"Duke Nukem Forever is the game that was once thought to be unshippable, and yet here we are, on the precipice of history,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Today marks an amazing day in the annals of gaming lore, the day where the legend of Duke Nukem Forever is finally complete and it takes that final step towards becoming a reality.”
Precipice if history is taking it a bit far, but whatever.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
T5 Suing Onlive
Via Bigdownloads:
A few months ago OnLive claimed it had the patent secured for its streaming PC game technology. Now VentureBeat reports that a previously unknown UK company called T5 Labs has claims it had secured a patent for the same kind of streaming tech several months before OnLive filed for its patent in 2002.
T5 Labs stated in an email that the company "is considering its legal rights, including deciding whether to commence a procedure in the U.S. Patent Office known as an "interference" to establish that t5 labs, rather than OnLive, is the first inventor and entitled to the patent rights on video gaming inventions ..." OnLive has yet to comment on this development. It's not known why T5 Labs has not tried to commercialize its technology like OnLive has. OnLive officially launched its service in June 2010 and can now stream a number of games to PCs, Macs and TVs (the latter with a Microconsole).
Here is a perfect example of abusing intellectual property rights. Some company that probably doesn't have a functional product is going to throw a hail mary lawsuit in the hopes of getting a settlement. Nice mentality, lets not create a competitive product, instead lets claim that because a product had similar goals well just say that the idea was stolen and sue.
"It's not known why T5 Labs has not tried to commercialize its technology like OnLive has"
So true.
A few months ago OnLive claimed it had the patent secured for its streaming PC game technology. Now VentureBeat reports that a previously unknown UK company called T5 Labs has claims it had secured a patent for the same kind of streaming tech several months before OnLive filed for its patent in 2002.
T5 Labs stated in an email that the company "is considering its legal rights, including deciding whether to commence a procedure in the U.S. Patent Office known as an "interference" to establish that t5 labs, rather than OnLive, is the first inventor and entitled to the patent rights on video gaming inventions ..." OnLive has yet to comment on this development. It's not known why T5 Labs has not tried to commercialize its technology like OnLive has. OnLive officially launched its service in June 2010 and can now stream a number of games to PCs, Macs and TVs (the latter with a Microconsole).
Here is a perfect example of abusing intellectual property rights. Some company that probably doesn't have a functional product is going to throw a hail mary lawsuit in the hopes of getting a settlement. Nice mentality, lets not create a competitive product, instead lets claim that because a product had similar goals well just say that the idea was stolen and sue.
"It's not known why T5 Labs has not tried to commercialize its technology like OnLive has"
So true.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Minecraft continued
So I have continued playing Minecraft, having discovered that the supposed "sequel" to Dungeon Keeper sucks. So Let me show off some of my latest projects.
The first involves the waterfall project. In this I created a suspended home surrounded on all sides (including underneath) by a constant flowing waterfall.
Here is the site when I started:
Next I started Filling it in to get the water out so I could dig.
Digging this out below sea level took awhile.
After setting up the beginnings of a house, I took out the top level and let the water flow in.
Accessible only by glass hallway going through the waterfall, also with glass floor so you can watch the water flow underneath.
Tomorrow I will show off a lava tower.
The first involves the waterfall project. In this I created a suspended home surrounded on all sides (including underneath) by a constant flowing waterfall.
Here is the site when I started:
Next I started Filling it in to get the water out so I could dig.
Digging this out below sea level took awhile.
After setting up the beginnings of a house, I took out the top level and let the water flow in.
Accessible only by glass hallway going through the waterfall, also with glass floor so you can watch the water flow underneath.
Tomorrow I will show off a lava tower.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
More Minecraft? Oh yeah
I now embark on my most ambitious Minecraft project to date. More to follow.....
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
More Minecraft shots
I made a 2nd building, and created a Lava flow that goes from the roof all the way down right through the center of the building. Woot!!!
The Minecraft Experience
Sorry about the lack of updates. I was playing a lot of Starcraft 2, then Company of Heroes, and finally I have been hooked on Minecraft.
