1 Reality From The Sidelines

26

Feb

Actual Action!

Posted by sharpfish  Published in Game Development, Reality Fakers

Wow, it’s really been a long time since I updated the blog with any game development news, the new year is still young and I have high hopes to release at least a couple of games this year though so here is the first ‘development’ update of 2008!

The first game (which I will be posting about/previewing later this month - at last!) is on course for release within the next month or two. This is the smaller , so called ’simpler’ game that was originally only going to take 3 months of part time work but has ended up taking over a year of aprox ten hours work a week. Had I been solely working on it full time 8-16 hours a day then it would no doubt already be released. :)

I have a couple of choices for the game after that, a few half way finished ideas that I can look at and find the quickest but most fun one to finish next.

There are also going to be some changes with my websites. Atomic Pond will run it’s course as a link site but focus will switch back to Reality Fakers as the main home (and company name) of my game development. The site is doing pretty well (by my standards) and is already used to receiving traffic from game buyers thanks to the affilliate program I have on there.

I also plan to update the blog at least once a week from now on which is good as it keeps my development in check and on target if I have to ‘report’ it to a public place such as this blog. :) Will also be changing the theme of the blog to something more suitable in the next week or so.

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28

Jan

Stop Buying Xbox 360s! (if you have any sense)

Posted by sharpfish  Published in Microsoft Xbox360, Ramblings, Technology

My first blog post in ages and it’s a complaint.

I’m sure everyone knows by now about the RROD (red ring of death) that Microsoft’s flawed console, Xbox 360, seems to be prone to. Well it seems though a lot of people know about it, not enough NEW people know about it and continue to support Microsoft by buying brand new consoles.

Nobody is immune to Xbox 360 Death! You are the lucky one if your’s hasn’t gone yet.

The point here is not to make a divide between the players that have had no problems and are behing Microsoft and the ones who’ve had lots of problems and now hate the name ‘Xbox’. The point is, for the good of all gamers, to stop ‘bailing out’ Microsoft unless they fix their shit once and for all.

What’s that? Free repair for 3 years you say? Hmmm, sorry not good enough. The fact is most people who send it in for ‘repair’ end up with either:

1. A dead Xbox on first switch on
2. A dead xbox within 5 days to 5 months (sometimes you are lucky and it’s still going, but it won’t forever)
3. Someone else’s previously dead xbox (a refurb) complete with scratches, stains and candy in the usb ports (and still dies)
4. A returned xbox with ‘correct fault not found’ (more on this below).
5. Occasionally a NEW xbox (rare, does happen but before you get excited please note: these also end up dying with almost the same probability)

Now there are other faults than the 0102 (3 red lights) error. Yet Microsoft will ONLY repair (for free) the 0102 error. The most common non user errors include the 1 light (E74 which is the scalar/av chip), disc drive problems or general instability. If these happen to you get ready to pay Microsoft for THEIR lack of proper testing (this has been rumoured at by an inside source who has now left MS, apparently MS knew all about the failures before launch but did it anyway). Any other internal fault that is through not error on the users side IS microsoft’s fault. I certainly didn’t ‘build’ the AV chip so it’s not my fault!

MS have tried to reduce the numbers (good luck) by claiming only 3 red lights is a ‘fault’ they will hold their hands up to and yet each day more and more people are getting layered errors on top of this, or instead of it through no fault of their own and are left with a large bill to pay MS for a repair (which again is ONLY temporary even if you pay for it!) even though they’ve already had your money.

The Xbox 360 was RUSHED out to get a headstart on the PS3 and effectively kill the early year competition (which it did) but too many corners were cut, MS knowingly gave this stress, hassle and inconvienience to customers which is disgusting.

The Xbox 360 had, by and large, the most complete and exciting games library of the 3 current gen consoles (I see 2008 being a turning point for the PS3 and possibly the Wii though), and this helped MS gain a strong following of hardcore gamers (like myself). When faced with ‘Sony’s lies’ a lot of us 360 owners would all too easily defend MS and tell everyone how good it’s games were (i’m guilty of this, see the rest of my blog.. I LOVED my 360 for quite some time, I had some great experiences with it’s games but no games are worth this hassle).

