fps
Latest
Some really shifty shots
Xboxyde graces us with some new shots of Vivendi's 4th dimension bending shooter, Timeshift. The screens show off some of the nifty backdrops and some decent weapon models -- not spectacular, though this is expected from what was originally an Xbox title. Hopefully the final gameplay lives up to its promise (it should if E3 was any indication).
Next Call of Duty answered, previewed
If the mention of World War II still compels you to go about shooting things (typically Nazis) from a first-person perspective, you'd best check out 1Up's weeklong feature that promises to detail every pixel, polygon and private that constitutes the upcoming Call of Duty 3. Taking over from Infinity Ward, developer Treyarch is keen on capitalizing on next-gen technology and the creative freedoms it provides -- with any luck, that means we'll actually be able to open doors in this one. Oh well, we suppose loads of on-screen enemies and trampled blades of grass are just as useful.The screenshots and video provided are enough to convince us of the game's technical gravitas, but we're quite interested in the Wii version and how it looks to take advantage of the unique control system. A small blurb in the first part of the preview suggests how, while at the same time suggesting that the other two versions of the game are the main focus here. "The Wii version, in development outside Treyarch, shows some potential to bring the player into the game during the Battle Actions in a way the PS3 and 360 won't be able to. Actually wrestling with a German for his gun or actually disarming that explosive are things only the Wii will let you do this gen."Battle actions are Call of Duty's answer to Shenmue's Quick Timer Events. At certain points during the game, you're required to press certain buttons in order to escape a cinematic struggle or situation. Failure is likely to result in far more unpleasantness than getting smacked in the head by some Japanese kid's soccerball. These sound particularly intriguing if done correctly for the Wii and should make up for some of its inevitable graphical shortcomings. Even then, we have to wonder how long it'll take before we grow tired of crawling through trenches and taking out tanks. Is World War II the new Hoth?[Thanks to everyone that sent this in!]
Prey Demo now available on Xbox Live
Major Nelson kindly informed us that the Xbox Live servers are hosting a brand new chunk of code. At last, Xbox 360 owners get the opportunity to explore Human Head's topsy-turvy alien abductee sim, Prey. Contained within the 1.17GB demo (well over the 449MB PC version), you'll find a first-person shooter tinged with insanity and laced with opportunities to shoot yourself in the back. It's not often we get to play a corridor-crawler where the walls vomit body parts, your grenades attempt to bite you and the gravity behaves like it's trapped within some sort of interstellar tumble dryer. It's also not often that we get a Live demo on a Friday -- must be more alien meddling. Grab the demo and be sure to let us know what you think. Please note that the demo is not available in the regions of Germany or Japan, so folks living there won't get to prey it right away (sorry).
Prey Limited Editions revealed
We're only a few weeks away from the release of Prey, and 3D Realms is whetting the appetite of collectors with the announcement of the game's limited edition packaging. For an extra $10, you'll get the DVD edition of the game in a shiny metal box that includes a book of artwork and two pewter figurines (three, if you pre-order now). Come on, you know you want that Mutate figurine!See also: Prey PC demo available, Xbox 360 demo WRU?[via TeamXbox]
The FPS conundrum
When the Wii controller was first revealed to the world, it seemed as though it would be the end-all-be-all for first-person shooter controls. Many even claimed it would be superior to the industry standard mouse and keyboard (causing many PC gamers to violently explode). After countless debates in message boards and chatrooms between legions of fanboy armies, E3 2006 rolled around. Surely, this would put our doubts and fears to rest. The show was all about the Wii: hardware, software, and six hour lines. Perhaps the greatest desire of all, however, was to finally feel how wonderfully games like Red Steel and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption handled.
Midway announces Unreal Anthology
The impossibly gorgeous Unreal Tournament 2007 won't be out for quite a while yet, a fact which appears powerless to stop Midway from making a few bucks from the franchise they previously snatched away from Atari. Dubbed Unreal Anthology, their neat little package will contain the original Nali slaughterfest, Unreal, its Return to Na Pali expansion pack, Unreal II: The Awakening, Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition and Unreal Tournament 2004: Editor's Choice Edition. Come this August, you'll be able to waltz into a store and pick up three great first-person shooters (and one alarmingly average one) for the satisfying sum of $29.99. You may also want to peruse the rest of the PC section and discover all the other titles you've missed in the years that you've been trapped in cryogenic suspension (yes, Half-Life has a sequel now).
Call of Duty 2 Hits Stores
At long last, the long awaited sequel to one of the greatest first person shooters of all time--and 2003 Game of the Year--is available in stores as an OS X compatible Universal Binary. The series, set in World War II, is known for its extensive use of sound and environmental design to make the player really feel like they're in the middle of a war zone. Sporting an all new game engine, COD II officially requires a G5 or Intel Machine, but I've heard reports of it running respectably on even 12 inch PowerBooks. I can't wait to get my hands on this game, see you on the battlefield!
