Games

The Unreal Generation

It was not that long ago when it seemed like every game out there was running on the Quake III engine. In fact, some still do. The Quake III engine was the most successful engine ever as far as number of licenses go. It was state-of-the art when it came out, and its modular design made it easy to code. Now fast forward to today. The same thing is happening again, only this time, it is Unreal Engine 3. Unreal Engine 3 is the first complete re-write of the Unreal engine. Practically no code from the old engine is in this new one. Tons of Xbox 360 games are being powered by this new engine. Let’s take a look at the (publicly known) lineup, game by game.
You're a hitman for hire in  Frame City Killer .
Frame City Killer (Namco): A third-person action-adventure, the game with the best acronym ever (FCK) takes UE3 to a sci-fi urban future with hovering cars and I, Robot-style technology. This one’s due out later this year.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (Ubisoft): The subject of OXM’s latest cover story, the third Brothers in Arms takes the Unreal Engine 3 someplace it’s never gone before: World War II. Developer Gearbox Software aims to use the engine’s power and facial rendering technology to create a game experience with emotional impact.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent (Ubisoft): The Splinter Cell games have always been built off of Unreal technology, but you’d never know it just from looking at it. The brilliant stealth franchise has always heavily modified Epic’s tech for their own lighting-heavy antics, and they’ll be working with Unreal again for Double Agent.

 Blast through Sin City in  Rainbow Six Vegas .
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft): Did you like Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter? Of course you did (because almost all of you bought it!). Team Rainbow is getting back to what they know best: a visceral tactical action game. Reborn for Xbox 360, the Unreal Engine 3 is hitting Vegas! Full preview in our June issue!

BioShock (2K Games): Ever played the 1999 PC classic System Shock 2? This role-playing/first-person shooter/adventure hybrid is its spiritual successor, and it’s all about player choice. It also uses Unreal Engine 3 to fuel its 1950s Art Deco visual style. For added artistic flair, it takes place entirely in an underwater city!

 Gears of War is a showcase for Unreal Engine 3.
Gears of War (Microsoft Game Studios): The poster child for the Unreal Engine 3, this smart third-person shooter is Epic’s own baby—the flagship for the engine, if you will.

Mass Effect (Microsoft Game Studios): Renowned developer BioWare owned the original Xbox RPG category with the amazing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003 Game of the Year) and last year’s excellent Jade Empire.

Too Human (Microsoft Game Studios): Long a dream project for developer Silicon Knights, this fast-action third-person romp sports equal amounts of guns and melee weapons. The studio’s last project, Eternal Darkness was considered somewhat dated when it released, graphically speaking. The use of UE3 ensures that such a comment will not be leveled against Too Human for Xbox 360.

If that lineup isn’t impressive enough for you, we can expect even more Unreal-powered goodness is on the way.

Music, Movies & Books

Music

So, I added a new music page to the site. I had a bunch of 320kb/s mp3s of my music that I was planning to put up for download a while back but never did. I figured that I might as well put them up with this extra space and bandwidth that I now have. You can check out the music by clicking the button at the top of the page or by clicking here.

Uncategorized

New Host!

So, I decided that it was time for me to get an actual web host instead of hosting the website off of an old PC that I had in my basement. Now the site should be a lot faster, and now I have a ton of space to work with. I am not sure what I am going to add to the site to take advantage of the bandwidth and space, but I am sure I will think of something. Oh yeah, I am also going to host a friend’s website. I am not sure what he wants on it exactly, but I am giving him http://taintedsun.com

Games 1

Geometry Wars High Score

So, at last I beat my high score in Geometry Wars. I managed to get 694,785, which is a lot for me. What sucks is it won’t show up on the leaderboard. It still has my old high score of 305,230! What a bunch of crap. I still got my Achievements like “Score 500,000” and “Survive 250,000”, but it still sucks that it does not show up on the leaderboard.

Edit: Woo! I went back and tried again to beat my high score. This time I got 970,890 and it shows up on the leaderboard. Nice!

Music, Movies & Books Video

Red vs Blue Seasons 1-4

So, a while back I started editing all of the Red vs. Blue episodes into a single video for each season and sent them around to friends to get them to watch. A few days ago I decided to upload them to Google video for the same reason. If you have never watched before, this is probably the easiest way to start. Here they are:

*Edit* Videos have been replaced by the official YouTube versions.

Season 1

  1. Why Are We Here
  2. Red Gets a Delivery
  3. The Rookies
  4. Head Noob in Charge
  5. The Package is in the Open
  6. 1.21 Giga-Whats??
  7. Check out the Treads on That Chick
  8. Don’t Ph34r the Reaper
  9. After Church
  10. A Shadow of His Former Self
  11. Knock, knock. Who’s there? Pain.
  12. Down, but not Out
  13. Human Peer Bonding
  14. Roomier Than it Looks
  15. How the Other Half Lives
  16. A Slightly Crueler Cruller
  17. Points of Origin
  18. SPF 0
  19. Last One Out, Hit the Lights

Season 2

  1. Everything Old is New Again
  2. Motion to Adjourn
  3. Red vs Bleu
  4. The Joy of Toggling
  5. Sweet Ride
  6. Last Words
  7. Nobody Likes You
  8. Nine Tenths of the Law”
  9. In Stereo Where Available
  10. Radar Love
  11. I Dream of Meanie
  12. Room for Rent
  13. Me, Myself, and You
  14. An Audience of Dumb
  15. Aftermath, Before Biology
  16. What’s Mine is Yours
  17. Nut. Doonut.
  18. Dealer Incentive
  19. K.I.T. B.F.F

Season 3

  1. Best Laid Plans
  2. Visiting Old Friends
  3. Let’s Get Together
  4. You’re the Bomb, Yo
  5. Make Your Time
  6. We Must Rebuild
  7. New Toys
  8. We’re Being Watched”
  9. It’s a Biological Fact
  10. Heavy Metal
  11. Roaming Charges
  12. Silver Linings
  13. Episode 50 Part 2
  14. Have We Met?
  15. Let’s Come To Order
  16. Hello, My Name Is Andrew
  17. Defusing The Situation
  18. Calm Before The Storm
  19. The Storm

Season 4

  1. Familiar Surroundings
  2. Hunting Time
  3. Fight or Fright
  4. Fair Competition
  5. Lost in Triangulation
  6. The Hard Stop
  7. Previous Commitments
  8. Looking For Group
  9. Exploring Our Differences
  10. Setting A High Bar
  11. Getting All Misty
  12. Talk of the Town
  13. Sneaking In
  14. You Keep Using That Word
  15. Getting Debriefed
  16. Under The Weather
  17. Right To Remain Silenced
  18. Things Are Looking Down
  19. Two for One
  20. The Arrival

Red vs. Blue: Out of Mind
Out of Mind chronicles the adventures of the character Tex between her disappearance in season 4 and her scheduled re-appearance in season 5.

Season 5

  1. You Can’t Park Here
  2. Got Your Back
  3. Baby Steps
  4. Sibling Arrivalries
  5. The Grif Reaper
  6. In Memoriam
  7. Strong Male Figure
  8. Yellow Fever
  9. Brass Tacks
  10. The Nesting Theory
  11. Spelunked
  12. The Haystack
  13. Terms and Provisions
  14. Missed Direction
  15. Where Credit Is Due
  16. Biting the Hand
  17. Tucker Knows Best
  18. Loading…
  19. The Wrong Crowd
  20. Uncommunicado
  21. Same Old, Same Old
  22. Repent, The End is Near
  23. Why Were We Here?