I agree, and was really just thinking "Jeez, I really hope they don't screw this up". Two of my favourite games series (Ultima and Sierra's Quest games) came from much the same philosophy, so I hope my fears are unfounded =)
"That's the stupidest thing I ever heard!"
I am yet to be convinced of the instalment model - perhaps I'm in the minority but I prefer to play a game that has a definite conclusion to it. Something about releasing by instalments feels like the story equivalent of the "release and be damned!" mentality of the games industry heavyweights, and the whole attraction of adventure games as a genre to me is story. If the story suffers then I'd question whether its for me.
That said, I would kill for multiplayer Carbomb (hint hint!)
Agreed 100%, I recently discovered Achewood and spent the better half of a day clicking and chuckling:) That and the Perry Bible Fellowship have rekindled my interest in webcomics.
Space Rangers 2 feels really close to SC in spirit. I've been playing a lot of the first Space Rangers game and it's a mishmash of Elite, Star Control, with an arcade shooter and text adventures thrown in. It's pretty splendid, though not strictly speaking a real sequel.
The problem is its quite a pain to order.. I hope my SR2 ships soon:P
Circuit's Edge - classic cyberpunk - in fact, while I'm being greedy, all the Infocom games should be revamped:)
Covert Action - Sid Meier. Nuff said.
Dreamweb - Atmospheric. Was too short, but had potential.
Elite/Frontier - Freedom unsurpassed.
Floor 13 - Oozed atmosphere at the time.
Hardwar - Fun spaceflight, but too short.
Killed Until Dead - C64 sleuth game involving CCTV cameras. Pretty nifty.
North and South - Cartoon civil wargame, pretty silly with 2 players.
A proper Speedball 2 - Don't mention Speedball 2100..
Stunt Car Racer - Classic vertigo-inducer.
Supercars 2 - An Amiga legend.
Utopia - Strangely hypnotic Amiga strategy game.
Tie Fighter - Because villains always get the best kit:)
Wizball - though maybe not as an fps;)
You know, here in germany we have this term called "saure-gurken-zeit" (roughly translates as "pickled cucumbers period"), meaning this stretch during the summer where there are NO news at all, and the papers start publishing cooking recipes on their frontpages for lack of anything better to print...
I think it would probably be the Silly Season. I prefer "pickled cucumbers" myself...
And the best online comic is, as everyone knows, the mighty Pokey:)
I think you're right - it takes a while for developers to feel out the potential of a new platform.
Looking down the current PSP games list, there's mostly ports, with PSP-specific improvements. The DS games scene is healthier at the moment largely because of the innovative uses developers have come up with for the dual-screen and touchpad (Wario Ware, Kirby, Trauma Centre).
I'd expect the PSP to gain steam with the release of GTA:Liberty City Stories - if it lacks anything as a system right now, it is a killer app of the Grand Turismo ilk to fire people's imagination.
That said, I'm not sure that the FA is right to criticise an average release rate of one PSP game a week since launch. Even travelling by British Rail I couldn't finish a game a week:)
From the EFF Bloggers' FAQ on Online Defamation Law:
Not-libelous:
* Calling a political foe a "thief" and "liar" in chance encounter (because hyperbole in context)
* Calling a TV show participant a "local loser," "chicken butt" and "big skank"
* Calling someone a "bitch" or a "son of a bitch"
* Changing product code name from "Carl Sagan" to "Butt Head Astronomer"
Re:Visually defeated, but pad still sexy?!
on
The Soul Still Burns
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Amen. My experiences with the terrible controls in COD - Finest Hour for the Cube has sworn me off Activision shovelware conversions for the future- the Normandy landings were tricky enough without soldiers accidentally falling to prone position when attempting to aim/shoot.
That said, I was never totally convinced about that little D-pad. It's cute as a salute to the controllers of yore, but in most games I've played it's too fiddly to be of much use.
All the tedium of canvassing in one flash game. And they wonder why voters are so cynical?;)
What would be more interesting is if they'd avoided the obvious arcade-style game and created something that made the player think about the consequences of voting yea or nay on a particular issue. There's an old edutainment (yuk) title called Hidden Agenda that puts you in the role of a newly-elected president of a South American country, giving you the chance to appoint your own cabinet, influence policy and make decisions affecting your country. The game is exceedingly difficult, and is thought-provoking precisely because it's nigh-impossible to "win" - every decision angers someone.
In the same vein, the old Yes Prime Minister game showed how policy can be distorted and seemingly innocuous decisions could become controversial in a much more thoughtful manner than these Flash efforts.
