Srini's blog

2008-12-14T18:13:00.007+05:30

Now Playing: Fallout 3 (PC)
4 years in the making, Fallout 3 is another installment from the Fallout series created by one of my favorite developers Bethesda Softworks, the makes of the Elder Scrolls series. Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion was easily one of the vast and exciting rpg games till date. Its open world concept is just amazing to get the player involved into the game environment. The characters come to life as you start feeling you are part of that era. The same feeling is transformed into the Fallout 3 game where you play in the ruins of Washington D.C. I still remember the first time you come out of the Vault and see the ruins of Washington for the first time. Wow, you see the D.C tower and the white house far far away still standing tall and rest of all the worlds in ruins. What an thrilling event it is. It is easily one of my most captivated moments in gaming. Well I continue to play this game daily and hope to drive the new Karma gameplay element on seeing how it works. This game is supposed to be even bigger than the last Elder Scrolls game. So expect long gaming hours with this game.

Check trailer below:

2008-12-07T18:13:00.003+05:30

Point, Aim, Shoot! That's fun isn't it?
Well...if it is the Call of Duty series, then it is fun and exciting! Thats the story behind its latest part World At War. Well it may be difficult to think how a continuos event like point, click and aim can make a fps game so exciting and not so repititive. Well repititive kept aside, games such as these always set the player up in real war like situations where survival and shooting skills keep you thrilled and going on to be victorious. Thats pretty much the summary of this game where you play 2 roles, one as a russian soldier and the other as the US marine. It is really fun to play both those leads as you always have a central character as your commanding officer leading the way and canvasing the story in front of you. Probably one of the most exciting endings I have played in this game which was hoisting the flag at the german parliament. The world was so detailed and magnificient and it felt so real to be engrossed in that era. All in all a truely masterpiece and this game makes you believe what gamers expect with next gen kicking in. I watched the gameplay footage of Killzone 2 a couple of days ago and boy how good it looked. Probably reasons are accumulating to buy the PS3 finally! Killzone 2 and God of War 3... Wow!

2008-12-04T15:00:00.002+05:30

Movin Maze 3D for Iphone & Ipod's goes live on AppStore!

Check out below the gameplay videos and trailers of this game.

Movin Maze 3D Trailer video

Movin Maze 3D Gameplay video

This game is available on Apple AppStore right now!

2008-10-31T22:13:00.004+05:30

Suikoden RPG series coming to DS!

I remember playing Suikoden IV for the PS2, a really good Japanese RPG. I really loved the character intensive story driven rpg style of this game.

Something very unique to this game is the number of characters which you will encounter in the storyline. It surely boasts a huge number of unique characters which many rpg games would envy of. It was a really good fun to level up all those characters and play through the storyline. I hope they get the same experience to the handheld. I'm really looking forward to playing this on the DS. I really hope this releases by early next year (something to look up to early next year!), but no release date on this yet :(

2008-09-21T16:20:00.003+05:30

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC)
Highlights of Production: 4 years into Production (2002-2006), released on Mar 21 2006, one of the rare great work relationship between 2K (publisher) and Bethesda (developer), Radiant AI (Bethesda's proprietary AI system), used the Havok engine for physics and Gamebryo for rendering, one of the first games to introduce HDR (High Dynamic Range lighting), used procedural terrain generation techniques, great sound design (the title music composition got the creator a BAFTA award), received RPG of the year award by most game critic websites including Gamespot and IGN.

Well to just judge the production quality that this game has achieved you have gotta play the game in length. When I started playing this game just last month, it struck me what I had missed in the last couple of years (my years of abandoning the PC!), what a great RPG game in the making. Hats of to the team at Bethesda who made this possible. This game got me so involved (still involved, still not completed the game) that it has raised my expectations of what to expect from the upcoming RPG games (DIABLO, anybody listening!).

I have to confess, one of my best game moments came when I first saw the Oblivion Gate at Kvatch. What a visual treat. The sky grew in red color, the sound was threatening me with something evil to come. The moment I was near the gate, I could feel the force the gate was throwing at me. What a great moment it was. Few games could achieve to bring gamers to feel like this.

Well my final review shall come after I finish this game (it is such a huge game). This game has definitely got me excited. This game has one of the best game beginnings I've seen yet. Watch the intro video below. Till then signing out, Ciao.

2008-09-14T18:06:00.003+05:30

Have today's strategy games become BIG, HUGE and BULKY?
I was playing Supreme Commander (PC)(Launched in Feb 2007), one of the big sci-fi RTS of recent times, it is then that I realized how big the scope of today's strategy games have become. This game is created by Gas Powered Games, one of my favorite game companies who got us the Dungeon Seige series. I remember when I had played Dungeon Seige (Part 1), I used to love playing this game and used to enjoy the vast landscapes and adventure this game brought to gamers like me. Imagine a vast topography of unexplored land, WOW! that sounded so exciting back then. These guys were used to create large games, games with vast topography and huge content which kept the gamers busy for long hours.

Not that these guys are the only ones making large scope games which take more than 40 hours to complete. You have Bethesda who gave us the Oblivion series, what a great RPG series!

This makes me think, games have come of age and are expected to give more and more large and imemrsive games for us to play. Comparing the games just 3 years back, today's games have lots more to give and lots more to show to gamers like us. When you check out Supreme Commander just look at the amount of strategy content available. We are talking about huge 80km x 80km maps, the smallest being 8km x 8km. These are huge maps to play any game in todays world. Just the sheer size of armies which are under your control would make you nervous but at the same time powerful. Just imagine what kind of army would you create to attack your opponent via Land, Air and Sea. All these types of armies under one keyboard and mouse control, isn't is maddening?? Well it is thouroughly enjoyable, let me tell you that!

So what would BIG, HUGE and BULKY mean to today's games? BIG would definately mean scope, the amount of content which goes into these games is huge. HUGE would mean what kind of power is available at the players disposal. For example, have you had so many options to kill your enemy? Have you had such great intelligence with which your enemy would pounce back? That is HUGE. BULKY would definately mean sheer game size and hardware requirements. Just look at the hardware requirements of Supreme Commander.....it would bring down and good machine to its knees...( no need to discuss Crysis??). Some of these games take more than 6 GB of memory (including of virtual memory). Now that is BULKY!

But at the end of the day these games thouroughly entertains us as gamers. What else do you need when you have so much power to control and ready at your disposal :) I cannot immagine what could games achieve even one year from now! Well we would have to live, play and watch!

2008-08-18T23:03:00.003+05:30

Now Playing: Final Fantasy 4 (Nintendo DS)
This is my latest craze nowadays. It is probably one the the best games with a very high production quality. Rarely does the producer's vision goes the down route which most games go nowadays. Look at Assasin's Creed on the DS, a shameful execution in the name of brand realization by Gameloft. But Square Enix is in its league of its own. Always maintaining the highest production quality in their titles. I remember my first PS2 game was Final Fantasy. It left such an everlasting impression upon me. I used to think whether such high production values would be achieved in handhelds? Well this game has just proved me correct and only Square Enix (apart from Nintendo themselves) can achieve such high production vales in their own IP's. Square Enix makes all its profit only from its Final Fantasy series. So does Nintendo from its own first party titles. Such is the power of creating original IP's. Everyone should notice the strengths in creating such original IP's and must not shy away from taking risks. I'm not saying go bankrupt chasing the original IP route, but at least allocate some portion of your effort in trying to create one. I'm sure companies like Nintendo and Square Enix would have stumbled many a times and then succeeded in creating true brand IP power.

Well coming back to the game itself. I'm still just a few hours into playing this game. Died a many times, upgraded the levels of my party, conquered dungeons and killed lots of enemy foes, loved every bit of this fantasy rpg. I shall review this game as soon as I finish it. Till then you can watch the trailer of the game below (this is the opening trailer of the game, so enjoy it):

2008-06-29T12:55:00.003+05:30

Mortal Kombat Online Multiplayer is so much fun!!

