| Boadle.com Blog |
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
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| What is 'Afrika'? |
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Take a stroll along the corridors at Free Radical, and you'll notice that people are always talking about some new, excting, must-have game that's on the horizon. Generally, months pass, the title is released, and the subject of adoration turns out to be a bit of a damp squib. For this reason, I try not to get too exciting about upcoming titles. However, something grabbed my attention way back in the summer, and I have been keeping a regular eye on it since. 'Gears of War'? 'Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2'? No. It's called Afrika and all I know about it came from a collection of pictures. No-one really knows what this game is going to be about, as Sony / Rhino Studios have made virtually no comment, aside from the a brief trailer at the last E3 (R.I.P.). Nevetheless, some have commented that this might be an open-ended journalistic adventure, wherein you are expected to capture close-up photography of these wonderful beasts. A little like the photography section of 'Rising Dead', only set in the African plains. Keep an eye out for updates in the next year or so. This has the potential to be a much needed injection of creativity into the games industry. |
| Friday, September 15, 2006 |
| Another new game from Free Radical |
A couple of weeks ago, my company made an announcement about another game we having been working on for a while. This one is a biggie. I'm suprised I managed to keep this one to myself for so long! Here's the press release:That's all I can say for now. |
| Here's a thought... |
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If pigeons are the rats of the sky, are rats the pigeons of the ground? Just got back from the wedding of my good friend Mark in Barcelona. Mutual friend James and I had a wonderful time in this beautiful city, and I vowed to return again. Sad to see another of my single friends succumb, but I wish him and his lovely wife well. Mark is the creative force behind PostExpression, a website for people to communicate from the dead. Almost literally. Pretty controversial, eh? I hope it works out for him. |
| Sunday, May 28, 2006 |
| Free Radical announce 'HAZE' |
I'm delighted to reveal that Free Radical Design have recently announced their new FPS 'HAZE'. The official Press Release follows:Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest videogame publishers, announced the development of HAZE, an innovative FPS game based on new intellectual property.Official 'HAZE' microsite. Free Radical site. More updates soon. |
| Monday, October 17, 2005 |
| My Star Wars Hoax Shame |
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For over 6 years I've harboured a secret so shameful I haven't been able to look at myself in the mirror. It's time I told the world, and, in doing so, unburden myself of this torment. Way back in 1999, caught up in the hype and expectation that preceded Star Wars Episode II, and somewhat bored in my job at the time, I photoshopped a page of 'the' film script. I made up some character names (one was named Belew Adobis), some Star Wars-sounding dialogue, stuck a Lucasfilm watermark on it, and dirtied it up to look like the real deal. I decided the film would be called 'Episode II: Tyranny Reborn'. It should have ended there, my friends. It should have remained a piece of C:\ Drive jpeggery. But no: lamely justifying it as a social experiment in viral rumour-mongering, I decided it needed to be out there. I sent it to one of the main SW fansites, along with a note (from a custom-created Hotmail account) which explained that my uncle worked in Lucasfilm, and had managed to surrepticiously scan one of the pages. I can't remember which site I sent it to, but it doesn't really matter. Within hours, it was on a half dozen of them. Within a day or two it was on literally hundreds. From there, things snowballed. It spidered alll over the web, and then into the real world via the press (newspapers, and entertainment press, including the mighty Empire). It spawned disputes, parodies and expert analysis. Fanboys created fanart. Someone even bought the domain name, TyrannyReborn.com. Supposed 'insiders' vouched for the validity of the script. Others dismissed it. People bickered about (what became known as) page 117, but the film's 'title' seemed to stick. The more people discussed the title, the more the flawed logic of 'there's no smoke without fire' came into play. Several months later, Lucasfilm (who, in time-honoured fashion, had neither confirmed nor denied the title, nor the credibility of the script page) announced the film would, of course, be called 'Episode II: Attack of the Clones'. If I learned one thing from the whole incident, it was to never trust 'sources'. 'Great story', I hear you say. 'but how do we know that it was you who made page 117?'. Well, therein lies my Rosebud moment: anticipating a future requirement to prove I created the snowball that led to the avalanche, I added the character name of 'Belew Adobis' to the script. It's an anagram of Lewis Boadle. |
