SiN

yeah, i do. i thought his clean-shaved face with long, straight hair looked pretty cool. he does look pretty goofy now. and yes, romero was really over-rated. every1 at id software says that now ... hell, every1 says that now. but its been a while since id have had a visionary designer ... i think tom hall was a good one, but other than that, i cant remember any id software guys being great designers .... ... which is a pity really, because despite the fact that i love their games (and cant wait until i get my new laptop to play doom3 on) i cant help but feel that id software should be pushing the boundarys a little more. SiN

shareware died because development studios could no longer work independantly. unfortunatly, 90% of developers NEED publishers for their money. most developers would be far more independent & creative with their work if they could self-fund their projects. interestingly enough the kings of shareware, id software, actually fund all their games independently. technically, they could still do shareware if they wanted to, but the retail channels are far more effective than the internet. can't u notice the big difference between id and other developers ... i mean, i always have this massive grin on my face when i read something like this in the news : when [insert name of high-up activision exec] was asked about the status of doom 3 he said, "we have no idea whats going on ... id software have stated it'll be done when its done. so we're just going to wait until they tell us its done before we say anything about it." THAT is independence! SiN

excellent. im getting a laptop powered by a p4-2.8ghz, 512mb ddr ram & a geforce fx 5200 go ... i suppose that should be fine then. its really difficult finding the perfect laptop isnt it? im so used to building pcs to my specifications, that i got REALLY picky when it came to getting a laptop. well, the thing is gonna arrive via air mail in a week or so ... cant wait to play doom3 on it! SiN

while i am a massive gta fan (bought & loved every game), and i think GTA:SA is shaping up to be pretty good, i just cant stand the rubbish eating/exercising "rpg" elements they've decided to throw in. ive always thought that gta was fun as a pick-up-and-play game, this sorta spoils it ... ... and call me cynical, but it sounds like rockstar have simply run out of ideas but since the demand for gta games is so high, they've had to do something. i wish they would add more to the real game : ie, the crime bit. how fat or thin my character is, isnt all that big a deal. however, being the big gta fan that i am, im prolly gonna buy the game anyway. i just hope this rpg garbage doesnt get in the way of the game in a big way. SiN

well, which video card to u have on ur laptop? SiN

ah yeah, let me try that again : hey cool, so doom3 works on the Mobility/Go line of video cards. Cool! SiN

hey cool, so doom3 works on laptops then. i just bought a laptop for university, i wanna play doom3 on it too, but im not positive as to whether its gonna work well. whats specs does ur laptop have? SiN

uhh, dunno whether some1s already posted this, but gamespot interviews tim here ... http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/08/06/news_6104297.html not much specifically about the game, but more on tims view on the industry/games ... very interesting (and obviously its funny) read. SiN

actually, the dual sticks work really well with me ... the first time i used em was with halo, i was terrible at first, but all i had to do was invert the y-axis on the look stick and i was fine with it. i picked up in less than a night. but im getting it on pc, because im a pc gamer. the only game i want on the xbox is psychonauts. the only game i want on the gamecube is metroid prime. other than that, im not very interested in console gaming, so y bother wasting all that extra money? SiN

YES! damn, im SO happy ... i can play Psychonauts without getting a bloody xbox! i was gonna buy the game and borrow my friends xbox to play it, but this works out SO much better. although, lets be honest ... i dont see it being such a big seller on the pc. but ill be happy to be the first in line to get my copy, and im glad its coming out next year ... ive spent so much $$$ on games this year, i dont think i'd be able to pull off getting another one! SiN

so .... can we see that trailer then? SiN

yeah, ur right, the game does look very grainy ... but either way its gonna be fun, so im not complaining too much. i just wish chris sawyer would try to modernize his engine just a bit, in terms of graphics. RCT ran on 256 colour palettized display i think (u could tell from the save window) ... why not run it on 16-bit? and perhaps make the graphics bigger/more detailed? SiN

the title sounds pretty good IMO ... and episode 2 wasnt all that bad, although with all this technology, they STILL havent been able to capture the epic-ness of the old trilogies battles. i watched the old trilogy on my tv set, and was in awe when the battles came up ... episode 2 (on cinema) did no such thing to me. which is a pity. i still have some sort of hope for episode 3, but after hearing about that whole "lave battle scene" i have a feeling its not gonna be all that good ... SiN

its gonna be great ... fifty bucks on that. idsoftware have never screwed up a game, they're not gonna start now. mind u, my definition & ur definition of good are prolly very, very different. SiN

OH YEAH! i cant wait! and i live in canada too, so ill be getting it august 5th! SiN

black & white 2 has some amazing looking fur effects, but that hasnt been released yet. SiN

what exactly was so bad about Tiberian Sun? i thought it was amazing ... great missions, good story (for as far as i played anyway), great fmv's, excellent balancing, and a really cool/immersive universe. whats not to like? and if u didnt find the "Daily Execution" cutscenes hilarious, ur sick in the mind i tell u! SiN

nope, that isnt quite right. yes, the third part was the be called Tiberian Twilight. and RA was the prequel to C&C1. and RA2 was made by westwood pacific. but why EA-Pacific made RA2 is another story ... ... im not quite sure how that happend, but im pretty sure it was due to Westwood being sick of making RTS's ... they wanted to branch out a bit more. so they took a break, and let Westwood Pacific make RA2 (one of the ceo's i forget which one, choose the team as well). RA2 was a good game, not quite as good as RA1 IMO. so anyway, Westwood proceed to make a bunch of flops : C&C Renegade and Earth & Beyond. this is while Westwood Pacific (now EA Pacific) are making hits, RA2 and C&C:Generals. Westwood are all ready to finally get down to making Tiberian Twilight (not EAP), using the Generals engine ... except EA isnt interested anymore ... infact they arnt interested in Westwood at all. EA-Pacific, they thought, does a fine job of making C&C games, so screw westwood. EA, those bastards, shut down Westwood and give the C&C rights to EA-Pacific. EAP are a fine development studio ... generals was a good rts, but it was a terrible C&C game ... it took everything i loved about C&C, and tossed it out the window (my main gripe is the warcraft-esque interface, which i cant stand) and its such a pity too ... ive read old interviews with one of the ceo's of westwood (Brett something-or-the-other) saying that C&C wouldnt be a trilogy, it would go as far as 4-6 parts ... im really gonna miss the old "Tiberian x" branch in the C&C universe. SiN

Command & Conquer : Tiberian Sun just as cool as the tiberian dawn one, it had the same "technology" feel to it, along with some excellent newspaper articles (even that had a hi-tech feel to it) telling us about the new units for the GDI & NOD. of course, when EA Pacific took over, the installs went right back to being the normal InstallSheild crap. damn, i miss westwood SiN

so im not snubs, but im a massive bullfrog fan, so i'll answer this one. what happend to bullfrog? two words and u should understand : electronic arts. dont geddit? okay, EA buy out bullfrog. this grounds all their insane ideas, and they churn out sequels (populous, dungeon keeper) ... good sequels, but nothing original. eventually, all the visionarys at bullfrog, got sick & tired of this EA shit they had to put up with and left. it started with molyneux himself, and many followed after. where are they now, u ask? peter molyneux went on to form lionhead, which have been creating a bunch of very "bullfrog-esq" games. of course, after 4 years in the making, they released Black & White (BEST. GAME. EVER.) and they're still working hard on some very unique games (Rag doll kung fu fighting, anyone?) a bunch of other guys formed Mucky Foot, which first created the excellent Startopia (a theme game fully realized, classic stuff) and then a bunch of action games ... they're out of business now. another bunch created Lost Toys, which created a bunch of console games, and are also out of business. so there u go then. lionhead are the only development studio left standing. they carry the spirit of bullfrog excellently though. im looking forward to filling my bookshelf with lionhead boxes ... if only they finished making those damn games sooner SiN

well, i kno for a fact that Peter Molyneux programmed the villager AI on black & white 1. turned out pretty good, but apparently he was the buggiest coder on the team . when he wanted to do a bit of coding for b&w2, the team didnt let him! but for the most part, i doubt the designers do much programming, at best, they work on one section (like the villager AI example above) but the days one coder being able to code a whole (or even multiple) parts of a commercial game are near-gone. i suppose its better that way though, since a single coder cant create the vision of these amazing designers. even then, u need to drop it into code to see how the game flows ... even with adventure games, u wont know how well the game flows until u get play testers (or u) test it out. while some puzzles may look great on paper, it may actually turn out being rather tedious ... yeah, design docs really shouldnt be that extensive, unless its a really advanced game, or u start scethcing out levels and stuff in it too. i usually have a 1-2 page design doc, outlining the main goals of the game. hell, one earlier (but really fun) games i made just started when i told my friend "we should make a game with cars" ... that was the only time i worked somebody else on a game, so we just improvised EVERYTHING ... turned out being LOTS of fun to play. i hate u ... sorry to off-topic a bit, but how might an enthusiastic game coder like me, be able to get to the GDC, and how much will it cost me? the problem i see with middleware is how same-ish games will begin to look (and more importantly) feel. i love the way each game feels unique now ... the handling Halo's warthog, im sure feels very different than UT2k4's equivilent. i would hate to see all the games feel over-similar ... i prefer seeing unique technologies grow. although, obviously not at the price of gameplay SiN

Good point. while i use c++ now, prior to this i used to use DarkBasic, same deal as torque, a pre-built engine. but even with that, the coder creates his own engine over the pre-existing, although not to the extent that u need to in the industry. i mean, even things like custom map formats, loaders, ai and scripts deserves to be called a "mini-engine". and those need to be created along-side with the gameplay coding. u cant plan everything and know how much fun its going to be, unless you are God. again, no matter how well planned out they are, theres no guarentee they r gonna be fun ... perhaps with mini-games its easier, but its not a sure-fire thing. a good example is Republic : The Revolution. an excellent idea on paper, but in execution it turned out being rather uninteresting. any good examples? ive read my fair share of designer diaries, they all say that either A) we wrote out an extensive design doc. many things stayed the same, but many things change we wrote out an extensive design doc. many things stayed the same, but there were some changes C) we wrote out a basic design doc, and improvised the rest and moreover, most developers will tell u that their final products turned out being very different from their original concepts, and it was for the better. @Jayel: out of curiousity, why'd u stop coding games? SiN

since idle thumbs is a kick-ass site, i finally decided to register ... hi guys! right then, im a game programmer, not professional or anything, but i do this stuff for fun at home. heres my take on the issue. bad, bad idea. see, despite what people think, u CANT have an excellent game on paper. everything needs to be prototyped. everything. there have been many occasions where ive thought "hey, thats a really cool idea", but once i coded a prototype, it turned out being the most terrible game ever! so what usually happens is that an engine and the gameplay are worked on at the same time. engines are designed to be extendable, so whenever new features are needed, the engine programmers simply expand on the base engine. what jake said about features ... ... is spot-on. although my friends have had the pleasure of seeing some of my half-baked messes in action. when ur presenting something to ur friends its different, u can laugh about the hilarious bugs and missing features (and terrible "programmer art" textures, but thats another story) with them. when u present to the press (which i naturally havent done) everything has to look classy, which is why great, but unfinished features are usually left out. hope that helps. SiN