"Though I personally am much more a fan of Penny-Arcade, CAD probably lends itself better for an animation because Tim usually presents story and continuity, and this is a brave and pioneering move for a webcomic..."
Barring, of course, Megatokyo. In any case, the reason I stopped reading CAD was because it stopped being funny and it seemed as though Tim was trying desperately to make me care about the cast. After he had been selling Ethan as a digital punching bag for all stupidity and mishap (while being funny) I was irritated by the sudden change (mostly because of the lack of funny). Plus I don't like Tim Buckley. He was a complete jerk when I emailed a complaint to him.
I think the reason most webcomics don't appear to present story and continuity is simply because if you notice it, you aren't laughing.
Most of the webcomics I read have a story to it (Megatokyo, Real Life, MacHall) not to mention all of the paper comics that have made the transition to the web. Calvin and Hobbes has plenty of story. Even Penny Arcade has story once in a while. Gabe and Tycho know when to use it, however, so as to keep the funny coming.
It'll be interesting to see what people think of it. I'm certainly not going to pay for anything. I'm not a fan of CAD anymore. Even if I was I wouldn't pay for anything. Not unless I get a preview and it has me rolling on the floor.
Before running off to church this morning I wrote 50 and 18 on my hand and by the time I decided to give up on the service and start solving it I couldn't remember what the goal was. I thought it was to make two piles, one filled with nothing but heads up and the other filled with nothing but heads down.
Needless to say, the puzzle is much easier to solve when you know what the goal is.:P
On a different note, I started chasing down a possible solution but decided that this was significantly too much work to go through to impress the readers of/.
If you want to see an example of an FPS with a plot and story that is really integrated and captivating, check out Marathon 2, I think it is available as an open source project now.
Aleph One is probably what you are referring to. If you want to know more about the amazingly complex and wonderful story there is only one place you need to go: The Marathon Story Page.
Another easy test is to simply copy and paste everything they say back to them. If they don't get pissed after a while or start amusing themselves by having you say random obscenities they're probably not a human being.
Depending on the robustness of the bot it will either get confused or discover what a buffer overflow is.
Shortly after this you will be verbally pummeled by everyone who just lost their date for Friday night.
The Marathon Trilogy was loaded with easter eggs, the most clever being hex codes for icons and an entirely new net-level hidden within terminals.
Bungie tends to love its easter eggs as the Webmaster had people running around trying to find a "Hi Ben" egg in Halo 2 (not to mention the skulls...)
My favourite tradition of Bungie's, however, is they stick acronyms on the bottoms of their game packages that fill out to complete phrases that mean something special to the Bungie team.
Just of out curiosity, is it possible that Blizzard is legally bound to not sell copies of WoW that don't come out of the box? Reminds me of a particular other case that (surprise) also involved Vivendi. Granted, a resale shouldn't in anyway get included in that, but it's interesting to think about.
Blizzard has also had an absolute no-tolerance method of dealing with hacks and pirating. That someone innocent got hosed in this is just going to happen. That this someone got their case published on/. shouldn't, in my mind, change Blizzard's policy.
Most people are pleased that Blizzard takes such a hard stance on hacking and pirating. Justice, unfortunately, is blind and takes down a few decent people. Is it worth it?
If you don't want to read the whole thing (it is rather long), here is a "quick" summary of what they gets into. They get into a nice little bit on all of this and actually
think before they write.
From their own conclusion:
Even our own re-readings of this article leave us wondering if we've been a tad too hostile. Perhaps we have; please use salt liberally when needed.
Weapons
Simple details seem to be missing (such as the shotgun's reloading).
The pistol from H1 has no suitable replacement. They admit it was broken.
The Magnum and the Battle Rifle could have used a bit of tuning (they also mention ammo).
The grenades were nerfed.
The rocket-launcher is too easy to use in dogfights.
Weapon roles seem confused. "Removing the (I thought) rather clever ability of the energy weapons to freeze opponents removed a crucial variation and advantage of the energy weapons. Without it, they're just another bullet hose."
"[M]any of the guns just don't feel like they are the actual instrument firing the bullets seen on screen."
Paired weapons are mentioned. "... Now I find myself standing on top of a shotgun, trying in vain to trade it up for my slung needler, while trying to maintain my Sarah Michelle Gellar (SMG)/Pistol combo."
The Sword is mentioned.
The Covenant weapons are mentioned. "... the plasma pistol has been downgraded to "accessory" status."
"Though the weapons are supposed to be more balanced than in the first, they invariably end up feeling rather impotent and bland, and the weapons that most teams scramble over each other to get at are the sword and the rocket launcher, leaving those unequipped or unwilling to use them with no truly effective countermeasure (ie. a powerful, universally distributed mid-range rifle, etc.). "
Feel and Consequences
"Campaign seems to lack many of the pensive, clandestine sections and well designed confrontations so treasured in the first..."
The HUD: no health meter, the shield meter is "rather bulbous, compact shape, is difficult to read on the fly."
Removal of fall damage.
Draw-In
The graphics glitches.
"The added detail and plethora of shadowed nooks and crannies end up making the game feel, for lack of a better word, grungy."
The "Teaser" Cinematic Redux"
Yeah.
User Interface
The menu's UI is awkward.
"To our disappointment, it honestly doesn't feel as though much care was put into the basic Heads Up Display and game status feedback features as well."
"And if only the tutorial messages weren't displayed in the dead center of your screen. While being shot at, I've got more important things on my mind than being told how to play with the flashlight or flip a banshee..."
