Damn, that was a good game. I played the Sinclair Spectrum version, which obviously suffered a bit in the color-graphics department, but the gameplay still rocked. I'm going to have to dig that one up....
P.
And Oscar Wilde, along with GB Shaw should probably be up there with Shakespeare among England's finest playwrights.
Well, they might be, if either of them were English. They're both Irish, and so am I; we tend to get testy about England claiming any Irishman who isn't a terrorist.
Finest playwrights in English, and I'll agree with you (on Wilde at least).
You know what that means? That means I have wiped entire civilizations off my chest with a gray gym sock. I've tossed universes in my underpants. While napping. That is special.
Umm, why hasn't anyone modded this Funny? Grandmother's eyes swelling in envy at being able to leave a computer on for two years? This is Swiftian satire at its finest.
Is Slashdot destined to be be have endless pointless updates to this particular story ("Linux for iPod now supports a new font")? Why not come back when the damn thing actually does something useful?
I took the tour of the game on the website, showing a series of screenshots; the game comes across as a cross between Yahoo! Weather and Microsoft Excel.
Some bits struck me as pointless; for example, a map of your continent by night showing you how urban centers are scattered; most people in the world don't instinctively have this knowledge and I'm not sure why they feel they should show it.
It'd be far more interesting for such a game to be immersive, preferably first-person, where you can see through the eyes of the characters, perform their daily tasks, see the world as they see it.
#apt-get install openoffice.org is _less_ um, squirrelly (I haven't a clue what that means, I presume it's some weird-assed acronym for "less usable") than turning on a check button?
Even if the above command is printed on the actual CD itself (which still means writing it down before you insert the CD into the PC), there's still a good chance a user will mistype the command and get frustrated.
Linux is nowhere ready for the mainstream unless it offers both command line and GUI methods for all functionality. Period. There should be an auto-mod down for every geek who posts an article along the lines of "Doing X is quite easy; all you have to do is type..." followed by several lines of jargon-filled script that no normal person will memorise.
No, the difference between a car, or a toaster and a PC is significant. A PC is a interactive learning device.
To you, it may be. To others (the kinds of people who probably don't use binary for their usernames), it simply a way of checking email and writing essays while listening to some music.
>> Music industry crisis no. 724 << It's all about the Benjamins
Telstar Records brought us such classics as Chris Tarrant's mix album, Pan Pipe Moods and a single by Hunter from Gladiators, so we're sad to see them go into liquidation this week. Co-chairman Neil Palmre claimed it "Reflects the very serious problems the industry as a whole is experiencing."
But maybe it more accurately reflects a few other factors:
1. Telstar's A&R department spent a reputed £22 million in the last three years. Who did they sign? Er... B*witched, Vinnie Jones, Claire Sweeney and Victoria Beckham. 2. The company car park was jammed full of Aston Martins, Porsches and Bentleys. 3. Telstar spent £65,000 on a party just to mark co-chairman Sean O'Brien's 50th birthday last year. Sean wasn't even around for this debacle - he's in Barbados for a couple of months. 4. Damon Dash is still chasing them for $1 million studio costs for Posh's ultra-expensive album.
I think the insane spending habits of the record industry during what is pretty much a recession may have a wee bit to do with it.
From today's PopBitch (scurrilous UK gossip email bulletin):
Telstar's A&R department spent a reputed 22 million in the last three years. Who did they sign? Er... B*witched, Vinnie Jones, Claire Sweeney and Victoria Beckham.
In Italy, 30 people have already been charged with copyright infringement, while computers and files have been seized as evidence.
There seems to have been almost no comment on this disturbing aspect. Who performed the raid and seizure - police? If so, is uploading songs now not only a matter for civil action, but a criminal activity? Were the people raided counterfeiters, or simply your average garden-variety music uploaders?
Considering the fuss in the USA over people being sued, I would hope that Europeans will be outraged when grandparents and twelve-year-olds are having their homes raided and PCs seized.
The regenerating shield bar, and limiting your weapons - two features that are now becoming standard.
Two minor features (I mean, if the replenishing shield
and/or weapons limit were removed, would it be substantially a
different game?) do not a game make, never mind a supposedly
genre-shattering game. I'm really trying hard to see what makes
this game revolutionary, and I honestly can't see it.
