MAGO
March 10th, 2005, 11:56 AM
Scarface (http://http://xbox.ign.com/articles/594/594830p1.html)
GDC 2005: Scarface First Look
VU Games shows glimpse of Tony Montana's new world. Impressions and screens.
by Douglass C. Perry
March 9, 2005 - Across from GDC 2005 showfloor today at the infamous Sony Metreon, Vivendi Universal Games showed off more than a handful of new games for multiple systems, including a quick collage of the raging chaos that is Al Pacino's Scarface. The Radical Games-developed title, scheduled for fall 2005 on Xbox, PS2, and PC, is a single-player, third-person perspective action-adventure giving hotheads the chance to step into the cool Cuban shoes of Tony Montana during the tumultuous final gunfight that took place in, and destroyed, his cocaine-backed mansion.
The crazy thing is this: that sequence is the first one in the game, and you play it! You are the enraged, cornered purple-faced, cursing Montana, armed with an M16 with the A4 attachment. You get the chance to shoot the crap out of the police and destroy your palace with gun shots and grenade blasts, and you get to change Scarface history. Yes, indeedy. Even more interesting is that you'll either live or die; if you die, you'll have to play it again and escape from the chaos.
While VU Games is playing coy with whether you'll actually see the physical likeness and actual voice of Al Pacino (our thinking is that VU Games is saving this announcement until a later time), you follow his character, Montana, after his cocaine-based empire is destroyed. As Montana, you leave Florida and hide out in some fictitious islands for a few months, after which you then return to Florida. From there the game begins in full.
Your reputation is ruined. You have no cash, women, cocaine, friends (they've all been shot), sister (she's shot too) -- no NADA, chico. So you must build it up again. By returning to Florida, you begin the campaign of vengeance -- To build up your reputation by doing business, regaining territories, killing off the kingpins that run said territories, and finally regaining your empire so that you can engage in full hostilities with Sosa to take the cocaine dealer crown once again.
The game is and is not like Grand Theft Auto. You play both on foot and in vehicles. Your experience will be non-linear, so you'll have multiple places from which to get jobs, and there is a world of weapons to wield. Using Radical's streaming technology, players will find this wide open world a near perfect re-creation of the early 1980s in which Tony Montana lived. That means 1980s cars, clothes, attitudes, women, and drugs, namely that white powdery stuff that's not crack. VU Games likes to refer to it as product, but we all know what it is…erm, what is it again?
The key to building your empire is to start taking on missions in a single territory. Once you pull off a bunch of hit jobs in it, you'll buy a store front, after which the store owner will then work for you, run the store and bring in a regular stream of cash. Interestingly enough, the cash you get from dealing cocaine is considered dirty money. If you get caught with it, you'll be brought to jail. You'll have to find a laundering storefront, and clean it, to use it to buy anything.
Besides simply exacting blood-curdling revenge on Sosa, your major goal is to re-build your reputation. To do that you must earn cash, regain territories owned by Sosa's men, and turn those storefronts into your cash streams. The greater your display of wealth and ownership, the more powerful your reputation.
Unlike GTA, you are Tony Montana. You are no lowly thug. You're a menacing hot-head with a penchant for saying crazy things, and doing even crazier ones. You immediately start working for yourself. There are other big differences. A major gameplay tool is taunting enemies into fights with you. These taunts are clips taken straight from the movie. So, expect a lot of foul-mouthed, stream of consciousness threats aimed at your rivals. Another interesting aspect is that while you can drive any car in the game, as Tony Montana, you'll only want to drive the finest of the finest cars. These you can stock in your garage at home, and when you need a car, you can call on your henchmen to instantly bring them over.
The aiming system is also an improvement over other similar games. When you see an enemy in your range, and press L1 (or left trigger), two slanted arrows slowly descend onto the enemy until a lock is established. Your character is then locked onto the enemy. From there, a pipper enables precise aiming to execute head or body shots within that reticule.
There is so much more to say about Scarface and so little time to do it in. In short, the 50-60 hour game features tons of gunfighting gameplay, car chases, authentic Scarface material, and a huge world in which to explore with hidden features that VU Games is saving for later to reveal. It has something to do with music, we've heard. Also, VU Games is working diligently on making the streaming world look five times better than the first shots we saw of the game. What we do know is that we're more convinced than ever -- that early EGM story didn't really convince us from a visual standpoint -- that Scarface is for real. It's got distinct hooks, some great dialog and story, and one of the most crazy, hotheaded Cuban movie characters primed for videogame stardom.
