The First 3D Computer Game

  So to anybody interested this is a short documentary about the making of the first 3D computer game: Elite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmPeA5OhcxQ&feature=PlayList&p=rgKR_ZNN5Qc

MGS Peace Walker VAs

So the voice cast for Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker currently stands as this:

Naked Snake; Big Boss – David Hayter
Master Miller – Robin Atkin Downes
Paz – Tara Strong
Amanda – Grey DeLisle
Strangelove – Vanessa Marshall
Coldman – H. Richard Green
Huey – Christopher Randolph
Galvez – Steve Blum
Chico – Anthony Del Rio
Cecile – Catherine Taber

Now, as I’m sure you know David Hayter has palyed Snake through the series, Steve Blum did Gene in MPO, and Tara Strong did Elisa/Ursula, and I loved their performance in Portable Ops, Christopher Randolph has done Otacon throughout the series, and last but not least Venessa Marshall played Olga in MGS2.

BBC iPlayer on X-Box 360 Delayed Indefinitely

While it seems the Wii and PlayStation 3 both already offer U.K. gamers access to the BBC’s iPlayer video streaming service, it looks like 360 gamers won’t be awarded the same option anytime soon.  Telegraph reports that discussions between Microsoft and the BBC have run into a “stumbling block” over Microsoft’s insistence to only offer the iPlayer to X-Box Live Gold subscribers.

SpikeTV: Biased Cowards of the VGA’s

This has been irking me ever since I read-up on it and felt I needed to share with the community my views on things.  Some of you may know that every year in early to mid December SpikeTV airs the VGA’s (Video Game Awards).  This year’s 2009 showing will be their 7th year running.  I applaud SpikeTV for being one of the first networks to air gaming content and to host these award shows; it speaks to the growth of the industry and helps for non-gamers to acknowledge that gaming isn’t just some fad or geeky phenomenon but has in fact gone mainstream.

Amazons Current Bundle

Amazon tends to do some pretty good bundles so I’ll be keeping track of them and keeping you guys updated from now on. So for anyone considering buying a PS3 for Christmas, currently for £284.99 you can get a 250Gb PS3 slim, blu-ray remote, HDMI cable and a selected game (I’d go for the Saboteur myself, looks good). If you’re interested click here. Currently there aren’t any deals for PSP, with the Go priced at £199.99 and the 3000 White at £129.99. The Xbox 360 Elite is currently at 189.99 but you also get two free selected games. And shockingly the Wii is actually in stock (maybe every human on Earth bought one last year) and for £164.99 you’ll get Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, and the motion plus addon.

I’ll add new bundles as they come up

Sony Sales Starting High This Holiday

Going into Black Friday, Sony’s PS3 had more than a fair number of holiday bundles and it looks like their holiday sales are off to a good start.  Amazon’s $300 PS3 Bundle (120gb + InFamous + KillZone 2 + $10 Gift Voucher) has sold out!  When browsing Amazon’s Top 100 Sale Items in general, Nintendo’s Wii takes 6th place, Sony’s unbundled 120gb PS3 is at 56th, and Microsoft’s $300 X-Box 360 Elite Bundle (120gb + Lego Batman + Pure) is way down at 96th.  Sony’s PlayStation 3 is also leading the console best-seller list at Best Buy coming in 4th place overall.  In addition, the PS3 is beating out Microsoft’s 360 at Wal-Mart as well, while the Wii remains #1 at that retailer.

It’ll be interesting to see how bundles come together and sell over the holidays through Christmas.  What are your predictions for who takes top sales’ slot this holiday, and by year’s end overall?

