Black Designer Plans to Blow Up WWII Shooter Genre

[Tom Goldman]

Black Designer Plans to Blow Up WWII Shooter Genre

The World War II shooter has been done to death, but Stuart Black still thinks he can make one that's exciting.

International publisher City Interactive has announced the creation of a brand new in-house studio in London with Black [http://www.amazon.com/Black-Playstation-2/dp/B0009351R0/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1291213035&sr=8-5] and Bodycount designer Stuart Black as creative director. The studio is currently working on a WWII shooter, to which you might say "boo," but it's reportedly something the genre hasn't seen before, to which you might say "yay."

Black left Codemasters in October after completing his duties on Bodycount, a spiritual sequel to Black that was meant to give the same visceral feeling of blasting off weaponry and destroying everything in the environment. Stuart Black's previous works have been described as "gun porn."

Black evidently plans to bring gun porn to the WWII era, describing his first project at City Interactive as an "exciting new story-driven WWII shooter that will emphasize high adventure in a genre that's become bogged down in reverence and historical accuracy." In other words, we'll be blowing the crap out of Nazis, or perhaps robot Nazis, or perhaps robot Nazis on the Moon? Sounds good to me.

In late October, City Interactive revealed that it licensed Crytek's CryEngine 3, the technology behind Crysis 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Crysis-2-Pc/dp/B002BS47YE], for two upcoming first-person shooters. Black's WWII shooter will no doubt be one of those games.

In the past, Black has said that many shooters are not always ideal [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98592-Black-Dev-Calls-Current-Shooters-F-cking-Boring] for a videogame. His philosophy seems to focus on making the most entertaining experience possible, and if realism doesn't add to that, throw it out the window. What this will mean for a shooter set in WWII is still unknown, but I'm making the call right now that explosions will be involved.

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[Onyx Oblivion]

I like WW2 shooters, because I didn't play them until this generation, when they started going out of style. So, I'm not sick of them.

Now, I'm sick of modern-day/near-future shooters.

I welcome WW2 shooters with open arms. I'll watch this guy...

 

[LavaLampBamboo]

Inglorious Basterds: The Video Game?

Seriously though, this sounds interesting. Should be good to see how it plays out.

 

[Jonny49]

A decent version of Turning Point? That would be awesome.

I do miss the WWII shooter, I hope this goes well.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Inglorious Basterds: The Video Game?

Seriously though, this sounds interesting. Should be good to see how it plays out.

Oh yes, lets make a game that is advertised as an action shooter, but then ends up being 99.99% Drama Dialogue... That movie was seriously dissapointing...

OT: The only problem I've ever had with WWII shooters is the weaponry, it's constrained to that time era, and your choices are usually quite limited. YES, I know those were the only guns existant at the time. I'm just one of those people that when I pick up a shiney gun that looks unfamiliar, I go "OOOOOOH, what does it do?"

 

[walls of cetepedes]

Man, Black was a fun game. Stupidly hard in places, but still a damn fine game.

I look forward to this.

 

[teh_Canape]

City interactive?

aren't those who made this?

anyways, if it's gonna be Black but on WW2

fuck yeah

just bring it over to PC ^-^

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Well, if you want to get an enjoyment out of the tired and overdone WW2 shooter genre, you need to screw history and make up your own.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

City Interactive? The guys that make 99.9% of budget, cheap, no-idea shooters in Europe?

Haha. Ahaha. Haha. Man, that's a funny one.

Wait... he's serious?

Excellent career move, there.

 

[Outright Villainy]

I quite liked Black, so I'll look out for this.

Well, except the end of Black.

Biggest anti-climax ever.

 

[matrix3509]

Well, if you want to get an enjoyment out of the tired and overdone WW2 shooter genre, you need to screw history and make up your own.

I'm calling right now, time-traveling alien-zombie-robot-ninja-pirates trying to change the outcome of WW2.

 

[matrix3509]

double post sorry.

 

[theriddlen]

Haha, liars.

It's City Interactive, polish sh** games mass producer.

 

[Mr. Socky]

Oh good, more Wolfenstein. That can't be a bad thing, right?
...right?

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I would like the idea of a WWII shooter that involves a time travel snowball effect where the main player tries to right from wrong the actions that changed WWII but instead made it worse involving more advanced tech during the 1940's era to which the main player then once again has to try making the situation less worse and correct the timeline kind of like back to the future.

 

[Asehujiko]

Dear City Interactive: Please stop hyping up your alt history shooters, they are invariably 100% garbage and have been so fr several years.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

WWII shooters haven't been bogged down by reverance and historical accuracy. They have been bogged down by the fact that developers insist on revisiting the same battles and campaigns over and over again (such as the Normandy campaign). I am by no means a historical expert, but even I can think of a few WWII settings that practically haven't been touched at all by game developers (outside of war games, but those don't really count due to their niché appeal).

Or heck, how about a shooter based during the Korean War? That conflict was quite similar to WWII (which is no suprise, given the close proximity between the two time-wise) and was also very dynamic and brutal. Yet, outside of M.A.S.H, the conflict has barely received any coverage in entertainment media in general, let alone video games.

Anyway, it is not that WWII shooters have been "bogged down" by historical accuracy. They have been bogged down by the fact that developers are too lazy to do research and prefer to recycle the same content rather than provide new one.

Also, while I have nothing against shooters that drop all realism and simply try to be ridiculous fun, a non-serious WWII shooter isn't exactly anything new. Afterall, that is the whole premise of the Wolfenstein series.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Oh yes, lets make a game that is advertised as an action shooter, but then ends up being 99.99% Drama Dialogue... That movie was seriously dissapointing...

Not trying to justify the crappy advertising (as if it was all about the Bastards, which isn't wasn't even remotely), but really, it was a Tarantino film? What were you expecting, something made by Rodriguez, or his sad little brother Bay? That man thrives on dialogue. And by the gods that scene in that bar was tense.

Anyway, sounds like they want to make a kind of Wolfenstein-like game. If they can pull it off, power to them.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Oh yes, lets make a game that is advertised as an action shooter, but then ends up being 99.99% Drama Dialogue... That movie was seriously dissapointing...

Not trying to justify the crappy advertising (as if it was all about the Bastards, which isn't wasn't even remotely), but really, it was a Tarantino film? What were you expecting, something made by Rodriguez, or his sad little brother Bay? That man thrives on dialogue. And by the gods that scene in that bar was tense.

Anyway, sounds like they want to make a kind of Wolfenstein-like game. If they can pull it off, power to them.

True the story was hardly about the bastards, but the comercials made it out to be as such. I know tarentino thrives on dialogue,but if you advertise me a movie where a man goes "WE ARE GOING TO KILL GERMANS! WE ARE GOING TO COLLECT THEIR SCALPS!" you kinda expect an action movie

 

[omicron1]

Upon reading the title for this, I thought it was something about racist allegations and how there aren't enough games featuring the Tuskeegee Airmen.