There's a new international trailer online for G.I. Joe: Retaliation. This extended video (seen below) reveals lots of never-before-seen footage from the delayed sequel, now slated for stateside release March 29, 2013.
Via JoBlo.
Daryl Dixon has become a very popular aspect of The Walking Dead, as witnessed by all the cheers his first appearance onscreen garnered when footage was shown at the recent Walking Dead panel at New York Comic Con – which only got louder when Norman Reedus himself took to the stage.
I spoke to Reedus about his fan-favorite character and the changes he’s gone through, not to mention how his key relationships will evolve in Season 3 – including Daryl’s unlikely friendship with Carol and the much-anticipated return of brother Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker). We also discussed his starring role in Activision's upcoming Walking Dead first-person shooter.
IGN TV: It’s been an interesting journey for your character so far, in that he’s beginning to fit in, in a way he might not have necessarily ever thought he would. How would you describe his role in the group this season?
Norman Reedus: Well, I hate that term “Number Two…” There’s a difference between Daryl and Shane. Daryl in no way wants to lead this group. There are certain moments in Season 3 when he has to, and he’s good to jump on it, a quick initiative: “I’ll handle this, you handle this, I’ll take care of that.” He handles it very efficiently and forcefully, but he never wants to sit down in a room full of people and be like, “This is where we’re at. This is what we’ve got to do.” You know, he’s not really that guy. In Season 2, there were some moments when we were looking for Sophia where Daryl would head out and Rick would go, “No, stop! Let’s make a plan and handle this correctly.” Then Daryl would say, “No, man. I’m better off on my own.” So he’s still that guy. But these people relying on him for their safety and trusting him is a big deal to Daryl. For the first time in his life he feels like he’s a member of something, that he’s important to other people. It’s interesting, because a lot of people are getting harder -- and Daryl’s still hard, but he’s sort of opening up as a person, which is interesting. And he’s the only character really doing that.
Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon in The Walking Dead.
IGN: Right. Rick’s kind of gone in the other direction. Do you think he respects Rick’s new stance?
Reedus: That term “Ricktatorship” -- I was there when it started, and it started with a tweet -- but it’s not really accurate, to be honest. He’s not up in a tower. “You do this against your will!” It’s really not like that. There was a moment, but it’s not really the situation. I know magazines and newspapers, it’s the catchphrase -- it’s really not that. It’s different now because we all work as a group, and it really feels like a family. With Merle being in the picture now -- Daryl always wants to be with Merle. Merle is always looking for Daryl, and that’s brought up throughout the entire season. The problem is, he’s like a bull in a china shop; he’s the drunk uncle you take to a Christmas party. He’s like, “Shut up, man. Shut up!” We also have new people, new characters, and there’s a lot of toes being stepped on. A lot of people want to take matters into their own hands and can’t. There’s a lot of head-butting going on. And there’s just as much conflict on the inside as there is on the outside this year. You know, Rick is still Rick. He might be going darker, but he still won’t squash a bug. Daryl squashes everything and doesn’t understand why someone would yell at him for it. He kicks the kid, going, “What do you mean? He’s in the way.” It’s all the same, it’s just amped up quite a bit.
IGN: Was it exciting to play out the reunion between Merle and Daryl when so much has changed for these two guys?
Reedus Yeah, my backstory with Merle is a huge part of Season 3. You find out reasons why there is even more conflict than you assumed between them. But there’s also the heartache and the situations you’ve gone through, and they bond you as a duo. So there’s a bond there that’s thicker than glue, and it’s hard to break. But there’s also a mold that goes with that that’s being broken, if that makes sense. You’re under the thumb of your big brother who’s a racist and takes drugs -- he’s just an all-around a**hole -- and as a kid you grow up being embarrassed by that. You don’t want to be that racist guy. Or he’s taking drugs and I’d rather be an Al-Anon member than an Alcoholics Anonymous member. I’ve grown up with it and hated it. So there were scripts that came out where I took drugs and said things that were very Merle-like, and I fought against it and ended up not doing it because of that very reason. Once I explained myself… The writers are very gracious to us and work with us, an amazing team of writers that don’t just tell us what to do; we’re very hands on with them, and they created these great things for us to say and do. This is really my first TV life. In films, you go from here to here. In TV, you go here and plant these seeds and hope people are watching, and then they turn into things. And those things have all become story points now. So you find out how abused he was as a kid, and that causes a lot of tension, but it almost brings you together in a certain way. There’s so much tension going on right now.
