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Hollow Moon BETA 3.0 Review
06 Dec 2008
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Hollow Moon is a single player UT2004 mod set in the never ending abyss where humanity is lost in the never ending silence. You are a lone heavy machinery engineer, lost in a moon research station without any human contact. You begin by searching the lunar landscape until you more or less 'accidentally' fall upon the gigantic moon research base. As you move slowly down into the base you see another human moving across the tunnels exit, only to loose him in your grasp.
What may come as a surprise to some, is the story which seems rather blank and missing, apart from the intro video you will on occasionally get a few snippets of whats going on, such as newspapers and posters. Many questions will be buzzing through your head as you play "Where am I? Who am ? What has happened here?" Some of these questions can be answered through reading about the mod, and yet there is still a lot left to question. Throughout the game you will find some old-fashioned radios, I would simply love to know what these are doing here!
Combat comes rarely and is generally quite simple, with no strategy or other weapons, combat is left feeling quite empty and just a simple button bash brawl.
Hollow Moon attempts to make a new artistic style, removing all sound effects what so ever from the mod, which leaves players completely devoid of any sound clues and making the player feel rather separated from the real world. But do not think that this leaves the player wanting for music, the mod boasts its superb music, which never stops or slows, only occasionally picking up speed and tone, making the player expecting to meet a hostile attack, yet it never comes, just yet.
Hollow Moon also deprives you from any colour (it is an art test after all) which may have been something new and interesting a few years ago, now seems rather bland and boring, just a hint of colours now and then would be a real treat. But this is not all bad, lighting and shadows become more contrasted and 'real' the darkness becomes more terrifying. Some may like this style, others though may not.
The HUD in Hollow Moon is again something quite different from what most people may be used to, a large portion of your screen is filled by the blank edges of your visor, here you can see your suit stability, health and stamina. Dirt and smudges fill the rest of your screen, and if you dare look into the light these smudges will be highlighted and you will loose even more of your precious visibility, this is an extremely neat feature.
The Level Design of these map is a real mix, at the begging the maps can really leave you begging for more, some areas can be extremely undetailed, using the same old UT2004 textures that every other map seems to use, whilst other areas of the mod can feel quite detailed and different. But what is really noticeable is the repetition of level style, every where feels rather the same and could really do with each level feeling slightly different. It is quite easy to get confused in the seemingly endless corridors and darkness, with every area ending with yet another door.
Pros:
- Fantastic music,
- Interesting style,
- Very cool HUD,
- A large-ish mod, lasting between 1 and 2 hours,
- Very easy to slip into the game,
- BETA, so updates should be expected.
Cons:
- No progression in story,
- Boring combat,
- Repetitive game play and level design.
Score:
7/10 - Any UT2004 owner should certainly play, but with no replay factor it will not keep you interested for long. |
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Posted In Articles
KF-PacMan Release
18 Oct 2008
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Click To Download
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Posted In Me, My Life, And I
Free Textures
15 Sep 2008
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Iam offering free game textures (diffuse, normal, specular) and a lot of refrence pictures I have collected myself on my travels. I am offering all of these for free and in return if you use any of the images in any way I would appreciate being given a little bit of credit or at least email me to let me know how my images are being used.
Sample images, click to expand them. |
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Posted In Site News
Angels Fall First - Inside
15 Sep 2008
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I'm sure many modders will have some clue about Angels Fall First, but what many don't realize is just how large the AFF universe stretches. Recently we have seen some news articles about the upcoming UT3 Mod Angels Fall First: Planetstorm which introduces the AFF Universe into a FPS game style, large battles will be fought on both land and space (no real-time planet landings unfortunately). Players will be able to stroll around frigates and capital ships in space as a team, some people manning turrets and guns, and one person piloting the cruiser. Unfortunately fire-fights and landings on board the cruisers looks doubtful for the foreseeable future. The game type will be of a sort of objective natured game type between the factions.Planetstorm will be entering the second stage of the Make Something Unreal Competition (Good Luck!) and we can expect some sort of release by October 17th.
 Battlefield 2142 + Infinity = AFF : PlanetstormWhat many people do not know, is what is going on under the hood, two full scale stand alone games using Disney's Panda 3D & Python. One is a MMO RTS that Andrei fully scripted himself before he met the AFF Developers, who took Andrei and his MMO on board and now the MMO, AFF : The Second Antarean War is being adapted to fit the AFF Universe. In Second Antarean War, you battle for your chosen faction with and against players from around the world. You own and control your own ships which you can improve and repair between battles. They are fully persistent, always awaiting your, and only your, orders, even while you are offline. They will stay under your command until they are destroyed. Without new orders, they will follow old ones, thus ships will continue to move on the paths you assign and continue to fight the battles, even if you log off. Ships fight, and the war progresses whether you are playing or not.Second Antarean War is in development stage yet progressing quite well with open beta to be announced soon.
 EVE, Just Better.The other is IronAngels, which is a Starfighter Combat Tournament, that is a purist space shoot-em-up with multiple online game types and a variety of craft and locations to battle in. This again is being lead by Andrei and is being entered into the Python Game Programming Challenge. Ironangels is currently in its Alpha stage, with public Beta testing to begin on the 22nd of November 2007.
 Starfighter Tournament – Tasty!Thanks to Josh & Andrei for there time and for a great interview! |
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Posted In Articles
Posted In Tutorials
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