   | | vittles | fifth highest | Stuff on th' shelves. | ||
  | ||||||
         
|
We will try to get it on as soon as we can.
I was SO tempted to reply an' say "Well that's good
to hear an' all, but could ya take a break ta change
my link..." okay that's enough of that.
I dunno what th' heck this is about, but my buddy
SmellyRoach asked me ta post this, an' it's
a slow news day do here we go:
to anyone in the Outlaws world who have heard rumors about
SmellyRoach,
a guy named; well, lets just call him John Doe, has been spreading
rumors about SmellyRoach.. these rumors aren't petty rumors, ya know,
the "he cheats" rumors.. but they are serious matter (that could get me
into trouble) , and should not be told to anyone. THESE RUMORS ARE NOT
TRUE!
thanks,
SmellyRoach
Generally people who accuse others of cheatin' are
jus' sad, bitter lil' people. Anyhow, I dunno what's
goin' on here so I ain't gonna say nothin' 'bout it.
Ooo let's do some more screenshots from Taco's
upcoming 5 level singleplayer add-on -- no, I don't
know when it's comin' out, so quit askin'. Here's
some shots:
shot 1 |
shot 2
Okay, most of th' additions today go straight inta
th' reg'lar map archive without copies in th' newmaps
folder 'cause they're jus' old versions of old maps
that I didn't have.
GoJo has twiddled around with his attractive
but heretofore slow map, "Boxer". He doesn't wanna
call it "Boxer 2" so I jus' named th' new file "boxerb".
Some framerate improvements, a couple doors made
smoother and a few other small fixes made.
The other maps are a real mixed bag. "cod_deserttown",
"cod_hideout", "t_camp", "cowtown" and "therock" are all from
COD_Marshall; they all share
some really bad design decisions. Ack.
Zathoros' "Hacienda" is a lovely map, maybe
even bigger than his excellent
"RIP". Some very complex
architecture here as well, but seems a bit monotonous
and the lack of lighting effects really starts to
make itself felt in the hacienda's many rooms. The
best lookin' part is
the inner courtyard
but unfortunately framerates take a real bath here.
Got all these maps from th' GDO site (see next item).
BTW, Templar's
Forgotten Depot is
truly a fantastic level, one of th' all time greats.
A real work of art -- if ya ain't got it, get it!
LAmeShot's Outlaws Info Page: I wouldn't really
even list this one but it's listed on Kali's Outlaws
channel. Seems to have been made before th' game
came out, really just pre-release info.
DeadlySpeedHunters Headquarters: Simple posse
page with members list, rankings. Tidy layout.
GDO's Outlaws Homepage:
Site of a large Zone posse. Seems their webmaster jus'
quit th' gang. Hehe I love gang politics. Site pretty
slow due to compulsive inclusion of animations. Good
place ta get maps though.
The New World Outlaws homepage:
Nice fast layout, very clean with lots of files an'
maps ta download on this Zone posse site. A good one.
LJP_Raider's Outlaws Page:
Jus' some info on on himself an' his LJP crew. First
page is a bit of a download, but otherwise pretty
attractive lil' site, with a poll ta vote on Outlaws
stuff.
JensR's Outlaws Page:
Still mos'ly empty. Home of JensR's "IGZ Friends
Manager", a utility fer keepin' track of those
you designate "friends" in th' Zone.
Outlaws - Best of the West:
An old site that disappeared then resurfaced here
some time ago. This "Best of the West" is a
compilation of Outlaws maps in one zip file. How
handy is that? Not very, especially since they're
all old. Extensive cheats list.
Badmojo's Outlaws Hideout:
THIS is why I review sites, to keep people from
wasting their time with one like this with that huge
animated Outlaws bullethole logo and no content aside
from a few cheat codes.
Then Slack sent me a couple of his latest maps,
"Avalance" [sic] and "Shome".
Then DrDeath2 tol' me he'd posted a new map
by Gas, "Kramerica", on th'
US
Marshall's page.
Then fer some reason I wound up on th'
ENGclan (new URL) site an'
found two new maps over there, TankBuster's
new map, "Stadium", an' one by Boxerbeat,
"Dizzy".
Whew! All these have been dumped into th' Archive.
Extreme's "Reckless" is a large, good lookin'
circular affair dominated by a gatling gun an' a
large poster of th' lovely PAL_Desertmouse.
Zathoros's "RIP"is
a huge stone cathedral with four belltowers alongside
a large cemetary with two crypts and a couple other
outlying buildings. Th' bright lighting seems a lil'
odd in a few spots, but the modelling of th'
cathedral is awesome: stained glass, a blue tiled
roof, extensive dark basement and spiral staircases
going up three levels in each belltower, and down
another to th' basement. A fantastic feat of
modelling; here's a
shot of th' exterior.
Slack's "Shome" or "Sheriffshome" is another multiplayer
conversion of th' Marshal's office from th' Historical
Missions. With a few alterations here an' there by
Slack it makes fer a pretty good lil' deathmatch map.
Tankbuster's "TNTrange2" is meant fer holdin'
contests on how far ya kin blow yerself with a stick
of TNT. Set up kinda like shotput except YOU move,
not th' thing you throw. On my second try I managed
ta blow myself close to
th' 25 yard (is it is feet) mark. Hmm, need practice.
