I want to announce that I am looking for a web designer to develop me a site that can contain my blog (with custom design hopefully) and space to display portfolios of different types, including downloads, images, video and writing.

You can contact me at admin@kapzer.com if you’re interested.

Thanks,

Kapzer

In short, E3 was a bit of a disappointment.  Most of the things that came out of it were already known or leaked beforehand, including Nintendo’s new console.  Therefore, it is indeed acceptable for one to feel a little “jipped” when trying to sum up the events of E3.  On the other hand, this year was full of gameplay demos showing everyone not just little teasers of what is to come, but giving some real demonstration as to what they will be playing.  This includes relatively long gameplay clips of titans such as Battlefield 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  Alongside that, we saw some more Gears of War 3 gameplay, quite a lot of demos from games coming to PS Vita, and some big-publisher titles like EA’s Need for Speed: The Run, and Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

The big highlight of the show was the Wii U, Nintendo’s response to demands from the gamers.  The console sports technical specifications that live up to the current generation, and backwards compatibility for the majority of peripherals and software from the original Wii.  That means you’ll be able to use your motion controllers with the new console.  In addition, the Wii U introduces a new controller that contains all of the same buttons as a current generation controller, but adds a touch screen in the middle of it.  This acts as a second screen that can work either in conjunction with the big TV, or as an independent screen where the player may continue playing whilst the TV is turned off or the channel is changed.  So really we’re looking at a current gen console with a little add-on.  Oh I forgot to mention that the console will contain quite a few of the upcoming 2012 titles, and is looking to be released next year.

To sum up the Wii U, all I can say is….it’s about time.  Nintendo finally listened to the outspoken and horde that is the gamer nation.  As for the rest of the show, I hate to say that it was mediocre but I simply cannot deny it.  At least we got to see some great gameplay, and personally…Gears of War 3 is exceeding my expectations.

Well it’s that time of the year again, that time where nerd and gamer alike come together in order to celebrate what is regarded as the Mecca of gaming – the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)!  After the mindnumbing event that was E3 2010, this year is shaping up to be even more drool-worthy with a staggering 138 titles confirmed to be on show in some capacity whether it be as part of the conferences or on exhibition on the show floor.  In fact, to show what I mean, here’s a list of the titles that have been confirmed to be present at the 2011 show:

A Game of Thrones: Genesis
Aliens: Colonial Marines
Anarchy Reigns
Assassin’s Creed Revelations
Backbreaker Vengeance
Back to the Future: The Game — Episode 5: Outatime
Bastion
Batman: Arkham City
Battle VS Chess
Battlefield 3
Ben 10: Galactic Racing
Binary Domain
BioShock: Infinite
Blacklight Retribution
BloodRayne: Betrayal
Bodycount
BurgerTime World Tour
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Call of Juarez: The Cartel
Camping Mama: Outdoor Adventures
Captain America: Super Soldier
Cars 2
Combat Wings: The Great Battles of WWII
Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic
Crusader Kings II
DC Universe Online
Dead Island
Defenders of Ardania
Disney Universe
Dragon Nest
Driver San Francisco
Duke Nukem Forever
Dungeon Siege III
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
End of Nations
F1 2011
Face Racers: Photo Finish
FIFA Soccer 12
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Fortune Online
Forza Motorsport 4
Free Realms
From Dust
Gears of War 3
Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters
Guardian Heroes
Heroes of Ruin
High Flyer Death Defyer
Hitman: Absolution
Hulk Hogan’s Main Event
Jurassic Park: The Game
King Arthur II: The Role-Playing Wargame
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game
Madden NFL 12
Magicka
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games
Marvel Super Hero Squad Online
Mass Effect 3
Metro 2033: Last Light
Michael Phelps: Push the Limit
Mind ‘n Motion
MotionSports Adrenaline
Nano Assault
NBA 2K12
NCAA Football 12
Need for Speed: The Run
NHL 12
Ninja Gaiden III
Of Orcs and Men
Pet Zombies in 3D
Phineas and Ferb: Across the Second Dimension
Prey 2
Prime World
Prototype 2
Puzzle Agent 2
Rage
RaiderZ
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One
Rayman Origins
Red Faction: Armageddon
Renegade Ops
Resistance 3
Rift
Rise of Nightmares
Risen 2: Dark Water
Rocksmith
Rotastic
Rusty Hearts
Saints Row: The Third
Scivelation
SEGA Rally Online Arcade
Serious Sam 3: BFE
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2
Sonic Generations
Soulcalibur V
Spider-Man: Edge of Time
SSX
Star Trek: Infinite Space
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Starhawk
Super Mario 3DS
Supremacy MMA
Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter
Take Shape
Tera
Tomb Raider
The Adventures of Tintin
The Darkness II
The Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Hidden
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Lord of the Rings: War in the North
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Testament of Sherlock
The Sims 3: Generations
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Online
TrackMania2 Canyon
Twisted Metal
Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress
UFC Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Fitness System
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Uncharted Portable
Upcoming new Just Dance
Upcoming new Raving Rabbids
Upcoming new Your Shape
Vindictus
Wakfu
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
White Knight Chronicles II
Wrecked: Revenge Revisited
XCOM
X-Men: Destiny
Zumba Fitness 2