This game, despite its Doom-like graphics, is hella fun and extremely addictive. It comes with a little bit of a learning curve as you figure out how to survive your first night and how to fashion basic tools. But it doesn't take to long to learn, especially for Wow players who are used to creating items using gathered materials.
So after dying a few times at the hands on zombies and spiders at night, I fashion my first domicile. I started out digging into the side of a mountain, went up about 20 feet, then built a platform jutting out of the side which I judged to be high enough to keep me away from the wandering monsters below. That's when I discovered that monsters can descend from the cliffs above and blow up the floor of my new home...twice.
So I built a stone room on my platform, complete with roof, which kept the monsters at bay while I crafted whatever items I needed and dug further into the mountain to get stone for whatever I wanted to build. That's when I arrived at lesson 2.
Lesson 2 is that if you dig a huge room and don't light it up with torches well enough (monsters apparently avoid light, unless they are chasing you), zombies can spawn inside, and I don't mean one or two. And since there is no sun in this man made cave, they don't burn up when the sun comes up.
So rather than try and fight the five I saw in there with my self made stone sword, I decided to abandon my first home and start anew with a grand new plan that will keep me monster free. First I looked for a place to start building my new home. I wanted it away from cliffs and the monsters that jump off them, so I began looking around for a large flat area when and idea popped into my head. There are fewer monsters and large open spaces in the water.
So off I go to start my new home. I started with a 2nd story platform that was only accessible via a long elevated bridge with torches at the doorway. I stayed here at night, running back to my old home only in the daytime to make new items needed for construction. Once I had the first room built, well lit with torches, I decided hey, why not two stories? So I set up blocks so I can jump up the the roof, and cut a hole in the ceiling. Soon I had a 2nd room when I realized that running back to my old home to craft was stupid, so I packed up my workbench, smelter and storage chest and moved them into the 2nd story, which now became my crafting room.
Finishing that, Is till was not happy. I liked making building that I identified as home in my world, which required wood floors instead of stone in my mind. The room on the ground floor wasn't tall enough to handle a layer of wood, and I was not looking forward to ripping the floor out and raising the 2nd story, so onto the third floor I went.
By now I had figured out how to craft a staircase, so jumping up terraced blocks was no longer necessary, I built a 3rd floor with vaulted ceilings to accommodate my wood floor. I also realized my dream of making a patio that would let me mock the monsters wandering below at night from safety, and could happily work through the night without fear of being invaded.
When you move beyond basic survival is when Minecraft gets really fun. I found an example of how to make a hot tub, which is now on the roof of my home. I figured out how to make fences, which prevent me from accidentally running off a staircase or the roof, as this game has falling damage. I figured out where to find Iron and how to build a deep mine. I discovered doors, which now stand in all my entrances along with boats, which led me to create a staircase from the ground floor of my home to the boat launch I built below, well lit to repel monsters.
And this was just the simple stuff, you can find a lot of clever things on Youtube.
If you do decide to try this game, here are a few links to help you on your way.
Minecraft web site here.
Minecraft Wiki, which will give you almost all of the recipes of items in the game.
And an excellent Youtube video that will help you get started here.
Here are some pictures of my "home"
This game, despite its Doom-like graphics, is hella fun and extremely addictive. It comes with a little bit of a learning curve as you figure out how to survive your first night and how to fashion basic tools. But it doesn't take to long to learn, especially for Wow players who are used to creating items using gathered materials.
So after dying a few times at the hands on zombies and spiders at night, I fashion my first domicile. I started out digging into the side of a mountain, went up about 20 feet, then built a platform jutting out of the side which I judged to be high enough to keep me away from the wandering monsters below. That's when I discovered that monsters can descend from the cliffs above and blow up the floor of my new home...twice.
So I built a stone room on my platform, complete with roof, which kept the monsters at bay while I crafted whatever items I needed and dug further into the mountain to get stone for whatever I wanted to build. That's when I arrived at lesson 2.
Lesson 2 is that if you dig a huge room and don't light it up with torches well enough (monsters apparently avoid light, unless they are chasing you), zombies can spawn inside, and I don't mean one or two. And since there is no sun in this man made cave, they don't burn up when the sun comes up.
