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Archived old news - January - February 2001:
News: 16/02/01
Pirst fost!
At last Shambler achieves his life-long net-ambition of getting a Shack first post. And it was on topic, AND it was taking the piss out of Tribes 2 screenshots. What more can one ask for?? This makes up for the two first posts I threw away previously, one where I just ignored it (this was before they were so.....ummm...."prestigious", LOL =)), and one where I b0rked up the message and password and everything. Truly petty?? Yes, I like to think so.
Need help:
I need to know how to have Flash permanently disabled on my system, without IE giving me any pop-up warnings. Here's the deal: I've deleted *everything* to do with Flash or Macromedia, including any registery settings. I've set all the ActiveX controls in IE's security settings to "Disable". Now, Flash won't display, but IE gives me a "Your security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page. As a result, the page may not display correctly." warning. I'd like to know how to keep Flash disabled but not have to see that warning each time - I managed to get that set-up before, but I forgot how, and I've tried playing with the security settings but to no avail. If anyone can email me with how to get rid of one of the most annoying problems with web design, I will be grateful.
No R00n for you!
I checked the Rune DM/Coop map that might have been suitable for single player, nope it's just a DM conversion of the village map at the start of Rune, with a few monsters thrown in if you fanny around with .ini file settings. I also had a good search around the Rune sites and Google for any single player maps, and there aren't any. Ho hum.
Deus Ex...
After completing the demo (which has a ridiculously large amount of gameplay) twice, and being rather pleased with the sneaky-sneaky style, I bought Deus Ex, it's certainly what I feel like playing at the moment. Of course I'm now playing the same damn missions I've just completed in the demo, ho hum. Good practice though: I completed the first Liberty Isle mission last night with a total of just 6 unconcious NSF and no fatalities. That includes 1 via the prod in the small underground side area, 3 via the prod who were guarding Gunther, and 2 via a gas grenade/crossbow trap who were just below the boss. I quite happy with that! You could get it to 5 without the side area, and probably 4 by avoiding one Gunther's guards. Gunther himself, however, had a bit of a strop and killed the two NSF in the foyer, but hey I'm not responsible for his actions :P.
Deep Fighter...
Along with Deus Ex, I also bought Giants, but before thinking about that, I finally got round to playing Deep Fighter - an underwater action game, I reviewed the demo here - and progressed pretty quickly to about 1/3 the way through. It was quite fun and pleasant in a simple, cartoony way, until playing some hideously complex and intensely boring mission (all without any save function), which when I finally completed it after 2 hours effort, the game crashed. I *may* return to this when the disgust has worn off, or I *may* simply uninstall it, tear the CD apart, and send the pieces to the developers.
Twats emailing me about UT DM maps??
Yeah I ranted about this before but for fuck's sake it's gone beyond a joke. I swear there must be some fucking conspiracy - I reckon some fuckwit who emailed me asking "How do I get Ghey-Redeemer-Only-Fagg0t-Mod (Beta0.0001) working" and got in a girly strop when I told him "Look you retard, I only deal single player and that's fucking obvious from all my reviews" is trolling around PU forums with "Hey email Shambler for UT DM/Mods tech support huh huh" as his signature. When I get 3 emails asking me about DM maps in 3 days, there must be something going on. And that's not even mentioning the CUNT who emailed me a 1 meg Twatish-Real-Life-CS-Clone-WankMod map to review....oh boy did he get a "charming" reply. At the moment I am emailing these knobholes trying to find out where the fuck they got my address and why the fuck they are emailing me....I don't expect much luck. *Sigh*.
News: 09/02/01
Blah.
A somewhat uninteresting "tiding over" update.
Quake.
Fuckloads of good single player maps =). As always get them and the latest news at TEAMShambler Quake Level Reviews. 'Nuff said.
Daikatana.
For PlanetDaikatana, I finished my "You're not supposed to be here!" guides to all the best trick jump spots in Daikatana, concluding somewhat logically with Episode 3 and thence Episode 4, and celebrating their completion with this 1337 Metamaser jump demo.
Unreal and UT.
