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Exclusive Interview: Tom French, The Saboteur Lead Designer

Posted by Drea Avellan Categories: Action, Adventure, Electronic Arts, Features, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

It’s no secret that I am a big supporter of Pandemic Studios’ . Earlier this year, I was exposed to the game in its early development stage and even then—It looked extremely promising. The Saboteur is the story of a car racer in Nazi-occupied Paris looking for revenge. Now, I know what you are thinking, “Not another World War II game!” However, The Saboteur offers you an intimate experience with the characters, while World War II is only the backdrop of the story. In previous interviews, I have been able to get a little more background information of the game, if only to get a glimpse of what this world looks like. Recently, I was able to sit and chat with the Lead Designer of The Saboteur, Tom French, and find out some more background information of the game and what it has to offer us.

Tom, tell us a bit about your background.
My first game at Pandemic was Mercenaries, which was my first job as a designer. I have been in the videogame industry for about 12 years and most of my history was at Blackout Studios. I worked a little bit on Fallout, and a lot on Fallout 2, and I worked on some prototype that got canceled before they shut down.

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Latest screenshots of The Saboteur

Posted by Drea Avellan Categories: Action, Adventure, Electronic Arts, Features, PlayStation 3, Screenshots, Xbox 360

Pandemic Studios gave us a look at The Saboteur, their upcoming action title that paints us the picture of a Nazi-occupied Paris through the eyes of race car driver, Sean Devlin. As our leading Irish man starts off on a mission to get revenge, you will be able to explore the city of Paris in all its open-world goodness and get the job done. Want fighting, climbing to roof tops, derailing trains or an arsenal of weapons? The Saboteur has that – and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

The Saboteur runs on the Odin engine, which was built specifically for the game from the ground up and dying to show you what it can do. These screenshots are only a sample of some of the great graphics and art styles this game will deliver, check them out in The Saboteur screenshot gallery.

Read More | The Saboteur screenshot gallery

Gallery: Latest screenshots of The Saboteur

  • Saboteur screenshot 4
  • Saboteur screenshot 3
  • Saboteur screenshot 2
  • Saboteur screenshot 1

Mercenaries 2 Delayed Until 2008

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Electronic Arts, PC, PlayStation 3, Release Dates, Xbox 360

Description

EA‘s upcoming open-world game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames is being pushed back until 2008, further relaxing the pressure on a still crowded holiday season for games. Speaking to developer Pandemic Studios President Josh Resnick, IGN coaxed out a few more details:

We’re adding nothing at this point. Our only goal is to make gamers proud that they own a copy of Mercenaries 2 by making the highest quality next-gen open-world experience the world has ever seen. If that sounds ambitious, then you should see how many cans of caffeine our programming guys have choked down during the past two years of development.

Resnick also complimented Rockstar and said that he wasn’t concerned about competing with Grand Theft Auto IV because, as he puts it, “We know gamers are bloodhounds when it comes to sniffing out a quality gameplay experience, and we’re hoping that scent leads them directly to Mercenaries 2.” He said they were using the extra time to focus on fixing bugs, tuning the physics and working on the mission structures.

The delay was initial rumored because retail outlets adjusted their release dates from late ‘07 to 2008, forcing Pandemic and EA to confirm the delay. Commenting on the leak, Resnick said, “Those dang sneaky retailers! You just can’t seem to keep a lid on something once they hear about it.”

Read More | IGN

Researchers Use World of Warcraft to Study Real-World Response to Disease

Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Culture, MMORPG, PC, Role Playing Games, Simulation

Testing Disease Response From Corrupted Blood WoW EventThe New York Times has a story about a group of researchers who examined the outbreak of the in-game disease ‘corrupted blood,’ originally designed to affect only high-level characters, for clues about what the social response might be to an actual pandemic. The game provided the authors of a research paper set to be published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal a unique set of conditions for this research that had typically been difficult to simulate: A wide population, an emotional response (because WoW players get really attached to their characters) and the ability to disseminate information among the population.

The corrupted blood outbreak was a glitch in WoW that took place in September 2005 and provided a unique look at the responses both by the population and the “bug:”

As the virus spread, very real challenges emerged, such as the failure of quarantine measures, further transmission by character’s pets and the existence of “immune” characters, who act as carriers, passing the virus to others while failing to succumb to symptoms.

It’s a fascinating use of the social construct that WoW has become.

Read More | Times Online via Slashdot


Mercenaries 2 Trailer: Because Blowing Stuff Up And Jacking Helicopters Rocks

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Action, Electronic Arts, PlayStation 3, Trailers, Xbox 360

I think the title of this story and video speak for themselves, but I’m definitely getting excited for Mercenaries 2. While I have no doubt that GTA IV will provide a much more solid narrative and better all-around experience, Mercs 2 looks like it’s shaping up to be one of those games that is just pure fun to play. I mean, who doesn’t want to blow up everything in sight, then rappel up to a nearby helicopter, eject the pilot, and then man the controls themselves? That’s the definition of fun.


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