AI – GRAW vs GRAW2

Posted on 4 October 2007 by FoxTwo

It came as a surprise to me actually.

I was still playing around on GRAW2 recently, then decided I should go back to GRAW1 and re-play some missions. When GRAW1 loaded up, these are the things I noticed almost immediately:

  1. Framerates were smoother (needless to say)
  2. The Tactical map sucked
  3. GRAW1 AI rocks!

No, seriously. GRAW1 AI rocks in comparison to GRAW2’s. For example, when I put the whole team on “Follow” mode, in GRAW2, at the most, what they’ll do when they spot an enemy is whisper into the comms “enemy sniper”.

What happens in GRAW1 is completely different – they tell you “Enemy sniper” and they FIRE BACK!

In GRAW2 I have to conciously “put them in harm’s way” before they’ll open fire on the enemy. In GRAW1, as soon as they spot an enemy they’ll take him out.

I just wish that they had transplanted the GRAW1 AI over to GRAW2.. then at least I’ll still have a chance in the last mission. Yeah yeah I’m still stuck at The Last Stand mission in GRAW2… pinned down by enemy fire, snipers everywhere… and, lots of reloads because the snipers keep picking me off.

In GRAW1, I remember I was on a street, walking.. my Ghosts were on “Follow” mode. They spotted an enemy sniper on the rooftop. They said “Enemy sniper” and I heard a couple of shots go off behind me… next thing I knew, they said “Got ‘im”. I never even saw where the sniper was, and they had already taken him out! Now THESE are the kinda buddies I’d go to into battle with. They watch my back.

As for the tactical map, well… I really came to appreciate the improvements they did to the map in GRAW2 when I saw the GRAW1 map. Less options, less everything. But I guess the great AI made up for it. I think the designers wanted GRAW2 to be a more “micro-managing” game.

Anyway, enough chatter… time to get back to the fight!

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IMVU And GRAW2

Posted on 28 September 2007 by FoxTwo

I finally managed to get some game time in last night. Instead of heading straight for Bioshock, I decided to just run around inside Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 for abit. Then I remembered that I haven’t really uploaded anything to Youtube in awhile, so I ran up FRAPS and did a game session capture.

So, here’s the game session, slightly edited to fit Youtube’s *#@(*&* under 10 minutes rule.

The game session itself was brief – under 45 mins including loading times, briefing screens, and weapon loadouts. Actually I’m mildly surprised at this run myself. Not a single fatality, and my AI companions actually know how to shoot!

Anyway, conversion from the RAW capture as well as uploading to Youtube took about 2 hours, thanks to Starhub’s pathetic upload speed (256K upload on a 6MB downlink). Starhub needs to increase this so that people like me who aren’t compulsive pirates that makes bootleg copies of everything can actually UPLOAD something!

Well, since I had to wait an eternity while the video gets uploaded to Youtube, I decided to fire up the IMVU client. What’s IMVU? Imagine MSN or Yahoo messenger. You got buddies right? You chat right? Ok now, you imagine doing this with a 3D avatar in a 3D-ish world. When you talk, speech balloons float above your head like in comic strips. If interested, feel free to check IMVU out.

Anyway, as I was saying, I went into IMVU and happened to run into some friends. We yakked. I had time to kill anyway, since I’m waiting for the video to upload to Youtube. So one of them decided to have a “photoshoot”. The whole group literally had to “freeze” their poses for about 2 hours for the “photographer” to take snapshots of us all in various poses.

So, eventually, video got uploaded, and I was “persuaded” to remain in IMVU for much longer than I had intended heh!

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Just Some Ramblings – MMOs

Posted on 25 September 2007 by FoxTwo
Well, I’m still here, still alive. I’ve been busy the past couple of weeks and have not been playing Bioshock, as wonderful and addictive a game it is. I’ve mellowed through the years. I remember when there was a time you couldn’t pull me away from the computer to eat, if I’m engrossed in a game. Now…. well, it’s very easy to just pause/exit the game and do what needs to be done first, then get back to the game later.

Anyway, I’m still waiting on Tabula Rasa to be done, so that I can play it! The last MMO I played was Everquest 2, and that was way back in 2004-2005. I remember quitting in 2006 due to work commitments, as well as burnout. I just got tired of the constant grind to hit max level so I can go on raids.

Besides, what’s the big deal about raids anyway?

Oh yeah, phat lewt. So what?

I don’t know about you guys, but I play MMOs for FUN and SOCIALISING. Having a powerful character decked out in uber gear is nice, and in some ways, a “status symbol”, but it’s not a necessity. Not for me anyway. I’m fine if you have the bestest, most powerful sword from the Bad Dragon That Guards The Cave and all I have is a puny crafted sword made by another player (or myself if I happen to play crafting in the MMO). What I look for in an MMO is fun, fun in killing stuff with other people.

I remember getting exposed to MUDs waaayyyy back in the 80s. MUDs – Multi-User Dungeons. That would be the proper origins of modern-day MMOs I guess. Back then, we had dingy text consoles, where it tells you “You are now in a room. You can see a table and a chair against the far wall” and then you type stuff like “take sword” or “kill goblin with sword”.

Yep, now, those are known as “interactive fiction”. Well, the single-player versions are, anyway. By the way, if you wanna play “interactive fiction” now, just Google it. You’ll find tons of resources to get the interpreters as well as the game files, mostly free, from the Internet. Heck, I even have the interpreter for the PalmOS installed!

So where was I? Oh yeah, Tabula Rasa.

Dang I can’t wait. When I was in EQ2, all my other guildmates were looking forward to Vaguard or D&D Online. I’m the weird one that is waiting on Tabula Rasa and Star Trek Online (ooooh yeah I’d really like to be in STO! I’m a big Trekkie!). My guild master even said that if I ever get into Tabula Rasa, he’d be happy if I could establish a charter in there, ie a “branch”. I dunno man, I don’t really fancy the idea of being the guild leader. I could establish the guild though, and let someone else run it. Just be a guild “founder” maybe.

Well, I guess enough ramblings. I really, really, REALLY need to get back to Bioshock.

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