Tea Leaves

Erm, wow. :-) Really me? I'm honoured!

Unfortunately you'll not get any more from me than the usual company line of "we do not comment on rumour or speculation"... no matter how much beer you offer... though I don't think I'm breaking any rules if I say that for me personally, the next Banjo is looking really, really good and, in my personal and considered opinion, is probably the most enjoyable and pure fun game we're currently in the process of making. (I loved the first two too).

Teaser trailer is good, though, isn't it?

Banjo-Kazooie was awesome, but the sequel was too convoluted and difficult to navigate. When they started adding intra-level connections and make them required to solve some puzzles I felt myself losing interest, and getting outright lost on the dinosaur level didn't help.

It'll be interesting to see if Rare's still up to the task of making a game as good as the original (the existence of Viva Pinata does not fill me with hope), and if it can make it through without any typically Microsoftian content compromises.

I don't know exactly how to respond, since I feel like I'm in a "some people just want the game to REALLY be REALLY hard" situation, which is a real gamer hot button. The intra-level connections are what made Twooie stand out from all the other hub-and-spoke platformer games, and I loved the challenge of being actually lost, which hadn't happened in a long time. Perhaps it appeals more to adventure gamers than to twitch gamers? Anyway, best game ever (so far). I know I'm on the other side of this "too hard" line when the subject is driving or sports games.

I really enjoyed Banjo Kazooie, up until the final battle with Grunty it was all great. But got that final boss was HARD, you had to stand still and fire eggs into jingo statues while she fired fireballs at you, her accuracy was near perfect and after a week or two of just playing that final boss I gave up.

I wouldn't mind but just before it was a really cool touch of a quiz of things which happened on the way. It was hard in a "They-expect-me-to-hold-onto-that-information" way but in keeping with the game, while the boss battle felt out of place.

Colm Mac