Aztecs Conquer Russian Civilization …Now that
Sid Meier's Civilization III has been released for the
Mac OS, I shall now begin to wall myself off from our own
actual civilization and begin a weeks-long campaign to rule a fictional world.
Civ3 truly is, as its packaging claims, “the Greatest Game of All Time.” Civ is not merely a battle simuator or an extrapolation of the board game Risk — it's a chance to learn how successful (and not-so-successful) societies can be developed through history. Strategy gaming at its finest.
posted by Down10
on Jan 9, 2002 -
43 comments
In gaming news,
Disney has thrown itsself into the online gaming market, with
Toontown, pitting it against
some of the other successful online games, but targeted towards kids. The reviews have been
decent or better, and heck, who wouldn't want the chance to become
a toon. From personal experience, online games can be incredibly addictive and time intensive, limiting actual human contact to zero. So, is this a great way to introduce young kids to the wonders of the online experience, or is it another way for parents to let technology play babysitter?
posted by Benway
on Jan 9, 2002 -
12 comments
Kali.net (once one of the world's largest Internet gaming networks) is created. Makes money. BeTech buys Kali to impress investors. BeTech stops paying for upkeep. ISPs get peeved. No more Kali.
Or is there? Is this a funeral or a phoenix? And is there anything else on the 'Net about this? I'm coming up with bupkus.
posted by ZachsMind
on Dec 9, 2001 -
1 comment
With the gamecube, xbox and ps2 all on the market (although ps2 has been around awhile), it seems to be gaming heaven. I've always been a nintendo man, what do you guys/gals think? Can you rate your top five consoles of all time (based purely on joy it brought to you)?
posted by dig_duggler
on Nov 17, 2001 -
53 comments
Do you miss the music from your old NES games? Well if you do, be sure to check out the minibosses. They're a band that only plays the songs to classic video games from the Nintendo Entertainment System. Great stuff. I particularly enjoyed the Wizards & Warriors track amusing, since I was addicted to that game when I was younger. Also, am I the only one who thinks there should be a new console system DEDICATED to only 2D games? 3D games are neat 'n all, but I don't think enough good 2D games are being made anymore. The
Gameboy Advance is probably the only system doing that sort of thing right now, but it's just a portable.
posted by kingmissile
on Oct 3, 2001 -
22 comments
A sign of Global recession? For the first time I can remember, it's cheaper to buy a console in the UK than it is the States. Over here, we're used to seeing straight dollar to pound conversions ($299 = £299), so this is a first.
Do you think it's sign of recession or just Sony developing a conscience?
posted by jiroczech
on Sep 28, 2001 -
10 comments
Uh, guys? It's just a damn game. Three different stories on the same page about people taking games far too seriously. I love my video games as much as the next person, but the closest I've come to injuring myself (or others) was getting an hour or two less sleep on the weekend from playing Civilization too much. Does anyone have any personal stories about games (video, board or card) unexpectedly causing injury?
posted by Grum
on Aug 25, 2001 -
28 comments
Nintendo delays U.S. launch of GameCube Nintendo has pushed back the U.S. arrival of its new GameCube video game console by nearly two weeks, with executives saying they intend to avoid the shortages and frustrated consumers that marked the debut of Sony's PlayStation 2 last fall.
posted by Brilliantcrank
on Aug 23, 2001 -
21 comments
If you're a fan of Interactive Fiction then you'll certainly be familiar with
Andrew Plotkin the author of some of the best works in the genre, including
Spider in Web and
So Far. Only Macintosh users, however, will remember his phenomenol early-90s puzzle game,
System's Twilight, "An Abstract Fairytale." I recently played it again, and am astounded that such an early piece of work contains such a fully realized fantasy world (literally, it's abstract) and such
goddamn hard puzzles. Download it and experience some gaming history, and a damn good time.
posted by tweebiscuit
on Aug 2, 2001 -
12 comments
Playing computer games makes kids smarter? Although it reads like a headline from
The Onion, a British study funded by the ESRC has come to that conclusion. "They seemed able to focus on what they were doing much better than other people and also had better general co-ordination. Overall there was a huge similarity with top-level athletes."
