demigod posts

Most people think of Stardock mainly as a game developer of titles like Galactic Civilizations II and the upcoming Elemental but the truth is that the company has its hands full in several areas including third party publishing of games, developing non-gaming Windows applications like Object Desktop and the Impulse PC game download service. Today Stardock issued its 2009 customer report which gives an overview of what the company has done in the past 12 months.

The report is brutally honest with the fact that the launch of Stardock's big 2009 game, Demigod (developed by Gas Powered Games) did not go as well as anticipated due to multiplayer networking issues. The report does say that despite the launch issues, Demigod "continues to sell thousands of copies weekly."

The report goes over a number of the company's other issues such as future updates to their Impulse service (which include adding pre-loading of games), how weekend sales reductions have reduced the overall cost of PC games to consumers and lots more.

Sailing takes us away . .. oh, wait. That's would be sales, not sailing (sorry Christopher Cross). If you are looking to save a few buck this weekend, the various downloadable PC game sites have you covered:

• Steam has put both Crysis and Crysis Warhead on sale for 50 percent off their normal price this weekend. They have also put all of the Overlord games on sale for a whopping 75 percent off.
• Impulse has put their exclusive game Demigod on sale for 50 percent off this weekend. Other games on sale from Impulse include Titan Quest and Tropico Reloaded.
• Direct2Drive has a $5 coupon offer for Borderlands this weekend with people able to put in the code 5OFFBORDER at checkout.
• GamersGate has several games at 50 percent off their normal price this weekend including Elven Legacy, Darkstar One, Company of Heroes Complete and STALKER Clear Sky.

While we wait for developer Gas Powered Games and publisher Stardock to finally release their promised two new demigod character for Demigod, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell keeps teasing us with info about the upcoming free updates. The Demon Assassin is one of those free additons and Wardell goes into detail about his powers and abilities on the Impulse web site.

Some of the powers for the Demon Assassin include the ranged Spine Attack, Demon Speed and a power where he can exchange places with another demigod. As Wardell states, "You've just capped that portal flag, you're running away. You're going to make it. No. No you're not. You're going to die. Because the demon assassin has just exchanged places with you and now you're back at that portal and he's out in front of you." The post includes a YouTube Video of the demigod's skill tree that we have embedded above.

We've been hearing for quite a long time that there have been plans to add two new free demigod characters into the RTS game Demigod. Now it looks like that those plans are finally bearing fruit. A post on the Impulsedriven.net site by Stardock CEO Brad Wardell states the new demigod will be made available via an update that should be released "in the next couple of weeks."

Players will be able to add the two new demigods to their account and use them in regular games. Wardell says this will allow them to test the new additions out for balance issues. After that, he says that "we'll expand out access to it until everyone who has Demigod can access it." Stardock previously released info on both of the new demigods this summer.

One of the biggest PC game developers currently in operation is Gas Powered Games. It's founder, Chris Taylor, first gained fame for another developer with the RTS title Total Annihilation. For Gas Powered he has lead the development of the action-RPG Dungeon Siege series and the RTS game Supreme Commander. This year they released their latest game Demigod with Supreme Commander 2 waiting in the wings for 2010.

Industry Gamers got a chance to quiz Taylor on the games that have influenced him the most in his career. He goes in chronological order with titles like Space Invaders and Robotron first on the list, then proceeds to early PC games like SimCity and Populus. He says playing the early RTS games from Westwood Studios (Dune 2 and Command and Conquer) "changed the course of my life. Not only did I now know I loved and wanted to make video games, I wanted to very specifically make games like this..." It was those games that caused Taylor to create Total Annihilation.

More recent favorites include the Diablo series, Battlefield 1942 (" I played EVERY night for over a year") and the arcade racing game FlatOut ("I seemed to plug right into that game and it will always be a favorite.')

