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SplaTtzZ

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Everything posted by SplaTtzZ

  1. Have you tried formatting from DoS? From the command prompt you type deltree /y c:\*.* and it generally deletes everything and anything from your hard drive (or at least in the C: partition). A word of caution though, i havent actually tried this before myself only read about it. I too have had lots of trouble formatting on occasion. Particularly with update versions of windows and especially with Vista. I have an update version of Vista and it seems it will never format from DoS whilst a current version of Vista is installed; it runs through all the loading crap then goes into windows anyway. It says to install the OS from the existing operating system. If you're having the same problem it might be beneficial to boot from a startup CD of Windows Xp or even Windows 98; as these will allow you to format your hard drive from DoS and then install said version of windows. After that you can always install Vista. Failing that i'm not sure what you could do, generally i would think it pretty rare for a virus to affect MS-DoS these days but there are some that can; and if thats the case its gonna be hard to fix.
  2. I think you're building yourself up for a massive fall here mate. You can read whatever you like about Eidos Montreal in their mission statements but the fact remains that Eidos as a company are losing value; their recent acquisition woes are symptomatic of this. Having studied acquisitions and mergers somewhat I think I can safely say that around 75% (Even more!) of all acquisitions result in an overall loss of value for the firms involved. Its highly unlikely that Eidos will remake the loss in shareholder value their firm suffered from the acquisition and poor selling of games. With this loss in mind I'd expect Eidos to try as much as possible with their projects to lower variance in returns;ie. reduce their overall risk. As such i would expect they would try to ensure that all projects are a)released on schedule and b)under or conforming to budgets. Whilst both these things do not necessarily mean that a game will always be a failure, they can often exacerbate this; I am also assuming Eidos would try to make their games appeal to wider consumer segments than the Deus Ex Fanbase. That then makes the focus for their games a)NEXt-Gen graphics zomg!!1! and b)not much else. It's pretty simple really; why go out on a limb desiging some amazing arcing storyline or whatever and deep characters when you can just remake some fps in the vein of Halo and/or Half-life? Put enough guns in a game and make it look pretty and people will buy it. Lets face it, the original Deus Ex had terrible graphics, even for its time; its saving grace was its storyline. Eidos isn't going to try and appeal to that fanbase, theres too much of a risk that it won't sell widely; they want their game to sell to a greater audience than the first 2 did, and great storylines but poor graphics won't do that. The first thing Eidos did when things went bad was ditch creativity for revenues; witness the demise of Looking Glass Studios and Ion Storm (admittedly Ion Storm dropped the ball with Deus Ex 2). The same thing happened with Black Isle Studios; the good game companies are always the first to go whilst the trash remains. Seriously i would be very, very pleasantly surprised if Deus Ex 3 had even 10% of the choices and gameplay elements Deus Ex had.
  3. I loved undying cos it managed to be scary in a different setting. I would never have thought that the beautiful but bleak moors of Ireland could be made scary but Undying achieved that. They don't make em like they used to. My scariest thief map would have to be Shlebridge cradle, because the atmosphere was great; for the first half of the mission there are practically no enemies; but then you release the cage heads! I think the key to making a really scary scene in a game is to make the player feel powerless. the chase scene in Call of Ctulhu was fantastic because you could only run from your enemies, desperately trying to survive. Penumbra does this as well; it has virtually no combat, and there are some really scary parts say where a monster comes up a corridoor to a room you're in; or you have to frantically try and block off an exit from another monster trying to chew you in half.
  4. I think this is highly likely; given that purportedly Eidos cost its parent company some £100,000,000 pounds in lost profits. Most of its recent games have been flops (Kane and Lynch etc.) and have sold in underwhelming numbers. I'd expect the new Deus Ex to be cross-platform on as many consoles as possible with absolutely no risk to it at all; I reckon the dvelopment team would have as tight a leash on them as the execs and board could enforce. This game will be all about money methinks, and built on a cookie-cutter board; and we all know what that does to creativity
  5. @ Sparhawk; there are basically 3 modes of play. Single Player; in which you play 1 of 4 human survivors fighting against the AI zombies; both normal and super-infected. Then there's Online Cooperative which is the same except up to 3 other humans play as one of the other survivors. Then there's Online Versus in which 4 human players fight against the normal zombie AI's and the Super-infected which are controlled by humans. The super infected are basically diferent types of undead; there's a boomer which attracts normal zombies to characters by vomiting on them; a hunter which can leap, and a smoker which can pull survivors and choke them. In Versus mode each of these super-infected is really easy to kill; but they have infinite time-delay respawns. Part of the fun is finding the right strategies and locations to use each class successfully. Baddcog already pointed out the single player campaign is pretty limited; it is really a multiplayer type of game. At the moment there are only 2 campaigns to play versus mode on which limits things quite a bit; but I've had alot of fun playing it so far Another thing wrong with it is the lack of a server browser; which i think is a hang-up from its cross-development on the Xbox 360. Apparently people who play Xbox are too dumb to use a server browser; either that or valve are too dumb to make one work with a gamepad. Regardless it means that unless you play with friends who you know and like; you'll spend alot of time just searching for a server that isn't in China or where ever and one that isn't full of retards. The game is heavily focused on team work so this last point is very important
  6. SplaTtzZ

