Vindekarr
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Posts posted by Vindekarr
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If you're going to start a business, you must get some degree of knowledge on how to run one. It may seem easy on the outside, but running any kind of franchise or business is stressful, frustrating and very very costly. I'm not trying to discourage you, but you won't succeed without some knowledge of what you're doing.
I work in the car industry; there are a lot of parallels between making cars and making games. A good car appeals to an enthusiast's heart the way a good game does, and the best cars are the ones with a soul. Like gamers, nearly every enthusiast has their own idea of what that all means, and like gamers many strike out on their own in an effort to bring that idea into the world.
Sadly most of them fail, often very early in the project. Most of the time they have a wonderful idea, but no idea of how to run a business. And no matter how good your idea is, you'll need to support it financially-either yourself or by paying someone else, which has other problems. Don't let that happen to you.
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You should add atleast one marketing person to that list. Successful capitalism is reliant on successful marketing; people won't buy something they've never heard of, and the ability to sell things is a talent, one that everybody thinks they have but only a few truly possess. While I'm on that subject, what's your cash-flow like? a project like this won't fund itself. Even if you remove labour from the picture, you're still looking at a few hundred thousand US.
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That's the whole point of capitalism, Thor. You find what someone wants and then sell it to them. Children have always been particularly viable targets, because they aren't smart enough to understand what capitalism represents. If you show a child something shiney, they will want it and with the dismally low quality of parenting seen in the United States, they will get it.
Nintendo's new direction is cynical, but may well save the company. The target market is the USA: parents are the target consumer, and every bit of history says this should work for Nintendo.
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I saw something very impressive on the news tonight, the sort of innovation that really makes me smile. A light plane was flying over the Blue Mountains in Australia when it's engine failed. The plane only had one engine, and without power it fell towards the ground. The plane was however, fitted with a prototype parachute system, which the pilot deployed. The parachute worked flawlessly; the plane gently drifted to earth and landed in a garden. Nobody was hurt.
Innovations like that are what really drive technology forwards. There's no law that says "planes must have a parachute" nor did any governing body say "we should stick parachutes on planes" Rather, a group of people one day decided "we can make planes safer, let's fit a parachute for emergencies" Five people are safe at home as a result.
Most of the greatest advances in safety of nearly every kind, have happened because someone decided to take action on their own. Speaking from my own experience with cars, most of the safety devices we take for granted were invented by individuals who either lost a close colleague or became disenfranchised with how dangerous driving had become. They often had to fight, as well. For all their responsibilities, governing bodies of all kinds are rarely willing to accept a need for new safety devices.
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*sigh* metacritic as usual, has it's head up it's own backside. Their reviews are usually motivated by the buyer's remorse of immature, angry Americans with nothing better to do with their time than complain and be self-righteous on the internet.
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Ok, so who wants to hear a
dubiousfunny story fresh off the internet? Nobody? too bad I'm telling it anyway.Sadly this all actually happened. I've embellished the writing for the sake of humor, but the core events are all 100 true and verified.
Our story begins in Italy, with a game developer called Kunos. Kunos' staff have had a week from hell. They were due to launch an open multiplayer beta version of Assetto Corsa last Friday, only to discover a fatal error in the code less than an hour before launch. It took them a full week of double-shifts to solve the problem, and even with the beta now running, they then had to suffer through a typically miserable launch-day full of bugs and crashes and sadness.
Enter Suck(his real name, if you can believe it). Suck was an American Assetto Corsa problem with a big problem: Kunos had situated the game's servers in Europe. To Suck this was completely unacceptable, and he decided to embark on a quest: Suck would find someone from Kunos and convince them to move the servers to America. And Suck knew exactly where to look.
Suck went to the official Assetto Corsa forum, and there he found Aris Vesilakos. Surely Aris, with his command over the beta program would be able to help him. But Aris was not a magnanimous god. He ignored Suck's pleas, and told him to go away. Suck was shattered; he had come all this way, found a developer and then... ... been rejected.
Suck only knew how to deal with rejection in one way; he exploded with hate and made many unkind comments about Aris' mother. Finally the god gave Suck the attention he craved... ...as he banned him forever from the official forums.
Suck was too committed to stop now. Next he went to Race Department, and created a thread to tell people about how Aris was a false prophet. He ranted and raged for over an hour, but not a single f*#@ was given. Angered by all the noise, the infamously cantankerous warden of Race Deparment permabanned Suck, so he could go back to sleep.
