SpiderMonkey

Zombies are by far and away the easiest enemies to script.

I guess I should be more specific. I don't see there being anything wrong with that. It's the concept of pausing your Mario Kart game to check your emails, doing a few laps, then pausing and checking again, etc that I found pretty silly.

"I believe that Web technology will increasingly be a part of the gaming experience, whether it's live content being pushed onto games or you're just checking your Web mail while playing Mario Kart." The second half of that sentence is probably the dumbest thing I've read this week. By all means include a web browser, but don't act like it's anything other than a cute addition to the system. There's something wrong with you if you want to be able to check your email in the middle of playing a game. Edit: Oh shit, I lie ... NEW CONTENDER! Here comes game design guru ... Bill Gates to tell us all about motion sensing pads! http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=65169

This whole PS3 thing is pretty dumb. On the one hand, you have rumours without sources. On the other hand, you have "Sony denied it!" by saying something that doesn't actually deny the story at hand. (Sure, any PS3 can play any PS3 game, but the story was about Sony legally banning resales, not technologically banning them.)

I think there's a decent Trespasser/System Shock angle to aim for. You are just a guy in a boat/plane/etc who gets washed up on the shore of the island, alone and you go from there, surviving, exploring, etc. The way the storyline in the TV series is headed at the moment, there's a real vibe that is very much in keeping with those other 'universes'. Plus the whole 'you are alone' thing brings so much benefit, because you get away from the problems of character-interaction, continuity and the fact that the TV series has answered so many of the questions that you'd be looking to pose for gameplay purposes - how do you survive, etc. It's Ubisoft and they don't do lazy license games, so really, who knows what the limits of their ambition are. They seem to be pushing for believeable character tech in Assassin's Creed, so it's possible they could bleed some of that technology through into this game as well. I don't think Lost is Lost without the flashbacks though. They would have to be interwoven somehow. (That spoiler is very vague, I don't think it's particularly spoilerish, but I wouldn't want to piss off anyone who isn't up to date with me - the US progress of series 2.)

Hmm, on the one hand, its structure is very similar to a Video game - the island is a space that its occupants navigate in an effort to uncover fragments of backstory. On the other hand, it couldn't be less Video game-like - heavily character-driven and a very strong sense of mortality.

What's up with the dollar exchange rate at the moment?? www.xe.com says it's about 53 pence (sterling) to 1 dollar. If my credit card company's exchange rate is tracking that, then I just got HL2: Episode 1 for a mighty £11.50.

Nothing new there. 95% of blogging, podcasting, videocasting, etc falls under the category of broadcasting for the purposes of vanity.

Oh of course, if you follow the website link next to the video, they admit that they know they are putting out bullshit. It still wouldn't stop me flinging poo at him though.

Wow, now idiots can troll the internet in video form too! At least this way, we get to see what they look like, so we know to fling poo at them when we see them on the streets ...

I was pretty disturbed to find out I'd spent that much, as it was. The breakdown is: I built one machine in summer 1999 for about £1000; I built a second machine (entirely fresh, so as to keep that one kicking around) for £900 in Nov 2003, then last month I bought a new graphics card and obligatory new PSU to fuel it which came to £300. I bought the best AGP card going because I don't want to have to buy anything else until 2008. That's £2200 over 9 years, so I guess actually my maths is off and it's closer to £240 per year. Still a disgustingly large amount of money, given I thought I was being reasonable conservative - obviously I'm spending more than "dude I'm getting a Dell", but I'm not exactly buying SLIs either. And yes, I agree, PCs are more versatile. I wouldn't spend nearly as much if I didn't need/enjoy being able to crunch stuff through Photoshop, Hammer, etc.

