Pierre Bienaimé

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Stories By Pierre Bienaimé

  • GDC 2013: Activision's pursuit of photorealism

    At a GDC panel titled "Next Generation Character Rendering" last week, research and development staffers at Activision-Blizzard showed off some stunning computer-generated portraits. The catch? They don't represent in-game assets; instead, they showcase the tech behind the graphics. So while these we won't be seeing the lady above as the protagonist of Titan, it's reasonable to expect that the characters of Blizzard's future games could look just as convincing and real. As I looked on from the audience, my iPhone's camera focused on the projected slides as if they beheld actual faces.

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  • GDC 2013: Dean Hall on the pillars of DayZ's design

    Dean Hall talks about DayZ as a scientist would a Petri dish gone grotesque. He knows perhaps what the game's strengths and appeal might be, knows why it hosts over 1.7 million players. Still, he meets the success with some bemusement, especially considering how notoriously difficult the mod is to install. Now Hall is working with Bohemia Interactive on a standalone DayZ title (to be released, he apologizes, "when it's ready"). In Hall's "Designing DayZ" lecture at GDC this week, the focus was on his philosophy in shaping the game.

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  • Hands-on with Blacklight: Retribution's biggest update yet

    February 27th will mark one year since Blacklight: Retribution threw the doors of its beta wide open. Since then, it's ranked among Steam's 50 most-played shooters. For the game's first anniversary, publisher Perfect World Entertainment is hoping to keep the free-to-play shooter's success story going with an update called Onslaught, its biggest content push to date. I recently attended a preview event for Massively to sample Onslaught for myself. Let's start with the small and work our way up.

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  • Hands-on with the Chinese war machines in World of Tanks' patch 8.3

    To keep a burgeoning community of 45 million registered users happy, the developers behind World of Tanks know to keep the content coming. After the overhauled graphics, physics, and sounds brought about by patch 8.0 last September, we're already on the cusp of version 8.3. It's out tomorrow, and that means 17 new tanks for the as-of-now-underserved Chinese tech tree. "The Chinese are a middle-of-the-road tree," says Paul Hobbs, content manager with Wargaming.net. "They don't excel in any one attribute. They have high firepower, a fair amount of maneuverability, and decent armor and aim speed." %Gallery-176480%

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