PCGH
viernes 14 de marzo de 2008
Stalker Clear Sky: First screenshots and DX10 video
This video contains a visually stunning scene showed a fly-by by a destroyed city, and a factory area. Particularly impressive were the weather effects. The onset of rain crackled very realistic on the ground, the ground is worked through the rain vividly.
PCGH
PCGH
viernes 7 de marzo de 2008
domingo 2 de marzo de 2008
In game Brain Reflex cost $600
OCZ's prepares NIA for shipping next week
Codenamed the Neural Impulse Actuator (or nia for short), OCZ captivated audiences by seemingly being able to use brain power to control the motion of a character in the the popular FPS Unreal Tournament.
While details of how it worked at the time were quite sketchy with many people taking guesses at whether it was actually controlled by brainwaves or facial expressions/muscle movements, today (after seeing the device in action on a one-on-one basis) we've got some further information on the unit along with some pictures of what you can expect from the retail version once it starts shipping.
How does it work?
Obviously the biggest question that has been on everyone's minds (excuse the pun) is how does it work? While it has to be said that a lot of the information fed to us by Dr. Michael Schuette (Neurobioligist & OCZ VP of Technology) went well over our heads (here we go again - Ed), we managed to extract from the conversation that the nia works by reading bioptentials. These include activities of the brain, the autonomous nervous system and muscles - all of which are captured using embrace sensors located on the nia's headband, amplified and sent to the PC via USB2.0.
The biopotentials are broken into frequency specific components that allow a reasonably fine granularity of control for the novice user, after a short period of adaptation, the controls become essentially a streaming of body signals into the computer that don't really require any further "thinking" but become sort of second nature.
Until recently this analysis required a great deal of processing power, meaning that in a uni-processor environment the game running on a users PC would often be competing for CPU resources against the nia application. However, thanks to the popularity of multi-core processors, the software is now able to offload a lot of the "decoding" to other cores in the processor improving the performance of the multi-threaded application.
While the nia is clearly a breakthrough in technology, it's certainly not going to make anybody a professional gamer over night. In much the same way as it takes several years to learn how to touch-type without looking at the keyboard, the nia will similarly require significant 'brain training' before a user can competently navigate around a map in a game.
However, the nia does have a big advantage over the traditional mouse with OCZ claiming that reaction times can be cut by anything up to 60%. This reduction is mainly thanks to the nia cutting out a large portion of the time that the body takes to relay information from the eye down through the body into muscles in our fingers. While many professional gamers spend many hours every day for several years training these reflexes, any person using the nia should be able to harness the full potential of their reflexes within a matter of hours.
So when is it out?
Sources at OCZ have told us that the nia will be going into production as soon as next week. This falls in line with the start CeBIT, where the device will be showcased on OCZ's booth (Hall 21 B 29). People wanting to get a slice of the action as soon as it arrives with retailers can expect to pay around $300USD (~£150) - a bargain considering the R&D that has gone into the device. Also included in the package will be detailed instructions and presentations on how to make the most of the nia. So rest assured you won't be left scratching your head!
Codenamed the Neural Impulse Actuator (or nia for short), OCZ captivated audiences by seemingly being able to use brain power to control the motion of a character in the the popular FPS Unreal Tournament.
While details of how it worked at the time were quite sketchy with many people taking guesses at whether it was actually controlled by brainwaves or facial expressions/muscle movements, today (after seeing the device in action on a one-on-one basis) we've got some further information on the unit along with some pictures of what you can expect from the retail version once it starts shipping.How does it work?
Obviously the biggest question that has been on everyone's minds (excuse the pun) is how does it work? While it has to be said that a lot of the information fed to us by Dr. Michael Schuette (Neurobioligist & OCZ VP of Technology) went well over our heads (here we go again - Ed), we managed to extract from the conversation that the nia works by reading bioptentials. These include activities of the brain, the autonomous nervous system and muscles - all of which are captured using embrace sensors located on the nia's headband, amplified and sent to the PC via USB2.0.
The biopotentials are broken into frequency specific components that allow a reasonably fine granularity of control for the novice user, after a short period of adaptation, the controls become essentially a streaming of body signals into the computer that don't really require any further "thinking" but become sort of second nature.
