Video Game Discussion Thread

you talk about it more than you should. and when you start talking about it....you just dont stop.

Sean what level are you in mafia wars?

Cody Harris wrote:

Sean what level are you in mafia wars?

95

Methinks this thread has gone too long without the Most Winner Game Ever.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rigs_Over_The_Road_Racing

Quote :

The box of Big Rigs states that the player may "race trucks across the country trying to deliver illegal cargo, with cops chasing them." GameSpot's Alex Navarro wrote that this description of the game is nothing more than "horrible, horrible lies", since there are no police in the game. Additionally, they pointed out, the computer-controlled opponent vehicles have no AI and never move from the starting position, making even the description of the gameplay as a "race" questionable.

There are technically no obstacles for the player to negotiate in Big Rigs, as the truck may freely be driven on and off roads without any loss of traction, up or down 90° slopes with no loss or gain of speed, through structures such as buildings and trees, simply falling right through bridges, and even out of the boundaries of the map into an endless grey void. When the player's vehicle is put into reverse, its speed will increase infinitely, but the truck will halt instantly when the reverse key is released.

Though there appear to be five courses from which to choose, only four of them actually work. The fifth map, titled "Nightride", does not function, and selecting it simply quits the game.

Upon completion of the race, the player is presented with digital representation of a large three-handled trophy and the text "YOU'RE WINNER !" The game occasionally fails to distinguish between whether the player is starting or finishing the race when they pass through the starting point, and so this congratulatory screen may appear within seconds of starting a game, ending the race before it even begins.

Stellar Stone released a patch that addresses several complaints about the game. With the patch, the opponent does participate in the race, but stops before it reaches the finish line. Nightride, the non-functional track, was replaced with an exact mirror image of the first track, Devil Passage 1. Some versions of the patch replaced the "YOU'RE WINNER !" text with "YOU WIN!". Sound effects were also added, and later copies shipped with the patch by default. However, no effort was made to alter the physics of the game, and other common complaints are still present.

Not sure why it took me so long to get around to posting pictures of my new computer and a test run I did with it.









Did a bit of messing around with XNA, and think I can pull off a much less ambitious project than original envisioned, but it could still be great. I am currently learning C# and discovering how I could possibly implement an XNA based Toolset that could be used by a potential club next year(I want to start a Game Development Club). 2D Toolset seems plausible and within my skillset. 3D Toolset looks pretty intense right now, and I doubt I would be able to pull something like that off... May end up taking the more dedicated club members and just teaching them Source/Sandbox 2.0 and making a Source/CryENGINE 2.0 mod while the rest of the club works on a simple 2D game using my toolset.

Very much a learning process for my right now. Spent 3 hours tweaking Tutorial project(Asteroids 3D) to add Levels, score multipliers and M+KB controls...

Next project is to make a 2D Platformer and then prototype a game idea that I have had for the past 6 months. That will probably take a month...

Anyway, I am enjoying my new computer and have some plans for how to use it...

Thought this deserved a post.

Every year, during GDC there is an Independent Games Festival where a panel of judges select the best of the best from the Indy Game space.

This year, many games were shown, but ones I feel worthy of presentation are here:

The Unfinished Swan
Website


The Unfinished Swan is a first-person painting game set in an entirely white world. Players can splatter paint to help them find their way through an unusual garden.

~~~~~

Tag: The Power of Paint
Website


Developed by students at DigiPen Institute of Technology, Tag: The Power of Paint is a free, first-person puzzle platformer which focuses on the players’ ability to modify their environment as they see fit, simply by painting it. Enjoy a unique and emergent gameplay experience, as you traverse each highly stylized level, using your endless supply of paint and all the power that comes with it to make your way to the goal.
Currently, there are 3 different paint colors available, and each one empowers the player with a different ability upon contact with the painted surface. They are:
Green - Launch off the surface
Red - Speed boost
Blue - Stick to the surface

~~~~~

Feist
Website


A journey over mountains and through deep forests lies ahead. The trail isn't told to be an easy one. Mad foes and unsafe dirt tracks are on its way. Only with cunningness and by risking to eat dodgy food one might find the power to reach the end of the journey.

~~~~~

Blueberry Garden
Website


Blueberry Garden is my current big project. It won the award for “Best Innovation” at Swedish Game Awards 2008 and the Seamus McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival 2009. Stay tuned for more information!

~~~~~

Machinarium
Website


Machinarium is full-scale point and click adventure game developed by the makers of web-games Samorost and Samorost2.

~~~~~

Complete List of Finalists
Complete List of Student Finalists

Considering a PC build since my laptop (ASUS C90S) is dying a slow death (note: when a laptop routinely hits 80C during gaming, it will likely severely limit said laptop's operational life).

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz
Motherboard: ASUS M4A79T Deluxe
Graphics: ATI Radeon 4890 [SAPPHIRE 100269SR Radeon HD 4890]
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA
PSU: Corsair 750W [CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V]
Optical Drive: DVD+R/DVD+RW

Haven't quite decided on case or monitor yet. I'm sticking with AMD & ATI parts to keep the price down.

Thoughts?

EDIT: forgot about Memory: 6GB (3x 2GB) of DDR3 1600

Jeff L wrote:

Considering a PC build since my laptop (ASUS C90S) is dying a slow death (note: when a laptop routinely hits 80C during gaming, it will likely severely limit said laptop's operational life).

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz
Motherboard: ASUS M4A79T Deluxe
Graphics: ATI Radeon 4890 [SAPPHIRE 100269SR Radeon HD 4890]
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA
PSU: Corsair 750W [CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V]
Optical Drive: DVD+R/DVD+RW

Haven't quite decided on case or monitor yet. I'm sticking with AMD & ATI parts to keep the price down.

Thoughts?

That is good.

Although, if you aren't really worried about power consumption(which you don't appear to be with a single GPU), you could just get a Radeon 4870 and overclock it to 850MHz(Engine Clock)/975MHz(Memory Clock) and achieve similar results. It also depends what your concerns are with heat. The 4890 runs wicked cool compared to the 4870 at load... Because outside of some chip improvements to reduce power consumption at idle and GPU temp, the 4890 is just an overclocked 4870.

Also, it depends on your expectations. The 4890 gets on average 5% higher framerates than the 4870. If that is worth $40-50 more to you, go for it. Otherwise, just stick with the 4870... If you aren't experienced overclocking and want the extra performance, go with the 4890 because it would be lower risk.

Popcap wins

Alan Dreher wrote:

Popcap wins

Sorry, but Chicago Ted ALWAYS wins.

Alan Dreher wrote:

Popcap wins

OMFG!! I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW!! That was the greatest flash video I have ever seen. I was smiling the whole way through. I WANT MORE OF THESE VIDEOS!!

Well...
Starcraft 2 Battle Report #2 is up.

http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6210427/activision-blizzard-e3-2009-webcast-liveblog-may-31-5-pm

Halfway Down the Page:

Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard wrote:

[6:55] There will be a Starcraft II beta test later this summer, and Morhaime offers to get anyone in attendance into the program. Morhaime expects to launch Starcraft II by the end of the year, though also notes that it will only ship once the game is done.

LEFT 4 DEAD 2!!! w00t!!!

Well.. since you bumped the thread for that, I guess I will go ahead and post Highlights from E3

My Top 3:
Alan Wake
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-alan-wake/50061

Splinter Cell: Conviction


Modern Warfare 2
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-modern-warfare/50039




Other highlights:
Assassins Creed 2
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-assassins-creed/50139

Mass Effect 2
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-mass-effect/50067

Brutal Legend
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-brutal-legend/50122

Dante's Inferno
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-dantes-inferno/50043

Star Wars: The Old Republic
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-star-wars/49936

Halo: ODST
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-halo-3-odst/50009

Forza Motorsports 3
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-forza-motorsports/50003

Crackdown 2
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-crackdown-2/49990

Halo: Reach
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-halo-reach/49987

Madden 10
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-madden-nfl/50130

Fight Night Round 4
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-fight-night/50125

Nintendo was on track to beat Ubisoft in the suck catagory of how bad their press conference was, but they redeemed themselves decently by announcing Super Mario Bros 4, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Golden Sun 3, and Metroid: Other M

They did absolutely fail when they spent 15 minutes leading up to the announcement of a Wii Vitality Sensor... Which basically checks your pulse and blood pressure. So terrible. Worst idea I have ever heard.

Well, it looks like my laptop just died of "ZOMG MY GPU IS OVERHEATING!!!!" syndrome (laptop boots, has hard drive activity, speakers all work... but the LCD panel is nonresponsive [and yes, I've tried an external monitor])

It's not exactly a new game, but Robot Arena 2 is quite fun.

Game site: http://robotarena.com/
Main community: http://gametechmods.com/

Finally got the parts list together for the desktop that will likely be replacing my laptop:
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66 ghz quad core
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EX95-UD4P
RAM: 6 gb
Hard Drive: 1 tb
Power Supply: 500-650 watt
Graphics Card: nvidia GTX 275

After a bit of an adventure with getting the parts (and swapping some for others), I finally got the computer up and running

Something to think about:
3DMark06 score: 16,562

MikeNCR wrote:

It's not exactly a new game, but Robot Arena 2 is quite fun.

Game site: http://robotarena.com/
Main community: http://gametechmods.com/

yo, amen to that. Especially with the DSL mods.

Personally I've been on FFXI since it was released in the US. Looking forward to XIII and of course XIV.

Left 4 Dead 2's pre-order demo has been released, and I've got to say that my favorite melee weapon so far is the frying pan . I'm also really liking the new assault rifles & grenade types.



Anyone else here play Left 4 Dead?

Jeff L wrote:

Left 4 Dead 2's pre-order demo has been released, and I've got to say that my favorite melee weapon so far is the frying pan . I'm also really liking the new assault rifles & grenade types.



Anyone else here play Left 4 Dead?

I do sometimes.

Looking forward to L4D2, but I didn't pre-order(put my money on Dragon Age: Origins instead).

Just finished running through all the campaigns of Left 4 Dead 2 (I do so on a lower difficulty level to get a feel for the maps). My thoughts: It's much more challenging than the first game - there's one campaign where the map is FILLED with wandering witches like some bizarre undead minefield. The most epic finale has to belong to Dark Carnival (2nd campaign). Grenade Launchers = anti-everything devices. I HATE SWAMPS. I also hate clowns. Finally, I can't wait until I'm familiar enough with the game to play the "realism" gametype - it should be much more interesting than the standard campaign.

I finished playing through Mass Effect 2 the first time this weekend, and I'm going to have to say this is the best written game I've ever played. Ever. The story and characters are amazingly well done. In fact I would go as far as saying most movies and TV shows aren't as well done as Mass Effect 2. I actually feel kinda sorry for a lot of other game developers this year - the Game of the Year 2010 title very well may go to Mass Effect 2.



Review of the game Here.