There can be little doubt that Activision Blizzard has made a great deal of money over the last day or so in the wake of Diablo III’s launch after a twelve year break in the series. While it might not have been an entirely happy reunion for many fans with Diablo III – which requires a constant online connection to Blizzards Battle,net – plagued by server errors that prevented potentially thousands of players from enjoying it, the sheer numbers involved speak volumes to how successful the game has been. Admittedly a great number of fans aren’t entirely happy and are expressing that loudly on the internet, but that fan rage should die down in a week or so. Even if many gamers still aren’t happy they will have already contributed to the 3.5 million sales that analysts earlier in  May predicted Diablo III would make in it’s first month. It’ll certainly be interesting to see the first day figures that Blizzard are bound to release shortly.

But for all the money Blizzard will had made on launch, it’s sure to be dwarfed by the potential money that it’ll make in Diablo III’s in-game auction houses, where players will be able to buy and sell in game weapons and loot for real currency – with Blizzard taking a cut of those transactions. With the thousands of fans that will no doubt soon be using Diablo III’s auction houses it seems like a licence to make money. But speaking to gamasutra Diablo III designer Jay Wilson has explained that the creation of the real money auction houses in Diablo III was actually motivated by design, saying,” It came from the design department.” He went onto defend the feature from critics saying,  “So here’s one of the things that I will say — that no one in forums will believe me — but we never make business decisions outside of the game development team. We always make them based on what we think is right for the game.”

While he admits that Blizzard clearly want to get a return on the service, he claimed there would be benefits for Blizzard fans in the future as those resources would be used to make the gaming experience a better one.  “I don’t think it’s a bad thing to want to make money,” said Wilson. “ I think it’s a bad thing to want to make money off things that are not a good service or product for your customer, and that’s our inherent belief, is that it’s okay to make money on a service we provide for our customers that we think is a good service worth paying for.” Just how much that money will really translate into a better Battle.net experience remains to be seen, but it’s a good thing Jay Wilson doesn’t think it’s a bad thing to make money. Blizzard will have made a ton in the last 24 hrs, and it looks set to make a great deal more in the future.

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Batman Arkham City is packed with members of the Dark Knights rather impressive rogues gallery , but one of the most flamboyant and  memorable of them has to be the Jokers side kick and lover Harley Quinn. With the next set of Batman Arkham City DLC set to focus on Harley Quinn’s quest for revenge after the death of the Joker,  games ™sat down with Tara Strong the prolific voice actress behind her , to talk  about her take on the character and what’s in store for the Jokers hench woman in  Harley Quinn’s Revenge.

games™: You came onto Batman Arkham City and took over as Harley Quinn, a character who was previously voiced by Arleen Sorkin, how did that come about? And how did you approach her voicing her character as an actress new to the role?

Tara Strong: It was really challenging because I’d been Batgirl alongside Arleen doing Harley in Batman the Animated series, and I was always really enamoured of her. She’s an amazing, inspiring woman and I still don’t know why she didn’t do this particular game. When I came in they said to me “We do not want an impression of the original Harley”, and I said ,”You don’t!?” I was freaking out because of the magnitude of the fan base for Harley Quinn, so I did not want to disappoint the fans or her over this character that she really created, it would not be her without Arlene. So they said, “Why do you do a merge of your voice and Harley and make a sort of new rendition of it?” I did have Arlene’s Harley on my iPhone as reference but Paul (Crocker), the writer behind Arkham City said in his beautiful English accent,” We don’t want you to do that anymore, you’re Harley don’t copy anyone else we want your Harley!” It was really intimidating to step into those shoes so I’m really grateful the fans have been so supportive.

 games™: The Harley Quinn character has clearly developed between the two games, what references did you use create that and how did you approach evolving her character through the course of Arkham City?

 TS: I think that in all animation and in all entertainment you have to be aware of the current trends and change with the times – if you constantly did over the top stuff you wouldn’t be as versatile and it wouldn’t work, so I love how the Batman stuff is very real. I’ve done the silly Batman, but my particular favourite is the dark stuff with Kevin Conroy and Bruce Timm. I had the same approach with Harley in Arkham City in that she’s obviously crazy and has a dark side to her, but there’s also a very loving side to her. She’s sort of like a Yin/Yang of crazy. But with that I tried keeping her very real and her emotions very dark and her love very strong. She sort of embodies this whole crazy love mentality. Clearly someone of sound mind would not love the Joker, but she’ll loveable because she’s crazy and her love for him is sort of endearing. So any time I approach a character like that I try to imagine that I’m her in that scenario.

games™: What was it like working with a studio like Rocksteady Games who are so invested in the Batman fiction?

