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Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker | Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

the source of the game info















From the interview with Mike Arkin, from www.avpnews.com...




Conducted by Sadogoat, March 2003

With the release of the newest console-bound Aliens versus Predator game, we just had to make contact with the chaps at Zono and talk about this game, entitled Aliens versus Predator: Extinction.

SG: Before we get cracking with this interview, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background in the games industry to date?

MA: My name is Mike Arkin and I’ve been involved in game production for about 15 years. I started at Acclaim where I worked on many different games including WWF, T2, the Simpsons and X-men. Since then I’ve worked at Fox on Die Hard Trilogy and the first AVP game, I produced Battlezone at Activision and I worked for Crave on Battlerealms and Global Ops. Now I am the producer at Zono and I’m helping get AVP:E finished!

SG: Okay, first off with the really obvious questions like “Why a RTS game”? At least 90% of Alien/Predator games have been first-person shooters since 1994, so Extinction marks a departure from ‘tradition’. Given that the three species involved have never been involved in large scale conflicts on screen to date (or in games), why was it felt that a strategy game was the way to go with these properties?

MA: Well, this is an interesting question. I can say that for a long time there has been talk about how AVP naturally lends itself to a strategy game. In Aliens the movie, we see a group of marines fighting a large group of aliens and the movie hints at the fact that the marines go to other planets and fight other bad things. So this game was a way to recreate those battles in a way that was a bit different then the existing FPS games.

SG: Under its former title, Natural Selection, this project seems to have been kicking around since 2001 (probably earlier) without any significant information filtering out to the general public during that time. Has development proved particularly difficult over this period of time, given the franchises involved and the choice of game genre they’ve been introduced into?

MA: Development has not been particularly difficult in any one way, but sometimes games take a bit longer to make then is the plan.

SG: Does Extinction bear any structural similarities to your last title, Metal Fatigue, expanding on features or concepts introduced with that title? Or have you pretty much started “from scratch” with Extinction?

MA: I’ll let Jason answer this one since he was here for MF:

Jason: For the most part we started from scratch. Because this game was built from the beginning to be a console game, the areas we needed to focus on differed greatly from Metal Fatigue. Most of what we brought with us from Metal Fatigue was experience and technical know-how, rather than any specific gameplay feature.

SG: Inevitable comparisons are being drawn between Extinction and Blizzard’s Starcraft (itself having perceptible AvP influences). What’s your take on this?

MA: I love it. Starcraft is one of the defining games of the RTS genre and it’s an honor to be compared to it. I hope that the Blizzard guys play our game as much as we’ve all played theirs.

SG: The notion of a “real-time strategy” title has long implied a game that revolves around resource management as much as action - at least until recent times. How much of a role does resource management play in Extinction? (also taking into consideration the somewhat questionable idea of self-sufficient species like Aliens & Predators having “resources” ?

MA: Well, I agree that resource management is one of the features that make a game a RTS and not just a tactical strategy game. We do have a bit of resource management, but just not in the traditional “worker units collect gold or food” sense. What we have are 3 different resource models that are more attuned to the specific fiction of each race.

The marines repair Atmospheric processors (atmo’s) which generate cash for the marines to order more units via drop ship. In addition the company pays a small bounty for each alien or predator killed so the marines generate cash for winning in combat. This is probably the most RTS-like of all of the resource models.

The Predators are all about generating honor. The more honor that you get the more units that you can order from the Elders. Predator’s primary source of honor is derived from collecting the skulls of the enemy units. In addition they also get a small amount of honor each time they kill an enemy.

The Aliens get some “cash” in the form of resin points for kills, but the primary way that they create new units is by hatching eggs and using host organisms to grow new Aliens. Just like the movies! The resin points are used to upgrade units and lay hive nodes, which create hive webbing (that yucky stuff that you see on the walls in Aliens).

SG: Real-time strategy games have long been primarily PC-based, often due to the control systems involved. This being the case, how easy will it be to pick up and play Extinction using a console controller? Furthermore, will the Playstation 2 version have USB keyboard & mouse support?

MA: Simple answer is that we have created this game from scratch as a console game and as a result the game is very easy to control with a console controller. This also means that there is no mouse support. It would not make sense with the current control system.

SG: Screenshots released prior to this time of writing have all solely presented outdoor environments from the game. However, will there also be indoor battles in the kind of claustrophobic environments that the Aliens have repeatedly haunted in both games and films alike?

MA: Yes, absolutely. We have a few different indoor environments and they look really cool!

