I’ve witnessed the passing of many RTS games through my life. It started many years ago with the original Dune, a humble RPG\RTS that did great justice to the Frank Herbert novel. I’ve been a fan of the genre ever since and played through most major games that came out during that time. With each passing generation, the signs of evolution were very visible — the genre in itself began to borrow from other styles of play. The original Armor Commander was a great example of how the genre had evolved, and similarly, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War changed the concepts of economy and brought tactical play into the mix.
Enter 2007 and we’re ready for the next step... and from what we’ve seen so far, Chris Taylor’s Supreme Commander (SC) takes on the leader role quite well. While it’s firmly based on classic RTS principles, SC has a sense of scale unlike any other.
The Long And Short...
Designed by Gas Powered Games, SC is nothing short of a dream come true for any armchair general. A spiritual successor to Total Annihilation, SC aims to live up to its predecessor in almost every way. The game plays out around the Infinite War — a conflict that has aptly been on for the last 1000 years between three factions of humanity — The United Earth Federation, Cybrans and Aeon Illuminate. Not surprisingly, the war is one of ideology.
The United Earth Federation is a group that rose from the ashes of Earth. Their only goal is to reunite humanity under one banner (much like the dictators of old). They lean towards tanks and artillery, primarily focusing on massive amounts of splash damage to fight superior numbers. However, what they have in toughness, they lack in direct fire-power and abilities.
The Cybrans are Symbionts — humans whose brains have been computerized and enhanced by cybernetic technology (one such upgrade is a downloadable AI... or is that a step back?). The Symbionts were previously oppressed by the UEF but rose to fight for their freedom and rights. Their units focus more on variety, adaptability and stealth. Not surprisingly, Their units are also the most unique with the greatest amounts of abilities: for example the Cybran destroyer can sprout legs and actually walk on land (albeit, rather slowly).
The final faction is that of the Aeon Illuminate — a religious order of humans that have taken up the philosophy, technologies and teachings of a highly advanced and (not surprisingly) now extinct alien race. These teachings are what they refer to as The Way. They now seek to bring all to this path — be it through peaceful means, or in this case, through force. Aeon Units are rather focused in their approach and design, with each one only doing what is meant for their roles. However, this focus allows Aeon units to hit the hardest, and also allows them to summon what is arguably the most powerful unit in the game — The Galactic Colossus.
You play the role of the Supreme Commander — a gigantic construction unit that can go onto the field and make entire bases, structures and even armies out of literally nothing save what resources are available. Your goal as part of the Infinite war is to essentially bring about its end. How that is done depends on which faction you choose.
Of Many Features And Sadistic AI
Supreme Commander comes with quite an offering of new features. It includes a somewhat different way-pointing system, which allows you to select and modify any waypointmove order given to a unit on the fly. Patrol routes can be changed in an instant and two formations can be set to arrive at the same location at the same time for a co-ordinated strike. Even better is the introduction of the ferry system. When a transport is given the order to ferry to a specified location, it will sit and wait at the pick-up point for units to take to the location. Once units are directed to the ferry point, they will automatically queue and wait for pick up at the designated spot. However, what makes it a particularly useful feature is that factory rally points can be assigned to a ferry point. Any unit built at that factory will automatically queue up and take a ride towards the front lines. Other transports can be set to assist that queue point, joining the primary transport in moving troops to the front line quickly and efficiently. Combined with the advanced way-pointing system, ferry drop locations can be easily shifted to keep up with the front lines without ever having to look at the base again.
Another addition is the capability to queue any build order in any factory. You can set it to just about any order you wish and in any number — and then have that entire build order repeat itself forever. By default, the build time for units is rather long — battleships take nearly an hour to build when unaided! To combat this, however, Engineers are given a special use in the game. They can be used to assist factories, adding their own production ability to that of the structures, building any unit faster than normal. A mess of T1 engineers can reduce that 57 minute build time to a measly five.
But even as the Battleship rolls out of your construction yards, and your tanks rush into combat, one can see that there is a sense of scale to each and every unit. Battleship guns are larger than the tanks, and logically do shit loads more damage. The larger the unit, the larger the gun it wields, hence the more the damage it does, and the greater the beating it can take. Larger units can quite literally step on and crush smaller units in their wake — be they friend or foe. Everything in Supreme Commander is scaled to what it’s supposed to do, or how tough it’s supposed to be.
During the beta, game AI was rather brutal... on Easy. It became incredibly tough on Medium and simply sadistic on Hard... and this is by using both tactics and excellent micro-management to defeat the player. The AI will often get an economy advantage if you’re not careful, will hit your defences with Experimental units rather quickly. At the same time, it conducts raids using naval vessels on near-shore mass extractors and structures to distract you while using flanking manoeuvres elsewhere, keeping your forces constantly occupied. However, this was during the beta. Checking the demo recently, the AI seems to have been rather downsized in terms of its aggressiveness. Whether it remains like this in the full version is to be seen.
All Roads Lead To War
This game is at its basic core, what war is all about. The scale of battle is mind-boggling at times. As the Supreme Commander, you can zoom out to any level; keeping an eye on a single skirmish as nothing more than strategic icons moving together… while at the same time keep an eye on the three or sometimes even four other skirmishes you have going on at various points on the map. The maps on which any of the games take place are massive. Armies of tanks and infantries roll across them just like real armies would, coordinating with other formations to arrive either at the exact same time or arriving in staggered attacks, depending on your plan.