 TS:  Sometimes, and this is the truth, I’m not a big gamer and sometimes I get stressed out that a game is gonna be a lot of work with a lot of dialogue and I worry ‘Am I going to be able to maintain my energy?” When I do those sessions I know the fans are going to feel like they’re in the game with me, so I don’t want my performance to go down and disappoint them. But second I met the team at Rocksteady I was blown away by their dedication to Batman and to the legacy of this character. And the writing is brilliant, its so dark and they’ve done their research, they’ve really done their homework. I really felt like every time I went into the studio it wasn’t like ‘Oh gosh, how am I going to get through this?’ It was more, ‘Oh gosh this is exciting!’ every single time . I definitely bounced off their passion.

games™: Harley Quinn is about to take centre stage in the final piece of Arkham City DLC called ‘Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC. Given how dark the ending of the game was and the death of the Joker, what can we expect from Harley in this DLC?

 TS : Ohh, I can say she’s not a happy camper! Some of the things that I was working on actually made me cry. When you’re in some of these moments it’s often like you’re doing an on camera piece where you believe you are this character. Her struggles and her pain are so real that I felt that with her and I think that’ll translate in the game. Obviously I can’t give away a whole lot of plot details, but it’s really fantastic.

 games ™ How would you like to see Harley Quinn developed as a character moving beyond Harley Quinn’s Revenge?

TS :I think that as in life all your lessons are learnt from your hardest struggles and I think that it would be rewarding if she just became stronger and stronger. I’d love to see her conquer challenges that Joker never got to do and carry his legacy forward, while not being submissive to anyone. As an actress its really fun when she goes crazy, but I think it’d be fun for her to go even darker  and pick up where Joker left off.

games™: Batman Arkham City was the final game for some Batman voice actors like Mark Hamill, but is there space for you to come back in future Batman games, and would you’d be happy to come back?

TS: Absolutely and I’m sure Mark can be convinced too! Maybe I could inspire them to do some ghost stuff with Harley Quinn and the Joker that would let them bring Mark Hamill back!

Further Reading

Avengers games assembled
Batman Arkham City review
Rocksteady talks Batman Arkham City

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“I have no doubt that true Fallout fans will enjoy Wasteland 2 like they the did with the first two Fallouts”, Brian Fargo has told games™ in an exclusive interview after the success of his recent Kickstarter project raised nearly $3 million to develop a sequel to Fargo’s 1988 computer game. “There is a certain formula I follow for making deep RPGs that were applied in Fallout and Fallout 2 and will be used again with Wasteland 2″, Fargo continues.

Fargo goes on to say that a full vision document for the sequel will be posted online soon but does enlighten us on the similarities between Wasteland 2 and the classic Fallout games that he produced. “Cause and effect are the most important hallmarks of this style of game”, he says. “People want to have their actions cause real effects which builds an immersive world and creates replay.”

“I have brought the composer for Fallout 1/2 in for the musical score and he has some wonderful ideas about taking the tone to the next level”, he continues. “The game is top down/isometric and that means we can spend more time on the gameplay and less with all of the modeling. Chris Avellone [Fallout 2, Fallout: New Vegas] is helping with the design along with Mike Stackpoke, Liz Danforth and Ken. St. Andre. The concept art from Andree Wallin is fantastic and I have never been more determined to make a better game in my life.”

Where Wasteland 2 will differ from both the original game and its spiritual successor, Fallout, is in the way the fans will now be involved in the development process. Kickstarter has made fans an active part of game production like never before, and Fargo is quick to assert that their needs and wishes are at the forefront of the development team’s priorities. “We are in lock step with the fans to deliver the experience they are expecting”, he says. “I love the process we have with the fans.”

For more information on Wasteland 2, including further exclusive input from Brian Fargo, see the Kickstarter Special in games™ 122 on sale now through the ImagineShop, on Zinio and iTunes.

Further Reading

Kickstarter Update
Victor Ireland on the Class Of Heroes II Kickstarter
Brian Fargo: Demon’s Advocate

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Tim Schafer’s Kickstarter campaign has been responsible for a high abundance of developers moving to the crowd-funding business model to launch new projects. games™ exhaustively covered the most notable games and chatted exclusively with the developers behind them in issue 122 (on sale now in newsagents and on iTunes, through Zinio and at the ImagineShop) but how have they fared in the time since and what new projects have cropped up in the meantime?

