Interview: Steve Caterson, Sr Producer of God of War 3

Last Wednesday Sony invited me to attend a God of War 3 event down in LA where I was given the opportunity to interview Senior Producer Steve Caterson and then sit down with the game.

To be clear, I plan on writing up my impressions of the game very soon, but in essence—it looks phenomenal! It’s safe to say that it’s unlike anything I’ve seen before in the genre. I did compare notes with some of the others attending the event and there was much discussion on whether it rivals the visuals of Uncharted 2 and to be honest--it's a completely subjective call. Do you prefer a greek mythological or Indiana Jones-type theme? Personally, I lean a little more towards the greek theatre and prefer the visuals of God of War 3--but more on that later.

In this interview I ask Steve: How many endings does the game have? Does it run at 720P or 1080P? What comprises most of the 35GB on the Blu-Ray disk? Will the God of Wat 3 engine be licensed out? When will we see DLC? Has work begun on the next God of War trilogy? Enjoy!

Note: All pictures were masterfully taken by my zombie-killing friend Kate.

Can you tell us what role you played in the development of God of War 3?
I’m the senior producer, so I’m the guy who is responsible for the entire production of the game. It’s a 120 member team so I kind of oversee them with a lot of help from a lot of talented people. At the end of the day it’s ultimately my responsibility to make sure the game is made and is as good as can be.


Are you rested?
NO! I won’t be that for a while.


What was the day like at Santa Monica Studios when the game went gold?
It went gold Thursday night of last week (02/18/10) and it was a good day! I found out about it Thursday night via email and then the team found out about it Friday afternoon. Unfortunately I was not able to be there because my wife and child were both sick so I was at home, which is fine because they both sacrificed an incredible amount just for me to be there. Everyone was just kind of dazed.

I spoke with Todd Papy (Combat Director) in regards to the God of War 3 tech and he said that the development of it began along side God of War 2. How early did this happen?
It began sort of in the middle.


Tonight Stig Assmussen (Project Lead) said the game had been in development for 3 years, but it sort of seems that it might actually be longer than that. Is that correct?
When we say the tech has been in development since a certain time it really kind of varies. What I mean by varies is that the tech was being developed by one or two guys tootling around with stuff. Towards the end of GoW2 we had, maybe, four or five people total (including an artist) saying ‘ok, we need to get shaders , normal maps and lighting figured out” and those kinds of things. So they basically had a baseline of those kinds of things taken care of before GoW2 was done so that we had a kind of template level to see what it was going to look like. It was essentially like a prototype and then we went from there.

All the tech for all the GoW products have been built upon each other. GoW2 was built on the GoW1 engine, and now GoW3 has been built on the GoW2 engine. See what happened is our tech guys ported the GoW2 engine over to the Playstation 3 right off the bat…

Ah! This is how the God of War Collection happened?

Sort of, yes! But they did that so we had a working engine and then the level designers were able to get right to work. We had Kratos running and jumping at speed, doing all the things he was doing in GoW2, so we were able to say ‘alright, this is a good baseline, let’s get to work’. Our programmers worked hand-in-hand with us and said ‘Ok in 6 months we’ll pull out the PS2 particle system and replace it with the PS3 particle system,and then a few months later we’ll pull out the PS2 collision system and replace it with the PS3 collision system.’

So it was modular in its design so they could pull out parts of the engine?
Yea--well, as much as we hoped! It was the only way to go for us. Due to the scale of the game we had to hit the ground running. We needed all the time possible to make the game, and it was the first PS3 game that our studio was doing. We weren’t given the luxury of doing it in 10 years.


What was the greatest challenge in the development of God of War 3?
Oh man there were so many! The colorful answer is titan gameplay. From a technical, artistic and design standpoint getting all 3 of those to come together to make sure they were all hitting on all cylinders was tough. From a production standpoint is would have to be communication. We went from 50 people working on GoW1, to 80 on GoW2 and then to 120 plus working on GoW3. The communication got exponentially harder.


Where would you say—as you picked up 40 people—most of the people landed? Were the majority of them going to the art depts or were they sprinkled throughout the studio?
You know, they were sort of sprinkled throughout. I would say that the Art department grew the most. We no longer had a model with a texture, but now a model with a texture with a normal map and a shader and lighting. It was more like eight things on a model instead of just one. Our code department also grew some along with animation, cinematics and design but Art grew the most.


