Kinetic jellocity

Posted on: September 28, 2005


Artemis Fate told me to check out GunZ The Duel, saying she thought I would like it. She is correct! Obligatory wiki link here. FREE to play, check out the two trailers for it if you're curious to see it in action. I actually didn't; I thought the artwork was sufficiently intriguing to get me to download the client and blast away. I don't even know if there's even much of a storyline, I didn't read along. Lalala official blurb:

Have you ever dreamt of becoming a cool character or hero, like you see in movies, animations, and games?

GunZ is an online game that enables you to realize such a dream! GunZ is not your ordinary gunz fighting game. It allows you to imitate a famous hero, create your own fashion style, and perform a number of different actions such as shooting or stabbing whilst running and jumping on the walls.

There's some confusion about how free GunZ will be. During the course of the game (and I can say "game"), there was a message stating that it'd be free "FOREVER"! How are such things possible? Will there be more advertising? Do they (MAJET) have some oblique method to sustain themselves (I hope so!)? We shall see. There's also this helpful unofficial FAQ on a fansite.

After some twiddling with the interface I got right into it. Graphics aren't the most advanced and there's hardly any av customization?I've become accustomed to 200+ sliders and I wasn't able to watermelonize so there's no point in me showing a picture?but what's the focus here is the frantic speed. Some of it reminds me of Tekken. The game does have nice models of trains, though. Ahhh… trains.

GunZ is a Korean import labelled as "Online Alternative Shooting Game". I like when creations from distant shores wash up here. (Also note, like martial arts, K-style and E-style.) The servers are packed and it can take some holding-down of the Enter key to get in! There's definitely some lateral approaches here, and it gives me ideas for what I'd like to see in the future of Second Life. I doubt such sheer speed coupled with all that firing and hi-FPS are coming anytime soon, but wallrunning? C'mon, it is cool.

I was actually thinking of ways in SL to flip gravity. There's a long history in video games of stages where you can push a switch and you suddenly get flung 180 degrees. Mega Man V's Gravity Man stage is a good example of this in 2D. It can already be done to some degree if you're in an aerial vehicle and use special piloting techniques, but it'd sheerly be awesome to explore the possibilities more. Loki Pico has the upside-down room @ Olive (129, 73).

Speaking of unique ways to approach interactive entertainment, I'm going to also mention Darwinia, which definitely has a strong suit going for it in the visual aesthetic department. It looks like classic 2D arcade games, expanded into 3D?the gallery art is pretty tasty. I haven't played this yet and it's more of a singleplayer experience. Could pixel shaders or something else ever do this for SL? Imagine you want to tunnel from one location to another in the metametaverse. A hole in virtual spacetime appears, much like Homer going 3D, and suddenly the point of view changes and you find yourself flying a pixellated picoship more like Rez or Wipeout than Rad Racer.

If Second Life is going to be a flowering platform, then these blooms must be explored. We need more bees, beehives, and beekeepers. Games within SL. Much like Omikron (which I never played but have heard notable things about) had mixed gameplay modes, there should be a greater leverage between mixing-and-matching "flavors" into a unified, potent, delectable stew. I can't wait to see what is done with HUDs in 1.7, and do expect, like Star Trek's LCARS, that there will be ways to automatically switch between sets of displays depending on your needs.

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