technabob » fps

ds horror shooter dementium returns for sequel with best game box ever

alisha k. — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:00:21 +0000

Dementium: The Ward broke some untrodden ground on the Nintendo DS, as an M-rated horror-themed shooter, so it isn’t particularly surprising that the game is getting a sequel. What is surprising (and amazing) is this cover shot.

Well, that’ll sure get your attention when you’re just flipping past game covers at the store.

Renegade Kid was very free with video and screen shots from the first title, but they have been largely quiet on the sequel thus far. A release date in February was just announced, however, so I’m sure more information will pop up later this year. For now, that cover is enough. If you need me, I’ll be huddling under the covers with all the lights on.

[via GayGamer]

bioshock 2 delayed; rapture will just have to wait

alisha k. — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:55:17 +0000

BioShock 2, the sequel to Take-Two’s alternative history shooter has been delayed to the first half of 2010. The horror! The sequel was originally slated to debut late this year, just in time for the holiday buying season, but the title has been pushed back.

Does the game need more development time? That’s part of the story. The other? Money. Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick admitted that the company expects that next year will provide “a better performing product in the marketplace.”

So suck it up, gamers. No BioShock for you yet. At least one group of people might be pleased at the delay: BioShock-obsessed crafters. More time to work on those elaborate projects before the game’s release, at least.

[via Shacknews]

serious sam is back, getting down to business on xbla

alisha k. — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:46:37 +0000

Nearly a decade ago, Croteam, a team of six developers in Croatia got real damn serious about making a first person shooter, and the resulting hero is the stuff of cult legend. Serious Sam has everything that makes great shooters really great: crazy weapons, major fights, and a sense of humor. And now the hero is back, and heading to Xbox Live.

Serious Sam: The First Encounter is getting an upgrade, a polish, and the letters HD attached to its name for its release later this summer. The revamped shooter will sell for 1200 Microsoft points, which is a steal for such a giant pile of badassery.

[via The Escapist and Eurogamer]

left 4 crochet: zombie amigurumi

alisha k. — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:36:17 +0000

Let’s be frank here: Left 4 Dead’s zombies are kind of gross. There’s the Smoker, who has a truly gargantuan tongue that shoots out, often from some distance, only to wrap you in deadly zombie saliva, and there’s the Boomer, whose projectile vomit summons a flood of other undead, and of course, creepy Witches, massive Tanks, and annoying Hunters. Not the dudes you want to hang around with… unless they’re made of yarn (or you have a shotgun handy).

See? That amigurumi Smoker is as cute as a sweet little kitten! And he can’t grab you from across the street, either, and that makes these little crocheted figures a win. Craftster member windgie79 made these for her zombie-addicted husband for the holidays. What a lovely gift! Even the one that’s puking.

It is okay to yell, “Boomer!” if you see this little guy. It is not okay to shoot him in the face.

[Craftster via Hawty McBloggy]

thong4dead: l4d mod puts thong undies on zombies

lambert v. — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:38:29 +0000

“Imagine that the audience are in their underwear.” That’s the advice some people give if you’re going to perform or speak in front of many people. Apparently the same holds true if you want to get out of a zombie-infested city. Except that the audience are zombies, and that they want to eat you. Modder/undead butt cheek enthusiast darkinsider1972 has created a texture pack for the PC version of Valve’s hit fps Left4Dead that puts the undead enemies in thong underwear. Double Nasty.

The pack is called Boomer Thong. Install it and Boom! Thongs on zombies. I can’t decide if the mod makes the game less stressful or more horrifying.

More horrifying. I’m sure now. So if you own the game and you’re not pissing your pants at the sight of the enemies, you can download the pack at FPSBanana. Remember: headshot, not buttshot.

[via The Raw Feed]

counter-strike’s starry night

alisha k. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:35:44 +0000

If everyone in the world simultaneously made a list of the top ten most likely places for the works of Vincent van Gogh to turn up, odds are no one’s list would have included Valve’s Counter-Strike, and we would have all been wrong.

