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Thread: Oh Baby

  1. #1
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    [AK]Squidly's Avatar
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    Oh Baby

    CS: Source at the September Lan party? Anyone? Anyone?

    After a three-hour drive, it was a relief to finally climb out of that thing Louis calls a car. We spent a few minutes in the lobby, soon to be met by Jess Cliffe, one of the CS:Source game developers, as well as co-creator of the original CS. He escorted us back to an office, and my first focus was on the machine he led us to. It looked like a standard Dell Dimension mid tower, P4 2.8C processor, 1gb DDR400, and a Radeon 9800XT video card…just your run of the mill gaming box. The display…well, that was another matter altogether. An Apple 23” wide screen Cinema Display hoarded the lion’s share of available desktop space. If you have never seen a 23” wide screen, you are missing a breathtaking sight. The only real perspective I can give you? Two 17” LCD’s joined side by side. You can view a full web page, in half of the desktop. Or two pages, side by side. Great for huge viewable image, but what is the verdict for gaming? The 30ms+ response time made fast action frames “tear” on the screen, making it difficult to focus on the most important portion of the screen, the center. LCD’s can be great for gaming, provided you stay in the sub 20ms category. The Apple was awesome, just not suited for fast action FPS games.

    GRAPHICS:
    The Map was de_dust, and in game res was set to the LCD’s native resolution, 1920x1200. The 9800XT seemed to have absolutely no issue with running this resolution, even in the most frag filled sections of the map. Graphic quality can be summed up in one word: Amazing. The level of detail is just amazing. The textures on the ground and walls were mind blowing. Individual pieces gravel are visible on the ground, and the mortar between the bricks looks just like mortar, grainy texture, uneven surface and all. All equipment the player purchases at the beginning of the round is visible on the player model as he moves about. You can even see the fingernails in detail on your player model! At one of the bombsites, one indoors, with sun slits in the dome above, the individual dust motes are visible floating through the air. Gone are the jagged lines that previously represented curves, to be replaced be natural looking arcs. Even looking at the player models hands were a study in shapes and proportions. They just looked real. Everywhere you looked, visual improvements had been made.

    PHYSICS:
    Being based on the Half-Life 2 engine, this play test gives us a quick look into the physics engine that has been the most anticipated advancement the game has to offer, in my opinion. I was not disappointed by me glimpse. The realism programmed into the game is just mind blowing. Things move. LOTS of things! There were loose cinderblocks lying on the ground, and when we shot them, pieces chipped off, the block slid across the ground and spiraled to a stop in a convincing whirl of dust. The block seemed to absorb most of the pistol shot, only moving a few feet, as you would expect from a rather light 9mm round meeting a large block of stone. Spare tires littered the map, and in response to some rifle fire, one of the tires took the bullets impact in such a way that it was stood up, and actually began to roll away. Another squirt from the rifle and the tire gained momentum, hit a wall, bounced off and spun itself down onto the dusty ground. Very realistic! In another scene, the view point is from behind a large crate, near a bomb site. Mini’s team mate runs past, and from behind takes two rounds to the lower leg. The model appears to stumble, as if it’s leg had just collapsed, and takes a final round to the head, splattering blood in the dust. I felt like I was there, in the dust. Of course, all of this watching, and the shooter stepped around the corner and promptly knifed Mini! Also worth mention are the flash bang grenades. Depending on how close you are to the point of detonation determined the time and severity of the effects, as previous, but the EFFECTS! A high pitch squeal fills the air, your vision appears to have taken a frozen, the last image you saw, washed in white, becomes fixed on the screen, almost as if it was a snapshot. Bleeding through this “snapshot” is the action in the area, with your normal vision returning as the snapshot image begins to fade. Your vision wobbles. The realism is almost distracting from the gameplay, it’s THAT good.

    ENVIONMENT:
    If you have played CS, then played Joint Ops, you will understand what I am about to say; The positional audio on this game is great! Shots sound far off when they are, not simply more faint than up close. Bullets hitting a wood crate you are hiding behind have distinct sounds as they pass through first the far side, then the near side of the crate. Rounds whine off of stone nearby and smack into barrels with a satisfying clang.