IGN: I think people tend to forget that Daryl and Merle were never on screen together in Season 1. The only time we saw you together was in the hallucination episode. Was it interesting for you to finally play what we’ve heard so much about - this dynamic between you and [Michael] Rooker?
Reedus: Yeah. And the way that initially happens in Season 3 is -- it’s huge, I can’t even really hint at what that is. But it’s not what you expect.
Reedus discusses Daryl and Carol's relationship and starring in the upcoming Walking Dead first-person shooter game on Page 2.
Hollywood has a love affair with the found footage genre these days. It's not hard to see why. These projects are cheap to produce, and in the case of movies such as The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, are immensely profitable to boot. There's just something enticing about the idea of a group of ordinary filmmakers venturing into the heart of darkness and leaving only scattered video footage as evidence of their final fate.
2012 saw the release of numerous new entries into the found footage genre, including the teen superhero drama Chronicle and Paranormal Activity 4 (out in theaters today). Now seems like as good a time as any to look back at the long history of found footage films and pick out the Top 10 examples. If you're planning a Halloween movies marathon, these movies might fit the bill.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes turns the traditional found footage movie on its head by having the killer be the one who films the movie's gruesome events. In this lesser known horror flick, criminal investigators are forced to sort through hundreds of hours of disturbing footage left behind by a serial killer dubbed the Water Street Butcher. The killer remains elusive throughout the film, but his many terrible acts take their toll on both the investigators and viewers. Unfortunately, the movie was never released on DVD, making it a bit of challenge to actually watch the movie legally.
Years before The Blair Witch Project came onto the scene, a group of Belgian student filmmakers crafted this low-budget, but inventive found footage flick. The movie purports to be a documentary about the exploits of a depraved serial killer named Benoit. The camera crew accompany Benoit as he showcases his bloody work habits and murders numerous victims. The movie certainly attracted its share of controversy for its graphic content (including the implied murder of a baby), but Man BItes Dog also has a very black sense of humor. As the filmmakers are slowly drawn into Benoit's world, the movie becomes a satire on the media's fascination with violence.
We've seen numerous attempts over the years to replicate The Exorcist formula (including multiple lackluster Exorcist sequels). The Last Exorcism succeeded where others failed by taking the found footage approach to demonic possession. The movie is framed as a documentary as a film crew follows a preacher (Patrick Fabian) who is prepared to reveal that his flashy exorcism rituals are staged. But to his chagrin, the preacher encounters his first true case of demonic possession, and the result is a desperate and very chilling battle for the soul of an innocent girl (Ashley Bell). If found footage and exorcism movies are two things Hollywood had done to death, the two elements combined here to form something more memorable.
Cannibal Holocaust was one of the first movies to showcase the potential of the found footage format. Unlike more contemporary found footage films, Cannibal Holocaust divides its focus between a present day faux-documentary covering the disappearance of a group of filmmakers and snippets of footage recovered from their cameras in the Amazon rain forest. Little by little, viewers discover just what terrible fate befell the filmmakers in their attempt to document the cannibal tribes of the deep jungle. The movie was so disturbing that many accused it of being an actual snuff film upon its release. Though that was eventually disproved, it was banned in multiple countries for its graphic depictions of violence, sexual assault, and cruelty to animals.
Norwegian filmmaker André Øvredal found a new angle on the found footage horror genre by swapping out demons for trolls. This faux-documentary saw three Norwegian college students film the exploits of suspected bear poacher Hans (comedian Otto Jespersen). Instead, they discovered that Otto hunted trolls for the government. Together, the group encounter one bizarre monstrosity after another.
The trolls themselves aren't overtly scary, due both to the limited special effects and the fact that trolls simply aren't as ingrained into American folklore as they are in Norway. Nonetheless, the tension is palpable as the intrepid hunters find themselves deep in troll country and in over their heads.
Found footage and superhero movies are two of the most popular genres in Hollywood these days, so it was only a matter of time before someone decided to combine the two. Not that there's anything terribly heroic about the stars of Chronicle. The movie presents amateur footage of a group of high school teens as they encounter a mysterious object and gain telekinetic powers. After the initial rush wears off, one of the teens begins using his powers for increasingly sinister purposes. Though the movie's careful, grounded tone slips away in the final act, Chronicle managed to breathe new life into the superhero genre. It also paved the way for director Josh Trank to helm Fox's Fantastic Four reboot.
