Face it, TimeSplitters 2 - done mostly by the old GoldenEye team... is the best game Rare never made. Conker's was the last brilliant thing to appear out of Rare and they've got nothing impressive rolling in the hype machine. At first I was terribly bummed by the MS buyout - I was afraid it would go all Bungie on us... but like other posters have mentioned, I don't see any great loss to the platforms I game on.
The level size wouldn't have annoyed me if the loading times were shorter, but yeah - the combination of those two would probably be second on my list.
Well he does admit it was too short, and too action-y, which I'd agree with although it didn't ruin the game for me. Nor did the lack of drag and drop, since the menus never really stifled me.
Biggest error in DX2 I think was over-fiddling the rendering engine for unrequired lighting tricks. The Unreal engine was perfectly apt to make their game world before they "improved" on it - which largely ended up doing two things: capping the top end performance at mediocre and ruining any chance for a level editor or mod community.
My parents came home with an intellivision when I was a kid. Gaming must be in my genes, because my dad would spend hours trying to beat Night Hunter (a mathematical impossibility for those who havent played)
Ours died years ago, but I picked up a new on eBay. Had a nostalgia weekend with some friends and found out that one of my college buddies used to keep stats and names of the players on his Intellivision Baseball team. To show he wasn't joking, he proceeded to simply school me proper on the game.
Possibly one of the great games was Sea Battle though, which combined strategy and units in a way unseen in games (except for perhaps it's contempory Utopia) and wouldn't really be seen again until games like Herzog and the RTS genre.
Or the massive dungeon crawl Treasure of Tarmin - another game that I think stands unbeaten.
Blackballing is hardly the same as the capitulating to the demands.
If H didn't put up that article, and nobody else put up Infinium articles, many people would either not know Infinium exists or forget about them. That would make for a happier world, and make it harder for Inifinium to put their con on.
Not saying they shouldn't have done it in the first place - but at this point, let's just remove them from the memepool and go about our lives.
But I would take it even further, following Robin's strategy.
Just remove all articles. Inifinium has produced nothing but laughable trash when it comes to PR anyway and I don't think the gaming industry needs any more from blowhard vaporeware merchants. Don't give these guys any soap box, good bad or otherwise, in which to con venture capitol from anyone else. Especially with the clear lack of respect they have for the online community you would think they would want to entice.
Just make them vanish. I mean jeebus, these were the rocket scientists who couldn't get an online email form to work right - who thinks they can produce a secured broadband game delivery console before Sony and MS swallows up the market?
They want the "truth" to come out? Fine. Let them put a product on the shelves. Until them, just blackball them from the web.
Don't forget: GoldenEye SP was the first SP to really attempt and succeed some sneaker elements. On some levels, if you fired your weapon too often you would alert the guards and set off the alrem.
DM MP for Goldeneye was highly accessible, chaotic fun - as anyone who has blew up their friends with proxy mines at 3AM can attest...
Well, I was comparing GE MP to say DooM MP, not to System Shock SP.
As for it's badly flawed tech - I agree with the AC. I don't know what was wrong with your version, my cart had enough tech execution to last hours and hours of plays, mostly 4 player deathmatch.
Um no. How can you sit there and say that it was the first time anyone could use a movie license and then point out the Star Wars games - made by Lucasfilm itself? Most movie licenses now, then and probably forever, make poor use of the "groundwork laid out for them".
As for the missions being "outright silly", it's still a far cry better than 90% of FPS to follow - which stuck to the run and gun, flip a switch method... and games that did introduce some kind of "mission" generally didn't stray far from the "collect 3 hostages" formula.
Goldeneye wasn't a revolutionary FPS, but it had design elements which influenced games to come (it's design team is what has made TimeSplitters a critical success), making strong use of it's license at the same time. Heck, most Bond games to follow were a lesser experience.
No offense, but that's insanely near sighted. You are leaving out the multiple weapon types and game types that for the time where insanely great - especially for a console FPS at the time (not to mention a license game). In many ways a far more varied and accesible game than DooM and Q1 ever were.