SG: Observant fans have noticed that some of the units depicted in Extinction screenshots seem to bear an uncanny resemblance to those seen in Monolith’s Aliens Versus Predator 2 (for example, the Iron Bear-style mercs & the Marines with orange shoulder-pads). Was this an intentional design decision or purely coincidental?

MA: This was intentional. Fox has created a look for the AVP games that they want to be a consistent look for all of the AVP games and we kept that consistency. Keep in mind that orange shoulder pads make it easier to identify your units on your television screen -- even if it's small, and you're sitting back a bit!

SG: One fan concern that has been echoed quite a few times is the choice of units made available - particularly in regard to Alien hybrids and some of the more ‘elaborate’ Predator & Marine units. When deciding on what units would be available for each of the three species, how finely was a balance drawn between faithfulness to ‘established canon’ (i.e. the movies) and ‘artistic liberty’. Or, in other words, how many of the units were conceived from scratch in contrast to those already firmly established in the Alien/Predator universes?

MA: I’ll hand this off to Peter who is the unit guy here at Zono:

Peter: It depends on the species. For the Marines, the Medic is the only new addition, and it's such a standard concept I can't see it offending too many people. For the Predators, we added five units, the Vanguard, the Military Hydra, the Military Blazer, the PredGun and the Shrine. The Aliens have four new units -- the Praetorian Hugger, the Praetorian Egg, the Carrier and the Ravager.

Each unit also has an upgrade, and many of these take old units in new directions. It's also the case that certain units from the franchise have come back with new powers. For instance, the Praetorian can now vomit huge quantities of her own blood on nearby units.

Our motivation behind this "artistic liberty" was twofold:

1. Make the game competitive with other RTS titles. Games like WarCraft 3 and Age of Mythology have hordes of unique units and special abilities. If we stuck with only what had come before in the franchise, we'd have an Alien side with a small number of simple melee units. That would get old in about an hour for most people. RTS's are far more demanding in that regard than FPS's.

2. To give an old franchise new content. This is particularly important for expanding the franchise to new people -- ones that don't have an attachment to a rigorous definition of the universe and are in need of exciting stuff to draw them in. Stagnant franchises are dying franchises, and we want to avoid that.

That said, we're pretty hard core fans of the franchise ourselves, so we've tried to stay true to it. People with the Colonial Marines Technical Manual will certainly see that we've done our homework.

And hopefully fans will like what we've done. Much of what we've tried to do is to "go for the jugular" with the new stuff and use it to make the universe meaner and more intense. You aren't going to see any baby human/Alien crossbreeds, that's for sure!

SG: Two of the three species in the game (i.e. Alien & Predators) don’t use monetary currencies - usually a mandatory commodity for purchasing new units and upgrades in most RTS titles. This being the case, how will they improve their forces during the game? Will the system be based on a “battle experience” point system instead (like those seen in RTS titles like Starship Troopers and Star Wars: Force Commander?)?

MA: I think I answered this above. Each race has a different way to collect “money” and a different way to spend it.

SG: The Predator’s vision modes have long played a significant part in its modus operandi. Will they play any significant part in Extinction, given that it doesn’t use first-person perspective and most enemy units will be visible on all sides anyway?

MA: Vision modes do indeed play a major role in Extinction. Many of the ranged Predators receive significant weapon range bonuses when using enhanced vision modes. Two Predators in particular -- the Hunter and the Stalker -- become especially brutal when using these modes, as they can often kill their prey before it even gets close enough to counterattack.

SG: We tend to ask this with every new Alien/Predator-based game that involves the Colonial Marines - was Lee Brimmicombe-Wood’s popular Colonial Marines Technical Manual used as a significant resource when deciding on and designing the game’s units for the USCM?

MA: Isn’t that a great book! We did use it for reference, but in some places we created units and weapons that go beyond what is in the book. Keep in mind that this game takes place a few years after Aliens and Weyland Yutani was quite busy making new hardware for the Marines in that time.

SG: How many of the previous Aliens Versus Predator titles did you play through while researching for Extinction?

MA: The team played all of them. I personally played them all myself especially since I worked on the first AVP.

SG: Is it safe to assume that Aliens movie staples such the APCs, Dropships, Powerloaders and Sentry Guns all appear in the game in as well as later concepts such as the ExoSuit?

MA: Yup! You get units from the Dropship, you can order up Sentry Guns (and the upgraded Sentry Gun kicks some serious ass!) and when you have cash to burn you can order up an ExoSuit which is a serious bullet hose! No APC’s though, that was a feature of the game that was dropped a while back for playability reasons.

SG: At what point in the Aliens/Predator universe timeline does Extinction take place? Given that the USCM seems to have long vanished by the time of Alien Resurrection, would it therefore be safe to say that Extinction takes place during the 200 year span between the events Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection?

