Posts by Skacky

  • State of Game Design 2011

    I have to agree with Rick concerning money and all. Limits of any kind (financial, tech limits, etc) usually enforce creativity on many levels. Most of my favorite games had such limitations, but in the end they managed to take profit of these (such as LGS's games back in the day).

    If I had to do a list of game design mechanics that really bother me, it would be the following:

    - The use of QTEs; I really have to agree with D3ads and Jetsetlemming on that one. I couldn't have said it better.

    - The "game-plays-itself-and-you-watch" syndrome, which sadly occurs quite frequently with recent games. I want to play, not watch the game play by itself dammit.

    - Regenerating health. I'm not against it when it's done properly, like in DX:HR. But fast regenerating health? Heck no, there's zero challenge with that. You just have to duck behind a wall and wait.

    - AI sidekicks when they are badly implemented. I prefer to be alone rather than having to rely on an AI friend following me and doing crap.

    - The lack of challenge. I want to play a game in order to become better at it. But if it's a cakewalk, it's just boring and not worth my patience.

    - Something I find lacking in so many games nowadays is the dimension of sound. I think that sound plays a really important role in the immersion process, and I'm not talking about background music only. Seriously, the last game in which I felt that sound played a very important role was STALKER. Just listening to my surroundings in the wilderness was an incredible experience I did not have since Thief and HL. Battlefield 3 has a great sound design though, which is something I was pleasantly surprised of when I played the beta.

    - I usually dislike invisible walls as well. I like exploration, and except for RPGs nowadays, there's not much exploration available.

    - I'm not against respawning enemies, we even used respawning AIs in our game mainly because it is a levelling RPG with vast and open maps. But respawning enemies in a linear FPS is really sloppy game design to me.

    I'm sure I can come up with more, but yeah, that's the most important ones that come to my mind for now.

    Also, this Megaman video is really great.

  • What have you watched recently?

    Quote from PaulH

    The latest Dexter was good, i also wasn't sure about the religious theme to this series, but what happened at the end of the episode was pretty cool

    Yeah, I really liked that last scene, the second and third episodes were pretty good overall. However, I think that the religious theme happened way too fast during these first three episodes, but wait & see. :derp:

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    And that blonde assistant chick is hot as hell.

  • Post Your Pic Extravaganza

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    Had to be done.

    Awesome pic by the way.

  • Diablo 3

    Important dungeons are randomly generated. It looks more like a Torchlight-like generation than a D2 generation. The outside areas and some small dungeons are always the same though (like the cellars or the cave under the well).

  • Diablo 3

    There are four difficulty levels in the game, but only Normal is available in the beta. And keep in mind it's only a third of the first act, so yeah it's very easy.

    Basically the difficulty levels are Normal, Nightmare, Hell and Inferno. In Inferno the base monsters have 1 more level than you, so I guess they can crush you fairly easily.

    And I still don't have a key.

  • Deus Ex 3

    How to easily and quickly get rid of the 3rd boss:

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  • Deus Ex 3

    Alright, I finished it and I really loved it!

    It's really a great game and Eidos Montréal should be proud. I'm gonna replay it since I missed sidequests and other stuff.

    Three things that bothered me though:

    - The bosses are way too hard and uninteresting if you have a heavy stealth-oriented character. I was playing on Deus Ex and got my ass kicked so many times I didn't count.

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    And the fact that I couldn't use my augs against Namir really pissed me off big time (but it's my fault I guess).

    The last boss, however, was pretty neat and well designed, I liked it a lot,

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    since you don't have to mindlessly shoot it to death while hoping you don't get insta-killed.

    - The AI was quite wonky at times, and would give up researches too soon if they spotted you. The fact that a whole pack gets hostile at once is kind of weird too. But overall it was well done and I liked stealth a lot.

    - The fact like, as in Thief 3, you don't make a single noise when crouched. I assume it was to make the game a bit easier, but to me it makes it way, way too easy to sneak-in unnoticed, especially when the crouch-run pace is so fast.

  • Deus Ex 3

    Wow that part with

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    Eliza Cassan being an AI took my by surprise! This was just brilliant and very well done! I also managed to make the boss get stuck in a wall and just shot her to death.

  • Deus Ex 3

    Well I'm ghosting the game in the hardest difficulty, but I had trouble with

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    the guys who kidnapped that girl (three silent bullets, three deaths, I couldn't find a way that would allow me to ghost this particular passage), and that first boss. Seriously that encounter sucked a lot for my stealth-oriented character.

    But I'm really loving the game, I'm finished with Lower Hengsha and it was a blast.