Burning Tide - first official custom map for Starcraft II

I guess every player of Starcraft had a go at creating maps. It is tempting to have the same tool Blizzard is using to make their maps and see how your map compares to official ones. Sometimes (or often) it leads to disappointment and realization of how much work it takes to make a good map. By good map I consider layout, access routes, resources and aesthetics. I still have to try making a map in new editor for Starcraft II and see how long it will take me to abandon my hope.

On the other hand, some people are creating really good maps that are fun to play and look and feel like a product rather than an exercise in editor.

Therefore it is a big news that Blizzard has published this custom map. The map is taking the idea from Devil's Playground mission and bringing it up to a multiplayer level. Here is official description:

Featuring timed lava surges and collectable mineral caches, Burning Tide is a 3v3 map that combines several thematic elements from the epic single-player campaign mission "Devil's Playground." Like the campaign mission, the goal of this game is greed, and the first team to reach the specified resource total wins! Players hoping to achieve victory on this map will need to work together, carefully managing their team's unit production and safeguarding their vulnerable workers as they defend against enemy forces.

Here is how it looks.

I haven't played it yet but it obviously takes resource collection strategy to a new level. Workforce generation   and it's protection is a key for this map. Air force seems like a key player...

Fiat 500 in Gran Turismo 5

In my previous post about GT 5 I have mentioned Fiat 500. Now we have a video (not an official one but still good enough) showing race at  Piazza Del Campo.

If you haven't seen interior of Fiat 500 you will have an opportunity here. Dashboard is equipped with basics only - speedometer, flip switches for lights and an ashtray. Compare the original dahsboard with the Zastava I used to drive.

Fiat 500

Zastava 750

Speed is a typical for this car - about 60 km/h.



I will enjoy driving this little car in GT 5 even it will be mostly frustrating (what else can you expect from 500 cc engine?).

Official list of features in Gran Turismo 5

At GamesCom we saw more features of GT 5 including a new track, karts and new cars. Now Playstation Blog and GranTurismo.com sites have an official announcement of features.

Features announced are:

• A and B Spec modes
• Car dealers and Used car dealers
• My Lounge
• Course Maker
• Kart racing

A and B Spec modes

A Spec is standard mode we all know and love. Here you are behind the wheel and racing on all courses. In B Spec mode you are the team manager. As a manager you will have to analyse races, pick the best driver for a race and train them.

 

My Lounge

If you would rather have your friends only in the race then this is the place for you. In My Lounge you can set up your own race event with a track of your choice, your rules and let your mates to join. Up to 16 player can join a race in My Lounge. 

Course Maker

This  is an exciting new feature. As described in my last post it does not gives you full freedom but it still should be quite interesting. Tracks are created by by choosing a scene and then specify length of track, number of corners, sharpness, loop track or point to point, etc. Process is a bit more elaborated and this is one of the features I'll be interested to try. Of course, tracks you create can be shared with other people.

Here are few screenshots of garage and tune shop.

To me it looks like it worth the wait for GT 5.

New GT 5 screenshots

There are new screenshots posted on the web but I would like to share few of my favourites here.

Lamborghini Miura was one of my favourite die cast models when I was kid. I'm glad to see it in the game.

When I was old enough to drive I got to drive my dad's car - Zastava 850 De Lux. That was built in Yugoslavia and it was based on Fiat 500 but it was "beefed up" to whole 850 cc. This is how it looked.

Below is the original Fiat 500 in GT 5.

Some classic muscle cars.

Another Lambo

And some kart cars to finish off.

Brief GamesCon 2010 update

GamesCon is on and there are few updates that sparked my interest, again.


Firstly, there are news about Diablo III. Diablo III realm was quiet for a while and now we have some videos showing new features. Namely, the video shows Artisan. Artisan is an advanced blacksmith that will work for you. New and interesting features about artisans are:

• They can level up
• they can create sockets in any weapon
• when crafting an item(s) random special ability is added

Socketing of legendary items is very nice but I'm sure it would cost you an arm and a leg. To help you get some materials you can now salvage items you collect. Salvaged materials can be then used by an artisan. This could be a good way to get to better items faster.

Here is a video showing features of Artisan

While we are on the subject of RPG games, Torchlight II is announced. It has all loved features from the first one (random dungeons, simplicity, etc) and the one that was missing - multiplayer. Here is the trailer for it.







And now something completely different!


Cars. Lots of cars. Of course this means Gran Toursimo 5. There are lots of videos for GT 5 from GamesCon and most of the good ones are on GTPlanet web site. Some of the highlights from the news so far:

• Karting video now available
• More info on track editor
• Monza gameplay video
• Nascar at Monza gameplay
• Interview with Yamauchi

News about karting in GT 5 surfaced not too long ago (about 1-2 months I think) but there wasn't much out there. Now we can see how it actually looks. It does support usual views like in standard cars and this looks like a fun category.

For track editor we know it will not be a full blown "free to do whatever you like" style editor. The reason is simple - it would be too complex (and probably would take another year to implement). Actually, this could be a good thing. The way it will work (if it does not get sacked or changed) is like this

The course maker allows players to select certain set parameters to create a track. A theme can be selected, with the Belgian High Fens or Toscana two examples, and the individual track sectors are then defined.

Sectors are edited individually, with frequency of curves, sharpness of corners, degree of topography and banking angle are set with a series of sliders. 

As expected, on every big gaming event we see more details about tracks, UI changes and cars. This time round we see the Monza track. Here is how it looks.



For Nascar race on same track you'll have to go here due to bandwidth issue at present.


If you like interviews then here is another short one. For me most interesting bits are below.

Given the time, money, space and resources, which fantasy Gran Turismo track would you create in the real world?

Kazunori was visibly awed by this question and spent nearly a minute thinking of an answer. “Deep Forest”, he said. I countered with “Trial Mountain?”.

Both are classic tracks and it would be nice if that Japanese company is actually going to build it.

More news and videos should be coming in. Let's hope we will see more details about Diablo III.

Starcraft II - full version

Yesterday I got an early Father's Day present from my son and daughter - Starcraft II game. This was 4 weeks in advance and it made me a very, very happy. Thank you very much once again!

Over last week I spent free time playing Starcraft on guest account (I wrote a short post about that earlier) and I have to say that 7 hours is not much. In those 7 hours I have finished 5 missions.

I choose to play single player campaign rather than jump straight into multiplayer because I wanted to see how did Blizzard developed the storyline, integrated game interface (deck, laboratory, armoury areas) and see how engaging they are. Missions so far were not too difficult, I tried to achieve a goal using only units intended for these missions. The only one that gave me some trouble is "The great train robbery" mission. I had to stop playing it first time when my 7 hours of guest pass expired. Yesterday I was quite keen to finish (or retry) this mission and maybe after 15 minutes of play my internet connection got lost. The problem with this is that Starcraft then does not store/post your achievements on-line (I think this includes finishing the mission) so I stopped playing it for a night. Tonight I'll restart this mission and hope not to loose internet connection again.

Maybe I'll remember to take a few screenshots during the game. If I do you'll find them here.

Starcraft II problems - solved!

I have to thank Savbot for his workaround! Now Starcraft II is patched and ready for play.
Sometime tonight I'll start playing and hopefully post my first impressions.

Until then good luck!

Starcraft II problems

I got a guest pass for Starcraft II from David and I couldn't wait to start playing. But is is not meant to be yet.
This should be a very easy process - install Starcraft II, patch it up, sign up on Battle.net and play for 7 hours straight.

If you do get a guest pass you should also borrow friend's DVD and install the game. I did that and that was OK even if it took a while. Before install make sure you have 12 GB free on hard disk. BTW my UT 3 install is about the same size but includes CBPs 1-4 and number of downloaded maps...

After install if goes automatically to download the patch 1.01 so it would not fry your graphics card. This is also a nice feature. And this is where it went wrong for me. Download of the patch stopped at 64% and would not go any further. Then I tried to patch it up at work but also no joy. Firstly I had to let it through the firewall but still it didn't get updated. Next thing to try was to repair installation of Startcraft II. That didn't help. To force restart of the patch download I have deleted content of the C:\\StarCraft II\Updates folder and it did start download from the beginning. Then I'm back to issue with only 64% of download completed. 