Is the game running at 60 frames per second?
The game is running at a variable framerate. It rarely goes below 30 and it tops out at 60.


Is V-sync enabled?
Yes.


Is it 720P or 1080P?
720P native that can scale up to 1080i.


Tearing has become a hot topic in this generation of consoles. Did this affect your approach in the design of the game?
It’s interesting; God of War 2 had some tearing going on with it, but with GoW3 there shouldn’t be any tearing at all and the variable frame rate helps us out with that. We’ve also got some good code in place--that you can’t tell is working--which helps to make sure frame rate drops are gracefully executed. By graceful I mean that you won’t see any tearing.

In some respects—and I know I’m going to get shredded on the boards for saying this—we intentionally slow things down. We want to show you what’s going on in some scenes. A good example is this one huge creature who grabs Kratos and, if we showed that at speed, you would just never even see him. So we say, ‘ok slow the camera down, zoom in—there he is! Doesn’t he look cool?!’ and then we ramp the speed back up and put you back into the action. It’s a pacing thing.

Also, there are some small pauses in the combat that some people thought were slowdown because there were so many guys on screen but it’s intentionally there because it makes the hits feel more impactful.


What’s zipper-tech and what does it do?
It involves a high number of joints and the ability to have them and the vertices remain in sync over all kinds of animations and then to separate accordingly.

For instance, technically, the belly of the centaur is actually split open all the time, but you just can’t tell because everything is nicely tied together and moving along until the animation hits and tells the joints to split.


The God of War 3 Blu-Ray disk is 35GB in size. What’s asset comprises the most space?
Oh gosh that’s a tough one! I think the accurate answer would be the textures. I mean, realistically the documentary is on there and that’s about 2 hours of HD video, but as far as game assets go it’s the textures and then the audio.



Are there any pre-rendered cutscenes in the game?
There are pre-rendered cutscenes but in saying that--they’re made in the game engine.

I would like to make sure people understand the difference here: So there’s real-time where I have control of Kratos and there’s all this stuff happening around me--that’s how we define real-time. We define pre-rendered in that we take the game engine with game assets and put them in a scene. We then shoot the animation through the render (like the trailer we’ve all seen) and then the game spits out frames that we then put together as an mpeg. We don’t have the hi-res CGI videos like the first two games.


Is the God of War 3 engine going to be licensed out or used in other areas by Sony?
It will probably be used internally by Santa Monica Studio, but it comes down to support. If you license the engine out to someone else then it takes the whole team to provide that support--that takes up some serious bandwidth! The only way we would do it is if it was a fire-and-forget (no support) situation.

Also, in my experience in games, people don’t like using other peoples stuff.

Why is that?


I don’t know. It’s very frustrating. I don’t know if it’s a pride thing or people just not being familiar with it. I have an art background and did some level work in the past and after working on something I would hand it off to someone to finish and 3 weeks later I’d come back and would find that they rebuilt the whole thing! I’d ask ‘why’ and they would say something along the lines of “because it’s a piece of crap!” It happens 100% of the time. It’s strange, but it’s rampant.


In regards to the development of GoW3, how did the team come up with the overall vision?
Three years! I think one of the things our studio strives for is to bite off more than we can chew. That’s all everyone did in every department during the first year of development, saying ‘what can I work on tomorrow that’s crazier than what I did today?’ and from a production standpoint its scary as shit! After that year and a half of production it just kind of came down to finishing the project.


What about the moving levels? Was this something that the studio wanted to do earlier in the series but was limited by the technology of the PS2?
A little bit. On God of War 2 we touched on it, but then we ended it saying ‘well, we’re really going to have to do it now’. So when we got to the PS3 we were excited! Right out of the gate we started on the design work. We actually had a prototype called “The Blockman” who literally had blocks for arms and legs and Kratos was running on them.


Each GoW game has had a different director and each one has brought a different vision. What kind of affects has this had on the game?
Oh it’s awesome! I think it’s one of the best ways we could have done it. I don’t want to draw direct comparisons to this, but one of my favorite series of all times was Band of Brothers. I love that series! Each episode is set in the same period with the same characters in the same events, but there were different directors for each episode. When you watch the whole thing and reflect back its like ‘wow, ok so it is a little different’. It’s the same with the GoW series—each guy provided a different perspective.



