Heavy Rain: And Hollywood drowns…

Let me get the situation clear for you. I work in a gamestore, and if I like a game that I see, I buy it. It happened with Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, Assassins creed 2 and so on. But this game was different…

Never before in my life, I was so eager to get a game as Heavy Rain. The mystery, the dark theme, the fact that it’s simple but challenging and the fact that the story is not pre-made for you. You, and only you are the one who makes the story. No, of course you can’t drift of the main story line, but at this point it’s rumored that the game has 25 different endings. 25 different endings? Imagine yourself being in the cinema for a movie you already saw and still, you won’t know how it’s going to end. That is awesome!

For those who don’t know heavy rain; It’s not quite a game; It’s an interactive drama. The game itself is one big movie, but at some points (And by some I mean a lot) you’ll have to interact; Choose between drinks, Play the right note on a piano, or maybe even have to decide over life or death. Evade a car by pressing the right button in a split second or risk your life by having to do button sequences; sometimes fast, sometimes slow. That’s the interactive part.

The drama part is different. The PEGI system classified the game 18+, and that fits great. There were a few moment in the game, I wanted to look away. Not because there is a lot of gruesomeness, the game is a psychological thriller, just like the saw-series. Furthermore, I have never felt myself being so much emotionally involved in a game then this one. With all these twists, melodramacy and the great expressions of the characters, you don’t have a choise.

I’m not going to tell anything about the story itself. It would spoil everything. I can tell you that the game is a mixture of saw, se7en, and a random melodrama. The thing that makes the game even more awesome is the fact that you don’t control just one person, but four main characters, which at some points cross roads or even interact, All leading to one major climax, which of course isn’t pre-determined as the main persons can die or put themselves in dangerous situations.

The developers not just focussed on the main game, but also on expansions (The first one is already released) This fact is really important, since the story itself can be done in half a day. Of course, playing the story different gives it a wider gameplay, but the expansions make the thing just perfect.

A turning point is the bugs. How can a developer spread a game around the world that is one big bug? A lot of reports online tell about freezing games, corrupted savefiles, missing screen/audio and even lost saves. That is quite outrageous for a game this big. The only thing we know is that sony and quantiodream are “looking at it”.

All I can say is that this game probably is one of PS3’s masterpieces, and one of the better games all-time. If you are prepared for a psycological windmill which won’t spare your emotions, then get this game!

NiSuTe special: Kalydo

At the Gamescom a few months ago, Kenneth and I walked humbly over the “Holland Pavillion” at the business area where all dutch gamedevelopers could have a word with each other, and have their business appointments. Chris van der Linden, Creative Director at Kalydo, approached us, and we had a great conversation. If all this went past you, click here for a refresh!  The conversation wasn’t that long, so we decided to pay them a visit. After all, Eindhoven is very close to NiSuTe’s office!

Kalydo is a young development company settled in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Starting out with a small group of friends, the company has been growing ever since. Chris is one of those founders: “We started with 4 people to develop in 2005. In the beginning we were all volunteers, we had a lot of part-timers and interns so we have seen a lot of people come and go. At this point we have 20 people working here.”

As the creative director, Chris has a busy schedule. “On mondays we usually have meetings with partners and other company’s, I’m also responsible for the marketing of our games, and bringing the product to the world. I work together with Rob, who is our gametech. The rest of the week I keep in contact with partners, do some photoshopping for the marketing, and send a lot of e-mails. My main job is to direct the whole artist department, both audio and visual aspects of the games.” The team is a very active one, and like to play their games themselves as well. If you look at the highscores, the team is very high in the leaderboards!

At this point 6 games are done, the seventh is on it’s way and the team is working hard on a new game. The first 6 games are colourfull, happy games. They can either be improvements of classic arcade games like brick breaker, or a whole new concept like ‘Cube: Gardens of Zen’; a puzzle game which requires a lot of spatial visualisation ability. At first hand all these games look like casual games for everyone to play, but games which hardcore gamers detest. But looks deceive! “All games which we make are a great compromise between casual and hardcore. The games are quick, easy to understand, but with great storylines and achievements that only die hard gamers can solve.” At this point all games are available in Dutch and English, but “more languages will be available in the future.”

