iD Software first new Game IP with EA publishing it and I am really impressed with it, also its is said to be a less-action gore fest like previous iD games and will feature racing, adventure and RPG elements here and there, which sparked my interest already. What is even more impressive is that the game runs on Mac, PC, PS3 and xbox 360 flawlessly. The game is built on OpenGL which is quite impressive.

Rage is the first iD game to be developed fully in house and I am looking forward to see how they will work out the gameplay to make it interesting. Check out the tech demo links to see the iD Tech 5 engine in action.

[ext links]

RAGE Fansite

http://www.rage-central.com/

QuakeCon 2007 iD tech 5 Demo 1 - 3

http://gamevideos.com/video/id/13717

http://gamevideos.com/video/id/13727

http://gamevideos.com/video/id/13728

>> Zum Quake Live HD Trailer

Cu ceva timp in urma, id Software a anuntat ca vor creea un al patrulea joc Doom, dar cu exceptia anuntului in sine, nu s-a mai spus nimic despre acest joc. Cu ocazia dezvaluirii unui nou trailer pentru FPS-ul Rage, John Carmack a dat cateva detalii despre ce ne putem astepta peste cateva saptamani cand isi vor face aparitia primele secvente din Doom 4. Jocul va fi construit pe baza motorului grafic id Tech 5, acelasi ca al lui Rage, dar spre deosebire de acesta va rula la maxim 30 de cadre pe secunda, un lucru care, cel putin in cazul consolelor, a permis marirea gradului de detaliu.

Dupa cum se putea vedea, Rage era deja un joc destul de aratos, iar anuntul ca Doom 4 va avea o grafica si mai buna cu siguranta le-a luminat ziua acelor indivizi mai obsedat de detaliu. Partea si mai imbucuratoare va fi posibilitatea lansarii jocului si pe PC, chiar daca noul Wolfenstein va evita mouse-ul si tastatura, Rage va fi lansat si pentru PC fara a necesita modificari costisitoare. Doom 4 va fi cel mai probabil aratat pentru prima oara la QuakeCon de la sfarsitul acestei luni.

Sursa

...чувствам се длъжен обаче (въпреки огромната ми фенщина към поредицата), да изкажа и известни притеснения относно бъдещите качествата на играта.
Причината за това? Wolfenstein се разработва от ново-пръкналото се студио - "Endrant Studios", в партньорство с "Raven Software" и "Activision Blizzard", под зоркото око на "id Software"... 0_o
Просто си спомних за култовата народна мъдрост: "Много баби, хърбаво дете" :D

Но стига с тоя негативизам, разгледайте картинките ;)

Right before E3 id Software (John Carmack and the guys who brought you Doom and Duke Nukem) announced that they would partner with EA to publish their upcoming title called RAGE ending their long time partnership with ActiVision. The deal however is only good, so far, for RAGE so we have yet to see what will happens once the game is released.....when it's done.

Valkyria Chronicles coming on the PSP... Oops no Wait! I Meant the PS3

On the other front it seems Sony can't do anything right this year. After a very solid presentation at E3 we might have thought they were back on track. Well apparently not. During their conference Sony unveiled Valkyria Chronicles as one of the major upcoming titles for their PSP. According to Kotaku, the problem is that is was never planned for the PSP but actually a PS3 title, they just messed up with the video. Sega quickly denied any rumor that the game was coming on the portable console. Ouch.

Now this is all good and well but can't this people come up with some new idea? How about some evil platypuses from outer space?

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Recién salido del horno (bueno, más bien de la conferencia que ha acabado de celebrar Electronic Arts en el E3 2008), os traemos el nuevo tráiler de Rage, el nuevo título que prepara id Software, con Carmack a la cabeza, para PC, Xbox 360 y PlayStation 3, el cual será el primer título que hará uso del nuevo motor gráfico de id Software, el idTech 5.

Fuente: HardGame2

Ob man sich darüber nun freuen soll oder nicht, sei dahingestellt: Jedenfalls kam auf der E3-Messe raus, dass id Software sich getrennt hat von Activision und zukünftig für EA Spiele entwickeln will. Das erste Produkt, das Plattformübergreifend released werden soll, wird RAGE sein.

Wie genau sich diese Entscheidung seitens id auf zukünftige Projekte auswirken könnte, bleibt fraglich.

Update: Rage E³ Trailer (HD)

Quelle: Golem.de

    Doom 3 is certainly a masterpiece. It is a technological marvel with stunningly moody lighting. The controls are simple. The monsters are wonderfully ugly. As an atmospheric, first-person shooter, there is really nothing wrong with Doom 3. You set down on Mars, shoot some demons for awhile, and it all looks good and plays fine.

    Yet, halfway through the game, I was struck by the thought that I was not doing anything very new. Now, I was not expecting Half Life, and anyone who sits down to play Doom 3 is probably not expecting much more than a shooter. This is no Portal, and certainly no Halo. And we do not want it to be. But at this stage in video game development, should we be happy with a game that is, essentially, fifteen years old?

    Indeed, as a remake of the original Doom, Doom 3, is pretty damn near spot-on. You acquire the same weapons, fight imaginative remakes of the same enemies, and pick up PDAs in place of the much-aligned keycards. The problem? That is about as far as it goes, and I really would have expected a Doom sequel, especially one coming out ten years after the last one, to do something a little bit more than the same thing it did in 1993-4.

    Of course, it does do some things different. In a throwback to Half Life's genius "show, don't tell" method  of storytelling, the PDAs you acquire are not just keys. They contain e-mails and audio logs, which slowly reveal more and more of the story as you go. And the story is actually pretty interesting. (Also a note: my favorite e-mail is one describing five easy rules to follow when making ritual sacrifices, such as "virgins are always best.") But all of this fails to shirk off the uneasy feeling that all you are doing is entering rooms, killing monsters, finding the next room, killing more monsters...

    So after ten years, I can not help but ask myself, "Is this the best we can do now?" I know that many people do not like story in their action games, but I think it gives games a context and depth that you cannot find otherwise. One of the best hours of the game is the first, which involves no shooting, just story telling. All optional, of course.

    I do not necessarily think that more story would make Doom 3 more interesting. But it would have helped. And it is not as though the action is any better. Taking damage is mostly unavoidable, for example. The reason, I think, is not to artificially punish the player but just reinforce the notion that winning is not a strategic decision-making process. And by strategic, I mean something more involved than, "Aim and shoot until it dies. Find health pack. Rinse and repeat." All of the guns operate more or less the same. I discovered, for example, that a single pistol bullet does as much damage as a single rifle bullet or a plasma round. The difference is simply that the rifle shoots bullets a lot faster, and the plasma is a lot bigger.