Paranormal Activity helped further popularize the growing found footage craze when it finally saw wide release in 2009. The concept is simple. A young California couple (Katie Featherstone and Micah Sloat) notice a series of unexplained disturbances in their household. Micah's attempts to document the disturbances on camera only exacerbate the situation, and soon the pair realize they're being hounded by a demon that wants Katie for itself.
Paranormal Activity has quickly grown into an annual franchise, which is no surprise given that the original is estimated to be the most profitable film ever made. Each new sequel is tied to the original in some way and offers inventive new camera tricks to spook viewers. But none of these sequels have managed to fully recreate the simple terror of the original.
Far more creatively successful and entertaining than the 1997 Americanized Godzilla movie, Cloverfield is a glimpse of what might happen if a gigantic monster started rampaging through Manhattan. The entire film is framed from the perspective of a group of young Manhattan friends who dutifully document the unfolding chaos even as they fall victim one by one. The found footage format works well, and for much of the movie, viewers only see the evidence of the monster's destruction, not the beast itself. The cryptic marketing campaign also lent the movie an aura of mystery leading up to its 2008 release.
The Blair Witch Project didn't invent the found footage formula, but it certainly popularized the genre. It arrived a decade before annual Paranormal Activity sequels were the norm, and thanks to a clever marketing campaign, many viewers were convinced the movie actually was compiled from real footage of three teens lost in the Maryland wilderness while being pursued by a murderous recluse.
Another element working in the movie's favor was the authenticity of the performances. The three actors were stranded in the woods with little in the way of food or directions while they filmed their travels. By the end, the screams of terror and the general sense of desperate fear were no longer being faked.
[REC] is the standard by which all found footage horror movies are judged. This Spanish horror movie presents footage from a news reporter who accompanies a fire crew into an apartment building.That supposedly routine call quickly degenerates when it becomes clear something in the building is turning the residents into rabid killers. With the protagonists trapped inside, the result is a nonstop wave of terror and bloodshed. The sense of isolation and impending doom really adds a lot to the overall impact of the movie.
[REC] offered a simple but very effective formula. To date, it's inspired two sequels (with a third on the way in 2013) and a slavishly faithful American remake in Quarantine.
Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
Markus "Notch" Persson has finally revealed early footage of his next game. While it's very, very early, it does show some of what he's attempting with the lighting engine, as well as show his character bouncing around a ship and interacting with computers. This is the first big piece of news we've heard since the game's initial announcement, where Persson described it as a ship game where, "Each ship has a generator capable of producing a fixed wattage, and everything you connect to it drains wattage. A cloaking field, for example, might require almost all the power from the generator, forcing you to turn off all computers and dim all lights in order to successfully cloak."
Don't judge it too harshly. This isn't the next game from Mojang, but, as I understand it, Persson's next personal project. The plan is to release it in an early state and then offer updates to early adopters for free, just like he did with Minecraft.
Anthony Gallegos is an Editor on IGN's PC team. He enjoys scaring the crap out of himself with horror games and then releasing some steam in shooters like Blacklight and Tribes. You can follow him on @Chufmoney on Twitter and on at Ant-IGN on IGN.
Markus "Notch" Persson has finally revealed early footage of his next game. While it's very, very early, it does show some of what he's attempting with the lighting engine, as well as show his character bouncing around a ship and interacting with computers. This is the first big piece of news we've heard since the game's initial announcement, where Persson described it as a ship game where, "Each ship has a generator capable of producing a fixed wattage, and everything you connect to it drains wattage. A cloaking field, for example, might require almost all the power from the generator, forcing you to turn off all computers and dim all lights in order to successfully cloak."
Don't judge it too harshly. This isn't the next game from Mojang, but, as I understand it, Persson's next personal project. The plan is to release it in an early state and then offer updates to early adopters for free, just like he did with Minecraft.
Anthony Gallegos is an Editor on IGN's PC team. He enjoys scaring the crap out of himself with horror games and then releasing some steam in shooters like Blacklight and Tribes. You can follow him on @Chufmoney on Twitter and on at Ant-IGN on IGN.
We just saw the first gameplay footage of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes at the PAX 2012 Metal Gear panel.
We are uploading the video. Tune back here in about 30 minutes and we'll have the video piping hot and ready to chew on.
