@\NightandtheShape/@

Oh it's not THAT bad, I can still get a pint for under

I firmly believe that Codemasters currently have the best in house technology in the UK, comparative on some levels to UE 3.0, and as a company they're growing and expanding. I mean just a quick look at OpFlash 2 shows what kind of credentials the technology has. They also adhere to a philosophy which I have always stood by, if anyone has read my comments and thoughts on game engine development, I've always stated that when you can you should build the technology from scratch and this is exactly what codemasters do with each iteration of console generation. Comparatively AoC is built ontop of AO tech. Kaftan is also correct, Norway is by far too expensive, the quality of life I would experience out there would be fairly poor, 1.5ltr bottle of cola, and a frozen pizza was in excess of

OpFlash 1 and Armed Assult were made by an external dev team, and simply published by codies. I'm sure there was a version of Op Flash released on the XBOX... The guildford team consists of industry vets, The majority of the programming team has 5+ years industry experience, as for titles released by the studio, answer is none, but they helped out on race driver: grid. This is atleast as far as I am aware. Yep, it is a new IP, but I do believe it will be on console, it's basically to show off their engine technology. Edit: OpFlash 2 BTW is coming to consoles. http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/2064...agon-Rising/p1/ Edit 2: "Strike Team" will be huge .

Really? Interesting... Afterall, the lead engine programmer at Guildford is Finnish, so... Maybe you wanna rethink

Yeah I know, very strange... I think they screwed up, loads of people were on holiday and going on Holiday. They do indeed publish alot of games, Codemasters has around 3 core teams. The Race Driver team, the Operation Flashpoint team, and the team in Guildford. I had an interview with the Race Driver Team, who were looking for a gameplay or interface programmer. I liked the guys alot, they've recently completed Race Driver: Grid, I don't know what they're currently working on now but I am fairly certain they've got a few more racing games in the pipeline, that's what that team specialises in, you also have to bare in mind that Codemasters have the F1 licence. While Codemasters do publish alot of games, the new game engine they have developed, "EGO"(Race Driver: GRID), based initially on "NEON"(Colin McRae) is being pushed, the project at Guildford and all the information etc... Can be read here: Strike Team. That's all I actually know of the project. Continuing on, they're also working on Operation Flashpoint 2, which is using "EGO" aswell. I'm the only one who has done this who've been on my course, I'm stoked. Sadly there is still paper work and contracts etc... To sign.

I opted against Norway, and decided to stay in the UK

Basically what happend goes a little like this: I flew out to Oslo, and spent a week doing Funcom's tests, more on this in a moment, I got to the funcom office at around 4pm, and just as I'd sat down with the lass from HR I got a phone call confirming that I'd been offered a position at Codemasters new studio in Guildford, as an "Engine Programmer", its a graduate position, and frankly everything about it is exactly how I'd hopped it would be. The strange thing is that I didn't actually sign an NDA at Funcom, so I can probably talk about it in a fairly open manner, but I have no intention of being too graphic as that would be simply unfair, but I will say what I did, and what happend. Monday: I went to the place I was staying at, veg'ed out infront of the computer. Tuesday: Went to the Funcom office and was presented with two tests, one was a C/C++ theory test I did this, and performed average, the other was to implement into the AoC game engine, I was given a computer, a copy of GPU Gem's 3 detailing the technique and a copy of the AoC rendering engine to work with. The lead rendering programmer was away for two days, I had to complete the task unaided, and without any information past the article in the book. My first reaction was pretty much akin to being throw into boiling lava and told to swim, I panic'd and started reading code, and there was alot of code, 10 hours later I had a kinda clue how things worked. Wednesday: More code reading, and I started to lay out the structure for the technique. Thursday: The technique was working at a prototype level, it had some bugs and errors but the general principle worked. Friday: Completed the technique. It may end up in the game, it may not. I've decided to take the job at Codemasters, despite the fact that I liked being at Funcom, and liked Oslo, and don't have a bad word to say about anyone, I believe that I was only just treading water and wouldn't be able to perform consistantly in that job, so even if Funcom get back to me I won't be taking the job, I particularly feel now that a Junior role is far more suitable. And so, it is with that, that I inform you all, that I should begin work with the guys at Codemasters on the 18th of August, if the paper work goes well. I'll be contributing to an undisclosed AAA title for PC/XBOX 360/PS3, I still don't even have details on the project, that's how secret it is, but they're expecting the IP to make a huge impact. Sadly... It doesn't mean I'll get a Obsidian Dev tag, lol maybe in a few years, maybe never...

I'll post a full update when I get back .

Nice response, witty intellengent and really addressing issues and getting your point across... *ahem* actually, this were one of vol's better posts. no "r00fles" or "lulz" and Gromnir were able to decipher vol intent. were the vol response insightful? nope. even so, we thinks that if vol keeps his posts to single word responses, the entrie obsidian board community would benefit... so try not to discourage the little guy. btw, am not a fan of all 4e changes, but in light of espoused goals, the changes made make sense. oh, and to keep on-topic... get rid of yuan-ti and replace with sleestak... 'cause retro is trendy again. HA! Good Fun! I disagree, I reckon that the whole of obsidian forums benefits from Volo's inane response, he provides lessons in idiotic ranting to us all and thus makes a grand addition to the humble forum, I find him entertaining, but I'm a mite be sick, I'd find a suffering animal dying a slow death entertaining. As for 4e, it's just a ruleset, it may not be to peoples liking, infact some of it may even seem retarded and illogical, but the truth of the matter is the 4e will be enforced in games as a requirement from WotC, its just how these things work. Now that said it probably also makes sense to go with it from obsidian's point of view, it helps with marketing jargon, heck, PoR anyone, touting its first 3e rules credentials must have helped sales. p.s. I like cheese.