Gotta go and show this to my boss...
posted by jedrek
on Jul 22, 2001 -
11 comments
Diablo II Goes Gold! The official release date is now next week, 6/29/01. Diablo was addictive, Hellfire was even worse. I spent a six months playing Diablo II non stop and now this. I hope my wife doesn't kick me and my Assassin out the door.
posted by me myself and i
on Jun 24, 2001 -
10 comments
Steve Jackson Games , the makers of such fine pen-and-paper RPGs as
Gurps, has been running
a blog since 1994. I've been reading it since 1996, and I just now realized: it was the first blog I've ever read. In addition to release information, they also post game industry news, personal stories, and even
the Illuminated Site of the Week, all with intimacy and personality we've come to expect from blogs.
posted by tweebiscuit
on May 22, 2001 -
11 comments
If you've ever wanted your first-person shooter to feel a little
less real,
NPRQuake may be just what you need. The
blueprint and
brushstroke versions are nice, but for my money you can't beat
sketchy Quake. Unfortunately, the NPR in the name stands for Non-Photorealistic Rendering, not
that other NPR, so don't expect Robert Siegel or Linda Wertheimer skins any time soon. (via
haddock.org)
posted by jjg
on May 17, 2001 -
4 comments
RealArcade is the future of gaming. Online downloads, rating, message boards, and high score lists are just the beginning of this game distribution-turned-instant-community application. When you can buy games online like this, whats the point of having a shrinkwrapped CD? (note most games are win95/8/ME only)
posted by mathowie
on May 14, 2001 -
27 comments
The Daily Radar is dead. This leaves only
Gamespot and
IGN left as the primary mega-gaming news sites. With
IGN's stock everything but worthless, what is the future state of online journalism in these specialized areas? Sure, there's
Blue's News and
Stomped. But with the online business model unprofitable for everyone from the small-timers to the big-timers, is the hobbyist nature of personal sites an effective way of carrying the torch of dedicated reporting? Is something being lost as whole staffs are decimated? Discuss.
posted by ed
on Apr 30, 2001 -
23 comments
Even IGN.com is going subscription! They're calling it Insider, and it's going to cost $20 a year or $10 for 3 months. "Features" include a printable pdf version of IGN, and some other things that seem like total garbage. However it remains vague about what you will keep as a nonsubscriber. I don't see this even remotely succeeding unless they restrict the very basic features of IGN (reviews, etc.).
posted by swank6
on Apr 14, 2001 -
8 comments
Peter Molyneaux , arguably the greatest game designer of all time, does it again with Black and White. I saw this game at the Game Developers' Conference a couple weekends ago - it really is amazing. It must have the most sophisticated AI of any game to date.
posted by SilentSalamander
on Apr 8, 2001 -
17 comments
Remember the old Sierra Games? Remember back in the early 80's when
King Quest hit the streets? Did you ever think to your self how they created that game? Sierra used a gaming engine called Adventure Gaming Interpreter, or AGI for short, for many of their popular adventure games. This engine which was "hacked" in the early to mid 90's, and there are groups of people that still develop games to be used with home made hacks of this engine. Find out how you can make your own games like KQ or take a look at what have people created or are creating right now,
here. There's even someone saying that they are porting the
hacked AGI stuff to Dreamcast.
-Ellis of the now dead Geeknews.com
posted by ellis
on Apr 5, 2001 -
19 comments
Playstation 3 chip to be designed by IBM.
The three companies (Sony, IBM, and Toshiba) aim to design a "super-computer on a chip" with a wide variety of consumer applications, they said in a joint statement.
"The result will be consumer devices that are more powerful than IBM's Deep Blue super-computer, operate at low power and access the broadband internet at ultra-high speeds," the statement added
Wowzers!
posted by zeoslap
on Mar 12, 2001 -
22 comments
EA:WTF? I understand if people want to make web apps that only work on Windows based browsers. But you would think that a large games company like EA would treat others a little better than this (Proud Macintosh owners, get ready to squint).
