Artem Bank Q&A: Scoring the Music of Space and Beyond…

By Brian Rubin | May 14, 2012 - 7:00 am | Featured, Interviews

2 Comments

Music to Fill the Expanse of Space...

A little while back, after the Kinetic Void Kickstarter began, I got an email from one Artem Bank about doing the music for the game. This immediately got me excited as Artem had also done the music for Star Ruler, which was a great game with a fantastic soundtrack. I therefore contacted Artem and asked if I could do a Q&A, the results of which you can read below. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did. :)

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Spacey Snippets – 5/7/12

By Brian Rubin | May 7, 2012 - 7:00 am | News

4 Comments

All those little dots are news stories...

A Crushing Amount of News...

Hey y’all, how are you? I seem to only have time to do these every other week nowadays, so the news SURE does pile up. With that in mind, let’s begin!

PC Gamer has an article regarding Novus Aeterno — a game I only found out about recently, thanks to SpaceSimCentral — and how it claims to be the “first true MMORTS”.
According to the BorderSpace Twitter account, they’ve released a significant update to their wiki, so check it out!
According to the official Starfarer website, a new version has been released that adds accidents, music, improved AI and more!
There’s a new video up of the latest beta from the FTL folks, which I’ll embed below after the cut.
The official Star Conflict website has been updated with more information on the Troy system. They also have some new Thar wallpaper.
There’s a new version of the Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator that updates the 3D engine, revises existing races and adds…Space Whales…yup…Space Whales. Even though I’ve no one to play it with at the moment, I kinda want to get it just for the Space Whales.
The Starlight Inception folks have launched a little Q&A video on their Kickstarter page to help answer people’s common questions and hopefully get them the backing they need with just days left in the campaign. This Kickstarter ends VERY soon, so help ‘em out if you can.
According to Eurogamer, the folks over on EVE Online will be giving players the choice of a gift to celebrate their nine year anniversary. This could be various skill books, lasers or implants.
Spealing of, Apparently crap is going down in EVE wherein folks are trying to destroy the economy, and Eurogamer has what I feel are the best articles on the subject here and here. VG247 also has a good summary.
According to a press release, Battlestar Galactica Online has reached ten million players. Dayum
Along with a whole new website, you can also read an article on Salvation Prophecy over on Rock, Paper Shotgun that makes for pretty good readin’.
The latest release candidate for the Freespace Source Project has been release. Hopefully we’ll get our grubby paws on it soon.
Lunar Flight was featured on the latest Return Fire Podcast. They also have a new wallpaper and a new branding logo. They’ve also released a pretty awesome article talking about their Steam sales, which is pretty bold and honest.
The folks at Destructoid revisited the Kerbal Space Program, which is a good read.
There were several looks at Endless Space recently, including from Rock, Paper Shotgun, Strategy Core and Space Sector.
Space Sector also has an interview with the folks at the Logic Factory, who made the amazing game Ascendancy.
According to Space Sim Central, the folks behind the upcoming game Galactic Patrol Pirates is looking for beta testers.
On the Beyond Beyaan blog, Brent apologizes for the wait for version 0.5.3, as well as an update on the demo download. He’s also introduced a new race, the Salix Cybornia!
There’s a new dev version of Blockade Runner that adds wings and other things.
Space Pirates and Zombies, Sins of A Solar Empire: Rebellion and Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter all got updates recently.
The official Wing Commander Saga website now has the soundtrack available for download.
Rock, Paper Shotgun has an article about a little space game called Space Murder which is being revived after reaching prototype stage and then dropped a while back.
Finally, in non-gamey news, the amazing Concept Ships blog has fantastic entries from David Demaret, Manuel Gomez, Vaughan Ling and Tae won jun.

WHEW! I gotta not have such a long break in-between these things, this one took FOREVER. Worth it though, as I like giving y’all all the news I can. :) Have a great day, and thanks for reading!

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Rest in Peace Jumpgate: My Rambling Obituary

By Brian Rubin | April 3, 2012 - 2:19 pm | Featured, News, Op-Ed

37 Comments

RIP Old Friend...

