Warmonger, a collaberation between NetDevil and Ageia is ready for download over here. The system requirements STRONGLY recommend a Physx card, which Dell.com has on for $143.99. There haven't been a ton of reviews on it yet, but who doesn't love a little apocalyptic first person action?
If free is good by you, and you have a Physx card, give it a try. If you don't have a Physx card, run out and buy one at the same time as you grab UT3 and they will throw in Bet On Soldier: Blood of Sahara, GRAW, and City of Villains.
Just got word that Warmonger - the upcoming PhysX-powered FPS - has graduated from closed beta to open beta and is freely available right now. Here's the Link - enjoy!
We're about a week or so away from Warmonger's official launch date and it looks like AGEIA is opening up the game to anyone who's willing to give NetDevil's multiplayer shooter a try. System specs say that it requires a PhysX card, but it looks like anyone can give it a try.
Here's a sneek peek of an Unreal Tournament 3 mod built to show what kind of stuff the PPU can do in the game. This clip is from the Leipzig Games Conference.
"In response to player feedback, AGEIA Technologies in cooperation with
Immersion Games and TimeLine Interactive has released a patch for
CellFactor:Revolution which will fix a series of gameplay issues. Some
of the fixes contained in the patch include:
* Enhanced support for the x8800 Graphics card
* The Empty menus bug
* The "no inputs" specified bug
* Various bots game-play issues
The patch will be available for download immediately from the
www.ageia.com and www.cellfactorrevolution.com websites.
Michael Brown of Maximum PC has an interesting write up of GRAW 2. Apparently Michael has been a fairly vocal critic of Ageia but the implementation seems to have turned his head. Here is a snip or two:
"Ageia tells me all the physics in the game were created using its PhysX SDK, but only one level (dubbed Ageia Island, appropriately enough) requires a PhysX card—you can't unlock the level without it. Could this be just a marketing ploy? I guess it's possible, but I’ve never seen such detailed physics in a game."
"The guard tower is even more remarkable. You can act with stealth and take out the enemy soldier with a sniper rifle, or you can launch an RPG, blow the entire structure apart, and watch him tumble down to his death. The first time you try this, you’ll undoubtedly get blown away yourself because you’re too busy watching the destruction unfold before you."
Looks like (as I mentioned in my previous post about GRAW2) this might be the real deal as far as engaging gameplay influenced by physics.
In the upcoming Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 title from Ubisoft will be a little nugget for those of us with an Ageia card - a special 'Ageia Island' level. According to Ageia it will have fully destructible environments. The level of Physx interaction in this title seems to finally reach that physics nirvana - where the physics effects can influence gameplay. One example they use is knocking boards out of a fence to take pot shots at your enemy. One of the biggest benefits in my opinion to this integration is that the game will play differently every time depending on your approach. You could make a clearing if you wanted to, or even knock down trees for a great 'cutline' sniper shot. Find the press release here.
After much anticipation Cell Factor Revolution hit the stage about a week and a half back, and best of all it was free to download. There have been some reviews floating around but one thing that is extremely hard to quantify in the case of Cell Factor: Revolution is value.
Worthplaying has a write up on Cell Factor Revolution. The review is a bit brief but there are tonnes of screenshots, so it is 'worth' a wander over. Hard to say no to 'free' in any case, and the game will be available for download May 8th.
I've got a gameplay video up here found over on youtube.. it's mostly of one of the new levels in the game and played entirely with the bishop character.
Following up on our previous story about Cell Factor: Revolution being made available for free, we now have a release date to attach to that great news. Cell Factor: Revolution will be available May 8th for free download. There is no word on where the downloads will be hosted. The press release can be found here.
Finally, with Cell Factor: Revolution right around the corner, we have an interview with Adrian Jones, one of the Producers from Cell Factor: Revolution on the Ageia side of the coin. There are some interesting nuggets throughout the interview including the comments about the level editor and also some of the challenges facing developers incorporating Physx into their titles. Have a read!
Over at IGN they have an interview with both the producer and the lead designer of GRAW 2. One of the most interesting snippets for this audience:
"We've had a strong partnership with Aegia to provide the physics for this game and we've switched from using two providers to just one - Havok is gone."
The story goes on to talk briefly about how this affects gameplay. Have a read!
