31 juillet 2009

20:43	“The beautiful death of the Matrix Online” This week is the last week of existence for The Matrix Online, and the gameworld - the Matrix! - is literally disintegrating in front of players’ eyes… That’s a quite excellent way to close an MMO.

24 juillet 2009

19:50

“Mass Effect save file transfers ’hundreds’ of decisions to sequel”

Not just the big decisions, either – Hudson says that the player made "hundreds" of choices in Mass Effect that have an impact on the sequel. For instance, Commander Shepard superfan Conrad Verner made a brief appearance in the first game. Players could respond to his fandom in a number of ways (ignoring him, threatening him, supporting him) – however you decided to treat Conrad will ultimately affect his subplot in the second game.

Oh, blah. I felt so much like no choice I made had any relevance whatsoever to the universe in Mass Effect, I just can’t wait to see all of my decisions ripple insignificantly throughout the entire trilogy.

18 juillet 2009

02:38	Dirt 2 I’m absolutely in love with the sound of the bumper cam — it probably gets old after a while, but it’s very nicely realistic. (For the rest, the visuals aren’t quite as impressive as the previous trailer from two days ago. There’s some aliasing, and it looks like they’re having a hard time balancing realistic hard sun and playability — especially with the cockpit view.)

10 juillet 2009

08:59

“Devspeak: iPhone 3G vs iPhone 3GS”

To take full advantage of the new capabilities of the 3GS, [EA Mobile’s] development teams will create an additional version specifically for it. […] Sega will offer products tailored specifically for each phone, although only on select titles.

According to the SDK, you’re not supposed to make “additional versions” for the 3GS, but simply use the processing and graphical power in your app if it’s available. Yet you can bet that you’ll have to buy all your games again when you switch from the 3G to the 3GS — and be prepared to pay a premium for those versions, too.

The developer had to use a more powerful OpenGL model and didn’t compress the textures as much? Geez, that’s worth at least 25% more money!

3 juillet 2009

21:31	Dante’s Inferno Uh, yeah. It looks pretty but rather empty; it’s certainly not as impressive as God of War 3, but at least it’ll run on my 360. (If I keep it off all summer so it doesn’t fry.)