Feel like getting something for free? Well what if you have to work for it along with 999,999 others? Still interested? Good, because Criterion is planning to release a free DLC pack that will contain the Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible, the Lamborghini Murcielago LP 650-4 Roadster, and the Dodge Viper SRT10 Convertible Final Edition if they happen to get 1 million views on their trailer by December 12th 2010.
What this means is that while the viewer list is currently only in the 150,000 range there are still two weeks left to go to get this pack of cars for free. There hasn’t been any word if the cars will be released for a price if the 1 million mark isn’t reached so better watch the trailer. We’ve placed it below so it will be even easier for you to watch the trailer. Anyways whoever said that free things are truly free? Then again all you need to do is click one button and spend a minute and a half of your time and you could be getting something in a few weeks.
So you have braved the cold weather and probably spent more than you should have on all of the different deals that happened at the retail stores today. Then you turn on your Xbox 360 only to find out that there are even more deals happening right on the XBLA. Yep that is right, for today only Xbox Live members are going to be getting some pretty severe deals on a handful of different games. There is even one deal that isn’t a game at all.
The full list of deals can be seen below; I do believe that these deals are for the United States only unfortunately as a warning stated that these deals may not be available in all regions.
It’s always nice to know who you may meet on any journey especially one that will place the fate of the world in your hands. Thankfully Bioware has been willing to give us this information with character reveals and have just revealed a brand new party member named Aveline Vallen.
From the looks of her character bio on Bioware’s website she will be filing the roll of soldier and taking the place of Alistair from the first game. You can read her full bio below:
Aveline Vallen is a soldier, a master of sword and shield, and a tireless guardian… to a point. The daughter of an exiled chevalier, Aveline is not the knight her father wished her to be. Although fully trained in chivalrous combat, she was raised in the shadow of a lost life and will not lose another for the sake of honor. Protecting her adopted home of Kirkwall becomes a chosen duty, not a privileged calling. The people she stands for will not be wasted on lost causes or protecting the foolish from themselves. Pride can be bandaged like any other wound—when threats are dead and everyone is safely home.
There is no news if she will be one of the characters that players will be able to pursue a romance with like in the first game, but we will see when Dragon Age II comes out on March 8th on the PC, PS3, and 360.
Need for Speed Nitro-X (DSiWare: Electronic Arts, 800 Nintendo DSiPoints)
DodoGo! Challenge (DSiWare: Neko Entertainment, 500 Nintendo DSi Points)
Frenzic (DSiWare: Two Tribes, 200 Nintendo DSi Points)
Music on: Electric Guitar (DSiWare: Abylight, 200 Nintendo DSi Points)
As you can see, there are quite a lot of releases this week. To avoid the DSiWare missing out on the frenzy of ‘Hot Pursuits’ that has come amid the release of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on consoles, EA have provided a Need for Speed offering on the DSi. Some of you may want to check it out. It is only 800 points which shouldn’t break the bank.
The Virtual Console upload this week is Faxanadu which is an action-RPG, originally published by Nintendo and developed by Hudson on the NES.
Chillingo, a sub-division of Electronic Arts, has just launched two new games on the App Store just in time for Thanksgiving. (Now you have more games to purchase to spend your Thanksgiving night :P). They are one of the leading publishers that have various chart-topping games at their disposal, including Cut the Rope and Angry Birds. Doodle Invasion, a doodle defense game and Agents!, a puzzle adventure game are now available on the App Store for $0.99 and $1.99 respectively. There is also a lite version for Doodle Invasion, available for testing purposes. Check them out at an App Store near you, and purchase them if you like it!
Doodle Invasion (BUY NOW!): Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a gigantic space ship and it’s dropping a big green DoodleInvader into the ocean…oh great. Use your doodling skills to create breakers to stop the evil spawn of the giant green alien from reaching Doodle Bay in this addictive and challenging doodle defense game! You’ll need to use your brains as well as your fingers. Draw the breaker across the screen to catch as many aliens as you can, once you do you have to steer them into the paths of the ships that helpfully suck them up. Be careful though, you can only draw one breaker at a time and there are going to be a LOT of Invaders.
Agents! (BUY NOW!):Infiltrate, investigate, and escape. Step into the world of a super sleuth in this espionage puzzle-adventure. You have accepted a mission to save the world from the threat of a top secret super weapon. An engrossing single player campaign and ultra competitive multiplayer gameplay await you in Agents! Explore offices and secluded country estates to find hidden information about the nature of your enemies…or even your friends. Leave no stone unturned and no filing cabinet unchecked as you work your way around the map. Find the documents, then find the exit-but be careful, you may not be the only spy on a mission. Will you complete your mission and remain undetected?
