So, you've been given the job of making the latest and greatest theme-park game. The objective: create an authentic theme-park experience in a box. Where do you start?
Jonny Watts, Senior Producer at Frontier Developments
Well, a good place might be to go to a few real theme parks and see how "the competition" does it! We've made quite a few games set in theme parks over the last few years now and although it really helps that we're nuts about roller coasters and theme parks in general,
Gears of War got us thinking: Massive explosions. Guts strewn everywhere. People running in terror. Few things ignite the minds of gamers like a good alien invasion. It may be bizarre or terrifying (and in the case of Gears of War, it may come from underground instead of outer space) but in video games, aliens always bring massive destruction in their wake. This week, we take a look back at the seven games with the most memorable, exciting or disturbing alien invasions... ever.
7. Halo 2
Developer Frontier has had experience creating other theme park-based games for the PC, such as RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. But Thrillville is different - it's been designed from the ground up for consoles and handhelds, including PS2, Xbox and PSP. With that comes a bevy of challenges - the most significant of those
As any horror-movie director can tell you, keeping up a tense atmosphere for 90 minutes of screen time isn't easy. So imagine, then, what it must be like to try and keep up that same level of tension over 40-plus hours of a survival horror game. No matter how intense you make it, sooner or later, your carefully constructed atmosphere of terror and despair is going to fall flat.
This Halloween, we'll explore seven of the least scary moments from some of the best horror games ever. Be
Tuesday 31 October 2006
Denmark-based developer Deadline surprised us all last year with Mexico-based shooter Total Overdose. Now the team is working on Chili Con Carnage for PSP, a remix of its sombrero-juggling, gun-toting actioner - Soren Lund, the game's director and producer, ran us through their recipe book.
You've promised the most explosions and takedowns per second of any PSP title. How have you made sure the game will live up to that boast?
At Deadline we establish a mantra or
You know that saying about the customer always being right? Yeah, that's true only so long as the customer continues to spend lots of lots of money. And if the average tourist family wants to funnel half their annual salary into your custom-built theme park, who are you to tell them they're wrong?
But Thrillville lets you do more than just overcharge your visitors for cheap t-shirts, styrofoam stuffed animals and grease-brick pizzas. As our fourth of six developer diaries explains, you can
It's rarely admitted, but people love throwing up. Think about it: why else would everyone on the planet have a throwing up story? You've got one. We've got several. It's one of life's gross little mysteries.
In fact, the only thing people love more than throwing up is almost throwing up, but not quite. Which is where amusement park rides come in. This week, we'll hear from one of the minds in charge of bringing you to the edge without pushing you
Tuesday 17 October 2006
Ah, bosses! How we love your meter-long life bars, cheap super-attacks and exposed weak points. It's The Rules that games have to have them, so in this roll-call we look at eight titans that really threw their weights around.
These are some of the biggest of the big, deserving of their boss status by barely fitting on the screen, let alone playing unfair.
The Hydra, God of War
In a game that does everything big, you expect some mighty bosses, but what you don't expect
While we're all eager to find out as many story details as possible from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, let's not kid ourselves; compelling narratives aren't what make GTA one of the most popular game franchises on the planet. They help, sure, but most of the fun in GTA comes from roaming around freely, exploring the cities and tearing ass in stolen rides.
But what about when you've already explored a city once before? With Liberty City Stories, the familiarity of exploring Liberty City
Regardless of your upbringing, financial situation or age, there's at least one pop culture war that you've chosen an unflinching side on. Coke or Pepsi? GI Joe or Transformers? Marvel or DC? The latter rivalry has almost lasted 80 years, gaining more steam as the decades go by. Now we've got the two comic companies fighting it out in movie theaters, toy aisles and even across every gaming console on the planet.
X-Men Legends is the superhero RPG by which all others are judged, so when
