Founded in April 1, 2003 by former programmers of Westwood Studios, Petroglyph Games aimed to retain their strategy game roots. They were part of the creation of the acclaimed Command and conquer series while operating as Westwood, while they were creating hits like the second entries of their Command and Conquer series's universes, they were shortly closed after making the experimental FPS-RTS hybrid Command and Conquer Renegade and their MMO Earth and Beyond not meeting EA's expectations.
From there they eventually set up their own offices in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 24, 2004 and on November 16, 2004 announced their development of the famed Star Wars: Empires at War published by Lucas Arts. Released in February 16, 2006 it's an RTS with 4X elements like system management and resource production along with standard RTS versions of those mechanics. Their next game is in cooperation with Microsoft and Sega Creating another RTS called Universe at War: Earth Assault around May 10, 2007 that offered cross-platform play between PC and the later released xbox360 console version.
For some time after that they made various smaller strategy titles that were more like board games and card games that were available in physical games and digital and tried the growing MOBA genre. They didn't return to RTS genre till sin 2015 when they announced their own project Grey Goo, an RTS not so distant from Starcraft in elements like unit caps and unique faction usage. Released in January 23, 2015 the game seemd to do well with critics, but at the time RTS is not as popular as it was in their heyday as the MOBA genre was getting more attention.
They attempted to enter that market with a Free-to-Play game called Victory Command that was like a tactical RTS with no base building and just unit tactics like in Ubisoft's World in conflict nbbut unis locked to whatever commander you had. It released in May 19, 2015 and was shutdown over a month later and re-launhced as Battle Battalions and was shut down in May 28, 2018.
8-bit Game Series
They then later self published their own RTS going really far back in their roots with 8-bit Armies released in April 22, 2016. An RTS that very much looked like the original first command and conquer title created by Westwood but in 3D Voxels. It later got expansions/ standalone games 8-bit Hordes and 8-bit Invaders with fantasy and sci-fi factions respectfully added and had multiplayer compatibility between the other 8-bit RTS titles. It lacked alot of common features like campaign as they mostly only had skirmish modes and online play.
Forged Battalion
They tried again with a customize your own faction RTS game Forged Battalion in 2018 that also had elements of Mobile game style upgrading and unlocking, but these games to many gamers didn't please them with simplified/barebones systems and/or no new innovations. It wasn't until they Announced their work on Conan Unconquered that people hopped they flexed their RTS muscles with what appeared to be a something akin to Age of Empires in basic designs of systems and interfaces.
Conan Exiles
But that hope was dashed as it turned into a a survival type of game with randomly generated maps and waved based survival against increasingly stronger waves.
When EA announced their remaster of first Command and Conquer and it's Red Alert counterpart they also announced their partnership with Petroglyph Games due to their knowledge of the game's original source code and connections to it music computer Frank Klepacki and other information/materials that were source to the original game's creation. They fixed up some bugs and added some quality of life changes that were developed in later titles, while trying to keep the game true to it original release.
Their currently known project they're working on is another attempt to the Command and Conquer RTS FPS Hybrid called Earth Breakers.
They even showed support of thier older titles, working with moders on Empires at War to officially update the game in 2021 (*Only the Steam Version) to better work with modders who keep the game alive today.
With their past works up its very apparent that their commitment to the RTS genre is strong as majority of their titles are some form of strategy games, especially the Real Time ones. It seems to be a tough genre with a lack of consistent new releases like other game genres, but it doesn't seem to stop Petroglyph from making more of these types of titles and from supporting titles that they and their community around them supports. While it's hard to know the inner workings of such a studio that hasn't seen interviews with popular gaming media, people can tell they got a passion to make things and hope they can do their best.
Electronic Arts, a Publicly traded company HQ'd om Redwood City, California. Founded in 1982 the company is a current day giant in the gaming industry. They have published many great series such as Command and Conquer, Battlefield, Mass Effect, Crysis, Dead Space, and many more. They also created the Frostbite Engine from their development of the Battlefield games starting from the first Bad Company title, which offered great graphics leaps when truly showcased like it's Battlefield 3 teases with people on the debate of in-game graphics and reality.
