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News: 03/01/04
2004
2003 was pretty cool....2004 should be cool too. Gaming-wise, it looks hot, despite most releases seeming to innappropriately coincide with the start of spring/summer... D00M³ is top of my list, having seen the hi-res E3 video recently, I'm falling for the hype =). HL2 and Stalker of course, not so much my style but looking very cool. And to round off the FPSs, maybe Painkiller for the old skool action and possibly UT2k4 for botmatch business. Otherwise, Ground Control 2 looks class RTS-wise. And, umm, I think that's about it. In the mean time, I have the Mech games to finish, Enclave and Halo to play through, and maybe a couple more recent games to buy. Good stuff, and in a manageable amount too. Here's to gaming fun!
It appears...
...that I have 8 new game demos on my PC, an unhealthly large amount of which were recommended by that dastardly Russian. Same moany format as before =).
Breed - see last update, looks cool but very cumbersome.
Firestarter - see last update, sucks royally in all areas.
Gothic II - 3PS RPG game, quite critically acclaimed. The demo is in German so although I've had a look on my old PC (it ran slowly), I'm gonna try to get a German friend to guide me through.
Superfluous demo stuff: Dunno, there's bound to be something as it's massive.
Max Payne 2 - I finally succumbed to everyone telling me to try this. Whatdyaknow, it's pretty damn cool. Okay, so it's an interactive film rather than a normal game, but damn stylish for all that. Importantly for me, it looks consistently good (love Max's leather jacket), and the controls are very solid and smooth which is crucial and too often overlooked. All of which easily compensate for it being a real-ish game. Will probably get this.
Superfluous demo stuff: The whole intro and most of the comic book style sub-intros, too much of a spoiler. Don't need all 3 missions, just the second would have been fine. I could have lived without the immediately unappealing Dead Man Walking level too.
Nosferatu - Gothic-ish vampire-ish game. Okay graphics and a pretty dark and evile atmosphere, quite stylish. Control system is a bit arse and there's no saving in the demo, and an unskippable intro, so the whole thing is cumbersome and inconvenient and certainly didn't endear me to persisting with it to see if I'd want to buy the game. Developers - you failed. I might give it another go but so far it hasn't grabbed me.
Superfluous demo stuff: The intro. Think that's it.
Silent Storm - Turn based WW2 game. Yup I know, doesn't sound promising to be, but the Russian forced me....and the screenshots looked okay. Don't like the way this plays at all, the tutorial was enough to put me off. Really not my thing.
Superfluous demo stuff: Having two campaigns I guess.
Syberia - Sorta melancholy and mysterious adventure game. I know, I know, the Russian again. Actually looks cool, and nice style, but aside from the nature of the game not appealing, the whole thing runs in very slow motion (NOT FPS, but proper slo-mo) so it's unplayable.
Superfluous demo stuff: No idea.
Tron 2.0 - Tron FPS apparently quite popular. Didn't like it from the start, the looks don't do it for me at all, and all the faux-computer options not only don't appeal but actually put me off.
Superfluous demo stuff: No idea.
Overall verdict: Quite a variety of games tried and most of them miss the mark totally. Ah well always worth trying. Max Payne 2 is the one - classy, looks and feels how it should, sure I'll get it. First real-ish game since, well, I guess Deus Ex was the closest. Good to have something in that style that appeals. Talking of which, I should try the DX2 demo soon....I don't have high hopes.
I like demos =).
Shambler
News: 13/12/03
Bwahaha!!
So. After a couple of years abscence, I post one solitary post on the increasingly flaccid Shacknews, and:
Not bad for a two word post! Most amusing indeed, particularly since getting a temporary ban is meant to be quite unlikely for a first offence. I'd like to think it was a genuine over-reaction, but more likely it's either someone who's biased or has a quota to fill. Oh, and the offending message??
#22 By: GSC Atem
While compiling the demo we made a mistake and now prepare a patch to improve the performance and fix some of the issues existing. The patch should be available tomorrow. Please, keep an eye on www.firestarter-game.com for details. And sorry for the inconvenience.
FireStarter team
#23 By: Shambler
#22, "While compiling the demo we made a mistake"
No shit...
