Week 15:
Thank-you. It was very kind of you to ask me to speak. Today's topic is violence in games. Without pointing fingers at folks like the Senator from Connecticut--even the most simple-minded oaf can differentiate the pretend shotgunning of electrons from....
Oops, sorry. Wrong piece of text.
How's about a Weekly Update, crowd?!?
Please forgive the fact that you've got a substitute writer this pass-your regularly scheduled team members are in the final, glorious throws of birthing an exceptionally bust-ass baby.
Anybody mentioned Maximum Bloodshed yet? No? OK. Say you over-gib an opponent in Bloodbath by (yet to be finaled in the balance so it doesn't happen too often, so don't quote me on the numba) 140 percent-you'll hear The Voice say "Maximum Bloodshed!" Simultaneously, your former opponent is, er, uh, (well, WTF), splooged, in an extra 30 degree arc, pieces sent-ceiling high, red fog where their carcass was, and chunks O' steamy gore landing around you as you bolt past. WhoooooooHOOOOOOO! This you have to see. And that buns-up-kneeling Humiliation...YIKES!
OK, on to the update.
You folks have been hearing how a game is done, what's new, and on, through the course of the last dozen and change updates. Today the topic is gonna be a bit different. This update focuses on what wasn't broke. What wasn't fixed. The things that needed to remain the same.
At the front end of this wonderfully insane 11.5 month project there were some thangs that we all decided were must-have in any ongoing Blood Universe games. Stuff that Build did very well, and that the previous title gave you in spades. For those of you that were able to ignore and/or enjoy the two-and-a-half Dee environment and dig into Blood there was a boatload of stuff that no one else was doing. It is that very same stuff that we aren't seeing in the three-Dee offerings out there to date. This was the list of goodies that your Chosen team regarded an absolute minimum for the project. Skads of gib-types. More blow-up-able (technical term) scheiss than you could shake a boom-stick at, proper bullet holes, and on. The reason? Feel. After having played Blood, none of us were willing to lose quality sound dopplering and placement. Your devoted B2 crew couldn't stand the thought of not having ambients that told the player that a target had just run through a region of a Bloodbath map. There was a massive list of things that individually might be labeled atmosphere, but as a whole gave the game its joy. Even better, added to a top-end 3D renderer today, they give The Chosen that extra oomph that you-the-gamer ought to require from any FPS on the market.
It's an amazing homage to the fine folks down at id software that after all these years the main task on Blood's two (so far!) incarnations has been to emulate and one-up the incredible speed, feel, and frags-per-minute blast-fest that Doom's E1M1 gave us. Sure, there are incredibly cool additional bells and whistles, but given our choice...the most important overall facet of the Bloodbath experience was that feeling of immortality one gets after seven consecutive frags in a 20 second period. It's OK that reality comes crashing back with a blown-through-the-freaking-air death at the hands of a barely registered in yo' brain prox-mine. The best part is going back in and trying again. The thought was, if we could duplicate that feel and give you more...you get the picture. Well, we've done it again. The Chosen hits that pace. Life is good. Killing your pals is even BETTER!
Anyway, thanks for accepting words from a stand-in. You are gonna be very pleased with the outcome.
Webmasters Note: Rick sent along some screenshots too. Peep them here:
