Marek

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Posts posted by Marek

  1. Posted

    This is very exciting news! I recently looked at SimCity 4 again (after not touching it for a few years) and briefly considered loading it up again with some new mods (though the modding system seemed pretty complicated so I backed out of that plan). I also looked at Cities XL to maybe scratch that city similation itch but decided it wasn't quite what I wanted, so it's great to hear a proper sequel is coming.

    The original SimCity was one of those first few games I got to run on my first PC. Not knowing a lot of English at that time I was really just clicking things and watching what happened rather than learning the game properly with a manual. Pretty quickly I knew how to plop some zones, though I didn't yet know how to set up any infrastructure. That was enough to spark my imagination though; I thought the game was totally amazing as this odd abstract thing, even though I was just looking at a landscape with some coloured boxes in it.

    Many days later, I accidentally connected my zones to a power station with a power line ... and ACTUAL HOUSES APPEARED. I had no idea this game was in any way capable of rendering REAL BUILDINGS in a LIVING BREATHING CITY. My jaw hit the floor. It was one of the major moments in my gaming life.

    This is not the reason I continued to enjoy SimCity, but I'll always remember that one awesome moment.

  2. Posted

    I really liked it. I didn't mind the lack of mechanics as I expected this going in, and the slow pace and lack of jump button encourages you to take in the surroundings and allows anticipation to build. It would have been terrible if you could have just bunny hopped to the next trigger point.

    Despite not having any real gameplay I think it's an experience that would only work in this form. I disagree that you can 'play it for free on YouTube'... I absolutely wouldn't have watched a video of this for 1.5 hours, but I enjoyed playing it.

    I guess this is one of those really marmitey games like Passage.

  5. Posted

    It was nice to meet you Patters. I didn't see this thread until now so I'm sorry I missed meeting anyone else! I should remember to check here next time.

    I loved the event and I think you're onto a great format Nach. Having multiple and varied activities overlapping creates a good atmosphere, and the talks were of high quality. While it was occasionally difficult to hear the speakers, it was really great to be able to sit in a lecture while also seeing a nerf gun squad running past in your periphery. I'll definitely go again if there'll be another edition.

  8. Posted

    I'm not sure which day exactly but it'll be released on Steam very soon. I wish I could say how it plays with mouse+keyboard but I've only played it with gamepad, sorry. I'm useless for information I guess. :tmeh:

  11. Posted

    I thought I'd make a thread for this as there isn't one yet.

    SEGA and Avalanche Studios (Just Cause) have announced Renegade Ops for XBLA/PSN/PC. It's a vehicular twin-stick shooter using the Just Cause 2 engine with gameplay inspired by classic games like Jackal, Cannon Fodder and Jungle Strike. Although I work at SEGA I can objectively say it'll be awesome. :)

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-03-30-just-cause-dev-announces-renegade-ops

    http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/218659/renegade-ops-announced-gamepro-has-world-exclusive/

    :tup:

  14. Posted · Edited by Marek

    Thanks for all the advice, guys.

    Building a PC from parts is stupidly easy these days, Marek. You can slap the whole thing together in an hour (and then sit and watch Windows 7 install for another hour or two). You will love it probably.

    That's reassuring, though it's not so much the actual assembling that worries me, but selecting the right components. I'm having this whole choice paralysis thing, and I don't know which components are good or which ones work together well.

    Armchair General: I should probably send you a PM.

    Edit: looks like Dino PC can offer a config that's listed as "very good" in that chart if I swap out a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1GB with a ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB on their default system. That puts it at 440 quid - well within budget.

  16. Posted

    Desktop. Budget around 500-800 quid I suppose (although I was including a 20" monitor in that budget). I could go higher but I don't really want to probably.

    What I was told a few days ago was "all the processors nowadays are uber fast anyway so that doesn't really matter - get a good video card and good memory".

  17. Posted

    I've been out of PC gaming for 5 years and am planning to get back into it.

    I have no idea anymore what kind of specs will deliver what kind of performance, but I'm eying this configuration. How well will this run high-end 3D games (like recent/upcoming shooters) at native res? Is it fair to say that pretty much anything in this sort of range will run anything well at mid to high settings?

    - Intel® Pentium® Dual Core E5500(2.80GHz,800MHz,2MB)

    - 21.5-inch Full HD WLED Widescreen Monitor

    - Nvidia ® GeForce G310 512MB graphics card

    - 4096MB Dual Channel DDR3 [4x1024] Memory

  21. Posted

    I was at a conference dinner with Mizuguchi a couple of years ago and he told me about his rough ideas for a Rez successor. At the time he thought Wii wouldn't be the right platform because he sees 'Rez 2' as being this really high def audiovisual experience, which the 360/PS3 fit more naturally.

    I don't think he hates the Wii or anything. :)

  22. Posted

    Whoa I didn't know the dialog actually acknowledges that. If it did in Flowers for a Lady I didn't notice. That's awesome.

    I did skin a deer at one point and Jack said "just like my father taught me" and in my mind I had a little flashback to teaching him how to hunt. ;(

  23. Posted

    Hahah oh man.

    I triggered the Flowers For a Lady mission very early in my game, during the first 1/3. I couldn't be bothered to pick flowers so I left it hanging. Got to the end of the game, and now I'm going back and doing some of my unfinished side missions. I got the bouquet together, went to the guy... and because I was now playing as Jack the whole scene had a different meaning to me. The story was now that years and years ago John Marsten had promised a man to bring him a bouquet, and now finally his son has decided to keep his father's word and deliver it to him at last... but so much time had passed that the woman had died in the meantime, and her husband had still just lived out all those years in denial waiting for those flowers to arrive.

    On a more serious note

    The ending was fucking amazing. What an amazing amazing ending. I love being able to continue playing as Jack and how you can interpret this in interesting ways. I also loved the song just when you ride back home to your family - the song perfectly watched the tone of the story at that point, I really choked up, and I couldn't help but rush my way to the farm. While a lot of the side missions in the game I think are kind of dorky with these Rockstar-style caricatures that aren't very interesting to me, the main story I thought was super well done.

  25. Posted

    Ah yes you may be right. Although I personally find Napoleon's campaign to be very focused whereas in Empire you might have your forces divided across the globe - grander scale but potentially more overwhelming as well (unless you play as Sweden or something).