Posts by Izuno

Quote from Rick_D

server space they knew this was going to be big and they don't prepare for it? idiots.

same with origin, it's digital, how can you sell out?

i have to go to a proper game store tonight to pick up copies for my friends because they cannot buy it over origin. that's fucking stupid.

terrible planning.

Yeah this is a big issue. Some of the analysis in my circle is that this has been part real and part planned. Back in the early part of the Wii cycle there was belief Nintendo constrained supply of the hardware to generate demand hysteria. If you recall in 2006 and early 2007 Wii's were going for way above retail price on Ebay. Same thing happened around the 360 and PS3 at their respective launches (which meant a PS3 would go for more than $1k on Ebay? fuuuuuuuuu!) How much of the supply constraint was real or not is to be debated, but for SWTOR, it's not exactly like they couldn't add servers quickly and cheaply. The technology for running MMO back-ends isn't exactly new. Rapid upscaling is a lot more feasible today than it was just a couple of years ago.

Meanwhile, your other point about the multiple logins is dead on. I'm miffed at EA for making it that complicated. [Blocked Image: https://migrationtest.mapcore.org/public/style_emoticons/default/mapcore_smilies/emot_shakehead.gif]

Um...couldn't find a specific thread about this. If someone finds it then I guess we can discuss there instead of here.

Thoughts? Seems like it is having a very solid launch so far however the wait times are long. I have it installed but haven't fired it up yet due to too much on my plate (thanks EA/Bioware for the free copy!!!)

I played it early this week up in San Francisco at a Sony event. They had just about every NA/EU launch title available for play, and of all the action/shootery games Golden Abyss generally looked the best. Graphics aren't as good as on a PS3 of course, but it still looks pretty good.

It basically plays the same way as the Uncharted games on PS3 plays, except you do have to get used to the dual sticks in a different spot. With a PS3 (or 360) controller you can easily put the tips of your thumbs on the sticks without needing to bend them (unless you have crazy long fingers?). With the Vita, if you want to put your thumbtips on the sticks you have to keep those thumbs bent. And after a little while it starts to tire out your thumb knuckles. This is a bit of a nitpick (not really) but it's more about the platform than U:GA. I tried keeping my thumbs straight-ish and using the "inside of my thumb knuckle" (wtf how do I explain? :sigh: ) and it took the extreme-bent-knuckle-while-playing-an-action-game soreness away, but the game was harder to control. Same for basically anything on the Vita.

the tl;dr version: the thumbsticks are cool but they definitely take getting used to coming from a regular PS3 or 360 controller mindset.

http://kotaku.com/5867852/youtube-pulls ... ight-claim

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Kotaku:Earlier today I received an e-mail from the people at YouTube, who informed me that a seven-second video that I ran of Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto bobbing his head during a musical performance of the Spike VGAs was in violation of a Viacom copyright.

...

And... what else isn't free and clear of Viacom complaints and YouTube reactions? Oh, just the official trailer for The Last of Us. It, too, has been pulled for now.

Seriously? [Blocked Image: https://migrationtest.mapcore.org/public/style_emoticons/default/mapcore_smilies/emot_shakehead.gif]

Quote from Puddy

I don't want to be the devil's advocate but it's not unreasonable that the game actually did have some development issues and that understandable reasoning, but perhaps not just reasoning (as in correct), lead to this decision.I don't know about you but I remember all STALKER-games being quite buggy and, unless I'm speaking out of my own ass here, console releases can't get away with that as easily as PC releases due to Sony/MS. Perhaps no publisher thought they could pull it off? And that merely relying on PC sales didn't cut it? Furthermore, the development of STALKER 1 wasn't really smooth and all subsequent games have been derivatives IMHO (easier to develop due to tech/asset-sharing). It's not a good pitch for any publisher with dollarbills in their eyes.

Harsh business. Sad ending.

That concept art really got me pumped too

Well...yeah. I was at THQ back in core of STALKER dev...even product managed it from the marketing side for a while in the US. It was a really tough and long development cycle. GSC was extremely ambitious and at the time, no one had ever attempted a survival shooter like that. Most of us on the pub side believed in it but GSC was having a tough time getting everything together given their ambitions. In the end though, despite the delays and the bugs, I think the game was still an outstanding game up there with Half-Life in terms of how much I'll remember it and how much it impacted my perspective of what a game could be.

I'm really bummed about the STALKER 2 news and it sounds like it is dead.

...but I still believe this is not the end.

Hmm....well i just paypal'd some money in GBP...hope there are no issues!

Great idea, Thrik! And thanks for keeping the lights on and trains running around here.

