The Team Fortress 2 blog has answered a bunch of questions about the just announced Steam-on-Mac which I've written about a couple of times. IE:
Q: Is it just some crappy emulated version of TF2? A: No! Also: How dare you! Mac users aren't getting a crappy emulated version of the game. TF2 will run natively on OSX, like an actual big boy game for adults.
Sadly it's not the full steam catalog, but the Source engine games. Still, that's a fair number of games and people like some people I know can worry less about their aging win-boxen's hardware.
Portal 2 Officially Announced. Not much more to say, other than "Dear Valve, when can I please give you my money?"
Main site seems to be down so here's the cover shot thanks to the reddit folks.
Get your wallets ready for a new computer system (or a trip in a time machine to 2015 to get a system that'll play it) cause the First Crysis 2 Screenshots Released and they look gooooood.
Someone on Digg has put together a nice list of what is known about the Portal updates. The biggest thing found here is either
According to a shacknews article, the original ending of Portal has changed.
It seems pretty obvious that Valve is bringing Half-Life, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 to the Mac. The big question is, will they pull it off. Imagine if Valve could bring, in one foul swoop, all the games on Steam to the Mac. Let's be honest, gaming on the Mac is restricted to a few titles, Wow, iD software games, and a few others that no one plays, except to say "but there is gaming on the mac!"
If suddenly Valve had all the games on Steam on the Mac, with a tried and true delivery platform, that would be huge.
MacNN has some details of a couple of teasers indicating that Valve confirms intends to produce games for mac. Namely, an image with Gordon Freeman with a Mac logo on his chest is a pretty good indication :)
A gorgeous Crytek 'i3D 2010' Tech Demo. HD video recommended for full awesomeness.
Slashdot story about a user who ported Quake3 to Android in a couple of weeks. Awesome. Hey google, I really do need one of those Nexus 1 phones to evaluate these things you know? Come on, there's got to be at least one googler that reads this...
Cool collection of images of Gamers & Their Online Selves. Interesting to see how some people go for look-alike avatars, some go for "I want to look at a hot girl's butt while I play" and some go for the opposite of themselves. Interesting look anyway.
Penny Arcade has a great write up on The Gods Of Modernity and the story of a noobs battles with Infinity Ward.
He's an utterly unrepentant hacker, yet he wonders what strange force keps gets his boxes banned. It would be like if I'd made a reputation for myself entering local cafes, slipping into the back to shit directly on their hot grills. And then, when I came back the next day, they told me to leave - even if I hadn't managed to shit on anything during that particular visit! Come to terms with the idea that there is a point beyond which you are not worth the price of your subscription.
A full video of what's needed to get into an awesome Bioshock 2 Costume. Holy crap. That is all.
Someone at work pointed me to this Post:
Hell, it's about time... to start playing some StarCraft II! Blizzard has announced that the closed beta test for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is officially a go, with invitations going out to "thousands of gamers." Yeah, check your e-mail!
Reading this article on how Ubisoft's New PC DRM Really Requires Net Access, and Ends Game If Disconnected it reminds me again why piracy is so rampant in the PC gaming world. Would you put up with this from your game? Hell no. Sadly, PC gamers are seeming to be moving towards console gaming (if for nothing but because the "good" games are only available on consoles due to piracy on the PC platform) so they are used to a closed system.
A completely unofficial Duke Nukem Forever trailer has surfaced, with links and discussion up on Shacknews.
The PlayStation Blog notes that there is a PlayStation Store Update today that will include a demo of Uncharted 2. Looking forward to giving that a shot when I get home tonight!
So with some fancy new Real-Life in GPS technology you'll be able to load a real life car's telemetry data into Gran Turismo 5 (PS3) as a replay or a ghost car. Implications? Race against The Stig and try to match him turn for turn, or take and examine or critique your own real world laps from the comfort of your couch.
Great looking HL2 Mod called Jailbreak:Source, which is all about shooting shit, dinosaurs, and robots. Really, what more could you want from a shooter?
This trailer for Just Cause 2 (coming March for PC, PS3 and XBox360) is cool... it's a choose your own adventure system using the clickability of YouTube. So click when it asks you for your choice, instead of being like me and staring at it thinking "WTF is it just showing me this one screen for 30 seconds" :)
Very cool, the Team Fortress 2 blog announces that they are open to user contributed items and materials.
It sounds weird, but trust me, check out First Person Tetris, a cool little flash game with a twist (you'll see what I mean).
Star Trek Online is having an open beta. Join now if you have a beta key that is.
Not being a MMO guy, I have to agree that the Lego Universe trailer looks unexpectedly thrilling. I'd totally be able to get into that, assuming the final game looks remotely like the trailer of course :)
Thanks to @danaepp for pointing me to this Duke Nukem Live Action Trailer. Pretty well done too! Shot on a Canon 7D apparently, good to see more indy type films and shorts being able to utilize more consumer oriented video equipment.
The Steam Holiday Sale is on it's last day, with a return of some of the previous games (sucks if you got 'em already, great if you missed them). STALKER for $2 is tempting me...
Glad I didn't get this yesterday when I can save another $10 today on the id Super Pack over on the Steam Store. Sadly Mirror's Edge is up to $19.99 from $4.99 yesterday... Ah well, win some, lose some.
Quake Live has gotten a nice little holiday facelift. Link has changelog, new map and new skin details.
Geez, $34.99 for the id Super Pack which has pretty much every single iD related game ever, from Wolf3D to Spear of Destiny to Doom 3 to the entire Quake series (well, not Quake 4 sadly). I know the "you save $159" is a bit contrived, but still, under $40 for every iD game ever? Even if I get all nostalgic and want to play the first FPS I played ever? Tempting.....
Note: I'm not a steam shill, honest. Also the Edios pack looks pretty good if you're into those games (Hit Man, Dues Ex, Theif, etc).
Shacknews writes to let us all know that iD software has kicked off their 12 Days of Christmas iPhone sale, with significant savings on their games, with Doom down to $2.99 from $6.99, Wolf 3D from $1.99 to $0.99, and two others.
Title basically says it all. Video in the link shows some gameplay... pretty damn awesome!
Wired has a really good look at How Success Killed Duke Nukem. A bit of trivia from the article below:
As one patient fan pointed out, when development on Duke Nukem Forever started, most computers were still using Windows 95, Pixar had made only one movie -- Toy Story -- and Xbox did not yet exist.
Cute video busting some myths about how some weapons and deaths work in Modern Warfare 2.
Valve has expanded their excellent Team Fortress 2 with Demoman and Soldier updates. I think what they're saying is that every soldier -> demo kill and demo -> soldier kill is recorded, and whichever class wins at the end of the week gets a super secret weapon unlock.
It's completely over the top, and "physics on drugs" environment, but after watching the
Just Cause 2 'Vehicle Stunts' Video I gotta say it looks like a heck of an awesome game to play!
Wow, news that a Taiwanese man beat World of Warcraft and got every achievement means something. I doubt he has a day job somehow though. Good job Little Gray!
Via The Google Earth Blog comes news that Valencia, Spain has gotten a 3D city makeover. Gotta say when these do a 3D city they do it well :)
Shacknews has a ton of
Star Wars: The Old Republic Footage showing off combat from the upcoming MMORPG.
The Onion has a great and hilarious news piece on how the next Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks etc. Looking forward to getting my hands on the PC version of this, the first Modern Warfare last year blew my mind.
Reddit points out that the UNITY game development tool, is now free. There is some discussion on Reddit about it. Unity, which I've never heard of, is described as:
Unity is a multiplatform game development tool, designed from the start to ease creation. A fully integrated professional application, Unity just happens to contain the most powerful engine this side of a million dollars.
All that, cross platform (Mac, PC, iPhone, Web), and free. Wonder what the catch is?
The Assassin's Creed - Lineage Intro Video is pretty awesome, very much like the Star Wars Old Republic cinematic trailer in its grandeur. Of course, it's a cut scene, and the game you play has approximately zero point zero chance of looking like that... still, looks epic. Thanks to @jeffcanata for the link.
The CryENGINE 3 is released to developers and the video linked has some of the amazing examples of how it can be used. I can't wait to see games using this.
