Entries Tagged 'Games' ↓

I got tired of working on uni stuff and spent the last half hour or so (I’m not sure, time kind of just…passed) playing "Pyro". It’s another simple yet addictive Flash game that seems to me to be a little bit like Peggle (which I haven’t ever played). Hope you enjoy it!

For anyone who regularly checks here (I doubt there are too many), I’ve done some more stuff with OpenSim and have a few bits and pieces that I hope to add if I survive the current round of assignments. Start holding your breath… NOW!

So the long anticipated Left 4 Dead has finally arrived to a PC near you. For those of you not in the know, I think the official site sums it up a best with “It’s the zombie apocalypse, bring friends”. As a big fan of coop games, I jumped on this one and pre-purchased it under the assumption that Valve + coop must equal awesome. Was I right in my assumption? Sadly, it’s just too early to tell. To put this review into context, I’ve only played for a couple of hours in the single player campaign mode, so this might not be the most fair indication of the game as a whole, but it only aims to give you an idea of what to expect. I’m sure it will be some weeks/months until we can really measure the success of the game, as playing with other humans appears to be a large part of this game’s appeal.

Firstly, the bad and mediocre things. The graphics, while polished, appear to be very similar to what you’d expect from Valve and its Source engine. While this is not a big negative, don’t expect anything too novel or exciting. My second, and much more significant criticism is the repetitiveness of the gameplay. Again, this could very well be attributed to the lack of human team mates and opponents, however I’m still slightly concerned that the game might not have enough to offer in the long term. As a result, I’m hoping that Valve continue their fine tradition of releasing new maps, game modes, achievements and level ups similar to what they have done with Team Fortress 2. The final criticism I will level at the game as I know it so far is the less than mind-blowing AI director. I think it’s fair to say that it does its job admirably in providing random hordes of zombies and more strategic AI attacks. However, I’m not sure that it a) lives up to the marketing (no real surprise) or b) will be enough to keep the game interesting in the long term.

Now that the unpleasantness is out of the way, onto the good things! The first thing that leaped out at me when playing Left 4 Dead was the atmosphere and environment. Valve have done a very good job implementing a dark and unsettling mood that leaves you a little twitchy when moving through particularly dark and/or cramped areas. It is also good to see Valve maintain their very high standard of environments, which in this case are reminiscent of the HL2 series, but more focussed and scary. I especially like the way muzzle flash momentarily lights the scene and shows you where your next shot should go, without having permanent lighting.

Another element of the game that really shone through, and contributes a lot to the overall atmosphere of the game, is the sound. I’m pleased to report the game features some nice weapons effects, as well as distinctive sounds for the various “super infected” that both scare the hell out of you and let you know what might be coming your way soon. Not only are the effects nice, but the music offers a nice backdrop for the visual environment and I think adds a lot to the gritty atmosphere without being obtrusive.

Well, that’s all for now, however I would just like to stress again that I really haven’t played this game enough to pass any big judgement on it yet. This is just my first impressions and thoughts after a couple of hours playing the single player campaign. Look back some time in the near future and I may treat you to a better, more detailed review.

***EDIT***
There a couple of other cool features that I forgot to mention when I wrote this last night. Thinking about it, these are some big points and I don’t know how I missed them earlier. One of these is the chatter from NPCs and the automatically generated chatter of your avatar. From pointing out weapons and ammo to reminding you to heal up, the chatter is often helpful and makes you feel part of a team instead of a lone wolf with backup.

Another mechanic that I think adds a nice touch to the game is the ability to save, and be saved by, your fellow team mates. A number of the super infected have the ability to restrain a character, making them ineffectuve and unable to defend themselves. As a result it’s up to the restrained character’s team mates to free them by killing or batting away the attacker. This will really show you who your friends are if they’re willing to aid you in the middle of a zombie horde.

