2011. márc. 11.

XONOTIC - GPLFPS of a Different sort


If you can see this, boils and gargolyes, you are wondering why I've secceeded into that OTHER next-gen GPLFPS. Simple. You're not gonna like the ending, though, Nexuiz veterans.

Let's start with the basics, will we?

Nexuiz was originally developed by Lee Vermeulen and Forest 'LordHavoc' Hale, who started Alientrap Software in the summer of 2002. The goal of the project was to create a high quality first person shooter that could be played freely across all platforms in one package: PC, Mac, and Linux. The engine that powered Nexuiz was Forest Hale's Darkplaces engine.

The first version of the game was released in 2005. Development continued with many online contributors over the years, with version 2.5 released in October of 2009. Since its release it has been downloaded over 5 million times, and is included with many Linux distributions.

In mid-2010, it was announced that a new XBLA, PSN, and Steam downloadable version of Nexuiz would be done from the ground up by IllFonic using Crytek's highly anticipated CryENGINE3 game engine.

That's where everything blew out of proportion... and out of the airlock, naturally, for Nexuiz players.

In short: everything was fun and games of death when Alientrap created this gem of a freeware FPS we called Nexuiz out of the modified Quake DP engine... until that team of showoffs named IllFonic showed up and announced the console version powered by CryENGINE3 like they own the game or sumfin'.

*PFFT* Least they were so kind to put the classic Nexuiz up for download.

While I appreciate the Victorian-style designs - after all, it's not "The Beauty of Brutality" for nothing - this did not bode well for we freeware gamers and Nexuiz players. It was an outrage - a bleedin', fraggin' OUTRAGE! So great was this outrage, we would make AT wish they NEVER did that!

So sad, and yet so true, that all this is happening live before all our faces.

That's where the fork comes into play.
That's where Xonotic comes in.

Some of us were smart enough to fork early in March 2010 and continued where Nexuiz left off. The classic deathmatch you knew and loved in DooM, Quake, Painkiller, Serious Sam and other classics with next-gen effects known in Halo, F.E.A.R., Crysis and so on... only this bird's focus is on the community - power to the people, you might dare say.

And what did I do? Easy.

A hijacked game with its absentee founder and the hijackers themselves has no future at all as it stands, so I promptly blew this old deathmatch joint for another.

Don't believe me? Take a stroll here and you'll see what I mean.

Of course, I had to pay respects to the original AT freeware FPS Nexuiz (by playing some deathmatch games, of course) before moving on to the future that is Xonotic, the community-powered Phoenix of GPLFPS. You too can be part of the team, but heads up - some of the community can be... crude and crass.

Hey, isn't democracy that way?

2011. márc. 3.

GuwangeDash - Annihilatin' Big in Japan



(Cripes. And just when I thought XenoFighters R is the only crossover shmup...)

GuwangeDash, AKA Guwange-Ruga-Daioujou-XII-Kizuna-Down (Ugh. Long title's gonna stick with me for a while...), is like one massive shoot 'em up party from the fine japanese folks from the GuwangeDash 2ch thread - and naturally, everybody's invited.

Let's do the math, will we, folks?

CAVE +
Treasure +
G.Rev +
every doggone STG developer left
=
the unholy japanese freeware fanfiction shmup mess that is GuwangeDash.

The situ in a nutshell: looks like the ultimate in military dictatorships, consisting of the worst of the worst of an already bad bunch in the world, have finally got our one and only Blue Planet in Sol that is Earth all under their control, all with the help of the most omnipotent gem large and in charge behind the scenes.

But just when you think all hope's gone with the wind... better think twice, 'cuz here comes the most lethal shmup All-Stars squadron, ranging from hi-tech fighter-bombers to assault helicopters, from oldie-goldie veteran spaceships to the bleeding edge in fresh military technology, all ready to make this alliance of evil shmup enemies and bosses equal to the ground.

There's one catch, alas: what of this Dream Team would you pick to go on a one-fighter starfleet rampage through a bullet curtain of death?

One thing's for certain, though, in this shmup war to end all else: if you're goin' out in a blaze of gory glory, the enemy would know they've been in the fight of their lives.

Only one way to find out: download this gem of destruction from our friends in the Land of the Rising Sun and let it rip.

BIG time.

Because the second I'm in one the fighters, trigger on finger, the enemy in front of me and the computer says "DESTROY"... everything's about to go south for the bad guys.  

WAY south.