Xbox vs Gamecube

Crazy Taxi is meer een Crazy Taxi 1+ Crazy Taxi 2 komt ook nog. Star Fox Adventures is die game met Fox McCloud in de hoofdrol en die game met de fur-effecten
check http://www.dutchgaming.net/gallery.php3?select=1211&sort=news voor wat screens.

The Hobbit is gebaseerd op JR Tolkiens The Hobbit (duh) en vertelt het verhaal van goeie ouwe Bilbo. Hier een impressie van iemand:
I recently had the opportunity to check out Sierra’s ‘The Hobbit’ for Nintendo GameCube, and, to get straight to the point – it kicks some serious ass.

First off, this has to be, both technically and artistic, one of the best-looking GameCube games up to now. It’s very cartoony, although the team has gone to great lenghts to ensure that everything atmospheric can be displayed on screen – from creepy to very happy environments (so we can expect Zelda to pull off the same trick – yes, even with cel-shading). The characters, which are in great numbers, all look like cartoon figures and frankly, I immediately realized that they looked the way I’d always imagined them to be. Overall, the graphics are colorful and are graced by an amazing amount of detail: drops of water, the wind moving leafs on a tree, etc.

On to the gameplay. At first, when having read an interview with Inevitable, I feared that the gameplay would be typical for licensed games – cliché, crappy and very heavily level-based. To say the least: The Hobbit is all but not that. It’s not as open as, say, your Zelda Ocarina of Time, but it’s very well performed. It has levels, but once in them, you’re basically as free as a bird in a clear blue sky. You can do lots of things: sneak past guards, fight enemies, explore towns, etc. The control is top notch. To sum everything up: The Hobbit was great gameplay-wise. Very fun, and I expect the final version to be even more enjoyable.

And last, but most definitely not least – the sound. Oh my God. Performed by an orchestra, the sound was amazing. Great tunes that capture the atmospheric elements of the game at any point. Wow.

You’ve got some games that people call GameCube killer aps: Zelda, Mario Sunshine, Star Fox Adventures, Metroid Prime – The Hobbit can now be included in this list. It stands as my fourth most wanted game, and you should be looking forward to it.

 

Part I

interview met de makers (Inevitable, bekend van de Nvidea 2 demo):
PlanetNintendo: Please introduce yourself and your position on the project.


Inevitable: My name is Chuck Lupher, and I'm the Design Lead on The Hobbit. Also providing comments are Craig Galley, our Technical Director and Cyrus Lum, our Art Director.



Inevitable's Bilbo circa 2003 Rankin-Bass' Bilbo circa 1978


License to sneak

PlanetNintendo: How did you come about the score the project in the first place?


Inevitable: About a year ago Sierra approached Inevitable about possibly doing a console game based on The Hobbit. It took us about half a second to blurt out "Hell, yes!"


PlanetNintendo: The Hobbit is one of the most famous works of literature ever - does this fact intimidate you in anyway?


Inevitable: I don't know if intimidate is the word I'd use. It's a huge responsibility to be sure. One thing that became clear early in the project is that everyone has a slightly different vision of how Middle Earth should look and feel. While it will be impossible to please everyone out there, I feel we've struck an excellent balance between gameplay and remaining true to the literary work.


PlanetNintendo: How do you intend to make the video game faithful to the original story?


Inevitable: Gameplay moves chapter by chapter, through the story. While we don't have the resources to cover every single plot element in the book, the large majority is covered either in gameplay or in the cinematics.


Bilbo's in control

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PlanetNintendo: What kind of gameplay does The Hobbit bring to the table?


Inevitable: Gameplay covers a variety of aspects. The Hobbit is an action RPG. The player controls Bilbo as he moves through Middle Earth on his way to the Lonely Mountain. Gameplay within the chapters consists of environment navigation, exploration, combat, stealth, lock picking, and the completion of quests. The player is given the opportunity to explore wilderness areas such as the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood, and civilized locations such as Rivendell, the Elvenking Hall and Laketown. As Bilbo advances through the game he gains Courage Points. These courage points may be used to bolster skills such as stealth, lock picking and the use of weapons such as Sting and Stone Throwing.


