The Unofficial Free Radical Design blog

As well as more letters from R107, today brings another entry in the furry Radicals blog. Read it here or below.

“This blog is still written by a Monkey. Are you still laughing about that?

Well, that’s it. The legendarily sexy Derek ‘Sizzlewood’ Littlewood and close personal friend Rob Yescombe have done it – the final major European press event for Haze before the release in May. The continent’s finest journalists were assembled in the glamorous surroundings of the Sony 3lounge in London. There, they were plied with a combination of miniature pastries and sugary drinks before being pushed face-first into the game. They got a chance to play the four-player co-op for an hour or so, before moving on to some Deathmatch action. Some particularly likable guests said it compared very favorably to COD4. Others were heard to remark how well balanced the multiplayer was. Some even had a sneaky look at key parts of the story, and soiled themselves. Despite the fact that everyone made the same lazy Nectar joke over and over and over ad infinitum (”Hey, are you on Nectar?”) The Bizzle and Yescombe soldiered through and by the close of play, there was a large room filled with satisfied journos – nay, satisfied Gamers, as I hope, trust, and assume you will be when this badboy hits the shelves.“

The monkey has a house with access to the internet? http://www.frd.co.uk/blogs.php#id_14

“I’m still a Monkey. And it’s still funny, isn’t it.

Making games is fun because games themselves are fun to play. At least that’s the general perception. However, as some of the new kids are discovering, it can be quite taxing when crunch time rolls around. You see, a game is like a circus - it’s fun to watch, but behind the scenes, tightrope walkers are falling off and breaking their legs, horses are being whipped and beaten until they learn to prance just the way the audience likes, and big fat clowns are hiding their salty tears.

It’s the kind of experience that could make a person feel reluctant to be in the office. However, much like how one might dangle a carrot in front of a donkey’s face, or leave a trail of Skittles for E.T, I have taken the measure of finding ways to tempt myself into staying put. As soon as I get home in the evening, I get straight on the net and buy as much random crap as I can get my clicks on. I have it all shipped direct to the office and I try not to think about what I’m buying. That’s the point, you see - by forgetting what I have ordered, I know that there will be a random present waiting for me everyday in the mail, thereby encouraging me to come into the office in order to satisfy my curiosity about what I have bought myself.

This week started off extremely macho -

Monday: A collection of classic Schwarzenegger DVDs.
Tuesday: The soundtracks to Rocky Balboa, Conan the Barbarian and 300.
Wednesday: A collection of ‘Safari Meat’, including cuts of Ostrich, Boar and Goat.

And has descended into something significantly less masculine -

Thursday: Animal Slippers.
Friday: A box of heart-shaped chocolates.

The cruel irony of the juxtaposition between Wednesday’s and Thursday’s gifts has not escaped me. Nonetheless, the beasts were all delicious and the slippers are comfy. The goat was a bit tough, but I suppose that comes with the territory. No, that’s not a slipper-eating joke.

Oh, also, Haze is still being glammed up; the LucasArts project is looking even more spectacular by the hour; and TimeSplitters 4 is still a great swirling mass of brilliant ideas that no-one wants to thin out.

Goodbye.“

Look below and you can see nothing has happened within the last week but now we can all enjoy read the latest post on the “Furry Radicals” blog. It can be located below or here - http://www.frd.co.uk/blogs.php#id_10

“This Monkey’s blog is written in front of a studio audience.

While I’m relaxing in a corner, reading Edge and eating Wispa bars, everyone else is sweating profusely. The Haze submissions are coming up, y’see, so everyone is at battle stations trying to spit on everything before polishing it vigorously.

Meanwhile, some of the Haze marketing material arrived at the office today. Posters, cut-out figures, little sticky-on-the-wall things. They’re all cool, and knowing the light-fingered mothers in this joint, you can expect to see most of it on eBay in a few weeks. But I guess that’s viral marketing of sorts, isn’t it?“

Here come some more screenshots and this time it shows some co-operative parts to the game. It’s time to get excited. We only have 15 more days to wait (since the time of this post).

Continue reading ‘New HAZE co-op screenshots’ »