    The fact that I found the action more interesting if I limited my weaponry to pistols and shotguns is really indicative of the problem. The gameplay lacks diversity, and while I was not bothered by the infamous "monster closets," or having to switch between a flashlight and my weapon continually, I was bothered by the fact that around level 13, I had already picked up most of the guns in the game and encountered most of the monsters. Indeed, the oft-cited and aforementioned issues with Doom 3 are part of its redeeming value. If the game does anything new for the franchise, it is taking its atmosphere to a whole new level of dark. But even that atmosphere grows dull after awhile, and while the whispering voices and creepy laughing got me the first few times, it definitely gets old the 50th time. 

    The whole experience gets a shot in the arm when you get teleported to Hell. You lose all your weapons, the setting changes completely, and the sense of foreboding is revived. Unfortunately, contrary to Dante, there is only one level of Hell. After that, you're back to the base and the (fortunately) rapidly approaching end level.

    I know for a fact that 27 series of hallways filled with demons is enough for some people. And they are certainly pretty hallways and pretty monsters. I hope id Software can just step it up a little with Doom 4.

    You have to give it to them though. How many PC games look this amazing four years after release?

Final Grade: B-

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Не знам дали забелязвате, ама персонажите са плашещо детайлни!

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"What we've done is take a game that was fundamentally good at its core, cleaned it up a little bit, and wrapped it in an absolutely modern 2008 state-of-the-art kind of web experience that guides the player through it."

Gamespy führte ein recht interessantes Interview mit John Carmack. Thema natürlich: Das mit Spannung erwartete Quake Live.

GameSpy: It's been a while since we last talked about Quake Live; can you give us a quick overview of the game and where it's at now?

John Carmack: What we've done is taken the Quake III Arena game that we released nine years ago, but still has tens of thousands of people playing online on a regular basis, we've taken the core of the game, stripped out all the antiquated user interface stuff, and wrapped it in a web browser interface, so that all the things you used to do with configuration, and especially finding a game to play and dealing with updates, are all handled by a modern web interface.

The game itself, once you get inside it, is not drastically changed from the original, although it's been brought up to a modern level of quality without changing the core rendering engine in any particular way. But what you do is, you go to the website, it's just a couple of clicks, it automatically happens, it brings the game down, you don't have to go off and install anything, update any drivers, this kind of stuff, you click on it, just like you would a Java or Flash game, but it is actually a full native game that was state-of-the-art AAA when it was released with a full development team going at it rather than a more amateur small-time development system on there.

>> Zum vollständigen Interview

Ya se han anunciado los torneos y los premios de este año, ET:QW y Quake Live serán los juegos de esta edición. Aparte de los torneos, será muy interesante estar pendientes a los anuncios que posiblemente hagan, entre ellos la presentación de los nuevos juegos y motores de id. Os dejo con los torneos y premios.

» Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars PC & Xbox 360 Tournaments
Prizepool: $ 15.000 [PC], $ 10.000 [Xbox 360]
Sponsored by Activision
The ET:QW Tournaments will take place in a double elimination bracket featuring 16 teams, with team sizes being 6 man per team. The Xbox 360 version is the first console game featured in an official Quakecon competition.

» QUAKE LIVE Duel & CTF Tournaments
Prizepool: $ 12.500 [Duel], $ 12.500 [CTF]
Sponsored by Intel
For the first time ever this soon to be released game is featured in a top notch competition, featuring two styles of play: one versus one duels, and capture the flag.

» QUAKE LIVE Quick Draw event
Prizepool: $ 10.000
Sponsored by Alienware
In the Quick Draw event, random people will be chosen to compete in a match of QUAKE LIVE during Quakecon 2008.

» QuakeCon Ultimate Power Up event
Prizepool: 2008er Chevrolet Corvette Coupe (value $ 55,000)
Sponsored by Ventrilo

Mesquite TX – July 7th, 2008 – Ventrilo, the premier group voice communications program used in tournaments and multiplayer games, is thrilled to announce that it’s sponsoring the first annual “QuakeCon Ultimate Power Up” Sweepstakes contest. One lucky winner will be driving away from QuakeCon 2008, in a brand new 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe, valued at approximately $55,000. The 13th annual QuakeCon is North America’s largest video game festival, party and tournament and will be held at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas from July 31 – August 3, 2008. QuakeCon admission is free to all attendees.

“We’re extremely excited about our partnership with id Software to be a QuakeCon sponsor this year,” said Brian Knapp, president, Flagship Industries. “This is our way to thank the hardcore gaming community for helping make Ventrilo the preferred group communications tools.”

The 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe to be given away will be Jetstream Blue, a new color introduced in 2008, with 3LT trim and a Z51 performance package. The car will be on display in the main exhibition area.

“As a long time Corvette fan and owner, I know Corvettes stand alone as an icon of American performance,” said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. “Ventrilo brings gamers that same dedication to performance with their incredible voice applications. It’s going to be awesome to watch one lucky fan drive away in a dream car, compliments of Ventrilo and QuakeCon.”

250 tickets for the Corvette drawing will be awarded to QuakeCon attendees for everything from performance in the QuakeCon Pro and Quick Draw Tournaments to participation in other QuakeCon contests, events and random drawings. The winner will be randomly selected on Saturday, August 2, as part of the event’s tournament finals party.

"I work closely with Tim Willits who's the creative director on id Tech 5 and the guiding force on Rage, and we're going to do some things which I think are just going to blow people way - it's just going to be on a whole new level."

Die Seite Kikizo führte ein recht ausführliches Interview mit Todd Hollenshead sowie Matt Hooper über das neue Projekt von id Software: Rage. Das Spiel basiert auf der neu entwickelten Grafikengine id Tech 5 und sieht wahrlich beeindruckend aus.

>> Zum Interview nebst einigen Screenshots.

Kikizo: Even on the console builds we're looking at, it's still really early and yet it's running at a pretty stable 60fps.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Matt Hooper"][/caption]

Matt: That's not an accident, that's very much a conscious effort, and it comes from John Carmack on the technology side. Usually we're pushing the envelope so much that by the end of the project that's when the technology is ready. But right now having it run close to 60fps on all of the platforms, that's a big deal. We're pretty focussed on that, it's a key thing.

Todd: Everybody loves to play FPS games at 60hz, and the pro guys want to run at 110 or whatever, but what we've found is especially for the driving feedback elements of it is that 60hz is really necessary to make it behave the way you want it to. Just from a technology standpoint it's important to recognise that what we're doing at 60hz, somebody could live with half the frame rate and double the visual fidelity in the game - make the game look completely different, but we're holding back on some of the things we could do from a visual standpoint because we feel like the frame rate is that important.

