1979

[Dymez]

 

(CNN) -- Vice City. San Andreas. Liberty City. Tehran.

 

 

 

Three of these locales are instantly familiar to videogame diehards as settings in the "Grand Theft Auto" series, which has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide. The latter, however, is more commonly linked to news bulletins about the Iranian nuclear program or confrontational statements by the country's hardline Islamist president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

 

If Navid Khonsari, 41, has his way, Iran's capital city will soon be much more familiar to gamers. A director of the "Grand Theft Auto" series, the Iranian-born Khonsari's next game has a simple working title whose numerals denote a world of significance: "1979." And the game's tagline? "There are no good guys."

 

"1979" gets its name from the year when the hostage crisis at the U.S. embassy in Tehran began, which was during the height of Iran's Islamic Revolution. That year marked the overthrow of the dictator, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, by a populist revolt and the subsequent installation of a fundamentalist Islamic state.

 

The game aims to combine some sandbox, open-world elements popularized by "Grand Theft Auto" with what Khonsari calls a "baton-pass" narrative, which explores this historic backdrop through the sequential perspectives of several playable characters.

 

"I want people to understand the incredible moral ambiguity of this story, that this was a country with many different ideas and beliefs," Khonsari said in an exclusive interview with CNN. "Growing up in Iran when I did, I saw Iranians in the greatest light, and I saw them in the worst light."

 

Shortly after the fall of the shah, Khonsari's family fled Iran for Canada. Khonsari moved to the West Coast as an adult to pursue a career as a filmmaker. He later moved to New York City and applied his talents to an up-and-coming studio named Rockstar Games.

 

"I was the cinematic director for 'GTA 3,' 'Vice City' and 'San Andreas,' as well as the two Max Payne games, 'Red Dead Revolver' and 'Bully,' " he said. "Anything that came out through Rockstar between 2001 and 2005, I was fortunate enough to be involved in.

 

"My main job, and what grew into my current passion, was bringing that cinematic 'feel' to video games."

 

After he left Rockstar, Khonsari founded his own game-production company, iNKstories, which he co-runs with his wife, Vassiliki. The duo already have two blockbuster titles under their belt, "Alan Wake" and "Homefront." They aim for "1979" to be the third.

 

The gameplay of '1979'

 

At the game's outset, the player is an American/Iranian translator on a mission to rescue the embassy hostages. The player must choose one of three historically inspired ways to enter Iran: By helicopter with a U.S. special forces team, through the Iraq border with Saddam Hussein's army or across the Afghanistan border with the Taliban.

 

In these preliminary levels, the game plays as a fairly standard third-person shooter, with some linguistic puzzles that will test your character's imperfect mastery of the Farsi language.

The gameplay of "1979" includes morally ambiguous elements of diplomacy, stealth and bartering.

 

"But once you get into Iran, you're no longer the translator," he said. "You take the role of a student demonstrator who was opposed the shah. You've kicked the shah out, but you're unhappy with some of these fanatical elements you see rising up.

 

"So the game changes, and now your mission is to get this small military group to Tehran, but nonviolently, clandestinely. You want the American hostages out of Iran because you want the country to focus on rebuilding itself, and you've heard all these rumors about a war with Iraq coming."

 

This, Khonsari explains, is where gameplay shifts to include some morally ambiguous elements of diplomacy, stealth and bartering. Each time the baton passes to a new character, the style of gameplay changes, too. Some characters will focus more on action, while others will feature vehicles and puzzle-solving.

 

"Not everyone you meet is going to be helpful," he said. "There are going to be aspects of bribery, making exchanges and turning a blind eye to really bad stuff so you can get the job done.

 

"Maybe, in order to get the group there, you need to sacrifice some stragglers and let them get captured so the others can get away. And then you'll have some extreme choices to make when you get to Tehran: Are you going to invade the embassy, guns blazing, to try to get the hostages back? Or are you going to try to protect the embassy from the Americans?

 

"People who might not be completely familiar with the game world look at fancy graphics and polished gameplay and say 'this is cutting edge,' " he continued. "But from what I've seen, it's still quite basic. Very much a checkers mentality -- red against black, good against evil. I'm interested in having good and evil within the same character, and for you to experience both. I think that's true to life, and I think you can design a game around that, too."

 

A multiplayer version is also in the works, with 12 maps planned for release. The multiplayer modes will feature differing combinations of straightforward gun combat with ruthless negotiation and decision-making.

 

First in a franchise?

