In the last few days Robert Bowling at last came out from underneath Europe, assumingly in some sort of underground Reichstag bunker that filters his ability to respond to queries for all sides regarding the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 to confirm on several fronts a shopping list of PC-related queries.
So, here's the shopping list for what is now being called by some "Black Sunday" -
Modern Warfare 2 will not be using a client-server relationship with a populated server list based off a master server for it's multiplayer handling. Instead, Infinity Ward has built a matchmaking system that shotguns on Steam, dubbed IWNet. So instead of your usual relationship between gamers and GSPs/ISPSs, you will now be running all multiplayer entirely through ad-hoc networks, mastered through IWnet.
There is no plans for dedicated servers. Period. You can already see where this is going.
IWNet will be using Steam for Anti-cheat protection (which is good, because punkbuster sucked), Matchmaking which will essentially lock you into games with similarly ranked players(presumably to prevent griefing).
Servers will be able to be privatised and password protected with some degree of customisation.
In a two-parts Modding for MW2 and custom content is out for the meanwhile, and so is competitive gaming.
Now, before I go on a tirade about why I won't be putting money down for this game EVEN more than I was before, I'd jsut like to also put on the balance that there are positives to matchmaking. For example, it's great for playing with a bunch of friends you already know without all that setting up business. What it's not great for is all the reasons this is making PC gamers worldwide angry (Amazon is reporting losing 2000 PC pre-orders in the 24 hours since this broke).
Let's start off with the bottom end first-
Competitive Gaming. yes, I hate the snot-nosed arse pounders, but whatever chance of competitive leagueshad of starting for this game has now essentially slimmed. Particularly without dedicated server support, setting up CG events will be somewhat stymied by forcing the hosters to have X amount of individual dedicated machines running the game WITH THE MACHINES ACTUALLY IN THE GAME will be troublesome. Yeah you can pretty much kissthat goodbye. Scrims and stuff probably will be less affected, but the real hardcore stff for MW2, probably gone. Enjoy that
Custom Content. Robert Bowling said that there's no information on a Mod dev kit as of yet, and was reluctant to confirm yes or no. However, the silence leaves two things up in the air - whether there will BE custom content support at all, and if nothing is said between now and immediate post launch the likelihood of it being so decreasing.
Onwards- Bandwidth.
Bandwidth is going to be a real deal-breaker for a system that ONLY supports ad-hoc matchmaking. Do I even need to say it? Home ISP connections are by and large quite small and will severly limit the performance of the game, as well as the largest reasonable server capacity. This is of course assuming that the pipe is completely open and not being shared with other suers (which it rarely is).
Latency.
I do not know of ONE ad-hoc system that has reliably correlated latency users. There is always an outliers. There's been no word from IW whether there will be localised or even continentalised IWnet servers, so I do not hold high hopes for the system, as the further you get from the central server, generally the less accurate latency matching you will get... and if the matchmaking has to come from the US... We're on the other side of the world here in Australia, it's going to be attrocious (it already is through Xbox Live according to some people).
Now, I'm a big fan of dedicated servers. They're there like public arenas. They don't move around, and generally are designed to cope with internet traffic. They're ideal in the PC world, because you can just open a game, go to your favourite server, and jump straight in.
I'm also not opposed to matchmaking, as I've mentioned briefly before. However, matchmaking is far from the ideal solution for PC gaming. In fact, relying on it solely is detrimental to the multiplayer experience. The above two key logistical issues are a start. No dedicated servers means that you may potentially be stuck in high latency games just because whoever started the game decided he'd open up a torrent in the background(or his housemate, whatever). Dedicated sservers give a baseline reliability and connectivity for a game, and without them, large-scale multiplayer games aren't possible.They ease the burden on machines with low specs or slow internet to keep the game running smooth, and as such make the game enjoyable for everyone.
Point is, yeah, have matchmaking, but keep Dedicated Support. It works great for Left4Dead, which in my books is doing matchmaking more or less ON the nail.
Further food for thought- This matchmaking system is cutting into the running of an actual 3rd tier business - Game Service Providers (people who run and rent servers as a means of profit). This will no doubt cause them some headaches. THE number one game of this year (so says the media), and THEY are going to have a hard time trying to be part of it. It's not like L4D or even Blizzard's battlenet, where they actually HOST games even though there is a matchmaking system, this is completely designed to run around them.
MY biggest concern is this is a continuation of a worrying trend that would circumvent PCs are a viable gaming platform (for major publishing companies outside Valve... Indy pubs and devs will ALWAYS run stronger on PC).. to what end?
So to summarise-
• IWnet servers will host multiplayer
• DLC will be a charged item for PC
• No dedicated servers
• Matchmaking system used to play with similarly ranked players
• VAC instead of PB
• Semi-capable password servers
• Semi-capable ad-hoc servers
• Competitive play is dead
• MW2 mods would not be possible
• Steam integration - (how far not mentioned)
• Potential bandwidth and latency nightmare
• The beginning of the end- HAS IW shot themselves in the foot?
Hold your receipts people.
Further Reading/listening-
http://bashandslash.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=746&Itemid=69
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/10/new-modern-warfare-matchmaking-service-will-definitely-reshape-pc-community/#more-362322
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Priorities
Okay so I'm going to do a hard sell here, and I'm going to ask you only one thing coming out of this - Do not under any circumstance purchase Modern Warfare 2.
Why, you may ask?
Allow me to elaborate in words of the queens english.
Argument the First- Bobby Kotick == prick.
I'm not sure how in the loop you are, but surely may have heard of this man who goes by the name of Bobby Kotick. He runs Activision these days, previously owning a boxing firm of some sort I believe. Anyhoo, past irregardless for the moment, he rose to power in Activision in a bloodless coup of stockholders sometime in the last 18 months.
In the last few months, he's been making a lot of negative noise. A WHOLE lot of it, in fact. Most of it is harmless stuff regarding his displeasure with the PS3 as a platform, bla bla bla too expensive, usual gripes. However, Early in September he make a pretty bizzare conference presentation to the Deutsche Bank Securities Group, which all in all has me incensed. To paraphrase and take all the good bits, addressing as I go.
"expect many of our products to be playable independent of a console,"
When asked about an untethered Guitar Hero. In principle, this isn't such a bad idea, however it's at best anther console which you'll have to fork out for, and at worst those stupid throw-away 8-in-1 LCD Gamin-and-watch-style deals ( You know, whole package games complete with hardware... except these'd have to be running stuff that can at least do pixel shaders, so they'd be expensive as shit, or using OnLive). Either way, it's trying to split your market away from everyone else's, which is probably not going to work in this case.
There was a section where he talked about how his friends in movies were quick to point out the bad mouth control and animation in COD:World at War (No shit, they syncing in that game was pretty bad).The executive said game makers just haven't reached a point yet where the mouth movement and facial animation of game characters is good enough to establish a compelling emotional attachment from the player. In many different ways this is untrue. There are plenty of games where emotional attachment to ingame characters or objects, and they didn't even need mouths to prompt it(Portal), and even when there are mouths involved, there are plenty of games out there that have excellent mouth animation and posing(Half-life2 for starters), just none of them I can think of were Activision games. OH, COD4 had some great mouth animation when they were scripted sequence closets.
".... And I think the goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks that we brought in to Activision 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."
Argument the Second - Better games coming out if you're into semi-realistic FPSes, and don't care about the story.
You heard me correctly- there ARE better games out there coming out if you're not counting the Singleplayer experience. Say hello to Battlefield Bad Company 2 - a game that on many levels supercedes MW2.
For a start, let's have a look at the base multiplayer- It's Built off the Bad Company MP model, which in itself is built off Battlefield2, which is built of etc etc. The concept and the classes are all well defined and work. The gameplay modes work reasonably well, and the whole package just works. You'll find yourself a home in this game no matter what kind of player you are.