Runaway Jim's Octagon:
A stockade and broken bridge over a canyon very
reminiscent of LEC's "Fort"; very complex but a good
deal smaller. The fort with it's octagonal central
tower is lovely, and while you might expect this
involved open-air construction to play havoc on
framerate's like LEC's "Thud Tower", it DOESN'T.
Great stuff; here's a
screenshot.
Then there was Wildland
with turns out was a single-player map. I wasn't too
thrilled about it at first 'cause it seemed a lil'
crude, but actually it's very well done. Th' thing
is it substitutes mass slaughter fer fine detail
an' puzzles. Which is fine by me; I'm all fer variety
an' if ya kin get lots of killin' in there, so
much th' better. Be prepared fer tons of dynamite
throwers an' sawed-off wielders among th' multitudes
of baddies. Great fun!
Oh yeah here's a shot
of me havin' fun with th' gat. It helped that these
guys tended ta shoot each other in th' back. ;)
The third would be Cutter's
Dixie, the best lookin'
of th' bunch, but mebbe with a lil' hitch. This
one's designed fer CTF, with two large barns separated
by forests and a river with a covered bridge - check
this shot; Madison
County, eat yer heart out! It's really vast an' rifles
will play a vital role. Everything looks beautiful
an' ya really get th' feelin' of bein' outdoors
in a rural farm area. BUT all this loveliness does
take a bite outta yer framerates in a number of spots.
Wouldn't recommend this to anyone without a fast
processor and especially a voodoo card. That bein'
said, if you kin get a bunch of people with spry
systems together "Dixie" is a real winner.
Well, not fer me. Since Outlaws is peer-to-peer rather
than client-server like Quake, players with slower
connects will still start laggin' if their
bandwidth maxes out or their combined latency starts
ta get too high. You'll see them lag, but you'll know
it's not yer connection that's th' problem. DSL
really means a blissful peace of mind fer online
gaming. No more worryin' about laggin', or gettin'
disconnected, or hittin' a line retrain or whatever.
So far th' most strenuous thing I've done is host
a six-player game while leaving Kali open with a
file offer in an away message so people could get
the map and find the game. I was chuckin' TNT like
crazy an' never lagged even when people would
download th' map from me during the game. The bandwidth
taken by all this activity barely even registered
on my bandwidth meter.
I shoot people, they die. They shoot me, I die.
No real pauses between. A fast connect doesn't
really give you a tremendous advantage in reaction time
like it does in client-server games, but it sure
doesn't hurt. Mostly it's a matter of yer packets
not gettin' lost so ya don't end up shootin' blanks.
So how is it? It's perfect.
No that's not TwoFeathers takin a dirt nap. Sanchez and he are just playing the old bury yer buddy in the sand
game during a day at the beach.
Oo, I could go fer a good dirt nap right now! Can't
sleep too well with this DSL in though... somethin'
about bein' constantly connected.
In fact, the whole level looks fantastic. Maybe too
fantastic. Once ya leave th' arena you'll hit some
really nasty framerates in th' large street outdoors.
And opening doors results in a few moments of intense
jerkiness. Still, it looks fabulous: check
this shot of a poker
table surrounded by chairs with matching green felt
upholstery. Wow!
One other lil' beef I have is that in an effort to
make sure you could grab guns quick, since ya start
off with nothin', I think he overstocked th' place
a bit. Granted, he was trying to balance it for
CTF, so I guess I should take that into account.
At any rate this is NOT a map for small deathmatches.
Hopefully he'll be able to iron out the framerate
and door issues. This is one helluva nice lookin' map.
Welcome to th' new ranch! This place is lots roomier
than muh old digs, although you will note it's tarted
up a bit with them banners hangin' from th' ceilin'.
I'd like ta thank muh generous host,
GA Games fer
providin' th' space. Of course you should go visit
'em jus' as soon as yer done here. ;)
Whether you notice 'em or not I've made lots of
changes to the site. Most important fer you folks
would probably be The P.O.O.S. Map Archive
which you'll find over on th'
level page. I ain't aimin'
ta compete with th' many wunnerful, dedicated map
sites out there. I jus wanna have a spot ta collect
every map I kin get my grubby lil' mitts on. It
prob'ly won't get updated as fast as some of those
other sites, but if there's an old map ya can't find
nowhere's, check th' Archive, it'll prob'ly be there.
In addition, copies of recent maps will also be
stored in the "newmaps" subdirectory.
Stan also sent in th' happy word that Tribal
has his site back online! Fer those few who never
knew, the "KAP Hideout" was probably th' oldest,
most organized an' most reliable map site on th'
net. Now it's back as simply
Tribal's
Outlaws Page. Still under construction but lookin'
good. Welcome back Tribal!
By th' way, now that I got pretty much as much
server space as I kin handle, daily screenshots won't
get overwritten after a few days. So if ya miss a
shot, it'll always be in
the images directory, named
like this: yearmonthday.jpg. Fer instance, today's
is called 980911.jpg. Ain't that nice? So if you
remember there was a particular screenshot you liked
on a particular day, it'll be a cinch at call it up.
