Archived News:
BlizzCon 2009 Tickets go
on sale in 15 minutes. These historically sell out quite rapidly, so if you are
interested in attending this August's event in Anaheim, CA, you should head over
soon and get your reloading finger all warmed up.
Steam is now offering digital distribution of
Tunnel Rats, the Vietnam
War shooter that ties into Uwe Boll's
Tunnel Rats movie, which was
apparently already left its mark in the history of cinema. Word is: "As member
of a 'Tunnel Rats' squad, the player is trained to clearing out the huge tunnel
systems underneath the jungle of Vietnam. After all of his mates got killed in
an ambush, the young GI finds himself all alone, fighting against the Vietcong,
their deadly traps and his growing inner madness..."
Shacknews has a
statement from Scott Miller of 3D Realms, responding to rumors that they turned
down a $30 million dollar offer from Take-Two for the Duke Nukem property, which
would have funded the completion of development of Duke Nukem Forever.
According to Miller no such deal was proposed, and if it had been they "would
have taken this offer without hesitation."
Steam now offers a new
automatic update for Killing Floor, addressing some day one issues with
Tripwire Interactive's just-released co-op shooter. Tripwire has also released
the SDK for the game, offering the ability to create custom maps or conversions
of the game.
The QUAKE LIVE Website
outlines plans to release six new maps for id's free multiplayer shooter over
the next six weeks, kicking things off with a remake of Hidden Fortress (thanks
Voodoo Extreme). They offer some screenshots, and the following
explanation: We're kicking off our "6 new maps in 6 weeks" campaign with
Hidden Fortress. Although new to QUAKE LIVE, this arena first appeared in the
Sega Dreamcast version of QUAKE III Arena. Already considered the best new arena
created for QUAKE III Dreamcast, we chose to make very few changes in bringing
this classic map to QUAKE LIVE. The arena was originally created by Martin Kaai
Cluney, a designer for Raster Productions. Kaai is now a designer at id Software
working on the RAGE team. Hidden Fortress is a medium sized map with three main
rooms - perfect for 6-10 player team deathmatch, clan arena and free for all
gameplay. Although we chose to start with a classic map from the Dreamcast,
we'll be debuting a mix of new and classic maps in the weeks to come.
The Sven Co-op Website now has a new
version 4.07 of the Sven Co-op modification for Half-Life. Numerous
tweaks and fixes are introduced in the update.
Two movies are available for Bionic Commando to get us up in arms about
GRIN's upcoming cyborg game remake. There is another "Lab Report" movie on
AtomicGamer and
Gamer's Hell. The game's
launch trailer is also online, this can be found on
ActionTrip and
AtomicGamer.
BLDGBLOG- On the Architecture of the Enemy in Videogame Worlds. Thanks
Ant and
Boing Boing.
Conveniently, evil already has a visual language. Put another way: I have
seen the face of evil, and it is a caricature of gothic construction.
There's barely a necromancer in existence whose dark citadel doesn't in some
way reflect real-world Romanian landmarks, such as Hunyad or Bran Castle.
The visual theme of these games is so heavily dependent on previously
pillaged artistic ideas from Dungeons & Dragons and Tolkien that evil
ambiance is delivered by shorthand. (Of course, World of Warcraft's Lich
King gets a Stone UFO to fly around in – but it's still the same old prefab
pseudo-Medieval schtick inside). Where the enemy is extra-terrestrial, HR
Giger's influence is probably going to be felt instead.
Edge Online - Bad Ideas For Games That Aren’t Fun. Thanks Mike Martinez.
This column is part three in a series about the theoretical design of
games that are valuable without being fun, just like all other media have
Fun and Not Fun varieties, and the observation about how choice is used in a
Not Fun film implies that by leveraging interactivity, games should be able
to do even better. Shouldn’t a game be able to combine the structured
fiction of a film with the simulation of real life choices and effectively
become a safe playground for us to experiment with our limitations and come
to terms with our character flaws? Already today you can choose to beat up
old ladies in games and perhaps feel bad about yourself as she bleeds and
crawls towards safety. This is wonderful, but as a choice it’s degenerate.
Suppose there was more conflict of values, like you have to choose whether
to go the extra mile just for some character’s benefit? Or sacrifice
something so they won’t suffer? Then, would you find yourself making the
same choices that you would in real life, and from the consequences the game
depicts, learning something about yourself?
Well my anti-rain dance wasn't very effective, though perhaps the rain would
have been heavier without it (probably not, though, as I am a lousy dancer). No
matter, I'm manning the grill today come hell or high water. Well, maybe not if
the water gets too high, but I presume it won't come to that.
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