Tag: PC Gaming

Epic Games Releases Free Version of Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine 3 UDK

Epic Games has launched the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), based on Unreal Engine 3 technology. The company already has the dominant engine this console generation. Releasing a free version should help it expand its reach and get a hold of the booming indie-games market. Today’s press release stated:

Epic Games, Inc. announces the launch of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides community access to the award-winning toolset like never before. This software release is available to anyone interested in using 3D game engine technology, including game developers, students, hobbyists, researchers, creators of 3D visualizations and simulations, and digital filmmakers. Anyone can start working with the industry-leading Unreal Engine 3 toolset by downloading UDK at www.udk.com, where detailed product features, technical documentation, commercial licensing terms, support resources and more are also available.

This is a huge move for the company, but it’s personally disappointing to me. You see, it used to be an annual goal of mine to get Epic Games president Mike Capps drunk, so that I could get his signature for an Unreal Engine license on a cocktail napkin. A free version of the engine makes my game less fun.

Are any of you aspiring game designers going to give UDK a shot?

Modern Warfare 2 to be Biggest Launch in GameStop History

Modern Warfare 2

Everyone knows that Modern Warfare 2 is going to be huge — certainly one of the biggest games of 2009 — but according to GameStop, it will be the biggest title of the year and the biggest launch in company history. GameStop merchandising and marketing EVP Tony Bartel told Gamasutra:

By all indicators, we anticipate Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be the biggest entertainment launch of 2009, as well as the biggest video game launch in GameStop’s history.

I’m a little surprised by this. Maybe I underestimated the game due to a lack of interest, but I definitely wasn’t expecting it to be GameStop’s biggest launch ever. Will Modern Warfare 2 really be bigger for the company than Halo or Grand Theft Auto?

Source

Follow Dark Void on Twitter, Win Jay-Z Tickets

Jay-Z

If you like Jay-Z, Twitter, and Dark Void then you definitely want to get crackin’ on Capcom’s latest promotion. The company has a chance for you to catch Jay-Z in concert this weekend. All you have to do is follow Dark Void’s Twitter page. Here are the official deets:

We scored tickets to the highly coveted Jay-Z concert, featuring N.E.R.D., Wale and J. Cole, at Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus for this Sunday November 8, 2009, beginning at 6:30PM. So, what does this mean for the Dark Void Community? Well, we’re offering this pair to one lucky Community member!

We’re hosting the contest on our official Twitter page: http://twitter.com/DarkVoidGame. To enter, all you need to do is follow our profile and re-tweet the following message:

“I wanna take @[Twitter Friend] to Jay-Z in LA! Make me a winner @DarkVoidGame. Rules: http://tinyurl.com/JayZinLA”

If you enter, feel free to take me with you. Ha! My Twitter page is here. Jay-Z would be fun, but I’d love to see N.E.R.D.

Source

Coffee Talk #19: I’m So Excited and I Just Can’t Hide It

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, your awesome World Series 2009 champions, this super expensive Beatles digital set, or your awesome World Series 2009 champions (again), Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Sorry for the lateness. You see, yesterday I picked up Dragon Age: Origins. As you can imagine, I was incredibly psyched to get the game. BioWare is one of my favorite developers of all time — so much so that if the company was snubbed for an award, I’d totally interrupt the winner and pull a Kanye. RPGs are my favorite genre. Fantasy settings are my favorite. This is the most excited I’ve been for a game in years.

Dragon Age Origins 3

It all goes back to Baldur’s Gate for me. I played through the game 18 times. Even though I only played through Baldur’s Gate 2 11 times, I was (clearly) hooked by BioWare’s RPG mastery. I love how the company handles role-playing, storytelling, character development, music, and more.

When it comes down to it, I don’t remember the last time I was this excited to get a game. How about you? When was the last time a new game made you go all fanboy?

Super Street Fighter IV Juri Could Have Been a Chubby Ice Skater

SFIV Juri

Super Street Fighter IV’s Juri is a sexy tae kwon do vixen, but she could have been a chubby ice skater according Capcom art director Toshiyuki Kamei. Andriasang translated the official Super Street Fighter IV blog and learned:

The character’s design originally started with orders from producer Yoshinori Ono to make a female Korean character. Not necessarily an erotic female Korean character, though. According to Kamei, taking all hair and clothing variations into account, there were originally some 400 or 500 ideas for the character. Some ideas included an old woman and an ice skater.

The character was originally cuter and chubbier. They gradually thinned her out, with Kamei admitting that they at one point went too far and had to revert a bit.

Having had numerous dating experiences with Korean women, I assure you that chubby-ice-skater Juri would have been as terrifying as sexy Juri. Check out Juri in action against T. Hawk in the video below.

Continue reading “Super Street Fighter IV Juri Could Have Been a Chubby Ice Skater”

Recent Study Links Videogames to Decreased Income

Poor Gamer

Economics student Ryan MacLeod (no relation to the Highlander) did some research and found that people that videogames have a negative effect on men’s income. Yeah, I’m not going to take the work of a fourth-year hack at a third-rate school too seriously, but the Telegraph Journal did:

The results of a study by the fourth-year economics student from Mount Allison University have found that playing video games can have a negative effect on income.