Does this mean you’re going to become the next director on the series? No Way!


What can we expect in regards to DLC?
We’re working that out now. There are no definitive plans but we’re still experimenting. We’ve got some bandwidth and if Sony tells us to go ahead with it then we will. We’ve got some ideas bouncing around.


Can we expect anything for free? Like arenas?
I hope so! We’ve got some fun ideas that we’re kicking around.


Has work begun on the next God of War trilogy?
Hrm. No. Weeeeeell—hrm, no. We’ve just come off of a huge run and the guys are just happy that I’m not calling them.


It’s been almost 3 years since God of War 2 was released and the genre hasn’t move forward much in terms of gameplay? What is God of War 3 going to do to push things forward?
I don’t know. That’s a good question. I don’t know if our goal was to necessarily push the genre forward really.


What about Titan gameplay? Is that a push forward?
Yes but I could just take the counter point and say Shadow of Colossus did it too, right? I think our goal was just to do things better than what we had ever done before in the past. That’s really what our goal was. We wanted to top the other two entries in the series and end it on a big note. We wanted the trilogy to wrap up this kind of grand story arc and all the challenges up against it. In the end we just wanted to create a fun product.

I’m honestly not trying to dance around the question, but I don’t recall there ever being discussions about it.


Were there any games you played during the development that helped influence any particular parts of GoW3?
You know you can probably see that there are a lot once you play the game, just like when you played the first one. I think one of the things we did try to do is end the trilogy and harkens back to the first one and its style.


What exactly does that mean?
Well in the first one we got into Krato’s head and saw his past and his torment, but the second one wasn’t so much about Kratos as it was about his environment and how he was just fucking it up. It was just more about the things happening around Kratos.

On GoW3 we tried to go back to the roots of the first one and make it more about Kratos—to get more into his head, more into his motivations and just finish his story.


Is there one ending to the game?
Yes, there is one ending.


Thanks for your time and congratulations!
Thank you very much!

BioShock 2: Letting Go So We Can Move Forward

BioShock 2 is an interesting game isn't it? It arrives in a very difficult position as it follows in the footsteps of--what some consider to be the best first-person shooters in years--the original BioShock. What's curious though is the group of gamers that heartily embraced the original, wearing it as a shining badge, mightily exclaimed to the world "See! This is what we can have when we marry a compelling narrative with artisan game design!", are now the ones turning their backs to it's sequel. Some are even outright unwilling to listen to the story it wishes to tell.

On the other hand, who can blame them right?

After all how can it be possible for a BioShock sequel to create an equally fascinating experience--that rests in such a unique space--when we've already visited? Truth be told I'm a little bit of a hypocrite as I initially found myself pushing out my chest along side them.

But after putting some thought into my reasoning I soon realized I wasn't giving the game its fair chance--I might be missing out on something! Well I'm happy to say that I come away from completing Bioshock 2 (roughly 12 hours) feeling fulfilled. Certainly I'm a traitor now, right? :) Listen, all I plan to do is write what I feel and hope you get something beneficial out of it.

In short, I've come to the conclusion that BioShock 2 is--through a series of unfortunate missteps--a really good game.

Hold your tomatoes please!

To keep things completely spoiler free I won't go into any of the plot or gameplay revelations, but what I will do is tell you confidently that I found the narrative--and its unraveling--interesting enough to keep me slogging forward. I wanted to know more. It probably goes without saying that I think it's not nearly as interesting as the original though.

By now everyone knows you take control of the very first prototyped Big Daddy, and from that initial moment the game makes it incredibly apparent how massive and powerful you really are. Movement is accented with the pounding of your elephantine feet as you lumber about the corridors. The stoutly swoop of your massive melee attacks as they thud a splicer across the face, or even the deep-chested grunts you let loose when you're attacked in return. It all comes together to help sink in the notion that you're truly a massive beast of sorts.

This doesn't mean you're not susceptible to damage though, or that your perform things any more slowly than other protagonist you might play in other game. What it does do is highlights the greatness of his design. Your colossal heaviness is implied completely by sound and never by tactile feedback. Somewhere in that design comes a certain melancholy with the implication of how cumbersome and confused your life is in Rapture.