Okay, a little facetious =). But not, I feel, unfair, given how much arse the Firestarter demo sucked (quite a lot, incidentally).
Anyway, back in the virtual world...
Gaming interest seems to have picked up a bit. Aside from the spectacularly poor Firestarter demo, there was the new Breed demo - looks pretty good, interestingly "full" missions to perform, but tediously complex, bad controls/feel, lots of glitches, and no real idea what the fuck was supposed to be going on. Ho hum. It might get there who knows. Then there's Painkiller videos, a game I'm uncertain about due to threats of horde combat, but of the videos, there's a terrible boss one, a mediocre graveyard one, and a very cool medieval town one, full of burning debris, dark atmosphere and impressive physics. So maybe it could be cool. And more... A new Games Workshop 40k RTS was announced, in development by Relic, who did Homeworld right? (and Impossible Creatures? which was polished if uninvolving). So they might have a clue how to make a proper, good quality game which will be a fucking first for a GW-based game and about bloody time too! Fingers and other appendages crossed. Finally...
Ground Control 2 coop - any volunteers??
Trying to get bookings in early =). In a recent GC2 preview (also confirmed in another preview):
And remember this one thing. Ground Control 2 will have cooperative play through the entire campaign. That makes for happiness around the world.
Sweet! If that works out, it could solve my worries about the possible difficulty of GC2, and give an inspiring coop game to play. Anyone from the scene interested in joining me?? Email teamshambler [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
But of course I've just been playing...
...mech games. Which are going pretty well thank you. Part way through both MC2 and MW4, alternating playing them. Both well recommended so far, go try out the demos or something. The latter is more interesting for me at the moment - Mech vs. Mech combat is significantly more hectic in the SP missions than in the tougher IA options, which surprised me and I had some worrying moments thinking "This is going to be fucking frustrating - long missions, no quicksave, and desperate combat". But actually it's working out okay, although most missions require a couple of attempts to learn the best plan of attack, which spoils the immersion a bit (as discussed somewhere in this thread). Customising Mech loadouts is also crucial but definitely fun. So far, so good.
Shambler
News: 03/12/03
This week I have mostly been playing...
MechWarrior 4 and MechCommander 2. Which is hardly taking advantage of my new PC given I had them installed and running fine on my old one and had indeed played and enjoyed half of the latter game. Nevertheless I had this rather nice plan to play both games concurrently to get two different perspectives on the same Mech universe, which is exactly what I'm doing. Well, almost: Under the guise of "getting used to the controls in MW4" (which, damn, I needed to do!), I've mostly been playing Instant Action (i.e. botmatch) practise in that game rather than actually progressing much with either game. And damn well enjoying that practise too - the different and more tactical fighting style, the longer, more challenging fights, and the sense of power and destruction are a refreshing change. And of course a few 5 minute practise matches are ideal to jump in and out of in between bouts of sheep chasing etc. MW4 has replaced UT2K3 demo and Quake as my "dabbling" game of choice, and as a bonus should benefit my enjoyment of the game itself somewhat. Thus I am enjoying my first forays into the Mech game world (the actual storyline world itself is tedious poncy twaddle....the Mech fighting obviously isn't =)), something I felt I had to try. So far, so good.
And that's it really...
I have noticed incidentally, that there is very little interesting gaming news going around recently (although the somewhat covert flow of Doom3 screenshots continue to excite me). DX2 is losing interesting, and aside from the oft-delayed big FPS titles, not many exciting games are appearing - checking the gaming news sites is currently a "dry" experience. Still, I've got plenty to play for the time being =).
Shambler
News: 25/11/03
Unreal 2.
I finished U2. Of course I'd heard a lot of warnings - and whinings - about the game, so I was prepared and didn't expect anything as glorious as a true sequel to the awesome Unreal by the guys who made the excellent Wheel Of Time (which is, of course, what it *should* have been). I was just after a bit of good looking FPS fun, and that's what I got. No more than that, mind.