Ok, so it's geometry, gaming, and clicky-flash game all in one. Check out the Eyeballing game.
Reddit tells me that you can Get World of Goo and pay whatever you want for a birthday celebration. I already own it (thanks MacHeist 2009!) but if you don't, it's an interesting and fun game.
Someone has done a good job of condensing the plots of the 4 Halo Games in 5 Minutes. Laughable to people who have played the games, but to those who haven't (such as myself) it's a nice summary.
Via reddit comes a pointer to the Lucid Hydra 200: Vendor Agnostic Multi-GPU. From the article:
At a high level what Lucid's technology does is intercept OpenGL/DirectX commands from the CPU to the GPU and load balance them across any number of GPUs. The final buffers are read back by the Lucid chip and sent to primary GPU for display.
Obviously more interesting for serious gamers, but still very cool technology, if it works as advertised.
Man I wish I had this sort of talent... check out these hand made replica weapons from video games. First the Portal Gun and then the Fallout 3 Laser Rifle.
Remember the Fly Gabe Newell site, raising money to fly Valve founders Gabe and Erik to Australia? Well, they got $3000+ in a few days, and are making arrangements to fly the duo out.
Honestly I think it's amazing, though I don't know what they're being flown out for, something about a campaign. That a mod of some sort for one of the games? Seriously, I don't know.
This needs some attention..... the Fly Gabe Newell campaign, with more details at http://flygabenewell.blogspot.com, is raising money to get Gabe and Erik, of Valve Software fame, flown to Australia.
Basically Valve are flying people who are bitching about the new Left 4 Dead game and boycotting it out to play, someone complained they weren't being flown out, and Gabe responded that he was being boycotted. Just read the site, makes much more sense there :)
Turing Test for FPS bots doesn't get a winner, but someone gets pretty close!
Once again Yahtzee has proven that he is brilliant as he reviews Wolfenstein. Must watch. Now.
Holy crap! Check out this Halo 3: ODST Live-Action Trailer! Looks great, wish it was a real movie, that's something I'd be able to get behind :)
Some cool stuff coming up with the New Scope Animation for Urban Terror 4.2.
The Battlefield 2 Patch 1.50 has been released. Some paid addons are now free, widescreen support, ability to use more than 2 G of ram, and lots of tweaks. Big download, get in line now :)
Some truly drool-worthy Modern Warfare 2 Leaked Single-Player Gameplay Footage. Blah blah hope it's not a console port blah blah PC FPS FTW blah blah ;)
I don't really know WTF to think of Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter Supermercial Video, but it seems to indicate that something from Crotech is coming....
The BF2 1.50 patch was given a release date, that being Sept 1, 2009. Funny thing is I thought it was released already, I didn't know it was only in beta (and was all pissed off as I couldn't find anyone online when I did go and try to find a game).
A few bits from Shacknews that I've come across this morning:
Quake Live Updated to Support Linux and Mac Users. Whohooooo!
Shacknews has some Rage Screenshots Fresh From QuakeCon. Looks good! Also somehow I missed the Rage trailer posted yesterday.
Team Fortress 2 has a "Classless Update", which involves hats. Who knew.
XBox 360 owners rejoice, the promised Xbox 360 Dashboard Update is now up and live according to PC world.
Now here's a near project, the ability to export Spore creatures to Maya.
iD has released the
QuakeCon 2009 Schedule for August 16th. Of note is the Carmack Keynote and the first public demo of RAGE, which I'd love to see.
Starcraft nerds of the world cry out simultaniously in anquish at the news that StarCraft 2 is delayed! They are blaming Battle.net in part. Thanks Aryk for the news.
OK, if this tease is true, I will be a happy puppy. Seems that some vague and suggestive emails from LucasArts went back and forth, and the indication is that the classic and awesome X-Wing and Tie Fighter space sim games may be coming back. It'd be awesome to see a re-boot of the games with modern graphics and modern features (and not some lame console port please), but hell, even a re-release would be great, those were fantastic games that sucked many hours of my youth away.
Reddit has a nice list of complied links for some Free Full Games on Steam.
Just found out about Shattered Horizon, a space fighter / sim involving the moon blowing up. Just a teaser right now, with no gameplay footage, but there is a signup to be part of the beta.
Darren sent me a video on YouTube which was called the Vision for MechWarrior, a new proof of concept game that is set to reboot the MechWarrior series. I saw some talk about this on the latest TRS podcast, as well as some details emerging in an interview with IGN.
Just for comparisons sake, here are the intro and some gameplay footage from MechWarrior 2. Wow, I do remember that looking way better Back In The Day(tm)....
After the Impact is a new teaser site for the new iD Software to-be-released-when-it's-ready game, Rage. And when I say "teaser" I really mean "teaser". People more detail critical than me will probably be able to find secret hidden things in there :)
MechWarrior 4 and it's expansions will be available (soon) for free to celebrate BattleTech's 25 year anniversary.
The role players in Russia are really into Fallout. Some freakin' amazing costumes in there!
Just a note via Shacknews that Doom: Resurrection Hits the iPhone Today for $10. Bit steep price, and I'm hoping there's a free Lite version to check out. Still, very cool to see what high end dev shops can do with that little chunk of hardware.
If you're interested in games like Tropico 1 2 and now 3, Haemimont Games has a beta tester application online.
The online battlefield-engine run free online FPS Battlefield Heroes has left beta and is now active.
That's interesting... just saw on shacknews that id Software was Acquired by Bethesda Owner ZeniMax. This worries me a little, mostly just because I've never heard of the acquiring studio. However, they seem to be saying "it's fine, it's all fine, everything'll stay the same..." Who in the tech industry hasn't heard that before? Course, time will tell....
Some more details from The Carmack here.
I agree with Forgetfoo... Bring it, COD. I just hope the PC version is as good as CoD 1 was.
Catch it while it's hot.... some more Duke Nukem forever gameplay footage has surfaced. Via this story on Shacknews. The story has it's own video, but that appears to be unavailable, hence the link to youtube.
Google Blogscoped has some videos from Project Natal for XBox 360, Microsoft's new gaming system and Wii killer.
From what I saw, and from the video on GeekBrief, it's a gaming system as close to Sci-Fi (or is it Skyfye?) as I've heard of before. Voice and face recognition, full motion capture to put you in the game, magic scanning of your stuff to use for skins in game, no controller needed (imagine the wii-mote without the wii-mote), in system video conferencing and data / info transfer... all magic.
Will it be able to be pulled off? Maybe. It has no price or release date, and a lot of the video looks more like a "this could be technology in this home of the future" type demo under optimal conditions. If anyone can do it, MS has the $$ though, so lets see what happens.
Aryk pointed to an article on Joystiq saying that there was a 2009 target date for Starcraft 2. Probably way more exciting if I was into Starcraft, or RTSs in general, but hey, I know some readers out there will get tight pants knowing that they could have SC2 in less than 6 months...
Well folks, the E3 season is upon us, so that means a lot of movie trailers and high hopes in the next few days. First up though, is Star Wars: The Old Republic (HD recommended viewing). OMFG this is a movie trailer for all intents and purposes. Of course the game isn't going to look like this (I don't think anyway, if it does I'm buying a new TV, console and sound system), and I hope that they haven't spent a year of game development time making the awesome trailer, but wow, this thing looks A-A-A-AWESOME. No, really, watch it.
So you World of Warcraft players out there.... know how your little guy (or gal) runs all the time? Ever wonder how it would be like to run like that for real? Well I didn't either, but someone did. Could you run as far as your WoW character? complete with video :)
Remember the awesomeness of CoD4: Modern Warfare? Well, from the looks of the Modern Warfare 2 trailer, part 2 is both a continuation and very awesome. I just hope it's not Console only :(
Along with the massive Team Fortress 2 updates that Valve just released, there's also a Steam free play weekend going on, so you just need to install steam and set up an account, and play away.
Darren passed me over a funny / interesting Duke Nukem Forever Developer Diary. Some questions now might be answered.... :)
Robot Chicken's Contribution To The Spore Universe over at IO9.com
Shacknews reports that Quake Live, the free-for-play web based version of Quake 3 will be Getting Six New Maps, First Hits Today.