One has to note though; each of these formations can range anywhere from a few dozen skirmisher units, to hordes of units of various sizes — up to and including Experimental units, each of which is truly unique in design. The maximum unit cap possible is several thousand, and with the maps being several kilometres square, it makes for truly unique battles in all three spheres of combat. Oh wait, not only are there three spheres of combat, however, but three dimensions as well. Each aircraft travels at a predetermined height; with Gunships and Fighters being the lowest, while spy-planes and bombers fly higher up where AA guns have difficulty reaching them. The result, when combined with the physics engine, is the fact that missiles and anti-aircraft fire now actually have to travel to their destination targets in 3D space and then impact to register a hit. Each projectile is calculated with its own trajectory, chances to hit or miss, etc. This is true of nearly all the weapons and units in the game however — even on land or sea. Direct-fire lasers can’t penetrate high ground to shoot at a bunch of hiding units, while indirect artillery has a chance of missing due to ballistics.
(Strategic War)3
Warfare has never been as intense as I have seen in this game, especially in terms of Naval Warfare. While C&C: Red Alert and Red Alert 2 did have submarinebattleship warfare, the depth of implementation here is amazing. The Naval battles alone are worth watching, if only because of the sheer thrill of seeing two gigantic battleships duke it out at range, and then bringing their fleets into direct conflict as aircraft trade fire above. At the same time, below the blue, a similarly high-paced battle takes place between submarine groups; each one struggling for supremacy and a chance to destroy the opposing battleships. Even as this goes on, the nearby peninsula has a wildly different scene: massive formations of tanks, siege robots and artillery duke it out across a crater-filled landscape. Each side is constantly re-enforced by a steady stream of transports which ferry units straight from the factories and into the front lines. But even as the land units duke it out, a titanic battle is being fought above them in the air as formations of fighters struggle to take control of the skies.
However, at the same time from one side of the peninsula Cybran destroyers hit the shoreline, legs emerging from its hull and touching down on the sandy beach. They rise up from the sea, walking onto land and blowing away tanks and infantry with impunity. That is of course until they are blown sky high, as from the other side of the Peninsula a Fatboy slowly rolls onto shore. Its four, triple-barrelled guns rival those seen on the battleships as the massive rounds tear through everything nearby. At the same time it continues to produce more and more tanks from the maw in front, allowing it to further turn the tide of battle into its favour. But even this is futile as a nuclear strike is detected from the enemy base… and, less than a minute later, the entire peninsula is nothing more than a massive, radioactive field of white as every single unit is wiped out. Another minute goes by and new units and re-enforcements arrive at the scene via transports and begin their run to the enemy base before they can send out their units to retaliate once more. The game of chess continues on, despite the devastating loss.
It’s scenes like these that would make any game exciting. But it’s the fact that many of these scenes take place simultaneously across many battle fronts that make Supreme Commander a truly unique experience from start to finish. Each game is a complete war in itself, with commanders being the armchair generals pitting their skills in tactics and economy.
Eye Candy Store!
Chief amongst the praises that Supreme Commander gets is the incredible amount of eye candy it offers; especially if one is observing a game in progress. It is one of the few games that has dual monitor support — a significant boon for Strategy fanatics everywhere. The function allows you to keep one monitor as a primary strategic display, showing an overview of the entire map while the other display shows the battle scene as it unfolds in front of you. The models are beautifully crafted, while the FX is top-notch and in the case of the strategic nuke detonations… simply amazing. No other game can claim to have the same impact when it comes to a nuclear detonation — except perhaps DEFCON, but the horror that game instils is different to the sheer awe Supreme Commander’s nukes inspire.
The surprising part however, is that despite all this, the video card requirements aren’t as high as many would have feared. Similar to Dawn of War, the camera is fully controllable. While dual monitors aren’t required to run the game, it’s actually recommended to try and use it if at all possible. The additional display frees up the need to zoom out all the way, more often than not leaving you just staring at a bunch of icons as they move from one corner of the map to the other.
Not Everything Is All Bright And Rosy, Sadly
As good as the game is, however, there are some gripes and misgivings one may still have about it. The first is the User Interface which takes up a significant percentage of the view, and limits what you can see of the actual battles on screen. The best option is to have another monitor to help out in such cases; but it isn’t one that everyone can afford.
At the same time, despite their being optimisations to the AI, it still causes any single-core processor to crawl. This game is very physics heavy, and as such needs the second core to run properly. While having a good graphics card can compensate for it quite easily and lets you play multiplayer without a problem, playing against the AI will still be a headache.
Another problem that is more personal than anything else, is the fact that the game economy is tough to master. Not building the right combination of buildings in the start can utterly crash and freeze your economy in the start, ending the game right there while your opponent races on to better technology.
Final Thoughts
All things considered though, Supreme Commander is a must-have title for anyone that loves the RTS Genre. Even if you aren’t really interested in RTS, but love watching giant armies duke it out in ever-constant war, this game is definitely for you.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Saturday, November 24, 2007
IF YOU DO NOT READ THIS ARTICLE YOU ARE A RETARD
For all people eager to animate and program games, I want to tell you that I will be needing all the help I can get in creating a third person survival horror of the RPG genre . Even if you do not know anything but have the drive to put in an effort for the game I'm creating, just let me know at shaun_reapswaal@yahoo.co.in or post a comment.
