Worthplaying Goodies 05:42 pm
- Andrew Burnes
- games: general news
(0 comments)
- 'NASCAR SimRacing' - Demo
- This demo features the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Kansas Speedway tracks, with 10 different drivers and car colors to choose from.
- Various Game Trailers
Future EA Titles Revealed 05:33 pm
- Andrew Burnes
- games: general news
(6 comments)
Dutch site XboxWorld attended an EA event where their game line-up for the next year was revealed:
Further in-depth details here.
Latest From The Vault 05:25 pm
- Andrew Burnes
- games: general news
(0 comments)
The latest content from The RPG Vault:
Age of Empires 3 to Support SM 3.0 03:54 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- games: real-time strategy
(1 comment)
The Inquirer reports that Ensemble's Age of Empires 3 will have full Direct X 9 functionality and support Shader Model 3.0 making it an nVidia friendly game ala Doom 3: High Dynamic Range lighting, as featured in the latest Far Cry patch, will be used in the game to render the lush landscapes of the colonial age in which the game is set. Whilst Doom 3 had a hidden option to toggle self-shadowing, AOE3 will come with that feature fully built into the engine, meaning that ships and soldiers will be shaded more realistically than ever. We fully expect that this will be the first in a wave of DX9/SM3 announcements this year, as the in-game engines finally catch up to the hardware released last year.
The game will be shipped under the Nvidia The Way It's Meant To Be Played scheme, so even if ATI manages to get its Shader Model 3.0 part out in time, there is every chance that Nvidia's solution will outperform it.
Thanks Planet AoM.
Gears of War - Epic's Next Title? 03:34 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- consoles: xbox next
(0 comments)
Speculation out of Eurogamer is that Epic's next game will be called Gears of War for the Xbox 2 and sport a "ride around on beastly creatures and kill things" theme. Naturally, this doesn't sound like something Epic would release, but they found it fit to trademark the name, along with "Hollow Point". If I was a betting man, I'd put money on them changing the names to Unreal Tournament 2005 and 2006 respectively. ;)
Battlefield 2 Interview 03:28 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- games: action
(3 comments)
Total Battlefield 2 was nice enough to translate an interview from BFCentral.se with DICE's Lead Designer Lars Gustavsson who talks extensively about Battlefield 2:
Do you all work 24 hours a day now before the release?
Yes, it's a lot. I think it's allowed now to say that DICE has grown as a company and we have made it so people wont sleep under their tables at least.
"Hotel DICE" as we renamed the conference room during the 1942-time, we had beds in the whole room and then you went in and slept for a couple of hours and then proceed again.
But yes, we are fighters, on holidays and late evenings. at the same time this is the funny period. All the pieces fall to their places and you must sometimes keep people away from the game tests. In the beginning its all just one big torture: it crashes all the time, its unbalanced, you get to play without textures and performance is awful.
The EA joke would be too easy so I won't even bother. :)
Blizzard Interview Part Two 03:00 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- games: general news
(0 comments)
The second installment of GameIndusty.biz's interview with Blizzard is online where the topics include StarCraft Ghost, next-generation consoles, their relationship with VU Games and more:
What's the status of the StarCraft Ghost project at the moment?
Paul:Basically the status of that is that we've kind of gone back and reassessed certain of the elements of the game that we felt needed to be refined. I think E3 was a big influence to us - we looked at other products that were in that genre, and felt as if we were quite competitive in many ways, but maybe there were some other things that we weren't getting to where we needed to go. Our then developer was thinking that they were going to be coming off the product and going on to something else, and as a result had committed themselves to some other things - and while getting the product done sooner would have been nice, we felt that some things needed to be done.
A lot of companies, and fans and the press know, Blizzard doesn't release products until Blizzard believes they're done. We didn't believe it was done, and as a result we went about trying to find another solution to bring the product to fruition. We were fortunate enough to find Swinging Ape at a time where they were between products; their office is ten minutes from ours, and candidly, they're a spectacular team. They're one of the teams that we had originally contemplated using for Starcraft. It just kind of played out nicely given the somewhat challenging circumstances with time.
Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion Update 02:37 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- games: role-playing
(14 comments)
Bethesda updated the Elder Scrolls website with some new screen shots of Oblivion, its highly anticipated (well, by our readers at least) next-generation role playing game. Word is that they're hiring a bunch of folks as well to work on the Elder Scroll series and Fallout 3. Job listings include: Game Programmer, World Artist, Character Artist, Special FX Artist, Concept Artist, and Sound Engineer.
Darwinia Demo 08:24 am
- Andrew Burnes
- games: real-time strategy
(0 comments)
Uplink developer Introversion Software has today released a demo of their long-awaited second title, Darwinia:
Combining fast paced action with strategic battle planning, the game features a novel and intuitive control mechanism, a graphical style ripped from 80's retro classics, and a story concerning a tribe of video game sprites trapped in a modern 3d game world.
More info and the demo can be found here.
Brothers In Arms - Answers From The Colonel 08:17 am
- Andrew Burnes
- games: action
(1 comment)
When not working over at KFC, the Colonel answers military questions via Gearbox's Brother In Arms developer diary:
Q: I've heard the M1 Garand was very difficult to reload from mid clip. Must you clear a clip before reloading?
A: The M1 Garand is not difficult to clear and reload, but it does take a few seconds to unload a partial clip and then reload a full eight round clip. There is a release button on the left top of the receiver. Pull back the charging handle and press the release button and the half-full clip of .30-06 ammunition will pop out. You can then reload a full clip, or replace rounds in the clip individually. Reloading the clip with individual rounds is something that a Soldier would only do in a safe place and with moments to spare.
Best. Military. Adviser. Ever.
1944: Battle of the Bulge Announced 04:10 am
- Andrew Burnes
- games: real-time strategy
(0 comments)
Monte Cristo's third World War II real-time strategy game has today been announced:
In total, there are 20 new missions, featuring battles from either side of the war. The level maps have been designed with historical accuracy in mind, and created from authentic strategic maps, geographic information and images from the battles themselves. Official records of the war have been consulted closely to ensure that 1944: Battle of the Bulge is the most accurate representation of this period ever created. The inclusion of 10 multiplayer maps will ensure the game's longevity.
Additionally, players will encounter a new feature to the series. This part of World War II was fought in winter, and the game forces strategists to contend with the snowy conditions, which affect troop and vehicle movement. The game also introduces 15 new units to the series to reflect their appearance on the battlefields of the era. For example, players will now be able to command the Nebelwerfer, the SdkFz25 - and the Hummel, among many others.
Battle of the Bulge will be available for �19.99 come March.
Rag Doll Kung Fu Q&A; 03:38 am
- Andrew Burnes
- games: action
(2 comments)
GameSpot spoke to Lionhead's Mark Healey to discuss his pet project, Rag Doll Kung Fu, which will be available exclusively online for the low price of �10 upon release:
GS: You're obviously the driving force behind Rag Doll Kung Fu, but how many of your friends and colleagues have become involved with its development? Has Peter Molyneux showed much interest in the project?
MH: Well, the whole thing started as a silly kung fu film with some friends, but on the game side, I have had a lot of help with technical stuff. There's no way in a million years I could understand Microsoft Direct X documentation, so I've been relying a lot on a guy called Alex Evans for that kind of thing (he has a brain the size of a planet, and is incredibly creative, too). I also got some graphic help off a couple of other mates. I'd say I was 95 percent responsible for the game. Peter is obviously a very busy man, but he has been very supportive and even found time to do a small piece of code for me--it's in there somewhere! But I've kind of kept it under wraps at Lionhead, as I wanted to finish it before I showed it to everyone.
More info can be found here, and here. Thanks Sam.