The Graphics- well, they're both pretty good, but the fact that BFBC2 scale to MUCH larger maps and gamplay, and I'm a personal fan of BC's animation style and effects over MW2's.As a package, they feel jsut that better composed and contiguous regardless of the situation (MW and MW2 have notable problems with player models and explosion effects). BC2 does actually kick MW2's arse for accurate models though. Sorry IW, not even complete remodels that you've done can save you from the blasphemous rear sights.
Sound Effects- No goddamn competion the BC2 has the better sound effects. Proper doppler, AWESOME sound Environmental feedback (reverb indoors, long fallof for outdoors sounds), none of this premix crap(1:1 what's on battlefield to what you're hearing), Best Explosion sounds in a game ever, and most realistic weapon sounds you'll ever hear too.
Gimmicks. Killstreaks? Deathstreaks? Fuck that. Destructible buildings. Fully destructible landscapes. How bout some of that? Fuck yeah. Why would you want anything more?
Seriously-
BFBC2-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQq6NQhXg1Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRlBI6FgMOs
MW2-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4PMRFkx07g&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdPn_6PddLQ
Argument the third - Better games coming out if you're into unrealistic FPSes, and do care about the story.
Contrarywise to the above ,there are also better NON-realistic shooter coming out with more inventive stories than MW2.
Borderlands- it's really worthy of it's own blog spruik, but I'll summarise-
Millions of guns, procedurally generated
semi-procedurally created lifeforms.
Set in a futuristic wasteland on another planet
Interesting characters
Great art style
drop in/out coop
Actual character progression and growth as you play
Think Diablo on FPS steroid
Has a tank chracter that can slam cars
Has a robot in it, which is like Gir on cigarettes.
It's got it's own style,which is more than can be said of MW/Mw2's rip-off-every-movie-we-can-before-the-end-credits style.
Argument the fourth - Deagle Brand Deagles- NOW WITH DUAL WIELD.
I mean in theory I hate Dual Wield. In a game that tries for authenticism, it sticks out like a goddamn sore thumb. Deagles. I Hate deagles for the same reasons. Noone uses them for combat, except hollywood. They have no place in a theatre of war. Combining the Two? FUCK THAT SHIT, IW. FUCK IT WITH A BRICK. You know this is what ALL people who use akimbo are going ot use, and you know that the'll be gold ones, and it will be the epitomy of Fucked up.
You only need to see how much people can own with them in COD4 to see exactly how fucked up it will be with DOUBLE THE DEAGLE.
Argument the fifth - 12 year olds, spawn rape, all that shit
All that went on in COD4 probably returns in CODMW2. This, compounded with overcrowded servers are why you wanna stay the fuck away from CODMW2 until at least like this time next year. Trust me, you'll thank me later.
Argument the sixth - Fuck this shit.
Yeah, pretty much. You're spending AU$100 on a game, that's riddiculous. Remember when games were AU$49.95? considering the length of the game, the enjoyment rate for your dollar is pretty thin these days. Unless you buy like scribblenauts or LittleBigPlanet, or something with a ModKit, anything to give it legs, you are getting a very finite value outa the game. Choose very wisely. MW2's campaign is short, Spec ops mode is 2-player-only and finite to an extent, and the comptetitive MP is just plain spammy. Buy Borderlands instead, you'll get at least 4 times the amount of fun outa it, I promise.
So there we go, I hope this at least makes you think twice about buying IW's next game.
I'm Toadie, I say things so you don't have to.
Why, you may ask?
Allow me to elaborate in words of the queens english.
Argument the First- Bobby Kotick == prick.
I'm not sure how in the loop you are, but surely may have heard of this man who goes by the name of Bobby Kotick. He runs Activision these days, previously owning a boxing firm of some sort I believe. Anyhoo, past irregardless for the moment, he rose to power in Activision in a bloodless coup of stockholders sometime in the last 18 months.
In the last few months, he's been making a lot of negative noise. A WHOLE lot of it, in fact. Most of it is harmless stuff regarding his displeasure with the PS3 as a platform, bla bla bla too expensive, usual gripes. However, Early in September he make a pretty bizzare conference presentation to the Deutsche Bank Securities Group, which all in all has me incensed. To paraphrase and take all the good bits, addressing as I go.
"expect many of our products to be playable independent of a console,"
When asked about an untethered Guitar Hero. In principle, this isn't such a bad idea, however it's at best anther console which you'll have to fork out for, and at worst those stupid throw-away 8-in-1 LCD Gamin-and-watch-style deals ( You know, whole package games complete with hardware... except these'd have to be running stuff that can at least do pixel shaders, so they'd be expensive as shit, or using OnLive). Either way, it's trying to split your market away from everyone else's, which is probably not going to work in this case.
There was a section where he talked about how his friends in movies were quick to point out the bad mouth control and animation in COD:World at War (No shit, they syncing in that game was pretty bad).The executive said game makers just haven't reached a point yet where the mouth movement and facial animation of game characters is good enough to establish a compelling emotional attachment from the player. In many different ways this is untrue. There are plenty of games where emotional attachment to ingame characters or objects, and they didn't even need mouths to prompt it(Portal), and even when there are mouths involved, there are plenty of games out there that have excellent mouth animation and posing(Half-life2 for starters), just none of them I can think of were Activision games. OH, COD4 had some great mouth animation when they were scripted sequence closets.
".... And I think the goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks that we brought in to Activision 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."
"I think we definitely have been able to instill the culture, the skepticism and pessimism and fear that you should have in an economy like we are in today. And so, while generally people talk about the recession, we are pretty good at keeping people focused on the deep depression."
"...You have studio heads who five years ago didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bed sheet who are now arguing allocations in our CFO's office pretty regularly,"
So essentially, he's sapping the fun out of making games, and turning it into the packaging industry. Great. As if we needed it. Admittedly, yes being fiscally responsible is pretty important, if you're ruling a bank, and I suppose you've still gotta worry bout th bottom line at Activision, but it shouldn't be DRIVING how you make your product. THAT, is bad game managment. If you're instilling pessimism and fear into your Developers, and making sure they're not enjoying themselves, you can bet your eggbasket that the games they make are noty going to be fun. It's really a symptomatic problem of some publishing deals (ie, game to movie tie-ins), but he's pretty plainly stated there he's got no intention of letting Developers enjoy making games, so don't expect me to buy anything from him. Seriously, I'm on Activision boycott now, and unlike my failed Vegas 2 one, I can actually achieve this quite successfully.
Argument the Second - Better games coming out if you're into semi-realistic FPSes, and don't care about the story.
You heard me correctly- there ARE better games out there coming out if you're not counting the Singleplayer experience. Say hello to Battlefield Bad Company 2 - a game that on many levels supercedes MW2.
For a start, let's have a look at the base multiplayer- It's Built off the Bad Company MP model, which in itself is built off Battlefield2, which is built of etc etc. The concept and the classes are all well defined and work. The gameplay modes work reasonably well, and the whole package just works. You'll find yourself a home in this game no matter what kind of player you are.
The Graphics- well, they're both pretty good, but the fact that BFBC2 scale to MUCH larger maps and gamplay, and I'm a personal fan of BC's animation style and effects over MW2's.As a package, they feel jsut that better composed and contiguous regardless of the situation (MW and MW2 have notable problems with player models and explosion effects). BC2 does actually kick MW2's arse for accurate models though. Sorry IW, not even complete remodels that you've done can save you from the blasphemous rear sights.
Sound Effects- No goddamn competion the BC2 has the better sound effects. Proper doppler, AWESOME sound Environmental feedback (reverb indoors, long fallof for outdoors sounds), none of this premix crap(1:1 what's on battlefield to what you're hearing), Best Explosion sounds in a game ever, and most realistic weapon sounds you'll ever hear too.
Gimmicks. Killstreaks? Deathstreaks? Fuck that. Destructible buildings. Fully destructible landscapes. How bout some of that? Fuck yeah. Why would you want anything more?
