Posts Tagged ‘balance’

« Older Entries

Supreme Commander 2


Posted in Gamechangers

Recently, I had the chance to speak with Chris Taylor about the upcoming Supreme Commander 2, which is poised to take real-time strategy gaming to a new level. I want to thank Chris for taking the time to answer my questions and for Barandon, at Mav PR, for arranging the interview.

Questions from Gareth Von Kallenbach
Skewed and Reviewed


1. What is the background and setting for the game?

The game takes place thousands of years in the future. The old Earth Empire that has ruled for so long became split into three factions, fought the Infinite War and then joined forces to fight the Seraphim. But this peace didn’t last, the Coalition leader is assassinated, and hostilities are renewed. You take turns playing one of three Commanders, each one, old friends, and how this friendship impacts the decisions they make while fighting on the battlefield. (more…)

Review: God of War III


Posted in Gamechangers

God of War III picks up exactly where God of War II left off.  Kratos, defiant, has challenged his father Zeus and threatens the very foundations of Mount Olympus in his bid for vengeance.  Riding astride the Earth Mother Titan Gaia, Kratos ascends the cliff face of Olympus as Zeus dispatches his fellow Gods against the other Titans that threaten his seat of power.

As much strife as Kratos faces, this release has faced more.  With game director David Jaffe leaving Sony of America and creating his own shop, would the God of War series crumble or could it stand up with its predecessors, raising the bar for action titles once again?  I’m very pleased to report that it not only meets the level of the PS2 games, it exceeds it in every conceivable way.  I try to be very objective in my reviews, but brace yourself as I have very little negative to say about God of War III.  Yea…it’s that good. (more…)

Supreme Commander 2 PC Review


Posted in Gamechangers

Tech levels are entirely gone, too, as now your units can be upgraded through a separate Tech Tree window. As you build Research structures you’ll gain tech points faster and faster, and you can then spend them to upgrade units, your ACU, or your structures. You’ll also unlock new units like gunships or shield generators, and eventually on to the powerful experimental units. One of the best parts of the tech system is that once you have the research points, they can never be taken away by a nuke or a throng of enemies breaking stuff in your base; the tech you research is always available to you, and it doesn’t increase the cost of the units you pump out from your factories. What this means is that you’ve got some chance of recovery if your base is nuked, although you’ll likely need help from a friend to get you back on your feet.

The removal of tech levels also means that the number of units in the game has been reduced. Now, any upgrades you achieve immediately switches your force over entirely. Gas Powered Games also tried to differentiate the races more with entirely different tech trees, unique abilities like the UEF’s focus on artillery, the Illuminate’s hovering land units (they have no navy at all), or the Cybran navy’s ability to sprout legs (all of them, this time) and walk on land. This is a disappointment for some fans, especially those who like to make lists of everything that has been removed from the first game. And frankly, it’s a very long list, although I think it’s debatable whether most of the items on that list actually made it better. (more…)

The Game Loop


Posted in Gamechangers

Introduction
The game loop is the heartbeat of every game, no game can run without it. But unfortunately for every new game programmer, there aren’t any good articles on the internet who provide the proper information on this topic. But fear not, because you have just stumbled upon the one and only article that gives the game loop the attention it deserves.

Thanks to my job as a game programmer, I come into contact with a lot of code for small mobile games. And it always amazes me how many game loop implementations are out there. You might wonder yourself how a simple thing like that can be written in different ways. Well, it can, and I will discuss the pros and cons of the most popular implementations, and give you the (in my opinion) best solution of implementing a game loop.
The Game Loop
Every game consists of a sequence of getting user input, updating the game state, handling AI, playing music and sound effects, and displaying the game. This sequence is handled through the game loop. Just like I said in the introduction, the game loop is the heartbeat of every game. In this article I will not go into details on any of the above mentioned tasks, but will concentrate on the game loop alone. That’s also why I simplified the tasks to only 2 functions: updating the game and displaying it. (more…)

« Older Entries