The Gaming Lounge: Beyond - Part 5

[Nathan]

Replay – TimeSplitters 2



This week we take a look at Free Radical Design's TimeSplitter's 2, which boasts many former Rare employees that worked on games like GoldenEye 007 on the N64 among its developers. We were amazed at just how many similarities there are between this goofy game and everyone's favorite N64 FPS when we popped in the PS2 version.

Go here for the video.

 

[Benstamania]

Im thinking about picking up Dishonored.

 

[Soapy]

I feel like I'm about to get sucked down into the Warhammer 40K rabbit hole. SOMEONE STOP ME.

 

[Nathan]

Let me give you a little push.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Quick Soapy, while there's still time!

Spoiler

 

[Soapy]

You aren't helping!

I've got the Dawn of War complete collection + Space Marine sitting and my Steam cart and like... six books in my Amazon cart.

Spoiler

**** me... I'm trying to push myself. :/

 

[Nathan]

Anyone playing DayZ? I think I have to start to one of these days.

DayZ Stalker Psycho Screams IM GONNA WEAR YOUR HAIR

 

[Iceman]

I feel like I'm about to get sucked down into the Warhammer 40K rabbit hole. SOMEONE STOP ME.

I'll offer my hand.. & then withdraw it. W40K can improve your life (on the strict condition that you're a well balanced person). If you really need to get out of this I'll tell you to play the Space Marine game which was quite a disappointment. Dawn of War II (what I've played so far) is looking pretty good though.

 

[Iceman]

Let me give you a little push.

Quick Soapy, while there's still time!

Spoiler

Haha t:

You aren't helping!

I've got the Dawn of War complete collection + Space Marine sitting and my Steam cart and like... six books in my Amazon cart.

Spoiler

**** me... I'm trying to push myself. :/

Oh you're going for the books as well! I read a bad place of a lot of Black Library which is the fantasy version of Warhammer. Love that all the books are connected within the same universe and all contribute to its lore & history. I'm very interested in reading more of 40K as well as it works in the same way. The awesome thing about it is you can have fantasy style characters in deep space as well as pure futuristic cybernetic demigods. I used to buy the armies that people use to play the tabletop games as well although more for show on my shelf than to actually play with.

Hope all that helped with your problem t:

 

[Nathan]

I love it in Dawn of War II, when your hero becomes so overpowered to the point you can just leave the PC, go make something to eat, watch an episode on TV, come back and he's still alive and kicking.

As for Space Marine, it's not a bad game, but it really doesn't do anything new and just feels way too basic. I definitely expected more from the makers of Dawn of War.

 

[Soapy]

The Dawn of War collection went on sale last night for $10 (over $100 value) so I snagged that. I played the demos for Space Marine and Kill Team. Space Marine seems fine, the mix of shooting and melee is pretty cool. It seems to be dirt cheap in some places, so I'll probably get it. Kill Team seems alright as well, but it's kind of shocking that someone would make a co-op game with no online play, which unfortunately limits its appeal to me.

I'm not going to get too crazy with the novels (I hope). I mainly just want to learn a bit about the history and lore. The ones I'm looking at are the first three Horus Heresy books, and the first three Space Wolves books.

I have no intention of getting into the miniatures or the game, but I took a look anyway. That stuff is insanely expensive.

 

[Nathan]

I tried to get into the tabletop game. But I'm a too lazy son a b**ch. I bought a set of Marines years ago and never painted them. Never even played a game. I'm so grateful for the PC games. Just a few clicks and I can waste heretics and Xenos as a group of badass Space Marines.

 

[Soapy]

I really don't understand why you have to paint that stuff yourself. I mean, couldn't they come prepainted? And for the people who like to customize stuff, if you absolutely positively had to paint it yourself, you could always just get something to remove the paint and go to town on it. Win-win.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Dark Shadows, not such a bad movie, but nothing to treasure
Wonder if it will be like Wolverine Origins and make a better adaption in game than it did on film

 

[Nathan]

I really don't understand why you have to paint that stuff yourself. I mean, couldn't they come prepainted? And for the people who like to customize stuff, if you absolutely positively had to paint it yourself, you could always just get something to remove the paint and go to town on it. Win-win.

Probably because there are way too many different chapters and factions. It might not be lucrative enough to release like 20 differently painted tanks and Space Marine sets, if the majority of them might not sell. Same for Orks, Eldar, Chaos Marines, Tau, Tyranids, etc. Imagine how gigantic a Tableshop would have to be to hold all these figures.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Assuming the next gen consoles do come out in 2013, its a safe bet that the next CoD will be coming out on multiple platforms across gen. IW will be developing the main game for the next gen consoles and Neversoft will likely be doing the lesser port for the current gen ones. I really would not be surprised if that's how it goes down and I don't see as much different than how Activision's been proceeding with development with the CoD series (not to mention many of their other franchises) the last several years, splitting up who does the PS3/360/PC version from the Wii, which I believe has usually has been a different studio.

Depends on the game. With the Modern Warfare games, Activision has entrusted Treyarch with the Wii versions. But with World at War and Black Ops, Treyarch worked on the Wii version alongside the PS3/360/PC versions. If Infinity Ward had the amount of people in its studio like Treyarch does, Activision would most likely expect them to develop the lesser versions as well.

