There were a lot of people at the Seattle Convention Center on Friday. Some of them were dressed up as video game characters; most of them weren't being paid to do that. Here are some of the best.
And I thought it was weird that I played Duke Nukem Forever on Friday at PAX 2010. Did I also play a new Sonic game that was good? Was it all a dream?
A Kotaku reader I ran into on Friday named Mark played Sonic Colors and said he still can't stand seeing Sonic in a 3D perspective. He doesn't want Sonic to run into his TV screen; he wants side-scrolling Sonic. Reader Mark wasn't excited by Sonic Colors, the next big console Sonic game. But I played two new Sonic Colors levels being shown here at PAX in Seattle and thought it was pretty good; good enough that I asked a Sega representative to play it so I could film it and show it to all of you.
See Sonic Colors and judge for yourself. The game comes out for the Wii in November.
When you consider that the concept of the firearm has been around for over 800 years, and that guns have undergone such a long and fascinating transformation over this time, it's a shame that so many games focus solely on those weapons engineered in the last 100; namely, everything from the First World War onwards.
Of course, there are very good reasons for this. The sheer volume of games set in the Second World War tip the scales heavily in favour of titles set in the modern era, but even without them, most games involving guns are set either after the Second World War or even beyond our own time and space, into the fantastical future (or, in Star Wars' case, past) of science fiction.
The guns of the present day resonate with people. They're the ones you see on the street in a police officer's holster, or see a soldier cradling in his arms on the nightly news. The guns of the future are a license for a games developer to get creative, and apply unrealised theories and prototypes to a game where they can be used to increase the player's enjoyment.
But the guns of the past have their own appeal! Sure, they were slow, and unwieldy, and inaccurate, and dangerous, but can't those deficiencies - surely a big reason they never feature accurately in action titles - be turned into interesting game mechanics? And why are so many centuries of the history of warfare so conspicuously absent from today's video game landscape?
I've always wanted, for example, to play a first-person "shooter" set in the 19th century, either during the Napoleonic Wars or the US Civil War, where rather than simply sprinting around a level wasting nine out of every ten bullets, the use of ammunition became a strategic option.
Do you conserve precious time and ammunition and close for a melee kill? Or do you pull up and use a musket round? It's a long-distance shot, and almost a guaranteed kill, but it could take 20-30 seconds to reload, leaving you vulnerable to return fire. The intricate act of loading a musket could even become a minigame, like that found in Gears of War.
Some games - and I'm not counting strategy titles, where older weapons are usually represented properly - have attempted this, with varying degrees of success. World of Warcraft has muskets, but since its combat takes place in a role-playing setting, it doesn't really count. Activision's Gun had a few muskets, but fudged their reload times, as do Samurai Warriors and Sengoku Basara. Wacky time-travelling shooter Darkest Days let you use muskets, but it was, sadly, terrible. And of course numerous games, from Half-Life to Deus Ex, feature crossbows, but since they don't use gunpowder they're not strictly firearms, so they don't count.
Those few games that are set prior to the First World War have usually shied away from the challenges/restrictions of implementing "antique" firearms. Most Western games, for example, will only provide the player with more modern weapons like repeater rifles and revolvers, despite the fact that during the US Civil War (a time during which many Westerns are set) breach-loading muskets were still very common in the US. And even then, the accuracy and performance of these guns are tweaked to make them comparable to those you'd pick up and use today.
But hey, at least we've had a few Western games! Other periods and places from the history of firearms, from China to Renaissance Europe to the age of Pirates to the American frontier are barely represented in video games (if at all), particularly in terms of games where you actively shoot at things. If the market is sick of games set in the Second World War, and so many titles dealing with contemporary - or even modern - warfare end up looking the same, couldn't a game stand out from the crowd by donning a tricorn hat and a colourful jacket instead of army greens and an M-4?
So developers, please, next time you sit down and start to make a game where you shoot things - and really, that's what most of you do for a living - consider giving us a game where the use of firearms becomes something more than a homage to an action movie or comic book. Try giving us one where the weapons of war are both a unique game mechanic and a history lesson, and who knows, the market may just reward you for your bravery.
It wasn't supposed to be real. It was supposed to be imaginary. Vapor. Yet, Duke Nukem Forever, a game in development for over 13 years, is very real.
Studio 3DRealms first revealed that it was working in the game in 1997. That means that when development on this game started, Google hadn't even been founded yet. Think about it.
Other games have had abnormally long gestation periods. Take action title Too Human, which was originally slated for the original PlayStation. The game finally hit the Xbox 360 nearly a decade later.
What made Duke Nukem Forever was that it became shorthand for vaporware. 3DRealms worked on the game for such an extended period of time that the title became a joke, something to laugh and point at.
What makes video game development unique is the length of time it takes to complete a project. In that regards, it is more similar to animation than, say, film. Often movie directors would like to make projects, but are unable to get the funding to shoot the pictures. Just because Martin Scorsese wants to make a bio of George Gershwin, doesn't mean he'll necessarily get the chance. Game studios, on the other hand, have the resources to toil away on projects for years as they are not dependent on securing actors or locations.
While Duke Nukem Forever was being worked on, a handful of Duke games were released to hold over fans while they waited forever for Forever to be finished. While 3DRealms were able to knock out Duke Nukem, Duke Nukem II and Duke Nukem 3D in relatively rapid succession, the studio hit a wall with Duke Nukem Forever. The studio said the game would be released "when it's done". But done it wasn't.
As the 1990s gave way to the new millennium, the titular American hero began to feel somewhat dated. Duke Nukem was a carry over from the macho action flicks of the 1980s and early 1990s.