(list courtesy of Rynstex at gaminglives.com)

As you can see the list is staggering, and that is only the games that are definitely at the show.  There are still the new titles that will be unveiled as part of the publishers’ conferences, which starts in tradition with Microsoft going first.  Following on the same day are Ubisoft, EA and Sony.  Better than reading this, here’s a small graphic showing you the order and times of the major publisher conferences, with Konami having already done theirs as a pre-produced piece, and Activision as usual deciding to have a private conference with no live stream.

(image courtesy of Kotaku.com)

As you can see, that’s a busy Monday, with conferences proceeding throughout the day.  On the other hand, June 6 is the media day anyway, so it’s expected for the majority of conferences to be situated then, with just the one by Nintendo taking place on the Tuesday, when the show is open to the public.  As with regular E3 occurrences, there have already been accidental leaks.  Last year included leaks such as the Microsoft Kinect and Sony blunders such as Mass Effect 2 on the PS3 and Killzone 3.  This trend continues in 2011, with someone at Microsoft having accidentally leaked Halo 4 and a Halo: Combat Evolved HD version.

(image courtesy of Kotaku.com)

A shame, but I’m sure there’s plenty more news and surprises to come from E3 2011, so let the event unfold and let us see what there is in store!

The argument here is different depending on which perspective is being analysed.  The general consumer would claim that there being a set standard for games is not a bad thing at all, since the priority of the consumer is the monetary effect this would have on them.  With consoles having such a major effect on development standards, consumers would declare that they are spending less money overall due to only needing to buy one platform.  Whether they buy a console, or prefer to play on the PC, they would say that they have no need to upgrade hardware.  New hardware is always available when it comes to the PC, but with consoles having a lack of hardware upgrades it is apparent that consumers feel like the winners.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule in those consumers that like to play on more than one platform for reasons such as exclusives, or preference in certain genres on different platforms.  One such example would be individuals that prefer to play their first person shooters on the PC, and alongside this group of people are those that consider the PC as their platform of choice.  PC gamers, despite whatever opinions you may have of them, are the core driving force in advancing games technically.  This is due to the virtually limitless technology available to the PC platform.  With new components available regularly, PC gaming usually attempts to push the boundaries of what can be done within games via the use of new technologies.

In the perspective of the PC crowd, game developers have generally been disappointing.  They believe that developers have begun to create games with consoles in mind, rather than developing for the PC as the native platform.  For some genres such as role playing games and driving games it is understandable for console controls and gameplay to be preferred over PC gameplay, but the argument is that for the likes of first person shooters or strategy titles it is the PC that should be developed for first and foremost.  There are accusations that developers are more interested in developing for the larger crowd and after higher sales, therefore concentrating on console development rather than utilising the newer technologies available that go beyond the capabilities of consoles.

Examples of the argument are the upcoming titles Crysis 2 from Crytek and Battlefield 3 from DiCE.  After the release of the multiplayer demo on the Xbox 360 first, and then the PC, there are opinions that the PC demo feels like a port of the Xbox 360 version.  There are accusations that after Crysis and Crysis Warhead, released exclusively for the PC, Crytek’s decision to make Crysis 2 a multiplatform title with a streamlined user interface was not favoured by the PC audience.  They feel that Crysis 2 has been “dumbed down” in order to play better on consoles, sacrificing the complexity they introduced in the original Crysis, a game designed with PC gamers as the sole audience.

The Urban Jungle of Crysis 2

The PC crowd are concerned that DiCE will pull a similar move with Battlefield 3, which is the first title in the main Battlefield series since Battlefield 2, in between which there were three console-focused titles in Battlefield 2: Modern Combat and the two Battlefield: Bad Company games.  Unlike the previous PC exclusive prime Battlefield titles, Battlefield 3 is being developed for the PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3.  It’s due to this, and the last few titles that came out before it, that is making PC gamers anxious about DiCE’s direction with the title.  This is in spite of the fact that DiCE have already announced that the PC will be getting special treatment compared to the console versions of the game.

