Posts by Mitch Mitchell

Quote from blackdog

1 hour ago, blackdog said: What makes you say that? With all Xbox games coming to PC as well I feel like: “Xbox what?” and I’m talking as someone who really likes the X360 (my first console as well)

Which part? The "I think MS has the lead" or "but will lose by a gnats hair" ?

If the former, it is down to the perception as MS is quoting TFLOP numbers in their marketing and are pushing these numbers as a key barometer of performance.

If the latter, that is because of the developer-centrist design of the PS5.

XBSX will no doubt be pushed by numbers and it is akin to a Lamborghini Countach in how it was marketed. Big, impressive design. Big numbers. Yet, hard to get in and out of, brake discs like milk-bottle tops, and over-heated so badly you could not get the windows open fast enough, which was hard, given the fact the windows didn't work properly anyway. But hey, it looked cool, right?

If XBSX is the Countach, PS5 will be the Countach with air-con, ABS, better fuel efficiency and sat-nav

Quote from Interfearance

On 4/12/2020 at 3:09 AM, Interfearance said: Not strictly related, but awesome video.

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0:30 thoughts on valorant maps

6:48 thoughts on corporate ladder creating monotony in mapping

most of the vid shows his design process for aw maps if you are interested

Mind=Blown

I need to take along walk in the country to get over this. Sadly, that's not possible right now...maybe I'll go play with my lego and build de_Dust2

Quote from FMPONE

On 4/9/2020 at 10:33 PM, FMPONE said: Just curious where everyone stands on PlayStation 5 vs the Xbox Series X. I’ve heard that the Series X has more powerful system specs?

Unspoken of course is the fact that Nintendo consoles are almost always the best consoles.

Here is a thread to discuss the ongoing Console Battles for supremacy. I thought it would be interesting to see everyone break down the Pros and Cons of each. I don’t really care about Halo anymore and have consistently delayed buying a PlayStation, to my regret, so will be purchasing a PS5 upon release.

XBSX

Pro: Hardware

Con: Cost of ownership

What we want: Absolutely no dedication of system resources being applied to anything other than games, whilst playing games; movies whilst playing movies; tv whilst watching tv and more importantly, for the second time: games whilst playing games.

PS5

Pro: Hardware and developer-centric

Con: UI/GUI/UX (historically)

What we want: A new PlayStation. I know, it sounds kinda crazy, but it really is at the center of our desire: a new PlayStation. Not a new games console, but a new PlayStation. There has always been something very 'Japanese' about the PlayStation, almost as if the designers came down from Mount Fuji with a smile on their face and joy in their hearts, eager and willing to bring that joy to others with ingenuous reverence and indifference to what others were doing at the time. PlayStation was different, unique and very very very clever.

PlayStation is not another games console, it is a PlayStation. Emphasis on PLAY.

On a technical level, I think Sony has won this round.

On a perceptual level, I think MS has the lead, but will lose by a gnats hair as this round will be very very very similar to the XB360/PS3 round, wherein the difference wasn't very high (1 million units to PS3?).

As an aside to this, and from a developer standpoint: how due we feel about Real-Time, now that lightmaps are no longer going to be a requirement? And games install sizes are going to be significantly reduced for the same reason? We will need the basic texture for sure, but no more lightmaps? That's quite a reduction pre-runtime and runtime. Very interested in this, and, coming back to the comparisons between MS and Sony; as Sony has a gargantuan lead over MS for decompressing textures in real-time, what is MS going to do when developers cannot use MS for game worlds that require rapid speed of loading? Is it going to be like GTA3 all over again, when you have to wait for the games console to load the adjacent segment of the map, poised at the ready, unable to take your eyes off the screen because when it (finally) loads, you are traveling at100 miles per hour and might hit a truck and die?

The thing about developers is that they cannot go back. You give developers tools and they will use them with reverence, and, they will have to have uncomfortable conversations with the higher-ups along the lines of 'we cannot make the XBSX load the map that fast...you need to make the map smaller, or introduce a game mechanic to stop players moving so fast'.

XBSX will break games that require fast loading, AFAICT.

So, we don't know?

Someone call Dave, and get him to confirm one way or another as to the original locality of de_dust2, because this is not gonna go away anytime soon.

I know "3kliksphilip" is on here sometimes, he might have a hotline to contact DJ on this...

