I did have no real issue with the basic concept of Steam. Unlike its first incarnation, it seems relatively stable and usable now. Unfortunately, while I understand their wish to curb piracy, the whole lag and additional time on retail install was quite bad. I didn't experience too much of a delay on HL2 itself, though the unlocking process was a bit slow - but CS:Source wouldn't authorize for me. It took me something like 20+ tries here and there over a few days before it finally authorized properly and allowed me to play the game. As well, I'm a little pissed still that I have to have the CD in to play while the steam customers do not. That bothers me more than it connecting to steam every time you play.
Anyway, the game itself has been relatively fun if a bit repetative in spots. Just wondering though, are there any good (non-book) strategy guides anywhere yet? I haven't been able to find any yet, and I'm stuck in a firefight...
I would be an example of that. No other 3D game has caused motion sickness with me. For the first hour or two of playing HL2 it was causing mild motion sickness, though I think it's worn off mostly now as I've gotten used to it.
I'm not really sure what the cause of it is, though I was thinking it felt a little like the POV was smaller than I was used to - like my vision was mashed up really close to everything. I don't think it helps that when you pick something up/use the gravity gun, it pulls it *right* up in front of your face and occupies a large area. That has been driving me nuts....
Well, the difference of course being that gas lines are already widely used/tested. They're usually buried, whereas this might be above ground within easy reach of mistakes/damage. The gas line/furnace in a school are set up and run without being touched constantly except for maintenance when there's a problem.
Still, I don't think this would be that much worse than stations with propane tanks. Maybe they should do and release some testing on propane/hydrogen tank fires...
That was pissing me off for a while. I really dislike bittorrent. My ISP is anal about any large amount of uploading, and having it saturate my entire up cap of bandwidth while I'm trying to do other stuff was a pain in the ass too. I finally solved the problem by finding/using Netlimiter to limit my up speed for the download client to something sane.
Well, I don't know where the OP is, but that is legal in Canada, at least I think it is still for mp3s. If we borrow a cd from a friend, we're allowed to burn ourselves a copy of it for personal use (but they're not legally allowed to just give us a copy). It's a weird distinction, but there yah go.
I like all of those, but I've had a rather bad case of spyware lately which they couldn't seem to get rid of. Oh, they'd all find bits and pieces, but it seemed like either they weren't finding whatever was the real cause and downloading bargainbuddy/etc, or they couldn't detect it properly when pieces were missing.
I finally ended up trying giant antiSpyware and it cleaned up a combination of 48 different files/registry keys/etc that the others weren't finding. Of course, that software isn't free and I wouldn't be surprised to see it go the way of all the others, but it impressed me anyway.
I'll concede that as a valid point. However, that is only part of the original point you made. The other part was what I was actually responding to.
"I get to ditch all my DVDs and the machines that can read them! W00T!"
You are saying that your old discs would be useless, which is most likely not the case.
In any event, it doesn't matter either way I guess:) Personally, I look forward to larger content formats... and buying new hardware is the price of that.
It's hardly magical if you're able to read the specs for the player/writer before you buy them. If you bother to pay any attention to what player/writer you buy, and what/how you've already burned your dvds, then it's a non-issue. As far as regular dvd movies go - they're pretty much a moot point. It would be incredibly dumb of the manufacturers to add dvd support and not support the particular standard they use.
I know this is slashdot, but you didn't happen to RTFA did you? Supposedly, most of the Blu-ray devices set to come out into the market have compatibility with DVD built in now.
"we tweaked one or two values/models but the gameplay is almost exactly the same" does not a true mod make. We'll see what happens now that the SDK is out, but those mods are for the most part boring. That's also ignoring how most of those have been out since like 5-10 days after its release.
So its the reader who's at fault the author wrote a bad book?
No, it isn't the reader's fault the book is bad, but it is their fault they bought it. If they skimmed the book and it was bad, and bought it anyway... tough luck. If they bought it blindly out of impatience then once again, tough luck. It sucks but that's the reality of it. It should have been pretty obvious from reviews/etc what it was like.
Of course, if it changes halfway through then that's another story... but honestly, the "book" of Doom3 was pretty much the same all the way through. It did get boring at times, but it wasn't from the gameplay changing.