Battlefield 3 in DiCE's Frostbite 2 Engine

With one audience being in favour of the gaming plateau, and one very much against it, the opinions of the consumers are distinctly split into two.  However, the opinion of those that are involved with the games industry every day must be considered.  The perspective of game critics and developers cannot be ignored in such a debate.  There are possible advantages as well as disadvantages to having a plateau in games.  It can be thought that gearing a title for a multi-platform release means that all formats need to be of the same or similar quality, with no one format being distinctly better than any other.  This could lead to limiting a certain version of the game that could have more content or more depth in gameplay via use of a technology that is not possible on other formats.  However, this would sometimes explain why platform exclusives exist; simply because one platform is more capable than another.

On the other hand, it can also be argued that creating a title of similar quality on all platforms gives the title equality, so that the consumer may purchase the game on their platform of preference, and not feel like they are losing out buy not buying the game on another platform.  However, at present platform manufacturers incentivise consumers to buy the game on their respective format through marketing or offering extra or exclusive content.  This results in the game not being the same on all platforms, meaning consumers would prefer one platform over another.

Some would say that the argument of technical advancement and utilisation of new technologies versus equality and cheaper gaming for consumers is completely irrelevant.  The so called “limits” in current generation technology has not stopped developers from being creative nor has it stopped them from pushing the technology as far as they possibly can.  For this point, Crysis 2 is a perfect example.  Crytek’s CryEngine 3 makes the game look graphically better than anything before it and that is by exploiting the hardware at hand and building an efficient engine to produce quality not seen in the past.  This is the case for both PC and consoles; the game looks just as good, if not better than Crysis, and looks better than any other console title to date.

Crytek's Beautiful CryEngine 3

Game designers would be adamant that limits in technology do not stifle creativity.  More than five years into the current generation new games and IPs that introduce unique features are still being created.  Whether this is the use of a unique art style like in Borderlands, distinctive game mechanics like in Split/Second, or even completely unique titles like runaway indie hit Minecraft.  There are many more examples of games that utilise current generation technology and still manage to introduce new things to gamers, proving that no matter which platform is being developed for, creativity is not dead in this postmodernist generation.

It can be said that despite the differing opinions from various components of the games industry, developers continue to innovate and deliver new experiences for consumers.  Even though technology continues to advance and new processes and tools become available for use, developers are still managing to explore the current standard and keep pushing to use the full extent of the technology’s capability.  Therefore, it can be said that even with “consolitis” being evident, it in no way hinders the ability of game developers to provide new and intriguing experiences.

Nonetheless, this post is just to say that I’m back and I shall be updating again.  Don’t expect very regular updates, but it’s better than nothing, no?

Since last time, I’ve been up to a short summer break and then back at university for the third year of my degree which is mostly over.  Yes, that means I shall soon start looking for work!  So if you’re a game designer in a position to hire, then look me up!  Of course, I shall be uploading my portfolio to the “portfolio” category on this site, and eventually a fully customised site will be up which I am currently working on with a friend.  It’s just taking a while because we’re both at university and it’s an idea that hasn’t really been done before, especially this method of displaying a portfolio.

In the time coming I’ll start with a review of Battle: Los Angeles and my thoughts on the Crysis 2 demo, and then we’ll see where it goes from there.

For anyone reading, I’ll be back soon!

Considering I’ve read the books myself, the trailer first seen during Cliff Bleszinski‘s appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon does indeed make a lot of sense to me.  To those that have not read the books, but played Gears of War 2 the trailer might seem a little confusing, but alas I am here to fill you in.  Just know that I am not going in chronological order, but in order of what seemed most significant to me.

The most obvious thing that occurred to me, and probably to ninety nine percent of everybody else that has seen the video is the appearance of female Gears.  However, women have been Gears since before the first Gears of War exemplified by a character from the novels called Bernie Mataki.  An old Gear that retired, she returned to fight for humankind’s survival when the locust rose on Emergence Day.  Although the lore of the universe suggests that a woman’s primary role was to have children and continue the human race by creating the next generation.

The female in the video does look and has been confirmed to be Anya Stroud, who by the end of Jacinto’s Remnant was accompanying Delta Squad on their missions.  At that point she was willingly wanting field experience, so it is quite logical to see Anya fighting as a Gear eighteen months later.  With the COG’s (Coalition of Ordered Governments) size diminishing rapidly, Anya’s talents were better put to use in the field rather than being stuck behind a desk.

