SoF3 not that good

It’s quite sad, according to several reviews Soldier of Fortune: Payback isn’t very good at all. Since it was created by a different  developer than its predecessors, it was to be expected, though. At least the dismemberment seems to up the ante in terms of gore, for all it’s worth.

Soldier of Fortune sequel confirmed

News from IGN

As I said in this post I’m lookin forward to a new Soldier of Fortune game. As luck will have it, Activision yesterday confirmed the development of a sequel. Unfortunately, it is not developed by Ravensoft but by a budget title developer. I hope they put real effort behind the title so that it can rightfully stand next to the old SoF titles and new FPS games like Crysis.

Tom Clancy’s EndWar

The game EndWar, currently in development at Ubisoft, implements an idea I mentioned in my “Games I’d like to see” about massively multiplayer war games. It includes a persistent online world where every player has his own army and front lines are continually moving. The game as a whole seems certainly interesting, however, it will unfortunately only be released for XBox360 and PS3.

Computer games I’d like to see (part 3)

5. Massively multiplayer war games
This is one of the genres that, I think, has not been created as of yet. I imagine either an RTS or an FPS (or a combination of both) experience in a massively multiplayer universe that takes place in a war of the worlds.

RTS style: Every new player would obtain a planet or a country and start his campaign to become the universe’s or planet’s leader from there. Kind of like current browser games work.
Like in Supreme Commander, you command all of your forces at once and can zoom out so that you can watch everything. It would be hard to control everything, but that would be the most interesting thing. You build units, control your forces, attack enemies, defend your territory, forge alliances with other players… Your progress is persistent of course. Your units will stay where you order them before you log out. A problem would be the defense of your territory while you are away but there certainly are possibilities to make things fair. Every player is essentially on the same map but you can only see what your reconnaissance units discovered, what your intelligence agency brought up or what your allies told you. There’s always a fight for resources and expansion is dangerous without proper planning… A whole concept would have to be far more exhaustive than this but it is one of my dream games and exists solely in my head.
To sum up, I would like to see a real time strategy massively multiplayer game which is a hybrid of Civilization, Supreme Commander, Risk and one of the thousands of browser games out there.

FPS style: You can choose to fight in one of several armies that all try to achieve world domination. You can fight in trenches with thousands of others at the same time. The scale would be like a real war. Everything happens at once. While you are running for cover from artillery fire, several hundred miles north, your fellow soldiers could advance further into enemy territory, taking over cities and important supply roads, for example. Front lines would shift constantly. You could, of course, travel there, although it would take very long on foot and you would probably be shot for disobeying orders There would also be planes and ships a team can control.
To sum up, it would be a recreation of a world war (possibly set in the future) and you would be a soldier in it. You would fight with thousands of others at the same time to create a dynamic experience.

Even better would be a combination of both. Some players would be the leaders and would lead the country RTS style. The troops would be controlled by other players FPS style and the outcome depends both on the skills of the commander and the skills of the soldiers. (How you give orders and how they must be followed is an issue, of course, but it can certainly be resolved)

Such full scale war games are of course utopian. They are not even on the horizon and maybe won’t even be created, ever. However, these are games that would be enormously fun, in my opinion.

Freedom to do anything?

Why are there so many murders and atrocities in this world when there is supposed to be a God, who is moreover generous and of good nature?
Religious persons often answer this question stating that God gives us the freedom to do anything we want, even cruel things. So we are apparently free to commit crimes or to act even against the rules and laws of the Bible itself.
This reasoning has a flaw, however. Since God actually punishes people for their crimes after their death, this “freedom” does not exist. When you point a gun to somebody’s head and tell him he is free to go anywhere he likes but you shoot him when he does, he is obviously NOT free.

But what if God did not punish people?
Then why would I have to follow the rules of the Bible, having nothing to fear? Rules and laws need an enforcer and if God did not play this role, rules would be pointless, since anybody could just bend and break them if he so desired, without a retribution. Murderers or rapists who are not caught by us humans could then avoid any kind of just judgment. How would that be fair?