Until recently this analysis required a great deal of processing power, meaning that in a uni-processor environment the game running on a users PC would often be competing for CPU resources against the nia application. However, thanks to the popularity of multi-core processors, the software is now able to offload a lot of the "decoding" to other cores in the processor improving the performance of the multi-threaded application.
While the nia is clearly a breakthrough in technology, it's certainly not going to make anybody a professional gamer over night. In much the same way as it takes several years to learn how to touch-type without looking at the keyboard, the nia will similarly require significant 'brain training' before a user can competently navigate around a map in a game.
However, the nia does have a big advantage over the traditional mouse with OCZ claiming that reaction times can be cut by anything up to 60%. This reduction is mainly thanks to the nia cutting out a large portion of the time that the body takes to relay information from the eye down through the body into muscles in our fingers. While many professional gamers spend many hours every day for several years training these reflexes, any person using the nia should be able to harness the full potential of their reflexes within a matter of hours.
So when is it out?
Sources at OCZ have told us that the nia will be going into production as soon as next week. This falls in line with the start CeBIT, where the device will be showcased on OCZ's booth (Hall 21 B 29). People wanting to get a slice of the action as soon as it arrives with retailers can expect to pay around $300USD (~£150) - a bargain considering the R&D that has gone into the device. Also included in the package will be detailed instructions and presentations on how to make the most of the nia. So rest assured you won't be left scratching your head!
miércoles 27 de febrero de 2008
Crysis movie confirmed, Crysis 2 in 2009?
During this year's Imagina manifestation in Monaco, France, the big kahuna at German developer Crytek spoke of the difficulties smaller companies encounter today when building games, about the company's hardware-consuming Crysis and about Uwe Boll.
This has been Yerli's second appearance as a featured speaker at the Imagina fair, after the one from last year. Lots of juicy details have transpired and lots of interesting answers came through, enough to fill in the gap between Far Cry and Crysis.
Yerli underlined during his speech that the gaming world today witnesses fewer and fewer independent developers, and that mergers and acquisitions are more frequent (like the Activision-Vivendi Games merger or EA's acquisition of Pandemic-BioWare). He estimates that Crytek, along with id Software and Epic, are the sole three companies still carrying the flag of independent game development (although he had forgotten Bungie imo...).
"The challenge is in the balance of creativity versus funding," said Yerli. "The increasing budgets, more demanding platforms and customer behavior makes it difficult to sustain as an independent company. However, at the same time, new opportunities arise such as in casual online games, but also on games that are on simpler platforms such as Nintendo Wii, Xbox Live or Playstation Networks in the form of smaller game experiences, including but not limited to arcade experiences. I believe (digital distribution) is an opportunity to sustain independence and successful titles through these channels may even be more commercially lucrative than titles released through traditional retail business."
Inevitably, the question about whether Yerli would agree with selling his beloved company (founded in 1997) emerged. The answer is yes, but on certain terms, and definitely not for the moment: ""If it were a cultural fit, yes, but we would have strong requirements in addition." He also said that Crytek has received numerous buyout offers since the launch of Far Cry and Crysis, but he declined all of them.
Although it's currently the most advanced game-engine available on the market, CryENGINE 2's adoption in new games is quite slow, but there's a reason for that: Crytek is a beginner in this business, compared to established powerhouses like Epic or id Software.
"CryEngine 2 is actively being licensed, but at a lower frequency, intentionally, to fulfill our obligations, to learn from this and to sustain a qualitative landscape," said Yerli. "With GDC we will start looking into a multi-platform offering of CryEngine 2, which was the biggest demand so far and the single biggest difference between us and the competition. With CryEngine 2 now running on multiplatform, we offer the most complete 3D engine qualitatively and productively."
About the licensing of the Far Cry franchise to German director Uwe Boll Crytek's CEO has mixed feelings, although he's probably satisfied with the deal signed a few years ago: "Unfortunately, we have not been involved in the film since very early when it was a script," said Yerli. "However, I think the script changed and improved radically since then, at least I hope it has, since I can't wait to see the movie. It will be so exciting to watch the Far Cry movie."
However, while Yerli sincerely admitted that Far Cry's story-line would at best produce a B-category movie, the same will not apply for Crysis, a game for which a solid and engaging story has been one of the main preoccupations (well, how about graphics? wasn't that in the plan? ;)). So yes, a Crysis movie is definitely positively certain...
"A Crysis movie is definitely planned," said Yerli. "We are in active talks already. I think we will close this topic before the end of this year."
