The Gamer's Quarter

[Slonie]

I used to lord the fact that the Mac ports of Doom ran in 640x480 off of my PC-using friends.

Then again, I think Quake was out by the time Doom got ported to the Mac.
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-Slonie

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

Impossible: A New Reality and Phocas Island 2 are quite possibly the greatest two ZDoom maps ever made. Impossible for it's highly original and entertainingly confusing idea and Phocas 2 for the gameplay and exquisite use of detail.
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[Pink Teddy Bear]

I'm a noob, how to I run those?

I don't see them available in the GZDoom menu.

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

Just simply drag and drop the wad file onto the GZDoom executable or you could create a .bat file which has gzdoom.exe -file *wadname*.wad in it. I quite like doing batch files since I haven't gotten with the times yet so the drag and drop method might be preferred way of doing it.
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[Winged Assassins (1984)]

Exquisite Corpse does exactly what it says on the tin. It's a great idea but I think there's too much backtracking. However it did inspire Congestion 1024 which was one of my favourite megawads of 2005. Thirty two maps that are no bigger than 1024x1024 units all designed to be completable from pistol starts with an emphasis on quick gameplay which you kind of have to have when your maps are this small. You can get a lot out of such small dimensions surprisingly although there are a few maps which don't match the quality of the others.
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[bleak]

A quick search reveals to me that MassMouth 2 hasn't been discussed here yet! This is a total conversion of Doom that is very hard, and it also happens to be the biggest one that exists! As you might imagine, it's had a lot of work put into it. So if you feel like it, check it out! I highly recommend it.
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[Winged Assassins (1984)]

I've seen larger wads than MassMouth 2, RTC-3057 has the largest filesize (54MB!) for any wad and Daedalus is just epic (and green!). They also don't slow your movement speed which makes the view bob more pronounced. I've said things about RTC-3057 before, mostly that it does DooM 3 better than DooM 3 did. It's a very lonely wad even when there's lots of monsters to keep you company and the very last battle is quite holy shit especially if you are playing on Ultra Violence. The rest of the wad will probably never get finished. Be prepared to do some searching to solve the puzzles but it's nowhere near as bad as...

Daedalus is similar in that you have to figure things out only it requires more thinking and a high tolerance to the colour green. Roughly two thirds of the textures feature green in some form, even the ones that are grey and maybe the one or two that are maroon. If any of those colours are your favourite ever colours you should immediately jump straight into it. Looking at the green and grey will give you something to do whilst you hit your head against your desk trying to figure out what to do. If you haven't dug out your eyes in frustration.

If you start hating the shit out of Daedalus play Void instead, because it looks very much American McGee's Alice and is far easier on the brain.
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[dhex]

speaking of weird mods, i'm not the only one who played the hl2 mod mistake of pythagoras?
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[Neal]

Has anyone played the No One Lives Forever games? I've beaten them both several times and highly recommend them. They don't do too much to add to the FPS genre, but they are solid and hilarious at the same time.
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[Cycle]

I played them and loved them, though the first is better than the second. They are heavily influenced by Goldeneye, but with better technology and humour, so it worked well for me!

Also, skydiving shootout.

Also, tornado showdown.
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[Slonie]

The airplane/skydiving sequence in NOLF was highly inspired. Complete with last-second grab of a henchman's parachute at the end. Would do business with again.
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-Slonie

[kirkjerk]

within the realm of Goldeneye-progeny games, opinions on Time Splitters?

For a while, they were the only FPS going on GC save for (pauses to spit) Turok.

I thought they were pretty competent, and fun, the writing lacked a bit of grace, and the whole plot was just a "how can we make as many differing interesting environments as possible, but still, a lot of nice touches. I know some people griped about the controls.
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=/ \(<D)_/
==/\/ >_ kirkjerk.com

[Pink Teddy Bear]

I had a lot of fun with the multi player on Timesplitters with my buddies.

