Forum posts

I think the CS:GO engine is the superior one, but it does limit you in terms of what you can do for single player.

Maybe. But if you're thinking of reskinning the icthy, then you will definitely have issues with that small tank. If Sven-Coop has taught me anything though, it will almost always be hilarious.

I wouldn't mind jumping into this.

Playing Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright on 3DS; Super Mario 3D World and New Super Mario U on Wii U; and Kerbal Space Program whenever I find a moment.

I could be wrong because I can't quite get the sense of scale in that shot, but that tank seems awfully small to house a shark...

I do love my Cintiq.

HAHA MAC DOCK LOOOOL

Oh, wait...

I've got New Super Mario Bros and New Super Luigi Bros as well, so those will be what I tackle after 3D World. Though I have to say, 3D World completely smokes them. The New Super Mario Bros series feels far too safe for me: I've played all the games in the series, and they feel like very shallow imitations of the far better work they did in the 16-bit era.

3D World (and Land) on the other hand, are brilliant. Effortless to pick up and play, but full of imagination and sheer delight. Granted, the Mario games are just too easy these days... I've cruised to World 6 with a stock pile of about 50 lives.

How I wish Nintendo had released the Wii U instead of the Wii. I hope it gets out of its current slump, like the 3DS did, because there's some massive potential for it to be completely amazing.

Currently playing Super Mario 3D World.

(Yes, I bought a Wii U)

Just out of curiosity, how many people here are still running Windows XP?

It's certainly a case of wait and see. Too many people are jumping the gun with their emotional response to Facebook. I am no fan of Facebook, but I do not think it wise to condemn Oculus before they've had a chance to do anything.

Some of those simulator games provide unintentional, hilarious gold as well.

On a more serious note, provided the simulation is good, I think it's a great opportunity to let people in on the potential joys of doing tasks that they ordinarily wouldn't get to do. Games are about escapism, after all.

I think that's the whole point of hosting the project on Github. People can help out, if they want.

Keep in mind that the deal was for $400 million in cash, and $1.6 billion in Facebook stock. The valuation of Oculus at $400 million seems about right to me. Stock is hardly a hard currency, remember.

I doubt all these crazy theories about the Rift will come to pass. More than likely, we'll get a much cheaper product that's far better built than the developers originally anticipated. More so, there won't be any mandatory Facebook login junk, because that would just be incredibly bad PR. Facebook will no doubt leverage the tech for their own rubbish, though.

The issue I have with this is that any money I want to throw at the Oculus now becomes part of Facebook's income. Facebook is a company where I want to minimise any financial expenditure on my behalf as much as possible. I don't particularly like what they stand for, nor how they conduct their business.

I think the idea (and Pebs can correct me if I'm wrong) is that Goldsource is an easier engine to establish the base set of functionality on than Source. Furthermore, at least at the moment, Goldsource is a more consistent and stable engine to develop for than Source is (I mean, look how many times Valve's own updates to Source have completely broken the SDK).

Considering Pebs is doing this by himself, reducing the variables involved in a project like this is crucial. No doubt he'll tackle the Source part of Sledge when Sledge itself is more stable, too.

Think of Goldsource as 'testing the waters'.

Jaardsi, holy shit!

Cheers for that, Archie.

Oh god, off-grid vertices. This seems to be a Hammer bug of some kind. I get the same thing. Giant pain in the ass, and seemingly impossible to fix.

You have run the games that you're trying to map for prior to loading the SDK, right?

Also, there's that Reset Game Configuration option: have you tried that?

Same thing on my second monitor.

Pebs made it, so it's disqualified from being cool.

I get the sense you enjoy being whipped out, though.

(We now return you to the regular broadcast. >_< )

I guess that's why I like you.

BOOM

I love Mirror's Edge. One of my all-time favourite games. Here's hoping they don't bugger up the sequel...

To the five other entrants to this competition, I have a little bit of a consolation prize for all of you, if you want it. I have six full games in my Steam inventory that I'm happy to give out on a 'first come, first served' basis. They are:

Portal
Audiosurf
AaAaAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
Super Meat Boy
Terraria
Natural Selection 2

Send me a PM with your Steam username and your choice of game and I'll dish 'em out.

EDIT: Two of the five participants have claimed their games.

Ah, university timetables. I'm glad to be rid of those, I can tell you that!

Ditto. Though 2DS for me.

Dual monitors. So yeah, Journey was alright.

Given my ping, I don't think I did that badly. I even got some kills!

Hey folks

Not sure how many of you care, but hey, promotion is promotion. Anyhoo, Hugh and myself have just relaunched our music blog, either/or after probably a good year of downtime. We have custom built the theme from scratch with the assistance of Penguinboy and are on far stabler hosting now.

If you like music and want to expand your tastes, then check it out! We try to post about all sorts of music and we're not (that) prejudice. Jump in, register, comment, contribute, Like us and enjoy!

Mac bashing is seriously moronic. I really don't understand why people feel they need to bash a platform they have next to little experience in or use on a daily basis.

I'm with Pebs, mostly. I trust Valve and Steam, but it isn't the 100% 'perfect' solution.

Valve's terms and conditions state that you're using a service with Steam: technically, the concept of 'purchasing a product' is somewhat hazy with regards to the platform.

I don't criticise Valve's actions here (and the posts in the linked forum are largely in agreement), but there is something to be said about Valve controlling the way our games are played.

