|
|
|
|
[Blog and History] |
|
|
December 18th , 2007-
The blog has been created and is currently up. I will keep the GameTruth main stuff around for people still interested in it. Feel free to join the blog.
- Seth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
[Azeroth Advisor] |
|
|
Feburary 1st , 2007-
I have been working the past few months as a part time writer for the Azeroth Advisor. It has gone into open beta and I wanted to let everyone know about it. My character is a warrior, so the majority of my articles are in that area.
Recently my older brother and father started playing World of Warcraft. I have some very interesting articles coming that concern playing MMO games with your family, and also how even non-gamers love WoW.
A small side note: still having issues with spam on the forum. Certain threads and topics have been locked, sorry about that.
- Seth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
[Back After the Holiday] |
|
|
December 18, 2006-
The semester is finally over for us and we will be back to regular updates and posting after the new year. Both Mark and I have been in on the Burning Crusade Beta for a while now and we will hopefully have some information about that available. The forums have been getting spammed pretty heavily lately so please email us instead of using the forums until we can find a solution.
Thanks and Happy Holidays!
- Seth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
[Lack of Updates ] |
|
|
October 9, 2006-
Many of you have noticed that there have been no updates lately. Other things have been consuming our time and we have not had a chance to really do much of anything. I am happy to say that we should have new pictures of the ARES table ready this week but that will be about it for right now.
As always feel free to email us or leave a message for us on the forum.
- Seth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
[ACM SIGGRAPH Sandbox Symposium 2006] |
|
|
July 31 , 2006-
I spent the last two beautiful Boston summer days inside the climate controlled Copley Marriot listening and being a part of the ACM SIGGRAPH Sandbox Videogame Symposium. This is the first year of the symposium and it was a definite success. There was apparently more than 200 people present and I must say I really enjoyed my time there.
The range of topics covered was truely impressive. There were the mandatory panel discussions about quality of life and how to handle the apparent drop in creativity in the industry. In contrast to the panels, the papers had wildly varying topics.
There were a few technical papers, like one on ray tracing, and there were some very interesting other topics covered. Tracy Fullerton of USC gave a fascinating talk about That Cloud Game and play centric design. I will not try and recap it for you, just head over to Gamasutra for their excellent coverage.
The one paper that really struck me as odd was a talk given by Shaowen Bradzell on the BDSM practices of characters in Second Life. I sat there watching the talk questioning what the point of it really was. I guess after some more work on her part we will have a better look into dating and social interaction in an MMO like Second Life.
Today I will be heading to SIGGRAPH and I will be sure to add more info as it comes in.
- Seth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
[SIGGRAPH 2006] |
|
|
June 25 , 2006-
I signed up for SIGGRAPH last week. I am really excited about going. It looks like it is going to be very interesting. I also signed up for the ACM SIGGRAPH Video Game Symposium.
This confrence has not been totally fleshed out yet. There is still no schedule available but the presentations look very promising. The most exciting thing looks to be the Hot Games Session, which will have a preview of a numer of unreleased games.
I am also really excited about the Job Fair. I think it is going to be an awesome experience. I will be reporting from there the entire week. If you are in the boston area or you are going to SIGGRAPH be sure to shoot me an email.
- Seth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
[New Photoshop Site] |
|
|
June 21 , 2006-
I have a new site for you all to check out. Over the next few weeks I will be putting all of GameTruth's tutorials up. Check it out: Photoshoplab.net
- Seth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
[News Round Up 6-12] |
|
|
June 12 , 2006-
It has been a week or two since my last update. Things have been too busy around here. To add to the fun, this last weekend my apartment flooded because New England is experiencing a ridiculous amount of rain.
Anyway, some interesting articles floating around today. Over at 1up there is an article point to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal about love in digital spaces. It compares MMO games to sites like Myspace and Friendster. While I have never considered looking for a significant other online, it is still a cool comparison between MMO's and social networks.
In a fairly longwinded article from the Harvard Business Review they explain about avatar-based advertisements. The article particularly focuses on Second Life, and if you want an indepth look into the future of advertisements in games check it out.
On a final note IGN has a preview of DarkStar One , a new game that seems to be the grandchild of Wing Commander and the better looking half-brother of Freelancer . I am seriously considering whether or not to pre-order it.
Talk about this in the forum.
- Seth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
[Competitive Video Games in the Olympics?] |
|
|
May 31, 2006-
I have made some very slight changes to the layout of the home page. I was hoping to make it easier to follow the updates and better to have all the links on the side bar. There will probably be a couple of small changes coming in over the coming weekend as well.
On the news today there is a fun little article about making video games an olympic sport . It seems that Ted Owen, the guy behind the Global Gaming League (GGL), is in talks with the Chinese Government to try and get video games into the 2008 Olympics.
