Audio Interview of James Arnold Taylor on Youtube Part 1 Audio Interview of James Arnold Taylor on Youtube Part 2 Audio Interview of James Arnold Taylor on Youtube Part 3

The title for an interview with a great voice actor.

I got a chance to have a short interview with one of the gaming industry’s best voice actors, James Arnold Taylor. Although you may not know his name, but he is the voice of some of Sony’s best video game heroes. Currently the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Master Plo Koon in Cartoon Network’s Star Wars Clone Wars, James Arnold Taylor is also the voice behind the interstellar hero Ratchet (Ratchet and Clank Series) as well as Tidus (Final Fantasy X).

Me: This seems to be a bit of an obvious question, but do you play the video games that you voice the characters of? If so, which is your favorite?

JAT: Well it’s not necessarily an obvious question. It is a good question, because a lot of times you hear from actors when they do a film they say, “Oh, I never watch any of my work.” Or “I never watch myself on TV.”. Well I am a bit of a ham; I enjoy hearing what I have done. I do enjoy it because, I love to act. I love to be a part of the whole thing. But I also love getting to hear what other actors have done and how it all comes together. Plus I just enjoy all of this entertainment; I think it is all good fun. And I truly try to pick roles and projects that I would want to watch or be a part of. In that I definitely play the video games that I am in. I always love the Clone Wars games, and the Ratchet and Clank games and Final Fantasy. I am looking through my window in my booth, and on a shelf I have many or the games I have been in. I love Spiderman Friend or Foe I loved being Spiderman as well as many of the characters in the Shrek games. If I was to choose a favorite, which is a tough one it is like children I can’t pick a favorite. I really do love the Ratchet and Clank series. It is such a great series and has grown. So many things end up, as they go sequel after sequel after sequel and it gets old. But these are getting better and better, and I am so amazed at the work by all the people at Insomniac Games. The writers and harnessing the storyline before going and putting it out there it is sort of the way that Pixar seems to work.

Me: You have been the voice behind characters in over 50 video games, are there any that are more or less your favorite?

JAT: Well like I said before it is very hard to choose a favorite. I do love playing Ratchet and I love playing as Obi-Wan. But I would have to say an overall favorite, or one that I owe so much of my video game career to, would be the voice of Tidus from Final Fantasy X and the sequel to it. But yes, I would say that it is one of my favorites.

Me: You have been with the Developer Insomniac quite a bit; you have been the voice of Ratchet from Ratchet and Clank since Going Commando. How do you view Ratchet as a hero? Can you relate to him on a down to earth, personal level?

JAT: I absolutely can relate to him on a personal level. I think he is someone, like most of us that wants to be a good guy. He wants to be the hero, he wants to be the good guy but also is trying to balance that out with, “I want to be myself and hang out with my buddy.” and be relaxed and not have to save the world all the time. I relate to him on that level, I can relate to his great kinship to his buddy Clank. I love the relationship David (David Kaye) and I have been able to pull out of this, because he and I have only met a couple of times. Ratchet and Clank are just great characters, and I am so blessed to be a part of that. I am so happy that Insomniac has asked me to be a part of that and I will be involved with this as long as I have to.

Me: There is a new game coming out soon called, “Heroes on the Move”, which features Ratchet and Clank among other Platforming stars. Will you return to be the voice for Ratchet?

JAT: Yes I do believe it is safe to say I am returning as the voice of Ratchet. I have actually already voiced it and I had a blast doing it.

Me: How did you prepare for the role of Tidus? Can you compare to him in any way that gives you a more personal connection rather than it being a job?