PSN Video Store Launched In Europe

So the PSN store has been launched in Europe, and so I thought I’d try it out, they already have a large selection, my only criticisms is the lack of anything from the BBC and TV shows, in fact I think all there is right now is films, and it really, really needs an A-Z. But they just so happened to have a film I’ve been wanting to see again for a while. So I downloaded The Hunt for Red October, the two hours nine minutes film weighs in at about 2GB (2104MB), for this you get proper SD resolution (720×576 PAL) and 2 channel audio. However I can’t help but think the file size is far too much, and it also raises concerns about the PSP Go, with a default built in memory size of 16GB you wouldn’t even be able to store 8 films. Also the price, Red October costs £7.99, which is the price of most of the older films (other examples: Ghostbusters, Hitch) however more modern films (like Public Enemies) cost £11.99, this does sound like a bit much, however don’t forget you can use it on PS3 as well as PSP. So for comparison a Ghostbusters DVD and UMD costs 10.25 (Amazon.co.uk prices), however don’t forget these don’t come with the constraints of just being able to play on PS3s and PSPs. I did also try out the backup feature (onto my 500GB WD external drive), which was simple and easy, so I think Sony did a good job there, and I copied it onto my PSP, which also worked perfectly and easily, and produced very high quality image. However I still don’t think it’s worth the large amounts of money to go fully digital, especially considering the lack of middle men it does seem far too much like Sony is trying to rather unfairly milk your money. I’ll advise sticking to Blu-rays, however I may buy some movies to play on my PSP for long journeys.

Interesting fact: Last night I watched two films seperated by over a decade both with James Earl Jones in them (Dr. Strangelove and The Hunt for Red October).

Abit more info on APB

Stupid me was using the wrong button for screenshots last beta test xD. Meaning now I have no pictures for you but also I am not sure I am allowed yet. Anyway heres abit more information on the game itself and why you should go and sign up for the Beta which is going on right now (Next playtime is one Sunday 7PM GMT)

San Paro:
San Paro is the city the game is based in, it is a very run down and depressing sort of place. All the civilians speak spanish and do indeed speak at times which adds to the “living city” aspect with phrases like “Te parto tu madre” (ll Part your mum).
The city of divided up into 3 districts:
Social District: Here there is no fighting, criminals and enforcers live in harmony and as the name suggests it is a place to be social. Customization is also done here.
Financial District: Active district where fighting takes place. Here you will find more of a city atmosphere then in the social district.
Waterfront District: Also an active district but unfortunately its not available in the beta so I cant say anything about it.

Progression:
First of all a player is either enforcer or criminal.
Enforcer progression involves doing tedious little missions such as spraying over graffiti, raiding houses, defusing bombs and destroying hacked pay-phones. As boring as these may sound at any time in these missions criminals can be dispatched against you (Known as an APB). You can also opt to search for APBs by finding criminals in the process of committing a crime and witnessing it by hovering mouse over them and holding G after which the game either allows you to go after them or tell you someone else is doing it. I may have undersold how much fun this is. You can do it for hours straight without getting bored. Why? because its always different. Sometimes you might need to call in backup, sometimes it might be a 1 on 1. Hell sometimes you might be up against 4 people.
Criminal Progression from my perspective as an enforcer is pretty much all of the opposite, their missions involve committing crimes and just like Enforcers they can have people dispatched after them.

In order to “Level” in this game you need to pledge to an organization member, there are a couple around the map and you have to work your way up the ranks in order to get the high rank missions. Once pledged he or she will send you missions that may or may not involve APB which upon completion will increase your standings with them and give you some money. With sufficient standings from one person you can move onto someone higher up in the organization to get missions from. Here are the organizations and the people who give missions.

Criminal organizations:

Enforcer organizations:

You get new weapons by gaining standing, the ability to buy them is sent to you in the mail. Cars are similar.

Another bit thing in this game is customization. Firstly I would like to say that in all these games with super complicated character makers I never thought I could make myself but in this game I felt it was alot easier.
Cars can be customized both in parts and paint job, you can design tattoos and symbols and you can mix and match cloths to find a look you like. You can see the results clearly of all this as players are all extremely unique. The last bit is the music studio which lets you make a theme song from various midi instruments, this plays whenever you kill someone (To them) and when you beat someone in an APB.

