Was wondering if anyone has been keeping tracking of this game since I know there's quite a few people who like these types of games. It's entering Closed Beta very soon (end of the month, I hear) so people can send in apps and try to get in atm, and it looks really good. It's basically Grand Theft Auto meets a Massively Multiplayer Online Game, from the makers of Crackdown. They have a pretty good track record with these types of games, and for an MMO this game bucks the trend and kind of does away with most things that make MMOs suck for most people (level grind, not really able to do whatever, lack of real character customization, boring combat, etc).

So, the gist of the game is you're in San Paro, a persistent online city. Besides the thousands of civilians, two groups of people vie for control of the city, the Enforcers which are basically mercenaries, vigilantes, etc, people who are trying to uphold the law, and the Criminals, people who are just trying to create chaos and crime in their wake. These two sides are matched against each other seamlessly in fast paced 3rd person combat automatically by the game based on skill and location. Players can create their own subgroups inside these factions (clans) too, with their own clan symbol etc.

There are a few really interesting things in this aspect that are very big breaks from the generic MMO:  there is no real "Player versus Environment" element. Even a mission given to you by an NPC will pair you up against enemy players, meaning everything you do in the game is in some way related to competition. The world is also broken up into districts, which  are divided into action and social.  This kinda works like in Guild Wars where the districts are basically full on copies of the city, but it matches you up seamlessly so you don't even really notice. There can be 100 players in each district of San Paro, and up to 10,000 players per server.

Once you get matched up, the two sides will fight against one another which determines how everything plays out. To give an example of how this works from the devs, you can be a criminal and just decide to randomly out of the blue rob a store by yourself (or with friends), and the game will automatically send an A.P.B. to any Enforcers in the area of the store with a similar skill level as you/your group, and match you guys up seamlessly.  Winners get cash to buy weapons etc and power, but there is apparently no real leveling aspect. Everything is based on the cash you have and how good you are, bucking the time element of MMOs. People who are better skilled get access to better customization tools, meaning the better you are, the cooler you look.

And that is the part I'm excited about: the customization. The customization you can give your character is unrivaled tbh, I think the closest contender here is City of Heroes/Villains and even this is better. You can change every aspect of your character in tons of ways, and even create symbols in-game which can be attached to clothing (in any way or where you chose, and it looks realistic not just stamped on), your car, the world, etc. The really cool part about this, is that you can actually sell these symbols/tattoos/etc to other players for in-game cash, and basically create your own "brand" in-game, meaning people good at art or design can be rewarded for their skills in these areas.

You can also import music into the game to listen to while driving etc, and other people can hear it and everything. People with their own bands can send their music to the developers and get their music into the game and get exposure that way.

There's also no monthly fee, just a one time purchase!

Vids:
Character & Symbol Customization (insane)

E3 2009 Trailer:

It looks really awesome and I'm excited for the possibility of seeing gangs decked out as like the Joker and stuff and seeing them around town and so on.

You can sign up for Closed Beta at www.apb.com!

i'm just gonna keep this pretty short!!

i've been putting this off for awhile, but basically GZ made me realize that I need to do this, and I agree with him, so!! Basically my grandma has Alzheimer's disease (has for awhile!!), and is in a nursing home, and she is pretty bad off (gotten worse recently)!! Half the time she doesn't even know who I am, or she'll think her (deceased from Parkinson's) husband is alive...or a bunch of other stuff. You don't really know what she's gonna be like going in, one day she'll not know anything, the next she'll be cussing everybody out, the next she'll be weak and seemingly devoid of life, the next she'll think she sees shit everywhere...etc. She's very erratic, and (if people don't know) the disease is currently incurable. She's basically going to degenerate, becoming worse and worse, dementia becoming greater, until she can't even feed herself. It's a very slow, torturous, unstoppable death. As much pain as it is caused her, it's caused my mom and I nearly as much as well. It's an emotionally, psychologically, mentally, and physically scarring disease for the caregivers, just as it is for the patient, and there are just days where I would leave from going to visit her and break down.

it's not really helping me at all being here, this whole thing with my grandma is just making me even more depressed, and I need to spend less time here and more time making myself happy, getting my life going (woo college next year after putting it off!!!), and spend more time with my grandma (even if it is scarring, I regret not spending more time with my grandpa before he passed.). I've been putting this off but after seeing what has been going on with GW6 a couple days ago, I know it's in good hands and I am 200% confident it'll come out. I hope one of the admins will help out in the staff forum and get them going and I hope you guys will contribute to GW6 when it gets up soon, and contribute a lot. You guys should really try to reply more to the articles now though, even if it is just a blog at the moment, a post that says "good job!!" is really better than nothing, and I think it would help out a lot more than you might think.

I'm not coming back until I am happy where with I am and I fix a lot of the bad things that are going on, but a lot of you dudes are really really awesome. Not gonna do any shout outs but you know who you are pretty much. Was fun guys.

Haha I gotta admit this trailer made my day, make sure to watch it first!




The gist of it is this company is making a game (that's this one, Eat Lead) that's a history about a character in a fictional series of videogames that make fun of and parody videogames in general, and thanks to executives in his world he got sold out for Mario Kart esque games (with his latest one being CHOKING HAZARD: CANDY GRAMM), and now he's coming back from that to rise to the top again. All of the stuff mentioned in the trailer (from the early games being like Duke Nukem to the "MATT HAZARD 3D" to having sex with Laura Croft (the girl who raids catacombs)) all reference gaming in general, and while the concept is a bit wonky (and wonky is definitely good), I have to give them credit with a pretty cool trailer.

No clue on most of the other details, it's supposed to be coming out Spring 2009, being made by Vicious Cycle Software, coming out for PS3 & XB360 and is either a FPS or a Third Person Shooter, but it's definitely a satirical shooter of some kind.

They got a site that parodies those really terrible gaming websites from like the 90s up here: http://www.doyouremembermatthazard.com/.

Long ago in a galaxy far far away, a famous company created a game called King's Bounty for the NES, where you and your 10 trillion soldiers killed stuff in real time. It was then later made into the Heroes of Might & Magic series by the same company, and everyone forgot about King's Bounty while HOMM sold 102342904812903812983901283901839014904890189013 copies.

The license was purchased by the company that made Space Rangers (a B game that tried to be like 19 genres at the same time but was freaking amazing), and they've made a new sequel to the NES game, and it is fucking awesome and triple A material.

The game has an amazing graphical style (the title screen is really well drawn too!), uses RAM really well (if you have 2GB or more, expect like no load times!), and is real time RPG with turn based strategy combat.

If you've played HOMM, it's like that, except no insane micromanagement, but you're free to explore the massive map (with random stuff in it each game) in real time (unlike HOMM which is turn based.).

If you haven't played HOMM, picture an RPG where you control a gigantic army across a massive world instead of like 4 people.

There's a lot of funny quests, a massive world, no random encounters, battles have traps and treasure in them, tons of creatures to choose from in your party, character customization, a great Engrish story, 3 character classes to choose from, the ability to get married and have kids (that give you stuff), randomly generated world, bosses, and so much more. Plus you can totally get a zombie wife and ask her if she wants kids and she'll talk about eating it, and what's better than that, huh? (Plus it has a skill system like Diablo 2, and these spirits with powerful magic you can upgrade, and stuff like that.)

Here's some awesome screenshots:







Here's some awesome videos:


I dunno what to say, except to try the demo out if you like this type of thing. The demo is massive, coming out at 3-5 hours for one playthrough, with the game being ~x10-15 times larger, with tons of replayability since it's random! Time seems to fly by when playing too, and it's really just solid, well made, fun, and it's different enough from HOMM to be a solid sequel to the King's Bounty series and take a new direction with it, without seeming like more of the same.

