In his defense, it has exactly the same relevance as the movie has to the game.
Its got a few similar places, but mostly the story is confusing and muddled down in "mysterious past" syndrome. Its basically a large number of fight scenes strung together with pretty graphics, just like FF7.
It's pretty sad that FFVI's Kefka literally dressed like a clown, yet represented a far more significant threat than his successor. Kefka broke the world in his quest for raw power, then ruled over the ruined remains with divine fury; Sephiroth wanted a hug from mommy and babbled a lot.
That was the FFVII revolution: half the game, spread across twice as much time.
I've always thought that FFVI had much more meat to the game. I mean, the plot in 7 wasn't really that great compaired to the plot of the other games. But it had so much flash, it just made peoples eyes glaze over if they hadn't had previous RPG experiance.
I for one am glad that I played RPGs well before FF7 came along, otherwise I think it would have ruined me and made me unable to enjoy graphics and ignore the actual gameplay.
They know that open source can be good for them sometimes. While many of you might be huge linux advocates, the fact remains that many of the bigger companies still use windows server solutions. Its not so much that they support linux, is that now that its a viable solution, if they can blend themselves into linux, but still get you to pay for M$ products, then they come out ahead.
The simple fact is that M$ wants to keep its name in the big buisnesses because 10,000 licenses a year is a big deal, plus those big boys of buisness also influence their workers to be familiar with windows, which leads their families to purchase windows, and so on and so on.
Actually, they also block a few google videos of "unseemly" acts that our soldiers have done in iraq. Stuff like soldiers swearing at and belittling the iraquis, and shooting a car's gas tank because they're bored.
Now thats not quite accurate, its not like we're being told that our food rations are being raised, when in fact they're being lowered... well, our wallets are, ok, let me start over.
Now thats not quite accurate, its not as if we live in a society where the government tapes public and private areas looking for wrongdoing... wait, let me start over.
Now thats not quite accurate, its not as if we went to war for the sake of going to war... well, we went to war to make the rich richer, so let me start over.
Now thats not quite accurate, its not as if terrorist attacks are being perpetrated against ourselves by ourselves to trump up support for the war... wait, yes we are...
Well crap, I've got no real response here. 1984 is a good book, and scarilly relevant in this current administration. Anyone have a rebuttal?
Yes, but the Xen part was relativly short lived, and placed at just the right point where you were at the point where you could realistically annihilate any creepy-crawlies in the dank corners of the base. The only other solution would be to take all your guns away and most people would be very disapointed with that.
If it had gone on with more dark noir atmosphere, the ending would have had much less of an effect.
As it is, the game starts out creepy, moves to get a bit darker and scarier, then less scary when you go to xen (less stuff jumping out at you, more of a run and gun), ending with a strange twist.
If it had been the same atmosphere the whole way, it would have been creepy, gotten darker and scarier, and then kind of been stuck at dark/scary the whole way to the end, at which point you'd see the ending and just leave feeling depressed.
Do you remember the first time the fast jumping zombie guys come at you?
I said "except ravenholm" (well, ravenwood the first time, because I forgot the village's name). That one area had a good atmosphere to it.
I'm not saying that the atmosphere was badly done in HL2, just that it had a different kind of atmosphere, that doesn't lend to the same kind of long-lasting appeal.
Ok, lets look at the plot of HL1 and HL2 for a second here.
HL1: Main character is average-joe (well, scientist, but certainly a bit out of his element here).
HL2: Main character is exhaulted hero praised by everyone (same guy as before, but people worship him now)
HL1: Scary sequences where you know monsters are slowly picking off people and annihilating the base.
HL2: Less scary open outdoor sequences, more of a serious-sam game than before. (except ravenwood)
HL1: Fighting for survival, and little else.
HL2: Fighting for an ideal and grand-purpose of saving humanity.
See the difference? HL1 had much of a more noir, dark atmosphere. HL2 had more of a "lets shoot stuff and be heroes" kind of atmosphere. The first one tends to draw players in and keep them interested and thinking about the complex story, the second is just too streightforward to keep people playing.
p.s. (completely unrelated to above comments)
Hl 2 multiplayer is woefully poor. I would rather play HL 1 multiplayer. Granted, the physics engine is nice, but you see people dance up ladders (they fall, catch themselves, fall, catch themselves, ect.), see huge lag times even on direct connections, and the physics engine degrades severely in multiplayer play.
I'm not opposed to the guy making a buck for himself, but I am opposed to the idea of him charging people for new versions of the same product. Donations are also a good way for people to pay you for something they think is worth it.
The information on the steam browser leaves out that its also available freely, which means he is misleading people into paying for a free product when they won't know the difference.
My wallet is 50$ lighter, thats how much I know. Really, what else has anyone done with garysmod? Its used for comics, funny movies, and odd screen captures, I can't think of any other uses for it.
Its a sandbox tool, a very good sandbox tool, but thats all it is.
As offencive as this is, I think that this is the overall mood toward ingame advertising. I feel the same way about it, so long as the advertising would be completely out of place. Medieval settings with advertising are almost (not never, sadly enough) ad-free, while product placement happens in a lot of contemporary games.