Games no matter how good are not a substitute for consumers rights. And MS has definitely screwed EVERY 360 owner over on this one. If you think it doesn’t affect you or that people with dead consoles (like me) are just being petty and should buy a new one then you are missing the point.

The point is it’s not just about a £300 console (at the time of my purchase) but about the money spent on games and accessories so far (over £1000 in total). To think that this personal ‘game library’ is now useless pains me. No other console in my gaming history has made me wary of spending more money on games for it. If you think you can build up a classic library that you will enjoy five years from now, think again, the consoles will NOT be working by then and MS will have moved on to the next one for sure.

So, please let anyone who is considering buying a 360 or rebuying one (foolishly rewarding MS twice for their lack of concern about us) know the facts before they do. I’m certainly not saying that everyone will get it within a year or even 2 years but the RISK is far too high to recommend anyone buying the console, and more importantly paying even more money for games for it while it continues to prove extremely unreliable (official figures are rumoured to be around the 30% failure mark but we know it’s higher because that doesn’t take other failures and out of warranty repairs into account) I would say it’s at least 50% failure rate.

And if you do have a dead 360 right now and choose to return it to MS for a repair, make note of the procedure as I bet you will be doing it at least another 3 times before you give up on getting a system that works.

If you are serious about your disgust of this issue (and rightly so) then please sign the ‘Recall Xbox 360′ Petition here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/360recal/petition.html

And while I know online petitions are not always worth the bandwith they consume, in this case they are. Even if MS choose to ignore it there will be some kind of record of just how many failures/disgusted customers there are.

To sum up: Do not spend another penny on an xbox 360 game and certainly do not go and buy one new even with their ‘improved’ build (they still fail), and let everyone you know, know what an unreliable piece of junk this console really is. And while I do not condone going out and buying a PS3 instead right now (price too high, not enough good games) in time it may be the wisest choice based on build quality and games that will be coming out over the next two years. And now that BluRay seems to be winning the HD wars that is a bonus.

Personally I’ll stick to PC gaming for a while. Crysis is more than enough to not make me miss my 360 (which still sits boxed up in a corner dead).

UPDATE: 5/2/2008

There is great article by an ex MS insider about this issue (and even he shows his disgust at the ‘refurb’ hell you can get sucked into) that can be found at the following link: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/digitaljoystick/archives/130694.asp

Also on the same site check this out for a tale of why Microsoft’s Xbox 360 ‘repair program’ isn’t worth the hassle:

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/digitaljoystick/archives/130799.asp

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13

Oct

Unreal Tournament 3 Beta Thoughts + Screenshots!

Posted by sharpfish  Published in Games In Review

Unreal Tournament 3

Finally, after years of waiting Epic released ‘teh demo’ (or at least an early version of it). This is a beta demo intended for feedback and bug reports. Straight away the gameplay hit me as tight, fast (though slower than UT99, gamespeed option in full game should sort this), more ‘weighty’ in the characters compared to previous UT games (which is a good thing) and some pretty nice graphics also.

Click the screenshots in this post to see higher res versions!

Unreal Tournament 3

I believe the beta demo has restricted graphics (no highest resolution textures nor advanced effects) to keep the download size within reason. The full game SHOULD be able to take advantage of faster hardware better and ramp up the graphical quality quite a bit. That said, on a decent system now, even this demo version looks very nice indeed.

Unreal Tournament 3

For me this game is more about gameplay than looks (even though it looks great!), it’s fast paced with most ‘eye candy’ reserved for out of bounds areas where it won’t block players (something UT2k3/2k4 often didn’t do, much to the annoyance of many players who had been brought up on the ‘pure BSP’ of classic Unreal Tournament). This game feels more like the original Unreal Tournament to me. More dynamic, less clincal. There are many non graphical improvements and tweaks which are bound to cause much debate. All I know is it played well and was pretty much bug free (not bad for a beta!). And the gameplay in general is very good, weapons feel powerful and action is quick and brutal!