Developing...
Casey Lynch is Editor-in-Chief of IGN.com. Hear about his love for PAX , metal, and Dark Souls on IGN and Twitter.
Lucasfilm is continuing with 3D conversions and rereleases of the Star Wars saga and this weekend at Star Wars Celebration VI, the first footage was shown from Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones 3D.
I was among those who was not impressed by the conversion of The Phantom Menace. It didn’t include that ugly, off-putting look that cheaply done conversions like Clash of the Titans have, but it also didn’t really impress as 3D – and it was hard not to wonder if it was just an innate limitation when it comes to converting old movies that were never intended to be in 3D.
However, based on what was shown at Celebration, the 3D in Attack of the Clones is a marked improvement. We were shown a long sizzle reel for the film, taking us through the movie via short clips, which showed off the 3D to an admirable extent.
In the opening sequence of the Naboo cruiser arriving on Coruscant, the ship truly seemed to be coming out of the side of the screen. And there was a lot of cool 3D visuals in the footage we saw of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s speeder chase through Coruscant – especially when Anakin leapt from the speeder down towards Zam Wesell, and Anakin himself appeared to be a physically present figure, falling away from the viewer into the distance.
I was also impressed by the waves on Kamino, which looked incredibly lifelike and ready to splash onto the audience in the establishing shots of the water-covered planet.
Some of the scenes from we saw weren’t quite as notable. The Droid Factory bit and the Yoda/Dooku lightsaber battle both looked fine, but unremarkable, from a 3D perspective. Still, overall, the sequences we saw from the 3D version really stood out and seemed like a giant step up from Phantom Menace.
ILM’s Dennis Muren (who worked on all six Star Wars films) and John Knoll (who worked on the Special Editions and the prequels) discussed the conversion process and how meticulous and time-consuming it was - about a year-long in total for each film. It involved going through the entire film and separating the elements and working to make sure the 3D looked correct and gave objects the proper amount of depth. In some cases, the shift in perspective in a scene has led to new digital work having to be done. An example was shown from the end of Attack of the Clones, as the 3D meant we were looking at Palpatine, Bail Organa and the other politicians looking down at the Clone Troopers from a slightly different angle, leaving blank spaces on the background which needed to be filled in, using the original matte paintings and backgrounds.
Since this whole process involves going back into a lot of the digital elements, Knoll admitted, “We might have archived things a bit differently if we knew we were coming back to it,” noting with Phantom Menace, they were dealing with elements from “13, 14 years ago. The backups only last so long. Sometimes the priorities on what you back up change over the time.”
Knoll said the process had been easier on Attack of the Clones than Phantom Menace, because, "The newer the film is the easier it is to go into the archives and recover things.”
That makes a lot of sense and probably accounts for some of the differences in the 3D visuals for the films, and hints at Revenge of the Sith 3D looking great too.
It’s less comforting in regards to the original trilogy, which obviously are much older films and lacking in as many digital elements that can be separated as easily. Still, if anyone can pull it off, it would be ILM.
Discussing why he felt it made sense to convert Star Wars into 3D, Knoll said, “The cool thing about 3D is it’s immersive,” noting it helped make you feel “You are there." He added, “What better universe would you want to have that feeling with than Star Wars?”
No release date has been announced for Attack of the Clones 3D, thought it seems likely it will be around the same time as the February release date The Phantom Menace 3D had this year.
Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich, joined by their collaborator Todd Grimes, finally unveiled footage and details on the upcoming new animated series Star Wars: Detours at Star Wars Celebration VI today.
Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich, joined by their collaborator Todd Grimes, finally unveiled footage and details on the upcoming new animated series Star Wars: Detours at Star Wars Celebration VI today.
It was noted that this series takes place in-between Episode III and IV, with a completely comedic take on the Star Wars world. The focus was on the mundane – what do these characters do in their downtime? As Grimes put it, “Where do Gamorrean Guards grocery shop? Does Darth Vader do online dating? The answer is yes. We answer all these things.”
A ton of footage was shown, beginning with a long trailer. As far as the show’s style, it’s CGI animated, but the characters are very exaggerated, Chibi/super deformed style – Folks like Princess Leia and Admiral Ackbar are very small, with large heads. And Leia’s trademark hair buns are HUGE!
