Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

[in mid air]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

Sweet. Did anyone hear something like "You twist the controller around and it will move different things in the game" or something. New controller?

[Flawless]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

New trailer

http://gamersyde.com/stream_7773_en.html

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New Screens

[in mid air]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

Xbox 360 Fanboy: Banjo Kazooie Vehicle Creation

During a special reception last night -- held at the same venue as the Gears of War 2 reception -- Microsoft allowed the press to get their grubby mitts on Rare's upcoming Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. The game has already been the center of some criticism from gamers, especially fans of the Banjo Kazooie series. Most of the coverage of the game thus far has dealt with the game's unique vehicle creation system, which allows players to build vehicles from dozens of mix and match parts, LEGO style. For those hoping this article contains a revelation regarding the platforming in Nuts & Bolts, we regret to inform you that the game's hub world -- where most of the platforming takes place -- was not available for play at the event. Here's the good news though, the vehicle creation is really, really fun.

Click the link for more

[Flawless]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

Eurogamer: Hands-On Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

Each of these vehicles handles in a different way, thanks to a fairly heavy-duty physics engine which takes into account the weight, balance and even aerodynamics of each craft - before slapping on a layer of common-sense handling limits that ensure everything is functional and fun to drive around. Many of them also feature a number of "gadgets", which are activated using the face buttons on the 360 pad and range from springs to bounce you off the ground, via gyroscopes to flip you around in mid-air, to folding wings that snap open and allow ground vehicles to take off.

That's quite an impressive scope, too. While the final game is designed around the idea of entering each world in order to complete a specific task (think of Mario 64, for instance, where each world is pretty expansive but in general you only travel there with a specific objective in mind), that hasn't stopped the team at Rare from creating some impressively huge levels with the power the Xbox 360 places at its disposal.

The E3 demo is no exception, being designed and laid out somewhat like a large church or cathedral - in which Banjo and his pals are about the size of children's toys, running around in the naves. It's an epic, cavernous space, and the true scope only becomes apparent when you start flying around it. It's not even the biggest of the levels - the developers estimate that it's roughly the third largest of the five major worlds - and it's already far too big to sensibly navigate on foot. Those vehicles aren't just a quirk of the gameplay, they're a necessity for navigating Banjo's new environments.

In visual terms, everything remains as colourful and cheerful as you'd expect from a Banjo-Kazooie game. The level of detail Rare has managed in such enormous zones, however, is incredibly impressive. In the E3 demo, every texture and surface has been carefully considered - the team is aiming for a "constructed" look to the whole world, something which it's achieved by leaving the obvious scars of human construction on everything in the zone.

Grass looks like a woven fabric up-close, and has stitch marks at the edges where it joins another surface. Mountains and hills are constructed of bricks and concrete, sheer cliffs have rivets and metal plates on them. Overhead, metal clouds are suspended on barely visible wires. The effect is superbly consistent, giving the whole game an endearing, patchwork feel.

The character designs, of course, retain the slightly screwball, over-the-top nature that made the original Banjo such fun.

The prevalence of pre-built vehicles in the E3 demo is vital to allow people to quickly get zooming around the world - but in the final game, there's a huge focus on the whole process of building your own vehicles. The hub world, Showdown Town, is the closest Banjo gets to traditional platforming action as you drive around a vehicle that looks a bit like a shopping cart, collecting crates by solving various puzzles or platforming through sections of the level.

Upon bringing crates back to Mumbo's Garage, you earn parts for your vehicles - and while there'll always be an option to have Mumbo create a vehicle for you from the parts you've got, most players will want to dive in and build their own. This uses a fairly straightforward 3D positioning editor, in which you place the various chunks of vehicle as if you were building something from LEGO. As long as it's got fuel and an engine, it'll move - wheels or wings help, obviously - and the other gadgets you add are totally up to you and what you've managed to find so far.