I haven’t had chance to get my hands on any new games lately, so I’m afraid this one is an oldie. A title from the original Xbox catalog: Doom 3, to be precise.

It’s not that I am way behind in my games tally! I just realised that I had never really played through Doom 3 when I originally got it on release, and as it is on the 360 Backwards Compatibility List and I was stuck for something to play, I popped it in.

Doom 3 is id Software’s remake (or rather, re-imagining) of their 1993 first-person shooter, Doom. The original was somewhat of a milestone in gaming history, being the first FPS to offer an immersive, engaging gameplay experience, networked multiplayer, and the possibility of user-generated content and expansions (interestingly, it is still common for people to create and upload new game files to the id servers even today). In fact, such a ground-breaking game was it that for many years, first-person shooters that followed in its footsteps were often referred to as ”Doom Clones”. Such a cultural meme wasn’t seen again until after the launch of Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001, when the phrase ”Halo Killer” was often used for games of the genre.

In 2000, id was ruminating on whether to resurrect the Doom franchise for, what was at the time, the next generation of video game consoles and much more advanced computer hardware. There was some resistance in-house, with some sides wanting to avoid rehashing old franchises and start on something new. But persistence paid off, and after the success of Return To Castle Wolfenstein, eventually work started on D – not a new instalment, but rather a re-creation of the game that started it all using all the latest technology available. Over the next few years, tiny glimpses of the work-in-progress were revealed to the world, and gamers were amazed by what they saw. 

What stunned people so much were the visuals. And because, for the most part, the visuals are the most prominent feature of the game, we’ll start there. I’m going to be reviewing the Xbox version of the game, because that’s what I have, and I think the console version of the game represents the most outstanding use of the hardware available. PC users were used to jaw-dropping visuals, as they were able to spend a small fortune pimping their gaming rigs to the max (although it has to be said, Doom 3 did break new ground for PC users too, and pushed most setups to the limits).

Doom 3 is, without a doubt, one of the most amazing looking games ever seen on the Big Black Behemoth that was the original Xbox. Like a small number of others such as Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay and Black, it’s release late in the lifecycle of the console meant that the developers had more than enough time to figure out how to get as much as possible from the hardware and software available to them, and boy, did they ever. These were games that made you wonder what the other developers had been doing all this time, as most other games looked simple and plain by comparison.

[wp_caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Whoah! Wrong room!"][/wp_caption]

The console version of Doom 3 was released seven months after its PC counterpart, and for the most part, the graphical difference between the two is not that significant. Sure, the PC version had higher resolution textures, but that is no surprise. Somehow, the developers managed to create a game that ran on the Xbox without skimping on any of the lighting or atmospherics to any great degree. What resulted is a game that stands up remarkably well, even compared to today’s generation of games.

For the most part, you find yourself trawling through dark corridors, dimly-lit hallways and rooms filled with gas and steam. Lights flicker, fail, and often move. And the shadows move with them, thanks to very well implemented dynamic lighting. Often the action takes place in almost total darkness, and the only sight of your enemy through the gloom is glowing red eyes. Combined with the grimy, decrepit and grubby industrial feel of the location, the graphics and lighting work together to create a gloomy, foreboding and oppressive atmosphere that is exactly what a survival horror game needs – which is what this is. Level design is excellent – the amount of detail in the objects is astounding – and by that I mean not the number of rivets on a wall, but the sheer number of tubes, pipes, gadgets, machines and general industrial stuff you see in each room. You really feel like the designers have created a virtual version of a real industrial complex. And the lighting is so good at adding to the general spookiness that many times I found myself throwing grenades into a room to take out a bad guy, guided only by the presence of his shadow moving about around a corner, only to find I had wasted my supplies on a moving light behind a fan or pipe or something. Playing through it today I am amazed at exactly what the developers were able to get out of the console – it is that good looking. As a contrast, the visuals in Chronicles Of Riddick were equally impressive, but just made you think how awesome everything looked. In Doom 3, you had that and the feeling of “Oh crap oh crap oh crap!” as well.

 

One other interesting and well-implemented aspect of the visuals is the use of computer screens and monitors in-game – quite radical at the time. Many times you will have to access a computer screen or panel to activate a switch, open a door or some such. This is achieved by forcing the player’s weapon to drop and giving him a cursor to move around the screen, and means that the player can be given a number of different options on any one terminal screen. You still see the rest of the room around you – so there is no jarring change of viewpoint. The screens are presented as high-resolution, smooth and clear images, and animate with your actions. Some even include adverts within the GUI.

[wp_caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Hello? Is that the Police? Yes, I have a little crisis here, could you send a metric fuckton of officers please...?"][/wp_caption]

The graphics are so impressive that this game could be released as an Xbox 360 title right now with only an increase in resolution of the texture images, and it would compare to or even better it’s contemporaries in most respects.

So, what I am saying is Best Game Evar!!eleven!!, right?

Well, actually, no, not really.

See, it looks pretty and all, but gameplay-wise, we are on shakier ground.

The games sees you take the role of an un-named Space Marine who has been transferred to the Union Aerospace Research Facility on Mars in 2145. Seems that strange days are afoot at UAC, who are military and technology contractors developing tools “for the good of mankind”. Far from the auspices of Earth it seems that the head of Delta Labs, Dr. Malcolm Betruger, has been getting involved with experiments into teleportation and has discovered that there is a startling side-effect to the process – that transportation from A to B involves passing through Hell itself. He has done a deal with the denizens of the underworld after unwittingly unleashing demons upon the base, and with personnel disappearing and strange accidents all over the place the UAC is getting edgy and shipping in more security. It’s up to you to find out exactly what is afoot and try to stop Betruger before he is able to lead the minions of hell away from Mars and on to Earth.

It sounds a bit cheesy, but throughout the game the story is actually pretty well fleshed out, and is given more depth though the player accessing audio, video and text logs of scientists stationed in the base. Intrinsically these logs are designed to give the player codes that he needs to access systems and open weapons lockers, but the majority of the messages and logs the player experiences are “slice of life” commentaries – staff complaining about their colleagues, organising socials, bemoaning red tape, or commenting on their nervousness about the mysterious things happening in the base.

But, whilst the plot and back-story are certainly interesting, sadly the gameplay itself is not. When id remade Doom, they made a conscious decision to stay true to the gameplay of the original – otherwise it would not truly be Doom. Unfortunately, what they forgot is that standard gameplay mechanics for first-person shooters had evolved past the old-skool basic run and gun, circle-strafe mentality. Without any real application of tactical thinking or complex enemy behaviour, Doom3’s play seems stale, stifled and, quite often, boring. The first few times you meet a new combatant, you learn their stiff and predictable behaviours, and how to avoid their fire. Unless you are being shot at by a zombiefied Space Marine, you are usually having something thrown or fired at you slowly. Simply step out of the path of the incoming rocket/plasma ball, step back, fire, rinse and repeat. Fighting bosses is simply a case of run around the outside of a room, and stay in cover until he is between shots and you can fire back.