Urban Dead Rising is an instance of the MMORPG genre and comes under copyright ownership of "anonymous" (for now). It's game engine is in no way related to the GNU General Public Use liscence for now. UDR is an enormous under-development flash application. And hence all people who wish to join in the project will have to work in flash. T&C apply.
Urban Dead Rising is an instance of the MMORPG genre and comes under copyright ownership of "anonymous" (for now). It's game engine is in no way related to the GNU General Public Use liscence for now. UDR is an enormous under-development flash application. And hence all people who wish to join in the project will have to work in flash. T&C apply.
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortess has quite a history behind it. It started out as an ordinary mod for Quake, but with time, it became one of the most popular mods based on the Half Life version of the game was released seven years ago, and an update has been pending for a while now. The update has been delayed for so long thst it was dubbed vaporware for several years by Wired Magazine.
Thankfully, the wait has been for the good. The way technology has evolved over the past few years has boosted the version we have now, and has given a new lease of lofe to the franchise. A lot of changes have been made, including the absence of perclass grenades except the Demoman, which actually play really well and provide a nice mix and distinction to each class.
Meet the classes of 2007
Each class has it’s own unique abilities, weaknesses, health values, and sounds, which blend well with the theme of the game. Let’s look at these classes in a little more detail. We have the Scout who is fast, can double jump; the only problem is that he’s the weakest class in the game. The soldier is a moderately slow class type who carrries a rocket launcher and a shotgun. The Pyro is also a moderately slow class, but is resistant to fire attacks and carries a flame thrower. The Heavy is a big, gung-ho type of character with a huge mini-gun. Medics can heal other and can also Ubercharge anyone to make him and themselves invincible for ten seconds. Te Demoman can throw grenades and sticky bombs that can also be used to double jump if timed correctly. The Sniper carries a bolt-action rifle that places a red marker on players before shooting and can even bring Heavies down with one hit.
Spies can turn invisible till their timer runs out. Also they can disguise themselves as players from the opposing team and can sneak behind people to kill them with their knives. The Engineers build turrets, health, ammo dispensers, and teleport portals. This class needs to keep collecting metal from fallen players to build their structures.
The different classes and their abilities are very well balanced, with well designed weaknesses and strengths that play really well in the multiplayer world. Players can easily change classes in mid game. Respawning is timed and takes between five and 20 seconds depending on the number of players.
The game types currently available are ‘Control Points’ and ‘Capture the Flag’. There are six map types available, which have been designed by Valve for the mod community. The current map listing is: 2Fort, Dustbowl, Granary, Gravel Pit, Hydro, and Well.
The graphics are a Departure from the Photorealistic setting of Half Life 2 Episode Two, and take a wild comic turn for the better. Mostly inspired by 20th century commercial art, the characters and weapons are drawn with bold lines and heal=vily exaggerated caricaturized looks. The graphics add a lot of humor to the on-goings and work really well with the characteristics of each class and weapon.
Because I like to nitpick my games, I have a few negative points to mention as well. I would have loved to have bots enabled in the game. It would have definitely added a lot of value to be able to play the game without an internet connection. Also, considering I had to wait so long for the game, I surely need a bigger collection of maps to pent-up excitement.
For: Very well balanced classes and weapons, looks really cool.
Against: Really few maps
Thankfully, the wait has been for the good. The way technology has evolved over the past few years has boosted the version we have now, and has given a new lease of lofe to the franchise. A lot of changes have been made, including the absence of perclass grenades except the Demoman, which actually play really well and provide a nice mix and distinction to each class.
Meet the classes of 2007
Each class has it’s own unique abilities, weaknesses, health values, and sounds, which blend well with the theme of the game. Let’s look at these classes in a little more detail. We have the Scout who is fast, can double jump; the only problem is that he’s the weakest class in the game. The soldier is a moderately slow class type who carrries a rocket launcher and a shotgun. The Pyro is also a moderately slow class, but is resistant to fire attacks and carries a flame thrower. The Heavy is a big, gung-ho type of character with a huge mini-gun. Medics can heal other and can also Ubercharge anyone to make him and themselves invincible for ten seconds. Te Demoman can throw grenades and sticky bombs that can also be used to double jump if timed correctly. The Sniper carries a bolt-action rifle that places a red marker on players before shooting and can even bring Heavies down with one hit.
Spies can turn invisible till their timer runs out. Also they can disguise themselves as players from the opposing team and can sneak behind people to kill them with their knives. The Engineers build turrets, health, ammo dispensers, and teleport portals. This class needs to keep collecting metal from fallen players to build their structures.
The different classes and their abilities are very well balanced, with well designed weaknesses and strengths that play really well in the multiplayer world. Players can easily change classes in mid game. Respawning is timed and takes between five and 20 seconds depending on the number of players.
The game types currently available are ‘Control Points’ and ‘Capture the Flag’. There are six map types available, which have been designed by Valve for the mod community. The current map listing is: 2Fort, Dustbowl, Granary, Gravel Pit, Hydro, and Well.
The graphics are a Departure from the Photorealistic setting of Half Life 2 Episode Two, and take a wild comic turn for the better. Mostly inspired by 20th century commercial art, the characters and weapons are drawn with bold lines and heal=vily exaggerated caricaturized looks. The graphics add a lot of humor to the on-goings and work really well with the characteristics of each class and weapon.
