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Tags used on this page: E3 Monkey_Island Telltale_Games Legos Harry_Potter Left_4_Dead Alan_Wake

New Monkey Island! And other trailers from E3 Posted on 2009-06-02 00:36:40
Posted by Paul Franzen
Tags: E3 Monkey_Island Telltale_Games Legos Harry_Potter Left_4_Dead Alan_Wake untagged
This isn't meant to be a comprehensive list of everything that was announced/shown at E3 today---just the things that interest me. In no particular order:

1. Tales of Monkey Island



So Basically: It's a brand-new five-part episodic Monkey Island game for the Wii and the PC, and it'd being developed by Telltale Games (who made the new Sam & Max games, among other point-and-clickers), so you know it's going to be fantastic.

2. Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition



So Basically: It's a re-make of the original Secret of Monkey Island game, for Xbox Live and the PC. It features new graphics that aren't terrible, but it also allows you to switch to the original graphics mid-game at the push of a button. It also features all-new voice acting from the original, and totally fantastic, cast of Curse of Monkey Island. (But does it allow you to play with old graphics and new voicework? Hmm....)  And it's still a point-and-click game, thank goodness.

3. Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4

 

So Basically: Developer Traveller's Tales has figured out how to make good licensed games: turn everything into Legos. It's worked great for Star Wars and Indiana Jones, so maybe it'll work just as well here!

4. Left 4 Dead 2



So Basically: It has zombies, and you shoot them. The last game was great, but it was also a massive rip-off. One of two things has to happen to make this one worthwhile: Either the story mode has to be longer than four hours, or they have to let you choose to play as zombies in multiplayer, instead of forcing you to switch between humans and zombies every round. Make it happen, Valve!

5. Alan Wake



So Basically: I just think it looks cool---I don't actually know anything about it.

Two Reasons Why Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Could Be a Good Game Posted on 2009-05-07 06:07:07
Posted by Michael Gray
Tags: Harry_Potter

1. The Graphics Team Will Do Nothing

The graphics for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix were utterly awesome.  The graphics team took the monumental job of taking all the various locations from the books and movies and melding them together into a videogame overworld that actually works.

This was the major problem with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, oddly enough. They spent so much time making the overworld perfect that they sorta ignored other features, like gameplay and controls.

But for Half-Blood Prince, EA has nothing to worry about.  They just have to copy/paste the Order of the Phoenix overworld into Half-Blood Prince, and they're good to go.  This will free up so much time in production that the gameplay department will get a major boost.  And trust me, it needs it.

2. The Game Was Supposed To Be Shipped in November

The game was set to be shipped in November, along with the movie.  Well, the movie got delayed nine months, and so the game was delayed, too, even though both the movie and the game were completed.

Think about that. The production team finished the game, and then they were given an extra nine months to work on it!  That's probably about as long as it took for them to make the game in the first place!  Nine months is plenty of time for them to improve the gameplay, add a bunch of more stuff, and make the game loads more awesome overall.

Unless, of course, EA decided to set the project on the shelf, and they didn't do any work on the game at all in the past nine months. In which case, the game will probably suck.