And for SP, Goldeneye cranked up what the concept of mission based FPS was for the entire genre - mixing story, mission based goals and difficulty levels in new ways (and in some ways - rarely done since).
Seriously, if you justify technology by what you -need-, you'd have an ARM processor, 16MB of RAM, some form of portable media, a touchscreen and a keyboard. Add an ethernet if you want to get fancy and call it a day.
Laugh if you will, but the Ubisoft developers can blame themselves for truncating the growth of XIII on the PC. Mod and map development has become a critical aspect of a growing FPS title and with the Unreal engine as it's core - XIII should have been an easy sell for that. Built in map editor, OO scripting language, and the only cel shaded toy on the block.
So what did Ubisoft do?
Well, they released the US version of XIII with a flaw that disabled the use of custom maps thanks to the CD checking software. Yup. It came with an editor, you just couldn't really play with them.
Mods? They stripped out the source of the scripts required to get a full compile. Epic told me that it might be possible to get a compile if you had UT2003 handy, which has similar core classes, but you probably wouldn't get very far.
Community? For some reason, Ubi added a Map/Mod community to their XIII forums. It's a joke. Developers don't go there, heck moderators rarely go there.
Not to mention that they reworked the basic gametype framework so that even once you get past any of the above, it's still annoying to get custom material running in the game.
Result? XIII is probably a better buy as a console title than PC. At least that way you can easily sell it to EB when you're done. Because when you finish the game, that's it. You have a coaster.
As mentioned, anyone who knows Sony Online Entertainment shouldn't act surprised. You don't pay Sony a monthly charge to play their games, you pay them to playtest them.
Look at PlanetSide, they post-beta they continued to "tweak" the gameplay over and over agin, nerfing things, adding more CTF type rules, etc. etc.
Patches and additions are one thing, or even completely unforeseen exploits to the gameplay one could see as necessary changes - but to continually rewrite the core gameplay (and let's face - becoming a Jedi is pretty core to Star Wars) is just proof that they didn't know what they were doing in the first place.
It amazes me anyone still gives them money on a monthly basis. Even if you like the game, how do you know you'll like it 6 months later when they "fix" some more...
It's an official expansion. If you buy Unreal 2 now, you get XMP.
Mods for U2 were scarce because a) poor sales and b) no online support in the original code. Though having played the SP now, I wish more people did offline missions for it.
These guys can't just go into their garage and make a new game, have it released next month. They'll need to find new jobs. Chances are - that won't be with each other. Divide up the talent, divide up the quality.
Sure, when a group of talent voluntary moves together, it can make little difference. This on the other hand, can be devastating.
I didn't join until after it released and I paid out the wazoo for the privilege. I'd say Sony has a great beta setup - it never ends and they profit off it.
When is a beta not a beta? Heck, it's better to ask when is a shipped product STILL a beta.
In other exciting news, this morning they showed some of the mini-TES (thermal emission spectrometer) images. That data is very hard to interpret, so it is ripe for crackpot articles that can be posted on/. with no editorial review.
"There is one company in Korea that has a legal license from 3DO to run a Meridian 59 game server. That license will expire when the current license year term ends.
Currently, there is no other legally running Meridian 59 game server."
I'm not sure one Korean server is evidence that PC Online gaming is alive and well. But good luck all the same.
16 player CS server = $80/mo. Fragism isn't cheap, but they are good.
An average DSL connect is good for about 4-8 players on most games, and naturally is only up temporarily unless people want to sacrfice a box and port.
I love the idea of a lot of people starting servers on their home connections to alleviate the problem, but most people just don't bother.
Slashdot Mirror
odd, because after reading the article that sounds an awful lot like agreeing with him.
Face it, TimeSplitters 2 - done mostly by the old GoldenEye team ... is the best game Rare never made. Conker's was the last brilliant thing to appear out of Rare and they've got nothing impressive rolling in the hype machine. At first I was terribly bummed by the MS buyout - I was afraid it would go all Bungie on us ... but like other posters have mentioned, I don't see any great loss to the platforms I game on.
