Nowadays, where a Triple-AAA rarely leaves the development studio without having at least 13,000 animations (excluding cut-scenes), it seems only logical that the evolution of game animations leaves the sprites of the early days and the 3D-models of the not so early days behind and enters the universe of real-life actors.

This being said, we must not forget that Motion-Capturing for videogames is still a technology in development. While nearly all the big studios in the world are experimenting with it, no one would really claim having found the perfect solution for all kinds of games.

We didn’t really have to think twice when Ubisoft offered us a flight to Montreal, Canada, so that we could visit their mo-cap Studio and talk to actor Michael Mandor, who plays the character of Vaas in the upcoming Far Cry 3. I don’t want to get too corny here, but for someone who is usually only allowed to see almost-done games in nicely decorated booths it is kind of a special moment to enter the room where the actual magic in game development happens today.

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If you had a close look at last week’s PlayStation Store update (which I am sure most of you did) you may have spotted a new game called Ra.One. You may not have heard of it and, therefore, not given it much more thought. That is, if you`re not from India. Because in the second most populous country in the world, Ra.One is one of the most anticipated Bollywood films of all time. It is so popular that the producers decided to develop an internationally released videogame out of it.

We held an interview with Atindriya Bose from PlayStation India to find out more about this rare title.

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Role-playing games have underpinned the history of computer games, even more so perhaps than the first-person shooters that reign today. Long before the first gamers fired at their virtual enemies with a mouse-click, lone disciples of the genre had already been wandering through text-based dungeons, which then formed the basis for increasingly complex game worlds. Complexity is the key word here: the success of every RPG rests in how accurately worlds from the infinite imagination can be reproduced in a video game.

Bethesda has proved time and time again that they are easily up to the task with their Elder Scrolls series, and during an hour-long gaming session we were again convinced that the latest installment, Skyrim, would deliver high-end RPG entertainment.
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When Rage is released this October, it will be the end of a long journey for the game. It has been four years since ID Software first announced their large demo project for their new proprietary ID Tech 5 Engine. Nevertheless, the popularity of the project has never waned.

Two weeks ago at gamescom, we were finally able to try the game out ourselves at the Bethesda stand and gain our own impression of the exciting FPS/Racing/RPG crossover.

Our gaming session begins right at the start of the game. As one of the few survivors of a meteorite strike, we are fighting our way on foot and in exhilarating dune buggies through an inhospitable world, when we are suddenly attacked by a mutant, and quickly believe we are in a realm of the dead, when a nice, human-looking inhabitant saves us at the last moment. Very friendly! Naturally, we feel indebted and are prepared to carry out some assignments for him.
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The people at Capcom should be no strangers to establishing a new IP on the market. Since the Japanese company introduced their first multi-part franchise in the mid ’80s with Ghosts ‘n Goblins, they have been known for establishing franchises that run for many years. Along with such legendary titles as Street Fighter and Mega Man, this strategy has enabled them to create and develop things such as, in particular, the survival-horror genre.

However, it was interesting to meet Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi at gamescom and to watch him demonstrate Capcom’s latest offering, Dragon’s Dogma. What was shown on the screen in the tiny booth was neither slugfest nor survival-action title, nor a new approach for an arcade concept either. What Capcom had announced in April, probably more out of sheer habit, as action-adventure was in fact the first open-world RPG in Capcom’s 33-year history.

Indeed, with Dragon’s Dogma Capcom is not abandoning their extensive expertise in action gameplay; however, the presentation at gamescom focused mainly on the most basic aspect of an RPG game: the forming of game groups to enable the player to engage in combat with up to three followers or “Pawns”.

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