I'm messing around with a ps2 emulator. Final fantasy 12 actually kind of looks like a game from this gen and okami looks pretty amazing.

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LethargicMotivator:

There never was many big PC developers to start with

matneee:

Deferred Rendering engine by the looks of it (which I'm pleased to see more games using these days), so the lighting it really quite excellent. But the whole thing just drips with detail. Make no mistake - this is one of the best looking games ever made. Surprisingly forgiving on graphics cards as well - it'll run silky smooth on my rather mid-range 9800GTX+ card at 1920x1080. I suspect this is because the Deferred Rendering offloads a a fair amount of the donkey work onto the CPU though (that said, I don't code games so that's a bit of a guess. Go figure...)

It would depend how it was written, but it would make more sense for deferred rendering to take place on the GPU.  I was looking for a explanation so I didn't have to write one:

In current games, many objects need to be lit by many lights. Today this is an expensive task, and there is no perfect solution for this. Let's look at the most common ways to solve this problem.

    In the Single-Pass lighting method, each object is rendered, and all lights affecting that object are computer in one shader. A sample of this technique can be found on creators.xna.com [4]. Since everything is done in a single shader, which has a limited instruction count, this technique is only suitable for a small number of lights (for example, the sample on Creator's Club has a maximum of 2 lights in SM 2.0 and 8 lights in SM 3.0). In some games, which only need a small number of lights, such as an outdoor daytime environment, this may prove to be a choice. The disadvantages of this technique are the small number of lights, and the fact that shading operations may be wasted on surfaces which will be hidden in the final image.

    Another method is the Multi-Pass lighting. Here, for each light, objects which are affected by the light are drawn with the current light's shader. This causes a very high batch count (number of individual Draw calls), which in the worst case is equal to the number of lights multiplied by the number of objects. The problem of shading hidden surfaces still remains. And some operations are repeated many times each frame, such as vertex transformations.

    Deferred Shading approaches the problem in a different manner. First, all objects are rendered without lighting computations. Instead, the objects output a set of attributes for each drawn pixel, such as position, normal, specular intensity, etc. After this, each light is applied on the final image as a 2D post process, using the data written in the previous pass. Because all objects use the same shader (the one which outputs the attributes), the engine management is greatly simplified. We no longed need to sort the scene objects based on the material they use. The number of draw calls is reduced to the number of objects + number of lights. Moreover, lighting calculations will only be done for visible pixels (the ones that
make it into the final image).

Just up to the first open world bit of Juarez, Act 2 is a step above act 1.

Ta. All I know is it makes pretty illumination when you start chucking lights about and things 'splode

I shall have to go read more on the subject. I mean, I know some of the basics on how it's been done on the PS3 using cell SPUs, but that's obviously a fairly unique situation. So if it's done on a PC GPU, does it become an issue if it's an older pre-stream processor model using pixel/vertex shaders? Hmm...

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matneee:

What I did particularly like about The Witcher is it did the whole Moral Dilema thing really well. Unlike, say, Bioware have been guilty of in the past, it doesn't treat the whole thing like some kind of absurd mini-game that gives /naughty points and incentives/super powers for being uber/ubernaughty. It just goes "Look, the world is shite. Here's what you can do, but frankly all your options are shades of grey rather than simplistically black and white. Oh, and don't blame me if stiffing that group to line your own pockets comes back to bite you on the *** 20 hours further into the game." Which, inevitably it does

Indeed. I haven't played much of the game, but this is certainly one of the points I liked about it. I stopped somewhere in that swamp filled with wyverns (although I did do every quest I could find up to that point). The game was too mechanic-heavy and convoluted for my tastes, but it's rare to have a game where choices 1) actually matter and 2) are not feed the kitten/rape the kitten.

I've been playing Overlord 2 lately, which is even more awesome than the first game was. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the (admittedly not very important) choices you make are not arbitrarily between and , but instead between different kinds of (domination/destruction), which fits the game better too.

Thinking about it, I actually think the whole concept of / choices is putting the cart in front of the horse. Your choices should be between sensible alternatives that have appropriate consequences. "I'll make the choice" is not actually making a choice, but avoiding it. I also never understood the Fable and B&W threads asking if people are going to play or ... isn't the point to make your own choices, and the game just happens to reward or punish you appropriately? This didn't always work out that way in the games, but at least that was the intent, right?

Finnished downloading tales of monkey island, hoping it's .

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I want to get Battlefield 1943 though I heard it has problems anyone here know how it plays?

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*Warning 'Officially Awesome!' is a registered phrase of Fata1moose Corporation using it will result in lawsuit.*

I tried having a go at battlefield last night on the trial, couldnt get a match though and apprantly there servers are full. But lately I've been playing GOW1&2 on recommendation, not as heavy recommendation as Bioshock (every gamer I knew moaned at me to get bioshock)

I loved bioshocks story more, and for me its the best game I've played to date, for the feel and atmosphere really dragged me in. Buuuuutttt, GOW1 when I popped it on, I didn't think much until I got to the gameplay, you know that take cover ***.

And well I bloody love it, the best game to date for me gameplay wise. Completed it, got half way through again on hardcore, then bought GOW2 in wonder of what happens next. Totally different game I think, like GOW1 more for the pure hardcore long gruff battles, but I love GOW2 for what it has evolved in to(and the characters new behavior)

In gow1 I didn't particular use stomp alot, as it the animation didn't quite do it for me, but I can't stop stomping and snapping necks in gow2 xD

Currently up to the palace, really love it, games to play for hours or just minutes. I'm not usually big on shooters, but I'll always take a look on the best games.

Hermit

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HP:HBP, quite fun for a change, usually I play shooters like Call of Duty 4 (not 5 crappy game..) or GoW2, and lately DotA (WC3:TFT) On the pc since my 360 was broken AGAIN (they should seriously go thinking about a new device that doesn't fail every year or so...)
btw hermit, since noone tells you, DONT PLAY BIOSHOCK!! my opinion nah just go ahaid and have fun thats what gaming is about.

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click up for achievables :>

I am playing Empire Total War at the moment. One of the best strategy games i have ever played! So realistic!

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"An eye for an eye will make us all blind" - Mahatma Ghandi

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."

Lately I've been playing Battlefield Heroes, Okami (ps2) and Trine.

I wasn't impressed with Battlefield Heroes.  It was fun for an hour or two but quickly got repetitive, but you can't argue with the price (free).

I'm really enjoying Okami.  The brush controls on the ps2 seem a little awkward sometimes and the sims-esque voices over the dialogue is quite annoying; however the gameplay and music is well done, and the use of color in the story is very clever.

Now for Trine.  I think this game is incredible.  The narration, gameplay, graphics, sound and animations are all top notch.  There is some debate over the price.  The PC version is going for $30, the upcoming psn version is going to cost $20.  I think the psn version is a great deal but it's probably a little overpriced at $30.  If you're interested in the PC version, I recommend downloading the demo to see if it's something you would want to spend $30 on.

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Are you an ODST (fanboy)?

Just finished gow2 really epic game, Grind!

Easier than the first, but more hardcore because of the variety, riding the revaer and brumak was hilarious. Can't see a sequel coming from that ending, but you never know, and then again it could be a prequel maybe E-day or before E-day.

After I completed it played a horde match xD only a casual player, so wasn't amazing but came at the top of the team a few rounds. The team lasted up to wave 17, dissapointed never got to 50, but I'll try again. Got my player to lvl 3. All in all a extremity of awesomeness.

Boom! Groundwalker!

 

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I never really got into God Of War but maybe i should try it again.

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halo 3, COD 4, Fable 2, Army of two

maggot:

I never really got into God Of War but maybe i should try it again.

I've never played god of war at all, always been intrested in getting it, but I find it hard dragging myself away from achievement based games.

Started Kotor 1 awhile back to try and actually comoplete it for the first time, but yet to do it, also bought summoner but havent even touched it.

Hermit

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maggot:

I never really got into God Of War but maybe i should try it again.

By GOW he was talking about Gears of War not God of War.

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*Warning 'Officially Awesome!' is a registered phrase of Fata1moose Corporation using it will result in lawsuit.*

maggot:

I never really got into God Of War but maybe i should try it again.

I didn't like the look of GoW until getting Chains of Olympus for the PSP on ebay, which quite surprised me by being very, very indeed.

After that I picked up GoW2 and was, again, quite staggered by how it was. Thing is, it should probably feel a bit repetative because all you're basically doing is hacking and endless parade of fairly dim mythological idiots. But because it's so well thought out and balanced, it feels very satisfying instead. Story's hardly complexed but enough in a Clash of the Titans sort of way, some of the set-pieces are genuinely exciting, and the art design is phenomenal. In fact the graphics in general are doing a load of things i didn't know the PS2 could do. The word 'Epic' gets used a lot these days, but this is one of the few games that deserves it...
Anyway. If you only play one GoW game, go for the second. Mindless Hack'n'Slash isn't really my thing, but this is one of the best things Sony ever released


Anyway.

Played Tales of Monkey Island over the weekend. Well, the first part anyway, what with it being a monthly episodic game. I enjoyed it a lot. It's probably better than the original games if I'm being honest, an opinion which I will no doubt get crucified for as I did when I said the same thing about Sam & Max. Not that I care. All I know is that the original Monkey Island games were quite amusing but wore thin in parts and had some intensely irritating puzzles, the new one actually made me laugh out loud a few times and was uniformly . Hardly a difficult game, but episode one will keep you entertained for a 4-5 hours.
My only criticism of an otherwise splendid waste of a Sunday afternoon is that the control scheme is iffy at best. There's a weird click-n-drag mouse thing to move about where an arrow springs up around guybrush and he walks in the direction you point it, but I'm not a fan. You can move him about with a joypad far better, but then you can't move the cursor with the joypad (hint - map the cursor to the right stick next time...).
game though. Captures the Spirit of Monkey Island and is, frankly, better made and funnier.

