Wallace and Gromit Game Preview 97
MBCook writes "Gamers.com has a preview of the game based on the upcoming movie (due in 2005). The preview includes 10 screenshots and some descriptions of game play. The game is expected to be released by the end of the year for the PS2 and the X-Box. The player controls Gromit in an attempt to stop Feathers McGraw from using the inhabitants of the local zoo in his jewel smuggling operations. With levels, like in Sly Cooper, that are designed to be more than a 2D platformer on rails, this looks like a game to look forward to." I've got patent pending on that!
Mmmmm (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Mmmmm (Score:2)
Huh? (Score:1)
Re:Huh? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
(IE? It's the wrong browser, Gromit! And it's gone wrong!)
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
Re:Huh? (Score:2, Interesting)
Now stop motion: You get the "actors" in place for the shot, then you take a frame or three, then move them a little, then another couple frames, then move them a little. And consider that each frame--even if it gets used--is a small fraction of a second. If you want to do it well, it takes time.
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
Now when you think about how long a typical film is...
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Informative)
Abolutely! In one of the interviews on the Chicken Run DVD (also by Nick Park / Aardman) it took over 18 months to film the sequence that took place inside the chiken pie making machine, and that segment was only a few minutes long.
Typically, the amount of footage an animator can generate in a day is measured in seconds...
Re:Huh? (Score:1)
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
a) you are dead
b) the film has rotted away
c) in case you recorded digitally: the equipment you used back then is not available anymore and you have to reverse-engineer it, which of course is illegal because of the DMCA
Surprised Hollywood green-lighted long-term projec (Score:3, Interesting)
The game, which is based on the movie, is coming out the end of 2003, but the movie isn't being released until 2005? Does it really take that long to do those stop animation films?
As the others have pointed out, this is entirely believable. What really gives me pause to think is that Hollywood was actually interested in such a long-term project! Does anyone know how long it takes to make a traditional animated film? A computer-animated film? How about a live action film? I would guess that in these
Re:Surprised Hollywood green-lighted long-term pro (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess there's a few reasons why Hollywood would want to do this a Wallace and Gromit film:
I was worried about Chicken Run, as I thought the combination of Mel Gibson and Disney was going to overwhelm the charm and subtlety (and, let's face it, Englishness) of Aardvark's films. As it turned out, Gibson seemed to understand and was completely cool with the Aardvark style; Disney knew when to butt out. Brownie points all round.
Re:Surprised Hollywood green-lighted long-term pro (Score:1)
Re:Huh? (Score:2)
Yes. Some have mentioned some reasons for this. I'll mention a one more.
Warning: long rambling post follows.
Like software development, animated filmmaking goes through a "pipeline", which is different for each animation medium. Also like software development, fixing problems earlier in the pipeline is much cheaper than fixing it later. So, for example, fixing an issue on the storyboards is going to be much cheaper than re-animating it.
The specific problem with 3D puppet animation is that fixing probl
Patent Pending (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Patent Pending (Score:1)
Posted by Bezos on Friday March 21, @07:01AM
Microsoft FUD!!! (Score:5, Funny)
(Disclaimer: I'm heavily drunk and about to go to bed. It makes sense to me NOW, but so do a lot of other things which I won't mention...
BTW, I hope it is Aardman Animation that I'm thinking of, or I'll get modded down for being factually incorrect... woah! Almost had myself fooled there!)
Grommit predates office dog! (Score:5, Informative)
better looking than the developers site which truly looks like the car mechanic's car [frontier.co.uk]
The first wallace and grommit was "a grand day out" about an adventure they went on to get more cheese. Where is the biggest supply of cheese? Hence all the cheese jokes, dear moderators. This came out in 1991, so it is more likely that Microsoft stole the dog image from aardman than vice versa.
My favourite penguin has always been Opus. And did not the original evil pengiun from Batman, predate Linux? Linux was also created in 1991 another coincidence?
Like all things, some penguins are good and some are not.
Re:Grommit predates office dog! (Score:1)
http://old.lwn.net/Gallery/
he used GIMP 0.54
http://www.isc.tamu.edu/~lewing/linux/notes.html
which was released ca.1996m l
http://gimp-savvy.com/BOOK/index.html?node14.ht
therefore it follows that feathers mcgraw predates the linux penguin. QED
Yes it is suspicious... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Microsoft FUD!!! (Score:1)
the 10 screenshots (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, they are low on polys. The terrain
looks like a square-edge fest!
Re:the 10 screenshots (Score:2, Funny)
Re:the 10 screenshots (Score:1)
I think Gromit looks really good, but the surroundings made me think "uh, Gromit Goes Half Mesa"... and i don't even play Half-Life (i don't need to -- i have a real life ;)
Not just screenshots (Score:1)
Cheese (Score:2, Funny)
Wensleydale (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wensleydale (Score:1)
Link [wensleydale.co.uk]
Re:Wensleydale (Score:2, Informative)
I could be wrong, though.
No, Wensleydale is an English product and can only be manufactured in Wensleydale, Yorkshire. This is due to some sort of advertising law or something and aplies to most cheeses in the UK (which use place names) except for Chedder and Red Leiecter I think?.
No GameCube version? (Score:1)
On the other hand... Animal Crossing, new Zelda, pre-rendered shadows in Mario Party, hmmm....
Re:No GameCube version? (Score:5, Interesting)
Probably more like "Does the XBox not have anything to compete with our new platformer?"
The GameCube has Sunshine, and Wario (plus rumours of Mario 128) on its way. The PS2 has Jak 'n' Daxter (considered by some to be better than Sunshine, even). The XBox has Blinx. I know where I'd release my platform title...
Re:No GameCube version? (Score:3, Informative)
I'm willing to bet that it has more platformers than even the PS2.
