I think most of us at Sucker Punch have noticed the days starting to blur together a bit. So while I had a quiet moment here on Southwest Flight 651, I thought I’d put the time to good use and give you an update on our progress with I2 (inFAMOUS 2)… Ken’s post from last week got the ball rolling, let’s see if I can spill some more beans on the Karma system…

When we took a look at the Karma system in I1 (inFAMOUS, the first game) we wanted to keep the successful stuff, but also make improvements … As a top line, we knew we wanted to continue to offer players the choice and responsibility that comes along with having powers. This is one of the central themes of many archetype super-hero stories, as well as an interesting exploration of the relationship between power, responsibility and the test of character that powers bring. So, that had to stay.

But on the flip side, we got feedback from fans that some of the choices felt too mechanical, and they wanted their choices to have more meaning in the narrative and in the world. So, our challenge with I2 was to make these choices more real, more believable, and yet still keep them visible and clear to the players.

When we spent time thinking and designing the improved Karma system, we ultimately concluded that there was a way to make these choices both clearer and much more believable: to make your Karma decisions more about relationships and less about the specific choice at hand. So instead of a question that really didn’t relate to our primary gameplay (e.g. “should we take this food or give it away?”), in I2 we let the player decide who to ally with on a quest, or choose between Kuo’s surgical strike or Nix’s no-holds barred assault. You aren’t just choosing a mission, you’re choosing an ally and alienating another person. This was both clear for players, and more real.

Here are a couple videos which demonstrate what I’m talking about, but let me set them up a bit…At this point in the game, Kuo has been captured by the local Militia that’s taken over New Marais. We find out that Kuo is being held at a makeshift prison (a converted old mansion on the edge of town). Cole needs to mount a rescue, but the fortified target rules out a frontal assault.

Cole’s buddy Zeke proposes a rescue plan. He has seen a convoy of captured police officers being paraded through the city. He wants to bust up the convoy, free the officers, and then lead the -police on an assault of the old mansion/militia stronghold. Turns out other cops are being kept there as prisoners, if Cole helps bust them free he’ll get Kuo out at the same time… of course that also means there’ll be more cops on the street (which is sometimes uncool for vigilantes). Cops love us, Kuo goes free, all is good! Okay, let’s have a look:

Nix’s idea? Well as you know from Ken’s piece, Nix is more of a chaotic personality. Her plan? Load up a streetcar with explosives and run it down the tracks at full speed towards the mansion. It’ll derail, crash through the front gate and explode in a huge fireball… Great diversion, and tons of collateral damage on the Militia, even if a few prisoners might become collateral damage. After the explosion, we team up and slog our way through the remaining resistance and get Kuo back. Nix, of course, has some super powers of her own, and they are particularly useful in combination with Cole’s arsenal. Just another bit part of the plan! Let’s take a quick look:

So in the case of these two choices, you end up rescuing Kuo along either path, but that won’t always be the case. Sometimes the implications of your choices will be clear (like above) and sometimes they will be murky. The choices you make will affect the world itself, the citizens’ reaction to you, and of course the ending of the game in an important way. What we hope is that you all find them entertaining, occasionally thought provoking, and lots of fun.

Before I go, I want to wrap up with a few more answers to questions we received after Ken’s post. #1. YES, a lot of content is backing up the Karma system, not just different cut scenes–in fact the example above is all gameplay, There are NO differences in the cut scenes. And saving Kuo is just the beginning— there are going to be a very sizable number of missions set up in choices like this, and plenty of unique content on either side. #2. YES, the game should be more balanced for those of you who want to play more “Neutral” or switch sides.

So there you go, I’m about to land and the flight attendants are eyeballing me. We’ll have more on the Karma system later this month. Until then, choose your friends carefully!

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Hi guys – I’m sure that lots of you LBP fans out there have worked your way through the LBP 2 Story mode, confronted the mighty Negativitron, and are now exploring the intricacies of Create mode and the hundreds of thousands of new user levels.

If you’re hungry for some more Story mode-type Sack-venture, or looking for some creative inspiration and examples of just how powerful the new tools are, then here’s some very cool news for you, direct from Media Molecule…

We are very proud to present to you the preview trailer for Hansel & Gretelbot, a very special community project based loosely on an old fairy tale, and that’s nearly ready for you to play!

Hansel & Gretelbot is the creation of 12 community members, names you may well recognise:
Wexfordian, Comphermc, Morgana25, rtm223, Hilightnotes, xkappax, Catiers, GruntosUK, CENTURION24, Jaeyden, Cuzfeeshe and steve_big_guns.

A few months ago the Community Molecule set them a challenge – could they create a full game experience? Their own complete LBP Theme, using the new LBP2 tools to develop all original story, mini-games, bosses, cutscenes, music, and voices.

The team was gathered, designs were drawn up, themes were picked and building began, now several months later they are very nearly ready to launch their project for you to play!

Once upon a time, in a little cottage on the edge of the Dark Western woods, lived a humble Woodsman, his wife, their son Hansel and robotic daughter Gretelbot. One sad day, the Woodsman’s wife was taken ill, and passed away not too long afterwards. Time passed, but eventually the Woodsman became stricken by loneliness, and he remarried.

