And The First DirectX11 Game Is…
DirectX11 hits alongside Windows 7 later this month, and with it will usher in a new generation of pretty, oh so pretty PC games. Yet the first game to support DirectX11 won’t be a shooter.
Instead, it’s Battleforge, EA’s card-trading strategy game. Not the most obvious choice, we know, but then, you gotta start somewhere.
A recent patch means the game now has “a higher frame rate and new ways of creating graphical effects, such as shadows and lighting”, though with no DX11 cards on the market and Vista support not yet enabled, good luck trying to make that actually mean anything.
BattleForge becomes first DirectX11-enabled game [Big Download]
Watch The Resident Evil 5 Alternative Edition Trailer
With Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition, Capcom is bringing RE5 to the PS3 with new content and PS3 Wand controls.
Starring Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield, the new mission is another 2 hours of content and takes place three years before the main plot line of Resident Evil 5.
The updated version of RE5 will be released next spring in Japan.
Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition Coming to Xbox Live
Zeno Clash is on the way to Xbox Live Arcade, says Atlus, who promises new content, a new cooperative mode and gameplay fine-tuned to gamer feedback.
Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition will is scheduled to release in March 2010. The first-person brawler will include a new cooperative mode in the game’s Tower Challenges, Atlus said in a release. The game will also feature “new features, and added content combine with a series of tweaks and improvements based on fan feedback to deliver the definitive version of the critically-acclaimed game.”
No price was named in the release. Atlus’s announcement also teased an “as-of-yet-unannounced other new mode exclusive to the Ultimate Edition,” plus other features.
Atlus Announces Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition for Xbox Live Arcade [Atlus Forums]
Where Are All The "Next Gen" Games?
The calendar says “2009″. The Xbox 360 launched in 2005. That means we’re four years into the “next generation” of video gaming. If so, then where the hell are our “next generation” games?
It’s something that’s been gnawing at me for a while now, but as we approach Christmas 2009 – the fifth holiday season for the Xbox 360, and fourth for the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii – that gnawing has turned into some serious, unchecked mastication.
After all, a new hardware generation is meant to usher in a new generation of games to go with it. And not just games that look prettier, or sound better; titles that give you something entirely new in terms of game design and mechanics, something that could only be done by taking advantage of the latest in console hardware.
Yet I think only a handful of games this console generation have done so. Which ones? Oh, I’m glad you asked. Games like:
Dead Rising – There has never been a game like Dead Rising. It’s open-world in appearance, but the entire game is built around the concept of navigating an endless sea of zombies in numbers previous consoles simply couldn’t get on-screen at once.
Oblivion/Fallout 3 – Two games, I know, but they do the same thing, so they go in the same listing. Nobody ever forgets that first time you leave the Imperial sewers/Vault 101 and take in the world around you, realising that Bethesda haven’t crafted a level, they’ve built a seamless, living world well beyond the scale of previous titles like Morrowind.
Yes, they also appear on PC, but remember, these games were also built from the ground up with consoles in mind, rather than being crude ports.
Wii Sports/Wii Sports Resort – To this day, the only games that have truly delivered on the promise of the Wii Remote, integrating it so naturally within the gameplay experience that you can’t imagine playing the games without it.
So as good as Modern Warfare is, as good as Mario Galaxy is, I don’t call them truly “next gen” games. Why? Because they fail my “next gen” test, that’s why.
Here’s the test: If a game can be ported to a console in a previous generation and keep its core gameplay and overall design in place, it’s not what I’m calling for the purposes of this piece a “next gen” game. Mario Galaxy was great, but really, it’s a GameCube title with some star-shaking stuff thrown in. Modern Warfare? Amazing, but as the upcoming Wii port attests, it used the 360 and PS3 primarily for better graphics and sound. LittleBigPlanet? Another great game, but the PSP version shows the core experience could have been done on a PS2.
