Metal Gear Online

Introducing a new chapter in the Metal Gear saga, a completely stand alone online team oriented multiplayer game.

Why DirectX 10 Is Slow to Start

Unlike every previous update in the DirectX serious DirectX 10 has completely dumped all backwards compatibility in favor of a fresh start. By doing so it has managed to get rid of annoying little tid bits that have built up inside it over the past few years. DX10 has been made with the next five to six years in mind which may show off some of the biggest developments in the history of real time 3D graphics.

DX10 isn't particularly easy to program for, unlike in the past older cards won't be able to run it meaning if you want to make a DX10 game you will have to write most of the code over again for DirectX 9 (DX9). DX9 has backwards compatibility with 8 and 7, a DX 9 game can run on a DirectX 8 card, but a DX10 game cannot run on a DX9 card unless it has been written in DX9 as well as DX10 (giving the option to switch between them).

It may also be hard to move DX9 legacy code to DX10 since DX10 has abandoned the fixed function pipeline, an inherent bottleneck that has plagued games since shaders (particularly HSLSL) gained traction with developers. Now with DX10 everything runs through shaders, basically all that 'unified shader architecture' is a fancy way of saying 'were throwing out the fixed function pipeline, do everything in shaders'.

OpenGL itself will be undergoing revisions soon to take advantage of the latest hardware and unless some clever folks can find a way to do so without fundamentally changing OpenGL (that is, do a much, much better job than Microsoft) odds are the latest OpenGL is going to also suffer from the same slow uptake.

Some may argue this leap is unnecessary, however moving over to such an architecture will eliminate many bottlenecks, GPUs can do virtually anything with shaders, things like advanced physics can be simulated using shaders without the need for a costly PPU.

These sacrifices Microsoft has made is to future proof DX10, DX9.0c started pushing this trend, perhaps in an effort to give developers some leg room so they can adopt the next generation of graphics programming, and now with DX10 it is in full force. In reality DX10 is a major corner stone in its development, it isn't an iterative improvement but a huge jump.

Call of Duty DS

No joke, the Nintendo DS will be getting some Call of Duty loving. It will, just like Call of Duty 4 be set in the modern world and will be an FPS.

















The production values seem high, this game is one to look out for. Perhaps there will finally be another decent FPS title to play besides Metroid Prime Hunters.

Uwe Boll Beats Up Four of His Critics

He may be a terrible scamming movie director but he seriously wasn't joking when he challenged his critics to boxing matches, one after another he won. Lowtax (founder of Something Awful) in particular played the part of the nerdy kid who gets beat up by the big bully pretty well.


Richard Kyanka (Lowtax of Something Awful) vs. Uwe (Winner: Uwe)



I'm sorry Lowtax but running around like that won't win you any cheers here, you have to actually punch the other guy and by punch you have to actually hurt him. Acting like a nerdy little kid won't win you the audiences appreciation here.


Jeff Sneider (of 'Aint it Cool') vs. Uwe (Winner: Uwe)



Turning your back on your opponent to avoid getting punched in the face? There's a better way, face your opponent and punch him. Oh, by the way, At least have the dignity of getting the shit beat out of you instead of just giving up like that.

You bowed out because you thought it was a PR stunt instead of 'getting punched in the head'. I've got news for you: The PR stunt involved you 'getting punched in the head', if you at least returned the favour...


Nelson Chance Minister (17 year old blogger) vs. Uwe (Winner: Uwe)



You're only 17 but by and far you put up the best fight and ended it well too, even if you did lose you get my thumbs up for taking it with grace. Faced the enemy, got beat up, but you can still hold your head up high.


Chris Alexander of Rue Morgue radio vs. Uwe (winner: Uwe)

[See second half of Richard Kyanka (Lowtax of Something Awful) vs. Uwe]

You lost, and your little trick where you pretended to spew out blood was pathetic to say the least. "It was my Jedi mind trick to try and disorient him", given you lost it worked perfectly. Seriously dude, did faking internal bleeding get you out of getting bullied back at school?

Uwe Boll might have beat up his critics but that doesn't change the fact he's a terrible scamming movie director. I give him some respect for going through with the fight, not joking and being 100% serious about it. It's a shame that only one person, a 17 year old blogger actually put up a fight against Uwe.

360 Games Montage

Sony might be getting back on its feet but it's hardly over for the Xbox 360. 2007 is going to be a very big year indeed, from Halo 3 to Eternel Sonata the Xbox 360 has some quality titles coming up.


360_07_montage_final.avi

Gran Turismo 5 Disappointment

Now without a doubt Gran Turismo 5 is shaping up to becoming the best looking racing game on any platform. Unfortunately it is suffering from something that has been with games for as long as flora has. Of all 'next gen' titles you would think Gran Turismo 5 would have shook off this decade old convention.

While the trees are barely noticable when driving they stick out like a sore thumb during the replays. They should either be taken out completely or made to look more like trees instead of two flat surfaces crossed onto each other.

Far Cry 2 is Coming, First Video Tech Demo Released

Far Cry 2 is coming though it is not Crysis and it is not being developed by CryTek, Far Cry 2 is being developed and published by Ubisoft. The tech demo showcases some very interesting vertex shaders being used for real-time deformations, materials will deform realistically from impacts, also they are used to build dirt on different materials. They are also going to be used for lighting.



Visit Far Cry 2's website