Nuclear Monster

  • I loved DICE’s Mirror’s Edge and rated it highly. It was different from so many other first-person games in that the focus was on running and movement instead of combat.

    The only real failures in the first game were when the game forced you into combat and a not-so-great story. The sequel to Mirror’s Edge was first announced in 2013 and DICE’s Sara Jansson finally gave it a name today:

    Mirror’s Edge has always had a special place in the hearts of all of us at DICE. The first game had a lot of promise. It was unlike anything else in terms of the gameplay and style – it had a unique soul. But as much as we loved that game, we knew it could be more. So that’s what we have set out to do as we introduce Mirror’s Edge to a new generation.

    The team has spent a lot of time re-evaluating every aspect of the game and making it a new experience. This is not a sequel, this is not Mirror’s Edge 2. We have landed on a vision that honors the first game – pushing the boundaries of first person movement and diving deeper into the story behind our heroine Faith – but also brings a lot of great new, interesting gameplay and features to the experience for our players.

    So on behalf on the entire team here at DICE, we can’t wait to show you what we have been pouring our heart and soul into. We can’t wait to introduce you to Mirror’s Edgeâ„¢ Catalyst.

  • Richard Mitton on Terry A. Davis’ TempleOS:

    TempleOS is somewhat of a legend in the operating system community. It’s sole author, Terry A. Davis, has spent the past 12 years attempting to create a new operating from scratch. Terry explains that God has instructed him to construct a temple, a 640×480 covenant of perfection. Unfortunately Terry also suffers from schizophrenia, and has a tendency to appear on various programming forums with a burst of strange, paranoid, and often racist comments. He is frequently banned from most forums.

    This combination of TempleOS’s amateurish approach and Terry’s unfortunate outbursts have resulted in TempleOS being often regarded as something to be mocked, ignored, or forgotten. Many people have done some or all of those things, and it’s understandable why.

    This article reminded me of Robert Ashley’s awesome A Life Well Wasted podcast, but more specifically the episode where he speaks with Nick “Ulillillia” Smith. Like Terry Davis’ and his TempleOS, Nick Smith does what he loves and dismisses nearly every modern convention or standard and just does his own thing.

    In 2007 when I first watched Nick Smith’s now famous 5 secrets of level 2 in Bubsy 3d video it was way too easy to laugh at him for his tone of voice and attachment to a completely obscure game. Today there are people making bank on videos about the most obscure  games and Smith was just ahead of the game.

  • In addition to refunds, we have pre-orders available for the first three pieces of Valve’s Steam-appointed hardware.

    Steam Machines. They’re from third parties like Alienware, they run Valve’s SteamOS variant of Linux and play games on Linux via Steam or can stream games from a Windows desktop in another part of your home. If you pre-order you can get one a month early on October 16th The machines available for pre-order today a range of prices from $450 to $1,419. Everyone else can get them when they’re released November 10th.

    It’s still ridiculously awesome to see hardware manufacturers shipping a Linux-based gaming computer. After buying boxed games over a decade ago for Linux, watching it all burn down only to be resurrected through downloadable ports via Valve and the Humble Bundle. Not since the days of Civilization: Call to Power have Linux gamers had this much reason to be hopeful for the future. The Linux-based computers are almost as strange as the fact that some of the pre-orders are being handled through GameStop.

    The second item in the pre-order lineup isn’t as hopeful. For those that want to spend far less and just want to stream from another gaming computer in their home to their TV there is the Steam Link. At the moment though, people who order the Link won’t be running any version of SteamOS’ Linux and won’t be downloading Linux games. Maybe in the future it’ll seem like a better option to get a Steam Link and stream games from a more powerful Linux machine. The Link is $50. Just like with the Steam Machine, the Steam Link can be pre-ordered for arrival on the 16th of October. Everyone else has to wait for the tenth of November.

    Finally we have the controller. I’ve had the prototype model along with the Gigabyte Brix Steam Machine for over a year. This controller design looks incredibly different from the prototype and I don’t know what to expect at all in terms of usefulness. The prototype ended up being fun to try for a while but was only a stepping stone to this final design. The Steam Controller is $50 and has the same mid-October availability for pre-orders and November for not-pre-orders.

    Sensing the potential for maximum confusion at the Steam Controller’s presence in a world dominated by 360, Xbox One and Playstation 4 controllers, Valve has created a trailer for potential controller purchasers to make up their minds. I don’t recall ever watching a trailer with this much production expense having gone into it just for a controller. Unless they were up for crowd funding. Almost more ridiculous than Valve’s foray into the living room involving Linux is that these cross-platform supporters still require Adobe Flash plugin in Apple’s Safari web browser to watch videos or you get this unplayable mess:

    Steam controller flash failure

  • Valve just added refunds to Steam. CD Projekt’s Gog and Electronic Arts’ Origin already had similar policies.

    If you’ve played a game for two or fewer hours, and want your money back within the first two weeks of your purchase? You can get your money back. It’s great.

    Got an incomplete game in Steam’s Early Access program that isn’t what you expected or maybe just a game that is completely broken? Get your money back.

    Where it falls apart is for developers who must have questions that mostly have bad answers.

    What if a game takes less than two hours to complete and players ask for refunds?

    What if a player buys the game, plays it offline and completes it in less than two weeks and asks for a refund?

    Right now, it seems like developers are screwed in those situation. The game is done. The player gets their money back.

    Valve has said the rules are flexible for users who have played more than two hours or who have had the game in their Steam library for more than two weeks. They’ll still be able to get refunds.

    What if that flexibility extended to developers who could specify a length of time their game takes to complete, and then the refund system could factor in a percentage of that time to allow for refunds? A two hour game could give you 25 minutes to decide if it’s good or not.

    Having a standard policy for customer service agents to apply to every piece of software and refund situation on the service makes it easier for players as well as Valve’s customer service agents to apply that policy but Valve should be flexible enough in their technology as well as their application of this policy to not ruin the experience for developers who want to take risks by making shorter games that don’t require you to be online in Steam to play them.

    It’s always better for a policy and system to focus on benefits for the people that use them, even over the needs of the people who feed these systems with software. Doing the right thing for their customers is why companies like Valve and Apple succeed where so many others fail. Overall, this policy is great. I’m just not sure about the two-hours.

  • Mike Beasley on the beautiful new version of Tweetbot for Mac:

    Tweetbot 2 fully embraces the Yosemite aesthetic that was introduced in OS X last year while still maintaining much of the same functionality and layout with which users are already familiar. Everything has been flattened, and timelines that previously sported a light gray tone are now pure white.

    The dark gray color on the sidebar has been swapped out in favor a dark translucent look, while the sidebar buttons for each section have been replaced with simpler glyphs. A circular blue indicator on the right side of the icon now indicates new activity in place of the vertical bar that previously appeared on the left side (a change which, if you can believe it, actually hampered my workflow for a while). The iconography throughout the app is now more in-line with its iOS counterpart.

    It’s the best Twitter client on any computer.