Book Review – Halo: Glasslands

Being an avid (make that rabid) fan of the Halo universe, I am constantly scouring the internet for every scrap of information relating to the next release of the hit franchise.  In between game releases, I spend my time reading the expanded mythologies in the many books and graphic novels – the latest of these being Halo: Glasslands, by Karen Traviss. Read On »

Bungie Waves Goodbye to Ten Years of Halo

Bungie’s Halo: Combat Evolved is widely credited as the game that single-handedly put Microsoft’s Xbox Console on the map.  Released in November of 2001, it rapidly began to break records selling over one million units just a few months later in April 2002.  It would go on to sell over five million copies and forever associate the Master Chief, Halo, and Bungie with the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles.

Halo has become a cultural phenomenon on a scale that only popular sci-fi juggernauts such as Star Wars and Star Trek have seen.  Books, comics, action figures, and even LEGO Read On »

Livio Radio to Host Second Annual Social Media Day in the Motor City

Our friends at Livio Radio are firing up the second annual Social Media Day in Downtown Detroit.  It’ll take place Thursday, June 30th at Motor City Casino and feature guest DJs, a tweeting Ford Fiesta loaded with Livio Radio’s new car internet app, and more!

The party runs from 7PM till 10PM at the Soundboard.  And for those night-owls out there, you’ll be treated to an after party at Amnesia, Detroit’s best night club, period.  Located at the top of Motor City Casino you’ll be treated to the best view the Motor City has to offer.

So if you’re in town, or in driving distance of town, grab your laptops, iPhones, Androids, cameras and what have you, and join us in the biggest Tweetup around.  Click here to secure your tickets now.

What We’re Playing – Week of June 18

Alice: Madness Returns Alice returns to Wonderland in this long awaited sequel to writing mastermind American McGee’s Alice.  Join us as we explore her latest adventure as she fights for her own sanity, and Wonderland’s.  Review coming this weekend!

Sony Announces The Not Playstation Portable 2

It goes without saying that after yesterday morning, sites like Kotaku have gone absolutely ape crazy with their coverage of the Sony Press Conference last night of the Next Gen Portable (formerly dubbed as the PSP2 by everyone in the media and consumer market circles, except Sony).  And who can blame them? I’ve only had my PSP for a short time, but I very much enjoy the look, feel, and features that are available on… Read On »

Indie Developer – Red Crest Studios

Xbox Live Indie Games gives smaller developers and even lone programmers the opportunity to build their own creations and share them with the world.  This has led to some extremely creative games being released on Xbox Live at a very low cost to its consumers.  One of the genres that is becoming increasingly popular is Role Playing Games.

Indie developer Red Crest Studios is set to release Bonded Realities, an RPG coming to Xbox Live Indie Games this week.  Being a huge fan of the old school RPG, I decided to contact Michael Ventnor at Red Crest for a brief Q&A via email regarding Bonded Realities, and what’s coming next from this new indie developer.  Here’s what he had to say:

So tell me a little bit about Red Crest Studios.  How long have you been in operation?  How large is your team?

I officially started the Red Crest brand on 9th December last year. So Bonded Realities predates the studio that made it! My original plan was to release the game under my name and, if successful, then set up the studio name and continue making games. However, the interest in Bonded Realities grew quite sharply and people were asking for an official studio name, so I fast tracked its creation. I had the name and logo in mind since the beginning. Red Crest is made of just me.

Do you have plans for the mobile market as well?  Or are you concentrating on Xbox Live Indie Games for now?

Xbox for the moment. I do have game designs on hand that I can develop when I decide to try the mobile market, but that will happen later when I’m (hopefully) more successful.

Your latest creation, Bonded Realities, is a Role Playing Game for Xbox Live Indie Games.  What made you decide to do an RPG?

There were many reasons why:

a) There aren’t enough RPGs in the old-fashioned style I like. While there are a couple on the Indie service, there should be more.

b) I grew up on whimsical RPGs, and always enjoyed the number-based turn-based strategy mechanics, and the funny settings and stories.

c) I thought making an RPG would be easy. “It’s just logic and state machines”, I said. “Programming languages do this kind of thing best”, I said. That old, arrogant, incorrect self is now dead, buried and cremated after numerous development delays. But I still persevered to finish, because I didn’t want to waste the work I did so far.

Can you tell us what is Bonded Realities about?

A lot of people who’ve played the game already were surprised at how the game opens. You are a toddler, being dropped off at child care by your mum. Like your typical day at child care, you go outside to play with your three best friends, Liam, Josh and Maria. But then a bright flash of light happens, and the next thing you know, you’re in a totally different place, separated from everyone else, and transformed into a new body. Your goal, therefore, is to find your friends and get home. Bonded Realities’ story is designed such that it unfolds as you play. It may sound scant with how I described it above, but that’s because you know nothing about what happens or how to fix it at the start. I deliberately made the story like that because I enjoyed stories that didn’t reveal your end goal or how to achieve it at the start, rather it is revealed in several plot twists later on. There is a big boss fight at the end, so don’t worry 🙂

How long do you expect it will take the average gamer to complete Bonded Realities?

