When I first started working at Activision this was one of the many games I worked on (I obviously can't talk about them all but I did mention Kung Fu Panda earlier) and this trailer has really blown me away.
Tom, Tim and Shaheed have done a really good job of elevating Spider-Man to a new level never seen in previous Spider-Man games. It's really weird looking back because before when being involved with video games I would be knee deep in the day to day stuff and implementing and bug fixing and all that. With WoS it was a more hands off approach and a lot of documentation and just meeting with them face to face. It's kind of cool to see how far those 3 (and I shouldn't forget the animators either - Alex and James) have come given all the obstacles that have been in the way.
So yeah - disregard those screen shots that got posted earlier. Those things don't do the game justice what so ever. In fact I'm not sure if any screen shot really does a game justice. What a weird concept huh? Taking something that is moving and selling it with a static photo? Eric and myself used to always joke that one day we hope when you turn videogames over in the store to see the back of the box that instead of a photo it would somehow show a video clip of the game. Totally off topic tangent here but when I went to go see Indy 4 the theater had taken plasma screens and turned them vertical using them to show off video of up and coming movies. Was way more impressive then a traditional movie poster.
Back to Spider-Man though! Hopefully everyone will check out the trailer and get excited - I know it's been rough for Spidey fans - the 3rd movie, Kirsten Dunst in general, and the 3rd game wasn't so hot either. Stay strong true believers!!
Oh! And screw all those haters on Spider-Man: Friend or Foe. That game was a lot better than anyone gives it credit for. It was a fun Lego Star Wars type of game but somehow the press just didn't see that at all and slammed it. Time to stop rambling.
8 comments:
Coincidentally, Jaffe just wrote a blog post about WoS. I'd like to know your opinion on his take on licensed marvel action games.
-Anon.
I'm not sure what you really want me to respond to. Jaffe wants to take all games and turn them into God of War!! What a craaazy idea! Let's call up Kotaku and have him interviewed now!!
I <3 The Jaffe(tm) and in fact have said the very exact thing to Activision before. There is nothing new or revolutionary there to be honest. However as much as I love Jaffe he has never really had to deal with 3rd party development.
What I mean is the cold fact that games aren't treated as games but as a business product. Until people stop buying up stuff like Spider-Man 3 there is no reason for The Man so to speak to change anything.
Disregarding Guitar Hero because that games is a beast all on its own - Activision's highest rated game was CoD4 and the lowest rated game was Transformers (of their main titles). Again disregarding Guitar Hero their 2 biggest sellers of last year...CoD4 and Transformers.
So while yes I would love for each game to get the love and attention that they all deserve but from a business standpoint this isn't always the case. And yes I do believe that the current situation we are in where this is true sucks! I hate it but people keep buying shite games.
Oh and one last thing - changing the structure of spiderman from open city to story based doesn't solve all the problems of spider-man games. It just changes them to a separate set of problems. Lets not forget that while most open city games suck so do a lot of story based games.
This trailer is really sick. Mad props to Pete Chow for putting together the clips.
yes, thank you Derek and ofcourse the chowder, and and everyone involved in this project, this is by far gonna be the best spiderman game :) and i love working with this great team!
\S
The game is looking great sir! Shaheed is migh just be the real deal combat designer 2.0?!?!?
Glad to see you are on such a roll with Kung Fu Panda out and this one in the queue. Can't wait to see what your touch does to the next release.
Congrats to everyone at Shaba for making me want to play a Spiderman game again, I hope he has word bubble taunts like MSH!
LOL, Derek called it!
http://kotaku.com/5018759/spider+man-deserves-better-yo
Hmm. I didn't like the poses and various positions that spidey's in when doing maneuvers in the air. I thought they could be slicker looking. Something like, Michelle Kwan on ice, and when she does the triple klutz.
Derek Da D! What up, it's Jaffe.
I had no clue you worked on the game- as I said on my blog, combat looks fantastic! Starting to make sense now! Not to say Shabba can't do it on their own but hey, you r something special.
By the way, I am well aware I have not worked 3rd party before. But I know what goes down, which is why I bring up that very subject in a paragraph of my blog post which many folks -it seems -did not really bother to read.
There is a difference between the biz reasons for something- which I acknowledged in the blog and respect- and simply what a fan wants to see. Just because the biz reasons make sense and are rational- and they are- does not make one's desire for a better product irrational.
But what I hope was clear in the blog is that I do not lay the blame at Shaba's feet...I'm sure they'd love to do all kinds of amazing stuff if they were/are given the time. And in some ways, it's not really Activision's fault either. Marvel needs to put their foot down and demand a level of quality in their games that they have- it seems- yet to demand. Web of Shadows could- I hope- be the start of a new trend. I hope so, but I am in no position to know that.
Hope you are doing great! Shoot me an Im sometime!
David
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