JAT: Well absolutely, when I first was approached to play the role of Tidus, I was in the process of recording a show call Atlantis: The Lost Empire based on the Disney film taking the role of Milo Thatch. I was recording in the same building as they were recording the Final Fantasy film, Spirits Within. And at the time Jack Fletcher, the director was also going to be directing Final Fantasy X. So we became friends after hanging out some, and he said, “You know I really want you to read for this part.” So I got to read for it and I was amazed at how much Tidus and I have in common. *Chuckles* Not in the athletic realm at all, Tidus is an amazing athlete. But he has a lot of family issues that I can relate to. Coming from a divorced family, coming from a place where I didn’t really know my father. I could have had a lot of resentment towards that and have anger and frustration with just wanting that acceptance from a father figure. I certainly can relate to that, and sort of like Ratchet he is this reluctant hero and he really wants to do the right thing and he really does want to save his friends and family and the world if he can. I think we all have that desire to be seen and to be known and Tidus definitely has that. I am sure I portray Tidus differently than my Japanese counterpart; I think Tidus is a young teenage man that is searching for himself his identity. And we try to counterbalance that with “Listen to my story”, you know, the narration parts where he had an older more controlled sound. So it makes the audience wonder, “Well is he telling the story from later in time?”. Of course if you have played the game you will know what happens to him in the end. So I really tried to take it from those different aspects of his life and how he grows. You know, he first starts of cocky and sure of himself because he is a champion Blitzball player. And as his journey goes he gets more controlled, and when you play through the game you will notice how his voice changes. And we tried our best in doing that, as well as, still having to deal with a game that already has been done in another language. Particularly with the Japanese language, such a beautiful and so different from our American English language in ways of speaking, to convey information comes out so differently. So they would add words or take out words then time crunch it to make it match up and make it work. It is amazing it is almost been ten years since Final Fantasy X came out and I still get email about it, and I am just so touched by my involvement with it.

Me: Final Fantasy X is the first Final Fantasy to showcase voice acting, what was it like to be a part of a game that broke out of its shell like that?

JAT: It was amazing to be the first, kind of lead character in this series where there was going to be voice.  And I don’t think I knew at first how much of a big deal it was. I looked at it like, I knew the series and I knew the games and I knew the importance of the characters in the games. But I did not realize at the time how history making it would be. And, would that have made a difference if I knew? I don’t know probably not. I am still very pleased with the performance, would I have changed things? Of course I would. Have I had the opportunity to change them? Yes I have when we do different version of the game. Even in the Dissidia game we were still bound by the language barrier so you still lose some of the emotional aspects you get to do when you are an actor. When you are voicing a video game normally you will go in and get the script and here is the scene. They play it out for you, and the director is leading the other characters because you are always voicing alone. But normally when you go in and voice a video game you are still allowed to have more of a voice, more emotion. But when you do a dub such as the final fantasy games you have to fit it in and work with the confinements or that and still try to get the emotions and hope it allows players to get the emotion. It is tougher work than going in and voicing a character like Ratchet and Clank or the Ninja Turtle games or Shrek games.

Me: What is it like to be a voice actor? How do you prepare for huge roles like being the voice of characters like Obi-Wan in Clone Wars and other Star Wars games?

JAT: Well it is great, for Obi-Wan they are of course doing the Clone Wars TV series, on Cartoon Network that is always great to do because I get to be a main character as well as Plo Koon, In the Star Wars games I am always voicing Plo Koon and Obi-Wan. Usually their scenes are together so I always have to keep that in mind. Both are british, and you have to know that they are always talking to each other. And I will always concentrate to make sure they are different, I try to give them both different accents. The way I prepare for them is the way I prepare for anything. I study the script, if I have it. With video games you generally don’t get the scripts ahead of time. You get the script when you step into the booth, so you are reading most of your lines cold. There is no prep time beforehand. Recently Obi-Wan has been the exposition, the guy that tells the player what to do. He is always doing these narration bits, *As Obi-Wan* “Hold the Command Key and push ALT and Tab”. So when you are reading those things you just have to go cold. So you prepare by not being prepared, if that makes any sense at all. Because you never know what’s being thrown at you. You just do it the best you can. Voice actors are very different “breed” than on screen actors. We are ready to give you any emotion you want at any point in time. We are always there and ready to perform and to the best of our ability on the drop of a hat. So they will say, “Ok James now you are falling, now do one with your arms flailing. And now give us a laugh.” If you want to be a voice actor you have to know you are always in the spotlight and you just have to be able to do it. Don’t be embarrassed ashamed you just have to do it. I love being a voice actor, I am blessed to do it.

