Ubuntu Opportunistic Developers Week
Despite the fact that, under Game-Engine law, it is illegal to post on a Sunday it would really defeat the point if I didn’t post now. The reasoning behind this is because the start of next week (1st March) marks the beginning of the Ubuntu Opportunistic Developers week.
Essentially, the motivation behind it is to teach and encourage new developers to make quick applications for the Ubuntu platform that fill a specific niche. Why am I telling you this? Well, it’s because starting to develop for the Linux platform is confusing and the sessions offered at the developers week will give you the skills to become a GUI developer. I am certainly taking part, I already have an idea for an application knocking around in the back of my head and, after playing with some of the development toys, I am really looking forward to it.
The week will teach you how to use Quickly, PyGTK and the Python programming language to build your apps with elements such as persistent databases and graphics with PyGame.
Indigo Prophecy Murder Madness Episode 10
In this feature length 10th episode, we get much deeper into the story, focusing on discovering the source of Lucas’s dreams and premonition…and sorting out some murder thing that happened. We also go shooting with Carla as we investigate the last case to involve this kind of ‘ritual’ killing and Tyler thrillingly concludes his basketball bet. All that, plus a shower scene! Not to be missed
Why is the name UNIX so damn weird?
For the sake of irony, I'm really hoping this image doesn't 404.
There are some words today that are synonymous with the history of computing. These words may include Linux, GNU, BSD, Mac OS X, Darwin, Solaris, System V, etc. However, what these words have got in common is that they all include, or are related to in some way, the word UNIX. Linux is word play for ‘Linus’, the Linux kernels father, and UNIX; GNU is an acronym for ‘GNU is not UNIX’; BSD and System V were the first UNIX systems; Darwin and Mac OS X are UNIX system-like operating systems and the same is so for Solaris.
Unfortunately, people may know that the words are related to but what they don’t know is how the words are related. The current standard of the UNIX naming system are almost as confusing as the court battles that have been fought over it. The lines between what is and what is not UNIX is no longer over who made the system or what the system performs like but by certification.
Napoleon Total War Story trailer
Here is a gameplay trailer for Napoleon Total War, the next TW game, based on the Empire: Total War engine with a bit of spit and polish on their muskets. It focuses on the battles and campaigns fought by one of the world’s most successful, yet ultimately flawed military generals, Napoleon Bonaparte (funny that) and there are three campaigns to take part in, as explained in the video above. So get watching it!
Half way Review- Indigo Prophecy
Whilst we may be making constant fun of this game, we are enjoying it...at the moment
As my excitement for Heavy Rain (which happens to be on sale today) grows and we continue our Indigo Prophecy Murder Madness feature, I thought it may be time to cast a critical eye over what I think about Quantic Dream’s second title, before I do the same to it’s next game.
To start with, you’ve got to remember that IP is five years old, so on the surface may look a bit muddy, but let’s gloss over that and say that it gets the job done. When I came to picking a game to do a play through of, it was a relatively easy choice. Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, despite appearing on three platforms didn’t quite catch on to anything. A friend of mine played the demo and decided that whilst it was pretty cool, it wasn’t ‘gamey’ enough. I was intrigued, but only got a chance to play it recently.
Video of the Day: WarioWare DIY
We’ve got a lot of Nintendo stuff being shown for the first time, as yesterday’s Super Mario Galaxy 2 (in fact it’s been a pretty Wii dominated week) so today I’ve got a trailer for WarioWare DIY for the Wii. Not much information about this yet, but we’ll keep you posted.
Updated preview soon
Indigo Prophecy Murder Madness Episode 09
The next episode in our out of sync saga continues where it left of, with Tyler heading to the book store to ‘look at some books’ and Carla getting all stressed in a basement.
VOTD: Super Mario Galaxy 2
Today’s video of the day is this trailer for Super Mario Galaxy 2, fresh from Nintendo’s US Media Summit. The game is set to release in North American on the 23rd of May and going off this trailer you can expect much of the same as the original (i.e. running around tiny planets and between platforms in space). Perhaps the most exciting bit to any Mario fan is getting to see a bit of Yoshi action, who is apparently the next word in intergalactic space travel.
Steam coming to Mac?
I'm sorry this is such a boring image but, "OMGZ LUK OSX!!!!111!"
Popular game distribution and community tool Steam is rumoured to be heading to a Mac release, following uncovered files in one of the latest beta builds.
According to the image, originally posted in this thread, OSX named files have been found in the latest beta for Steam. Whilst there has been no confirmation of such, there has been various rumours regarding Valve’s status’ towards Apple’s Operating System, as well as toward Linux distributions.
The next big Steam release is moving the engine for browsing the store and community sections away from Trident, used primarily by the Internet Explorer browser and basically, what makes using Steam, even through methods such as WINE so difficult. They are now going to be using WebKit rendering engine, used in Mac OSX for a raft of applications as well as browsers, such as Safari and Chrome. This promises to improve speed, compatibilty and system stability. This is probably the first indicator of moving to other platforms.
Video of the Day: Red Steel 2 Hidden Moves
I played the first Red Steel on the Wii. It sucked. Sure, the idea of using a gun and a sword at the same time sounded awesome, but in practice, with the stodgy control schemes that didn’t quite work, it was like you were hobbling around, trying to miss every bad guy that game near. It was the game that, perhaps proved, that Wii technology just wasn’t accurate enough back at launch.
The original’s failure hasn’t stopped them from wanting to put out another, so here is a clip of Red Steel 2. Taking a more stylised graphical approach, it first of all seems to be a little bit easier on the eyes than the first and also more varied, with different environments (shouldn’t be praise, but again, play the first game). From this clip it also appears to not try and be anything it’s not i.e. super serious, as a dude with a samurai sword in one hand and a variety of gun in another isn’t going to be sensible picking headshots.
The big game breaker (literally) with this, is the control. If it is a little bit better than the last one, that won’t do. It needs to utilise the wii motion plus, allow as close as 1:1 motion as it allows and most important, make you forget you’re using a mote and the nunchuck and just have fun. Let us hope Ubisoft learnt their lesson…
