I've always known that I never really gave SS2 a fair chance and so I kinda half talked out my ass during that part of the post, hoping you wouldn't notice. =)
I agree that the log idea actually could be really cool, and the truth be told the best parts of HL were when the only humans around were ones trying to kill you. Especially if they barely seemed to be human at all (those ninja assassin women).
Anyway, this almost makes me want to try to go pick up a copy of SS2, but with HL2 and DIII and DX2 coming out so soon, I'm not sure I'd get much chance to play it.
Does anybody know if there will ever be a System Shock 3? I heard the company which made SS2 (Looking Glass?) went out of business, but that most of the members of the company went and formed another one and are currently working on Thief III... but my memory isn't great, so I don't know.
Oh yeah, and about the headcrabs: definite inspiration from Alien... which is not a bad thing in any way. The best part of them was the way they were integrated into the levels: they always seemed to jump at you when you in some darkened, confined space and were preoccupied with doing something else (solve some puzzle). Valve varied the headcrab tricks enough that they suprised me almost every time =)
But the Bush administration has threatened to veto the funding because they support ever-larger corporations owning ever-bigger chunks of the spectrum that theoretically belongs to the public
Nice editorializing. Just tell us the story next time, okay?
Well, all those other games you mention came out after Half-Life (except System Shock 1), and in some ways were influenced by HL.
It's no surprise that HL was big when it came out, it was astounding, AI like no other game, graphics that beat pretty much all but Unreal, a fairly realistic gameworld (much less fantasy than Unreal, Quake, et al), the story, the pacing. But why is it still considered so great today?
Because it does everything right. By now, nothing is a standout, graphics are clearly dated, AI in someways has been done better, there are far more realistic games, more innovative playstyles. But Half-Life still offers one of the most complete package of not-top-line but really great "components" in one incredibly polished and well-designed game.
I loved Deus Ex, it had a better story and more depth to the gameplay, but was less immersive with cutscenes that "took you out of the action". I only played a demo of Thief, and I really liked the gameplay, but I didn't feel like I could play an entire game of just sneaking around. Half-Life had its sneaking parts, its puzzle parts, its run-and-gun. I played a demo of SS2, got stuck on a stupid piece of equipment, had to play the first half of the level again (I forgot to save), and enjoyed it, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. From the reviews, I hear there are no other people in the game, but that they "talk" to you through logs, which sounds somewhat uninteresting to me.
And lastly, I've still NEVER seen a game that comes even CLOSE to the level design and the monster design of HL. The head crabs are truly ingenious.
Wow, I haven't played the single player game in years, but just right now I shuddered, remembering about the sound they make. Now that's a good game. =)
Oh yeah and about the "normalcy" of Gordon... I really didn't catch all that much "pushing" of that angle at all, but you might have read different previews than me. I felt that they pulled off their real intention perfectly: to really not even have the character "Gordon Freeman", but to have YOU, there, and just happening to be called Gordon... it worked for me... I still imagine I can take down an entire squadron of highly trained Marines =)
But first let pose you a connundrum, a riddle if I may: What's the difference between you and a mallard with a cold?
One's a sick duck and I've forgotten the rest but your mother's a whore.
(from Celebrity Jeopardy if you don't know, don't get angry)
Anyway, to umm.. question your answer: "Spinchroids" is a powerful drug that can rarely be taken a few times before producing serious bodily injury. What famous popular culture figure was the sort of man who could take this strengh-giving drug daily without any seeming side-effects besides a nearly unintelligible accent?
I have a wild idea... try some of those links in the "Related Links" box at the top of the page, Like machinima.com or strange company.
Don't mean to be nasty, but your post makes you sound a bit arrogant. You apparently are a designer, not a techie. All fine and good, but you really should find some technically oriented people who aren't there just to be "fed" your creative ideas, but who listen to your ideas, and really like them and can get into them and give you feedback and (buzzword alert) synergy. Then you'll have some kickass art.
Spielberg may lead a movie project, but he gets a lot of creative input from the cinematographer and the screenwriter and the props maker and the costume designer and the actors and the...
Well, what the person in both cases would have to do is learn the process the 'export' would use.
The person being sued could go to his/her local library and spend numerous hours learning the applicable laws and cases and then present the case to the judge. The computer user could go to the library and study up on the programming needed to write the application.
Both would take time, but would cost less money. Hiring a laywer or a programmer would take less time but would cost more money.