Me: You also lent your vocal talents to the game Kingdom Hearts 2 as the voice of Captain Jack Sparrow and Timon. Were you nervous to be the voice of such iconic characters?

JAT: Well being the voice of Fred Flintstone *As Fred* “Yabba Dabba Do” or Johnny Test *As Johnny* WOAH! Johnny Test is amazing!” or Obi-Wan or Master Plo Koon or Leonardo the Ninja Turtle, or Ratchet. These characters have become so iconic that when I get up I get on my knees and I am so thankful to be able to bring life to these characters in whatever way I can. It is a great honor to voice double and I just hope people will know how much we voice actors appreciate doing what we do.

Me: Is being the voice actor in a video game any different than in a movie or TV show?

JAT:  Yes it is, as I mentioned before we are in a room with just ourselves the directors the writers the producers and we just record. And with most animated TV shows you are all together as a cast. You get to joke around and play off each other’s lines. In movies it can be a mixed bag, sometimes you are alone sometimes you are with other actors. When we first recorded TMNT all four of us got to record together. But then later when Weinstien bought the movie and rewrote everything we ended up ADR-ing, which means Audio Dialogue Replacement and replacing every line that we previously did. But with a video game we have that freedom to just go for it. With video games it is very much based on time, like we have 1.5 seconds to get this line etc. And other times you are just recording isolated with not too much interaction with others, besides the director. Video game directors are coming into their own now. They are able to give a story rather than just catching the grunts and groans. They are telling stories that go far greater than films today have. They are getting it and the writers as well. They are coming up with great storylines. It is harder with video games because you are just concentrated by yourself. You know, you are in the booth for 4 hours just hitting every line and jumping from character to character depending on the game. Usually when I am doing Ratchet and Clank I am just ratchet so they go out and book 4 hours and we take our time and enjoy ourselves. We go through the story and really get it into my head. If there are games that I am doing multiple characters that can get very strenuous. And it is very different from TV or movie work. If someone does want to be a voice actor, take care of it and learn all aspects of their own voice before going out and trying to be 10 different, or 100 different voices, or 1000 different voices. If you can do your voice great then you can do any one you and it will all fall into place.

KINECT KONFUSION

Firstliest of all, yes. That is the intended spelling for the device. And stop calling it the “KINE-ect”, for though that may be phonetically correct, it is improper. “KIN-ect” is its God-given name.

Second, it is very different from the PS Eyetoy. The eyetoy lacks the ability to capture an image in 3D on its own. That’s why the PS Move is so highly exalted. The move controllers are capped with a pair of balls, which the camera uses for relative depth tracking.

Third, no, not all games will be compatible with it. There has been speculation on whether or not previously released games will be able to utilize kinect, and all we can say with certainty is that it’s unlikely. Originally, the kinect was intended to contain its own hardware for processing, but was whittled down to the basic camera and magic elves system. Because of this, the processing will be done by the stand alone console, resulting in a 10-15% usage of the Xbox 360’s recourses. Any patching worthy of your time would likely require a sizeable investment on the part of developers.

Fourthedly, and pay attention folks because this has been the question asked most to me (and the inspiration behind this little well-spring of kinect info for the sustenance of the googling-impaired):

“Hey, hippie-kid, what does it mean when they say the new Xbox 360 is ‘kinect ready’? Will my original Xbox 360 work with it? Also, why aren’t you wearing any clothes?”