We'll have more soon, Chico.
GDC 2005: Scarface First Look
VU Games shows glimpse of Tony Montana's new world. Impressions and screens.
by Douglass C. Perry
March 9, 2005 - Across from GDC 2005 showfloor today at the infamous Sony Metreon, Vivendi Universal Games showed off more than a handful of new games for multiple systems, including a quick collage of the raging chaos that is Al Pacino's Scarface. The Radical Games-developed title, scheduled for fall 2005 on Xbox, PS2, and PC, is a single-player, third-person perspective action-adventure giving hotheads the chance to step into the cool Cuban shoes of Tony Montana during the tumultuous final gunfight that took place in, and destroyed, his cocaine-backed mansion.
The crazy thing is this: that sequence is the first one in the game, and you play it! You are the enraged, cornered purple-faced, cursing Montana, armed with an M16 with the A4 attachment. You get the chance to shoot the crap out of the police and destroy your palace with gun shots and grenade blasts, and you get to change Scarface history. Yes, indeedy. Even more interesting is that you'll either live or die; if you die, you'll have to play it again and escape from the chaos.
While VU Games is playing coy with whether you'll actually see the physical likeness and actual voice of Al Pacino (our thinking is that VU Games is saving this announcement until a later time), you follow his character, Montana, after his cocaine-based empire is destroyed. As Montana, you leave Florida and hide out in some fictitious islands for a few months, after which you then return to Florida. From there the game begins in full.
Your reputation is ruined. You have no cash, women, cocaine, friends (they've all been shot), sister (she's shot too) -- no NADA, chico. So you must build it up again. By returning to Florida, you begin the campaign of vengeance -- To build up your reputation by doing business, regaining territories, killing off the kingpins that run said territories, and finally regaining your empire so that you can engage in full hostilities with Sosa to take the cocaine dealer crown once again.
The game is and is not like Grand Theft Auto. You play both on foot and in vehicles. Your experience will be non-linear, so you'll have multiple places from which to get jobs, and there is a world of weapons to wield. Using Radical's streaming technology, players will find this wide open world a near perfect re-creation of the early 1980s in which Tony Montana lived. That means 1980s cars, clothes, attitudes, women, and drugs, namely that white powdery stuff that's not crack. VU Games likes to refer to it as product, but we all know what it is…erm, what is it again?
The key to building your empire is to start taking on missions in a single territory. Once you pull off a bunch of hit jobs in it, you'll buy a store front, after which the store owner will then work for you, run the store and bring in a regular stream of cash. Interestingly enough, the cash you get from dealing cocaine is considered dirty money. If you get caught with it, you'll be brought to jail. You'll have to find a laundering storefront, and clean it, to use it to buy anything.
Besides simply exacting blood-curdling revenge on Sosa, your major goal is to re-build your reputation. To do that you must earn cash, regain territories owned by Sosa's men, and turn those storefronts into your cash streams. The greater your display of wealth and ownership, the more powerful your reputation.
Unlike GTA, you are Tony Montana. You are no lowly thug. You're a menacing hot-head with a penchant for saying crazy things, and doing even crazier ones. You immediately start working for yourself. There are other big differences. A major gameplay tool is taunting enemies into fights with you. These taunts are clips taken straight from the movie. So, expect a lot of foul-mouthed, stream of consciousness threats aimed at your rivals. Another interesting aspect is that while you can drive any car in the game, as Tony Montana, you'll only want to drive the finest of the finest cars. These you can stock in your garage at home, and when you need a car, you can call on your henchmen to instantly bring them over.
The aiming system is also an improvement over other similar games. When you see an enemy in your range, and press L1 (or left trigger), two slanted arrows slowly descend onto the enemy until a lock is established. Your character is then locked onto the enemy. From there, a pipper enables precise aiming to execute head or body shots within that reticule.
There is so much more to say about Scarface and so little time to do it in. In short, the 50-60 hour game features tons of gunfighting gameplay, car chases, authentic Scarface material, and a huge world in which to explore with hidden features that VU Games is saving for later to reveal. It has something to do with music, we've heard. Also, VU Games is working diligently on making the streaming world look five times better than the first shots we saw of the game. What we do know is that we're more convinced than ever -- that early EGM story didn't really convince us from a visual standpoint -- that Scarface is for real. It's got distinct hooks, some great dialog and story, and one of the most crazy, hotheaded Cuban movie characters primed for videogame stardom.
We'll have more soon, Chico.