Fletch

Dear god I was skinny as hell back then (i was the one in the orange shirt). P.S. That was me driving. I'm happy that I didn't kill Mikey.

FOS game development suffers from two primary problems: 1) ego and 2) audience. When I say ego, I'm not saying it in a bad way. But the truth is developers have egos. Artists take pride in their work, and talented artists and designers are a premium, so they the good ones aren't going to just hand everything away. The lower ones will, but then you get a lower quality end result. Audience is the second problem. There simply isn't a large audience. The most plays FOS games are played less than a lot of mods. You have to go our of your way to find them or know about them. Mods have an inherent tie to a commercial game's pre-built mindshare. I'm not ragging on FOS games. They're just an extremely small niche, more popular with coders than artists and players.

And then TF2 totally cock blocks you on monday. Congrats to the team for getting it out.

We've been playing during gametime the last two days. Some things of note: 1) Once an objective gets taken, the defending team is really screwed to get into position fast enough to guard the next one. 2) 2 or 3 people working with coordination on offense can wreck the defensive team pretty easily (Mikey, myself, and another guy were able to blow the underground gate, hack the tower, and blow up the last thing without the defensive team knowing what the hell happened). 3) Those flying strogg things are pretty fun. I always play human, so I merely enjoy sniping those bastards out of the sky... speaking of which... 4) The human sniper rifle is hugely unbalanced. I had to stop playing as a sniper because people were getting pissy. Serves them right for running in a straight line. 5) It's fun, but I see it getting old fast. I'm moving to TF2 next week.

100% Texan

It's called football. We invented it. We name it. And the Pats are going to win (so says my fantasy team that relies on their receivers).

I'm getting the 8GB touch. I had a 10GB forever and never really had a problem not having the stuff I wanted to listen to (of course I manage my library on a fairly regular basis). I've still got my 40gb for massive storage

After the Shack news update, I surfed around and dug up some more about this. Basically this is what happened. It was a family computer and the dad had the admin account. Everybody else had private accounts with all the XP privacy settings turned on, meaning that if you installed software, it only installed for your user (unless you were the admin), and you can't access things installed on other user's parts of the harddrive. One kid installed Bioshock and the other wanted to play, but couldn't access. Secrumrom got fucked up because it said it was already installed on the computer (so says the registry), but the kid couldn't access it. So its partially the dad's fault for the uber-privacy setup on the computer, partially the kids fault for installing it on his account and not getting teh dad to install it on the master account, and partially securerom's fault for an obscure design defect. But because the internet is a bunch of fucked up idiots with too much free time, it's 2K's fault. Go figure. In the long run, none of this matters. The five install limit is annoying, but nobody bothered to ask why they hell somebody had installed a game more than 5 times in less than 2 days. The widescreen issue is just fucking dumb. It's the default behavior for UE3, and nobody noticed or cared about it on R6:Vegas, so that says something there. Critical people will find reasons to be critical, and the gaming "media" will continue to fuel it because they want more diggs. End of story.

Children of Men

Agreed. I was up and running within a week or two. Most of it is just figuring out the shortcuts and setup. However, I will say that if you want a really easy path to a job in the industry, learn UE3. All signs seem to be that this current tech generation is going to be extended because Sony and MS want a return on their investment, which means knowing UE3 will give you market level skills for 5 years. The level designer market is really dry right now, so anybody with any talent is going to get looked at. Anybody with talent and UE3 experience is gold.

While I agree that the copy protection stuff was bullshit, it didn't impact 99% of the market. The only people it affected were the ones who tried to install it more than 5 times within the first week. Hmmmmm. Wonder who those people are.... And the fuss made about aspect ratios was also a bunch of Kotaku/Shack bullshit from whiney ass kids who don't come out of their parents' basements. It also happens to be the default rendering behavior for Unreal 3, so it's amazing how none of them cared that it happened with R6:Vegas. Let's see if people notice when it happens with Gears PC and UT3.

People still play PC games? Seriously, get a freaking console already. It's a quarter of the cost and you get 100% compatibility.

High detail characters + low detail terrain = lose

I just ran around screaming "I'M BOYD TRAVERS, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!" a lot. It was fun for a lark, though. I can see how they're getting away with the sandbox gameplay, because the sandbox is pretty small, and you just get a starter objective based upon where you land (can't fault them, it's a solid design solution).

"Run bitches!" roflol

http://mapcore.net/forums/viewtopic.php ... b5e#166268 http://www.mapcore.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9267 for starters, not the mention the dozen or so threads and posts we've had to delete int he last month. If act like a racist, homophobic twat, you get banned. Period. Don't like it? Leave. It's not a fucking democracy.

I think that's a very good point. Even when modding, I'm up on my soapbox bitterly complaining about a free SDK. God knows what I'd be like if I was paying for it I'll be honest. UE3 crashes on me at least once a day. Some of that is our fault for stuff we've put in. Some of it is Epic's. BUT! I'm fine with it. Sure, it's annoying, but I've got autosaves and source control to backup my shit, and the ease and power of the overall workflow more than make up for the little problems. That being said, it will be interesting to see how the mod community responds to the new tools, because it's a huge jump in complexity for almost everything. It's like throwing modders into the deep end with weights tied to their ankles.

that was my first question... as was mine.

We are. Aliens, Borderlands, Hell's Highway.

Haven't seen it in motion, but I would suggest giving the lights on your lamps a lightfunction to get a bit of flicker to them. Makes a huge difference once you start putting them in.

If you look past the fact that their sales have gone steadily down over time and that they are developing Rage without a publisher...

Welcome to the Box. Let any of us know if you need anything.

Finally, we agree on something.

First off, let's have a little history lesson: Jim Jones had a cult called The Peoples Temple in a quaint little place called Jonestown. He had them all drink poisoned Kool Aid at gun point. Hence the phrase "Don't drink the Kool Aid" being introduced into popular culture in reference to not agreeing with a position just because everybody else does. Then again, I have the sneaking suspicion you're about 15, so this is probably over your head. I never disagreed with Step's comment that Garry doesn't lead a big mod team. I just thought it was fucking hilarious to come up with that position coming from Insurgency. I guess you just don't appreciate my sense of humor. My utmost fake apologies.

Well first off, I never called INS shitty in any way shape or form. I think it looks nice and has some definite room for improvement in terms of gameplay (good base is there). I took offense to them taking potshots at Garry just because he's not drinking their Kool Aid.