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wessman
August 27th, 2002, 05:01 PM
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| Tim Willits Interview: Lead Doom3 Designer |
| from the hey-someone-else-works-at-id dept. |
| posted by timothy on Monday August 26, @13:55 (games) |
| http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/26/1715234 |
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[0]Joe writes: "PlanetQuake3.net has a [1]interview with id Software's
Tim Willits who is the lead designer and project manager of Doom 3. Tim
talks about the new generation of level editing in Doom3, his favorite
maps of all time, how designers and coders work together, and many other
subjects. One of the most interesting parts of the interview was this
question: 'PlanetQuake3: Will it be possible to adjust the speed of the
game for between single player and multiplayer play?' 'Tim Willits: Yes,
most of the game logic is outside the main executable, this gives us
great flexibility in changing basic game parameters between single and
multiplayer.'"

Discuss this story at:
http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=02/08/26/1715234

Links:
0. mailto:joenobody33@yahoo.com
1. http://www.planetquake3.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Features&file=timwillitsinterview


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| Gamers Drive High-End PC Market |
| from the department-of-the-obvious dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Monday August 26, @14:45 (games) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/26/1817209 |
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[0]TibbonZero writes "CNN reports that [1]"Gamers drive souped-up PC
market". They talk about the cost of high end computers, as well as their
place in the PC Market. For some reason I thought it was playing
[2]solitaire that drove us to buy a [3]Geforce 4 ti 4600..."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=02/08/26/1817209

Links:
0. http://Tibbon&triad,rr,com
1. http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/08/26/hot.rod.computing.ap/index.html
2. http://www.solitairecentral.com/
3. http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=geforce4ti


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| Timeline of Online Gaming |
| from the tradewars-will-never-die dept. |
| posted by michael on Saturday August 24, @23:00 (games) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/25/027200 |
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Jippy_ writes "While reminiscing about an old online game I used to play
called "Shadows of Yserbius", I found a very neat timeline of online
gaming. It goes back as far as PLATO and is current up to this year. It's
not news, but it's good to read and remember the [0]days of pre-EverCrack
online games." GEnie, wow.

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=02/08/25/027200

Links:
0. http://www.legendmud.org/raph/gaming/mudtimeline.html


Game industry begins online experiment
Sony will begin selling network adapters next week that
will let PlayStation 2 consoles tap into Internet connections,
pushing video games into an uncertain online future.
http://clickthru.online.com/Click?q=25-inepIbdY-87A5A2ZT9ZiCEZrrFnR


Nintendo Will Sell Web Game Adapter

Nintendo said today that it would begin selling an adapter
in October to enable owners of its GameCube console to play
one another over the Internet at high speeds.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/24/technology/24NINT.html?todaysheadlines


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| Dreamcast Broadband Adapters |
| from the lpb dept. |
| posted by michael on Sunday August 25, @05:09 (games) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/25/0132227 |
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[0]JayBonci writes "Dust off the old Dreamcast. If you're one of the many
like myself who still enjoy their Dreamcast or are aspiring DC hackers,
then you may want to pay attention to a [1]quiet announcement by CSI, the
Japanese manufacturer of the [2]Dreamcast Broadband Adapter (flaky, but
understandable translation provided by the [3]fish). If you have no idea
what the BBA is, the official page [4]here. If CSI gets 1000 pre-orders
for the unit, they will be willing to make another production run. Keep
in mind that these units are very useful for the Dreamcast Linux efforts
and [5]NetBSD/Dreamcast, and that Japanese units work on US systems."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=02/08/25/0132227

Links:
0. http://jay.bonci.com
1. http://www3.csi-msp.com/bbsite/web/news/news75.html
2. http://www3.csi-msp.com/bbsite/
3. http://babelfish.altavista.com/urltrurl?tt=url&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww3.csi-msp.com%2Fbbsite%2Fweb%2Fnews%2Fnews75.html&lp=ja_en
4. http://www.sega.com/help/hardware/broadband.jhtml
5. http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/dreamcast/


