CellFactor: Revolution

[PAGETITLE=Introduction] Well, for those of you who have been waiting, itâ€™s here. Itâ€™s finally frickinâ€™ here. Cell Factor hits the streets today and in a surprising move by Immersion Games, Timeline Interactive and Artificial Studios; the game can be downloaded in its entirety completely free and more often than not, free is good. Usually. For those of you who might be new to Techgage, we have given Ageia a considerable amount of coverage since their announcement of the PhysX platform at the 2006 GDC in San Jose. Since then, they have been on somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster with PhysX taking heat for the lack of games in its stable but at the same time, being garnered with praise for the incredible potential that the technology holds. At the GDC, in their suite, various members of the press were given sneak peeks at not only the cards themselves, but of the games that are enhanced by using their technology. In what can only be described as an incredible tech demo, we saw Cell Factor in action, being driven by monster Alienware PCs equipped with Ageiaâ€™s PhysX PPU (physics processing unit.) In that meeting, the vast amount of objects on the screen being interacted with was amazing. Either by high tech weaponry or by "Bishopâ€™s" psi powers, these objects were blown up, shifted around and impressively, used as blunt weapons. This meant that on multi-tiered levels, a pair of combatants could be throwing down on the top level and as they fight, they knock a stack of pipes down onto the lower level. If you happen to be on that lower level, look out. Using that same scenario, if you happen to be playing as one of the characters with psi powers, you can catch that object and either hurl it back in the direction it came from or even more resourcefully, at the closest opponent to you. At the end of GDC, there was a significant buzz surrounding not only Ageia, but around Cell Factor as well. Not only did it look amazing, but with the Ageia PPU, it added a whole new dimension to game play and did so for the better. As time went on though, the game looked more and more like a tech demo and less like a game that would eventually see the light of day. As the excitement surrounding Cell Factor waned, so did the enthusiastic reception that Ageia initially enjoyed. With only a select few games available that actually used the PhysX card, it was becoming increasingly difficult for sites like ours to recommend the purchase of the card. We were fed GRAW, which really wasnâ€™t all that impressive with PhysX enabled and up until today when Cell Factor is released, the only enjoyable game which is truly enhanced by the PhysX card, was a small game available on Valveâ€™s Steam called RoboBlitz. Now we have Cell Factor and in this editorâ€™s opinion, not a moment too soon. The back-story isnâ€™t exactly a new one. Not unlike most other sci-fi storylines, the world has been taken over by a mega company called LIMBO. Rather than ramble on and on, letâ€™s get it straight from the horseâ€™s mouth. "After a series of cataclysmic events, the planet is now dominated by a superpower, known as the L.I.M.B.O Corporation, dedicated only to the advancement of technology â€“ no matter what the human cost. This technology forms the basis of a cybernetic-enhanced humanoid army â€“ the Technocracy, whose telekinetic powers are used to maintain order across the planet. A scattered human resistance fights for one last shred of freedom, tapping into psionic abilities in an attempt to conquer what appears to be an invincible enemy. The gamer can play as characters from both sides of this war. There you have it. In a nut shell, the world has gone ten ways to hell and itâ€™s now up to you, the player, to save the day, defeat L.I.M.B.O. and while youâ€™re at it, get the girl. I think thatâ€™s how it goes. This sounds like a rather compelling storyline and the bad guys actually have a cool name, but how deep can we stick it in the man with only 5 levels and when all of those 5 levels are basically multiplayer with bots instead of human opponents? Letâ€™s take a lookâ€¦ [PAGEBREAK] [PAGETITLE=Closer Look] For starters, the press was given demo disks roughly two weeks ago and the disk contained the install file of a very late beta version. By the time you read this, the minor bugs â€“should- be corrected and the release version will be the one you all will be downloading. With that said, we start out with an 800 MB install that unpacks to just under 2 GB. For that disk space, as mentioned before, you get 5 levels, each unique in their settings and objects. Ageia strongly recommends a dual core CPU, 2 GB of system memory and at least a 7800 class video card with would have an ATi equivalent of an x1800. From our tests, a dual core CPU isnâ€™t as important as the video card and RAM. On an average, when in the game we were using between 1.1 and 1.3 GB of RAM. Thatâ€™s a pretty hefty footprint in memory. Our test machine includes: CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.4GHz. Motherboard: Asus Commando P965. Memory: Kingston DDR2 PC-9200 2GB at DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 1T (If possible) Video: ATi x1900 XTX. Sound: Onboard HD Audio. Storage: Seagate Barracuda 750GB x 2 (RAID 0) PSU: Enermax Galaxy 850W Etcetera: Windows XP Professional w/ SP2. While lacking 4 cores and an 8800 GTX, this test bed falls well into the recommended specs and should prove adequate in our testing. Once installed, we are presented with our system settings. Here is where we can choose our resolution, lighting and most importantly, whether or not we enable PhysX acceleration. With this disabled, the Card might be installed and itâ€™s still detected by your PC, but itâ€™s basically consuming power because it certainly isnâ€™t doing anything for the game. In our testing we will try out the game with the PPU turned on as well as with it disabled. The entire game is centered on the use of the Ageia hardware. While you can use it without, 3 of the 5 levels will reduce your experience to a slide show and personally, this isnâ€™t what most would consider enjoyable. To use the PPU to its fullest, the in game characters can certainly be used to stress the PhysX card. Cell Factor gives the user the option of three different classes of playable characters. As with any decent game, the characters must be evenly matched or the game becomes unfair for those not using the most powerful character. The attributes of each class displays a bit of give and take and as we describe them, it will become apparent who is who. First there is the Black Ops. This character is your run of the mill, average player. Wielding a single weapon, the black ops character also has the ability to channel his psi power and control his surroundings. This psi power can be used to push objects towards his opponent, block bullets and can cause great harm when an opponent is directly in front of the player. The Black Ops can be compared to a paladin if you will. Kind of a mix of abilities with none of them being as powerful as those who only rely on power. Next up is the Guardian. The Guardian is a robot with the ability to carry two weapons. This power is held in check by the fact that the guardian does not have any psi abilities so while he canâ€™t push objects and deflect bullets, he is made of metal and with a pair of weapons, and he can blow anything in his path to pieces without prejudice. In a RPG, he would be the barbarian. Finally we get to the highlight of the game, Bishop. She is a genetically altered human with unreal psi powers. She can grab an object, regardless of weight and hurl it at whatever she chooses. She can block bullets and pick up massive amounts of objects and throw them one at a time or all at once for extreme damage. Oh yeah, she can fly to. Pretty intense stuff. While she seems invincible, she doesnâ€™t take to kindly to bullets and rockets so keep her away from close combat if possible. We can safely call her a mage or sorceress if we continue with the gaming parallel theme. With the character classes introduced, letâ€™s get into the weaponry available in Cell Factor. As we have covered, two of the available three playable characters have the ability to manipulate their surroundings with their psi powers. Of those two, only one is completely dependent on their powers of the mind. The Black Op and the Guardian both have the ability to tote weapons that are capable of damage on a massive scale. There are four weapons in cell factor and they cover the main classes of weaponry in other games so nothing revolutionary there. Calling them by name, there is the Phlegethon which is a high powered sniper rifle, the Acheron which fires rockets and the trusty old auto rifle that doubles as a grenade launcher called the Styx. The Black Op also starts with a single shot pistol called the Lethe. Each of these weapons acts as one would expect and each one has their advantages/disadvantages. The aiming is unique in the sense that instead of looking down the barrel of the Phlegethon and Acheron. The aiming crosshair will turn red when your opponent is in the sights. When a hit is made, the sides of the crosshair will show how much life the target has left. If the shot is timed right, the Acheron will score a one shot one kill. Secondary weapons also include gravity grenades and proximity mines. These are only available to the Black Op. The arenas are all different and make good use of the PhysX hardware. We should all be familiar with the Fuel Depot level by now as itâ€™s the same arena that we have all seen time and time again but there are four new level this time around. These levels are: Eastern Weapons. System Control. Fueling Station. Proving Grounds. Reactor Processing Core. Storage Facility. Each of these arenas is different and some are indoor while others out outdoor. Each of the levels uses the PhysX PPU considerable but there are 3 "extreme PhysX" levels. These three are the Weapons System Control, the...

CellFactor: Revolution

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