Owens is quoted in the article explaining that video games will appeal to a younger audience much the same way snowboarding did. I can see the logic in this arguement to a degree, but I still think snowboarding is much more popular spectator sport than videogames (in the US at least).
He also says that video games have a global appeal and that a perfect country to debut them would be China. No one can really disagree that Asain culture is very receptive to gaming. If you read on in the article there are a few more interesting quotes about how the Internation Olympic Commitee (IOC) feels about exhibition sports and video games.
No where in the article does it say what games would possibly be played. What games would you think to put in the Olympics?
I personally think competitive gaming is kind of neat, but I think it has no place in the Olympics.
Talk about this in the forum.
- Seth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
[Preview: Lost Planet Extreme Condition] |
|
|
May 16, 2006-
Trudging through the snow, I realize the temperature is somewhere around -24. My T-ENG is running a little low and there is a small warehouse across the other side of the snowfield. I make a run for it.
I close to about 20 feet from the door when a giant arachnid looking monster bursts from the ground, appendages flailing. I dive for cover, but there is none in the middle of the snow field. The only thing I have left is my gun. Aiming for the monsters glowing abdomen, I pray.
I got the chance to download and try the demo of Lost Planet Extreme Condition from Xbox live on the Xbox 360. It has been one of the most compelling games (a demo counts as a game right?) I have tried so far for the 360. In fact it has even put oblivion on hold until I can beat the stupid demo.
The setting is a frozen wasteland, the gameplay is a third-person shooter. The big twist is that instead of health you are given this T-ENG stat that constantly decays. So over time you will eventually die. To gain more T-ENG you need to destroy monsters or kill space pirates. The addition of the T-ENG stat has the makings of some interesting additions to gameplay. The fact that you lose it rapidly over time means that the game has a sense of urgency.
The gameplay has some awesome added tweaks that make it amazingly fun. Monsters have a glowing area that you need to shoot in order to kill them quickly (the orange backs of a Hunter in Halo come to mind). It makes for a challenge because it is usually on the back of the monster so you are constantly running around trying to get a good angle.
Another great addition to gameplay is vehicles. In the demo you get a chance to run around in this mech looking thing. It is a very cool addition to the gameplay and I can see many vehicles being added.
Finally, my favorite part about the whole demo is that it has boss battles. There are your typical run and gun guys to slaughter, but every once and a while you happen along a boss. These "bosses" have different abilities and make the game challenging and engaging.
The graphics are amazing, as we should expect from the 360. the particle effects are equally breathtaking and really add to the mood of the game. My favorite however, is the animation. It has a sort of anime or cartoonish feel, but not in a childish way. All the animation seems to be over the top . I love it.
I am eagerly awaiting more on this title and I hope everyone goes and checks out the demo or the video on the website.
Talk about this in the forum.
- Seth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
[E3 Wrap] |
|
|
May 15, 2006-
Well the hangovers have cleared for most of the industry and it is back to business as usual. Here are som wrap ups from around the internet:
Shacknews: Other E3 Impressions
Gamespot
Gamespy
IGN
Take it for what it was. Personally I have pretty much decided that I need to get a Wii and that I will not be getting a P$3. Also the game horizon is looking up and I hope to get in on some beta tests soon.
- Seth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
[E3 Update] |
|
|
May 12, 2006-
E3 is the "big dance" for those in the video game industry. It is like the major leagues, a place where dreams can come true or come crashing down. I did not get a chance to attend this year but I have been doing my best to scour the web for imformation I think is interesting or cool. Hopefully you all are enjoying it.
Lucasarts has expressed interest in the Wii controller and they have put some thought into using it for a lightsaber game . It looks like it could be fun, but it concerns me. These controllers will need to work really well in order to be effective and I am worried that they just will not be very accurate. We shall see.
Other than that here are a few rundowns on some of the popular games that are very well done:
God of War II
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
Gears of War
On another note, Blizzard confirms that they have multiple games in development and are looking into possible console titles. From the article:
"World of Warcraft and the Warcraft franchise is not the last and the only franchise we are going to operate within. We have two other very, very key franchises to our company's history and to our company's future success. The Diablo and Starcraft franchises are of the utmost importance to us as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see a new franchise from us at some time in the future; there's certainly a desire to do so."
Clearly going to be some great new stuff from Blizzard. I was personally hoping for a Diablo 3 announcement but I can deal for now.
Finally, there is an interesting article on Gamasutra about the E3 Roundtable of Interactive Narative . This has been a big topic this year both at E3 and the GDC. I am writing a new feature that will cover this topic as well.
And one last thing, if you have not been to the SiN Episodes page to see the girls of SiN pictures they are totally worth it.
- Seth |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
