With the advent of stand alone DotA based games that actually do a good job of modernising the original (read: Heroes of Newerth) WC3 might be under threat as a classic LAN game. Though it still does have its huge array of great custom maps that aren't DotA so who knows. #lan
@Mr.P1ckl3s:
Funnily enough if you actually admit to heavily basing what you make off of something else it absolves you of ripping off. Ripping off is where you blatantly copy something and don't admit to doing so. They said they were making a DotA based game, asked the current custodian of it for his blessing and were granted it.
I really don't see any problem with that.
@D4nte:
LoL tries to be DotA based but tries to do a lot of its own thing as well. The result of which doesn't really feel enough like DotA to be worth playing instead of DotA.
HoN on the other hand got both myself and about 7 of my friends, all long time DotA players, to finally kick the game for good and move on. #lan
@Odin: I am the exact opposite, if I want to play dota I'll go play dota. If someone wants to make an AoS standalone game then by all means go for it (Demigod/League of Legends), I just don't want a dota clone when dota does the dota part just fine.
@Mr.P1ckl3s:
DotA does the DotA part just fine but everything else about it is and always will be under the heel of WC3 and its limitations.
HoN also does the DotA part fine along with allowing people to rejoin after being DCed, better matchmaking tools, an improved interface as well as a bunch of other stuff. #lan
It's nice to see something that says the LAN people still exist. It seemed for awhile we were going to be downplayed to extinction. I run a group for me and my friends called LANMinds [gamers.allfragnolag.com] and will be a staff member for a bigger 75-seat LAN in February next year called CryoLAN Party [www.cryolanparty.com] We still exist and we still have a great following. It's very easy to fill the room every month for mine and from what we see of CryoLAN we will easily fill house by the end of January just on pre-pay sign-ups.
This article says that we (PC LAN people) mainly play older games, and while that is true, it's mostly true of competitive gaming from my own experience. I would say we play a lot of newer games like Killing Floor, CoD5, UT3 and more.
It's unfortunate that games like MW2 will not be played as we can't guarantee connection to be stable with so many users using the same connection. For me, this was the biggest argument for dedicated servers. #lan
There's one good thing to come out of Modern Warfare 2, unlike the previous game you're not limited to the pre-made classes when playing offline, so even in a lan you can use whatever you've unlocked and create custom classes. #lan
@AOClaus: That was the case in CoD4, unlocks work exactly the same in LAN play as they do online. You can use the ones you have and gain XP and levels while playing on LAN. #lan
@AOClaus: Ah, I assumed that the PC version was implied since the story was about LAN parties. (Which usually implies PC gaming, despite the networking capabilities of consoles.)
It's really sad my college has nothing even closely resembling to an organized gaming community. Either that or it's so underground that it's practically not there. #lan
@RockyRan: i don't think most colleges do, i don't think most colleges care, and i think at this point in time they might find it hard to justify the cost of setting up a room like the one they talked about in this article.
maybe if they charged money to get in, but i'm still not sure most schools would be willing to set aside the space required. #lan
@RockyRan: We have one, but it's total crap. We tried to organise a lan at the start of the year but it just devolved into a pissing match about which shooter was better. #lan
@EchoSix: Mmm, yeah. Stuffing a bunch of college gamers in one room does may or may not be such a good idea.
Still, I'd like some sort of gaming community that I can get in touch with. All my friends are either very light gamers or not at all. I love local multiplayer/LAN parties but I can never find enough people to get a good meeting going. I'd start a group if I weren't in engineering/wasting all my time at Kotaku. #lan
@RockyRan: I agree with Nexus.
If it's not there now, then start it.
Dorms tend to have a pre-set up LAN network ready and waiting.
So just ask around, find the PC gamers (usually in PC labs) and get something going.
Maybe ask at your IT office. Our uni has UT3 installed on a floor of our comp building, so as long as we ask nicely and only play at night then we can use it for some gaming. Just obviously no food n drink, n keep it quiet:P
So yeah, ask about, maybe make some flyers, and get something going. And remember to pitch it to the people in charge how socialable it is, the ones in charge like that stuff. Meshing students together, breaking the ice n all that. #lan
Ah the good old days of LAN gaming.
KESnet, log in to a game, jump on LAN n see who's playing in the other dorms. Mainly Dawn of War, that used to be a favourite. As people dwindled off LAN we'd turn to the net n prey on unsuspecting people with our organised groups.
Halo 3 on system link used to be a good one too, though it's getting harder now everyone's decided to get big immovable HDTVs
Tourney's will take a hit when more games yank out LAN n dedi support.
But then again I feel that many will be happy to stick with the old games that do support those.
I do find it sad that games are pulling out stuff like this and splitscreen. Kinda isolates everyone. You don't get to meet up as much, it's all done over headset. Thats good for most the time, but you just wanna get together one over few months n LAN, down some beer, laugh n chat. Oh n cheat. coughTVbGonecough #lan
@deanbmmv: that's one of the reasons why i like the fact that the xbox has a VGA cable, you can plug it into any computer monitor making setting up a lan easy. just bring your computer monitor and your xbox, kinda like you'd to with a PC lan. #lan
@NecronomiconUK: So your mom carries your equipment, drops you off and then picks you up from the LAN party afterwards? Where does she find the time? #lan
Oddly, one of the oldest "omg it flies" moment in video games I can remember is when the flying ship takes off in Final Fantasy IV (aka FFII). Suddenly, hours into the game (which means hours after the opening where there were flying ships already), seeing the mode 7 induced change in perspective as the ship lifts off was just amazing. I guess the freedom of movement it implies also play a big part in the intensity of the moment. It flies: the world is mine.
As far as gameplay go, I really enjoy flying by repulsion such as the jetpacks in Pilotwings or Super Mario Sunshine (or in 2D: Cave Story with gun recoil). I guess it's easier to involve the player that way and make them feel the acceleration and the trajectory rather than with classic flight controls.
Motion sensing can also work pretty well, like in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction or Flower.
About freedom of movement it is also important to once again mention Descent and its truly 3D design for both control and levels. I guess it's just too intimidating for modern players and, by extension, modern publishers. #flyinggames
@RicoTheSaboteur: Remember joysticks? They were invented for a reason. Replace the three axes with a joystick and suddenly you've got your finger on the trigger, your other hand on the throttle, and a hell of a thrill ride, all the way back in 1996. #flyinggames
@Chris Parnell: the usual number of axes for a joystick is two, but it's true some also had torsion (which adds an axis) and even a hat (which add another 2) . You need all that plus the throttle on the keyboard to play Descent! With an oddity like Logitech's Cyberman you could steer the ship without a keyboard though. I even know someone who did just that back in the days, but I am not sure how long the Cyberman survived. #flyinggames
@RicoTheSaboteur: Ahh yeah Id forgotten that the torsion thing wasn't all that common. Even so, I played against people who just had pitch and yaw, and made clever use of the up/down and left/right strafing to pull off some decent flying. #flyinggames
true story: I'm a lucid dreamer. I can recall at least five instances of being aware I'm dreaming, allowing me to lift off the ground and fly around. It is the most amazing video game EVER #flyinggames
@Muggs Bigglesworth: I've been experimenting with lucidity while dreaming for about 20 years. Indeed, nothing can compare with the realistic sensation of being free to fly in a dream you're controlling.
Eventually I got over my own boundaries and was able to set my sights on the stars and fly through space and to the moon fast as thought. When you move like that in a dream, the next day when you awaken you get an overwhelming sense of well-being and that nothing can stop you. Liberating, empowering and other big words.
Edited by Sobersean: aka Doctor Aquafresh at 11/09/09 2:37 PM
Sobersean: aka Doctor Aquafresh was starred
Sobersean: aka Doctor Aquafresh was unstarred
@Muggs Bigglesworth: I remember the only time I ever had a lucid dream. I called up a clock, only to discover I couldn't read it. Then I decided to fly. Then it went back to normal dreaming. #flyinggames
I know there are plenty of "A flying piece with no mention of (insert game here)?" comments, but this can't be helped. If you're going to talk about exploring the Z-axis in shooters, how can you not mention Starsiege: Tribes? Released only 2 years after Quake introduced the idea of exploring the Z-axis in shooters, it perfected it. As jetpacks and flying become a common trend in shooters (Red Faction, Dark Void, Section 8, Shattered Horizon), Tribes is still the golden standard to which no other shooter has come close. #flyinggames
@BigMoose is a big moose:
Tribes was amazing. I've had trouble playing "smaller" multiplayer shooters since.
I used to play it all the time on my goddamn 4meg video card.
Learning to "ski" and to duel with a spinfusor are some of my best gaming memories.
Server-side mods were also great, like Renegades with its different classes. Placing tiny super precise laser turrets along the terrain so ski-ing enemies would get bugzapped on their way to our base...