In a surreal mashup of FPS action and dreamy art, this mod thrusts would-be terrorists or counter-terrorists into the twisted mind of Vincent Van Gogh. Examples of the artist’s work can be seen on the walls, and outside, the beauty of his famous Starry Night hangs heavy in the sky.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Counter-Strike players may want to download this one for themselves, but just watching the video (for hours and hours) may be enough to satisfy you. The visuals are addictive.

[Nipper Maps via Offworld]

xcm crystal makes xbox 360 controller clear and bright

technabob — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:25:44 +0000

The guys over at XCM are at it once more with another cool mod you can buy to make your Xbox 360 just that much better.

The new XCM Crystal Controller Kit not only redresses your 360 controller in a spiffy clear skin, but it also adds a brand new oversize D-pad that’s designed to prevent you from mistakenly pressing it in the wrong direction.

I can speak from experience when I say there’s nothing worse than accidentally selecting that plasma rifle when you meant to select the rocket launcher.

Of course, the best part of the Crystal Controller is that it comes pre-wired with a gorgeous array of nine colorful LEDs which illuminate the A/B/X/Y, back, start, dashboard and shoulder buttons.

You can get your grubby little paws on the complete Crystal Controller kit over on RenChi for $29.90.

gears of war xbox 360 casemod kicks ass

technabob — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:08:26 +0000

Here’s a dark and disturbing Gears of War Xbox 360 casemod that would make Cliffy B. himself proud.

Modder DFW Monkie, the same guy who brought us this creepy alligator Xbox 360, has outdone himself this time with his new Gears 360.

The case features an intricate sculptural Gears of War logo, complete with a skull and gear that glows in an ominous red light up when the console is on.

He built this custom case using lots and lots of layers of Bondo, and painstakingly hand sculpting it before coating it in a deep black paint job to make it look nearly as imposing as the first time you ever ran into a Berserker.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

When the Red Rings of Death fire up on this console, it’s actually a good thing.

[via Llama's Forums]

wii fit balance board controls world of warcraft

technabob — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:00:23 +0000

I haven’t come across too many hacks involving the Wii Fit Balance Board yet, but they are starting to emerge. In this recent demo, the board has been configured to control 3D movement in a game of World of Warcraft 3.

A couple of guys from DFKI (the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence) took a Balance Board and connected it to a regular old laptop PC. A custom C# application communicates with the controller via Bluetooth, translating simple leaning movements on the board into 3D moves on the computer. By leaning forwards, back, left and right on the Balance Board, the player can move through a typical first-person view game with ease.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

While this demo shows off some basic movements within Google Earth and WOW3, I’d venture to say that it could be easily modified to control any first-person 3D game. Imagine playing a FPS in which you hold onto a gun controller with your hands, and move around the environment by leaning. Even better yet, how about an FPS which supported ducking and dodging bullets on the Balance Board? Now that would be really cool. Only time will tell what other applications end up taking advantage of the board’s unique sensory abilities, but I’d lay odds that Wii Fit is only the tip of the iceberg.

[Balance Board Blog via Hack-a-Day]

gta IV available now at target (not)

technabob — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:35:39 +0000

Somebody at Target seems to have jumped the gun just a little bit. Apparently, they’ve hung this banner in the electronics department of one of their Orlando, Florida locations stating that Grand Theft Auto IV is available now. While we’d all love for this to be true, the eagerly-anticipated game isn’t due to be released until April 29, over a month from now.

Flickr contributor Lividfiction came across the display at his local Target store, and managed to snap a couple of pictures before anyone in the department got smart enough to realize the gross inaccuracy of the signage.

Heck, even Target’s PS3 & Xbox 360 game reservation cards list the release date as “03/2008″. Now either somebody really screwed up here, or GTA IV is coming out much earlier than expected. I’m going with the first one.

wii light gun gets laser sight for precision aim

technabob — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 03:25:23 +0000

In the last year, we’ve gone from nary a Wii gun controller to a veritable plethora of available shooter accessories for Nintendo’s little white box. Still, with all the variety that’s to be found these days, this is the first time I’ve seen one with a built in laser sight to help you aim your shots.

