OtherSide Entertainment’s System Shock 3 is now officially in development. It also revealed some of the talented individuals that will be working alongside Warren Spector, the first game’s producer.

These include design director Sheldon Pacotti, who was lead write for both the first Deus Ex and Invisible War; tech director Jason Hughes, who worked on Wing Commander and Epic Mickey; and members from the original development teams including creative director Paul Neurathm, art director Nate Wells, lead designer Tim Stellmach and director Doug Church who will act as a creative consultant.

Even the original voice actress behind SHODAN, Terri Brosius, will be making her return (if the above mock-up wasn’t frightening enough already).

System Shock 3 is expected to release in 2017 but more information – including which platforms it releases on and whether it heads to VR – is still to come so stay tuned and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Night Dive Studios is moving ahead with plans for System Shock Remastered, releasing a teaser video on Facebook with the date “6.29.16” which translates to June 29th.

Unlike System Shock: Enhanced Edition which released on Steam last year, System Shock Remastered will be a remake of the original from the ground up. No details have been provided on changes but Night Dive will likely look to preserve the spirit of the original, having translated it to so well into a new era with the Enhanced Edition.

System Shock Remastered isn’t the only major title coming in the series. Night Dive is also working with Warren Spector, who worked on the original along with FPS/RPG hybrids like Deus Ex, to develop System Shock 3. How far off that is remains to be seen but there’s plenty to look forward to for fans of the franchise.

What are your thoughts on the System Shock Remastered? Let us know in the comments below.

Deus Ex director and System Shock producer along industry veteran Warren Spector is back in the limelight after joining OtherSide Entertainment to lead development on System Shock 3. However, the man had quite a bit to say about the current state of games. Speaking to Gamasutra, Spector believes there hasn’t been much progress made in this generation of titles.

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this – I’ll never work in this industry again – but in the mainstream space I really haven’t seen a whole lot of progress. It seems like we’re getting more finely tuned, prettier versions of games we’ve been playing for years.

“Thank god for the indie space; there are people trying interesting things there.”

As for what Spector has planned with OtherSide Entertainment, there are quite a few areas he wants to contribute to. “I see a variety of places where we could make some strides that would help take games to the next level. The biggest one, for me, is more robust characters and character AI.

“We’ve gotten very good at combat AI, we’ve made great strides there, but I don’t think we’ve done much in the world of non-combat AI and interacting with people – human or otherwise. We haven’t done a lot with conversation, and establishing emotional relationships with characters in games. So I’d very much like to play with that.”

Thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments.

OtherSide Entertainment, which is currently working on Underworld Ascendant and System Shock 3, has announced that Warren Spector has joined the company. Spector is best known for his efforts on the original Deus Ex and System Shock titles along with working at Looking Glass Studios, which created Ultima Underworld. In a fitting twist, he will be leading development on System Shock 3.

“I’ve loved working with students as Director of the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy in the University of Texas’ Moody College of Communication. But when the opportunity to have a bigger role in bringing Underworld Ascendant to life, as well as playing in the System Shock universe once again, helping to bring these games to a 21st century audience, I just couldn’t say no.

“Working on System Shock was one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done in my career and it’s hard to describe how much I’m looking forward to sharing with players what SHODAN has been up to since the last game was released.”

For now, Spector will be working on Underworld Ascendant. According to the studio, the development of System Shock 3 should “accelerate” under his direction.

Gaming slowly seems to be moving into a VR future, or that is what we have been led to believe, but personally, as someone who just went through the 3D gaming boom of a few years ago, I am not so sure that VR this time will amount to much outside of novelty either. Industry experts have expressed that opinion before, too. And now, Warren Spector, the mastermind of games such as System Shock, Deus Ex, and Thief, has chipped in too. And he, too, does not seem to be much impressed.

“I think it’ll generate some interest among the hardcore gamers. And I see amazing possibilities in VR for social media and virtual meetings and training and crazy stuff like dealing with phobias,” he said to GamesIndustry. “But for entertainment? I’m just not seeing it. I don’t think most humans want to look stupid (everyone looks stupid in a VR headset) and they don’t want to isolate themselves from the world. I mean, if someone’s sneaking up behind me with a baseball bat, I want to know about it, you know what I mean? And let’s not talk about nausea.”

That’s what the general consensus among VR cynics seems to be so far- VR may actually have some great applications outside of video games, but within video games? It probably does not stand much of a chance. That said, Spector’s stance comes as somewhat of a surprise, given how enthusiastic he was about stereoscopic 3D a few years ago.

