It is probably just in demo mode. In all GT games, and pretty much all games, if you don't touch it for a while, it will go into a 3rd persepective demostration. This is a good way to test AI, camera angles, etc.
I don't understand why MMORPGs make such a big deal of 'instancing a new dungeon' when entering one. Anarchy Online has been doing this since release, and it is over two years old. To my knowledge, it was the first, but I am probably wrong.
I disagree. Tomb Raider 1 was VERY successful. There were three games that saved the Playstation 1, TR1, Resident Evil and FF7. TR1 was huge when it came out, and I find it hard for anyone to say it was unsuccessful.
The Amiga was pretty successful here (US) too. The problem was the 'war' that was going on between PC lovers and Amiga lovers. PC lovers would always say 'I need it to do word processing, so I got a PC'. Meanwhile, Amiga owners just said 'whatever'. This lack of app support is one key factor that the Amiga did not do better in the US, but it is still a success. The Amiga 3k and 4k would have been a real contender if Commondor didn't screw up.
Luckly, my Japanese wife can make it with the best of them! The best type can be made with those cubes you melt into hot water, and can be bought here in the states.
Speaking of McD, while living in Japan, i went there, and asked to add lettuce to my hamburger (which sell for 30 yen!). The lady turned around, and asked her manager, who then replied 'No'. Pengiuns at their best.
Interesting, and very niche, games like these are coming out everyday in Japan, never leave their shores, and then we Americans think Japan's gaming is in decline?
I am happy to see these types of games getting more exposure, even if the original purpose of this thread was to poke a little fun at it.
While I lived in Japan, I bought every game like this, and had tons of fun because it wasn't the same old shooter or key hunt.
I met one of my best friends because of X-Wing. He was playing a mission over and over and over again... His dormroom door was open when I walked by, and I just had to know WTF he was doing. Being an Amiga man myself, I was overcome, and just had to get a PC. Thanks Lucas Games!
Once again Gamespy makes a Top X list, and sucks at it. Nowhere did they mention Top Secret - Hitler's Revival, known as Bionic Commando in the states.
And I agree. Squares was just an example. Again, 2D col-detection will always be easier simply because it is a sub-set of 3D col-det.
Most games use squares in 2D, and bounding boxes in 3D because they are fast and dependable. Doom3 is one of the few first games that will use per-polygon hit detection. In fact, it's the first one I know about.
As another 'example', just pick up any book on 3d programming that leads up to 3D hit detection (other than spheres), and it will 99% of the time start off by teaching 2D polygon hit detection.
My point is that 2D hit detection is easier than 3D.
2D col-detection will always be easier simply because it is a sub-set of 3D col-det.
Intersecting squares is much easier, and accurate, than calculating intersecting models (boxes, spheres, obsure shapes, etc.).
Those 2D games you speak of were most likely from your memory of an old system that could not keep up with the processing, and calculated the hit based upon current vectors. My 'how the heck' ratio is linear across all 2d and 3d games, the number of my screamings usually increased on crappy games, or games that needed a better system than mine.
"The lesson of this long story? The average game customer today simply refuses to accept 2D. The average customer doesn't care about gameplay or detailed art, but only flashy gee-wiz graphics, because the average customer doesn't play for hours on end. And it is the average customer that lines the wallets of companies, such as Blizzard."
All 'gamers' are after flashy graphics. If you say graphics don't matter, then you are lying to yourself. If I remember correctly, Diablo's graphics are just pre-renedered sprites, not hand drawn, much like "Donkey Kong Country" did. They didn't seem 'tweaked', and looked muddled, thus people complained. They have lots of detailed, but to be considered a high end sprite, they fail.
I just will never forget the speed of this kid's feet I saw at the Tokyo Game Show a few years back. Living in Tokyo at the time, I have seen my share of good player, but man, this kid, only about 14 maybe, was incredible.
I guess when he gets older he can become an exterminator.
Xenogears, by far, was the longest RPG I have played. It took me about 80 hours to complete. i think some of those hours were being distracted, and the timer was going, but that doesn't matter. If a game has continual DIFFERENT content, in a REALM that you enjoy being in, then hours matter. If the content is the same, over and over, then hours doesn't matter.
