Saturday, January 24, 2004
Last night we saw Impulse , an acapella group Brian is in, open for Take Note, an all female acepella group. It was very impressive!
After that we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, then proceeded to play waaaaaaaaaay too much Diablo 2 (Despite forsaking it, I had to return to the game).
Assjack is Ben, DrensBeeotc is Karen :), ImDaLeadaa is Kimmie, PrawnCocktail is Kyle, Secretly Evil is Mike, and Wilsonjr is Matt. Kargos is me.
Hopefully we'll do some filming for American Ninja 6 - 2 today... we'll see!
After that we watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, then proceeded to play waaaaaaaaaay too much Diablo 2 (Despite forsaking it, I had to return to the game).
Assjack is Ben, DrensBeeotc is Karen :), ImDaLeadaa is Kimmie, PrawnCocktail is Kyle, Secretly Evil is Mike, and Wilsonjr is Matt. Kargos is me.
Hopefully we'll do some filming for American Ninja 6 - 2 today... we'll see!
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Far Cry Demo Review:
Holy crap. Holy crap I say. If you've been following your PC gaming news, you should at least have heard of Far Cry. The developers have been promising a lot of things: open ended gameplay, state of the art graphics that detail terrain for miles, realistic enemy AI and believable physics.
Yesterday the single player demo for Far Cry was released, and I can certainly say I was quite stunned by it. Even running a P4 3.0ghz with a Radeon 9700 pro, I expected all this rendered terrain to crunch down on me hard, but when the demo started up at a nice brisk 1024x768, I barely had any slow-downs. Less-powerful systems should be able to get similar results by turning down texture quality, etc. Oh, and unless you die, you never have to load a level once, as soon as the game starts you can go anywhere you want (although the demo limits your exploration via attack helicopters).
The world of Far Cry is truly immersive. You start out sitting in a rubber dingy with a motor hooked on the end, a pistol, and a few grenades. Your task is to fight your way past a few mini islands onto this main island you see before you, and destroy a satelite dish that looks to be about a mile away. You can do this any way you'd like: sneak past the enemy troops by going quietly or sneaking through foliage. You can blast in and try and take on some mean looking mercenaries. Or you could just circumvent them by taking the boat around a different way. To help you with your task you get a really really really really neat pair of bincoculars, that let you see a good ways away. They also highlight visible enemies, and somehow pick up on their conversations. They come in handy, especially when you need to check if reinforcements are landing a mile behind you.
Sooner or later, you're going to have to fight these bad boys. This is where Far Cry really really shines. I've never been this stunned by enemy AI since the first time I played Half-life. Each team of mercs has some sort of commander, who barks orders at them as they try and flank you. There is nothing more exilerating than cowering behind a rock, listening to a gruff voice shout, "Get him! Get him now! Flank left!"
These mercs also know when they going is getting tough. If they are having trouble killing you, one will often shout, "Keep him busy! I'll go for help!" as he dashes away for the nearest vehicle or radio (both of which can be destroyed before the bastard gets there). And when he calles reinforcements, they actually show up from real locations, not by spawning into the map randomly. Enemies will home in on your last known position (if you manage to sneak away) then fan out from that point to find you. Often I've seen troops, failing to find my location, set up ambushes by getting behind trees and other obstacles, waiting for me to show my face again. This is the first game since the Thief series and System Shock 2 that actually made me feel like I was being hunted.
Despite its actiony feel, Far Cry is definately more realistic that most when it comes to weapon damage. A few good shots and you will be down, no mistake about it. If a mortar or grenade lands too close to you, not only will you take damage but you will also temporarily lose hearing and your vision will shake. When enemies are slain they will fall with realistic rag-doll goodness, toppling over barrels to land floating in water. Boats get stuck on sand. Speaking of boats, the vehicles in the game are just as amazing. Anything you see that can move, you can use, and if the mercs see you, expect some awesome chases on the water. Some of the boats come with mounted machine guns, which can make quick work of many enemies.
