This is realtime? There are jaggies?
IGN Interview, screens and video:
IGN: First off, who's developing this project, how big is the team, and how long has it been underway?����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½
Jacques: The Rabbids Go Home core team is made up of people who worked together in Ubisoft's Montpellier Studio on Beyond Good & Evil, King Kong, the official game of Peter Jackson's movie, as well as the first Rayman Raving Rabbids party game.����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½
Today, over 90 people are hard at work on Rabbids Go Home as we move into our third year of development����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¢����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¦ which is pretty rare for a Wii game. We wanted to give ourselves the time and the means on par with our ambitions for a big adventure.
IGN: In some screens and footage, we've seen the Rabbids rolling their grocery cart through skyscrapers, on planes, etc. Is this an open world, or is it level-based? How does everything unfold?����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½
Jacques: Rabbids Go Home has an open-world structure. The action in RGH takes place in a world that concentrates everything one might find in a typical US city and surroundings. Some other environments include a beach, a desert, the everglades����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¢����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¦. The game world is organized, like a spider's web, around neighborhoods (the Hubs), each giving access to several levels. Players can move around freely and choose the level they want to play from these Hubs, but they can also collect resources, strip humans naked and even combat enemies in the Hubs. These neighborhoods evolve throughout the adventure.����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½
There are of course plenty of obstacles along the way that will make collecting stuff a lot less easy than it sounds. Humans will start defending their freedom, siccing mean pooches on the Rabbids, designing surveillance robots and generally equipping themselves with anti-Rabbid kits and traps����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¢����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¦until they become Verminators! Anti-Rabbid propaganda explodes and with it the Verminator craze arises. The Humans will do anything to get back to the quiet, boring and stuff-laden existence they led before those heinous Rabbids showed up!
IGN: The game looks beautiful. Tell us about the style.����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½
Jacques: We wanted to create a rich, dense world with tons of detail, where players would explore and discover things wherever they looked.
IGN: Did you build a new 3D engine for the game? What new graphic techniques are you pulling off?����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½
Jacques: Yes, a brand new engine called LyN was created alongside Rabbids Go Home and will serve many forthcoming games. It is a revolutionary graphical engine thanks to its structure and technology that make it at once easy to use, effective and evolvable. With LyN, we can create games for both old-gen and next-gen consoles.����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½
For the Wii in particular, the engine maximizes the capacity of the console by managing the totality of the graphical pipeline within the engine itself. The advantage of this engine compared with earlier generations is its capacity to optimize graphical resources without limiting the imaginations of the teams of artists and designers who use it. RGH is the first game out of an Ubisoft studio to benefit from this technology.
IGN: Are you using Wii MotionPlus for any reason?����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½
Jacques: We don't use the Wii MotionPlus, but rest assured, the Wii remote will never be the same again����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¢����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½������¯������¿������½����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¦ Players will discover a feature that uses the Wii Remote in a creative and technologically revolutionary way, never before seen in a game.
(More at the link)
8.5s are better than not bad, that's solid buy territory though not "OMG must have". If you're interested in colourful crazy looking games that is.
True, but that's only the first round of reviews. Generally the first round of reviews that come out for a game are the most positive, and then as time goes on the more critical ones come out. For the first half dozen reviews or so I generally expect a few 9's as well. By next week if reviews are still at this level then I'll probably pick up a copy, but I'm expecting to see a dip in the scores and more harsh reviews for the game. Hope I'm wrong though.
I've never played a game before where challenge wasn't the main focus.
The goal of this game is to just have fun and to make you laugh.
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Just as a side note, there are loud speaker announcements throughout the game that have color-commentary very similar to Grand Theft Auto's radio stations.
I think it was the IGN review that said it best: The human beings and their environments are totally subdued and "sterile" in appearance. The extreme contrast of the Rabbids running around frantically in THAT kind of world makes the game that much more humorous. The loud speaker announcements mocking the routine lives and stereotypical quirks of society drives the developers vision home that much harder. Very clever!
All the reviews so far are from sites or mags I know and trust. There aren't that many left that I think will lowball things, maybe EDGE mag, gamespot which are dodgy anyway. I think 1up will B- it, gamespy might 4 or 3.5 it.
A couple of previews said it was open world. How does that manifest itself.
It's NOT really...
You start in the Rabbid's junkyard in the beginning, then move to a small city.
The city seems to act as a hub to the other areas. I have been in a mall, a supermarket and a hospital so far. There are things to collect and humans to scare, but the city seems to be a crossroad to everywhere else so far.
The game opens things up gradually, so I don't know if there are other "hubs" to travel to. This is not what I refer to as an open world. The areas you travel to can be pretty large, but you can't travel freely from the mall to the hospital, for example. They are self-contained areas.
The game has a visual flair all it's own. It's not as "weird" as you would expect a Rabbids game to be. The humans and world are kept simple and clean, kinda like in Katamari, but not quite so "Japanese-ee."
The Rabbids have a good amount of animation to them though to make them stand out that much more. There's over-exaggeration in everything they do. Your shopping cart always looks like it's on the verge of tipping as you skid around corners and such (kinda like a Keystone Cop car), for example. The FMV and cartoon intermissions are a lot of fun too.
I never actually thought I was going to like/buy it either.
I bought it on a whim, just 'cause reviews were varying so wildly, it made me curious.
I was totally, pleasantly surprised. I don't think it's a system-seller or something every Wii owner should own, but it's unique and enjoyable enough to at least warrant a rental.