TimeSplitters 2 Comments by Kristan Reed

A little bump for those still refusing to look at the front page. I might get this but I wasn't overly impressed with the first version which lacked any motivating factors.

The demo was great. With all these superb titles coming out It's going to be an expensive winter...

the gun sound effects always lend a credible atmosphere – particularly in the Wild West, where the ricochet effect is genuinely, knowingly, spot on

How do you know the 'Wild West' ricochet effect is spot on ? Have you used an authentic firearm of the era ?

The ricochet sound would vary accoring to the calibre of round, the muzzle velocity, the composition of the round etc etc.

Thus, unless one had fired an authentic 'Wild Western' firearm, using authentic rounds, one would not know the exact ricochet sound.

as for cube pad, go and pick one up, imagine playing a dual stick + fire button FPS on that.

OK I'm imagining it. Seems fine. What's your point? o_O

Thus, unless one had fired an authentic 'Wild Western' firearm, using authentic rounds, one would not know the exact ricochet sound.

Errol - get back to slavering over Ausie soap-babes.

Cheers :)

Errol - get back to slavering over Ausie soap-babes

I will certainly make all possible efforts to carry out this instruction. It is my intention to visit certain websites this evening, to carry out 'research'.

/makes note - 'don't shake hands with Errol tomorrow' :)

The graphics look crap...

I have the x-box version and I have no quarms with it at all...i was a little doubtful as I was`nt exactly blown over by the original but I have no problems this time round...even my hitman 2 is still in the wraps as I have still to get round to it....and i have not even began to use the map editor , and like someone said before the x-boxs harddisk will certainly be useful for that....

On 50Hz v 60Hz - surely when you get to this level it's faster than the eye can detect anyway? I thought anything beyond 25 / 30 fps all looked the same.

And in any case - before you start moaning baout only getting 50 instead of 60 - you should see UT2003 running on my clanking old pc!

Dual shock the best pad? The analogue sticks are way too loose, and stupidly close together. Xbox pad has nice spaced out sticks which don't fully rotate in a gust of wind, plus proper triggers for firing.

God, it's really reached a new low when people are ranting about which pad is better. We hardly ever even hear about the graphics or games anymore, it's all "My console is nicer colour!" and "Your console is for kids!".

the faster the average frame rate the better it will be at the more clunked up points. Running at an average of 60 may take it down to 25-30 at bad points. 50 will take it down to like 15-25.

The obvious solution being not to make clunked up bits in the first place.

I just bought TS2 yesterday for my Cube, it looks very fine. It's not meant to be a graphic stunner, at least not this edition, maybe TS3 :P .

The controls are great with this controller, especially analog sensitivity. Also, its fully customizable, so there is no need to fret, just adjust till everything works for you.
GameCube controller: melts in your hands, not in your mouth. ...shouldn't really be putting accessories there now should you...:D

I'm having lots of fun, both solo and multi-player modes.

Well that's my semi-coherent super mini-review. :D

The Xbox controller is the mother controller for First Persons Shooters on a console. Be it the S Controller or the Fat controller you use. Not the size that counts, its what it can do :)

to be honest I dont have any trouble with the x-box`s controller...quess it must be my big hands...now if i had arthritus then it might be a differnent story...suh as ohh me knuckles hurt..ohh me hip...oh i say it was`nt like that in my day...kids today they dont know how lucky they are...i remember when this was all pixels , none of that ray traced rubbish ya get today....can i have my pension please...oh and some cat food...

"I've heard many Xbox owners on the IGN boards say that the graphics in this game simply aren't good enough. They say "We've been spoiled by Halo's graphics and this game, with clipping, low-res textures and all, isn't good enough."

TimeSplitters 2 looks great, mostly because of the quality of the animation, and it's a lot more 'fun' to play than Halo, so it sounds to me like the fanboy army is clutching at straws.

:( I have to wait a whole week before I have to decide on ps2 or gc version

"I just bought TS2 yesterday for my Cube, it looks very fine."
You did? I thought it wasn't out yet???

BTW, got the Xbox version the other day and the only noticeable difference in it are higher quality textures, better glass effects and 5.1 sound.

As to pads, I prefer my imported S-pad to the PS2's one. Nice spacing on the thumbsticks.

Thanks for the 'Necron Colours removal' link guys.

..think it is ok (a wee bit too much like playing goldeneye on n64)...

So it's a work of unparalleled genius then??

Wonderful news. I got banned from 3DR's forum again. If you wonder what I did, so do I. Apparantly it's a crime to have an independant opinion on their forum. (Read calling for Todd Hollenshead to resign his CEO position at Id).

I may regret this.

But why do you want Tom to resign?

I may regret this.

Not as much as Id or 3DR did. :)

But why do you want Tom to resign?

If 3DR hadn't seen fit to delete a thread full of reasonable and rational argument, I wouldn't have to retype this...