Other games I think fail this test are Halo 3, BioShock, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid 4…OK, pretty much everything. You get the idea. Sure, they’re nice and shiny, and have lovely pre-rendered cutscenes, and there are advanced uses of physics and AI under the hood, and most important of all, advanced online connectivity, but all of those are just tweaks, improvements, icing on the cake, candy for the eyes. None of them fundamentally change the way you approach a game, or a genre.
Not like Mario Kart and F-Zero did with Parallax scrolling. Or Mario 64 with its use of 3D. Or Grand Theft Auto III with its living, breathing city. Those games re-wrote the book. You just couldn’t do GTAIII on the PlayStation. Or Mario 64 on the SNES. They were true “next gen” games.
Now, I’m not saying all games NEED to be 100% innovative. That’s an impossible requirement. Ridiculous, even. Not every single game idea is going to bust outside the box. I like my latest version of FIFA or Call of Duty as much as the next man, and the world will spin just fine with the majority of games simply plodding along, doing what the last one did, only slightly better. Still, a man can want, can’t he?
So why do we have so few this time around? What’s the problem? There’s refinement under the hood. There’s games that some, and especially the developers, may disagree with me on (GTAIV, for example, or Halo 3 and its extensive multiplayer modes). And there are some who could argue, with a fair point, that the same problem plagued the previous generation.
Certainly the cost of development can’t help. Worlds are built with engines, and engines are built on rules. If you wanted to come up with something entirely new, you’d have to do it yourself, which for many developers and publishers in this current economic climate just isn’t feasible.
It can also be argued that a single jump in the mid-90’s – from the 16-bit era to the N64 and PS1 – will long be the most significant in gaming, taking us as it did from 2D to 3D, and that subsequent generations can’t be relied upon to deliver the same level of innovation. Fair, to a point, but then there are still plenty of games like GTAIII that were able to innovate well past the 32-bit era.
One final possibility, however, is that there is innovation going on in today’s games beyond the superficial. It’s just, we can’t see it. Chatting with Bethesda’s Todd Howard on the subject, he put this idea forward:
“I think the visual component of it is the one that everyone notices first, and it’s also the prime part that benefits from what the new hardware gives you” he says. “So it’s just harder to see the innovations beyond that, but they’re there. I’d guess there’s just as much pure ‘design innovation’ with this generation as there has been in the last few.”
“Look at the basis now for how games handle physics, difficulty, controls, save games, or simple load screens. I know it sounds silly, but I get excited by innovations in loading screens, because they’re the worst part of a game. I’m interested in how games simply start.”
Promising, yeah, but does that really hold water when compared to more fundamental changes? Not really. “There’s been innovations in AI, but it certainly hasn’t kept pace with the graphic fidelity, which yields this overall feeling of it going backwards” Howard adds. “The environments are so complex now in games, that building good AI just to manoeuvre them takes serious time. But that’s not an innovation, that’s simply the AI doing what it could do before in a game.
“My hope is, as we developers turn the corner on how to make the games simply ‘work,’ that we can innovate more on how the games respond to the player, whether that is the AI, or socially, or something else.”
Maybe that explains it, and in 30 years, we’ll look back on the current generation as one where developers were finding their feet, laying the groundwork for sprawling, innovating and revolutionary titles of the future.
Nintendo Wii Price Cut Confirmed? $199 This Sunday
So those rumors that the Wii will drop $50 on Sept. 27 are looking increasingly like a done deal. An internal memo from an anonymous Best Buy tipster backs-up the claim, and says Nintendo will make things official this Friday.
When you think about, it’s amazing that the Wii has motored along for three years at $250. But it’s clear that Nintendo has to do something. The 120GB PS3 Slim is $300, the 120GB Xbox 360 Elite is $250 with rebates, and 250GB bundles for both are strongly rumored to be around the corner.