Shacknews has a new meet the spy video about the new Spy and Sniper updates.
OK, my mind just blew up. Am I the last one who has played Half Life or Half Life 2 to see what the weird "h" symbol is? As shown in this image it's mind blowing. Found via this thread on reddit....
Shacknews reports that Duke Nukem Developer 3D Realms Shuts Down. There are a couple of updates, the last one including this:
Update: Apogee Software and Deep Silver have issued a statement to Shacknews, confirming that the situation at 3D Realms has not affected the development of Frontline Games' upcoming handheld Duke Nukem Trilogy.
This (may) shut down peoples hopes that the 12-years-in-development Duke Nukem Forever will be released. Course, weren't there stories floating around 6 months ago or so with video and teaser screenshots of the maybe-almost-complete DNF? I have faith it'll come out though, some day, maybe using the UT4 or UT5 engines :)
Amidst the comments is this one which (allegedly) describes what what a typical developer day was. Very interesting if it's true... basically navel gazing and wasting time, if they were working for a publisher I'd say they were defrauding them, but (and the poster points out as the cause of this) they were self funded, so there were no milestones to meet.
18 Embarrassing Game AI Bugs Caught On Tape... via reddit.com. Some real doozies in there too.
Head about Runes of Magic on the Totally Rad Show. Basically it's a free version of World of Warcraft. No monthly fees, nothing to pay to buy the game. Sounds very cool... anyone have any experience in this?
Package: The Orange Box is on for $10 this weekend. Savings of almost $75 over buying all the games separately, if you're into Half Life2 and Portal type games.
Holy crap, this has been a long time coming! The Battlefield 2 v1.50 Beta Patch has been released. I still play BF2 every once and a while, and still enjoy it, other than a few bits that it looks like this patch fixes. Looking forward to playing it again tonight!
It's a big patch though, 1.3G.
Looks like there'll be some good stuff from iD Software at E3 this year. They gave this tease regarding Doom 4 though:
Doom 4 is "not a sequel to Doom 3, but it's not a reboot either," the CEO teased further, entirely ignoring the bit where GameSpot asked if it was a prequel. "It's a little bit different than those, and if I told you why, I would get my ass kicked."
Great find from Fozbaca, a video from 1993 of A Visit to id Software, with pre-finished Doom and the original iD team. Awesome blast from the past!
I hadn't even heard it was announced, but the Battlefield 1943 Screenshots (think the classic BF 1942++) look pretty hot.
Found some early footage of a time travel based RTS over on shacknews: Time Travel RTS Achron Revealed. Not sure if I would be able to wrap my brain around all that stuff though.... I'm more a "shoot things" kinda gamer :)
Seems Call of Duty 6, (or Call of Duty 4 part 2) is announced and will be born as Modern Warfare 2. As I've said before, CoD 4 was one of my favorite games that I've played recently, and if this is going to be like that, then I'm excited :)
Very cool article by John Carmack of iD Software on porting Wolfenstein 3D Classic to the iPhone (now available in the app store).
I love the note on the main page for the app which claims "* not responsible for damage to iphone caused by awesome action overload" :)
According to Shacknews, Tribes (remember that, way back in the day?) has been Ported to Browsers.
A web-based version of Dynamix's classic team-based multiplayer shooter Starsiege: Tribes is soon coming to browser gaming portal InstantAction.
QUAKELIVE goes open beta on February 24th. I got in on the closed beta and it's (so far) basically Quake 3 that you can play from the webbrowser.... simple and sweet.
Holy crap. Check out this Tetris video. Amazing, this guy has got to be a ninja of some sort.
I've seen it all day today, but I finally got a a chance to watch Escape From City 17 - Part One. Best described as a fan made live action Half Life 2 movie. Check it out.
Kotaku has some Impressions of the New Wolfenstein.
The story is a bit convoluted. It takes place in a fictional German city called Isenstadt. Even the rep on hand had some trouble explaining it to me, but it involves ancient amulets and crystals. But I know you don't care about that stuff. You just want to shoot Nazis, right?
They sadly don't make it sound like a slam-dunk, but I am looking forward to stepping into the boots of BJ Blaskowitz again :)
F.E.A.R. 2 Demo Released according to shacknews. I'm interested in seeing how this does on my new (well, 2 year old now) hardware.
The Battlefield Heroes Beta Key signup is up and running.... fingers crossed I get a chance to get in!
I always know there are a lot of people out there way smarter than I am (a lot) but I'm still amazed after seeing Portal - Advanced Chamber 18 done with 0 Portals. Check out the 'related videos' as well for other similar accomplishments. These guys do things like lean security bots against doors to keep them open when they open, exploit little bugs in the HL2 engine to climb walls, and other such coolness. Very impressive!
Three new screenshots have surfaced in the last few days from the latest round of DNF media. I hear that this is one year after the first "new" set of media from DNF came out proclaiming that they were back, there was indeed a real game there, it was being worked on, etc etc.
This is like 2001 all over again. We were jazzed up by the promise of DNF not being forever and a day away last year, now a year later they are reminding us that they're still working on it, no, really, we are.
The screenshots of course look lovely, and completely pre-rendered and doubtful to look anything like it in the final game (except for the last one maybe).
Bottom line, I'd say don't get too excited and wait for the announcement next year that they're switching game engines (or platforms).
OK, so my vote for the coolest looking Half Life 2 mod has to go to Black Mesa, which is, ironically, a HL2 mod to make it look like... wait for it.... HL1! Sure you can get the "Half Life: Source" program with HL2, which puts the HL2 textures into the HL1 game, but it doesn't put any of the new physics, character models, etc.... gosh wouldn't that be cool huh? (This is in fact, what I said the first time I played it).
Well, looks like this is it.
Darren pointed me to Doom 1, playable in a browser (with flash 10 of course). Sadly completely fails for me under Linux, but other systems might have better luck. Probably good as I don't have time for such silly distractions! :)
There's a new Ozzy Osbourne World of Warcraft TV Commercial as well as one from Pauly from the Sopranos. Not nearly as good as the original Shatner / mIni-Me ones IMHO.
Gamesradar puts up an interesting look back at the Evolution of the tree in video games.
The Portal: Prelude Official Trailer is now up on Vimeo. Also at http://www.portalprelude.com/
So the Amazon.com: Customer Reviews of Spore are not good, mostly due to the DRM system included in it (3 installs, then you have to start calling EA). Also sounds like the system was dumbed down from the initial presentation (no confirmation on that though). Lots of people are pissed off, and if I were to buy it and not be able to reinstall in a couple of years because a) I had run out of installs or b) the activation servers were removed, well, I'd be pretty angry too.
Anyone played it enough to give a review here?
Oh awesome, hows this for bringing back memories.... someone found and scanned The Official DOOM Comic Book From '96. Sweet!
The latest Heavy Update, pointed to me by Darren (as usual) is The Sandvich... you have to watch the video and appreciate the sound effects that they use for eating, that's awesome!
Shacknews has a good video/image Wolfenstein First Look. Looks pretty sexy, I have to admit. Makes me want to go and finish Quake 4 (finally) this weekend.
Gametrailers has the premier episode trailer for American McGee's Grimm, the latest endeavor from American McGee of Doom fame.
Another one from g4tv... Exclusive Hands On: Mirror's Edge. Mirror's Edge is the running / parkour game that had a teaser shown a while back. Very cool looking game!
Shacknews has some Spore Hands-on Preview. Very cool to hear what the game is like in real life. I recently got addicted to playing with the creature creator myself :)
TUAW Hands-on: Spore Origins for the iPhone. Lots of text, no pics :( Still cool though, looking forward to both the real spore and this game as well :)
Got an email today about the Call of Duty 5 (aka CoD World at War) trailer now online. It looks interesting, but other than the addition of a flame thrower and some nice explosions, it really doesn't tickle my fancy all that much. It's back to WW2, which is quite frankly, a bit played out. Hell, the first three CoD games were WW2 based! I thought that the success of CoD4:Modern Warfare would have inclined them to move into the modern age, or heck, move a few years into the future.... Oh well, the game is (I presume) using the CoD 4 engine (or a derivative of it) so the visuals and environments should be very nice, but I'm honestly not sure if YAWWTG (Yet Another WW2 Game) will get a good reception without something really amazing to bring people into it. Wikipedia has some more details on some of the technical details of CoD5.
