Art of Oddworld Inhabitants online!

I have a soft spot for artbooks - though unfortunately I rarely had funds to buy them. On the top of my list of coveted items was The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants: The First Ten Years (along with Imaginary Friends Studios artbooks bundle - too bad it sold out). Unfortunately, the price tag of 60USD made it quite problematic for me when I was still a student - and probably I was not alone.


Well, cheapskates of the world, I have good news for you: you can find this wonderful artbook on Google Books project. Wihle of course good number of pages are not available for viewing, there's a good deal of the book is viewable. If you are into graphic design, game art or simply interesting visuals - do yourself a favour and have a look.

If you haven't ever come across Oddworld Inhabitants, if name Lorne Lanning doesn't ring any bells, then why are you even reading this? Click the links above, watch this animation, join the ranks of fans of Oddworld and pray that Citizen Siege sees the light of the day some time in 2009...

Excellent Blender tutorials

Just a brief note to suggest some excellent Blender video tutorials I have recently stumbled upon on YouTube. The videos are very concise, precise and easy to follow (not to mention that the narrator's voice is appropriately deep, because honestly, squeaking of super3boy in his tutorials is getting on my nerves). They were made by Josh Beck, a technology teacher at iMAK (interactive Media Applications at Krueger) in San Antonio, Texas, for his students.

The tutorials are aimed at the beginners and more proficient Blender users might find them too basic, but they are excellent for getting one's feet wet with Blender without getting scared of its numerous functions, buttons and menus. Taking the stigma of being hard to learn off Blender is a hard task indeed, but I think if we get more videos like these, we might yet see Blender becoming even more popular.

I have seen a lot of tutorials on Blender, but in my not-so-humble opinion, these are the best entry-level video tutorials available on the web. Click here to see the full list of videos. Thanks a lot, Josh!

FPS history on your PSP

I've been toying with the idea to write this for quite some time now, ever since DOSBox was compiled for PSP and I could play Wolfenstein 3D on it, the game that started it all. Just recently a separate build of the game was made for PSP, thus giving me an excuse to finally present the development of 3D first person perspective shooters (abbreviated to FPS) through the looking glass of PSP screen.

I have been growing up with first computers and following the development of video games industry since I was nine. There were many milestones in the industry of digital entertainment since then, but one of them was the moment when first person perspective hit the mainstream. Wolfenstein 3D was a breakthrough, it spread like fire, everyone played it and so from that point on the FPSes have developed into a separate genre. Looking at how these games look nowadays (Call of Duty 4, Crysis) it's hard to imagine how it all started...

So whether you are a young enthusiast who have missed on observing the FPS genre gradually evolve to what they are now, or an old melancholic who would like to take a nostalgic trip to the happy times when both life and games were simpler and more enjoyable - provided that you have PSP, you can now relive the whole experience. From the genre's grand ancestor that is Wolfenstein 3D to lively grandpa Quake, the whole family can can now sit in your pocket and you can revisit them while commuting to work or during that particularly boring lesson.

Wolfenstein 3D

Although technically it was not the first game ever to use first person perspective (some will say Catacomb Abyss was the first, but actually the idea of FPP was something that has begun already in ZX Spectrum era), this is the grandfather of all of them. Wolfenstein 3D was so successful

While the levels were almost 2D with constantly grey untextured floor and ceiling, with all corners being exactly 90 degrees, the 3D illusion created unprecedented sense of immersion. I have mentioned in my post on fear in games how I got shivers from the sound of heavy doors slamming in the distance when I played it as a kid. It just goes to show what impact this game had and it explains while it has spawned a whole army of followers.

The PSP version can be downloaded from here and as an additional bonus it contains Nazi Requiem music in the first menu - I included it on my list of the best game music remixes.

Doom

As a testament to how badly inaccurate my opinions may be sometimes, I should confess that when I first saw Doom on my friend's PC, I said "nah, this is just some sci-fi clone of Wolfenstein, this isn't gonna stick around". Boy, was I wrong.