However they are also a clear identity of many modern day gaming issues. One such is contributing to the current Loot Box problems of the morally grey micro transaction rabbit hole. Their current licensed sports titles have this system of spending virtual currency to earn randomly rolled virtual trading cards that affect gameplay with people who got better cards beat those who do not. Looped in there is also the micro transactions which are there to entice players to buy packs with paid virtual currency bought by real life currency as playing games normally will not offer virtual currency fast enough to be bearable, depending on the gamer.
Such problems were brought into public eyes with their implementation of it in Star Wars Battlefront 2 beta where players character stats were based on ability card's levels earned by upgrading a ability card with duplicates of itself where it broke game balance and players who accelerated their progress by getting card packs with money beat those without spending a dime and neglecting skillful play.
Also it sparked more fires in the issue wither their responses in the UK court cases of Lootboxes with their representative identifying them as "surprise mechanics", and a community reply about cosmetics of "a sense of pride and accomplishment" with the way it was implemented in the Battlefront 2 beta.
EA was also sometimes called Ucronic Arts as a play on the Transformers Unicron character. There earned this name as they absorbed obtained studios they purchase or make and then disassembled the original developers to not re-establish their owned properties, unless they were guaranteed hits, because of big money. Prime example is the Command and Conquer series where they purchased Westwood studios who developed the title after publishing a few of them. After their Red Alert 2 entry to the series EA broke up the studio shuffled members around and Westwood was no more.
Same could be said about Dead Space series where it started from an EA studio that rebranded into Visceral games which was dissovled after their 3rd entry into the series that was a departure from the series norm that didn't go well with fans, and the single player micro-transactions. Visceral games would later turn into a support studio that then just disappeared from gaming.
And again Bioware, where they purchased them and then developed Mass Effect series and then broke then EA declared that all their games would utilize their in-house Frostbite engine to unify all their studio's technologies. This move contributed to their problems with games in development at the time Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda, and Anthem. These games had launch issues and incompatibility with their own inhouse tools due to the different technology that powered the engine and its lack of support from the engine developers based in reports by notable game journalist Jason Schreier.
It's a big company that had a great pedigree but even now there is weird questionable things going on, such as its re-use of assets in their annual sports titles with the removal of game mechanics to only re-release them in future titles and their current locking of graphics features of their FIFA 22 pc release being only last gen and only Xbox Series and PS5 getting the upgraded graphics and animation systems. They used to be well loved for the games they made, but now impressions are on not developing proper games and making systems that encourage spending of money for some sort of exclusive or accelerated unlock in multiplayer games. While they have made attempts to make a better public image of themselves to average gamers, their behaviors contrast against their once in a while good thing.
Game programming in general is usually associated with the various systems that games use from their audio/visual to the underlying way a game program works. The Engine Programmer is a position where you work with the engine that powers the game, its core way of operating.
To be one a person needs to be aware that they have to serve various aspects of the game. From how things get processed and works together or jury-rigging a developer an engine with a bunch of things to make things work with an encroaching deadline. Depending on the company this role varies, but always encompasses a main role in making the game, tools, and assets work together.
This includes understanding the technologies powering the game, the current engine in use or plan to use, along with researching new technologies and how that would get implemented into the current/in-development game engines.
This position can be development or implementations of new technologies. The Metro exodus releases is an example of different technologies in the same game. It's first release had first generation NVIDIA DLSS 1.0 and NVIDIA Ray-Tracing technologies powering it's graphics pipeline during the early days of ray-tracing. Then the game was later re-released as an enhanced version with required Ray-tracing and DLSS 2.0. YouTuber 2kliksphilip makes a great comparison video of technology implementations of these different technologies.
These two different implementations need the work of an engine programmer to coordinate with the art developers where the changes to the graphics pipeline of the engine needs the art to be reworked to do what they do in the newer implementation of the technology.
Digital foundry also interviewed Lead Engine Programmer of ID Software and their development of Doom Eternal after their ray-racing implementation release.
Their interview covered how things went about planning ID Tech's engine for ray-tracing. Their objectives different based from how Metro Exodus changed as their aim was low latency and high performance on their optimization of the engine.