The Woodsman’s new wife was a wicked woman, who hated her new step children. They were the reason, so she said, that they had to live in such poverty. They would eat them out of house and home, the Woodsman must get rid of them! His will weakened by his heartbreak, the Woodsman relented, and led Hansel and Gretelbot into the Dark Western Woods, leaving them to fend for themselves, with no idea how to get home…

Hansel & Gretelbot should be out later this month, keep your eyes peeled for more info!

Look out for more details coming soon – and in the meantime, why not share some of your favourite levels (even your own!) in the comments below? Remember those lbp.me links, so that we can all queue them up ready for this evening…

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Hey PixelJunkies, the date has been set in stone – PixelJunk Shooter 2 will be released on March 2nd! The glowing previews should begin flying in soon too (fingers crossed).

Compared to the original this game is packed even more full of lovely gushing liquid action across three entire new worlds, and there is a whole new game in itself with the online versus mode we have put in there (over 20 weapons and abilities for you to use against your opponent). This is why it has taken a little longer than expected to get this into your hands, but we’re really happy that now, after winging its way through the digital tapestry called “game submission”, it has been approved for release.

Keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks as we have some very interesting things to announce and remember to tune into our PixelJunk Radio podcast if only to hear us talk in dulcet tones.

If you have any questions about Shooter 2, fire away below and either myself or Ariel will attempt to answer them.

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If you’re the kind of player who likes to hunt down every trophy and every secret in a game, now may be a good time to request that paid vacation. When Killzone 3 hits the streets, there will be more than 50 new trophies for you to obtain – including 20 hidden ones! Luckily the official game guide to Killzone 3 will be released simultaneously, thanks to the dedicated folks at Future Press.

These are the non-hidden trophies included in the game:

Those of you who purchased the official game guide for Killzone 2 already know how thorough Future Press is in covering every aspect of the game, from highly detailed overview maps of the single player campaign to minute details on obtaining each of the trophies and secrets. Killzone 3: The Official Guide is no less meticulous, with an extensive breakdowns of the single- and the multiplayer modes as well as useful tips and strategies for players of every skill level.

In addition, Killzone 3: The Official Guide contains lavish concept artworks depicting the development of the characters and environments of Killzone 3, accompanied by interviews with key Guerrilla designers describing the process involved. As a special bonus, purchasing the official guide gives you access to 3 Unlock Points that you can use to get a head start in unlocking abilities and weapons for your preferred career. The guide even recommends the right time to spend them!

Killzone 3 and Killzone 3: The Official Guide will be released on February 25. The official game guide is also available in a hardcover Collector’s Edition. For more information, please visit the Future Press web site.

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Hello everyone and welcome to the latest MUBI content update. Below are just a few highlights of some of our latest additions. Let me know what you think.

Agrarian Utopia (Uruphong Raksasad, Thailand), pictured above

We are particularly proud to host the online premiere of this new Thai masterpiece that has been little seen outside of the festival and museum circuit. The reasons are perhaps understandable—it is a challenging film that naturally but wisely mixes fiction and documentary to record and expose the conditions in the rural Thai countryside. But its lyrical beauty and arresting vision of the triumph and difficulty of a changing agrarian landscape has everything to say with today’s political turmoil in Thailand, as well as being a universal vision of the small, localized changes modernism brings to the landscape.

Available in: World

Bad Lieutenant (Abel Ferrara, USA)

We were all surprised—though in retrospect we shouldn’t have been—that Werner Herzog’s pseudo-remake of this film starring Nicholas Cage from 2009 was a different beast all of its own. That film deserves platitudes in its own right, but until we feature it on MUBI, we are joyfully forced to recommend, as they say, the film that started it all—the most well known film by America’s most underappreciated working auteur, New York cineaste-savant-madman Abel Ferrara (King of New York, Go Go Tales). Harvey Keitel in a career-topping performance takes on all the sins of the city (New York, of course) on a quest for decrepit decadence and redemption and with Ferrara casts one of the most memorable American characters in one of the most memorable American films ever made. Watch with caution (it’s very dark and very graphic), but stick with the sick vision and you will be rewarded with pure cinema.

Available in: France, Switzerland, Belgium

Polytechnique (Denis Villeneuve, Canada)

Director Denis Villenueve is now taking the international cinema world by storm with his new feature, Incendies, which recently was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film and even more recently swept the audience prize at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Before you catch his latest, see the film that put him on the map—Polytechnique stages an event based on a true story of a violent student rampage in a Montreal university. It is a searing and powerful work, shot in sharp, architecturally focused black and white cinemascope photography that charts with mathematical precision the spaces and characters interwoven around the school before, during, and after the terrible events. It is an extraordinary vision with echoes of Michael Haneke and (clearly) Gus Van Sant’s masterpiece on a similar subject, Elephant, and declared the entry of a major new filmmaking talent that, thankfully, his new film seems to confirm.

Available in: Norway

Ploy (Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Thailand)

Another wonderful Thai film by one of the directors who set that country’s cinema on the map in the early 2000s with the hit Last Life in the Universe, Pen-ek Ratanaruang. This Pen-ek film is about the erotically charged relationship between a husband, wife, and 19-year-old girl all living in the same hotel. Imagination, dreams, and, of course, sexuality drive this dreamy film by one of Thailand’s strongest visionaries.

Available in: France

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