Doom took the execution of FPS games one step further. The graphics were unparalleled, the monsters suggestively scary, the sounds and the music unsettling. While still relatively 2D - player was not allowed to look up and down yet - Doom's engine allowed for more than just square rooms and constant grey floor. All surfaces were textured, labirynth of walls were running in all directions (all of them vertical, though) , first attempts at water were made, floors were at different heights (just a mathematical illusion in fact) connected with elevators, switches activated moving walls - the immersion factor increased tremendously.

I remember first approaching the window and observed the mountains in the background. At that moment it seemed so real, I felt like I could step forward, enter the game world and go climb this misty peaks and there would be more of the world behind them. My best friend was subconsciously ducking in front of computer when imps hurled fireballs at him. We were both drawn into the world of Doom.

Doom improved on his predecessor in many other aspects, introducing many distinct enemy types, increased number and types of weapons (compared to four simple weapons in Wolfenstein 3D), armors as well as multiplayer (over local network). No wonder it was a huge hit with so many people having played it that it has been remade to almost every platform out there, including Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, mobile phones and of course PSP (get it here).

Hexen and Heretic

Essentially a fantazy shooting frenzy with thin layer of RPG on it, these two games based on Doom engine were quite popular in their time. And while neither of them really was as much of a breaktrough as Doom or later Quake, they have gained quite a following. They have also been remade for the PSP and can be downloaded here (together with older Doom version), so I included them on the list, but more because of their sentimental value than due to merit in shaping the history of FPSs.

Duke Nukem 3D

This game marked my entering into adolescence. I first played it at my friend's place after school and I was stunned by how the graphics shone, how interactive the environment was and how addictive Duke Nukem 3D turned out to be.

The simple fact that Duke would reload his pistol every eight or so shots and that the bullet shells would fly from it was a peak of realism at that time (compared to Doom it indeed was a huge step forward). Being able to use surveillance camera, turn on the movie in the theatre, switch lights on and off, operate different devices was a level of environment interaction unseen before. It also made multiplayer matches so much more fun (strippers!).

Wolfenstein 3D and Doom both included silent protagonist, but Duke Nukem was a talkative guy, commenting the action with catchy one-liners. The fact that our hero would occasionally crack some funny line was a definite novelty.

Even though contrary to its name Duke Nukem 3D was still not full 3D game, player would be allowed to look up and down. The perspective was distorted while doing so, but the illusion of going through a real world was one step ahead of Doom.

Duke Nukem 3D was also very important due to the fact that its engine got licensed and thus players received Blood and Shadow Warrior. The first one was a self-mocking horror pastiche, the other one Hong Kong ninja movies spoof with, both with memorable protagonists cracking cool lines while hacking swarms of enemies to pieces. Unfortunately, they have not been ported to PSP (yet?).

Download Duke Nukem 3D for PSP here.

Quake

I remember that Polish game magazine Secret Service wrote in their review of Quake:

Duke Nukem 3D unveils its secrets slowly and it always has something hidden up its sleeve, while Quake just shows off everything in one mighty blow and after that you are left with just more of the same

It was a little unfair to say that, especially since the two were obviously designed with different philosophies, both in terms on engine and of gameplay. Duke Nukem 3D had more parodistic tone to it, less powerful graphical engine, and many switches and devices to interact with, while Quake was serious, gritty, dark shooter with great gothic visuals and no funny distractions - it was all about pure slaughter in 3D environment.

Quake became the first truly 3D game in which player could turn their head around and look at level architecture. I am of course aware that technically it was still more of a 2.5D, but from the players perspective it was already a marvellous three dimensional world, complete with archways, spires, towers and occasional outdoor fragments. The violet clouds speeding over the horizon were making one hell of an impression. The dynamic lightning, while present, was still more of a hack from technical standpoint, as lightning maps were calculated during level creation, but the flying rockets would brighten up their immediate surroundings.

