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Half-Life 2: The Lost Coast; HDR Information09:48 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action(26 comments)
I just finished watching ATTACK OF TEH SHOW on G4TV where Valve's tall dark and handsome Doug Lombardi was on talking about HDR lighting and the new Lost Coast level in Half-Life 2. To make a long story short, HDR (high dynamic range lighting) is similar technology to id's DOOM III shadows, except it focuses on light instead of darkness. It isn't like the "bloom" effect in Elder Scrolls 4 where everything is all glowie; it just makes the lighting look a lot more realistic.
Sounds cool, right? We have good news and bad news. The good news? It's free! The bad news: You're going to need an extremely high end machine for it to work. They didn't specify any hardware by name, but the impression I got is that you're going to need at least a Radeon x800 for it to run. The HDR isn't only for The Lost Coast level however, it will be released as a general upgrade for Half-Life 2, which should give gamers with high end rigs a reason to replay it. When is all of this expected to happen? Within the next couple of weeks.
When asked about Team Fortress 2, all Doug said was "soon".
Update: It appears that "The Lost Coast" is one of the ATI levels Valve was talking about releasing a while back, which should help alleviate some of the hardware confusion floating around.
'Empire Earth II' (PC) - Peter Calabria Dev Diary Part 1
'Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory' (NGC/PS2/Xbox/PC) - TV Commercial #2
Even More WoW FreePlay03:36 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: MMOG(8 comments)
Blizzard President Mike Morhaime posted on the official World of WarCraft forums that they would be extending the freeplay another day, due to extended technical difficulties, plus will be offering accelerated XP bonuses. Blizzard added some more hardware as well, so hopefully that will help prevent these sort of things from happening again:
Due to the increase in downtime caused by today's hardware maintenance, we will be giving all players with characters on the realms listed below a one-day time extension. In addition, players on the realms below will also receive a rested experience bonus, whether or not they had left their characters logged out at an Inn.
We realize that this extended downtime is very inconvenient, but it is a necessary step for us to take in our efforts to increase performance and stability on these realms. For the last few weeks, these realms have experienced poor stability during peak times, which resulted in NPCs not spawning, lag, and frequent disconnects. We have determined that a large percentage of realms on the same backend infrastructure were operating at maximum capacity. This overpopulation caused problems with the service that ultimately led to the issues mentioned above.
Our first step in trying to alleviate the situation was to offer character transfers to reduce the amount of players on these high-population realms. The character transfers did reduce the total amount of players on the shared infrastructure, and we noticed an immediate performance increase. However, this increase only lasted a few days, as populations continued to rise.
Once it was shown that the character transfers did not sufficiently disperse the population, we began to modify the hardware backend for the affected realms. The most recent and substantial step of that process involved transferring the realm data to a new hardware setup. The goal of this procedure is to decrease the overall load on the infrastructure that the affected realms share.
The new hardware infrastructure was completed yesterday, and we are currently copying the character data from eight of these realms onto the new hardware. This transfer will significantly decrease the load on the current infrastructure, which should result in improved performance on all of the realms listed below. The data transfer is taking us longer than expected, but it is vital for providing stability to these realms.
We are totally committed to providing our players with the best play experience possible, and we will continue to streamline our code and add new hardware to our infrastructure until we accomplish that goal. We once again thank you for your patience during this time, and wish you continued good fortunes on your adventures in Azeroth!
Please note that this time extension discussed above is in addition to the two-day time extension announced yesterday that is being provided to players on all realms.
Dungeon Lords Q&A;03:26 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Role-Playing(0 comments)
Gamespot conjured up an interview with Heuristic Park Producer Mark Harwood about its D.W. Bradley inspired role playing game, Dungeon Lords. Here's the latest on the game's development:
MH: We're in the final stretch now, and we're doing as much as we can to make sure Dungeon Lords is as good as possible. A lot of work has gone into making Dungeon Lords a game that's fun to play and allows people to play in a style of their choosing. With the rapid advances in graphics technology, a lot of games may look better, but they don't offer the richness of experience that we offer in Dungeon Lords. So anyone who's looking for more than just eye candy should give it a shot.
