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I review games for the Adrenaline Vault site, and I must say even I do not know how the whole thing works. I get sent my assignments, I play the game for a while, then write the review and send it to my editor. He hacks out the critical parts, and posts some bland version of my usually critical work. Although I am often given choices as to what games to review I have no idea why the choices that are presented in front of me are there in the first place. I certainly have no contact with any developer or advertiser.

Some of the games I have been playing lately are so bad, they numb the mind, and I cannot imagine ANYONE caring about them at all. Then there are the reviews I am asked to write about games that came out in April... Tin Hat Wearing types could take that and run with it.

Just in case anyone is interested there are 2 other non-RPG TES games:
battlespire
Redguard

I stil maintain that daggerfall was the best, barring it's incredibly nasty habit of eating your saved games every 10 minutes or so. I really liked the ability to buy horses with wagons, houses, and boats (I haven't played Oblivion yet so I'm not sure if they brought those features back).

I always rate the credibility of a game reviewer on the INVERSE of their score for the game Master of Orion III, which was widely acknowledged to be an awful title.

Yet you'll find reviewers who give it quite a good score "4.3/5". And they'll wax poetic about some of the worst and repetitive features of the game. "I always turn up the speakers when I've gotten a diplomatic message to hear the wonderful alien voices."

Compare/Contrast the following reviews. Who would YOU go to for the truth next time?
#1: http://www.stratosgroup.com/reviews/games.php?sele cted=0303moo3 "4.3 out of 5"
#2: http://pc.ign.com/articles/386/386281p6.html "9.2 out of 10 and Editor's Choice Award"
#3: http://www.avault.com/reviews/review_temp.asp?game =moo3&page=3 "3 out of 5"
#4: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/masteroforion3 /review.html?q=master%20of%20orion
"6.7 out of 10"

You'd be looking for the next PowerStone for that.

Listed alphabetically.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2593
http://www.avault.com/hardware/getreview.asp?revie w=evga6800gs
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hardware/grafik karten/2005/test_nvidia_geforce_6800_gs/
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/X16_GS/index.h tm
http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/278/
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=ODgy
http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articl eid=747&cid=2
http://www.noticias3d.com/articulo.asp?idarticulo= 541
http://www.nvnews.net/previews/geforce_6800_gs/ind ex.shtml
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/geforce-6800g s/index.x?pg=1

There are lots of other reviews out there, too. Looks like the 6800GS kicks the X1600 where it hurts. Over and over and over again.

- [H]ard|OCP
- Avault
- Computer Base
- Driver Heaven
- Guru3D
- Hartware
- HotHardware
- Noticia3D
- nV News
- The Tech Report

I shamelessly stole this list from Hardocp.com

BULLSHIT

Gamespot 8.2 "Great"

RPG Vault Final Fantasy XI is a well-made , evolutionary online world that doesn't present a lot in the way of innovation, but does present an extensive list of adapted and enhanced features that combine to offer deep, solid play. Perhaps the single most noteworthy element is storytelling, something for which Square Enix is renowned.

AVault Final Fantasy XI succeeds on so many levels.

GameSpy 4/5 Stars

MMORPG.com Tied for 5th highest rated MMORPG with a user score of 8.0. The highest rated score is only 8.4.

(First time trying this. Hope i don't *crew up.) Postal mail. http://www.avault.com/news/displaynews.asp?story=9 232005-1434 >> To take advantage of this free service, people in the disaster area can visit: www.katrinamail.com to qualify based on their original address; regular customers can go directly to www.remotecontrolmail.com to establish an account. This should complete your nomadic life.

I would really appreciate any links you may have to sites that feature lots of new, original and exciting games. I'm sort of reading between the lines and assuming you are referring to some of the lower budget fare coming out of the smaller, independent game developers. Seriously, I would love to know about such a resource!

Because right now all I have is the avault demo download list:

http://www.avault.com/pcrl/

And to be honest, the "indie" games that crop here are just as depressingly discouraging as the big budget games. Not only are the indie games recycling the same old tired premises as the big boys (racing, FPS, RTS, flight sim, tetris-like puzzle, or arcade shooter, take your pick, because that's pretty much it!) but their games have the added bonus of crappy graphics and sound.

Where does a game player go when he wants true innovation?

Please don't say Japan!

Myth: The Game Industry is now larger than the Movie Industry.
With enough qualifications, any statistic can be made true. The legend is specific in that the game industry now out-grosses the domestic box office grosses in the movie industry. That's one heck of a qualification.

