Scribes – May 5th 2006
Howdy Scribo!
After watching the trailer for that loverleh looking Viva Piñata on the net, something occurred to me…
Every time Microsoft Game Studios refers to Rare, it is always “The Legendary Game Developers, Rare”. Is this a new footing that the big R are going to take? Maybe a corporate name change, or a new tag line or even a name for a compilation of greatest hits – “Rare: The Legendary Games”?
Not that I’m saying that “The Legendary Game Developers, Rare” aren’t legendary (in fact, I’m a self-confessed fanboy, but that’s besides the point), it’s just that I’m getting sick of them damned American accents saying “The Legendary”!
Piñata looks great, of course, I think it will be a very interesting game, in an Animal Crossing meets Harvest Moon kind of way. Hey… will the “collector’s edition” launch with free chocolates????? (Here’s hoping!)
Cheers for the time to read, and in advance of the ridicule to follow,
Dan (Soon to be BSc(Hons) – hint*hint ;))
Are there actually legends about us? If not, you should start some. Like we saved the world from zombies or something. Go on.
Seriously, no, it’s not a new branding attempt, it’s just good old-fashioned hard sell. On the press releases we tend to be “one of the world’s leading video game developers” rather than “the legendary game developers”, so if there’s any pompous phraseology that we should be associated with then that’s it. Admit it, all this is just a roundabout way of trying to weasel out some information on the Rare Greatest Hits package that you’ve conjured up in your head. Well, it’s not going to work, you mentalist. Now move along and get cracking on those stupid rumours.
(PS What exactly are you hinting at? Do you want us to bribe the examining board?)
Dear Scribes dude,
I would just like to send a shout out to all of you guys at Rare for a job well done on Perfect Dark Zero. This and the original Perfect Dark have to be my all time favorite games. I have been following Perfect Dark fanatically ever since the original’s release. Anyways I have a comment/question. I would personally love to see a remake of the original Perfect Dark for the Xbox 360, and up the graphics to Xbox 360 standards. That way people who are new to the Perfect Dark series can get the rest of the story while fans of the old Perfect Dark can have a spin at a new take of an old classic.
Is this even a possibility? Is Rare going to continue Perfect Dark as a series or do I have to rally outside of the Rare corporate headquarters to “Bring back Joanna!”
Once again a job well done by you folks at Rare, you guys are my heroes, you have given me countless hours of entertainment.
You’re adoring fan,
Scott AKA Birdman
Who are you calling an adoring fan? Anyway, the PDZ boys say: “Chances are we’ll make another at some point, but let us finish the downloadable content first, eh? Slave-driving swine.” They’ve got a point. I also suspect they’d rather do a new game than a straight remake, but what do I know?
What I do know is the location of a window from which we can see all the way down the drive to the gates of Rare HQ, and I’m sure air rifles don’t cost much these days. Come on! Get rallying! Wear fluorescent clothing!
Dear Beloved Provider Of Answers,
Viva Piñata. From the Banjo team, is it?
The music from the announce video (and also used on the official website) sounds very un-Grant Kirkhope-ish. Is this the music that will be used in the game? If so, then who’s behind it? If not, then who’s behind it anyway?
Thank you kindly,
Jean-Marc
Big Kirky certainly is working on the game, and he responds: “That music wasn’t written by me, that’s why it sounds so un-me! It was written by 4Kids, the people who are responsible for the cartoon. We would like to have the same theme tune on the game and the cartoon to link it all up… just haven’t sorted it yet!”.
Dear Scribes,
First off, utterly amazing work on Kameo. Unspeakably brilliant in every sense, and amounts to what’s become my favorite game of all time (and I’ve been around since the days of the Fairchild and Odyssey); the first rumble through the Badlands was the first defining moment of next-gen gaming for me. Much love for Ghoulies as well (MS needs to get on the stick for 360 compatibility on this; I’m pretty aggravated it was yanked from the BC list).
On to my main point: the soundtrack for Kameo shares top billing in my CD collection with the World of Warcraft soundtrack as two examples of the best game sountracks ever composed, but during the course of Kameo I noticed a wealth of music that I’d love to have available on the download page (the battle with Queen Thyra at the end of the Snow Top Village zone in particular comes to mind as a favorite), so what’s the likelihood of having some of this available in short order?
By the way, the ‘Jungle Storm’ level of PDZ was just amazing… truly an intense FPS stage if ever there was one. I’m guessing the dropship pilot had a really bad domestic life though, as he didn’t seem too eager to return to it considering the number of times he wandered into a mine.
Chris Morrison
Queen Thyra, yeah, we can do that. Wait, we’ve already done it. Because you asked, Morrison, and because you said nice things. Bless you. Thanks to the Kameo musician Mr. Burke I’ve still got one or two other non-CD tunes in reserve as well, so look out for those at some point during the inevitable slow news period following E3.
