The Gamer's Quarter

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

no, i don't think you do.
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Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

Cycle there's totally an option to turn crosshairs off. I'm pretty happy with the game so far.

boojiboy7 · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 10:56 pm Post subject:

so dess broke 10,000? this sounds like a challenge.

SuperWes · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 9:49 am Post subject:

Hey guys, I'm pretty disappointed with Marathon. The art direction is terrible (nice concept art though) and the level design is even worse. Why are so many levels reliant on jumping/floating when there's no jump button? Why are the level goals seemingly random?

It just seems really bad. There seems to be some neat stuff going on storytellingwise (for the time), but there is so much bad design going on that unless you're really into storytelling in games it's probably not worth the effort. If the game didn't have a map built in it would be complete trash instead of kind of trash.

-Wes
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dessgeega · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:05 am Post subject:

wes, i'm so sorry for you.

i'm up to citadel. it looks like there's an achievement for finishing this chapter? also my new high in survival is 13161!
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SuperWes · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:08 am Post subject:

dessgeega · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:13 am Post subject:

you should ask someone who thinks halo sucks!

(i think it's merely boring.)
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SuperWes · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:26 am Post subject:

dessgeega · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 11:05 am Post subject:

yes, i get lost. you're expected to. these aren't john romero maps where doors slide open in front of you and there's monsters bang bang bang. doom (probably the only fps whose geography i know intimately, so i'm using it as a point of comparison) is a rocket ride, bang bang bang hold down run straight to the exit, but marathon is more brooding, more sinister. these aren't levels, these are sprawling fortresses hewn of the living rock, blasted valleys rich with sunken grottos. these places bristle with rooms you never even have to see. durandal takes place amid the ruins of an alien world, and there's a constant sense that you're scampering past the feet of giants. on of those giants is your ai taskmasker himself, distant, godlike, and yet curiously intimate in his tone.

so, yeah, maybe if you have no appreciation for narrative you should stick to deathmatch, which has lots of bang bang bang. marathon isn't a game that will hold your hand, it is a game about the search for a distant and unknowable god. i am willing to concede that this probably isn't for everybody.

(you will have a good time when we play deathmatch though.)
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Lestrade · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 11:55 am Post subject:

Oh! Have to get the demo tonight!

SuperWes · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 12:56 pm Post subject:

dessgeega · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:15 pm Post subject:

yes, wes, it is sad.

achievement unlocked: 11th clan of the s'pht. now, i am within the body of god.
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:39 pm Post subject:

I played Marathon a few years ago but got stuck somewhere and stopped playing it. I meant to go back but eventually forgot about the game. I really should pick up where I left off since I want to play more of it, it's just that Marathon was made for highly intelligent and intellectually gifted Mac owners and not PC owning commonfolk. Or should I just cut my losses and stick with the bang bang monsters games with the doors that slide open.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

keep the discussion going goes, this is giving me some last minute fodder for my article. dess totally keeps stealing my ideas though.

also the pace of marathon 2 picks up quite considerably once you cause enough trouble to attract the attention of the phfor garrison. there is this one level that is just running a gauntlet of enemies. the level is hard as nuts, they remixed it for the vidmaster challenge in infinity (which is remixes of the three most difficult levels from each game in the trilogy). the pacing of the gameplay goes hand in hand with the pacing of the story, once tycho comes into the picture, things really get heated.

also, i loved halo. i hated halo 2, though.
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ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

argh! of all the weeks to be without my 360. oh well, at least there's the robust library on the PS Network for me to work through. grumble.
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

i should point out that i was going to make counter-points to those WILD and CRAZY wesisms, but decided to let my article do the talking which is almost done. for real this time!
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/02/marathon-durandals-bonus-feature-motion-sickness/

this article has the best picture ever.

i should make a banner of it.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

hey, you loose points for dying in deathmatch in the 360 port, right?
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SuperWes · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:15 pm Post subject:

I think I figured out part of the problem. I began playing on 3-Player co-op and I think I chose a level that starts somewhere in the middle of the game. Without the early levels to get you up to speed it just seems like they're throwing you into the fire. Also, Matt and I were talking about it, and the high-res textures might have something to do with how bad the visual design feels. When I was looking up screenshots to swho a co-worker how terrible it looked, things weren't quite what they seemed when I was playing. I'm going to try it out with the upgrades turned off soon, so we'll see how things go then.

-Wes
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

yeah, starting co-op outside the start of the game is a big no.
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dessgeega · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 8:46 am Post subject:

you can turn the upgrades off? the hi-resolution textures looked a little strange to me at first, but i've gotten used to them.
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Isfet · . Joined: 27 Oct 2006 Posts: 107 Location: A New York

i haven't played Marathon 2 in probably a little over 10 years. a friend of mine had a setup in his basement with about 3 Macs (all varying in age and performance) and we would play hours of Marathon (1, 2 and Infinity) deathmatches with each other. Marathon was my first exposure to a FPS deathmatch, and it was fantastic.

anyway, the only reason i haven't bought this on Live yet is because i've been too lazy to reconnect the 360 to the TV. but i'll get on it!

