Posts by ReNo

Hmm, I was hoping there might have been more game footage on the MTV thing, I guess there wasn't then I agree PD0 looks pretty crappy, Tomb Raider Legends looks pretty cool when I saw it yesterday but I thought it was for Xbox, not the 360, and Kameo also looks like it belongs on the current generation. Call of Duty 2 looks good but then its not exclusive. PGR3 is where its at for me, but I haven't seen any media for that yet so Tequila, and links are appreciated

Surprised there hasn't been any talk about the Xbox 360 news yet. I've only just started digging but here is a link to a video from the Xbox team about the 360. Kinda cheesy in places (the guy who says "your own gamer score, awww yeah!" reminds me, painfully, of one of my flatmates ) and pretty much exclusively already known info, but worth watching for more shots of the system I guess.

http://downloads.game.net/game.net/movi ... ony_hi.zip

That third screenshot is a real beauty! Map is looking great, its impressive how quickly you've nailed the tech and got upto such a high standard. I echo all the suggestions others have made, but it really is a nice piece of work already. I'm always impressed by the way Unreal has water flowing into waterfalls so seamlessly

Unlucky mate, don't let it discourage you though, you'll have plenty other opportunities.

Sounds like a decent enough start to a game. I'm guessing much of the game would then be a flashback or something?

Yeah, but depending on what the changes to the firmware were, it might not be ideal to do so. If the changes were trivial fair enough of course.

Ooooh thats pretty awesome, hope they can get that working across all PSP versions.

I can appreciate a lust for long games, of course its nice if your £40 or whatever gets you 30+ hours of high quality game time. What I can't understand is the "games are getting shorter" argument. Getting shorter from what? When? They are certainly longer than old school games for the most part, and I don't think there is any clear cut drop in average length from the 32-bit era. What set of games do they take the benchmark length from?

But then again, CS:S is included in every HL2 distribution, so while not everybody with HL2 has it installed, everybody has the RIGHT to have it installed. For this reason, perhaps it would be ok to distribute CS:S content with an HL2 mod.

First thing I looked at was the Develop 100 - the included top 100 worldwide developer's based on UK profits last year. Interesting read, and quite a lot of surprises in there (in amongst even more less surprising facts - 3 EA studios are in the top 10).

The article you mention was interesting though, even for non-animators such as myself.

I don't really get this "games are getting shorter" statement that people always seem to come back to. I recall that most games of the 16-bit era (including the Amiga 500 or greater) such as Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog, Golden Axe, Another World and so on could be completed in a few hours or play.

If we move onto the 32-bit era I'd say games got a bit of a boost in length, with games like Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 1/2/3, Mario 64, Tomb Raider 1/2/3, etc... normally taking the best part of a day of solid gaming to complete, and others like FFVII/VIII/IX, Front Mission, Grandia, etc... taking at least 20 hours or more.

The current era seems at least on par, and in many cases exceeds the previous one. Resident Evil:CV and the even longer Resident Evil 4 are both longer than their 32-bit counterparts, and in the case of ResEvil 4 this is managed while at the same time reducing the amount of time you are stuck in the same environments. New FF games are still lengthy and seem to offer more side quests and replayability than before (even if they can't quite match some of the previous games in terms of story/characters). Without having played it, Zelda:WW seemed to be plenty long enough and have lots of periphery things to do when I watched my flatmate go through it. Shadow Hearts 1/2, KOTOR, Grandia 2 - all relatively modern RPG's with plenty of content. And show me an old racing game with anything like the amount of content/replayability as Gran Turismo 4, Forza, or Burnout 3. Completing any of those in a day would be one hell of a feat, whereas with Lotus Turbo Challenge, Outrun, Ridge Racer, Road Rash (well, some of its sequels are quite long) and other less modern efforts its to be expected.

Games like Republic Commando, Halo 2, Fable, Beyond Good and Evil, and so on have recieved bad press for being short, and while those comments have merit (eg. with BG&E the game seemed to have the scope to be far longer), are they REALLY that short as they are claimed to be? Isn't 10 hours still significantly more than the vast majority of 16 bit games took?

