Although Need for Speed III and IV, subtitled Hot Pursuit and High Stakes, came with various new things, the big step - and the apex reached by the Need for Speed franchise was Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, released almost a decade ago, in 2000. Since this is not today’s topic, I will only say this: I loved it from first second, I love it, and I will always love that game!

Next, came along the beginning of the end - Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, saved by the presence of a BMW in the car list(I loved that car). After that, the tuning madness started with Need for Speed: Underground, and old fans started to wait. The wait for a real Need for Speed game, and we’re still waiting now, in 2008, after 12 games in the series, including Need for Speed: Undercover…

..but let’s leave the past where it belongs now, and move on to what you’ve been waiting for, the one and only PlayerzBlog…

Need for Speed: Undercover PC Review

Just look at this - Need for Speed: Undercover is available for an amazing range of platforms, probably more than the cars available in the first Need for Speed game: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Portable, iPod Touch, iPhone, N-Gage 2.0! Anyway, that doesn’t necessarily make it better, it only gives it better chances to be purchased and played by more people, and that’s all. These being said, let’s check the plot, graphics, gameplay, and the amazing things I discovered in the time I spent with this game…

Need for Speed: Undercover - The Plot

Some people enjoyed ProStreet simply because that game didn’t have any silly plot, but this time things have changed - you’re UNDERCOVER! Yeah, right, just think about this - you’re a cop, and you have to infiltrate the street racing gangs in Tri-City, but once you’re inside the first gang…you have to “take out” your team mates, because “you don’t have to raise suspicions.” I don’t know exactly where did they see this, but I missed that movie where the cop infiltrates a gang and starts killing all members, just to avoid being uncovered!

OK, “The Transporter” is one thing, but what about “Gone in Sixty Seconds?” Yeah, I know, the blonde Angelina Jolie is totally smokin’ in there, but think about the plot of that movie, and the part of the game here where you have to steal “six cars within 48 hours.” Expensive exotics, of course. Nothing in common, right? Suuuuure…

Need for Speed: Undercover - The Graphics

“Look, mom, I discovered a new Pixel Shader function, it’s called Blurrrrr!,” said the little programmer, and its poor drawings, once animated, started to look better… that’s exactly what happens in Need for Speed: Undercover.

Need for Speed: Undercover - The Gameplay

In Undercover, you start off with a highway chase, and once you evade the cops, a boring introductory cutscene tries to tell you more about what’s going to happen. In fact, it tells nothing, because you’ll basically play around a lot of races in the different game modes available, and sometimes receive “special missions,” most of them without any introductory cutscene.

Need for Speed: Undercover - The Incredible Stories

I could have named this section “bugs,” “lamest parts of a silly game,” or something similar, but let’s leave it this way. If I could rename this game, I would call it Need for Speed: Unreal, and here’s why…

Needless to say, damage is as “realistic” as usual - after losing my wing, the car still remains in control at over 300 km/h, and once you see your Porsche taking 90 degrees turns at 250 km/h, there’s only one thing remaining for you to do, but I’ll keep that on hold for now.

Need for Speed: Undercover - The Conclusion

I guess someone will be glad to receive my copy of the game as a gift. Unfortunately, my hamster can’t use a computer. Hmmm…and I think he would also find his wheel more interesting than EA’s disaster… ehem, “game.”

If I had to award some scores, here’s what I would gladly award to Need for Speed: Undercover these -

Story: 0/10
Graphics: 2/10
Sound: 4/10
Gameplay: 2/10
Originality: 0/10
Tilt Factor: 5/10
Overall: 2/10

The soundtrack, pretty good, as usual, the wide range of cars and parts, as well as those BMWs I really enjoyed seeing included can’t save Need for Speed: Undercover from being nothing more than an abysmal title. I am sure that its name will help it sell too many copies once again, when compared to the fun provided for your money, but let’s hope this will happen for the last time.

Not even Jesus can save Need for Speed: Undercover, and the only thing remaining to be done I mentioned a bit earlier is this - go to Control Panel, enter Add/Remove Programs, and uninstall it. Take the DVD carefully, order some gift packaging, and send it to your worst enemy… but don’t forget to drop a comment below and share with the rest of us your opinion about this so-called “game.”