Seriously-
BFBC2-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQq6NQhXg1Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRlBI6FgMOs
MW2-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4PMRFkx07g&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdPn_6PddLQ
Argument the third - Better games coming out if you're into unrealistic FPSes, and do care about the story.
Contrarywise to the above ,there are also better NON-realistic shooter coming out with more inventive stories than MW2.
Borderlands- it's really worthy of it's own blog spruik, but I'll summarise-
Millions of guns, procedurally generated
semi-procedurally created lifeforms.
Set in a futuristic wasteland on another planet
Interesting characters
Great art style
drop in/out coop
Actual character progression and growth as you play
Think Diablo on FPS steroid
Has a tank chracter that can slam cars
Has a robot in it, which is like Gir on cigarettes.
It's got it's own style,which is more than can be said of MW/Mw2's rip-off-every-movie-we-can-before-the-end-credits style.
Argument the fourth - Deagle Brand Deagles- NOW WITH DUAL WIELD.
I mean in theory I hate Dual Wield. In a game that tries for authenticism, it sticks out like a goddamn sore thumb. Deagles. I Hate deagles for the same reasons. Noone uses them for combat, except hollywood. They have no place in a theatre of war. Combining the Two? FUCK THAT SHIT, IW. FUCK IT WITH A BRICK. You know this is what ALL people who use akimbo are going ot use, and you know that the'll be gold ones, and it will be the epitomy of Fucked up.
You only need to see how much people can own with them in COD4 to see exactly how fucked up it will be with DOUBLE THE DEAGLE.
Argument the fifth - 12 year olds, spawn rape, all that shit
All that went on in COD4 probably returns in CODMW2. This, compounded with overcrowded servers are why you wanna stay the fuck away from CODMW2 until at least like this time next year. Trust me, you'll thank me later.
Argument the sixth - Fuck this shit.
Yeah, pretty much. You're spending AU$100 on a game, that's riddiculous. Remember when games were AU$49.95? considering the length of the game, the enjoyment rate for your dollar is pretty thin these days. Unless you buy like scribblenauts or LittleBigPlanet, or something with a ModKit, anything to give it legs, you are getting a very finite value outa the game. Choose very wisely. MW2's campaign is short, Spec ops mode is 2-player-only and finite to an extent, and the comptetitive MP is just plain spammy. Buy Borderlands instead, you'll get at least 4 times the amount of fun outa it, I promise.
So there we go, I hope this at least makes you think twice about buying IW's next game.
I'm Toadie, I say things so you don't have to.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Okay so here's the thing about Valve Software.
I mean I don't hate them, nor do I spin madly in love with them, I just co-exist in the same world with them and sometimes we meet for coffee, if that analogy makes any sense.
I think that people both overstate and understate Valve, usually in the same breath.The overstatement is usually a sweeping positive or a sweeping negative, while the understatement is almost always just trying to ignore pitfalls.
Understatement
On one side, Valve are incredibly capable game devs. They've pulled off some of the best games I've played, possibly of all time (HL2: Ep2, Portal, HL1). They really know their shit and it shows in what I've seen from L4D2. They're really hands on with the community, and do support their product literally a decade after people would have bought it full price at a brick and mortar store. They hire high-class talent and produce high class work. However, they're not infallible.
People do treat them as if they are infallible. This is a problem, because they are not, nor are they delivering upon high mighty stone tablets. They are, at the end of the day, some guys in Bellvue Washington, who happen to make polished games and still support the PC platform with a reasonable amount of consistency.
They suffer from what I'd like to call "Game Science Syndrome". This more or less comes down to a game being designed from an initial point to reach a single hypothesis, which is then put to testers, who rigorously hammer, then it's passed back and forth until it's so tight that the hammering has turned the 50 cubic meter marshmallow is now a cube the size of a pinhead and full of glucose. Hence- Game Science. Have a theory, make a test batch, apply to mice, note reactions, modify and reiterate as necessary until it works with minimal flaws, push on public for fifty bucks. This approach is fine, and indeed should be part of all games, but relying on tester feedback and deliberately trying to smooth out the game leads to streamlining, and streamlining isn;t always necessarily GOOD. It has lead to some of my biggest beefs with Valve games cropping up (HL2's boring environments, TF2/TFC's useless class- the HWG, L4D's monotonous gameplay). I should address all these in proper reviews, but they're never going to get reviews, so I'll give a quick cover right now.
HL2's environments, immediately post acquiring the Gravity gun go from interesting adventurous places to be, to dull , gimmick-lined pains in the ass. Okay, let's assume that you're me, not a huge fan of using the gravity gun because of it's sheer gimmick factor. Yes, you'll use it when you HAVE to , but because you're not hunting for props and objects to throw at things constantly, the game goes from a tense run to downright boring. Props are all obviously there for you to punt. Hell, Ravenholm made sure you did by blocking your path with them time and again. It's a real problem especially around the sandtraps, where you must use your gravity gun (again, it's fine because that's the puzzle of that entire level) on everything. There is no other way to solve this level but to play shuffleboard with a door and a rotted boat (yes there are other props, no, get out of my head charles). THere is literally nothing more than this to the level if you don;t want antlions to rape you. You can of course try your best to cross withoutusing the gun, but you will find yourself physically alienated from the solution half way, because there is a gulf of sand wide enough that even if you could glitch it, you'd still probably miss. It's impossible. Then of course completeing this you get gimmick weapon two- the Antlion pheromone pod. Another story altogether. It's clear that Valve want you to play with the gravity gun, but I'm jsut not down with gimmicky tools in games. They're all like "Here, use this." and I'm like "No, I'll stick to trying my skill with the shotgun, thanks.". It reeks of the bad kind of game science, and it really irritates me.
Valve gripe number two - The Useless Class: the Heavy/Heavy Weapons Guy. Seriously, he's goddamn useless. Turns slower thank a tank, has the accuracy of a shower of rain. Sure, he's got 200 health, but he's so slow and his weapon is so useless that he jsut becomes a sponge for someone else to lob over the top of... and Trust me, being the sponge is not fun. Okay a bit ofa backstory. Before TFC, there was Quakeworld Team Fortress, made by a Queenslander in his bedroom. It was massive. Team based class gameplay, 9 classes, a bajillion maps. Yes, the Heavy was one of them, but he was a late addition. By the time he was added, Valve and said queenslander were already in talks for TFC in Half-life 1, so he was needles to say, a bit unbalanced. Minigun? unbalanced? never. TFC came out, and while some classes had become a bit softer, not got the nerf as hard as the poor HW guy.Admittedly, he wasn't as bad as he was in TF2, but he got a noticable step down in power from Quakeworld. TF2 made it worse, with the nerfing continuing, the removal of traps and grenades, and ultimately, becoming on it's own a different experinece altogether separate of it's roots. The HW guy went from being a good base of fire to being compltely and utterly useless. Sure, you could argue that some of the achievement unlocks for the heavy make him a bit more powerful ,but I'll be honest, putting 20 plus hours into a heavy, I've yet to see any of that shit, so fuck it. Again another iterative nerfing project that valve embarked upon.
And finally Left4Dead's boring gameplay. Mechanics directly from CS, step one for a resipe for disaster right there. Left 4 Dead, for me was this *hold down fire* *reload* *hold down fire and run* *wait for everyone * *fire some more**end level* *rinse repeat until last level* *receive rape*. That's it. there is literally nothing more to that game. What's more, the variety of weapons is shocking. Remember what I said about pruning and stuff? Heres where it was cut. Admittedly, any more guns might just be dupes, but they've no issue with it in two. What's more, the entire outside areas of Left4dead feel uninspired and boring for the most part. Especially the starting chapter. That set of levels was so very dull to be a part of. So dull it hurt my view of the rest of the game. L4D2 seems to cope with all this stuff and I'm much more inclined to get that over the wide berth I gave the first one.
So yes, people tend to understate or overlook minor or major downfalls to appease the actually-not-listening Gabe Newell head on their mantle, just because it's Valve.
Then again....
