GDC crosspost 1

I need to have words with Mr. Matt Leone. I didn’t get to sit in on one GDC panel today — and panels are the heart and soul of this event. I can talk to developers about specific games any time, but this is the only chance I have to sit and soak in the wisdom and experiences of the medium’s most creative minds. Wasted! And all because he scheduled me for all these other things, tsk. But here’s what I did do today:

  • Played flOw for PSP. Full preview forthcoming, but here’s a spoiler: It’s flOw for PSP.
  • Demo of Mass Effect for PC. Again, full preview forthcoming, but: same great RPG taste, shinier graphics and interface. But the most interesting part of the demo, I think, actually had nothing to do with added content: BioWare showed the entirety of the Liara/male Shepard love scene — basically, an effort to defuse the “porno sex simulator” misinformation that’s spread about the game by showing how utterly bland and inoffensive the scene actually is. It was kinda weird since everyone in the room had played the game and presumably seen the sequence; mostly I just find it interesting that they felt pressured enough by bad publicity to tip their hand by showing a late-game story spoiler.
  • Nintendo Treehouse Interview re: WiiFit. Apparently I had great balance on my right leg and can’t balance for crap on my left. I’m gonna blame the cold medicine.
  • Nintendo Treehouse interview re: WiiWare. Unfortunately, not very informative — I think I learned about as much from the press release. Nintendo’s quite good at being tight-lipped!
  • Oh, and I played this one game called Fez. It was pretty okay, I guess. (And by that I mean I completely loved it.)

Of course, the real draw of GDC, besides the panels, is networking. I bumped into quite a few familiar faces as a matter of course throughout the day, and even met up with occasional 1UP freelancer Benj Edwards (who has been responsible for some excellent, in-depth retrospectives over the past year). If you’re here and see me around — I’m the short guy in a long black coat and burgundy scarf — say hello. I probably won’t be too freaked out. Probably.

Tomorrow: Bionic Commando Rearmed. It’s gonna be a good day.

8 thoughts on “GDC crosspost 1”

  1. is Fez a game? or a tech demo?
    man, that game seems like it’d be hard to make levels for. does look fun though.

  2. Well, it does look like they made it with only one way to go at a time in the clip. What platform is it for? It feels, so far, alot like cavestory and I’d really like to try it.

    Hope it’s not for PS3, I’m kinda tired a handful of fun looking, original games coming out for system I don’t want to own. I’m looking at you PSP.

  5. It took me a little while watching that Fez video before I realized the real innovation in it. I now I have an idea how humanity felt when it first made the wheel or fire, and I hope whoever brought us Fez isn’t too attached to his liver.

  6. Blame the cold medicine, sure. Then the right leg will slowly get stronger and start taking over for the left leg in all things big and small. You won’t even notice. Then your gait will feel uneven. The doctor will say it’s nothing to worry about. The chiropractor will take your money and straighten your spine. Then you will forget about the gait and the stronger right leg. Then your left knee will start hurting while you’re running and you’ll end up in surgery. Then you will struggle to strengthen that left leg for more than a year, unable to do any real exercise without causing the knee further pain outside of old-woman type pool workouts.

    Or not. I’m just saying. It could happen that way. It’s all right, though. You can just visit websites about video games to try and forget the pain. Unless someone on one of these sites writes a throw-away comment that brings all the pain to the surface.

    Well, crying time has come early tonight, so I must go.

  7. For anyone still looking for platform information, it looks like it’s a game made with MS’s XNA tools. This is bad for me, since I own neither an Xbox nor a PC, but I suppose it’ll be good for some of you.

    I’ll try to console myself with Echochrome… though honestly Fez is looking more fun.

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