The little things:
We never pay enough attention to the small things and I think it is important. I always make an effort to notice the small things. And by this I mean things like the people talking in the city, the behavior of civilians, how the soundtrack enhances game-play and such. The soundtrack in this game is extremely diverse and will please just about anyone, you can also import your own music to mix in. In the music player you have the option to go headphones or Car audio, with headphones you hear music at same volume all the time while with car audio it plays in your car. Wow Big deal you might think, thats not the best part. When you leave your car you can still hear your music blasting out, it gets fainter at long distance. Players in your car can also hear your music, although im not sure how that works with imported music. I am led to believe you can hear imported music if you have also imported it.

Anyway I hope this has given you insight into what the game is about and I seriously urge you to get yourself signed up to the beta ASAP.

http://www.APB.com

Infinity Update 2

Wandering how long until we can finally get a taste of this game? well here is some info that may tell you.
Current development status
The following numbers are only rough estimations. This page will be updated infrequently.

Engine
Generic 3D engine: ~90% (kernel, textures, scene graph, mesh/objects, shaders, etc..)
Planetary / Space 3D procedural engine: ~75% (terrain, planet textures, starfield, nebulaes, water, clouds, vegetation, etc..)
Sound engine: ~60% (3D sounds and musics)
Networking engine: ~50% (TCP/UDP, network protocols.. )
User interface engine: ~10% (user input, widgets, windows)
SDK/Documentation: ~10%

Client
Game: ~10% (game logic, controls, physics)
GUI/HUD: ~1%

Server
Game: ~5% (game systems / logic, ships management, economy, combat, A.I… )
Universe: ~10% ( galaxy generation, storyline, missions, background.. )
Databases: ~5%
Infrastructure: ~25% ( login/out server, patching, accounts management.. )

Data / Content
Artwork: ~50% (spaceships/stations/cities 3D models, textures, 2D artwork)
Musics: ~65%
Sounds: ~20%

This was last edited back in August of 2008, one might think that suggests that this means they aren’t doing to much if they haven’t bothered to chance it in so long but infact the latest blog posts date back only to October.

After checking out the forums I have found a section where they act modelers to design ships for possible use in the game, here are some of the most impressive designs.

There is alot more for viewing on their forums. If you are a 3D modeler or Texture designer I would suggest getting involved.

Age of Conan didn’t fail.

I played Age of Conan for quite some time and I have to say that it most certainly did not fail. The game was poised to be a WoW Killer which we all know it didn’t live up to. Why you might ask, surely that means it must have failed? Well not really I like many others became aware of what it was that moved all the WoW players back to WoW, the game wasn’t finished. I find myself saying that way to often…

When you play on what I would call Noob Island after its AO equivalent you are or at least you were playing the most refined stage of the game. All the NPCs talked, the story came alive and was genuinely interesting. This kept everyone happy until people started leaving the island, the first NPC off the island didn’t speak and the game started to become hard. Apart from this the game play off the island seemed like it needed some serious refining. In my opinion this is the one biggest factor that cause the large amount of WoW players to move back to WoW, back to there comfort zone where they know how things work. I myself stayed put for a while knowing from past experience that games can be dull at times, not surprisingly I was not mistaken and the game did indeed catch up in quality soon enough.
Slightly later down the line I decided that the game needed to mature abit so I left for a few months, upon returning the game had indeed matured and is now im my opinion “Finished”. All the problems I had were gone. I suggest that if you happen to leave Age of Conan for either of these reasons that you go back and give it another try. I am on break at the moment after reaching 55 but I will be in soon enough.

1.The fall in quality after Noob Island
2.The incredibly spread out population (Servers have merged)

Infinity universe update:

I sort of mentioned that I wasn’t entirely sure on how depth the game is going to be but now I read the majority of the dev blog and there are some quotes here that will leave you open mouthed.
Heres some stuff from the FAQs:

How many solar systems are present in Infinity?

A lot. Since they are generated procedurally on-the-fly, they cannot easily be counted. But we tried to respect realistic numbers. Expect a galaxy with up to hundreds of billions of worlds. You will not be able to visit them all in your whole lifetime, even if you were to spend only one second per world!

