Tag Archives: Sierra Spring Break 08

In an email to videogaming247, Terminal Reality boss Mark Randel said that the DS won’t be used as PKE meter in the Wii version of Ghostbusters as we mistakenly reported yesterday.

“I’m sorry to report that, unfortunately, this is not a feature of the Wii and DS version of the game,” he wrote, smearing egg on our faces. “It would have been really cool though.”

When you’re wrong, you’re wrong, and that’s what we were. Must’ve been all that free drink making us hear stuff.

By Mike Bowden

Whilst being entertained by Ghostbusters developer Terminal Reality at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, studio director John O’Keefe said that the PS2 and Wii versions were being outsourced to Red Fly, and that you’ll be able to connect your DS to your Wii and use it as your PKE meter (the Ghostbusters’ spook-tracker).

Details stopped there, unfortunately, although there will be four-way split-screen in the Wii and PS2 versions.

Ghostbusters will be released worldwide in October.

By Mike Bowden

After telling us that the Bourne Conspiracy demo was going to release on May 22 in Mallorca last week, developer High Moon Studios has said that the Xbox 360 demo will actually hit on May 19, with the PS3 taster following on May 22.

Glad we got that sorted out.

Speaking to videogaming247 at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, Terminal Reality boss Mark Randel said that Bill Murray would be recording his lines for the Ghostbusters game this week.

VG247: Did you actually get Bill Murray, or was it just his lines from the film that you used, as we have heard that Murray is a difficult man to get hold of?

Mark Randel: Bill Murray is scheduled to record his voice work, I think it’s next week. So yes we actually got Bill Murray to reprise his role as Peter Venkman.

VG247: [Surprised] Really? We heard he is quite difficult to get.

MR: John Melcher, the executive producer on Ghostbusters… it took him a long time to track him down but he was able to track him down. It’s an amazing job he did.

VG247: How?

MR: There’s a long story involved that I can’t tell you about but Melcher is very good at dealing with Hollywood stars.

Ghostbusters releases in October for PS3, 360, Wii, PS2 and DS.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to videogaming247 at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, Terminal Reality boss Mark Randel said that only part of the Ghostbusters campaign would be set in New York.

“Definitely the action takes place in New York City and some iconic locations around there,” he said enthusiastically. “But I really can’t say any more with out giving too much away of the story.”

However, he then proceeded to let us in to a little secret – which now isn’t, obviously.

“It does stay in New York City but you do enter the other world,” he said. “So it’s not all in the real world.”

We asked him if you enter the spirit world. And he said:

“Yes.”

Ghostbusters has got us all very excited here at videogaming247 and we hope the months to October fly by as that’s when it’s out on PS3 and 360.

By Mike Bowden

After the link. No one was lying when they said it was violent. The super-mutant action game’s looking toasty smart, especially if you’re into mental fighting and consuming corpses. Go see.

Catch up on all our coverage from the Sierra Spring Break 08 even last week right here.

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After the link. We had a good look at this running in Mallorca last week and everything seemed very promising. Catch up on all our news from the Sierra Spring Break 08 right here.

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Sierra showed off its 2008 line-up in Mallorca, Spain last week – including Ghostbusters, Prototype, Legend of Sypro: Dawn of the Dragon, a new Crash game, World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, and more – and it really was news a-go-go. Mike’s fingers have been replaced with bloody stumps.

All our stories are listed below. The US sites posted impressions of most of these games this morning, as you can see here. Enjoy!

• Damon not in Bourne game due to refusal to make more films
• 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand isn’t set in desert
• Stay Puff’t confirmed for Ghostbusters, Infernal Engine looks amazing
• New Spyro voice talent revealed
• New World in Conflict maps in console versions – PC users have to pay
• Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon impressions
• No online co-op for main Ghostbusters campaign
• Bourne 360 demo on May 22
• Long lasting injuries to Bourne removed from game due to “design decision”
• Moby track replaced in Bourne due to Universal ties
• Wii lead SKU on new Crash title
• Fiddy locked at 30 frames a second, online co-op confirmed
• 50 Cent team took out “n-word,” although it may still be added
• Exclusive Ghostbusters DLC for both PS3 and 360
• Venkmann will have love interest in Ghostbusters
• PS3 exclusivity would have allowed double the amount of objects on-screen
• Prototype DLC only “for the right price”
• Prototype plot inspired by Old Boy
• Legend of Sypro: Dawn of the Dragon “last chapter of Spyro trilogy”
• No World in Conflict PC-360 online cross-play due to PC version being “geekier”
• World in Conflict to feature voice control on 360, 90% of accents recognised
• New Ghostbusters shots
• First Prototype gameplay footage released
• Not all of Ghostbusters game set in NYC – players to enter spirit world
• Bill Murray recording his Ghostbusters game lines this week

Speaking to videogaming247 at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, Highmoon Studios’ Matt Tieger explained that Matt Damon’s omission from The Bourne Conspiracy is due to him initially saying no to more Bourne films.