I’ll tell you why the dropship pilot wandered into a mine: he was looking for a minecart, because he couldn’t believe Rare would release a game without a minecart level in it. He was probably hoping he’d stumble across some pirates at the same time.
Dear Purveyor of all things Piñata,
I have two melon scratchers that have been burning in the back of my head until they will be answered (yet, have nothing to do with the candy-bearing animals I alluded to in the header. Makes you think). Over the past four months I concluded that these questions could not be answered telepathically so I present them to you, all-knowing Scribe, in digital form.
First is the issue with the “Video – Deleted Cutscenes” under Quest Total in the Magic Mirror from Kameo: EOP. What build of the game was that video from? The low-poly, low-res characters (Trolls especially) scream N64; but the smooth vivid Kameo character model looks far beyond the N64 ability; even to the level of the Xbox teaser trailer. Still, the low-res backgrounds make me scoff at that being any platform but the ’64 every time. Perhaps some of each platform?
Secondly, in PDZ, at the end of mission 8 there is one line that I think will live on forever, certainly in my mind. Of course that honor goes to “Boy that was some hot work. I sure could use a cold beer.” Who was the genius that could write such a poetic masterpiece? Furthermore, who could take that line and bring it to life with such charisma? Those (wo)men deserve some sort of metal.
Thank you for your time. (Long time reader, first time writer in-er.)
SpartanWalrus36
One for the Kameo boys, I reckon. Which kind of scuppers the ‘all-knowing’ bit of my reputation, but let’s be honest, it was never very convincing in the first place.
First: the ‘Deleted Cutscenes’ material stems from various builds of the GameCube version, though a few of the locations and enemies were transferred intact to the Xbox and one or two even survive – albeit in a vastly-upgraded form – today. Video footage of the N64 version wasn’t included, largely due to the N64 version never actually existing in the first place. (It’s almost depressing to trace how quickly someone’s sarcastic suggestion on a forum gets picked up as fact by supposedly knowledgeable sources.)
Second: despite having nothing to do with PDZ’s development I feel compelled to ask what metal you had in mind as the team’s reward. A lovely bit of tin, perhaps? Copper’s always useful if you’ve got some lying about – don’t just leave us hanging with unfulfilled promises of base elements, you tease!”
Dammit, I was going to do that gag.
How do you do, Mr. Loverboy?
To make this as short as possible (which should in turn give you more time to answer my questions instead of just rambling about something as usual), I have two really important (ahem) things to ask:
1. Amazon.com has an item for sale, which is called the “Microsoft Entertainment Pak 2004: Banjo-Kazooie“. Apparently, it is some kind of PC re-release or remake of at least one old Banjo title. However, I heard that people ordered it, but didn’t get it yet, because they were told it should be released in the near future… despite having a “2004” in its name! So… what the hell IS this thing?!?
2. As you should know, Microsoft recently told the world about their Origami pocket computer. It was said it’s possible to play games on this device, so my question is: Do I have to expect Rare’s handheld team to make me cheer when they reveal their first DS projects, only to be disappointed when they announce that everything will be redesigned and moved onto the Origami?
I’m really curious what your answers will be… if you answer at all.
Prof. Link
Mr. Loverboy? I ought to ban you here and now.
1. Ah, well, you see, what that is… I don’t have the faintest idea, and I can’t find anyone who does. The only formats that a Banjo game has legitimately appeared on to my knowledge are N64, GBA and mobile, and while it could be one of the mobile games, it’s hard to be sure. We shall investigate further. Maybe.
Update: Yep, turns out it is the mobile version of Grunty’s Revenge – specifically, a re-release for Windows Mobile smartphones. So there you go, mystery solved. Not very excitingly, but solved all the same.
2. Let’s ask the team: “Cheering is much better than disappointment,” they remark sagely.
Dear Rare, Scribes, whatever you like to be called,
First, thanks for making the greatest game ever made – GoldenEye 007 – a game that will forever stand the test of time, not forgetting to mention many other masterpieces… Ahem, now to the not-so dramatic part. Several questions I would like to ask:
1.) Why the heck can’t you guys make a difficulty in PD Zero between Secret and Perfect Agent?! Secret Agent is fairly easy, yet Perfect Agent is doggone impossible (unless you are talented or have nothing else better to do than spend 24/7 playing it)!
2.) I heard somewhere that one of your programmers, developers, er, I’m not so sure who it is… said that a Perfect Dark game would work really well with the Revolution and its controller, but expect gameplay changes. Is such a game really in the works?