Finally, we'd like to thank all the fans who've taken the time to play the demo and who've offered their insights on our forums. Anyone who's been in there knows that the developers have been reading the posts and are trying to address as many of the comments as possible. It's great that so many people have such a passion for what is admittedly an old-school role-playing game and can judge a game for how it plays...not by a checklist of technical buzzwords.
Pariah Interview03:00 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action(1 comment)
The Man Room interviewed Digital Extremes' James Schmalz about its upcoming cross-platform first person shooter, Pariah. Here's a taste about one of the cooler features in the game:
Tell us a little bit about Weapons Energy Cores and some of the unexpected upgrades they provide.
Each weapon in the game can be upgraded 3 times with Weapon Energy Cores found throughout the single player campaign as well as in the multi-player portion. The weapon upgrades are the coolest part of the gameplay in my opinion. Each upgrade 'costs' a certain number of WEC's so it will stay interesting for the gamer throughout the game to decide when and which weapons to upgrade. A couple of my favorites are with the Grenade Launcher and Rocket Launcher. The Grenade Launcher starts out as a very competent grenade launcher that shoots out grenades that explode after a few seconds or explode on impact with a direct hit. Very usable and quite fun, but the first upgrade which gives you a detonator to time the explosions makes the weapon that much more strategic and lethal, then the next upgrade on that weapon is a 'fragment attractor' or Mag grenades. So when you throw out a grenade it attracts all kinds of metallic debris with it while it's flying through the air; once it reaches its destination it explodes with even more devastation hurling all the metallic flak everywhere...very satisfying.
For the Rocket Launcher, it starts out with some pretty powerful rockets. The first upgrade makes it that much more functional by providing a lock-on feature, ultimately it upgrades to allow you to lock-on to 4 targets at the same time and then reign down terror on them when the rocket splits into 4 and nails all of the targets at the same time.
In the Empire Earth II Multiplayer Demo, gamers will experience three of the game's fifteen exciting epochs (Renaissance, Imperial, and Enlightenment) as they match wits with others around the globe in epic battles with up to 10 players. They'll need to adapt their tactics to manage changing seasons and inclement weather as they lead the German, American, or Korean civilizations to victory. Three of the game's nine challenging multiplayer modes -- Conquest, King of the Hill, and Territory Control - are included.
In addition, the Empire Earth II Multiplayer Demo includes an updated version of the first, single-player-only demo that was previously released, adding several new features. These new features include the ability to set variables such as: game pace, starting resources, population cap, diplomatic settings, and weather & environment details before the game starts.
According to Reuters, SCE originally planned to release general details on the PlayStation 3 in March, and then to unveil the actual machine in May at E3 in Los Angeles. Sony told Reuters that it decided to cancel the PS3 meeting because it "would pressure game publishers" if held in March, but left the door open for another pre-E3 event. The company also emphasized that the cancellation is not a sign that the PlayStation 3 development is falling behind, and it still intends to unveil the machine at the E3 at the latest.
So what do we make of our latest reconnaissance of Monolith's finest? Well it is certainly one of the most advanced looking and graphically gorgeous games to release this year and while the next generation of console titles promise much on the visual score, they'll do well to match F.E.A.R.'s looks. Complementing those visuals is a solid and satisfying combat system, some advanced and extremely challenging AI and while the melee component isn't perhaps a major advance forward for the genre, it's still a highly pleasing and indeed challenging way to achieve prestige kills (especially in multiplayer). Perhaps most intriguing of all though is F.E.A.R.'s supernatural story element which certainly adds additional bite to the game and keeps you hooked in the hope of discovering just that little bit more of the storyline.