Nice response, witty intellengent and really addressing issues and getting your point across... *ahem*

Because the PC has the ability to sex it up with some female character? No, since most of the games I've enjoyed the most have romance options. But it is hardly romance when developers are stressing that basically every female in the game can be nailed if she's manipulated correctly... and some will go "bats*t insane" if they aren't manipulated correctly. And even if you dislike the idea of assassinating some poor bastard, you might just want to do it anyway if the female who requests it is "really hot!" If the tone of the article correctly describes the tone of the game, it sounds as if females are treated more like mission tools and sexual targets than capable individuals with real personality. That's not what I consider a "mature" theme. Just the opposite. Again, I'll have to wait until the game hits the shelves and the reviews are out before I decide, but this article is far from a selling point for me. I didn't buy The Witcher for months for that very reason, until I spoke to gamers I trusted who assured me that despite the infantile Geralt-the-sl*t options, they could be avoided and the game was otherwise very good. True, the game was otherwise very good... although I still ended up with trading cards because there were scripted scenes where these "ladies" jumped his bones without asking permission. And of course, nearly every female Geralt talked to was willing to do it for a mere bauble. Not a particularly respectful way to show an entire gender. It added a really adolescent feel to an otherwise excellent game, and only the fact that the most important female characters in the game were portrayed as strong, competent and important individuals otherwise saved it from being a total misogynistic pig-fest. Let's just say I'll be waiting to talk to my trusted gamer friends before I spend money for a game that ends up making me want to dump the DVD in the toilet and scrub my hands until they bleed. Hey come on ~Di lighten up, some of us "guy" "geek" gamers ain't never gunna get any closer to a woman . LOL Just kidding. I get your point but its matter of fact that some women are, ya know... Easy? And some even like objectification, now that's not to say it's a good or bad thing, and the witcher does take it too far, but there is a line and boundary and I think it's worth playing with. This is Obsidian afterall, it'll be in good taste I reckon.

Atleast they've gone so far as to hire talented dev's. I can't knock that.

All I can really say ahem, is that AoC really is set to improve.... Graphically that is...

6 months is what I'd give AoC, I can imagine it'll all be sorted out by then.

Been an Ale drinker since I can remember, I've tried a countless number in my days, but amongst my most memorable would be, waggle dance, helegan honey(sp?), and hongoblin... mmmmm Hobgoblin. Edit: Fat Tire wasn't bad for an American beer, but alls said it had nothing on my native british ale.

I started to learn about godrays...

I'm having a week long interview at the moment! There's alot to programming I guess, and yeah they have to get to know you a little bit aswell.

I'm not disputing this, what you say is true. It's always sensible to use the correct tool. My point was more that they're shying away from core concepts of how languages work and what goes on under the hood so to speak, because it can alienate students, which is bad for the coffers. That doesn't mean that's always the case. As far Java, it's the workhorse of alot of the computing industry, so it makes sense on that level, I'm mostly annoied by the omission of performance specific techniques in regards to C/C++. I also don't think using Java as an educational language is an entirely bad idea, it certainly doesn't make bad programmers, it can result in people being unaware of things when they move to something like C++.

No. Bioware has a focus on party RPGs. No, it has a serious z-axis phobia. Like they didn't want to implement decent vertical physics and controls. It's all the extra math it's too much for the bioweenies.

Maybe. Probably dead is the wrong word. Slumbering maybe. (you guys drive me crazy! lol) But the bottom line is by not having a console I feel I am missing out on games I might like; I feel my choices are a lot more limited than they need to be right now. I am not saying I am going to throw my pc out the window and only use a console; I am just saying I really can't abide with being a pc-only gamer anymore. WHich is just somewhat a new situation for me becuase for many many years it hasn't been a problem. I never used to feel I was "missing out" with only a pc. Now I do. It's because console gaming has actually improved, alot...

I flew to Norway.

I'd say that AO did well enough, it's not going great now, but it's certainly not done so badly that Funcom has gone bust or anything.

Ah, I see crashgirl is giving it the old, PC gaming is dead again... It's like an endless record, I don't agree and I shall never agree. I own consoles and several PC's, PC gaming went through a similar phase in the mid 90's, I expect there will be a large turn around when DX10 takes hold.

Ahhh Small things, eh Josh?

You do realise alot of the dev team has been on Holiday? Regardless, recreating bugs isn't always that easy. I haven't currently experienced any bugs, that's not to say they don't exist... I'm not a part of the community in the sense that I have any feeling or awareness of what exactly is going off. That said you appear to be. That doesn't really address my main point, fact is they're asking people what's wrong... This isn't a bad thing really, doing it via a questionnare seems sensible enough. They obviously felt it was finished enough to release, I certainly think that it will continue to expand, and grow from a content perspective, it may very well be thin on the ground in regards to content when compared with WoW. A link would help, it has atleast had a steady community of players to have been going for as long as it has. I'll be sure to ask them next week. People always move on, that's just the nature of the industry itself, maybe they have, time will tell.