Gaming Roundup 7/2/08: All PC, Most of the Time

Posted 07/02/08 at 07:33:42 PM | by Nathan Grayson

Today's Gaming Roundup isn't afraid to ask questions. Why do gamers hate color? Why is World of Warcraft so big? And why, in almighty God's name, is Star Wars Galaxies getting a trading card game? The Roundup asks, and it also answers -- all just a hop, skip, and jump (past the break) away.

Diablo III Producer Justifies Controversial Art Direction: ‘Color Is Your Friend’

While many gamers are licking their chops at the prospect of inserting Sword A into Monster B in Diablo III, a rapidly expanding bunch is waging war against another force: color. A hip, new Internet petition wants nothing more than for Diablo III to drop its lush vistas and bright colors -- to raise a brown, gray, and white flag in surrender. To revert to old-school Diablo style. But Diablo III lead producer Keith Lee stands by his game. "A great analogy is like in ‘Lord of the Rings’ — not everything is dark," he says. "It allows you to see what a creepy dungeon can be like but if everything is dark it doesn’t allow you to have a lot of contrast.” So, do you like Diablo III's fresh, whimsical art style, or are you wrong?

Did a prank reveal plans for GTA IV PC?

Apparently, a crafty blogger was able to force Rockstar's hand by using a simple bluff. He claims that he contacted a Rockstar customer service rep and told the hapless drone that he'd downloaded a PC version of GTA IV, prompting a panicked response. "The PC version of GTA IV has not even been announced for release and is still in development," was the gist of it. Now, it's more or less a given that Take-Two employees are slaving away at a PC port of GTA IV as we speak, so we didn't really need this blogger to let us in on that juicy tidbit. Plus, the blogger could've fabricated the whole story anyway, rendering it moot. Regardless, the back-and-forth is actually fairly amusing; hit the link if you'd like to read it.

Star Wars Galaxies online trading card game announced

Things that are wrong with this story: 1) Star Wars Galaxies has successfully existed for five years, and 2) everything else. The card game will be made available to SWG subscribers and will contain 250 digital trading cards. Some cards will even unlock special items within SWG! Now, all of this raises a question: How much longer until Bioware releases their Knights of the Old Republic MMO and puts an end to SWG's crazed mumblings? Seriously, we can't cringe much harder, here.

American McGee Gives Gamers Free Grimm

This pretty cool. See, American McGee's new weekly episodic title is taking a more television-like approach to game sales. Each episode will be available for free on its launch day (like television!), and then will be sold for actual money every day after. It'll be interesting to see how the whole experiment pans out.

Alpha Protocol Aims Ambitiously For RPG, FPS Fans

Obsidian, the chaps who previously developed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2, recently held a conference call to discuss their upcoming spy RPG. Think James Bond, but with moral choices that go beyond shaken or stirred.

Azeroth: “The Size of Newcastle”

Newcastle, here I come!

COMMENTS:: 10
TAGS:: gaming, Software, news, blizzard, Rockstar

Comments

COMMENTS

Lighten up (literal and figurative)
Submitted by Shalbatana on Thu, 2008-07-03 10:43

Didn't everyone trash talk Quake III for having the same ol color scheme as Quake I & 2?

For that matter, didn't Diablo II have us wandering through lush (albiet much less impressionistic) countrysides? Was I the only one on the Blood Moor, with the bridge and the water flowing casually underneath, and the lush grass?

Shees, you can't please anyone these days. Lighten up people the world is in color...get used to it. Besides, I'm sure there will be more than everyone's share of dank and dirty areas that reak of chaos. I for one love the new look.

Find something real to complain over.

...and Star wars card games lost what little prestige factor they had when Prescidence Publishing decided to release it's entire game anew, declaring that all my thousands of "first edition" cards were null and void.

_______________________________

"There's no time like the future."

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Actually, Quake III
Submitted by norman on Thu, 2008-07-03 10:46

Actually, Quake III didn't have the same color palatte as Q1 and Q2, which both used a lot of earthtones (brown ftw). Q3 had many more metallic surfances, green acid, and organic red arenas.

But I get your point. If only I cared [at all] about DIII

-- Norm

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Much apologies. I never
Submitted by Shalbatana on Tue, 2008-07-08 08:30

Much apologies. I never played III, only saw the box and glimpses of previews.

_______________________________

"There's no time like the future."

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Contact Blizzard!
Submitted by LaurenB on Wed, 2008-07-02 19:50

Call me underdeveloped but, couldn't Blizzard
appease both Diablo 3 parties by adding a secondary color preset,
like similar to the ones that were in FarCry? (vivid, cold, etc.) or even a simple-as-dirt "Color
Saturation" bar option in video settings. If it's too colorful
for one's taste just lower it a bit and make it more gloomy..

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Note: you have seen but a
Submitted by TheMurph on Thu, 2008-07-03 11:21

Note: you have seen but a scant few levels of the game.

If I had to pick Diablo II based on seeing the nightmare that is Lut Gholein, for example, I'd probably be upset too. But who knows what else Blizzard has in mind. I, for one, look forward to seeing how they graphically treat Hell / Heaven / wherever it is you're stomping around in Diablo III.

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It's an interesting idea,
Submitted by Vahn16 on Wed, 2008-07-02 21:16

It's an interesting idea, but I think the petitioners are fretting more about Diablo III's cartoony digs -- not it's color pallet. Although they're certainly fretting about that as well.

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Diablo 3...
Submitted by Digital-Storm on Wed, 2008-07-02 19:20

I must be wrong then. I probably will not even buy Diablo 3 with they way they are changing it from Diablo 2. It just looks like World of Warsuck except top. I could even compare it to Mythos. It looks terrible and plays terrible. Screw linear gameplay.

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I find it fascinating when
Submitted by TheMurph on Thu, 2008-07-03 11:19

I find it fascinating when people base their entire buying purchaes on 20 minutes of in-development gameplay.

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Because, you know, Star
Submitted by TheMurph on Wed, 2008-07-02 18:09

Because, you know, Star Wars as a customizable card game is a novel concept.

Oh, Sony -- forever beating the dead horse with a lightsaber.

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I like that, as part of
Submitted by Vahn16 on Wed, 2008-07-02 19:14

I like that, as part of their five year anniversary, they're at least giving back to the community -- you know, for money.

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Gaming Roundup 7/2/08: All PC, Most of the Time

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