Nightshape

I've been passing blood... It isn't pleasant and I am quite unwell.

Ahhh Half Life series... That game that always left me kind of confused, because so much of it is incoherant. Now naturally, that doesn't make it all bad, its got pleanty of "we're doing it first", moments. I do find it a chore to play though... And I never liked the gravity gun.

Oh please it was the cherry on the cake of the retardation that GoW2 represents.

That's because MoH and Battlefield are the same. Multiplayer atleast...

We'll see. Shall we analyse the game?

Sick...

*DOUBLE POST*

It isn't worth $10... It's bad.

BAH! Real men write their own maths functions, making use of SIMD units, in C++.

I'm trying to figure out what it is you don't like, the rendering is fine, I've seen some pretty nasty low resolution textures, and the general post processing effects all seem fine. It's marketing, a way of branding technology. What's complex about that? You've been caught hook line and sinker by it. I've given you the insight of my professional experience, and tried to explain that a 'new' engine isn't entirely new, its an iteration of a previous engine, the last large iteration that bioware clearly made was the shift from Infinity to Aurora. Past that it's just an iteration. All Bioware are most likely doing is renaming the engine opposed to using a version number. Yes, but I'd argue what is it that makes a new engine? A truly new engine would require new tool chain, and a huge revision to the game engine. Some engines are actually just put togeather from pre-existing libs within companies, I've heard that renderware was a large set of core libs, but I've never used it so I can't comment. Naturally developers use new, but my point is that you're on about how they're planning on writing a new engine, and I'm saying what they're actually going to do is, iterate heavily on the existing engine. Its relatively rare for a company to invest such a large amount of money in building an entirely new engine, if they do do this, then Dragon Age 3 will be a very very long way off. Oh and DA 2's GUI looks entirely lifted from ME, who's betting some smart coder went, lets just take the ME code, and reskin it. That does afterall depend upon what Bio is using for their front end code anyways... That job could have been exceptionally easy, especially if they're running flash based GUI's in both games. None of this matters all that much mind... I get to carry on making games, knowing I'm being paid because I know my stuff, and you get to carry on believe'in the myth.

Not really following the witcher 2, so I can't comment... I'm just saying that DA 2 had some nice tech that I saw. That's all subjective opinion. I also wouldn't expect anyone to notice certain things, its just pointless, its not until you've spent hours looking at this stuff that you'll notice the subtle differences, and most of the DX11 stuff is under the hood. I'm not defending anything, I am merely saying, I actually like the look of DA 2, I respect it from a tech perspective, and I enjoy the new art direction.

Not really following the witcher 2, so I can't comment... I'm just saying that DA 2 had some nice tech that I saw. That's all subjective opinion. I also wouldn't expect anyone to notice certain things, its just pointless, its not until you've spent hours looking at this stuff that you'll notice the subtle differences, and most of the DX11 stuff is under the hood. I'm not defending anything, I am merely saying, I actually like the look of DA 2, I respect it from a tech perspective, and I enjoy the new art direction.

Stoopid double post.

What is the difference between them? I have only tried the ps3 demo. PC is awkwardly implemented point and click (alot like say KOTOR), PS3 == button smashing.

Modders certainly make the best of the constraints they have placed upon them, but its mostly because they're working within constraints. Alot of what Modders do, are basically HACKS, developers don't like hacks, they introduce an element of risk.

You know when you say "The Witcher", I'm going to think you mean "The Witcher", not "The Witcher 2". I wouldn't compare screenshots, that's actually a false economy, screenshots are often doctored - like it or not. There's clearly been a little confusion, I was merely saying I can't agree, I've seen none of them running. Naturally the demo is an old build, builds occur daily. DirectX 11 worked fine for me, and I appriciated the look and feel of everything in a technical sense. "I don't think DA II is as nice graphically" - You don't like the art direction? That what it sounds like to me. I can see why you'd buy the marketing speak, it just doesn't work like that though. There are always some core lib components that definately won't and don't get rewritten, unless its for a new platform. A new engine, is usually an old engine with improvements, refactored, and maybe new arcitectural components. It's a complex thing to communicate, but what I'm basically getting at is when Bioware rename an engine, it doesn't mean its new, it means its an iteration. Engine generally tends to be about general code arcitecture. No, but code reuse is very common, if someone wrote a very good low level library, something that was nicely optimized, then you may see some code that is very old, and was also used in Baldurs Gate, its just the way it is. Without seeing code base's its hard to know for certain, I'm just making guess's based on observations made professionally. The amount of misinformation that comes from companies, and fans is amazing. My favourite one of late is about the NGP from Sony, there was talk of that running actual PS3 games, and people took it seriously... If you read something, it doesn't mean its a fact, especially when the product hasn't been released. Dragon Age II, has some nice technology, they've made a huge art direction U-turn, and based on what I just played on my PS3... WoW the SKU's are different. The PC version and the PS3 version are on opposite sides of the room, Bio seems to be genuinely trying to cater to different play styles, I'm not sure which I prefer, but I'll sure be purchasing both sku's as a result.