3.) Plan on taking back the 007 license from EA? EA has really butchered the 007 series very badly…
Again, thanks for everything. Now back to wasting the rest of my life beating Perfect Agent…
Greg S.
Let’s hand over to happy, laughing little hamster-faced designer Duncan for some answers to these.
“1) What you need to be is good enough to play on Perfect. What does practice make? There you go.
“2) That was me, and what I ACTUALLY said was in response to a question from 1UP asking me for my opinion on the Revolution controller. I said that it looked like it might lend itself well to a lightgun control style which would be a fresh approach. I did not say what you say I said. Don’t listen to the little voices.
“3) The GoldenEye licence does not belong to us.” Doesn’t look like it belongs to EA now, either.
And yeah, we know it’s not called the Revolution any more either. The bulk of this answer was written before The Change.
Dear Scribes,
I have a question for the Conker team. Why did support for Conker: Live & Reloaded‘s online portion get diminished? CLAR had a large fanbase. It was on the “Top Played Xbox Live Games” list for a while, and it needed new maps and a couple of patches (people uncovered many glitches) to keep it alive. Me, and other loyal Conker fans were eagerly waiting for updates, but to no avail. Was the Conker team just too busy working on their next game to update CLAR? Also many fans would really be happy if Conker made a return on the Xbox 360.
Nytedagger
It was one of those things that just didn’t happen in the end for various reasons. Yes, one of them was the need to get all free staffers onto the PDZ and Kameo teams sharpish to ensure they were finished in time for the 360 launch; another was that we were waiting for the nod to go ahead with DLC once it was established whether or not certain conditions had been met, but after a certain point it just wouldn’t have been worth it. People had already started to move on. But at the very least, don’t rule out another appearance by our verminous gun-toting friend in future.
Dear Scribes,
I have a confession to make – after playing through some of my favourite Rare Xbox/360 titles, such as Kameo and Conker: Live & Reloaded, I have come to the guilty realisation that Louise Ridgeway’s voice is hot like crazy. I know, I know; it’s bizarre and really quite wrong to think such things after hearing little more than a few lines from Berri and snippets of dialogue from the S.H.C’s Sneeker girl (both of which are anthropomorphic woodland creatures no less), but it’s true, so help me. I wonder then, if there’s any way in which I could obtain an autographed photo of the lovely animator (and not that sort of photo either, before you start)? Bottom line: she sounds loverly. Sorry, just needed to get that off my chest…
Andrew, (yet another) Rare devotee
I think we can do that for you – sort of. See, you can spend all day telling us that you’re not a psycho pervert stalker if you like, but we’ll never quite believe you. Sorry. You’ll just have to stick with your mental image of Lou, or whatever pictures of hardbody squirrel temptresses you come across during your everyday internet travels.
Howdy from the colonies!
I was reading through the Viva Piñata website and was impressed by the amount of detail that has gone into making this new title. The screens you have up are incredible, especially this early in its development. It has a certain Banjo-Kazooie look with a very smooth feel to it. Yet as any gamer worth their salt knows, graphics do not a game make… so, as far as gameplay, strategy and dept go, what can we expect from Viva Piñata? Though I do realize that it might be too early in the development process, when can we expect some videos of gameplay to emerge? How many kinds of piñatas will there be? Will there be a dog piñata?
Well all in all, the game looks promising, so long as you guys at Rare give us older gamers something to keep our attention. Has a release date been announced, I can’t find it on the site?
Juan Jose Ruiz
It’s not that early in development, it’s been on the go for some time and it’s already full to bursting with gameplay, strategy and dept. I don’t know what dept is, but I’m sure we’ve got loads of it. The rest of your questions should probably be put to someone who actually knows what they’re talking about, so let’s go over to an official Piñata designer:
“Viva Piñata gives the player some tools and a space to use them in. We’ve given you as much freedom as possible in your garden, but although you can control the environment you cannot control the piñatas (there’s the snag). They are independent creatures looking for food, housing, maybe even a little romance. To get the piñata you want, you’ll have to follow their food chain, grow the plants they want and keep rival species apart. On top of this you can hire help, uncover some piñata secrets, fend off attacks from Ruffians or Sour piñatas and this is just the stuff I’m prepared to tell you about!
“To start with there are about 60 piñatas but more are being discovered all the time. Is one of them a dog? I could tell you, but then I’d have to beat you with a stick till sweets fell out.”
Dear Scribes,
I come to you bearing a query of the highest importance, regarding Kameo. Well, it’s not really of the highest importance, as you’ll have gathered. I shall, however, cease my blithering and get to the point.
I was wondering where the Elemental Override (Fire) option got to? You’re told you’ve unlocked it with the Ice version, but when you come to select them, all you have available to you is Ice. Why is this?
Thank you, you wonderful bundles of waxed marble.
