Scrivener

After checking out the latest Dev Diary I went straight over to FilePlanet to check out the DOA "proof-of-concept" program that SC posted. Unpacking it, however, yeilded twp CRC errors. One in bcte-debug.exe and one in fexplode1.wav. So far I havn't been able to get it to run. The screen goes black for a few seconds then I get dropped to my desktop. Anyone else get around these probs?

I can hardly believe that the same development house responsible for the Freespace series is also responsible for Red Faction. Shame, shame, SHAME on you, Volition!

Anarchy Online's problem is that its AN ABSOLUTELY, UNDENIABLY, BLATANT EVERQUEST CLONE. I swear, I've played clones in my day, but Anarchy Online takes the cake of clonedom. The game plays the same, it looks the same, and heck, even the monsters are the same (Ie: robots in place of skeletons). Take EQ... change the name, change the setting, add a couple things (Appartments) to "distinguish" the product and WALA, you get Anarchy Online. No wonder it's bombing. Same goes for WWII Online. The first time I saw THAT game I thought "OMG, they took second generation ancient flight simulator and added support for ground units! WTF are they thinking?" We need more Artifact Entertainments, 3000ads, and Bethesda Softworks (Bethsoft has their own ups n' downs *cough* Dreamland Chronicles *cough*, but for the most part, I enjoy what they put out).

I wonder if one of the older Voodoo2 add-on cards will work with my GeForce2Ultra? Anyone here think an ebay hunt is worth a shot?

I-War 2 is just plain awefull. They took a somewhat complex simulation and turned into an arcade game. It might have worked as a stand-alone product, but as an I-War sequel it's just plain trash.

Since Nvidia bought out 3DFX, I was hoping for Glide support in my Detonator drivers. It'd be nice to play some of my older Glide-only games again (Redguard, I-War, etc). So far, it dosen't even look like a possibility.

Well, interpreting your plea for help a little more liberally (Focusing on the phrase "not in the mood to control any combat") I would ask if you have had the chance to play The Longest Journey. It's not strategy, but adventure; and it plays out like a masterfully crafted 75-hour-long movie. Lots of dialogue, logical puzzles, deep characters, lots of interaction and atmosphere. It's the perfect game. It hasn't sold too well since its release in the US, but I attribute that to the fact that many US gamers who stumbled across the plethora of rave reviews managed to import copies of the UK version. I simply can't flaunt this game enough. If you're bored, want something to consume your time, and leave a refreshingly sweet taste in your mouth when its done, try it out. Even if you're not into adventure games that much. If you like movies (And most computer gamers do, if games are our bread, movies are our butter), then you will like TLJ. Pick up a copy from www.chipsbits.com (Perpetually sold out when the game was still UK-only) or www.ebgames.com. Go ahead, DO IT!!!

I have I-War Deluxe and its simply fantastic. It's not very open-ended, I'll admit, but for a space sim it's very convincing. Worth a look if you have a Glide-enabled video card. If not, then prepared for some very sub-par software graphics. It won't affect the game much, but the graphics are rather stunning in Glide... especially for such an old game. Realistically, though... I havn't played I-War since my Monster 3D II fried. Ah, but such good memories.

I'd imagine that a BC movie would wind up something akin to the Wing Commander movie. *shudders* Oh, the humanity! [ 08-12-2001: Message edited by: Scrivener ]

Wait a sec, what's sad about Interplay? I hope you're not referring to the canning of Torn. I have everything Black Isle that you can think of (Including Black Isle t-shirt and a bona-fide unopened Gecko-In-A-Can... seriously), and still, I feel no remorse for the canning of Torn. I was rather uneasy at the concept of creating an original campaign setting... let alone a fantasy game using the SPECIAL system. SPECIAL is great for Fallout, but for a high-fantasy venture? Torn was a very risky project, IMHO. But, with the cancelling of Torn, I'm hoping that a Fallout 3D announcement is right around the corner. [ 08-12-2001: Message edited by: Scrivener ]

My name is Scrivener, and I'm a horror-movie-a-holic. Statement of fact concluded, I just returned from my local AMC after seeing The Others. Not much to say about this one, folks. A little simple addition would explain best. The Sixth Sense + What Lies Beneath -------------------- The Others

I'm planning on applying at my local EB, but I'm curious about a few things. Like what the usual pay is for beginning Sales Associates, rate of pay (Every week or two weeks), etc. It should be interesting to how my current job handles the ensuing disaster of my departure, considering that my current cowrokers are about as useful as zombo.com. Besides, EB is, like, where geeks go when they die. To work in EB would make me, like, the St. Peter of gamedom. Hey, I gotta write that down... [ 08-08-2001: Message edited by: Scrivener ]

$iLk, be sure to post how well the Stereoscopic 3D glasses work. Sounds promising.

