One big white screen. I got nothing here.

Want to see all the five endings? Well, that's easy because you make the choice of which ending to get at the very end of the game.

Guess you hated DX1 too then. It was the same deal there.

Rather than launch into another potential war over DX versus teh world, I'll just say I have finished 3 of the 5 endings (though the secret one I have a save game which I can do right away). Enjoyed the game immensely and am working on a quick second run to play with the other side of the biomods I didn't before. Unified ammo annoyed me, so I hacked the ini to make it so that every ammo clip filled me completely. Unified ammo stopped annoying me after that.

There's things I wish they had done differently, sure ... but that's been true of every Warren Spector/Ion Storm game ever made.

...the mag rail's secondary to work correctly? I thought shooting through walls + seeing through walls would be killer, but I swear it never hurt a thing.

Anything can be creepy if it's done right. Toy balls, monkeys, clowns, sticks, mirrors, doors - not exactly the creepiest things in the world, but they lead the list of things in movies that have creeped me out the most.

On the other hand, when you put cartoon ballons on top of things - they become decidedly uncreepy.

...this is the game to make me think I would want to be in the national guard in 2010?

Last I heard it was $10. I think either manual cover or 2003 CD's qualify as proof.

Bones don't mail well.

Rebates do. Epic is offering one.

I think Mechanoids was the only Palladium game I didn't have...

Wow. Cynical much? Look, I won the gametype cat for the first phase in the MSUC, which is one of the lowest for cash prizes in the entire contest.

No offense, but where are you coming from "and the "value" ascribed to it for the purposes of the contest, was $350,000, which is about $100,000 more than I have seen the engines going for in the recent past--for cash buyers, that is. "

What, you scan ebay for game licenses? Gimme a break. The "value" is what it would cost a studio to buy it. Sounds pretty straight forward to me.

First of all, nearly all the prizes are cash, some are supplemented with computers, and the grand prize is a license which the owner is free to do with what they will - so most of your scenario is a bit bunk.

Second, most mod authors are glad to get *anything* for their work, even if it's just a nod from pros. Heck, my best prize so far - a mention in an official Atari PR statement. That's probably not going to happen for me again.

Third, I don't see anyone else ponying up this kind of stable to try to reward mod authors. Is Epic getting a lot of press for it? nVidia? Heck yah, and they deserve it! I'd rather have a company sponsoring a contest to engage mods into development rather than just picking and choosing a choice few to become "official" titles. This isn't the "Price is Right", it's a company trying to stimulate development with their engine.

I feel your pain Wowbagger - my box died completely last weekend. I get to do nothing but listen about this demo until probably around Sat.

Anyone know the latin for god hates me?

That's not entirely fair. Console games have managed to set standards as well. Goldeneye kicked FPS concepts up a notch. Zelda 64 pretty much defined "emergent gameplay", and GTA3 basically suckah punched it. There's not a -ton- of innovation on consoles, but it is far from non-existent.

And true, there is no real mod community for modern consoles.

Yet.

It will probably make more money in the long run as buzz gets people to rent it at least. I just started it last night and really like it, though I found some combat sequences more annoying and frustrating then others ... but then again maybe 1AM and beer isn't the best benchmark...

I rather like that actually, good mod team name.

I don't think Gabe Newell is the guy who writes their press releases...

I bet you're right, but he should beat the guy who quotes him like that with a large roll of newspaper.

Damn, where did anyone get the idea that "mods" needed to be capitalized? It's dumb. Unless the Source Engine is really good for the Ministry of Defense, it's mod not MOD. You don't capitalize words just because they are the short version, thought I guess GABE Newell does.

UT2003 has some Co-Op in the form of Invasion, there's a similar mod called UETF which won 2nd place for gametype in the MSUC Phase 1, and I'm working on a new mod that you can get a bit of info here: http://forums.beyondunreal.com/showthread.php?t=120589

Plus there are mutators which will force humans on one team and bots and another. Perhaps limited for DM, but UT2004 is bringing back Assault...

As for graphics, DX effects isn't the end all and be all of 3D engine code. Regardless, you'll think what you will of UT2003 vs UberEngineXXX or whatever. I'm just glad that Epic is using UT2004 as a chance to go back and optimize the code. Most "optimizations" are simply patches to fix flaws, whereas here they are making a real effort to squeeze performance - something you almost never see. I'll take that over DX9 super-pixel quad shaders or whatever anyday.

This comment was edited on Jan 30, 11:30.

I think you mistook my original post as some response to yours, it wasn't. It was to whoever did the "Epic is a liar because they promised vehicles, and then they promised to put it into patches, and then the bonus pack" rant.

so this maybe something put to more use by mod makers than by DE at least in the UT2 release timeframe.

Which is precisely what they delivered.

In both of those quotes it's clear they weren't sure vehicles would make it in and that's before they had even decided on the name, so even saying your expectations were dashed is a bit of a stretch and someone ranting about broken promises is just in neverland.

And saying they promised to put it in a patch, or a bonus pack - is complete and utter BS that was made up for someone's rant.

I'm not missing it. UT2003 was also originally going to have player stats/abilities, powerup stations, more sophisticated squad control, and a more in depth single player. You can quote whatever you like, I've probably already read them.

I just know the difference between what I see in previews and what a company promises will be in the game. They never promised vehicles, they were working on them during previews and they didn't make it in. It happens. It's development. They never said they would patch it in or make it bonus pack. Maybe they said it might get added later, but that's not a promise - now is it? If you take everything you read in previews as a promise you really should avoid them - because they are full of lies and broken hearts for you.

What Epic actually said, when they were actually releasing the game, is that the vehicle code would be there and they hoped modders would do something with it.