The tech powering each is advance and need a Engine Programmer to achieve whatever the developers goal is whether the experience is a moody atmospheric story game, or a fast pace high performance PC-centric shooter. Their roles help keep the development of games smooth and to maintain buzz with new technologies. Another way is to remake games as a good example Bluepoint games remastering games while still using their original code base that they released in like the PS2 Shadow of Colossus remaster on PS3and the remake on PS4 where they hooked modern tech onto the old game logic like physics logic while improving the Inverse Kinimatics tech used on the characters and using all new art assets. Thier remaking efforts improved also with their remake of Demon Souls using the same techique of still having the game runing it's old code base with updated graphics and quality of life tweaks utilizing the new technology offered on the PS5.
The career path of a Engine Programmer seems daunting but its role contributes to the heart of the games you play making sure that their experiences you feel is great when done right. There will be tough struggles like how Bioware and their attempts to modify EA's proprietary Frostbite Engine that is made primarily a FPS game engine, to make a third person rpg game with their own issues encountered specific to their situation when making games on Frostbite. They had to figure out ways to make the modern engine work with their tools used on their previous games that used to be on Unreal engine.
To accomplish such feat's cooperation between the various departments and their respective tools along with other studios and developers who develop and use the same tools to share information and determine the needed changes to that it all works in everyone's favor. Hard coding core optimization into a game will ensure that later down the line if used properly a game will run and look great.
Before their recent released title Apex Legends, developer Respawn Entertainment released their second game after their founding, Titianfall 2. A first-person shooter with a campaign and standard multiplayer suite, modified with the games theme of pilots and their large mechanized companions Titans.
The game offered a fun and fast gameplay as player's play as pilots who are very nimble. With thrusters and jetpacks, they jump and fly across the terrain above their enemies. AI grunts of generic soldiers also drop in with players as cannon fodder to help make the battlers grander in scale as they make audio cues about their actions to the situation. Players can be armed with an assortment of weapons and gadgets to get them, more points in a match. They also have classes that offer specific perks, like the starting 4 types of pilots, a grapple hook, radar throwing knife, cloak, and speed boost, with 4 more that are unlocked in multiplayer.
As the Battle heats up, players will then call down their Titans from the sky to bring in as bigger guns and damage to turn the tide of a game to their favor. These Titan mechs also range in class offering specific weapon types and abilities associated with their class. Their prescience ratchets things up as players start dropping Titans to deal with each other makes battles both chaotic and fun as a Titans weapons one shot players and their large stature, but slower speeds demands pilots to use their maneuverability to avoid such situations.
Of course this game has a lot underneath it's mechanics as a key factor is player's skill in the basic parkour system. It offer all player pilots the ability to double jump, slide and wallrun on the stages.
These two abilities are how many players can zip around a battlefield quickly. If a player is not used to these systems, they will be seen on the ground most of the time when they start, as it is difficult to get used to lining yourself up for a wallrun while making sure you don't get killed. Not using these systems are designed as detriments to players as their movement speed is slower compared to wallrunning and sliding. Using these abilities along with map knowledge will make a player play better as they can know jump points and window locations to maximize their movement.
The game itself has some other tricks associated to the pilots as some can use the grappling hook pilot to launch themselves further than normal, and same with a gravity grenade. You will also see some players doing bunny hops that are a use of the jump and slide at specific timings to maintain momentum on flat terrain, going potentially faster than wallrunning. Being a multiplayer game that has a bad launch economically that was released in 2016, had a resurgence as of late many of the passionate players are still online and will kick new player butts in maneuverability and general skill as it is possible to never touch the ground an entire match.
There is also the issue of weapon, ability, pilot, and Titan unlocks for new players as some more interesting gadgets, abilities, and titans are unlocked later in a accounts playtime, such as a complicated final unlocked Titan, Monarch which is complex when used and has an in-match upgrade system to use if players expect themselves to not lose their Titan after their drop.
Also matches don't end in some cases when there is an obvious winning team. Losing side has a chance of extracting to finish a game while winners must prevent them from reaching a drop ship that spawns or shooting it down before the extraction timer ends.