The gist of the argument is the balance of technical and content production within Id, their outrageous internal politics, poor reception by the public to Doom III, and Todd Hollenshead's inability to glue all this together as a competent CEO should.

The man's name is Todd Hollenshead. It usually pays to know the name of the guy who you're complaining about.

You did? I thought it wasn't out yet???

U.S. ...sorry....:)

The man's name is Todd Hollenshead. It usually pays to know the name of the guy who you're complaining about.

Eh? Hit a bit of a blindspot there. Yes, that's the creep, Todd Hollenshead CEO Id Software. Thankyou.

Eek.

well the first level is obviously a homage to the n64 classic

I don’t think it is. This is Free Radical Design’s (mainly ex Rare coders) way of saying “we were the people behind Goldeneye and are now taking back what we made and own with TS2.” Just my two cents…

Keyser

Its now wonder communism fell if they had to pay for the upkeep of all these secret places built by dams....maybe things would of gone differently if they had sent a memo....headlined `no more dams`

Probably would have gone better if they'd attached:

P.S. Keep out the westerners from existing ones.


edit: oops cheers Tyronne

westerns....so they would`nt of been able to watch cowboys and indians then...no wonder things went tits up....

May we focus on the game itself? Having played it.....it's okay. Goldeneye homage it may be ( well at least during the first level ), but is there really that much in the game to justify the scores it's getting? The story and single player game is poor. The multiplayer is great, but one element does not make it the great game everyone claims it to be.
TS2 graphics are average, the AI poor and there seems to be little difference between the performance of the various weapons - they may look different but there seems little variation aside from that.
I think that official playstation 2 mag got a wee bit excited giving it 10 / 10 and may find that particular review an embarassment in future. I even think that 9 / 10 is a bit high.
It's fun, derivative and wouldn't have been out of place on the N64 - it may be a Goldeneye update but it would have been nice to have seen some real advances from a game nearly six years old.

Following on from my ranting and frothing about Todd Hollenstead resigning as CEO of Id Software, an interesting article has appeared in The Independent.

The marketing machine of the games industry has been very good at promoting a few key brands at the expense of more worthy and less well known titles. This is against a background of more developers, more games, and more money being sucked from the pockets of customers than ever before, and has been mirrored by the world of cinema. Despite the increasing number of venues, multiplex cinemas, and audiences, in November two films will be using up to three-quarters of the available screen space at the expense of diversity and quality.

In the same way that gamers have been treated with contempt and made to suffer for the empty eye candy of Id Software games and their ilk, cinema audiences are being made to suffer becuase the marketing men have decided that "we like to watch slick and empty films." Apparantly "we" don't. Cinema audiences are beginning to show signs of rebelliousness.

Id should not take the success of Doom III for granted. Todd Hollenstead should resign from Id software as he's shown a gross inability to manage its warring factions and lead the games market in a manner more positive for the customer.

First Impressions after playing this for a few hours last night.
Graphically not up to the same standard as Halo but the animation is quite good.
In story mode the levels are just waaay to short and AI is plain shoddy.
Good example is on the first level on the dam when going throught the first long corridor the enemies just run around like headless chickens.
Another annoying thing is they sometimes take ages to shoot at you.

Controls are ok. Don't want to get into the PS2 vs xbox, GC controller thing but IMHO the xbox is more suited to FPS the dual shock sicks are way too close for comfort.

Multiplayer however is a different kettle of fish and this is where the game really shines. It's simply great. However the bots in MP are, like in story mode, a bit on the thick side and tend to do the same thing over and over.

The number of different options in the game is staggering. Map Maker is great craic especially with the capcity of the xbox HDD. So great lasting appeal.

Apart for the gripes about graphics, what do you expect the target platform was PS2, the AI issues and the too short Story mode this is a brilliant game.

@angryDarren OPS2 mag does tend to gush a bit when it comes to reviewing games. 10/10 ffs the AI and short story mode should be enough to shave off at least 0.5 to 1 point from that score.

I was playing the cooperative story mode with a friend and he quickly started saying "Let's play Halo instead." We kept slipping up on the Notre Dame level: either one of us catching fire or shooting a Damsel and the spur to repeat five minutes of identical move/shoot/move/shoot just to try again was depressing.

But I love the single player challenges and arcade levels. Multiplayer mode can be spectacular - turning on all the bots on "Scrapyard" for example creates a staggering light display with crunchy effects and the bots appear to demonstrate more 'individuality' - camping, hiding and wandering around aimlessly (hey, it's me!) - than in the story mode.

Oh, and Monkey Assist is the best gameplay gimmick for years...

Dammit, my pre-order still hasn't arrived!! But after reading the review I do feel justified in buying it - anything that can offer the mission-based gameplay of Goldeneye with even more multi-player goodness should be excellent!