Around 2000, whilst still a professional gaming journalist, I was turned onto a little MMORPG called Jumpgate, which looked to be as close as we were ever going to get to either a Privateer or Elite Online (and it was). I gobbled up all the info I could about the game and covered it as much as I could (check out my old interview, preview and review covering the game).

I played the game on and off for the next ten years, putting in at least 800-1,000 hours. To date, it’s still my most-played game, and one of my most memorable. Unfortunately, on the official Jumpgate website, it was announced that the game would close up for good on April 30th, 2012.

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Spacey Snippets – 3/27/12

By Brian Rubin | March 27, 2012 - 1:18 pm | News

7 Comments

So...Much...News....UGH!

Hey y’all, how’ve you been? Me, I’ve been BUUUSY, which is why it’s been a while since I did one of these. There’s been a good chunka news over the last couple of weeks, so let’s get right to it, shall we? :)

The Starfarer blog has an article about accidents which talks about stat limits.
In the world of EVE Online, they just had their FanFest, so a lot of news came out from that, including articles on the mocking of a suicidal player, a release date for the Inferno expansion, a look at gameplay from Dust 514, and blog posts on alliance tournaments, third party development, UK pricing, exploits, and news about their user interface. Whew!
There’s a new gameplay video from FTL: The Game which looks pretty cool.
Space Sector has an in-depth interview on Endless Space, which is good as it helped me know what NOT to ask in my own Q&A that I’ll hopefully have up soon. ;)
There’s a newly released version of Naev that adds new missions, outfits and more.
The Beyond Beyaan blog has been updated with posts on background music, more overhauls and a successful scripting system.
According to Steam, there have been updates for Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter, Space Pirates and Zombies and SOL: Exodus.
Vendetta Online has been updated with some fixes to cameras, groups and so on.
There’s a newly released screenshot of ZigFrak over on Desura.
There’s a preview of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion over on the blog Matchsticks for my Eyes. I’m still awaiting my press copy. :/
Space Sim Central has a review of Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn which is pretty good. I hope to have mine up shortly. ;)
Space Sector is having a contest wherein you can win a copy of Armada 2526 Gold Edition. Head over there and enter for frak sake. ;)
The Star Conflict website has been updated with new screenshots and some new art for a dreadnought class ship!
David Braben — you know, one of the co-creators of Elite — has stated that pre-owned games are “killing single player games”. At least according to this article in VG247. Seems a tad reactionary to me, as I only play single player games and there are tons to choose from these days.
In SLIGHTLY space gamey news, according to The Escapist, some high school kids (!) are striving to make a full-motion Battlestar Galactica Viper simulator! If it looks cool to you, you can kick ‘em a few bucks through Kickstarter, but at this time, they’re more than fully funded. Still, looks pretty cool.
Finally, in non-gamey news, the awesome (yet hard on the eyes from a design standpoint) Concept Ships Blog has some awesome designs from Thomas Pringle and KaranaK. The KaranaK designs are a particular favorite, though they look like the Star Conflict art above…

That’s it for now folks, Stay tuned for some more original stuff in the coming days. Have an awesome day, and thanks for reading!

Spacey Snippets – 3-16-12

By Brian Rubin | March 16, 2012 - 12:50 pm | News

2 Comments

It's a Supernova of News!!!

Heeeeelllo everyone, how y’all been? Me, I’ve been busy, not only with work, but with some articles for here as well, so a lot of news has happened in the interim. I’ve got a ton to go through, so let’s get started:

