We were home a few days ago, with Studiosushi and Khao doing a photoshoot for this very blog (pics coming soon), when Gameinformer.com broke out the news that DotA 2 was coming to a PC near you. We first got excited, then we were frustrated that we couldn’t visit their site for some time: it was down. Too many people hitting, like us.
Seriously, when is the last time one game announcement took a major site down? DotA 2 is something special. While I don’t need to be convinced – I’m in DotA rehab right now, getting my competitive fix out of the much healthier StarCraft 2 – here are a couple words in case you did.
Early next week, I’ll send Loic Claveau a set of questions about the upcoming Guild Wars 2, which I, together with R4VI4TOR, got introduced to behind close doors at Gamescom. It is safe to say we are part of the in-crowd, now.
Loic is a the head of community at NCSoft Europe. As most of the people featured here, I got to know Loic when I was into pro gaming. He was then a gaming journalist and a regular at some of the nicest gaming centers in Paris.
The interview will cover the following topics:
Guild Wars 2 in general
Community in Guild Wars 2. Remember, this is Loic’s focus.
Working in the gaming industry
If these topics got you inspired, you’re more than welcome to propose your questions in the comments below. Maybe they’ll end up in the interview!
I already got a bunch from Predator_Kill_All_, with whom I’ve been talking about this interview for months now. I’m also going to specifically email the authors of the top 5 Guild Wars opinions.
I’ll send the questions to Loic on Monday, make sure you come up with yours before that.
[update] I thought West & Zampella, the main guys behind Modern Warfare 2 were working at this new Medal of Honor game. It turns out they’re not. Both games still look a lot like each other, though. See for yourself. [/update]
Today, dotsMarc was home andwe tried the Medal of Honor beta on the super duper PC I was lent a couple weeks ago (soon I’ll say more about it, it’s kind of the fastest PC ever). Below, dotsMarc in action.
We played in 1920×1080 (but no AA or Anisotropic Filtering) for this video. And we had the 3D glasses on and all since the game actually supports stereo 3D (no way I could video capture it though).
I’m not that much of an FPS specialist. All I could say about this game is that it looks way too much like Modern Warfare 2 to me.
That’s why I went to R4VI4TOR who had much more interesting stuff on his mind:
“Well MoH meets todays standards, but it doesnt seem to go further. For me as Battlefield player, playing MoH is a step backwards. The maps are too small. The fast dieing, respawning and again dieing is nothing for me either. A game that doesnt have a medic or revive feature shouldn’t come without a spawn protection. At least the servers and the ping were totally stable. The game didn’t crash anymore today. Yesterday was hell. MoH MP is good for a quick session of non-minded shooting but I miss large areas like in BF, destructible environments, and real teamplay. Its only rush rush rush.”
Last month at Gamescom, Runic Games’ final boss, Max Schaefer, said yes to me!
I was only proposing for an interview but I still found it to be quite a big deal.
Torchlight’s daddy is definitely someone I would have wanted to talk to: not that I had played his game (now I have) but I had heard and read so much about it all year. Not to mention it’s one of the best ranked games on Gamocracy.
Icing on the fiery cake, Max and his crew somehow managed to make us believe that their very nice inaugural game was only the first course in an XXL super sized gaming meal we didn’t even know we had ordered.
Not a specialist of Action RPG’s, I asked for some help from Gamocracy’s community to find the right questions. Acerayl from Tempe, Arizona, answered the call with an amazing set of his own. In the end there’s more of his stuff than mine below.
Many thanks Acerayl!
On to the interview…
# About Max Schaefer, gaming careers & Runic Games
Hello Max, you have come a long way from VP of Blizzard North, through your time at Flagship, and now at Runic Games. What advice can you give to those who are looking to start their own game studio?
Make the game that best suits the talents of the team. Do not try to hastily assemble a group to do a particular project. Your first projects should be small, efficient, and quick. Build your way up to bigger projects over time as your team gains experience.
The other day I was browsing around when I came across an interesting Kayane interview on some French website I can’t remember the name of…unfortunately. The little big French woman was talking about how she had just won a Super Street Fighter IV tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada, playing Chun-Li.
A fighting games veteran from the Paris area, Kayane’s been going around like that for years to play her favorite titles: the Soul Caliburs, some DOA, and lately Super Street Fighter 4.
She’s won quite a lot, even against the boys, so much that Namco ended up creating an AI wearing her name and imitating her pitbullish style of play. What kind of achievement is that?
We were home a few days ago, with Studiosushi and Khao doing a photoshoot for this very blog (pics coming soon), when Gameinformer.com broke out the news that DotA 2 was coming to a PC near you. We first got excited, then we were frustrated that we couldn’t visit their site for some time: it was down. Too many people hitting, like us.
The other day I was browsing around when I came across an interesting Kayane interview on some French website I can’t remember the name of…unfortunately. The little big French woman was talking about how she had just won a Super Street Fighter IV tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada, playing Chun-Li.