Todd Howard and Ken Levine NYCC Panel

Brother None

Brother None

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Oblivion & Fallout 3's Todd Howard and System Shock 2 & BioShock's Ken Levine shared a panel led by MTV Multiplayer at the New York Comic Con. We've covered the only relevant bits before, but if you want to see footage of them discussing the Wii, Killzone 2 review reactions and (peripherally interesting) "how to build a better ending", here you go.
 
Bethesda’s Todd Howard:I don’t think there’s a lot of middle ground right now, so the kind of games we make…

Newsweel’s N’Gai Croal: Evil kill-fests?
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:clap:
 
Yeah I enjoyed that comment, Todd said something honest and now he's afraid that it'll come back to bite him.

This interview (and the other transcript of more of this) make me respect Ken Levine because he really seems to have a grasp on the industry. It was nice to have him see different platforms as different sets of tools. It was also hilarious to watch Todd while Ken was talking, he looked a bit intimidated when Ken would say something that he didn't agree with. When Todd talks about Killzone 2 he reinforces what's most important to him, "visual fidelity", though it's ironic that his games fail in the animation section of that, while Ken seemed to get that because of how crowded the genre was, it requires game to be better in all aspects. Ken tiptoed around it but basically admitted that his ending was disappointing because he didn't spend enough time on it. Todd, on the other hand, just said that people failed to see how awesome it was so they were going to do what they asked (he seemed to be hinting that the player can use their allies that are immune to radiation in Broken Steel, we'll see).
 
That above comment almost makes me feel bad for Todd Howard, it makes him seem like George Bush, a man who believes he is genuinely doing good for the world but not realizing the real damage he is causing. :(
 
That video reaffirmed my view that Todd Howard isn't a bad guy nor even necessarily bad designer. He's just a man doing a job and talking the talk. I somehow don't think Zenimax is a very good corporate parent. On the other side we have Ken Levine. It's not that he works for Mr. Indie, but I think 2K allows much more creative freedom and has the balls to stand up to detractors.
 
The thing is not that Todd can be or is a "good" worker (even though when I have to say that I honestly question his skills in design choices heavily). The issue is that Todd beliefs the way how he imagines RPGs are the best ways to display them. They do what they do best attitude.
 
bhlaab said:
So is the panel about teaching Todd Howard and Ken Levine how to make endings...?
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The panel is part game post-mortem/behind the scenes, part game design guru worship (not-so-deserved), and part gotcha journalism (so-deserved). There is nothing really surprising that comes out of it. It's all the same philosophy of games 101 that we've heard all before.

Ranne said:
Bethesda’s Todd Howard:I don’t think there’s a lot of middle ground right now, so the kind of games we make…

Newsweel’s N’Gai Croal: Evil kill-fests?
Click to expand...
:clap:
Click to expand...
He says that is not all that Fallout 3 is, but they sure spent a lot of time developing it and promoting it as such. Non-optional kill-cam. The stealth gameplay of Thief and the diplomacy of Fallout have done way more for developing a mature (but not in the violent sense) middle ground for games than Fallout 3 ever did.
 
I think Toddy thinks his ending is awesome and the best!


Fucking hell, I have no idea why I can't play those videos...
 
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