The quick-cut trailer had a lot of gags that felt very similar in tone to what Robot Chicken does (though less adults only than that show can get). Gags included Boba Fett making up an elaborate lie to a girl about how he’d called her but she must not have gotten his message, Admiral Ackbar trying a ton of variations on what his catch phrase will be – It’s a frappe!” -- before finding the right one, and Obi-Wan getting a terrible response as he tries standup comedy and then using the Force on the audience, as he intones, “That joke was hilarious and you all liked it.” ” We also saw Jar Jar Binks walk up to Dexter Jettster and ask why everyone hates him and Dexter asking Jar Jar how honest he wants him to be.
Among my favorite of the gags shown were two Stormtroopers recreating a famous Luke and Leia moment, as they attempt to swing across a chasm in the Death Star. “For luck” says one to the other and they fist bump. As they swing across, the door on the other side slams shut and they hit it, plummeting down… only to land a few feet below on what seems to be the vast tunnel below. “It’s a matte painting!” exclaims one of the Troopers. “They haven’t finished…
Besides the trailer, several other clips were shown. In the series, the Death Star is being built, under the pretense that it’s a giant mall. As Green pointed out, if you’re building something the size of a moon, “people are going to know!” so that’s the cover story. “George was insistent that there be an IT guy,” Green noted, of the staff we’ll meet on the Death Star.
As for Darth Vader, the Detours producers joked that given that this was a relative time of peace in the Galaxy, Darth Vader is a bit restless. As Senreich put it, “He’s the guy cutting ribbons at the supermarket. He’s got nowhere else to be right now. He’s got nothing to do.”
The relationship between Vader and the Emperor looks to be a version of the very funny one seen on Robot Chicken, with Seth MacFarlane again voicing Palpatine. A clip was shown in which Palpatine tries to cover up to Vader that he leaked a story to a TMZ-like show called Galaxy Rumors and we see that Palpatine has made a lot of calls to this show, including exclaiming, “I totally saw the Emperor dancing the night away with three Twi'lek models!” Joel McHale voices the host of Galaxy Rumors seen in this sequence with Mass Effect’s Jennifer Hale voicing Major Steel, an imperial officer who will be a frequent presence on the show.
A lot of time will be spent on Tatooine on the series, including familiar locations like the Cantina and the Lars homestead (though interestingly/curiously, no footage of Luke was in anything we saw today). A scene was shown of Han and Chewbacca inside the Falcon on the desert planet – with Grimes noting that in the show, “They’ve been together so long, they’re kind of like an old married couple.”
And indeed, that was their dynamic, with Han coming home late, to find a furious Chewbacca sitting in front of foot he made for them. When Chewbacca growls at Han as he walks across the Falcon, Han replies, “Of course I have sand on my boots! It’s Tatooine! Nobody asked you to vacuum!” Finally, Chewbacca yanks the Dejarik table up and under his arm and storms off outside, with Han pulling up alongside him in the Falcon, swinging open the canopy and saying, “Come on Chewie, get in the Falcon!”
It was noted by Green, Senreich and Grimes that the Falcon in the show was completely based off the original toy version we all had growing up – hence the canopy opening up and the removable table, plus, Green revealed, there’s a lightsaber training droid hanging on a string.
Another major element in the series is Dex’s Diner, which gives an Alice or Cheers vibe to the proceedings, as characters come in and out. We saw a scene with Leia set here, who Green noted was a 14-year old who’s mad at the world, doesn’t know who her real parents are and sick of the decoys accompanying her everywhere to happen. As Green put it, “This is a bitch waiting to happen!” The voice of Padme on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Catherine Taber voices Leia and all her decoys here.
In the clip we saw, Dexter dots on the bratty Leia and her decoys, with Leia proclaiming, “This is my favorite food. I only eat here,” only for a commercial to come on for a rival restaurant starring Leia, in which she says the exact same thing. Dexter looks appropriately shocked and we then see that Han and Lando are sitting eating at the counter eating and Han says, “That kind of betrayal is shocking!” Replies Lando, “Hey, business is business! They probably got to her right before Dex did!”
In a very fun reveal, we were told Billy Dee Williams was reprising the role of Lando for the series, along with Anthony Daniels as C-3PO and Ahmed Best as Jar-Jar. Detours head writer Brendan Hay (a Daily Show alum) and producer Jennifer Hill joined the panel, as more writers and cast members were revealed.