Well if its not out yet its not coming out I'm sure. Silent Hill 4 has been released on the PC, so if (like on the Xbox) they missed out 3 I wouldn't think it would make an appearance later.

Res Evil 4 really is the defining point of the series. I've been a fan of the games since day 1, but Res Evil 4 has done an incredible job of wowing both long time players and newcomers/dislikers of the series.

Silent Hill isn't particularly wonderful from the off, but if you persevere a little and go through some areas such as the school or hospital, it can get pretty freaky. It was, at the time a really twisted and frightening experience, far more so than the rather tame RE games. The focus on melee weapons made everything feel that bit more intense and threatening too.

I think it is quite nice to see Nintendo going alternative routes in console development rather than just pushing power, but to me its the PSP that looks much more tempting, and the Xbox 360 that will most likely be getting my money. All this "revolutionising" gaming is, as you say, for the most part bullshit. Touch screen is cool... for a little while. Game cartridges that have sunlight sensors to build up "charge" for use in games - novel, but hardly a revolution. Gaming has been using controllers for a good while now and I'm happy to continue doing so - its tried, tested, and it works.

Of course if you want to mention alternative control methods / gaming methods offered by Nintendo, its only fair you at least recognise they aren't the only ones going in this direction. Sony made a hugely successful step into novel control methods with their EyeToy after all.

From what I've heard of the Xbox 360, it sounds perfectly feasible. Saying "gaming will never be the same" or whatever their little advert things claim is obviously a load of crap but its advertising, and everything does it. Perhaps I've not heard some MS publicity on the console that you have, so if you point me toward any claims they have made that are particularly outrageous or unfeasible, then please point me to them. I'm not a blind supporter of MS or anything of the sort, I just happen to have been thoroughly impressed by their last console and so obviously I'm quite likely to buy their follow up.

Oh and apparently Fable was the fastest selling Xbox game in the US until Halo 2 made its appearance, so its not like failing to live up to its hype had as much of a negative impact on the game's commercial success as you suggest.

They weren't zombies, didn't you take notice of Leon's examining of the first one he takes down? Zombies for all intents and purposes though I agree

Project Zero/Fatal Frame is where its at for survival horror, or possibly the Clocktower series with its focus on relentlessly hunting bosses. Resident Evil 4 is just in a class of its own though, very few games can match that sort of consistant quality.

I've only played 1 and 4, and 1 was the best of those two. 4 has its moments and I still enjoyed it, but it was never quite as frightening and the environment wasn't as interesting.

Flop by my definition means to fail commercially, and whether the new consoles live up to their promises or not they aren't going to do so.

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actually if we are completely honest, if my friends are not at my place, or I'm not at theirs, the consoles are not turned on at all, since the only thing these modern consoles have perfected are multiplayer games.

Not really something you can state like fact when it is obviously down to personal preference. In my flat the consoles get used a shit load, despite the fact we all have our own gaming PC's. PC's have good FPS/RTS/MMO games, but if you like Japanese RPG's, suvival horror games, racing games, beat-em-ups, sports games etc... then the obvious choice of system is going to be a console. I'd say the consoles get the lion's share of interesting games these days.

Xbox live might not be the most wonderful system out there and the fact you have to pay is a bummer, but the way it is implemented into games that support it is, normally, quite a step ahead of PC games. Premium content is normally pretty trivial in terms of cost - I don't begrudge paying £4 for a new city and 8 new cars in PGR2, for example.

How will they all flop? Its not like past experience shows that all consoles flop. Console gaming is a bigger scene than PC gaming by a huge margin. Fair enough if you aren't keen on consoles, as obviously PC's are better for some sorts of games and if those are your games of choice, its the natural choice to prefer it. Consoles aren't "gay" and nor do they suck however - if you don't play consoles your missing out on some fucking awesome games.

Bleh, screw radians - maths is tricky enough in my estimation without adding in irrational numbers like pi all the damn time

Sounds very cool, and particularly impressive due to being a solo project. Very reminiscent of Resident Evil 2 in terms of story, Silent Hill in locaiton, and maybe a bit of Forbidden Siren when it comes to the look of the zombies and the multiple characters with unique abilities