There’s been a lot of fuzz about a recently a new service called OnLive (also see Rock, Paper, Shotgun article) which claims to be able to stream high-end videogames to subscriber’s systems, thus eliminating the need for a ‘tricked out system’ and the need to upgrade every year/month.
Update: Good article up at Eurogamer.
There’s a lot of scepsis about their claims, because input latency + connection latency + server latency are a lot of hurdles to take. Gamespot video behind the cut. Oh, and it’s from the guy who brought us Quicktime.
Time for a quick post about a Half-Life 2 mod which kept my attention over the last few years. It was one of the first total conversions released for the Source engine, and they recently released version 1.2 over Steam: Dystopia.
Since its release in 2004 Valve’s Source engine has been a popular platform for professional and indie game developers alike. A combination of great publicity through good games (Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead), functionality and solid mod support (I blogged about Steamworks earlier) has made it continue the legacy of the GoldSource engine.
I’ve learned the nuts & bolts the hard way, and I thought a quick rundown on how to compile the Source SDK on a linux-based system would be useful. Technical mumbo-jumbo behind the cut. Continue reading »
Interesting art/game project: Levelhead. By combining filming and motion tracking of a little white cube, you can manipulate the projected game world inside by twisting and turning. Video behind the cut.
If there’s one thing I’ve always envied console users for, it’s the universal system compatibility. You buy a disc, pop it in, and performance (I’m ignoring TV quality here) will be the same for you and other players you encounter.
Not quite so for a PC gamer. I’m sure everybody is familiar with the so-called minimum requirements for a game. This brings me to the first problem. There’s a huge ambiguity over what is acceptable as game performance. In game A, meeting the minimum requirements might be good enough to actually load the game into memory and gaze at a slideshow of half-baked pictures, while for game B, meeting them might result in a fluid – although low-end – gaming experience.
So here’s my proposal for what a true minimum requirement would have to look like. Continue reading »
Once again from the lovely Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
Thanks to the excellent Rock Paper Shotgun (best website title ever) I keep discovering cute little indie games. Rorsach is a short adventure game, which is interesting on two points:
- Art style: everything is drawn in chinese ink. Although the locations are limited (it’s a one man game after all), this works pretty well with the theme, which is an asylum.
- Conversations: instead the of regular “IF you talked to X you can suddenly talk to Y about subject P”, the game features an original system: every subject is an actual object. You can add objects (for example The Murder Weapon) to your inventory, and take them to other characters to get them talky about it. Although the inventory is quite small and you still find yourself running back and forth to get all the subjects, this is an interesting take on the genre.
It’s free, so I highly recommend you check it out.
He was a good lunch who played by the rules, until the rules robbed him of everything he ever loved. Now he’s lettuce, tomato, cheese, bread, and a mysterious slice of meat, marching down your throat and straight to hell. He’ll satisfy your hunger. FOR REVENGE!
