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E3 '07: Spielberg puzzling Wii, thrilling 360 & PS3

Legendary filmmaker tells <i>Newsweek</i> about the puzzle game and sci-fi adventure title he's working on with EA.

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SANTA MONICA, Calif.--At last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Electronic Arts announced it was collaborating with Steven Spielberg on two mystery games. Though few details were revealed at the time, EALA general manager Neil Young told GameSpot sister site News.com that the acclaimed director would be intimately involved in the projects' development.

"Steven's at the studio every week," Young said. "We're getting the first game rolling, and we want to understand what that is before we get going on the second. And Steven's great. He's humble but has strong opinions about story and also about game design. He's also flexible. We iterate the story and the game design almost every time we're together."

Now, over a year later, the first details about the aforementioned games are starting to work out. Speaking with Newsweek, Spielberg talked about both games.

The results? First up is an Wii "action-puzzle simulator" code-named "PQRS."Newsweek describes the game as melding the "the creativity of the building-blocks game Jenga with the charm of a Saturday-morning cartoon." It will reportedly allow players to intuitively manipulate said blocks with the Wii Remote's motion-sensing functionality.

The other game Spielberg is developing with EA is a futuristic PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 action-adventure game code-named "LMNO." One of the central aspects of the game will be a mysterious "computer-controlled woman" who will assist the game's protagonist. However, said female will apparently be more moody than Cortana in the Halo games, as her abilities will shift along with her relationship to said protagonist.

The changing rapport between game hero and virtual femme fatale is designed to draw the player further into the game, according to Spielberg. He told Newsweek that, "The challenge is, can the game have an emotional impact on players while they are actively manipulating the world?"

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