The graphics were quite outstanding for its time, too - nothing then had particularly successfully done bumpmapping, and the enviroments were huge, with very very little popup or fogging, and some very nice high res textures.
Huge environments? About as big as Unreal, a game which it
much reminded me of. And even that 6 year old game had much more
variety in its environments. And most importantly, atmosphere.
I never got the impression with Halo I was in an alien world.
The only unique touch (one I liked) were the whimsical chapter
headings (any fans of Iain Banks among the Bungie crew, I wonder?).
For huge environments, see the current Far Cry. Again, not a game
I'm enamoured with (at least, with the demo), but it's taken the
meaning of huge environments a whole quantum leap ahead, far bigger than
any Halo made. I still wouldn't give it 10/10 for that.
High-res textures? I really must be seeing a different game.
I thought the models were nice, and Master Chief/vehicles had great shapes
but the textures awfully bland looking. (On the other hand, I thought
the aliens were naff.)
The controls (although not a patch on keyboard and mouse) successfully allowed the pretty much PC-only genre to move to new platforms - something many, many, people dont notice is that it will auto track a distant moving enemy if you leave the sticks alone - a little change that you dont notice but which greatly helps the controls.
Auto-tracking? Oh god. I consider that a bug not a feature. It's up to
console makers to provide a decent FPS peripheral rather than games
makers to provide users with the equivalent of training wheels that they
never have to take off ("Look at little Johnny! He can cycle!"). Anyway,
auto-tracking was a feature 6 years ago - in Half-Life.
I'm really trying hard not to be negative but.. well, as you can see,
I am. Sorry.
If I remember correctly (it IS a long time ago, now) both Deus Ex and Half-Life got 9/10, which as I said is outstanding. Half-Life didnt really move anything other than plot and atmosphere along (although I must say it is one of my favourites), and Deus Ex was very, very good (another favourite), but again the graphic engine hasnt quite stood up to the ravages of time, and the RPG-like elements havent been taken up by many (if any) other games.
As for Deus Ex, it shouldn't matter that the graphics don't hold up now -
that's happens with PC games, such is the relentless drive for
more and more graphical power. My PC, which was almost absolute-top-
of-the-range two years, cannot play Deux Ex 2 at all.
Games should be reviewed based on their era. Possibly it's unfair to hold up Halo to the current standard#
of graphics, as the PC release was two years after the XBox, but even so,
if they release a game now, they should be willing to be reviewed based
on current criteria.
The fact that the unique features of Deus Ex weren't taken up speaks for
the conservatism of the games industry and, yes, players. Sadly, Deus Ex
didn't sell that well, therefore no other companies out there thought that
it was a winning formula to copy. Ironically, the creators themselves
obviously thought this, hence the poor reviews of Deux Ex 2 due to the
dumbing-down of the whole RPG aspect.
Simply means its genre-changing. Many developers have taken elements of Halo and applied them to their games - the limit of 4 weapons in FarCry, and the regenerating shield in Mace Griffin (ok, not the best example
Halo? A 10? A standard for "All later games held against"? Don't get me wrong; I borrowed it from a friend, and quite enjoyed it, but even for the time it came out two years ago, it was hardly revolutionary.
Graphically, it's average for its time, with some nice bump-mapping effects but plain textures. And it's very repetitive; you will see the same layout of room approximately fifty times. As a shooter, it's rather shallow, with little or no interaction with the environment apart from shooting it.
As a pure shooter, it's unsatisfying, as your main weapon appears to be a rather loud peashooter. (The one-button grenade system is nice though.)
I don't want to be seen to slag it off too much; as I'll admit, I liked it. But once I finished the single-player game, I was pretty sure I'd never go back to it again. I really would be interested to know what the Edge thought was genuinely different about it. I can understand XBox owners excitement it, as it was (AFAIK) the first good game for that platform.
But seriously, Halo with a 10? No "Deus Ex"? No "Half-Life"? This only confirms to me the Edge's reputation as a cloyingly-hip magazine enamoured with consoles and twee repetitive Japanese games, and with a blind spot for genuinely innovative games on the poor old PC.
