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Anti-Aliased: Eye candy leaves a bad taste in my mouth
Global Agenda is one of those games that's really dividing people. Some people love the game for whatever reason, other people bash on the game for whatever reason, and that's fine by me. While I personally love the game and have been playing it a bunch as my permanent side game, I gave it a less than stellar review that I thought was fair of the game at the time I wrote the review. Of course, since then, many changes are coming (many of which I approve of) and I think Hi-Rez has a pretty good roadmap for their game in place. However, one of my twitter followers recently pointed me to an editorial posted by Kyle Bennett, founder of HardOCP -- a website dedicated to hardcore gaming. Kyle's going for a full blown boycott against the indie company for one simple reason: they won't let him rock his multi-monitor setup because it could "give him an unfair advantage." While Kyle's entitled to his opinion and dissatisfaction, I have two problems with his editorial. The first lies in a misconstruction of the facts and the second lies in the nature of his request.
DragonCon 2009: Interview with Global Agenda
At Dragon*Con this year, we had the chance to grab a quick video interview with Stew Chisam, VP of Game Operations at Hi-Rez Studios. Following two successful closed beta weekends, and some wonderful demos at Dragon*Con and PAX, Stew was happy to tell us how things are going in the progression of Global Agenda.As promised on our last tour of the Hi-Rez Studios HQ, we're following the studio -- and the game -- as they progress through to launch. Follow along after the jump to see what Stew has to say about player feedback, projected launch and the overwhelming following they've seen at Dragon*Con.
Global Agenda mo-caps U.S. soldier before he deploys for tour of duty
We hope our U.S. readers have been enjoying their Independence Day celebrations. Clearly most everyone working in the MMO industry has been chowing down on BBQ as there hasn't been much in the way of major gaming news stories breaking during the holiday. However, we did come across a Global Agenda story that we think is fitting for the 4th of July weekend. Hi-Rez Studios VP of game operations Stew Chisam writes that the Global Agenda team received this from the wife of U.S. Army Captain Chris Ficquette: "My husband is in the United States Army and will be re-deployed for his second tour of duty this summer. To date, I have not yet found a bigger fan of video games than him. Is there any way that I could have my husband involved in motion capturing so that he could be immortalized in your video game?" It turns out Hi-Rez Studios was willing to oblige.
Hi-Rez Studios VP Stew Chisam on what to expect from Global Agenda
The people at Hi-Rez Studios are the creators of Global Agenda, a 'spy-fi' mix of massively multiplayer online game and a shooter. Although Global Agenda is still a ways off from a release date, fan sites have already been established, notably Global Agenda Mission Control. The Mission Control community recently posed some questions to the Global Agenda creators, and Stew Chisam, Hi-Rez Studios Vice President of Game Operations, was happy to respond. Chisam provides updates on Global Agenda's fiction, which is fleshed out in two stories so far -- The Utopian and The Cure for Life. He states that Global Agenda's lore will be there to establish backstory, but the game experience isn't necessarily story-driven. "You'll see that the players themselves drive the drama and action inside of the game," he says. "It's their interactions with each other and the alliances they choose to make that really create the 'history' inside the game and drive your progression forward as a character."
