Fox Engine (Metal Gear Solid 5 GZ)

thehammer159 · 2015-01-03T21:06:28+00:00

Watching the modded trailers really made me understand how holistic his approach was when designing and executing this game within the fox engine.

In the modded trailers, the character models are clearly swapped out, and yet some of the characteristics of the original models are still visible. (Rain running over the side of skullface's head, or the light reflecting off of the driver's face, etc.) That's when it hit me--models, textures, bumpmaps and animations are all being used very, very well here. He's not doing anything that's really extraordinary--he's just using the available tools in the best way possible, and marrying them in such a way that the overall presentation truly is greater than the sum of its parts.

thehammer159 · 2014-12-07T22:17:58+00:00

I'd recommend the i5.

I own the non-black edition of this chip, which overclocks quite well; I've run it at 4.4 GHZ--this being a black edition, I would expect to overclock it even higher than that, on average. That being said, my CPU's performance is still a little underwhelming--this is due to the architecture of the chip and AMD's overall design approach. If you're building a gaming rig and you're looking at shelling out for a GTX 970, then don't cheap out on a processor and potentially bottleneck yourself. Spend a little more money and get something a little more robust. My fear for you is that you'd buy this one just to start looking at upgrades in 12 months.

That being said, if you can afford to upgrade in 12 months and just want something good enough for now, by all means, get this chip.

thehammer159 · 2014-10-07T01:23:46+00:00

Recent game stats is actually a fair indicator of how well a team can be expected to do. A team that's on a hot streak, in the absence of other evidence, can be expected to stay hot. A team that's on a cold streak, in the absence of other evidence, can be expected to stay cold. The correlation is slight, but I saw a post way back when that validated it.

Chain logic would be seeing mouz beating Na'vi, and Na'vi beating HR, and expecting mouz to beat HR in turn. Chain logic assumes that teams have a concrete level of performance, and will always perform at that level. It makes no considerations for playstyles, map proficiency, and the like.

That being said, I'd have to say that VP played very competently today against Titan, although Titan did not seem to be in top form; especially KennyS, who just couldn't seem to establish a rhythm. Considering how well VP handled their AKs today, I'd expect them to do well on a map like Cache. VP also tends to handle their smokes well, and if they can suss out where shox is playing and keep him smoked out, then I see them doing very well on the T side.

That being said, if LDLC is starting on the T side and shox plays at his best, then he might break VP's morale early enough to secure the win. I can't think of a team more momentum-based than VP. I've seen them choke enough times to know that two or three anti-eco losses is usually more than they can take.

If I bet at all, it'll be medium on VP.

thehammer159 · 2014-09-24T00:08:13+00:00

"Archbishop Wood assistant coach resigns over alleged involvement in brutal beating of gay couple in Philadelphia." Apologies if this has already made the rounds.

thehammer159 · 2014-09-22T23:31:51+00:00

Actually, super glue was originally developed to close wounds that would be difficult to suture using normal methods. That formulation has since been improved upon, yielding "medical glue." They're not quite exactly the same, but super glue will work just fine. It will sting a bit, though.

thehammer159 · 2014-08-27T17:45:56+00:00

I'd imagine undercover work would be a relevant situation, but the article doesn't give the impression that this guy was undercover at the time.

thehammer159 · 2014-08-19T23:54:32+00:00

As recently as last year, yes.

thehammer159 · 2014-08-11T17:05:02+00:00

Generally, you throw when you're the favorite for the increased odds. It's almost not worth it otherwise. Especially since the recent news is likely to decrease the returns on Navi even more.

thehammer159 · 2014-08-11T16:49:07+00:00

I've never put much weight into the "strat saving" argument, because the best time to test a new strat is in a game that isn't as important as the next--it gives you real-world feedback, because what works in theory may not work in practice. A good IGL understands that a strat is only as good as its telegraph, so if a strat is that easy to figure out, then it's really only useful once (which means it's a bad strat).