I’d say around 4 or 5 hours. More if you want to do 100% completion, since that involves finding all the treasure chests and some of them are very well hidden (but contain very powerful items and equipment!).

Are there any particular RPGs that have influenced the gameplay that we’ll find in Bonded Realities?

As I said before, the RPGs I enjoyed the most had good mechanics and a funny setting. Earthbound being the obvious candidate, most indie RPGs are compared to that because of its quirky nature. Others I’ve played include Pokemon, Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi and others. I tried to recreate what I liked, and fix what I hated, whilst adding in a lot of my own ideas and style. As a result, I worked hard on interesting combat, jokes everywhere, and a clean and unique interface.

What were the biggest hurdles you encountered while creating an RPG for XBLIG?

Mostly just the shock with how much work is needed to make a decent RPG from scratch. I used no middleware (except XNA, of course) because I really enjoy engine programming, thus the Bonded Realities engine was written entirely by me, and all the art was done by me (I’m not a particularly good drawer, it’s taken years of practice just to get where I am now). The music was licensed since I have no musical knack whatsoever. But again, I enjoy things that others would hate, like writing code, and thinking up ways to make certain parts of the game more fun without too much implementation effort.

Can you give us a preview of what we might see on the horizon from Red Crest now that Bonded Realities is getting ready to release?

I’ll be entering this year’s Dream Build Play with a completely different kind of game. It won’t be an RPG, or even resemble anything like that. It involves an experimental game mechanic I thought up, so the biggest trouble for me right now is trying to make it fun.

A Game That Shows Promise

Looking at Bonded Realities’ trailers and screenshots, this game shows a lot of potential.  Having enjoyed Role Playing Games since the original Final Fantasy for the Nintendo Entertainment System, I’m looking forward to grabbing this one and spending a few hours satisfying my hunger for some good old-fashion RPG’ing.

~W75

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For more news, reviews, and articles on Science, Technology, and Videogames, visit the rest of the team at http://pnosker.com.

2011 – A Year To Look Ahead To

Greetings and Happy New Year to all!  Today marks a new beginning in not only our own lives, but in the industry we love the most.  The Video Game industry!  Soon we’ll be looking at year-end sales figures of the big three game consoles, and then shortly after it’s off to the races as a new line-up of fantastic games are coming down the line this year.

In The Short

If you haven’t been keeping up, I’ve signed up for the One A Day Project.  My goal is to bring you at least two in-depth reviews or articles on our industry per week this year.  Starting off this week, I’ve already put the wraps on my PSP Review (Yep.  Finally got one!), and a review on a little PSP game that’s sure to make big waves, Invizimals.

In The Long

This year I’ve got plenty of stuff planned.  I’ve got my 2011 predictions to get out, a whole slew of reviews for the year including Marvel vs. Capcom 3, The 3rd Birthday, and Bulletstorm in the short-term.  E3 2011 of course.  And some on-site event coverage of some of the gaming related events in the Midwestern US and Canada.

This year promises to be bigger, better, and much more interesting than the last.  I don’t know about you, but I’m very excited.

I’ll let you get back to your champagne hangovers now.

~W75

Child’s Play Charity Brings 1.8M Needed Smiles This Christmas

If you’re a gamer, you may enjoy web-comics such as Penny-Arcade.  And if you’re a fan of Penny-Arcade, you probably know about the Child’s Play Charity.  If you don’t, then sit down, enjoy your hot cocoa, and let Uncle Will tell you a little story. In late November of 2003, Bill France, a columnist for the Herald in Everett, Washington, had written a story entitled, “Violent video games are training children to kill“.  Like many… Read On »

Square Enix – Halo: Reach Action Figures Now In The UK

To all of my good friends in the UK, you can now get your Squenix Halo:Reach action figures without having to buy them in the States and have them shipped over.

For those of you who don’t know, these action figures are larger, and far more detailed than the McFarlane Toys figures.  They are fully articulated and come with interchangeable hands.  Series I was released with Jun, Noble Six, and Emile, with Series II containing Kat, Jorge, and Carter to be released some time in 2011.

Gamingzap.com has acquired a small quantity of these collectibles ahead of the currently unannounced UK release date.  Who knows how many or how few they have available, so you may want to get ordering right away!

Console News For Monday, December 20

Only a week left until Christmas.  Have you gotten your shopping done? Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation Coming To A DS Near You Dragon Quest fans rejoice!  The 1995 continuation of the Dragon Quest series is finally coming to the States on the Nintendo DS handheld console.  Originally released on the Super Famicom (Japanese Version of the SNES), DQVI was never brought over to the US for commercial release.  No release date yet however,… Read On »