Nali City still haven't posted an Unreal SP review I emailed in 2 weeks ago, I'd have thought it was fairly simple to upload a review and 2 small jpgs, and add 2 review links, but obviously not. On the subject, HellScrag has released a new UT SP unit, Tashara's Cove (4.9 meg) at his S2S site. It's a quite nice, well made, if often very simple, unit, and worth playing if you've run out of Unreal/UT SP after playing all these. Hopefully since UT SP reviews go via NC's database, I might get a review done soon.
Other games.
I've progressed a bit with Rune (are those uber-skeletons fucking hideously dangerous or what??), thus a step closer to checking out the couple of coop maps around. There may be a glimmer of hope for Elite Force as a "renowned mapper" has started work on a large unit inspired by EF's scripting system, and assurances can be made that it won't be a poxy newbie recreation of some Star Trek ship... FAKK2 is dead for mapping or indeed anything, I will probably officially declare it dead soon :P. A pity as the game is excellent but if there's little community or user contributions what can you do?? A few people are talking about Gunman levels but only a few DM levels have been made. The couple of episodes in the works for Wheel of Time are staying firmly in the works, can you say "overambitiousware"?? So "blah" basically, plenty of good games, no-one mapping for them. For my own playing, I haven't even started DS9: The Fallen nor Deep Fighter nor played any more Descent 3, let alone installing Alice - building quite a backlog there =/. I did play a bit more Deus Ex demo, I'm undecided about it, as the way the game works just seems very strange sometimes...
Giants demo.
Hey now this was cool. Always liked the cheerful exotic look of this game, but rumours of bugs and lack of save games meant I just *had* to try the 103 meg demo (download links at PlanetMoonCentral). And it's rather sweem - cheerful and exotic indeed. The terrain isn't as polished as Battlezone2, but you can see *miles* without any fogging, and there's some nice effects too (water, sun). Gameplay is pretty nifty too, a mixture of stealth and all-out fighting with plenty of humour thrown in, though it gets a bit choppy in hectic combats. One thing that stands out is the sound, something I don't often notice, but it's great in this: dramatic orchestral music in combats, thundering explosions when the giant wormlike "Rippers" appear, and reassuringly English accents of the characters... ..."Bloody hell" and all that =). Most important of course, the control system is easy to set up in any config, also, the lack of saves isn't much of a problem as the auto-saved sub-missions don't take long. There are rumours of a re-released Giants addition with all the "rushed out by greedy publishers" bugs fixed, so I'll hang on to see if that's true.
Back to the old skool.
From an argument about oversized weapons...
<Shambler> serious sam RL is a good size
<Killes> no thats not good
<Killes> fucking enormous is just annoying and dum
<zippie> like bfg 9k style size!
<Killes> thats ok cos its a special wepon
<zippie> no its ok because its doom, you hypocritic 'little' twat :)
Ummm....you have to know Killes, whom you're certainly better off not knowing =).
News: 01/02/01
Eh...woah.
Someone (hi Waddy) has been pestering me for an update, the reason one has been lacking is that I have fuck all to update about. I've been playing plenty of Quake, Daikatana and Battlezone 2 and I have sites elsewhere for those. Thusly, nothing to write about except one thing that might be interesting...
Addons.net??
Relating to my single player reviews at Nali City (there should be a new one posted soon), I received this email (07/01/01):
Hello Shambler, I am writing to you on behalf of a brand new gaming site currently in development, Addons.net. I realize that you currently hold a job writing reviews for Nali City, but am still inviting you to join this new site's staff.
Addons.net is planned, when opened, to be the #1 source on the net for your Addons needs. By addons, I mean MODs, TCs, Levels, and other addons as well, for as many popular games as we can find. If you look around the net you will find that Addons are just as popular now as any retail game sold in stores. One thing the Addons community lacks though is a solid coverage site for them. The retail games community has numerous sites thousands of people visit daily to find reviews, previews, features, and news of their favorite games. Addons.net will provide this to MOD, Custom Level, etc... players, for as many 'popular' games out on the market.
We are in need of editorial staff though to get the site going. You've shown great talent in reviewing Single Player Maps for Nali City. We are looking for an editor, or maybe a couple of editors if needed, to cover one game. If you were to consider this offer, you could select any game you have interest in and begin work.
