Jan cover of GI
http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/thq/southpark/cov1page610.jpg
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have never been shy about their love of gaming. From Randy Marsh playing Guitar Hero in his underpants to the legendary "Make Love, Not Warcraft" episode, the comic duo have demonstrated an obvious familiarity with the medium. Now that they've conquered television, film, and Broadway, the next target on their hit list is the gaming industry.
Thanks to a collaboration with THQ and Obsidian, Parker and Stone are writing the script, performing the dialogue, and overseeing the development of South Park: The Game. Unlike the cash-in Acclaim titles from over a decade ago, this ambitious project is a full-scale RPG for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. As the new kid in South Park, it'll be up to you to make friends and defend the town from a wide range of threats. Be sure to check out our January issue for all the details, as well as an interview with Parker and Stone themselves.
If they are allowed complete creative reign over the finished product, it could be awesome. And then I would be interested. The umpteen cash grabs we have seen over the years have been meh at best. We shall see.
orangecrush
12-01-11, 11:54 AM
The south park tower defense game on XBLA was good. I look forward to seeing reviews of this.
chuckd21
12-01-11, 12:16 PM
I'd still play an updated South Park 64.
MoviePage
12-01-11, 01:12 PM
Very intrigued by the "full-scale RPG" promise.
Boba Fett
12-01-11, 01:38 PM
I'd still play an updated South Park 64.
That was one of the most punishingly hard FPS entries on the system.
Bob_Bobbson
12-01-11, 02:00 PM
Full cover:
http://i.imgur.com/lEhPu.jpg
Oh man. Behind Timmy in the reflection...it's Manbearpig!
:lol:
Yeah, I think this game will be awesome...at least I'm hoping it will be.
Larry C.
12-01-11, 02:27 PM
Wait this is gonna be an RPG? I hope they let Skyrim influence everything cause that would be so very cool. To be able to go anywhere in SP and have different quests like returning the porn to the video store and protecting the border. I hope they do it right.
Drexl
12-01-11, 02:43 PM
Obsidian was behind games like Fallout: New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Star Wars: KOTOR 2, so they have a decent track record with RPGs. This could turn out pretty good.
I hope there's a PC version as well.
MrX
12-03-11, 09:32 AM
Here's some more info, some possible spoilers so you have been warned.
Basics
-The first game Parker and Stone have directly participated in, writing the script and the dialogue.
-Parker has always preferred silent protagonists in RPG's, so the player’s character will be silent.
-The player’s character will be fully customizable.
-Your character has a smartphone that acts as the primary game menu and has a facebook-like app show your number of friends you have and your current standing with the various kid factions.
-There are five classes, which are wizard, paladin, adventurer, rogue, and a fifth unannounced class.
-Obsidian is using the Dungeon Siege III engine.
-Obsidian developed a dynamic lip-syncing tool to accommodate changes to the script.
-Parker and Stone gave Obsidian 15 years of assets used during the show and a detailed list of approved textures and colors.
-Critical hits, cash rewards, experience, and consumables are in the game.
-Parker hates unskippable cutscenes.
-The humor will be more focus on the games they have played in the past but Parker mentions that games have lampooned other games before so they don't want to do exactly that instead they are focusing more on RPG's on how big and bombastic they can get sometimes.
Story
-The player will play as the new kid in town, the main theme of the game is fitting in and being accepted.
-The story begins with your character participating in a live action role-playing game that the neighborhood kids started, which eventually evolves into a real adventure.
-Eric Cartman will greet your character and help you decide your class, which are wizard, paladin, adventurer, rogue, and a fifth unconventional class made up by Cartman.
Combat
-Many elements of the combat system are like Paper Mario and the Mario & Luigi games.
-If player initiates combat they will attack first and vice versa.
-X button is for melee attacks, pressing it in well-timed succession will result in multiple hits.
-Timed inputs occur for defense as well for reduced damage.
-Obsidian doesn't want the player to have to sit and watch animations play out; they're incorporating dynamic camera angels at certain times, such as a Ro Sham Bo attack that stuns an enemy.
