January 2008
Abe’s Exoddus Short Film available for everyone!
Back in 1998 Oddworld Inhabitants submitted the first short film based on a video game for an Oscar Nomination. This film was mainly made with the CG movies contained in the game itself but has also exclusive footage to bind them all together and make the story understandable. This Short Film was shown for a very brief period in a local theatre and then only released on a very few videotapes. But today you can finally view this little piece of Oddworld history as it is hosted on the Oddworld Cinema. Enjoy it guys!
Guided tour to Oddworld Inhabitants
The old guided tour of Oddwolrd Inhabitants filmed by the GamePower crew of Jim TV has finally found his way to the internet and is hosted by the Oddworld Cinema (end of the page or download directly [DivX, 64MiB]).
This video is still interesting years after (it was filmed right after Munch’s Oddysee was finished), indeed it shows plenty of never seen anywhere concept art and explanations of Lorne himself of some creatures and characters that didn’t make it in the final version of Munch’s Oddysee.
I really hope you will enjoy this one.
Xbox 360 backward compatibility updates ‘winding down’
Having spoken to Albert Penello, group marketing manager for the Xbox 360, at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show, Kotaku is reporting that there may well be no more updates to the list of original Xbox titles made backward compatibile with the Xbox 360. This comes as disappointing news to fans of several popular (if not top selling) games, amongst them Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath.
Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee was finally made backward compatible in April, but there were numerous reports that the game ran with appalling audio quality that made GameSpeak, sound effects, and background music virtually inaudible.
Kotaku, quoting Penello, tells us not to hold our breath for further updates: ‘At this point the stuff that’s left is work per title, every title now is almost a one‐off. Right now we have to think, are we really going to do 300 one‐off titles? I know it’s not exactly the answer everyone wants to hear, but I feel like it’s time.’
Sources: Kotaku
Lorne interviewed at Revelations
Oblio and Phong of the ConceptArt.org Forums have been broadcasting live direct video feed from the Revelations workshop run by ConceptArt.org and Massive Black. Amongst numerous interviews (all initially broadcast live) is a 44‐minute chat with Lorne Lanning.
Lorne talks about the role of artists, video games as an art medium, the importance of economics, how he became an artist, and how aspiring artists can make their dreams come true.
Sources: Revelations, Ustream.tv