The VR wave begins in earnest in a few months when Oculus Rift, Valve and HTC’s Vive, and Sony’s Morpheus all go on sale, so we will know for sure then.

Before Deus Ex went into prequel mode with Human Revolution and even the upcoming Mankind Divided, it was a series developed former id Software employee Warren Spector and Ion Storm. Spector has been in touch with the series till now and loved Deus Ex: Human Revolution. But in a recent Reddit AMA, he expressed some reservations about the trailer of Mankind Divided ((not the game per say).

“I thought the Mankind Divided trailer was pretty violence-o-rific, which bugged me a little. I mean, the DX game was never about killing stuff.

“Given how well DX:HR did at the whole choice and consequence idea I’m hoping – and have confidence – the actual game will be a little more in the playstyle matters mold. In trailers, you just have to give people the most action-packed stuff you can, I assume.

“I’ll definitely be playing Mankind Divided. Ask me then.”

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was announced for the PS4, Xbox One and PC recently and takes place two years after Human Revolution. What did you think of the reveal trailer? Let us know in the comments.

“Did the world really need another Wolfenstein game? Did we need a generically dark, monochromatic, FPS, kill-the-Nazi-giant-robot game? Uh. No. The world did not. I am so tired of stuff like this…Oh, and could we all just agree we’ll never use the generic gravelly-whisper trailer voice guy ever again?

“And one more thing: Please stop using Jimi Hendrix to promote your adolescent male power fantasies.”

Spector later took to posting again, apologizing for…well, just about everything. Because hell hath no fury like scorned fans.

Most especially, he apologized to the team at MachineGames. “I wasn’t trying to diss you or your game. I have total respect for anyone making a game. I know how hard it is…

“And to everyone who pointed out that I didn’t know enough about the game to judge, well, you were right. Consider this my mea culpa. I hope I can buy you guys a coffee or something at some show to make up for all this rigmarole.”

On one hand, not enough of the game has been shown to pass judgment. On the other, considering Spector’s status – and the fact that there ARE too many games like the ones he’s described, even if that doesn’t fully define The New Order – there is some merit to his views. But that’s just us. What do you think?

Warren Spector has revealed that there should be room for intellectual games as well as the normal stuff you see developers make. That’s how the medium can grow and mature, it doesn’t have to be one gaming genre against other.

“I’m not trying to limit game content – in no way am I or would I say all games should do anything, that we should give up genres, that our medium should eclipse some other medium or that we should try to do what any other medium does well,” he wrote on Gi.biz.

“I am suggesting that the medium benefits and our audience grows when some games do thing X, however you define X, and when we introduce new genres to supplement the ones we all know and love. (Hey, I’m into zombies, elemental magic and ray guns as much as the next guy!) We need to expand the range of game content, not limit it just to what we do now.

“No one should have to play ‘intellectual’ games, but that doesn’t mean people who want such games shouldn’t be allowed or able to play them. We deserve and our medium needs different games for different audiences.”

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

In fact, it could ironically be the first example of something that the Western RPG gaming industry loves these days: Player choice.

Spector states, “Without going into too much geeky detail, there are two moments in Suikoden where you are confronted with a choice. You are in the game world, and then a little box shows up in the corner that gives you a Yes/No choice. It’s ‘Do you leave your friend here to die or do you help him?’ And then at the end there is a ‘Do you fight your father? Yes/No.’ And, the thing was, in both cases it was a false choice.

“But I remember how powerful it was. I remember playing Suikoden, putting the controller down and going ‘Holy Cow, this has nothing to do with what the character would do, or the story, it’s who am I as a human being? Me? If that was a real choice, it would be the most amazing moment in the history of videogames, and I said ‘I’m going to make a game that has the most amazing moment in the history of videogames!’”

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Source: Siliconera

Disney Interactive vice president and general manager of production Bill Roper states, “It’s exciting to bring Nintendo fans ‘Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two’ on Nintendo’s revolutionary new game system. The technological advances of the Wii U system have allowed us to enhance player direction and provide our fans with an immersive as well as unique gaming experience.”

The new co-op play sets to introduce a “PlayStyle Matters” approach, pioneered by Warren Spector where “players tackle challenges the way they want to in order to explore a variety of possibilities and storylines, but always with consequences for their chosen actions”.

The Wii U GamePad will provide a real-time map of Wasteland with way-points and markers to help guide players through the different quests and side-quests. It also allows players to utilize sketches within the game