Curious how the SCP is coming along!

[673fb77f4d9a6RocketMan]

Pretty much that is a fear of not having all the stuff you want your 'hero character' to have in your mind. I've had that before too, it is a symptom of RPG's . You have to learn to let go of what you want the character to be sometimes, and just be what the character can be. Also, with restrictions of cyber-modules that harder difficulties place on you there is more incentive to play again with a different setup or build. It adds more to the fun of replayability. Also it is more satisfying to play the game on harder difficulties, as you feel you have accomplished more and 'beat the enemy'...or at least survived .

All true.  I'm just a slave to temptation at times.  I'm not too worried about the difficulty level though.  That I can beat with practice. 

[673fb77f4dcfbZylonBane]

Noob. Beat it on hard no real problems on meh PS2

Whoooosh.

[673fb77f4dffdJoin2]

Whoooosh.

No "whoooosh" applicable here. It is arguably harder on PS2 if you disable aim assist (as I always do) due to the slightly inferior precision of the old PS2 pad.

[673fb77f4e7a3Drone-Dragon]

Anyone who says Red Faction is fun on any difficulty level is a masochist.

Hey now, it may not have had much uniqueness to it compared to a lot of other games, and may have been bland somewhat, but I really LIKE RF 1. I guess it gave me fond memories of Saturday morning cartoons or something. I remember that one mini-series "Red Planet", I think it was called, about the human kid with a little alien friend who was suppose to be a young martian. If it helps anyone who may have seen it, the little alien was hairy with silver gel-like parts. I think the alien's human name was Willis and the human kid's name was Jim.

I know RF 1 has no alien's(well, it has possibly alien animals or mutants of such) but it kinda touches a chord in me regardless. I just hate those mercs with railguns though .

Noob. Beat it on hard no real problems on meh PS2    Tried it on the next difficulty up (hardest one) and got quite far, required a ton of quicksave abuse though, but when I got to ULTOR executive levels I gave up iirc. Was pretty damn hard and stressful. Hard was just about right in challenge level and didn't force you to spam quicksave every successful couple if kills with little health lost 
Impossible was for masochists, yes, but the other difficulties were standard for FPS so I'm not sure what you think it's ridiculously challenging.

Fun game, shame it's forgotten as far as the masses are concerned despite having mod tools released for it iirc.

Well, I didn't remember the actual name of the hardest difficulty, but I meant I couldn't play it, I played hard difficulty. I concede defeat to you here though, you got further on impossible than I did. It has been quite a while since I played RF 1, but weren't the exec quarters just before the area with Kapek's Lab? Yeah, on impossible I gave up on the guard barracks, which I think were just after the starting point. I like to save before an area, then not save again until after I've cleared an area or part of an area, to add more challenge to it and more fear of getting killed. I realized I'd have to save way more than I wanted to with impossible, so...yeah, didn't even bother going on, was a waste of time with any skill being laughed at by psychic AI, pin point accuracy enemies, and I swear they spawned right next to you sometimes , lol. To be honest, I found the railgun mercs to be badass(also annoying) on both difficulties, heh. I'd always try to use my railgun before a fight to pick off any rail mercs through the walls, but with the older graphics, it was hard to tell which mercs had what weapons.

Edit: Actually I never said the other difficulties were ridiculously challenging, I didn't mean to imply that if I did.

No "whoooosh" applicable here. It is arguably harder on PS2 if you disable aim assist (as I always do) due to the slightly inferior precision of the old PS2 pad.

No console gamepad ever has good FPS accuracy, not just the PS2 variant. Mouse rules all.

[673fb77f4eaa3icemann]

Aye no bashing of Red Faction 1. That game kicks ass.

One of the games I go back and play every few years.

The uniqueness to the game is in using the quirks of the engine to your benefit to get around obstacles. Can't find a way around a guard tower wall? Attach some C4 and blow a hole in it. The underwater sub bits were really fun also. Not seen any other game do underwater that way.

Anyone who says Red Faction is fun on any difficulty level is a masochist.

Games damn fun on standard difficulty.

[673fb77f4edafDrone-Dragon]

Aye no bashing of Red Faction 1. That game kicks ass.

One of the games I go back and play every few years.