“We did talk to Matt Damon early in the process when we were developing this game,” said Tieger.

“[Damon] was doing his press tours from Ultimatum at the time and he actually said he wasn’t going to do any more Bourne movies, which kind of put us in a bind because if we were going to commit to a franchise and he was going to bow out and they were going to do another movie without him, then we would have Matt Damon as Jason Bourne and they would have hired someone else.

“Who knows? In future games we could put him back in. I can’t talk much about sequel plans right now but we’re not going to rule it out.

“When the game comes out he’s going to love it so much that he’ll want to be in it, I hope,” Tieger added.

We want Matt Damon.

The Bourne Conspiracy looked great at the event, and will be out on June 24 for 360 and PS3.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to videogaming247 at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand game director Julian Widdows said that the game’s naming was a marketing decision – not one level in the shooter is set in the desert.

VG247: The game is going to get compared to Iraq and we know you don’t agree with that, so why choose the name Blood on the Sand?

Julian Widdows: The name was chosen by the marketing team in the US and the licensor. So, those guys decided on the subtitle and you’ll need to talk to those guys about that.

VG247: It’s a rather weird decision, as no level is actually set in the desert, is it?

JW: We set out from day one to set the game in a contemporary urban environment. It’s designed to be an everyman’s warzone. The question, ‘Is it set in the Middle East?’ is actually, ‘Is it set in an identifiable geographical location?’ ‘Does it have a real context?’ ‘Is it a real place?’ It absolutely isn’t. It’s a pastiche of every war zone. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t Eastern influences, but it is a very contemporary city. The influences were actually a Mediterranean seaboard city. In fact, not one level is in a desert at all.

50 Cent: Blood in the sand blasts its way to a next gen console near you in the fourth quarter, yo.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to videogaming247 at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, Terminal Reality confirmed the everybody’s favourite Marshmallow Man, Stay Puff’t, will definitely feature in the upcoming Ghostbusters game, and showed the meltable monster off in a highly impressive Infernal Engine demo.

The first thing we saw in the tech display was 500 metal objects being dropped randomly into the game environment.

“What you can see here is that I can push against the pile [of objects] and the player can interact with physically simulated objects with no jitter, no pushing and no disability problems,” said Mark Randel, Terminal Reality president.

Randel then dropped 1,000 objects onto the screen: we all gaped as the metal boxes rolled across the environment, bouncing off each other and whatever else stood in their way.

Next up was the New York public library and the Infernal Engine’s crowd technology.

“There’s one level in Ghostbusters that takes place on Thanksgiving Day weekend and you’re going to be in the Thanksgiving Day parade,” said Randel. “So having large crowds of people is important to the game.”

He showed hundreds of people running out of the NYC library and into the street in panic, bouncing off each other. Those nearest to your in-game character paying him attention.

“They recognise you and know you could do something,” said Randel.

The crowd fell silent and slowly made a path for you to proceed into the library building. It was impressive stuff.

Finally Mark Randel dropped 1,000 people into the street, “each one individually simulated.”

“See how they walk around me, see how they push and shove each other,” said Randel.

All of a sudden, the Stay Puff’t Marshmallow appeared [YAY – Ed], larger than life, filling the whole screen and taking huge strides in your direction. We noticed how the members of the crowd closest to him reacted first, and how the panic spread through the throng.

And that was that. Don’t fret though, as you’ll be able to see it in action yourselves this October for PS3, 360, Wii, PS2 and DS.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to videogaming247 at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, Legend of Sypro: Dawn of the Dragon senior producer Chris Wilson confirmed to videogaming247 that Christina Ricci and Mark Hammill will be voicing the game.

“Christina Ricci will be doing the voice of Cinder, which we’re really excited about,” he said. “We also have Mark Hammill; he’s the voice of the Dark Master.”

Wilson added: “We’re really excited about the voice cast. The previous two games had Elijah Wood doing the voice of Spyro and Gary Oldman doing the voice of Ignitus, the elder dragon. They’re both returning to do the voices again this year.”

We always knew Luke Skywalker was the Dark Master.

Spyro will be released PS3, 360, Wii, PS2 and DS in October.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to videogaming247 at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, Massive Entertainment’s Petter Sydow said that two new levels for the nuke-happy RTS – telling the story from a Russian point of view – would appear in the console versions and that PC gamers would be getting them also: for a small fee.

“What’s new for the 360 version is that we’re adding a couple of Russian levels which tells the story from a Russian perspective,” said Sydow. “We tried to create believable Russian characters and not the Americanised Russian characters.

“How would Russians feel? How would the Soviet Union feel in a war? And how would it feel to be a soldier there?”

“The Russian levels will be as add-ons sold separately to PC users,” he added.