Dungeon Lords Media #7
An image gallery showing some of the spell and magical effects the developers at Heuristic Park have implemented - Six exclusive screenshots
The initial design process is simple. I and one other designer sit in a room with a whiteboard and go over actual WW2 missions. This is easy, because there were hundreds of missions carried out during the D-day invasion and thousands more over the next few months. We look for a good variety of objectives, locations, and entertaining combat possibilities. Then we use those missions as inspiration for the missions that will go in the final game.
The very first mission we agreed upon was "Ambush at Anterbien". It is as simple as a game of Red Rover. The Americans are trying to get through a town, and the Germans are trying to stop them.
In a phone conversation today, 2015 president Tom Kudirka did say that the company laid off a number of its staff members following the release of Men of Valor last fall. He did not wish to specify how many staff members departed. However, Kudirka did say that the company is still in business and is working on a couple of game projects that are currently being shopped around to publishers.
The first game to reintroduce the Might & Magic universe to the public will be Heroes of Might and Magic� V. Gamers will delve into a more mature, consistent fantasy universe that will appeal to fans of all fantasy genres. One of the most successful turn-based strategy* franchises, the Heroes of Might and Magic� series, with its distinctive touch of RPG, is a benchmark in the Heroic Fantasy genre, with considerable commercial and critical acclaim. The new game will benefit from the features and characteristics that established the success of the initial saga while offering a wealth of innovations such as a highly immersive scenario, a variety of appealing factions, modern 3D graphics, a revolutionary tactical combat system, and a story-based campaign mode.
"Ubisoft is pleased to bring back this exceptional series not just for Heroes fans, but to a larger audience that can appreciate the singular combination of a fantasy environment and strategic gameplay," said Alain Corre, Ubisoft's Managing Director for Europe, Asia Pacific and South America. "Online or offline, the breathtaking world to explore, the tactical decisions to make, and the opportunity to build a true Hero will entice players to become a part of the Might & Magic universe."
A Shanghai online game player has stabbed to death a competitor who sold his cyber sword for real money. The sale created a legal dilemma because China has no law covering the ownership of virtual weapons. The China Daily newspaper reported that a Shanghai court was told Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan repeatedly in the chest after he was told Zhu had sold his dragon sabre, used in the popular online game Legend of Mir 3.
The online game features heroes and villains, sorcerers and warriors, many of whom wield enormous swords. Qiu and a friend jointly won their virtual weapon last February and lent it to Zhu, who then sold it for 7,200 yuan. Qui went to the police to report the theft but was told the weapon was not real property protected by law.
"Zhu promised to hand over the cash but an angry Qui lost patience and attacked Zhu at his home, stabbing him in the left chest with great force and killing him," the court heard.
In Other News...12:03 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- In-House: In Other News...(43 comments)
As mentioned last week, Valve will be showing off HDR lighting technology as well as a new level for Half-Life 2 called "The Lost Coast" on ATTACK OF TEH SHOW later tonight on G4TV. After seeing that dude get an anal probe on last night's Tom Green episode, I think Doug Lombardi should bring some duck tape and a sewing kit to protect that sweet ass of his. That's one flower I sure he doesn't want to break (although the footage would look pretty cool with that HDR lighting effect going on). I've only seen a couple shows (I think it started on Monday) since it was "The Screen Savers" so I can't really say if I like it or not yet. Some segments are amusing, some are just stupid. It's low budget, late night TV at it's finest!
Today's question:
If Valve were to sell episodic single player Half-Life 2 contest via Steam, would you buy it?
If you're on the fence as to whether or not to start the game right away, we'd suggest giving the game a little more runway so it can fly clear of the small bugs and inconsistencies that tend to push you out of the game world (sometimes literally). Die-hard fans of the franchise might be able to work through these problems until they get solved, but it remains to be seen whether or not the higher-level missions and story elements will be worth the wait.