Keeping on the topic of helping your team, there’s another great mechanic that furthers their usefulness – revival. If you or another player is taken down for whatever reason, a team member can come and revive you so you can soldier on against the infected masses. Even cooler, while you’re down for the count you can still weild your pistols to defend yourself and your team.

Now I can rest knowing you have a slightly more complete picture of the game. One last thing; it’s probably a good sign that I’m looking forward to playing again soon. Until then I’ll just have to think up ways to bring the real zombie apocalypse, because if the game is this fun imagine the real thing!

I’ve been playing Oblivion on and off for the last couple of years, and I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t even finished it yet.  This is in no way a reflection on the quality of the game, more an indication of how busy I’ve been and the quality of competing games (Team Fortress 2, GTA IV etc.).  Also to my defense, I have done a fair few side quests and for whatever reason have ignored the main quest quite a bit.  My gaming habits aside, Bethesda has created one of the most detailed and interesting virtual worlds I’ve ever seen to date.  This vast and rich world, coupled with my relatively new interest in game development, has now come to its logical conclusion… (see title for logical conclusion)

Thanks again to the incredibly talented crew at Bethesda, this is really not as daunting a task as you might think.  As it turns out, Bethesda have kindly released the same (or very similar) tools used to develop the game itself for free.  I have very little experience with the tools so far, but from what I’ve seen, it’s surprisingly simple to start out and get simple modifications working in the game.  For example, you can load up an existing space in the game, drag and drop whatever items from the game you’d like into that space, and when you’re done, just load up the game and take in your room full of ladles.

Obviously making serious modifications to the game is a much more daunting task, involving programming, modelling, texturing, and many other skills used by the team of developers who made Oblivion.  Despite the scary possibilities, you can still have a lot of fun playing around in the world of click-and-drag GUIs.  To give you some idea of what’s possible with no prior experience and sticking solely to the click-and-drag GUI, two sessions of about 4-5 hours each gave me the skills to add a basic building to the game.  This includes re-shaping the terrain surrounding the building, re-texturing the terrain surrounding the building, setting new paths for NPCs to follow to my building, adding a map marker to fast travel to the building, and finally, re-furnishing the interior. In the interests of complete disclosure, I will admit to a few hours playing around in Blender, a free and open source 3D modelling tool.  While this barely helped, I did have a little experience manipulating 3D environments when I started.

As well as the excellent tools provided for you, there are also a number of excellent resources available to help new and experienced modders.  The Elder Scrolls Construction Set Wiki has thus far been my most used resource, providing the beginners tutorials I used to learn just about everything I’ve done so far.

For anyone who’s interested in seeing my first baby steps into the world of Oblivion, as well as an indication of what you’ll get if you complete the first two parts of the tutorial I linked to, my mod is available for download.  I’ll warn you now that, although I haven’t experienced any issues while playing with this mod, it’s not a completely clean mod, nor has it been thoroughly tested (use at your own risk =p).  As a result, I’d encourage anyone loading it to back up their save games first.  These can be found in your user directory under “Documents/My Games/Oblivion/Saves” in Vista.  I would also suggest that nobody play the actual game with this mod enabled because I’m not sure what it might do to your save games.  Warnings aside, it should be plenty safe enough for demo purposes.

To install the mod, check out this FAQ at the construction set wiki.  To see my sleepy little farm house, fast travel to Weye and then head away from the Imperial City, taking the path to your right as you exit.  Follow the road for a little while and you’ll see a path off to your right that squeezes between some rocks and trees (roughly in line with Fort Nikel).  Take the path and you’ll be led right to the front door of my test building.  Feel free to go inside and look around.  You’ll notice that the inside is much bigger than the outside would lead you to believe.  This is because I was being silly and linked the little farm house exterior to a Lord’s manor (from memory it’s from somewhere in Bravil).  One more thing: there are probably a few items of value lying around in there.  Yes, you can take them with you, but really, where’s the fun in cheating like that…