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The Sims 2
The game's almost done and here's a movie to prove it!

The Shooter Roundup
The most promising shooters from now until Christmas, in one handy article!

- Game Reviews
- In Other News...
- Halo 2 Weekly Update
- Friday WPG
- Hoooot Topics
- LucasArts Layoffs
- Valve Talks Counter-Strike: Source
- Serious Sam 2 Update
- Pacific Assault Diary
- Sid Meier's Pirates! For Xbox
 
Hottopics_top
- Doom 3 Already in Stores? (48)
- DOOM III for Win XP and 2000 Only (45)
- Doom 3 Trent Reznor Sound Pack (35)
- Good Morning, Ulaanbaatar! (34)
- New Half-Life 2 Release Date (33)
- Doom 3 Hits Retail (30)
- NVIDIA Chips Proclaimed Best for... (29)
- Doom 3 Round Up (29)
- Manhunt Blamed for Murder in UK (28)
- Game Reviews (25)

Saturday , August 14, 2004
Game Reviews 01:02 am - Apache - games: general news

In Other News... 12:25 am - Apache - in-house: in other news... (2 comments)
It was nice to see Joe use his power for the side of good and get us hot threads added to the site. Next stop - archives! It's been a real pain trying to get site changes pushed through, but since he moved out to San Fran to work at IGN full time as a network producer we just may finally see some changes made. It's great being at IGN for stuff like stability, being linked on all their pages and so forth but the downside has been we haven't been able to change the page much on our own from either a technical or design aspect. It's not like we haven't wanted to do stuff, it's just been impossible how things work here until now.

It's Saturday, I'm here at work at Midnight, so lets get the show on the road. Today's question is WTF should we put in that box left of hot threads and under the top story (where the IGN features currently are)? I'm thinking either a poll, new files or spicy stories thing. Ideas?

 
 

Friday , August 13, 2004
Halo 2 Weekly Update 07:45 pm - Apache - consoles: xbox (0 comments)
Thanks to HBO for the link to this week's official Halo 2 update posted at Bungie.net. It isn't very game related, but you can check it out here if you so desire.

Friday WPG 07:38 pm - Apache - games: general news (0 comments)

Hoooot Topics 05:06 pm - Steejee - in-house: in other news... (13 comments)
If you wander your eyes up a little to the Headlines box, you'll notice something old, something new, something orange, something that took a long ass time to bring back. Thanks Seth for the help!

At the moment it looks at the last 3 weeks of topics, but that will change to 2 in a while (next deploy, which could be a few days). Also, Vault links are a bit more relevant. I'll be fixing the odd ads bugs on the left sidebar soon.

LucasArts Layoffs 03:33 pm - Apache - games: general news (4 comments)
LucasArts, makers of those nifty movies and games we love so much, announced mass layoffs as part of a restructuring of the gaming side of the compay (thanks Blues News). Here's the dirt:

LucasArts confirmed today a major restructuring of its development studio. It marks the first change within the company since Jim Ward took over as president in May. "Since joining LucasArts in early May, I've taken a hard, critical look at our business. I've come to the conclusion that to make LucasArts thrive and to position ourselves for the long-term future, we need to make some fundamental changes." Today Ward named Peter Hirschmann Vice President of Product Development, who will oversee both internal and external development. Hirschmann has been with LucasArts for two years and has been involved with such titles as Secret Weapons Over Normandy and the upcoming games Star Wars Battlefront and Mercenaries. Hirschmann was previously with Electronic Arts where he launched and oversaw the Medal of Honor series. As a result of the restructuring, 31 people from the development studio were laid off as the company will be concentrating on fewer titles.

Valve Talks Counter-Strike: Source 02:33 pm - Apache - games: action (3 comments)
The chaps at Computer & Video Games interviewed Valve about Counter-Strike: Source:

Is Counter-Strike Source actually Counter-Strike 2, or is there still a further iteration of the game that you're working on based on the Source technology?

Lombardi: During the development of the Source engine technology, we wanted to make sure we didn't make the path from Half-Life 1-based MODs to Source exceedingly difficult for those who wanted to bring their games forward. To test this, we had a few people take on the task of bringing Half-Life 1 single-player forward to Source. The process proved to be fairly manageable, and we obviously identified a few things we could do to help make this even more so for others who tried it.

