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July 30, 2004
Outrun 2 coming to your Xbox in October
Oooh! Oooh! You can have your DOOM III, Outrun 2 is what I'm drooling over. Microsoft has released some details about the upcoming racer. With a few Ferraris and 15+ tracks, this should be a blast. The kicker? Xbox Live support.
The official Xbox Outrun 2 site has some nice screens and a video.
Posted by jb at 03:53 PM
History of Papyrus Racing Games
Before being shut down by Vivendi this past May, Papyrus was known for producing top-notch, realistic racing sims. Founded in 1987, Papyrus went on to produce the following:
- Indianapolis 500: The Simulation (1989)
- IndyCar Racing (1993)
- NASCAR Racing (1994)
- IncyCar Racing II (1995)
- NASCAR Racing 2 (1996)
- Grand Prix Legends (1998)
- NASCAR Legends (1998)
- NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition
- NASCAR Racing 3 (2000)
- NASCAR Racing 4 (2001)
- NASCAR Racing 2002 Season
- NASCAR Racing 2003 Season
Gamespot has created a nice look back at the history of Papyrus Racing, it's worth a look. You might also want to take a look at our post regarding the possible rebirth of Papyrus games.
Posted by jb at 10:50 AM
USB classic controllers
Via insert credit. RetroZone sells your favorite classic controllers in USB form, ready for some hot emulator action. They have NES, SNES, Genesis, Atari 2600, NES Advantage and SNES Advantage versions currently available. If you're feeling frisky, they also sell a RetroKit so you can convert your own.
Posted by jb at 09:38 AM
July 29, 2004
The Laws of Online Gaming
I sometimes fancy that I could be a valuable contributor to game design. Then I remember that the average person believes themselves to be of above average intelligence, but I digress. In thinking about the underlying concepts of game design, one could spend months tearing through their own personal feelings about what's important and what isn't, and if they're good enough, constantly worry that their opinion is single minded in it's nature.
Or you could read Raph Koster's view on the subject. He's a Creative Director for Star Wars Galaxies, and has developed into quite the guru on the subject. This guy has a really big brain.
"Game design is an art and a craft, and like all arts and crafts, it has techniques and approaches, and that implies that it can support a criticism; said criticism exists though it is not very sophisticated. Mud design is also an art and a craft, and it also has techniques and approaches, but there is no criticism, no self-evaluation, no standards defined, no study of what has gone before. And without self-critique, it cannot improve except in fits and starts. If this genre is to evolve into more than game design, which I firmly believe it has already begun to do, then it will have to support at least the critical apparatus of game design, and preferably the critical apparatus of many disciplines that most people do not bother to link: server design, and writing, and hypertextual theory, and art (for graphics are coming and will dominate, it's not worth fighting over), and psychology and sociology... Game designers today generally do not know even the short history of computer game design; we must as a community educate ourselves and each other if we want the community and its art and craft to grow."
Posted by at 04:44 PM
July 28, 2004
Nintendo DS final design
Nintendo has revealed their final design for the DS handheld unit. (heh, handheld unit..) Also, they've announced that the name will in fact be the DS.
Definitely a sleeker look than the prototypes seen previously. The DS should be available in North America, Japan and Europe early next year.
Posted by jb at 11:08 PM
Battlefield Vietnam patch 1.1 released
After the previously-mentioned delay, EA has released the 1.1 patch for Battlefield Vietnam.
- New map: Defense of Con Thien which features 3 new vehicles (OH-6 Loach scout chopper, Ka-25 attack chopper, stationary M60 emplacements)
- MapVote/KickVote/Buddy GUI from BF1942
- Server IP and name now appear on Tab screen
- Server favorites now in server list screen (finally!)
- 3D map now shows friendly mines, traps, explosives, ammo and medicine boxes
- Choppers now have a flight ceiling
- Many other fixes
Posted by jb at 10:55 PM
July 27, 2004
Playstation 3 to use OpenGL?
There is a rumor going around that Sony is may use OpenGL for PS3 game development. Much of this rumor is based on the fact that Sony recently joined the Khronos Group which is dedicated to delivering non-royalty APIs such as OpenGL, OpenML and OpenVG.
If true, this will be a major, and much needed, boost to the OpenGL community.
Posted by jb at 11:14 AM
July 26, 2004
Adventure game revival
Some of my fondest gaming memories involve random clicking and princess saving. I grew up on Roberta William's brilliant King's Quest and LucasArts' Monkey Island, and I miss the old-school adventure genre. I want my Guybrush Threepwood!
Well, it seems that some ex-LucasArts folks have decided that adventure gaming needs a revival. Forming Autumn Moon, these talented developers are working on a project titled A Vampyre Story, and it sounds fantastic. They're still looking for a publisher, and completion is a long way away.