Halo 3 has a happy ending, or how I learned to love YTMND
The animated .gif addicts over at YTMND have been very busy lately revealing the truthiness behind recent video game rumors. Here are some of those OMIGOD NEWS FLASH! announcements from YTMND's gaming posse: The PS3's 100% official start-up screen REVEALED! Nintendo's bunker busted REVEALED! Halo 3 ending REVEALED! World of Warcraft in space REVEALED! Shiggy's secret N64 formula REVEALED! Half-Life 2's plotline REVEALED! (take that, suckas) YTMND's formula is never going to get old, simply because there will never be a shortage of fanboy ideas and rumors to make fun of. [Via Xbox360Fanboy] More: The Wii zeitgeist, via YTMND, Wiill Ferrell tests Wii accelerometer technology and Dick Hunt!
Halo 3 happy ending?
To all the haters who complain about frivolous blog posts and possible spoilers. Lighten up. It's the best day ever! [Thanks Joe]
Zfang portable gaming keyboard reviewed
If you're looking to give your fingers a break but don't want to replace your regular keyboard with one of Ideazon's fairly large and generally graphics-laden Zboards, you might be interested in adding their compact new Zfang to your repertoire. Extremetech's review is generally positive, complimenting its ergonomic design and extensive customizability, citing only minor negatives like plastic construction and the $35 price tag. Other features, like buttons on each side to accommodate lefties, multimedia controls, and 11 weapon-specific keys, make the Zfang seem like just the thing to help us in our transition from FPS-player to real-life killing machines.
More Halo 3 footage for your Halo obsessed soul
Bungie has posted a video featuring a behind the scenes look at the creation of the Halo 3 trailer, complete with commentary from several Bungie employees and footage of the orchestra and choir that was used to create the backing music. If, for whatever reason, you can't view the video, here's a quick summary of the content: Amusing quotes if taken out of context: Marty shows early signs of dementia with his paranoid "Where are we? Who is this? What's happening?" sound bite. A few snippets of unseen footage, mainly from different angles of the Halo 3 trailer. This could possibly be proof that the trailer was rendered in real time, although it's very likely that the sound, AI and everything else was pre-rendered. Some more mystery surrounding cortana: dare we say she's gone rampant? A lot of meaningless marketing lines that amount to not much more than hype. Phrases like "dynamic", "real stuff" and "that epic feel" don't tell us much about how Halo 3 is coming along. Overall, there isn't that much new to see here, although if you're a fan of Halo (who isn't?) the video is probably worth a few moments of your time. [Image: Emily Fulford]
Halo 2 reaches half-billion matchmaking games played milestone
Yesterday, according to Bungie, the 500,000,001st game of Halo 2 was played on Xbox Live. To be clear, this number does not include player-sessions or games that were lost because Bungie.net was down, or other technical issues. While it's certainly an achievement Bungie should be proud of, it's hardly a surprise. 6.4 million units of the game were sold in less than three months. Even if another copy was never sold, and even if only 5% of those 6.4 million units were associated with an Xbox Live account (that's 320,000 unique players) -- and given that the game has been in release for 573 days -- each of those 320,000 players would only need to average (roughly) 3 matchmaking games per day. C'mon, the Joystiq crew clocks those numbers before breakfast. Let us know when you hit 1 billion, Bungie. Then we'll be impressed. (We kid, we kid.) [Thanks, Shizzle]
Halo 2 celebrates half a billion games played!
Bungie is partying it up, and with good reason: Halo 2 is proud to have had half a billion games played on Xbox Live (we know a lot of you contributed!). From the words of Bungie, these are actual games and not player-sessions. The number was logged as of noon yesterday, and we suspect it won't be long 'till their next milestone is reached. Congrats!