Playing "Ultimate Mortal Kombat" for the DS is so much fun, especially the online mode. I love playing the online mode and kicking everyone's ass on the internet. It is just so much fun. Well the true story.....I get my ass kicked more from other players online!! But no regrets. The online mode of this DS version is the best I've seen so far from this series. There has never been a more satisfying online multiplayer experience on the DS thank this MK game. It perfectly sets you up with other players online who are just waiting to show of their moves. I have always been a huge fan of the multiplayer online version games available on the DS and this game proves to be on top of my list.

Watch the online Wifi multiplayer experience below:

Well coming back to the experience part, so how does it work? Well simple, you just switch on the game, chose multiplayer option and BANG! you are thrown into the MK world where your opponent is randomly selected. Then comes the player selection screen where you select your favorite player, and then you are into the game! The matches are configured as a normal MK game, 2 rounds = 1 match. After every match your rank is updated online. So in real-time you can track what is your ranking among other players around the world who are playing MK. I'm rated 1988.

The single player campaign is your regular MK 3 title format where you have an option to choose any of the 3 choices, easy, normal and hard category and then fight! The sound effects are top quality, no compromises here. The visual quality though is a little let down considering this is an actual port of the original MK 3 game. No visual improvements here. But no regrets, every downfall in visual is made up by seeing so much BLOOD! The blood effects are in full flow!

After you complete the single player campaign, you have an option to play the Puzzle mode which I'm not a big fan of. I liked to dive into the online mode more often than to play any of the other modes.

Sop if you are an MK fan and want to have a great fighting game on your DS, this game scores on all your requirements. If you want to play a online fighting game on the DS, then this game is a must buy. So keep fighting....FATALITY!

2008-06-16T23:19:00.002+05:30

Real-time Ocean Rendering using FFT
Ever wondered how do games render those beautiful oceans in real-time? Well a quick answer would be Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT). These are magic words which allow you to compute some of the best looking water rendering bodies. Have a look at the video below where a ocean was computed using FFT:

FFT is a tricky subject and involves some deep math to understand its concepts. The below article discusses some of the nuances of ocean computation and rendering using FFT.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3036/deep_water_animation_and_rendering.php

The below video shows another example of how FFT is used for ocean rendering:

2008-05-18T14:01:00.002+05:30

Finally Finished Manager mode in FIFA 08 (DS) - 5/5 stars!
I finally finished 5 seasons in the manager mode of fifa 08for the ds. This means I finally have achieved 5 out of 5 stars for this feat as a manager! Man I'm thrilled! It has been a very very long 5th season playing as Chelsea but finally I as a manager managed to come second in the EPL charts as well as win the Champions league! So considering there are 38 matches to be played a season and then playing the FA cup, champions trophy every season, the tournament can be very long. A season would cover a average of 50 matches. A normal football match would last for 20 minutes. This means 1000 minutes for an entire season! Which would mean 5000 minutes for 5 seasons....man this was long! But all this was well worth it. I used to play this game while I was traveling to work in the train. It is interesting that I finished 5 seasons playing this game in the train! Thats the power of handheld gaming! I love my DS!

So what do I do next? Well first would stop playing this game as I've exhausted its worth. I want to move on to play a solid RPG game, one of my favorite genres. I have started playing this new rpg game called "The World Ends With You" by Square Enix, the gods of rpg brand makers. So FIFA 08, bye for now!

2008-04-12T14:27:00.005+05:30

Nanostray 2 (Nintendo DS)
Why I clocked 20 hrs, got killed more than 100 times, unlocked only 4 planets, and still want to play this game?

OK, at first glance it seems I really cannot play old-school games with mechanics only pros could master. It would also seem that I really should probably quit playing this game and move on to another. But I disagree to both these conclusions. Nanostray 2 is my first game in this series. I enjoyed this game for all the hours that I've clocked in this game. Absolutely love the boss fights so far. But the main problem why I just cannot proceed to explore the game further is the problem of Game Saves. I have read a lot of complaints about the game saving in this game. It could have been a little more structured and easy for the current generation of gamers to pick up and play this game. Rather the developers stuck to making it very hard and not giving any worthy save game features in this game. I agree that this game is probably for the old-school kind type gamers but hey giving good save options would not have harmed it in any ways!

Well moving from my crib about the game's saving mechanism, one thing I must admit about this game - It is damn addictive! I just cannot stop playing this game. The ego really hurts when I'm playing this game. Why the hell I cannot win this level without losing any lives???

This game gives the player 5 lives + 3 Continues option which makes the total lives in the game to be 15 ( 5 lives x 3 continues). And then add the 1Ups which you might get if you are really good. So this game expects that with 15 lives at stake you should complete the 8 odd planets in this game. Piece of Cake huh? Well not easy as it may sound. The game is designed to be old-school which means get ready for tough gameplay mechanism. Screw up even once the game will really punish you and take away your precious life.

The game's 3D graphics is a stunner. The developers of this game have really done a great job of getting constant 30fps rendering in full 3D with all the crazy effects in this game. Not once does it stutter while playing the levels. The 3D boss fights are really cool considering the gameplay mechanisms for all enemies (including the bosses) is still 2 dimensional.

A special mention should be given to the games sound effects. It is clean, fast and really delivers the chaos very well. I was really drawn into the chaos with all the enemies shooting at me from all directions, thanks to the excellent sound composition.

The game does support 2 player mode over local Wifi but NO online multiplayer. I would have really liked to play this game online. But hey they do have online rankings where you can upload your score. This scoring chart really motivates to not keep down this game. Thats a great plus point for today's online games.

I like the D-pad input mechanism in this game. Probably it may also be the reason why I struggle to play this game. The D-pad controls does get a little sluggish at times. This is where this game scores by have 3 different control schemes which includes the touch screen controls. I'm not a fan of the touch screen controls as it really gets tough while you play the games for long hours. Another problem with the touch screen controls for this game is that it obstructs your view of the game which might cost you a lot of lives! But nonetheless with these small short comings the gameplay experience is not hampered much.

The cut-scenes in this game are really done well. Full in-game 3D cut-scenes really gets you into the game. This really conveys the little planet background really well. Also the introduction to the bosses really pumps you up to kill those mean machines.

Some Level design facts. It seems the levels for this game was completely designed in Maya in full 3D using a level editor toll called ComplexEd. You can ready about the level design tool at the below link:
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?publicUserId=5900765&bId=8527057

So why do I still crib and at the same time want to finish this game? Well I'm a great fan of the online ranking system. I love to get my number up there at the top considering the whole world is a level playing field for ultra egos to act. So Keikan here I come!

Watch the trailer of the game below:

2008-03-21T23:32:00.006+05:30

Why I clocked more than 90 hours of FIFA 08 on my DS?
Well for the stat enthusiast I have clocked more than 90 hours of this game on my DS!! My day starts with me getting up, getting ready, I get out my building to goto work. This is when I get out my DS and start playing FIFA 08. I spend 15 minutes playing this game in the auto rickshaw (the famous Indian transport!). After that I reach the railway station and continue to play through the train journey (about 30 minutes). This is just one way! I play for the same mount of time while I return from work too!

I have completed playing full 3 seasons in the manager mode (38 matches per season + 2 extra tournaments per season which has about 15 matches). I just love playing the manager mode in FIFA 08. I have about 3000 points scored so far and my start rating is 3/5. Isn't that cool! OK, thats enough of boasting, lets get down to the facts about why I play it so much? Is the game actually fun and engaging the player for such a long time? Well the answer is definite yes! The game play mechanic is non stressful and offers so much in variety. I have never felt bored playing so much of football. Every match I play feels unique. My main motivation comes from the manager mode. I just love to be at the top and get to the 5 star rating. I have earned 3 star rating so far in my manager mode journey. To get to 5 starts I need to play at least 3 times more the time I have clocked so far in this game. So a very long time to go, but I'm determined!