"You have heard of starving artists, right? They starve because they have to do what they love, market be damned. Well fortunately we love adventure games and they do sell, so we won't starve. But we create them not to get rich; we create them because we love it. Adventure games are an art form, very much like films and literature. But the great thing about them is that the viewer, or the audience, is the protagonist. The creators of these games still use all the time-tested techniques and conventions pioneered in the filmmaking, illustration and story-telling professions. We feel it is a natural next step in the evolution of story-telling."
You can also read about The Vampyre Story in the June edition of The Inventory.
Posted by jb at 05:30 PM
The never-ending train of DOOM III details continues
Although I suppose we could stop posting them, but that wouldn't be much fun either. From Robert Duffy's .plan:
Image fidelity is dependent on what quality level we load the textures at.
In Ultra quality, we load each texture; diffuse, specular, normal map at full resolution with no compression. In a typical DOOM 3 level, this can hover around a whopping 500MB of texture data. This will run on current hardware but obviously we cannot fit 500MB of texture data onto a 256MB card and the amount of texture data referenced in a give scene per frame ( 60 times a second ) can easily be 50MB+. This can cause some choppiness as a lot of memory bandwidth is being consumed. It does however look fantastic :-) and it is certainly playable on high end systems but due to the hitching that can occur we chose to require a 512MB Video card before setting this automatically.
High quality uses compression ( DXT1,3,5 ) for specular and diffuse and no compression for normal maps. This looks very very close to Ultra quality but the compression does cause some loss. This is the quality that for instance the PC Gamer review was played in.
Medium quality uses compression for specular, diffuse, and normal maps. This still looks really really good but compressing the normal maps can produce a few artifacts especially on hard angled or round edges. This level gets us comfortably onto 128MB video cards.
Low quality does everything medium quality does but it also downsizes textures over 512x512 and we downsize specular maps to 64x64 in this mode as well. This fits us onto a 64MB video card.
Posted by jb at 05:15 PM
Counter-Strike Source impressions
Via Bluesnews. The kids over at Half-Life Radio recently received a glimpse at CS:Source, and were impressed.
"With the wild popularity of the original CS, and the high expectations of it’s devout followers, this game must deliver. And from what I saw, deliver it does. You will not be disappointed."
Posted by jb at 05:09 PM
Professional gaming is hard
K5 has an interesting article about the current state of professional gaming in the US. The author points out 2 significant reasons why the sport is failing:
- Lack of a proper competitive platform (eg. the game changes and everyone's screwed)
- Games aren't made for competition play
It seems to us that these two problems are closely joined, and probably could be solved through some type of game studio/organizing body joint effort.
The bottom line is that unless you live in Korea, there's not much reality in the world of professional gaming. And here we thought it was all about non-stop parties, loads of cash, free hardware and prize Ferraris.
Posted by jb at 09:38 AM
July 24, 2004
Bungie and Microsoft are messing with us
The good news is that the trailer for Halo 2 currently playing in theatres is now available for download. The better news is that there's a very high-res version available too (1920x1080).
The really strange news is that there is a subliminal message hidden within. The www.xbox.com in the Xbox logo changes to www.ilovebees.com for a fraction of a second. A visit to this site shows some strangeness that is indicitive of a weird promotional/alternate reality game like that done for AI.
A little investigation:
A quick Netcraft query shows the following:
13-JUL-2004
Windows 2000/Apache 1.3.19
16-JUL-2004
Windows Server 2003/Microsoft-IIS/6.0
17-JUL-2004
Windows 2000/Apache 1.3.19
If you look at the meta keywords on ilovebees.com, you'll see "bee hoax, bee game" among other words.
Update 24-7-04:
Both ilovebees.com and ilovebees.net are owned by Margaret's House of Bees. If you dig (domain information groper) ilovebees.net, you get the following:
ilovebees.net. 66.150.161.135
ilovebees.net. 66.150.161.136
ilovebees.net. 66.150.161.140
ilovebees.net. 66.150.161.141
ilovebees.net. 69.25.27.170
ilovebees.net. 69.25.27.173
ilovebees.net. 66.150.161.133
ilovebees.net. 66.150.161.134
Sounds like lil old Margaret knows how to configure a load balanced server environment. (or at least know enough to tell Rackspace she needs one)
Update 25-7-04:
It seems Bungie has a history of guerilla marketing. The whole thing seems to be indicating that the Marathon storyline will be part of Halo2.
Update 25-7-04:
There's now a netninja wiki dedicated to solving the i love bees mystery.
You can buy the t-shirt now too.
An interesting question is, what's to prevent some nefarious folks from hijacking the plotline and planting their own clues and story details? I suppose the same level of investigative work currently underway would uncover such a plot, but it could be interesting.
Weird.
Download the low-res version here.
Download the high-res version here.
There's a forum discussing it now over at unfiction.
Posted by jb at 12:13 PM
Battlefield Vietnam patch 1.1 delayed a week
The Battlefield Vietnam 1.1 patch previously reported has been pushed back a week. The official BFV site reports that EA and DICE are taking some extra time to make sure testing is complete.
