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QuakeCon 08: New Wolfenstein Screenshots Show Graveyards, Burning Plazas, and Green Destruction

Norman Chan — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 02:23:04 -0500

We just got our hands on some gritty new screenshots from the next Wolfenstein game, which is being shown at this year's QuakeCon. Published by Activision and developed by Raven Software, Wolfenstein once again sends soldier BJ Blazkowicz to fight Nazis and supernatural demons in an alternate World War II. The screens show Nazi troops assembled in the dark, resistance fighters huddled in demolished buildings, and most interestingly, new map locations that have been transformed with a supernatural green tint of destruction. We don't know how these environmental shifts will occur, or how it ties with the story, but it sure looks cool!

Check out our full coverage of Quakecon 2008 here!

QuakeCon 08: No Digital Distribution for Rage or Doom 4; Rage will be on Multiple DVDs for Xbox 360

Norman Chan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:33:20 -0500

Here's some shocking news just breaking from the Quakecon Keynote: Rage and Doom 4 will not be sold online via digital distribution. Rage, being published by EA, would be an obvious choice for EA's Downloader service, but apparently that won't be the case. The only way to buy the two games whenever they come out is in stores with boxed copies.

Additionally, Rage will most likely ship on multiple game discs for the Xbox 360. The DVD-only format for the Xbox 360 is its biggest limiting factor, since the Xbox 360-formatted discs actually hold 1GB less than standard 4.7GB DVDs (multiplied by two when dual-layered). And since the royalty charge per disc is actually surprisingly high, id hopes that Microsoft will make a concession for Rage, or else the company may actually have to sacrifice texture and asset quality to get the game to fit on fewer than THREE discs. The cost of the 3rd DVD alone would cost millions of dollars with the current royalty rate, says John Carmack.

When comparing the Xbox 360 to the PS3, the more spacious Blu-ray format is the only thing Carmack likes more about Sony's console. Everything else is better on the 360, he says.

More QuakeCon keynote coverage on our Liveblog!

QuakeCon 08: id Tech 6 Will Utilize Hardware That "Doesn't Exist Right Now"; Next-Gen Will Still Be Polygon-Based

Norman Chan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:14:19 -0500

John Carmack gave QuakeCon attendees a glimpse into his thoughts about the next-generation of gaming graphics. id Tech 6, for example, probably won't be coded in Java or any protected language. It also will be designed for hardware that doesn't excist right now. With new discrete graphics players entering the field (Larrabee, Fusion, etc), Carmack knows that the PC space is relavent, and that's where he'll be looking when thinking about coding his next engine.

When considering console technology and the next-generation of consoles (whether it's PS4 or Xbox 720), Carmack actually hopes that the console generation will last twice as long as the previous ones -- though he doesn't think it'll be a reality, as console makers will want to one-up competitors with early releases. Doom 4 will come out for this generation of hardware, but anything after that is up in the air. But one thing he's certain of: the practical approach for people who want to code games that look like today's games but better will be polygon-based.

With CUDA and General Purpose Computing, Carmack says he thinks it's interesting, but he's still waiting to see if there will be other real-application standards to drive graphics. There's no solid background for these new technologies like there was with OpenGL and Direct3D. He sees these technologies as toy research products, and not real applications. It's just like the mid 90s, when graphics were in a period of flux. Billions of dollars are being spent to make bets on the next big thing, but he's worried about years being wasted on speculative architectures.

For more QuakeCon coverage, check our keynote liveblog!

QuakeCon 08: Quake Live Will Have No Mod Support; Doom 4 to Run at 60Hz on PC, Locked at 30Hz for Consoles

Norman Chan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:40:01 -0500

More frag-related news coming out of QuakeCon's annual keynote. On the topic of Quake Live, John Carmark revealed that the project had to change its name from Quake Zero because of an enterprising domain squatter who bought up the related URLs immediately after the project's announcement last year. But since the game was still very early in development, the team had no problem changing the name to Quake Live.

We prodded Carmack during our E3 interview about mod support, and we finally have an answer. Because the game is web-browser based, with minimal installation, it will not officially support any in-game modifications. Instead, id is taking advice from gamers who've played Quake 3 for the past 9 years and trying to incorporate as many features into the release as possible. There will be no Quake Live SDK -- the free game is supposed to just be a gateway for gamers to enter the deathmatch scene. Id will, however, continue to integrate improvements with regular updates after the game is released. Officially approved user-generated maps that run on official servers is definitely a possibility, said Carmack.

