Dark Reign 2 Goes Open Source 41
An anonymous reader writes "One of Activision's last RTS games, Dark Reign 2, has gone open source under the LGPL. Although the release by a former Pandemic Studios employee was some time ago, it had happened relatively silently. With the source code now available, it is hoped that online play that isn't dependent on WON servers will be implemented and possibly ports to other platforms."
It just doesn't look as fun as the 2D original (Score:2, Insightful)
It just doesn't look as fun as the 2D original. Sure, the graphics are 3D (and can take advantage of a 3D card) but aren't pixel perfect like the 2D original. You can't pack as much information into the screen, as the 3D models are just not optimal.
3D RPGs and RTS games just seem fiddly to me. It's a gratuitous exercise in realism which doesn't add anything to the gameplay.
Look at the really successful RPG and RTS games - War/Starcraft, Diablo, Dark Reign (the original) ... very little gratuitous 3D design.
Then there's platform and adventure games ... they basically died once they started going 3D. Maybe multiplayer games (FPS / racing) had something to do with that (as they benefited from both faster internet connections, and better 3D graphics).
Re:Illegal (Score:5, Insightful)
"Copyright (c) 1998"
In a just world, that would be fair game by now.
Re:Be careful (Score:5, Insightful)
Judging by the amount of 3rd party code (a chunk of which I know for sure isn't open source in any way shape or form), I have strong doubts that this is legitimate.
My bet is that someone will get in trouble for posting this code, the code will be removed (from Google code and probably also from github and elsewhere that it might be uploaded to)
There is NO WAY that anyone connected with this would ever get permission to post the contents of e.g. 3rdparty\bink or 3rdparty\mss