To tide us over, EA has posted some comparison screens of the new WWII mod vs. the original Battlefield 1942. You can see before and after pics of the Invasion of the Philippines, Wake Island and Iwo Jima maps.
Posted by jb at 10:18 AM
July 23, 2004
Far Cry "unpatched"
Via Bluesnews. A follow-up to this entry.
"In an unusual move, Ubi Soft Entertainment has recalled the recent version 1.2 retail patch for Far Cry, due to "unexpected behaviour on specific hardware configurations. These matters are mainly due to incompatibilities with several optimisations brought lately to the code, with the intent to please a large number of users." Consequently we have restored the version 1.1 patch."
Posted by jb at 02:34 PM
EA and Crytek hook up
EA and Crytek (the developer of Far Cry) have entered into a partnership. Crytek had a one-title deal with Ubisoft, and it seems as though they're ready to move on.
"Although the new game which is being created for EA will not be the sequel to Far Cry which the team mentioned at ECTS last year - and indeed, it's not clear whether that is still even on the cards - it's expected that it will use at least some of the technology from the graphically stunning CRY engine."
Posted by jb at 11:38 AM
Game development in Singapore
Gamedev.net has posted the second installment of their GamePort: Game Development in Singapore series. This version takes a look at some existing shops in Singapore.
"There are challenges facing game developers in Singapore, like a shortage of skilled, experienced staff, limited funds, and a culture that has historically been more conservative than creative. However, this hasn't stopped passionate developers from doing everything they can to get their games made."
Posted by jb at 10:49 AM
Worst comic adaptations
Gamespy has finished their look at the worst comic to video conversions of all time. Not surprisingly, they've selected Superman 64 as the most hideous.
"Lex Luthor has kidnapped those closest to Superman and trapped them inside of some kind of virtual world. It's then up to Superman to enter this VR world and rescue his friends, all while battling re-creations of some of his greatest enemies. Sound interesting? Trust me … it isn't. The story is nothing more than an excuse to try and get a bunch of Superman's villains together into one place."
Posted by jb at 09:59 AM
July 22, 2004
Don't blame the pirates
An article over at JoeUser.com by the creator of Galactic Civilizations I and II discusses the real financial problem within the games industry.
"So don't talk to me about piracy. It's not the pirates that have ripped us off of hundreds of thousands in lost royalties. It's been "Real businesses" doing that thank you very much. The position of royalty eating parasite has already been taken."
"It's the demographic of people who allegedly do all this pirating that's been paying our bills. People with Internet connections who download games. They pay my salary. They are my overlord now. So I hope you can excuse me if I don't lose sleep at night that some 15 year old might have downloaded my game while some executive at a company (or former company) is sailing on their boat paid for by my hard work. The software pirate can go to jail on a felony, the business executive who doesn't pay royalties gets off the hook."
Posted by jb at 02:17 PM
Xbox Live interview with Larry Hryb
ActiveXBox.com has an interview with Larry Hryb, the Director of Programming for Xbox Live. The inteview does a great job of shedding some light on the inner workings of the service. Some interesting tidbits from the article:
- The Xbox Live team consists of about 100 people of various disciplines
- The service has over 1 million subscribers
- Players in 24 countries have spent more than 160 million hours (or 20,000 years) playing Xbox Live
- Members are playing an average of 265,549 hours every day
- The top 15 cities worldwide boasting the most Xbox Live members are Tokyo; London; Houston; Chicago; Toronto; San Diego; New York; Brooklyn, N.Y.; Los Angeles; Miami; Seattle; Calgary, Alberta, Canada; San Antonio; Las Vegas; and Seoul, Korea
Larry also has his own blog, which can be found at majornelson.com.
Posted by jb at 01:20 PM
Modchips now illegal in the UK
Worst. Ruling. Ever. Sony just won a large victory against David Bell, a reseller of PS2 mod chips.
"The judge, Mr Justice Laddie, ruled that the defendant, Mr David Ball, had behaved unlawfully by selling 1,500 Messiah 2 modification chips ("mod chips") to customers in the UK. The mod chips which Mr Ball had sold had circumvented the copy protection measures on the PlayStation 2 console and allowed pirated copies of PlayStation 2 games, unauthorised copies of PlayStation 2 software (backups) and unlicensed Japanese and American PlayStation 2 software to be played.
The presiding judge then went further and confirmed that using such devices, knowing that they allow you bypass the PlayStation 2 console's technical protection measures to play pirated or copied games, is unlawful. He also concluded that advertising such devices and possessing them for a commercial purpose was also illegal.
Ok, so let me get this straight. It's illegal to sell modchips, it's illegal to adversise modchips; it's not illegal to own one, but it is illegal to use one. It turns out the PS2 you bought with your hard earned money isn't yours to tinker with after all.
Jackasses, all of them.