The current lead developer behind the popular Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients has made the suprising announcement that he is "now leading a team at Valve". Presumably he means the same Valve that has mostly worked on first person shooter game titles like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead. In his announcement on the official DotA page "IceFrog" (that's the only name he goes by) he stats that now he has "all the resources needed to do some very exciting stuff that you guys will love. I look forward to revealing more specific details when the time is right."

This would certainly be a change of pace for Valve if they decide to develop a DotA-like game. The mod has become an inspiration for a number of current and upcoming commercial games including Demigod, Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends (who have former DotA team members as part of their dev team).

[Via Shacknews]

Gas Powered Games and Stardock continue to update their recent RTS title Demigod and later today Impulse is scheduled to make available a 1.19 patch for the title. It's supposed to be a pretty extensive update with lots of bug fixes and changes along with the removal of the multiplayer Skirmish mode (it will still be available for single player). Another patch is due out next week.

In addition, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell has posted up a Q&A based on forum questions about the future of Demigod. Quick summary; they will be making even more patch updates in the future to add new features such as the mod SDK for the game as well as possibly making new official maps (although Wardell does state, " . . . making maps is not easy. Unless you have a very good understanding of 3D Studio you will want to leave it to others.). As previously reported two new Demigods are being worked on for a free update but Wardell states, "My understanding that the artwork is taking longer than anticipated."

Update: The patch is now available to download via Impulse

Download the Demigod Demo at Big Download (599 MB)

The NVIDIA line of graphics processors are among the most popular (if not the most popular) brand of high-end gaming hardware available today. However, some would argue that these days, graphics cards are offering fewer significant returns with each successive generation. With this in mind, it becomes important for the company to start shifting focus from strictly speed and high resolution frame rates (which are still a very important aspects of PC gaming) to the addressing the gameplay experience itself. One step in this direction was through adopting PhysX technology into its repertoire and having the software run using GPU instead of through a separate card. With PhysX, PC games offer deeper immersion using effects that operate in a realistic non-scripted fashion, like with smoke, cloth and liquids moving in real-time.

NVIDIA's 3D Vision technology takes the game experience even further by bringing games into the third dimension by stereoscoping games in real-time and using special shutter glasses. Unfortunately, not a lot of gamers have $600 to spend on 3D graphics. The glasses alone cost over $100 and the required 3D ready monitors that have a 120Hz refresh rates are very expensive and hard to find, leaving 3D out of the hands of the average consumer. However, NVIDIA has found a way around the prohibitive costs and an easy way to deliver a 3D experience. Not counting the cost of the video card itself, gamers can use NVIDIA 3D Vision Discover for almost nothing... or in some cases, exactly nothing. That's right, by taking the PhysX approach and incorporating 3D technology into the software drivers, PC gamers can literally give their games more depth.

Download the Resident Evil 5 Benchmark

Stardock's Impulse game download service is taking the Labor Day holiday to extremes as it puts a number of its titles on sale beginning today and running through the weekend. Those sales inlcude Stardock's own titles such as Sins of a Solar Empire and Demigod who have had their prices cut to just $20 each for the sale.

Other games on sale include CDV's action-RPG Sacred 2 and Ubisoft's historical strategy-sim game Dawn of Discovery. Both have had their prices cut down 50 percent to just $20 for the duration of the sale. World of Goo has also had its priced reduced; it's just $9.99 for the sale.

Developer Gas Powered Games and publisher Stardock have said for some time they plan to release at least two free additional demigods to their multiplayer RTS game Demigod. Now the Impulse web site has posted up info and some concept artwork for the one of the new demigods, Oculus. He's described as "a general that has some ranged weaponry" and that "existing minions you acquire actually provide specific benefit to him."

The article goes into more detail on Oculus including his powers and abilities. This follows the reveal (unnoticed by us until today) of another demigod The Demon Assassin. Unfortunately plans to show off both of the upcoming free demigods at PAX next weekend have fallen off the radar. However we should get more info on the new additions in the weeks ahead.