This, is getting to be an interesting point of contention about one of the most famous maps ever made - all

Quote from fewseb

On 3/8/2020 at 11:27 PM, fewseb said: Alright and yeah I agree. Mirage is obviously set in Morocco, new dust2 is set in Morocco, the only thing im contesting is that the original CSGO version was set in a generic Arabian nation, the other guy thinks that both it and the original 1.6 dust2 were also set in Morocco.

This is a Valve response (Jess Cliffe, co-creator of Counter-Strike) to the question as to whether the game/level/map was originally based in Morocco, and that bringing the new revamped version of de_Dust2 was attempting to return to that location as best it could.

Unless DJ himself wishes to get on a train from Suffolk to my yard and tell me otherwise, I'm going with this as the basis for my answer.

As always, I humbly stand to be corrected - and again, I do apologize for my earlier misunderstanding.

Quote from fewseb

On 2/27/2020 at 11:50 PM, fewseb said: Not even close, the Original dust was based off screenshots for one of the versions of TF2. Which itself was based of a generic middle eastern theme.

I've looked into this at length now, and cannot find anything to support the idea that De_Dust2 is located in the middle-east, but on the other side of Africa.

Quote from fewseb

On 2/26/2020 at 7:13 PM, fewseb said: The original CSGO dust2 was not set in Morocco, it was very clearly going for the "Iraqistan" vibe as evident by the mosque on dust 1 and the various signs and graffiti in arabic across both maps. Also why they used the IDF as ct models. Mirage is also based off Morocco and on that map they used frensh and arabic to get they point across, but also didnt use the IDF as their ct models. Current CSGO Dust 2 is very clearly base on Morocco.

We might be talking cross-purposes here, but I've re-read your original comments and I think I have confused what you wrote with something else somehow. Apps for the misunderstanding.

The original map of de_Dust2 going back to the very first iteration is based on Morocco.

Quote from fewseb

On 12/27/2019 at 4:43 AM, fewseb said: Is that not just the same theme as the original CSGO dust2, there's only so far you can go with the war torn middle eastern city theme.

I think you'll find the original basis for the map was Morocco, which although is close to the middle-east, it's north-west African coastal area.

Quote from esspho

52 minutes ago, esspho said: That's not helpful at all.

Hence why I apologised, and; as mentioned I had literally just re-uninstalled it for 'like, the umpteenth time.

Sorry, no.

I avoid Hammer like the plague - it is the most unwieldy PoS to have ever been invented by human beings.

I hope it gets replaced with HL: Alyx with a level editing tool for people in the second decade of the 21st century, and not the 1990's.

Apps for the outburst, but I literally just opened it again with fresh eyes and nearly threw my computer out of the window within 3 minutes.

Hope you get it sorted.

Quote from [HP]

2 hours ago, [HP] said:

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Not impressed with the gfx - the shadow 'creep' when moving forwards is really bad...dynamic shadow casting, cascade shadows? Not sure what they were thinking with this, and I seem to recall they updated the 'cod engine' to last five years?

I suppose the gfx are not that important, because cod has always been a kidz game for MP, and the SP campaign has been mostly neglected over the years.

Quote from Interfearance

On 6/12/2019 at 11:41 PM, Interfearance said: Isn't it funny how AAA studios have become the Hollywood of gaming. They use time tested formulas (that were created when major innovation still occurred) and produce a decently enjoyable experience, but nothing to write home about. Of course there are some counterexamples but they are growing sparse by the year (Doom 2016 is one of the few that stands out. I wish we saw more competitive games that are easy to enter hard to master. However, it seems like devs are just going for fun but not really competitive to maximize their demographic and milk profits. Fortnite gradually closed the skill gap as it went on to "nerf" veteran players. I don't have to explain why that is bullshit. Before this idea we had COD which had an infinitesimally small skill gap and appealed to everyone, resulting in maximum profit for Treyarch. I can't seem to find any mission based games that don't involve forcing the player to pay for everything to spare themselves hours of grinding. Sure you can play mobas for a mmo competitive experience, but its not really my cup of tea because of epilepsy inducing effects, lack of mechanical game play, and level up systems that allow players to have an edge on you. I could go through every genre denouncing some aspect of it but this is really just a criticism of major names in the business and their checklist/handbook approach to game development and lack of innovative effort. One thing is for sure; the industry does not punish them one bit. These guys know what makes money.