>Okay, i love linux and i try to get everyone i >can interested in it. The problem is convincing >gamers. "But linux doesn't support direct X" >they always say.
Actually, I imagine that the first thing they always say is "Sure - what games can I play on it right now"?
Linux will become a gaming platform only when there are enough Linux users out there for the main developers to justify developing games on Linux. Period.
P.
I could be an innate Luddite (and anyone with a thousand books in their small apartment could probably be accused of that), but despite I am incredibly stingy with my online spending, I always pay for a PC games mag every month (the very one that Kieron was a regular contributer to in fact), since I like reading either on the go or over dinner - i.e., not on a computer. Reading newspapers on a PDA is fine, but for games reviews, I really do prefer full-colour glossiness. And even with broadband, a DVD of demos and mods is welcome.
As a music-loving Spectrum-owning kid in the 80s, I'm staggered I've never heard of this phenonmena before. I take my hat off to the author, though perhaps memories of a Shakin' Steven game should have been forever buried.
Does anyone else remember the rather surreal Frankie Goes to Hollywood game, which was probably the most successful music-computer game tie-in?
I'm sure it should be on a list of guilty pleasures, but I loved that album as a kid. The artwork was great, and there were some great songs on it (a little cheesy, but hey). "Spirit of Man" is possibly the only David Essex song that straight men will admit to have liked...
We'll build shops and hospitals and barracks right under their noses - right under their
feet! Everything we need - banks, prisons and schools... We'll send scouting parties to
collect books and stuff, and men like you'll teach the kids. Not poems and rubbish -
science, so we can get everything working. We'll build villages and towns and... and...
we'll play each other at cricket! Listen, maybe one day we'll capture a Fighting Machine,
eh? Learn how to make 'em ourselves and then wallop! Our turn to do some wiping out!
Whoosh with our Heat Ray - Whoosh! And them running and dying, beaten at their own
game. Man on top again!
I'm confused about exactly what they are making a film of:
a film of the original novel, or
a film of the radio series of the original novel
I'd love to see an authentically Victorian-decoed version of the original novel in the original setting, but not a remake of one set in the US. No disrepect to the US geeks here, but the Aliens-Invade-Uncle-Sam storyline has been done way too many times by now.
I'd rather to see stiff-upper-lipped men in scarlet jerkins taking on the Hun From Space! "Zulu" meets "The League of Extraordinary Gentlement" (albeit with a better script).
"Martians... thousands of 'em. Wait 'til you see the greens of their tentacles, boys, before you strike!"
This is nothing new at all; I remember home computer games magazines back in the Eighties, specifically for the UK Sinclair Spectrum, and they often used adverts with scantily clad women, including an infamous one by a Page 3 model for the game "Barbarian". One of the biggest selling games was strip poker based on another page 3 model; to be fair to thw PC game market, nothing like that would get into the top 100 these days (or so I hope). On the whole, I'd say the market is less sexist, but that probably has more to do with changing times.
Yeah, I loved was how the Paris catacombs in "Deus Ex" - or at least the entrance - resembled the real-life one, which I had visited about 2 weeks before seeing it in the game itself, down to using photos of the real-life one for textures.
Obviously, the resemblance ended with the presence of cyborg UNATCO commandos and greating hulking robot sentries....
Slashdot Mirror
Damn, that was a good game. I played the Sinclair Spectrum version, which obviously suffered a bit in the color-graphics department, but the gameplay still rocked. I'm going to have to dig that one up.... P.
Well, they might be, if either of them were English. They're both Irish, and so am I; we tend to get testy about England claiming any Irishman who isn't a terrorist.
Finest playwrights in English, and I'll agree with you (on Wilde at least).
P.
Last time I was in Malaysia, you could get most software you wanted for 5 ringgit (US$1) a CD.
Oh wait, you said licensed....
P.
A cynical friend of mine came up with this gem a long while back:
http://meejalab.tripod.com/
P.
...the killer app to persuade me to wipe my harddrive and install Linux. Or perhaps I should wait for the port of Hooters Road Trip? P.
Umm, why hasn't anyone modded this Funny? Grandmother's eyes swelling in envy at being able to leave a computer on for two years? This is Swiftian satire at its finest.