Richard
Looks like another one to double-check with the team, I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation…
“Ortho’s getting on in years; being shoved unceremoniously into Kameo’s knapsack and then bumped, jostled and submerged on various adventures has left him feeling somewhat confused. As such, the doddering old fool will only give you access to the ‘Elemental Override (Fire)’ cheat if you prove your worth and unlock the cheats on Snow Temple, too. Still, at least you’ll unlock the Bonus Music Player in the process and get to hear the Alternative Kameo Theme. No, it’s great. Really!”
Do you see? It was all 100% PURELY INTENTIONAL.
Dear Scribes,
Thanks so much for the Pantastic wallpaper! With my favorites and a spiffy new brush-wielding Mr. Pants and everything… You guys rock out loud. I mean it. PDZ and Kameo rock as well, and I am proud that you managed to get them both on the shelves on the same day, and I’m sure I won’t be done with ALL of the achievements by the time you tease us with your next project(s). I’m sure I could wait for more than a few months before Rare lifts the curtain. However, I am looking forward to downloadable Ultimate games in the Arcade, especially Jetpac and Atic Atac. Now then, the main course of the letter:
A) I’ve made it an objective to pick up most of the games handpicked by Microsoft to join the MGS team, you know… between Rare games. Stuff like Kung Fu Chaos and Voodoo Vince is great and makes the (LONG) wait go by quicker. Obviously they’ve got good taste, picking you up and all, but earlier last year a few of the MGS games were kicked to the curb, including Tork. I just got the cave twerp’s game, and it’s simple, fun, and full o’ action. Not top tier mind you, but a good game thus far. Anyhoo, about a year ago in my favorite game magazine, Play, they did an article (December, 2004) interviewing the president of Tiwak, the makers of Tork. He mentions Rare as a contributing reason for MGS to give Tiwak the axe. Including: “They (MGS) had to make choices and wanted to concentrate on Rare titles”. Any thoughts and/or comments? Hey, I know it wasn’t Rareware’s fault, but it’s worth a question, eh?
B) As I was kicking arse in the Subway level of Perfect Dark Zero, and while I was reloading the shotgun, I took notice of one of the soda vending machines. Is there any awe-inspiring and powerful inspiration to the (hopefully) refreshing “Zen” cola?
C) Excellent job on the re-make of DKC3; the GBA team has done it again! It was neat to see the Brothers Bear rendered in a new way. Bachelor Bear was a swinging addition to the Bear clan, but why did that bum kick out poor Barnacle Bear? Sure, it stinks getting evicted from his island home, but having to move into the shark-infested homes of Pacifica? That’s just wrong.
It’s been one heck of a 2005 hasn’t it? With Banjo Pilot, Conker: Live & Reloaded, DKC3, PDZ, Kameo: Elements of Power (and It’s Mr. Pants for me!) Rare’s shown everyone that the dust has settled and that you’re ready for the next round. Here’s to 2006!
Zenek
A) I dunno, is it? What do you want us to say? You pointed out yourself that we had nothing to do with it, which we didn’t. Even if (for whatever reason) we’d take a stand on the subject, remember that as soon as MS acquired Rare we became a subsidiary, so we’d have been in no position to start making diva demands about our perceived ‘rivals’ and insisting that crates of Bollinger be brought to our dressing rooms.
B) The answer lies somewhere in the labyrinthine mind of D. Botwood: “Who said it was a cola? Clearly it’s the spiritual (haha) successor to that icon of 1980s fizzy pseudo-fruit refreshment, Quattro.”
C) From the team: “Barnacle is much more at home in Pacifica, it gives him plenty of room for his shell collection.” Anyway, the Bears are expendable, man. They should be grateful we didn’t replace them all with cooler, edgier NPCs, like the Cockney arms dealers from Resident Evil 4.
2005 was a busy old year, no doubt. Don’t expect every year to be the same, though: it’s just the way dev schedules work out, you get a couple of quiet years followed by a sudden period of spasmodic launch madness, then it’s back to the development equivalent of lurk mode again. Having said that, we’ll be disappointed if we don’t manage at least one or two releases by the end of ’06. That should be good for a couple of halfhearted creaks from the old rumour mill, I reckon.
Oh, I’ve just realised you sent in a revised version of your letter after this. Trust me, if I could be arsed deleting the reply I’ve already written and doing a new one, I would.
Why hello, my beloved flollopmeister!
The other day, I purchased a copy of Banjo Pilot. I proceeded to play it for 48 hours solid, completing the entire game in one sitting. I now have a permanent imprint of my GBA SP’s A button on the tip of my right thumb, which I doubt even corrective surgery will remove. I also keep dreaming about Bottles attacking the other characters with Jiggies. Just thought that might amuse you. However, I was deeply disappointed that Tooty didn’t appear in the game. Is there any chance she’ll ever be brought back into the series?