We are always being told that the game industry is this gigantic industry. It's hard to even figure out how much the industry makes because the figures are so far out there. One week it's a $20 billion industry, the next it's $12 billion and other times it's $8 billion. Usually we just get vague unsubstantiated claims that the game industry is bigger than the movie industry.

I wouldn't expect creativity from console games. So let's take a look at PC games, 2003:

1. Sims Superstar from EA
2. Sims Deluxe from EA
3. Command & Conquer Generals from EA
4. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne from VU Games
5. Sims Makin' Magic from EA
6. Sims Unleashed from EA
7. Sim City 4 from EA
8. Call of Duty from Activision
9. Age of Mythology from Microsoft
10. Battlefield 1942 from Microsoft

Unfortunately, the list is cluttered up by expansions to The Sims, making it almost pointless. Anyway, I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to whether this list shows better demand for creative concepts versus console games or not.

31 people from the development studio were laid off as the company will be concentrating on fewer titles.

While simplicity is good, as far as mental-recognition goes, taking simplicity to the max is a bad idea, especially when we have the technology to produce quality-driven graphics. You have to stay around the current level of production quality or you will lose audience. A good example of over-simplification for graphics is demonstrated by the terrible reviews given Radical's unsightly (cell shaded) The Hulk PS2 game. So there's subject matter to consider, as The Hulk was a kind of wacky cartoon/comic, but there was always a darker side to it for me. I was disappointed with the semi-recent Hulk movie, but does that mean the game had to suck too?

For me, a balance of player control with appealing storyline is critical to any video game, and the lack of plausible graphics never helps. Perhaps this could be graphed on a curve or something, but I truly believe there is a balance between all elements of any game or CG film for that matter. Even in film there is still a kind of gameplay, in the physics used and the modes of operations designed to portray the story. Compelling writing fuels the arts, not parlor tricks, so this subject is not exactly cut and dry, by any means... it's very subjective and taste-driven. Another thing to consider is the date that media is designed, because we can all look back at early animation or even live-action special effects and think it looks fake, and the stuff created today will look fake tomorrow. Is there a ceiling to special effects?

Independent studios want to create wonderful, experimental titles, but are, in part, held back by business requirements. As businesses, our first priority is to become profitable, and the least-risky way to do this is to create more traditional offerings. (The same is true for large development houses.) Fortunately for us, better middleware tools and increased publicity can free us of this constraint. The former will allow us to experiment and develop easier; the latter will allow us to reach an audience now reserved for the large publishers. As these conditions improve, you'll see independents take more risks.

Middleware comprises the audio libraries, AI plugins, and 3D engines such as Torque, Conitec A6, and FMOD. These tidbits are the lifeblood of independents. Without them, we'd have to code everything from scratch, and you'd see even more Tetris clones than you do now -- little innovation. With them, we're freed from the low-level stuff. We can create games that look and sound good enough to attract consumers. As middleware improves, it'll become even easier to experiment and innovate.

Publicity is trickier -- while events such as the Independent Games Festival allow us to bend the ears of larger publications, it's still the big studios that are going to command the previews and exclusives. Having approached a number of print publications, I've found that it can be difficult to secure a sizable preview for our game, even though I think folks might like to hear about where we're innovating. But even this is improving; sites like The Adrenaline Vault are particularly indie-friendly, often posting press releases from smaller development studios.

I think, then, that it's only a matter of time before the smaller studios attempt experimental titles in substantial numbers. Many will be terrible; some will be great fun. But as it becomes easier to experiment, you bet we'll be doing more of it, simply because we can.

It wasn't the cell shading that made Wind Waker look so kiddified. Take a look at games like Robotech Battlecry for instance. Cell shading can look damned cool. The problem was that Link was a fat little 6 year-old.

I'm tired of the issue being polarized into two camps. Not everything Nintendo does is aimed expressly at children, and that certainly doesn't disqualify them from making a great game. But on the other hand, just because people want a more adult feel to their games doesn't mean everything needs to be blood and guts. Personally, I just don't want to be insulted by the game I'm playing, I don't want to strangle someone to death with his own intestines.

And that's the problem that I had, and I'm sure many other people had with Wind Waker. It was a good game; I don't think anyone who played it would say otherwise. But I grew up on Zelda. Ever since the NES days, I had envisioned Link as a hero, a champion; something I thought of as cool. Chubby children aren't cool. Their friends that have foot-long boogers hanging from their noses are even less cool.