 

Though the game is still in the alpha stage of development and at least a year and a half away from release, Khonsari hopes the success of "1979" will breed a franchise of similar games.

 

"(This is) the first installment of a franchise where the games will be named after years in which there were CIA operations within certain countries," he said. " '1979' is the first one because it's closest to my heart and I know the story the best. After that, we want to explore what took place in Panama with (Manuel) Noriega, and Libya back in the '70s and '80s with (Moammar) Gadhafi."

 

Khonsari's heritage is one reason he's not concerned with political correctness in his treatment of one of the United States' supposedly implacable enemies.

 

"Iranians are going to criticize me because I'm making a game that 'promotes American imperialists going in and shooting Iranians,' " he said. "Americans are going to criticize me because I'm making a game that 'glorifies Islamic fundamentalism,' or something. I'm not going to please everyone, and the point of the game isn't to do that.

 

"I think that being able to base a game in contemporary historical truths is significant, besides being educational," he said. "It opens people's eyes to look beyond what they're reading in the paper and realize that there's a definite relationship between history and the headlines.

 

"Most of the people who are playing games nowadays were born after 1980 -- after the Iranian Revolution. People are so quick to accept the official record of things as 'history,' without examining everything that's gone on in the last 40, 50, 60 years. It's important we remember these things, and work to keep them relevant."

[Djdevin10]

Hmm, I couldve Sworn i saw this Before

[Sunrise Driver]

Saw this article today. Very interesting project. Pity that it'll be released only in 1.5 years as earliest.

[uNi]

Sources?

[Djdevin10]

was it confirmed today?

[Sunrise Driver]

CNN article.

 

Game was revealed by Russia Today on 13 February.

[Brown Sugar]

very interesting to read about this, however, one thing I noticed while reading the article was that although he was involved in creating many great games such as gta and max payne, it mentions he was involved in homferont, I guess this game will be a hit or a miss although it's too early to say anything about it.

[Rucke]

Dude was Rockstar's in-house voice over and mo-cap director. That probably means that the cinimatics in this game will be stellar.

 

I'm also pretty sure this guy voiced "Dwaine" in GTA Vice City and San Andreas. I remember the name.

[DannyBee]

I'm interested, I will want to hear more stuff nearer the time...

[Don Garcia]

This sounds ambitious as sh*t. Why do I feel like it will become farcical and fail?

[Barry Spock]

This sounds ambitious as sh*t. Why do I feel like it will become farcical and fail?

Because you're a pesimist.

 

 

I think it sounds fascinating. If it works it'll be another step toward video games being considered as much more than 'games'.

[Daz]

Tip: Don't choose the helicopter with Delta Force.

 

Operation Eagle Claw was a bollock failure.

 

 

They should have waited a year and join in on the next iranian embassy situation, with SAS.

[GrandMaster Smith]

A gta set in the middle east designed around political issues? Sounds awesome

[Finn 7 five 11]

Dude was Rockstar's in-house voice over and mo-cap director. That probably means that the cinimatics in this game will be stellar.

 

I'm also pretty sure this guy voiced "Dwaine" in GTA Vice City and San Andreas. I remember the name.

@ Grandmaster, i doubt it will be much like GTA.

 

I think the cinematics will be great, i also think the game will be heavily story based.

I think that he might be part of the reason the filming from the III era is very different from GTA IV.

[darthYENIK]

I'm crossing my fingers for a pre-order bonus "Ayatollah Assahola" T-shirt.

[AceRay]

don't forget, he also made Homefront, so this might suck. On the the other hand, he also did Alan Wake, which I loved to the core, so I'm a bit indifferent on this.

If they pull it off, its going to be awesome.

[E.A.B.]

If it works it'll be another step toward video games being considered as much more than 'games'.

Really don't care about that.

 

People are always going on about video games not being ''respected''

 

And it really shouldn't matter. Getting a hard-on from faxing pictures of my ass might not be ''respected'', but I do it because I enjoy it.

 

Isn't that what matters? Your own enjoyment? Who gives a flying f*ck what Ebert thinks of your video game, or the sales of the game. The love should be of the game, not the respect it ''deserves''. Besides, pandering might lead to diluting of what made it fun for the original fanbase.

 

I might enjoy GTA, but I also like my unrealistic, colorful, retarded game worlds. I hate how games are taking themselves too seriously nowadays. ''If it isn't set in an accurate historical period, what will people think!''

 

Then again, that's moot since you can have realism alongside wackiness. So I guess the whole point goes out the window.