Also not helping the gameplay are the weapons – for the most part, they sound weak and feeble – whoever chose the lame Buck Rogers pew! pew! pew! firing sound for the plasma rifle should be taken out and shot. With a much louder weapon. Gunplay is drab and lifeless. Without auto-aim the controls are not responsive enough to allow you to accurately aim for the head without lots of wasted ammo, and with auto-aim you usually end up hitting the torso – which requires more hits to score a kill. Weapon effectiveness does not scale well either – traditionally the later you get the weapon, the more powerful it should be, but some of the later weapons in this game feel far too weak.

And, finally, the damn flashlight. You have a flashlight as a separate item, and cannot hold a weapon at the same time. And as the game is 95% shin-banging-on-the-table dark, this is a real pain in the ass, especially when most enemies appear without warning. I can understand the mechanic – to intensify the creepiness of the game – but in reality, and over the course of the whole game, it is a pain. And, simply put, the idea that this far in the future there are no weapons with flashlights is simply absurd and exposes the mechanic to accusations of silly contrivance.

You would think that the dark, tight corridor nature of the game would smooth this rough edge a little, and at first it does. The first time you walk down a dark corridor and a panel flies off the wall, you jump. The first time this happens and a dude leaps out of the hole, you jump some more. But after a while, the way enemies appear becomes formulaic. If there is an Imp spawning in front, you know there’ll be one behind. Once you see the developers’ patterns (“oh look, a big fat healthpack right in the middle of a room. What could possibly go wrong here?”) it becomes old.

And sadly, even though the oppressive gloom and bleak corridors combined with the excellent ambient and environmental audio, work perfectly to put you on edge and spook the living shit out of you, even this backfires, for it does not take long before it becomes tiring, and straining to see through the dark becomes hard work. And when I say tiring, I mean literally. The atmosphere is so immersive that you really to feel in the game, and eventually you really will start to feel anxiety and fear and stress. In a single level in a game, this is great. But when it is hour after hour, for the whole damn game, you physically feel like shit and depressed, and have to bail out and take a break. It’s just too much. I started to look upon playing as a chore.

 So, so far we have great to look at, but dull to play (knew a girl like that once…). What about multiplayer?

Sadly, I have no idea as I went online and there was ONE guy sat in a game. Some poor bastard who probably sits there like a spider waiting for some other poor soul to stop by.

There is one awesome feature that I have to point out though – online co-op. Co-op is not supported on a single console, but IS supported over Xbox Live. The fact that this was included when other big-league titles of the time said it couldn’t be done – especially considering the amount of work the console is doing to render the mind-blowing graphics – is astounding. The campaign is pretty much the same, although you are presented with the levels to play as you wish. Interestingly, cutscenes and dialog reflect the change in player numbers and no longer reference a single marine, which is a nice touch.

So, to wrap up. In so many ways Doom 3, like Riddick is an astounding graphical tour-de-force that shows exactly what the original Xbox was capable of, and exposes just how few developers ever tapped into that. Like Riddick it has an incredible depth of thought behind its visual design and creation, and has an engaging story.

Sadly, unlike Riddick, it also staggers around fettered by old-school gameplay, poor AI, feeble and uninteresting weaponry and the unusual game design mechanic of making the player feel like the game wants to take their gaming soul and rip it out of their ass, chew it up, spit it out and grind it into the dust with a well-worn cloven foot.

Which kinda sucks.

Dogsounds’ score: 6/10 – because no matter how pretty the game, if I don’t want to play it, that’s 99% of the reason for my purchase gone.

Los motores gráficos o “Engines” son la base gráfica y conceptual de los first person shooters. Aunque se podría afirmar que el primer título que utilizó ese concepto y prácticamente definió el género fue Wolfenstein 3d, realmente habría que remontarse a 1991 con Ultima Underworld para descubrir el primer juego que utilizaba una vista en primera persona y una representación gráfica tal y como fue definida hace años para los fps, pero el señor John Carmack (a quien mentaremos muy a menudo en este artículo) afirmó que era capaz de crear un motor mucho más potente, rápido y versátil que aquel. Y así nació Wolfenstein. Y Doom. Y Quake… y seguimos contando.

Doom Engine:

No hay más remedio que nombrar en primer lugar al título que redefinió el género de los fps y le dio el empujón necesario para convertirse en la institución que es actualmente. El gurú de la programación John Carmack ideó un sistema de generación de gráficos que a ojos del jugador parecían entornos en tres dimensiones, pero no era más que una ilusión generada a partir de un mapa plano en dos dimensiones “solevado”.

En 1993 apareció Doom, y tanto este como sus secuelas utilizaban un revolucionario sistema de creación de entornos. En él, los niveles están estructurados en vértices, sectores, sidedefs (o caras de un sector) y cosas (“things”) para representar los enemigos y objetos. Los vectores que se definen a la hora de crear un mapa están unidos por sidedefs, que forman las paredes del decorado. Los sectores son figuras geométricas cerradas que forman habitaciones, y cada uno de sus lados genera la pared que luego vemos en el juego, a la que se le pueden asociar texturas. Igualmente, las habitaciones están delimitadas además de por las paredes por un suelo y un techo al que se le puede modificar la altura.

"Doom 2"

Todo este entramado geométrico es dibujado en pantalla utilizando el particionado binario del espacio (BSP ó Binary space partitioning), que no es más que un algoritmo de dibujado de gráficos que divide el proceso en un árbol binario que organiza la construcción del mapa de forma jerárquica para que el renderizado de los gráficos en pantalla sea eficiente y se dibuje de forma correcta con respecto a la posición de la cámara.

El único impedimento de todo este sistema era evidentemente la imposibilidad de utilizar la tercera dimensión y la colocación de unos sectores sobre otros en el eje Z, pero con un buen hacer en el diseño de los mapas se podía engañar con facilidad al jugador. Carmack, John Romero y el resto de su equipo crearon esta maravilla de la programación con los recursos de la época, que fue tan solo la punta del iceberg dado lo que estaba por venir.

"Sir John Carmack"

En 1995 se lanzó al mercado Doom 2, sin mejoras en el motor pero añadiendo más monstruos y armas, así como Ultimate Doom, que tan solo era un compendio de nuevos mapas. El Doom Engine también pue utilizado por otros juegos de Id Software, como Heretic y Hexen, así como otros títulos como Strife o el curioso HacX, una “Total Conversión” de Doom 2 que fue vendida como juego independiente.