RPG
-Enemy encounters are visible on the map.
-Soda are health potions and Tweak's coffee is a haste item.
-There are melee and ranged weapons, as well as a lightning powered Okama Gameshpere that is a magic item.
-There is a Final Fantasy Materia like system in the game to augment weapons with various abilities like fire, poison, and electricity.
-There is a Summon System but they are not able to talk about it.
Collectibles
-There are collectibles to look for in the environments, some appear throughout the game while other are in specific areas.
-An example of a collectible is a Chinpokomon doll and a magazine, Chinpokomon dolls are not all the same model Obsidian are using various models that appeared in the episode.
Other
-When Obsidian were first coming up with ideas they show Parker and Stone a quest where you go into a cave and fight a giant bat boss that Ike is riding on, Parker and Stone said that the quest wasn't Southpark, that it was a generic video-game. Parker and Stone then mention a quest to get Kung Pao Chicken from City Wok, to readjust Obsidian focus.
-When they start making the town hub Parker and Stone realized that they did not have a true layout for the town, so they had fun figuring out where everything went.
-There will not be any platforming, they tried jumping early on but it didn't seem right.
-They talk about how they have had to scrap level because the perspective wasn't right because everything is hand illustrated and hand animated.
-They talk about the challenges of making a comedy driven game, Portal 2 is mention, they say if Portal 2 dialogue was on top of a shitty game it wouldn't be as good, so they want to make a game that is as good as the dialogue.
Concept Art (Massive Spoilers!!!!)
-The first concept art is a 'Gnome Mine' a concept, my guess underpants gnomes.
-The second concept art is 'UFO Crash Site', it shows Kenny, Cartman, Stan, and Kyle in front of a military fence with a UFO further away in a forest surround in mountains.
-The third concept art is a 'Gnome/Crab People D.M.Z.' label as a rough concept, it show a border fence with gnomes on one side and Crab People on the other side.
-The last concept art is 'Christmas Town' a concept.
Interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone
-Parker and Stone really enjoy rpgs and they do think that rpgs are the best fit for southpark.
-They were asked of how making a rpg story differs for an episode, they say that the learning curve was be bigger than anything they have done other then their Broadway musical.
-Visual and Visual style seen in episodes like “Good Times With Weapons”, or the live action hamsters in “Pandemic” will not be in the game they want to keep a simple 2D style.
-Parker has been a lifelong gamers, he really likes rpgs because he like the singleplayer nature of them so he doesn’t like or get MMO’s. His favorite game is Oblivion.
-Matt when he was young used to play the old Infocom game and Wizardry and likes open world games like Arkham City, Infamous, Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and also hockey and soccer games. He mention that he is more of a button masher and remember Serious Sam because he likes to shoot shit and blow shit up but he is now more interested in games like Arkham City and he hasn’t play a RPG in year because he got tired of walking everywhere. His favorite game is FIFA and he mentions getting his ass kick online by kids with English Accents.
-Lastly they joke how this Southpark game will be a cross between Obilivion and FIFA were “you gotta go kill a bunch of monsters and shit but you can only use your feet.”
Update:
Here are some things I missed. The editor says the game look like an episode of southpark and there is one screenshot that I am not sure if it is a cut-scene or in-game but it definitely looks like it could be a screenshot of an episode of southpark.
Also you can explore the town between quests its a little vague it sound like walking around the town is 2D the writer mentions "exploration takes the characters from the left to the the right(and vice versa), but branching paths occasionally take them in the background or foreground to prevent the game for m becoming overly linear".
There are a few screenshot of combat, the editor mentions that encounters are like classic Final Fantasy that are presented from a side view. With every combat screenshot there is only the player and one other party member(Cartman, Kyle, or Butters), fight 2-5 enemies(Girls, Gingers, Hippies, Fantasy style, and Goth) at a time.
The screenshots in the article show the player in a tree house and fighting on a top of a, different?, tree house or fort, fighting in a backyard, a cave, a forest, and a cemetery. Also in the article they mention the insides of Stan's house and just now looking at the screenshot of the tree house there is a map that I could replicate that might be layout for the town.