 

 

I'm crossing my fingers for a pre-order bonus "Ayatollah Assahola" T-shirt.

The highlight of this announcement:Possibilities of THIS

[Daz]

don't forget, he also made Homefront, so this might suck.

That is funny because I was about to mention that game.

 

Just because they have an amazing idea for the story and theme, the number one thing they need to be looking into first, is the engine and the gameplay.

 

Story should ALWAYS be second to the gameplay. It should be the last layer on top of the gameplay. When they try and do too much with a game they tend to forget all about the mechanics of the game and it ends up sucking balls.

 

Such as Homefront. What could have been an awesome RPG'ish styled survival and guerilla game. Turned out to just be a pathetic cod clone.

 

No matter what game they offer, dont bother getting excited till you get to see some actual gameplay footage, and not cinematized like the GTA4 trailers.

 

False hope kills.

[E.A.B.]

 

Story should ALWAYS be second to the gameplay. It should be the last layer on top of the gameplay. When they try and do too much with a game they tend to forget all about the mechanics of the game and it ends up sucking balls.

It's all about the complete package

 

Games like Killer 7 and No More Heroes (GCN and Wii respectively) were a mixture of story, suspense, odd gameplay mechanics and an unconventional sense of humor that made them unique from any other game on the market.

 

Of course, the gmaeplay on the titles (Killer7 moreso) was VERY unconventional and...sh*t. You gotta play it to understand it. But the bottom line is that gameplay wasn't necessarily first, and it didn't matter

[D- Ice]

In such revolutions, coups and other types of internal unrest in countries, crime, politics and the military is intrinsically fused into fascinating, and at times very complex, systems intensly waging bloody war against one another.

 

This would make an absolutely amazing basis for a videogame genre. In Fact, it is not completely novel, and has been explored before in The Godfather Part 2 The Game, and the use of the Italian-American Mafia by the CIA against Fidel Castro. It has even been touched upon in previous GTA games, like in GTA 3 with Donald Love, and in GTA SA with Mike Toreno. However, most games today still only focus on either crime or straightforward military combat, none really explore this fusion of crime and urban violence with politics, war and revolutions.

 

I also love the whole ethical and moral grey-area in the game, I lost so much respect to the whole videogaming franchise due to the superficial and naive all-good vs. all evil morals involved in virtually all videogames.

 

This exploration of the intertwining system of politics, military and urban crime, as well as the realistic moral grey-area involved in most conflicts worldwide is infact the basis of my ideal GTA idea, though that is based in a fictional near-future city as opposed to Iran.

 

I am also very interested in the setting of that game - is it going to be based mainly in Tehran or loads of small and undetailed stages across Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. I personally think the game is best set in Tehran's urban environment, you can probably smuggle the US Special Forces, Iraqi Special Forces or Taliban Fighters around the city, and do missions to help them out with their final job.

 

Personally, I'm really looking forward to this game.

 

 

Edited August 12, 2011 by D- Ice

[Daz]

 

Story should ALWAYS be second to the gameplay. It should be the last layer on top of the gameplay. When they try and do too much with a game they tend to forget all about the mechanics of the game and it ends up sucking balls.

It's all about the complete package

 

Games like Killer 7 and No More Heroes (GCN and Wii respectively) were a mixture of story, suspense, odd gameplay mechanics and an unconventional sense of humor that made them unique from any other game on the market.

 

Of course, the gmaeplay on the titles (Killer7 moreso) was VERY unconventional and...sh*t. You gotta play it to understand it. But the bottom line is that gameplay wasn't necessarily first, and it didn't matter

I agree that atmosphere and the feel of the game as a whole is the main goal. Games such as Mirrors Edge which I class as one of my top 5 games ever made, if not the best. Gameplay wasnt really anything to mention but it had the atmosphere.

 

But really they need to get at least a base game to work, especially in order to be a sandbox game. Even GTA4 got sh*t and boring fast, infact I still do not like the gameplay at all. The driving was the best out of any driving game, but combat and animations and such on foot really ruined it. Story sucked and I really didnt get much out of it.

 

What people need to understand is, are you making a movie, or a videogame, you need to really choose one or the other, it is very rare you get both of each, exception being Metal Gear games.

 

Is it going to be a game you spend a weekend on, finish then never play it again, or is it something you can always put in and f*ck around with the gameplay for years after release.

