f13.net

There's going to be a lot of shit coming from the douchebags this week. Post the eye candy in here...just like the topic says.

Here. I'll start. Perfect Dark Zero.

(http://www.f13.net/screenshots/X360/perfectdarkzero/e301.jpg)

The new 360 does some fancy uhmmm. Yea.

(http://www.f13.net/screenshots/PC/rise2/rol01.jpg)

"Rise of Legends"

I'm still trying to figure out just what type of game Perfect Dark is, despite having seen all that stuff on it in the Gala Event thingie. Is it a Halo-esque shooter, or more Resident Evil type? Metroid, except not Nintendo?

I'm still trying to figure out why I should care about Perfect Dark.

I'm still trying to figure out why it looks like a game that could be run on the current Xbox...

I bet [t]it looks better in motion.

Looks like it might have full-on dynamic lighting a la Doom 3 (you can see the character's shadow behind her), but it's in a large outdoor setting and appears to be relatively high-poly.  That in itself is pretty impressive.

I really thought this was going to be a booby thread.  I'm happily surprised!   :-)

I take it back... the different trees in the shot seem to be following different lighting rules.  Specifically, the one on the left casts no visible shadow at all, but the one on the right casts a darker shadow into the shadow of the building.  Bah.   :-P  I'm back to being unimpressed.

By the tech, anyway.  The boobies are still nice.

From the looks of it, the tree on the left isn't being hit with any direct sunlight, and is in the shadow of the large buildings around it. The lighting appears to still be working.

Nope, look at the tree on the right.  Part of its shadow goes into the building shadow, but the tree itself appears to be in full sunlight.  Real light definitely doesn't behave that way.   :wink:  If part of the tree's shadow is in another (lighter) shadow, I'd expect the appropriate portion of the tree to be in the building's shadow, AND I'd expect the other trees that are in the building's shadow to cast similar (darker) shadows.

Since that's not happening, I'm guessing that this particular tree just projects a dark shadow onto whatever is behind it, rather than having the shadow be dependent on the light in the rest of the scene.  In other words, cheap trickery.  Half-Life 2 did the same thing, which is why you'd occasionally see things like a person standing on something solid but casting a mysterious floating shadow (because the thing he was standing on didn't follow the same shadowing rules that he did).  Soldier of Fortune 2 had even more primitive trickery that would occasionally result in the shadow projecting onto empty air because it didn't pay enough attention to the geometry of the map.

Are you looking at the same picture we are? I see shadow of a tree within the shadow of the building. The tree on the right, right?

Yup, that's what I'm looking at.  The shadow of a tree inside the shadow of the building means that the building should be casting a shadow onto the tree, but we're not seeing that.  It also suggests that the indirect light in the building's shadow is direct enough to still cast a shadow, in which case we should be seeing the same thing on the other trees, and we're not seeing that either.

(edit) In other words, that shadow might as well be painted onto the building - it's not actually a result of the lighting conditions at all.  If you took the tree out of the scene the shadow would probably still be there.

Ok I see - seems like the building shadows aren't following the lighting rules of everything else.. maybe they are permanent shadows.. or maybe environment vs actor shadows are bugged and calculated differently.

EQ2's shadows were beautiful. Of course, the game blows for soloers and no machine can run full lights/shadows faster than a slideshow, but hey.

Mo pitcherz, less bitcherz.

(http://www.riven.com/img/screenshots/r_image3.jpg)

I still think Riven is one of the best looking games ever made. And this is like, 5 or 6 years old!

Only one problem- Riven was a screensaver, not a game.  :roll:

Oh god that argument is so tired. Just because you don't have swords or guns (or a character, for that matter) doesn't mean it's not a game! Puzzle games kick ass. Especially when the desgners have actually invested more than some stupid little falling blocks into it.

I played Myst for about 10 minutes and nearly killed myself. Bleah.

Yeah, what voodoo said ... why the Riven hate?  It's better than a lot of games released today.  Of course, it's not for ridalin-deprived ADHD children ...

I think I could do without every single game made in the last 10 years for handful of good puzzle/adventure games like Myst.

Y'know, I spent way too long on it too, but when you get tired of it, you can just use a spoiler-free walkthrough to see the breathtaking scenery and gorgeous, funky inventions. That's what I ended up doing for about half of Riven.

What tends to irritate me about most puzzle/adventure games that I've played is when you've got, essentially, a static screen with a couple of magical pixels on it that you can click on, and one of them will let you go to the next screen.  Any given puzzle will only have a single solution.  Riven might be better about it than most, but that was my major problem with Grim Fandango - hours spent just visiting every location and checking every pixel on the screen, looking for an item I hadn't yet picked up.

Crimson Room (http://www.ebaumsworld.com/crimsonroom.html) is a lot like that, except with Flash you'll at least get cued by the changing cursor when a portion of the screen is interactive, meaning you can just mouse around the screen rather than clicking everything furiously.

It's a lot easier to display photo-realistic graphics when you aren't trying to render them in real-time.

