Forum posts

AM! Andy Morris! Uhm... I mean Anomalous Materials!

Fallout 4 really did have the issue of "go here and shoot the things" compared to the number of times combat could be avoided in New Vegas.

I really hope they revert their RPG changes and keep the combat improvements. At least Todd Howard admitted to BGS screwing the pooch with the dialogue system. Hopefully we won't see that particular issue again.

Also, they're going to need to do a lot more work on their RNG elements if I'm ever going to enjoy legendary enemies/loot and radiant quests.

I didn't even know Valkyria Chronicles was a series. I just know Yahtzee reviewed one of them...

New Vegas is still my number one Fallout game. The originals are brilliantly written but damn are they clunky and awkward to play these days.

I'll still play Fallout 4, but I will continue to the prefer older games and Skyrim.

Ethics that are Questionable.

Ah yes, I forgot about Cyberpunk 2077. Word is we're getting a trailer and some more details from CDPR at E3. Hopefully a release date? Maybe??

I thought this thread already existed, but I guess not.

What games are you most looking forward to? Are there any titles on the way that you're grabbing on release day? Any hints of something possibly showing at E3? Grabbed an early access game that's really going places?

This is the place to talk about it.

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Stuff that's definitely coming

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
This Obsidian Entertainment title drops in just under three weeks. I didn't back the campaign, but I've been watching the developer updates on their channel. Pillars of Eternity is one of those games that I adore, but really need to be in the mood to play. Having said that, I am definitely grabbing this at some point.

Monster Hunter World (PC)
This has no official release date yet, but I imagine it's going to be a lot of fun. My getting it depends on the number of friends who are also interested.

Speculation and Rumours

Bethesda Softworks is holding their own press conference at E3 again this year. Last year's show was a bit of a flop, only running for a total of 40 minutes. A lot of their fans, myself included, believe that they were building up to a big reveal that was cancelled at the last minute. Pete Hines looked really uncomfortable on stage compared to his presentation prior to Fallout 4's reveal. Personally, I hope it's Starfield, a title trademarked by Zenimax way back in 2013 and potentially one of the two new IPs they have mentioned. This could mean that the game has been in pre-production since Skyrim release in 2011 and when into full production in 2015/16 following Fallout 4's release.

Also, Pete Hines has stated that the run up to E3 is their "Hell on Earth" time of the year. If that's not a hint of a DOOM(2016) sequel reveal then I'm a fairy princess. (I shall change my TWHL sub-title to "Fairy Princess" for the rest of the year if I'm wrong about this.)

Then back to Obsidian Entertainment again. They are also working on something publicly known only as Project:Indiana. It's being lead by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, two of the guys being the original Fallout games and New Vegas, my favourite game of all time. Pretty excited to see what they are working on with a much larger budget than the Pillars of Eternity games. I'm hoping on an open world, first person RPG, but there is literally no information about this at all, other than the potential name, The Outer Worlds, a 2018 trademark revealed by yours truly

I also fired up Fallout 4 again. There's an ongoing debate with Archie about it being a better game than Skyrim. Personally, I disagree. Skyrim lets me play as a number of different characters with differing play styles. The passive thief, the deadly assassin, the honourable warrior, etc. Fallout 4 you play as the Soul Survivor and you shoot people with guns... That's pretty much it.

Playing through it on Survival difficulty, with some mods to get rid of the terrible sleep-to-save bollocks. It's challenging, but so far isn't really changing my mind.

I love Fallout, but Fallout 4 does not deliver. It's still a great game, but probably my least favourite release from Bethesda Game Studios.

I think I'll go for the large [m]Surface Tension[/m] with cheese.

Not heard of an env_fade crashing the game before. Going to need a little more information. What settings have you got on the entity at the moment?

Infect Mushroom - Spitfire (monstercat exclusive release)

Came on during random play while I was working today. I'd heard it before, but I got to listen to the whole thing with no interruptions today. Bought it immediately afterwards.

Unforseen Consequences is cool and all, as I mentioned previously I really liked the eerie tone it had. However, my vote goes to [m]We've Got Hostiles![/m]

The second half of Office Complex teases the arrival of the soldiers. Now I personally had seen the reviews and trailers prior to Half-Life's release, but for the uninitiated, seeing the grunts open fire on scientists was probably a Hell of a twist. I know it caught my dad off guard back in '98.

I still didn't know what to expect at first. I thought maybe the grunts were there to save you at first, then turned on you later. Either way, this chapter is an absolute blast, with multiple ways to approach some of the combat areas. The vent crawling right at the end is a bit of a let down, but lets you catch some of the conversations between the grunts.

I always wondered how barney managed to get onto that platform.

It's these guys that I feel for...Also, what kind of asshole lights a room like that??

Half-Life is definitely a game you're not supposed to look too closely at sometimes.

Can honestly say I've never had a single crash in Skyrim Special Edition. It actually runs better than the original steam release for me.