[Update - see tomorrow's vittles; shots have been moved
to their own directory:
shots.
Okay, the other promise was a racy literary quote
about my pale dream girl. Here we go:
Her face was pale with the pallor peculiar to people
who have been shut in for a long time and which
puts one in mind of the shoots which sprout from
potatoes kept in a cellar.
Leo Tolstoy
Yes, it turns out my dream girl was an 18th-century
Russian prostitute. I should'a known. ;)
So how good is it, really? Well ohmygodicanteatsleepbreath-
...uhh well it's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, to
say the least. I'm gettin' breathless here. NO I
haven't tried an Outlaws game with it yet but that
will SOON be rectified! ;D
Of course the Outlaws vacation would not have been complete without a trip to the beach. And trying
a couple of popular pastimes such as Sailboarding. At least James left his rifle on shore but he
just can't seem to loosen up and loose the hat and coat and get a tan.
Aww James is jus' a born paleface like me. Falls is
hopin' ta have enough pics developed soon ta make
a "what we did on our Outlaws summer vacation" on
his own Outlaws page,
Outraws: A criminal enterprise of the Wit and Wisdom
Gang.
This isn't near my worst faux pas with names though.
That was back in high school when I worked with two
girls who were close friends at the local ice cream
parlor. At one time they fergot they were friends
fer a while and decided to hate each other. Well,
dimwit me managed to call each of them by the OTHER'S
name! The particularly stunning stupidity of this
was that it didn't happen all at once; no, it was
over two shifts in the course of a week where I worked
alone with each one. Good gravy! that was
trouble fer me fer a while. In fact they soon after
remembered they were friends; I like ta think my
double-gaffe sped their reconciliation.
Simply adding realism to a game like Quake is in my opinion a mistake, because it contradicts what the game is going for in
the first place. I wish people were making more shooters aiming for realism, like Goldeneye and Outlaws, because we have plenty going for
fast action...
Now from what he goes on to say it doesn't sound like
Blood 2 will play QUITE like Outlaws, although he
does make some nice comments about the important of
movement in a game:
Movement is absolutely the number one priority for an action game. It's how the player interfaces with the world, so NOTHING is
more important.
Well I mus' say I agree. Outlaws has always had
FANTASTIC control. Can't stand those fudgy Quake
controls. ;p If ya wanna read more why don'tcha go
check out th'
full
review at voodooextreme.
Two feathers was a little grouchy from too much cotton candy and all those
rollercoaster rides.
Kinda looks like th' chief doesn't like guys puttin'
their arms around him. Tigger'd be well advised to
be a lil' less touchy-feely 'round that big knife.
I'd been kinda wonderin' where my favorite Outlaws
image-hacker had been lately. Well, he's jus' got
back from everybody's favorite vacation spot,
Disneyland. An' he didn't go alone, nossir: he took
a few luck Outlaws with him. Sent me some scans of
vacation photos -- those Outlaws don't seem to have
enjoyed themselves too much. Anyhow,
here's th' shot an'
Falls' caption:
Here's one of the first to come back from the drug store. Part of the Outlaws trip to Disneyland. They tell
me they got a great group rate and in spite of their somber appearance claim to have had a good time.
Goofy'd better watch out, I think Sanchez is peeved!
You kin get this one over at Stan's
Gunslinger Gang Page along with jus' about any
other map you could possibly want.
The Ending was fast because I didn't have much choice. There are two
[boss] items you can use. one was almost impossiable to beat. like I'm talking
about
40 rifle shots to kill him. (not joking) I felt that was a little insane.
So I put the easy [boss] in. but it only takes him one shot to kill ya.
if you play it on Ugly you'll notice some harder bad guys. such as the GAT
guy.
Woo, I'll hafta try it on Ugly now!
Let's see, what kin I tell ya? Spans five levels
with a huge variety of indoor and outdoor locations.
Lots of guys ta blast. ;D Great framerates! Lots
of nice little touches, and a good deal of stuff
you won't have seen anywhere before! In fact this
mission pack is crammed with so much Outlaws mayhem
that fer th' first time ever my voodoo, which I have
underclocked in NT to keep it cool, started runnin'
outta juice an' couldn't texture everything! Don't
worry it ran great when I bumped th' clock back up
ta normal, but MAN that was kinda impressive.
I got permission ta post screenshots an' I snapped
about 70 or so, but I don't
wanna spoil it or nothin' so I'll jus' post 4 now
an' mebbe a new one each day 'til it comes out or
somethin'. No captions on these babies, jus'
eye-candy to whet yer appetite. ;)
shot 1 |
shot 2 |
shot 3 |
shot 4 (okay
couldn't resist one caption, this is where my
voodoo started gettin' worn out REAL bad an' I hadda
bump its clock speed back up ;])
Yee haw! This is so much darn fun even in beta I'm
gonna hafta go an' play it again... Oh yeah an' you
multiplayer types, don't feel left out 'cause after
th' mission pack come's out Taco'll cuttin' up th'
five single-player levels into who knows how many
new multiplayer maps!
