• Peter Molyneux's stated ambition as a designer is to make FABLE 2 a landmark game. In order to achieve this three big design features have been added. The inspiration and rational behind these features will be discussed along with their evolution throughout the development process. The wider context of their impact and influence on the RPG genre with also be examined as the ambition is also to evolve the genre itself. The talk will be supported by retrospective videos as well as live game examples.

• Game stories can matter, even in first person shooters. But first we're going to have to give up a lot of our preconceptions about what people care about when playing a game. For too long, games (especially first person shooters) have been stuck in a "game sequence followed by story sequence" mentality. Ken Levine will tell the tale of how the BIOSHOCK took a pointy-headed idea about a pseudo-objectivist utopia and turned it into one of the most compelling and succesful game worlds in recent history. What were the tools used? What compromises had to be made? Where did the shooter end and the story begin? How did we make people give a crap? How did we use story and narrative to become perhaps the most talked about game at the super-crowded E3 2006? What does this all mean for stories in games? And must of all, what hell does "Mise En Scene" mean?

• The online multiplayer mode of HALO 3 features an automatic matchmaking system to place players into games. Players may join individually or with parties of friends, and are quickly matched into groups. This presentation describes the algorithms behind the peer-to-peer matchmaking model, and its implementation over Xbox Live. It examines the impact of matchmaking on the HALO online community, and provides techniques for shaping the player experience and discouraging cheaters. The tradeoffs of an automatic matchmaking system compared to traditional multiplayer game browsers will be discussed, and illustrated by some results from the first months of HALO 3's operation.

• This session will offer a look into key areas of CRYSIS development that markedly depart from Crytek's first project, FAR CRY. Main topics include Nanosuit design and gameplay, creating a rich, destructible/non-linear world, and peopling it with dynamic, believable AI enemies that challenge and entertain the player.

In 1993, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas came to theatres. Twelve years later, Capcom has followed up on the movie by coming out with a partial sequel for the Xbox and PlayStation 2. The game looks and sounds great, like another version of the innovative movie, but as far as a translation to games, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge doesn’t completely make the cut.

In this game, players take on the role of our hero Jack Skellington one year after the events of the movie. Jack must not only save his love, Sally, but he also has to reclaim Halloweentown from Oogie and stop him from taking other holidays like Easter and Christmas.

The first thing you’ll notice in the game is that Nightmare stays close to its roots from the movie. This is wonderful as it really puts you in the environment with all the characters you’ll recognize. Some of the actual storylines from the movie were continued in the game and others were developed by Capcom, but either way they fit the game well.

This point directly reflects the graphics which are solid as Jack, Sally, Oogie, Lock, Shock and Barrel all look great. They actually move well too, although Jack doesn’t move very fast in battles. The actual environments suit the game too, but are pretty limited as to where you can go and don’t they have a lot of depth to them. Also the other enemy minions you’ll mostly battle throughout the game are quite generic.

Besides keeping with the storyline, the music and voice-acting is wonderful in Nightmare. Capcom brought back all the voice actors to make the experience authentic and it really does show. The music is also well done as Danny Elfman was involved in the project and helped in 10 songs for the game including new and memorable classics from the film. Sadly, music like “This is Halloween,” and quotes like “Soul Robber,” are way too repetitive and become irritating after a bit.

As for the actual game, Oogie’s Revenge has Jack using a weapon in his action battles called the Soul Robber. The weapon is pretty good and works well as you can hit, grab and slam enemies. The Soul Robber is also handy for swinging across ravines and grappling walls amongst other things. Another nice advantage of the weapon is that it sucks souls from the dead which allows you to accumulate unlockable rewards like art, cut-scenes and more. The controls for the weapon are simple and intuitive. One other wonderful feature in relation to Jack and weapons is that our hero can change and acquire new skills when he becomes Pumpkin King Jack or Santa Jack.

Finally, the game features a great boss fighting situation as the enemies sing to you while you battle it out. You can either fight the old-fashioned way by hacking and slashing or push specific button patterns to defeat the bosses through the power of rhythm. Although this battle sequence is a delightful change from other titles, every boss in Nightmare fights the same way so the novelty wears off.

The most noticeable problem with Oogie’s Revenge is the camera angles. In every area, the camera is locked into one specific location and you walk around - this doesn’t put you in the action at all. This is a very old technique in games and found in PlayStation One and early PlayStation 2 games; it’s surprising that this far into a gaming cycle Capcom is still going back to the olden days.

Another key problem is that the fighting action is very repetitive as you are constantly hitting and slamming generic enemies with the Soul Robber. A problem that correlates to this is that Nightmare has you constantly backtracking in the game to continue your quest as well. Many times characters will have you search out an item and then it is up to you to go back into previous levels to get it and fight the same enemies over and over again. Once you retrieve the item, you have to make your way back to where you were in the first place. This gets especially frustrating and tiresome over the 25 levels.

Finally, the game has some puzzle problems and doesn’t really give you any guidance on what to do or where to go. Occasionally you’ll have doors that are locked or webbed and you have to figure out without any guidance how to open them. They aren’t the most difficult, but you’ll find yourself wasting time for no apparent reason. This problem combined with the camera and a terrible map that doesn’t mark anything causes frustration for gamers.

Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge is an interesting action game even if it’s 12 years too late as it looks and sounds great, following in the movie’s style. The game features fun and innovative boss fights and your Soul Robber weapon is nice too. Those elements are solid, but Capcom didn’t perfect key aspects of the game including the terrible camera angles and repetitive fighting that causes the game to be irritating. Nightmare is decent and works well, but in the end has obvious drastic faults. The question now becomes will it be another 12 years until we see The Corpse Bride come to the consoles?

The controls are simple, the game moves slow. Lots of backtracking.The camera angles are bad.

The game looks and feels just like the movie with attractive characters and average environment

Original film’s cast and Danny Elfman give magnificent performances. Some bits are repetitive.

Tedious and repetitive fighting gets tiresome, but boss fights are fun and innovative.

25 levels, new abilities, and other unlockables, but once you beat the game that’s it.

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