| Tuesday, September 20, 2005 |
| Pottygate |
| I always promised myself that my blog wouldn't follow the trend of narcissistic political commentary, or aloofly snipe at current affairs issues. Nevertheless, this BBC article about a note George W. Bush allegedly wrote at a UN meeting - a note which may or may not have been 'Photoshopped' by Reuters - is worth a look, if only for the closing quote from Adobe. |
| Two new published title additions to 'Interface' |
| I've finally received permission from the developers to use interface artwork I created for two published titles. Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (Black Isle Studios - 2003) and Knockout Kings 2002 (Black Ops - 2002) can both be found under the 'Interface' tab at the top of the page. Comments welcome, as always. |
| Wednesday, August 03, 2005 |
| boadle.com Updates |
| After a lengthy haitus with no major updates, I've now added two new sections: 'Interface' and 'Photography'. |
| Tuesday, July 26, 2005 |
| Gamers Epiphany |
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I remain convinced that every gamer accepts that a large proportion of their in-game experience will be grind, repetition, annoyance or frustration. Indeed, it might be argued that the highs of victory or achievement would not be highs were it not for those relative 'lows'. In internet gaming, those lows can be more pronounced than in offline mode (MMOG's set us ever more time-consuming tasks in order to be assured of our continued subscription, for example). Furthermore, in the congested pipeline of packets and pings, there is ample opportunity for the gaming experience to be hampered, broken or corrupted. I wont mention the continued spectre of Griefers, TK-ers and Spawn Campers. Sometimes, I forget to remember why I'm a gamer. It is within this context that I experienced my latest gaming epiphany. A long weekend into the excellent 'Battlefield 2', during which I endured my fair share of dropped packets, long load times and obstreperous teammates (things outside the control of even the mighty EA) , I clambered aboard an attack helicopter manned by one 'SmallFatKat', and placed myself beside the chain gun. 'SFK' (as I came to know him) lilted the aircraft into the sulphur-filled air in a smooth movement, and took the two of us to the final (and hotly-contested) flag. Sighting enemy infantry taking up defences positions below, he dropped our altitude and lined up the first enemy in my sights (90 degrees to his left). Said foe dispatched in a hail of digital lead (I could hardly miss) he turned briskly (whilst maintaining a perfect hover - no mean feat) perpendicular to the next enemy. Suddenly the aircraft lurched violently, but quickly regained its straight and level orientation, and I realised SFK had saved our collective bacon from a distinctly unfriendly Rocket Propelled Grenade. Whilst I was doing my rambo impersonation in the back, my ace Chickenhawk was evading incoming rockets and offering me repeated, simple kills. This display of outstanding piloting continued for about 90 seconds (a long time in a hot Landing Zone, or so it felt), during which time I happily took out a good 7 or 8 enemies soldiers, and we danced around at least 3 RPGs. Finally a lucky shot brought us down, and we plummeted to a grisly demise. Even ace pilots can be outnumbered. The game UI informed me that I had been awarded a collection of in-game medals, and it was at about this time I realised that a huge smile had formed on my wide-eyed face, which had moved to within 12 inches of the screen. I sent an in-game message of thanks and skill-appreciation to SFK, and went to bed. As I dozed off, I remember recalling 'that' 1.5 minutes of sheer gaming perfection, in which hardware, software, design, code, art, community and interconnectivity came together in electronic Nirvana, and suddenly, I remembered why I'm a gamer. |
| Welcome to My Blog! |
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Well, I finally succumbed to 'me-tooism', and installed a blog of my very own. My thanks to Andrew Gillespie to tidying up Blogger.com's freebie. Look forward to reading about my experiences with playing and developing video game entertainment, and exploring my artistic bent via paper and pixel. Bet you can't wait? |
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