|
|
Archived old news - August 2000:
News: Thursday 31/08/00:
Bleh.
Yes I'm back and yes as predicted I've been thrown into a Quake single player reviewing maelstorm - lots of releases, reviews to do, no respite. Bleh indeed. I only have a couple of things I plan to ramble on about here, but they're gonna have to wait.
News: Tuesday 15/08/00:
Away for a couple of weeks:
Not much more to add to that, heh. Couple of things before I go: Here's a list of Shambler's Top Ten Gabber CDs which I had lying around for some odd reason. I guess gabber, like happy hardcore, is just about dead these days - haven't seen anything in record shops or whatever - but if you want your skull crushed by 250 BPM beats then check that list out =). And on the subject of recommendations, I say the FAKK2 demo is really rather cool despite being 3rd person. Very nice fresh look, great effects, and a generally exotic feel. And coolly bizarre monsters which always sells something to me....the control is okay so far, too. Finally, some food for thought: about how religious people relate to violence and/or evil imagery in computer games, as discussed in this thread. I actually started the thread to show off some of the cool, evil, gothic styles in Daikatana, but following some criticism from a Christian or two, I think I've raised some rather interesting questions about religious values and computer games, so go post your view.
Hum de hum...
<CZG> I've seen your spektrum site in IE Shambler, and I greatly prefer the Netscape version
<Shambler> czg: i've seen your site with the monitor off, and i greatly prefer it that way
spektrum site design has always been a bone of contention between me and the rest of the online community...
News: Sunday 13/08/00:
Soooo...
Non-FPS action games eh?? A few thoughts: Firstly although all the demos I tried had inspiring aspects, they all had problems to certain degrees: Infestation was just messy and keyboard only, Mechwarrior 3 was very complex to control and didn't allow certain binds, Tribes was multiplayer only, Heavy Gear 2 had unchangable configs that were fucked right up the arse, and Descent 3 had a few control difficulties. All of which brings me back to Battlezone II which is of course the reason I started trying other action games, which despite having to get used to the floaty feel and complex command options, I was really enjoying. I guess what I'm after is something in which the *game character* is easy to control, but the *missions and tactics* are complex. I don't want to have to struggle continuously with what I'm fighting in, but I do want to think more about the troops on my side or the enemy I face. Which BZII fits - though floaty, the vehicles have simpler controls than the average FPS character, but there's a lot to take care of with resources and troop command. Tribes 2 should also fit the bill....dunno about any other games though. Out of the ones I demoed, I will probably get Descent 3 and might give HG2 a try too.
Secondly, I am, once again, completely bemused why, as far as I know, no company has made / is making a proper single player FPS game in these huge outdoor settings that RTS and sim games do. It's like they look at the market, and think: "All big outdoor games are RTS or sim, all FPS games are indoor and close quarters, hey look there's a niche there for an outdoor FPS game....awwww, fuck it lets make a Half-Life clone!!". I can't see any problem with an outdoor FPS game - okay there are some issues like dodgy clipping (surely improvable and not much of a problem), or lack of convincing indoor sections in an outdoor game (well so what? indoor games lack convincing outdoor sections, natch). But after playing Battlezone2, which looks awesome and has inspiring worlds to fight in, and the Tribes demo which has a perfectly good feel and control for FPS action, it seems quite clear there is both potential and a missing FPS subgenre here - a subgenre that I would certainly want to play.
Update: Actually I seem to vaguely remember some "war" themed outdoor FPS I saw ye olde SCRAD playing. Can't remember what it was though. At any rate, I'm talking more about sci-fi / fantasy outdoor FPS, as the outdoor games I tried were all sci-fi.
BTW, these updates last week were only like my subjective views based from a pig-ignorant FPS gamer's perspective =), not supposed to balanced or fair reviews. Just so you know.
And now...
Despite my complete contempt for any games company who is so inconsiderate and fuckwitted that they release a game demo over 50 meg (hello it's a fucking demo not a mission pack, just one or two levels to see what it feels like will be fine thank you, yes you can leave out all the superfluous crap so we can actually download it before your next game is released), I got the FAKK2 demo. I pretended it was two 37 meg downloads :P. Besides I kinda had to check it out as I've always thought it looked cool, fresh, and pleasingly weird, and always thought that being 3rd person I would rather bogflush myself repeatedly than actually play it. So far from what little I've seen, it does indeed look cool, fresh, and pleasingly weird...and the 3rd person?? I don't like it, I mean it's almost playable but it's so cumbersome, I feel like a total clumsy twat trying to move around, and it's about as immersive as playing the game with the monitor off. I have tried the first person mode [type "showmenu phooks" at the console and decheck the third person box], which feels a bit like the Thief2 or SS2 demo, i.e. pretty sluggish and cumbersome too. Ho HUM. I dunno I will have to play some more. Looks real nice tho...