How is the transition between space and ground level done?

It is completely seamless, with no loading times – actually, what you see from space is really what you see when you land. This is one of the key technologies behind the game engine.

Will it be possible to have multiple players board on a same ship?

As a passenger, surely. In an active position, like one player controlling movements and other players on turrets, that’s a possibility that we are seriously considering.

What will the combat look like ? Twitch ? Point and click?

Combats will be real-time, twitch (action) based, much like in a flight simulator or a first-person shooter. You will be in full control of your ship.

Is there a storyline ? How important will it be in the game?

Yes, there will be a storyline, and it will be pretty advanced for an online game. Players will be able to influence the plot or attend “unique” events. One of our developers is dedicated to the story development. To avoid spoiling the story, nothing more can be said, except that the central plot will revolve around a mysterious planet, Earth.

What happens when your ship is destroyed ? Is there perma-death?

When your ship is destroyed, your physical character will escape in a capsule pod. Perma-death does not exist; however, you will be unable to do anything until you are rescued, either by paying a non-playing character (against a fee), either by waiting for a player to pick your capsule up.

Can I own multiple ships ? A space station ? A city ? A planet…?

Yes. You will actually be able to acquire any object in the game world. You will be able to hire non-player characters to control your ships and follow your orders. You will be able to move space stations and set the tax rates, acquire some buildings in a city, or if you’re getting very rich, a whole planet.

How does interstellar travel work ? Are there jumpgates?

Some jumpgates will be available between the main trading routes. However, all the ships can be equiped with an hyper-propulsion system. You can choose your destination on the galaxy map and jump there (providing you have the resources). Jumping will not be instantaneous. It will be very fast to jump to a local system, but jumping to the other side of the galaxy will take from minutes to hours (in real time).

Here is an article that talks about galaxy generation.

I hope this gets you as excited for this game as I am.

MMOG players rejoice!

Why you ask? because the next generation of MMOG’s are just around the corner. Here is some games that you should be paying attention to in the near future.

5. Guild Wars 2

As a big fan of guild wars I am confident that GW2 will deliver massively. I for one cannot wait for its release. As one of the better known games on our list I will be brief. If you haven’t played Guild wars you are missing out big time, the game is a 1 time payment. It boasts in my opinion the most balanced PvP balance Ive ever seen in an MMOG, great lone wolf capabilities with a stunning storyline and its simplicity leave it open to the newbies of the MMOG scene.

4. The Secret World

As of now very little is known about the latest game to come from Funcom, the people that brought you Anarchy Online (My favorite MMO of all time) and Age of Conan. Since the apparent failing of Age of Conan they have been under heavy fire from the gaming community and when they announced this new title alot of people where skeptical. Let me tell you something about Funcom, if there is one thing they know how to do it is Sci-fi, the novel upon which Anarchy Online is based (Prophet without honor) is still my favorite novel of all time. From what I hear the man who wrote it is also involved in The secret world making this game something worth paying attention too. I highly recommend you watch the trailers on youtube which may not show game play but keep in mind the game is running on the next gen engine of Age of Conan (The current best looking MMOG).

3. Star wars The old republic

This game is being made by Bioware and is a direct descendant of the Knights of the old republic series, which are arguably two of the best RPG’s in existence. They also made Mass Effect which is also known these days as an example of a great RPG. Apart from that it is Star wars! Making an MMOG on top of a story like star wars where you pretty much have everything designed and a world that could easily be brought to life suggests it would be hard to make a mess of it. In saying that the release of Star Wars galaxies showed us that you can mess up an MMORPG of Star Wars. Nevertheless I have absolute confidence in Bioware and pray that this game meets me expectations. Make sure you check out the trailers and website for more info.