WOW DA 2 is almost a different game on console... Not... Not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

Well I really hope they start from blank sheet. I don't know a thing about engines or coding in general, but the rather big amount of unfixed bugs in DA either mean the devs are lazy, or they can't fix them for a reason or another. I'm inclined to believe the latter.. or atleast I really HOPE it's the latter. There was some big bug in Awakening, can't remember what, but the devs told that they CAN'T fix it. Like I said, don't know a thing about these things, but I'm having trouble to call a engine as a good one if the devs themselves can't fix the bugs in it. Well there are such things as hardware, and api bugs, but in all seriousness, no bug is unfixable, they can be extremely expensive bugs which essencially mean a large amount of code ends up being rewritten, that's usually because whoever wrote it left, or someone made a bad decision. A blank sheet? Not if they're going to be a release title, this is unlikely.

Except it aint fun. Soooo FAIL.

I don't agree with you, being as two of the games you've mentioned haven't been released how can you make that statement. Technology wise, DA II has a nice renderer. It really shines when you crank everything upto 10, using the DX 11 renderer. Are you doing this? In the demo there are some bink videos, bridging the gameplay etc... The contrast is extremely noticeable. Sadly this just shows that you don't know anything about game engine development. I think the only thing they felt they could do was improve the renderer by adding more, and porting to the latest API's. So in essence, the game has an improved renderer, what they're stuck with, are likely arcitectural choices, those tend to be expensive to change. I'd also wager, a fair amount of money aswell, that if you took a look at the Bioware codebase, you're going to find code in Dragon Age going back to Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate. Will they scrap there engine, and write a new one.... No. Unreal Engine 3, or CryEngine 3, or whatever engine you wish to look at, isn't invented a fresh, its the previous engine with additions. It's both rare, and very expensive to build an engine from scratch. Here's something, lets imagine that a new console is announced and bioware decides they're going to develop a release title for it... Do they port their current engine? Or do they start from a blank sheet?

No, Gears of War is awesome and you have dodgy taste in games. Gears of War the homoerotic, action movie, parody - that it is? Please... And empting that much ammo into an enemy is never fun. Bulletstorm has nothing in common with gears, past the engine. The skillshots are hardly skillful... The game doesn't feel very challenging. The attitude is more of the over the top bull you get from Gears. *sigh* Maybe the experience is so vastly different on PC, I don't know... I never thought twice about buying it on PC, didn't seem like PC would have been the lead platform.

The core gameplay is the same.

Did you like the demo? Or did you dislike the demo... Because if you liked the demo you may enjoy the game. I'd say that Bulletstorm is basically a mish-mash of Dark Messiah(Spiked walls + kick), MadWorld(Score for kill creativity) and Call of Duty(General shooty stuff, like iron sights, and quto aim etc...). *cutscene* *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *shoot* and *boom* and *kick* and *level up some item* and *kick* and *kick* and *kick* and *shoot* and *whip* and *cutscene*... etc... Are you with me?

I played Bulletstorm demo, thought it was a terrible bland one trick pony, that was basically dark messiah with guns, and a score system. Then yesturday, I played first 10 minutes of Bulletstorm, thought, maybe game not so bad, maybe buy Bulletstorm, give it a chance. So I boughts it, played for 2 hours, realised demo was correct. 5/10. Crappy decals too, and crappy story, and basically *yawn*. Bulletstorm's tag like shouldn't be "kill with skill", it should be "challenge not included". Also, me got PS3 version, its got some crappy typical UE issue, like steaming and blah. Bad tech use, I got PS3 version, because I specifically didn't want no GoW 3 beta, gears sucks.

I've heard very similar stories about that industry too... Creative industries all seem to be the same. I wouldn't say that my experience in the games industry has been a horror story, alot of art guys work in movies and games at somepoint, there is a crossover. Anyways, sorry to hear that you couldn't hack it mate, shame, I'd seen you do some good art, best of luck.