You can try out the updated demo here: http://www.worthdownloading.com/download.php?gid=1963&id=16403
You can buy the game online or in stores for 40$! (http://www.atari.com/us/games/kings_bounty_the_legend/dvd_rom)
Also the game has a crashing bug you can fix by downloading this: http://www.kbmods.nm.ru/eng/mod_16_eng_fix_mirabella.zip


Warning tho, this game does use SecuROM as DRM, so anyone who hates DRM should be wary and get the game from other means/avoid it!

SO yeah, Bungie announced at 7:07 Pacific time their new game. Or rather, released a teaser of it!

You can check it out here: http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=15574, or on the X-Box Live Marketplace!

Apparently the hardcore Halo fanboys with their intense mastery of the LORE have discerned that this has something to do with Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (since the ODST moto or w/e is at the end!) during the First and Second Battle of Earth between Earth & the Covenant. The game is called Halo 3: Keep it Clean, and it is a campaign expansion pack for Halo 3 that will take place on New Mombasa (the place where the teaser takes place in from the security camera footage), probably detailing the war between the two races.

A picture during the trailer that is SEEMINGLY random letters and numbers, reveals the release date:


Yay?

This looks interesting since it's EARLIER (it's a prequel to even Halo 1!!!), and on Earth for a change.

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States of America has permanently disbarred Jack Thompson from practicing as a lawyer, in its year long trial.

http://kotaku.com/5054772/jack-thompson-disbarred


He has 30 days to close up, then he's done. The end.

No more BIG LAUGHS.

Although he'll still be on Fox News, so there's hope yet!

Meet his new game! 1968 Tunnel Rats.


This game looks like it would have been good....6 years ago....

I can't believe he's decided to make a video game. It's so random really, this just popped up out of thin air on most of the top gaming sites today.

It looks a lot like Far Cry really! Like a lot like Far Cry in graphical style etc. The trailer is even made like one of his movies too, haha. Wooow.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080901205622.htm


Hoolllly crap, immunity to HIV and AIDS. This is big, because we can find the DNA or whatever that is creating those proteins in women, and test blood, etc etc etc, and hopefully eventually make a vaccine from it, or at least help prevent it.

This is probably one of the biggest finds of the past year easy. Go kenyan whores!

http://cbs13.com/crime/zodiac.killer.kaufman.2.805799.html


This is amazing, I've always been interested in this case, it's been like really one of the BIGGEST unsolved unknown cases in quite some time. To think it's been 40+ years and it hasn't been solved and 3 cryptograms haven't been figured out is really amazing to me.

I'm kind of excited, I've always wanted to know what was up with this case.

The dude in question was cremated, so they can't get any DNA off of him...damnnn, that's pretty smart if its him. They'll have to get it off of postage stamps.

WHAT DA FUCK IS THIS SHIET?

---

It's an MMORPG based on the Warhammer Universe, made by Mythic Entertainment, the creators of one of the greatest PvP games of all time: Dark Age of Camelot.

THIS SHIT IS JUST WORLD OF WARCRAFT WHAT THE FUCK

---

Not so fast! Beyond having the word "War" in their name, and having similar controls, the two are far apart!

SO WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT?

---

Alright, this list is pretty damn long, I'm not gonna lie.

It's War is the pretty obvious thing. Unlike WoW which right now seems to be World of Disagreement-and-play-in-weird-instanced-things-with-poor-lore-reasons-and-mutually-fight-in-arenasCraft, there's an actual WAR between Order and Destruction going on here. The instant you load up the game, you're going to see burning houses, monsters killing allied NPCs, wounded soldiers, cannons going off in the distance destroying crap. It's war!

No mana bars. This is the most obvious thing you'll notice in-game first off. Instead you have Action Points, and everyone has 250 of them. They work like a Rogue's energy bar, but recharge faster and has more room for abilities. That being said both AP and HP recharge faster than the fastest food & drink items in WoW right now out of combat. No down times!

Customizable UI. However, the devs have locked out certain functionality. There is also no enemy cast bars. They locked out functionality because they don't want one mod to be so good EVERYONE must have it to do well, and they removed enemy cast bars because they want people to learn the animations.

Crafting is in btw, you have Apothecary (Alchemy) and Talisman Making (Jewelcrafting). To get stuff you use like 4-5 collection tradeskills. Most of these work on players too.

2 types of levels! Ranks (Levels, max is 40) is gotten through XP, and Renown Ranks (RR, max is 80) is gained through PvP.

Lack of real grind. What makes the game rule, you can do anything. You can get to Level 40 through PvE, or straight PvP. You don't have to do any PvE if you don't want to! People who do both will have a lot less grind, due to stuff below. BTW, you get XP for everything. No joke.

Amazing guild support. Supports calendars, alliances, improved guild look (you get a cloak, a banner, etc.), and you get your own guild hide out too.

Dyes. Can be bought, or found off of rare bosses. Customize your look to look different!

Trophies are items you can find for doing rare, hard to do stuff. Kill a king? You get his crown! Kill a dragon? Get a dragon's tooth! Trophies can be equipped to a trophy slot (you get 5) in your inventory, don't provide you any bonuses, and can be equipped in many spots on your physical character. You can show off all your cool trophies, be it an anvil, a crown, or a severed head to give you your own unique look.

The Tome of Knowledge (ToK) is your one stop place in-game. It's a quest log, with in-game lore, a tracker of all your achievements (be they killed 10 elves to clicked on yourself 1,000 times.), and actually gives you XP & Rewards for filling it up. There's so much stuff in this, it's really really amazing and crazy.

Influence is like reputation in WoW. You get it for killing things, killing players, winning scenarios, capturing keeps, etc. You can use it to get rewards. (there's 3 levels of awards)

Tactics: Are passive bonuses that are learnt, bought, or earned. You can know any # of tactics per your race and level and faction, but you can only have 5 equipped at once. You can make sets of tactics and swap them on the fly! There is a wide variety of these and really make your character special.

Mastery: Looks like WoW's talent system at first glance, but isn't. Yes, you get 3 paths, and points earned by leveling + gaining RR. Each point you put into a path (say a Bright Wizard's Incineration) improves the rank of each and every skill in that path by 1 level. Each path can have 15 points in it, so that's a whole +15 ranks to all your Incineration spells. But on top of this, at every few points, there is a tactic or talent or a Morale ability (more on this below). You don't instantly know them, you have to spend a point to learn it. However, you can choose not to learn the bottom most one and learn the later ones (once you have enough points). So for the most part WoW's X-Y-Z system doesn't work too well here.

Renown Abilities: Passive bonuses to stats that you buy with points gained by earning Renown Ranks. Stuff like +10 toughness, etc.

Morale Abilities: As you take damage or deal it, a Morale meter fills up. It has 4 ranks. You can slot 1 Morale ability (1 of each rank) into each rank, and then use them as your bar reaches that point. Morale abilities are powerful abilities, that can change the tide of a fight. AoE 5 second stuns, insane knockback projectiles, AoE instant resurrections, massive heals, and such are all to be found here.

PvP is worth it. You get Experience, Renown, Loot, and Influence, plus Victory Points for killing players. This makes World PvP, and every other type of PvP, WORTH IT.

WOWZERS THATS A LOT OF STUFF BUT WHAT SUPER AWESOME GAMEPLAY (RAIDS ETC??) IS THERE? (how can i be more elite than that other guy basically.

---

Each area in the game uses a concept called Zone Control. Your faction (Order/Destruction) gains Victory Points for doing quests, killing players, controlling points, taking a keep, and winning scenarios. Control a zone, and you get many bonuses.

Public Quests is this game's innovation to quest design. PQ's are quests that are in a huge series, think WoW's linked quests for raids, but in public. These are epic, ~30m, multiple stage quests that make a difference in the world and provide loot. For an in-depth video on Public Quest's, watch this:

Scenarios are battlegrounds, with better lore reasons for happening and actually MAKE SENSE with the Warhammer lore (which is important to Mythic). These are XvX instanced fights. If a side is uneven, AI bots will join to help you until they become even. The game is going to ship with 33 scenarios. Best part? You can queue for a scenario from anywhere, which means you can queue for a scenario, get 3 quests, complete 2, enter a scenario, win and get XP, Loot, and Renown, and you reappear right where you left, ready to finish the last quest, requeue, turn all 3 in, go back into another scenario, and continue. You can easily gain 2-3 levels this way, highly recommended.