P.
Is Slashdot destined to be be have endless pointless updates to this particular story ("Linux for iPod now supports a new font")? Why not come back when the damn thing actually does something useful?
Pl.
I took the tour of the game on the website, showing a series of screenshots; the game comes across as a cross between Yahoo! Weather and Microsoft Excel.
Some bits struck me as pointless; for example, a map of your continent by night showing you how urban centers are scattered; most people in the world don't instinctively have this knowledge and I'm not sure why they feel they should show it.
It'd be far more interesting for such a game to be immersive, preferably first-person, where you can see through the eyes of the characters, perform their daily tasks, see the world as they see it.
P.
Even if the above command is printed on the actual CD itself (which still means writing it down before you insert the CD into the PC), there's still a good chance a user will mistype the command and get frustrated.
Linux is nowhere ready for the mainstream unless it offers both command line and GUI methods for all functionality. Period. There should be an auto-mod down for every geek who posts an article along the lines of "Doing X is quite easy; all you have to do is type..." followed by several lines of jargon-filled script that no normal person will memorise.
P.
To you, it may be. To others (the kinds of people who probably don't use binary for their usernames), it simply a way of checking email and writing essays while listening to some music.
P.
I think the insane spending habits of the record industry during what is pretty much a recession may have a wee bit to do with it.
P.
From today's PopBitch (scurrilous UK gossip email bulletin):
Says it all really.
P
From the BBC:
There seems to have been almost no comment on this disturbing aspect. Who performed the raid and seizure - police? If so, is uploading songs now not only a matter for civil action, but a criminal activity? Were the people raided counterfeiters, or simply your average garden-variety music uploaders?
Considering the fuss in the USA over people being sued, I would hope that Europeans will be outraged when grandparents and twelve-year-olds are having their homes raided and PCs seized.
P.
Two minor features (I mean, if the replenishing shield and/or weapons limit were removed, would it be substantially a different game?) do not a game make, never mind a supposedly genre-shattering game. I'm really trying hard to see what makes this game revolutionary, and I honestly can't see it.
Huge environments? About as big as Unreal, a game which it much reminded me of. And even that 6 year old game had much more variety in its environments. And most importantly, atmosphere. I never got the impression with Halo I was in an alien world. The only unique touch (one I liked) were the whimsical chapter headings (any fans of Iain Banks among the Bungie crew, I wonder?). For huge environments, see the current Far Cry. Again, not a game I'm enamoured with (at least, with the demo), but it's taken the meaning of huge environments a whole quantum leap ahead, far bigger than any Halo made. I still wouldn't give it 10/10 for that. High-res textures? I really must be seeing a different game. I thought the models were nice, and Master Chief/vehicles had great shapes but the textures awfully bland looking. (On the other hand, I thought the aliens were naff.)
Auto-tracking? Oh god. I consider that a bug not a feature. It's up to console makers to provide a decent FPS peripheral rather than games makers to provide users with the equivalent of training wheels that they never have to take off ("Look at little Johnny! He can cycle!"). Anyway, auto-tracking was a feature 6 years ago - in Half-Life. I'm really trying hard not to be negative but.. well, as you can see, I am. Sorry.
As for Deus Ex, it shouldn't matter that the graphics don't hold up now - that's happens with PC games, such is the relentless drive for more and more graphical power. My PC, which was almost absolute-top- of-the-range two years, cannot play Deux Ex 2 at all. Games should be reviewed based on their era. Possibly it's unfair to hold up Halo to the current standard# of graphics, as the PC release was two years after the XBox, but even so, if they release a game now, they should be willing to be reviewed based on current criteria. The fact that the unique features of Deus Ex weren't taken up speaks for the conservatism of the games industry and, yes, players. Sadly, Deus Ex didn't sell that well, therefore no other companies out there thought that it was a winning formula to copy. Ironically, the creators themselves obviously thought this, hence the poor reviews of Deux Ex 2 due to the dumbing-down of the whole RPG aspect.
Halo? A 10? A standard for "All later games held against"? Don't get me wrong; I borrowed it from a friend, and quite enjoyed it, but even for the time it came out two years ago, it was hardly revolutionary.
