We have a great affinity here for the Source engine. Now that Arkane’s The Crossing is indefinitely off everyone’s waiting list, now’s as good a time as any to bring up another project that inhabits the same register: Salvation from Black Wing Foundation.
Where the Knights Templar seize control of the French crown in The Crossing, in Salvation, a secret society forces its members to take part in a penal cyberspace split into two separate realms: Heaven and Hell. In the former, users are uploaded torment and pain, and in the latter, otherworldly bliss; In both, the prisoners die:
In a world of ashes, where angels are walking among people. There’s only one god, one reason… one truth. In a world of future, where heaven and hell are so real… there’s no doubt, no sin… and no escape. 1)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_mn5_BWFt0
After the jump, a teaser trailer and screenshots bundled with more information on the game.
Ben304 (author of Annie Android and Shifter’s Box) is currently doing something on his blog that warrants a mention, even if I’m not yet quite sure as to what is going on. This may turn out to be the very point of this exercise: Alienation, uncertainty, disconnection… on the outset, though, it seems as though he’s developing an adventure game thru iteration.
Interactive Selection
Interactive Discussion
Interactive Background
So far, Ben’s released six versions of the “game”, each of which have come with a new background screen to play. From the third Interactive on, you can choose which scene to play; in many ways, his approach comes close to the episodic model, but releasing the game iterated like this, erasing the previous version as he goes, does make the overall procedure a lot more eerie than it normally would. The game’s unorthodox hues and uniform palette do further contribute to this feeling, as do the barren, mountainous locations.
The game seems to be about a person trying to uncover deeper meaning – a raison d’être – in the form of “the essence” or “the source”. At the beginning of the first Interactive, the main character comes close to this source, close enough to begin a quest, a hunt for the truth.
There are temporal layers and distortions in the storyline, and while Ben304 does promise more storytelling and gameplay in subsequent versions, another tangible aspect of the project is the exhibition of meaningful feedback and responses from events and actions: There is a definite emphasis on positioning, movement and object states, as there is no inventory or control switches, just one-button point and click.
All things said, what I especially enjoy about the project is its lack of continuity: The scenes are both self-contained and related in narrative and geography, but what is normally sandwiched in-between screens seems non-existent. Interesting concept, check it out!
…do forgive me! As some of you might know, Nabeel is currently travelling (and with Richard knee-deep in Mass Effect), which effectively means my posts are getting through unmoderated… see! I do love leaks! What would we know of Duke Nukem Forever, at this point, if not for the leaks?
They allow us rare, otherwise altogether unavailable glimpses into singular, discrete developmental processes. That’s why it’s all the more peculiar that we never did get around mentioning how Michael Russell recently outed a Source-based version of the original SiN. Ritual worked on converting the game over as an excercise while the team sought to learn the ins and outs of a new engine.
If you guys just got your collective hopes up, I do apologize, as the leak is not really all that playable: A fair amount of the assets are missing – the more they are the further you play – and as Russell explains in a further comment, he only has access to the compiled assets, so the actual, err, SiN Source source code is still firmly under wraps.
Up the Stairs
Flaming
Familiar lobby
If you do want to try it out, you’ll also need a copy of SiN Episodes: Emergence, for the assets. If you don’t yet own the game, in addition to Steam you can also often find it laying about in bargain bins for far less than the game is actually worth. It’s really a pretty solid game. Hopefully, if nothing else will ultimately come out of this interesting relic, perhaps it will function as a boost of new energy for the Unofficial SiN Episodes Multiplayer project (affectionately known as USEMP), though?
As per the new Capcom tradition, there is a benchmark tool available for the PC version of Street Fighter IV. The 400MB program is an unplayable demo that showcases the game’s performance on your PC. Capcom has released this kind of demo for other recent games like Devil May Cry 4, and it has proved a valuable tool for people wanting to see how the games run on their PC systems before buying.
Not that any of the recent batch of Capcom games have needed hefty rigs, by any means. DMC4 ran extremely smoothly for all the graphical splendour it dealt, and SFIV similarly is running well on modest systems according to reports. Its low system requirements means that it will perform well on any decent rig. Typically Capcom has released a playable demo to follow a benchmark demo, so it’s possible that one for SFIV is on the way before its early July launch date 1)http://www.capcom-unity.com/street_fighter/blog/2009/05/08/the_street_fighter_iv_pc__the_options.
Even before its release, Neotokyo already has one distinct advantage over some of its other Source mod peers: We already know that it works. While the original proof-of-concept version of the game, on the UT2k4 platform, may have lacked some content and ultimately a player-base, it also played extremely well and succeeded in illustrating its polished, balanced gameplay.
Textures
Highway
Lovely Ghost
The all-new Source version, then, is bound to play just as smoothly, but also be a tangible upgrade in other aspects of the game. For me, the most exhilarating facet of the game is the team’s utter attention to detail, with years of work poured into prefabs, signs, posters, textures, maps and models: A look and feel in complete accord with its given name. Also worth mentioning, and another illustration of the team’s dedication to their craft: A 27-track digipak double CD soundtrack by Ed Harrison. (I can personally vouch for its quality).
In preparation of the release, Studio Radi-8 have already published examples of their in-game hint system. The team is currently fine-tuning the game, and while we wait for more information and release dates, you should check the project’s official YouTube channel. Finally, I’ve included their pre-release trailer after the break.