According to Eurogamer, the long, long, long delayed fan-based project, Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn will finally, FINALLY be released on March 22. I know I’ll be trying out this bad boy. You can also see a trailer below after the cut.
There’s a mod being planned for The Ur-Quan Masters that will be called Project 6014 according to this forum post. This mod takes place shortly after the end of Star Control II, so it should be a good time.
In the world of EVE Online, Eve News 24 has a fascinating article about a few folks two trillion ISK due to exploits in the contract system. The dev blog also has new entries on little improvements, a streaming FanFest feed, launcher issues and price indices for February.
In Starfarer news, Space Sector has their own look at the game, which also got a new version released recently.
RTSGuru has some tidbits about beta updates and changes to the current beta version of Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion.
There’s a new blog entry regarding Starfare that involves modding that looks pretty neat.
PC Magazine has a list of the “10 Classic Computer RPGs” and, as I’d hoped, Starflight makes the list.
According to folks at the recent Game Developers Conference (GDC), folks compared Miner Wars 2081 to Descent, Freespace and Red Faction, which seems fair I s’pose. There’s also a new version of the game available for beta testers.
Speaking of the GDC, the folks behind FTL: The Game wrote up a little recap of their experience there. Their Kickstarter page also recently passed $100,000. Woooow!
There’s a new patch available for Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter that has a few critical fixes.
Over on the Beyond Beyaan blog, Brent admits he’s never played Master of Orion on impossible difficulty, and then discusses the result of his first attempt to do so. He also has entries on his game, covering topics like the combat screen (video embedded below), a tutorial and a new version!
There’s a new version of Arvoch Alliance available that fixes a few things, but not the difficulty wall, apparently *grumble*. Thanks Blue’s News for the tip.
Apparently the composer for the music in Descent Freespace and Freespace 2, Dan Wentz, is now on the Hard Light Productions forums to get help making remixes of the music from those games. AWESOME!
According to VG247, the lead ship designer for Star Trek Online, Adam Williams (blog with ship designs here), has left Crpytic to join Bungie. Sad, since I did love the designs of STO.
There’s a new version of Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator, according to this forum post,, which adds among other things, a GM console! Cool!
There’s a new version of Kerbal Space Program that you can buy in their store, according to their dev blog.
There’s an update for the exceptional Really Big Sky over on Steam.
Out of Eight Reviews has reviewed both Star Hammer Tactics as well as Lunar Flight.
If you want more Lunar Flight reviews, you can head over to Impulse Gamer, MetaGem and IGN Germany.
In somewhat related gamey news, Cliff Harris — the bloke behind Gratiutous Space Battles — is now taking pre-orders for his new game, Gratuitous Tank Battles, which looks pretty cool.
Finally, in non-gamey news, the Concept Ships blog has some fantastic concept art for spaceships from an upcoming web-comic called Carpe Chaos that look REALLY cool, so check out parts 1, 2 and 3.

WHEW! That was a lot! Thanks for reading y’all, and have a great weekend!

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Spacey Snippets – 2/7/12

By Brian Rubin | February 7, 2012 - 12:59 pm | News

2 Comments

The News Never Stops...

Hey y’all, been busy here in my world, but it’s also been busy in the realm of spacey news as well. Let’s jump right into it, shall we? :)

The folks at Gamercast have an interview regarding Drox Operative with the game’s creator, Steven Peeler. It’s a great read, so check it out.
According to a recent press release, Battlestar Galactica Online will be beta testing new carrier-class vessels.
If y’all haven’t seen it, there’s a new community website for EVE Online.
In SOL: Exodus news, Giant Bomb has one of their quick looks of the game, the Escapist has a review, and yet another new update has been released.
Vendetta Online has a new update that adds a buncha stuff.
There’s a new blog post about polishing Beyond Beyaan based on feedback.
Space Sim Central has a review of Moon Breakers, which I also have to take a look at.
The official Lunar Flight website has been updated with a series of tutorials to help you learn how to play the game better. There’s also a list of changes for the next update on their forums.
The excellent Escape Velocity clone Naev is now on Desura.
Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter has received yet another update.
Star Conflict is approaching their closed beta phase. I should try to take a look at this one too.
A new build of Miner Wars 2081 is available with a first mission prototype, an updated HUD and more, and the website also has new screenshots to show off.
Space Sector has a preview of StarDrive, which is looking better all the time.
Blues News reports that Star Trek Online recently turned two years old. Aaaawwwww, it’s near toddler age now. Adorable. ;)
Legends of Pegasus has some new screenshots, which you can see by clicking the link below.
Finally, in non-gamey news, the Concept Ships blog has some fantastic ship designs by Evgeny Buryat Onutchin, as well as some images of spaceships from the neat-looking fan movie, Dark Resurrection.

And that’s it. Have a great day everyone!
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Spacey Snippets – 1/31/12

By Brian Rubin | January 31, 2012 - 12:00 pm | News

5 Comments

Catching Up on News...