How is the AI you think? Well it gives the player what I call variety and excitement. The AI is not that brilliant and it has its own share of issues but hey who cares. It still entertains me every time. I think the main excitement during the game play is its tendency to shift balance of game play smartly whenever it recognizes that I'm winning or losing. Also if a player hits a bad shot at the target, 8 out of 10 times it will hit the cross bar rather than hitting the crowd. This really gives the wow feeling when you mistime the shot.

So the time I reach the 5 star rating I shall announce again! Till then lets kick some ass to get to that rating! Common Chelsea! Move it!

2008-03-13T00:35:00.002+05:30

Hardware acceleration Vs Software rendering on mobile
At a recent show floor, the world got to see what hardware accelerated chipsets can do against CPU based software rendering counterparts. They showed off a simple example showing of the hardware accelerated N95 versus the software rendering on N81. It seems the FPS on N81 (s/w rendering) was 2 whereas on the N95 (h/w accelerated) it was 60! Look for yourself at the below video:

2008-03-08T18:04:00.002+05:30

Microsoft Excel's 3D Engine???
Thats right! I recently read a article on gamasutra that excel has a powerful 3d engine build within its software. It is capable of doing fast matrix calculations too! Read the full article at the below link:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3563/microsoft_excel_revolutionary_3d_.php

Look at the video below:

2008-03-03T23:26:00.002+05:30

Want Realtime Radiosity Lighting in your game?
The answer is Geomerics Enlighten technology. It is a lighting library which easily integrates with your game and gives the artist or the creative director the power of lighting for your game. It is one of the kind of lighting systems available for your game. Watch the amazing video demonstration below:

2008-03-03T23:08:00.002+05:30

APX 2500: Nvidia's latest offering for the mobile platform
Their newest offering for the mobile platform, the APX 2500 chipset. It boasts of a 720p output video streaming. The video demo shown of the platform. It also contains the "Siege" demo showing of its 3D capabilities. The same demo was used to show off their 4500 and 5500 chipsets. Watch the video demo below:

2008-03-03T22:24:00.002+05:30

Video tutorials for learning Opengl programming
I found a great site which has free video tutorials to learn Opengl programming. Check this site for these great tutorials.
Link: http://www.videotutorialsrock.com/index.php

2008-03-02T23:30:00.002+05:30

How would you like Starcraft for DS?

I would love to play Starcraft on the DS. Bu the real question is "Is Blizzard working on a DS port?". Well if not Blizzard the homebrew community has started working on this. I just saw a recent video showcasing footage from the game playable on the DS. Though I would love to see Blizzard making an official one for the DS, but hey I would not mind a homebrew one! Go on guys, make homebrew proud!

2008-02-25T23:59:00.002+05:30

Assasin's Creed Deja Vu Prince Of Persia?
Yes Indeed. You can easily be mistaken for Assasin's Creed to actually be Prince Of Persia. Perhaps more closer to the darker prince like the one in Warrior Within. The game play in this game makes you feel like you are in one of the the POP games. I have enjoyed playing the Prince of Persia series on the PS2 and I tell you this game on the DS is as much fun as the one on the PS2. Only for the name of the game which is actually Assasin's Creed. Sorry to be repeating myself so much about the similarity between the two games, but I really can't help it!
Anyways, the graphics quality of the game could have been better compared to the quality of the other games on the DS. But I liked the ambiance it created with the awesome sound effects. The sound in this game is really well adapted to the game play of this game.
There is no online play on this game. The game is a very short single player campaign game. It lasted for about 6 to 8 hours of game play time. Which is not all that bad compared to a handheld game. I did enjoy the puzzles in the game. But definately not the combat. The combat is so repetitive and boring. All you have to do is press X and Y repeatedly to win the battles. The combat is the biggest disappointment of this game. I really wished if they could do a better job with the combat for this game.
All in all a very dull and average package. It just looked as if they just had to release a Assasin's port onto the DS and hence they just ported a cheap imitation of a POP style game onto the DS. I really hoped for this game to be better but I feel sad it is just another victim of the famous launch date and milking the brand extension on a different platform.

2008-02-10T20:09:00.000+05:30

Now playing: Assasin's Creed (Nintendo DS)
I'm currently playing this wonderful game, a DS port of last years 360 game by Ubisoft. This game is made by the same team which gave you Brother's in Arms for the DS last year. The technology used in this game looks impressive. They have used the same engine which was used to render Brother's in Arms. I shall give my play experience after I finish this game. Till then watch the IGN's review (IGN rating: 7.0 out of 10) of this game below:

2008-02-04T21:48:00.000+05:30

Is playing an RPG game fun?

Well if you ask me a simple straight forward answer, it would be a definitive YES. So what makes a RPG game fun? Well to me the main element of an RPG game is its character building system. A lot of games allows the gamer to experience playing the role of the protagonist, but only a RPG game would allow you to build up the character step by step and living the growth. This is what makes the entire experience fun. Another very important aspect of a good RPG game is its story telling capability. It really gets you involved into the whole mood of the story which is being portrayed to immerse the player into the game's environment. No other game genre does it better than a RPG game. I've always enjoyed playing a lot of good RPG games and all the games did have both the character building system and a very strong storyline.

My recently last RPG game which I played was "Children Of Mana" for the Nintendo DS. I really loved the game! When I think back to wonder, what made the game fun, the first thing that comes to my mind would be building the different characters and spirits in the game. It was really a lot of fun to choose different spirits and team up to go on a journey together. The story was very simple yet exciting to live to story. The game received not very good reviews because of its very loose character building system, but I did feel the system was not bad either. I really enjoyed it.

I still remember my first RPG game, Final Fantasy for the PS2. What a game that was. It was my first shot at attempting to playing a rpg game. I really loved the complex character building system. Remember the sphere character building system the game had. man was it complex! The Final Fantasy series has always been known for its fantasy story telling. I guess that what made the series so enjoyable and it is still going strong.

A lot of gamers have taken up playing Online RPG's. So what is the fun element playing a online RPG game one might ask? Well in the online persistent world you get to meet a lot of different characters just like you who are part of this wonder full RPG world. Also the aspect of making groups and then going through the journey of the story of the game also makes it very interesting. The other main point would also be the unpredictable outcomes of an online RPG game. So many different characters can change the way the persistent world might behave. This itself fascinates me to play the game!

So give it a shot, play a good RPG game which suites your style of play. I'm sure there is something for everyone to experience in playing a RPG game.

2008-02-03T19:21:00.000+05:30

Is Software dying? Are web-based tools the new revolution?
Did you realize that we are using more and more web-based tools for all our daily needs of software dose? We are using messenger service for chatting, google's office tools which includes word and excel software, Apple's Itunes, and more!. Interestingly today's web browsers act like a complete Operating system. It provides all the facilities like graphics, sound capabilities, web based software, which in today's world which commands desktop software.

So if you ask yourself, are you ready to be totally online? Well the answer would not be a total yes. People have not taken to the online experience of doing work completely. Though the rate is increasing and a lot of people are working on online based tools, it is still far away than it the realty seems. It could still be a couple of years before the desktop would drown to its origin. To back this theory, according to NPD group, it seems the sales of Office 2007 was double than that of Office 2003. The success of Office 2007 can stand as a testimony to todays Microsoft's dominance in the desktop software space.