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| Tenebrae Quake |
| from the frames-per-minute dept. |
| posted by michael on Saturday August 24, @18:31 (quake) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/24/1945255 |
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[0]viperstyx writes "Ah, the days of running around in bland 3d
environments and fragging your best friends surrounded by a plethora of
sprites and simple textures. What if we could go back to those days,
except with per-pixel shading and transparent water? Well now, thanks to
[1]Tenabrae Quake you can. This small [just over 3mb] mod to the original
quake engine allows users to play Quake while taking advantage of new
technology like per-pixel shading. Its beautiful and definitely worth any
old skool gamer's time =]"

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=02/08/24/1945255

Links:
0. http://www.viperstyx.net
1. http://users.pandora.be/hollemeersch/blackrose/tenebrae/


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| DOOM 3 will use P2P System? |
| from the i'll-believe-it-when-I'm-fragged-on-it dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday August 25, @09:19 (games) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/25/1310220 |
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[0]Ant writes "From Page 6 of [1]FiringSquad's [2]QuakeCon 2002
Postmortem article: John Carmack said something at the end of the Q&A
about how the multiplayer will be only four players? Tim: After 2 hours
of talking up at the podium, sometimes you leave a few details out. Doom
3 multiplayer will be fully scalable. It will be a peer to peer system.
We haven't started working on it yet. Tell everyone not to panic - it
will be fine. John just forgot to mention it'll be scalable past four
players. It's hard to give a hard number because we haven't started
working on it yet. Right now we're focused on making Doom 3 a kickass,
over the top single player game."

Discuss this story at:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=02/08/25/1310220

Links:
0. http://antfarm.ma.cx
1. http://firingsquad.gamers.com/
2. http://firingsquad.gamers.com/features/quakecon2002/

:sw

wessman
August 28th, 2002, 05:36 PM
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| Gaming Fuel: 4-way Shootout |
| from the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up dept. |
| posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday August 27, @00:26 (humor) |
| http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/08/26/1827248 |
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http://www.envynews.com/feature.php?ID=172

It\'s 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning. You\'ve been up all night, fragging away in a Quake3 clan match. Your early morning schedule wore you out and you never had time to take a nap. The server is resetting between games, and you\'re starting to get a little sleepy-eyed. Milk isn\'t going to do a bit of good. Regular Coke or Pepsi are too run of the mill, and the last thing that\'ll keep you awake and at the top of your game is some pansy sports drink. What do you reach for?

Its cola war time again, which means that the world is a much better place for gamers and reviewers alike. As each company rushes to top the other companies\' offerings, there have been some rather interesting twists in the battle for your taste buds. Coca Cola has come to the market with Vanilla Coke; Pepsi has countered with a “berry” interesting concoction called Pepsi Blue. Dr. Pepper, a perennial favorite of the night owl community, has stormed into the fray with its new Red Fusion soda. Last but not least is Sobe, who uses its renowned herbal magic to add some ginseng into another interesting soda sensation called Mr. Green. Who will be champ? There can be only one! Well, maybe two (there could be a tie), but you get the gist.



There are lots of things that turn a soda into an anti-sleep miracle drug. There’s the standard chemical and biological schlock; caffeine, calories, and carbohydrates all have a part in how well these drinks work. We’ll get to a look at the scientific stuff here in a little while. Three other things give it some kick as well – taste, aftertaste, and smell. Smell? Soda smells? Well, one of the competitors did more than smell, but that’s another paragraph all to itself.

As for the schlock I mentioned earlier, let’s look at that now. I’ve taken the most important elements from the back of the bottles and put them into the table you see below. They are all pretty close. Each one is 100 calories, each 20 oz. bottle consists of 2.5 servings, and they’re all pretty close in the carbohydrate area as well. Pepsi Blue doesn’t add up, however – it has 28g of carbohydrates and only 27g of sugar. Where that extra gram of carbohydrates went, I don’t know – it has almost word for word the same ingredients list as the others.



It\'s also important to note where the caffiene is located in the ingredients list. Ingredients lists are ordered from greatest content to least content. In Vanilla Coke, caffiene is the sixth ingredient out of eight, higher than any other soda in this roundup. For Pepsi Blue, caffiene is seventh out of ten. Mr. Green\'s caffiene placement is also seventh out of ten; it\'s important to note that ginseng is listed in a lower placement than caffiene, meaning it\'s possibly simply an insubstantial amount. Caffiene is the seventh ingredient out of nine in Red Fusion. Coloring is the last ingredient in each, and gum arabic usually follows caffiene as a lesser ingredient.

