Two great games two grerat mods - oldies, but well worth the effort - Game|Gravity

ghost · 02-07-2009, 08:33 AM

Why is it that when given a good platform to work with Gamers seem to be able to turn what is an otherwise lack lustre development into something spectacular. Not that I'm complaining, it just seems dissapointing that our stereo typical gameing geek can do what a team of qualified pro's and a six figure development cycle can't.

Is it just me, or is there something incredibly wrong with the industry. There is of course a very simple answer to my question, unfortunately yes. I could go on and rant about the industry, poor game quality, high development costs with low content, micro transactions on triple AAA games that are released incomplete, but I wont. I'm just gonna put two mod's here that I believe deserve more than just a little credit.

Firstly, Unreal Tournament 4 was possibly one of the best games for high quality mods. If anyone out there managed to get there hands on the GOTY edition they'd know what im talking about. I'm only going with a single mod from UT4 (Just a quick note, UT4 was a worthy succesor to UT3 and the UT franchose as a whole and in no way does it contribute to my percieved degredation of the game industry.) Air Bucaneers.

Air Bucaneers by LudoCraft is a total conversion for Unreal Tournament 2004 by Epic Games.

Now, before I begin the wholesale fanboy worpship lets just state here and now, Pirates are cooler than Ninja's. Ninja's may beat pirates in a fight, ninja's may be invisible, ninja's may get to take sense enhancing drugs but they are not as cool as pirates. Wich might go towards my keen interest in any game that incorporates Unreal Tournament and Pirates.

Air Bucanners is an extremely difficult game to master, and can be somewhat disorientating at first. My experience with the game has shown that heavy FPS players will struggle to come to grips with it's unusual gameplay and younger players will struggle with it's team focus. Fortunately I've come to vew games with an open mind and I'm anything but a younger gamer.

Using a clever 'transport' system and clever tacticle vehicle design Air bucaneers takes a cool concpet and creates a squad based tactical game that is addictive to the point of rivaling Team Fotress. Unfortunately it's lack of appeal to hard core FPS players and it's difficulty to non team playing players has limited its online server population however its still I mod I love to pull out at the odd lan.

Other issues that hurt Air Bucaneers are the poor quality models and graphics utilised for the mod and the unexplained death on land by magic mushroom. Yet despite these factors the gameplay and sesne of achievment when blowing some poor sod out of the sky when you can barely see his vague shadow in the fog or ramming his ship side on, while flaming him with a canon full of gunpowder draws me back again and again.

Without a doubt Air Bucaneers was part of what made UT2004 so great, along with games like Chaos UT and the built in mod's. It's hard to look past Bombing Run. Looking back I seem to have a slant towards Team Based combat.

Oblivion Lost by OLP Team for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl by GSC Game World

This mod is something that shows just how far the game industry has fallen. If this was a once of I wouldn't have a problem but lets start at the begining.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was a good game plagued by serious 'polish' issues. When I say polish I mean the differance between a rusted piece of trash sphere and the shining silver lady leaning forward from the radiator of a limo. Let's face it, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was released early. However even after several updates there were issues with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Crashes, bug's glitches. Poor graphics, incomplete game content broken quests. Things that scream budget development team. However after 2 million copies were sold you'd think the company could afford to invest in some patches. I won't argue tthat 1.00.5 fixed a lot of issues it hardly gave S.T.A.L.K.E.R. the polish it needed.

Oblivion Lost, is the polish the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. development team couldn't/woudln't do. Without a doubt S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a better game after the mod is applied. Arguably the open ended addition is not very well done however when looking at how they have modified day and night cycles and AI. Fixing numerous bugs and adding a great many additional skins, weapons, quests and te ability to undertake faction wars. Graphical additions and realistic atmosphere, including realistic night stealth and suit/armour FOV modifications.

If I didn't know better I would say S.T.A.L.K.E.R. clear sky was little more than a half arsed attmept by GSC game world to copy the OLP teams work.

royaltee1 · 02-15-2009, 01:11 PM

is the game fun

Flyrie · 08-09-2009, 10:34 PM

omg, S.T.A.L.K.E.R is sooooo good, i love @@'

Atomic · 08-15-2009, 06:49 PM

I used to stay up all night playing UT2K4 and Q3Arena. Only problem with the older good games is that multiplayer fades out. Glad they finally released QuakeLive though.