[Neal]

[dhex]

i was never impressed with timesplitters myself. it feels very consoley (which is what i didn't like about nolf as well) in that the controls are chunky and floaty. that is not cool. (well it works for some people but we all have problems)
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[Dracko]

This piece has just raised my interest in Call of Duty 4 from non-existent to "fuck, I need to play this at least once".

This is the sort of thing I believe Valve introduced us too, and the pay-off is growing. My understanding with TimeShift is that all the snippet cutscenes never intrude on the present events of the game, only give flashbacks to the "past" and such, which seem acceptable to me (Perhaps someone can prove me wrong here?).
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Neal]

[dhex]

yeah i played goldeneye once and i've never played perfect dark so i had no real attachment going in; the art design is solid, however.

if there's one thing that sticks out in my mind re: fps games on the console is that the fov often seems weird - which would contribute to the chunky feeling - but that might be a few years of widescreen pc talking.
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[Neal]

[Shapermc]

[Cycle]

Never played a Timesplitters game. I always wanted to, but there were like three out at the time and I didn't know which to get, plus it sounded mostly like a multiplayer game, and since I have few gamer friends left and they couldn't be taken online, I had to give them a pass. What's the single-player like?
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[Neal]

[Shapermc]

So, I decided to give Killzone a second shot today. It's still pretty awful, honestly. Top it all off with the terrible Playstation controller and I quit within 30 minutes.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

[Winged Assassins (1984)]

[dhex]

the cod4 single player will be cod-esque; a lot of dying, uncanny grenades, and setpieces. the story seems absolutely terrible in an "invasion usa" style 80s cold war film way. i'm really not so into that, and coupled with the short length of the single player i think this might be another not really full price game.

looks frigging amazing, though.
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[Cycle]

So after a little chat with Dracko, I played some 007 and Perfect Dark today, via N64 emulation. The games run mostly great, look surprisingly decent with all the graphical enhancements, and play wonderfully with a WASD+moust plug0in, though some emulation errors still exist. Really, it feels like I'm playing a PC game.

007 plays brilliantly, but I was mostly interested in Perfect Dark since I only hired that when I was all about the N64. It's not as good as Goldeneye! It's not bad though. It's a good action game, lots of shooting broken up by interesting objectives, and some good art direction (if you like blade runner) decent level design, even if it's very linear, unlike 007. The second half of the game is a bit weak though. It's pretty much all running around shooting, the level design becomes maze-like and confusing, and it generally feels like a run-of-the-mill shooter, unlike the first half of the game which felt like being part of a fun action movie.

And as imbalanced as they are, some of the weapons and items in this game are real fun, as well as the additions and fixes since 007, such as disarming enemies, enemy chatter, alt fire modes and smoothing out enemy AI and movement and stuff. Too bad most of this stuff isn't seen in the last half of the game!

Oh well, time to blaze through Goldeneye!
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[kirkjerk]

[Pink Teddy Bear]

A new version of Synergy just came out. It's like Sven Coop but for source. Sadly from what I've played, it seems like Synergy is suffering from the same thing Sven Coop did. A lot of maps, but only a handful are enjoyable.

So maybe the TGQ crew needs to gather round and play some Synergy or Sven Coop? Just because the majority of the maps are bad doesn't mean that there no good ones.

[Cycle]

Sounds like Timesplitters might be worth a look. They came out on the GC, right? Then I can just play them on my Wii because i can't be bothered taking out my PS2.

Anyway! I've been playing Goldeneye. This game is awesome with moust look and a smooth frame rate! Still one of the best FPS games I've played. Cleared it on Agent, but anyone can do that in like an hour, so I'm going to jump to 007 mode where the real game is. I'm still convinved that if this game was updated it would still be a hit today!

I kinda feel like playing through Deus Ex again, so I'll probably end up doing that soon.
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[Pink Teddy Bear]

Goldeye is probably the FPS I spent most time on. I remember in Elementary school, every day after class my friends and I would all meet up at one of our houses, and just sit there and play Goldeneye for hours.

Great game, with great memories.

