Daddl

But how so? The editor only sets the parameters for the mission and (if what we saw in the vid applies to the editor they actually deliver) some effects, and saves them to a file (or transfers them to a running instance if you want ingame editing). That hardly uses any resources - no matter if the game engine were running in parallel or not (most likely not, or at least paused). The Dirt engine may be crap, but that is definitely not the reason for not including an editor. The gfx/physics engine used has little to no impact on the mission editor. The only reason they can't port the editor to consoles is the editor itself. Look at the IGN vid posted some time ago: it's a standard Windows application, with standard Windows controls (mouse/keyboard), UI and (worst of all) non-portable code. Not only would they have to completely reinvent the UI/control scheme for the editor on Consoles, they'd probably have to do it completely from the ground up. As a developer I can understand doing the editor this way: Windows desktop development is quick and simple (in other words: cheap) compared to a well integrated multiplatform tool that also needs to support very different control schemes (gamepad vs mouse/keyboard) and screen sizes (from a standard TV to HD). For a 'non-essential'/'nice to have' asset (that's how Codemasters seems to see it) the decision is simple when assigning the budget for the project: keep development for the editor as cheap as possible and rather concentrate on the game itself. And to be honest, the editor looks good - only I won't be able to use it as I'll only play the game on a console...

Sure there's more games for the XBox 360, if only because it's been over a year in the market before the PS3 was released. In the beginning (i.e. the first year or so) that WAS a problem for PS3 owners, but not anymore. By now there's so many good games out for the PS3, that - no matter what your favourite genre - you can enjoy a wide selection of quality games. After all you can only play so many games in a given amount of time...

Well, I bought a PS3 - mainly for the build-in Blueray player and the hard disk (standard sata - can be upgraded with any off the shelf disk for little money), the latter was important because I also use the PS3 to record TV programmes for later viewing. Also PSN is free (while XBox Life isn't). The PS3 is more expensive, but in my opinion it has more to offer than the Xbox 360 - for me that's a fair deal. There's more than enough good games available for both consoles, no matter what your game preferences are. If you aren't fixed on a specific platform specific title (like MGS4 for the PS3 or Fable 2 for the XBox 360) your deciding factors should be whether you want the technological extras the PS3 has to offer, or whether you just want a cheap gaming platform. And if you just want party games, you should also consider the Wii.

Yes, M$ fucked up with their console design, mainly because they wanted to be first on the market to better compete with Sony, no matter what that meant for their product (common tactic employed by M$). No discussion there. Just buy a Playstation 3 or a Wii.But then, look at the pc market: Steakslim describes his problems with cooling and bad ram, and I think everyone who is or has been into pc gaming knows all those endless driver issues and the general difficulty to keep an open multi-purpose computer platform tuned for gaming. With a console this isn't an issue, despite some hardware problems with one specific manufacturer. Also most X360 owners never saw the ring of death nor had they any other technical problems with their consoles - those that did got a free replacement. What I meant with 'having a life': way less time for gaming due to real life issues and changed priorities (job, family, ...). Once they 'have a life' most people's tolerance towards this kind of upgrade/tuning crap drops enormously. If I want to play a new game I don't want having to upgrade/tune my pc first, just because the hardware is more than a year old or beacuse I used it for coding/testing/installed all kind of crap/etc. - neither do I have the time for that, nor do I want to throw away good money I could spend on other things. I just want to insert the disk and start having fun.

And surly that is exactly the setup you bought 3 years ago, right? No upgrades, anything? How much money did you spend at the time, how much did you pour into your pc since then? A console costs 200-400 Euros. Once. No further upgrades needed until you switch to the next generation many years later. More money left to actually buying good games or to spend on a nice vaccacion and other Real Life stuff. That's the beauty of it. I'be been playing since the early 80s - first on an Atari 800XL (1.77MHz - eat that you C64 suckers :D ), then on to my first pc (8MHz 8088, 2 full-sized 5.25 inch floppy drives, no hard disk, CGA graphics, Space Quest 1 :) ), and I went through all pc and MS-DOS/Windows generations since then - always upgrading, always getting a new gfx card, a new cpu/mobo or some more ram. I don't know how much money I poured into the hardware industry, but I know I could have spend much of it in better ways. Nowadays I just buy a new notebook every few years, and that's it. And even tho the current one has a dual core cpu, 4GB ram and even a mediocre dx10 gfx card the only games installed are old classics like Baldurs's Gate or the old Fallout games: stuff that simply doesn't exist for the console and which I like to play when traveling. For all the fancy stuff (GTA4, Fallout3, MGS4, etc.) I definitely prefer the console because there the games just work without a hassle. Sure, the graphics might be no equivalent to what the latest pc cards can offer, and memory is a joke compared to even a a below-average pc, but what do I care - the games are actually optimized for the console hardware: as it's identical for all customers the developers don't have to make amends for that wild hardware mix that's called a 'standard pc' but can go straight for the console's strenghts (like utilizing the full power of the 7-core PS3 cpu)! So even though the hardware might be 'inferior' the games run well and can be played exactly as intended by the developer. All the endless tweaking and looking for the right driver, all the time lost for nothing is a complete non-issue with consoles. All that doesn't make consoles any 'better' (which is always a subjective thing to say), but they are definitely the more convenient gaming platform. And people who actually got a life prefer cheap and convenient things over expensive stuff that's also a hassle. :p

