Really ironic how guys in this forum is yet defending the piracy epidemic but eh do what you want. Another PC developer has yet again went to the console market.

OoSuperMarioO

But Crytek were looking for a PS3 programmer about 6months ago to port the Crytek2 engine over... they were always intending to eventually go multiplatform but this is just an excuse to make it look like the PC community forced them, when instead its because they want more money ;-)

The only thing that would make piracy on the PC worse is that you need a modded console but PC's are good to go straight away. A solution to stop piracy is to improve online content, therefore they can check for legit copies.

I have the http://www.ebgames.com.au/peripherals/product.cfm?ID=4231 joystick.

Its pretty decent, lots of buttons, twistable handle for rudders. Only problem I had was some games like LockON, Falcon4.0 were not recognising it properly and so i had trouble configuring the axis. There probably is a way to fix it but I have put those sorta games on hold for the moment so have not got around to it.

Ah a subject of great interest to me. AI is not if-else then statements. If taht was the case then you would really notice it hehehe. Games tend to use algorithms like A* algorithm for path finding and using state models etc. [EDIT - well actually state models are if then else statement but same could be said for everything since conditional statements are fundamental element of programming]

They are not that sophisticated. When you get to how real world robots work then we get to some interesting AI. Neural networks are often used for recognition and reinfocement learning as its name suggests for learning how to best achieve goals.

The problem is that these are very computer intensive operations which is why we don't seem them in games since games require updates like 1/60th of a second.

Thief - the atmosphere is just epic. The gameplay awesome.

Grand Prix Legends - still the best racing simulator ever.

A Uni course is a must. From now to a stage where you can improve engines will take about 9+ years.

C++ is a good start though. Once you understand OO design etc then you will need to look at DirectX (or OpenGL). Of course they are just lanaguages, you need to understand the theory behind them, 3D math, computer archtitecture etc. Its not something you can just learn in a few years.

A better place to start would be using XNA and C#.NET. It still require what I mention but C#.NET is a lot more friendly language, less bug prone. XNA is also aimed at the hobbyist/student so there is so much good material out there to use, heaps of tutorials and does some of the messy boring initilisation stuff for you so you don't have to. I think you would be crazy not to use this as a starting point :-)

http://creators.xna.com/Education/GettingStarted.aspx

Far Cry's level design was superior. These are the three things that stick out in my mind.

One is a level where you kill a couple of dudes on the edge of a canyon (pretty sure you could knock over some barrels that roll over them lol). Then you discover a hang glider and soar through the sky down to the water where you are greeted by a chopper. I sniped the guy out of the chopper :-).

Second was a part where you made like a float and dragged a vehicle across the water using the physics. I thought that was pretty cool.

Third was a levle where you could either drive along the beach fast with all these trigens or take to the skys in the hanglider. Heaps of fun.

Also I prefer the mutants. They were super fast and it was nerver racking being indoors and you can hear a trigen breathing somewhere through the steam. The aliens in Crysis are patheic, they look stupid and even though they are translucent like a ghost you can grab them.

And I prefer Far Cry's Duke Nukem type character which is meant to be a bit silly rather than they apparently serious characters in Crysis who try so hard to be cool lol.

PS. the treetop level was also great in Far Cry.

EDIT: and the ability to throw rocks in Far Cy was cool too. Helped me a bit.

Same **** arguments, "only stupid uncreative peope don't like Crysis" There is a difference in being creative and dicking around with halpless Koreans, beating people up with chickens or going out of my way to 'creatively' kill some useless soldiers that I can do just as efficently with my gun and nano suit, that does not make for a great and intense shooter in my book. There is great technical combat in Crysis (possibly the best) but I am not going out of my way to be 'creative' or am going to defend a game that goes down when you are a quarter into it, I mean WTF, they throw less enemies at you and the bases get smaller? The only interesting base in the second half of the game is the port, but even that feels less dynamic, less fun and more constrained than the school house base.

Nikalai_88

I fully agree with you. I am a creative person, I enjoy open world games, but Crysis to me is a good game but not an exceptional game. When games first went open world there was a wow factor but I am used to it (i expect it) and so there is nothing phenomnal about an open world anymore.

What would wow me is if they made it truely open world and have an actual island of 50x50km to explore, Crysis merly uses smoke and mirrors to achieve this effect. The path you take is constrained, if you were to take a top down map of the level area it would be nothing special. Generally it has 2 maybe 3 path ways to a goal at best.

I rememeber stumbling across a bulldozer for the first time yet for some reason they made it a NPC, and also a level where I wish to take different route I was blocked due to an invisible barrier. I thought the original Far Cry was more open ended it level design.

Finally once you choke, or punch someone out the novelty is lost, there is only a handful of ways to kill someone in Crysis. Crysis gameplay is nothing new, it offers a stripped down open world that is quite constrained when you think about it. Exploration is not really encouraged but over use of the stealth suit is. AI is ok at best but has not improved much on Far Cry's. Don't get me wrong its still worth playing but its nothing that really pushes the boundaries except in graphics.

However I tip the next Crysis to be much better, I think they will concentrate more on making the most of the engine and concenrate on level design(perhaps adding unique traps, ambushes etc??)