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Protospore
August 16th 2008, 04:21 CEST by BobJustBob Maxis/EA have quietly been releasing new programs to their Spore site. These are unpolished, mostly undocumented development prototypes used to test and balance gameplay concepts. Such as the ParticleMan prototype, which comes from early in the process when the game was still being called SimEverything. The plan was for the game to simulate an entire universe, with you or some procedural generation algorithm manipulating gravity and space dust in order to coalesce planets on which life would later hopefully arise. A few of these prototypes are almost playable games and the rest are interesting simulations if you can figure out what the hell is going on. For example, some of the Gaming Steve forum members delved into BIOME and crafted their own rulesets. I'm amazed that Maxis is willing to release these. I can only imagine the deluge of help requests they must be receiving from people who ignore the fact that this is unsupported software. Or what kind of backlash this could cause; if people cancel planned purchases based on demos, are they likely to do the same here? Might these actually increase sales? It does seem like a nice way to lead up to release and keep the hype level up. In what turned out to be the final issue of Games For Windows Magazine, the massive Sims 3 preview included a description of some similar prototypes that were supposed to be released on 1up.com. They never were. I hold out hope that Maxis is going to do something similar and trickle them out as that game's release nears next year. Spore is just a little over three weeks away at this point, coming out on Sunday September 7th. I hope for many more prototypes to be released before then. In the meantime, get to downloading and let the rest of us know how you got that binary planetary system to form. |
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If you're getting 2000 results, you should narrow your search. Are you new to computers? Witnesses in the house heard Jones say "why did you pee on me Pooh Bear?" A few moments later, the witness heard the son say "Mama you done stabbed me."
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Ever heard of browsing? What's the point of having a 'List all books' option if you can't use it? |
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Browsing is what you do in the actual bookstore, not on their website. You want to browse for new authors, go to that goodreads site Jamie's gay for. Witnesses in the house heard Jones say "why did you pee on me Pooh Bear?" A few moments later, the witness heard the son say "Mama you done stabbed me."
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It's true. I am gay for it. blog | photoblog | PlanetCrap Flickr group
"It was a little hard to tell how bad I was bleeding on account of the salsa" -- Jibble |
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#291 by Shadarr I bet your parents roll their eyes a lot at family get-togethers. Understatement of the year. |
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I started playing Halo 2 last night for some reason. I guess I see it like you might see a movie that everyone considers a classic or cultural touchstone. It's something I might not normally be interested in, but I feel some kind of obligation to see it in order to be somewhat literate in the culture in question. Even if I don't particularly like it, I feel like I need to experience the Halo series if I'm going to call myself a gamer. Some people have said the same thing about WoW. Thing is, after playing shooters like Bioshock and CoD4 recently, Halo 2 is kinda hard to take. I can see how some of the stuff would have been impressive when it first came out, but man, it's just running down hall after hall and shooting the same enemies over and over again. Zzzzzz... I'm hoping something happens soon or I may have to settle for being semiliterate in the gaming culture. blog | photoblog | PlanetCrap Flickr group
"It was a little hard to tell how bad I was bleeding on account of the salsa" -- Jibble |
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Did you already go through the first level? If so, you've seen pretty much all the game has to offer. Unless, of course, you like running halfway through a level and realizing that the other half is just a mirror image of what you just did. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 190 lbs. 10 to go. |
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Halo 2 is garbage. Play Halo 1. "That's not to say that games shouldn't have stories, I just think the story should be the player's story, and find more ways to celebrate and promote that, rather than the game designer's story that you're imposing upon them." - Will Wright
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Jibble: I'm not sure. I logged off last night shortly after we laded on Earth and were fighting our way through some streets that seemed a lot like the starship hallways I had just fought through half an hour earlier. Bob: I did play Halo 1 just last year and thought it wasn't bad even given how old it was. blog | photoblog | PlanetCrap Flickr group
"It was a little hard to tell how bad I was bleeding on account of the salsa" -- Jibble |
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Halo was a fun game with the same copy/paste level problem and a weaker second half but Halo 2 went overboard with the scripting and linearity. Looks to be the exact model Epic is following for Gears -> Gears 2. "That's not to say that games shouldn't have stories, I just think the story should be the player's story, and find more ways to celebrate and promote that, rather than the game designer's story that you're imposing upon them." - Will Wright
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Describing Halo 2 by saying the level architecture and such ended up repeating? Wow, that sounds exactly like my experience with Halo 1 and it's why I won't ever buy another Halo game. Thanks for cementing that. |
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So how about that Wheel of Time game, huh? I bet it sucks hairy donkey balls. If we can hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!