Oh, you want screenshots, do ya? Well here's one
of the cannons and one
of some funky upholstery
in the bases. You kin download this one from
Raf's
Outlaws Editing Team site.
I noticed only one very small 3dfx texturing problem.
Th' main downside ta this map is th' framerate issue
in th' larger areas but most of th' time you should
be okay. I felt the ending was sort of fast because
I opened a door, saw movement an' blasted th' dude
(not gonna say who) with my shotgun and suddenly I
was on the ending credits. That was on "Bad"
difficulty, and I DID die once when I got a lil'
reckless. Actually if yer patient you shouldn't have
much trouble with this one since as a quirky
"undocumented feature" at least some of the
items respawn.
All in all a fun map. It's a bit short, but there
are LOTS of badguys packed in. I like the layout
overall although some of the interiors are a little
close and claustrophobic. Th' framerates are an
issue especially on slower systems but only really
hit you a few times. Check this one out -- you kin
get it from
DrDeath2's Outlaws Site.
Oh almost fergot some screenshots:
Katarn's really pushin' th' limits of what LawMaker
kin do in this one. Here's
a shot lookin' down
th' length of several train cars. Nice interiors.
Problem is that lookin' through all th' cars like this
means lookin' through a lot of sectors. Which means
pretty low framerates. Which can mean lag if you or
th' people you are playin' with have slow systems.
LEC got around this in their train level by puttin'
doors on th' cars so ya can't see through more'n 2
at once, but I think in multiplayer doors are another
thing that kin add ta lag, so Katarn doesn't have 'em.
Actually he's got one or two that are kinda funny:
they go straight DOWN very fast and noiselessly. Weird.
Another prob with this train concept is fallin' off.
Here's a shot lookin'
back out th' caboose. If yer pretty well rested an'
have some forward momentum you kin keep up with th'
train pretty easily, even outrun it by jump-running.
Problem comes if ya get tired -- I particularly
had trouble with Sanchez, who gets winded easily.
I found myself droppin' back;
here's me way behind
th' train. Fortunately th' end of th' level keeps ya
within' a certain maximum distance from th' train,
so you kin always rest up back there an' then catch
back up. Takes some time though -- in multiplayer
somebody would probably put ya out of yer misery with
a rifle by that time. ;)
So that's not really a problem, more of a "feature"
I suppose. There'a a ramp on one of th' cars that
lets ya get to th' roof -- then ya kin walk up ta th'
front an' jump on th' engine. I jumped off an' took
a few shots of th' exterior:
the engine (note
3dfx texture funkiness on th' animated train wheels)
and
the side where you
kin see there's a lil hole with some goodies in it.
This's a very unique level (well, except fer it's
predecessor I suppose) an' it's nice ta see
innovation like this. Sure there are some problems
with it but these stem more from the limitations of
the Outlaws graphic engine than anything else.
This might not be a level you play on too often
(the linear nature of the train can get a lil'
repetitive too) but it's at least worth a good
look-see now and then. You kin download it from
Katarn's
REDGang Homeblow site.
James Sulman was messing around and made some better badguys, he has altered the dying sequences. The screenshots of the editors interface are now out-dated and I wish to update
these when I am sent the new editor. BTW I will put this file on the OET page when I update it at the weekend.
So if somebody's got that gob file, send it on over
to 'em. Raf sent me off a new version of th' sample
map fer th' Editor that gives ya an' idea of what
it kin do: in this version th' baddies have different
death animations! Check out some screenshots
(shot1 |
shot2) or jus'
grab th' map; I've got it
here 'cause Raf isn't gonna have it up until th'
weekend.
Now originally th' DSL was s'posed ta get installed
some three days after this drop shipment arrived, but
what with that two-week strike an' all who knows
when they'll get a technician out here... an' readin'
through these manuals, this is NOT somethin' I wanna
hafta do on my lonesome.
I also keep thinkin' that I wanna do somethin'
dif'rent with th' posse page,
but then I always remember that Wildcat has
jus' about th' mos' complete posse listin' possible
on his great
Wildcat
Country site. So I guess my page'll jus' remain
a lil' listin' of gangs I know... if yer lookin'
fer MUCH more comprehensive posse listin's, check his
site out.
They've got a map called "nwx" that they made jus' ta
demonstrate what th' editor kin do by puttin' a big
orange smear on one of th' reg'lar bad guys -- here's
a screenshot. By th'
way th' map shows up on yer Historical Mission list
as a second "Marshal Training" listing.
I got all excited 'cause two were by good ol'
Grifter. His "Revenge" was inspired by the
old Mexican stronghold in "The Mask of Zorro". Pretty
lil' map, mebbe a bit straightforward fer extended
play. Th' real beaut' is "NoNewton", a compact,
high-ceiling wooden arena fer lil' deathmatches. Th'
twist is, of course, very low gravity, which lets you
fly around like a mutant kangaroo. All th' TNT layin'
on th' ground might add ta yer propulsion a bit, too.
;) Watch out fer patches of normal gravity -- ouch!
Oh yeah here's
a screenshot.
Also found "Turok" there (by USM_Turok?). Sorta big
an' flat, not too bad 'cept fer some nasty 3dfx
errors.