Open Groups, each group is open by default, meaning you can join any party without needing to ask. The game emphasizes doing this. Party leader's can disable it though.

Dungeons: Are dungeons. With quests. Nothing TOO SPECIAL. Think Raids except with less prep. This is a really short vid, but it should give you an idea. They all drop rare stuff, and are hidden somewhere in the world.

There are "raid-esque" 6 man dungeons that give AMAZING loot for the end-game however, these are in the capital cities, which means to get ALL of the best loot, you must take the enemy's capital city.

Here's a vid of a really basic one:

Open World PvP: Is one of this games big focuses. Just open world PvP. In Core servers there are areas in each zone designated for it. These are huge areas too. You get XP, Loot, Renown, and Influence for it. It's fun as hell, even if the odds are against you. In Open servers, you can PvP anywhere in an area, but the game doesn't really work too well this way actually.

Siege: Is this game's main focus, the ultimate end game, and the best part of the game easily. As a warband (parties grouped together), you either defend your Keep (or capital) with catapults and oil (which you use), or you, the invaders, break through their walls and keep to kill their king, use battering rams, catapults, ballistas, and then kill all their civilians and guards, and then get to loot and ransack it, then kill the king to get amazing loot. Doing this not only gives you amazing amounts o XP, Renown, and loot and influence to capture an entire zone, but it gives you access to the best loot in the game and the hardest dungeons. This video gives you a good example of what this can be like, though it can be WAY more hectic too:

As a witch hunter:

As a Swordmaster:

Class Info (HOW CAN I BE SEPHIROTH/LEGOLAS???):

---

There are 20(!!) careers (Classes) in WAR, and in the Preview Weekend this shit was more balanced than WoW ever was.

Each race has 3-4 careers, and there are 4 types of classes:
Tanks: Tanks generally have high health, high armor, don't do great damage, and oh yeah, they can taunt and have a ton of defensive abilities. Taunts work in Warhammer's PvP on other players. They won't be forced to attack you, except the debuff taunts give them, WILL force them to attack you.

MDPS (Melee DPS): Your Rogue-ish type classes are here. Do big damage.

RDPS (Ranged DPS): Ranged DPS. Your Hunter-ish classes or Magical DPS's are here.

Support: Your Healers.

The Factions:
Order
Empire
Dwarf
High Elf

Destruction
Chaos
Dark Elf
Greenskin

The Classes:

---

Dwarf Ironbreaker:
Ironbreakers are VERY strong tanks. They get many abilities which target an Oathfriend (a defensive target you set with an ability called Oathfriend) and abilities that will proc effects on whoever your current defensive target is, making them good healer buddies too.

To add to it, they have a mechanic similar to Rage, called Grudge. You build Grudge, similar to Rage. However, not all attacks they have will remove Grudge. Some attacks will cost Action Points, but scale in power with your amount of Grudge. For example, one attack does damage and ignores some armor, but with 100 Grudge, it completely ignores ALL their armor. Another attack will give the enemy a debuff, but give them a stronger debuff with 100 Grudge. Almost all their attacks raise some of their stats and give their oathfriend that buff as well. Ironbreakers need to use Taunt, Guard, and Hold the Line effectively in PvP. (more on these later.)

Dwarf Engineer:
Getting changed for Open Beta. I got nothing. They summon turrets though.

Dwarf Rune Priest:
Uses runes to support and heal the party the party, can place runes on the ground that provide an AoE benefit to allies within their circle, and have runes that provides buffs to the party and can be activated to deal an effect to a foe. They are strong healers, I find.

Empire Witch Hunter (Males Only):
Have you ever wanted to be a Rogue, who had a sword AND a pistol at the same time, the sexiest hat ever, and wears the coolest clothes? No? What the hell kind of human being are you!

Witch Hunter's use Accusations (Combo Points), and then use Executions (Finishers) which scale in power with the Accusations on the target. To mix it up, Witch Hunter's also have abilities which trigger procs on targets you use Executions on, providing a bonus effect.

Empire Bright Wizard:
Ever wanted to out DPS every other magical class like the manual says you should as a Mage in World of Warcraft? Yes? But can't because Warlocks own you at it because Blizzard sucks dick at balancing?Well, Bright Wizards are Mages who got rid of their vending machine ability, and decided they should actually kill stuff (how crazy is that?). And kill stuff they do, by god do they. Bright Wizard's held 60% of the Order population in the Preview Weekend, and were slightly overpowered with their Immolation spec. Their DoTs were all instant cast spells providing amazing damage with the freedom of movement.

However, most of your spells build Aqshy/Combustion. The higher your combustion, the more likely casting a spell will cause a "Backlash" which hurts you. But, while in high combustion you get improved criticals (up to +50% chance to critical and +100% critical damage at max combust) but have a higher chance to backlash (to a max of a 50% chance to backlash). You must be careful with this, and use a skill to release your combustion when needed for big damage!

Empire Warrior Priest:
Ever wanted to support your party but still kill stuff? Well now you can! Warrior Priest's gain "Divine Fury" much like Rage, but spend it on healing over time spells (mostly). So if you want to help your party, start attacking stuff. You don't do AMAZING GREAT DPS, but you can do a little bit of both. This is basically a Paladin except Mythic isn't dumb and decided that using a resource that can go out pretty quickly to do damage AND heal is pretty dumb.

High Elf Swordmaster:
Are tanks with another unique mechanic. These guys get to chain attacks by "Balance". You start out in Normal Balance, and can only use Normal Balance skills. A Normal Balance skill will put you in "Improved Balance" which when you use a skill of that type, puts you in "Perfect Balance" which puts you in NB.

High Elf White Lion:
Do big DPS and have a White Lion. Not much else to say, was a class ruined by AI issues in PW (that are now fixed.). Don't know much else.

High Elf Shadow Warrior:
I didn't play these guys. Don't know a lot about them. They kinda play like a Rogue & Hunter together from what I saw.

High Elf Archmage:
Stronggg healers, strongest on the Order side. What makes these guys unique, is they have a mechanic called Force & Tranquility. How it works is, for every Tranquility spell (Healing spell) you cast, you build Tranquility (up to like 5 times.), but you will lose Force. Each time you cast a Force Spell (damage spell), you build Force & lose Tranquility. It's a balancing act. However, Tranquility spells get reduced casting time if you have a lot of Force, and Force spells get reduced casting time if you have a lot of Tranquility, so using this to your advantage is needed.

Greenskin Black Orc:
Is the analog (near copy, they are different but use a similar mechanic and have some similar skills) of the Swordmaster. So see that one.

Greenskin Squig Herder:
Was also broken by AI, but summons a pet instead of turrets like the Engineer.

Greenskin Shaman:
Plays like the Archmage.

Chaos Chosen:
Think tank Warriors with paladin auras. Except they have Aura Twisting. When you change Auras, the previous Aura stays in effect for 12s. You can keep 3 Auras up at a time for big benefits.

Chaos Marauder:
Supposedly a very strong DPSer, didn't play much. These guys mutate and change to fit the situation.

Chaos Magus:
Summons totems basically, except they are creatures that can't move (bound in an area). Very underplayed, getting reworked a ton for Open Beta.

Chaos Zealot:
Plays like a more evil Rune Priest.

Dark Elf Witch Elf (females only):
See Witch Hunter.
NOTE: This was one of the least played classes and it is the only female class in the game that is near naked and doesn't actually wear armor that covers them. And it was the least played. Wooow.

Dark Elf Sorcerer:
See Bright Wizard.

Dark Elf Disciple:
See Warrior Priest.

