Mar 282009

ReCAP – GDC09 Highlights

ReCAP

GDC was this past week, and I spent so much time looking over what we’d be looking forward to in the world of gaming. Here are some highlights for me:

XNA Game Studio updated to 3.1 – adding with it support for Avatars and Avatar animation in Community Games. My current game doesn’t have any need for that stuff, but maybe next time…
OnLive – perhaps the future of gaming, where no one needs to own a machine powerful enough to run the latest games. All we need is something that can “talk” to powerful game machines out there in the interwebs, sending it controller inputs and receiving streaming video of the actual game in progress. OnLive is that something, cloud computing for video games. Will it work? Who knows? I sometimes have problems streaming Youtube, so I don’t know how I’m going to stream real-time compressed game video.
Leaked gameplay footage of God of War III and Uncharted 2 – They’re grainy and small, but from what you can see, the animations and such, these are going to be incredible.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 trailer shown – I’ve said it before, I say it again: Ninja Gaiden Sigma was a better game than Ninja Gaiden. It wasn’t just graphics that improved. Interface and level designs were also improved. So I think that even if you look past the fact that Sigma 2 has more playable characters, more weapons, more levels, and online co-op play over the 360’s Ninja Gaiden 2, Sigma 2 is going to be the better game.
Fat Princess reemerged! – It’s a great looking game and 32 player matches sound really fun. Look for more on this one.
Pub Fund – Apparently, Sony’s offering incentives to develop games exclusively for PSN. The Pub Fund will match every dollar a studio puts into making a game with guaranteed royalties. Sounds like an awesome deal. Burn Zombie Burn, which just came out, is the first game to take advantage of the program.
Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time – Not really GDC related, but you know that Sony timed this announcement for this week, a new Ratchet & Clank game is coming out this Fall. First trailer was shown and it looks like the story will be pretty interesting.