First SWAT 4 Review05:55 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action(11 comments)
Gamespy shot up the first review of SWAT 4, Irrational's Unreal engined tactical action game using the storied Sierra franchise. Overall score was a 4.5/5.0. Here's their take on the graphics (and only complaint):
If there's a major complaint to be leveled at SWAT 4, it's that it looks pretty dated by today's standards. In fact, it doesn't even look as good as Unreal Tournament 2004 and Battlefield Vietnam, which were released this time a year ago. It's not that the game looks ugly, but there's clearly some room for improvement with textures and model animations, and it's basically devoid of physics effects which could have added an extra bit of excitement to the close-quarters combat. The bright side is that the game ran extremely smooth on a variety of test machines, running from a 2.5 Ghz P3 with a GeForce Ti 4600 to higher-end 3 Ghz machines. Still, we wonder if that'll be enough for some players, especially when you consider that Counter-Strike: Source (SWAT 4's biggest competition) is every bit as PC-friendly while looking far more impressive.
I'll have to disagree with them on the visuals. Using a Radeon X800 XT the game looks really swank. There are literally bump-maps on everything. They used a GeForce 6600, so I guess that explains it.
GS: And what will the game offer to those players who are veterans of online games? How is the team planning to keep the attention of these advanced players? With involved high-level content? Specific community-related options or other specific features?
JH: As you might expect, most of our dev team plays online games pretty fervently. As jaded veterans, we're tired of many of the same barriers mentioned above: boring combat, the level grind, unnecessary time sinks, etc. We hope that our solutions to these problems will appeal to longtime online role-playing game players as much as they do to newbies.
As far as high-level content goes, we have a lot of good stuff planned that we're not ready to talk about just yet. For now, I'll just say that there will be plenty of reasons to stick around once you've hit the level cap.
In a forthcoming interview about their space strategy sequel Galactic Civilizations II to be posted on Computer Games Magazine's web site later this week, Stardock head Brad Wardell revealed that they are also working on a " . . . free Massively Multiplayer On-Line Real Time Strategy game in development whose team is lead by a developer who formerly worked at Maxis on SimCity." When pressed for comment today, Wardell told us that the development team is trying to solve the problems that have kept other similar games from being as popular as other MMO titles. When asked to describe the gameplay, Wardell said. "I like to call it 'The Sims meets Total Annihilation.'" We hope to get more info on the game in the months ahead.
Camelot 1.75c Notes04:44 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: MMOG(0 comments)
Mythic released the latest Dark Age of Camelot patch to the testing server Pendragon today which adds a few interesting features like giving raid leaders almost CSR like powers for awarding people master level credit, plus streamlined a few of the more annoying lower level ML steps. There are some interface, character tweaks and other stuff included as well. Expect more versions (with more stuff) to go to testing before they take the patch live.
"The decision to join together and form the largest independent development company in North America was easy given our shared vision for the interactive entertainment market," said Jon Goldman, CEO of Foundation 9 Entertainment, Inc. "With the increasing complexity of next-generation platforms, we see great opportunities that can only be addressed by pooling talent and financial resources. We will be able to better invest in technology, processes and creative opportunities that will make us a key player in the future of game development and beyond."
"We'll be rolling out our strategy through upcoming partnerships that will foster new media opportunities for our publishers and other existing relationships," said Douglas Hare, co-president of Foundation 9 Entertainment. "Our intention is to continue to focus on our existing opportunities and expand our current game development business substantially through our increased capabilities."
Word is that the new studio is working on a Star Wars: Episode III game.
Let's get one thing out of the way first. Of all the great 2D strategy games that made the jump to 3D, Stronghold 2 takes to the new perspective the best. So many of the original game's niggles and problems are fixed by this simple move that, now we've spent some time with the new version, it's hard to imagine that it was ever any different.
One of our test platforms is a fairly high end Sony Ericsson, which is 10x as fast as our Motorola base platform. For a 128x128 screen, the Motorola renders about 4 fps and the Sony renders about 40 fps. Compare with Wolfenstein-3D performance (the DoomRPG engine has some extra graphics features, but it is still in that general class) at that resolution on older systems. A 386-16 would go significantly faster.