Yup, you're right. My misread.
The level size wouldn't have annoyed me if the loading times were shorter, but yeah - the combination of those two would probably be second on my list.
Well he does admit it was too short, and too action-y, which I'd agree with although it didn't ruin the game for me. Nor did the lack of drag and drop, since the menus never really stifled me.
Biggest error in DX2 I think was over-fiddling the rendering engine for unrequired lighting tricks. The Unreal engine was perfectly apt to make their game world before they "improved" on it - which largely ended up doing two things: capping the top end performance at mediocre and ruining any chance for a level editor or mod community.
My parents came home with an intellivision when I was a kid. Gaming must be in my genes, because my dad would spend hours trying to beat Night Hunter (a mathematical impossibility for those who havent played)
Ours died years ago, but I picked up a new on eBay. Had a nostalgia weekend with some friends and found out that one of my college buddies used to keep stats and names of the players on his Intellivision Baseball team. To show he wasn't joking, he proceeded to simply school me proper on the game.
Possibly one of the great games was Sea Battle though, which combined strategy and units in a way unseen in games (except for perhaps it's contempory Utopia) and wouldn't really be seen again until games like Herzog and the RTS genre.
Or the massive dungeon crawl Treasure of Tarmin - another game that I think stands unbeaten.
Great system. Great games.
Blackballing is hardly the same as the capitulating to the demands.
If H didn't put up that article, and nobody else put up Infinium articles, many people would either not know Infinium exists or forget about them. That would make for a happier world, and make it harder for Inifinium to put their con on.
Not saying they shouldn't have done it in the first place - but at this point, let's just remove them from the memepool and go about our lives.
But I would take it even further, following Robin's strategy.
Just remove all articles. Inifinium has produced nothing but laughable trash when it comes to PR anyway and I don't think the gaming industry needs any more from blowhard vaporeware merchants. Don't give these guys any soap box, good bad or otherwise, in which to con venture capitol from anyone else. Especially with the clear lack of respect they have for the online community you would think they would want to entice.
Just make them vanish. I mean jeebus, these were the rocket scientists who couldn't get an online email form to work right - who thinks they can produce a secured broadband game delivery console before Sony and MS swallows up the market?
They want the "truth" to come out? Fine. Let them put a product on the shelves. Until them, just blackball them from the web.
You know this 10 hour thing baffles me.
I think I spent about 2 or 3 hours on the demo alone. That's just one level.
Maybe people should stop playing every game like Quake Done Quick and enjoy the sights a bit more.
Don't forget: GoldenEye SP was the first SP to really attempt and succeed some sneaker elements. On some levels, if you fired your weapon too often you would alert the guards and set off the alrem.
DM MP for Goldeneye was highly accessible, chaotic fun - as anyone who has blew up their friends with proxy mines at 3AM can attest...
Well, I was comparing GE MP to say DooM MP, not to System Shock SP.
As for it's badly flawed tech - I agree with the AC. I don't know what was wrong with your version, my cart had enough tech execution to last hours and hours of plays, mostly 4 player deathmatch.
Um no. How can you sit there and say that it was the first time anyone could use a movie license and then point out the Star Wars games - made by Lucasfilm itself? Most movie licenses now, then and probably forever, make poor use of the "groundwork laid out for them".
... and games that did introduce some kind of "mission" generally didn't stray far from the "collect 3 hostages" formula.
As for the missions being "outright silly", it's still a far cry better than 90% of FPS to follow - which stuck to the run and gun, flip a switch method
Goldeneye wasn't a revolutionary FPS, but it had design elements which influenced games to come (it's design team is what has made TimeSplitters a critical success), making strong use of it's license at the same time. Heck, most Bond games to follow were a lesser experience.
No offense, but that's insanely near sighted. You are leaving out the multiple weapon types and game types that for the time where insanely great - especially for a console FPS at the time (not to mention a license game). In many ways a far more varied and accesible game than DooM and Q1 ever were.