Posted by jb at 12:01 PM
Playboy: The Mansion interview
Via /. Warcry.com has a 3 part interview with Brenda Brathwaite, the lead designer for Playboy: The Mansion.
"I can, obviously, also look at it objectively," she continued. "If you could see my desk now, you'll notice that the floor is stacked with nearly 300 Playboy magazines. I can flip through those magazines and not have it effect me in the same way that it would clearly affect a heterosexual male."
Posted by jb at 10:42 AM
DOOM 3 benchmarks released by id
We're getting tired of DOOM 3 news, we just want to stop talking about it and play the damn thing. Anyhoo, id has released some performance specs, pitting ATI against NVIDIA. John Carmack, however, offers a few words of caution.
"It should be noted that all of the modern cards play the game very well, and benchmark scores should not be the be-all-end-all decision maker. Scores will probably improve somewhat with future driver releases, and other factors like dual slots or dual power connectors can weigh against some of the high end cards.
The benchmarking was conducted on-site, and the hardware vendors did not have access to the demo before hand, so we are confident that there is no egregious cheating going on, but it should be noted that some of the ATI cards did show a performance drop when colored mip levels were enabled, implying some fudging of the texture filtering. This has been a chronic issue for years, and almost all vendors have been guilty of it at one time or another. I hate the idea of drivers analyzing texture data and changing parameters, but it doesn't visibly impact the quality of the game unless you know exactly what to look for on a specific texture. On the other hand, the Nvidia drivers have been tuned for Doom's primary light/surface interaction fragment program, and innocuous code changes can "fall off the fast path" and cause significant performance impacts, especially on NV30 class cards.
A note on overclocking: it is very likely that overclocked configurations that "play everything else perfectly" will start to show problems on D3 due to new usage patterns. Everyone is of course free to do whatever they want with their own hardware, but don't complain to us..."
Posted by jb at 10:16 AM
In-game advertising gets some funding
Via Terra Nova. Massive Inc., a company focused on in-game advertising, just received $5.5 million in funding. This will supposedly help with their planned launch of a dynamic video game advertising network this October.
"Today’s announcement is the latest milestone for Massive in advance of the October launch of its dynamic video game advertising network, which promises to quickly become one of the most powerful opportunities for global brands to reach the coveted 18-34 male demographic. With this key audience increasingly shunning prime time television and print for interactive video entertainment such as online and console games, the Massive network will enable advertisers to serve dynamic, real-time ads into the environment in which young men now spend their time."
Uggh.
Posted by jb at 09:59 AM
Call of Duty 2 confirmed
Activision CEO Ron Doornink confirms that Call of Duty is planned for the 2005 fiscal year. No word on what platforms the WWII shooter will ship.
Posted by jb at 09:42 AM
Far Cry 1.2 patch is out
Crytek has posted the 1.2 patch for Far Cry. Quick list of features:
- Quicksave support
- Fixes Punkbuster problems
- Fixes some issues with headshot detection
- Various weapon tweaks
Posted by jb at 09:38 AM
July 21, 2004
Trent Reznor on DOOM III
Via Bluesnews. Trent Reznor addresses his absence from DOOM III in a discussion on the NIN site.
"john carmack and i had established a friendship while working on quake. he came to see up playing during the last tour and wanted to get my feelings on a remake of doom with a new advanced engine he was working on. we discussed how cool it would be to create a place that was immersive to the point it wouldn't need a "soundtrack" -- the technology was advanced enough to visually and aurally to create a rich environment you could truly explore and inhabit. we discussed my involvement as the overall sound producer -- from foley and voice over to ambient world noise.
later, i started work on what would be used at the e3 show 2 years ago. it was exciting working in a totally new way with new tools. i was working directly in the game editor and with the programmers refining the sound code and helping the environment come alive. tried "tuning" various environmental sound sources so they'd cohesively interact with on another in a "musical" way. the advanced technology provided enough horsepower to give me a seemingly limitless amount of freedom. it was a lot of work, a lot of thinking in a different way, and a lot of fun. i was working with the best guys in the field -- true geniuses.
out idea was to have no music, apart from a main theme i'd write for the intro. no rock, nothing current sounding, nothing to date the game.
well... eventually time and money and bad management came into play and it didn't work out. disappointing on a number of levels for me, but that's the way it went.
I have seen the engine at work and it is great. i'm looking forward to seeing what they've done with the game.
and i guess tool did the theme song"
Posted by jb at 10:33 AM | TrackBack
July 20, 2004
New NVIDIA Drivers
NVIDIA ForceWare release 60 drivers now available. Here's the feature list:
- Support for the award-winning GeForce 6800-series GPUs
- Unmatched performance and enhanced image quality for Microsoft DirectX 9.0 and OpenGL-based software applications.