My point exactly. That kind of 'gameplay' holds precisely zero interest for me; hence the Myst/Riven hate.

Oh, well. It's too bad more games just can't be that pretty. At least when it comes to cutscenes, FFX did a nice job. (Even though I still think Tidus is a douchebag)

C'mon, this is 10 years ago. The genre has evolved now. Check out the new Myst game or the one before it: Uru.

The reason why these games were so much better (imo) is because of the work that was put into the stories. Ever since Doom, Quake, or Medal of Honor, it's been the same fucking story over and over again (that's an exaggeration, of course, but you know what I mean).

Secondly, because of artisitic merit. Real time rendering or not. The look of these of games had a personal touch (I suppose that real time rendering with 3d engines has only now started to allow similar possibilities -- hence, why there's no excuse to check out one of the newer adventure games).

They're starting to get there.  Half-Life 2 had consistently good art direction, and Doom 3 had a few flashes of brilliance scattered in between all the dark metal corridors.  I'm looking forward to the next crop of games.

Now THAT is a sexy looking machine.

But the fucker stands upright.

They should make it so the people who buy the black PlayStation 3 always fight the people who bought the white PlayStation 3.  I'm seriously.  And the people who buy the grey one can be crafters and RPers.

The reason a lot of XBox 360 games look like XBox games is because they are XBox games. A lot of them started life as XBox games and are getting a rush-job port.

That screenshot up top is funny, why is her face modelled off of a Chimps?

PD is an FPS game like Goldeneye. Who cares, Rare sucks now and has for years. Their last 2 projects were something about Ghoulies that nobody has ever heard of, and Starfox that began as an N64 Dinosaur game and Nintendo was forced to take it over when it became clear Rare was never going to finish it. They've been working on Kameo for 4+ years now, it's switched systems twice and is by most accounts just mediocre. They've totally lost the ability to make anything good, or even get something out the door. All the talent has left.

It doesn't have to.
(http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/news/05/16/ps3_screen002.jpg)
(http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/news/05/16/ps3_screen001.jpg)

I hope those pictures are real, they look like the one the associated press has. (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1778&e=2&u=/050517/482/ksd10105170114)

Goddamn that's awesome. Minimalistic luv.

An airplane hanger and a boomerang? Um...

Its an interesting design.  Too bad its got that Spiderman movie font all over it.

I don't think we have enough information just from that one picture to know for sure what's going on with the shadows. If you look at the main figure and her shadow you can see that the primary light source is coming down on her from slightly to her right (our left looking at the picture). Now look at the shadows the tree on the right is casting. The light source that the right side of the tree is blocking is going from the right to the left, opposite of the light direction on the main figure. In other words it's the not the same light source as the main figure's.

But how will the PS3 look in it's natural environment, namely a molded plastic coffee table covered with fast food delivery boxes and three weeks of unopened mail?

 Like a king among his servants man. Chocolate and peanut butter. Cheeseburger and fries. Batman and Robin.  Meant to be, ya know?

Yes, but I didn't like the way they squeezed all the ports together at the back. Wire salad for the win.

More pictures, I guess: From Killing Day on the PS3; notice how his face doesn't look like a flat painted surface? Perfect Dark can go lick a poison frog.

(http://www.eurogamer.net/assets/articles/a59130/ss_preview_KillingDay_01.jpg)

Impressive.

Still, the painting up and to the left looks like crap.

If it was a Nintendo system, that would be an actual boomerang and throwing it in various arcs and successfully catching it or not would determine your success at the game.

And that would at least be imaginative. Simply having a ghey-looking controller is just, well...lame.

I'm pretty sure I've dropped things in the toilet that have a better shape for a good controller.

Just run HDMI and the power cable. Two ports, not right next to eachother. HDMI carries audio too ya know. Or you can go optical + HDMI. Either way, ain't gonna be controller salad. What Sony has given you there is OPTIONS.

That's what I thought.  Marketeering FTW!  Not sure where the bread goes, though.

LOL

Every designer who thinks all electronic and industrial designs have to feature these shiny, curvy surfaces JUST LIKE THE IMAC needs to fucking die in a curve fire.

They'll stop doing it when Apple comes out with something different.

We need to start the conflagration at Apple. From there shall spread the fires of redemption and retribution.

I like it all.  It's shiny and curvy and has that cool spiderman movie font all over it. 

I love a lot of what Apple put out, too.  Nothing was ever as good as that 9600 case though.  Sometimes I would open and close it just for fun.

I generally vehemently disagree with you on these types of things, but I gotta say- that looks pretty damned cool.

Err.. shiny, curvy surfaces in design are older (http://www.normal.org/HistoricPreservation/images/Theater1970s.jpg) than[/ul] the iMac.  Apple's just brought about a revival of the idea that a utility item doesn't have to look like ass. I can't say I disagree wtih the sentiment, or that I miss beige boxes.  :-D (http://www.decodog.com/inven/deco3/dc28829sd.jpg)

You too?  :-D

You fucktard. Rare made Conker's Bad Fur Day, THE most brilliant MA platform EVAR. They also made Jet Force Gemini, my first FPS, and it was leaps and bounds ahead of the curve compared to the new(ish) Star Wars shooters. My favorite platforms have always been by Rare (except Mario, of course, let's be sane here). Banjo Kazooie/Banjo Tooie, Donkey Kong, those were fun games. And those are just N64 games!

