Hand Of Odd announced at Game City Nights
 

I for one am pleased with this and lets not forget Munch HD for PS£ so the Oddboxx will be released on the PS3 network thats if it ever gets running again.

Following Max's tweets. Awesome news!

Thank you WIL for that piece of information!

Cool, I was hoping for Hand of Odd to be announced!

A guidebook? A style guide? Wonder what it is?

Book of concept art maybe?

sweet... i wonder, will they show us a trailer?

A double fuck yeh! All together lads, FUCK YEH!

Check out the large version of that image- does anyone have any ideas what those tabs down the side say? :p The second looks maybe like '(something) GAME SERVICE', but that last one... does that say NGP at the end?

By the way, in what format has Hand Of Odd been announced?

Awesome - I can't wait to hear more details. Did they say anything about it still being an RTS?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...rd-hand-of-odd

"RTS games and Command & Conquer don't particularly do well today,"

"Why don't we look at it the other way round and say, 'What is today's equivalent?' I hate to say this, but it's the Cityvilles and the Farmvilles. We're going to try and apply a bit of that mechanic to that and see where that takes us."

"JAW is "looking at" iPad, Android tablets, Facebook, PC and Mac. "

Errrr :/

I laughed when Wil said Facebook tonight. I am now in tears!

In that Eurogamer article they talk about...

That's almost surely the book mentioned here?

And wait a minute..

Fuck you JAW. Fuck you.

That's... Interesting.

I suppose we'll have to wait and see what kind of game they come up with. Some ideas can work really well when combined after all. I don't get their stance on RTS games though - Starcraft 2 seems to be selling really well for example.

EDIT: Calm down people, it's not like that's the only thing they have planned. Also what's so bad about using Facebook and iPhone apps as mediums? That's where the majority of people would play RTS-style games these days rather than a standalone mainstream game on PC or consoles.

Thinking about it, the only reason Starcraft 2 is selling well is because it's riding off the success of the first game from the '90s.

EDIT 2: Hype can backfire so easily. This is why you shouldn't speculate on things and get your hopes up about those speculations until you hear what's officially been confirmed. The gaming scene is a lot different than it was back in the '90s, so of course they're going to change things accordingly. Do you want them to be successful?

DoW always had good sales, although they've gone gentle RTS/RPG

This really isn't the kind of stuff I was hoping for with the new Oddworld games. Is a new Abe title in 2D or even 3D so much to ask for?

Unfortunately we seem to live in a 'networker nation' where every game has to live up to the latest trends, it has to be compatible with all the fancy applications and it has to be accessible to EVERYONE. Real gaming went down the pan a long time ago, which is why I stopped buying modern games in the first place.

It's depressing that so few people can't see my logic in wanting to have a game which you can physically buy from a shop (or online) and then play as soon as you get home. No Facebook or iPhone nonsense. Stick the disc in the console and away you go.

It's a bit like buying records. You can download as many songs as you like off the internet, but the experience will never match going to a record store and purchasing an album or single, then taking it home and listening to it the way the artist intended.

That's simply not true - Yes the gaming scene is different than it was, perhaps it's heyday is long since past, but you're missing out on a lot and you shouldn't be bashing what you haven't experienced. Go play Portal 2 for example and tell me that real gaming went down the pan.

I think the reason OWI and JAW are going in this direction is because they need to be successful first before releasing new mainstream titles and continuing with the quintology. You need to work hard to get noticed in the gaming scene nowadays. Why is what they're doing a bad thing?

If they did nothing else but release games just for Facebook and iPhone apps then I'd be disappointed, but I don't think that's what they're planning.

Yeah I read the neogaf article. I'm a little worried about them drawing inspiration from Cityville and Farmville.