Overstatment
This happens a lot to Valve, because unfortunately, because they do seem to be such a community-focussed team, it makes them open to broad-siders about all sorts.
L4D2 Boycotts, the Anti-Steam movement, PS3 owners, L4D players, Portal addicts, TF2 addicts, CS junkies, CSS junkies. All of them overstate Valve's abilities or importance.. or totally go off the deepend regardless of the reality of the situation.
L4D2 Boycotters are nothing but a bunch of L4D gamers who immediately threw their hands in the air at the announcement of the sequal, not believing that valve could turn over a game in 12 months (thinking that this somehow invalidates their purchase or something), and in a leap of logic think Valve are jsut going to leave them in the lurch.
Anti-Steam people are just idiots. While there are a few bugs with Steam, it's a hell of a lot better than it was in 2004, and it most certainly easier to use and more convenient that maybe 70% of all competive game distribution platforms. Offline Mode may still be buggy to hell, but while I'm online, I've yet to see a problem with steam yet. Their leap of logic is thinking that Steam is somehow the worst concept in game distribution, because it's still better than discs. There, I said it.
PS3 owners who bought the Orange box are the only ones who should feel slighted by valve.. because the port (not actually done by valve) was crap. All other PS3 owners who are now whinging about Valve annoucement that they have no intentions for developing for the PS3. I'm not planning on making games for the PS3. What, you gonna cry 'bout that too?
L4D junkies TF2 addicts and Portal players all share one thing in common- their love for derivative material and memes. They think that no bad can be made of their game, and then have a hissy fit when someone does poke fun or point at a glaring fault. Get over it, they aren't perfect by long shots.
CS and CSS junkies (especially the Pro gamer type) just need to shut up. Valve don't specifically cater games to your tiny niche MLG market, they make games to be PLAYED by as many people as they can. Neither shields, FAMASes or Galils broke the game, AWP and Deagles were already ingame ,so the game was pre-broke.
Finally, I'd jsut like to reiterate, Valve software still support, and are one of the major pillars of, PC gaming. Despite all the back and forth, they're still worth putting money into, because at least they do this much for PC gamers like me. Few developers or publishers even recognise the platform at all these days it seems.
I think that people both overstate and understate Valve, usually in the same breath.The overstatement is usually a sweeping positive or a sweeping negative, while the understatement is almost always just trying to ignore pitfalls.
Understatement
On one side, Valve are incredibly capable game devs. They've pulled off some of the best games I've played, possibly of all time (HL2: Ep2, Portal, HL1). They really know their shit and it shows in what I've seen from L4D2. They're really hands on with the community, and do support their product literally a decade after people would have bought it full price at a brick and mortar store. They hire high-class talent and produce high class work. However, they're not infallible.
People do treat them as if they are infallible. This is a problem, because they are not, nor are they delivering upon high mighty stone tablets. They are, at the end of the day, some guys in Bellvue Washington, who happen to make polished games and still support the PC platform with a reasonable amount of consistency.
They suffer from what I'd like to call "Game Science Syndrome". This more or less comes down to a game being designed from an initial point to reach a single hypothesis, which is then put to testers, who rigorously hammer, then it's passed back and forth until it's so tight that the hammering has turned the 50 cubic meter marshmallow is now a cube the size of a pinhead and full of glucose. Hence- Game Science. Have a theory, make a test batch, apply to mice, note reactions, modify and reiterate as necessary until it works with minimal flaws, push on public for fifty bucks. This approach is fine, and indeed should be part of all games, but relying on tester feedback and deliberately trying to smooth out the game leads to streamlining, and streamlining isn;t always necessarily GOOD. It has lead to some of my biggest beefs with Valve games cropping up (HL2's boring environments, TF2/TFC's useless class- the HWG, L4D's monotonous gameplay). I should address all these in proper reviews, but they're never going to get reviews, so I'll give a quick cover right now.
HL2's environments, immediately post acquiring the Gravity gun go from interesting adventurous places to be, to dull , gimmick-lined pains in the ass. Okay, let's assume that you're me, not a huge fan of using the gravity gun because of it's sheer gimmick factor. Yes, you'll use it when you HAVE to , but because you're not hunting for props and objects to throw at things constantly, the game goes from a tense run to downright boring. Props are all obviously there for you to punt. Hell, Ravenholm made sure you did by blocking your path with them time and again. It's a real problem especially around the sandtraps, where you must use your gravity gun (again, it's fine because that's the puzzle of that entire level) on everything. There is no other way to solve this level but to play shuffleboard with a door and a rotted boat (yes there are other props, no, get out of my head charles). THere is literally nothing more than this to the level if you don;t want antlions to rape you. You can of course try your best to cross withoutusing the gun, but you will find yourself physically alienated from the solution half way, because there is a gulf of sand wide enough that even if you could glitch it, you'd still probably miss. It's impossible. Then of course completeing this you get gimmick weapon two- the Antlion pheromone pod. Another story altogether. It's clear that Valve want you to play with the gravity gun, but I'm jsut not down with gimmicky tools in games. They're all like "Here, use this." and I'm like "No, I'll stick to trying my skill with the shotgun, thanks.". It reeks of the bad kind of game science, and it really irritates me.
Valve gripe number two - The Useless Class: the Heavy/Heavy Weapons Guy. Seriously, he's goddamn useless. Turns slower thank a tank, has the accuracy of a shower of rain. Sure, he's got 200 health, but he's so slow and his weapon is so useless that he jsut becomes a sponge for someone else to lob over the top of... and Trust me, being the sponge is not fun. Okay a bit ofa backstory. Before TFC, there was Quakeworld Team Fortress, made by a Queenslander in his bedroom. It was massive. Team based class gameplay, 9 classes, a bajillion maps. Yes, the Heavy was one of them, but he was a late addition. By the time he was added, Valve and said queenslander were already in talks for TFC in Half-life 1, so he was needles to say, a bit unbalanced. Minigun? unbalanced? never. TFC came out, and while some classes had become a bit softer, not got the nerf as hard as the poor HW guy.Admittedly, he wasn't as bad as he was in TF2, but he got a noticable step down in power from Quakeworld. TF2 made it worse, with the nerfing continuing, the removal of traps and grenades, and ultimately, becoming on it's own a different experinece altogether separate of it's roots. The HW guy went from being a good base of fire to being compltely and utterly useless. Sure, you could argue that some of the achievement unlocks for the heavy make him a bit more powerful ,but I'll be honest, putting 20 plus hours into a heavy, I've yet to see any of that shit, so fuck it. Again another iterative nerfing project that valve embarked upon.
And finally Left4Dead's boring gameplay. Mechanics directly from CS, step one for a resipe for disaster right there. Left 4 Dead, for me was this *hold down fire* *reload* *hold down fire and run* *wait for everyone * *fire some more**end level* *rinse repeat until last level* *receive rape*. That's it. there is literally nothing more to that game. What's more, the variety of weapons is shocking. Remember what I said about pruning and stuff? Heres where it was cut. Admittedly, any more guns might just be dupes, but they've no issue with it in two. What's more, the entire outside areas of Left4dead feel uninspired and boring for the most part. Especially the starting chapter. That set of levels was so very dull to be a part of. So dull it hurt my view of the rest of the game. L4D2 seems to cope with all this stuff and I'm much more inclined to get that over the wide berth I gave the first one.
So yes, people tend to understate or overlook minor or major downfalls to appease the actually-not-listening Gabe Newell head on their mantle, just because it's Valve.
Then again....
Overstatment
This happens a lot to Valve, because unfortunately, because they do seem to be such a community-focussed team, it makes them open to broad-siders about all sorts.
L4D2 Boycotts, the Anti-Steam movement, PS3 owners, L4D players, Portal addicts, TF2 addicts, CS junkies, CSS junkies. All of them overstate Valve's abilities or importance.. or totally go off the deepend regardless of the reality of the situation.