The uniqueness to the game is in using the quirks of the engine to your benefit to get around obstacles. Can't find a way around a guard tower wall? Attach some C4 and blow a hole in it. The underwater sub bits were really fun also. Not seen any other game do underwater that way.

Games damn fun on standard difficulty.

I'll level with you, the G-MOD stuff didn't really get used like it was promoted until Guerrilla. RF 1 and 2 never really made much use of it overall, which disappointed me. I just wish Guerrilla had some indoor areas though, and aerial combat.

Mainly there were just a few G-MOD things you had to get past in the first 2 games, and that was about it. Other than that, RF 1 & 2 were great. Although I found the second's games story a bit wonky. Not sure why, it just...I dunno.

 

[673fb77f4eea3Join2]

RF2 was trash imo.

[673fb77f4ef75RocketMan]

_Insert_Game_Here_ 2 usually is (but not always).

[673fb77f4f18aJoin2]

_Insert_Game_Here_ 2 usually is (but not always).

Dunno, I find there is a fair ratio of good to bad sequels/successors with games.

[673fb77f4f2fdKolya]

Yeah, it's certainly not as bad as with films, since the improvement of technology over time helps games a lot more.

[673fb77f4f5b8ZylonBane]

No "whoooosh" applicable here.

Yup, whooosh, everyone except you understood what I meant. I'm saying RED FACTION WAS A BAD GAME.

Of course as a PS2 gamer, you wouldn't have known any better, there being so few FPSs available on the PS2 at the time. But PC gamers generally saw Red Faction for what it was-- a half-assed Half-Life clone with moronic AI, low-poly models, primitive lighting (no animated lights anywhere), a nonsensical plot (pretty much no motivation for any of the bad guys beyond "for the EVULZ"), forgettable characters, boring weapons, terrible vehicle physics, repetitive scripted sequences ("Follow me! I'm with the Red Fac--AARRGGHH..."), monotonous level design (caves, offices, caves, offices...), the obligatory awful forced stealth sequence, and the much-touted GeoMod engine which, beyond the first few levels, was a pointless gimmick.

So yeah, there's a reason the original Red Faction is mostly forgotten these days.

[673fb77f4f776Join2]

I wasn't specifically a PS2 gamer, I was and am a gamer with no restrictions. PC, handhelds, everything except mobiles. I assume it is you who remains intentionally ignorant by staying PC only, but I am not here to argue who is the bigger gaming nerd:

It has been years since I've played RF, but the graphics-related arguments do not make it a bad game. As for the other stuff, I think you are exaggerating wildly; I remember the occasional pathfinding issue, no big deal, but maybe I just need to load up the game again and see.

Deus Ex has terrible AI issues and some outstandingly bad graphics for the time, doesn't make it a bad game.
Doom has next to no plot, doesn't make it a bad game.
For a game set on Mars RF has very varied level design.
Boring weapons? This opinion I cannot accept at all.

Your opinion on RF sucks. I'll assume you were enamoured with Half-Life at the time and it clouded your judgement of RF. Sure, it's not perfect, the stealth section was shit, it could do with a couple more scripted sequences with the NPCs (there was still some good ones in there), but other than that it is a blast. 

Definitely an 8/10 at worst.

Oh yeah, the geometry destruction was overhyped, but still worthwhile and interesting.

[673fb77f4fcbeZylonBane]

Deus Ex has terrible AI issues and some outstandingly bad graphics for the time, doesn't make it a bad game.
Doom has next to no plot, doesn't make it a bad game.
For a game set on Mars RF has very varied level design.

Yes, other games have individual flaws. But Red Faction had ALL these flaws, and more. Compared to other FPSs of the time, there was nothing it did very well. It had the gimmicky geomod, and that was it.

Boring weapons? This opinion I cannot accept at all.

Of course, what was I thinking? There's the gun that shoots bullets, then the gun that shoots more bullets, then the gun that shoots even more bullets, then the gun that shoots lots more bullets, then the gun that shoots most bullets. Way to stretch that creative noodle, Volition.

[673fb77f4ffc3Join2]

Compared to other FPSs of the time, there was nothing it did very well. It had the gimmicky geomod, and that was it.

True, but it's still a worthwhile game. Beats most modern shooters that's for sure.