Yeah, so they had to go and make Star Fox. Even though it was too easy and the dinosaurs are for babies, it was still a pretty game with decent voice acting. The new Conker game (Live and Reloaded, for the XBox) will fucking cream your jeans and blow out your ass. Mark my words.

And why aren't you writing reviews again? You just might be able to give Haemish a run for his money.

God I wish there was enough time in a day for me to write reviews.

\does that conspiratorial Mr. Burns thing with her fingers when he says "excellent"

I'd barely call Jet Force Gemini a FPS.  My personal name for it would be "complete fucking waste of time and money", but for posterity let's just call it 3rd-person action.

Perfect Dark, however, would be something I could not do without had I not known that the core GEyE/PD team is basically making Timesplitters now.

Oh, and Conker's Bad Fur Day was fun at first, and then the camera became a problem.  I also tired pretty quickly of the "oh boy, singing poop" style of humour, but whatever floats your boat.  Banjo-Kazooie was awesome, though, better than SM64 methinks.

Are you shitting me? What about all of the hilarious film parodies, like Saving Private Ryan (the basis for Live and Reloaded), Alien, Casino, the Matrix? Am I forgetting some? The poo-level was but one. And it IS funny to hear a big poo-boss singing opera and say, "Bring me sweet corn!". And what about the part when you hafta kill the pot-smoking fire guys by pissing on them?

Games are usually rated MA for blood 'n guts or poonaynay. Conkers was MA for its sense of humor.

So how exactly does this contradict "Rare sucks NOW." Yes, at one point they were good. That point was 4 or 5 years ago. Conker's was a cool game, lots of their games were good. Now they suck.

You said they've sucked for years. If that's true, then it coincides with their acquisition by Microsoft. Which is further evidence that everything Microsoft touches turns to shit (just a Mac user's defense, don't mind me).

The PS3 looks like stuff from Bang and Olufsen. In fact, it's a direct ripoff of one of their CD players. Sony competes with B&O all the time for no reason whatsoever. I can think of 5 products that are DIRECT ripoffs. So obvious, a blind man could tell where the inspiration came from. I don't think it has much to do with Apple.

Edit: So that someone does bust my chops.

B&O Home Theatre:
(http://www.krompholz.ch/hifi/pictures/beovision_4_.jpg)

Sony Home Theatre:
(http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/home-theater-5.jpg)

B&O Speakers/CD Player:
(http://dk.compulenta.ru/upload/iblock/2d09db141d9f1ba7ed37fc7175c2e2c9.jpg)

Sony PS3:
(http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/news/05/16/ps3_screen001.jpg)

I could be wrong...











 But I'm not.

We rented a house in the UK that was outfitted with B&O stuff.  It's crap for the price.  Big, fancy outside with a mundane inside.  They wrap mediocre components in dollar bills.

It's better than Sony stereo shit (not much) and looks HELLA better. You buy B&O for looks. Though their cordless phone and flatscreen CRT monitor are AMAZING.

(http://www.t24.at/storys/storyfotos/bangolufsencom.jpg)

That's amazing?  Did Brad McQuaid design it? I dislike B&O stuff.  Like I said it's crap and I'm not even crazy about the look.  Maybe it's because I know what's inside, but I think I just dislike it because it's crap.

(http://www.thevooner.com/feature/2001/02/25/beocom/stand.jpg)

No, that's amazing. I love mine. ^_^

Dang but that shit is pretty.

Does Dodongo still dislike smoke?

Link needs more anti-aliasing.

(http://www.grahamshifi.co.nz/hifi-images/martin-logan-speakers.jpg)

No, these are amazing.

I couldn't tell if this is in-game or pre-rendered.

oh my god that is so hilarious!

I think they were already going downhill at that point, but I also think that coincides with another round of talent leaving the company.

In other news, Schild is still an art poof with a BA in Art Douchebaggery.

Function >> Style, always.

I just wish "young kids" in "rice rockets" could learn this philosophy.

Yep. And the Playstation and Xbox will outfunction the Revolution. And the Xbox will be easiest to program for - then, maybe Playstation. Well, the Nintendo will be the easiest - BECAUSE IT'LL BE ARCHAIC by the time it actually hits shelves.

You're reaching, man. The only similarity of the B&O and Sony stereos you show are slender silver tower speakers, and they don't even look the same in detail.

YEAH BABY!

*please don't fuck it up, please don't fuck it up, please don't fuck it up*

*tear

Damn you for getting my hopes up.  Looks awesome.

The wonky multiple scales for terrain, models, etc is really bothering me in the Civ4 shots.

You mean those aren't giants?