Getting [Steam]-Rolled 9

[Dispozition]

I got Chief of Staff at about 60 hours.

I've had it for about that long...And I only have about 90 hours of medic...You need to learn to heal matey boy.

[Dogmantra]

Hey I'm stupidly aggressive, so what? Though now I come to think of it I think it might have been more along the lines of 40-50 hours because I hit 60 hours a couple of weeks ago (I was playing a lot in the school holidays) and I have had that achievement for a long time...

[Bayar]

Thanks again Scorpionica ! Remind me to buy you a game that you want sometime during the next week.

[Scorpionica]

Thanks again Scorpionica ! Remind me to buy you a game that you want sometime during the next week.

You're welcome. You're free to donate such an amount to the ChHa L4D2 / TF2 servers as well, could mean an extra month for both. Otherwise, I'll pick something fun then.

[Imposter]

Sorry about the ragequit. But that server made the bit of the game I actually like insanely aggravating, I wasn't having fun, and...

Yeah.

[chiasaur11]

Beat Hazard has a demo now.

Anyone who tries it?

I recommend Clash City Rockers. Highly.

Also, She's Got You High by Mumm-Ra (the (500) Days of Summer soundtrack has it.)

[Rutskarn]

I just unlocked my new Sam and Max merchandise. Gentlemen, please excuse me while I cabbage patch.

[Player_Zero]

I got a Batter's Helmet. A crummy hat, but at least it's a hat.

Also, I think Jibar has a crush on you, Rutskarn. He won't shut up about you regardless of whether you're in the game or not.

[KBF]

Also, I think Jibar has a crush on you, Rutskarn. He won't shut up about you regardless of whether you're in the game or not.

Oh right, you've been gone. Yeah, he's basically the most stalkerish about Ruts now. Even moreso than Phase.

I think it was that Lets Play Screw Around they did awhile back.

[Bayar]

Beat Hazard has a demo now.

Anyone who tries it?

I recommend Clash City Rockers. Highly.

Also, She's Got You High by Mumm-Ra (the (500) Days of Summer soundtrack has it.)

Highly recommend getting the game. So awesome.

[Mtg_player_zach]

Anyone want to play l4d2 with me tomorrow, it's my day off and I just want to play it--like all day.

[Science Officer]

Beat Hazard has a demo now.

Anyone who tries it?

I recommend Clash City Rockers. Highly.

Also, She's Got You High by Mumm-Ra (the (500) Days of Summer soundtrack has it.)

Pretty fun.

I recommend Power Supply by Ananamanguchi if you want an easy track, and can stomach techno.

For a real challenge, try Cthulhu Dreams by the Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

[Scuzzball]

Pretty fun.

I recommend Power Supply by Ananamanguchi if you want an easy track, and can stomach techno.

For a real challenge, try Cthulhu Dreams by the Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

Well, thank you for the new band I now kinda like.(Anamanaguchi) Now off to go try that demo.

*edit* That demo that I did not like.

[chiasaur11]

Pretty fun.

I recommend Power Supply by Ananamanguchi if you want an easy track, and can stomach techno.

For a real challenge, try Cthulhu Dreams by the Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

How many points you get for Power Supply?

Might try it some time.

(And I'd place anything by the Velvet Underground as somewhat challenging, if only because you don't have any firepower.)

[Penguinizer]

Well, I tried Beat Hazard and I can say this. It is a hazard and not in a good way. It's a cluster**** of flashing lights that make my eyes bleed and gameplay elements from Asteroids of all things. Do they intend for you to play the game with your eyes closed or what? I don't even have any problems with flashing lights but my god I couldn't get 30 seconds into a song because I was already being blindsided by stuff rapidly flying in from the edge of the screen I couldn't even SEE because of the flashing lights obscuring everything on screen.

TL;DR: Not worth it. Your eyes will thank you.

Edit: For the record: I played most of DJ Satomi's Castle in the Sky and then The Beastie Boys's Intergalactic which are fairly mellow. I can't imagine what a faster track would be like. Why I didn't try? Because unlike Audiosurf, it can't read mp4 files, which I happen to have most of my music as. Oh joy.

[Science Officer]

hmm, not sure how many points I got, can't check now after using all my tracks.
But it was rather easy. Not sure if it's worth using one of your demo plays.

*imagines editing a whole bunch of songs together to get the most out of the demo...*

@Scuzzball: You can find the rest of that album as well as other music in the same genre at http://www.8bitpeoples.com/

[Faulty]

Beat Hazard was not good. Gameplay was standard Asteroids-esque space shooter, but with more BLINDING FLASHING LIGHTS. Seriously, I died because I couldn't make my ship out in the neon morass. Also, the way the song started off quiet was incredibly boring. I want to hear the music, thank you.

Audiosurf is better.

EDIT: Another thing, to quote Imposter: "I have no idea how the music affects the gameplay."

[chiasaur11]

hmm, not sure how many points I got, can't check now after using all my tracks.
But it was rather easy. Not sure if it's worth using one of your demo plays.

Ah.

Just was remembering getting over 200K from Clash City Rockers fairly easily, and was wondering if that was exceptionally high for a song.

[Penguinizer]

Update: Unlike Audiosurf, you can't play tracks off of a CD either. I'm up the creek without a paddle it seems. It also doesn't seem like the gameplay differs much. Sure, the enemies seem to spawn in a different spot but I didn't notice any other difference between aforementioned Castle in the Sky (a fairly light techno track) and Blind Guardian's Valhalla (Power metal). Only difference was that the lights seemed to focus on an even more painful shade of red for Valhalla.

