David Jaffe: Marvel games need story; I agree

Spider-man!

David Jaffe may not be a household name, but just so you know, he’s the genius designer behind the Twisted Metal series for the Playstation and is also known for God of War. On his blog over here, he was seen criticising the guys who make games for Marvel’s movies and their comics, too maybe. Now that he mentions it, who makes those games anyways?

Man speaks the truth as he opens his blog post with the following lines:

Please stop putting Spiderman games in big open sandbox environments where you swing around and do oh so slight variations on 4 pretty dull mission types (chase/race/collect/etc) and then once in a while toss in a boss fight and/or a somewhat unique mission.

I mean seriously, we get the point: we get to swing around and stuff, but please; more emphasis on the stuff and less on the goddamn swinging.

Jaffe demands that Marvel’s comics are ace, but the games are terrible and the biggest problem here is that they are “POWER-BASED” and not “STORY-BASED”. Marvel’s comics are known for their great stories and scripts, as he mentions the big man Stan himself. You’d wish the games would follow suit, but they have to be ridiculous affairs that throw you into this huge story with repititive missions and lack of any sort of direction whatsoever.

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GPG confirms Dungeon Siege III

A Monster from Dungeon Siege II

Dungeon Siege not only represents an idea gone wrong, but also how you can waste about $50 on absolute boredom. While I have yet to play (i.e. never) Dungeon Siege II, I hear that it does not differ much from the point-click-kill-rinse-repeat formula. Seriously, the game had no storyline, no deep gameplay value, no detailed character customization, practically none of the hallmarks of Western role-playing games.

I could go on and on, but I restrain myself now to bring you this. Talking to Eurogamer Germany, Chris Taylor from Gas Powered Games confirmed that Dungeon Siege III will happen. Gas Powered Games is already working on Space Siege, a sci-fi RPG that looks like it will have some depth, but I can foresee that it won’t get nearly as much hype as Mass Effect.

As for details on the game, Taylor confirms that the game will be all about a single hero, unlike multi-character parties from the last game. This will go in tune with Space Siege, which focuses on a single protagonist and the changes he is willing to make on his body to take on alien adversaries. No other details have been announced yet, such as a release date or a platform. GPG’s games have, however, all been PC exclusives, so it’ll be a bit of a surprise if DS3 goes multi-console.

Vader’s apprentice from Force Unleashed now in Soulcalibur 4

Force Unleashed screenshot

In what appears to be a somewhat disturbing trend of cross-overs and cameos, we now have one more outlandish addition to Soulcalibur 4’s roster: Darth Vader’s apprentice. Star Wars nerds will be quick to point that there has been only one apprentice to Lord Vader, and that is the guy from Force Unleashed. So yeah, apparently he’s coming into Soulcalibur 4.

Darth Vader and Yoda have already been included into the roster, and we thought they were pretty much the only ones. For all we can guess now, though – we might have the entire Star Wars cast in a few seconds.

While Vader and Yoda were exclusive to the PS3 and the Xbox 360 respectively, the Force Unleashed apprentice will have no such restrictions and will be available to both consoles, because yeah – the loser apprentice is always nerfed enough to not be exclusive.

Meanwhile, rivalling series Mortal Kombat has got the DC Universe as a crossover. Batman vs. Sub-Zero or Lord Vader vs. Ivy? Must have!

Soulcalibur IV will be releasing on the Xbox 360 and PS3 on July 29. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, for the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS will be arriving on September 16.

BioWare CEO: More Licensed and Original Games coming

Ray Muzyka

BioWare, pretty much a juggernaut in the RPG section of the games industry made waves with Mass Effect, and have no intention of stopping just yet. BioWare is already on a roll with several titles under development, such as the sequel to Mass Effect, their original IP Dragon Age and the unannounced, top-secret BioWare-LucasArts “interactive product” thing.

Ray Muzyka, CEO of BioWare talked in an interview about Mass Effect, working on original or licensed IP and what’s up with Mass Effect with a hint of Dragon Age in the mix. Hit the jump to find out the details!

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id begins work on Doom 4, wants talented people like you

Doom Movie Logo

It’s that time of the decade again, when id rolls in and starts making announcements and advancements here and there. The video game veteran developer and virtually the founder of the FPS genre, id has announced that they are beginning work on Doom 4!

Currently they haven’t divulged any details other than it will continue the Doom Universe and the battle vs. evil, blah blah blah. But more importantly, id is hiring! id has announced that they are looking for talented individuals to join their uber-team to save the world from crappy video games! Hit the jump for some more stuff on this.

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New Prince of Persia coming, possibly titled ‘Prodigy’

Prince of Persia Concept Art

Rejoice, action-adventure fans! Ubisoft has released a press release saying that a new Prince of Persia game is in the works and will be ready by this year’s Holiday season, i.e. Holiday season 2008!

Ubisoft has also teased us with some more details, for which you’ll have to hit the jump. It’ll be worth it. 😉

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