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'Aztez': The bloody indie brawler that should've been big
Imagine: It's 2012 and Matthew Wegner is sitting at his desk in the back of a one-bedroom apartment in Tempe, Arizona, pounding away at a keyboard. It's night, but thick black drapes are pulled over the window; the room is suffused with dim yellow light, casting sickly shadows over the papers tacked to the walls. Most of them are emblazoned with the name Aztez, depicting bloody battles among ancient Aztec warriors. Wegner's fingers fall still as he closes a line of code and reviews his work. His computer hums, hot. A ball of blinding white light suddenly explodes in the middle of the room, shooting sparks to the ceiling and singeing the carpet -- Wegner jumps up and stares, wide-eyed, at the intrusion. As the glare fades, a familiar shape emerges. Wegner is looking at himself: a little older, a little more weathered, but definitely himself. "Don't do Aztez!" the second Wegner says, frantic. "I'm you from five years in the future. Trust me, stop working on this game. It doesn't go well." The original Wegner finds his voice. "But everyone says it's going to be great! We already have a lot of buzz." "It's a trap. Quit Aztez. Now!" The light returns and swiftly envelops the second Wegner before popping out of existence entirely. His final words reverberate around the tiny, smoking room. Wegner blinks and shakes away his shock. He pulls out his chair and sits down. Moments later, his fingers are flying over the keyboard again, coding combat combos into Aztez.
'Aztez' let me live my fantasy of being an Aztec warrior
When I heard someone had made a beat-em-up game based on the Aztec civilization and that I would be getting the chance to play it at this year's E3, I couldn't have been more excited. As someone of Mexican descent who's passionate about his culture, I can immediately appreciate a strategy side-scrolling brawler that turns you into an Aztec warrior on a mission to take down Spanish conquerors. In a nutshell, this is the idea behind Aztez, an indie title from developer Team Colorblind that's been in the works for about six years. The PC game, which is finally set to hit Steam in mid-July for $20, features a black-and-white theme with hints of blood-red every time your Aztec warrior slashes opponents.
Meet Civilization Online's four civs
XLGAMES announced its four civilizations from Civilization Online today, although sadly the Mole People were absent from this list. The four civilizations are China (led by Qin Shi Huang), Rome (led by Julius Caesar), Egypt (led by Hatshepsut), and Azteca (let by Montezuma). Civilization Online will be going into closed beta testing within the next few months and is slated to launch in Asia in 2014.
The Game Archaeologist looks at Guild Wars Utopia
Aztecs. Chronomancers. Mounts. Halberds. Golems. Dual wielding. These are all but a hint of what a fourth Guild Wars campaign could have been, a campaign that was under development in the mid-2000s but was scrapped by 2007. Replacing it was the expansion Guild Wars Eye of the North and the workings of a super-secret sequel to the game (which you've probably never heard of). It was the forgotten campaign, swept under a rug while it was still under the rug. But what if, in some alternative timeline, ArenaNet had gone ahead with this campaign? What if it became an established part of the Guild Wars legacy, as familiar to us today as Nightfall and Factions? What if Guild Wars Utopia had lived?
AzTtec PC case mod takes the Thermaltake Level 10 GT back in time
The Thermaltake Level 10 GT PC case is quite a sight on its own, but it's also proven to be popular among case modders, who have taken things to some considerable extremes in the past year. One of the most impressive to date is this so-called AzTtec mod by bit-tech.net member dmcgrath, who's ditched the usual LEDs and gaming inspirations in favor of something that makes even steampunk look thoroughly modem by comparison. To do that, he carved the enclosure you see above by hand out of a material called Balsa Foam, and then proceeded to painstakingly paint it and adorn it foliage and other tiny details. Hit the source link below to examine it up close.[Thanks, Antony]
Student creates 3D Aztec suspended-flythrough for master's thesis
California State University multimedia student Tommy Lothian has come up with quite the master's thesis: a virtual flythrough of an imaginative Aztec world wherein players don 3D goggles and strap themselves into a harness that suspends them horizontally, enabling them to interact with objects and complete tasks, including stabbing a monster with a jade stone, scaling an active volcano, and, uh, not hallucinating over too much fermented agave juice. No word on what Tommy plans to do with the tech, but we bet that agave juice simulation would be a huge hit at parties.
