A Gamers’ Manifesto

A Gamer’s manifesto has been posted at a blog called Pointless waste of time.

I for one.. sign that petition! Its a great read.

– Germany will never know the.

Download the trailer. Please. It’s amazing.

Advent Rising is a puzzle to me. The first installment of this bright, epic trilogy is slated for release next week, and yet I see very very little hype generated around the title. The game has a fantastic website ( http://www.adventtrilogy.com/ ) but that’s pretty much all the press I’ve seen. This close to a title’s release there’s usually one or two gamesites with in-depth previews or even reviews .. but so far .. nadda, which makes me a bit skeptical.

Still - all that I’ve read about the game has me very interested. The Sci-Fi writer Orson Scott Card (Ender’s game) penned the game’s overarching storyline. From what I gather the the first title is actually quite like Titan A.E. - A breed of aliens discover that humans have some sort of inert “potential”, and so the aliens decide to make Earth go boom before Humans can come into their own. You play Earth’s sole survivor who must discover the power of himself before he’s hunted down and killed.

Of course, the main character unlocks some special abilities along the way and lashes back against those who destroyed Humankind. Some of the character powers seem defensive, some manipulative ( force push ), others are purely aggressive moves that tear through anything in your way. The game plays in the the 3rd person perspective, and from what the trailer portrays it seems to fit the action quite well. Very well in fact. There are seemingly numerous fantastic moves you can pull off to bring hurt upon your adversaries.

See for yourself. The trailer is available for download from fileplanet, fileshack, and the game’s official site. If you own an xbox or PC download this trailer. It’s the best video game preview movie I’ve ever seen. Seriously.

As an added bit of “are you serious??” the game’s designers are taking full advantage of the episodic release. The start of the second installment depends on how you, the user, finish the first title. It’s even rumored that the Xbox Live service will have an option to upload your save game file to their servers, and then download it onto your Xbox360 if you purchase the next installment on that platform. Um.. that’s pretty freaking sweet.

Advent Rising is set to ship for the Xbox and PC. Interestingly the PC Version comes out one full month after the Xbox release, and at a discount of 20 bucks (PC version is only $29.95). Odd.

I’ve added the game to my gamefly queue for the time being. If it rocks I’ll be sure to let you know, and I might pick it up at the PC’s bargin price so I can see the game in its full Radeon x800 glory.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Carnival of Gamers! Here you will find the best and brightest video game bloggers from around the world! Never before has such a group been assembled to bring to you the latest insights and observations from the gaming blogosphere. We’re a diverse group here, as you’ll see from the posts but we all have one thing in common — we are passionate about video games. So let’s get right to them —

MTV.com - Games - News

Gotta hand it to the Matrix Online. They killed off Morpheus. It really seems like the Matrix story is ongoing, and alive. Very neato. Its not like they can kill the Emperor in SWG.

I’m not one for self congratulations but this morning I realized our 1 year anniversary has alread past us! Russ posted our first entry on May 14th of last year in preparation for E3 2004. Time flies faster than our own feces.

The next 365 days are going to be huge.. and hopefully we’ll take enough breaks from playing Xbo360, PS3, and countless PC games so to keep the site goin’ though 2006!

Thanks for sticking with us, and special thanks to our other contributers Chris, Mike, Jay, Larry and that jerkhole Jordan.

Dave Della Bitta & Russ Miner

id.. oh boy. Finally they’ve dropped the simple deathmatch modes for complex team-based online play. Instead of mindless online fragging of Quake 3 we’re treated to a full blown Battlefield-like game. Defend or attack Earth in the Strogg Invade just before the Quake 2 plot line starts ( uh.. what plot? )

These graphics are gorgeous. This isn’t simply the Doom engine with new textures and outdoor terrain slapped on. Oh no. This is a whole new id engine iteration.

Carmack has slaved away on something called “megatexturing”. The terrain map for each level is one ginormous texture instead of repeating smaller textures laid across specific polygons That means no repeating rock formations or grass - each square foot can be tweaked to look different from any other. Certainly there will be some programmatic filling of areas, but I’m sure that an artist will then go over each area to add chaos to the order. Think Tomas Kinkade after-touch.. but less cheese. As a programmer I seriously have to ask - how the hell did he do that?

The he shooter isn’t massively online but your avatar’s stats are saved up on a global server. It’ll track your kill counts and ladder rank, but your character also carries around his military rank. As you climb out of private and on up to officers you should expect new abilities and vehicles to become available to you. Like Battlefield 2 (due June this year) Rank points are awarded for helping out teammates (healing, fixing, etc) as well as for killing the opposition.

The inital news of the game claims that the human and strogg vehicles sets are completely different - as in the Strogg’s vehicles don’t fit into the same vehicle hierarchy as the human counterparts. There won’t be a Strogg helicopter that has the exact same abilities as the Humans, but instead each vehicle will fill a different sort of role. For instance - perhaps their light maneuverable scout is a weapon platform and not a personal carrier as the Humvee is. Unfortuantely there aren’t any specifics yet.

Gamespot has more details. There’s also a video well worth downloading. I mean seriously.. check out these screenshots (clickable)! Me want!.. but we’ll have to wait. The game isn’t due out till next year. Battlefield 2 will just have to tide us over ’till then.

Star Wars: Empire at War Media Index for PC at GameSpot

Visit the gamespot link above to see the E3 Live Stage Demo of Empire at War. I have to admit, the visuals are amazing. It so FEELS like starwars.

They have this wonderful “battle mode” camera. Where you can hit the spacebar, and zoom in on the action in a very cinematic way. It serioulsy feels like the starwars game we’ve always wanted.

Factor 5 became famous for their Rogue Squadron line of games on the Nintendo Game Cube. They were great story driven arcade shooters, and the graphics engines pushed the Cube it her limits. Seemingly for a while now the company had been touting the Xbox360’s power, but after the release of the PS3 specs Factor 5 has jumped ship in favor of the Sony platform. Ferrago has the story.

Is this a forecast of things to come? I had thought the 2 Teraflop thing was just the Sony hype machine churning again - but perhaps it really does blow the 360 (claim of 1 teraflop) out of the water. I’m not about to give up on the 360 yet, but damn .. news like this does make me wary, especially considering where we are on the console release schedule.

PC: ER

From the team that brought you Law and Order, comes a game based on the TV show ER.

Sounds interesting.

You create an intern, choosing appearance and gender; you spend points in intelligence, dexterity, constitution, and charm; you determine your skill level in neurosurgery, toxicology, pediatrics, orthopedics, cardiology, and general surgery. Then you jump into the first of six episodes.

The episodes take place entirely in the emergency room, each spanning a 48-hour shift. There are randomly generated patients based on how well you’re doing, as well as story arc patients and unique challenges. In one episode, there’s a fire at a superhero convention, so you’re treating costumed heroes and villains. If you leave them alone together, a fight might break out. In another episode, an errant wrecking ball crashes through the wall, knocking out the power.