Over the course of their fifteen years together, the good people at Evolution Studios have made nine racing games, including 2001’s WRC: World Rally Championship and its four sequels, and 2006’s MotorStorm, its two sequels, and a spin-off. Which is why it’s so odd that their latest, DRIVECLUB for the PlayStation 4, has such fundamental flaws that it seems like it was made by a studio with far less experience.
In 1999, the co-writer of Alien, the late Dan O’Bannon, told me that once you’ve seen the movie, you should never watch it again. “It simply cannot be as effective,” he said. “We are afraid of the unknown. When it is known, it’s not as scary.”
But O’Bannon might’ve changed his mind if he’d gotten to play Alien Isolation, a very scary first-person stealth action survival horror from Creative Assembly that Sega are bringing to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.
The last thing anyone needs is another matching game. Well, okay, really, the last thing anyone needs is a terrible illness, to feel unsafe at work or in their home, and a free U2 album, but after that, the last thing anyone needs is another matching game. But in talking to Charlie Gu, the Chief Jolly Jammer and CEO at Dreamics, it seems that their matching game, Jolly Jam (iOS) may actually be a bit different.
In 1963, The Beach Boys said we should go surfin’ now, since everyone was learnin’ how. But what if you can’t swim, don’t live near water, or just fear sharks so much that you won’t even go into a pool, let alone the ocean? No worries, you can just play Surfy, a new iOS surfing game from DreamWalk Interactive. Though in talking to lead game developer Sam Russell, it seems that doing well at Surfy won’t necessarily mean you’re good at surfin’ the U.S.A.
In 2011, when Turn 10 Studios added optional braking and steering assists to Forza Motorsport 4, they changed their serious racing sim into, well, a still serious racing sim that could also be played as a less realistic racer. But while this was much appreciated, for fans of the latter (like me), it didn’t quite go far enough. Now Playground Games, under the supervision of Turn 10, have improved things further with the Xbox One version of Forza Horizon 2 (the Xbox 360 version of which was made by Sumo Digital, and not provided to me for review). Which is why, despite having some rather irritating issues and a structural problem, Forza Horizon 2 leads the pack as this generation’s best racing game.
With The Pinball Arcade, FarSight Studios have brought classic pinball tables from Williams, Bally, and Stern to the PlayStation 4, 3, and Vita, iOS and Android devices, PCs, and the even the Kindle Fire and Ouya. But how exactly do they recreate those classic pinball machines so exactly, and what does the future hold for this series (and does that include bringing this series to the Xbox One)? I spoke to art director Jason Juneau (who’s been at the company for six year, starting as an animator) and Lead Designer Bobby King (another six year vet who’s also the VP of Product Development), to find out.
With combat that requires you to be tactical, strategic, and careful, the upcoming third-person fantasy action game Lords Of The Fallen — which Namco Bandai will release October 28th on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC — might seem like yet another Dark Souls wannabe. But in talking to executive producer Tomasz Gop from CI Games while trying my best to play it, it became clear that Lords Of The Fallen is trying to do something different…but not a lot different.
Whitney Houston once sang that children are our future. And that’s certainly true when it comes to making video games. Consider Fat Loot, a PC game made by a couple of kids from USC’s GamePipe Lab (a class held in conjunction with the university’s Viterbi School Of Engineering and their Interactive Media division), which you can now play free at fatlootgame.com. So what’s it all about? I spoke to Chen, the team leader on Fat Loot, and Pat, the game’s lead designer, about their interactive final exam.
With a science fiction setting, jetpacks, and a studio called Red 5, no one would fault you for thinking that the free-to-play PC sci-fi shooter MMO Firefall is one funny ’droid short of being a Star Wars game. But in talking to James Macauley, the CEO of Red 5 Studios and production lead for Firefall, it turns out that George Lucas’ space opera isn’t the only big influence on this game.