I jsut started a character on Urban Dead.... cool little game, thanks for introducing me. I'm still kinda lost, mostly wandering around using all my points doing stupid s**t and trying to find a place to sleep...

I was also lost when I first tried it. You can find a lot of information in the Urban Dead Wiki. Also there are two old Urban Dead threads here on snarkpit - too old to post in though unfortunately.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

With these browser games, I always start playing for a few days, thinking it's pretty cool, but then I realize that in order to reach any higher levels I have to do the same boring stuff over and over again and it's all just a simplified MMORPG like UO or WOW.

Looks like one of the better ones, though. Definitely.

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Why snark works.

I hate level grinding. It's the reason why I hate MMO games. I have a mind to make a better MMO game ... and it'll be about moral choice and the only character you build is your self ... and there'll be time traveling and and factories and GUNS ... yeah ... lots of guns ... and ...

I probably should have kept that to my self ...

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

There's no level building in Puzzle Pirates.

And it's perhaps my biggest disappointment in the otherwise fairly enjoyable Kingdom of Loathing.

I have never played a game like Final Fantasy or Wow and i all ready know i would hate them. How do i know you ask. Well, when i was younger (like 11) i used to watch others play them for hours on end. (I had nothing better to do.). What did i learn, Watching that video of your monster attacking some other monster is cool the first few times you see it but after seeing it 50+ times in a row for a singe battle is awful. Then after a 1:15 battle, consisting of the same 25 sec animation over and over again, you walk around a stupid little map for 15 min until you run into someone els and do it all over again (o that was quick, this battle only lasted 20 min). Its not even like your doing anything, your selecting crap form a menu. select attack a, b, or c, ohhhh.

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Reality has become a commodity.

It's a little more complicated than that.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I once tried Ultima Online for the sake of it. I decided to train my wood-chopping skills because I found it cool to make my own stuff. After 2 hours of clicking on trees (literally) to get enough wood to make a stupid STAFF, I realized this game was totally making fun of me. The worst part of course is when you start realizing that all the things other players brag with, like their cool swords or magic-skills are just the result of clicking the same object on the screen for hours upon hours upon hours. Maybe calculating the best mana/healing-potion ratio first - or finding an exploit of the game that can be used as an advantage. But ultimately everything that's cool in the game requires hours of clicking the same friggin' thing over and over again. To my lacking knowledge this hasn't even changed with WOW.

There are these cool aspects though, like feeling to be part of a huge, persistent world that can be explored with others. If there's any way to have that minus the hours of level-pushing... I might even give it a try again.

It's an interesting thought actually. How can you give players a persistent world without risking them playing through it in a 6-hours session? Should playing time alone be rewarded or are there better aspects of gameplay to be encouraged in a RPG? There are still new genres to invent I guess.

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Why snark works.

I have never played a game like Final Fantasy or Wow and i all ready know i would hate them. How do i know you ask. Well, when i was younger (like 11) i used to watch others play them for hours on end. (I had nothing better to do.). What did i learn, Watching that video of your monster attacking some other monster is cool the first few times you see it but after seeing it 50+ times in a row for a singe battle is awful. Then after a 1:15 battle, consisting of the same 25 sec animation over and over again, you walk around a stupid little map for 15 min until you run into someone els and do it all over again (o that was quick, this battle only lasted 20 min). Its not even like your doing anything, your selecting crap form a menu. select attack a, b, or c, ohhhh.

Sounds like you're describing FFVII in particular. Honestly, minus the extremely long flashy graphics sequences, there's a really great game underneath there, with easily one of the best narratives to ever hit a console RPG. But it'd be a lie to say the flashy graphics in no way enhanced its massive commercial success.

I enjoy the exploration aspect of RPGs, I like to go everywhere I can and find all the loot. But the standard combat paradigm of MMORPGs is so damn boring to me I'd rather run from everything, causing my characters to develop slowly and eventually hit a wall in moving through the world where I'm not high enough level to survive the next area. So then I have to run around this area that I've already explored every nook and cranny of, and kill 400 spiders and trolls to level up. In the end these games just make me feel like there's a much better way I could be spending my time... doing anything but clicking on spiders and trolls.

IMO, The final fantasy series is pretty good about having new places to go without having to grind levels to get there. The Castlevania games on PS2 as well. Oh and Prince of Persia, that game kicks ass. But ultimately the fast-paced skill vs. skill action of an online shooter is much more appealing to me than clicking on virtual trees and rocks and most every other type of game, it's what I keep coming back to.