The analog classes are similar, but they have enough differences to not be equal. One analog may be stronger at direct heals but weaker at HoT's, or weaker in HoT's but stronger in direct heals, or weak in X but stronger at damage, etc.

Useful PvP skills

---

Taunts:  Basically, taunts in PvE do a debuff and force the monster to attack you. In PvP, they just do the debuff, which causes the target to do - a ton of damage (like 50%) for X seconds or if they hit you 3 times. Very very useful. Each class has a similar ability, but tanks have the stronger ones.

Guard: Is a tanking ability. You apply it to a person, and they take 50% less damage because you take 1/2th the damage they take. Great if your healer is getting spiked. Use carefully, in big fights this CAN kill you.

Hold the Line: Is also a tanking ability. It does the following:
You focus your defenses against enemy fire,increasing your chances to dodge and disrupt by 45% for 12 seconds. You will also defend all allies behind you, up to 40 feet away, increasingt heir chances to dodge and disrupt by 15% as long as they remain at your back. Allies may have this effect stacked on them up to 3 times.
This effect will end if you break your concentration, or run out of action points.

Kiting: It costs nothing and means a lot. CC's are in the game but not an overabundance. Kiting is important, learn to do it ok.

System Requirements

---

For Windows XP

    * 2.5 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
    * 1 Gigabyte RAM
    * A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
    * At least 15 GB of hard drive space

For Windows Vista

    * 2.5 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
    * 2 Gigabyte RAM
    * A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
    * At least 15 GB of hard drive space

THE UBER AWESOME FAN MADE TRAILER OF AWESOME

---

Make sure to max your volume out cause the bg music works gr8 with this.


(if you want to download that in High Quality 1280x800 resolution, right click -> save as the following link: http://media.curse.com/dl2/WHATrailer-1280x800.wmv, it's only 68mb.)

Screenshots (thanks NightBlade)

---

(NOTE: not in max quality, cause CB didn't allow that.)




To get into open beta you either need to pre-order, or you can buy a pre-order deal at Target for 1$.

The Open Beta starts the 7th, lemme know if any GWs are coming and we will meet up. I'm only playing on Core servers though, cause seriously, Open servers were balls. Picture WoW's PvP servers except with like 70x the amount of people ganking you.

Also all the vids in this thread are from CB or the PW, and feature a work in progress. Combat is actually faster now going into the Open Beta (they updated it), and it was already pretty fast. They admitted every single flaw in the CB and PW, and said how they were going to fix it, and they have. The patch notes for the incomplete open beta notes is literally over 56,000 characters...it's really really long.

This game was really bad a long time ago, but after playing the PW, I have to say, a miracle has happened and this is just a really fun and visceral experience. The game is damn good. And it wasn't even as polished as the OB will be.


RELEASE INFOS:

---

US Release GW:
Server: ?
Faction: Destruction


EU Release GW:
Server: Axe Bite Pass
Faction: Destruction

Yeah okay so I know a lot of people here are iffy about D&D or don't play it seriously, but that's okay because you don't need to know a lot about it to play this game (though it can help.)

Basically this is an MMO based on D&D 3.5's Eberron universe, and while the game sucked dongs on release, it is pretty damn good right now. I got a trial key that was on its 9 out of 10 days, and had so much fun I got my own trial key (that I'll activate when the servers come up in 4h). It's kinda hard to believe but this game just is so much different from every other MMORPG out there, and it works.

What makes it feel so different is how it is handled and feels. Probably the best description I can come up with is Prince of Persia if it had Dungeons & Dragons mechanics and multiplayer. This is a Dungeons & Dragons game, and that means that each dungeon has traps out the ass you have to watch out for, puzzles to solve, etc. It isn't just about the monsters and that is what makes it work. A lot of MMO's get caught up on the monsters, and the dungeons are just maps to walk around in. In D&D the monsters and the map shine, and that works here too.

A Dungeon Master (who sounds awesome) talks to the players throughout the dungeons and depending on your skills he'll say different things. He does a really really good job of immersing you into the dungeon and it is very cool.

The game has VOIP support too.

Character creation and customization is a strong point...just like D&D! There are skills (stuff like Listen and Spot which affect what you see or hear in the dungeons, or Intimidate to taunt enemies, Pick Locks to pick locks, etc.), feats (which give you tons of different bonuses) and a DDO only system called Enhancements which sorta work like Talents do in WoW, except a lot more varied based on class and race, and affect your characters a lot more noticeably.

The best part is is that it is D&D and that in itself makes it a real good MMO because D&D stresses the best parts of RPGs and the best parts of multiplayer. You can't just go and kill 500 kobolds and grind to the next level, nor will you be asked to collect 15 kobold dicks because D&D isn't like that. You gain XP only by completing quests, although each adventure (quest) has bonuses for breaking objects, killing monsters, and disabling traps. Which works in the following way:
-80%+80% XP if above or below quest level
+50% XP if no monster is killed (pacifism)
+5-25% XP if you kill a lot/all monsters
+5-15% XP for finding traps/secret doors
+5-15% XP for disabling traps
+5-25% XP for breaking stuff.
+25% First time quest completion on any difficulty.

Each dungeon has 3-4 difficulty settings as well!

Combat is fluid. Right click is attack, shift is block, shift + an arrow key tumbles if you have 3 in Tumble or above.

A warning though: The PvP sucks. Again, this is D&D and D&D is about as much about PvP as  Maple Story is a genuine good MMORPG. Not. at. all.

Available Races:
Human
Elf
Dwarf
Drow
Halfling
Warforged

Available Classes:
Wizard
Sorcerer
Bard
Ranger
Fighter
Cleric
Paladin
Barbarian
Rogue
Monks

Here's a bunch of random screenshots from a SA topic since I didn't bother to take any yet:

It is seriously the most actual fun I've had in an MMORPG next to GW ever because while there is grind of some sort, all the grind is FUN and engaging, because each of the dungeons have their own PERSONALITY and FLAIR and feel like something more than just a stupid map to slay monsters on. Out of all the MMOs out there, this one is the one that feels the most unique just because of how it is built. It isn't trying to keep you around so they can make $$$ and it isn't built for that, it is built for a great adventure and all the numerous dungeons and quests show that. Every class has a role, every class is useful, every quest is entertaining, and it's built to keep you immersed, and it's very easy to see they aren't just trying to pull a bunch of $$$ from you (LOTRO is for that) but trying to give you a great experience while still making some funny. It's fun as hell and the dungeons are all great. If the current MMO you are playing is starting to get boring or you just want to try something new for a change of pace, I reccomend picking up the 10 day trial and joining us! Even if it is not your thing, I can guarantee you will at least have real fun with it without needing to grind for 12312353532423 hours. The level cap is pretty low (16) but plays out in D&D pace (not very fast but not too slow) so you can get to the meat of the game pretty early, and the early game is pretty great too. The character I was on was level 10 so its not like I am just talking about the beginning of the game either. It's all really fluid and fun as hell and that is probably a lot more than I can give most other MMORPGs.

The trial is completely free and doesn't req. CC info. I'm playing on the American Argo server along with DeadPhoenix  if anyone wants to join us when the servers go back up in 5h30m.

You can get a trial at http://trial.ddo.com

I'm playing a Human Barb and DP is going to be a Human Sorcerer if you want to join us on Argo in 4 hours.

NOTE: JOIN US ON THE ARGO SERVER

Street Fighter Alpha 3 GW Olympics Tournament - GO FOR BROKE!

Registration is from August 24th, 2008 - August 28th, 2008.

Bracket will be posted on August 29th, and players are to meet up in #capcom/other messengers to get their matches in. You are responsible for working with your opponent to get your match in.

Registration Notes:
When you register just post saying you want in, and the country you are from.

Tournament Notes:
Because there could be server issues and this isn't going to be a group tournament played at one time, we're not going to use GGPO.