Every Xbox 360 owner will find their consoles as compatible with kinect as peanut-butter is to the jellies. You see, the new Xbox 360 contains an extra port which powers the kinect device. Any of us dinosaurs still learning about fire and playing with yesterday’s Xbox 360 will need an extra outlet open so we can power our Kinect the old-fashioned way. Will this mean buying a $60 power cord for the Kinect? An extremely valid and very justified question, especially when taking into account Microsoft’s previous penny-grabbing schemes, but reports tell us that a power cord will be included.

Fifth or sixth, rumor has it that the Kinect has the ability to shrink players a few inches every session. Is there any truth in these claims? The short and very obvious answer is YES. Yes it does.

At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), hundreds of incredible, ground-breaking new titles were shown. Games spanned all platforms including Microsoft’s Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii, and Sony’s Playstation 3, all unique to gaming in their own way. Games such as Epic Mickey introduce gamers into an unknown and imagination-laced world, while Portal 2 promises to once again blow the minds of everyone who tries their hand at the insanity. But despite titles like these, there were a few not so surprising stars of the show, and they just so happened to be holding automatic weapons.

Everyone loves a good FPS. There is no arguing the satisfying smush a bullet makes when lodging itself into the head of a zombie, and needless to say, taking down terrorists in this day and age has become quite popular. Through the years we’ve launched grenades in Nazi Germany, Mars, and even in the shoes of James Bond. Gamers have gone from cargo boots to full body shields and everything in between. Plasma rifles and Carbines have replaced sugar plums as the star of children’s dreams, and images of little green men have been replaced by hordes of drooling minions and waves of Nazis. I am officially bored.

E3 was quite fantastic this year. There were plenty of innovative games, exciting announcements, and all around awesome titles. In the end, however, I was left depressed. A few of the favorites of the show had me quite confused. While id Software’s new title Rage seemed to truly push the boundaries of what an FPS should be, games like Call of Duty: Black Ops still ruled the stage. I’m going to get blasted for this, I’m sure, but I am sick of Call of Duty. I’m not sick of the game itself, but what I am sick of is its dilution of first person shooters.

Every single game wants to be the new Call of Duty, right? Oh, I’m sorry. I’m clearly forgetting the new installation of the Medal of Honor series. Why is it different, you might ask? Well, obviously because the game (in which you play as a “modern soldier” in a middle east setting) is about “authenticity and respect for the soldiers,” according to the game’s executive producer Greg Goodrich. It should be noted that he said this while a demo of his game was playing behind him. The scene: a soldier strafing in between cars shooting an RPG at a group of terrorists who were showering him with flashbang grenades and jumping like an ADD child on red bull. Authentic.

Please don’t assume that I’m just picking on the games set with realistic weapons in a quasi-middle east setting. I would, however, like to remind these producers of what happened to games based in World War 2. Everyone got sick of them, and stopped buying them. Just saying. Let’s run through some of the other first person shooters at the conference, and see where a glimmer of hope may be.

Bulletstorm looked cool, but its innovation? You’re encouraged to kick guys (It’s completely different than the melee in most games!), and then shoot them in mid air. Yawn.
Crysis 2 and Killzone 3 are clearly technological achievements, and should be commended for their efforts. In reality, though, how have they changed the gaming landscape? What innovation does it create in the world of first person shooters? 3D does nothing but add another layer of “pretty” to the aesthetically pleasing blandness. And jet packs.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is going to be (let’s be serious) another excuse to throw the Tom Clancy name on the same game, only with a different, shinier setting. And people will buy it.
Halo: Reach is another Halo game. Woohoo.

I’m not suggesting that the FPS genre should leave the world of gaming, or even that there should be any less of them. All I’m asking, begging, of producers is to dare to be a little different. Stop making the same game. Stop doing to my first person shooters what you did to my Madden (Finally, EA seems to be learning their lesson and making each new game more than a roster update, and it’s clearly yielding success). The only way it can change is if we do to these games what we did to the thousands of World War 2 games. Quit buying them. Stop buying the same game every four months. Please. So the next time you find yourself staring down the barrel of your weapon of choice, ask yourself: haven’t I already done this?

