‘Vampyr’ and the gender politics of 1918 London
Vampyr, the next game from Dontnod Entertainment features a white, male protagonist. For any other studio, this is de rigueur, something dictated by the gaming industry’s presumed demographic. But for the team behind Life is Strange and Remember Me, it’s the first time they’ve delved into the male mindset. And it wasn’t the result of market research either: It’s because Vampyr’s story wouldn’t have worked any other way.
The PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One game takes place in London, circa 1918. World War I has just ended, the Spanish Flu pandemic is killing thousands, the first wave of feminism has begun and women were recently made eligible to hold seats in Parliament. Elsewhere, communism is beginning to spread outward from Russia. As Dr. Jonathan Reid in Vampyr, you’re caught in the midst of all this and more.
“We needed that kind of setting to make [the story] believable,” said art director Grégory Szucs. “With what we needed from the character at the time, it was perfect to pick a male. It was more interesting and more fitting to pick a woman for Life is Strange.””
Vampyr is a story of duality, according to Dontnod. You play as Reid who believes in science and helping people as a doctor, but you’re also a supernatural being who must take lives and feed on the living to survive. Narrative director Stéphane Beauverger said that there were a few cases of female doctors during this time period, but the vast majority of people with a scientific or medical background were white and male.
“To be historically accurate, if we’d created a female character, each time she went to a house and said ‘Hello, I’m a doctor,” she wouldn’t be believed,” Beauverger said. This plays a direct part into vampire fiction in general: Unless a bloodsucker is invited inside, they can’t cross the threshold of someone’s door.
“Normally as a doctor at this time, when you knock on the door you’re invited in. That makes it very easy for a vampire to enter a house,” he said.
“We needed [Reid] to already have influence over people because of where he comes from and here he was born, his place in society, his being a doctor, all before he was a vampire,” Szucs added.
That’s not to say that there aren’t prominent female characters in Vampyr. Your main point of contact with the underworld, for instance, is an ancient vampire named Lady Ashbury. She’s a sort of matriarch who’s dealing with sexism even in the game’s vampire society. Her role here is to guide Reid through his new life. She’s essentially his moral compass.
“She’s independent,” Beauverger said. “She tries to shake things up.” Sometimes, it’s in subtle ways that we’d overlook today, but were radical ideas in Vampyr’s setting. Like Ashbury wearing something other than a skirt or dress. “It was illegal at the time for women to wear pants,” Beauverger said. But still, Ashbury does.
What’s been shown off of her at this point is minimal, but, given Dontnod’s history, it’s highly unlikely that she’ll be left on the sidelines.
“As a doctor, when you knock on the door you’re invited in. That makes it easy for a vampire to enter a house,” Beauverger said.
Speaking to the studio’s past work and exclusively female protagonists, Beauverger mentioned that story has always dictated who you’re playing as — not his own desires as an admittedly white, male narrative director. Take Dontnod’s first game, Remember Me from 2013. You play as Nilin, a multi-racial woman who, by story’s end, discovers the evils she’s been fighting all game long have been constructed by her parents. Beauverger said that the team didn’t create Nilin because her being a woman would tick a certain box, but because her being a woman was the right fit for their first game.
“That’s why we created that character; not because we wanted to show that a woman can be strong — we know that a woman can be strong.”
“The problem was when we realized that we had negative answers from the marketing team,” Beauverger said. “That’s when we realized we had to fight for this. For us, it was just natural.”
With Vampyr’s main character and Dontnod’s track record of success, however, there likely won’t be much of a pushback from the marketing department ahead of the game’s 2017 release.
Follow all the news from E3 2016 here!
Amazon backs ‘Vainglory’ mobile eSports tournament
Amazon is throwing its weight behind mobile eSports yet again. The company — the Amazon Appstore, in particular — is the main sponsor of the 2016 Vainglory summer eSports season. Vainglory is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game for touchscreen devices, which Apple demoed on stage back in 2014 to show off the power of its A8 chip. It has become the biggest touchscreen eSport since then, convincing Amazon-owned streaming website Twitch to ink a deal with its publisher, Super Evil Megacorp, to broadcast its tournaments.