Because I like to nitpick my games, I have a few negative points to mention as well. I would have loved to have bots enabled in the game. It would have definitely added a lot of value to be able to play the game without an internet connection. Also, considering I had to wait so long for the game, I surely need a bigger collection of maps to pent-up excitement.
For: Very well balanced classes and weapons, looks really cool.
Against: Really few maps
Halo 3
The story of arc of Halo 3 continues from the comic series Halo: Uprising, which most of us in India never got to see. On second thought, the story of the game alone is sufficient to hold one’s interest-so you don’t need to know the story of the Halo series to play the game.
The initial part of the story is the usual boring Halo saga with huge choral and orchestral music backing the glory of the great Spartan 117 Master Chief. It is only after playing for almost an hour that something different happens. That’s when the story starts gripping you, which is something that did not happen in the other two installments. This is probably the only version of Halo that actually has an engaging storyline that gives you sweaty palms as it progresses. The heat of the action is heavily present now and the glory finally shows. You keep providing resistance against the Elites and have a range of environments to fight your battles in. You have your teammates accompanying you all the time, and game. Then, suddenly, the story becomes a survival horror and all the things you were warned about come to smack you in the face. We don’t want to spoil the fun here, so we want elaborate further on the story.
The gameplay has been tweaked in lo of ways; there have been weapon enhancements, and almost all the weapons from the previous games are still there, albeit with slightly modified power and firing rates. We tried to break the game’s flow a few times, but there were systems in place to take care of this. One such situation was when our game got automatically saved at a point when a fatal shot was fired at our character. We were getting hit by the shot, dying, and spawning again. This sequence repeated about eight times, but then the game corrected the error on it’s own by loading an earlier save point to fix this problem.
On the multiplayer side, many options in the game are tied to the Xbox Live network and only when it is available in India will we get to see the full potential of the game. The community features are extend to a theatre function that allows players to record their games, share them with their friends and broadcast them through Xbox Live. The multiplayer mode is where the game shows it’s full potential. However, in India, this mode is only available through the Campaign, Custom Game and Forge modes. Up to four players can play using split-screen modes on a single console; additional players can join in using System Link with 16 being the maximum number of players allowed. System Link can also allow players without sharing a screen, allowing them to keep their strategies to themselves.
The Forge mode is quite cool and enables map editing on the fly even as the game is going on. Map editing is mostly concerned with adding and moving spawn points, weapon locations, power-ups, the location of vehicles, etc. There is no way to edit the map geometry or add custom models and meshes. You can edit the map before the game starts, and specific players can be given the rights to edit maps while the game is on.
While the players are editing elements in the map, they are vulnerable to attacks because they freeze and are not able to move. These edited maps can be saved on the console for use in future multiplayer games both online and offline. These maps can also be uploaded to the bungie.net site when Xbox Live service becomes available in India.
The custom game mode comes with nine modes including CTF, Slayer, Oddball, King of the Hill, Assault, Territories, Juggernaut, Infection, and VIP. All these also have submodes with minor tweaking to the gameplay to add more variety. For example, in Slayer we could play a free-for-all game, team slayer as a team death-match mode, or even specify rockets as the only weapon in the game.
The campaign mode is also a lot of fun and allows you to play the story mode with up to four players, who play as Master Chief, the Arbiter, and the elites N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham. The mode is very well made and it actually feels like being out there in the field with an ally. If your partners are really good at riding the turret on a Warthog, impaling Brutes all around will be a fun way to spend a few weekends. All the usual connection modes also work in the campaign mode and when playing with three players, The first player gets the top half of the screen and the other two have to share the bottom half. A problem that we faced here was that the game refuses to run in the Widescreen mode with split screen enabled. Bungie has confirmed that the game doesn’t render at full 720p, and only displays a resolution of 1152x720 pixels; it’s just the upscaling engine on the Xbox that feeds 1080p displays. From what we saw, the game has superb HDR effects in all levels. However, the foliage in the game looked quite poor, as is common in other games on the Xbox platform.
Verdict
The game is a Big leap in the terms of it’s storyline, and it is surely much more engaging than whatever we have seen from Halo universe till now, I thoroughly enjoyed myself while playing this game in the Single Player mode but feel that Multiplayer is still the way to go. The way the story plays out and the levels are designed, we are sure gamers will have a lot of fun with this release.
For: Excellent multiplayer mode, the forge mode is really cool addition, the story is more engaging than the previous installments.
Against: None
The initial part of the story is the usual boring Halo saga with huge choral and orchestral music backing the glory of the great Spartan 117 Master Chief. It is only after playing for almost an hour that something different happens. That’s when the story starts gripping you, which is something that did not happen in the other two installments. This is probably the only version of Halo that actually has an engaging storyline that gives you sweaty palms as it progresses. The heat of the action is heavily present now and the glory finally shows. You keep providing resistance against the Elites and have a range of environments to fight your battles in. You have your teammates accompanying you all the time, and game. Then, suddenly, the story becomes a survival horror and all the things you were warned about come to smack you in the face. We don’t want to spoil the fun here, so we want elaborate further on the story.
The gameplay has been tweaked in lo of ways; there have been weapon enhancements, and almost all the weapons from the previous games are still there, albeit with slightly modified power and firing rates. We tried to break the game’s flow a few times, but there were systems in place to take care of this. One such situation was when our game got automatically saved at a point when a fatal shot was fired at our character. We were getting hit by the shot, dying, and spawning again. This sequence repeated about eight times, but then the game corrected the error on it’s own by loading an earlier save point to fix this problem.
On the multiplayer side, many options in the game are tied to the Xbox Live network and only when it is available in India will we get to see the full potential of the game. The community features are extend to a theatre function that allows players to record their games, share them with their friends and broadcast them through Xbox Live. The multiplayer mode is where the game shows it’s full potential. However, in India, this mode is only available through the Campaign, Custom Game and Forge modes. Up to four players can play using split-screen modes on a single console; additional players can join in using System Link with 16 being the maximum number of players allowed. System Link can also allow players without sharing a screen, allowing them to keep their strategies to themselves.
The Forge mode is quite cool and enables map editing on the fly even as the game is going on. Map editing is mostly concerned with adding and moving spawn points, weapon locations, power-ups, the location of vehicles, etc. There is no way to edit the map geometry or add custom models and meshes. You can edit the map before the game starts, and specific players can be given the rights to edit maps while the game is on.
While the players are editing elements in the map, they are vulnerable to attacks because they freeze and are not able to move. These edited maps can be saved on the console for use in future multiplayer games both online and offline. These maps can also be uploaded to the bungie.net site when Xbox Live service becomes available in India.
The custom game mode comes with nine modes including CTF, Slayer, Oddball, King of the Hill, Assault, Territories, Juggernaut, Infection, and VIP. All these also have submodes with minor tweaking to the gameplay to add more variety. For example, in Slayer we could play a free-for-all game, team slayer as a team death-match mode, or even specify rockets as the only weapon in the game.
The campaign mode is also a lot of fun and allows you to play the story mode with up to four players, who play as Master Chief, the Arbiter, and the elites N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham. The mode is very well made and it actually feels like being out there in the field with an ally. If your partners are really good at riding the turret on a Warthog, impaling Brutes all around will be a fun way to spend a few weekends. All the usual connection modes also work in the campaign mode and when playing with three players, The first player gets the top half of the screen and the other two have to share the bottom half. A problem that we faced here was that the game refuses to run in the Widescreen mode with split screen enabled. Bungie has confirmed that the game doesn’t render at full 720p, and only displays a resolution of 1152x720 pixels; it’s just the upscaling engine on the Xbox that feeds 1080p displays. From what we saw, the game has superb HDR effects in all levels. However, the foliage in the game looked quite poor, as is common in other games on the Xbox platform.
Verdict
The game is a Big leap in the terms of it’s storyline, and it is surely much more engaging than whatever we have seen from Halo universe till now, I thoroughly enjoyed myself while playing this game in the Single Player mode but feel that Multiplayer is still the way to go. The way the story plays out and the levels are designed, we are sure gamers will have a lot of fun with this release.
For: Excellent multiplayer mode, the forge mode is really cool addition, the story is more engaging than the previous installments.
Against: None
Half-Life 2: Episode 2
Episode 2 is the fourth game after the events of the original Half Life and it finishes a major chunk of the saga of Gordon Freeman. For all you newbies, Freeman is the scientist who had to drop his lab-coat for an HEV suit to rid the earth of an alien invasion after an anomalous materials experiment went horribly wrong.
The story, which has continued very well after the events of Episode One, develops a bit faster than the stories in earlier versions of the game. It starts after the fall of the Citadel in City 17, and now it is up to Gordon and Alyx to get a data packet to the White Forest resistance base.
AI has been worked on immensely and is much smarter in helping you play. Alyx never came in our way when fighting zombies. We can no longer expect to get free kills throughout the game with our sidekicks doing all the fighting and us just hanging around in the background. In Episode 2, your sidekicks want you to lead and will make sure you do that. Even the AI of the enemy has changed quite a bit, with some amendments including zombies who run around with just their upper halves when sliced by a saw blade or by the Combine’s automatic guns, later in the game. We also noticed that in the initial levels of the game the FAST zombies were s bit slower and were instantly killed with one shotgun shell. The poison headcrabs are smart and hide as soon as they are spotted, proving to be a challenge to hit. They suddenly charge with their poison fangs! We found that the headcrabs and antlions are also affected by fluids and now die after being dropped into water or hazardous waste.
Hunters are as big and dangerous as they were known to be, and can do major damage. They don’t show up in combat for the major part of the game. But when they finally do, they need to be dealt with extreme prejudice. In one of the last levels, they even team up with the striders and run around trying to escort them to the White Forest base. The only strategy I could think of here was running my cage car over the Hunters. But this is not as easy as it seems because Hunters are really agile synths from the combine army and can easily dodge a car. I would like to mention that the cage car in the game has been changed quite a bit. It doesn’t have a turret now like in the previous installments and is much easier and faster to drive. The absence of the turret does not make the player weaker in any way as Alyx is always at hand to dispose any enemies that need to be attended to.
The strider-Buster as it was known before the release of the game is actually called a ‘Magnusson Device’, and is probably the most fragile super weapon ever thought of. It is named after Dr. Magnusson, the head of projects at the White Forest base-an egomaniacal scientist who pushes everyone around and proves to be a major headache. The Magnusson Device is supposed to be thrown at the underbelly of the strider with the gravity gun and then has to be shot at to blow up any strider with one hit of any firearm. While this may sound easy, I can tell you that when I get to use this device, there are hunters all around each strider and they can shoot down the device thus disabling them. Additionally, the device is so fragile that it almost blew up[ in my face the first few times I tried it.
