Comments on: The RPS Electronic Wireless Show Episode 14

By: Helm

Helm — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:25:49 +0000

@ John Walker: I am not saying you didn’t acknowledge these possibilities. It just all sounded way too positive in the end, hah. I’m wondering what from what we’ve seen about TSW so far warrants the positive attitude besides that it’s a game that hasn’t come out yet and therefore could completely theoretically be good?

You guys like games and you are excited about new games and would rather talk about them in a hopeful manner than the horrible jaded cynicism of other internet places, I completely understand that and I wouldn’t disagree if it were some other sort of game but it’s an MMO and I think everybody should be double and triple-cautious with those.

By: Muzman

Muzman — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:18:05 +0000

Nyargh, DRM contoversy again. Oh well, I was hoping it’d be something interesting (No doubt our podcasters do too. If I played more new games I’d probably be up in arms too however).
There’s a great satirical ARG in the whole DRM thing somewhere. You get a game and have to try and make it run and the first one to do it gets a prize or something. But it has ten layers of security and you’ve got to hunt around security sites for cracks and translate foreign languages to find the special super secret corner of the usenet where you find the address for the chat site to talk to the guy who only speaks Esperanto and sends you the secret message about the underground rave where the guy is distributing the code via audio. Some of the puzzles can only be solved by reinstalling windows. That kind of thing.

By: Tarn

Tarn — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 10:48:20 +0000

I’m not sure who it was, but somebody sounded extremely youthful on that podcast. :) Perhaps gaming journos escape being spoiled by the harsh realities of aging?

First time I’ve managed to listen to one of these, courtesy of a handy new iPhone. Very enjoyable!

I also disagree strongly about day/night. Two other games that use it well are GRID with its ’24 hour’ races and The Witcher. The latter is particularly effective because day and night feel so very different, with night being a much riskier time to be wandering about.

I would agree that games which have a day/night cycle for no reason other than eye candy are rather missing the point, though, and in those cases it does run the risk of being an obstruction rather than anything useful. I’ve always been disappointed that the GTA games don’t make more use of day/night.

By: drewski

drewski — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:12:01 +0000

Awww, I was hoping the RAGE was something I could get really, really irritated about.

But it’s just more crappy DRM. Where’s my tentacle-rape-in-Fallujah-against-children-simulator?

By: jalf

jalf — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:34:39 +0000

@Jim: TSW didn’t really ramp up until Conan had shipped though, which means that a lot of the design team could have worked on both games.

Anyway, when it comes to Funcom, it’s not so much the game design that worries me, but the technology… AO and AoC both suffered from some very similar technical problems and some limitations that virtually haven’t been seen in other games for 5 years. (come on, zoning? Really?)

I trust RT to tell a kick-ass story, and that alone is enough to make me interested in TSW. The fact that the setting also seems sweet just helps reinforce that. I’m looking forward to the game, and I’m really curious how it turns out…. But I really really wish they’d license the server technology from someone else. Or make it a singleplayer game (more room for RT’s storytelling)

By: Jim Rossignol

Jim Rossignol — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:05:52 +0000

Actually, since The Secret World has been in development at the same time as Conan the core design team is likely to be quite different. They’ll probably use the same studio of artists and content monkeys, but the people who’ll direct and produce Secret World won’t be the same as those who produced Conan. The original “game director” for Conan left Funcom too.

By: Xercies

Xercies — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:35:24 +0000

But Conan does have something to do with Funcom, so I’m guessing a lot of the Funcom people who were on AOC will be on this new MMO. And twice now they haven’t learnt there lessons. So I’m being very wary of their next MMO. Sure its a bit to early, but once bitten twice shy. Especially the bit I got from AoC.

Also a skill based MMO can be done, look at Darkfall and the original Ultima Online. But that doesn’t take away the needing fro grind. It actually furthers it. But epic stories can work, its just why would you want an MMO.

I think the MMO is too saught after these days, just look at Bioware and some others. Single Player games that are turned into MMOs. Stop they are not needed, MMOs are really rubbish at the moment. If you want to do an epic storyline, do it in singleplayer please we haven’t had many single player RPGs.

/minirant

By: Azradesh

Azradesh — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:23:13 +0000

Ah I thought it may be about that Riddick DRM thing, where’s the RAGE tread you promised? Three layers of DRM? Insane!

I’d better stop now and save it for that RAGE tread :P

By: Andrew Dunn

Andrew Dunn — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:10:28 +0000

No One Lives Forever had good underwater stuff!

By: John Walker

John Walker — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 09:23:27 +0000

Helm, I’m bemused. I’m fairly certain most of our discussion about TSW was about how we suspected some of the claims being made now won’t make it to the final version. Also, we talked about Anarchy Online, and how it had problems. We’re looking forward to it, and will continue to do so until we see reason why we shouldn’t. Also, RT had nothing to do with Conan, so the comparison would seem unfair.

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 08:30:37 +0000

The Rage Inducing Game is the new Riddick thing, thanks to its DRM.

EDIT: I think John’s wrong about Day/Night cycles, btw. Though – yes – if you do have to choose a time, choose sunset.

By: Muzman

Muzman — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 06:56:31 +0000

We should differentiate between ‘cel shading’ as in XIII and Jet Grind Radio etc, and ‘cel shading’ as in the new Prince of Persia etc. And TF2 isn’t cel shaded at all… is it?

The ’4D’ game could very well be about, not time travel but some sort of 4d geometry hypercube world (check the animation lower down). Which would be the next step in one up-ing these mind bending rotational platformers that are all the rage. (how the hell that’s going to work I don’t know. I like the idea of extradimensional spaces rendered in games though just because someone might make a Cthulhu game and have proper “non-Euclidian Angles!” in it.)

The day/night thing sounds fair enough but Stalker is definitely the exception that proves the rule. You are supposed to be braving the dangerous wilderness after all (and the graphics don’t suffer which is quite a feat). Stalker is a better game for having it, atmosphere and immersion being fairly important. Being able to sleep through most of it makes much more sense though (thanks mods), particularly when you don’t have the gear to brave the darkness and just have to hang around camp until dawn.

I thought NOLF’s underwater bits were ok. Quite tense actually.

As a bit of a Deus Ex: Invisible War apologist you fellas should do a big spoilery indepth thing ’cause I think it’s actually worth it. (and discuss what’s wrong with the ending(s). I thought they were pretty good. The, obviously, main one being really damn good, for my money.)

I have no idea what the super secret rage inducing game is.

I miss mag design too no you mention it. The Escapist still does a bit, for its article headings. It’s not the same thing but notably more than any other games site (and quite good work too)

Ok that’s all I got. Jolly good show chaps (I might be talking out of school here but I think these two are more uh ‘radiogenic’ than the other two. No offence. What do you reckon gang?)