In this, the first of our regular Talkythinks features, we Reticule lot have a natter and share the resulting inane gibberish with you. It’s not a direct copy of RPS‘ Verdict, honest (it’s actually a lot worse). StalinsGhost wasn’t around to Talkythink L4D, but he was there in spirit, blessing it with his good grace.
A privileged elite thrust from a dying world, an exiled criminal making his escape with a bounty of fuel and fireworks, or over-reliance on GPS leading to a Sunday drive gone terribly awry. Form your own story – you’re in space and there’s gonna be ‘splosions before the end. This is Reset by chatroom regular and talented person RoBurky, and these are the words he has to say about his creation:
“‘Rest to Reset‘ by Trash80 (creator of the soundtrack to Darwinia) is one of my favourite pieces of music. This game is intended to provide an experience that supports that music, with everything that happens in the game happening in response to something in the music. Like an interactive music video. Or like Audiosurf, but with the experience sculpted just for this one track.”
I am a big fan of Trials 2 by RedLynx, I think it is one of the finest indie games currently on the market. The mix of physics with the desire to go one better than your previous ride is massively appealing to me.
So it was with great pleasure that I got to pose some questions to three of the men who were behind the game. Tero is the CEO of the company, Antti is the co-found and Creative Director and, last but not least, Sebbi is their technology lead programmer. Hit the jump to read the interview and find out much more about Trials 2.
[This is written as an 'other perspective' piece, and isn't necessarily exactly how I think of the topic. However, it's how I 'could' see the topic, so I believe it's still valid.]
Recently there’s been a growing distaste with the word ‘gameplay’, mainly stemming from the shockingly odd meaning it seems to construe. Words like ‘bookread’ and ‘filmwatch’ have been bandied around in comparison, showing quite how absurd a concept ‘gameplay’ really is. I’ll admit, I don’t think I’ve ever used the word in any of my writings for this precise reason, choosing the far more understandable ‘mechanics’ when addressing how a game.. plays. However, I think there are important things that need to be said about the word, and perhaps even some circumstances where it is appropriate and even useful in conveying ideas.
This is just a quick post in memory of Jimbo, the Reticule office monkey, who worked himself to death to bring about the new fangled design to the website! Marvel in it’s bittersweet pleasures, knowing that Jimbo himself never managed to gaze upon it in all its glory. He would’ve been proud, so proud, to see it.
If Farcry 2 , Left 4 Dead, and STALKER are anything to go by, the big buzz word here to have a bash at stealing “open world’s” crown is “procedural”. While the two are sometimes linked – in the case of Farcry 2 for example, Gabe Newell, writing on Edge, believes that the future will be in procedurally generating the play experience every time you play a FPS. Certainly, Left 4 Dead is just the beginning in terms of level development, and Farcry 2 in that of narrative. In a genre starting to grow turgid with lack of innovation, I think developers would do well to heed Newell’s wise words.
Gabe, telling us how it is.
Command and Conquer: The First Decade was an epic box set of all the Command and Conquer games that were released before Tiberium Wars. It was magnificent for having all those classic games on one disc, however there were issues with it, even after two official patches.
Thus I was shocked when I saw this on C&C.com which revealed that an Unofficial 1.03 Patch has been made by the C&C community.
If you want to play any of those classic games with most of the bugs fixed then it is well worth checking out. Great stuff for the C&C Community to be doing this kind of thing.
Red Alert 3 is the latest game in the Red Alert franchise, Steve thought it was good and from what I have played I must concur. If you haven’t played it yet then it is well worth checking out demo for it.
I recently got the chance to pose a few questions at the lead designer of Red Alert 3, Jason Torres, the results of which can be seen after the jump.
