You know, you're not stuck with everything you currently own. You can *sell* things...like the old console. I haven't sold any of my old consoles (NES, SNES) because I can only play games on them (or an emulator), as well as nostalgia value, but if I had a PS1 and bought a PS2, I'd more than likely sell my PS1, since I won't be losing any functionality. When buying a PS2, you'd be getting a PS1 and a PS2 for one reasonable price.
I think that backward compatibility is a very nice option. It gives me a feeling of "upgrading" instead of just buying another console. It's part of the reason that I quit buying/playing consoles during the 64bit days and have only recently gotten back onto the console bandwagon with a GC and soon a PS2 as well (just for all the games that is available from both PS2/1). Right now I have a NES, SNES and GC hooked up to my TV. Hopefully the next Nintendo machine will be backward compatible as well. Otherwise, I'll eventually run out of room.
Compare this to PCs. If you lost the ability to play older games when you upgraded your computer or bought a new one, you'd have to either keep the older computer or sell it and be limited to games that have come out since the components or computer you bought. This is another reason why I prefer PC gaming. I can (and do) still play Doom, Wolfenstein, and the like. Now if I could just play my old (PCjr) Sierra games, I'd be happy.:)
You don't need backward compatibility to simply play old PS2 games. That's just normal functioning. Consoles don't evolve in their game formats or anything.
Well, the US is *too* socialist for my taste, but Europe (and Canada) is generally more so. Your analogy seems poor to me. For instance, heat energy is all the same, but would you call -10 (C or F) hot? No, but it means that there is a certain amount of heat there, since it's not 0 K. It is relative. It seems that having very dominant social programs and taxing the hell out of the citizens to support that is socialism. The US unfortunately has some socialist traits, but not nearly as strong as other places. I, for instance, would like to see a severe decrease in social programs and flat income taxes (ie, you pay the same percentage regardless of income).
And I'm aware that the USSR never made it to theoretical perfect communism, but they were far beyond socialist.
I guess it's all relative. The governments of most European countries seem very socialist to me. I'm sorry, but if I want to give a portion of my income to the poor, I'll choose to do so, not have the government take whatever it likes out of my paycheck. That's what charities are for.
Anyway, my point is that no government is a perfect example of one type. It's all a sliding scale from anarchy to totalitarianism, conservatism to liberalism, capitalism to communism.
No, that would be communism, which is different from socialism. What you call social democracy would be called socialism here. Notice the very similar terms? Social democracy would just be a specific brand of socialism that is a democracy.
I agree, but instead of getting carpal-tunnel syndrome, you can also just hit CTRL-F4 to close the current tab or you can simply right click the tab and pick close. Moving the mouse cursor all the way up to the upper right of your screen every time you want to close a tab seems like a big pain in the @$$ to me.
I find it very handy. I'd rather have one browser window open with multiple tabs than many windows open. You can open links with a middle click and have them load in the background and save them until you get done reading the page you're on. You can easily cycle through them (CTRL-TAB) without having to go through unrelated windows for other applications. You can bookmark a group of related tabs together and open them all up at once. (news sites and the like that you check every day, for instance) And in all seriousness, it's also handy for pr0n-viewing.
It takes some getting used to, but since I have tried it, I wouldn't ever go back. I find it a much more efficient way of working. I'm glad it has the confirm before closing the window, as I used to close all my tabs all the time. 1.8a also has a confirm for the "close all other tabs" option.
Oh, bullcrap. Canada is socialist because of socialized medicine, the insanely high taxes and the like. A country can be non-USA all it wants, and I won't call it socialist unless it is. If a country has very high taxes and the government then redistributes that tax money as it sees fit, thus leading the people to look to the government to be taken care of, I'd call that socialist.
Note that I have nothing against people from Canada or any other country. In fact, I married a Canadian. Her latent anti-Americanism (which sadly seems to be common among Canadians) caused some tension, but oddly, now she's into guns (used to hate them until I took her to the shooting range) and in the US Army...but that's another story.