Quake was among the first games to profit from the hardware graphics acceleration that was just being born (we're talking about 1996). VQuake and GLQuake took advantage of the new graphical possibilities and Quake was the first FPS to use bilinear filtering, dynamic lights and higher colour palette.

Another thing that Quake has done for FPS development was introduction of client-server multiplayer. While it was technically possible to play Duke Nukem 3D over internet in multiplayer mode, it required additional program. It wasn't until Quake that internet FPS carnage has really begun.

It was also one of the first games that required using keyboard and mouse simultaneously. While Duke Nukem 3D and its counterparts could easily be finished without, this was not the case of Quake anymore, since flying enemies in real 3D were hard to shoot down using just keyboard. Although finishing the game without mouse aiming was feasible, it was definitely hard.

The port of Quake on PSP is almost perfect - it is running smoothly, it has mouse mapped to analog stick, it even allows multiplayer over Wi-fi in Ad Hoc mode, all the sounds are there. So you have no excuse not to download it.

Later times

What happened next? Quake II introduced OpenGL to the masses in the flashy galore of colourful lights, as well as popularised rocket jumps (one day it might also be remade for PSP). Half Life demonstrated how powerful a narrative using FPS can be. Unreal Tournament broke the rule that a FPS game must have single player story mode by essentially being just a multiplayer game. Quake III joined this school of thought and introduced great level design. Unreal Tournament 2003 dazed everyone with incredible graphics and its 2004 edition introduced vehicles as well as new story modes. Enemy Territory became first free multiplayer FPS that would include different classes of players. Far Cry raised the bar in graphics department, took players for a walk outside and topped that with pretty smart AI. The story continues...

But while all FPS lovers owe much to each of the aforementioned titles, it's really Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D and Quake that have laid the foundations for the genre. Playing them in chronological order give an opportunity to see how much FPS games have progressed over time. And having them all in my pocket on PSP is a marvel of XXI century, which I didn't even imagine when I was playing them as a kid, teenager and student.

Linux cluster from Hell

I am a supporter, user and a fan of free 3D modelling, animating and more software - Blender 3D. Honestly, being a student or a small development house, there is no better option. It's totally free and has a huge number of features that should be enough for anyone below the level of Pixar. Which means most of the world.

But rendering of 3D scenes is a long process requiring immense processing power and in home conditions we, poor everymen, can only leave our computer for long nights of render... right?

The answer is no, you don't have to. For a price of a full-blown high-range PC you can have a do-it-yourself Linux cluster with 24 cores and 48Gb of RAM. The name is Helmer, as it comes from hell, obviously. Actually the name comes from IKEA cabinet that the whole cluster is sitting in. Read more on the project webpage on how to make it at home. If I ever become more obsessed with 3D graphics, that's the way I'm going to do it.


And here are plans for Helmer 2 and 3. Pretty impressive, if you ask me.

Sin Tournament

While killing time youtubing, I've dug out a little video made by a chap called Matt Barry, who apparently is a modder and level designer. The video shows work in progress on Sin City styled level:

Although this little project seems to have been abandoned, probably due to Sin City game being announced in 2007, it shows interesting use of textures and manages to captivate the comic's feel. Overall, a little curiosity with potential.

Even further beyond Good and Evil

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away there lived a girl who was a reporter and lived in a lighthouse. Her name was Jade - very fitting, since she had green hair and used green lipstick. Since the planet she lived on has been struck by war and the girl had good heart underneath tough street-smart tomboy skin, she was running a shelter for war orphans of all races. It didn't matter whether a kid had horns or blue skin - she tried to help them all. Unfortunately, her job was not always allowing her to pay all the expenses, so one time electricity was cut off, just when evil DomZ attacked, leaving her and kids without a shield. Lots of trouble resulted, including new job, joining resistance, taking part in illegal races, assembling a spaceship, flying out in space and taking lots of photographs...

