Category: sound

Jump, Rotobo, jump!

http://www.miniglobz.com/games/rotobo_en.html

Rotobo is a level- based Flash game by GlobZ where, from a top-down view, you handle a little robot which has to achieve the goal by jumping from platform to platform without falling in the surrounding magma.
As well thought as the game is, the interaction is very simple: the robot´s head is constantly spinning and its eyes tell the direction of the jump; by pressing and holding the left mouse button (or the space bar), you control its height and length; finally, when you land, Rotobo´s head starts to spin again in the opposite direction. But beware! once in the air you can´t change directions, and when you want to get the bonus items and finish the level quickly for extra points, thinking twice usually means one less life. 😛
In all a very nice game with solid visuals and gameplay, its only drawback is the lack of sound, but that doesn´t make it less amusing!

Glest 1.2.1 released

http://www.glest.org/

New features in this version are:
– New tileset objects
– AI now expands its base
– 2 new maps: “in the forest” and “island siege”
– Improved existing maps
– Pathfinding optimizations
– Fixed issues in windowed mode
– Balance changes
– Enemy projectiles are visible when being attacked outside the sight range
– Fixed crash when trying to build a unit without be_built skill

Glest 1.1.0 released

http://www.glest.org/

This version merges the previously available data (rc7) and binaries (rc5) in a single installation package, which replaces the former version in the downloads section; it also features maps adapted to the new tilesets. Moreover, Zanni made a big effort to update the whole web site so that it could benefit of the CSS technology, and we made a presentation of Glest at the Mundos Digitales festival, as we were finalists of the videogames workshop.

War of the Worlds: afterthoughts

http://www.waroftheworlds.com/

A contemporary retelling of H.G. Wells´s seminal classic, the sci-fi adventure thriller reveals the extraordinary battle for the future of humankind(…)


I found the film to have many things in common with Encounters…, and it does very well in creating an atmosphere which I hadn´t seen for ages in these kind of films. In my opinion, it has many great moments, my favorites those where the desperate masses are shown as being as dangerous and scary as the extraterrestrials themselves. The sound is great (I loved the impressive sound the big machines make), and the music fantastic, as it not only supports the action but stands on its own and deserves being heard alone.

However, though the tension rises constantly throughout the movie, I found the end to be Continue reading War of the Worlds: afterthoughts

A Parallel Universe: Noctis

http://anywherebb.com/noctis.html

For most people, the thought of going into space and exploring such sights is an impossible dream. But no longer; Noctis allows you to do just that.

Warning(1): if you only like games with luscious graphics, surround sound and the like, this game is not for you.

Noctis is a space exploration game which relies much more on your imagination than on your computer’s graphics card. This fact, and also that the controls are difficult to understand in the beginning, will discourage many from trying it. However, those adventurous people who aren’t afraid to put something of their own in the game will embark on an amazing journey into the realms of the unknown. There’s a peculiar sensation which accompanies the traveller when finding a planet to which no one has ever been before, releasing the pod and landing, to be finally confronted with a surreal landscape of vivid, silent colors, spattered with odd trees and animals; when walking along the shores of vast seas, along the walls of vast ruins; when drifting among endless words of endless stars…

I personally don’t mind that this game looks as though it is from another era. It is, literally, another universe. And even though I wish there was some investor out there that could help it develop to its full potential, and I dream on how a crossbreed between Noctis and Mojoworld or Bryce would look like, I just love it the way it is.

Warning(2): if you plan on trying the game, be sure to update your imagination’s drivers 😉

Related Article: Create your own world: aiplanet

Related Article: Aiplanet: back on air

Batman Begins: afterthoughts

http://www2.warnerbros.com/batmanbegins/index.html

In the wake of his parents’ murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful.

“Disillusioned industrial heir…” I guess there could be many better ways to describe Bruce Wayne, but actually disillusionment is a good word (maybe mild) to describe the feeling of watching so much underutilised talent, not only among the cast, but the composers too: I was very surprised to know that Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard were both behind the soundtrack, because I found it very correct, but (with all my respects) just that; I would dare to say that it was Continue reading Batman Begins: afterthoughts

The anticonversation

http://www.newscientist.com/

how eerie it would be, yet also how peaceful – people all around having conversations on their mobile phones, but without uttering a sound.

If the purpose of the artifacts described has anything to do with conversations, then I would say this is a study case of how a good idea can be ruined by misunderstanding a little detail. The idea of a collar which detects the words pronounced by means of sensing the movement of the vocal cords sounds scfi-fi and interesting, and it reminds me of the sonic weapons described in Dune (though I’d search for other uses since I hate weapons of any kind). As the article tells us, the collar finds out what you’re saying and then re-reproduces the words by means of a computer, and so “the receiver of the call would hear the speaker talking with an artificial voice”. The point is, unless a human is talking to a computer, the human expects to hear human voices in a conversation. I know that Hawking speaks through a computer, but we all have assumed that to be his own voice. However, can you picture yourself talking on the phone with a computerized voice which is supposed to be your mother, your brother? I can’t. What about the battlefield? Will you pay the same attention to the shouts and calls of your comrades when they sound like the droids in Star Wars? (very nice sounds, nevertheless). Finally, what about the loud bar? Just imagine it: the whole symbiosis between bartender and customers reduced to a mere trade between computers. Will the computer reflect the drunkenness too?… In my opinion, when all you have for a conversation is voice, like on the phone, the nuances and subtleties of the other speaker´s voice are essential to set up an emotional context without which there can´t be an engagement enough to provide a satisfactory (say comfortable) communication. In other words, my brother is not an answering machine. (nor does his answering machine speak like a computer).

Anyway, out of conversational purposes the concept is still promising. For instance, in the field of electroacoustic music it would be interesting to make a singer sing along with a robotized doubler, which could add to real time processing of both the organic and electronic voices. Or the device could be used as a sophisticated trigger, so that the performer could change parameters in real time just by whispering what and how much to change. As a whole, it’s as useful for a human-computer communication as useless it is for human-human one.

Edit: I hope not to be misunderstood. My criticism goes towards the use of electronic voices to substitute organic ones in the contexts described in the article, not towards their use as an aid for mute or impaired people.

Glest 1.1.0-rc7 – Tools 1.3.2 released

www.glest.org

This includes G3Dv4 with packed structures, so it has broken previous G3Dv4 models. Affects Glest, G3D viewer and G3D exporter.

It seems that things are moving really fast these last days; there’s now serious work being done regarding the Blender plugin.