Not sure if you can hear that low rumbling sound — it’s the collective moan of the internet upon the reveal that Brett Ratner is attached to direct God of War.

Now personally, I think it’s a good fit.  God of War is an action-heavy story-light piece of fun fluff gaming.  That’s what Ratner makes. Now before you think less of me for that comment, I’d just like to point out that David Jaffe agrees.  He knows he made a popcorn game, and he knows Ratner makes popcorn films.

I even agree with Jaffe about X-Men 3.  It may not have been better than the first two, but it was more fun and therefore my favorite.  Anyone who disagrees (ie everyone) can suck a fat @#$%.

David Jaffe is a lot of things, but quiet isn’t one of them. Over the past few years my perception of Jaffe has really changed. At first I thought he was a pompous windbag — but the more he writes about the industry the more I agree with every word that man says. Case in point: his latest rant on the state of comic books adapted into games. He’s bang on right — the games neglect everything that makes comic books great (story, character development) and instead choose to focus on powers and costume changes;

The thing that made Stan and co’s comics so unique back in the 60’s is he was the first guy to say, “Hey, let’s treat these stories with some respect, let’s treat these characters with respect and in doing so, we’ll grow the audience well beyond 8 year old boys- who ONLY care about the powers”….and with that thinking, the entire medium of American comics was reinvented.

But then he has to go and say something like this;

“I also played the GHOST RIDER PSP game that was- I thought- pretty good and used a DMC structure. I liked that game; combat was really good/fun. But again, too combat centric. Hell, that’s ALL that game was.”

Yes, I get it. God of War has a story and it does move the game along well. But really — where in the fuck does Jaffe get off accusing somebone of developing a game that’s “too combat centric”? Isn’t that like Dom Deluise complaining there’s too much butter in the world? Look at that picture and tell me it’s not just a skinned God of War.

Check out David’s complete entry here.

Remember when David Jaffe wanted to make us cry? He wasn’t going to just use harsh words and embarrassing photographs he took of your trip to San Juan, no sir. He was going to use the power of the PSP and a little game called Heartland that never came to be. They’ve just posted an interview with Jaffe over at The Escapist that talks about all things Heartland — what it was, why it failed, and what he learned from it. It’s kind of a depressing read because A) the game sounded awesome B) it’s a shame to see something fall apart due to poor staffing choices and C)it sounds as though Jaffe has grown bitter on this whole making a statement/changing the world through gaming thing;

I just want to make people happy and entertain people. I don’t need to push the medium forward, I don’t need to say anything. I really just want people to play the stuff we work on and have smiles on their faces.”

Boo, David Jaffe. Boo. If you don’t push the medium forward and make a genuinely meaningful experience in gaming, who will?

On the last Playstation Nation podcast, David Jaffe mentioned that he had tucked a hint away in the dubiously-titled Twisted Metal: Head On Extra Twisted release for PS2. Head On is the new “semi-anniversay/special edition” release of Twisted Metal as remixed by Jaffe’s new dev house Eat Sleep Play.

The code was embedded in one of the videos contained on the disc, unlockable by beating the game on hard. All the nerdy details are on NeoGAF:

“ok, so the super gumshoes at Gamefaqs have cracked the code from the Dark Past video on the disc.

The code is displayed with random numbers throughout the video. If you put the numbers together, and match them to their alphabetic cousins, you get -

Twisted Metal is coming on PSTHREE”

It’s a nice little teaser. And it also gives me the perfect excuse to use this awesome clownsplosion picture.

Outspoken developer David Jaffe (God of War) posted an AIM conversation with Sony dev Adam Orth (Calling All Cars, Twisted Metal Black and some Medal of Honor games for EALA) where Orth expressed his discomfort with the latest Halo 3 trailer.

Adam: that ad is insulting “belive”? come on

Jaffe: Am I missing something? What’s insulting about it?

Adam: well, for 1, i think it’s disrespectcful to actual veterans of real wars and 2, they really expect people to become that invested in the halo story? i guess i just really dislike halo and that ad aint helping

While I am a fan of the Halo lore, which admittedly isn’t too strong, I do think there is some truth that the latest ad could be perceived as offensive to some considering the current climate in the world. But, then Adam Orth went for the jugular!

ADAM: fuck halo

ADAM: actaully, i stand by what i said, you can print my name, just leave out “fuck halo”

JAFFE: shit really? Ok.

ADAM: ok, print it fuck it

God speed Adam; you were so brave and bold… it’s a shame a man of your cajones is going to be crucified by fans of teh Halos.

Hit the jump for the video in question.

[Entire AIM Conversation]

Continue Reading »

It’s late.

I just finished editing the BitCast and I’m too tired to come up with a catchy name for this week’s show so I named it after the sweet ass Joe Strummer song used this time.

Also, in the beginning I made the mistake of saying that we could now gamble. I’m an idiot…ignore the fact that I said that. That’s what I get for trying to be witty.

This week we talk about:

• Whatcha’ Been Playin?
• Forum Fodder: What Gaming Habits Do You Have?
• David Jaffe’s Eat, Sleep, Play
• 2K Getting Into EA’s Head, and fucking with it
• Upcoming Releases

[audio:http://www.thebbps.com/podcast/Bitcast_Episode_18.mp3]
Download Episode 18

Earlier in the week developer David Jaffe (God of War, Twisted Metal) promised today would mark a big announcement from his newly formed, and Sony-backed, Utah based studio.

The big news item from the new developer is: they’re making some games for Sony! Wait… what?

Yes, apparently the words big announcement have the same excitement attributed to it as picking up a hooker in Vice City to Jaffe- sure its fun at first, but when you spin the camera around nothings happening.

First on the docket? A Twisted Metal: Head On port for the PlayStation 2!

Hey, this announcement could have gone worse… there could have been a countdown timer on Jaffe’s homepage.

[Ok, to be fair the rest of the announcement was the name of the company, titled Eat, Sleep, Play, and confirming earlier rumors that Jaffe was partnering with Incognito dev-head Scott Campbell.]

[Jaffe's Criminal Crackdown Blog]