I'm looking forward to this Zelda. I was so disgusted with the connectivity 'features' of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and the absolutely dismal game line-up on the GBA that I traded both in and bought Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and another year's subscription to Xbox Live. This Zelda just may redeem Nintendo in my eyes, because Mario 8614: Now He's Got a Vacuum Cleaner Ha, Look How 'Innovative' We Are sure isn't going to cut it.

"Metagames show awareness of their nature as games [snip] they know that they're polygons on a screen"

"Are there other examples of titles which address the player in this awfully postmodern way?"

Darkened Skye (Review at The Adrenaline Vault) Not the best game I've ever played, but I continue to play it for this very reason. It doesn't take itself seriously. The main character (Skye) and her helper deamon (Draak) know very well that they are in a game. That and the fact that it's an interactive Skittles commercial.

At one point you have to jump into the mouth of a sea monster, and she (Skye) says something to the effect of "Well, quick saves are designed for times like this".

At another point you grab a hair pin from a wig while the owner of said wig looks on, and she states "Only in an adventure game would I be able to grab this hairpin in plain sight of the owner without the owner making a fuss... Oh, wait. This is an adventure game."

The game's wit is about its only saving grace...

Unfortunately, the online, downloadable part of Uru has been cancelled, claiming the reason to be too few subscribers.
However, the would-be downloadable content will be released in the more traditional form of expansion packs.

Littman said his client was "an irresponsible young guy who had this kid thrust upon him." The child's mother, who is estranged from Bragg, left the child with him because she had lost electric power in her home.

EverQuest was merely the preoccupation of the moment for Bragg, Littman added, saying it could have just have easily been televised football or any other occupation of men in their twenties, instead. "Bragg is sadly typical of many young people today," said Littman. "He had children before he was ready to take care of them."

Any suggestion that the game could be blamed for this death would be the "dumbest idea I've ever heard," said Littman. "Everybody's looking to blame something else. I'd only bring that up if I wanted to be laughed out of court."

If any Florida Slashdotters are reading this, do me a favor: get a girl you know (yourself, if applicable) to go each of these guys' offices with a copy of the U.S. Consitution (including the Bill of Rights, #1 being highlighted), a (legal) copy of an "infamous violent video game" (say, Quake 2... something that will work on the likely outdated and underpowered computers of conservative lawyers), and printouts of the following articles: This one and this one.

Also be sure to get the local television crews, and newspaper writers and photographers to follow (and make sure that they're informed of the one lawyer's bikini vendor stunt)... because the whole idea here is to embarass these two ugly fellows using their own tactics, except bolstered by evidence.

The downside is that this will get these two the attention they crave; the upside is that it won't get them positive attention and might just make a laughingstock out of them.

Or just hit them both with a pie in the face at a press conference. (Hey, it worked with Bill Gates for the French!)

~UP

Of course, since I don't have a mousepad, the only reason I'd get one is to wear it and say, "The Steel Gaming Glove... it's so bad!" FP too!

NDL's GameBryo is the "next generation" of NetImmerse. Take a gander at the following interview for some info.

This caught my eye over at diy games. It seems some of the developers (my guess!) who were missed of the list might have been a bit annoyed! I'm inclined to agree though: If I see that Bob Mandel has written a review a generally avoid reading it. Still, the man wrote over 20 of his own games (They were so great he didn't list them on his CV), so I'm sure he's more of an expert than I...

PLEASE read what Gearbox has to say about this.

Basically, this doesn't work like a "normal" benchmark. The FPS number takes more into account than just FPS (sorta). Please read the above.

To begin with, perhaps the most basic error common in mass media coverage is to call recreational offerings for the PC "video games." This term technically refers to console titles viewed on a television, not to entertainment played on a computer.

No it doesn't. It may be more commonly used of console games, but using it for computer games is correct.

Fortunately, Adrenaline Vault itself hasn't followed this rule. (See, for example, The History of Video Game Prices, which discusses both console and computer game prices.)

The error is important because many of the patterns that apply to computer titles don't relate to console offerings and vice versa, so lumping the two together can be misleading.

There are lots of ways to divide video games into categories with different patterns. Doesn't mean they're not fundamentally similar.

Now thinking back, the best flight sim I recall playing was the one by the guys who made System Shock. It was an aerobatics focused sim, and the physics seemed very accurate.

Flight Unlimited III by Looking Glass Technologies (1999). Review.