This, of course, is how Banjo's progression is going to work - and it's in this that the game's platforming roots are most obvious. Acquire a new gadget or vehicle ability, and new parts of the world will open up to you simply by dint of finally being able to get there. A non-linear progression through the game's missions, which open up as you gain access to "Game Globes" around the world, is another major facet of this - while for those who get really obsessed, we can see near-endless replayability as you tweak your vehicles to try and shave seconds and milliseconds off your scores at the various challenges (complete with Xbox Live leaderboards, naturally).

Rare has unquestionably had a tough time of it since its acquisition by Microsoft - something which the studio addresses in Banjo in a typically self-deprecating British way, with the E3 demo level including a massive dustbin full of copies of Grabbed by the Ghoulies, its Xbox flop. Later in the level, we try to lift the dustbin, but it tips over in mid-air, spilling Xbox game cases all over the floor.

With Viva Piñata, however, it found its feet creatively if not commercially - and Banjo looks like it will be the next major step on Rare's road back to good fortune. Whether that's enough to make it into a bona fide hit or not is hard to say, but on the strength of the E3 showing, it's definitely going to be a lot of fun.

[Flawless]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

$39.99 price?

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-8822...8266590&sr=8-1
http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/Prod...oduct_id=71849

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Banjo Dev Diary 1

You’ll be pleased to hear that Spiral Mountain itself is pretty much done. It’s still in its dilapidated state from the end of Tooie, only it’s sporting a fair few more polygons these days. Banjoland is also nearing completion, but that level’s sure to be a fan-favourite so I’ll refrain from divulging too much info. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing the hi-res textures applied to Terrarium, a space-level built of interconnected tubes and chambers, as well as getting the chance to play in the CPU-themed world, which has been designed to be approached vertically rather than horizontally like most platformers.

Having read a lot of chatter about Banjo on several forums, people seem to have a lot of questions about what the thrust of the main campaign will feel like. I don’t want to spoil your surprise, but I’ll try and fill you in on some salient details.

Players of the previous two Banjo games will be familiar with the new game’s structure. It begins with a brief introduction that’s sure to raise wry smiles from those who enjoyed the intro to Conker, and serves as a big reward to the Banjo fans who’ve been on tenterhooks these past eight years. Expect the fourth wall to be broken — even Rare’s previous games aren’t safe from Kazooie’s biting wit!

Having set up the plot, Banjo and Kazooie are plunked into the grand hub-world, Showdown Town. Like all classic 3D platformers, the hub world has secret areas and multiple levels for you to explore. It already feels alive with many different animal NPCs wandering around, all of whom talk to you. My favourite is the rhino wearing an apron. Musical notes are scattered across the town — some glistening in plain view, others a bit trickier to grab. Physics are a huge part of what makes the new Banjo fun, and the aim is to make every object you encounter in the game behave as you’d expect — that is, if you happened to live in a surreal world where bears wear shorts and witches speak in rhyme.

But how does it feel to play? Like the other Banjo games, Nuts & Bolts emphasizes exploration. As soon as you arrive, you’ll be smacked in the face by how open the game is — just unlocking the first section could take a minute or an hour, depending on how much you want to muck around. Branching off the hub world are the various Challenge Worlds where you have to complete challenges and overcome obstacles in order to collect jiggies — the key component of any Banjo game.

The first thing that struck most players of the classic games was the size of the levels — they were much larger than many gamers had previously experienced. The same applies to Nuts & Bolts. When I dropped into Nutty Acres, I had the same feeling of awe I had upon entering Treasure Trove Cove for the first time.

It’s quickly apparent that, while running across the level is perfectly feasible, you’d be much better off getting from A to B by building a contraption in Mumbo’s Motors. Just like in the previous Banjo games, in which certain areas of each stage opened up only after you unlocked a teamwork move, aspects of each level are only be accessible after you have collected a particular part to attach to your contraption (for example, spiked tyres instead of the Talon Trot). As you progress, you’ll collect the parts you need to build flying contraptions — and at this point, the levels really open up. Your jaw will hit the floor the first time you soar into the sky and see the whole of Nutty Acres lying beneath you, especially after being daunted by its sheer size when you first entered the level on foot.