Right, because a) I do so much batch programming that I have the syntax memorized (I still use XP for games), and b) that's so convenient when you connect to a new mod type you haven't played before and it creates the new directory, downloads the modfiles, and asks you for a key (well, with the smaller modtypes anyway - with bigger mods I know you have to download/install it separately anyway).
So no it isn't that hard, but that's ignoring the main point. That is, yes it is a stupid design and it is annoying when it could have been done differently/better very easily.
id has made some neat games, but their interface/etc design decisions have been lacking in some areas.
Well, Rutan and crew covered the passenger requirements for the X-prize (except the pilot) with random personal objects equivalent in weight to the required passenger weight. I can't see why that couldn't/wouldn't continue until a design has a proven track record.
It creates a "doomkey" file in the base directory when it is run and you enter the key for the first time. I would imagine the linux version would have asked for the key if that had not been there. This is exactly how it was done with quake3.
With that in mind... I wonder if they have it fixed this time so it doesn't need a copy of the key file in every mod directory you play in. I always thought that was incredibly dumb. (It would ask you for the key everytime you played a new mod...)
The Texas Giant rocks. I went to SFoT when I was 13 or so... had never been on a rollercoaster before, and my friend dragged me over and took me on that first. I was shaking a few hours afterwards. Yikes. I love that thing though:)
Maybe, who knows.... honestly, I would be happy to play it online, if it didn't lag so brutally in the process... it just really wasn't made for playing on anything but single player or a LAN....
Well, shorter wouldn't have hurt. I'd have to say I agree, sadly. I usually want games to last longer, but... well... I did enjoy Doom 3, but I could only play it for short periods of time in a sitting because it got boring/monotonous too fast.
Honestly, the graphics were great, and the demons did do some sneaky/scary things, but generally... it was fairly predictable. "Hmm, a full armor... if I get that they're going to launch 5 imps at me, yada yada..."
Oh well... I want co-op! I'm still annoyed about that.
No clue here... the pictures do add a fair bit to it though yeah. The original story reads like a story, albeit a decent one. The webpage comes off as a bit more real, though signs of the story are still there. When I was partway through the web version I thought they were going to accidently tap into an underground stream/water pocket or something like that...:)
No clue where the cave in the pictures is... I would guess the US as well, but eh who knows...
Not that I think it will happen all that soon either, but would they really need to tear out the entire lanes? Surely it would be possible to just use some sort of rolling system to punch out holes and embed the magnets that way... for ashphalt at least. I mean, they cut out little patches in the centerlines for reflectors in some areas, and that's how they make rumblestrips too...
Er, well computerized systems will probably never be perfect.... but a computer can be a bit more in touch with whether each particular wheel is locked/spinning/hydroplaning and respond appropriately. Dunno about all situations, but I think I'd trust a properly designed system to get out of a slide/spin a lot better than most (forgetful) humans.
Well, unfortunately that doesn't work in JAJC either. It makes it appear to be one solid link, but clicking the link with %20 doesn't seem to do anything. When I read your post I thought "doh, why didn't I think of that before", but now that I've tried it again and thought further - I'm pretty sure we did try that before. In any event, I would still prefer to be able to enclose the whole thing in <>'s.
Funky... I would love a good quality jabber client. Yeah, I know there are some okay ones out there, but I haven't been thrilled with the amateur look/feeling/quality of most of them. One of my favourites featurewise is JAJC, but it has its own drawbacks too. I really wish the author would add support for brackets around URLs - there's no way to make a clickable url with a space right now. (rather useful for your work's intranet when you're discussing files in directories with spaces)
I'm sure something out of a company like google would be a bit better put together than most of the offerings. Maybe with a quick built in google search or something. Hell, those google context searches from email would be neat to turn on/off for conversations as well. When discussing programming issues with my coworkers, I would be thrilled to have the information searching/becoming available as we converse.
Uhhh, I don't recall seeing anything in his comment indicating opensourcing their new version of the game itself.... I read and reread his comment and as far as I can tell he was expressing admiration for and referring specifically to the game engine and tools - completely separate from the resurrection content....