In video games, there is a division between the world inhabited by the game's characters and the representation of that world to the player. The game environment, world objects, and most sound effects and dialogue exist in the game world; that is, they can be perceived by characters. Other elements, such as most background music, loading screens, and subtitles, exist outside of the game world. They are part of the narration of the game, and help to provide the player with information or emotion that is not necessarily apparent to the characters of the game.

The film world calls this concept "diegesis." This is most easily explained in relation to music. If a film's music comes from a source inside the world of the film, like Casablanca's piano-playing Sam, it is said to be diegetic.

The dramatic music that plays over a James Bond action scene, however, cannot be heard by Bond; it is non-diegetic. Video game music can be looked at in the same way; Super Mario Bros.'s earworm background music is decidedly non-diegetic, but when the player comes across a radio in Portal playing a Latin version of "Still Alive," that music is diegetic. The player character Chell can hear it just like the player can.

The concept of diegesis applies to more than just music, of course.HUD elements can be non-diegetic or, as in Metroid Prime or Star Wars: Republic Commando, incorporated into the player character's helmet and therefore diegetic. Metroid Prime, in fact, plays with diegesis via the game's very interface. By using the X-Ray Visor, it becomes clear that while the player selects Samus's weapons with the C Stick, Samus herself chooses weapons by moving her fingers into various positions.

One work that pays particular attention to the concept of diegesis is LucasArts's 1998 game Grim Fandango. The game creates a very cinematic atmosphere by dispensing with many non-diegetic elements. Playing the game feels very much like watching a film noir piece due in part to this decision. By looking at how Grim Fandango handles diegesis, we can see how this concept can be used in video games.

With Bony Hands I Hold My Partner; on Soulless Feet We Cross the Floor

Grim Fandango is the successor to a long line of adventure games put out by LucasArts. All of the company's previous titles use the SCUMM engine, where the player controls the game with a mouse cursor, choosing verbs for the player character from a list or a "verb coin." Clicking on the ground moves the character, and the character's inventory of held items either occupies a portion of the screen or is visible via a secondary screen.

Grim Fandango, however, is based on a new engine. The GrimE engine, as used in this game, has no visible verb list, no mouse cursor, no inventory screen, and no hover text for world objects. Instead of clicking to move the main character, Manny Calavera, the player steers him with the keyboard. Interactive objects are indicated by Manny turning his head to look at them as he moves. The non-diegetic inventory screen is replaced by a close-up view of Manny's jacket, where he takes out various objects as the player flips through his collection, putting each item away before taking out the next.

This design decision has clear advantages. The lack of non-diegetic screen elements encourages player immersion by making the game world seem less artificial, and the inventory system does a similar thing by ensuring that every player action, even that of searching through the inventory, represents an action taken by Manny. Additionally, the gameplay looks more cinematic, which reinforces the game's connection to its film noir inspirations. The game almost feels like playing a CGI noir film.

However, the diegetic elements have their downsides. The movement system is often more awkward than the simple click-to-move approach, and Manny's gaze is a less useful indicator when he is near multiple interactive objects.

The one-item-at-a-time inventory system creates the most problems; at some points in the game, Manny is carrying a large number of things, and scrolling through them all can be annoying, with the amount of time it takes for Manny to remove each item from his jacket and describe what it is.

The Music Stops as if to Answer an Empty Knocking at the Door

There are still several non-diegetic elements left in the game. The conversation system is a notable exception to the immersive interface. When Manny speaks to someone, Grim Fandango presents a rather standard conversation tree interface, with visible options that the player can scroll through and pick from. It's understandable why the developers made this choice.

A diegetic alternative could be created, maybe letting Manny think about various topics in his head and mumble the options to himself, but this would probably be even more awkward than the inventory system... and would make Manny's character much more tongue-tied and socially awkward.

