Baldur's Gate 2 Redux Mod has 100+ Levels on Dragon Age Engine
By Steve Burke Published March 23, 2012 at 12:22 pm100+, with many more hundreds to come, no doubt.
Ahh, Baldur's Gate: One of the most fantasy-filled, exploratory, role-playing-centric series of games ever to be made; there's nothing quite like venturing through the City of Athkatla for the first time - and very little can restore that feeling, except for maybe, just maybe, a 3D re-envisioning of Baldur's Gate 2. We were hoping for one with the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition announcement, but got nothing close. In modders we trust.
Game NPC Design - Why We Relate to A Pile of Code and Pixels
By Adam Davis Published March 15, 2012 at 1:46 pmDesigning a relatable non-player character for games isn't easy: As proposed in our "save your own damn world" post, NPCs and game stories in general can take a back seat to the mechanics-focused button-fest of modern design, sacrificing the emotive connection that is required to delve into a story.
Fray Preview: The Cyberpunk Strategy Game
By Steve BurkeI found myself surrounded by baleful megacorporations, each hell-bent on commanding the eternal subservience of lowly "users" worldwide -- a world enshrouded in darkness and soiled by the sins of consumerism, blood, and meritocratic ideology.
Then I started up Fray.
Dystopian societies have long been a fascination among gamers with piqued interests in the future of technology, politics, and their eventual intermingling; there's something morbidly entertaining about a future where capitalism reigns weightily, using its exploitative methodologies and gains of questionable sources to re-educate and optimize the citizenry for a lifetime of drone-like labor (wait - did I say "future?"). Taking to the streets isn't an option -- no, there are far too many cameras and "citizen protection forces" afoot. If action is to be taken in a cyberpunk setting, it must be done digitally and through use of technological loopholes. They can put guards on every corner, but cumbersome megacorps can never keep up with skilled hackers (queue Sam Flynn on lightcycle).
Analysis: Fanboyism is an integral part of gaming culture
By Steve Burke Published March 09, 2012 at 1:01 pmThe gaming industry is versatile-yet-volatile, expansive-yet-inclusive, and most of all, mobilizing for users across all platforms; openly stating one's allegiance -- even mere preference -- toward a particular platform or series almost assuredly results in an indignant assault on character and gaming credibility, depending on the environment and encompassing community. Gaming culture, as we've analyzed previously, remains a challenge to explain to "outsiders," but one thing's for sure: We have just as much infighting as any other impassioned way of life (virtual or not).
The question, then, is whether or not these frivolous allegiances are detrimental or supplemental to gaming culture.
YOU... SHALL NOT... PWN!
What is a voxel, anyway? Voxels vs. Vertexes in Games
By Mike Pickton Published March 06, 2012 at 12:00 amWith all the talk whirling around voxel games like Cube World, a self-described Zelda-Minecraft hybrid, and Castle Story, a voxel RTS, we've been asked numerous times to explain what voxels are and what their implication is on future games. To do that, let's start by better understanding the commonplace approach to game graphics: polygons.
Oil Rush is developed by Unigine Corp. and is self-described as "a real-time naval strategy game based on group control that combines strategic challenge of classic RTS with sheer fun of Tower Defense, and features state-of-an-art visuals." What a mouthful. You may have heard of their Heaven benchmark utility, which is fairly well-known in the benchmarking realm and has outstanding visuals.
The game takes place in a flooded world -- everyone lives on boats and the only currency, aside from bullets, is oil. The story goes that you are a unified group of people trying to fend off and destroy oil-rig-pilfering pirates. Battles take place on, you guessed it, a giant ocean that is spotted with oil rigs and unit-producing structures.
Let's delve into the specifics.
Preventing Video Game Burnout - Getting Too Bored, Too Fast
By Steve Burke Published February 25, 2012 at 5:29 pmMembers of the Gamers Nexus team will unanimously agree on one thing: We get bored of games faster than companies can make them. It's a problem we've opted to call "game burnout," and has side effects of empty wallets, rivers of tears, and wasted gigabytes. Thought Skyrim was good? Twenty hours was enough for me. Liked Battlefield 3? Eh, it was all the same after eighteen hours.
1991-2012 of games on my wall is enough to set some high standards.
The $60 Game is Just the Start: Game Prices Will Continue to Rise
By Steve Burke Published February 17, 2012 at 6:14 pmIt started out slow, as it always does: Additional package contents began disappearing from the formerly large, cardboard, game display boxes; manuals were assumed wasteful and largely unread, bombastic displays were phased out by cheaper, smaller, more flimsy plastic variations, and then the new generation of consoles hit the shelves. That key point in relatively recent history, alongside many other notable milestones of degradation, marked the top of the slippery slope that we, as a global audience, opted to venture down.
(Yes, I know EQ had a monthly subscription - I liked the box art.)
Cube World: A Fusion of Diablo, Minecraft, and Zelda
By Steve Burke Published February 09, 2012 at 2:19 pmImagine an expansive, randomly-generated atmosphere that is flooded with unique creatures, troves of hostile warriors, snot-leaking giants, villages, and fantastical environments with massive trees, waterfalls, and the like. A place to explore and conquer - to quest and customize your gear, build homes, and work with NPCs.
My fond memories of Frogloks have returned!
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