A Stroke of Fate is the upcoming adventure game from Akella, where you’ll play a spy infiltrating Hitler’s regime near the end of World War II. The game will have you joining the Gestapo and working on a plot to assassinate Hitler himself. Personally, I’ve been interested in this title since I learned about its intriguing and somewhat controversial setup. Luckily, I got a chance recently to ask some questions of Boris Chuprin, the project leader of the SPLine development studio, about what gamers can expect to explore in the game and how the team has kept everything historically accurate. From the sound of it, they’ve put a lot of effort into making this one deep and compelling game.

Read the full article »

Prototype, the upcoming game from Radical Entertainment introduces a new world and a new hero in the form of Alex Mercer, an amnesiac man looking to uncover the secrets of his forgotten past. Radical, creators of last year’s Scarface:The World is Yours and the excellent non-movie tie in Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction are bringing this new world rife with conspiracy and a gritty real world feel to life.

Recently Gaming Today had an opportunity to question lead designer Eric Holmes about the world setting of his new game. Eric talks about the game’s protagonist, the story and just what makes Prototype different from every other superhuman sandbox game on the market today.

Read the full article »

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Albatross18, it is an MMO/casual golf simulation game that is free to play, although certain items can only be purchased with actual money. However, all characters are free, and an effort has been made to minimize the differences between monetary users and ‘free’ users. The game awards players with Pang Points, a currency that can be used to upgrade your character and your items which in turn will give you the upper hand as you play the game and its many number of courses.

I was lucky enough to have a chat with Jack Liu recently, who is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer from OGPlanet and I asked him a few questions regarding his latest endeavor Albatross 18 Season 3 Revolution. Readers will remember Jack from the previous interview we had with him back in August regarding Rumble Fighter.

Check out the interview after the break!

Read the full article »

Back in June, we reported on A Vampyre Story, which is Bill Tiller’s upcoming point-and-click adventure game. The game is currently being developed by Bill’s newly founded company, Autumn Moon Entertainment and is going to have the same style and humor from old-school LucasArts titles such as Monkey Island and Full Throttle.

Upon hearing about this game, I jumped at the chance to conduct an interview with Bill to learn more about A Vampyre Story, the inspiration that went behind creating this game, and to get his thoughts on the current lack of adventure games.

GT: First off, thank you for taking the time to do this interview. For those readers who may not know who Bill Tiller is and why we should be throwing fresh roses down at your feet anywhere you go, please introduce yourself.

Bill Tiller: Hi, all. I’m Bill Tiller and I am the founder of Autumn Moon Entertainment and I worked 9 years at LucasArts on a bunch of games as a background artist and art director, and occasionally doing some game design. The big games were The Dig, Rebel Assault, Curse of Monkey Island, and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. I also did a short stint at Arena Net as art director on Guild Wars, and was one of the two art directors on EA’s The Two Towers. I grew up near Chicago, and then Orange County, and I attend the California Institute of the Arts where I graduated from the famous Character Animation program. Same place Tim Burton, Brad Bird and John Lasseter went to school.

Read the full article »

We had the chance here at Gaming Today to talk with Laura MacDonald, one of the developers at Momentum, concerning their latest game Culpa Innata. We’re definitely fans of the title here and I find Culpa Innata to be one of the more interesting titles I have had the opportunity to check out in some time. If you are looking for a non-linear game, look into it! For those of you who have not checked out Culpa Innata, we have several articles recently published about the title that you should check out:Gaming Today Preview: Culpa InnataCulpa Innata – New Trailer from Strategy FirstThe interview follows the break.
Read the full article »

2K Boston’s BioShock has been receiving critical acclaim ever since it’s release almost a month ago. The terms “Game of the Year” and “Masterpiece” are being thrown around more than a Frisbee during a dog show’s “Best Tricks” competition. Although it’s true the storyline and the enemy AI engross the player to believe they really are in an underwater utopia that’s been torn to shreds, gamers need to realize that the soundtrack has also been fueling the flames of insanity that’s prevalent in the city of Rapture.

Gaming Today had the opportunity to conduct an interview with the man behind the soundtrack, Garry Schyman. In the interview, you’ll learn Garry’s influences on creating the soundtrack, his thoughts on the media’s take on “The Little Sister”, and future projects (BioShock 2 maybe?)

