Posts by Taylor

  • Warhammer 40K MMOG? Fuck yeah!

    Interviews about franchise and intellectual property with nothing about the actual game aren’t quite enough to convince me just yet,, but I’ll be keeping an eye open. But despite what they say with WoW out there and Warhammer Online coming out there, and with Sci-Fi not selling anywhere near as well as fantasy, they certainly are going to have to deliver something special.

  • Now playing

    I get a feeling a lot of aspects of God Hand were kind of rushed out because of Capcom dissolving Clover (or not, at it turned out in my popular thread). I've not got it yet because I already have too much to play, but check out the review on respected and advertisement free IGN – they absolutely slated it and gave it a horrible score despite every where else I’ve seen loving it. The reviewer seemed to just dislike the fighting though, and thought there was too much of it - which I imagine is like someone slating Gran Turismo because there's too much racing.

    Edit: Oh, I was playing Makai Senki Disgaea Portable up until last Friday. I just about had a team strong enough to clear the milestone Cave of Ordeal 3 and was on the storyline stage for Vulcanus (Or Volcano as he’s known here) when my save file became corrupt and would no longer load. First time I’ve twisted a games device fiercely in peripheral destroying rage since Mario 2 (Lost Levels).

  • My portfolio - what do you think of it?

    Ultimately you’re trying to sell yourself and this isn’t really what your portfolio does. I didn’t read all your descriptions because there’s a lot of it, but the bits I did read actually subtracted from it. This goes especially for the opening monologue: why are you telling people about year-long gaps and breaks in your interest for levelling design? And that you’re not very good at keeping backups? And what does an employer or visitor care about your notebook!? It’s also verging on tl;dr and filled with errors. You really need to cut this down and keep it all relevant and, more importantly, about your good points and ignoring the bad altogether.

    This is consistent throughout the document:

    Quote

    This was a map I made for the UBCS mod. Because of the fact I did not have enough time to do leveldesign besides my studie and have a social life, I quit the mod, in friendly conditions. This map was made as a survivalmap. I wanted it to have a frozen, barren and left atmosphere. I never got to finnish this map. I might have finnished it if my harddrive did not crash. But it did..

    I’m not sure what I’m supposed to surmise from this... It certainly isn’t what I was expecting to see; about the only relevant thing is the theme you set for the map. People don’t need to know that you quit this mod and you shouldn’t emphasise things like bad timekeeping and failure to backup work. You also write like your talking casually with someone, opposed to commenting on what’s on display.

    The maps look very nice but the screenshots are quite unflattering because you haven’t tweaked the colours and sharpness in Photoshop. Your site is very similar in layout to my portfolio (see signature, though I’m not saying it’s perfect either) but I squeeze in 6 pictures in the space you have one with thumbnails. I know you said this is not discussable but you’d have to give a more convincing excuse – you can, y’know, take more screenshots right? You also have a lot of blank space (definitely emphasised by the black stripes) can’t you widen the text portion of the page more?


    Like Mazy said, I’d also consider killing some of the less flattering work; I felt relieved when I cleared out mine, only kept my concussion maps there because people actually play those.

    Also: Is there any reason your website cannot open immediately onto your portfoilio? I see a welcome page (with unprofessional (to say the least!) gif images) but nothing of real importance. I’d consider putting this at the front.

    Reading that back it sounds a little arsey, which is not my intention. If it helps imagine a at the end of each line!

  • Now playing

    Played these a little bit now, so I thought I’d comment as everyone else does.

    Okami is basically the Playstation version of Zelda and doesn’t even try to disguise the fact: you have a little bug sidekick who may as well be called Navi, the first dungeon you go into is a tree and as soon as you leave your little forest village you’re on a big open plain they should’ve called Hyrule field.

    But I love the graphical style and it’s just really fun to play even though the combat is ridiculously easy. I also like the fact your main character (a God) gets stronger the more people belief, or praise, there is. Something I always thought was cool in Small Gods (the turtle moves!).

    Final Fantasy 12 is... well, Reno’s word was appropriate: Different – and you’ll note where we both reside, Squares European releases sure are punctual. Anyway, it feels to me very much like what World of Warcraft should be, a party of adventures in an immersive world all controlled by me! I remember the painstaking wipes in Naxxramas, if only I could give my raid members Gambits!

    The combat seems slow and tedious at the start, but just crank the speed up to fastest and wait until you get a full party before you judge. I love the Gambit system, it’s so brilliantly simple, and if games like The Summoner used this they might’ve actually been good. The only let down about the combat system is this seems wasted on only two-three characters at once.

    My only grumble really is they promote you having lots of side-quests to do (like the aforementioned hunting system) and exploration. But trying to do any of this, or exploring old areas, results in complete rape! Especially since you usually only have Vaan unless you're in the middle of a story mission - at least for the eight hours I've played it.

