Oddworld's time may have finally come

A company and series that you might not have heard of in the gaming business is Oddworld. Both the series and the company itself are oddities (pun intended) who used to be fairly big with releases on the original Playstation, and later the original Xbox. The company and it's games have remained in seclusion for years, and is poised to make a comeback after a more than seven year hiatus. So why is it that a company seemingly beaten almost a decade ago would come back? To put it simply, all they had to do was bide their time until conditions were ripe. Confused? Well, let me explain.

The Oddworld games take place on a world that is essentially a dark mirror of Earth. Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna, the two studio heads came up with a world and series of stories that were intended to not simply be about a good vs. evil struggle, but instead focused these stories on exploitation, corporate greed and environmental disaster. The current heroes of the Oddworld games, Abe, Munch and The Stranger, are all victims of an unapologetic group of apathetic corporate power and in all three games, the heroes use the power of nature and spiritualism to fight against both literal and figurative corporate machinery. The games are known for using a dark and satirical sense of humor, lampooning corporate inefficency, the downfall of using but not truly understanding technology and how a lack of communication is deadly both to the player and their enemies. In fact, the games are mostly built on communication and are an essential gameplay component. In order to 'win' at Oddworld, players need to focus not on 'kicking ass' (though they can do that too) but on saving others from literal wage slaves to laboratory test animals.

As one might imagine, this anti-corporate message didn't exactly sit well with most publishers who were approached. Though initially Oddworld had a deal with U.K. based Infogrames, older gamers can tell you that that outfit went belly up and was absorbed into the new incarnation of Atari, which itself is facing financial difficulties. As a result, Oddworld was forced to try and find a new publisher. Though they did reach an agreement with first Microsoft with Munch's Oddysee and EA with Stranger's Wrath, numerous problems arose which almost entirely halted sales of Stranger, and the rush to get Munch out the door for Xbox launch made the studio distinctly unhappy. Fed up with the gaming corporate culture but without enough money to publish themselves, Oddworld at first tried to get into the movie business. As one might imagine, they ran into even less success with the old dinosaur that is Hollywood, especially when they tried to pitch the dark, adult animated movie Citizen Siege.

The world however, is a very different place than it was even back in 2004. The US and the entire world is in the midst of a 'don't-call-it-a-depression-recession', increasing corporate inefficiency and the still lingering anger and lack of punishment for BP causing a massive environmental disaster that will last for decades ( BP was able to write off the expense for the clean up off their taxes this year, meaning that we the taxpayers paid for their mistake. Why exactly has this government not collapsed yet?), Oddworld's environmental exploitation message seems to have been more than a little prophetic. Not to mention that digital distribution has been getting bigger with every year, meaning they no longer have to get a publisher in order to distribute their games. So Oddworld is coming back in full force, enlisting the talents of studio Just Add Water. While the company's first projects are HD remakes of old Oddworld titles, they will eventually release a brand new title in the series, the put on hiatus since '98 game Hand of Odd. The future is looking bright for Oddworld, even though the world had to go to hell in order for it to happen. Ironic, isn't it?

Scholar's Corner: Why graphics actually are important in a game.

There are many longstanding debates and issues which have divided the more fanatic video gamers such as myself, with the ones more likely to only buy the latest Nintendo releases on Wii, or in this particular case the latest and most popular titles. In this particular post, Scholar Gray discusses how eye candy is not the only reason why graphics are important and will continue to be important to many games.

A very interesting bit about the Zelda: Skyward Sword trailer

Follow the link to see: 


http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=157292

And here's the original trailer as a teaser of sorts:

Project Cafe: Hopes and reality checks

Innovation is cool enough. Why does it need to be 'reinvented'? I call bogus on this image!

A lot has been said about the successor to the Nintendo Wii, the so called Project Cafe. It will apparently be more hardcore focused. Nintendo is supposedly trying better to work with third parties. The controller has a screen that looks like an iPhone. Well, after thinking a great deal about these rumors, it's time for a little reality check. Based on Nintendo's previous track record, here's what ol' Scholar Gray thinks of certain rumors:

Greetings

Welcome everyone to Andrew Gray's gaming blog! Much like the old profiles for both Game Informer and GamePro magazines, I've given myself the handle of 'The Game Scholar'. I'll have reviews and previews of upcoming and current titles. However, this blog is meant to go a bit more in depth than the 'mainstream' game media, as I'm awarded more leeway in terms of articles and such. I hope you enjoy reading.