But you won’t be spending all your time in a vehicle within each Challenge World, just as you didn’t spend all your time using teamwork moves in the previous games. But after you’ve taken your first contraption out for a spin, you may fall in love with it as if it were another character in the game — except one that’s 100% personal to you. All of the contraptions have a very distinct Banjo feel, being a bit rough around the edges and slightly on the silly side. There are practically no limits to the contraptions you can build, but physics dictate which ones fly and which ones flop. You can check out how your creations handle on Mumbo’s Test-o-Track, and I’ve spent as much time building contraptions for laughs as for utility.

What really makes the game Banjo, though, is the familiar cast of characters and idiosyncratic dialogue. The script is in the hands of Rare’s master editor, the chap who is also responsible for Scribes. However, he really deserves his own diary entry so I’ll save details on how the story is shaping up for another time. There’s a lot I haven’t touched on — not least the graphical effects, the contraption editing tool and the musical score — so at least I won’t be short of topics for the next entry. Thanks for sitting through this one (unless you just skipped to the end, in which case you can bloomin’ well naff off).

Guh-huh!

Some new screens:







I'm probably looking forward to playing this more than any other game this year, and also the previous Banjo games on XBLA. Lots of Banjo to look forward to in November.

[Sandman42]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

Pre-Order Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Gets Free, Early Access to XBLA Original

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts goes on pre-order sale today for $40 and if you place your order for the Xbox 360 game before it hits on Nov. 14 you'll get a free download code for the original Banjo-Kazooie hitting Xbox Live Arcade later this fall. Better still, that code gives you access to the Live Arcade game two weeks before it hits the Arcade for everyone else. The XBLA title will include something called Stop N' Swop, which rewards players' accomplishments in the new game with extra content and features in the Live arcade game.

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

NICE!

[CaptainZombie]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

Pre-Order Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Gets Free, Early Access to XBLA Original

$40, that is cheap for a new game.

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

$40, that is cheap for a new game.

I wasn't going to get it, but now that it's $30 ($40 minus the 10 I was spending to get the N64 XBLA release anyway), it's a no brainer.

[in mid air]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts - Will Have A Demo Before Game Is Released

Rare has confirmed plans to release a Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts demo before the game's release in November, and outlined how the "Stop 'N' Swop" component that links Nuts & Bolts to the Xbox Live Arcade re-release of Banjo-Kazooie will work.

[Flawless]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

Awesome deal. My most anticipated game.

[Flawless]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

New Banjo-Kazooie Video Shows Upcoming Industrial Goodness

Every Time I see anything from Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts I am in awe by how stunning the graphics look. In this new video we get to fly through one of the new industrial environments.

<embed src="http://blip.tv/play/AcjfBI35ZA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="462" height="290" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>

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Eurogamer Hands-On

Many of us loved Forza Motorsport 2, but how many spent hours designing a perfect car, and how many got bored and just browsed a few on the internet and played the game instead? It's important that Banjo doesn't overwhelm the player, or no one will use the editor, and it doesn't. Even in an ageing build of the now nearly-finished game, complete with incorrect button prompts and lying menus, we quickly learn how to arrange blocks, wedges, engines, guns and gadgets in 3D space to create cars, boats and planes.

Crucially, there is a fair amount of straight platforming along the way - peaks to scale and obstacles courses to traverse - but even when there's not, there's a Metroid- or Zelda-inspired cross-stitching of item locations and locational unlocks.

We won't spoil the rest of the intro, but suffice to say it's infused with Rare's trademark humour and self-deprecation (at one point the Lord of Games explains that he is the creator of all videogames and Kazooie questions, "Even ones that didn't sell very well, like Grabbed by the Ghoulies?" - and that's the thin end), and eventually deposits you in the Showdown Town hub-world, armed with a rather feeble engine-powered wagon and tasked with going off into adjoining realms to take part in games and accumulate jiggies. Musical notes are also dotted around, as are crates, and - though we're hamstrung by placeholder instructions - it becomes obvious what to do: earn jiggies, build vehicles in the garage, and span out into the world as your building and platforming options assemble.