Even though Quake Live is only being worked on by a team of 8 people, it sounds like id really wants and needs this experiment to succeed. For anyone who wants to see a true sequel to Quake III Arena (or as Carmack calls it, Quake Arena), that title will probably never be created if the Quake Live project doesn't pay off.

In other Rage and Doom 4 related news, Rage will be a fixed 60Hz game and Doom 4 will be 30 Hz (with 3 times the graphical horsepower of Rage) on consoles. On PCs, however, Carmack believes Doom 4 will be able to run at 60Hz if you have state of art hardware (who knows what that could mean by the time the game is released). Rage will definitely be out by the QuakeCon after next year.

More QuakeCon keynote coverage on our Liveblog!

QuakeCon 08: John Carmack: "Modern Games are About Coddling the Player so They Have Fun"

Norman Chan — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:25:01 -0500

One of the big themes to this year's QuakeCon is the idea that id Software wants to put a new emphasis on making games that are fun. The creaters of Quake and Doom are well-known for the technical prowess and graphical achivement in their games, but it sounds like they realized that a few of their most recent games were missing a key ingredient: Fun.

At this year's keynote, John Carmack used the "F" word (fun, of course) when describing id Software's upcoming projects: Quake Live, Rage, and Doom 2 RPG. For Quake Live, they are tweaking the matchmaking to ensure that players of all skill levels can have fun. With Rage, the only word they'll give about a release date is that it'll ship "when it's fun and when it's done."

Is "fun" the new "killer graphics"?

For more QuakeCon details, hit our Keynote liveblog here!

E3 2008: EA Press Conference; Sims 3 Announced, id Partners with EA to Publish Rage, and More!

Norman Chan — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:23:19 -0500

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We just arrived at the EA press conference at the Orpheum theater. Lots of news being released, including the announcement of Sims 3, coming out in 2009. Click through for our liveblog!

3:13 PM

Sims 3 announced. Every object in the game will be customizable and editable. Persistance in the entier Sims world. Anaolgy is that the old Sims games kept you trapped inside the house, new one will open the doors.

3:18 PM

Dead Space: Demo of the game. No HUD. Third person horror action. Large hulking beast on four legs comes rushing in. Issac's weaon has a 3d-heads up display. The beast is emiting fire as the hero shoots off parts of its limbs. Circle strafing around it as the beast rushes. A freeze type blash temporarily stunns it. The fight is going on for over 2 minutes now. Still plenty of body parts to shoot off. Finally finishes it off.

Takes an elevator up. 3-laser beam tracking gun armed. Long organic arm comes out of the wall. Grabs Issac's leg. He shoots with his pistol as he's being dragged. Gets up. The arm comes back and grabs his face. Pulls him into the wall. Awesome!

Avail Oct 21st on PC, 360, and PS3.

3:24 PM

Patrick Soderlund. EA European Studios

Mirror's Edge: Being demoed on the PS3. Developed at DICE. Starts gameplay. On rooftop. No HUD again. Looks like the same demo we saw at GDC. Faith, the lead character, running across a rooftop. Watching through her eyes. Pipes glow bright red to give you direction (runner's vision). Balancing on pipes to walk between skyscrapers. Faith makes a long jump and latches onto another pipe on the side of a wall.

Runs inside a building. Indoor puzzle. Have to reach a vent shaft high above. Makes several jumps and grabs to reach. Drops down the vent. Faces four cops, who fire at her. Faith runs up a stairwell and out on the rooftop. News helicopter hovering outside, covering the chase.

Faith slows down time using "reaction time." Leaps acros more rooftops. Slides into the feet of an enemy, knocking them down. Grabs another one by the gun, and disarms. You can complete the entire game without firing a single bullet (tied to achievement). Sees another runner jumping across rooftops. Goal is to deliver a package to this runner, Celeste.

Guards catch up with Faith again. No way off that roof -- it's too high up. Faith jumps and grabs the helicopter, sees her reflection in skyscraper windows.

New gameplay trailer. New environments. Sliding on water underground in sewers. Knocking guards out with their shotguns. Lots of industrial buildings and warehouses. She doesn't fire a single shot the entire time.

3:34 PM

Will Wright goes up on stage! He's wearing a "Save SETI" t-shirt.

Spore is the intersection of Science and Creativity. Venn diagram explanation.

Spre Creature Creator -- 1 million new creatures uploaded in a week. Blew away expectations. They have 1,756,000 creatures on Sporedatabase right now. 18 days. More creatures in Spore than known number of species on Earth.

Spore fans = 38% God!

