New computer, new danger

[Poo Bear]

I finished Quake4 last week. It's so cheap I'd recommend it to fans of the fps genre who like the H.R.Giger(esque) creepy artwork. Funnily enough, it felt like playing a good casual game There isn't really any thought required, but that doesn't mean it's awful, just that you get into "the zone" and it's quite relaxing to just blast through. Even playing on "normal" I never ran out of ammo and 99% of the game was very easy and straightforward. I had trouble with one boss who was very tricky, but I think that was an unintentional mistake on Id's part or maybe I just didn't get it .

Apart from the low-level fun of blasting through the levels I got a lot of "wow" moments just marvelling at the modelling and all the effort that went into the art. Sadly only about 5% of the game felt genuinely creepy, but it was all worth seeing (if you like this kind of horror Giger art work).

I did get lost a few times, not enough to really say it was a problem, but it was annoying.

Everything looked good once you accept the faked lighting and excessive darkness and it ran perfectly with no slow down with all graphics settings on maximum. Fairly infrequent loading too. Very impressive.


Half Life 2 next

[Poo Bear]

So, Halflife2 then . . .

It seems leagues beyond Quake4, I think I'm about half way through and I'm very impressed. Technically it is much more advanced than Q4, the lighting is far more realistic and it still runs fine on my cheap-*** computer with everything on! Having been to East Germany (the old soviet controlled bit) I was amazed by the level design in this game. It is a totally believable rendering of run down decaying European architecture.

It also has a far more interesting selection of weapons than Q4 i.e. the gravity gun, bug bait, the lowly crow bar and the cross bow. Thankfully the developers have set the amount of ammo and health just right, unlike Q4 this is no easy walk through, but it isn't ever annoying either. Just blasting away (as in Q4) is no good, head shots are very important as is correct weapons selection. If you're in tight corridors, being sniped from miles away, facing a crowd or dealing with combine soldiers versus head crab zombies it all requires thought on weapon selection. Excellent.

It's also the first time I've seen a game so grounded in good physics. Almost everything can be moved, stacked or broken. This leads to probably the game's most famous weapon - the gravity gun. If you run out of ammo just rip the radiators out of the wall and toss them at the enemy - fantastic.

I think the crowning achievement must be the story. Not because it's original or contains interesting characters or is really that well developed. Compared to almost any film or novel it's still very basic. However, I've never played a fps with such a believable world, maybe system shock. Only in a few rpg's have I been so engaged. In terms of scripting compelling moments in-game I think this is the best example of any game I've seen. The fact everything is told in game too, very impressive. In terms of game story telling I think HL2 is in my top 5 games. Valve are certainly moving games and story telling in the right direction.

Hopefully the ending will keep up the pace and then I can get episode 1 too

[icarus]

Yes Ep1 is good. I am waiting for Ep2 to come out with portal and TF2

[Weeble]

[Poo Bear]

Yes, a couple of times i've died and thought - I bet the autosave has left me in a bad position and I'll need to go back and load a save of my own. Yet, that never happened. In Q4 I got into the habit of hitting the quick save button once every 3-4 minutes. I started out in HL2 doing the same thing, but the auto save system is so well done I haven't been quick saving for quite a while now.

I love the combine machine gun, very powerful at short range. It could have broken the game by becoming the only weapon you need, yet it carries hardly any ammo, your own ammo dumps never stock ammo for it and it's only useful at short range. At first I thought it might be crippled and therefore pointless, but the combine soldiers often carry the weapon and therefore a single clip of ammo.

You can usually see a tight spot full of combine soldiers coming so I take that as the signal to get my combine machine gun and waste everyone safe in the knowledge I'll get some ammo back.

Works perfectly. It means I can have a very satisfying powerful weapon, but it doesn't unballance the whole game and the way that level of control has been applied is perfectly believable i.e. it's an alien weapon so I must steal the ammo.

[Rup]

I thought Q4 did ammo OK - you've always got some but you don't always have the best ammo for a given situation or enemy. (But then I never really figured out the big guy with the shield.)

HL2 is very good and EP1 is better, particuarly the storytelling, if a bit short. I could forgive that if the next one came along quicker However IMO Q4 had better set pieces: there's a few times you're assaulting entrenched Strogg Elite that are fun challenges.

As well as quicksave just before death: maybe I'm making this up, but I think there's other games that play on for a second or so as you save. So when you reload the enemies are closer or have come around the corner spotted you and opened fire - so you've manually created a broken save. Doom 3 did this, I think, and (going way back) the Ultima Underworlds. But sometimes that's fun - you've got a nasty situation to dig yourself out of, you can't put a foot wrong and you've got as many goes as you need.

[Konedima]

Right now I can't really recommend HL2 as I'm ****** off at Valve for not being able to take advantage of this deal. I'm technically right, but so far it's been a few days since I lodged my support request (which is better than Nintendo, who promised to get back to me more than 6 months ago with no contact since).

I did get C&C3 though, and it rocks (though it's more of a rusher's game, and compared to me a turtle is a racing car).

[Poo Bear]

I've just finished HalfLife2 - definitely goes in my top 10 list. Short and sweet too, I hardly ever finish games these days

I wondered if it might get a bit tired towards the end, but no. If anything the pace quickened quite nicely. One thing htat made me smile - near the end they take all your weapons away! I've seen this done in games time and tiem again, normally because they are worried you are tooled up and they need to enforce a specfic weapons selection on the player so that the next section of the game works. It's something that really irritates me.

When HL2 did it I was just about to start ranting and raving when I realised they'd done it because they wanted me to have the uber-weapon. Anger immediately switched to happiness as I ran around like a one man tank annihilating everything in sight. Great fun

HL2:episode1 is downloading as I write this...

I was very impressed with Steam, it's more sophisticated than i thought and reminds me of XboxLive i.e. friends lists, news, seamless easy buy process, background downloading that can auto-restart a download, video trailers, free demos, nice metacritic built in rating system, don't need the CD in the drive. Very good.

I just gave the free HL2:Lost Coast demo a try. WOW! I thought HL2 looked good, but this is amazing AND it works on my cheapass computer - eek! For those who don't know, it's a free mini-game showing off valve's engine improvements which focus on improved lighting (high dynamic range) using more sophisticated DX9 shaders.

[SethP]

[Poo Bear]

I've been immensely impressed with Steam, i've been jealous of the XboxLive users for a while and this seems to offer a similarly feature rich an slick service. I wasn't impressed by WindowsLive i.e. you need vista and a $50 a year subscription to access all features - no thanks.

Downloads on steam were super fast and I was shocked that the trailer videos were actually watchable, normally I can't get any streaming video to work properly.

I notice Sony are apparently creating a steam of their own too - yes they do make PC stuff . Currently you can get a "station pass" to access mmorpgs and multiplayer PC games and it is this that will be expanded on.

http://mmorpg.qj.net/SOE-s-Station-Launcher-details/pg/49/aid/92192

It's slightly depressing when you hear about all these non-standard platforms, whether it be games consoles, chat programs or download services like Steam. It'll never happen, but it would be so nice if everyone agreed on a set of open standards and then adhered to them. It would make it easier for developers and easier for consumers. Developers could actually make a living i.e. easier to get your game on multiple platforms. Consumers wouldn't be able to mistakenly buy the wrong thing i.e. HD-DVD or the PS3*.



*sorry, I'm joking, don't flame me Sales of PS3 have taken a bit of a nose dive though, bit worrying really. I don't see many exciting exclusives on the imminent horizon either? Maybe they'll cut the price at xmas to something more reasonable.

[SethP]

The "new" steam does sound pretty cool. I remember it as being a broken patch downloader that basically didn't let me play my games; if they made it rival Xbox/Windows Live (without the subscription), that's pretty hot.

[Poo Bear]

I had a look at multiplayer in Quake4 just to check if it was still as crazy as I remember it from previous Quake games. I started off with death match, oh dear. Imagine a chaotic scramble of flying corpses and deafening weapon fire. Needless to say I didn't last long.

I survived a few seconds longer in team death match. I wasn't really shooting anyone, I was just using my team mates as bullet shields. I think it can be summerised as anarchy and rude messages, but I suppose my lack of skill may have been justification for the rude messages

Having played the old Counter Strike a lot more, I booted the new version up and was immediately impressed with the new engine. Sadly, either I've gotten worse or everybody else has been practicing The extra structure to the game and the diverse weapons selection certainly makes it a more interesting experience than Q4. After about 10mins of constant head shot death, usually from behind, I decided I'd join in. I grabbed the big bolt action sniper rifle everyone seemed to be using and found a busy crossroads. I sat down in a dark corner and activated sniper mode - it restricts your view and reduces movement speed but is the only way to target anyone. I actually did quite well, sat hidden slowly scanning the corridors, plenty of head shot kills. Alas, this type of play is apparently frowned upon and I was soon receiveing some quite nasty messages and slightly comic but disturbing voice chat.

Oh well. I suppose you really need to play with a regular group to get the most out of it. I still think Wolfenstein is the absolute king of multiplayer FPS, well it was before it got ripped apart by cheating. It gives people specific roles to perform (medic, engineer, etc) and there are actual sequential goals that encourage team work even from strangers (blow up a door, guard a lorry, destroy an artillery piece, etc). Hopefully the upcoming Quake Wars will deliver the same goodness, but with a more secure game.

[icarus]

Well If you want to get into mainstream games steam is a good start. Only problem is the DRM will not let you play the games unless you are logged in online.

[Poo Bear]

That's ok, I have an always-on ADSL connection straight into a wireless network. So every computer in the house is always online.

[Weeble]

I don't think that's true. Steam require you to have been logged on at some point in the past, and certain circumstances can cause it to require you to log on before you can play again, but in general offline play is possible. I know lots of people who play Steam-based games at small to medium sized LANs that have no Internet connection. The main thing that can go wrong is that somebody hasn't logged on since the last patch, because when they turn up at the LAN there's no way to apply and activate the patch without logging in to Steam.