Like vehicle editors, online multiplayer is a generational advance for consoles that's infusing more and more genres, and like Banjo's vehicle editor, Rare has apparently observed where it should and shouldn't delve, and to what degree. The lobby system, for instance, allows the host to set up individual games or fashion leagues out of multiple successive tasks, but while all this is being set up the other players can close the menu and enter a test track - a circuit around a mass of ramps and platforms with a lake off to one side, and dig into their garage for vehicle designs to show off, or just play around. An in-game camera allows you to snap shots and upload them (and these will be visible on the internet, too), with the dual purpose of absorbing blueprints for any particularly special vehicles.

We see beautiful graphics, bop our heads to the catchy music, and smile at the jokes, many of which are interactive: last time we mentioned the crates full of unsold Ghoulies, and this time we get to play Klungo's 2D platform game (Klungo Saves Teh World), a throwaway 2D platform game with constant scrolling where you have to try and time your jumps, complete with its own leaderboard.

Given the choice between yet another 3D platform game where you collect stars or jigsaw pieces or bolts, performing the same tired old rituals in high definition and hoping against hope for a bit of innovation, and Rare's alternative, we'll take this for now. We can always play Banjo-Kazooie again on Xbox Live Arcade, after all. And while Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts may not be what Rare's ardent fan-base thinks it wants, it's different, the sections we've played are compelling, and it appears to be very well thought out. Speaking to the developers about the game's origins, we discover that designer Gregg Mayles' original pitch didn't even mention Banjo, and may not even have had the studio's famous honey-bear in mind. It was just an idea they had. It's a good one. We hope it works.

[Flawless]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

Banjo Dev Diary 2: Banjo and the Giant Robot

I’ve continued to play the game over the last couple of weeks, and the improvements between builds are getting more and more dramatic. For example (and this could turn into an awfully long list), the game’s opening has now been fully populated and animated—you’ll see various contraptions flying and driving around Spiral Mountain dynamically—they don’t follow a set path, so no two presentations of the opening scene will be 100% alike.

I think my favourite new addition to the game is Grunty’s reluctant sidekick, Piddles the Cat, who has, without question, the most adorable sound effects I’ve ever heard in a game. I’m pretty sure she’ll be a hit with the community once you get to meet her in game, too.

The other dramatic new thing I noticed was the introduction of night scenes within Nutty Acres and Showdown Town. In fact, these may have been in for a long time and I’ve only now played long enough to reach them. Check out this screen to see what I mean, but it really doesn’t do justice to the atmosphere. I don’t want to toot our own horn, but some of the game’s lighting effects are really quite special indeed. For example, all points of interest within Showdown Town and the various game worlds are made more visible by large hologram projections. It’s a nifty idea so you don’t have to rely on your mini-map to find stuff. You can kind of see what I mean in this screen with Mumbo. However, you’ll need to see them animated to really appreciate the translucent effect. Okay, so I’ll stop gushing about all of the pretty lights now.

Lastly, I’d like to fulfil a fan request. People on the Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts board on the Xbox.com forum wanted to see the Godzilla contraption that’s mentioned in this article on Kotaku. Well, here it is. But giant flying lizards are so last week. Check out this gargantuan robot man ... actually two contraptions welded together. It dwarfs Banjo, who is standing just underneath.

Anyway, that’s your lot this time ‘round. I know—I didn’t touch on the editor, music, or script like I said I would last time. But, hey! That’s because the people responsible for the music, script, and um ... editing are too busy to share their thoughts! Okay, okay—it’s actually because I was having too much fun playing the game. You can count on me to pick these up next time.

Adios!

[Flawless]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

Flying around Banjo Land. So damn pretty and massive.

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/20935

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[Pete1210]

Re: Banjo-Threeie (360)

Pre-Order Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Gets Free, Early Access to XBLA Original

Now its listed for $36.99 for pre-order at amazon.com. Ships free and includes the free arcade game.

This may be my most anticipated game as well. I never played the prior games. Its something different and should be fun for my kids too.