PC games wish list for OS X.

2

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 52
    ^OK, valid points all.



    The one main thing I found more enjoyable in FarCry over HL2 was the non-linearity of the game. HL2 is way scripted. Still LOVE it...



    The one main thing that irritated me in HL2 was the "look ma, no hands..." you know where. WTF was Valve thinking with that gaming decision?



    Graphics-wise, vegetation and distance are rendered better on FC. Upclose textures, no contest. HL2 da winnar!



    Both require big horse power to split the above hairs...
  • Reply 22 of 52
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    oh wait i know what you're talking about now re: look ma no hands!



    i thought that was really quite interesting, given valve's very cinematic, scripted approach to the whole thing.



    valve is very aesthetic- design- story- oriented, so they've definitely had a 'heavy hand' when guiding you through.



    but it works storywise because its the payoff for all your hardwork and from a very confusing start (like who the F is the combine? why is everyone so sad and stuff?) you really get to see the bigger picture in that scene and it sets up the *ahem* next phase of things



    if i want a do-whatever-you-want landscape i find ONS-Torlan in UT2004 multiplayer online is awesome.



    but yeah i understand just like movies as the gaming market gets huge and quite diverse different genres/ tastes/ etc will come into play
  • Reply 23 of 52
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    FarCry at 1920x1200, all effects turned on, was just *amazing*. You really have to be alert, work to spot things, and there's quite a bit of room for improvisation. I have only played half an hour though.
  • Reply 24 of 52
    hardheadhardhead Posts: 644member
    Quote:

    FarCry at 1920x1200, all effects turned on,



    Talk about bragging...
  • Reply 25 of 52
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hardhead

    Talk about bragging...



    Unfortunatly the computer was not mine, even if I have the same display. It was a friend's A64 3500+ with a GF7800GT.



    I even noticed what might be properly called a bug. If an enemy was far enough (very far) in the distance, you could see a same-sized terrain detail next to him, but to see the enemy himself you had to use the in-game binoculars. The game wasn't drawing the enemy because the game developers deemed him "too far to see". Well, not at that resolution he wasn't.
  • Reply 26 of 52
    auroraaurora Posts: 1,142member
    FarCry is under rated in my view. Just the fact that you had a open playing field vs HL2 very scripted field. In FarCry you can apraoch an island or target from any direction not simply a prechosen path. This means replay galore in single player. Ubisoft also has IL2 series of Flight simulators. Something the Mac is missing are good modern combat flight simulators.
  • Reply 27 of 52
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    HL2 has a lot of variation between good and bad in terms of graphics. The ground textures are ugly; so are those of most buildings. The contrast between 10 by 10 pixel ground textures and insanely detailed rollermines for example is sometimes jarring.
  • Reply 28 of 52
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Aurora

    FarCry is under rated in my view. Just the fact that you had a open playing field vs HL2 very scripted field. In FarCry you can apraoch an island or target from any direction not simply a prechosen path. This means replay galore in single player. Ubisoft also has IL2 series of Flight simulators. Something the Mac is missing are good modern combat flight simulators.



    flight and space sims are very surprisingly very absent from the pc world as well. pretty much in pc land there's only IL2 (i haven't tried it yet), pacific fighters, and X2. bring back the glory days of tie fighter, xwing vs. tie, privateer, wing commander, chuck yaeger, secret weapons of the luftwaffe, and the unforgettable falcon series !!
  • Reply 29 of 52
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    HL2 has a lot of variation between good and bad in terms of graphics. The ground textures are ugly; so are those of most buildings. The contrast between 10 by 10 pixel ground textures and insanely detailed rollermines for example is sometimes jarring.



    antialias4x or greater, anisotropic 8x or greater generally blends all those aesthetic challenges away no?
  • Reply 30 of 52
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman

    antialias4x or greater, anisotropic 8x or greater generally blends all those aesthetic challenges away no?



    How could antialiasing or anisotropic filtering help when the problem is lack of detail?
  • Reply 31 of 52
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gon

    How could antialiasing or anisotropic filtering help when the problem is lack of detail?



    IMHO this has to do with the aesthetic feel of things. a bit fuzzy-wuzzy but antialiasing 4x or better, AF 8x or better smooths out harsher, pixelated stuff.



    if you look at NeedForSpeed Underground2 when you force-enable anisotropic filtering 4x or better, the ground texture just about where your car is, gets blurred in a pleasing manner, as opposed to a very pixelated foreground-road without AF.



    as with most things visual though, its all very subjective especially when you throw in things like gameplay, design, color palettes etc etc.. for some reason on my nVidia 6600gt with HL2, needforspeedunderground2, UT2004, Dawn of War, i'm finding at 1280x1024 32bit, 4x AA and 8xAF gives me the visual comfort i personally enjoy. in intense gameplay sequences in HL2 though no AA and 4xAF is perfectly fine. when you have 3 striders bashing the crap out of your position you do not have time to go up close to walls and be like, ooh, that texture is sooo pixelated....



    so i guess... this is mostly armchair observations from my own aesthetic police code. for example, i really do not like the aesthetics of the foliage etc in FarCry. give me the UT2004 engine anyday (look at the ONS-Primeveal map for example) which gives a much better, immersive, soft, glowing, warm feel to vegetative terrain as compared to the harsh, overly 'technical' feel of FarCry....
  • Reply 32 of 52
    I would like to see Lineage 2 for Mac, although they claim they have no plans to make a version for Mac.
  • Reply 33 of 52
    4fx4fx Posts: 258member
    I havent played Farcry, perhaps I shall give it a spin...



