Eh, so did the original... try putting the first Hunter: The Reckoning game in, get a second player, then go find one of the permanent stat increase glyphs. If you hit it at the same time, it doesn't deactivate, and you can run your stat bars well off the screen. Then go shoot/hit a zombie (depending upon the glyph having been dex/str). BSOD! Only game I've been able to cause something like that in, probably some sort of unexpected math exception involving the off-screen stats.
Actually, I really like the externalized power supply. Putting those awful things internal in devices which don't have much cooling is just asking for heat problems.
I thought the first Halo was great, it had a wonderful single player campaign (with good co-op), well integrated vehicles, wide open spaces, good use of color/sound/music, and great 4 player multiplayer maps.
It absolutely destroys PC games that are actually 10 years older than it, as for those ten years old from today, I'd say it destroys those too.
The only old PC game in that age range that I find comparable to it at all is Future Shock, an awesome Terminator themed FPS that Bethesda made around the same time as Daggerfall. Future Shock had the same kind of freedom on giant maps, and drivable/flyable vehicles, though no multiplayer (this was added in a standalone expansion called Skynet, which had a good, but short single player campaign, but I unfortunately never had an opportunity to try it on a LAN). Frankly, there really weren't any really good single player FPSs after Future Shock for quite a long time, until Sin, and later Elite Force were released.
I would take Halo over Quake 1 or 2 any day, though I would be mightily indecisive between Halo and Quake 3.
The second Halo had a decent campaign, but the multiplayer was totally trashed in order to push larger games on Live. Hardly any of the maps are suitable for 4 player games in one room, and Live is an unbearable breeding ground for assholes. Granted, I haven't downloaded the map pack... if I can find another free Live voucher I might grab it and see if they're any better.
I'm really hoping that 3 brings brings back some of the offline multiplayer appeal of the first game, and the shiny pistol model.
I have never understood the success of the PS1... I quit paying attention to the console market for a few years after the Genesis & SNES, and never really saw its rise to power. From the bit I messed with it, everything 3D it tried to do was absolutely terrible, and I wondered why anyone would buy it. By the time I paid attention to it again, it was wildly successful and everyone was talking about how the PS2 would be backwards compatible with it. I had a Dreamcast at that point, which I liked a lot. Looked through the PS1 games (to its credit, it did have around 4 good games), looked at the PS2 launch lineup, and wondered how the hell it was ever going to succeed, and why anyone cared about the backwards compatibility (whooo, it plays new crap AND old crap!). I don't understand their success at all. I don't hate the PS2, I got a free one a few months ago and there are a few terrific games on it (especially Gradius V), I just don't understand how it survived on the game market long enough to produce those good games, especially with the splendid Dreamcast already there (and then it went away, WTF?)...
Agreed, Live is awful, and the fault is mainly the other people. The people are entertaining for a few minutes, since most of them really deserve to die and they are entertaining to shoot, but it becomes annoying quickly. Its made slightly more bearable (if you're messing around with a trial key or something) by disabling voice chat entirely in the Xbox dashboard.
I'm really hoping that the 360 continues to push split-screen competitive/co-op game modes (or anything else that can support 4 players in a room), otherwise I'm probably not even going to get one. The only reason I keep consoles around is for multiplayer games, more or less. Though if they brought back lightguns, I would really consider it anyway.
I really want a return to light-gun games, and a way to make them work with monitors/progressive scan TVs. Honestly, a revival of light-guns is the only reason I can ever imagine to get a TV larger than 30" or, better yet, a projector. I'm not too enthusiastic about Nintendo's speculated motion-sensitive control, mainly because I've seen similar things before and they all sucked bad (Dactyl Nightmare, MS's motion sensitive sidewinder pad). I haven't been too impressed with the past few traditional Nintendo controllers either, though the wireless gamecube ones were impressive for their responsive wireless.
If someone could make a rail shooter or FPS game with a DDR type 8 way pad on the floor for movement control and a lightgun for looking/aiming, that would absolutely rock. Perhaps remake Gunvalkyrie as it was meant to be.
Of course, the other thing that would absolutely rock would be integrating a game system with a tv recorder, allowing me to add a slight time delay and post processing to normal tv signals so I could shoot the random jerks on TV. That would actually make me get cable again, at least for a bit.
Hey, I bought 2 for PC... I don't recall there ever being an infinity release though. I found it remarkable when it came out for its wonderful use of sound and color, when most games were already starting to look all grey and sound bland.