If I in this situation, I quite possibly might decide to represent myself... I'd take some time looking over the laws, and if they didn't seem to complicated, I'd get some final pointers from a lawyer relative (just thinking about it, I actually have quite a few lawyer aunts/uncles...) and would go for it.
Of course, I don't have DirectTV or a smartcard thingymabob, so I'm in the clear =)
You're right on. People usually only see that our system works this way when good proposed laws get riddled with loopholes and exceptions and have annoying riders attached to them, but it fortunately usually works the same way for bad laws, too.
And before I get a bunch of responses, of course there are exceptions, such as the patriot act getting slammed through Congress under the shadow of 9/11 fears. But except for a few high-profile cases, this is rare.
Waiting a day to get an email from a search engine - that is like waiting for batch printouts in 1982 but worse.
There are places in the world which are even farther behind than 1982.
Actually, it's even crazier than that, that are like current-day first world in some respects, and third-years behind in others... an African library gets a only several-year-old used computer from some nice charity, but doesn't have the right infrastructure to utilize its 56k modem.
You might feel that you couldn't stand waiting a day for a search to complete, but for others its better than nothing (or getting something after wasting a day trying to connect... let MIT do it).
Well, it's never going to "take off" in a traditional sense, but if it helps a couple hundred people in disadvantaged parts of the world, possibly turning a few kids onto computing and a pontentially lucrative career, then that's good. This is not an earth-shattering development, but it doesn't merit the amount of uninformed vitrol I see all around here. This has got to be the most annoying display of the/.'s aversion to RTFAing that I've seen in a while.
Nice to see that at least someone didn't knee-jerk reply to the/. article. Good post.
Disable graphics and google loads in no time flat. Realistically, if you can't use google with your existing tools then you can't use any links a search engine would get you.
From the article:
These are then sent back to the computer in Malawi so that they can be stored in the machine's internet cache.
"Next morning the teacher can connect, download that e-mail and when the students arrive, they can browse through those pages the way they would if they had full internet connectivity," said Prof Amarasinghe.
They also send the linked pages from the search, compressed and undoubtably with the graphics removed. As the connection is probably unreliable, it can be done overnight when its less likely to be under use and the download can be retried several times if it fails.
That would actually really be a good idea, as information slowly becomes more digitized and web-based, rather than library-based. Sure, as of now you can still much of what you need to know from libraries, but if you're in enough of the boonies, the local library is probably just a bunch of Danielle Steel books, if anything at all.
Of course, in a number of third world countries, even snail mail can be extremely unreliable...
I'm going to assume that the next GTA game will be set in San Andreas, a San Francisco clone, which is the remaining original GTA city that has not had a GTA3-engine game made after it.
After all, browsers don't take all that long to download, even on a modem
But how do you download it if you don't have a browser?
Yeah yeah I know there are plenty of ways to do it, but they aren't necessarily easy for Joe Schmoe. And Microsoft would just change the "Connect to the Internet" shortcut that is installed on every desktop to download IE as well as push MSN on new users.
There are plenty of airports close to roads and houses that airplanes pass over at heights far less than a 10000 ft. Hell, with one of those mounted ones, I might be able to get the planes that fly over my house several miles away from JFK (NY) (probably not, they seem to have a pretty high altitude by that point).
Well, its not that we should get rid of the regulations, just reduce them.
I mean, if you weren't allowed to drive a car above 25mph ever and not after 9pm, you'd ask for some changes in the regulations, too. (although that certainly would cut down on accidents....)
I like how sometimes popular science fiction can change the direction of where science is headed, or at least influence the design of futuristic devices. I really cannot wait until we have computers like the ones in (the movie) Minority Report, or the "docking scene" in the Matrix... and I'm sure Steve Jobs is salviating at the mouth do be able to do those clear glass screens too =)
Uh... I was joking you realize... there is no "forestfall" property in any Linux kernal. Nor should there be, the lack of tree-group-related noise is one of the big advantages Linux has over Windows.
Yes folks, I will be here all week. No need to throw those tomatoes, I'm not hungry. Man am I on a roll. A roll with sesam--ouch! Alright, alright!
Slashdot Mirror
I've always known that I never really gave SS2 a fair chance and so I kinda half talked out my ass during that part of the post, hoping you wouldn't notice. =)
I agree that the log idea actually could be really cool, and the truth be told the best parts of HL were when the only humans around were ones trying to kill you. Especially if they barely seemed to be human at all (those ninja assassin women).
