sheppy2.0

Zeus::God, hate to break it to you but look at the studio you're talking about...

Insomniac has never released alpha build shots that went DOWN in quality before release. Even on both R&C and Resistance. Besides, did you NOT notice how detailless the background enemies compared to the foreground enemies? Holy shit, you'd think they were using some sort of technique... like Levels of Detail... but no. They couldn't be using techniques like that to minimize taxation on the system itself.

But that's crazy talk. What modern video game studios use something like LODs?

Hyams, you're partially correct.

Insomniac tends to have two different engine setups they use between gameplay and realtime cutscenes. In the realtime cutscene engine, they can easily control more advanced lighting and can even rig character models much more advanced than the realtime engine can handle. That's why the cutscenes in R&C look better than those same models in the gameplay. So while we can agree this isn't a bullshot, we have no clue if this is the gameplay engine or the cutscene engine producing these shots.

Who is this Fidlious fellow pretending to be me?!?

Just kidding. Secret came out on the podcast when Fidlious got his b-b-b-brush with fame so I couldn't exactly hide it anymore.

You know, I hate censorship but love labeling things. Why you may ask? Imagine me, as a child, into hard rock and grunge. Imagine as I bought a tape from Sam Goody and 3 of the 10 tracks were sexually explicit songs about raping some chick. I could honestly not remember the band but I remember my initial reaction, as a seven year old, hearing a woman screaming and clothes ripping. You couldn't tell what the song was about, it just was. Now, I will readily admit I would not have been so disturbed if, as a seven year old, I was not able to buy the tape. The labels there are definately needed and frankly, after reading some Bentley Little, I think books need to incorporate the same ideas. Not censorship, but labeling.

As for Wal-mart... ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!? This was a store which refused to sell condoms for the longest time because it wasn't a Christian thing to sell. This is a company that regularly pulls magazines off their shelves for being too suggestive with the imagery. And this is also the chain that has a permanent ban on George Carlin books since "When will Jesus bring the Pork Chops?" And you really fucking thing Tipper Gore was responsible for that extremists Bible Thumping moronathon of Wal-Mart ethics that has been a staple of the company since it opened?

So let me get this straight. You got tired of biased and factually inaccurate news.... and you went to Fox?

You are, of course, aware that out of all the news outlets, ONLY Fox News has gone to court for their right to blatantly lie and misconstrue facts, right? No? Now you do...

All news is biased and slanted, period. But Faux News is, by far, the worst. I'd have figured everyone was clued in by now.

The sad fact of the matter is, Cooper Lawrence, like the previous expert who foolishly claimed to be an expert in this field, was essentially handed her arguement by Fox News and ran with it. She had no exposure to the game in question aside from what she heard from Fox News. She even stated a study out of Maryland which, in case you missed it, had zero relation to her field of expertise (which begs the question, was this study handed to her by Fox News like the brain scans quoted by the last expert). And to top it all off, she promoted her manhating propaganda and even deliberately slammed her opponent with the "darling" comment. Typical tactic to people in her field, actually. To many people, it's not derogatory, but to those who can read the line, it's the same as calling a black man "boy."

Now, what does this mean to me? In her attempt to get on TV, she willingly acted as an expert in an unrelated field to promote her book. She essentially sacrificed her integrity without so much as a thought to the consequences and now that this expert has been spoiled as well, they'll simply search for the next one. Fox is famous for this, actually. And Fox legally won the right to lie since they argued the News is protected under the Freedom of Speech. So essentially I am blaming this incident on Fox News and rightfully so.

But Cooper Lawrence is just as guilty. She had no clue about the subject matter in which she was being called an expert, she vocally abused her debate partner, and she pretended to have intimate knowledge as an expert despite her field being about as appropriate as asking 50 Cent about the Chinese Economy. And now that she has, rightfully, been called out, she's backing away and placing blame on Fox.

But truthfully, she is at fault and she should be slammed. Fox should be slammed as well.

Grog, I really hate to say this because you've apparently thought the whole digital distribution arguement out very well. iTunes has indeed become an indicator of the future. Sadly, not everyone is ready to jump into the future. This is why 5:1 CDs didn't sell well and why CD sales, despite the claims the RIAA need to make in court (which is also, according to their latest claim, burning music purchased in iTunes onto a CD is stealing music as well), are still a major force. Otherwise, Best Buy would not have aisles and aisles of the shit.

Also, you forget, digital distribution sacrifices quality for convenience. Yes, that music you buy off iTunes will NEVER sound as good as a CD... but you're listening off a fucking iPod anyway, not like you could tell a difference.

Look, we all want to believe in this magical world of digital distribution being the method of delivery. I certainly enjoy the idea of never actually owning what I buy as much as the next man, but physical media is not going anywhere. We've been hearing this arguement since the birth of the net yet physical media is just as strong as ever. So yes, the war for the next generation of physical media will be important since there are many, like myself, who enjoy the idea of "owning" the stuff we purchase. I know, strange concept...

You know, I really hate to do this. I mean it, I really do, since I enjoy Silicon Knights game design ideas.

Go back and play those games mentioned. In fact, let me break something down for you.

Their true coming out game was Dark Legions. A game which many considered Copy Pasta from Archon. They lost to Warcraft in the war but you can't really judge a DOS game on performance, or rather a lack thereof so moving on.

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen. Now I loved this game, make no mistake. But to say it was a technically well crafted game is a joke. The game constantly bogged down, audio had issues and cracking, the collision detection was pure shit, and the game itself was loaded with issues like getting hung up on geometry. The idea of the game was great, but it sure as fuck wasn't up to the quality or similar titles like Zelda or Alundra.

Eternal Darkness. once again, great game concept but it DID feature a devy of technical hiccups and issues. To ignore this fact is laughable.

Twin Snakes. no clue, never played. But I doubt Kojima would have left their usual problems fly.

Now, what are the main complaints anytime Too Human was shown? Performance issues. Now, what is the one thing Epic is usually 100% free of? Performance issues. I mean, if we're going on a company past versus company past battle on the point of the court case, there have been plenty of UE3 released games that lack performance issues.

Hi, you may not know me but I'm a game engine. My task is simple. I create a unified API in which programmers can create a game. This means anything from how the engine processes the art assets to how physics are handled. I know, I know, I do sooo much. But I'm merely the building block of a game, not the game in and of itself. You see, I make it much easier for the work on a game to begin. But I am not a one size fits all. In fact, as an engine itself, many programmers will need to adapt me and fix me to suit their purposes. I am the starting step, not the finish line. Likewise, as an engine, I am always changing, always adapting to handle things I could not handle before to handling things better. Just because you saw my debut in a game like Doom 3 does not mean when I return for Quake 4, I won't run much better and faster. In fact, between years, I'm capable of sooo much more.

Nice to meet you.

moogar, they did? Because I could have sworn it sold terribly.Yeah, it did. You phail.

It's like this. If a game strives for graphical realism on something like their, their customization options become limited, development time increases dramatically, etc. And for what? No matter how realistic your game is, one is coming out in six months to beat it. So MMOs trend towards simplified art styles to accomidate new content easily and to have a look which doesn't lose appeal in a few months.