Joystiq [Xbox]

Shadowrun, Microsoft's Live Anywhere launch title, is coming along nicely, according to Lead Designer, John Howard. Howard is interviewed in the latest episode of Major Nelson's blogcast and speaks at length about his job and the development of Shadowrun. A few choice bits of information are revealed, chief among them is that Shadowrun will feature a party based online system similar to Halo 2. What this means is that friends will be able to form a party online and face other players as a team. Many of you will remember that Gears of War has been criticized for lacking such a system. With Shadowrun now including a party system, Epic's excuse for excluding the feature -- essentially, "Microsoft made us do it" -- is getting flimsier all the time. Howard also speaks to the age old debate of mouse vs. controller, stating that the issue doesn't even come up during Shadowrun play tests. He goes on to say that the controls were designed for the 360 first, which may explain how well they work. In fact, he says that many testers actually prefer the gamepad to a keyboard and mouse combo. Head over to Major Nelson to hear the whole interview. And, don't forget to sign up for the Shadowrun beta if you're interested.