Okay, so the games are probably a gimmick to increase site hits more than anything, but I'm disappointed they didn't see the scope for doing something different.
There's a good Wired article on it here. You were on the money with your guess - some spam filters weigh rarely-used words more heavily (considering them more likely to be legitimate email) than commonly used ones. This also is why few emails will offer you "Viagra", but many offer "V1aGr/\" or "s1ld1nafr1l citr/\t3" - the spam filter is likely to view any stranger that emails you about erectile disfunction in their first email dimly:)
Errr... not meaning to troll, but the Popular demo is around 8 meg - only in a Windows environment could it be called a 64k demo;)
On topic, I've been a fan of Farb-Rausch for some time now - they seem to be one of the few PC groups that have that "wholly-rounded production" feel that was such a feature of the early PC scene and the old Amiga days. But then, I'm an anorak for this sort of thing - thinking of the days of Sanity, Anarchy et al. on the Amiga scene gives me a warm glow in my vitals.
Looking at the Breakpoint invitation on the Farb-Rausch site shows how far the scene has come from the days of glorified LAN parties with unlimited cider, diskthrowing and music competitions lasting several days.
The plan you speak of was to send out explosive-laden suicide pigeons to crash into searchlights and outposts.
Undoubtedly more bizarre (though more off-topic) was B.F. Skinner's Pigeon -based Guidance system.
Heh, this brings back memories - my dad and one of his friends spent an afternoon playing BASIC programs to each other down the phone, each recording the output to a tape recorder.
I remember thinking "Wow! wave of the future!" when one of those crappy BASIC listings actually worked using this method.
However, the level of mental anguish involved to try and copy any Speedlock or Bleepload-protected data (damn you, Footballer of the Year!) using this method far outweighed the convenience factor. R:Tape Loading Error still haunts my dreams:/
If it's the one I think it is, it's part of an EU directive. There's details of it here, the chapter relevant to spam is here , albeit in.doc format.
I've only had a chance to skim but the legislation seems to be mostly aimed at legitimate businesses who have over-zealous customer newsletter runs, rather than preventing mass mailing spammers.
I have to say, though, that the form linked in the article is completely asinine.
Didn't it start with "warchalking" where somone would put a chalk mark on a wall or footpath or something indicating that you could get wireless access from there?
And don't forget war-dialling, the granddaddy of them all. Acoustic couplers at the ready, gentlemen...
Slashdot Mirror
Well, I guess that just about wraps it up for God.
I agree, and was really just thinking "Jeez, I really hope they don't screw this up". Two of my favourite games series (Ultima and Sierra's Quest games) came from much the same philosophy, so I hope my fears are unfounded =)
"That's the stupidest thing I ever heard!" I am yet to be convinced of the instalment model - perhaps I'm in the minority but I prefer to play a game that has a definite conclusion to it. Something about releasing by instalments feels like the story equivalent of the "release and be damned!" mentality of the games industry heavyweights, and the whole attraction of adventure games as a genre to me is story. If the story suffers then I'd question whether its for me. That said, I would kill for multiplayer Carbomb (hint hint!)
Agreed 100%, I recently discovered Achewood and spent the better half of a day clicking and chuckling :) That and the Perry Bible Fellowship have rekindled my interest in webcomics.
Oh yeah, and Knock knock!
Spacewar! I was looking blankly at that name for about 30 seconds... that damned planet..
Sir, you owe me a new cup of coffee.
Space Rangers 2 feels really close to SC in spirit. I've been playing a lot of the first Space Rangers game and it's a mishmash of Elite, Star Control, with an arcade shooter and text adventures thrown in. It's pretty splendid, though not strictly speaking a real sequel. :P
The problem is its quite a pain to order.. I hope my SR2 ships soon
Circuit's Edge - classic cyberpunk - in fact, while I'm being greedy, all the Infocom games should be revamped :) :) ;)
Covert Action - Sid Meier. Nuff said.
Dreamweb - Atmospheric. Was too short, but had potential.
Elite/Frontier - Freedom unsurpassed.
Floor 13 - Oozed atmosphere at the time.
Hardwar - Fun spaceflight, but too short.
Killed Until Dead - C64 sleuth game involving CCTV cameras. Pretty nifty.
North and South - Cartoon civil wargame, pretty silly with 2 players.
A proper Speedball 2 - Don't mention Speedball 2100..
Stunt Car Racer - Classic vertigo-inducer.