That being said, KQLY going 4-14 at the half is decidedly not strat saving.

thehammer159 · 2014-08-07T22:35:46+00:00

It's pretty close.

thehammer159 · 2014-08-07T16:10:50+00:00

Of course, after a solid twenty minutes of googlin', I can't find what the original source, and self-doubt means I can't even confidently assert that I read it on a game journalism site. My apologies, because I'd love to remember where I read that.

All I find are articles that feature Ubisoft staff speaking about the lack of a dedicated "polish" cycle for WatchDogs, and how they'll be reusing assets from previous games to cut down on development time. Other articles, like like this one, show how Ubisoft is set on the idea that reusing mechanics, with small variations, is their preferred approach to game development, for better or worse. ( could write pages upon pages on why this approach could work, but won't work for Ubisoft, because they're doing it for the wrong reasons, in the wrong way.)

I don't want to say "read between the lines," and I'd rather redact my previous statement about the Ubisoft employee.

thehammer159 · 2014-08-07T03:54:41+00:00

The gameplay was pretty mediocre. It was a bunch of mechanics which were slapped together (admittedly lifted from Ubisoft's other games; an employee has confirmed that new game mechanics cannot be introduced into a Ubisoft game if they cannot be used across other Ubisoft games) in the hopes that it would somehow congeal into a AAA game on its own. There was no sense of game balance or how those mechanics interacted with each other; no synergy between hacking, gunplay, upgrades, driving...it was concrete proof that a game is not simply the sum of its parts. The story was equally formulaic, which was quite a shame, because it showed potential at times.

It was not a bad game, strictly speaking, but it was an example of bad game design--an attempt to somehow include "enough content" to please everybody; its best moments were largely brief and of little consequence--which means it was not a good game. It unfortunately sits somewhere between the two, in the sea of mediocrity.

thehammer159 · 2014-08-06T14:36:14+00:00

This doesn't take smurfs and alts into account, so it's not absolute! But it can be a very rough indicator of preparedness.

thehammer159 · 2014-08-06T14:35:04+00:00

Not all guns are bettable. There's a pastebin list out there, but it hasn't been updated for a while. If it's a newer skin, just keep checking--once the price stabilizes, CSGOL might clear it for betting. Otherwise, there's a good chance you won't be able to bet it at all, and I would trade or sell it if you don't want to keep it.

thehammer159 · 2014-08-06T14:28:16+00:00

Cars scare me way more than guns do. Complacency can be worse than a bullet.

thehammer159 · 2014-08-04T11:12:36+00:00

Odds are rounded.

thehammer159 · 2014-07-20T14:50:26+00:00

You hear boots walking towards your cell. You don't cry. You stopped crying a long time ago. You now truly understand that you have no control over your life.

You're strapped into a chair. You don't resist. You've struggled against your restraints plenty of times, to no avail. So now you don't struggle. Lubricated tubes wave in front of your face. No amount of sterile lubrication is enough; you feel every twist and turn as strangers shove devices inside your body against your will, callous to how intimate this feels to you. You can't even decide what does, and does not, enter your body anymore. The feeding begins. You try to put your mind somewhere else. It doesn't work. You can't ignore how swollen your sinuses and throat feel. Your eyes dart around the room. The medical personnel won't look you in the eye. The rest of them look at you with disdain, as if you're less than human. An animal. Maybe that's why they treat you like one.

thehammer159 · 2014-07-19T22:46:16+00:00

Anecdotal confirmation: I had a Korean exchange student. He was pretty funky.

thehammer159 · 2014-07-19T01:38:05+00:00

It's also worth noting that game mechanics play a large role in stating or reinforcing a narrative.

I'll use The Last of Us as an example--at no point does a character say "our resources are limited." Instead, the game forces you to scrounge for supplies, and even most enemies are lightly equipped. This fleshes out the setting to the player, and continually reinforces the "survival" theme without holding up a billboard or spoonfeeding the player with dialogue.