For me, the very first hour of the game was slightly awkward and confusing as I walked around. I tried to digest everything Rapture was trying to convey but it proved to be more disturbing. I was in a rut. The musky environments--though of the same in essence of my first experience in Rapture--had changed quite a bit due to the 10 year that had lapsed. There were writings scrawled across the walls that just didn't make sense. Everything was coming together to push me towards feeling claustrophobic (when, in reality, I'm not.)

After a few minutes I realize that perhaps what I was experiencing was completely organic. Were these feelings elicited intentionally by design? Perhaps not, but for me it did slightly augment my experience as it connected me to the protagonist a bit more as I imagine it was likely he was experiencing the same emotions.

As I got my bearings I found the gameplay to be more intense and more enjoyable than the original, and this (pleasantly) surprised me. I think the ability to duel wield plasmids and weapons heightened the intensity of the action to a new level. In addition there appeared to be even more splicer attacks coupled with thicker skin and more powerful weapons. Fun!

I really began to feel at home when I mastered the Hypnotize plasmid. At first it has the ability to turns other foes against one another--which in itself is extremely entertaining to watch--but eventually it upgrades to a point where you can recruit splicers by your side for a few minutes--even the bigger guys! At several points in the game I found myself surrounded by two hacked drones and one of my favorite victims--the teleporting, explosive-throwing Houdini Splicers. Sending that party into a room full of splicers and watching the AI try to figure out how to kill itself was so incredibly entertaining!

But what Bioshock 2 doesn't have, unfortunately, is the same quality of architectural level design as the first. The magic that it retained throughout the entire experience just isn't at the same level. Bioshock 1 is defined by two things--it's areas and the characters that inhabit them. Many sections of the game had incredibly unique architectural designs and aesthetics making every section memorable with fascinating points of interest. I fondly look back on certain areas like the Medical Pavilion run by the demented and insane Dr Steinman, Neptune's Bounty, the Farmers Market, or how about Rapture's entertainment center Fort Frolic?

For me, BioShock 2 really only has one area that runs along the same line as those and that's Ryan Amusements. I'll hold off on the details as to why it's so interesting, but let's just say it's a pivotal moment in the game's narrative that truly reveals how arrogant and messed up Ryans practices were, but conjugated by brilliant design.

Unfortunately most of the other levels--including Siren Alley (the Red Light District), which I feel was a sadly missed opportunity--are much too similar in terms of aesthetic and architectural design.

I must point out that this is not to say that the levels are badly designed or even a bore to play through--they're not--but it just brings to light that they're not on par with the original. That whimsical, melancholy of the BioShock spirit is missing.

In terms of plot, once I found out where the narrative was going towards the end of the game--and yes it's revealed why you're a Big Daddy who's as weak and vulnerable as he is--I was hooked. It's certainly not as interesting or inspired as the original game, but I found it really interesting none-the-less.

BioShock 2 is a really fun game, but I think that in order for us hardcore to enjoy what the crafted experience has to offer then we need to come back down to earth a little. We need to realize that BioShock 2 isn't going to have the very best part of BioShock 1--which is the glorious first exposure to Rapture where we bewilderingly travel through it. What BioShock 2 is, though, is an unpretentious attempt to expand on Rapture lore, and you know what? I respect and enjoy it for nicely progressing in the complexity of Rapture. Most importantly I respect it for, overall, being a fun video game to play--because that's what it does best.

Review: Assassin's Creed 2

From an artistic standpoint, Assassin's Creed 2s architectural structures and the character models that fill them are incredibly well crafted. In my travels to 16th century (virtual) Italy I found the non-organic items were the most eye-catching, and at times they stopped me dead in my tracks so I could admire their beauty. The voice work is performed very naturally by the actors, helping the dialog along to its lofty goal of frequent but tolerable chatter.

The textures and overall graphical fidelity are some of the best this generation of gaming has to offer.

The scope and variation in gameplay is certainly impressive. Like any well made open-world game it allows you to control where you want to go at what pace you desire. AC2, in particular, really encourage you to wander off into its world very early on to collect Feathers in honor of your brother, perform assassinations for additional cash or even find treasure chests that are littered around the cities--it's a lot to take on. In fact, the extra offerings reach almost ludicrous proportions to the point where I would be hard pressed to find a game with more stuff to do (that wasnt developed by Bethesda).