As a game reviewer, I'm fed up with misleading and sometimes downright fraudulent system requirements for computer games. In my mind, the problems surrounding these rarely accurate specifications have gotten worse over time, with consumers basically playing a form of Russian roulette when it comes to whether an offering will run on their PCs. Industry observers privately admit that system requirements are most often unrealistically low. In many ways, these specifications are part of the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on computer users, making people possessing lame machines have false hope that state-of-the-art entertainment will run seamlessly on their machines.

In the book, you're going on a grand quest to save the Ring of Power from the clutches of Sauron.. in the game, you're going to be a peon, running around killing other equally useless peons. Same thing thats going to make Star Wars boring.

Very true... One thing that might fix this feeling of "I'm small and don't matter" would be if the game allowed for *massive* battles like in the book. Then ppl could say "I'm just one being but I did my part to influence things." Turbine could just schedule a night when the assault would take place and you could log in to a special "Tonight Only Orc/Human Big Battle Account." This would help solve the problem of getting everyone at the same place at the same time.

I wouldn't mind being a peon Orc trying to take the Hornburg or a human defender beating off the maurading orc hordes. Esp if they incorporated a cool innovative combat system like VSIM. That would be a huge rush! Turbine could then release the movies and announce who won and have the result effect the storyline. It probably won't happen but we can dream. :)

is Adrenaline Vault

Please mod the parent down for simply being wrong. Microsoft never shipped DirectX 4 in any incarnation, let alone with NT4.

Microsoft say DirectX 4 never shipped

Adrenaline Vault agree with MS

Someone else won't deny it either!

Link.

It's time again for the golden words:

Here, go read The Myths of Internet Legal "Experts"

If you're looking for general interest sites, a few to check out would be: Shacknews -- www.shacknews.com and Blue's News -- www.bluesnews.com and maybe even the Adrenaline Vault -- www.avault.com and Thresh's FiringSquad -- www.firingsquad.com. While these sites aren't perfect, they aren't nearly as bad as Gamespy and Gamespot.

Better yet are actual fan sites for games you're interested in. A good way to find some is to check the game's official page for a list of fan sites or simply talk to other players. To show you what happens when real gamers put together web sites...

Warcraft III: (Excellent replays)
www.theinclan.com

Counter-Strike: (Replays and configs)
www.sogamed.com

Quake: (News)
www.quake3stuff.com

The Sierra chick came in and was showing me some stuff they were working on - a little rendered (Actual Game Screens!) movie about a game called Outpost. It was supposed to be the end-all of simulation/strategy/resource management games. It looked really cool, and the Sierra chick told me about all the things you were going to be able to do in it.

A couple of years passed, and Outpost finally came out. PC Gamer reamed it a new one, and so did this guy. All the features I heard and looked forward to were gone. In their place, a sterile, unfun, buggy pile.

Outpost 2 came out to much better reviews, and there was talk of Outpost 3, but as all the links to it are dead, I believe that this may go in the 'Unfinished Adventures' catagory.

Exagerating a bit aren't we?

Dude, if there wasn't a problem with the size of the original joystick, Microsoft wouldn't have introduced a new, smaller version.

here

Want some Skittles?

Not realy, they don't care if you broke any law or not, they only want to drive you out of business.

Me think you need to read this

That is exactly the problem.

This Declan guy needs a cluestick and when he wakes up, he needs to read The Myths of Internet Legal "Experts"

-- The_Messenger
(Banned for making Fent my generic engine.)

I mean... Yeah sure there are interesting twists, but they are just *TWISTS* from the same genre, not really anything innovative.

Besides the next generation of the current crop of MMORPG's like Asheron's Call 2 and EverQuest 2, Cyan has finally announced their intentions of doing a MMORPG with the MYST universe.

That new Unreal engine is just amazing, I can't wait to see all the modded games people make with it.

I wonder if New Line Cinema can take any lessons from Star Ballz? If they can get away with a PORN parody it seems like a weak reference like "Goldmember" should be allowed too. Especially when New Line Cinema (with all that cash) is backing it...

Forget what is right and wrong, this case has nothing to do with what stuff.

No, New Line Cinema plans to release this movie in time for the Summer season and has already distributed huge amount of promotional material for the movie (with references to "goldmember"), if they want to fight this case out in court, they can forget all about this summer for the release.

MGM knows this and is simply trying to make a "quick buck" from New Line Cinema with some kind of compensation for the name.