Non-Linear RPGs (like Fallout, etc) are good if long if you enjoy the setting.
Something like GTA 1,2,3 and 3.5, though...for me, every mission started being the same after a while. If the 'core' game can be completed in about 15 hours, with extras of about 30, this style of game is valid.
But, 150 hours!? There is almost no dialog, or story, so what actions are you going to be doing for that long?
They mention gang wars and such, Sim-Gang? If so, a Sim game should not be measured in hours. If can finish "It came from the Desert" in about 10 minutes, while others take hours. Hours mean nothing in a Sim game.
I played Doom 1 on a 386 getting about.5 FPS. My friend, who owned the computer, could not understand how I was playing it. I see a door, click the button, shoot, and then the screen would refresh.
I played all the way through that freeware level. Awesome.
I have a decent computer, and I have been through the hell that many new games will never understand. These FPS above 10 don't concern me as long as I get some detail and fun.
People are too spoiled these days. 5 feet of snow and all that jazz.
I probably can't dispute the statistics ( i.e. Japanese sales down X percent ), but I don't think it has anything to do with the decline of Japanese games.
1) The market before seemed saturated with Japanese games because there were not that many companies in other countries making games for their systems. This makes sense since their consoles were normally not sold overseas for a year or so after the Japan release. This has changed since consoles now are released in all the major companies only months apart, and all interested game companies can get dev kits faster (thanks Sony!).
2) Japan has never exported that many games. You always here about all the of games that never leave Japan soil, and it's true. As one who just moved back from Japan and went to Akihabara almost every weekend for the last two years, I see no decline in their ingenuity and originality. The problem is many Japanese games are culturally fit, and with the rich/strange culture they have, there are many sides that don't go well elsewhere. Games like Densh de Go, and the Tokimeki series are easy to play for long and short periods of time, offer great fun, and many cases depth. You will never see these games out of Japan, though.
I personally prefer the texture oriented detail found in DOA2 VS the higher polygonal detail found in DOA3. Sure, they both look great, but those characters are not meant to look, and more Anime'ish. Making full 3D representations kind of break the feel.
Don't forget, Carmack said your guy moves slow, like in real life, and you can only sprint for short periods of time.
The 23 hour mark was probably mostly made up off just walking through the levels since there are not supposed to be more than 3 or 4 creatures at a time on the screen (the big ones anyway)
Don't forget, after all the troubling times, AO gave us a present. I was an advernturer, so I got...a backpack.
Now, SWG is giving away presents for those who have had accounts for over 6 months.
Slashdot Mirror
It is probably just in demo mode. In all GT games, and pretty much all games, if you don't touch it for a while, it will go into a 3rd persepective demostration. This is a good way to test AI, camera angles, etc.
I don't understand why MMORPGs make such a big deal of 'instancing a new dungeon' when entering one. Anarchy Online has been doing this since release, and it is over two years old. To my knowledge, it was the first, but I am probably wrong.
I just hope the next tomb raider game has tentacles in it.
I disagree. Tomb Raider 1 was VERY successful. There were three games that saved the Playstation 1, TR1, Resident Evil and FF7. TR1 was huge when it came out, and I find it hard for anyone to say it was unsuccessful.
Now, here is someone who can make a 'true' TR sequal. There is just soo much room for improvement.
In Japan it matters...space. One of the reasons XBox isn't doing well.
The Amiga was pretty successful here (US) too. The problem was the 'war' that was going on between PC lovers and Amiga lovers. PC lovers would always say 'I need it to do word processing, so I got a PC'. Meanwhile, Amiga owners just said 'whatever'. This lack of app support is one key factor that the Amiga did not do better in the US, but it is still a success. The Amiga 3k and 4k would have been a real contender if Commondor didn't screw up.
Speaking of McD, while living in Japan, i went there, and asked to add lettuce to my hamburger (which sell for 30 yen!). The lady turned around, and asked her manager, who then replied 'No'. Pengiuns at their best.
I am happy to see these types of games getting more exposure, even if the original purpose of this thread was to poke a little fun at it.
While I lived in Japan, I bought every game like this, and had tons of fun because it wasn't the same old shooter or key hunt.