Read the full article »

Violence in gaming has become a really hot topic of debate over the last 5 years or so. The irony is that violence has been in games all the way back to the days of Doom and Wolfenstein 3D – perhaps even earlier (depending on your point of view). So why all the big hooplah these days concerning violence in video games? I’d like to think it’s because of the severe left turn games have taken, essentially hopping on to that freeway known as mainstream culture. Video games are no longer a niche genre delegated to the cartel of geeks and/or teenage boys. Games are now a social venue for all demographics, and as we have seen lately, an even more viable one at that.

Running With Scissors are certainly no stranger to irony. Since the release of Postal in 1997, RwS have been the whipping boy of the general gaming media, perhaps much undeservedly. In 2003, RwS released the sequel to Postal, Postal 2, which seem to best its predecessor more in controversy than the expected gameplay. Largely panned by the critics as being too violent and indulgent, RwS ended up on the defensive of its misunderstood title. It was no secret (to those who actually played it) that Postal 2’s gameplay allowed the player to choose a path of non-violence, one that ultimately allowed the player to finish the game in such manner. Choices be damned, this fact did not stop the “bull-ys“ from seeing red, so to speak. The temptation to focus on the “controversial issues” surrounding Postal 2 proved too much for most critics. It would seem Postal 2 that of victim of circumstance.

Since then, things seemed to have calmed down for the Arizona based company. RwS have been quietly developing a sequel to Postal 2 for some time now. Teaming up with the Russian publisher/developer Akella, Postal III is slated for a 2008 release on PC, Mac, and Xbox 360. Using the currently popular Valve Source engine, Postal III intends to bring the same sandbox gameplay found in Postal 2, with little to no compromise. And from little we’ve seen of the game so far, it looks like RwS are not holding back on any of its well established Postal themes.

Gaming Today found opportunity to submit a handful of questions to Running With Scissors’ CEO, Vince Desi. The questions cover topics such as the Postal movie, Uwe Boll, Postal III’s gameplay, the beaten to death topics of controversy, and of course our beloved Jack Thompson himself. So without further ado:

**WARNING**
The interview that follows contains some adult content.

Read the full article »

Recently, FileFront got a chance to ask some questions to the development team behind Scorpion, and Andrew Beletsky of B-Cool Interactive was nice enough to answer them. Check out how development is going in this exciting first-person shooter, and a bit about the roots of inspiration as well.

GT: First off, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role in the production of Scorpion?

AB: Hey! Sure thing. My name is Andrew Beletsky, and I’m working as game-designer and PR manager in B-Cool Interactive. I’ve started my career on news TV, later worked with several CIS game developing and publishing companies as game designer, producer and PR. Not so long ago I joined Scorpion team. Currently I’m working on hero’s abilities and psychic powers of his main enemies, ‘Hounds’.

GT: What sort of influences would you say went into the development of the game?

AB: The idea of the project and the basis of the game world were designed by our project-leader, Eugene Duranin. Hard to list everything that has influenced both concept and the development of Scorpion, but sure can name thing or two – great games like F.E.A.R, The Chronicles of Riddick and Deus Ex, some books and movies (more on them later).

We are constantly reviewing various related media to further improve our feeling of the world the game takes place, Scorpion’s characters and the game in general. And I’m trying to spare a minute now and then to write a piece of fiction set in the game world too (some recent updates on Scorpion’s homepage are based on it, and we’ll post more; check http://www.scorpionthegame.com/blog for details).

Read the full article »

Me, I’m not much into MMOs. But I have been saying for awhile that Tabula Rasa looks like it could be the one to break me into the genre. After sitting down with April Burba, the community manager for the game, for a few minutes at PAX last week, I’m even more convinced that this game will change the traditional formula for MMOs. I also got a chance to get some hand-on time with the game, which only confirmed this even more. The game plays like a fusion of so many genres in one that calling it an MMORPG only covers part of the gameplay. You can read the full interview after the break. Read the full article »

TellTale Games showed up at PAX this year with a new demo and some info regarding the next season of their popular Sam and Max adventure series. I got a chance to talk with Emily Morganti, the Marketing and Public Relations at TellTale, about what’s new with Sam and Max: Season Two. First she showed me a demo for Season Two, which included some familiar faces (Bosco, Sybil, Abe Lincoln’s head) as well as some new ones, like Stinky, the eccentric waitress in the new diner area (shown above). She also showed me a couple of new gameplay features, like Sam’s ability to run now, and the inclusion of some new mini-games; one of which involves a Punch Out-style boxing match between a rat and a creepy robot doll. All this was dripping with the trademark Sam and Max humor and had some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. After that, we sat down to discuss lessons learned from Season One and what fans can expect to see in Season Two. Full interview after the jump and be sure to check out some new screens that Chris wrote about. Read the full article »