Nope, no more science class mumbo-jumbo here. If you start thinking about serving sizes and sugar content in the middle of a game of “Capture the Flag”, then buddy you’ve got more problems to worry about than your waistline. It’s time to take a closer look at each of the contestants and see if any of this is potable in the least.




Testing time! It’s time to find out which soda gives the best overall experience, and we’ll be using several different tests to figure that out. Bottle shape plays an important role (hey, you’ve got to grab quickly in between firing shots and dodging explosions), as does smell (you’ll find out soon!), taste, aftertaste, and total effect (energy, “kick”, side effects, etc.). Remember the line-up shot from the first page? We’ll be working our way from left to right as we head towards the finish line.



Contestant Number One is Vanilla Coke. There’s not much that can be said about Vanilla Coke, except that it’s about damn time it came out. As a former waiter and bar back, I got really tired of looking for vanilla syrup when some wacko customer decided that our regular fountain selections weren’t quite up to his standards. At least my buds still in the business don’t have to put up with this same fate now. The bottle is the standard Coca Cola “classic glass” shape, only bigger so it can hold the oddly portioned two and a half servings. A quick sniff when the bottle is opened gives a hint of the vanilla flavor, but it’s not overpowering. It pours like regular Coke, fizzes like regular Coke, but it sure doesn’t taste like regular Coke. I know it’s got vanilla flavoring in it but I swear it reminds me of Capt. Morgan and Coke from my college days. Actually, it reminds me so much of it that I refuse to touch either drink after this review is over with. The vanilla aftertaste doesn’t strike hard until after you’ve swallowed, and then it’s not too overpowering. Don’t ask me why, but about an hour after I drink a bottle of this stuff I get a nasty upset stomach. Other people have said the same thing too but it doesn’t seem to be widespread. There’s no real energy surge, no extra oomph once it kicks in. I may as well be drinking regular Coke since it doesn’t leave me with an upset stomach or hangover flashbacks.



In the Blue corner, wearing Blue trunks and white stripes, is (well, duh!) Pepsi Blue! That’s it for the cool things to say about this soda. Well, the bottle logo is really cool but that’s it’s only saving grace. The bottle is flared at top and bottom, leaving a flat section in the middle to grab on to. Above the uber-cool logo a small script reminds you that this is a “Berry Cola Infusion.” Now, normally I’m not averse to trying new things, as blueberry and raspberry are two of my favorite flavorings. But as soon as you open the lid the magic disappears. This crap stinks! I didn’t have my face near the bottle and I sure as hell didn’t try to sniff it for a while until after I’d recovered; all I did was twist off the cap and almost fall back against the cabinet. I think I found a way to describe this stench: blueberry paint thinner. Guess what? It tastes like blueberry paint thinner too. It’s harsh on the tongue, the aftertaste lingers, and any energy kick it would give is immediately cancelled out by the gag factor. I love the color, though; who knew that soda could be so pretty? I have a special award – no, two special awards – for this potent potable here in a few minutes.



Our next contender is an oddball entry – Sobe Mr. Green. I’ve been a fan of Sobe for years now; their flavored drinks with added herbal stuff got me through many a theory and analysis class. When I saw that they had just released a carbonated beverage with ginseng mixed in I knew that it had to be a part of the lineup. A quick glance at the bottle and it looks like we’ve got LianLi Syndrome going on here – two different companies, two different products, same case. Not case, bottle; pardon the confusion. Well, there is a variation in that the bottle is green tinted but that’s it. The soda is green, too, but not too green. Its translucency is somewhere between that of Vanilla Coke and Pepsi Blue. Halleluiah, there’s no smell to contend with when you open the bottle. When you sniff closer, it smells remarkably like Mr. Pibb (Coca-Cola’s version of Dr. Pepper with a different sugar base) with a hint of something different. That something would happen to be the added ginseng, which is supposed to give a little extra punch in the energy area. I can say that about 20 minutes after drinking this, I did feel a little extra boost of energy. It could have been the placebo effect, but who knows? The soda has about as much bite as the lizard on the logo, and that’s not a bad thing. Hey; add a couple flames to the lizard and you’ve got something that could be marketed as Mozilla Soda! The one bad thing is the ginseng content - it\'s marketed as having ginseng added, but considering the placement on the ingredients list it\'s probably only a trace amount. Boo!