So rather than try and fight the five I saw in there with my self made stone sword, I decided to abandon my first home and start anew with a grand new plan that will keep me monster free. First I looked for a place to start building my new home. I wanted it away from cliffs and the monsters that jump off them, so I began looking around for a large flat area when and idea popped into my head. There are fewer monsters and large open spaces in the water.
So off I go to start my new home. I started with a 2nd story platform that was only accessible via a long elevated bridge with torches at the doorway. I stayed here at night, running back to my old home only in the daytime to make new items needed for construction. Once I had the first room built, well lit with torches, I decided hey, why not two stories? So I set up blocks so I can jump up the the roof, and cut a hole in the ceiling. Soon I had a 2nd room when I realized that running back to my old home to craft was stupid, so I packed up my workbench, smelter and storage chest and moved them into the 2nd story, which now became my crafting room.
Finishing that, Is till was not happy. I liked making building that I identified as home in my world, which required wood floors instead of stone in my mind. The room on the ground floor wasn't tall enough to handle a layer of wood, and I was not looking forward to ripping the floor out and raising the 2nd story, so onto the third floor I went.
By now I had figured out how to craft a staircase, so jumping up terraced blocks was no longer necessary, I built a 3rd floor with vaulted ceilings to accommodate my wood floor. I also realized my dream of making a patio that would let me mock the monsters wandering below at night from safety, and could happily work through the night without fear of being invaded.
When you move beyond basic survival is when Minecraft gets really fun. I found an example of how to make a hot tub, which is now on the roof of my home. I figured out how to make fences, which prevent me from accidentally running off a staircase or the roof, as this game has falling damage. I figured out where to find Iron and how to build a deep mine. I discovered doors, which now stand in all my entrances along with boats, which led me to create a staircase from the ground floor of my home to the boat launch I built below, well lit to repel monsters.
And this was just the simple stuff, you can find a lot of clever things on Youtube.
If you do decide to try this game, here are a few links to help you on your way.
Minecraft web site here.
Minecraft Wiki, which will give you almost all of the recipes of items in the game.
And an excellent Youtube video that will help you get started here.
Here are some pictures of my "home"
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Gaikai
Remember before when I said that Dave Perry likes to make some big promises and then doesn't deliver anything in the end? Hmm well here's what I just stumbled across on bigdownloads:
The Gaikai streaming PC game service announced a couple of new people that will join the company's executive team. One is Robert Stevenson who is the company's new Senior Vice President of Interactive Entertainment. Stevenson has worked for many years in the game business including stints at Namco Bandai and Atari. The other new executive is Tim Wilson who has been named as Gaikai's Executive VP of Strategic Relationships. Wilson worked for 16 years at Electronic Arts including the Chief Technology Officer at EA' Redwood Shores studio.
Meanwhile we are still waiting for Gaikai to launch. You may remember that its CEO Dave Perry told our sister site Engadget that he was targeting a December 15, 2010 launch but that date has come and gone. He told us about a month ago that Gaikai decided to take the "difficult route by supporting every browser / operating system configuration (including Linux) in all countries."
There ya go Dave. I think someone has been reading Jim Collins. Getting the "right people on the bus" is not going to get your product released, assuming it exists at all.
Bloodline Champions
Bloodline champions, the latest free to play competitor to DOTA was just released. Looks interesting, I might check it out.
The Gaikai streaming PC game service announced a couple of new people that will join the company's executive team. One is Robert Stevenson who is the company's new Senior Vice President of Interactive Entertainment. Stevenson has worked for many years in the game business including stints at Namco Bandai and Atari. The other new executive is Tim Wilson who has been named as Gaikai's Executive VP of Strategic Relationships. Wilson worked for 16 years at Electronic Arts including the Chief Technology Officer at EA' Redwood Shores studio.
Meanwhile we are still waiting for Gaikai to launch. You may remember that its CEO Dave Perry told our sister site Engadget that he was targeting a December 15, 2010 launch but that date has come and gone. He told us about a month ago that Gaikai decided to take the "difficult route by supporting every browser / operating system configuration (including Linux) in all countries."
