A Random Game Related Picture

EverQuest Phase 4 Beta CD. Now where are my Beta 2 cds..

Atari Comes to Steam

I expect more publishers to sign up in the future:

March 12, 2008 - Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR), one of the world's most recognized brands and a third-party video game publisher and distributor, and Valve today announced an agreement to bring a variety of PC games from the Atari catalog to Steam, a leading platform for the delivery and management of PC games and digital content with over 15 million accounts around the world.

Starting today, gamers in North America may add the following Atari titles to their Steam games library:

Act of War: Direct Action - a real-time strategy experience that puts players squarely in control of counterterrorist forces and delivers a first look at tomorrow's war.

Act of War: High Treason - an ultra-realistic modern military real-time strategy game.

ArmA: Combat Operations - a first person tactical military shooter with large elements of realism and simulation.

Atari 80 Classics in 1 - the ultimate collection of the original games that inspired generations of gamers.

Death to Spies - third-person stealth action game that immerses the player into the atmosphere of World War II military intelligence operations.

Desperados 2: Cooper's Revenge - an RTS set in a thrilling Western atmosphere.

Indigo Prophecy - a thrilling supernatural mystery adventure game.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum - combines the roller coaster theme park fun of the Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 with included expansion packs Soaked! and Wild!

Tycoon City: New York - a tycoon simulation game set in one of America's most exciting metropolises.

In the coming weeks, The Witcher, the award winning RPG of 2007, Neverwinter Nights 2 and the expansion pack NeverWinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer - the sequel to one of the best-selling and genre-defining role-playing games ever - will also be added to Atari's Steam lineup.

Alternative Programming

Tired of reading yet another article about polygons and shaders? Check these links out:

Donkey Kong and Me, multiplatform programming and licensing in the days of Atari-past.

Using Microsoft Excel as a 3D engine at Gamasutra... really!

Spore ported to iPhone

Apple announced a slew of new features for the iPhone today including the release of their software development kit (SDK). One of the demonstrations applications shown was a quickie port of Spore from EA as well as a port of Sega's Super Monkey Ball, both hardware 3D accelerated with OpenGL ES. Will this usher in a new era of mobile gaming?

Applications will be distributed through iTunes, with the developer receiving a 70% share of revenue. Signing as a developer will cost $99 annually. Apple will also allow free applications to be distributed through iTunes.

D&D Story Manager answers /.

Slashdot has up answers to some of its users questions about the upcoming 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons including how the new ruleset relates to videogames. Head over and have a look.

RIP Gary Gygax

Sad news came today as word spread that Gary Gygax, one of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons has passed away. His role in shaping not only pen and paper Role Playing Games but electronic ones as well will never be forgotten. RIP.

Dungeons and Dragons Experience updates

Wizards of the Coast is currently hosting the Dungeons and Dragons Experience in Virginia and news about the upcoming Fourth Edition (4E) of the game is starting to leak out. Check out Wired for a scan of the 4th Edition Player Character sheet and also keep an eye on ENWorld and GleeMax for all the latest from the festival.

Update: Wizards has released the character sheets in PDF (ZIP).

Update: AICN's exclusive playtest review: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Update: Videos from the conference (thanks to Krypt0nian).

GG Awards 2007

So awards season has mostly come and past. Last Sunday I was watching the Oscars and thinking about how awards work in the gaming industry. The vast majority of awards given out are split into categories such as platform or genre, but for me, I think it would be a bit more interesting to give awards more in line with movies, where categories are based more on technical distinctions, such as the difference between a Documentary and an Animated movie or Costume design versus Set Design.

So without further ado here are GG's awards for 2007!

Technical
best script... Portal
best graphics... Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
best sound... Bioshock
best interaction.. Rock Band

Interactive
best single player experience... Portal
best social experience... Rock Band
best competitve experience... Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
best mmo experience... World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade

game of the year... Mass Effect

Rigidity of Play

My memory has always sucked. I can't memorize anything-- names, faces, numbers, events, it all goes in a fog. I was never any good at memorizing Capcom's long moves lists for their fighters, nor memorizing boss attack patterns to ready my parries in the right order. Heck, I still can't always remember with accuracy which element defeats which in Lost Odyssey. Was it wind vs earth or water? Last week while playing a particular level of PixelJunk Monsters I was reminded of why I tend to dislike games that rely on memorization and trial and error.

For those who haven't played PixelJunk Monsters or any tower defense game, the gameplay primarily consists of placing defensive structures around a home-base and the game testing your defenses by sending wave after wave of pillaging monsters against you.

The level that soured me was one where only four defensive placements were available, each had to be correctly configured for the particular variety of monster that it would face at any given time, which is intended to be a hectic experience for the player. What pained me about this level is the fact that not only is it unforgiving of mistakes, defensive towers have to match the monsters they're fighting, but the game itself is not very forthcoming about the particular variety of monster you will face. You may know the next monster will be shielded, but what type of shield and the best counter to their defense is only discovered through trial and error. This wouldn't be too annoying except for the fact that the more difficult monsters only arrive after around a dozen minutes have passed in gameplay, making each failure and restart an annoying process of wading through monsters you've already determined the method to defeat until you finally reach the wave that bested you last (there are 20 waves).

After a few attempts at this level I finally threw up my hands in disgust. Although basic memorization and pattern recognition in games are staples of the industry, personally I wish the days of memorization as a gameplay challenge would be long gone. Where is the skill in an long and aggravating loop of trial and error? Shouldn't a game be more clever in challenging me than resorting to methods of play from years past? I'm all for a tactical challenge, and limiting your defensive options definitely made the level fresh from an initial perspective, but the game itself should strive to allow players to break from any specific rigid solution and instead allow them to use their skills and creativity to beat the level in their own way, making the experience truly interactive and personal.

Puzzle Quest Galactrix preview at IGN

One of my most played games last year is getting a sequel!

We've known for a while now that developer Infinite Interactive is working on another RPG/puzzle hybrid set in space called Galactrix. It turns out this is our next PQ fix and has added the brand name to its title so that it reads: Puzzle Quest -- Galactrix.

D3 was only showing off the new battle system at this point. Galactrix's puzzle mode is still a match three game, but now the gems are hexagonal. They can be swapped horizontally, vertically, and now diagonally. As the action has been moved from the countryside of Etheria to zero-gravity space, the direction from which new gems will fall into play changes based on which way you swap tiles. They can now replenish from any part of the playing field's circumference. D3 hopes this adds another level of strategy to gameplay as we plan our moves in anticipation of creating combos.

Read the rest at IGN.