 

Either make a good story orientated game and build some gameplay around it, like LA Noire, but once its done, it is done. Or make a propper VIDEOGAME for people to actually play and have fun with, and not focus too much on throwing story right the f*ck at you.

 

In my opinion, having so much story and theme set out from the get go, they say it is definitely going to be this certain way, only offers more chances for it to fail. It gets more dissolved and ends up being a hollow shell of its original idea.

 

After all, story is not just the huge cinematic cutscenes, but also the little things, such as reading journal logs on a computer in an abandoned factory. Just like the Fallout games. You can choose to get more story out of it, or you can ignore it.

[Shayan Shaffey]

This is going to be AMAZING, very AMAZING. Imagine driving to my own neighborhood and Killing some mofos! The eagle has landed BIZNACH!

Edited August 13, 2011 by shayanshaffey

[Barry Spock]

If it works it'll be another step toward video games being considered as much more than 'games'.

Really don't care about that.

 

People are always going on about video games not being ''respected''

 

And it really shouldn't matter. Getting a hard-on from faxing pictures of my ass might not be ''respected'', but I do it because I enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

I'm crossing my fingers for a pre-order bonus "Ayatollah Assahola" T-shirt.

The highlight of this announcement:Possibilities of THIS

Good point (about enjoyment).

 

 

I was thinking about how games can tell a story too. TV shows, movies tell stories. Video games are doing it more now too. And not just the obvious bits, like cut scenes. Even games like GT5 have a narrative.

I'm just interested in studying the stories people create and tell to eachother.

 

 

And now, back to the 1979 thread.

 

 

I hope it includes disco music.

[Slamman]

Of course I remember President Carter, and not long ago saw a documentary on the historical timelines and events, I remember him wanting a resolve to this before the elections and changing of the guard, President Reagan at the time they were released. I wouldn't predict it to be like GTA however, that would be hard to envision, No one's really done a GTA style game properly, Saint's Row is different, and how close can someone get to emulating GTA games, and do it REALLY well too? That's still a question without an answer

[Shayan Shaffey]

I hate my neighbors, maybe I can kill them! MUHAHAHA I always wanted to see what my city looked like in the 70's

[E.A.B.]

 

In such revolutions, coups and other types of internal unrest in countries, crime, politics and the military is intrinsically fused into fascinating, and at times very complex, systems intensly waging bloody war against one another.

Holy f*ck;

 

Part 1, 2, and 3

 

Part 1 being a civilian perspective, rural or urban.

Part 2 being militarily

Part 3 being political (can be mixed in with the military and part 3 can be US perspective instead)

 

Holy f*ck, you just made me excited for this. Part 1 can explore the shahs rule and go through the day in the life of a peasant or something. Make it exciting though. No farming or none of that sh*t.

 

Hell, you might be able to split it into three seperate games, each with different gameplay elements but having basic GTA mechanics at its core.

 

oh man...I CAN f*ckIGN SEE IT

 

 

 

What people need to understand is, are you making a movie, or a videogame, you need to really choose one or the other, it is very rare you get both of each, exception being Metal Gear games.

 

I agree with everything you said, except maybe this...

 

I've only played the first one, and I LOOOOOOOVED it. But at the same time, real life politics were involved in it, which I got the general gist of. The problem being, though, that theres a huge backstory involved with using such a subject that most people will not understand. It severely limits the games audience, and I much rather prefer games with their own self-contained story that anyone from any country can follow.

 

Most Southern Americans, East Asians, and Africans don't really care much about the USSR and nukes. Some backstory would have done, or at least an introduction for retards.

[TellEmRye]

A gta set in the middle east designed around political issues? Sounds awesome

It's not a GTA title, the project is clearly called '1979', it says that in huge writing at the top.

 

On topic: I think this sounds like a very interesting title, I really do hope it makes it to store shelves because i'm definitely interested in purchasing a copy. I really love games that involve real life historical moments, as it's probably the closest i'll ever get to that particular moment in my life.

[fgcarva1]

I am interested in seeing more of this game. Sounds fantastic to be honest.

[gta_fan28]

Very interesting article. So do u think this game would be similar on Agent? I know both games are different. In my opinion from the sound of it it's looks similar from Agent. I know we don't have any info about the Agent gameplay yet, but we all know it's late 70's during coldwar. The game is set during the Cold War and will take players into "the world of counter-intelligence, espionage and political assassinations", according to a Rockstar press release.

[Sunrise Driver]

N.Khonsari speaks about himself and 1979 Game and other stuff.

http://new.livestream.com/g4c/deconstructing