What I was saying is that E:BFD is the same game that Westwood has been putting out for years. Heck, it even has the same interface. I have nothing against the old "if it aint broke, dont fix it" mantra, but as far as I'm concerned, Emporer is a game that lost its fun factor about the same time I returned its last incarnation: Tiberian Sun. I played a good way through each of the houses and got even more dissapointed and depressed with each additional level or movie. Westwood made a feeble attempt to add some distinction between the houses by throwing in the sub-houses. But when all is said and done, the houses are really all the same. The Moon Project's factions, on the other hand, are so completely different that you will have to relearn each faction as you get it. The controls are slightly different, the interfaces are different, the weapons and chassis and equipment are different (Since you design all your own units from scratch). For example, the UCS has a "shadowing" technology that renders their units almost invisible. This works best, however, during the nighttime, with all your shadowed units lights off. Having your lights off at night severly hampers your line of sight, and distance of sight, but allows you to remain completely undetectable... unless an enemy unit runs right into you, that is. Their super-weapon is a base-vaporizing energy beam. The ED, on the other hand, dosnt have anything even remotely close to either of those weapons. They do, however, have a large arsenal of nuclear-based weaponry. From nuclear ballistic missiles (Feel free to build and launch as many as you can afford) to nuclear bombs dropped out of copters and other various bombers. Next, LC dosnt have any real "weapons of mass destruction" per se. But they DO have a weather control facility. Rain can ruin movement rates, wind can ground air-based units, and lightning randomly zaps various units, buildings, trees, etc. The LC has an added advantage of being able to build anywhere on the map at any time. Provided there is a solar battery nearby to provide energy. They also have a huge assortment of energy weapons able to quickly lay waste to any non-shielded enemy units. Traditional ammo, rockets, and sonic weapons (Sonic weapons being available solely to LC... and which also fire 360 bursts) pass right through shields. I could go on forever. But if you havnt played the Moon Project, or played E2150 and felt it left much to desired, pick the game up from your local EB. So long as you buy EB, and find that The Moon Project isnt for you, you have 10 days from the date of purchase to bring it back. Don't count on the Moon Project demo, either. Its a very poor example of the full game.

Visiontek - The Visiontek GeForce 3 (In the purple box) is far-and-away the most available GeForce 3 out there. Everyone has the Visiontek card and its easy to get a hold of. Its also one of the most expensive cards ($360-$400). Leadtek - This is the card I use most often in my systems. Its easy to use, it's cheap, its reliable, and most importantly its fast. ($340) ELSA - One of my older computers included an ELSA Gladiac/3D Revelator combo. I LOVED that video card/glasses combo. I remember Deus Ex in true stereoscopic 3D... all that scenery just popping out of the screen right into my face! Although I havn't really tried out any of their newer cards, I would definately trust the ELSA Gladiac line. I'll be putting together a new computer for one my friends soon, perhapse I'll throw an ELSA card in there. Footnote on 3D Sterescopic Headwear: I am secretly obsessed with sterescopic headware. In my past I've tried the "VRex VR Surfer", the "ELSA 3D Revelator {wireless}" and the "VR Joy VR Joy 2000". The VR Surfer was phenominal in its day. I remember playing Descent 2... wow. But the VR Surfer is completely useless with todays hardware. Then there was the 3D Revelator. So long as you have one of ELSAs supported video cards using ELSAs supported drivers, the Revelator is a goodie not to be missed. When I switched over to a Creative Annihilator 2 Ultra, the Revelator no longer worked. So, I picked up a VR Joy 2000 on display at my local EB. While its a neat toy, it has a LONG way to go before its sellable, IMHO. The VR Joy has abominable ghosting problems that makes games like Deus Ex worthless. I attribute the phenominon to weak shutters. The company claims its the monitors, but by turning down the refresh rate and pointing out that the ghosting remains, the cheap monitor argument simply dosnt stand. I hear Microsoft is working some new Sterescopic glasses as well. I can't WAIT to get my hands on some.

One last note. I shop www.mwave.com for most of my parts. They're cheap, have a good return policy, and their warehouse is about 30min from my home, so I can will-call everything to avoid shipping charges *grins*. Cases I only buy when I can personally inspect them. Its not unheard-of to spend $300 for some super-case loaded full of fans and a 600W power-supply.

