Archive for October, 2005

So the alsoran has spent a couple of days this week posing out characters for an upcoming magazine cover.

Once a first-pass render was created the images were sent to the magazine in question for critique, and changes were wholly expected due to text placement requirements etc.

What was not anticipated, however, was an outright rejection due to an unwritten rule that a cover must feature only one character, as more than one is too much for the feeble reader to take in at quick glance, therefore leading to confusion and the possible accidental purchase of another magazine entirely.

The alsoran cautiously picked this up due to the series-damaging sequel, produced by the (apparently inexperienced) Ubisoft Shanghai studio. However, this latest offering comes from an internal team at the original Montreal studio, and despite the controversial defection of some of the key original Splinter Cell creators to EA, this third franchise installment captures all the near-future espionage thrill of the original minus the glaring flaws of the first two.

Building on the stealth-based reliance on gadgetry and darkness of previous installments, Chaos Theory offers a more open-ended approach to each situation, populating the less-linear levels with more forgiving (or fallible) AI, losing their super-human eyesight, allowing the player many more creative ways to dispatch of each enemy (or not) as they see fit.

Gameplay aside, Chaos Theory features the most advanced realtime IK system the alsoran has witnessed in a videogame so far, making player character Sam Fisher convincingly connect with the environment and pushing the medium ever closer to true procedural movement that is entirely under the command of the player.

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Have we all seen this advert for “Generic Urban Gang Shooter No. 25″? Just a few years ago, we would have taken it for granted that the player assumes the role of the cops depicted in the image, but owing to the foreground prominence of the gangmember, the viewer rightly gets the impression they will be controlling him instead.

Apparently, this game allows a choice between cops or gangs, but that fact is not the issue. What is of interest here is that the author of the illustration is catering towards a demographic, (as that is the sole, soul-less, purpose of marketing artwork), that is now percieved to favour the role of bad-guy over good. Something that would have been unheard of until relatively recently.

Does this represent a shift in the conscience of the gamesplaying public, tired of eternally reprising the role of hero, or simply marketing catering towards the lowest common denominator?

The alsoran recommends all people who see this game on store shelves to steal a copy, and we’ll see how promoting this type of moronic anti-hero affects the publisher’s sales.

If, like the alsoran, you spent 100+ hours on the PS1 masterpiece Final Fantasy VII then you may just be able to grasp the storyline in this most dynamic of action CG movies. If not then the endless nods to the game as well as the introduction of unnamed characters that bear no plot relevance other than to give Strife a hand-up towards the end may be lost on you.

Regardless, the action in this movie contains without a doubt the most dramatic sword-fighting sequences ever to be storyboarded, with the dynamic posing and camerawork building with every encounter up until the final climactic battle.

While the jump from the mocap of the character scenes to the apparently pure animation of the action sequences is jarring at first, the alsoran almost feels sorry for non-animated films such as the Matrix, Star Wars and Lord of The Rings series due to their restrictive leanings towards realism, as their battles pale in comparison to the anime-driven movement that comprises Advent Children. Highly recommended viewing.