The other major non-diegetic element is the music. Most of Grim Fandango's music is non-diegetic; generally, the wide array of jazzy tunes don't come from an in-game source. This is in keeping with the cinematic feel of the game. While the music seems to work against the player's suspension of disbelief, it does support the illusion of the game as film. This is an aspect that would have been easy to make diegetic; there are ample opportunities in the world of the game for diegetic music. However, the developers' choice to make the music non-diegetic doesn't weaken the game.

But Now We Dance This Grim Fandango and Will Four Years Before We Rest

Diegesis is fundamentally a method of bringing the player closer to the game. Every non-diegetic element, whether it's a mouse cursor or a soundtrack, serves to reinforce the "fourth wall" between the player and the game world. By removing non-diegetic elements, the developer can make it easier for the player to lose herself in the game via immersion. That isn't to say that immersion isn't possible in a heavily non-diegetic game, but all other things being equal, a diegetic game will be more immersive.

There's an important caveat, though. If an element of the gameplay experience is made diegetic at the cost of usability, the player is pulled out of the experience again. Consider Manny's coat-based inventory; using this system is actually more difficult than it would be for Manny to actually pull something out of his pocket. In this case, immersion would probably be restored by using an easier but less diegetic inventory system. This would undermine Grim Fandango's goal of creating a cinematic experience, but it would make the game less frustrating and easier to use.

Grim Fandango is one of the most well-crafted video games of all time, and it has a lot to teach us about how video games can and should be made. Its use of diegesis is probably the way in which the game is most unique among games.

Diegesis is something that all developers should consider in the course of making a game: when is it better for an element of the game to be diegetic, and when is it best to make it separate from the game world? By considering this, developers can ensure that their game strikes the best balance between immersion and usability.

[Gregory Weir is a writer, game developer, and software programmer. He maintains Ludus Novus, a podcast and accompanying blog dedicated to the art of interaction. He can be reached at Gregory.Weir@gmail.com.]

• A high quality collector box set featuring varnish & metallic blue arabesque finish
• An exclusive 24 pages Comic book unveiling the backstory of the Hunter, one of the key antagonists in the game.
• A scratch card with unique code to unlock exclusive in-game skins for the Prince (Prince classic skin) and Elika ( Farah skin).
• A bonus DVD including soundtrack, videos, e-goodies, widget and more!

• Zavvi: limited edition artbook (54 pages)
  
• HMV: limited edition inlay sleeve w/ signed artwork
  
• Blockbuster: Prince of Persia Xbox 360 faceplate
  
• not specified: Prince of Persia Classic PSN/XBL DLC redeem code

• Ubisoft, Penny Arcade reveal Prince of Persia storybook
• An early Christmas: Prince of Persia release date confirmed

• Shows an error message instead of silently crashing in the case of a broken installation.
• The current score was added to the list of high-scores twice if you used restart or quit after losing all your lives.
• Pausing the game stopped the music, it now only stops sound effects.
• After completing all stages, the game sometimes crashed.
• Script errors in stages other than the first weren't shown to the user.
• After a boss' spellcard finishes, -all- enemy projectiles are now destroyed, not just those of the ENEMY_SHOT type.
• Instead of overwriting the default textures, user-specified textures were added -after- the existing textures. This limited the max. texture memory to 32KB.

• Internal script compiler now does basic type-checking.
• Meaningful error messages in the script compiler.
• Added (beta) support for downloading additional characters from within the game using wifi.
• Rewrote a large portion of the scripting manual.
• Support for multiple routes per game. Routes are commonly used to create a selectable difficulty setting.
• The score overview shown at the end of every stage works now.
• Both stages and routes can now be locked/unlocked. Read the manual for more info.
• Added a third stage.

Brash stops paying devs, gets sued originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I live in a rather small city that is not large enough to attract bigger name events. While we do get Snoop Dogg on the rare occasion, any tour with limited stops does not grace us with their presence. That is why I haven’t had the pleasure of attending Video Games Live, an one-of-a-kind immersive experience featuring music from the most recognizable and iconic video games of all time. Thousands of people have enjoyed this event that initially debuted back in 2005 but if you haven’t made your way there yet, you can live vicariously through the following write-up. Enjoy Halcylon’s tale of his recent adventures at Video Games Live. I’m pretty sure it’s the next best thing to actually being there.