Of the big treats in the game, you finally get to come face-to-face with an Advisor and look him in the eye. You get to see a snapshot of the Aperture Science ship Borealis that players of the Portal might find interesting.
The voice acting is superb and the sound effects have also been improved. The guns sound convincing, with the delicately controlled environmental reverberation that is typical of the Half Life series. On the graphics front, there is motion blur, anisotropic filtering up to 16x, selectable reflection levels, heavily improved dynamic shadows and lighting, and very well produced HDR and bloom effects. Other graphic enhancements include impressive foliage and particle systems, especially in the scene where you encounter the Advisor. The physics system has becom ever complex and adds a new dimension to the puzzles.
The usual gameplay problems associated with Half Life are still present. We found various points in the game in which a player can get stuck for no reason, and all movement gets restricted. The only way to get out of these situations is to jump in different directions until you are freed. Also the long load times between cave sequences can be annoying.
Steam still proves to be a huge problem and was quite disappointing to use. I found that it is better to install the entire Orange Box pack as there are a number of files that are shared from the earlier parts of the game. When I installed just Episode Two, Steam had to download around 2 GB of content, but when I installed everything on the disk we had to do just a small update that ran the game within five minutes. Still, a broadband connection is a must to handle the kind of network stress that steam places on the system.
So was it worth the wait? We got Half Life 2, Episode One, Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 for Rs. 999. Oh yes, it was worth the entire wait and a lot of days of Supreme gaming entertainment.
The story, which has continued very well after the events of Episode One, develops a bit faster than the stories in earlier versions of the game. It starts after the fall of the Citadel in City 17, and now it is up to Gordon and Alyx to get a data packet to the White Forest resistance base.
AI has been worked on immensely and is much smarter in helping you play. Alyx never came in our way when fighting zombies. We can no longer expect to get free kills throughout the game with our sidekicks doing all the fighting and us just hanging around in the background. In Episode 2, your sidekicks want you to lead and will make sure you do that. Even the AI of the enemy has changed quite a bit, with some amendments including zombies who run around with just their upper halves when sliced by a saw blade or by the Combine’s automatic guns, later in the game. We also noticed that in the initial levels of the game the FAST zombies were s bit slower and were instantly killed with one shotgun shell. The poison headcrabs are smart and hide as soon as they are spotted, proving to be a challenge to hit. They suddenly charge with their poison fangs! We found that the headcrabs and antlions are also affected by fluids and now die after being dropped into water or hazardous waste.
Hunters are as big and dangerous as they were known to be, and can do major damage. They don’t show up in combat for the major part of the game. But when they finally do, they need to be dealt with extreme prejudice. In one of the last levels, they even team up with the striders and run around trying to escort them to the White Forest base. The only strategy I could think of here was running my cage car over the Hunters. But this is not as easy as it seems because Hunters are really agile synths from the combine army and can easily dodge a car. I would like to mention that the cage car in the game has been changed quite a bit. It doesn’t have a turret now like in the previous installments and is much easier and faster to drive. The absence of the turret does not make the player weaker in any way as Alyx is always at hand to dispose any enemies that need to be attended to.
The strider-Buster as it was known before the release of the game is actually called a ‘Magnusson Device’, and is probably the most fragile super weapon ever thought of. It is named after Dr. Magnusson, the head of projects at the White Forest base-an egomaniacal scientist who pushes everyone around and proves to be a major headache. The Magnusson Device is supposed to be thrown at the underbelly of the strider with the gravity gun and then has to be shot at to blow up any strider with one hit of any firearm. While this may sound easy, I can tell you that when I get to use this device, there are hunters all around each strider and they can shoot down the device thus disabling them. Additionally, the device is so fragile that it almost blew up[ in my face the first few times I tried it.
Of the big treats in the game, you finally get to come face-to-face with an Advisor and look him in the eye. You get to see a snapshot of the Aperture Science ship Borealis that players of the Portal might find interesting.
The voice acting is superb and the sound effects have also been improved. The guns sound convincing, with the delicately controlled environmental reverberation that is typical of the Half Life series. On the graphics front, there is motion blur, anisotropic filtering up to 16x, selectable reflection levels, heavily improved dynamic shadows and lighting, and very well produced HDR and bloom effects. Other graphic enhancements include impressive foliage and particle systems, especially in the scene where you encounter the Advisor. The physics system has becom ever complex and adds a new dimension to the puzzles.
The usual gameplay problems associated with Half Life are still present. We found various points in the game in which a player can get stuck for no reason, and all movement gets restricted. The only way to get out of these situations is to jump in different directions until you are freed. Also the long load times between cave sequences can be annoying.
Steam still proves to be a huge problem and was quite disappointing to use. I found that it is better to install the entire Orange Box pack as there are a number of files that are shared from the earlier parts of the game. When I installed just Episode Two, Steam had to download around 2 GB of content, but when I installed everything on the disk we had to do just a small update that ran the game within five minutes. Still, a broadband connection is a must to handle the kind of network stress that steam places on the system.
So was it worth the wait? We got Half Life 2, Episode One, Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 for Rs. 999. Oh yes, it was worth the entire wait and a lot of days of Supreme gaming entertainment.
An introduction to the absolute begineer in game programming
I’ve spent a hell lot of time in understanding how to go about game development and the best combination of programs and languages for a successful title atleast. I’ve had no training or done any course (just didn’t have time for it). So I searched the net for all the help I could get and I’ve come to a conclusion, that the best language for game programming is C++. And even better is the combination of C++ with Python and Blender (a software that is used for animation which can be combined with Python for mind-blowing results).
Here are the good and bad points of my combination:-
C++
For
Ideal for game programming because of its flexibility owing to its low level nature.
Lesser bottlenecks encountered because of its low level nature.
Huge class library support. With free and vendor-based class files spread all over the net for faster and more rational programming.
It has always been main stream in the game programming world, meaning you will find more support, tutorials, and eventually help (even helpers) in this language.
Other languages keep getting better and better versions of themselves, which you have to keep in contact with for the best techniques of programming, whereas in C++ there is only one version of the language (means once you learn it you don’t have to do any other version of it again in the next one and half years), only different versions of compilers (which doesn’t matter) and different class libraries which can be used to your advantage.
Against
Takes a lot of lines of code and time for development (can be tackled on combining with Python).
Can get cumbersome due to its low level nature.
Some technicalities have to be known at expert levels of its usage. (Not to sure about this)
Python
For
· Ideal for game programming due to its efficient high level syntax.
· Takes much lesser lines of code and hence lesser time for development than in C++.
· It is derived from Java and hence it has the ability to multi-task or muti-thread (perform more than one operation at the same time).
· It is also platform independent.
· It forms a great networking language and is a project still under development, meaning cooler features in due time.
Against
It consumes much more RAM and takes more load on the CPU than the equivalent programs made from C++.
Blender
I don’t know much about animation, modeling, rendering, texturing, anisotropic filtering, linear in Blender except that it is as good as the latest version of Maya. It has a completely different interface than the other animation software, which it is a pain to learn at first, if you have done some other animation software’s interface like Maya or 3D Max etc. For further details on tutorials, jargon, etc. put a comment up.
An Overview of How It Goes
For successful titles development takes about 2-3 years with a workforce of about 30-50 programmers. Usually it takes about a hundred thousand lines in creating a decent title. It will be meticulous and cumbersome work at first. Which is why you should start small. You may have heard this many times, so have I but I’m making the big leap on my first go. Once you’ve finished these languages or even one of these two from a professional’s point of view. You can always join my project. Just post a comment for any help or details.
The prospects
The prospects are great if you get a decent singleplayer title out meaning about a million US $ on average. An a few more million in long-term if it is an MMORPG (Massively-played Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). For further details you can post a comment.
Here are the good and bad points of my combination:-
C++
For
Ideal for game programming because of its flexibility owing to its low level nature.
Lesser bottlenecks encountered because of its low level nature.
Huge class library support. With free and vendor-based class files spread all over the net for faster and more rational programming.
It has always been main stream in the game programming world, meaning you will find more support, tutorials, and eventually help (even helpers) in this language.
Other languages keep getting better and better versions of themselves, which you have to keep in contact with for the best techniques of programming, whereas in C++ there is only one version of the language (means once you learn it you don’t have to do any other version of it again in the next one and half years), only different versions of compilers (which doesn’t matter) and different class libraries which can be used to your advantage.
Against
Takes a lot of lines of code and time for development (can be tackled on combining with Python).
Can get cumbersome due to its low level nature.
Some technicalities have to be known at expert levels of its usage. (Not to sure about this)
Python
For
· Ideal for game programming due to its efficient high level syntax.
· Takes much lesser lines of code and hence lesser time for development than in C++.
· It is derived from Java and hence it has the ability to multi-task or muti-thread (perform more than one operation at the same time).
· It is also platform independent.
· It forms a great networking language and is a project still under development, meaning cooler features in due time.
Against
It consumes much more RAM and takes more load on the CPU than the equivalent programs made from C++.
Blender
I don’t know much about animation, modeling, rendering, texturing, anisotropic filtering, linear in Blender except that it is as good as the latest version of Maya. It has a completely different interface than the other animation software, which it is a pain to learn at first, if you have done some other animation software’s interface like Maya or 3D Max etc. For further details on tutorials, jargon, etc. put a comment up.
An Overview of How It Goes
For successful titles development takes about 2-3 years with a workforce of about 30-50 programmers. Usually it takes about a hundred thousand lines in creating a decent title. It will be meticulous and cumbersome work at first. Which is why you should start small. You may have heard this many times, so have I but I’m making the big leap on my first go. Once you’ve finished these languages or even one of these two from a professional’s point of view. You can always join my project. Just post a comment for any help or details.
The prospects
The prospects are great if you get a decent singleplayer title out meaning about a million US $ on average. An a few more million in long-term if it is an MMORPG (Massively-played Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). For further details you can post a comment.
Vista Vs. XP For Gamers
Ever since the launch of Microsoft’s latest operating system, Window’s Vista, confusion has reigned on the Web. Since it’s mostly gamers who are early adopters of the latest hardware and OS upgrades, it’s no surprise that windows vista is on every gamer’s mind. “Should I switch, or should I ditch the idea?” seems to be the question. And the answers are not hard to come by. Quite the reverse actually; there are just too many answers at this point in time, and all of them contradicting the other in some way or the other.
