News and Waffle

Phew ^

by Paul - Monday 06 September 1999 @ 10:31

Second Update
Due to a miracle I've finished off all the for the Quake reviews. Please do check it and point out any errors you find.

Also my brilliant ISP upgraded over the weekend. It was meant to take about 8 hours, from late Saturday to earlier Sunday. Well things came back online today at 5 today, only 30+ hours after they said it would. So any email that was send to me over the weekend and today has been chewed up, so if you send me anything, please resend it.

First Update
I would have had all this up yesterday but PQ's ftp was completely knacked. Oh well.

Odd has popped by with an anatomical correct piccy of our lovable Shambler. Also here are a for you all to chew on. I've put up part of the as well. At the moment its just what was originally there before resorted but I am working on adding the rest of the reviews. Please do take a look at them and point out any mistakes you find.

Also here are the last you'll see here at MPQ. I apologise for there being no piccys on them, but I'm buggered if I'm going to sort them out. My reasons for this decision are explained below:

No more Quake 2 reviews.
I've decided after some considerable thought to stop doing Quake 2 reviews here at MPQ. First of all I would like to apologise to all the authors who have submitted their maps which will, unfortunately, never get reviewed. We do have a list of maps, which I'll sort out so you all see what was meant to be reviewed.

The current staff due to all sorts of personal reasons have not been able to produce reviews at a regular enough rate. Please do not go flaming them. In hindsight I should have made sure I could get reliable people, but this is not an easy thing to do. You have to trust who you get in and unfortunately in this case things have not worked out.

Secondly I pondered on doing less reviews. Just reviewing good maps. For me there is a conflict of interests in that area, Inspection is meant to do that. Which incidentally is what Rush is now doing. He has moved to Inspection to do in-depth Quake 2 reviews there. Anyway, the second grey spot in this area is that it breaks the philosophy of "MPQ Reviews all." I don't think its right doing just good maps, simply because its unfair on authors who submit details and then we reply saying "Sorry your maps not up to it."

Third reason is that I'd rather have no reviews than some. A gradual trickle of half assed reviews is not good.

Then there are the annoying snide comments from various sources. I find it extremely annoying that I get shit when I've done nothing wrong. And thats part of the problem, nothing was being done. Well this is the action I've taken to remedy the situation.

With regards to changing my mind on this. The answer is firmly NO. I seriously doubt I'll get much encouragement to do so and even if I did, it would involve having to get more reviewers. In that case I've been burnt twice, I ain't doing it a third time. I would like to say thank you to the people who offered help on the Qboard but it is not required.

This does also cause problems for potential Quake 3 Arena reviews. My own opinion on it that the game in its current form is piss poor and the general style and feel of it all is definitely not to my liking. The gothic high tech stuff is shit. Maybe the full game will show more variation in this, I certainly hope so. I was originally going to switch some of the reviewers over to Q3A when the game came out but this will not happen now. This then rises the problem that outside help will undoubtedly be required and its not something I like doing anymore. Having to prompt people for reviews is not fun. In fact its turning more into an administrative job than just a fun thing to do in my spare time.

Rest assured though, my support for Quake will not change. I *will* continue with Quake reviews since it is a game I love.

Finally I would like to say thanks to Monsto, Agent Orange, Cauterizer and Christian for their work here at MPQ. Best of luck with what ever else you guys work on.

Thank you.

With that done, I'll ramble on a bit. I downloaded the Driver demo yesterday. I was hoping the faults of the games crappy engine would be sorted. Unfortunately it hasn't, whilst it does look alot better than its Playstation counterpart, it still suffers from huge amounts of pop up. Its annoying to just see the roads and buildings just appear out of no where. Midtown Madness doesn't have this problems! Admittedly it is fun to play with a steering wheel, but I do feel that the forcefeed back could be a little stronger.

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Map, map, map ^

by Paul - Tuesday 31 August 1999 @ 10:30

I've added a new Shambler piccy to the gallery. This one is by 68030 and has a magical twist to it.

I've also released a Quake map! I've made some maps before for Quake, but this is my first attempt at something half decent (I use that term loosely). So here it is, phdm1 - Vaguely Interesting available from Fileplanet or local.(361Kb). Its for 1-on-1 and 3 to 4 in FFA. Style wise its a mix of Stecki's Peace and Love Incorporated and Timeless by Laerth. The map does look a bit dark in software Quake but its not too bad. Heres a couple of screen shots to keep you amused while you download it.
 

Removed Screenies...