Well, like Hollow-wood, Games publishers are not really any different in terms of the sort of people they hire: spreadsheets-wearing-suits/suit-pant-suits.

Check the job listings to work in the executive branch of a games publisher, it's all spreadsheets and product-marketing-led desirables. The people working in the executive-branch typically come from another consumer-led industry, like: sports apparel, healthcare and beauty, cosmetics, soda-pop, Public Relations, music, lifestyle magazine/e-zines, fast-food and so on.

The highest requirement in gaming is typically 'must have an interest in the games industry' and that is about it, because in the executive branch it doesn't really matter that you understand anything about games, just how to get products sold, on the shelves and promoted accordingly, with a massive back-end in marketing statistical analysis for the future.

This is why there is a homogeneous tonality to gaming: lowest-common-denominators rule, as the data is like a bell-curve.

Kinda knew it: Microsoft blew their wad, and even more so; I knew they had nothing but empty, vapid pronouncements.

So what they have effectively done is: kill off the xbox one and all of the iterations therein and said to Sony "You win, we suck".

No one to blame but Microsoft for the Xbox One failure against PS4. Their desire to 'take over' the living room and produce a media centre box for everything television related has been a long standing desire in the Microsoft camp. I remember an interview with Bill Gates in EDGE magazine in the (mid) 1990's talking about the living room as a family space for entertainment. He focused on television and incorporating Windows OS into the television even then...

Wish I kept that issue of EDGE, Just as I wish I took a photograph of me standing next to a 1990's Quake advert, 60 foot high

Back on topic...

So, the Xbox lost this round and Microsoft have bowed out - let the internet trolling begin. Fight!

What they should have done? I think it's no small wonder as to how they royally screwed up this round of console battles, but I'll chip in and state the obvious:

-DDR3 + SRAM. The big joke.

-SATA3. Didn't the launch have SATA2? Did they make it hard/difficult to upgrade to an SSD?

-Always internet connected. Connect or be disconnected!

-That camera always watching you...why?

-That microphone always listening to you...why?

-The utterly atrocious public relations feeds and twitter comments, with such fu-bars as telling people that 24 FPS is fine, as it's 'cinematic', or telling people they do not care about 'insert place here' if they cannot get access to the internet and therefore, cannot use the Xbox.

-The launch price - essentially telling people they need to pay for the camera/microphone and 'tough' if they do not want it. Later it was revealed they just had a tonne of left over stock from the camera/lens of the Xbox 360, and just wanted to shift the redundant stock...ouch!

-The design of it. Just looked like a sideways 'gamer' PC from Walmart. Nasty, cheap-looking shiny box. The inside of it looked like it had crashed into a PC Parts warehouse...backwards.

-No 4KUHD playback, initially - this did change with the 'S', and yes, the PS4 doesn't have this at all...but, IF the Xbox One had 4KUHD from the very beginning...I suspect this would have had a big impact to sales.

The list I got in my head goes on for several pages, so I'll save everyone's time!

PlayStation win again, Microsoft lose, again - and next round I doubt Microsoft will be anything but second/third/forth place - as I suspect a lot of the components in the current Xbox warehouse left over will be put into the next one, and consumers will end up paying for Microsoft's 'lack of vision'. AGAIN.

nice!

http://www.mapraider.com/maps/unreal-to…/DM-CBP3-Daoist

Microsoft

I think that from a console perspective, there is a chance that Microsoft might 'blow their wad' by accident and announce their next console.

Their back is up against the wall at the moment and, this makes people do silly things like: tell everyone you got a new console, when all you got is mock-ups and 'projected/target' benchmarks. I do recall the Xbox one on display one year was really a PC under the stand with windows 7 running on it.

...

Sony

Contrary to this, Sony are not under any real pressure with announcing anything substantive, as the PS4 is doing great. That said, we could see some hints and projections, but probably more like 'look how awesome the PS4 is doing!' - that kind of thing. Probably talk about partnerships, indie games publishing, the PS Store, blah de blah.

In essence, Sony will be making PS4 owners sure that they are being catered for and not being forgotten about - especially if Microsoft 'blow their wad', as this will most certainly be seen as an aggressive move towards the people who bought the Xbox one and all of its runty children.

...

