Posts by Thrik

  • Donate to MapCore, feel awesome!

    As you've probably guessed, MapCore costs a fair bit to run — and over the many years I've been running it this amount has become quite a large bit. After several members recently expressed a desire to donate I've decided to set up a way for you to do so as financial support would help me out a lot and I'm really against crapping up the forums with ads, etc.

    I have some pretty sweet plans for expanding the forums/site in the very near future pending the resolution of some technical issues, bringing back and introducing a number of highly requested features; however, to make it happen I need dosh. If I get donations I can make it happen faster rather than having to put my own money aside, so please donate if you want to help make the Core as awesome as it deserves to be — thank you!

    [donation][/donation]

    Paypal:

    [Blocked Image: https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/GB/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif]

    Note that the currency is British Pounds, you may want to use a currency converter. Soon you'll be able to donate while buying superb T-shirts and other such merchandise, however as the logo is still being determined (voting will proceed shortly and the final logo will be used on the new version of the forums) this is currently pending.

  • Uncharted 3

    Patch came out today which fixes the aiming and motion blur as promised (you have to switch the aiming in the options). Makes the game so much more fun for me as now I can do headshots and shit precisely.

  • Gabe - Piracy non issues for Steam.

    It was getting a job and being able to actually pay for stuff that made me mostly drop piracy. As a bum I couldn't buy the games even if I wanted to and so I'd have just ended up not giving any developers/publishers any money and not getting to play any games.

    But since getting an income I see absolutely no reason to short change those who produce the stuff I love, no matter who it goes to — if it keeps it being created, I'll keep paying. And while I know my contribution is negligible, it's lots of people having the same mentality as me that keeps the developers we love in business. Without us those who pirate would have no games, TV shows, movies, etc to watch. I've not pirated a game since my college days, and while I have downloaded the odd TV show (not really, feds) that's only because I missed it when it was on the premium TV service I'm already paying quite a bit of money for every month. And if it's available on disc — which it usually isn't yet at that point — I'll buy it that way.

    As for music, I buy pretty much everything on CD as I dislike the variable quality you get through online services. If what I want isn't available I'll usually obtain uncompressed rips, which hilariously enough you can only often do via illegal means as iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc only offer compressed MP3s (which is something they need to sort the fuck out, kind of goes with Gabe's notion of pirates offering a better service than the retailers).

  • Uncharted 3

    Yes the U3 approach is definitely a fail, I really found myself getting frustrated by it yesterday. I felt like a little bitch but it's such an irritating taint in an otherwise sweet game. I bet this is the real subconscious reason why a lot of people say they prefer U2.

    As for where you got to, shit man you have some superb gameplay ahead of you. Wish I could experience all that again for the first time.

  • GameTrailers - Level

    The thing about HL2 is it was just as groundbreaking and excellent as HL1 was when it came out. I remember being repeatedly wowed by that game. Held up today it doesn't seem so special (although it remains an extremely robust game), but that shit was insane back in its day. Same can be said for HL1 — few gamers of today will see the big deal, but those of us who remember that first train ride in 1997 or whatever will never forget it.

  • Battlefield 3

    So I was watching TV earlier and an advert for Need for Speed: The Run popped up, claiming the Frostbite 2 engine is used for that game. Nice to see DICE finally starting to make an entry into the engine market considering their stuff has basically looked incredible and ahead of its time for the past decade.

    Did anyone try Medal of Honor's Frostbite 1.5-based multiplayer? Did it actually feel like the same game as the SP which used a completely different engine? That seemed really weird to me.

  • new forum stuff

    That would indeed be great, I hate posting on my iPhone.

    There have been plans for months to get the forum moved to my new dedicated joint and move to better forum software in the process — which has a thorough mobile skin shown to those on phones — as well as get all the stuff implemented that's been on the agenda for aeons (there's quite a bit). At this time there's an issue that's stopping it from happening and I'd really rather not go into what exactly, but I do want to (probably to little effect) assure you all the forum is not in the slightest being treated with little regard or anything like that.

  • GameTrailers - Level

    Yeah the UC2 train sequence stands out as one of the most impressive things I've ever seen in a game. Lots of games have tried to do train sequences and usually kept the section very short due to finding it difficult to make it look good, but I was blown away twice by Naughty Dog's effort: once when the sequence kicked off, and again when exiting the tunnel. Was incredible how you could see the remainder of the train in the distance going along the mountains.

  • Uncharted 3

    OK, I just got this and have been loving it for the first several chapters. However having just gotten to my first bit of gun combat, my initial reaction is: what the fuck has happened to the aiming mechanics?

    There seems to be a deadzone when it comes to diagonal movement, so your aiming almost snaps to vertical and horizontal movement unless you push really hard diagonally; this means getting the kind of precision I enjoyed in Uncharted 1 and 2 — which I just played through again — is virtually impossible. I consider myself very accurate/skilled at shooters so to be handicapped in this way is incredibly frustrating and kind of ruining the shooting gameplay for me. What's particularly annoying is the third-person camera is just as smooth and precise as it's always been.

    Edit: After a little Googling it seems there's been quite an uproar about this deadzone shit, and it's being fixed in a patch that's been in Sony QA for like two weeks. They're also adding motion blur which for some reason disappeared in the final build but was in earlier previews, which I have to admit I hadn't noticed but I do remember UC2 having splendid motion blur.

  • Max Payne 3

    The graphic novels were great but I don't consider them a must-have part of the experience. I think the concept could be modernised a little and still be just as effective; I've often seen something in films where they take live action shots and freeze them, but they move really slowly in slow motion. I think Watchmen dicked around with this a bit? That's something I reckon could work great with Max Payne 3's engine.

    With that said, my personal feeling is we're going to get traditional cutscenes with emphasis on film noir-style cinematography.

    Edit: This kind of shit... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v34hQQz7GvY

  • Battlefield 3

    I've only used jets a few times and find them no fun at all, however I got the first upgrade with almost no effort whatsoever — I just flew around like a moron and got right up behind the odd enemy jet/chopper and filled them with bullets. You have to wait until shooting though because if you fire too soon they'll turn away and you won't be able to do enough damage at that distance.

    I think it'd be about a million times more fun if I had missiles or bombs, but I'm too busy having a great time in tanks.

  • Max Payne 3

    I thought it was cool when I first saw this kind of thing with BioShock's Big Daddy statue, but since then they seem to have gotten lower in quality and far too common. I haven't bought any because where the hell are you meant to put the massive collectables that practically every game seems to have nowadays?