I think music can be appreciated on a partial level. I think some music has good rhythms or bass, but I don't like the vocals at all. This is how I feel about NIN, Marilyn Manson, some of that "nu-metal" crap and some rap/hip-hop. It should be noted that the only NIN and Manson works I really like are the Quake soundtrack and the Resident Evil (movie) soundtrack, respectively. Which, of course have no vocals. I was particularly impressed with Manson's work on RE, as I had no idea that it was him until I watched interviews--and I had no idea he could score a film as well as he did. I have more respect for him as a musician now.
Of course, I pay very little attention to lyrics. I often don't know the lyrics to some of my favorite songs. To me, the sound of the music--including vocals--is more important than lyrics.
I guess it hasn't been officially released, but 1.8a1 is out as well. I'm using it right now. I have had no problems with it and it adds a very handy confirmation dialog to the "close all other tabs" option. I've accidentally closed about ten tabs I wanted to keep open and kept the one I wanted to close several times, so I'm glad for this feature. Anyway, it may be alpha, but seems stable to me.
Tactis are used in battles. They are specific to the time period, level of technology and terrain in which a battle is being fought. It is the art of using soldiers to win a battle. Strategy is large-scale; it deals in whole armies, divisions, countries, and the like (from a military perspective). It is using battles to win a war.
Ever wonder why strategic classics like Sun Tzu's Art of War are still read today? Good strategic principles, being abstract and relatively timeless, can be applied to almost any area of one's life or any pursuit. On the other hand a book, no matter how detailed or well-written, about tactics would probably not be read 100 years later except by historians.
Almost every "real-time strategy" game I've seen should instead be called "real-time tactics". The only strategic element in games like Warcraft and C&C is the resource economy and decisions about what to build next. All the combat is at the tactical level. An example of actual real-time strategy is Europa Universalis (technically it is real-time, although you can change the speed and pause).
I've never played any of these RPGs, but unless your character is a general and you're leading whole armies, divisions, or the like, the combat at least is tactical, not strategic. Strategic elements common in RPGs are deciding how to develop and equip your character(s).
I know some of you may think I'm nitpicking, but it is a pretty big distinction if you think about it. They are two different skills/sciences/arts and it is easy to be good at one while bad at the other.
So please get it right, people. Thanks for your attention. We now return to your regularly scheduled Slashdot silliness.
Re:What this really means ... ;-)
on
POV-Ray 3.6 Released
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I really don't think that game graphics are anywhere near the level of high-quality raytraced images. If I'm wrong, please post screenshots. The graphics in Far Cry, as an example, are the best I've seen, but not as good as quality ray-traced images.
I don't know if you know this, but the methods of raytracing and those used in 3D games are pretty different in how they work, from what I understand. Raytracing is also quite different from most 3D rendering applications. POVRay uses relatively "pure" mathematical models rather than models made of just tons of triangles, from what I understand (I'm admitedly pretty new to 3D graphics, though). It has some really amazing light modeling as well. I don't know if it could be done to make raytracing work in OpenGL or D3D or anything like that. It will probably be quite a few years before raytracing can be done in real time. Eventually, and probably within my lifetime (I'm 24), computer game graphics will reach or very closely approach photorealism, though. And I can't wait.
Also, POV can generate animation, though I haven't gotten it to work yet, as I've only been working in POVRay for a little while. I've been having lots of fun tinkering and studying it, however.
Apparently I picked an excellent time to look into POVRay, as it was just after 3.6 had been released. In fact the Windows distribution was still buggy and wouldn't install so I had to go with 3.5. It must have been just that day that it was released.
Anyway, I was at first put-off by the lack of a visual interface ("how the f**k are you supposed to do all that with just text?!?"), but after messing around with Moray (a visual front-end for POV), I determined that I had fewer problems just typing it all in. I think it's my experience programming versus my lack of experience with doing anything in 3D other than a few Quake maps.
Of course, I'm still limited to doing very basic things, but I'm beginning to understand the power of POV--especially the fact that it's a complete language. I find it amazing that people have written macros that will automatically generate everything from trees to whole cities.
AA is supposed to be a realistic portrayal of US Army infantry. Infantry do not hop in and out of vehicles (not as the driver, anyway). If you're a truck driver or helo pilot, you drive/pilot a vehicle; if you're infantry, you don't.