One of the most beloved games of the 1990′s has (officially) announced its return. The Twisted Metal franchise, a Sony staple since 1995, has been one of the key missing faces from the Playstation 3 format. Rumors have been in circulation for months, especially after gamers discovered hidden teasers in Twisted Metal: Head On. Now, at a pivotal time for the Playstation brand, at one of its most important E3 conferences since the PS3′s inception, the platform has officially turned to one of its greatest titles to send them into 2011.

Nearing the conclusion of Sony’s presentation, it was clear that the developer had already had a successful E3 expo. The company had announced it’s motion-sensitive answer to the Wii, “Playstation Move”, and shown some amazing looking games, including Little Big Planet 2, Gran Turismo 5, and Infamous 2. The console also scored a major victory in winning over the folks at Valve and announcing that Portal 2 would be coming to the PS3. Sony also showed its technological prowess in the announcement of 3D support for many of its current and future games, an important reaction to the current 3D trends. But even with some solid announcements, the presentation seemed to lack a certain “wow factor” until a seemingly docile trailer began to role.

The scene was set in a brightly lit city at night. Two cab drivers were discussing their favorite car combat games. “You name me one car combat game, ONE car combat game that was good on Playstation one, kicked ass on Playstation 2, and kicked even MORE ass on PS3, the ULTIMATE ass-kicking! Name it!” the first driver challenged. Needless to say, his companion came up empty. “That’s right. You can’t do it ’cause it doesn’t exist,” the first driver said, pulling away. Rolling his eyes, the second driver flicked his lit cigar onto the sidewalk and drove away.

The view slowly panned to the smoldering cigar, and as the camera zoomed in, the sound of faint music could be heard in the distance. As the volume rose, it became recognizable as the soundtrack of an ice cream truck playing in the background. This was about the moment that goosebumps began to raise on my arms, as a figure shrouded in shadow slowly walked up to the cigar, picked it up, and lit his head on fire, revealing the twisted (no pun intended) smile of a not-so-jolly clown, the twisted smile of one of gaming’s most beloved characters, Sweet Tooth. An ice cream truck driven by the crazed clown with a giant machete drove onto the stage just in time for the live presentation.

As if the official announcement of the game wasn’t enough for gamers, viewers got the added bonus of seeing some actual gameplay from the car combat game. The action, as expected, looks intense. Cars, motorcycles, ice cream trucks, and the newly-added helicopters fly around the fully destructible environments, leaving grin-inducing carnage in their wake. New modes include team deathmatch, and developer Eat Sleep Play’s twisted take on the traditional capture the flag. The game is being directed and lead designed by David Jaffe, the man responsible for Twisted Metal 1 and 2, as well as Twisted Metal: Black, the three games widely regarded as the best in the series. The trailer and demo were enough to leave Sony fanboys in need of a change of underwear, and gamers everywhere are surely excited for the game’s 2011 release.

Many months ago, I wrote an article on the latest Metal Gear title. This one will feature Raiden, the whimp turned bad ass. There was much speculation about the game play,many thinking it was going to be a more action oriented title rather than the stealthy game play of it’s predecessors. I envisioned a Devil May Cry type of game. Now it’s a year later and another E3 is upon us, along with the first in game footage of the game since the teaser from 2009′s E3.

The trailer opens up with a foot stepping onto bullets. You see a machine solider roaming around with a gun arm, looking for something. The soldier is reminiscent of the FROGs from MGS4, with the same style mask and gear of the feet, which were the same that Vamp had as well. Walking in a factory setting, the soldier then sees a shadow from above and starts shooting and that’s when it is greeted by none other than Raiden. It is not a greeting I would want as Raiden quickly slices the gun arm, then slices the soldier in half, actually revealing that the thing is a machine and to finish it off, reaches into it’s waist, pulls out the spine and crushes it with his hand with glowing red eyes. And that’s just the beginning.