[Scuzzball]

@Scuzzball: You can find the rest of that album as well as other music in the same genre at http://www.8bitpeoples.com/

I had found that, but thank you.

Audiosurf is better.

EDIT: Another thing, to quote Imposter: "I have no idea how the music affects the gameplay."

I like audiosurf. You get to the point where your mind just drifts and you just start winning the game, but not noticing. When you start to notice you're doing well, you stop doing well. But all in all, it makes me space out to music. I quite like it.

[Imposter]

People seem to have beaten me to it, but Beat Hazard is terrible. Extremely terrible.

* The controls are floaty and imprecise.
* The enemy art design is boring.
* The enemy graphics do not have high contrast against the player, against the background, or against the weapon effects.
* The music does not affect the gameplay in any observable way.
* Weapon effects are bright to the point of being painful.
* Weapon effects obscure the rest of the game.
* The file browser is a crime against my mouse, my hands, and my sanity.


Of course, the biggest problem with the game is that almost every one of those problems should be fairly easy to fix. From experience, controls take half a day of tweaking. Art is something can be fixed without so much as touching the code. Weapon effects would be much better if were just slightly less obnoxious. The file browser is perfectly functional, except for the utter lack of effort that seems to have gone into porting the interface.

And the way it claims to be affected by your music? That one's easy to fix too. The publisher could stop lying and rename the game.

[Worira]

Mothman info?

[Penguinizer]

I think the question we should be asking about Beat Hazard at this point isn't "What is bad about it?" but "What is good about it?"

[Dispozition]

Honestly, I'm loving Beat Hazard. The music *does* affect you. Try playing a classical song. You have no hope in hell even on easy. Playing ridiculously fast and heavy stuff like Pendulum or Prodigy leaves you pretty much gone although you can at least defend yourself. Fairly fast rock seems to be the easiest genre going by my music. Meteora by Linkin Park and Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age are the two albums I've pretty much 100%'d.

In reply to imposter
- yes, controls are sort of floaty, but it's still similar enough to Geometry wars that I'm used to it.
- Art design isn't brilliant, but that's not what I came for.
- That's the best thing about it. I don't know what the hell is going on when the music starts going crazy, it suits it wonderfully.
- Already noted on the music.
- Once again, stylistically awesome.
- And again.
- File browser isn't great, I'll pay that. A pop up window would be much nicer.

[Penguinizer]

I agree with you about the controls. They weren't that bad. In fact, they were the controls in Asteroid. Like the rest of the gameplay.

What I don't agree on is the entire "I don't know what the hell is going on when the music starts going crazy, it suits it wonderfully." comment. This is not good gameplay. Difficulty does not come from not seeing the screen. It is an arbitary restriction that turns otherwise uneventful gameplay into a mess of flashing colors that serve no real purpose. This is not a good style to go for. If you can't win a level because you were killed by something you could not see that's hardly a good thing.

Imagine if you played Half-Life 2, except you couldn't see the snipers. In every section, you would just walk forward then suddenly drop dead. Would this make the game better? No.

[Phase]

GUYS COME WATCH MOTHMAN RIGHT NOW AT:

http://www.livestream.com/syfyorig

STARRING JEWEL STAIT OF FIREFLY

[Dispozition]

I agree with you about the controls. They weren't that bad. In fact, they were the controls in Asteroid. Like the rest of the gameplay.

What I don't agree on is the entire "I don't know what the hell is going on when the music starts going crazy, it suits it wonderfully." comment. This is not good gameplay. Difficulty does not come from not seeing the screen. It is an arbitary restriction that turns otherwise uneventful gameplay into a mess of flashing colors that serve no real purpose. This is not a good style to go for. If you can't win a level because you were killed by something you could not see that's hardly a good thing.

Imagine if you played Half-Life 2, except you couldn't see the snipers. In every section, you would just walk forward then suddenly drop dead. Would this make the game better? No.

Oh no, I can see what's going on, it's just so hectic that it's hard to keep track, which is good in my opinion. It adds challenge and trains me to keep better concentration (bit of weird reasoning for you there). Geometry Wars is much the same, it gets extremely hectic and quite confusing even with simpler art and less strobe. In all my playing (over 2 hours now), I've only lost track of my ship twice.

[Penguinizer]

Geometry Wars was hectic, but it the screen wasn't covered in flashing to create that. You can see where stuff is.

[Imposter]

Eh, maybe I was just in a bad mood. I loved geometry wars, and was actually consciously comparing the two games as I was playing to see why I love one and hate the other. The main things I came up with was that as hectic as it ever got in geometry wars, the enemies were easy to tell from the background/general stuff going on, and the player was instantly recognizable by the particle trail. Oh, and the weapon effects weren't nearly as irritatingly bright and painful.

About the music affecting it, maybe my choice of music conspired against me. I only had the ten songs, so I was either playing songs that I like in audiosurf, songs that are damn long, or songs I just happen to like. All of which resulted in asteroids followed by a boss type thing, followed by asteroids. And then a boss type thing. And then it repeated.

And I still hate the controls and file browser, but I'm willing to admit that the controls are probably just me. Maybe they'd be better on an xbox controller.

[Dispozition]

And I still hate the controls and file browser, but I'm willing to admit that the controls are probably just me. Maybe they'd be better on an xbox controller.

I find the controls fine, I'm just infuriated by the massive load times.