The big guys have taken notice to the users who prefer working online. Microsoft has never encouraged developing online versions of their office tools. Instead they have gone ahead and embraced the online experience via its "Live" service. The Live feature is incorporated in its Office tools to give benefits of working in the online space. Microsoft has also launched its Silverlight technology (vector based tool similar to adobe flash). Adobe has gone ahead and build online version of its software like "Premier". Though very limited, it still provides enough features for people to use it.

Even the mobile space is not left far behind. Though not comparable to the power of web browser tools, the mobile software still allows the users to blog, download videos and audio, edit office documents, skype, etc. When you compare the speed of a mobile and a desktop work station, both cannot be compared as the difference is pretty huge (comparing CPU speed and RAM capacity). The convergence of mobile and desktop will happen and it is only a matter of time when the average user will have just a single device for all the needs.

So is software dead? Well the desktop still has a couple of years to ring in its death knell, but it will just transform itself into a new avatar to take on the users expectations.

2008-02-03T15:03:00.000+05:30

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword (Nintendo DS)
This is one of the most awaited DS games for 2008. It is releasing in the month of March 08. The game is been developed by "Team Ninja" the same team which gave you the Ninja Gaiden series on the XBOX. Ninja Gaiden series is known for its fast slick action packed gameplay mechanism. Seeing glimses of the gameplay videos which I have seen, there is no doubt in my mind that this game is going to rock! Watch the gameplay in action in the video below:

2008-01-28T23:00:00.001+05:30

Manager mode Fifa...Here I come...
What a amazing mode!! I'm thoroughly enjoying playing the manager mode on Fifa 08 for the DS. I'm ranked 6th (well fell to 8th today :( ) in the local rankings. What keeps me going in this mode is the complete "Prestige" points system. It is so well done. They reward you for everything you do in the game. Be it hitting the goal post, coming back from the back to winning the game, winning continuous 3 games in a row, doing counter-attack well, etc. Just think of a reward and they throw it at you. Thats what keeps me going. All these prestige points allows you to increase the rank of your club. There are 5 stars which you can earn, you start with 0 stars. You need to earn 100 prestige points to earn 1 star. So it really pushes you to play well and play the entire season a couple of times to get your ranking start up. I still haven't finished one season and I still have to earn 50 more points to get my first star. I'm really enjoying clocking a lot of my time playing this mode. I do hope to win the season by finishing at least in the top 5. Time will tell!

2008-01-20T02:34:00.000+05:30

Rag Doll Physics

Ever wondered what are the various types of implementation methods for Rag Doll physics. Have a look at the below video demonstration!

To know more about Rag Doll techniques, read the wiki article below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragdoll_physics

2008-01-20T00:25:00.000+05:30

PES 2008 (Nintendo DS)

Just checked out some info on the upcoming PES (for all those noobs, PES means Pro Evolution Soccer :0 )game for the DS. I was very disappointed with the earlier version of the PES DS game. I hope the latest version makes up for all the short comings of the earlier versions. I'm really enjoying player EA's FIFA 2008 on my DS. It would really take up some work to shake me up to leave FIFA and play PES on my DS. Will review the PES game as soon as I get my hands on it. Till then watch the gameplay footage of PES 2008 for the DS below:

2008-01-16T22:23:00.000+05:30

MMORPG on Nintendo DS?

Surprised? Not really. I always thought the Nintendo DS could be a perfect platform to embrace MMOG (Massively Online Multiplayer Games). It can wirelesly connect to the internet and voila! you can be gaming in a MMOG persistent world! The PC is the only platform which has successfully embraced the MMOG culture. Others are trying to get into the act. Mobiles have already started to get into this space, and so have the consoles. So why not the DS? It has taken the DS platform 4 long years to get its first MMORPG game. The game is an adaptation of the popular free PC 2D MMORPG game called "Maple Story".

Well still old news, this was announced in E3 2006. The game is been developed by a Korean company and will be released in September 2008. Can't wait to play this game! Considering the official DS Lite launch in Korea is going to happen on the 18th of Jan 08, this game is going to shake up the Korean gaming space. Koreans have already made this game a big hit on the PC. This game is supposed to have a very huge subscriber base.

In a recent interview, Stephen Lee (CEO of Nexen, publisher for the game on DS) said that the game will not be a MMORPG game. It is more focused on a single player campaign with a local multiplayer focus. The game will have though a multiplayer component but the details of those were not discussed. Speculation is that the game could extend itself into the online space to allow complete persistent world capabilities.

Also it seems Ragnorok, another popular MMORPG game, is releasing around the same time as Maple Story. So it is going to be exciting to play both these games considering the rich multiplayer history behind these games.

So when can we expect this game to release outside Korea? Well the Korean developer has said that it has plans to release this game outside Korea, but there are no definite dates against these claims. So we'll have to wait and watch.

2008-01-10T23:17:00.001+05:30

Fifa 08 (Nintendo DS)

By far the best football game on the DS. I've played Pro Evo on the DS and I must say it is a very big dissapointment. This latest game from EA comes loaded with online multiplayer! Now how cool is that! I play regularly online with my DS and this game definately is going to keep me engaged for a long time. The latency is very minimal(almost negligible) and I must say the experience is very good. If you are a football fan out there, go play Fifa 08 online on the DS immediately!

This game though suffers from graphics polishing. They could have pushed the technology a little bit more considering what other games on the DS are able to pull off. But I must say the gameplay makes up for all of this. The gameplay is very good which makes the game even more interesting when played online. The controls ia very simple (no touch screen controls for movement though :( ). But hey I'm enjoying playing this game using the D-pad. The replay mode is very cool. It packs in all the functionality of its console counterparts. I could see my goal hitting skills from any direction in the replay mode.

The camera is also set very nicely which covers almost 40% of the ground at any point of time which is very good. This aspect is very important in a football game as you need to know where your other players are on the field.
The sound is a special mention as they have packed in quite a bit of commentary in this game. Also the sountracks are very cool. The ball hitting effects are very well done too.

The penalty shoot-outs are my favorite as all the controls are on the touchscreen. I was playing this game online where I went into penalty shoot-outs and I must say that because of the the touch screen controls I could save the game! This implementation of the penalty shoot-outs is the best ever for any football game. The controls makes it very intuitive.

A special mention should go to the AI. The AI in this game is very good. I started this game with very low expectations, but this game has proved me wrong. With great AI and online multiplayer, this game is a must play for all footbal crazy fans.

Watch video below:

2008-01-09T15:51:00.000+05:30

Dementium: The Ward (Nintendo DS)

This game is easily one of the sharpest and best looking game on the DS. The others who can join this list would be Metroid Prime Hunters and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. All these games on the DS are stunning!

The graphics power behind these games are awesome. Dementium won IGN's "Best Graphics Technology" award for the DS platform. That clearly states what kind of game this is. The flashlight rendering in this game is amazing and is one of the best tricks one could pull out on the DS.

I have also played other games like Brother's in arms and Call of Duty for the DS, but they do not seem to push the technology like the way this game does. The closest competitor to this game would be Metroid Prime. But do remember the team behind Metroid Prime, Nintendo Technology Group, a internal developer for Nintendo. Hats of to the team behind Dementium for pulling such a graphically stunning looking game on the DS. It is easily my technology favorite for the DS.

Watch video below:

2007-11-11T22:22:00.001+05:30

Metroid Prime Hunters (Nintendo DS)

Metroid Prime Hunters is clearly the best game which uses the most out of the DS hardware. The game is so fast and rendered up to the maximum the hardware can take. I wonder what techniques these guys have used to pump up so many cool features of this game. The rendering details in this game is just stunning. Each area of the levels are so detailed that my jaws just drop by watching them. The little details in rendering for each levels, characters, etc in this game is so well done. The sounds especially deserves a full 10 on 10 rating. I just get so much into the game with the sound effects and bg soundtrack. I never thought that sound effects could sound so great on the DS. But yes I do keep my headset on while playing any game on the DS.

