Archive for November, 2011
I/ITSEC Simulation Conference cardboard tanks
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011, posted by MattInterview: Kingdoms of Amalur & Copernicus
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011, posted by Mattfrom the examination desk
Chris Nutt at Gamasutra has done a bit of an overview of 38 Studios’ Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, as well as its upcoming BigWorld-powered sister MMO, currently code-named Copernicus.
In 2006, star Major League Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling formed a company, now called 38 Studios, to create an MMO. That game, codenamed Copernicus, is still in development at the company’s Rhode Island headquarters. He sought the cooperation of big names — artist Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, and R.A. Salvatore, the author behind the popular Drizzt Do’Urden books — to help flesh out his franchise.
Nutt interviews Big Huge Games studio & project art director Tim Coman, about working with an legends like Curt Shilling, R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane, on such an ambitious project…
For me, I always wanted to, from an art direction standpoint, look at something and say we shouldn’t be basing design necessarily off of the hardware. You should be basing it off of what’s right for the title. So, for us, we really wanted to combine the idea of building everything from the ground up… We’ve got tons and tons of concept art where we build these ideas around this stuff.
General Justice, head of the RDECOM, checking out BigWorld and other technologies at IITSEC 2011
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011, posted by Matt
I/ITSEC 2011: Massive Simulation & Training
Monday, November 28th, 2011, posted by Mattfrom the simutrain desk
BigWorld will be a booth 1961 at I/ITSEC in Orlando this week. The conference is the biggest in the world that focuses on simulation and training technologies.
We’ll be demo’ing our virtual simulation and training development toolsuite, and some upcoming BigWorld 3.0 features.
Drop us a line to arrange a meeting: +15122890145
World of Tanks Euro Retail Boxes, Today and Onward
Friday, November 25th, 2011, posted by Mattfrom the retail desk
Wargaming.net partnered up with Koch Media/Deep Silver to distribute the retail box of their award-winning, record-breaking, bigworld-powered World of Tanks to the following territories: UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Nordic countries, Benelux, Spain, Portugal, Greece and France.
The bonus code includes the following in-game items:
- Premium Tank PzKpfw 38H 735 (f)
- Additional Garage SpaceOne Week of Premium Account Status
- 2000 Gold
- 50,000 Credits
The Invitation Code includes the following in-game items
- Three Days of Premium Account Status
- 1000 Gold
- After using the invitation code to create a World of Tanks account, a new player can of course use the bonus code included in the box for that very same account. A player who already has an account can give the invitation code to a friend who isn’t playing World of Tanks yet.
Today, the German retail copy goes on sale. Dec 2 for the British release. Check your local outlets for specific dates.
Photo courtesy of Mario Baumann, Director of European Business Development at Wargaming.net.
World of Tanksgiving 7.0: Come for the Horns, Stay for the Fjords
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011, posted by Mattfrom the tanksgiving desk
Wargaming.net is celebrating Tanksgiving in World of Tanks, November 24th through 28th. During this time, some tanks will earn double credits during battles (M4A3E2, M4A3E8, StuG III, JagdPz IV, SU-5, SU-8). Plenty of other surprises await, but in order to witness them you’ll probably have to jump in-world.
All of this is in celebration, of course, of the American tradition of Thanksgiving, as well as the much-anticipated 7.0 patch update. The patch is bringing a host of fixes and augmentations to the game, including some new BigWorld features…
System
Improved game performance on some PC configurations
Added more settings for special effects
Improved game settings behavior when using Logitech keyboards and Alienware notebooks.
Added the new Antialising type – FXAA
Improved the quality of in-game voice chat
Added the ‘vignette’ effectGeneral
Added the camouflage system for all tanks.
Added 1 tank horn for testing purposes (depending on feedback, this feature will be either developed or removed completely).
Added the ‘Complaints’ function.Content
Added 2 new maps: ‘Swamps’ and ‘Fjords’
Added new ‘special’ vehicles: Su-85 I and Pz IV Hydraulic
On some maps animated birds were added
Clan emblems added on some tanksGameplay and Mechanics
Amount of penalty points for team killing and team damage doubled
Once exiting the battle, your tank will stay on the battlefield till the end of the battle. If it was not destroyed, it will automatically be destroyed at the end
The price of Tier 2-3 vehicles was slightly reducedInterface
Improvements of the mini-map: scale change, transparency change, turning on/off, markers for commands: ‘Help’, ‘Follow me!’, ‘Attack’
While selling a tank you can now quickly remove crew and equipment from it
Changed the sound of hitting and damaging a tank module
MMOSite On Tian Xia III
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011, posted by Mattfrom the Eastern desk
Evelin at MMOSite has covered Tian Xia III’s beta launch on BigWorld Technology.
Tian Xia III takes place in an immersive fantasy world full of ancient Chinese mythology and philosophical undertones. The game features fast-paced combat that mixes twitch and dice-roll styles, as well as uncommonly deep narrative integration into quest chains and a visual aesthetic that draws on the architectural and tonal history of China. The game strongly emphasizes the creation of family structures between avatars, including marriage, utilizing a unique family system. As in most MMO’s, players benefit from collaboration, but NetEase intends to improve upon that by introducing mechanics like multi-passenger mounts, as well as content that can only be generated by multiple users working in concert.
