From the team that brought you an award-winning Playstation game titles flOw and flower, ThatGameCompany[TGC] is all busy with a whole new concept in gaming called - The Journey.
While most games bestows you with addictive feel of power and domination over your puny enemies who scream for mercy when they catch your glimpse, Journey is all set to do the exact opposite! Yes, the developers want you to understand how small we all are really all.
Here's what Jenova Chan, TGC's creative director says
"in the modern world where man has so much power, we have lost an integral aspect of the human experience – awe towards the unknown"
Only if we cared to look beyond whats visible, we would understand that we dont even compare to a tiny speck of interstellar dust in this wide universe of ours. The game is a simple open ended multi-player that hopes to instill you this feel when you play it. You are put into a huge world where you shall wander alongside other live players, meet them, join the party or say a hi and part ways. This game intends to unravel the inner emotion buried deep inside one's soul.
The game begins with you waking up in the middle of the dessert with only visions of distant tall mountains, urging you to set out and explore. Real world strangers who are wandering just like you, cross your path often from time to time. You choose to travel a lone rodeo or together with your live counterpart, unraveling a fresh new experience along the way.
Though one may guess, all multi-player games have live players, think again, they provide monotonic gameplay requiring you to complete missions. This is not one of those games, the Journey evokes a sense of awe and mystery that could be a whole new experience - refreshing and powerful.
The game is set to release somewhere around 2011.
Visit ThatGameCompany for follow ups.
Today is an important day for LOTRO: we’ve announced that this fall, LOTRO will begin offering a Free-to-Play option! Players will be able to download the game and adventure in Middle-earth for free. With Free-to-Play comes the addition of the LOTRO Store, where players will have immediate in-game access to a wide variety of special items, account services, and convenience items.
Head up to the site and join now...
check out some screenshots:
Any gamer worth his salt would know that right tools for the jobs[read p@3@g3] is a must for proper gaming experience, and how do we know that these tools are in the best of shape or are in fact the proper tools...? well benchmark them silly! 3d mark 11 is soon to hit your senses around Q3 2010...hard! 3d mark 11 will support Direct X 11 and fully harness the power of directX. Let us get some facts straight for you, courtesy, the Futuremark team themselves!
So what's 3d mark all about?
If you really expected us to answer that question, let us ask you this - "Have you been sleeping under a rock for the past decade or so?" Juz kidding ;) .., 3d mark is an awesome piece of benchmarking software developed by people at Futuremark It basically runs a series of realtime and pre rendered high intensity 3d CG and calculates how your graphic card puts up against the run. In the end, results are shown and there's even a leaderboard system that shows your PC's ranking in the world game gene pool!
"3d mark is the latest version of the worlds most popular benchmark that measures the performances of direct x 11 gaming pc's"
We requested the good hearted people at Futuremark to send us a preview on their upcoming 3d mark 11 as we wanted to show you first hand! And guess what, they did! So here's what we got for you:A sneak preview on the demo test video.
The deep see trailer shows the power of direct x 11's tessellation and volumetric lighting as the submarines explore the seabed.The trailer rendered by the 3d mark 11 engine using already available directx 11 hardware seems impressive! Volumetric lighting illuminates the sea bed ,with tessellations used to add rich detail to the rock,coral and man made structures. A 14 element depth of field lens effects is achieved through post processing system slowly blurring the line between reality and the virtual world. The Music being an original composition, we like!
"Tessellation..? I'm a Gamer, should that concern me?"
Yes! Tessellation (lets call it Tesse) is something that gamers should be very excited about as it creates highly detailed character models and environments without excessive demands on memory. The Tesse is highly scalable engine that renders in-tune with your graphic card. So finally something, thats not reserved for the upper high end models. Our favourite feature in Tesse was its ability to increase details of an object continuously as you approach closer to it.
DX 11 is said to feature true Depth of field [DOF] rendering, a postprocessing effect that adds a feeling of depth to 2d images by forcing the viewer to focus on specif point in space.The trailer featured some neat and smoot bokeh effect, blurring in out-of-focus areas of image. While currently gaussian blur is used to simulate DOF in current generation of games , the bokeh effect would be common in upcoming games due to the flexibility and power of Microsoft Directx 11and DX 11 based hardware.
