Category: Games

R.I.P. CS Source

On Aug 24, 2006 11:18 pm, by NeutralX2

Well, Valve has pretty much ruined the game for me. They decided to “fix” the radar system. Apparently they don’t believe in the saying “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”. The new radar system is absolutely awful. First, it looks extremely bad and too complex. I have never seen such an awful looking radar system in any game.

But what is worse is that they changed the way the radar works. They added what they call “enemy detection”. Basically, if you see an enemy, even for a split second, it gets added to your and your teammate’s radar. After a few seconds it disappears, but this is absolutely unacceptable. It completely breaks a core mechanic of the game (stealth) and completely negates the need for communication in a lot of situations.

Say you are hiding behind a door with a silenced weapon guarding the bombsite. Some dumb player comes in and you kill him in under a second. The problem is, all of his teammates now have you on their radar for a few seconds. Assuming those are skilled players, you now have zero chance to take them out. They will probably just unload on you through the door, since they can see you on the radar. Valve has pretty much built in a wall hack. Check out this screen shot that was posted on the Steam forums:

The guy who got killed was shot by someone who was all the way over in the paper room. Something like that used to only be possible if someone was cheating. But now, because of the radar, expect to see bullshit like that happen all the time.

This makes me want to go back and start playing CS 1.6 again. This looks like a good time to take a break from Source. Hopefully this awful radar system will be fixed. If not, I might not play that game any more.

Well probably not. Chances are I will learn to deal with it and continue to play. But I seriously think this new radar was a big mistake.

Games

Xbox Live Arcade Release Schedule 2

On Aug 16, 2006 5:18 am, by NeutralX2

Now that the last release schedule has come to an end, Microsoft has announced the new titles to hit marketplace. There will be a break in the action though. This weeks release is new picture packs for Cloning Clyde. After that the games pick back up. Check them out:

August 23 – Texas Hold ‘Em
August 30 – Time Pilot
September 6 – Scramble

And what is even more interesting is that Texas Hold ‘Em will normally be available for 800 points ($10), but Microsoft has announced that it will actually be free for download for the first 48 hours. So be sure to download it quickly.

GarageGames Update 2

On Aug 15, 2006 6:19 pm, by NeutralX2

Microsoft announced plans to make entry-level development with XNA available on the PC for free, and on the Xbox 360 for a yearly fee of $99. As many of you probably know, GarageGames is involved with Microsofts new XNA Game Studio Express. They announced that they will be releasing an XNA-compliant version of its Torque game development environment, which consists of the Torque Shader Engine for 3D development and the Torque Game Builder for 2D development. The Microsoft hosted Gamefest 2006 kicked off yesterday, and with that, a few new videos from Garage Games. They both look pretty cool (but are boring due to lack of sound). One video featured two character models doing some familiar animations. The second video shows off more of the Atlas terrain engine, skiing and a new weapon model we have not seen before.

Shacknews also got an interview with GarageGames’ CEO/CTO Joshua Williams and President Mark Frohnmayer:

Shack: On that end user side of things, does GarageGames have any new games in the works, or are you guys pretty full up with work on your development tools right now?

Mark Frohnmayer: For games? We do have a couple things that we can’t talk about just yet. [laughs]

Joshua Williams: We got a couple things brewing.

Mark Frohnmayer: We’re about to release our first actual legimitate casual game that we developed in house. It just went into beta last week. We’re about to release a new set of levels for Marble Blast Ultra on Xbox 360. We did a whole new set of multiplayer maps that are actually a lot of fun. Then we have another game that’s in the early stages of development that’s going to totally rock. We will give you much more information on that as we get closer.

Shack: Anything related to Tribes? I’m sure you guys get asked that every day.

Mark Frohnmayer: It actually is in a lot of ways a gameplay homage to Tribes, but it’s a very different genre.

Joshua Williams: It’s going to be cool.

Mark Frohnmayer: It will be cool.

The full interview can be read here.

Games

Console Exclusives

On Aug 13, 2006 12:02 am, by NeutralX2

A recent blog post by an Official Playstation Magazine Editor has got me thinking about exclusive games for the next generation. Apparently she wants to go out and buy an Xbox 360. Why would an editor at OPM be publicly endorsing the Xbox 360? The answer is the $600 price tag and lack of exclusive content

It’s not that I find the concept of a $600 console insulting. Inflation happens, and it’s natural that eventually inital prices will be higher than they used to be. But when I know that a console’s direct competitors cost two-thirds or half of that price, it becomes harder for me to justify shelling out that kind of money–especially when I can probably get the Wii and the 360 combined for the cost of a PS3.

$600 might be worth it if there were several huge titles on the near horizon that were PS3-exclusive. But for the first year at least, there are very few big titles that are PS3 exclusive. GTA4 and Assassins will be available for the 360 at the same time. And most of the big guns–FFXIII, MGS4–won’t be hitting for quite some time after the launch.

– Dana Jongewaard (OPM Editor)

Console exclusives have always been an extremely important selling point for a new console. Last generation Sony had a good number of high profile exclusives (though some were only exclusive for a time) which basically sold the console. This time around, things look very different. I wanted to find out exactly how many titles were currently in development and how many exclusive titles each console has so far. Luckily, Simon Phoenix over at Technophilia already did the work for me. This appears to be fairly accurate. I believe the Wikipedia list of games was used to create the graphs.

A full list of the specific titles can be found over at Technophilia.

Games Video 1

When Politicians Talk About Games

On Aug 12, 2006 2:36 am, by NeutralX2

After doing a research project where I wrote a 20 page paper on video game violence and its effect on children, it really bugs me how people constantly misrepresent the truth of the issue. I am getting pretty tired of people claiming that the issue has been settled and that there is enough research to prove that video game violence harms children. From my research on the subject I have learned that those studies are far from conclusive. The fact of the matter is that for every study that says there is some sort of relationship, there is another that says there isn’t. Even those studies that say there is some sort of link never claim that it is a cause and effect relationship. For the most part those studies could just mean that violent children prefer violent entertainment. There are even some good studies that show violent video games could be beneficial to children. Surely these politicians must know this, but they ignore all of the evidence to the contrary. I think a main part of the problem is that it is a generational issue. The simple fact is that those in office are for the most part ignorant when it comes to video games. The whole idea of playing a video game is alien to them. They have no idea what it is like and they can’t be bothered to try it out. I am willing to bet that once that generation is out of power, the whole issue about video game violence will pretty much disappear as it has before with comic books and rock music. But until then, feel free to laugh at how absurd they are:

If you are looking for some well written information on the subject, I suggest you check out these books. I found them to be extremely useful and persuasive.