[barkbat]

Frederick Raynal is back in the game making business (YAAAAAY!) and working with Ubisoft on a major project (WOOOOO!). He is the creative director of a team around 70 strong - the team that has just finished Rayman Raving Rabbids on Wii and have produced messianic gems like Beyond Good and Evil.

I'd say - educated guess - it would be an action adventure game for Wii, seeing as thats the genre Fred knows, and Wii is what the team knows best.

Sadly, it's definately not LBA 3, despite the marriage made in heaven that is Twinsun hurling magic balls with the Wii remote.

Happily, Fred really wants to make LBA3, has been going over ideas for quite a while, and thinks it's not too far off.

Quote

I'm now working on a big project at UbiSoft. This pushes again LBA3 start further in time, but some (secret) events gave me a good feeling that it will be the right time!

That's from an email by Raynal to Axx, the web moderator at magicball.net

Axx recently visited Lyon and actually met with Fred. I'd probably ejaculate, shit myself and pass out if I met Sir Raynal in person. Luckily, I doubt I ever will.

LBA forum post on magicball.net

[Wiper]

Yaaaay!


That is all.

[Spainkiller]

He should port LBA 2 to the consoles while he's at it.

[vamecum]

I never got in to lba, I don't remember why, except I think it was because it was too odd and I got killed by an elefant?

[Comrade]

If that team are working with this bloke then what is Michel Ancel doing? Isn't that his team?

[M.M.S]

whats LBA?

[Crisp_Rapper]

Little Big Adventure, 2 of the finest games ever to grace the pc. much love for them it seems... and if you'd ever played them you'd know why :ph34r:

[Raff]

The name rings a bell, but that's about it. I lose I suppose.

[Tequila]

LBA2 on the Live marketplace. Make it so.

[Spainkiller]

Tequila, on Dec 28 2006, 02:37 PM, said:

LBA2 on the Live marketplace. Make it so.

Oh, man. That would be better than... Well, I dunno.

:(

[Geo]

God I love Fredrick Raynal. I hope he does make LBA3 pretty soon, i'd buy any console that was on (or maybe it'll be for the pc again?)

[CarloOos]

It'd have to be a remake/reboot before they did LBA3, or an all new story without the 3 in the title. It's just been too long.

[barkbat]

As long as it's got Twinsun and a whole shed load of rabbits and elephants, who cares what they call it.

And Wii is the perfect platform for it. Perfect.

[Wiper]

barkbat, on Dec 28 2006, 09:50 PM, said:

And Wii is the perfect platform for it. Perfect.

I dunno, the LBA games were always about taking solid, well-established control systems with solid, well-established game mechanics and marrying them to a richly realised world. There are many things the Wiimote can offer, but it's not ideal for more standard games (see the vast majority of multiformat crap on it) - I don't think it'd be the best choice for making an LBA game. Not saying Raynal can't (or won't) make a good game on the Wii, just that I don't see it as the logical destination for LBA 3.

[Cyhwuhx]

.::: Twinsun doing Jade controlled with Wii Remote gestures?

[Wiper]

That's just plain wrong.

Can't. Get. Images. Out of my head!

[Cyhwuhx]

Wiper, on Dec 28 2006, 11:14 PM, said:

That's just plain wrong.

Can't. Get. Images. Out of my head!

.::: How about adding Peej to the mix?

[Rsdio]

I got really near to the end of the first one but never completed it, I might try and download a copy from somewhere. All I remember is it was good but bastard hard, I imagine I'll play it now and wonder how I got so far in an age without GameFAQs and the like.

[barkbat]

Wiper, on Dec 28 2006, 10:06 PM, said:

I dunno, the LBA games were always about taking solid, well-established control systems with solid, well-established game mechanics and marrying them to a richly realised world. There are many things the Wiimote can offer, but it's not ideal for more standard games (see the vast majority of multiformat crap on it) - I don't think it'd be the best choice for making an LBA game. Not saying Raynal can't (or won't) make a good game on the Wii, just that I don't see it as the logical destination for LBA 3.

When LBA came out, the control system was actually a marriage of something new and something very strange.

The new part was the behavioural mechanic that changed the trajectory of the ball and the use of the action button. This sort of economical use of one main button for four abilities was genius and totally uncharted.

The strange part was having forward/back fixed and having to turn Twinsun clockwise/anitclockwise like a top down car game - actually very like the jeep in Halo. This was in some ways a step back and was not well recieved at the time. It took a good few hours to get used to.

I agree the world was richly realised.

For my money I think Mario Galaxy controls are perfect for LBA. Movement with nunchuck - point a cursor with the remote that aims the magic ball.

What would be great is if you could say hold B - which would freeze the pointing cursor - and then use a throw action with the remote to set the throw strenth/direction of the magic ball.

[Wiper]

Hmm, never realised the MicroMachines-style controls were poorly received, seemed intuitive to me at the time (essentially the same as Alone in the Dark/Ecstatica - the closest games to LBA that I can think of, but with very different moods and scale). I'd forgotten all about the stances as well - must be old age. I do, however, remember the amazing cruelty of the game dealing you damage if you should run into a wall.

I think the main issue I have is that the magic ball really didn't play that big a part for me. Aside from a few puzzles, I'd generally stick to fisticuffs or alternative weapons, and there weren't actually that many puzzles that needed it in the first place. It was always a game that relied more on the player's puzzle-solving than their gaming dexterity, and I'm not sure a sequel would benefit from more 'accurate' control system. To be honest, Beyond Good and Evil probably comes closest in my mind to making for a 'proper' LBA game, with its simple, mostly context-sensitive controls.

(Also, and I know I won't make many friends with this, the Nunchuck stick's horrid)