Trams > Crabs

Apprehension is a pretty cool chapter, but I really dislike the opening with the flooded silo. It just doesn't strike me as an interesting section and as such my opinion of the rest of the chapter suffers. Introduction of the assassins at the end nearly makes up for it.

[m]Questionable Ethics[/m] is just so much cooler. It's probably my favourite chapter in terms of the design. Plus it gets bonus points because it means you're done with Residue Processing.

Also...

"heh heh.... I see it"

Not to be that guy, but I believe that it's "Nice hit"

I almost feel bad for Power Up being pitted against Surface Tension this early in the tournament.

One point or another, Brazil has to have their first world cup match.

"Well, I'll let you out but I'm warning you, it's Hell out there. It's completely under military control. You'll have to sneak and fight your way from one end to the other."

You just cannot beat in [m]Surface Tension[/m] in my opinion.

This is where Half-Life hits its peak, pitting you against everything the HECU have to throw at you. Also, it's simply massive. Think about some of Half-Life's greatest moments and you'd be surprised how many occur in this chapter.

Blowing an apache out of the sky on the dam?
Surface Tension

Ducking in and out of trenches while a squad of grunts and a tank try to blow you into a fine paste?
Surfy Tensey

Popping out of a pipe onto a cliff edge overlooking the New Mexico desert?
The big ST!

Taking out snipers while navigating a minefield?
That God damned tensile surface!

Ordnance storage facility filled with tripmines?
Holy crap though. It's Surface FUCKING Tension

Mowing down vorts warping in with a .50 cal machine gun?
Hnnnngfff!!

Calling in an airstrike to blow open a path to the Lambda Bunker and explode a freaking gargantua!?
FFFFUUUUUUUU-

Ahem... yeah, it's a'ight.

Looks a little bit too retro for me this one. I like the build and original Doom engines but that's probably as far back as I would go.

I was going to say Residue Processing simply because it's not Xen, but in all honestly, RP kinda sucks. It's the most nonsensical section of the supposed Earth based facility and the whole conveyor belt section is a tedious chore.

[m]Interloper[/m] did have a little bit more to it than platforming and featured the alien factory with the working vortigaunts and stuff. OK, so it's not great by any means, but Residue Processing needs to piss off forever.

Anomalous Materials for me. I love walking around and pestering the scientists, listening to the announcement system and blowing up casseroles. This is again, something that I loved to replicate in Hammer back in the day. Just making a place that seems busy and active.

Lambda Core represents a lull in the gameplay for me. We get the Gluon Gun, or in my case, we ignore the gluon gun for being dull and bad. The grunts are gone and have taken the interesting combat with them. The chapter relies too heavily on teleporting and platforming over green goo. The sense of place takes a complete nose dive, almost the exact opposite of what is established in AM.

Lambda Core gives me a real Sunday evening kind of feel. The fun part is over and you've gotta do these really awkward jobs that you've been putting off, before ultimately winding down so you can get up for Xen in the morning... urgh.

I like both chapters equally so this is a tough one to call. On the one hand, On A Rail has some great battles between the grunts and the vortigaunts. It's also probably the most labyrinthine chapter in the game with a whole load of areas to find if you leave the train. I got totally lost the first time I played it so I hated it for a while.

[m]Blast Pit[/m] was the first thing I ever saw relating to Half-Life, waaay back in 1998, about a year before I even got the game. It blew my mind and the scale of the tentacle when it reaches in and grabs the scientist scared the crap out of me. The one thing that let's the chapter down is the backtracking. Getting back up to the control room is tense the first couple of times, but now it's just a slog.

Incidentally, On A Rail was the second thing I ever saw relating to Half-Life, moments later.

"[m]Forget About Freeman![/m] We are cutting our losses and pulling out! Anyone left down there now is on his own. Repeat, if you weren't already, you are now!"

I prefer this chapter purely for the story elements. The military is on the back foot, completely helpless against the Xen forces, the Black Ops and of course, Freeman himself. They're willing to leave men behind just so they can get the Hell out of Black Mesa as soon as possible.

Having said that, it's actually one of my least favourite chapters, but thankfully also one of the shortest. The battles between the military and the alien forces in the repair bay is pretty cool, but the only real part that stands out.

But it's not a boss fight against a giant levitating fetus, so it wins.

I don't have anything negative to say about Office Complex really. I quite like that the chapter revolves around bypassing the locked doors. When you're done and you backtrack, you realise that it has taken a lot of effort to essentially get from one end of a corridor to the other.

However, [m]Unforeseen Consequences[/m] is obviously one of my earliest memories of Half-Life. Backtracking though areas that were previously brightly lit and full of staff going about their business. It freaked me out when I was younger, and it goes to show how diverse the gameplay is throughout the campaign.

It does a wonderful job of teaching you how the game world works, should you have skipped the Hazard Course for whatever reason. It's something I have considered making a video about a couple of times.

After the steaming poo that was Fallout 4, I've found myself drawn back to Skyrim. I'm currently playing through it with two characters.