Well, it took me 6 evenings, so I guess about 15 hours playing, which is okay, although I would have liked for it to be longer, because the story and gameplay potential were getting interesting at the end (and end which I did like). As with most FPS games, most of the gameplay was fun, some was okay, some was frustrating. Graphics were generally good, with some stunning scenes, but also a few inconsistencies, it sometimes felt like an impressively h4x0red UT engine rather than a coherent new engine. I did like some of the little touchs, such as the ship, which I think irritated some people but not me - the sea-goat, mission briefings, the cabins. Some of the "different" missions were pretty cool too, although a bit "spoon fed" sometimes. However the general shallowness of the game meant it was "just another reasonable FPS", instead of genuinely inspiring like quite a few of them have been (for example, the two I played previously, Giants and AVP2 both had *plenty* of character). Strictly a B- list title, not A++ like it should have been.
The main issue is that it could have been obviously improved in many areas. There were several aspects that were so obviously inconsistent, lacking, or lower quality, which makes me wonder *what* was going on at the design studios. Some politics I expect. Anyway, some things I'd have improved:
• Integrate the story/dialogue fully with the game itself. A lot of the dialogue was very blatantly tacked on in a failed attempt to add depth, and the story was mostly a superficial excuse to visit a lot of different worlds. Unfortunately this would be a ground-up improvement...so really it should have been a better game to start with.
• Make the game more coherent overall by fixing various inconsistencies and non-sequitors such as: Snow falling from a clear sky, a ship that has different proportions outside to inside, why the first artifact gets on the ship rather than stays with the marines, some things where characters know stuff they haven't been told yet.
• Fix some graphics bugs: Shadows coming through walls and appearing a long distance from models, weapons not lighting up dark areas, inconsistently done water, some models not lit from the right direction, reflective surfaces that don't reflect. Oh and retexture some of the shoddier monsters.
• Rewrite and revoice all of Dalton's lines. The other characters, although generic and cliched, at least have some "feel" and spark to their interactions. Dalton's were almost entirely childlike questions delivered in a moronic monotone, completely unlike feasible human communication. This would have helped the cutscenes a lot.
• Extend the endgame - explore and tie up several of the loose ends and have some more interesting gameplay with recently revealed weapons and monsters. Events in the final levels showed a lot more potential than most of the game.
• Increase the running speed by at least 50%. I think this is the slowest running game I've played aside from Deus Ex and that one simple aspect certainly detracts from the feel and enjoyment of the combat.
And a few other minor tweaks. So, yeah, a pity, not nearly what it should have been. Ah well, next game...
And:
On a similar note, engine-wise: I also installed the UT2K3 demo, mostly to get used to playing with an optical mouse (which has very screwy movement in Quake, but not anything else). Actually, it's not bad in a demo form, though I'd have liked another DM map instead of 2 CTF ones. Bombing Run is kinda cool too, although I'm not a ball sports fan, it's suitable frenetic. Playing on 50% speed (i.e. same running speed as U2!) is also entertaining, some 1337 slo-mo kills etc. Maybe I'll take an interest in 2K4 then, I remember these botmatch thingies are fun for a quick blast. On the other hand, I've been reading the ranting about the Deus Ex 2 demo, which has been quite enlightening, people have genuine complaints for a change, and confirm the infuriating dumbing-down-for-console issues that were highlighted in previews/interviews. I haven't tried it yet, but like U2 this is showing potential to be another "game that couldn't be less than excellent given it's heritage yet somehow was buggered right up"... It does make one wonder.
And finally, when one needs a balanced and fair view on the Quake custom engine scene...
<Shambler> terrible low quality anti-quake shite with a bunch of fawning sycophants sucking the dick of the latest retard to butcher some classic map
Shambler
News: 15/11/03
Testing...
Well. It would appear that my new PC has finally arrived and somewhat amazingly it's set up in some approximation of working order. I've managed to transfer my broadband connection, and transfer a lot of files from my old PC by putting them on the old second HDD and plugging it into this one, which actually worked very easily - I'm always amazed when something goes that smoothly with changing computer stuff!! I've also installed Halo, MC2, MW4 and Unreal2. Oh and Quake, why the hell not eh. All seem to be working okay and the whole set-up is pretty cool. Will start gaming soon!!