    • [*:2k61n2bs]1st hunting mission boss hits for single digits, 10 feet away from him are normal monsters that hit for four digits.
      [*:2k61n2bs]2nd hunting mission is a natural progression from the tutorial one. I had to pop potions and I was 5 levels higher than you would be if you went there after the 1st.
      [*:2k61n2bs]3rd hunting mission casts Doom. Doom! Even if you win, you lose. Not that you could!
      [*:2k61n2bs]3rd hunting mission is kind of hidden and in an area I’d already cleared so I missed him and backtracked through it. First monster hit me for four-digits! They’d gone back and levelled them all up!

    I just entered the mine as part of the story, came out and was told to go to the next story location. So I thought I’d do the two hunting quests I had – I re-entered the mine, chopped through the trash and got to the first boss – who hits for ten times the amount of normal mobs there and starts buffed off his tits with haste and protect! So I flee, and the room previously now contains a bat reskin that hits for... yes, you get it.

    Still, grumble aside, everything else is awesome. You know a game like this is a winner if it’s fun just doing normal fights. And in fairness you can usually run - I only got game over once when Vaan got one-shot during bullet point 4.

    Edit: Ashe even has the same animations as Yuna!

  • Seeds

    Capcom decided to dissolve Clover Studios (Okami, God Hand, Viewtiful Joe). Clover Studios decided no thanks and have created their own company, with some other big names like Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil ) and Hideki Kamiya (Devil May Cry).

    Kotaku article.

    Translation of "Message" on Seeds Inc website reads:

    Quote

    Atsushi Inaba. Hideki Kamiya. Shinji Mikami. And a specially selected staff.We are the Seeds that caused the vibrant flowers Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Steel Battalion, Viewtiful Joe, and Okami to come into bloom.

    Although we alight upon a different earth, even though the soil is different, our hearts -- closely pursuing the dream of "play" -- have not changed.

    Now, with a renewed spirit, we want to once again challenge the world of entertainment. But to do this, we need many, many more seeds.

    So, we are currently searching far and wide for people who want to work alongside us. For people who want to build their future. People who are currently making games elsewhere.

    Would you like to make some "preposterously amazing" games with us?

    Definitely going to be one to watch. I just hope Seeds first title gets some serious recognition because if they make another "cult" game they’re going to be in trouble.

  • Whats up with Sven-Co Op?

    Quote from Thrik

    ^^ Worst reply in the thread.

    Quote from MrH2o

    or does who only buy Ipods

    I really must’ve missed something when I played They Hunger, while it was undoubtedly an enjoyable and high standard mission pack, it wasn’t exactly dripping with atmospherics and fear. But for sake of argument lets say it was the malevolent spawn that crawled out of a teleportation pod opposite one that previous housed System Shock and Silent Hill – putting it through a better engine would’ve made it a better game, there’s no cap on immersion from graphics and sound for a horror game of all genres. I'm sure we all noticed a slight upgrade with the Resident Evil remake, for example.

    I play lots of games that are old; I like retro graphics and sprites make me hot. But Half-Life doesn’t have a charm to it when I look back at it - it looks dated. I've seen the same people do everything it did, better. It also doesn’t have the players anymore, and Sven Coop is a highly anticipated mod, they would make waves if they released it on source instead of tinkering with the Half-life 1 version. And lets be honest if they are going for polish it’s going to take an awful lot.

  • Game design ideas.

    Elo is not experience...

    Experience systems are supposed to give an unfair advantage, that’s what they are for! They promote the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. If gains from experience are negligible the whole system seems rather pointless. And that’s contradictory to what people expect in a competitive online FPS - especially ones that uses words like "strategy" and "teamwork" to sell themselves

    It certainly could be fun and cult, but it won’t become main stream with two opposed mechanics. And if they aren’t opposed, I’d say they are too watered down or I’m not reading this correctly.

  • So...how do you go about getting a job.

    I did four years further education at college and university on “computer studies” and worked for 2 years at an accountancy place while I put together something that could be called a portfolio. Of all this, only the last word of that sentence was actually relevant. My education wasn’t even mentioned in the interview and I highly doubt my purchase ledger skills would’ve been pertinent, excellent though they are.

    My portfolio was literally this website, which I’m sure it won’t strike anyone here with awe because visually it’s quite mediocre. I also had some stuff featured in PC Gamer for some leverage, predomantly thanks to Gonnas to be frank. It was mainly due to interview and getting lucky to be honest, and I think luck is a bigger factor than some people will say. The big hurdle for getting a job in the industry is you need experience in the industry, which is self-defeating. You’re best off applying to places and seeing what happens.

    I did have to move, but only a 3 hours drive away. But having said that, I can't drive.