The trailer goes on to show some game play which makes alot of use out of the environment, being able to cut down stone pillars to collapse buildings onto enemy soldiers (of the human kind). Another neat feature is the use of the Sony MOVE controller. With the controller, it allows you to cut in any direction you wish. The game has a system to set up the cuts and see what would be affected in that particular slice. In one scene, Raiden flips a soldier in the air, making several cuts to cut off the limbs of the defenseless solider. The cuts are aligned with a blue sphere of sorts, much like the sphere used to aim grenades in the past Metal Gears.

The game system is called “zan datsu” which is translated to “cut and take.” This equates to cutting enemies or objects and being able to take key items from these. Such as the first scene of Raiden ripping out the spine of the cyborg soldier, it’s as if he absorbed the energy from it. He could use items to regain health, ammo if guns come into play and maybe some information from wounded soldiers or cyborgs’ CPU’s. This adds a whole new level of game play where in the past, you had to hold up soldiers to get these where now you just take it from them after horrifically mutilating their bodies.

Pretty much anything in the game can be cut. Scenes of Raiden slicing through a parked van and the end scene of slicing watermelons are just examples of the free slicing system. The system is partnered with a type of “bullet time” to make sure that precise cuts with the help of the blue sphere or geographical planes if you want to get a bit more technical, allowing for a maybe a bit more strategy than one may think for such a game. I’m thinking maybe a perfectly timed “bullet time” moment with a precise cut could help to disarm (both weapon and/or actual arms) the bigger enemies.

I’m eager to learn more about the story line which from the rumors I hear, it involves Raiden and a fourth clone of Big Boss. Maybe gamers will get to see how Raiden got to be so bad ass and just what he went through to become like this. I like the fact that he gets his own game because like Snake, Raiden surely has ghosts from his past that the game will surely reveal. Hopefully he’ll also have a great supportive cast such as Otacon and Colonel Campbell. With no real information given except for some minor game play tid bits, it’s all open to speculation. Still waiting on a release date, time will only tell if this Metal Gear first, both in game play and first without Kojima in the director seat (though he is still a producer) will be as successful with series fans as it’s legendary predecessors.

Enjoy British quips and time-travel? Think yourself clever enough to take on a hoard of Daleks with nothing but your wits and a Sonic Screwdriver? Now is your opportunity in BBC’s new Doctor Who computer game series.

In the first installment, City of Daleks, it’s 1963 and the human race has been crushed by the Daleks.  The Doctor and his companion Amy Pond are the stars in this strategy game in their quest to correct time itself.

The creators of Doctor Who have put together four downloadable games that are canonical to the current season of the UK’s longest running hit show.  Utilizing Sumo Digital, actors Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in their original roles of the Doctor and Amy, writers Phil Ford (co-writer for Waters of Mars) and James Moran, and the show’s composer Murray Gold, the creators have held nothing back  in their attempt to make the game feel like you are part of the series itself.

Bear in mind, the Doctor is a strict pacifist.  Instead of alien weaponry or button-mashing fights, your job is to use your brain and explore and solve a variety of puzzles.  The visuals in this game are hardly mind-blowing, perhaps due to the fact that it was designed to be played on just about any PC of Mac.  The element of beauty is not focused on the graphics so much as it is the details of the game itself with their focus on gameplay and internal logic.

This game will be available for free to download on the the Doctor Who website on June 5^th.

If anyone is a fan of Transformers, it’s this girl.  Giant mechs wailing on each other for the fate of the universe? Sign me up.  For the first time, the start of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons is shown in video games in Transformers: War for Cybertron.

First off, when I found out about this game I had one burning question. Can I play as both sides?  The answer is yes.  Not only can you play as both Decepticon and Autobot, but the Decepticon campaign begins earlier in this prequel than the Autobots, adding an extra layer of continuity.  In the Autobot campaign, you are introduced to an Optimus Prime only just made leader, one that will have to earn the trust of his troops.  Added that along with the detail that each character will have their own specific flanking and maneuvers in the battles, it shows the level of thought that the creators used that went into this game.