L4D2 Boycotters are nothing but a bunch of L4D gamers who immediately threw their hands in the air at the announcement of the sequal, not believing that valve could turn over a game in 12 months (thinking that this somehow invalidates their purchase or something), and in a leap of logic think Valve are jsut going to leave them in the lurch.
Anti-Steam people are just idiots. While there are a few bugs with Steam, it's a hell of a lot better than it was in 2004, and it most certainly easier to use and more convenient that maybe 70% of all competive game distribution platforms. Offline Mode may still be buggy to hell, but while I'm online, I've yet to see a problem with steam yet. Their leap of logic is thinking that Steam is somehow the worst concept in game distribution, because it's still better than discs. There, I said it.
PS3 owners who bought the Orange box are the only ones who should feel slighted by valve.. because the port (not actually done by valve) was crap. All other PS3 owners who are now whinging about Valve annoucement that they have no intentions for developing for the PS3. I'm not planning on making games for the PS3. What, you gonna cry 'bout that too?
L4D junkies TF2 addicts and Portal players all share one thing in common- their love for derivative material and memes. They think that no bad can be made of their game, and then have a hissy fit when someone does poke fun or point at a glaring fault. Get over it, they aren't perfect by long shots.
CS and CSS junkies (especially the Pro gamer type) just need to shut up. Valve don't specifically cater games to your tiny niche MLG market, they make games to be PLAYED by as many people as they can. Neither shields, FAMASes or Galils broke the game, AWP and Deagles were already ingame ,so the game was pre-broke.
Finally, I'd jsut like to reiterate, Valve software still support, and are one of the major pillars of, PC gaming. Despite all the back and forth, they're still worth putting money into, because at least they do this much for PC gamers like me. Few developers or publishers even recognise the platform at all these days it seems.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Streetlight Manifesto - FUCK YEAH
I don't know what's gotten into me recently, must be all the coffee.
Recently, after watching the latest Hey Ash, I decided to see what it's writer/co-star has to say for himself, being all curious at the wrong time. Here's what I found - we're both very much on the same page about quite a lot of the big mechanical, social and cultural quandaries of gaming. Quad Erat Demonstratum : Games as Art. Say hello to Reverend Anthony Burch. His rants are insightful, and to be honest I can't disagree with him, even with my lack of philosophical sophistication, it still harmonised well with my sensibilities about both morality, and game design.
http://www.destructoid.com/rev-rant-fun-isn-t-enough-142052.phtml
There's a link, I recommend combing through previous rants as well, they're good for the grey matter.
My view on the whole thing is more on less what he says, but in my opinion what's needed is a transition period. I believe we're beginning to see that start to happen, but it's a massive ball to roll so it just needs more behind it. Also, I don't think art and fun have to be mutually exclusive. Especially transitioning, you have to put a mix down of the both, because swaying the masses aren't going to go intellectual overnight.
Now onto the meat and gravy- a Review.
Tonight, I Review my HEAHPONES.
TDK ST-PR400.
They're all wrong. aaaaall wrong. Okay not all wrong, but certainly not worth MONEY for any forseeable market. If you're thinking of buying these, take 70 bucks, and just set fire to it, because this is the effect that these headphones are w
orth. Still, I said I'd review them, not just give insult, I must follow through with a proper criticism of them. Where to start?
Cable/Jack- This I believe is one of the the few things they've done right. It's a proper thick cable, coated with proper rubber of some sort. Gold Tipped Jack, "oxygen-free" cord. And it's Coiled and springy, which is GREAT, they make them seem serious business. This is where the end of the purely fault free material ends.
Supports/Arch/Frame - Flimsy, Cheap feeling.
The actual muff supports swivel 90 degrees forward, supposedly because DJs like having an ear off or something. However, if you're a DJ, surely you like having a solid locking mechanism. The ones on these are Flimsy as all hell, they don't lock forward securely, nor do they lock to the normal position that easily.
The padding on top below the arch, where it rests on your head, usually there's some padding. On this , nothing. What,that little bump with the nylon mesh over the top? that's nothing,and it hurts my scalp if I slick my headphones in the normal way. The rest of the construction is molded plastic and pinning screws, which in my books, ALWAYS results in the headphones having a life of less than 12 months due to breakages, or stripping screws (this is what bad craftsmanship+my mediocre handling of headphones does.
On the plus side, it's clear that the designers actually allowed for boofs like me with BIG heads, because the arch is one of the widest spanning ones I've ever used.This is great for adding a little comfort to the packet.
The Cans themselves/Drivers- 50mm drivers(drivers being the speakers, not device drivers)) with an 20-20000hz response range. This isn't too bad, it actually is a slightly bigger response range than My old Sennheiser HD 202s, however, presentation of the range is at BEST sloppy. Now, these are marketed as "DJ Headphones", which is really odd. You'd expect DJ's would want some level of audio fidelity. Instead, you get nothing. Flat undersupported Bass, flat(seemingly clipped) treble, only the midrange seems to get any SOLID coverage. That isn't fidelity, it's sticking cheap portable radio speakers in headphone covers and calling it a day. It's unacceptably poor listening, particularly with these thing's tendency to ignore the Sound Pressure Level for the pain threshold (which it has NO objection going over if you want to hurt your ears and go deaf). I've heard better from noname brand earbuds, original generation iPod bugs, BUDGET sennheiser buds (coincidentally, they're less than HALF the price of these things).. Hell, even TDK's budget in-ear buds are better hear than these things(and those were cheaper than the sennheiser buds).
Further groans about the drivers, I have to really keep the volume down on these, because if I crank the volume up just a bit above what I've got them on, I get three major driver issues - Rattling, metallic ringing after peaks, and noise over the line. These could be a QC issue, but it could also be a fundamental design flaw (metal on metal bracing without insulation, washer-less fixture (or PLASTIC))
Drivers aside, nice padding, effing huge can widths. Great sound insulation on the padding. eliminates most of all audible noise from the headphones just with the two cans light pressed together.These headphones really are designed for big heads.
All in all,
Pros-
Great for big heads
Coiled cable with good insulation = win.
Plays the SHIT out of midrange and lower treble
Cons-
Unbalanced audio output.
Driver issues
Patchy supports
Feels flimsy
Overpriced
Does not like you
All in all,they're fucking terrible. I mean REALLY terrible. Still better than a set of Audiosonic or whatever EA sell at budget prices, but if you want to take the step up from them, I'd just advise to ignore the hell out of the impressive packaging these have, save the extra 30/50 bucks for Sennheiser or.. well any other brand. Sennheiser are just a good bet in that introductory Audiophile/Amateur Audio Scene price range. Point is, save the extra ducketts, get something better.
Recently, after watching the latest Hey Ash, I decided to see what it's writer/co-star has to say for himself, being all curious at the wrong time. Here's what I found - we're both very much on the same page about quite a lot of the big mechanical, social and cultural quandaries of gaming. Quad Erat Demonstratum : Games as Art. Say hello to Reverend Anthony Burch. His rants are insightful, and to be honest I can't disagree with him, even with my lack of philosophical sophistication, it still harmonised well with my sensibilities about both morality, and game design.
http://www.destructoid.com/rev-rant-fun-isn-t-enough-142052.phtml
There's a link, I recommend combing through previous rants as well, they're good for the grey matter.
My view on the whole thing is more on less what he says, but in my opinion what's needed is a transition period. I believe we're beginning to see that start to happen, but it's a massive ball to roll so it just needs more behind it. Also, I don't think art and fun have to be mutually exclusive. Especially transitioning, you have to put a mix down of the both, because swaying the masses aren't going to go intellectual overnight.
Now onto the meat and gravy- a Review.
Tonight, I Review my HEAHPONES.
TDK ST-PR400.
They're all wrong. aaaaall wrong. Okay not all wrong, but certainly not worth MONEY for any forseeable market. If you're thinking of buying these, take 70 bucks, and just set fire to it, because this is the effect that these headphones are w
orth. Still, I said I'd review them, not just give insult, I must follow through with a proper criticism of them. Where to start?Cable/Jack- This I believe is one of the the few things they've done right. It's a proper thick cable, coated with proper rubber of some sort. Gold Tipped Jack, "oxygen-free" cord. And it's Coiled and springy, which is GREAT, they make them seem serious business. This is where the end of the purely fault free material ends.
