It's action movie season but that doesn't mean everybody and their cousin can just take the afternoon off to sneak into the movies with two wars going on. That's right, the folks that make your suspension of disbelief a reality, the United States Department of Defense, are still in full swing. And just like Hollywood (and Nintendo), the DoD believes that "If it ain't broke then don't fix it... but you CAN upgrade it." What can you expect? Read on...
See this is what I like about Valve games. When they release a new game at a reasonable price, it comes unlocked to the mod community with a kit they already know how to use. This crowd sourcing gives every single one of its games a longevity that every other company wishes they could milk from their games. Alien Swarm, a top-down shooter released on Monday, is no different... because on Wednesday, we're seeing the beginning of a new first-person mod:
This is not a huge bit, but I'm super-excited about this. This seems like the beginning of the Next Step in physics. The current lot of video game physics deals with solid objects and low-viscosity fluids and materials (basically wood, water and thin cloth). Certainly, these are feats in themselves, but there's so much missing in rendered worlds. This Lagoa Mulltiphysics engine fleshes out our wonderful world and includes: high-friction granular materials (dirt), incompressible fluids, elastic structures (cloth and gelatinous objects) and plastic deformations (dents without removal of material). Clearly this stuff will make for much more believable worlds for our space marines to destroy aliens in during an ambiguous and heroic military conflict.
Looking around at all the ridiculous prices for DLC packs, I can't help but fly my fanboi flag for Valve once more. Just after the launch of it's FREE Engineer update pack, the 10th FREE major update pack for TF2, Valve has released a new Source-based game... for FREE. Alien Swarm is top-down down buddy-based shooter, taking its bloodlines from Left 4 Dead. It's a very simple premise: you're stuck with a bunch of very violent aliens that you'll have to kill... for some reason. You got lots of guns with alt-fires and some gadgets to aid in the moving and killing. In a manner similar to TF2, each of the four fire-team members will have traits unique to its class which can be upgraded for performance boosts. In addition these traits will allow classes to carry unique weapons and upgrades. No, this isn't the next big thing, but it's fast-paced and fun, it'll allow for community mods and.... it's FREE. Just check the Steam Store for the FREE download.
For some folks like myself, 2007's Portal was one of the greatest games ever made. It was a duality folded upon itself. Aside from it's humor, Portal was one of the few games that's given me a headache, challenging my earthbound notions of gravity and where I can and can't go. I remember trying to explain the gameplay to my aunt: "No Aunt June, you'd fall through the floor and come out through the wall, but your speed that you'd get falling through a floor shoots you through the wall". Some thought Portal was simply "too much". The rest of us wanted Portal 2. Well this guy brings the Gillette attitude to gaming and says, "Screw you and three dimensions... we're going to four"
Enter, the single reason for my sub-par performance in multi-variable calculus and theoretical physics. Marc ten Bosch's brain-sploding creation, Miegakure, will bring the Fourth Dimension into puzzle gaming. Suck it, Avatar. Kotaku's interview explains, that by throwing away our linear perception of time and envisioning warps, folds and bends, we will challenge our notion of objects occupying space. Hypercube gaming has yet to be touched and this promises to be a unique experience. Kudos, Mr. ten Bosch. (Scientific primer after the break)
This isn't really something new but I was able to test it out with GoW2 on the 360 and was rather neat. TN Games3rd Space Vest takes the impacts from in game and sends them to the vest which has 8 accordion actuators throughout the vest. I couldn't help to wonder what it would be like to play F3AR with this vest on at night and the lights out.
She's everybody's bike-ridin', gun-totin' booby lover. The big Kitty has made it to 28. I couldn't think of a better place for her to spend her birthday than at E3. This crappy post pales in comparison, but from all your subordinate flunkies: Happy Birthday, ma'am!
This is basically a quick and dirty info, nothing in detail as it's 0317 in LA and I've to get up in 4 hours for day 2.
Sony's GT5 is looking bad ass. I never really got into the whole Gran Turismo thing but this one has NASCAR!! You got me sold, lol!
Codemaster's F1 2010 is another racing simulator and will be on multiple platforms. I actually had some track time with the Xbox 360 version and I'm pretty impressed and so were my coworkers, who thought I was just a flight sim nerd.
So the big question for E3 2010, that many hard core flight simulators guys were dying to know, "Is Thrustmaster there with their HOTAS Warthog?" I can finally answer that question, No TM didn't have a booth at E3.
Sorry guys they went with a private invite only. The preview was at the California Air and Space Museum and was showcased with the most anticipated flight simulator of 2010, DCS-A10C Warthog.
Yes that is right, both TM and DCS was there giving me a preview of their products. I was more interested in the DCS-A10C Warthog as I'm already a very impressed and proud owner of the TM HOTAS Warthog.
The DCS title is going to be bad ass, the detail in the engine start sequence is just amazing. Also there is interactive training missions, something that is a miss in Blackshark. These training missions will instruct you to carry out an event, which can be clicking a switch or turning the jet around. After completing the event, the instructions will continue for the next training event.
The training missions will also be held in my backyard, flown right out of Nevada utilizing the Nevada Terrain.
Great first day at E3, tomorrow (today) is going to be even better as Saitek is on the list of booths to visit. I hope they remember me from CES. [Submitted by Panther]
This is it. If you're a gamer nerd and you want to know how your wallet will be drained next year and what you'll be holed up playing all winter, then E3 is the place to go... unless you can make it to ComiCon, Leipzig, Tokyo.... hmm. Well, E3 kicks off video game expo season. Thousands of nerds have descended upon downtown Los Angeles to have their imaginations capture. Our very own Panther is in attendance, but unfortunately she's been whored out to two other outfits and all we'll get outta her is booth babes... not that we're complaining. What got our attention during the kickoff? Let's find out...
Looking at the contenders for this year's fight for Christmas money, I'm thoroughly convinced that the paradigm for game development has shifted from engaging the player's mind into the game's universe, into funneling the player through an interactive cinematic experience. The big guys will continue this trend while they vie for billion-dollar pay days. But the little guys? Well they don't have the fleets of animators, artists, voice actors and grunt coders at their disposal. So they have to rely on good ol' charm and imagination. They don't have the piles of money to shove massive marketing campaigns down our throats, so unfortunately, their creations will never get the audience they deserve. With my gaming budget being tight these days, I've found a bit tough to justify 20 bucks on a totally unknown quantity. Well, this should help...