The effect is so notable that for every minute a video game is played, MacLeod’s research suggests gamers can expect a 0.4 per cent decrease in income.

MacLeod found two results that were surprising: There is a significant negative effect on income for those playing video games, and second, the effect is seen in men but not in women.

I’d love to see the full study. What is he using for a comparison? People with no hobbies? Anyone that’s enthusiastic about their hobbies will spend money on them. Whether you’re into games, cars, home theater, books, etc., hobbies cost money. For example, I have a friend that loves fixing and tweaking out his cars. I guarantee you that he spends more money on his hobby than I do, but I get way more hours of entertainment per dollar spent.

While I don’t think much of this “study”, I’m sure it’s going to get some play. I’m know some mainstream reporters are going to say gamers are prone to violence and have lower incomes. *sigh*

Source via Kotaku

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Movie Trailer

I’m pretty impressed with the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie trailer. It looks slick and there are some nice nods to people that enjoyed the videogames. Initially, I wasn’t sold on Jake Gyllenhaal as the titular character, but he’s surprisingly bad ass! And I’m not just saying that because I lust for his sister. On the downside, Ben Kingsley looks like a dork.

Today’s Poll: Which Version of Dragon Age: Origins?!?

Dragon Age Origins

I’m torn on this matter. As a longtime Baldur’s Gate fan, it feels natural to play this game on a PC. Unfortunately, I’m all laptop these days and I worry that my Nvidia GeForce 8400m won’t cut the mustard. Plus, if I’m going to be sinking 100+ hours into a game, my couch would be more comfortable than my Herman Miller Mirra. That said, I’ve been reading about some nasty bugs on the PS3 version. I’m not sure if the same bugs plague the Xbox 360 version, but I’m going to do more research. Which version of Dragon Age: Origins to buy?!? I don’t know! How about you?

[poll id=”5″]

Epic Games Cliff Bleszinski Talks Digital Distribution, Used Games, Motion Controls, Hideo Kojima, and Getting Punched by RPad

Cliff BleszinskiEpic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski is one of the most prominent game developers in the business. He’s just a smart, talented, and quotable guy (though he whines like a little girl when you hit him…more on that later). Whether he’s talking about digital distribution, what games he’s been digging lately, used-game sales, or bars in San Francisco Chinatown, the man always has something interesting to say. Here’s my interview with one the main minds behind Unreal and Gears of War, the infamous Cliffy B.

Raymond Padilla: With games like Shadow Complex and systems like the Sony PSPgo, digital distribution is becoming a bigger part of the gaming business. How does digital distribution impact you as a game designer?

Cliff Bleszinski: A couple weekends ago, I was up in East Village at “Videogames New York”, a combination new/retro game store. On the front counter, they had Borderlands and in the back aisles, they had the Vectrex and Game & Watch. My feelings went from initially geeking out to immense nostalgia to overwhelming pride for how far this business has come in my lifetime alone. We go digital and that physical history starts drying up and eventually vanishes. Older games become the same as a 45 record.

Digital distribution has the potential to end the used game debate that’s currently raging across the business. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. On one hand, I love having that pipeline into my house: Look, a new game is up on Live; download the title right to your hard drive and fire it up. At the same time, I love having games, movies, and books on my shelves at my home. It feels like an IRL representation of the facets of your personality and tastes whenever people come over to visit. The Kindle and other devices are equally fascinating. I fear not leafing through a book ever again but at the same time I cringe at the thought of having to deal with a CD and a jewel case in a world of digital music.

Finally, as far as the kinds of games I’d like to design and contribute to? Digital frees up some risk. You can make that little dream game you’ve always wanted to make and take more chances, which is incredibly appealing as a creative.

Continue reading “Epic Games Cliff Bleszinski Talks Digital Distribution, Used Games, Motion Controls, Hideo Kojima, and Getting Punched by RPad”

Coffee Talk #16: Videogame Instruction Manuals and You

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the awesomeness of Brad Lidge, Crystalium being Sphere Grid 2.0, or the old rib eye vs. filet mignon debate, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Last week I came across this interesting Gamasutra article on videogame instruction manuals. It got me thinking about how my gaming habits have changed in regards to instructions. When I was younger, manuals were pretty important and often a valuable resource. Nowadays, I’m irritated if I have to open the box and pop out the manual. Heck, I haven’t even touched the manuals for the vast majority of games I’ve bought over the last three console generations.

Instruction Manual

There are two reasons why I rarely read videogame instruction manuals these days. The explosive growth of the Internet has made it so easy to find quality information on a game — info that’s almost always better than anything in the manual. More recently, in-game tutorials have gotten so good that I usually don’t need the Internet or a manual to figure things out.

As gaming moves towards digital distribution, manuals will become even less important (unless you love printing out PDFs) and eventually extinct. They’re still here today, so I want to ask for your views on instructions. Do you read them? Do you ignore them? Are they a last resort for you? Do you think in-game tutorials are the instruction manuals of today? I instruct you to leave your opinions on instructions! (Okay, I’m really just asking you and hoping you share.)