46 responses so far ↓

• 1 seriously // Sep 29, 2008 at 12:32 pm

  fix creepy link

• 2 PsychoDuck // Sep 29, 2008 at 12:33 pm

  I don’t care about anything else as much as I want the ability to pull any audio file from the game and use it as I please. The music in Half-Life 2 is so damned awesome, but I can’t figure out how to get it for the life of me, short of resorting to searching up iffy download sites.

  I want my awesome Half-Life 2 music, and I want it now, dammit!

• 3 PsychoDuck // Sep 29, 2008 at 12:35 pm

  One thing I forgot: The ability to change the format screenshots are automatically saved as. The only way I can browse through my many Team Fortress 2 pics is to open up the resource-sucking Photoshop and squint at the tiny preview images. Would it be too much to ask for the ability to save as a JPEG or PNG?

• 4 Washcloth // Sep 29, 2008 at 1:00 pm

  Yet again

  NONDRICK, WE WANT EM!

• 5 jzimbert // Sep 29, 2008 at 1:00 pm

  All games should come with dongles.

• 6 Alex // Sep 29, 2008 at 1:03 pm

  PsychoDuck, download GCFScape. It’s widely used and I’ve never heard anyone complain about it, and it’ll allow you to get at those glorious sound bits in no time. It doesn’t work when you have Steam connected, though, so beware of that.

• 7 Pwnzerfaust // Sep 29, 2008 at 1:05 pm

  Haha, the mets.

  Also, I agree with that article entirely.

• 8 roBurky // Sep 29, 2008 at 1:13 pm

  PsychoDuck: The GCF thing mentioned, or buy Audiosurf through Steam, which comes with the Orange Box soundtrack.

• 9 arklansman // Sep 29, 2008 at 1:16 pm

  You can save screenshots as jpeg as well, by using the ‘jpeg’ command instead of ’screenshot’.

• 10 Niteowl // Sep 29, 2008 at 1:24 pm

  Screenshots can be taken in JPEG format by binding a key to ‘jpeg’ and using that key to take your shots.

  All your resources in your HL game should be accessible by using GCFScape:
  http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/GCFScape

• 11 Smurfy // Sep 29, 2008 at 1:32 pm

  @2: Download GCFSpace, open it and browse to your steamapps folder. Open up source sounds.gcf and with a bit of Ctrl+Fing you can find those elusive MP3s.

• 12 PsychoDuck // Sep 29, 2008 at 1:36 pm

  Wow, uh… Thanks for the multitude of suggestions, guys!

• 13 [VGN] Chronos[Ha-G] // Sep 29, 2008 at 1:42 pm

  So far, I agree with most of them, but I’ve come across one that I totally disagree with -

  3. Automatically set themselves to your desktop screen resolution

  FUCK NO. I naturally run my desktop at 1800X1440 (Since I make my living using AutoCAD, the more resolution I can get the better) - however, if pretty much any game were to default to that for me, my system (Which isn’t top of the line but is fairly decent) would grind itself to a screeching halt, and probably crash the game in the process. Even worse, if this happened at the title menu or something - before I get the chance to remedy it - then I’d either be forever screwed in my chances of playing the game, or I’d have to dig through the directory of the game to find some obscure config file just to manually change it back to standard.

  No thanks - Just show the users how to change the resolution themselves. There’s a difference between letting a game run at an ugly-but-safe starting resolution and running a game at a potentially-good-but-also-potentially-disasterous starting resolution.

• 14 SenatorPalpatine // Sep 29, 2008 at 1:49 pm

  A good list. These are all legitimate points, needs to be used by game devs.

• 15 a westie // Sep 29, 2008 at 2:30 pm

  Maybe the ideal solution for number 3 would be for the game to suggest a resolution for the user when they first run the game. Another cool idea would be for each game to benchmark the computer to come up with some good default settings. I don’t mean look over the components and make a guess, I mean an actual benchmark to account for underclocks/overclocks.