Clockwork Kazooie
A 48-hour play session is pretty impressive. I bet your stench was unbearable by the end of it. What?
On the perennial Tooty question, Gaz from the GBA team offers: “Who knows, you’ll have to wait and see!” But let’s be realistic, she was away with the fairies in Banjo-Kazooie, she’d have been a ruddy liability in Banjo Pilot.
Dear Scribes,
First of all, congrats on Perfect Dark Zero, it’s a great game! But I do have some questions.
1) Any chance you guys will release a remake of the Felicity? It was my all time favorite multiplayer level! If not that, perhaps the Bunker of GoldenEye or Area 52?
2) Is it true Perfect Dark will be released on the Master System?
3) Are you working at a new game?
4) Do you think I’m fat?
Keep up the good work,
The one and only,
Icegod
Rare Says:
Ah, marvellous. More questions I can blindly and uncaringly field out to the boy Botwood. Honestly, he lives for these moments.
1) There are legal hurdles to jump through before I am even allowed to remember those levels.
2) If by ‘true’ you mean ‘totally and obviously made up’, then yes.
3) No.
4) Only in the visible places.
To the Scribes that we love and praise so much,
I have recently found this awesome and might I say attractive looking site and I have been reading though all and everything it has to offer. Firstly I would like to say the guy you always see outside Rare HQ at 5 AM each morning, yeah that’s me and I don’t much appreciate the mean looks you lot give me. Secondly yes I did kidnap one of your Rare crew, don’t worry he’s been fed and exercised regularly. Thirdly I would like to express my love for Rare in a haiku:
Oh Rare you rock,
Oh Rare your great,
We love you Rare.
I thought that was pretty good myself…
Andrew Simmons
Sorry Andrew, had to stop you there. Much as we appreciate the praise and everything, when a haiku contains the wrong number of syllables in every single line and also manages to throw in a fundamental misuse of ‘your’, we’re forced to take steps.
Greetings, editor,
You are about to witness an experimental procedure in which I will transport a fraction of my past self (email-dated at a vintage January 9th, 2006) to months in the future where any question or comment I have for you chaps will become pointless and unnecessary.
To ensure that my past-self is preserved, I will state my comment in two different ways, making only one relevant by the time the readers of your site see it.
OUTCOME A: You guys rock for announcing Banjo-Kazooie 3. I knew you would come around. All the years of speculation and badgering of the poor editor may not have been necessary, but at least we know that you guys really do listen. Because of this announcement, I will go ahead and buy an Xbox 360 and no doubt play it to the ground. Well done, gentlemen (and ladies?). You make me proud.
OUTCOME 2: What the hell. Despite all logical reasoning, you people ignored the fact that a hefty 0.5% of your fan base was waiting for you to release the game that will finally bring them closure! Obviously you’re working on the legendary Banjo-Kazooie 3– if not, I want what you’re smoking (it’ll ease my aching heart)– but how much longer must we wait? Kameo was announced years ago for the GameCube and you STILL managed to get over the lack of “convert to Xbox” button! You better be making a jaw-dropping, pants-wetting game in your high-security fortress or so help me, I’ll never speak to you again. No, wait… I’ll keep speaking to you forever! Never again shall you know the meaning of peace and quiet while I have been so wrongfully disgraced! You sicken me.
Please read and respond to the appropriate scenario. I know it’s July where you are, and E3 was a huge [failure/success], with the announcement of [best game ever/load of tripe], but given the time gap, I’m doing the best I can.
I’d also like to request a large (as possible), high-quality picture of Skeleton Grunty. I can only assume the six month gap won’t void this request. If it does, I’d just like you to name one of those hilarious British candies that make their way into every Scribes.
Forever young,
Rage Trebonius Bat
And now I’ve ruined everything by printing your letter several months late, as predicted, but also crucially before E3. Damn me, damn me to hell.
Anyway, don’t get your knickers in a twist, Batfink. Regardless of what happens at the show next week, the lack of any specific news doesn’t mean that a game’s not and never will be in the works. Generally speaking, projects need a good couple of years’ development behind them to be in a fit state to show to the public. And by all this I’m just clarifying that E3 isn’t the final word in terms of game announcements (see the independent Viva Piñata reveal in March for proof of that), and not explicitly confirming the existence of Banjo 3, Killer 3, Captain Skyhawk 2.and Anticipation DS. Sadly, most of the complaints I get about that will probably be centered on our lack of commitment to Anticipation DS, and they’ll all be from Kosmina.