This is a premise of Beyond Good and Evil, a very good but underappreciated game. To give you the taste of it, I suggest you watch this very atmospheric trailer:

You might also want to see the excellent fan-made trailer and game beginning, as well as Jeff Gerstmann's videoreview.

It has gained a cult status quite some time after it has been published, because even though it was really fresh and with captivating story, it didn't really sell well. Unfortunately, we, who loved the story and stylish execution of it, were left with story that begged for continuation, as BGaE was only a first part in what was planned to be the trilogy.


It is therefore with great joy that both me and many others have welcomed the news that after long time Ubisoft has decided to allow the original game's creator, Michel Ancel, to continue the story in a sequel.


Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado let me present to you the first teaser of the second part to this beautiful and touching story:

Yes, the art style has changed to a more gritty and serious look, yes, this is some desert setting suggesting that "we are not on Hyllis anymore, Toto", yes, I have a ton of doubts and fears concerning the sequel, but nevertheless it's Beyond good and Evil 2 and Michel Ancel is behind it! Just how cool is that!

I hope they don't screw this one up.

Carlson and Peters, page 364

The Portal phenomenon

It definitely took me some time before I finally played Portal and I wanted to do this ever since I saw this great trailer:

Now I know why everybody over the tubes have been raving about it: in short, because it's brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Other than interesting game mechanics, which actually didn't get to me that much, it has a great narrative and one of the best villains ever- GladOS.

In a nutshell, player becomes a young woman caught in an experiment facility, who has to perform different tests using Aperture Science device creating portals. As a test subject, the girl is guided by the omni-present AI (GladOS) with wonderfully distorted female voice and an attitude that could be best described as somewhat deranged. She is both a narrator to some extent, as well as both enemy and companion, it gives player orders, sets rules, tells the story, mocks and teases, promises and deceives - in short, it sets the atmosphere of the game.

There are three pillars to Portal's success, each spectacularly executed: audio, story and gameplay. The first one is composed of the best AI voice ever together with one of the most wicked ending song up to date (not to mention other excellent sounds). The second is one of the greatest narratives I have seen in a computer game during last couple of years. The third is the game mechanics - mind-bending portal puzzles in hazardous 3D space.

Penny Arcade summed it up perfectly in this comic strip:


No wonder even Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation reviews loves it. The sheer brilliance of this game has resulted in fan-arts, some darn funny, some touching, some kinda risky, some including crossover and some a bit obnoxious.

The best part for me (and I assume many others) was the voice of omnipresent and seemingly omnipotent deity - GladOS. Just like in Manhunt, where main hero is led by a voice of snuff movie maker, who switches between being roles of compassionate guide and cruel torturer, who taunts, teases and comments protagonist's actions, so does GladOS put Chell into harder and harder tests, gives information ("In dangerous testing environments, the Enrichment Center promises to always provide useful advice. For instance, the floor here will kill you. Try to avoid it."), which is sometimes warped, mocks her actions later in the game. The writing of GladOS lines is nothing short of brilliant - you can read it on Wikiquote, but without the context it is somewhat similar to reading a movie script.

After trying to kill Chell at some point, this strange relation becomes much more threatening and climaxes during the game's finale, where two female minds engage in a fight. Delightfully surreal scene is further amplified by GladOS torrent of deranged speech ("killing you and giving you good advice aren't mutually exclusive"), which she sputters like a being possessed by a demon, altering between smooth sweet voice and spitting threats. You can watch the scene here, but be aware that there are spoilers and the effect is not as powerful without knowing the whole story that has led to that point.


Speaking of the story and ambiance, the narrative is led in a great way, leading some people to overanalyse it. What's actually interesting is that the story, GladOS and sinister atmosphere of the abandoned experimental facility run by deranged AI was something that resulted from time constraints and actually was not a part of initial design - you can read more about it here.

The icing on this delightful cake (pun intended) is the ending song, "Still Alive". Unfortunately, it's not funny at all without first completing the game (duh). There exist many weird renditions of the song and I heartily recommend having a look at them, because some are really hilarious.