PlanetNintendo: Why is the project for GameCube only at the moment? Will there be any other console versions later?


Inevitable: We are currently working with the GameCube because the style of game we are making fits so well with that machine. However, there is always the possibility of The Hobbit being on more than just the GameCube.


Fast-food for Wizards

PlanetNintendo: Can you describe the player experience for the first few minutes of gameplay?


Inevitable: Bilbo starts off in front of Bag End having just finished a conversation with Gandalf. He has asked Gandalf to stop by the following day for tea, and has just realized he doesn't have a thing to serve the wizard.

The player starts off with the task of acquiring tea and cakes for Gandalf's impending visit. In front of Bag End is a small garden where the player can become accustomed to the feel of the game. While on his way into town, he encounters several hobbits he may interact with. Some are just going about their business while others will ask Bilbo to help with certain tasks. In the process of acquiring food for Gandalf, the player experiences a simple tutorial that introduces the different aspects of gameplay. Environment navigation (climbing, jumping, wading through various depths of water) stealth (sneaking past a sleeping old man), lock picking (opening the flower shop door for the shopkeeper who lost her keys) are all covered. Also covered are first-person stone throwing, buying items, solving quests, and Stonelords our mini-game that is played throughout Bilbo's quest.


PlanetNintendo: How are you handling the voice acting aspect of the game?


Inevitable: We have over 125 NPCs in the game and all will have full voice. We are in the process of casting and recording all the dialogue in the game as we speak. Not a small task.


PlanetNintendo: How long will the game take to complete from start to finish?


Inevitable: We don't have all of the gameplay elements in place yet, so that's impossible to answer right now. The total time it takes to finish the game will depend largely on how thorough the player wants to be. The player that wants to finds all the secrets, solve all the side quests, and master the Stonelords mini-game will take significantly longer than the player who sticks to the mainline quests. Suffice it to say that it will be a satisfying gameplay experience.

 

Part II
Small folk invade E3



PlanetNintendo: Do you have a certain amount of artistic freedom with the game?


Inevitable: Tolkien [the Estate] has to approve every aspect of the game to make sure we do not deviate too far from the world. Their input has been invaluable in assuring that our game looks and feels like its in Middle Earth. However, they have given us a great deal of artistic freedom in areas that we needed to flesh out for the game, especially locations that were not explained in detail in the book.


PlanetNintendo: When can we expect to see the first screens and in-game footage?


Inevitable: As E3 looms closer, you should start to see some screens popping up here and there.


PlanetNintendo: Will the game be on display at E3 this year?


Inevitable: The Hobbit will be at E3 this year, but you'll have to come by the Vivendi booth to see the cool way we are showing it!


PlanetNintendo: Do you think hardcore Tolkien fans will dig the game, or are you going after a more mainstream audience?


Inevitable: The development team is made up of hardcore Tolkien fans, so I hope they will enjoy the game! This is really a two-part question. On one hand, you have the story and how we are staying as true to it as possible. For example, we are going to great lengths to research the NPCs and use the actual people who were in the different locations at the time of The Hobbit. The amount of fictional detail we have put into the game should please any hardcore Tolkien fan. The second part is the actual gameplay mechanic. The design team much prefers the Zelda-style real-time action RPG mechanic so the game reflects this. Bilbo fights a lot more in the game than he did in the book, because combat is fun. While Bilbo never reaches the point of slaying dragons or taking on Balrogs, he does get to the point where he can hold his own against wolves, spiders, and the occasional goblin. He also uses stealth a lot more than he does in the book, and he interacts with many more NPCs. These are all areas of departure, for gameplay's sake.

So I feel confident that most hardcore Tolkien fans will find the game compelling fictionally as well in gameplay, but also the mainstream audience who knows little about Middle Earth will find the gameplay extremely rewarding.