Anyway, this almost makes me want to try to go pick up a copy of SS2, but with HL2 and DIII and DX2 coming out so soon, I'm not sure I'd get much chance to play it.
Does anybody know if there will ever be a System Shock 3? I heard the company which made SS2 (Looking Glass?) went out of business, but that most of the members of the company went and formed another one and are currently working on Thief III... but my memory isn't great, so I don't know.
Oh yeah, and about the headcrabs: definite inspiration from Alien... which is not a bad thing in any way. The best part of them was the way they were integrated into the levels: they always seemed to jump at you when you in some darkened, confined space and were preoccupied with doing something else (solve some puzzle). Valve varied the headcrab tricks enough that they suprised me almost every time =)
But the Bush administration has threatened to veto the funding because they support ever-larger corporations owning ever-bigger chunks of the spectrum that theoretically belongs to the public
Nice editorializing. Just tell us the story next time, okay?
Well, all those other games you mention came out after Half-Life (except System Shock 1), and in some ways were influenced by HL.
It's no surprise that HL was big when it came out, it was astounding, AI like no other game, graphics that beat pretty much all but Unreal, a fairly realistic gameworld (much less fantasy than Unreal, Quake, et al), the story, the pacing. But why is it still considered so great today?
Because it does everything right. By now, nothing is a standout, graphics are clearly dated, AI in someways has been done better, there are far more realistic games, more innovative playstyles. But Half-Life still offers one of the most complete package of not-top-line but really great "components" in one incredibly polished and well-designed game.
I loved Deus Ex, it had a better story and more depth to the gameplay, but was less immersive with cutscenes that "took you out of the action". I only played a demo of Thief, and I really liked the gameplay, but I didn't feel like I could play an entire game of just sneaking around. Half-Life had its sneaking parts, its puzzle parts, its run-and-gun. I played a demo of SS2, got stuck on a stupid piece of equipment, had to play the first half of the level again (I forgot to save), and enjoyed it, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. From the reviews, I hear there are no other people in the game, but that they "talk" to you through logs, which sounds somewhat uninteresting to me.
And lastly, I've still NEVER seen a game that comes even CLOSE to the level design and the monster design of HL. The head crabs are truly ingenious.
Wow, I haven't played the single player game in years, but just right now I shuddered, remembering about the sound they make. Now that's a good game. =)
Oh yeah and about the "normalcy" of Gordon... I really didn't catch all that much "pushing" of that angle at all, but you might have read different previews than me. I felt that they pulled off their real intention perfectly: to really not even have the character "Gordon Freeman", but to have YOU, there, and just happening to be called Gordon... it worked for me... I still imagine I can take down an entire squadron of highly trained Marines =)
I'll play your game, you rogue.
But first let pose you a connundrum, a riddle if I may: What's the difference between you and a mallard with a cold?
One's a sick duck and I've forgotten the rest but your mother's a whore.
(from Celebrity Jeopardy if you don't know, don't get angry)
Anyway, to umm.. question your answer: "Spinchroids" is a powerful drug that can rarely be taken a few times before producing serious bodily injury. What famous popular culture figure was the sort of man who could take this strengh-giving drug daily without any seeming side-effects besides a nearly unintelligible accent?
I have a wild idea... try some of those links in the "Related Links" box at the top of the page, Like machinima.com or strange company.
Don't mean to be nasty, but your post makes you sound a bit arrogant. You apparently are a designer, not a techie. All fine and good, but you really should find some technically oriented people who aren't there just to be "fed" your creative ideas, but who listen to your ideas, and really like them and can get into them and give you feedback and (buzzword alert) synergy. Then you'll have some kickass art.
Spielberg may lead a movie project, but he gets a lot of creative input from the cinematographer and the screenwriter and the props maker and the costume designer and the actors and the...
oops
That's always a good sign =)
/.'ed...
You know what would be cool? If this "Introducing Machinma with Interviews" *was* a machinma... like UT2003 engined or whatever.
Of course, it might actually be that way, I didn't WTFMachima, it seems to be
Well, what the person in both cases would have to do is learn the process the 'export' would use.
The person being sued could go to his/her local library and spend numerous hours learning the applicable laws and cases and then present the case to the judge. The computer user could go to the library and study up on the programming needed to write the application.