Support for Volumetric lighting
volumetric lighting is used to show light rays interacting with the medium they pass through.it can also be used to create the effect of color change with distance,like bluish hue for landscape closer to the horizon.In games it can be used to create striking environmental lighting effects to highlighting objects or as a game play element itself such as a flashlight beam visible as a cone of light rather than just a circle of illumination. Watch the trailer as you see lights bounce and play in the environment.
Features such as Direct compute allows developers to create "compute shaders" to use processing powers of graphic card to run non graphical tasks.So parallel processing tasks can be taken off cpu and be given to the graphics card which eases the stress on your CPU. This gives game creaters great flexibility to create new effects with greater efficiency, quality and speed
Also we were told that DX11 will enable true Multi threading support, aiding games to take better advantage of multicore processors resulting in better framerates and faster load times. Earlier, most games ran better on dual cores rather than quad or core i5,i7 series, simply because of the fact that those games were not optimized to take full advantage of the extra cores.
And wrapping it up, 3d mark 11 will be offered in a range of price quotes catering to different types of customers, which the press release said, would be announced at a later point of time...However, for gamers like you and me, a free edition that allows unlimited runs will always be available :-D
Game Nation has finally begun their project..the worlds first experiential Video Game Theme Park & Resort..
According to the Official Excerpt
Game Nation™ is the world’s first Experiential Video Game Theme Park and Resort. Visitors will become players as they step into a realistic re-creation of a world filled with myths, legends and arenas all crying out for their champion. As you pass through the gates, you’ll leave behind all worldly stereotypes. You’re now one of millions, all equal, separated only by your skill, wit, and achievements, which will be proven. Your experience points and score are recognized by the guardians of this domain. As players walk by, recruits are saluted and veterans are bowed down to. You are guided to the armory where you must select your weapon. You choose from majestic relics, whimsical hardware or advanced gear. Here your dreams and fantasies will come to life in adventures yet to be told. You will become anything you like and live out the character you create. But this is no game. It’s real! Welcome to Game Nation! And if this isnt Christmas enough for RPG fans I dont know what is...Well Head over to their site and Join their Army at http://www.demandgamenation.com
Alright! The sequel to Kill Zone 2 has been confirmed by Sony and guess whats, its gonna be in Stereoscopic 3d! The Game Apparently Picks up from its previous version,and has a broad array of game environment ,enemies and "broader vision of the planet helghan"
These are some of the officially leaked product images. They sure seem good. The environment, the character design et all seems to have been built up really well. This particular image on the right, is gonna be my favourite. Jetpack suits with shoulder mounted heavy artillery! Now thats what i call de-perfecto gear up for combat!
Here's one more image for you to drool on! E3 this year sure seems a whole lotta packed n loaded!Watch this space as we bring you more updates.
Brink(2010) is an immersive first person shooter from Splash damage and Bethesda games. We had a look at Brink's sneak peak trailer which seems quite promising. The video shows a multiplayer environment where players battle it out - Hard! with some really serious weapons and loads of ammo. Something like Survival of the fittest scheme. We like!
Battlegrounds - The Ark
The battle takes place on an abandoned place devoid of daily commute, called the Ark, which supposedly is an experimental man made "green" city now taken over for Civil war between warlords. (Sounds familiar..?) It houses two superior groups of people, the security and the resistance forces.The Ark looks like a floating city with variety of environment that gives you a hundred reasons to run and gun in freestyle and a few hundred more to save your sorry ass from a greater power!
Originally built to support about 5000 inhabitants, its on the verge of instability and desaturation due to unexpected rise to about 50k inhabitants! The story focuses on you choosing either side and fighting till the other is completely terminated.
The Gameplay
From what we have seen so far, the game play looks fluid with tight controls and good camera. Brink promises to give you unlimited player customization capabilities that will let you project your personality into the game. The game is said to host strong multiplayer options and you can seamlessly take your personalized character to online and campaign modes!
Character movement seems to mimic freestyle running like mirror's edge yet combines a true first person shooter perspectives. Splash damage quotes that they have fine tuned the gameplay with proactive decision system called the SMART that pre-calculates your movement enabling you to pull out a wide array of combos.
Brink Teaser video (HD)
What We say:
The media content from the developers looks great,we only hope that game feels as good! Stay tuned till fall 2010 (available on pre order) as we bring you more updates on this.
So this Was A Game I Managed to grab from Steam recently for free.I was steadfastly ignoring the game,until My friend - CODE NAME : PAiNkillER -threatened to kamikaze himself in an ongoing LAN Game .I'm Glad he did...
