Freeverse
Latest
Freeverse releases a Horde of Orcs on the Mac
Freeverse dropped me a note to let me know that their new tower defense game released yesterday. It's called Horde of Orcs, and I have to say, it looks fun. If you've ever played Desktop Tower Defense, you know what the deal is here, except that this time around, everything's in shiny, colorful 3D, with a nice dose of humor added in. The demo is available for download over on their website (along with a freaky live action trailer that means someone had to get dressed up in green paint and go Orc-crazy). Just the other day, I said I hadn't had a Mac-only gaming experience worth recommending this year, but maybe I spoke too soon. Horde of Orcs might be just the thing to finish off 2007 right.
Freeverse discusses porting Marathon 2 to XBLA
Gamasutra's postmortems are excellent opportunities to look back at certain games, and hear with unabashed honesty what went right and wrong throughout the course of development. Such is the case with developer Freeverse's postmortem on their enhanced port of Bungie's classic Marathon 2: Durandal for Xbox Live Arcade.Freeverse employee Mark Levin goes into insane levels of detail describing the arduous task of bringing Marathon 2 -- originally a Macintosh title -- over to the Xbox 360. He discusses the team's decision to re-work the graphics for HD, and the difficulty of bug-testing very old code, but somehow neglects to discuss the game's propensity for causing upset stomachs.Regardless, it's a great and honest read, with some real insight into the treacherous task of bringing old games to new consoles.
Let Jared serenade your trick-or-treaters for Halloween
It's Halloween again and nothing says frightful quite like a bodyless animated head singing dreadfully on your desktop. Yes, Freeverse's digital Jared makes the perfect workspace companion for a spooky day like today. Let him serenade you...and frighten away all your annoying visitors. Keep some ibuprofen on-hand--and check out Jared's Wikipedia page.
Freeverse bringing Airburst to XBLA
Freeverse, the company that brought Spyglass Board Games and Marathon: Durandal to Xbox Live Arcade (on the same day!), has announced a new title for the service called Airburst. The game is being developed by Freeverse's UK counterpart Strange Flavour and emphasizes the pick-up-and-play philosophy of XBLA and "promises to be one of the best party games on the platform." The game features characters riding platforms made of balloons, doing their keep the "chainsaw-bladed burster ball" from destroying their platform while simultaneously bouncing the ball back towards the opponent's platform. It sounds a bit like Pong, only the object is to not let the ball hit your paddle. Airburst promises multiple gametypes, character-specific abilities, and the requisite "crazy power-ups," so it looks like everything is covered. Well, almost everything: no release date has been announced.
Periscope 1.5
The good folks at Freeverse dropped us a line informing of an update to their webcam app, Periscope. We first looked at this app awhile ago, and the UI has been completely overhauled (for the better in my opinion). If you aren't familiar with this app it is a simple idea: harness the power of your Mac's webcam (either an iSight or an external cam) to do more than just Photobooth.Periscope lets you set your Mac to take a picture when it hears a noise, when it detects motion in user-defined zones, at a specific time, or when you push a button. The resultant pictures can be automatically uploaded to Flickr or .Mac, they can be saved into a movie to make a simple time lapse, emailed, or FTPed to a location of your choice. But wait, there's more! The images can also be timestamped, overlayed, or have text labels applied to them automatically.What would you expect to pay for such a powerful application? If you said $39.95 you'd be right (and get out of my head!). There is a fully functional demo that lets you use Periscope for 50 hours, so you really don't have a reason not to try this sweet little app out, now do you?
Freeverse holds a 30% off sale
Freeverse, winner of many design awards (and publisher of Marathon on the 360-- I had no idea!) is throwing down with a software sale on their website. By using the code montyrules with any purchase before September 20th, you can pick up any of the software and games they're selling for a whopping 30% off.Heroes V for $35! Euchre (my favorite card game ever) for $14! Wingnuts 2 for $21! And the apps aren't to be scoffed at either-- they've got the great Comic Life, Lineform, and Sound Studio 3 all on sale as well.Woot for Freeverse, and woot for selling great games and apps for cheaper than usual. Now that you guys are flush with money, how about convincing Microsoft to let you put that Euchre game on my 360, too?Thanks, Brian!