I've got a few residual problems, naturally: Quake has a flickery effect when I turn around too quickly. In Windows I've had some problems with graphical corruption, which initially happened when I had the case open to use the old HDD, it then reverted back to normal aside from the desktop icons, eventually they reverted to normal, but I've had one glitchy screen since then which is somewhat terrifying when it happened. And finally, the computer doesn't always shut down when instructed (a problem with my old PC too). Actually, if anyone has any ideas about those issues, please email me at teamshambler [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk, and I'll be grateful.
Shambler
News: 10/11/03
>:(
Still waiting for bolloxing new computer. Typical that I order it in a moment of gaming inspiration and then discover it takes 2 weeks to prepare. At the price I'm paying I'd have though the PCs should be bloody well ready to go. Now I'm going away for a couple of days and I will bet my penis they try to deliver it then, despite me emailing to the contrary. Or maybe I'll be in luck and get it sometime this week....now it is dark nights and cold damp weather, ideal for gameplaying and hiding indoors, ignoring the outside world and killing monsters in dramatic enviroments. Hence the need for the new PC!
Well, after a long break I tried B&W again. Spend 5 minutes on the 4th island, thought "fuck this, no way can I be bothered", and spend 5 hours playing a skirmish map. Which was pretty cool and allowed me to indulge in what is fun in the game: Building aesthetically pleasing villages, satisfying healthy meglomaniac urges, and watching my cow dancing around. Oh, I did manage to complete the skirmish map, unfortunately by rather evil actions, but that's beside the point really. Playing around in the game is a lot more fun than playing the game. Thusly I'm not going to try to progress any further but might tinker around in the odd skirmish.
Well, next time I update it *might* be through a machine that's 5 times faster than this one. Or alternatively it might be through a friend's machine, to say that I've buggered up setting it up and won't be online again!
Shambler
News: 04/01/03
>:(
Ordered a new computer and still waiting for it to arrive. Piss off.
Shambler
News: 22/10/03
The problem:
The problem with RTS and RPG games is: To be able to savour the full atmosphere and character of the game, it's participants, and their interaction with the game world, you need to be zoomed in close to the characters/units you are controlling. BUT to be able to control your characters/units effectively and to be fully aware of what is happening in the gameworld, to deal with any imminent threats, you need to be zoomed out far away from those characters/units. Thus, you either sacrifice atmosphere and immersion for controllability and awareness, or vice versa. You see a lot of screenshots selling such games on the close up details and the excitingly intimate action shots, but in reality if you were playing like that, the rest of your party/army/etc would be being massacred well out of your view range. Conversely when you're in the playable view range, your characters/units could be any random "hero with sword" / "some sort of hovertank" as they all look like just stuff, from that distance.
I've found this to be a problem with, say, Dungeon Siege, Black and White, and a few other RTSs I've tried demos of. It's obviously not a problem with the mighty Battlezone II who's FPS perspective creates an excitingly high level of immersion that has probably spoilt me for most other games. Nor, much of the problem with MechCommander 2, although I've neglected it, in which the simple force of half-a-dozen Mechs and the dramatic graphics effects, provides plenty of character at any distance. However this issue is making me increasingly unhopeful of finding the RTS/RPG game I desire... For example, taking the exciting new Ground Control 2 shots - they look fantastic, but I know there's not much use admiring the highly detailed walker units nor the real time shadows (or whatever they are) when you're actually trying to play the game...
Black and White:
I've now played another 10 hours or so of B&W and have: 1. Progressed very slowly to the 4th island which is already looking fairly tedious. 2. Realised that the problem with Black & White (aside from the RTS problem above) is that while it is a lot of fun to play around with your villages, your animal, and the vast array of things you can interact with, it is a lot less fun actually trying to progress through the game. In the 3rd island, it basically boiled down to reasonably standard RTS gameplay (resources, expansion, "attacks", rinse & repeat), which although clad in very pretty clothes, which played out extremely slowly and quite repetitively. Of course, I like RTS games in principle, so don't object to this gameplay except that I feel the whole "God" aspect is merely a clever disguise for it, but when it proves so time consuming, it makes the whole thing somewhat of a grind. Nevertheless, I will see how the 4th island progresses, and if it doesn't progress, I may stick with a few more relaxed skirmish games before uninstalling.