And as time passed, 3D Realms would occasionally release promotional art or show new trailers. The game didn't look like it was being worked on, but constantly restarted. The design looked slightly different and 3DRealms appeared as though it wasn't able to settle on what it was going to do with the game. Compare the 1998 E3 trailer to the 2001 trailer and to the 2007 trailer.
By 2009, 3DRealms had collapsed, and the development duties were later passed on to Gearbox Software, the studio best known for Borderlands and the Brothers in Arms series. Gearbox isn't a stranger to game development hell. The studio has been working on Aliens: Colonial Marines since 2006. The game was supposed to be out in 2010. It has not yet been released.
Regardless, a release date for Duke Nukem Forever has been set for 2011. But then again, we've heard that before. Several times.
![PS3 Modchips Banned In Australia [Update]](http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/09/jalbreak.jpg)
Earlier this week, a temporary block on the sale of the devices was ordered, but yesterday the Federal Court determined that the injunction is to be made permanent.
All PS Jailbreak devices currently in the country are to be handed over to the courts.
It's the second time this year an Australian court has moved on the sale of a console modification device, following a decision in February to bar sales of the R4 cartridge for the Nintendo DS.
UPDATE - OK, since the original post we've been able to clarify some points regarding the case:
1) A retailer tells us the ban is specifically related to the "PS Jailbreak" brand of devices, and is not a blanket ban on all PS3 jailbreak solutions.
2) The 2005 ruling was brought about over a single, specific modchip. While it was hoped this would set a precedent for all modchips, it's becoming clear that isn't the case.
3) Contrary to our earlier report, the four retailers in question do not have to pay Sony's legal fees.
February 22, 2011 will bring Killzone 3 to the PS3. That's just a few weeks after the release of Portal 2—also coming to Sony's current-gen console—and smack dab in the middle of a big Q1. (Crysis 2, Brink, Max Payne 3, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier also start next year off with a bang.)
If you're at PAX this weekend, do stop by the Killzone 3 booth.
Killzone 3 Coming to PS3 February 22, 2011 [PlayStation.blog]
At the Penny Arcade Expo out here in Seattle, Valve Software is showing some Portal 2 co-op in action. I got to see four basic levels from what appeared to be the start of the co-op campaign. Introducing: the ping.
The co-op campaign is a standalone adventure that will be double the length of Portal 1. It's part of Portal 2, which is coming out in February on PC, Mac, PS3 and Xbox 360. In co-op, two players can link up via the Internet, split-screen or through a local connection. Each controls a test robot, and each robot will be armed with a portal gun that can shoot two portals. As they did in Portal 1, the portal guns fire an entry and an exit portal. You need to use the portals to get out of the locked rooms and deathtraps you keep finding yourselves in. Because there are two players and two guns, co-op players will be able to create a total of four portals, but player 1's portals will be linked only to each other, player 2's to just his or her own.
In the PAX theater, we got to see two players each using their own TV. I shot video of one TV at a time, switching back a couple of times. Hopefully I didn't make it too confusing!
Here's the first trial we were shown, which armed the players with their portal guns and introduced the ping tool, which lets players mark places where they want their buddy to fire a portal.
In the second trial, we were introduced to the reflective cube. You'll also see throughout these videos that there's a gesture system. You can make nice with your co-op buddy, when you're not reflecting lasers into each other.
The third trial introduces the hard light bridge, which, well, is cool. Watch:
The fourth trial brings back Portal 1's great infinite jump. And, if you've watched all,you'll have heard some great lines from GLaDOS. She's got jokes for the co-op players too.
Well, all I can say is, Gun Week ain't over yet. Until our bullet ridden series empties the story chamber later tonight, catch up on some of the best original stories from Gun Week. Some of my personal favorites include The History of Headshots, our look at blowing heads clean off.
If you're in the process of building a home, why not learn how to turn it into the perfect "kill house." Impress your friends with your grasp on video game history and the bad-ass nature of Odyssey inventor Ralph Baer.
Finally, don't miss a chance to see what it looks like to get shot at 42 times in 103 seconds. If you want to feel the impact of the full week, see the whole thing right here.
Thanks for joining us, virtual gun nuts. *blows smoke off barrel*
This year NBA Elite 11 introduces a singleplayer "Become Legendary" career mode. The crux of your advancement seems to be outperforming the best player on opposing teams, according to this video examining the mode's matchups.
Experience points will be on the line in these games - to be earned or taken away, depending on how well or how poorly you do. Get schooled by a lesser player and you'll see the XP decrease; take down your designated matchup foe - do better than him, statistically speaking, while your team also wins the game - and you'll see a boost to your progression.
Kotaku is at PAX 2010 right now and we've seen Portal 2 in coop multiplayer action. Impressions and video are on the way. For now, enjoy seven new screens plucked from Portal 2's coop mode.
The game is targeting a February 9, 2011 release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac.
To: Totilo
From: Crecente
Hey Totilo! How's it going man? Are you enjoying PAX? Wish I was there, but kinda wanted to take a break from the constant travel for a bit. Hope the show is treating you well. Sounds like we're going to have a lot of news, previews and interviews this weekend.
Oh, and while I know we've been down this road before, it looks like our story from last month saying that Duke Nukem was being developed by Gearbox and would be revealed at PAX was dead on.