In what is sure to be exciting news to anyone holding a Physx card, Tech Report has reported that both Cell Factor: Revolution and Warmonger are going to be offered for free. We know that CF:R was heavily supported by Ageia as the original Cell Factor concept was a technology demo for Ageia, but Warmonger is a NetDevil property and is apparently chock full of Physx support. It is reported that Warmonger in fact will not work without a Physx card, which might explain why it is being offered free of charge. For the early adopters who purchased cards just under a year ago and have been waiting patiently for titles built around the Physx card, this is a great day as both titles are supposed to be available over the next month or so.
Another interesting component of this announcement that Warmonger is based on the Unreal 3 Engine. Other titles have been released based on this engine but this is one of the first titles to really leverage the physics implementation. I am eagerly waiting to get my hands on both titles, so look forward to some reviews soon!
Over at GameZone they have an interesting write up about the upcoming Monster Madness title. The game is built around the Unreal 3 engine, and features a top down viewing perspective. One of the benefits of the Unreal 3 engine is the built in Ageia Physx package, which is sure to spice up your physics game experience.
Over at EuroGamer.net they have a chat with Metropolis, the Developer for Infernal. They talk about the use of Physx to get closer to 'real world' simulation.
This demo from "Blackout Saigon" (being shown at CES 2007) uses AGEIA's cloth simulation to render more realistic foliage in the game environment. It's a pretty neat effect especially when you can see bullets flying at you through the leaves.
Ageia Previews Cell Factor: Revolution and Warmonger @ CES
Over the next few days in Las Vegas Ageia will be showcasing their Physx technology at CES. They will be showing off two Physx enabled titles - Warmonger developed by NetDevil and Cell Factor: Revolution which is developed by Artificial Studios.
If you are in the Vegas area and are able to get admission, have a look!
Artificial Studios has announced that they have firmed up a release schedule around the first full Cell Factor title. Based on the critically acclaimed technology demo created for the Physx PPU, Cell Factor: Revolution is a first person shooter centered on one of several characters who have a variety of psionic powers to interact with their environment. Look for Cell Factor: Revolution to be released this spring, and if you are in the Las Vegas vicinity you might be able to get a sneak peak of the title which is being shown behind closed doors.
Kotaku has the skinny on a new Unreal Engine 3-based FPS from the makers of Auto Assault. It's rumored to feature fully destructible environments and takes place in a new urban setting. Sounds like it might be worth picking up - we'll deliver the details as soon as we hear more.
Playlogic, developers of Infernal which was featured earlier here and here have announced a deal with Eidos for the publishing rights for the game. This is exciting news as the demos of Infernal I have seen are quite polished and seem fairly close to release. Eidos also acqured publishing rights to "Ancient Wars: Sparta".
The guys over at Bongfish Interactive have put up a nice little developer diary about their new snowboarding sim: Stokedrider. There is a bit of in-depth discussion regarding physics and PhysX-driven avalanches. In the early 'pre-release' title the snow breaks away from the slope in a little 'mini-lanche' as you board down a mountain. The snow particle count can get into high twenty thousands. Without hardware Physx the particle count drops dramatically.
Seems like even Ageia might have missed this one in their list of upcoming titles. Over at Omikron Portal, they have a story which relates to the incorporation of Physx acceleration in to Quantic Dreams upcoming title Omikron 2: KARMA. The title was slated for release in 2007 - hopefully they are still on schedule and jamming it full of Physx goodies.
Computer Games Online has a fairly comprehensive two part interview with Jeremy Stieglitz, President and Lead Developer of Artificial Studios regarding Cell Factor: Revolution. Some of the more interesting things to come out of the interview include some details on various character classes including the psionic-only class 'Bishop'.
Over at Firing Squad they have a Preview of Alpha Prime, a title by Black Element Software. This is a Physx accelerated title and is physics-centric but unfortunately the previewer John Callaham did not have a Physx card at his disposal. I have contacted the publisher, IDEA Games to see about getting some accelerated vs. software only screenshots. Stay Tuned!
I thought I would post up a link to the Ageia page that lists all the currently released titles and the ones coming up for release on the Ageia website. What I am going to try to do is harvest this information somehow and with the cooperation of the developers / publishers see if I can work up some decently autonomous release calendar. That way people can see at a glance what new Physx enabled games are coming down the chute or whether a new patch has come out for an existing title which will enrich the gaming experience. Stay tuned!
