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Wow..  Just wow. Talk about a huge letdown. Mag is the worst game I’ve played in the last few years and that INCLUDES Haze. I was so hyped for this game but now I can’t even look at the case without feeling queezey.

Let’s take a look at just why I hate this game so much just two hours into playing it. Now, you could always brush this off and say “oh, you just suck at it.” Yes, that’s true. I’m terrible at first person shooters but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t still be entertained by them.

From the very announcement MAG was hyped up as some revolutionary game, 256 players got us all thinking “Holy shit, this game is going to kick ass!” Well, the 256 player gamemodes do exist but you have to unlock them first. I’m not sure what level you have to be but I know it’s not level 2. While I have absolutely no problem with unlocking things, infact I love it, but when you force me to play frustrating 64 player modes before I can unlock the main reason I brought the game that’s not a good sign.

But I’m not just whining about that, oh no, the game is just horribly broken. I lost track of the ammount of times I was subjected to horrible lag spikes, as was everyone else in the game. Most of my deaths were due to me bouncing all around the fucking place. At one point I was RIGHT next to a guy about to knife him and I bounce back half a mile and am shot by a sniper. That’s another thing actually, EVERYONE snipes and it’s just too easy for them! My first ever game a good 3/4 the opposing force were snipers. There were only about 10 of us out on the battlefield. Sure, the idea is nice. Covering your team while they advance and what-not but when EVERYONE does it and you can’t even leave your spawn zone without getting a head shot. I can’t imagine how horrible this will be on 256 player mode. There is just absolutely no balance.

Normally I’m not a graphics whore but come on, look at this game:

It’s just flat, bland, boring and just.. Boring! It looks like a 2004 game, not a 2010 one. Hell, Half-Life 2 looks better than this even by today’s standards.

This is the sort of game that should be a PSN Downloadable, not a fully priced retail game. If it was say.. £15 maybe I’d have felt like I got my money’s worth but no, it’s £40 and that is a complete and total rip off.

What MAG isn’t:

• Fun
• Original
• Worth £40

What MAG is:

• A huge gimmick
• The aborted bastard child of Modern Warfare and Battlefield

My opinion is save your £40 and buy/pre-order Global Agenda, Bioshock 2, AvP or Star Trek Online instead.

I would suggest viewing this in “HD” with the sound turned off. Youtube needs to piss off with their copyright infringement crap.

Nope, nope. Don’t like it, I don’t like it one bit. Granted all of two people have said they like what they’ve seen so far on Crimson Sea I just don’t think it fits the theme of a sea-sideish town I was going for.

I’m scrapping what I’ve done so far and am going to go for a different look.

Indoobitably, here’s a picture of the plan for the first level of Crimson Sea that is currently hanging on my wall.

Yellow = Landmark
Brown = Obstacle
Blue = Dynamic Obstacle
Red = Objective

And yes, I know it looks like a 5 year old drew this but whatevs’.

Some more very early WIP shots for you, this may not seem like I’ve done much recently but with the ammount of designing/redesigning the level layout I’ve done.. Yeah, I can’t really show my work there but I think I’ve worked out a pretty good level flow. Still working on the exterior lighting as.. While I love the way the sun blazes as you exit the subway, it feels very bland for some reason. Maybe some color correction could fix it up?

Note to self: Learn how to use color correction.

Yes, a very Merry Christmas to the one person who actually reads my blog posts!

Since the release of the L4D2 SDK (about frikken’ time) I have been hard at work at my new obsession. Crimson Sea.

I have been planning this campaign since about a month after the release of Central Dark, my wall is covered in plans and diagrams for things I want in it (okay maybe not COVERED but there are some level layouts up there.)

I must say though, I retract my earlier statement about VALVe’s new “dynamic pathing” system being an absolute cop-out and totally possible in L4D1. VALVe have done a lot more work on it than is evident in the finished product. It seems the Director has a new “anger” system where it can change the level depending on how good or bad the players are doing. This has prompted me to re-design my level layouts with a fork every now and then rather than just random pathing changes. If the players are doing terribly the Director will give them the nice, easy route. If they’re doing well then they’re going to get the long and hard route, and of course there will be randomly placed alarmed cars, etc.

But, these are all just words and plans.  Here’s some visual stuff, keep in mind that this is ALL heavy WiP and is nowhere near finished yet.

PSN has a more mature community, right guys?

Normally I’m the biggest VALVe fanboy on the planet but it really, really was. I’m not going to go for the whole boycotter arguement of it “not deserving a sequel” because it certainly has evolved for the better but the game, as a whole, feels largely unfished and without polish. Let me get one thing straight before the VALVe fanboys bite my head off, L4D2 was by no means a bad game. It’s just not as good as it could have been.

