A beautiful Blender tribute to Homeworld intro: the Taiidan fleet arrives

Some games don’t just start — they announce themselves.

This sub-minute Blender tribute to the Homeworld opening sequence absolutely nails that feeling. The quiet dread. The impossible scale. That slow, inevitable moment when the Taiidan fleet drops out of hyperspace and you know things are about to go very wrong.

For me, this hits straight in the nostalgia cortex. Homeworld was one of the first PC games I played after jumping ship from Macs in the late ’90s, and that opening — paired with Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber — never really left my head. It wasn’t bombastic. It was solemn. Operatic. Like space history unfolding in real time.

This tribute gets why that intro worked. It’s not about flashy dogfights or camera gymnastics. It’s about weight. Fleets that feel ancient. An empire arriving not in a rush, but with absolute confidence. You don’t need dialogue when the music and motion already tell the story.

Huge props to Venture Pictures for capturing the soul of it so cleanly. 

This feels like a quiet reminder of why that original reveal mattered so damn much.

Homeworld 3 - Gameplay First Look Trailer

Blog Banter #9: The Timeless Appeal of Homeworld

Welcome to the latest installment of Blog Banter, the monthly blogging extravaganza created by bs angel and coordinated by Game Couch. Blog Banter involves our cozy community of enthusiastic gaming bloggers, a common topic, and a week to post articles pertaining to said topic. The results are quite entertaining and can range from deep insight to ROFLMAO. Any questions about Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's topic comes from Lou Lantos of Lou Chou Loves You.

Are there any video games that possess a timeless appeal? Games that, despite constant advances in technology, retain a game engine or narrative that will forever be relevant. If so, why?

It's almost 10 years old, does not have an intro CG movie, ran on a Pentium II with a measly 32Mb of RAM & a 4Mb PCI video card, and by today's standard it's ancient video game history. But still, Homeworld has, and always will, have that special place — that everlasting appeal to those of us lucky enough to have gone home, to Hiigara.

An Amarr mothership or a Kushan station?

Earlier this week I was flying to a new system in Khanid space and came in to a station from a point of view which reminded me of the Homeworld mothership. As you may recall, I'm currently playing (or trying to at least) Homeworld 2.

So the image of the Kushan Mothership was fresh in my mind when I came across this Amarr space station.

It's as if they were separated at birth!

Homeworld 2 for the road trip!

As I write this, I'm sitting in hotel room in London UK, at the end of a 3-day tradeshow. I left home Tuesday night and so missed the long downtime consequence of the Trinity 1.1 patch. Then again, I'm experience an even longer downtime myself, as I'll only be able to log back into EVE next Monday evening (I've been have trouble installing EVE on this work laptop for some reason, but that's another story).

So in getting ready for this 6 day trip, I installed Homeworld 2 on Tuesday and started replaying the game. I mainly did this so that I could pass the time on the 6 hour flight to Europe. For some reason, unless I'm truly exhausted, I can never sleep during a flight - even a 6 hour long flight. Anyway, since I never finished the game when it came out, I plan on doing so this time. The original Homeworld was a blast and as I've said before my favorite game of all time - after EVE of course! Let's give the (true) sequel a chance.

As for the blog, this kind of explains why I haven't posted over the last 3 days. Tradeshows mean long day, short nights and no time for gaming or posting. I'm staying over for the week-end and will have a chance to play tourist over the next two days. The return flight is on Monday afternoon, which means that I'll be able to give EVE a little run come that evening; once I've patched to 1.1 of course.

You should have the speedlinking links tomorrow morning since I've had a chance to go through the 600 or so posts on my Google Reader and my alerts.

Until then, I'd love to know what game(s) you play when not playing EVE.

Cheer!

Blog Banter #3 : Games you should play to get to know me

Already a month has gone by since the last Blog Banter. How time flies when you're having fun!

This month's banter is on the topic of "What game(s) would you suggest someone play if they wanted to get to know you better?"

In my case, we're definitely talking about multiple games even though one takes most of my time these days - EVE having the honour.

Now let's see. What games help you understand who I am? What have been the games which have brought me the most pleasure over the years? Would that help me pick games that can define me? Let's make a list and see.

Games that I've particularly liked over the last, say 10 years:

• Diablo II (RPG)
• Neverwinter Nights (RPG)
• Dungeon Siege (RPG)
• Battle Realms (RTS)
• Homeworld (RTS)
• Halo (FPS)
• 1701 A.D. (RTS)
• Gears of War (FPS)
• Mass Effect (RPG)
• EVE Online (MMORPG)
  
• Starcraft (RTS)

As I mentioned in the last Banter, I've spent a lot of time in EVE over the last 2 or 3 years. But I still give these games a few hours once in a while. There's something about these games, even replaying them for the nth time, that does something to me. Brings me joy and a sense of accomplishment many other games don't achieve.

