Games

A cable has been cut

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For about a year now we have been thinking of doing something we never thought we would do, we cut our TV cable service and upgraded our internet connection to a business one. It wasn’t something to over think really considering we only watched TV for a handful of things, and really most if not everything we watch can be found online pretty easily. One thing that I do notice is that it’s much quieter in the living room now at night. I had to go out there and stream some Bioshock Infinite and Mortal Kombat just because I felt like it.

We also upgraded to business to strengthen our dedicated servers. We even have a static IP address now! Which means I can add my servers to my favorites on steam and not have them vanish every other month. If anyone is interested in checking out my servers feel free to look on the group page. Joining the group is optional but anyone can play on the servers (unless you’re an asshat). We currently have TF2, TF2 MvM, Gmod Sandbox, CS:GO, and L4D2. I’ll look into fixing the Serious Sam servers sometime in the near future, and also look into starting up Elevator Source again. Elevator Source will be the ultimate bandwidth test. Another thing I’ll look into is getting Replays working on MvM and regular TF2.

Obduction for Linux? Yes please!

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The Unreal Engine is getting Linux support (as of version 4.1) which means companies and groups who choose to develop with it will be able to make their games available to not just Windows and Mac users, but to the Linux platform as well. Cyan is developing Obduction under Unreal Engine 4 so it would only make sense for a couple people to ask about it. Cyan answered via Kickstarter today… sorta.

Linux support

Epic has announced that the Unreal 4 engine will have Linux support. We would love to support Linux and we are currently evaluating what it means for the scope and cost of development.

I hope they go through with it (especially since it would mean more copies sold to pure Linux users). Gaming under Linux is in still a young idea that’s still getting better, and I’d like to see Linux someday with a nice library like Windows has of equal RPG/MMO/FPS instead of the FPS’s being outnumbered by RPG’s and simulators. There needs to be more versatility, and with companies like Valve, Unreal and Croteam already switching to OpenGL that’ll set an excellent course for the future of Linux! Now if only the neckbeards could cooperate better…

Carmageddon: Reincarnation

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One of my most anticipated games for this year has finally been released (and in early access no less). Carmageddon: Reincarnation can now be purchased on Steam for $29.99. For those who have never heard of Carmageddon it’s a racing game like no other! The object isn’t about racing around the track to beat the other racers, hehehheheheh that would be too boring. You have to beat your enemies… to a pulp by running into them. If you’re the sensitive type you probably shouldn’t watch this trailer:

I had fun in the original versions. Can’t wait to tear into that and give it a spin. I always liked the electro bastard ray among the other power-up’s (and downs) you could get in the series.

If you look up the definition of irony you’ll find Sen. Leland Yee

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I’m a firm believer in karma. And man did the karma hit Senator Lee like a drunk plane into asphalt.

Let me set this up, because it’s just majestic… Senator Yee back in 2005 tried to pass a law that would ban violent video games from California. It failed. Then with all of the shootings that have been taking place (notably Sandy Hook) he felt it was time again to say his piece, but first telling anyone who is a gamer to basically shut up.

“Gamers have got to just quiet down. Gamers have no credibility in this argument. This is all about their lust for violence and the industry’s lust for money. This is a billion-dollar industry. This is about their self-interest.”

Now here is where the irony sets in. He’s against guns, gun violence, and violent video games that happen to include guns that he got his ass in hot water over trafficking guns.

According to the criminal complaint filed in San Francisco this week, Jackson operated a consulting business where he worked closely with Yee on his multiple campaigns, including his 2011 San Francisco mayoral campaign. The duo managed to solicit donations from undercover FBI Agents in excess of the $500 donation limit; at least one of those FBI agents, who was posing as a businessman, wrote Yee a $5,000 check to his mayoral campaign.

After Yee lost, he faced $70,000 in campaign debt. He and Jackson solicited the same “business associates” to help pay that off, and in exchange, offered up “certain official acts.” The purported corruption continued well into Yee’s campaign for Secretary of State this year. According to the complaint, he continued tapping the undercover FBI agents for more money, and in exchange, he did them favors — including facilitating a meeting with an arms dealer to traffic weapons through the Port of Newark in New Jersey.

Violent video games = bad. Selling guns for a profit = Totally ok!

Gotta love ol murica.

A collectors edition of a game that doesn’t come with the game.

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So I’ve been following the new Wolfenstein game coming out for quite some time now, if you haven’t heard about it check out this trailer:

Anyway. I was doing my usual rounds of reading during my lunch today and found that Bethesda has a special version you can buy called “Wolfenstein: The New Order Panzerhund Edition “.

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It’s excellent, it comes with some maps (not digital ones), an X Ray of something, a robot dog and more. Really cool stuff for $100. One problem though: It doesn’t include the game.

This collector’s edition does not include a copy of the game. Keep your pre-order at your favorite retailer and we’ll send you these goodies separately—this way we can ship these boxes worldwide and you’re not stuck waiting for your game to come along with an oversized, expensively shipped box.

Uh huh… Why have an expensively giant box to ship when you can just fork over 100 clams PLUS the amount to preorder the game? How thoughtful.

Sunday Morning Open Thread

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Haven’t posted in a few days, been a bit melancholy about a couple things I’d rather not talk about. So mainly I’ve been sorting through my things, playing some games trying to bury it in the back of my head.

During my cleanup session in Source Filmmaker I unearthed a mocap test animation that I never used. It was one where I experimented with locking items (a hat in this case) to a model before adding the animation.

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh0gMGfNgAs

I’ll need to setup some time to do some serious animations… well, as serious as my personality will allow.

Duke Nukem Forever was so horrible that Duke 3D got a multiplayer update

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Oh well. I’m sure it’ll make some people happy. I may even give it a shot at some point. But yes, Duke Nukem 3D Megatron Edition got an update on Steam yesterday that allows people to play multiplayer together.

Again, not a bad thing. But methinks 3D Realms reeeealy seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel.

An unfair comparison

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So, people have been talking about the new Tomb Raider Definitive Edition and how big of a graphical improvement it is over the original.

Kotaku is making a comparison of Definitive Edition to PC’s that can play last years released version on full.

At first I thought Definitive was the PC version being ported over to console and to a point it is. TressFX finally made it over to the consoles which was the big separator between the PC and console versions a year ago (other than maybe a few other graphical enhancements such as shaders). It still held back some graphical progress on PC since in the end as beautiful as it was it was still a console port.

The XBone and PS4 run on updated hardware, so it only makes sense to improve game the game quality as shown in the video above. This will also mean that the PC master race will not be held back by consoles for quite some time. 😛