F.E.A.R 360 P.R.E.V.I.E.W
EuroGamer has some info on F.E.A.R 360's "instant action" mode: It's not just for kicks though - the better you do, the better your end-of-level or post-death stats, which you're given on an analysis screen afterward. Not only that, but the game computes a final score for you and uploads it to Xbox Live leaderboards, which ought to encourage a bit of competition. Vivendi's also talked about "brand new multiplayer content created to fully utilise Xbox Live" so it's a fair bet Live will be employed for more than boards, too - although whether F.E.A.R. 360 will make use of the content recently added to the PC version, including new Control game-modes, is something Vivendi hasn't got anything to say about right now. More to come, presumably. Those of us with under-powered PCs are counting on this port to deliver what our aging rigs cannot. [Thanks 8BitNinja]
Many think Marathon on XBLA is a "good idea"
If you're done watching the Bungie guys cursing on video, you may find yourself with a renewed interest in getting your mitts on Marathon, their ground breaking FPS that out-doomed Doom. You could always download the entire trilogy for free, straight from Bungie, and give it a spin on your Mac and/or PC, but if you're more of a console gamer, there is a tiny flicker of hope ... wrapped tightly in a whisper ... carried on a pillow of desire: In Bungie's Weekly Update Spenser asks, "Marathon and XBLA: is it at all possible?" Frankie responds, "Of course it's possible, it's just not on any current agenda. If it's any consolation, many, many people think it's a good idea." Alright, so there's barely enough hope there to keep our blackened gamer-souls from consuming us whole, but it's comforting to know we're not alone. There are "many" of us who think this is a "good idea." You know what you have to do Bungie ... wrap up this Halo business and give us some Marathon! [Via TUAW]
Ubisoft on Wii: A good place to put our money
The good folks at Infendo have posted an interview with Ubisoft president, Laurent Detoc, taken from the June 2006 issue of Fast Money. In it, Mr. Detoc justifies Ubisoft's decision to give Nintendo a Wii exclusive in the form of first-person shoot 'n slash, Red Steel. Detoc points out that this year, "we'll be the only publisher besides Nintendo that'll have an exclusive title--Red Steel, a first-person shooter game--released for the new Wii console when it debuts [in November]. People think this is crazy. Nobody is paying attention to Nintendo. Everyone has been obsessed with the Xbox 360 and Sony's [upcoming] PlayStation 3."He praises the system's unique controller and its ability to create new ways of playing games, and indicates that being first out of the gate will give them a major advantage. "It seemed like a good place to put our money. For my competition, it's too late to have a game out for the Wii by Christmas. They can't do it. But we did it. We will be there. Maybe Wii will fail, and I'll look like an idiot. But if it succeeds, then we will have a new brand on our hands that could be worth up to $100 million"We think that Mr. Detoc might be making a mistake by directly connecting the success of Red Steel to the success of the Wii. After all, the game's E3 showing, for lack of a better expression, just didn't cut mustard. Pass the Metroid Prime 3, please.[Note: According to Infendo, all instances of "Revolution" have been changed to "Wii". What a relief.]
Half-Life 2: Episodes Two and Three confirmed
As we wait patiently for next week's release of Half-Life 2: Episode One, Valve has confirmed that Episode Two will ship by the end of the year, and will be the subject of a sneak peek included with the first expansion. Meanwhile, Episode Three is already in development and has been confirmed for a late 2007 release. How many of you have purchased SiN Episodes: Emergence, or BioWare's Neverwinter Nights premium modules? What other franchises would you like to see deliver episodic content? See also: HL2: Episode One site is up, with plot details, Half-Life 2 storyline cheat sheet
More integrated graphics from Apple
Apple released the MacBook, its new consumer laptop, today. The full tech specs -- which are over at Apple's site -- mention that the MacBook features an Intel GMA950: in other words, an integrated graphics chip identical to the Mac mini. Previously we've summarized the disadvantages of integrated graphics and we've moaned about the poor graphics performance of Apple's line-up in an attempt to force someone at Apple to listen, but it was all in vain. Apple's supposed "gaming solution" (Windows) is hardly a solution now that Apple's consumer line-up (MacBook, Mac mini) doesn't have a dedicated graphics card, the prosumer line-up (MacBook Pro, iMac) features a low- to mid-range mobile chip and the remaining top-of-the-range machine (PowerMac) is stuck with PowerPC processors, crappy default GPUs (GeForce 6600s, yuck!) and a largely unobtainable price.If Apple one days wakes up and realizes that there are a load of potential gaming switchers sitting on the fence it would either: tell, no, force Intel to make some integrated chips that aren't "virtually unplayable for anybody that cares about gaming" or provide the option of dedicated graphics cards for gamers, even if it costs us more.
PC Halo 2 update
GamePro has some new details on the PC release of Halo 2. Two Microsoft directors in the Games for Windows division confirmed that Bungie's popular shooter will arrive "just after" the launch of Windows Vista in Q1. They also suggested that the PC version will not be cross-platform compatible with the original Halo 2 until they find somebody to "re-code the Xbox version" so it can interface with the Xbox 360. I hear there are a lot of programmers up in Redmond, so hopefully this will be resolved.
PS3 impressions: Resistance Fall of Man
What is this Resistance: Fall of Man? It's not fun. We want Killzone back. Where's that game?We asked a Resistance developer what made his game unique. He stared at us blankly for a moment, fumbling for an answer, and then he told us that we would have to figure that out for ourselves. Not a good sign.What we figured out were a number of winding hallways, stretching through an abandoned medical facility. Every few feet alien creatures would appear. Sometimes they attacked, and sometimes they just stood around. Either way, we filled them with hot lead and continued on. Rinse. And repeat.Resistance is a derivative FPS. It's got no backbone. But with no Killzone in sight, Resistance looks to be one of the few -- if not the only -- option shooters fans will have on their shiny $600 (you're not really gonna buy the "core" system, are you?) unit come launch day.
