I couldn’t have asked much more than to progress from one good open world title to another. Wheelman had it’s fans, and Crackdown 2 recently broke 1 million sales with it’s praises being sung by fans of the franchise and genre alike. I also contributed to Kinect Star Wars, which is well on the way to hitting the 1 million mark.
During the last two years I’ve worked on some great pitches and prototypes. Unfortunately a lot of this won’t see the light of day, and that’s a shame, as it’s some of my best work. I wish Ruffian all the best with it’s current and future projects.
However, it’s time to move on.
I’m moving away from the country I was born, from the family that brought me up, from the friends that I spent my free time with and the companies that kept me afloat financially. Thanks for the opportunities, but it’s time to leave for foreign shores.
My days at Ruffian will be coming to a close sometime in the next month or so – I’ll be around for a bit for anyone who wants to buy me a drink or give me a high five...
Out with the old, in with the new.
In August I will be starting at Ubisoft Montreal to work on Watch Dogs, a game that got a more than positive response at E3.
I will try to document my move away and settling period through my youtube channel for the benefit of friends, family, and most importantly, myself.
…and yes, this is why my UDK projects (Shootan and On The Run) have seemingly been put on hold – getting a new job and moving country kinda gets in the way of hobbies. I might get back to them when I’m more settled over the pond.
Wish me luck!
Exciting, huh? It’s less than a month until release - it’s hard to believe it’s over in such a short time. It’s been hard work, but the results have been worth all of the struggles and pain (getting a “AAA” game out in just over a year is no walk in the park). I’ve played through the game’s campaign start to finish a couple of times recently – it’s a huge improvement over the original title and still manages to innovate in areas where competing titles do not. The drop in/drop out four player co op is seamless – I don’t think I’ve played an open world title that has managed to pull that off. The multiplayer is great fun too – reminds me a lot of Quake 3. I’m pretty good at it too.
Two weekends ago I attended the Evolution festival in Newcastle along with another Crackdown 2 designer, 
The following weekend I joined some fellow ex Midway employees on a small weekend away in Croatia. I got suitably drunk, tanned and penniless from the whole experience. Well worth it. Got to shoot the shit about old times and what we are all up to nowadays…
I find it amazing how quickly the game has come together in these last few weeks – it now looks and plays like a finished game. There’s obviously a lot to do for the rest of the team (read: programmers) but as far as I’m concerned, my work is done. Time to move onto something new…
I had missed out on one of the most cinematic experiences of the decade - an experience that still stands up today; from it’s excellent voice acting, rich characters, it’s deep and engaging story to it’s ground breaking graphics and convincing environments.
There are too many moments to list where Konami broke the mould, my personal favourite being the first time I played around with the genome soldiers – placing my back to a wall just around the corner from said unsuspecting guard, rapping my knuckles on the wall to get his attention, and then sneaking around behind him as he cautiously investigates my knock. Awesome.
I think I will always go back to MGS when I’m looking for character inspiration or a reminder of how varied the design of a game can be. A reminder that you can change perspective for dramatic effect, you can limit a player’s movement when the situation demands it, and again, you can break the fourth wall whenever you want to ‘play’ with the player. 
Also, it’s worth playing to hear Sniper Wolf’s ridiculously sexy voice. 
Subsequently this also resulted in the death of it’s project, “
It's an honest game. The plot is fully aware of it's ridiculous existence and comes across as nothing more than tongue in cheek, sometimes resulting in genuinely funny moments. Could a rap act fighting terrorists in the middle east ever be seen as serious? It's just an amusing and palatable method of stringing together set pieces without getting in the way of game play.It's not pretending to be deep or compelling - it's just some light hearted, foul-mouthed fun featuring Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and the members of G-Unit (no, I don't know what G-Unit is, but I'm sure they're behind the viral outbreak in Raccoon City).
It's no walk in the park though, the combo system (see: The Club) relies on Curtis executing as many terrorists in as short a time as possible to combo their deaths, but not only that, pull off as many cool moves and environmental deaths as possible, taunting all the while. This is where the game's depth lies. Money is collected from the numerous kills, item pick ups, and loot crates - this can then be used at various payphones placed in the world to purchase new weapons, CQC moves and taunts. The weapons aren't too dissimilar to those found in Gears of War and the CQC moves are simply strings of "B" button presses which when timed correctly will play a (rather nice) melee takedown sequence to execute the enemy - the real fun is found with the taunts. The taunts are simply verbal barks from our boy Curtis which when used in conjunction with a kill offer a cash reward. After the first 5 or 6 kills it becomes second nature. Think Gears of War's active reload - I think it's that good and that natural. Blind firing your hand cannon over the crumbling middle eastern walls whilst shouting one of the many colourful phrases included in the game is refreshing as much as it is amusing - it adds that extra level of interactivity with the play space, and the cash bonus reward makes it an essential part of advanced play within the game. Here's a list of inspirational quotes from Curtis courtesy of several clicks of the left stick:
Its not all rainbows and blow jobs though. As technically sound the game is and as beautiful it is to look at, there are some odd inconsistencies. The cash pick ups are cell shaded which looks a little odd in the otherwise photo realistic setting. The same goes for the rather strange Resident Evil esque pre rendered red blood cells in the backdrop of the 'You Died' screen, completely clashing with the tongue in cheek nature of it all. The animation is a little rough, popping regularly and missing details such as lip syncing - no, Curtis won't be mouthing bitch towards the screen when he is in cover. The co op man ladder and door sequences are also a little rough where the player must stand on (what I call) a G-Spot and hit "A" to perform an action. Whether this be the co op move or the door opening sequence it almost always results in the teleporting of Curtis - it just feels a little rough.
On a lighter note, the Wheelman demo is now up on Xbox Live Marketplace and the Playstation Store. Please take the time to download it whether or not you currently intend to buy it - a lot of hard work went into it and many of my nights were spent at work finishing it off. Do it for the kids. It's completely new custom designed content for the demo; the first mission from Wheelman amalgamated with elements from later parts of the game and two new side missions (events).
Just a quick one.
All previous attempts at this were to offer insight into my now dormant project, 'The Opera', so you'd think that any future entries would be about my next project..?
I trust anyone reading this is perceptive enough to realise that 'Stranglehold' is a very similar project to 'The Opera', that is, if the latter were to be crossed with 'Max Payne' and given a lengthy single player component. I take pride in the fact that I work for a company that makes money from themes and ideas that I am passionate about. I, however am working on 
I'm enjoying working on the project and wouldn't change this career move for anything in the world... except maybe having a chance to work on Stranglehold 2 with a significant amount of creative input (read: create 'The Opera').
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