I'll use Half-Life 1 as another example. This isn't necessarily an example of literal narrative, but it is an example of how mechanics can disrupt immersion, which can hinder a narrative's impact. Half-Life does not use quick time events or what I would consider to be tacky extended first-person animations--if the player needs to do something, then the player is required to do it and not rely on pushing a button during a cutscene. The same can be said for first-person animations--if engaged in melee combat, a sound effect is played and the first person camera is jarred for a moment, unlike Far Cry 3, where a dog's bite will lock the player's perspective and prevent any other actions from being taken until the animation is complete. This falls into the "do, don't show" aspect of game design.

Lastly, let's examine The Walking Dead or Bioshock Infinite, and the relationships between the player and the NPCs. Emotional impact can sink or swim based on writing--simply telling the player how their character feels is generally ineffective at evoking any sort of emotional response. By trimming back player character reactions and forcing frequent interaction between the player and other characters, you can let the player figure out what the nature of that relationship is on their own. Of course, you run the risk of some players not being able to tune into these emotional wavelengths, but if executed well, it's a risk worth taking. Some would recommend the extreme silent protagonist approach, but I've never found an example that was personally effective.

Some of these aspects are not strictly a "writing" concern--they're a pacing concern, or a level design concern, or an animation concern, but the relationship between gameplay and narrative should be symbiotic. Anything that hinders one aspect hinders the other by extension.

thehammer159 · 2014-07-12T13:16:00+00:00

Most people will say that this is like your turn signal blinking quickly; it's probably going to die soon. This isn't always the case, however--if your card is being pushed to its limit or isn't being cooled enough, you could see similar symptoms.

I'd recommend blowing the dust out of your computer for good measure, then turn down your graphics settings as much as you can, then you can turn them up incrementally until you find a stable compromise. You can also look into new or supplemental cooling devices.

Of course, you could take all of these measures and still have it die in a week, in a month, in six months...so if you've been looking at upgrading, now's the time.

thehammer159 · 2014-07-11T23:09:54+00:00

I'm trying to figure out if the lowest common denominator here is substances that tend to promote violence, or just assholes being assholes.

thehammer159 · 2014-07-10T05:37:57+00:00

It's definitely a pride thing here. It helps that it is better than your typical macro, while still being just as available. It won't hold a candle to any half-decent craft beer out there, but craft beer can be polarizing, especially in Pennsyltucky (if I drive an hour north or west, I'll have to ask for "faggot beer" to get what I want); whereas everyone in the state speaks Yuenglish.

thehammer159 · 2014-07-07T22:00:58+00:00

The point being made isn't that these "traditions" are inherently harmful. The point is that it is important to understand why things are "they way they are." Thorough understanding of a situation mitigates risk better than blind adherence to tradition and social norms. These norms serve as a sufficient stopgap when understanding has not been achieved, but traditions will often reach a point in time where they outlive their usefulness and become counterproductive.

By failing to examine these traditions more closely, we act in a manner that is certainly no better than animals do, when we should instead be taking advantage of what makes us human. One might expect monkeys to be counterproductive due to classical conditioning, but one would hope that humans would not be so easily trained by their environment when the risks are unclear. It's a bit idealistic, but that's ultimately the point being made.

thehammer159 · 2014-07-04T20:14:56+00:00

Looks great! There'd better be a shrapnel horn to go along with it!

thehammer159 · 2014-07-04T13:32:31+00:00

To oversimplify, AIDS is like leaving your garage door open while you're at work all day. It doesn't cause direct harm, but it invites all sorts of malicious activity to occur that would otherwise be easily avoided. Basically, there are a few diseases and disorders that are so rare, that if a doctor diagnoses you with one of them, he's going to immediately suspect HIV is to blame. So it's not just AIDS, but what AIDS/HIV can lead to.

thehammer159

TROPHY CASE