Virtual Villagers 3: The Secret City Game
Embark on a journey with a group of adventurous villagers in their quest to populate a new part of the mysterious island of Isola! Lead your tribe to the answers in Virtual Villagers – The Secret City!
Virtual Villagers Game Features
Virtual Villagers game screenshots
From/De: FunCom
Funcom reveals first in-game footage from `The Secret World’
– Mysterious in-game footage reveals a glimpse into horrific fate of Kingsmouth –
– First full color in-game footage to be revealed at GDC in March –
Durham, USA – February 2nd, 2010 – Funcom is proud to reveal the first ever in-game footage from the highly anticipated modern-day massively multiplayer game `The Secret World’. The location footage consists of grainy and distorted black and white shots that give a unique and mysterious glimpse into the town of Kingsmouth – one of the many locations from all over the real world to be featured `The Secret World’. In the game, as the video shows, horrific events have befallen the sleepy New England town.
“There are darker and far more terrifying things in Kingsmouth than the walking dead,” says Senior Producer and Director Ragnar Tørnquist. “The video simply scratches the surface and reveals only a tiny glimpse of what this location is all about. Kingsmouth harbors ancient secrets and dark conspiracies that players have to work together to uncover – along with a menagerie of evil, including creatures from myth and legend, and horrors from the sea. A mysterious mist has enshrouded the entire Solomon Island, and it will be up to the players to figure out what’s happened and to stop this terror from spreading further.”
Earlier this month Funcom executed an elaborate ARG (alternate reality game) initiative where the 250.000 members strong community surrounding the game were given clues that helped them discover the http://www.kingsmouth.com website – the online presence for the New England town. This provided them with a unique insight into the location that is featured in the game. Blood covered postcards featuring a `Greetings from Kingsmouth’ message were also mailed out to journalists all over the world. This initiative is now reaching its climax with the release of the Kingsmouth location video footage.
“The video consists entirely of in-game footage, except for the obvious color modifications and distortion effects,” says Erling Ellingsen, Director of Communications at Funcom. “One of the reasons why we have chosen to reveal the footage in this unique way is because we are saving the undistorted, full color in-game footage for the Game Developer Conference in March. Our plan right now is to showcase actual gameplay for the first time ever to the media at GDC, as well as releasing all-new footage to the public at the same time. Of course, much can happen before March and some of the gamers out there might want to keep their tin foil hats on and their eyes keenly open for more mysterious clues to appear.”
`The Secret World’ is Funcom’s third massively multiplayer game, having previously developed the award-winning `Anarchy Online’ and the best selling new MMO of 2008 `Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’. The game features a modern-day, real world setting where every myth, conspiracy theory and urban legend is true, and where thousands of players from all over the world must join one of three secret societies in the fight against darkness – and each other. For more information visit the official website.
ABOUT FUNCOM – Funcom is an independent developer and publisher of online games for PC, consoles and mobile platforms. Funcom has provided outstanding entertainment since 1993 and continues to expand its track-record of more than twenty released games. Recent titles include ‘The Longest Journey’, ‘Anarchy Online’ and ‘Dreamfall: The Longest Journey’. For corporate information please visit http://www.funcom.com. For information about Funcom games visit http://www.anarchy-online.com, http://www.dreamfall.com, http://www.darkdaysarecoming.com or http://www.ageofconan.com. Funcom is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker FUNCOM.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Vox Day added his take on classifying men using various Greek letters. While interesting, it isn’t necessary and it makes the thing needlessly complex while pigeonholing men into various castes in the social hierarchy.
All that is really necessary is to understand the terms, alpha, beta and omega. Men are not all one thing, they have attributes of all three to varying degrees. It is better to think of something as being alpha, or being beta. When you say someone is alpha, what is really being said is that the majority of the man’s attributes are alpha, and a beta, the majority of his attributes are beta and so on.
Start with definitions:
What Vox describes as a Sigma, is really a man with a majority of alpha characteristics with a dash of Omega ones and little or no beta attributes. A serial killer is similar. People are often drawn to those things that scare them or repulse them.
What Vox describes as Lamdas are men with lots of beta characteristics, a fair amount of Omega and a dash of alpha.
A Gamma is a person with almost all beta characteristics with omega (no one likes a lickspittle) and no alpha.
Every man has his own unique combination of alpha, beta and omega, and each man can work on improving his alpha attributes and diminishing his omega ones. Vox’s example of Kissinger is a perfect example. The man is indeed an Apex alpha now, but I daresay that when he was a teenager he was viewed as more Omega than anything else.
So in looking at behaviors the question is merely “does this make me more attractive or does it serve society more than me?”