[673fb77f5012eK-Bone]

On topic:Can't wait for the Shock Community Patch.But damn I've never seen a thread get derailed So damn quick.Can we for the love of the Many get back on topic?

[673fb77f50d59Drone-Dragon]

RF2 was trash imo.

To be honest, it wasn't really better or worse than RF 1, though like I said before I found the story a little wonky for some reason. The only real problem I had with it was a few annoying "heroics" parts that you had to start a whole section over if you failed if you wanted the best ending, due to them being so retarded or buggy. You probably didn't like that it was set on Earth instead of Mars though, which I understand because I missed Mars too, but I think Volition was trying to both change it up and show what Earth was like in the series. The idea was that the RF in 2 took the name of the Martian rebels for their own rebellion as a symbolic gesture of freedom from tyranny.

Yup, whooosh, everyone except you understood what I meant. I'm saying RED FACTION WAS A BAD GAME.

Of course as a PS2 gamer, you wouldn't have known any better, there being so few FPSs available on the PS2 at the time. But PC gamers generally saw Red Faction for what it was-- a half-assed Half-Life clone with moronic AI, low-poly models, primitive lighting (no animated lights anywhere), a nonsensical plot (pretty much no motivation for any of the bad guys beyond "for the EVULZ"), forgettable characters, boring weapons, terrible vehicle physics, repetitive scripted sequences ("Follow me! I'm with the Red Fac--AARRGGHH..."), monotonous level design (caves, offices, caves, offices...), the obligatory awful forced stealth sequence, and the much-touted GeoMod engine which, beyond the first few levels, was a pointless gimmick.

So yeah, there's a reason the original Red Faction is mostly forgotten these days.

Okay, I'll be the first to admit I LOVE ANYTHING Half-Life over a lot of other games, even when it is lacking stuff that other games have, because I love the surreal 'otherworldy meets the human perceived normal' that the universe of HL(and Portal) has in BIG supply, and the overall feel of the immersion that the series gives you, both in its enviroments and the fact that you feel that there is so much out there in the universe and beyond the dimensional barriers that you cannot see. However, aside from the unique way of storytelling that the HL games have and their immersion, there isn't much to set them apart from other FPS games, except a few unique weapons or tools(the gravity gun is basically both). There are plenty of games with good immersion and unique weapons though.

So I don't really see how it is a Half-Life clone, when so many games before and after both those series have so much similarity in how they function overall. There is only so much we can do afterall . Half-Life being better than Red Faction I agree with though, but Half-Life is better than most FPS games in general, and I never said RF was an uber great game, just that I like it, but there are plenty of games I like much better than RF.

That being said, I do agree that the characters were not fleshed out really at all, every single nameless Red Faction member you encountered outside of a cutscene died like 1-3 seconds later, and the stealth was VERY horrid.

The graphics are expected to be bad, given the game's age, who cares it is still fun, graphics don't make the game, they just add to it. The level design is fine, as Join said, Volition did pretty good for what little you could do with Mars as a setting. Caves are to be expected, as well as facilities in caves. As for the bad guys, I don't get what you mean...the RF was formed to break free of slavery. Ultor turned the miners into slaves and treated them worse than animals. With your line of thinking the Combine from the Half-Life series should be no different than just doing stuff to troll? About the only ones in Red Faction doing things simply for 'evulz' were the mercs, but they were also getting paid. They're cutthroats afterall.

Back in the day, I wouldn't have agreed with you about the vehicles. Now though, on modern computers the vehicles tend to act really wonky for some reason, so...meh to that. Yeah, the G-MOD tech, as I said before was not even used except to sell the first 2 games, which was VERY crappy .

Yes, other games have individual flaws. But Red Faction had ALL these flaws, and more. Compared to other FPSs of the time, there was nothing it did very well. It had the gimmicky geomod, and that was it.
Of course, what was I thinking? There's the gun that shoots bullets, then the gun that shoots more bullets, then the gun that shoots even more bullets, then the gun that shoots lots more bullets, then the gun that shoots most bullets. Way to stretch that creative noodle, Volition.