So to speak MGM has New Line Cinema's "GoldMember" in a tight squeeze.

''Never in human history has technology allowed the big to crush the small with so little effort, and never have the laws and infrastructure of the world been so set up to expedite this process. [...] In reality, the legal system is a nasty, ugly thing that unless you have a great deal of time, resources and money, you're up the creek.''

He also explores the various myths of how the system works. For example -

Myth #1: What matters is who is right. Sorry, wrong -- it matters who is willing to spend the most money proving they are "right."

- and on it goes.

I wish these guys well with their fight

US$ 149.99 estimated street price, according to this page

Raymond

Alright, for all of you who seem pretty uneducated about the Cyberathletes Professional League [thecpl.com] I'll try to fill you in. The CPL was formed several years ago (right around when StarCraft was the hottest game on everybody's list).

Generally there are several tournament's a year (one in the winter, one in the summer). This past event is held in Texas where some other tournaments are held as well (QuakeCon for one). Each CPL tournament has a featured game. This tournament's game was Counter-Strike.

The event hosts a Bring Your Own Computer Area, (for those who want to frag all through the night) as well as workshops, (HardOCP had one this year on overclocking) prize raffles/giveaways, and of course the tournaments.

This year there was also an Alien vs. Predator 2 Deathmatch tourney going on too. (Fatality of Quake3Arena fame wiped the floor with everyone and won a Ford Focus with a custom AVP2 paintjob) See Adrenaline Vault and TheCPL for photos.

The CStrike tourney was a 5 on 5 clan competition and players from all over the world come to compete in it. The prize money for the tournament totals to some $150,000 dollars and comes almost entirely from Sponsors. The fees that they charge for admission into the tournament go mostly to cover the expenses of the hotel, setup, etc. And while a $50,000 US purse may sound like a lot, after it gets divided 5 ways to $10,000 minus the cost of Food and Board and Airfare (When applicable) you might be a little bit surprised when you don't have as much money as you thought you had. And that really only applies to the winner! There are tons of people who come a long way and don't even make it into the top 100. But if the money were all the tournament was about then I think a lot of people wouldn't even bother going to one of these events. The tournament is mostly about having fun and working on becoming better at Video Games (LAN differs quite a bit from Online play).

One of the most amazing things about this tournament was the ability for Counter-Strike enthusiasts to be able to watch the Tournament on the internet with Half-Life. By joining a specially designed server, up to 80,000 people could have watched the final round (there were only 40 of 128 slots filled on the server I was on)
here's some info:

Speakeasy.net, Valve Software Launch 11 City Half-Life TV Network First-ever PC Game Broadcast Network built to support 80,000 Simultaneous Viewers Seattle - Broadband ISP Speakeasy.net and Kirkland based game developer Valve Software announced today the first ever launch of a fully national broadcast network of live video game coverage. The inaugural use of this network will give tens of thousands of viewers from around the world the best-possible spectator experience for the $150,000 Counter-Strike World Championships this week in Dallas, TX. The World Championships represent the largest of such competitions ever and is produced by the Dallas-based Cyberathlete Professional League. Speakeasy has partnered with Valve Software to support the largest broadcast installation ever using Valve's Half-Life TV server software. The software allows for anyone with a broadband connection and PC to connect to a live game and watch their favorite teams play as if they were playing along side them. Teams from Seattle to Sweden are flying in to compete in the four-day event; thousands more will stay home and watch the competition unfold live on the Speakeasy Network.

"Broadcasting the CPL finals to 80,000 viewers is an incredible achievement and a huge advance in our efforts to bring competitive gaming, and gaming in general, further into the mainstream," said Doug Lombardi, director of marketing at Valve. Spectators will be able to tune in to a live broadcast of the match simply by using their PC and installation of Half-Life, and will have the option of 11 different locations to choose from to guarantee the best experience.

"We have customers that are running cable from their PC to a large screen TV just to watch this," said Edward Bender, Director of Online Gaming for Speakeasy.net. "I think this event will definitely get more people to recognize competitive gaming as a spectator sport." Counter-Strike, the number one online action game in the world, is a team-based multiplayer game built atop Valve's award-winning game engine. Valve released the multicast spectator technology (aka Half-Life TV) as a free update earlier this year.

Read about how to use HLTV @- http://www.cs-extreme.net/guides/HLTV/HLTV.asp

I think we're not at the stage yet where this should be considered Professional Gaming. I don't think anyone can make a true living off of winnings from the CPL. Maybe someday it will reach that point, and this is a great step to getting there. Sorry for the long post! Hope it helped some of you learn about professional gaming.

