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Earth's Special Forces is back again to push the limits of the Half-Life engine. Having decided to drop the use of BSP files that Half-Life uses, they are now using a newer system that allows for more polygons and textures. For those of you who have no idea what any of that means, it means "ooh, shiny!". Check out the before and after below (I don't think I need to tell you which is which):
As well as increasing the polygon limit to 70,000 per map, other benefits of using their new map system include higher resolution textures, virtually unlimited map sizes, and even as far as animated textures.
A while ago the ESF team also introduced us to their new animations, thanks to their animator Darktooth. With 35+ player models, and 200+ animations for each character, that equals out to be around over 9000! (actually around 7000) animations. To check just a few of them out, take a look at the below video:
UK supermarket Sainsburys is offering Activision's new shooter for less than half the suggested retail price starting tomorrow.
It's looking like UK console gamers are going to get a pretty substantial break tomorrow when supermarket chain Sainsburys opens for business. According to various reports (via MCVUK) the stores will be selling Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on console for less than half the suggested retail price. Originally, Activision set the pricing at a steep 55GBP (roughly $92) for the regular edition of the game.
This morning however, websites based in the UK imploded with the news that Sainsburys is going to offer the regular version of Modern Warfare 2 for a skinny 26GBP (roughly $43).
From midnight tonight the supermarket will offer Infinity Ward's latest shooter for an astonishing 26GBP – a price well under half the 55GBP RRP.
Upon phoning a Sainsbury's store this morning, before MCV had even named the game we wanted to know the price of, we were told by a representative of a Hampshire location: "26GBP. Call of Duty, right? You're about the tenth person to call this morning. I spent all day yesterday taking these calls.
"We didn't actually know the price until today – we were told it was secret. But it's advertised in the papers this morning so now we know."
While some sources indicate that this price cut will only last until the first batch of stock is sold, it's going to be interesting to see if other retail outlets jump on the bandwagon and try to price match. One thing's for sure -- gamers that have pre-ordered the game at other retailers for the suggested price are not going to be happy.
Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard has indeed confirmed the cancellation of MechScape, although you wouldn't quite know it from his comments, which seem excited to be working on a different title with a new direction. This isn't the first time an in-development MMO has been rebooted in favor of a completely new direction, although Tabula Rasa at least kept its original name.
Why the sudden decision? According to Gerhard, MechScape wasn't able to avoid the same pitfalls of RuneScape. Of course, making such a move is going to cost Jagex millions, but their current financial success will be shouldering the weight. The new game -- known as Stellar Dawn -- should be coming in 2010 and will be based on the MechScape graphics engine.
The big changes planned for Stellar Dawn are content and combat focused, although no specifics were given by Gerhard. It's a bold move, no doubt, and sometimes this industry favors such decisions -- other times it punishes them significantly. Whether you look at this as stalled (Tabula Rasa) or prolonged (everything Blizzard) development, you have to admit it creates a notable amount of interest in Jagex's 2010 game.
Marriage proposals via video games aren't exactly new, but they're still clever -- and usually cute. Last Thursday, Brad Smith proposed to his girlfriend of five years using a hacked version of Super Mario World, placing coins in world 1-1 to spell out, "Will you marry me?" Cute, right? But we have to question Brad's filming of the occasion, because, if we didn't know better, we'd think the couple was being watched by a serial killer hiding behind their couch. You can see what we mean after the break.
As said by Aeria Games.
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Soon, Battle.net will be giving impatient Blizzard fans another reason to grumble. Blizzard has announced that, starting November 11, World of Warcraft will be accessible only through Battle.net. According to a post on the game's official Web site, players who do not have a Battle.net account must register with the service--at no charge--before they can join the 11-million-plus players in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game.
Digital distribution is poised to outstrip traditional retail sales within three years and 40 percent of companies within the games sector are unprepared for the rate at which this shift will take place.
These are just two of the claims that will be made by speakers at the London Games Conference, which takes place at BAFTA on Tuesday 27 October 2009.
The conference will look at every aspect of this seismic shift within the industry with speakers drawn from the development, publishing, retail and distribution communities.
Nick Parker, of Parker Consulting, will provide an overview of how the digital map is set to change over the next few years.
He believes that 2013 and 2014 will be the likely dates for the next generation global launches respectively from Microsoft and Sony, and that, as a result, from 2010 traditional box product sales will begin to fade.
However he predicts that digital distribution, along with online gaming, will potentially make up the shortfall during this period."For the first time ever, the games industry has a way of alleviating the pain that traditionally befalls it during generational decline, through online gaming in its many guises – it's a genuinely exciting time for the industry and the London Games Conference is perfectly timed to discuss these opportunities," commented Parker.
First, the Good: The suddenly puritanical Australian government -- by way of The Office of Film and Literature Classification -- has seen fit to grant the previously unclassified Left 4 Dead 2 an MA 15+ rating, paving the way for millions of impressionable minds to be programmed into zombie-killing machines.
Next, the Bad: The version of Left 4 Dead 2 that the OFLC approved was an "edited version" that "no longer contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment." In other words, it's nothing like the real zombie apocalypse. And when the inevitable human-vs-zombie war reaches Australia's isolated shores, her people will be ill prepared for what they encounter. "Gross, these zombie corpses don't disappear when you kill them! And, what's this? Blood?"
PvXwiki is a character builds Wiki listing vetted and rated Guild Wars build. You can search by purpose (PVE, PVP, Farming, etc.), campaign (Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall), primary profession, and rating.
Valve is offering a number of enticing pre-order offers for their upcoming zombicidal action title, Left 4 Dead 2. For the impatient among us, dropping a reservation on the game garners early access to the demo (which is set to drop October 27). For the thrifty among us, pre-ordering the game through Steam (or other participating digital distributors), knocks 10 percent off the total price of the game.
However, for the truly patriotic among us, Valve is offering a singularly thrilling bonus: An in-game "American baseball bat." We've contacted Valve to find out exactly what this means -- is pre-ordering the game really the only way to get our hands on this implement of the Great American Pastime? Or is it just a special "American" skin for the bat, which was previously confirmed to be one of the title's brand new melee weapons?
In the lead-up to Left 4 Dead 2's November 17 launch on the Xbox 360 and PC, Valve said today that a demo for the survival-horror shooter will be available to Xbox 360 and PC users on October 27. Further, Valve confirmed that the original Left 4 Dead will be updated with its second batch of downloadable content, titled Crash Course, for the Xbox 360 and PC on September 29. Crash Course will be offered gratis to PC gamers, though Xbox Live owners will have to drop $7 (MSP 560) on the map pack. Notably, Valve released its first Left 4 Dead add-on, the Survival Pack, in April, giving it away to gamers on both platforms.
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