Ah, the last bottle – Dr. Pepper Red Fusion. It’s amazing the things you stumble upon in the big “Look at me!” bins in Wal-Mart near the checkout, which is precisely where I found this. It comes in the standard Dr. Pepper bottle: cylindrical base, conical top half. The labeling makes me think of a lava lamp for some reason, with the bright, ballooned lettering and the large round floating bubbles adorning the red backdrop. There’s no in-your face aroma, and it smells remarkably like original recipe Dr. Pepper. The nice, crystalline red color belies the contents, as it has a rather unobtrusive cherry flavor that retains the robustness of the original Dr. Pepper. It’s the same, but it’s not. The flavor sticks around for a moment but won’t drown out your taste buds like Pepsi Blue. As far as an energy kick, it’s a little stronger than regular soda but is nothing special. There’s one thing that makes this stand out: I have never, ever seen a soda bottle with an explosion warning before. Maybe I just haven’t been looking hard enough, but when a soda carries a warning label you know there’s something cool going on inside.



Neil asked me to try to see which soda would rot through a nail the fastest. Well folks, I don\'t have any nails, but I do have case screws and pennies. So, I dropped one of each into each glass. Nothing\'s happenned so far, but I\'ll get back to you when it does. Actually, screw that - I\'ve got company coming and need the glasses. If you\'ve got the time to try this on your own, feel free. Just remember that Envy News is not responsible for any deaths, injuries, or mental damage caused by smelling, drinking, or coming into contact with Pepsi Blue.



Time to rank the sodas, folks! Which drink takes home the no-prize? Let’s take a look…





Since it would be rude to just arbitrarily give one soda the prize and walk away without an explanation, I’m going to share with you the magic that is my Reviewer’s Sixth Sense. Basically, it’s an ultra advanced thought process that I spent many hours working on at college. It starts off with…

NeilY: Due to a difference in opinion on how to choose the winner (i.e. Eeny-Meeny-Miney-Moe is not an official Envy News review method), I have asked AshG to choose a new winner using actual reasoning skills. I apologize for this lapse in quality.

Ok, now that NeilY has officially ruined my fun, I’ll have to do this the slow way. Each drink will be ranked in several categories and then given an arbitrary overall score. Each soda’s drinkability (both cold and hot), its taste and aftertaste, and its energy kick and other effects will be weighed as we pick the Drink of Champion Gamers and Reviewers alike.



Drinkability. This category was hard to rank. Vanilla Coke was the stickiest by far, both hot and cold. It went down about as smooth as regular coke, but with that nasty aftertaste. Pepsi Blue is dead last. It’s very fizzy, too fizzy, and just doesn’t want to be swallowed. If you want to try this soda, hold your nose – it’s the only way you’ll get the bottle to your mouth. Mr. Green is smooth and not too heavy, but to people that aren’t used to ginseng it might be a little odd for a while. Red Fusion glides right down without a hitch, which is odd considering Dr. Pepper is the thickest of all soda syrups and requires a higher seltzer-to-syrup ratio. Anyway, Red Fusion is the winner here. I like Mr. Green better, but there’s less of a pause to savor the kick when I grab the Red Fusion in between frags.

Taste. This one’s a tie. The winners are Mr. Green and Red Fusion, since they taste quite a bit similar and neither will distract you from what you’re doing. They both also taste closer to normal when they’re hot as well. Vanilla Coke comes in at number 3; the vanilla is too strong when the soda is hot, and when it’s cold it tastes like Captain Morgan and Coke to me. Pepsi Blue is dead last. It tastes like blueberry paint thinner when cold, and it tastes like blueberry cough syrup when hot. Pepsi should have spent the time and money designing the svelte label on developing a drinkable soda instead.

Aftertaste. Pepsi Blue is dead last again; frankly, I don’t know why I bother ranking it anymore. I can’t decide if the aftertaste reminds me of a blue Sweet Tart or Robutussin Cough Syrup. Vanilla Coke is next on the list, as the vanilla hangs around just long enough to be annoying. Red Fusion almost wins here, but the cherry flavor sits on the tongue just a moment more than the winner. Mr. Green pulls this one out, as it has the Chinese food effect – it’s there, then it’s gone. All it takes to get rid of the taste of this fine brew is a quick swallow, which is just what the gamer ordered.