Unreal Tournament 3

Unreal Tournament 3

The one downside is the demo has restricted the Field Of View to 90 degrees for Widescreen (same as 4:3) which is something I frown on, especially given the much publicised backlash against Bioshock for it’s poor implementation of widescreen in that game. It’s technically known as VERT- and instead of naturally allowing more on the sides of the display horizontally (just like the Widescreen hardware) it keeps the same FOV which essentially zooms in to keep the horizontal view the same regardless of aspect ratio, but this causes the top and bottom to be ‘chopped off’ somewhat. In essence WS users are punished because they get a restricted view compared to 4:3 users. Thankfully it’s not too bad in UT3 because the FOV is @ 90 instead of something ridiculously low to start with, but it’s not ideal and not very good for multi screen users. Hopefully this will be adjustable properly in the full version. Right now you can bring up the in game console and type ‘FOV 100.4′ for 16:10 widescreen monitors to get that ‘natural’ no restrictive field of view. This will need typing in each time you respawn though (unless you can make it stick in an .ini file or bind it to a spare key).

I have put a couple of shots on here showing the same scene with default FOV and with it adjusted to the ‘natural’ 100.4. As you can see there is not much in it but in game it makes a world of difference to ‘feel’ and enjoyability. If you were to compare the ‘vertical’ cut off points of the two shots you would see it’s more about that than the horizontal. The vertical point in the ‘corrected’ WS shots is similar to the 4:3 vertical, in the default WS shots you get the top and bottom ‘chopped off’ (to put it in simple terms) which restricts the vertical view and makes things feel cramped.

All screens were originally taken at my monitor’s native resolution of 1440×900 and resized to 1024x (keeping the 16:10 aspect ration). I have taken them with an uncapped ‘Stat FPS’ command to show frame rates with my hardware (for reference). I also used ‘Ghost’ command to take the shots from unusual angles to show the levels off, mostly in game the frame rates are a bit higher than I have hear because I’m framing for visual quality, in game you tend to not see as much at once so frame rates are naturally higher!

Unreal Tournament 3

Unreal Tournament 3

In game my frame rates are between 70 - 190fps depending on where you are, bots, map etc. On average though above 100fps which is good! :)

The PC used had this spec:

C2D E6850 overclocked to 3.6ghz
Nvidia 8800GTX (768mb ram/slightly overclocked)
2GB DDR2 PC8500 Ram
1440×900
All settings in the demo @ Maximum quality and driver set to ‘quality’.

Unreal Tournament 3

Unreal Tournament 3

Unreal Tournament 3

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10

Oct

A Reminder from Japan!

Posted by sharpfish  Published in Misc

Totally off topic but as a Japanese car nut i’m very much looking forward to revelations from the 2007 Tokyo Car show which starts in:

Nissan GT-R, NEW Toyota Supra and offerings from Mitsubishi and Honda are what I’m most intersted in. Hopefully some very cool new cars will be revealed so I can start dreaming of yet another Japanese motor making it’s way to the used car market. :)

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6

Oct

updates coming soon…

Posted by sharpfish  Published in Game Development

Haven’t posted in a while because of being very busy with coding and music , and recently I updated wordpress to the latest version which caused havok with my theme and uploads, ads and what have you.

So for now I have a 3rd party theme but I will be redesigning it along with another streamlining of Reality Fakers (for faster loading and better content) and the new Atomic Pond website in time for the GAME i’ve been working on for so long… hopefully in time for Xmas.

So hopefully things will start picking up again round here soon :) And I should definitely have some new game shots to show before too long! ;)

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31

Jul

Quick Indie Game roundup!

Posted by sharpfish  Published in Independent Game Reviews

It’s been a very busy few weeks for all at Reality Fakers and Atomic Pond (i.e: Me). And more and more quality indie games keep appearing. So here’s a quick mention of the games that have caught my eye over the last few months and ones that you should be checking out too!

Mr Robot

Mr Robot!