Supports/Arch/Frame - Flimsy, Cheap feeling.
The actual muff supports swivel 90 degrees forward, supposedly because DJs like having an ear off or something. However, if you're a DJ, surely you like having a solid locking mechanism. The ones on these are Flimsy as all hell, they don't lock forward securely, nor do they lock to the normal position that easily.
The padding on top below the arch, where it rests on your head, usually there's some padding. On this , nothing. What,that little bump with the nylon mesh over the top? that's nothing,and it hurts my scalp if I slick my headphones in the normal way. The rest of the construction is molded plastic and pinning screws, which in my books, ALWAYS results in the headphones having a life of less than 12 months due to breakages, or stripping screws (this is what bad craftsmanship+my mediocre handling of headphones does.
On the plus side, it's clear that the designers actually allowed for boofs like me with BIG heads, because the arch is one of the widest spanning ones I've ever used.This is great for adding a little comfort to the packet.
The Cans themselves/Drivers- 50mm drivers(drivers being the speakers, not device drivers)) with an 20-20000hz response range. This isn't too bad, it actually is a slightly bigger response range than My old Sennheiser HD 202s, however, presentation of the range is at BEST sloppy. Now, these are marketed as "DJ Headphones", which is really odd. You'd expect DJ's would want some level of audio fidelity. Instead, you get nothing. Flat undersupported Bass, flat(seemingly clipped) treble, only the midrange seems to get any SOLID coverage. That isn't fidelity, it's sticking cheap portable radio speakers in headphone covers and calling it a day. It's unacceptably poor listening, particularly with these thing's tendency to ignore the Sound Pressure Level for the pain threshold (which it has NO objection going over if you want to hurt your ears and go deaf). I've heard better from noname brand earbuds, original generation iPod bugs, BUDGET sennheiser buds (coincidentally, they're less than HALF the price of these things).. Hell, even TDK's budget in-ear buds are better hear than these things(and those were cheaper than the sennheiser buds).
Further groans about the drivers, I have to really keep the volume down on these, because if I crank the volume up just a bit above what I've got them on, I get three major driver issues - Rattling, metallic ringing after peaks, and noise over the line. These could be a QC issue, but it could also be a fundamental design flaw (metal on metal bracing without insulation, washer-less fixture (or PLASTIC))
Drivers aside, nice padding, effing huge can widths. Great sound insulation on the padding. eliminates most of all audible noise from the headphones just with the two cans light pressed together.These headphones really are designed for big heads.
All in all,
Pros-
Great for big heads
Coiled cable with good insulation = win.
Plays the SHIT out of midrange and lower treble
Cons-
Unbalanced audio output.
Driver issues
Patchy supports
Feels flimsy
Overpriced
Does not like you
All in all,they're fucking terrible. I mean REALLY terrible. Still better than a set of Audiosonic or whatever EA sell at budget prices, but if you want to take the step up from them, I'd just advise to ignore the hell out of the impressive packaging these have, save the extra 30/50 bucks for Sennheiser or.. well any other brand. Sennheiser are just a good bet in that introductory Audiophile/Amateur Audio Scene price range. Point is, save the extra ducketts, get something better.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
End of Financial year Anime runout review- Phantom
With the rapid closure of the Financial Year today, I thought I'd close off on something tha'ts stil fresh on my mind and needs to be covered before you all get tootsie rolled by it, and that is Phantom- Requiem of a Phantom. You need to know several things before we get too deep into phantoms' coils :
1) it's penned by the guy who did Noir and Madlax
2) it's animated by the guys who animated Noir and Madlax
3) there are at LEAST two ALI Project in the soundtrack, one is the ending.If you can't stand ALI project, prepare to press the mute button a few times
with those three parental advisory alerts out of the way, let's delve into the cheesburger candy.
The plot premise is fairly straight forward- The main protoagonist wakes up with amnesia in a warehouse and finds himself in a locked room in a warehouse. The door is mysteriously unlocked, and he has to escape. Along the way he is dogged by a teenager in a detail-free white pantomime mask (who has guns and knives and apparently is trying to kill him) and he must survive the attacks and escape. Ultimately he finds a way to trap his attacker and pulls a knife on her, and slices the mask in half revealing.. a FACE! zomg. It turns out that this was all a test by a guy called Scythe Master to see if his survival skills were real ,and is now trained by his attacker (revealed to be someone called Ein) and purt through another warehouse cage fight, where he must learn to kill. After killing some mafia puke, the plot really begins.
It's revealed that Scythe Master works for a shadowy organisation called "Inferno" and Ein and the protagonist (now named Zwei, see what he did there) are now a two person literal vaguerie called "Phantom".
... maybe less straightforward, more intensely convoluted.
AS expected the show does all sorts of assassin things- taking out more mob guys, doing intel work, killing women and children with no mercy and Juno Reactor-ripoff music. This sounds all fine, but I'd just like to say this is wherre my real objections start coming into play. Coming from the guy who wrote Noir, you expect this this stuff, but where as Noir was well paced and took some nice cues of originality, Phantom does not. It lacks pacing and originality at the least. The background art is fine, the character design is passable enough, but there is so little character in the show it's 100% wasted effort.
QED, the cross-episode story of Inferno's toppling of Madison Square and the mafia roup running that place. It spanned two episodes, had dozens of characters both running and arc-centric. Only three characters out of that entire cast were identifiable (not relatable, nobody could relate to any of them,really) - Bitch number one, Bitch's body guard, and the Madison Square Mafia Boss.Every one else was just a John or Jane Doe, a dozen different faced John and Janes. Not even the main leads are fleshed out much at all (until epsode 8 where it's revealed whats really going on with that, so Phantom gets off the hook for them technically).
at 11 episodes long, you half expect them to keep a reasonable pace consitantly, but they don't. You have 1 epsiode of setting up the main leads, 1 of some more setting them up, 6 episodes of filler, and then the endgame begins. I mean whaaaaaaaaaat. They could have EASILY cut out half the filler and still made it watchable length.
Furthering my issues with this show, the bulllet removing scene... you'll know it when you see it.
Seriously, it was only a short mix and match editing witch choice film cuts away from being a hentai scene by suggestion alone. Sadly I can't find a youtube of someone who actually HAS done a mash up.... so I'll do one later. Anyway yeah, it's a real problem.
Also, there'as a subtly implied thread of pedophilia going on with Scythe Master.... I don't know if that was intended or not, but it was just wrong.
Finally the last episode was horribly paced and almost completely decontextualised. Thankyou very much for not making sense at a...
OH CRAP! Sorry guys, apparently I've only got half the series... I will see this through though, but consider this my initial impressions.
It's cardboard bland and badly paced. if this changes, I'll let you know in part 2 of the review.
EDIT - I just got two more episodes.. and found out that after those two, there's still another 15 coming...
here's my thoughts -
Adieu
1) it's penned by the guy who did Noir and Madlax
2) it's animated by the guys who animated Noir and Madlax
3) there are at LEAST two ALI Project in the soundtrack, one is the ending.If you can't stand ALI project, prepare to press the mute button a few times
with those three parental advisory alerts out of the way, let's delve into the cheesburger candy.
The plot premise is fairly straight forward- The main protoagonist wakes up with amnesia in a warehouse and finds himself in a locked room in a warehouse. The door is mysteriously unlocked, and he has to escape. Along the way he is dogged by a teenager in a detail-free white pantomime mask (who has guns and knives and apparently is trying to kill him) and he must survive the attacks and escape. Ultimately he finds a way to trap his attacker and pulls a knife on her, and slices the mask in half revealing.. a FACE! zomg. It turns out that this was all a test by a guy called Scythe Master to see if his survival skills were real ,and is now trained by his attacker (revealed to be someone called Ein) and purt through another warehouse cage fight, where he must learn to kill. After killing some mafia puke, the plot really begins.