Energy Kick. I tried all these sodas on different nights after about the same amount of sleep, work, and food. Really, they all worked about the same – no one soda had the special “magic elixir” to keep me up all night. Mr. Green came the closest, as the ginseng appeared to help a little bit. It may have been the placebo effect, but it’s enough for me to award it this category.

Grabability. Yeah, I forgot to mention this category earlier. The bottle shape of both Pepsi Blue and Mr. Green make them not too easy to grab in the midst of combat or temperature-taking. If the soda is full, the bulge at the top may even cause it to tip and spill a little more easily if knocked the wrong way. The Vanilla Coke bottle is less prone to this thanks to the sloped design, but the Red Fusion bottle tops them all. The long, steep neck makes it much easier to grab, gulp, and set it back down in one easy motion. No complaints about that here!

Effects and Oddities. Ok, so it’s not really a category but more of a free-for-all about each soda. Vanilla Coke gives me a stomach ache after drinking a bottle. Mr. Green’s ginseng additive takes a moment to get used to. Dr. Pepper’s Red Fusion isn’t that far from the original Dr. Pepper except in color and a hint of cherry flavor. I really like the explosion warning for some reason on the Red Fusion bottle. Oh, did I mention I’m not too fond of Pepsi Blue?

Before I crown the winner, I promised I would give Pepsi Blue two special awards. The first award I’m going to give Pepsi Blue is the ”Who Needs Citronella?” Award. Ladies and gentlemen, this stuff is rank. Open the bottle, set it near an open window, and I guarantee it’ll keep the mosquitoes (and probably your neighbors) away. Pepsi Blue also wins the ”LAN Party Sabotage” Award. Pick up a case of this stuff before your next LAN party, and give each person a bottle as a gesture of goodwill. While they clean off their monitors after the first few sips (I guarantee a few spews, folks.), you’ll have a chance to go in for many, many easy frags. Just be careful you don’t keep a bottle for yourself.

And the winner is… Red Fusion! With it’s easy to grab bottle, smooth taste, and legendary Dr. Pepper caffeine level, I have no problems crowning Red Fusion as the ultimate drink for gamers and reviewers. Pick up a case of this stuff if its available in your area, it’s worth every red cent. Quite simply: this stuff rocks.



AshG: If you want to see me add a couple other sodas into the mix or know of an outrageous soda I didn\'t get around to, just follow this link and let me know. Hey, you\'re the ones drinking this stuff! No caffiene for me anymore for a long time...

KenO: Is it just me or did anyone else notice that AshG has no BAWLS???? :p

-=Gib-McFragger=-: I was just at my local Wal-Mart and the only available options from the group were Vanilla Coke and Pepsi Blue. Well I am already addicted to Vanilla Coke, so I grabbed a bottle of Pepsi Blue to test it out for myself. After cracking the top, pouring a glass, and taking that first sip I have only one thing to say. The stuff is truely horrid. From the odor to the taste, NOTHING is appealing about this one. Back to Vanilla Coke for me........

:sw

wessman
August 28th, 2002, 05:40 PM
Pepsi Blue is downright awful, and I do not like cream or vanilla drinks, so the new Coke V is out (yes, i've tried it).

The M.Dew and Mello Yello were always tried and true, especially M.Dew out of the can at room temperature.

Jolt is okay. But Red Bull is awesome. Tastes good, and if you drink one every hour for all afternoon, you'll be trembling like a crack addict!

Coffee and tea are always good too, hot or iced.

:sw

Foreverboard
August 28th, 2002, 05:44 PM
Jolt Cola Rocks

Sephiroth
August 28th, 2002, 05:51 PM
The Blue mountain dew slurpee isnt that bad.. Pepsi blue is too fizzy if they got rid of that then it wouldnt be that bad.. Red Fusion Dr.Pepper is great though.

wessman
August 28th, 2002, 06:39 PM
Originally posted by Sephiroth
The Blue mountain dew slurpee isnt that bad ... Red Fusion Dr.Pepper is great though.

I've had the Blue Mountain Slurpee too and it is pretty good. I always liked the plain Coke Slurpees though!