    Cyrostatsis

    Yeah I wouldn't get my hopes up too high either; its made by Russians. They'll probably make a better effort of it than EA did with Dead space though.
  7. Yeah Left 4 Dead is pretty unique for a multiplayer game in that it does really emphasize teamwork; and in some ways it doesnt Often you just can't go back to help one of your mates who's being eaten alive by a whole mob of zombies so everyone just rushes to the safe house praying they wont get attacked. Playing as the infected is also requires alot of teamwork, you have to coordinate your attacks together as often it is the AI zombie hordes that do the most damage to survivors; and they die really easy if the survivors arent distracted. It is a bit annoying i think not having server lists for games; instead you can only search for a game lobby or a game in progress; it means you can sometimes get really bad lag. And as for CoD 5; IMO the single player pacific campaign was a little different but the russian one completely ruined it for me. The developers actually want you to feel sorry for Red Army soldiers getting massacred which is just ridiculous, considering that they probably killed each other more than the germans did. CoD 4's single player campaign was waaaayy better IMO; even if they never let you play from anyone's elses perspective but the Americans. As for its multiplayer? Well that formula hasn't really changed since the first Call of Duty, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as CoD has always had good multiplayer
  8. SplaTtzZ

    Left 4 Dead

    I bought Left 4 Dead the other day through Steam and I'm really enjoying it. Is anyone playing this at the moment? Valve did some great work with it, and versus mode especially is great fun. If anyone is a fan of Dawn of the Dead or 28 Days Later I would give this game a go. The multiplayer modes are pretty unique with each survivor or infected having to work together and help each other out in order to win each level. It's hilarious seeing more than 50 zombies come racing down a corridoor gibbering and screaming to kill some hapless survivor who was left for dead by his teammates
  9. I Hope those character models are only concepts and not in-game models. They look really stylized which IMO would be a very stupid thing to put into a Deus Ex game. Those Augmentations are nice though, esp. the tentacle legs one.
  10. Fallout 3 is definitely an awesome game, much better than Oblivion i guess. One of the coolest aspects for me is the eeriness of some of the settings. Especially in the section called Minefield or those areas where there are just these abandoned houses, and you go inside and wander around and there's all this dust in the air and everything is really still just as it once was; and light filters in through the cracks in the walls and ceiling as you enter the bedroom of the house and you can see these skeletons lying in their bed, embracing one another just as they were when the bombs dropped. Or in one house I entered there was this childs playroom and I just saw this tiny skeleton sitting there against the wall with its toys on the floor near its legs and a teddy bear in the corner; it actually made me feel really sad. That's what bethesda got right in this game I think, the setting is just brilliant, and there is alot of great atmosphere in some areas. Its particularly impressive seeing the monuments of Washington DC like the Capitol Building in all their destroyed glory. i disagree about the difficulty though; i have yet to die even once in this game except for inadvertantly jumping off cliffs. I'm at max level now which isnt difficult to achieve and im killing Enclave soldiers in power armour with one bullet. On the one hand i hated how Oblivion had scaling enemies but Fallout 3 doesnt seem to hodl much of a challenge. Those Super Mutant behemoths put up a hell of a fight though; i've nearly died a few times fighting them and i've heard if you play through the game using melee it can be alot harder. I cant wait for someone to do a total conversion and remake the Mad Max 2 movie