Oh, man you just had to open the proverbial can-o-worms. Well, heres goes. The Scrive-man's hardware list. And remember, if you pay more than the prices I quote, you're paying way too much: Mobo: Under ideal circumstances, I would recommend a DDR mobo; but since the only brands I trust (Asus, Abit, Iwill) only make DDR mobos w/ built-in audio, I can't recommend a decent DDR Mainboard. I is VERY, VERY bad to get a mobo with built-in audio or video. They waste resources and you will almost always end up with some kind of obscure conflict whenever you decide to upgrade. Trust me, I speak from experience. To date, the mobo I have used the most (I build computers on commission as a hobby) is the Abit KT7A-RAID ($130). It's a stable, feature-rich, and easy to configure board that supports Thunderbird 1.4Ghz processors, which brings me to the next component. CPU: So far, the AMD 1.3Ghz Thunderbirds have beat the Intel 1.7Ghz P4s in ALMOST every test run between the two. The exception was Quake 3, which is optimized for the P4. Even then, the margin wasn't much. Intel just cut P4 prices by 55% to compete with AMD, but its too little too late. AMD is just more affordable and offers more raw power. Theres a lot of people who claim that the P4 can grossly outpace the AMD "when developers start optimizing for it." The counter-argument is easy, "remember when they said that about MMX?" Your best bet is an AMD Thunderbird 1.4Ghz (266Mhz), which you should be able to get for about $200. CPU Fan: DO NOT NEGLECT THE CPU FAN. AMD processors run hot. And when I say hot, I mean friggin Intel-killer hot. Its normal, but the better the cooling, the longer your CPU life and the more overclocking possibilities you'll have later on. I, personally would recommend the Alpha PAL6035 kit with a 38cfm fan (Use a 25cfm fan if you're not privy to the noize that the 38cfm fan makes). I've also heard that the new Dragon Orb 3 is a great heatsink/fan combo, but I've haven't yet used it myself. I would also recommend purchasing some Arctic Silver II thermal compound. The stuff makes a world of difference. I purchase most of my heatsinks/fans from www.2cooltek.com. Memory: The price of PC133 is so low that you could buy a Gig of memory for the same price as most EBGames.com pre-orders. However, it is very, very important that you buy quality, warrantied, chips with ECC. I would warn you against purchasing memory over the internet. In the event that you need to exchange chips, its much more convenient to run down to your local Fried Electronics or CrapUSA. I can't count the times I've had odd inexplicable problems because of screwy memory chips. At least 512MB PC133 should suffice. Video: Leadtek Winfast GeForce 3 ($350). You don't have too many GeForce 3 options and this is most available. DVD: DVD is must. Period. End of discussion. Creative Labs DVD Encore 12X ($130) is the way to go. The Included Dxr3 Decoder card makes WORLDS of difference when watching your DVD movies. CDRW: Another necessity. The Creative Labs MK4216 32x/12x/10x ($100) is most reliable CDRW you can buy, based on my own experience. I can also warn you AGAINST buying any Hewlett Packard CDRWs. The CDRWs themselves are very efficient and reliable, but don't expect any support or customer service from HP when you need a software update or if something goes wrong. HP will likely expect you to pay upwards of $50.00 for new software. Adaptec CD Creator 5 ($70) in conjunction with CloneCD3 ($40) makes for a very powerful suite of CD-writing software. Sound: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1. Like you have any other options. Modem: Get a cheap $20 Netgear ethernet card and sign up for DSL. Telocity comes as my currently highest recommended DSL provider. Installing the Telocity modem is as simple as plugging it into your ethernet card. No extra software or tinkering required. Monitor: ViewSonic makes the best monitors out there. I absolutely LOVE my 19" Viewsonic G90F (.21 Horiz Dot Pitch, .14 Vert Dot Pitch, .25 Diag Dot Pitch, True flat screen, 1600x1200 max res). Mouse: "Mouse?" You say? Yes, there are awesome mice. And the Microsoft Optical Mouse is not among them. You basically have two options. Your first option is "good mouse" (MS Intellimouse Explorer), your second option is "the friggin allmighty god of mice." I refer to none other than the legendary Karna Razer Boomslang 2000. At $100 its a bit pricey, and it has a bit of a breaking-in period, but you cannot buy a better mouse. For the first two weeks, you will absolutely HATE it. Once you acquire the taste, though, comparing it to any other mouse would be like comparing a Yugo to a Porche. Karna Razer Boomslang 2000 is the mouse to buy. Speakers: You can't beat a good set of headphones for complete immersion. But when you have some friends over and want to watch a movie (Or want to be able to tell EXACTLY where that sound is comming from), the Camridge Soundworks Desktop Theatre 3500 Digital $250) is the way to go. Putting the thing together and finding a "sweet spot" is a task, be sure of it, but nothing is as cool as hearing actually bullets whiz right by your head. Hard Disk Drive: Maxtor 100Gb k014100GH Ultra-DMA/100 ($270). 9ms seek time and 5400 RPM. You wont find anything bigger or faster without using a SCSI HDD. Trust me, SCSI just isnt worth the exponential cost increase. Case: This is where you are on your own. The handsomeness of a case means nothing. A pretty case that's impossible to work inside usually comes with the hidden cost of several bottles of Advil. When picking out a case, ensure that the inside is roomy, that everything is easily accessable, and most importantly, that you have a top horizontal-mounted power supply (You may need to buy a new 300W power supply depending on how many goodies you decide load your box with). Add a Diskette drive, an OS (WinME is you're buying all your hardware new), and a Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro to top it all off. Bake till golden brown. Let chill for 30min. And you have one hell of an awesome computer.