Slashdot Mirror
I did have no real issue with the basic concept of Steam. Unlike its first incarnation, it seems relatively stable and usable now. Unfortunately, while I understand their wish to curb piracy, the whole lag and additional time on retail install was quite bad. I didn't experience too much of a delay on HL2 itself, though the unlocking process was a bit slow - but CS:Source wouldn't authorize for me. It took me something like 20+ tries here and there over a few days before it finally authorized properly and allowed me to play the game. As well, I'm a little pissed still that I have to have the CD in to play while the steam customers do not. That bothers me more than it connecting to steam every time you play.
Anyway, the game itself has been relatively fun if a bit repetative in spots. Just wondering though, are there any good (non-book) strategy guides anywhere yet? I haven't been able to find any yet, and I'm stuck in a firefight...
I would be an example of that. No other 3D game has caused motion sickness with me. For the first hour or two of playing HL2 it was causing mild motion sickness, though I think it's worn off mostly now as I've gotten used to it.
I'm not really sure what the cause of it is, though I was thinking it felt a little like the POV was smaller than I was used to - like my vision was mashed up really close to everything. I don't think it helps that when you pick something up/use the gravity gun, it pulls it *right* up in front of your face and occupies a large area. That has been driving me nuts....
Too bad, that was a pretty fun game multiplayer. Flaming monkeys!
Well, the difference of course being that gas lines are already widely used/tested. They're usually buried, whereas this might be above ground within easy reach of mistakes/damage. The gas line/furnace in a school are set up and run without being touched constantly except for maintenance when there's a problem.
Still, I don't think this would be that much worse than stations with propane tanks. Maybe they should do and release some testing on propane/hydrogen tank fires...
That was pissing me off for a while. I really dislike bittorrent. My ISP is anal about any large amount of uploading, and having it saturate my entire up cap of bandwidth while I'm trying to do other stuff was a pain in the ass too. I finally solved the problem by finding/using Netlimiter to limit my up speed for the download client to something sane.
Well, I don't know where the OP is, but that is legal in Canada, at least I think it is still for mp3s. If we borrow a cd from a friend, we're allowed to burn ourselves a copy of it for personal use (but they're not legally allowed to just give us a copy). It's a weird distinction, but there yah go.
I like all of those, but I've had a rather bad case of spyware lately which they couldn't seem to get rid of. Oh, they'd all find bits and pieces, but it seemed like either they weren't finding whatever was the real cause and downloading bargainbuddy/etc, or they couldn't detect it properly when pieces were missing.
I finally ended up trying giant antiSpyware and it cleaned up a combination of 48 different files/registry keys/etc that the others weren't finding. Of course, that software isn't free and I wouldn't be surprised to see it go the way of all the others, but it impressed me anyway.
I'll concede that as a valid point. However, that is only part of the original point you made. The other part was what I was actually responding to.
:) Personally, I look forward to larger content formats... and buying new hardware is the price of that.
"I get to ditch all my DVDs and the machines that can read them! W00T!"
You are saying that your old discs would be useless, which is most likely not the case.
In any event, it doesn't matter either way I guess
It's hardly magical if you're able to read the specs for the player/writer before you buy them. If you bother to pay any attention to what player/writer you buy, and what/how you've already burned your dvds, then it's a non-issue. As far as regular dvd movies go - they're pretty much a moot point. It would be incredibly dumb of the manufacturers to add dvd support and not support the particular standard they use.
I know this is slashdot, but you didn't happen to RTFA did you? Supposedly, most of the Blu-ray devices set to come out into the market have compatibility with DVD built in now.
Bah...
"we tweaked one or two values/models but the gameplay is almost exactly the same" does not a true mod make. We'll see what happens now that the SDK is out, but those mods are for the most part boring. That's also ignoring how most of those have been out since like 5-10 days after its release.
So its the reader who's at fault the author wrote a bad book?
No, it isn't the reader's fault the book is bad, but it is their fault they bought it. If they skimmed the book and it was bad, and bought it anyway... tough luck. If they bought it blindly out of impatience then once again, tough luck. It sucks but that's the reality of it. It should have been pretty obvious from reviews/etc what it was like.
Of course, if it changes halfway through then that's another story... but honestly, the "book" of Doom3 was pretty much the same all the way through. It did get boring at times, but it wasn't from the gameplay changing.
