Some of us remember Alien Syndrome fondly as an arcade game with dozens of different aliens intent on taking over the universe and snuffing out the human race. How many hours did we spend at the arcade shooting at monsters with flamethrowers or a fire-ball gun? Well, we wanted to bring Alien Syndrome to the 21st century and revive an old classic run ‘n’ gun shoot ‘em-up arcade game and put a Totally Games spin on the franchise.  

The original Alien Syndrome was purely an action game and we wanted to make sure we preserved that sense of action with our Action RPG version of Alien Syndrome.  We think we’ve struck a great synergy between action gameplay and deep, engrossing role-play gaming that’s all driven by an intense story line.  
 
The story is what launches our main character, Aileen Harding, into a series of harrowing adventures as she tries to uncover the mystery behind the Alien Syndrome. It takes her to widely varied locations from an alien-infected ship to an orbiting terraforming station. From earthquake filled planets to bizarre looking alien worlds. The art team has done an incredible job of defining some very different looking environments. Each world is unique with its own special style that will keep the player feeling like they are a part of the story line.

The gameplay for both the Wii and the PSP platform is essentially the same. Both have a massive 40 levels to play through. Both have the same fast-paced action and deep RPG elements. There are 40 different monsters plus variants, sub-bosses and bosses. Five player class types (Tank, Fire Bug, Sharp Shooter, Demolition, and Scout) are available for both platforms. And both have up to four-player cooperative modes. On the Wii, the players will be on one screen simultaneously. On the PSP, the players will be all on one screen as well but connected via the AdHoc feature on the PSP. Where the two platforms diverge is in capacity and controls.

It’s been quite a fun ride developing for the Wii. Most of us were lucky enough to find a Wii to purchase and we played tons of Wii games. So getting a chance to build our game on this platform has been exciting. The larger memory pool and better graphics allowed us to really expand on the rich look of the game even further. Bigger texture resolutions, specularity mapping, more dynamic lighting, and better shadows has made our Wii version of Alien Syndrome so much more immersive and realistic looking.

But probably the most intriguing thing about Alien Syndrome on the Wii is the fact that the Wii remote and Nunchuck makes the player control totally intuitive and fun. We’ve come up with what we think is the most natural controller configuration for a third person, 3/4 view action game hands-down.

Wherever you point the Wii remote on the screen, that’s where your character will point as well. Movement is done with the joystick on the Nunchuck. So aiming, firing, and moving is extremely simple and easy to learn.

Melee combat is fluid and dynamic on the Wii with special moves, combos and finishing hits all tying into Wiimote waves, shakes, hammer downs and thrusts. We’ve tried to take every advantage the Wii control system offers and integrate our character movement combat system with the Wii remote/Nunchuck.

Pick up and play is how we designed Alien Syndrome for the PSP. With its emphasis on action, the player can start up the game and get right into the fray. With numerous checkpoints to save the game’s progress, the player never has to worry about losing progress.

We’ve made the controls incredibly intuitive for the PSP, too. The player can strafe, perform melee combos… pretty much anything the Wii version can do, the PSP version of Alien Syndrome can do as well. 

Tuning, tuning, and more tuning. We’re at the stage in production where all the elements of Alien Syndrome are in. The art is beautiful. All the features are firing on all pistons. The only thing remaining is putting the final touches on balancing the game from level 1 to level 40 and from normal difficulty to expert difficulty.

This means tons and tons of playthroughs for the devs. One of the great things that’s coming out of these playthroughs is that people are having fun playing and testing the game. That’s a great sign for us because it seems that people are enjoying the game and not just play testing because they have to. For devs, that’s always a good sign.

Zoe Mode and SEGA are celebrating today after innovative PSP puzzler CRUSH picked up an award for Best New Handheld IP. And SEGA, it turns out, is a hero.

Around 500 UK games industry bigwigs gathered at the Metropole Hotel in Brighton last night to cheer on their comrades at the fifth annual Develop Industry Excellence Awards. Intended to recognise the achievements of the raw talent behind the country’s ever-ambitious games development community, the Develop Awards are amongst the most coveted of the industry’s gongs.

Which makes the selection of SEGA’s singular PSP title CRUSH as the year’s best new handheld IP (intellectual property, if you were wondering) all the more gratifying. Conceived and developed by Zoe Mode (formerly Kuju Brighton), CRUSH collected shining plaudits from the games press on its release and has been widely heralded as one of the most unique and original games to emerge in years.

We’re all very proud. If you’ve played it and agree with the judges, this is the place to let Zoe Mode know what you think.

SEGA is also wearing a bit of a smug grin today, after picking up the award for Publisher Hero. We’re pushing out our chests and pulling our pants on outside our jeans as we speak…

The next class of cars I’ll introduce are the ‘Modified class’, these are cars that you might recognize from worldwide rally and motorsport events. The Peugeot 207 Super 2000 Rally Car is relatively new and came out late last year; it is designed to compete in the Super 2000 classification which is a new FIA specification that started in 2006.