But the Mortar was a fucking overpowered piece of shit :P
The problem now is the fact that many games are the "on rail" type of shooter/arcade games. No physics, no tactics, just turn until he's in front, fire on him next.
I grew up on a very, very old DOS based World War One flight sim called Red Baron, and then later Red Baron 3d. Over speed made your wings break off, engine trouble and gun trouble could come out of nowhere and was at times unfixable. A good career could be cut short by one lucky bullet from nowhere, it could kill you or wound you to the point that your career was over. I lost many a pilot to that fate. Most of the early flight sims required a basic understanding of combat maneuvers, and tactics. And if you weren't flying with a Joystick/Rudder/Throttle combination you were at a disadvantage. Let alone if you were to venture online.
Online combat had a learning curve that was unbelievably steep. Some of the people had been playing since 1997. Last I heard the game still had a dedicated following so it wouldn't be completely unheard of to have someone who had played that game for 12 years.
Heck only reason I stopped playing was because I had to ge a new PC. Old Pentium 1 with 16MB of RAM and Voodoo 3 3000 was becoming too dated lol. Can't get it to run right on my new PC unfortunately.
I played that game for 7 years of my life and still blame it for my flying bug. I did find one very interesting thing when going for my flying lessons though. I did much better then I should have on my first instructed flight. I don't want to say I could jump in a 747 and go from East to West coast but I could fly that Cessna much better then most people on their first flight could.
Now it's all rail shooters, no tactics, powerups floating in the sky. Hopefully with IL2 sturmovik being released and hard games like Demons Souls we'll see actual flight sims make a resurgence #flyinggames
There was a scene in the first transformers movie that I would love to play in a game. You guys remember the scene where starscream totally owns the jet fighters in mid-air? yeah that was epic and I would love to have that ability in a game. To use the physics of gravity to just drop myself on an enemy then fly off to the next one in mid-air. #flyinggames
All we need is a perfect(and I mean perfect) Itano Circus/Macross Missile Massacre style game. I mean just missiles everywhere, super speeds and maneuvers, dodging in and out of the clouds, flipping through hordes of missiles, shooting them down while speeding through the skies, explosions everywhere.
It'd be one of those moments when two hundred missiles are blowing up all around you and you dodged every single one in a display of super ace skills that players gape in awe.
The closest I've had to that is when I managed to dodge and outrun four guys locking on to my Warhawk with the eight micro missile spam flipping over and destroying all four guys speeding right through them taking their missiles back at them. #flyinggames
@Black-Dog-Howls: The deluxe edition of such a game could come with a shiny helmet with the obligatory green or blue coloured visor, made anti-fog but badly ventilated so you sweat like your favourite missile-shootin' heroes. #flyinggames
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Funnily enough if you actually admit to heavily basing what you make off of something else it absolves you of ripping off. Ripping off is where you blatantly copy something and don't admit to doing so. They said they were making a DotA based game, asked the current custodian of it for his blessing and were granted it.
I really don't see any problem with that.
@D4nte:
LoL tries to be DotA based but tries to do a lot of its own thing as well. The result of which doesn't really feel enough like DotA to be worth playing instead of DotA.
HoN on the other hand got both myself and about 7 of my friends, all long time DotA players, to finally kick the game for good and move on. #lan
11/17/09
11/17/09
DotA does the DotA part just fine but everything else about it is and always will be under the heel of WC3 and its limitations.
HoN also does the DotA part fine along with allowing people to rejoin after being DCed, better matchmaking tools, an improved interface as well as a bunch of other stuff. #lan
11/16/09
This article says that we (PC LAN people) mainly play older games, and while that is true, it's mostly true of competitive gaming from my own experience. I would say we play a lot of newer games like Killing Floor, CoD5, UT3 and more.
It's unfortunate that games like MW2 will not be played as we can't guarantee connection to be stable with so many users using the same connection. For me, this was the biggest argument for dedicated servers. #lan
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maybe if they charged money to get in, but i'm still not sure most schools would be willing to set aside the space required. #lan
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Still, I'd like some sort of gaming community that I can get in touch with. All my friends are either very light gamers or not at all. I love local multiplayer/LAN parties but I can never find enough people to get a good meeting going. I'd start a group if I weren't in engineering/wasting all my time at Kotaku. #lan
11/16/09
If it's not there now, then start it.
Dorms tend to have a pre-set up LAN network ready and waiting.
So just ask around, find the PC gamers (usually in PC labs) and get something going.
