GDC 2012

Sometimes it’s hard for gamers to take a game seriously if it looks a certain way or is being handled by a particular developer. It’s never proper to judge a book by its cover instead of getting some hands-on time with it, but sometimes a mere image or description of a game can say it all which will lead to gamers casting it aside like a bad piece of food.

So far I’ve been continually impressed with Starhawk for a few major reasons. First off, it’s nice to play a game in which the vehicles don’t take 30 minutes to master or result in scenarios such as a fighter jet doing an immediate nosedive after stepping into the cockpit. The somewhat simple pick-up-and play nature of Starhawk is indeed attractive but so is the depth the game provides through the build and battle techniques and general battlefield strategy.

As early signs indicated, Quantic Dream’s David Cage took center stage at a GDC panel last week not only to discuss what drives emotion in games but to show such a thing in action.  Instead of merely talking his head off, I wouldn’t mind such a thing as I find Cage to be a fascinating game designer, Cage wowed the GDC audience and gamers in general thanks to the power that is the interweb with “Kara”, a short film showcasing the advances in motion capture and graphics fidelity Quantic Dream has made since releasing Heavy Rain in 2010.  

Happy Monday Shogun Gamer-ites! Gamers? That makes more sense. Shogun Gamers! It’s the first day of a new week, and that means I can get started on recapping some of the stories we didn’t get around to throughout the day. Today I shine the spotlight on a couple of smaller stories that piqued my personal interest, and you might be interested in as well: Microsoft has increased their points on XBLA titles to 400! Mojang and Bethesda settled the ‘Scrolls’ dispute, and GDC announces their numbers for 2012.