That’s right boys and girls - in my ever constant search for games that will run XP partion i’ve come across a real doozy. Doom, the Universal Binary for Intel Macs. Hell? Yes. Not only is it doom, it’s Doom Legacy - it’s gotten an OpenGL, open source upgrade. Though playing it you can’t really tell the differences to much, alot of it is behind the scenes stuff, now you can play multiplayer over the internet, and though i might be mistaken, you can now look a full 360 degrees… but be warned doing so brings out the 2D nature of some sprites.

But crap man, it’s Doom! on a MacBook! it makes me feel all happy, in my pants. I tried out a few different versions, but as it turns out, the one that works is actually an older one found at this address, but you can check out the newest versions and get info on the project (that i think is rather old at this point) at their website here.

Well, no not really… but something much better is happening in the production studios of Quantic Dream, the studio that brought us the absolutly addictive Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophesy). They are currently in the development stages of a new adventure game, titled Heavy Rain. Not much is known about the plot, infact the only thing at the moment i could find was this Youtube video demonstrating some very nice character animations - looks like our hero’s going to be a gal this time around, always a bonus.

Big thanks to the Adventuress for scouping this one

I was helping my friend carry some things up to his new flat on the third floor of a downtown apartment, by way of the back stairs. On the second floor landing, there was an open air balcony/porch, and as we turned to go up to the third floor i noticed a big guy in tight grey gymshorts and a yellow tanktop sitting out on the porch, in a easy chair, facing an open window. I thought this strange, but what people do on their own time is their own business - nonetheless, on the way back down the stairs i took a longer look;  now i noticed he had a headset on - and was infact looking through the open window at his computer screen that he had wedged up on the sill; and on his lap was a keyboard and trackball.

What was he playing… one quick look and i my fears were realized, WoW… what else. My friend informed me that he met “Bob” a few days earlier, in the same place. This is what he does, Bob plays WoW - he had a tech job, but got layed off, so he’s taken the the last 6 months to chill out in that chair, play an insane amount of WoW, and smoke an insane amount of Cigarettes. Awesome.

Hooked Gamers posted brief preview of Piranabytes upcoming edition to their cult Gothic series - as well as some pretty awesome screens. I’ve been keeping an eye on this one, but my preference has always remained slanted towards Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series; while i’ve apreciated Gothic’s catering to more hardcore gamers, i’ve found the gameworlds themselves far less interesting then Tamriel’s diverse and highly political environs.

Reguardless i’ve been watching the gothic 3 news with a keen eye, and from what i’m seeing, it should deliver on the graphical end at least, but as we all know that matters very little  with RPGs. Here’s to hoping.

Video Gaming has grown up, graduated from it’s adolescent niche and is well on it’s way to becoming the next great mass entertainment medium. With this new age, comes the new breed of game developers; with most major universities offering specialized degrees in game development, it’s only a matter of time until we start seeing the fruits of this new age. One such scion of the new is Xinghan Chen; he’s got a few ideas up his sleeve, and you can check them out on his website, but first check out the Wired Article. (link)

Are up at their new Website (here). Looks like they havn’t strayed too far from what made the first two such addictive fun; back is the 3/4 iso view, base building, tech researching, and spaceship dogfighting; gone, hopefully most of what made the third one so crap. One promise i’m looking forward to them deliverying on is what they call

Looks like i’ll be able to run this one on my macbook as well. I don’t see much by way of hi-end graphics, probably just alot of colored lighting effects and 3D maps. Looks like they’re planning for a summer release, so expect it for X-mas
(screenies)

Alright how many of you have bought, say - Elder Scrolls IV or COD:2, or any of the next gen games starting to crop up, got them home, installed and fired up - only to find out that you’re current GPU doesn’t support 3.0 Pixelshading or just flat out doesn’t have the nut to run these gorgeous games in anything more than 800×600?

This happened to me a couple times - with both the games i listed, well - with a hell of alot of tweaking and i was able to get both working wonderfully, with elder scrolls running better on my (now ancient) 9800 pro, than most specs offered by the average gamer; i rarely drop below 30fps and i only have 780 megs of system ram. go figure. COD2 involved editing some .ini as there wasn’t an ingame option to turn off the new directx pixelshaders. Once i backed it all down to the old DX settings, all ways smooth (though not bump mapped.) in the world again.

Oh but how i want to see those bump maps, and all that 6x anti-aliasing, the high contrast lighting - all running at max res… my choices were slim, being a poor recordstore employee i didn’t have much to spend, and when it comes down to whether you eat for two weeks or get a video card, well - sometimes the video card you have stays.

Now my wait may be over - i just read about this new ATI X1600 model from PowerColor over at Hard OCP, a hardware site i give alot of credit to for staying unbiased and giving straight forward unbiased opinions. They took the X1600 model, called the XT Bravo, and put it up against the nVidia 7600 gs. Both cards really pulled their weight, and both weigh in for around the same price, 130 bucks, give or take. In the end OCP went with the 7600, and though i’ve mainly used ATI based cards, i’ve often found the performance of an nVidia card to be supieror (as long as it’s configured correctly.) Look like i may be switching brands;Check out the reviews for yourself - in the meantime i know what i’m putting on my birthday list.

(Hard OCP)

Reading the latest issue of Play.d i came across a preview of Ubisoft’s upcoming action adventure title Assassin’s Creed. On first blush it appears as to be your standard third person run/jump/slash in a historical setting - but after watching the promo video at the Ubisoft UK website, and reading the backstory i found out that AC has alot more up it’s sleeve, and looks to be a solid contender for next year looming Next Gen Wars.

First off, the visual style is supurb, drawing it’s muted, desaturated greys and whites from the speilberg/Scott school of film making. The scene opens with a public hanging of some unlucky fellows by the crusaders, judging by their red crossed tunics. From a belltower across the square our hero watches the events unfold and as the bell tolls, swings into action.

From here were treated to some swift and deadly revenging and a even swifter get away - all this, would seem fairly standard, if it wasn’t for the subject matter… The Assassin you play is obviously a local, and if my knowledge of history serves me, the Crusaders are members of a foreign invading army. Doesn’t this ring a bell? hmmm… Sunbleached locals, dark swarthy men fighting against a heavily armored and technologically advanced invader? Nope… doesn’t ring a bell…
(Me things Ubisoft may be taking a page out of the Rockstar games playbook.)

Beyond all this, there’s no news yet of how the game actually plays, though i’ve heard tell that the characters actions are context sensative, and he should move in a lifelike fashion, pushing crowds out of the way, using ledges and branches for leverage - much in the fashion of Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia series.

Well, with any luck the game will look as good as these screens, and play as smooth as Prince of Persia, and be as addictivly fun as the GTA series; and judging from the story, it garantees to be at least as controversial.

(Play.D Magazine)

(Ubisoft UK)

Not much info has been released on this upcoming humorous adventure RPG, but these screens have alot to say on their own.
according to gamingexcellence:

“The graphics engine used in Grotesque is called Vision, which is developed by a German Engine Design company called Trinigy. While some of the graphics still incomplete, the detail on the character models has the potential to produce a game that is visually appealing to the gamer. While the game is tentatively scheduled for a Q4 2006 release for the PC, the date depends on the signing of a publisher and is therefore subject to change.”

(gamingexcellence)

The Goths have arrived in Tamriel, the bored suburban kind, not the invading proto-european variety - things will never be the same. Soon instead of engaging in battles with bandits looking to own your glass armor you’ll just be passing by them as they sit, crying silently counting each precious tear as it falls into the dust. Yawn. I blame Myspace.

(Planet Elderscrolls)