  11. Hey i got it in my Spam as well! Hopefully this should increase awareness about the mod! Fantastic work guys; keep it up!
  12. My understanding is that the source code was supposed to be released earlier; has Carmack given a reason as to why its been delayed? My knowledge of coding and programming is limited at best, but is it very difficult to release source code for a game? or are they holding out longer for other reasons? What if it never gets released? will the Dark Mod still be on track?
  13. Yeah, the story and acting were horrible, and it wasn't scary or anything. Gameplay suffered quite alot too. Its the sort of game that could be really, really good; like the fire effects were great and there were some cinematic moments and all; but in the end it fails due to numerous gameplay stuff-ups and the like. I think even the developers knew it was going to be bad because they implemnted a chapters feature, like a DVD, where you could just skip everything and move to different parts of the game; you didn't even have to play through it you could just skip right to the end Even IGN rated it poorly, and considering that they gave Metal Gear Solid 4 a 10/10 review (which IMO it didn't deserve in any way) that's saying something.
  14. No Joke. They actually thought that this feature would somehow be relevant to the game. Admitedly it was different to what i was thinking in an earlier post; you manually pressed a button to make the character blink when looking in first person mode in order to clear his vision which would become blurred all the time. So I gues it wasnt automatic. It was still a dumb feature though, your vision would blur so often i started to think the walls and floor were made of peeled onions or something; and when you went back into 3rd person mode you could see perfectly fine. Still, just wait for the day when they make it automatic and your screen randomly goes dark
  15. As ridiculous as that idea sounds I'll bet money that Hideo Kojima features it in his next Metal Gear Solid game. In the second one your character could catch a cold by spending no more than 5 minutes outside in the rain (despite his freaking combat suit) and he then would sneeze uncontrollably until you found some cold medicine and Otacon had finished explaining the history, methodology and characteristics of the pharmaceuticals industry, the US space program, denim jeans and the cold medicine itself. I've been right about this before! that POS game Alone in the Dark stole my idea about simulating the character blinking by making the screen go dark. I said at the time, long before the game was released, that I should patent that idea! Edit: Looking back, I didn't say that at the time; but i was damn-well thinking it!
  16. I'm not a programmer or anything like that but I recall someone saying somewhere (i think a videogame site like IGN) that there were no games released that 100% used the DX10 architecture stuff; only parts of it? Dunno if thats true or not, just something i remember reading somewhere ; but damn that crysis comparison is funny
  17. Have any developers even confirmed the release of a Thief 4 game? Beyond the whole conspiracy theory bullshit I mean. Also I'm pleased to hear that the mod is doing well and you guys are in it till completion. The Thieves Den was very impressive; I can't wait to see what you can achieve next.
  18. Yeah what was with that? In a Feast for Crows Martin says that he had already written one giant novel that he decided to split in two; divulging the stories of the supporting characters as opposed to the main ones, which he was realeasing in a book later. Yet for a book that's supposed to already be written he's sure taking his sweet time... If anyone hasn't read the series though you definitely should, they're really gritty and intense, with really well developed dialogue and plot. Martin has this ability (at least with me) to make me really hate some of the characters and empathize with others, which I often don't find myself doing with alot of books.
  19. SplaTtzZ