Quote from Mazy

Izuno is showing levels of boredom that are only present after playing MW3

True, but I mostly liked the last level.

Mostly.

As for MW3 SP, I kinda

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liked

the

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very end sequence

when you

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kill Makarov

despite the

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QTEs.

It was a moment of

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pure revenge

though I wasn't too

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emotionally involved

to really

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give a shit

but it was at least kinda

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interesting.

I mean, it could have

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been much worse,

right? Then I wouldn't get to put this

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annoying spoiler taggage everywhere

in this

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incredibly

stupid

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post

.

Quote from Izuno

HL2 Ravenholm and U2 Train are definitely two great levels... but to add to that:From original Half-Life:

1) the dam level...wasn't there a helicopter? shit that was awesome

2) the underground area on the train tracks in the tunnels fighting the soldiers (hmm...might be vague description...been years since i last played)

3) the cliff level. wasn't much of an actual level but I found it cool and innovative at the time

But really the entire game was a giant lesson in level design. Not everything by itself was a work of art, but how it all fell together worked so well.

Oh shit did I just quote myself? Happens.

Anyway, I think Thrik and I agree on this one. What Valve understood was the use of 3D space to challenge the gamer without completely befuddling said gamer, nor spoonfeeding said gamer. Many games now lack that "creative spark" that the Half Life level designers had back in the mid-nineties.

Back in my day, we didn't rely on QTE as gameplay and that's the way we like it. And we gamed with no shoes in the snow, uphill, gravel...used leaves for toilet paper...

Where broadband goes and language barriers come down, online gaming and digital game distribution follow. Sure, piracy follows, but also does legit digital game sales. I've seen the underlying data for years in countries that develop the infrastructure where content creators localize for language. China/Korea = poster child for this but so are emerging gaming markets like Brazil.

Anyway, more on topic it is all about access. Here in Los Angeles we have a Redbox everywhere and I can rent a movie for 24 hours for $1. I rent way more movies now and I don't mind if what I choose ends up sucking. I have zero incentive to pirate a movie because the service for new movies has improved greatly when I combine redbox with iTunes/Hulu or whatever other digital service there is.

So yeah, I basically agree with Gabe. Great interview.

HL2 Ravenholm and U2 Train are definitely two great levels... but to add to that:

From original Half-Life:

1) the dam level...wasn't there a helicopter? shit that was awesome

2) the underground area on the train tracks in the tunnels fighting the soldiers (hmm...might be vague description...been years since i last played)

3) the cliff level. wasn't much of an actual level but I found it cool and innovative at the time

But really the entire game was a giant lesson in level design. Not everything by itself was a work of art, but how it all fell together worked so well.

Quote from Skjalg

I have probably read this somewhere; but I always think of game design as sinus waves. (Now that I think about it, it was probably valve that taught me this).Meaning that if you have a really fast paced section in your level/game then you need to follow up with a slow paced one. If you toss incredibly many shitty enemies at the player in a section you need to follow up with tossing one giant epic one at him and so on. And the more of these curves that you can manage to squeeze in there the better.

I think you mean sine wave but yeah, pacing is critical. I remember loading up Call of Duty 3, really curious what Treyarch was going to do with the franchise after Call of Duty 2...and I was really disappointed because from the start the game put you in a chaotic situation where you had no idea what was going on, where the bullets were coming from, etc. It wasn't intense as much as it just felt bland. Moments like that need to be built to. Red Faction 2, because executive management ordered Volition to rush the development, had the same problem. First level in the game was totally chaotic, the player was given way to many weapons and it was just artificially intense, confusing and hence boring.

The bigger issue (related to this) that we're all touching on is how games often take the gameplay aspect out of the game. "Press X to win." "Watch this cutscene...and this one...and this one...Press X...jump...watch another cutscene." Uncharted 3 really disappointed me in how they made the player use his brain even less frequently. Despite mass media / FOX news characterizing all gamers as unemployed college dropouts living in their parents basements sustaining themselves on pizza and pot, gamers (meaning people posting in this thread) like games because they challenge them to think. In games you have to assess the situation, make decisions, use judgement, take risks, solve problems etc. When the game does 95% of it for you, the very reason to enjoy a game gets diminished. Hence, why so many of us were disappointed by Uncharted 3.

Related to this (omg entering tl;dr territory) is less clever level design. I don't mind linear (ahem, much of Half Life 1 & 2) but give me really interesting situations along that long, twisting linear path. Give me a "ticking clock" scenario, then a "running out of ammo scenario" then a "how the hell do I get up there scenario" then a "close quarters scenario" then a "jumping over rooftops sniping thing scenario" or something...but don't make every situation THE MOST CINEMATICALLY INTENSE MARKETING BABBLE TYPE SCENARIO EVAR bullshit. Fucking pace it and make me use my brain rather than "push forward with left thumbstic, press X for victory.