In short - if by any chance you have missed this game and you dare call yourself a gamer, you simply must buy it and play it. The sheer amount of songs, jokes, images and cake references this game introduced to the general public is a testament to its greatness. I didn't expect it when I first started playing Portal, but this is one of these games.

Valve, I take my hat off to you.

Blender 2.46 released

The new version of the world's best free 3D graphics creation software has just seen the light of day (obligatory release notes). While Blender still remains a little behind the features of professional juggernauts such as Maya or 3DStudio MAX, it can be used to create really stunning effects. Don't believe me?


Check this free short animated feature Big Buck Bunny, have a look at these Polish commercials, watch this tsunami simulation (and this one too). It's all been done with the use of Blender.

Personally, what scares me a little is that what I new about creating 3D graphics has aged so much since I was making my animations as a student. There are new concepts in the 3D field that I not only don't know, but can't even imagine what purpose they serve. This must be how my father feels when I try to explain to him the details of my job.

Okami intro comparison

One of few games that I almost bought a PS2 for is Okami. I even had a demo disk handed out at Tokyo Game Show 2005, which I admit I have sold before the game saw the light of day (I was young and needed money).

I admire Okami's graphical style both as a wanna-be artist with inclinations towards Japanese culture and as a programmer (this ink effect is not an easy thing to do in real time), not to mention as a gamer.

It is therefore interesting to see that what has later become a trademark of the game, was at first not even included. See the video below to compare how Okami's visual style has evolved :

PS. Concerning the name of the game, I actually think it should be transcribed as Ookami, but on the other hand 'O' is a honorific, so I am a bit lost here. Any opinion on that?

A bit of deja vu - Final Fantasy Tech Demos history

Okay, so some time in 2005 people got really hyped up because of a certain PS3 Tech Demo that suggested the possibility of Final Fantasy VII remake. If this video doesn't cause a surge of warm, fuzzy memories in you, let me explain - it is hardware rendered version of pre-rendered cinematic from PS1 game, which you can see here or here (the second one is longer, but contains a bit of gameplay showing Cloud jumping off the train).

PS vs PS3 comparison

Collective imagination of gamers population was further teased by speculations in different media, such as this IGN article, or Square-Enix folks hinting at potential remake. Honestly, I can't blame people, as for me Final Fantasy VII is one of the most influential and unique stories of videogame world (together with Silent Hill 2, Final Fantasy VI, Dark Earth, Deus Ex, Morrowind and others)

So recently all the hype re-emerged due to the hidden (not sure about that, as I haven't played the game yet) ending of Final Fantasy Crisis Core, a game that is technically a Final Fantasy VII prequel. Both PS3 Tech Demo and Crisis Core ending share the same renewed look of characters, just like in Final Fantasy Advent Children, which in turn is a sequel (movie sequel to a game... no comments).

Final FantasyCrisis Core ending

Okay, so if you're a gamer, then you probably already know all that, and if you're not, you really don't give a damn anyways.

Still, I wanted to make a point here

Did you know that this kind of tech demo, teasing gamers with the vision of remake, using hardware to render in real time animation that would not be feasible on the earlier generation of consoles - did you know that it has happened before?

A-ha!

Watch this movie showing dance scene (Dance with the Balamb Fish, a beautiful moment by the way) and then this movie that recreates it - the difference being that the first one is a pre-rendered sequence from PS1, while the second one is a PS2 tech demo, rendering the same scene in real time. Sounds familiar?

Both renditions head-to-head comparison for your viewing pleasure.

But that's not all! I have also found two other interesting things. One of them would be tech demo of Final Fantasy VI (considered the best part of the series by many, at least story-wise) on ... Nintendo 64.