When asked if he knew anything about costing, Sydow said, “No, not yet, but it’s going to be cheaper than an expansion.

“In fact, we’re not allowed to call it an expansion pack. Marketing won’t even allow us to call it a mission pack, so add-on is the correct word at the moment.”

World in Conflict: Soviet Assault is currently in pre-Alpha and will be available later this year.

By Mike Bowden

We got a first look at Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon at Sierra’s Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, and very nice it’s looking too.

It’s actually Spyro’s ten year anniversary this year and this is the first time the character has featured on next-gen systems.

The first we noticed was how beautiful the game looks. Exquisitely detailed environments have that Rare quality about them. In fact, the mountainous scenery we saw was very reminiscent of Kameo: bright colours, every blade of grass visible and vibrant lighting.

Read our full impressions after the link.

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Speaking to videogaming247 at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, Terminal Reality studio director John O’Keefe said that there will be no online co-op enabled in the main Ghostbusters campaign, but that the various side-missions will include this feature.

“If you remember, the comedy and scares were really important to the feel of the movie and we really wanted to replicate that,” he said. “We want you to feel like you’re a Ghostbuster, and so co-op with your friends playing the other Ghostbusters we wouldn’t be able to control that comedic timing and delivery of lines.

“Even though co-op would be an interesting aspect we made a conscious decision because we wanted to capture the Ghostbusters experience, but there is an online component of the game that is cooperative but it’s nothing to do with the story.”

As far as online play goes, you can compete against one another to see who can catch the most ghosts, or play together and deal with onslaughts of ghoulies in separate sections.

Ghostbusters releases in October.

By Mike Bowden

Lead designer on The Bourne Conspiracy, Matt Tieger has confirmed to videogaming247 that a Bourne Conspiracy demo will be available to download from XBLM on May 22, and not early May as first thought.

Tieger was speaking at Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week. No mention was made of a PS3 demo.

The game is on schedule for a June 24 release for 360 and PS3.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to videogaming247 at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, Bourne Conspiracy developer Emmanuel Valdez revealed that the team had considered letting Bourne limp around in the game as he does in the movies, but that the idea was canned.

“We had actually had [injuries] at one point,” he said. “It was interesting: it fit the character well, but after a while it became a design decision to take it out.”

We want injuries.

The Bourne Conspiracy will be released on June 24 for Xbox and PS3.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to videogaming247 at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, Bourne Conspiracy developer Emmanuel Valdez said that the series’ “signature” Moby track “Extreme Ways” will not be featured in the game due to contractual reasons.

However he did say that DJ Paul Oakenfold has written an original track called “Falling” for the title as a replacement, which features Cee-Lo – one half of Gnarls Barkley – on vocals.

“We replaced the Moby song with an original Paul Oakenfold track song called ‘Falling’,” he said. “Cee-Lo does the vocals.”

“The Moby song is pretty signature to the end of every Bourne movie,” he added. “I’d love to work with Moby on the next game.”

We probed as to why Moby had been ousted and Valdez said it was because of Sierra’s ties with Universal Music.

“We didn’t actually consider it due to the fact that we’re part of Universal Music and that’s pretty much it,” he said.

We want Moby.

The Bourne Conspiracy releases on June 24 for 360 and PS3.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to videogaming247 at the Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant producer Kirsten Forbes said that Wii will be the lead SKU on this, the fifteenth title in the platforming franchise.

“So we decided to lead on the Wii SKU this year,” she said, confirming we weren’t actually lying to you when we wrote this story’s headline.

“Developers normally lead with the lowest common denominator piece of technology, and so although we’re doing PS2 and the Wii and the 360 and the PSP and DS versions of the game, we led with the Wii from a graphics point of view.”

We then asked her if there was going to be a PS3 version, to which she replied, “No”.

However by this time we were intoxicated on free beer and too much sun and didn’t get to ask why. Watch this space on that one.

Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant comes to all the consoles listed above in October.

By Mike Bowden

During the 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand demo videogaming247 were privy to at Sierra Spring Break 08 in Mallorca last week, game director Julian Widdows confirmed that the game will be locked at 30 frames a second and that two-player online co-op would be featured.

“If someone was joining now their Gamertag would appear over that player’s head,” he said, pointing at one of Fiddy’s “crew”.

“It’s drop-drop out, absolute hot-swap. If you decide to be another character it will just hot-swap that character out.”

The game’s alpha stage frame-rate was a little choppy. Widdows allayed fears:

“Historically we’ve found that as long as you have consistent 30, then that’s absolutely fine for a shooter,” he explained. “The 60 mantle is a difficult one to achieve, especially when you’re going for the graphical quality we’re going for.

“When you drop down from 60, it all feels pretty rough. However at consistent 30, even if you drop a frame occasionally you never really notice it, so that’s the decision behind that.”

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is coming to 360 and PS3 in the fourth quarter this year.

By Mike Bowden