Amazon and Super Evil Megacorp are doing things a bit differently this season. Starting today until September 11th, the top eight teams in North America and Europe will be facing each other every weekend. The Appstore will reward players with discounts and Amazon Coins throughout the tournament. By the end of the season, the e-retailer will host a huge championship event. It’s not clear at this point where it’s going to be held, but you can watch Twitch’s coverage of the tournament on the official Vainglory channel.
Source: Vainglory
The best way to play ‘Splatoon’ is with a hacked water gun
Researchers and makers over at Kougaku Navi in Japan have been working hard on a playable Splatoon gun since March, and the latest model really looks the part. It combines a Wii U GamePad, controls transplanted inside a Splatoon-themed water pistol and Sony’s head-mounted display to give you at least a little bit of movement freedom. It’s not perfect, but if you really want to play the game with a gun, it possibly the closest we’ll get.
#スプラトゥーン の新しいインタフェース作った pic.twitter.com/rqedtePWAY
— kougaku (@kougaku) June 20, 2016
While it may look like a fantastical VR version of the Nintendo’s hit shooter, it doesn’t go quite that far. However, that’s not to say it’s not brilliant on its own merit: Let’s break it down. The GamePad is the lynchpin here: it’s strapped to the player’s back to deliver vibrations to your very soul body as well as gyroscopic movement of your view to the HMD. Why is it on the back? It’s the best way of approximating where you’re aiming the gun. (Especially if you’re holding it two-handed — like a good ghostbuster.)
The gun contains controls to move forward, backwards and to shoot of course. It’s wirelessly connected to the pad, one of several major upgrades that came in after their second creation. It looks surprisingly playable for a very low-fi solution. Now I want to play. Can I play it? Guess I’ll dust off my Japanese dictionary and shoot the researchers an email. Take a more detailed (Google-translated) tour of the development process right here.
Via: Buzzfeed Japan
Source: Kougaku Navi
‘Quake’ marks its 20th anniversary
Attention gamers of a certain age: you’re about to feel very, very old. June 22nd, 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of the original Quake, id Software’s classic first-person shooter. It may not be quite as genre-defining as the Doom games that preceded it, but it was still considered revolutionary. For a start, it was presented entirely in 3D (with semi-realistic lighting, no less) at a time when most shooters had to make do with ‘2.5D’ engines — even the zero-gravity title Descent had some 2D. Quake was also one of the first games of its kind to be built with internet multiplayer in mind, not just local networks. And who can forget the eerie soundtrack from Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor?
As important as the game was when released in 1996, its long-term impact was arguably greater. Thanks in no small part to QuakeWorld (a version optimized for the slow internet connections of the time) and add-ons like Threewave CTF, online action gaming took off. Its extremely flexible code led to extremely popular mods like Team Fortress, which spawned stand-alone games that are still played today. Even the computer hardware industry owes a debt to Quake. After all, it was frequently the main reason why you bought an early 3D graphics accelerator. AMD and NVIDIA wouldn’t be where they are now without people buying video cards to get some extra visual oomph out of GLQuake.
The Quake series doesn’t have an active presence outside of Quake Live right now, but it’s about to enjoy a revival thanks to the upcoming Quake Champions. Even if that falls flat, though, the game’s influence will likely be felt for a long time. You can trace the basic controls and mechanics of many modern first-person shooters back to id’s pioneering work, and it popularized certain parts of the modern gaming lingo (such as frags and spawn camping). Whenever you shotgun someone in Call of Duty, you’re showing Quake some gratitude.
Source: John Romero
‘Furi’ unleashes its unique brand of chaos this July
The Game Bakers’ Furi is a neon-soaked fever dream in which you go tackle boss after boss after boss in the vein of Shadow of the Colossus. It was certainly a standout during E3 2016, and it’s streaking forward to PlayStation 4 and PC this July 5 for $24.99.