• 16 [VGN] Chronos[Ha-G] // Sep 29, 2008 at 2:45 pm

  15 -

  Yeah, if the game has a way to display what settings it will play at, and ask if they’re okay BEFORE the game loads, then my complaints disappear and I have no problem with it.

  And the benchmarking thing sounds cool - dunno how receptive some people might be to it, though. “Hey, why do I gotta run this thing before I play!? WAAAAHHHH!”

  I like the idea personally, though.

• 17 Washcloth // Sep 29, 2008 at 2:53 pm

  Id like a game to TELL ME what screen resolution my pc can handle, this my seem like a n00b reqest, but it gets frustrating when you set a resolution and are faced with a black screen of doom…

  oh, AND NONDRIC PLZ K THNX BI!

• 18 Deepsmeg // Sep 29, 2008 at 3:11 pm

  Operation Flashpoint had a seperate settings app.
  This ran the first time you played and had a benchmarking tool in it.

  Also this benchmark score could be called in game, so addons could do different stuff based on it (less particles on slower systems etc)

  The seperate app also let you go “I’ve bollocksed it all up! How do I fix it? Aha! Setup tool!”

• 19 Cochrane // Sep 29, 2008 at 3:29 pm

  I’d like to add: Seamless switching between windowed and full-screen mode. It’s something you spend an hour coding, and then it keeps working for the rest of the game.

  @[VGN] Chronos[Ha-G]: I think desktop resolution is still one of the two best choices, the other being starting in windowed mode by default. A separate setup app is somewhere between confusing and annoying, no matter what. Being able to run the game at desktop resolution (even if performance sucks) should be the default in this age, especially considering LCD screens. To solve your particular problem, I’d suggest either start in windowed mode by default (which might actually be a good idea anyway), or make the game revert to 40 by 30 pixels if it realizes that it crashed the last (or first) time you tried to start it. As far as I can tell, your case is the special case, unfortunately.

• 20 An Onomyous // Sep 29, 2008 at 3:33 pm

  The people demand Nondrick!
  Also, you rule, loved concerned!

• 21 rammingspeed42 // Sep 29, 2008 at 4:40 pm

  You’re gonna have a popular revolt on your hands, Chris. If I were you, I’d either start writing a Constitution or start laying my hands on as much tear gas and riot armor I could find…

• 22 Washcloth // Sep 29, 2008 at 4:51 pm

  Comrades!, we have stood idely by for FAR TO LONG! How long has it been since we have been givin our dues? We stand here submiting to these public machines without understanding what makes them tick! It is us brothers, we are the key, And everytime we submit to these unjustices we give the upper elite power. NO MORE COMRADES! We band strong together! Remember Worker, your hands hold production. Listen, can you hear it? The capitalist dogs are whispering, They want YOU to subdue to there whishes, what good will this do to us? None! We are the majority, they are the minority! So why do we suffer these grievances? I say NO MORE shall we be treated as the lesser, NO MORE shall the dogs be put on thrones. The time is now brothers, comrades, workers.

  PEACE,LAND,BREAD, AND NONDRICK!!!!!

• 23 Ledundead // Sep 29, 2008 at 6:23 pm

  Go Phillies! Division champs! The irony is incredible, Chris!

• 24 AlphaHawk // Sep 29, 2008 at 6:24 pm

  Hah, mets.

  But keeping the quickload and save keys apart should really be manditory. I mean with most of the steam games we grew up with (Half life, CS, etc.) YOU the user had the choice of where those keys could be put, instead of having them manditorily placed by the game maker. That sort of free range with keys should really be in every single fucking game.

  Ragh.

• 25 arklansman // Sep 29, 2008 at 8:31 pm

  I should have used quicksave/quickload more in CS.

• 26 Crimson Binome // Sep 29, 2008 at 8:33 pm

  Another one I’d like to add is not have counter intuitive default controls. Can we all agree that WASD are movement keys, and like…E is to use an object. Against my better judgement I played the PC version of Devil May Cry 4 the other day, and it was the most annoying control scheme I’ve ever seen. K is the attack button? Who the fook ever presses K. I don’t think I’ve pressed K more than 100 times in my entire computing life.

