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Chris Taylor Inspires Industry Change 05:27 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Real-Time Strategy
(21 comments)
Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor gave a couple of stirring addresses at DICE. Next-Gen has some tid-bits from them. One of the messages he tried to pass along is that you don't have to run a sweatshop to develop games, the other is to put art before money. He elaborated on how he has come full circle with his motivations to create games. Taylor said that at first, he would make games for nothing, just because it was what he loved. He said that he then fell into a trap where he was becoming overly concerned about money—a pitfall for any creative type.
"I started off with a genuine desire to make great games," he said. "I didn't care about what kind of money I got. … Do you know how many people I run into [in this industry] who only care about the money?" he asked.
"Let's get back to the love of the art. Let's love our customers, families, ourselves. … Take care of yourself," he implored.
Quake Wars Preview 05:14 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action
(7 comments)
1Up posted a preview of Quake Wars after getting a little hands-on trigger time.
Three things stick out. 1) It's difficult to determine when you're in danger, as well as who, in a world of 1,000 possible deaths, is pulling the trigger. (If all goes well, we won't need to scan onscreen text to work out what ought to be obvious.) 2) Air power isn't powerful--SAM silos and fire-and-forget infantry rockets strip the skill from the kill. 3) It's a bird, it's a plane, it's sprinting faster than a speeding locomotive in a Battlefield-sized shooter! Some "va-room" is good for the game-- breaking the sound barrier, not so much.
Top 10 Played Xbox Live! Games 05:07 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Consoles: Xbox 360
(9 comments)
Major Nelson posted the top-10 most played games on Xbox Live! for the week:
Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (UU's)
1 Gears of War
2 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
3 Crackdown (Demo)
4 GRAW 2 (Demo)
5 Call Of Duty 3
6 Madden NFL 07
7 Lost Planet
8 NBA STREET (Demo)
9 Oblivion
10 GRAW
I'm surprised to see Lost Planet so low on the list.
Mass Effect Interview 04:54 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Consoles: Xbox 360
(9 comments)
TeamXbox has a nice interview with Dr. Ray from BioWare about its upcoming RPG, Mass Effect.
So how's Mass Effect coming along? What's the status of the game?
Ray Muzyka: It's going really well. We haven't announced a final release date for it yet, but the team's entering the final push. We've got a great team, they're working really hard. There are 120 or 130 people working on it right now, and they're working really hard on it. They're committed, they're passionate, they're hard working. It's an honor to work with them, they're doing some great stuff. I just saw a video today of some of the near final levels and some of the gameplay stuff that we had recorded, that you guys will probably see. Hopefully we'll show some of that very soon to you guys. It's looking absolutely stunning, it's the best stuff we've ever done at BioWare. I can say that with complete confidence. I think that it's potentially the best game we've ever done. It's an amazing game. It's got exploration of all of these uncharted worlds, it's got beautiful, beautiful characters. I think the way we're doing dialogue and story is really accessible, and yet the depth is there, too.
So, it's got tremendous depth in terms of the way the progression systems work, and customization, it flows naturally from dialogue to story to exploration to combat, back and forth. And I think it's very fluid, very accessible in real time. But it's going really well, we're in the final push.
How D&D; Shaped Games Today 04:48 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Role-Playing
(0 comments)
The chaps at Computer & Video Games reflect back at how How Dungeon & Dragons shaped the modern videogame. Thanks Slashdot. Included, are quotes from inspired developers.
The first edition of their game was released as a box-set in 1974, with extra scenarios and campaigns appearing articles in fan-magazines. By 1977, the game was popular enough for two editions to exist: the basic system and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Its rise mirrored that of early home computers: dice would sit alongside Apple II in teenage boys' bedrooms. It was inevitable that the two would eventually merge. Could you teach a computer to run a D&D; campaign?
"At the time it was kind of the 'killer app' of games-for-teenagers," explains Brian Reynolds, the strategic mastermind of Alpha Centauri, Rise Nations and Rise of Legends. "Back in those days I'd say the holy grail of teenager boys learning how to program was to figure out how to 'make the computer play D&D;'. Because if we could do that, what else would we ever need?
Command & Conquer 3 Interview 04:45 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Real-Time Strategy
(1 comment)
Firing Squad shot up an interview with EA's Mike Verdu and Michael Glosecki about Command & Conquer 3:
FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the game's graphical features and are there any plans to release a DirectX10 patch for the game at some point?
Mike Verdu and Michael Glosecki: We're very excited about the improvements we've made in the graphics for Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars. In particular, our graphics engine has specularity for terrain and units, a new shadow system, new water, upgraded lighting, a real-time post FX system that allows us to create a mood and sense of place for each environment, and other major graphics features. We recently implemented a new terrain system that makes the game environments look incredible. We also have a new particle system that lets us create amazing pyrotechnics, smoke and haze on the battlefield, and weather effects. Finally, over the course of the project we have made several efforts in optimization to ensure that the game looks awesome while staying at a high frame rate. All of these improvements apply to both the Xbox 360 version and the PC version. As for DX10, we've thought about releasing a patch but in order to give players some incremental benefit but we really feel developers have to build for DX10 from the ground up.