Suck was so(grossly) incandescent with fury, that had Solaire Of Astora seen him, he would have thought he had finally found the sun of his own that he had searched so long for. There was only one option left to Suck, the one forum he hadn't yet been banned from. Heedless of what had happened the first two times, Suck plunged into the Assetto Corsa Steam Forum with the unleashed hate of Khorne Himself and the vocabulary of curses of Captain Blackbeard.
He unloaded upon everyone in reach; gamers, moderators, none were spared his solar fury. He gibbered and raged for hours and when the dust finally settled, Suck was no more. Suck had set out find a server for America, but had only found rejection. In his rage he had been banned from three forums, and Assetto Corsa itself.
The real tragedy is... ...that Suck could have simply created an American server for free anyway, via the multiplayer menu.
The moral of the story is, don't be a d*** on forums. You might become the punch-line of one of my bad jokes.
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Drive Club doesn't impress me. It's an arcade racer with shiney graphics. Like all the other arcade racers. Need For Speed: Rivals also had dynamic weather and much better graphics than this, and that didn't prevent it being a terrible game. Rivals was infact, so bad that EA disbanded the studio that produced it.
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GT5 is an arcade racer, you wouldn't be able to out-drive a wheel user in Assetto Corsa, Project CARS or Next Car Game. Believe me Thor, I've played all three of them extensively and it just isn't going to happen. Project CARS controller support is even worse than Assetto Corsa's particularly with PS4 controllers, which feel unresponsive, clunky and borderline useless.
You can't compare GT5 with any of those three games. In terms of technology, all three are a decade ahead of it. In terms of realism the gap is even greater. GT5 isn't a very realistic game, these three are.
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Next Car Game: Still awesome. I started playing it in manual instead of automatic. Way more fun. I can get some actual control on the turns by going down two gears at speed. I'm certain that would destroy a regular transmission pretty fast.
With a car of that era you're more likely to over-rev and destroy the engine. Downshifting like that puts a lot of strain on the engine head, particularly the valves. On engines from the '70s and '80s that's quite a vulnerable area, even on a professional race car.
Myth states that "steel-era" cars are far stronger than modern vehicles, which isn't actually true. I'd much rather drive a post '95 car in a derby than pre, purely because plastic imports are so structurally strong. The bumpers might fly off in a mild breeze, but the actual chassis and vitals of a modern car are extremely strong.
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Avoid Assetto Corsa unless you have a steering wheel. It just isn't worth playing without one. The same thing goes for Project CARS and Next Car Game, don't bother unless you have a wheel.
Assetto Corsa's gamepad controls are still pretty abysmal. If you remember Need For Speed: Shift, it feels a bit like that. Which is to say clunky, ungainly, and borderline uncontrollable.
Ironically it absolutely comes alive with a steering wheel controller. The wheel controls are possibly the best I've ever seen, certainly the best since GT Legends. Assetto Corsa with a wheel is a truly visceral experience; the force-feedback is absolutely perfect, and every single car feels completely unique and distinctive.
The difference between wheel and gamepad controls is so great, that I would not even bother playing with a wheel.
If you do want to get a wheel, grab a Logitech G27. They're really cheap on Ebay and make an enormous difference in any driving game.
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I'm waiting for Doritos presents: Call Of Duty: advanced warfare with our partner, Mountain Dew.
That's where CoD is headed I strongly suspect. It's American hypercapitalism encapsulated in game form; a bit like those "dollar masses" that blend Christianity with advertising.
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They're basically charging $90 for a patch. It's pathetic, I get more content during Early Access patches and that's free!
Look at it this way: Assetto Corsa released a mega-patch a few weeks ago that included an entirely new lighting engine, a new physics model, re-worked the entire control scheme based on what players had requested, and added 1.5 gigabytes of new playable content. It was completely free.
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I'm playing Dark Souls II at the moment Tealbow, really enjoying it so far although I'm a big Souls fan. If you enjoyed Dark Souls, I guarantee you'll enjoy this even more. It's nothing revolutionary, but it does build on the strengths of the original and improves most aspects. It's only going to get better as well, with a second-generation of DSFIX well under way.
As a final note, you may want to check your graphics. Unlike Dark Souls, the sequel is pretty graphics-intensive especially in outdoor areas.
