Be Excellent To Each Other

Ok, seeing as The Coffey has expressed something of an interest in chatting to people here (and feeling left out of the xbox online banter, I'd imagine), I thought it would be a decent idea to discuss the possibility of playing PC games. Online. With people here. And Chat.

So, I'd suggest next week, we have a chummy PC game of something.

One of the things that I'd like to sort out first is voice chat, because it's been something that has been problematic in the past, and when playing with Dimrill, we resorted to using the xbox for chat. We've found that having a separate audio feed for voice and game sound is pretty much a requisite to keep everything clearly audible. (If you have an xbox pad and wired headset, this can handily be used for voice comms, separate from game audio. I'd imagine Bluetooth headsets could be used. I now have a cheap USB soundcard for the purpose)

Ventrilo would be my favoured choice, if we can get a server up and running (I have a server installed on my desktop, but I'm not sure if my bandwidth is sufficient. It would be nice to have it on a more dedicated server) Fairly decent customisation allowing it to work as desired, although poorly documented. Also allows a nice text chat room, which could be handy.
Any other possibilities? (Steam chat doesn't allow separation, and GfWL chat was pretty much unusable)

That aside, I'm sufficiently out of touch with online PC gaming to not really know how it works in terms of lobbys and stuff. Whether you need to set up a server, or go on *spit* public ones.

And I don't really know what games to suggest. I have All these games and a few more. Maybe one of the UTs, or Crysis. And could be pursuaded to buy some others. (Like maybe TF2)

So, is there any interest?

Ventrilo worked very well when we tried it. I am totally happy to volunteer the use of my server, and to administrate it too.

That would be excellent. Now all we need is some interest in some games. Where's NervousPete when you need him?

Big multiplayer FPS makes the most sense. HL2?

Does skype do multi-way calls now? Although it sounds like you have the solution.

Don't know. Although my impressions of Skype were that it was quite a resource hog. Ventrilo seemed to be excellent for the purpose, and if we have a server running, should be nice and easy (and there's a mac client too, which is one of the reasons we used it for the DoWing we did)


Does HL2 actually have a multiplayer component beyond the somewhat related CS and TF2?

In terms of FPSs I have: Crysis (along with Wars and Warhead, but they'd require downloading, and I'm being cautious about download limits)
UT, UT2004, The excellent UT3. Err, I think STALKER has some kind of online component.
Anything beyond that I'd have to buy, and while I'm willing, I'd only do it if we had some kind of confirmed multiplayer event for the game.

HL2 had Deathmatch. Otherwise I have UT3 and Crysis, too.

I'd be really rather interested in this too, being as I pretty much use the PC exclusively for my gaming these days.

I still want to play Defcon with you lot*. No interest in playing first person shootererers though, I can't ever bear playing my beloved UT on the PC anymore. My hand cramps up too fast
*I'll remind yies after this is all arranged to avoid a potential highjacking.

When I play with my pal (ooer haha) we load up skype and leave it running underneath.

Oh and I have HL2 and pretty sure I have deathmatch too !

Even if not, it's only £3 on steam. Dirt cheap, so I have no problems choosing it as a game (Unless it turns out to be rubbish, of course. My one attempt to play HL1DM caused my computer to blue screen so badly, I couldn't even get it to boot into safe mode, so I never tried again)One of the reasons I'd tend towards Ventrilo is it's basically just an open chat room for people to join. It was based around the concept of conferences, rather than phone calls (ALA skype)

I'm currently investigatinf the overlay feature. If it does what I hope it dows, it would be excellent.

OK I have HL2 DM and HL Deathmatch : Source.

So I'm good

Seeing as it was only £3, I got HL2DM. To examine and stuff.

Been investigating Ventrilo, and it does indeed have the option of putting an overlay detailing who's talking - handy for people who are unfamiliar with peoples voices. I've read there are problems with it and Win7, but it seems to work ok on my computer.

I paly TF2 almost daily. http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/7656 ... 0790/games

The stats lie though. They didn't seem to work for the first 5 months or so (or whenever the first class update was). I also played COH with Pete/Romanista a few times.

What about OpenTTD?


edit: ALSO, my windows 7 RC is about to start shutting down every 2 hours (roff-el), so I need to sort that out. What a boring chore.

EVE

Ahahaha. No.

Co-op only. The potential to be a complete cunt in competitive play is just too huge.

Ventrillo was a hole pain due to me having seperate mic and headphones. There didn't seem a way to seperate voicechat out from game noise so I heard nothing apart from some mumbles and had to stop what I was doing and hold the mic up to my face to talk.

I've examined, and I know how to do it. (Well, so long as you have two soundcards/equivalent - which you do if you have an xbox controller.)

Dolores seems to like her Ventrilo just fine while crafting in WoW...


EDIT: ACK! I've RUINED THE FORUM with an EXTRANEOUS POST!

Ok, Diminrill.

Plug in yon Xbox Controller, and headset, and connect speakers to your PC input.

Your computer should register two soundcards.

In Ventrilo->Setup->Voice.
Set output device to XBox Controller output (so the voice comms are put into your ear)
Set Input device to XBox controller (so voice comms are taken from xbox microphone)
If you want XBox-esque comms
Disable PTT
Set Sensitivity down, such that it starts transmitting when you speak. I find a figure of about 30 works.

By doing this, you should find your pc game audio is put into the speakers, and voice comms are handled by the headset, as you would be used to from t'xbox.

Ok by me.

And i remember having one extra HL2 deathmatch, but the option to gift it doesn't appear anymore. WTF?

EDIT: Ok, i found it. If anyone wants it, just ask.

