Neil Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 From the Daily Beast, we could only imagine! Buying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The game sold a record-breaking 6.5 million copies—more than $400 million—in the U.S. and Britain alone. “We believe the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium,” said Bobby Kotick, the chief executive of Activision Blizzard, adding that total sales exceeded the box-office takes of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. More than 13,000 stores around the world opened at midnight to sell the game, which lets players fight a Russian terrorist in London, New York, and elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamJSS Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 To each is own I guess....but i find no enjoyment in something that has no replay value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest J van E Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 To each is own I guess....but i find no enjoyment in something that has no replay value.And I find no enjoyment in killing people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mra Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamJSS Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 +2 Not sure about the whole "violence is king" mentality that is taking over our media markets as of late....it seems it is perfectly acceptable to just produce violence, and call if freedom of speech and expression. Not to mention you learn, or even have the option of leaning anything from these type of games.... But, that's just my two cents.... *Steps off the soapbox* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajc Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 +3 I don't understand of how you could enjoy that? AJC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virtualwombat Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 +4 The single-player campaign is fun. Once. Play it a second time and the linear game play becomes mind-numbingly boring. The other option is multiplayer. You get to match reaction times with 12-year-old boys who do nothing else all day. Cheers, Noel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BionicCrab Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Guarenteed GTAV beats that record next May! Both games using the RAGE/GTA engine have gotten 10/10 ratings so far. We are getting close to Billion dollar games eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Attwood Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 And I find no enjoyment in killing people. You don't really kill people Jeroen, it's a game! Having said that, Noel hit the nail on the head about 12 year olds. I play in sloth mode, so I only go on crouch servers. I stand a slightly better chance of 'killing' someone......sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skypilot Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 I think these types of games teaches violence and desensitises people to the reality of the what they are really doing. The same too can be said for paint ball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misha Cajic Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 I am not a fan of combat games, 1+ to what J van E said, there is no enjoyment in killing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 I won't enter the moral debate about first person shooters; I am sure it is a divisive topic in the community. What I do want to say is that DICE's Frost Bite 2 Game Engine is nothing short of stunning. It's probably the closest thing to a possible FSX replacement engine that I have seen, with support for any type of vehicle including aircraft, a >70km horizon and support for all the latest GPU power and DirectX effects. Not sure if it uses DX11 but it really doesn't need it. EA are also using this engine in the upcoming NFS: The Run. If I were a company that wanted to create a brand new flight sim, this is the engine I would want. Of course, EA have already gone on record to say they will never, ever license it to third parties. And I understand why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted November 13, 2011 Author Share Posted November 13, 2011 I agree with John, about avoiding a divisive debate. My point was the sales figures. I have followed games sims for years, being amazed by the graphics development. Look at the latest Elder Scrolls, and others. There is a benefit as John points out in game programming , and it certainly is driving GPU power. I will take a look at Frost Bite 2, however I am firmly in the Flight Sim camp! Maybe John can give us an occasional update, on the state of the art, from developers viewpoint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josedav Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Future looks bright for flightsimmers'! New game coming soon called "Truth's no Fairytale" Line drawn in the sands- no middle ground- everybody choosing sides whoever's left- killing nobody in games or otherwise new world coming to a theatre near us all sooner now than later... happy landings! Joseph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMaestro Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 I've been a Call of Duty fan in the past, COD4, the first Modern Warfare, blew me away with its single player campaign. It told a story that was really interesting and had a great cinematic style to it. I still pick it up again and play it occasionally, even if I do know exactly what's going to happen and where every enemy is, so it has replay value to me. I'm not interested in online multiplayer with COD though, I played