    Thief 4

    You talking about the new one just released or the original x-box/ps2 one? The new one isn't released in Aus yet but I played the other one (just called Ninja Gaiden) and, yeah, it was hard as fuck. It was still pretty cool though; I don't normally like Japanese games much cos they're weird but Ninja Gaiden was well done I thought.
  20. Or you could always get one of the many mods that make the game halfway decent. Eventually you'll get to the point where you've got bucket loads of cash and nothing to spend it on, particularly cos none of the stupid vendors sell anything worthwhile; and good luck trying to find ammo for your dragunov or whatever. I downloaded a mod that made all weapons and ammo accessible from every vendor and whilst you can sort of cheat with it to get powerful stuff at the beginning; I found that in moderation it made the game more playable, and at least i was able to use my guns.
  21. Hmph I didn't know EA had bought out Bioware; wonder what that bodes for any of its future games...
  22. It is a proper RPG, in the sense that there is character creation, dialogue, a skill set, leveling etc. and it has semi-turn based combat (similar to Baldur's Gate). In fact the game was made by the same company who created Baldur's Gate; and I believe its built from a pen-&-paper based rpg module. But yeah I actually found myself liking it quite alot; though I don't think its as good as Mass Effect. The storyline builds up quite well with some interesting plot twists, and the dialogue is quite polished (1000 times better than The Witcher anyway) as are the combat animations and graphics which are quite good for an rpg. If you see it for 10 bucks like Unstoppable did thats a pretty good deal and I'd pick it up.
  23. SplaTtzZ

    Lucid dreams

    Wow this stuff kind of sounds like science fiction, being able to be semi-aware of your dreams and exert some influence over them. A few people I've talked to used to say they could do it or were attempting it, and reckoned that trying to recall as much of your dreams as possible and and then recording them in a log was a way; I can't see how this would make much difference as it's a bit after-the-fact but they claimed it was working for them and allowed them to eventually take control. I've never had a flying dream, which would be unreal, but I've had plenty of the sort of micro-dreams where I'm falling from a very high height towards the ground; you know the ones where you wake up before you go splat! Other than that my dreams tend to be so strange that I can't recall them, with people or locations I know very distorted and weird, like I dream of my house only the geometry and colour and layout are all very alien, sometimes defying physics and the like. Occasionally my dreams are incredibly violent; with me either the perpetrator or the victim. Makes me feel sometimes like I'm a character in a H.P. Lovecraft story or something, I reckon Freud would have a field day with me But flying in a dream would be fantastic, and Mrs Crawford sounds good too. In fact, now all you gotta do is combine the two together: Flying whilst deliverin' it to Mrs Crawford...
  24. That's too bad man, good luck if you get it working; it's certainly a different game to others out there. In the first game i thought the combat had really shoddy mechanics; nevertheless i basically ended up ambushing and killing all the dogs that would patrol a given area which made the game pretty easy. In Black Plague you don't have that option, all you can really do is chuck random junk at your enemies which does nothing. This makes some situations quite frightening and tense, and even navigating the central hubs to different areas can be scary because some AI patrols change. i just wish the enemies were a tad faster and did more damage, then people would really crap themselves...
  25. Well I remember seeing a post ages ago about Penumbra: Overture on these forums so i decided to download and play it; and except for a few bugs I actually quite liked it. Recently the developers released the sequel, Black Plague, which i finished recently and i have to say I'm quite impressed and would recommend it to anyone who liked the first. Some of the coolest aspects i thought were the fact that this is a game with no weapons, basically you spend your entire time hiding from enemies or running away which can actually be quite nerve-wracking. There are some scripted moments where enemies will pop out in areas you assume are safe and you have to scramble madly to runaway or find a way to use your environment to kill them. I thought it was refreshing change of pace from 'scary' games like doom or quake in which you can just shoot everything. Another area that was fun were the puzzles in the game, unfortunately these weren't the real brain-benders like in some other games (think Monkey Island or Day of the Tentacle) but put me more in mind of Call of Cthulhu; they made you think a little but weren't especially hard. Often they required manipulating the environment and using common sense. Later in the game you actually start hearing a voice who manipulates your environment for you ; sometimes this can be quite scary. I thought the graphics for Black Plague were excellent, the environments look realistic and the new lighting effects are good. The enemies look quite creepy but there isn't much variety and I think they could have been made more scary. The sound is quite good also with creepy ambient noises that might make you look into the shadows or behind you for enemies however IMO voice acting needed a bit of work. About the only problems I had with the game were it's length (max. around 8 -10 hours) and the fact that there was not much variety amongst enemies. There are also a whole host of gameplay effects, similar to Call of Cthulhu, that could have really fleshed out the gameplay and made the game that much more scary. Overall but, if you consider that there were only like 5 people dedicated full-time to making this indie game, then it really is a sterling achievement; I found it to be innovative and compelling.
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