This is quite literally the best picture of Skeleton Grunty I could find in the four minutes I spent searching – the original was less than 100 pixels tall, so as you can see, I’ve gone out of my way to optimise it for you.
Dear Raremedo,
Enjoyed and indeed enjoying your latest 360 emissions; very entertaining and a welcome return to your mountain top gaming citadel. Just a couple of Kameo related questions.
Firstly, would you mind awfully asking the developer what happened to the tigers doing the haka, that we saw in the X02 trailer? They looked fun and would make lovely rugs.
Secondly could you ask Mr Burke if he could make an MP3 of the Shadow Realm music with the fantastic little fanfare at the end, when you release the sprite? It was on the soundtrack album but this little extra ditty was omitted. It’s fun and would make a lovely rug.
Anywho, looking forward to your forthcoming game announcements!
The Bloodywell Reverend Chuck Norris (deceased)
Firstly, the team say: “We agree, they do make lovely rugs – hence their mysterious disappearance!”
Secondly, Mr. Burke says… well, he doesn’t say anything, he just hands over the goods. There’s a fine fella. Of course, as the tune itself is on the CD we can’t offer it for download, but we can give you the little fanfare at the end – just hop on over to the Kameo Downloads page for proof. And that, Bloodywell Reverend, will have to do for now.
Dear Mr. Scribeday,
Recently, (“recently” being a good 15.5 seconds ago) I took a listen again to “Dis Moi Donc Que Tu Es A Moi” from the Conker: Live & Reloaded Soundtrack. It’s truly a masterpiece, and the singer has a very beautiful voice and truly makes the song mesmerizing and enjoyable to hear. It’s one of my favorite Rare songs ever composed. Now comes the question: Would it be too much of a hassle to give us the lyrics to the song in both English and French? I’d love to learn the lyrics to this truly great song, and I know for a fact that I’m not the only one that would enjoy it.
Thank you for reading this, and may Mr. Pants bless everyone at Rare. Keep up the good games and music.
darkmark8
P.S. Tell Mr. Pants “Thank You” for last night. It was truly unforgettable.
Robin says: “It just so happens…”
How good are we to you, eh? That’s right – too damn good. In fact sometimes we have to officially reprimand Mr. Pants for just how good he’s been. It sounds like you know what I’m talking about.
Dear Scribes,
Now this might have so many legality problems than the return of AT&T (it’s an American thing), but I’m just wondering about the status of Rare’s older games. With services like Nintendo’s old games being available for download and Xbox Live Arcade, is there any remote chance of seeing any of your old games on either service?
Frankly, I’d love to play your old games on the Revolution, but I can’t forget that Microsoft owns you now. So then I thought about you guys putting your old games on Microsoft’s Arcade service, but then again, they can’t emulate Nintendo’s old hardware where your games were originally developed without them being sued or something like that.
I’m not expecting this to be as easy as the GBA/DS development (since Microsoft isn’t competing in that industry), considering Xbox Live and Nintendo WiFi Connection are services for competing home consoles. Oh well.
Dan Kim
Some kind of Xbox Live Arcade presence is a definite possibility, whether it’s old games, new games or old games made new. The prospect of Virtual Console presence I know very little about, beyond the fact that you shouldn’t believe common slack-jawed internet gossip claiming that the matter has already been resolved one way or another. Wait for some kind of official announcement – the Gaming Age forums and magazine rumour columns don’t count. Are you Jin from Lost?
Please, Please, Please…
Big GoldenEye, Perfect Dark veteran here, and I kicked arse at the N64 control settings where you would hold your right trigger for precise aiming, but shooters have come and gone and console makers have realized that the majority of gamers have two thumbs!!!! And herein lies my problem. I am a “legacy” settings kind of guy, and you include this option in PDZ, but when I zoom in (or precision-aim) I end up with my movement switching to the right stick? While my “default” buddies zoom in and out without affecting the stick movements? It’s f*cky. Please help?
Drugs for Sale (LIVE)
“It’s f*cky”? Is that what the cool kids are saying these days? I thought it was ‘sick’. No, wait, that means ‘good’. You feisty youngsters with your calculated semantic inversion. *tousles hair*
D-Bot (as he’ll be known if his promising rap career takes off) responds: “Movement switches to the right stick? It always did, kiddo. If you played either GoldenEye or PD64 with the dual controller setup to get two analogue sticks, you’d have noticed this arrangement. It was useful for sliding out from behind cover very slowly to pop guards and other players. In effect, if you never touch the second stick when you hold the aim button, then you’ve got the classic control system.”