Second, it looks like I've secured a spot for th'
site with a reputable gamesite hosting service!
Hooray! Which means I'll be on a good server, with
tons of space fer all yer Outlaws needs. Th' one
downside is havin' ta stick ad banners on th' site,
but well mebbe this way I'll look more
"professional". That was a joke, by th' way.
Anyhow this is all very nice an' things seem ta be
comin' together. I'll be havin' ta redesign a few
minor things before th' new site opens... that's
okay 'cause I don't think I wanna upload everything
until I get my DSL connection anyhow. Incidently if
you've been lookin' fer me in Kali lately you wouldn't
have found me, 'cause I can't really bear ta play
on my current dialup connection which seems ta be
gettin' worse an' worse, an' I'm waitin' 'til I get
DSL at which point I'll go hog-wild. ;)
Thanks to all those who mailed me with web space
tips and offers... gave me that nice warm fuzzy feelin'
inside. NO I haven't been hittin' th' sauce, I'm
happy goldurnit! =D Ouch I think I strained my face.
Here's a lil' pictorial. First, there's an
outside view of th'
"cannon". I prob'ly should'a stood closer so you
could see that th' black thing on th' ground is
an arrow pointin' into th' breach.
Here's what it looks
like gettin' into th' cannon, which doesn't
last too long 'cause suddenly yer
flyin' through th'
air towards a target. You kin kinda aim yerself;
where you go depends on how exactly you stepped into
th' cannon, so there's a bit of a trick to hittin'
th' target, an' if ya miss you kinda fall off an'
take a bit of a hard landin'. ;) Finally
here's a shot of
th' landin' platform an' a neat sort of pagoda thingy
next to it.
Anyhow it's great fun an' a wonderful new innovation,
way ta go Sticky! If'n ya get bored of shootin'
yerself through ya kin always try with knives or
dynamite. ;) A truly ground (and neck) breaking map!
Oh yeah, it seems that Raf's
Outlaws
Editing Team is almost done with their
"Crossed Identity" add-on pack -- they've got lots
of screenshots up now. They've also got a banner ad
fer it, but I didn't feel like postin' it ;), if ya
want it they may put it up on their site.
Oh yeah Slack also wanted ta clarify that even though
he now sports a "VooDoo" rather than a "SWE" prefix,
he's still th' same 'ol Slack. Actually I dunno 'bout
that, these recent maps are way better'n "SWE_Slack's"
were. ;) Oh yeah ugh he's also got
SlackPack2, a
compilation of all 15 of his maps. Pretty damn big
download. I NEED 20 MEGS OF GOOD SERVER SPACE
durnit!
The information you requested is: ywtr
Seein' how I haven't been in th' Zone fer at least
3 months now I'm mystified as ta why they should
be pesterin' me now -- not ta mention th' fact that
they've never seen fit ta put up a link ta my site.
An' I haven't th' faintest clue what "ywtr" is
s'posed ta mean.
Hey "Zmaster", I suggest that you change THIS
immediately: ;p
Also found "Funkie House" by MrVampire which
is sorta build in th' good ol' "big/flat/ugly" mold.
that's always been sooo popular.
Bloody Sunday takes place
in an' around a large barn
(see here).
Twist is ya start
out with NO WEAPONS. Actually I think he jus' made
this map fer th' hell of it... one clue is th'
henhouse whose
excitable inhabitants tend ta add ta lag.
Th' REAL map then would be
Gunfight, which looks
almost exactly like "Bloody Sunday" except ya start
with yer normal weapons, th' chickens are gone an'
th' items placed differently.
Damn fine map, no less than you'd expect from
Slaters_dog. Great, tight modelling with a fantastic
sense of space and location. Th' barn in th' middle
is large but th' map plays pretty small... th'
author likes it fer one-on-ones an' who could
disagree?
Oh yeah one other change from "Bloody Sunday" is
this woodpile.
Now that's one durn fine-lookin' pile o' wood.
Well, if you remember from our last exchange, my ISP wasn't configured to allow me to run IP games, join or host Zone games, send or receive dcc in mirc, or use some aspects of
NetMeeting or ICQ. They were using something called NAT. Due to an uproar from the customers, they switched to a more conventional DHCP. So now, I can host and join IP games.
Several players have reported <100 ms pings!, usually <200. Still can't join or host Zone games or send files dcc in mIRC, though I can receive. My ISP said I will never be able to do a
dcc send. Strange, no?
Hot dang! Now if only those lazy union bums would
get back ta work, I'd be kickin' some booty... or at
least dyin' quicker.
Also since KaReFree has had ta take a powder, I'm
thinkin' that I'd like ta just have a big level
archive. It wouldn't be as up ta date as some of
th' better map sites out there like Tribal's, but
it would be pretty damn comprehensive. So I figger
I'll need about 20 MB total space fer th' site.
If'n you know where I kin get 20 MB of space on
a reliable server with no ads fer free, you jus'
lemme know.
I got a few leads but I ain't to sure they'll pan
out.