Quake Engine:

Tras la marcha de John Romero de Id Software, John Carmack fue el encargado de volver a revolucionar el género de los fps con un motor gráfico que daría un enorme salto cualitativo de lo visto hasta entonces. A mediados de 1996, Quake salió a la calle, con una repercusión mayor incluso que la que supuso Doom en su campo. Por primera vez estábamos ante un juego de estas características verdaderamente en 3d, donde se habían suplido los sprites planos de los enemigos por modelos tridimensionales, así como unos escenarios totalmente poligonales que verdaderamente usaban la tercera dimensión con diferentes planos de altura. El motor estaba programado en C y su vertiente orientada a objetos, pero Carmack ideó un sublenguaje llamado QuakeC para agilizar la programación de ciertas partes, por lo que se facilitó la edición del juego tanto de cara a los propios desarrolladores como más tarde la comunidad amateur.

"El primer Quake"

Otra de las novedades fue la utilización de fuentes de luz que interactuaban con los modelos en tiempo real, mejora que unida a la estética futurista/macabra marca de la casa dotaron a Quake de una ambientación terrorífica que lograba sobresaltarnos cada vez que doblábamos una esquina.

Para poder mover todo esto en un vetusto Pentium Carmack ideó varios métodos de generación de terrenos que aligerabam el procesamiento gráfico por parte de la cpu. Uno de ellos fue la reducción de la complejidad de los escenarios para mostrar exclusivamente las caras de los polígonos que ve el jugador. Para ello, en el preprocesamiento de los escenarios se calculan las partes del entorno que no podrían ser vistas, dejando solo las caras visibles y reduciendo el número de vértices totales. En la imagen siguiente imagen se puede ver mejor el sistema utilizado.

Otro de los trucos utilizados consistía en el uso y gestión del Z-buffering para ocultar los objetos que no son visibles por haber secciones que ocultan su visión. Así, por ejemplo, era muy común ver en Quake que las salas de gran tamaño estaban separadas entre ellas por pequeños pasillos, esto se usaba para que el procesador no cargara las habitaciones contiguas hasta que fueran visibles, por lo que al existir pasillos pequeños que las conectaban, hasta que no se cruzaran no se podían ver las habitaciones anexas.

También se realizaron grandes avances en el juego multijugador, que aunque en un principio solo se orientó para su uso en red local, Carmack se sacaría de la manga el sistema QuakeWorld, que mejoraba la latencia de los jugadores al jugar de forma remota rescribiendo todo el código relacionado con el juego en red, ya que en un principio Quake no estaba pensado para ello. Gracias a este avance y la expansión de la red hacia la gran masa de usuarios que comenzaron su andadura online en los 90, comenzó a extenderse el juego por red en los videojuegos, hasta el punto de que QuakeWorld traía un programa de gestión de partidas para agilizar la entrada en partidas llamado QuakeSpy, que después pasaría a llamarse GameSpy, ¿os suena?

Existen muchísimos más avances y curiosidades dignas de mención, como que gracias al él existió la posibilidad de usar por primera vez las por aquel entonces novedosas tarjetas gráficas en la versión optimizada para ello del juego, el GLQuake, o que la banda sonora fue a cargo de Trent Reznor, el músico creador de Nine Inch Nails, pero todo esto daría para un solo artículo, así que con lo aquí expuesto ya se puede hacer uno la idea de lo que supuso Quake para la industria del videojuego.

"Quake 2"

Versiones modificadas del Quake Engine y el utilizado en su secuela fueron usados también por Hexen 2, Sin o el polémico Daikatana de John Romero, además de servir como base para la creación del motor usado por VALVe para su primer Half-Life, el Goldsrc Engine.

Tras el éxito de Quake, en 1997 vio la luz su secuela, mejorando el motor original y añadiendo el soporte nativo para el uso de OpenGL. Se volvió a dar un paso de gigante de cara a su antecesor, y gracias a las capacidades de los ordenadores de la época se pudo mejorar el apartado gráfico y el detalle en los modelos y escenarios.

Dos años después con la salida de Quake 3: Arena se alcanzó la consagración de la saga en cuanto al juego online, ya que estaba prácticamente orientado su uso en modo multijugador, por lo que no existía una campaña individual ni una historia concreta, y todo consistía en enfrentarse a varios contrincantes en escenarios cerrados, acercándose a la filosofía de su rival, la saga Unreal Tournament.

Esta vez no se incluyó el soporte para su ejecución por software, por lo que se requería una tarjeta aceleradora 3d para jugar. Los gráficos del juego se basan en el uso intensivo de shaders para aplicar diferentes efectos y funcionalidades dividiendo el modelado de personajes y escenarios en capas. Además, por primera vez se utilizaron splines para representar superficies curvas. Como siempre, una ristra de novedades en el motor se presentaron con él, como el sistema de física y gravedad que caracteriza al juego haciéndolo tan frenético, o la aparición en los escenarios de portales de teletransporte, niebla, efectos de reflejo o la división de los personajes en diferentes secciones, que propiciaron las salvajes explosiones de los cuerpos al ser impactados por un arma de gran calibre.

"Quake 3: Arena"

El Quake 3 Engine fue utilizado por Lucasarts para su saga Jedi Knight, o la gente de Infinity Guard para sus primeros Call of Duty. También se usó para resucitar una vieja franquicia con Return to Castle Wolfenstein o para el segundo Soldier of Fortune, pero sin duda el motor de Carmack es de los más extendidos en las comunidades de jugadores y de desarrollo de mods gracias a que Id ha ido liberando el código de sus motores con el paso de los años bajo licencia GPL, por lo que existen un sinfín de ports para casi todas las plataformas. Deberían seguir su ejemplo todas las compañías.

Unreal Engine

1998 fue un gran año para los fps. Además de la salida de Half-Life y la consagración de Quake 2, pudimos asistir a la creación de un motor tan práctico como rentable para sus creadores. Epic Games fue la encargada de su creación para el desarrollo del videojuego Unreal.

Por primera vez veíamos en un videojuego escenarios que se acercaban peligrosamente al fotorealismo. Los enormes entornos naturales que se podían ver rompieron con la clásica estética urbana y futurista de los títulos que se habían visto hasta entonces. Un correcto renderizado de modelos con una carga poligonal considerable, un sistema de colisiones simple pero efectivo, una inteligencia artificial para los enemigos bastante buena y un buen rendimiento para el juego online consagraron al juego y dieron vía libre a la continuación de la franquicia con la saga Unreal Tournament.

