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changingman
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October 5, 2004
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167 Comments. 9 pages. Viewing page 1.
Newer [  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  ] Older
9.
 
Re: NVIDIA Beta Derivers
Oct 12, 2010, 03:28
9.
Re: NVIDIA Beta Derivers Oct 12, 2010, 03:28
Oct 12, 2010, 03:28
 
jimnms wrote on Oct 11, 2010, 23:12:
The reason I checked is I got a strange error while playing a game tonight. The game dropped to the desktop and there was an info box down by the system tray that said something about the display driver failed and has recovered. After the second time I checked for a new driver.

Just to let you know, that could be a symptom of an overheating card. I had it often on an 8800 Ultra before it died. Of course, it could be anything else, too, but you might want to check.
3.
 
Re: A Vampyre Story Demo
Nov 17, 2008, 10:07
3.
Re: A Vampyre Story Demo Nov 17, 2008, 10:07
Nov 17, 2008, 10:07
 
An old man rant:
I got it downloading, and then put on an LP (Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out) figuring that side one would take me to the end of the download. Apparently 450mb comes down a lot faster than it used to, I was still listening to Strange Meadow Lark when it finished.

Anyway, maybe I did something wrong, but for me the demo lasted about 2 minutes, and involved only one puzzle. It's an old-school point-and-click adventure game with the usual combination of use/examine/talk to solve puzzles. But this demo took longer to install than it did to play, so I wouldn't bother.
8.
 
Re: Episode 2.3
Oct 14, 2008, 11:17
8.
Re: Episode 2.3 Oct 14, 2008, 11:17
Oct 14, 2008, 11:17
 
Episode 3 is sort of a mission pack, so just get the job done!

When/if you listen to the commentaries, and see just how much gets cut from the game (e.g. The Lost Coast cut from the original) because it tested poorly, as well as how much is added or changed from the input of playtesters, you realise why it must take them an awfully long time to get anything done with their way of doing things. Sure, other developers probably achieve almost as good a result in less time, but Valve is very particular about how the whole experience should come across, and it does show in the quality of their work. It's probably no coincidence either that the games usually have no showstopping bugs when they're released. Sadly, these days delivering a working product is something for which a company may be commended.

Besides, the only ones that have anything to lose by their constant delays are Valve themselves - every day that goes by until the game is on sale is a monetary loss for them. We're free to play whatever we want until Ep 3 is out.

22.
 
Re: No subject
Aug 21, 2008, 11:06
22.
Re: No subject Aug 21, 2008, 11:06
Aug 21, 2008, 11:06
 
"what are hardware manufacturer's going to do about a software problem?"

I wouldn't think the protection on the consoles is down to software alone. Any mechanism on the PC would likely involve hardware and software, but it would need Intel/AMD/nVidia to move it forward, and since you can't download a motherboard or a 9800 GTX they aren't worried about piracy.

However, piracy isn't an expected benefit of computer ownership, but rather an advertised benefit of leasing a broadband connection. Every ISP advertises something like "Download a song in under 2 seconds!". Piracy has become widely socially acceptable, much like minor drug use and going 15mph over the speed limit (though not both at once, that's still frowned upon), and therein lies the problem. No one feels bad doing it, no one is ostracized for it. It will go on for as long as that is the case, regardless of the number of legal proceedings or the efforts put into copy protection.

19.
 
Re: LOL
Aug 19, 2008, 11:33
19.
Re: LOL Aug 19, 2008, 11:33
Aug 19, 2008, 11:33
 
For that $22 million, don't you have to pay a lot of people a salary to go to work every day for 2/3 years? If 100 people were earning $40,000 per year while working on the game, in three years that's $12m. Then there's computers for them to work on, software licences for the applications they use, motion capture and actors, voice actors and the studio to record them in, countless things I couldn't even think of off the top of my head, and all of it costs something. Seems like $22m to run a company like that for the course of development really could be peanuts.

And it really shows in the end product. I wonder if they ever sprung for QA.

2.
 
No subject
Aug 19, 2008, 09:21
2.
No subject Aug 19, 2008, 09:21
Aug 19, 2008, 09:21
 
A racing game with a pro-environmental message? I'm going to have to start my drinking early to get my head around this shit.

8.
 
Re: No subject
Jul 9, 2008, 17:52
8.
Re: No subject Jul 9, 2008, 17:52
Jul 9, 2008, 17:52
 
I've played the beginning parts of Bioshock about 4 times now, and I've just reinstalled it determined to give it another go. The problem I find with the game, though, is that there's a great story in there that I really want to be immersed in, but it's obfuscated by all the annoying game stuff, like shooting splicers and hunting down quest items, which gets a bit repetitive. I become so concerned with making sure I have found every audio log and witnessed every scripted 'cutscene' event in the proper manner that the actual playing part just seems to be in the way. Whenever I play the game, I find myself wishing it was a book instead.

13.
 
Re: No subject
Jun 17, 2008, 11:19
13.
Re: No subject Jun 17, 2008, 11:19
Jun 17, 2008, 11:19
 
Maybe he had the same experience as I, in that he made a creature that he thought was 'teh shit', gave him a great name (Heffaluganet), painted him blue, purple and yellow, then checked the Maxis-made creatures and realised that even while under the influence of the most intoxicating hallucinogens man has ever created and with Dali, Picasso and Kafka all leaning in to give pointers, there's just no way anything that creative is going to be made with these hands. Seriously, if I was God and had made all of this, it seems the most interesting creatures I could have come up with would be earthworms.

21.
 
Re: No subject
Jun 14, 2008, 15:46
21.
Re: No subject Jun 14, 2008, 15:46
Jun 14, 2008, 15:46
 
"We compare GRID to a shitty game to make it look better, by comparison?"

Just one that is similar. This is a game that has slow-motion replays, deformable tyre barriers, a high-degree of damage modelling and a retry button for when you wreck your car. In other words, it's all about crashes, and is more Burnout than GTR. I love GTR2, rFactor, LFS, I've even played netKar Pro and they all offer many-hour sessions of enjoyment. This game instead is a nightly half-hour of stupid fun where no one even pretends to know what a pacejka curve is.

5.
 
Re: Australian TV Guides
May 16, 2008, 08:14
5.
Re: Australian TV Guides May 16, 2008, 08:14
May 16, 2008, 08:14
 
i always thought you were slightly educated blue

He likely is: It's a well-known idiom that is often used(see: Trial of Saddam Hussein), and while it technically does not apply to this case (presumably it's a legitimate court, just one that made a poor decision) the pun was no-doubt irresistible.

22.
 
Re: LOL
May 7, 2008, 17:20
22.
Re: LOL May 7, 2008, 17:20
May 7, 2008, 17:20
 
I once played Doom 3 with the 'killall' cheat entered, and it may have made it a much better game. I spent more time reading and listening to the PDAs than I did bothering with the repetitive gameplay, they were actually quite enjoyable and I hope they have something similar in this sequel.

10.
 
Re: Why are the Brit's getting hammered?
May 1, 2008, 17:41
10.
Re: Why are the Brit's getting hammered? May 1, 2008, 17:41
May 1, 2008, 17:41
 
In fairness to them, the excl. VAT prices are slightly lower than for the EU, and a bit above US. The big difference is in taxes. So, I guess, vote Conservative for cheaper MMOGs!

68.
 
Re: No subject
Apr 30, 2008, 11:59
68.
Re: No subject Apr 30, 2008, 11:59
Apr 30, 2008, 11:59
 
"The sims is targeted towards a casual audience that normally don't play games"

People that don't play games, don't play games. They don't play some games, or one game, they simply don't partake in the medium; they are people like my parents, who just, "don't see the point."
Now, if there are a large number of people out there that are not averse to playing games but don't often do so (all those mothers of friends that are around), it would make sense to make a game for them. They're not very likely to own a console, since as we already stated, they do not very often play games. But everyone owns a computer! So right there you've got the widest possible market for any game, and that's not by going onto consoles, even the handheld ones, that's simply by not discriminating against a huge potential market by having ridiculous system requirements, and not going for the 13-year old male mentality by throwing together aliens, special forces soldiers and guns. We can call 'The Sims' a 'casual' game if we like, but it's far more original than Crysis and far more compelling to a wider audience. So was Myst in its day, and so is the Wii now. Even GTA4 is trying to offer something to more people with the depth and breadth of gameplay on offer.
Piracy is not even worth mentioning when there's such an obvious fallacy in the design of a game that leads it to appeal to a very limited number of people, most of whom aren't on the platform they're developing for. They can go to consoles, they'll get a few more sales, but they'll lose the opportunity to have something far greater if they continue to make those types of games.

28.
 
No subject
Apr 30, 2008, 10:56
28.
No subject Apr 30, 2008, 10:56
Apr 30, 2008, 10:56
 
There's a simple answer to anyone that blames piracy for their poor sales on the PC platform.

The Sims.

The games are readily available on any torrent site, and they're not even a particularly large download (for the base game at least). The franchise has sold 100 milion copies. Crytek made a bad game for a small niche of people who had grown tired of exactly the type of game they were offering. It wasn't a wise move.

14.
 
Re: No subject
Apr 26, 2008, 03:40
14.
Re: No subject Apr 26, 2008, 03:40
Apr 26, 2008, 03:40
 
"But I'm surprised they don't just give out the complete standalone editor for free."
They probably had a look at how many people on these boards and others said they just wanted to play with the editor because the rest of the game looks dull. Well, you can, for $10. Or people might buy the editor and then the full game, in which case it's only the same deal as the Orange Box when we all bought extra copies of HL2 and HL2:EP1 (still have mine, can't even give those away). Or you can just play with the FREE demo-version editor for about 3 months and then buy the game.

7.
 
Re: Heh...
Apr 23, 2008, 11:39
7.
Re: Heh... Apr 23, 2008, 11:39
Apr 23, 2008, 11:39
 
(I would imagine that UK and Canada users have similar problems)

I'm not certain if we get the same prices in the UK as in the USA, but when I bought the Orange Box last October I was charged in USD but paying VAT (sales tax) at our 17.5% rate on top, so all told it was $52, which was around £27 - slightly cheaper than the prices one finds in the stores, but not noticeably lower, and certainly no higher.

8.
 
Re: Can't trust it
Apr 14, 2008, 13:22
8.
Re: Can't trust it Apr 14, 2008, 13:22
Apr 14, 2008, 13:22
 
I've never understood what it is they're scoring the game against. Does the game just "feel" like a 9 out of 10? Is a 9 game better than an 8? To whom is it going to be better? Would an RPG fan enjoy a 9-rated FPS more than an 8-rated RPG, since 9 is more than 8? Or are we to compare scores with games of the same ilk? What about age? On Metacritic, the original Half-Life and Bioshock have the same score, 96. Are they really equally good? Is there really any way in which we can compare the two?

All I'm saying is, you don't have to grade the game. They're made with certain intentions, which are often easily conveyed to anyone. If a game lives up to those then explain how, and if it doesn't then explain why it comes up short, but the number just invites comparison among games that are incommensurable.

2.
 
Re: No subject
Apr 12, 2008, 13:26
2.
Re: No subject Apr 12, 2008, 13:26
Apr 12, 2008, 13:26
 
I'd rather go the Lewis Black route, and have my own personal ball-washer. Scrubbing and rinsing, scrubbing and rinsing, scrubbing and rinsing.

(As an aside, google 'personal ball washer'. God bless the free market)

19.
 
Re: No subject
Apr 10, 2008, 16:51
19.
Re: No subject Apr 10, 2008, 16:51
Apr 10, 2008, 16:51
 
"start ticketing freeway accident gawkers"
Those people need to have their licence revoked, with no exceptions. If you're driving past the scene of an accident and are too caught up in the chance of catching a glimpse of someone else's suffering that you create a dangerous situation for everyone else driving behind you, you shouldn't be allowed to ever drive a car because you clearly don't have the attention span required, and are liable to lose control at the sight of something as distracting as an oddly-shaped cloud.
Biggest problem I've witnessed driving here in Britain are the cyclists (of the pedal variety). They willfully stray out onto the roads without knowledge of the rules and then wonder why the big bad cars keep getting in their way. They should at least learn that an indicator light means THE CAR IS GOING TO TURN! I'm getting tired of cleaning cyclist blood out of my alloys.

11.
 
Re: No subject
Apr 3, 2008, 15:23
11.
Re: No subject Apr 3, 2008, 15:23
Apr 3, 2008, 15:23
 
"Where's the X?"
Dude, it's Xtreme! Take it to the maX! Pull off stylish high-G maneuvers to earn HAWX pointz and pimp-out your Eurofighter Type-R with chrome rims or sponsor decals brought to you by our In-Game Advertising affiliates. Drift race at Mach 3 online with your friends to show you ROX!

Ah bollocks, I think I just gave them a plan for the sequel.

167 Comments. 9 pages. Viewing page 1.
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