This stuff is all well and good, and there are many reviews out there praising this incredible game from top to bottom. In the end, though, Assassin's Creed 2 has flaws that I feel are worth discussing by the gaming community.

Let’s start with the controls.

I don’t recall the last time I became so boiled over with frustration--and as many times as I did--with a video game's movement mechanic. The running-jumping-climbing automation has become a staple of the Assassin's Creed series and it's a lot of fun--when it works. I love how exhilarating Ubisoft has made the scaling of buildings and the traversing of rooftops—it’s like playing Need For Speed: 16th Century Rooftop Edition! It's fun right? But it's the protagonists (Ezio) inadvertent habit of haphazardly jumping in directions other than the one I point him in. I would usually end up shaking my fist in the air as it lead to my untimely death on the cobblestone streets below (or attracting the attention of unwanted guards who seem to be able to climb as well as I do while dressed in full armor!)

Also, there were more times than I care to remember where Ezio would be climbing up the side of a building and he would suddenly halt--hitting some kind of a virtual wall--when there was clearly a ledge within his grasp. No move, no matter how advanced, would force him to grab these ledges. Eventually I would most likely end up scolding him says "Get your ASS up there"! Yea yea, it's Irrational behavior I know.

Though the game now has an economy I feel that it's, unfortunately, broken. I'm not pretentious enough to consider myself to be any more skilled than your average hardcore gamer, so I don't think I was doing anything unusual here, but I was buying just about everything I wanted and whenever pleased! Whenever I entered a newly discovered city I was able to buy 90% of the items (paintings, weapons, armor) as soon as they became available. Other things were acquired, generally, within an hours time. This is probably due to the massive amounts of side-missions that are available with huge monetary rewards.

But I ask, shouldn’t those rewards have been considerated when items were being priced? I love the fact that all these items are available, but the rewards in particular were too great and too soon (or these powerful items were too cheap--you pick.) It made me realize how much I missed a well paced a game. Pacing that creates a feeling of anticipation for more powerful items. World of Warcraft does the “Carrot-on-a-stick” thing perfectly.


--Slight Spoilers Follow--

I remember when I first discovered I was going to be able to rule over this small town in this game. Oh man, I got very excited jus thinking of all the possibilities. Oh the possibilities people! In the end the ruling consisted of mostly trivial tasks and rewards. Yes there was a small benefit like discounted items in stores, but in the ended it's trivial at best. I really only utilized the perks once or twice because I ended up buying most of my items in other cities since it was more convenient. I felt like the player should be given the option to go even farther with the acquisition of the town.

Imagine if the effects of building and upgrading structures affected the mood of your population. How about funding some kind of annual festival to bring happiness and a sense of community to the town? Perhaps it could have just do something simple like reduce the crime/poverty rates. Though I realize that that's heading down a path of a sim--which is definitely not what AC is about—I think, if implemented casually, could increase the players interest in the town without over complicating things. Keeping it simple, you know? Add a few meters here and there to the already existing city overview UI.

When arriving back in the city after being gone for a few days I initially thought I would have the opportunity to make some important choices in regards politics. Perhaps I would have to determine what to do with someone who was caught stealing from someones home, or even settling a dispute amid two families that cause a new set of missions to open up. Heck, I though for certain I would have to deal with more personal issues like finding a suitable man for the younger sister (I mean, what happened with that story, right?)

--Slight spoilers end--


Despite what I've said here, I want to stress that I really enjoyed Assassin's Creed overall--quite a bit actually! I just don’t seem to adore it like most of the general gaming community and critics.

Yes, "driving" Ezio around the beautiful Italian cities is, at times, as relaxing as my favorite Sunday drive with my lovely wife. Up the California coast we go admiring the gorgeous landscapes, soaking up the sunset in my RX-7...but in this game it's with wobbly tires.

Review - Demon's Souls

Demon’s Souls is one the most difficult game I’ve played in years and I love it! I find the choices made in its overall design both compelling and fascinating. In an industry where the current trend seems to want to make games easier and more accessible for the masses, it’s nice to see one game proudly stand up and pound its chest challenging gamers alike. It’s a call to arms of sorts for the hardcore.