Note that the "As fast as a ..." comparisons from the benchmark are against purely interpreted java on the P3, which is about 1/10th the speed of a native implementation, and benchmarks that focus on expression and control operations will overestimate relative performance for applications that are array access heavy. Still, if a java app on that phone performed like a P3-100mhz, it would be pretty impressive.
It is true that a good JIT (which the phones don't have) can make java code go nearly as fast as C/C++ code that is written in the same style. The "in the same style" part is often overlooked -- in lower level languages you often have options for implementation with pointers and CPU tailoring that would make the code look very different, but go significantly faster.
I still generally like java, and maximizing performance is only important in a rather limited subset of software engineering.
TimeGate is developing a next-generation title that promises to bring fresh and innovative gameplay to help invigorate an already popular genre. The use of Unreal Engine 3 technology plays a critical part in helping its team create unique content quickly and efficiently, allowing them to realize their creative vision for the game.
"As TimeGate continues to build itself into a first-class development outfit, we look for the strongest partners and technology to both enhance and accelerate our projects" said Adel Chaveleh, President of TimeGate. "Epic and Unreal Technology have met these high standards. Using the Unreal� Engine 3 has given us a running start on development of our new IP, allowing our team to focus primarily on the innovation and quality content that we have become known for in our previous titles."
"We are delighted that TimeGate has chosen Unreal Engine 3 for this next generation project" said Mark Rein , Vice President of Epic Games. "Unreal Engine 3 is all about supporting innovation and pushing creative boundaries for next generation content, and maximizing the power and scope that new hardware offers. We are in a position to help developers deliver outstanding next generation content right now, and the TimeGate team will be delivering some outstanding content to show exactly what Unreal Engine 3 is capable of."
Thompson sees parallels between the videogame, "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," and Jeff Weise's animated production "Target Practice."
"It's a nearly precise replication of that game, even down to the exploding police car," says Thompson. "Also, the soundtrack of these two flash films, as they're called, that Weise prepared to basically let people know what he was going to do, have sound tracks of videogames on them."
"Children are playing a game that encourages them to have sex with prostitutes and then murder them," she said in a statement on the issue. "This is a silent epidemic of media desensitisation that teaches kids it's OK to diss people because they are a woman, they're a different colour or they're from a different place."
She wants a $90 million investigation to be launched into the impact of games and other electronic media on the "cognitive, social, emotional and physical development" of children, according to a Sunday Times report.
Damn, and here I was thinking D&D; was to blame for society's ills!
"I mean, you have many, many stab wounds and those 'Dungeons and Dragons' fantasy games involve swords and knives and daggers and things of that nature. There may be a connection but I can't say for sure."
My +5 Holy Avenger says there is no connection.
Gauntlet Interview01:03 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action / Roleplaying(8 comments)
CGM interviewed Midway's Josh Sawyer about the upcoming Gauntlet (a game which should need no introduction) remake, Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. Word is The Romero is working on the project as well. Topics include the story, what traits the remake will retain from the original, playable classes, co-op multiplayer, graphics and more. Here's a taste:
Computer Games - Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows?
Josh Sawyer - It's going to knock your socks on your ass.
Game Reviews12:19 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: General News(11 comments)
Gamespot's Chaos Theory score: Lowball attention grabbing tactics, or realistic review? I guess we'll find out later this week once we play.
In Other News...12:12 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- In-House: In Other News...(27 comments)
I was watching "The Breakfast Club" on the AMC channel and apparantly the phrase "Eat my shorts" was a little too gritty for their aged audience, so they dubbed in "Eat my socks" instead. The youth of America is saved! I'd like to go "A Clockwork Orange" on the censor who did that and make them watch a season of "Deadwood" to broaden their vocabulary.
So... the other big game release this week aside from Chaos Theory would of course be Doom 3 for the Xbox, plus the PC expansion to Doom 3 from Nerve. Today's question is:
Any plans on checking out Doom 3 for the Xbox, or picking up Resurrection of Evil for PC?
