{"id":14,"date":"2006-03-31T05:17:10","date_gmt":"2006-03-30T18:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/?p=14"},"modified":"2008-03-21T08:33:05","modified_gmt":"2008-03-20T21:33:05","slug":"game-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/2006\/03\/game-shots\/","title":{"rendered":"Game shots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.1up.com\/do\/download?cId=3147565\" title=\"Crytek's Crysis\">Cry\u00adtek\u2019s new engine<\/a>  looks amaz\u00ading. And what bet\u00adter vehi\u00adcle for it than yet anoth\u00ader first-per\u00adson shoot\u00ader. I hope it\u2019s a bet\u00adter game than Far Cry, which had every\u00adone rat\u00ading it 9.5\/10 pure\u00adly because of the jun\u00adgle and water graphics.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/pc\/action\/sinepisodes1\/index.html\" title=\"Sin Episodes: Emergence\">Sin Episodes<\/a>  proves that you can take a great engine and make some\u00adthing mediocre look\u00ading out of it. I remem\u00adber play\u00ading the demo a long time ago and feel\u00ading mild\u00adly humoured by the graph\u00adi\u00adcal style. This time they\u2019ve tak\u00aden Source, changed the char\u00adac\u00adter mod\u00adels and mod\u00adi\u00adfied the weapon\u00adry. For all intents and pur\u00adpos\u00ades, this game oth\u00ader\u00adwise looks like Half Life 2, giv\u00aden a goofy makeover and big\u00adger breasts. And <a href=\"http:\/\/img.gamespot.com\/gamespot\/images\/2006\/005\/929060_20050106_screen005.jpg\" title=\"Sin Episode's rendition of a World of Warcraft murloc\">mur\u00adlocs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion specs were appar\u00adent\u00adly leaked yes\u00adter\u00adday or some\u00adsuch, and now there\u2019s peo\u00adple tak\u00ading sides on whether it\u2019ll be worth get\u00adting. It\u2019s the only con\u00adsole I\u2019d con\u00adsid\u00ader pick\u00ading up out of this gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion because Nin\u00adten\u00addo will endeav\u00adour to make unique expe\u00adri\u00adences, and his\u00adto\u00adry is doomed to repeat itself with PS2 and XBOX, espe\u00adcial\u00adly the for\u00admer. The aim of those two is to out\u00adstage each oth\u00ader in mar\u00adket\u00ading, not mak\u00ading inno\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive games. The only thing that real\u00adly changed this round was the abil\u00adi\u00adty to ren\u00adder more poly\u00adgons and pix\u00adel shad\u00ading; your abil\u00adi\u00adty to make enjoy\u00adable, dif\u00adfer\u00adent games is not increased by ren\u00adder\u00ading or CPU pow\u00ader. We reached the nec\u00ades\u00adsary mem\u00ado\u00adry and stor\u00adage cap with the last gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion. All you\u2019ve done is pro\u00advide devel\u00adop\u00aders with the abil\u00adi\u00adty to make more geek porn, wast\u00ading years of devel\u00adop\u00adment on mak\u00ading ren\u00adder\u00ading engines.<\/p>\n<p>Gen\u00adtle\u00admen, it\u2019s time for anoth\u00ader video game&nbsp;crash.<\/p>\n<p>I am in no way say\u00ading that I don\u2019t like games look\u00ading good, but we\u2019ve got an unhealthy focus on screen\u00adshots, and thanks to broad\u00adband, game trail\u00aders. Some\u00adwhere we have to remem\u00adber that you can\u2019t play screen\u00adshots. The core game log\u00adic that runs most titles these days would be lucky to be ten per\u00adcent of the code\u00adbase, and prob\u00ada\u00adbly even less than that of the total devel\u00adop\u00adment time. There are more artists mak\u00ading high-res tex\u00adtures and UV map\u00adping than pro\u00adgram\u00admers writ\u00ading core game&nbsp;logic.<\/p>\n<p>I loved Half Life 2, but reduce the core game idea down to basic prin\u00adci\u00adples and you end up&nbsp;with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>use vari\u00adety of guns to shoot ene\u00admies that block your&nbsp;way.<\/li>\n<li>occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly solve puz\u00adzles, some involv\u00ading physics, that block your&nbsp;way.<\/li>\n<li>get to the next load point, repeat till end credits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Inte\u00adgrat\u00aded physics make Half Life 2 stand out, sim\u00adply because it plays such a part in the game. Con\u00adsid\u00ader the role of the grav\u00adi\u00adty gun though; what was the first thing you did with it? You shot some\u00adthing with it, essen\u00adtial\u00adly mak\u00ading it a anoth\u00ader gun, albeit with toi\u00adlets as ammo. (Con\u00adsid\u00ader how lit\u00adtle gran\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adi\u00adty the grav\u00adi\u00adty gun gave you in inter\u00adact\u00ading with objects. I know this aspect can be improved \u2014 move\u00adment of the gun inde\u00adpen\u00addant of the play\u00ader\u2019s view\u00adport would have enabled using objects as shields a lot more \u2014 but even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly, your inter\u00adac\u00adtion is still lim\u00adit\u00aded by your input device.) So you\u2019ve got this great thing that fires ran\u00addom objects. But does it change any\u00adthing at all, game mechan\u00adic wise?