If you're still thinking about buying the game after reading this review, I urge you to download the demo and give it a try. The reviewer pinned down everything that was dissatisfying about the demo.
This article isn't about creating a large staff of continually employed computer specialists and linguists. That would be a continuous drain on finances. They're talking about what to do if they need large numbers of people in a crisis situation.
From the Boston Sun review of M&C: "Painstakingly rendered props and computer-generated imagery blend persuasively with a real ship filmed at sea and full-scale models shot in the Baja, Mexico, water tank built for Titanic." http://www.sunspot.net/entertainment/mo vies/bal-to.master14nov14,0,6183776.story?coll=bal-artslife-m ovies
Looks like the majority of the water/ship effects were actually genuine. That impresses me to no end.
> or could make the rights to movies very expensive.
I can't seem to muster any sorrow over that possibility. I've never played a game based on a movie that I've really liked. Let's hear it for fewer cheesy knockoff games..
Funny post, but fortunately a player character in any roleplaying game is assumed to be a hero worthy of being a main character in a fantasy/sci-fi novel.
I help administer and play a MUD called Avendar. telnet avendar.com 9999
We're more of a smart-people MUD than a text version of Quake, in that we enforce roleplaying, and those who roleplay well are rewarded with extra benefits in the game (more character options, extra titles, surnames, houses, etc).
Avendar features around 1,000 new skills and spells, and our in-game mob programming system has evolved into a fairly full-featured scripting language, making it easy for our builders to fill our world with intelligent mobiles. Our demon-summoning mage class is a marvel of design.
Furthermore, Avendar has an entirely unique game world, with zero stock areas. And no, it's not small. We have around 10,000 rooms.
A lot of people have recommended Tintin for *nix, but I didn't see any mention of the Windows equivalent, Wintin. It's my favorite MUD client, though I'll admit I haven't tried anything else since I discovered it about 6 years ago.
I have always wanted a cell phone that's an MP3 player. 29 megs of memory obviously won't cut it, but they're only going to get better from here on.
I'm eagerly waiting for the day when we'll have a small device that's a cell phone, mp3 player, and full web browser, WITH a reasonable input interface. I applaud each step closer to that day.
I played MUDs for about 5 years. Through those MUDs I made many RL friendships, some of which have lasted years after I stopped MUDing. And yes, these were roleplaying MUDs. There were mailing lists, IRC channels, and other off-MUD forums for hanging out with online friends and talking about the MUD we were playing. I also know that I'm not unique in this, or even that unusual. I've seen many people form friendships through MUDs.
Most EQ-style MMOGs are direct descendents of MUDs. I played DaoC for about 2 months, and the interactions I saw there were very similar to the MUD interactions I was familiar with. (Granted, there were a LOT more idiots, since the interface is much more accessible.)
>Still, it would be a gross mischaracterization to >say that video games are a social activity. The >fact is, most of us spend most of our time >playing games looking at our own screen with our >own eyes by ourselves. If we prefer to play games >with friends, this is an artifact of our social >natures.
This seems like a rather shallow/narrow rebuttal to the claim that video games are social. I agree that single-player games are not inherently social, but multi-player games are. MMOGs? I have a co-worker whose wife left him for someone in her clan on Dark Age of Camelot! I think it's a lot more fun to get together with friends for a Halo frag party than it is to play a similar game online. And it's not just a group of people sitting there "by themselves with their own eyes on their own screen"... we talk trash, laugh together at funny kills/mistakes, yell at each other, get in fights, etc. I've spent countless hours with co-workers playing Soul Caliber, having tournaments, etc. Perhaps he should have argued that "many video games have multiplayer components, and many more are specifically designed for social interaction, but arguing that traditional single-player games are social is silly."
Death Viper is one of my all-time favorites. I loved the way he formed himself out of a mass of writhing snakes, and he was just as scary to fight as he was to look at.
Not sure if he counts as a boss, since he's the only enemy in the game, but Sinistar used to give me nightmares too. "RUN COWARD, RUN!"
Slashdot Mirror
If you're still thinking about buying the game after reading this review, I urge you to download the demo and give it a try. The reviewer pinned down everything that was dissatisfying about the demo.
Technically, isn't Donkey Kong part of the Mario Bros. franchise? Or vice versa... since Mario was a character in the original Donkey Kong. :-)
This article isn't about creating a large staff of continually employed computer specialists and linguists. That would be a continuous drain on finances. They're talking about what to do if they need large numbers of people in a crisis situation.