Now heres something interesting:
Basically you're looking at Pingu's excellent map Rediscovered Fantasies. Now, don't be fooled by those 'other guys' over at PQ. Whatever they may say about goofy kangeroo jumping gameplay, lemme tell you it rocks. Two hours of 4 player FFA with the bots, and another hour and half with 3 other 'real' people earns this map the title of 'kick ass.' It looks great, and the play is quite fun. It has a variety of playing surfaces, strong verticle element, and fits into a nice small package. Kick ass work Pingu, your best yet.
Now these comments were said by Peek on his site. All I can say is that from the what you've said, it sounds like you're playing a different map! Can I have a copy? I see Damaul sides with Peek on this, also saying my comments are goofy. Well not to be outdone, Frib goes with me on this one. Here is what he said in an irc chat (hope he doesn't mind me quoting him):
<Frib> hmm I agree with you on the rf review
<Frib> just wasn't that much fun
<Frib> we played it 1on1 and with 3 player ffa
<Frib> wasn't exactly inspiring
<Frib> then we played p3a and that was awesome fun
Not to get into a bitching war with either Pingu or Peek, but I personally do not think this is Pingu's best work. Whilst some of the architecture is amazing, the q3a textures are horrible (you all know that I can't stand them in q3a, so in Quake its just as bad). The layout, as I pointed out in the review, is disjointed and alot of bouncing about is required. I also didn't mention that a couple of spots are cramped (YA area for instance) and thats something I don't like. A guys gotta have room! RF just doesn't get the juices going like p3a or a2. Agree or disagree, let me know, I'll put up some whackass poll chart thingy if I get enough emails.

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Sorry Iikka ^

by Paul - Thursday 26 August 1999 @ 10:29

Doh! My apologies to Iikka for spelling your name incorrectly in yesterdays update. Thanks go to Vigilante for pointing that out to me.

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Ok then ^

by Paul - Wednesday 25 August 1999 @ 10:28

To the cries of "Do some reviews, you lazy ass" from Shambler and Co, I deliver this mixed bag of

Well its all change here at MPQ when it comes to Quake 2 reviews. My evil plan to banish them for good has not quite worked though. The situation for Quake 2 reviews stands as follows. I was originally going to bin them altogether, and I may still do so. Monsto however came up with a suggestion which may involve some new reviewers for Quake 2 maps. Now this is being discussed at the moment. If it works out the Quake 2 reviews will continue, otherwise I will stop doing them here.

Whilst on the subject of Quake 2, Rush has now gone over to Inspection to do Quake 2 reviews. So expect an in-depth review of Pain Elemental in the next week or so.

Now I'm somewhat busy in the next week and a bit. I have a job interview, an exam to resit and some software to write for a deadline so I'm going to occupied with all that. Once thats over though, I'm going to sort out this damn site. Its become a big mess and I'm going to try and sort things out. I might even go about doing a bit of face lift and improve how things look.

News.. well not much is going on. I must however mention that Odd has opened a page for his Quake maps. So make sure you pop over and take a look at those. SmallPileofGibs has released a Quake 2 SP map called Small Pile of Gibs.(2,076Kb). Its meant to be pretty amazing, and it should be, its taken ages to make. These prefectionists =).
 

Also Iikka has released a couple of Quake 2 maps. IKDM7 - An Angular Atrium.(178Kb) and IKDM8 - Return of the Elder God.(860Kb). The first is a compact duel map which is pretty good. Personally I think the coloured lighting is a bit OTT but other than that its cool. The gel lava effect is also worth mentioning. IKDM8 on the other hand, is a huge map which is meant for 16 to 24 peeps. I do like Ikka's comment next to map : "I don't know if there are enough Quake2 players left in the world to make use for this map, though" Hehe. I think I can disagree, with amount of new Quake 2 maps coming out there is easily enough people still out there. Anyway, I had ago with some Eraser bots and its not bad. There isn't much detail though. Its also very grey looking. There is a very interesting piece of architecture though, its very similar to the huge pulsating tree I've seen in the Q3A screen shots.

Its good to see the Shambler is keeping the old SP site going. I mean, I'd be devastated if I saw his email signature go under 10 lines =P.

Dammit. I had something really good to moan about and I've forgotten what it was. That annoys me...

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Funky ^

by Paul - Monday 23 August 1999 @ 10:27

Heres a new review by Rush. I've also sorted out the Shambler gallery and added a funky picture by Cybear.

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Rush Attack ^

by Paul - Tuesday 17 August 1999 @ 10:27

Rush has popped by with a of Pain Elemental. Looks like he likes it.

I've also sorted out the Shambler contest, so without further ado here are the results:
1st Place. Damaul
2nd Place. Steve Scott
3rd Place. Junior Jr
4th Place. Vigilante
Now Damaul has been given his 20 groats as first prize and has bought a shed load of sweeties, which he won't share =(. Now I'd like to open it up as a gallery of Shambler art. You send in a picture and it gets added! I'll be adding some funky photos of the Shambler later on in the week.

Fat Controller has released this extremely cool looking piece, The Ministry of Love. Expect a review soon.

Looks like things have got off to a good start at Multiplayer Daikatana. It's now been officially announced on PDKT. I'm interested to see what response it gets.

Finally someone emailed me saying the counter was fixed. Correct it has been, I asked for them to reset it you see =). Thanks to GSN peeps for that. All two seconds of a job.

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Ugh ^

by Paul - Sunday 15 August 1999 @ 10:26

What a busy Sunday I've had. I think you can probably excuse me though for being a day late though with the reviews and the new Featured Author Interview of guf. (Thanks guf!) You see I've just added a review of p3a - Domination by Pingu to Inspection and I've just opened a new site on Planet Daikatana called, surprisingly, Multiplayer Daikatana.