Instead, we'll be using nFBA. You can download the emulator nFBA here: http://kaillera.movsq.net/stable/nfbadtr9u1.exe and install it. This includes the netplay which is Peer 2 Peer and near lagless at good connections.

Due to legal issues I can't link you to SFA3, but you can google it. We are going to be using Street Fighter Alpha 3 (980904 Euro). If you can't find it, I can link you if you PM me, of course.

Tournament Play:
All characters are allowed including the secret ones. (codes to play as these characters are below)

Tournament is double elimination.

Each match is to be played best 2 out of 3 matches.

Loser's finals are best 3 out of 5 matches.

The final match is best 4 out of 7.

If your matches don't happen shortly (a couple days of so) after an updated bracket being posted, one of you might be DQ'd so make it happen.

Happy birthday guys (especially you Medieve!).

A lot of awesome GW birthdays on this day...

I sure hope you roll a successful jump check when you jump up and down for joy at your awesome presents...heh....that's some 3.5 D&D humor for the uninitiated.

So Pasty, the guy who runs the GamingW T-Shirt Shoppé, is holding a contest!! Basically you just have to make a T-Shirt design with the words "If you can't slam with the best, jam with the rest." famous words echoed by Charles Barkley in the acclaimed Spike TV Videogame Awards 2008 winner for "Best RPG starring a basketball star no one cares about": Tale's of Games Presents: Charles Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley Saga.

Here is what Pasty needs according to his topic:

"Anyway, there's a popular catchphrase from Charles Barkley.  He talks to a kid who asks him for money.  If you don't give him any, he says this:



I'd like T-Shirt designs that use this phrase.  You can do whatever you want, but the only concept guideline I have is that you must use the phrase "If you can't slam with the best, then jam with the rest."  You may NOT, however, use other people's IP in the conceptualization of this design (for instance, Charles Barkley's likeness, screenshots from Acclaim's Barkley, Shut Up and Jam!, etc.  If you have a question, ask!)

There are two ways your design can be processed as a t-shirt, either in raster or vector format.  Raster format is based upon pixels and vector format is based upon mathematical curves.  This means the vector format is a whole lot cleaner, but it's a lot harder to satisfy the t-shirt maker (Spreadshirt)'s criteria when it comes to vectors.

T-Shirt Requirements:
•   All components of your design are at least 0.059 inches (1.5 mm).
•   The space between elements should be no less than 0.04 inches (1 mm).
•   The entire design cannot exceed 11.7 x 11.7 inches (297.18 mm). We actually recommend a size of 8.86 x 8.86 inches (225 mm) so that your design can be successfully printed on most of our products.

Keep this in mind if you're going to do a vector design.  Also, vector designs are limited to three colors only (pixel designs aren't, though try to keep the color count down.)  If we can get a design through, it will look really nice plot-printed (they're not plot-printed right now; they're digitally screened.)

Candidate Selection:  Designs will be selected by popular vote.  We will whittle it down if we get too many by holding a preliminary vote or two.

Prizes:  The person whose design we use gets a T-Shirt with their design on it, free of charge.  Also, if it was a vector design and they were able to get it through Spreadshirt's approval process, they will get an additional T-Shirt of their choice from the shop.

Here are some rules.  By submitting a design, you agree to the following:

• This is a not-for-profit outfit.  You will not receive any kind of monetary compensation from Gaming World for your design, whether by commission or otherwise.
• If your submitted design is used on a Gaming World T-Shirt, the shirt may not be sold anywhere, online or offline, except in the Gaming World T-Shirt Shoppé.
• All designs that use any intellectual property (IP) the creator does not own will be disqualified immediately.
• Do not plagiarize!  I shouldn't have to tell anyone this, but it happens.
  

The contest begins August 9, 2008 (start now now now) and ends August 27th, 2008."

So get crackin', Pasty and all of GamingW could use your help, and hey, free T-Shirts!

I stand behind the bar, washing a glass. Outside, the sun is shining but in here, the spirits are soaring... so to speak. The pirate ship just pulled in the dock and the crew is making a ruckus. Them dern pirates. Always drivin' away me customers. All of a sudden, the Cap'n comes my way. Tips his hat at me...

Credits to Strangeluv for this interview.


INTERVIEW WITH CARIUS



I stand behind the bar, washing a glass. Outside, the sun is shining but in here, the spirits are soaring... so to speak. The pirate ship just pulled in the dock and the crew is making a ruckus. Them dern pirates. Always drivin' away me customers.

All of a sudden, the Cap'n comes my way. Tips his hat at me.


Ahoy there!

SL: What'll it be, Cap'n Carius?

Carius: Arrr, gimme a pint and yer ears.

I wash out a jug. When this Cap'n means a pint, he means a gallon

SL: My ears? You wanna tell me some'n, Cap'n?

Carius: Arrr, me crew is all drunk and me needs someone to be talkin' to!

SL:Well, let's hear it, Cap'n.

Carius: Arr, matey. Why don't ye get to know me first? I'll try to talk ye language for ye!


I've been waiting for years to get to know the Cap'n... my day has come...

SL: Well, tell me about the Cap'n the public doesn't know, not the brash, spit-talkin' pirate... but the gentle soul inside. What do you like to do?

Carius: I spend a lot of me time in arcades, well, a single arcade to say the least. I'm a DDR player by nature and I like to draw crowds (stupid people that don't know how to step on arrows) because it's fun to be admired for silly things like that. I guess outside of the DDR scene I don't really do much else aside from plug away on RM or Browse GW.

 I'm 18, and I live in Western Australia, about a 15 minute walk from where Christophomicus lives, It's a bit unfortunate that most of the other Aussie GW members are on the other side of the country but I guess you can't have the perfect life huh?


SL: Crowds, eh? You like to draw in crowds? Tell me more bout that.

Carius: Well, I'm an attention whore by nature... It's a bad thing when it gets out of hand but I like being able to do things that other people can't do, one of my main reasons for NOT making RPGs with RPG Maker.


Marvel at this, Mateui!

SL:  *spits in glass and wipes it* A pirate into game design, eh. What would you say got you into game design? And how did you feel when you first realized you have an outlet to make games.

Carius: Before game design I don't really remember what I did, I don't recall doing anything productive mind you. It all started back in 2004... *reminisces* *wavy flashback and a glint appears in his eyes*

My friend found RPG Maker 2003 on the net and we both started tinkering with it, eventually being rivals to make the better game by the end of the year, shortly after we started, he kinda gave up and I kept plodding along (back when I didn't know how to use switches or variables, oh boy). I never really had a passion for game design though, I never had a motive to do it or a solid idea in my head, it was just another time wasting thing to replace whatever time wasting thing I had before that, it wasn't until I think about mid to late 2005 that I started taking things a bit more seriously.

I started small (awful) projects to learn the basics, each one with its glitches, but each one teaching me new things to make my future games better.


A little scallywag with nothin on his mind but rum, grog and game's.

SL: Heh, that's a lot of gaming philosophy there for a pirate at sea all the time! I'm interested in hearin' bout yer childhood. What kinda games got you into this game design when you were a little scallywag?

Carius: I'm probably one of the FEW RPG Maker users out there that (and don't shoot me please), doesn't really get into RPGs, I've tried many times but I just don't have the patience for them, FFVII, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Legend of Zelda, I was lucky if I sat an hour through them... I was more into platformers and spent my childhood growing up with them.

Mario, Sonic, Kirby, Bubsy, they were my main games, the only games close to RPGs that I have actually played from start to end are Brave Fencer Musashi, Illusion of Time (Gaia), and well, obviously Pokemon... Aside from that my childhood has been about as average as any other person's (excluding all of the DRAMAS involved with one's childhood of course)... I can't complain though, I could have been worse off, I wouldn't be who I am today if I didn't have a Super Nintendo way back when.


Avast! How could he leave this out!

SL: *wipes glass furiously* Interesting! Quite a childhood for a Cap'n! What would you say are your main influences on the games you make, besides other games of course? Any flicks, music, books, sea shanties? Is there anything that GEARS you up for game making? What raises your gaming mast to set sail your imagination?