And for SP, Goldeneye cranked up what the concept of mission based FPS was for the entire genre - mixing story, mission based goals and difficulty levels in new ways (and in some ways - rarely done since).
after all, who needs more than 640k of memory?
Seriously, if you justify technology by what you -need-, you'd have an ARM processor, 16MB of RAM, some form of portable media, a touchscreen and a keyboard. Add an ethernet if you want to get fancy and call it a day.
Laugh if you will, but the Ubisoft developers can blame themselves for truncating the growth of XIII on the PC. Mod and map development has become a critical aspect of a growing FPS title and with the Unreal engine as it's core - XIII should have been an easy sell for that. Built in map editor, OO scripting language, and the only cel shaded toy on the block.
So what did Ubisoft do?
Well, they released the US version of XIII with a flaw that disabled the use of custom maps thanks to the CD checking software. Yup. It came with an editor, you just couldn't really play with them.
Mods? They stripped out the source of the scripts required to get a full compile. Epic told me that it might be possible to get a compile if you had UT2003 handy, which has similar core classes, but you probably wouldn't get very far.
Community? For some reason, Ubi added a Map/Mod community to their XIII forums. It's a joke. Developers don't go there, heck moderators rarely go there.
Not to mention that they reworked the basic gametype framework so that even once you get past any of the above, it's still annoying to get custom material running in the game.
Result? XIII is probably a better buy as a console title than PC. At least that way you can easily sell it to EB when you're done. Because when you finish the game, that's it. You have a coaster.
As mentioned, anyone who knows Sony Online Entertainment shouldn't act surprised. You don't pay Sony a monthly charge to play their games, you pay them to playtest them.
...
Look at PlanetSide, they post-beta they continued to "tweak" the gameplay over and over agin, nerfing things, adding more CTF type rules, etc. etc.
Patches and additions are one thing, or even completely unforeseen exploits to the gameplay one could see as necessary changes - but to continually rewrite the core gameplay (and let's face - becoming a Jedi is pretty core to Star Wars) is just proof that they didn't know what they were doing in the first place.
It amazes me anyone still gives them money on a monthly basis. Even if you like the game, how do you know you'll like it 6 months later when they "fix" some more
It's not a mod.
It's an official expansion. If you buy Unreal 2 now, you get XMP.
Mods for U2 were scarce because a) poor sales and b) no online support in the original code. Though having played the SP now, I wish more people did offline missions for it.
It's not that simple.
These guys can't just go into their garage and make a new game, have it released next month. They'll need to find new jobs. Chances are - that won't be with each other. Divide up the talent, divide up the quality.
Sure, when a group of talent voluntary moves together, it can make little difference. This on the other hand, can be devastating.
Allow people to run custom games. Hold workshops. Have fun.
Hey, the connection between online shooters and a 3D IRC has been there since Quake.
My brother and I used to save on long distance calls by meeting up on Phantasy Star Online.
I didn't join until after it released and I paid out the wazoo for the privilege. I'd say Sony has a great beta setup - it never ends and they profit off it.
When is a beta not a beta? Heck, it's better to ask when is a shipped product STILL a beta.
Slashdot hit a new low for journalism, reporting pre-order release dates as absolute facts.
In other exciting news, this morning they showed some of the mini-TES (thermal emission spectrometer) images. That data is very hard to interpret, so it is ripe for crackpot articles that can be posted on /. with no editorial review.
So well said, I think it should be in bold.
No offense meant, but according to your FAQ:
"There is one company in Korea that has a legal license from 3DO to run a Meridian 59 game server. That license will expire when the current license year term ends.
Currently, there is no other legally running Meridian 59 game server."
I'm not sure one Korean server is evidence that PC Online gaming is alive and well. But good luck all the same.
http://fragism.com/prices.phtml
16 player CS server = $80/mo. Fragism isn't cheap, but they are good.
An average DSL connect is good for about 4-8 players on most games, and naturally is only up temporarily unless people want to sacrfice a box and port.
I love the idea of a lot of people starting servers on their home connections to alleviate the problem, but most people just don't bother.