Seeing how I live nearby, I'll try to check this out soon. I'm interested in seeing how "games as art" will be portrayed. The Smithsonian exhibits are known to be very good, and I suspect this one will be impressive as well. Let's not forget that they're also the best free museums I've ever seen.
Though they may seem like ancient history now, games with groundbreaking stories, movies, music and scenery have certainly left an impact on our generation(s). I don't think I'll ever forget the world or battle music to the original Dragon Warrior, the Zelda theme, the FMVs of the PlayStation-era Final Fantasy games, or countless other moments which have imprinted themselves in memory. Art is defined by the beholder; I'm glad to see the Smithsonian Institute has decided to view the world of Video Games as art as well.
I might imagine that, with the new-fangled telecommunications tools we have, a few people from outside the NCR might actually have heard about this prior to reading it on/.
Your internets...you *can* use them for more than just porn and trolling.
I finally just finished the original Dune series. Fantastic books, and each one brings with it a greater understanding of the others.
I agree that film/TV adaptations have been poor. Tons of people thing the movie version with Sting is better, but it is certainly no closer to the book than any other. I gravitate toward the Sci-Fi channel version, where Chani is super hot. The budget wasn't nearly as large, but I think it was well done considering.
...wait until the RC earthmovers want to unionize. The project would grind to a standstill, demanding maintenance insurance benefits and better wages, causing the employer to go bankrupt in the process -- putting them out of jobs altogether.
Just like Invisibility spells in Oblivion, the Chinese Stealth Suit is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay overpowered in Fallout.
Using either of these will cheapen the quality of the game, IMHO, even if it is fun to sneak up on Super Mutant Behemoths and chop their legs off.
I must've played FF4, FF7, and Oblivion at least half a dozen times each. I enjoyed the characters, the stories (though admittedly Oblivion's main storyline was extremely short) and the game play. I've put countless hours into the Diablo series as well as Titan Quest: Immortal Throne because they're fun and lend themselves to replays with new classes, friends, odd toon builds, etc.
Excellent game play will bring replays in itself, but replays for the sake of repetition is horrible. Quality over quantity.
Indeed. Some of the newer games on consoles had you press a button while on the pause screen. IIRC Final Fantasy 13 was a great example of how you could skip many scenes at any time, regardless of whether or not you'd seen it before. I only played through once and recall skipping a number of scenes I didn't care for.
It's much better than the old PlayStation way of popping the disc lid, waiting for it to stop spinning and subsequently close it up again to spool up normally. It was a sketchy process at best, and could easily cause you to crash and have to restart from your previous save.
How long until this is used in the wrong way? Most people with access to the system would never do such a thing, but sooner or later it will become abused.
I don't understand why I can't skip a scene even if I have never seen it before. If I don't give two shits about a story and want to get back to PLAYING the GAME, I should be able to move on instantly.
MWheelDown for strafejumping. Gives you a larger window of opportunity to time it perfectly, as you can't jump while you're already in midair and rolling the wheel gives you multiple clicks in a very short time frame. That's how a lot of the old pro shooters did it. It worked extremely well in the Half-Life based games like CS, until they patched it out of existence with the "stun" landing type.
TQ: Immortal Throne is great. Better than D1/D2, I'd agree, albeit slightly quirky at times (as if Diablo doesn't still have 10+ year old bugs?).
TQIT can be had via Steam or is still on shelves of many Wal-Mart type stores I've been to. You shouldn't be paying any more than $20 for both the original and the expansion together (Titan Quest Gold package). I believe certain D2D-style sites also have it for download.
If you do decide to try Titan Quest, I highly suggest downloading the fan-made bug fix patch for the expansion, which is version 1.17a (latest release from THQ/Iron Lore was actually 1.10). It clears up many issues and smooths things out considerably.
Torchlight is also a great game, though not multiplayer (there may be mods for this, I am not sure). Not bloody or gory at all.
I like to think of it as "Pay to Win". It's happened before, though not exactly the same every time.
I've been done with the CoD series since MW2 didn't have support for dedicated, private servers. BIG gaffe on the part of Activision/Infinity Ward, because they could've had a whole crowd of competitive gamers using their product as free advertisement. Any company who doesn't make use of free advertisement has some serious reconsideration to do, or they're just so large and fixed on milking the cash-cow that they don't give a shit.
After Valve has proven with three titles now (L4D, L4D2, Portal 2), a spring release can still be extremely profitable.
FYI: L4D and L4D2 were both Q4 releases (November 2008/2009, respectively). They often have major sales via Steam in the springtime to boost their numbers, as well as various holidays and seasons as well. Perhaps this is where you got mixed up.
www.leagueoflegends.com
www.firefallthegame.com (release expected later this year).
Both free 2 play. Both not EA- or Activision-owned. May not be your style, but I've met the developers of both games and was impressed by their willingness to have open two-way dialog with the gamer base.