2. All points Bulletin (APB)

This one caught me by surprise, luckily I made it into the beta and I have to say I am extremely impressed. For those you who are wandering what the hell APB is it is basically what you would classify as GTA online but you can be on the right side of the law if you so choose. The game has no levels and is played from a third person viewpoint, the customization is insane. The character creator gave me the impression I could actually make myself for once, you can design tattoos, cars paint jobs, emblems and all other sorts of things. There are no levels so your gameplay consists as an enforcer either witnessing crimes and taking the criminal responsible or as a criminal committing crimes and shooting police officers. As the beta progresses I will keep you posted on things but for now I am not allowed to post screenshots and videos.
Make sure to check out the trailer and sign up for the beta.

1. Infinity Quest for earth

Here is what I consider to be possibly the best MMOG ever from my perspective if done properly. I am really into Sci-fi and the very idea of a spaceship based MMO in a large universe where leveling isn’t present excites me beyond anything other type of game release on any console. The concept art and 3D models look amazing and the game is twitch based combat so none of that stupid click and move rubbish we are so used to. Recent evidence from the blog has led me to think that the game is attempting to give us true scale and in this it can generate galaxies, not only this but it also uses real life physics to determine the behavior of stars such as where it lies on the main sequence. If this game follows similar patterns in other areas of astronomy I can see it being the most complex and dynamic MMOG ever and as sci-fi fan I can hardly wait for this game.
Go to the blog and see for yourselves to find out more.

Japanese Hardware Sales Oct. 19th – Oct. 25th

 

We report on yet another week of hardware sales from Japan today via Media Create.

1. Nintendo DSi / DS = 48,749
2. PlayStation Portable = 32,865
3. PlayStation 3 = 29,977
4. Nintendo Wii = 25,917
5. X-Box 360 = 4,470
6. PlayStation 2 = 1,951

Microsoft continues plodding along the bottom of the sales charts, nothing new there.  Nintendo’s handhelds remain dominant over Sony’s, no surprise.  Nintendo’s Wii still playing second fiddle to Sony’s PS3.  Sony’s portable definitely selling at a respectable rate and their PlayStation 3 retains it’s place another week at #1, from a console standpoint.  PS2′s still hanging in there.

God of War III Ultimate Ed.

GOWIII - Ultimate

 

Sony’s heavily anticipated PS3-exclusive “God of War III” will be receiving a collector’s edition in the form of “God of War III: The Ultimate Ed.”.  For $100 you’ll get a limited edition art book and a wealth of exclusive dlc including a special challenge room, new Kratos costume, the trilogy’s soundtrack, and some making of vids.  Expect the game to come encased in that beautiful replica of Pandora’s Box shown above.

As an incentive to pre-order, you’ll receive a PSN voucher to download the GoW3 playable demo shown at this year’s E3.  Both collector’s and standard edition set to ship next March.

Netflix Coming to PS3 Next Month

 

Beginning November of 2009 Sony’s PlayStation 3 will be receiving Netflix movie-streaming support.  Initially the service will be available via a blu-ray disc.  Rumor has it that Microsoft has an exclusive contract to make Netflix part of the X-Box 360′s Dashboard, and until that expires Sony has to take a different route.  Perhaps in future it will become part of Sony’s XMB as well.  Time will tell.

My Beef w/ M$

Now for those of you unfamiliar with George Lucas’ sci-fi epic “Star Wars”, I’ll break it down in-brief as it pertains to an analogy I’ll be making between certain elements of that universe and the console wars.  In “Star Wars” there are two main opposing factions, similar to this console war, the Sith and the Jedi.  The Sith are an underhanded group attempting to gain power through dishonest means; evidently the ‘bad guys’.  In contrast, the Jedi are mostly an upright organization concerned with maintaining peace; evidently the ‘good guys’.  Now allow me to draw the connections for you.

Japanese Hardware Sales Oct. 12th – Oct. 18th

We report on another week of hardware sales from Japan today via Media Create.