[Dracko]

GoldenEye sucks in 00 Agent mode because of the constantly respawing enemies who'll pop up behind you and shit. It doesn't matter how silent you are, or how familiar with the map you are, there's always going to be some fuck that will shoot you in the back sooner of later.

Cycle, any good graphic inputs for Project 64? Black skies are kind of a downer after a while.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[kirkjerk]

[Shapermc]

[Cycle]

[Cycle]

So it turns out Dracko was right! They DO have a few more respawns in 007 mode!

Though only in one of the first seven levels so far.

The first Surface level... normally, the patrol men would respawn which is ok because they can be easily killed and avoided plus it was fun having people to shoot, but in 007 you get a bunch of clowns always running towards your current position! It's a bit cheap and is what made the second surface level annoying!

Apart from this instance, the first seven levels are the same, enemy count wise! So, only one cock-up on 007 mode so far! Let's hope they keep the count low as I continue through it! I'm having a ball so far, 007 really is lots of fun.

I'm glad they included the ability to turn off auto-aim even back in these days, otherwise playing with a mouse would be way too easy.
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[Dracko]

Hey, what does the 007 mode over the 00 mode?

Also, all that's required to unlock the two bonus levels is to beat the game in 00 mode, right?
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Cycle]

Oh don't mind me, I mean 00 mode, not 007 mode. OOPS. Boy, is my face red.

To unlock the first level, you have to finish every level on Secret Agent. To access the last level, you have to beat every level on 00 Agent. The first secret level is rad, based on Moonraker, the second one isn't really worth the trouble, though (but you unlock the golden gun for beating it which is awesome). You can also unlock them with a cheat code!

On another note, the Silo mission is the only one I could never finish on 00 Agent. I ended up using the cheat code to see the last level.

And now I'm going to make a list of respawns because I fell like it. Levels where respawns occur due to an enemy hitting an alarm doesn't count, since it's only briefly and it's because you weren't quick enough to kill him anyway.

DAM: No respawns

FACILITY: Four enemies spawn behind you, after you enter the door which must be opened remotely. Silly, but easily dealt with once you're aware of it. You'll also face an endless stream of enemies if you hang around after the confrontation with whatshisface at the end of the level, but it's an Evil Otto mechanic since your'e supposed to be escaping, plus I leave before it even occurs.

RUNWAY: Enemies on runway respawn, which again is an Evil Otto mechanic since you're supposed to be making a DARING escape. Also, you have a tank.

SURFACE: Patrol men respawn on lower difficulties, keeping the level populated, 00 Agent mode has stupid respawns.

BUNKER: Enemies spawn from exit once the alarm is set off by Boris, setting up yet another DARING ESCAPE.

SILO: No respawns.

FRIGATE: No respawns.

SURFACE II: Stupid respawns as seen in Surface1 in 00 Agent mode, except it's like this on all difficulties now.

BUNKER II: No respawns.

STATUE: Constant respawns, one of the few run and gun levels.

ARCHIVES: No respawns.

STREETS: No respawns.

DEPOT: Constant respawns, another run and gun level except you actually have a couple real objectives on this one, unlike STATUE.

TRAIN: No respawns, though a couple enemies will pop out of previously locked rooms.

JUNGLE: No respawns, except right at the end of the level where you have to fight your way to the elevator.

CONTROL: No respawns until whatsherface set's off the alarm, leaving you to fight your way out.

CAVERNS: No respawns.

CRADLE: Another run and gun, this time chasing the boss towards a final showdown.

AZTEC: Slowly respawning enemies, IIRC, or none at all.

EGYPTION: Respawning enemies OUT THE WAZOO.

THE END.
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[Six]

hey cycle, talk to me about pathways into darkness.

it looks like i'll never be able to play it and i'm pretty curious!

[Cycle]

It's the hardest game you'll ever play!

I finished it, I can't remember if I cheated or not. Either way, I got a bad ending because I'm an idiot and forget to set us up the bomb! All the work for nothing.