1 studio making the game for at least 7 (PS3, 360, Wii-U, PS4, next-Xbox, PC, possibly 3DS) platforms is a lot, especially given the varied hardware. It'd make more sense for them to get their lead experienced team to focus just on the best versions (next gen + PC) and let a lesser studio (who really doesn't have experience with the genre) handle the porting

Activision will hand off handheld versions to an independent developer like n-Space and nStigate. That essentially leaves the PS3/360/Wii U versions and the next-gen Orbis/Durango/PC versions. It's safe to assume with the Treyarch Call of Dutys that Treyarch will handle all versions since it well essentially just be two slightly different versions.

As for the other studios, it all depends on how much more powerful the next generations will be. If the rumors pointing out that the next-gen isn't going to be that big of a leap, we can probably expect a studio being able to handle developing multiple versions. If the next-gen is a bigger leap though, then the smaller studios like Infinity Ward will probably need help with the porting.

But that's going to be at the beginning of the next generation. Once next generation is full swing and development for the PS3/360 is pretty much forgotten, there is going to be less of a need for multiple studios to handle one game. Frankly, I think that Activision is trying to set it up to put out several Call of Duty games per year. And I think that has the potential to kill the franchise.

 

[Fading]

Honestly, I'd welcome that. I do think COD is a decent series, but the market is too FPS heavy. COD also tends to overshadow other great games. I think COD crashing would cause other companies to quit trying to remake COD for their company, and innovate again. To be fair, it's not just FPS's, after WoW the MMO genre saw a LOT of WoW clones as well.

 

[zenith16]

Honestly, I'd welcome that. I do think COD is a decent series, but the market is too FPS heavy. COD also tends to overshadow other great games. I think COD crashing would cause other companies to quit trying to remake COD for their company, and innovate again. To be fair, it's not just FPS's, after WoW the MMO genre saw a LOT of WoW clones as well.

with COD may be but as far as MMO's are involved it has more to do with cost. when you put too much into graphis like what happened with the FF MMo's early on it cost alot to maintain it all and look what happened there cause they were worryed most on that it be came crash fest cause they conserned with it's look. and had to relaunch and how it's effecting the company with their main ip for ff . the reason so many fallow the wow model look wise is due to cost it's cheaper for them and they last longer

The only thing they should be worrying about "stand out wise" is what it'll add to the genre of MMO's game play wise so while some may think and like to say DCUO to some that may have copied the model of wow as I've people complain on forums and they said that swotor etc they have set them selves apart with what they put into the game game play instead of the look. but if your doin some thing that you done before game play wise you might be in trouble. which why some people are iffy on the marvel one. well that from what I've seen. right now were in recession status and and no one want to put in that kinda of effort cause the return is not likely right now. it's all in the content and not just looks. which is the deal there.

 

[Soapy]

Honestly, I'd welcome that. I do think COD is a decent series, but the market is too FPS heavy. COD also tends to overshadow other great games. I think COD crashing would cause other companies to quit trying to remake COD for their company, and innovate again. To be fair, it's not just FPS's, after WoW the MMO genre saw a LOT of WoW clones as well.

Agreed.

 

[craigdbfan]

Just out of curiosity is WoW still the biggest MMORPG right now or is it one of those Korean ones like Ragnarok Online which are F2P with them making all their revenue from item stores?

 

[The Squirrel]

As far as the USA goes, I believe WOW is still Number 1.

 

[Soapy]

It depends on how you look at it. There are free to play MMOs out there that totally eclipse WoW, but subscription MMOs? Nah, I think Warcraft is still head and shoulders above everything else.

 

[craigdbfan]

As far as the USA goes, I believe WOW is still Number 1.

It depends on how you look at it. There are free to play MMOs out there that totally eclipse WoW, but subscription MMOs? Nah, I think Warcraft is still head and shoulders above everything else.

Thanks for the answer guys.

I've been thinking about jumping back into an MMO. I was considering Ragnarok as I used to play that game a bit back in the day. I'm just not sure if I want to put that much time though and MMOs always require a decent amount of dedication in terms of time.

 

[zenith16]

It's wow, then guild wars and DCUO there now , But what is still revered in North America and through out the world is EverQuest

it's just wow talked mostly due cause of certain reporters saying / looking for a wow killer. everyone is on EQ as a model to beat though depends and who your talking to.

Thanks for the answer guys.

I've been thinking about jumping back into an MMO. I was considering Ragnarok as I used to play that game a bit back in the day. I'm just not sure if I want to put that much time though and MMOs always require a decent amount of dedication in terms of time.

from what they've been pushing with most people in the industry that have headed to the MMo's space especially with those that have gone Free to play. it's go at your own pace now. when you have the free time to do so play as much as you like. it shouldn't be a chore. In other shouldn't make you don't what you don't have time to do. it's not a race go at your own pace.

 

[Soapy]

Some of these are a little out of date, but here are some charts for anyone interested in seeing what the MMO landscape looks like in terms of subscriptions: