20 things to hate about gaming today

[QUOTE]Ammo starvation. I'm looking at you, Resident Evil for the Gamecube. I have a gun. LET ME USE IT. Don't pretend your game is "challenging" because you only give me four bullets to kill eight zombie dogs with.
[/QUOTE]
i hate this. in RE3 (the last one i played) u don't get nearly enough ammo. its not possible to kill them all (even with head shots). trying to push them over and run can't be the solution because then u have 20 zombies chasing you 3 screens later.

Funny article and spot on.

[QUOTE]Did you ever wonder what happened to force feedback, controllers that push your hands around so you can feel the action in the game as well as see it (we're talking real force feedback, not controllers that vibrate like pagers)?[/QUOTE]

i don't remember this. what is the article refering to ?

[QUOTE]The first time we hear the word "patch" in relation to a PS3 or XBox 360 game, we're taking the console back to the store.[/QUOTE]

what does "patch" mean

[QUOTE=JKuhlmann]i don't remember this. what is the article refering to ?[/QUOTE]

Some PC games use controllers that actually limit the controller physically response to what's going on in the game. Many arcade driving games do this - the steering wheel actually pushes your hands around and locks up realistically.

[QUOTE=JKuhlmann]what does "patch" mean[/QUOTE]

These are usually bits of software that repair bugs in the game after it's released. Common in PC gaming. The same techinique could be used to "crack" games back in the day, essentially turning copy protection into a no-op or hardcoding the protection checks to always come back valid. It's easier to do this with the data files than the core executables, but as object oriented programming became more prevalant I think it's easier than ever to do.

It's called a patch because you literally overwrite some subset of machine code with a newer algorithm that doesn't cause the bug to happen. You take a binary diff of the old and new executables and only ship the "changes", which was important back in the day because it kept downloads small.

Sadly I'm so far out of the loop on how games are written these days that my entire explanation could be complete bullshit now. I haven't been paying much attention since 1999.

ok, i know about the driving games and the wheel going nuts. i never played pc games much though.

i hope i never have to deal with anything to do with patches because i will only be able to stand there smiling and nodding.

I think you can simply sum it up with Inmersion. That is really what is lacking entirely. We basically pay to play someone else "set" disaster. It is never ours.

I liked the part of almost picking a book in the time it takes to load something.

[QUOTE=Xk3zofrenik]I think you can simply sum it up with Inmersion. That is really what is lacking entirely. We basically pay to play someone else "set" disaster. It is never ours.

I liked the part of almost picking a book in the time it takes to load something.[/QUOTE]
The thing is, games don't tell stories, not really. they are poorly written (even the best ones) and the AI/Non-Linear programming is so primitive as to be laughable.

I remeber people going on and on about how you could really make a difference in KOTOR. Bullshit, none of these games has yet to move beyond the level of Choose Your Own Adventure. [I]That's[/I] what they out to be figuring out how to do, not pissing about with graphics and shooter AI. I saw some tool on G4 going on about how they got a great writer for the new, I want to say Unreal (I think the tool was Cliffy B.) anyway, Cliffy is all on about this great writer... who wrote the Halo novels! hahahahahahaha....

I'll alert Philip Roth there Cliffy, he was so hoping at a shot at Gears of War 2!

[QUOTE=JKuhlmann]i hate this. in RE3 (the last one i played) u don't get nearly enough ammo. its not possible to kill them all (even with head shots). trying to push them over and run can't be the solution because then u have 20 zombies chasing you 3 screens later.[/QUOTE]
the first time i played through RE3 i was like what the fuck cuz i ran out of ammo ENTIRELY while fighting the big worm in the cemetery thing. so i restarted and i didnt shoot at it unless i had to. and by the time i got to the worm thing again i had enough lead in my pockets to make arnold feel self concious.

bottom line is its called survival horror for a reason. ammo conservation is an under-used survival tactic. and when it is used people complain about it because they want to walk around like their body is made of kevlar and kill anything that might bleed.

[QUOTE=Atomos]
bottom line is its called survival horror for a reason. ammo conservation is an under-used survival tactic. and when it is used people complain about it because they want to walk around like their body is made of kevlar and kill anything that might bleed.[/QUOTE]

you're right. what difficulty were you on?

in the first two RE games i don't remember ever having a problem with ammo, but i did shoot at everything.

**side note**
i rented RE 1 it twice to finish it. it didn't have a manual so i had to figure it out myself and had to figure the controls myself. i walked through the entire game because i didn't know you could run by holding L1.

whichever one where you start with only a handgun.

starting off with an assult rifle and 400 rounds is for pussies.

[QUOTE=Atomos]

starting off with an assult rifle and 400 rounds is for pussies.[/QUOTE]
...and for Marines in Fallujah.