Shambler
News: 09/10/03
Well yes...
Managed to get re-acquainted with Black & White's control system, God it's a complex game (in a good way). Practised with a bit of skirmish which was fun, then jumped back in the single player game. No idea where I was or what I was supposed to be going (yeah - what's new?!) and the next minute my cow's getting lured into some vortex and eventually somehow I follow it and move onto the next world where I'm starting from scratch again. Ho hum. So I haven't been playing much more of that!! Will do though, but...
...sometimes you just need some simple ACTION
Which I've unfortunately played out. All this RPGRTSCOWSIM stuff is great but sometimes you just need mindless slaughter. It's what gaming is all about, after all. I think I need to upgrade... In addition to U2 which yes I will play, I've noticed that the following are all out(ish), and I've been checking some reviews...
Enclave - mixed reviews but the consensus seems to be it's pretty good for a simple hack-em-up and looks quite nice too. Might even run on this ol' PC too...
Halo PC - about fucking time yadda yadda blah. Universally very positive reviews and having been impressed seeing a bit of the XBox version, this should do the job. Upgrade mandatory, apparently even high-spec systems beg for mercy!
Fire Warrior - seems to be sliding by unnoticed except for a few diehard 40k fans whose judgement on gaming I don't entirely trust... Luckily help is on hand from Vondur:
- Shambler, seen the full version. Sucks polarbear bollox. Ignore it.
- Poor design, childish models and weapons, blurry textures, weak...eh, fek just ignore it.
- Or try the demo at least to vomit a bit.
Okay then...!!...Unfortunatey there is no demo. But it doesn't look very impressive in the shots at all. So maybe not then. Still there are a few contenders around, which is nice given the increasingly distant D3 and HL2 releases.
But of course.
Quake has been the grand uberlord of pure action. And I have been mightly impressed by the recent Q1 SP releases, Vondur's "Nastrond" (esp. the excellent gameplay) and Glassman's "GMSP3" (esp. the excellent design) in particular. Really came at the right time when I was looking for something to play. And very enjoyable. Perhaps Quake isn't dead after all. I must confess I felt a faint nostalgia for TSQLR with those two, and this time for the appropriate reason of wanting to promote such quality rather than the spurious reason of wanting to be a part of the scene. Ah well I have more sense now though =).
Shambler
News: 27/09/03
And the rest...
Worked my way through the remaining 3 demos I'd downloaded recently and can thus rant on about them indiscriminately (as before, info at: ToTheGame and demos at: AVault). Actually as a "bonus" I also tried the Return Of The King demo (because the shots looked kinda cool). Errrr....utterly ridiculous, an appalling excuse for a non-demo, to the point of (almost) being amusing. Apparently 3rd person....but with a fixed camera position in one entire useless perspective, and completely uncontrollable by any conventional method. I've heard rumours you need a gamepad or some other deviant device. Fuck that. Proper 3rd person games have been around since Heretic (?), so fuck knows what this piece of complete shite is about. And thus onto some real game demos, RTS and RPGs this time...
Sigma (otherwise lamely known as "Impossible Creatures") - the RTS game where you mix and match animals to create your units. Interesting idea that is quite uninvolving in actuality, not least because really all you are doing is tinkering with strength vs speed, range vs health etc etc. And given you need to play well zoomed out to know what's going on, any character the hybrids might have is lost. Vaguely entertaining theme (and decent graphics), vaguely good concept, vaguely boring to play.
Superfluous demo stuff: Entire single player campaign section (including two big maps, various missions, and lots of intro cine stuff) really. Firstly two Skirmish maps are plenty enough, secondly the SP part is a total spoiler for the game itself.
Dungeon Siege - First tentative step into these pointy clicky RPGy things. Decent looking game with proper medieval setting. Well executed and nicely very intuitive to control. Nevertheless it also ends up being somewhat uninvolving - the combat is quite repetitive and again the most useful zoomed out perspective reduces the involvement. However all the stat increasing and building up your party is satisfying in that somewhat gleeful hand-rubbing way. Also whilst the graphics are well done, the landscaping is quite artificial... Not sure about this one, I found it a bit purposeless but at the same time reasonable fun and comfortable.