&nbsp;No.<\/p>\n<p>Read\u00aders pay\u00ading atten\u00adtion may be shout\u00ading, \u201cbut it\u2019s the sto\u00adry\u00adline, the atmos\u00adphere, the char\u00adac\u00adter inter\u00adac\u00adtion that made the&nbsp;game\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The sto\u00adry\u00adline deserves to be applaud\u00aded. It\u2019s great. Very movie-qual\u00adi\u00adty. Hold on, we\u2019re not play\u00ading a movie. When did you make any char\u00adac\u00adter-defin\u00ading choice what\u00adso\u00adev\u00ader in the game? I\u2019m not talk\u00ading \u201coh, I\u2019ll walk in through the east gate instead of the north\u201d kin\u00adda choic\u00ades. When did you decide you\u2019d had enough of Alyx, leave her to the smil\u00ading Com\u00adbine sol\u00addiers, and join Dr Breen for tea and crum\u00adpets and world domination?<\/p>\n<p>Video games have sel\u00addom stepped out\u00adside lin\u00adear\u00adi\u00adty. The very idea of true emer\u00adgent game\u00adplay could quite under\u00adstand\u00adably scare a game devel\u00adop\u00ader to death. It means either a nigh-infi\u00adnite amount of stor\u00adage and art resources or a way to gen\u00ader\u00adate con\u00adtent on the fly, which could mean a loos\u00ader grip \u2014 or even let\u00adting go \u2014 of the the\u00admat\u00adic reins. And pre\u00addictably there\u2019s some oppo\u00adsi\u00adtion amongst play\u00aders who don\u2019t like to have oppres\u00adsive\u00adly huge choic\u00ades. Tycho from Pen\u00adny Arcade makes a point about his light case of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.penny-arcade.com\/2006\/03\/24\" title=\"Penny Arcade post about the game Oblivion\">RPG OCD<\/a> in the recent game Obliv\u00adion, and it\u2019s true \u2014 God, I\u2019ve stood around in World of War\u00adcraft try\u00ading to decide what to drop. I still haven\u2019t made my mind up as to what leather\u00adwork\u00ading branch to take&nbsp;yet.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve become so accus\u00adtomed to not mak\u00ading deci\u00adsions in games that when it comes to one, I\u2019m kind of lost. When I\u2019ve cho\u00adsen a path in RPGs it\u2019s because I\u2019ve thrown cau\u00adtion to the wind and gone with what sounds good. The inabil\u00adi\u00adty to decide is caused by curios\u00adi\u00adty and the regrets of con\u00adse\u00adquence \u2014 <em>what\u2019s going to hap\u00adpen on the path I don\u2019t choose? Will it be some\u00adthing cool\u00ader? Will I miss out on something?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>But if you give the play\u00ader enough choic\u00ades, you lib\u00ader\u00adate them from regret and they start look\u00ading for\u00adward instead of back. Their path becomes unique and full of promise. The chal\u00adlenges they face will always have a cor\u00adre\u00adspond\u00ading \u2018moti\u00adva\u00adtion to over\u00adcome\u2019 because the play\u00ader has formed their own goal. Choic\u00ades become fun: now you\u2019re doing what you enjoy instead of expe\u00adri\u00adenc\u00ading script\u00aded events.<\/p>\n<p>Back on top\u00adic. This start\u00aded as a mono\u00adlogue about Rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion and the lack of inno\u00adva\u00adtion in big-brand gam\u00ading and some\u00adhow turned into a plea for a free-reign game.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m all for the new con\u00adtroller and the focus on new ways to inter\u00adact with games. At first I thought \u201cGod, how will I play Street Fight\u00ader on that?\u201d. And then I realised that if I want\u00aded to play Street Fight\u00ader, I\u2019ve already got a PC, a Dream\u00adcast, a Sat\u00adurn, a Megadrive, and a stack of emu\u00adla\u00adtors. What use is anoth\u00ader iden\u00adti\u00adcal Street Fight\u00ader game? Same goes for first per\u00adson shoot\u00aders; I\u2019ve played through 50 of them. Not many of them were unique enough to war\u00adrant a day\u2019s&nbsp;play.<\/p>\n<p>When the Nin\u00adten\u00addo DS trail\u00aders came out, there was a demo of a Kir\u00adby plat\u00adformer that blew me away. Kir\u00adby stood on a hang\u00ading log bridge, and the play\u00ader pulled the mid\u00addle log down\u00adward using the sty\u00adlus, and let go. Kir\u00adby went sail\u00ading up into the air. I rewound the video. Wow. It\u2019s like Kir\u00adby is a <em>phys\u00adi\u00adcal object that he\u2019s inter\u00adact\u00ading with<\/em>. That\u2019s some\u00adthing I\u2019ve nev\u00ader felt before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cry\u00adtek\u2019s new engine looks amaz\u00ading. And what bet\u00adter vehi\u00adcle for it than yet anoth\u00ader first-per\u00ad\u00adson shoot\u00ader. I hope it\u2019s a bet\u00adter game than Far Cry, which had every\u00adone rat\u00ading it 9.5\/10 pure\u00adly because of the jun\u00adgle and water graph\u00adics. Sin Episodes proves that you can take a great engine and make some\u00adthing mediocre look\u00ading&nbsp;out&nbsp;[\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xhva.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}