Greg Easley, co-founder and president of Super-Ego Games writing on the PlayStation.Blog:
"Hey people! My name is Greg Easley and I'm one of the founders of Super-Ego Games, a development studio with a different take on making games. We're finally announcing our new title and labor of love, Rat Race. You'll read more about this in the game press soon, but I wanted to tell you about it here first.
Rat Race is a PS3-exclusive comedy/adventure game – yeah, another one of those! – that will be available as individual episodes on PSN beginning this winter. Rat Race has been written and voiced by some really funny people with credits on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, My Name Is Earl, Saturday Night Live, South Park, Flight of the Conchords, Sex and the City, Ugly Betty, Comedy Central, and so on. Our team includes some of the best stand-up comics in New York City, where half of our studio is based (the other half is in San Francisco)."
TrueGameHeadz writes:
"It's not often that a game comes back from being canceled, but it looks like that's exactly what's happened for the episodic comedy game "Rat Race." The game, which was announced in late 2007, quietly faded into obscurity when the president of Sony's Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, was quoted as saying it was canceled at last year's E3. However, "Rat Race," which is being developed by Super-Ego Games, may be about to come back to life. Last week I spoke with Bo Lasater, one of Super-Ego's co-founders, and asked him whether or not "Rat Race" was dead, and he responded with, "Is Rat Race dead? No, it is not dead. Is it 100% alive? Maybe the patient is coming out of a coma."
So, if one of Sony's studio presidents declares your game dead, and you say it's just in a coma… where do things really stand? In terms of "Rat Race"'s future, things look pretty good, so much..."
What makes you think this game doesn't look promising? Because it looks a little different? Because you dont have to kill anything in it? Because it tries something new? Because it tries to be funny?
Looks rubbish.
Even if it manages to work for an American audience, it will be lost on 90% of the world most likely. Comedy is like that - and a videogame effort is unlikely to become a phenomenon around the world. If you look at the trailer... well let's just say the reason you laugh is not because it's funny.
French website Gamekult writes:
"Ironically, Sony confirmed during the E3 the cancellation of Rat Race, a PlayStation Network project announced last October. If the concept of a humoristic game in several episodes had attracted Sony Worldwide Studios, its President Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that problems of development had pushed its destiny."
I didn't find any of it funny, either. Maybe it was because it was american-style humour, but probably mostly because it hit the uncanny valley slap bang in the middle.
THANK GOODNESS!
thats all I can say. I'm glad Sony seem to be keeping a better eye then usual on quality. Let's hoping their money and efforts are being used well, and that they'll announce the continuation of Getaway and Eight Days soon.
When 'graphics got better, games got less funny,' says stand-up comic Victor Varnado, who wrote and did voices for the game.
There aren't many comedy games these days. There used to be more, a slew of joke-filled adventures such as The Secret of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. In Varnado's view, some of the very things that games have gotten better at - visuals and interactivity - have lessened the need for developers to keep players engaged with humor. Those adventure games were popular in their day, but technology improved. "As soon as they got to the point where graphics got better, games got less funny," he said. Better gameplay also removed any outright need for a game to be funny. "If you looked at early games, they had very few game mechanics. Look at [1983's interactive cartoon/game] 'Dragon's Lair.' Not many gameplay mechanics, but it's great to look at and the comedy is funny."
Rat Race is an attempt to solve all this, taking a somewhat different path from the last significant game comedy attempt, the revived "Sam & Max" series.
Grim Fandango, Monkey island series, Full Throttle, Sam & max, The discworld game (Which was imho a great adaptation of the book series by one of my favorite authors) and many others.... Great games. This will be a must buy since he quoted those and I loved them all. hope this causes a good revival of classic PC games that is needed.
I already want Pain and this one looks like fun also.
looks interesting
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I'm loving the PSN now!! I hope Sony keeps snapping up indy devs to create new games on it and get some exposure, as long as they do I'll keep purchasing.
Its over. lol jp