This sounds interesting (not so much for me as I already have the game).... this weekend you can play Team Fortress 2 for free (other than a Steam account of course). You get access to the full game for the weekend.
New Duke Nukem Forever Footage Released it's only a few seconds, but it seems it exists. Doesn't look overly special, lets hope the content is good... you know, like handing money to strippers and drinking out of toilets and stuff.
Just saw that the 1.5 patch for BF2142 is out. New maps, fixes, addition of widescreen mode and various other goodies. Glad they've updated this game, looking forward to playing it!
Battlefield: Bad Company Demo Video Released over at shacknews. Very nice, I recommend the high quality stream to view it for sure. May even do the pre-order thing to get access to the demo, though normally I wait to see the demo before knowing if I'm going to buy the game or not.
Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars 1.5 Game Update Released. Not much else to say, grab it while it's hot!
The ETQW 1.5 Changelog is Revealed.... Mostly tweaks, a couple of nice UI changes though.
Shacknews tells me that this morning's interesting news was that Doom 4 is Announced:
"Doom is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth," said id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead in a press release."
This is very interesting. Going to earth = cool. Better engine = a given (the new Tech 5 is presumed). I just really hope that they don't compromise PC performance / controls / gameplay to make it cross platform.... (which the Tech 5 engine is currently able to do).
It'll be interesting.... Doom 3 really excited me, but I didn't love it as much as I thought I should have (but I am also notoriously bad completing single player campaigns...).
This is cool... you can play Team Fortress 2, the full game, same as included in the Orange Box for free this weekend. The Team Fortress 2 - Gold Rush promotion is on. I played some Gold Rush last night and have to admit, it was pretty fun. I'm not sure what the details of the promotion are, other than you have to sign up for and install Steam, but it does sound like a good deal (as free things sometimes are). Look for 'arcterex' online and you can come and kick my ass :)
Well, according to this article, Steve has not only seen evidence of DNF, but has seen the game itself.
To be honest, I thought the game's supposed existence was a vast conspiracy. More than a couple of times over the last decade I have gotten vague invitations to come see the game "someday," with it never happening. I figured this was probably the same invitation other developers in the area had gotten, and were claiming that vague invitation as having actually seen the game.
I'll still believe it when I see it, especially the part where it stands out from the crowd. I'm not convinced that DNF will be relevant anymore. Though at this point it's almost ready for the retro period...
Wow... check out this S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky DX10 Tech Trailer over on shacknews... that's some impressive effects! I think the dynamic volumetric smoke was my favorite, I can imagine using that to cover a battlefield with soft trails carved out as soldiers rush across.....
Maybe DX10 won't be a total flop after all?
The guy from Ctrl-Alt-Delete has some words on the Battlefield: Bad Company beta. I think I'm most looking forward to the destructable-ness of the environment, hopefully this one won't require the hardware that Crysis needs.
Shacknews reports: Epic Releases High-def Unreal Engine 3 Tech Trailer. Fairly cool show, some very sexy next-get graphical goodness (especially the destructable environmental elements!).
StarCraft 2 Zerg HD Trailer - official trailer now in HD (to registered shacknews users of course :)
You Starcraft folks may be interested in a First Look at StarCraft II Zerg.
Two nice little portal bits:
Wired article that Darren sent over where Will Wright Walks Us Through 'Spore' with some good gallery shots.
Bit of gaming news today....
Bah.... Shacknews says Spore Delay to Fall/Winter 2008 Likely, Says Analyst.
Portal: First Slice is free for all NVIDIA Gamers. Wonder how it is... heading to download it myself now!
Update - looks like if you are already a portal owner you don't get anything :( Dang, thought it was new portal content!
Fantastically original Crysis Review, complete with pictures (and very legit gripes).
Duke Nukem Forever Teaser Debuts on Shacknews, also they have a decade of Duke feature article. Youtube trailer version.
The trailer itself is... well, "meh". Great pre-rendered visual of Duke, and maybe 2 seconds of (theoretically) game footage. Anyone whose seen a teaser for any FPS in the last few years has seen just as good though, check out the trailers for FEAR, BF2/2142, CoD4, Crysis, UT3, etc. Which brings back the thought I had last night, does it matter anymore. Other than the new twist of "it's duke nukem and he's wise cracking", what are we going to see here that's not a variation and adaption of the other games out there. The original Duke was revolutionary because it was one of the first of it's kind, before Half Life and all it's friends. Now the market is so watered down...
I guess I'll believe it when I see it. Do wish they had released more of a trailer, so little just screams (to me) hardly anything done, and/or it'll change way more before it's done (like the last couple of trailers). Fingers crossed though.
Comments anyone?
Despite the multitude of comments I have, lets start with a link to the shacknews story stating Duke Nukem Forever Teaser Releasing Tomorrow; This is Real and We Are Not Shitting You. My thoughts:
Guess we'll see tomorrow.
Details of the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars 1.4 Update. Some interesting stuff in there.
The inCrysis Crysis Forums have the Ultimate Tweak Guide with lots of commands and pictures to show you how fantastic crysis can look (if you have a dual quad core machine with 32G of ram and 4 SLI of whatever the latest and as yet unreleased video card is. Overclocked :)
Deus Ex 3 Trailer Released over at Fileshack. I'm not sure about this one.... Dues Ex was not bad, 2 was "meh" for me, and this one the trailer doesn't really have anything "meaty" in it. Very stylistic and what not though :)
Shacknews has a nice full Crysis Review. Benefits: Looks awesome. Downfall: huge system demands to make it look awesome :)
Finally! Battlefield 2142 Patch 1.40 Released. Under 400mb (gah... could be worse though) and includes what appear to be a lot of good fixes as well as a new map. Some details below, but hit the full story for download info and full fix/change/additions.
FEATURES- Added a new map - Highway Tampa.
- Added an autosave to kit customisations. After you customise a kit and spawn in with that kit, the customisation will be automatically saved until you change it and spawn in again. Note that you must spawn in with a particular kit for it to be saved.
- Titans will now spawn up to two gunships per side
- Squad Leaders no longer have to resupply to re-equip destroyed drones
Dangit! I wanted to get to sleep early tonight! :)
Ifurita's ETQW XP Guide tells you what does and doesn't give you XP (points / upgrades) in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.
New Assassin's Creed Trailer looks awesome. Wish it was coming out for PC :( Looks like it could make a great movie though... think "Hitman: Rome".
Shacknews has an Unreal Tournament 3 Single-player Campaign Preview along with new screenshots and a nifty looking trailer.
Fight The Ko-Dan Armada — For Real! with instructions on how to get the resources to build your own cabinet.
Jonathan Coulton comes clean about his involvement with Portal in Portal: The Skinny. Great story!
Also you should check out the song using gmod (where "the song" will ring a bell with anyone who has finished the game) which I've never heard of before, but is a fantastic performance :)
Found footage of TimeShift showing off some graphics, gameplay, and some of the uniqueness that this game adds to the standard FPS.
OMG! OMG! Finally, a Crysis Single-player Demo Released. Look for fast download links in the comments... I'm pulling it down at 590KB/sec right now, so please wait until I'm done the rest of the 1.7G file :)
Well, I see that Spore is on Track for Spring Release. I guess I'll believe it when I see it, and if it does come out, that's good I guess, as there's lots of games to deal with and spring will be the time I'm ready and done with TF2, HL2*, ETQW and friends.
Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Linux Client Released. That about says it. Hopefully the performance under Linux will be as good as windows, but right now sadly my Linux box is a bit old for gaming :)
Never heard of this game before, but check out the trailer for Bionic Commando. Wow, beautiful environments, cool looking grappling from destroyed building to destroyed building, and nifty physics for dispatching your enemies. All platforms as well, which is nice. Interesting to see more when it is closer to being released (no date yet).