Featuring character design from Afro Samurai creator Takashi Okazaki and an aesthetic that’d challenge even the zaniest parts of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, Furi isn’t The Game Bakers’ first rodeo when it comes to indie gaming. But it certainly could be one of its best. With a combination of synthwave and electronica punctuating its soundtrack and explosive fights that’ll challenge your reflexes, Furi is definitely one to watch.
Check out the announcement trailer below and brush up on the basics of CQC if you want to make any progress in this frenetic action game.
Source: The Game Bakers
‘Hotline Miami 2’ is ready for your user-built sequels
The flashy, lo-res violence of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number just got a new lease on life. The long-awaited level editor companion just dropped its beta status and is ready to go live. Since the second installment was “the brutal conclusion” to the series, a boatload of user-made, downloadable content is likely the closest thing fans will get to an HM3. And that’s essentially what users will find now that the game has landed on Steam Workshop.
If you haven’t yet jumped into Hotline’s world, now would be an excellent time to do that. Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is currently on sale for a dirt-cheap $3.74 or $4.99 bundled with the original. For the true aficionado, the full 49-track original soundtrack is also available for a $14.99 download.
‘Resident Evil 7’ is going back to its horror roots
Capcom’s Resident Evil 7 brings some substantial revisions to the series. The seventh major installment takes the franchise into virtual reality, but that’s just the start of the changes you’ll see when it launches on PS4 early next year. The studio is taking the opportunity to rewrite the “survival horror” game concept it helped pioneer, stripping away a lot of schlocky Resident Evil tropes, enemies and characters. Both the demo and trailer show a more terse, psychological kind of horror game, something that several games (including Konami’s loudly canned P.T. teaser) are looking to tap into. Action appears to takes a back seat to exploration and plain weirdness. It’s a great conceit, but it’s still a work in progress. Series producer Masachika Kawata explained to Engadget what’s happened to Resident Evil — and the challenge of ensuring that those playing on PSVR can stomach it.
To start, this Resident Evil is a different kind of experience, regardless of whether you play it with or without PSVR; both versions are presented with a first-person view. “It offers a more detailed, visceral experience of the game environment,” Kawata said. “But comfort optimizations are an extra challenge.”
In the short demo (playable now on PS4 with a PS Plus subscription), the game starts with you inside an abandoned house. The goal is to get the hell out of there, which is mostly a matter of exploring and interacting with things inside the house. Without spoiling it, the demo doesn’t offer much (or anything) in the way of weapons, but that’s not to say you won’t be able to fight back. “[After switching perspective to first person], I like how the control system works with combat. While we haven’t shown that just yet — it’s coming,” Kawata said.
According to Kawata, the first-person view also offers a “more detailed, visceral experience of the game environment … although comfort optimizations are an extra challenge.” It makes sense: If I’m meant to be the character in a VR game, looking through her eyes, then shaking the camera or switching the perspective will make for an uncomfortable experience. Kawata explains: “Like climbing a ladder: In the PS4 version, the camera pans out to show the character climbing down. In VR, we’d fade out from the view from the start of the ladder and fade back in once you’ve moved. These are the kind of things we have to look into and support [for VR players].”
Those aren’t the only VR issues that Capcom needs to tackle. My colleague Jess Conditt went through the wringer while playing the PSVR teaser, which made her feel severely nauseous. (I also had to take off the PSVR headset before finishing the demo, as I felt similarly queasy. And we’re not alone.)
Kawata admits there’s work to be done here: “There’s a lot of variables in place when you play VR, including how [the player] literally feels at the time that you play it,” he said. “It’s something that we’re comprehensively looking into, especially at events like E3, which is an opportunity to gather feedback from gamers that try it out. We’re optimizing Resident Evil 7, to make it the most comfortable experience we can make it.”
Whatever the problem, it highlights an important fact: Good VR is fantastic, but there’s nothing worse than bad VR.
According to Kawata, “We’re aware that the main issue, the freedom of movement of the VR headset, can sometimes clash with the right stick that adjusts your view on the controller. That seems to be one of the issues — one that we’re working hard to resolve.”