Well, sounds like a cool trip you're planning. I think it's quite doable - although I doubt your schedule. 8 weeks is kinda short for a distance like that - it's probably a lot further than 3000km as you won't be able to take a straight route or follow the motorways. You'll have to divert from your route to get to camping grounds, replenish your food & water, you'll take a wrong turn more than once, etc. In France (not sure about Spain) wild camping is forbidden and the police usually aren't too nice about it when they catch you (nor are the landowners), so you'll have to find a camping ground/hostel or some nice locals for a nights rest. Get good maps and guidebooks (usually best bought locally, always carry only the ones you'll need for the next few days/weeks) and - if within your budget - carry a small gps device for orientation (something like the the better models from the Garmin eTrek series), otherwise take at least a compass. Trecking routes aren't always marked as clearly as they are in Germany... Also don't underestimate the heat in Spain or southern France. I lived for a year in Córdoba, and believe me when I tell you that in summer and out in the open you won't do much between noon and four in the afternoon. The further away from the coast the worse... Remember always to carry enough water! And no, trecking by night isn't really an option, especially when following roads or having to traverse private lands. Finally I would definitely plan with a few days reserved for rest along the way. You'll need time to fix or replace gear (shoes, stuff lost or broken) and rest your feet. You might get sick, etc. - trecking with diareah in hot weather will cost you more time in the end than simply stopping and recovering for 1-2 days until you're fit again. Well, I wish you good luck with your tour. Keep us informed and enjoy the trip!

Yes, console games can be patched and additional content added. Unless they offer an editor for consoles, too, this game's dead to me - I'm not going to buy a gaming pc just to try this. And yes, a seperate editor would be possible for consoles, too - but the great thing with the OFP/VBS/ArmA editor was always that you could setup and try all the stuff INGAME, instead of setting up the mission externally and then having to startup the game to see if everything was placed correrctly and worked as intended.

Seven years of my life... I wonder what might have become of me if it hadn't been for Peter Pan, 'chicks w/ guns' and a certain addictive game and it's great community! Hope to see y'all back in a week!

Some winter shots: Hunter: Prey: Ice age:

Yeah, but as a MMO its purely MP. What I loved about NOLF was the weird single player story and the lovely characters.

I think Taleworlds did quite a good job with Mount & Blade. With the recently announced expansion (adding multiplayer and decent graphics) it'll be the reference for medival warfare action games for quite some time. What I'd rather see than BIS diverting resources to this genre would be Taleworlds teaming up with some experienced rpg developers and good story writers. Their problem is mainly the lack of a compelling story and the rather repetitive gameplay (tho it's quite fun anyways). Let BIS do what they're good at: modern (or futuristic) warfare, and leave the medieval stuff to others with more experience in those areas.

Good one - although I actually like the first one more. I think it's a pity the series was discontinued (or at least no similar funny games released in a long, long time).

I played the game on the PS3 when it came out. The freedom you have in this game, the impressive environment and all that traffic were really cool, and at the beginning I was very exited. Unfortunately it didn't offer much long term motivation. After some initial exploring and 'playing around' I quickly decided it was 'too much freedom' for my taste. I found I rather prefer more traditional racers (like the FlatOut series or even Gran Tourismo) with career mode and instant races. But then I'm not one to spend hours and hours continuously playing these games anyways, but rather prefer them for a quick race inbetween. So it really depends on wether you are a huge stunt racer fan and like to play around in an open environment for days & weeks - preferably with some friends in multiplayer - or rather prefer straight forward racing. If it's the latter Burnout Paradise might not be the right game...

That's what I meant - it's (just like Sputnik at it's time) a political statement, not proof of (immediate) strategic capability. It's a further step towards real capabilty, true, but it's not as if Iran suddenly was more dangerous than it was the day before the launch. One of my favourite movies of all time!

So they sent up another Sputnik. Wow. While it may sound impressive first, it's far from being able to send up any serious payloads. how much does a stupid radio weight? A few hundred grams including antenna and batteries? Now any serious spy satellite weights more around a few tons (heavy optics or radar, long term energy sources, secure communications array, fuel and engines for maneuvering, etc.). IIRC a single nuclear warhead weights at least >500kg (less and you won't be able to reach critical mass and cram in the required explosives and electronics). Wake me up when they build a rocket capable of delivering anything serious into orbit...