If you've got bandwidth and HD space for another game demo, check out Hellgate: London.
I thought it'd end up being a joke, but check out how this guy Played Through Episode Two Holding A Goddamn Gnome (note: some spoilers) to get the 'gnome achievement'. Absolutely hilarious, and skillful. Note that the gnome also has his own blog about the whole thing!
Being I just bought The Orange Box, I find the Zero Punctuation: The Orange Box review that Darren pointed me to.
Ha ha! "Force feedback codpiece".
Ooooohh..... going to be an unproductive night now that the Unreal Tournament 3 Demo Download is available..
CryTek has released some screenshots of Detail Levels Compared. Gotta say the DX10 version looks very very nice... note the rocks in the left foreground in the different detail levels.
Speaking of upcoming games, there is a Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Demo Download over at fileshack.
Well, the real version of Portal is out, but those who want a bit of problem solving in the browser can play Portal: The Flash Version. Kinda fun, thanks to Darren for sucking away my work hours :)
Shacknews has a Unreal Tournament 3 Preview. With this, Orange Box, ETQW, and Crysis either just out or coming out soon, it's a good season for gaming!
A triplet of gaming news from shacknews.
Jon Patch has The word on Acceleration and FSX SP2 for all you flight sim fans out there.
Dang, wish I knew how people got on Betas like that for Crysis! Check out the Crysis Multiplayer Beta Impressions over at shacknews. Sounds like fun, but way taxing on your hardware :)
A Unreal Tournament 3 Impressions reveals it as a "must buy". Can't wait for the PC version myself....
Some details of UT3 have emerged, looks like a November release and there'll be a special edition version for the PC. I was a huge UT2004 player back in the day, at least until Battlefield:2 stole my life, so I'm looking forward to UT3!
Dana passed on a Halo 3 movie snippet (RL movie). Wow, holy super-coolness batman.... not cheesy either, same weapons,vehicles, baddies....
Giving credit where due, he saw it over at Forgetfoo.
Darren pointed me to The Crossing Trailer and an interview about it. Basically a "what if the knights templar survived to post-modern day France which is tearing itself apart. Looks very interesting.
Just saw that the Tarr Chronicles Demo is available over at FileShack. I've never heard of the game before to be honest, but the screenshots look really cool (it's a space fighting flight sim it looks like).
Over at Shack News there are some good comments on gameplay, classes and balance in the just-launched Team Fortress 2 Beta (available to anyone who pre-ordered the Orange Box bundle).
The Crysis, Ice Forest Gameplay video has a bit of a taste of gameplay and graphics.
Mmm.... yummy.....
Shacknews has a nice hands on look at Crysis.
While I wasn't able to see the entire level, I certainly saw enough of Ice to be blown away, and glad to see some more variety in the game after having had plenty of hands-on time in the past with jungle environments that. Check back a week from now for more impressions of another non-jungle Crysis environment.
Anyone interested in Team Fortress 2 should know you can get on the beta if you pre-order.
Well, looks like the Call of Duty site has been revamped for the release in November.
Sounds like a Beta for the XBox 360 is going as well.
Title basically says it all..... Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars Demo Released!
Download early! This is a single map demo of a tweaked version of Valley, which was included with Beta2.
Downloading now!
I'm not sure if I totally understand the exploding watermelons video cause I'm not that into oblivion, but damn, it's still funny :)
Details of the upcoming Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars PC Demo coming this monday (Sept 10).
Whoot! Sounds like Enemy Territory QUAKE Wars is GOLD! Can't wait to see it on the shelves!
In other gaming news, there's a Call of Duty 4 Video up on Fileshack. sCary has both flash (instant view) and the mondo HD version (if you're willing to wait 80+ minutes for the free FileShack servers) available.
It's another one of those "download if you're a subscriber" things I think, but the demo for Bioshock is on Fileplanet now. Also new nVidia drivers are out (faster to get them from the beta section on the nVidia website than from the FilePlanet download) with some BioShock specific improvements.
How good is the demo? I'll tell you when the download starts in 33 minutes or so :) Unless I find the same file elsewhere (*cough*tpb*cough*).
A great strategy guide for Unlocking Valley with the Strollin’ Soldier, directed for ET Quake Wars Players for the new Valley Map.
Fairly cute story from World of Warcraft called I did something nice found on reddit. I almost glossed over it, but read it even though it's a bit long. Worth it IMHO.
We chatted a little whilst we played, and it came to my attention that this wasn't a very old player, as he kept on having to go "becuase dad neds 2 chek the emall" he also clearly had no idea how to play, kept on pointing at random objects and saying "coooooooooool!!", and by the state of his outfit, it looked like he hit mach 2 and collided with a Dorthy Perkins store.
Fileshack has the Rage Trailer in both flash and HD. I'm waiting for it to download, but from the comments, you're going to like what you see :)
Enemy Territory Quake Wars Public Beta 2 and Keys Now Available!
Not sure what else there is to say about that....
From TED Talks is a video of Will Wright talking a bit about spore (16 minute video).
Do I care? No! I want the game dammit!
A trailer for Star Wars: Force Unleashed has been unleashed. Fileshack has both and HD version and the flash version. Force Unleashed is a console game (not for you PC players!) which looks cool. Well, the trailer (first bit) is supercool anyway.
Forget Foo has the Halo 3 Trailer. Great graphics, but the character animation and movement still feels (for the most part) a bit off. Same with the vehicles. Course, that's a bit off compared to real life, cause it does look fantastic!
No consoles for me though, so I'm out of luck....
So as I said yesterday I managed to get a key for the beta release of Enemy Territory Quake Wars, the new game from iD Software and Splash Damage (who also made Wolfenstein - Enemy Territory, Return to Wolfenstein, and Doom 3). This game was announced ages ago, and I've been watching it since at least 2005.
So yesterday afternoon I frantically hit the links for the stupid fileplanet registration that you have to have, then fought my way through a malfunctioning image capcha (which didn't work and eventually just seemed to let me through) and got my beta key (wh00t) then waited 20 minutes in line for the download from the public servers, and then a couple of painful hours waiting for the 900mb file to download (thankfully the speed was decent).
Note that this is a work in progress, I'll update as I start to "get" more of the gameplay aspects that I currently don't totally understand after a couple of hours of play.
Read on for my take on the beta.
Installation was nice and easy, and the game started up and got you to put in your key, create an account for online play, etc. I didn't tweak out the default preferences much other than setting the resolution to match my monitor (1680x1050) and adjusting a couple of the key bindings. My first bitch was that the way of doing keybindings seemed a bit odd, it warned you if a key was already bound, but it wasn't obvious (at first anyway, to me) how to unbind or overwrite the binding. Not a biggie. There seemed to be a lot of keybindings too, my standard setup from Battlefield 2 and 2142 took some knocks.
A bit of background about my hardware and my playing style.
Hardware setup:
Basically a very nice setup that I'm happy to say hasn't lugged against any game I've thrown at it.
About me.
I'm an FPS bitch. I love 'em, but have played lots for a few minutes and then never played them again... there are very few FPS that keep my attention for very long. Quake3 (and the Urban Terror addon) kept my attention for years, and recently Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142 have been my game of choice for the last couple of years as well.
I particularly enjoy the online teamplay aspect of the BF series. It's not about the graphics or the "feel" of the game (though both are pretty good), but more in the way that if you play as a team (or a squad in this case) you get ahead compared to being a lone wolf. In fact, the first time I played BF2 I almost put it away to never play again because it seemed like you were all alone, would run around this huge map, then get shot and restart. Once I discovered how to join a squad and spawn on my squadleader the game suddenly changed and became 10x more fun.
Enough about not QW stuff, here's the actual game!
Graphics and Sound
Both top notch. The mega-texture technology looks gorgeous, though I didn't take the time to see if you could really see across the entire map or not. I haven't used the weapons long enough to see if the weapon sounds are as good as they could be, but to the first time player they seemed just dandy. A great thing was that the grass and trees had a nice natural "sway" that I first saw in the Battlefield series. When you're standing in grass or by foliage the leaves or grass will sort of sway back and forth in the breeze, which really helps with the immersion of the world. After seeing this, playing a game without this feature feels far more static and un-realistic. The foliage still appears to be sprite based, not as nice as Crysis promises to be, but still very nice.