This is the main reason I don't like BF games. I heard about the game and thought it would be cool, but when I realized that you can just jump on a ship and start driving it around, then jump off and into a jeep, and drive around like an idiot, I deleted the demo immediately. I thought there would be "classes" such as pilot, driver, infantry, etc, which would have been potentially cool.
Exactly. Noone is celebrating the fact that lots of people died. The fact that it was the single largest amphibious assault *ever* and that it worked, leading to the allied liberation of Europe (including Germany: many of the people/soldiers there just wanted the hell out of the war, but Hitler wouldn't let them) and the freeing of all the people in concentration/death camps. That is worth celebrating/remembering IMHO.
If it had failed, the war would have dragged on probably until the discovery and use of an atomic bomb on Germany. Japan almost kept fighting after two such bombs. I think that Hitler, in his megalomania, would have kept Germany fighting until the very end or until he was dead(obviously). Also, think about how many more people would have died in concentration camps in that time.
When I was a kid and I heard the term "D-Day" I assumed it was a bad day as well, as I assumed the "D" stood for "Doom". Later when I learned about history, I realized that it was a good day.
"A movie whose images and sound are synthesized entirely in the digital domain and not derived from images or sound from the physical world".
How 'bout that?
It's been done in music and art for quite a while, makes sense it would be done in movies now. I've heard some pretty good speech synthesis lately. Although, I guess making robot voices isn't all that hard.
"We are the robots. Doo doo de doo!" Bonus points to anyone who knows what the above line is from.
Yes, women seem to accept the double-standards when they're in their favor. In general, anyway; I'm sure there are exceptions.
My relationship with my ex-wife (admittedly not very healthy or normal) was very one-sided. She could do whatever she wanted but I couldn't. If I tried to bring this up (big mistake), of course, she rationalized some reason why her behavior was perfectly ok and that I was just a pig.
There really should be more girls like you. Then this wouldn't really be as much of an issue, since both people in the relationship could be playing games together (or at least at the same time).
My ex-wife said she was a gamer and a geek, but, dammit, she lied. I bought her a Gamecube and upgraded her computer so she could play games she wanted, which she did for about a month, then I was the only one playing the GC and she used the computer for nothing but chatting online. She of course got both after the divorce. Yes, I am bitter, why do you ask?
I was a tad bit disapointed at the ending too, but I thought the game was great.
But if not the Master Sword...what, the slave sword? Ba-dum-tshhhh! Thanks, I'll be here all week.
Seriously, I think Zelda is something you like or you don't. Yeah, they're all kind of the same, but that's the point. Link and Zelda keep getting reincarnated or whatever along with Gannon and the Master Sword must be found, the Triforce assembled, Zelda saved, and Gannon defeated. I mean, that's what Link does. I mean, I don't think a game about Link trying to start a successful business and Zelda trying to make it as an actress in Hyruly-wood would be much fun. And yes, I know that's a very silly example.
Personally, I thought the story for Wind Waker was pretty cool.
*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* DO NOT READ!!! IGNORE THE REST OF THIS POST!!! *SPOILER* *SPOILER*
<SPOILER> I liked how the world turned out to be a flooded version of the old world and how you got to visit Hyrule castle under the water. Thought that was a neat aspect of the story. </SPOILER>
And you know those creepy zombie-things? The ones that shriek and make link cower for a few seconds? Those are damn scary. They creeped me right out, which I didn't expect from a cel-shaded game.
While I'm at it, I'll give my input. I was kind of wary when I first saw/heard about it, but after I played it, I liked it a lot and got very used to it. I didn't even notice after a while, and I think the style worked. It certainly didn't ruin my enjoyment looking at a cel-shaded Link through the whole game. And as far as cel-shaded games go, it was very realistic. The mechanics, I mean. The way the water and wind moves and everything were gorgeous and very impressive. I was very impressed with Link's feet. If he was standing sideways halfway on a ledge a foot high or so, he would actually put one foot up on the ledge in a very natural way. He didn't just float at the level of the ledge like most games. I thought the combat system was well done and fairly deep also. It's like watching a high-quality cartoon, except it's interactive. Some of the characters were kinda goofy and the dancer guy was very...uhm..effiminate (as well as that weird Tingle fruitcake guy), but overall it was as mature as any Zelda game while being accessible to young'uns. Link has always looked cartoony/manga/anime, this is just a different style.