Right, because a) I do so much batch programming that I have the syntax memorized (I still use XP for games), and b) that's so convenient when you connect to a new mod type you haven't played before and it creates the new directory, downloads the modfiles, and asks you for a key (well, with the smaller modtypes anyway - with bigger mods I know you have to download/install it separately anyway).
So no it isn't that hard, but that's ignoring the main point. That is, yes it is a stupid design and it is annoying when it could have been done differently/better very easily.
id has made some neat games, but their interface/etc design decisions have been lacking in some areas.
Well, Rutan and crew covered the passenger requirements for the X-prize (except the pilot) with random personal objects equivalent in weight to the required passenger weight. I can't see why that couldn't/wouldn't continue until a design has a proven track record.
It creates a "doomkey" file in the base directory when it is run and you enter the key for the first time. I would imagine the linux version would have asked for the key if that had not been there. This is exactly how it was done with quake3.
With that in mind... I wonder if they have it fixed this time so it doesn't need a copy of the key file in every mod directory you play in. I always thought that was incredibly dumb. (It would ask you for the key everytime you played a new mod...)
The Texas Giant rocks. I went to SFoT when I was 13 or so... had never been on a rollercoaster before, and my friend dragged me over and took me on that first. I was shaking a few hours afterwards. Yikes. I love that thing though :)
Maybe, who knows.... honestly, I would be happy to play it online, if it didn't lag so brutally in the process... it just really wasn't made for playing on anything but single player or a LAN....
Well, shorter wouldn't have hurt. I'd have to say I agree, sadly. I usually want games to last longer, but... well... I did enjoy Doom 3, but I could only play it for short periods of time in a sitting because it got boring/monotonous too fast.
Honestly, the graphics were great, and the demons did do some sneaky/scary things, but generally... it was fairly predictable. "Hmm, a full armor... if I get that they're going to launch 5 imps at me, yada yada..."
Oh well... I want co-op! I'm still annoyed about that.
No clue here... the pictures do add a fair bit to it though yeah. The original story reads like a story, albeit a decent one. The webpage comes off as a bit more real, though signs of the story are still there. When I was partway through the web version I thought they were going to accidently tap into an underground stream/water pocket or something like that... :)
No clue where the cave in the pictures is... I would guess the US as well, but eh who knows...
That was an interesting read.... it's just a story though, the original seems to be a story written by Thomas Lera, as seen here in pdf format.
Not that I think it will happen all that soon either, but would they really need to tear out the entire lanes? Surely it would be possible to just use some sort of rolling system to punch out holes and embed the magnets that way... for ashphalt at least. I mean, they cut out little patches in the centerlines for reflectors in some areas, and that's how they make rumblestrips too...
Er, well computerized systems will probably never be perfect.... but a computer can be a bit more in touch with whether each particular wheel is locked/spinning/hydroplaning and respond appropriately. Dunno about all situations, but I think I'd trust a properly designed system to get out of a slide/spin a lot better than most (forgetful) humans.
Well, unfortunately that doesn't work in JAJC either. It makes it appear to be one solid link, but clicking the link with %20 doesn't seem to do anything. When I read your post I thought "doh, why didn't I think of that before", but now that I've tried it again and thought further - I'm pretty sure we did try that before. In any event, I would still prefer to be able to enclose the whole thing in <>'s.
:)
Thanks anyway though.
Funky... I would love a good quality jabber client. Yeah, I know there are some okay ones out there, but I haven't been thrilled with the amateur look/feeling/quality of most of them. One of my favourites featurewise is JAJC, but it has its own drawbacks too. I really wish the author would add support for brackets around URLs - there's no way to make a clickable url with a space right now. (rather useful for your work's intranet when you're discussing files in directories with spaces)
I'm sure something out of a company like google would be a bit better put together than most of the offerings. Maybe with a quick built in google search or something. Hell, those google context searches from email would be neat to turn on/off for conversations as well. When discussing programming issues with my coworkers, I would be thrilled to have the information searching/becoming available as we converse.
Uhhh, I don't recall seeing anything in his comment indicating opensourcing their new version of the game itself.... I read and reread his comment and as far as I can tell he was expressing admiration for and referring specifically to the game engine and tools - completely separate from the resurrection content....