ROSS'S GAME DUNGEON: STRIFE

[Ross Scott]

 

 

Well I totally screwed up my estimates as to how long this episode was going to take. I ended up needing about 250% the time I thought I would. In my defense though, this is actually the longest video I've made to date, clocking in a little over 30 minutes, so you may want to watch it in chunks. I tried to edit it down to just the stuff I wanted to say, but there was a lot of it. Besides Strife, I also cover some of Doom, MIDI music, FPS design and control in general, so there's a lot in here. In any event, if you like the other Game Dungeon episodes, you should like this one too. I think the pacing on it is pretty good, despite the length.

 

Seeing as how my time estimates were as bad as usual, I'm giving no estimate on the next episode other than I'll get to it as soon as I can. I plan on making a few more Game Dungeon episodes, then I'll be returning to Freeman's Mind. If you're coming only for Freeman's Mind, maybe check back in a month? Also I'm going to do everything I can to get completely caught up on email sometime this month, I'm still woefully behind on that.

 

More stuff coming!

 

EDIT: I'm wrong, CarnEvil was longer than this, but not a lot.

 

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

[danielsangeo]

I'll have to watch this later (and get to the subtitles even later). This week's going to be an extraordinarily busy week for me.

[PapaFrita]

Jesus, Ross, now I HAVE to play this game

PLEASE don't stop doing this! Its awesome!!!

[GordonFreeman]

Wasn't CarnEvil 40 minutes?

 

A quick check says CarnEvil is your longest video by a nose, having a 32:43 timer versus a 32:02 time on Strife.

 

Now that i've checked that, time to actually watch the video!

[Darth Blitzer]

Liked the commentary on FPS level design. Really, "Gordian Knot Bullshit" and "Interactive movie" both have one thing in common. They're both tedious. The former because you're wasting time in a level that often lacks focus and is incredibly convoluted, while the latter is all the "fun" of being shuffled from one "attraction" to another by a tour guide.

[NeatNit]

Just wondering, how are you going to handle that promise to finish Half-Life before the end of the year? Don't push yourself into a corner!

 

Not that I'm demanding anything. I don't mind if it takes you all of 2015 to finish Freeman's Mind, and I enjoy all your videos. Just wanted to see your stand on this.

 

*goes to watch video*

[Mr Nutt]

I swear I remember seeing this somewhere before but not playing it for some reason. Well, I guess I should fire up GZDoom and give this a go!

[aitap]

Have you heard about Russian Overkill ZDoom mod? It's literally filled with overpowered weapons that are dangerous to use.

[VeryShyPerson]

That was fun to watch. It was long but it didnt feel that long so i guess thats good. I liked the video.

[Meelis13]

i couldnt agree with you more on 90-s fps shooters level design (gordion knot crap of a level designs) and also keyboard shooting. If i recall correctly, games like duke nukem 3d and blood (i remember blood being quite difficult for me, even with hacks on- dont judge me too harshly though as i was less than 10 when i played it), but definetly original shadow warrior allowed you to move view with mouse, but at time it was so painful to watch (as it distorted view so horribly) that you just had to abandon it in favour of keyboard aiming. Also at least as far as shadow warrior went, you had autoaiming in height-wise, which kinda meant you could shoot flying demon or smth right from above you while watching ahead of you

[Ross Scott]

Well, I guess I should fire up GZDoom and give this a go!

Jesus, Ross, now I HAVE to play this game

As a warning, I did spoil some of the locations and best lines in the game, but you have some big suprises in the story that I didn't mention.

 

A quick check says CarnEvil is your longest video by a nose

I guess I repressed the memories, I was working around the clock to get that one done in time.

 

Just wondering, how are you going to handle that promise to finish Half-Life before the end of the year? Don't push yourself into a corner!

I'll just drop RGD for a while and do nothing but FM later on if it gets too close.

[optimusjamie]

I think I'll check this out.

 

As for your comments on 90s level design- I will admit I'm a fan of it in principle, but when I played through Wolfenstein 3D a while back, it did get frustrating. Still better than the glorified corridors of most modern shooters.

[Pinkie Pie]

Yeah, this game looks badass.

 

Also, "NO. YOU'RE A STRANGER." is my new, new favorite line.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Guest (see edit history)

[VeryShyPerson]

That part with the missing skies reminds me of what happens if there's missing skyboxes in the Source engine:

 

 

 

 

It's beautiful.

[Song]

Oh god yes, thank you so much for reminding me of this games.

 

I've been meaning to play it again for years, but couldn't remember the name.

I played it as a child, had alot of fun blasting my way through everything that shot

back. At least until I somehow became scared shitless by the game and I hid for a

whole hour in some kind of hospital, occasionally killing a single enemy that ventured

in to find and apprehend the massmurderer. At some point I finally got the courage

and rushed out into dozens of enemies waiting behind the entrance.

 

Never played the game again since...

 

So thanks for that!

Very entertaining episode too, just like all the others. Cheers!

[kingkolton9]

I'll have to watch this later (and get to the subtitles even later). This week's going to be an extraordinarily busy week for me.

 

I'm always up to do subtitles if you're ever too busy.

 

Edit: Forgot this: "Mazes you wander the same area over and over because you have to."

 

This reminds me of the Half-Life Lambda Core

Edited June 2, 2014 by Guest (see edit history)

[Box Tactics]

The only reason I'm scared Ross might wind up in a bind is because I'm worried he's underestimating how much of the game's left. There're four whole chapters after Gordon teleports to Xen; the first one's strangely short, and the second and fourth are just boss battles, but the third one's pretty long.

[VeryShyPerson]

Chapter 15 (Xen) is one map, Chapter 16 (Gonarch's Lair) is 4 maps, Chapter 17 (Interloper) is 6 maps and Chapter 18 (Nihi...I can't spell the damn thing) is one map. Interesting thing is that if you look at the map titles for Gonarch's Lair, it's c4a2x while Interloper is c4a1x, that makes me wonder if the chapters had gotten switched around sometime in development. Or maybe I'm overthinking.

Xen is pretty puzzly and tricky at points but not really as difficult as i'd been made to expect. This is a good walkthrough though which might've helped.

 

About the MIDI thing: I got a friend who knows MIDI fairly decently so I'll try to throw him your way.

[BTGBullseye]

Five feet by four feet...

[ld306306]

Another great review! I have no memory playing games like this due to the fact I was hooked on adventure games and was not interested in first person shooters.