|
| T O P I C | |
|
Listen! Do you smell something?
April 8th 2008, 02:18 CEST by TreeFrog Swelling orchestral scores in games have been on the up-and-up for years now, but how many can you think of that really paid attention to their sound effects? The only one that springs to my mind is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - despite its many and varied failures it was atmospheric as all hell, partly due to the appropriate and restrained creepy background noises. This fellow shows how serious developers can get about SFX if they're willing to put in the time. Could this be a way for games to differentiate themselves, given the increasing commoditisation of graphics? Do enough people have speaker setups that would allow them to appreciate that level of detail? Or are we sentenced to FOOTSTEP_ON_CONCRETE_2 for eternity? |
| C O M M E N T S |
|
Home »
Topic: Listen! Do you smell something?
|«« - Previous Page - Next Page - »»| |
|
Oh fuck you, m0nty. The C64 Ghostbusters game was fantastic if you were in the target age range at the time. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 194 lbs. 14 to go. |
|
Here's the big problems with Oblivion. 1) Monsters level with you... 2) Because of one, make sure you aren't leveling fast, or at the very least, make your main skills things that move slowly so your combat skills are all up to par before you level. 3) The UI is annoying...it's much better after you mod it (sorry, no love on the console) 4) The gates are annoying. I really liked parts of it, but one and two basically mean you should game the system a fair amount or the later levels are just plain crazy. And it's pretty silly to see the bandits out on the roads become super powered gods as you do. The whole world knows you're every level and reacts to it. "the concept that a happy worker is a productive worker is hardly an entry from Matt's Big Book Of Things The Fairies Said." - Dum
|
|
If the game gets difficult use the slider to make it easier. Masochists like Perkins turned their nose up at that ("I should be able to play any game on the default setting!") while the rest of us slid and had fun. <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
|
|
CheesyPoof (#127): If the game gets difficult use the slider to make it easier. Masochists like Perkins turned their nose up at that ("I should be able to play any game on the default setting!") while the rest of us slid and had fun. I'm not saying don't use the slider... I'm saying it's poor game design where the game essentially out levels you and you have to use the difficulty slider to compensate. "the concept that a happy worker is a productive worker is hardly an entry from Matt's Big Book Of Things The Fairies Said." - Dum
|
|
I used the slider but I still hated the "superpowered bandits" thing. At early levels you'd explore an intricate dungeon and at the end be rewarded with two arrows and a handful of coins. Six hours later you're pulling daedric armor off rat corpses. "I don't like story in games." - Soren Johnson
|
|
#116 by BobJustBob None of those count. Also they all suck except Tie Fighter. Ok, then the Lego Star Wars games disgree. |
|
Those also do not count. "I don't like story in games." - Soren Johnson
|
|
Well, I now have Martin and Jauffre with me. Cheesy, I didn't have the correct quest selected, so I had no arrow. After I did, I realized one of the 9 million doors in the Blood Feast tower had been missed. I'm tempted to skip my pledge to do the main quest first and keep Martin and Jauffre with me for the rest of the game. "Stop following me, I'm doing a mission for the Dark Brotherhood!" Heh. |
|
Bob sets the rules. Anything that was actually good doesn't count. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 194 lbs. 14 to go. |
|
Hey, I never saw a Lego Star Wars movie. Was it any good? "I don't like story in games." - Soren Johnson
|
|
It was kinda blocky. "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."
|
|
I'll count Lego Star Wars as a movie license. Bob is being stupidly pedantic with his BobLogic, like usual. <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
|
|
By that definition, no game is a "movie licensed" game unless they use the original actors and do the whole thing with interactive FMV. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 194 lbs. 14 to go. |
|
I mean, it's not like any of us don't pine for the return of FMV games...but that's a pretty tiny circle to draw. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 194 lbs. 14 to go. |
|
It's the slavish devotion to the source material that is at the heart of all licensed suckage. That makes it kind of an important aspect. "I don't like story in games." - Soren Johnson
|
|
But okay, you're right, I'm just killing time waiting for this process to end in the short term, and in the slightly less short term killing time until I can go home and play GTA4. But Ghostbusters still looks awful (in the screenshots) and sounds awful (in the previews). "I don't like story in games." - Soren Johnson
|
|
Most Star Wars games are slavishly devoted to the source material. All of them steal dialog verbatim from the movies and use pretty much all of the hoary clichés. "Wow I didn't expect it to be good. I mean no offense, but you're a bald headed punk rocker in bifocals and Genghis Khan mustache and the band sounds like Benny Goodman on crosstops with Alvin from the chipmunks on vocals..... I'll take one"
|
|
But Ghostbusters still looks awful (in the screenshots) and sounds awful (in the previews). I know, but there's still that part of me...deep down...that wants to play another crappy Ghostbusters game as child who doesn't understand that it's crappy. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 194 lbs. 14 to go. |
|
I was never a huge Ghostbusters fan. I have no desire to play a game unless it's genuinely good on its own merits. Or at least has a cool hook like Spiderman 2 or Hulk. 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."
|
|
If the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man isn't a good enough hook for you, then you are dead inside. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 194 lbs. 14 to go. |
|
That's not a hook. I mean a gameplay element that's good enough to justify the game all on its own. Which in Ghostbusters would pretty much have to be the ghost-capturing, which I already liked in Luigi's Mansion. 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."