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Monkey Island looks awful in 3D (Although I enjoyed most of Escape). It also looked awful in 2D, but Curse of Monkey Island was a step in the right direction for me. Guybrush looks...very strange in that link.

But being the Monkey Island fan that I am, I shall be getting it for Windows.

In fact I just watched a trailer on youtube and I'm not happy with the art at all.

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The only thing worse than beating a dead horse is betting on one.

Well, now I've seen Guybrush in action it's not so bad...but I still find his appearance a bit off. Very funny though so far, wouldn't go as far as to say it's better than the first four, seems pretty much the same. No explanation for how Le Chuck has come back is a little confusing to me though. I see what you mean about the controls. Why can't you click on a place and simply 'walk to' it? I know very little about programming, but I can't imagine it would be more difficult than how they've set it up. At least the keyboard controls aren't that bad.

Enjoying it so far though! Can't wait for the remakes of the originals too.

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The only thing worse than beating a dead horse is betting on one.

Better than Escape from Monkey Island but not the 3 first imo, but still very . It's nice that pc still has developers likeTelltale... I've wanted to try Wallace & Gromit for a while but never actually got around downloading demo or buying the game.

Fata1moose:

maggot:

I never really got into God Of War but maybe i should try it again.

By GOW he was talking about Gears of War not God of War.

I know but i felt like being a ***, it cant be that hard to write gears instead so people actually know what game they are talking about before the end of the post where horde was mentioned. God of War was there first so makes sense to call the other Gears.

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True, However how about we call God of War, GOW. Then We call Gears of War Glitchy, Laggy pile of ***!

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*Warning 'Officially Awesome!' is a registered phrase of Fata1moose Corporation using it will result in lawsuit.*

maggot:

it cant be that hard to write gears

Effort.

I still need to complete gta4, fallout3, lost odyssey, lost, csi, overlord 1 dlc, oblivion dlc, all the lego games, simpsons game, but eh can anyone point me in the direction of a must play? the majority of games I play are the ones that are the most famous.

But there are a few I play of my own accord, still thinking of a PS3 for heavenly sword and maybe killzone, but I dunno I like 360 more, and its alotta cash for two games. Currently going over Gears2 again on normal, then probs try finish Gears1 on hardcore.

I still haven't  got past 1940 on the movies.

Hermit

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WWF Smackdown vs raw 2008:

Lent it off of my cusin whos a big wrestling fan, mainly becuase alot of my friends are playing it online for shits and giggles at the moment. To be honest I havent really enjoyed it, the soundtracks bad to the point were I have to have a custome soundtrack playing to actually play the game, and well dispite how deep the create a character mode can get all the clothes and options point to making your character look like a gimp. The create a move set part was okay but I just didnt like the moves on offer, also the stats on the moves had me puzzled like how is it that "The Undertakers punch" would do more damage then a "Boxing Hook Punch".

I think the problem with this game stems from the fact that I'm not a big fan of the WWE or any other brand or show like it, I never really grew up with sky or cable so I never really grew up with this kind of program, instead I grew up watching boxing usually the fights the were shown on ITV or BBC every so often, also my father had rumble in the jungle and the Tyson versus Lenox Lewis, Tyson versus Buster Duglas ect. so when I started going to my cusins house (who did have sky) and started watching this type of program (Pro-Wresling) I found it a bit odd, my aunty thought the fighting was all real so she'd scream at me when I'd point out that there not actually hitting each other but are instead just stamping there feet and moving there hands to make it look like it. More to the point the game of some think like this isnt all that appealing, sure it fun for giggles when your playing with freinds who do take it seriously, but it gets boring quick, and the annoucers annoyed me too, theyd say stuff like, "No other athlete puts as much into there sport as the athletes in the WWE" which is none sense, first off Pro-wrestling is pritty much acting and acting isnt a sport and secondly do they see what real athletes and real fighters go through for there sport I do and trust me its alot of hard work.

wow that was pritty much a rant against wrestling it self, but well I get annoyed by it lol.

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"IrishMorn"
If Adon and Sagat step in....ah, what the hell, I'll get drunk and join in on that one.

Sovvolf:

WWF Smackdown vs raw 2008:

Lent it off of my cusin whos a big wrestling fan, mainly becuase alot of my friends are playing it online for shits and giggles at the moment. To be honest I havent really enjoyed it, the soundtracks bad to the point were I have to have a custome soundtrack playing to actually play the game, and well dispite how deep the create a character mode can get all the clothes and options point to making your character look like a gimp.

I much prefer wwe 2007. Yeah I had 2008, was sorely dissapointed with the create a wrestler, traded it in awhile back as didn't like it that much, but might get it back to get some more of the cheevos it was a fair game not amazing but ok.

I don't have any of the other wrestling games. And WWF lol, *sigh* those we're the days, f****ng panda lovers.

Hermit

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deliriousstudios:

In fact I just watched a trailer on youtube and I'm not happy with the art at all.

You peeked inside the U Tube? How?

I'm liking it so far, but Curse was just so much funnier, and better. But this game is true to Monkey Island, and the humour is great. Guybrush with a beard isn't so bad, he is, after all, an old sod by now, isn't he?

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