But there is a argument that it does help immersion in a game setting that it makes sense in. I would personally not care if I were playing a swat game and happened to find a coca cola machine in the lobby of some building. It should offset the price a bit, maybe 45$ instead of 50$, though I know that software makers will never do this.
We all know that the biggest problem games are sports games. They are, for the most part, shovelware. When a developer knows the game will sell by the title alone and not reviews or word of mouth, then they will put in every possible ad to make as much money out of it as they can.
You know, paying for garys mod is like paying for a tech demo. All this thing is used for is to play around with a graphics engine you already paid for in HL2. I really don't understand why anyone would want to pay for this.
Just another tiny expansion to milk money out of peoples pockets, like selling CS for HL1 in stores when it was free online.
Slashdot Mirror
Its got a few similar places, but mostly the story is confusing and muddled down in "mysterious past" syndrome. Its basically a large number of fight scenes strung together with pretty graphics, just like FF7.
Advantage: Kekfa.
Yes, he did look like a panzy, compairatively
I've always thought that FFVI had much more meat to the game. I mean, the plot in 7 wasn't really that great compaired to the plot of the other games. But it had so much flash, it just made peoples eyes glaze over if they hadn't had previous RPG experiance.
I for one am glad that I played RPGs well before FF7 came along, otherwise I think it would have ruined me and made me unable to enjoy graphics and ignore the actual gameplay.
The simple fact is that M$ wants to keep its name in the big buisnesses because 10,000 licenses a year is a big deal, plus those big boys of buisness also influence their workers to be familiar with windows, which leads their families to purchase windows, and so on and so on.
Actually, they also block a few google videos of "unseemly" acts that our soldiers have done in iraq. Stuff like soldiers swearing at and belittling the iraquis, and shooting a car's gas tank because they're bored.
Now thats not quite accurate, its not as if we live in a society where the government tapes public and private areas looking for wrongdoing... wait, let me start over.
Now thats not quite accurate, its not as if we went to war for the sake of going to war... well, we went to war to make the rich richer, so let me start over.
Now thats not quite accurate, its not as if terrorist attacks are being perpetrated against ourselves by ourselves to trump up support for the war... wait, yes we are...
Well crap, I've got no real response here. 1984 is a good book, and scarilly relevant in this current administration. Anyone have a rebuttal?
And nobody showed up.
"All Women Play More Games Than Men."
Theres a line between being a friendly interviewer, and sucking up to the people your giving the interview to.
If it had gone on with more dark noir atmosphere, the ending would have had much less of an effect.
As it is, the game starts out creepy, moves to get a bit darker and scarier, then less scary when you go to xen (less stuff jumping out at you, more of a run and gun), ending with a strange twist.
If it had been the same atmosphere the whole way, it would have been creepy, gotten darker and scarier, and then kind of been stuck at dark/scary the whole way to the end, at which point you'd see the ending and just leave feeling depressed.
I said "except ravenholm" (well, ravenwood the first time, because I forgot the village's name). That one area had a good atmosphere to it.
I'm not saying that the atmosphere was badly done in HL2, just that it had a different kind of atmosphere, that doesn't lend to the same kind of long-lasting appeal.
HL1: Main character is average-joe (well, scientist, but certainly a bit out of his element here). HL2: Main character is exhaulted hero praised by everyone (same guy as before, but people worship him now)
HL1: Scary sequences where you know monsters are slowly picking off people and annihilating the base. HL2: Less scary open outdoor sequences, more of a serious-sam game than before. (except ravenwood)
HL1: Fighting for survival, and little else. HL2: Fighting for an ideal and grand-purpose of saving humanity.
See the difference? HL1 had much of a more noir, dark atmosphere. HL2 had more of a "lets shoot stuff and be heroes" kind of atmosphere. The first one tends to draw players in and keep them interested and thinking about the complex story, the second is just too streightforward to keep people playing.
p.s. (completely unrelated to above comments) Hl 2 multiplayer is woefully poor. I would rather play HL 1 multiplayer. Granted, the physics engine is nice, but you see people dance up ladders (they fall, catch themselves, fall, catch themselves, ect.), see huge lag times even on direct connections, and the physics engine degrades severely in multiplayer play.
The information on the steam browser leaves out that its also available freely, which means he is misleading people into paying for a free product when they won't know the difference.
Its a sandbox tool, a very good sandbox tool, but thats all it is.
As offencive as this is, I think that this is the overall mood toward ingame advertising. I feel the same way about it, so long as the advertising would be completely out of place. Medieval settings with advertising are almost (not never, sadly enough) ad-free, while product placement happens in a lot of contemporary games. But there is a argument that it does help immersion in a game setting that it makes sense in. I would personally not care if I were playing a swat game and happened to find a coca cola machine in the lobby of some building. It should offset the price a bit, maybe 45$ instead of 50$, though I know that software makers will never do this. We all know that the biggest problem games are sports games. They are, for the most part, shovelware. When a developer knows the game will sell by the title alone and not reviews or word of mouth, then they will put in every possible ad to make as much money out of it as they can.
You know, paying for garys mod is like paying for a tech demo. All this thing is used for is to play around with a graphics engine you already paid for in HL2. I really don't understand why anyone would want to pay for this. Just another tiny expansion to milk money out of peoples pockets, like selling CS for HL1 in stores when it was free online.
Thank you for announcing that you haven't read the book.