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World’s ‘Knives Chau Add-On Pack’ DLC is arriving later this week. Since only friday is left, probably tomorrow… or they meant next week; it doesn’t really matter. The DLC brings drop-in, drop-out co-op beat ’em up action, dodge ball and Battle Royale mode. You can also play as the new character Knives Chau (duh…).
Keep an eye out for the Knives Chau Add-On Pack on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PSN soon and check out the trailer below if you want to see the extras in action.
Steam is having a big “Give and Get” sale happening this weekend, with a few daily deals thrown into the mix. As of 11PM EST, you have 14 hours left before you can no longer grab these sweet deals. So grab them while you can.
So you want to make your own game; maybe the next Gears of War or Unreal Tournament. Youv’e just downloaded Epic Games Developer Kit for Unreal Engine 3.0 and now you’re stuck, staring at a blank bunch of windows and some test maps. How the heck do you do anything!
The first thing I noticed when you open the editor/ which is separate to the player, is just how similar the tools are to Unreal Engine 2.0 editor. More or less identical in fact. This makes it incredibly easy and intuitive for previous modders but still a bit backwards for the novice user. Below is a compile of many useful videos to check out BEFORE heading into the edtior, just to see if it’s for you. As well some n00b pro tips that may seem obvious at first but are also easy to miss when considering the possibility of making maps.
I for one was overwhelmed with a wave of nostalgia, I havn’t felt in years from my time teaching game design and level editing back in 2004. That’s right, I was employed ie payed to go into class every day and teach students how to make maps and levels: and trust me when I say, it takes time and patients.
– Building maps takes time. Obvious, but you must be willing to spend weeks if not months perfecting that ideal map
– The UDK will crash! Unreal 2.0 was notoriously buggy (many projects were lost) and on top of that, a decent rig is recommended to test the designs to their optimum- some features you use may not appear if the settings for graphics are not good enough or correct.
– This is NOT Gears of War. From the install the assesstts provided are for Unreal 3 only as with previous editors. So expect to make maps and arenas for Unreal using the weapons and default characters of the game.
–Making anything other than a level or map takes time, but also more advanced and higher levels of coding and tools. Making anything other than Unreal Maps and Mods, means importing from other programs and finding other asset’s or making them from scratch.
–You want that sweet Lancer gun from Gears, you may just have to model it yourself. Programs like 3D Studio Max or Maya support the Unreal Engine, and are required to make models, textures or other assets. Photoshop is the most useful for materials and skins.
–The Unreal Engine does not do everything! Game Engins are complex and made up of many 3rd party software for physics, video and lighting. This one Unreal 3.0 editor does not have them all. New updates include better surface mapping, materials and water reflections, lighting and shadows and dynamic physics, tree generation.
–Tutorials are your friend! If you can’t find the right software to do the job, there is usually a free alternative such as GIMP 2.0 instead of Photoshop. There is no shame in using tutorials to learn how to do something harder to basic. It has probably already been done before.
–Draw and write your ideas down. It all starts on paper young Jedis. Draw your maps and plan them in 2D from the top before trying to model them in 3D across the XYZ axis.
The Unreal Engine works on subtractive modelling; that is, you carve out levels from inside a box rather than additive modeling (think lego blocks), although seemingly backwards at first it allows for a solid foundation to build your map inside. Just remember what you are looking at is a 2D representation of 3D enviroment. You screen is flat! 3D is just an illusion (depth) it doesn’t really exist and if you want to see the back of objects, be prepared to rotate them from all angles.
Here is some light reading for starters:
The file format is MP4. No other codecs are required.
Each compressed archive contains one or more videos:
Crescent Moon Games, the creator of the award-winning western RPGs, Ravensword: The Fallen King and Rimelands: Hammer of Thor has already working for months with Galoobeth Games to bring you their latest installment. The name is Aralon: Swords and Shadow, and it will be available for both iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad. You will play the role as a unique hero and explore the land set in a pretty 3D world. Not much is known about its release date but we do hope to see this on the App Store by the end of the year. Let’s keep our fingers crossed! Till then, enjoy the video trailer. (Watch it, the graphics in this game are absolutely stunning!)