It wasn't made by id, as far as I know, id kind of supervised it. It was made by Gray Matter studios at the request of id. Similar to how Metroid Prime was a Nintendo game, but was made by Retro Studios, for instance.
I think think that Trent's ambient work was just what Quake needed. It was by far my favorite work by him. I didn't think it sounded like his normal work, so I don't know what you mean about a rut.
That being said, I never would have thought he could do a good soundtrack from hearing his previous work.
Why would you say Perfect Circle? The last thing Doom 3 needs is a rock music sound track. I think an ambient soundtrack by Trent would probably be good. (but I'm not a fan of the guy or NIN)
The best thing one can say about *any* soundtrack is that it fits the mood of the game/movie/whatever. That's the purpose of the soundtrack, not to wow people with your inspiration. If it does that too, then great, but first and formost it should fit and enhance the mood of the work.
There are other artists that I'd like to see doing a soundtrack for Doom (Skinny Puppy, Controlled Bleeding, etc), but if Trent's soundtrack to Doom3 (If he is still making it) is as good as the Quake soundtrack, I'll be happy. Hopefully there will be some dynamic music, also. Changing for combat, etc.
On the slightly off-topic note: while I'm even less of a fan of Marilyn Manson, I though his work on the Resident Evil (movie) soundtrack was fantastic. He's another artist I don't normally like that impressed me. He might also be able to do a good Doom3 soundtrack.
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You know, you're not stuck with everything you currently own. You can *sell* things...like the old console. I haven't sold any of my old consoles (NES, SNES) because I can only play games on them (or an emulator), as well as nostalgia value, but if I had a PS1 and bought a PS2, I'd more than likely sell my PS1, since I won't be losing any functionality. When buying a PS2, you'd be getting a PS1 and a PS2 for one reasonable price.
:)
I think that backward compatibility is a very nice option. It gives me a feeling of "upgrading" instead of just buying another console. It's part of the reason that I quit buying/playing consoles during the 64bit days and have only recently gotten back onto the console bandwagon with a GC and soon a PS2 as well (just for all the games that is available from both PS2/1). Right now I have a NES, SNES and GC hooked up to my TV. Hopefully the next Nintendo machine will be backward compatible as well. Otherwise, I'll eventually run out of room.
Compare this to PCs. If you lost the ability to play older games when you upgraded your computer or bought a new one, you'd have to either keep the older computer or sell it and be limited to games that have come out since the components or computer you bought. This is another reason why I prefer PC gaming. I can (and do) still play Doom, Wolfenstein, and the like. Now if I could just play my old (PCjr) Sierra games, I'd be happy.
?
You don't need backward compatibility to simply play old PS2 games. That's just normal functioning. Consoles don't evolve in their game formats or anything.
It means being able to play PS*1* games also.
I hope the PS2 thing was a typo.
Well, the US is *too* socialist for my taste, but Europe (and Canada) is generally more so. Your analogy seems poor to me. For instance, heat energy is all the same, but would you call -10 (C or F) hot? No, but it means that there is a certain amount of heat there, since it's not 0 K. It is relative. It seems that having very dominant social programs and taxing the hell out of the citizens to support that is socialism. The US unfortunately has some socialist traits, but not nearly as strong as other places. I, for instance, would like to see a severe decrease in social programs and flat income taxes (ie, you pay the same percentage regardless of income).
And I'm aware that the USSR never made it to theoretical perfect communism, but they were far beyond socialist.
I guess it's all relative. The governments of most European countries seem very socialist to me. I'm sorry, but if I want to give a portion of my income to the poor, I'll choose to do so, not have the government take whatever it likes out of my paycheck. That's what charities are for.
Anyway, my point is that no government is a perfect example of one type. It's all a sliding scale from anarchy to totalitarianism, conservatism to liberalism, capitalism to communism.
