They sure are trying to redefine the franchise with this one. Ed Boon and his team picked a tough a road ahead of them, full of challenges and compromises, but they’re chugging along quite well from the looks of it. Their focus on bringing downloadable content to the game is also very ambitious, but will we see downloadable fatalities and other finishing moves? “You know what, that’s a really good idea! That’s something we definitely have to keep in mind,” Ed answered.

I’ve had my eye on Dead Space since I first saw EA with a little booth at Wondercon, showing off a short concept trailer and their #1 issue of the prequel comic. I had a chat there with Alex Charlow, one of the game’s developers. We talked for almost an hour before I realised I should have been recording it all! This senior producer Chuck Beaver steps up to tell us more about the development of Dead Space.

They have a lot of cool stuff planned for Comicon, so stay tuned! Oh and ehm, EA. Loved your showroom at E3 and all, but the changing colours had kind of an unusual effect on our interviewees .

Derek Dutilly wants you to rise up from your couch and get engaged with his newest movied based game: High School Musical 3. He also let us know that it’s important for Disney that the game expands the user’s experience of their franchises, which have almost always involved music and dance. Derek, the floor is all yours!

I wish all game demo sessions at E3 were like Derek’s.

Paul Barnett, creative director for Warhammer Online, has single-handedly convinced me that Warhammer Online is definitely worth our hard earned cash. How? He puts the W in wittiness.

What’s wrong with the pogo stick anyway? I love the pogo stick!

It’s all on DailyMotion for now. YouTube’s been screwing up the sound for some strange reason. If you know how to fix this, please let us know!

The poster presentations at the Digra conference were downright underestimated by the attendents. But a mere handful of people actually took the interest to have a look and experience the hidden booty that was there. One person who faithfully stood next to his poster was Dan Pinchbeck from the University of Portsmouth. He had quite an interesting thing to present. Here’s an excerpt:

“In early 2007, we were awarded a speculative research grant to investigate the use of first-person gaming platforms for experimental narrative projects. A small development studio has been established and has produced a completed single-user experience, based upon the Source engine. A second experimental single-player experience is at beta stage, and a third is planned. The completed mod embeds extensive, randomized narrative fragments in audio triggers throughout a bespoke environment. supplemented by abstract visual and audio media assets. [...] The second mod subverts traditional squad-based play by using custom fixed-state AI expansion of existing Half Life 2 agents to create an experience where the player becomes leader of a helpless squad with discernible individual characteristics in a hostile environment. Although it is not envisaged that this will be completed at the time of presentation, a proof-of-concept demo will be on display. Finally, footage and information of an additional, multi player game developed to test mod concepts and already in the public domain will be displayed”

What the excerpt doesn’t tell you, is how awesome the ‘Antlion Soccer‘ mod is. And guess who had a demonstration. I’ll be sure to mention when it’s out!

My very first interview. Ever. Sadly enough, the quality of the sound is not the best. After a bit of audio engineering, it’s still not the best. I’ll leave it up your personal hearing to decide if it’s understandable or not.

According to Paul Travers, president and CEO of Vuzix, the Tokyo Game Show was their first public appearance with these particular products. After a long history in medical and defense related activities, their digital eyewear technology has finally taken a turn for the mass market. In this interview, Paul and I talk about the future of eyewear, the contrast between social and private use of media and the future of immersion in videogames through advanced visual and tactile hardware.

Put a headset on. It helps.

The Japanese mobile game industry has some differences to a random Western counterpart: it exists. And it’s big, too. In the preceding interview, you already had a chance of tasting the interesting new ways with which NTT DoCoMo is trying to broaden their market. Now feest your eyes on this!

I talked with Taku Suzuki. Assistant manager at SoftBank Mobile, another giant amongst cellphone companies. They’ve got a different approach when it comes to broadening the market for mobile games: try em for free! Suzuki-san and I discussed SoftBanks’ current market strategy, the value of multiplayer in mobile games and where mobile gaming is heading in Japan.

We’re lagging behind. Big time.

Here we are! The second item in a line of interesting and innovative ways of play that I found during the Tokyo Game Show 2007!

This time, I have the honor of talking to Hiroshi Tanioku. He’s an assistant manager over at NTT DoCoMo, one of the largest cellphone providers in Japan. They were displaying a new line of mobile phones at the TGS, which had Wii like motion sensing capabilities. Bowling on your mobile phone has never been that awesome! I took the opportunity to ask him about the current situation of the mobile game industry in Japan, where they’re heading with this technology and what Tanioku-san thinks about expanding the mobile game market.

No Steve Irwin impersonations this time folks. Well. Not on purpose!

There sure were some hidden treasures at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. Did someone say force feedback? That doesn’t cover this piece of machinery at all. It actually gives tactile resistance! Lifting boxes is heavy. Explosions push your hand away. Shooting guns actually gives you real recoil. Man did I have a blast using this (Steve Irwin imitation) “awesome new controllah!”

I interviewed Mats Lordin. He’s Chief Executive Officer over at ReachIn Technologies. They built the engine and adapted several games (like Quake 4) for it. We had a talk about their work on the Haptx engine, the medical history of the controller and how this could influence our sense of gameplay. I also got an impressive demonstration.

Enjoy.

The Tokyo Game Show really rocked my socks off today. Time flew as I was trying my best to get as many good pictures as possible while fending off all the nice people who were willing to have a nice chat with me. After a rapid recon round to get some pictures of the event, it was time to mingle with the industry people. I also got a shot at my first ‘VGView’ (thats what I’m calling my interviews, so get used to it) with the CEO from Vuzix. Read the rest of this entry »