Smaug the Golden lights up Laketown Map of Middle Earth


Powered by pipe-weed

PlanetNintendo: Tell us about the game engine. What specific features will it allow you to create?


Inevitable: I'll hand this question off to Craig Galley, our Technical Director...

The Hobbit is built on a completely new engine, designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the GameCube architecture. The engine has all the basic features you would expect so I'll just hit some of the high points.

On the rendering side, the GameCube has exceptional texture handling so we designed the engine to take full advantage of that pipeline. Each object in the game has a material shader associated with it; that shader describes how the object accepts and reflects light on a per pixel basis. It supports all the usual cool buzzword effects, dot3, anisotropic lighting, etc. But in essence what is does is bring the art vision to life and keep the game player in the experience.

Lighting was an important design consideration for the engine. It is important to have a unified system so all objects react correctly to the lighting conditions. It was also important to us to have the ability to dynamically alter lighting conditions; something traditional light map solutions are not good at. The dynamic nature of the lighting system lets us do really cool things with special effects like lightning and particle effects.

Sound and music are very important in The Hobbit. We have built an interactive music system that lets the mood of the music follow the action in the game, getting more intensive as Bilbo engages in combat or as he takes damage. We have over 4 hours of source music that is mixed real-time to create an ever-changing soundtrack. In addition to music there is also an ambient effects system that lets designers bring the environments to life with dynamically layered ambient effects.

On the gameplay side, the AI system is designed to handle complex enemy scenarios involving multiple enemies. Many of the encounters in the game involve groups of enemies rather than individuals so we have group as well as individual behaviors. All enemies could choose to close in and attack, or one of them could close in while another goes for cover and uses ranged attacks to pin you down and another runs to get reinforcements.

The editor goes hand in hand with the engine; it's a critical component since that's how we get content into the game. The game can actually run inside of the editor, this gives the designer the ability to pause the game, move objects around or tweak enemy AI and restart the game to test the new parameters, great for productivity.


Elven music

PlanetNintendo: Who is writing the musical score and sound effects?


Inevitable: Marc Schaefgen, our audio lead, will be handling the ambient music and majority of sound effects.

We spent a lot of time auditioning studios to provide the score for The Hobbit. Eventually we discovered Slackmates, a studio that nailed their audition and has continued to provide high quality work. Slackmates will be providing both the orchestral and acoustic score. The final score will be recorded using a full orchestra.


PlanetNintendo: How are you going to make the most of the GameCube's controller?


Inevitable: The control is laid out in a simple, intuitive manner that will immediately be comfortable to players familiar with Nintendo's own titles. The player is steadily exposed to new gameplay interactions along the length of the game. The control scheme handles a wide variety of interactions without overwhelming the player with complexity. Overall, we're striving to make the control feel simple even as it accomplishes a lot.


PlanetNintendo: Anything else you'd care to add?


Inevitable: Just that the whole team is psyched to be working on The Hobbit! Most of us grew up reading about Middle Earth, and now we have the opportunity to create a game based on Tolkien's work. It's a chance of a lifetime!


PlanetNintendo: Many thanks!


Inevitable: You are welcome.

 

Je bent wel gek als je een Xbox hebt en dan zo'n ellenlang stuk over de GameCube gaat lezen

 

ja, stel dat je dan niet meer 100% xbox-fanboy bent

 

Ach kans is groot dat hier over n paar maanden ook een kubus staat..

 

I don't care....ga vanavond gewoon me kjoebje halen en die mooi naast de Iks-box zetten

 

erop

 

*xiii.... mmm.. volgens mij is die toch egt ook op de xbox en ps2
En dah Kameo ook tog ?

 

Moet daarvoor nou een thread van meer dan 2 jaar oud omhoog gekicked worden?
dit is BTW de verkeerde onderdeel voor Gamecube ding, hij hoort eerder thuis in Overige Consoles en PC Gaming

 

Tjonge jonge zeg... :{