These smaller (smaller than the WRC Cars anyway), normally aspirated, four wheel drive machines battle it out all over Europe and North Africa, especially in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC).

The only real difference between the Super 2000 cars and the WRC is that the Super 2000 cars all use a common control gearbox and drive train, this doesn’t necessarily make them any slower, but it does make them cheaper to finance.

In fact the Super 2000 Series is supposed to encourage more manufacturers and privateers to race by reducing the costs.

We chose the Peugeot 207 Super 2000 principally because it just looks so damned sexy; the fact that it’s a top class rally car was kind of a happy coincidence!  The livery variants for this car took a bit more forethought than most as well, because we wanted really modern and fresh designs.  I think we’ve got it right, and the black and red livery is one of my favorites (I have a soft spot for black cars anyway so I am a little biased!).

The Citroen C2 Super 1600 is another top flight rally car mostly seen in the Super 1600 class of Rallying.  Again this car is very well respected on the motorsport scene. Keep a very sharp eye out for unlock livery 3… You might recognise a popular SEGA character! 

Talking of which you might also want to try for the Toyota Celica VVTi livery unlocks as well, because there is a frankly stunning livery for that one too (One of my best might I add!)

We’ll take a look at the Toyota Celica VVTi next time though.

Find out more about SEGA Rally at www.segarally.com

Read more SEGA Rally blogs - click here

One game to go down a treat at E3 this year was SEGA’s official game of New Line Cinema’s forthcoming movie, The Golden Compass.

It helps that the movie itself is shaping up to be truly awesome, of course, but those journalists who’ve seen something of the game have reacted with very positive commentary indeed. A preview of the game in the August issue of the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine, for example, says: “If there’s one game we’ve got all our fingers crossed for it’s The Golden Compass.”

Well, us too, as it happens. But then that’s a given…

It continues: “With such fantastic source material, developer Shiny has all the substance it needs to craft a fine PS2 adventure game.”

They speak no lie. Take a look for yourselves. And don’t forget to watch the making-of movie on the official game site if you haven’t already (click the Media section).

Hi, I’m Keith Burden, Lead Car Artist on SEGA Rally and over the coming months I’ll giving you an inside look into the vehicles we’ll be featuring in the game.

The first class and possibly one of the most important is the Premier Class cars. These consist of some top flight Rally fare; the Subaru Impreza WRX STi, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, Ford Focus RS, Peugeot 206 WRC, Skoda Fabia, and Citroen Xsara Rallycross car.

The Subaru Impreza and Mitsubishi Evolution IX are iconic for any kind of Rally game, they are well known, cool, and possibly two of the most perfect high performance cars in the world (lots of bhp, big spoilers and enough room for the family - what more do you need?)

The Subaru Impreza was the ‘Master Car’, it was the first car to be built and has been fiddled and tweaked so many times it feels like years since I first started modeling it!  The other cars in this class were picked for their legendary Rallying heritage; the Skoda Fabia, Ford Focus RS and Peugeot 206 WRC were all massive players not just in the World Rally Championship but on the global and domestic rally scenes.  The Citroen Xsara is one of the most successful competitive rally cars of recent times so it just had to make an appearance in SEGA Rally (The Info Business Rallycross livery is my personal favourite!)

These are some of the cars that have formed the back bone of modern rallying, but don’t for a second think that SEGA Rally consists on your normal main stream Rally Car.  We have lots of unlocks, different car variant states, multiple liveries and more importantly lots of specialist car unlocks.  At this stage I can’t really divulge exact cars, but think about some of the true Rally (and SEGA Rally) classics and look out for some juicy bonkers motors thrown in for good measure.

All will be revealed in good time!

To find out more about SEGA Rally visit the official website at www.segarally.com we have videos, screens, downloads and much more. Plus, you can register to receive updates and exclusive offers.

In our SEGA Europe newsletter in June we ran a competition giving away 20 DS Stylus’ in the form of a dart to celebrate the release of our SEGA Presents Touch Darts Nintendo DS release; and not only that, we also offered every lucky winner a Virtua Tennis 3 mug so they could enjoy a nice brew while throwing their virtua arrows DS style.

We asked you the extremely tricky question of - What score do you receive in a game of darts if you hit the bullseye? The answer is of course 50.

Well, the competition closed on 15 June, and we’re happy to say we can now announce the winners below. If your name appears, congratulations, and we’ll be in touch shortly and send your prizes out very, very soon. If not, then better luck next time!

