July 2003

Randy played through the cutscene from the Library mission for us (where the Master Chief discovers that things aren't quite as they have seemed). Seeing the surface of the library floor reflect all the objects in the environment while also taking in to account character shadows and lighting was real treat.

Pixel shaders are one of the newer graphics technologies that seem to be getting a lot of attention these days. Seeing them in Halo, it's not hard to understand why. For those who don't keep up with such things, pixel shaders are a way of creating the effect of complicated geometry without requiring extra
polygons. A pixel-shaded texture placed on a flat plane will create the effect of a rough or irregular surface in response to real-time lighting. It's the same technique Pixar uses in their films. The difference is that Halo does it all in real-time.

Although the game looks great on top of the line video cards, the developers are definitely interested in scaling the graphics so that they'll run well even on a GeForce 2 card. You won't get the effect of the pixel shaders, which is a big part of why Halo's graphics look so good, but you'll still be able to play the game.

On that same topic, Randy was willing to speculate that the low end processor requirement will likely fall somewhere near the P3 733-933MHz range. Though the team didn't speculate on the RAM requirements of the game, the Xbox's 64MB limit and the incredibly fast (read: instant) load times on the PC levels lead us to
believe that the RAM requirements for the game will be scaled down to allow for high and low memory systems to run it quite quickly

More Here

Star Trek Elite Force II Review ....
Posted by [luckee] @ 2:30 PM MDT Monday, July 14, 2003 [Comment on news]

Three years ago, Activision and Raven have released their first-person shooter based upon the Star Trek Voyager TV series. Now Activision and Ritual return with more Trek shooter action in Elite Force II that features a new in-depth storyline, scenarios and even more tweaked Quake 3 Engine. Was it worth the wait? Let's find out.

Star Trek Elite Force II once again puts players in the role of Hazard Team leader Alexander Munro. The game starts out during the events of Star Trek: Voyager's series finale, Endgame, with the U.S.S. Voyager being trapped inside a Borg Sphere. The Hazard Team's first mission in the game is to board the Sphere
and find a way to free Voyager. After doing and returning to Earth, Munro is assigned to Starfleet Academy to train cadets.Through a series of events, Munro and the members of the Hazard Team find themselves transferred aboard the prestigious Enterprise-E serving under Picard. After answering a distress call of a derelict Federation vessel, the Enterprise-E and crew find themselves
caught up in the upheaval of tension and conflict between warring species and find out who is behind it all. You will come across many familiar races in Star Trek including the Klingons, Borg, Andorians, and Romulans along with two new races and a horrific new alien race of monsters. Your actions will determine the ultimate outcome of these events.

The gameplay is definitely a lot of fun and extremely intense. There are 11 single-player missions over the course of the game, as well as some smaller scenarios scattered about, in total over 70 levels of gun blasting. There are a few puzzles (from simple pushing button to matching sine waves and rotating
power couplings) spread out here and there to keep the game from the depths of a mindless shooter.

The weapons are great too, EF2 offers a a mixture of weapons from enhanced versions of Elite Force weapons to all-new weapons, including Hand-phaser (sometimes a life-saver if your ammo runs out), Compression Rifle (probably the best weapon in the game, along with the Tatryon Gun), Enhanced Compression Rifle
(secondary mode which launches grenades), Assault Rifle, Sniper rifle (isn't as accurate, but still somewhat effective), Grenade Launcher, Tatryon Gun (the Klingon-style chaingun), Energy Staff: of Romulan origin, Infinity Modulator (the only effective weapon against Borgs), Lightning Gun, Quantum Burst Torpedo
(a.k.a. the rocket launcher), Radiation Gun (the second Romulan weapon, very similar to a flame-thrower) and Tricorders. The bosses were also a lot of fun playing, because all of them were challenging, but not the kind that frustrates. They are attacking in stages, so it's often like fighting four different enemies
in one. More on this review here.