Performance and RAM
Played fine for me, though I have to admit I've got a decent system to play it on. The game is based on the Doom 3 engine (I believe) which plays very nicely on older hardware such as my previous system, an XP2600 with 1G RAM. I wouldn't doubt that this game will not require huge hardware to be playable. By contrast BF2/2142 seems to need a fair amount more system to go nicely. I noticed that RAM usage (running on Vista Ultimate) was lower than BF as well. Based on viewing my task manager after the game closed, BF2142 used about 1G of ram while QW used about 700mb. The Mega-Texture technology is probably helpful here. QW also appeared to use both CPU cores as well, which was expected.
Non-Game Environment
The menus, options and non-game visuals were great and up to the standards of iDs previous games.
Gameplay and Teamplay
This is the most important part to me. The first time you join the game it's very confusing. It's similar to every other FPS of course, and similar to squad based FPSs such as BF2/2142 (my apologies for continually comparing BF2/2142 to QW, but the similarities are obvious and easily comparable). There is a lot of stuff on the screen and it's easy to not know quite what's going on and what to do.
You have a map which displays both friendly and enemy targets, an area at the top of the screen with tips and information, and a place on the left of the screen for messages from other players, death messages, etc. Pretty standard stuff.
The "feel" of the game (weapon switching, speed and movement) were good, comparable to Doom 3 and similar games. The crouch / prone switch isn't as good as it could be I think, or as fast. Sometimes it seems that going prone doesn't, or there is just a long delay. The difference between an overweight computer programmer going from standing to lying compared to a in-shape soldier throwing themselves to the dirt. Tweaks like this are easily changed at this point though as this is a beta to collect information like this.
I wasn't able to really "grok" the squads. When you die or are waiting to go into the game there is a limbo menu where you can change your weapon layout, class or spawn point. You have a map where you can select the place where you spawn and a countdown to the next wave of deployment (every 20 seconds or so). This is nice but sometimes it seems that you hit deploy and immediately spawn with your previous weapon load and class instead of with the new load out you just chose. This could be due to being revived while I was in the limbo menu. BF solves this by not covering up the gameplay screen completely while you're in the menu, but also grabbing you out of the menu so you know when you are revived. Sometimes this really sucks though :) There doesn't seem to be a way to join a squad (or fireteam is the terminology they use) from the limbo menu.
In the gameplay there were invites to join a fireteam, but there didn't seem to be that obvious way of showing what squad you were part of or spawn on the squadleader or anything like that.
The other thing I don't get yet are the objectives. I'm not an ET player, but I do know that the gameplay is such that you work as a team to do something, then you move forward in the map, do something else, etc. In the one map these objectives seemed to be things like build a big cannon, plant explosives, defend explosives / cannon for X minutes, that sort of thing. This is different than the BF way where a commander gives squads individual commands to move, attack, defend, etc. This other way works well if you have a good commander, but if you don't have one, it can suck. I think I remember hearing that QW was going to have the ability to do individual missions for squads, so it's just a matter of figuring it out.
In QW you have "missions". A notice will appear that a new mission is available and you hit the 'm' key to move through the missions available. They are things like 'defend ion canon <19xp' or 'attack sewer grate <2xp'. I honestly have no idea what this is for or what to do once you select them. I suppose there is probably a change in the HUD or the map, but I didn't see it or it wasn't immediately obvious. In the HUD there is a square overlay that may point you to where you should be going, but it's not obvious to me. This will hopefully be fixed with either a set of instructions or a tweaked tip system when the game is released.
XP Points and Powerups
XP points are something that I'm not totally sure what they are, how you get them, or what they are used for. They are mentioned in the 'm' mission menu and in the post-game stats, but beyond that I'm not sure. Probably something that's easily found with a bit of digging, but my concern when first playing was to kill and not be killed :)
Upgrades / powerups were also mentioned in gameplay a couple of time. I think I was awarded 'silent footsteps' while playing as a sniper at one point, but I'm not sure if this is a permanent thing, something you turn on or off, or what. I think there was also notification of an unlock that was available for the next round, but again, I'm not sure what/how/where to do anything with this.
Compared to the unlock system from the BF series I have to say that BF seemed to be simpler and easier to understand. That could be just experience talking though.
(Current) Conclusions
I'm going to keep playing this for sure. The look and feel is awesome, and I think once I "get" the team gameplay it'll be much better. The forums seem to indicate it takes a few hours of play to get up to speed, which seems a bit long, but it is a beta after all. Looking at the maps that have been in screenshots and the videos that have been floating around I'm really looking forward to the full release. In my 2-4 hours of play yesterday afternoon and evening I found no "bugs" per-se, nothing massively out of place or crash inducing, and the only things I see that need improvement is the introduction of gameplay and game concepts.
Compared to BF this game seems a bit more complex when you first go in. I seem to remember BF being a fairly gentle introduction to new concepts, ie: the first time you use a new weapon or vehicle you get a voiceover telling you about it and how to use any special features. The map seemed more useful as well, or at least the idea of what you are supposed to do and where you're supposed to be going was better placed. I'm not sure if I prefer the QW (see everyone on the map) or BF (see only your own team or any sighted enemys on the map) map type. Again, this is most likely more cause I've played way more hours of BF, and I plan to revisit this assessment as I get a bit more into QW.
Final conclusion is that if you're a fan of the original Enemy Territory, or of squad based online FPSs this is definitely a download to play around with. Check out the forums and see if your question or complaint is there and if not, ask. I'm sure the devs are reading it to hopefully make QW a kickass game when it appears.
If you can't get on the beta, well, try try try and hopefully another round of beta keys appear soon!
Informal results:
Graphics / Sound / Visuals: 9.5/10
Gameplay (feel): 8/10
Gameplay (squad): 5/10
Menus: 9/10
Ability to Jump in and go: 6/10
By the time you see this it'll probably be too late, but the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars on FilePlanet promotion is on and beta keys and downloads are distributing now! I'm sitting waiting in line for my download.... so long Sunday!
Great page with some Vancouver Plus Screenshots. For those who don't know, Vancouver+ is an patch for Flight Sim 9 and X (10) that greatly enhances the local scenery, including the outlying areas, from Squamish to Mission and more. Hit the link to see just how much it enhances it.
Shacknews found that Quake Wars is Planned for Q3 2007. Looking forward to it.
The hits just keep rolling in with this new Crysis Technology Movie from fileshack (and probably others as well).
Update: Ugh, sorry guys, mostly it's an ad for Intel/Nvidia/Vista.... couple of bits of new footage and environments, but way more marketspeak. Speaking of which, am I missing something with the Vista game explorer? This seemed to be a big part of the "Crysis and vista" marketspeak, and yet it seems like it's a place to click on an icon to start a game, much like the folder with all the shortcuts to start my games that I have on my desktop? Guess if you don't care about box art or parental controls it's not all that interesting.
Does anyone really give a shit about Duke Nukem Forever Images anymore? Last image was a posed duke toy, this one is obviously artwork. Course, at this point, with DNF haven been given vaporware awards up the wazzoo for the last 10 years or so, is it remotely relevant anymore? Think Daikatana but instead of three years of development, it's been 10 years but there's still no game. At what point do you as the development company realize that you're never going to get your money back, and will probably be even worse off because when (if) the game is finally released it'll just be an embarrassment.
So if you're one of the three people who a) reads this blog and b) doesn't know that StarCraft II has been announced, well, hey, Starcraft 2 has been announced. Hit the main site for trailer, gameplay video, screenshots, and all that fun stuff. Franky I watched the trailer and thought it was very cool (great 3D rendering) and the gameplay video and though "meh". But then again, I'm a FPS guy not an RTS guy, so Starcraft really isn't my thing anyway... but for those of you whose thing it is, go nuts!
Saw yesterday on Shacknews that there was a New Team Fortress 2 Movie. Looks .... well, I do like the facial animation, the cartoonyness... well, we'll see I guess. If you don't have a fileshack account, or want a quick and dirty view of it, check out this page with the video embedded.