When I was told that my birthday gift from my friend Cathy would be extraordinary, I had no idea what I could be in for. Strippers? Boob jobs for all the girls I know? I had no idea… until I saw the ticket for Video Games Live.

I couldn’t believe it! Any excuse is a good excuse to go to the famous Chicago Theatre, but now there was an added bonus of listening to video game-themed music live! I had heard of this concert through word of mouth and made a promise to myself to go some time. For the past three years, however, I’ve failed to follow up with it. This year, thanks to the tenacity of my friend and my overdeveloped love for video games, I went.

I walked in expecting somewhat of a crowd… what I found was that the entire theatre (over 3,600 seats) was sold out and everyone was there early to partake in pre-show entertainment, products, drinks, and booths. I was floored! I had expected some fun things, but this was something else all together – much like PAX or Wizard World. There was merchandise for sale, arcade games to play, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith contests, and booths for viewing. The booths were provided by the sponsors, Flashpoint Academy and Razor Zone, both of which are local in Chicago. They had samples of their products and services with ad placement during the actual show. They were packed. We didn’t even think twice about elbowing through the masses, trying to get in line for merch or the booths. We were there for one thing and one thing only – Video Game BGM!

So we went in, or up, rather. Our seats were front and center in the balcony; not that seating is ever an issue in the Chicago Theatre— all the seats are great! This did, however, give us a wonderful view down into and over the Metropolis Orchestra. We were even able to see the choir in the back while keeping a clear view of the main screen that hung above them all. Then… it started.

The lights went down, the crowd roared, and the screen lit up. Two parallel lines on either side with a square cube bouncing in between them appeared. Pong. At first, the sounds seemed like they weren’t from the game. They seemed… real. And then I saw it – or heard it rather. The orchestra was simulating the bouncing, paddling, and scoring of the game! It lasted for a few minutes and then all hell broke loose. A montage of classic arcade games roared across the screen as the orchestra kept pace and sound with every image we saw. Defender, Tron, Frogger… they were all there in their 8-bit glory! It was amazing to see so many games that I had forgotten reborn in a symphonic rendition that didn’t disappoint. When that ended, one of the creators of VGL, Tommy Tallarico, came out on stage, microphone a blazing. He greeted us and introduced the Metropolis Orchestra and his best friend and co-creator/ conductor Jack Wall – both members of Mythical Stone Entertainment. Within moments of being on stage, he explained to us that this wasn’t going to be a normal night at the Chicago Theatre. Not only did he explain it, but he made us feel it. We knew we were there as a part of this epic event. After all, if it weren’t for us playing games and loving the game music “we wouldn’t be here”, Tommy said. Telling us how important it was to cheer and shout when we heard something we liked was only the beginning of the involvement we were to be privy to.

This was to be the first of many microphone moments Tommy would do, but that did not detract from the fun and entertainment that followed. After a few segments of games, including Zelda and God of War, Tommy returned to the stage to bring up contest winners to participate in a live version of Space Invaders – one where the winner had to run back and forth on stage to avoid being hit – and later Tommy brought up the winner of the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith contest to play live with the Orchestra and Tommy himself riffing to Sweet Emotion.

Fucking awesome is right! I couldn’t believe how much fun I was having cheering for the winner while he played the song on EXPERT. After a quick stint of other games, the composers lent the stage to savant pianist Martin Leung. If you are racking your brains why that may be a familiar name, go to youtube.com and view the video that has over forty million downloads of this man playing a Super Mario tribute blindfolded. He showered us with his solo pianist skills – yes I said it – and we listened intently as he played melodies from Tetris and Super Mario Bros. Then, when he was done, Tommy brought out the one thing that could make it better: a blindfold. Martin proceeded to play again blindfolded. It was unreal and perfectly executed— one of those “You had to have been there” moments!