Carius: I have random strokes of genius that get my brain working for a brief moment, if the idea doesn't fly within a few hours I usually abandon it, or I remember that it was the same idea I had abandoned some time beforehand due to its complexity. I'm not trying to sound up myself with that or anything but I usually shoot higher than I can actually achieve, and as a result I could announce a project and then give up on it the next day.

*sips pint and coughs* My inspirations come randomly usually, I don't recall playing any type of game or seeing any type of reference before making my games, I usually just pick a theme, pick a gameplay method and run with it. (like a Arcade Donkey Kong style game that has a Ninja theme to it for example), I start simple almost always overcomplicate them to the point where I give up.

SL: Whoa whoa whoa, don't give up! Tell me bout them projects you've been workin' on then!

Carius: Since September last year I haven't really touched RPG Maker for long periods of time, Life got in the way and to a degree I wanted it to be that way, but hey I still wanted to be creative too, for a while now I have been working on a remake of Pirates, only in dribbs and drabbs, but in progressive portions nonetheless.



Pirates (next to Wings of Origin) was probably the only game I made where I actually got semi decent comments for, and because I just don't have the time, ability or patience to make an RPG (I only ever got the story for WoO and a few cutscenes done), I figured I'd try to perfect my other pride and joy.

The first Pirates game can be classed more as a tech demo, it shows what is possible with RM, but due to my lacking abilities back then, it didn't come off polished like a new shoe, it was a prototype, a skeleton of a game and nothing more, I mean seriously I was pretty stupid to kill off the characters at the end of the game, that is of course if people made it that far from it being too hard.


Pirates, old and new, side to side!


I started the new version from scratch, and without giving too much about it away, it has new graphics, new mechanics, an actual plot (as much as a shmup adventure can), and most importantly, user friendliness. It has options to change refresh rates, background effects, weather effects, difficulties and other things all in order to make it play at its optimal performance on anyone's PC.

Of course, the best thing about it is that it runs a solid 60fps on pretty much any computer built within the 6 years or so, so I'm not too concerned...



This version of Pirates means something different to me than my other games and releases have in the past, it's been the first game that I haven't overhyped and over described to the point where you don't even have to play it, in fact there's little to no information out there about this game at all, not since I deleted all of last year's content anyway. I want this to be 'my' game, I'm using graphics from the first gameboy game I ever got when I was 5, "Warioland", and I'm revamping them, while also adding graphics that are original to the mix, but also suit the style, Warioland graphics have been vector traced in Flash, recoloured and then exported as a series of sprites ready to use, I've managed to make around 25 different poses from the initial 3 different poses that each character had, to make two unlikely heroes featured in the previous game as "Duck" and "Penguin".

I'll explain a little further what I mean by 'my' game, this is the game that I would have wanted to play, it's scenic, it's piratey and it it tries to be as random as it can be, while also being difficult.




SL: Whoa, Cap'n! Stop or you'll have ME saying shiver me timbers! You sure are proud of yer piratey legacy!

Carius: Once again it spurs off Warioland, that game got me through so many roadtrips with my parents, so many boring day's at my nanna's house, I completed it time and time again and never really got bored of it, the essence of my game isn't the fact that I want it to be Pirate themed, but that I want it to be random, just like Warioland was, I'm a ninja at heart (rhythm ninja), but deep within me there is a soft spot for a duck and penguin setting sail on the open sea.

Outside of that my love for pirates doesn't extend anywhere past the Pirates of the Carribean movies, maybe there aren't enough piratey influences in today's modern world like there are with ninjas or... asians... but even for the minor part it's enough to get my mind working around what I can stick in a game to take the piss out of pirate stereotypes but also make it fun at the same time.


SL: Alright, enough bout your game, Cap'n. What bout the others out there on the seven seas? Anything worthy, you reckon?

Carius: A few of the older members of Gaming World will remember the events surrounding my liking for Naufragar: Crimson by Legacy001, while still in the n00b scene I was one of the dumb people to directly copy maps over from one game to another and pass it off as my own work (well, I never released a demo, I simply neglected to say that the maps were from a his game). Nonetheless that's all been pushed far away into the depths of the past so I don't have to worry about it, everyone is seemingly over it now (Legacy included), which is good, GW isn't as Malice as people think.

In my defence my only reasoning was because it was actually an RPG I played, which was surprising considering how I DON'T PLAY RPGs, it caught my attention straight off the bat and pushed me to want to get into RPG Maker-ing that little bit more.

SL: Would you have any advice for them young rapscallion landlubber wannabe pirates? How can ye stop them from going wrong?

Carius: There's too many places to go wrong, it's like that labrynth game where you have to get the ball through the maze without falling through the gaps at the same time, some people want original graphics, some people can't map, some people can't code and well, some people can't do any of those things.

My approach is different to most, I only do what I need to and I usually follow the same procedures for each project. I make the systems first, then for each system I make or find the graphics, following that I try to tie all of the systems together (hardest part of the whole thing), then I focus on the filler material in between, which include additional graphics for effects, music, additional systems (minor) and so forth... It's more of a discipline that I've got myself into really, but when it comes down to it, it is whatever works for the individual, I put separate ingredients in separate tins, then tie a string around them all, it works for me, but more than likely not for anyone else.

But yeah, in a nutshell people go wrong with their approach, then their lack of organisation from that approach usually follows them, and is their downfall in the end. My advice to the new amateurs replacing us oldbies would be give yourselves the best headstart you can, I tried to do that for some people by writing an RPG Maker startup guide on RMTutorials but since the site went down and the site is on a new domain now I don't think many people read it.

It can still be found here for those interested: http://rmt.divinelegy.com/rmstartup.html    And To a degree it is very helpful with all of the resource links and pointers it has, but it still comes down to the designer's ability and initiative to progress.


SL: *strokes my goatee* Well, this seems like a lot of hard work, Cap'n! But tell me... has it worked out well for you in the ladies' department? Do these games get you them sea nymphs?

Carius:Haha, you'd think I'm kidding if I said yes.

Blobagotchi, the wonderous virtual pet was the ticket in to my first relationship which lasted about a year or so, DE's spriting work helped in that respect too, but she found the whole concept cute and yeah, she stalked me on GW under the name cherubim, only made a few posts before I caught on to her, her avatar was her MSN avatar at the time so it was an easy thing to guess really... Girls know I'm a nerdy individual, but I'm nerdy with style, I keep in shape and speak properly and politely, I mean sure they may only love me for my RPG Maker skills but I ain't sayin' she's a gold digger.


Typical pirate golddigger.

Actually, now that we're on the subject... Yes, girls like cutesy crap, make a cutesy game and if you just happen to be playing (testing) it at school or college or whatever (baiting) and they show interest, seize that opportunity to get them hook line and sinker.


SL: Heh... I wish I had me one of them sea nymphs... sea sirens... so anyway what's your favourite...

Movie: Gone in 60 seconds, because it's a car movie with a shit plot that was actually produced and directed brilliantly

Band: Currently it's Basshunter but that changes with my mood

Song: Pokemon Johto (Movie Version) Seriously though, anything until I get sick of it. Candy Pop, Pokemon Johto, Boten Anna, take your pick!

Book: Magic The Gathering: Mirrodin Series (Might be a good time to mention I've completed like 4 novels in my lifetime haha)

Food: Mi Goreng Noodles

Cereal: Healthy Healthy Sultana Bran, mmmm MMMMMMM
 

SL: Do you think you will ever find true love in the open seas, Cap'n? Would you ever wait for your love to sail to you?

Carius: Personally, I couldn't do it unless I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, it's a big ask of anyone to reserve themselves to someone they can only see or hear through a screen or earpiece.

