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TUG begins building networking and third-person models
TUG is a game with big goals and a small start, but that's just more stuff for it to work up to over time. The latest update for the game's backers shows how far the game has already come even in its early stage, though, with the game already beginning to build upon and improve its overall infrastructure. The latest update highlights that third-person models are now partly in place, with first-person animations and some third-person animations working correctly. The game's networking is also in place, but at the moment it's only a bare-bones implementation; players can host servers but no central server architecture yet exists. The update warns that it's also largely untested, since that is part of what the testing environment exists to facilitate. There's also new biomes, new crafting, and physics -- a far cry from the initial exploration demo. It's still small, but every update makes the game just a little bigger.
Gloria Victis releases its first pre-alpha trailer
Gloria Victis has been slowly unveiling new bits of information to fans, mostly focusing on screenshots. But screenshots don't show the world in motion, which is kind of a big deal -- a game can look wonderful in stills but move stiffly, or it can look nice in motion and be boring in static pictures. So fans should be quite happy to see the first trailer from the game showing off four minutes of gameplay, UI, and animations. If you haven't been interested in Gloria Victis before now, you still might want to take a look at the trailer, since it's narrated with an explanation of the game's design principles and overall goals. It's definitely meant to be more on the low fantasy end of the scale, focusing on freeform attacks and player skill over gear progression and the like. If that sounds like your thing, take a look past the break and check out the full trailer. [Thanks to Liting for the tip!]
Hands-on with God of War II
IGN got an early hands-on preview of God of War II, and they're lovin' what Sony's Santa Monica studio has come up with so far.Without revealing too much of the sequel's plot, our hairless hero now sports some new magical attacks and context-sensitive finishing moves. Needless to say, prominent Greek mythological figures will also be showing up to keep Kratos company, and there will certainly be a lot of flashy slashing-first-ask-questions-later kind of action to fill the hours.For more spoilers on "an early section of the sequel," simply follow the image link above or Read link below, where you can find a few more details on the new power-up system and annoying enemy combatants (otherwise known as smarter fodder for your sharper blades). A practical explanation goes into the reasons for keeping things on the PS2 rather than the PS3, and hopefully less frustrating puzzles are revealed as well. More will likely be revealed at Sony's big E3 press conference today.See also: New God of War 2 director speaks God of War's Jaffe inspired by Britney vs. Christina God of War 2 GDC video leaked online