Supercars 2 - An Amiga legend.
Utopia - Strangely hypnotic Amiga strategy game.
Tie Fighter - Because villains always get the best kit
Wizball - though maybe not as an fps
The worse you smell, the higher level you are? Oh, *that* EQ...
I think you're right - it takes a while for developers to feel out the potential of a new platform.
:)
Looking down the current PSP games list, there's mostly ports, with PSP-specific improvements. The DS games scene is healthier at the moment largely because of the innovative uses developers have come up with for the dual-screen and touchpad (Wario Ware, Kirby, Trauma Centre).
I'd expect the PSP to gain steam with the release of GTA:Liberty City Stories - if it lacks anything as a system right now, it is a killer app of the Grand Turismo ilk to fire people's imagination.
That said, I'm not sure that the FA is right to criticise an average release rate of one PSP game a week since launch. Even travelling by British Rail I couldn't finish a game a week
Apologies for the OT post, but did you try changing "ForceOldVoxelAlgoritm=0" to "ForceOldVoxelAlgoritm=1" in your .ini file? It works okay for my AMD.
I worked at that Tesco, and found it the equivalent to working in a pressure cooker. I avoid it like the plague these days.
Amen. My experiences with the terrible controls in COD - Finest Hour for the Cube has sworn me off Activision shovelware conversions for the future- the Normandy landings were tricky enough without soldiers accidentally falling to prone position when attempting to aim/shoot. That said, I was never totally convinced about that little D-pad. It's cute as a salute to the controllers of yore, but in most games I've played it's too fiddly to be of much use.
All the tedium of canvassing in one flash game. And they wonder why voters are so cynical? ;)
What would be more interesting is if they'd avoided the obvious arcade-style game and created something that made the player think about the consequences of voting yea or nay on a particular issue. There's an old edutainment (yuk) title called Hidden Agenda that puts you in the role of a newly-elected president of a South American country, giving you the chance to appoint your own cabinet, influence policy and make decisions affecting your country. The game is exceedingly difficult, and is thought-provoking precisely because it's nigh-impossible to "win" - every decision angers someone.
In the same vein, the old Yes Prime Minister game showed how policy can be distorted and seemingly innocuous decisions could become controversial in a much more thoughtful manner than these Flash efforts.
Okay, so the games are probably a gimmick to increase site hits more than anything, but I'm disappointed they didn't see the scope for doing something different.
CDwow has it.
There's a good Wired article on it here. You were on the money with your guess - some spam filters weigh rarely-used words more heavily (considering them more likely to be legitimate email) than commonly used ones. This also is why few emails will offer you "Viagra", but many offer "V1aGr/\" or "s1ld1nafr1l citr/\t3" - the spam filter is likely to view any stranger that emails you about erectile disfunction in their first email dimly :)
Errr... not meaning to troll, but the Popular demo is around 8 meg - only in a Windows environment could it be called a 64k demo ;)
On topic, I've been a fan of Farb-Rausch for some time now - they seem to be one of the few PC groups that have that "wholly-rounded production" feel that was such a feature of the early PC scene and the old Amiga days. But then, I'm an anorak for this sort of thing - thinking of the days of Sanity, Anarchy et al. on the Amiga scene gives me a warm glow in my vitals.
Looking at the Breakpoint invitation on the Farb-Rausch site shows how far the scene has come from the days of glorified LAN parties with unlimited cider, diskthrowing and music competitions lasting several days.
The plan you speak of was to send out explosive-laden suicide pigeons to crash into searchlights and outposts. Undoubtedly more bizarre (though more off-topic) was B.F. Skinner's Pigeon -based Guidance system.
Heh, this brings back memories - my dad and one of his friends spent an afternoon playing BASIC programs to each other down the phone, each recording the output to a tape recorder. I remember thinking "Wow! wave of the future!" when one of those crappy BASIC listings actually worked using this method. However, the level of mental anguish involved to try and copy any Speedlock or Bleepload-protected data (damn you, Footballer of the Year!) using this method far outweighed the convenience factor. R:Tape Loading Error still haunts my dreams :/
scratch that, was thinking of the wrong one. sorry!
If it's the one I think it is, it's part of an EU directive. There's details of it here, the chapter relevant to spam is here , albeit in .doc format.
I've only had a chance to skim but the legislation seems to be mostly aimed at legitimate businesses who have over-zealous customer newsletter runs, rather than preventing mass mailing spammers.
I have to say, though, that the form linked in the article is completely asinine.
Could this be described as guerilla welfare?