Once the experiment was run, we decided to run the test on one of our multiplayer games, and CS was the natural choice. However, unlike the HL1 Source project, the CS: Source work extended to the creation of new player and weapon models, new world models, new sounds, and more.

So that's a quick take on the evolution of CS: Source, which is not CS2.

Serious Sam 2 Update 02:21 pm - Apache - games: action (0 comments)
Thanks to Seriously! for sending word that Croteam has posted a new Serious Sam 2 monthly report. The topic is "Hierarchical visibility determination using visibility groups is now functional." Here's the poop:

Each engine uses some system to determine which objects on the scene are visible to player, those should be rendered, and which one are not. It is very important to reject as much as possible unnecessary details, but it is also important not to spend much time doing it. Less time engine spends in rejecting not visible details, more time is left for what is actually visible to player - graphic details, physics, AI… We decided to take one step further in exploiting hardware feature called "occlusion query". Basically, modern 3D graphics boards are able to report how many pixels of a given object ended up visible on screen (that is to say, not occluded by some other, previously rendered objects, like walls or doors). That way our new engine can completely skip rendering of objects that are occluded, and that greatly improves rendering performance! Even more, instead of testing object one-by-one, we can now test the whole group of objects and skip them all in one go, if it turns out that the whole group is not visible. This is basically our VSD (visible-surface-determination) algorithm. And it works great!

Pacific Assault Diary 01:42 pm - Jeff Tom - games: action (0 comments)
EAGames have slapped up a developer diary for Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault. Here's a cut on AI:

Today's subject, morale based AI. In Medal of Honor Pacific Assault (MOHPA) we're using a new feature to expand the gameplay experience that we call "morale based AI. To create gameplay that can take advantage of this, as designers we've had to change our approach and thinking as to how we create combat areas.

Sid Meier's Pirates! For Xbox 01:29 pm - Apache - games: action / adventure (0 comments)
Atari and Firaxis announced today that Sid Meier's new Pirates! game would be heading to the Xbox. "We're thrilled to continue our relationship with Atari to bring Pirates! not only to fans of the original game but to a new generation of gamers," said Jeff Briggs, President and CEO of Firaxis Games. "Pirates! is among the most popular and loved titles in gaming history and Sid and the team here are working hard to uphold the high standards of the franchise." Here's a little more about it:

In Sid Meier's Pirates! for Windows and Xbox, players take the leading role of a Pirate Captain in the 17th century Caribbean - amassing fortune and fame in an attempt to seize a rightful place as one of the most revered and feared pirates in history. Players test their skills as a sea captain exploring the high seas and exotic ports in a richly detailed 3-D world. As your reputation and skills grow, so will the size and quality of your crew, your ability to take on larger enemy ships, raid and plunder heavily fortified ports, and locate ancient treasure.

Dungeon Siege II Interview 01:25 pm - Apache - games: action / roleplaying (0 comments)
The RPG Vault conjured up an interview with Gas Powered Games about combat in Dungeon Siege II:

Jonric: What degree of importance will combat have Dungeon Siege II's gameplay, and in terms of high-level goals, what kind of overall feel or experience are you aiming for?

Kevin Lambert: Dungeon Siege II is essentially a party-based action RPG. Whether you're unraveling a piece of the plot, learning about Elven culture, trying to piece together a unique set of armor, or helping defend a castle, it's ultimately all about the combat. Or, as our artists like to say, "There are lots of things in Dungeon Siege II that need killin'."

Our high-level goal for the combat system, which is also our biggest challenge, is for it to be fun and engaging on a moment to moment basis while in battle.

Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault Preview 01:22 pm - Apache - games: action (0 comments)
The lads at Gamesdomain shot up a preview of Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault:

Pacific Assault is set in the same general war theater as console cousin MOH: Rising Sun, but it's a new game rather than any kind of sequel. It puts players in the combat boots of a young United States Marine named Tommy and follows his whole tour of duty -- from the sucker punch of Pearl Harbor, to the U.S. attack on Guadalcanal, to the final, grinding assault on Tarawa, the clash known as the "D-Day of the Pacific."