As stated in the first article, Kalydo has a very special way of letting the audience play their games. You can buy credits for your account on Kalydo or a social network. With these credits, you can play the games, and when you played a certain game long enough, it becomes yours. In my opinion that’s a great system, for; when you don’t like a game, you didn’t waste too much money on it, and when you really like the game, you will never pay too much.

Kalydo isn’t just a company anymore, it has become a platform. “At this point, we have contact with some other companies who want to publish their games on the kalydo platform. This way, we aren’t just developers, but also publishers.” Netlog is the first social website which supports this platform. “If everything goes well, our full installment on the website will be this month (October 2009) and then we’re off ground on the social networks. We have 2000 players now, but we expect an upward line after this month.” Kalydo will also be available on Hyves. “The complete partnership with Netlog took us more then a year, so Hyves will take a while as well.”

So what’s new at Kalydo? “At this point, a game is opted for multiplayer as well. We try to make the game smaller, cut it into pieces, and since it’s browserbased, it will be easy to make it a multiplayer.” A new game is being made at this point and is called Haven. It’s a big shooter, which looks a lot like starfox, but darker and with a great story. It’s not yet clear when the game will be done, but expect to see it really soon!

This is a really interesting way of playing games on a new platform. Check out their websites as well!

Official Kalydo website: Click Here
Kalydo On Netlog: Click Here

Bomberman comes to your PS3!

Ever wanted Bomberman on your Playstation 3? Then this is your lucky day! A visual improvement, with the same gameplay as always!

The game is available for download now on the playstation Network. Hudson Soft states:

“This new downloadable version of Bomberman featuresall the elements that made the franchise our most popular game,” said Hiromi Tomisawa, Head of Europe Business, Consumer Contents Business Division. “Bomberman ULTRA will enthuse longtime fans of the series and demonstrate our commitment to keep the brand going strong across all platforms.”

The game can be played offline with 7 people, and online with 8, which gives the gameplay a great expansion. The game also features an online leaderboard which allows you to see how good you really are!

For those who don’t know Bomberman at all; It’s a great party game where players fight each other on a small, but strange field by placing bombs, grabbing upgrades, and remain alive as last. This simple, yet challenging gameplay first seen it’s light in 1980, winning prizes as “best multiplayer game ever”. Check out the nice visual samples on this page, and you can see for yourself!

Guitar Hero 5 rocks your socks off!

Of all the Rock Bands and Guitar Heroes that have passed in the few years, I never had that trigger to buy them, since Guitar Hero lacked the great multiplayer that I needed from Rock Band, and Rock Band didn’t have the quality that a “hardcore” music game should have. Read more

Gamescom: Ankama part 2

Well, Ankama gave us the oppurtunity to answer some of the dofus-community questions. Have fun reading!!!

1) Ankama is now putting a lot of effort into “class balancing”, which raises a lot of concern from players whose builds get heavily modified. Why is 1vs1 PvP the main source for the balancing? Ankama has long emphesized team play (dungeons, prospecting locks, etc), so shouldn’t the usefullness of classes in all sorts of fights, such as group PvM and team PvP, be considered? Read more

Gamescom: Ankama part 1

As far as I’m being told, at the E3 in 2004, Ankama had an extremely small stand in the very back of the expo. Located in France the company had 50 employees and were working on an MMORPG called Dofus. NiSuTe felt some kind of connection with the company and in the next five years we remained close contact. I am a Dofus player myself. Dofus keeps growing and growing and growing. But seeing this enormous stand of 200 square meters went beyond my wildest dreams. The company has almost 450 employees now and keeps getting bigger and bigger. Read more

New DJ-game announced with Armin van Buuren

Foreign Media Games, a Dutch publisher, were so kind to give us a presentation of the alpha version of an upcoming game called “In the Mix”. World’s Best DJ Armin van Buuren incorporated with the publisher to create  this.