Well, GZ, if you find that you just can't shake that cockpit fetish then perhaps you should look into Star Trek: Bridge Commander. I diden't really notice any of these issues. I, however, will just cross my fingers and hope that GCO ship interiors will be modeled. The thought of running a Battlecruiser with all my best buds... gives me shivers. I wont hold my breath, but there is always hope, yeah?

It seems we have a lot of RTS fans in here as well. Have any of you played Earth 2150 or The Moon Project? I can garauntee that, provided your system has adequate gusto, The Moon Project is the RTS afficionado's wet dream. As is obligated in todays RTS market, there are three different and very, very, very distinct factions. Some games claim that the three warring powers are unique, but The Moon Project is really the only RTS I've ever played that not only proves true in that respect, but takes it to a near extreme. There is no way that, after playing the Lunar Corporation for several days, that you will be able to jump right into the United Civilized States or Eurasian Dynasty games without learning them from scratch. The interfaces are different, the technologies are different, the research trees are different, the way they harvest materials are different, and they each require vastly different strategies to get anywhere at all. Unit building is very similar to what you find in Alpha Centauri. You design everything piece-by-piece. Every weapon, chassis, and piece of equipment you have to pick out yourself. You *could* try to make every unit the ultimate war machine. But then you have to take into account that different weapons and technologies have different effects against different factions further depending on the unique units they've designed! To further accentuate the games untimateness, you have full control over game options including unit worth limits (Which you can turn off for computer-killing battles) and fully enabled weapons of mass destruction. Its perfectly reasonable to send a fleet of 300 hellicopters carrying nuclear bombs to irradicate every trace of the enemy (And perfectly reasonable to have 300 SDI centers to shoot down said hellicopters, nuclear ballistic missiles, etc). Just remember that 300 nuclear explosions will bring even the heartiest of computers crashing to a halt. But there is nothing more screenshot-worthy. Because of all this depth and complication (I didnt even mention that you deform terrain and dig tunnels...very usefull for digging past defense walls etc) the game has a HUGE learning curve. There are more options (Especially in relation to units) than you can fathom and absolutely infinate number of unit possibilities. Even with all this ranting, I havn't even scratched the surface. The Moon Project is a definate must-have for all of you TA fans. EBgames.com has it listed for $33.95 right now. If you don't have it, I would recommend ordering it. If you're more simple-minded person who dosnt want to spend several hours learning his RTS game, then I suggest you pick up Emporer: Battle for Dune... its about as average as an RTS game can get. But I personally garauntee you, The Moon Project will be one of, if not THE, best RTS you will ever play.