Winners:
Mrs Jane Burbage-Meaden (Dorset)
Christine Hindle (Birmingham)
Neil Kelly (Ellesmere Port)
Sam Dogra (Northampton)
Elizabeth Kidger (Hertfordshire)
Carla Knight (Pembrokeshire)
Linda Rumsey (Suffolk)
Ciara McDermott (Cheshire)
Caroline James (Oldham)
Will Broadribb (London)
John Beagrie (Aberdeen)
Nicole Terbach (Essex)
Russ Bevis (Lincolnshire)
S Purcell (Ireland)
Chris Peil (Derbyshire)
Steven Waring (Higher Broughton)
Victoria Harbourne (Shrewsbury)
Danny White (Wales)
Kelly West (Middlesex)
Barbara Cairns (Lancashire)

As we are moving ever closer to the return of the legend that is SEGA Rally, I decided to go off-road with the guys that are making the game to get an inside look at life working on SEGA Rally.

First in the series, I play co-driver to Chris Southall, Head of Technology at the Rally Studio. Based up in Solihull in the Midlands, Chris tells us all about SEGA Rally and how he ended up making games for a living.

Co-Driver Dave: Which games are you playing at the moment?
Chris Southall: PGR 3 (again), Forza II, Colin Dirt, God of War II, Shadow of the Colossus, oh and SEGA Rally 1995 (we have a dual cab in the corner of the room).

What is your role on SEGA Rally?
I’m the head of technology in the Studio, which means I am in charge of all the programming basically.

What real-life experiences have you drawn on to help in making SEGA Rally?
Well I played the 1995 version Rally A LOT in the Arcade, and then on the Saturn with that wheel you had to lodge under your legs! Oh, and I’ve sat in a few rally cars going quite fast in my time.

Who is the best SEGA Rally player in the office? And the worst?
Jamie (Lowes) - he has spent every day for 18 months working on the handling, which kinda gives him an advantage. I’m not telling you the worst.

Who are the best and worst real drivers in the studio?
Judging by karting events I’ve been at, Guy (Wilday) - the studio head. The worst would have to be Jan, one of our network programmers, who’s a reckless driver in his spare time.

Who is your all-time favourite driver? Why?
Nigel Mansell - mainly because of the eyebrows!

What car do you drive? Why?
To be precise it’s an A3 2.0 T FSI S-Line special edition - simply because now that I have kids the two-seater had to give way to something more practical.

What five vehicles would you have sitting in your fantasy garage? Why?
Firstly, a sky blue 1978 Vauxhall Chevette - fond memories of my first car.

Then it would have to be a Bugatti Venron for the autobahn, an RS6 to get to work in, a VW Transporter Sportline for holidays.

And lastly, a decent mountain bike for, well… biking up and down mountains.

What’s the fastest speed you’ve ever travelled in a road vehicle?
That would be about 150 in an RX8 I used to own, and I’m not saying where that was.

Name your favourite movie car chase?
That has to be the one in Taxi by Luc Besson.

What were your favourite TV shows as a kid?
I can’t really remember - the 70s was a long time ago, but the Great Egg Race & Tomorrows World were pretty good (sorry, I’m a bit of a geek).

Which toy could you never seem to put down as a child?
The BBC Micro I learnt to program on; does that count (once again, I play the geek card)?

If you could listen to one tune while you drive, what would it be?
This is maybe a bit sad but it was on the radio as I drove to work this morning - Stairway to Heaven (Led Zepplin)

You’re stranded on a desert island, which car part would you take with you, and why?
The rear view mirror, and I’m sure Ray Mears would agree

If you weren’t making games, you’d be…?
Hanging around Ton-Sai beach (Thailand) or up a mountain somewhere I hope.

Describe SEGA Rally in five words?
It’s really quite good fun.

Over the coming months well be talking to more of the fellas working on SEGA Rally.  So look out for our weekly interview, which will appear every Friday right here on the SEGA Europe blog.

To find out more about SEGA Rally visit the official website at www.segarally.com we have videos, screens, downloads and much more. Plus, you can register to receive updates and exclusive offers.

In the wake of E3 we have a raft of new juicy assets for you to feast your eyes upon. Check out much in the way of additional visual goodness right here, but below we have the latest screens from Condemned 2: Bloodshot. They give a gruesome taster of what we
can expect from the follow up to the Xbox 360 scare fest that was
Condemned.

Dog attacks, anyone?

With the E3 tradeshow just behind us we thought we would round up the veritable feast of shiny new assets we released for the show.

Pretty much all the biggest forthcoming titles from SEGA are represented here for your enjoyment. So if you want to tear up the stages on SEGA Rally, float through the sky in NiGHTS or open a serious can in The Club, we have something here for you.

NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
Screens (Wii)

Virtua Fighter 5
Screens (Xbox 360)

Ghost Squad
Screens (Wii)

Universe at War
Screens (PC)

The Club
Screens (Xbox 360)

SEGA Rally
Screens (PS3)

One of the titles to be announced at E3 was Space Siege, an RPG of mankind-saving proportions. Not too much is known yet about the hero of Space Siege, Seth Walker…

As a combat engineer you are thrown into the defence of humanity, quite a burden in anyone’s book really.

Anyway, here’s a piece of artwork of our hero of the hour. Make up your own minds about whether he’s ready for the challenge…