MA: Yes, it’s not that long after Aliens, but way before Alien Resurrection.

SG: In recent times, Electronic Arts have made somewhat controversial steps to ensure that blood & gore are minimised in their published titles in order to broaden the target age ranges for their products (examples include Medal of Honor & Battlefield 1942). Given that both the Alien and Predator properties are rather violent franchises with considerable levels of gore, how will EA’s stance affect the presentation and content of Extinction? Will it be ‘gore-free’? Or will it stick to its guns and keep the graphic bloodshed?

MA: We have some blood, but it is tasteful. Of course Aliens have yellow acid blood and the synthetics have white blood. Blood or not, though, the units in this game do some pretty nasty things to each other, and I don't think anyone will feel that the intensity and viciousness in this title is anything less than what a fan would expect from the franchise.

SG: Obviously the game will have three separate campaigns, one for each species. Will there also be “Skirmish” or “Instant Battle” modes as well?

MA: No, we choose to focus on a story driven campaign game.

SG: As tends to be the case with AvP or Aliens titles for console format, the PC owners (particularly fans of the PC-based AvP series) often feel left out. Do you personally think a PC port might be possible if the console versions are well-received? Would Zono be up for the task?

MA: It’s certainly possible.

SG: Given that Extinction is a console game, does this mean that a custom scenario editor is out of the question as a feature?

MA: Yep, sorry!

SG: There’s been no mention of any multiplayer component for Extinction thus far, despite both Xbox and Playstation 2 now having online capabilities. Is this mainly because both consoles have only introduced online components and services late in the development of the game?

MA: Wow, I was about to give a long answer to this one, but you hit it right on the head! When we started we planned to add multiplayer, but when we reached the critical point in the schedule when multiplayer needed to go in, the hardware manufacturers were not ready with the online components so we had to choose to drop that feature.

SG: Of the “Big Three” console formats, the Nintendo Gamecube seems to have been left in the dark in regard to this game. Is this due to the Cube’s market performance or was there another reason why this particular format was left out of the proceedings?

MA: That was ultimately Fox’s choice, I’m not sure but the thinking may have been that the GC was really a platform for a younger player and might not fit with this style of game.

SG: Do you hope to have the game on show at this year’s E3 Expo?

MA: Absolutely.

SG: Which Alien film and which Predator film had the most influence on you while designing Extinction?

MA: Clearly Aliens. Personally I see it as the only good movie in the whole franchise. Oh and the original Predator is a fantastic movie. I love Jessie the Body.

SG: Finally, aside from the attraction of the core licence/properties, what do you feel AvP: Extinction will offer gamers over and above the myriad other RTS titles already out there?

MA: I’ll hand this off to Peter again:

Peter: Taken as a whole, I think our combat combines elements from some really great RTS's and turns out a mix unlike any other RTS to date. We're close to the action like Myth, so we can make combat up close and personal and much more visceral than what you'd get in an epic scale RTS where the camera is pulled back. But, we've got about 30 units and each unit has multiple special abilities and an upgrade that is a lot more than just a statistics change. We've really gone beyond even StarCraft in that regard. I mean, heck, if the upgraded synthetic gets decapitated, he can even return to battle without his head! Finally, when battles really get going in our game, look out. When I asked one of my colleagues at another RTS studio for feedback on our title, he said this: our best achievement was that even in battles involving only a handful of units, we had captured some of the feel of combat in Total Annihilation. There's just that much carnage going on. So, I think we've got something unique here, and I'm pretty psyched to see what the fans think.

SG: Okee doke, I think that about concludes our interrogation. Any final comments you’d like to offer to the AvP gamers out there?

MA: This game rocks, please buy it.

Awesome, I love star craft. Thanks for that cool information and pictures dude. Good work my friend!

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker | Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Not a prob. I came across this info a few months back, and realized the other day that neo might have more. Then i came across here and said, why not. I'm lookin' forward to this game a lot. I'm not too big an aliens fan, I mean, i only have AVP, AVP II, Alien Trilogy, Alien Resurection, and was pissin' mah pants to get my hands on Aliens: Colonial Marines, until that game got cancelled. The only downside to this game is that it doesnt have online support or multiplayer, or even skirmish fights, but then again, the campaigns should be more than enough to hold me over. I'm hoping you can save at any point in game, therefore you can sort of mak custom saves and play your favorite part over and over again. Well, i'll keep looking on websites as time progresses.


