Monster Madness: Xbox 360 game interview

[TomO]

Monster Madness is an overhead shooter for the PC and Xbox 360. In co-development by Artificial Studios and Immersion Software & Graphics, the game is one of the few Xbox 360 titles that doesn't seem shy of the public eye. Pro-G ( http://www.pro-g.co.uk/previews/pid/965/88/) talked to Jeremy Stieglitz, the Project Lead at Artificial Studios, about the game and why it is suited to a next generation platform.

Monster Madness' graphics engine, which is based on the Reality Engine now owned by Epic Games, supports fully per-pixel lit environments, and High Dynamic Range Rendering. This really benefits the look of the game, since all lights are dynamic, can be shot out by players, or moved with the object to which they're bound.

[EGO]

I love top-down shooters, but this just looks like that crap game Hunter. It also doesn't look like anything that couldn't be done on today's console... WTF?

Why doesn't somebody remake Smash TV or Heavy Barrel and give it a modern-spin? That would be awesome!

Not these dark, dreary night-time tunnels of doom like Hunter, Loaded and this thing.

[TomO]

Yes it does look a very current-gen but remember that it still has a long time left in development so things will probably change.

[mister_slim]

I hope they keep the controls simple and intuitive. One of the most important things to me in this genre is that it should be easy to pick up and play, even for friends that don't game much (bad X-Men Legends, bad). If they can capture the feel of 4-player Crystal Chronicles I'm sold.

[Twigz'N'Berries]

I just hope they add something to the genre. Top-down (even isometric) games can be fun...but they need to make sure it doesn't fall into a stupid shoot-find object-bring object back format that many top-downs fall into. Or they become button mashers where you have boring melee combat mixed with random shooting...once I played Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, the whole concept just soured for me.

[TomO]

I have seen a video of the game in action and it looks very fast and frantic. Yes it looks a little ropey in places but it looks to be a promising title that has plenty of development time left. I like the sound of co-op with both local and Live players together as well. I think the fully 360 degree aiming and vehicles in the game are something new to the genre (or at least rare).