IGN.PC has a great trailer that showcases the cel-shading rendering of Bad Day L.A. and how the story starts. Still no gameplay footage, but this looks to be a good one.
Archive for May, 2006
May 28th, 2006
When a company’s name is dragged through the mud, whether of their own volition or not, a prudent course of action seems to be to change their name. This is exactly what Infinium Labs is doing, after years of vaporware that was the much hyped and maligned Phantom gaming console that became the brunt of the gaming industry. It could also be the ongoing SEC investigation into their company practices.
This is probably what StarForce will do at some point, hoping to slip under the radar to market their aggressive anti-piracy copy protection technology under another name. StarForce has suffered a couple of major blows lately, with both Ubisoft and now CDV dropping support.
ATI, in a recent meeting in London, mentioned that Microsoft won’t release a version of DirectX 10 for Windows XP, instead making it an exclusive Vista feature. This is likely to encourage gamers to upgrade when Vista is made available sometimes in 2007.
This decision has raised the ire of some gamers who feel they shouldn’t have to upgrade their operating system to play a game. EVE Online announced that they will upgrade their popular space MMORPG’s graphic engine to include DirectX 10 features, and Halo 2 will be a Vista-only title.
During a DirectX 10-related event in London, UK, Richard Huddy, ATI Technologies’ software developers relations chief, said that Microsoft’s Vista will integrate DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 APIs for different types of hardware, but the current Windows XP will not get DirectX 10 support, as suggested some rumours earlier. For end users this means that to get the most advantages of the new-generation graphics processing units (GPUs), the new OS will be required.
May 27th, 2006
Bungie has posted on their site details about the PC version of Halo 2, which will come out when Windows Vista is available sometimes next year. They clarify that you do not need a DirectX 10-supported video card to play Halo 2, and those playing on the PC won’t be able to play against those on the Xbox. It wouldn’t be fair, PC users would demolish the poor saps. Not to mention Halo 4 will be out by then.
We actually played with the PC version recently when a mini-milestone was reached - the development version had been running in black and white for test purposes, but we were invited over to play when it switched to
color! Anyway, it looked lovely, and we’re promised further improvements as the months roll on. It was amusing to see it running in different resolutions on different folks’ PCs.
A while back, we reported that Ubisoft dropped the anti-piracy protection software, StarForce, due to the flood of angry consumers with legitimate copies being affected right alongside those who were trying to pirate the games. Now it looks like the next major player utilizing StarForce, CDV, plans on dropping their licensing of StarForce as well. Citing the reason as being consumer demand, CDV had this to say about the new copy protection scheme that they will be using:
“We believe that TAGES will provide a sensible balance between protecting CDV’s intellectual property rights against piracy, while at the same time minimizing the restrictions experienced by legitimate owners of our products,” explained CDV’s Chief Technology Officer, Teut Weidemann.
May 26th, 2006
If you remember Frogger, then you remember being broke at the arcade very quickly.
After issues with the server browser plagued the Battlefield 2 community, DICE plans on rolling back the patch to a previous version, according to their official website. This isn’t the first time DICE had to do this, and likely won’t be the last, considering how ineffective QA testing on patches has been with EA these days.
We have decided to revert this change in an attempt eliminate these browser issues. Please note that no uninstalling or re-installing is required by players or server admins. All servers currently running must be restarted once this change has taken place.
Barely on store shelves, Hitman: Blood Money has a patch available for download. This release improves game performance and implements SLI optimizations.
Midway has announced that the RTS, Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War, has gone gold and should be in stores June 12th. You can check out a demo of the game at FileShack.
RISE & FALL: CIVILIZATIONS AT WAR is the first real–time strategy game to place players directly in the heart of combat as a heroic general fighting side–by–side with their troops. Players can completely command one of the four mightiest empires of the ancient world as in a traditional RTS, but can also use RISE & FALL’s innovative Hero Command to enter the battlefield as one of history’s eight greatest heroes, controlling the likes of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and more, as they slash through the enemy ranks to turn the tide of battle.
Actually, as far as I know, Sacrifice, a RTS from Shiny Entertainment, was the first to put you in the shoes of the leader while you commanded your troops.
May 25th, 2006
The 2nd teaser for Half-Life 2: Episode One is now available to watch. Streaming video below, or you can download it at FileShack (17MB). The game will be available to play on Steam June 1st, and in retail stores by then.
Remember the old board game, Battleship, where you call out the coordinates/numbers and hope you hit your opoonents battleship? Well Sink My Ship is an online version of that, where you can play against others via your web browser. It includes a chat room so you can talk with others while waiting to join a game, or create your own game.
Now open to the public is the beta version of Bang! Howdy, a hybrid turn-based and real-time strategy game set in the Wild West. Bang! Howdy is a free game that you can play online, however you can purchase microcurrency for upgrades in the game, so the super-rich can have a sizable advantage on you if they so desire. This is part of an early trend of play-free-buy-upgrades type of games that we’ll be seeing more of this year.
“We’re happier than a coyote in the chuckwagon to let y’all know what we’ve been working on back at the ranch,” said Michael Bayne, project lead for Bang! and Three Rings’ CTO. “We think strategy fans will appreciate our fresh perspective on the genre and plumb everybody will enjoy our fun and accessible Wild West antics.”
It looks like the god of Scientology, Xenu, does not favor those who play video games. I guess it messes with your Thetan level? Tom Cruise, a scientologist (is that what they are called?) has banned video games in his house. Even television is prohibited, although not suprisingly, movies are okay.
Tom Cruise sets the ground rules in his house by banning videogames for the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, PC, and any Nintendo related console games. All video game consoles banned too. In addition, all reading material for any games, especially for the Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii are also banned.
May 24th, 2006
Best Buy was wooed into stocking their store shelves with a boxed edition of IG: Independent Games ($28). These are games that won at the Independent Game Festival. This is a great way to expose some creative, and fun, games that wouldn’t have gotten a chance for mass exposure otherwise.
“Indie games aren’t commonplace outside of the World Wide Web. Despite that, Moondance successfully wooed Best Buy to stock ‘IG: Independent Games’ on their shelves beginning last fall. The disc features such casual games as the engineering sim ‘Bridge Construction Set’ and the popular robot battle game ‘Dark Horizons Lore Invasion.’ ‘Our strategy is to have games for all kinds of gamers: traditional gamers, family gamers and now independent gamers,’ says Chris Koller, merchandising director for video games at Best Buy.”
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