Dear Loveliest Day (coincidentally St. Patrick’s at time of send),
If somebody could shoot me now, I would die in a state of happiness thanks to Google. I have finally found the legendary web page of Chewits!
http://www.chewits.co.uk/Layouts/
Maybe, if I’m lucky, I can find a way to mail order them, so that I can find the joy of eating three-month-old British candy! So there! I will soon be able to say to my fellow Americans, “HA! LOOK AT ME! I HAVE CONSUMED CHEWITS!!” after which I proceed to run around in yellow shorts and a shark tooth necklace, smashing cars and squirrels with a giant red bird. Hmm, that reminds me, I still have to find McJiggy’s…
Paul M. Pasquella
Generally speaking, a quicker and easier way to find the website of a UK-based product would be to just type in its name and put ‘.co.uk’ at the end without bothering to engage the services of an intermediary search function. Once more, Pasquella, your slow wits betray you.
Probably about time we did another random Chewits competition… okay, let’s see. Packet of Chewits, paid for out of my own pocket and possibly never to be received due to international food mailing restrictions, to whoever sends in the funniest photographic evidence of stupidly-named confectionery from any part of the world in time for the next Scribes (so you’ve probably got a couple of months at least).
Dear Scribes,
Every week I have my mates over for a session of Perfect Dark multiplayer. It’s been this way for six years now, recently I bought an Xbox 360 squarely to play Perfect Dark Zero. It’s a good game but why oh why aren’t there many multiplayer options?
Like to choose if people have no armour? Or one hit kills? Even some sort of health percentage/handicap system? (One of my mates alas is… challenged and he’s perpetually ranked last.) On the post-game screen, you can’t even see who killed who – and how many times.
Also I’m disappointed with the game modes. DarkOps are brilliant, but I miss the wealth of game modes sported back in Perfect Dark N64. Some of those modes were truly inspired, like Hold the Hill (complete with moving hills), and Pop a Cap. ‘Hold the briefcase/flag/bag’ is such a straightforward and traditional FPS mode I was surprised not to find it in PDZ.
In short I’m just suggesting to implement some features which were already in the last Perfect Dark game when you release the patch! With the new radar system online modes are sublime, let’s just try and see if we can take that level of excellence to offline modes by implementing some small but significant options.
Sorry to rant, but I just don’t want to sell my Xbox 360 and four controllers. Currently it’s played less and less during the Perfect Dark sessions and in all honesty for offline multiplayer, it’s outranked by the N64 original.
Thanks for your time and I look forward to seeing the patch when it comes out,
Nick Adams
“He can remove the armour from a DeathMatch game with a custom weapon set or from a DarkOps game by editing the weapon restrictions,” observes Duncan, reverting to third-person again. “Like I said in the past, if it was up to me there would only have been DarkOps mode, and there may have been more DarkOps scenarios in that case. I’m not a fan of the vanilla multiplayer shooter scenarios like capture the flag and king of the hill – they’ve been done to death.
“Any omissions were as a result of the time restrictions we were under to produce a launch title; sadly, they will continue to be omissions due to the high cost of testing 32-player matches to the level of quality we need.”
So there you go. Say hi to your dad Grizzly for me next time you’re out in the hostile North American wilderness… in the 19th century.
Dear Scribes,
You know what you guys made me realize? Right, I thought you guys were pretty sweet back when I first played Battletoads. That game rocked. And, you know, toads, nay, toads who can punch things in succession with other things; that always has potential to rock the Casbah, perhaps Casbahs. But it was only Xbox Threesiddy time, when booting up one of the machines with PDZ in the drive, did I realize my love for you (not sexually, well not right now, at least) transcends the very time I knew of your work.
Plainly, the first game I ever played, and therefore by extension, best game I ever played, was Jetpac. In other words, it was your damn little white space man with his exquisitely arranged rocket pieces of pure, unadulterated delight that, in essence, turned me into a dork. I hope you are happy. No, seriously, I do.
As penance, however, I request, nay demand you release a sexy hi-definition remake and put it onto XBLA forthwith! C’mon, you’ve released themes, gamer pictures, and the guy straight out mocks me with his shiny Rare logo every time I put in PDZ. You owe me. I think? I forget how threats and stuff work.
Just make it, it’ll be awesome. You know it will.
Miller
Jetpac was one of the first games I ever played as well. Probably after Manic Miner, but before Durell’s Scuba Dive. We’re like brothers, man. I’d buy a shiny Live Arcade remake as well, though that’s no guarantee it’ll ever happen… or will it? Or will it? The great thing about Scribes and its scurrilous reputation is that I could tell you such a game is in the works as we speak, and nobody would have any idea whether I was telling the truth or lying. It’s actually Knight Lore Live! No, not really. It’s 16-player competitive Pssst!
Dear Scribes,
I) Why don’t you call people muppets anymore? The Americans love it when we call someone a muppet!