For myself, I'm mostly waiting for Assetto Corsa. For gamers who love cars, Assetto Corsa is something very special indeed. It's a "sim" racing game, designed for true car enthusiasts. Sims have always been niche games; they have a punishing learning curve and are notoriously expensive to make. When the GFC hit several years ago most developers "iced" their sim franchises as a result, Assetto Corsa is the first of a new generation-the first generation in around eight years.
Footnote: Sims are expensive because gamers want to drive the fastest, rarest cars. To put a car in a sim, you have to "map" it. Mapping involves fitting a real version of that car with a data recording rig, and then driving it at high speed. The expense comes from convincing a car maker to loan you the sort of car the players want, which are often worth upwards of a million US dollars.
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Dogs are definitely my preferred pet, they've been a part of my family since I was a small child. They're true companions; you form a friendship and relationship with a dog in a way that you can't with most other species. They're a bit like children; their behaviour mirrors the way you treat them. They're very sensitive and extremely loyal, and if you treat them the way they deserve, they'll be a faithful companion for life.
The best story I have about why I love dogs ironically centres around me getting bitten by one. I was about 10, and was playing fetch in the back yard with the family's 5 year old Australian Cattledog Pugsley. Pugsley was a great dog, but very excitable and a bit hyperactive. After a few throws he got very, very excited indeed and started to go crazy. As I picked up the ball to throw, he jumped up and chomped on the hand holding the ball.
Now, what's really amazing is what he did next. He seemed to take fright, and started circling around whining. He very clearly knew he'd made a mistake, and very clearly regretted it. After about thirty seconds he came back and started licking my hand. Of all the experiences I've had with dogs, that was probably the best, they really are amazing animals.
EDIT: There's an old adage in Australia that people tend to look like their dogs. That's certainly true for me; I have the same kind long, shaggy black mane as my two Spitz Crosses, as well as being true for my father who's salt-and-pepper hair matches his Steel Cattledog.
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The best part of my computer is the disc drive.
When I was designing my rig, I forgot to spec a DVD/CD drive. I only became aware of the problem when I placed the order, and (obviously) had to go back and order one. The problem was, I didn't know anything about DVD drives and had no idea which ones were good. After spending a few minutes being baffled by claims of "ultra-fast burn guaranteed"(Combustibility isn't something you normaly see advertised) and "100% no deformation"(I'd damn well hope it isn't deformed) I decided to buy literally the cheapest one the store had.
And it's brilliant. It reads discs, it's the same colour as my case and it hasn't broken/burst into flames/eaten a disc. As far as I'm concerned it's $12 well spent, as it's the only part of my PC that hasn't either broken or gotten old and needed replacing.
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Weee, I got the rank of #2 on HWBot for the Radeon 7770 in Catzilla 720p, only 800 points away for the 7770 720p Catzilla world record. :dance:
NICE!
Thor's probably not going to be happy about that.
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Well, I downloaded literally the biggest mod I've ever seen at 1.26 GB. It's a mod for Assetto Corsa that significantly alters the player's camera perspective, from a generic first-person to a first-person camera contained within a fully detailed helmet. Sounds simple, but doing it as this has been done-to studio quality-requires significant amounts of data.
It's also got some of the highest spec textures I've seen in a very long time; 7024X7024. Because the helmet's textures are viewed at extremely close range(you're "wearing" it) they need to be extremely high resolution to preserve the game's graphical quality. That said, the Vanilla textures in Assetto Corsa are pretty impressive; you can really tell it's a PC exclusive. The main resolutions are 2K X 2K and 4K X 4k. Not bad.
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Thor mentioned a game other than Watch Dogs or Borderlands 2? that's new.
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Dark Souls 2 has been getting very, very interesting. It essentially has no rules or structure: it's a true sandbox and watching how players react to this and form a community has been very interesting, with two main groups appearing very early on.
So the first group are the vocal ones, they're most Dark Souls 1 veterans. In the original Dark Souls there was a strict Honour Code, and these guys exemplify it. They literally bow before combat(that's required) refuse to use healing items(if you're going to die, you've lost anyway) and play extremely fair. They even "double-stack" when two invade a single player; the first invader duels first, and if they die the second invader allows the "host" to heal before duelling separately.