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Were you expecting an ice planet level, swamp level and desert level? How else should they have built a space station? "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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WoT? Play Undying instead. "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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In a way that made it fun and interesting. And if that's not possible, they should have omitted it. blog | photoblog | PlanetCrap Flickr group
"It was a little hard to tell how bad I was bleeding on account of the salsa" -- Jibble |
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Does anyone want a Jaiku invite? I appear to have an unlimited amount of them. "Who did you say? Johnny...Winters?? So sorry, I don't know the guy!"
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I do! Wait... what's a jaiku? |
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Oh. Looks like some sort of twitter knock off. Nevermind. |
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#303 by Shadarr Browsing is what you do in the actual bookstore, not on their website. You want to browse for new authors, go to that goodreads site Jamie's gay for. The problem is, living where I do, I often end up paying $1 for the book and $10 for the shipping, so I always try to browse through a seller's books to see if they have anything I might want so as to save on shipping. |
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You could always go illigal P2P for that.. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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Phew, I've just woken up after playing Castle Crashers non-stop for... just about seventeen hours straight! Well we did stop to eat twice, but other than that... I haven't quite binged on a game in such a fashion in many years. It felt good. The game's way beyond excellent, it's a wild and frothing torrent of beautiful art and incredible gameplay. Both of us felt our own characters were awesome unstoppable forces of destruction, and yet continuous teamwork was required throughout to heighten the experience exponentially. And it doesn't do stupid shit to actively prevent you having fun, there's no real penalty to death and you can't lose items and shit if you don't carry it back to town or anything. It just provides a bunch of missions to level up in, to get loot from, and laugh-out-loud at its insanely brilliantly told plot. It's like one long orgasm. This is basically the best coop game I've ever played. It certainly sits comfortably amongst the very best coop games ever made, Blizzard has to do at least this good with Diablo 3. It's that good. That's not to say the game is perfect. There are reports of some bugs, some I've seen myself. They range from harmless to annoying to actual showstoppingly bad. Like, before yesterday my friend's game wouldn't friggin' save his progress, so that's some serious shit in an rpg.. Also there's some minor nitpicks in the game itself, but none that matters much because of the pure happy coop fun it brings. If you can play it through without bugs (like we did, after we solved the no-saving thing) this is a game that fully deserves 10/10's and perfect A+'s imo. Hell it should get higher scores than that. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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But can you play it by yourself? |
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Who knows. I played local two-player coop, so we were safely shielded against netcode issues and rampant four-player anarchy. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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Sorry, that came out overly dismissive. I actually think you raise a good point, and I might be inclined to answer no. The game is omgsuperawesome in the specific circumstances I got to play it in, but alone or coop with a random shithole stranger or whatever probably wouldn't be the same at all. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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I've played to about character level 20 single player. It's fun, but it's also damn hard. I've been dreaming about playing it multiplayer since it started up. You can sense the potential lurking there. I'll be trying some 4 player local co-op next weekend, and I'm not going to play any more single player until then even though it's so damn fun. |
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You level faster in singleplayer right? How far is level 20? I think we had just recently crossed into our twenties when we completed the game, so.. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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#323 by gaggle Who knows. I played local two-player coop, so we were safely shielded against netcode issues and rampant four-player anarchy. If you can play that local, why can't you play Bionic Commando local? <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
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We did. The whole day was actually set aside for BC Rearmed. But we almost randomly solved his saving-bug and that opened up CC to us, and it was not a difficult choice between the two. We did play BC for half an hour or so after dinner, but it was kinda shit. Like, the coop isn't all that strong, you run out of lives in a way that always seemed to leave one player alive for a long time. The game was passed a harsh judgment and we moved back to CC, where hilarity quickly blossomed again. So in retrospect, BC:Rearmed having online coop.. not so important anymore. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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Did you smoke dope? "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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I ate a lot of candy. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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So real games are mindless repetitive bullshit, but a Golden Axe clone is "a wild and frothing torrent of beautiful art and incredible gameplay" with an "insanely brilliantly told plot". Uh huh, gaggle. Sure. "That's not to say that games shouldn't have stories, I just think the story should be the player's story, and find more ways to celebrate and promote that, rather than the game designer's story that you're imposing upon them." - Will Wright
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What real games is that? But sure, CC's execution makes it a superb cooperative game, and I assume these other games I've expressed my dislike of... weren't. CC's style is really beautiful, we fought a particular boss on Insane difficulty with all of our powers going at full tilt and literally the whole screen was an inferno hell of flames and lightning and little forest dwellers flying everywhere. It was actually beautiful, in a pleasing way many games fail at delivering. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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Lots of games deliver that, only you give up on them after five minutes and never get to experience it. "That's not to say that games shouldn't have stories, I just think the story should be the player's story, and find more ways to celebrate and promote that, rather than the game designer's story that you're imposing upon them." - Will Wright