Bleh. I’m sorry for not posting photos at all. Today was my first day of school and yesterday I was out all day snowboarding. Actually, I have photos. I should post those…
Anyway. All of my Blender life I’ve been using ridiculously many polys for my model detail. This, of course, leads to huge amounts of render times. Since I’m not willing to give up the photon mapping etc. I figured I should make my models more efficient. Thus, lo poly modelling.
It’s ridiculously hard!
Like minimalism in the visual arts world, it’s actually really difficult to take away from a model while keeping the general form still there. So, I have a new found appreciation for video game modelers and what they do. Kudos.
The above represents 2600 polys (which is funny, since it’s under 200 just the model without the cape…) and also setting all of the materials to be shadeless for a flat cutout look in the style of “Every Day the Same Dream” (which I loved, despite hating everything about it. Seriously, if you have some patience it’s the most ugly beautiful game you can ever hate to love.)
The plan is maybe an animation (I rigged the man, since his torso is only like 8 vertices) involving an office worker (see above game) who decides to rebel from his boring office grind to become a superhero by tying a red cape around his neck and running around.
Just an idea.
ASSASSIN’S CREED 2
One word: Yes. Get it now.
Whether you loved Assassin’s Creed or no, this one’s worth a look. The game is a noticeable improvement over the former, with all the features that made the original great and a host of new ones to add to the enjoyment. It’s a solo adventure, of course, but if that’s what you want, you’ll love every minute.
As sandbox games should be, the world is huge and beautifully rendered—a wonderful recreation of renaissance Italy. The world breathes and as you wander around, you truly feel the effort the designers put into making the environment—and its people—come alive. The story is tighter and more cohesive than the original and aided this time around by a terrific new character brimming with personality. Forget the mostly silent protagonist of the old. Character dominates the new guy, and it’s a great change of pace.
There’s tons of missions (and in much more variety than the first), weapons and stealth techniques to keep you entertained for hours on end, inside and out of the main plot. Plus: Double-assassinations. That’s all I need to say.
However, the game does begin to notably lose some of its glitz and glamor about half-way through, and the plot has a tendency to bog down after that point. I do wonder exactly why we have a sudden 10 year jump between missions (explained away by a 2 minute conversation with a fairly insignificant acquaintance of the protagonist–greatest. plot move. ever…not.), and also why the ever-so-delightfully hyped “flying machine” bits are restricted to ONE city for ONE mission, but despite these hindrances, the game still stands on its merits. Besides, I’m sure the 10 year gap has its purpose. *cough*DLC*cough*…see the “you greedy bastards” entry in your local encyclopedia. Also, the flying machine does now seem to have been met with some corrective measure–predictably, as I said, through the DLC. The first of the downloadable additions to the game (“The Battle for Forli”) now allows flight in new places, along with a new battle and additional plot, designed to extend playability for a few more hours. It’s a nice touch, really–it just should’ve been included with the game itself.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
BORDERLANDS
Despite coming out in October, this was one I hadn’t heard of until recently—but it definitely gets the thumbs-up.
A Sci-Fi trek through greedy bandits and mysterious alien structures, this game is all about the multiplayer. The playing time is decent and there’s a good variety of weapons. You’re given four unique and entertaining characters to choose between and a four player cooperative system to use them in. The art and style is also unique, adding some substance to an environment that could otherwise get admittedly boring (endless seas of sand can only be entertaining for so long, after all).
The story’s alright, but I wouldn’t get the game if that’s what you’re looking for. The same thing goes with the single player, except replace “alright” with “boring.” There’s just nothing there—it’s slow and you’ll tire of it quickly. Words also cannot begin to describe how downright pathetic the ending is.
Still, it’s a good game to rent for a few nights, and if you want a quality multiplayer game than it certainly meets my buy endorsement. Like I said, though, if solo’s what you want, stay far, far away. And remember: I warned you about the ending.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Posted by chocolate-starz at 07:25 PM on October 18, 2009
Hey guys! I’ve developed a new obsession over the game ‘tetris’!!! It’s really fun. Go to http://www.tetrisfriends.com/ and make an account! My user name is chocolatz_starz, so you can add me as a friend if you want! (I think that’s the correct URL….) Anyhow, give me a message, and you can see my high-scores! See if you can beat me at tetris XD. It might seem really hard at first, but the more you play, the more you realize how fun it is! It gets really intense at the higher levels. See you all there!
Yah, I should do my homework more instead of playing tetris all day, but it’s REALLY addicting! You just can’t help but play game after game! You’ll realize soon enough. My avatar on Tetris is a lamb, so you look out for a mad-lamb on Tetris!
Signed,
Star╰☆