Avault's review gave it 4 stars. I hold their opinions higher than most, so this game is worth atleast a look.

Avault's Review

For those who are link wary:

http://www.avault.com/reviews/review_temp.asp?game =civ3

> It is.

Uncorrect. The real answer is "It depends on the game!"

Anytime someone says "X is a silver bullet", I'm critical of what disadvantes they are overlooking.

We tried, and successfully used Java in one of games. It dropped in, in about a week (of course the game logic took months to write.) Having to use 2 IDE's was a pain, but workable, for debugging. (We made the C++ code into a DLL) There were TWO big problems -- the OVERHEAD from calling Java from C/C++ (or vice versa) *completely* bogged down the game. The other issue was the garbage collector - the game froze while it was doing it's thing, which is unacceptable. (We were doing a single player strategy-sim hybrid, that unfortunately got cancelled, due to other issues.)

Will we use Java again? Maybe. But the scripting language used is only one of the issues regarding gaming tech! One must look at the "pros" AND the "cons." The designers were able to get up to speed quickly with it, appreciated the ton of books on Java programming, and it freed it up one of our programmers of having to maintain a in-house properietary language. However, the designers also lacked the many years of formal training and experience that programmers normally have to go thru, of using a "real language" compared to our easy-to-use previous in-house language. These two things (very bad C/C++ integration, & requiring designers to be programmers) will most likely determine whether we use Java in the future.

I'm the graphics programmer, and personally think Java is not the best tech for game scripting. HOWEVER, I do see its advantages and elegance in using it for game scripting and game logic. It's the old trade-off of "slow & flexible (interpreted) OR "fast and hard-coded (compiled)." Java definately has some advantages - and some disadvantes - like all languages.

I'm sure you can search Carmack's old plans for why he didn't use Java - his reasons were different from ours.

Is Java a viable option? Wild Tangent has clearly shown that a Java-based game works. They have some pretty cool tech.

You might want to read the Gamasutra Post Mortem article on "Vampire" -- That's the only other game developer I know that used Java in a commercial game.

> Too bad most game developers seem to think that a game can't be any good if it

How many game developers do you personally know? That's a pretty broad statement with no basis in fact.

> doesn't spew out 3D graphics at a rate of 500 fps or,
> if it is a strategy game, doesn't have at least have a 3D isometric view in true color.

Game developers are well aware of raising the technical requirements so high, that you loose a lot of customers that don't have the "latest and greatest" video card.

They are also quite aware of Graphics != gameplay.

However, if you DON'T have some of the best graphics, your game is criticized as having "dated graphics." Is that an excuse? No, it's what the consumer wants. Pretty graphics are (usually) what catch the gamers attention, but gameplay is what keeps him/her playing.

It's interesting to note that most of the top selling games are all 2D. i.e. Sims, Diablo, RollerCoaster Tycoon.

If you want a good insight to how the games industry really works, read this Derek Smart's rant on Gaming Industry - Where We Are which dicusses what really happens with the marketing.

Also Avault's series on PC Gaming As An Industry

Bringing this long thread. back on topic -- OpenAL is a good thing, and I'm glad it is progressing. I'll be sure to mention it to our engine architect, next time we do a Mac Port. If we do a Linux port, it will definately make things easier for us. It's a REAL shame OpenGL is completely ignored by so many developers -- using one cross platform API is very cool. Now if only consoles supported it better ;-)

Then again, I'm just a game developer, and this is my opinion.

Check out the review of Lineage : The Blood Pledge at The Adrenaline Vault.

From that article about the Garriot brothers:

The brothers also announced a partnership with NCsoft, the South Korean company that runs the world's largest subscriber-based online game, Lineage: The Blood Pledge.

The company has 2 million subscribers in South Korea alone; under the partnership, Lineage will be repackaged and relaunched in the United States this fall. Meanwhile, Lineage creator Jake Song will move to Austin to help develop games, which NCsoft will help launch in Asia.

Its amazing, but one of those "gaming news" sites actually has some decent resources for those who want to know how to go about things. Gamasutra is also a good place to look, if you enjoy sifting through the massive amount of submissions they have in archives. This is their main Developer page, while this is one of their better articles about the PC development industry. *Most* of what's written applies to consoles as well, but good luck making a console game and selling it without a publisher.