And I don't think Goldeneye is too poor a stardard to be living up to - yes, it may be almost 6 years old, but doesn't the fact that everyone keeps looking back to it when playing / reviewing any console FPS say something about how good it was? Or is it perhaps how little things have moved on in the meantime?

Oh, and a 10-15 hour single player game is pretty good imo. Now where's that postman...

TS2 sounds like a great game. But, the problems identified by Eurogamers review and further comments from posters in here undermine the 9/10 score. It certainly doesn't deserve 10/10. Graphics are a given in any game and on any platform. More weight should be given to story and the "actors" performance.

And I don't think Goldeneye is too poor a stardard to be living up to - yes, it may be almost 6 years old, but doesn't the fact that everyone keeps looking back to it when playing / reviewing any console FPS say something about how good it was? Or is it perhaps how little things have moved on in the meantime?

It's cheap and easy for developers to increase visual appeal and throw the burden of paying for this on the customer instead of working on the elements that would really advance the game playing experience.

Blame Id. Todd Hollenstead should resign.

One thing I've definitely noticed since posting the review is that Easy difficulty is WAY too easy (I went back and played a few levels on Easy to see how the difficulty varied). If any of you are thinking about playing single player on Easy - don't. It's almost stupidly easy. There's no point, other than to unlock the next level - you don't get to unlock new characters, etc.
I think any moans about the graphics are valid, to an extent. The animation and general unique look about the game makes up for the lack of texture detail. Don't know about you, but it's boring when every first person shooter looks the same. At least TS2 has character and charm, even if it isn't cutting edge.

Hey, the game is good - not great - but it annoys me that it's a triumph of marketing over and above the quality of the game. The same thing happened with MGS2 - hype built upon hype to the point that there is little dissention for fear of appearing clueless in the eyes of whoever. If four or five twenty minute cutscenes broken up by small chunks of gameplay rocks your world, fine. But please have the grace to apply the same rules to all games, not just those that people want to see succeed in spite of the actual quality of the title.
TS2 is good - but offers little that is new. In fact it might just be the best of a bad bunch this year ( although I'll play RF2 before making my mind up on that score ).

Hey, the game is good - not great - but it annoys me that it's a triumph of marketing over and above the quality of the game.

Doom III...

you're obsessed.

Focused. :)

Er, quick note to the people blathering about 50/60hz switches up there.

The problem which is solved by a 50/60 switch is that Japanese and US games are developed in 60Hz, and then dropped down to 50hz for the PAL version - which sucks a lot, because in poor cases this means a 17% drop in speed and/or borders, and even in the best cases it's not glitch free. So you play in 60hz in order to get the game as originally intended.

It is NOTHING to do with framerate. On a television screen you will not notice the difference between a perfectly optimised 50hz game and perfectly optimised 60hz game. Anyone arguing otherwise is being misguided by the situation on the PC, where your eye WILL pick up framerate differences on the vastly higher quality VGA monitors.

It's perfectly logical that TS2 shouldn't include a 60hz switch, because given it was developed in Nottingham, I'm guessing that it was originally created in 50hz - so that's its native mode, thats how it was intended to be played and that is the best mode to play it in. The same goes for ANY game created in the UK. 50/60 switches only apply to US/Japan developed games and are used to fix some aspects of PAL conversion, NOTHING more.

So, er, can we end this silly argument here? Free Rad aren't lazy or stupid for not including the switch, they're 100% right. In fact, if they included 60hz, you'd probably find all the fanboys switching into that without thinking it through, and ending up playing in an inferior mode with framerate issues...

Anyone arguing otherwise is being misguided by the situation on the PC, where your eye WILL pick up framerate differences on the vastly higher quality VGA monitors.

Monitors and televisions are also *different* beasts.

The 50/60Hz issues you raise would best be addressed by a definitive article. Customers are not stupid (whatever the companies like to think). But, they can't make good quality decisions without good quality information.

In fact, if they included 60hz, you'd probably find all the fanboys switching into that without thinking it through, and ending up playing in an inferior mode with framerate issues...

0wned!

edit - agree fully with FB, expand that comment into an article Rob and then we can link to it whenever this comes up again. :)

Yes. Lots of free advertising for Eurogamer.

Well I just went into Eurogamer options and enabled 60hz, and now its running much quicker.

Cinema audiences are beginning to show signs of rebelliousness

It's certainly happening, FB;

Read in the Sunday Times - Madonna's over-hyped new film's takings are less per screen than Michael Moore's full length rant about the culture of violence in the US.

Maybe we shouldn't damn an entire nation on the basis of it's loudest occupants..

Maybe we shouldn't damn an entire nation on the basis of it's loudest occupants..

TEH FUNNAY! Hopefully Airstrip One won't be damned in turn for the "quiet man" leading the bloody Tory party.