E3 2010: Man Vs. Wild

When I saw Man Vs. Wild among the several games debuted at E3 2010, the one thought that came to mind was to convey the imagery shown on the TV show, the graphics would have to be pushed to the limits and the scale of the world would have to be very large in order to accommodate this-



Oh dear sweet jesus no.

Goddamnit, they had to ruin a perfectly good concept with a shitty developer yet again.

You would have thought that the minds behind these Discovery TV shows would have the sense to loan the license for these shows out to game developers that can actually make something with it.



The concept behind the show 'Man vs. Wild' really isn't as bad a concept to make into a video game, unlike say for example, the Deadliest Catch.

With Man Vs. Wild, I pictured a game, where you start, in the middle of nowhere. With little to no supplies, and most of all no camera crew. The game would have indicators for the most basic needs of the human body, like thirst and hunger. And almost everything would have an option.

Let's say for example, you happen upon a bush filled with berries. With these berries, the options could be either to eat them, crush them up and use them on wounds, save them for later, or ignore them completely. There could also be various conditions in the game such as getting stomach problems for drinking contaminated water or dehydration and dizziness for going too long without water.

In this ideal Man Vs. Wild game, the threshold for injuries would be extremely high, such as without crouching or holding on to a branch while climbing a fairly steep hill you have a small chance for twisting your ankle, or injuring yourself in a small way, like with a small cut. If it had a healing system like the kind in Metal Gear Solid 3, with a small first aid kit and whatever you would gather in your environment, players could learn by trial and error what to use to address different wounds and to see what would happen if you drank benzoyl peroxide to treat a stomachache.

I would imagine that the small price to pay for making a bad choice would be to have a small disability on your character, and for Bear Grylls to narrate with the correct decision.

This game would have been so much better if they had just handed the license over to a different game developer. What I have in mind would be Eidos, because of their past experience with games similar to these such as Tomb Raider or Just Cause 2.

I do know my judgments are based on a game currently in development, but to be honest, this doesn't exactly look like it will make for a best seller.

Source for images: Man vs Wild Video Game, E3 2010: Debut Trailer | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com

Introduction

Hello, and thanks to whoever is taking their time to read this.

My name is Tristan Johnson, and I'm an aspiring journalist.

My inspiration for going into journalism, has been my lifelong passion for the Video Game Industry.

In the past two years, I've been going to school exploring various career paths only to ultimately wind up confused and disoriented.

Which brings me to now, having heard much on the first day of the 2010 E3 Press Conferences (June 14, 2010), has made me decide to write a blog of sorts so that I can voice my thoughts on some of the titles that are being announced.

So hopefully, I'll be able to update with regular articles, starting with some of the games shown just this year at E3.

I'm hoping to hone my skills as a writer here, so any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Enjoy what's to come.