One special mention is the WiFi Multiplayer Deathmatch mode in this game. I play everyday over the internet to enjoy the multiplayer experience. It just does not stop entertaining me everyday. At any point of time, on any day, anywhere between 20000 and 30000 players play this game online. This just shows how exciting the multiplayer experience will be over the internet on the DS. The only other game that I play a lot over the internet on my DS is Mario Kart. Mario Kart also clocks similar figures. It is very interesting that so many people play multiplayer over the internet on their DS. This game rocks on the mutiplayer mode. Be sure to check out the Youtube videos link on the top of this page.

Be sure to check out the below links to know more about this game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid_Prime_Hunters

Watch video below:

2007-11-11T14:54:00.000+05:30

New Super Mario Bros.(Nintendo DS)

This game is my first Mario game! Yes, I wonder what took me so long to play Mario! In the earlier days I used to play the converted PC version of the game. Though Nintendo would never make games for the PC, the old classic Mario game was converted by hobbiest world wide to various platforms. That is how great the Mario franchise is. He has many games to his credit , thanks to Nintendo to making him so big. He enjoyes his games on all of Nintendo's platforms. This game for the DS is easily the best old school platform game for the DS. When I first bought the DS, I decided that this would be the first game I would play on it. I really enjoyed every bit of it. It is so bright and colourfull. The platforming element is really thrilling. I remember playing the Jak and Daxter series on the PS2, which was my first stint with platforming games. Man it was tough! Then I went on to play the Ratchet and Clank series on the PS2 which was a very easy and casual platforming game on the PS2. New Super Mario Bros is easily the best platforming game I have played on the DS so far. I just love the way the gameplay is set in this game.

The level design in this game is so well set. Even the more complicated multi-level levels aren't confusing at all. They very well guide the player to go from start to finish.

The music score for this game is easily one of the most memorable melodies I can remember. The suspense and action behind each momement of gameplay for this game has the highest level of music quality. I always play my DS games with my headset (the speakers are crap).

The entire game is set in this 3D landscape. It uses the 3D elements very well. Though the game is completely 2D based gameplay, the 3D elements are very well merged to give that cool effect.

The boss fights of this game are so simple yet enjoyable. Each boss is killed within 3 moves of attack. There is nothing special about the boss fights in this game. But some of the enemies are so well placed on the platforms that they look more threatening than the bosses itself.

Lastly, the game is very enjoyable and packs in many hours of gameplay (I've spent more than 30 hours on this game). The game is long and packs in many memorable moments. I've thoroughly enjoyed playing this game.

Some links about this game:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Super_Mario_Bros.

Watch video below:

2007-11-11T14:03:00.000+05:30

Children of Mana (Nintendo DS)

Children of Mana (for Nintendo DS) is easily one of the most enjoyable RPG game I've played after a long time. The last rpg game that I had played was Suikoden 5 for PS2. Children of Mana is a very simple rpg game with very limited rpg features. It has a very basic set of weaponary and character upgradation system. This is easily a very pick-up and play kind of rpg game. Though it was criticised for this very easy aand not very in-depth rpg element gameplay, but I really enjoyed the game. I think the DS is made to enjoy a very casual and easy pick-em-up and play kind of games. Especially RPG games can be very engrossing and might require a lot of attension and dedication to play through the entire game. Children of Mana easily accomplishes this by having the correct balance of rpg elements and casual appeal.

Some links about this game:
http://www.seikens.com/children-of-mana.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Mana

2007-11-09T11:20:00.000+05:30

Nintendo DS programming

I got my DS a couple of months back. It is a cool looking black DS. The first thing I did with the DS was to try my hands on programming on the DS. Programming on the DS is very simple not like other handhelds like the PSP. There is a huge community support out there on the internet to help you get started with DS programming. Devkitpro is a free homebrew sdk provided by the community to start programming on the DS. Once you install this SDK, the environment on your machine is set to compile and execute programs directly onto the DS. You could download the DevkitPro SDK here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=114505&package_id=160396

Please download the latest version of the SDK. The installation process is very simple and it will guide you through the entire process. Once this SDK is setup, you could browse through the SDK examples on nds programming. There are tons of tutorials to choose from starting from 2D graphics programming, 3D programming, sound programming on the DS, etc. You will have access to all tutorials to start writing your first game on the DS.

But hold on! When you compile the program on your PC, a single file output is created with a .nds extension. What to do with this file? Well in order to run this on the DS, you will need to first buy a R4 memory card which can be used as a regular DS cartridge.

So where can I buy this R4 memory card? Well you will have to purchase this online and get it shipped to you. One of the places where you can buy this from is http://www.gadget-asia.com/. The best deal on this website is the R4 card with a 1GB micro SD card. Also it comes with free shipping to India!

Below is the direct link to buy this:

http://www.gadget-asia.com/index.php/Nintendo-DS/Accessories/Nintendo-DS-Lite/System-Enhancement/R4/129-R4-Revolution-+-1GB-Micro-SD/Detailed-product-flyer.html

Once you have this memory card you should be able to transfer your programs onto the DS and check out the output. DevkitPro allows you to fully access the hardware of the DS. So this is the closest a homebrew programmer will get towards programming on a real console. I have programmed on the PS2 Linux kit provided by Sony but it is a real pain in the ass to program on that kit as very little support or documentation is available to program on the PS2. Though I managed to write some code on it but it is not worth the effort. I strongly recommend programming on the NDS as it is the closest you will get to real programming on the console. Of course you do have XBOX 360 programming by using XNA, I still have to try it out!

So go ahead and get you hands dirty on the NDS!

2007-07-21T13:47:00.000+05:30

The technology behind MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games)

I'm very excited with the MMOG scene that is happening around the world. The technology behind this fascinating experience is just mind blowing. Just imagine millions of people connected through hundreds of servers and playing in a persistant world. Isn't it fascinating to think what kind of technology must be behind such a system? Well some may say such technologies have been existing since a very long time when hundred of computers were connected to each other and the crazy world of "downloading" used to happen. About a decade ago, before a similar situation existed with hundreds and thousands of internet users connected to each other and shared their files on the net. Well the technology might not be the same as an MMOG but I'm sure the experience would have been similar. The fascination of connecting and sharing information with hundreds and thousands of internet junkies just makes the entire social experience exciting.

Figure: a in-game shot from World of Warcraft, a popular MMOG game.

Well now the famous question....how do I start writing the system behind a MMOG game? Well the answer is complex as an MMOG game involves both writing a game as well as the networking system behind this game. So I would broadly classify writing 2 systems for an MMOG game.

Firstly the networking system which would drive the technology behind the game, and
Secondly the game itself which would offer that unique MMOG experience.

I'm more interested in exploring the technology behind the MMOG networking component. Before you start writing any components for an MMOG system, you would have to be familiar with basic networking concepts like client, servers, TCP/IP, sockets, etc. I would suggest you starting with reading about Winsock 2.0 which basically helps you with creating sockets and networking different computers and setting up a client-server architecture. Instead of going through books, I would suggest first reading trough the below article on Winsock programming. It is fairly simple to understand and I hope you would find it easy too just the way I did it.

WinSock2 for Games by Stefan Hajnoczi

Link: http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1059.asp

Once you are clear with the concepts of Winsock, you can then explore the architecture behind some famous MMOG engines like BigWorld, Multiverse, etc. I shall be writing some more theory behind these architectures a little later. Till then expore the world of MMOG!

2007-06-17T22:01:00.000+05:30

Just finished playing: God of War 2
what a game!! i thouroughly enjoyed playing this game. I was waiting for this game ever since it was announced last year after the release of god of war 1. But the ending has left me wanting for more. God of War 3 will hit the next gen systems next year and I do hope they bring it to the PS2 too. Cmon Sony, there are more than 100 million PS2 out there...do not dissappoint the fans of this system...get it on the PS2 too....

