alanschu

Wooo!

So how does DX10 independently animate each leaf/tree/little man, since they shouldn't always be doing the same animation. Or in the case of Rome: Total War, will there be much savings over the fact that the game engine refers to each individual entity of a unit in all of its combat mechanics (in other words, when your "unit" has 1 chevron of experience, it means it's the average of all your units. Each individual unit still collects experience on its own. You could have 10 guys with 8 experience each, leading that unit of 80 to have an average experience of 1). Unless I'm misunderstanding something, I thought that what you're describing already existed in game engines, which is why aspects of foliage and whatnot are repeated on the screen. For instance, NWN2 toolset doesn't recommend a large variation of trees created with different random seeds (giving them a different look), as it gets too intensive. But having lots of the same tree is much less intensive. The main reason why I was skeptical about the term "endlessly" is because endless implies infinite. And I'd be surprised if you tried to display an infinite number of little men/blades of grass/trees, and it didn't choke any video card.

I'm skeptical about applications of the term "endlessly."

The ending sequence of MGS was great. Escaping from the base in the jeep was great. I preferred the Otacon ending as well, with Meryl not making it. Made the scene where Snake finds Meryl more significant IMO. Though when you finally get to the final sequence, it is a bit lame that in the end it's just a Deus Ex Machina. As for the 30 minute CG movie, I just thought it was kind of silly, when I saw it the second time. I know I'm in the minority here, but I really enjoyed the 30 minute CG ending of Squall wandering through the wasteland (of his mind IIRC) and ultimately finding Rinoa. As a love story (which I think Square tried to do between Cloud and Aeris) I thought that Rinoa/Squall's was better executed. But then again, people bashed FF8 for having people that actually looked like people.... I'm not sure what my favourite endings are. I remember getting chills when the Guardian screamed "Damn You Avatar!!! Damn Yoooooou!!!!" at the end of Ultima VII, as well as goosebumps at the epilogue of Serpent Isle when floating through the etheral void. Pandora Tomorrow had a neat ending, though I preferred the pseudo-closure of Chaos Theory, especially considering I loved the interactions Sam had with everyone, especially Grimmsdottir. I really enjoyed the Half-Life ending, especially seeing as I never considered joining the Gman my first time playing, so I thought that the ending was actually supposed to be the bad ending! System Shock 2 had a funny ending, and I thought that the Helios merging ending of Deus Ex was pretty sweet. If I had to choose, I'd probably pick Fallout. The recap of everything, and the anticlimax of the encounter with the Overseer was great. Bonus points for the awesome end sequence, which was my confrontation with The Master.

Is the engine 100% finished? There's also the idea that perhaps they still need to have some restraint, as even with new hardware, there is still limits as well as acceptable performance requirements.

I'm not really sure what you were expecting though. That scene on the whole still looks pretty good to me.

It's been a while since I played, but weren't you already hunting Sephiroth? And weren't you already pursuing him because of Cloud's link to him? I remember it being a road block on the adventure, not the raison d'etre (especially seeing as you're already 20 some odd hours into the game by that point). The thing that always bothered me about the whole situation was that the world was a world where death wasn't particularly permanent. I had already revived Aeris numerous times from death prior to that, but now that she's stabbed by a sword, I can't? Odd. Why could I not bring her back with some Phoenix down? Her wounds couldn't possibly have been worse than some of the crap she endured up until that point. It seemed too artificial to me. I would have preferred her dying some other way personally (perhaps falling into an abyss, where her body is actually gone). I actually preferred Tifa the entire time (and that's who I spent my time at the Golden Saucer with), and I enjoyed the part where she was looking after Cloud after he lost himself more than Aeris' death scene. The music of the whole Aeris scene though is excellent, and I think it played a huge part in making people like the whole scene. I guess it's because it wasn't the first time I had experienced the loss of a companion in an RPG. I was shocked at Dupre's death in Serpent Isle, and the minor eulogy he receives at the end of the game put chills down my spine. After going through a lot with my friends Iolo, Shamino, and Dupre (both in the game, and throughout the entire series), it just seemed so empty not having Dupre in the party any more.

So is this ^_^ Mr. Korr is just having some fun.

So it's "the best game ever" because of a character that dies on the first disc?

