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Weekend Confirmed 122 - DYAD, Borderlands 2, Metro 2033
by Garnett Lee, Jul 20, 2012 6:00pm PDTGarnett and the two Jeffs are joined by regular guest Andrea Rene this week to liven up the summer gaming drought with discussions about a number of games and some recent news. The psychedelic action game DYAD gets praised some more, and some fresh Borderlands 2 details are shared. In the spirit of clearing out summer backlogs, Garnett finally dives into the post-apocalyptic Russian subway system of Metro 2033, and comes away quite impressed. The mild controversy surrounding the Fez patch also gets discussed, before the crew brings it all home with Finishing Moves.
Weekend Confirmed Ep. 122: 07/20/2012
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Show Breakdown:
Round 1 00:00:48 – 00:30:25
Whatcha Been Playing Part 1 00:31:19 – 01:09:35
Whatcha Been Playing Part 2 01:10:19 – 01:31:43
Listener Feedback/Front Page News 01:32:33 – 02:10:47
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Comments
In movies, when I hear the announcement of Monsters University, it's not because it's a sequel to a great movie that I loved, it's because Pixar are making it. If Disney were to give production responsibilities of Monsters University to some random animation studio you can count me out.
To keep this in the realm of video games:
Bioshock 2 Announcment = :D
...not developed by Irrational = :(
Homefront 2 Announcement = :|
...developed by Crytek = :)
I think we as a culture need to modify how we communicate our excitement and deliver our praise.
Let's keep our 'Game of The Year' award, but instead of 'Best Action Game' and 'Best Multiplayer Experience', how about an 'Achievement in Writing Award 2011' presented to Amy Hennig (Uncharted 3).
Less spotlight on 'Most Anticipated Games of 2013' and more spotlight on 'Developers to Watch and what they're trying to accomplish in 2013'.
As opposed to a review stating, "_________ is the most beautiful game this year, with an equally impressive score", why not, "_________ and his team of incredible artists have built an amazing world to explore that's made even more enjoyable by composer _______'s atmospheric and emotional score. I cannot wait to see what this team creates next".
Let's build up more "named talent" in the industry. I'm not saying that every writer, artist, composer and their dog need to be placed on the same pedestal as the likes of Levine, Miyamoto, Chen, Blezinski and Spector. I just believe that by celebrating the talent behind the product, we'd be less likely to see sequel upon sequel thanks to more creative power given to the guys and girls in the blue collars and not the white, so to speak.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 22 replies.
Ok I understand where you're coming from. While I agree that creative directors such as Blezinski and Levine guide the overall idea of the game (or direct the creativity if you will), there are key individuals in the team that have their very own design philosophies and ideas that they bring to the table and I think we can recognise these people in the way we as an industry communicate our enthusiasm and praise.
I agree with your analogy about the Academy Awards. No one remembers who won Best Costume Design or Sound Mixing, they only remember The Artist winning Best Picture and George Clooney missing out on Best Actor to the dude in The Artist.
And this is my point, I'd love to see our industry move to a place that focusses more on what the Environmental Artist is trying to achieve in Dishonored, and how the Level Designers in Portal 2 created that sense of accomplishment players feel whenever they complete a test chamber.
To your point about Sound Guy A not making a difference, I completely disagree. Just listen to Cliffy B's interview with Ken Levine (Irrational Interviews Ep. 4) and he talks about just how important the creative process is to him and his team and how it worked between Epic and People Can Fly on Bulletstorm. While Cliffy B directs the experience of Gears of War 3, he doesn't write lines of dialogue, he doesn't compose music, he doesn't create levels and design Locusts. He says to his team, this is WHAT we're trying to achieve with this part of the game, and then his colleagues take that idea and interpret that and figure out HOW they are going to achieve that in the game.
I want to see those people acknowledged. And you could very well say that it'll be just like the Oscars and know one would care about the Lead Animator who won, they just care that Uncharted 3 got it. Just because that's how it is, doesn't mean it should be; I'm an idealist like that ;)
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