The impressive writing staff for Detours includes many Robot Chicken alums, including Dan Milano, Tom Root, Zeb Wels, Doug Goldstein, Breckin Meyer and Kevin Shinick, plus David Goodman (a Family Guy alum who worked on that show’s Star Wars parodies) and Simpsons alum Michael Price. There are also writers from The Venture Bros., Pinky and the Brain, Regular Show and Spongebob SquarePants involved, not to mention someone with a ton of geek TV cred – Jane Espenson, who’s written for everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Battlestar Galactica.
As for casting, Chuck’s Zachary Levi will voice “Biff Tarkin,” Grand Moff Tarkin’s son, while Breckin Myer and Donald Faison (the latter of whom also joined the panel) will play the two Stormtroopers seen in the trailer. Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Dee Bradley Baker will also voice characters on the series, including an old Clone Trooper who's none too happy with the modern Stormtroopers. Behind the scenes footage also revealed the voice cast includes Abraham Benrubi (ER), Cree Summers, Nat Faxon and two folks who got a lot of applause: Felicia Day and Weird Al Yankovic.
Regarding the presence of Jar Jar Binks on Star Wars: Detours, Green chuckled, "The places Jar Jar goes… will make you love Jar Jar." Added Hay, "Or at least you’ll hate him for new reasons!"
The final footage shown today was about as humorously out there as you can get. We were told how Donald Faison’s stormtrooper really wants to be a mattress salesman, as a clip was shown (written by Jane Espenson) in which that aforementioned Stormtrooper sings a parody of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” about mattresses.
Suffice to say, if the only Star Wars material you want to see is deadly serious, this show won’t be for you. But if you’ve enjoyed the Robot Chicken Star Wars parodies and take note of the impressive group of people creating this show, Star Wars: Detours looks to be a very funny and entertaining take on a very beloved universe.
There is no exact date (or network) revealed for Star Wars: Detours yet, but given how much near-complete footage we saw today, I'd say "sometime in 2013" is a safe bet.
In December 2010, Ubisoft created a video that represented its ambitions for Assassin's Creed III - something known as target footage. Creative Director Alex Hutchinson insists that developers should always aim for exactly what they intend to ship, never over-estimating their capabilities or falling short of their own expectations. Hutchinson presented the Assassin's Creed III target gameplay render during his GDC Europe Keynote, and it was almost indistinguishable from what we've all seen from the near-finished game. In just a few short minutes, it establishes traversal and combat animation routines, the hunting mechanics, jumping through trees and climbing any cliff. But it isn't exactly Assassin's Creed III; a lot has changed along the way.
For a while we took the bow out of the game
"Some of the notable cuts from that footage include the idea of scalping," Hutchinson explained. It was something that was "historically defensible", but in the context of gameplay it was too gruesome and didn't serve much purpose for the character. For a while the bow was taken out of the game, too, because it wasn't historically supported enough to give Ubisoft the confidence to include it. Additional research eventually gave Assassin's Creed III's development team enough evidence to include it. There was originally a hook-blade as well, an extension of one of Ezio's tools, which you'd throw it at enemies to pull them toward you. "People on the team kept saying 'Get over here!' every time they used it," said Hutchinson. He took it out of the game, but a version of the device stayed in Assassin's Creed III -- you can hook enemies to yank them up tree branches.
Philadelphia was prototyped for Assassin's Creed III, but ultimately cut because "it just wasn't very much fun." Hutchinson said Philadelphia is "very, very flat, it's very, very rigid. The streets were too wide." It also would have represented the first "planned city" in the series -- Philadelphia was built on a grid, unlike the more unpredictable nature of past settings. Instead, Philly is a town you'll visit in cutscenes rather than suffer through in gameplay.
When it came to creating a main character, Hutchinson wanted a hero that could hang with Altair and Ezio. "I believe, even as someone who didn't work on [Assassin's Creed II], that Ezio is one of the best characters in games." Connor, therefore, had to be as iconic as Ezio and Altair. He was always intended to be Native American -- "We didn't want to make Mel Gibson from The Patriot fighting for America, nor did we want someone fighting for king and country -- but he wasn't always the guy we know now.
Early concepts deliberately went to artistic extremes. The "full on eagle outfit was never going to fly," Hutchinson said. In that particular image, Connor was decked out in wide-spreading feathers and had an an animal head for a hat. Ubisoft concepted him in all sorts of animal skins as well as minimalist robes before ultimately settling on subtle cultural twists on a classic white robe.
Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.
