Posts by Thrik

  • The Desert

    Wow, what an impressive project! The video is some seriously sweet stuff, the only other time I've seen such incredible desert environments is in Uncharted 3 and even there I think you've out-done them in some ways. What fantastic work and way of presenting it, love it when maps are presented as more than a bunch of screenshots and a download link (not that that's a bad thing, but it can have far less impact).

    Welcome to MapCore man, hope you stay around and enjoy our moderately quirky community.

  • Random Photo Thread

    Quote from Bunglo

    Yeah man, totally know what you mean. Sunny, comfortable 80 degrees, blue sky, white, fluffy clouds. Totally sucks ass...

    I think if it were 80 degrees here on a regular basis I would literally shrivel up and die. Even like 20C is considered a scorching day here, as we speak in the middle of June it is 11C and on the verge of slashing it down.

  • Civ V

    Civilization is always a game I've thought 'hmm maybe I'd like that' about, then never actually tried it. The only comparable games I can say I've really enjoyed are Black & White, The Sims, and and Theme Hospital. Will I like Civ V guys?????

  • Ireland

    From what I've gathered Ireland is a lot like the rest of the UK in that it doesn't have that much in the way of outstanding landmarks or museums or whatever, but it does have a lot of beautiful scenery and inns embedded in a huge amount of local culture/tradition. Whenever I've been on holidays around the UK it's always been relatively basic stuff like walking around cliffs, shores, etc (ie: outdoor stuff) — but always very enjoyable. :derp:

  • My natural-selection 2 map

    That looks great, love the lighting/colours and how each area looks so distinctive. Did they end up keeping the dynamic alien infestation stuff in Natural Selection 2 so the areas get more grotty as time goes on?

    Also, appearance of Hurg = awesome.

  • Black Mesa Source

    That's right. I find it really difficult to play Metal Gear Solid 1 too, despite it being one of my all-time favourite games; if it weren't for the fact a GameCube remake was produced which brought everything up to MGS2's level of graphics I'd most likely have never played it again. It kind of gets to the point where I'd rather leave my memories and mind's eye view of a game in history, because when I go back and see how much the games have aged it takes away from my fond memories somehow.

    It's a bit like when I tried emulating Dizzy, a game I played to absolute death as a child and one I had endless lovely memories of playing with my dad, etc. Then when I tried it again it looked unbelievably basic and not very fun at all, and it really started to rape my memories. So I stopped and try to leave pre-2000 games alone unless they were 2D.

  • Black Mesa Source

    HL1 looked great in its day, but HP's screenshot is actually pretty representative of what you find yourself looking at 90% of the time in the game. I know because I tried to replay HL1 in recent years after pretty much giving up on BM:S (been waiting since 2004 lol), and I just couldn't get into it because of how basic everything was. Yes the player physics and interactions with enemies hold up great, but visually it's like trying to go back to this:

    [Blocked Image: http://games.sandoreus.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/screenshot-the-secret-of-monkey-island-spanish-dos-ega.png]

    Amazing game, but it's just a bit difficult to immerse yourself in (good job it had a later higher-colour version plus a complete remake). Fortunately nostalgia can help cloud some of these issues, but in HL1's case it's just not enough for me. Comparable gameplay with a fresh coat of paint is pretty much exactly what the game needs, and if BM:S delivers it'll open HL1 up not only to those of us who remember it but also a whole new generation of gamers who just can't handle playing such a primitive-looking game.

  • Black Mesa Source

    There are downsides to episodes too, though. It's common during the creative process to think of things later that could really enhance something produced earlier, especially in a game like HL1 where similar assets, enemies, and environments are used pretty much continuously. The overall quality of the game could drop significantly, even if it gets done faster. It takes a lot of skill to manage episodic releases of an FPS well, a skill even Valve have totally failed at (Hello, Episode Three?).

  • Black Mesa Source

    Quote from SpronyvanJohnson

    Who cares about it's age? It's about gameplay. For me, only a couple of titles surpassed or came close to the original Half Life and that's 14 years ago. Graphics don't mean dick if the game itself is bad. I'm surprised about this update though. I had given up on this mod a while back. Now they made me hopefull again. It's like being constantly cockteased

    I think the key thing with BM:S is that it sits on the right side of the 'when games started to look timeless' line. There's a reason few people replay 3D games from pre-2000 and that's because many of them look absolutely atrocious now, including HL1. However well-produced games after that point tend to look quite decent and always will, including HL2.

    The important thing about BM:S is that it comes out, because even if its graphics don't match the latest standards it's always going to look pretty good. I'm glad they're taking their time to get it right because I'm sure if they released earlier builds we'd be disgusted due to areas being completely unfit for play.

  • Should I do it?

    LMAO. It is good to hear different perspectives though, as there is truth in what Serenius said and it'd good to be aware that like any industry it's not all fluffy and sweet — some pretty outrageous shit goes on and you need to be on your guard to avoid getting caught out. But that goes for any industry really, particularly creative ones. The thing that keeps most people going in such jobs is passion for the work rather than pay, benefits, or power.

  • Crytek to make free-to-play games only

    Tribes: Ascend is a recent F2P game that actually makes the concept work well IMO. Think BF3, but instead of grinding to unlock weapons you have the choice of buying them — or you can spend the money on boosters which double your unlock rate. It doesn't sound great and obviously you have to like the game, but it does succeed.