So Basically Portal is a Offering from Valve and it comes along with the Famed Orange Box Set.Well Avid Steam Players would have already grabbed the copy for free,that is if they haven't already bought the box set yet.Well
In a sentence the game can be summed up very crudely in the words “You enter into a hole and you come out of another,while solving puzzles”. lame as the sentence is game isn't.
What we see is that a gem of a creation called "Narabacular Drop" mutating into (in a good way that is) Portal,Driven by a Source Engine.
The game starts with you waking up in a Glass Cell In A room run by a company called Aperture Science,and a highly irritating computer voice/which you will later love and in process mentally assigning it a sweet and caring personality until reality hits you in the face when you discover its a psychopathic aggressive old nut job of a Baker going by the name of GLADOS,who finds Baked "cakes" funny.
The Sheer Objectivity of the bitch make you wanna bring the whole thing down using nothing but a knife,while chanting Jingle bells.But its Usefulness and quirky humor is what keeps you away from doing that.
In the first few levels are basically trained how to get in and out of pre-set portals,where u can have control of only one entry/exit point,then as thegame gradually introduces you to portals you eventually end up with a gun that you can use to fire portals onto walls, ceilings, and floors. Your primary and alternate fire buttons will then enable you to create blue and orange portals, respectively, so basically moving through one portal sends you out of the other one. This becomes your travel mechanism through out the game. You can also pick up objects, such as large boxes, which often must be placed on specified areas to open doors that lets you proceed through a variety of test chambers.This Too is Made easy Using the portal Gun Effectively.
Initially the game is all too easy but once you start progressing things gets a tad bit tricky ,requiring you to control your momentum plus applying plain old logic,to avoid or eliminate obstacles.There are Multiple Ways to Get the solution.Having a Whole different form of game play gives it a very good upper edge, as its refreshing to play this game . The only trivial faults I can come up with is its distasteful Visual Scenarios,while serving its purpose well could have been better visually ,which can be useful in adding to the complexity of the game . Also the game is really short,just around 3 hours of game play.
But it more than makes it up with its concept which it give it a real good replay value as the levels can be played with different difficulty settings that provide a neat challenge to anyone who is ready to tackle it.
Here Is a review Of the In game components.Honestly don't bother to read it go Get the game,
Till Then Game In & Game Out.
Sound: 07/10
Graphics: 08/10
Visual delight: 03/10
Game play: 10/10
Ease Of Controls: 10/10
Value for Money: 10/10.. Especially If you Grabbed it For Free
Replay value: 10/10
Overall Rating: 9/10
Additional Details:
System requirements
Minimum:
1.7 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, DirectX 8 compatible video card, Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Mac OS X Recommended:
Pentium 4 processor (3.0 GHz or better), 1 GB RAM, DirectX 9 compatible video card, Windows 2000/XP/Vista Input methods : Game pad, keyboard and mouse
"Hello World"..Most probably is the first display line of any Newbie Programmer .The First Words of a Digital Child,and with those same words i welcome you all.Gamers that is,For if your not one what in the name of bloody eff have you guys/gals been doing for all these years.
Well cutting to the chase what we plan on doing on this son-of- a-web of a blog is to carve a niche for itself.
Not just by having Game reviews and Game related news ...Come on if you have read one review from any site its like having read 15 of them..No what we Plan on doing here is to take an offbeat path.Reviewing Core aspects of Games,Arguments On Best Games of a specific genre,Games worth Checkin Out,Creating Avenues for LAN Parties,Focus on Gaming Expos And International Competitions Etc Etc..
So Till then,
GAME IN & GAME OUT
Cheers!!
CODE NAME : Enigma
Hey all,
Madz here from the SuperExcitinglyAmazingBlog! This Gamerzeen blog will hosting a whole lotta stuff - all about gaming! I would like to welcome a new author to Gamerzeen, BK (Bee'Kay) a.k.a "Enigma" who will be contributing a substantial amount of content to our blogs. This guy is as weird as his name, but be warned, he can floor you out by his choice of words. His entries are a must read! From reviews, previews, demos, to freely downloadable game content, we will feature it all in the forthcoming days.Stay tuned to this space! Cheers!
The game begins with you waking up in the middle of the dessert with only visions of distant tall mountains, urging you to set out and explore. Real world strangers who are wandering just like you, cross your path often from time to time. You choose to travel a lone rodeo or together with your live counterpart, unraveling a fresh new experience along the way.