La compañía decidió sacar partido a su engine, por lo que se puso a disposición de otras compañías la licencia para su uso en otros juegos. Así, la primera versión del Unreal Engine ha sido utilizada en una veintena de títulos, algunos tan conocidos como Deus Ex o el Clive Barker’s Undying, así como en la edición de Unreal Tournament del 99, aunque para estos últimos se realizaron pequeñas mejoras que hicieron evolucionar al motor a su versión 1.5.

"Unreal"

La segunda versión del Unreal Engine nació en el desarrollo de Unreal Tournament 2003. Para ello se reescribió casi desde cero el código original y se incluyeron nuevas funcionalidades como el sistema de física Ragdoll o nuevos algoritmos de colisiones para su uso en vehículos para Unreal Tournament 2004. Además, se adaptó el motor para poder ser portado a las consolas, de ahí que vieramos algunas entregas de la saga Tournament en PS2, Xbox o Dreamcast. Igualmente, otro buen puñado de juegos lo utilizaron, y esta vez sí que fue extendido su uso para títulos realmente conocidos, como la sagas sagas de Tom Clancy’s y sus Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon 2 o Raimbow Six 3. Postal 2, Lineage 2 o el propagandístico America’s Army tambien hacen uso de él. Ubisoft fue la que mejor amortizó la compra, usándolo en gran cantidad de sus juegos.

La hegemonía del Unreal Engine 2 y su actualización a 2005 tuvo uso desde el 2002 hasta el 2006, año en el que se presentó la tercera versión de su motor utilizada en muchos títulos de la actual generación de consolas. Su uso está orientado a DirectX9 y 10, así como las consolas Xbox 360 y Playstation 3. En él se incluyeron las funcionalidades de los nuevos tiempos, como el HDR, sombras e iluminación dinámica y el Normal Mapping, evolución del Bump Maping para el sombreado de modelos. Además, se suple el anterior sistema de colisiones arrastrado desde la primera versión por el nuevo PhysX, así como la implementación de un nuevo sistema de animación facial y sincronización labial.

"Unreal Tournament 2003"

Actualmente motor es el más avanzado y utilizado por los fps en consolas, y gracias a él se han producido joyas contemporaneas como Bioshock o Gears of War, así como la edición de Unreal Tournament del año pasado, además de otros tantos títulos. Como en anteriores versiones, con cada nuevo juego se implementan nuevas funcionalidades y mejoras, por lo que en el próximo Gears of War 2 veremos el debut de la versión 3.5. El cuento de nunca acabar, pero que siga así muchos años.

Valve: Goldsrc y el motor source

Sin duda, el motor más fructífero para sus creadores. En 1998, con Quake 2 y Unreal como los reyes de los fps en la época, VALVe Sofware lanzó al mercado Half-Life en noviembre de ese año. La compañía fue fundada en 1996 por Gabe Newell y Mike Harrington, empleados de Microsoft con muchas tablas a sus espaldas e importantes aportaciones en diferentes distribuciones del sistema operativo Windows.

Para la creación de Half-Life se utilizó como base la variante para el juego multijugador del Quake engine de Carmack, el QuakeWorld, pero que modificado con tino dio lugar a uno de los motores más estables y versátiles que se han creado: El Goldsrc. Sus bondades son casi incontables, la posibilidad de trabajar tanto con Direct3D como con OpenGL, unos requerimientos ínfimos para la época en comparación con lo que era capaz de mostrar en pantalla y unas posibilidades enormesa la hora de mostrar eventos de activación en pantalla que a día de hoy se ha convertido en marca de la casa.

"Half-Life"

La gran maniobra de VALVe dio pie a la creación un sinfín de expansiones y variantes del título original, algunos realizados por ellos mismos y otros por third-parties. Opposin Force y Blue Shift fueron creadas por Gearbox Software como expansiones del título original, que ampliaban el argumento del juego original con nuevos puntos de vista del suceso de Black Mesa, pero el verdadero éxito del programa fueron los juegos independientes multijugador que redefinieron el género para su uso online y que a día de hoy sigue siendo el título más jugado fue sin duda Counter-Strike, seguido de Day of Defeat, que despertó el interés por el combate histórico y las representaciones de la segunda guerra mundial, abriendo el camino para futuros títulos similares como las sagas Medal of Honor y Call of Duty.

La versatilidad de Goldsrc permitía extrapolar el motor a casi cualquier género y temática, y dado que junto a Half-Life se proporcionaban las herramientas de desarrollo para la creación de mods de forma totalmente gratuita, fue cuestión de tiempo que se formara una gran comunidad amateur que desarrollara ampliaciones y juegos independientes de toda índole. Otro punto a favor de VALVe.

Varios años después y casi sin avisar, el anunciamiento de un nuevo Half-Life fue realizado en el E3 del año 2003, con la presentación de un nuevo engine totalmente nuevo que iba a volver a revolucionar a la industria. El Motor Source estaba en camino, aunque hubo un pequeño traspiés a la hora de su salida ya que se filtró el juego en la red, por lo que se rehicieron y mejoraron partes del juego para que su venta no se viera afectada por este problema, por lo que al final, acabó saliendo en 2004.

"Half-Life 2"

El motor fue concebido para correr en DirectX 9, con un uso magistral de shaders que permite efectos dinámicos de luz y sombras, que unidos a la construcción de terrenos minimizando costes al usar texturas y modelos de baja resolución en la lejanía, se pudo volver a disfrutar de unos increíbles gráficos con unos requerimientos mínimos. Otras características son la sincronización labial y la gesticulación facial de los modelos, una representación del agua fotorealista o una gran capacidad para el uso de filtros como antialiasing y demás filtrados, pero principal atractivo del nuevo motor fue la inclusión del sistema de física Havok, que dotaba a los objetos de un comportamiento realista a la hora de interactuar con ellos acorde a su masa y peso.

Para no quedarse atrás, VALVe añadió más funcionalidades al motor con la salida de los siguientes capítulos de la saga como el Episode 1 y los nuevos títulos anexos aunados en el Orange Box, de reciente factura. La estrella indiscutible de las expansiones fue el HDR, así como el Motion Blur aplicado al giro de cámara y la ampliación de nuevos horizontes gráficos con el estilo cartoon de Team Fortress 2.

"Team Fortress 2"

De todas formas, y en este caso particular, los juegos creados por VALVe, aunque técnicamente sean una maravilla, sustentan todo su éxito en el desarrollo de ideas innovadoras, argumentos absorbentes y personajes carismáticos, demostrando una vez más que por muchos adelantos tecnológicos que se produzcan, el verdadero éxito se consigue con una base jugable sobria y un correcto equilibrio entre innovación y diversión.

