Posts by ReNo

  • what music are you listening 2 atm?

    Got a couple of new albums recently;

    The Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out

    The debut (I think) album by The Kooks, this is a nice mix of playful indie rock with a bit of ska influence. Ska seems to be seeping into quite a few of these Brit rock bands lately - Arctic Monkeys, the Ordinary Boys (well, thats less seeping, more pouring!), The Kooks - and its a trend that gets my seal of approval My highlights from this album are intro song "Seaside" (short acoustic track that doesn't really fit with the rest, but is a beautiful little song in my opinion), "See The World" (which I think is a single or something, and understandably so), "She Moves In Her Own Way" (a fairly light but upbeat romantic song that, frighteningly, makes me think "Cliff Richard" in a good way) and "If Only" (probably the hardest, rockiest of the lot). Vocally, and musically at times, they remind me a lot of Rx Bandits, and probably the most obvious other comparisons would be the Arctic Monkeys or Razorlight, so if you like any of them then do yourself a favour and check it out.

    Hundred Reasons - Kill Your Own

    I'm a bit disappointed with this so far. Granted, I've only given it a couple of listens through, but it seems to be far less jumpy and "fun" than their previous efforts. All the reviews I've seen are pretty glowing, saying this is their best so far, but I just can't see it. It seems to me like they are perhaps moving away from the emo/nu-metal mix that that had before and going more for straightforward rock, which makes some songs sound like they belong on a Foo Fighters album rather than here. Not that any of it is bad - its a pretty good album to be fair - it just isn't really what I was hoping for. On first listens through both their prior albums there were 3 or 4 songs that jumped out with hugely catchy choruses or uplifting rythms, but nothing here did that for me. Hopefully it will grow on me in time. My picks for now are intro track "Broken Hands", fastest offering "Live Fast, Die Ugly" which is pretty much their most aggressive song to date (as far as I can recall anyway), and "Feed The Fire" which is probably the most Foo's esque but still one of the better songs.

  • 2 some type of levels

    I've seen a few attempts at this concept before, but I've yet to play one. I've a feeling they would probably work out better if there were a number of shafts that were linked in places as opposed to just a single shaft, which makes things kinda limited and movement very linear. I know the focus is on vertical gameplay, but I think using vertical gameplay only is missing out on just as much gameplay as horizontal gameplay only. 3 shafts or something with some corridors/windows/open caverns linking them together could add in that horizontal gameplay.

    The Far Cry map looks hot, though I can't make out too much on my monitor.

  • G.R.A.W.

    How much is different in each version of the game by the way? I know that the PC/old consoles versions are in first person, but are there any other critical differences? I'm thinking I'll hold off for the 360 version anyway, but I'm curious

  • Beyond Good and Evil 2

    Great game, and so underappreciated commercially, so I really hope this sequel does happen. I saw a similar rumour in a UK games mag about a year ago...probably less actually, but never a peep since.

    I'll probably just get shouted at for saying this, but I can't help but feel its one of those games that people promote so hard and create almost false love for because it was so underappreciated on release. I picked up a copy and played it solid for a weekend, and was charmed by it completely - the soundtrack, the setting, the characters all gave it a loveable atmosphere that wasn't taking itself too seriously. On the other hand, I felt it was completely underachieving of its potential - it was over before you felt it had started. It leads you into thinking there is this world to explore once you get your hovercraft upgraded enough to do so, but you reach that point and it just...ends. You get this huge list of pearls at the start, thinking you can go around searching for them all, but instead they just lump them all together then hand them to you in groups, completely undermining the whole "loads to do" suggestion that is given to begin with.

    Little rant over - great game, and I really hope this sequel hits as it is one game that really deserves it. I just hope it gives you a little more room to breathe, Zelda stylee, without sacrificing its style.

  • PS3 launching worldwide November 2006

    Plenty announced but few have been really seen - check out last year's E3 PS3 stuff, even if most of it was just marketing videos rather than any representation of what the games will be like. Think sequels to all the big PS2 exclusives - MGS, Tekken, Gran Turismo, Killzone, Devil May Cry - mixed in with some new stuff like Fatal Inertia, Heavenly Sword, Warhawk, Lair, etc...

  • PS3 launching worldwide November 2006

    Wow, I didn't expect a worldwide launch whatsoever. Nice to see Europe not getting shafted so much these days Confusing talk about maybe not including the NECESSARY HDD in the package (what next, no controller included?) - what sort of prices that could escalate the required purchases at retails to could be quite frightening. I imagine it will come bundled though, it doesn't really make much sense not to.

    Hasn't MS said that they are planning on releasing larger capacity HDDs in the future, which is one of the benefits of it being so easily switched? If so they could try and undermine that advantage of Sony's by releasing ones in even larger still flavours, or offering different console SKUs with different sized HDDs.

    The fact that this news has come before 360 stock can meet demand, may mean a lot of people who were still looking to buy a 360 but couldn't might now wait for the PS3. Will certainly be interesting to see what the games look like over the coming months before I make my decision.

  • Two rants on level design, need opinions

    I remember that in the game "Phantom crash" for the Xbox (great game by the way), the number of level designers outnumbered the number of levels significantly. There were only 4 levels, and they weren't even big, it was ridiculous. Oh, so I guess this isn't actually all that relevant, but it came to mind

  • Two rants on level design, need opinions

    It's sad but inevitable, as klein said. I had a guest lecturer from Codemasters come up to Abertay recently, and at one point he asked all the artists to put up their hands, and then all the programmers to put up their hands. I sort of half put up my hand for both, not knowing which of the two I really belonged to. I'm neither a programmer nor an artist in the strictest sense, but I create work that belongs to both disciplines. One of the things that appealed to me most about level design when I first got into it was the mix it offered - technical work (entity systems, scripting), design work (level layouts, gameplay ideas), and artistic creativity (architecture, lighting). Now that it is being borken up into specialised roles, which is it that I want to do?

    I'm graduating in a few months, and I've no false presumtions about my chances of getting a job off the bat. With environmental artist positions requiring solid 2D and 3D art skills, I know fine well I'm not going to be a feasible candidate for these roles. On the other hand, I've not ever really done any single player level design, which detracts from my appeal as a gameplay based level designer. It's quite probable I'm gonna have to either take the QA route and get in through testing, or just grab some other menial job while I work on my portfolio.

  • ESCHATON - An Immersive Spy Thriller.

    Don't get me wrong Sinarty, I'm quite a milkshape fan myself, but I would pick 3dsmax over it for as complex a model as this any day of the week. Milkshape forces you to do so many things "the long way", while 3dsmax or maya (I assume) offer tools to do it far quicker and easier. The ability to slice faces/polys into more faces/polys alone sells me on max You get my upmost respect for building that OICW in milkshape though - how long did that take you?

  • Nightwatch stops development on HL version...

    I think when it started it was actually just a solo-project for Andrew Weldon rather than an all-stars mod, but it certainly turned into that. I think their source stuff looks good, but their HL1 stuff looked jaw dropping. I think they were fast losing their feasible release window for the HL1 engine, and so decided to give it up for lost, but I'm sad to see it happen. So much awesome content that may well just be scrapped.