My favorite boss fight of this game was the lakhesis boss fight with the sisters of fate. A good lenghty boss fight. Not that it was tough, I just loved the constant tension this boss fight maintained. This would easily be one of my best boss fight for a long long time. This even beats my previous best boss fight in Shadow of Collossus (anyone remembers the dog boss).

I must say the story of God of War 2 was very good and always kept me going to know how the story unravels itself. God of War 2 is easily one of my best games I have played this year.

2007-04-29T21:51:00.000+05:30

Software Rendering
In the good old days where to render a pixel on the screen one did not have to use a graphics card but rather only a CPU. 3D graphics rendering was born on the screen using Software Rendering, a term associated with rendering pixels on the screen using only the CPU for its processing power. Popular 3D engines like Duke Nukem 3D, DOOM, Quake, Half Like, etc used this technique of rendering. It is every graphics programmer dream to build one and to understand the complexities behind building such a system. A good place to start would be http://www.devmaster.net/articles/s...ering/part1.php

To know more about software rendering check out wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_rendering

Some technology behind some popular games:

Dukem Nukem 3D

Duke Nukem 3D's graphic engine was an evolutionary step forward from the Doom engine. While the levels were still defined as 2D maps, the capabilities of Ken Silverman's Build engine allowed more complex levels than Doom and Dark Forces. Most notably, the game supports diagonal slopes in the floors, which was not possible with the entirely "top-down" level design of other contemporary shooters. It also supports mouse aiming (though aiming up and down distorts the graphics due to a lack of perspective correction), which would become the norm for many future FPS's. Since Duke Nukem 3D was still not a fully 3D engine, it was considered to be a 2.5D game. Although the era of true 3D games had begun with Descent in 1995, it would not be until Quake was released later in 1996 that a true 3D engine would be used for an FPS.

DOOM

Doom's primary distinguishing feature at the time of its release was its realistic 3D graphics, then unparalleled by other real-time-rendered games running on consumer-level hardware. The advance from id Software's previous game Wolfenstein 3D was enabled by several new features in the Doom engine:

1. Height differences (all rooms in Wolfenstein 3D have the same height);
2. Non-perpendicular walls (all walls in Wolfenstein 3D run along a rectangular grid);
Swaying of the weapon (in Wolfenstein 3D the arms stay fixed in front in the screen no matter what the character does), this gives the impression of fluidity while walking or running;
3. Full texture mapping of all surfaces (in Wolfenstein 3D, floors and ceilings are not texture mapped);
4. Varying light levels (all areas in Wolfenstein 3D are fully lit at the same brightness). While contributing to the game's visual authenticity by allowing effects such as highlights and shadows, this perhaps most importantly added to the game's atmosphere and even gameplay; the use of darkness as a means of frightening or confusing the player was an unseen element in games.
In contrast to the static levels of Wolfenstein 3D, those in Doom are highly interactive: platforms can lower and rise, floors can rise sequentially to form staircases, and bridges can rise and descend. The life-like feeling of the environment was enhanced further by the stereo sound system, which made it possible to roughly tell the direction and distance of a sound's origin. The player is kept on guard by the grunts and growls of monsters, and receives occasional clues to finding secret areas in the form of sounds of hidden doors opening remotely. Monsters can also become aware of the player's presence by hearing distant gunshots.
Carmack had to make use of several tricks for these features to run smoothly on home computers of 1993. Most significantly, Doom levels are not truly three-dimensional; they are internally represented on a plane, with height differences added separately (a similar trick is still used by many games to create huge outdoor environments). This leads to several limitations: it is, for example, not possible for a Doom level to have one room over another. This two-dimensional representation does, however, have the benefit that rendering can be done very quickly, using a binary space partitioning method. Another benefit was the clarity of the automap because it could be displayed with 2D vectors without the risk of overlapping.
Another important feature of the Doom engine is a modular approach that allows the game content to be replaced by loading custom WAD files. Wolfenstein 3D was not designed to be expandable, but fans had nevertheless figured out how to create their own levels for it, and Doom was designed to take the phenomenon further. The ability to create custom scenarios contributed significantly to the game's popularity (see the section on WADs below).

Wolfenstein 3D

To render the walls in pseudo-3D, the game used ray casting, a special case of ray tracing. This technique sent out one ray for each column of pixels, checked if it intersected a wall, and drew textures on the screen accordingly, creating a one dimensional depth buffer against which to clip the scaled sprites that represented enemies, powerups, and props.
Before Wolfenstein 3D, the technology had already been used by id Software in 1991 to create Hovertank 3D and Catacomb 3D for Softdisk, albeit using only EGA 16-color graphics (which the game was designed to use, early in development). Other games using the Wolfenstein 3D game engine or developments of it were also produced, including, Blake Stone, Corridor 7, Operation Body Count, Super Noah's Ark 3D, Rise of the Triad, Shadowcaster, and Hellraiser.
According to id Software programmer John Carmack, the game's engine was inspired by a technology demo of Looking Glass Studios'/Origin's first-person CRPG, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss from 1991. Carmack claimed he could make a faster renderer. In this he was successful. The Wolfenstein engine lacks many features present in the Underworld engine, such as height changes, sloped floors and lighting, but it runs well on relatively weak hardware.
"Holo-walls" are walls created by mapmakers using a glitch in the PC version's engine. They are walls that the player can walk through, and are used in some total conversions to simulate windows that players can climb through, and hedges that players can walk through. One way of creating holo-walls is to place a dead guard in a wall.

Descent

The original Descent runs under DOS and is (with some tweaking) playable on 386-based PCs at 33 MHz. With the release of the Pentium, the performance requirements were no longer an issue. Descent was ported to Apple's Power Macintosh in 1996 and both versions support multiplayer network play over a variety of protocols. A console port of Descent was created for the Sony PlayStation.

Rendering
Descent was released in 1995, one year after id Software's Doom. As was typical with those releases, Descent uses a software renderer due to the fact that affordable 3D graphics accelerator cards (referred to as add-on videocards) were not mainstream as yet. While Doom uses sprites to render enemies, Descent features fully-3D-polygonal enemies. Quake followed in the footsteps of Descent by displaying its enemies in 3D. Unlike Doom and its successor Quake, Descent does not use BSP trees to speed up rendering, but a system of connected cubes forming bigger rooms and tunnels connecting them. This geometry allowed for very efficient visibility culling, and one of the first true three dimensional rendering environments of its time. On lower-end systems, detail levels could be reduced to cut out some of the smaller polygons on robots and render solid color blocks on distant textures instead of mapping the entire texture.
The original Descent uses indexed 8-bit color in DOS's display mode 13h, using 320 × 200 resolution. Unlike its sequel, it uses only one 256-color set during gameplay, rather than a unique set for each level set; these colors tinge red during damage and purple during fusion charging. The Macintosh and later PC versions allow higher resolutions, such as 640 × 480. The default engine uses a software renderer in which the perspective transformation for texture mapping is only performed once every 32 pixels, causing textures to appear to pop or shift when viewed from certain angles. The software renderer also uses nearest-neighbor texture filtering, as opposed to bilinear filtering or trilinear filtering used by modern video cards. Nearest-neighbor texture filtering causes aliasing artifacts, such as blocky or swimming textures.
The engine for Descent is a portal rendering engine, operating on the premise of interconnected cube-shaped sectors. Sides of cubes can be attached to other cubes, or display up to two texture maps. Cubes can be deformed so long as they remain convex. To create effects like doors and see-through grating, walls could be placed at the connected sides of two cubes. Descent introduced an elaborate static lighting scheme as well as simple dynamic lighting, where the environment could be lit with flares - another advancement compared to Doom.