- Support for Microsoft® Windows® XP/2000/98/Me/NT4 and Windows XP 64-bit (for AMD Athlon™ 64, AMD Opteron 64, and Intel EMT64)
- Support for PCI Express-based NVIDIA GPUs
- Consumer electronic display support for DVI-based digital displays, such as widescreen plasma screens
- Quick Zoom – ease eye strain and enable ergonomic computing with easy Windows magnification
- Updated application profiles allow users to assign multiple profiles for each application
Posted by jb at 09:58 PM | TrackBack
Carmack staying ahead of the game
Via Bluesnews. John Carmack posted an update in the X Prize forums regarding his Armadillo Aerospace venture. In the update he mentioned that he's working on the next id game already.
"Id vs Armadillo:
I am working on the rendering technology for the next game right now, so it looks like the balance will stay about the same for a while at least."
Posted by jb at 06:57 PM | TrackBack
Colin McRae Rally 2005 to be released on PC and console simultaneously
Codemasters announced today that it will launch both the console (PS2 and Xbox) and PC versions of Colin McRae 2005 simultaneously. The targeted release is late September.
Posted by jb at 04:35 PM | TrackBack
Mindball
Via /.
"Mindball is an experience product, a game where two players control a ball with their brain waves. The player being most relaxed wins the game. The brain waves are detected by sensors attached to the headbands."
Posted by jb at 01:47 PM | TrackBack
First-Person Control Design for Dual Analog Stick Controllers
Gamasutra has a new feature addressing various options in designing first-person games for dual-stick controllers. We've never been a big fan of this type of control for FPS games; you lose so much precision compared to mouse gaming. Halo on the Xbox is an exercise in frustration if you've played the PC version.
Free registration required.
Posted by jb at 11:34 AM | TrackBack
Star Wars Galaxies dancing
Massively multiplayer online dancing... that's all I've got.
Posted by jb at 10:16 AM | TrackBack
Counter-Strike Source video available
The Counter-Strike Source (the Half-Life 2 engine) video shown by Valve at E3 is now available for download in Bink format.
Posted by jb at 10:09 AM | TrackBack
July 19, 2004
Religion in games
Gamerdad addresses the topic of religion in games present and past.
"If religion and spiritual concepts can potentially add so much to a game world, why are they only used superficially? Why are they caricatured? And what will the future bring? To answer these questions we looked at games from the recent past, and considered how religion is—sometimes cleverly, sometimes clumsily—used in gaming. We invited a few top game designers to come along and show us the sights, to in effect, play Virgil to our Dante."
Posted by jb at 02:59 PM | TrackBack
Battlefield Vietnam patch 1.1 coming soon
EA reports that the upcoming patch for BFV is in final candidate testing. The patch will address:
- Vote/Kick/Buddy commands integrated into the GUI
- Server favorites added to the server browser (it's about frickin' time)
- 3D map will show friendly mines, traps, ammo, health, etc.
- Flight ceiling added to choppers (looks like no more invincible spawn choppers)
- MUTT tow rocket will be heat seeking
- Falling damage from going down stairs reduced (it's about frickin' time)
In addition to these changes, EA is announcing the official WWII mod for BFV. This mod ports several of the original Battlefield 1942 maps over to the new BFV engine, and adds a nice flamethrower.
Posted by jb at 10:22 AM | TrackBack
It's just like a PC, only worse
Alienware's upcoming DHS system is essentially a PC customized for console-like living room gameplay. Using the DISCover technology, which enables features such as zero-click installation, the idea is to compete with the console experience with PC hardware.
At $2000 it's several times the price of a comparable console and has the usual crud associated with using your TV as a display device. You could build this yourself for far less money. Not sure who they're targeting with this.
Posted by jb at 09:48 AM | TrackBack
July 18, 2004
Washington's Violent Videogame Law Held Unconstitutional
From Corante.com:
Federal District Judge Robert Lasnik of the Western District of Washington held, on summary judgement, that Washington's video game law was unconstitutional on free speech grounds. The law, which had been blocked by a preliminary injunction, "would have imposed a $500 fine on anyone, such as a store clerk, who sold a video game depicting violence against 'law enforcement officers'" to minors under age 17,"
Posted by jb at 07:57 PM | TrackBack
LOTR: The Battle for Middle-Earth preview
Gamespy has one of the first previews of the upcoming LOTR title.
"Fans of the Tolkien universe should find this game a blast to play if the game continues on its current pace. Bonin said the development team is aware of issues that could overwhelm a casual player interested in just experiencing an RTS in Middle-earth, such as the sheer number of units that have to be managed in the massive battles. But, he said, the team is dedicated to addressing them and should have plenty of time to tweak certain things before the scheduled release."
Posted by jb at 07:30 PM | TrackBack
July 17, 2004
Grand Prix Legends gets a new lease on life
Grand Prix Legends is widely considered to be the most realistic racing sim ever created and still has a large fanbase despite being 6 years old. Vivendi recently closed down Papyrus, the subsidiary responsible for developing GPL and Nascar 2003.
