Posts by Thrik

  • E3 2008

    Killzone 2 certainly looks very promising in pretty much every way, albeit in a very derivative way. Hopefully they've learnt their lesson from Killzone 1 and ensured the gameplay is top-notch this time.

  • RAGE

    This looks very good. I hope they're going for a rich world full of interesting characters and writing, because it looks like they have an engine that can deliver it fantastically and much better than the Fallout team's effort.

  • New 3G iPhone

    Nah, I'm not keen either. It depends on what you want, though. I personally look for a phone with a good camera as I take a lot of snaps while out and about (social shots, not art shots — I'd obviously use a real camera for that); as such, the iPhone's relatively outdated camera would make me feel a bit ripped off after spending so much.

    Conversely, I hardly ever need web browsing, music, email, etc from my phone because I'm sat at a computer all day at work anyway. The rare times I do need them, the inferior but still capable equivalent functionality is sufficient. But someone who needs these features all the time would feel ripped off after buying an expensive camera phone.

    It's hard to deny that if you are interested in a smart phone, the iPhone is a serious contender. If you criticise it simply for doing everything including the kitchen sink, obviously you're not a fan of smart phones in general and thus aren't part of the target market.

  • WANTED (film)

    You're best off just actually watching it — get it off a torrent or something (Pirate Bay). Quite a lot happens after that, including the climatic action scene of the film. A description isn't really going to give you the kind of satisfaction/closure actually watching it provides.

    The general consensus with me and my friends who went to see it is that while the world is a little far fetched (although that's a result of it being based on a comic book), the action presented in the movie is absolutely superb. It's a very satisfying watch if you can ignore the blatantly silly physics and shit

    Quote

    (Especially the 360° bullet!!)

    .

  • Max Payne [movie]

    Honestly D3, don't start looking at stuff like hair colour. There'll be so many changes like in any game-to-film adaption that you'll just find yourself going insane with comparisons, kind of like how lots of Lord of the rings aficionados got all bent out of shape over the differences between books and film despite the films still being superb in every way.

    I'm going to watch it expecting it to be based on Max Payne, but not a literal adaptation. The game does have a very good story though as far as game stories go, with plenty of interesting twists, reasons of motives, etc. I'd imagine they will use a lot of the original material.

    I'm still kind of amazed this thing finally got made, and with a decent cast too. I remember the original Max Payne manual said that there'll be a movie, and like seven years later it's finally arrived. Most importantly though, perhaps it'll encourage the green lighting of a third Max Payne game.

  • Forum software updated

    The forums were taken down this morning so phpBB could be updated to version 3.0.2. There were some unexpected issues with the upgrade due to certain files modified specially for MapCore being replaced, resulting in those bits lost having to be restored from backups. The process isn't yet complete, however no further problems are anticipated.

    For reference, the (boring) changes introduced by the upgrade:

  • Max Payne [movie]

    Does look quite promising I must say — it seems like they might have gotten that distinctive atmosphere the games had. Must expect it to deviate from the game's story though, as with all game-to-film adaptations.

    Bit disappointed that I didn't seem to hear the classic Max Payne theme, though!

  • my maps (cs)

    To be fair though, RD made some excellent 'fun maps' that also looked good. It's possible to make such a map that also looks good, and if those are the types of maps you like to make then you should focus on doing that.

  • my maps (cs)

    Quote from hessi

    you said you were posting maps. all i see is shit this might sound hard to you, but i am SO SICK of those bullshit fun-/what-ever-maps. how dare you post in a place where the usual quality level is like 1000times higher than the kind of maps you post. i am talking of full maps (de_, cs_, dod_, ....) that take months of hard work.

  • MapCore Job Census

    I think people aren't understanding exactly what you're asking for with this:

    Quote from Taylor

    I want a disclosed section for people who are in the industry, but were asked not to flaunt it on websites

    Are you on about a section entitled "People who were asked not to flaunt where they work on websites", or what?

  • Diablo 3

    Quote from dux

    Be neat if the 32,000 disgruntled hardcore diablo fans agreed to that with what we've been shown so far.

    To be fair, I think what Wacko said regarding is a valid point: if the current media only represents the pre-evil part of the game, it's perfectly possible that it will become more sinister looking as the game progresses, much like games such as Fable and Black & White adjusted their environment style dramatically and went from looking totally nice to totally disconcerting without changing the general art direction.

    That'd actually be quite cool if it is the case. And seeing as Wacko works at Blizzard, him telling us this is what happens does carry a certain degree of authority.

  • Diablo 3

    Yeah, I suppose the new player is an important factor here. Having basically produced the most enduringly popular game ever created, I think it's fair to say that Blizzard has a good idea of what it needs to do in order to attract the most people, and deliver an experience that will appeal to the most people.

    Even if you were to add up every single disgruntled Diablo 1/2 fan complaining about the visuals, I'd bet my left nut that it won't amount to the number of people who will be freshly attracted because it looks reminiscent of their favourite game, World of Warcraft — albeit a bit more grown up. Or perhaps because it simply looks artistically appealing, rather than like every other grimy, grotty, miserable RTS that's come out during the past decade.

    Not that I'm saying I necessarily support the new direction, but it's an important point of discussion.

    I still think Blizzard will take the fan comments on board and revise the style a bit though, albeit without completely compromising their new vision. Even desaturating it a little and adjusting the distribution of contrast does help the atmosphere significantly.