FPS

Looking at Routine

Martyn Zachary 2 Comments

Please have a gander at the above promotional teaser from Lunar Software‘s forthcoming horror exploration game, Routine. Spot anything out of the ordinary?

If your answer consists of something like “Full body awareness, Deadzone aiming, no HUD, no health bars or points system” – fair enough! The developers have, after all, incorporated plenty of neat stand-out features in the game.

That being said, what I really mean is the mouselook. We’ve all just witnessed a promotional game video with MOUSE CONTROLS.

It took me a few seconds to realize just what it was that I was seeing. Seeing is believing: It all seemed so vivid, so immersive, so refreshing. On the mouse, the video paints a vastly improved, more honest view into the inner workings of the game, its architecture, and unique visual design.

To put it bluntly: This video simply could not have been made on a gamepad, at all. Thing is, I’ve moaned about this problem all the way since 2009, and this year’s (2013) E3 gameplay presentations continued the ugly trend.

Thankfully, though, we have the indies to show how it’s done on the PC. More of this please. Good job, Lunar Software!

(The game also looks good. Check it out!)

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Hard Reset Review

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Disclaimer: Blade Runner was not harmed in the writing of this review.

For those potentially coming fresh off Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the cyberpunk action-adventure of the moment (also included on our list of recent cyberpunk titles), Flying Wild Hog’s début throwback FPS Hard Reset might take some getting used to. After all, the game’s name could and should be taken in reference to its status as an earnest homage to “all those forgotten Dooms, Quakes, and Painkillers” 1)http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/action/hard-reset/news/6326099/hard-reset-qanda-whats-old-is-new-again?sid=6326099&mode=previews&tag=topslot;thumb;2.

What the ex-members of CD Projekt RED, People Can Fly, City Interactive and Metropolis do is literally drop the you onto a dank, bleak futuristic alleyway, with barrels and crates strewn across the street, glowing power-ups beckoning. Efforts to interact with this architecturally impressive scene will prove much in vain, however, with items merely bumping, bouncing and rolling about; If you discover an explosive barrel or a glowing transformer, you can rest assured its only function is to act as a stationary tool for tactical destruction.

Stuff blows up. Big time. End of story?

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Boiling Point 2 and Precursors in English

Martyn Zachary 2 Comments
Intent stare, intent marketing

Update: GamersGate are now digitally distributing both Xenus II and Precursors!

A few months back, we lamented the fate of Russian developer Deep Shadows’ two latest projects, Xenus II (“Boiling Point 2,” or White Gold: War in Paradise, as it would have been called here) and Precursors, two very unique games that unfortunately remained both untranslated and unpublished in the English-speaking world.

Thanks to Badmofo’s comment on the original post, however, it came to our attention that fan-made English translations for both games are finally available at Patches-Scrolls. Both have already seen a 31th July update, and are now up to version 1.1. The Xenus II patch can be downloaded here, with the following changelog:

Fixed many small details, and manually translated many broken lines. 1)http://forum.dlh.net/thread;threadid__34941.html

The Precursors patch is available here, with these changes:

Fixed many details and inconsistencies, and added item descriptions.
Removed Kasterley quest line and changed vehicle menu to roll/slide.
Corrected transactions with Perk, ice merchant and a race organizer 2)http://forum.dlh.net/thread;threadid__34942.html

Let us know if you have any luck with these patches!

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Next for Nexuiz

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When it comes to deathmatch-oriented open source FPS games based on the multitudinous engine offspring of Quake (1-2-III), a plethora of choice exists: Warsow, Alien Arena, World of Padman and Trepidation to name but a few. Out of these, the highly-enhanced, DarkPlaces–based Nexuiz has always been a favourite of mine.

This particular open source, GPL-licensed shooter was first released in 2005 and has since seen a vast amount of updates and improvements, including the addition of particle effects, bump mapping, modern shaders and a smoother netcode. The game also comes bundled with NetRadiant, the team’s own fork of GtkRadiant 1.5. Overall, Nexuiz has been downloaded by more than “4 million unique users”.

Now, here’s the news: Alientrap Entertainment have allowed another company, IllFonic, to adapt and revise the game for launching as a downloadable FPS, on the consoles:

IllFonic announced today its plans to launch the futuristic arena first-person shooter Nexuiz across downloadable console platforms in 2010. … IllFonic’s remake of Nexuiz for console gamers features a new Victorian influenced art style that is simultaneously futuristic and sophisticated.

IllFonic have also negotiated a license with LordHavoc, the developer of the DarkPlaces engine. According to IllFonic’s Kedhrin Gonzalez, shared PC/console multiplayer is not in the cards, nor are mouse or keyboard support 1)http://alientrap.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=76039&f=7#p76039. Alientrap Entertainment’s Lee Vermeulen also clarifies that

…the PC and Console version will be completely separate entities. Development of the cross platform Nexuiz will continue to be open. No new content of Illfonic’s art will be GPL or added to Alientrap’s development of Nexuiz, although the project will benefit from advances in the engine’s technology. 2)http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/

It certainly is a most titillating idea to think that a Quake 1 -based derivative should see a release on the very latest generation of video gaming consoles; the fourteen long years that have gone past since the original 1996 launch of Quake certainly speak for its age-defying durability, even if DarkPlaces is a rather massive overhaul of the original codebase.

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Portal 2 Official

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Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike and Half-Life) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced Portal 2 for shipment this coming holiday season.

Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007’s Portal, which won 70 industry achievement awards 1)http://store.steampowered.com/news/3559/

Even if the game is now official, the Portal 2 ARG, nevertheless, is hardly over: In the press release above, the underlined letters form the word “drattmannh0nee”, which in turn can be used to log into the BBS, as user “drattman” and pass “h0nee”.

Man. And it comes with co-op.

Anyway, in other related news, GameInformer’s April issue will come with neat Portal 2 wraparound covers:

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