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| Cluster Shout Box Link » /matrix/cluster.asp/16 |  darrellwu (24) Apr 10, 2007 - 01:00 pm
| » Hidden comments?
I'm not sure why, but going back through my matrix comments it seems a good number of them are hidden (and the same is true for a lot of other users). Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=15004 | darrellwu (24) Apr 10, 2007 - 12:34 pm
| | Oblivion has many, many, many issues (some technical, some UI and gameplay-related) but it is widely forgiven for them because it's so darn easy to mod it into the game you'd like it to be. More developers should take note and follow BSoft's example - your fans will be willing to overlook much if you give them good tools with which to tweak your game. Getting your userbase to do work for you is probably the greatest platform advantage the PC has right now. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Cluster Shout Box Link » /matrix/cluster.asp/22 | darrellwu (24) Apr 10, 2007 - 04:56 am » Edited on Apr 10, 2007 - 04:57 am
| I don't think I got downvoted at all, but as I didn't really start plugging the link to friends until late my rating was also never especially high, so I suppose no one bothered to nerf my rating =P.
I think that in the end we'll just have to trust the editors to make sagacious decisions. In round two I was in the bottom half vote-wise but still finished second, so I'm trying not to stress too much about the voting process. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/19453/317 | darrellwu (24) Apr 05, 2007 - 04:03 pm
| Yeah, I understand your frustration here. I would actually say that Allegiance's online community isn't any better or worse than that for any other game, but the nature of the game naturally means that a good community is important.
As for the treatment of newbies, I think you'll find that if you try and join the team that currently has the better players, the commander will let you on (or you can get the other vets to shame him or her into letting you on). Problems arise when the situation is something like a 10 v 9 game with max imbalance set to 1, and the team with 9 already has all the newbies compared to hotshot vets on the larger team. In that situation the commander is unlikely to let another newbie on, and is probably justified in doing so because unbalanced games are no fun for anyone, newbies included. In that situation you're better off just waiting in lobby until the weaker team gets a vet player and you can try and join the stronger team. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/19453/365 | darrellwu (24) Apr 05, 2007 - 12:54 am
| Yeah, the development of movies (or cinema, if we are to be pretentious) as an medium often gives me great hope for the future when thinking about games. This is still a very young industry, and there's a lot of growing and maturing to do yet.
Of course, the "auteur director" was really a phenomenon of the late 60s and 70s. Nowadays Hollywood is as covetous of big-cash franchises as the game industry is. Nevertheless, even within the tentpole-picture franchise economic system, the appropriate people do get recognized for executing franchise pictures extraordinarily well (Jackson, Singer, Raimi, etc.) Flag this | Edit this post |
| Shout Box Link » /matrix/user.asp/17473 | darrellwu (24) Mar 24, 2007 - 11:17 am
| Hi Dan,
I'll be out of town and with intermittent internet access for the next few days. I understand the next round will involve hardware. Is there an email address or something at which I can reach firingsquad staff to let them know what address to send the hardware to? Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/12941/363 | darrellwu (24) Mar 22, 2007 - 11:24 pm
| » No fair!
Foul, foul I say! How are we supposed to compete with adorable baby pictures?!?! =D
Congratulations on the new child. Your kids are a lucky bunch, I remember wanting a swing set almost exactly like the one you describe when I was much younger. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Shout Box Link » /matrix/user.asp/62580 | darrellwu (24) Mar 17, 2007 - 08:18 pm
| » Heya!
Hi dude, I have an entry in round 2 of the editor's challenge. Check it out here:
http://www.firingsquad.com/matrix/blog.asp/19453/317/The_Greatest_Game_You've_Never_Played:_Allegiance's_R3_release. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=14709 | darrellwu (24) Mar 17, 2007 - 08:17 pm
| | Yeah, but one advantage that people who are paid a salary will always have over people doing something for free is that they have more time to devote to the field (it being their job, after all). I know that going back and reading my entries really makes me cringe, because there are so many small edits that I wish I could make. The onset of a deadline and other time commitments I have prevent me from devoting enough time to edits and rewrites as I would like. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/19453/317 | darrellwu (24) Mar 16, 2007 - 06:25 am » Edited on Mar 16, 2007 - 06:28 am
| Yep, you certainly can remap the keyboard controls. You may notice that on my joystick mapping I have the hat switch mapped to asdf, which up/down/left/right thrust. That's a non-standard keymapping in allegiance and a holdover from when I was using a keyboard and six-button mouse. Up and down thrust in this context is the z-axis. Allegiance controls like a sim and not a FPS, so you use a throttle control for movement, but you can thrust in certain directions to modify your course or dodge.