Yet another New Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Movie. Haven't seen it yet, hope it's good.
Update: Not new, this is the high res quicktime version of the last posts movie.
The next hot and upcoming game, "Spore" has been pushed back to 2008. Bummer, that's one of the three games I was actually looking forward to this year :(
Whoot, another Crysis gameplay movie.... looks sweet, though seems to be sped up a lot, not sure if that's showing the power of the 'nanosuit' or just a bug in the embedded video. Either way, it's another little glimpse into the game for those waiting for it like me.
Cool video interview with gameplay shown. Looks pretty dang sweet! Please please id and Splash Damage release it soon!
Shacknews has a couple of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Screenshots, and in the comments someone posted a link to screenshots from the closed beta! Looks shexy!
BF players rejoice, the Battlefield 2142 1.25 Patch is out. Doesn't sound like there's much exciting in it though.... I'd love a few simple fixes to stupid things like being able to save my weapon choices between games or hell, between rounds or the punkbuster errors where I'm randomly dumped out of a game for no reason.... you know, things like that. They have however fixed a bunch of exploits and tweaked weapons settings. read the full log for more.
Shacknews has a First Look at the Transformers game. Can't say I'm impressed with the look of the actual transformers, but the graphics look good. Could be fun to kick ass by throwing cars around though :)
Here's yet another Crysis Movie from Shacknews, this time showing actual footage from the game (not the tech demo like last time) as well as new footage from the game (new aliens, etc). Not sure if I'm hot on the new mod system (selecting super-fast, super-strength, mods on the weapon, etc), but I'll reserve judgment until it's in my hot and sweaty hands, making my PC beg for mercy :)
Nice analysis and strategy guide for rock, paper, scissors.
So who wants to play :)
Too Cool! Beyond the Red Line has released a demo of the game. It is open source and utilizes the Freespace2 game engine. The site appears to be dugg right now, still very exciting news... we can get our BSG fixes while waiting for Season 4!
Download / Torrent links in the Digg.com comments link BTW.
Title says it all, Shacknews has a preview of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Man I can't wait for this to be out (release date is still "when it's done").
Dana mentioned Urban Terror, the mod for quake 3, and indeedUrban Terror 4.0 was released April 1. Website is a little lax on any info other than download links. Anyone know anything about the new release?
Wow, the video is a bit long, but the payoff to view these Quake 3 trick jumpers is worth it. Just ignore the long intro....
Make me want to install Q3 again and head out to play some q3ctf again....
Clip: First Penny Arcade Game Footage. Cool. Glad there was no voice acting though :) Glad to see the juicer got in as well!
Cool, Digg pointed to Five Spore Vids Show Entire Evolution.
Man I can't wait for this game!
Little Big Planet - GDC 07 On Stage Demonstration. Very cool demo of PS3 technology / gameplay / game design / graphics / physics.
Two New Amazing Crysis Videos available... "wow". The first one looks a bit like the old trailer at the beginning, but has lots of new stuff. Second one is pretty interesting too, talking about some of the new features added to the engine. Can't wait for it to be available!
Anyone following the in-production-for-ages game "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." will be happy to know it's gone gold.
A demo video for Star Wars: Force Unleashed has some really freaky AI technology built in. Watch the video and check it out. Wonder if this'd constitute rights for AI?
Looking to do some gaming under Linux? Here's a nice blog entry with screenshots and setup details to get these all going nicely.
Very cool stuff, the Black Mesa Mod is:
Black Mesa is a complete reimagining of Half-Life utilizing the full capabilities of Source. "The real Half-Life: Source" in short. Also available for download is a new 59-second teaser-trailer for the mod.
A spanking new Crysis Video on youtube, and the high def version on Fileshack. Some old stuff, some new stuff (check out the rockfall!). Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeexy!
Over at shacknews there are some new Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Screenshots. Looking sweeter all the time :)
I haven't seen it myself yet, but there's a digg story pointing to a New High Res Crysis Video and Screenshots. Only mirror I found that works so far is trickling out the 95mb HD video at 1.6KB/sec. I'll see it sometime tomorrow at this speed!
Oh, here's one that seems a bit better.
Interesting article on adapting ray-tracing for games (q3 and q4 are used) at the Ray Traced Project. Wonder if this'll be the next big thing for gaming?
Hmm...... maybe this mouse and keyboard adapter for the XBox 360 could turn me away from the PC for gaming. I've been holding off getting a console of any sort simply because the games I enjoy playing are FPSs and I feel like a whale on acid trying to control any console FPSs through the silly controllers they use. Maybe this will be a turning point....
Interesting and amusing article on The history of the FPS. A pictorial.. Pics of everything from 1974's "Spasim" to Doom in 1993. So how many of these did you play? I can only count 4 :(
Interesting graphical comparison of Xbox 360 Versus PlayStation 3 Comparison. Some of the shots really don't show any quality difference to my eyes, just different lighting or shading. Still, if you're considering one or the other and have an uber-TV, these are the things you need to know.
The Supreme Commander Beta is now open. Note the webpage looks like it's IE only, for me none of the graphics show up (including the big 'sign up now' button) in Firefox :(
According to Oneiros, the game is the shit, so I'm going to have to go and check it out and get my ass kicked....
Console gaming isn't really my thing, but apparently this Playstation 3 thing is causing a bit of a buzz. The online comic Ctrl Alt Del has some nice commentary on the situation, mirrored by a coworker telling me this morning that he was up at 3am and driving around the local electronics stores finding where there were less people lined up than there were consoles available. Apparently you can sell these things on eBay for $3000-7000 (insanity!), which is pretty good for a morning's work.
Not sure if this Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Movie will compel me to dump my just-purchased GeForce 7950 GT for the just-released 8800 monster, but dang, it does look good doesn't it? Personally I can't wait for the niftyness of ET:QW to arrive, how about you? Old ET fans, time to start revving up your engines!
Ooooh! A nice long movie from the up-coming, hardware-obsoleting, pixel-pumping Crysis game. The graphics and physics look great, as a few commenters in the threads note, the story (super advanced technology, evil alien enemy, one lone soldier to save the world, blah blah blah) isn't anything new.
Ugh :( Just when I was thinking that the BF2142 that I wrote about a couple of times with the ads in it might not be that bad I saw a post with a shot of an in-game ad.
Is it just me or is that really, really offensive offensive? Especially with the game running on the same engine as BF2 and the cost being the same? With things like this and the previous story about Vista licensing, is it just me or are companies (and the government, but that's another story) taking more and more liberties away from the end users?
With the controversy about Battlefield 2142 and it's built in spyware and ads (possible fix here), some videos of ET: Quake Wars have come out and wow it looks awesome. Hopefully this game is as cool as it looks, and the results will dissuade EA from bundling non-opt-out spyware and ads into their games (and not giving users a choice, and not even reducing the price for the ad infected version).
As an aside, anyone found any images of the ads in the BF2142?
Gizmodo brings news of the first North American PlayStation 3 commercial, found here. Sadly they forgot to include anything in the ad to about the PS3 or to indicate what it was about (well, except for the last 3 seconds of footage, and even then it's just a date).
I haven't kept up on my Pure Pwnage videos, looks like they have some cool new stuff though. First of all, a store with some cool stuff (going on a shopping spree soon, need more t-shirts). They are also doing episode screenings, nov 2 in Vancouver just down the road! Wh00t! I'll be going methinks.
Here's something cool / funky for all you flight sim geeks out there. A side by side comparison of -a landing in real life compared to Flight Sim X.
Darren (of StaticRed fame, threw me a link to the Limbo teaser page. Looks like a fun game. Anyone know any details about it?
Darren just threw this at me... Terminal Doom allows you to run classic doom 1.... on an arcade..... inside Doom 3! Similar yet different to Doom Classic.
Darren pointed me to a trailer on youtube for Valve's Portal. Based on the titles of some of the other videos it's a mini-game from HL Episode 2. Anyone know more about this?
