I was very recently turned onto the upcoming Xbox 360 and PS3 game Rainy Woods (trailers here). Otherwise a fairly corny looking game that was debuted at TGS ‘07, the game has more than a couple striking similarities to David Lynch’s work (most notably Twin Peaks, with a bit of bit of Mullholand Dr./Blue Velvet in the mix). Other similarities seem to be heavily rooted in Silent Hill (particularly SH4) and otherwise unmentionable b-games in the survival horror genre. Games like this tend to pique my interest in sick ways so I started to poke around in the credits for RW and came across something interesting.

The Executive Producer of Rainy Woods is Yasuhiro Wada–the man behind Harvest Moon–which makes sense since the game’s being published by Marvelous Entertainment. The director/lead designer is SWERY who also directed Spy Fiction and Extermination (PS2). I then made the connection that Extermination was developed by Deep Space which was part of the team that broke up from Whoopee Camp. Diving a bit deeper into the staff list it turns out that Hidetaka Suehiro, one of the writers for the game, also worked with Swery on Spy Fiction. The other writer, Kenji Goda is responsible for the Parasite Eve II story (unfortunately). The character designer, level artist, level designer, writer, art director, and a few other carry over from Deep Space and most worked together on Extermination. The only person who’s a mystery is the art director, Hitoshi Okamoto. He could be the guy who I’ve found with the same name that previously worked on sound and audio for games like Riviera, Summon Night: Swordcraft Story, and (of all things) Dragon Ball Z: Budokai.

In the special thanks appears Yoshihisa Ohbuchi who was the producer of King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood, and also appeared on the special thanks of Valhalla Knights (an XSEED published game). The other person in the special thanks is Eishin Sasaki, who I believe to be in Killer 7’s special thanks as well.

At the very bottom of the credits–where I should have looked first–I find that the developer for RW is Access Games, the combined staffing remains of Deep Space and Whoopee Camp. There is a long and interesting history behind the creation of Whoopee Camp which starts with Tokuro Fujiwara. Ghosts ‘n Goblins was his first major undertaking, and as stated by Play Magazine, the greatest 8-bit platforming game ever (though I disagree with them). After GnG he went on to create another Capcom legacy game, Mega Man (aka Rockman in Japan).

After being the creative force for the first two games in the Mega Man series, Fujiwara took the producers seat in which he sat through the Super Nintendo. Credited on all regular MM games, and Mega Man X games through X3 (as well as the oddball Mega Man Soccer) the series stayed quite faithful to its roots, and the worst you would hear about any of them is that they are “more of the same.”

During his time as the caretaker of Mega Man he was also involved in the creation of Street Fighter (1), Breath of Fire, Strider, and Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan). Strider turned into a fan and cult favorite receiving many ports (some more faithful than others) which also continues to be ported as recently as 2006. Resident Evil is the last game that Fujiwara worked on before he left Capcom. We all know what ended up happening with Resident Evil: many sequels, multiple re-releases and re-prints, and has spawned three films (so far). While only the producer his creative hand could be felt in the game all over from the unique control scheme to the level of difficulty.

In 1996 Fujiwara and Yoshiki Okamoto (Creator of the 194X series, Time Pilot, Street Fighter II, and also worked with Fujiwara on Biohazard) created Whoopee Camp. While Fujiwara left Capcom, Okamoto stayed around and even picked up where Fujiwara left off on a few projects (Mega Man, Mega Man X, Breath of Fire, Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts GBA, Biohazard, and went as far as to produce the Resident Evil films). Whoopee Camp was started with “the mission to create high quality games based on creative sense, experience and close calculation.”

Aside from Fujiwara and Okamoto, Kenji Kaido has been associated with the forming of Whoopee Camp. He went on to be the production manager for Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Kaido started his career at Taito arcade games and was project leader and lead game designer for Cameltry and a few other games. Though, this information only comes from an IGN article, and I can’t seem to find their source of information.

The first game to be released by this new venture was Tomba! which Fujiwara himself explains best in his own words: “I have designed a lot of different games in my career, and while Tomba! may have been my biggest challenge, it is certainly my greatest personal achievement as I believe the character and the gameplay have the ability to attract and challenge gamers of every age and skill level. […] Nothing satisfies me more than imagining parents playing with their children as well as challenging those hard-core gamers who want to experience a whimsical fantasy world with extraordinary gameplay. Tomba! will capture the hearts of everyone.”

After Tomba! 2 Whoopee Camp seems to have fallen off of the face of the earth. At one point in mid-2001 Tomba! 3 was announced for the PS2 only to disappear along with the company. Backing up a bit, in 1998 Fujiwara was appointed to the Executive Producer spot of the Deep Space joint venture company between WC and Sony Computer Entertainment International with games published by SCEI. Deep Space created Hungry Ghosts and Extermination (which listed Whoopee Camp in the Special Thanks section of the credits). In early 2002 the remains of Whoopee Camp and Deep Space created Access Games (which has only really released one game, Spy Fiction), while the original companies disappeared. According to Archive.org, the last time that WC’s website was updated was on August 8th 2003. The website has also since disappeared.

