Posts by SamCom

  • Unreal Engine 3.9

    Quote from Serenius

    Yeah, GoW1 has some really weird lighting schemes. 40%-50% desaturation, cranked up mid-tones, and a bajillion point lights that turn into a giant brown and gray washed out mess most of the time. It's actually quite pretty when you turn off the desaturation and looks more like the much improved lighting in GoW2. Must have been an art direction thing.

    UT3 has the same thing in the stock maps, hundreds of small point lights everywhere. Is that to simulate ambient/bounce lighting?

  • What are you playing now?

    Really? I haven't seen any of that yet, maybe I haven't gotten far enough. I've moved to the second area with the train station yesterday after it felt like I cleared out the first area. For me, the one bit I ran into were hills that were just steep enough they couldn't be climbed, without being obviously marked as out of bounds. Clear Sky gave me more problems, but I think what put me off Clear Sky is when moving to the second area with the army base and their aimbotting machine gunners that took a few dozen reloads to make it past. Maybe my system wasn't cut out for Clear Sky when I tried it, either. Maybe I'll load it up and give it another try.

    I almost want to try some mods, but I don't understand why they all have to be compilations. Maybe I just want better weapon sounds and skyboxes, and not the dozens of difficulty tweaks and Counter-Strike weapon reskins and whatever else they decided to mess with.

  • What are you playing now?

    I picked up Stalker: Call of Pripyat again. I stopped my first playthrough before I got very far, but this time I'm hooked. Just seeing other stalkers and bandits wandering around, getting into trouble, how dark it gets at night, the rainstorms, the bloodsuckers, even inventory management (really!), it's awesome.

    The little details like other stalkers looting fallen enemies and being able to buy the stuff they're looked off them later, the AI stalkers actually looking for artifacts with their detectors, it makes it seem more like an actual place. The blowouts add a lot of tension, having to rush to cover, and leads to some awesome fights between the AI when rival factions run into each other. It seems like the best parts from Clear Sky and the first game combined.

    The only problem is you're not guaranteed to see something special like a blowout or AI fight every time you load up the game, you have to immerse yourself for an hour or two at least to get enjoyment out of it. It's not something you can play for 15 minutes at a time. Is it that way for everyone else?

  • Prey

    Well, that sounds interesting, it just doesn't sound at all like Prey. Are things really so bad that a game can't get funding unless it's a sequel?

  • Deus Ex 3

    I'll probably be hit for this, but Invisible War wasn't terrible. Maybe a little oddly streamlined in places (one ammo type?, less background story info) and suffered from some tech issues (being barely playable on machines that could run Deus Ex, tiny levels with loooong load screen in between) but the game was still good. I don't particularly like the place they took the story, it turned into a slightly more generic seeming sci-fi setting. Ok, after writing this out, there's a lot that could be better, and it wasn't as amazing as Deus Ex, but it certainly wasn't terrible.

  • Deus Ex 3

    I loved Deus Ex, but I can't bring myself to play through it again. I feel like I've seen everything it has to offer. I played through it once as a jack of all trades, trying to explore every inch. Maybe there's something more there, I just can't get past Liberty Island when I reinstall it. Graphics are no big deal, they're functional. I just can't recapture that feeling of exploration now. I love what it was, the choices it offered, the story, the huge amount of background detail and environmental storytelling. Maybe Deus Ex 3 will offer some of that, but I think there's room for more stories told in the original Deus Ex world, prequels even, that could explore the same themes of a world falling apart, controlled from the background by powerful corporations and secret societies.

  • WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

    Quote from -rt-

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    Like Serenius said, nice loop through the space, but I think the early bit is a little too narrow. There's no opportunities for either the player or the NPCs to flank, so the only option for combat is pretty much what you did in the video, standing in place and picking off the Combine as they charge you. Maybe add some passageways that cut into the side of the canal? Or walls parallel to the canal, somewhere where the enemy can move to get closer to the player with cover. If that makes any sense.

  • Crysis 2

    Quote from Rick_D

    pop armour only when you see the enemy and start taking rounds. always go for the head, anywhere else = you lose they win.

    Yeah, head shots seem to be key, if the number of times I see that bad ass slowmo just before my brains get splattered is any indicator.

  • Crysis 2

    I don't think that Skyline is quite that bad. The tall building in the center breaks up the sightlines fairly well, as opposed to Pier where you can see almost from one side of the map to another from most points, with exceptions like the mall and shops around the edges and the wrecked ferry in the middle. And in Skyline you have the gym area in the middle building which you can stick to in TDM if close quarters is more your style. No avoiding the open areas in the capture the pod mode though, and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of cover around those pods, it's pretty much hope the enemy doesn't show up, because you're going to die. And the pods seem to be grenade magnets, and one in the cap zone radius will clear it out. It might be better with actual teamwork, with one or two people capping while the others take up more defendable positions.

    You still have to be on a swivel the whole time, since people can jump down from pretty much anywhere. I haven't really gotten the hang of it yet, but sometimes I fall in a single shot, where it seems I can empty a magazine into a dude before he turns around and one-shots me. Can't tell if that's just lack of skill or selective memory, or something else. I'm mainly using the armor module, too.

  • THE CUBE CHALLENGE: Rules and discussion

    Quote from madgernader

    Looks nice, I'll give it a shot when I get a chance, but from the images posted I'd say you should increase the radius of your light entities (image 4)... As it is now, it looks like two small lights instead of the whole tube giving off light.

    You're right, I hadn't experimented with it. I saw that Valve did it with two point_spotlights for some reason. But I tried it with one, and it looks a lot better, thanks!

  • THE CUBE CHALLENGE: Rules and discussion

    Then here we go!

    Download the map !

    Just drop that in C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\YOUR STEAM USER NAME HERE\half-life 2 deathmatch\hl2mp\maps

    It's still work in progress, and only my second deathmatch level, so let me have it with the crits.

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19779737/Screenshots/dm_waystation/waystation2.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19779737/Screenshots/dm_waystation/waystation3.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19779737/Screenshots/dm_waystation/waystation5.jpg]

    [Blocked Image: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19779737/Screenshots/dm_waystation/waystation7.jpg]

  • THE CUBE CHALLENGE: Rules and discussion

    Quote from Sentura

    now i just need to find a game engine that has MIBs as stock content...

    Deus Ex?

    @killertomato: I like the style you've going for, that skybox is making it look a lot bigger than 1024.

    Is releasing something for playtesting now kosher? I've got something playable, but I don't know anybody with HL2:DM installed that has the time for testing, and I have no idea how my map plays.

  • WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

    There was a really excellent custom Venice map for Enemy Territory, with the mentioned bridge chokepoints and walkways, including escorting a gondola, if I'm remembering correctly. And it was awesome. I think the map had enough alternate paths to avoid any campfests.

    But either way, your level looks great! Good work.