|
|
Apparently you can use your Nintendo DS as a PKE meter for the Wii version. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 194 lbs. 14 to go. |
|
#131 by BobJustBob Those also do not count. WTF? How can those not be based n the story? They follow it completely (other than being funnier). #139 by BobJustBob It's the slavish devotion to the source material that is at the heart of all licensed suckage. That makes it kind of an important aspect. Again, Lego Star Wars shows slavish devotion to the Star Wars movies. |
|
Lego Star Wars is a total movie license game. It follows the plot of the movies exactly, has all the same characters and reproduces scense from the movie. What more do you want? 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."
|
|
I'm glad I didn't play the Lego Star Wars game you did. "I don't like story in games." - Soren Johnson
|
|
#136 by CheesyPoof Bob is being stupidly pedantic with his BobLogic, like usual. <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
|
|
I'm just trying to figure out how parodying something by (among many other things) turning everyone into toys constitutes "slavish devotion to the source material". "I don't like story in games." - Soren Johnson
|
|
Yes, because there was no slapstick in the movies. At all. Lady, people aren't chocolates. But you know what they are, mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.
Blog. 194 lbs. 14 to go. |
|
I'm just trying to figure out how parodying something by (among many other things) turning everyone into toys constitutes "slavish devotion to the source material". That's the hook. Whitout that, it would have been another one of a million generic SW games. Made me remember that horrible little Star Wars: Battle for Naboo I once rented. Did anyone see that game? The characters in it were made from to two joined sprites, one for the front/back and one for the sides, looking like an "X" when viewd from above. And THAT form the company that gave us Tie Fighter! "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."
|
|
I remember when trees were made like that. These days they have more sprites though. "I don't like story in games." - Soren Johnson
|
|
Actually, trees in GTA III are made like that as well. I think in SA they are too, but I'm not 100% sure. "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."
|
|
Sprites are awesome. Even 1-bit alphaed ones. "Gaggle doesn't believe anyone should bother gaining skill in anything because anyone could gain skill in anything if they just put the time to it." - BjB
|
|
They were awesome in 1993, yes. "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."
|
|
They're what makes GTAIV so pretty. All the flecks in the air, particles, etc. Also often used for tiny strands of grass and whatnot. Good stuff those sprites. "Gaggle doesn't believe anyone should bother gaining skill in anything because anyone could gain skill in anything if they just put the time to it." - BjB
|
|
Also I saw a screenshot and there was some nice pixel art on the side of a building. "I don't like story in games." - Soren Johnson
|
|
Now you're making me pine for Might & Magic. |
|
Comment on Oblivion's audio, as promised - it's crap. It makes use of my surround rig, which is nice, but the speaker-to-speaker panning is abysmal, with big dead zones if an NPC is standing in the gap between speakers. Volume levels are all over the place. I know I'm going into combat not because the combat music starts to play, but because the regular music just stops. It's not like these are teething problems with new tech - this is trivial shit that other games have been doing properly for years. |
|
Oblivion's audio never bothered me. Invention is the Green Goblin of Necessary Lemonade.
--Flowers |
|
This sounds like Charles complaining about the sound in Morrowind. Or GAF complaining about box art. No one cares about that stuff. "The best experiences are generative experiences. The best stories are player stories." - Will Wright
|
|
Sound it awesome. Replaying DX and it's great how great that games sound is. Great. <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
|
|
It's okay. It's good for positioning in MP shooters. Otherwise I don't have a lot of use for it. "The best experiences are generative experiences. The best stories are player stories." - Will Wright
|
|
I'm more of a killer in DX. It used to be the sound of an alarm would make me reload, but now I've been sucking it up and dealing with whatever it brings (usually, not death). I was in the sewers yesterday and sounded an alarm and 3 MJ-12 guys ganged up on me. Activated ballistic armor (item) and took out my brand new assault rifle and turned them into chopped meat. yea! <Hugin_len> Basically, cheesy doesn't have awful taste in music, he's simply very white.
|
|
I wish games had an option for turning off alarm sounds. I'm playing NOLF, and it's incredibly annoying how often there's no way to turn off the alarm. The objectives don't even require stealth, yet if you want to just rip through a level you have to endure overly loud alarms droning on. (Also, what the fuck is up with no way to adjust brightness?!) Dust. Anybody? No? High in fat, low in fat? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. It's actually very low in fat. You can have as much dust as you like.
|
|
Geometry Wars Galaxies has some good sound. I don't think it does anything special, but each enemy type has their own unique spawn sound, so you know when something evil like a generator shows up even if it is offscreen. Comes in handy. "The best experiences are generative experiences. The best stories are player stories." - Will Wright
|
|
I don't as a rule care about sound, just like I don't care about graphics, but occasionally a game really nails it and the sound effects really make the game. As Bob said, sound effects for things you can't see are really good. The chainsaw starting up in RE4, for example, used to freak me right the fuck out. I'd be spinning around trying to spot them before they got too close. Also the voice acting in Dungeon Keeper and Majesty. I haven't played those games in years and years, but I still quote them. 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."
|
|
You have played this game too long, mortal. |
|
if this is annoying you, blame lwf. |
|
It doesn't annoy me! |
|
Don't blame lwf, he's innocent! |
|
So I hear you're awesome, lwf. "I buy Captain Crunch because I like a man in uniform." - BobJustBob
|
| C O M M E N T S |
|
Home »
Topic: Listen! Do you smell something?
|«« - Previous Page - Next Page - »»| |
| P O S T A C O M M E N T |
|
|
| C R A P T A G S | ||||||||
|
|
| There are currently 250 people browsing this site. [Details] |
Powered by blah 0.9-dev •
PlanetCrap is © 1997-2004 Hendrik "Morn" Mans
|