Since this summer I've discovered that just about everyone involved in the game design program at Austin Community College plays World of Warcraft. To the point where two hours of a three hour Design 1 class might be spent relating design concepts to WoW and analyzing the design decisions Blizzard made in it. Some people even play WoW on their laptops in the back of class. Then, when people are standing around after class, the conversation is about WoW by default.

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o

Since this summer I've discovered that just about everyone involved in the game design program at Austin Community College plays World of Warcraft. To the point where two hours of a three hour Design 1 class might be spent relating design concepts to WoW and analyzing the design decisions Blizzard made in it. Some people even play WoW on their laptops in the back of class. Then, when people are standing around after class, the conversation is about WoW by default.

That game is eating brains.

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Why snark works.

That sounds like a nightmare. I played WoW for a year and a half and I would never ever talk about it with other people in real life. The current weather and celebrity gossip is more interesting.

http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=omglolbbq3ni.png

Firefox....need I say more....

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Posting And You

Baron von Snickers said:
But ultimately the fast-paced skill vs. skill action of an online shooter is much more appealing to me than clicking on virtual trees and rocks and most every other type of game, it's what I keep coming back to.

You're making it sound like thee are 2 types of games

thinking+developing= MMO/RPG vs. fastpaced skill-shooting= FPS.

What about RTS or TBS, or a combination of both. Whenever i got a bit bored with FPS, i played one of the Total War games. You've got character development and thinking-ahead strategy and it's not repetitive clicking.

Halo 3: Homophobia Evolved

Granted you could do that with pretty much any online game out there (especially HL-mods like CS), bashing Halo wouldn't really make sense here. But think about someone naming himself "BlackBoy" and getting reactions like that. I never thought about it that way...

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Why snark works.

I think it's XBox Live thats the accessory to idiocy here, more than any particular game in question. This is what happens when random bored frat boys are allowed online. And why I refuse to use general voicechat in a game.

It's a little more complicated than that.

I believe you. (not trying to sound sarcastic)

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Reality has become a commodity.

I think it's XBox Live thats the accessory to idiocy here, more than any particular game in question. This is what happens when random bored frat boys are allowed online. And why I refuse to use general voicechat in a game.

I also think it's one of the main reasons Valve never followed the "Commander Mode" idea of the early TF2 concepts. Just think of getting a "command" by a guy like that. shivers It's what drove me away from Natural Selection as well. It might be fun if you play with a clan and do it all organized but pub games with voice chat are the worst.

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Why snark works.

I never really saw the point in voice chat. I mean sure, you can communicate with people without typing and interfering with your gameplay, but very few games require complex communication to the point that voice comm is necessary. Including it and focusing on it like Live has done just induces idle and pointless chatter. It is one of those 'its great in theory' things that is pretty terrible once implimented, just like MMORPGs and communism.

Besides, there's no better typing training than typing long typo-free orders as fast as you can while in the middle of battle, as my current 80+ wpm would attest :cool:

It would work miracles if people used it efficiently. In Counter Strike, no one ever rounds a corner and jumps back shooting and then says "1 on the left, 2 on the right". Usually people use it as a tool to annoy people (ring ring ring ring.....mute).
I'm sure it's a great tool if your in a clan though. I imagine they use it much more efficiently.

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Reality has become a commodity.

Sweet!!!

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/11/video-fix-super.html

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Reality has become a commodity.

You're making it sound like thee are 2 types of games

That wasn't my intent. I was just stating that I'm a twitch gamer at the core, and expressing my distaste for MMOs, especially the crafting games within them, "mining" for example.

What about RTS or TBS, or a combination of both. Whenever i got a bit bored with FPS, i played one of the Total War games.

I was hooked on Shogun: Total War for nearly a year, it's still one of my all-time favorites alongside C&C: Red Alert (plus the expansions) and Total Annihilation. And I still play Diablo 2 and StarCraft from time to time, but I think my twitch nature has something to do with Sonic the Hedgehog, Quake 2 and Unreal.

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o

At a local GoodWill (donation store), I found a copy of Guitar Hero III for the 360 for $10. I'm going tomorrow and trading it in at GameStop for $30. It'll be nice if I could get something to turn around from there too.

They had a copy of the Orange Box for PC for $8. I would have bought it if it had the key. Chances are some guy bought it, used the key, then donated the game and wrote $50 off his taxes.