Papyrus co-founder Dave Kaemmer and Boston Red Sox owner John Henry have bought back the original source code for graphics, physics, multi-player and AI behind these games. Their intent is to form a new channel for providing high-end racing simulations. (somehow tied to Project Wildfire)
This is huge news for the hard-core racing sim crowd.
Posted by jb at 10:17 AM | TrackBack
July 16, 2004
3D Javascript development
Doing 3D in Javascript you say? If you haven't seen it, check out Wolf5k, which is a loose Wolfenstein clone written for the 5k contest.
There's a tutorial out now explaining how it was done (not written by the Wolf5k author though).
Posted by jb at 01:49 PM | TrackBack
Battlefield 2 previews
Here at Gamewag, we're pretty much addicted to Battlefield Vietnam. Sure, it has the second worst server browser we've ever seen (JointOps is worse), and there are a number of annoying bugs, but the gameplay is so much fun. I could sit in the Ack-Ack all day destroying Hueys...
At E3 this year, EA showed us a taste of what's to come for the Battlefield series. Battlefield 2 is much larger improvement than previous iterations; a major overhaul to the graphics engine, destructable environments (limited, for obvious reasons), support for ~ 100 players, recordable games and a modern combat setting.
There are a few previews available today:
GameSpy
GameSpot
IGN
Posted by jb at 12:09 PM | TrackBack
More on the HL2 code theft arrests
Via /. The Guardian has an interview with Gabe Newell, discussing some details regarding the investigation and subsequent arrests made regarding the Half-Life 2 code theft.
The risk of being caught prompted the primary instigator to contact Newell. He admitted hacking into Valve's server, but denied any role in the theft, instead naming those responsible for distributing the stolen code. "We now had three independent ways of confirming this primary instigator and, through conversations with this individual, had convinced him to fly out to us in Seattle for a job interview. The plan was changed so German authorities would do the arrests on German soil," says Newell.
Posted by jb at 09:39 AM | TrackBack
July 15, 2004
Fable coming to your Xbox on Sept. 14th
Fable is an upcoming RPG from Peter Molyneux that let's you shape your character from birth to death.
Like other Molyneux games such as Black & White, you decide if you follow the path of good or evil.
"Muscles expand with each feat of strength; force of will increases with each work of wit. Obesity follows gluttony, skin tans with exposure to sunlight and bleaches bone-white by moonlight.
Earn scars in battle and lines of experience with age. Each person you aid, each flower you crush, each creature you slay, will change this world forever."
Posted by jb at 01:26 PM | TrackBack
More DOOM III details
Todd Hollenshead has updated his .plan with more details.
- No dates yet for Linux and Mac, but seems that the Linux binaries will come shortly after the PC release
- Probably no PC demo until after the game has shipped
- They've uhh... got more DOOM t-shirts for sale
Posted by jb at 11:25 AM | TrackBack
July 14, 2004
Cassini: Open source Sega Saturn emulator
Via boingboing. Cassini is a new open source project aimed at delivering you some Sega Saturn goodness.
The initial compatability list looks impressive, and will surely grow over time. Appears to be available for Windows only at the moment.
Posted by jb at 01:09 PM | TrackBack
Quake I never looked so good
Since Quake I has been open sourced, there are a number of folks that have done interesting things with it. Tenebrae has added stencil shadows and per pixel lighting to the original code, resulting in a dramatically improved look. This type of project provides a great opportunity for inexperienced game developers to learn the nuances of older and more modern FPS engines.
The site is a bit Slashdotted at the moment, so you may need to give it some time to recover.
Posted by jb at 10:24 AM | TrackBack
July 13, 2004
Poly Play: Classic East German gaming
The Beeb has a story about the Poly Play, an East German arcade unit from the mid-eighties. They're quite rare, and Swindon's Museum of Computing now has their hands on one.
"I think someone described it as technology that was ten years out of date and styling that was at least twenty years out of date."
When you tire of your decadent, western ways, take a gander for the greater good.
Posted by jb at 07:36 PM | TrackBack
Make Something Unreal (Level) Phase 3 Finalists
The Make Something Unreal contest has selected it's phase 3 finalists for level design. Tough to find screenshots without installing the damn things, but those that we saw were sharp.
Posted by jb at 04:20 PM | TrackBack
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 2D
Some incredibly dedicated folks are in the process of converting The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time into a 2D, top-down format. Originally created for the N64, Ocarina was the first 3D Zelda game. Daniel Barras loved the game, but decided it needed a classic Zelda makeover. Upon completion, Daniel plans to take on Majora's Mask and Wind Waker.
You can download and play Demo 3, Demo 4 coming soon.
Posted by jb at 11:42 AM | TrackBack
Indie Spotlight: Racer
Ruud van Gaal is dedicated to realism. That seems to be the mantra behind his work on Racer, a driving sim that has attracted a small community of dedicated modelers, skin creators, testers and racers.
For the past few years, Ruud has been a one-man source of inspiration for indie-coders. His focus has been less on the racing experience (although Racer does support multiplayer connections), and more on real physics; the result being possibly the most realistic feeling driving simulator available.
