Totally360.com has an interview with Mitch Gitelman. It’s a well-rounded interview that will provide a lot of information to people not familiar with Shadowrun. If you are intimate with Shadowrun, then you may not learn anything from the interview as I didn’t spot anything new.
Tags: interview, mitch gitelman, totally360Tag Archive for 'interview'
360Arcadians Live! Episode 16: Out of the Shadows
Published by April 16th, 2007 in FASA, media and interviews. 3 CommentsThe fine folks over at 360arcadians.net have managed to net an exclusive interview with Bill Fulton. There’s a lot of material covered and more than a few bits of juicy goodness inside.
The interview is basically the second hour of the show, but they talk about Shadowrun off and on throughout the whole.
A few points of interest from the interview:
1) The demo may not be released until just before or even after the game is released.
2) Downloadable content in the form of new maps, magic, and tech is likely. Multiple maps are already mostly complete, but they were cut from the retail release because they didn’t meet FASA’s high standards.
3) Achievements can only be earned in a public match with at least 4 people on each team.
4) Why doesn’t the Shadowrun FPS feature Shadowrun staples such as decking and rigging? One of the best answers I’ve heard can be found just after timestamp 1:32:25.
UPDATE: Bill Fulton took the time to clarify how achievements work.
Tags: 360arcadian, achievements, bill fulton, demo, downloadable content, FASA, interviewAny game (public or private) that maintains at least 4v4 for the entire round can earn achievements. So you and 7 friends can unlock them all in a private game, provided you meet the conditions.
PC and 360 version to have locked framerates
Published by April 7th, 2007 in interviews and technical. 1 CommentUpdate: There was some misinformation concerning the “locked framerates”. Shadowrun for PC will not have locked framerates.
In the May 2007 issue of Official XBOX Magazine, Shadowrun gets a two-page spread. In it is an interview with Mitch Gitelman regarding the balancing of the console and PC version of this game. Mitch goes so far as to say that even the framerates of the PC version have been locked to match that of the console version.
Interesting. Actually, that’s a little disappointing for me - a PC gamer. I’m assuming the game will be locked at 60 frames per second (surely it won’t be locked at 30 frames per second). While gaming at 60fps will be adequate, most PC gamers like to play at very high framerates which makes for very smooth graphics.
The more I read about the balancing, I’m feeling like my PC gaming experienced is being handicapped to match that of a console-based gaming experience. Still, I haven’t gotten a chance to play Shadowrun on the PC yet. So, this is all speculation.
More on Shadowrun’s cross-platform balancing later. A lot more.
Tags: balancing, interview, mitch gitelman, oxmGamasutra with Shane Kim on Shadowrun and the old schoolers
Published by March 22nd, 2007 in FASA. 0 CommentsGamasutra sat down with Shane Kim (a Microsoft exec) and got him talking about Shadowrun. He recognizes that some old school Shadowrun fans are upset that this game is a first-person shooter and not some kind of RPG. However, he goes on to say that almost everyone in that mindset that plays the game ends up liking it.
Tags: interview, shane kim“We’ve had a lot of people who are big Shadowrun fans go into FASA and say, “No way am I going to like this game,” and they’ve come away sold. So, it’s the kind of thing where, unfortunately, we showed the title prematurely at E3, so it’s going to be the kind of thing where we have to work really hard to get it in the hands of people and let the word of mouth spread.”
The three game modes of Shadowrun: raid, extraction, attrition
Published by March 16th, 2007 in FASA. 0 CommentsRaid, extraction, and attrition. Get used to those names. They are the modes of gameplay available in Shadowrun. To learn more about them, read what Bill Fulton said about them in a recent Gamespot interview:
The game types are raid, extraction, and attrition. Raid is one-flag capture the flag. The Lineage’s mission is to get the artifact (the flag) and escape with it. RNA Corp’s mission is to prevent that, hopefully by killing the Lineage. In extraction, both teams’ mission is to secure the artifact and escape with it. Attrition is team elimination. Both teams’ mission is to destroy the other. The team that survives, wins.
There is no respawn in any game type. You can get resurrected, but there are no respawns. We like the effect that the “you die, you sit” gameplay mechanic has on players; they try to avoid dying much more, which makes the game feel more serious.
All of the game types are multiround matches; you start with no magic, tech, or weapons, and a little money with which to buy them. You earn money during rounds, and at the beginning of the next round, you can buy more magic, tech, and weapons.
Note: There is no two-flag “capture the flag” type gametype. I think this will be sorely missed by gamers. Again using HALO 2 as an example, single-flag capture the flag gametypes were very unpopular. Dual-flag CTF matches rule the CTF landscape. That said, these single-flag gametypes will probably be fun. I enjoyed playing “assault” in HALO and HALO 2.
I’m guessing there’s a storyline reason as to why there isn’t two artifacts in one map.
Tags: attrition, bill fulton, extraction, gamespot, interview, raidBill Fulton of FASA said in an Gamespot interview that there will be no custom gametypes in Shadowrun.
“As for custom game types, we decided not to support those. There’s nothing to stop players from agreeing to play by “house rules” in private matches with friends (in fact, that’s the origin of attrition–a group of FASA artists played by house rules), but we don’t support playing public multiplayer games with custom modes. It often just leads to awkward situations where you join a game playing something weird that you don’t want to play.”
Bill also jumped in on the official Shadowrun forums to say:
“Sorry if I was unclear–Shadowrun doesn’t support customization of game types at all. I was attempting (and failing) to make it clear that, in private matches with your friends, players can agree to custom rules (house rules), but that there’s no code support for this. Enforcement will have to be done by the players themselves.”
The custom gametypes in HALO 2 were one of the things that made that game so popular. In fact, Bungie took direct feedback from the gamers and actually implemented custom gametypes in their official matchmaking playlists. Custom gametypes are also the heart of any LAN party or competitive league or tournament. Custom gametypes were at the heart of my buddylist. Being heavily embedded into the Bungie/HALO community, most of my friends list is made up of HALO gamers. On my list, custom gametypes were more popular than matchmaking (perhaps because of cheating issues on HALO 2 on XBOX LIVE). Even Gears of Wars, which has limited customization, allows the host to edit some gametypes and map rotations. GoW isn’t really a social game. I think there’s more to a game being social than being able to keep your party together.
Unfortunately, Shadowrun will not have custom gametypes. I think this is a serious blow to the average gamer all the way up to the competitive gamer. I think this greatly reduces the replay value of this game. After all, this is a multiplayer-only game! No doubt what FASA has provided will be fun. But, it looks like the gamers will have little control over how WE play this game.
I do not see a premiere gaming league like MLG being able to adopt Shadowrun as a tournament game (assuming the Shadowrun rights would be lent to those organizations). MLG and other leagues like CAL and CPL all run on custom game settings.
Tags: bill fulton, gamespot, gametypes, interviewGameplanet interviews Mitch Gitelman
Published by March 8th, 2007 in FASA and interviews. 0 CommentsReally nothing new for those that have been following the game. Still a good resource, though.
Gameplanet - Interview with Mitch Gitelman
IGN has interviewed Mitch Gitelman, studio manager at FASA Studios. Some cool information about why Shadowrun is what it is.
“We have a party system where you and your friends can stay together from match to match, across both Xbox and PC. Also, at the end of every Shadowrun game you can start the next one with the group you’ve formed, if you find people you like playing with”
Give it a read.
Tags: FASA, interview, mitch gitelman
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