Posts by Thrik

  • Games with lasting emotional impact

    Yeah it doesn't happen much, but games that've left an impression on me are definitely Grim Fandango, Metal Gear Solid (all of them really, especially the legendary MGS3 though), Uncharted 2, and Beyond Good and Evil. Some rare examples of truly superb writing in games. We can only hope one day all games have such good writing.

  • Where is my Mapcore !?

    Quote

    ":1cvl0wo3]I like this theme man. The combination of chrome and blue goes along pretty well.

    Yeah it is nice. It's slicker than the default theme, but under the hood it actually uses a lot of the default theme's HTML and CSS which means it's really easy to update when phpBB brings out a new version. Now I've updated everything I can stay on top of theme updates now and make sure new features are integrated properly straight away (like the 'Quick Reply' feature that's now at the bottom of each thread).

    Of course I'll be building upon it in the near future, but this time making sure I keep a proper log of what's been changed so it's easy to re-do customisations.

    Also thanks for that CSS dump Em, I had to get some little bits I added and forgot to save from it.

  • Where is my Mapcore !?

    I updated phpBB and the style nuked itself. I've gotten things non-broken but there're still some missing things (top menu, proper logo, etc) which I'll re-implement as soon as I can — I'm at work right now so I'm a little stretched.

    Thanks em, I did manage to get a copy of the vitals it's just a matter of putting them back in properly. Plus the new style has changed quite a few things HTML and CSS-wise so I can't slam the old stuff in as is sadly.

    phpBB is truly the worst thing to update ever.

  • RAGE

    Really what matters with frame rate is consistency. If it's jumping up and down, even if it's not too much it can get very jarring. If however it's totally consistent then the difference between 30 fps and 60 fps isn't a big deal.

  • RAGE

    There's obviously a difference, but I can say I'm so used to 30 fps games as a console gamer it really doesn't matter to me. So long as it's a consistent 30 fps it's completely playable and looks good — and if given the choice between extra detail and 60 fps rather than 30 fps, I'd go with the extra detail.

    The most striking example I remember is Metal Gear Solid 3, which they intentionally developed for 30 fps as opposed to Metal Gear Solid 2 which was developed for 60. As I played it right after its predecessor the difference was very striking, but after a few minutes of play it's unnoticeable. Totally worth it for what was at the time a gorgeous game.

    Nobody who knows what they're on about is saying you can't tell the difference between 30 fps and 60 fps. It's just that the difference isn't particularly damaging, and when factored into the many things that have to be balanced and compromised when it comes to console gaming it's a fairly light sacrifice to make as opposed to things like resolution, anti-aliasing, overall detail, etc — all things which have been messed around with significantly this gen.

  • Deus Ex 3

    Hmm, not sure at the moment. Some of the stuff going on looks great and its superb that things people were downplaying as pre-rendered extravagance are actually live and working, but there's a lot of roughness when it comes to animation/effects and the game seems to have an overall quite bland look to it (lack of fine detail, abundance of brown). Might look better in HD though as I'm stuck with the small one at work, and obviously animation can change — or it might be like Alan Wake and relatively stiff animations will somehow make it into the final game. [Blocked Image: https://migrationtest.mapcore.org/public/style_emoticons/default/mapcore_smilies/emot_shakehead.gif]

  • iPhone 4

    Well I guess it depends on the signal. I only get two or three bars where I work so it's usually enough to knock me off depending on conditions. I've now mastered the art of just not touching it though so I've not had any loss in a couple of weeks.

  • Brütal Legend

    Well I had the HD videos provided to me directly by the publishers' PR dudes because of my fan site (got one of those big ass statues to give away too ). Although a few got temporarily flagged by YouTube, all I had to do was dispute the copyright claim and it was resolved within a few days. Although things are flagged automatically — it can automatically detect licensed music and video — they are dealt with manually.

  • Inception

    Very true. Don't know how you can't be a fanboy of The Zimmer considering his demonstrated amazing flexibility and range of styles, all equally accomplished.

  • American Mcgee's Alice II

    I personally find fairy tale games quite intriguing because they take something intrinsically associated with innocent childhood and often turn it into something very dark and unsettling. Nice contrast.

    Goths and emos tend to love that shit too. I see this game doing well within those crowds.

  • Thinking if getting a new ISP

    I was very happy with Be* and then once I moved to Nottingham I started using TalkTalk which I've also been very happy with. Both are LLU ISPs (means they buy/own part of BTs exchanges rather than just using them) and can deliver 24mb/s through ADSL depending on your distance. With Be* I was really close so I got 20mb/s, with TalkTalk I'm a bit more distant so it's just 8mb/s. But it is extremely reliable and their general service good. Critically to gaming — and this is something Sky and many other ISPs don't do — they will work on the way your line is set up to deliver excellent gaming latency (even if it means a small speed cost). After their tweaks on their end my pings in Battlefield dropped from like 25–35 to 10–15.

    I use Gmail for my emails and it works beautifully with Windows Mail through POP3 or IMAP, though I use their 'business' set-up (free) which lets you use your own domain.