There ya go Dave. I think someone has been reading Jim Collins. Getting the "right people on the bus" is not going to get your product released, assuming it exists at all.
Bloodline Champions
Bloodline champions, the latest free to play competitor to DOTA was just released. Looks interesting, I might check it out.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Romero departs Slipgate, Minecraft crash
Via Bigdownloads:
id Software founder John Romero has decided to depart the latest game developer company that he helped to form, the San Fransisco-based Slipgate Ironworks. Earlier this week it was revealed that Romero was teaming up with his long time friend and business partner Tom Hall on a new social networking game developer called Loot Drop.
Romero formed Slipgate Ironworks in 2005 and said at the time that it was developing a new but unnamed MMO project. Later it was revealed that the company was part of the many MMO game studios from Gazillion Entertainment. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to Big Download, "John is no longer working with Gazillion. We parted ways late last year, and we wish him nothing but the best in the future."
It's been nearly five years since Slipgate Ironworks was formed yet the developer has yet to reveal the game project or projects it has been working on for all that time. Gazillion's spokesperson gave us a small update on Slipgate Ironworks, saying, ... "the studio is working on a key project in Gazillion. John's MMO project was changed and shifted out to later in the pipeline, as the company decided to move it to an in-browser platform which is an area of focus for Gazillion's future titles. We have not announced a release date for this title and John was not involved with the new plans."
Hmm, 5 years and nothing to show for it? Anyone remember Dikatana? I wonder if Romero fell back into old habits. We shall see.
Minecraft Website down.
A victim of its own success, the website for Minecraft appears to have crashed for awhile. As stated by its creator Markus "Notch" Persson:
"We've got five servers behind a load balancer, and a dedicated server for payment processing, and another for ingame authentication and login, although that won't be in use until we update the game launcher." However the web site's sales and player stats for Minecraft are not yet back up to speed."
Hey, even World of Warcraft crashed when it was released. So far, he is doing pretty good.
id Software founder John Romero has decided to depart the latest game developer company that he helped to form, the San Fransisco-based Slipgate Ironworks. Earlier this week it was revealed that Romero was teaming up with his long time friend and business partner Tom Hall on a new social networking game developer called Loot Drop.
Romero formed Slipgate Ironworks in 2005 and said at the time that it was developing a new but unnamed MMO project. Later it was revealed that the company was part of the many MMO game studios from Gazillion Entertainment. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to Big Download, "John is no longer working with Gazillion. We parted ways late last year, and we wish him nothing but the best in the future."
It's been nearly five years since Slipgate Ironworks was formed yet the developer has yet to reveal the game project or projects it has been working on for all that time. Gazillion's spokesperson gave us a small update on Slipgate Ironworks, saying, ... "the studio is working on a key project in Gazillion. John's MMO project was changed and shifted out to later in the pipeline, as the company decided to move it to an in-browser platform which is an area of focus for Gazillion's future titles. We have not announced a release date for this title and John was not involved with the new plans."
Hmm, 5 years and nothing to show for it? Anyone remember Dikatana? I wonder if Romero fell back into old habits. We shall see.
Minecraft Website down.
A victim of its own success, the website for Minecraft appears to have crashed for awhile. As stated by its creator Markus "Notch" Persson:
"We've got five servers behind a load balancer, and a dedicated server for payment processing, and another for ingame authentication and login, although that won't be in use until we update the game launcher." However the web site's sales and player stats for Minecraft are not yet back up to speed."
Hey, even World of Warcraft crashed when it was released. So far, he is doing pretty good.
Friday, January 7, 2011
One Grand Per GHZ reasonable? Apparently to some
Via conceivably tech:
The most extreme announcement we have seen so far comes from custom PC maker Origin, which will begin selling its Sandy Bridge Big O and genesis models late next Sunday. Based on the 32 nm 3.4 GHz Core i7-2600K processor, the manufacturer said it will overclock the CPU to a stable 5 GHz.
15- and 17-inch Notebooks based on Sandy Bridge will follow later in Q1, the company said.