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Any examples forthcoming? "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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I'm glad I bought street fighter and mortal kombat instead of castle crashers. Gaggle's mindless frothing hasn't actually explained any aspect of gameplay in any meaningful fashion, while bob sums it up for what it probably is: a golden axe clone. |
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I'm watching the first season of Star Trek - TNG. Damn, at the the beginning of every episode, when Picard's narrating the current episode's plot, starting with "Captain's log...", in my mind I complete that sentence with "...Guybrush Threepwood". I can't help it :( "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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#335 by bishop I'm glad I bought street fighter and mortal kombat instead of castle crashers. Gaggle's mindless frothing hasn't actually explained any aspect of gameplay in any meaningful fashion, while bob sums it up for what it probably is: a golden axe clone. You don't have any friends, CC isn't a game for you anyway. And besides, it's not like a much longer rant from my side would change your mind in any event, about the best I think I can accomplish is make you curious, maybe check it out on gametrailers or sumtin'. If you like what you see there you're set. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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I think you missed the part where it's not about me actually giving a damn about castle crashers, or even your opinion of it, but how you keep spazzing out over things and then wonder how you are so misunderstood that you get into 80 post debates on the nature of a platformer. wrong: oh my god this is the greatest game i've ever played holy wow jesus it's the best!!! right: it's golden axe. or diablo. plus I like it. |
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Braid is totally a platformer. <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
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The forum bishop describes doesn't sound fun to read. "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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It's not an improved forum, just an improved gaggle. Personally, I intend to try Castle Crashers at some point because gaggle is far from the only person spazzing out over it. And unlike platformers I actually like co-op beat 'em ups like Golden Axe. Witnesses in the house heard Jones say "why did you pee on me Pooh Bear?" A few moments later, the witness heard the son say "Mama you done stabbed me."
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#338 by bishop I think you missed the part where it's not about me actually giving a damn about castle crashers, or even your opinion of it, but how you keep spazzing out over things and then wonder how you are so misunderstood that you get into 80 post debates on the nature of a platformer. wrong: oh my god this is the greatest game i've ever played holy wow jesus it's the best!!! right: it's golden axe. or diablo. plus I like it. Generally speaking I want to value your opinion, but you're making it hard. I think you're misinterpreting what I write. I'm just posting my opinion, it's not a breakdown of the game I force upon you so that you will know why you should buy it. I just like it, and I want to share that feeling because it occasionally leads to interesting discussions. It's not meant as something that can be misunderstood, if you don't care about the game that's cool, or if you'd like to hear something more specific that's cool as well, just ask. But my initial post is not an attempt to make you drink my kool-aid. As for the Braid thing it's still obviously not a platformer. It's a shooter. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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Well, I downloaded the Space prototype and played it for a bout 10 minutes. It blew up on my and gave me a Visual Studio debug error. Until then I was trying to figure out what I was doing, and while it seems innovative in some aspects, in others I was quite bored. I doubt I play this game when it comes out, but it is ambitious in scope and could be a big hit among the SIMS type audience members. |
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ignore the crappy grammar and bad spelling.. I just woke up, and I'm partially retarded. |
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:O "That's not to say that games shouldn't have stories, I just think the story should be the player's story, and find more ways to celebrate and promote that, rather than the game designer's story that you're imposing upon them." - Will Wright
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Wow man, THAT guy is still alive? "Action stars of two decades ago shot .44 bullets out of their cocks. Honestly, if me and Charles Bronson were in the same room I'd kill myself just to make sure he didn't hurt me."
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I agree with what Bob wrote. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 190 lbs. 10 to go. |
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Christ. It's like night of the living dead in here. "I buy Captain Crunch because I like a man in uniform." - BobJustBob
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#348 by TreeFrog Christ. It's like night of the living dead in here. So you're saying someone shot Hugin? ... I'll get my coat. "Braid breaks one of my personal most fundamental rules of games design within minutes of starting - they have timed puzzles."
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Castle Crashers is fun, but holy crap gaggle, get off the orgasmotron. It's a good game but it's like you've never played a beat'em up before. I was going to say, it's a fun game, looks great, has a nice sense of humor. The RPG/loot stuff adds a nice dimension to it. Apparently that's not enough, I have to compete with: gaggle (#321): ... The game's way beyond excellent, it's a wild and frothing torrent of beautiful art and incredible gameplay ... insanely brilliantly told plot. It's like one long orgasm ... It certainly sits comfortably amongst the very best coop games ever made... In order to get on the marketing materials. This is a game I actually like, mainly because I spent so much time with the Simpsons and TMNT arcade games, but if I read that spoo before playing it I'd be looking for every reason to hate it. Have some restraint, there isn't a video game conceived that could live up to that sort of reckless hyperbole. |
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