It was revealed that the game is set eighteen months after the events of Gears of War 2.  Since then, as seen in Jacinto’s Remnant, the COG have moved to an island that was untouched by the Hammer of Dawn, hinting at a location for the more green and jungle environments that Epic Games demonstrated for their new version of Unreal Engine 3.  The grey, ash laden cities are the places that were incinerated by the Hammer of Dawn, which were all of the major cities on the mainland.  Reminiscent of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the citizens were immortalised in their last moments.  The locust cannot dig deep enough to emerge onto that island so it has become the COG’s new base of operations.  The city locations, I predict, are featured during missions that have Gears venturing back onto the mainland for supplies and retaking Sera.

As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.   It would make sense of the more rugged Deltas, for example Marcus with less armour and Dom’s grey beard.  Also, being set a long time later, the the characters are accurately portrayed by looking more aged, whether it be from their experiences or literal age.

The COG were really struggling by the end of Jacinto’s Remnant.  Supplies were short and so people had to get by with what they could, even in a new habitat.  The new book, Anvil Gate should give a little more information in the direction of the COG’s future.  The island they landed on had an old COG base on it already, so the Coalition must still exist, albeit only compromising of a single island now.

The Gears can almost be seen as a new version of Stranded, as they must scrounge for whatever arsenal they can get their hands on, which can be seen in the trailer.  The weapon Marcus is holding is possibly a shotgun obtained from hostile Stranded, and the rifle that Anya hands to Dom is a generation one lancer.  During the assault on Aspho Point (described in the Aspho Fields novel) the Gears were using lancers with regular bladed bayonets.  The chainsaw bayonets were utilised when the locust emerged because they had tougher skin which needed a more extreme measure to cut through.

Another reason for the aged gears, in particular Dominic Santiago, was that he really let himself go after Gears of War 2 when he finally found his wife.  The beard could be a combination of age and a lack of motivation to look after himself any more.  There is a moment in the trailer where he looks at the remnants of a woman clutching a child  reminding him of his own family.  When the Locust drone bursts through the ash, it symbolises who was responsible for their deaths. Dom lies back down because he is prepared to die and be with his family.  This can be seen as a microcosm for the tragedy that all human families have suffered, with the ash figures representing the lost, and the drone representing the cause of it.

Since the fall of Jacinto the regular Locust were only attacking the COG in small incursions.  It seems that they are dying out due to the flooding of the Hollow, and by being hunted by the Lambent.  This new enemy were first seen when Delta squad were in the Locust Nexus, and are seen in the trailer as the enemy that even the Locust fear.

Therefore, it seems that the Lambent are the primary enemy now.  This raises the question: could there possibly be an alliance between the Locust and the COG in the next iteration in the series?  It would explain why Adam Fenix’s recordings were found in the Nexus in Gears of War 2.

The expanded universe novels aren’t over yet.  The next one, Anvil Gate, is due out in August.  Currently, women are still serving as Gears, and the Lambent are not a significant enemy.  Therefore, logic dictates that the next novel will contain activities of the growing threat of the Lambent.  With the new novel will come more information that should answer more questions one would have about the contents of the trailer.

Look forward to more information about the gun toting antics of Delta squad and the supposed conclusive chapter in the Gears of War trilogy.  Gears of War 3 will be coming to the Xbox 360 on April 8th, 2011.

However, until my next post or further notice, this site is under reconstruction.

This week’s session was incredibly productive.  We’ve moved onto other parts of conceptualisation exploring the depths of what we can and cannot do with the game.  With the help of Canalside Studios staff, we were able to determine that we can put animation to a degree.  For example, we’re most definately having moving water for things such as swimming pools and ponds.  We also tried to explore how we can get a mexican wave going in the stadium, but that proved a trickier task than expected.  A lot of time was spent theorising with the Canalside staff on the easiest way of having such a feature.  After much debating a possible conclusion was made.  The parts of the stadium would need to be seperate so they could be imported into XNA separately, and the texture on the middle part could just be switched in and out.  As far as I remember that was the solution, at least.

We’ve decided that we are indeed going for a compilation of the Mirror’s Edge and Viva Pinata art styles by starting off with Mirror’s Edge as a base, and then adding in colours from Viva Pinata but adjusting them to fit the visual style making a more appropriate colour palette.  With that starting point, an effective visual style can be created.  I also realised that we can get the grainy texture style on the whites by using a bump map with regular noise.  Therefore, I believe that using the Mirror’s Edge style for architecture, and an appropriated Viva Pinata style for the scenery, we can end up with a very attractive game.

A couple of members already started with making assets for the game, without doing any concept art, which I found very inefficient.  I also had an issue with them starting before we had divided up any jobs, since we initially agreed that certain members were doing architecture and other members doing scenery.  I am dissatisfied with the lack of cooperation.  The assigned tasks were for a stadium, swimming pool, park, and road tiles to be modelled so they could be placed.