OK, I'll download the patch myself thank you very much! But this didn't work either. Just now I have found a thread on Battle.net forum about this and possible workaround. If you have the same problem go here to see it.

I'll try this workaround from Savbot when I get home.


1) first of all you will need to Download a Torrent Downloader program, in my case i used uTorrent.
2) install uTorrent.
3) go into you Starcraft 2 directory, and you will see 6x torrent files. These are the torrent files that Blizzard Downloader created for download of the patch content.
4) now open those torrent file with uTorrent, and download the patch content through uTorrent rather then through Blizzard Downloader (which NEVER works btw).
5) after all the files have downloaded go into where the files have downloaded to usually under user/downloads.
6) look for a file called updates (this is the patch content for 1.0.1)
7) copy and paste the updates folder into you Starcraft 2 directory.
8) Run game, and the game will do the rest.


An update about actuall game may come soon!

Owned in Zen pinball

A while ago we purchased Zen pinball for PS 3. I love this game and it feels good when you play it. Zen Studios is doing it right by releasing new tables from time to time to keep us interested in the game. One of these additional downloadable tables is Ninja Gaiden 2. If you haven't played it check the trailer below.



Me and my wife have been playing Ninja Gaiden for a while and usual score we get in a game is about 5-7 M. But few days ago I got owned big time. Jasmine had a multi-ball for about 1.5 - 2 minutes. Her final result after that was a whooping 49,864,000. I know it is nowhere near on-line high scores but since we play local hotseat these don't get posted.

During multi-ball, 3 balls were stuck in right lane just above the right flipper (detail highlighted below). Could this be the reason? I don't know but if you do let me know.

Asus Ares - fast and expensive

Buying a graphic card for PC is always a difficult. Just when you finalize your decision new model comes along. One option to reduce frequency of graphic card upgrades is to buy fastest dual card. One of these is Asus ARES. I would love to give you personal experience but for a number of reasons I can only point you to a review done by Hot Hardware site.

Here is how this beast looks like.

Summary of features includes:

• 4 Gb GDDR5 memory
• 4800 MHz memory clock
• 3200 stream processors
• metal case

It is obvious this is no average stuff. Everything that comes in metal case with foam mould is expensive, really expensive. Think about $1200 USD.

To find the details about this card check the review. If you find reading of 11 pages too long here are the key points:

• fastest card ever (for now at least)
• overclocking is supported
• gaming mouse included

So, if you have some extra money and big power supply treat yourself...

Are you fast in Starcraft?

Starcraft is a truly legendary RTS game. It stood the test of time and it is probably the best RTS game. I've been playing it with friends for a long time and it was a great fun. We used to record matches and then discuss them and have a good time analyzing strategies and moves made. All those games were very casual, even we tried hard to be the best.

Korean players are well known to be the Masters of Starcraft. In general, Korea has adopted Starcraft as a national sport. Just have a look at this or this.  As a result they have a lot of really good and really fast players. Professional players must be fast if they are expecting to win the tournament(s). Speed is measured as APM (actions per minute).

To see what this is watch the video below.



So, you think you can beat 200 APM? Or even 300 APM? I would love to know your secret and see you play.

New high definition cable - HDBaseT

Just when you think you are all sorted for HD TV and 3D movies somebody thinks of new standard or in this case, interface. But it is not all bad. The latest is HDBaseT.

What is HDBaseT?

This is a product of HDBaseT Alliance - a specification for unified distribution of uncompressed HD content. It has a bandwidth to support full HD, 3D and 2Kx4K formats.

How does it look like?

You are almost certainly familiar with it. It is your standard network cable, cat 5 or 6 with RJ-45 connector.

For comparison of features have a look at this document.

Who is behind it?

HDBaseT is supported by founding companies: LG electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sony Pictures and Valens Semiconductor.


Will it matter?

It's hard to say yet. Definitely it is a good candidate for a race. It is base on existing, cheap, proven and standard port/cable pair. The questions is how will other big player respond. It is hard to say what Sony Entertainment will do since they are supporting (installing) HDMI in Playstation 3. I don't see a change coming to PS 3 any time soon. But I would love to use my existing home network used for delivery of HD movies. As always, time will tell who will prevail.

