Thursday, March 10, 2011
Trenched is a third-person tower-defense game
7:13 PM
The Game Peddler
by Ben Gilbert 
(5 hours ago)
(5 hours ago)14
G4 explains that the tower-defense-style battles of Trenched take place atop walking, upgradeable trenches. As it turns out, television monsters (referred to as "tubes") are attacking the world's mobile trenches and handicapped hero Frank Woodrof is bent on defending them. You'll employ Woodrof's ultra-manliness to defeat said "tubes" and restore alternate reality's normalcy. Or, ya know, Double Fine's bizarre version of normalcy in the world of Trenched. Schafer's team expects the game out on Xbox Live Arcade at some point in 2011.
Free Comic Book Day brings free The Darkness 2 prequel comic
7:09 PM
The Game Peddler
by JC Fletcher (4 hours ago)
(4 hours ago)
In observance of this ritual, Top Cow Productions is releasing a free The Darkness comic book that is intended to act as a prequel to the upcoming The Darkness 2 game in the works at Digital Extremes. Although we'd argue that if you really want a prequel to The Darkness 2, you could check out The Darkness -- or the comic book series that ran from 1996 to 2005. But those wouldn't be free!
Nintendo 3DS review: Depth, charge
7:03 PM
The Game Peddler
by JC Fletcher on Mar 10th 2011 6:00PM
on Mar 10th 2011 6:00PM
After the break, find out all about the 3DS hardware and its built-in software, along with our impressions of each component. We might not be able to present the review in 3D, but that hasn't stopped us from going in-depth.
The hardware design
The 3DS is very shiny. Very shiny. This has the effect of making it sort of a fingerprint magnet, sure, but it also makes it seem more futuristic. It also feels heavy for its size, compared to a DS Lite. Its buttons, including the D-pad, feel "shallower" than those on previous DS units, like they don't travel as far. That D-pad, by the way, is fairly inconveniently placed, giving a clear indication of how Nintendo would like you to control your games (using the circle pad). The circle pad feels pretty much like a PSP analog nub -- it slides away from the center freely in any direction, and snaps back -- but with a much more comfortable top than the tiny, ridged PSP nub. It's quite comfy.
The stylus -- which is now stored on the top left side of the unit, and I'll never get used to that -- is now a telescoping metal pole with a big tapered piece of plastic at the end, as opposed to the small plastic styli with tiny nubs that came with previous DS systems. It feels ... solid. A definite upgrade. The touchscreen at which you poke with this new stylus remains the same kind of resistive touchscreen you know from the DS, so if you were dreaming of a multitouch DS interface or something like that, you might be disappointed to find it identical to the current DS.
I can clearly see where Nintendo is going to concentrate its tweaks for the inevitable next iteration, though. There are some elements that seem out of place for Nintendo's minimalist hardware design. The wireless connection gets its own slider switch on the side, which could just have easily have been handled in software. The 3D Slider has a glowing green "3D" indicator next to it when 3D is active, which seems unnecessary. The manual warns that you can pinch your fingers in the hinge, an odd, and utterly avoidable, design flaw.
The other big design flaw, of course, is the battery. While I didn't leave it on next to a stopwatch, 3-4 hours is a reasonable estimate of how much time I got out of each charge. Luckily, the charging dock is super nice. You can just set the 3DS down on it and charge. If you're traveling, you can just take the AC adapter and charge the system without that bulky dock.
The 3D
I've mentioned it on the site before, but amblyopia prevents me from seeing stereoscopic 3D effects. So I experienced the 3DS's namesake feature vicariously through my wife, who spent time playing AR Games, Face Raiders, the 3DS Camera app, and generally messing around with the system in 3D.
And her reaction was that it just worked. Some things -- like reasonably close-up pictures -- looked more convincingly like things popping out of the screen than others, while some looked like multiple layers of flat objects in space, but the 3D effect was, according to her, easy to see and effective. For my own part, I can confirm that the 3D slider does a great job of turning the 3D off.
