The Playstation and Me: David Jaffe, Part 3

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Previous parts of this interview are right here: The Playstation and Me: David Jaffe, Part 1, The Playstation and Me: David Jaffe, Part 2

If you’ve been reading this multi-part talk and wondering where the Twisted Metal update is, then wonder no longer. Jaffe discusses development on the new iteration of his car combat series and the games he’s finally trying to catch up on.

I’m going to hit you quickly with  few more follow-up questions about more stuff that’s happening now. What was your reaction to God of War III?

I thought it was great. Obviously the first thing you notice with the game is just the spectacle and the graphics and the production value is just second to none. Just an amazing achievement. It was the first God of War game that I hadn’t been involved with.

(More on Techland: Power and Pathos: Previewing God of War III)


So everything was a surprise to me. It was really neat to play a God of War game that I didn’t know what was around the next corner and what the puzzles were, and what the surprises were or where the plot was going. So I really enjoyed it. People a lot of times ask me, “Was it better than God of War 2, was it better than God of War 1?” I have such a unique relationship with those first two games, and to an extent, a little bit of the first PSP game, that I’m not in any real position to assess that. I just know as a standalone game, which is the only way I can look at God of War 3, I thought it was technically an amazing achievement, and I thought it was a hell of a lot of fun.

(More on Techland: Whom The Gods Would Destroy: The God of War III Review)

I know you read a lot of comic books.

Oh yeah.

What you’re saying about God of War III reminds me of when writers end their tenures on a particular title. A lot of times, when they go off a book, some people say, “I can’t read it for awhile.” Because, the interpretation varies and they read the stuff that other writers have the character do, and the response is “Man, I wouldn’t do that.” I was anticipating a reaction like that from you. Like, “I’m a little too close to it.” But it sounds like you did the exact opposite. You were able to get enough distance.

Yeah. It had been awhile. And to be frank, I had already put out there or I have since put out there, what I would have done with God of War III. I just did a panel the other night with the director of that game, and the director of God Of War II, and all the other God of War games. And I tell Stig who directed God Of War III, it’s like, “Yeah, it’s not what I would have done.”  I had and have a story for God of War that I think it’s just the bees knees. It’s just fantastic.

And that’s what I had hoped they would have done with God of War 3, but that doesn’t lessen, by any means, what they did do with it. So I can be critical of it in the sense that it’s not certainly the game that I would have made, but it doesn’t mean that it’s not a fantastic game.

Can you update us about what’s going on with development on the new Twisted Metal?

I think it’s going really well. We’re finally at a point where we’re starting to get the fun stuff in. For a long time, it was technology and getting our online infrastructure stable. And now, every build I see is starting to feel like, I get smiles on my face. For the first time, we’re not just dealing with tech. Our rooftop levels are just now getting the skyscrapers that you can collapse and make bridges out of. Our arena level is getting where you can hit a pressure plate and you can launch people out of the audience. And they become your health pick-ups, because they’re wearing health vests. If you run over the pedestrians that you’ve launched out of the audience, you basically get your car healed up. Kind of the fun stuff that I love about making games, which is seeing the execution create its own sort of personality for a game.

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And also, we’ve been building all of our levels really, really big to support our biggest game mode, which is this mode called Nuke, that we talked about at E3. But, now, we’re starting to chop the levels up for our deathmatch and our Last Man Standing mode. To play a death match mode in a level that’s too big, it immediately zaps 20 to 40 percent of the fun. You can’t find your opponent and there’s too much downtime. Internally, we’re having great four-on-four battles and crazy stuff in smaller venues. It’s really fun. It’s going well.

Sony finally gave us our release date, which we haven’t announced yet. But, for a while there, we were trying to figure out when this is coming out. Now that we know when it’s coming out, we’re able to work backwards from that launch date and it’s really great. I can’t say what it is. But it’s a great launch date. I love it. I love it, I love it for this game and for where it falls.  I don’t mean strategically in terms of business decisions. You never f***ing know these days in this industry; it’s so competitive now. But just in terms of, it’s the kind of date that I love for this kind of game. I think it’s going great. I’m excited.

Will there be snow on the ground when the game comes out?

[Laughter] It depends where you live.

[Laughter]  OK, that’s all I’ll ask about that. So my last question is, the rest of the year, what are you looking forward to? What can you not wait for to come out?

I have such a backlog. I’m just now getting to Splinter Cell Conviction. And I am almost finished with that. I’ve been up for the last three nights till 2 a.m. finishing it up.

Great game.

Yeah. I love it. Absolutely love it. I haven’t even cracked open Red Dead Redemption yet. So I’ve got so many games to finish. I’m a huge Gears of War fan, so I’m looking forward to the third one when that comes out. Halo: Reach, I’m looking forward to a lot. I kind of was never a huge Halo fan, but I have been seeing some really great multiplayer matches that they’ve put online, and it looks like great, kind of old-school fun. And, not old-school like I’m giving it a backhanded compliment. As much as Infinity Ward should be proud for what they’ve achieved in terms of Modern Warfare‘s success and adding sort of an RPG element to shooters, it really kind of lost something for me in terms of multiplayer shooting. I look at the new Halo, and it seems to be kind of getting back to that. I’m really excited to see that. What does Sony have coming out this Christmas?

A bunch of Move stuff, SOCOM 4. What else?

Yes. Oh you know what it is, it’s MotorStorm Apocalypse. It’s not this Christmas, but I’m looking forward to it. A new Motor Storm. I love Motor Storm.

But it sounds like you’ve got a significant backlog to deal with, in the meantime.

I have so many games I really am just now getting around to. We’re certainly not finished with Twisted Metal by a long shot, we have tons to do. But it’s kind of at that point now where I have a little bit of breathing room to sort of start going, OK, what do I want to do next? And what does [Jaffe’s development studio] Eat Sleep Play want to do next? A lot of it is now I’m having the time to go back and play a lot of the games I missed, to sort of go, OK, what’s the state of the industry? It’s been awhile since I’ve really gamed more than just little bite-sized pieces just to kind of stay relevant.

I’d throw Alan Wake on there if you don’t have it already.

Oh, I do have it. I’m looking at my pile. I’ve got Alan Wake, Heavy RainBattlefield: Bad Company 2, Mass Effect 2, No More Heroes 2, Red Dead Redemption, and Red Steel 2. That’s my pile right now.

We’d like to thank David Jaffe for taking the time out to talk to Techland. Tomorrow, we’ll be running an interview with Ted Price, head of Insomniac. If you want to find out how the studio responsible for the Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank and Resistance franchises got in tight with Sony, come back in 24 hours.

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