there are lightyears between…
-Robert Grünhalm
Mike Man is related with Bullfrogs Syndiate and a former employee of EA London.
http://www.incgamers.com/News/17111/SyndicateCreatorScepticalAboutSequel
The man behind the iconic Bullfrog title, Syndicate, is sceptical about EA’s plans to revive the franchise.
Speaking exclusively to IncGamers about the game, Sean Cooper expressed doubt that another Syndicate sequel will appear.
“They’ve been saying that for the last fifteen years,” says the man credited with designing the 1993 classic.
“Looking at EA’s track record of announcing titles, saying they’re going to revive it … they don’t tend to do it, because I don’t think they really understand what the original game was.”
Earlier this year, rumours began circulating that EA was planning a Syndicate revival and in April it was reportedly confirmed that Swedish developer Starbreeze (Riddick, The Darkness) has been working on the game, codenamed Project Redlime, since August 2007.
However, Cooper fears the game will not capture the spirit of the original.
“Every time I’ve seen a prototype of a new Syndicate it’s just been misguided,” he said.
“They’ve tried to be too quirky. They’ve tried to do things that aren’t what the essence of the game was.”
During his time at EA, Cooper claims he saw a few demo builds of a new Syndicate title and was unimpressed.
“One of [the prototypes] … it was something about using different senses. Something was leaving a scent and the agents were following it. I remember seeing them demo it in a conference room and thinking ‘what are they trying to achieve? what are they doing?’”
“The essence of the game was killing people – and that was it,” he added.
“Big guns. Strong dudes. Terminators essentially. If I have to kill everyone, I will. That to me was the essence of the gameplay.”
Read more from Cooper in our Syndicate retrospective this weekend.
Maybe the “Saturday event” this weekend will answer some questions…
What happens in Uppsala, Sweden, this saturday? About 2 pm i checked Emails intuitively, and fell over a new entry in the Starbreeze’s forum. Hugo Hirsh, member of quality assurance at Starbreeze Studios, asks some people around Uppsala to drop in on Saturday.
Of course it could be all and nothing. Somebody needing help with a move, somebody who wants to have a party with new people or a sneak preview of Project RedLime stuff? Sadly i will not be in Uppsala this weekend to have a look myself. I hope after Saturday we all know more, have a nice weekend everybody!
-Thorsten Albrecht
After i was able to have a look on Terminator Salvation (some machines look a little like some Matrix-machines or Transformers creatures… some scenes remind me of Fallouts postapocalyptic setting, the Terminator trap in Los Angeles reminds me of I am legend) i can say that Danny Elfman made a pretty good soundtrack. Wich in fact sounds as much as “Batman”, as Bruce Wayne looks like John Connor. The soundtrack itself is very decent and not a little kind of bombast. It’s retentive and Elfman made only discreet use of the brands famous theme. I also noticed some not too discreet use of well known elements from Hans Zimmer’s and also Steve Jablonsky’s famous acoustic type case. Over all it’s a suitable soundtrack.
Well, the movie is pretty good for a future survival how-to. Great action, great explosions, persuading actors in well written roles. I think it’s the worthy successor to the first two flicks. Bruce Wayne is the best John Connor since Judgement Day, Kyle Reese is a perfect no-name-actor, Sam Worthington makes a good badguy. Liked it all the way. Good job McG!
Have a look on the trailer of this Bruce Willis starring sci-fi Flick coming september 2009.
I think the “remote people” walking on the streets (urban setting) and the man-machine connection are as syndicatish as the occuring problems with deadly disconnecting and stuff. Next promising Cyberthriller? Let’s wait and see.
-Thorsten Albrecht
May i inform you please, that there are people around who declare “that Electronic Arts (EA) will unveil the top secret games at E3 this June.” If there are various top secret games, at least one of them might be Project RedLime. The anonymous person who spoke out this interesting hint doesn’t seem to be one usual dumb brat that talks shit. Because he or she seems to be associated with a group of investors linked with Starbreeze Studios.
If Electronic Arts presents first details of the strongly anticipated new Syndicate (Bullfrog) game in Los Angeles 2009, what will the strange non-Fable Lionhead-title with squad-elements will be? Starbreeze Studios is working on Project RedLime since i think august 2007. It is announced for XBox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.
On this weblog you find some random artworks of Starbreeze Studios very concept artists: Axel Torvenius, Henrik Sahlström, Brad Wright, Martin Bergström and Kjell Emanuelsson.
While the concepts of Brad Wright remind me of something close to “Too Human”, i recognise a very straightline and western-comic-like style in Kjell Emanuelssons works wich i really like. Martin Bergström seems to haven’t yet published there. I must admit, that i cannot really classify the works of Axel Torvenius and Henrik Sahlström, i suggest, have a look yourself. 
E3 2009 is from 2nd to 4th of june in the Los Angeles Convention Center.
I wonder if Syndicate is gonna show up there.
“While Lionhead’s Peter Molyneux seems to be working on Fable III, he also mentioned that his studio is working on a non-Fable game which he hopes to show at E3….. …So what is his non-Fable game going to be? Molyneux wouldn’t say, but word on the carpeted hallway is that it will be a squad-based game. Perhaps a new Syndicate be in our future?”
One highlight of Japan Expo 2008 for sure. His costumes are marvellous, aren’t they? If you find this Altair look-alike is fantastic you should see his Sam Fisher show from Japan Expo 2006.
Project: Creations made one Syndicate machinima movie. Now they want much more people to make much more movies! They created and launched the “Minigun Survival Award 2010″. The goal is to produce one Syndicate inspired movie with any cgi-tool. Wich leaves a wide range for improving the reservoire of Syndicate inspired movies with some marvellous masterpieces! Their call to creative digital arms reads as follows…
Now you can see our machinima-project is released. What we want YOU to
do now is: Make a Syndicate movie yourself and compete with other teams
in the “Minigun Survival Challenge 2010″! Register now…
The rules?
Length should be between 4 and 30 minutes. Announcment of the winning
team will be about first of may 2010. There is no deadline for entering
the contest yet.
How to enter the challenge?
2. Choose your basic engines and tools.
3. Send an Email with your full name, the teams name, the list of basic
tools (not to be published) and the projects short introduction to
NO_SPAMproject_creations@web.de
4. make a Syndicate inspired movie.
5. publish your final movie on vimeo for entering the competition.
6. Survive and win the “Minigun Survival Award 2010″.