So this thing is coming in June 2K3. One month. Woofah! Finally. Now if only AVP II would get a PS2 port...my computer is crap. It's got a GeForceII 32MB...blech...and a P4, 1.7ghz . Decent processor, crappy vid'. Can barely play it. Looks great though. I know the PS2 could definitely handle it, i guess it's all up to fox. And they make bad game decisions when it comes to consoles and marines/aliens/pred' games. Anyhow, my fingers are crossed!

:bump:


more info and screens from IGN...

~June 12, 2003 - In the fat bestiary of horrific monster, alien and sci-fi movies to grace the silver screen, few have managed to balance so many genres as well as the first Alien in 1979. An incredibly tense, frightening and surprising film, Ridley Scott's Alien weaved seamlessly between horror, sci-fi, adventure and mystery genres without a single face-hugger to block the view. The second film (which appeared in 1986) grew and transformed the Alien concept into a furious, heart-pounding action movie and in the process Sigourney Weaver managed to become one of the greatest female action heroes of all time. After four movies, a line of action figures, hundreds of comic books, and various other media including the Alien video and PC games, the Alien intellectual property has without a doubt few rivals in its authenticity, scope and popularity.

In the late 1980s, action and creature fans alike were treated to something entirely different, in the xenomorphic form of the Predator. First appearing in the Arnold Schwarzenegger action film, Predator, this vicious, technologically advanced Xenomorph appeared on swelteringly hot days and killed humans for sport, using an array of weaponry, powerful athletic abilities, and a ferocious appetite for hunting, just for the glory of it.

While Aliens and Predators have appeared on PC screens numerous times before, they have never appeared on consoles as a realtime strategy game, until now. Fox Interactive and Electronic Arts, along with developer Zono Inc., have teamed up to undertake this intriguing project, which is due for PlayStation 2 and Xbox in late July. With all of the fame and mindshare both properties have garnered over the years, one would think that Aliens Vs. Predator: Extinction would be steam rolling a huge freeway of hype behind it, yet this little RTS seems to have slipped under the radar for numerous reasons.

Honest to God, when the first Aliens Vs. Predator game hit the PC, I started thinking about how cool it would be to play an Alien RTS. In many ways Blizzard's Starcraft satisfied by thirst for such a thing, but now, my hunger has grown again. After heaving seen the game in motion the other day at EA's Redwood City HQs, I've got mixed feelings.

First, I'm excited to play all three races, which is one of the game's biggest attractions. Second, I'm always hopeful (and conflictingly cynical) that an RTS will finally be good and viable on the consoles, and given the subject, this has as good as chance as any. Third, the range of options, units and possibilities seems so abundantly wealthy that how could it not be a great game? One has to wonder how it will come out.

~The story starts simply enough. After a small unit of Colonial Marines lands on planet LV-742 and realizes it's littered with both Predators and Aliens, the decision is made to finally end the small battles and skirmishes. The story arc enables players to pick from any one of the three races, Aliens, Predators, or Human Marines, and play each race to its end, and then players can start the next race, etc., in any order they want.

Zono Inc. (Metal Fatigue, Ringman, Mr Bones, Freak Boy) is well adept at making RTS games, and though it's been in development for some time with this one, despite the game's initial worrisome qualities (it's a single-player console game on the consoles), the possibilities seem far too good to ignore. I mean, you get to be the Predator and kick Alien ass! Or you can become the Alien Queen and slaughter those annoying little humans, and the plant your hatchlings in their chests and watch your race proliferate! Or you can take on the role of the marines and clean house with excellent technology, guns and numbers.

Players get the chance to play through seven missions for each race, for a total of 21 missions. Each race offers as many as 10 different upgrades per unit. The environments range from desert settlements to jungles, plains to grassy hillsides, mountainous caverns and high-tech laboratories, and just like the Zerg in Blizzard's StarCraft, the Alien hatcheries spawn upon a festering landmass goo that grows across the landscape, altering it after each new Xenomorph is born.

~Zono has created an innovative new device to diminish the use of the PC mouse, which works surprisingly well on PS2 and Xbox controllers. Employing a freely growing circle to select units, players depress the analog button to enact the lightly tinted sphere, which is both quick and accurate. It looks and works perfectly. Each race can be controlled using the inputs Gather, Follow, Way Point and Patrol, while groups can be commanded to stand guard, act aggressively, defend or to simply not attack.

The game's depth and interest lies in the strategies you'll employ in the role of each race. The Marines depend on a healthy amount of numbers, but more significantly on superior technology and high-tech weaponry. Created by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation to save the population on LV-742, the Marines wield a range of excellent weapons, including Pulse Rifles, Spear guns, Blazer Cannons, and the famous Exosuit equipped with twin miniguns. Players must decide on their individual strategy, order their custom army from a roster of units, upgrade their militia using detecting vision modes to best attack their enemies and compile excellent weapon enhancements to finish the job. Marines can even contact Commtech in orbit to launch a devastating airstrike if a situation grows dire enough.