It sounds like it's going to look and play like Costume Quest set in the South Park world.
Deftones
12-03-11, 09:50 AM
sounds intriguing.
foxdvd
12-03-11, 10:04 AM
rubs hands together...
dsa_shea
12-03-11, 10:41 AM
Here's some more info, some possible spoilers so you have been warned.
It sounds like it's going to look and play like Costume Quest set in the South Park world.
More like Strong Bad. Does anyone really think that this will be ready for a 2012 release? I would like to hope so but I can see delay all over this unless they have more than just concept art and a few levels done already.
anomynous
12-03-11, 11:07 AM
Come on Aeris-style Kenny death
mhg83
12-03-11, 11:34 AM
The perview so far has me wanting this day one release!
Drexl
12-03-11, 11:56 AM
I'm not too crazy about the "Facebook-like app," but it would be cool if there was an Easter egg or something where if you check it too often you would get sucked into Facebook like Stan did.
I hope Lemmiwinks makes an appearance.
Imprint
12-03-11, 12:56 PM
Maybe you can have giant, bouncing balls for a mount. Since it says Trey's favorite game is Oblivion, perhaps there will be DLC armor for it.
Jadakiss
12-03-11, 02:10 PM
This does sound really cool. It's interesting that they actually had to think about the town layout for the game. I thought they would've had that figured out by now.
It sounds exactly like the gameplay will be a Paper Mario overworld with a Mario & Luigi battle system. Which probably isn't a bad thing at all. This could be great if they do it right. With Matt and Trey overseeing it, I'm getting my hopes up that it'll be pretty good.
fumanstan
12-03-11, 03:25 PM
Obsidian games always feel... uninspired. Hopefully this will be good.
Mike86
12-04-11, 11:36 AM
This sounds like it has the potential of being awesome! Can't wait for more details and to see some previews. I did like the South Park game on N64 and the Tower Defense game on X-Box 360, but always wanted a more fleshed out game. The fact that Matt and Trey sound like they're involved seems to give this game a decent shot at being good where the others did feel like rush jobs that were to cash in on the popularity of the series. Gonna have to keep that Game Informer cover it's pretty awesome!
Tarantino
12-04-11, 02:43 PM
Sounds interesting...I'm game.
DaveWadding
12-12-11, 03:42 PM
The 5th mystery class has been announced
it's JEW, of course.
I can't embed, but here's a video about the combat system:
My wife loves South Park, so it figures the one game that she will surely play with me is the one I have zero interest in.
Hope to turn around on this one.
DRG
12-13-11, 02:49 PM
I love the idea behind this, but the fact that it's turn-based might be a dealbreaker for me. I understand why they went with it, and I'll withhold final judgment until I see some gameplay footage, but I'm just not a fan of the style.
foxdvd
12-14-11, 12:14 AM
Obsidian games always feel... uninspired. Hopefully this will be good.
I know what you mean...historically they have followed up some of my favorite games of all time and while none of their games are bad...they just always seem a step down from the games they follow.....be it Fallout...or Knights...or Neverwinter...
...funny enough their one true new game, Alpha Protocol...a game that was smashed in reviews...was actually a great game...one of the most underrated...if not THE most underrated game this generation...
Yes, I'm all over this. The Scott Tenorman XBLA game almost got my money on production alone, but I couldn't get into the platforming of it from the demo. Maybe when it goes on sale I can add it to the queue of unplayed.
A full RPG, however, is insta-buy.
dsa_shea
05-16-12, 03:24 PM
Looks the the RPG has been delayed until 2013. Damn!
i'd say as long as this is about 15 hours of gameplay, the concept alone is worth paying for a full price game.
glassdragon
06-06-12, 10:53 PM
I agree, right now it looks to be worth it, provided it's a fairly long adventure.
mhg83
06-06-12, 11:03 PM
i'd say as long as this is about 15 hours of gameplay, the concept alone is worth paying for a full price game.