Business Development Manager Vincent van Diemen explained where the idea came from: “Real DJ’s sometimes use wiimotes during their shows to make their shows even better”.

Another game at the gamescom DJ-hero is of course a big concurrent for In the mix: “we know we have a big concurrent, but Dj-hero is more of a party game where you can improve yourself in. We don’t want to call In the mix this way, but it is a kind of “simulator”. It’s a pretty realistic environment where you actually have to please the audience by mixing, sampling and posing”

The game has a big career mode in which players can start from scratch and work their way up to the top. Real festivals where DJ’s perform were asked if they would participate in this game as part of the adventure. Surprisingly, a lot of these organisations rejected the offer. “of course it’s a problem of ego, the big party’s don’t want to come in the beginning of the game, because they would look smaller then they actually are, or they want to choose their own spot. It makes it hard to work together. At this point, 20 existing locations approved though”.

The career mode has 7 hours of music. “A lot of songs have 12 minutes of length. We want to prevent too long songs and decided to make each song 3 minutes.” The mode will have 30 gigs and 2 songs (or more) pet gig. In the game, your manager will book the gig, and the DJ decides which music he plays. “sometimes there are a lot more older women, or younger kids in a venue. You will actually have to choose your songs to optimalize the environment. It sounds harder then it seems, don’t worry, you will be helped in the game”. As the title says, a lot of music is made bij world greatest DJ Armin van Buuren. “We talked to a lot of DJ´s without immediatly take a desicion, but it was pretty clear that we would work together with Armin.”

Foreign Media Games also works together with Pioneer. “you can collect money after each gig to buy new equipment. We use actual pioneer equipment in the game”. The new equipment is really functional since you can equalise much better with better headphones. the crowd will also get more excited by better sound, speakers and light.

The interaction with the audience can also be improved by taking poses. The nunchuk and the wiimote can be used to clap, beat or make cool poses. If you do it at the right time, you will build up the excitement and you will get more points.

The game also has a tutorial mode for starters. A party mode is also available where you can actually sit down on the couch and have fun with your friends. Van Diemen: “It’s not multiplayer. it’s really hard to make multiplayer for these kind of games, but we are still trying to make it.” A studio mode is also available, where you can make, mix and save your own songs.

We were really curious if the Wii Motion Plus will be used in the game. “We have it in mind to use, but it’s not priority. If we can add that quick, and if it’s actually useful, we might consider it”

Development for In the Mix started in the start of 2009 and is planned for release in March 2010. The game will be €50.

Gamescom: Sega wins award

Sega just won a prize for their game Mario & Sonic at the olympic wintergames; Best of family entertainment. NiSuTe Europe would like to congratulate Sega on this achievement!

The game is the follow up of the 2 year old prequel. The concept remained the same, the games are of course new. It’s possible to bobsled with your wii balance board and do more official olympic games.

There are also unique original games included called Dream games, which include snowball fights, snowboarding in mario kart style and much much more.

There is also a DS version of the game which do has an improvement. Sega stated: “The multiplayer mode is barely used in the prequel, so we didn’t want to keep the concept the same this time. We kept the multiplayer but improved the singleplayer with a story mode”

Kalydo: The Dutch at Gamescom

While social network websites like  Facebook and Hyves expand and become more and more popular for any age, Some game developers see a big market; From the possibility to place bubble shooter on your website, to the large contests of guessing the score at the world championships of soccer.

Read more

Gamescom: BigBen takes casual gaming to a higher level

The casual gaming industry is getting larger and larger due to easy accessible platforms like Wii and NDS. BigBen gaming is a French publisher who works together with a lot of developers. In general they have 2 main projects; Making accessory for all platforms and making games.

The first is a big project. BigBen makes accessory for all platforms like DS-cases and controllers. New innovations are also being made. A good example is the power charger for wiimotes and ds, which don’t require you to remove the protection; kind of a wireless loader. Read more

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