This job of course isn't 'professional'. So you work as you wish, just like you would at any other normal gaming internet site. Yes, you will get paid on a content basis (for every article you write, you get paid). If your at all interested, get back to me immediately!
Thanks,
James 'Surge' Locatis
Webmaster-Addons.net
Interesting, but leaving a lot of unanswered questions, thus my reply (08/01/01):
Hi Surge,
Interesting email. While I always like to get the best possible promotion for custom maps, there are some issues that concern me:
1. Maps get fairly good promotion anyway. While the most visited gaming sites (Blues, ShugaShack, Gamers.com) don't mention them, all the Planet sites and Telefragged mention maps and reviews for the appropriate game. It would be nice for maps to get the highest level promotion, but what do resources do you have to ensure Addons.net will be able to get the same sort of popularity within the gaming community as Blues or the Shack?? It's a good idea to provide a huge site to give maps coverage, but how do you ensure that site itself gets coverage??
2. Your email doesn't indicate the nature of the site nor what games it will cover. Are you intending to be a news site?? Or a news and reviews site?? Or a general hosting site for mappers, reviewers, modders etc?? Have you considered just how many maps and modifications are around?? There are many thousands for just Quake, let alone any of the other games. Then there are hundreds of mapper sites and dozens of review sites - how would Addons.net relate to them??
3. Myself, I review single player maps for Quake, Unreal, and Battlezone2, all for their respective Planet sites. The reviews are already there, waiting for people to use them, and I'm averse to rewriting them for another site. Since Planet sites frown upon "mirroring" site content, I'm not able to copy'n'paste them or let other sites use the reviews. Neither rewriting 250 (total) detailed reviews nor moving all my reviews from Planet sites to Addons.net has much appeal to me.
4. You mention payment - I, and all the mappers, modders, and reviewers online do this for free, so it's not much of an issue. Throwing money into this community seems problematic - for example, why should I get paid for a spending a couple of hours writing a review, compared to a mapper who spent dozens of hours making a map?? If you pay me, say, £5 for a review, shouldn't you then pay the mapper £50?? And where is this money coming from?? Other sites get revenue from banner ads, but still not nearly enough to pay any of their hosted sites.
Cheers,
Shambler,
Since Addons.net was "to be the #1 source on the net for your Addons needs", I'd have expected a prompt reply addressing all my concerns. But, no, not the slightest hint of an answer. Following a reminder sent on 24/01/01, still nothing. Where am I going with this?? Well, several points of note: Firstly the idea itself (unless it's an unusual hoax) and the issues I raised in reply are both interesting. Secondly, the lack of any reply shows that my somewhat cynical attitude is probably justified. Thirdly, unless there's some external excuse (Surge's dog died, he got married, he's in jail for drugs charges, etc), the inability to answer (or even acknowledge) the questions of someone you're trying to hire is a pretty miserable approach to trying to run such an ambitious site. Once again, a reminder that exciting ideas must be grounded in reality and approached with a determined attitude to have any chance of success.
And finally...
Another classic from the Than:
* than reads the menu. "I'll have one plate of festering dog arse (medium rare) with some cat penis hair on the side. For dessert I'd like some poached hamster testicles. Also, garcon, bring me a bottle of otter urine circa 1997"
News: 17/01/01
UBB Forum Destruction For Experts, Part 1:
Courtesy of the Nali City forum, their profile slot for the poster's location, and Shambler: A complete mess. "My first frames page", someone described the effect as =). The profile slot for posters' locations has now been disabled.
Unimpressive statistics:
Recently Rust held on of their infamous "the entries are already ranked in poll order so you can see what's winning before even voting" polls, this time on what was people's favourite 2000-released game to map for. Aside from putting in two games from 1999, and missing out several genuine 2000 games, AND refusing to fix the poll when this was pointed out (Scampie, you suck), what struck me was, out of the several good or great FPS and 3PS games released in 2000, no-one bloody mapped for any of them (or just mapped a few DM maps), sticking with the same old predictable big 4: Quake, Unreal/UT, Q3A, and HL/CS (Q2 being superceded by Q3A). While one can trivially and obviously say "well those games are more popular" (aside from Quake, presumably), that is ignoring that many of the 2000 games have mapping potential and features that the big 4 lack, such as single player, 3rd person in a reliable game engine, horde combat, a variety of themes and settings, etc etc. Once again you have to wonder if mappers are so creative, why don't they try a wider variety of games where their creativity might flourish even more??