I mean, I’ve lost track of the ammount of times I saw the edges of a map which is completely unnacceptable, I mean.. I’m a rookie mapper at best and even I know that showing the edges of a map both looks ugly and completely ruins immersion, which makes me think that if VALVe had worked on it for just a few more months  things would have been so much better. Most of the maps (especially the Mall) felt bland and boring. Now I realize that the Mall was supposed to be “under construction” but come on.. They could’ve scattered around more construction materials, equipment, etc and maybe named and fleshed out a few more shops. As it stands now there’s maybe FOUR shops that have been fleshed out in the entire campaign, the rest are all boarded off.

I realize Source has it’s limits but come on. The only campaign I actually enjoyed was Parish, they managed to create a fantastic atmosphere due to the military bombings, the rest were just.. Meh. Dark Carnival was fantastic too so.. Yeah, 2/5 of the campaigns were fun and memorable. The other three were bland and boring, I loved the first map of Dead Center where the Survivors gradually got to know each other and started using CEDA classifications for the infected but other than that it was shit.

The claims of “A.I. Director 2.0″ were absolute bullshit, I came into the game expecting varied weather and lighting everywhere (as well as the dynamic pathing which I shall get onto in a minute) but what I got was a whopping ONE camapigns revolving around rain that was sometimes stormy and sometimes not so stormy. I loved how disorienting the “storm modes” in Hard Rain got but playing with bots as I was (because I can’t stand L4D2’s online community) it got extremely fucking annoying. I should’ve known better though, the claim that the AI director could change lighting and weather would have meant that VALVe  updated the Source engine to use fully dynamic lighting rather than baking it and the idea of VALVe changing the Source engine that much in a year would be completely asinine (although I have high hopes for EP3’s engine.. Why else would it be taking so long?)

Moving swiftly on to the the major disappointment of the “new” AI director, the so called “dynamic pathing system.” I have played through every campaign in Versus, SP and Co-Op individually and the ONLY change in pathing I noticed was a wall that was either there or not there in the second level of The Parish, this feature is not new to L4D2 either nor is it something new with the Director, in fact L4D Mod “Deadlock” had this likely before L4D2 was even past it’s early stages:

This could’ve been used so much better, and I have big plans for it for my L4D2 campaign that I will continue developing come the L4D2 SDK (and by big plans I mean I’m going to make it so each level has a minimum of two totally alternate paths, not just placing a wall at random.. Just like VALVe should have done in the first place.)

And oh God, don’t get me started on the AI. I don’t even have to post an example for this because ANYONE who has played with a bot knows how bloody useless they are.. It’s not so much a lack of intelligence as a lack of prioritization, I mean honestly.. When I’m standing in Spitter acid do you seriously think the best thing to do would be to heal me? If I’m being strangled or ridden do you really think you should be on the OTHER SIDE OF THE MAP CHASING A BOOMER!? And, my god, they STILL don’t pick up equipment. You’d think that the biggest problem with bots in L4D would have been fixed in L4D2.

That’s another thing, code migration. Several of the largest bugs, exploits and griefing tools that were fixed and/or removed in L4D are still present in L4D2 including the one, the only, the VOCALIZE TOOL! Yes with the press of a button you can piss off your teammates and the Infected by screaming “TANK! TAAAAANK! TAAAAAAAAAANK!” over and over again but even better, if you’re playing as Ellis you can run around saying “WUBUBUBUBUBUBU.” It never gets old, really.

My last underlying complaint would have to be with what they’ve done to the difficulty. Infected mobs used to be something I’d dread on Expert, now the Director seems to just throw them at you every few seconds so it becomes less of and “Oh shit, oh shit!” moment and more of a “Oh for gods sake, not you guys again” moment. Infected mobs are now smaller and weaker than before which renders the Boomer essentially useless, after being puked on a Survivor can easilly just sit in a corner and whack away at the air. I played on Expert in L4D and loved it but now I just can’t stand the constant flow of Infected mobs running at you.

So, VALVe staff. If for some reason you’re reading this here’s what you can do to get back in my good books:

• Fix being able to see the edges of maps, especially in Swamp Fever. Hey, if you want just give me the original VMF files and the L4D2 SDK and I’ll do it for you free of charge! If it means I get to stop looking at the edges of maps I’m all for it.
• God damnit, give the Viewmodel FOV commands back I hate only being able to see the wrists of the person I’m playing as. And while you’re at it, give Full Body Awareness back. There’s seriously no reason to have removed it.
• FIX THE BOT AI! DAYUHM.
• Re-balance the Boomer, he is now essentially useless due to the size and infrequency of the mobs that appear when he pukes on someone. I once puked on all four survivors twice in a row and do you know how many infected attacked them? Five.
• Vocalize must die.
• If you release any future DLC Campaigns make sure it makes better use of the Dynamic Pathing system.
• RELEASE THE SDK! NOW!

Normally, VALVe is renown for the polish and detail in their games but L4D2.. Not so much. As I stated previously, a few more months of work and polish and this could’ve been a marvel of a game but for some reason it just feels like it was rushed out of the door, maybe to be in time with the Winter release season.. Who knows. I love VALVe but they really bodged this one.

Just finished my new piece of so-called art entitled Stairwell on the edge of eternity. Again, no real meaning just made it when I had not much else to do.