Gorgeous looking isometric 3D game harking back to the classic Spectrum and 8-bit era games. This of course uses modern hardware to great effect and was in development for a long time so make sure you try it out! Download

Professor Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery

Professor Fizzwizzle

The Professor is back (again!) and doing what he does best: Pushing stuff out of the way or onto other stuff while enjoying his floating platforms. This looks to be every bit as good as the first game and probably better! Download

Ricochet Infinity

Ricochet Infinity!

The latest in Reflexive’s ricochet series. This looks to be the best yet for this popular series of breakout style games! Download

Dream Chronicles

Dream Chronicles

A casual game, very well produced. Has some extremely nice looking graphics! Download

Venice

Venice

The latest Pop Cap game co developed with Retro64. Great concept and loads of polish (as is to be expected of Pop Cap). Download

In other news, work on the first 2 atomic pond games is still going on (of course)… hey we all know it takes a long time to make good games worth making in the first place! Updates on those soon (this year at least ;) )

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15

Jun

X360: A look at some of the latest Game Demos

Posted by sharpfish  Published in Games In Review, Microsoft Xbox360

Haven’t reviewed many Xbox360 games recently so thought I’d offer my views on the latest crop of Live Demos for the white wonder.

Colin Macrae : DiRT

WOW! You want to see ‘next gen’ effects then check this demo out! It has to be the most graphically rich of the racing games on Xbox360 right now. It has tears and slowdowns in places but the way the graphics seem organic and the use of effects to smooth everything over, sort of takes the edge of the minor problems. Handling is not “realistic” at all, but it is fun and it appears Codies have gone for a more mass market type of gameplay here and I think it pays off. The stunning interior view is the most usuable of it’s kind, it’s also the most immersive with impressive detail and amazing lighting that brings rays of sunlight into the cabin which then ‘dances’ across the dashboard and up the a-pillars as you move in and out of shadows. In the demo the best racing was to be had on the standard rally circuit race in a scooby, and check out the armco and physics in general. Bang into one of these metal barriers and you don’t just bounce off but the entire barrier is deformed pushing it out into the other side of the track. It adds and immense amount of believability to the game. I’m sold on the demo already and the full game can only be better! The only downside is it’s not as “pure” or as “hardcore” as previous CMR fans would like it, but take it on it’s own merits and for most people it’s easily going to be more fun.

Forza Motorsport

I’ll come right out and say it. The demo is rubbish. The game isn’t but the demo is. I’ve never seen such a poor demo for such a hyped/important title. You get arguably the most boring track in the game, it has jaggies everywhere (which I belive a patch as since helped town down a bit), and you can’t do all that cool stuff to the small selection of demo cars that make the game what it is. I was severely dissapointed with the demo (as many were) however due to the full game having a massive amount of cars (many of which I get very excited about customising and seeing which is going to best for my next real life purchase) that I bought it anyway. I figured even if I just use it as a virtual car modding software (looks and performance) then it’s worth it to me because I’m somewhat obsessed with cars (esp Japanese Performance cars). The full game is loads better than the demo, though still not for some, it takes a lot of concentration to race properly and it’s fairly unforgiving. Also the sense of speed seems to be slightly low (maybe accurate but it doesn’t relay the feel of speed properly until you soup up your cars or buy a supercar). The cars sometimes look stunning (In replays and photo mode) and other times just “ok”, same goes for the tracks. Overal quite a clinical game but if you are a real car nut then you will enjoy. As for the demo? Just ignore it and read some reviews instead.

Overlord

Another one from Codemasters (publishing) and what a strange one this is. Full of colour, humour and a sense of charm that has long since gone from videogames in general. It reminds me of a cross between Pikmin and some old spectrum games (but in 3D). The camera is very restrictive (you can’t rotate it around) and it follows you at some odd angles at times, don’t know why they did this but had they gone with the usual right stick to move camera thing I feel the game would improve 100%. Didn’t actually play it for long as the camera put me off, but the rest of the game looked very good indeed. Maybe one for younger players or as a budget buy.

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8

Jun

Summer Update: The good stuff takes time!