I think 15 hrs is a good time since it looks like you can play as different classes and there will probably be a lot of hidden stuff to find.
mcfly
06-07-12, 11:04 PM
This game looks epic on so many different levels. I love how the ESRB warning in the beginning shows that it may be inappropriate for children. :lol:
glassdragon
07-16-12, 11:56 PM
‘South Park: The Stick of Truth’ Comic-Con Preview
Jul 16, 2012 by Tyler Schirado
1
South Park: The Stick of Truth Preview
Ever since South Park began airing back in 1997, it has pushed boundaries beyond our wildest Imaginationland. Downloadable titles aside, console gamers have not witnessed a full scale South Park game since the year 2000. Now, after capturing multiple Emmy and Tony awards, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are ready to invade the video game industry once more and win our hearts with South Park: The Stick of Truth.
Players finally got a good look at the game in action during a hands-off preview at Comic-Con. What was shown more than lives up to expectations. In fact, South Park: The Stick of Truth may turn out to be one of the most entertaining RPGs we’ve ever played.
The South Park: The Stick of Truth demo begins with a quick introduction of the “new kid” (the user) as he and his family move into the lovely town of South Park. Wanting to get a little frisky, mom and dad tell the kid to go make friends while they wrestle upstairs. Locked out of the house, the player is left to roam the streets of South Park. Right from the very beginning, the interactions among the game’s AI cast are hilarious and well thought out. Matt Stone and Trey Parker have written everything and, of course, do most of the voice acting.
South Park: The Stick of Truth New Kid
Neglected by others, the new kid runs into Butters “The Merciful,” a paladin. Butters takes us to The Kingdom where we must seek out The Wizard King, Eric Cartman. From here users will be able to choose a name, customize their character’s outfit, and pick a class: cleric, fighter, mage, or thief. Now the quest begins. Players must go to City Wok to retrieve some Kung Pao chicken. Armed with the wooden Sword of Sorrows, it is your duty to embark on this quest in order to test your loyalty and gain new friends.
Before the adventure can begin, elves invade the fortress seeking the Stick of Truth — and here is where our first battle takes place. Gamers who are accustomed to RPGs will quickly grasp the basic concepts of fighting, but there is a tutorial that does a great job at mapping out the gameplay for newcomers. The Stick of Truth is highly reliant on timed attacks, which can be very useful for counter-attacks and blocking. Fighting is turn based and can be strategic, based on who’s in your party or who you may be fighting.
Simply put, the battles are a ton of fun. The witty banter between characters is extremely vulgar, incredibly offensive and highly entertaining. Not only do the characters comment when they attack, but also while they are idle.
South Park: The Stick of Truth Vampire Fight
Skipping ahead, we are taken to a fight between the children and some vampire kids in a local cemetery. This time, the focus is on using special attacks (some of which can be seen in the E3 trailer, like Mr. Slave taking one for the team, literally). As in any other RPG, characters gain experience points and cash after each fight. Throughout the game players will be able to obtain items through treasure chests and completely customize their armor — from classy monocles to scruffy beards.
Like the cartoon, there isn’t much depth in The Stick of Truth’s 3D environment. As a result, the game looks just like the show. The animation is clear and colorful, with great effects during battle and clever environments all around. Plus, the game really takes advantage of South Park’s vast history — references to the show are practically everywhere, giving fans plenty to look out for.
South Park: The Stick of Truth SDCC Demo
According to one of the production artists on the show, the game is still under development and the guys from South Park are working very hard to make it one of the best experiences possible — not only for gamers, but for fans as well. He also let slip that players will be able to explore Canada in The Stick of Truth, and that the country may (or may not) have an “8-bit” variation.
From what we’ve seen so far, fans of South Park will not be disappointed in The Stick of Truth. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, in collaboration with Obsidian Entertainment, have created something that has a chance of being truly great, and we can’t wait to play the finished game.
Those were some really shitty south park games :lol:
MoviePage
11-06-12, 09:00 AM
THQ announced that this title is delayed until fiscal year 2014, along with Metro: Last Light. Fiscal year 2014 begins 3-30-2013, so I'm not sure how much of a delay that will mean.
chuckd21
11-06-12, 11:57 AM
:sad:
mattysemo247
11-06-12, 12:14 PM
Ouch, that's the second major delay for Metro. Not looking good for THQ.