The battle-system, as I’ve already mentioned is unique from the other Transformers games in that is actually works.  Different levels with different strategies is needed, from airborne skirmishing to ground-fighting, each has its own focus and abilities depending on the character used.  The game also has a Co-Op option that is just one more joy when throwing robots and explosives around.

Since it takes place before Earth, you won’t be seeing camaros zipping around the metal planet.  The character designs are reminiscent of the G1 80s cartoon but with a level of believability and physics that they considered when dealing with Cybertronian technology.

The game is being released on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC, Wii, and Nintendo DS (Autobot and Decepticons sold separately) on June 22, 2010.

Are any of these guys Master Cheif?

I’m going to try to tell my story in words because when I tried to talk about this to my friends the only thing I could muster was a series of grunts, moans, and dry-heaves.  This tale of anger and frustration was fueled by playing the Halo: Reach Beta.  I am not a fan of the Halo series I’m just going to put that out right now before I go any further but, I had high expectations that Bungie would vindicate all of its past mistakes and make this a Halo game one worth all of the years of hype.

Unfortunately, this is the part where the actual review started; my initial observation was the wait time and my inability to play Sonic & Knuckles while waiting for the Beta itself to download.  Once that was done, I noticed  the new and improved armor customization system, which actually had me pleasantly surprised; the interface was more interactive, adding a myriad of emblem and background combinations – but just like a poorly trained Scizor, it has all the tools to be great by itself, but it ultimately doesn’t make a game.  Once in the matchmaking lobby I thought to myself this is it, this is where the fun of making my emblem a purple unicorn with a saw blade behind it ends. And end it did.

Where Halo: Reach should theoretically shine, and where I was most disappointed, is its new class system Modern Warfare 2 fans will be flocking towards Halo in droves, in awe of its astonishing and ground-breaking four classes (compared to Modern Warfare 2′s mere 150 potential classes and even Team Fortress 2′s nine classes), including the guy with the jet-pack class, the always original and never boring invisible guy class, the glorified high school track runner class and my favorite and probably the single most revolutionary thing to hit this next-gen age of consoles: the fetal position class.  Bungie had to make cutbacks in order to include so much variety in their classes, of course.  I guess one of them was fun.

Next the weapons, is anyone but me confused as to why there are new weapons showing up in a prequel?  In game I encountered the entire set of new weapons including the FAL, sorry I mean the new and much nerfed Battle Rifle, The Dematerializer from “Ghost Busters,” and the Needler sniper rifle?  All in all this game, even though it’s still in Beta, has let me down already and if it’s anything like the campaign in Halo 3 replay-ability is going to be slim to none.  Hype thy name is Halo: Reach.

-The Ranger of Eos

Creating your own simulated game has never been easier or more adorable than in LittleBigPlanet 2.  The original game started out with fifty levels, but fueled by the creativity of the users, LittleBigPlanet 2 will be backwards compatible with over 2 million levels.

What is very intriguing about this overhaul of the original LittleBigPlanet, is that it is obvious that they didn’t just slap a few extra skins and objects in it and kick it out into the market.  From the ground up, this game improved and added new aspects to every part of the experience.  For example, they expanded on the ability to create more intricate cut scenes.  You can play director by experimenting with camera angles to even adding in voice-overs to combine your levels into a complete story that you would normally need a degree-level of ability to accomplish.

The details in creating your own unique character is only the start of the nuances you have access to.  The creators even go so far as to have personality traits for the henchmen you create, from aggressive to cowardly, even going as specific as being afraid of heights.

The main course of this game is the creating of the games itself.  From shooter to racing, obstacle courses to puzzles, this game takes platform gaming and turns it over to the hands of the masses and it’s truly your world to create.

This game is exclusively for the Playstation 3 and will be released in 2010.