All of the physics logic has been coded by Ruud, although he does rely on the Open Dynamics Engine for some basic joint calculations. The outcome of his hard work is that the sim "just feels right".
While Racer is free, it is not open source. Ruud used to make the source code availble for Racer, until after version 0.5.0 that is. At this point he began working on the shader engine and made the decision that too much effort had been put into Racer to make freely available. Ruud does not seem to interested in making Racer open source.
However, Ruud is an active member in the RSC forums, and the community seems to be attracted to the open nature of Ruud's development process. A quick search reveals that around 200 cars and 60 tracks have been created by this community. Racer-Xtreme is a site dedicated to these improvements, and is maintained by Patrick Wassmer, Tobias Greuter, João Pereira da Costa and Dave Walker.
Ruud has also integrated force feedback output, and not just steering wheel feedback. Racer is being used on a full motion platform for race simulations. Watch Racer in action (WMV file).
Racer is currently in version 0.5.2 beta 6.1 and is compatible with Windows, Linux and OS X.
Racer homepage
Racer forums at Race Sim Central
Racer-Xtreme
Posted by jb at 10:54 AM | TrackBack
July 12, 2004
All excited about The Movies
Since it doesn't yet have a release date, and isn't likely be come this year anyway, The Movies didn't make our Summer Wishlist. That's not to say that it doesn't deserve a little lovin'.
The Movies is all about becoming a Hollywood god, but you'll have to be both a savvy studio head and a creative genius that knows how to tell a great story. Managing highly-paid stars, promoting new releases, mastering film technologies, selecting wardrobe and writing scripts; you're going to have to do it all to succeed.
Currently in development by Lionhead Studios, The Movies has no release date as of yet. If you want to get a little insight into the development process, check out the developer diary thread in The Movies message boards.
Posted by jb at 10:50 PM | TrackBack
Follow-up: Xbox gamertag story
Gamespot is indicating that the previous report of Microsoft asking gamers to change their Gamertags is definitely not due to a shortage of Gamertags.
After the link, scroll down to #4.
Posted by jb at 03:17 PM | TrackBack
PS3 to make E3 2005 appearance
Sony has announced that the PS3 will be playable at next year's E3.
"There has been some talk that development is not going well, but we expect to have a playable version at E3."
Posted by jb at 12:31 PM | TrackBack
Rag Doll Kung Fu
Ok, this is pretty old and we haven't seen any updates on it lately, but it's just too cool. A couple of folks from Lionhead studios have created a kung fu game in their spare time. The twist is that it's based entirely on rag doll physics, and can use multiple mice for input.
"You control the characters on screen with the mouse – there are no pre-scripted animations in the game – it’s all up to you – to walk, you have to literally pick up one foot, then place it in front of the other.
Sounds tricky maybe, but it doesn’t take long before you're spinning through the air like a Russian gymnast.
This means you get to create your own style, and can act out whatever you feel like, and of course, if you really feel like it, you can have a fight."
Posted by jb at 10:57 AM | TrackBack
July 10, 2004
Xbox team asking some people to change gamertags
"It has come to our attention that there are many names on the Xbox Live service that are extremely similar to other Gamertags (in most cases differentiated by only a single space). In order to avoid confusion, we want to give players the opportunity to change their Gamertags so that their friends are not confused about the identity of who they are playing. This should be a quick and easy process for a very small percentage of Xbox Live users."
Microsoft was offering a free copy of Project Gotham Racing 2 to the switchers, but appears to now be offering a 1 year subscription to the Xbox Live service.
Posted by jb at 07:48 PM | TrackBack
Ernest Miller's take on LA cybercafé regulation
Ernest Miller presents his insider's view on the recent decision requiring LA cybercafés to have a police permit.
Posted by jb at 09:38 AM | TrackBack
July 09, 2004
Why We Play: Part II - Deconstruction
It's true. I'm a snob. I'm also a gamer. I'm a snob gamer, and don't challenge me. The games I play are superior to yours in ways that I can elegantly justify while making you seem small and funny looking.
In my view, the only way to be able to destroy something completely is to understand it thoroughly. It is from the perspective of knowing everything knowable that we can deconstruct and give real form to our complaints about games. Thus, I have played some seriously crap games, from start to end.
I know that this is not nearly as common a reason that people play than the reason I've addressed in the previous article, but I know there are others out there like me. You who have played early RPG's for the PS2 with mind-numbing cut-scenes that had no escapes - but you finished it. You who have seen the final boss of the FPS that was grounded in reality, until the last level when you were confronted with bad guys carrying guns that shoot out dogs with bees in their mouths, and when they bark, they shoot bees at you - but you finished it. You who have completely re-worked how you use a mouse and keyboard to interact with a game, because it doesn't support a five button mouse and half the keys aren't mapable - but you finished it. You are my brethren.
