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Visually, F.E.A.R. is the best looking first person shooter currently on the market. Sure, Quake IV looks great as well, but F.E.A.R. uses its game engine better actually integrating the gameplay into the graphics. See a gas leak? Shoot it! A satisfying jet of flames springs forth melting people in its path. Killer graphics help drive the gameplay.
(Dig it!)
In Other News...12:15 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- In-House: In Other News...(23 comments)
No, I haven't forgotten about the F.E.A.R. review -- it'll be up before I head to bed -- It's already written but I need to make a graphic thingie (If anyone is up late and wants to make a 299x184 review graphic and save some time feel free to mail that in (grin)) for it and take some screen shots. Blame the Doom movie was wasting several hours of my life for the delay. Honestly, if they stayed true to the game it would've been so much better. Then again, it's pretty easy to beat a 1/10. High-Five, Uwe!
Today's question:
On a 1-10 scale, how would you rate the current game you're playing?
Friday , October 21, 2005
Doom Movie Review @ VE05:55 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action(51 comments)
"Doom" is laugh-out-loud the worst movie adaptation of a videogame I've ever seen. Uwe Boll can breathe a huge sigh of relief as he is no longer the poster boy for pathetic videogame directors. That honor now goes to Andrzej Bartkowiak.
Aside from not having anything to do with the game itself other than trying to associate itself with a passing weapon or monster, "Doom" rips off ideas from other videogame movies like "Resident Evil" and the result is disastrous.
The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) turned in perhaps his most lackluster performance since he was a Pro Wrestler, and the relationship between movie siblings Karl Urban and Rosamund Pike was creepy at best. Sony/Universal Pictures must've grabbed homeless people off the streets of Hollywood to play the extras, as it was really that bad.
The only interesting segments were the first person shooter sequences, but two minutes of carnage cannot make up for almost two hours of footage that Uwe Boll can lean over and gleefully tell the person sitting next to him, "this is the worst videogame movie ever!"
Our current plan is to release Half-Life 2: Lost Coast next week. Lost Coast is a free level for everyone who owns Half-Life 2, and serves as an HDR technology demo based in an unreleased section of the "Highway 17" chapter of Half-Life 2.
After Lost Coast is released, we'll be working on getting some new content for both Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source, along with an update to the SDK, out the door. More info coming on that next week.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 goes Gold01:05 pm
- Elias 'Mithan' Doulia
- Games: Action(7 comments)
Lucas Arts announced today that Star Wars Battlefront 2 has gone gold and will be available in stores on Novemeber 1 for the PS2, PC and Xbox. Incidentally, this is the same day the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith DVD is out in stores. For more information, check out the Official Site.
Star Wars Battlefront II takes the best-selling Star Wars video game of all time one Imperial-walker step forward with all-new space combat, playable Jedi, and never-before-played environments straight out of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. Fans of the original Star Wars Battlefront will also enjoy an all-new single-player experience that takes players through an epic, story-based saga centered around Darth Vader's personal stormtroopers, the 501st Legion.
Star Wars Battlefront II is published by LucasArts and developed by Pandemic Studios. For more information, please visit the official product website at www.swbattlefront2.com
Edge - "DOOM Fans, rejoice! The movie might not be intellectually stimulating, but it's huge fun."
Film Freak Central - "I've already seen enough of everything that Doom has to offer."
IGN Film Force - "Easily the best videogame-to-film adaptation yet."
Zap2It - "The phrase "worse than 'Super Mario Brothers'" should not be tossed around lightly when it comes to feature film adaptations of popular video games..."
Well, what do you guys think? Are people overly critical or does the movie just plain suck?
Battlestations: Midway Q&A;
TotalVideoGames has interviewed Zsolt Nyulaszi, the creative director at Mithis.
Call of Duty 2
Music4Games has an interview with Call of Duty 2 music composer Graeme Revell.
EA Sports and Xbox360
Gaming Illustrated has interviewed EA Sports' Senior Producer Jeremy Strauser on the Xbox360.
God of War
MTV interviewed David Jaffe on God of War 2, the movie and the PSP.
Microsoft
Gamespot interviewed Microsoft Windows Graphics and gaming general manager Dean Lester on PC Gaming.
Project Gotham Racing 3
TotalVideoGames also has an interview with Bizarre Creations about PGR3 for the Xbox 360.
Untold Legends: The Warrior's Code
RPG Vault has part 2 of their interview with Nels Nelson over the PSP game.
More on WoW Expansion09:20 am
- Elias 'Mithan' Doulia
- Games: MMOG(10 comments)
A few days ago, I posted that the WoW Expansion might be called The Burning Crusade and linked to a CG&V; article that itself sourced a site that had an Italian game magazine scan. Apparently the magazine has been translated and posted here on WorldofWar.net. Of course, take this all with a grain of salt...
Here is a quick summary:
The name is Burning Crusade.
Takes place in the Outlands.
Level cap raised to Level 70.
2 new races, Blood Elf (Horde) and TBA (Alliance).
No new classes.
New profession, Jewelcrafting, which will allow for slotting and modding items ala Diablo 2.
New BE starter area and zones north of the Eastern Plaguelands, Silvermoon (their Capital City), Ghostland, and Zul'Aman.
Epic FLYING FREAKING MOUNT useable only in Outlands.
Small upgrades to the graphics engine (BE will have 20% more polygons than original races for example).
Weather effects added.
Exploring how to add in cross server Battlegrounds.
If this is all true and accurate, it looks like it could be one hell of an expansion. We will know more next week at Blizzcon.
Elite Bastards: Can you give us an overview of the main features used by the games graphics engine (i.e. Shader Models, texture sizes, HDR etc)?
Gavin Carter: Oblivion's renderer is a mix of the Gamebryo renderer with a healthy dose of our own internally developed technology. The engine fully supports shader models up to and including 3.0. We employ a full HDR lighting solution throughout the game. Textures utilize all the latest shader technology including normal maps, specular maps, and parallax maps. We're hammering away on our soft-shadow model. There shouldn't be any technological buzzword out there that current games are using that we don't have built into our renderer.
In Other News...12:15 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- In-House: In Other News...(22 comments)
If I have one major complaint about F.E.A.R., it's the lack of variation in the level design. Not that the maps aren't laid out well but the gloomy office, sewer or warehouse gets oppressive after awhile. Plus, the maps are so big that I think I've spent more time getting lost than actually playing. I'm not sure if that's a bad thing however. I'm still pondering the score... Review will be up later today.
Quake 4 on the other hand I'm enjoying quite a bit since it's almost the complete opposite of F.E.A.R. I think i'm going to give id/Raven an extra +1 just because they taped the flashlight onto the gun barrel. Best design move evar! Speaking of id, today the Doom movie hits the big screen.