I've purchased and played many more games since I started gaming back in the late nineties; as one can see from my collection. But the games above hold a special place in my heart. And I guess if you want to know who I am, you're going to have to go through these.

Which reminds me that it's been a long time since I last played Homeworld. Now if you'll excuse me...

Blog Banter is a group of bloggers passionate about anything and everything video games. On a monthly basis we get together and write-up a series of articles on a specific subject and then link to each other. The brainchild behind this idea is fellow blogger Hawty McBloggy (aka bs angel). I just love her quirky articles, always uncovering interesting and fun stuff. A must read!

If you're interested in participating, just contact bs angel for more information. Enjoy our stories!

Blog Banter #3 participants : Silvercublogger, The Average Gamer, Game Couch, thoughts and rants, Delayed Responsibility, Boom Stick Brigade, Boom Stick Brigade 2, CrazyKinux's Musing, Gamer Unit, Draining Souls.net, 8-Bit Brigade, Zath Games Tech, Arm the Flag, Lou Lantos, Hawty McBloggy

EON Issue 009 on its way soon

A new issue of EON is on it's way! And this one will be the biggest ever; 84 beautiful pages! Here's a brief overview of what to look for:

EVE: ASCENSION
Anyone who has played one of the Homeworld games will remember its epic fleet battles, with hundreds of fighters, corvettes and battleships trading laser fire across the billowing folds of deep space. Well now, thanks to the efforts of a small team of coders and artists, the massive EVE universe is being condensed, blended and trimmed to fit the mechanics of one of the best real-time strategy games ever made. EVE: Ascension will be the result of EVE and Homeworld's coming together, and we chat with the project leader about the stresses, strains and ambitions behind EVE's biggest fan project


NEW FICTION
More pages in this issue means we've been able to squeeze in more fiction than ever before - three epic stories on the dangers of terraforming ("Green Dreams"), gate maintenance ("Just Another Traffic Advisory" - yes, it's hard work keeping those highways open) and having ideas above your station ("The New Damage")


INSIDER GUIDES
Two massive guides, one on how to lead your corporations and alliances, the other detailing the duties and responsibilities one must have in mind when on fleet operations. So whether you lead from the front, or attack from the rear, there should be something in this issue for you ;)


TOURNAMENT RECAP
E-ON#009 has unofficially been dubbed 'The Verone Issue', as not only did the Veto leader pen a guide to being an effective CEO (above), but also helped out with a look back on all the group stages of the recent Alliance Tournament, which if you missed, you can catch up with here.


PLUS
Mothership Testflight - Profiles on KIA Alliance & Agony Empire - Interviews with t0rfiFrans & 'The Mother of CCP' - Chats with Vegeta and Chribba - The latest news about EVE and CCP


FREE SUBSCRIBER GIFT - POSTER-SIZED 2008 E-ON YEAR PLANNER

Looking forward to it. If it was to arrive before Fan Fest it would be even better since at least I could console myself reading through it.

Which games would you always reinstall?

Some of you know that I've recently updated my current gaming rig with a new 320Gig drive from Seagate (see post here for the juicy details). Having completed the install of XP and a bunch of utilities I can't live without (future post subject), came the time to start to install the games.

The first one to be installed was an easy choice: EVE Online. And don't tell me you're surprised! The second, was also a given, Guild Wars -- the first two since I don't have Nightfall yet. But then came the questions; which would I reinstall, which would be next, should I install all of them, or just the ones I play regularly.

After giving it some thought, I took most of Wednesday evening reinstalling the following games, since CCP was making some hardware upgrades, which meant that EVE was down -- duh! So without further ado, here are the games I deemed important (which means FUN) enough to take the time to reinstall.

1. EVE Online: The Second Genesis
2. Guild Wars (original and Factions)
3. Homeworld 2
4. Dungeon Siege 2
5. Starcraft (original and Brood War)
6. Battle Realms (original and Winter of the Wolf)
7. Warcraft 3 (Reigns of Chaos and The Frozen Throne)
8. Lord of the Ring: The War of the Ring
9. Neverwinter Nights (all 3 versions)
10. Aquanox 2

So there you have it. These are the games that I'll pretty much install every time I do a Windows reinstall. Don't get me wrong, I still spend most of my time playing EVE and Guild Wars, but I also like to come back to old games. There's nothing like a good Starcaft match against an opponent half-away around the world.

So what are the games you would reinstall? Let me know.