    Unfortunately, gaming on the Mac has slipped once again it seems... Hence, I have a PC just for games. Its a little discouraging when great games that were on the mac never have their sequels ported... For instance Deus Ex 2 and Uru. Though Deus Ex 2 didnt live up the first (which in my opinion is by far the best FPS ever made), Uru was a must for any Myst fanatic. Im sad it will never come out for the mac



    As far as Half Life 2 is concerned, I really cant see why some people think its such a great game. Sure they had some good technology behind the game, but technology is not the game itself! "It seemed scripted" doesnt describe the complete lack of choice the player had throughout the game (except the many ways you could kill the bad guys, which was pretty cool). The AI was pretty good. The graphics and the facial expressions were also well done. But as far as story is concerned, there virtually was none! Compare the game overall to Deus Ex (the origianl of course) and its fair to say the where it really counts, Half Life 2 didnt live up to the hype. Nothing revolutionary, just another step in the process of gaming evolution.



    At any rate, at least we have Ambrosia!
  • Reply 34 of 52
    4fx4fx Posts: 258member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman

    flight and space sims are very surprisingly very absent from the pc world as well. pretty much in pc land there's only IL2 (i haven't tried it yet), pacific fighters, and X2. bring back the glory days of tie fighter, xwing vs. tie, privateer, wing commander, chuck yaeger, secret weapons of the luftwaffe, and the unforgettable falcon series !!



    Dude! It would be awesome if a new Xwing game came out! But youre absolutely right, flight and space sims are lacking in general...
  • Reply 35 of 52
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by 4fx

    Dude! It would be awesome if a new Xwing game came out! But youre absolutely right, flight and space sims are lacking in general...



    The original TIE Fighter would still make it on my top 5 games ever list. It was mad fun flying the basic TIE Fighter and Bomber tin cans and the glass cannon Interceptor, swarming the enemy four to one (standard Imperial tactics) and getting to lead your own wing a lot of the time. I found towards the end of the game, in the TIE Advanced and the experimental TIE Defender, you could damn near drop a Mon Calamari capital ship alone. Maybe that was the X-Wing reflexes kicking in. X-Wing, while not the better game of the two by any means, gave me something not unlike RSI when played with the mouse over Christmas holidays.



    The TIE fighter plot was awesome.
  • Reply 36 of 52
    and what about all that secret order stuff. that rocked. some of my friends from high skool at the time were like, wait a minute, wtf? how did you get to that part?



    and i was like, YEAH.... heh. secret order stuff inspired you to give 110% to all your missions. yeah.



    tie advanced and tie defenders were bad ass. but also some of my favourite parts were the assault gunboat bits. rock on in, line up the b-wings, y-wings and stuff and ion cannon them, disabling key rebel ships quicksmart. then mop up x-wings and those annoyingly fast a-wings, then finish off the sitting ducks you disabled earlier. nice and evil



    yup, grappling with the joystick, and then adjusting those shield/guns/engine levels like a mad mofo. ah, good times.
  • Reply 37 of 52
    *sigh* i swear although franchise games usually have a bad rep, it would be awesome for PC platform to have battlestar galactica and star wars: clonewars space sim games. BSG: playing as cylons or humans, star wars: playing as separatists, republic, mercenary(?).



    but i don't know about this newfangled style of stuff. i tried the serious sam2 demo, was kind of funny and crazy and fun, but the engine was a bit sloppy and graphics a bit too 'harsh' if that makes sense. i felt they could have pulled the game off really well with just the quake3 or unreal2 engine...
  • Reply 38 of 52
    Ahh, URU is a beautiful game. Still fire it up from time to time.



    TIE Fighter was a blast!



    Deus Ex is one of the GREAT games of all time...



    Deus Ex 2, very pretty on a high end PC but GENERIC ammo? Blehhh.



    Lineage 2, not my cup of tea but very interesting. You guys and your crazy role-playing games...



    IL 2 is excellent.



    The original Half Life SHOULD have been ported to the Mac. I still fire that bad boy up from time to time...



    Speaking of space sims... The finest space sim I've ever played was put together as a "mod" project! That is: Babylon 5, I've Found Her. Absolutely astounding...
  • Reply 39 of 52
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman

    but i don't know about this newfangled style of stuff. i tried the serious sam2 demo, was kind of funny and crazy and fun, but the engine was a bit sloppy and graphics a bit too 'harsh' if that makes sense. i felt they could have pulled the game off really well with just the quake3 or unreal2 engine...



    The preference for one kind of visuals is, of course, personal. But I think you are pulling a weird comparison when you put FarCry and UT2004 head to head. I saw barely any vegetation in the screenshots of the level you mentioned. In FarCry you are supposed to be right in the middle of a thicket most of the time, and it's an integral part of the gameplay to look through the plants. The environments are incredibly different. I wonder if UT would look as good as FarCry if it had a level where thousands of big plants are visible at the same time, and you were constantly peeking through them?
  • Reply 40 of 52
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Originally posted by Gon

    The preference for one kind of visuals is, of course, personal. But I think you are pulling a weird comparison when you put FarCry and UT2004 head to head. I saw barely any vegetation in the screenshots of the level you mentioned. In FarCry you are supposed to be right in the middle of a thicket most of the time, and it's an integral part of the gameplay to look through the plants. The environments are incredibly different. I wonder if UT would look as good as FarCry if it had a level where thousands of big plants are visible at the same time, and you were constantly peeking through them?




    yeah i'm finding my tastes with regard to the current generation of computer games are becoming quite specific. like UT2004, needforspeed underground2, HL2, makes me all hot and sweaty. FarCry, serioussam2, doom3, well, doesn't move me. i think it will be hard for me to separate personal taste from technical discussion of the game engines. (edit) in any case i think i have to concede your point about farCry vegetation compared to UT.
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