CellFactor: Revolution
Preview
Having been built around the AGEIA physics card, this will be one of the first games to truly support this new technology
by Howie Howard
previewed on PC
Bridge build... err... destroying (cntd)
The third class of character in CellFactor: Revolution is called Black Ops. This guy will have both weapon and psychic skills. Where the Guardian can use two weapons at the same time, the Black Ops hero will be able to use only one weapon but he can back it up by limited psychic powers. After looking at the very in depth characters in this game I truly feel that everything has been covered with just these three and no other combination of character is needed.
PhysX sports
There really is a lot to do in this game. You won't just go around blasting everything in sight. There are five levels of gameplay and four game modes. These modes include the standard death match, assault, capture the flag and such, but the game also brings something new to the table. This new mode is called PhysX sports and is a subset of different sports mini-games where you compete by using your various powers. In addition to these game modes CellFactor: Revolution comes complete with a full line of game editing tools. This feature will thrill the many game modders out there as 100% of the game can be modded.
When I first took a look at this title I wondered what the hardware requirements would be like and figured that a state of the art gaming rig would be required. I was half right. The base CPU requirement is rather low at 2 GHz, which is reasonable. The fact that literally everything in this game can be broken into a multitude of pieces it would figure that a very powerful graphics card would be needed. This is true. The game is based on hardware manufacturer AGEIA's 'PhysX' chip and in order to get the best performance you will need hardware to support this. A beefy NVIDIA 7900 or an ATI X1900 card will also be required to get the most out of this game. Don't let that discourage you however, because you can always throttle the video stream back a bit and use software physics processing if you do not have a graphics card that supports the PhysX hardware.
Something different
So far this game has left me thoroughly impressed. Yes this game is a first person shooter and we all know there are many of those out there. What sets this title apart from all the rest is the way it handles and incorporates real world physics. Also the opportunity to use ones psychic mind powers really lets the gamer tackle the every day problems of monster infestation in a very different way. Add in the multi-player online feature and you have the makings of a top notch gaming experience!
Developer Artificial Studios does not have a publisher lined up as of this writing but don't let that discourage you about this new PC-only multi-player online title. The game is on track and due out in December.