So...
I have been playing an arseload of Battlezone II and no matter how much I play or what happens, or how many limits I come across, only one conclusion is formed, like I've said since I started playing: This game is fucking awesome. Something I will keep saying, for other people's benefit, not mine.
News: 07/01/01
Boinky boinky!!
Not much going on except I've been studiously ignoring the several unplayed games I have waiting, and instead playing more Battlezone II, as well as writing several articles for PlanetDaikatana (after enjoying Episode 3 for the second time around). Yup it seems I'm doing more stuff for PDKT since I closed my hosted site down =). Firstly, correcting some misconceptions about the game in Myths and Truths, then exploring many obscure trick jump spots in You're not supposed to be here! - Episode 1 and YNSTBH! - Episode 2 (other two episodes posted next week and the week after). Say what you like about the public response to Daikatana, but the PDKT staff and myself are certainly doing our best for the community, something to be proud of.
Something I forgot:
Another game that looks very cool for (hopefully) 2001:
Ozzy's Black Skies - 3rd person dragon riding action game, complete with sweem outdoor enviroments, and yes a radar!. Not much shown yet except a few shots but looks good to me.
News: 01/01/01
Shambler's 2000 in gaming.
This year has been a very interesting one for me as far as gaming goes - because I've played an exponentially wider spectrum of games within the action game genre, and found plenty of fun in games I'd never have considered before. Reviewing maps has slowed down, and instead of being fixated with playing the hell out of just a few games (like previous years), I've mostly been playing a lot of new games.
Reviews and sites have progressed nicely for me. While there have been fewer maps to review (less for Quake SP and almost none for Unreal SP), there have still been some great maps, and the sparser releases have taken the pressure off reviewing. Even starting Battlezone II reviews added little extra work, as the combination of a fresh game and a very useful new review format makes writing them a lot easier. The only disappointment is the "less mapped games" reviews section I'ave added to this site - despite many FPS and 3PS games with mapping potential, it seems mappers have gone to extreme lengths to avoid making any SP maps for them. Improving sites has been a pleasing change for me: My two main sites have both been redesigned from the ground-up, and now all my sites focus on user-friendliness as a priority - something I'm very satisfied with as it's working extremely well. Just wait, next year will see me making pure default text sites for the ultimate in loading speed and simplicity =).
Learning to appreciate different games has been the biggest change in my gaming. Going from simple, pure FPS games like Quake and Unreal, to playing 3rd person games, strategic action games, and vehicle-base games, has opened my mind to many more excellent games than I played before. The turning points were Battlezone II, which first sucked me in with it's awe-inspiring graphics, and then showed me how interesting RTS style combat is, and FAKK2, which again I was drawn to via it's stunning looks and themes, and then found I could control 3rd person fairly well. Learning to strafe for both those games was also a necessity for other game genres (it's still not that important for FPS games :P). So while when I started gaming, I had a very narrow mind, focused on Quake and Quake II, I'm now enjoying a variety of games - definitely a good thing.
Graphics have started to impress me a lot with many games this year. I really appreciate good graphics - often a bit more than good gameplay (On that issue, why is it so fucking unfashionable to appreciate good graphics?? It seems it's perfectly okay to sacrifice graphics for the sake of gameplay, but completely uncool to tolerate weaker gameplay for the sake of graphics....well fuck that, I like good graphics and I don't give a shit what trends people expect me to conform to.). Anyway, before the start of 2000, basically the only good looking game was Unreal - a few other games looked okay but only Unreal had any "wow" about it (and, hey, it still does)....but with the end of 1999, graphics seemed to consolidate at a generally impressive level, with Unreal Tournament / UT-engined games, and Q3A-engined games, as well as impressive terrain engine games in which BZ2 still leads the way. So now gaming has got to the stage where most games recently released or in development look great - which draws me in and gets me interested immediately. I think that's made a big difference to my gaming and what games I'm will to try, too.