I really enjoyed FF7, but I personally think a lot of the "best game ever" status comes because it wowed people with pretty CG movies.

I wonder if I'm in the minority about hating the FFVII ending.

I gave up and moved on to Gmail.

You know, it took my about 12 years to finally learn how to joust in that game! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It only took me 2 <{POST_SNAPBACK}> To be fair, there WAS about a 10 year gap of not playing it I'd always either get hit, or hit the horse. I didn't realize I was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too early on my timing. Once I learned how to do it, it was laughably easy. Made the game a bit too easy too though. But I used to absolutely loathe seeing that jousting loading screen with the dudes playing the horns come on. I also could only successfully raid Saxon Castles. Fighting the two on one battle of the Norman castles was intense!

You know, it took my about 12 years to finally learn how to joust in that game!

I actually don't mind the rule.

Thank you thank you thank you for informing me of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

I'm pretty sure everybody is pro-choice. I'm also pretty sure everybody is pro-life. I know I am. I enjoy both life, and choice! As an aside, the thread was locked for a reason. Posting a continuance simply because you missed out makes me just think, oh well, too bad. I've missed out on threads before, or not gotten a chance to reply to a comment due to a thread being locked.

You need the appropriate research (I'm assuming naval yards), and there's a tech event. I've never actually done it myself (as I'm not far enough into a game yet). I believe the boat you have to build is a Caravel.

A small update on the attacks in Burma. Red lines represent air forces, blue is naval, and green is land. Sorry about the quality, it looked better prior to uploading it to the shack. Attacks on Myitkyina were initially quite successful, though Japanese troops of attempted a counterattack. A large force came from Imphal in the North, secured the railroad, and split into two groups. A large force began digging in along the railroad, in anticipation for the expected Japanese counterattack from Mandalay, while a few divisions and brigades were dispatched east, to flank Japanese forces in Myitkyina. Shortly after the fall of Myityina, Chinese troops began advancing towards the border, in an attempt to both keep the Burma road open, as well as prepare for an assault on Lashio. Akyab in the west has a decent port, and a large airfield, and is a tertiary objective as it allows for additional air coverage over Mandalay, as well as Rangoon. It's also easy to supply, with its port. Forces in Calcutta, Dacca, and Chandpur prepare for an amphibious assault to take the naval base. C-47 transports make daily supply runs to the North Army, as well as Myitkyina. Submarines, as well as carrier task forces, guard against resupply (less of an issue, since there's a land connection into Malaya and Siam/Thailand), and more importantly reinforcement, directed towards Rangoon. On the plus side, it is very possible to isolate Rangoon from rail lines, once the intial objective of Mandalay is achieved. After that, it's only resupply via sea, and the 4 aircraft carriers operating out of Diamond Harbour (Calcutta) are loaded with several Swordfish Torpedo Bombers will attempt to interdict any attempts to resupply. Lack of supply will cause natural attrition, and make capturing Rangoon exceptionally easier. Capturing Rangoon serves as a doorway into Siam and Malaya. It has extensive airfields and a large, deep water port. It's they key strategic objective of the entire region. Taking Siam and Malaya will take pressure off of the Chinese, and likely also lead to Japan losing control of Indochina. All three aspects will be devastating to Japan's resources and industry.

Oh yes. It is a gong show. And yeah, Hejda played well.

Which comment was that? I haven't been going there nearly as much any more, since I've felt there's been a large influx of stupid lately.

What place in the game had unlimited respawns? I guess there were the few places where guys were being dropped in from Ospreys.

I agree. The biggest gaffe was that the music, which in the original game was played off the CD, is interrupted by a loading screen. This was very, very bad, as it really took away from We've Got Hostiles. In that level, there's a part where you get into an elevator and starting going up, and hit a loading screen. In the original game, a music piece starts playing just before, and you hear it start up as the loading screen comes up. That whole scene completely sold the game for me (especially seeing as I knew nothing about the story of the game) and the music was a huge part of it. Playing through it again, without the music, was disappointing to say the least.

So much for standardized hardware. I know developers were already disappointed with the fact that some had hard drives and some didn't.

So? The association is there. Otherwise this thread would never have existed. Roshan himself admits the association to Nazism, as he started this thread. Christians aren't satanic worshippers, yet they've distanced themselves from the pentagram, because of the association it now has with the occult.