Ross Scott

I meat to have a post on this, I was waiting for the Youtube copy. I'll go ahead and make a post in a day or two since FM34 just went up.

Actually I'll probably be doing almost all the motion capture myself since there are cheap enough options now. He contacted me about helping more as an assistant director, which is something I could probably use help with considering the complexity involved with CP episodes.

Downloadable copy will be up a little later This episode is a bit of a milestone in the game. If you haven't played Half-Life already, you'll find out why. It's also one of the shorter episodes. This is because I split them when there's a good stopping point, and it doesn't get much more obvious than this one. It's been proposed before that I switch over to the Black Mesa mod after this episode, but since that's not out yet, I'll just continue with regular half-life. You can expect something a little different for the next video as a kind of intermission after this one.

Download 672x384 WMV (57MB) This episode is a bit of a milestone in the game. If you haven't played Half-Life already, you'll find out why. It's also one of the shorter episodes. This is because I split them when there's a good stopping point, and it doesn't get much more obvious than this one. It's been proposed before that I switch over to the Black Mesa mod after this episode, but since that's not out yet, I'll just continue with regular half-life. You can expect something a little different for the next video as a kind of intermission after this one.

I remember you sending me this video a while back or something similar. Yeah, that's the same script I made for Civil Protection. I really didn't notice the visual artifacts you're talking about, everything that was moving seemed to be blurring. You can always increase the framerate if you think it's not being sampled enough. If you want to get crazy, try 360 fps then put your divisor by 12 instead of 6. I think Source will go to at least to 999fps, I would try multiples of 30. 180 just seemed like the magic balance between size and noticeable effects to me. If a scene is really fast motion you might want higher.

I'm still on XP, but I plan to go to 7 in the near future. I won't be doing so until I have a VMware install so for programs that simply won't run on 7, I still have options. Apparently if you have enough RAM now, the speed hit for virtualized programs is quite reasonable.

I haven't even heard of this one, it looks like it could be comfortable though. I'm sure it's a good mouse, but I was able to try one at a store display and didn't quite like the shape, it felt a little narrow in my hand. That and I'm looking for a corded mouse and not a wireless. As for Logitech, this is the mouse I really want from them, except it's not real: http://www.techlivez.com/2010/08/logitech-g50-vanguard-ergonomic-mouse/

Maybe make a new thread if you want to keep debating manufacturers.

But with the new Sandy Bridge processors, Intel now has better processors for far less than AMD. ($185 for an i5-2300, new no deals, compared to the equivalent AMD processor Phenom II X6 1100T for $200 on sale and including rebates) Well budget for me is more around the $80 - 120 range for CPUs. If you go up to $200, then Intel is winning there too. Also if you account that AMD has kept a similar socket type for years on end, you can eliminate a new motherboard cost from a lot of upgrades.

I've used both Nvidia and ATI cards over the years, they both have had pros and cons and both have done underhanded things. For every pro and con of one card, I can give you one of another, it kind of depends on what your preferences are for different things. Since I'm an antialiasing junkie, I currently prefer Nvidia's cards since with 3rd party software I've found they have better AA compatibility and for some games, potentially top image quality. ATI has really been more of a pioneer in the AA department however, with Nvidia usually catching up. If you don't use AA however, they really are practically equal in image quality. For bang-for-buck however, ATI is currently kicking Nvidia's ass up and down the block in terms of speed you can get for the same amount of money. For CPUs, on the budget end of things, you really can't beat the bang for buck ratio with AMD, even though the fastest end is dominated by Intel. I kind of have issues with Intel however since they've engaged in a campaign of illegal business practices over the past decade, especially around the turn of the century, that skewed the whole playing field. AMD was kicking ass with the first Athlon and it took Intel years to catch up. During that time, they couldn't gain any market share because behind the scenes Intel was engaging in price fixing, extortion of vendors, bribing, pretty much anything to prevent major vendors from purchasing AMD. It was illegal and they've been fined billions of dollars for it by the EU, but it's really a slap on the wrist considering what they make and how much damaged it caused. I'm a little bitter about it, since if they actually followed the law, the CPU playing field might be COMPLETELY different today. For that reason (and price) I generally avoid Intel hardware.

Since this is pretty huge issue, (or not depending on how substantiated it is), I can move this to the "Civilization Problems" section if people like. As for global warming, I saw An Inconvenient Truth, but I really haven't properly researched this one way or another, so I can't claim to know what I'm talking about. If someone who's more knowledgeable on this wants to disprove or confirm some of what I think I know, here are some things I've heard or have reasoned: -Most evidence I've seen shows a significant increase in global temperate over the past 100+ years or so compared to the rest of climate records we've been able to deduce through geologic evidence. -It's naive to assume we're having NO impact on the atmosphere. Just from burning fossil fuels we're releasing millions of years of stored carbon back into the air. Plants can filter out a certain amount of that, but my guess is the increase currently exceeds the ability to counteract the increased CO2 levels. -The PERMAFROST is melting. To me, that's a pretty big sign things are getting warmer overall. -I had a geology teacher in college who said that without human impact, in the traditional pattern (as in LONGASS climate change) we would likely be entering another ice age right now, but due to emissions things are more temperate than they would be otherwise.

Hey, my mouse is currently starting to die on me, I'm curious what mice people would recommend as the most comfortable. I want a wired one with at least 5 buttons. I have large hands and tend to have a "palm grip" style.