Engines y más engines:

Estos no son ni mucho menos los únicos engines comerciales que existen, y se quedan en el tintero un buen puñado de ellos que posiblemente den para otro artículo, como el Lithtech de Monolith y Microsoft, que en sus sucesivas versiones ha servido de base para medio centenar de juegos, el propio motor de Wolfenstein 3D que fue utilizado en otros tantos o el espectacular CryEngine que ha parido joyas del fotorealismo y la estética como Far Cry o el todopoderoso Crysis. En definitiva, los motores gráficos son la piedra angular de los fps, una base en la que se sustentan los juegos y definen su forma de plantearlos. Cada vez vemos físicas y comportamientos más realistas, escenarios más fieles a la realidad y argumentos dignos de una película de Hollywood.

Han pasado 15 años desde que apareció Doom, y las diferencias entre este y los títulos actuales saltan a la vista. ¿Qué encontraremos dentro de otros 15 años? ¡Ardo en deseos por saberlo!

Вероятно знаеш (или поне си чувал), че id Software са пионерите на гейм модификациите за PC, като една от най-характерните черти на компанията доскоро бе свързана с горещата подкрепа на всякакво съдържание, дело на феновете и дообогатяващо материята на техните заглавия.

Факт.

Но само до преди време.

В интервю за Next-Gen, разработчикът от екипа на id, Мат Хуупър, коментира, че е голям привърженик на юзър кънтента, но отскоро той далеч не представлявал приоритет за компанията.

Цитирам (вече дословно):

"Нашата най-голяма цел е да акцентираме върху визията и геймплея на бъдещите си заглавия. Тези два фактора са от изключително значение. В момента правим неща, с които никога преди не сме се занимавали. Що се отнася до т.нар. "потребителско съдържание", то съвсем не представлява приоритет за компанията на този етап".

Браво бе, Матю!

Потупай Кармак по рамото от мое име.

В момента id правели неща, с които никога преди не били се занимавали.

Като какво например?

Включването на сюжет? Фенерче? Оръжия различни от пистолет и пушка? Противници различни от зомбита или демони?

Наистина ми е любопитно.

Защото въпреки че дълбоко уважавам компанията и това, че години наред представляваше отражение на думата "иновативност", от известно време насам id не спират да се дънят. Превърнаха се в посредствен разработчик.

Безупречни в това, което правят, но въпреки това

посредствени.

Преди години всеки се възползваше от "гъвкавостта" на техните енджини, а сега id Tech 4 лежи дълбоко заровен, осъден на всевечно забвение.

А знаеш ли защо?

Именно заради липсата на юзър френдли дивелъпмънт инструменти.

Ето защо.

Human Head и Raven, да речем, се справиха само защото дълго време са работили съвместно с id.

Никой друг не пожела да се занимава с "дървения" им енджин.

Има и друга причина за краха на id.

Жанрът на пуцалките от първо лице отдавна не е същият.

Той непрекъснато търпи трансформации.

Разработчиците залагат на разнообразието - дълбок сюжет, тясно свързан със случващото се на екрана, оръжия с повече от един режим на стрелба и т.н.

id Software просто изостават.

Лъч светлина в тунела представлява единствено Rage - техният най-нов проект.

Любопитен микс, съчетаващ шуутър с драйвинг елементи. Играта ще ползва техния най-нов енджин, следващият от серията - id Tech 5.
Ако не знаеш за какво иде реч, ето ти една кратка презентация:

Друг е въпросът, че тази комбинация в никакъв случай не представлява нещо невиждано. Веднага се сещам за цели три подобни концепции: Boiling Point: Road to Hell (позната още и като Xenus), Half-Life 2 и Far Cry.

С това списъкът далеч не се изчерпва, естествено.

Малко се поотклоних от основната тема.

Изводът ми е следният: ако id зарежат юзър кънтента в името на една по-висша цел (иновативност) - отлично! Толкова по-добре за компанията.

Друг е въпросът, че хора като Филип, да речем, са абсолютното доказателство, че креативността най-често се крие именно в ръцете на модърите.

Neben den vielen Abstürzen gibt es beim iPhone Doom noch ein Problem: Die Tastatur fehlt! :D 

Since the original announcement of Resident Evil 5 nearly three years ago, the game's release date has been shrouded in more mystery than the shady doings of the series' nefarious Umbrella Corporation. However, Capcom has now shed a little light on the game's release date in a business strategies presentation follow-up to its fiscal 2007 results, announced earlier this week. In a section on the publisher's projections for its fiscal 2008 year (which runs until March 31, 2009), Capcom said it "aims to sustain solid growth by introducing Resident Evil 5 and titles in other core franchises." The publisher broke down a few of its sales expectations, with the next installment in the survival horror franchise projected to sell 2.3 million copies worldwide. The upcoming Bionic Commando revamp is expected to sell 1.5 million units worldwide, while Lost Planet: Colonies' success is pegged at 610,000 copies. Capcom also touted its Monster Hunter franchise, which is exceptionally popular in Japan. Monster Hunter Freedom 2G for the PlayStation Portable was launched in March, and the publisher expects the Asia-only release to rack up 1.5 million in sales in its first year on shelves.

More ill-tidings for E3 Media & Business Summit runners the Entertainment Software Association today. It has confirmed with id Software that it will not be renewing its membership with gaming-industry representative body the Entertainment Software Association. Following initial confusion over id's E3 presence, the ESA revealed earlier this week by omission that id Software has yet to sign on to this year's show, which runs July 15-17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Earlier this month, long-time id Software publisher Activision and its soon-to-be merged partner Vivendi Games initiated the ESA exodus by revealing they would not be renewing their membership dues and had no intention of attending this year's show. Activision Blizzard were then followed out the door by LucasArts, though the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed publisher said it still plans on attending the ESA's annual gaming exhibition.Speculation over what has inspired the growing unrest over the ESA reached a fever pitch earlier this week when it was revealed through tax documents that the lobbying group had forfeited nearly $5.4 million in event-cancellation fees to move E3 from LA to Santa Monica in 2007. The IRS filing also indicated that ESA membership fees had spiked from about $1 million in 2006 to roughly $4.5 million in 2007 as a result of the dramatic down-scaling of its revenue-generating trade show.