What you missed:
Army Vet Insulted By Military's Video Game Sales Ban
Airman Defends Military's Video Game Sales Ban
This Only Works In John Woo Movies
It's Official: Duke Nukem Forever Coming From Gearbox In 2011
Your First Look at Duke Nukem Forever in Action
The Cases Of The Missing Bullets
Duke Nukem Forever Impressions: Two Girls, One Duke
Firefall, A Massively Multiplayer Online Shooter, Revealed By Ex-WoW, Tribes Creators
The Duke Nukem Forever PAX Demo: A Not-For-Kids Photo Gallery
Hands On With The New Xbox 360 Controller
Cincinnati's Aroldis Chapman will be the second rookie to debut as the fastest thrower in all of video game baseball when he and his 103-mph heater are uploaded to MLB 2K10 sometime later this evening.
Chapman, consistently clocked at more than 100 mph, will arrive on MLB 10 The Show with next week's roster update, a Sony spokesman said. The Reds phenom debuted on Tuesday, won his first game in relief on Wednesday, and has been the talk of baseball this week.
"He will have a very high rating compared to other rookies," SCEA's Eric Levine told Kotaku, describing his fastball as a 105-mph blowtorch. "I don't know the exact number until the roster update is online, but he'll of course have an excellent fastball, a slider with tremendous break, and a high strikeout rating."
In MLB 2K10, which also won the race to be first with Stephen Strasburg back in June, Chapman "has the fastest fastball in the game," said 2K Sports' Chris Snyder. The team was still scouting his secondary pitches on Friday afternoon, to accurately rate them, but Snyder expected the roster to be ready to go in the evening, Pacific time.
Washington's Strasburg smoked 14 batters in his major league debut in June and became a league-wide sensation. But he suffered a torn elbow ligament on Aug. 21, an injury that will need 18 months to rehabilitate. The fascination with Chapman now steps into the hype vacuum left by Strasburg's injury. If he can keep from injuring himself playing Guitar Hero, Chapman could be one to watch as the Reds steam toward just their third playoff appearance since 1979.
Chapman, a 22-year-old Cuban defector, has been clocked at 105 mph in the minor leagues. On Tuesday he retired the first three batters he faced on nine pitches, ranging from 98 to 103 mph.
Video games with a group license from Major League Baseball's players' union must wait until rookies play their first major league game before adding them to the official roster. Some modders already had inserted Chapman into custom roster files as a minor leaguer. Operation Sports' latest roster for MLB 10 The Show, from early August (from which the picture above was taken), had Chapman's fastball with 99-rated speed and a slider with ratings of 70 in speed and 60 in break.
Xbox Live's Major Nelson was roaming PAX here in Seattle, probably needing something fun to do. So I asked him to let me try the new Xbox 360 controller with transforming D-pad — oh, and the analog sticks are different.
Major Nelson even agreed to shoot this video, and while I put him to work he revealed that this is his own personal controller. The new d-pad is easy to transform and the alternate, raised-cross mode feels like it will be good for games that require precise horizontal, vertical and diagonal inputs — you know, like fighting games.
We knew about the transforming d-pad, but did you know the analog sticks have changed? They tilt the same, but the shape of the depression on top of them has been tweaked. The old raised bits are gone and the center has a deeper depression. I'm not sure what the consequences will be of the small change, but the new stick did feel comfortable under my thumb.
Here's a comparison of the new controller and an older black one, set up so you can compare the right analog stick of the new one to the left of the old one.
The new controller, which will be sold for $65 with a recharge kit, will be out later this year.
UPDATE: Uploading this video from the show floor I didn't realize that Major Nelson was cut off at the end of the video. The video ends with him in mid-sentence saying the new controller is "kind of a limited edition... We're not making..." Readers have rightly asked what he said next. He said that the tweaks on this controller are not being applied to the standard Xbox controllers. He didn't say they never would be, but the impression I got is that, for the fall at least, you'll need to buy this silver controller in order to get the new d-pad and stick design. You won't be able to buy a spare standard controller and experience the new design tweaks on them, because the design of the standard controllers will not be changing soon.
It's Labor Day weekend here in the United States and we at Kotaku will celebrate the three day weekend in the traditional way, with portable logic puzzles. Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, here I come.
In-between the time-twisting, brain-tickling fun, I may find some time to play Metroid: Other M, a Wii game that has yet to convince me of its charms. I'm only an hour or so in, but I found Team Ninja's take on Samus Aram surprisingly easy to put down.
I'll also be playing games of a very different sort with my weekend, taking in part in something that's video game related, but also not. Cryptic enough for you? More about my very unusual, possibly unbelievable Saturday at a future date.
Enough about our plans. What are you playing this weekend?
Excuse the shaky framing; I was trying to play while snapping pics. These shots show the two-level DNF demo, scenes photographed in chronological order. Oh, and one bottle of Duke Nukem brand steroids.
Firefall, due "near the end of 2011," takes place on a futuristic earth from the 23rd century, a "lush, dynamic open world" invaded by the disastrous Melding, a "hostile energy storm" that engulfs the planet. Making matters worse, an alien race known as The Chosen comes a calling, forcing humanity to band together in a large-scale, free-to-play online battle.
Class-based combat is the name of the game in Firefall, which focuses on competitive multiplayer and massive cooperative play. Players wear "high-tech battleframes" that can be customized by players with optional enhancements—supporting that free-to-play online model.
Firefall taps into the talents of Mark Kern, former lead developer of Blizzard's World of Warcraft, and Scott Youngblood, former lead designer on Tribes.
See how Firefall is shaping up in the first released screen shots and concept art for the online game.
The Duke Nukem Forever playable demo here at PAX 2010 makes the seemingly impossible a reality. People, including your Kotaku reporter, are playing Duke Nukem Forever, maybe a dozen years after we expected to. Duke, from what I can tell, hasn't changed.
He's still cracking jokes, chewing bubblegum, and getting oral sex from two ladies at a time when he's not using his guns — or his buggy — to obliterate his enemies.