Marathon motion sickness gets cured
Freeverse sends word that a title update for Marathon: Durandal is now available. Among other things, the update gives players the option to choose a wider field of view. This option is supposed to help players that have experienced motion sickness whilst playing the game. We haven't personally experienced the alleged motion sickness, so we can't tell you whether or not a wider field of view fixes the problem. If you've fallen victim to the illness yourself, you may want to fire up Marathon and give the new setting a try. Once you're done, come back here and share the results with the rest of the class (unless the result is vomit; you don't need to share that).
Freeverse to offer advice on Marathon: Durandal motion sickness
Perhaps noticing a few of his soldiers dropping like flies, Microsoft's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb spoke with Freeverse regarding the fits of motion sickness caused by their latest release, Marathon: Durandal. While they're not offering a technical solution just yet, they do plan on giving folks fair warning and a bit of advice. Within the next few days, Freeverse will "implement a [dashboard] message on the download screen to advise users on steps they can take if this affects them and are investigating other options to address the issue."When we spoke to Marathon:Durandal's project lead, Bruce Morrison, he suggested a simple flip of the "camera bob" option and that seemed to work wonders. With so many folks -- many with no prior history of motion sickness -- getting ill from playing, it may still require an alteration of the game itself.
Marathon causes loss of lunch?
While we have yet to enjoy such things ourselves (thanks to an unwelcome visitor), reports are coming in that the Xbox Live Arcade version of Marathon: Durandal is making people a little queasy. As many gamers know, first person shooter games can often induce motion sickness, and it seems that this effect is magnified by Marathon. Joystiq spoke to Freeverse, developers of the XBLA port, about this issue to see if they could get some answers. Freeverse noted that Marathon's popularity and the spreading internet rumor that it can make people sick is probably responsible for most of the outcry. Frankly, we find the idea of a gamer-centric, psychosomatic illness spread via the internet to be highly entertaining.Freeverse isn't laughing the matter away however, and is investigating the issue. In the meantime, they suggest that players play the game with the "camera bob" option turned on. This should keep the game from appearing smoother than it should be. Furthermore, make sure you're not sitting to close to the TV (duh).Out of curiosity, have any readers out there experienced motion sickness while playing Marathon: Durandal?
Marathon: Durandal's bonus feature: motion sickness
The first person shooter genre has always been synonymous with motion sickness, but when the ol' iron guts here at Joystiq started feeling queasy after playing Marathon: Durandal for Xbox Live Arcade, we knew something was wrong. Sure enough, threads began to pop up all over the place and even IGN noted in their official review that four of their editors felt ill while playing. To find out what's to blame for this poké-esque epidemic, we talked to Freeverse's Bruce Morrison, project lead on Marathon: Durandal. "Marathon's obvious popularity, the sudden forum 'meme' of it making you sick, and the wealth of really excellent hurl jokes ... I think that explains a lot of it." teases Bruce. In all seriousness, he explains, "No one at Freeverse, Microsoft, Bungie, VMC or our testing and localization partners reported any motion sickness issues and many of us have logged hundreds of hours of playtime. So we really don't believe the problem is universal. However, a good number of people will experience motion sickness with any FPS."While Freeverse is planning on investigating this matter, Bruce does have some suggestions. First, try playing with the "camera bob" option set to on as the lack of default motion tends to make things appear smoother than they already are. Also, if your mother never told you better, try adjusting your seating position. You may be sitting far too close to your set for this odd, stomach churning experience.Having taken his advice, we can now enjoy this remastered classic with only a mild headache as the side effect. Thanks, camera bob!