Edit: thinking about this a little more and considering all the time i spent playing these games, i just realized i never actually played the single player mode of any of them, so that's probably another reason i should get this asap.

dessgeega · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:56 am Post subject:

after you complete durandal (chapter five) the marathon logo on the loading screens gets glitched out! ha!

i've totally gotten the impression that freeverse "gets" marathon, which is why the port turned out so well. this could have gone very badly. i'm glad it didn't.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

they couldn't have gotten it that badly if they included crosshairs!

also check this shit out!

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dessgeega · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 7:39 pm Post subject:

you and your nerd rage!

hey cycle i just reached chapter nine!
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

you're on the home stretch!

FOR DESS (and anyone else interested):

Marathon Themes in mp3 form.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

hey it turns out the vidmaster challenge is in this which is pretty neat, and the way you unlock it is even neater.
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dessgeega · Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 7:36 am Post subject:

well, that explains that achievement. i was confused because i swore the vidmaster's challenge was in infinity.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

i stumbled on the official forums for this game on the xbox site, and it was a big mistake Sad

it was like stepping back into 1995 except there are now 98% more idiots Sad

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dessgeega · Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:10 am Post subject:

achievement unlocked: phfor the win.
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B coma · . Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Posts: 279

You know, Marathon 2 is like, my girlfriend's father's FAVORITE GAME OF ALL TIME (he is like 67, by the by) and I think it looks really neat! But when I sat down and played it the view-bob gave me the most extreme case of motion sickness since the tight corridors of the original Half Life. Can this view bob be turned off in the 360 version? Or is it even there to the same degree, if at all?

dessgeega · Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 12:30 pm Post subject:

there's an option for "camera bob". it confused me at first because the term "bob" has a different meaning in marathon.

i just spoke to shaper, and he told me he was motion sick with the game until he turned off the hd graphics and auto-aiming (which doesn't actually auto-aim, but just slows your look when enemies are in front of you, apparently). i played through the whole game with the default options (aside from inverting the y axis), so whatevs. i'll probably try messing with the options and turning on the original graphics later.
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dessgeega · Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 3:16 pm Post subject:

i finally beat shaper's survival score - 15,500 on calm like your mom. yay!

i was playing with "aim assist" and crosshairs turned off, and with the original graphics. which look a lot better than the hd ones. but i'm glad i played through the game with the new graphics at least once - when else would i have had the opportunity? i also changed my control scheme to "cyborg", which assigns the map to the b button instead of the d-pad. i think i'm going to stick with these options for now.
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dessgeega · Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2007 11:50 am Post subject:

i broke 20,000 points on survival today and made a fun discovery: eventually they throw juggernauts at you.

holy shiiiiiiiit.
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dark steve · . Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 1110

Juggernauts are grand.

They'd eat Hunter teams for lunch anyway.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

dessgeega · Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:01 am Post subject:

dark steve i will meet you on the fields of battle.

so now that i have a gold account i've finally bought worms. who the hell has this game? my german-speaking dyke troopers will take you down. to chinatown.
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SuperWes · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:56 pm Post subject:

Metroid on Monday. Super Metroid next Monday. FUCKING YES!

-Wes
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SuperWes · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:57 pm Post subject:

Also, PixelJunk Racers looks awesome, doesn't it?

-Wes
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

SuperWes · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:23 pm Post subject:

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

I see nothing DigiDrive-ish about it. It looks more like Super Off-Road mixed with... flash game.
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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!"

SuperWes · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 9:06 pm Post subject:

dessgeega · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 12:22 pm Post subject:

space giraffe will be launching "in the coming weeks". whatever that means.

incidentally, i had a dream about jeff minter last night. i was attending a presentation he was giving. for some reason he showed us the vectrex port of scramble, despite his not having worked on it. then at the end he went around from table to table (we were in a kind of bar), shaking hands and talking to everyone. when he reached me, i somehow "reskinned" him as a brown woman, because i would be more comfortable talking to her. "you probably don't remember, but we've met," i said.
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 4:24 pm Post subject:

Then did you both fly away into the sunset?
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dessgeega · Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 4:36 pm Post subject:

no, then i had to wander off because i was supposed to be meeting a friend at a bar down the street. the bar was themed after those montages in television shows where a character is seen walking against a black background while neon sign float by; out front it had a neon sign of a neon sign. the problem was that the number the friend gave me to reach her was a 1-800 number.
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dessgeega · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 1:50 pm Post subject:

so this is for the pee-ess-three, right? is it as neat as it looks? it has to be better than geometry wars anyway.
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silentmatt · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:08 pm Post subject:

SuperWes · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:11 pm Post subject:

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

The lack of demos really sours me on PS Network stuff. Aside from being useful in determining if I want to purchase something, I can often play a demo enough to where I get my fill of a game so that I can either move on to something else or hold off for a bit. Damn you for not allowing me to be cheap, Sony!
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.