Re:No GameCube version? (Score:1)
Re:No GameCube version? (Score:1)
Good point, though.
Re:No GameCube version? (Score:1)
After all, I didn't me
Re:No GameCube version? (Score:1)
Re:No GameCube version? (Score:2)
Re:No GameCube version? (Score:2)
Not saying it won't be a best-seller or that it's not worthy of it; it's just not what you'd call a typical preorder situation since the "preorder" entailed buying a $15 game, which a lot of people probably did regardless of their intent to actually procure TWW.
destructive (Score:4, Funny)
The Wallace and Gromit shorts promote a world-view centered around materialism and hedonism. The characters are motivated by idle pleasure and selfishness, and the absurdity and pessimism of their "adventures" encourage existential angst in young, impressionable minds.
That there has been no public outcry against these cartoons, and rather they seem to be enjoying a resurgance in popularity, speaks to the moral bankruptcy of contemporary Western society.
Re:destructive (Score:1)
Re:Lineage (Score:1)
Perhaps the parent poster should put this in his journal or
Re:2D games (Score:2)
Answering myself...
I thought that Chicken Invaders [interactionstudios.com] was great fun, if a little too quick to complete. A simple "shoot-em-up" with great game play.
Re:2D games (Score:1)
Re:2D games (Score:2)
Re:2D games (Score:1)
Elsewhere, there are the following Shooters:
The mighty "Ikaruga". Tell me you have this, please. It even sees a Western release on GC soon, if you didn't get the original Japanese DC release.
Shikigami No Shiro. You'd need to import, but its apparently pretty great.
Mars Matrix (DC game that even made it to the US) is tough but fair
There are new sequels to R-Type and Gra
Re:2D games (Score:2)
I got a GBA, but I guess I must be getting old. Playing games on a tiny screen with fiddly buttons just doesn't do it for me any more.
The other games sound very interesting though. Thanks.
Re:2D games (Score:3, Informative)
I too mourn! (Score:2)
It was the simplicity that made them so good really - quite a lot of people that were addicted to the old Atari systems dropped away when things started to look more complex - like Sonic. The paralax, being able to run behind things, etc... cluttered the purity that you got from a game like Qbert or Centipede.
But I agree - a truly visually original and entertaining ce
penguins can't possibly be evil... (Score:1)
a question for all you 3d developers out there (Score:2, Interesting)
Is it still too computationally expensive to draw a proper 3D circle in a game like this using todays hardware?
I realise a "true" circle is probably impossible/impractical, but even a 50-sided circle would probably be enough to fool the eye. Or would this have such a negative effective on FPS that it wouldn't be worth it?
Re:a question for all you 3d developers out there (Score:4, Informative)
Re:a question for all you 3d developers out there (Score:2)
Sonic-alike? (Score:3, Insightful)
Just me, or does the seventh screenshot [gamers.com] look like a sonic game with the collected nuts being dropped like sonic's coins?
Suprised that they're also publishing screenshots that have obvious glitches in em' too.
Re:Sonic-alike? (Score:3, Insightful)
Suprised that they're also publishing screenshots that have obvious glitches in em' too.
Well, it does have another year or so of development left.
Re:In the immortal words of Company Flow (Score:2, Funny)
It would be nice if someone would mirror the site (Score:2)
I just don't get it. Isn't it obvious that Wallace and Gromit are work-related?
Watch Wallace & Gromit clips online (Score:4, Informative)
While you're waiting for it to go back up, check out Wallace & Gromit's Crackling Contraptions [shockwave.com], especially if you've never seen any of the duo's shorts before. (Beware, AtomFilms only use the Windows Media Player format now.)
Wallace and Gromit also have an official site [aardman.com], available from the Aardman Animation [aardman.com] site. -Mr. Fusion
Re:Watch Wallace & Gromit clips online (Score:3, Informative)
No Problemo... [mplayerhq.hu]
Heh (Score:2, Funny)
Will it push the XBox? (Score:1)
Frontier Developments (Score:1)
Bit of change of pace for them, but I hope it makes a ton of money, if only so they can finance the development of Elite 4 (which is probably an even bigger piece of vapour-ware than Duke Nukem Forever.
VVrath
Re:Frontier Developments (Score:1)
Jesus, how long have we been waiting for Elite 4?
The only thing that keeps me going is still being able to play First Encounters, and the fact that they still have a link to some Elite 4 stuff on their site. [frontier.co.uk]
Yes, for GameCube (Score:4, Informative)
It's also listed on Nintendo's master game list [nintendo.com] under "W".
Bam goes boom (Score:1, Interesting)
Bam fucked over a load of companies in the companies in the UK by commisioning projects and then refusing to pay for them. The companies went bankrupt and didn't have enough money to sue Bam.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?sect ion_name=pub&aid=204 [gamesindustry.biz]
Let's also hope that Bam doesn't become bankrupt before the game ships - they've been losing cash ever since they started and are now running out of cash to run the company. It'd be slightly
Won't have that charm (Score:4, Interesting)
Think of Feathers McGraw, the penguin, in the animated short -- he had no facial expression at all, but they made him sinister just by letting the camera linger an extra split second on that blank face, you know? How do you catch that feeling in a game? Cut scenes before you go to the standard-platform-jumper play? What-ever.
Kind of sad. They'd make a better game by having Wallace build his whacked-out inventions to overcome various obstacles, wouldn't they?
Check it out... (Score:2)
Don't look for it until the middle of next week, though - I just ate the last one. It spoils quicker than most cheese so it is harder to keep in inventory.
[burp]
I wonder if a food co-op can get slashdotted? And I don't work for them, just enjoy them - just like High Criteria! Honest, I swear!