The WiiMax (not to be confused with WiMAX) is one substantial light gun controller, designed to flip between “machine gun” and “rifle” modes thanks to a folding front grip. It’s got a fitted slot for holding your Wii-mote, and lets you plunk your Nunchuk into the handle. The laser sight runs on a pair of AAA batteries, and can be easily removed if it gets in your way.

Sure, if you’re willing bring out your inner MacGyver, you could just duct tape a cheap laser pointer onto any light gun. But for about $21, you might as well just pick up one of these, all ready to go. You can grab the WiiMax Wii Light Gun from DealExtreme.

ratchet and clank future: blistering behemoth

technabob — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 21:37:31 +0000

Good news for those of you anxiously awaiting the new Ratchet and Clank game for the PlayStation 3. Insomniac Games has confirmed that the game will run at a full 60 frame per second speed, in both 720p and 1080i resolutions.

Regardless of any controversy surrounding the PS3’s ability to crank out fast frame rates, Insomniac seems to be on top of it, saying that all their upcoming PS3 titles will run at a full 60 fps. Clearly, the fact that they got to cut their teeth on the platform’s outstanding first-gen Resistance: Fall of Man gave them a leg up over other developers.

One other interesting tidbit about Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is just how enormous the game is. Apparently, the game will use up a 22GB of the total 25GB capacity of its Blu-ray disc. I’m sure that part of that space is taken up with high-def FMV cutscenes, but from what I’ve seen, the massive environments and detailed textures will chew up a substantial portion. For those of you keeping score, you’d need three nearly full dual-layer DVD discs to fit this entire game on any other console. Maybe Blu-ray wasn’t a bad move after all?

You won’t have to wait long to check it out for yourself. A demo of the game should hit the online PlayStation Store on October 4th, with the full game in stores just about a month from now, on October 23rd.

[PSU via Loot-Ninja]

metal gear solid 4 release date in 2007?

technabob — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 22:54:29 +0000

Word on the street for a some time now has been that Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PlayStation 3 was almost certainly delayed until some time in 2008. Now, it appears that the game could hit shelves this year after all.

A graphic over on Konami’s Tokyo Game Show website now lists the game as a “Winter 2007″ release. Now we all know this could be a typo, or simply old content. Given that this week’s TGS is where companies usually reveal any holiday surprises, I’m really hoping this is true.

Wouldn’t it be nice for Sony to get at least one killer game for this holiday season?

[PS3 Only via MaxConsole]

look mr. bubbles, we’ve been etch-a-sketched

technabob — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:53:43 +0000

Given the fact that for my entire life, I’ve been completely incapable of drawing anything but some straight lines and the occasional stair step on an Etch-A-Sketch, this image simply blew my head off.

I was already duly impressed with the detail that artist the Etch-A-Sketchist has been able to squeak out of the little red and white drawing toy. But with his decision to (momentarily) immortalize Big Daddy and Little Sister in metallic powdery form, he’s become a real superstar in my book.

And just like the city of Rapture before it, this once beautiful work of art will eventually be lost.

[via CrunchGear]

ratchet & clank future demo due 10/4

technabob — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:04:34 +0000

Here’s something for PlayStation 3 owners to get excited about. It’s just been revealed that Insomniac Games’ latest creation, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction will be available as a playable demo in just a few short weeks.

On October 4, 2007, expect a demo to hit the PlayStation Network for download. Word has it that the demo will give players a sneak-peak of the game’s opening level, starting with the obliteration of Metropolis, a location very familiar to PS2 players.

I can’t tell you how excited I am for this title, given how many hours of fun I had with the PlayStation 2 titles.