IMO, people are tired of spending $50 for a retail game, being forced to pay a subscription fee, and then finding out after a short while that the game isn't at all what was expected. Free 2 play can still offer gaming companies large profit margins while putting out quality work. A publicly traded company is always going to put the stockholder's interest in mind, not the game play experience.
Been there, done that.
Too much lubrication does attract dust and dirt easily, but once you're already griming up the weapon system you're much better off with extra lube.
I disagree about 5.56x45mm not having the range to push out to 800+ yards. My friend's daughter is one of the top riflewomen (is that a word?) in Texas. She takes her 5.56mm AR-15, which has been accurized and uses match-grade equipment and ammnition, and can hit a bullseye consistently at 1000 yards.
It is not the caliber which limits precision at range, necessarily. The NATO M855 round is lighter and more cheaply made than match ammunition, as are the M16 family of rifles. They're not match grade, because the average soldier does not require that level of precision and match grade weapons tend to have less tolerance for dirt & debris.
I agree though, that a heavier caliber (7.62 NATO or.50 BMG for example) is much more apt to firing and killing at distances in excess of conventional rifleman operations.
I've heard a similar argument from other people as far as AK's firing NATO ammo. The only possible combination of rifle cartridge I can think of is the 7.62R (7.62 x 54mm) chamber perhaps firing a 7.62 NATO (7.62 x 51mm). The shape of the round is different, specifically the rim and the ogive, but in a loose chamber it MAY work.
You can also fire 9mm Luger (aka Parabellum, 9x19) through a.40S&W weapon. I don't suggest it, but DOES go bang, though it does not cycle properly, accurately hit a target, etc. Same goes for.40S&W in a.45ACP pistol. This is why you don't mix your rounds up!
They also failed to line the barrels with chrome-molybdenum. A lack of which tends to foul the barrel and chamber with copper, lead & powder residue much more quickly.
There is no gun that "never needs cleaning". You may be able to push a thousand or more rounds through a modern day M16-A2/A4, but sooner or later it will foul and cease to cycle. The most I've fired without a thorough cleaning is about 1200, and that was in fairly unusual circumstances which didn't afford me the time to clean properly. Luckily, guns run better wet and dirty than dry and dirty.
For some people, CS:S was free. I distinctly recall not paying for it, but always having full access to it (since around 2004-ish, when it was released).
Agreed about finding your target servers. You can still find a ton of CS GunGame servers, which is a fun change of pace.
I think the FireFall servers may have been experiencing an issue anyway - I wasn't able to get onto the forums yesterday afternoon. They're undergoing major overhauls and updates, so you never know when the servers will need to be taken offline for a patch, etc.
CounterStrike (and CS:S) is still one of the most popular shooters in the world. It also has, to this day, a large competitive scene.
What did the original developers of CS, and eventually Valve, do to make it such a long standing success? It was a FREE mod to anyone who owned Half-Life, and even when it went gold you could still download freely. Despite it being free, it sold 4+ million copies! Likewise with CS:S to anyone who owned HL2, this still sold 2+ million copies. You can still hop on either game and find tens of thousands of people playing on thousands of servers. While the later releases of the CoD series (COD4 and beyond, we'll say for our purposes) may have more users consistently playing, they're also not over 11 years old!
Personally, I'm hoping that http://www.firefallthegame.com/, which will be FREE as well, also has the competitive nature and staying power of CS. Got to play it against the developers at PAX East '11 (they kicked the crap out of our group, btw -- all very solid players), and it's a nicely paced shooter which flows very well. Scott Youngblood (of Starsiege: Tribes) is the lead designer, and many of the devs come from the competitive shooter world; Quake, CS, Tribes, etc. They're all down to earth guys, but they also have the desire and drive to make a game for gamers, by gamers. Not this "Rehashing the same old bullshit", Activision-style.
Making money should be the byproduct of a great game, not the reverse. COD4 had the right formula, but Activision milked it so hard and alienated the PC gaming community. That's a LOT of business they've lost out on.
Some high velocity.22LR FMJ would be even more prime for the task. A good ol' 10/22 or such can definitely punch through a hdd with the right round...and you can shoot a whole LOT of them for the price of a.45 or 9mm!
Fiber really doesn't take that much skill to terminate. With a QuickCam kit, you can make a single termination in a minute or two on multi- or single-mode FO. It does, however, require relatively expensive equipment -- purchases which do not justify only using them for a single home network. Some of the diamond-wheel cutters used can be in excess of $1500, but high-quality connections require better tools to maintain.
The cable itself is relatively cheap. It is the equipment and transceivers which get very expensive, very quickly.