Freespace 2 is pretty much more of what made Freespace so fun. There are some cap ships that are twice to three times as large as anything in Freespace. It's definatey a must-have if you haven't played it yet. But I have to warn you, it has one LAME resolves-nothing ending. Another game you should check out is Allegiance. It's online-only but with the realistic neutonian physics and RTS-style background, its the ultimate team-based online game. As far as Majestic is concerned, you can tell the game during which times it's allowed to call. If you can give it full access to you, though, you're in for one trippy ride. Nothing's as fun as getting creepy threating phonecalls at 2:30am while your still half-asleep. I can describe the game best by saying its either 1) like being in an episode of the X-Files or 2) revisiting the old adventure title "Spycraft: The Great Game". Majestic is definately worth a look. I did return Max Payne for StarTopia, though. StarTopia surprises me a little. After the steaming puddle of shyte that was Tropico, my opinion of sim-games had dropped to an all-time low. StarTopia, however, is quite a bit deeper than I had anticipated. The SP missions are also rather creativily handled, giving you new, unique objectives every level. It gives me something to do, at least between playing Majestic and reading the hate-mail I'm getting for my EBgames Max Payne review (Even though I have the most objective & honest review on there). But its all just something to keep me busy till BCM. P.S. SC, I LOVE those forest shots. The only other thing I want to see is a massive cityscape. If not in BCM, then maybe GCO? [ 08-02-2001: Message edited by: Scrivener ]

I have a copy of TA somewhere around here. I was never really that impressed with it. As far as RTS is concerned The Moon Project is the absolute standard against which all RTS games must be measured. Anyhoo, I just picked up a copy of StarTopia. I walked right into my local EB, Max Payne in hand, and Aaron at the counter says "Too short?" ROFL. How sad. I need to get in on a good closed beta program or something. My fondest gaming memories were all during betas (UO, Allegiance, and Sacrifice). You just can't duplicate the community atmosphere. But off to the games, at least while Majestic has me on Standby. I'll prolly get a freakish call sometime in the wee ungodly hours of the morning.

Shoot, I'll play anything but sports. I was considering Startopia, but aside from TollerCoaster Tycoon, I'm not a big SimGame person. I just cancelled my I-War 2 pre-order (The game has been out in the UK for months, so I dont understand what is holding it up here) when the demo made it quite clear that the game had been dumbed down by epic proportions. The other option was Arcanum, but the demo left me iffy. I own most of whats out there right now, but theres always a chance I missed something or didnt pay a game the attention it may deserve. IMHO, all sports games are worthless trash. If you want to play sports... hell they're sports, go play.

Since you're new, I'll take the honor of repeating the SC's allmighty words: It's done when it's done, and right now it aint done. There is a lot on the line with this game and the SC is making sure its as perfect as technically possible. Thus, "soon" would be the most appropriate release date. When is "soon?" Who knows. Soon.

So one morning I get a call from EB telling me that my Max Payne pre-order has arrived. I run down to the store, fly home, and install the game. By 10pm that evening I had finished the game... only to be slapped in the fact by the unlocking of a "Medium" difficulty level (The game is WAY to easy as-is, these should have been available right off the bat). So the next day I played about half-way through the game till I was blue in the face and absolutely sick of the game. So... I decide to give they're "super-easy-to-use" level editor a run. Well, it turns out that its not so easy. They include a quick-reference guide in the Readme, but beyond that nothing on how anything works what you need to know to do anything beyond a square textured room. What a drag. After a couple days of debate, I've decided that Max has to go back. In my book, a game that dosn't outlive the EB 10-day return policy isnt worth my money. What's with these 10-hour games the industry has been throwing at us lately? You'd think for $50 you would get something with a little more content than two trips to the movies (Assuming you buy two tickets, drinks & popcorn, etc). The engine was pretty, but the story was shallow and linear, leaving NO replayability value. There is no multiplayer and I dont have the patience to trial-and-error the editor into usefullness. Its going back. Today. The problem is this, BCM isnt out yet and theres really not much out there worth buying right now. So I need something else to put my money into. Any game recommendations guys (BTW, been playing Majestic and it ROCKS. Definately worth a look if you want something different)?

I'm not all that experienced with BC so don't jump all over me if I say something unwittingly stupid: 1) I was unfortunate enough to end up with the "Error writing to the temporary location" error. After uninstalling the BCM Episode 1 demo, however, I was able to install Episode 2 without a hitch. 2) Ep2 seems significantly more polished than Ep1. In any case, though. There are obviously still a few issues to work out: a) I've had experience with the "sliding floor" phenomenon that was mentioned in another post. It seems like a fogged ~25ft x ~25ft square that moves out of sync with the rest of the ground/scenery/etc when you move (ATV or on Foot). After approaching the planet in the first scenario, I couldnt help but notice that the ocean looked sort of paralaxed. It was very hard to determine where, exactly, the surface of the water was, except by the islands which just seemed to float around in space. Maybe it was just the ocean being reflective and mirroring the sky?