Alhtough it IS still beta, people are running benchmarks on the newly released Source Engine ( read: Half-Life 2 engine ).

If you own an NVIDIA 6800 card, you may want to look away:

Taken from a post at Driver Heaven

Look at the values of this benchmark! Extremely high Antialising, filtering, resolution and graphics quality options. ATI’s X800 XT barely even flinches. DAMN.

Check out all of the benchmarks and screen shots, at this thread at Driver Heaven.com.

Needless to say, when I checked my Steam account and saw that the CounterStrike:Source beta was available, I clicked download without hesitation. What follows are my first impressions of the new Source engine. (also see another writeup with screenshots at PlanetHalflife)

There are two options when you start: the first is to run a stress test, which looks like a scaled down version of the tech-demo that Valve showed at E3 last year. The second option is to play CS with the new engine.

I tried the stress test first, which blazed at 45 fps (on Athlon XP 3200+, ATI 9600XT, A7N8X-E mobo, 1GB RAM). From the test, some (but not all) of the shader logic was in, however art assets looked intentionally scaled down (fewer polys). The transparent figure in front of the fire and the revolving mattresses showed off some of the fancy pixel shaders in Source. But when all is said and done, the stress test offered only a small taste of the E3 footage, and appears to be primarily for collecting machine spec/stats for Valve so they can complete some last-minute fine tuning for the majority platforms out there.

Next, I cranked up a game of CS. The only available map is a remake of de_dust, which at first struck me as being very close to the original. However there are noticeable changes in the following areas:

Level design:

All the textures have been redone, as well as incidental fixtures and junk (bottles, cans, etc.) spread around for effect. Some architectural flourishes have been added (windows, arches, etc.), but overall the map stays true to the original. The most notable departure is in the “tunnels” to zone A, they have added a large interior dome that has small mosque-like windows streaming a little sunlight in. (Dust swirls by as you watch).

The one thing they seem to have skimped on in the level design for dust is doing a better job on light-maps. The level feels a bit too bright and lacks depth without them.

Sound design:

All the sounds in the level are impeccably done. When you fire a weapon at different surfaces you get different impact sounds. For example, fire at a junked car and you hear bullets hitting metal (and see sparks randomly); fire at wood, and you hear a wood impact (you also see splinters fly off, which is a nice effect); or fire at stone and hear stone crack and pieces fly off. Weapon sounds are very polished and seem close to how they’ll be for the release.

Music sources have been updated with longer samples and better quality. However, the voice commands are still pretty close to the identical. “That’s affirmative!” Voice chat is supported in game, although I didn’t get a chance to try multiplayer yet.

Night Vision:

This mode looks much better than the original– it has a pretty realistic overbright for the daylit areas, and makes certain parts of the map (like the mosque-dome) look more impressive.

Physics and Weapon Accuracy:

Weapons seem much more realistic now than in the original CS. These guns fire more like weapons in a modern shooter such as Far Cry… there is some randomness depending on your speed, aim, etc. but it feels like randomness based on physics as opposed to the old style CS quirks. In a word, *solid*. (hopefully I don’t end up eating my words as some guy crouches in a corner and suddenly becomes “invincible” to head-shots again…[this was an old cs bug in the original])

Next, barrels, bottles, cans — pretty much anything that isn’t “bolted down” can be shot, rolled, kicked…. some of the bullet physics seems a bit overdone (can you really play “kick the can” with a oil barrel and a UMP? Bottles shatter into pieces — and then you can shoot the pieces.

When the bomb goes off, the whole level shakes and the 3D audio roars with a deep foley-style explosion. Barrels, etc. can be seen flying through halls nearby the blast and if you are too close you’ll go flying as well.

Summary

It’s a nice showcase of a little Source technology, but it’s mostly subtle and anti-climatic compared to previous E3 footage of the source engine. It’s really more of a tool for Valve to collect tuning metrics and play data. CS fanatics will likely find it unpolished and aren’t missing anything great by waiting for the release.

Pros:

• physics is good, if somewhat exaggerated.
• textures, flashlight, nightvision, smoke grenade all done well.
• sound is excellent, physics-based sounds
• weapons more realistic than original (better physics)
• gameplay stays true to original

Cons:

• unpolished — minimal interface (of course, it’s beta!)
• lightmaps could use work.
• poly count seems intentionally low
• problems getting multiplayer to find servers

-lk

I have to make this a quick post (about to go into an all day meeting).
Gamespot is reporting that the HL2 push to the steam servers will start today!
the article can be found here
According to other information, this could indicate that the “gold” master may not be far off.
Have a good day Monkeys!

I have been reading a blog for the last few weeks that is posted up by a soldier in Iraq. Regardless of your stance on the war, or politics, or whatever, this site is pretty amazing, and I highly reccommend it. In general it is this guy’s daily musings, and sometimes recounts of what has happened to him.

Now, as it Happens, the guy is part of a Stryker squadron, and not too long ago (maybe 2 weeks) his group was involved in while he was in Samarra, Iraq.

At any rate, he was amazed to discover that Kumawar, a video game that takes current real world combat situations and makes them into missions which they deliver on an ongoing basis to their game community, made an episode of this guys’ squadrons’ actions.

This is pretty crazy. I guess I always knew when I first read of Kumawar, that their intent was to take todays headlines and put them into a game as fast as they could, but I never thought about what it might mean to a person who was there, or who could even still be there reading, or playing this game.

Very thought provoking stuff.

At any rate, the title links to the guy’s blog, I encourage you to check it out, and also post any comments you might have on this subject.

p.s. His look and feel choice for his blog is excellent

For those who haven’t been following the soap opera, Peter Molyneux is Bullfrog entertainment. Think of Populous, Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper, and Magic Carpet, and you’re remembering all of his babies. Black & White was his biggest pet project yet, and when it flopped, Peter became the personification of “all show”. It’s amazing how fast someone can go from hot-stuff to steaming-stuff in this business (while others, not fast enough *cough* Shiny).

And so most people had a bad taste in their mouths when Peter released information about his new project “Fable” for the XBox. It had the promise of a dynamic and open-ended world where the main character whould change appearance and gain skills based on the player’ actions. That sounded too much like B&W, and people made Fable their poster child of all things hollow and rotten.

Thanks for this tomato soup Mr Richards. It’s really good, and.. wha - Whaa??

Now Fable is here for the XBox - shipping in just a few weeks. The game has always big and massive, so news of a few broken promises hasn’t surprised me a bit. However unlike Black and White, features that sound better on paper than in practice have been tweeked instead of just thrown into the game, and what’s survived still seems to be one of those rare titles that can’t be missed.

My entire opinion of the game is based on one preview article. That may make some cringe, but man — what a preview. Posted on IGN last week by Hilary Goldstein, the article is 12 pages long and an epic itself. Don’t be scared away. It’s well written and totally worth your time. Flip through it over coffee, lunch, or whenever you’ve got time to kill.

The game tracks statistics up the ying-yang. Chicken-punt distances, how many citizens you’ve robbed, killed, or shagged. It’s all there, and that’s truly novel, really! But if B&W taught us anything, it’s that all these quirky elements don’t make a game great. Thankfully other meatier things seem to add up.

The stronger you are, the better you are at puntting chickens. If you’ve taken the magical route use a fireball to give the chicken that extra kick

You can talk to every NPC in the game. They all have something to say, and they’re always willing to say it (the game is 100% voice acted). Great. But one thing that truly bugs me in RPGs is the combing towns trying to find the RIGHT person to talk to. The game tries to break that tradition - NPCS who’ll progress the story have circles around their feet, other NPCs with something noteworthy to are shadowed in different colored circle. People who just chit chat - no circles. *shakes head* Why, oh WHY hasn’t anyone done this before.

It’s the 12 pages of these little things that help build my hopes. Now start to throw in other great facts - like that the fast combat, akin to Return of the King , but with an expansive variety of weaponry. You can kill who you want, what you want, when you want, and be as violent as you care while doing it.

As promised, you can also be as EVIL as you want. But what’s evil?

Say a shop keeper’s high prices are pissing you off? You could run around town looking for the better price, or.. Pull out your war mallet, fire axe, bow, or what have you, and make him half-off. The game is rated “M”. Have at it.

“You can bash in brains, lop off heads (and then go all Pele on ‘em), thump, whomp, whip, and cleave your foes without mercy. Oh the joys of a rated M game filled with spurting blood. Hoorah!” - Hilary Goldstein

You might get in trouble with the town’s guards if someone see’s you slicing up a local merchant. If you’re not strong enough to deal with militia then you can hire one of the town’s shady-types to be the assassin. (Meh.. that’s a little evil.. I guess.)