I also bought Golf for the NES for $2, and a PSX/PS2 AV cable for $2. That place can be really great sometimes :smile:

Edit: Dammit. I just found out that though today GameStop was doing an additional 30% in trade deal. That with my card would have yielded 40%, or an additional $12. So, it would have given me $42 in credit.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

It would work miracles if people used it efficiently. In Counter Strike, no one ever rounds a corner and jumps back shooting and then says "1 on the left, 2 on the right". Usually people use it as a tool to annoy people (ring ring ring ring.....mute).
I'm sure it's a great tool if your in a clan though. I imagine they use it much more efficiently.

You need the right community. Frosh year of college, when CS was still in the betas, we got that kind of action on the private server on the campus network. Likewise, for the NS comment above... before the addition of deathmatch maps, NS had a fairly classy playerbase. You could vote out a commander you didn't like and there were players who tended to specialize in commanding. Even on the better pubs, you typically got a competent commander who was at least trying his best. And honestly, the games where you didn't never lasted very long.

Redwood said:
I'm sure it's a great tool if your in a clan though. I imagine they use it much more efficiently.

I'm sure Gwil will agree, it is a great tool in games like tfc. For defense, your first defense line can quickly inform the flag defenders which way the offense is coming in, etc..

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These words are my diaries screaming out loud

Without a doubt - voice communications are indispensable for certain games, TF2 being the current prime example. I agree about needing the right community for publics, I only tend to speak on my regular servers. Having said that, speaking on DoD: Source yesterday seemed to wake up the server and lots more joined in when it had been silent before.

People only understand me when I slow down, and when I smooth out my accent, which can be difficult in the heat of battle.

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i eat paint

I'm thinking about giving Cabal Online ( http://www.cabalonline.com/ ) a try during the upcoming winter break (looks a bit WOW-like). Also very nice that it's free.

Anyone tried it?

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

everyvideogame.com - classic NES-era video games emulated in Java, playable right in your web browser. I recommend playing Altered Beast if only to see the hilarious nut kick animation.

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"RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE!"

Altered Beast owns. We had four copies for the SEGA 16-bit. Don't ask why!

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

OtZman said:
I'm thinking about giving Cabal Online ( http://www.cabalonline.com/ ) a try during the upcoming winter break (looks a bit WOW-like). Also very nice that it's free.

Anyone tried it?

awesome and free!
thx for sharing the info

np!

So does it seem good? I've a friend who played it quite a bit. According to him there are services that you can pay for, so if you want to enjoy the game fully you'll have to pay.

I think I'll give it a try this weekend. I'm so looking forward to the winter break, when I will let myself become a complete nerd and play all day (more likely all night) long.

I found this site. Looks like there's quite a few free MMORPGs out there.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Goddam Altered Beast was fun. Do you remember how muscled the powerups would make you look? The last stage of buffness was hilarious, you could barely see his head over his pecs.

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Reckless disregard for childrens well being, women and nothing but utter contempt for other cultures.

Haha yeah. Not to mention how freaking long his leg got when making a jump-kick.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

I'm downloading Cabal Online right now. Hopefully it'll be playable on my current crap connection. I'll let you know my first impressions...

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Let me know which server you're joining and your username.

I'm NoxSlayer on Jupiter and am on most nights in channel1, if you want help, just ask

Alright.. took all day to download it, just to discover the file was corrupted :sad: . Anyway, it's downloaded and installed. I've exams comming up, so I might wait until after them to start play.

I'll let you know as soon as I've started playing. Are there any benefits/differences between the three different servers?

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Just heard of this site: www.chilirec.com

I'm just trying it out myself. It seems to be a website where you can create your own music list by recording almost 600 online radio channels. The tracks are then added to your profile where you can search and listen to the tracks and download them if you want to. Apparently, if you record all channels, you'll have more than 50,000 tracks in a day. I have 352 tracks after just a few minutes.

I'm not sure if there are any catches, but seems like a nice, free service so far.

[EDIT]

The interface is a little bit clumsy. You can't browse through all tracks, so you'll have to search for songs. And obviously tracks, genres and artists aren't as neatly organized as you'd want to. This site will come in handy when I hear a track on an online radiostation and want to listen to it again, of if I want to listen to music at another computer than my own.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Half-Life 3 (as in a sequel to Half-Life 2 and not more episodes) has been confirmed by the Lombardi.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

holy s**t where

also I found out recently that UT2004 Bombing Run is incredibly entertaining

Finally! On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be much confirmation on the non-episodic character of whatever will follow Episode 3:

TS-SWL: Are there any current plans after Episode 3 to have a Half Life 3?

