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Some SS2 Demo Publicity
- 11:20pm EST - Digital
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The System Shock 2 demo has made quite a good impression on the world, it seems. I have some good news for people, like me, who loved the demo - the press agrees with us! (As least, those who are talking about it.... :)
FiringSquad has done a very flattering review of them demo, where the writer glorifies the scary aspects of the game. Thanks for pointing this out, Catalyst!
3D Gaming Net has a very similar demo review, once again praising the game's awesome use of atmosphere to induce fear in the player. Rick gets credit for this one.
It's also cool to point out that the SS2 demo is currently the 2nd highest ranked demo on Avault! Drakan beat it out by a hair! Guess, what - you can still vote! If you have not yet, you had better! Thanks for the tip, Josh!
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Cortex here, Cortex there, everywhere Cortex
- 11:35pm EST - Trimfect
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The official site has been updated with a load of spoilers...err... I mean information. If you want to know more about Psi powers, OS upgrades, and more, take a look at the training area of Shock2.com
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"Who Are You?" is the newest piece of artwork to be added to our fanworks gallery! It's a hand-drawn computer image depecting a very specific point in the game. I remember it well. Thanks, Mark Sachs, for the great rendition!
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The Citadel Chronicles, by Marc Steigenga, & More
- 12:20am EST - Digital
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Do I have to play System Shock 1 to get the full enjoyment out of the System Shock 2 story? Well, yes and no. The people who will get the MOST enjoyment out of SS2 are, of course, the people who played SS1 four years ago and have been waiting for SS2 ever since. :)
However, just because you never played SS1 doesn't mean you have to be totally in the dark as to the story. There are three solutions, my friend. The Guide to Citadel, Voice of the Resistance, and The Citadel Chronicles.
The Guide to Citadel is a visual guide to Citadel, the derelict space station on which System Shock 1 took place. This will give you an idea of the types of environments SS1 featured.
Voice of the Resistance is an audio guide to System Shock 1, featuring a complete collection of all audio logs played in the game. As you proceed from level to level, you will hear the story unfold much the same way someone playing the game would, minus the suspense.
The final option is a real cut-to-the-chase method, The Citadel Chronicles, offers a text summary of the SS1 plot. It was just written by Marc Steigenga, and it's perfect for SS2 fans who have never played SS1 to get you properly briefed on the story that prequils the most anticipated game (for us, anyway) of 1999. (This is not a webpage, but a document. For you convenience, it is in both Excel '95 & rich tech format.)
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Some Cool New SHODAN Fan Art!
- 5:05pm EST - Digital
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George Shannon has something to show everyone! He has done a series of 3D renderings, featuring his rendition of "SHODAN's awakening" from the Intro to SS1. In his own words:
Three pictures rendered to look like SHODAN's moment of self-realization in SS1... I took some liberties with the textures and such, the original was kind of bland. But I unfortunately wasn't able to simulate the collection of 'junk' on SHODAN's main cone. Hadda make do with a funky texture.
SHODAN 2.0 a
SHODAN 2.0 b
SHODAN 2.0 c
Pretty cool, George! Thanks!
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Spiffy SS2 Interview at Voodoo Extreme
- 4:50pm EST - Digital
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Our pals over at Voodoo Extreme were psyched enough about SS2 to fire off a few questions to the main man himself, Ken Levine. The questions mainly deal with the graphical / 3D accel side of things, which is what that site's all about anyway! The preview has been posed right here. Oh yes, and they have really spiffy new screens of The Rumbler and the evil huge spider!
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Old Man Murray Hacks Plegm on SS2!
- 4:40pm EST - Digital
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Did you think that the fans are harsh on the SS2 demo? You should read what a System Shock hater has to say about it! His little review on the demo is quite amusing.... :) Thanks for the news, Michael!
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Chat With Ken Levine on the 11th!
- 11:00pm EST - Digital
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For those of you who missed it, Ken Levine, the SS2 lead designer, visited our chat-room on the night the demo was released. He spent some time answering questions and chatting with the fans. Well we'll be doing this again, this time officially on the 11th, at around 9pm EST (GMT -5).
The chatroom is on the server polaris.starchat.net, in the channel #system`shock`2. I hope everyone can join us! If you can't make it, you can always read up on the chat-log, displayed here. Expect many more team members then just Ken to be there! I doubt it will go very late, seeing as we will all be setting our alarm clocks so we can wake up early (at least 10 for me, seeing as my bloody EB doesn't take checks, I gotta run to the bank first) to rush to the store and grab our copies of SS2... :)
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Three Posts with Piles of Spoilers
- 11:00pm EST - Digital
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I'm hesitant to report on anything that has to deal with spoilers. Mainly because I don't want to spoil it for myself, and secondly because I don't want to spoil it for my loyal readers. I'll surface it to list the places where you can go to get more info on SS2, and at a glance, they tell and show a bit too much:
Games Doman SS2 preview - preview on full beta version.