Both would take time, but would cost less money. Hiring a laywer or a programmer would take less time but would cost more money.
If I in this situation, I quite possibly might decide to represent myself... I'd take some time looking over the laws, and if they didn't seem to complicated, I'd get some final pointers from a lawyer relative (just thinking about it, I actually have quite a few lawyer aunts/uncles...) and would go for it.
Of course, I don't have DirectTV or a smartcard thingymabob, so I'm in the clear =)
You're right on. People usually only see that our system works this way when good proposed laws get riddled with loopholes and exceptions and have annoying riders attached to them, but it fortunately usually works the same way for bad laws, too.
And before I get a bunch of responses, of course there are exceptions, such as the patriot act getting slammed through Congress under the shadow of 9/11 fears. But except for a few high-profile cases, this is rare.
Don't do it for the children, do it for the artists.
Waiting a day to get an email from a search engine - that is like waiting for batch printouts in 1982 but worse.
There are places in the world which are even farther behind than 1982.
Actually, it's even crazier than that, that are like current-day first world in some respects, and third-years behind in others... an African library gets a only several-year-old used computer from some nice charity, but doesn't have the right infrastructure to utilize its 56k modem.
You might feel that you couldn't stand waiting a day for a search to complete, but for others its better than nothing (or getting something after wasting a day trying to connect... let MIT do it).
Well, it's never going to "take off" in a traditional sense, but if it helps a couple hundred people in disadvantaged parts of the world, possibly turning a few kids onto computing and a pontentially lucrative career, then that's good. This is not an earth-shattering development, but it doesn't merit the amount of uninformed vitrol I see all around here. This has got to be the most annoying display of the /.'s aversion to RTFAing that I've seen in a while.
/. article. Good post.
Nice to see that at least someone didn't knee-jerk reply to the
From the article:
They also send the linked pages from the search, compressed and undoubtably with the graphics removed. As the connection is probably unreliable, it can be done overnight when its less likely to be under use and the download can be retried several times if it fails.
That would actually really be a good idea, as information slowly becomes more digitized and web-based, rather than library-based. Sure, as of now you can still much of what you need to know from libraries, but if you're in enough of the boonies, the local library is probably just a bunch of Danielle Steel books, if anything at all.
Of course, in a number of third world countries, even snail mail can be extremely unreliable...
You mean he must be on IE.
Although I am as well (work-mandated) and never saw any spyware or gator installs that ppl are talking about... just popups...
a free webhosting company
/.-ing
Which held up pretty nicely against a possible
I'm going to assume that the next GTA game will be set in San Andreas, a San Francisco clone, which is the remaining original GTA city that has not had a GTA3-engine game made after it.
Totally offtopic, but why do so many people on /. say "boxen", instead of "boxes"?
After all, browsers don't take all that long to download, even on a modem
But how do you download it if you don't have a browser?
Yeah yeah I know there are plenty of ways to do it, but they aren't necessarily easy for Joe Schmoe. And Microsoft would just change the "Connect to the Internet" shortcut that is installed on every desktop to download IE as well as push MSN on new users.
I think the consensus is that they did it mostly to use as a bargaining chip to force concessions out of Microsoft.
Trying to stuff as many AOL icons in as possible.
There are plenty of airports close to roads and houses that airplanes pass over at heights far less than a 10000 ft. Hell, with one of those mounted ones, I might be able to get the planes that fly over my house several miles away from JFK (NY) (probably not, they seem to have a pretty high altitude by that point).
Well, its not that we should get rid of the regulations, just reduce them.
I mean, if you weren't allowed to drive a car above 25mph ever and not after 9pm, you'd ask for some changes in the regulations, too. (although that certainly would cut down on accidents....)
I like how sometimes popular science fiction can change the direction of where science is headed, or at least influence the design of futuristic devices. I really cannot wait until we have computers like the ones in (the movie) Minority Report, or the "docking scene" in the Matrix... and I'm sure Steve Jobs is salviating at the mouth do be able to do those clear glass screens too =)
Uh... I was joking you realize... there is no "forestfall" property in any Linux kernal. Nor should there be, the lack of tree-group-related noise is one of the big advantages Linux has over Windows.
Yes folks, I will be here all week. No need to throw those tomatoes, I'm not hungry.
Man am I on a roll. A roll with sesam--ouch! Alright, alright!