I've already mentioned the AI's used of audio commands, but I can't emphasize enough how wonderful the sound in this game is. You really need a good 5.1 system to get the most out of it. Nothing like hearing gunfire and voices behind you, to let you know the mercs are back on the job. Story-wise, it looks like a B-movie game. You've been helping some lady tour the island when you were attacked by mercs, left for dead, some pal who radios and gives you advice even though you don't know who he is, etc... none of it is important for enjoying the game.
Far Cry looks like it is shaping up to be an incredible game, do yourself a favor and download the demo right now!
Holy crap. Holy crap I say. If you've been following your PC gaming news, you should at least have heard of Far Cry. The developers have been promising a lot of things: open ended gameplay, state of the art graphics that detail terrain for miles, realistic enemy AI and believable physics.
Yesterday the single player demo for Far Cry was released, and I can certainly say I was quite stunned by it. Even running a P4 3.0ghz with a Radeon 9700 pro, I expected all this rendered terrain to crunch down on me hard, but when the demo started up at a nice brisk 1024x768, I barely had any slow-downs. Less-powerful systems should be able to get similar results by turning down texture quality, etc. Oh, and unless you die, you never have to load a level once, as soon as the game starts you can go anywhere you want (although the demo limits your exploration via attack helicopters).
The world of Far Cry is truly immersive. You start out sitting in a rubber dingy with a motor hooked on the end, a pistol, and a few grenades. Your task is to fight your way past a few mini islands onto this main island you see before you, and destroy a satelite dish that looks to be about a mile away. You can do this any way you'd like: sneak past the enemy troops by going quietly or sneaking through foliage. You can blast in and try and take on some mean looking mercenaries. Or you could just circumvent them by taking the boat around a different way. To help you with your task you get a really really really really neat pair of bincoculars, that let you see a good ways away. They also highlight visible enemies, and somehow pick up on their conversations. They come in handy, especially when you need to check if reinforcements are landing a mile behind you.
Sooner or later, you're going to have to fight these bad boys. This is where Far Cry really really shines. I've never been this stunned by enemy AI since the first time I played Half-life. Each team of mercs has some sort of commander, who barks orders at them as they try and flank you. There is nothing more exilerating than cowering behind a rock, listening to a gruff voice shout, "Get him! Get him now! Flank left!"
These mercs also know when they going is getting tough. If they are having trouble killing you, one will often shout, "Keep him busy! I'll go for help!" as he dashes away for the nearest vehicle or radio (both of which can be destroyed before the bastard gets there). And when he calles reinforcements, they actually show up from real locations, not by spawning into the map randomly. Enemies will home in on your last known position (if you manage to sneak away) then fan out from that point to find you. Often I've seen troops, failing to find my location, set up ambushes by getting behind trees and other obstacles, waiting for me to show my face again. This is the first game since the Thief series and System Shock 2 that actually made me feel like I was being hunted.
Despite its actiony feel, Far Cry is definately more realistic that most when it comes to weapon damage. A few good shots and you will be down, no mistake about it. If a mortar or grenade lands too close to you, not only will you take damage but you will also temporarily lose hearing and your vision will shake. When enemies are slain they will fall with realistic rag-doll goodness, toppling over barrels to land floating in water. Boats get stuck on sand. Speaking of boats, the vehicles in the game are just as amazing. Anything you see that can move, you can use, and if the mercs see you, expect some awesome chases on the water. Some of the boats come with mounted machine guns, which can make quick work of many enemies.
I've already mentioned the AI's used of audio commands, but I can't emphasize enough how wonderful the sound in this game is. You really need a good 5.1 system to get the most out of it. Nothing like hearing gunfire and voices behind you, to let you know the mercs are back on the job. Story-wise, it looks like a B-movie game. You've been helping some lady tour the island when you were attacked by mercs, left for dead, some pal who radios and gives you advice even though you don't know who he is, etc... none of it is important for enjoying the game.
Far Cry looks like it is shaping up to be an incredible game, do yourself a favor and download the demo right now!
