Category: Play

Best of 2007 – February

Continuing with our Best of 2007 series, we take a look back at February. This month was the official start of the blog so from here on out we’ll have some fairly long lists of our top posts.

Best of 2007:
January – February – March – April – May

February

The Divine PR Exposition
The Divine is a PC game that a group of friends and I were working on. At 1am we launched a PR campaign with tons of screenshots, a trailer, wallpapers and random other stuff. That was an exciting and fun day. All day long we rushed to complete everything as the countdown clock ran on the website. To bad we missed our own deadline by an hour.

The Divine

 

StuffWeLike.com Video Cast #10
This makes it onto the list because this video cast episode was the last time Spencer Beebe was a host. We’ll miss you Spencer!

Welcome to 7.0
StuffWeLike officially launches version 7.0 of the website. This version includes the blog, although back then it looked totally different!

Fantastic Four 2 – Better than the FF1?
At the time it seemed as if Fantastic Four 2 could really kick ass compared to the first one. With the death defying Silver Surfer the movie looked solid. To bad trailers lie.

The Pipeline Has Bad Music
When we first started The Pipeline we had it automatically load and blast some music. Apparently people don’t like coming onto a website where music automatically begins to play. Who da figure?

News in The Pipeline
The Pipeline was the reason why I jumped on and changed the focus on StuffWeLike in 3 days. It was a very drastic move, but I just feel in love with the capabilities of the player. One of the first things that I tried was posting text press releases in the player itself rather than the blog. I thought it was cool, but later I found out that no one cared. Yay for me.

Video Game Music Channel created
Still experimenting with the boundaries of The Pipeline, I created one of my favorite shows on it the Video Game Music Channel. Ever since I started StuffWeLike, I’ve always wanted to do a internet radio show. While I did have a brief experience in that realm with version 2 of the website, this was the first time that I had full control over every aspect. Thankfully no lawyers have come knocking at my door yet!

Add The Pipeline – Video Games to your page

Half Life 3

[Update #2]

We would like to mention here that “Half-Life 3” is speculation, as we only have confirmation that Half-Life 2: Episode 3 will not be the last Half-Life game. It has been confirmed previously that Episode 3 will end the current Half-Life story arc, but not the franchise, nor the episodic medium.

There is perfect chance that there will be a series of episodic Half-Life games after Episode 3 (but unconnected to the current story arc). Then again, we cannot deny the possibility of a full-fledged title like Half-Life 3. Hell, for all we know, it might even be a prequel!

[Update]

We have had a number of comments wanting a confirmation of our sources. While this should not be required, the writing credits of the StuffWeLike.com staff can be confirmed. The writer of this piece Ted Stokes is the main game reviewer for Ireland’s main PC magazine PC Live! In the magazine’s current issue he has an interview with Assassin’s Creed Producer Jade Raymond.

The Founder and Editor of StuffWeLike.com, David Rodriguez, is known for his contributions to the independent video game community with his indie game publisher Packom Interactive. He has distributed several titles such as Ethereal Darkness Interactive‘s Morning’s Wrath and Wadjet Eye Games‘ The Blackwell Legacy.

StuffWeLike.com was created back in 2002 as a website that dissects and entertains the internet generation.

——————

[Original Post]

In an exclusive interview we at StuffWeLike.com have had official confirmation that there will be a Half Life 3.We are not talking about Half Life 2: Episode 3 but a Half Life title after that one.

Our confirmation comes after taking with Doug Lombardi the guy responsible for all those PR pieces you have seen and read recently about Half Life 2: Episode 2. While discussing the game mechanics that run the Orange Box Portal game the topics of future games came up. These interview pieces are below and we do have permission from Valve to release it to you guys. Even though its not much in terms of details even getting a confirmation that there will be another game is a first!

Doug Lombardi

TS-SWL: With the ending of Episode 2 going directly to help the feeling of “must play Episode 3 now” could you give the current estimated date for Episode 3’s release?

DL: We haven’t announced a date for Ep Three just yet.

TS-SWL: Are there any current plans after Episode 3 to have a Half Life 3?

DL: We haven’t announced anything specific, but Half-Life won’t end at Episode Three – hang on to your crowbars!

TS-SWL: For Portal, can you explain in layman’s terms how the engine allows the mechanics to make it so you can go from one point to another? Does it duplicate the room after a portal location is selected or is it something else?

DL: A portal is two planar rectangles in 3D space. When both portals are placed we build a mathematical formula that converts position and angle values from one portal to the other. Rendering the portal is done in a separate pass where we use that formula to covert the player’s view position and angles to the view they see through the portal.

We also generate special collision data to represent the portal hole by grabbing collision data near each portal, combining them, and carving a rectangular whole through the center. When the player is near the portal they use this collision data instead of the standard data, allowing them to pass through the wall. We then use the conversion formula to teleport the player to the proper position after they’ve gone more than halfway through the portal.

It’s of course a lot more complex than that, but that’s the basic idea.

[Extra Reading]

Best of 2007 – January

Starting today, we’ll be revealing our best posts of 2007. Technically speaking we didn’t start posting in this blog until late February 2007. All the posts before that month came from either my older video game development blog or reviews from the older StuffWeLike.com designs.

Best of 2007:
January – February – March – April – May

January 2007

Reviews:
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
A fantastic game, that was one of the first worthwhile $60 purchases on the Xbox 360.

Star Trek Legacy
While not perfect, this game is great for both strategy enthusiasts and Star Trek fans.

Dungeon Siege movie poster strikes!

Dungeon Siege poster preview

If you are a lucky inhabitant of this planet, you will have not heard of the movie named “In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale”, which is being directed by the much-hated Uwe Boll. And you are not incorrect if you’ve guessed that this game is based off of the phenomenally banal Dungeon Siege, by Microsoft – a game so utterly boring, I don’t even know why I own a copy.

Movies Online got their hands on the movie’s equally unoriginal poster. Check the poster out below. This is one movie I’m seriously hoping will suck!

Dungeon Siege Poster

Call of Duty 5 heading to Pacific theatre?

SE Asia in WW2

As we have reported earlier, Activision has taken the dark corporate path of the EA, and will now most likely exploit two of the most succesful current franchises – Guitar Hero and Call of Duty, so that a new version of each game comes out every year. Check out the article above for more and the interesting rumour.

Call of Duty 5, is reportedly (but unofficially) under production at Treyarch, and some interesting rumours have invaded the Internet about it, saying that with no. 5, the CoD series shall return to its roots in World War 2. However, Kotaku has been tipped that not only will CoD 5 go back to World War 2, but it’ll actually give the Pacific theatre of the war a shot. Of course, we know nothing more than this, so we are left with speculation.

Since Call of Duty games have a tradition of letting you play the war from the perspective of various countries, I wouldn’t be surprised if the game took you to Pacific islands, to play as an American, and then Burma, China or other Asian countries, to play as a dapper Englishman. It would be interesting to play as an indigenous soldier fighting in the war, to see the war from his perspective (check the map I hijacked via Google above).

We are not sure if this game will turn out to be actually good, even though it’s taking a different angle at the War. The Medal of Honor series took a shot at this with Pacific Assault, which was somewhat lacklustre. Add the fact that Treyarch is developing this, whose CoD 3 is already considered the black sheep of the CoD line. Treyarch has a lot to prove, certainly!