My Wii just kind of sits in the corner all lonely these days. If you don’t have one, is the new price enough to make you pick one up? Or will you just hold out until 2011 for the next-gen Wii with HD graphics? [Engadget]
360 Holiday Bundles To Include Pure, LEGO Batman
Ars Technica’s ever-reliable Xbox mole has revealed that this year, like last year, the 360 will be bundled with a couple of games for the holiday season.
According to the insider, who has a flawless track record on these matters, the Elite will soon be bundled with free copies of LEGO Batman and racer Pure. Not a bad deal that, as you’d keep most people happy with one, if not both of those.
No word on a similar deal for the Arcade unit, but hey, it’s only September.
Mole spills holiday 360 bundle as Microsoft begins $50 rebate [Ars Technica]
Putting Up Airballs — and Making Them — in NBA 2K10
2K Sports‘ NBA game, like its NHL counterpart, comes to the Wii for the first time with this year’s edition. This trailer gives a look at the motion controls which, for the most part, seem reasonably intuitive.
The jump shot’s a no brainer – Wiimote and nunchuk up, flip the ‘mote, splash, as Kobe Bryant shows you. Whipping the Wiimote in the direction of a teammate serves up a nice fast-break pass. Both controllers up and Greg Oden rejects a Monta Ellis shot.
I can see these kinds of motions being much more easily explained, and implemented, to friends who come over and haven’t played the game, than their counterparts on a full console controller. The shooting motion especially; that’s basketball’s answer to the air-guitar.
I wonder, though, if that pass is good for one of Magic Johnson’s patented length-of-the-floor bounce passes.
Get Your Free Halo 3: O.D.S.T. Premium Theme
Your Xbox 360 looks fine while playing Halo 3: O.D.S.T., but what about when you stop playing and return to the dashboard? Microsoft has you covered with a mostly free premium theme.
It’s a new Halo game, and to celebrate, there’s a new Halo theme, featuring the sights of O.D.S.T.’s New Mombasa. It’s yours free of charge, as long as you are a paying Xbox Live Gold subscriber. Behold the official description:
ODSTs aren’t the only ones getting their hands on upgraded gear to prepare for the upcoming Firefight. Available only for a limited time and free of charge for Xbox LIVE Gold Subscribers, this expertly crafted Halo 3: ODST Premium Theme will get your Xbox 360 ready for a combat drop into the city of New Mombasa.
The free O.D.S.T. theme is now available for download, either on your 360 itself, or the lazy way.
Onyxia Is Back And Badder Than Ever
World of Warcraft patch 3.2.2 hit the servers this morning with a resounding roar, as the dragon Onyxia is reborn, ready to take level 80 players down several painful pegs.
The latest patch brings the terror back to Azeroth, returning the mighty dragon to her former glory. What was until recently possible for 2-3 people is now a 10-man or 25-man raid encounter, with rewards styled to look like the old rewards, only much more powerful. Those lucky enough may even find themselves with a 310% flying mount styled after the lady herself.
Plenty of other changes come with the latest patch, but nothing quite as exciting. Check out the patch notes and let me know if I am wrong.
World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.2.2 (09-22-2009) [World of Warcraft]
The Earth Has Officially Fallen
Fallen Earth’s self-title post-apocalyptic MMO goes live today, with a retail version hitting store shelves by the end of the month for folks averse to downloading large amounts of data.
The beta testing is over, the Earth has been destroyed, and the monkeys are a great deal more intelligent now in Fallen Earth, the post-apocalyptic MMO that combines shooter style with RPG progression to create a persistent world title not quite like any other. The game is now available to purchase and play through Steam and other places like it, with a retail version recently added to the mix.
“The thoughtful development and diligence of our team is realized in a physical product, and that’s exciting,” said Jessica Orr, product manager for Fallen Earth. “We are pleased to add another avenue of purchase for our fans in conjunction with our existing digital sales.”
Fallen Earth will be hitting store shelves on September 30th, or you can buy it right now at FallenEarth.com.