[IGN via Kotaku]

microsoft working on massively multiplayer fps tech

technabob — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:24:45 +0000

The gaming world is full of MMORPGs, games that feature interaction of hundreds or thousands of players. However, these games usually don’t put them all in the same place at the same time, and don’t have hundreds battling each other at the same time. Because of bandwidth constraints (especially upstream), it’s been impossible to pull off high speed games like first-person shooters and racing games that have more than about 16 or 32 simultaneous players without severe lag problems.

Now Microsoft Research is working on a solution to this problem. The project, codenamed “DonnyBrook” is developing a system that enable FPS games to have hundreds of players duking it out on the same map at the same time.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The way they pull it off is by calculating the handful of players that you have a tendency to focus on (as well as things like frequency and recency), and only update every frame of those players’ data. For players that you’re not “paying attention to”, the data updates less frequently. The players that you’re not focusing are simulated locally by a “bot” with AI that’s influenced by those players movements. As soon as you start paying attention to those other players, the data updates more frequently for them as well.

At this point, it’s just a research project, but hopefully the tech will find its way into some commercial FPS in the future. There’s a little more detail on how it all works in this presentation.

[via on10]

halo 3 gone gold, on track for sept 25 release date

technabob — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:35:47 +0000

Bungie today confirmed that Halo 3 has gone gold. In other words, the game is done, complete, finito and in the can. After three years of design, development and testing, the latest installment in Microsoft’s FPS juggernaut is ready for the world.

The game will absolutely, positively make its planned release date of September 25th, just a little less than a month from now. And that timing couldn’t be better, since I probably will have extracted all the fun that I can out of my current fave game, Bioshock by then. See you on Xbox Live on the 25th!

[Order Halo 3 from Amazon]

bioshock release date one week early?

technabob — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 04:07:46 +0000

While those of us who played the supremely awesome Bioshock demo are salivating to get our hands on the full game, a few lucky stiffs have been able to pick up copies of the game a full week ahead of its 8/21 release date. Apparently, some ~~bozos~~ really intelligent individuals working behind the counter at Toys ‘R Us didn’t bother to check the release date, and are selling them since they already have the game in the stock room at some locations.

Several posters over on the NeoGAF forums are already reporting that they have the highly anticipated Xbox 360 FPS+ in hand. Apparently, all they needed to do was ask the sales clerks if they had Bioshock in stock, and they were sold the game. So run, don’t walk to your neighborhood Toys ‘R Us store before the Microsoft and TRU suits get wind of this and shut down the pipeline.

[via Kotaku]

bioshock demo on xbox live tonight

technabob — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 03:58:53 +0000

Big news tonight for Xbox 360 fans… A demo of the anxiously anticipated FPS, Bioshock has hit the Xbox Live Marketplace tonight.

The demo weighs in at a hefty 1.3 gig, so you’ll probably end up leaving your console on overnight (like me) to grab the full download.

According to the developers of the game, the demo lets you play somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour from the beginning of the game, along with a few extra weapons and capabilities that you won’t normally have that early in the game. Whatever the demo holds, I’m sure it’ll be just enough to whet your appetite for the full version of the game which ships in just over a week, on August 21.

For those of you who want every little bit of dirt on this upcoming game, head on over to Major Nelson’s website for all the gory details.

halo 3 co-op mode supports up to 4 players

technabob — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 21:06:46 +0000

Bungie today confirmed that Halo 3 will not only support online cooperative play, but that it will support up to four simultaneous players in the same game.

The game will support up to four players in Campaign mode on either Xbox Live or System Link, helping you to get through the toughest battles in the game with the assistance of your online buddies. All players in co-op mode will get identical skills when starting out, with the only difference being their looks and what weapons they start out with.

According to Bungie, development of this new mode was a huge technical challenge, and they wanted to wait to be sure they had all the kinks out before officially announcing it. This puts to rest recent speculation that technical problems might have resulted in the removal of co-op play altogether from the highly-anticipated Xbox 360 FPS.

The full details are now up on the Bungie website.

[via Joystiq]