Other companies could really stand ta learn a lot
from LEC's games; th' effortless installation, th'
ease of use, th' intuitive controls an' th' extremely
low frequency of programmin' bugs could provide a lot
of lessons on just what makes up a professional
product. Not ta mention th' high quality of th' art,
sound, voice acting, cinematics, graphics an'
interfaces. Not that I've played nearly all of their
games, but th' few I have I've been immediately
impressed by th' high level of craftsmanship. Heck
I even played th' Grim Fandango demo on th'
latest PC Gamer disk (that is STILL comin' in my
mail after I tried ta cancel th' subscription three
triple-arrg times,
but I digress). Th' demo installed flawlessly UNLIKE
most of th' other, non-LEC demos on th' disc, I might
add. An' while I don't really enjoy adventure games
enough ta wanna plunk down cash fer 'em, I mus'
admit that as far as adventure games go, th' GF demo
was pretty entertaining.
So, a job well done, Lucasarts, an' I hope that you'll
continue to uphold yer fine standards. Now since I
don't wanna sound like a big booty-kisser I think I
might mention that th' one thing that LEC could
improve is their fan-relations policy, which in
today's world of daily .plan updates an' office
cams is jus' downright antiquated and certainly
doesn't help foster the growth of their fan community.
That, and GET TA WORK ON THAT OUTLAWS SEQUEL!
There, now they'll prob'ly never talk ta me again. ;)
Answer: Worse than my most horrible nightmares.
Now as long as I don't lose too much money on 'em
I don't really mind yer average bad game. They're
usually good fer a chuckle or two, an' keep playin'
real games from becomin' routine. Hell once I picked
up a game called "MightyNerd." THAT one was hilarious.
Bad, but hilarious.
Well Westworld 2000 is jus' BAD, through an' through.
I wonder if they even bothered finishin' th' game
levels, 'cause I really doubt anyone would bother
ta go even halfway through this pile o' sludge.
It's bad ta th' bone, baby, an' in th' worst possible
ways.
Let's go back to that shiny box fer a minnit. I think
they spent more $ on th' box than on th' game. Th'
box had some sharp graphics. It also had what turned
out ta be, well, lies. Fer one thing, th' screenshots
are completely fake. Here they are:
Box Shot 1
|
Box Shot 2
|
Box Shot 3
Now let's compare these with some actual in-game
shots I took. Before we begin I should mention that
you actually hafta set yer Win95 screen to 640x480,
256 colors to play th' game. ;p Anyhow, after an'
annoying intro (more on that later) yer in what's
'sposed ta be a 3D western town. I wandered up ta
th' first brown box thing an' used th' "open" button
on th' rectangle that I hoped was a door. It didn't
open. It disappeared. Ah. Well, at least I could go
in.
Turns out ta be some kinda lil' office. There's this
weird, ugly sprite jabberin' at me. Then another comes
in, upstages th' other one, an' starts jabberin' at
me. I captured th' beauty of th' moment in
this screenshot.
Looks a tad worse than th' box shots, don't it? I
think that blue guy was 'sposed ta be a jogger;
he kept hoppin' around.
You'll note I have 7 bullets in my 6-shot pistol.
Actually I started with 10. Pretty soon th' first
robot guy starts hittin' me. Took me a while ta
figger that out, but eventually I guessed th' sort
of soft, rhythmic thwumping sound accompanied by
one of th' bars on th' screen goin' down was
indicative of his all-out assault on my livelihood.
So I shot 'im. Then I shot th' other guy. Then another
appeared right out of th' blue in this closed
room an' started in on me, so I shot him too. They
died with insultingly bad sound effects, but at least
they finally shut up. Now I was outta ammo.
This irritating woman (more on her later, don't you
worry) then interrupted the game an' told me that
I'd better get some more ammo. Well thanks fer th'
update Honey. She suggested I try th' General Store
so I obliterated th' door an' scrolled around th'
brownish murky outside area until I found a box with
a sign above it labelled "General Store." Oh boy.
I go in, an' there's a store-keeper, some "shelves"
an' some bullets. "Only two dollars" he informs me.
Um. I have no money. There's a rifle too. "Only four
dollars!"
So let me get this straight: I have to BUY weapons?!?
I have to WORK to get more guns!?!? Gee, is there a
four-day waiting period too? I was kinda peeved at
this point, an' since my empty pistol had flipped
around to a pistol-whippin' position, I was about ta
give him what-for.
Then another robot thing appeared unannounced right
behind me. Looked somethin'
like this after I
smacked him in th' midriff a few times with my pistol.
No, I wasn't lookin' down. Fer some reason he was
real tall. Not sure why each pistol-whip caused a
miniature explosion, but after a few he went down.
Then ANOTHER guy appears, AGAIN right behind me,
an' it's th' same thing all over.
Well, I didn't play too much longer, but it was long
enough ta discover th' box lied in several other ways
besided th' fake screenshots. The "35 levels" were
in fact 3 levels with what I guess you would
call little "sub-missions" that made you scrounge
around while ugly robots appear out of nowhere to
paw you.
Most impressive of all, th' "Multiplayer"
boils down to
this
sad excuse for a VRML saloon. It's rather an
ugly brown box with some more ugly brown boxes inside
it, all swimming in a nice pinkish void.