The second group are the less vocal, probably the silent majority. They're mostly newer players, who either reject the Honour Code, or who follow their own moral compass. They're usually much dirtier fighters; healing, ranged attacks and groin-kicks are the norm, with few if anything weapons held back. There's no double-stacking; a 2V1 invasion is another word for a gank. Ironically this may be the fairer way to fight; it's closer to the original game's rules.
So there you go; Dark Souls is a bit like feudal Japan. You've got your honourable warriors, and your down-and-dirty scrappers. It's been very interesting watching how people form their own "society" in a new game world without rules, and it's nowhere near established yet.
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*sigh* I'd be curious to see what some of these people look like in the real world. I'm sad to say the imagine in my head is of a lot of old men, with the occasional young man thrown in who's lead such a sheltered life that they believe whatever spam they're fed.
Proving the Earth is round is extremely simple in modern life. First option? a jet airplane. Commercial jets can and do reach immense altitudes, and one glance out the windows should remove all doubt. If you can't afford a plane ticket, find a car racing circuit. Race tracks all feature a long, straight section of road for racing on. These sections are, for safety's sake, as flat as humanly possible. Because of their length and flatness the curvature of the Earth should be clearly visible.
A third option is to find either a salt lake or a frozen one, grab a pair of binoculars and lie down. Once again, the distance and flatness will ensure the curvature of the earth is clearly visible.
EDIT: took a look. So much stupidity that I literally had to rush off and read something intelligence.
http://storage.canoe.ca/v1/blogs-prod-photos/d/e/d/b/c/dedbcd42020317bcefb12e4426a236ed.jpg?stmp=1307991141
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I tried using Google Translate to join in a conversation in italian on the Assetto Corsa forum today. I'm 99% sure the translation was accurate, but 1% of me is terrified that I've ever said something terribly offensive or irredeemably idiotic.
That 1% has two possible versions of what I said one offensive and one completely random: "The fastest ride in town? it's not a car it's <player's name>" and "there are prawns on my head"(sorry, it was the most random thing I could come up with)
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I wish I could set up a Thor jar. That way every time Thor either brags about his system or mentions Borderlands 2 we all place a penny in the jar. We'd soon have enough money to buy... something. Probably a lot of something.
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LOL.
I play a lot of racing games, and racing communities the thing everybody competes over are lap times. A lap time is recorded every time you complete a lap of a circuit, and they're a very accurate way to compare player skill and car performance. As a result most racing games have live-streams for laptimes that upload your best times to a leaderboard.
And that's where the funny stuff can happen. In Need For Speed rivals, every time I beat one of my own laptimes I would see "Vindekar beat your record on <track name>" That Vindekar guy is such an a**hole, they can't let me have a moment's peace without constantly trying to be one-up on me! what a jerk.
Best SuperHero(es) movie.
in Debates
Posted · Edited by Vindekarr
I would nominate The Wolverine, on both objective and subjective grounds.
Objectively, it has a lot of strength. It dropped the cliché'd amnesia device from previous Wolverine films and instead focused on telling it's own story. The story itself was decently written, and perfectly paced. Characters were interesting, with even Hugh Jackman's Wolverine finally becoming an interesting and worthwhile character. The supporting cast was superb, and given the sort of script it could really work with.
Subjectively it felt more intelligent, more thoughtful than previous Wolverine films. The action was still there, but it had more meaning and impact because of it's pacing and context. I can't really talk about the film's strengths without spoilers, but ultimately it's the first film in which Wolverine as a character really, genuinely works and feels at home. Finally, it's set in Japan, and Japan is an incredibly beautiful country.
For some fun, the worst.
The worst Superhero flick I've ever seen was Ultramarine in 2010.
Ultramarine had enormous potential. It was set in the Warhammer 40K universe, a cult British sci fi from the mid '80s. Warhammer could be a superb movie, if written well. Warhammer is a Steampunk universe in which all technology relies on energy syphoned from sleeping demon gods. It's a fairly simplistic world, but tends to attract good writers and has spawned some really quite good novels.
Sadly Ultramarines by-passed the existential and magical aspects. Instead it focused on a land-war between two of the most unloved, uninteresting factions in the entire franchise, the Ultramarines and Black Legion. It was the equivalent of making a Star Wars film about Ewoks. Many fans would have prefered to simply nuke the planet, and kill off both of them.
The final nail in the coffin, was the CGI. Ultramarine was made in the original Assassin's Creed engine, which was already five years old. The CGI was abysmal, and made the whole film look like a Team Fortress machinima.