Besides, I really want to play
Majestic, and last time I checked, a game that uses email, fax, web and AOL IM technology doesn't require Windows. : p
posted by Brilliantcrank
on Mar 8, 2001 -
13 comments
Police raid Verder dorm room, confiscate computer. Now this normally doesn't sound like anything out of the ordinary... we always hear about this stuff, right? But check out the
web page in
question. I think this is being taken just a little too far. I used to be an avid StarCraft player too, and I've seen my fair share of clan pages that have a page like the one that got these guys in trouble. Guess we're still in post-Columbine overcarefulness mode...
posted by PWA_BadBoy
on Feb 7, 2001 -
14 comments
Boon-Ga Boon-Ga! [via
fark] - a video game played by spanking. Even worse is the person dressed up like the
game controller at a trade show, even more disturbing next to the person in the turd (?) costume. Brought to you by
Taff System (link not functional at time of posting)
posted by plinth
on Jan 5, 2001 -
0 comments
JDoom. Get this. It's a patch for Doom that allows for 3D acceleration, dynamic lighting, free mouse looking, and remapping keys. Works with
ANY version of Doom. Simply Unzip
the file [737k] into your Doom dir and run JDoom.bat (for OpenGL mode). It also supports D3D (I'll explain inside). Some screenshots:
1 2 3. Doom shareware is available
here.
posted by grank
on Jan 1, 2001 -
4 comments
As one whose gaming never advanced beyond PONG, I know
this must mean something. What that something is, I'm not sure.
posted by red cell
on Dec 27, 2000 -
3 comments
Hey gamers! Do you still harbor a fondness for the '80s cult classic
Discs of Tron, but you're unwilling to give up your favorite first-person shooter? Welcome to
Discs of Quake.
posted by jjg
on Dec 7, 2000 -
3 comments
Alice demo (
Download, 78MB) has been released. Even if you're not big on video games you might want to give this one a try. *Requires a PC with 3D graphics accelerator and fast connection to download in sane amount of time.
posted by physics
on Dec 2, 2000 -
9 comments
Counterstrike, the most popular networked first person shooter in the world, went gold today. If you have Half-life this mod is well worth the download.
posted by capt.crackpipe
on Nov 9, 2000 -
16 comments
The life and times of a game company. While everyone knows
Maxis for the
SimCity games, they've has dabbled in everything from kids' games to
Diablo-like titles. While this isn't a brand new article - it mentions
The Sims in future tense - it is fascinating to see what happened to this unique company.
posted by hijinx
on Nov 4, 2000 -
2 comments
Now while these guys are not exactly the most unbiased source for an
evaluation of the PlayStation 2, they have nonetheless backed up their evaluation with a lot of convincing hard information on the
performance and in particular about the
financing. If these guys have got it right, Sony's going to take a bath on this; they'll never come close to recouping their costs of production, let alone all the research they did. If these guys have it right, Sony will lose money on the PS2 as long as they sell it. This Is Not Good. (Unless you hate Rambus, like I do, because this means both of their markets will collapse.)
posted by Steven Den Beste
on Oct 30, 2000 -
19 comments
Ninga? Nintendo and Sega to form joint company. With Sony and M$ to contend with, it doesn't come as much of a surprise.
posted by john
on Oct 30, 2000 -
28 comments
More than you wanted to know about the "Tomb Raider" movie. What's weird about it all is that the timing sucks. The game has gone through five successive versions and they've used the same basic engine for all of them. These days it's looking significantly dated, and the last couple of games have gotten really poor reviews. Of course, it probably still sells well to frustrated teenage boys, but I think the last couple of games haven't sold anything like the previous ones did because it's the same old same old.
By the time the movie finally comes out, the game may already be history.
Has there
ever been a movie made from a computer game which was either a commercial or critical success?
"Mortal Combat" and
"Super Mario Brothers" spring to mind as counter-examples.
posted by Steven Den Beste
on Oct 29, 2000 -
39 comments
