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The next version of Dwarf Fortress has Armokheads slavering in anticipation of the next release, which features a world generation process that creates an incredibly detailed history of the world.

Game creator Tarn Adams is putting in a ridiculous amount of detail, ensuring that every play experience is wildly unique.

The latest improvements include children snatchers and item thieves (in the history of the world!) that can steal important children or items, having an effect of the outcome of the world.

"Now that the human, dwarven and elven children can be snatched in world gen (they snatch kobolds if they manage to find them, though that might not last since kobolds shouldn't be able to integrate into other societies), I've retooled religion acquisition a bit, since the dwarf baby shouldn't worship a dwarf deity that he or she never actually learned about. Now (world gen) children learn about religion a little later in life than birth, and godless critters living in towns with temples have a chance of picking up religions."


One of the powerful things about the game is the mistakes it makes. So a snatched dwarf child ended up worshipping a dwarven god. Yes, that's a mistake, but one that we can appreciate for the depth of the world.

"the goblin snatchers, who were very successful before I activated the guards, got their tower populated with several generations of dwarves that managed to outbreed the goblins. Some of the older abductees imported belief in Dasel, one of the dwarven gods, and since there were more dwarves and in fact more believers in Dasel than in the demon, they constructed a temple to Dasel by the dark towers."

I absolutely love it... religion is a heavy concept to put in a game, and it'll be interested, as Adams has allowed the world histories to be massively influenced by religion, much like our own, war-like world.


Check out this tiny history:

"Then I created a pocket world. Kivish Soarcrafted the dwarf was abducted at age 3 and moved to the Cruel Tower in Felldweller. He became a farmer and married Olin Roofchanced, another abductee, and eventually joined the guard. The humans and goblins were fighting a lot at this time, and the demon and many goblins were slain in the wars, as well as Kivish's wife. Kivish then personally led four defenses against the human onslaughts on the dark tower, and by the year 33 there were only 11 defenders left. In the year 34, only 4 defenders remained, and Kivish became the leader of the goblin civilization, such as it was. More attacks followed, and in the year 35, Kivish stood alone against twenty four human attackers, defending Felldweller and a goblin baby that had been born in 33, the only other resident. Kivish was victorious, but the dwarves then launched an assault on Felldweller, and Kivish faced 22 dwarves in the Forest of Dashing outside Felldweller, killing 4 of his own kind before being fatally shot by a crossbow bolt. Although the dwarves were victorious on the field, the humans slipped in and installed a new leader in Felldweller, who lived alone with the goblin child, Amxu Blottedvile, for a year before more humans decided to move in, establishing a temple to Odel the goddess of truth called the Truthful Temple in 37 and a mead hall called the Muscular Voice in 54. The original human city declared war on the dwarves after this and was eventually conquered, and the humans there died out over fifty years, with dwarven populations established in two mountain fortresses and the formerly human town. Felldweller, now a human-populated dark tower, never went to war again, but without support from the original human city, the humans left there eventually died out. I'll have to check out exactly what happened there. "


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Time Crisis 4

May 9th 2008 23:12
Time Crisis 4 PS3


The release of Time Crisis 4 on the PS3 was completely lost in the hype surrounding the GTA IV release so here's a reminder to check out the latest version of this arcade point-and-shoot classic


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Grand Theft Auto IV using a mobile
For all its prostitutes and strip clubs, Grand Theft Auto IV has captured my imagination with another, seemingly minor feature, which helps creating a rich, living world.

Chris Baker on Wired posted an article marveling at the richness of the in-game media. Your character can, if you want, sit there and watch TV all day. Or surf the internet


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Top Spin 3

May 1st 2008 07:55
Top Spin 3


Sports lovers will not want to miss out on the latest tennis title to hit the next-gen consoles - Top Spin 3 which is due out on the 22nd (XBOX 360 and PS3) and 23rd (Nintendo Wii and DS) of May


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Signs that you're no longer a gamer

April 30th 2008 06:18
Screenshot from Morrowind

The screenshot above is from one of the last games that I actually got into. Morrowind... it was a hugely open-ended, sprawling epic. A wonderful game, especially with the nooks and crannies that you could explore, leading to fantastic shrines or dungeons.

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Race Driver: GRID

April 22nd 2008 23:00
Race Driver: Grid


With the awesome Gran Turismo 5 Prologue now out on the PS3, other consoles such as the XBOX 360 are left without a game in the racing genre that would rival GT5


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Fallout 3 Preview!

April 17th 2008 11:54
Fallout 3 man walking with a dog
I think we're all looking forward to Fallout 3.

Considering that Fallout 1 and 2 are two of the most beloved of all games ever released (fun fact: I made that up), it's only natural for the hordes of gamers to slaver in anticipation


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Tauren Marine in STarcraft II
Ha ha, Blizzard. Very funny.

For April Fool's, Blizzard, on the heels of releasing their new, highly-anticipated real-time strategy (RTS) game, Starcraft II, announced a new unit


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Guitar Hero: On Tour Bundle

April 14th 2008 07:46
Guitar Hero: On Tour Nintendo DS


Have you ever felt the urge to unleash your inner rock star when on the move


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I'm still mental over Dwarf Fortress (it's running as I'm typing this), the incredible ASCII-looking video game from Tarn Adams, but I'm way beyond this post, where I was stuck with the 2D version.

Since then. they've come out with a release that allows building a fortress in 3-dimensions, making for a lot more complexity, but an incredible amount of freedom


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