Duke Nukem Forever is, of course, a first person shooter. The controls are standard, mapped as you'd expect on the Xbox 360 controller on which I played the game. Zoom on the left trigger. Shoot on the right. Click the right stick to crouch. But, before all that, at the start of the demo, pull the right trigger to piss.
The demo starts with a first person view of the urinal. You can make Duke urinate as much as you want. The wait is over!
Well, no that's not what this game is about. You're in a football locker room. There are a couple of hot tubs and, in the main area, some soldiers gearing up for a fight. On the whiteboard they plan their move against the beast on the field. Their strategy: cockblock. You can draw on the whiteboard. I drew straight lines. But on another TV playing the game here at PAX I saw someone drawing a penis.
The game is 100% in the spirit of classic Duke. By this point in the demo you've been hit with "Hail to the King, Baby," and sooner or later he's whistling, laughing at the bad guys he kills and lamenting that "Those alien bastards are going to pay for shooting up my ride."
When you leave the locker room, you race down some halls where aliens are fighting soldiers. These scripted sequences show some of the destructibility (mostly of your allies' limbs) and the smoke and explosion effects in the game. The effects look modern, though not beyond what we see in other games.
Out in the field, things became more impressive. A massive monster — the big aliens seen in leaked Duke artwork — is stomping across the grass. You've gone from just having your fists up to being armed with The Devastator, a big gun in each hand. Health is regenerative and the big bad guy wasn't that tough in the demo. I unloaded my ammo into him, waited for the next ammo drop, and then fired some more. Duke finished him with a button-prompted melee move.
The finale: press a button to do a "field goal," which is a punt of the monster's eye down the field.
Cue the Duke Nukem Forever logo and a camera pulls back to show that Duke, in first-person, was playing a video game. He's got a gold Xbox 360 controller with the face buttons re-named as D, U, K and E. There's a busty lady in a schoolgirl outfit near the bottom of your first-person view. And there's a second one. One stands up and wipes her mouth.
"What about the game, was it any good?" one of them asks.
"Yeah, but after 12 fucking years it should be," he answers.
After that the demo jumped forward to level 15, which began as a driving level. Duke was in a dune buggy, racing down a canyon as an alien shuttle streamed forward overhead. The buggy can boost for big jumps and, since aliens do run in its way, run over bad guys with a splat. Quickly, though, I was out of the buggy and running Duke toward an enemy turret, his laser-sighted pistol in hand. I was also able to get a railgun which had a scope and was good for headshots.
One of the most prominent tech elements of the game is a depth-of-field aspect which blurs enemies who aren't in Duke's focus. Of the obvious tech demonstrations happening in the demo — the destruction shown as cacti splintered from gunfire, the shattered mirror back in the locker room — this blurring effect was the only one that was distracting.
People wondered how Duke Nukem would make his return. Would a parody video game character steeped in 80s absurdity play in 2010? Or would he have to be a parody of a parody? It seems from the demo that Duke is strictly himself and that the kind of profane, naughty, steroid-injected humor of the Duke of old is indeed what will play in 2010 — or in 2011, to be more specific. The game is set for a 2011 release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Gearbox Software is working on the game with other studios and, we believe, creators who used to be on the project at 3D Realms.
To those who don't know the Duke Nukem Forever story, the game might seem like a standard first-person shooter with a few technological gimmicks and a more absurd, played-for-laughs attitude than today's more straight-faced but equally gruff shooter games. For those who know the DNF tale, this is the king returned as if through a time machine, a playable time capsule of one of gaming's wrongest icons.
P.S. The trailer being shown behind closed doors for the game includes strippers and a three breasted giant monster. Of the latter, Duke says, "Hell, I'd still hit it."
The case of the missing bullets in video games is more of a quirk than a dire tragedy. There is no scandal behind the fact that if you stare at your favorite shooter game, watch a video of it in slow-motion or scruitinize its screenshots you may not see a bullet.
Some games just don't show the bullets. You pull the trigger of your oh-so-visible virtual gun. You see the muzzle flash. You see the spent casings eject from side of your rifle. You see the impact of your shot. But in many games — not all — no visible bullet left your weapon and traveled to the place where the damage was dealt.
There's a good programming reason for leaving bullets out of the picture. And there's a wonderful philosophical justification for doing so .
For the programming reason, you have to accept the classic video game need for machine guns and for lots of shooting. If video games were stage plays in which there was one gun, maybe five shots fired, and that was that, then they probably could all show their bullets. Video games, however, are not stage plays. Games with guns have thousands of shots fired.
When a player fires a gun in a game, what usually happens is that an invisible line is immediately drawn — tested — in the video game world, connecting the player's aimed gun with whatever the fired shot is going to hit.
If the target is a wall, the wall will be changed to depict the result. Maybe it becomes chipped. Maybe it crumbles.
If the target is a red barrel, maybe a sequence is triggered that shows the barrel blowing up.
If the target is a body of an enemy, specific animations will ensue. Maybe the enemy falls. Parameters will change. Maybe the enemy now have less life energy and is closer to being killed.
None of that is all that different from what would happen in the real world. A shot is fired. There is a result. The big difference in how things work — aside from that pain, injury and possible mortal consequences thing — is that everything that happens in the video game world comes at a cost to the computer hardware. That computer hardware has to have the power and speed to determine what the results of a shot should be and then illustrate it. The engines of our computers and game consoles must render these results as a part of the scene we see, a scene that is shown, frame after frame, 30-60 frames in a second. If the computer has too much work to do, it will show fewer frames. The virtual world will become stacatto.
There are other optional differences between those shots fired in the real world and in a first-person shooter: in games, those shots may not involve the traveling of an object through the air and the shots may be — faster than a speeding bullet — infinitely fast.