As for the already highly-anticipated sequel for the PC shooter, Cevat Yerli declined to make any comments, although we all know that Crysis will be a trilogy. But, if they organize much better than before, they could bring it out sooner than we had expected...
"No seriously, the biggest lessen learned from our previous games is to focus on efficiency in your organization," said Yerli. "The deployment of this efficiency is critical. I believe we will release our next game quicker than Crysis, so I estimate a two to three year cycle."
Therefore, if the mecano-aliens invaded Earth in 2007, that would mean they'll come back in 2009, right? And your next game will be Crysis 2 right? RIGHT?!...
This has been Yerli's second appearance as a featured speaker at the Imagina fair, after the one from last year. Lots of juicy details have transpired and lots of interesting answers came through, enough to fill in the gap between Far Cry and Crysis.
Yerli underlined during his speech that the gaming world today witnesses fewer and fewer independent developers, and that mergers and acquisitions are more frequent (like the Activision-Vivendi Games merger or EA's acquisition of Pandemic-BioWare). He estimates that Crytek, along with id Software and Epic, are the sole three companies still carrying the flag of independent game development (although he had forgotten Bungie imo...).
"The challenge is in the balance of creativity versus funding," said Yerli. "The increasing budgets, more demanding platforms and customer behavior makes it difficult to sustain as an independent company. However, at the same time, new opportunities arise such as in casual online games, but also on games that are on simpler platforms such as Nintendo Wii, Xbox Live or Playstation Networks in the form of smaller game experiences, including but not limited to arcade experiences. I believe (digital distribution) is an opportunity to sustain independence and successful titles through these channels may even be more commercially lucrative than titles released through traditional retail business."
Inevitably, the question about whether Yerli would agree with selling his beloved company (founded in 1997) emerged. The answer is yes, but on certain terms, and definitely not for the moment: ""If it were a cultural fit, yes, but we would have strong requirements in addition." He also said that Crytek has received numerous buyout offers since the launch of Far Cry and Crysis, but he declined all of them.
Although it's currently the most advanced game-engine available on the market, CryENGINE 2's adoption in new games is quite slow, but there's a reason for that: Crytek is a beginner in this business, compared to established powerhouses like Epic or id Software.
"CryEngine 2 is actively being licensed, but at a lower frequency, intentionally, to fulfill our obligations, to learn from this and to sustain a qualitative landscape," said Yerli. "With GDC we will start looking into a multi-platform offering of CryEngine 2, which was the biggest demand so far and the single biggest difference between us and the competition. With CryEngine 2 now running on multiplatform, we offer the most complete 3D engine qualitatively and productively."
About the licensing of the Far Cry franchise to German director Uwe Boll Crytek's CEO has mixed feelings, although he's probably satisfied with the deal signed a few years ago: "Unfortunately, we have not been involved in the film since very early when it was a script," said Yerli. "However, I think the script changed and improved radically since then, at least I hope it has, since I can't wait to see the movie. It will be so exciting to watch the Far Cry movie."
However, while Yerli sincerely admitted that Far Cry's story-line would at best produce a B-category movie, the same will not apply for Crysis, a game for which a solid and engaging story has been one of the main preoccupations (well, how about graphics? wasn't that in the plan? ;)). So yes, a Crysis movie is definitely positively certain...
"A Crysis movie is definitely planned," said Yerli. "We are in active talks already. I think we will close this topic before the end of this year."
As for the already highly-anticipated sequel for the PC shooter, Cevat Yerli declined to make any comments, although we all know that Crysis will be a trilogy. But, if they organize much better than before, they could bring it out sooner than we had expected...
"No seriously, the biggest lessen learned from our previous games is to focus on efficiency in your organization," said Yerli. "The deployment of this efficiency is critical. I believe we will release our next game quicker than Crysis, so I estimate a two to three year cycle."
Therefore, if the mecano-aliens invaded Earth in 2007, that would mean they'll come back in 2009, right? And your next game will be Crysis 2 right? RIGHT?!...
Crysis 2 - New screenshots?
Crysis 2 is two to three years away, if comments from the Crytek boss are anything to do by. And why wouldn't they?
"...the biggest lessen learned from our previous games is to focus on efficiency in your organization," Yerli said in reference to Far Cry and Crysis at Imagina 2008 in Monaco, adding, "The deployment of this efficiency is critical. I believe we will release our next game quicker than Crysis, so I estimate a two to three year cycle."
