The Mac Gamer

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Photorealism is a Door

Riven (1997).

Kyle Chayka over at Kill Screen discusses photorealism in videogames:

…what happens after [photorealism] is achieved? The photorealistic approach seems to me to be a dead-end street, an aspiration that, once perfectly achieved, leads to a death of possibility.

According to Chayka, photorealism in videogames is a limiting factor that stifles artistic innovation and when videogames reach their zenith we will be left with a world already explored by other art forms. Chayka paints a romantic and convincing picture, that we shouldn’t settle for the cold, hard structures of realism, instead gamers should demand, and developers should deliver, new worlds in new ways, not just facsimiles of our own world, no matter how pretty they may be. Chayka prompts the reader to look at Battlefield 3 and Crysis 2 as examples of videogames striving for photorealism.

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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Good Old Games: A Trip Down Memory Lane

by Justin Ancheta

The splash image for the original GOG.com Public Beta launch, circa 2008.

As hard as it may be to believe for some, gaming on the Mac has a long and storied history. Some of the biggest and most well known names like Electronic Arts, Interplay, Blizzard, Lucas Arts, and Sierra, began with games for the Macintosh. Times have changed since the heady days of the 1980s, not just for Mac gaming, but for computer gaming in general. With radical changes in production budgets and technology, the electronic and computer games industry has transformed from its crude, yet ambitious 8-bit beginnings into a multi-million dollar business. Games have evolved into something more than just another form of entertainment, with a growing emphasis on character development, social commentary, and narrative that have started to elevate gaming into an art form.

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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

DUST 514

by Alex McLarty

CCP have announced that DUST 514, their persistent, first-person shooter that shares the universe of EVE Online, will be released for the PlayStation 3 next year:

With DUST 514, EVE’s starship pilots can forge alliances with DUST 514 mercenaries to engage in fierce surface firefights to conquer territories on the planets of New Eden, which are common to both games. The actions of ground troops and orbiting attack fleets are tightly interwoven, with the real time actions of players in one game directly affecting the other. A single bullet fired on the planet below can pivot the balance of power in EVE Online. Every action has consequences, and every reaction has the potential to topple empires.

It’s great to see that CCP are still pursuing the butterfly effect idea they talked about a couple years back, the gist being that any action, no matter how small, has real consequences in the game world. While it’s a little too early to tell exactly how DUST 514 will play, it’s quite clear that CCP are on the edge of MMO gaming, constantly striving for greater, more immersive experiences.