Posted by sharpfish  Published in Game Development, Misc, Reality Fakers

I’m going away for a break in a week or two, get away from computers for a while and recharge my brain. So this week i’ve been updating Reality Fakers (adding more games)…

…and now i’ve finished what seems like and endless lists of mechanical stuff on my cars I can finally get back into working on the upcomming game from Atomic Pond.

After my break I will be working non stop to get a preview video and some concrete info on the game up on this blog and the website. I’ve been on this game around 12 months now (15 if you include gaps of non work) and it’s a very slow process. I definitely feel like i’m getting somewhere now though and i’m at the stage where i’m working on pop up tool tips and in game help, that sort of thing, which means I must surely be somewhere near the end of development? We’ll see. ;)

Also keep an eye out for the new Atomic Pond website / Logo which will be up before too long.

Have fun in the sun (or if you are in the UK: Have fun in the overcast damp conditions with occasion bright spells ;) )

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19

Apr

RF Indie Game Review [ Rack ‘Em Up Road Trip ]

Posted by sharpfish  Published in Independent Game Reviews

Rack ‘Em Up Road Trip is a Pool game. This Pool game, however, should interest players who may normally be put off trying them because it has pretty easy going gameplay, bright fun graphics and simple controls. It is completely 2D top down which means you have a very good idea of the state of the table at a quick glance and have no need to think about camera angles and what have you. In many ways it reminds me of the briliant ‘Arcade Pool’ on the Amiga (by Team17), this game however is more forgiving.

Rack 'Em Up Road Trip

At first the speed of the table (the resistance/friction of the cloth/baize) seems quite slow, for seasoned Pool players it may feel like playing on a worn out table with dodgy balls because you really have to up the power to make the ball travel around. This is ok but the game does tend to reset your power after each shot to possibly what the built in safety net considers a correct power for the shot or more likely a standard power reduction to protect you from ‘in-offs’ and other over power errors. Basically though I think it does it because the game is trying to help the novice players out too, and so long as you ensure you have the correct power before each shot, you won’t be left dismayed when your perfect shot doesn’t ‘have the legs’ to make it to the pocket.

The game overall has a nice atmosphere, fun opponents, bar style music and of course all the addicitve qualities that any decent Pool game brings over from it’s real life counterpart.

Pool experts will probably seek out more in-depth simulations but for newcommers or intermediate players this game conveys the fun of pull pretty well.

There are 6 modes of play including the usual US 8 and 9 Ball, UK 8 Ball (my favourite) and even Snooker! There is also a 2 player mode, trophy cabinet and a world map based game progression (hence the ‘road trip’ part of the title). Working through the game in this psuedo career mode should keep you busy for some time and is probably a good incentive for those that have never or rarely ever play pool to keep playing, because once you start getting better you start to understand the allure of Pool in general (minus the ‘hanging out in bars, relaxing with friends’ part)

Try Rack Em Up Road Trip, an easy going Pool game with enough modes and structure to keep you busy for a long time.

Rack ‘Em Up Road Trip Free Download

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8

Apr

Reality Fakers’ Spring Clean!

Posted by sharpfish  Published in Reality Fakers

Well, I finally managed to banish the dreary grey backdrops and the jumble of ads and games from Reality Fakers, and make something clearer and more fun looking. More importantly I can now fit more game links onto the index page, and it’s a fairly flexible layout that leaves room for future features (such as ‘real’ indie game scene features, possibly banner ads for Atomic Pond and other’s games etc).

Reality Fakers - Computer Games and Free Downloads

Now my focus switches back to the main site ‘Atomic Pond’ which has been somewhat neglected while there is nothing to show on there. The game is still coming along well, but as always there is still so much to do, however I am looking forward to posting new shots and preview videos on the site soon.

By the way, if any indie game news site admins are reading this and you are looking for content and would like to help me out and give the game a preview when it’s closer to release then please get in touch! email address is at the foot of the Atomic Pond home page.

So, that’s enough affilliate game pushing for a while, I need all my energy to finish my own game now! :)

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