Alternate title - Hanrealo : Combournament 3volved
I'm going to chalk up the one vote I got last night to the fact that I put the blog up too late and it got buried beneath everything else... So here it goes again:
I'm need of your help fellow D-Toiders.
You see, my friends and I have decided that we'd like to start up a game development studio and we affectionately call ourselves Odd Man Out Studios.
Before I start I'll let you all know that we are focusing all of our efforts on maps and mods for Unreal Tournament 3. (I'm sure Yojimbo is happy to hear that...)
Anyways, right now we're getting our stuff together and starting to get some work done together as a team so we can get a feel for the way we all work. Well we've decided that since we're all Halo fans, the best way to get started would be to remake a map from the Halo series.
So that's where you come in. We'd like you, the community, to decide which map we make. Here are our top five choices. Each person can chose 2 maps to vote for.
Prisoner Appeared in:Halo: Combat Evolved Proposed Gametypes Supported: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch
Screenshot:
Terminal Appeared in:Halo 2 Proposed Gametypes Supported: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag
Screenshot:
Narrows Appeared in:Halo 3 Proposed Gametypes Supported: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag
Screenshot:
The Pit Appeared in:Halo 3 Proposed Gametypes Supported: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch
Screenshot:
Valhalla Appeared in:Halo 3 Proposed Gametypes Supported: Capture The Flag, Vehicle Capture The Flag
Screenshot:
Obviously these won't be straight ports, we'll use many UT3 meshes and things to have that style, but the basic layout and such will be the same.
If you'd like to vote in the actual poll, you can head on over to our forums and register (Only registered users can access the "Official Projects" section) to participate. We will also be posting updates along the way over at our forums so, you can check the progress over there.
Also, the only person that voted was Y0j1mb0 and he chose Prisoner.
Yeah, I figured I'd try my hand at a "Shut the fuck up" as none other than Solid Snake himself. Yeah it sounds terrible... really really terrible, but whatever. It still counts as an entry.
On Friday I came home from school to see two packages in my mailbox and I got super excited. I had ordered some SNES games on Ebay the other day and I didn't expect them on Friday so that was a great surprise and on top of that, I got the prize I won from Unscripted 360.
So, I'd like to share them all with you (big versions in the gallery).
SNES Games. And god dammit, Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts is hard. I played for like 30 minutes and I still didn't make it past the first level.
My cool new faceplate that I won.
So yeah, I got some cool stuff in the mail on Friday.
That's right I'm at it again. I decided to finally get started on my next project for Unreal Tournament 3 and I've got a sneak peek for all your D-Toiders out there.
The tentative name is "DM-DreamFall". The screenshots don't really convey the feel of a dream and I really don't expect the map ever to, but the art style came to me in a dream so I thought it'd be a nice way to name the map.
So it's going to have this old town sort of feel to it where there's a lot of overgrown shrubbery on the buildings and such. There'll be a pair of buildings to go into to that will have multiple levels to them and some open windows looking out into a parking lot. Right now I'm thinking I'd have a sort of monorail track crashed in a few parts of level blocking off some paths that, if this place were real, would normally lead you to the aforementioned parking lot.
A little back story before I go on: These are sort of like the suburbs. It's more like the older parts of the city but they have a very welcoming feel to them. I haven't tried looking around yet, but I'd like to try and find somebody to work with me on the skydome to make it look like a futuristic city in the distance so you get even more of the feeling of being cast out from the development of the civilization.
So, I started the mapping with a little bit of housing. The architecture isn't very home-y feeling but when the city started to grow they turned some old warehouses and office buildings into homes.
So far these screens are just for a look at what the art style will be for the map. I'm hoping to get a lot of detail in with tons of foliage around. Right now you can see the grass next to the stoop and some of the roots from the little tree. The lighting is very greenish overall and I'm going to add a lot of yellow from point lights and like around the map (you can see a little bit on the porch in front of the house).
So, anyway, on to the screenshots. They show what will be a fountain eventually, and then the two houses. Oh, and if you click on them in the gallery you can see the huge 1920x1200 resolution versions. So, enjoy!
So I saw EDS' contest a while back when it was first posted and thought to myself, "Well there goes my shot at the points. I've got the money to buy some points when I want them."
Well I finally realized what it is I needed to write on...
College. So I'm going to be headed off to college a little early this year. I applied to Full Sail and the computer programming program and I'll be starting July 7th (07/07/08 Too bad I didn't start last year...) and as of right now I'm still running off my quickly diminishing supply of birthday money. I don't have a job (yeah I know I'm lazy) and school is crazy this time of year.
** Side anecdote ** This past week was Spring Break and I went to visit my cousins and my grandparents. Well I knew my grandma had an old SNES, and it's not even yellow which is awesome, and I figured I'd ask her if I could have it. She never plays it, she probably doesn't even know how to turn it on, but it's been sitting in one of the bedrooms for years. So I asked her and obviously she let me have it. That's what grandparents are for anyways, spoiling their grandchildren. Although I found it funny that she would tell me, "Don't ever throw it away." I'm thinking she's crazy for even considering that I'd throw it away. I loved the SNES as a kid and only recently realized how awesome it would be to have one back. I've wanted to start a collection of all of the awesome games from my childhood for a while now, and what better place to start than with a free Super Nintendo. ** End Anecdote **
So I bought myself some SNES games on EBay the other day and ended up using about $80 of the $200 or so I had left over from my November birthday. Along with some other little things here and there I'm down to about $80 in my bank account and I'm trying as hard as I possibly can to save it for Ninja Gaiden 2. I don't want to miss out on it.