Of course, if you go to www.bungie.org and look around, you can download all 3 games along with a new OpenGL renderer for any platform (I think any, at least Mac and Windows). Honestly, all 3 are incredible, and I'd say they're still among the best single player FPSs, because they mix good story with good level design and good doom-style gameplay.
I still hope that Durandal resurfaces somewhere in Halo, maybe as the ancient, incredibly strong AI on the covenant ark (if only it were a certain Jjaro dreadnaught). The reappearance of Durandal (or the possible rampancy of Cortana) could really turn the Halo series around and put a bit of life back into it.
I remember that game. It was very possible to find on shelves, for quite some time, mainly because it was awful. That game wasn't underrated, it was overrated... somebody liked it enough to publish it.
Yea, almost all of the good ones. They're even missing some of their better 'only on x-box' titles. Out of the thirty or so games I have, 4 are on there (Halo 1/2, DOA 3, Ninja Gaiden). No DOA:U, none of the original Sega games, no Oddworld or Gladius or Gauntlet or Timesplitters... its a fairly wretched list. Almost makes me think that they went out of their way to find awful games to emulate. Kabuki Warriors?
Out of curiosity (so I can avoid it in April, if there are enough other games to convince me to get one of these), which game can't hit 30 fps at 720p?
I haven't read the article, though I might since I never knew that anyone took those cubes seriously enough to have a competition, and I find the whole idea vaguely amusing. Regardless, why would I lie about something that someone else did, while in some anonymity myself, and to total strangers on the internet? What is my motive, and what do I gain?
I've never seen a 3x3x3 cube; I'd never even heard of one until today. That doesn't mean I go about 'calling bullshit' on 3x3x3 cubes. I don't even need to read an article about one to accept their existence. I suspect that you've never seen anyone solve a 4x4x4 cube in around a minute, but since you read it in an article it is your truth. Why can't you accept that someone could solve a 4x4x4 cube in around 30 seconds? Because it is not in an article? And your faith in that, that it must be a lie for exceeding the claims of the article, is so strong that you call me a liar for mentioning what I have seen?
Try to fathom that there exist things that aren't documented in articles. Things that you haven't seen. Things that you can't do. Some have seen them. Some can do them.
Take your bullshit and cram it back into your mouth from which it surely came. And the next time you find yourself on guard and alone, surrounded by liars and foes, consider that perhaps some of them speak the truth, and that you must change yourself to escape.
From your experience with a mobile X600, do you think a Turion notebook with an X700 would be worth getting? I've been seriously tempted by the new MSI MS-1029, but I don't know how well that card would run.
Hmmm, I have the same video card, slower RAM, and a 2.4 Ghz northwood (no HT), and I can run FEAR at 800x600 with most effects on, but not the highest texture settings. It keeps a consistently playable >30 framerate, and I've got some background processes too (mainly IIS and MSDE). Now that is only on the demo; I wasn't amused enough to go buy it (though that laser that chars people down to skeletons was fairly entertaining, and I liked the design of that heavy soldier halfway through).
The article doesn't say that lichens can only last 15 days. It says that they got the capsule back in 15 days and the lichen were perfectly fine, same as on the launch. This did not establish any upper bound for lichen survivability.
Blizzard sure loves deleting Diablo II characters. I thought about playing it some more when they released the last patch/update, but all my characters were long dead. Of course, they're nice enough now to taunt you with pictures of your deleted characters, but not let you load them. Bastards. A shame they've gone down the lame 'MMORPG' path, I'm afraid that I can never take them seriously again.
You know, I never realized there was a 3x3x3 (block) cube... I'd been reading up to this point assuming that '3x3x3' meant 3x3x3 (inches), and wondering why the dimensions mattered (hand size?). I've only ever played with a 4x4x4 (block) and this wierd pyramid shaped one. The 4x4x4 isn't that tough, but the pyramid is awesome.
I couldn't ever speed-solve either, but I knew a guy in college who could do a 4x4x4 anyway you messed it up in about 30 seconds.
Lux already has online competitions (they just wrapped one up, actually), and you can create any map you want for, played with the risk ruleset. Its made by SillySoft, can't recall their URL at the moment, but you should be able to find it easily enough.
Slashdot Mirror
Eh, so did the original... try putting the first Hunter: The Reckoning game in, get a second player, then go find one of the permanent stat increase glyphs. If you hit it at the same time, it doesn't deactivate, and you can run your stat bars well off the screen. Then go shoot/hit a zombie (depending upon the glyph having been dex/str). BSOD! Only game I've been able to cause something like that in, probably some sort of unexpected math exception involving the off-screen stats.