Jon Creighton, programmer on upcoming firsrt-person shooter Bodycount and veteran of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox gun-crazy shooter called Black, explained what programmers and game designers already know: how shooting in a game works and why bullets can ruin the action of any video game that has been built to run at a steady framerate. He did this for Kotaku over e-mail. He was invited to be as specific and technical as he desired.
"Because real bullets travel so fast," he wrote, "They move a fair distance each frame. To simulate that in games you have to use a single line which projects out into the scene, and for shotguns you create a spread of multiple lines.
"No matter what physics engine is used, testing a line against the game world is an expensive operation, since you have to search through a large model of the scene, which we call a collision mesh. With the current generation of consoles you can do a number of these tests at the same time. But, on the PlayStation 2, you were limited to doing one after another. That meant that you could only handle 10 or 20 of these line tests per frame.
"This small budget has to be spread between all the [non-player characters; i.e. the allies and enemies who are also shooting all around or at you] as well as the player, including those that are carrying shotguns. So that you don't overwhelm the game in any one frame — with all of the NPCs shooting at once — there is a round-robin system, which only allows two or three of them to shoot in any one frame,
"Because of this cost, most games treat the bullets as infinitely fast and run the line test through to the limit of the range of the bullet. If the bullets aren't represented like this, then you have to perform multiple line tests, one after the other, on each subsequent frame until the bullet hits something. This means that you'll have a huge number of line tests to manage every frame and that's a killer for performance."
If it makes so much sense to have infinitely fast invisible bullets, why even consider having slower bullet-speed bullets that look like bullets?
The list of reasons is short.
If a game developer shows the bullets and makes them objects in the world, they can have them physically interact with the objects in it. They cann depict them dropping as the in-game gravity tugs at them. They can have them ricochet off an object or enemy using the same type of physics system that determines how a video game car carroms off a video game guard rail or how a video game body falls off a video game skateboard. But, as teams like Creighton's Bodycount crew realized, you may not see value in such rewards.
"We investigated having more complex ballistics in Bodycount, but the associated cost really wasn't worth it," Creighton said. "So we're doing an approximation that adds in a delay between the firing of the bullet and when it hits. Bodycount is very much an arcade shooter. We're not looking to make a perfect simulation of the characteristics of each weapon; we're after the effect."
It's more likely, Creighton and other game creators interviewed for this story said, for games that emphasize sniping or other more clinical aspects of focused gun conflict to render their bullets in their virtual air. Games that show gunplay in slow-motion, such as the pioneer creations of "bullet time," the Max Payne games, also render their bullets as objects in their virtual world.
While nothing in a video game world is tangible, some things are more virtual than others. Stand your character, his or her back toward you, in a room in a three-dimensional game and you can assume that what is in front of the character is being drawn by the hardware on which the game is running. Of course it is. You can see it. But whatever is down the hallway, around the corner and through a locked door tends not to be drawn, certainly not in full detail, not when it is so far out of sight. Is that other part of the game world, the part that you can't see just yet, there or not there? The game designer might tell you that it is as there as it needs to be.
You could have an existential argument about trees being rendered in a forest where you can't yet see or hear them. Or you could just agree that only the results matter. What needs to be seen will be seen — when it needs to be seen. You can say the same about virtual bullets. But note the implicit irony: you don't need to see the bullets. After all, in real life, when a bullet is in the air, who can?
Doom co-creator and game historian John Romero recently told Kotaku that he believes that programming a bullet so that it's a visible object flying through a game world is, usually, a waste of time. It doesn't give the game designers much of a prize. "The reward is the feedback for what the bullet does," he said. "The feedback is in the flash, the ejection and the particle effect on the wall that it hits. Just like in real life, the feedback you get is the same you get in the game, which is muzzle flash, sound and something at the end."
The game creator can just calculate the pull of gravity and have the bullet make its impact lower than the height from which it was fired. They can time-delay it, as the Bodycount developers are doing, so that it seems to have traveled, for a split second, through the air. Who needs to see the thing fly? Who could?
And here's the core question: If you can't see the bullet, but if a bullet's path has been determined, its speed has been calculated and its impact has been rendered, was the bullet really not there? Was the bullet in any way different in its existence vis a vis the virtual people near it than a bullet in the real world? If games are about faking reality, some might argue, that's one fake that is good enough.
There could be a day when the machines the run games are powerful enough that bullets could be in all of our shooter games. Each bullet could whiz past our character's head or arc across a battlefield. Even then, though, Creighton points out that gamers might not even notice it. "If they can't see far enough and with a great enough level of detail to notice the delay between the muzzle flash and the bullet impact, then it might not be worthwhile."
Guns have been an integral part of video games since the time when video games were invented. Bullets? Still optional, still debatable, still not quite there, depending on your point of view.
Have an iPad and a bit of time? Might want to check out the free preview of the Fallout: New Vegas All Roads graphic novel.
Bethesda Softworks teamed up with Dark Horse Comics to create this graphic novel penned by Chris Avellone, the game's senior designer. The freebie gives you 12 pages of the graphic novel. Here's a small taste.
Envisage U [via GameInformer]
When Namco Networks brings WiiWare title Bit.Trip Beat to the iPhone it will include multiplayer and a slew of new levels.
Here's a look at an early build of the Pong-at-a-rave game in action on my iPhone. Note the music, the 8-bit stylings, the ability to purchase level packs, my chewed fingernails... wait, don't note that last thing.
Meet the Heavy and ignore, for a minute his massive weight loss instead listening to his monologue about his gun, his wonderful, wonderful to-scale gun.
Thanks to reader and cosplayer Logan Birch and a very special shout out to Sasha.