No, that would be communism, which is different from socialism. What you call social democracy would be called socialism here. Notice the very similar terms? Social democracy would just be a specific brand of socialism that is a democracy.
I agree, but instead of getting carpal-tunnel syndrome, you can also just hit CTRL-F4 to close the current tab or you can simply right click the tab and pick close. Moving the mouse cursor all the way up to the upper right of your screen every time you want to close a tab seems like a big pain in the @$$ to me.
I find it very handy. I'd rather have one browser window open with multiple tabs than many windows open. You can open links with a middle click and have them load in the background and save them until you get done reading the page you're on. You can easily cycle through them (CTRL-TAB) without having to go through unrelated windows for other applications. You can bookmark a group of related tabs together and open them all up at once. (news sites and the like that you check every day, for instance) And in all seriousness, it's also handy for pr0n-viewing.
It takes some getting used to, but since I have tried it, I wouldn't ever go back. I find it a much more efficient way of working. I'm glad it has the confirm before closing the window, as I used to close all my tabs all the time. 1.8a also has a confirm for the "close all other tabs" option.
Oh, bullcrap. Canada is socialist because of socialized medicine, the insanely high taxes and the like. A country can be non-USA all it wants, and I won't call it socialist unless it is. If a country has very high taxes and the government then redistributes that tax money as it sees fit, thus leading the people to look to the government to be taken care of, I'd call that socialist.
Note that I have nothing against people from Canada or any other country. In fact, I married a Canadian. Her latent anti-Americanism (which sadly seems to be common among Canadians) caused some tension, but oddly, now she's into guns (used to hate them until I took her to the shooting range) and in the US Army...but that's another story.
I think music can be appreciated on a partial level. I think some music has good rhythms or bass, but I don't like the vocals at all. This is how I feel about NIN, Marilyn Manson, some of that "nu-metal" crap and some rap/hip-hop. It should be noted that the only NIN and Manson works I really like are the Quake soundtrack and the Resident Evil (movie) soundtrack, respectively. Which, of course have no vocals. I was particularly impressed with Manson's work on RE, as I had no idea that it was him until I watched interviews--and I had no idea he could score a film as well as he did. I have more respect for him as a musician now.
Of course, I pay very little attention to lyrics. I often don't know the lyrics to some of my favorite songs. To me, the sound of the music--including vocals--is more important than lyrics.
I guess it hasn't been officially released, but 1.8a1 is out as well. I'm using it right now. I have had no problems with it and it adds a very handy confirmation dialog to the "close all other tabs" option. I've accidentally closed about ten tabs I wanted to keep open and kept the one I wanted to close several times, so I'm glad for this feature. Anyway, it may be alpha, but seems stable to me.
Tactis are used in battles. They are specific to the time period, level of technology and terrain in which a battle is being fought. It is the art of using soldiers to win a battle. Strategy is large-scale; it deals in whole armies, divisions, countries, and the like (from a military perspective). It is using battles to win a war.
Ever wonder why strategic classics like Sun Tzu's Art of War are still read today? Good strategic principles, being abstract and relatively timeless, can be applied to almost any area of one's life or any pursuit. On the other hand a book, no matter how detailed or well-written, about tactics would probably not be read 100 years later except by historians.
Almost every "real-time strategy" game I've seen should instead be called "real-time tactics". The only strategic element in games like Warcraft and C&C is the resource economy and decisions about what to build next. All the combat is at the tactical level. An example of actual real-time strategy is Europa Universalis (technically it is real-time, although you can change the speed and pause).
I've never played any of these RPGs, but unless your character is a general and you're leading whole armies, divisions, or the like, the combat at least is tactical, not strategic. Strategic elements common in RPGs are deciding how to develop and equip your character(s).
I know some of you may think I'm nitpicking, but it is a pretty big distinction if you think about it. They are two different skills/sciences/arts and it is easy to be good at one while bad at the other.
So please get it right, people. Thanks for your attention. We now return to your regularly scheduled Slashdot silliness.
I really don't think that game graphics are anywhere near the level of high-quality raytraced images. If I'm wrong, please post screenshots. The graphics in Far Cry, as an example, are the best I've seen, but not as good as quality ray-traced images.
