Source mod Neotokyo° has finally been launched after five years of development. As previously mentioned, the mod originally utilized the UT2k4 engine, and now developer Studio Radi-8 has brought the experience to the Half-Life 2 engine with a wealth of content including 10 environments, 26 new weapons among 3 different class types, and a custom soundtrack with 15 songs, and more on the way. Martyn and Rich have taken a few moments out of their busy holiday schedule to have a run through it, and the most immediate thing of note has been the “massive” maps.
Many download mirrors are up now, as well as an active torrent; you can browse the manual or the noob guide while you wait for the 850MB download.
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.
…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?
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.
You find yourself standing on a pier, jutting out from a silent shore with only a small house in sight, a rocky mountain looming behind in the mist. You appear to be on an island, deadly quiet and devoid of life except for a lone seagull fleeing at the sound of your step. Venturing forth into the house you discover an abandoned shack with only boxes lying about, and on the walls a curious set of chalked symbols. Setting off on the path behind the house you make your way up the mountain in an attempt to make sense of this desolate place.
Dear Esther,
the gulls do not land here anymore. I’ve noticed that this year they seem to shun the place. Maybe it’s the depletion of the fishing stock driving them away. Perhaps it’s me.
Dear Esther is an interactive first-person adventure. Based on the Source engine popularised by Half-Life 2, it is a free mod that requires the game to run. Created by British games researcher Dan Pinchbeck under the development moniker thechineseroom, the mod is described as an interactive narrative that “puts traditional game technologies to new use”. Essentially the player has one action available to them, and that is to move around and explore the island. The narrative arrives in the form of the atmospheric visuals and sound, and short spoken fragments of story that are triggered at various spots on your journey. The narrator reads out extracts from a letter addressed to someone called Esther, and relates his attempts to follow in the footsteps of a man arriving to the island before him. Throughout his monologue he alludes to his experiences as well as those of other characters, all seemingly related in some way. The accounts sometimes appear literal but at other times feel more metaphorical and nebulous in their meaning.