When the shop keeper is a pile of goo his store goes on the market, so stick-around to snatch it up. As the owner of the shop you can sell that desired weapon to yourself for free. (See.. to me that’s getting a bit evil.)

Then there’s a third alternative, too. Your character’s “renown” can be used to persuade the shop keeper to follow you. It’d be like Tom Brady asking you to go for a walk. Lead him down the street, up the hill and right out of town. There aren’t any guards out of town. Make with the slicing.

Again, to me, that’s pretty evil, too. Still… nobody in town would ever know what happened. Evil folks have feelings to, and if an sinsiter son-of-a * can’t laugh sadistically at someone, then they tend to feel a bit hollow. So if you choose to go that extra mile, out beyond evil and into twisted dementia — Track down the shop owner’s wife n’ kids, and watch their reactions as you show ‘em your ultra cool pelvis gyrations. From: Me To: You. Umf. “Did you enjoy that? Yeah, we’ll check this out, it’s your husband’s head. Cheers!”

But wait…! that’d be sick. *shakes head* Gawd, whats wrong with you. ( Do it. )

I’d hate to leave on that note, but seriously, that’s the deal. The title adds a lot of great little gameplay elements to a genre that’s dying for an overhaul. It’s got both slick graphical and combat engines, it’s full of style, dark humor, brimming with dynamic content, and it truly allows you to be EVIL. It’s rated M, probably for violence and sexual… sexual-ness.

For those people with little id and a giant super ego - your character can be good, too. (Aww, that’s nice. Play with the ball.)

No, a BUD light.

Don’t let Black & White forever taint Bullfrog. At least give Fable a rental. For me It’s preordered, and I plan to post a follow-up once it arrives.

Read that article.. then come back.

Cool concept, but what computers are the needy kids playing on?
Also, its nice to hear a news story about the goodness that can come from games, instead of the usual droning about how its going to make me kill my co-workers.

This isnt so much a game item.. but rather.. a Public Service Announcement. And All I can say is… ABOUT DAMN TIME! This always bugged me.

“Effective with this sentence, Wired News will no longer capitalize the “I” in internet. At the same time, Web becomes web and Net becomes net.

Why? The simple answer is because there is no earthly reason to capitalize any of these words. Actually, there never was.”

Why the hell are you reading this? Go and download the trailer now! Also on fileshack.

The Q&A can be found here. Of course the biggest question is, “WHEN?”

A: They’re making a release candidate for later this month to be approved by their publisher Vivendi.

If you saw my post about Finishing Doom 3 over the weekend, Bitta had asked “What are you going to take on next?”

As we all finish Doom I hope that this post will give some ideas of games to play during the “dark” time until HL2 is released (rumor is that the code is being published to the Steam system, could a “gold” master be far off?”

Starting this week I am going a little old school and taking a break from uber-3d. For those of you who rember the NEO-GEO and Arcades for that matter, I will be playing “Metal Slug 3″ for starters. Metal Slug is kind of like Contra on Crack! with a sense of humor!

From there I will go back to Tales of Sympohnia, this game is one of
the best RPG’s I have played in a long time. The art, and combat are amazing and its one of the best RPG’s available for the Game Cube.

With some luck these games will tide me over until Sly cooper 2 is
out! I have been anticipating this game since last year!
The first Sly was a sort but brilliant platformer for the PS2. It says
a lot when a games design is so well done, the you fly through it! I
have yet to see level design this good since the Ratchet and Clank
series.

All in all I’ll be spending a lot of time on my consoles until HL2
ships, the only PC related activities (aside from gaming night, when
is the next one by the way!??!?!? multi-player Doom anyone?) will be a
case mod that I should have finished this week.
Thank you for reading this ramble, Happy gaming Monkeys!

Gamespot has a feature comparison of the latest iterations of Madden and ESPN games for the Playstation2 and Xbox. A page of text is dedicated to each feature point, but with the embedded video comentary, no reading is required ( right click the video to push it to full screen ).

The comparison points are:

Offsense

Defense

Special teams

AI

Franchise

Online

Other Features

Presentation

Graphics

Sound

The commentator duo is split between a Madden Fan and a ESPN fan so the results don’t unjustly slide to one side. Did you chose well by purchasing an early copy of “ESPN 2K5″ over the perennial sales favorite “Madden”?

Apparently that depends on how much you like Defense over Presentation.