"Where Gunfighters Meet" they claim. Only thing I'm
gonna meet there is my browser's "Back" button.
I've skipped over just how truly bad th' game's controls,
sounds, animations, modelling and well everything
else is. But I feel I really should take a lil' time
ta describe th' "beautiful receptionist" who's
s'posed ta guide you through this festering boil of
a game.
Ev'ry now an' then she jus' kinda pops in, completely
halting the game while her animation loads and plays
from the CD. These animations are actually simply
Quicktime ".mov" files that you could play right from
th' disk. Or mebbe they were ".avi," I fergit.
Anyhow it's really impressively crappy. There's this
obvious bluescreen effect between her and the fake
background that's s'posed ta look like some kind of
control center. She wears tons of makeup an' a bright
red beret.
I tried ta capture some of her horrendously hammy
over-acting in this lil'
animation. Actually it's much more pleasant than
her in-game appearances because I took out th'
flashing background and you can't hear her voice or
the constant siren in background. Her performance
gradually degrades until she mercifully gets
killed off by a horrible special effect later in th'
game. I didn't play nearly that far, I jus' played
through th' movies off th' CD.
Fortunately th' store had a seven day software
return policy. I had th' game back less than two
hours after I bought it -- and 40 minutes of that
was driving time. Swapped it in fer a used hardback
version of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. Whew.
Considered plunkin' down another $5 ta get a used
copy of th' game Dust instead, but while Dust
is s'posed ta be a really darn good western adventure
game, I really find that I jus' don' have th'
patience ta play adventure or strategy games these
days. No, when I have time ta play I want instant
action. None of this sittin' around an' ponderin',
or buildin' up yer character's skills or resources
or whatnot.
Just thought I'd share.
There appears to be a compatibility issue with the game and the new
version of Winsock (2.0) that is installed with Windows 98. We recently
released a 2.0.1 update to address this problem, but we are currently
receiving feedback from some Windows 98 users who are still unable to
join some multiplayer Outlaws games on the Microsoft Internet Gaming
Zone (www.zone.com).
If a user upgrades Win95 to Win98, in Add/Remove programs they can
restore the Winsock 1.1 configuration, and that seems to help. Clean
installs and OEMs with Win98 do not have this option though.
So that's jus' what Outlaw did, an' it worked.
Imagine that! If yer havin' trouble, give it a shot.
Well actually it didn't quite go that smoothly but
after hours an' hours I think I got everythin' back
up runnin' with a nice clean install of Winsock 1.1.
Whew. But now my ISP seems ta be havin' a fit so
I'll hafta wait 'til later ta see if this fixes
anythin'. Oh an' I'd like ta apologize ta all th'
kind folks whose games I lagged up last night. ;)
The Death Rider's Website
by Outlaw_DR is back
an' lookin' great. Lovely design an' lots of handy
info, as always. He's also thrown in a nifty new
Shockwave introduction.
The Demonic Bastard's Headquarters
really doesn't have anythin' ta show except that damn
animated bullethole Outlaws logo that takes ferever
ta load. ;p
The COD Web Page
pretty much apes th' layout of Lucasart's Outlaws
page, includin' unfortunately that long animation.
Happily things get better after that with lots of
info on th' gang, tons of maps ta download an' jus'
about th' niftiest interactive Outlaws web menu that
I've seen, with great sound feedback. I could play
with those menu buttons all damn day.
Fun with the Outlaws Registry Keys
Windows has this big thingy called
th' Registry that programs like Outlaws store settings in. Th'
Registry is handy 'cause it provides a central place fer all this
piddle an' crap but then again if you changed somethin' on yer system
an' now Windows won't work right, chances are good yer Registry got
messed up. Outlaws writes a lot of keys ta th' Registry, most of which
you can change through th' normal Outlaws Options screen, but some
that can only be changed by hackin' th' registry. There are two that
you might find useful to change, but be careful ya don't mess up
yer registry while fiddlin' around in it.
Registry Editing Basics
You edit th' registry with th' program "Regedit.exe" which you'll
find in yer Windows directory. Th' registry consists of a lot of
variable settings, called "keys," grouped together in different
categories. Navigating this structure with Regedit is kinda like
browsin' yer hard drive with Windows Explorer. Th' directories
sit in th' left pane, an' th' keys in th' highlighted directory
appear in th' right pane listed in alphabetical order.
We want to edit th' Outlaws keyboard settings, so we hafta go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lucasarts Entertainment
Company\Outlaws\Users\Default User\Keys. Once you get there you'll
see a bunch of keys in th' left window. To edit a key, right-click
it and select "Modify" from th' pop-up menu. Once yer done you kin
jus' close Regedit or keep it open if you like. You don't hafta reboot
but you do hafta restart Outlaws fer changes to th' Outlaws keys ta
take effect.
There are plenty of innerestin' settin's you could mess with but
I've really only found th' followin'
couple ta be worth yer editing while:
Change that Chat Key
I always thought it was pretty irritatin' how you hadda hit two keys,
Alt-Y, to pop up th' in-game Outlaws chat window. Kind've a pain in
th' butt. Well you kin change this by modifyin' th' "Chat" key.
