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Win a copy of Maya

Anyone get the addy for the info on that Maya comp I saw on the Sunday 28th Melbourne edition of Control Freaks?

It was something like make a car for some raceing game in the educational copy of maya and win a full copy? Sounded worth a look.

What's on your horizon?

I'm looking forward to buying:

Xbox
- Knights of the Old Republic
- Shenmue 2
- Buffy/Dead to Rights (very cheap at the mo)
- Soul Calibur 2

Gamecube
- Viewtiful Joe (must have this game)
- Zelda: Wind Waker
- Ikaruga (missed the DC version)
- Metroid Prime
-

PS2
- Contra: Shattered Soldier
- Virtua Fighter 4 Evo
- EA Sports Rugby
- Rugby League 2004 (league is better suited to gaming due to stop start nature).

PC
- HL2
- Doom III

Also if anyone has a Sega Saturn with Guardian Heroes for sale, I'll offer a hefty sum. Either that or a Dreamcast with Streetfighter III - third Strike.

Submitted by shiva on Sun, 27/07/03 - 12:44 AMPermalink

i wouldnt mind hl2 and doom3, but thats a little time away...
id also like knights of the old republic, but only when they release the pc version...

what im truly hanging out for is the frozen throne exp pack to warcraft 3
been a good boy and resisted the urge to grab it while i have work to do
but ill finished soon, so ill finally have a chance to give it a go :)

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Sun, 27/07/03 - 9:10 PMPermalink

I would just like to be able to buy at least one console with one or two games :)
I guess when i get the money i'll be going for ps2 with FFX and silent hill 3 straight away

Submitted by JonathanKerr on Sun, 27/07/03 - 11:00 PMPermalink

quote:Originally posted by Meatex_Salami

I would just like to be able to buy at least one console with one or two games :)
I guess when i get the money i'll be going for ps2 with FFX and silent hill 3 straight away

FFX is pretty good - great combat system, despite the random battles. Voice acting ranges between fantastic and dodgy.

Silent Hill 3 is pretty rad too. More of the same, but very well done.

Submitted by inglis on Sun, 27/07/03 - 11:26 PMPermalink

ps2- gt4
pc- world of warcraft (just to see, havent decided if ill play it yet), hl2, doom3

Submitted by Strik3r on Mon, 28/07/03 - 2:44 AMPermalink

Waiting for FFX-2 to hit Aussie shores... then i go halves on it with my friend - he completes the game, then i get to borrow his PS2 and the game so i can finish it :D its a good arrangement.

Submitted by redwyre on Mon, 28/07/03 - 5:41 AMPermalink

XBox:
that D&D game
that cool game Pandemic are making

PC:
Half Life 2
Thief 3
World of Warcraft - This is going to cost me alot of time...

Submitted by sho nuff on Thu, 31/07/03 - 1:46 AMPermalink

PS2

Virtua Fighter (that new one)
SOCOM
Smackdown
True Crime: Streets of LA
Rugby 2004
Zone of the Enders 2

PC

HL2
Doom
Jedi Academy
Commandos 3

Submitted by Doord on Thu, 31/07/03 - 2:14 AMPermalink

In order of were they are to come out (maybe)

X-box:
KOTOR
Soul Calibur 2
Dues Ex 2
HL 2
Fable
Doom 3
Halo 2

Submitted by Pantmonger on Thu, 31/07/03 - 3:01 AMPermalink

I'm looking forward to buying:

Food.

I Hate being poor :)

Pantmonger

Submitted by sho nuff on Fri, 01/08/03 - 3:04 AMPermalink

im adding Killzone to my PS2 list. Haven't seen anything on it, but it's meant to be damn good. They labelling it the 'halo-killer', so it must b tite.

Submitted by Malus on Fri, 01/08/03 - 3:16 AMPermalink

I'm looking forward to Pants not stealing food from babies. Hes so poor. [:P]

Submitted by souri on Fri, 01/08/03 - 8:28 AMPermalink

Half Life 2, Doom 3, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Lineage 2 (I'm not a MMORPG player, but I would like to at least have an hour's play at this game.. it looks awesome so far), and Gran Turismo 4..

Project Gotham Racing 2 - Sydney scenes

These were from www.xboxworld.com.au .. some very cool pics of Sydney which you get to race around in.. it's pretty surreal to recognise the locations seen in these shots. Racing around them would be even more strange. [:)]

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/pgr2_sydney_01.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/pgr2_sydney_02.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/pgr2_sydney_03.jpg[/img]

(here's some links to hi-res versions of the images)

http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/pgr2_aussie_hires_01.jpg
http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/pgr2_aussie_hires_02.jpg
http://www.sumea.com.au/simagesmisc/pgr2_aussie_hires_03.jpg

credits to xboxworld, of course..

Submitted by Malus on Fri, 25/07/03 - 7:46 PMPermalink

Cool so you get to pretend your some wanky, ponytailed, Sydney advertising executive tosser driving to work. lol [:P]

SUMEAN PICTURES!!!

While browsing through some pictures belonging to Jacana, I found this!

[img]http://www.boomspeed.com/sorcerorbob/bleh.jpg[/img]

Bam!! anti climax..

J.I.Styles seems to think he's me, but thats not the back of his head in that picture! Well, it's not I tells you!

Submitted by UniqueSnowFlake on Fri, 25/07/03 - 7:56 PMPermalink

J.I.Styles is crazy!!

BUT! bleh I'd know the back of that head anywhere! oh.. I was there [:)] yup thats Matt (Bob) alright!

Submitted by Doord on Fri, 25/07/03 - 8:22 PMPermalink

I yes, went I was ask to talk to Daz about a job at MF by the Anne from the hiring part of there sydney office. Rememebr is well, Daz was talking to Matt (SB), Pete(USF)and I, about Sub-D in max and how it was so good, and how Maya kicked ass over MAX and how he didn't know anything about it.

Oh, and that is Matt. I'm 100% sure of it.

Submitted by Doord on Fri, 25/07/03 - 8:23 PMPermalink

Oh one more thing I remember, god damn it was cold that night.

Submitted by J I Styles on Sun, 27/07/03 - 12:14 AMPermalink

Bwahahaha! No, it's me! ME I TELL YOU! MEEEE! I'm so gawd damn vain [}:)]

Nah, just kidding - I used to think that ear was mine because of the hair colour, height, and hair length / style (or lack of style)... but it looks very much like bewb's ear.

Digging around, I found my ear - here it is:

[img]http://www.garandnet.net/~malakai/content/bin/mf_party_points.jpg[/img]

see?! Easily mistakable :)

Submitted by Sorceror Bob on Mon, 28/07/03 - 3:55 AMPermalink

yeah for more proof, back of joels cut is more square.. you can also make out the dark collar of the jumper i was wearing

*picky*

Submitted by rezn0r on Mon, 28/07/03 - 4:02 AMPermalink

Lol, is that you gooberman on the far right of the second pic? I'd recognize that neckbeard anywhere!! I must be just out of shot... damn.

Scott.

Submitted by Daemin on Mon, 28/07/03 - 7:57 AMPermalink

A Whole bunch of rope actually, used as a decoration, possibly as a seating device also.

Submitted by Echo on Mon, 28/07/03 - 8:52 AMPermalink

That has to be one of _the_ single most masacared/scribbled over pictures I have seen. And I witnessed the 'All Your Base' picture epidemic.

Submitted by Ninja on Fri, 01/08/03 - 12:36 AMPermalink

so these are the people that work at microforte that are in sumea :

Doord
David King
UniqueSnowFlake
J.I stylez
JAcana ?

[:0]

any more or am i wrong in this list heheh [?]??? hehehe wat a big family.......... [:D]

Oh yeah which 3D prog does microforte use is it MAYA or MAx [?]???

Submitted by Blitz on Fri, 01/08/03 - 9:30 AMPermalink

I don't think any of those people work for MF. Where did you get that idea?
I think MF uses 3DS, but don't quote me on that.
CYer, Blitz

Submitted by Sorceror Bob on Fri, 01/08/03 - 10:44 AMPermalink

ninja.. none of those people are working at MF

daz king used to

the MF party night.. well it was just a party sponsored by MF

Submitted by Ninja on Fri, 01/08/03 - 7:18 PMPermalink

[:O]oh hahaahha i just thought all those guys work for MF because i thought that is one of the companies workers parties oh wells sorry for getting the wrong idea..........

cheers....

Won't be seeing Doom3 this year..

[url]http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=15762[/url]

Damn.. Hopefully HL2 doesn't follow suit. Its hard to say. On one hand you have Valve announcing the title after 5 years of work on it, so you'd think they'd only do that if they were sure that it was ready. But on the other hand you have Valves not so good track record of delays... HL, TF2, etc...

Submitted by Doord on Fri, 25/07/03 - 2:19 AMPermalink

We should all know by now, games don't make it to market these day.

Submitted by souri on Fri, 25/07/03 - 11:42 AMPermalink

..and Counterstrike! Still waiting to see how the riot shield is like!

John Carmack had said that Doom 3 was expected to be out before E3 this year. [:(].. I would have thought they'd release before the lucrative Christmas timeslot.

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Fri, 25/07/03 - 7:27 PMPermalink

on a more important game delay :) j/k
Deus Ex 2 has been bumped from Oct to Dec now
thats annoying
but as far as i know HL2 is still headed for a Nov release
And i think because of there track record and the fans valve are going to really go for an on time release

Submitted by Malus on Fri, 25/07/03 - 7:43 PMPermalink

As long as Halflife 2 out on time its cool with me, kind of want to stagger the cash flow out of my wallet anyhoo. [:P]

Submitted by redwyre on Fri, 25/07/03 - 8:59 PMPermalink

HL2 in november? I though september? (available on preorder now)

Those americans and their funky date format

Submitted by Ninja on Fri, 25/07/03 - 9:11 PMPermalink

HAHAHA i think Carmack shit himself after seeing the Half life 2 engine in action ( hes gotta make doom 3 better [:)] although it is already impressive...) LMAO.. but i still think hes one mad programmer, considering valve had heaps of programmers working on their HL2 engine

Submitted by Doord on Fri, 25/07/03 - 10:25 PMPermalink

Engine wise HL2 don't come close to that of Doom 3. But HL 2 is the better game but.

I could go into why Doom 3 engione is better, the was a numbers of thing that our Render programer pointed out to me and after he said about three things (that were crap and wrogn about it) he said engine not all that good and that have done well in fating lighting and a lot of other stuff.

Submitted by Strik3r on Fri, 25/07/03 - 11:40 PMPermalink

Half of the rendering time in Doom 3 is the shadows.... HL2 doesnt put nearly as much effort into them, and therefore doesn't quite look as realistic. but the HL2 models (especially the facial animations) are amazing. i intend on purchasing both games, cause i think they are both gonna rock.

Submitted by Doord on Sat, 26/07/03 - 12:13 AMPermalink

this stuff can be found in the doom engine also, but the way which half has went about time is much better.

Submitted by Ninja on Sat, 26/07/03 - 12:17 AMPermalink

graphics wise doom 3 looks damn good...... but game play no one knows ??? to me half life 2 seemed pretty good game play because of the AI and interactivity and physics [:D] but i dunno i dont work in the games industry most of u guys know more than me [:D]

Submitted by redwyre on Sat, 26/07/03 - 7:43 AMPermalink

Remeber when gameplay was most important?

I think I'll only be getting HL2.

Submitted by shiva on Sat, 26/07/03 - 8:33 AMPermalink

i think ill reserve my judgement until ive given em both a go...
but right now im leaning heavily towards hl2 aswell

Submitted by Maitrek on Mon, 28/07/03 - 9:52 AMPermalink

I doubt it's because id are crapping themselves about half life 2's graphics (although they could be). Doom 3 is a far more revolutionary graphics engine than HL2s, it's the next step as far as I'm concerned from a visual perspective (despite people's gripes, I'm sorry it's just far more powerful). However HL2 looks like adding in some fairly neat tech in other areas which should have been done a long time ago as well...

hey

hey guys,
i put together a page wif the Q4 art 4 u all interested...
www.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.com
its only got a few, ill see about getting all of em soon

** removed link because it could get you in trouble - Souri

Submitted by sharp77 on Thu, 24/07/03 - 9:41 AMPermalink

awww :(

ok sorry, wont happen again

Submitted by GooberMan on Fri, 25/07/03 - 4:01 AMPermalink

Yeah, I'm myself wondering how he missed the thread on these very forums quoting "The company is also thought to have issued legal threats to at least one website which linked to the images" in reference to id....