Regarding id's Next Game 01:16 pm - Apache - games: action (15 comments)
The newest CNN Game Over Column is a chat with id's Todd Hollenshead from QuakeCon about what the team is working on next. There aren't many solid details given, but the title will not be a sequel of any of id's previous games. Here are some hints:

From a technical standpoint, id's next game will not be as revolutionary as "Doom 3," said Hollenshead. The focus this time is to do something that's remarkably difficult in the gaming world: Establish a new franchise.

"Starting from scratch is always tough," he said. "I believe that id as a studio, because of what [technical director] John [Carmack] can do with technology and because of how we speak to our fan base, is in the perfect position to build an IP [intellectual property]."

In keeping with id's PC-centric history, the company's current plan is to build a PC focused title, said Hollenshead, although it is studying next generation consoles as well.

Massively Multiplayer Bits 12:40 pm - Apache - games: mmog (0 comments)

  • Camelot - To stem the rising tide of Albion players, Mythic announced that the servers-wide overpopulated realm will only recieve one new class in the Catacombs expansion to Migard and Hibernia's two. There is no word on what those classes will be however.
  • PlanetSide - PlanetSide Universe posted new screen shots of the upcoming new BattleFrames.
  • Wish - Mutable Realms released some new screen shots on the official site.
  • World of WarCraft - Six new screen shots are up at the RPG Vault.

Splinter Cell 3 Preview 12:34 pm - Apache - games: action (0 comments)
The boys down at ActionTrip took a look at Spinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory:

The most evident improvements are in the visual department. The new Splinter Cell employs a new engine, which renders nearly photo-realistic scenes. Ubisoft officials have already announced that this would be the game with the best graphics, regardless of the platform. Effects like advanced dynamic lighting and shading are just a start; the game features some of the most realistic weather effects ever. Rainfall will form puddles and make characters look soaking wet. This is performed by changing the textures on objects and characters. The weather is not mere eye-candy, though. Guards stuck in the rain will seek shelter, giving Sam the opportunity to sneak by unnoticed or even help the guard to enter another plane of existence (the world of the recently deceased). The demo showed a guard sticking an arm out to check whether it is still raining. He then retreats to the building where Sam is waiting for him. which is when he shuffles off this mortal coil. (As Terry Pratchett wisely noted, being a guard is less than gratifying. You stand in the rain getting wet and waiting for someone to wring your neck.)

QuakeCon Coverage 02:25 am - Apache - games: general news (2 comments)
QuakeCon is in full swing and a bunch of sites are there to cover it including GameSpy, Gamers Depot, Bjorn3D and HomeLan. Here's a bit from the opening ceremony thanks to HLF:

Hollenshead talked about the long hours needed to make the game during the last six months (80 hours a week, six days a week) and that some neat stuff still was put into the game close to its completion, such as John Carmack putting a heat shimmer effect into the game a few weeks before going gold. Hollenshead also repeated that id's next title will be an all new game and not revisiting a previous id franchise although he did say half-jokingly that they have thought about doing a Commander Keen remake.

Assorted Downloads 01:20 am - Apache - games: general news (0 comments)

Misc. Interviews 01:14 am - Apache - games: general news (0 comments)

IGN Morsels 01:02 am - Apache - games: general news (0 comments)

Hardware & Tech Nuggets 12:48 am - Apache - hardware: general news (0 comments)

Game Reviews 12:45 am - Apache - games: general news (4 comments)

In Other News... 12:02 am - Apache - in-house: in other news... (36 comments)
It's not only Friday, it's Friday the 13th. TGIFx2. Aliens vs Predator hits theatres, Doom 3 debuts in Europe and QuakeCon is in full swing. Good times. Gimpy's on hand at the event to check out the latest games on display; no Quake 4 this year, but they have some nice Activision titles on hand plus some new hardware as well. Hopefully if he isn't too hung over he can share some of the goodness today and this weekend.

I finished Doom 3, so I'm a bit stuck on what to play next. To give me some ideas, today's question is What games are you playing?

 
 


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