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Seeing how I live nearby, I'll try to check this out soon. I'm interested in seeing how "games as art" will be portrayed. The Smithsonian exhibits are known to be very good, and I suspect this one will be impressive as well. Let's not forget that they're also the best free museums I've ever seen.
Though they may seem like ancient history now, games with groundbreaking stories, movies, music and scenery have certainly left an impact on our generation(s). I don't think I'll ever forget the world or battle music to the original Dragon Warrior, the Zelda theme, the FMVs of the PlayStation-era Final Fantasy games, or countless other moments which have imprinted themselves in memory. Art is defined by the beholder; I'm glad to see the Smithsonian Institute has decided to view the world of Video Games as art as well.
I might imagine that, with the new-fangled telecommunications tools we have, a few people from outside the NCR might actually have heard about this prior to reading it on /.
Your internets...you *can* use them for more than just porn and trolling.
I finally just finished the original Dune series. Fantastic books, and each one brings with it a greater understanding of the others.
I agree that film/TV adaptations have been poor. Tons of people thing the movie version with Sting is better, but it is certainly no closer to the book than any other. I gravitate toward the Sci-Fi channel version, where Chani is super hot. The budget wasn't nearly as large, but I think it was well done considering.
...wait until the RC earthmovers want to unionize. The project would grind to a standstill, demanding maintenance insurance benefits and better wages, causing the employer to go bankrupt in the process -- putting them out of jobs altogether.
Just like Invisibility spells in Oblivion, the Chinese Stealth Suit is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay overpowered in Fallout. Using either of these will cheapen the quality of the game, IMHO, even if it is fun to sneak up on Super Mutant Behemoths and chop their legs off.
Unnecessary if properly cooked. Maybe just some salt & pepper.
Lightly roasted with shallots and some sherry.
:)
Animals are tasty
I must've played FF4, FF7, and Oblivion at least half a dozen times each. I enjoyed the characters, the stories (though admittedly Oblivion's main storyline was extremely short) and the game play. I've put countless hours into the Diablo series as well as Titan Quest: Immortal Throne because they're fun and lend themselves to replays with new classes, friends, odd toon builds, etc.
Excellent game play will bring replays in itself, but replays for the sake of repetition is horrible. Quality over quantity.
Indeed. Some of the newer games on consoles had you press a button while on the pause screen. IIRC Final Fantasy 13 was a great example of how you could skip many scenes at any time, regardless of whether or not you'd seen it before. I only played through once and recall skipping a number of scenes I didn't care for. It's much better than the old PlayStation way of popping the disc lid, waiting for it to stop spinning and subsequently close it up again to spool up normally. It was a sketchy process at best, and could easily cause you to crash and have to restart from your previous save.
How long until this is used in the wrong way? Most people with access to the system would never do such a thing, but sooner or later it will become abused.
I don't understand why I can't skip a scene even if I have never seen it before. If I don't give two shits about a story and want to get back to PLAYING the GAME, I should be able to move on instantly.
MWheelDown for strafejumping. Gives you a larger window of opportunity to time it perfectly, as you can't jump while you're already in midair and rolling the wheel gives you multiple clicks in a very short time frame. That's how a lot of the old pro shooters did it. It worked extremely well in the Half-Life based games like CS, until they patched it out of existence with the "stun" landing type.
TQ: Immortal Throne is great. Better than D1/D2, I'd agree, albeit slightly quirky at times (as if Diablo doesn't still have 10+ year old bugs?).
TQIT can be had via Steam or is still on shelves of many Wal-Mart type stores I've been to. You shouldn't be paying any more than $20 for both the original and the expansion together (Titan Quest Gold package). I believe certain D2D-style sites also have it for download.
If you do decide to try Titan Quest, I highly suggest downloading the fan-made bug fix patch for the expansion, which is version 1.17a (latest release from THQ/Iron Lore was actually 1.10). It clears up many issues and smooths things out considerably.
Torchlight is also a great game, though not multiplayer (there may be mods for this, I am not sure). Not bloody or gory at all.
I like to think of it as "Pay to Win". It's happened before, though not exactly the same every time.
I've been done with the CoD series since MW2 didn't have support for dedicated, private servers. BIG gaffe on the part of Activision/Infinity Ward, because they could've had a whole crowd of competitive gamers using their product as free advertisement. Any company who doesn't make use of free advertisement has some serious reconsideration to do, or they're just so large and fixed on milking the cash-cow that they don't give a shit.
Don't be mad. Now at least you can find your penis with this lens.
After Valve has proven with three titles now (L4D, L4D2, Portal 2), a spring release can still be extremely profitable.
FYI: L4D and L4D2 were both Q4 releases (November 2008/2009, respectively). They often have major sales via Steam in the springtime to boost their numbers, as well as various holidays and seasons as well. Perhaps this is where you got mixed up.
www.leagueoflegends.com www.firefallthegame.com (release expected later this year). Both free 2 play. Both not EA- or Activision-owned. May not be your style, but I've met the developers of both games and was impressed by their willingness to have open two-way dialog with the gamer base. IMO, people are tired of spending $50 for a retail game, being forced to pay a subscription fee, and then finding out after a short while that the game isn't at all what was expected. Free 2 play can still offer gaming companies large profit margins while putting out quality work. A publicly traded company is always going to put the stockholder's interest in mind, not the game play experience.
Been there, done that.
Too much lubrication does attract dust and dirt easily, but once you're already griming up the weapon system you're much better off with extra lube.
I disagree about 5.56x45mm not having the range to push out to 800+ yards. My friend's daughter is one of the top riflewomen (is that a word?) in Texas. She takes her 5.56mm AR-15, which has been accurized and uses match-grade equipment and ammnition, and can hit a bullseye consistently at 1000 yards.
.50 BMG for example) is much more apt to firing and killing at distances in excess of conventional rifleman operations.
It is not the caliber which limits precision at range, necessarily. The NATO M855 round is lighter and more cheaply made than match ammunition, as are the M16 family of rifles. They're not match grade, because the average soldier does not require that level of precision and match grade weapons tend to have less tolerance for dirt & debris.
I agree though, that a heavier caliber (7.62 NATO or
I've heard a similar argument from other people as far as AK's firing NATO ammo. The only possible combination of rifle cartridge I can think of is the 7.62R (7.62 x 54mm) chamber perhaps firing a 7.62 NATO (7.62 x 51mm). The shape of the round is different, specifically the rim and the ogive, but in a loose chamber it MAY work.
.40S&W weapon. I don't suggest it, but DOES go bang, though it does not cycle properly, accurately hit a target, etc. Same goes for .40S&W in a .45ACP pistol. This is why you don't mix your rounds up!
You can also fire 9mm Luger (aka Parabellum, 9x19) through a
They also failed to line the barrels with chrome-molybdenum. A lack of which tends to foul the barrel and chamber with copper, lead & powder residue much more quickly.
There is no gun that "never needs cleaning". You may be able to push a thousand or more rounds through a modern day M16-A2/A4, but sooner or later it will foul and cease to cycle. The most I've fired without a thorough cleaning is about 1200, and that was in fairly unusual circumstances which didn't afford me the time to clean properly. Luckily, guns run better wet and dirty than dry and dirty.
For some people, CS:S was free. I distinctly recall not paying for it, but always having full access to it (since around 2004-ish, when it was released).
Agreed about finding your target servers. You can still find a ton of CS GunGame servers, which is a fun change of pace.
I think the FireFall servers may have been experiencing an issue anyway - I wasn't able to get onto the forums yesterday afternoon. They're undergoing major overhauls and updates, so you never know when the servers will need to be taken offline for a patch, etc.
CounterStrike (and CS:S) is still one of the most popular shooters in the world. It also has, to this day, a large competitive scene.
What did the original developers of CS, and eventually Valve, do to make it such a long standing success? It was a FREE mod to anyone who owned Half-Life, and even when it went gold you could still download freely. Despite it being free, it sold 4+ million copies! Likewise with CS:S to anyone who owned HL2, this still sold 2+ million copies. You can still hop on either game and find tens of thousands of people playing on thousands of servers. While the later releases of the CoD series (COD4 and beyond, we'll say for our purposes) may have more users consistently playing, they're also not over 11 years old!
Personally, I'm hoping that http://www.firefallthegame.com/, which will be FREE as well, also has the competitive nature and staying power of CS. Got to play it against the developers at PAX East '11 (they kicked the crap out of our group, btw -- all very solid players), and it's a nicely paced shooter which flows very well. Scott Youngblood (of Starsiege: Tribes) is the lead designer, and many of the devs come from the competitive shooter world; Quake, CS, Tribes, etc. They're all down to earth guys, but they also have the desire and drive to make a game for gamers, by gamers. Not this "Rehashing the same old bullshit", Activision-style.
Making money should be the byproduct of a great game, not the reverse. COD4 had the right formula, but Activision milked it so hard and alienated the PC gaming community. That's a LOT of business they've lost out on.
Some high velocity .22LR FMJ would be even more prime for the task. A good ol' 10/22 or such can definitely punch through a hdd with the right round...and you can shoot a whole LOT of them for the price of a .45 or 9mm!
.22 for fun :D
9mm for carry.
Fiber really doesn't take that much skill to terminate. With a QuickCam kit, you can make a single termination in a minute or two on multi- or single-mode FO. It does, however, require relatively expensive equipment -- purchases which do not justify only using them for a single home network. Some of the diamond-wheel cutters used can be in excess of $1500, but high-quality connections require better tools to maintain.
The cable itself is relatively cheap. It is the equipment and transceivers which get very expensive, very quickly.