silverdirk - Slashdot User

Comment No, quake had no plot (Score 1) 67

by silverdirk on Sunday June 01, 2008 @01:34AM (#23614923) Attached to: Tom Clancy: Endwar to Change the Face of Console RTS?

Um, did you ever play quake? If I remember right (and it has been a rather long time) Quake was the first FPS to have no plot at all whatsoever, not even alluded to in the manual. There was no opening cutscene, no text of any form at any point in the game, and in fact the start of the game was somewhat unique because instead of having you select difficulty from a menu, they instead dropped you into a room with 3 portals, one for each difficulty.

Wolfenstien had a plot. "Escape from castle Wolfenstien, and kill nazis". Doom had a plot. "Aliens destroyed earth and you have invaded their base and must kill them all". The plot interaction consisted of showing you the name of the next location you were attacking, and some text when you completed the episode. Oh, and you could read about the atrocities of the aliens in the game manual. Heretic has a plot with the same mechanics. Doom2 likewise. Duke3D used a plot similar to doom, except the fight started on earth. Duke3D actually had things you could interact with, but I wouldn't go as far as to call them plot elements. Quake had no plot. Quake2 had an intro plot (same used in Doom) and even an engine-rendered cinematic, but then reverted to killing everything in sight for the rest of the game, like quake 1.

Half-life was seriously the very first game I ever played which was a true fps with rpg elements. Half-life broke new ground.

Submission + - Geek runs for congress wearing "Evil Genius

Submitted by

boyko.at.netqos

on Saturday May 26, 2007 @04:21PM

boyko.at.netqos writes: "Brian Boyko was ticked off that the Democrats sold us out by voting to authorizing spending for the war without a timetable attached. Lloyd Doggett — his Congressman — was one of those Democrats who voted for the war authorization, presumably because they felt that voters who opposed the war would have no choice but to re-elect them. Instead, Boyko got so fed up he launched his own primary challenge to Congressman Doggett — and he's doing it his way, wearing an "Evil Genius" T-shirt, putting up blog posts that state that he doesn't want dime one in fundraising, or listing out all his political scandals in a post called "Welcome to my closet, would you like to see my skeletons?" The biggest thing: Republicans use blogs as smear campaigns, Democrats use blogs as fundraising tools. This is a campaign blog that's an actual blog.

From the site:

"I've never been charged with a crime, although I could have been once, when I was 19. Let's just say that toaster ovens are a privilege, not a right, and I learned that the hard way.... My sexual proclivities are my business, and I don't want to talk about them. Rest assured, they are not illegal (unless you consider Playstation 2 controllers to be "vibrators" — it's illegal to own vibrators in Texas.) Statistically speaking, it's very likely that your sex life is much more interesting than mine; I am running in the 25th district of Texas, after all... I play Dungeons & Dragons and other geeky games."

Full disclosure: This blog post was submitted by the candidate."

Submission + - Cinemas use night goggles to nab pirates

Submitted by

fluffman86

on Saturday May 26, 2007 @04:06PM

fluffman86 writes: "Reuters reports that movie theaters in Malaysia are cracking down on movie piracy by giving military style night vision goggles to ushers. According to the article, after cinema staff seat patrons, they don the NVGs in order to catch people who are recording the film with hand held camcorders. The article also mentions that Malaysia has purchased two DVD sniffing dogs — Lucky and Flo, in order to find large quantities of burned and pirated DVDs. There are some reports that there is a bounty for killing the dogs."

Submission + - Backyard Chefs Fired Up Over Infrared Grills

Submitted by Vicissidude on Saturday May 26, 2007 @03:48PM

Vicissidude writes: With the expiration of a key patent, major gas-grill manufacturers have scrambled to bring infrared cooking to the masses. The grills are still powered by propane and have traditional gas burners that heat mostly by convection — or hot air. But they also can cook foods with radiant heat generated by one or more infrared burners. Char-Broil says its advanced burners operate at 450 to 900 degrees, hotter than the 450 to 750 degrees of standard gas burners. And unlike charcoal, which can require 20 to 30 minutes to reach its 700-degree cooking temperature, heat from the infrared burners can be adjusted quickly. Bill Best, founder of Thermal Electric of Columbia, S.C., developed the technology in the 1960s, primarily to give automakers a faster way to dry the paint on cars.

Submission + - Letting the moon light the streets

Submitted by

keulenae

on Saturday May 26, 2007 @03:16PM

keulenae writes: "Street lights dimmed at full moon

Have you ever lain awake because of strong moonlight shining through your curtains? A full moon in a clear sky can indeed be a powerful source of light. Even Roman military commanders were fully aware of this, often making use of a full moon to attack or move their troops for greater tactical advantage. It seems a bit strange then that modern street lights totally ignore the lighting power of the moon. But this fact did not escape the attention of the San Francisco-based design firm Civil Twilight. They invented the Lunar Resonant Street Lamp. They were rewarded with Metropolis Magazine's top Next Generation Design Award for their efforts.

Their idea is as simple as it is bright. Their lamps have sensitive light sensors built into them that detect the changing brightness of the lunar cycle and the nighttime sky and dim themselves accordingly. If there is a full moon with a clear sky, the lamps dim to as much as 10 percent of their nominal output. This significantly reduces energy consumption. It also reduces unnecessary light pollution, providing the pleasure of improved visibility of the moon and stars. By making use of energy efficient LEDs, the lunar resonant streetlights have a combined savings of 90 to 95 percent over traditional street lights. Moreover, LED lights require less maintenance than traditional gas discharge lamps. References

Article "Lunar Light" in Metropolis Magazine

Article "Streetlights That Adjust To Moonlight" on MetaEfficient.com

Article "Civil Twilight Team Wins 2007 Metropolis Next Generation® Design Prize" on ArchNewsNow.com

"

Submission + - Sony Decapitates a Goat in PR Stunt

Submitted by AbsoluteXyro on Saturday April 28, 2007 @11:26PM

AbsoluteXyro writes: PETA is going to be pissed. London Entertainment Guide (Slightly NSFW) breaks the news that electronics giant Sony, in another stroke of marketing brilliance, decided to decapitate a goat and invite guests to "reach inside the goat's still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach" as a PR stunt to promote God of War II at a recent party in Athens. Images from the party, including at least one showing the freshly decapitated goat's head hanging by it's corpse by a thread of tissue, have been published in a two page spread in the latest edition of Playstation Magazine. Interestingly, Sony UK has refused to say how the goat was killed, but judging by the pictures, we can guess.

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