I think the bastards just sold me an XBox

[andrewducker]

They produced a sequel to Rez. That you play with your hands.

More here

via jwz

Comments

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

As I said yesterday on my FB, this game will be the first test of Natal vs Sony's Move.

[andrewducker]

Aaaah. Didn't see it there. I only see about 25% of FB entries, as I can't get to it from work. But yes, I agree.

This pretty much sums up the Sony Move to me:

(from)

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

the Move is such a step backwards, I'm waiting for someone to code up a Wiimote app for our HTC Desire phones.

[andrewducker]

Only a matter of time :->

Hmm. I wonder how the motion sensor in the iPhone 4 matches up with a Wiimote.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

The Xbox Live Arcade has RezHD, a high-definition/Dolby5.1 port of Rez. It uses the controller vibration to do the "trance" kinesthetic feedback... with up to 4 controllers. (I've played it with one controller under my feet and one at the nape of my neck, using the third to control the game.) And it's $10. (Plus you'd be getting the new-build hardware; I love my 360 to bits, but those cooling fans are annoyingly loud.)

-- Steve is also intrigued by Child of Eden, but this year has a heavy slate of titles. It may not make the cut.

PS: Now, to download the new DLC for Mass Effect 2 like the loyal slave of BioWare that I am...

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I would obviously get a Slim ;->

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Wow, that looks impressively cool.

It's fascinating to me that in 3-4 years I think will be looking at (by that time) two fully separate and thriving subgenres of console games, the ones played with electrode-filled headsets and the ones played using your body (or by performing actual skills, like the new Rock Band guitars that actually function as electric guitars).

I am amazed by the possibilities of what console games will look like in 2020, and not remotely prepared to speculate what they might be like by 2030.

[andrewducker]

Oh, me either. I'm looking forward to being plugged in :->

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

Maybe I just don't get it, but colour me thoroughly unimpressed. Although having never played Rez, I suspect I'm seeing far less potential in that trailer than others.

There's also the small issue of no release dates yet for Kinect beyond the US, despite the new Xboxes shipping shortly.

[andrewducker]

If you didn't play Rez then you wouldn't see the point. It was simply a brilliantly made, stylish 3D rails shooter, which integrated sound and vision in a way that very few games have managed.

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, if the sound is that integral to the game and the soundtrack is all trance/dance, I doubt I will tbh.

I'm curious to see what the Kinect will do. If it's used properly it may be a fantastic interface. If all it does is cartoony games ala Wii which, given the crop that were demoed at E3, seems to be the case so far and all the gaming development money follows the novelty gadget fad, it could be the death of serious gaming.

I do wonder if Kinect will be Microsoft's iPad - very cool, very clever tech, a fantastic gimmick - and ultimately utterly pointless.

[martling.livejournal.com]

They produced a sequel to Rez. That you play with your hands.

How could this possibly be less than awesome?

Oh wait, yes. Because the music is pish.

[andrewducker]

Sounded good to me!

[martling.livejournal.com]

Each to his own, of course. But it's far too airy and chillouty for my liking. I loved the music in the original.

It's a shame that we never got something like what happened with DDR/Guitar Hero/etc where levels were getting produced to match whatever tracks you liked.

What would be really awesome is some sort of procedural level generation based on analysis of the audio, from libraries of features & enemies which could also be user-produced like themes/skins.

[andrewducker]

Oooh. I have a game that does that, on the PC.

I'll find it when I get home and chuck a link in your diretion.

[andrewducker]

Audiosurf:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/12900/

[martling.livejournal.com]

Ah! I've played that one, actually. Or at least what may have been an earlier version, because I don't remember it looking that shiny.

I found the gameplay simplistic and repetative almost immediately, though. Just dodging randomly (well, musically) placed blocks isn't enough.

[andrewducker]

I tend to agree. The problem is that we haven't solved the problem of "what makes good gameplay?" - we have people that can intuitively solve that problem, who have an inducted picture of what good gameplay feels like, but we're nowhere near having an algorithm for generating it. At least not so far as I've noticed.

If we were then generating music notation for GH from any track would probably be high up the list of things that people produced :->

[martling.livejournal.com]

True. But I think for something like Rez, it might be feasible to strike a balance between handcrafted and autogenerated aspects.

Each level of Rez essentially has:

1. a repeating piece of music with multiple channels, introduced in order
2. a set of background scenes, used in order
3. a set of 3D models for the enemies
4. basic animation patterns of the models
5. a script which describes what enemies appear where and when

1-4 basically need to be human-generated, but are completely interchangeable and thus lend themselves well to supporting user-generated content.

5 lends itself very well to auto-generation. Pure random appearances probably wouldn't work well, but I don't think it would be all that difficult to produce a similar experience of things appearing in various groups and formations at gradually increasing intensity.

But you wouldn't actually do that. You'd make the what-where-when script literally a script, and people could write their own with whatever combination of fixed, random or algorithmic placement they liked.

[andrewducker]

I can see it working reasonably well. There's still a shmup community out there, I wonder how whether they're producing these kinds of things.