Age of Conan Update 04:44 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: MMOG
(0 comments)
This week's Age of Conan update is a class profile for The Lich:
A Lich is a mage who has moved beyond merely summoning the dead and instead chooses to make the darkest of pacts with the undead. They allow themselves to be one with those who have passed from the mortal realm and can merge their own flesh and blood with that of the dead.
By fusing with the bones of the dead, the Lich gains impressive physical strength and resilience. In this form the Lich prefers to wade into battle and club enemies to death, although retains access to their full array of spells.
CliffyB Interview 04:39 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Consoles: Xbox 360
(2 comments)
The guys over at Game Informer interviewed Epic's CliffyB at D.I.C.E. after they won a gazillion awards for Gears of War:
Game Informer: How does it feel, coming out of last night?
Cliffy B: If feels amazing. Do you remember when Hillary Swank won her Academy Award for best actress for Boys Don't Cry? I remember seeing it in Vanity Fair or Entertainment Weekly, they had a thing where they showed up in her hotel room and kind of caught her in bed with the afterglow. When I was waking up this morning after receiving this award, it confirmed all of my suspicions about everything we were putting into Gears—from the kind of game it is, the pacing, to the style to making the ultimate assumption about what gamers want and what kind of game we wanted to play. It's an incredible validation.
Star Trek Legacy Patch 04:33 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Space Shooter
(1 comment)
Those are four words I thought I'd never write together... Bethesda and Mad Doc released a patch for Star Trek Legacy which fixes the multiplayer, and takes the edges off some of the single player problems. Thanks Blue's News.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Q&A; 04:30 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action
(1 comment)
The girls over at the G-Spot interviewed GSC's Project lead Anton Bolshakov about the Smart AI, Advanced Physics, and Multiplayer in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
GameSpot: Give us an update on the game's development. What aspects of the game is the team working on now?
Anton Bolshakov: We are close to the finish line. The team is preparing the release-candidate version. The feature list is already closed, but we are still correcting some bugs, fine-tuning the balancing, optimizing the game for different PC configurations, and just polishing the game as a whole. So in general, everything is going well and according to plan.
Halo 3 Weekly Update 04:04 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Consoles: Xbox 360
(1 comment)
It's about time for a new Bungie weekly update. Topics include: steamy sessions with Cortana, a new weapon graphic, multiplayer UI, and annoying people on Live!
Anyone who's played MP on Xbox Live knows the following is true: Teenagers, plus anonymity, plus microphone = idiot. Xbox Live already gives you powerful tools to mute, well, tools on a case by case basis. The "A-Hole Button" in Halo 3 lets you exact instant, silent vengeance. These kind of vocal buttmunches, as it turns out, are exactly as fun to play against as normal people, as long as you can't hear them. So now, you simply press a button (back button, for the moment anyway) and up comes the score list with everyone's tag on it. The right stick lets you highlight the miscreant and you can then instantly mute them for the rest of the game. These morons continue smacktalking anyway because they can't help themselves, but if you don't have to listen to it, you can simply enjoy killing them over and over again, knowing that as their Ritalin wears off and their frustration builds, it's less and less fun for them. Aaaah. So satisfying.
Jade Empire PC Interview 03:58 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Role-Playing
(1 comment)
Shacknews has an interview with BioWare's Diarmid Clarke about the PC version of Jade Empire, which went gold last week with minimal fanfare. Most of the Q&A; is about stuff that you might already be familar with if you played the Xbox version of the game, but they touch upon some differences in the PC port:
Shack: Why wait so long to bring the Xbox classic to the PC?
Diarmid Clarke: Hey, when you're taking the time to upgrade every single texture by hand, right down to the blades of grass (no, seriously), that takes time. And it wasn't just the graphics either. We certainly wanted to inject as many improvements as we possibly could into Jade Empire: Special Edition while still preserving the original epic story, so we listened to feedback from the fans and took the time to make sure we delivered the best PC experience for Jade that we could. We would never release a game until we were absolutely sure it was up to the standards that our fans deserve.
RPG Vault Goodness 03:57 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Role-Playing
(0 comments)
In Other News... 03:28 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- In-House: In Other News...
(9 comments)
I think I'm going to put Vista on my notebook (Centrino Duo, 2 gigs ram and X1400). If I like it, I'll slap it on the ole desktop too. Well, my next one at least. The LCD is really nice, so the aero stuff should look snazzy. Hopefully, I can find working drivers!
Today's question:
Anyone else have Vista on their notebook? Thumbs up or down?
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