Urb'ii is my Khajiit thief. He cares not for the Empire or the Stormcloaks and simply doesn't have time for politics. He spends his days stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. OK, that's bullshit. He steals from literally everyone and murders any witnesses. He's just... the absolute worst cat.Then there's Katarina who is all about Skyrim. She is a Nord warrior who firmly believes that the Empire needs to go, assaulting any of their patrols single handed and without a second thought. On the other hand, she's very handy with a forge and tends to craft all of her armour and weapons herself. Given her rebellious nature, she conceals her face most of the time, except when she is out of her armour in the cities.

Salutations!

Tell me. Are you a Goldsource or Source mapper/modder?

Xen was always a little heavy on the platforming for my tastes. The Xen maps in Blue-Shift were a much better experience in my opinion.

[m]Inbound[/m] sets the mood, has incredible music, and does an excellent job of defining the setting. Even without the text prompts on screen, you can see that Black Mesa is enormous and old, the sheer scale of the areas you pass through, the alternate tram lines in the distance, the blend of old industrial areas and new labs. I love it. It was once my favorite kind of thing to replicate in Hammer.

I really like the Hazard Course in that it is made to look like an older part of the complex that has been re-purposed.

[m]Questionable Ethics[/m] has the edge though. Some really cool moments where you get to see the grunts fighting the alien grunts, houndeyes and bullsquids. You also get to trash a bunch of stuff and the whole map eventually loops back on itself. Surprising it was never made into a deathmatch map.

The first time I played Half-Life I killed the Gargantua with grenades. Then the rest of the chapter I thought the facility was collapsing and figured I was nearing the end of the game.

I was pleasantly surprised a when I realised otherwise.

So yeah, I was just as dumb then as I am now. Go figure.

I actually really enjoyed the different scenes in ENDGAME... but [m]POWER UP[/m] had gameplay.

Lovely stuff

null will be invisible in game by default, but any texture would work

Let's get some good old invasion of privacy going again. What are your absolute favourites for each of the below.

I mean your absolute all time favourite. If you were told you could only experience each of these options one last time, what would you chose. If a field doesn't apply to you, just ignore it.

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Food & Drink
Snack: Flamin' Hot Doritos with hot salsa dip
Meal: My wife's homemade lasagne
Hot beverage: White coffee, two sugars
Cold beverage: Ice cold Coca-Cola
Alcoholic beverage: Hmmm, probably keep it simple and say Peroni

Entertainment
Movie: Jurassic Park
TV show: Red Dwarf
Youtube channel: Game Grumps
Videogame: Fallout New Vegas (Half-Life 1 is a VERY close second)
Book: Not much of a reader, but lets say Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw
Band/Artist: At the moment, I would say Christopher Larkin
Track: City of Tears - Christopher Larkin

General
Colour: Blue
Season: Summer
Animal (domestic): Cat
Animal (wild): Sealion (sea doggo)
Hobby: Gaming (duh)
Physical activity: Swimming
Day out: Family trip to the Zoo
Foreign country/culture: Japan

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Aaand I'm stumped for further ideas. Add anything else you can think of and I will update mine later.

Well then... it might work.

Does Spirit work on linux?

...or in the case of a func_door_rotating which would inflict damage when blocked "nevergonnaturnaroundandhurtyou"

Urba, you should try using light_shadow of VHLT for those doors so the light does not bleed or arrange the lighting so that it doesnt happen! tongue -

I usually do... I must have missed those ones.

I did some stuff.

That's funky looking. Lots of grey in the textures, but I assume you will be adding some varied lighting and such to jazz things up?

Victor, that's so beautiful. What does it look like with filtered textures on rather than off?

Blurry

Those bullets are far too close to the brushwork. Can't tell with the corpse from this angle.

I might be biased because I've been using Photoshop since college, but it is a much nicer and more intuitive program than Gimp in my experience.

Yup, put it with your compile tools.

That's some serious dedication.

This is exactly why I don't use models for large items in maps. Just small details and debris :rly:

Why on Earth would you need to use a .pak file?

ION MAIDEN pre-ordered and the preview campaign is downloaded. Really psyched to get home and play it. Kids are going to bed at 6pm tonight, regardless of how tired or hungry they claim to be.

They can dream about food.

Update: Oh yeah... It's gooood.

ION MAIDEN...3D Realms published title made using the build engine from Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood! I AM FULLY ERECT!!

I should do a TWHL squad run on ironman mode at some point...

FULLY I said, Jessie! FULLY!

Include the following in the line for the point entity

studio("models/filename.mdl")

So for example, Barney's line would be as follows:

@PointClass base(Monster,TalkMonster, Sequence) size(-16 -16 0, 16 16 72) studio("models/barney.mdl") = monster_barney : "Barney" []

You can also use this to represent entites with sprites:

@PointClass base(Targetname, Angles, ZHLT_point) iconsprite("sprites/lightbulb.spr") = light_environment : "Environment"

I believe it also depends on your version of Hammer, but you should really be using Sledge or JACK in this day and age.