Actually, I really like the externalized power supply. Putting those awful things internal in devices which don't have much cooling is just asking for heat problems.
Go to Sega's site and check out the mech game they're working on for 360... I can never remember the name, but the mech designs are awesome.
Dude, it has VGA out?! What resolution? Does the VGA cable come with it? Or did I just completely read that wrong?
I thought the first Halo was great, it had a wonderful single player campaign (with good co-op), well integrated vehicles, wide open spaces, good use of color/sound/music, and great 4 player multiplayer maps. It absolutely destroys PC games that are actually 10 years older than it, as for those ten years old from today, I'd say it destroys those too. The only old PC game in that age range that I find comparable to it at all is Future Shock, an awesome Terminator themed FPS that Bethesda made around the same time as Daggerfall. Future Shock had the same kind of freedom on giant maps, and drivable/flyable vehicles, though no multiplayer (this was added in a standalone expansion called Skynet, which had a good, but short single player campaign, but I unfortunately never had an opportunity to try it on a LAN). Frankly, there really weren't any really good single player FPSs after Future Shock for quite a long time, until Sin, and later Elite Force were released. I would take Halo over Quake 1 or 2 any day, though I would be mightily indecisive between Halo and Quake 3. The second Halo had a decent campaign, but the multiplayer was totally trashed in order to push larger games on Live. Hardly any of the maps are suitable for 4 player games in one room, and Live is an unbearable breeding ground for assholes. Granted, I haven't downloaded the map pack... if I can find another free Live voucher I might grab it and see if they're any better. I'm really hoping that 3 brings brings back some of the offline multiplayer appeal of the first game, and the shiny pistol model.
I have never understood the success of the PS1... I quit paying attention to the console market for a few years after the Genesis & SNES, and never really saw its rise to power. From the bit I messed with it, everything 3D it tried to do was absolutely terrible, and I wondered why anyone would buy it. By the time I paid attention to it again, it was wildly successful and everyone was talking about how the PS2 would be backwards compatible with it. I had a Dreamcast at that point, which I liked a lot. Looked through the PS1 games (to its credit, it did have around 4 good games), looked at the PS2 launch lineup, and wondered how the hell it was ever going to succeed, and why anyone cared about the backwards compatibility (whooo, it plays new crap AND old crap!). I don't understand their success at all. I don't hate the PS2, I got a free one a few months ago and there are a few terrific games on it (especially Gradius V), I just don't understand how it survived on the game market long enough to produce those good games, especially with the splendid Dreamcast already there (and then it went away, WTF?)...
Agreed, Live is awful, and the fault is mainly the other people. The people are entertaining for a few minutes, since most of them really deserve to die and they are entertaining to shoot, but it becomes annoying quickly. Its made slightly more bearable (if you're messing around with a trial key or something) by disabling voice chat entirely in the Xbox dashboard. I'm really hoping that the 360 continues to push split-screen competitive/co-op game modes (or anything else that can support 4 players in a room), otherwise I'm probably not even going to get one. The only reason I keep consoles around is for multiplayer games, more or less. Though if they brought back lightguns, I would really consider it anyway.
I really want a return to light-gun games, and a way to make them work with monitors/progressive scan TVs. Honestly, a revival of light-guns is the only reason I can ever imagine to get a TV larger than 30" or, better yet, a projector. I'm not too enthusiastic about Nintendo's speculated motion-sensitive control, mainly because I've seen similar things before and they all sucked bad (Dactyl Nightmare, MS's motion sensitive sidewinder pad). I haven't been too impressed with the past few traditional Nintendo controllers either, though the wireless gamecube ones were impressive for their responsive wireless.
If someone could make a rail shooter or FPS game with a DDR type 8 way pad on the floor for movement control and a lightgun for looking/aiming, that would absolutely rock. Perhaps remake Gunvalkyrie as it was meant to be.
Of course, the other thing that would absolutely rock would be integrating a game system with a tv recorder, allowing me to add a slight time delay and post processing to normal tv signals so I could shoot the random jerks on TV. That would actually make me get cable again, at least for a bit.
Hey, I bought 2 for PC... I don't recall there ever being an infinity release though. I found it remarkable when it came out for its wonderful use of sound and color, when most games were already starting to look all grey and sound bland.
Of course, if you go to www.bungie.org and look around, you can download all 3 games along with a new OpenGL renderer for any platform (I think any, at least Mac and Windows). Honestly, all 3 are incredible, and I'd say they're still among the best single player FPSs, because they mix good story with good level design and good doom-style gameplay.
