New in town

Naarkesh's picture
Submitted by Naarkesh on Wed, 01/23/2008 - 16:45

Hey folks, I'm new in town.

My name is Naarkesh, and I'm a Burnoutaholic.

Professionally, I am both software engineer and games animator. I have a strong background in games and am a BSc in Games Devlopment. Needless to say, the videogames industry is my life.

I siged up today after being a long time reader. It seemed fitting based on the epic level of excited I'm feeling due to the impending release of Burnout: Paradise.

So, why am I blogging? Read on...

I made a forum post today explaining my preferred method of 'dicking around in cars with my friends' when roaming the demo and it inspired me to start throwing my revelations into the intarwebz, with hope of inspiring fellow burners. I'm one of those gamers who has always embraced games which do so much as hint at sandbox style, emergant gameplay. Games that encourage the player to be a creator. To employ techniques, rules, tricks and social interaction to create unique styles of gaming within each pocket of friends where the common denominator is simply a love for how the game 'feels'.

It should be plainly obvious that Burnout not only drifts into this demographic particularly well, but I believe it to be at the forefront of the open world concept.

What can you expect of me?

I will be casting forth my gameplay experiences once my journey into paradise begins this weekend. You can expect this space to be filled crammed with the following titbitz of delicious:

  • Commentary on the challenges, events and set pieces around the game world.
  • What I feel genuinly breaks the game design mold as and when I discover it .
  • Descriptions of mini-games and 'things what is fun' that me and my friends mine from the quarry of veritable awesome that is Paradise City.

I hope this sounds good because honeslty, I have no idea how paradise will play when I get my hands on it. Open world games have failed to grip me in the past. Assassins Creed for example crashed and burned spectacularly (not in a good way folks) to the tune of repetitive missions and essentially a linear structure disguised as vast and awesome. There was no reason to explore that game aside from the flags and templars and with upwards of 400 of them it can be a bit of a chore.

Burnout on the other hand, feels like it will be a game worth exploring. A world where getting from A to B is as exhilarating as competing in the events - my hope is that it will be a genuine joy to hunt down that very last Smash and Super Jump and each route I take won't manifest as a stab in the dark. Criterion have given me very good reason to take a leap of faith with this one.

 

2 days and counting till the UK launch - wish me luck.

 

Comments

ZombieTron's picture

ZombieTron

Wed, 01/23/2008 - 17:06

Thanks for sharing.

I look forward to reading about your adventures in Paradise!

--- The Original and the Best ---

SUFFUR's picture

SUFFUR

Wed, 01/23/2008 - 19:59

Greetings Naarkesh, like what you write there, so what did you think of Crackdown, and what to know about Crackdown 2? And Portsmouth, you should ask a question of the Criterion Podcast some will be so pleased, to know someone is listening from there!?!

When they release DLC for Road Rage on Paradsie send me an invite, I wanna run, so bring that aggression for the chase. That sounded so over metrosexual, more websexual, but none intended, lol.

Oh and I be a BA in R, TV &F etc, and still have Bugger All. LOL.

So a question, can a non-game designer, be a creative Director of a Video game, even though he has no real knowedge of what, they input into the computer, to make it work, other than, that said person, has played alot of games?

In other words they knows what he wants, but doesn't have to know details, just the results, through visual representation of ideas, created as a team, brough forward by Director and his original idea?

 

 

Signature's on check's, Payable to DR. SUFFUR C, (sounds like an evanescent tablet to cure cheap colds, lol) to be sent before Thursday, Thank You.

Patience is something I taught myself, so I never know when it's going to run out?

Patience is something I taught myself, so I never know when it's going to run out?

Naarkesh's picture

Naarkesh

Thu, 01/24/2008 - 11:37

I've mailed the podcast before with several questions but was never read out, despite claiming that portsmotuh does indeed have the internet!

Crackdown - crackdown is an incredible game. Its the game I wanted to play for a good while:

  • Built firmly on a base of physics gameplay
  • Open world
  • Easy to get around

If you look at my gamercard I've been playing it with friends this week trying to finish of those last few achievements - damn those agility orbs, 10 more to go. I've had a lot of fun with it and only after a year of play do I feel that it is approaching its best before date.  You can do a lot. From the standard issue "how big can an explosion be" to the hilarious motorway tire popping sprees. How big can you make a pile up? Then there is racing with firends, driving fast cars (the morphing agency cars are awesome) and mowing gangsters down. The potential is hilarious.

You do see a lot of traffic involved technical walls - you can only have so many on screen - but that doesnt bother me. Graphically - its very strange. Not the prettiest, but very unique. I think they captured the comic book superhero perfectly. My only complaint is that they tried to put a story into it - it feels like an afterthought.

Lets not forget the inclusion of RenderWare from our boys at Criterion. Middleware that I was fortunate to get to play with at University. I always remember playing before paradise's surge of media and thinking "the next burnout should be like this". What do you know! Its a shame EA closed the door on this tech. I think thats one of the only things "EA made then do as part of the aquisition".

Crackdown 2? Its difficult to pick out what could be added without walking the same ground. Tbh, crackdown feels like a game that isn't made for sequels. Im a bit worries where burnout is going to go now as well...

I won't lie to you, getting into games is hard work. To be a game designer you generally have to have worked as a code monkey or art designer. Alex Ward (I think) had an interview about how he got into games at some point. He makes it sound like hard work to get in - and it really is. Some people, however, just stumble onto it - which is pretty annoying.

The problem with game design is that no one wants an idea guy. All 'do this' and no talent themselves. You will find in the best teams, that the design is an iterative process with input coming from all areas of the team. Whatever you are doing. It is important to have a full knowledge of the entire process.

Tenuously, just the other day, my girlfriends best friend got a job working with gta4 - she has no qualifications at all. Anything can happen if you sieze your opportunities.

Bender of Fenders