You forgot the flamethrower you could detach the canister from and use like an incendiary grenade, or the gun that let you see through walls and fire a metal slug at supersonic speeds at enemies through said walls, and the fact that you used each gun for different situations and enemies. It really wasn't until later when you were mostly fighting mercs that certain weapons were useless, but then, in the original Half-Life did you really use the sub-machine gun/assault rifle(ref: depending on HD pack installation) to kill the alien grunts(the big mean ones with a hive hand, not the Vortigaunt slaves)? Honestly, I either used explosives, hive hand, gluon gun, or gauss gun on those things .

True, but it's still a worthwhile game. Beats most modern shooters that's for sure.

Ehhhh...

On topic:Can't wait for the Shock Community Patch.But damn I've never seen a thread get derailed So damn quick.Can we for the love of the Many get back on topic?

Well, Kolya mentioned earlier it was okay to go a little off topic, though we have probably gone WAY off .

Basically we are just shooting the breeze while waiting for more on the SCP and its release...

...or in Zylon's case, raving to try and silence the voices .

[673fb77f51125icemann]

Of course as a PS2 gamer, you wouldn't have known any better, there being so few FPSs available on the PS2 at the time. But PC gamers generally saw Red Faction for what it was-- a half-assed Half-Life clone with moronic AI, low-poly models, primitive lighting (no animated lights anywhere), a nonsensical plot (pretty much no motivation for any of the bad guys beyond "for the EVULZ"), forgettable characters, boring weapons, terrible vehicle physics, repetitive scripted sequences ("Follow me! I'm with the Red Fac--AARRGGHH..."), monotonous level design (caves, offices, caves, offices...), the obligatory awful forced stealth sequence, and the much-touted GeoMod engine which, beyond the first few levels, was a pointless gimmick.

Image: http://bigstickcombat.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/slap.jpg

Hate to be the one to break to you, but FPS`s and good plots tended to not go together back when RF 1 came out (not counting System Shock, Half-Life or Deus Ex). I thought the plot was just fine. If anything it rips off the movie "Total Recall" to an extent, as far as a Mars based resistance rebelling against inhumane practices by mining corps. Models were around Max Payne 1 quality which was fine for the time, though the faces do look silly I'll admit. Vehicle physics were no better or worse than anything I can recall from that time period.

[673fb77f51268RocketMan]

I have to admit (as I also enjoyed RF1) that the goddamn humvee thing at the end of the game was horrendously bad.  I got stuck multiple times, even with micron precise driving skills and the thing seemed to bounce all over the damn place when you ran over as much as a pebble.  I seriously thought my game was broken when I realized I could run faster than my car was moving.  HOLY SHIT that was bad vehicle physics.  Rant over

[673fb77f5151aDrone-Dragon]

I have to admit (as I also enjoyed RF1) that the goddamn humvee thing at the end of the game was horrendously bad.  I got stuck multiple times, even with micron precise driving skills and the thing seemed to bounce all over the damn place when you ran over as much as a pebble.  I seriously thought my game was broken when I realized I could run faster than my car was moving.  HOLY SHIT that was bad vehicle physics.  Rant over

You might be thinking of the APC(armored personnel carrier). It did those things. I've only had problems with the ATV(all-terrain vehicle) on more advanced systems. I seem to recall the APC always being awkward to drive.

[673fb77f51613ZylonBane]

Well, was going to put in some serious time on the last few SCP fixes tonight... and the power goes out on the entire street. Sigh. It's very dark here right now.

[673fb77f5189cOlfred]

The whole world is against the release of the SCP

In mid february I will have a break from my super busy period. So I can work on thoose last models which need a fix.

[673fb77f519dcSalk]

How long did the power outage last, ZylonBane? I hope you didn't lose any data you were working on...

[673fb77f51ad9Dizzy]

No worries Zylon, I understand the feeling. I was watching the Breaking Bad finale, when all of a sudden my neighborhood's power went out. I nearly feinted lol. Hopefully you guys didn't lose anything important.

[673fb77f51c63voodoo47]

a simple power outage usually won't cause a catastrophic hardware failure that would lead to data loss, and even if it does, when you are in this business for a longer period of time, you are usually smart enough to keep triple backups of your data, so I wouldn't worry too much.

I also keep (multiple) backups for all my hardware, so even if someone shoots my pc up with a machine gun, I'll be back up and running in less than a hour.