About 4 days ago, most of TP had its annual CCN day or Campus Care Network Day, where students set up booths to sell different kinds of stuff/entertainment to earn as much money as possible for the needy students. What my care group/class sold was drinks, which was quite simple, except for the fact that it was last-minute planning. Even so, it was quite ok, and I didn’t look at how much we earnt.

C235 setting up shop

Drinks anyone?

Most of the time though, I walked around the campus to take photos.

CCN day had been great for me, (all thanks to the many chances I have to take as many photos as I want). I’m a bit grateful that the school didn’t make it compulsory for juniors and seniors to set up booths, since I know that they ware busy, as I know I’m gonna be next year, though I think I will come again to take more photos…

Zhi Xiang

2009 has been a good year for PC role-playing games (CRPGs). We’ve had Drakensang and Risen so far, and Divinity II: Ego Draconis is set to be released next month. In between the first two and the latter, BioWare’s Dragon Age Origins has just been released for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Dragon Age Origins is a new fantasy world created by the talented developers at BioWare who have already proven that as far as CRPGs are concerned, they’re at the top of the heap. The studio has chalked up big and critically acclaimed hits like Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, and the Mass Effect series.

As high fantasy-esque worlds go though, I don’t think there’s a lot of stuff in Dragon Age Origins that’s new though. There’s the fantasy realm that’s facing the looming threat from an evil horde led by an arch demon that takes the form of a dragon, and all the ‘good’ folk – which comprises elves, humans, magi and dwarves – must ban together under the terms of ancient treaties crafted by a expert and elite warriors caste, the Jedi, whoops, Grey Wardens. Intermixed in the lot and forming a good bulk of the major quests in the game are the player character’s efforts to unite the races together who don’t enjoy the best of relations among themselves.

Truth to tell, you’ve seen it all before elsewhere. But what works especially well in Dragon Age Origins is how skillful and proficient has BioWare become in employing the well-established game play norms for games of this genre. There’s plenty of character customization by way of looks, skill and attribute growth, and specialization. And there’s a reasonably large range of inventory items for those of us who’re pack rats, though the inventory system itself could use some work. And the story – conventional as it is – is told through long cut scenes that come off a great script, terrific voice-acting and animation.

There’s also a cast of very well-defined and interesting characters who’ll join up with you, and each person has a back story which at various points when recounted will require a reaction from you as their party leader. Depending on your reactions, their attitudes towards you will change, which can either open up new abilities and benefits, or if conversations go awry or your actions in some other story element upsets them, they could leave the party forever.

What’s especially well-done too is that like Drakensang which I really enjoyed as well, story decisions in Dragon Age Origins aren’t always painted in broad and clear strokes. There’s the aforementioned effect on your party members for instance, and there’s also the fact that many decisions require you to make tough choices between what’s moral and what’s practical, or choosing to side with one key character and offending another important one.

These key defining decisions aren’t just for show either, as decisions you make will have far reaching implications that show up either immediately, or much later on. Of the many CRPGs I’ve played over the years, I can think of only The Witcher as another game which has been able to stretch story-based decisions to the same extreme.

Nicely too is that the first hour or two of a new game depends on the race and class you choose for yourself in new character generation, and while each beginning ties in smoothly with the main campaign, they’re still distinct enough within those couple of hours to warrant several repeated start-ups of new games just to see the different beginnings.

There’s a huge amount of content in the game of about 70 hours with the bulk of time to be spent in the main campaign. There are some side missions that you can also take that’s integrated nicely with the main story. They’re well-worth the time to complete, as in several instances they flesh out further the back stories of your party members, and in turn their attitudes towards you.

The game isn’t especially easy too. Even at the easiest difficulty setting, you’d be pausing combat encounters frequently to issue new and complex orders to your party members. There’s a detailed behavioral script that you can customize for each member too that’d alleviate some of the hand work. Either way, party wipes are very common, but saves and reloads are reasonably quick for at least the PC edition of the game.

Lastly, Dragon Age Origins is available for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 though I suggest you get the PC version for better party control, more view options and a more manageable interface. And it’s all to be had for less money than either of the two console versions.

