New FPS games...

[mistasparkle*]

This year should be pretty hot for PC FPSs games with Battlefield Vietnam, Far Cry, Halflife 2, and Doom III, to just name a few...

I just acquired both Far Cry and BF Vietnam, and spent a little time playing each. Amazing how different these two games are.

Far cry is easily the best looking PC game I've ever seen, and its the first game that actually taxes my vid card (radeon 9700) at the highest quality setting. Huge environments with lush jungles, the best looking water in any game, real-time lighting and shadows, amazing physics... and incredible AI (enemies work together in teams, hide behind obstacles when fighting instead of coming right at you, and are a real challenge). I didnt get into multiplayer with Far cry, but as a single player game it's really good despite the typical lame videogame story: secret genetic engineering project gone awry.

I fired up BF Vietnam after spending some time with far cry, and I couldn't believe the difference... Far Cry and the crytek engine simply blows away BF Vietnam. dont get me wrong, BFV is still a good looking game, but it just cant compete with far cry. As I was playing BFV I just kept thinking how much cooler of a game it would be if the jungles were as lush and good looking as the ones in far cry.... I havent spent more than 10 minutes playing BFV, so Ill hold off my final judgement on it until I really have a feel for what its like, but first impression is that its not in the same league as far cry...

[Ocean11]

I think these games are too expensive and not particularly realistic. That's why I prefer to hunt real people in my neighbourhood with a high power crossbow.

[enderzero]

I imagine BF:V is using the BF1942 engine with all the development going into gameplay. That is fine with me if the game is as good as BF1942...especially if they implemented some of the mod scene's enhancements. I was amazed by the Far Cry demo, but I have yet to evaluate it as a game. I just hope it is as fun to play (especially in multiplay) as it is technically amazing. The AI did blow me away though (literally - damn it was hard).

Any state-side monkeys got their hands on either of these new titles?

[McNevin]

Negative

[enderzero]

So what have you been playing McNevitron? GOGC? (Good Ol Game Cube)

[R3C]

... picked up UT2004. It's the most fun I've had FPS-wise in quite some time. It's what UT2003 should have been like. It's got a million game-types, a million maps, and I haven't stopped playing it yet. The vehicles kill Halo's. I wasn't going to get it, because I didn't think it would be much better than the old ones, but I was wrong. Still can't wait for HL2, D3. and Q4, but this will definitely do until they come out. It's actually the reason I haven't played Diablo 2 with everyone yet. Anyone else have a copy? I'd like to play with a human or three.

[McNevin]

Ive been playing Ninja Gaiden. Its friggin hard!

I can't get past the demon horse thingy after the graveyard.


Then I am playing my gameboy sp in my spare time. I beat the new metroid zero mission, have you played it?

I'm now back to castlevania symphony of the night on xbox, psx emu.
and Castlevania Aria of Sorrow on GBA.

Thats about all the games im working on right now, but I really would like to get ahold of Battlefield Vietnam.

[McNevin]

I got LOD all installed and I am ready to play...

[McNevin]

Dude has had enough... somehow i understand.

Planet Halflife Rant

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

that hit a little too close to home... but yeah...thinking something is going to be done by a certain date and then not reaching that date over and over again gets people pissed off...I'm still pissed off...but that's the way the games industry works...nothing is ever on time because a game is never finished...someone always wants to add this or that for as long as they can.

I don't think we ever lied about a release date though - we were just constantly and consistently dilluting ourselves in thinking that we were good enough to pull it off!

[R3C]

... Chris and his weirding way. He learned that from the (can't spell it and won't look it up sisterhood.) You should have known to cover your ears when he started speaking in that strange voice. Telling you all to stay late and that you would be rich beyond your wildest dreams.

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

that's because we were all a bunch of stupid humans... anyway it doesn't matter because I can kill him if I wish too...

[mistasparkle*]

hey l2icks0r, what were you doing in game dev, and for what co??

[McNevin]

Ok so now i Have an opinion on Farcry and BF:V

Farcry is beautyful... but the multiplayer is an afterthought.

Nam is nowhere farcry in graphical terms, but it is better than 1942.
I actually had to turn it down a notch from max, cause it was to much for my machine. As far as farcry is concerned, i have to almost put it on low to play it Farcry is very hardware intensive, but the jungle is almost photo realistic, so thats worth a hardware upgrade right?

BF:V is designed for multiplayer, not single. Its the gameplay that makes it fun not its graphics, but the graphics are better than the previous bf's

Have you played it? The hellicopter is awesome, yet hard to drive.
I really like the addition of 60's rock instead of battle march music.

So enjoying the single player emersion of farcry, and some mega team action on bf:v

Basically its comparing apples to oranges.

[enderzero]

I haven't played BF:V yet but soon. Did you buy it? Wanna do some more BF Key antics?



Keitai!

[McNevin]

Yes!

The only problem is... i dont have a clone image?

Do you? If i can get a clone cd version, i can send you a diff file to convert your .bin to a clone.

[enderzero]

What's up with UT2004? Is anyone playing this? I have heard nothing but good, if not very little. The full version is out right?

[McNevin]

Its out, but I have not got it.

Scorned by the suckyness of 2003? perhaps, or maybe its the fricken size...

I have heard its is good, but for some reason im just not interested.

[Bill Drayton Jr.]

What they are is doing over their at Id? Is Carmack too busy making rockets to want to make yet another fps? I would like to make rockets, but irregardless of that, I would like to play Doom 3. Someone should say something. Besides I'm Hungry anyway and it's a proven fact that I figuratively need to eat when I'm Hungry...otherwise my people will die.

[R3C]

... I've had UT2004 for a few weeks. I played it non-stop for a few days, then I got Far Cry and haven't played it since. BFV is definitely about multiplayer fun, but I don't think it's fair to say FarCry is only good because of its graphics. It's one of the best single player shooters I've played in sometime. The enemies are somewhat intelligent, the physics totally come into play. You can roll barrels down on people, shoot power lines to knock poles down on things. You can hide in the grass. Going prone in bushes makes your visibility meter go down. You can play stealthy like the Thief games, or you can get a bunch of high powered weapons and run right in. It allows for a ton of freedom. You can blow up just about anything too.

As far as UT2004 goes. I'd love to play with a bunch of people. It's incredibly good. The Onslaught modes are amazing. The vehicles are varied, and the weapons are nice. You can have the old UT style sniper rifle and the Electric one from UT2003. The graphics are really nice too. There are some really good assault levels in it too. The only reason I haven't been playing it, is that I don't have anyone to play it with. I'd recommend it though.

I want Doom3, but I'm wondering if it's going to make me puke. Well, I suppose it wouldn't during multiplay, but there seems to be a lot of work going into intestines looking real Luckily I've been in a desensitization process for the past couple years. (We watch CSI a lot ) I'm getting used to seeing dismemberment and such now.

I'm a little more excited for Quake IV though, but that is still a long way off it seems. The Quake universe is much more interesting to me than Doom's (for as little as that BG info actually matters.) I like the play-style in Quake better too though. A little faster paced.

[McNevin]

I mentioned emersion. That’s what makes a game good, and makes a McNevin fall off his chair when he plays quake for the first time.

Half-life had emersion, quake had emersion, and unreal had emersion, something I didn’t get by working as a galactic “Orkin Man,†killing baby spiders in unreal2.

Maybe I didn’t explain it well. I would play thru farcry for its wonderful graphics, but graphics don’t make great games. Just look at unreal2, it had great graphics, but I didn’t have any fun playing it. The single player game-play in farcry is so fun, it’s ridiculous. It feels so non-linear; you can take several paths to the finish, whatever works for you. Besides that you can either go Sam Fisher style, or chose to go Rambo.

It’s a great game, but so is Battlefield Vietnam.

[R3C]

... it's quite fun.

I don't like the intergalactic Orkin Man thing either.

I actually thought U2 was somewhat fun, but not even close to how fun the original was. Remember getting silly, and then starting up Unreal and jumping off the waterfall area into the water? I usually jerked when I hit. That was good stuff. And the feeling that you were completely alone on that crazy planet. I haven't really felt like that since.

I sold U2. I thought I'd want to do my usual collector-habit type of thing and keep it with the other ones, but it totally wasn't worth keeping. I also got rid of 2003 and the original UT. Not because UT wasn't cool. It's just that I know I'll never play it again. I will play Unreal again someday.

[R3C]

... is a pic of Far Cry running on the R420:



It was actually a joke at HardOCP

[McNevin]

Ender: What is that key for? There is a better crack that allows online play.

[McNevin]

Nice...

Maybe in a few years stuff will look like that...

[R3C]

... getting close. Some of the geometry and textures are looking exactly as they should. As soon as lighting and shadowing get a little bit better, I think it will be hard to tell the difference between synthetic scenes and say mid quality video... I'm an elipsaholic! I'm addicted to elipsahol! ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

[enderzero]

No, no no. That is a screenshot for the new Deer Hunter game.

That key is for BF1942:R2R. I took the shot (along with another one that was the other half) at EBX in RTC (this is the TLA post of all time). The whole time I was chatting with the dude working there and try to position myself so I could take a pic with my cell phone behind the rack so he wouldn't notice. Luckily american cell cameras aren't required to make a noise when they shoot unlike Japanese phones. The game was on the used shelf obviously.

I never played U2, but we had some fun with UT2003 at the very end of the monkeylab days. Those kind of games really lend themselves to same room multi play and unfortunately those days seem to be of the past (god rest their soul). Unreal the first will always live on because of its unmatched beauty in the 3D hay day (weren't we just talking about 3Dfx) but if a game like U2 doesn't have that it is just another 3D game. Never the less I have heard theat UT2004 is incredibly well designed and I am ready for some feverish frag-a-thon action.

Quake 4?? Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Unfortunately I see a 2006+ ship date for that bad boy. But D3 and HL2 should keep us happy for a while.

Immersion? I can't help but think of actually being scared sneaking around walls and finding waiting gestapo in Wolf3D.

[spidermonkey]

Immersion like when you're playing Mappy and you've just opened a door only to find yourself staring at one of those pink cats and then another one comes from behind you and you're trapped because you already opened the door so there's no slamming it on them all of which could easily cause you to fall out of your chair?

[enderzero]

Click Here

[R3C]

... nothing scarier then coming face to face with a Mewkie. Well, maybe one thing. When Boss the Big Bit jumps out from behind a safe, and knocks you out of the house. (All the while you're having a seizure as you fall to the ground below.) That's pretty scary...