East Front Q&A; 03:30 am
- Andrew Burnes
- games: action
(0 comments)
Featuring similar technology to Half-Life 2, the Burut CT team hope their futuristic World War II shooter, East Front, will make a big splash come Spring:
Boomtown: According to the information released so far, the physics engine is very advanced. Please explain how it works and what you can do with the environment.
Dmitry Glaznev: The virtual world that you can easily destroy brick by brick is the pain in designer's ass. So we have some limitations here. As we don't know what a player wants to destroy we tried to make almost all objects physical — from a cup on a table to a flying plane. Enemies, their weapons and ammunition (flasks, map-cases, clips, casks, and even glasses), med-kits, grenades, dead bodies — everything that obeys Newton's laws has weight, friction, weight distribution and tons of other parameters. Actually, it won't be far from truth if I say that only walls, ceilings and ladders are non-physical. We also got physical doors. You can blow up a locked door with dynamite or grenade. If you want you can even try to break it using you pistol but it'll take too much time :)
Find the rest of the interview over on Boomtown.
Destroy All Humans! Preview 01:46 am
- Andrew Burnes
- games: action
(2 comments)
Previewed today on Worthplaying is Destroy All Humans!, another Pandemic title that looks to be rather good:
The Furons are invading Earth because their race, in the course of becoming mighty intergalactic overlords, was tragically mutated by repeated exposure to radiation such that they "have no genitalia". They've overcome this reproductive handicap by use of cloning technology that lets them make a new copy of an individual shortly after his untimely death. As such, the 137 in Crypto's name indicates that he is the 137th copy of that particular individual. Unfortunately, this practice has caused Furon DNA to degrade over time, and has reduced the total number of individuals to about 2,000 or so. In order to save the Furon race, there has to be an infusion of fresh, uncorrupted DNA.
Now, it just so happens that in the wild days before the Furons conquered the universe and lost their genitals, a group of Furon sailors happened across a sexy young planet named Earth, and… well, I'm sure you can imagine the rest. Thanks to this singular event, strains of Furon DNA are buried within the genetic code of every human being alive on Earth today, so all Pox and Crypto have to do to save their species is to find some way to extract it all.
Star Wars: Empire at War Officially Announced 01:41 am
- Andrew Burnes
- games: real-time strategy
(3 comments)
LucasArts today continued the new trend of not announcing games until after multiple previews have been written by revealing Star Wars: Empire at War, officially:
Using an entirely new game engine created by the Las Vegas-based developer Petroglyph, the game will feature beautifully rendered land and space battles set on memorable planets such as Hoth, Tatooine and Dagobah as well as never-before-seen environments taken directly from the Star Wars films and expanded universe novels. In the game, players can choose to join either the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire, building and setting up tactical forces that can be unleashed on the enemy in real-time 3D. All of the gameplay and action within Star Wars: Empire at War is a persistent, meaning that strategic and tactical elements from previous events will have a permanent effect on the galaxy.
As players build, manage and progress their space and ground-based units, troops and vehicles, memorable Star Wars hero characters will begin playing a role in key situations. In addition to the single player campaign mode, the game will include a two-player Empire vs. Rebellion mode and up to eight player online skirmish modes.
Screenshots for this Fall 2005 title can be found on Worthplaying.
Hardware & Tech Nuggets 12:05 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- hardware: general news
(0 comments)
Game Reviews 12:04 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- games: general news
(3 comments)
"If you are REALLY bored and REALLY horny and have absolutely no adult videos in your possession I guess you can try this game."
- Gamer's Hell on "The Guy Game" for PC.
In Other News... 12:03 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- in-house: in other news...
(35 comments)
What ever happened to our space program? Even China is sending people up. I feel like such a gimp... In happier news, it seems that drinking booze is good for the brain. I predict a very healthy weekend! I haven't asked this in a few weeks, so today's question is: What games are you playing most these days?
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