To summarize:
If God indeed existed, there are several possibilities:
1.He punishes people who act against his will. Assuming the Bible really
reflects his ultimate will, those would be, among others, criminals,
sinners and even atheists. This would mean that humans are NOT free,
contrary to the sermons of his followers.
2. The Bible does NOT reflect God’s ultimate will. Maybe, he just
punishes murderers, rapists and other “really” bad persons? We would
still not be completely free, but we would be free on an acceptable
level. However, Christianity and Judaism would lose their raison
d’être. The Old and the New Testament would no longer be any kind of
justification since you could not discern the rules that reflect God’s
will and those that don’t. (In my opinion, the Bible cannot be the
fundament for anything, since it contains far too many flaws and
contradictions. Maybe I’ll dedicate a post to the flaws of the Bible
sometime later.)
3. He does not punish anyone, meaning there is no
divine judgment and no ultimate justice. Moreover, the problems of
point 2 still apply.

Bonus option:
4. God does not exist.
This is my favorite answer to almost everything, since it resolves so
many fundamental issues and questions. Furthermore, it does not have
flaws.

Computer games I’d like to see (part 2)

3. Dungeon Keeper 3
As far as I know this one was planned or even started but subsequently canceled. DK2 was a really great game. Being an evil leader ruling over vampires, trolls, goblins and several other evil creatures and trying to destroy the good ones was a very good concept. Execution also was very good and it I really enjoyed the game. Building a dungeon with torture chambers, sleep rooms and chicken farms in which the creatures swallowed whole, living chicken provided for long lasting fun. Throwing and slapping creatures around or sacrificing them in the temple and the overall humorous and self-ironic presentation could really make you laugh. (with hilarious nonsense messages telling you that your creatures want cable TV, for example) Using spells or traps to disrupt your enemy’s advancing forces (especially with the appropriately named Indiana Jones trap with a rolling rock) required strategic planning. One of the features  I miss the most from current RTS games is the ability to jump into the body of one of your creatures and control it around causing some havoc in your opponent’s headquarters, for example. Even switching to one of your imps and doing a little gold digging or exploring could keep you entertained for a long time. I think Battlestations Midway on the Xbox360 let’s you take control of your units, but I don’t know how well it is done or how useful it actually is. I’d really love to see this feature in more RTS games, however. A new iteration would have to feature improved graphics (of course), physics applied to the traps (that would be really awesome) and the old humor.

4. Ultima Online 2
There is a new Ultima Online in development and it is nothing more than a visual overhaul that doesn’t change gameplay. I don’t know if it is exactly what I wish for. I will simply explain the strong points of UO and it would probably suffice if someone created a new MMORPG with similar gameplay mechanics. I played Ultima Online Renaissance on two free shards and I rarely enjoyed a video game as much as UO. Both shards I played on were role playing oriented. Grinding was almost non-existent because even using the same skill for hours at a time, which was moreover disallowed, didn’t increase the skill in a significant way. The focus was on role-play and I spent more time going through dungeons, role playing with a friend than trying to grind my skills. We did very stupid things and were joking around with the surprisingly unrestrictive engine. I miss the skill system as I really do enjoy systems where you have to actually use a skill to advance in this category (I did enjoy Morrowind, for example) The player driven economy also was very intriguing as you could just buy the most basic items from NPCs. Most of the resources had to be gathered buy chopping wood or mining or, of course, by killing monsters. You didn’t have to team up to raid a dungeon. You just went there and probably found several others fighting against the mobs on the upper levels. Then you simply joined them and by a silent, mutual agreement you just went as far as you could together, sometimes without even exchanging more words than a “well done”. You got in, went to the dungeon and killed some mobs. Jump in, jump out. Since the skill system was based on using a skill, it didn’t matter whether you killed low level zombies or mummies or whatever. The crafting system was great and the possibility to buy your own home, tower, castle… is still not introduced in contemporary MMORPGs, I think. A better Ultima Online should have an improved graphics engine (which is probably coming this year) but the same isometric view (with a greater FOV, however) and more content. Official GMs should be allowed to do some funny stuff as on the free shards. There, they sometimes played a little with the players and started a mini quest or something like that.