Aliens, on the other hand, attack best in hordes. Their quickness, strength, devastating attacks, acidic blood and horrific means of reproduction is more than enough to intimidate any army, be it Predator or Human. Each alien race offers a bestiary, so players can sift through the various kinds of units they can create, birth, and carry out various survival objectives. The Alien and Predator annals are especially intriguing, each with familiar and surprising new offerings. The Alien Bestiary includes Drones, Runners, Warriors, PredAliens (a hybrid Alien/Predator), Praetorian, Queen, Carrier, and Ravager, all of which you can control and command.

Here are a few interesting factoids. Praetorians are the only Aliens that can morph into Queens. Players can either drag comatose enemies to their eggs, which hatch immediately upon sensing prey, or the eggs can be carried to the prey itself. Also, players can prematurely hatch Alien eggs and then command the face huggers to follow your character to prey, but they only have a limited amount of time to do so. The growth cycle of an Alien from Facehugger to fully grown Warrior, for instance, is incredibly quick, in case you were wondering. They bloom inside the chest, and then form a cocoon from which they become fully grown fighters all in a matter of seconds. If you want to grow an Alien Queen, you have to upgrade to a Praetorian, which requires a second cocoon stage and specialized upgrades to boot. Ultra-specialized warriors like the Alien Carrier, which is able to bring Facehuggers to the battlefront, can be created to round out your army. Lastly, in case it wasn't obvious, each Alien kind -- Ravager, Runners, etc. -- perform the general task after which they're named.

The Predators are awesome. They look a weeee bit small in comparison to Aliens, and considering how large they are compared to regular humans -- Yao Ming -size -- they look puny in contrast to the Queen Aliens. Predators rely on sophisticated weaponry, cloaking (which is put under a time limit) and power to devastate their enemies. Employing stealth and stylized hunting techniques to slaughter their opponents, Predators are more like athletes or Native American tribal warriors, simply trying to gain respect from their council of Ancients. Super specialized units are exemplified by the severely brutal, heavily armored Military Predators.

~The Predator bestiary is also lovely to observe and study. Players can select from the Brawler, Hunter, Spear Master, Stalker, Disc Master, Vangard, Hydra, Blazer, PredGun, and Shrine. So yeah, you'll generate specialized Predators that are masters at special attacks, whether they're using Discs, Spears, Guns, or whatnot. One neat thing about the Shrine is that it's mobile, even if it's a little slow. Each species uses a different style of currency to buy more units. Marines collect Oxygen, while Predators amass skulls.

This game was truly created with its fans in mind. Fun things are built into it specifically to please those obsessed fanboys out there, including the ability to spot and zoom in on the characters in mid-game play, as well as the use of original artwork in the menu, original musical compositions from both the Alien and Predator movies, and more.

In the end, Aliens Vs. Predator: Extinction won't fulfill its incredibly fertile potential on the consoles, due to the fact that it's a single-player game, but Zono, EA and Fox appear to have worked hard to get the balance between each race right, to infuse each one with a level of unique fun and coolness, and to create an RTS worthy of its various licenses. The T-rated single-player game is due by July's end, and we look forward to seeing its completion.
-- Douglass C. Perry, IGN.com


IMAGES FROM IGN
----------------

You have to understand, this big guy, will be seen as a very small guy in the game. Don't worry about the detail at close range! Now the color...well, maybe they are hippie aliens!

A fatter version of a pic already posted.


Gotta love them cannons!


Think of the children! Won't somebody please think of the children???!


Check out that Samurai pred in the middle. KEWL!


"I love you, man!"


Racist bastards! Can't we all just get along?


MY LOVE IS LIMITED!


EEEEEK! Cuties!


Why is there a dead grunty in the background? Does this mean we found the real chupacabra?


Eh...i'll fire if you fire.


My name is Diego Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.






>>MPEG MOVIE<<
2.1 MB, quicktime file, savable through quicktime after viewing...

must be logged on to IGN to see it.
That means you need to be a member.

watch the movie if you're a paying member

Hey, any members here...can you save this and upload it through your own webspace. I wanna see!


YOU HEAR THAT FOLKS? RELEASE DATE IS FOR THE LAST WEEK OF JULY! WE HAVE ONE MONTH TO AMASS MOOLAH!

This message was edited by Raijin1999 on Jun 13 2003.