I and people like me finish these games for reasons that other people don't understand. We do it because I want to learn about what works and what doesn't. Game A had great graphics and no content. Game B's interface was impossible to use. Game C was trying so hard to be original it descended into being a game about nothing.
This understanding is the source for our arrogance, our snobbery, and the ammunition we draw upon to blast bad games to bits. So next time you see some game you've never heard of in the $5 bin next to the cashier, pick it up. Play it front to back, then deconstruct it using more than 2 sentences and 1 adjective.
Posted by at 03:38 PM | TrackBack
Postmodernism and the Three Types of Immersion
Gamasutra has a new feature written by Ernest Adams that covers the three types of immersion used in game development: tactical, strategic and narrative.
"I don't have any patience for this kind of self-indulgence. One of the worst annoyances of video gaming is the designers who want to show off how clever they are. Interrupting the players' immersion in order to remind them "Don't forget, it's only a game!" may be the designers being playful, but the game is supposed to provide gameplay for the players, not for the designers. Such cute gimmicks don't improve the players' experience; they harm it. It's a direct slap in the face. Imagine if Ridley Scott, for example, had done that right in the middle of the most suspenseful parts of Alien, or if Tom Clancy did it in the middle of Patriot Games. As the audience, we would be rightfully infuriated."
Free registration required.
Posted by jb at 03:13 PM | TrackBack
Nobody gets a tan at video game camp
NYU is offering a Summer camp centered around game design. Addressing the difficulty of getting experience in the industry, the camp will consist of 15-20 year olds who have a desire to learn while maintaining their pasty-white complexion.
Posted by jb at 01:19 PM | TrackBack
July 08, 2004
Counter-Strike Source Beta coming soon
No, not another souce code leak coming this Summer, but a real beta of CS on the Source engine.
"Starting later this summer, Valve will be conducting a limited-time beta of Counter-Strike: Source via Steam. The beta will first be open to subscribers of the Valve Cyber Café Program, and then extended to owners of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. The next installment of the world’s number 1 online action game, Counter-Strike: Source blends CS’s intense teamplay with the advanced technology of Valve’s Source engine."
Posted by jb at 09:36 AM | TrackBack
July 07, 2004
New Classic Gamer Magazine available
If you haven't checked out Classic Gamer Magazine, now's your time to do so. It's a very well done PDF periodical dedicated to retro-gaming.
The latest issue includes: where to find good classic games, homebrew reviews, a look back at Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, a history of James Bond games and oh so much more.
Posted by jb at 01:10 PM | TrackBack
Camping Pong
A couple of geeks go camping (the get bitten by bugs in a tent kind, not the hide in the shadows and frag noobs kind), and pong ensues. Sure, scoring is a judgement call, but it looks fun anyway.
Posted by jb at 11:32 AM | TrackBack
EFF targets Nintendo
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released its list of 10 patents worth challenging. Nintendo made the list.
"Software implementation of a handheld videogame hardware platform; threatens reverse engineering of videogames to promote interoperability and emulation by hobbyists"
Posted by jb at 09:44 AM | TrackBack
July 06, 2004
DOOM 3 at this year's QuakeCon
QuakeCon is the annual geek-fest that draws thousands to compete in various id-related activities. The QuakeCon site announced today that this year's shindig will feature a DOOM III tournament. The press release seems to indicate that nobody will have had much time to practice, so we can probably expect a general release of the game near mid-August.
The various competitions will share a total purse of $150,000. If you win a few, you may be able to afford a machine that can actually play DOOM 3.
QuakeCon takes place on August 12-15 in Grapevine, TX.
Posted by jb at 08:10 PM | TrackBack
Nintendo has no idea what they're talking about
In a recent interview with the Japan Economic Foundation, Nintendo head Satoru Iwata said "Customers do not want online games". Hi, Satoru? Yeah... 1987 called, they want their console back.
Citing a single online golf game sold by Sony and that "customers do not wish to pay the extra money for connection to the Internet...", he seems to have created his own cute, little reality distortion field. What, you mean people didn't like sitting around watching another player hack his way out of a 12 foot deep bunker? It's 2004; people without internet access have bigger problems than worrying about buying a GameCube.
Perhaps if they start approaching design with online play in mind, they might come up with new game ideas that have people clamoring for it.
Jackasses. All of them.
Posted by jb at 01:38 PM | TrackBack
World of Warcraft announces closed beta sign-ups for Europe
Blizzard announced today that they are taking applications to be part of the upcoming World of Worldcraft beta. Applicants must speak English, French or German and use either Windows or Mac OS.
The sign-up will only be open for 3 weeks, so get in now.
Posted by jb at 11:43 AM | TrackBack
July 05, 2004
Gamewag Wishlist
2004 has brought us some fantastic gaming, but there's plenty more to come. Sure, everyone's waiting to play Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, but there are plenty of other good games in the pipeline. Here is our mid-year look at the games we're excited about.
Sid Meier's Pirates! (PC)
Just a