Maybe ask at your IT office. Our uni has UT3 installed on a floor of our comp building, so as long as we ask nicely and only play at night then we can use it for some gaming. Just obviously no food n drink, n keep it quiet:P
So yeah, ask about, maybe make some flyers, and get something going. And remember to pitch it to the people in charge how socialable it is, the ones in charge like that stuff. Meshing students together, breaking the ice n all that. #lan
11/16/09
KESnet, log in to a game, jump on LAN n see who's playing in the other dorms. Mainly Dawn of War, that used to be a favourite. As people dwindled off LAN we'd turn to the net n prey on unsuspecting people with our organised groups.
Halo 3 on system link used to be a good one too, though it's getting harder now everyone's decided to get big immovable HDTVs
Tourney's will take a hit when more games yank out LAN n dedi support.
But then again I feel that many will be happy to stick with the old games that do support those.
I do find it sad that games are pulling out stuff like this and splitscreen. Kinda isolates everyone. You don't get to meet up as much, it's all done over headset. Thats good for most the time, but you just wanna get together one over few months n LAN, down some beer, laugh n chat. Oh n cheat. coughTVbGonecough #lan
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Enjoy. #lan
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Brave man. #lan
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As far as gameplay go, I really enjoy flying by repulsion such as the jetpacks in Pilotwings or Super Mario Sunshine (or in 2D: Cave Story with gun recoil). I guess it's easier to involve the player that way and make them feel the acceleration and the trajectory rather than with classic flight controls.
Motion sensing can also work pretty well, like in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction or Flower.
About freedom of movement it is also important to once again mention Descent and its truly 3D design for both control and levels. I guess it's just too intimidating for modern players and, by extension, modern publishers. #flyinggames
11/09/09
@RicoTheSaboteur: Screenshot from Descent 2 key config screen. Yep: 12 (Twelve) buttons just to steer your ship. #flyinggames
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Eventually I got over my own boundaries and was able to set my sights on the stars and fly through space and to the moon fast as thought. When you move like that in a dream, the next day when you awaken you get an overwhelming sense of well-being and that nothing can stop you. Liberating, empowering and other big words.
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nuff said #flyinggames
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Tribes was amazing. I've had trouble playing "smaller" multiplayer shooters since.
I used to play it all the time on my goddamn 4meg video card.
Learning to "ski" and to duel with a spinfusor are some of my best gaming memories.
Server-side mods were also great, like Renegades with its different classes. Placing tiny super precise laser turrets along the terrain so ski-ing enemies would get bugzapped on their way to our base...
But the Mortar was a fucking overpowered piece of shit :P
Oh, btw... Tribes will soon be a browser game: [playtribes.com] #flyinggames
11/09/09
I grew up on a very, very old DOS based World War One flight sim called Red Baron, and then later Red Baron 3d. Over speed made your wings break off, engine trouble and gun trouble could come out of nowhere and was at times unfixable. A good career could be cut short by one lucky bullet from nowhere, it could kill you or wound you to the point that your career was over. I lost many a pilot to that fate. Most of the early flight sims required a basic understanding of combat maneuvers, and tactics. And if you weren't flying with a Joystick/Rudder/Throttle combination you were at a disadvantage. Let alone if you were to venture online.
Online combat had a learning curve that was unbelievably steep. Some of the people had been playing since 1997. Last I heard the game still had a dedicated following so it wouldn't be completely unheard of to have someone who had played that game for 12 years.
Heck only reason I stopped playing was because I had to ge a new PC. Old Pentium 1 with 16MB of RAM and Voodoo 3 3000 was becoming too dated lol. Can't get it to run right on my new PC unfortunately.
I played that game for 7 years of my life and still blame it for my flying bug. I did find one very interesting thing when going for my flying lessons though. I did much better then I should have on my first instructed flight. I don't want to say I could jump in a 747 and go from East to West coast but I could fly that Cessna much better then most people on their first flight could.
Now it's all rail shooters, no tactics, powerups floating in the sky. Hopefully with IL2 sturmovik being released and hard games like Demons Souls we'll see actual flight sims make a resurgence #flyinggames
11/09/09
11/09/09
11/09/09
It'd be one of those moments when two hundred missiles are blowing up all around you and you dodged every single one in a display of super ace skills that players gape in awe.
The closest I've had to that is when I managed to dodge and outrun four guys locking on to my Warhawk with the eight micro missile spam flipping over and destroying all four guys speeding right through them taking their missiles back at them. #flyinggames
11/09/09