Huz

Carmageddon - Splat Pack demo. It was one of the first PC demos I ever played, but it was also GREAT. Unlimited time, as far as I remember, and a single car on a single medieval level - but what a level! The fun of Carmageddon for me was all in playing around with the physics and smashing up the opposition in new and amusing ways, so one car and one level was all I needed. When I got a full Carmageddon game (Carmageddon 2, actually), I didn't enjoy it as much. Best demo ever! Closely followed, if it counts, by the shareware Quake. Attempting speedruns through the first episode, watching speedrun demos (as far as the end of the first episode...), playing online (as long as I stuck to maps in the first episode...) - great mileage. I only bought the full game because shareware Quake didn't work properly with my 3dfx card.

Oh man, a million windows full of "The web site you are trying to access has exceeded its allocated data transfer". I'll definitely look at the pics when GeoCities makes them available again though!

Everyone shut up.

OK, it seems they have ceased taking the piss. Get your vitriol here, allegedly. Come on, quickly! Speed my download, tools of Bittorrent!

Mohh. They are taking the piss now.

Despite the promise of a PC version, I don't think you even can enjoy a platformer on the PC (just like you can't enjoy a FPS on a console - yes, Halo, I'm calling you overrated) - so I have purchased an Xbox in preparation for the forthcoming awesomeness. Small objects are falling into its gravitational well.

So true! They did the same for Episode 3, except that time they actually gave the name of the Bittorrent site you had to crawl around in. Too bad I can't remember what it was. :~ Oh, except this time they really do mean it's not available for download yet, apparently. Hmmm.

Trudat. I might as well make things ridiculous by adding that I now have four of my own invites to give away. See what you've done, Kingz!

Hey, silly adventure game parallels aside, Farbror has hit it on the head - will there be any benefit to having a 3D weather map? My initial reaction is no - it just seems like a bit of a gimmick. But then, I suppose that's part of the argument against 3D adventure games too, so never mind. Oh, and going south-to-north won't be a problem - they'll spend 10 minutes talking about what it's like in the south and then skip over the weather in the north, just like they do now...

Hoho - the GTA1 demo had a similar time limit. The sad thing was, I actually got to the stage where I could complete the first level in under this time... I still got thrown out of the game though!

Well, it's definitely worth believing, if only for the pleasing mental image of said middle manager thinking "oh man" as he realised that George himself wasn't happy. :~

I've had "Sins of the Father" stuck in my head for the second day running. >:

Man, I hope this game has music from the Scarface movie. That would be totally awesome and also unique.

What makes you so sure? Did you see how much they were charging for Condition Zero via Steam? OK so it's $10 cheaper than on Amazon now, but it (amazingly) used to be $10 more. Madness. Given Valve's apparent ineptitude (Steam still doesn't really work too well for me), I'd much rather pay for a 'hard copy' that Valve can't screw up (at least, hopefully not very easily), even if I do end up waiting a bit longer/paying slightly more. And I think a $10 price difference is still too low, considering how much less you're paying for with Steam. :~

Haha, Steam. :~ (Not meaning to be rude, but that's the most honest answer I can come up with. ) PS. Oh man, I thought the default vBulletin :-P smiley was bad. Nice favicon though.

Prrrropaganda! ;D I have the soundtrack right here, it's great. And I only have to listen to the 'end boss' music to feel all tense and frustrated, but that's another story... ¬ ¬

Hee, I thought I was the only one sad enough to think that was the effect Rockstar were going for. :~ As a fan of old BBC 'drama', I luvs the comet tails. :~

The fog, the fog! It looks like it's rolling in from the ocean. And not leaving. Oh man, it still looks great.

I hope they have some sensible mechanism to help you out if you smash your car up along the way, like possibly a "hang yourself" button. Ever lose your car in the middle of the airport in GTA3? Weep. Speaking of losing your car, I hate the thing where GTA3/Vice City 'forgets' about cars and things behind you. Most annoying feature ever. I hope they sort that shit out, at least for the PC version where lots of memory should at least give it some kind of hint of what to plonk down there when you re-enter an area. However, this rolling countryside stuff does in fact look excellent.

Man, now I have no valid excuse for buying an Xbox. Curse you Majesto, curse you.

I see the banner ads are offering you a Merak Mail Server as an alternative. Hah!

Oh ho - I preferred the intro on the floppy disk version of BASS - helicopter, crash, Foster running! Escapes! Hooray! Intro sequences that somehow incorporate some action with credits and the name of the game are great - the intro sequences to Monkey Island 2 and Full Throttle spring, effortlessly, to mind. It really lets you ease into the game without having to worry too much about paying attention to the beginning of some complex storyline. What's really evil is the trend for having a logo flash up for every single component of the game - 'Renderware!' 'Plays best on your el cheapo Geforce FX5200!' 'Paul's Awesome MIDI Library!', etc etc. Nothing discourages me from loading up a game for a "quick blast" more.

Not having a Gamecube isn't much of an angsty blog topic. You need more problems before you have a blog, or perhaps just lots of small ones to blow out of all proportion.

Hee, I had this on the Sinclair QL. It wasn't called Joust, but in fact, something else. Great fun though.

There are plenty that make an effort, but very few worth shouting about! Red Alert 2 (for Windows, obviously) shouts at you and generally annoys you with endless "top secret sssssh, enter your serial number government codes here!" messages. The Windows installation itself tells you at length about how much you're going to enjoy battling your way through endless 'helpful' WinXP features, trying to figure out how to turn them all off. Flight Unlimited 2 had some pretty pictures of planes, along with various air-traffic control voices, to get you in the mood... But who really cares?! You're going to see these sequences about three times, max. What you really need, if the game insists on having excruciatingly long load times, is something entertaining during those (that preferably doesn't slow the loading itself down). Skidmarks 2 on the Amiga is pretty much the only game I can remember offering this - it allowed you to play Pong (either by yourself, controlling both paddles, or with a friend) while things were churning their way out of its many, many floppy disks. The same sort of idea would be ideal nowadays - I'm sure a quick black-and-white game of Pong couldn't possibly make UT2004 take any longer to load (is there a longer time than eternity? Oh, ho ho).