I was reading an article on Wired.com the other day. The article was discussing the use of “babel fish” and its impending introduction in Iraq as a live transaltion tool. Babel fish is instant translation software which US soldiers are about to put to the test in Iraq.
It works by taking a speech input, for instance “please don’t kill us we are just here fo’ your oil, fool” and translates it to Arabic instantaneously and even speaks it using a computerised voice which i have recently discovered have improved greatly in recent times. This of course translates to “durka durka durka durkastan”.
This got me thinking, would such a tool be useful for online gaming? When we play online games alot of the time we would choose a server, if available, that is predominantly english speaking. Wouldn’t it be great to just choose a server without worrying about the language barrier? Sounds a bit Star Trek but it may be closer than we think?
Read the article here
Well that Gaelic Football game for the PS2 has finally been released. The official release was 11th November.
According to some posters on www.gamefaqs.com, the game has taken a nosedive. It seems, IRgurus knew that the game would be a hit..as it’s the first ever gaelic game available. So they relaxed a bit and have not delivered on, player controls, graphics, gameplay? or player information.
Apparently some football players have condemned the game. May I ask why? If anything, this computer game will make the fine game of gaelic football even bigger.
I’m very tempted to get the game!
Here are some screenshots
I have decided to add a tutorials section to the blog. To open this i came across a nice little tutorial on how to set up your own 2D Scroller on the windows platform, i am going to try it out when i have the time and if anyone takes a bash at it first let me know how you get on, anything you learn from it or any hints or tips you pick up should be posted here.
The Tutorial
You can’t go wrong with Civilisation, unless of course you bought one of the unofficial knock-offs. We are to be treated to the latest helping of Civilisation…..Civilisation 4. If you ask me Civilisation was the best PC game ever made….and I would have to say Command and Conquer can a close second…..a the classics……
It sports a fanct new 3D engine and a whole host of new game-play features…..
Have a look here:
I don’t think I ever posted about Half Life 2, but I feel its time I paid tribute to an excellent game.
Firstly I was not impressed with the Half Life 2 story line. I think the ending was quite poor. This however was not enough to spoil the game for me. The pros far outweigh the cons when looking at HL2.
The most obvious con was the source engine. It easily matched if not exceeded the Doom 3 engine and could even hold its own against the Cry engine from Far Cry. The game play was vastly expanded by the addition of the vehicle scenes. These however I found somewhat linear when put up against Far Cry? The Grav gun opened up a whole new style of game play as you could now use loose debris to your advantage!
The games biggest gem for me is only a recent development. I read an article about HDR (High Dynamic Range) some months ago…..and it quickly got me thinking of a game that would benefit drastically from this emerging technology. Basically HDR technology mimics how the human eye perceives light. If we sit in the dark all day and then jump out into the light…we are dazzled. This is the essence of HDR, it emulates the changes in light we see in the real world.
The good folk at Value have released a demo of this technology in the form of Half Life 2: The Lost Coast. It is basically a HDR enabled map. I was a little disappointed by how short the map was…..but strangely enough I wasted hours staring off into the distance and being wowed by the amazing visuals. The water looks incredible. The wet sand almost glistens on the beach. If you have not played it I suggest you do so now! Be warned you will need a powerful graphics card and game rig! (P4 3ghz and Radeon Pro ran it fine)
When you play through the demo you will understand why I think a game such as Thief would benefit from HDR technology! One of the main features of Thief is light…or avoiding it as the case may be. So you read it here first. Let a development team go forth and licence the source engine…and develop a new thief game worthy of song and story!!!!
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