Nintendo 64 tech demo

Yes, it is incredible. Looks like Square actually considered what would it be to take a plunge into 3D long before they decided to make Final Fantasy VII for Playstation. One can't help but to wonder about some alternative reality where Final Fantasy series is a Nintendo exclusive... Do you think it would influence the outcome of console wars?

Final Fantasy VII Beta

And speaking of Final Fantasy VII and Square's first ventures into 3D world - have a look at the above movie and see how Final Fantasy VII Beta was different from the actual game that came later on. Observe especially the proportions of protagonists' models and their 2D images in menu...

So you see, it is not the first time we, gamers, are being teased with unfulfilled promises of recreation of our favourite adventures in all-new graphical galore. And that's essentially the point I wanted to make. Share your comments below!

Final Fantasy VII - Introduction

As I have mentioned before, I am planning to write (actually, I am already writing it down, only it takes longer than I expected) about Final Fantasy VII Tech Demo and convoluted history of those. But I have come to realize that there are quite a few folks out there who might not know much about the game.

For them, I allow myself to post a little introduction here. A wonderful series by GameTrailers called Final Fantasy Retrospective breaks down each game in detail and the above episode is all about Final Fantasy VII. If you would like to learn what this whole phenomenon is all about, it should prepare you for the incoming post or at least explain why so many people still have vivid memories about this game.


For me the unconventional story, wonderful graphics (at that time - '96 when I got it for my PC), eclectic mix of fantasy and sci-fi, lots of cultural references - it all made it an experience I wouldn't ever forget. The trouble-minded main protagonist, Cloud Strife, with blue eyes shining of Mako energy (resembling Dune characters in this regard), suffering from amnesia (a bit like prince Corwin from Amber cycle) was not a stereotypical cliché macho hero. Same applied to all the rest of game characters - the cast was as memorable as the story and the images that picture them in different (you can find them on the internet) still strike a chord with me.

There, I said it - it is one of the stories that had influenced me the most, not only in the game realm, but also among all the other media. If you haven't heard this tale, you are missing something.

History of WipeOut

I have found it some time ago - the movie presents the timeline of Wipeout universe up to Wipeout Pure. You can see how the series have evolved since its debut in the nineties. The author said that he would update the movie when Wipeout HD and Wipeout Pulse are out, but apparently he didn't have time to do that, so I am bringing you the clip as it is. Enjoy!

Stars in Black Returns

It all started with this movie, known as Stars in Black (SiB) :

Then we had EduRom commercial (SiB II), April Fools joke, Imladris convention fan movie (SiB III). In the meantime, Stanisław Mąderek has struggled to make a full-length comedy movie, seemingly without results. In his desperation, he even made a pre-production teaser to convince people to invest in it. Just recently I have learnt that he has finally made it - there is still all post-production work to be done, but the first official teaser (find the high-res versions here) is already there :

Visit Staszek's webpage and find more information and movies there. Good luck, Staszek!

Haptx - revolution in game interaction?

One of the most interesting things I have seen at Tokyo Game Show 2007 was weird-looking input device known under codename Haptx. What looks like a small droid with a little ball hanging out on three supports is the innovative mechanism that can be used for truly 3D navigation. The problem with a mouse is that it is in fact 2D input device, hence the need of using additional buttons and whatnot - yet in fact this only emulates three dimensions of movement. Haptx allows user to control the pointer in full 3D and also provides force feedback. How cool is that?


Haptx was originally conceived as a device used for training of surgeons, therefore at the beginning it was extremely precise, but also expensive tool. At some point someone realised that gamers don't require that amount of precision, hence the cheaper (the estimated end-user price should be about 200USD) version was born. And having spent some time with it, I can confidently say that this is at least interesting.