Make Something Unreal - Phase 4 winners

Winners of the last phase of Make Something Unreal are announced. This is the last phase and it concludes 2 years long contest. Here are the categories and the winners.

Best Art in a Game Mod

Airborn by Steffen Unger

Airborn is an action adventure total conversion for Unreal Tournament 3 in a fantastic world on flying islands eons after the world has collapsed from overexploitation.

Best Graphics in a Map

The Haunted Lost Temple by The Haunted Team

This version of TH-Temple is specialized version of the Lost Temple only
available for the MSU contest.

Best Machinima

The Plan by John Beswick

A little animated short about a toy with a plan. 

Best Vehicle Set

Angels Fall First: PlanetStorm Mod by AFF Team

A huge collection of futuristic vehicles are available to pilot in this hybrid
FPS/RTS mod that has 11 unique vehicles from huge space destroyer ships,
versatile space fighters, tanks, and more.

Best Use of Physics

Project Swing by Scott and Aaron Ash

Project Swing is a physics oriented vehicle gametype. Players use a
scavenger-like vehicle equipped with grappling hooks that attach to enemies
(primary fire) and strategically placed grapple points (alt fire) around the
map.

Best FPS Mod
The Ball by Toltec Studios

The Ball offers an adventure that puts you in the boots of an explorer who
gets stuck in a cavern and bumps onto an ancient complex holding a mysterious
ball. While making your way through the internal workings of ancient ziggurats,
golden cities, and huge caverns, your only companion is a giant gold and
metal-shelled ball.

Best non-FPS Mod
The Haunted by Michael Hegemann

The Haunted is a fast paced third-person horror-action game which can be
played in singleplayer against AI monsters or in multiplayer, where one player
is the haunted and the other players control and spawn the enemies.

Best Level for a Mod
Hazard: The Journey of Life by Alexander Bruce

A philosophical single player first person environmental puzzle art game
that will change the way you think about the life. This very non-standard game
was selected as a finalist in the Sense Of Wonder 2009 Experimental Gameplay
project at the Tokyo Game Show.

So these are the winners only of this contest. There are many other entries you should check out if you got bored with standard UT3. This content was always an opportunity and showcase for many modders. Again, I wish Epic or somebody else would make a DVD ISO of all winners (including 2nd, 3rd and 4th place) for all phases so we can get it in one go. I hate getting them down separately from different sites...

Anyway, this should consume another sizeable chunk of your free time. Go and have fun.

Protoss in Wings Of Liberty

There were some questions posted on Battle.Net forum about availability of Protoss missions in upcoming Wings of Liberty game. As usual, there is a number of replies to original post but the most interesting one is from Blizzard RTS community team. Here is his reply:

I won't go into details, since we don't give out information on the campaign of StarCraft 2, but I can confirm that there will be a Protoss mini-campaign that lets you control Protoss units. This part of the campaign mode is of course way shorter than the Terran part, but it is very fun to have a very different playstyle to add even more variety to the game. I am sure every Protoss fan will love this part of the Campaign! 

That being said, the Protoss mini-campaign will not prepare you for the multiplayer as Protoss, you won't be using all units or getting to know buildings and upgrades. In general, even for Terran, it is not the objective of the singleplayer to show how to play the game effectively, it is to tell a story and do a lot of fun things, that would not be possible in multiplayer. The Challenges, mini-missions, that ask you to complete a very specific task, are more suited to give players the opportunity to learn how to use the units and how to play the game.

All we have to do now is wait until Wings Of Liberty is released. I just hope we won't have to wait until Legacy of the Void is released to see any of the Zerg campains, even a mini one.

Blizzard, be nice a add a mini Zerg campain in WOL please.

Happy New Year 2010!

If you read my other blog you know I was away during Christmas break. Now I'm back and slowly catching up with news and events in gaming arena.

It does not seem much was happening in these 10 days.

Here are things I would like to see in this year (it is already 10:25 AM, Jan 1 2010 in Auckland)

• Starcraft II (more than first game)
• Diablo III
• Gran Turismo 5 
• Little Big Planet map packs (if not LBP 2)
• more tables for Zen Pinball
• more games supporting DirectX 11

That's all for now, have a very Happy New Year!