    IMPRESSIONS AND CONCLUSION:
    With the wild popularity of the original CS, and the high expectations of it’s devout followers, this game must deliver. And from what I saw, deliver it does. You will not be disappointed. The CS:Source crew has been working long days as of late…it’s crunch time, and 16 hours/7 days is not unheard of. What must be the high point of the day, the CS:Source development team gets together for about an hour a day to “playtest” the game and see their hard work paying off. A projected August Beta release date has been mentioned, with the CS:Source Beta being offered to Steam Cyber Café members first, followed a week later by opening up the beta to all who have a valid CS:CZ key and the current version of Steam installed.

    Our hat is off to the hard working team at Valve for producing such a leap forward in the intense world of gaming. This would seem a suitable predecessor to the original…I just hope it won’t be another 5 years before the next!




    Also, looks like HL2 is on target for an early September release. Gaming goodness is around the corner.
    The sun has fallen down
    And the billboards are all leering
    And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles.

  2. #2
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    Doom 3 in August, Half-Life 2 in September, and Tribes: Vengeance in October. Aren't we spoiled?

  3. #3
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    [AK]Hylander's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by [AK]Palooka
    Doom 3 in August, Half-Life 2 in September, and Tribes: Vengeance in October. Aren't we spoiled?
    I'm going to need monetary donations toward the cost of all these damn games and hardware upgrades.
    "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." - Winston Churchill

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  4. #4
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    [AK]Hylander's Avatar
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    I'm also jealous about that monitor he is using.
    "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." - Winston Churchill

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  5. #5
    Lurking Moar Slaughter's Avatar
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    Apple flat screen connected to a regular PC?..

    Interesting..
    lol, <3

    Retired EQ, WoW Player.

  6. #6
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    [AK]Hylander's Avatar
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    I believe (and Squidly may know better than I do about this) that all the newer Apple monitors can be connected to PCs.
    "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." - Winston Churchill

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  7. #7
    Lurking Moar Slaughter's Avatar
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    I believe they use the DVI adapters.. though I may be wrong as I've only ever seen the connectors of apple stuff like once in my life.

    And I would be correct: http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html
    lol, <3

    Retired EQ, WoW Player.

  8. #8
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    [AK]Squidly's Avatar
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    My 6800GT has a connector for the DVI plug as well as ordinary PC monitors. Many other graphics cards do as well..
    The sun has fallen down
    And the billboards are all leering
    And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles.

  9. #9
    Lurking Moar Slaughter's Avatar
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    Thats what I was eluding to.. my Ti4600 has a DVI connector as well, most video cards have since about the Geforce 2 or 3 I believe.
    lol, <3

    Retired EQ, WoW Player.

  10. #10
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    [AK]Squidly's Avatar
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    Sweet

    ---
    The sun has fallen down
    And the billboards are all leering
    And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles.

  11. #11
    Lurking Moar Slaughter's Avatar
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    Rofl!!!!!
    lol, <3

    Retired EQ, WoW Player.

  12. #12
    Who is Nuts and Abbadon? [AK]StitchJones's Avatar
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    Squid the signature is gross........ NOT funny!!! ewwwwwwww....... Now delete it before you get Rocks turned on!


  13. #13
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    Just want to make sure my sig is safe for work and morality everywhere. Wouldn't want to be caught glancing at college age women.

    ---
    The sun has fallen down
    And the billboards are all leering
    And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles.

  14. #14
    Loved By All [AK]Choozoo's Avatar
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    not funny

    If you can't respect that SOME of us work companies with internet police, then fine. Do what you must. I'll be sure to disrespect your wishes at a future date.

    I was content with turning off my ability to view that stuff, not an issue. I'm not an uptight guy, but I just might work for people who are.

    PS -- 16 is a junior in high school, not college. Your infatuation with younger girls, frankly, is disturbing.
    Last edited by [AK]Choozoo; 08-06-2004 at 10:22 AM.
    **I just have nothing cool enough to put here**

  15. #15
    Lurking Moar Slaughter's Avatar
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    And my latest ex just came off her junior year of high school.. granted I dated her when I was a senior and she was a freshman.. then that summer (when she was going into her sophmore year) we broke up. That girl had my heart.. she broke it. I don't blame her though, I was a boy and only wanted one thing.. as her mother put it. I would still be dating her today if it wasn't for her mother.. I know that for a fact.

    Frankly I don't believe theres anything wrong with it. Age is a number, a number that so many people are infatuated by living by that its almost sickening.

    My parents had me when my dad was 37, and my mom was 27.. that means when he was graduating from high school that she was only in 2nd or 3rd grade. I've grown up around that.. so to me a matter of 4 years in age is nothing.
    lol, <3

    Retired EQ, WoW Player.

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