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12 Aug 05
I was reading a post online about Red Alert 2. Of course, that got me nostalgic for a play. I reinstalled it along with Yuri's Revenge. I was having some problems, tried compatibility modes, patches, etc. Nothing worked. Odd since I didn't remember having any problems playing before.
After a couple uninstall/reinstalls, I hit the Play Now button after installing just Red Alert 2. It worked like a charm. 1.0 played great. So I figure maybe it's Yuri's Revenge causing the problem. So I grab the 1.06 patch for Red Alert 2. I install it and get the same stuttering problem as before. Well, it looks like no online play for me. I'll be rolling back to 1.0 and playing like that. Oh well, at least it works.
By the way, there were reports of Red Alert 3 being under development at EA LA. If you follow that link and combine that with the announcement of Battle for Middle Earth 2, you might get disheartened. Still we can hope for the best.
Have a great weekend. Oh, and Happy Birthday Mom.
Jason
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11 Aug 05
I hope I didn't scare everyone away with yesterday's foray in to physics. To wrap that up, Kotaku has reports that Nvidia will be including physics chips on some of their future graphics cards. Or perhaps it will be a separate graphics card dedicated to physics SLI'd to the main card. Interesting either way.
Speaking of Nvidia, they've released a new set of certified drivers for their graphics cards. It's version 77.77 and can be found Here.
Logitech announced some new products today. They have a pair of laser gaming mice (corded and not). They also announced a new gaming keyboard with a small LCD screen. Check out the news Here. They should be around in time for the holidays for those gamers on your list.
Quakecon opened today. Unfortunately, I won't be running up to Dallas to check it out. Given my weak sauce FPS skills, I'd be slaughtered. But mostly, it's lack of time. If anyone wants to send in a report from there, let me know. I had hoped we'd get more info on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, but it looks like the focus is on Quake 4. I'll keep an eye out.
It looks like the official Xbox 360 release announcement is coming next week. Rumors stand at Nov 4 and $299. It looks like the hard drive will still come standard. Of course, we'll bring you the official story when it breaks.
Jason
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10 Aug 05
I'm going to complain about game physics today. That should be the cue for most of you to (symbolically) stand up and leave. Physics seems like the next big hurtle that developers are trying to jump. It's an interesting balancing act. On the one hand, there's a need for the game world to feel as real as it looks. On the other hand, it's exponentially more difficult to realistically model physics as you decrease (or increase, depending on your point of view) the granularity.
Beyond the power considerations, the core of good game design balances realism with fun. Splash damage might be fun if you're modeling a large sci fi rocket launcher. It's not so much fun when you dodge that blaster bolt and a shot that missed you by meters causes damage from the spray of molten metal kicked up. In fact, unavoidable death/damage is almost always not fun.
Physics has gotten a lot better in recent years. Half Life 2 had many things designed to show off their physics implementation. Right now the big problem seems to equilibrium. If you see things fall, they tend to fall realistically and bounce off each other nicely. The problem occurs when objects land (or are set) on one another. We often see a bouncy effect where the object continue to bounce around until they're not touching any more. Or we'll see an object in a corner bounce around until it finally stops just outside the corner. Regardless, these events take us out of our sense of immersion. Even if we don't know the physics, we know from experience that objects very quickly stop moving.
Of course, this isn't the problem that the next generation of engines (and add on cards) will solve. No they're more concerned with more and more bouncy rocks than with solving the bouncy problem. What they're forgetting is that as the numbers of objects, the interactions increase, so the disorienting problems increase exponentially. So this is just my reminder to them to make sure you have a solid foundation before you start building a skyscraper.
On the other hand, I might just be trying to convince people to work on the real problem in games today. AI.
Jason
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9 Aug 05
Some of you outside the US, might be wondering about all this American football talk. The NFL isn't like baseball, hockey and basketball that seem to run nine months out of the year. The season starts in September and ends in late January or early February. Of course if your team didn't make the playoffs (like Houston), the season ends near the new year. Even the college bowl games are usually done by the end of the first week in January. Needless to say, it feels like a long wait for the season to start.
Technically, there is preseason football in August (the first game was last night). The problem is that the majority of the plays are run by players who will see little if any play time during the season. Many of the plays themselves are quite vanilla. Defenses are even more generic. Frankly, fans wouldn't even watch if they weren't so hungry for some football. Really, you might see the starters for two series. In the last preseason game, you might not see them at all to reduce the risk of injuries.
So football is on the NFL fan's mind. It's also time for the release of the annual football games. In fact, today was Madden 06's release date. Of course, that's pretty much it for official football games. I was thinking about what could make me change my mind and purchase Madden. I realized the one thing that would have done it was to release the game at $19.99. I still feel that's the magic price point for annual sports games. It looks like 2K Sports might agree (thanks Gamespot). Unfortunately, that price point doesn't mix well with hyper expensive exclusive licenses.
I do have to admit the Blitz team has the right (or wrong) attitude. From Gamasutra: "[Madden 2006] is so scared of the competition they should change the name of the game to John D. Rockefeller 2006," commented a new Midway press release, "as these fools needed a monopoly just to feel safe with their No Fun League game."
Speaking of Gamasutra, they have an interesting new feature article on why going hardcore in game design might be the wrong move as the gaming market continues to expand. I think some of the problems mentioned could be solved with a more customer friendly approach to game design while leaving the gameplay hardcore, but perhaps that's also the point. Check out the article Here.
I'll wrap up with a little more football. In a somewhat surprising move, IGN (usually considered soft on developers and publishers) has an editorial challenging gamers to live up to their cries of foul last year at the announcement of EA's exclusivity deal. Basically, they're asking if players will stand firm behind their threats to reject an exclusive full priced Madden if it wasn't the best the series has ever seen. Check out the article Here. I guess we'll know when the sales numbers come out.
Jason
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8 Aug 05
Oh my. I saw the new Madden cover. I didn't notice it on the smaller EB graphics. Then I saw a bigger picture. They actually put 'Exclusive NFL License' on the front cover. What are they rubbing it in that they have no competition? Are they really afraid everyone will be confused and buy Blitz: The League? If I had been weakening in my resolve not to buy it, that would have brought me to my senses. I've noticed reviews for this edition are mixed. Some claim it's better than ever, but others claim it's the first step backwards in this generation. I guess I'll leave that to people who play it.
CDV sent word they have a new movie showing off Hammer and Sickle. It's not bad. It's clearly using the Silent Storm engine, but sounds a bit more ambitious. We'll have to see how that works out. Check out the movie Here.
CSL, one of the early posters here, brought word (via Octopus Overlords) of a new turn based online massively multiplayer game called Urban Dead (Link). Players can choose to be a zombie or a human. You have a set number of actions points. They replenish very slowly in real time. Basically plan on making one sequence of moves per day or waiting a long time if you run out of points just outside of safety. It's not terribly pretty, but it is a neat, unique game.
I guess I should catch up on some of the games I'm looking forward to (see 4 Aug 05). So this week we have Black and White 2 (official site) from Lionhead Studios. In case you've never heard of the original, it's a god game/RTS. You have powers based on the amount of worship from your people. They tend to do this more if they love you or fear you. The game offers choices on how you want to treat your people. As an extra large example of that, you have your pet creature. Your creature is magical and grows over time. It also learns from you both magic and how to treat people. Lionhead promises they've learned from the mistakes of the original to let you focus on the fun instead of listening to the helpless whining of your villagers. As with all Lionhead games, it will be released when done. Right now that looks to be Q4 this year or Q1 2006.
Jason
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