So I'll be down to about nothing around that time and until then I probably won't get a job and if I do get one, most likely all of the money will be going to save for college (about $21,000 a trimester plus my apartment and utilities and food and such). So I'll be broke very, very soon.
But if I don't win it, at least I've still got those SNES games coming my way. Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts, Donkey Kong Country 2, and (just for kicks because my brother and I put many, many hours into this game...) NBA Jam. On top of that, I borrowed Final Fantasy XII from my cousin and still have Lost Odyssey to dig into (I'm at about the end of disc 1).
And with the free time I'd have not getting my ass handed to me by evil color coded enemies in Ikaruga I could finally get started on a new map for Unreal Tournament 3 so you PS3-ers can put it into the rotation.
For those of you that read my earlier post regarding Lost Planet:Colonies you'll know that there was very little information about it. Well now 1UP has posted a huge article detailing all of the new additions to the game.
First things first, the good news. The game will only cost $29.99. Makes a little easier to imagine shelling out the cash to pick it up.
The bad news? Save games and data from the original Lost Planet game will not be compatible with Colonies. You'll have to start your online leveling from scratch. The same goes for the singleplayer game. "Capcom's reasoning is that there's just too much new content in both single-player and multiplayer mode to reconcile the two versions." says 1UP's James Mielke.
Along with the new playable female in singleplayer will be the inclusion of Score Attack (Each enemy has a certain number of points attributed to them and you rack up a high score. Sounds like the arcade mode in Call of Duty 4 to me.), Trial Battle Mode (Basically a Boss Rush mode. You fight each boss battle in order.), and Off Limit Mode where players can use some of the stronger weapons with unlimited ammo and a faster movement speed.
All of the extra content included in the PS3 version will be making its way to Colonies as well. On top of that, 6 new multiplayer modes (Including a Humans vs. Giant Akrid mode) and 4 new maps are in the works. There's also the addition of seven new player models (two of which are female) and 2 new VS's. There are also quite a few new weapons for both in VS's and on foot. (All of which are detailed in the 1UP article linked to at the bottom of the page.)
And last but not lease, two new camera angles: A first person angle and a Resident Evil 4 style over-the-shoulder angle.
I was a little skeptical earlier today but I just may pick this one up on the PC.
For those who were doubting the new release earlier, has this new information changed your mind?
Yes folks it's true. The recently announced Lost Planet: Colonies is not what most people might think. Rather than a full blown sequel, Colonies is more of a "Special Edition"
"Famitsu has revealed the first details on Colonies, which features a new playable character (a girl in winter gear) and a wicked sounding online mode which has bugs and humans fighting it out."
Along with the new multiplayer mode comes the inclusion of cross-platform play. That's right, PC users can now play against 360 users in any of the online modes.
Along with the new game modes and characters the game will include:
- 4 New maps (2 of which can be seen in the Famitsu scan)
- Ten New weapons - New Monsters - Trial Battle and Score Attack modes for the campaign bosses
These details have only been confirmed for the Japan release. There's still no word on the European or US release.
Anybody interested in buying this game a second time?
We all know that Valve has been hard at work on some new Team Fortress 2 updates which include new achievements, maps and unlockables. Well, according to a user on the Valve forums the first announced unlockable weapon, the OverHealer, won't be making an appearance anytime soon... or ever for that matter.
He allegedly sent an email to Gabe Newell at Valve stating that he "loved to axe people and was a tad concerned regarding the planned overhealer unlock." What he got in return was this little email:
"Hi <my name>.
Sorry for the super late reply on this one. I’m getting a ways behind in my email right now.
Thanks a bunch for the long & detailed feedback. It’s always great to get feedback with this amount of time & thought put into it. We’re still thinking about the relationship between the Pyro & the core combat classes, in particular that of the Pyro & the Soldier. We’ve tried a couple of things in our internal playtests, but haven’t found anything we like enough to ship yet. The recent update to the flamethrower with the audio cue played when you’re hitting an enemy seems to have been a good step.
No details on the Pyro’s unlockable weapons yet, sorry. We’re still focusing on the Medic, and the underlying system. Your fire axe will be happy to hear that the Overhealer didn’t work out as well as we wanted it to, and won’t be making an appearance.
Robin."
Interesting to say the least. I'm not a huge TF2 player, but I was not looking forward to the Overhealer's increased healing powers. There are better ways to make the medic more effective than just giving him just another normal healing weapon, especially one as unimaginative as the Overhealer. Maybe if it was one that healed at a slower rate, but allowed you to heal two teammates at the same time (sort of a double barreled medigun).
I'm pursuing a career in video game development. I'm going to Full Sail this summer for coding.
I've also begun working towards the eventual creation of a development studio, "Odd Man Out Studios", which I hope to start up with a couple of friends. http://www.oddmanoutstudios.net
Umm... that's about it.
XBL GamerTag: GoS CPT Stewart
Steam name : gos_cpt_stewart
xfire : cptstewart