Yes, Gearbox Software really is turning the perpetual vaporware Duke Nukem Forever into a real live video game bound for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
But talk is cheap, that's why we have gameplay footage as seen on 2K's official live stream of their PAX booth.
Leather-clad fists? Check! Urinals? Check! Hailing to the King? Unconfirmed.
The publisher announced this morning in advance of PAX 2010 that Gearbox Software was on the job, picking up where developer 3D Realms left off. Gearbox plans to ship the game on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 within the next year, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal—the WSJ says DNF is due "next year" and "currently expected to ship in 2010." (Update: The Wall Street Journal corrected its conflicting release dates. The game is expected to ship next year.)
Given Duke Nukem Forever's epic development—it was first announced in 1997 as a sequel to Duke Nukem 3D—it might be wise to hedge on the later of those two release windows.
Gearbox and 2K will be showcasing the game to press and the public at this weekend's PAX convention. 2K Games is offering a publicly playable demo of Duke Nukem Forever at its booth.
After more than a decade in development, Duke Nukem Forever all but ended its production after the collapse of studio 3D Realms. Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford tells the WSJ that his studio picked up development in late 2009 and that the game is currently in the "polishing" stages.
Controversial, Long Awaited ‘Duke Nukem Forever' Will Finally Be Released [WSJ - thanks, Simon!]
Publisher 2K Games is promising "something big" at this year's PAX get-together, which we can only assume is 3D Realms' long-promised but still undelivered over-the-top first person shooter Duke Nukem Forever, now that 2K and Gearbox have begun trotting out all manner of Duke Nukem signage and posters. The game's presence could be limited the opportunity to have your picture taken with Duke as a slutty schoolgirl, but we've heard otherwise.
PAX 2010's kick-off is imminent. Stay tuned. And always bet on Duke.
[Image via FilthHealer, thanks to TrainerRed]
Update: 2K Games has posted the following tease to its official Twitter account.
Let's just zoom out and see what that's all about, thanks to some promo artwork nabbed by Pikimal.
Update: Confirmed!
Someone better be moving this over to the iPad stat!
As seen nearing Penny Arcade Expo. Looks like it could be a very appropriate shirt.
And it looks like it's on the PAX floor as well.
[Thanks ch0diac]
Martin Hollis, who while with Rare was one of the men behind the original GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64, has some kind words to say about Activision, the publisher pushing the remake.
Oh, sorry, did I say kind?
"I imagine it is a business decision isn't it?", HOllis told Official Nintendo Magazine. "This name is valuable, let's use it. I find it hard to picture Activision's top management being excited about the original and wanting to do it justice. In fact, I find it hard to imagine them being excited about any game. It's my perception that they are trying to be EA, only more so. I think they are doing a fine job at that."
Before you think he's saddled with a load of sour grapes, Hollis does have kinder words to say about Eurocom, the actual developers working on the game, saying "they are a good company" and that "I'm confident they have done their very best".
GoldenEye 64 designer slams Activision over Wii remake [ONM]
If I learned anything from Unreal Tournament, it's that two automatic pistols are better than one, and holding them sideways makes them fire faster. It's two popular handgun fallacies in one!
Unreal Tournament and the Unreal series in general have produced some pretty amazing weapons with equally impressive alternate firing modes. Some of my personal favorites include the Flak Cannon, with its joyous bouncing shrapnel, and the ASMD Shock Rifle, with an alt-fire mode that produced a Shock Core, that could be fired upon to create an explosion of energy.
For all of the amazing alt-fire modes the series has produced, the Enforcer automatic pistol's secondary firing mode always seemed a bit off.
Hitting the right mouse button turned the gun sideways, gangsta-style. This is a completely silly way to hold a pistol that has almost no benefit in real life, outside of certain tactical situations. Police holding riot shields, for example, will sometimes hold a firearm sideways because tilting and lifting the gun can make the sight easier to see. It doesn't make the gun fire faster, which is what happens in Unreal Tournament.
Perhaps it's just how future weapons work. There's some sort of gyroscope inside the gun that works better when the weapon is sideways, perhaps? Couldn't the weapon manufacturer tilt things around so it fired faster upright instead? It's certainly not a matter of squeezing the trigger faster, since it is an automatic weapon.
It's even more entertaining when you pick up an additional Enforcer off the corpse of a fallen enemy. Dual wielding handguns is a common occurrence in shooter video games and Hong Kong action movies, but in real life all firing a weapon in both hands generally does is make a lot of noise. Normally you'd be better off firing a single weapon using a two-handed grip, which allows for more shots fired with greater accuracy. Plus, handguns have sights for a reason, and lining up the sights on two guns in two hands with only two eyes is next to impossible.
So you can probably understand why I giggle when I see those two guns turned sideways.
Epic balanced out the increased rate of fire with decreased accuracy, so on average, holding the pistol sideways isn't much better than holding it upright, except in circumstances where your opponent is extremely close. The only reason I'm doing so well in the clip is because I'm battling easy bots instead of wily humans.
So why use the Enforcer's alt-fire mode at all? The same reason John Woo had Chow Yun Fat flying through the air firing two pistols through a cloud of doves every chance he could get. It's just plain cool.
Completely ridiculous, but ridiculously cool.
First off, I am an active duty Air Force member.
It seems that this whole thing is being misinterpreted by the community based upon a possible misunderstanding of how the Army and Air Force Exchange Service works. Hopefully I can illuminate the situation. It is a series of retail outlets that serves ONLY military personnel. If you aren't in uniform, they will ask for an ID card for every single purchase. This is largely due to a lack of sales tax and other savings. AAFES is supposed to exist as a benefit in return for our service. These stores are not comparable to Wal-Mart or Best Buy even though they look similar. The whole thing is run by the military, even the few on base GameStop's operate as vendors with the permission of the military.