Firstly, I was shown a tech demo in which I could feel the textures of objects with Haptx. I could even feel pulsations of water flowing in the pipes (although in real life I was never able to do that in fact...). Still, the experience was neat. Then it was time for some real life action - Quake 4. Although at first I had some difficulties while aiming (but hey, it took me some time to get used to mouse at first as well), the overall impression was great. Not only each weapon really felt different (random recoil of machine gun versus powerful "kick" of the shotgun), but also when enemies started shooting, I could sense where I am being hit from, not to mention it also affected my accuracy. It made the game more difficult, but at the same time much more realistic. The last part of the show was demonstration of how player can interact with environment of game called Penumbra using Haptx - this part was, in my opinion, the least impressive.


Will Haptx in time revolutionize gaming input like once did joystick and mouse? I am not sure, but definitely it has a lot of potential. I'll be keeping my eye on the news and you, dear readers, should try to test it should you have the occasion, because even though it looks strange, it feels more natural after you have tried it.

Halo 3 multiplayer hands-on impressions

I never really was a fan of Halo games. The whole phenomenon of Halo just missed me somehow. The first thing that got me remotely interested in the game was Red vs Blue machinima - that's how I've come to know more about Halo universe. The second thing was PC version of Halo, which I played for a couple of hours and then deleted with slight feeling of relief - it was plain bad, at least from my point of view. Then I've learnt about Halo and teabagging...

Umm, back to the topic. Recently I've heard quite a lot of buzz about the incoming Halo 3 for Xbox 360, so when I saw the line, I didn't hesitate for long before joining the queue. It helped that Jessica Chobot was also waiting in the same line...


The time I have spent with the game has convinced me that playing FPP shooters on double analogue sticks is a torture. I can't really hit anyone moving and it actually becomes quite frustrating, knowing that if I had my trustworthy mouse with me, the other guy would be already dead (or not...). I got my ass handed to me on a silver plate.

As for the game itself, the graphics are pretty (although nothing particular caught my attention), there's a number of vehicles to use, which is fun, nice choice of weapons and overall impression is positive. Truth be told, I still don't understand why people get so excited about this series, but at least this time I don't have anything to hold against the game. Solid title, is how I would classify it.

Crysis hands-on impressions

I find the whole "Games for Windows" initiative annoying, since it forces DX10 and Vista upon us, poor PC gamers, and also it takes away system-selling exclusives from Xbox 360 users. Basically noone has really reason to like this.

Still, in the framework of "Games for Windows" there's a couple of gems indeed : Gears of War, Assasin's Creed and Crysis. During Tokyo Game Show 2007 I had the opportunity to play the last two titles. I already had covered Assasin's Creed, now it's time to share initial impressions of playing Crysis.


To sum up briefly : I am totally amazed by how incredible this game is. Contrary to most people out there, I was a sceptic from the beginning. Yes, I've seen screens and movies, read a bit on the game, and it basically didn't turn me on.

Having played the game changed my approach completely. Suffice to say that I am thinking about upgrading my PC, which I has solemnly swore not to do for next years. Yes, it is really THAT damn good. Graphics are incredible, the details, the bloom, the smearing of the screen when player turns around rapidly. Thousands of little things that build up total visual wonder. Also, the cinematic presentation creates incredible atmosphere - jets flying past look sound so real, getting shot is almost painful, enemies move naturally and their AI isn't of the usual imbecile kind. I ended up dead pretty quickly, but the overall impression has left me with my jaw on the floor.

And that was just the part with regular human soldiers. Remember how many things good, old Far Cry had in store for us after the initial levels? Crysis promises even more and seeing this snippet of the game, I am really sad that my current config won't allow me to play it. One more game to wait for!

Assasin Creed's hands on impressions

After waiting in painfully long line of software developers, journalists and other industry insiders, I was finally allowed behind a curtain to play Assasin's Creed together with one of the lead designers, Philippe Dionne. Judging by the looks of it, Altair's (main protagonist) adventure is almost in final stage (okay, at one point there was a little texture flicker - but that's all).

I can positively confirm that the control scheme is indeed unique and original, but in the same time really playable and allowing for some smooth movements. Graphically, the game is really impressive with a huge city, massive number of passers-by, excellent textures and lightning effects. The game AI is also impressive, both in terms of crowd management and individual entity behaviour.


