Be Excellent To Each Other

Perhaps it'll be addressed in the forthcoming update, apparently that will fix some of the multiplayer issues such as getting hits on someone but no kill awarded because they spiralled into the ground instead of actually exploding in mid-air. Interestingly it will also add keyboard support, customizable controls and the ability for the trigger to fire machine guns only with a half press and then cannons too with the trigger held all the way in.

Odd, because the singleplayer game has no problem doing this. Often I simply chased an enemy until he was so panicked that he pulled one evasive maneuver too many and augered into the ground. One of my helpful wingmen then chirped in that they'd confirm the kill for me.



Very odd. The game claims you just fire everything you've got as 'in a real battle, pilots would just do this so as to not worry about switching between weapons'. Which means every other WW2 sim I've played has LIED TO ME. Except they haven't.

I suppose in the world of IL-2 where everyone has unlimited bullets (and there's no counter to show how many you've left in single missions where you can opt to have limited ones, friends!) it doesn't really matter. But in the real world you'd use the machineguns for the distance work and the cannons for the up-close punch. I don't really see what benefit this new option is going to give the game, though.

(maybe all this should be split to the IL-2 thread?)

Or put the comments on the review?

More review-age pending

/presses 'find me a sub-ed' buzzer

Ow! Stop pressing that.

Looks good, a few typos corrected and I split up one sentence which was a bit long. Useful review!

You have two categories selected there - I believe that's a no-no because it makes it appear twice in the RSS feed or something? So I've just stuck it in 'review' for now (can change it back if I'm wrong).

Publishing now

[waits for Grim.. to point out the blindingly obvious thing I've missed]

Maybe someone could do a steering wheel comparison since we were all talking about them in the Forza 2 thread a couple of weeks ago.

Something like that.

I wrote a review of Ghost Squad over a year ago and it never got put onto the site.

So you did! Shall I press 'publish' then?

Please do!

Done!

More review-age!

Also... why not make this thread appear in the "Announcements" section of the forum?

Good work! Publish-z0red.

Do I have contributor status? I think I asked for it way back when U2J started but I don't think I remember hearing back about it. Possible I forgot to ask

Got a review of Forza 3 I'd like to stick on

Did you get your fancy, massively expensive steering wheel in the end, Gaz?

Nah, couldn't justify it.

Bumpity bump.

You do indeed have contributor.

In fact, you wrote a review of Crackdown, doofus!

Yes, but I don't think I submitted that. I think someone put that in for me and then changed the byline. But anyway, I shall submit my Forza 3 review forthwith

Right, submitted. What's the dealio now, daddyo?

Profit!

Cheers gaz-o-chap.

I'll have a look at it in a bit if nobody else does first.

Another review!

gaz - yours is published, excellent. E&OE, yours looks good too and I'll publish it tomorrow (spread them out a bit, like).

Nice review, Mr GazChap.

Err, Forza Motorsport 1 on the XBox? (and BC on 360 to some degree)

D'oh.

//edit: I can't edit it - could some kind sub-ed change that to "Forza Motorsport on the Xbox" please?

Dunno why I didn't even pick up on that, I've never played Forza 1 - perhaps that's why.

Done and done.

EOAE: Good review, but no mention of the Amiga version? That must have sold a lot of A500s, whenever I saw one in a shop it had Altered Beast running which looked pretty amazing at the time

Good review. Completely agree about the race starts as well. Having about half a second to try and get the revs right before the race starts is a terrible idea.

This is a good idea, by the way. And you don't need to do it manually -- there's a schedule post feature in the small control panel up at the top right.

Ta

I've never had an Amiga so don't really know much about the scene - although I can't recall school-chums who did have A500's ever mentioning Altered Beast... but many beers have passed through the system since then, so I might just have forgotten

Wuh-wah...?! Why?!


It's being in your shoes that prompted me to post, as it happens, as I've recently been through a similar process with contributors to a project of mine. They're all excellent, darling people but trying to get things moving through an off-the-shelf CMS was tough and I ended up writing a (far simpler, more focused) site from scratch to distribute material. I was totally unprepared for how challenging it would be to facilitate volunteers and it really all boiled down to minimising the steps needed to contribute and excising absolutely everything else from the process. That's really why I stuck my oar in -- it sounds like you're hitting some of the same snags.

I totally appreciate that, but at the same time it's always going to be true that a scalable system is going to look like overkill at the best time to implement scalability (ie the beginning). Take the forum thread -- as-is it's impossible not only to get information from it quickly, but to even see what information is available. Yes a dedicated forum would look sparse and ridiculous, but every forum looked that way once and it'd still have more utility than that congested thread whilst giving potential contributors the impression that you meant business (even if not much business is currently happening). You've got to at least look like you're capable of growth before you can gauge a project's reception, because not looking capable of growth will kill it dead whatever it is.

I hope that makes sense because (you'll be relieved to hear) it's about the extent of my hard-won wisdom on the matter.

Very true. I think, though, that it's human nature to like the idea of contributing to such a project (which is romantic and lovely) more than actually doing it (which is hard work), hence things that look like inconsequential little hurdles from the point of view of the organisers actually turn out to be hefting great barriers to potential volunteers. That's the fundamental thing I wanted to draw attention to -- that UTJ has hefting great barriers that might (might!) look like inconsequential little hurdles to the excellent folk behind it.

Another review added

Also, there seems to be spam comments on some of the reviews.

When I get knocked out of my current writing comp, I promise to do some reviews.



Good work, EoaE

Awesome, thanks guys!

Everyone: please read the latest reviews and feel free to leave comments on the wordpress site rather than here, if it's appropriate.

Can someone do a COD WAW FRP FRP BAW #47 review please?

I am presently working on a feature that has been going round my head for a few days, about games wot make yoo fink. I've written a draft for one part already, although it needs some work. The idea is to choose a bunch of games that are arguably not games in the traditional sense, and how these demonstrate some approaches to games that might hopefully be more common in future and play a greater part in diversifying the medium. And, y'know, being entertaining in their own right. It's a bit vague at present, as it's still early, but it'll get better.

I also have those voice things to do at the weekend, argh. Sorry, I'm just absurdly busy at work for the next few weeks, and I can't see it getting much better. Sob.

Bump.

Tomorrow, or Friday if I can get some computer time in the library. Someone'll have to sort out screenshots, though.

I've rated my Amsoft games like that. But when you are talking about retro I can't help but feel that the S-F system doesn't really work. What you'd happily download for a quick blast is different to spending cold hard cash.

+ in the article I felt I had to explain how the system works which is never good for a system frankly.

The Chinny jury is still out and certainly awards this system no more than 400 bananas on current evidence.

I spy.. AN ARTICLE!

Good work Chinny, very interesting reading. And I agree on the scoring system

It's half done, will PM to kalmar to sub ed and reformat tomorrow or sunday.

That will be quite acceptable

Maybe tomorrow now sorry, been a bit busy. it's half done or so.

Awesome, I look forward to it!

Hopefully later this evening if I'm not killed/maimed/whatever for not doing something at home.

I'll PM it you and then leave you to do the rest, as I'm away for a while.

Check your PMs, kalmar
Please add something about the difference in MP game modes and good to go from my point of view.