It's revealed that Scythe Master works for a shadowy organisation called "Inferno" and Ein and the protagonist (now named Zwei, see what he did there) are now a two person literal vaguerie called "Phantom".
... maybe less straightforward, more intensely convoluted.
AS expected the show does all sorts of assassin things- taking out more mob guys, doing intel work, killing women and children with no mercy and Juno Reactor-ripoff music. This sounds all fine, but I'd just like to say this is wherre my real objections start coming into play. Coming from the guy who wrote Noir, you expect this this stuff, but where as Noir was well paced and took some nice cues of originality, Phantom does not. It lacks pacing and originality at the least. The background art is fine, the character design is passable enough, but there is so little character in the show it's 100% wasted effort.
QED, the cross-episode story of Inferno's toppling of Madison Square and the mafia roup running that place. It spanned two episodes, had dozens of characters both running and arc-centric. Only three characters out of that entire cast were identifiable (not relatable, nobody could relate to any of them,really) - Bitch number one, Bitch's body guard, and the Madison Square Mafia Boss.Every one else was just a John or Jane Doe, a dozen different faced John and Janes. Not even the main leads are fleshed out much at all (until epsode 8 where it's revealed whats really going on with that, so Phantom gets off the hook for them technically).
at 11 episodes long, you half expect them to keep a reasonable pace consitantly, but they don't. You have 1 epsiode of setting up the main leads, 1 of some more setting them up, 6 episodes of filler, and then the endgame begins. I mean whaaaaaaaaaat. They could have EASILY cut out half the filler and still made it watchable length.
Furthering my issues with this show, the bulllet removing scene... you'll know it when you see it.
Seriously, it was only a short mix and match editing witch choice film cuts away from being a hentai scene by suggestion alone. Sadly I can't find a youtube of someone who actually HAS done a mash up.... so I'll do one later. Anyway yeah, it's a real problem.
Also, there'as a subtly implied thread of pedophilia going on with Scythe Master.... I don't know if that was intended or not, but it was just wrong.
Finally the last episode was horribly paced and almost completely decontextualised. Thankyou very much for not making sense at a...
OH CRAP! Sorry guys, apparently I've only got half the series... I will see this through though, but consider this my initial impressions.
It's cardboard bland and badly paced. if this changes, I'll let you know in part 2 of the review.
EDIT - I just got two more episodes.. and found out that after those two, there's still another 15 coming...
here's my thoughts -
Adieu
Sunday, June 14, 2009
A little something I'm working on (note - NOT FINAL)
Original Video - More videos at TinyPic
More stuff coming just around the corner.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
We Can't Be Cool
It's kind of a reoccurring topic with regards to myself, but I can't stand Counter Strike, it's players and it's ability to somehow stay a solvent medium of competitive gaming@. I think the whole game is geared for twitchfuck gamers who obsessively chew through the game so heavily that to win against anyone you must know every small nuance of the game (otherwise you will be reamed in a fashion not unsimilar to having a Hydrochloric enema). Now, where to start ?
Oh yes, let's start with my smallest beefs. The level design is wholly impractical in a real world sense of the word. Even with CS Source's impressively redone maps, you're still stuck maps that are constructed around direct routes and bottlenecks. Now normally, having clearly defined routes is a good thing ,but in my books , having ONLY routes and bottlenecks (no lines for ambush or change of tactic) results in the maps being 100% predictable and linear. Painfully obvious about it as well. This is of course ignoring real-world impracticality, which CS maps all most certainly ARE. There is no sense of purpose to any of them. Thoroughfares that literally hair pain around a building, only to have the middle section drop below and under for NO reason other than for... well I don't know, it's goddamn ridiculous.I'll only concede one map is remotely real-world plausible, and that is CS_office. The rest are just theme mazes in my books (which detracts from the theme of the game)
Next biggest beef - Map scale. It's all wrong. Even with source (which is an improvement), the size of objects directly in relation to players is always off, varying from a bit to OH MY GOD BOXES THE SIZE OF SEATAINERS.
3rd biggest beef - Weapon Models- they're CRAP.No Seriously, not a single CS game has had decently looking or proportioned weapon models. Couple with the hurrrr lower right-corner weapon origins and animation makes every goddamn weapon feel ridiculous.
2nd biggest beef - Game mechanics and systems. They're outright bloody silly (which has lead to such heavy inbuilt and inbred imbalances... in). Starting with the almost arbitrary hit detection system and recoil system attached to weapons, and going through to the absolutely futile and broken weapons balance, it's all frigging wrong. As alluded to the hit detection is trash, it makes players who are occupying an entire crosshair on your screen less of a "you're in my crosshair now you will take some pain" and more of a 50/50 flip coin decision for whether that player is going down or not. usually erring on not (read: crosshairs mean SFA, Accuracy is almost arbitrary to the casual player). Again as inferred previously, recoil in the game is broken. If you can legitimately put a YouTube video video up that shows an exact recoil pattern that can be 100% replicated time and time again, you have officially broken it.
Moving onto the weapon balancing and it's broken ness. Once upon a time, every weapon in a game had a purpose at most of the time throughout all a game. This isn't the case in Counter Strike, because if you're not using the AWP, M4A1, AK47 and Desert Eagle in some sort of cycle, you aren't going to stand a chance against anyone at all. Sub Guns are a laudable effort, and outside of one round in the game ( "the SMG round", the second round in a game) you are not going to fucking touch them. Same goes across for the Shotguns, and the 1 machine gun "Has no use". If CS were thought out at all, there'd still be some use to these weapons in some sense ( personally, I would love to see some sort of purpose returned for CQB fans like me to continue using these weapons, unfortunately it doesn't happen because there is just no motive to get people out of their "favourite weapons"#. Then there's stuff like the AWP, which literally has no counter. THAT, in a multiplayer game is a fucking horrid design flaw. This combined with that whole "fire quickswitch" thing that "AWPers" do, it's intolerably unfair without contention. (and no one uses Auto Snipers for the stigmata they they'd receive from other players)
Now for my Biggest peeve about Counter Strike- the players.
If you're playing on a public server, you are guarantee to find the VERY worst of people's attitudes and egos on display. If you thought /b/ was bad, you ain't seen shit. Then there's incessant voice chat spam, the stoners sitting there with their voice key down while they toke or use their bong, prepubescent twerps and their ear bleeding voices, and all manner of other voicespams.
Then of course you have to deal with that fine level of elitist faggotry that some guys guys parade around with (usually ex-clan guys, or currently IN clan guys just wasting time until.... I dunno.... their order of shithot comes down from clanleader divine or something). These pricks are annoying on their own level because they play the ego card like a motherfucker and when they get pegged down one they scream bloody murder.
Then there are the Private scrimmers and clan guys.. .you know, the competitive guys.. These guys you see on the public open servers sometimes,and usually they pick a side and just REAM. These guys ARE egotistical pricks who not only mean srs fckn bsness ALL the time, but they make sure you know about it.however, unlike the ex-clan guy or the other egodouches, these guys are absolutely ruthless because they know the game better than Valve, Turtle Rock and Gooseman combined do, they know how exactly EVERYTHING goes and because of that, they end up just being serious mindfucks. The funny thing is, you'll pick them out a mile away IRL, because they're all the same. Watch out for these fuckers.
In short, CS is a brain-hemorrhaging experience, and why it's held up as a poster child for anything, is beyond me. There are dozens of games that did things better than it. Tactical Ops (and it's retail cousin in Tac Ops: Assault on Terror) was around at a similar time to CS, and without question it was the superior of the two in gameplay,design, art and function. For a more modern analogy, maybe see Call of Duty 4. Both of these games don't suffer the horrendous issues that Counter Strike suffers and (COD4's own independent success aside), neither replaced it on any level.
@ - I'm of course going to ignore that CS was touted as a tactical shooter. It clearly isn't, it's a twitch shooter of the ilk that quake3 is.
# - For the record, Valve have tried to rectify this once ,with CSS- the Market place. Unfortunately, habitual buying broke the marketplace in under month. last time I looked you would actually GET money money when you bought a TMP ,and the AWP was more expensive than the M249 was on static pricing
Addendum Rant -
I really don't get what every one's problem with COD4's Multiplayer is (by everyone, I of course mean "pro gamers", the same ilk that worship CS no less ) ... Here we have a versatile, robust multiplayer component that pretty much will let you play however you want, the maps are WELL designed and reasonable, and the balancing is fairly solid. Hit detection is MUCH more reliable than Counter Strike (for direct comparison because I just ranted about it), and it even allows for those idiot CS players to player their favourite mode - Bomb Defusal.
Furthermore, I reject the notion that COD4 isn't a fast deathmatch game. It is, and you need much faster reactions in COD4 than you would in a similar CS scenario. If you want a SLOW deathmatch, I challenge you to play Rainbow Six Raven Shield in adversarial mode, it's slow and what's more , all your CS-breed trickery will fucking fail in it. There is no jump, no quickswitching, and it has all sorta of believable cause-and effect systems in motion. Enjoy your slow deathmatch.
Phew, glad to chew that one out. I hate CS and I think COD4, by comparison, is THE shit. People make me angry :p
Don't go away folks because when I return I bring a TREBLE REVIEW. I review a slightly obscure FPS.. and a DRAMA.. AND MASS EFFECT
PS- I hate this keyboard.
Oh yes, let's start with my smallest beefs. The level design is wholly impractical in a real world sense of the word. Even with CS Source's impressively redone maps, you're still stuck maps that are constructed around direct routes and bottlenecks. Now normally, having clearly defined routes is a good thing ,but in my books , having ONLY routes and bottlenecks (no lines for ambush or change of tactic) results in the maps being 100% predictable and linear. Painfully obvious about it as well. This is of course ignoring real-world impracticality, which CS maps all most certainly ARE. There is no sense of purpose to any of them. Thoroughfares that literally hair pain around a building, only to have the middle section drop below and under for NO reason other than for... well I don't know, it's goddamn ridiculous.I'll only concede one map is remotely real-world plausible, and that is CS_office. The rest are just theme mazes in my books (which detracts from the theme of the game)
Next biggest beef - Map scale. It's all wrong. Even with source (which is an improvement), the size of objects directly in relation to players is always off, varying from a bit to OH MY GOD BOXES THE SIZE OF SEATAINERS.
3rd biggest beef - Weapon Models- they're CRAP.No Seriously, not a single CS game has had decently looking or proportioned weapon models. Couple with the hurrrr lower right-corner weapon origins and animation makes every goddamn weapon feel ridiculous.
2nd biggest beef - Game mechanics and systems. They're outright bloody silly (which has lead to such heavy inbuilt and inbred imbalances... in). Starting with the almost arbitrary hit detection system and recoil system attached to weapons, and going through to the absolutely futile and broken weapons balance, it's all frigging wrong. As alluded to the hit detection is trash, it makes players who are occupying an entire crosshair on your screen less of a "you're in my crosshair now you will take some pain" and more of a 50/50 flip coin decision for whether that player is going down or not. usually erring on not (read: crosshairs mean SFA, Accuracy is almost arbitrary to the casual player). Again as inferred previously, recoil in the game is broken. If you can legitimately put a YouTube video video up that shows an exact recoil pattern that can be 100% replicated time and time again, you have officially broken it.
Moving onto the weapon balancing and it's broken ness. Once upon a time, every weapon in a game had a purpose at most of the time throughout all a game. This isn't the case in Counter Strike, because if you're not using the AWP, M4A1, AK47 and Desert Eagle in some sort of cycle, you aren't going to stand a chance against anyone at all. Sub Guns are a laudable effort, and outside of one round in the game ( "the SMG round", the second round in a game) you are not going to fucking touch them. Same goes across for the Shotguns, and the 1 machine gun "Has no use". If CS were thought out at all, there'd still be some use to these weapons in some sense ( personally, I would love to see some sort of purpose returned for CQB fans like me to continue using these weapons, unfortunately it doesn't happen because there is just no motive to get people out of their "favourite weapons"#. Then there's stuff like the AWP, which literally has no counter. THAT, in a multiplayer game is a fucking horrid design flaw. This combined with that whole "fire quickswitch" thing that "AWPers" do, it's intolerably unfair without contention. (and no one uses Auto Snipers for the stigmata they they'd receive from other players)
Now for my Biggest peeve about Counter Strike- the players.
If you're playing on a public server, you are guarantee to find the VERY worst of people's attitudes and egos on display. If you thought /b/ was bad, you ain't seen shit. Then there's incessant voice chat spam, the stoners sitting there with their voice key down while they toke or use their bong, prepubescent twerps and their ear bleeding voices, and all manner of other voicespams.
Then of course you have to deal with that fine level of elitist faggotry that some guys guys parade around with (usually ex-clan guys, or currently IN clan guys just wasting time until.... I dunno.... their order of shithot comes down from clanleader divine or something). These pricks are annoying on their own level because they play the ego card like a motherfucker and when they get pegged down one they scream bloody murder.
Then there are the Private scrimmers and clan guys.. .you know, the competitive guys.. These guys you see on the public open servers sometimes,and usually they pick a side and just REAM. These guys ARE egotistical pricks who not only mean srs fckn bsness ALL the time, but they make sure you know about it.however, unlike the ex-clan guy or the other egodouches, these guys are absolutely ruthless because they know the game better than Valve, Turtle Rock and Gooseman combined do, they know how exactly EVERYTHING goes and because of that, they end up just being serious mindfucks. The funny thing is, you'll pick them out a mile away IRL, because they're all the same. Watch out for these fuckers.
In short, CS is a brain-hemorrhaging experience, and why it's held up as a poster child for anything, is beyond me. There are dozens of games that did things better than it. Tactical Ops (and it's retail cousin in Tac Ops: Assault on Terror) was around at a similar time to CS, and without question it was the superior of the two in gameplay,design, art and function. For a more modern analogy, maybe see Call of Duty 4. Both of these games don't suffer the horrendous issues that Counter Strike suffers and (COD4's own independent success aside), neither replaced it on any level.
@ - I'm of course going to ignore that CS was touted as a tactical shooter. It clearly isn't, it's a twitch shooter of the ilk that quake3 is.
# - For the record, Valve have tried to rectify this once ,with CSS- the Market place. Unfortunately, habitual buying broke the marketplace in under month. last time I looked you would actually GET money money when you bought a TMP ,and the AWP was more expensive than the M249 was on static pricing
Addendum Rant -
I really don't get what every one's problem with COD4's Multiplayer is (by everyone, I of course mean "pro gamers", the same ilk that worship CS no less ) ... Here we have a versatile, robust multiplayer component that pretty much will let you play however you want, the maps are WELL designed and reasonable, and the balancing is fairly solid. Hit detection is MUCH more reliable than Counter Strike (for direct comparison because I just ranted about it), and it even allows for those idiot CS players to player their favourite mode - Bomb Defusal.
Furthermore, I reject the notion that COD4 isn't a fast deathmatch game. It is, and you need much faster reactions in COD4 than you would in a similar CS scenario. If you want a SLOW deathmatch, I challenge you to play Rainbow Six Raven Shield in adversarial mode, it's slow and what's more , all your CS-breed trickery will fucking fail in it. There is no jump, no quickswitching, and it has all sorta of believable cause-and effect systems in motion. Enjoy your slow deathmatch.
Phew, glad to chew that one out. I hate CS and I think COD4, by comparison, is THE shit. People make me angry :p
Don't go away folks because when I return I bring a TREBLE REVIEW. I review a slightly obscure FPS.. and a DRAMA.. AND MASS EFFECT
PS- I hate this keyboard.
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