Comments on: Clear Sky Info Influx

By: kong

kong — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:51:21 +0000

Stalker is the reason I own a new mean machine. HL2 did not make me spend money on new hardware.
Operation Flashpoint and Stalker are good examples for the creative and raw power of Eastern Europe.
Sometimes I wish the iron curtain back because it kept capitalism a little more humane.
Most of the time I am very glad to have the former enemies in our cultural pool. There is nothing like drinking Vodka with Poles, Russians, Czech, Slovac etc. Good people and their drinks and games are so pleasing my taste. Nasdorovje!

By: dhex

dhex — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:53:19 +0000

count me as one american who enjoys the hopeless, gritty and black humors of eastern european devs.

By: Skalpadda

Skalpadda — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:55:03 +0000

Oleg must never have played Half Life 2, Deux Ex, Doom 3, Prey, F.E.A.R and the legions of others.

Interestingly, of the ones you mention, Half Life 2 is the only one that doesn’t look like most of the terrain and characters are made out of metal or plastic to me. That’s how I percieve it, everyone has their own way of judging what looks good or not of course.

For me, the “gritty realism” comes down to that Stalker or Half Life 2 is pretty much depicting how my home town would look if it was placed in the settings in question. Fear or Doom 3 doesn’t capture that feeling for me.

By: Gap Gen

Gap Gen — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:08:54 +0000

Visually, there’s not a lot of difference between the screenshot at the top and the sneaking level in CoD4, although it helps that it’s set in the same place. My point is that if you have comparable settings, the direct visual look is similar, even if the style and atmosphere is very different. Although in both you end up running away from wild dogs.

By: much2much

much2much — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:26:54 +0000

I don’t mind the drab palette but Stalker has a poor visual “feel”.

Not the art or the graphics engine or anything I can put my finger on but the fact that nothing has a proper demarcation. It is like everything is out of focus. A niggly thing kind of similar to where draw distances pop in and out (which Stalker actually manages well).

I think using a drab only palette may limit the contrasts you get in a game and using bright/drab contrast is a way to create a more effective 3d illusion.

By: Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:21:38 +0000

Taxman,

From what I’ve read COD4 and Bioshock both sold respectably on PC. Although I don’t think I can accuse COD4 of being bring and shiny, Bioshock definitely was.

Still it’s a silly thing to say, but I sort of understand where he’s coming from. I have east-euro relatives and they have a very definite image(stereotype) of what Americans are like. Indeed the more ambitious among them take that (negative) stereotype and actually hold it up as something positive, if you know what I mean.

By: silencer

silencer — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:55:10 +0000

I suspect it’s the flatness of the colours rather than anything else – there’s no as much (for want of a better word) showmanship in STALKER as any of the games listed. Stalker is, fundamentally, a game played in a rubbish dump.

Counterpoint: What about Quake versus Duke Nukem 3D? Quake was almost all shit brown, whereas Duke was colorful and had more of an “environment”. Quake in the end won, but arguably that was due to deathmatch (although Duke had it too), GLQuake, and it having a released sequel.

By: James T

James T — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:25:01 +0000

In India you need dancing, in Asia you need girls in short skirts, and you skip Africa ‘cos there’s not enough money there. [/scholarly, respectful grasp on foreign cultures. They eat horses, don't they? How dreadful!]

Hang on…

If it hasn’t already happened, it doubtless soon will. It’s an ellipsis, anyway

An ellipsis is three dots. SHAME ON YOU.

By: Jaxtrasi

Jaxtrasi — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:19:53 +0000

I was at an educational conference a couple of years ago where we had a speaker who was a veteran producer of TV screenplays who had moved into education research.

He was firmly and strongly of the opinion that if you wanted to sell something to the US market, it needed to be black & white, good vs evil, and the good guys needed to win (whether it be a film about war and violence or not – even a romance movie needs to be good vs evil with good triumphing).

On the other hand, if you wanted to sell something to the (I think he meant western) European market, it needed to be about the validation of the imperfect self – a recognition of how it was okay to be human, and humans suck quite a lot, so it’s okay to suck quite a lot.

Looks like eastern Europe gives us a third major structure, of stoic perseverance without reward in the face of bleakness.

Can anyone do Africa, India or the Orient?

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:58:06 +0000

I talked to Oleg about this recently actually, and the same topic – I mentioned the Gothic thing about the changing colours, and asked whether that made sense.

I suspect it’s the flatness of the colours rather than anything else – there’s no as much (for want of a better word) showmanship in STALKER as any of the games listed. Stalker is, fundamentally, a game played in a rubbish dump.

EDIT: And I stress, in my interview at least – I haven’t read EG’s – this is coming from Publishers to them. If they – and the Gothic guys – are getting told by Publishers this is what the market wants, you can hardly blame them for repeating it.

By: Jaxtrasi

Jaxtrasi — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:57:54 +0000

Duoae,

“Over-reliance”?

Isn’t that a little like saying that Eastern europe “over-relies” on dark, depressing stories? A culture is a culture.

By: Taxman

Taxman — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:23:30 +0000

Wait wasn’t everyone complaining that games were too drab and brown ?

Oleg must never have played Half Life 2, Deux Ex, Doom 3, Prey, F.E.A.R and the legions of others.

I like games with flashy colours it’s a break from the norm & I can only think of only a handful of games that even fit that description.

Actually I recall sales of Stalker on a territorial basis and the game sold more in eastern Europe and Russian territories than it did in the USA and his comments though misguided & condescending are probably born out of why the game didn’t sell that much in the USA. It’s not a culture thing just consoles even Apple Mac’s have been eating away at the potential PC gamer user base.