AR Games
The system ships with "AR Games" on board, which use a set of six included cards. To initiate the program, you have to put the ? card down and hold the camera about 12 inches away, at which point the card "opens up" into the menu. Games include a time-attack shooting gallery (which, in the last stage, becomes a dragon boss), a sort of bomb minigolf thing, fishing, and photography apps that allow you to pose your Miis or flagship Nintendo characters in the real world. By putting the Kirby card down, you summon a Kirby you can move around and cycle through various poses. In addition, more modes can be purchased with Play Coins.
(Yes, that's my washing machine.)
As long as the camera can see the AR card, the effect is seamless. You can move the 3DS around and the perspective of the rendered character will change with it. However, it's all too easy to lose sight of the card -- remember, you have to be around one foot away or closer at all times, or it'll lose its position. I can't imagine this AR app will have long-term appeal (though it's pretty fun to work on improving your time in the shooting game) but it fulfills its purpose as a gee-whiz feature to sell systems, with aplomb.
Activity Log
In a rather cool touch, the 3DS keeps a record of everything you've done, sort of like the Wii's Message Board. You can look through a virtual "book" showing you everything you've done with the system, in order, and for how long, with crowns ranking the most popular uses of the 3DS.
This is also where "Play Coins" live. The 3DS acts as a pedometer, exchanging every 100 steps for a "play coin," which can be used in games to buy extra content. For example, it unlocks additional modes in AR Games, and virtual figurines that can be used in StreetPass fighting in Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition. It's a pretty neat way to reward you for carrying the 3DS around. In my case, I totally forgot about it until I opened the system later and found that some virtual currency had accrued.
3DS Camera
The 3DS Camera app allows you to snap 3D pictures using the two outward-facing cameras of the device, or 2D pictures of yourself using the inside camera. You can also do some silly, gimmicky stuff like take simultaneous pictures of yourself and someone else using both cameras, and morph them together to surprisingly seamless, and horrifying, effect. You can save your pictures, both 3D and 2D, onto an SD card, and view the 3D pictures using any device that can open MPO files.
3DS Video Player
Shortly after the release of the system, the Japanese 3DS got its first firmware update, which added a 3DS Video Player app, complete with an included clip of Koji Kondo and a band of musicians playing the Super Mario Bros. theme at the recent Nintendo World 2011 event. There's not much to say here -- it plays video, in 3D, and is easy to use. It's worth noting, however, that the video played smoothly and instantaneously, which has never been true of the Wii's Nintendo Channel.
Mii Maker
The Mii system from the Wii has been expanded to include a few more facial options, including different hairstyles and eye shapes. In addition, Nintendo has added a feature that builds a Mii based on a picture it takes of your face. After it snaps the photo, you can choose from eight generated Miis to find the one that looks most like you, and then tweak it as you see fit.Or, as in my case, you can give up and make one from scratch, because the photo feature does not work. At least, it didn't for me. My auto-Mii came out looking a bit like Lurch from The Addams Family.
Perhaps the coolest thing about the Mii Maker is that you can share Miis not only by passing by others' 3DS systems and catching them with StreetPass, but you can send them out to others via QR codes. There's a bit of potential confusion here, though, as QR code-acquired Miis will only go into your Mii Maker for editing purposes, and not the Mii Plaza that collects all your friends' Miis. It's weird.
Face Raiders (aka the best thing to ever happen to handheld video games)
I don't want to oversell this simple game, so I'll just say it's the most wonderful thing to be included with a handheld system since Tetris. The gameplay itself is compelling: you move the 3DS around in space to find flying enemy heads attacking you, and shoot projectiles at them with the A button.; occasionally, they'll break the fabric of reality and throw it at you, leaving a hole in the world. Six increasingly difficult levels have you spinning around in 360 degrees, blasting away at flying faces.
But the gimmick makes it absolutely dumb and irresistible: the enemies' faces are all animated versions of your or your friends' faces. Why is this so great? Here's my cat as a boss:
Conclusion
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to try the StreetPass feature, which beams Miis and game data to other nearby 3DS systems automatically, because there aren't any other 3DS owners anywhere near me, that I know of.
