The battle wages on between big game industry companies, independent game developers, and consumers who have become accustomed to stealing all games. The most innovative and exciting games come from indie developers, who are put on a special pedestal at events like PAX. The big developers had an impressive show, however: two in particular that blew my mind.
Turn-based strategy games Civilization V and Shogun 2: Total War
have taken the effects of their predecessors and made them look stunning.
Shogun 2's real-time battles, when shown on a big screen, look like an epic movie. 50,000 soldiers (samurai, ninjas, archers, cavalry) can be rendered on the screen at once. The jury's still out on game play—and people say you will never be zoomed in enough to watch the individually motion-captured sword duals that play out on the field. But it looks epic. Totally epic.
- Shogun 2: Total War
Civilization V has improved on the popular series by adding full-screen 3D leaders (of Rome, Russia, etc) who speak their native languages! The battles also play out on a grid of hexagons instead of squares, making combat more intuitive and moving better. In actual interesting news, it looks awesome, and the best unit in the game is called the "Giant Death Robot."
- Civilization V
In less epic but more political news, one of the most interesting panels I went to this weekend was put on by the guys who created the Humble Indie Bundle: a set of six videogames sold online in a name-your-own-price sort of way to support independent game developers and charities. When the bundle was sold in May this year, it garnered media attention for its unique method of sales and the principles it stood for: supporting independent developers; making games for Linux and Mac instead of just supporting PC; and eliminating DRM. The project earned $1.3 million, including over $300,000 for charity.
More about the Bundle, and some hot nerdy pictures, after the jump.