Hey, Gilray! If you're reading this, the reason the C&C games don't do too well these days is because they're completely screwing with the mythos and the timelines and the fans really don't like that. In fact they've made mods which they consider more canon than the games themselves. In addition to that, th recent C&C games have changed the gameplay to a co-op style which cheapens it a bit. I mean, I admit that most people have played those Facebook games like Cityville and Farmville at one point before, but they're certainly not considered to be good games. And most people attribute it's success to the 'sunk cost fallacy' anyway. I mean there are ideas that could work well in an RTS, a system that gives people a reason to come back each day for some more, you just have to be careful that it's fun to do so, otherwise there will be a backlash.

What I REALLY think you should be taking inspiration from, is AOE Online. That game has some brilliant features and it basically sets itself up as an RPG. You have levelling, you have 'Empire Points' and you have quests. The quests themselves just send you to a map where you play a game, just as you would any previous AOE game. But instead of an automatic tech tree, levelling gives you tech points to unlock parts of the tech tree. So when you advance to Age II for example, you don;t have full use of Age II technologies, only the ones you have unlocked.

I know we're probably overreacting, but we just kinda freaked when comparisons were drawn to Farmville. That thing took full days of my life that I won't get back and it wasn't at all enjoyable. So the thought that our beloved Oddworld might take that route is kinda scary. And when I say 'kinda', I mean 'INCREDIBLY'. Though I guess you might just be taking elements such as the short play structure and rewards system as opposed to turning the gameplay into a bunch of pop-up boxes and lists and tick boxes...

Did they really just basically say that Facebook games are better than games like Command & Conquer? Really?

If this is going to be a farmville like game I will lose the last shred of respect I have for Lorne and his 'new' 'great' ideas. Quit trying to reinvent the fucking wheel.

To be fair, Stewart Gilray sounded a little worried about making the comparison himself. I don't think he's actually suggesting that they're going to make a game similar to Farmville; just that they want to make it successful in the same way. Possibly also in including social features.

Also, it sounds pretty clearly like they haven't decided the platforms it's going to be released in. It seems to me that the browser-based examples are unlikely if they're going to go with full HD.


In case it isn't clear, I think this is good news. I've been critical of JAW in the past, but not today. Huzzah!

I'll stay critical of JAW until they release something that is not an HD touch up. So far I don't really like their concept art for Abe HD or the direction they're trying to (apparently) steer the franchise.

I know nothing's definite yet but i'd hate to see Oddworld's name tarnished by being a Facebook game. It's better than that, but now the series is gaining inspiration from Farmville. Of course the type of game Hand of Odd is differs alot from that of Abe or Munch, but still there's many better RTS games out there. I agree with what's been said before, you cannot beat the experience of buying an actual game from a shop, but this fact seems to be being overlooked.

Maybe we are overreacting, but so far JAW, the so-called help this franchise is getting, has given me no reason to under react. Maybe it will be a push in the right direction that's needed to get the series well known again and back in the mainstream market, who knows at this early stage! But it's my opinion from information given so far that this probably will be below par.

(And i'd rather be negative so then i'm greatly surprised when the final product surpasses my expectations)

They've only released one thing so far. And that wasn't an HD touch up. Give them a break.

I think most of you are missing the point, Gilray just said that they are experimenting some mechanics from them. Although I do not like the idea of Facebook, I think we should wait for further information. Also, I doubt they use Facebook for the final product, as they created OddMobb for that purpose, as it seems.

Say whaaaaaaat?

facebook what

EDIT: damn you BM, my post looks too similar to yours now.

That's okay, they're both spam.

Maybe Facebook will become renowned for the brilliant Oddworld application. The quality of the game will determine how it effects Oddmobb, not the platform. I think what they've said so far is promising for the future of Oddworld in that they aren't making a game to please fans, they're making a game that will appeal more to the greater public by analysing popular games like farmville.

I really think than we should all shut up until more is said. It's good news at this point.

Well they're all better than C&C4...

I wouldn't lose respect for them though, it is a good way to spread awareness to casual gamers, it does stand a chance of interesting casual gamers in the lore and characters. It just wouldn't interest us...