Why did AAFES decide not to stock Medal of Honor? Out of respect and sensitivity, as mentioned by Major General Casella. This is not about violence, censorship, political correctness, Jingoism, morality, or anything else. If you walk around a BX or a PX, you will only see three types of people: active military members, retirees, or immediate family members of servicemen. That means that the number of people affected by the war in Afghanistan is astronomically higher than in a civilian store. Those are the people who WILL be affected by a death in Afghanistan. A real world game might be too much to handle. Do you really want to see a little kid show the game to his mom and ask if that's where daddy is? Absolutely not, but it could happen. Picking up Call of Duty: Black Ops? Completely different.
The difference between this game and other military shooters is that it is real and it is current. Fictional games are really no different than a summer blockbuster, and games set in real conflicts have always had at least a generation of buffer space between participants and audience. I wholeheartedly believe that Danger Close went to great lengths to make the singleplayer respectful. I appreciate the effort. The problem is that multiplayer can't have that redeeming effect that story provides. It's just a name change from CoD's "OpFor" to Taliban, but that can be enough.
Keep in mind that this decision only affects military personnel. If someone buys this game on a base and gets upset, they are probably entitled to be. More than likely, they've been there or have been affected by operations there. Is anyone really going to tell a recently returned troop that they are being overly sensitive because they get upset watching Americans play as the Taliban killing other Americans? By not stocking the game on base it becomes a personal decision to buy it and keeps it out of the spotlight. AAFES doesn't have to worry about impulse buys or scenes from veterans or complaints. They are choosing not to endorse something that might upset their clientele. Military life is stressful enough, they are merely trying to be sensitive to the pain of their patrons. It would be in poor taste to advertise a game where the player can kill Americans as the Taliban to an American who might be killed by the Taliban in the near future.
If we want to buy the game, going off base isn't really an inconvenience. We aren't confined to base, so access to the game is in no way being denied (maybe in really remote locations). Most military gamers will probably still pick up the game and won't have a problem with it. The gameplay mechanics won't be any different than other recent shooters, but the locations might be more familiar. Probably not a big deal to most. But again, this isn't about most gamers. This is about people with PTSD or anxiety over a deployed loved one or some other painful trauma. The BX is one of the first and last stops when returning from and leaving for a deployment. A soldier who returns from firefights in Helmand province should expect painful or insensitive reminders off base in the real world. But shouldn't they be spared while on base?
Are the people playing as the Taliban playing any differently than in Modern Warfare? No. But it's about the perceptions of that minority who fight the wars the rest of us turn into entertainment. What it comes down to is that AAFES doesn't care what servicemembers buy, they just try to provide whatever it is that they want. This particular product won't do a very good job of satisfying the customer if they find it offensive or disrespectful. In a normal retail outlet, publicly banning something under those circumstances would be unacceptable. Luckily, this isn't normal.
As for me personally, I had already preordered the game from Amazon. I don't have any problem with the content, but I certainly won't show it around base. I actually deal with Operation Enduring Freedom everyday and expect to be deployed to Afghanistan within a year. I want to go. Anyways, sorry for the diatribe. I felt I could offer a rational military perspective on the issue. Please consider some sort of feature on reactions from warfighters. This is one of the only real videogame news outlets that can run in depth opinion pieces. For an issue like this, a comments section probably isn't enough.
Ed's note: Please take a moment to read another take on the issue from a former Army Medic.
The artist for the work we originally chose to feature for the month of September in TAY does not want his work used. Fair enough. We'll use Peter Paul Rubens' ''La chasse au tigre, au lion et au léopard'' (Hunting The Tiger, Lion and Leopard), which was submitted by reader 8thR. Submit your variation on the work at #TAYpics. Apologies for the change in direction, but this new painting is just as wonderful as the last one, so we all win.
It's amazing, even years after getting out of the Army, how much it colors your everyday life.
As a former Army Medic, now working as an entertainment journalist covering comic books, video games, movies, and TV, my soldier past comes up far more often than I would have ever expected.
The news about Medal of Honor including multiplayer modes where players will control the Taliban, naturally, has become a topic that friends who know of my two backgrounds now ask about on a regular basis. With Thursday's further news that Gamestop has chosen not to sell the game at US Military bases, I was quite simply incensed.
To give minimal history, I served in the United States Army as a Combat Medic for six years. I had two deployments in that time: one to Iraq at the start of the war, and one to Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. I saw combat, I saw injury, and I saw death.
However, I also saw solace in games. While in Iraq, we networked together a couple of tents and played games like NCAA Football, Halo, and yes, even games like Desert Storm. Video games were a great respite for us during our day to day lives. We were able, for a few minutes at a time at least, to have some sense of normalcy and escape to another time and place, even if it did wind up being something similar to what we were living.
Electronic Arts has been marketing Medal of Honor from the start as a game seeking to honor the military through authenticity. Now, the things I could pick apart there could easily fill another column, but one fact remains: the opponent there, in Afghanistan, is the Taliban. In WWII games you fight against, or AS in multiplayer, Nazis or Japanese forces. In a game set in the modern era on a modern battlefield, it then follows that the opposing force would be the modern enemy. This makes sense, and this is far from the first time that you can play as the bad guys, realistic or no, in a game, let alone in a shooter.
So now Gamestop, at the request of the Army and Air Force Exchange Services, is pulling the game from pre-order and will not carry it at any of the BX/PX (Base or Post Exchange) located shops they run. It was done, to quote the statement given to Kotaku, "out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform."
