SoccerDude28

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Posts posted by SoccerDude28

  1. Posted

    I'm playing the PC version now and again the wrong side of the tracks mission

    (where you drive by a train and Smoke shoots the eses on the train)

    had me going nuts. I think I completed it in my 10th attempt or so. Most of the other missions are easier on the PC, though. Except I miss auto aiming a bit. But not much.

    Playing the PS2 version, i focused on doing the missions, but this time I'll try to do some of the "side-quests" first. Already sprayed all tags... took me some hours with a map. I wonder how long it would have taken without one.

    I think the PC version is definitely better, but there are some graphic anomalities (flickering things, transparency problems). Maybe it's an AT problem? At least when the graphics card crashes (quite often actually, possibly my PC-s problem), ATI's drivers will reset it and the game continues after half a minute or so (with default brightness restored, but I can change it back with shortcut keys in-game).

    Yeah it's definitely a problem with either ATI or your PC. Mine hasn't crashed once, and I'm using NVIDIA. The game does say plays best on NVIDIA ;)

    As far as the auto aiming goes, you do have that in the PC version as well. If you go to configure buttons, you can choose which buttons you map it to. If you use a gamepad, it plays exactly like the PS2 version, but with much better graphics and a custom sound track. Seriously, the PS2 version sucks when you get to play the PC one. I was turned off from the moment I couldn't recognize what the hell those tiny blimps on the mini map where (and they are very very integral for not getting lost).

  3. Posted

    I thought it was rushed, actually. How would you explain the dozens of pearls you earned for very simple sidequests later on?

    You know, eventhough you mention it now, I don't even remember that. I was too engrossed in the world to remember how many pearls each place had.

    And it could be just game design like Thrik said. Not necessarily rushing.

  4. Posted

    This is a late reply, but I also loved beyond good and evil and it is one of my favorite games this gen. There are these very few games that engulf you in their world, and you wish you never leave. Beyond Good and Evil was one of them. Imaginative, best female protagonist ever, very fun gameplay, surreal, it got it all. And the game was not rushed at all. The ending was intentional because the game originally was intended to have a sequel. To me, Beyond and Evil represents everything I love about gaming.

  7. Posted

    Looks awesome, but is it just me or are the controls a bit hard to use? I wonder how it plays on xbox.

    Use a gamepad. They are only 20 dollars and the game is nice enough to detect that you have a gamepad plugged in, and map all the buttons for you.

  8. Posted

    That's more or less exactly what I said.

    As for porting engines and things, Epic seems to have managed it (though I don't know how optimised it is for the 3-core xbox, I suspect not very)

    I dunno if they have ported it as much as rewritten most of it. They have been working on it for at least a few years now. I guess I would be pissed if I spent 4 years working on a pretty darn good engine (Source) to make my games, and it can support only one game HL2 and now I have to scrap it, just because Microsoft and Sony decided to scrap everything and go with something that is so new that it isn't even popular with personal computers yet. Wouldn't you, if you had a company the size of Valve?

  10. Posted

    Well this is certainly not true. Multithreading is something that computers have been doing for years upon years now. The main difference with multicore or multiple processors is that the threads can run on seperate processors rather than sharing one between them. It's not possible through anything other than getting really deep down onto the coalface (eg assembly) to arrange what order threads will run in or when they'll finish.

    Running 2 threads on one processor is exactly as predictable as running 2 threads on 2 processors, and it's a problem that programmers have dealt with for a long time now.

    Also, you're going to learn multithreading pretty soon, I can almost guarantee it.

    The main difficulty is later on in the lifetime of these machines when people want to be very efficient about what they're doing (most of the early game aren't going to be using all the cores all the time) in which case you need to be really careful about what threads are running where and for how long.

    Gabe Newell used to program in the Microsoft Windows team, before he left and founded valve. Now Windows is an operating system so it is the most multi-threaded software application you can think of. I'm sure this guy knows how to do multi-threaded programming. But I don't think it is a matter of just writing your code as multi-threaded and voila. For once, lots of these games are performance whores, so you have to scrap a lot of the stuff you learned in college, and think different. Lots of the portions of these programs are programmed not in C++ but in assembly language for performance boosts. So Maybe "Source" will have to be scrapped for next gen, and he's pissed about that.

  11. Posted

    And I think he's exaggerating them.

    Yeah he is, but some of what he is saying is true. And I totally agree with the last part:

    "Statements about 'Oh, the PS3 is going to be twice as fast as an Xbox 360' are totally meaningless . It means nothing. It's surprising that game customers don't realize how it treats them like idiots. The assumption is that you're going to swallow that kind of system, when in fact there's no code that has been run on both of those architectures that is anything close to a realistic proxy for game performance. So to make a statement like that, I'm worried for the customers. And that we view customers as complete morons that will never catch on and that we're lying to them all the time. That's a problem because in the long run, it will have an impact on our sales."

    It's just surprising how many people buy into that crap, after the PS2 FF7 demo/lie.

  12. Posted

    Check it out Valve's boss is talking about the challenges of programming for the next gen systems.

    "Technologically, I think every game developer should be terrified of the next generation of processors. Your existing code, you can just throw it away. It's not going to be helpful in creating next generation game titles," said Newell.

  18. Posted

    I don't hate MGS as much as I hate "Stealth and Sneaking" games. I never got into Splinter Cell, and even farcry which has its fair share of sneaking turned me off. I'd rather face my enemies and blast them into oblivion. I don't mind a little bit of stealth for a short period, but when the whole game is structured around stealth, and I get caught about 6 times in a row, it just kills the experience for me.

  19. Posted

    Well to me personally, forgetting all the hype, Psychonauts IS the best game I have played this year. I have played LOTS of platformers lately, including all Sony's franchises (Ratchet and Clank, Jak, and Sly), and I even rented Tak, and Psychonauts is the most fun among the bunch. The platforming was solid, and unlike Ratchet and Clank, this game is much more varied. After Lungfishopolis, no two levels play, look or feel the same. Also Platformers DO sell judging by the sales of Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Sly. Even Tak is in his third incarnation, so obviously all these games are making money.

    As far as people not buying Psychonauts because it's not good, I don't buy that. People are not even giving it a shot, judging by 3000+ units sold on the PC. It's not like people care about quality anyway, seeing that the top seller a couple of months back was a WWF game. DOOM 3 maybe had a higher score than it deserves, but unlike Psychonauts, it was the top XBOX seller. I really don't think it's a matter of quality here.

  20. Posted

    This thread is becoming a real laugh riot.

    So, is there any model for word-of-mouth campaigns that we could start?

    Maybe some of the existing Tim/Psychonauts sites could put stuff up about urging people to spread the word.

    The problem is, I think most of us have already told game-playing friends, bought multiple copies and/or asked every store that sells any video game why they don't have it in stock. Doing more might simply be a nuisance. Any ideas?

    I tried to spread the gospel(sp?) on other forums, by informing people about the Excellent game Psychonauts, but all they talked about was:

    OMFG PS3 pwns 360, BF2 IZ TEH ROXERZ, I-I 4 I_ O 3 pwns 4I_I_

    Maybe Psychonauts is just too good for the world outside Idlethumbs.

  22. Posted

    These are USA numbers only, and unless I'm threatedned with jail for four months, I am not revealing my source. But regardless, the point is it is a great game, it got good PR and marketing, got great reviews, stands out and still doesn't sell. Why?

    Go to a Fry's or an EBGames and you will get your answer. I can't see the bloody game in any electronics or game store I go to.

    By the way, I heard that Advent Rising tanked too. Hope that will not transfer Majesco into a Ubi$oft ;(

  24. Posted

    It is a little too expensive for me (I heard it is something like 249.99 ??? ), and I really haven't seen any games for it. I don't even know all the other gimmicks it packs. Maybe if you can give us an unbiased run down of all the features it packs and all the games for it, we can have a better understanding of what we think about it. But coming here and giving us an anecdote of how the PSP and the DS are bullies, and how gizmondo is this misunderstood kid with no personal self-esteem is just going to alienate the people on these boards.