It could be the camera system, or it could be the lower frame rates on the PSVR compared to the competition. Whatever the problem, it highlights an important fact: Good VR is fantastic, but there’s nothing worse than bad VR.
With everything that’s changed, is this a Resident Evil title only in name? Despite those aforementioned changes across the latest installment, the game isn’t a reboot: It continues the storyline from RE6, albeit in a different way. No zombies or shotguns? You should be OK: “You can be assured that the experience will very much be a Resident Evil one,” Kawata added.
Making a full game in VR was a challenge, he said. “It’s a lot of work but I really think we’re starting to see the results of all that now.” There’s still time, at least, for the team to work out those (literally) stomach-sinking VR issues: Resident Evil 7 launches Jan. 24th, 2017.
This interview has been translated from Japanese as well as edited and condensed.
Game studio claims it lost $450,000 to key resales
Game key resales are theoretically ideal for players — you can buy that must-have title at a discount from someone who wasn’t going to use it anyway. However, SpeedRunners developer TinyBuild would beg to differ. It’s accusing G2A of facilitating a black market in game keys that amounted to $450,000 in potential lost sales at retail prices. The studio maintains that G2A is refusing proper help (including compensation) after fraudsters bought keys from the TinyBuild store using stolen credit cards and posted them on G2A, making a tidy profit while TinyBuild made nothing. Supposedly, the only way to get help would be to forge a deal with G2A itself and undercut its own retail partners in order to compete with the bootleggers. Simply blacklisting a range of keys wasn’t an option, either.
G2A, to no one’s shock, sees things differently. It believes that TinyBuild made “unjustified demands” of its store. It also argues that it suspended shady key sales before TinyBuild even got in touch, and that the developer isn’t being entirely honest about its revenues — it’s using the peak prices as its model, not the sale prices that frequently appear. G2A is giving TinyBuild 3 days (until June 25th) to deliver a list of “suspicious” keys that it wants to investigate.
The truth might be somewhere in between these two positions. G2A wasn’t the one who bought keys through shady means, and it did take steps to keep things clean without being prompted. However, this does suggest that both sides may need screening that discourages fraud in the first place — it’s rare that someone honest will buy or sell game keys in those kinds of quantities.
Source: Gamasutra (1), (2), G2A
Sony will pay out millions to spurned PS3 Linux users
A long-running lawsuit stemming from Sony’s claim that its PlayStation 3 consoles would allow for third-party operating systems has finally come to a close. As Ars Technica reports, the class-action lawsuit could end up costing Sony millions of dollars for getting on the bad side of some Linux fans, and if you’re one of those Linux fans, you could be in for a $55 check.
The whole mess goes back six years, to when Sony disabled the “Install Other OS” feature with a PS3 software update, eventually claiming it did so due to piracy concerns. Sony also claimed the update was voluntary, even though opting out would break nearly every other major feature of the console.
According to the attorneys who brought the class action, up to 10 million console owners could have been affected. And under the terms of the deal they struck with Sony, they stand to make a cool $2.25 million of their own. As for those folks who had hopes of using their PS3s as a Linux box — they are eligible for that $55 payout assuming they can show “some proof of their use of the Other OS functionality.” If you knew about the Other OS function, but never quite got around to using it because you were too busy playing God of War III, you might still be eligible for a cool nine bucks.
As part of the deal, which still needs to be approved by a judge next month, Sony will need to alert users about the settlement via PlayStation’s own email database, as well as ads on popular tech and gaming sites. In the meantime, if you’re looking to run Linux on your PS4, you’ll have to resort to some actual hacking.
PS4’s ‘Detroit’ couldn’t have taken place anywhere else
When you set your story in a specific city, it’s a very sensitive thing to do,” said David Cage, director of the upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive Detroit: Become Human. “You don’t want to do it if you’re not respectful of the place, of the people living there.” Cage’s next game with studio Quantic Dream deals with a near-future world where androids aren’t a mobile operating system for your phone, they’re “living” among us with hopes and desires of their own. Specifically? Transcending their circuitry and, as the name suggests, being human.