OK. There's nothing inherently bad about that. AAFES made a request, Gamestop followed through politely and apparently with no fight. My problem, however, lies with AAFES making the request in the first place. The idea that a gameplay mode in a game people choose to or not to play could be so inherently damaging is simply silly. Giving things this kind of weight and power is the problem, not that they exist in and of themselves. It's something I had to learn myself. For about 3 years after I returned from Iraq, I found it impossible to play any realistic shooters, or to enjoy fireworks. There were little things within those experiences that set off powerful sense memories. Eventually, it took sitting down and trying to remember what was enjoyable about these things to me in the past to make them enjoyable again. Releasing that self-imposed power made me remember, hey, this is a video game, and I like video games.
That's the point here that the officials at AAFES are overlooking in favor of being cautious. This isn't a tool to convert American Soldiers into Taliban. It is a game, and in the game you play one of two roles. In the Army, you sometimes have field exercises in which you are placed on the side of "Opposing Forces." In that, you are role-playing as modern enemies in order to improve your knowledge and your fellow soldiers' knowledge of how to combat them. Games don't come with an inherent evil, an inherent power, or even, most of the time, any specific political message. In the campaign of Medal of Honor, it will be no doubt clear that the Taliban are the enemies. In multiplayer, sometimes, people will be "Opposing Forces." That's not offensive to me as a soldier. The offensive thing to me as a soldier is AAFES thinking I can't protect myself from a product I deem harmful. If it feels potentially damaging to an individual, then the individual doesn't play it and that's all that needs to happen.
It's a video game, and I like video games. It's a shame that soldiers who like video games and want to play this one won't be able to simply pick it up at their local shop.
Lucas Siegel is a Veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Site Editor of leading comic book and pop culture site Newsarama.com. He has been an avid gamer since the age of two. For more from Lucas and Newsarama, follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/LucasSiegel.
Ed's note: Please take a moment to read another take on the issue from an active duty Airman.
To: Crecente
From: Bashcraft
RE: Talibanned
I guess for you, the American staffers and our American readers, you all will have a nice long weekend. Any plans? I am going to make RIBS. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
What you missed last night
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath Is Back!
There Is No Love For Street Fighters
The Ataris That Never Were
Your First Look At PAX
Miniguns In The Desert: How Video Game Guns Are Made
NFLer Opens Up About His Games Addiction
According to Sega's site, the game's quality needs to be improved. However, there has been some speculation that the recently revealed December 1 release date for Monster Hunter 3rd Portable has caused Sega to slide the game back.
Monster Hunter is one of the most popular PSP franchises in the platform's history. Releasing a PSP game the day before it goes on sale is akin to opening for the Beatles. Everyone is waiting for you to get off the stage.
Shining Hearts features character design by Tony Taka, who also worked on Shining Tears and Shining Wind.
Shining World [Official Site]
Spotted at the recent Chara Hobby expo, cosplayer Sachibudou does her best take on character Reiko Holinger, while cosplayer Punival is Gundam.
More pics in the gallery.
メカ×セクシー キャラホビのコスプレにはそれが溢れている！ [Moeyo.com]
It's a cruel irony that one of the few original Xbox games that was never made compatible with the Xbox 360 now returns, only...for a PlayStation machine instead. At least it does for now, the game's press release only mentioning a PS3 release.
Still, PS3 owners are in for a treat, as Stranger's Wrath was one of the most unique and memorable shooters to grace Microsoft's first console. Playing it in high definition should only make things better, especially since it'll also support the PlayStation Move.
Stranger's Wrath will be released as a PlayStation Network downloadable title, and will be out Easter 2011. Xbox 360 owners, don't give up hope, as the word "exclusive" was nowhere to be seen in the press release.
In this new video we get a chance to check out another "recommendation" from Need for Speed Hot Pursuit's Autolog.
I can't remember the last time I anticipated a racing title this much. Can't wait to take this Need for Speed meets Burnout driver for a ride.
You may think that both Portal and Left 4 Dead are recent games, developed for contemporary game machines. Nope. Both are actually remakes of games from the 1980s!
Or, that's what these great fake ads would have you believe, which get both the hammy acting and grainy VHS-o-rama effect down perfectly.
Retro Game Ad Discovery [Gamervision]
Spotted by Kotaku reader Chardyll, his t-shirt isn't for Rockstar's Western Red Dead Redemption. Nope!
Chardyll complemented the customer in his game shop wearing the shirt. "At first, the height of the counter obstructed the big band logo at the bottom of it, so I complemented him on his Red Dead shirt," Chardyll says. "He then informed me it was for a band called 'Silverstein' and he then showed me the logo."
Silverstein is a Canadian post-core band named after Shel Silverstein. The group does not appear to have any connection to Red Dead Redemption. As a group they are not listed on the Red Dead Redemption soundtrack.
The shirt features Red Dead Redemption protagonist John Marston.
Bill Elm and Woody Jackson, who both composed most of the Red Dead Redemption soundtrack, do have a song called "Already Dead". Silverstein also has a song called "Already Dead" from a few years back. Chardyll correctly points out that it sounds nothing like the "Already Dead" in Red Dead Redemption.
The band's shirt is being sold for $15. (Rockstar, meanwhile, has an official Red Dead Redemption flannel shirt.)
"The irony in the story? The guy who was buying the game," Chardyll adds, "the one wearing the shirt? He was buying Red Dead Redemption, and didn't realize there was a connection between his shirt and the game."
Redemption White : Silverstein [Merchnow Thanks, Chardyll!]
![Hands On With The New Xbox 360 Controller [UPDATE]](http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/09/stickcomparison-w1200.jpg)