Superfluous demo stuff: At least 1/2 of the areas, a very long demo and most of it wasn't needed to give a good taste.
Neverwinter Nights - Second tentative step into these pointy clicky RPGy things. Decent looking game with well I have no idea what setting as I've been stuck in a bunch of homogenous hallways and repetitve rooms the whole time. Hmmm yeah the demo is basically one big tutorial and thus is somewhat tedious and hardly shows what the game might be capable of. But from what I've seen it looks at once vastly more complex than DS yet somehow less in control. Nice lighting though.
Superfluous demo stuff: Most of the vast array of character classes and options. Just a few would have been plenty. But to be honest this demo needed to be quite a different section of the game entirely.
So. Some good demos (although as I predicted mostly bloated with superfluous download-inhibiting megabytes that aren't required to give you a good taste of the game). Nothing outstanding, but Enclave is reliably good in a simple way, Zanzarah is interesting, and Dungeon Siege is fairly fun. Not sure which of these I'll get. Upgrading and having more choice seems to be the best option. But in the meantime, I think I might go back to Black and White again, and see if I can finish that - it's been a long time since I started playing it but I fancy another go and dled the patch so hopefully things will run smoother this time.
Oh yeah, gotta try the Gothic II demo as well....German only but might be worth a look...
News: 20/09/03
The joys of broadband
Downloaded 6 game demos totalling about 1.18 gig during a couple of days recently. More than I'd have downloaded over a couple of months previously!! Most of these demos are far too bloody large as is the trend these days - usually due to including far more superfluous stuff than is needed to get a taster of the game. Anyway, they were: Darkened Skye, Dungeon Siege, Enclave, Neverwinter Nights, Sigma (aka Impossible Creatures which I refuse to call it as that name blatantly sucks), and Zanzarah. For all of which you can find information at: ToTheGame and demos at: AVault. I played through the simpler 3PS demos first and can report as follows:
Darkened Skye - Game based on Skittles adverts. Despite reasonable early shots, I should have known better and I have been adequately punished by wasting 5 minutes of my life trying this shit. Daikatana-era graphics, terrible gameplay with no AI whatsoever, an awful Oriental map consisting of small box rooms, a general atmosphere of total cheese, and to add injury to insult, ridiculous choppiness despite looking like a 1998 game. NEXT!
Superfluous demo stuff: Everything.
Enclave - The 3PS medieval action game people were raving about. Pretty cool. Nice lighting and atmosphere - the first map reminded me of RTCW's ruined castle mixed with Blade which is obviously a good thing. Second was kinda cool too and I love the Assassin's phat outfit. Good solid controls too, but gameplay was a bit weak, as the Knight seems to have little sense to his attacks, and the Assassin was so easy the gameplay was almost missing (okay I was playing on Easy but even so...). Any views on this please answer my post here (thx warth but would like some more opinions).
Superfluous demo stuff: Arguably the second map although playing from light/dark perspectives is obviously a significant feature. Definitely the bloated company cinematics, static logos would be fine for a demo THANKS. Hell, for a game too.
Zanzarah - An interesting one... A very, very cute game based around the adventures of a young girl in a land of elves and fairies (yeah, I know....bear with me on this =)). Sorta vaguely open-ended explorathon combined with RPG-ish thing via collecting and battling with fairies (I've seen it likened to Pokemon which of course I'd know nothing about). So you wander around, talk to elves and stuff, collect things, go on little quests, and have a bunch of fairies with you who do battle for you in somewhat bizarre Rocket Arena style floater maps whenever you're interfered with by other fairies. Makes perfect sense yes??
Anyway, it's got pretty good reviews, and that I spent about 3 times as long on this as the other 2 demos put together indicates something. It looks pretty nice. The combat mechanism, although strangely simple (RA, as I say) is quite addictive, as is the limited tinkering you can do with your fairies. Plus there's plenty of exploration and the cute atmosphere is refreshing. On the downside, some textures are crappy, it's looks could be a fair bit sharper, and the elves and other creatures are the most annoyingly TWEE little snotfaces I've seen in a game. And you can't attack them =(. Nevertheless, an interesting one...