DL: We haven?t announced anything specific, but Half-Life won?t end at Episode Three ? hang on to your crowbars!

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Why snark works.

Stuff We Like

Apparently, it was during an exclusive interview about the Orange Box or something.

Edit: I need to stop hitting reply and waiting to submit.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

That's... underwhelming. It's not like anybody seriously thought that ep3 would be the end of the HL franchise. I thought maybe there would be some real info :/

UT04 BR is the shiznit, I was thoroughly disappointed when I found out it wasn't going to ship with UT3. I personally prefer BR to CTF, and both to onslaught. Next to impossible to find a server though, so the bots are generally who I play BR with, even though they generally really suck at both knowing when to pass and moving up to set you up for a pass :razz:

That's... underwhelming. I thought maybe there would be some real info

I concur... still good to have it confirmed, at any rate.

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Onslaught is horrible (with bots at least), no wonder UT3 is apparently tanking if that's the core of the warfare mode they were touting.

I found bombing run to have a very difficult learning curve. Bot play was absolutely pathetic, not even remotely resembling the multiplayer experience. Joining a good multiplayer server meant you had no clue what was going on and largely meant you were a liability on any team on any map until you had figured some junk out. It nonetheless had some excellent gameplay design, although map design faltered frequently (BR-Slaughterhouse, anyone?) when it didn't constitute a blatant CTF rip in the first place.

I found Double-Dom to have a less sharp learning curve that added tactics, without diminishing the value of previously developed FPS skillz, leading to better online play. Sadly, maps were overly symmetric. Bots stunk in this one too, so I wound up playing CTF when the lack of a speedy internet connection limited me to bot play.

Onslaught -- it's a neat idea, but somehow, it almost seems like it would be better separated from the canonical Unreal franchise. Like Mario World titles v. Mario Kart titles. One of the downfalls of UT2004 was its intensely fractured playerbase, due to its variety of gameplay options.

Haven't looked into U3 much yet... hopefully I'll have a new computer soon that can run stuff like that. I miss getting my frag on.

haha the first bombing run map I played was slaughterhouse and had a hell of a time figuring out that crappy map. After a no-fun, scoreless stalemate I was ready to give up on it. How different is BR online? More 'cherry picking' and firing the ball at opponents so they cant fight back?

I really haven't played DD that much but my initial reaction is I prefer UT's Domination. Then again you can't have four teams in 2004 so it would probably lose some of its fun craziness. :/

The bots seem worse than UT, which is surprising to me since that was one of the biggest selling points of the original and one of its strengths compared to Q3.

... hopefully I'll have a new computer soon that can run stuff like that. I miss getting my frag on.

I guess a lot of people think similar. Which I think is a huge issue for PC titles in general these days. Game companies seem to overestimate hardware-developments and optimize their games for hardware few people are willing to pay these ridiculous prices for. In the late 90ies you could get a perfectly fine graphics card for < 100$. Today the relative prices have tripled.

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Why snark works.

My friend sent me a Dexus Ex 3 teaser trailer.

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Aaron's Stuff

Game companies seem to overestimate hardware-developments and optimize their games for hardware few people are willing to pay these ridiculous prices for.

These games are few and far between, in fact, the only one I can think of is Cell Factor. UT3, in particular, can run very well on several year old hardware. My machine it pushing two years old and I can max the thing out.

The 90s didn't have 3D accelerators for consumers for the bulk of the decade.

And you should keep in mind that there are plenty of people on this site that have computers that can barely run HL2.

Just to point out, for about $180 you can grab a GF7950 with 512MB of memory (this blows my card out of the water).

For about $70 you can grab a 7600GS with 512MB of memory, while it isn't the BEST and it wont run UT3 on the absolute highest settings it will get very close. (A friend of mine has one of these and it runs Oblivion very, very, well. The added memory makes the difference)

And both of the cards I'm mentioning have lifetime warranties.

No game out, for example, requires shader model 4, not even Crysis, and only a handful require shader model 3 (UT3 and CryEngine 2 are about it, everything else requires shader model 2) And nothing requires multi-core processors right now, either.

So what are you talking about? Hardware is light years ahead of most software right now, and that is a GOOD thing, since by the time you will need to hardware for these games, it will be cheap ... like it is right now.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.