Thread:Deathstalker666/@comment-5557418-20131202044007/@comment-3547390-20140114031432

A countdown to death? Nope, that would be pretty insane. Though Thief 2 can get pretty lethal at times...

You know what intense is? Running through corridors while being afraid at an enemy is around the next corner that will take out most of your life. It gets your blood rushing, especially when you have been perfect up to that point (I think Dark Forces is pretty tense this way, when I get near the end it gets highly tense as I fear messing up more). Intense is sneaking past enemies, knowing that one wrong move will cause all the alarms in the place to go off and guards to rush you at all sides. Intense is having an enemy rush you whilst intelligently dodging your attacks, knowing fully well how deadly they are if they hit you.

I watch those videos like some people read the bible. Any time I start to think new school might not be that bad (don't be exposed for a long time, you start to assume all gaming is as good as what you are playing) I just watch those videos and see what I hated. Then I look at the stuff it was picking on and how it is even worse than the Doom videos. A "If Quake was done today" also exists.

8-10 levels which take 40 minutes? Honestly that sounds like Dark Forces. You forgot to seperate the time of cutscenes and the time of actual gameplay! I heard that one of the Gears of War games has a 2 hour finale cutscene. Why release a high quality singleplayer campaign when everyone wants multiplayer?

To me I actually see new school as dumbing down the whole level design process. Old school required guns to be balanced across the map. New school gives you all weapons. Old school requires the developer to figure out the average player's ability to distribute ammo and health. New school regens health and drops care packages. Old school allowed you to get to almost any location you could see in a level. New school allows you to go where the developers want you to go. Old school rewarded exploration. New school punishes it with 5 second time limits to get back to the battlefield. Old school required strategy and timing, knowing when to dodge and when to attack. New school allows players to be basically invincible as long as they remember to hide every few seconds. Old school created their own universes full of unique creatures and worlds filled with unique and distinguishable geography so you felt you were part of it. New school uses a real life setting full of humans and worlds based on the geography of the setting (flat with square buildings) with less focus on uniqueness as the player is expected to run through it rather quickly. Ironically old school you moved faster and even had bunny hops and rocket jumps which caused designers to rethink levels to not break with these exploits. New school forces you to move slow, jump only where they tell you to jump, and rocket launchers that kill everything instantly. Old school had jump pads which allowed for vertical as well as horizontal movement, meaning even more tense multiplayer sessions. New school gives you perks, which eliminates all tenseness as everybody spams them.

The publishers are basically trying to make money by giving the people what they want. The designers are basically trying to make money by giving the publishers what they want (otherwise you end up with no publisher to back you). I see the evolution to this point, so I know that the industry is at fault as it basically tried to create more and more of a cinematic experience (at the time it was probably quite impressive as it showed the power of the game). So by trying to push forward by promoting the greater potential, we basically ended up in this rut where people want a certain type of game and don't want to shift to anything else. Perhaps it has to do with patience too, many in the working class are getting more and more in a rush and therefore are less apt to want to play a game like Thief that takes a long amount of time. A shorter game might actually be ideal for these people as they want to do something quick without having to get too involved. Ever heard of anyone caring about the COD singleplayer campaign?

Dishonoured definately intrigues me and I will eventually try to head that direction. I eventually plan on doing every single Unreal engine game as I seem to like many of the older titles (Deus Ex, Rune, Unreal). Course, I haven't really seen how they have progressed since the first Unreal Engine.

Hammerites guarding something in a circle formation? Too easy (you wouldn't know how it is possible just yet though)! Hammerites are actually appartions? That actually made it a lot easier. Based on the fact that you are trying to say it is a tedious thing with a lot of difficulty based on your experiences with Thief and your description, I think I can convert it into better terms (you won't see it until Thief 2 so I can't say it). Ugh, that is almost impossible, and I have never had such skill! In a circle?!?

Funny thing is I was misunderstanding you until you said that. I was going to try anything possible to see if there was some little thing I was missing.

Wait a minute... fists... Doom? Could it be like punching the cyberdemon with your fists? That was always fun!

EDIT: Nope. Not the same. The cyberdemon had a pattern. This thing leaps...

What happened to THE Kell Dragon?!?? There are two at least!!!!

EDITEDIT: You kill one, two more come out! Wow...

EDITEDITEDIT: Diving in and out ends with me getting one life. Playing "rock-em sock-em" by standing in front of the Kell Dragon and punching it ends with four lives. So the strategy here is to do nothing?

So I learned something even more interesting. Grans cause more damage and are faster than a Kell Dragon. I honestly would rather fight a bunch of them then some more Grans at this point!

EDITX4: Redid with 6 lives after killing all 5 Kell Dragons. Apparently punching causes you to extend the distance that you are hit, so it is pretty much a hit when mouth is closed deal. Still don't know how to deal with Grans though. Ugh, they are so fast! I think you were promoting the wrong enemies...

Also, I am already unable to find a way forward. Raised a floor but the door remains locked. I found a secret, but don't know if it was worth it due to a Gran. Ugh, button hunting again!

EDITX5: Well, I don't see how this can possibly be a puzzle. There is barely any space! I press the switch, shouldn't the door open? Hmm, this smells of broken. I can punch 5 Kell Dragons yet I fail at finding the tiny switch that opens the door (I tried tracing every wall). Grenades do nothing, punching does nothing... Perhaps it is fate, the game is too hard and it wants to prevent me getting injured by my own stupidity (aka I should run from a Kell Dragon when I don't need to kill it, yet I insist on its death). Is it required I leave one alive? Jabba feels pity and lets me go? Sounds stupid, but I am confused. Well, I guess I can retry the small area tomorrow after a well needed rest. Button searching gets stressful, especially when I was enjoying punching everything to death and probably lost all logic in favor of "punchy punchy". This must not be my night.