I don't know if you know this, but the methods of raytracing and those used in 3D games are pretty different in how they work, from what I understand. Raytracing is also quite different from most 3D rendering applications. POVRay uses relatively "pure" mathematical models rather than models made of just tons of triangles, from what I understand (I'm admitedly pretty new to 3D graphics, though). It has some really amazing light modeling as well. I don't know if it could be done to make raytracing work in OpenGL or D3D or anything like that. It will probably be quite a few years before raytracing can be done in real time. Eventually, and probably within my lifetime (I'm 24), computer game graphics will reach or very closely approach photorealism, though. And I can't wait.
Also, POV can generate animation, though I haven't gotten it to work yet, as I've only been working in POVRay for a little while. I've been having lots of fun tinkering and studying it, however.
Apparently I picked an excellent time to look into POVRay, as it was just after 3.6 had been released. In fact the Windows distribution was still buggy and wouldn't install so I had to go with 3.5. It must have been just that day that it was released.
Anyway, I was at first put-off by the lack of a visual interface ("how the f**k are you supposed to do all that with just text?!?"), but after messing around with Moray (a visual front-end for POV), I determined that I had fewer problems just typing it all in. I think it's my experience programming versus my lack of experience with doing anything in 3D other than a few Quake maps.
Of course, I'm still limited to doing very basic things, but I'm beginning to understand the power of POV--especially the fact that it's a complete language. I find it amazing that people have written macros that will automatically generate everything from trees to whole cities.
Check out many other games written with AGS, like the KQ remakes (and make your own if you like) at http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/
There are tons of games there; I've only played a few so far. Also see the "No Action Jackson" game topic a few days ago.
AA is supposed to be a realistic portrayal of US Army infantry. Infantry do not hop in and out of vehicles (not as the driver, anyway). If you're a truck driver or helo pilot, you drive/pilot a vehicle; if you're infantry, you don't.
This is the main reason I don't like BF games. I heard about the game and thought it would be cool, but when I realized that you can just jump on a ship and start driving it around, then jump off and into a jeep, and drive around like an idiot, I deleted the demo immediately. I thought there would be "classes" such as pilot, driver, infantry, etc, which would have been potentially cool.
Exactly. Noone is celebrating the fact that lots of people died. The fact that it was the single largest amphibious assault *ever* and that it worked, leading to the allied liberation of Europe (including Germany: many of the people/soldiers there just wanted the hell out of the war, but Hitler wouldn't let them) and the freeing of all the people in concentration/death camps. That is worth celebrating/remembering IMHO.
If it had failed, the war would have dragged on probably until the discovery and use of an atomic bomb on Germany. Japan almost kept fighting after two such bombs. I think that Hitler, in his megalomania, would have kept Germany fighting until the very end or until he was dead(obviously). Also, think about how many more people would have died in concentration camps in that time.
When I was a kid and I heard the term "D-Day" I assumed it was a bad day as well, as I assumed the "D" stood for "Doom". Later when I learned about history, I realized that it was a good day.
"A movie whose images and sound are synthesized entirely in the digital domain and not derived from images or sound from the physical world".
How 'bout that?
It's been done in music and art for quite a while, makes sense it would be done in movies now. I've heard some pretty good speech synthesis lately. Although, I guess making robot voices isn't all that hard.
"We are the robots. Doo doo de doo!"
Bonus points to anyone who knows what the above line is from.
Yes, women seem to accept the double-standards when they're in their favor. In general, anyway; I'm sure there are exceptions.
My relationship with my ex-wife (admittedly not very healthy or normal) was very one-sided. She could do whatever she wanted but I couldn't. If I tried to bring this up (big mistake), of course, she rationalized some reason why her behavior was perfectly ok and that I was just a pig.
There really should be more girls like you. Then this wouldn't really be as much of an issue, since both people in the relationship could be playing games together (or at least at the same time).
My ex-wife said she was a gamer and a geek, but, dammit, she lied. I bought her a Gamecube and upgraded her computer so she could play games she wanted, which she did for about a month, then I was the only one playing the GC and she used the computer for nothing but chatting online. She of course got both after the divorce. Yes, I am bitter, why do you ask?