It's an FPS/RPG, kinda like ultima underworld but much more FPS. Some alien warns our race of a sleeping demon at the bottom of a pyramid, so we're sent to nuke that fucker! Something goes wrong, you're seperated from your squad, and you have to find them, find the bomb, find the code to initiate it, take it to the bottom of the pyramid and set it, and do it before the demon wakes up and fucks up earth!

You can explore the pyramid freely, can only save on certain runes, can hold conversations with the dead (old skool conversations, where you have to actually type in topics), solve tricky puzzles (one involving using an item that speeds up time. Also, this is the first game to have bullet time), collect potions and different guns, rest to heal, and it is also terrifying, even if some of the monsters are hilariously lame.

There is this one brilliant part where you end up on a level devoid of monsters and find half of your squad (all dead, fyi most of the other dead people are germans who have their own story to tell), and they all got killed by certain monster. It really got me scared to face this thing, hearing them describe it in horror, only to realise that it's on the very same level you're on (of course) and has started hunting you the second you arrived. THAT THING WAS TERRIFYING.

There are a lot of problems with the game, aside from the insane difficulty, the draw distance is very low (though this helps make the game scary), the corridors are too cramped to fight in (forcing you to retreat into larger rooms) and the player character moves too god damn slowly. They took all they learned from this game and applied it to Marathon THANK GOODNESS.

Still, I liked it enough to plug through the whole damn thing, but not enough to try to get the better ending.

ON AN UNRELATED NOTE, I caved in and started Deus Ex again. Time has not been kind to this game, but I still love it.

The most amazing thing is, I looked in multiplayer as a joke, only to find several dedicated servers and people actually playing right at that time. I joined a game, and after downloading a thousand extra files, got in the game. It seems to have been improved since I played it, mainly thanks to mods, but I don't see any reason why someone would play this! It was laggy (I don't think there are an Aussie servers, tragically) so I left, but I'm gonna go back another time and ask them questions, because I just need to know why they are playing Deus Ex online.

Because, like.

Seriously.
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[Dracko]

Bunker II is a pain in the arse with all those dual-wielding shitheels. There spawning is finite, yes? You're certain? Because they throw a lot at you.

P.S. Another reason to set sights on Call of Duty 4.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[dhex]

what the hell is that?
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[Dracko]

An unlockable Ragtime Mode, which accelerates the game by 20%, adds a sepia filter and mutes all the sound while adding that piano ditty. You can play the entire game with it on, apparently.

dhex, have you played GoldenEye or Perfect Dark?
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[dhex]

ok that's fucking awesome.

i played a few minutes of goldeneye multiplayer while trying to buy a fuckload of acid from this dude back in college (96 or so) and uh snooze. we'd been playing quake lan so it seemed kinda cheesy to me. (got a great deal on the acid though)

i've never played perfect dark.
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[Slonie]

COD4 for me as well but I really, really need to play through Deus Ex soon. Before the ravages of time work on it for too long.
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-Slonie

[Shapermc]

[Dracko]

Okay, beat GoldenEye in 00 mode. Then I lost interest.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Cycle]

Well you've pretty much seen all the game by that point!

Also Bunker II is one of my favourite levels! PROTIP: There are knives in the sewer at the start, get them with your watch magnet, then you can just sit by the door and wait for all the patrolmen to come, and kill them silently one by one with knives. I prefer to just go out there and bump into them, sticking a knive in their head before they can shoot me. Also, there is a safe on the level with two silenced pistols in it.

Also Goldeneye was genius when it came to multiplayer, with all the options, but the technical limitations of the engine let it down compared to Quake.
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[Dracko]

Yeah, I beat that one when I realised I had somehow managed to set off the alarm without realising it. Then I wasn't hassled by those constant respawns. It's down to stealth in that one, definitely.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[Harveyjames]

[Cycle]

I loved how they had handicaps, gave my friends a chance... and also, there were different weapon sets, so it wasn't all FIRST TO THE ROCKET LAUNCHER WINS crap like in Quake, plus lots of fun modes, lots of skins, decent levels..

Dracko you are asking lots of people what they think of Goldeney and Perfect Dark, what do YOU think of Goldeneye and Perfect Dark
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