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Transmission Start...Taking a break from the Rantin'-N'-Ravin', I have found myself playing the following games on almost a equal time basis:
PC:
Battlefield 2F.E.A.R.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (and the Winter Assault expansion)
City of Heroes /
City of VilliansPS2:
Dragonball Z: Budokai 3 (The best part about this game, even though it is a little older, is that it is a
cell-shaded 3-D fighter that sticks EXTREMELY close to the cartoon it was based upon)
Of course, there are always the good ol' stand-bys in case none of those appeal to me:
PC:
FreelancerGhost Recon (the original as well as the Desert Siege and Island Thunder expansions, not the crap they have produced since)
PS2:
TenchuTenchu 2
Monster Rancher 2Fun stuff. I do know some people in the video game industry... some of the actual software engineers, and some on the management side of the house. There are some neat concepts out there for upcoming titles, and also a LOT of good stuff that ends up getting dropped.
What I can not wait for, is a MMO FPS that is real-time. There
have been attempts to do this already; however, they have been
less-than stellar, and not really lived up to their basic promises. Mebbe something along the BF2 lines, with thousands of people on the same "server" (really clusters of servers creating one unique "realm") across kilometers of playing field. THAT would be friggin' sweet.
One big problem, apparently, is "hit prediction". If I understand correctly, most games do not actually draw and move the object being fired (with an exception of grenades /rockets). They use the "hit prediction" method where the local client does a prediction calculation based on the when the shot was fired, the physics attached to that paticular weapon, the last known movement of other players as sent by the server, and the local movement of the player, to figure out a "hit". This is how you sometimes find yourself getting hit while behind cover, because some guy on a slow (dial-up) connection sent his hits to the server, who tallied them up and dished them out to your client, where you had already seen the threat and sought cover before he saw you. The other guy's client had predicted that your avatar would continue on its current path, and did not receive the update to the actual movements until it had calculated the hits and notified the server.
Now, take that whole concept (hopefully I described it accurately... if not, I blame all of the lumber that got between my forehead and my end destination), and apply it to my dream game. Talk about some intense client-side number-crunching!
I would definitely settle for a "smaller scale" game, in multiplayer terms, if it could be a combo of Freelancer / Jediknight III / Battlefield concept. Using the open-ended storyline Freelancer approach, with its space travel / battles / etc., be able to walk around the planets a la JKIII, using the same fighting system for hand-to-hand combat, and throw in the relitively huge map sizes and various vehicle control of BF2, and NOW yer talkin' 'bout a game with replay value! Throw in some multiplayer ability (ESPECIALLY a co-op mode *shakes fist at designers that always leave co-op mode out*) an' yer all set!
Of course, it is easy for me to sit here and say "make this game!". I fully understand what a HUGE undertaking that would be. However, if some company could pull that off, along with a good launch (not like
some others), they'd have a following like no other.
And now back to life...
End Transmission...