I'm too much of a sensitive person (I'm not female or gay, to many of your disappointments I'm sure!!!) to be able to handle it, and unless the trust factor was there to begin with I would live in paranoia in regards to what could be going on without my knowledge. My women are like my projects, they need to be right here in front of me to muck around and have fun with otherwise it just ain't gonna fly. I'll.. I'll tell you about me first love... *reminisces...*

*blush**blush**blush**blush**blush**blush**blush*

My first legitimate crush turned out to be my first legitimate girlfriend, we went to school together, in the same class, both nerdy individuals, you know how it is, don't let that fool you though, she was stunning, it takes a lot to outshine myself.


Puppy love fer a young sea siren.

There was a 2 week holiday period where we did nothing but sit on MSN for like, 7 hours just talking non-stop, I think the longest time we spent online was about 10 or 11 hours. Ask me and I won't remember a thing of what we talked about, but in the end it shaped out to be fruitful relationship... That was until the breakup about a year later of course haha, but these things happen... and I must leave now... *tears up* Me crew is waiting.

SL: Cap'n... one last question... when can we expect Pirates?

Carius: *gives a wide grin* How about
TOMORROW - AUGUST 1ST, 2008.

SL: Goodbye, Cap'n. Bon voyage.

Carius: Thank ye, matey... thank ye...

And he sailed away into the sunset... what a guy... what a guy... you had me at ahoy



Cap'n Carius, stealing sea nymphs, making killer apps.

Full credit goes to PTizzle for this article!

---

Contrary to what is most probably a common belief, Australia actually has a somewhat rich and interesting videogame history. While not being a powerhouse as such, we’ve managed to create one of the longest surviving videogame companies in the world (Melbourne House, now Krome Studios Melbourne), host an annual conference and awards show (the Australian Game Developer Awards/Conference) and give the world some popular (and occasionally critically acclaimed) games such as Transformers: Armada, Destroy All Humans, The Hobbit, Puzzle Quest, the KKND series, later Spyro titles and a personal favourite, Shadowrun for the SNES. A subsidiary of Irrational/2k games also assisted in the production of games like Bioshock and Swat 4. It might not sound like a lot, but for a country with a relatively small population with a contingent of dedicated (and heavy spending) gamers anything that’s produced is somewhat a point of pride.

As you can imagine, when the Game On exhibition (previously held in London at the Barbican Art Gallery in a slightly different form) was announced for a four month run at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image I was very keen. Sadly work, study and layabout friends meant I only got to head over there last weekend. Still, it was worth the wait and for those of you who aren’t lucky enough to live in Melbourne (or London) then hopefully this report will satisfy any interest you may have. We weren’t meant to take pictures but me and a friend still snapped a few for the GWers and I’ll put them throughout.



The ACMI is in the heart of Melbourne, next to Federation Square. Me and two friends (L and H for use in the report) set off at about lunch time. There was a Wii competition being held in Federation Square where they were handing out Wii backpacks, games and Wii’s to the winner. We stood around watching Wii Tennis for a while until we realised the current leader had won twenty games in a row and didn’t look like stopping (they eventually gave him a Wii and took him off the stage). I’d never actually been to the ACMI before but it was easy to find and it’s a lovely place, modern but not overbearing. They were fairly thorough with checking us before we went in, no food/drinks, bags, cameras and so on. I didn’t realise the no picture policy at the time and had my camera in my pocket so it got in fine. We headed down and the first thing I noticed was really the look and feel of the place. I’d expected a somewhat reserved setting (the connotations of the word ‘exhibition’ shining through) but it was loud, bright and all around pretty great. The exhibition was split into a bunch of sections so I’ll continue on in that fashion (I’ll be combining some similar ones so the article doesn’t drag on forever).

Early Arcade/Retro Games

This was the first place we walked into and definitely one of the most interesting. It spanned the first two decades of game design, from labs in America to arcades around the world. Some things of note included a playable copy of Spacewar! (1962) which was intriguing if not a lot else, a 1972 Pong machine which was surprisingly a lot of fun (me and H had a ten minute rally at one stage) and of course all the classic machines such as Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Ms Pac Man, Dig Dug and so on. There was a consistent crowd around here all day and it was pretty cool seeing these quite archaic machines of old being played by all the youngins at the event.



Game Consoles

A pretty broad section, this one - can’t say I remember a heap of specifics about it. Things on show included playable Atari systems, Commodore 64’s, all of Nintendo’s systems (bar the portables), Sega’s, all the modern ones and even an original Magnavox Odyssey. The best thing of this section for me was getting to play Adventure on the Atari 2600, the first incarnation of the action RPG. It was glitchy as hell but still surprisingly smooth for an Atari game and I definitely got a glimpse of how it could’ve been compelling thirty years ago. At least having the main character as nothing more than a square was honest about the quality of characterization. There were quite a few frames on the wall about early video games and how they’ve evolved and so on, which was cool. The only thing suspect about the section was their ‘important events in video game history’ timeline which pushed out things like the video game crash and replaced it with things like ‘Tomb Raider released!’ Ah well, can’t win ‘em all.

Game Genres

For this exhibit they chose an interesting route, following the classifications from the French book L’Univers des Jeux Video. The games were divided into ‘thought games’ (puzzle and adventure), ‘action games’ (racing, shooting, fighting, platform) and ‘simulation games’ (sports, simulations, open-ended). In the thought section there was a few puzzle games and a Monkey Island section which was really interesting. The action section was probably the best game wise, as we got to play some Pitfall, Street Fighter and shoot ‘em ups like R-Type and a really old one of which the name escapes me (it was a NES vertical scrolling shooter and it was surprisingly good). The simulation section had its charms as well, the most alluring of which being Elite for the NES which I’m sad to say I’d never really played. They had a couple of Animal Crossing incarnations as well which H went apeshit over.



Characters

This section was a Sonic/Mario fanboy’s wet dream. Original illustrations from Shiggy and Yuji Naka (some pictured above), character profiles and so on. Lucky there were no intelligent thieves on hand as I imagine those signed Mario drawings would make a killing on Ebay. There were a bunch of games from the series here to play as well. Along with this there was some stuff on Pac-Man and a few others, as well as the kids section nearby, which was mostly uninteresting apart from the awesome handheld display which is pictured below.



Film/Sound

Usually I wouldn’t like to combine something like sound with something like film, but they were next to each other and were both quite small so I think it’ll pay to do them together. The film section not only covered and discussed film to game transitions, but also how games are influenced by films and the evolution to a more cinematic style over the years. The game choices weren’t half bad either - Tron, Goldeneye, Star Wars (the old, hard, arcade one) and the first videogame cash-in, a system based on a shark looking a lot like the one from Jaws called ‘Killer Shark’. I had a look around to see if they also had Atari’s Shark JAWS but it wasn’t to be found.

The sound section had a few profiles including one on Koichi Sugiyama, Dragon Quest composer. It was pretty cool they didn’t just go the Nobuo route, I thought. There was also a section on UK composer Richard Jacques (Headhunter, Mass Effect, Jet Set Radio, Smash Bros Brawl, The Club, Daytona USA) which was interesting as I didn’t know a whole lot about him and he’s quite prolific for an Englishman. There were also profiles on artists like the Gorillaz and Prodigy who’ve provided music for video games. Rhythm games were also represented, every time I walked past there were people spazzing about on DDR mats. Apart from DDR, it was nice to see games like Rez and Beat Mania getting their due. No Parappa though.

Games Culture - USA/Europe, Japan and Australia

These three sections were some more of the better ones. In the US/Europe sections there were profiles of key developers as well as some interesting sections on violence in video games, the influence of locations and sports and a cool section on independent developers and the history of indie game production. I was hoping they’d go more in depth with the independent section but there were just a few pieces of writing and no playable games. Still a good read.