a bit back in COD4 but got over it pretty quickly, I don't mind the occasional LAN game with friends though. The COD titles following COD4 have all gone downhill though and I never bothered buying Black Ops and won't buy MW3. It's a shame because what Infinity Ward did with their first few in the series, COD1, 2 and 4, were really great, but then Activision started pumping them out once every year and the newer ones just aren't fun for me. I've gotten back into Battlefield with the release of number 3 and I'm really enjoying it. I've been missing the teamwork aspect of first-person shooters since the last Battlefield I was really into, 1942, and that was quite a few years ago. And as John said the visuals are stunning, it's great to have a game pushing PC hardware after years of straight console-ports. Not sure if it uses DX11 but it really doesn't need it. The game actually only runs on Windows Vista and later because DX9 isn't supported. Frostbite 2 is using some cool DX11 features like tesselation which is one of the reasons it looks so good. Cheers, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Yes John IMHO it's going to be a toss up between the Cry engine of the new sniper and the Frostbite , I just wish the Devs could have the Frostbite engine for rFactor 2 instead of staying with the now dinosaur tech of the existing ISI engine, BUT it was done that way to help with compatibility issues with rFactor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gandy Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Fun is where you find it in the gaming world, but passion is something that simulations can deliver with ease Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BionicCrab Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Frostbite 2 is great definitely the Game of the Year as far as engines go. Really the first game to completely unlock the power of the shader core. But I think the real replacement to the FSX engine would be GTA. It has the same VRAM issues the same CPU intensive load, but much better LOD handling, ultimately it is a simulator played as an RPG. And yes it's actually more fun and controllable than FSX as far as helicopters go Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolP Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Sad fact, the magnificent game engine comes with a much lesser magnificent Origin service and corresponding 'legal' wishes from the publisher. Very 'topical', especially in European consumer protection regimes. I'm sure this sort of quality doesn't justify the work that has gone into the game itself. Surely a nice game, but the package value is negative for me. I'm enjoying the videos though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heiko Glatthorn Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 The Frostbite 2 engine is not fully utilized in BF3 - lots of destruction is not enabled (yet?). I bet they got performance problems or it's the fact that it changed from a 100% PC game development to a console port on the way... As soon as compromises for consoles have to be made, the game isn't half as good as it could be... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John York Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 JV wrote; 'EA have already gone on record to say they will never, ever license it to third parties' Call me a cinic but I don't like to think how many times I've heard and seen statements like that. Never, ever is an awful long time and when things get a bit slow, or sometimes, when sheer greed rears its ugly head, you then hear; 'Well of course we didnt really mean never ever, When we said that we meant that we couldn't foresee a time when.........' John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Kane Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 JV wrote; 'EA have already gone on record to say they will never, ever license it to third parties' Call me a cinic but I don't like to think how many times I've heard and seen statements like that. Never, ever is an awful long time and when things get a bit slow, or sometimes, when sheer greed rears its ugly head, you then hear; 'Well of course we didnt really mean never ever, When we said that we meant that we couldn't foresee a time when.........' John Considering it is the engine used in the BattleField series, which is EA's fastest selling games of all time and one of the industries biggest selling games of all time, I don't think EA is worried about things getting a bit slow. These gaming engines are now getting closer and closer to Billion Dollar Sales Records. If they were to begin to licence engines out then others will eat into some of those sales records. These games have become like blockbuster films. Trying to beat pre-order sales, first weekend sales and over-all sales. They are very aggressive with going after the market share. As what has been said I never use these type of games as my addiction is with FSX and the Total War series, Specifically Empire: Total War. But that is because I am a huge fan of History and Airplanes... Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BionicCrab Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Interestingly enough though in a few months idSoftware will be releasing it's idtech4 engine. I think that's more than enough C++ code to write another flight simulator that could potentially compete with FSX. The proper way to think of most engines is to treat it like an OS, so releasing source code for non competitive yet production engine is a god send. You see it in the number of engines popping up everywhere. I really doubt one man projects like Outerra could exist any other way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMaestro Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Isn't idTech4 still going to be DX9 only? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BionicCrab Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 Not really no. Once you compile it in visual studio 2010 using the Windows 7.1 SDK it automatically becomes DX11. Now there maybe a few changes but they tend to be relatively minor. Remember idtech4 runs on a lot of systems that don't even support DX natively so things are kept generic on purpose. But the goal still remains to add something that could actually use tesselations at then engine sdk level, then worry about the implementation at the hardware level. Little known fact but ATI cards already support tesselation in DX9 mode, it's just never used except for a few titles. DX11 however requires all cards to support, and hence why you even had the silly 10.1 standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Newman Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 One could argue that violent movies are the same... But I'm sure most of us quite happily watch some critically acclaimed "classics" with violent scenes and lots of killing and don't bat an eyelid as to how damaging that movie was to our sensibilities. I think the real issues with "violent" video games is the fact that too many retailers and parents, worldwide, buy games with extremely mature content for young kids... The kids say they want a certain video game, the parents (at least the unaware ones) fall into a mindset of "Oh! a video game! It must be like Pac Man or Space Invaders!" They simply don't understand that video games these days are far more than they used to be and they are blurring the lines between basic pixel based entertainment and Hollywood storytelling. I do agree that if you play such games as a young kid, then it may well have a developmental affect. This should be legislated and enforced more. After all, I doubt any parent out there would knowingly let their 8 year old watch the Texas Chainsaw Masacre, but they seem to be just fine with their kid playing Doom 3 or any host of other horrific games. Personally, I have a spectrum of "violence"... I'm completely against games which glorify crime and senseless killing, but I do consider myself a fan of good story driven FPS games... The Crysis series, Mass Effect series and a whole range of other Sci-Fi based games. They have their share of killing, but it's always "good vs evil"... And to me, it's just like watching a really good movie except I get to play a role. Even MW3 is essentially a Good vs Bad game... I doubt I will buy it though as for me, It's not sci-fi enough! I guess it's horses for courses though... And it's not going to stop me simming any time soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virtualwombat Posted November 19, 2011 Share Posted November 19, 2011 With respect to game engines, I continue to be impressed with Outerra. It's just a shame they seem not to have the resources to bring it to market quickly. />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_BJLfq1ntI Cheers, Noel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Kane Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 Cascade Game Foundry seams to have some new pictures on their website of a train simulator of some kind, and some marine life . They still say they are too soon to announce what they are working on: http://www.cascadegamefoundry.com/ If you recall these are a few of the former Aces team that have said: Simulating Experience.™ Cascade Game Foundry™ (CGF) enables people of all ages and ability levels to explore the world from home, so they can drive a train through the Swiss Alps, dive on the Great Barrier Reef, paddle down the Nile, fly a plane through the Grand Canyon, hike the ruins of Machu Picchu, and thrill to many other kinds of reality-based adventure. It has been a while since they've started out now so hopefully they are working on something good. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice_King Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 We are living in wondrous times where the line between the gaming rendering and the real world is continuously being blurred. It's just a pity that PC power required is a real budget stretch for many of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BionicCrab Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 The difficulty I have with Cascade is none of these folks worked on the core engines it seems. Microsoft has revolving doors, I know plenty of folks that start there, quit and start up a venture, and then go back either as consultant or management. Perhaps by focussing on Train simming this maybe their ticket back in, since they obviously need a publisher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Kane Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 I wouldn't mind more trains... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BionicCrab Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 Well the Trains are never going to be quite an NGX but still quite enjoyable none the less. Diesel-Electrics are just cool engines, and really overlooked by the jet age. You can finally buy from toyota what the railroads replaced steam with Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yallu Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 The other option is multiplayer. You get to match reaction times with 12-year-old boys who do nothing else all day. Try WW2 Online... You're likely to meet a 40+ year-old-man-boy instead. I know, I've played since 2001 . The average age is high there. Nothing like BF3 graphics wise of course, but it's a large scale, huge visibility range (kilometers), combined arms (land, air, naval, 100+ weapons) combat taking place in Holland, Belgium and North of France (largest non-zoned single instance map of all MMPOGs). Flight model is dynamic, AFAIK, not table based. All physics are realistic (as much as possible). No "hit points". Penetration, spalling, etc., all calculated. Does not require the best of computers either. I think they're having a free trial almost always. Currently there's Normandy related event running - player numbers are huge ATM (Americans were just introduced to the game, it's now Americans, British, French and Germans). Damage model video (from 2004, graphics is not the same anymore): Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5055100597 Posted November 20, 2011 Share Posted November 20, 2011 Personally, I think Microsoft are somewhat interested in flight simulators. The Microsoft Flight Simulator series, which neded with FSX, was Microsoft's longest-running game series. Although we don't know all the details about the new game, Flight, we can all imagine that it will be at least at the level of FSX; but by looking at screenshots, detail has improved, it looks like thw weather engine is more natural, lighting and shading look better, and I'd assume they're doing a better job with it. We'll wait and see. However, I hope Microsoft make teh new Flight both for 32 and 64-bit systems, so those with 64 can take advantage of our extra memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yallu Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 With respect to game engines, I continue to be impressed with Outerra. It's just a shame they seem not to have the resources to bring it to market quickly. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_BJLfq1ntI Cheers, Noel New Beta video: [media]http://vimeo.com/31560308 No post processing, straight out of the engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Venema Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 Sorry, but I have an alpha build of Outerra which they gave me to look at two years ago and it has progressed very little since then. They have added some realtime shading effects, water, waves, a few aircraft and vehicles, but the same limited fractal beige/green mountain terrain with single repeating trees persists and we have almost nothing in terms of real cities, towns, rural/urban classes, large scale autogen buildings, ATC, examples of airports or the key essential ingredients required for a global flight sim engine. I am frankly surprised how they are funding their development. The FSX/P3D engine simply kills Outerra in almost every aspect and I fail to see why Outerra keeps getting hyped and mentioned on FS forums. People need to appreciate the sheer power and enormity of the FSX engine - it is unparalleled in terms of its ability and it is for good reason the code has been around for such a long time. No company has been able to achieve what FSX and its iterations can do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BionicCrab Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 It's suprising how much technology from FS has found itself into the core operating system. Things like Virtualization and XML Guages are awfully similar to todays OS lingo such as Hyper Visors and XAML/WPF. Obviously in a more advanced forms, but certainly the FS versions would have served as important proof of concepts. So just the research alone in those areas have more than paid for themselves within the company well beyond what the revenues from the sales of FS series may indicate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Scharnowski Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 And yes [GTA is] actually more fun and controllable than FSX as far as helicopters go No, it's not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted November 25, 2011 Author Share Posted November 25, 2011 As the one who started this thread, I wanted to point out the whopping sales of "shooters", and the impact it has on developers interest in flightsims. I have really enjoyed the discussion of the new developers tools, and like most of us, wishing some of this was being put into a new flightsim. JV's comment that there was lot's of life left in FSX was an eye opener. After all the griping we have all contributed to, about Microsoft "bloatware", perhap's the future is "Prepar3D", at least it seems attainable in the short term. If they come up with a single licence for around a $100, then I will go for it, and OrbX can keep developing without a major retool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BionicCrab Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Neil: Also don't forget for every $60 dollar game sold for the Xbox, the retailer gets $5 dollars and Microsoft gets $5 dollars, as well as $60/year from everyone just to play multiplayer. So for them it doesn't make much sense to even develop games like Halo anymore, as its better to license exclusive 3rd party content than try and create it yourself. I think it's really important for users to understand that FSX was and still is the start of something new, and not the end of something old. I'm beginning to think the only reason why we're seing Hawaii, is because they want to focus on tuning the engine with the complexity of todays addons. Jigsaw: I need to get pedals , I think that's what's holding my FSX Helicopter career back.. so much easier with just the shoulder buttons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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