But Tomba! 2 was released in 2000, and Extermination was released in 2001, what happen to the rest of the team? Mega Man Powered Up, the re-envisioning and re-creation of Mega Man 1, was absent of Fujiwara’s name. Then, in late August of 2005, Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins is announced (then titled Extreme GnG which is closer to the Japanese name) and Fujiwara is back in his old seat for the series, and completely removed from what’s left of Whoopee Camp. The rest of Access Games has been in a state of limbo as well since 2001 and it’s interesting to see that so may players have come back to work together with Rainy Woods.

While the company’s track record hardly instills confidence (nor does the trailer) I’m still looking forward to Rainy Woods‘ release as a curiosity of whether it will be a loving homage to auteur director David Lynch, or just an aping of his aesthetics.

I want to like Halo 3. I really do. I mean, technically there’s not a damn thing “wrong” with it. In principal I should enjoy it. It’s just so generic and safe. Sort of like going to a fancy Italian restaurant and ordering spaghetti. Sure, it’s probably good spaghetti with really nice seasonings and a spectacular presentation, but let’s admit that it’s still about the same as something you could cook at home.

Now, I loved the original Halo. I spent a lot of time with the game beating it on normal, heroic and legendary (including one co-op completion on heroic) and also played many hours of local multi-player. When Halo 2 was ramping up for release it seemed unnecessary to me: I already had done just about everything with Halo I ever wanted to do. The whole ilovebees.com ARG campaign got me mildly interested in it, but it was still a bit too… nonsensical for me I guess. It was probably because I didn’t know enough about the game’s back story.

The point of all that is that I never played Halo 2. Not really anyways, I have been forced to play multi-player at a friends house a couple times. The thing is that every time I try to play I’m at the bottom of the list, and frequently annihilated by the opposition. It’s frustrating and irritating to play with people who have been playing this for three years like it’s a part-time job. Playing against people that much better than you is like running into a brick wall over and over again hoping to make a crack in it before your skull splits open.

So, I’ve enjoyed Halo before (single and multi), and I know that other people can enjoy this game for years, so something had to be missing on my side right? I know that part of the fun is in having the game right when it comes out, right when the hype and excitement of the community is at a fevered pitch. Right when you’ve convinced yourself that “yeah, this could be fun again.” Perhaps enough time has passed now since I gorged myself on Halo last. Possibly I can get in on an even playing field with everyone else so that I’m not instantly outclassed. Maybe I can eek some enjoyment out of it before the game is broken over some unemployed college kid’s knee and cheats flow out from his 360 like water. For some reason I thought that the combination of all these things could add up to me having a great time with Halo again.

I was half right. It’s enjoyable at best and tolerable at worst, but still no where near as enjoyable a game mechanically as Shadowrun is. Sure, there’s a lot of people who can’t enjoy Shadowrun for one reason or another, but much like food each person has their own unique tastes. Going back to the Italian Restaurant example Shadowrun is the Veal Marsala which is something that requires quite a bit of preparation and finess to cook properly. Not only does it have veal (a meat many people don’t like) it also has mushrooms (another item many people don’t like): I love it though and it fits my taste perfectly, and it’s not something you can get just anywhere. From my side of the table I can see why people don’t like the game, but the people who do enjoy it will get much more out of it than eating playing something safe like spaghetti Halo 3.

And yes, Halo 3 can come with meat sauce single/co-op, Italian sausage single player online, or meat balls team based online, but at it’s core it’s still spaghetti the same game with different trimmings. Going into each game you know what it is, you know mostly how it will play out, and it will mostly be quite similar the next time around.I honestly prefer games that are more custom tailored for team play. I know I’m not the best person at aiming, but that’s not all a game should be about to me. I have excellent tactic for winning and when I’m on top of my performance and the people who outclass me in skill go with my plans we will dominate. (or at least squeak through with a victoly) On top of that I’m willing to play support roles even though I can put up a fight if needed. Support roles don’t really exist in Halo 3. Tactics mostly involve skill. Balanced teams mean that all the players are of the same skill level. Sure I’ve been lectured to about high level teams win based on tactics and plans and choke points, but honestly it all boils down to being able to point and shoot at the guy’s head quickest, frequently while jumping.

So I’m looking forward to Team Fortress 2 in the Orange Box next Tuesday like it’s nobody’s business. Well, actually, I hope it’s everybody’s business because I would love to get some really great teams going. TF2 seems like it will be able to fit into different player’s strengths and weaknesses while also providing a tactical element not found in many multiplayer FPS perspective games. Like I said, even though there are team based modes in H3, it’s still not focused enough on balance and compensation.

Halo 3 is only a week old and I’m already looking to drop it for my next new bad habit. I just hope that TF2 performs well on the 360. If not, I’m seriously going back to Shadowrun.