Help - wanna find this rap track:
Odd request this, but it's a really cool track I'm trying to find. If you're British, Westw0o0o0o0o0o0od was playing it as the backing music to some of his random unintelligible gangsta-sp33k gibberish at about 11:30 this Friday night. The track is kinda House of Pain style bounciness meets gangsta rap, and it *might* be by Busta Rhymes and it *might* be called "Livewire" or something similar. But really I don't have a fucking clue, so if you do have a fucking clue send an email this way please.
News: Friday 11/08/00:
Descent 3 demo:
Fuck tactics and complexity, back to action =). The only slight catch being that Descent3 action happens in all 3 dimensions....or is it 4?? Or 5 even?? Whatever, this has unlimited freedom of movement - a bit more freedom than old Shambler can handle, but it's not too bad. It's quite fun being able to roll the, err, ship upside down or indeed at any strange or jaunty angle and play that way - fun forcing your mind to accept the ground above you as normality in the outside sections =). It's rather tricky to control having to have both movement and rotation controls for all dimensions but thankfully the actual feel is pretty good. There's only really one problem with the demo, the mouse options - either "sim style", with mouse inverted but very slow sensitivity - OR "fps style" with fast sensitivity but no mouse inversion options. But I need to play with mouse inverted, and reasonable sensitivity, which the demo doesn't allow. Again, I just wonder why the FUCK the developers don't include all options - why deliberately alienate some players??
Anyway, it's certainly playable, there are no other problems (aside from getting used to all the degrees of movement), I just have to move my hand pretty bloody hard. If anyone knows any fixes to increase mouse speed, give me a shout - I tried the speed in Windows but that didn't work. The rest of the demo - well I've actually played it through 3½ times, a good sign for sure!! Aside the mouse issue it's by far the most polished demo I've tried - it feels like a finished product demonstration. Looks very nice too (aside from a bit of obligatory weirdness on the outdoor terrain). Good, solid, indestructible look to the scenery, lots of angles and curves, and some nice refined textures that remind me of UT. The effects are great and flashy, especially the explosions that flash and shake the screen with sweem fireballs. The enemy fighters look a bit crap, somewhat vague and small, though they fight fairly well. Combat is pretty fun - more fun outdoors - though the main challenge comes from the control as you get a LOT of supplies. I like the cool sentry thing that fires this "disorientator cannon" that makes the screen strobe and wobble frantically, that's pretty funny =). A radar would have been nice as it's sometimes hard to keep track of the enemy. I enjoyed this and thus it's highly likely I will get the game.
Download the Descent3 demo2 (36.3 meg), visit PlanetDescent.
Okay...
That's all the demo views - indeed all the demos I got recently. I'll write some overall thoughts soon.
News: Thursday 10/08/00:
Heavy Gear 2 "demo":
The title is in quotes for a reason: This is the playable demo you can't play, the demonstration of a game that doesn't demonstrate anything. Why?? Because the fuckwits who made it set up the fucking demo so you can't change any fucking key bindings and have to fucking choose from the fucking shite selection of inconvinient pre-programmed set-ups already in the fucking thing. Why the fuck some moron decided that you can't choose to play the fucking demo how it suits you, fuck knows. But if you want to move with the mouse you're fucked, if you want to shoot with the keyboard you're fucked, if you want to invert the mouse you're fucked, if you just want to rebind one single little fucking key to make it a bit more convinient, you're fucked. All this means, it gives no fucking indication whatsoever what it feels like to play the fucking game. And of course you can't change any other fucking settings - not even the fucking resolution and can't even look at the fucking DM maps so you can try to get used to the fucking unplayable controls before not playing the fucking thing. Pile of fucking arse.
Annnnywaaaay... Paradoxically, aside from that fatal error, the control and feel in this are quite good - a lot closer to a normal FPS than Mech3, for example. Turning (with the keyboard, sweet Jesus noooo!!), and moving are quite responsive, and it might be playable without using damned torso twist. The overall control seems okay: No overheating bollocks, simple HUD, less weapons to deal with, more focus on tactics than struggling to keep your machine running. Which is actually making it quite appealing, despite not being able to play the damn thing. Oh I tried BTW, I hammered their hideous key setup like an orang-utang on the bongos, the only time I didn't die within 30 seconds was when I climbed onto the "you're not supposed to be here" mountains at the edge of the map, and sniped from there. Other than that....I seem to die *very* quickly from the slightest hit (see screenshot), but I guess it's also due to not being able to move or fire without staring at the keyboard for 15 minutes trying to remember their ghastly setup. Naturally there is no saving and you have to sit through the intro every damn time.