As the night wore on, we listened to the World of Warcraft opus, the sequel to StarCraft, Starcraft II (complete with game footage and concept art), Civilization IV’s Baba Yetu, and of course Kingdom Hearts. It was nothing short of amazing to hear these games. All I could do is sit staring in amazement as my mind flooded with all the memories of the great games that have come and gone in my life – Sonic the Hedgehog, ToeJam and Earl, and the Metal Gear series. It gave me goose bumps to hear songs I’d forgotten and left behind as I moved onto newer games, but nothing prepared me for the finale.

First, they brought a man on stage named Michael Salvatori. Sound familiar? It should. Go google Michael’s name and Bungie. Michael gave us a preview of what was to finish the night by showing us how to chant as a monk. Hint, hint? After a brief introduction, Tommy let the roaring crowd die down and looked at us intensely while introducing the final song of the evening with these simple words, “They call this game… Halo!”

In a roar of cheers and whistles, the choir began the chants and was followed by a seven minute montage of all three Halo games being joined by all the cut scenes from the games on the screen. The hair on the back of my neck was standing on end as I held onto every note and vocal. It was nothing short of amazing.

At night’s end, after two surprise encores (Final Fantasy VII and Castlevania), we found ourselves in line with most of the crowd waiting for the meet and greet. The conductors and creators we viewed for three hours stayed deep into the night to shake hands and autograph photos for anyone willing to stay. And stay we did. After a few photos and autographs, my need to play every game that I have was too great and we left… totally satisfied.

So what did I think of Video Games Live Chicago? Without hesitation, this is something I will be investing an evening in watching every time they are back here in Chi-Town. I was in awe of the dedication of Jack and Tom and the talent of their genius to produce accurate and fun renditions of our most cherished moments in gaming. If you have an opportunity to see this show, you would do yourself a service to go. Go in costume, go buy shirts, go and have a time that you will never forget.

-by Halcylon

...non-DS users have the ability to avoid accidentally attacking kiwis when they go careening through the hallways. The intent is you can bind it to,say [L], and then hold that when you want to move safely. If you want [L] to attack, you can change the global option. SDL users may use the ctrl key. Unless they are using vi-keys in which case I'm afraid they are out of luck for now. I can only hope those players believe that Safe Walk is for weaklings.

• The mouse will work again for the onscreen keyboard in SDL builds. (Ilya, Teun Peelen)
• Description when wearing necro dress code spells servant right. (David Damerell, Andreas Bohm)
• Vacuum correctly spelled in death message. (David Damerell)
• "Click on your self to search" rather than Clicking. (Narius Varigor)
• Starting as cultist will immediately tell you ><0 V 's whim. (hotpoo)
• Loading a save game worshiping ><0 V will likewise report the whim.
• Zapping a hostile wand of create monster will have a chance of the creature turning on you. (hotpoo)
• New boon from gods: hostile creatures surrounding you can be smitten. (Indirectly Ambvai)
• Earth hammers can be forged into artifact earth hammers with the proper setup. (David Damerell)
• Level up hitpoints and magic points are now 2d2 1 rather than 1d4 1, giving a tighter distribution and slight boost to the average. (Teun Peelen)
• Earth hammers have an encyclopedia entry. (David Damerell)
• When you can move in diagonals you can use the diagonals of the numberpad. (Andreas Bohm)
• There is now a SafeWalk mode which stops you from attacking when walking about. You can toggle this by pressing Ctrl when using the arrow keys or binding the Safe Walk command to a button in GBA mode. (Andreas Bohm)
• The delete key works the same as the backspace key, a useful feature on Macs whose keyboards lack a backspace. (Roger Bolton)
• Wishing for a level teleport no longer uses atoi() so hopefully works on gpsphone. (Roger Bolton)
• We now promote room flags to map flags when loading. This way loading the game on the final levels will not turn the levels into floor-diggable and hence suddenly create holes to short-circuit the levels. (Ambvai, debugged by Andreas Bohm)
• A case where you could achieve barbarian dress code despite not wearing armour is fixed. (Malte Helmert)
• You now gain piety for the barbarian and necro dress codes. (Malte Helmert)
• You can no longer move diagonally if both orthogonal directions are blocked by walls.
• Spells cast when you have the can dig intrinsic will no longer disintegrate earth elementals. (SparroHawc)

• Powder release 107 for DS, PSP - new tilesets added
  

...non-DS users have the ability to avoid accidentally attacking kiwis when they go careening through the hallways. The intent is you can bind it to,say [L], and then hold that when you want to move safely. If you want [L] to attack, you can change the global option. SDL users may use the ctrl key. Unless they are using vi-keys in which case I'm afraid they are out of luck for now. I can only hope those players believe that Safe Walk is for weaklings.

