Three Speech writes: "Keith Stuart finds out more from the team behind Wheelman…
Wheelman isn't your typical movie tie-in. Benefiting from a growing sense of synergy between the film and videogame worlds, it's a sort of cross-media joint project between Midway Newcastle and Tigon, the production company owned by Vin Diesel. The game's not based on the movie, instead it's a sort of prequel, following the adventures of undercover agent Milo Burik before his cinematic debut next year. It's also an intense, intricately realised driving shooter, with gorgeously detailed renderings of key Barcelona locales.
To get the lowdown on this prescient movie/game endeavour, we spoke to executive producer, Shaun Himmerick, and lead mission designer, Mark Thompson, who gladly popped the hood and let us peer inside.
In the first section of our two-part interview we talk to Shaun about the ever-controversial Unreal Engine 3…
Q: So all the current game projects throughout Midway's six studios are using the same modified version of Unreal Engine 3. Has this worked out well for you?
SH: It's been better for us in terms of our overall plan, to go in for one big engine that we all share, and to start with Unreal. While we all heard about the problems Epic had at launch – it didn't work on PS3, etc - starting with one building block was easier than starting with our own engine. Just the sheer number of decisions you'd have to make, and with the number of studios Midway has, getting everyone to agree, with everyone slanting toward their style of game… we just wanted to begin with a base and then start adding tools."
From Xfire: "Video game enthusiast and Hollywood superstar, Vin Diesel, has taken his talents to video games numerous times. We've decided to rank all of his games from the worst to the best."
“Ranking every game with Vin Diesel from terrible to bad”
Fixed the title for you.
Obviously too young or ill-informed to pass judgement. Honestly, Orchard. You just mugged yourself off. Starbreeze Studios' The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is a very well-known classic.
Butcher Bay was great. From the prolog, fist fighting, knife fights and story. The immersion of the whole package really uped the criteria of what a cutting edge game was back then. I would like another adventure with Riddick, but it would have to be triple A status to live up to Butcher Bay.
MenStuff: "OK, it’s hard to actually recommend many celebrity-endorsed games. They don’t exactly live up to the triple-A standard as some of the big blockbuster movies the actors star in, but there are a few that made for a fun adventure and deserve a shout-out."
In this episode of InRetroSpect RAW, Dan, Pete & Kris argue over which games demand a sequel. Hear Pete confuse us with Prince of Persia timelines, Kris drops the ball with an unprecedented late swap and find out which game makes Dan threaten to leave if it isn’t included.
Remember everyone, Sega thought it was a better idea to invest in Aliens: Colonial Marines than Shenmue 3.
I never played the Shenmue games, but I've always wanted another Valkeria Chronicles on a main console. So I'd be happy to lend you all my pitchfork when you rise up against Sega.