Detroit tells the story of several humanoid robots and is set entirely in the Motor City. Like his games Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy before it, Detroit is a narrative-based choose-your-own-adventure where the decisions you make in the story have huge ripple effects. Ultimately those could lead to main characters dying because of your actions.
As Cage tells it, the game couldn’t have taken place anywhere else. He said that the tale of an industrial titan — Detroit and its automotive manufacturing background — going through difficult times and being reborn was a natural fit for his narrative.
“Where would an android industry go? There would probably be a need for huge factories and a lot of space. I thought that Detroit would be a perfect place for that,” he said.
This isn’t the only time the eponymous city’s been used for a video game setting recently, and for the same reasons. When Deus Ex: Human Revolution was released in 2011, it used Motown as the headquarters for the human augmentation industry. Cage said that this doesn’t affect his vision for Detroit. “I don’t like to look too much at what people do at the same time,” he said.
“You don’t want to make decisions just because someone else did something a little bit like this, and then you need to find something that is not as good just for the sake of being different.”
Cage’s ‘Detroit’ doesn’t just use the city’s name as shorthand for its cultural history.
Unlike Human Revolution, Cage’s Detroit doesn’t just use the city’s name as shorthand for its cultural history. Some of Detroit’s most recognizable landmarks have appeared in trailers for the game so far. The statue of Joe Louis’ fist, downtown’s monorail system, and yes, blighted houses, are but a few examples.
For people who live in Michigan or have spent a lot of time in Detroit, it can be aggravating seeing the media paint the city as nothing more than burned out homes and abandoned buildings. A level in 2014’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare set in Detroit transformed the city into a refugee camp, for instance.
“I can’t believe this is Detroit,” a character in Advanced Warfare quipped at one point. “It hasn’t changed that much,” said another. And that’s four years after attacks on nuclear power plants around the world had thrown Earth into chaos; 2059 in the game’s timeline. The team at Sledgehammer Games used Detroit as a lazy signpost for a destroyed city, when, honestly, a few lines of dialog could’ve been changed and the level could have taken place in an Eastern Bloc country.
Cage doesn’t want that. His team at Quantic Dream spent time in Detroit during production because he hates writing a story about a place he hasn’t been. He traveled around, visiting decrepit churches, meeting the people who are rebuilding the city and came away inspired by the energy he felt. He even made his way through the abandoned Packard Automotive plant that graffiti artists have adopted as a 3.5 million square-foot canvas since its late-’90s closure.
“It’s definitely a surreal place in many ways,” he said. “You could tell just watching the rooms and how beautiful it was one day. You can still feel it and easily imagine how it could become something incredible again.”
If Cage’s game is focused on a decline, it isn’t of Detroit, it’s of a race: humans. He said that the advances we’ve made in artificial intelligence, coupled with our penchant for violence and conflict, were a good jumping off point for his game.
The Packard Automotive plant. Image credit: The Washington Post via Getty Images
Cage believes that high-powered artificial intelligence that can walk among us is an inevitability. But, whether that will be something good or bad is anyone’s guess at the moment. Tesla and SpaceX mastermind Elon Musk, and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, think that our current trajectory could end badly for the human race. Hence their dire warnings and multimillion dollar donations to keep a Skynet-like situation from occurring.
“What I wanted to do with Detroit is take the opposite angle and not necessarily say that technology is going to be our enemy and that [androids] are going to destroy us,” Cage said. “But, rather say, ‘What if we were declining?’ What if the human race, through hate and violence, what if it was the end of a certain era and maybe the beginning of something else?”
The juxtaposition of humanity decaying and technology taking over probably wouldn’t be as effective if the game was set anywhere other than Detroit. It’s the attention to detail and reverence for Motown that Cage and his team have that rings most clear and grounds their vision of a fantastical future in reality.
“If you just come [to a city] and steal what you want to steal for your piece and just leave, that’s one approach,” he said. “But we were sincerely moved by the place, by its history, by the people we met. We wanted to be fair to them and tell a story that would work for them.”
“We love the city, honestly.”
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