Wow, and I thought farcry was realistic looking. Check out this 14 minute Crysis video. Amazing looking with a lot of cool stuff that looks like it'll help gameplay (destructable environments) and not just be eye candy. Too bad the resolution is so crappy :(
Gamespot has a nice list of reasons why it's worth to be a PCgamer in 2007. The ones I knew about and was excited about were Spore, Crysis, and Intersteller Marines. The list is pretty long, not just FPS like I like, but role playing and puzzel games as well. I also hadn't heard about Medal of Honor:Airborne Assault before, I loved that game before I discovered Call of Duty, I'm looking forward to a graphically updated version of MoH:AA.
How cool is Valve, selling plush headcrabs. In case anyone is wondering what to get me for my birthday... :)
Here are a couple of gameplay videos from the new version of Unreal Tournament. UT2004 was my favorite game until I became a slave to Battlefield 2, and I see BF2 being eclipsed by UT2007 when it comes out :)
Bit more spooge material for those of you itching for the new Doom 3 Engine based ET: Quake Wars game. Here is some info and new screenshots via IGN.
Darren pointed me to an article on Duke Nukem Forever Status. My first reaction is "this is 12 days late" (for april fools day). The game, which I think has become a bigger joke than Daikatana was (and I can't see a different fate for it than that of Daikatana), is apparently getting towards the end of it's competion cycle, with a half million dollar bonus to be paid if the game ships prior to Dec 31 2006.
Of course, the real question is that if the game actually ships, can it compete (with it's "heavily modified engine containing elements from the Unreal Engine") with something like Crysis, which looks amazing?
But, according to the piece, Broussard was bashful, overall, about showing off the game, commenting: "The problem is that when we show it, people are going to be like, 'Yeah, whatever'. Honestly, at this point we just want to finish it."
That last sentance really don't instill me with the impression of a game that's going to kick ass and take names, but instead something that is ripe for ridicule and the bargin bin at the local game store...
That said, I'll wait (and wait, and wait....) and see :)
It's 2005! Give me environments that realistically react to what I do! Yes, it matters."And a better quote:
Instant-Failure Stealth Levels. Ack. This brings back horrible memories of a Goldeneye level where if you tripped an alarm, an infinite number of bad guys poured forth. We knew a man who failed that level 37 times, then got the Infinite Health cheat for it and came back. He intentionally tripped the alarm, the guards rushed out. Laughing maniacally, he proceeded to shoot those fuckers for four hours, killing 1,183 of them - 682 with groin shots - before his thumbs cramped up. Your game should not create this kind of bitterness.
For years, fans have enjoyed incredible battles on the Strogg home planet; but with ENEMY TERRITORY: QUAKE WARS, were taking players back to the war that started it all the Strogg invasion of Earth where the choice is to fight with the humans or the alien Strogg in a massive campaign for survival, said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. Like all great id Software games, ENEMY TERRITORY: QUAKE WARS unites bleeding-edge technology, a fantastic universe, and meticulously balanced gameplay to deliver an engrossing and futuristic gaming experience.
Second is a sexy new screenshot from the sometime when it's ready quake 4.
Today, Valve software announced several neat new things coming down the Half-Life 2 pipeline, the neatest of which is the inclusion of High Dynamic Range lighting, or HDR, an effect that gives light a very realistic glow.
Still waiting for Duke Nuk'em Forever....
Oh, and the fix for the stuttering in HL2 has been released on steam. To update, just load up the game (I think).
Tenebrae is a modification of the quake source that adds stencil shadows and per pixel lights to quake. Stencil shadows allow for realistic shadow effects on every object in the game world. Per pixel lighting allows you to have fine surface details correctly lit. These are essentially the same algorithms as used by the new Doom [3] game.Well, it sure looks good! Version 2 is of course, an upgrade of the original.
Anyway, can't wait for tomorrow!
Anyway, the pre-order is going to be up on the steam system tomorrow, so you can get a variety of options, from HL2 and CounterStrike: Source to HL2, CS:S, Half Life 1: Source, t-shirts, etc. Of all of this the only thing actually available now is CounterStrike: Source though. Wonder if this is marketting hype to get people ready and bought in or if they are actually close to releasing HL2... course, if they were close they'd keep their mouths shut and not piss people off by making them pay for something they can't get right away :)
Not that I'm tired of waiting of course....
[...] Its scary. If you have heart conditions, do not play this game. Buy it, but don't play it. I have never been more scared in my life. When I first ran into the main baddies in Halo I was scared for a little bit, but eventually I just ripped into them. In Doom3, from start to finish I am one scary creature away from pissing my pants.That pretty much says it all. Well, almost all. Can you tell I've been playing a lot of this game lately? :)[...]
The sound is also top notch. In stereo I still could tell there was a creepy undead marine behind me. If you have a 5.1 setup, prepare for an aural orgasm.
[...]
... not once in Doom3 was I sad that I would have to go into another room, scream like a little girl, run back out, collect myself, and then go forward.
I grabbed 'em anyway though :)
Some are pretty huge, recommended a browser that automagically scales down to your browser window size :)
Not sure how long the link pointed to by this Boing Boing post about Unreal 3's amazing detail will last. Let me know if it dies, I have a copy :) All I can say is "wow" and "wish the video was high res". Unreal 3 will kick ass visually, it looks like Doom3 on steroids. They are showint it off only because of the new nvidia card, which is the first card (at $900CND approx) that can handle the engine. However, the millions of polygons and all realtime lighting and detail are no doubt worth it, and we'll all be upgrading in a year or three when Unreal 3 is released. Just wish Doom3 would hurry up and arrive :)
This is where the link goes.
You'll have objectives, an in-game PDA, missions that include escorting NPCs and that sort of thing. Sounds great, I can't wait! No release date yet though, still "when it's done" :(
On the upside of this I guess is that by that time other games will be out and we'll be flooded with new titles. I know Max Payne 2 just went gold (can't wait to try it out... demo please!), Doom III should be out by then (hopefully) and other games should be at a point of release as well. For example, the latest S.T.A.L.K.E.R. shots look awsome!
Oh well, not much we can do but move on and hope that they don't end up like Duke Nukem WhenForever! The game is still going to kick ass when it comes out though from what I've seen. Or at least if it comes out in a reasonable timeframe.
Because of their stupid system that doesn't appear to allow you to link directly to the page, try going to the main page and clicking on the "Doom 3: id speaks out, new screens!" link in the top left corner.
Hollenshead said he was not worried about other highly anticipated games like Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 taking away some of Doom IIIs thunder, saying, We dont need other games to suck for ours to be good.That's classy.
So run, don't walk to your newsreader and search for "half" in you-know-where and start downloading (it's in rar format and pars are there as well.
"Wow" is the censored version of what I said when I watched these two trailers. I highly recommend using bittorrent to grab the Doom3 trailer, and then grab the half life 2 trailer (.mov). Both are just... "wow".
There are some absolutely awsome shots of Halo2 here... wow, talk about nice lighthing and texturing. Course, it'll be another 5 years before those who refuse to buy an X-Box (or who can't afford it) will see anything Halo wise for the PC....
As always, Steve over at shacknews has the scoop.
At that time I knew we'd never see a Linux or Mac version, and I was very very doubtful we'd see a PC version. Howver, there is a story or GameSpy from the company (Gearbox Software) that got the job of doing the PC port. Good to see there is still a chance.
On a personal note, I'm sad to say I don't think that Halo matters anymore. If it had come out in 1999 or whever it was it was first talked about it would have been the best game ever (or something like that), but this many years later, there are other games that do what it does, and it has been leapfrogged technologically, so I don't think the impact it could have made will still be there. My hopes are still out that it'll be good though.
Tim Willits: Doom III will truly change what people expect from a video game experience. Every piece of technology, from the rendering system to the six-channel surround sound and the realistic physics, is coupled with incredible art and design to create a world that is hyperrealistic and more interactive than ever.
New game engine, awsome effects, not quite aimed at the doom3 crowd, but still good (playable on a p3-700 with a tnt2 all the way up to the latest and greatest), better AI, better effects, new AI system (muscle system, lip syncing, and realistic beast movement), lots of attention to light and reflections, in development since the original Half Life came out and best of all, it's going to be released in less than six months!