Computer games I’d like to see (part 1)

My rig is too old to play the latest and greatest video games that were released in the last two years. However, I don’t think I really missed very much. Except perhaps Oblivion and a few others. I’m planning to buy a new computer when I finally go to university and hopefully, one of the games of my dreams will have been announced by then. I will add to the list the next few days.

In no particular order

1. Aliens vs. Predator 3
I played Aliens vs. Predator 2 and I really love the game. Its atmosphere is great and it combines survival horror with straight first person shooting. The story is great and offers a few twists and the suspense lasts till the very end. Above all, the three really distinct races provide for three different play styles. The Marine, as the name suggests, makes for traditional shooter gameplay. Weapons had several ammo types that could be used for different tactics. The pistol and the shotgun, for example, had armor piercing bullets useful especially against predators. The flamethrower is one of the weapons that is seen very little in current games, I think. The alien on the other hand provided a way to literally rip your opponents to pieces. Except for jumping in their faces, the alien had to go for melee attacks to get rid of an opponent. The possibility to walk on walls and ceilings, the unmatched speed of the aliens and the self-healing by eating corpses balanced this perfectly. The third race is the predator, who relies on high tech sci-fi weaponry. The returning disc could dismember opponents and remote bombs, the net thrower and the shoulder cannon could be used in several ways which enhanced tactical variety. The predator’s masks let you see marines, aliens or other predators more clearly. Moreover, all of your attacks and the predator’s self-healing device need energy which has to be regenerated in a rather slow process. These three races also work perfectly in multiplayer mode. It is one of those games we play (or played) at every LAN party (the last one was two years ago, sadly) that was genuinely fun. A sequel is a must. I’d love to see the same basic gameplay with improved mechanics and graphics and above all with a working physics engine (burning flamethrower liquid flowing realistically, as I saw on a video, for example).

2. Soldier of Fortune 3
This one was erroneously announced a year or so ago, but is not officially in development as of yet. The second installment was probably the best single player first person shooter I ever played (I didn’t like half-life very much). The story could be right out of a good book and the action was tense. The weapons and the overall realism (80 or so hit zones on one enemy) of the game hold strong even today, I think. I replay it every now and again just because I think it is so much fun. The enemy AI is also great, although I haven’t played any of the latest shooters and cannot comment on their AI. One of the infamous features of the Soldier of Fortune franchise is, of course, the realistic gore system. It might be putting some people off, but it has something to it that truly adds to the game play, in my opinion. Maybe I’m twisted, but I still think it as one of the best features of the game. I want a sequel with a story at least as good as the last one with even more realism and better graphics, obviously. It goes without saying that the gore system would also have to be improved. I’m looking forward to seeing physics applied to gore and blood. I imagine bullets going right through body tissue with blood splattering the walls behind the enemy and slowly running down. The blood could then collect in pools and flow slowly to some step and drip off or something. I just adds to the realism in a disturbing way.

Project Epoc Lets You Control Video Games With Your Mind

A company called Emotiv  showed off a new device that let’s you control a computer with your mind:

Picture

Being a tech freak, I’m very excited about the possibilities in this area. Being able to control computers simply with the power of mind would be great.

edit: Doing a little research at Wikipedia, I stumbled across the article about brain-computer interfaces. I never imagined research to be that advanced already. I never read about people being able to see after they were implanted BCIs.

edit2: An English article

Ban of violent video games? Video game branch wants to leave Germany

Branche will bei Totalverbot von Killerspielen auswandern

In case of a total ban of violent video games as proposed by conservative Bavaria, the video game branch wants to leave Germany.  Since conditions become worse and worse in Germany, the video game business will avoid Germany altogether if the ban passes parliament

As I said previously, such a ban seems unconstitutional which was already stated in America. In my opinion, threatening to leave Germany is the only possibility to protest against it.

Germany Wants EU to Ban Violent Games

Germany Wants EU to Ban Violent Games

I found this comment very funny and insightful:

“Ah, yes. Germany, where they limit freedoms and lock people up so that no one will come along and limit freedoms and lock people up.”

This simple description is surprisingly accurate.