What does Red Fusion taste like compared to the orig DP? My boss drinks Red Fusion.

See, it bothers me that Blue Pepsi tastes nothing like regular Pepsi cola. The name implies it's cola but blue, like the failed attempts at clear cola. But the bottle does warn that it's a berry taste, so that prepares you.

Let me know about that Red Fusion, cause I love DP and Mr. Pibb. :sw

Sephiroth
August 28th, 2002, 07:34 PM
Its Dr.Pepper with a cherry flavor.. Kinda a little like a cordial cherry taste which its pretty good.

Another thing that is great with Dr.Pepper is lime juice. Its good weather is warm of cold..

wessman
August 29th, 2002, 06:07 PM
Games push for more than pretty faces
By Matt Loney
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
August 29, 2002, 1:47 PM PT
http://news.com.com/2100-1040-955964.html

LONDON--Looks aren't everything.
That's the message being sent by a group of designers at the Game Developers Conference here, who say that as the visuals in their titles approach a lifelike appearance, it's time to focus on other things.

"The danger is that we end up spending 99 percent of the time modeling dust particles hanging in the air and 1 percent of the time on gameplay," said Peter Molyneux, creator of the game "Black & White."

Molyneux and his cohorts in the industry have watched game consoles become ever more powerful, allowing developers to work more and more polygons into their designs to make them smoother and more realistic.

"We recently mapped the performance leaps in consoles, and found that each generation was 100 times faster than its predecessor," said Argonaut Software CEO Jez San, who also attended the conference.

As the next generation of hardware should be able to render at a billion polygons per second, future games will boast lawns made up of individual blades of grass and characters who look more like real people.

"It means more layers and more effects," said San. But "the thing about polygons is that they don't affect gameplay, just how the game looks."

"We need to have balance," Molyneux said.

Market considerations can make that balance hard to achieve, though: If Molyneux's Lionhead Studios doesn't model those dust particles, somebody else will--and buyers' first impressions are tough to overcome.

"You walk into a shop and you see a game with 10 million polygons per second next to one that just displays 1 million polygons per second, and you buy the one with more polygons," said San. "It looks nicer, even though you have only had 10 seconds of exposure to it."

Shoot first, ask questions later
Still, even console manufacturers are starting to rethink their direction. Sony Computer Entertainment's Colin Hughes, who provides consultancy services and support for PlayStation2 developers, agreed that there's a need to "move away from throwing polygons at the screen."

Hughes said that as the tools already in use at Hollywood special effects houses begin to find their way into the world of computer games, the challenge will be not to make the models more visually complex, "but to use the processing power to give them life."

Such a paradigm shift, though, is a daunting prospect. Frontier Development's David Braben, who wrote the seminal game "Elite"--arguably the first true 3D title--says there's one sure way to give characters more life.

"The next big thing in games will be two-way speech: spoken conversations with characters," Braben said. But though that's technically possible now, he added, it's very hard to achieve.

At Argonaut Software, San is developing a combat-driven game based on U.S. SWAT teams that allows the player to converse with the characters. The game, called "Squad," allows a limited set of orders; because they are context-sensitive, San said, the speech recognition can be very accurate. However good such speech recognition is, though, the games that currently use it are limited.

"In a combat game, you don't need great artificial intelligence," said Sony's Hughes. "If a squad member ignores you, you can overlook it. It's combat. You're shooting most of the other characters anyway."

The problem becomes much more difficult in games that don't revolve around killing, said Frontier Development's Braben. "Once you move away from shooting games, and you stop blowing the other characters' brains out, the quality of the (artificial intelligence) and speech recognition becomes much more critical."

In other words, once characters open their mouths, it's a lot easier to tell just how stupid they are. And speech recognition becomes a relatively easy problem when seen alongside the development of more powerful artificial intelligence engines.

Despite the difficulties, however, former "Black & White" developer Demis Hassabis, who now runs Elixir Studios, is optimistic. He envisions gaming worlds that will be very lifelike indeed, and that might very well make the struggles worth it.

"In 'Squad' there is only a set number of responses to any situation," Hassabis said. "As the technology improves, we can begin to make worlds that are more open, until we end up without a storyline--you will just drop a character into the world and let them get on with it."

ZDNet UK's Matt Loney reported from London.

:sw