– Over 30 hours of gameplay
– Gorgeous 3D graphics and interactive environments
– Explore a massive world with different regions, a vast city, coastal villages, caverns, and castles
– Customize your character’s appearance
– 4 Character Classes: Warrior, Ranger, Rogue, and Mage. Each class has its own unique skill tree that you can develop as you choose
– 3 Playable Races: Humans, Elves, and the fearsome Trolls
– A primary quest and multiple, optional side-quests that will take you throughout the Kingdom of Aralon
– Hundreds of items to acquire and wield: Swords, Axes, Bows, Staves, Shields, and Armor, part of a Comprehensive Inventory System that dynamically alters characters appearance
– Battle various enemies that use different fighting tactics
– Diverse gameplay options including a faction system, herb gathering, crafting potions and magical items, dual-wielding, lockpicking and more
– Acquire a mount for fast travel throughout the kingdom
Game Name: SBK X SuperBike World Championship Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360 Publisher: Southpeak Games Developer: Deep Silver Genre: Racing Release Date: June 7th 2010 (EU), Dec 7th 2010 (US) Price: $39.99 (US) ESRB/PEGI rating: E10+/3 Pre Order the game HERE(US)
I find it totally odd that SBK X came out in europe on June 7th yet, the US release date is six months later. If you are into simulation racing, you are most likley playing that other game that came out recently with 1000 cars in it. Have you noticed that game has little to no Speed cycles or Superbikes in it? That is where SBK X comes in. Its touch of realism is nice and refreshing compared to the other well known Motorcycle game, Moto GT.
Most if not all simulation racers do not have a story so lets move on to what counts, the gameplay.
Gameplay
This is the heart and soul of racing games. SBK X does very well in this factor. It has two modes that change the gameplay. Arcade and Simulation mode. Arcade is quite easy and very fun. This is the mode to choose if you have friends over that want to get stuck into some arcade action without the difficulty of a racing sim. Arcade mode is really easy to pick up and play. Using the X button to “Boost” on Straight-a-ways involving alot of screen blurring.
Simulation mode is main course of the game. It is the only way you can play story mode. In story mode you pick a team to ride with and take on the SBK curcuit. Any real racer knows that it isn’t what’s on the outside of the car or bike but its what is under the hood and how the car or bike is personalized to the driver. That is what this game is all about. You don’t get to pick the make, model, or colors of your bikes. All of that is chosen when you pick your team. What you get to choose is a extensive mode of options that tweak your bike to the way you want to ride it and what is best for the track.
In story mode a few rounds of practice are given before the actual race, this is where you get used to the track and tune the bike accordingly. If the track is more curvy, then the bike needs to be tuned to be more reactive and more toward the acceleration side. Alot of straight lines? more on top speed and less reactive. You have your engineer to rely on when you do not know how to tune your bike. It is almost like going to the doctors. Tell him where it hurts and he will try and fix it. If you want the bike more attuned to yourself though, you will learn to tune it yourself. There are alot of options and it can get confusing but a tips button helps out. Gear ratios, suspension tunings, chain tension, even the kind of tires you put on can be changed. All can be tweaked to provide an overall change in the bike or just a specific change. For example if the bike skids and slides a bit when you come out of a turn you can do a couple things. Raise the suspension on the back and lower the front, lower the tension on the chain, or lower the gear ratio. It shocked me how a simple tune this or that way can change the way the bike handles completely. Sometimes though it is just the rider that needs work. Once you get the bike to where you want it, it is essential to ride it and get a feel for it. If you jump into a race with a fresh tuned bike and have no idea how it handles it could cost you the race. I enjoyed tuning my bike to perfection on each track then racing against the CPU.
One gripe I have with it though, is it just throws you in the pot with no instruction. No tutorial for driving or buttons. You just have to feel it out until you get the hang of things. In a game like this where every detail counts, a tutorial is almost essential. Especially to a new comer like me. This takes away from the experience some but it quickly gains it back. Sadly there is little to none online community. Maybe because I have the game before everyone else in the US, but this was a let down.
Audio and Visual
If a game promotes itself a simulation it has to look the part too. SBK X did real well in this department. No real glitches or frame rate drops I could see. The tracks look realistic as well as the bikes. Very detailed and accurate. Every engine sounds unique. It has a nice soundtrack if you like rock. Not very expansive when it comes to the music but, if you do like rock then it is good. I like the way the screen blurs when you are going high speed. Rain looks very well done also. The terrain was a bit lacking. It looked fairly bland. I did not notice too many trees or shrubs but that isn’t too much of a gripe as long as the tracks looked as close to 1:1 as possible.
Overview
A very solid racing game. I have never heard of SBK or even the pro motorcycle racing was even out there. Being a fan of sim racing though I had alot of fun with it. It is pure motorcycle racing – you tweak the bike to each track, ride it, if you do not like it then tweak it differently. It is all about the bike and shouldn’t that really be what all racing games should be about ? If only the visual options on your bike were more abundant and little more bikes and tracks were put into the game. Also a little more variety of music would have helped also.