In addition, I wasn't able to explore the eShop or play Virtual Console games because that doesn't exist yet! The download shop will be added in an update in "late May," according to Nintendo, leaving the 3DS without the ability to download games at launch. Because of this, I also wasn't able to test the DSiWare software transfer. It's a noticeable omission, especially if, say, you have a Japanese unit and want a convenient way to get games on it.
The biggest negatives to the 3DS (besides the absent eShop) are the battery life and the DS emulation. You'll need to get used to charging the system every time you come home, and while the DS display isn't bad enough to necessitate carrying another system around, it's at least worth playing DS games on a real DS at home.
The real measure of a system is its software lineup, which it's too early to evaluate -- but given Nintendo's dominance in the handheld space, expect the 3DS to be pretty well-supported. In general, looking at it as a gadget, I'm pretty impressed. The 3D feature works as advertised (if you've got two working eyes, of course), is quite pleasant to behold and to hold, and it's loaded with built-in content that is actually worthwhile.
Monday, March 7, 2011
GDC: The Future of Graphics and Unreal Engine 3
8:57 AM
The Game Peddler
by Arthur Gies
Epic announced a host of new features in their Unreal Engine 3 development platform today at this year's GDC, the biggest of which is support for DirectX 11 and its assorted tools. The problem is, for most people, these kind of announcements might as well be in Sanskrit -- they're full of tech jargon that goes right by the average gamer.
I've gone through in an attempt to translate what Epic means by Subsurface Scattering and Deferred Rendering. The bolded segments are features of the updated Unreal Engine 3 courtesy of Epic, followed by our explanation of what this means for games. Epic gave us the thumbs up for accuracy. Yay, us.
Reflections are hard to do in games without wrecking performance. You'll notice that many games you'll play go out of their way to break any mirrored surface so that there's a plausible reason for them to avoid rendering your character's reflection. The solution Epic discusses here sounds like it'll take a simplified version of the scene around a reflected object (like, say, your character in a mirror or a polished metal surface) and apply all the different effects you'd expect on top of them.
Materials like skin and other non-shiny surfaces aren't opaque, believe it or not. Your skin is colored the way it is in part because of the color of the blood running through the capillaries in it, and you can see some veins. This also means that when light hits it, it doesn't just bounce off. Some light penetrates it, which then eventually reflects back. Subsurface scattering sort of emulates this effect with light that hits surfaces the developers designate. Think of the difference between a plastic action figure's skin surface and your own. That's what Epic is selling here.
Aliasing, put simply, is the jagged appearance that plagues edges in game visuals. Have you ever seen, say, a wire running diagonally from the ground to a structure that looked like it was a collection of horizontal lines laddering upward? That's aliasing. Anti-aliasing smooths these edges. There are a variety of means of anti-aliasing, but the most effective methods can be really hard on video cards. Hair is especially effected, because of its overall complexity. Epic is claiming a better implementation for materials like hair in the new version of Unreal Engine 3, as shown below.
If I understand correctly, this will help with things like grass and trees too. When you play games like Bad Company 2 on the consoles, you can see this kind of aliasing (jagged edges) in the bushes and such.
Deferred rendering has been a buzzword in game development circles for the last few years. Most engines use a forward renderer: this means the scene you see is drawn in passes - the environment, the figures, the lighting, other effects, etc (this is a simplified explanation, obviously).
Killzone and Dead Space use deferred rendering. Deferred renderers store all those passes I was talking about without drawing them until the last possible second, which allows developers to push the detail you're seeing and aggressively ramp up the lighting they can use. This kind of renderer has issues though, one of which being a lack of proper anti-aliasing support (which smooths out jagged edges in your games).
The new version of Unreal Engine 3 supports deferred rendering out of the box, and Epic is claiming to have solved the anti-aliasing issue, allowing M-ulti-S-ampling-Anti-Aliasing (the sort of default form of AA) to work with a deferred solution.
Bokeh can mean a couple of different things. At its most basic definition, it's the blur in out-of-focus areas of a photographic image. It also pertains to how "pleasing" that blur is. There are different definitions of what "pleasing" means for depth of field (DOF) blur, but generally it means a clean look that isn't especially distracting. Unreal Engine games have had DOF effects for a while, but they've been pretty hit and miss. This improvement in bokeh in UE3 will mean better, more film-like DOF effects, and also sounds like it'll allow more creative use of DOF, like we see in movies with great cinematography.
A dynamic shadow means a shadow generated, er, dynamically. That means it reacts to light sources "on-the-fly." This one's sort of self-explanatory right? Better shadows? Look at the screenshot. LOOK AT IT.
NOW LOOK AT ANOTHER ONE.
Epic also mentioned several other features, but the most interesting may be tessellation. Tessellation takes less complicated geometry and makes it more complicated.
This can mean a lot of things, but what it means to you is more detailed looking stuff with less system resources to do it. I grabbed some images from video card maker EVGA demonstrating some things that tessellation can do. Pictures say it better sometimes! And I can't think of a good way to explain how tessellation works without discussing geometry, and I can actually hear your head slumping onto your keyboard right now.
Tessellation in particular is a possibly major addition to Unreal Engine 3. The Xbox 360's graphics processor actually supports tessellation, but to my knowledge it's never been used. This alone could lead to some major enhancements to the visuals in 360 games - assuming that the 360 version of the Unreal Engine 3 development kit supports it.
I've gone through in an attempt to translate what Epic means by Subsurface Scattering and Deferred Rendering. The bolded segments are features of the updated Unreal Engine 3 courtesy of Epic, followed by our explanation of what this means for games. Epic gave us the thumbs up for accuracy. Yay, us.
"Image-based reflections that allow surfaces of any shape to reflect an approximate version of scenes, with varying glossiness across surfaces, anisotropic HDR highlights and anti-aliasing."
Reflections are hard to do in games without wrecking performance. You'll notice that many games you'll play go out of their way to break any mirrored surface so that there's a plausible reason for them to avoid rendering your character's reflection. The solution Epic discusses here sounds like it'll take a simplified version of the scene around a reflected object (like, say, your character in a mirror or a polished metal surface) and apply all the different effects you'd expect on top of them.
"Subsurface scattering (SSS) that simulates the light that scatters inside semi-translucent materials (this makes character skin come alive)."
Materials like skin and other non-shiny surfaces aren't opaque, believe it or not. Your skin is colored the way it is in part because of the color of the blood running through the capillaries in it, and you can see some veins. This also means that when light hits it, it doesn't just bounce off. Some light penetrates it, which then eventually reflects back. Subsurface scattering sort of emulates this effect with light that hits surfaces the developers designate. Think of the difference between a plastic action figure's skin surface and your own. That's what Epic is selling here.
"Anti-aliased masked materials that super sample the edges of masked and alpha-tested materials (this makes hair more look realistic than ever before)."
Aliasing, put simply, is the jagged appearance that plagues edges in game visuals. Have you ever seen, say, a wire running diagonally from the ground to a structure that looked like it was a collection of horizontal lines laddering upward? That's aliasing. Anti-aliasing smooths these edges. There are a variety of means of anti-aliasing, but the most effective methods can be really hard on video cards. Hair is especially effected, because of its overall complexity. Epic is claiming a better implementation for materials like hair in the new version of Unreal Engine 3, as shown below.
If I understand correctly, this will help with things like grass and trees too. When you play games like Bad Company 2 on the consoles, you can see this kind of aliasing (jagged edges) in the bushes and such.
Deferred rendering has been a buzzword in game development circles for the last few years. Most engines use a forward renderer: this means the scene you see is drawn in passes - the environment, the figures, the lighting, other effects, etc (this is a simplified explanation, obviously).
Killzone and Dead Space use deferred rendering. Deferred renderers store all those passes I was talking about without drawing them until the last possible second, which allows developers to push the detail you're seeing and aggressively ramp up the lighting they can use. This kind of renderer has issues though, one of which being a lack of proper anti-aliasing support (which smooths out jagged edges in your games).
The new version of Unreal Engine 3 supports deferred rendering out of the box, and Epic is claiming to have solved the anti-aliasing issue, allowing M-ulti-S-ampling-Anti-Aliasing (the sort of default form of AA) to work with a deferred solution.
"Bokeh depth of field providing close to film-quality DOF, with artist-controllable Bokeh."
Bokeh can mean a couple of different things. At its most basic definition, it's the blur in out-of-focus areas of a photographic image. It also pertains to how "pleasing" that blur is. There are different definitions of what "pleasing" means for depth of field (DOF) blur, but generally it means a clean look that isn't especially distracting. Unreal Engine games have had DOF effects for a while, but they've been pretty hit and miss. This improvement in bokeh in UE3 will mean better, more film-like DOF effects, and also sounds like it'll allow more creative use of DOF, like we see in movies with great cinematography.
"High-quality dynamic shadows from many lights on the environment (shadows for point lights and other light sources)."
A dynamic shadow means a shadow generated, er, dynamically. That means it reacts to light sources "on-the-fly." This one's sort of self-explanatory right? Better shadows? Look at the screenshot. LOOK AT IT.
NOW LOOK AT ANOTHER ONE.
Epic also mentioned several other features, but the most interesting may be tessellation. Tessellation takes less complicated geometry and makes it more complicated.
This can mean a lot of things, but what it means to you is more detailed looking stuff with less system resources to do it. I grabbed some images from video card maker EVGA demonstrating some things that tessellation can do. Pictures say it better sometimes! And I can't think of a good way to explain how tessellation works without discussing geometry, and I can actually hear your head slumping onto your keyboard right now.
Tessellation in particular is a possibly major addition to Unreal Engine 3. The Xbox 360's graphics processor actually supports tessellation, but to my knowledge it's never been used. This alone could lead to some major enhancements to the visuals in 360 games - assuming that the 360 version of the Unreal Engine 3 development kit supports it.
GDC: Darkness II Off to a Great Start
8:52 AM
The Game Peddler
by Daemon Hatfield
Here at the Game Developers Conference I got my first look at The Darkness II, the sequel to the 2007 comic book game. I wasn't sure what to expect because the sequel has been handed to a different developer, but it ended up being one of the most exciting games I saw at GDC this year.
The Darkness II is still a first-person shooter starring Mafioso Jackie Estacado, current host of a chaotic force known as the Darkness. When Jackie is in the light, he's your regular Wiseguy. But when he steps into shadow the Darkness emerges and you'll see two serpent heads appear onscreen. This is what makes The Darkness' gameplay unique: you can run around dual-wielding guns while using your dark tentacles to mangle and abuse enemies, giving you four weapons at your disposal all at the same time. But you'll often have to think about, avoid, or remove light sources in order to maintain your more powerful form.
Vocal virtuoso Mike Patton, of Faith No More fame, will be returning as the twisted voice of the Darkness.
Perhaps most notably, The Darkness II has a new developer. The original was developed by Starbreeze, creator of the Xbox cult favorite The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. This sequel is being handled by Digital Extremes, developer of Dark Sector. Digital Extremes has altered the art style, going for a glossy graphic novel look.
In the first game, Jackie could deliver brutal executions to his enemies such as bashing their heads in with the butt of his gun. Now his Demon Arms can get in on the fun and finish off goons in fun, gory ways. The Anaconda execution is when a tentacle coils itself around an enemy and then bursts through his chest Alien-style. For the Wishbone, each arm grabs a bad guy's leg and then splits him in two from the crotch.
Story-wise, two years have passed since the events of The Darkness. No longer just a hitman, Jackie is now the head of the Franchetti crime family. When you have power, though, someone is always going to try and take it away from you.