I still need to finish TLJ, I didn't know Dreamfall was that bad. As for worst sequel, I doubt it can beat Still Life 2. The original was one of my favorites and the sequel was just bad in about every way except maybe the 2D backdrops. Different voice actors for the same characters, shoddy, shoddy sound design, WAY overused location, tedious gameplay, there's just not much redeemable at all.

BTGbullseye: If you want to talk about global warming, do it in another thread, the focus of this one is impact of oil. Also you're only making generalizations here. As far as I know, global warming is generally accepted by the scientific community. If it's not, present evidence on it. Don't make generalizations on a controversial viewpoint, provide evidence, and not in this thread.

Pretty much no armor is bulletproof, but there's different levels of bullet resistance. 9mm shots can be shrugged off more easily than .50 caliber: It depends where he gets hit too. I figure some rounds bounce off, most hurt like paintball or more, others could still punch through the armor. Well that's easy, don't get hit. In reality, if you're taking enough damage to need multiple medical treatments like that, you're not going to be combat effective for very long.

Nah, I don't like spoilers, but I'll assure you that I won't treat it like a dream if I make a sequel.

I really like it in videos when I have some lines or scenes that perhaps a minority of people will like, but for others it's a real highlight.

Download 672x384 WMV (86MB) Freeman's Mind continues with a new episode. I'm mostly happy with this one, though it becomes difficult for me to tell what's good or not the more of these I do. I'll continue to update the progress chart, though I may forget some days. This episode got delayed for release more than most. This is part of the reason I never like to give release dates, I never know them myself. Machinima.com works in mysterious ways. The progress chart on the right will tell you at least what's been completed. The brightness / contrast levels seem to be off in this episode on the Youtube version. The downloadable copy will have the original game light levels once it goes up. Also the resolution is being reported at 1280x720 on youtube, which is incorrect. I was told to submit it at 640x360 for Youtube. The original footage is now recorded at 848x480. Going to HD resolution really isn't worth the slowdown in processing for me for Freeman's Mind, since this is just Half-Life, there's not much to show off visually. I plan on releasing copies of all the videos at original resolution and with higher quality codecs/formats in the future, it's just something I haven't gotten around to yet. That and some people appreciate smaller copies to download. So the current 672x384 WMV copies are just a temporary compromise between higher quality, lower size, and player compatibility. You can look forward to more videos coming one way or another.

When I first played the game, I remember being surprised I was launching a rocket or wondering WHY I was launching a rocket. Having played it again for FM, I STILL don't know why it's being launched. My memory's faulty since I started this a while back, but all I remember is one guard mentioning a rocket being necessary for the scientists via hearsay. As for his motives, that's my interpretation yours is clearly different. I'm not as intelligent as Freeman is implied to be, but if aliens were teleporting around me and soldiers were shooting at me, I wouldn't be terribly concerned with long-term ramifications of events taking place there. I'd be more concerned with just staying alive for the next hour. It depends on personal motives. Look at it this way: Option 1: Risk your life unnecessarily, perhaps die within the next 24 hours, but have a chance of saving all of humanity. Option 2: Minimize risk, leave everyone to their fate, survive probably for weeks, months, years, even in a worst-case scenario provided you can escape. Both are valid options an intelligent person could make, but motives make a huge difference.

Machinima.com has been mostly focused on that new Mortal Kombat series they're promoting. I think they were reserving FM for more of a downtime in their schedule. It's a pretty big business now. I'd release the videos right now, but I'd get into contractual trouble that way. This is unusual though, usually the delay isn't this long. I know it stresses some people out, but from my perspective the videos will all come out eventually and I'll make news posts when they do (and have permanent movie pages), so it will get sorted out in the long-term. Delays from them generally don't bother me. M.com is so huge now I try not to bother them unless it's something really important to me (the soundtrack usage was an example of that).

I haven't read through this whole thread, so I apologize if this is repeating something. While I'm adding a lot of color to it, the thoughts regarding the overall plot of the series / game pretty much represent my own when I first played the game. While you can wax intellectual about what's actually happening because of some slipped hint in an interview with a Valve employee or something, at FACE VALUE the game explains almost nothing to you. You're involved in some science experiment, something goes wrong. Aliens start teleporting in. You try to escape. You can't escape. Scientists goad you into teleporting into another world. You fight more monsters, unclear towards what end. Every character knows more about what's going on than you do. Your character never says anything. From what I remember there was no indicator you were actually saving the world or just fighting more random aliens. To add insult to injury, for HL2 you obviously DIDN'T save the world, so I'm not sure what was so dire that was within Freeman's control anyway. The game has an unprecedented level of wiggle room here and I'm basically exploiting that. A theme you'll get from FM and even moreso from CP is that the perspective you're supposed to assume may not be the correct one, there's simply not enough evidence given. The presented storyline of the games is so nebulous that if these events were really so self-explanatory I'd never be able to get away with assigning all these extra traits to Freeman. I know I personally would just get the hell out of there in that situation, but the game won't let me. To me, the game really doesn't make it clear that Freeman is some grand hero. The level design leads you around like a sheep from one event to the next that you have to complete in order to proceed. Freeman doesn't save any of the scientists dying around him, you can even MURDER OTHER CIVILIANS and get away with it scot-free and yet he's still the "hero." In my eyes, what's notable about Gordon is not his deeds, but that he's just a seemingly ordinary scientist that WILL NOT DIE despite all odds that he should.

I have a lot that aren't mentioned here at the bottom of my PC Gamer interview, but about half of them are graphic adventure games. I'd probably add Supreme Commander to that list as well.