For those of you who don’t know, the Prince of Persia series was recently “rebooted” to contain mostly simple button presses and thumb-stick gestures to execute “complex” maneuvers. It’s a divisive concept in the gaming community, and though I enjoyed the game quite a bit, I do admit that the trend is starting to bother met. Take Uncharted 2-- even though it's one of my favorite games of the year, the auto correcting jump mechanic had me shaking my head at times because I felt it was removing some of the games inherent gameplay challenges.

Embarrassingly I recall an incident from last year where I was playing Burnout 3 and became so boiled over with frustration I physically twisted and cracked my $50 DualShock 2. I cracked the internal circuit board rendering it completely useless. “Way to go Mark!” I thought, “What are you, 12 years old?!” Clearly this was a stupid and expensive reaction on my part, but I had had it with the game ending crashes caused by bumper tapping. I’m just the type of guy who doesn’t tolerate cheap and unapologetic design tactics in games.

I bring this up for two reasons: First to make it clear that poorly designed games can frustrate me to point of time travel. Secondly, I never once came close to feeling this kind of frustration in regards to Demon’s Souls challenges.

I think for most gamers to really appreciate Demon’s Souls they must make a conscience decision to be up for its back-breaking challenges. At its core, Demon’s Souls is an intensely exhilarating and well crafted experience coupled with unmerciful consequences for dying. But once one is aware of that fact, you will be forced to constantly contemplate your strategies knowing full well that even quickly turning a corner could have dire consequences.

Death in Demon’s Souls (see, even in writing it makes me wince!) has several penalties: It restart you from the very beginning on your current stage, you lose all your currency (souls) and all previously defeated foes will respawn sans bosses. In contrast of a game with a very generous checkpoint system like Batman: Arkham Asylum--checkpoints simply do not exist. I would like to be clear on this because it so very much goes against the grain--there will never be an automatic save made for you, nor is it even possible to manual save the game at your every whim.

Intimidated yet?

Hey, the game is not completely ruthless though. If you return to your fallen corpse without dying then you will be able to recover 100% of your souls. However, if you do die along the way then they will disappear completely leaving you with nothing but your weapons and health. You do have the opportunity to stashed away Demon's Souls, equipment and items with a friendly NPC located in the game’s hub (The Nexus), for safe storage. So if you utilize your resources properly you won’t completely lose everything.

I know it might sound too frustrating to even consider playing, but what Demon’s Souls manages to do is increase the intensity and quality of the experience without it feeling cheap. Almost every time I died in the game it was due to the fact that I wasn’t being careful enough, or frankly I was just practicing improper battle techniques.

So why would someone want to play this game? The only explanation I can give you is my own—Demon’s Souls managed to invoked emotions that I've not felt in a very long time. Its deliberately slow progression made me appreciate seemingly simple acts, but ostensibly were monumental progressions.

If the difficulty of Demon's Souls is at the core of the game’s draw then the boss fights are definitely the cherry on top of that cake. Yes this game has fun boss fights. Sing some praise with me! Though they can be a little outlandish at times, they are mostly radiating with originality and are enjoyable crafted sequences.

Demon’s Souls is a game full of "tough love"—it’s firm, but fair. If you slip up with your hand in the cookie jar even once then you will get it slapped hard! In some instances this means losing hours of your concerted efforts at the flick of the games wrist. Undoubtedly at some point you will dip your head in despair. But once you realize you were the one at fault you will suddenly realize that you're back in the game honing your skills and surpassing the games challenges. It's incredibly rewarding.

I'll never forget playing the game for the first time--it was a 4 hour session that ended with my jaw aching. Later I realized that it was from me gritting my teeth the entire time. I that pretty much sums up my experience with this game.

Still Alive

I hate to be a typical blogger here that's typically blogging about a lengthy absence from said blog that will only be thwarted by a triumphant return--but what the hell--that's exactly what I'm going to do! God that's a lame intro.

Nevertheless I quickly wanted to let the readers of this blog know that I have some thoughts and impressions coming very soon.

Thanks for the emails, private messages and support--your voices have been heard!

iPhone Gaming: Karma Star

Karma Star, developed by Majesco Entertainment, is without a doubt the most fascinating and unique game I’ve played on the iPhone. No seriously—I can’t stop playing the darn thing!