I know Valve have stated in the past that in the event Steam goes belly up, they'd ensure that people would be allowed to play the games they own, but the lack of such a system at the moment is a little worrying. As well as that, being banned and losing access to games you paid money for just isn't on: it'd be like being banned from a bar and as a result, you can never drink alcohol ever again. Well, maybe not, but still.

I'd hate if I were banned for something silly: I have nearly 200 games on Steam that probably amounts to thousands of dollars worth of content and I don't think that Valve should have the right to throw all that down the drain. Users should be banned, but they shouldn't lose what they've bought: they should lose the extra privileges that using Steam brings with it (unified update system, friends network, multiplayer gaming, bonuses, etc).

I use GOG as well as Steam, just not as majorly because their catalogue isn't as appealing as Steam's. While they don't have the same feature set as Steam, their approach for game acquisition is very sound: you download a completely DRM-free, patched executable setup file. Install it on as many computers as you want. I'm not saying that Valve needs to do exactly this, but they really should start considering what potential negative effects Steam has, considering the kind of digital distribution juggernaut it is.

Nada Surf - Happy Kid

I agree about the Americanisation. It gets a bit grating.

Still, sweet game.

DiRT 2. This game looks AMAZING.

127 Hours. Fantastic film.

US prices are still cheaper for us, even on Steam. Our dollar is at parity with the US dollar, sometimes even eclipsing it, but we're still being gouged.

Hang on, since when is $60 a lot? We pay, on average, $20-25 for a DVD/Blu-ray, which'll generally have a couple of hours worth of content on it. A game will have, on average, at least 8 hours worth.

More so than that, legitimate customers get slapped with draconian DRM. So yeah, thanks.

You're paying for the right to use a digital product. Just because it's not a perishable is a silly comparison. So if you're using that digital product without paying for it, what exactly is that?

And who says I haven't bought them? As for Glee, they're for my girlfriend who also buys the DVDs when they come out.

Yes, I've done it myself, but I've made sure that's a dying practice for me. Problem is, a lot of people tend to think that piracy is a-ok without any thought whatsoever as to the consequences. THAT'S why I get pissed. Poor excuses are offered, particularly in relation to not paying for things because they didn't like it or weren't ever intending to buy it in the first place. It's also those who do it because they say stuff's too expensive. Lots of shit is expensive, doesn't mean you just help yourself when you can.

As I said, I'll happily admit to doing it at certain times and I probably should've stated that earlier. But I will never pirate something ever again for the hell of it. Call me guilty, I don't care, but the times I do pirate are very minimal and I'll try as best I can to do it the right way first.

I produce content for a living and I've heard too many stories from people in my industry where their hard work is done away by amoral idiots.

The game and entertainment industries do their stuff for you: ignore the publishers and distributors for the moment. The developers, directors, storytellers of the world do their stuff because they want to tell you a story. They want to dedicate their lives to ensuring the world has a rich variety of great stories and experiences. You may not like all of them, but these people all do it for you. This isn't like mapping that's just a hobby: this is their career, what they're banking their life on. It's the easiest thing ever to acknowledge that effort by paying for it. Support the industry that not only supports you, but lives and dies by your decisions.

My apologies for raging, but this stuff really gets me irritated nowadays.

Name them.

I want the GameCube version and I can't find it. Same as Thousand Year Door. As for all the other emulated games I have, I own all the original cartridges. I'll happily admit to that piracy, I'm not going to sugar coat it.

Having said that, paying exuberant prices on eBay doesn't help the industry at all.

I never said I was innocent. As well as that, what exactly did I pirate recently?

You have consumed the game, whether you can justify it 'having a purpose' or not. That Extra Credits video is right: despite the fact you 'wouldn't buy it', you still went out and played it. Just because it wasn't to your liking doesn't mean squat. You still played the product.

You pay to watch a movie at the cinema. If you didn't like it, does that mean you shouldn't pay?

As for the 'struggling student' bullshit: gaming is not a necessity in life. If you can't scrap together enough money a month for one game purchase, then you must be living in a cardboard box in the street somewhere. If you can afford the console or the high end computer to play these pirated games, are you telling me that you couldn't reduce your gaming intake a bit to one or two games a month?

If you say that you have to game, no matter what, then you have serious issues.

And my money would go to the wrong people; it'd go to producers of shitty games as well as good games.

That's entirely stupid. So you're saying that just because YOU think a game is shitty, the developers, who spent a lot of time creating a game, don't deserve any money whatsoever, even AFTER you've used their product?

Do you walk out of a restaurant without paying because you didn't like the food?

That Extra Credit video is perfect btw.

There are a fair few games I pick up cheaply later on because they're not overly desirable titles to me. Some have turned out to be awful (Far Cry 2), while others have been rather surprising (Crysis). I've got Bulletstorm and Duke Nukem Forever currently on that waiting list (I may actually buy Crysis 2 soon after release, shock horror).

As well as that, Australian gamers have it much tougher than US gamers: we pay, on average, nearly double for a new release title in comparison to the US. Having said that, Steam has been a huge asset to Aussie gamers, purely because we now have a cheaper alternative to straight up retail. Granted, some publishers needlessly jack up their prices on Steam, but there's a good solid chunk of titles being sold for cheaper prices.

Maybe I'm being overly critical because I can afford to blow stupid amounts of cash on games every month, but I don't think financial inability is an excuse to pirate, nor is pushing a Robin Hood agenda.