  Also easily readable CD-Keys in games that have them. So, all of them. Too many times have they had Zs that look like 2s, and Os and 0s looking the same, etc. Annoying. I mean, it’s easily overcome, but so are all of these things in the list. Just an ease of use.

• 27 VenomKing666 // Sep 30, 2008 at 6:47 am

  @CrimsonBinome: Protip: Use a gamepad.

  And I might also add: Ctrl is crouch, R is reload and Space is jump.

• 28 Crimson Binome // Sep 30, 2008 at 7:10 am

  Gamepads are for lilypalmed nancy boys.

• 29 Kowl Slaw // Sep 30, 2008 at 7:37 am

  He has some good points in that article.

• 30 VenomKing666 // Sep 30, 2008 at 7:42 am

  Well enjoy failing at a game obviously designed to be played with a gamepad.

• 31 a westie // Sep 30, 2008 at 7:47 am

  If one good thing comes from Games for Windows, I hope that it’s reinforcing what games are designed for control pads and which ones aren’t, and offering up good Xbox 360 controller control schemes. I have a couple controllers in my room thanks to my roommate, and I could get a cheap adapter for them. Of course, programming a controller into some PC games is hard, because you have no idea what the developer wanted.

• 32 MacBeth // Sep 30, 2008 at 8:06 am

  @Crimson Binome:

  WASD is ok as a default… but ESDF is superior - it allows your little finger easier access to more keys (A, Ctrl, Shift, backslash, Z) without any noticeable downsides. I’m surprised it’s not used more widely…

• 33 Crimson Binome // Sep 30, 2008 at 8:32 am

  I tried the ESDF keys are your suggestion, and they did work just as well, and gave my pinky free use for the left side of my keyboard (usually my ring finger is the one doing the pressing) but I think I’m just programmed into using the wads keys.

  @VenomKing666, I mostly enjoyed the game (well, I didn’t, but that’s another story, and has nothing to do with the controls) using the keyboard and mouse alone. I don’t doubt it would of been better experienced using the gamepad, but my point is that their default bindings for the keyboard are atrocious. For those of us who don’t have a gamepad, which I believe are the majority, it would of been nice to have some simple controls that aren’t a symphony of awkwardness.

• 34 VenomKing666 // Sep 30, 2008 at 9:45 am

  Yo Crimson, why did you hate DMC4 ? Was that your first DMC game ?

• 35 Crimson Binome // Sep 30, 2008 at 10:05 am

  I didn’t hate it, I just didn’t really like it. I thought the combat was pretty fun (control woes aside), and most stories involving corrupt and zealous theocratic orders have my attention. After all. They better not risk taking any chances. Or they’re all dead. And the beginning with Dante crashing through a window and shooting a helpless man in the head was pretty neat.

  But!

  I thought the story was trite, and the characters rather boring. Kyrie was especially grating to me, and drawed upon all of the damsel in distress and Knight in Shining Armour routines. Running across a church floor that’s being slowly destroyed by two titans to get a cheap tchotchke was groan inducing, and then following that, shielding a child while a giant deamon comes barreling down on you while super-handsome boyfriend cleaves it in two added to that. I think that both Nero and Dante tried far too hard to be an anti-hero, and a lot of their actions felt forced to be bad-ass. Switching from Nero’s Devil Bringer to Dante’s…Not Devil Bringer was a bit of a jar as well.

  I can certainly understand why people enjoy the Devil May Cry series, and I don’t have any feelings of smugness for disliking it, and I’m not being condescending to people who do, it’s just not my cup of tea.

• 36 palker4 // Sep 30, 2008 at 10:31 am

  It would be nice if game would save the save files and other stuff to the hard drive that they are installed on cause some people (me) have really few free space on windows disk and huge save files of games like crysis or witcher do no good

• 37 VenomKing666 // Sep 30, 2008 at 10:38 am

  COol, I suggest you to try DMC3 Special Edition because it is by far the best one, if you enjoyed the 4th one you will enjoy the 3rd one. And ou will also understand things about the 4th that you didnt understand.