Pinkerton Road

Target: $300,000

Made: $352,285 (5 days left)

Gabriel Knight creator Jane Jenson successfully secured the funding to launch her studio, Pinkerton Road. With five days to go, there’s still time to pledge cash towards the project and decide which of the three proposed games will go into development first.

Carmageddon: Reincarnation

Class Of Heroes 2 Deluxe

Target: $500,000
Made: $96,951

From the outset it was always a tough sell to raise half a million dollars to produce a special edition of an existing product. Sadly, Class Of Heroes 2 didn’t manage to raise anywhere near the cash it needed and a special Working Designs style edition will now not be produced. The translated PSN edition is still coming though, so it’s not a complete loss.

Shadowrun Returns

Target: $400,000
Made: $1,836,447

Shadowrun Returns completely obliterated its target shortly after launching the online Kickstarter campaign. Reaching a tidy sum of $1,836,447 (459% of the original goal), Harebrained Schemes can now expand the vision, focusing the franchise relaunch on the tabletop RPG rather than the dross shooter from a few years back.

Diamond Trust Of London

Target: $78,715
Made: $54,227

There hasn’t been a huge amount of Nintendo DS games seeking funding on Kickstarter but any project fronted by prolific game designer Jason Rohrer is worthy of your attention. Another unconventional concept from Rohrer, Diamond Trust Of London is a strategy title which revolves around the blood diamond trade. With approval from Nintendo finally secured, Rohrer is now hoping to raise enough money on Kickstarter to cover the cost of manufacturing.

Related posts:

1. Victor Ireland on the Class Of Heroes II Kickstarter and the future of JRPGs

There’s a common misconception surrounding multiplayer shooters. To many, if you’re not doing Call Of Duty or Battlefield numbers, your game is dead in the water. While that’s probably the case for the online modes in middle-of-the-road shooters, there’s easily a big enough audience for a solid, balanced and well-supported shooter to live a long and happy life.

Just ask Warhawk, 2007’s often-forgotten multiplayer treasure. While rough around the edges, it gave PS3 owners large-scale, dramatic online warfare long before Battlefield got comfy in the console space, and maintained a loyal community for years. And now, some five years later, Lightbox is hoping to repeat that trick with the splendid Starhawk, a space-western reimagination that offers that same grandiose spectacle as Warhawk, but crams it with a host of new systems that you’d expect to find in a Real Time Strategy game.

The setting comes straight out of Joss Whedon’s Firefly, but gives the world a much-needed dose of colour and life in comparison to Warhawk’s cookie-cutter hills and cement bases. You’re introduced to its charming, whimsical world through the game’s campaign mode, which tells the story of Emmett Graves and his life as a mercenary in the battle for Rift- the glowing blue resource that’s fuelled an interstellar war.

Starhawk has pretentions of telling a story both about personal conflict (Emmett eventually has to battle his estranged brother) and politics (battles for resources), but it’s all rather clumsily told through cheesy dialogue and animated comic-book scenes, and is best forgotten. The campaign itself, too, is flat and laborious, partly due to the story, but mainly because anyone and everyone knows it’s just an elongated tutorial for the multiplayer.

Elongated is the word, though. Each mission gradually introduces another one of Starhawk’s marvellous features into the mix, but there’s a clear argument to be made that a specific and focused tutorial could have done a much better job. If you’re coming to Starhawk for single-player, though, you’re coming for the wrong reasons, because when you fire up those multiplayer servers (after an update and install or two, naturally), Starhawk comes alive.

The best way to describe the action is through the game’s premier mode, capture the flag. It’s 16-on-16, fought across huge maps which can be tackled as infantry, ground vehicles or the titular Starhawks, all seamlessly integrating with one another and showing off some of the best scaling tricks since the original Katamari Damacy.

So far, so Warhawk, then, but where Starhawk really distances itself from its spiritual predecessor is in the new Build And Battle system. As you collect Rift from nearby towers or by killing enemies, you can build huge battlements in real time by simply hoisting up a radial menu, selecting your contraption of choice and dumping it straight onto the field.

It’s a daunting system at first, especially when your inaugural creation crashes in front of you out of the sky and scares the living daylights out of you, but quickly it all starts to make sense. You can build supply bunkers filled with rocket launchers. Sniper towers. Jetbike stations. Tank garages. Even walls. It makes CTF a completely dynamic and unpredictable experience, as there are 32 base builders on the map creating the kind of defences you’ll never see twice.

While the resource management isn’t as intense as a traditional RTS, there’s a lot of tactical pondering nonetheless. Knowing that charging towards a well-barricaded enemy will only end in you dying and them collecting more Rift means you have to work well with your team and ensure that raids are carefully considered.

With this being an action game, though, the focus is still firmly on the killing and destruction of all and sundry. A well-trained ‘hawk pilot can undo even the tightest defensive system through accurate offense and clever use of flares, so the battlefield is constantly shifting and mutating. There’s little barrier to entry, too. Unlike Battlefield 3, flying in Starhawk is extremely simple – it’s the game’s high point and Lightbox clearly wants everyone to experience and enjoy it.

Of course, it helps that it’s a lovely game to look at, especially when 32 players are zipping across the turf. The bold colour palette and redneck-ramshackle architecture work beautifully together, like Rage through a Timesplitters lens, and there’s a glossy PS3 sheen coating the whole thing.

Perhaps most importantly, though, Starhawk has rock solid fundamentals backing up its bold ideas. The shooting is tight and accurate, blending a COD-style snap aim to speedy movement and chunky weapons. Ground vehicles take minutes to understand and are universally entertaining to zip around in, and of course the flying is silky-smooth and extremely simple to understand. It might not quite hit the heady heights of Battlefield 3’s unscripted drama and unmitigated destruction, but when you’re hurtling back to base with the flag and two ‘hawks firing lasers past your ears, well it’s not far off.

Starhawk’s campaign is throwaway, really, and the kinetic, expansive combat would slot in perfectly next to the likes of Tribes Ascend and Firefall as a free-to-play online title. As a full-priced effort, though, it’s crucial to know what you’re getting yourself into. This is a true multiplayer experience, which despite its accessibility, demands commitment and communication to enjoy to its fullest. It’s also a game, though, that deserves to be loved.

Related posts:

1. Out this week: 11/05/12 – Minecraft, Starhawk, Monster World IV

As Cave continues to make Xbox 360 its second home, we’re into the second wave of shooters from the legendary studio. With the likes of Deathsmiles and DoDonPachi now available, can we expect something even fresher from the somewhat unknown Akai Katana?

The answer is no – sorry for ruining the surprise – although Akai Katana is still an enjoyable shooter. Akai Katana’s main gimmick is in its shield Summon. Building up your green bar buys extra time for how long your Summoned ally stays out. When called, the Summon locks into place firing out its own beam of death while your ship raises a shield, blocking dangers (each bullet knocks a chunk of time from how long your Summon stays out). When the time drains, your ship reverts to vulnerable form. This is your main defensive tactic, as each Summon completely drains your bar, so you have to judge the right time to blow your meter so you can safely navigate through the bullet storm ahead. Cleverly, it can also be used as an offensive tactic, as the Summon beam is the easiest way to rack up combos. Initially a desperation measure for panicked newcomers, seasoned players will learn to turn the gameplay mechanic into a tool for chasing high scores.

The problem with Akai Katana, even with its three variations in Origin, Slash and Climax, is that there’s nothing here that we haven’t seen in other shoot-’em-ups on Xbox 360. It doesn’t have the puzzle tilt of Ikaruga, the quirkiness of Guwange, the enchanting design of Deathsmiles or back-to-the-wall bullet hell of DonDonPachi. That’s not to say that Akai Katana doesn’t have those elements, but rather that it can feel like an indistinct blend of the genre rather than something with its own standout identity. The closest it comes is with large, military bosses such as tanks and helicopters, but even they feel as though they’ve stumbled from Metal Slug into a more serious game rather than something unique to Akai Katana.

Akai Katana is also, bizarrely, rather easy – a complaint rarely heard in the genre. Bar the Origin variant, the challenge doesn’t scale up significantly until the last two levels, where use of the Summon mechanic to survive switches from optional extra to necessary bullet shield. A big part of the genre’s appeal is learning how to survive, then how to thrive, then how to pick the largest score possible from the menacing, snarling teeth of each wave of enemies. The muted difficulty here renders a huge chunk of that process void.

Even so, the saviour is that the Summon can be used offensively and that will draw you back for your leaderboard runs. This is what demands you learn Akai Katana inside out, when you should gamble, the best way to beat bosses and how to combo through waves of enemies. It’s a good shooter, then, but one that struggles to hit the same heights of Cave’s other Xbox 360 output.