Main reason was that Cologne (after loosing some other major events themselves) simply tried everything to get the fair to their city - when they succeded they had to name the event differently as Messe Leipzig owns the 'GamesCon' trademark. Leipzig's infrastructure (local airport, direct highspeed train connections to Frankfurt and Berlin) is fine, but Cologne offered more space for the trade fair and financial conditions Leipzig couldn't (or wouldn't) match. Also I think some of the major companies exhibiting there have their German headquarters in Cologne, but I'm not sure about that. Anyways the GamesCon in Leipzig is still alive - it's just that almost none of the bigger game companies will show up...

As I said before: for playing old games using Vista try a virtual machine. Depending on what 3d technology your games are using I recommend either VirtualBox (free, for OpenGL games) or VMWare (comercial, for DirectX 8/9 games). The latter isn't cheap and 3d performance isn't that great, but good enough for many old games. Hardware 3d acceleration in virtual machines is still in it's infancy, so while performance isn't stellar I expect major improvements in the near future. And let's be honest - most old games that don't run under Vista don't require that much graphics performance. I just started playing Neverwinter Nights (actually this thread got me to look through my old games again) on my Vista Business notebook using VMWare. After some tuning the DirectX 9 game runs fine on low settings - despite my feeble GeForce 9300M GS gfx card and slow cpu (P8600 Centrino 2). The most important thing is to have enough ram in you machine, so you can spare enough for the virtual machine - I have 4GB ram and usually dedicate 1GB to the virtual machine, which is more than enough for WinXP and any old games I can run virtualized anyways. Of course for old DOS games much less is required.

Just install the games in a virtual machine. Most older games work fine with XP, and I always keep a plain Windows XP VM ready, where I can install an old game. If you are runnung Windows Vista I especially recommend the latest version Sun's free VirtualBox - hardware acceleration (including 3d, something Microsoft's VirtualPC 2007 SP1 doesn't offer), and a wider range of supported guest systems (from DOS to Windows 7). All you need is your old XP disk, then set it up once and use the created image as the base for your game installations. The best thing about it is that not only do your old games work fine, but they don't conflict with your normal system. If you have played a game for long enough, you simply delete the VM and you're done.

I just recently played through Fallout 1 & Fallout 2, as well as two great old adventure games: 'Flight of the Amazon Queen' and 'Beneath a Steel Sky' - the latter both included in most Linux distributions. I have many old games gathering dust, and sometimes I just pull them out, install them in a virtual machine and have some fun! One of the next classics I'm going to replay will probably be the Baldur's Gate series. Oh, and somewhere I have all the old Wing Commander games that I replayed about a year ago...

Don't you just love winter? some pics I took during the last few weeks:

Oh, btw: a good book reference for learning about common algorithms and their implementation in C++ is R. Sedgewick: Algorithms in C++. I can highly recommend these books.

I think one of the most important things to consider is that you'll need years of dedication and experimenting to reach a level where you can master all the technologies (DirectX, Sound, Controls, etc. - and most importantly: writing performant and reliable code) required to produce a game using C++ and assembly. If you want to go this way, then I recommend thoroughly learning C++ and algorithm theory first, before starting to use technologies like DirectX. Without good knowledge of this you probably won't even understand many of the examples and write inferior code. If you want to get faster results I'd like to point you to Microsoft's free XNA Studio. Yeah, it's not Linux, but it's a dedicated platform and development environment for games, allowing the use of .Net and C# (although I think you can still use C++ if you really want to), and offering higher productivity at little to none performance costs(*). It also comes with a ton of examples. A solid knowledge of the language and frameworks used and algorithms in general is still required for good results, so don't expect to go from non-programmer to game-guru in 24h. *) .Net assembly code can either be compiled into machine code on installation or (the more common approach) it will be compiled just in time when the respective assemblies (i.e. libraries or executables) are accessed for the first time during a session. Once the code is compiled it's native machine code that performs about as fast as the equivalent C++ code. Only it's faster to write and safer in regards to memory leaks and stability.

I played GTA4 when it came out on consoles. It's a good, solid game, but the hype is way over the top. Too much driving around to get to the start of a mission - and if you die during a fight you have to drive all the way again. After some time that started to annoy me quite a bit. The story is quite good, tho.

Did some night shots a few days ago... I finally found good use for the live view feature of the EOS 450D: zooming in and adjusting sharpness when in manual focus mode! Very usefull, as modern DSLRs lack the manual focusing aids of old analog DSLRs and it's therefore very hard manually adjusting sharpness even in excelent lightning conditions....