Upon examining the scene from Mirror’s Edge used for the colour palette, Christian and myself noticed that the shadows and colouring on the scene are ambient.  This means not all shadows are black, and the colours of vividly coloured objects bleed onto the white.  We also noticed that for a red object, the shadows have a tint of red too, and shadows in general are blue.  We realised that we would not be able to do this with the texturing, and once again asked for advice from the Canalside team.  They said that it is possible, but it would have to be done in a renderer.  They showed our programmers some simple shadows that were very effective, which they could build into a renderer.  Our programmers are going to attempt to make such a renderer for the game.  Fingers crossed that the succeed, which could have an impressive impact on the game’s visuals.

Prepared to present again, this was indeed the session to demonstrate our concepts.  Other groups went first, and what looked to be some very good ideas had come to fruition.  I was rather happy with the concepts the other groups came up with, as each group aimed their game towards a different target audience.  In other words, there is a lot of variety in the genre and styles of games that have come from each group.  A rather eerie coincidence, I imagined.

When it was our turn to present, many of us pitched in on parts we each spent more amounts of time on.  I felt that we covered everything we intended to get across, including the emphasis on our focal game mechanic – the areas of influence.  We covered a demonstration, a couple of pieces of visual aids that Steven concocted on his laptop demonstrating said areas of influence, visual style, limiting factors, progression in terms of having set maps or procedurally generated ones, and so on.  We covered our game in quite a lot of detail, since we had a lot of aspects already decided.  I feel that we presented well, giving everyone a clear picture of what we wanted, the ambition of the project and also the way we planned to structure our build versions.

We had a team meeting outside of classes to refine our ideas and decide how we were going to present and demonstrate our game, for which all groups are due to do tomorrow.  With the programmers absent, we designers worked on demonstrating the mechanics of the game, especially the areas of influence, since it was our focal point and the mechanic that a player should pay attention to in order to get their best performance in the game.  I decided that certain buildings would be required in the village, such as the stadium, accommodation, training facilities, and the such.  I made a list of possible assets and determined which would be a must-haves, and which are not so important in order to run an Olympic Village.

We kept the new ideas to a minimum, because we didn’t know what the programmers could or could not do, and with them not present they could not tell us either.  We came across a flaw with our areas of influence system that could cripple the game, since it was a flaw in the core game mechanics.  This flaw was that when an area of influence was active upon another structure, they would gain a multiplier and potentially “upgrade” to a better structure so to speak.  However, when they upgraded, their area of influence would get stronger and in turn have a higher influence, which would affect the original building giving influence, which would in turn upgrade that too.  There would end up being a chain reaction where everything just started to upgrade automatically because a building was placed near it.  Since we found this flaw, we concentrated on fixing it.  We believe we came to a couple of solutions; we could either limit the amount of max influence a structure could gain from another, or I suggested that we could set structures to upgrade manually, meaning the player would be notified that a building is upgradeable and then would have to do it themselves.  We found that the first solution worked a lot better when we demonstrated it physically.

We came to a point where we had a consistent set of ideas, rules, and mechanics which could work together and we could demonstrate for the  lesson.

In Lesson: 15 October, 2009

We came fully prepared for a demonstration, only to find out that we were infact presenting our prototypes next week instead.  However, it wasn’t as if we had nothing to get on with.  We explained the details of the meeting to the programmers only to find that they had a similar idea for areas of influence in mind.  However, they hadn’t realised about the multiplier problem with the areas of influence so we ironed out the details on that and made sure it was manageable by the coders.  They didn’t have a problem with it, so we agreed to set the concept in stone and move onto other aspects of the game.

We went on to deciding a visual style for the game, since we pretty much had game mechanics figured out.  We wanted a distinct style, yet something with a visual flare so it was good to look at.  The style of Viva Pinata was suggested, but I thought that that may be a bit too much colour.  However, I liked the idea of vivid colours, so I used that as a starting point and we discussed games that have that kind of art style.  We went from Prince of Persia, to Katamari, to Street Fighter IV.  However, I mentioned that maybe we should only have the odd bit of vivid colour mixed in with shades of another colour.  I was talking about the art style of Mirror’s Edge – muted whites with a bit of colour.  When I suggested this I was largely thinking about the buildings of a brand new Olympic park.  I wanted them to be clean, but attractive, and the first style that came into my mind happened to be Mirror’s Edge.  To my suprise, the group seemed to agree with me that it could be a nice visual style especially for the buildings.  I had already started to envision the assets in my head.

We wrapped up, clarifying the details of our presentation for the following week, and going over example set plays for structure layouts on a physical grid.