Game Maker

I was browsing around last night when I stumbled upon Game Maker v5.. It's a very cool game making program - it's versatile enough to do so many types of 2D, or pseudo 3D type of games (isometric, or fake 3D by scaling sprites).. You can do sidescrolling platform games (Sonic, Mario), Upward scrolling shooters (1942, Raiden), rpgs (Zelda).. it's definately capable of doing something like Space Harrier, Bomberman.. the list is endless - it really is up to your imagination.
It'll compile your game into one excecutable, and you can have the game running full screen or windowed if you like. You can build games that saves the highscore too. Sound effects can be imported, and the music format is Midi (unless you want a huge wav file to loop)..
You're allowed to sell what you make from Game Maker, if you wish, without any licensing issues.. The bad news is that, well, to get anything complex done, you'll have to ge your hands dirty and do some scripting.. Making your first game might be a bit daunting as you try to figure out how the whole process works, but it comes with some great tutorials.. so if you ever wanted to make your own game, and you've never gotten further than writing "hello world", then check it out [:)]

http://www.gamemaker.nl/

And check out some of the demos they have for you to download!
There are some naughty people who have ripped and duplicated some classic games, but they do show the potential of Game Maker.. They've done a Super Mario, Sonic, Zelda etc..

Submitted by Cloud on Wed, 03/09/03 - 7:26 AMPermalink

Thanks for that Souri, It really enlightened my life

Leaked Quake 4 art

No, I don't have them.. but id software [url="http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=new&aid=1951"]seem pretty pissed off[/url]! I'd thought they would be used to having things leaked by now [;)]

quote:The company is also thought to have issued legal threats to at least one website which linked to the images.

..and that would be Spong.com, which you can see [url="http://spong.com/x?art=5264"]have pulled it offline[/url].. I think if there's something to be learnt from the Half-Life 2 leaked magazine screenshots on the net,is that once the cat is out of the bag, it's impossible to stop it..

Submitted by Daemin on Wed, 23/07/03 - 1:10 AMPermalink

Yeah, but this time apparently it wasn't an inside job, some outside hackers got in and did the dirty deeds.

If it was to be any other company except ID that thread would not mean a single thing, but since it is then they have so much power, could you imagine being the editor of a game related magazine and not being able to show the new Doom3 shots, or have the doom3 demo on your demo disc - that would be a significant loss!

Well almost any other company, I think Valve might alsso be able to do such a thing, but I can't think of many more developers that could put out such a serious threat.

Submitted by Doord on Wed, 23/07/03 - 1:56 AMPermalink

Yeah, not a good thing to have happen.

I think Blizzard would also have the power to say something like that also.

Just a note (i think has alredy been pointed out) if you have the pics, maybe not a good idea to post them if you are thinking of it. Don't want Sumea shut down because of it, or something like that. Id wouldn't be to happy about it.

Submitted by Sorceror Bob on Wed, 23/07/03 - 2:06 AMPermalink

yup, they were already pulled off polycount, activision i think had the shits with them :)

Submitted by Daemin on Wed, 23/07/03 - 2:06 AMPermalink

Although I doubt that Souri and Sumea is on the list of places to get new ID software art and stuff. Although it'd be nice if (we?) were!

Submitted by Malus on Wed, 23/07/03 - 2:12 AMPermalink

Yeah, good call guys, keep them off here, thats just not cricket.

Also, remember Sumea's now kindly sponsored by Krome so I for one wouldn't want them to get the shits with me either, especially after they outlayed a wade of cash for us all to still have a place to gather.

Submitted by redwyre on Wed, 23/07/03 - 8:11 AMPermalink

First Doom3, now Quake4, next thing we'll be seeing leaked content from Commander Keen 5!

Submitted by shiva on Wed, 23/07/03 - 8:39 AMPermalink

commander keen 5?
you got your time machine red? better go back over 12 years and leak those screenshots then...

Submitted by rezn0r on Thu, 24/07/03 - 12:51 AMPermalink

Keen Dreams was Keen 7. Keen 4 is still the best.

Scott.

Submitted by GooberMan on Thu, 24/07/03 - 3:31 AMPermalink

Keen Dreams was Keen 3.5.... it was made in between Keen 3 and 4, but then again Keen 6 was made before Keen 5, so go figure. From a technological standpoint, I'm sticking by my Keen 3.5 claim.

Keen 5 was set on a space station that just happens to be a huge superweapon that can destroy the universe (or something like that).

Submitted by souri on Thu, 24/07/03 - 7:22 AMPermalink

If my memory isn't too hazy, I think the original Quake source was leaked as well. I remember because the Amiga community was rushing to port it onto that platform. [:)]

And since I have made the mistake again by creating a topic guaranteed to draw google users searching for leaked stuff.. here it is people !!!!! The leaked Quake 4 screenshots! http://www.ravengames.com/quake4/leaked_screenshots.php

Submitted by Sorceror Bob on Thu, 24/07/03 - 10:13 AMPermalink

omg!! leet!!

its good to see that they have a sense of humour about it anyways :)

Submitted by inglis on Thu, 24/07/03 - 11:43 AMPermalink

ahah great. they have taken it to a new level indeed.

Submitted by Malus on Thu, 24/07/03 - 8:38 PMPermalink

Wow!! Halflife 2 look out, that gin bottle looks so real!?

You know your game is in trouble when...

Saw this posted on another website, and I thought it was a bit of a crack up.. "Some Real Life truisims from the world of game development"

You know your game is in trouble when...

...when one of your engineers asks, "Is that an explosion or a tree?".
...when the night before deadline you realize that the game is going to take up 659MB...on a 650MB CDROM...
...when your manager wants you to do something that you tell him is flat impossible, and he replies, "I'll take responsibility for the decision"..
...when you're a year into your project and the VP of Marketing says to you, "You know, we should add some sex to the game--sex sells!"...and your game is a flight simulator...
...when your managers admit to having negotiated an "aggressive schedule"....
...when the developers are reading the back of the box and muttering "when did we put THAT in?"
...when you ask the producer about the AI and he says, "Those random number generators can do anything" in an awed voice...

[url="http://www.gameai.com/youknow.html"]Game Development Truisms[/url]
[url="http://www.gameai.com/lastwords.html"]Famous Last Words[/url]

Submitted by Malus on Mon, 21/07/03 - 6:05 PMPermalink

... when your game has the word 'Forever' in the title.

Submitted by Daemin on Mon, 21/07/03 - 11:03 PMPermalink

When your lead programmer is a full time University student with a different full time job.

Submitted by fuzzmeister on Tue, 22/07/03 - 12:11 AMPermalink

Everytime you download a new model into your engine you decide the game is going to be something else built around this new character

Submitted by sho nuff on Tue, 22/07/03 - 1:06 AMPermalink

When it isn't being bootlegged. (odd but true)

Submitted by rezn0r on Tue, 22/07/03 - 1:32 AMPermalink

When you get a girlfriend.

Scott.

Submitted by Strik3r on Tue, 22/07/03 - 1:32 AMPermalink

....when you see float temp; //<---DONT TAKE THIS OUT!!!!

hahahahahaha

Submitted by shiva on Tue, 22/07/03 - 1:50 AMPermalink

when your 'music guy' delivers what sounds like music from an 80s porno when its sposed to be evil and atmospheric...

Submitted by inglis on Tue, 22/07/03 - 1:57 AMPermalink

...when skynet takes control of all your computers

Submitted by Malus on Tue, 22/07/03 - 1:57 AMPermalink

-when your art director says "I want it to look like this game".

Submitted by Pantmonger on Tue, 22/07/03 - 2:23 AMPermalink

When the write up to pitch the game to producers is written in l33t.

Pantmonger

Submitted by davidcoen on Wed, 23/07/03 - 4:18 AMPermalink

..when there is a group of people around the fax machine each morning to see if you still have money
..when you have to move eveything out of the office 'in one hour'
..when you are offered shars instead of paycheck
..when your boss is wearing a suit

Submitted by Doord on Wed, 23/07/03 - 4:27 AMPermalink

-When your boss isn't wearing anything at all.

Submitted by Blitz on Wed, 23/07/03 - 7:34 AMPermalink

When you have a deadline tomorrow and you have to tell your lead programmer he should be working.

Submitted by Echo on Thu, 24/07/03 - 9:34 AMPermalink

...when your programmers are more interested in developing a Half-Life mod than working
...when you try and do something new, interesting and innovative- and your publisher wants another FPS
...when you're told to write your cutting-edge, speed intensive game in Java, because the uni lecturers told your publishers employees that "Java is great and the way of the future"

Scott: agree with the girlfriend statement, that is the reason my demo is still not done and I barely play games any more.

Submitted by Cloud on Sun, 07/09/03 - 9:31 AMPermalink

When you turn on the computer for the last day of production and someone has replaced the main character with a furball (this actually happened on Shrek)

Submitted by Kris on Mon, 08/09/03 - 11:54 AMPermalink

- When Romero says its great and will sell really well.

Terminator 3 (possible spoilers)

I just saw Terminator 3. I went in with really low expectations, but I thought the movie was pretty good! Special effects were very impressive, and the action scenes were awesome.. I was dubious as to how they could possibly continue the story after what happened after Terminator 2, but was pretty surprised how they pulled it off.. Pacing was good (never a dull moment), Arnie looked pretty damn fit, and I thought the ending was great [:)]

Submitted by Major Clod on Sat, 19/07/03 - 12:28 PMPermalink

Yeah I saw in on Thursday, quite enjoyed it too. Better than I thought it would be, though the movie did seem to have a different feel to the previous ones. The scene where Arnie gets his clothing in that bar on ladies night was great! So was the cameo with Dr. Silverman. My only problem with the movie, was that I would have liked to see a better showdown between Arnie and the TX.

I enjoyed this sequel much more than The Matrix Reloaded. Wire work and martial arts don't really do much for me, as almost every film uses them as standard these days. I much prefer the smash and thrash style of the Terminator films.

The ending left me with a wierd feeling that I've never really had after seeing a movie. I'm thinking that the ending of Star Wars Episode III will be similar. I just hope they go through with T4, otherwise I will be very, very dissapointed.

Submitted by rezn0r on Sun, 20/07/03 - 1:20 AMPermalink

The one gripe I had about the movie was how much of a sissy John Connor was. You'd think Ed Furlong would have grown up into a badass that could fight for himself, but instead he just cowers and whinges while big tough Claire Danes saves him.

Plus there wasn't a single drop of blood shown in the entire movie, and the only people that look like they got shot as far as I can remember were the skynet programmers getting shot by big Johnny 5's. I feel like Terminator and movies like it have been neutered for the post 911 etc new world order where violence is watered down so viewers don't feel like killing each other. Movies have just lost their mean. *gets off soapbox*

Apart from that it was ok... the bathroom punchup was great. [:D]

Scott.

Submitted by lava monkey on Sun, 20/07/03 - 2:21 AMPermalink

I thought it didn?t flow as well as T2 there was some great action scenes but the lack of good music made them not very exciting.
It also felt like it was more comedy than action, it was like they were just trying to make it like a movie that was incorporated the best of both movies, T1+T2=T3. I think the 1st one was ?I like your car? as opposed to ?I like your bike? from T2, then the strip bar, the glasses.. the car chase with the truck.. it got a bit repetitive after awhile and kinda spoiled the movie for me, it was more like a movie about the 1st two movies.
I agree with what Rezn0r said John was a sissy and it pissed me off too, he reminded me of HIS mum from the 1st movie. Arnie was less robot than ever, and they didn?t setup the story very well, it felt like a combination of about 10 scripts and then they cut everything out to fit it into one movie that didn?t make that much sense.
Still I guess I kinda like it cause I just wanted to see another Terminator movie, but it wasn?t really a good movie at all, I think preferred the trailer over the movie.

Submitted by sharp77 on Sun, 20/07/03 - 6:42 AMPermalink

did anyone notice what they are doing?? the same thing matrix did... they created a suspensful ending making you wonder what next! what next! i was thinking of seeing a 5 minute battle with johnny there screaming and running to kill robots...
btw i did like the fallout bunker and the old look it represented... was very nice....

but get ready for T4 because that ending just gives them an excuse to make a shot em up, full on futuristic battle movie...

guess t3 had to be done but im acctually disapointed it's storyline was a bit weird...

i was hoping they would drive back to the place in the desert they went to in teh 2nd film and get together a mexican crime syndicate :D

oh well...

cya

Submitted by Maitrek on Sun, 20/07/03 - 9:17 AMPermalink

Not a drop of blood? Well none shed in violence, but Arnie cut a chunk out of himself and ditched it :)

I thought it was good fun, and I admit I love the old beat the crap out of each other style of fighting, if the T101 starting pulling wire-fu I reckon I would've just left the theatre :)

I think there was a bit of CG to help Arnie's figure out in alot of the scenes.

Overall it was mainly a homage to the first two movies, with some comedy, action and all that. I enjoyed it, but the open-ended 'ending' kinda irritates me. Hollywood is just afraid to write a complete movie nowadays, they have to 'sequelise' everything

Submitted by Blitz on Mon, 21/07/03 - 8:56 AMPermalink

I agree with what some of you have said, that this movie had a LOT in common with the first two movies, particularly T2. I remember so many times thinking "T2 ripoff!" while watching. Not that it was neccessarily a bad thing, but it made the move less serious in a way... It was definately also more comedic than T2 also i thought.
I enjoyed the movie, but i think i definately prefer T1 and T2. I thought the story was good, but like lava_monkey said, it didn't seem to flow as well. The action scenes were great though, especially with the truck/crane, that was nuts!
CYer, Blitz

Submitted by JonathanKerr on Mon, 21/07/03 - 9:35 PMPermalink

It was pretty good with some nice CGI. It didn't take itself as seriously as the previous two Terminator movies, but I think that worked to it's effect. Nice to see the action was at full speed, instead of lots of bullet time and slow-motion shots. There were only a few slow motion shots, such as the Terminator walking around the corner.

Quite cool story and interesting plot twist. It was good enough that I'd actually look forward to T4. Jonathan Mostow did a good job.

Don't forget, there were some nice gags in their too.

Submitted by Malus on Mon, 21/07/03 - 9:55 PMPermalink

Maitrek:

quote:I think there was a bit of CG to help Arnie's figure out in alot of the scenes.

Ah you cynical thing, actually he was the same size and fitness level as he was in T2, he worked hard to get back into shape. No CG involved just Austrian willpower. [:)]
Got to give the 55 year old credit were its due.

Outrun 2!

I LOVED Outrun in the arcades. Outrun was a game that changed everything. Awesome graphics, memorable tunes, and a pretty nifty hydraulic machine to play it on. There was a time when if I could wish for anything, I would wish for an Outrun machine. (I still wouldn't mind one, actually!). This was at a time when we had 8bit home computers - those arcade games were leaps and bounds ahead in technology. It's probably why arcade games have declined in popularity so much these days. They aren't that much more impressive than your latest PC/console hardware.
So you can imagine my excitement when I heard that Sega was making an [url="www.gamershell.com/news_BOutrun2Bunveiled.shtml"]Outrun 2[/url]. Looking at the pictures, they've definately captured the feel right... the beaches, the fluffy clouds, and racing along huge trucks.. I hope they have some real nice tunes too, like the original had.

Bring back those arcade racers, I say! Who cares about realistic car physics and simulation... I've had enough! I want more brainless arcade racing action, where you can drive as hard into a curve, break as you go around the bend, and floor the pedal as you leave!

Submitted by sho nuff on Tue, 15/07/03 - 9:02 PMPermalink

After Burner! Now that was an arcade machine!! they should upgrade them to the 21st century, hook em up daytona style and rejig the gameplay for some air racing action and dogfights. sic muate!

Submitted by Blitz on Wed, 16/07/03 - 9:05 AMPermalink

"They aren't that much more impressive than your latest PC/console hardware."

In fact a lot of arcade machines are based on the same hardware as the consoles. Porting a game from the arcade machine to the similar console is pretty much as simple as burning it onto a dvd instead of into a chip!
CYer, Blitz

Submitted by souri on Thu, 17/07/03 - 11:09 AMPermalink

And that's probably one of the big reasons why arcade games have declined in popularity nowadays.. Arcade games have to hark back like the older days, and be miles ahead than the Gran Turismo 3 etc console games that we're all used to now. I'm talking realistic looking games with all the physics, cloth/muscle deformation, and shaders you can throw at it.. [:)]
Outrun 2 does look very cool though.. coming to the Xbox!

Submitted by GooberMan on Thu, 17/07/03 - 7:00 PMPermalink

I used to play Outrun on the C64, and later the Amiga, to death, so I'll probably check this out when it's released.

What are Epic doing?!

Does anyone else think it's strange what Epic are currently doing with the Unreal brand? It seemed like Epic had split Unreal into two different types, with Unreal Tournament 2003 being for the multiplayer audience, and Unreal 2 for the single player audience.. now Unreal 2 will be multiplayer, and to scatter the fanbase a bit more, there's going to be an Unreal 2004 (multiplayer) coming out soon, and Unreal 2005, 2006 etc. It seems strange to me to fracture their fanbase like this..

Submitted by Daemin on Tue, 15/07/03 - 11:14 PMPermalink

It doesn't seem strange to me at all, AFAIK Epic only makes the Unreal Warfare engine and games in the Unreal Tournament brand, while outside developers use the engine to make other games. I think Raven made Unreal 2, although I will have to check that to make sure. So really Epic are making most of their bucks licencing the Unreal engine and some smaller amount of cash selling the Unreal Tournament games, beats me to what other games they're making.

Submitted by Blitz on Wed, 16/07/03 - 9:13 AMPermalink

Digital Extremes made UT2003 (and i think they're making 2k4), so Epic don't make any games :) Just the engine (unless DE is a subs of epic). Epic would certainly be actively proposing the ut2kX games though, they aren't just sitting there waiting for some developer to say "Hey, we'd like to make ut2k4, whaddya think?".
As far as producing a UT every year, from what i've read the idea is that they will be releasing the game more often than similar types of games (ie. quake series). Instead of coming out every 2-3 years, the game will come out every year with incremental graphics upgrades, new game types, and backwards compatibility.
The idea is to *strengthen* the user base by continually releasing product. Think of the way collectible card games (and just about any RPG/Wargame) keeps it's fanbase active/alive/excited by continually releasing new product every few months. Thats what Epic is trying to do.
As far as U2 goes, apparently they always planned to do multiplayer for U2, but they left it out of the retail release to get the product out the door (presumably worried Doom3 would be released on time...the fools! :P)
CYer, Blitz

Submitted by Cam on Wed, 16/07/03 - 8:16 PMPermalink

i still miss epic's classics!!

bring back jill of the jungle i say :p

Submitted by Major Clod on Thu, 17/07/03 - 3:58 AMPermalink

quote:Originally posted by Blitz

As far as producing a UT every year, from what i've read the idea is that they will be releasing the game more often than similar types of games (ie. quake series). Instead of coming out every 2-3 years, the game will come out every year with incremental graphics upgrades, new game types, and backwards compatibility.
The idea is to *strengthen* the user base by continually releasing product. Think of the way collectible card games (and just about any RPG/Wargame) keeps it's fanbase active/alive/excited by continually releasing new product every few months. Thats what Epic is trying to do.

Well I hope they offer each update at a reduced rate for people who already own the game. I can't see many people paying $90 each year for what is essentially the same game with extra content.

Submitted by souri on Thu, 17/07/03 - 10:50 AMPermalink

I'm guessing that Epic controls the Unreal brand - but my point isn't about who developes which Unreal game, but that I think the Unreal brand is getting too fractured, with all the different titles overlapping each other with the same type of game.. If you have Unreal 2 which has multiplayer, why would you want Unreal Tournament 2003? And there are going to be people who have UT2K3 who won't be upgrading to UT2K4.. the fanbase would be spreading even thinner on each game online, I thinks..

Submitted by sho nuff on Thu, 17/07/03 - 11:10 PMPermalink

Well at the end of the day its all about Money, and if Epic are adding Multiplayer to Unreal 2 for the reasons that i believe it is, then it's not that strange at all.

Most of us probably heard about Unreal 2 through our experience with UT, but Epic are probably assuming that many others had bought Unreal 2 at face value, or without the knowledge of it's sister title 'Unreal Tournament'. As a result, they figured that these fresh fish probably don't even know about multiplayer either. So, being about the dollar bills, Epic decided to add multiplayer to the Single Player game that is Unreal, as a means of introducing multiplayer to the uninitiated consumer.

However ,as you mentioned, this does cause the consumer base to be 'fractured', but that would only be an issue if the fracturing caused a loss of dolo, in which case it doesn't because Epic owns both titles!

So whether you buy Unreal 2 or Unreal Tournament does not concern Epic at all, because its all money.

Submitted by Daemin on Fri, 18/07/03 - 1:43 AMPermalink

I've played through Unreal 2, and I think that it does need some sort of multiplayer component, the single player game was a bit of fun and all, but it does need multiplayer.

Still, its their engine and game properties, they can do whatever they want with it.

Submitted by Cam on Sun, 20/07/03 - 12:50 AMPermalink

i'm guessing no one remembers epics old games.. thats sad.
they were classic.

Submitted by Blitz on Sun, 20/07/03 - 5:29 AMPermalink

"Well I hope they offer each update at a reduced rate for people who already own the game. I can't see many people paying $90 each year for what is essentially the same game with extra content."

Ask the people who develop/publish/sell/buy sports titles year after year...
I do recall during the development of UT2k3 someone saying that they were designing UT2k3 to be a sports title :)
CYer, Blitz

Submitted by Malus on Mon, 21/07/03 - 7:50 AMPermalink

Shonuff:

quote:Well at the end of the day its all about Money, and if Epic are adding Multiplayer to Unreal 2 for the reasons that i believe it is, then it's not that strange at all.

Naive of me but I hope thats not their only motivation for making games.

Daemin: I also wasn't impressed with Unreal 2, just seemed like an after thought to UT 2003.
I don't think adding a multiplayer component is enough of a saving grace, more like a waste of time, they should just move on and let it die.

Cam: Ah the good old days.

Blitz: they are adding more than art assets to the updates so I don't see you getting a reduced rate, also they aren't forcing consumers to buy it so its really up to the inividual to do the research as to wether or not they think its worth another $90.

Anyone else think UT2004 feels like a beefed up tribes 2? no? just me then, oh well... [:P]

Submitted by Blitz on Mon, 21/07/03 - 9:02 AMPermalink

Hey, I'm not the one complaining about UT2004! :)
I think it's shaping up well personally, and i'm particularly interested in it being backwards compatible with UT2k3. This is a really BIG bonus for the mod community, as it makes porting their code from ut2k3 to ut2k4 incredibly simple (and they don't even need to port it at all, they can continue to use UT2k3, and people with ut2k4 can still play on the ut2k3 mod servers!)
CYer, Blitz

Phantom Console : Not really dead, nor a console

I've just been reading through some internet news sites and come accross our friend, the Phantom console in some articles. Specifically:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=pub&aid=1911
and
http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/07/09/2042207

It seems that the console is just a really stripped down pc running Windows XP, with the one thing that makes it unique is that it uses encryption to "safely" store downloaded games on its hard drive. This kind of seems redundant to me because the Xbox fits that area nicely - being the "PC Console", although I get that the main thing behind the phantom is its delivery system, where basically people will rent PC games out which they cannot pirate. If this thing kicks off the ground I'd hate to see normal PC games die in favour of the Phantom console...

Although it seems that they have done their research and gotten some decent funding, so the console is pretty much here to stay, although if it'll sell enough to be worth it I don't know. I'd guess they would target the North American and Korean markets mostly because of the broadband penetration?

Submitted by Blitz on Sun, 13/07/03 - 1:46 AMPermalink

Yeah, they have no hope in regions that don't have easy access to unlimited (or at least very high limits ~20/month) broadband plans.
CYer, Blitz

Submitted by redwyre on Sun, 13/07/03 - 4:19 AMPermalink

I think it's safe to say we will never see it...

Submitted by souri on Tue, 15/07/03 - 12:37 PMPermalink

I'm still waiting on that console that Dick Smith was going to release, to compete with Playstation 2!!

Submitted by Jason on Tue, 15/07/03 - 11:13 PMPermalink

quote:Originally posted by Souri

I'm still waiting on that console that Dick Smith was going to release, to compete with Playstation 2!!

Lol! Go Dick Smith!!
[:0][xx(]

Submitted by Daemin on Tue, 15/07/03 - 11:16 PMPermalink

Souri, what about the Linux based console (no, not the PS2) the one from Idremea or something?

Submitted by inglis on Wed, 16/07/03 - 2:23 AMPermalink

looks like everyone is after a piece of the console pie.

i might just go out into the shed and whip up one from an old birdbox....

Submitted by Malus on Wed, 16/07/03 - 2:33 AMPermalink

Dicks Smith's console would rock the casbah!
Of course it would only be sold in his stores, bright yellow with his sexy mug on it, even comes with Dicks own VR glasses so you can look like the man too.

The all new DICK BOX 4000 !!!... coming soon to a garage sale near you. [:P]

Submitted by souri on Thu, 17/07/03 - 11:02 AMPermalink

I think that Indrema console got the axe ages ago..

Submitted by Daemin on Fri, 18/07/03 - 1:19 AMPermalink

Yeah it did, tho I think that was because its only hook was that it would be linux based, which really is not much of a hook in the corporate world.

Submitted by fuzzmeister on Tue, 22/07/03 - 12:16 AMPermalink

Damn Malus, you took the words right out of my mouth.. yella box with dick on it lol

Submitted by Acer on Wed, 30/07/03 - 10:20 AMPermalink

I think they shold release a new generation of commodore 64 machines.lol I still have one in my shed in its original box and like 500 disks full of games, oh the nostalga!!!!!

[8D]

Submitted by sho nuff on Thu, 31/07/03 - 1:33 AMPermalink

read the specs on phantom. Sounds pretty impressive, but like someone mentioned earlier, unless the network is set in place, this console won't stand a chance, as its appeal relies heavily on broadband connectivity.

Submitted by icomp187 (not verified) on Sun, 17/08/03 - 1:36 PMPermalink

This is an excellent time for the Phantom to release. The number of households with broadband is rapidly increasing due to the PS2 and Xbox, and the current consoles have been on the market long enough that consumers will be open to something new. Also, Infinium has said they will pay developers for the porting of other console games to the Phantom. With three big consoles on the market and lots of porting going on this is a huge incentive along with the lack of need for media production and shipping costs. Infinium is basically saying go ahead and try us, if we win you win and if we fail you won't lose much.

Submitted by souri on Tue, 19/08/03 - 9:48 AMPermalink

"The Phantomx will contain a Intel 3GHZ processor, 256MB SDRAM 100+ gig hard-drive, 10/100 Base-T Ethernet card, four controller ports, 2 USB slots, Digital 7.1 surround sound support, S-Video/RCA components, and on-board RF wireless modules."

.. plus an unspecified Nvidia card.

Submitted by sho nuff on Tue, 19/08/03 - 9:17 PMPermalink

thats all well and good, but this is stuff u can already get for a pc. Once people realise that, the only appeal phantom will have is the gaming service (demos, downloads, rentals etc) and quality of 'original' titles. I say original because if they ain't, id prefer to save the cash i would have spent on a phantom, and put it towards 'unoriginal' titles i can grab for my pc or ps2. And as for demos and downloads (mods,game content etc.), again, they are things that are already achievable on a pc. And once XBOX LIVE and the PS2 online service gain a better understanding of there operations, the phantom could well become a has been before its had time to settle in on the shelf.

Having said that, i would like to see it succeed, but the odds are stacked up against it, like putting homer in a free for all donut shop and telling him he can have a lifetime supply if he waits for just a minute.

Submitted by Daemin on Tue, 19/08/03 - 10:02 PMPermalink

quote:.. plus an unspecified Nvidia card.

*cough*NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX*cough* probably.

Submitted by Blitz on Wed, 20/08/03 - 8:01 AMPermalink

They'd be pretty silly to put in a card that is less capable than that of consoles released 18 months ago...specifically the xbox with a GF3 Ti equivalent.
So i'd be thinking at least a GF4 Ti, although GF3 Ti would still be possible.
CYer, Blitz

Submitted by souri on Wed, 20/08/03 - 8:16 AMPermalink

The Xbox, PS1, PS2 costed about $700 when they first came out, so I wonder if The Phantom will go for that much too. If so, then that's not bad for a 3 ghz, 100 gig hd etc machine.. Anything over $1,000 would be a bit too much for a games console.

Submitted by souri on Sun, 21/09/03 - 10:40 AMPermalink

Wow.. although I had very little hope on the Phantom making it somewhere in the console wars, it looks like the real hope is Infinium making an actual product. [:)] I'd hate to be one of their investors at the moment.

Submitted by smeg on Sun, 21/09/03 - 9:01 PMPermalink

Damn. Fantastic article.

I seriously doubted the phantom when everything seemed legit. Now it just looks like a bad joke waiting to burn a few people.

Submitted by smeg on Mon, 22/09/03 - 7:51 AMPermalink

lol, its like a bad soap opera...

Submitted by Daemin on Mon, 22/09/03 - 11:05 AMPermalink

Hehe yeah, well with all the glamorous promises that have been advertised for the phantom - and the name perhaps also - is really a wonder its just vapourware?

Attn Female Gamers/Aussie Devs - World Cyber Games

I received this email the other day and thought it might be of interest to people here.

quote:
I work for Samsung Electronics' public relations company, and as Samsung is a worldwide sponsor of the upcoming World Cyber Games competition, we are looking for ways to promote gaming in the general community. One angle of this which I am particularly interested in examining (being female myself) is the lack of women in gaming and low proportion of female game developers.

I am searching for:

1. Female gamers who are interested in speaking to media about their experiences being a female gamer, how they got into it, how they would like to see the industry encourage more females to participate etc. 2. Games developers who have new games or Australian game developers with a game which they would like to demo or showcase at the World Cyber Games Australia finals in Sydney on August 30/31. At the moment we are just trying to establish who is interested in participating as we are still trying to organise everything, but if you are interested in being involved, please let me know. This would be a great opportunity for some free publicity - we expect to have a number of journalist from gaming magazines attend and I've also had some initial interest from a journalist at Triple J who is keen to speak with some gamers and local developers.

If you are interested please feel free to contact me for phone/email contact.

Infinite Dolo. What game would you make?

If you had to sell a game to a board of investors who were willing to pour there billions into your project, so long as there was profit to be made, what type of game would you create? Would it be an Fps? Rts? Sport? Adventure? or a mixture of genres. What 'edge' would you give to your game to raise it above all others?

Submitted by Major Clod on Sat, 05/07/03 - 4:00 AMPermalink

I'd like to create an FPS/RPG combo. Instead of going through level after level, you would be able to venture anywhere you want mostly anytime in the game, so it would be similar to a MMOPRG. Of course it wouldn't be entirely dynamic, but I would like it to have quite a bit of freedom to it.

Submitted by Blitz on Sat, 05/07/03 - 9:25 AMPermalink

MMORPG twitch shooter with vehicles and all that funky shit, able to handle thousands of people in the same place at the same time so you could have truly massive warfare battles. And there would be as much emphasis on co-operation as possible, vehicles able to hold many people (like big gunboat sorta things) weapons (like artillery) that required multiple people to operate etc.
Or something like that :)
CYer, Blitz

Submitted by souri on Mon, 07/07/03 - 3:00 AMPermalink

My dream game to make would be a 3d platformer with an online multiplayer mode.. single player would be a mix of MANY different playing styles, and would have a great story to back it up too [:)]... multiplayer would be a little similar to Enemy Territory (you'd have player classes and mission objectives), but it'll be in third person view, and instead of shooting at your opponents, you'd be trapping/delaying them while trying to get further on your objectives. Would be nice if it was 56k modem friendly too. I'd release the multiplayer part for free with only 5 missions, with the retail having much more... retail version would also be needed to play mods and whatnot though.. I reckon platformers on the PC can still make it good! [:)] It certainly wouldn't cost billions of dollars to make though.. could probably do it with the Quake 1 engine..

Submitted by Maitrek on Mon, 07/07/03 - 7:27 AMPermalink

I'd probably make a allegory soaked, story/character driven 3D FP game with no guns in sight.

But then I'd do that with zero bucks as well :)

Submitted by Daemin on Mon, 07/07/03 - 8:59 AMPermalink

A big one...

That's what you usually do with a lot of free money.

Submitted by lava monkey on Mon, 07/07/03 - 9:13 AMPermalink

Well for starters I think the type of game I would make if I was given that chance wouldn?t be the type of game that a publisher would want to publish, cause its too weird or its not exactly the same as every other game on the market.

I would make an adventure game in part, but I would make it as no-linier as possible, the characters would all be AI (chatter-boxes) and would react differently based on hundreds of different reasons. You could play the game however you wanted you could be the bad guy if you wanted. But there would be other AI characters with conflicting goals to you all the time, and characters that you could work with and help. The sound + music would also we AI based, it would change and alter the score to suit the type of situations you get yourself in. Likewise with the camera system, it would position it self to create drama or whatever based on the situation, like a ?Director AI?. Basically it would be a game without the limits of a script, but then you would still free like your doing something useful because of how the AI interacts with your character. A self-scripting game, a smart-game..
But I wouldn?t want to make it too smart or it would put me out of the job.

Submitted by davidcoen on Mon, 07/07/03 - 11:57 AMPermalink

would make something that could be finished in 6 months, (ie, a small project) and after taking a year to finish it, then try to make a big project..... so start with a 2d fighter, then the rpg...

Submitted by Ionized on Mon, 07/07/03 - 8:16 PMPermalink

Something similar to what theif 3 was initially going to be. A giant living, breathing city where you have a house, car, bank account. Set sometime in the future, you play a private eye. You can basically walk around this city doing your day to day things and people come to you with cases for you to work on. You can be a good guy or a bad guy. You can buy, steal or rent everything from clothes to cars. You have to do things like eat food, pay your bills and meet your contacts at the right time and the right place. I guess it's a cross detween dues ex, the sims and shem mue. I feel pretty confident that one day someone will make a game like that... it just wont be me...hehe.

Submitted by Malus on Mon, 07/07/03 - 9:44 PMPermalink

redwyre: I was going to say that!! Why make anything other than another reality with infinite boundries.

Submitted by redwyre on Tue, 08/07/03 - 3:25 AMPermalink

What if humans were only limited by their creativity? Think of what we could achieve...

Think about how Half-Life 2 is different from every other game, it is fully interactive. But imagine, as lava_monkey says, if there was no pre-writen story? What if the game evolved around you?

And what if we were not limited by pathetic devices such as a mouse and keyboard?

I'll tell you, that would be one *awesome* RPG.

I can't wait for the future.

Submitted by Doord on Tue, 08/07/03 - 4:15 AMPermalink

I would make a MMORPG, with a base around do what you wish with a world which was as dynamic as possblie right down to things like grass growing and hair growing over time. It would be sci-if based but with cool personally/and group spells (which would be something to do with programs that you could load into yourself.) add to this vehicles (and muitperson vehicles) house or places to live in for your character (were poeple are unable to get into if the door is lock so you can have your character sleep, and if you did get back before you log-off you have to find a save place to sleep, if not you can sleep anyway but people can help themself to you.)

Shit i could go on and on, best stop i think you all get the idea.

Submitted by Maitrek on Tue, 08/07/03 - 10:15 AMPermalink

I don't think HL:2 is going to be 'fully interactive', it's just got more interactivity than the first one (which is to say, almost none), and secondly, it's not different to every other game out there....but it does move the bar a bit higher in some areas.

Personally, I hope the future isn't a world limited only by our creativity :)

For starters, we aren't exactly that restricted at the moment in terms of creativity, but we still make extremely derivative games, and secondly, when we are limited only by creativity, the effort and the journey of discovery is oh so crap.

But that's just me!!!

There's a fine line between making an alternate reality because we can't make our own reality enjoyable enough, and making games. If the future is the first part of that statement - then I'm going to go spare :)

Submitted by redwyre on Tue, 08/07/03 - 10:58 AMPermalink

Silly Maitrek, you have your arms tied behind your back and you don't know it! :)

If what you see on the screen is not what you see in your mind, then you are being limited.

There will be a time when you can create anything you can think of, that is when it is US that is limiting creation.

I think that is worth every dollar.

Submitted by Malus on Tue, 08/07/03 - 6:15 PMPermalink

Maitrek:

quote:There's a fine line between making an alternate reality because we can't make our own reality enjoyable enough, and making games.

Personally I'm enjoying my reality, and if an alternative reality was akin to the Matrix in complexitiy then I'm sure you could find something you would like, even if your game in that world is sitting in a field all by yourself.

Like Redwyre said, it would only be limited by your creativity, I could think of some cool games if we had our hands on the Matrix V1.0 engine. [:P]

Submitted by Doord on Tue, 08/07/03 - 7:06 PMPermalink

alternate reality from my point of view is so that you can do all them things you are unable to do here in the real world. Why do you thing that GTA 3 was a big hit. so many poeple have seen a nice car and wish they could drive it, but to do this you would end up in jail (or a big fine) and the rest of your life would be changed. with a game you could do this and get out of jail the next day, and if thing get to fucked up you can hit the reset button.

so petty much poeple (i think) don't want an alternate reality, they want a reset button.

Submitted by Maitrek on Tue, 08/07/03 - 9:53 PMPermalink

Oh how I hate having a differing opinion :)
I'm just a different person....the point of my message was, I'm not really interested in the 'object' that I create. Sure I have a lot of vision for what it is and what it could be, *but*, pretty much 90% of the pride comes from the effort and the ingenuity required to recreate the vision, using the tools that I have been granted. If there was no challenge in doing that, then I'd go find something better to do with my time!

Plus we'd all be out of jobs! Everyone in the world has their own imagination, they wouldn't need ours. Simulating dreams, hopes and desires would be exactly the same as if you were to just dream them... To me games fulfil a different need than purely imaginative espacism, although that (escapism) surely is one of them.

It's not the truth, and it's not the "right" or "wrong" way of thinking. It's just my way of thinking! Picture the world from my warped perspective for a second, then forget about it, and stick with your own! That's all these messages should be - an insight to another perspective...

Submitted by Doord on Tue, 08/07/03 - 10:30 PMPermalink

Yeah I see.

just a side note. I don't think that game desginer would ever be out of a job from a game or program that ables you to have full control of what you can do or use or think of. because this wouldn't be all that fun, one of the things I like about game so much is that you get to go inside someone eles head and see there way of thinking.

Submitted by Malus on Tue, 08/07/03 - 11:40 PMPermalink

I thought the thread was what would you do with unlimited cashola, we all love the challenges and process of the development cycle, other wise why be in (or trying to get in) this industry, I can think of alot less stressful ones but I love the stress (freak).

quote:To me games fulfil a different need than purely imaginative espacism, although that (escapism) surely is one of them.

Want to finish this point, I was interested and also partially agree. What other roles?

Doord's pretty right saying game developers wouldn't bet out of a job, not everyone has a great imagination and they might want to still enjoy it, therefore games/worlds needs developing, coders would be fine and artists would need to conceive and design still.

Maitrek: I'm glad you have a different opinion, differences breed new thought, world would be pretty short of creative ideas if we all agreed, hell sometimes I'm even proven wrong lol. [:)]

Doord: Ah the reset button, one of lifes most precious tools lol.
Does anyone else try and press CTRL-Z when they screw up a pencil sketch instead of reaching for the eraser? I did it the other day, I broke a glass at home, "ctrl-z", oops that won't work.

Scary.

Submitted by Malus on Tue, 08/07/03 - 11:45 PMPermalink

Back on topic, boy I get distracted easily here.

I'd make a game where everyone played as me, I'd have a cape and theme music but thats it, no special powers just me going about life ...with a cape... and theme music.

Any publishers out there interested lol.

BTW: reznor/lava monkey, God wants his jumper back. [:P]

Submitted by Doord on Wed, 09/07/03 - 1:11 AMPermalink

Yes, i look for Ctrl-Z all the time. For just about anything. The last time it did it was pureing a grass of OJ this morning and miss the grass a little. I know this is petty sad, a only get like this when i have been modeling, texturing, drawing or animating all day on a computer. Which is most of the time these days.

Submitted by Maitrek on Wed, 09/07/03 - 12:02 PMPermalink

Actually, one game I wouldn't mind seeing is an MMORPG based on something like feudal japan way back in the day - plenty of melee and easy women back then! Would also make for some interesting things like honour codes and allegiances etc etc, a easily exploitable setting that will probably get taken up long before I'd ever pitch it to a publisher. Plus you could do Kung Fu (yeah I know that's actually chinese, but who cares anyway, most people think it's all karate).

Submitted by souri on Wed, 09/07/03 - 2:04 PMPermalink

I would like to make a killer VR game.. [:)] There's gotta be a game that'll bring back those Virtual Reality headsets in fashion.. I can see a lot of you want a game environment that's closer and closer to reality, but I think VR helmets are another way to get a player to feel immersed in a game - it just needs a good boot up the backside and a killer title. I don't think I've ever really felt immersed in a game - I'm always aware I'm looking at a square screen.
There's probably a million game design issues that have to be overcome (how do you move, jump, or shoot?), along with problems from wearing a headset for long periods of time causes, and I'm sure VR headsets are impractical for many types of games... but darnit, bring back Virtual Reality! [:)] It's been over a decade now since the VR hype (many showcased running on an Amiga 1000 no less) has died off..

Submitted by Maitrek on Wed, 09/07/03 - 11:54 PMPermalink

Yeah I remember those VR headsets. Very cool! But like you said, there are plenty of interface issues to overcome. I imagine that they (the headsets) would be pretty small nowadays, there's plenty of tech floating around that the headset would probably be tiny compared to those huge chunky things you had to wear back in the day!

Submitted by JonathanKerr on Thu, 10/07/03 - 12:26 AMPermalink

I think I must be the only person who doesn't want virtual reality. I want to see games evolved to a more social aspect. For me, nothing beats gaming with friends in the same room.

As a predominantly console gamer, I think developers would do well to work a large number of commands into fewer buttons - after all, games often turn people off due to their complexity. Any idiot can make something more complicated.

I think perhaps voice recognition, and as I remember hearing at AGDC2001 - a wristband that measured pulses and accomodated the gameplay accordingly would be a good start. Somehow,I think the next innovations are going to come when the hardware/peripherals allow it.

I think if I had infinite dolo - I'd like to use it to subsidise extra pieces of hardware that shipped with the game. ie - a FPS (don't groan yet) where a floorpad (like DDR) was used in conjunction with a lightgun. My main gripe with FPS's is that clicking a mouse button is nothing like pulling a trigger. The floorpad would be the 'WASD' and a button where your little finger is on the gun handle, a button could be pressed to activate the 'look' feature like a mouse (by moving the gun). If the button isnt pressed, then the screen stays stable - it'd be reasonably intuitive I think. As a twist, I'd have the game as an arcade format, with 8 player mode (like Daytona cabinets) and link ups to other arcades around the country/world.

As a side tangent - is anyone seeing massive potential in the PS2 Eyetoy? Does anyone think that this could come as standard for PS3?

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Thu, 10/07/03 - 3:28 AMPermalink

I am an anime nut so i would try to make a game with anime style GFX. But i would like to make an MMORPG like the one depicted in the series .hack//sign
total character control, so you can actually act and other players will be able to see all your emotions through the character.
I would like to make a game with essentailly real world like intereactions in a completely unreal world.

Submitted by Cloud on Sun, 07/09/03 - 9:36 AMPermalink

I would make a game like final fantasy but you look through the eyes of the main character in a virual reality helmet, complete with gloves.

Get onboard HL2 mod

Half-Life had a big mod community which pretty much made HL as succesfull as it was.
Valve knowing this are clearly aiming to repeat this with HL2. Many of you will know that the sdk will be released prior to the game itself. Already various people are gearing up to begin development of their own HL2 mod.
Well im here to ask if anyone would be interested in joining up.
Now i know what you are thinking yet another mod which isn't going anywhere. Well that maybe but you have to try. Design Doc is being written now (the idea was hatched last night so not much has been done on it yet)
This mod will be taking advantage of the new SOURCE engine. Also it will be the only multi mod with a complicated film noiur story with a twist which must be discovered by the player in game(if they want to of course)
I get quite a number of offers and i rarely get interested. This idea sounds really kewl. 4 sides, 2 teams and classes and sub classes for each side.
We are trying for a kind of NS thing (in being new and different not being of clone of NS) and the idea certainly sounds it.
The point is it will be a HUGE project and it will need alot of assets and the more guys we get the better.
Also we need some more coders.
Anyways you can talk to the guy in charge ShArP** on icq 6118625 if you are interested. Tell him i sent you [8D]

Submitted by Groady on Sun, 13/07/03 - 11:49 PMPermalink

So what is your job exactly? Coder, Artist etc..?

Submitted by Doord on Mon, 14/07/03 - 7:23 PMPermalink

I was going to tell you about an Idea for a MOD i had but, I just made it up and it is too cool. sorry, but i think you have got a cool idea here but you will have alot of comp with an idea like this.

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Thu, 17/07/03 - 11:55 PMPermalink

quote:Originally posted by Groady

So what is your job exactly? Coder, Artist etc..?

well if you can do anything then you can help. So long as that something can be used in the mod. I don't think we would have much need for someone that could fit their fist in their mouth [:)]
we need artists and coders of all sorts.
we have a basic web page up at the moment which has a little bit of info on it
warofretribution.homestead.com
as for comp yeah im sure there will be lots of compitition
most likely the only mod that'll be played for hl2 (or at least by most ppl) will be cs2
but hey were are doing it to make a kewl mod.
And there is probably going to be stuff in this mod that you won't see in any other [:P]
but im not going to tell YOU :)

Submitted by sharp77 on Fri, 18/07/03 - 3:41 AMPermalink

hey guys,
names ben, i lead the project as is.
This game concept has never been attempted and seems to be something that will have no competition...
its a Post Nuclear War mod, based in real cities and areas over the world including some generic maps, including realism through weapons used and the maps... and also some futuristic weapons and classes, it prooves to be a very promising outcome.
We currently have the sound department filled and require 2 coders, as many modelers as possible, 1 2d artist, 2 texturers, and 2 mappers...

if anyone is interested contact myself on
icq: 6118625
MSN: sharplaya@hotmail.com
email : " " " "
Phone : 0439623631

Submitted by sho nuff on Fri, 18/07/03 - 4:29 AMPermalink

Finished reading the write up on your site. The concept sounds pretty interesting, but im just curious if you have heard of "S.T.A.L.K.E.R Lost Oblivion". If not then maybe you should take a look at it because the theme is very similar to what you guys have going. Which is kinda sad in a way, cuz if u thought ur game was original, it makes you wonda how many of our own concepts really are.

Submitted by sharp77 on Fri, 18/07/03 - 4:51 AMPermalink

depends if they are successful or not... if they arent their mod is irrelevant to my self and the production of this game.

Submitted by sharp77 on Fri, 18/07/03 - 4:53 AMPermalink

also, thank you for bringing this game to my notice, i didnt know it existed, but im sure we can make the mod alot differant because of the use of real cities within australia will attract a large australian audience and that is our main concern...

Submitted by Maitrek on Fri, 18/07/03 - 12:22 PMPermalink

quote:depends if they are successful or not... if they arent their mod is irrelevant to my self and the production of this game.

That's one of the wierdest attitudes I've ever seen. Sure it might hurt the ego of "coming up with the idea first" but gosh darnit, it's bloody good research! Every idea I've ever had - I've looked up - and it's been done before - but that's good!
a) It validates the idea
b) You can see the pitfalls, pros, cons and make sure you don't make the same mistakes someone else has gone to the bother of making for you.

quote:And there is probably going to be stuff in this mod that you won't see in any other
but im not going to tell YOU :)

Hint from now on, don't say anything if you plan to say nothing (geddit?).

quote:This game concept has never been attempted and seems to be something that will have no competition...

Also, I hope you are actually referring to the "concept" and not the conceptual setting. I want to see new products out there just as much as anyone! But I don't want false hopes based on insincere and un-backed up posts (seeing as you don't want to go into the concept too much, which I can understand! I just don't appreciate people going on about concepts that they have no intention of validating at this point in time).
G'luck!

Submitted by sharp77 on Fri, 18/07/03 - 1:14 PMPermalink

sorry about the comment, but it was strickly regarding MOD's not full release titles.. sorry for that.
but i just see MOD's as a form of add on, and well you only seem to notice about 5-6 mods that are acctually of good standard and reach more than 20 servers when u search for a game...
i was speaking as saying, if there is a 'MOD' based on a post nuclear war setting, and it doesnt seem to gain as much attention as other hit titles because its poorly produced, it seems the right thing to do; to just excuse it from being a treat and continue to create a piece of work that will gain recognition.

Of course you mentioned that maybe there was 1 game that had the same concept as this, but there you are totally wrong, maybe that game had something to do with a nuclear explosion and fallout... but that doesnt mean its the same? does it?
our mod is more or less world wide rahter than one specific area, invloves a more rather interesting storyline...

you can sit here and cricise the game because there was another game taht uses a nuclear explosion in its story line.. and call it the same idea... or you can please just try and give some positive feedback rather than the negative....

im sorry for writing its never been done before... but when i researched that game didnt come up in my results and the only ones that did were RTS games...

and i insure you, the game will look alot differant compared to this... other already done post nuclear war shooter or wateva you choose to call it...

bye

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Fri, 18/07/03 - 7:54 PMPermalink

quote:Originally posted by Maitrek

quote:And there is probably going to be stuff in this mod that you won't see in any other
but im not going to tell YOU :)

Hint from now on, don't say anything if you plan to say nothing (geddit?).

well firstly that was a joke at doord, and besides that post had other info.
Now to try to explain some things about originality.
I'll use an example for this. I was listening to some orchestral music and my dad said "what music is that?" and is said its by a composer called Hajime Mizoguchi. He reaplied by saying it was like some other classical song. I can also use movies as an example.
Good will hunting won best original screenplay, and while having some things that were original there was also alot of stuff that you could find in other movies or books. Does this make that movie completely unoriginal.
So now on to this mod. Yes there are many things which occur in other games, movies and books. I have to admit that my first thought of this concept with similar information thats in this post was simply battlefeild meets mad max. That kind of concept doesn't exactly scream originality.
However like i said there are some things in this mod that will give it originality on some levels.
When you look at it its next to impossible to come up with an entirely original idea anymore. Any idea you come up with WILL at least have elements in common with other games.
Look at deus ex, that was considered a very original game but when you look at just the concepts it wasn't really.
I am simply saying that originality is a ghost. Impossible to achieve now that its dead. Okay there might be some area left just waiting for a genius to come along and discover.
Okay i understand the information that has been presented doesnt exactly make you cream your pants because its so original [:0] but we were hoping that people interested would ask us about anything that wasn't given. But i'll leave it at this, you would of heard or the saying don't judge a book by its cover. Well you also shouldn't judge a book by its blerb. (i know cause i got this book because it sounded really good on the back and the book itself was bloody horrible [:p])
Oh and if you are unhappy about the information about the concept (or i should say lack of from your perspective) then speak up and ask questions that you want answered.
Lastely (yes really) to sho-nuff; isn't it STALKER Oblivion Lost or am i just confused. [?] And yes our concept does share some things in common with that game but it also doesn't.

Submitted by sho nuff on Fri, 18/07/03 - 9:22 PMPermalink

quote:Originally posted by Meatex_Salami
to sho-nuff; isn't it STALKER Oblivion Lost or am i just confused. [?] And yes our concept does share some things in common with that game but it also doesn't.

Im not to sure about the name, and i wouldn't b 2 concerned with that right now. What you guys need to focus on is some evaluation between your MOD and STALKER. Reason being is, without sounding too harsh, you could be making this game in vain.

My suggestion is that you find out as much as you can about STALKER, work out its goods and bads, then with this knowledge, rewrite your concept to beat the pants off these other guys.

OK Fair enuff you might not have the privelages they had in development (time, capital,manpower), but if your gonna do it, you might as well make the most of it and prepare yourself to build it the best way you can. Like they say "All you have to do is strive for the top, God will decide whether you make it or not".

Submitted by JonathanKerr on Fri, 18/07/03 - 10:43 PMPermalink

There seems to be a bit of talk about whether the game is original or not. It's impossible to convince people about originality until some screenshots (not concept art) are put up. While the blurb about a 'Post Nuclear War' may not sound exciting, the art direction and any possible gameplay mechanics could offer a unique twist.

Meatex makes a good point about Deus Ex. It's really not that original, it's just that no one had really blended the gameplay types together that well before.

The point is (a sentiment echoed by the peeps who write Game Developer Magazine) 'Great ideas don't make a great game. Great execution of ideas make a great game.' After all, I thought the N64 FPS with the Bond license attached would be shite, but Goldeneye turned out rather well, didn't it?

Submitted by Malus on Fri, 18/07/03 - 11:41 PMPermalink

Golden eye rocked!

Guys its always a good idea to do research and seeing that there is no clear cut info on your mod we here really have to trust you when you say its different enough that it wont get compared to Stalker.
I hope for your sake it is because a mod will never stand up against a polished full game and Stalkers is looking real fine.

Maitrek is kind of right when he said:

quote:Hint from now on, don't say anything if you plan to say nothing (geddit?)

He just did'nt phrase it all that well lol. Sorry Maitrek. [:)]
Saying you won't give info almost reads we don't have much idea of what we have more than its under NDA etc, I'm sure there are areas about the mod you can openly discuss without it releasing all your plans, story/plot/setting/genre etc.

I hope it all goes well, alot of Mods fail, but if you guys think you have something special then go for it and I hope everyone here at Sumea gives you the help/resources you need instead of negativity.

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Sat, 19/07/03 - 1:03 AMPermalink

You learn more so from failures than you do from successes. If our mod fails it'll still be usefull experience.
And goldeneye di rock. I still list it as best game ever next to deus ex. They both had problems but were both really well done and fun.
Yes it is true you can take a bad idea and turn it into a really good game. Look at the sims, if someone told me that idea i would of told them to get a life rather than trying to make a sim of one [:P]
Like i said if anyone wants to know more about the mod just ask.
The only info im not going to hand out is details on the major plot twists.
One thing i can tell you which is different about our mod is ours will be the first FPS multi only game with a story on par with some of the greatly written story games. (not as good as deus ex but maybe close to the level of max payne)
Jonathan Kerr, perhaps you will help us to ensure that our game ideas are implemented well as well as art?

Submitted by sharp77 on Sat, 19/07/03 - 1:06 AMPermalink

ok, well competition wise, i see a mod very differant to an acctual game..
It really depends on the game engine right?
example? Half-Life and Day of Defeat or CS.. now. these two games were already done a few times... war and modern tactical assault type games... and alot were already done, but you will notice the sort of community these games recieve, and im not saying DOD was as successful as say MOH, but it still had a fairly large audience and managed to get it self retail because of this...

Thats exactly the point here, you will always have competetion, and the competetion will have better points about their game against yours, and sometimes your game is just so bloody nice to play, people get hooked because of the large community, smooth gameplay and the lesser proffessional development...
speaking about that, the palyers like to have input on a game if they like it, and if they try to write in to a large game company, you will notice they get no reply? But they write into a MOD team and acctually recieve feedback, and are able to have a say in the next version...

It makes the players feel asif they have part in what may happen next version and they can enjoy the game knowing they have that privellage....

I will be allowing this when the mod gets it version 1.0 complete because i love feekback from people and i want people to tell me what should be done..

the concept is acctually in doc form at the moment, and other things being thought over are staying in my head for now.

Some things it will incorporate:
*4 races.
*2 teams.
*set number of 31 weapons in version 1.0 (planning to expand more on concept designed futuristic 'pulse' weapons in later version) these including weapons starting from the 1st world war upto present.
*realistic map design (we go out into public areas, take photos of a familiar area. take it back to the mappers and let them map it, and turn it into a war ravaged area) planned to be a release of 7-8 maps in first version. These being two from canberra, 3 from sydney, 1 from melbourne, and 1 or 2 generic maps to suit some multiplayer missions we have planned.

In a week ill post the full doc here, the storyline is still being writen... but its estimate to be about 60 pages.

keep up with the feedback :)

cya

Submitted by Daemin on Sat, 19/07/03 - 1:26 AMPermalink

It doesn't really matter if you do an idea that someone else has done before, as long as you can do it better than they did. Because people will forget the things that are the same if they think your game is better, otherwise they will just say its a lame ripoff (notice how there never is a good ripoff?).

Submitted by JonathanKerr on Sat, 19/07/03 - 1:44 AMPermalink

quote: Look at the sims, if someone told me that idea i would of told them to get a life rather than trying to make a sim of one [:P]

Apparently the Sims started as an architectural game until they added people to the mix and realised it was more fun to mess about with people than buildings.

quote: One thing i can tell you which is different about our mod is ours will be the first FPS multi only game with a story on par with some of the greatly written story games. (not as good as deus ex but maybe close to the level of max payne)

Some people didn't like Max Payne's story. I probably shouldn't say this but the anonymity of the internet protects me [:D], but 'plot' shouldn't be listed as a USP. Once people know the twist, the effect is lessened. One question, if you want to tell a great story, why not just write a book? You'd make more money that way (although, I'm not saying that you are motivated for that reason).

However, if your story is up to what you claim it will be, then I'll be the first to ask for a giant sized piece of humble pie. Despite my negative sounding post (i'm just offering food for thought), I do wish you guys good luck. It sounds like an ambitious undertaking but I hope you can pull it off.

One question: With 31 weapons, will they all be available in deathmatch mode (assuming there is a DM mode). How are you going to balance 31 weapons against each other? Will you do it Halo style? How do you prevent earlier weapons from being rendered useless when a player picks up a better weapon? Will there be any incentive to keep earlier weapons? How will a 1920's handgun stand up to a 2030's handgun?

Submitted by sharp77 on Sat, 19/07/03 - 4:38 AMPermalink

differance being... a pulse pistol is more effective towards a player wearing aa sort of 'powered' armor rather than a conventional hand gun... the game will take all these things into consideration when we alpha test the first non-public release... we will see the pitfalls and change these to accomidate.. the gameplay wont be some every man for him self death match at all... its a game where you have to start from default kit and you need to advance through the city to push back the enemy pushing forward and to capture points.. when these are done, you are given barter points which are used when you enter a barter stand.... you can buy weapons, armor, ammo and health...
therefore, if someone kitted with say a level 3 metal armor, and a kw97 pulse rifle, you will recieve 3/4 the acctual cost of these if you choose to barter them, or barter your default weapons, and just pick up his weapons... but problems faced with this are, the armor may be faulty and damaged if you didnt kill him properly... and the waepon may be low on ammo....
just some aspects of the game... but tell me how this can improove or if its a good idea

caio

Submitted by JonathanKerr on Sat, 19/07/03 - 10:17 AMPermalink

quote:Originally posted by sharp77

differance being... a pulse pistol is more effective towards a player wearing aa sort of 'powered' armor rather than a conventional hand gun... the game will take all these things into consideration when we alpha test the first non-public release... we will see the pitfalls and change these to accomidate.. the gameplay wont be some every man for him self death match at all... its a game where you have to start from default kit and you need to advance through the city to push back the enemy pushing forward and to capture points.. when these are done, you are given barter points which are used when you enter a barter stand.... you can buy weapons, armor, ammo and health...
therefore, if someone kitted with say a level 3 metal armor, and a kw97 pulse rifle, you will recieve 3/4 the acctual cost of these if you choose to barter them, or barter your default weapons, and just pick up his weapons... but problems faced with this are, the armor may be faulty and damaged if you didnt kill him properly... and the waepon may be low on ammo....
just some aspects of the game... but tell me how this can improove or if its a good idea

caio

What I gather from that is that there are 2 types of armour? Each is weaker to it's opposite? What I'd like to know is how much can a person carry? Can they carry all 31 types of weapon? Will all 31 types of weapons be available in each map?

Does everyone start with a default kit, or are default kits unique to each race/team? What even is a default kit?

quote:therefore, if someone kitted with say a level 3 metal armor, and a kw97 pulse rifle, you will recieve 3/4 the acctual cost of these if you choose to barter them

So each item/armour/gun has a points 'value'? When you kill someone with these items, you get 3/4 of that value added to your (monetary) score? BTW - I thought barter meant to haggle or to swap?

How do you 'push back'? Is a map divided into territories? When a team loses, do they 'go back a square' until they are back at the start? If so, that's quite a unique take on things.

Submitted by sharp77 on Sat, 19/07/03 - 10:26 AMPermalink

thats stuff you'll have to wait and see about.. there are of course many types of armors, and each race of player which you choose has its own, and each armor has its own attributes...

no they CANNOT carry 31 weapons. They can carry a melee weapon, a pistol, either a rifle or an auto rifle, and 2 misc items...

Default kit being, low class armor, pistol and melee weapon.

each item has a certain dollar ammount attached to it, because hardware does cost money.
You sell it back to a barter, which then allows you to buy higher tech weaponry or armor. Barter can either be you trade or sell for money..

push back... would stop the attack of the enemy be better? or how about we just leave what ever they are doing to the 'players' of the game.. they need to capture points in some maps... other require them to protect a convoy which is passing through a town, others require you to clear out the enemy bunker position..

what ever the case be, wait and see what comes out. thats it

Submitted by Maitrek on Sun, 20/07/03 - 9:39 AMPermalink

Just clearing some stuff up - sorry to take this thread back a few posts.... maybe I'll add something useful on at the end :)

Alot of what Meatex/sharp said is pretty eaily answered in my original post.
Example

sharp77 :

quote:Of course you mentioned that maybe there was 1 game that had the same concept as this, but there you are totally wrong, maybe that game had something to do with a nuclear explosion and fallout... but that doesnt mean its the same? does it?
our mod is more or less world wide rahter than one specific area, invloves a more rather interesting storyline...

you can sit here and cricise the game because there was another game taht uses a nuclear explosion in its story line.. and call it the same idea... or you can please just try and give some positive feedback rather than the negative....

Maitrek:

quote:I hope you are actually referring to the "concept" and not the conceptual setting.

Setting is part of a game, for sure, but that above statement means I hope that when *you* say "this concept has never been done before" that you aren't referring to the setting, but that you are referring to the entireity of the game concept (not just a part of).

And I hate double posting, but I covered the whole originality problem in my post.

Maitrek:

quote:Sure it might hurt the ego of "coming up with the idea first" but gosh darnit, it's bloody good research! Every idea I've ever had - I've looked up - and it's been done before - but that's good!
a) It validates the idea
b) You can see the pitfalls, pros, cons and make sure you don't make the same mistakes someone else has gone to the bother of making for you.

Now on to something useful.
Well...guess I can't think of anything :)

Good luck with the mod, just make the design solid, worry about large amounts of content and balancing later! (I'm sure Daemin can tell you what I do to DDs with more content than balance)

Submitted by Sorceror Bob on Sun, 20/07/03 - 10:01 AMPermalink

That sounds almost identical to fallout tactics...

4 races.. Humans, Super mutants, Ghouls, Deathclaws
2 teams - Brotherhood of steel and those robot guys
Weapons that include 'pulse weapons' and first world war ones.. Yup..
Map design. Fallout tactics featured this as i recall..

I think you'll need to look at the core elements of the game more.. All you have on there at the moment are cosmetics details.. With a few minor changes to the wording, you've pretty much got every team based FPS out there..

Submitted by sharp77 on Sun, 20/07/03 - 11:12 AMPermalink

acctually... fallout had roughly 6 or 7 races... it didnt just have the bos and robots, it had the reavers, rebel type scums, robots, large cockroaches lol... alot of stuff in that game, i cant remember..

the pulse waepons idea did come from that game.. because we wanted a sort of futuristic look with the game also... but fot was rpg..

map design? i dont recall fallout tactics every creating maps from already built cities and making them a post nuclear war setting... they never did that at all... their story was told as is and doesnt have any connection to our real world at all...

you probley had 1 valid point there which was the pulse rifle... the others need to be revised and asked again...

and if you read hte design doc you wouldnt be saying its the same as every other fps... so its the same as cs, dod, tfc, doom, sof2 and all them put together is it?? they are all differant in game play, but hold the same idea of point the gun and shoot...

i think you fellas should think before you post... here it is.. type, read, think, re-write, read again then post... just give me ideas... say oh.. i think this would be a great idea for you to add, to make it really differant! this would help... yea.. stuff like that would be better :)

thanks guys

Submitted by Sorceror Bob on Mon, 21/07/03 - 1:33 AMPermalink

I don't think you realise quite what I meant by core gameplay elements.. The fallout references were aimed at the originality.
At the moment, the only one that is original is the map design one. - and this succeeding depends on how good the level designer is.. I'm sure that mods like counterstrike and day of defeat have featured 'real world' locations.. But in the end.. Who will actually care if their local shopping center is part of a level.. A very small part of the demographic..

In terms of the core elements.. Lets have a look at what you have..

4 - races.. Races can be defined as characters with different abilities to each other - or classes.. TFC is a good example of this.. It had soldiers, snipers, medics, engineers. Each had different stats, and different skills that could be added to the team. So yes. 4 'races' has been done before, and simply calling them 'races' doesn't make the game different.

2 - teams. DoD - axis, allies.. TFC - red, blue.. The teams may appear different... But in terms of abilities or skills.. They are evenly balanced.. If each team had seperate abilities, such as Natural Selection for example.. I would say you're on a much better direction.. That would mean you'd need to re-think 4 races - the game would be too cluttered with 8 different kinds of characters running around.. If you change the word 'race' to 'class' - like I said before, you may be able to work something good out.

As for weapons.. 31 eh.. What, honestly, is the point of having more than 10 weapons, when most people will use maybe 3 - 4 and disregard the rest as crap.. Get a couple of cool ideas as per what races you have, then work from there. Look at natural selection, the humans get maybe 5 weapons..

In terms of original ideas, I've seen none.. If you look at the last 3 mods that made it big.. They each have their own original core elements that bring people back.

CS - The money system, objectives and round times.
DoD - Reinforcements, realism(stamina, 1 hit kills)
NS - Two completely different teams, strategy

What does your mod have? I'm not talking 'cosmetic' details, like weapons, but things that effect gameplay at its basest level.

Submitted by Maitrek on Mon, 21/07/03 - 2:21 AMPermalink

Okay, the originality of the concept is not an issue. The game will stand or fall on it's own merits, so everyone just drop trying to *prove* that it isn't original...because it completely doesn't matter. Perhaps if you've got some advice about what worked in Fallout and could translate to this title, then mention it. Otherwise don't bother posting.

Instead of bitching "Oh! Four races has been done before, muahaha" - try discussing what HAVING FOUR RACES can do to help/screw up the game dynamic.

And if you just want to sit there and tell him "Your mod has no original ideas" without offering some help/direction/suggestions then keep it to yourself.

I mean - f***ing hell, what's wrong with you guys?

Submitted by sharp77 on Mon, 21/07/03 - 3:12 AMPermalink

just saying i have 4 'classes' in mind doesnt mean each team uses these...

for eg/ we'll say this much.. 1st class, 2nd class, 3rd and 4th right?

1st and 2nd class fight on team 1. 3rd and 4th class fight together in team 2.

team 1 which will be formally named later, will comprise of humans and a Ghoul type charector which was in fallout.... a small, ratty type charector who is an excellent sniper and is able to run faster and jump higher than a human. Humans are there because they hold the medium in the game and are basically middleground for anyone who wants to play any aspect of the game..

Team 2 will have a sort of mutation alien figure... sort of the same size as a human and what not. but is skilled with the Futuristic weaponry.... also experts with the smg class weapons and has its own attributes. the other part of team 2 will be a huge bulding creature like the hulk... who is able to fire guns while standing which were normally only able to fire by humans when in fixed positions... they are slow, strong and carry extra HP's.

We are revising the spawn method... something new would be very nice.....
it has to be continous gameplay, which incorporates a nice story... some form of system taht keeps it realistic...
like in a war game, having re-inforcements para drop into the game keep its realistic...

taking bobs comment into account... this game would be closest described to NS then... 2 differant teams, strategy needed, incorporates the buy system.. (bartering), includes objectives that need doing, and realism.
if you argue the mapping method is a bad thing, why not just grow up? i couldnt care less if people in other countries dont recognise the maps, thats not my goal at all... but for the many people in canberra its basically my way of slapping a sticker on the game saying 'made in australia' alrite?

if you honestly think the game needs some more 'originality' then help me out please? tell me some ideas and ill work with them...

about the 31 weapons... there is so many weapons, because each charector basically has a set of weapons its best with... tell me a game that has that same concept also... cs, dod and ns dont use that method do they??

an example of this being... if teh 2nd class picks up the kar.. which is our basic level rifle.. sort of like the fallout hunting rifle.. it shoots with more accuracy, faster, and is able to reload faster than the human right? the 2nd class picks up a colt and fires it, and has difficulty firing full auto rather than semi auto... the human has better accuracy with the colt and is able to hold the cursor in the center for 3-4 bullet burst longer than the 2nd class...
each weapon has its own attributes to each 'class'
now do you understand why i choose to incorporate so many weapons??

there is no denying there will be some weapons taht hardly ever get used, be it default weapons or the very cheap to buy ones, but they them selves will have their strong/weak points...

thanks guys..

ben

Submitted by Kezza on Mon, 21/07/03 - 8:31 AMPermalink

err... can i comment on something?
i think 31 weapons is absurd, unless you're talking about 16 weapons all but one with two firing modes.

my experience with modding was that fewer, more functional weapons are better than millions. My class based q2 mod had only 2 weapons per class, but was perfectly adequate... i made up for it with highly varied class abilities and weapons with purposes. The weapons you're talking about sound as specific as the ones in cs, and most people use about 3 of those (a shotgun, a eagle, and a rifle of choice).

for example, an angelis (female Air class) could glide... but this restricted you're aiming because you'd need to looks at the person to hit them... for this reason their weapons were air pulse grenades and a spamming gun that sprayed weakly homing little beams that was really crap if you weren't at long range and above the ground. However fire classes had weapons that were designed specifically to weaken or scatter large groups.

also i'd rather see something other than another "origional tactical 2 team game". I've thought up a few alternatives, its not that hard to think up some good ones that avoid just blending elements from previous games.

Submitted by kalin on Mon, 21/07/03 - 8:46 AMPermalink

I would just like to say...
Yay valve!

Submitted by sharp77 on Mon, 21/07/03 - 8:57 AMPermalink

kezza... your talkin quake 2. ive never heard of your mod with flying girls or wateva you had. secondly.. thanks for your opinion but i choose to ignore it.

again with the originality whinge... how would you like me solve the problem? 4 teams? 3? or maybe 1 team where they sit around have a tea party? 2 teams is of course the original method of play.. 1 team playing the 2nd team.. 1 team versing oposition..

mate.. go and complain, to every single multiplayer first person shooter out there about this rather than post that on this topic alrite?

Submitted by Blitz on Mon, 21/07/03 - 9:15 AMPermalink

Screw originality. No one cares if your game is original if it is a piece of crap.
Don't worry about wether your game is original or not, just make it the best f*cking game the world has ever seen!!!
CYer, Blitz

Getting around Oz and to AGDC 2003

Hi!

I'm planning to attend to AGDC 2003 and do some tourism in Australia around November/December. Can you guys suggest affordable places to stay (specially in Victoria)? Also, I'll probably land at Sydney. What's the best (cheapest) way to get from there to Melbourne?

--camelo

Submitted by Jacana on Fri, 27/06/03 - 6:50 PMPermalink

hey camelo - later this year the GDC will be posting deals that they have with some of the motels in the area. Might want to look around an see. Otherwise Enterprize *spelling* was very cheap. Its on Spencer Street about 5min walk to the building. I think a lot of students stayed there.

As for cheap way to get the Syd. Honestly I would say flying. Should be about $60 US 1 way to get up there.

As forums are going to be going down soon feel free to email me if you want to discuss stuff further :)

Submitted by camelo on Sat, 28/06/03 - 8:26 AMPermalink

Message Preview
Thank you Jacana!

How cheap is your cheap? I found this link http://iufro.boku.ac.at/iufro/taskforce/tfsfm/hotels.htm. AUD $99 is a bit high for my bugdet. Hope they have discounts for game developers from 3rd world countries [;)]

I will be staying for about 30 days in Oz, so I'd better stay cheap. I think the "THE HOTEL Y" (Elizabeth Street), for $25.00 per person (4 person share) is closer to my needs.

USD $60 for the air ticket is about the same as the AUD $100 for the rail ticket. But much more convinient. I will try to arrange that with my travel agent.

Too bad Sumea is going down. Isn't there anything we can make to prevent that from happening? Is there an alternative forum we're Sumea members will be migrating to while Sumea is down?

--camelo

Submitted by Jacana on Sat, 28/06/03 - 6:34 PMPermalink

the airline that has tickets for that price is Virgin Blue. You can just order tickets through their website :)

And not sure were we are going to hang out - Sumea will be back at some stage...

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Mon, 30/06/03 - 9:45 PMPermalink

just my luck ay
i get back here only to find the site going down soon
the only forums i have been using of late is the intranet one at aie
ah well
i pretty much just use icq so if anyone wants to get in touch with me (pffft [8]) that is where i am most of the time
we could just move the forum stuff to a geocities like place if ppl are going to get severe withdrawl symptoms

Max Payne 2 pictures

Some cool pictures of Max Payne 2 at the [url="http://forums.3drealms.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=004136"]3D Realms[/url] forum. Maybe it's just me, but I thought Max Payne was a fairly average shooter. Slapped on scanned photosource, unbelievably repetitive looking levels, as well as repetitive gameplay. It was a matter of 'go to the next dreary room', 'shoot people in there', 'proceed to next room and repeat'.. The only element of surprise/annoyance was having people shoot at you as soon as you walk past the doorway. I didn't care much for the story either, but I'm sure that's just me.
The screenshots of MP2 look very nice though. Models look very detailed, and Max Payne doesn't have that overly-constipated look on his face anymore [:)]
Seriously though, these new FPS's are really leaping in bounds in terms of looks/realism, I think.

Submitted by Maitrek on Wed, 25/06/03 - 11:11 PMPermalink

Yeah I felt very similarly about Max Payne, although I thought the story was alright...it wasn't an amazing story, probably slightly more interesting than HLs though.

I would've liked more variety in the game play, and having to use bullet time less than everytime I walk past a door :)

As for the graphics in Max Payne? They were nice, and it did have some reasonably decent ballistic effects etc - I still don't get what people's problem with Max Payne's 'dirty gym socks smell' face was!

Notice how the only things to come out of the 3DRealms website are done by developers other than 3DRealm's inhouse blokes...

Having said all that - Max Payne 2 looks fairly nice, I'll add that the texture detail is worth noting down as well! I wish we'd take these ultra-realistic graphics and put them in slower/more cinematic games rather than having to run past the scenery all the time and shoot-dodge bullets. Spend too much time looking at enemies and not enough at the environment!

Submitted by Groady on Thu, 26/06/03 - 1:30 AMPermalink

The screen shots look pretty cool. I'm not too keen on why they replaced the real Max Payne (Sam Lake) with some actor. I'm also wondering what the story will be like in the next one, I mean he avenged his wife's death by killing that chick at the end of the last game. Or did he? Maybe she didn't get on the helicopter sword-fish style.

Submitted by Sorceror Bob on Fri, 27/06/03 - 12:26 AMPermalink

like i said on pcount.. Same game, new coat of paint.. :P

Submitted by Maitrek on Sat, 28/06/03 - 12:19 AMPermalink

Never underestimate a new coat of paint's ability to make a game successful.

Submitted by sho nuff on Tue, 01/07/03 - 11:17 PMPermalink

is it just me, or are the screenshots oversaturated? Either way, textures and models have improved considerably.

Submitted by Sorceror Bob on Wed, 02/07/03 - 12:24 AMPermalink

Maitrek, that and the words 'star wars' at the front of the game :P

Submitted by Maitrek on Wed, 02/07/03 - 12:31 AMPermalink

Yeah true...
My only other gripe is that max looks like an accountant, not a "hardcore" undercover cop.

Submitted by Maitrek on Wed, 02/07/03 - 11:58 PMPermalink

Haven't we been doing this for years now anyway? Games are just getting new coats of paint for at least 8 years! At least Max Payne dared to be different in terms of trying a (questionably) strong narrative, and the whole bullet-time concept. I'd gladly play the same game with a new coat of paint again as long as they worked on the difficulty adjusting crap that they did, and perhaps worked a bit harder on the script and voice acting.

You guys are so jaded :P

Submitted by souri on Thu, 03/07/03 - 11:15 PMPermalink

Don't you agree it has some remarkable resemblance to the first one though? The graffiti coloured walls, same old room/barren city dwellings, and street scenes?.. I'm getting a sense of de ja vu with some of those screenshots. It's still early days though, and I'm sure the developers won't be rehashing the same themes..
New coats of paint are good, just don't use the same colour [;)]

Submitted by Maitrek on Fri, 04/07/03 - 12:54 PMPermalink

Yeah I would have to agree a bit on that one, there's nothing about Max Payne 2 that looks any better/different to the original aside from the number of polygons they are trying to push on us.

Halo 2 E3 Trailer

[url]http://halo.bungie.net/news/stories/halo-H2E32003Video.html[/url]

Grabbed the 60MB Quicktime trailer. OOOOOoooooo... I'm kinda in love. Looks rather pretty and has some cool elements involved. I'm still yet to play the original, even though I pretty much know everyone's report of it, but am definitely looking forward to this one.

Find it amusing though that we'll probably see Halo 2 on XBox before Halo graces us on the PC. Or the Mac, where it's originally supposed to be. @:-P

Submitted by Gaffer on Mon, 23/06/03 - 9:52 PMPermalink

halo is supposedly out on the pc now

Submitted by sho nuff on Mon, 23/06/03 - 10:34 PMPermalink

i just read an article that said halo was originally intended as a realtime strategy game. It would be interesting to see how that would play. Probably not as exciting, but it makes you wonder of what might have been. hmmmmm....

Submitted by Gaffer on Tue, 24/06/03 - 4:23 AMPermalink

heh. freedom force was originally meant to be a turn based 2d strategy game with tiles, much like XCOM.

things change :)

Submitted by Brain on Tue, 24/06/03 - 9:09 AMPermalink

Quake started out as an RPG if memory serves.

Submitted by souri on Sat, 28/06/03 - 4:39 AMPermalink

I wonder if id software will eventually get around to doing their rpg.. Half the team wanted to do an rpg sort of game instead of Doom 3, and some big trouble in little id followed.

Some nice footage of thief3, I'm rather impressed.

http://www.komag.net/stuff/thief_16.mpeg

To me this looks awesome, thats all I have to say.

Submitted by Brain on Mon, 23/06/03 - 8:13 PMPermalink

*right click, Download with GetRight*

39MB?

*waits* @:-)

Submitted by Kris on Tue, 24/06/03 - 11:46 AMPermalink

Wow... looking good. Loved Thief 1 + 2, Unreal engine for #3 too so some decent editing capabilities by the looks of things.

Control Freaks (22nd June)

Hey guys. Did anyone happen to watch todays episode of Control Freaks on channel 7? I've been told that Micro Forte CEO, John DeMargheretti (spelled correctly of course) was on there briefly (footage from E3) saying that their game Citizen Zero would be for both Xbox and PC? Apparently it was on near the start.

Can anyone confirm this for me? We don't get half the Channel 7 stuff down here so I wasn't able to watch it.

Cheers! [B)]

Submitted by Meatex Salami on Mon, 30/06/03 - 9:52 PMPermalink

woh man
isn't it still in june, it won't be july till tomorrow
anyways i didn't see anything on it. I thought that show was canned ages ago.
if you meant june 22nd it wasn't on at all (at least according to the tv guides)

Submitted by Blitz on Tue, 01/07/03 - 7:53 AMPermalink

We don't get it in canberra, we get chill factor or some extreme sports show instead.
CYer, Blitz

Submitted by Sekt on Tue, 01/07/03 - 9:05 PMPermalink

Haha, whoops. Yeah I meant June 22nd...damnit. It was definately on, cause I was chatting to someone who'd just watched it.

No luck then?

Submitted by Doord on Fri, 04/07/03 - 8:03 PMPermalink

I went for an interview at MF for an artist job mid last year. The deal was from microsoft that the game would come out on X-box and could be on PC for 12 month after shipping it. Kind of the same deal as halo I think.

I seen a version on the net about this MF interview and it had the frist 10 qusetion and stuff.

Your South Park persona

yes, I'm bored..
Go to http://www.southparkstudios.com/games/create.html , make a south park character that best resembles you, and post it here. [;)]

Here's mine. [:)]
[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/simages2/1_southparksouri.gif[/img]

Submitted by Malus on Sat, 14/06/03 - 10:24 AMPermalink

Rez: Its scarey how close that resembles you man, the girls seem prettier on here though. [:)]

Submitted by rezn0r on Mon, 16/06/03 - 6:39 AMPermalink

Hehe I'm David Coens evil twin. [:D]

Scott.

AMD 32 Bit, and Activision

a few things -

is AMD still making 32 Bit processors?

i heard through rumors that they are not due, to R&D costs

and where did Activision's Epping office go? I just saw the sign next to the place i worked at for 2 years, though going to there old offices, on level 6 yilede a software develoment biz, but no Activision

PS, is Take2, Honsbey just disterbruition>

(sorry for typos, asleap)

Submitted by Maitrek on Wed, 11/06/03 - 11:55 AMPermalink

Developing 32-bit processors? Afaik, no they aren't. Manufacturing them? Yes.
MS is going to support x86-64 with their next OS (afaik) and AMD's next processor will use x86-64 and I imagine that's where there efforts are being focussed right now.
As for activision - I have no idea.

Submitted by Major Clod on Thu, 12/06/03 - 8:13 AMPermalink

The Athlon 64 will be completely backwards compatible with existing 32-bit systems, and is intended to be released in September. I'd say the current 32-bit Athlons will be slowly fazed out as the Athlon 64 comes in. Intel have no plans at present of releasing a 64-bit CPU for desktops. Whether or not this actually effects we'll have to wait and see.

Anyone tried Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory ?

I've downloaded Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory just to check out the maps and models. Unfortunately you can't check out the models unless you're playing online), but the maps look very impressive. I'm surprised as to how well the Quake 3 engine can still hold up, and the maps don't look something that comes from a Quake 3 engine.. (you know how Quake 3 mods and games have that certain Quake 3 look about them).
I didn't really get into class based online FPS's before (Team Fortress, Front Line Force, Day of Defeat etc), but after playing W:ET online for a few nights, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I get between 200 to 400 ping, and while it's definately a disadvantage during one on on fights, I can still do other things that help the team.. e.g do engineer work, medics, carpet bomb areas as a field op etc.. all of which don't require you to have a low ping to do successfully. The thing I most like about W:ET are the very cool missions (escorting tanks or train carriages, blowing up things) with every map.. Each mission requires a fair few steps to complete, and it's very much like an intense tug of war trying to get the objectives done. Makes the game much more interesting than the round-after-round mind numbing fragfests lke Counterstrike, I think. I prefer W:ET to even Battlefield:1942 because of those objectives.. (I think W:ET encourages working as a team a lot more too)..
So if you haven't tried it out already, give it a shot (even if you have a 56k modem).. you might find me on there sometimes. [;)]