Very highly recommended.:)

(Pictures from Gamespot)

Kathleen Kwan, a GET Freshmen Year student and also game reviewer for Gamers’ choice, has penned a poem about C++ programming. Here is it.:)

Let’s do C plus plus,
nope, nothing to do with surplus.
Hex include iostream,
hope you’re not burning some steam.
Using namespace std,
remember your semicolon after your d.
int main brackets,
yes, those () brackets.
Open your curly brackets,
now you can start your racket.
Once you are done,
remember to close your fun!

With the bulk of similar games appearing on shelves these days, its no wonder that sometimes, you’ll feel like when you’ve played one, you’ve played them all.

Its true that if its tried and proven, don’t change it, but this formula only guarantees games that just follow a template and stick in the details later. FPSs start to differ only by the addition of guns, bows, or lasers, depending on the premise of the game.

There have been a couple of interesting new concepts for games recently, but nothing as ground-breaking as the idea for a ‘people simulator’ (The Sims) yet. Lets explore some of these ideas:

A recent interesting and relatively successful mash-up is ‘Borderlands’. A FPS with RPG elements, its combines fast-paced action with strategic (albeit simple) RPG elements. With a loot system similar to Diablo, generating randomly created loot with different stats each time, it appeals to those who like treasure hunting and provides the action-adrenaline rush only available in shoot-em ups.

The idea presented here is that not every game has to be of one particular genre. A combination of two different genres (with some careful thought) makes for a vastly interesting game with unique gameplay mechanics. In-fact, it doesn’t have to be genres. Any two gaming ideas can be ‘mashed’ together with interesting results. Of course, not all ideas will work so the necessary play-testing needs to be done. Anyone got any ideas for a FPS-Tower Defence game?

Another idea that I’d like to explore is the rules of a game. Most games tend to stick to realism as it is easily understood by gamers. For example, the rules of physics need not be explained to everyone as it is intiutively understood. However, its not a written in stone rule that games have to follow the rules of reality. There have been a couple of games that bend reality as a theme, such as the highly-rated Braid, in which time is used as tool. Another highly-rated game, Psychonauts,is a platformer that takes place in the minds of characters in the game, allowing for highly surreal environments.  

A more recent release, Dreamkiller also makes use of this idea to bring players into the minds of characters plagued with psychological problems, suffering from different kinds of fear. The levels are based off the fears of each patient and are themed as such. The protagonist is a psychologist who is able to enter her patients’ minds and shoot the psychological problems whom manifest themselves as different types of ‘monsters’. So you’d expect to see spiders in the mind of someone who’s suffering from arachnophobia.

Games like these have no limits on the designs of their levels. The levels can be made skewed as far from reality as they like and creativity can be utilised to its utmost when it comes to the design and look of the levels and eventually the overall feel of the game.

Games are a terrific outlet to express creativity, especially if you are given the creative freedom to design or mould the basis of a game. I’d like to encourage all GET students to think creatively and ‘think outside the box’. For more game ideas, or a discussion on gaming ideas, feel free to leave a comment here or speak to me in school. Im always open to discussions on gaming ideas. Lastly, keep those creative juices flowing!

If you were around in school on FRI yesterday, you might have noticed a lot of your teaching staff and workers moving boxes, furniture, metal cabinets etc. between levels 6 and 7 of Blocks 4 and 7. Basically, several departments have switched locations, and we’ve all finished moving proper as of FRI afternoon.

From this point onwards, if you’re looking for any and all GET staff, do come to Block 1 Level 7 (we used to be in Block 4 Level 6). If you ring for any of your GET lecturers at the old location, none of us will be there.

You may also want to refer to this phone directory too: our phone numbers have not changed.:)

Hey O’ Level students, if I’m not wrong, you guys have FINISHED your O’ Levels, which means a long, long break (depending on which instituition you choose). This is technically the end of 1 chapter and the start of another (since you don’t need to go to your old school in school uniforms, well, with the exception of  collecting your results.

There are many things you can do during this break, like working (if you’re in need of moolah), studying (if you want to get a big head-start in your course of study) or you can just have fun (which you definitely deserve, since you slogged and worked hard to get good grades.) Use this time to think which course of study is more suited than you (not what your parents and friends think is good but YOU) Of course, you must have back-up plans, in case your grades turn out to be not that satisfactory.

Regardless of which course of study you go to, be it a JC or a poly, you have now prepared to go to the next stage of life. Tertiary life can be quite tough, with deadlines and projects, but it is also very rewarding, as you get to know friends who will most likely stick with you throughout your life on this planet.

Stay strong, stay good and most of all, stay true to yourself 

Zhi Xiang

Descent: Freespace

One of the earliest games that I ever remember playing is Descent: Freespace (the others being Swat 3, MechWarriors 4, and The Sims). A space combat flight simulator developed by Volition Inc. (the company responsible for Red Faction and Saints Row), it was a (to me) rather impressive game for its time (1998).

The graphics aren’t too bad, but the most spectacular aspect of their graphics were the explosions that were generated when ships were destroyed. There is a rather large variety of sound effects too, most of them for the various weapons that can be used in the game. Music however, is another matter. I can’t say that I really remember there being a lot of soundtracks for the game, and those that are present can actually be classified as a sort of background music.

That's gotta hurt...

Gameplay is rather interesting. Players are given command of one (or sometimes two) squadrons of fighters, who will be their wingmen. The AIs for these wingmen are rather competent, and can usually be trusted to carry out the orders given to them (as opposed to some games even today). Also, since enemies use the same AI as their wingmen do, working together with their wingmen takes on another meaning, because as likely as they are to swarm an enemy, the enemies are just as likely to swarm players.

Mamma mia...

One interesting aspect about the game was that it can utilise a “sub-system” targeting system. This allows players to target various parts of an enemy’s ship, like its engines or targeting system. This opens up quite a few interesting strategies for completing missions, as they can disable a major target’s maneuvering capabilities, and leave it for later while they deal with other threats to their mission. Another aspect of the game is its “rearming” option. Players enter combat with a finite amount of missiles and countermeasures (flares). When they have been depleted, players can call in a support ship which will rearm their ship, and repair (not rebuild)any damaged subsystems.

One other thing that I really liked about the game is its customisability. Over the course of the game, players unlock a variety of ships and weapons. Ships can range from fighters and interceptors to fighter-bombers and heavy bombers. Along with the ships, weapons are also unlocked, which include anti-ship warheads, nuclear warheads, shield disruption lasers, and subsystem destroying lasers. All these mean that players get to have various means of destroying their enemies, and sometimes, it just never gets old trying out the various combinations available.

Hey, you gonna die!

Storyline and game progression, however, are rather mild. Sure, there’s a storyline, but there isn’t really much to it other than a few critical moments, like a capital ship being destroyed, the enemy’s flagship being sighted for the first time, major events like that. Most of the time, the storyline and missions usually involve players being sent out to investigate enemy presence, you know, patrol duty. Still, as much as a disappointment it was by way of plot, I found myself enjoying it pretty dang much (but then of course…when I did play it, I probably didn’t really understand the storyline bit, just liked blowing things up).

Volition Inc. released an expansion for the game shortly after, followed by a sequel aptly named Freespace 2. I think it’s a pity that that was the end of the line for the Freespace series. Would have really liked to see what Volition Inc. could do with today’s technology. Well, there’s always a chance, no matter how small, that the series will be revived, just like MechWarriors.

-Jonathan Tiang (all pictures are from Gamespot.com)

A short clip. Enjoy.

For more, visit http://thefuntheory.com/

11:00-11:50 “Art of Lucasarts Singapore”

Matt Aldrich (Lucasarts)

Matt Here conducted a very dry, visual viewpoint on a few games that they have been producing at Lucasarts. He didn’t want people taking pictures and there were obvious reasons for this, some of the art was from games that hadn’t been released yet.

First up was the Xbox version of Monkey Island, original sprites was used as the basis for the new version. There was a small story about how one of the original coders for monkey island had, every time he changed computer, copied the source files. He also still managed to be working at the same company, so somehow even after all this time, they the original source code and graphics from the original version. This is quite impressive.

The audience were shown some original (320×200 ??) sized graphics, then scretched up and then the new 720p revisits. They had used the originals as the starting point, but the original sprites were in a format which each part was a seperate entity, this was slightly problematic, so they made 3D models which they could then cut up for the original engine. There was a few before and after screenshots, and the new characters look more cartoony and “internet” in my mind.