[QUOTE=Parkaboy]...and for Marines in Fallujah.[/QUOTE]
well, ok point taken. but you have to agree with me that it really detracts from the point and premise of survival horror

[QUOTE=Atomos]well, ok point taken. but you have to agree with me that it really detracts from the point and premise of survival horror[/QUOTE]
Which is why I don't see how or why Gears of War was made. Space marines vs. Cthulhu mosters, I'm just not feeling it.

thats gunna be survival anything, the way doom and halo were "survival"

here, we'll give you more than enough health, enough firepower to put a hole in the planet, and a flashlight.

[QUOTE=Atomos]thats gunna be survival anything, the way doom and halo were "survival"

here, we'll give you more than enough health, enough firepower to put a hole in the planet, and a flashlight.[/QUOTE]That's another thing that pisses me off, what with IR tech and thermo imaging being availabel today, what are Space Marines doing with fucking flashlights? Hell, they had IR when Cameron invented them back in '86! Figure out a way to make it pretty with low-light, no-light countermeasures!

A fuckin' flashlight... with no duct tape no less!

[QUOTE=Parkaboy]The thing is, games don't tell stories, not really. they are poorly written (even the best ones) and the AI/Non-Linear programming is so primitive as to be laughable.

I remeber people going on and on about how you could really make a difference in KOTOR. Bullshit, none of these games has yet to move beyond the level of Choose Your Own Adventure. [I]That's[/I] what they out to be figuring out how to do, not pissing about with graphics and shooter AI. I saw some tool on G4 going on about how they got a great writer for the new, I want to say Unreal (I think the tool was Cliffy B.) anyway, Cliffy is all on about this great writer... who wrote the Halo novels! hahahahahahaha....

I'll alert Philip Roth there Cliffy, he was so hoping at a shot at Gears of War 2![/QUOTE]

I agree. Even the best ones are weak in many areas. To say the least. Even the ones that give you a choice are generic at best.

If there was a way to have a standard system or something, to just develop games on your own in an easy way instead of buying the garbage some team with millions of dollars in budget, and in esence tell your stories in games, and share them over the internet. Is way better than what the gaming industry is right now.

That is the best thing i like about PC games and the user made scenarios and maps, and what not. If only they did that for consoles.

[QUOTE=Xk3zofrenik]I agree. Even the best ones are weak in many areas. To say the least. Even the ones that give you a choice are generic at best.

If there was a way to have a standard system or something, to just develop games on your own in an easy way instead of buying the garbage some team with millions of dollars in budget, and in esence tell your stories in games, and share them over the internet. Is way better than what the gaming industry is right now.

That is the best thing i like about PC games and the user made scenarios and maps, and what not. If only they did that for consoles.[/QUOTE]

There are a lot of freeware and flash gamers who try this but it's difficult to produce a game entirely by yourself in your spare time. There are plenty of freeware game development tools and evironments out there, several of which rival the best high-priced versions available.

The last game I wrote I used all freeware tools, most notably DJGPP and the allegro library, which was a C++ compiler for DOS and a sound/graphics library (respectively). There are similar tools like MingW that are even more robust and with broader support bases. There was no story to the games I made in the past, I was looking for the next Tetris, focusing on addictive gameplay rather than telling a story.

Flash MX, which I haven't seen, is expensive but provides an extrememely high level of compatibility and a fantastic base for producing many types of games that could be used to tell stories. This is still in its infancy and as the tricks of the trade disseminate through collegiate forums and such, I think that a new revolution could be lurking just around the corner. A good story or good game concept wouldn't require heavy-duty production values to be told unless the concept itself requires specialized rendering. (see Wetrix for an example of this - great simple concept but complex in its implementation).

[QUOTE=Parkaboy]The thing is, games don't tell stories, not really. they are poorly written (even the best ones) and the AI/Non-Linear programming is so primitive as to be laughable.

I remeber people going on and on about how you could really make a difference in KOTOR. Bullshit, none of these games has yet to move beyond the level of Choose Your Own Adventure. [I]That's[/I] what they out to be figuring out how to do, not pissing about with graphics and shooter AI. I saw some tool on G4 going on about how they got a great writer for the new, I want to say Unreal (I think the tool was Cliffy B.) anyway, Cliffy is all on about this great writer... who wrote the Halo novels! hahahahahahaha....

I'll alert Philip Roth there Cliffy, he was so hoping at a shot at Gears of War 2![/QUOTE]

Graphics and AI sell, which is part of the problem. Gaming (and the entire computer industry) is now a business model, instead of a computer science model. Games are pushed before they're released to meet a deadline like any other business project, and patched later on to appease the customer base. Back in the day what patches were there? Minor bug fixes for hardware, simple tweaks to a bug in a level that was causing minor glitches.