Very surprised by what fans could do. robots and humans. not intended, but fans did it anyway. creepy things. They even made vehicles.

Even celebrities haved used it. Richard Branson, Melissa Joan Hart, etc.

Partnerships with SETI and National Geogrphic announced.

New gameplay trailer: takes you from microbe to galaxy. Basically says you're God. You guide these creatures through their entire evolution and cultural development.

3:45 PM

Peter Moore is up. EA Sports. Starts with NBA LIVE 09 demo. Game now features "Dynamic DNA"

Updates player stats every day of the season, after every game. New Instant Replay and DNA Scouting Report features seen in the pause menu. New connected experiences for the online gamer.

Now announcing new Wii sports games. "All Play" branding. More accessible for new gamers.

Demo with Tiger Woods. 28 total players. Peter Moore plays with "All Play" turned on, turns off higher difficulty settings so you don't have to worrk about wind, etc. Gets a really close shot. Makes a joke about at least not accidentally pausing the game. Scores a birdie.

Playing with advanced mode on, Natalie Gulbis scores a bogey. Crowd cheers anyway.

Five All Play games coming out this summer and fall.

4:02 PM

John Pleasant, EA Redwood Shores

Lots of marketing speak, talking about the direction of the company. Giving users what they want, when they want it. etc etc.

Introducing some colleagues who're driving this consumer experience.

EA Online Group: Nanea Reeves. Talking about EA online technologies. Spore, Battlefield Heroes. Just rolled out Nucleus. EA's persona/gamer profile for their games. Reputation, stats, scores. Stored in the cloud. Buddy lists. Works on mobile phones. Tied to micro-transactions. Battlefield Heroes and Sims. Live in 30 countries.

Integrated into 25 EA titles by the end of 2009.

Sean Fanning (Napster guy) gtalking about Rupture.

Social Achievements. You can challenge friends to complete certain achievements, or create new achievements (ie. achieve certain score over one weekend). open API for developers. Games can export game data to variety of formats.

More details at www.rupture.com/developers

Travis Boatman, EA Mobile

iPhone games. App store is exciting for them. Touch screen allowed them to innovate with Tetris. Touch mode to slow down the game.

Also taking advantage of the accelerometer. Ie. in Spore Microbe action game. Makes the game easy to play. Adding accelerometer support to Scrabble game.

Wifi support for Scrabble. Multiplayer scrabble with friends.

3D engines used for Tiger Woods PGA 09 and Spore for iPhone. Gameplay trailers shown.

4:11 PM

Greg Zeschuk, Bioware

Dragon Age Origins, Spiritual successor to Balder's Gate

Your personal origin story is how the world sees you, and the lense through how you see the world.

Trailer shown: Looks like LOTR high fantasy. Golden and silver armor. Animals with tatoos. humans facing off against orc army in the rain. Hounds are unleashed. Massive armies charge. Fireballs and flaming arrhows launch in the air. One of the most epic battles I've seen rendered in real-time. Huge horned monster grabs a human and screams in his face.

4:14 PM

Game Newell, Valve

Left4Dead. First person co-op horror survival game.

AI Director. Big chunk of AI code. Game plays different every time. Directo creates the drama in real-time. Monitors player experience (health, aiming) and changes the pace of the game.

Demo: Gas Station level. Two different groups. Group 1: Beaten up, playing poorly. Film grain to create cinematic feel.

Second group: Smoth going, playing well, lots of health and ammo. Outcome: Much more challenging encounter. Many more zombies. Huge explosion. Entire gas station is blown up. Bigger payoff as reward.

Tf2 taught them a lot about L4D development.

Completely new survivor designs. Looks more realisitc. Still one girl, three guys. African american wearing a white shirt and tie, with blood. Old vetern guy with white hair. Biker guy is now gone.

Gameplay trailer: Game looks much better than when we saw it last . Lots of rain and advanced lighting effects. Exploding zombies. Chatter between survivors. They shoot down a boss infected. Very cinematic.

4:21 PM

John Carmack, id Software

id Software now teamed up with EA through EA Partners. Probably the same deal as Valve. Marketing muscle, but remaining independent.

New Rage Trailer: Buggy driving into a fortress. Dusty terrain. Inhabitants wearing goggles and covering their faces. Semi-steampunk like. Mutants wielding bones swipe at you. Messed up faces. Looks like the big giant guy from the Goonies. More variety of colors than last year. Not just brown anymore. Impressive, but short. More Rage info at Quakecon.

And that's it! Check back for updated info and photos.