Like whatever that may be.

“The Ninja Theory one, though, is for senior QA, but as NT are doing things a bit differently (they don’t have a QA Manager, they’ve got a QA Lead doing the manager job, so the jobs are a ‘level’ higher than the title suggests), I’ll be doing what I’ve seen QA Leads doing at my other jobs. Leading a team, building a department, liaising much more with external/publisher QA. And it’s loads of money, and a much longer contract. I honestly can’t tell you how excited I am about it, and how eager to start I am.”

(source – Michael Bunning’s blog)

With Heavenly Sword on nr 2.

2) Heavenly Sword - Any action/adventure fan worth his salt knows of Dante, Kratos, and Ryu Hyabusa, but not many know of the red-headed femme fatale known as Nariko from Ninja Theory’s epic Heavenly Sword.

On the story front, the game follows the tale of young Nariko, who has been burdoned with the task of protecting the godly weapon the Heavenly Sword from evil King Bohan and his army. In a bit of desperation, she welds the sword, sealing her fate as it begins to eat away at her life force. The game is pure action and combat, with a three stance based fighting system, where moves can be chained into one another and stances switched on the fly for varied, seemless combat.

The visuals are absolutely stunning, and the story is both humorous, dramatic, and touching, with amazing motion capture and facial animation, and performances by the entire cast, in particular Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings) as King Bohan, and Anna Torve (Fringe) as Nariko. The combat is visceral, satisfying, and overall fun to play. The game was inexplicably lombasted by the media, killing any hopes of a sequel, but the story is self contained and concludes in a way that, despite leaving plenty of room for a sequel, is complete nontheless. A must have for action/adventure fans.

(source)

Rhianna Pratchett, the British game writer behind Heavenly Sword, Overlord (and its upcoming sequels), Mirror’s Edge and Viking: Battle For Asgard has launched her portfolio website, making it easier to keep track of her various projects. The website showcases all the games that she’s worked on, as well as her contributions to some game writing textbooks and her ongoing series of Mirror’s Edge comic books.

There are also links to interviews for those who want to get a little more insight into the person behind the words. From the look of things, the site won’t be updated for a while as Rhianna’s being kept fairly busy with Overlord 2 and the Wii and DS Overlord games. Now that she’s set up home on the internet, we wonder if she’ll be joining us on Twitter soon, too.

–> RihannaPratchett.com

(source)

Release April 9 : Heavenly Sword Mini-pack : $2.99/€2.99 (available permanently)
Containing costumes for both Kai and Nariko along with 27 Heavenly Sword themed stickers.

(source)

Top 10 most underrated games this generation, Heavenly Sword scores number 4.

4) Heavenly Sword- Again, much as been said about this game.  Particularly on how great it is, and how underrated it is.  Developed exclusivley for the PS3 by Ninja theory way back in 2007, the graphics still are miles ahead of some of what is being released today.  The story is about a gut wrenching tale of vengeance, and the cinematics are some of the best I’ve seen in video games.  The gameplay mimics God of War (which is not a bad thing at all). And might I add, the game creates one of the best villians in a game; King Bohan.  You can find this game easily for 30 dollars, so you don’t have an excuse not to play this.

(source)

Thank you mister hiphopgamer.

She’s the writer of the Heavenly Sword script.

Cambridge is often overlooked as a development hub, but its steady growth looks set to continue. Ed Fear caught up with some of the city’s studios to find out what makes it a good place to base a game company and their views on education in the industry.

Interview with Mike Ball and some other people in the game industry from Cambridge. Clicky

Enjoy

Art Director Mitch Phillips, who worked on the cut scenes for Heavenly Sword, is rejoining Ninja to work on a new super-secret project, and Dave Pajak (head of QA) and Dave Thatcher (tester) are going too.

Left to right: Dave P, Mitch, Dave T
(source)

Yah.. just so you know. lol

A member at the NT forums messaged me with a great theory about Ninja Theory working on the Avatar videogame.

Doing some more research on it, here’s what I found out:

• James Cameron selected Ubisoft to publish the game Avatar. NT’s new publisher was gonna be a massive one! Like maybe Ubisoft?
• Cameron picked a dev team based on visual quality of a game he’s seen.
  Read this:

“Philippa Boyens, writer for Lord of the Rings; Andy Serkis, the greatest motion capture actor of this age; Peter Jackson, the legend and my childhood hero; and James Cameron, the groundbreaking and blockbusting film-maker, all crouched down around me looking at Heavenly Sword and talking shop about the possibilities of motion capture and how it can be applied in games and movies in the future.”  -Tameem Antoniades

So James has sat with Ninja Theory on the same table before.

•  Wikipedia says:

When Avatar was titled “Project 880″, a casting call was put out in June 2006 with a plot description provided, saying, “In the future, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na’vi, a humanoid race with their own language and culture. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture.

Cameron described Avatar as “a futuristic tale set on a planet 200 years hence [...] an old-fashioned jungle adventure with an environmental conscience [that] aspires to a mythic level of storytelling.”[4] The January 2007 press release described the film: “Avatar is also an emotional journey of redemption and revolution. It is the story of a wounded ex-marine, thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in biodiversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival,” and “We’re creating an entire world, a complete ecosystem of phantasmagorical plants and creatures, and a native people with a rich culture and language.

Fits the artwork released by Ninja Theory:

• Andy Serkis, who is back with NT, has been with James Cameron to test if his ideas for the visual looks of Avatar would be able to become reality (source will be up as soon as I find it again)

Now read this:

“It was on the Avatar stage,” Serkis told us, referring to James Cameron’s currently shooting 3D CG sci-fi bonanza. “We had this incredible week. Cameron was there, Peter Jackson was there (who’s directing one of the three Tintin films), and Steven Spielberg was there (who’s directing another). All in the same room!” (source)

• Ninja Theory considers making a CGI movie in addition to the game (source). Coincidence that Avatar is a half real life/half CGI movie?

There are some big flaws in this theory though, because Ubisoft is indeed publishing the game, some websites also say they’re developing the game.

There are also rumours that the game is Xbox 360 exclusive, Ninja Theory is making a multiplatform game. (This rumor is pretty old though, started in 2007)

The game is expected to release in conjunction with the movie’s planned opening in May 2009, NT is probably not releasing anything in the next 2 years.