It’s a game that takes you through the paces of life in just 8 turns where you compete against 2 other players (represented by either AI or human). Games are over fairly quickly with an average of 8 minutes in length. You compete with 2 other players (AI controller or human) for the highest score. Each player has 5 traits: Health, Mind, People, Love and Money that are rated with a score of 1 through 5. Each turn you’re given the option to either boost a trait, which improves it’s score by 1, or by attacking another player’s identical trait scoring 2 points if you win the battle.

During combat players roll “dice” against one another. The higher rating your trait has, the more dice rolls you will get. For instance if your trait rating is 4 then you will get 4 dice rolls. If the accumulated score from these rolls are higher than your opponents—you win the round!



To really add some variety to the game Majesco has added wildcards. You can choose to play wildcards at the start of your turn, or during combat to influence the game in your favor. Wildcards vary from the helpful “Corruption” which allows you to steal a trait point from another player and “Moxie” which adds +2 to your dice rolls in combat, to the hell Mary type like “Sacrifice” where you can sacrifice 2 traits for an extra turn.

The game also rewards strategic gameplay with bonuses. Bonuses are a bit like the Achievement system on Xbox Live but more practical in nature because they boost your game score. For instance if you steal a wildcard from both players you will receive the “Thief” bonus boosting your score by 1. Or how about the bonus “Bully”, were attacking both players at least once nets you a point. The “Double Major” bonus get you a point if you get 2 of your traits up to level 5.

Karma Star is a game about human nature: Progression, development and conquest, but in a bite size format. With it's short game time and instant replayability it’s a perfect fit for handheld gaming. On top of all of this it's a steal for $1.99!

iTunes Link

E3 Impressions: Mass Effect 2

Those of you who listen to Played know that I adore the first game--despite it's faults--and have taken Commander Shepard through his paces more than once. Knowning how brilliant and effective Bioware is at creating entertaining experiences, my expectations for Mass Effect 2 were sky high going in to E3.

After getting two hands-off demonstrations I can mightily exclaim that Bioware has done a tremendous job at listening to it's fan base! Their plan is to advanced Mass Effect 2 in every direction possible including--one of my favorite parts of the series--the conversation system.

Being demonstrated on an X360, the first thing I immediately noticed were the graphical improvements. Gone are the annoying pop-in textures, the crosshatched creeping facial shadows, and most importantly--the feeble frame rate. It looks so fantastic in fact that I was forced to ask the project lead, Casey Hudson, if what we were watching was prerendered material. It sounds like a silly thing to ask, mainly because I knew the answer, but I had to be sure (and get it on the record).

The conversations between characters in the original, though interesting enough, mostly took place in rooms with static positions and sometimes drab perspectives. Bioware feels that that was a little too unnatural looking for the series. So in ME2 the perspectives used during conversations are more dynamic, "organic" and just overall more interesitng to watch.

In the demonstration I saw, Shepard was having a conversation with someone in a moving vehicle and the perspectives varied, moving from the back seat to close-ups and then outside of the vehicle. Though it's a small improvement, but it's one of the many little things Bioware is doing to improve the overall experience (and I don't mean to imply that every conversation will use Dutch angles) either, so please don't take it that way.

A new option has been added to the conversation system that appears to allow physical interaction with someone. It was basically a prompt--lasting only a few seconds--in the lower left-hand side of the screen to press the left trigger. When used in the demo, Shepard threw a guy out a window! I don’t know if this new prompt is always going to be an aggressive act of violence, but I'm very interested in finding out where they're going to take this addition. The original game did something similar in several instances of the game but it was interpreted through the conversation wheel—it just appears that now those instances have been defined elsewhere.

After the demo I asked the design lead about the inventory system. He wouldn’t give me specifics but he did say that they have completely scrapped the old system, from both the console and the PC versions, and are starting anew. He added that they are going for something much more practical, accessible, and useful.

I moved on to--perhaps the biggest gripe amongst us fans--the optional planetary visits and side quests. He smiled and assured me that every planet will be unique in design which quickly forced me to stopped him and press “every planet?”. Responding with another smile, “yes every planet.” In end of the demo they wrapped things up with a short video showing one off of the new planets and it was the exact opposite of what we're use to seeing in ME1. It was a lush green planet with a massive forest and rolling hills--it was exciting!

Lastly, I asked him if the same composer was returning and he said, unfortunately, that he could not talk about that.