I'd like to play UT3 if everyone is up for that.

Yay I'll be up for this.

One of the most annoying things about online with the 360 is that the VOIP is fucking AWFUL compared with either Ventrilo or Teamspeak (my preference would be Teamspeak 3 which is awesome and far outclasses Vent in my opinion, but I've got Vent installed as well and will happily go with the majority).

You can get your own Vent/TS server pretty cheaply and they're a joy to use - and it seems as if Doc Glyn has a Vent server already?

Also, I Just. Can't. Play. FPS games with a gamepad so have never even bothered trying the BEEX L4D/MW2 evenings etc.

Off the top of my head I have most (all?) of the Valve games either installed and ready to go or purchased and just need reinstalling (Steam FTW!), Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield Bad Company 2 pre-ordered (gives access to the beta), Burnout Paradise, C&C3, and let's not forget World of Warcraft!

Beyond that I'm happy to purchase whatever anyone else fancies.

As for sound problems, no need for two soundcards on any trickery I'd have thought - you can get a proper headset for less than £20 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... 58&subcat= and off you go, just mix down the game volume to an agreeable level and you can have game sound and the VOIP stuff going no problem.

I've never played HL2 deathmatch I have to say, and isn't it pretty ancient now?

Is there anyone here who hasn't been and done and seen all of WoW, fucked it off forever and decided that they hate it? I'm very much at the endgame now and have been for a while (two endgame geared level 80s), but would be happy to play through again from Level 1, grouping up here and there with BEEXers for instances, group questing and such shenanigans.

IIRC there's a ten day free trial so nothing to lose by giving it a go.

EDIT - Re-read what Dimrill wrote properly, lose the separate mic and speakers man, get a headset.

hah ! I am the king of headsets.

So when we gonna do this then?

I'm not buying a gaming headset for the PC considering the amount of gaming I do on it. Especially multiplayer which has a fine and dandy work around of using an Xbox. Hey, I'll buy a Fatal1ty or Skullcandy headset and sit here in my GAP clothes and Lacoste pants and ADIDAS sneakers! YEAH!

Vista here. I'll grab it in the morning and play with it.

Yeah but one day you'll stop being a wooly woofter and do all of your gaming on a PC.

It is but it works. It's good because any one here with any shitey old PC could run it well enough to compete, too.

I must warn everyone I am arse at playing games. Mind you why am I warning you? I'm easy to kill and shit at games. That's good right?

On my phone, so can't check to see if this still applies, but you could get hl2 deathmatch for free if you have a nvidia card.
http://www.steampowered.com/nvidia/
[edit] Ati cards as well
http://www.steampowered.com/ati_offer1a/

Aside from "getting in each others way", I've found it quite hard to 'compete' in OpenTTD You just end up sharing resources, rather than vying for power over them.

I've found that competitive OpenTTD is just frustrating. Every time I've played it, it works out much better if you treat it as separate train sets that happen to be on the same world, and agree on your own sections of the world beforehand, or agree to only eat cities next to your own.

Pst. You don't need to. See that bit where I tell you how to use an xbox pad and headset on for xbox-esque chat for PC games. Not sure what the quality is like, but it does work.

Obviously, I prefer the xbox for multiplayer. (Much prefer the pad for FPSs, for a start) but there's a fairly large chunk of people who don't have one that it would be nice to play with.

Ebuyer, Amazon, and other places have a number of monaural headsets for £5ish; that doesn't seem too much to spend to me, even for just a few uses. Blimey, man, you spent more than that on Two Worlds and Leisure Suit Larry.

Had a look, and Teamspeak does seem nicer - particulary with regards to voice activation, which seems much easier to get working, and setup.

Only problems are that it lacks in any overlay capability (although it occurs to me that if you have two screens, this wouldn't be a problem).
And that we already (kinda) have the ventrilo server up and running, although I'd imagine that putting TS on it would be fairly simple.

I'm happy to run Teamspeak instead. I installed that once for the Egg when he was playing WoW and it's simple to use.

Googling suggests that either option is more flexible than a Skype conference call. Also, I agree with the previous sentiment that they both destroy Live's voice chat quality; particularly once I turned Ventilo up to maximum quality bitrate.

WE DON'T SPEAK of Leisure Suit Larry. Which came free with my order of NHL2k10, incidentally.

My point still stands: you spunk cheap-PC-headset-money on blatantly terrible Xbox games several times a month, so suggesting you buy one isn't outrageous.

I was going to get a single-earpad one, so I could use that for chat only and use my existing 5.1 speakers for game sound.

It doesn't even need to be a headset. A pair of headphones and mic will do.

Hang on. I've got a quote for you here that applies to this situation. Hang on a sec while I find it. Dammit I know it's around here somewhere..... aha! Here we go...


MEHHHHH!

That would be ace.

Or, of course, he could use his xbox headset in the same way he does on the xbox.

I'd imagine M+K controls are more of a sticking point. What with it being a daft control method and all.

So then, World of Warcraft, eh?

EMBRACE THE GEEK WITHIN!

How would you like to fuck off?

Elves, for the love of heck.

I'm a bloody spaceman, check me out!

This could be you!

HUNTARD NOOB LOL

Oh god. Please shoot me in the head. Please...

I mustn't dude. Seriously, with my personality it would be the end of my life. I'm actually frightened at the thought of a Fallout MMO being released.

I am the ULTIMATE N00B I have a hunter (DPS obv) and a Death Knight (tank) as my two main 80s (third isn't endgame yet).

I enjoy playing the classes that have a bad reputation, especially the DK.

(And DKs are deliriously good fun to quest to 80 with, plus they start at 55, which is nice.)