Cradle, wtf?

This post started out as a comment on dkaufman’s post: A Steaming Pile of Source Code. I decided that it added enough to the conversation to be its own post.

I gave Goldeneye: Source (Beta 1) another try. I agree that the ability to jump and fall off ledges takes away from the experience. I felt like I was learning a new game rather than revisiting an old favorite. However, there were moments that felt patently Goldeneye like when I circle-strafed with this guy in temple as we chewed away at each others ridiculous hp. The levels are appropriately nostalgic, but when there are changes, they annoy me. Cradle is a multiplayer map in this retelling, and it is substantially different from the one in 64. Add that to leaping off ledges and what do you get? Not Goldeneye. Temple is spot-on though, if a little bit bland, and I appreciate that they don’t let you fall through the iconic rectangular hole. Caves made me smile until I got to the parts they added, which suck. Complex looks way better now; the mood is maintained, but the harshness on the eyes is gone. But while the layout of the level seems to be intact, falling off ledges does change the tactics from what I remember.

The system for switching weapons is annoying and got me killed a lot. For some reason, they changed the Half-Life weapon swapping system so that instead of large, captioned pictures of the guns appearing at the top of your screen as you roll the scroll wheel, the names of your guns appear as a list with one item highlighted in the bottom-right corner. This is way harder to glance at in the middle of a fight. While I am able to see if there is a big shotgun icon or a big pistol icon at the top of my screen, I can’t keep an eye on my opponent and see whether Automatic Shotgun or PP7 is highlighted.

Apart from the design decisions I disagree with, the current state of the game still has unfinished weapon animations and sounds. These got in the way of gameplay by making me second guess whether or not I am firing or out of ammo. Also, there’s some choppiness in the aiming that I couldn’t fix entirely by playing with the settings. Maybe these will be fixed in a later version.

Summary: Good, nostalgic renditions of Temple and Complex (Archives didn’t look bad either, but I didn’t play it as much). Annoying changes to Caves, but good where it sticks to the script. Cradle, wtf? Jumping and falling off ledges makes the game feel a lot less like Goldeneye than it could have. The weapon swapping is bad. Unfinished effects and controls in this version.

A Steaming Pile Of Source Code

Dearly beloved,

Steam keeps on picking up...er, its namesake as it was recently announced that both Deus Ex titles and Thief would be appearing on Valve's grand digital-distribution experiment. Is this the way of the future? No physical medium, massive hard-drives, credit-based systems similar to Xbox Live Marketplace or the Wii's shop channel? So far no new major release, beyond HL2, has really seen life with this business model, but it may only be a matter of time. No more bringing a disc over to a friend's house so you can play together. Split-screen is dead, online competition is the way of the future! It would also be the end of EB/Gamestop, especially considering most of their profits come from used games. I would be sad to see them go; as much as they suck (game insurance? honestly?) I do buy most of my games second-hand these days. Yay for killing the industry! Still, how am I supposed to keep up with all the great and important games if I'm spending $50 a pop?

Back to Steam. I'm happy so long as overlooked gems, like Psychonauts or DX, get a second chance at glory. (What you say? Deus Ex is not overlooked? Fair enough) C'mon EA, release System Shock and SS 2 on it. The license isn't doing you anything at the moment beyond aggravating Irrational Games.

Plus, it seems like a great showcase for mods and independent games, however questionable their quality (content?) may be. I played Goldeneye: Source yesterday (courtesy of the newest member of our growing family, dbrodeur) and it made me sad. Granted, it is still in beta, but it didn't really capture the essence of the original. None of the weapons have the same feeling to them; their sound is different and the animation is off. Oh, and remote mines are now super-slow and useless. Giving the ability to jump is an odd decision; the last thing I need to see is bunny-hopping in Goldeneye. A bunch of the sound effects were ripped wholesale from HL2, leaving me with impression that I was just playing a bad mod, rather than an improved N64 game. It seems like the dev spent so much time on unimportant things (the slapper hand is highly textured and disturbingly detailed) and not enough effort on making it actually live up to its predecessor.

That having been said, some indie games are very good. Portal started as a student project and that looks super cool. Counter-Strike, as soulless as it may be, is an enormously popular game that began life as a mod. Doukutsu Monogatari is one of my favorite games ever. User created content is an important aspect of the industry, one that will hopefully continue to grow and innovate, but these projects will never match the high-quality, polished experience of some commercially released titles. Ah, capitalism at its best.

For England, James,
006