02-07-2009, 08:33 AM	#1 (permalink)
ghost revenant Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 454	Two great games two grerat mods - oldies, but well worth the effort original link here ... ... ... Why is it that when given a good platform to work with Gamers seem to be able to turn what is an otherwise lack lustre development into something spectacular. Not that I'm complaining, it just seems dissapointing that our stereo typical gameing geek can do what a team of qualified pro's and a six figure development cycle can't. Is it just me, or is there something incredibly wrong with the industry. There is of course a very simple answer to my question, unfortunately yes. I could go on and rant about the industry, poor game quality, high development costs with low content, micro transactions on triple AAA games that are released incomplete, but I wont. I'm just gonna put two mod's here that I believe deserve more than just a little credit. Firstly, Unreal Tournament 4 was possibly one of the best games for high quality mods. If anyone out there managed to get there hands on the GOTY edition they'd know what im talking about. I'm only going with a single mod from UT4 (Just a quick note, UT4 was a worthy succesor to UT3 and the UT franchose as a whole and in no way does it contribute to my percieved degredation of the game industry.) Air Bucaneers. Air Bucaneers by LudoCraft is a total conversion for Unreal Tournament 2004 by Epic Games. Now, before I begin the wholesale fanboy worpship lets just state here and now, Pirates are cooler than Ninja's. Ninja's may beat pirates in a fight, ninja's may be invisible, ninja's may get to take sense enhancing drugs but they are not as cool as pirates. Wich might go towards my keen interest in any game that incorporates Unreal Tournament and Pirates. Air Bucanners is an extremely difficult game to master, and can be somewhat disorientating at first. My experience with the game has shown that heavy FPS players will struggle to come to grips with it's unusual gameplay and younger players will struggle with it's team focus. Fortunately I've come to vew games with an open mind and I'm anything but a younger gamer. Using a clever 'transport' system and clever tacticle vehicle design Air bucaneers takes a cool concpet and creates a squad based tactical game that is addictive to the point of rivaling Team Fotress. Unfortunately it's lack of appeal to hard core FPS players and it's difficulty to non team playing players has limited its online server population however its still I mod I love to pull out at the odd lan. Other issues that hurt Air Bucaneers are the poor quality models and graphics utilised for the mod and the unexplained death on land by magic mushroom. Yet despite these factors the gameplay and sesne of achievment when blowing some poor sod out of the sky when you can barely see his vague shadow in the fog or ramming his ship side on, while flaming him with a canon full of gunpowder draws me back again and again. Without a doubt Air Bucaneers was part of what made UT2004 so great, along with games like Chaos UT and the built in mod's. It's hard to look past Bombing Run. Looking back I seem to have a slant towards Team Based combat. Oblivion Lost by OLP Team for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl by GSC Game World This mod is something that shows just how far the game industry has fallen. If this was a once of I wouldn't have a problem but lets start at the begining. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was a good game plagued by serious 'polish' issues. When I say polish I mean the differance between a rusted piece of trash sphere and the shining silver lady leaning forward from the radiator of a limo. Let's face it, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was released early. However even after several updates there were issues with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Crashes, bug's glitches. Poor graphics, incomplete game content broken quests. Things that scream budget development team. However after 2 million copies were sold you'd think the company could afford to invest in some patches. I won't argue tthat 1.00.5 fixed a lot of issues it hardly gave S.T.A.L.K.E.R. the polish it needed. Oblivion Lost, is the polish the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. development team couldn't/woudln't do. Without a doubt S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a better game after the mod is applied. Arguably the open ended addition is not very well done however when looking at how they have modified day and night cycles and AI. Fixing numerous bugs and adding a great many additional skins, weapons, quests and te ability to undertake faction wars. Graphical additions and realistic atmosphere, including realistic night stealth and suit/armour FOV modifications. If I didn't know better I would say S.T.A.L.K.E.R. clear sky was little more than a half arsed attmept by GSC game world to copy the OLP teams work.

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02-15-2009, 01:11 PM	#2 (permalink)
royaltee1 Atom Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 3	is the game fun

08-09-2009, 10:34 PM	#3 (permalink)
Flyrie Atom Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 11	omg, S.T.A.L.K.E.R is sooooo good, i love @@'

08-15-2009, 06:49 PM	#4 (permalink)
Atomic Atom Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 11	I used to stay up all night playing UT2K4 and Q3Arena. Only problem with the older good games is that multiplayer fades out. Glad they finally released QuakeLive though.