IGN.PC - List & details of psi-powers.
Vault Network - Basically a scour and dump of our own forums for good info. I suggest just browsing the forum to get the spoilers in-content, rather then in a heap here.
Another note: The official SShock2 site has been updated with a shockwave flash movie. It's a bit similar to the E3 trailer.
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The Truth Behind the SS2 Box!
- 10:40pm EST - Digital
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It's a fake! It's a fraud! Okay, not really. That's really how the box is gonna look, I'm pretty sure, but Matt "Toneboy" Boynton has something else to say about that:
Hey Dan, are you counting the days man? I can't wait to see it on the shelves myself. I watched that mpeg of the"box" and and looked at the pix and noticed a few things. First, it's too damn big to be the actual game box (or the guy is a midget!!!). We have some real boxes floating around the office and they are the same size as your every day game box. Also, the real box has a flip open front that has tons of cool screenshots (since some of them are from my levels!!!). I did notice an EB (Electronics Boutique) price sticker on it (see upper right) but there is also a "Coming Soon" sticker in the lower right hand corner. My guess is Mr. Stevenson either has a good friend at EB or he convinced a sales clerk into parting with it. But rest assured, the game is not out in any stores I am aware of. Then again, what the heck do I know. C ya, Matt "Toneboy" Boynton
I wouldn't mind if the box was that big. I plan on putting the thing on display! Hehehe.... :) Speaking of which, the guy who sent us those photos & that movie has a little more to offer. I wasn't gonna post this, but I figured, what the hell, eh? Heheh. Take a look.
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A Pair of Polls! Go vote on Shock!
- 4:15pm EST - Digital
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The TTLG Jukebox has Opened!
- 3:50pm EST - Digital
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Yesterday I finally finished work on one of my long-term projects, the TTLG Jukebox. I've been working with Ken George (Shades) on this site for the past few months, and it's finally totally open!
In addition to a large collection of Terra Nova, Ultima Underworld, and Thief music, the Jukebox hosts the three SS2 demo mp3s released by AVault, and a huge collection of System Shock 1 music, including some new remixes, composed by yours truly!
I'm happy to announce the release of the following painstakingly crafted midi remixes:
Medical Mix 3 - I had quite a bit of fun with this one, and broke a few rules too. Without a doubt, it was the hardest of the four I did. I could not get the real intro to the theme to sound any good at all, so I made up a new fade-in one. I could not get the transition from combat back to the exploration music to sound any good at all, so I made up a new 'terra novaish' transition that I'm really thrilled with. I tried out many different instrument combinations for the exploration music, and could not decide which one I liked the best, so I just used all that sounded good!
Science Mix 2 - I really went to town on this one. If I didn't tell you what it was, you wouldn't be able to recognize it until about ten seconds into the piece. I did quite a few fun fade-in fade-out effects with the various instruments, to emphasize one part or another of the beat one at a time, and eventually all together. This one has the smoothest transitions between explore and combat of the bunch.
Executive Mix 2 - I did most of the same tricks that I used on science on this one too (actually it's the other way around, since I did this remix before that one.) This midi was a joy to work with, and is really the only one of the three that I am 98% happy with. I've been told that the new 'intro' I made, using the backbeat from the exploration music, sounds just like the beat from a "Guns & Roses" song.
Security Mix 1 - Of the three, this one has the least amount of changes done. It's my favorite music from the game, and it's really hard to improve upon something that's already so good. All that's really new is that I repeated several parts of the 'song' with different instrument combinations, and hence making it rather longer then the original midi.
I hope that everyone enjoys listening to them as much as I enjoyed making them! The rest of the SS1 music can be gotten here, and the TTLG Jukebox front page can be reached here.
I made the remixes using Voyetra Midi Orchestral Plus, where I took the midi fragments out of the archive on the SS1 disc (using Ripper5.0, extracting about 15 or so midi fragments for each song), and then combined, rearranged, and selected new instruments for them. Then I recorded what I was able to come up with into Creative Wave studio, where I performed all the cool fade-in, fate-out, and reverb effects, as well as deleting all the gaps (sometimes the midi fragments wouldn't line up), and adjusted the speed (some of the midi fragments play at different tempos then others). Each mp3 represents anywhere from 2 to 5 hours of work. :)
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SS2 Demo - Two Days Latter
- 3:00pm EST - Digital
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Cortex #3 steps into the light
- 11:40am EST - Trimfect
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Demo is out and I have completed it 4 times now. Damn, I really want the real game! One can want, but one can't have, such is life. But here is one more of those Cortex Reavers. Have phun.
Mr. Cortex #3.
And yes, he is doing push-ups.
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