*hoping one day he meets a cool geek gamer chick*
Civilization 2 isn't historical, but Civ1 and Civ3 are? I'm wondering why you specified Civ2 instead of the whole Civilization series.
I was a tad bit disapointed at the ending too, but I thought the game was great.
But if not the Master Sword...what, the slave sword?
Ba-dum-tshhhh!
Thanks, I'll be here all week.
Seriously, I think Zelda is something you like or you don't. Yeah, they're all kind of the same, but that's the point. Link and Zelda keep getting reincarnated or whatever along with Gannon and the Master Sword must be found, the Triforce assembled, Zelda saved, and Gannon defeated. I mean, that's what Link does. I mean, I don't think a game about Link trying to start a successful business and Zelda trying to make it as an actress in Hyruly-wood would be much fun. And yes, I know that's a very silly example.
Personally, I thought the story for Wind Waker was pretty cool.
*SPOILERS*
*SPOILERS*
DO NOT READ!!!
IGNORE THE REST OF THIS POST!!!
*SPOILER*
*SPOILER*
<SPOILER>
I liked how the world turned out to be a flooded version of the old world and how you got to visit Hyrule castle under the water. Thought that was a neat aspect of the story.
</SPOILER>
*END SPOILER*
*END SPOILER*
And you know those creepy zombie-things? The ones that shriek and make link cower for a few seconds? Those are damn scary. They creeped me right out, which I didn't expect from a cel-shaded game.
While I'm at it, I'll give my input. I was kind of wary when I first saw/heard about it, but after I played it, I liked it a lot and got very used to it. I didn't even notice after a while, and I think the style worked. It certainly didn't ruin my enjoyment looking at a cel-shaded Link through the whole game. And as far as cel-shaded games go, it was very realistic. The mechanics, I mean. The way the water and wind moves and everything were gorgeous and very impressive. I was very impressed with Link's feet. If he was standing sideways halfway on a ledge a foot high or so, he would actually put one foot up on the ledge in a very natural way. He didn't just float at the level of the ledge like most games. I thought the combat system was well done and fairly deep also. It's like watching a high-quality cartoon, except it's interactive. Some of the characters were kinda goofy and the dancer guy was very...uhm..effiminate (as well as that weird Tingle fruitcake guy), but overall it was as mature as any Zelda game while being accessible to young'uns. Link has always looked cartoony/manga/anime, this is just a different style.
I could be wrong, but I believe that the new X800 is now the top-of-the-line ATI card. Soon after I get mine...figures.
It wasn't made by id, as far as I know, id kind of supervised it. It was made by Gray Matter studios at the request of id. Similar to how Metroid Prime was a Nintendo game, but was made by Retro Studios, for instance.
I think think that Trent's ambient work was just what Quake needed. It was by far my favorite work by him. I didn't think it sounded like his normal work, so I don't know what you mean about a rut.
That being said, I never would have thought he could do a good soundtrack from hearing his previous work.
Why would you say Perfect Circle? The last thing Doom 3 needs is a rock music sound track. I think an ambient soundtrack by Trent would probably be good. (but I'm not a fan of the guy or NIN)
The best thing one can say about *any* soundtrack is that it fits the mood of the game/movie/whatever. That's the purpose of the soundtrack, not to wow people with your inspiration. If it does that too, then great, but first and formost it should fit and enhance the mood of the work.
There are other artists that I'd like to see doing a soundtrack for Doom (Skinny Puppy, Controlled Bleeding, etc), but if Trent's soundtrack to Doom3 (If he is still making it) is as good as the Quake soundtrack, I'll be happy. Hopefully there will be some dynamic music, also. Changing for combat, etc.
On the slightly off-topic note: while I'm even less of a fan of Marilyn Manson, I though his work on the Resident Evil (movie) soundtrack was fantastic. He's another artist I don't normally like that impressed me. He might also be able to do a good Doom3 soundtrack.
It would work if you had a pro audio card with multiple outputs. You can probably find used ones for fairly cheap.
That, a cheap computer and cheap headphones should work.