Marathon and Board Games hit XBLA
It's Wednesday and that means it's time for some brand new Arcade goodness. This week, you have two games from which to choose (which often seems to be the case these days). You can bring home a little slice of Bungie history with Marathon: Durandal, or you can enjoy some Vision Cam enabled chicanery with Spyglass Board Games. Both games feature multiplayer fun with Marathon offering splitscreen, system-link, and Live play (both co-op and versus), while Spyglass Board Games offers the aforementioned Vision Cam 1-on-1 play. Marathon will cost you 800 Microsoft bucks and Spyglass Board Games will set you back 400. Which will it be for you? Or, dare we ask, are you crazy enough to buy both?
Marathon and Halo -- Closer than ever before thanks to the gamepad
With the 2001 release of Halo, Bungie proved that not only were high quality, console-centric FPS titles possible, but they could be controlled just as well with a gamepad as with a keyboard and mouse. Since then, just about every FPS title to grace a console has attempted to replicate the precision and familiarity of Halo's scheme. So when it came time to bring a legendary Bungie title, Marathon: Durandal, to Xbox Live Arcade, the folks at Freeverse saw fit to keep it in the family."In moving the original, which was a keyboard [and] mouse game, we had to translate all the original behavior to the Xbox controller -- sticks and range of feedback instead of binary key hits." tells Ian Lynch Smith, president of Freeverse. "What we ended up doing is getting the actual curves and math that Halo 2 uses, so in those respects Marathon Durandal's controls have the exact same feel as Halo 2."We can already hear the collective cry of the Marathon community. "Hold it! Doesn't injecting Marathon with bits of Halo compromise the integrity of the original?" Not so, according to Freeverse's Bruce Morrison as Marathon: Durandal still plays exactly the same."If it took 10 seconds to get from point a to point b on the original it will in ours."Get a feel for the slick new controls yourself when Marathon: Durandal is released tomorrow on Xbox Live Arcade.
This week on XBLA: Marathon and Spyglass Board Games
The days when Xbox Live Arcade releases were few and far between seem to be a distant memory now. Here we are again this week with yet another double scoop of downloadable pleasure. This week we have two surprisingly different games. In one corner, we have Marathon: Durandal, an old school FPS (and Halo precursor) that we had the good fortune to sample at E3 a couple weeks ago. In the other corner we have Spyglass Board Games, which offers classic board games with integrated video chat. The four games included are chess, checkers, Reversi, and our favorite, mancala. Marathon: Durandal and Spyglass Board Games will be available this Wednesday for 800 and 400 points respectively.%Gallery-5348%%Gallery-5349%
Marathon: Durandal video takes us back
We like us some Marathon. That is no secret. For many people, however, Marathon: Durandal on Xbox Live Arcade will be their first experience with Bungie's seminal shooter. If you find yourself in such a situation, you may find the video above to be an edifying experience. The game packs some serious action as well as many features that were very new during Marathon's heyday, including reloading weapons, alternate fire, and dual-wielding. Oh yeah, and the ability to look up and down? Well that was just crazy (and something you wouldn't find in DOOM, for example). The fact that it also serves as a basis for many of the weapons, story elements, ideas, and concepts of Halo is just gravy. Watch and enjoy.If you're really inclined to delve into Halo's history, you can grab the entire Marathon trilogy for free.
Everything you need to know about Marathon: Durandal
Over on Bungie.net, the crew posted an informative Q&A for upcoming XBLA game Marathon: Durandal to answer all the questions you've been asking since its announcement at E3. The Q&A session gives a short (and lengthy)explanation of how the Arcade version of Durandal came to be as well as talks about the game's improvements, why the original Marathon wasn't chosen, how much Bungie helped Freeverse, and it also goes through the game's features. Like we said, this Bungie.net Q&A is the de facto of all Marathon: Durandal Q&As even though it's the only one out there. But noticably absent in this information explosion is any mention of the game's release date. We guess we'll just have to stay at high alert status for that news to hit the intertubes.