Nintendo

Probably not much more that a few beatings of their drums about their games and online successes. Lots of talks about their back catalogue. Switch appears to be doing just fine in its own bracket...I doubt anything new on h/w fronts - maybe a reduction in price + some new back catalogue openings, at best.

...

Broken promises

There is going to be a lot of back-pedalling from publishers and developers on what has transpired these last 12 months. I fully expect to see those who shall not be named making a series of excuses as to why their head should not be on the chopping block.

To back this up, I strongly suspect they will reword and rephrase stuff they 'said at the time' and attempt to turn these broken promises into (like politicians do the morning after election results come in) a series of vapid statements. They then will then use phraseology like 'the team is committed to excellence' and 'we are working hard to address these concerns' and probably 'we fully understand why people said x, y, z about this that and the other'. The language being used is essentially the verbal equivalent of Ne0 in The Matrix, dodging bullets in slow motion - because all developers want to be The One.

...

Political correctness

Without going into detail - I suspect there are going to be lots of capitulation towards 'SJW's' (if that term is even used any more?) and the whole topic about what is and is not being done to 'combat' any of these subjective points of view. No one wants to be seen as not being at the very least 'aware' of these concerns, and no doubt will spin a line here and there about it. More female characters...more females working at our company than anyone else...doing our part of the 'insert community here' community...blah de blah...lots of stats, figures, numbers, percentages, photos of staff wearing rainbow tee-shirts on a company picnic...

I have no views on this, other than it is a fine line to walk between being genuine, and pandering to the masses - which in turn insults the people you are pandering to and shines a big spotlight on your hypocritical nature. There will be no winners on this topic, as it is tooooooo contentious, and impossible to actually show concern versus showing that you are saying something just to either figuratively protect your read end, or get people to get their wallets out.

...

Celebrities

I really should have that in quotations:). C-Z (no A's or B's) people who have got some sort of following somewhere for some reason. Probably a few sports personalities talking about how they 'really connect with people' who play the game they happen to be in, yet, don't play the game as they are too busy driving their Ferrari, or living it large in their Penthouse apartments.

...

Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

Yup. No joke. It's time. Valve have got their back against the wall with Steam and companies using other platforms for distribution digitally...so, it would make complete and total and utter sense for them to release games of their own again. IF they do - they get to keep all of the money from sales, versus giving another company 70% of the revenue, they can have 100%. it really is that simple: 100% versus 30%.

Even if it is a bad game, everyone here knows it will sell a gazillion units.

I also would like to think there is a chance that Valve would use a satirical message along the lines of 'metoo' movement, but instead of studio executives, it could be gamers that have been subjected to the psychological torture over a decade of not being able to play HL2:Ep3...a long and drawn out relationship with Valve. I think that would be very funny, with some short films of gamers describing the emotional torment of not playing the final episode

They might call it the "Me3 movement" .

I find it beyond shocking to realise that all Valve have to do to make $1billion, would be to have Gabe Newall walk on stage with a crow-bar held high, and just stand there in the middle of the stage...he wouldn't even have to say anything!

Quote from Pampers

4 hours ago, Pampers said: oh no! not Fatal1ty?!

Oh, he's harmless enough for Twitch, and to be fair he does encourage fair play and dedication - never heard him curse/swear/yell, unlike 90% of Twitch with 'warnings' you have to click through...but that's another topic.

Quote from blackdog

On 5/24/2019 at 2:54 PM, blackdog said: I mean, not that EA is lacking money... they could invest in outsourcing content. Cosmetics don't need to be developed in-house, and they could contract 3 (Chinese ?) studios to provide a constant stream of content, according to a set timeline of updates managed by Respawn...

They could also release a level design SDK/Tool, just like Bethesda could for Quake Champions and DOOM!

I would love nothing more than Mapcore to have level designers/editors putting their own stamp on these games - and that is just for starters...how does Titanfall 1/2 grab you? Or Hitman 1/2? Or Rage2?

This forum is full of talent in every respect...collaboration here would be great for these titles, if only they released tools to the people playing the games they make!

OT: The game is dropping off the radar very quickly for sure, even Fatal1ty has pretty much stopped streaming sessions from his Las Vegas penthouse.

Quote from Radu

4 hours ago, Radu said:

I never understood why Jim uses that stupid voice - he sounds like he has a normal, warm and intelligent voice buried under layers of condescension.