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As always, click on the links to read reviews of each game where applicable.

Released this week:

Xbox 360

Akai Katana Shin (review online 12/05)
Minecraft (reviewed on NowGamer.com)

PlayStation 3

Datura (reviewed in issue 123 of games™, on sale 07/06)
Starhawk (review online 13/05)

PC

Street Fighter X Tekken
Warlock: Master Of The Arcane

3DS

VVVVVV

DS

Golden Bird Of Paradise
Little Charley Bear
Mahjong Mysteries: Ancient Athena

PS Vita

Supremacy MMA: Unrestricted

Import Of The Week

We’d normally run an Import Of The Week here and, in many ways, we still are. Monster World IV on the Mega Drive has been Japan-only since 1994 but now, after eighteen years, it’s finally received an official English translation and is available to download from the Wii’s Virtual Console service. Many consider it to be the greatest in the convoluted Wonder Boy series, and now it’s your chance to find out if they’re right.

Related posts:

1. Starhawk review

FEATURES

God Of War: Ascension
Kratos returns, in a game that rewinds time to focus on the Ghost of Sparta’s origins and adds multiplayer elements for the first time in the series.

Resident Evil 6
With audiences split on Resi 5, we talk to the team behind Capcom’s next zombie-killer, and find out how it is truly bringing the series back to life.

Dust 514
We journey to Iceland to talk to CCP Games about how it will insert first-person console shooting into the geekcentric PC world of Eve Online.

Double Fine
Fresh from his recent Kickstarter success, games™ travels to Tim Schafer’s San Francisco studio and talks to the man himself about his game design ethos.

The Best Of Molyjam
An online symposium to design games based on fake Peter Molyneux tweets produced over 250 awesome games within 48 hours. We run through our favourites.

REVIEWS

Dragon’s Dogma
Pandora’s Tower
Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure
Skullgirls
Diabolical Pitch
Wrecked: Revenge Revisited
Kinect Star Wars
Fez
Trials Evolution
Crash Time 4: The Syndicate
Chaos Rings II
Sniper Elite V2
Awesomenauts
Ridge Racer Unbounded (Online)
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (Online)

PREVIEWS

Lost Planet 3
LittleBigPlanet Karting
DmC Devil May Cry
Crysis 3
Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor
Dishonored
Rock Band Blitz
Epic Mickey 2: The Power Of Two
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Deadlight
Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy
Anarchy Reigns
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

RETRO

Behind The Scenes: Civilization
Strategy legend Sid Meier reflects on the creation of a genre classic.

The Complete History Of Games: 1991
games™ looks back on the year that brought us Sonic, Street Fighter II and A Link To The Past.

Pinball Realities
We speak to Farsight Studios about how Pinball Arcade is keeping a dream alive.

Hardware Innovations
A look at how some clever ideas have gone on to change the gaming landscape forever.

Issue 122 of games™ is available in all good newsagents, on iTunes, through Zinio and at the ImagineShop.

Related posts:

1. Resident Evil 6 is three games in one; lasts an estimated 30 hours

Viktor Antonov, the famed designer of City 17 for Valve and now Visual Design Director at Zenimax, has told games™ that the future of videogames graphics lies not in their ability to recreate the real world but in more “abstract and stylised” games. It may be no surprise therefore to hear that Antonov is currently working on Dishonered, the distinct looking first-person shooter that blends science fiction elements with post-Industrial Revolution architecture in dark comic book shades.

Speaking on the topic of next generation games consoles, Antonov says “I’ve had the philosophy of trying to remove everything that doesn’t relate to the story. Painters have been doing that for 400 years and have gotten really good at it. So, this is really about more abstract and stylized games – that’s the future. I think games, like any media, will try and become photo-realistic first but when that’s done what’s next? Anybody can do photo-realism and scan things into a game but that’s not the point.”

What does this mean for the next generation of PlayStation and Xbox? Perhaps Antonov’s theories suggest a more creative approach to games design that doesn’t actually require that much more of a technological push forward from console manufacturers but more ways to express an artist’s vision through different rendering and shading techniques. Whatever it is, if Antonov is correct, just don’t expect the next generation to move much closer toward real life.

Further Reading

Epic’s Tim Sweeney on the Samaritan tech demo and next gen consoles
Is Project Zwei Shinji Mikami’s true Resident Evil sequel
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim review

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