Audio
The game uses 8-bit, 11 kHz sound effects, including some vocals. On slower computers, the sound settings could be reduced to allow only one door sound, only one laser sound, only a few enemy sounds, and other simplifications. (It also would make only one sound play per frame, which would potentially slow down things more than it could help them.) The PC version's soundtrack is a MIDI score, but the Macintosh and Playstation versions use a Redbook audio soundtrack.

Quake

Main article: Quake engine
Quake popularized several major advances in the 3D game genre: it uses 3-dimensional models for players and monsters instead of 2-dimensional sprites; and the world in which play takes place is created as a true 3-dimensional space, rather than a 2-dimensional map with height information which is then rendered to 3D. Previous 3D games such as Duke Nukem 3D, Doom and Wolfenstein 3D (sometimes called 2.5D games) used a restricted-view mathematical trick when rendering their 3-dimensional view. This allowed a true 3D view, but only when looking straight-ahead (you can tell the difference by tilting up and down in those games, which is really just a distortion trick of the straight-ahead view rather than a true rotated rendering.)
Quake also incorporated the use of lightmaps and 3D light sources, as opposed to the sector-based static lighting used in games of the past. id Software's innovation has been used for many 3D games released since, particularly first-person shooters, though id Software switched to a Unified lighting and shadowing model for Doom 3.
Quake by default used the keyboard to turn left and right and move forward and backward, using the mouse, like Doom, to do the same movements. This produced awkward movements, and required settings like "auto-level" that would move the viewpoint back to straight forward as you moved and "auto vertical aim" that would automatically shoot things above and below you. Probably because of this the level design in Quake was more suited to the 2.5D environment of Doom. Only in a few spots in the game was the monster that was shooting you above or below you. Quake did have the option of using the mouse to look/aim/orient ("mouselook") and the keyboard to move forward, backward and sideways, but it was not the default until Quake III was released. However, nearly all skilled players in single-player and deathmatch alike utilized the mouselook option, which granted a greater degree of control, allowing for a variable turn rate. In fact, it was common for the more advanced players to openly mock beginners for not using the mouselook option, and the mouse and keyboard combination has since become a de facto standard in many PC shooters.
Quake was also one of the first games to support 3d hardware acceleration. While initially released with only software rendering, John Carmack created a version of the Quake executable that took advantage of Rendition's Vérité 1000 graphics chip (see VQuake below). OpenGL support was soon added in the form of the GLQuake executable for Windows 95 and higher. Many believe that this kick-started the independent 3D graphics card revolution, "GLQuake" being the first application to truly demonstrate the capabilities of the 3dfx "Voodoo" chipset at the time. The only two other cards capable of rendering GLQuake were a professional (very expensive) Integraph 3D OpenGL card, and, later, the PowerVR cards.

Unreal

Unreal is known for boosting the expectations of 3D graphics considerably. Compared to its peers in the genre, such as Quake II, Unreal brought to life not only highly-detailed indoor environments, but also easily the most impressive outdoor landscapes ever seen.[1] This graphical splendor brought with it the side effect of requiring powerful hardware to run the game fast enough to enjoy. The minimum requirements stated that a Pentium 166 MHz with a mere 16 MB RAM and no 3D accelerator would be capable of running the game. This was not realistic, however, and many gamers were very disappointed when they tried to play the game with such a system.[2]

The Unreal engine brought a host of graphical improvements, including colored lighting. Although Unreal is not the first major release with colored lighting (see Quake II), it is the first to have a software renderer as feature rich as the hardware renderers of the time, including colored lighting and even a limited form of texture filtering referred to by programmer Tim Sweeney as an ordered "texture coordinate space" dither.[3] Early pre-release versions of Unreal were based entirely around software rendering. SIMD technology is integral to allowing the software audio and 3D graphics engines to perform as well as they do. Unreal uses several SIMD technologies, including AMD's 3DNow! along with Intel's MMX and SSE (known as "KNI" within Unreal).

Unreal was one of the first games to utilize detail texturing. This type of multiple texturing enhances the surfaces of objects with a second texture that shows material detail. When the player stands within a small distance from most surfaces, the detail texture will fade in and make the surface appear much more complex (high-resolution) instead of becoming increasingly blurry.[4] Notable surfaces with these special detail textures included computer monitors and pitted metal surfaces aboard the prison ship, and golden metal doors and stone surfaces within Nali temples. This extra texture layer was not applied to character models. The resulting simulation of material detail on game objects was intended to aid the player's suspension of disbelief. For many years after Unreal's release (and Unreal Tournament's release), detail texturing only worked well with the Glide renderer. It was, in fact, disabled in the Direct3D renderer by default (but could be re-enabled in the Unreal.ini file) due to performance and quality issues caused by the driver and present even on hardware many times more powerful than the original 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics.
Because of Unreal's long development time, the course of development occurred during the emergence and rapid progression of hardware 3D accelerators. So, along with the advanced software 3D renderer, Unreal was built to take advantage of the 3Dfx Glide API, which emerged as the dominant interface towards the end of the game's development. When Unreal was finally released, Microsoft's Direct3D API was growing almost exponentially in popularity and Epic was fairly quick to develop a renderer for their game engine. However, the Direct3D renderer, released initially to support the new Matrox G200, was less capable and slower than the Glide support, especially in the beginning when it was unstable, slow, and had many graphics quality issues.[5] The Glide renderer's superiority can be seen in a review of the 3dfx Voodoo 5, where it outperformed every other card in Unreal Tournament (same engine as Unreal), due to its native Glide support. Even video cards which consistently defeated the Voodoo 5 5500 in other games could not win against Glide's greater efficiency.[6] Unreal also had limited official OpenGL support, but its compatibility was very limited, due to poor OpenGL client drivers from most hardware vendors at the time and Epic's resulting disinterest in furthering development. OpenGL could perform better in some rare situations, but Glide and Direct3D were usually the APIs of choice.
Later in 2004 and onward, OpenGL drivers developed by independent programmers and offered for free online began to supersede the official drivers for speed and quality. Perhaps the best of these releases was Chris Donhal's enhanced OpenGL renderer for Unreal Tournament, available for Unreal at OldUnreal.Com, which enabled native support for anti-aliasing, advanced multi-texturing including single-pass detail texturing, and hardware T&L, amongst a selection of other advanced and experimental features.

2006-12-26T22:33:00.000+05:30

Pirated PC Games: would you continue to buy them?
The question suggests a very strong sentiment in my mind: would I buy a PC pirated game? Well lets compare the cost of an original PC title compared to a pirated PC title:

1. Original PC game : Rs 1000 (approx)
2. Pirated PC game : Rs 100 to Rs 500

Any would would then draw a conclusion saying that pirated PC games rocks! But hey wait......if someone tells you that you would get more than 100 original branded games like Hitman, Tomb Raider, Age of Empires, Colin McRae, etc for under Rs 300...you would say what the f.....how is this possible???

Yes this is possible if one would subscribe to the popular Games On Demand service which is hugely popular around the world. This is brought exclusively in India by Indiagames Ltd. You have to just pay a monthly sum of Rs 300 and you would get to choose to download more than 300 PC titles!! and what more the number of games continue to increase month by month.

See it for yourself. Log onto http://god.indiagames.com/premium/index.jsp to know more about this service.

2006-10-27T23:50:00.000+05:30

GDC Radio - www.gdcradio.net

This service allows people to access various podcasts of differen events which also inlcude the official Game Developer's Conference (GDC) podcasts. I'm currently listening to "Big Name Franchises Go Mobile", "Burning down the house - game developer's rant", "How AI enables designers", and much more. All the podcasts are in mp3 format. I actually listen to this podcasts when I'm driving! Some entertainment huh?? But its fun!