You prob'ly don't wanna use a key you might hit while typin' a sentence.
I switched mine that that lil' key in th' upper left corner of th'
keyboard, below "Esc": "Tilda." Actually it types a
"`" of you hit
it, but you need ta enter in "Tilda" which is how Outlaws refers to
it. A tilde is actually that lil' wavy shifted character on th' key.
Of course you could set yers ta whatever you like, although it should
be a non-standard key that you wouldn't hit in normal conversation,
and one that isn't assigned to any other Outlaws function.
Run VERY Fast
Now if you sit back an' look at th' various keyboard settings keys,
you'll see that yer run key is called "Fast." Then you might happen
ta look down near th' end of th' list, an' see a key called "Very Fast."
Gosh. It's unassigned, too...
"Very Fast" lets you move extremely quickly: about 50 percent faster
than you can while running normally. However, this burst of speed
is extremely draining; you tire about 10 times as quickly as normal,
becoming completely fatiqued in a matter of a few seconds. Still I
suppose that lil' adrenaline rush could come in handy at times when
ya really need it. I set mine ta "Caps Lock" which is right above
"Shift," my normal run key.
Th' other downside ta "Very Fast" is that you can't jump while moving
quickly. No super-jumps, sorry. :(
Tag
Tag works pretty
much like KFC except th' winner is th' one who is "it" fer th' least
amount of time by th' end of th' game. Th' person who's "it"
can stop bein' "it" by "tagging" someone else; ie, by bumping into
them. Th' obvious problem with this
is that players who join late have a big advantage over those who
were there from th' beginnin'.
I should also note that tagging, like picking up the chicken in
KFC or a flag in CTF,
is handled by th' host computer. In a laggy Tag, KFC or CTF match
th' host will have a big advantage because he is able to tag people or
snag chickens or flags faster than anyone else.
Anyhow, it seems ta me what'cha wanna do ta win in Tag is HIDE.
Don't let th' person who's "it" find you. If he does, try ta
shoot 'im dead before he gets near ya. This means running backwards
and shooting. Rifles come in very handy in Tag games.
If ya get tagged, try ta find an' tag someone as quickly as possible.
If you get killed yer still "it" but you respawn away from yer victim,
so try not ta get killed. Surprisingly you do NOT want to shoot
people much while yer "it," 'cause if they die you won't be able to tag
them. So tag 'em first, then shoot 'em so they can't tag you back.
Lag is particularly a bitch in Tag games because, in
addition to th' host's tag speed advantage, it could happen that
you kill th' person who's "it" only ta find afterwards that he killed
you, and then that he tagged you an' you are now "it." Then you hafta
respawn somewhere while he's already respawned elsewhere, an' probably
nobody's around ta tag. Doh!
JediKnight.net
has been followin' some rumors of a Dark Forces 3
an' finally came ta this conclusion:
We've learned that the PC Gamer UK report regarding a Dark Forces 3 is indeed false. All future Star
Wars titles will be based upon the upcoming prequel movies. With regard to the rumor of LucasArts
having purchased the Unreal engine for use in a future title, the sources stress that LucasArts has a
strong policy of not using engines created outside the company. LEC does have another first person
shooter in the works, using a new original engine of their own. However, details on that title are very
sketchy at this time.
So LEC is workin' on another first person shooter...
an' it's not Star Wars... an' th' only other FPS they've
made ta this point has been Outlaws... hmmm... nahh,
it couldn't be... could it?
Well, of th' latest crop this is one of th' most
promising ones. Like a lot of DocDeath2's stuff it
shows a good deal of creativity. He's definitely
got a knack of interior decoration, as you kin see
in this shot from
another recent multiplayer map of his, Pancho
Villa's Hideout. There are also a lot of playful
little touches thrown into USM Corral like a waterfall
that can catch dynamite in it's current and an outhouse
with a nasty temper.
But all this detail comes at a price: framerates. You
kin see how scenes like this
one from USM Corral would choke down a bit.
I didn't mind th' low framerates so much in DocDeath2's
single-player Marshall Adventures, but in
multiplayer bad
framerates add to lag an' that's one thing I sure don't
need more of right now. But hey if you've got a fast
computer and fast connection mebbe give it a look,
it's kinda innerestin'.
Oh yeah I almost fergot, DocDeath2 made this map
playable in "Tag" mode. There have been other maps
in th' past with "Tag" mode but I mus' confess I've
never played an Outlaws Tag game. I guess it mus'
work by runnin' inta other players, an' th' person
who's "It" th' least amount of time wins? Hmm but
th' prob with that'd be that people who came in late
would have a big advantage. Mebbe it works some other
way... if'n you've actually played a game of Outlaws
tag, why'nt ya
mail me an'
lemme know how it works.
Now in Dean's defense (an' mine since I didn't spot it
either) his Showdown map was jus' a quick thingy he
whipped up ta show how you kin make maps where
characters start off with no weapons. And well heck
who plays co-op maps anyway?!? ;)
|
|||||
|
|
home | game | weapon | character | strategy | level | file | player | posse | domain | link |
|||||
| vittles | fifth highest | Stuff on th' shelves. | ||||