Crap...I'm just rehashing what everybody all ready said here. Maybe we should draft a Mapcore Manifesto and then protest at major games publishers. "We demand change! We are the 99% of people who want smarter games!"

AWESOME

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/colle ... bled=false

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Louisville coach Charlie Strong blames loss to Pittsburgh on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 video game Blogger finds that team is 2-6 on weekends after game is released

BY BERNIE AUGUSTINE

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, November 17 2011, 2:09 PM

Gerry Broome/AP

It may seem like he’s grasping at straws, but Louisville coach Charlie Strong places some of the blame for his team’s loss to Pittsburgh Saturday on the players’ obsession with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

When it comes to excuses, this one is right up there with "The dog ate my homework."

University of Louisville football coach Charlie Strong had an interesting explanation for his team's home loss to Pittsburgh Saturday: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Following the Cardinals' 21-14 loss to the Panthers, Strong said that some of his players may have been more focused on the recently-released video game instead of the task at hand, which was beating Pittsburgh in their final home game and moving into a first place in the Big East.

But instead of being 4-1 and atop the conference, U of L is now 3-2 with games at Connecticut and South Florida up next and Strong is taking aim at the shoot 'em up game.

"That new, what do they call it, Call to Duty? Yeah, they got called to duty," Strong said inMonday.

Strong, in his second season with the Cardinals, preached about how he can't allow his players to be distracted by outside influences - including the blockbuster video game - as he tries to shape the program.

"But, these are young people and that's what we're dealing with," Strong said. "Guys who, all of a sudden there's something new and they want to try it and it just engulfs them."

Hakeem Smith, a sophomore safety, was so fired up by the release of the game that he tweeted “Call of Duty at midnight!!!! #Gamerwithpassion,” the Courier-Journal reported. Strong joked that he learned of his players’ obsession with the game by following them on Twitter.

According to Activision, the creator of the game, Call of Duty raked in $775 million in world-wide sales its first week on the shelf and Kotaku.com reports that the game set a new record for "concurrent players" Nov. 8 on Xbox Live with 3.3 million simultaneous users.

While it may sound like Strong is desperately searching for a scapegoat, he actually may be on to something. Tom Heiser, a U of L blogger for the Louisville Courier-Journal, did some digging and found that the Cardinals are 2-6 on weekends following the release of each edition of the game. So maybe the coach has a point.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, Strong hasn't played the game.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/colle ... z1e5Owkpdx

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Yes, it's a bump, but with good reason. Isn't "full release" supposed to be Nov 18, 2011? Unless my calendar be deceived by an evil spell, is that not today? I want my full release so I can waste more time accomplishing nothing instead of playing, um, say...MW3 and accomplishing...accomplishing the, um...wait...

eh.... So I haven't bought this yet cause I know the instant I do I will stop the other games I'm playing and I at least want to get through a bunch of them first. The really shitty part is that I don't think my laptop from last year will be quite optimal enough to really enjoy it. So shit, I gotta play on PS3 or 360. Suggestions? Was one of the platforms the "lead console" or does that shit not matter for this game?

DAMN YOU BETHESDA! Seriously...seems this and Arkham City are top GOTY candidates.

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/skyr ... 0-million/

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Skyrim just hit stores last week, and Bethesda couldn't be happier with the reception - both critically and commercially. The game right now is sitting at a lofty 96 on Metacritic and has 50 perfect scores, and today Bethesda announced that 3.5 million copies were sold in just two days after launch (out of 7 million shipped).

Big congrats to Bethesda.

happy birthday!

Quote from Puddy

I'll happily join this discussion after work, in the meantime I'll post a brief summary PUDDY'S PROBLEMLIST

- Borderlands

I loved Borderlands. Guess not everyone did.

Quote from Warby

gameplay = 6/10 spectacle = 10/10

averaged = 8/10 seems reasonable to me ...

As much as I love the series and have huge respect for Naughty Dog...I have to agree with this.

Speaking of bugs, despite the many positive things EA accomplished with BF3 (seriously, congrats to DICE and EA) the game has a lot of bugs in SP. I know there is another thread for BF3, but at one point I thought I was playing 2010's Medal of Honor reboot. I actually liked that game but was astonished at how many bugs there were.

Making games has always been tough, but I guess it's getting tougher..er.

edit: oops...yeah...bugs are a production issue. Sorry for taking this off topic. Still, it is related to design process but not the actual design itself.