2006-10-27T23:45:00.000+05:30

Games On Demand (GOD)

I'm currently playing on MTNL's Games On Demand service powered by Indiagames Ltd. I really love this service as one has to pay only Rs 300 for all original games! I'm currently playing a daily count of 2 hours after work. It really is putting my PS2 to rest.
Here is the link to the official site:
http://games.mtnlmumbai.in/premium/index.jsp

So join and enjoy the gaming service!

2006-10-27T23:33:00.000+05:30

A Little about Starcraft

Starcraft is the first strategy game which started the different race mechanisms. What this meant is that different players can play their multiplayer game *oosing different races and achieve completely different game styles but still maintain game balance. This became so popular that it created a rage in the field of strategy gaming and thus started the race syndrome. Now every strategy game after this started to adopt this same strategy. Examples would include Warcraft and its MMORPG World of Warcraft, Total Annihilation and its now future crazy RTS Supreme Commander.

The races in Starcraft include 3 kinds:

1. Terran

Strengths:
Mobility, great defense, build anywhere, cloaking, versatility, Marines, strong through whole tech-tree, easy to learn, instant cloak detection, ability to repair buildings and most units. Weaknesses:
Tendency to "turtle", need lots of space, require active scouting, require micromanagement for special abilities, vulnerable to Dark Swarm, buildings burn up when highly damaged.

2. Protoss

In stark contrast to the adaptive Terrans and feral Zerg are the stolid, conservative Protoss. With their highly advanced technology and potent psionic abilities, the Protoss have long considered themselves the most powerful species in the known galaxy. Although they are not a prolific people, they have learned to bolster the ranks of their military with robotic war machines and to combine their intrinsic psionic ability with technology, thus producing some of the most effective warriors ever known. If the Protoss have a weakness, though, it is their refusal to accept change. The tenets of their major religion, known as the Khala, form a rigid path and the Protoss are loathe to deviate from it for fear of once again falling into civil strife.

3. Zerg

The Zerg are composed of several different types of creatures that have been integrated into the Swarm by the Overmind. These creatures, or breeds, have been selectively evolved to become efficient killers and to assist the Zerg in their quest for ultimate power. The Zerg do not utilize technology in the common sense, but their natural weaponry and armor is comparable to the most advanced gadgetry employed by any other species. This biological evolution, combined with an unmatched savagery and their blind devotion to the Overmind, make the Zerg an extremely formidable and deadly foe.

2006-08-18T00:41:00.000+05:30

Finished playing: BLACK(PS2)

BLACK on the PS2 got a 7.5 rating on gamespot. I really agree to this rating, probably would have also given it the same (or less). The AI in this game sucks! I mean really sucks! People just pop up from behind you, they suddenly appear from the rooms which you have just cleared. They appear right in front of you like magic and then they hold a shot gun and then they blow you up. I think they should have really worked on the AI in this generation of gaming, especially from the developers of BurnOut (Criterion Games, RenderWare engine). I was really dissappointed from the AI. But the graphics looked amazing. The shading on the gun was very good. I also felt the level design of some of the levels (especially the last one) was very bad. The finale was just about killing more people coming out of the same spot. They were just ants coming out from an anthill! But anyways enjoyed killing a lot of people.

2006-07-29T00:01:00.000+05:30

2006-07-08T19:02:00.000+05:30

Currently Playing: StarCraft by Blizzard
I'm a huge fan of Blizzard games. I first started playing their games with Warcraft - Reign of Chaos. It was an amazing games of its genre. Currently I decided to play one of their old games, Starcraft. It immediately caught my attention on its gameplay. There is nothing much new to today's games available in this genre, but what I liked about this game is its story-telling. They continued the same appraoch with their Warcraft series. I just loved the gameplay mechanics in this game. It is very addictive and I'm playing is for atleasr an hour daily! (well getting an houd daily to play games is tough!).

2006-06-16T15:09:00.000+05:30

XBOX 360 in India
I was at IMAX Wadala the other day to watch a movie and guess what did I see, a fully loaded XBOX 360 booth showing all their latest games! It was so exciting to see their presence in India. Also this is the first time in India that a major console release is going to happen simultaneously with its world wide launch. PlayStation was in India a couple of years back but it missed the push required by the company, Sony. Microsoft has taken this into notice and have launched a good campaign to woo gamers into buying their next gen console. Its price tag is steep, retailing with 2 price variants, Rs. 19000 and Rs 25000. The higher version comes with a hard disc. I would personally recommed the higher version as it can be used to store music, download cool content from their XBOX Live service. They recently allowed their XBOX Live subscibers (which is FREE) to view the videos which were released at E3 this year. Thats so cool! I remember catching all the action of E3 on my PC by downloading all the videos from GameSpot. But imaging if I had a X360, it would be just press the button, and I could look at all the videos at one shot!

The sad part with the next gen consoles is that it is best viewed with a HD compatible TV (LCD or Plasma). The cheapest LCD TV retails at over Rs 45000 in India (by SamSung). Without this TV it would just look as an ordinary game console!

I'm waiting for the prices of the LCD TV to fall down. Once this happens I shall buy both the X360 and the LCD TV!

2006-06-16T15:01:00.000+05:30

I'm ranked ELITE in BurnOut Revenge!
I've finished more than 70% of my best racing game, BurnOut Revenge. With this accomplishment, I've been ranked as ELITE in the racing rankings! This game has got the best level designs I've seen in a racing game till date. The levels are so beatifully used and are modular in design that every new level looks unique! They just mix n match the level's modular components and voila! they get a new level! Also the crash mode in this game is so much fun! I've never had so much fun with crash mode with the previous BurnOut game. The environments used in this game are so stunning! The quality of design and the number of polygons used in this game sets a new standard in a racing game (PS2). The other day I was watching PGR on X360. It looked amazing. I just thought how BurnOut would look on this console!

Anyways I've enjoyed playing the BurnOut series so far and I can't wait for more from this team. Great going guys!

2006-05-21T23:56:00.000+05:30

The Making of Shdow of Colossus

Shaodw of Colossus is one of the best game that I've played. It is also from one of my favorite designers Fumito Ueda. What I like about his team is that they create a game out of the concept that Fumito visualizes and the team never compromises on the outcome. Obviously they have the backing of Sony which probably very few companies can have. But the team really gave out a product which was talked about in every aspect of the game, be it animation, gameplay, sound, visuals..

Sony released the making of this game to the gaming audience. Here is the technical link to this article:

The making of Shadow of Colossus

This technical presentation was also discussed at this year's GDC at San Jose. A very good and detailed presentation about the making of the game. Do enjoy it as much as I did. I learned a lot from this presentation.

2006-05-07T18:28:00.000+05:30

What am I playing today?

May 6th 2006

Shadow of Colossus (Ps2)
BurnOut Revenge (Ps2)

Shadow of Colossus is from one of my favorite game designers Fumito Ueda. I just love the game he designs. I become a instant fan of his games when I started to play the cult game ICO. ICO got me hooked to his games. Shadow being his second game is heavily immersing. When I had visited GDC in March 2006 I had attended the session titled " Emotional Character Control" which was based on this game. The amount of technology that has gone into this game is phenominal. This is especially true after 5 years of PS2 existence. This clearly put game programming on its next leap on the PS2.

BurnOut has always been my best racing game. I started playing racing games with NFS, went onto play NFS Underground. But nothing beats BurnOut. I have played all of the BurnOut series. But the version which blew me off was BurnOut Takedown. Then later came BurnOut Revenge. This game has betered its previous game by adding more to the level designs and all the crash modes (Crashbreaker mode!!!). I'm a really great fan of this series and the music of this game is also amazing.