Not that I like the idea of it.
From the Boston Sun review of M&C:o vies/bal-to .master14nov14,0,6183776.story?coll=bal-artslife-m ovies
"Painstakingly rendered props and computer-generated imagery blend persuasively with a real ship filmed at sea and full-scale models shot in the Baja, Mexico, water tank built for Titanic."
http://www.sunspot.net/entertainment/m
Looks like the majority of the water/ship effects were actually genuine. That impresses me to no end.
> or could make the rights to movies very expensive.
I can't seem to muster any sorrow over that possibility. I've never played a game based on a movie that I've really liked. Let's hear it for fewer cheesy knockoff games..
Funny post, but fortunately a player character in any roleplaying game is assumed to be a hero worthy of being a main character in a fantasy/sci-fi novel.
I help administer and play a MUD called Avendar.
telnet avendar.com 9999
We're more of a smart-people MUD than a text version of Quake, in that we enforce roleplaying, and those who roleplay well are rewarded with extra benefits in the game (more character options, extra titles, surnames, houses, etc).
Avendar features around 1,000 new skills and spells, and our in-game mob programming system has evolved into a fairly full-featured scripting language, making it easy for our builders to fill our world with intelligent mobiles. Our demon-summoning mage class is a marvel of design.
Furthermore, Avendar has an entirely unique game world, with zero stock areas. And no, it's not small. We have around 10,000 rooms.
A lot of people have recommended Tintin for *nix, but I didn't see any mention of the Windows equivalent, Wintin. It's my favorite MUD client, though I'll admit I haven't tried anything else since I discovered it about 6 years ago.
h tm
http://www.rasbora.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/wintin.
I have always wanted a cell phone that's an MP3 player. 29 megs of memory obviously won't cut it, but they're only going to get better from here on.
I'm eagerly waiting for the day when we'll have a small device that's a cell phone, mp3 player, and full web browser, WITH a reasonable input interface. I applaud each step closer to that day.
It was a review of the press release? :)
I played MUDs for about 5 years. Through those MUDs I made many RL friendships, some of which have lasted years after I stopped MUDing. And yes, these were roleplaying MUDs. There were mailing lists, IRC channels, and other off-MUD forums for hanging out with online friends and talking about the MUD we were playing. I also know that I'm not unique in this, or even that unusual. I've seen many people form friendships through MUDs.
Most EQ-style MMOGs are direct descendents of MUDs. I played DaoC for about 2 months, and the interactions I saw there were very similar to the MUD interactions I was familiar with. (Granted, there were a LOT more idiots, since the interface is much more accessible.)
>Still, it would be a gross mischaracterization to
>say that video games are a social activity. The
>fact is, most of us spend most of our time
>playing games looking at our own screen with our
>own eyes by ourselves. If we prefer to play games
>with friends, this is an artifact of our social
>natures.
This seems like a rather shallow/narrow rebuttal to the claim that video games are social. I agree that single-player games are not inherently social, but multi-player games are. MMOGs? I have a co-worker whose wife left him for someone in her clan on Dark Age of Camelot!
I think it's a lot more fun to get together with friends for a Halo frag party than it is to play a similar game online. And it's not just a group of people sitting there "by themselves with their own eyes on their own screen"... we talk trash, laugh together at funny kills/mistakes, yell at each other, get in fights, etc.
I've spent countless hours with co-workers playing Soul Caliber, having tournaments, etc.
Perhaps he should have argued that "many video games have multiplayer components, and many more are specifically designed for social interaction, but arguing that traditional single-player games are social is silly."
Man, that always gave me nightmares as a child.
A friend of mine forumulated the following:
Downey's Constant: Things will tend to go wrong in a fashion most pleasing to a malevolent deity.
Burrough's Corollary: The malevolent deity acts to conceal its existence.
Therefore: The more certain you are of the Constant, the less subtle the deity in its manipulations.
Death Viper is one of my all-time favorites. I loved the way he formed himself out of a mass of writhing snakes, and he was just as scary to fight as he was to look at. Not sure if he counts as a boss, since he's the only enemy in the game, but Sinistar used to give me nightmares too. "RUN COWARD, RUN!"
"Do you want to come upstairs" was the line on the BBC broadcast. Primetime TV in a conservative country.
"Do you want a blowjob" was the line used in the R-Rated (or unrated?) version.