Since time has been a little tight I haven't had time to sort out the Shambler pictures. I will though. I'll announce the winner later on in the week. Also I uploaded the corrected crapdm01 review. Had to rewrite it since I managed to really ball things up.

Tyrann has recently released an SP Quake map called Moonlight Assault. Pretty good. Its maybe a little to bland in some spots but other than that it looks very good. It also took me a few goes at finishing the map because it does get a little choatic.

Quote of the Day.
I was in irc the otherday when Peej popped in. He asked where he could get the Daikatana demo from and I obilgied by dishing out some links. Unfortunately due to them being fileplanet ones they're about 3 lines long. So after I'd done this, Zan "the voice of reason" dropped in with this:
<Zan> http://stopspamming.urls.com/
<Paul> http://zan.shut.the.f**k.up.org.your.ass/
<SleepwalkR> hehehehehe
<SleepwalkR> I wanted to type that too!
<Zan> http://umm.ok.com/
I am, on occasion, funny =).

Hidden and Dangerous is really beginning to bug me, and bug is the word. I'm now in the second country on the fourth mission. The problem is the damn game keeps bombing out on me. I've checked for help and patches and what not but there is nothing. I already have the 1.1 patch and that seems to do very little.

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Quake 2 ^

by Paul - Friday 13 August 1999 @ 10:26

Here is some news which people may not like. Due to the huge amount of Quake 2 maps coming in we have devised a new system of reviewing. Now we don't want to turn away any map we get so heres how it will work. Maps of a quality of grade C- and above will get the normal review style. Maps of a quality below C- will get a short mini review consisting of 1 paragraph and no screen shots. If you have any comments on that then direct them this way.

I should have a couple of top maps reviewed by tomorrow night and a new featured author interview! And I'll sort out the crapdm01 review since I messed it up!

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Average maps ^

by Paul - Thursday 12 August 1999 @ 10:25

Okay dokay here is a from Rush and from meself. Its mostly a bunch of average maps with the odd exception being ProdigyXL's latest piece.

I would like to say a big congratulations to Pingu on getting a job at Rebellion. For those pondering as to who they are they made Alien vs Predator and Rainbow 6. Speaking of AvP, the official AvP site has opened. It looks like a joint venture between Rebellion, Fox and Stomped. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing the maps he creates there on whatever projects he works on. Well done and good luck, yah swine =).

Shambler pictures!!! Send them in. Please! Pretty please?

Also looks like the counter is b0rked. Its been set back to zero which is a bit of pisser. I'll go shout at someone and get it sorted out.

Over at Peej'n'Fribs,.Frib has pointed out an interesting article on camping. Frib makes his opinion on it very clear, basically stating the author is talking out of his arse. I totally agree with him on this. Camping is not on. I think someone should create a mod which if a player camps for too long it wheel clamps to the spot and removes all player control, then alerts all other players of their whereabouts via sirens and text. Yeah... Clamp-a-fugging-camper. What a good idea!

There is an excellent article on 3D Action Planet (shock, horror! 3DAP with original site content) about John Carmacks lecture at the QuakeCon 99. Very interesting reading.

I see madness has taken over the Qboard. The thread of interest is Maps I made. Absolutely brillaint. I've refrained from entering my comments on it just because its become a bollocks fest now. Another, more sensible, thread worth mentioning is 'Mapping' history set up by Peekaboom. Seems to have switched towards Doom editing at moment. Which was something I really loved doing. Maybe I should have another go at making a Quake map ;).

I have a love, hate relationship with Real Jukebox. On the one hand its good that I can just waste nearly 2 and a half Gigs worth of space by recording some of my CD collection onto the computer so I can easily listen to it without messing about and swapping CD's. The annoying thing is when Windows decides to do some swap file caching or when I load up a program I get Rapmaster Fugwit stuttering from it. Its also annoying when listening to a mix CD, when it gets to the end of track you have a pause whilst it loads up the next track. The idea of a mix CD is for music to seamlessly blend together. Oh well.

I thought it was about time I started to tidy things up on my computer. So I moved the 2 months of emails (1000+) in my inbox to the correct areas only to get 30 more in today. I dunno. I also decided to sort out my download dir. I got a bit of shock when I saw its was nearing the 900Mb. Thats in the 5 months since I got this new computer. Not bad though, works out as 180Mb a month! Its all these damn Quake maps that do it.

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Say What? ^

by Paul - Monday 09 August 1999 @ 10:25

Formal complaint regarding error in review.
We at Multiplayer would like to inform you, the general public, the ugly general public, of a mistake in the Quake 2 review of Imminent Demise originally aired on 08/08/99. Mr Rush, the reviewer, of the aforementioned map f**ked up and said there were problems with the teleporters in the map when indeed there are none. Zero. Zip. Jack all. Please do accept our most humblest of apologies on this matter and we hope to do it again, erm... sorry, we hope not to do this again =).

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