It’s obvious that no previous operating system from the Microsoft stables has created so much buzz-whether it’s apple fans crying foul fr alleged “copying” of Mac OS X’s prettiness, or Windows fanatics raving about Aero, to confused PC gamers standing in the corner shaking their heads at all the commotion while console gamers happily ignore everyone and everything as they rejoice with their PS3s! and Xbox 360s!
Respected geek sites-Extreme Tech. Tom’s Hardware and the likes have done every Vista review possible, including benchmarking the performance differences between a clean Vista install vs. an upgrade from Windows XP. Incidently, an upgrade from Windows XP seems to be better for gaming than a clean install of Vista, according to benchmarks.
Facts remain facts, however, and currently, Windows XP is slightly ahead in terms of performance for most games. This may be because those games were built for windows XP, or just the fact that Windows XP has lower hardware requirements, but the message is clear; if you want the best performance you can eke out of your hardware for current generation games, stick to Windows XP!
So that’s it? Am I telling gamers not to upgrade to Windows Vista? Keeping up the confusion that reigns, I’ll say yes and no! For some of you the answer is yes, don’t upgrade; for a smaller number it’s no, upgrade immediately, and for the majority… well… I just don’t know, and you’ll have to make up your own minds.
Here in India when it comes to gaming Hardware demographics are a little more of a complicated affair. The majority of computer owners have aging hardware that has no right to be running even Windows XP, very obvious that if those users upgrade to windows Vista, they’ll have to deal with really slow PCs. Those with better hardware are seldom gamers. Now we come to PC gamers segment, which again is broken into two segments: the first and larger segment comprises of computers that have pretty decent configurations- an equivalent of an Athlon 64 or Pentium D, 1 GB of DDR RAM, and a good DirectX 9 graphics card with 256 MB of RAM. The second and the smallest section of the public is the hardcore gamers with on top of the line hardware- Core 2 Duo/AM2, 2 gigabytes of RAM, and the latest DirectX 10 capable cards.
For the first gamer segment, switching to Vista right now may be a problem and kind of pointless. The reason being: Vista brings to table DirectX 10 compatability, which the next generation games will run on. If you’re going to be running DirectX 9, it’s perhaps best you do it on the operating system it was designed for.
For the top-of-the-line-or-nothing-else gamer Vista is probably what you should be looking for future-proofing. That said before switching to Vista, make sure your hardware your hardware manufacturers are making Vista drivers-this is for al your hardware.
The majority of Indian PC gamers will probably play it smart with the wait and watch game, which isn’t such a bad idea - atleast until some good DirectX 10 games come out and alland all the initial teething problems for Vista are solved. For now, just watch the Vista news flashes on various sites, all the benchmarks, and chuckle contentedly.
It’s obvious that no previous operating system from the Microsoft stables has created so much buzz-whether it’s apple fans crying foul fr alleged “copying” of Mac OS X’s prettiness, or Windows fanatics raving about Aero, to confused PC gamers standing in the corner shaking their heads at all the commotion while console gamers happily ignore everyone and everything as they rejoice with their PS3s! and Xbox 360s!
Respected geek sites-Extreme Tech. Tom’s Hardware and the likes have done every Vista review possible, including benchmarking the performance differences between a clean Vista install vs. an upgrade from Windows XP. Incidently, an upgrade from Windows XP seems to be better for gaming than a clean install of Vista, according to benchmarks.
Facts remain facts, however, and currently, Windows XP is slightly ahead in terms of performance for most games. This may be because those games were built for windows XP, or just the fact that Windows XP has lower hardware requirements, but the message is clear; if you want the best performance you can eke out of your hardware for current generation games, stick to Windows XP!
So that’s it? Am I telling gamers not to upgrade to Windows Vista? Keeping up the confusion that reigns, I’ll say yes and no! For some of you the answer is yes, don’t upgrade; for a smaller number it’s no, upgrade immediately, and for the majority… well… I just don’t know, and you’ll have to make up your own minds.
Here in India when it comes to gaming Hardware demographics are a little more of a complicated affair. The majority of computer owners have aging hardware that has no right to be running even Windows XP, very obvious that if those users upgrade to windows Vista, they’ll have to deal with really slow PCs. Those with better hardware are seldom gamers. Now we come to PC gamers segment, which again is broken into two segments: the first and larger segment comprises of computers that have pretty decent configurations- an equivalent of an Athlon 64 or Pentium D, 1 GB of DDR RAM, and a good DirectX 9 graphics card with 256 MB of RAM. The second and the smallest section of the public is the hardcore gamers with on top of the line hardware- Core 2 Duo/AM2, 2 gigabytes of RAM, and the latest DirectX 10 capable cards.
For the first gamer segment, switching to Vista right now may be a problem and kind of pointless. The reason being: Vista brings to table DirectX 10 compatability, which the next generation games will run on. If you’re going to be running DirectX 9, it’s perhaps best you do it on the operating system it was designed for.
For the top-of-the-line-or-nothing-else gamer Vista is probably what you should be looking for future-proofing. That said before switching to Vista, make sure your hardware your hardware manufacturers are making Vista drivers-this is for al your hardware.
The majority of Indian PC gamers will probably play it smart with the wait and watch game, which isn’t such a bad idea - atleast until some good DirectX 10 games come out and alland all the initial teething problems for Vista are solved. For now, just watch the Vista news flashes on various sites, all the benchmarks, and chuckle contentedly.
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