Ubisoft's second annual Ubidays showcase is hitting the Louvre museum in Paris next week. In preparation for the mega-studio's event, it's launched a new video portal called uPlay, to showcase its upcoming line-up. The portal will officially launch on May 29, during the second day of Ubidays, but there are six videos already available including one with JC Guyot, creative director on the new Prince of Persia game, who unveils a speed drawing of one of the prince's supporting character, Elika. There's also a link to a locked trailer that, while pixelated, also appears to be Prince of Persia related. Far Cry 2 producer L.P. features in a short welcome video to tell fans the FC2 development team will be at Ubidays and that the game "might be on display and, actually, it might even be playable on different platforms." Other videos include the quirky Rabbids Secrets to Health and Happiness, starting one of those pesky rabbids and the Wii Balance Board, hinting at a possible Rayman game in development for Wii, while Dedication and Responsibility focus on snowboarding, which is no doubt a nod to Ubisoft's upcoming Shaun White Snowboarding game. A Tom Clancy's EndWar trailer entitled The Power of the Voice, promotes the fact that the game will be "playable entirely with voice command" and Invitation features Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford, who will show a new trailer and gameplay footage from Brothers In Arms Hell's Highway at Ubidays. In addition to the trailers, the "opening conference will be broadcast live on www.uplay.com on Wednesday 28th May at 7:00pm Paris time [6:00pm GMT, 10:00am PT]," according to a statement from the publisher.

The Resident Evil and Street Fighter series have both already been made into movies, but Capcom wants to see more of its game properties coming to Hollywood. In an interview with Bloomberg, Capcom president and chief operating officer Haruhiro Tsujimoto confirmed that the company was in talks to adapt other game properties into celluloid, but he refused to name them. He said, "We are in the process of working out contracts for several offers we received at the Cannes Film Festival last week and hope to make an announcement soon. If realized, the projects will have a big impact on the game and movie industries." Tsujimoto added that, "We want to do with games what Marvel did with comics," referencing the success of the numerous Spider-Man and X-Men film adaptations. Three previous movies have already been based on Capcom's zombie-killing survival horror franchise Resident Evil (known as Biohazard in Japan). A second Street Fighter-inspired film, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is currently in development, slated for release in early 2009. Other Capcom properties that could become movies include the successful Devil May Cry series, Breath of Fire, Lost Planet, Bionic Commando, Viewtiful Joe, Mega Man, and Phoenix Wright.

The writing has been on the wall for some time that Take-Two would be releasing its award-winning BioShock on Sony's PlayStation 3. Speculation that 2K Boston/Australia's praised dystopian shooter based on the literary stylings of Ayn Rand would land on both current-generation consoles was sparked by the game's initial announcement for "PCs and next-generation consoles." However, tangible evidence didn't come until the game's launch in August, when a reference to BioShock on the PS3 turned up in a demo for the PC game. The possibility of BioShock zapping PS3s was further fueled in April, when BioShock 2 developer 2K Marin indicated that it was hiring level designers that had experience developing for Sony's flagship console. Today, confirmation of the game's PS3 debut has finally arrived by way of the cover of the July issue of UK-based gaming magazine PSM3. (The news on the cover was spotted by Computer & Video Games.) Although details on the PS3 edition of BioShock have yet to surface, the cover of the PlayStation-centric magazine states, "Proof why Xbox's best shooter is better on PS3," indicating that some content additions will be made. Thus far, the only updates to the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game were new gene-therapy-induced plasmid powers and stat-enhancing tonics, which arrived in December. In March, embattled Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick officially confirmed that BioShock 2 was in development at the publisher's newly formed 2K Marin studio. No platforms for the sequel to last year's hit have been announced, but Take-Two expects the game to arrive during the fourth quarter of its 2009 fiscal year, which runs from August 1 to October 31, 2009.

In November, Xbox Live Arcade product manager Jeremy Wacksman said that Microsoft had no plans to cull the constantly growing catalog of games available on the Xbox 360's digital distribution service. Plans have apparently changed. Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten has told trade site Next-Gen in an interview that Microsoft would be "delisting" underperforming games. To become a potential candidate, a game would need to have an average Metacritic score below 65, be at least six months old, and have a conversion rate (the percentage of demo downloaders who go on to buy the full product) of less than 6 percent. Microsoft will also give a three-month heads-up when it plans to yank a game from the service. That isn't the only change in the works, according to Whitten. The size limit for games is going up from 150MB to 350MB, and in lieu of a spring dashboard update, Microsoft is instead addressing a common complaint regarding digital-rights management (DRM) on Live Arcade games. Next month, Microsoft will release a tool that lets users consolidate all of their purchases onto their most current console. At the moment, Live Arcade games are tied to the console on which they were purchased, so if a customer needs to replace that system or buys a new one, previously purchased Live games will only work if the user is logged onto Xbox Live with the GamerTag that originally purchased them. Finally, Microsoft will be starting up a first-party studio devoted to developing exclusive Xbox Live Arcade games.

Last week, Nintendo of America said it would be adding metallic pink to the Nintendo DS's regularly available color palette later this year. With America Ferrera and Carrie Underwood signed on to promote the newest pink DS, Nintendo seems to be targeting the female-gamer sect with its latest hue. Today, Disney Interactive Studios said it, too, had the girls in mind, announcing Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell will be available on the DS this holiday. As the name suggests, Tinker Bell of Peter Pan fame will be the focus of the game, and it will feature "dozens" of other fairies from the Disney universe, including Silvermist, Iridessa, and Fawn. Players will be able to explore the fantasy world of Pixie Hollow, and gameplay will revolve around time-based challenges and minigames. Players will also be afforded a range of clothing and other customization options, and the title will support Disney's DS networking service DGamer. Also for the casual-gaming crowd, Sega today announced PictoImage will arrive on the DS this August. Billed as a "pick-up-and-play puzzle game," PictoImage lets up to eight players compete in drawing challenges across eight different modes. While the game will primarily have a party-game focus, it will also include single- and two-player modes, where players take turns guessing an image from a selection of more than 300 drawings.

ID software acaba de anunciar que el comienzo de desarrollo de Doom 4 acaba de iniciar , el trabajo hasta el día de hoy ha sido manejado en secreto por el cual ninguno de nosotros nos pudimos dar cuenta .

Doom 4 no tiene por el momento ningún detalle , Excepto una oferta de trabajo que dice así : "Doom es parte del DNA de id Software y demanda las mayores y más brillantes mentes de la industria para la creación de una nueva entrega de nuestra franquicia bandera. Es crítico para id Software tener las mejores mentes creativas en nuestros estudios internos para la creación de juegos que mantengan los estándares de nuestros títulos" .

El juego llegara a PC, xbox 360 y Play Station 3.

también comentaron que están trabajando en el nuevo motor gráfico de ID SOFTWARE por lo cual podemos esperar un excelente trabajo en gráficas para este juego , también para remarcar la fecha , el próximo 31 DE JULIO de este presente año , se espera que den los primeros detalles , e incluso trailer de el apenas confirmado Doom 4 .

Via | Shacknews