I still hope that Durandal resurfaces somewhere in Halo, maybe as the ancient, incredibly strong AI on the covenant ark (if only it were a certain Jjaro dreadnaught). The reappearance of Durandal (or the possible rampancy of Cortana) could really turn the Halo series around and put a bit of life back into it.
One comment on indie games:
You must play Jets n' Guns from Rake in Grass.
A few other good ones, though no URLs:
Mount & Blade
Starscape
Alien Shooter
Lux
Scorch3D
I remember that game. It was very possible to find on shelves, for quite some time, mainly because it was awful. That game wasn't underrated, it was overrated... somebody liked it enough to publish it.
Yea, almost all of the good ones. They're even missing some of their better 'only on x-box' titles. Out of the thirty or so games I have, 4 are on there (Halo 1/2, DOA 3, Ninja Gaiden). No DOA:U, none of the original Sega games, no Oddworld or Gladius or Gauntlet or Timesplitters... its a fairly wretched list. Almost makes me think that they went out of their way to find awful games to emulate. Kabuki Warriors?
Out of curiosity (so I can avoid it in April, if there are enough other games to convince me to get one of these), which game can't hit 30 fps at 720p?
Hey, quit giving them ideas!
I think you're my hero for the rest of the day.
I haven't read the article, though I might since I never knew that anyone took those cubes seriously enough to have a competition, and I find the whole idea vaguely amusing. Regardless, why would I lie about something that someone else did, while in some anonymity myself, and to total strangers on the internet? What is my motive, and what do I gain? I've never seen a 3x3x3 cube; I'd never even heard of one until today. That doesn't mean I go about 'calling bullshit' on 3x3x3 cubes. I don't even need to read an article about one to accept their existence. I suspect that you've never seen anyone solve a 4x4x4 cube in around a minute, but since you read it in an article it is your truth. Why can't you accept that someone could solve a 4x4x4 cube in around 30 seconds? Because it is not in an article? And your faith in that, that it must be a lie for exceeding the claims of the article, is so strong that you call me a liar for mentioning what I have seen? Try to fathom that there exist things that aren't documented in articles. Things that you haven't seen. Things that you can't do. Some have seen them. Some can do them. Take your bullshit and cram it back into your mouth from which it surely came. And the next time you find yourself on guard and alone, surrounded by liars and foes, consider that perhaps some of them speak the truth, and that you must change yourself to escape.
Ah, but he has a plan... when coal runs out he can burn his money to heat his home!
From your experience with a mobile X600, do you think a Turion notebook with an X700 would be worth getting? I've been seriously tempted by the new MSI MS-1029, but I don't know how well that card would run.
Hmmm, I have the same video card, slower RAM, and a 2.4 Ghz northwood (no HT), and I can run FEAR at 800x600 with most effects on, but not the highest texture settings. It keeps a consistently playable >30 framerate, and I've got some background processes too (mainly IIS and MSDE). Now that is only on the demo; I wasn't amused enough to go buy it (though that laser that chars people down to skeletons was fairly entertaining, and I liked the design of that heavy soldier halfway through).
The article doesn't say that lichens can only last 15 days. It says that they got the capsule back in 15 days and the lichen were perfectly fine, same as on the launch. This did not establish any upper bound for lichen survivability.
Dude, I remember those books, those were awesome.
Blizzard sure loves deleting Diablo II characters. I thought about playing it some more when they released the last patch/update, but all my characters were long dead. Of course, they're nice enough now to taunt you with pictures of your deleted characters, but not let you load them. Bastards. A shame they've gone down the lame 'MMORPG' path, I'm afraid that I can never take them seriously again.
You know, I never realized there was a 3x3x3 (block) cube... I'd been reading up to this point assuming that '3x3x3' meant 3x3x3 (inches), and wondering why the dimensions mattered (hand size?). I've only ever played with a 4x4x4 (block) and this wierd pyramid shaped one. The 4x4x4 isn't that tough, but the pyramid is awesome.
I couldn't ever speed-solve either, but I knew a guy in college who could do a 4x4x4 anyway you messed it up in about 30 seconds.
Well, I did neglect at least one awesome game: You must play Beyond Good & Evil (PS2 or Xbox).
Lux already has online competitions (they just wrapped one up, actually), and you can create any map you want for, played with the risk ruleset. Its made by SillySoft, can't recall their URL at the moment, but you should be able to find it easily enough.