Pricing for the new computers isn’t finalized yet, but the Big O should be less than what the company charged for a comparable 4.3 GHz Nehalem system, we are told. The last Big O started at about $7800, while high-end configurations went past $16,000. This sounds excessive, but if we remember that high-end Core 2 Duo computers went for well more than $25,000 from companies such as the now headless Voodoo PC, Origin’s pricing could be almost considered to be reasonable.
Seems excessive to me, but if you've got five grand to blow go ahead.
The most extreme announcement we have seen so far comes from custom PC maker Origin, which will begin selling its Sandy Bridge Big O and genesis models late next Sunday. Based on the 32 nm 3.4 GHz Core i7-2600K processor, the manufacturer said it will overclock the CPU to a stable 5 GHz.
15- and 17-inch Notebooks based on Sandy Bridge will follow later in Q1, the company said.
Pricing for the new computers isn’t finalized yet, but the Big O should be less than what the company charged for a comparable 4.3 GHz Nehalem system, we are told. The last Big O started at about $7800, while high-end configurations went past $16,000. This sounds excessive, but if we remember that high-end Core 2 Duo computers went for well more than $25,000 from companies such as the now headless Voodoo PC, Origin’s pricing could be almost considered to be reasonable.
Seems excessive to me, but if you've got five grand to blow go ahead.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
New Nvidia Drivers
Personally I dont do beta drivers, but hey, its up to you.
Via Bigdownloads:
Owners of gaming PCs with Nvidia GeForce-based graphics cards can now grab the first beta graphics drivers of 2011. The GeForce.com web site now has the downloads to the new 266.35 beta drivers for the GeForce family of graphics chips. The beta drivers support the newly launched GeForce GTX 580 and GeForce GTX 570 graphics chips.
The new drivers boost performance for the 400 and 500 family of GeForce-based cards in a number of PC games including Battlefield Bad Company 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and many others. In addition the new drivers add ambient occlusion support for StarCraft 2, allowing for more realistic lighting and shadows in the Blizzard RTS game. You can check out examples of how ambient occlusion looks in the game at the GeForce.com web site.
Finally the new drivers have some changes and additions for Nvidia's 3D Vision feature. The drivers now support seeing some PC games in 3D in a game window as opposed to just full screen support. More 3D Vision-supported games have been added including Medal of Honor, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit and DC Universe Online.
Via Bigdownloads:
Owners of gaming PCs with Nvidia GeForce-based graphics cards can now grab the first beta graphics drivers of 2011. The GeForce.com web site now has the downloads to the new 266.35 beta drivers for the GeForce family of graphics chips. The beta drivers support the newly launched GeForce GTX 580 and GeForce GTX 570 graphics chips.
The new drivers boost performance for the 400 and 500 family of GeForce-based cards in a number of PC games including Battlefield Bad Company 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and many others. In addition the new drivers add ambient occlusion support for StarCraft 2, allowing for more realistic lighting and shadows in the Blizzard RTS game. You can check out examples of how ambient occlusion looks in the game at the GeForce.com web site.
Finally the new drivers have some changes and additions for Nvidia's 3D Vision feature. The drivers now support seeing some PC games in 3D in a game window as opposed to just full screen support. More 3D Vision-supported games have been added including Medal of Honor, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit and DC Universe Online.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
BFME Servers going down
This is too bad. I just started playing this game again recently. It was probably the last original good game that EALA (formerly Westwood) made. Now they are just kicking out crappy clones of the same game, like Red Alert 3.
Oh CnC Generals 2, why do you not exist.
Via Bigdownloads:
On December 31 the online servers for all of the Battle for Middle Earth games were shut down. If you own the Xbox 360 version of Battle For Middle Earth II and Rise of the Witch-King you still have a few more days to play online; those servers will shut down on January 11.
Oh CnC Generals 2, why do you not exist.
Via Bigdownloads:
On December 31 the online servers for all of the Battle for Middle Earth games were shut down. If you own the Xbox 360 version of Battle For Middle Earth II and Rise of the Witch-King you still have a few more days to play online; those servers will shut down on January 11.
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