Hey y’all, been dang busy with SOL: Exodus stuff and work and so on, so a LOT of news has occurred since my last snippet entry. With that said, let’s dive right in, shall we? :)

The Drox Operative blog has a new entry about subraces.
The folks over on Hard-Light are preparing their latest release of the Freespace 2 Open project, and you can get the latest version on their forums. I am personally insanely excited about this. ;)
A new sci-fi game magazine called Play SF is about to launch, and you can read an article by yours truly in there. :)
Space Sim Central has a preview of Interstellar Defence Troops, which I also still need to get to.
According to Strategy Informer, the CEO of Paradox has admitted that it was a mistake to release Sword of the Stars II in the state it was in.
Evochron Mercenary has been updated to version 1.808, and you can download it on the game’s download page. The development blog also talks about upcoming enhancements to the game, which looks pretty awesome.
There’s a lot of stuff about Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion of late, such as an interview on Gamespy, faction details on VG247, and more details on the game over at Space Sector.
In regards to Beyond Beyaan, there’s a new version for preorderers, a new video of the alpha, info on a battle simulation and more info on transports.
Some folks have been talking about Lunar Flight – I hope to be among them soon — including D.I.Y. Gamer and the Return Fire Podcast folks.
In regards to EVE Online, Crucible 1.1 — the latest version of their latest expansion — has been deployed, and the minutes of their recent CSM visit back in December have been published.
The folks behind Miner Wars 2081 have announced that over 100 fans have achieved medals in their affiliate program, and that a new version of the game is available for those who’ve preordered.
There are a couple of updates regarding Naev, such as a blog entry talking about changing the way assets are discovered, as well as an interview on Gaming on Linux.
The Kerbal Space Program blog has been updated a few times, first with an entry about the game’s one-year anniversary, as well as a “legacy tour” of previous versions of the game, starting with 0.1 and 0.2.
There’s some news about Gemini Wars over on Space Sector, talking about the game’s release later this quarter, along with a new video.
Space Sector also has a review of Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter.
Rock, Paper Shotgun have given their own thoughts about SOL: Exodus in one of their “Wot I Think” reviews.
The folks at Just Press Start have done a podcast about the upcoming spacey roguelike, FTL.
If you’re somehow unawares, Star Trek Online went Free-to-Play earlier this month, so head over and give it a try! I thought the space combat was fun enough.
James Allen over at Out of Eight PC Game Reviews has reviewed The Wreckless — a game I still need to get to.
Both X3: Terran Conflict and X3: Albion Prelude have gotten updates, according to Steam.
Star Supremacy is getting a new expansion called “War”, and if they get enough likes on their Facebook page, people will get in-game gifts and more to celebrate its launch.
Finally, over on Kotaku, they have a video of a game called Space Cruiser played in a freaking planetarium, and it looks freaking awesome.

New Space Game Launched – Dangerous

By Brian Rubin | December 21, 2011 - 8:14 am | News

4 Comments

Approaching what I'm guessing is a jumpgate.

Spaceship go down the hooooole...

I got an email this morning from one of the programmers at Binary Helix, a small indie studio that just launched their first space game, Dangerous. This game — besides being available for the PC, of course — is also available for iOS devices. According to the website, the game features simplistic EVE Online-style combat in a sandbox universe with over 20 ships to fly, varied mission types, over 30 solar systems and even a romance element.

It looks neat, and I’m adding it to my review queue — which seems to be getting longer and longer — so I’ll have more on this game within the next few weeks. In the meantime, click below for a trailer and more screenshots. Enjoy!

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Spacey Snippets – 12/16/11

By Brian Rubin | December 16, 2011 - 4:39 pm | News

Spacey Snippets – 12/1/11

By Brian Rubin | December 1, 2011 - 1:38 pm | News

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Artem Bank Q&A: Scoring the Music of Space and Beyond…

Spacey Snippets – 5/7/12

Rest in Peace Jumpgate: My Rambling Obituary

Spacey Snippets – 3/27/12

Spacey Snippets – 3-16-12

Spacey Snippets – 2/7/12

Spacey Snippets – 1/31/12

New Space Game Launched – Dangerous

Spacey Snippets – 12/16/11

Spacey Snippets – 12/1/11

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