Very positive. The opening moments of The Darkness II are kind of amazing. Jackie awakens from a blackout to find he is literally being crucified by some jerk that wants the Darkness for himself. As his hands are nailed to the cross you see his power is being drained into some sort of ancient vase -- all from a first-person view. Through several playable flashbacks you come to learn how Jackie ended up in this predicament.
Jackie had arrived at an Italian restaurant earlier that night and received the suitably royal treatment. As he was led through the building I got a good sense of the space of the restaurant, which was busy with all sorts of chatty patrons. When Jackie arrived at his table he was greeted by two lovely ladies that he didn't at first recognize with their clothes on.
I won't spoil exactly what happens next because it's pretty shocking, but needless to say Jackie's nice evening is spoiled by an attempt on his life that leaves his leg crushed and the restaurant in flames. As one of his friends pulls Jackie to safety through the blazing wreck, players will be able to take aim and shoot down the invading mobsters. The flames are too bright for Jackie to change into his dark form, but once they reach a back alley he can transform and have his fun with the goons. It was a thrilling intro to the game and made me want to play.
The Darkness II is currently set for release later this year. Put it on your radar.
Here at the Game Developers Conference I got my first look at The Darkness II, the sequel to the 2007 comic book game. I wasn't sure what to expect because the sequel has been handed to a different developer, but it ended up being one of the most exciting games I saw at GDC this year.
What's the Same?
The Darkness II is still a first-person shooter starring Mafioso Jackie Estacado, current host of a chaotic force known as the Darkness. When Jackie is in the light, he's your regular Wiseguy. But when he steps into shadow the Darkness emerges and you'll see two serpent heads appear onscreen. This is what makes The Darkness' gameplay unique: you can run around dual-wielding guns while using your dark tentacles to mangle and abuse enemies, giving you four weapons at your disposal all at the same time. But you'll often have to think about, avoid, or remove light sources in order to maintain your more powerful form.
Vocal virtuoso Mike Patton, of Faith No More fame, will be returning as the twisted voice of the Darkness.
What's New?
Perhaps most notably, The Darkness II has a new developer. The original was developed by Starbreeze, creator of the Xbox cult favorite The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. This sequel is being handled by Digital Extremes, developer of Dark Sector. Digital Extremes has altered the art style, going for a glossy graphic novel look.
In the first game, Jackie could deliver brutal executions to his enemies such as bashing their heads in with the butt of his gun. Now his Demon Arms can get in on the fun and finish off goons in fun, gory ways. The Anaconda execution is when a tentacle coils itself around an enemy and then bursts through his chest Alien-style. For the Wishbone, each arm grabs a bad guy's leg and then splits him in two from the crotch.
A new Demon Arm execution called The Anaconda.
Story-wise, two years have passed since the events of The Darkness. No longer just a hitman, Jackie is now the head of the Franchetti crime family. When you have power, though, someone is always going to try and take it away from you.
First Impressions?
Very positive. The opening moments of The Darkness II are kind of amazing. Jackie awakens from a blackout to find he is literally being crucified by some jerk that wants the Darkness for himself. As his hands are nailed to the cross you see his power is being drained into some sort of ancient vase -- all from a first-person view. Through several playable flashbacks you come to learn how Jackie ended up in this predicament.
Jackie had arrived at an Italian restaurant earlier that night and received the suitably royal treatment. As he was led through the building I got a good sense of the space of the restaurant, which was busy with all sorts of chatty patrons. When Jackie arrived at his table he was greeted by two lovely ladies that he didn't at first recognize with their clothes on.
I won't spoil exactly what happens next because it's pretty shocking, but needless to say Jackie's nice evening is spoiled by an attempt on his life that leaves his leg crushed and the restaurant in flames. As one of his friends pulls Jackie to safety through the blazing wreck, players will be able to take aim and shoot down the invading mobsters. The flames are too bright for Jackie to change into his dark form, but once they reach a back alley he can transform and have his fun with the goons. It was a thrilling intro to the game and made me want to play.
The Darkness II is currently set for release later this year. Put it on your radar.
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