II ) I thought you should know that I have been working hard on a Wikipedia entry that you may find annoying, give it a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mepsi_pax
III ) Can we expect to see your “fur shading” technique in all your games from now on?
IV ) I know you will be making Nintendo DS and Game Boy games and all, but are you guys still on friendly terms with Nintendo? Like I imagine that Shigeru Miyamoto and Hiroshi Yamauchi used to come around all the time for a game of pool, drink warm beer and laugh as Miyamoto crushes PlayStations with his bare hands.
V ) Can we expect “good” Rare games (you know what I mean!) on the Game Boy and DS consoles, games as good as your Xbox, N64 and SNES games? Or will it be complete arse games (!cough! Banjo Game Boy !cough! Perfect Dark Game Boy)?
VI ) How often does Bill Gates come to your fancy Rare headquarters and do you have to clean up all the empty pizza boxes and stuff when he comes around (I mean is there a big fuss made?).
VII ) Call me a muppet.
Jay Keaton
1) I bet Jim Henson doesn’t. Didn’t.
2) All that’s missing is a close-up of the man who provided the real-life inspiration for Birdy, which I’m afraid there’s zero chance of me supplying.
3) Would it be appropriate in all our games? Joanna Dark looks better without the hairy shoulders if you ask me, and the focus group seemed to back me up on that.
4) The fact that they entrusted us with all three DKC GBA remakes tells you pretty much all you need to know about our working relationship. No doubt more will be revealed in good time.
5) It’s Mr. Pants officially clears us of any prior substandard game allegations, you must be aware of that. But as you’ll probably never find a copy, go play Sabre Wulf and stop moaning.
6) If he ever does head over our way, I expect we’ll have enough advance warning to clear out all the crap – and once we’ve finished sacking incompetent staff members we’ll get started on the litter, LOL OMG ROFL.
7) Alright, just this once: you GONZO. You absolute, total BEAKER.
Hello,
I love Kameo: Elements of Power. As far as I’m concerned, it’s Rare back in true form. 🙂
One thing bugs me, though. The graphics are flawless, except for one thing; the lighting from the torches, and windows, are flickering badly. What’s up with that? A minor bug in the game, or is something wrong with my Xbox 360? Please answer this question.
I hope there’ll be a sequel to Kameo. And a sequel to Banjo-Kazooie, or rather it must be Banjo-Tooie (even though I never got to play it), wouldn’t be amiss either. 🙂
Best Regards,
Martin Jønsson
I need to delegate this to someone technical on the Kameo team. Either that or just point and laugh at the squinting thicky for a few minutes. No, I suppose I’d better do things properly. Here we go…
First off I’m really glad you love Kameo and appreciate the hard work we all put into the graphics. Now to answer your question about the flickering torches and windows, please choose the answer you like least:
1) Flaming torches flicker so the lighting flickers, the windows flicker because the lights inside buildings are torches! Go look at a real flaming torch and you’ll see what I mean!
2) We left a simple ‘bug’ like that in a game with otherwise ‘flawless’ graphics because we could not be arsed to fix it.
3) You have a bug in your eyes/brain that makes you think something that flickers must be broken, see response 1.
4) Technical answer: the Lighting, Penumbras and GFX all oscillate their brightness by 25% at 15Hz to give a little flicker, that’s what torches do, see responses 1 and 3.
5) You just don’t like our effects.
Seriously though I very much doubt your Xbox 360 is broken if everything else in the game is rendering smoothly. Keep watching this space for announcements about our unannounced projects, you never know what we might be working on!”
Hello brilliant game makers,
A few little questions from a humble gamer.
1. When will the shiny new multiplayer maps be available for PD0 and how many will there be? (I know you have probably been asked this a lot, but I bought a 360 on the strength of PD0 alone and am desperate for info.)
2. Will Conker: Live & Reloaded ever be compatible with the 360?
3. Ever considered a High Res/Next Gen version of Blast Corps? Drool.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Boli Boy
P.S. Please let the new multiplayer maps for Zero be as good as the awesome ‘Urban’ level.
Numbered lists… numbered lists everywhere…
1) Uncle Dunc: “Very soon if not actually by the time you read this, and there are four of them.” Hang on – what do you mean, “by the time you read this”? Isn’t it bad enough that unwashed outsiders like Trebonius Bat up there are having a pop at our update frequency without my own colleagues chipping in as well? You’re practically inciting a revolution, Botwood. Restrain yourself.
2) We certainly hope so, but there’s nothing new to report since we last answered the question.
3) ONLY EVERY TIME SOMEONE WRITES IN AND DEMANDS IT.
PS D-Bot cryptically claims: “It’s very much down to how you play them.”
Categories: News
0 Comments
This post has been left all alone with no comments. Don't leave it lonesome - give it some company with a comment.