Bloodshot takes place about a year after Criminal Origins. Now, Ethan is “a battered soul filled with anger, hatred and a smoldering drive to make someone pay for the pain he suffers. Ethan is back and playing by his own rules;”

Reasons why EA did not support the Sega Dreamcast… apparently

Posted by Graham. Filed under G, Interviews, News, Retro. Tagged with Dreamcast.

Gamasutra recently had an interesting interview with the chief creative officer and executive VP at Electronic Arts, William ‘Bing’ Gordon.

The interview discussed many topics, from the upcoming ‘god-game’, Spore to Bing’s love for World of Warcraft.  But one topic on the table was EA’s lack of support for our beloved Dreamcast, and Bing gave possibly the worst answer… ever.

“You keep mentioning the Sega Genesis, and I felt it was a shame that EA ended up not supporting the Dreamcast.”

“WG: We lost confidence in Sega. With the Dreamcast, we told them two things: you should be an in-the-box online system, and you should use a 3D chip that we understand. They said, “We can’t afford to be online, and we’ll get back to you on the 3D chip.” They ended up using an unusual, non-industry standard, not well-supported chip. It was something that nobody in EA had ever touched.

They knew we had no experience with it and no belief in it. Then with online, they said “no,” then they said “maybe,” then they said “no.” They wobbled all over the place, and we lost confidence in them. At the same time, we knew that the PS2 was coming. I loved the Genesis. The Genesis was EA’s first video game system that we supported, and you always remember your first.”

Can anybody else see the glaring shards of crap, that William has, spouted here?  According to William, EA told Sega that the Dreamcast needed to be “an in-the-box” online gaming system, and that Sega were unsure/unkeen about commiting to being online….

Now I don’t want to sound like a spoilt, rich, teenage girl, but… “HELLO?”  What the hell is this man drivelling on about?!  Have I misunderstood this?

Not only was the Dreamcast the first games console with full online support, but it also had Internet access (to some extent) straight from launch.  It was one of the big things Sega had used to help sell the Dreamcast- being the first games console capable of full online play and Internet access.

And for crying out loud. “A 3d chip we can understand”?  If some snot-nosed, 16 year old programmer, with basic programs and no money can understand the Dreamcast chipset and create 3D games on their home PC - I think one of the biggest and richest Developers in the world can easily whip up a few games!

The Dreamcast is known among developers for being very easy to program for, one of the easiest in fact, which is how unofficial support for the system has been kept going so long after Sega pulled the plug on it. 

It was the Playstation 2 that had the harder to program 3D graphics chipset and no online support straight away - yet EA, despite using those two arguments against developing games for the Dreamcast, still opted for the Playstation 2…. and regarding online consoles, what about the freaking Gamecube?  EA were happy to support that!