Reasonable Difficult
"This philosophy [H1's Legendary] was not kept up in H2, and seems to have been replaced with the single goal of making H2 Legendary especially impossible, as though H1 Legendary players had to be put in there place somehow."
Glitches
Some examples. "These and several other quirks contribute once again to the beta version feel of the game."
Bosses
All they had to say about it: "Most notable quote during play so far: 'If I wanted to play Metal Gear Solid, I'd have bought a Playstation.' He he."
Levels and Encounters
Campaign levels seemed "stretched, anticlimactic, and by game's end leaves you feeling like the entire experience was made up of only 2-4 huge landscapes, rather than the 10+ levels you supposedly just played through."
"Ironically, the removal of the between level loading times and the new flow from one level to the next without moving to a different l
From article: "I took pride in the fact that I was the only person to write reviews consistently for IGN who was a female. When I got added to their editorial staff list (because I was promoted to run their vaults), I was the only female on those lists. If another female had come in, I would have felt odd about it. But I would have needed to check myself too."
I think it's interesting that they admit to doing the same that males often get blamed for. Being a "newer" market for women, it feels strange or awkward when a women is in the ranks. This isn't to say she shouldn't be there and if they can pull their own weight than so be it. At least they admit that it seems strange for them too.
Slashdot Mirror
"Though I personally am much more a fan of Penny-Arcade, CAD probably lends itself better for an animation because Tim usually presents story and continuity, and this is a brave and pioneering move for a webcomic..."
Barring, of course, Megatokyo. In any case, the reason I stopped reading CAD was because it stopped being funny and it seemed as though Tim was trying desperately to make me care about the cast. After he had been selling Ethan as a digital punching bag for all stupidity and mishap (while being funny) I was irritated by the sudden change (mostly because of the lack of funny). Plus I don't like Tim Buckley. He was a complete jerk when I emailed a complaint to him.
I think the reason most webcomics don't appear to present story and continuity is simply because if you notice it, you aren't laughing.
Most of the webcomics I read have a story to it (Megatokyo, Real Life, MacHall) not to mention all of the paper comics that have made the transition to the web. Calvin and Hobbes has plenty of story. Even Penny Arcade has story once in a while. Gabe and Tycho know when to use it, however, so as to keep the funny coming.
It'll be interesting to see what people think of it. I'm certainly not going to pay for anything. I'm not a fan of CAD anymore. Even if I was I wouldn't pay for anything. Not unless I get a preview and it has me rolling on the floor.
There was a link to StrangePuzzle.com which has loads of videos.
They have a search by time and puzzle. The fastest I found was 10.29s for 3x3x3. It looks as if it was timed a bit different though.
Before running off to church this morning I wrote 50 and 18 on my hand and by the time I decided to give up on the service and start solving it I couldn't remember what the goal was. I thought it was to make two piles, one filled with nothing but heads up and the other filled with nothing but heads down.
:P
/.
Needless to say, the puzzle is much easier to solve when you know what the goal is.
On a different note, I started chasing down a possible solution but decided that this was significantly too much work to go through to impress the readers of
If you want to see an example of an FPS with a plot and story that is really integrated and captivating, check out Marathon 2, I think it is available as an open source project now.
Aleph One is probably what you are referring to. If you want to know more about the amazingly complex and wonderful story there is only one place you need to go: The Marathon Story Page.
The Sci Fi Wire has an article up about it right now:
Myst Developer Closes Doors
It claims that it could theoretically reopen in the future, but don't hold your breath.
Another easy test is to simply copy and paste everything they say back to them. If they don't get pissed after a while or start amusing themselves by having you say random obscenities they're probably not a human being. Depending on the robustness of the bot it will either get confused or discover what a buffer overflow is. Shortly after this you will be verbally pummeled by everyone who just lost their date for Friday night.
The Marathon Trilogy was loaded with easter eggs, the most clever being hex codes for icons and an entirely new net-level hidden within terminals.
Bungie tends to love its easter eggs as the Webmaster had people running around trying to find a "Hi Ben" egg in Halo 2 (not to mention the skulls...)
My favourite tradition of Bungie's, however, is they stick acronyms on the bottoms of their game packages that fill out to complete phrases that mean something special to the Bungie team.
Just of out curiosity, is it possible that Blizzard is legally bound to not sell copies of WoW that don't come out of the box? Reminds me of a particular other case that (surprise) also involved Vivendi. Granted, a resale shouldn't in anyway get included in that, but it's interesting to think about.
Blizzard has also had an absolute no-tolerance method of dealing with hacks and pirating. That someone innocent got hosed in this is just going to happen. That this someone got their case published on /. shouldn't, in my mind, change Blizzard's policy.
Most people are pleased that Blizzard takes such a hard stance on hacking and pirating. Justice, unfortunately, is blind and takes down a few decent people. Is it worth it?
From article: "I took pride in the fact that I was the only person to write reviews consistently for IGN who was a female. When I got added to their editorial staff list (because I was promoted to run their vaults), I was the only female on those lists. If another female had come in, I would have felt odd about it. But I would have needed to check myself too."
I think it's interesting that they admit to doing the same that males often get blamed for. Being a "newer" market for women, it feels strange or awkward when a women is in the ranks. This isn't to say she shouldn't be there and if they can pull their own weight than so be it. At least they admit that it seems strange for them too.
Whoa... no self-respecting programmer uses Bondi Blue as their development machine...