• 38 Nathan Sharfi // Sep 30, 2008 at 1:31 pm

  Mr. Meer’s #2 reveals his ignorance of the proper places of things.

  Have a look at …

  First, he declares that everything belongs in %programfiles%, and then complains that things end up in C:\ProgramData. Thing is, that directory is where stuff ends up if a program without admin privileges tries to write into %programfiles% (a big no-no).

  Savegames belong in %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games (I don’t know if there’s a way to access this folder programmatically).

  Config files belong in a subfolder of %appdata%.

  Source-sized maps (my TF2 maps folder is about a gig) belong in a subfolder of %localappdata%–these things aren’t something you waint to wait to have synced across a network logon/logoff.

  Quite honestly, I’m sick and tired of developers treating these sorts of security issues as an afterthought like they did back in…1998.

• 39 Tleilaxu // Oct 1, 2008 at 3:10 am

  I don’t agree with demand #9 and #3. Not with #3 because in some cases it just looks ugly when graphics get stretched/distorted. Instead of desktop resolution, 1024*768 is good enough. 2/3 of the PC users uses that resolution, and if you want a bigger resolution, just switch it in the options. I don’t agree with #9 because that is what normal saves are for, simple as that.

• 40 VenomKing666 // Oct 1, 2008 at 12:15 pm

  Oh please, please ADD:

  BEING ABLE TO CHOSE THE LANGUAGE OF THE GAME DESPITE THE LANGUAGE OF OUR OS.

  Because I am french, and everytime I play a game it will be in French, the bad thing is that ofte, french voice acting sucks ass compared to english voice acting. Hopefully for DMC4 the voices were kept in English.

  JUST MAKE US CHOOSE IN OPTION OR FOR THE INSTALLATION !

• 41 Gemedet // Oct 1, 2008 at 3:05 pm

  @32:
  Completely agree with this. I’m pretty surprised that WASD has persisted this long. ESDF not only gives you more keys to press, it’s also more natural: your left hand is situated that way during normal typing anyway.

• 42 Erased.. // Oct 2, 2008 at 1:54 am

  @ 26

  I played the devil may cry 4 PC demo, and i agree, the controls are stupid. But so is the game, so i wouldnt’ve bought it anyway.

• 43 JoeyJoJo // Oct 2, 2008 at 7:30 am

  I wrote a list of 20 ‘ways for games to improve’ a couple of years ago… most of them are on the list you recommend, but there’s a few gameplay-specific ones in there two.
  Sort-of based on a much bigger list, in an issue of PCZone that game out that year.

  http://nostrilsoup.blogspot.com/2006/09/number-7-of-94-in-nicks-medium-level.html

• 44 Lagged2Death // Oct 2, 2008 at 9:01 am

  I don’t mind being required to have a game disc in the drive to play, and I’ve never had a problem with it. But it’s not a perfect system. Many have had trouble running legally-purchased games whose CD-ROM copy-protection system didn’t work correctly in their shiny new DVD-ROM drive, etc.

• 45 Erased.. // Oct 2, 2008 at 3:03 pm

  If you dont like having the disk in the drive every time you play, use a No-Cd crack

• 46 Archmonk // Oct 6, 2008 at 5:58 am

  I quite disagree about CD-checks vs. max installs. I don’t know anyone with a legitimate use for, at most, three installs: main PC, laptop, spouse’s PC. It’s only an issue when you’re installing the game.

  A CD check is a pain in the ass every time you run the game. If I played only one game on my PC, and never used the DVD drive for anything but installing that one game, it’d be fine. I could just leave the disc in there and never remove it. But I am usually involved in a few games at once, at least, and I use my DVD drive for a variety of things. The third thing I do with a new game is apply a no-CD crack.

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