None of the above multiplayer aspects are completely integrated into the single player campaign but there are aspects of them. It makes things somewhat easier on the player with reduced health enemy titans except for the bosses and doesn't force the player to do the advance movement techniques to get around faster to complete objectives, except for some collectibles. They are also gin a chance to try out all the titan types in modified forms to get some sort of idea on how the loadouts work.
Game graphics are very impressive with great texture a model work on characters and environments. Both player characters and their Titans have great animations and their movements accentuated by various physics items and doodads attached to them like grenades and canisters. The great lighting doesn't affect identifying enemies on
the screen and have clear telegraphs that help direct players where to sort of go when they don't know a map. Post processing effects also don't hamper the visual clarity of the game and runs extremely well due to being based on the first Source engine. While it doesn't look like a source engine game Respawn's art and modification to the old engine help give the game modern touches that visually matches the likes of Call of duty and Battlefield games at the time and still hold up today.
Audio design is excellent with sound effects easily giving proper positional audio to players about potential threats and opportunities. Gunfire of generic firearms and scfi weapons offer unique sounds that are identifiable even amongst the chaos of an all-out fight with all players in a match. Music is melodies play during match start and end. Then again its great like any other first person shooter on he market as the audio quality is meant to supplement the player experience. I lacks the bass tones that other games accentuate like recent battlefield entries due to the far off explosions happening in the game. It may seem similar to Call of duty due to their previous experience on the franchise.
Controlling the character is easy using the common standard of WASD for right handed players. Easy access to the button dedicated for grenades and abilities in easy to reach buttons as the controls are streamlined in a way that doesn't need a lot of button inputs. If you played a popular shooter, then you might as well understand the gist of the basic first person control scheme.
The single player campaign is a great ride starting with the Training gauntlet mission allowed on Origin platforms to be played while the game is installing to get the player used to pilot controls.
Levels provide great platforming
exercises as well as combat encounters that slowly ramp up the need to
combine both parkour and shooting. Each also has a gimmick or themes
that temporarily alter the platforming or combat sections. and slowly
give the player some bits and pieces of the multiplayer component of the
game.
You start as Rifleman Jack Cooper who is being trained on being a Titan Pilot. Part of the Frontier Militia en rout to a planet controlled by the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation. On arrival Jack's mentor dies in combat and passes over his suit and his Titan BT-7274 over to him, from there you play through the journey of Jack Cooper transitioning from Rifleman to Pilot, and gradually bonding with BT.
While generic and plain Jack as a character help facilitate conversations with BT on things about it self. Their usage helps deliver a performance of them gradually knowing each other and defending each other and becoming a team as the story progresses.
Level both single player and multiplayer are well designed, especially the single player mode. For the campaign there is gimmicks in later levels tied to the way players would need to complete story tasks and each mixup the platforming and engagements a little bit to be uninteresting for as long as they last. Multiplayer has maps with well defined lanes that players churn through with titans and lots of various setups that allow alot of wall running to get around.
Overall the game covers the needs for a basic FPS game with their parkour and titanfall mechanics being front and center in the FPS. You could still say that this is a generic FPS package of campaign and multiplayer with the common multiplayer game modes. It's much like the others at the time of release as it was in competition with Battlefield and Call of Duty in its initial release window. Would've been nice if there was a dedicated training room other than the single player gauntlet mission to play around with the learning player controls, but the game sometimes says to just run a private multiplayer match to train and learn map layouts. There also needs to be some sort of Server browser to find games as the only way to play with others is though a matchmaking button. Also that when you play in a room, you sort of stay there instead of every one booted out to the multiplayer menu and search for games again.
This game is a good recommendations to players who enjoy FPS with fast movement and gameplay. Also for those into giant robot shooters, scfi setting shooters. However at the moment it maybe hard to get immediate matches. While before the player base was not large, it has grown due to an APEX Legends event. The gained popularity and resurgence of the player base has identified a problem with the game servers being DDoS attacked, affecting the matchmaking and exploiting the game's matchmaking system to prevent players from finding games and playing them. While for now the developers have done things to stop it, the community worries about it happening again. Matchmaking also takes a few minutes to get into a every single match due to more players hitting the servers now saying it connected to a game server but then restarts the matchmaking.