Now what do we have? Huge bugs that fuck gameplay up. Patches that need to be patched because it throws off the code in another direction (a huge issue with MMO's, but this is understandable given the volume of players and massive variables to take into account). Jase - games are written the same, but now instead of someone designing the levels and the textures for them, you have one person (or teams) doing each individual task. Add in a lack of communication between these departments and then we have one of the core problems: the shoddy business model where nobody cares until it's finished, overshadowing a fluid and thoroughly useful product or enjoyable game.

Going back to Graphics and AI for a moment. With video games its like a woman, sure she may be pretty but inside that head it's all fluff and air. Nothing of substance. Hopefully soon the industry will get a swift kick to the ass, wake up to this fact and start going back to the old "it's ready when it's ready" model. Just look at Blizzard and see how successful this still is.

ohmyfuckingshit, holy crapoli! PERFECT DARK FOR THE XBOX 360.

i have to get the xbox 360 now!!! damnit them!

[QUOTE=Minuet]ohmyfuckingshit, holy crapoli! PERFECT DARK FOR THE XBOX 360.

i have to get the xbox 360 now!!! damnit them![/QUOTE]
Link?

I mean, is there a preview or do you just love the title in general?

[QUOTE=ire]Link?

I mean, is there a preview or do you just love the title in general?[/QUOTE]

have you not played perfect dark? obviously no.

you have google too im sure you can look it up. it is a [I]game[/I]. and it was made for nintendo 64 in the year 2000. And now, Rare, the devs have announced that they are releasing the sequel for Xbox 360

when i play games, I do not play them because of their titles.

thats fucking spluh

I've played it, I just thought maybe you'd seen some sneek peek or somethin'... no need to be sassy...

I'm not really into those types of games much, but I'll still play it with my old college buddies.

I'm really diggin Simpsons Road Rage right now, hehehe... cause remember Crazy Taxi? What a great game.

so brilliant to think that I would not ever be sassy?! hahaha! laughable!

yes, simpsons road rage, was addicted to that game for about one week then something else took over. but that game is absolute fun. ever wreck and blow up then drive the blown up car? great stuff. i prefer gta. and recently took a punch to f-zero, theres a level in the gold cup or whatever it is called that your car is on a tubed track, very melodic! crusing the exterior of a very colourful cylindrical structure, but with a dark background for soothing images peripheral.

I gotta get f zero... haven't played it in years... prolly SNES or something, I don't even remember.

Oh! Anyone remember the N 64 driving game that had some freestyle level with ramps and stuff? ou'd get points for stunts and barrel rolls and flips, and then you'd eventually blow up your car. It was a rcaing game, but this free style level was the bomb.

I was rarely sober when I played this at my friends dorn in college, so I have no clue what it was.

[QUOTE=ire]Oh! Anyone remember the N 64 driving game that had some freestyle level with ramps and stuff? ou'd get points for stunts and barrel rolls and flips, and then you'd eventually blow up your car. It was a rcaing game, but this free style level was the bomb.[/QUOTE]
cruising world?

[QUOTE=Minuet]cruising world?[/QUOTE]
Maybe...

The level looked all funny, like it was from Tron or something. It was all blue and grid like or something, like a big square arena. The rest of the game was normal (I think, we never actually played anything but this)

[QUOTE=Minuet]ohmyfuckingshit, holy crapoli! PERFECT DARK FOR THE XBOX 360.

i have to get the xbox 360 now!!! damnit them![/QUOTE]

best death matches EVER

i saw it when they "unveiled" it on TV and it looked kinda twinkie.

[QUOTE=Atomos]i saw it when they "unveiled" it on TV and it looked kinda twinkie.[/QUOTE]

i haven't seen the new one at all. except for that stupid eye shot. i meant the original had the best death matches.

it looked like what gay-lo would look like if you could carry a p90 and go to what looked like mexico

as long as i can still fill a room with 16 meat sims, and blow them to pieces with my super dragon while my laptop gun sits perched in the corner i'll be happy.

buy who am i kidding, i won't even be getting the machine.

[QUOTE=JKuhlmann]as long as i can still fill a room with 16 meat sims, and blow them to pieces with my super dragon while my laptop gun sits perched in the corner i'll be happy.

buy who am i kidding, i won't even be getting the machine.[/QUOTE]

Bleh, I thought that detracted from the game. The bots were nice, and the weapons nifty, but in regular multiplayer they were cheap as hell. The X-Ray railgun was the dumbest weapon idea ever (I should know, I was an ace with the fucking thing). Give me pistols only on a close-quarters map for some good times.

Although I do remember the bot AI being extremely intelligent for n64 with PD. Doubt though they'll keep that up, considering I thought the HL2 AI was sub-par compared to the original HL.

yeah. those dark agents would just walk up behind you, pop u in the head, and just keep on moving.