Superfluous demo stuff: Far too many maps especially since most have useless (in the demo) quests. 1/2 the maps and NPCs were all that was needed.
Will be slowly working my way through the rest next...
News: 18/09/03
Gianted...
Finished Giants. Well done Shambler. The Kabuto section went pretty smooth, although quite repetitive and controlling your offspring was entirely useless. On the other hand stomping around furiously, jumping on buildings, smashing up anything in sight, and (my favourite) picking up Reapermen and hurling them into orbit or at each other, was most entertaining. Quite a change. Unfortunately the somewhat cheesy last level and weak finale was disappointing. Given then prevalence of cutscenes, humour and general fun, the game really needed a livelier finale to do it justice. Nevertheless, cool game overall for the reasons already mentioned.
Interestingly, concurrently with my func_qmap.net thread that people actually replied to, Giants was really quite easy in the end. I died once during Delphi's section, b0rked a mission twice, and died twice during Kabuto's section in one obvious place. Otherwise the freedom to go pretty much where you choose, and the effectively unlimited health (albeit sometimes hard to obtain) made it a matter of patience rather than desperation when it got tricky. Although this didn't detract from the fun... In fact the mechanism for Kabuto - gaining health from snatching and eating Reapermen - is a good example of a reward-for-risk set-up that nicely encourages combat. I like that sort of thing, gives more of a purpose to fighting - same with Blade where you went up levels by killing enemy thus making it very useful to fight everything.
What next??
Choice of struggling with Black And White (more pretty islands with giant things wondering around, hmmm), finishing Mechcommander2 (maybe), or restarting MC2 and playing it simultaneously with MechWarrior4 (neat idea if I do say so myself but can I be arsed). Or download a demo or two. Or get round to upgrading this ol' rustbucket and play something more modern?? Choices, choices. Any suggestions for teamshambler [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk??
And some game thoughts:
Saw the recent hi-res Kreed trailer (go search news sites or Doupe.cz or something). Not impressed. The guns, water, some effects, some of the settings and some of the aliens look cool. But there's a lot of suckage issues: Annoying headbob, distracting lens flare and blood flashes when hit (decent idea in principle but will be frustrating), no damage on enemy from hitting them with shotgun, no decal effects from meteors or explosions, no indication of any enemy AI... Not good in 2003 really. The Vondur has already warned us off this game and he is probably right. So instead of that on my looking-forward-to-list I shall tentatively replace it with:
Fire Warrior - Games Workshop FPS game, playing a Tau. Looks seriously last generation BUT maybe the GW theme might just compensate??
That's all for now... SHAMBLER SHAMBLER SHAMBLE BOX ROOM SHAMBLER CRATE ETC =)
News: 10/09/03
Well, what do ya know.
I managed to play the "Delphi" section of Giants pretty quickly recently. Finally got back to it after too much dicking around playing Quake botmatch (which, I have found, is considerably easier with the sound ON =)) and other irrelevancies. So yeah, Giants again. Still cool, fresh, funny and fun. Although Delphi has a wide range of spells and bows, I found the best tactic was heavy use of the 1337 Turbo mode combined with frantic sword attacks - very satisfying rocketing down from a hill right into the middle of a group of Reapermen and shredding them all. Next: Kabuto himself.
Waddy, you suck...
...and I'm still not playing MW4 and it's all your fault. Ummm yeah that do, Gwog?? =)
Another game for the list:
Ground Control 2 - Maybe the inspiring RTS I'm waiting for? Looks superb but will it be as eye-bleedingly hard??
(For the record, I couldn't even get through the Ground Control (one of the best lookers of it's era) DEMO on Easy, fuck me. Either I suck or I'm missing something or it's well hard. But maybe GC2 will have better difficulty or I will have better skillz because when it looks like this I would sure like to give it a try.)
P.S.
<scampie> verybannedcat now
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