The Japanese section was probably the most interesting of the three as it discussed Japan’s unique influence on the gaming world, displays on anime/manga in games and their influence on the culture (including games like Dragonball Z based on anime). The part I enjoyed most was a fully playable set up of the semi-insane, $200 (US) Steel Battalion. For the price the controls are actually somewhat flimsy - notices had been put up to not jerk the joysticks or move the left one at hard vertical angles. They felt a bit weak in my hands, to be honest. It’s hard to feel like you’re piloting a mech if you’re worried the movement controls might snap at any second. Still, that being said, it was surprisingly cool. There are a crapload of buttons so it’s a little daunting at first but the mech (or ‘VT’) controls smoothly and shooting stuff was good fun (as it usually is). The best part was flipping the eject case open and slamming the switch when I was about to be killed, which resulted in a cool noise and a quick game over (I’m sure there’s some actual use for it but it wasn’t to be found in my short playtime). I highly doubt it’s worth $200, but if you’re into mechs it’s about the closest you’re going to get to piloting one in the next few years.

After that we moved on to the much less exciting dating game section complete with a game named ‘Tokimeki Memorial’ at the helm (I’d never heard of it but I was assured it was well-known). I appreciated they included this oft overlooked part of Japanese gaming at least. The Australian section was just about most of the stuff I mentioned at the beginning with some playable games. It was small and not really all that interesting, but suitable enough.

Multiplayer/Online

Mostly playable games in the multiplayer section, not a lot else of note. H waited for quite a while for a Brawl game but the crowd was huge. The case was the same over at the Halo 3 linkup (four TV’s and four 360’s in a circular pattern). While H aimlessly wandered around the Brawl station me and L had a game of a multiplayer breakout style game which I can’t remember the exact name of (something like Emperor). Using the ‘dial’ to control the boards was maddening but the twists (such as players having bases guarded by walls which you had to destroy rather than just blocks) made it worthwhile.



The Making and Marketing of Games

I really enjoyed this section and snapped a couple of pictures as it was undoubtedly one of the best forays into the development of a game on show. Rockstar’s storyboards for Grand Theft Auto 3 were very broad and tongue in cheek, but it’s easy to see how these basic ideas evolved into the final missions that shipped with the game. There was also a lot of Pokemon design and concept art which looked incredibly similar to the final product, as well as a concise history of the series and the phenomenon which has surrounded it. In the profile section there was a profile of Satoshi Tajiri (responsible for Pokemon) and Sims mastermind Will Wright. Alongside this was a really interesting set up showing the process of game-making, from design documents and concept art to play testing and shipping. I’d wager this attention to detail is something all amateur game makers should take heed of when looking at design.



Future Technology

Thankfully this section wasn’t just about motion controls (the Wiimote), body movement recognition (Eyetoy) and things of that nature, it also included things that were ‘future technology’ in the past. Awesome stuff such as the Vectrex Imager (a game from which is pictured below - think Virtual Boy if you want an idea of what it’s like), the Nintendo Powerglove and even an attempt at a Virtual Reality headset that some poor company invested money into. I was glad they included these (and a long list of more) failures, as it was interesting to see the way these supposed ‘revolutionary technologies’ evolved into something that many gamers would use every day as an enjoyable addition. These devices took up the lion’s share of the section but there was also an interesting read on the direction that the content of games are taking - showing the evolution from things like Custer’s Revenge to the less tongue in cheek (comparatively) content of games like Grand Theft Auto, along with pointing towards possible avenues that censorship and parental concerns will push games through.

Mobile Games

I didn’t spend much time here (as you can imagine), but for what it is they did a pretty good job. There was a profile on Snake and how it started the mobile gaming industry (as well as a playable version, yowzer!), some information on phones rapidly increasing processing capabilities and a few other playable games (Star Wars - The Force Unleashed and Bomberman 3D).

Online Communities: MMOs and Machinima

This section was well done, containing a lot of history about multiplayer online games. They profiled all the way back to the MUDs (multi-user dungeons) of the late 70s and continued on until the most recent MMOs. They also had a four computer set up of Pirates of the Burning Sea which I hadn’t played (and I wasn’t overwhelmed, but I’m not at all an MMO fan) and quite a bit of information about its development process, which was interesting as the work involved is quite different in many aspects from a more traditional project.

Next to this there was a small cinema playing machinima films from many different games and time periods. If you’re not aware of what machinima is, basically think of a CGI film using a game engine’s rendered images/models instead of original ones. Some of them are horrible (a lot of them, actually) but some aren’t so bad and they showed quite a few cool ones. My personal favourite was one done in the UT2004 engine - it was a noir styled short and barely had any look of where it originally came from. Very well done as far as what I’ve seen goes.



All in all I had a great time at this exhibition. It wasn’t just a boring, generic run through as you can see - there was a lot of work put into this and it showed. Considering the crowds that were there for a lot of it I’d say it’s not a stretch to imagine there could be similar events in the future. It has now finished its runs in Australia and London but I’m hoping that other people around the world get a chance to see things here that they might not see anywhere else as I did.

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/playstation-2-component-incites-african-war/1231745


That's just terrible. It makes me feel pretty terrible for having a launch day PS2. Jesus.


I'm glad Sony changed away from this, but surely they had to know what was happening to procure the material in the 1st place, no?

I wonder if any other consoles have had to do this too...

It's sickening there are people who are willing to let kids do stuff like that without a second thought, too.

Hello,

As of July 22nd, 2008, we now have a resource site. 

You can access it here: http://www.gamingw.net/resources/

Uploaded resources will have to be approved by a staff member, so make sure when you upload your resources that you make sure that you choose the correct engine, category, credit them, set the correct tags, and choose the correct category. Several examples have been uploaded already, if you need examples of tag usage, and such.

A strong search function will let you find the resources you are looking for!

The resource site uses a Dapp system, which is basically a rating. Feel free to click on a resource and rate it if you really like it - or if you think it blows!

Enjoy. (If you have any questions, comments, etc, feel free to place them here.)

Thanks to Leafo and GZ for doing this, good work guys.

Alright.

I'm going to hide this image, so if you want to guess what the new gimmick is you can do so before clicking, or if you are a hardcore Sonic fan, you can promptly leave the topic without dying inside.


I'm sorry that this is a pretty short topic, info is sparse (No one has posted the info from Nintendo Power yet...this is VERY RECENT NEWS.) but I'll update it as (god help us all) the new info comes in.

The worst part of this is, the last Nintendo Power had a white sword thing being all MYSTERIOUS about it and joked about Mother 3 and a Kingdom Hearts on Wii, saying what was coming would excite everyone and this is what the white sword thing was.

That's right.

They joked about Mother 3 and gave us THIS.

Decided to do a short news article today, since there isn't much else planned, and I'm taking a week off of Freeware Fridays...

In other news, Ubisoft, you know, that company that not only used the near universally hated StarForce in their products (they stopped using it in 2006 after a shit ton of complaints), banned EGM from reviewing their products because they got bad reviews, have also committed the ultimate hypocrisy ever.

That's right, Ubisoft, a company that has long since claimed that piracy was killing their sales, blaming it for their lack of sales on all of their products, and taken a long stand against piracy, has since issued an update to their game Rainbow Six Las Vegas 2 a while ago because the Direct2Drive version was having copyright issues.

The fix?

A No-CD crack by the piracy group "Reloaded".

Ubisoft, you are the most fucking annoying videogame company in the whole world. I don't care if there are companies out there that make legitimate worse games than you do, this is the dumbest shit I've seen since Limbo of the Lost. I bet no one even virus scanned or trojan scanned that No-CD fix. Also, your sales don't suck because of piracy, they suck because all of your games blow. The only good games you have that I can think of is Shadowbane which you fucked up by the way, and Rainbow Six Las Vegas, which OH YEAH you used a fix from a piracy group because you are too fucking lazy to do it yourselves. You removed the file, but left no explanation. You'll probably say Direct2Drive did it, or scapegoat them, or say some new guy used it, but that is bullshit because we all know you guys are just lazy and didn't want to fix your own game.

Enjoy discussing this one. It's short, but oh my god...Ubisoft what were you thinking.