What else?? It looks cool, though the sky and ground are remarkably similar to Tribes. In particular, the enviroments are a lot richer than in Mech3 or Tribes, more enemy bases, better water features, neat forests. Lusher. Of course I have to put with 640x480 or whatever crap resolution it's set at.... Effects and stuff are up to standard too, nice dust kicked up on the ground. I don't like the Gears though, I mean they're okay as humanoid robots but really a proper robot a la Mech3 (or indeed the enemy "Striders") looks so much cooler. The Gears slide oddly across the terrain and I hate the way they are holding a gun in a hand - I mean FFS this is a 15 foot high robotic battle suit, what does it need a hands for - knitting?? Flower arranging?? Making cups of tea?? Gads. Well....you may have detected some "slight hostility" to the demo in this update, and indeed I refuse to acknowledge it as a demo. Yet, with the responsive movement, the comparative simplicity, and good graphics, I'm almost considering trying the full game. Almost. This demo setup can still suck my cock right up to the ballsac though.
Download the Heavy Gear 2 demo (44.8 meg), visit the Heavy Gear 2 site.
A little bit of this...
<CZG> I have never experienced chicken sex in my life, not even seen it, like than has...
News: Wednesday 09/08/00:
Tribes demo:
As regular p1mps on #terrafusion know, I try to view at least one set of new Tribes2 screenshots every day (wh00t, just spotted one as I write this =)). Keeps me "regular" you know... Well I just think the game looks very damn cool with those outdoor landscapes, and UT has shown how fun botmatch/mp teamplay action can be. So I thought it would be worth giving the Tribes1 demo a blast to see what it felt like since I have fairly high hopes for T2. And yes, the demo is multiplayer only, I haven't been playing it, just looking around. I mean I could play it on a demo server but I would get lagged to death and caned soundly from regulars no doubt... So I'm just checking the feel, which for me is the actual important part of getting a demo.
The result?? It's cool. It feels good, it's easy to control. Kinda like a cross between Q2 and UT feel, set in huge outdoor enviroments. It's even got slope jumping!! Control is all properly clean and smooth - and quite fast with the basic guy, much slower with heavy armour. Jetpack isn't too hard to control and the weapons are fine - some nice effects too. Seems all the complexity comes from the teamplay, missions, and choice of equipement, and not the control, which is much more like it. Even T1 looks good (I had to take the screenies in software tho, yick), all clean and polished, though the maps are very similar, and there is some weird wobbling as terrain comes into focus. There some dodgy clipping around buildings too but that seems to be an essential feature of outdoor games :P. Suffice to say if T2 has proper botmatch as promised, I will buy on sight - and indeed if T1 had botmatch I'd have it already.
Download the Tribes demo (24.4 meg), visit Tribesplayers.com.
News: Tuesday 08/08/00:
Mechwarrior 3 demo:
Hmmmm not an awful lot I can say about this because it's 3456234635000000 times more complex than I can handle =). Okay. It's a big robot sim so the feel is arse as it's very, very slow and reaction times of a Mech are measured in days not seconds. Moving is very complex with throttle and both torso rotating and mouse aiming within the field of view - and of course there are certain key binds, the ones I want of course, that don't work. Firing is very complex with lots of different weapons bound is various configurations - and again the usual fire button I have doesn't work. That's as far as I've got, now speculation: Targetting seems very complex with all sorts of various enemy and body part specific targetting. Heat build up, cooling and all that malarkey seems very complex. Configuring your Mech, choosing and grouping weapons seems very complex. No doubt there are other very complex things I haven't even heard of :P
Now, some of this I could get used to and probably enjoy - customising and setting weapons, and figuring out combat tactics - but firstly there's just so much to learn, and secondly it's hard to get used to this when the control is such sluggish arse and it's hard to even move the damn thing. Simple controls, solid feel, and THEN all the complex weapons and heat stuff would be fine. Anyway, it looks pretty nice - I found the level very bland and flat, but the Mechs look really good. Sky, lighting, lightning, rain, weapons effects etc etc are pretty cool - and there are some great touches like different footstep decals for each Mech and missiles that actually blow craters in the ground (impressive!!). I've had some sound problems (the sound only seems to work when I have a CD in??) and I can't even look at the multiplayer map, boo hiss. Basically I've spent a bit of time fannying around in this, and actually did "okay" in the instant action mission, more by aim and luck than actually having a fucking clue what I was doing. I kinda like the protracted nature of the combats, but the control is just....AAARRGGHH!! I dunno it's so far removed from FPS games despite being both in the first person and yes shooting things too....for me it would be an endurance test just getting used it...
