August 2003
27 posts
Computer Games: Good for your Health
Slashdot | Computer Game Improves Children’s Hearing
A post ran at Slashdot reveals a number of articles and links pointing to sources praising video games for their positive results. Some include improved hearing and hand-eye coordination.
Yay for games!
Half-Life 2 Movies + Shipping Date
Blues News: “‘it’ll be tight, but Half-Life 2 is still on for a September 30th ship.’”
Music to my ears. That means in nearly a month we’ll be playing Half-Life 2. Horray! Oh, and there are some new movies up at FilePlanet, GameCenter.cz and Worthplaying.
More Women Than Boys?
Slashdot | Videogames Attract More Women Than Boys?
This is cool!
GBA:Creativity Wasteland(??)
This Article:The GameBoy Advance: Creativity Wasteland at Curmudgeon Gamer analyzes the exactly what kind of games make up the GBA title list. Here are the results:
Of the 375 games catalogued:
200 (53.3%) are licensed games
170 (45.3%) are sequels or franchise games
58 (15.5%) are remakes
28 (7.5%) are retrofits
31 (8.3%) are original
I dont think this is really a bad thing. The GBA is a...
Atari Publishing Extravaganza
Atari is releasing a lot of games soon. Here’s a list:
Unreal Tournement 2004
Temple of Elemental Evil
Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark
Shadow Ops: Red Mercury
Terminator 3: War of the Machines Horizons
Gothic II
Dungeons & Dragons Online
Civilization III: Conquests
Checkout http://www.atari.com for more info.
This May Be Good... Ultima X: Oddessey
Shacknews News Story
Shacknews recently posted two reviews of Ultima X: Oddessey. This new Unreal Engine-powered MMORPG from Origin and EA should be good. Here is an interesting quote highlighted by Shacknews.
“By far the best part of the Quest system is that it can be private. Many quests will spawn a private area for just you and your companions. So, if you’re told to go to the...
Spammer Shutdown
Slashdot | NZ Spammer Shutdown Makes Big Difference
awesome!
DOOM3 at QuakeCon
QuakeCon 03 Wrap-Up
The four-player limit and peer-to-peer networking do raise some concerns. With these limitations, will DOOM 3 offer enough to compete with games like Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 in the multiplayer realm? id has made it clear that the focus for DOOM 3 is single player, but lets face it, id has a huge installed base of gamers, ranging from DOOM and DOOM II, all the way up to Quake...
Carmack Interview
Doom and rocket science
CNN recently interview Carmack. In the interview, Carmack reveals that he isn’t done with video games and that his next big project will not be a sequel, it will be, in fact, a totally new story. That is music to my ears.
Max Payne 2
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Very cool, uses havoc physics engine, looks almost as good as Half-Life 2 graphics-wise. Nice textures. Fall 2003. Awesome.
Did you know this about Halo?
GamingFM.com: “Halo as some of you may or may not know, was originally developed for the Mac. Apple CEO Steve Jobs proudly debuted it at the MacWorld expo way back in 1999. It stood as the first Mac game to signify Apple’s newfound pledge to gamers that the new Macs (I believe they were G3s) would not just be for Photoshop and sound editting. It impressed the entire gaming community...
CNN Reports on QuakeCon
CNN.com - The shifting culture of video games - Aug. 17, 2003: “‘It’s pretty exciting,’ she said of winning. ‘It gets tense. After games, I’m all shaky.’ ”
Catch Me If You Can
Fast Company | Catch Me If You Can
good read about an Ebay scammer.
C&C Generals Zero Hour Trailer
Shacknews News Story: “A high quality trailer for the C&C Generals Zero Hour expansion pack has been released by EA to FileShack. You can grab up the video in a couple of different resolutions to suit your pleasure.
- Zero Hour Trailer : 400x300
- Zero Hour Trailer : 640x480
Zero Hour is scheduled for a release this fall. There is also a C&C Generals playable demo...
FF XI: Late October
Unrivaled Online Adventure Coming to Gamers in Late October
Nice.
Virtual Capitalism
Wired News: Commerce Drives Virtual World
Hey Everybody! Let’s play a game that is almost exactly like our real lives. This game called “There” (www.there.com) offers just that, only you can fly. and do some other weird things. But the game is focused on money. So, you get a job, and buy things, and try and get the best things that other people don’t have. Make sure you...
Valve Interview - Awesome
Valve talks Half Life 2 modding! - modDB.com: “@valve-gabe: The tradeoffs between the two models are the accuracy of the simulation at the wheels. You can trade less accurate wheel collisions/response for less CPU time. You can do several vehicles with the full simulation on our target machines, but you can always use the CPU for something else if the wheel simulation isn’t as...
Listen to your Favorite Movies
Lab360.com :: Listen to Movies
Check out this site. You can listen to your favorite movies. Nice during work. Probably won’t be around long though. =
Weekend Demo
Blue’s News
“A demo for Nexagon Deathmatch has been released, offering a sample of Strategy First’s real-time tactical game of arena combat set in the 44th century. The demo features two levels and two pre-made armies, along with support for user-created armies. The 201 MB download has been mirrored on 3D Gamers, FileFront, Gamer’s Hell, IGN, and Loadedinc.”
...
Craigslist: Now It's a Movie, Too
Wired News: Craigslist: Now It’s a Movie, Too
I have only began to scratch the surface of craigslist.org — it is literally an unlimited supply of reading entertainment. I suggest you check it out. craigslist.org
Half-Life 2 Anti-Aliasing Fixed
Half-Life 2 Anti-Aliasing Fixed kick ass
Nintendo Price Cut
Money.CNN
In a recent article at CNN, Chris Morris details what he considers “agressive” strategies from Nintendo. According to CNN, Nintendo’s GameCube console hasn’t sold nearly as many units as was projected for. This is prompting many to believe that GameCube prices will be cut to $99 around september, earlier than most consoles cut prices. Hopefully this will give...
Flash Mobs
CNN.com - ‘Flash mobs’ spread to Europe - Aug. 5, 2003
this is cool.
Wired News: Next Jordan Could Be a Gamer
Next Jordan Could Be a Gamer
I need to take over the CPL, GGL, and give them to FiringSquad. Yea, that’s right Angel Munoz, you suck! You probably don’t even play games! Suit!
PlanetSide Producer Exchange
Blue’s News
Recently in Blue’s News a story was posted about a producer swap. Here’s is the official word from Dave Georgeson: “PlanetSide is the biggest, baddest game I’ve ever had the privilege to work on … and it’s going to keep going for quite some time. So I’m taking the chance to move from being the Producer to becoming a full-time Senior...
Game Music
GamingFM.com
This website is great listening. Especially the Contra Megamix, FF7 Music, and Smash Bros 4 stuff. Wow!
Books on Games
There are many books about video games, the industry, and stories and history. Right now im reading this one:
Amazon.com: Books: Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
And I’ve got my eye on:
Get in the Game: Careers in the Game Industry
Although it doesnt have the ravest reviews, actually they’re quite mixed;
This is the best book written on...