We were shown some Avitar on xbox which was instantly forgettable and so I can’t think

of anything to write about here.

Next up was Star Wars Clone wars for Nintendo DS released in nov’08. This is where it got very interesting and useful for students to see. We were treated to some concept art then the progression from this to in game, which was dramatic.

They quickly mocked up levels in “sketch up” for a rough design which would give an overview to the platform world that the levels the player would be in.

They then chose a number of places along the route which were highlighted as important places during a level. Rather than trying to make a whole level look good, which can be expensive in art resources, just concentrating on places that the player will see and these areas would be where art would spend time on and embellish. The net result is usually more impact.

There were a couple of slides showing that a light for progression was a very useful thing, whether this would found through feedback or not, is unknown. Although it’s quite obvious if you make the world look the same the player won’t be able to see what’s the “right way” and what’s invisible collision way

Due to their game being Co-op, they should storyboards for both characters (this was during quick time events but this was a first time I had seen something like this, depending if the player was player 1 or player 2, they would see a slightly different scene. Although a lot of the “story board” (I use this term loosely) would be duplicated, it still was interesting to see.

Also seeing the high poly models of the scene then the scene running on the DS was a particular high point, I thought.

A trailer for the sequel – republic heroes due out oct’09 was shown. Personally, I wish Lucasart would stop milking their Star Wars license.

Next up was some concept art for the Wii version of staff of Kings. Various art was shown showing loose sketches of how the art team worked on their hand drawn style until it was good enough to use in game.

While it was interesting, I didn’t really like the 2D style, non mouths talking of these “cutscenes”, it looked cheap. The graphics were of a high standard but when things are animating because they are moving away and not animated while moving, just looks to me like cutting corners.

They even had explosive barrels.

Interesting but very art intensive and not much I can link to here.

School has reopened and 1 week has passed. It feels great being back to school, seeing both new and familiar faces, meeting new lecturers, learning new subjects and so on. It’s refreshing to see new faces really. Due to subjects such as CARC and our CDSs, we get to meet new people in lectures and tutorial classes.

Thankfully, all my lecturers are well, you could say, “interestingly unique” in their own ways, making lectures a whole lot more enjoyable to sit through. Their slapstick comedy and insights into the “real world” are some of the things you would encounter from the lecturers here. I personally feel that that is what some educators in Singapore really need to build up on. Being under a number of educators for some time now, I seen the worst sorts to the more inspiring ones.
Not to drag on about the educational system in Singapore, which I’ll leave SPH(probably?!) to fill you in =p Id like to talk more about how my experience in TP has been so far.

To sum it all up, it was a really fruitful first semester. It was a change most of my course mates and I have got accustomed to by now. The idea of lectures/tutorials/lab was a complete turnover from where we came from. It took us out from our rigid safe zone into something different. We learnt to be more independent in taking responsibilities in our hands. As they say, you bare the consequences of your own mistakes. Not attending lectures just because attendance wasn’t taken down and not paying attention during tutorials due to the free access of internet available in front of you was a challenge of self-control and time management. There is a time for everything and I realized I have to make time for what’s important right now, which is not facebook or msn or online games but rather my education and the future which lies ahead.

It was a scary decision when choosing which course I would like to go to because unlike those who went in JC, had time to play around with. Whereas those who definitely wanted to be in a polytechnic or were under the DPA scheme had to plan out way ahead. Of course, some comments that came by were, “You could always choose another course when you enter university” but factors had to be weighed. Entering a course similar to what you are studying now could give you a better standing compared to others and also in some cases an earlier graduation.
Someone once advised me when I was in that position not too long ago was to choose what I have passion for. I am not saying this statement is what you should definitely stick to when deciding but rather a guide. Some people may feel that the study environment in JC is not to their liking or they don’t know what they are good at. There are many reasons why one would choose a certain tertiary/course over the other but in the end, it’s really up to the individual preference and not of those around him.

Hmm, looks like I went a little off topic and I think I will stop here for now. Seems like what I wrote has no linkage to one another (or does it? xD )

Nevertheless, I wish all the best to the O level graduates of 09!