You will need a lot of custom keyboard binds once you go remapping keys though, you'll be doing a lot more in this game than throwing grenades and reloading. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/19453/317 | darrellwu (24) Mar 15, 2007 - 06:07 pm
| | I decided to focus the hardware portion of my article on my recently purchased joystick. Mouse-control is, in fact, the preferred peripheral for a sizable number of allegiance players, but it definitely does help to have a lot of buttons available to you when playing the game. (A gamer mouse, for example, or even just a premium productivity mouse that has more than your typical 2 buttons + scroll wheel). Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/62856/237 | darrellwu (24) Mar 05, 2007 - 03:43 pm
| | Attractive, professional and sleek design, superior to a lot of the boxes I see on store shelves. I think the "GeForce 8800" text blends into the background a little too easily though. A bit more contrast would be good. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/38010/241 | darrellwu (24) Mar 05, 2007 - 03:40 pm » Edited on Mar 05, 2007 - 03:46 pm
| | Wow. I like the concept, I like the art. I actually Googled the real product to see if you had cribbed anything from the actual product box, because your design is so professionally done. As it turns out, your design is leaps and bounds beyond anything Foxconn actually has on their boxes. Great work. My only critique is that the icons in the lower right are a little large and make the front of the box a tad on the "busy" side. Some blank space would be nice. It'd also give us room to admire your cool cg background. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/19453/189 | darrellwu (24) Mar 05, 2007 - 03:18 pm » Edited on Mar 05, 2007 - 03:26 pm
| | Okami was definitely one of the games that inspired this article. I've never even played the game myself; I've only watched a friend play it for 30 minutes, but the visuals were so memorable that I remain charmed by the game. I don't mention it in the article for two reasons. First, I felt like I had plenty of examples of visually stylish games already; there's no way I could possibly list every single example of these sort of games, but hopefully the article conveys its thesis with enough clarity that readers will be reminded of games they themselves have seen (like you are of Okami, and an earlier poster was of TF2). Second, FS is largely a PC-centric site so I stick largely to the PC market in the article. To be honest, though, off the top of my head I can think of more examples of unique visuals in console games than in PC games - and I don't play many console games - so maybe I could have made something of that curious phenomenon in the article. In writing the article I was also thinking of Rez, PaRappa the Rappa, Alien Hominid, and even the post-Mario64 Mario games, console games all. (Again, few of which I actually own, which is testament to how memorable unique visuals can truly be.) Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/107/177 | darrellwu (24) Mar 03, 2007 - 03:25 pm » Edited on Mar 03, 2007 - 03:26 pm
| | Oh, I see, that's too bad. Hopefully the file size will increase for future rounds as I'd definitely be interested in seeing the "directors cut" of you videos, heh. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/62580/173 | darrellwu (24) Mar 02, 2007 - 09:28 pm
| Lovely work.
I'm interested in seeing how you would render the box sides and back, though. Obviously you can't know what sort of text they'll want, but it would be interesting to see how you would extend this great design to cover an entire package.
I've rated this very high already, but I can edit it even higher if you were to edit before contest closes on the 20th =D. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/107/177 | darrellwu (24) Mar 02, 2007 - 08:08 pm » Edited on Mar 02, 2007 - 08:14 pm
| Great review, I also have no idea why your rating is so low. This is definitely one of the top tier videos in this round. I suspect other entrants voting may have something to do with it - I'm not voting at all in the writing round I'm entered in, because I know there's no way I can possibly be objective - or it might be the American bias against soccer. =D. In any case, I think the editors have some opportunity to "weight" their scores too, so perhaps you can still make it in!
As for actual comments - you voice is pleasant, you enunciate well, and you're speaking at a good speed. I like your small humorous asides, they made me smile and they're placed at the right points (the beginning and the end) so that they do not distract the viewer from the narrative course of your review. Only suggestions I have are about the length - I think it could be longer, and you could engage some of its features more in-depth. You mentioned Worldwide Soccer Manager in the blurb but you don't compare the two games at all in the video review itself.
9/10, not a 10 because of what I mentioned above, and also because I haven't seen all the videos yet and I want to leave myself room to possibly rate something higher than your video. I don't anticipate that happening, though. =D Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/19453/189 | darrellwu (24) Mar 01, 2007 - 02:47 pm » Edited on Mar 01, 2007 - 02:49 pm
| | Thanks, I appreciate the praise everybody. If anyone has constructive criticism to share with me, though, please do so. I know the article isn't perfect... I wish editing wasn't locked because there are lots of things I want to go back and change. Flag this | Edit this post |
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