Everything you ever wanted to know about Marathon: Durandal for XBLA
Bungie has conducted an interview of their own with Freeverse, the folks behind Marathon: Durandal for Xbox Live Arcade. We've already gone hands-on with it ourselves and even gave you a friendly reminder as to how you can experience the original masterpiece. Now it's time to find out exactly what makes this release special.The most prominent of the features is the brand-new 3D engine that allows Marathon: Durandal to run at 60 frames per second, compared to the 30 frames of the original. As you can clearly see in the image above, the leap in quality is tremendous. The jump from using a keyboard and mouse to the Xbox 360 controller has already been bemoaned by some, but the developers at Freeverse have been aided by Bungie in their pursuit of FPS perfection. Online play will have a huge role in Durandal with support for up to 8 players in both cooperative and competitive modes. The new Survival mode is laid out and described by Freeverse's Bruce Morrison as, "a giant truck that pulls up to your house one day, where a platoon of alien commandos jump out, kidnap you, and wail on you until you're dead. And then the truck explodes, just to make sure the job gets done." Expect to be faced with wave after wave of enemies by the dozen in a desperate struggle to conquer the leader boards.One feature from the original Marathon 2 getting the axe is saved films. A prominent piece of the Halo 3 puzzle, saved films simply wouldn't work out in the XBLA release of Durandal due to both the new network code and lack of online storage afforded to a game of its kind.As to why Marathon 2 and not the original, Bruce Morrison from Freeverse gives two answers, though the non-technical of which is easier to digest. Should they have been faced with the worst case scenario of only being able to release one title from the series, Durandal simply made the most sense due to its comprehensive campaign, richer story and technical superiority over the original.
Joystiq hands-on: Marathon Xbox Live Arcade
Being the last day of E3, we were bound and determined to finally lay our greedy little hands on Marathon: Durandal for Xbox Live Arcade. Having been turned away from Marathon's suite thrice yesterday, we were eager to finally get a hold of Bungie's seminal shooter (being developed for XBLA by Freeverse). Seeing as we only had a short time with the game, we decided to set off into multiplayer immediately. There were several maps to choose from, but "Giant Flaming Pit of Lava" caught our eye, so off we went.
Marathon: Durandal confirmed for XBLA
The torrent of Xbox 360 news from the E3 press conference continues as, Microsoft confirmed in an Xbox Live Arcade reel that Marathon: Durandal is indeed heading to Xbox Live Arcade. Given that the game was rated by the USK and subsequently pulled from the USK's database, this should come as no surprise to X3F readers. The brief clip showed off at the press conference revealed improved graphics over its aging PC/Mac counterpart. For those unaware, the Marathon series is something of a spiritual precursor to the Halo series, featuring many similar plot and design elements. In essence, Marathon is the primordial ooze out of which Halo born. No price or release date have been announced.Oh, and, for the record, we totally called it (last year even).
Freeverse Software changes the name, to announce new products this week
Freeverse, the minds behind Totemball and the seldom mentioned Spyglass Board Games, has dropped the word "software" from their company name. Citing a diversification of their line-up including Mac utilities and the aforementioned Xbox Live Arcade titles, Freeverse is definitely pushing well beyond their Mac gaming roots.Freeverse president Ian Lynch Smith explains, "As we've expanded into other realms such as console game development, the 'Software' part of our name has been feeling a little antiquated." With a launch of a new website forth coming, Freeverse also plans to announce new products this week.As a prominent developer of original titles for the Mac, Freeverse has plenty of properties to bring to the console space.
Freeverse releases Periscope
A slew of new apps have been released as of late (no doubt due to the Apple Design Awards deadline) and Freeverse didn't want to be left out of the party. Periscope is a webcam utility that adds a bunch of cool features to your Mac's webcam (builtin or otherwise). You can set it to take a pic based on motion, noise, a timer, Applescript, or by pressing the Apple Remote. Once you have a pic, or a series of pics, you can upload them to Flickr, an FTP site, or export them (you can even create a time lapse movie).Periscope is available now for $29.95.
