Ritual's CZ Preview

[sniv]

steam is if you want to test the upgrade before the official release. Thus if Steam is paying, everyone will wait a month for the free version, making Steam totally useless

[Wintermute]

the idea of using the hl ai system is laughable. i would be absolutly amazed if the endproduct is good now.

[RaptorRage]

sniv wrote..

steam is if you want to test the upgrade before the official release. Thus if Steam is paying, everyone will wait a month for the free version, making Steam totally useless

It's been said that the CS1.6 final and beyond will only be through Steam. No more patch files to download. And the Steam version will still be free if you already have HL or retail CS. But there will be the option to buy CS through Steam if you don't have it.

[[pr]]

PriNcE oF SpAcE wrote..

CS:Cz is going to be valve's "Tiberium Sun"(now I'll prob. get flamed by C&C fanatics) when it's finally released it's horribly outdated...

yeah, like cs now, right?

[Wintermute]

but we dont pay for cs now :)

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

yes. we don't pay for cs now(well some do...but hey they didn't have to)



also CS is kind of outdated now...in anycase it certainly won't help on that fact delaying it any further by changing development team halfways who starts from scratch(can't imagine that it will speed up the process in any way)....



what happened to "Tiberium Sun" was that they announced it already from the first C&C geting it totally hyped up, when it finally got released hundreds of RTS-games had already been produced and put on the shelves...and "Tiberium Sun" was oudated compared to those(I think only the c&C fanatics bought it) it added very little new stuff...and the stuff already their wasn't really amazing...



lets face it...it probably won't take all that long(looking at what many mod developers for UT2003 already got put out) before somebody makes a decent counter-terrorism mod/game(they're already out there...dunno if they're good though) for UT2003 that plays just aswell and adds 5x the graphics(many people got the rigs by now or will probably upgrade in a near future) ...I think that CS:Cz would manage far better the sooner they get it out....or atleast if they don't delay it any further...



one of the things CS:CZ could compete with was the playability from using the optimized podbot AI, but now that's gone and you get optimized HL AI, which will probably mean that bots won't roam as much and will be stationary waiting for you to activating them(either by trigger event or walking in to their line of sight ala. regular Halflife and other SP fps games)



or the palyability in being able to loadout before missions, thereby choosing different equipment and solve the levels in different styles...now that's gone to and it will be dictated what equipmen you will carry into a mission....



wiiiii lets make a game that people can beat in 1 day...then beat it again in ½ a day...IN THE SAME MANNER!... doh!



oh and let us add dive & and shoot...and making it really usefull jumping thru windows blasting away...that's what counter-terrorist usually do isn't it?



ok...I realise it's too soon to pass judgement...bu it seems that Ritual will be removing much of the re-playability of he game...which ultimately was one of the games strongest points...with the market soon the be overun with UT2003 engine based games...



of course it all depends on what people was especting of Cs:Cz in the first place....I was hoping for a singleplayer game with a lot of re-playability....although I enjoyed playing thru halflife a couple of times...it just doesn't suprise me anymore and when games don't suprise you anymore or you do "puzzles" or solve levels per. routine it's starts to loose the fun....with the previous bot AI they planned for you could always meet resistance a new place(especially if the bots learned from theire mistakes, like it was planned)...now you'll probably start compleeting the missions as routine...(especially with pre-defined weaponry)



flame away!

[MikeJ]

So they did get rid of the POD bot AI? Sounds like a step backwards to me. The HL grunt AI was pretty pathetic. I agree with you on most of your points, and at this point I think I would of enjoyed the gearbox version better. But frankly we don't know jack shit about this new version, so I can't really comment as of yet...also we never really got to see CS:CZ by gearbox.

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

as I said...I realise it's too soon to pass judgement...but so far it seems that Ritual will remove alot of the elements that would have(maybe) added to the re-playability....which seemed to be CS:CZ's strongest point compared to the other FPS out there powered by more powerful and versatile engines...

[sniv]

I'd say what would be nice would be pod bots with the "jump and get a m3 headshot fro across the map" probabilities a bit lower, dont make them be able to shoot thru walls as well, make them really intelligent (like actually planting the bomb or something) and minor tweaks like that

[fB.bLaCKaT]

Ritual didn't remove anything, it's Gearbox. They own the content they made, and won't give it up to Ritual to use. Hence why CZ is starting from scratch.



Bash Gearbox and Sierra, not Ritual.



And not that I'm saying they are a good or bad developer, I haven't played much of any of the titles they've released.

[RaptorRage]

What does Gearbox plan to do with all their CZ content? It not like they will be releasing their own version of the game, so why not give their material to Ritual?

[kyleb]

they won't just give the material to ritual because it cost them a lot of time and effort to make and unless they get payed what they feel is fair for their efforts then they would be letting themselfs get riped off. what you are asking is; "why don't they just make vdieo games for free?"

[RaptorRage]

If they aren't getting paid now anyway because the game was given to another developer, it just seems like all their work is wasted even more by not being incorporated in some way.

[kyleb]

well it sure is but that is valves choice. saying they should give it away if they are not geting payed for it is saying people should just make videogames for free though.

[xep]

I'm actually glad it's been pushed back farther now. I wasn't looking forward too it in the first place, because I think it will just kill league play which is the only fun thing for me in CS now. Sure CS would probably die faster if CZ wasn't being released, but atleast I could enjoy a version of CS that didn't seem completely "noobed-out" with all the beefy and unnecessary weapons they were throwing in. The levels, from what very little we saw of them, all seemed to be going the way of the maps introduced in 1.3 and upwards, all concerned about looks and not actual gameplay.



Look at de_chateau. Sure it looks pretty but if that map doesn't play like shit, I don't know what does. Here's an idea, instead of just throwing in random weapons, remove some of the worthless ones (Berretas anyone?) and make the others more balanced out.