There are lot of little nice touches :

• as a person practising climbing, I appreciated the fluidity and realism of Altair's movements;
• when I was using throwing knives and suddenly enemy knight attacked me from just behind the corner, instead of stupidly throwing his knife, Altair quickly stabbed him with it;
• bullying people around caused some thugs to concentrate their attention on me... ouch;
• when I was being chased by guards, I climbed the wall thinking it would get me to safety, since not one of them had a bow - wrong, they started throwing rocks at me, which made me lose my balance and fall down, where welcome comitee was already waiting;

The framerates where impeccable, the build seemed very close to final, the release date was set to November this year and my overall impression was very positive. This is just another game that might become a system-seller.


Asked about the possibility of the title ever arriving to PC, Philippe said that there are no plans for now, but (and this is my own thought) seeing how many Xbox 360 titles get ported to PC, I wouldn't totally exclude such possibility. Though it might require getting Xbox-like pad, in order to use the brand new control scheme.

Hexaxis story continued...

Tim Hackett has just recently contacted me to let me know that he has just released a new version of his homebrew game Hexaxis. I also noticed quite a lot of entries on this blog from people wanting to know more about the game - I wrote about it some time ago, but since the story goes on and the new version really adds a lot, I think it deserves an update.


As I mentioned before, I am not too fond of the game mechanics itself, but this is just a question of personal taste - there are people who don't draw fun of playing Starcraft, yet noone sane would say that Starcraft is not a good game (toutes proportions gardées). I have seen the first PSP build and I must say that it has gone a long way from where it had started.

So let me state it loud and clear : this is one of the most polished homebrew games I have seen so far. The quality of execution is comparable to commercially available games, and seeing how some recent titles are a complete waste of time, I would go as far as to say that Hexaxis beats some of games that you have to pay for. With the advantage of being completely free. You can download the game from PSPHacks. There is also a PC version, but unfortunately it is not free.

With the new release, there are now different play modes present, possibility to use analog pad, saving of the highscores (author even promises 50$ to the person with highest score, read the details here) and different skins. If I treated this game as a commercial release, I would probably scowl at too few levels and skins that are a little too similar to each other for their own good (no, inverting colours doesn't count as a new skin, sorry Tim), but that would simply be unfair.

Overall, I am really impressed with this last game update. I don't see much place for improvement now, so I am actually curious as to what will be author's next creation. Good luck, Tim!

StateShift impressions

When I saw first batch of images from this game, I thought that this might be a worthy successor to Rollcage. Unfortunately, I was wrong.


I won't be torturing this game with going into detailed review, but I'll wrap it up in the following way : it is the game that is as much fun as racing parts of Ghost Rider on PSP. In short : interesting graphics and audio, but totally not fun to play. Somehow driving just seems bland and pointless. And although I definitely had played worse games, this one is not worth of your attention unless you have finished all great games that PSP has in the library and are desperately itching for something to play.

Project Seraph

What you can see below is a presentation of my final project at my first specialisation at International Faculty of Engineering - 3D visualisation / reconstruction / image processing program for medical applications called Seraph. Although it was by far the least clean code and the worst design I have ever created, it still remains my favourite child as far as computer programs are concerned, which is why I am showing it here. I guess I am getting sentimental.

The presentation is in French, because I have been studying my first specialisation in that language. I thought I would have some free time to translate it and make presentation more interesting, but since it has been sitting on my hard drive for last five months waiting for that, I decided I would just put it on the web in the very same form it was in 2004.

My only disappointment is that noone continued the development and the program was finally not used much apart from my project, even though I wanted it to became open source. Unfortunately, it is my university that holds the intellectual rights to it and the program has simply remained somewhere there, unused. Oh well, now that I work as fully fledged software developer I am almost ashamed of that code. I guess I will have to rewrite it one day on my own and put it on SourceForge. Then Seraph's soul will be able to take a rest...