With this game I don't really care about the gameplay, just the story.
Larry C.
12-18-12, 01:22 PM
I blinked and missed the "gameplay".
Missed???? I haven't been able to find any gameplay videos anywhere. :(
flashburn
12-18-12, 01:54 PM
Missed???? I haven't been able to find any gameplay videos anywhere. :(
The video above is labelled as a "Gameplay" video. There is gameplay, towards the end, they show split second flashes of it (without a UI though).
Larry C.
12-18-12, 01:59 PM
You would think that a game that comes out in 3 months would have some GP vids.
chuckd21
12-18-12, 02:58 PM
I think that trailer has a lot of gameplay video in it. They've completely blurred the line between cutscene and gameplay with that particular art style. Trey & Matt wanted it all to look like the show.
Larry C.
12-18-12, 03:49 PM
I think that trailer has a lot of gameplay video in it. They've completely blurred the line between cutscene and gameplay with that particular art style. Trey & Matt wanted it all to look like the show.
Well if that's the case Kudos to them. If some of that was gameplay it blends seemlessly into the game. Is there an official release date announce for this?
flashburn
12-18-12, 03:53 PM
I think that trailer has a lot of gameplay video in it. They've completely blurred the line between cutscene and gameplay with that particular art style. Trey & Matt wanted it all to look like the show.
So the game is basically just watching the show? Because 90% of that trailer clearly did not have any gameplay. There was gameplay towards the end, but it was "prettied up". You are giving Obsidian WAY too much credit.
Drexl
12-18-12, 04:22 PM
All the battle scenes where they were shown at a distance and lined up across the screen were gameplay, I think - including the cat pissing on somebody and Jesus Christ bringing the smackdown on... homeless people?
The bit where the kid flies in the air with the purple background and then causes some sort of earthquake is one of those special attack animations they do in RPGs. I hope they are fairly brief and don't go on and on like in FF7.
Most of it was comprised of cutscenes though.
chuckd21
12-18-12, 07:24 PM
This is a pretty good look into the history of Obsidian, and there's some details in there about the South Park game.
Yeah, like I said, the little bit at the end of the trailer...You know, those split second shots that don't bother to show any UI or give any real idea on how the game actually plays?
I have a huge feeling this game is going to be mediocre at best.
chuckd21
02-19-13, 12:30 PM
Amazon moved the release date to 12/31/13. :sad:
Drexl
02-19-13, 12:40 PM
Amazon moved the release date to 12/31/13. :sad:
Isn't that their "we don't know when it's coming" date? I wonder if Wired has considered this for their vaporware list.
flashburn
02-19-13, 01:55 PM
I have a huge feeling this game is going to be mediocre at best.
fumanstan
02-19-13, 02:07 PM
Isn't that their "we don't know when it's coming" date? I wonder if Wired has considered this for their vaporware list.
Yeah, definitely just a place holder date when they don't have an actual one.
starseed1981
02-19-13, 02:47 PM
DAMMIT! (<--- In Jack Bauer Voice)
nickdawgy
02-20-13, 09:53 AM
Yeah, definitely just a place holder date when they don't have an actual one.
Games always have an end of the year date like that when the real release date is in limbo.
chuckd21
02-20-13, 09:57 AM
I know. It had a real date, and now it's in limbo. Hence the :sad:
fumanstan
02-20-13, 10:17 AM
Games always have an end of the year date like that when the real release date is in limbo.
Yes, that's what I said?
Obi-Wan Jabroni
02-20-13, 10:31 AM
Yeah, but if you expected it to meet the date after the THQ bankruptcy, you were already living in fantasyland.
Oliver Clothesoff
02-20-13, 12:00 PM
Yeah, but if you expected it to meet the date after the THQ bankruptcy, you were already living in Imaginationland.
Fixed.
And yeah I want this bad, even if expectations are low.
Buy: