Game Of The Year Candidates

On Sun, 27 Aug 2006 21:50:35 GMT, Rob
<noemailformethx.DeleteThis@jsjsaiiowppw.com> wrote:

>After reading Spalls's post asking what people had been playing in
>August I was reminded of how quickly this year is passing by. That in
>turn set me thinking about the best games of this year so far.

It was going to be Oblivion, until I played Prey, but thinking back,
Oblivion deserves it more. But then the Just Cause demo came out, and
if the full game lives up to the potential shown by the demo, I may
have a new candidate. There seem to be a few big games coming out of
nowhere at the moment, and I wouldn't like to nominate a GOTY until
the year actually ends.
--
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On Sun, 27 Aug 2006 23:03:16 GMT, Rob
<noemailformethx DeleteThis @jsjsaiiowppw.com> wrote:

>I was going to try the demo of this, despite not finding 3rd person
>view too endearing. I was completely put off by the screen shots. I
>have never considered myself a "graphics junkie" but some games just
>turn me off because of the way they look.

Screenshots never do a game justice. The Just Cause demo looks damn
good on my PC, and absolutely spectacular in places on my 360.
--
Andrew, contact via http://interpleb.googlepages.com
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On Mon, 28 Aug 2006 23:23:38 +0100, Andrew <spamtrap.TakeThisOut@127.0.0.1> wrote:

>Screenshots never do a game justice. The Just Cause demo looks damn
>good on my PC, and absolutely spectacular in places on my 360.


Fair comment. I'm downloading the demo from 3D Gamers right now. I'm
pretty sure I won't like it, but then again I might be pleasantly
surprised I suppose.

I do often wonder though why developers don't let a player choose
between first and third person views. A few do and I think it's a
great idea. I seem to remember Eep (he of Trespasser worship infamy)
making a mod that allowed at least some of the original Max Payne to
be played in first person. It can't be too much work or too expensive,
surely?

--
Rob

On Mon, 28 Aug 2006 19:28:03 -0400, "HockeyTownUSA"
<cyberpilot DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote:


>I'm personally waiting for Armed Assault, Battlefield 2142, and Crysis. I
>hope they please, otherwise I'll be displeased.


There's been quite a bit of talk about BF2142 on the Planetside
forums. Primarily because quite a lot of the new elements of the game
appear to have been borrowed from the core Planetside gameplay.

Some of the PS players have been in on the Beta and most of them don't
like it too much.

I am also awaiting Crysis with a lot of enthusiasm. I really enjoyed
Far Cry, apart from the latter levels which were the worst of the
bunch in my opinion. It was a beautiful game that had a very fresh
feel about it, even though it utilised pretty standard FPS gameplay.

--
Rob

Rob wrote:

> Condemned is a fine game. Definitely the surprise of 2006 for me. It
> is also an excellent example of a game that is available in more than
> one format, yet still manages to look and feel like a natural PC
> game. I believe that Condemned was the 4th best selling XBOX 360 game
> at some point.

Although I don't have inside information I bet you Condemned
is not a port, but Monolith started doing the game on the PC
and MS asked them to make it a "only on" launch titles for
their new console so they made it a multi-platform title,
coding simultaneously for the PC and consoles at the end of
development but releasing only the console first and saying
it was a console title.
3 months passed and probably by contract with MS they could
now release the PC version, so they did but even so with
very little advertisement, probably also by contract with MS.

If Condemned had proper advertisement it would sell big on
the PC and would be loved by many and talked by many.
Again a example of consoles damaging the PC, so I hope
next time when I complain about others promoting consoles
in this group you are a little more understanding.

Rob <noemailformethx RemoveThis @jsjsaiiowppw.com> writes:

> On Mon, 28 Aug 2006 19:28:03 -0400, "HockeyTownUSA"
> <cyberpilot RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>I'm personally waiting for Armed Assault, Battlefield 2142, and Crysis. I
>>hope they please, otherwise I'll be displeased.
>
>
> There's been quite a bit of talk about BF2142 on the Planetside
> forums. Primarily because quite a lot of the new elements of the game
> appear to have been borrowed from the core Planetside gameplay.
>
> Some of the PS players have been in on the Beta and most of them don't
> like it too much.
>
> I am also awaiting Crysis with a lot of enthusiasm. I really enjoyed
> Far Cry, apart from the latter levels which were the worst of the
> bunch in my opinion. It was a beautiful game that had a very fresh
> feel about it, even though it utilised pretty standard FPS gameplay.

Shh! hear that? I think I heard the foliage move. Yes, its i.own.a.yacht
and he's wearing a big fat boy red shirt and hes flying through the
undergrowth now because he knows exactly where we are even though he
cant see us. Run!!!! But not to that boat or chopper because they will
vanish in a minute ... I know, lets run into the water and wait for
everyone to follow us in an drown. Brr, its chilly.

On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 02:08:15 +0200, Walter Mitty <mitticus.RemoveThis@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Shh! hear that? I think I heard the foliage move. Yes, its i.own.a.yacht
>and he's wearing a big fat boy red shirt and hes flying through the
>undergrowth now because he knows exactly where we are even though he
>cant see us.

That was a fault with the AI in Far Cry wasn't it? I remember that
sometimes the AI knew where you were, even if you were behind rocks or
inside a hut or other building. A bit naff I guess.

>Run!!!! But not to that boat or chopper because they will
>vanish in a minute ... I know, lets run into the water and wait for
>everyone to follow us in an drown. Brr, its chilly.

I remember one level in Far Cry (towards the end I think) where I
could clearly hear a helicopter but I never did see it nor work out
what it was supposed to be doing in the level. I searched and searched
for thing, never did find it. The sound would get louder and louder as
I got near it, but I just couldn't find it.

I did like the game on the whole though. The hang gliding was quite a
neat idea and the vehicles were just about right too. I still haven't
seen an implementation of a vehicle in a FPS to match the Warthog in
Halo though.

Half-Life 2 had the most fun vehicles overall though for me. The
aerofoil or whatever it was brilliant, so was the little buggy with
the chain gun.

--
Rob

pc games wrote:
> If Condemned had proper advertisement it would sell big on
> the PC and would be loved by many and talked by many.

Not necessarily. The game is VERY disturbing. Some people just don't
like feeling that way when playing games. This is why some people liked
Duke Nukem 3D over Quake, even though Quake had far superior graphics
and gameplay. Quake was just downright disturbing in certain segments,
and for certain types of gamers that's a huge turn-off.

Condemned makes you feel dirty just playing it, it's such a vile and
horrible setting and atmosphere, it kind of sinks in while you're
playing it.

> Again a example of consoles damaging the PC

Nope, I'd have never even considered this game without the hype of it's
360 good press. Best thing that could have happened to it was the
publicity from being a 360 launch title.

Knight37

>>After reading Spalls's post asking what people had been playing in
>>August I was reminded of how quickly this year is passing by. That in
>>turn set me thinking about the best games of this year so far.
>
> It was going to be Oblivion, until I played Prey, but thinking back,
> Oblivion deserves it more. But then the Just Cause demo came out, and
> if the full game lives up to the potential shown by the demo, I may
> have a new candidate. There seem to be a few big games coming out of
> nowhere at the moment, and I wouldn't like to nominate a GOTY until
> the year actually ends.

Prey was top of my want list and now it's bottom of my GOTY years. It was
awful. Worse than Halo or Doom 3 even.

Quake 4 was pretty decent but so far, PRO EVO 5 is my pick followed by
F.E.A.R. Still plenty of time to get a clear winner tho.

Oblivion. LOL. Is that one of those "how to pick up sailors" games ?

Rob <noemailformethx RemoveThis @jsjsaiiowppw.com> once tried to test me with:

> I do often wonder though why developers don't let a player choose
> between first and third person views. A few do and I think it's a
> great idea. I seem to remember Eep (he of Trespasser worship infamy)
> making a mod that allowed at least some of the original Max Payne to
> be played in first person. It can't be too much work or too expensive,
> surely?
>

If you've already developed the game to run 3rd person then adding a first
person mode isn't that much trouble, tacking on a 3rd person mode is
actually not that easy, unless you want to have shitty unrealistic
animations. Third person games DEMAND a lot of attention to detail to the
avatar's animations, because you're watching it the whole time. Oblivion
and MOrrowind were both criticized because their 3rd person animations
aren't all that great (and it lets you switch either way).

--

Knight37 - http://knightgames.blogspot.com

Once a Gamer, Always a Gamer.