Download the MechWarrior3 demo (30ish meg), visit the MechWarrior3 site.
Damn, time to learn RTS games...
God as if all this Mech crap wasn't too much already =). That forthcoming Sacrifice from Shiny is looking mightily cool. I'm impressed by this not only because it looks awesome but because it's properly fantastic and full of bizarre creatures and scenes that don't look like anything else. Which is what games should be like. But can Shambler handle RTS?? Fuck knows...
News: Monday 07/08/00:
Infestation demo:
This week I'm going to be rambling on about some action game demos I've played (or tried to!) recently. Not proper reviews / articles, just some views I want to shout about. These are old demos of games that are out already - part of my hunt for a sweem looking outdoor action game with a bit more tactical interest than an average FPS.
Gwog, boss man at PlanetDaikatana, drew my attention to Infestation, a sci-fi driving/action game with a first person perspective. Looked pretty damn cool in the shots, lots of nicely lit, futuristic outdoor enviroments with some cool effects, and the demo's only 9.5 meg (now that's a proper demo size!!). Download it, fire it up, no mouse control. "Gwog, this demo you recommended me doesn't have any damned mouse control!!"...."Shambler, mouse control is for proper games, just live with it". Okay well I know from the start there's no chance of me getting the game then :P. Anyway I give it a play out of interest - controls aren't bad for the keyboard, it would probably be quite comfortable with the mouse.
It does look cool....until you actually start moving and looking at things closely, and then you see it: everything wobbles, the sky wobbles, the scenery wobbles, all the buildings and artifacts on the ground wobble alarmingly. All quite disturbing and although the style of the enviroments, the terrain, and some effects look cool, this huge bug spoils it. I almost completed the demo, but with no way to leave it and load from a save, and, errrr, well I can't figure out how to complete the fucking mission, so bleeeh to that. Strikes me as a confused game: On one hand it's a driving game with a focus on motion, on the other hand the controls are arse. On one hand it has some nice effects and an inspiring outdoor style, on the other hand the wobbliness and some other effects are just crap. On one hand it makes some pretence at serious missions, on the other hand it's full of typical arcade nonsense like tokens. Nice style - very nice style looking at some of the screenies - shame about the game.
Download the Infestation demo (9.5 meg), visit the Infestation site.
And etc etc.
On the subject of "demos", I noticed with some amusement that a recent Q3A challenge at Riding the Rocket featured the funky jumpad jump straight to the Red Armour in Q3DM14, a trick demo that Shambler posted over 7 months ago, *grin*. Nice to see that even though RTR do some much harder tricks, Shambler is still ahead for ideas.
As you will have seen from TSQLR, the project I was working on has been completed and is a veritable success. Since that's my most successful site, I thought I should ensure it has a long-lasting design which I can update easier (or can be a good resource if I can't update it) - in addition to all the ease-of-use improvements.
And finally, something long overdue...
* than sticks a pair of tongs down shamblers throat and rips out his liver
News: Saturday 05/08/00:
Brief update:
Not much to update about at the moment. I've finished what I've been working on, and I've been playing (or trying to!) some of the demos I downloaded. More views on that later. For now...
Updated recommended Unreal SP maps list:
Which AFAIK is the only list that just covers the best Unreal and UT single player levels, so if anyone asks you know where to direct them =). Anyway, I forgot to mention that the Sbegin and Sbegin also work in UT, so I've added them to the UT section of the list - at the top of course. It's impressive how 3/4 of the SP levels released for UT have been good or better....okay some are conversions from Unreal, but imagine if map quality was like that for other games!!
More filth:
I never tire of this =). The latest depraved IRC chat log....you'll just have to read it. Yes it does feature a "top Quake II mapper" and yes it does feature "a lot of discussion about genitals". Which is about standard =).
Site that amused me:
Multi-Head Gaming - just cool stuff =). Saw that on PU with their wacky "UT on 5 monitors" shot.
This just in:
<Zjohn|away> i will get a lifetime subscription to manhole.com before i play q3
Gotta love ZzhimzZ =).
Top
|