Sony seem to be pitching the PS3, to any potential purchasers in the first 6 months of its life, as a cheap BluRay player that also happens to play games. This is in line with the perception that I recall from the first 6 months of the PS2's life - people were buying it as a cheap DVD player and maybe buying a game or two. The quote has no context, so it's possible he meant it like that. Either way, it's okay for them to say that kind of stuff in their private meetings, but it should never be said in public. (Duh.) On a side note, what is it with the guys in Europe being the ones who have no tact when it comes to communicating with the public. Just the other day, there was that story about a Nintendo UK guy going on the rampage, accusing Sony of "stealing" or something, whereas previously NOA had just pulled out the "imitation is flattery" line.

Anyone watch Green Wing here? (UK, C4, Friday nights) I'm guessing tonight's episode is the end of season? What a short season.

The love triangle bits seem to sit a bit uncomfortably with the rest of the style of the show, and this week was extra heavy on it. But Dr Statham has been utterly brilliant all season, I agree.

I worked out the other day that when you average it out over the 7ish years I've had my own computer, I've spent £300 a year on hardware. So I guess £425 buys you a year and a half of PC gaming?

Because it's a pain in the ass to then never be able to impulse buy anything?

Comparing one line summaries of a game is a pretty dangerous way of determining whether a title offers something new or not. Next up, perhaps you can point out how MGS1 brings nothing new to the table because it's just Pacman, and how HL2 brings nothing new to the table because it's just Wolfenstein 3D?

Lol, I wonder how long before they ban you for trolling.

"3rd world farmer"? Sounds more like "American lower/middle class" to me ...

I agree with all your sentiments, but I think you're misinterpreting what this video is about. When you start on a big project, it's common practice to make some tech demos/prototypes that focus in on some of the critical aspects of the title, to make sure what you are striving for is feasible and to determine early on what the challenges and difficulties are. That's all this video is. Critical to the success of this game will presumably be how expressive the characters and their camera language is. So they built something to test both those things out. Along the way, they presumably decided it would be fun to add some humour to it by making it a casting video and that it wouldn't hurt to show it at E3 either. On the subject of feeling like a spectator: Yes this is the ever present risk associated with almost any kind of large volume of pure storytelling. It doesn't have to be a strict cutscene to suffer from that - Valve were fighting the same problem in HL2. I think it's to be expected that if you start with cutscene and start adding gameplay, the first few drafts will have too much cutscene and too little gameplay. I'd expect that they have another internal tech demo focusing on getting this aspect right.

Using mocap can be compared to using photo sources to make textures with. It'll save you hassle in some respects, it'll cause you more hassle in others, but au fin du jour, it's largely a question of style. If you want realistic results, you will probably go with mocap, in the same way that if you want a photorealistic texture style, you will probably use photo sources. It's a big mistake to try and prescribe a one-size-fits-all template to what games must be and what they must become. Cutscenes are an abomination in some games because they are used the same way film makers used to use intertitles. That doesn't mean they have no place in other types of games. Have you played Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy? These guys are very openly pursuing an "Interactive Cinema" agenda. It's not something for everyone, but it's genuinely unique and worthwhile. Their cutscenes aren't crowding out their "real gameplay", because they are trying to bring cutscenes and gameplay together in ways that no (/few?) other developers are pursuing. Think of it as starting with a cutscene and adding gameplay, rather than doing what most developers do which is starting with gameplay and taking it away by adding cutscenes. I don't know what "actual gameplay" means in this context, because different people prefer different things from their games, but to accuse them of doing something that is not interesting and is instead generic and lazy is very inaccurate.

People in the UK put out for Playstation.

Shameless, but I'll forgive you since it was an entertaining read and so you made it to my Gaming Blogs bookmarks folder.

I think you'll see it sooner than you expect. If we're in uncanny valley zone now, the easiest way out of it is to do exactly what you describe. At the moment, it is cheaper not to invest in a proper art style. In the near future, it will probably be too expensive for most to pursue pure photorealism.

Pretty funny. I also like . It misses a lot of the best stuff (it doesn't have Phil Harrison acting so incredibly smug, or that "real-time weapon changing" WTF moment), but flows a bit better imo.