Posted by: Promit Roy at November 24, 2009 3:13:20 PM
It's not Turkey Day yet, but it is Turkey week in the US. That means irritating commutes to meet family, impending weight gain, and people taking vacation days at what will inevitably be the worst possible time. I considered taking a vacation day, but I guess I'm just too dedicated to doing nothing in particular to take a break from it.
Unfortunately Turkey Week is also a pretty thin news week. However, GamaSutra did cover a talk by Ken Rolston that is fairly interesting. I met the man once, and I can tell you for a fact he is crazy. I mean that in the best, most positive possible way, and he's a wonderful game designer...but still crazy. Though to be honest, I'm starting to suspect that's a prerequisite for being a designer to begin with. Just look at Trent! He actually thought having a daily news column here was a great idea.
I bet a lot of you are big into the whole nostalgia thing, so I can only assume you'll be enthralled or appalled to learn that several Atari games are now available to play online in Flash form. And I have to tell you, Lunar Lander is still really hard.
There's nothing I love more than court cases (except maybe NPD numbers), and today brings us a new one. This time it's against Microsoft, courtesy of accessory make Datel. It's essentially your standard monopoly allegations, as a result of Microsoft blocking out third party memory cards. Personally I'm on Datel's site, and I thought the MS move was pretty asinine. Then again, consoles aren't meant to be friendly to their customers when it comes to money. Just look at the wireless adapter pricing for the 360.
Apparently Square Enix is doing the cinematics for Deus Ex 3. As a fairly enthusiastic Final Fantasy fan, I can definitely attest to the amazing skills the Squeenix guys have when it comes to producing prerendered cinematics. They have to do a good job since the vast majority of their box art and trailers are scripted/prerender scenes, after all.
Lastly, a couple Pandemic guys who got fired decided to go out Office Space style. The video's NSFW audio, but completely worth it. No, it's not quite the original, but there's nothing quite like smashing a printer to hip hop music. Oh and before I go -- Miley Cyrus 1, crazy "fan" 0!
In the realm of pointless obsession about video game violence, two organizations conducted a study of whether games allow players to violate the Geneva Convention.
So virtual humans should be afforded identical rights to real humans in the eyes of the Hague. I will wait for a virtual human to show up and sign the treaty...
I hate prerendered cinematics in games ... They force me to sit there and watch; I'm playing a game, for god's sake! And often they destroy the immersion because they look significantly different than the ingame graphics.
Original post by mineralwasser
I hate prerendered cinematics in games ... They force me to sit there and watch; I'm playing a game, for god's sake! And often they destroy the immersion because they look significantly different than the ingame graphics.
I don't know, I mean that was definitely the case years ago, but I think graphics engines are catching up. In some games you can only spot the prerendered cinematics because the models move in ways that they don't move in-game.
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swiftcoder
Member since: 7/3/2003 From: Boston, MA
Posted - 11/24/2009 8:50:01 PM
Posted - 11/25/2009 3:09:02 AM