I met one of my best friends because of X-Wing. He was playing a mission over and over and over again... His dormroom door was open when I walked by, and I just had to know WTF he was doing. Being an Amiga man myself, I was overcome, and just had to get a PC. Thanks Lucas Games!
Once again Gamespy makes a Top X list, and sucks at it. Nowhere did they mention Top Secret - Hitler's Revival, known as Bionic Commando in the states.
Except..
Blade Runner (I owned) : Pre-rendered 3D graphics presented as 2D sprites, with pre-rendered cutscenese spliced in.
Siberia (in my hand) : pre-rendered backgrounds.
Longest Journey (never owned), but same as Siberia.
I agree with you that a good, or even a decent setup will give an awesome 3d experience. It's just that your last post's examplese are not 3D.
Most games use squares in 2D, and bounding boxes in 3D because they are fast and dependable. Doom3 is one of the few first games that will use per-polygon hit detection. In fact, it's the first one I know about.
As another 'example', just pick up any book on 3d programming that leads up to 3D hit detection (other than spheres), and it will 99% of the time start off by teaching 2D polygon hit detection.
My point is that 2D hit detection is easier than 3D.
Intersecting squares is much easier, and accurate, than calculating intersecting models (boxes, spheres, obsure shapes, etc.).
Those 2D games you speak of were most likely from your memory of an old system that could not keep up with the processing, and calculated the hit based upon current vectors. My 'how the heck' ratio is linear across all 2d and 3d games, the number of my screamings usually increased on crappy games, or games that needed a better system than mine.
All 'gamers' are after flashy graphics. If you say graphics don't matter, then you are lying to yourself. If I remember correctly, Diablo's graphics are just pre-renedered sprites, not hand drawn, much like "Donkey Kong Country" did. They didn't seem 'tweaked', and looked muddled, thus people complained. They have lots of detailed, but to be considered a high end sprite, they fail.
If there are breasts involved, it should be 3D
I guess when he gets older he can become an exterminator.
Non-Linear RPGs (like Fallout, etc) are good if long if you enjoy the setting.
Something like GTA 1,2,3 and 3.5, though...for me, every mission started being the same after a while. If the 'core' game can be completed in about 15 hours, with extras of about 30, this style of game is valid.
But, 150 hours!? There is almost no dialog, or story, so what actions are you going to be doing for that long?
They mention gang wars and such, Sim-Gang? If so, a Sim game should not be measured in hours. If can finish "It came from the Desert" in about 10 minutes, while others take hours. Hours mean nothing in a Sim game.
I played all the way through that freeware level. Awesome.
I have a decent computer, and I have been through the hell that many new games will never understand. These FPS above 10 don't concern me as long as I get some detail and fun.
People are too spoiled these days. 5 feet of snow and all that jazz.
...It's only been 20, silly.
1) The market before seemed saturated with Japanese games because there were not that many companies in other countries making games for their systems. This makes sense since their consoles were normally not sold overseas for a year or so after the Japan release. This has changed since consoles now are released in all the major companies only months apart, and all interested game companies can get dev kits faster (thanks Sony!).
2) Japan has never exported that many games. You always here about all the of games that never leave Japan soil, and it's true. As one who just moved back from Japan and went to Akihabara almost every weekend for the last two years, I see no decline in their ingenuity and originality. The problem is many Japanese games are culturally fit, and with the rich/strange culture they have, there are many sides that don't go well elsewhere. Games like Densh de Go, and the Tokimeki series are easy to play for long and short periods of time, offer great fun, and many cases depth. You will never see these games out of Japan, though.
As long as I can get a Japanese school girl outfit in the expansion, and wear it around, I'm game!
I personally prefer the texture oriented detail found in DOA2 VS the higher polygonal detail found in DOA3. Sure, they both look great, but those characters are not meant to look, and more Anime'ish. Making full 3D representations kind of break the feel.
The 23 hour mark was probably mostly made up off just walking through the levels since there are not supposed to be more than 3 or 4 creatures at a time on the screen (the big ones anyway)
Don't forget, after all the troubling times, AO gave us a present. I was an advernturer, so I got...a backpack. Now, SWG is giving away presents for those who have had accounts for over 6 months.