• The mouse will work again for the onscreen keyboard in SDL builds. (Ilya, Teun Peelen)
• Description when wearing necro dress code spells servant right. (David Damerell, Andreas Bohm)
• Vacuum correctly spelled in death message. (David Damerell)
• "Click on your self to search" rather than Clicking. (Narius Varigor)
• Starting as cultist will immediately tell you ><0 V 's whim. (hotpoo)
• Loading a save game worshiping ><0 V will likewise report the whim.
• Zapping a hostile wand of create monster will have a chance of the creature turning on you. (hotpoo)
• New boon from gods: hostile creatures surrounding you can be smitten. (Indirectly Ambvai)
• Earth hammers can be forged into artifact earth hammers with the proper setup. (David Damerell)
• Level up hitpoints and magic points are now 2d2 1 rather than 1d4 1, giving a tighter distribution and slight boost to the average. (Teun Peelen)
• Earth hammers have an encyclopedia entry. (David Damerell)
• When you can move in diagonals you can use the diagonals of the numberpad. (Andreas Bohm)
• There is now a SafeWalk mode which stops you from attacking when walking about. You can toggle this by pressing Ctrl when using the arrow keys or binding the Safe Walk command to a button in GBA mode. (Andreas Bohm)
• The delete key works the same as the backspace key, a useful feature on Macs whose keyboards lack a backspace. (Roger Bolton)
• Wishing for a level teleport no longer uses atoi() so hopefully works on gpsphone. (Roger Bolton)
• We now promote room flags to map flags when loading. This way loading the game on the final levels will not turn the levels into floor-diggable and hence suddenly create holes to short-circuit the levels. (Ambvai, debugged by Andreas Bohm)
• A case where you could achieve barbarian dress code despite not wearing armour is fixed. (Malte Helmert)
• You now gain piety for the barbarian and necro dress codes. (Malte Helmert)
• You can no longer move diagonally if both orthogonal directions are blocked by walls.
• Spells cast when you have the can dig intrinsic will no longer disintegrate earth elementals. (SparroHawc)

• Powder release 107 for DS, PSP - new tilesets added
  

Even though the alpha 2 plays Goldeneye better I beat the first level on the highest difficulty and completed the mission 100 on alpha 1. Only real reason was because I deleted alpha 2 of my psp since it was slower for other roms then 007. Anyway when you get down into the tunnel part of the Dam the FPS picks up alot because of the closed space and the shakiness stops. In level 2 it seems the speed is really nice, running at like a minimal of 12fps and high of 28, even though these pictures below don't exactly say it because after I click screenshot the fps goes down to take the pic but then returns so. Anyway here are so pics for Kreationz or whoever so they can see the green texture errors throughout level 2, just for future reference. It took alot of patience to beat level 1 and play a good bit of level 2 but the speed wasn't too painful so this project just keeps looking better!

Actually the speed difference is going to be an indoor vs outdoor thing, for out door rendering 007 uses a special cache method that's difficult to replicate on the psp, but rest assured CM the Alpha 3 won't have the slow downs of alpha two as the changes are now menu selectable... Also been slowly finding tiny bit here and there so it may be even faster than Alpha 1 was. For instance Zelda OoT is back up to R13 speed with better texture support and working on a way to make it faster.

• DaedalusX64 alpha build finally compiled, screens released, video later
• DaedalusX64 R14 update: R14 based code is a go Update
  
• The undaed to rise again: DaedalusX64 progress report reveals partial changelog