1. Nintendo DSi = 49,145
2. PlayStation Portable = 33,508
3. PlayStation 3 = 30,231
4. Nintendo Wii = 29,965
5. X-Box 360 = 3,662
6. Nintendo DS Lite = 2,590
7. PlayStation 2 = 2,109

September NPD #’s Finally In

NPD has finally released their console sales figures after almost a week delay.  Here they are:

1. Nintendo DS/DSi = 524,200
2. PlayStation 3 = 491,800
3. Nintendo Wii = 462,800
4. X-Box 360 = 352,600
5. PlayStation Portable = 190,400
6. PlayStation 2 = 146,000

Microsoft came close to doubling their sales from the previous month, no doubt helped along by the release of “Halo 3: ODST” and their recent price cut.  Nintendo upped their Wii output from last month by a mere 10k; considering the $50 price cut didn’t occur till month’s end the Wii’s boost should be more apparent in next month’s figures.  Sales of the DS increased by 6k, possibly in part to the release of “Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story”.  Sony’s sales certainly showed the largest upturn with sales of the PS3 increasing over 250% from the previous month thanks almost entirely to both their recent price drop and the launch of the new 120gb PS3 Slim.  Sales of the PSP dropped off around 60k from last month, which I think can be attributed to hesitant consumers awaiting the arrival of the PSPGo!; October’s figures should help to confirm this.  PS2 still holding on, only dropping by 2.5k from last month.

XBL Update Locking Out ‘Unofficial’ Storage Devices

Beginning this week those lucky enough to gain admittance to Microsoft’s 360 Preview Program for their upcoming Fall firmware release will notice that their third party memory storage devices have been rendered inoperable.  So for those wishing to retain any data from those devices, be sure to get that information transfered before the update or risk scouring around for a friend with an outdated piece of firmware to help you out.

God of War Collection Next Year in EU

The “God of War Collection” is being postponed in Europe to next year.  Those willing to pay a little extra can import an early copy come November when it ships to the States.

Rethinking Remastered PS2 Classics on Blu-Ray

Lately I’ve been thinking about the upcoming “God of War Compilation” and by extension the rumors of other such collections. It got me to thinking that while these gatherings of gaming classics are great for new comers to the series, especially those not owning a PS2 or owning a b/c PS3, it’s little more than an enhanced rehash of an old experience to the rest of us.

Dark days are coming, I for one cant wait.

You may or may not of heard of a developer called Funcom, if not the name `Age of Conan` will ring a bell. Surprisingly enough they made another MMO before Age of Conan called Anarchy Online and to this day it continues to be my favourite MMO ever. I just received an email from them telling me about their latest MMO “The Secret World”, for anyone who plays MMOs this looks like its definitely looking into. Here are some details about the game which may make you consider this something worth getting excited about:

The game takes place in the future.
The game features actual locations such as New York and Seoul.
Weapons include everything from modern day weaponry such as shotguns to dark magic.
It consists of 3 factions – Illuminati, Templar and Dragon.
There are no levels or classes.

Do a quick 10 question quiz to pick your side and by signed up for the beta.

Japanese Hardware Sales Oct. 6th – Oct. 12th

Here are the previous week’s hardware sales from Japan via MediaCreate:

1. Nintendo DSi = 50,144
2. PlayStation Portable = 40,100
3. PlayStation 3 = 30,896
4. Nintendo Wii = 30,741
5. Nintendo DS Lite = 5,454
6. X-Box 360 = 3,326
7. PlayStation 2 = 2,133

Microsoft’s X-Box 360 beat out their arch rival’s last-gen system by a thousand units; good for them.  Nintendo remains dominant in the handheld arena as always but remains at #2 in the region’s console wars.  Sony’s struggling to hold it’s console sale’s lead over the Wii just barely edging out a 150 unit victory; I wonder how significantly the release of “Uncharted 2″ will impact their figures.

Modern Warfare 2 : Spec Op weapon list.

Here is a screenshot from the recent video released showing gameplay footage of the Spec Ops Mode on the upcoming title, Modern Warfare 2.

Last Call for PSPgo Gran Turismo offer.

Just to remind all of you that if you have bought a PSPgo you only have a couple of hours to register it and claim your free copy of Gran turismo on the playstation store.