In November 2007 we reported on Yerli letting slip that Crysis is designed as a trilogy. Crytek's said previously that one of the goals with the second game is to evolve the series' graphical punch.
Yerli also revealed that a Crysis movie is "definitely planned". We'll take a 'wait and see' approach for that one...
Cevat Yerli, co-founder, president and CEO of German game developer Crytek, recently was a featured speaker (for the second year running) at Imagina 2008, the annual 3D technology conference in Monaco. Following his discussion on the lessons learned from developing Far Cry and Crysis on CryENGINE and CryENGINE 2, he spoke about the changing face of game development."A Crysis movie is definitely planned," said Yerli. "We are in active talks already. I think we will close this topic before the end of this year."
On the next game: "I believe we will release our next game quicker than Crysis, so I estimate a two to three year cycle."
"...Accordingly, the second part is not only the story of Koreans and aliens continue, but also graphically with numerous innovations. Special attention is given to the movements and facial textures and animations. This is an even more realistic feeling can be achieved. The declared aim is to be an adventure on film-level target..."
sábado 9 de febrero de 2008
jueves 7 de febrero de 2008
Duke Nukem:Forever to come in December?
THE Godot of video games Duke Nukem:Forever will finally be in the shops by December.
3D Realms said that the game, which is about 11 years late, will be completed in time for Christmas with versions likely for Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3 home video game consoles and PCs.
3D Realms President Scott Miller told BizJournals there had been no formal platform announcements but it made sense to release the game for the PC, PS3, 360.
However before anyone gets out the bunting for the game, Miller admits that there could be one or two problems and it might not make the target date.
Miller said it was impossible to make an official announcement as the company may miss the mark by a month or two. So in otherwords it might be next Christmas he is talking about, or even the one after.
News Press: Dallas Business Journal
LIE? George Broussard,president of 3D Realms as posted:
I'd like to address the article the Dallas Business Journal put up today.
In what appears to be an unfortunate turn of events, there seems to have been some confusion between what was 'off the record' and what was not. I suppose we're used to dealing with gaming press and not mainstream press. Lesson learned.
While we have internal targets, dates and goals, like every developer, we are not ready to share them. What's amazing about this is that the DBJ must have assumed that we'd actually announce a date to them, and not gaming press, and that even in the light of Scott's quote of "We can't make an official announcement.", the DBJ effectively did that. Lesson learned.
The release date is still 'when it's done', and will be until the appropriate moment. Platforms have not been finalized or announced. You can rest assured that we are moving toward a goal and that the recently released teaser trailer is the start of that process and seeing more of the game, sooner than later.
We apologize to gamers and websites everywhere for this series of events. Sometimes, you can be too trusting of people and assume things that come back to bite you. Lesson learned.
3D Realms said that the game, which is about 11 years late, will be completed in time for Christmas with versions likely for Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3 home video game consoles and PCs.
3D Realms President Scott Miller told BizJournals there had been no formal platform announcements but it made sense to release the game for the PC, PS3, 360.
However before anyone gets out the bunting for the game, Miller admits that there could be one or two problems and it might not make the target date.
Miller said it was impossible to make an official announcement as the company may miss the mark by a month or two. So in otherwords it might be next Christmas he is talking about, or even the one after.
News Press: Dallas Business Journal
LIE? George Broussard,president of 3D Realms as posted:
I'd like to address the article the Dallas Business Journal put up today.
In what appears to be an unfortunate turn of events, there seems to have been some confusion between what was 'off the record' and what was not. I suppose we're used to dealing with gaming press and not mainstream press. Lesson learned.
While we have internal targets, dates and goals, like every developer, we are not ready to share them. What's amazing about this is that the DBJ must have assumed that we'd actually announce a date to them, and not gaming press, and that even in the light of Scott's quote of "We can't make an official announcement.", the DBJ effectively did that. Lesson learned.
The release date is still 'when it's done', and will be until the appropriate moment. Platforms have not been finalized or announced. You can rest assured that we are moving toward a goal and that the recently released teaser trailer is the start of that process and seeing more of the game, sooner than later.
We apologize to gamers and websites everywhere for this series of events. Sometimes, you can be too trusting of people and assume things that come back to bite you. Lesson learned.
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