Monday, August 24, 2009
Delaying the delayed delay...
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Suffering from RAGE...
Well, this weekend has marked the first half of id Software's 14th annual QuakeCon...
For those of you who don't know what QuakeCon is, its an annual get-together of gamers who compete in lan tournaments and so on. It is also where game development studio giant, id Software (responsible for Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake and so on) give their big release info, and reveal new announcements on upcoming titles and so on.
If anyone is at all interested, I'd suggest heading over to a site like GameTrailers and checking out the footage of the conference. On top of news about new games for the iPhone, a brief mention of a new Doom game, and a few other bits and pieces, there was a lot of stuff about Rage... id Softwares new IP that is set to take the gaming world by storm. Similar to many other recent games, Rage takes place in a postapocalyptic world, where Apophis, an actual meteor (one that is set on a near-miss course for Earth in many years) has crashed into the planet, wiping out much of humanity and civilisation. Prior to its crash, the governments of the world had set up underground 'arks' where they selected groups of people (scientists, doctors, etc) to live in to be able to come out and re-establish the world after the Apophis' fall. You, as the player, take control of one of these Ark members who is the lone survivor of a malfunctioning Ark. You set off to discover the fates of the other Arks.
So does anyone else think it sounds a bit like Fallout 3? You could be forgiven for saying so IMO. However... despite all the fanboys in the world writing this off straight away as a FO3 clone, there's one important thing to remember her. id Software are the father of all FPS games. They are usually known for straightforward linear shooters. However, Rage is far from that. This is very new territory for the software supergiant.
Set to wow us with intense action-packed shooting, fast-paced vehicle combat and racing, a deep story and even deeper character, Rage looks sweet as. I can honestly say that I wasn't particularly interested fromt he initial trailer that came out back at E3 2007, but the new footage of the game really looks amazing. On top of that, there is some truly amazing technology under the hood of id Tech 5.0, the new engine.
Anyways, enough from me - if you're keen on learning be sure to check out the conferences... especially the stuff about the megatexturing and so on. Really cool technology. But here's the new trailer that came out a couple of days ago.
Anyone else looking forward to the game? Certainly looks awesome to me.
Beyond the QuakeCon press conferences, gaming has been a bit slow this week. Lil_Azza and I had a fair bit of fun on UT3 on the weekend. And I gave Splosion Man a ncie co-op session with my old housemates. Can't stress enough that those two games are absolutely awesome. Splosion Man in co-op is hell odd but fun. Timing plays such a big part... you end up stuck on some level pieces for ages simply because you need all players to play ball at the same time.
Finally - I gave the Batman: Arkam Asylym demo a go, and I'm fairly impressed. I'm not 100% sure I'll buy it, but I'm keen of getting a hold of it one day.
There's no progress made yet on any new levels that's worth showing... but I've done a little concept art work and designs that I'll polish up and show sometime for you guys to see. Til then, keep on gaming!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Well it's Sunday, and here we are again. So what have you guys been playing? I'm still hitting up the various Guitar Hero games pretty hard. Had a few good sessions on Guitar Hero: Metallica with 2 guitars and a drumkit going. Finished Guitar Hero 2 on expert and done most of the bonus tracks. Getting a lot of mileage out of those games.
Other than that - I purchased the new Fallout DLC dubbed "Mothership Zeta" but unfortunately haven't really invested any time in it. I've seen the gametrailers review though and I'm pretty keen. Check it out below for yourself.
So enough about what I *HAVEN'T* been playing, what about what I have been? Well, I'm a big fan of indie style games. The PSN titles such as Pain and XBLA titles... and one that came out recently, only on XBLA I'm afraid, has got me hooked... If you dont know what Splosion Man is check out this video before reading on...
What the trailer shows is perhaps not enough. The game is full of character, and while it is short, I can see myself playing it time and time again. Splosion Man as a character is like Daffy Duck at his wackiest if he forgot to take his ADHD meds! He's just funny as hell. He quotes so many different famous characters, including Arnie!
Every button on the controller, with the exception of the analog stick, does the same thing... makes you explode. You can explode 3 times before you need to recharge. Exploding makes you jump up in the air. Once you understand that it becomes a fast-paced timing-centric platformer from hell. I strongly urge anyone with a Xbox to give it a go... it's great fun.
Beyond that, Lil_Azza and I fired up Unreal Tournament 3 last night. Fuck I've missed that game. Considering starting making levels again now that I have this big void of time to fill in. But one thing is for sure - I will definately be firing this one up more often than I have been. I'm pretty sure I can get some of you guys to give it another go. Damn I've missed playing online!
And on that I think I'm going to have to bail on you guys. It's a short update I know, but hopefully there will be more next week... perhaps even details of my return to map-making? Who knows!
Til then, game on!