Games I played or started playing were as follows: Battlezone II was by far the gaming highlight of the year, an absolutely stunning, immersive, and easily controllable FPRTS game, with plenty of custom maps to keep enjoying, too. FAKK2 was another highlight, again very visually impressive with a cool and exotic theme like a breath of fresh air. Unreal Tournament provided the best DM/botmatch experience since Quake (and an ideally different counterpoint to Quake gameplay), a refined, attractive, and just plain cool game. Daikatana was plenty of fun for most (but not all) of the game - certainly enough fun for me to play and enjoy again - with a lot of inspirational settings (and map ideas!). It's pretty disgusting the way the public and gaming sites have treated Daikatana, invariably on false or heavily biased grounds. I hope one day all the people who abused the game without good reason grow the fuck up and realise there's nothing clever or virtuous about jumping on a misleading bandwagon of negativity. Elite Force was good, well structured, straight-to-the-point game with a good vibe of being in a Voyager episode. Rune brought the vibe of being in a Viking myth, another strongly themed game, though quite repetitive. KISS: Psycho Circus was also repetitive, but provided good, mindless fun with a variety of wacky monsters and good, surreal, map settings. Gunman had the wacky monsters, and some nice map settings/themes, though it's essentially Half-Life revisited. Descent3 and Deep Fighter are two games I started but wasn't inspired to progress far: The former being quite stylish and refined, nice effects, but pretty soulless and arbitrary, the latter having a cool underwater setting, but not really standing out for visuals or excitement. I haven't got round to starting Alice yet, thought the demo was very 1337 and atmospheric indeed, nor Deep Space 9: The Fallen, again another good, refined, demo that made me buy the game, nor buying Giants which looks fantastic, but I want to try a demo first as I need to see how controllable it is.
Shambler's 2001 in gaming:
Next year looks to be pretty hot for games too, with the following titles in particular catching my eye:
Blade - strongly themed and awesomely lit fantasy 3rd person hack'em up. The demo impressed me a lot, aside from the real time lighting, there is just "something" about this I really like...
Tribes 2 - assuming it makes that ever-so-difficult transition from screenshotware to an actual release, and assuming it has proper botmatch as promised....looks great, impressive terrain and from the Tribes1 demo, I know it's very controllable.
Morrowind - don't know if this is 2001 or not, but a forthcoming first person fantasy RPG, another fantastic looking game in the screenshots - if it's controllable it could be my first proper RPG.
Undying - Unreal engined so you know it's going to look good and play smoothly, Clive Barker influenced so you know it's going to have cool and eerie settings and good dose of dark fantasy.
Nomads - first/3rd person magical/industrial action/strategy game in the very cool setting of islands floating in the sky, looking inspiring and funky in the shots, hope the gameplay is as good.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Q3A engined games have proved to be universally good so far, and this seems to be no exception - nice looking settings and accomplished visuals so far.
Aquarius - FPRTS game that combines RTS strategy with first person action....will it be as awesome as BZ2?? Not a chance, but it could be a cool addition to this very underused and underrated genre.
Other games I'll be looking out for (not necessarily released next year) include: Serious Sam, Zero-G Marines, Gore, Venom, Red Faction and Atlantica. Quite a lot to look forward to, eh =). And maybe some of these forthcoming - and recent - games will get some SP maps made (where appropriate), so I can review them here (where applicable)....we shall see.
The last word on the contest:
Firstly Aardappel has declined the Q3A CD - he doesn't need a coaster as his "QW r0x0rs!" mug doesn't leak =). So the prize goes to Reese Boisse for his entry. Secondly, Xenon sent this a day late and made me laugh:
Xenon: "I would have entered this competition on time, only I was afraid of winning a copy of Q3A"
Finally, the legend himself, ZzJohnzZ, who wasn't around for the contest, had this to say when talking to TEAMShambler reporters:
ZzJohnzZ: "insult q3 and win the cd? entering that contest would be worse than entering a "screw the stank ass hooker and get aids and die" contest.
The mere thought of having another copy of q3a disgusted me so much, I counldn't enter"
And finally:
<Vigil> Anyway, I sincerely think that since #terrafusion was started, the world has been a better place
<Bal> yes
<Bal> keeps weirdos like u in front of their screen instead of molesting people in the streets
Indeed.
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