Graphically, it's average for its time, with some nice bump-mapping effects but plain textures. And it's very repetitive; you will see the same layout of room approximately fifty times. As a shooter, it's rather shallow, with little or no interaction with the environment apart from shooting it.
As a pure shooter, it's unsatisfying, as your main weapon appears to be a rather loud peashooter. (The one-button grenade system is nice though.)
I don't want to be seen to slag it off too much;
as I'll admit, I liked it. But once I finished the single-player game, I was pretty sure I'd never go back to it again. I really would be interested to know what the Edge thought was genuinely different about it. I can understand XBox owners excitement it, as it was (AFAIK) the first good game for that platform.
But seriously, Halo with a 10? No "Deus Ex"? No "Half-Life"? This only confirms to me the Edge's reputation as a cloyingly-hip magazine enamoured with consoles and twee repetitive Japanese games, and with a blind spot for genuinely innovative games on the poor old PC.
P.
>Okay, i love linux and i try to get everyone i >can interested in it. The problem is convincing >gamers. "But linux doesn't support direct X" >they always say. Actually, I imagine that the first thing they always say is "Sure - what games can I play on it right now"? Linux will become a gaming platform only when there are enough Linux users out there for the main developers to justify developing games on Linux. Period. P.
Does any know who what the music track in the trailer is?
Hmmm, if suing is educational, then hanging, drawing and quartering would be the equivalent of a college degree.
For symbolism, the cutting of the "privy parts" should be done with the sharpened edge of a CD.
P.
I could be an innate Luddite (and anyone with a thousand books in their small apartment could probably be accused of that), but despite I am incredibly stingy with my online spending, I always pay for a PC games mag every month (the very one that Kieron was a regular contributer to in fact), since I like reading either on the go or over dinner - i.e., not on a computer. Reading newspapers on a PDA is fine, but for games reviews, I really do prefer full-colour glossiness. And even with broadband, a DVD of demos and mods is welcome.
P.
As a music-loving Spectrum-owning kid in the 80s, I'm staggered I've never heard of this phenonmena before. I take my hat off to the author, though perhaps memories of a Shakin' Steven game should have been forever buried.
Does anyone else remember the rather surreal Frankie Goes to Hollywood game, which was probably the most successful music-computer game tie-in?
P.
We'll build shops and hospitals and barracks right under their noses - right under their feet! Everything we need - banks, prisons and schools... We'll send scouting parties to collect books and stuff, and men like you'll teach the kids. Not poems and rubbish - science, so we can get everything working. We'll build villages and towns and... and... we'll play each other at cricket! Listen, maybe one day we'll capture a Fighting Machine, eh? Learn how to make 'em ourselves and then wallop! Our turn to do some wiping out! Whoosh with our Heat Ray - Whoosh! And them running and dying, beaten at their own game. Man on top again!
I'm confused about exactly what they are making a film of:
- a film of the original novel, or
- a film of the radio series of the original novel
I'd love to see an authentically Victorian-decoed version of the original novel in the original setting, but not a remake of one set in the US. No disrepect to the US geeks here, but the Aliens-Invade-Uncle-Sam storyline has been done way too many times by now.I'd rather to see stiff-upper-lipped men in scarlet jerkins taking on the Hun From Space! "Zulu" meets "The League of Extraordinary Gentlement" (albeit with a better script).
"Martians... thousands of 'em. Wait 'til you see the greens of their tentacles, boys, before you strike!"
P.
This is nothing new at all; I remember home computer games magazines back in the Eighties, specifically for the UK Sinclair Spectrum, and they often used adverts with scantily clad women, including an infamous one by a Page 3 model for the game "Barbarian". One of the biggest selling games was strip poker based on another page 3 model; to be fair to thw PC game market, nothing like that would get into the top 100 these days (or so I hope). On the whole, I'd say the market is less sexist, but that probably has more to do with changing times.
P.
Yeah, I loved was how the Paris catacombs in "Deus Ex" - or at least the entrance - resembled the real-life one, which I had visited
about 2 weeks before seeing it in the game itself, down to using photos of the real-life one for textures.
Obviously, the resemblance ended with the
presence of cyborg UNATCO commandos and greating
hulking robot sentries....
P.