Serious Sam Interview

This was just going be a comment or two, but it ended up being a review.

Wow! Just finished the game, co-oping with a friend (turn based), that is one damn tough game. I don't remember DooM being that difficult.

Beautiful game. Nice sun glare. Realistic water pool. 2 or 3 nice enemy models. Pretty cool doom-like weapons, i liked the dual pistols, the double pump shotgun made me crave dual saw-ed off shotguns though. Hated the splash damage on the RL but only because it fragmented me so many times, cursed charging bulls.

Did Croteam ever hear of Stairs? Maybe they don't have those in the third world 8)

And uh, the level is huge, a little too big for my tastes, I figure that was three levels. Ugh, terrible monster placement, jeesus christ, sending out 3 waves of assorted monsters, then 2 arachnids, a friggin army of harpies and 7 god d*mn bulls just prior to the two final bosses is insane. I don't even like when monsters spawn out of nowhere but this was ridiculous. An army of harpies, I'm not kidding. The only real way two defeat the bosses was hiding behind corners that you could shoot of and not get hit. Not exactly superfun doing that. And forget about picking anything up, that'll only spawn more twirps. Ridicously hard. BTW: easy means easy, not less hard. moreso, easy should make you feel like your a godly gamer. medium should be challenging and hard should be really, really, really tough. Nightmare might be say, twice as hard as Serious Sam's easy mode.

Nice engine though, I don't really see what about it that demands 500mhz and higher. I had to put it in speed-mode at the lowest rest with "3dfx" drivers to get a playable frame. I don't know what's hogging the cpu, boy, they need to optimize. Again, the glare from the sun was nice and original, they rest of the sky wasn't as impressive as say Daikatana's EST.

But for creeps sake, if id software was targeting 800mhz systems minimum, damn they would make a hella outstanding game. id is the best, in my opinion. I believe Doom 3 will be a generally better game, (considering moore's law) with mininum requirements being about 300mhz with super dazzling performance at 800mhz. I imagine it will be a quality single player game, not difficult because of ridiculous hordes of monsters but incredible game design. id is the original and they will make the engine and game to top.

Still, if i happen to purchase a new motherboard, processor, 3dxl, and a gigantic hard drive (i imagine serious sam will ship on twenty cds, 2 for each level), i'll absolutely by serious sam. Great game, but doom 3 will be better.

Anyone found all the secrets?

Just tried out the demo.
Very, very cool for a compatibility test. Heh, the bull monster was the most innovative enemy i have seen in a loooong time. The headless bombers were a lot of fun too. Its very nice graphically, and had me drooling quite a few played. I got better performance than I expected, considering im runnning a lowly tnt. Didn't dig the "theme" and the locale that much. I've seen enough desert to last a lifetime. And the sounds were pretty low quality. But overall, I think they have a lot of potential and the final game could be a really nice, unless of course, they decide to pull an Id, and release more of the same in the retail version.

I love it too. Poop to the poopyheads **COUGH** (insert name of treelike pampered webmaster) **COUGH** who flame the game because a big part of it is mowing down dozens and dozens of enemies.

Oh, firing a rocket into a group of those birdie things. The blood and feathers cascade down, oh, beautiful, beatiful. Brings a tear to me eye, ahoy.

This game just fucking OWNS. I love it. id has their work cut out for them :)

http://www.shugashack.com/news_reply.x/7061/

The best thing about SS is that Croteam totally did NOT pull a Daikatana, and just put out a really great demo with very little hype. It stands on its own merits and makes me interested in it without trying to make me its bitch beforehand. Which is nice.

Bah! I just hate it when I get carried away typing. People were kind enough to ingnore my post for quite a while, but then the thread thing dragged it out if it's grave. Look, after 10 years of FPS gaming, my brain is mush. I wish that stupid post was just wiped. I'm mean, I'm just this guy bored outta my skull clicking refresh at the shugashack. Who really cares 'bout my 'pinion. Hell, I spent last night coming up with new ways to say Ass-pirate (see Arrgh! article)

So, in summary, for Doom2K, you want CHALLENGE. And you want BLEEDING EDGE TECHNOLOGY. And don't forget INNOVATION. What else?

I was somehow able to stop playing the SS test to write a few more words on it.

This test is serious fun. If you have to sit down and ask yourself what makes a FPS fun, think back to doom and duke. The entire idea behind this gaming genre is to provide an immersive environment in which you can... well... blow some steam! Adding complex puzzles and other gimmicky artifices in a game in an attempt to differentiate the product detracts from the gameplay. If you enjoy slow paced, mind bending, strategic games, there are other genres for you. I believe the Serious Sam team realized this, and gave some serious thought on two of the most important ingredients in a FPS: the monsters, and weapons.

I dare say that the SS super shotty is even more fun than the one in doom2! Pump some lead into a monster at close range and watch him fly! I mean REALLY fly! Or shove the barrels under their nose and turn 'em into juicy giblets which leave realistic trails of blood as they skate across the ground! Ever watch Predator? Remember the scene with the minigun chopping half an Amazon's worth of forest down? You can do that too in this game! This baby will mow through anything you throw in its path, and then some! The scenery will fall apart as the bodies keep piling up amidst a shower of feathers and giblets. If you don't think this is fun, then you'd best switch to a RPG or something.

The monsters are a real blast! The kamikaze guys (although the idea has been used in 3drealm's Shadow Warrior) made me laugh out loud, and the charging bulls brought a massive grin to my face as they tossed me high up into the air. You won't be bored circle-strafing around a vegetating monster in this game!

The only real problem I had with this test was the player speed. The maps are so incredibly huge and expansive that it often becomes frustrating watching the 3d-world go by so slowly. I'm hoping there's a hidden technique in there somewhere a la strafe jumping which allows you to pick up some serious speed, because sam needs it.

I also experienced some slowdowns with my pIII 550@616mhz, 128mb of SDRAM and a GeForce DDR, even at 640x480x16 (quality setting), although it remained perfectly playable (~40fps). However, I didn't apply any tweaks, so I'm sure (hoping) things can be remedied.

In the singleplayer department, the Serious Sam test really shines. Here's to hoping the full game will be as fun as this 'short' download was.

I don't know about anyone else here....

But aren't you sick of games that are too easy?

I really enjoyed the difficulty level of Serious Sam. I had to bust ass at times even on the easiest level of difficulty and required multiple attempts to replay a couple of sections. I haven't had to do that since Doom and with most games today, the normal setting is too easy, with the easy setting being targeted to one-eyed sewer gimps or something...

I think one of the reasons a lot of people played doom for so many hours is that it was so challenging, at the time. I can remember spending days trying to get past certain points in the game, as well as friends calling me up on the phone at 3am asking for help.

Sure, we've gotten more skilled as we've played. I went back, after I managed to buy a new copy of Quake, and played through it on Hard. Even that was easy after all this time playing FPS.

I'm happy to have a game that pushes my system, and my abilities, and still remains addictive as all hell.

Ummm...yeah, thanks for getting that all threaded! Hey, TargetBoy, see if your shugashack inbox works, i left you a message.

You know what Serious Sam could use? Enemy fights. That was always the greatest part of Doom, making the enemies fight each other. It wouldn't have to be all of them, but I can certainly see having the humanoids getting it on with the alien mofos if they hit one another with crossfire...I have a feeling it would be hilarious to see one of those bigass bulls running into a pack of beheadeds. :)

Wee...

The curved surfaces are extreemly impressive. Demo locked up again on me. This stuff happens to me when I clock my TNT2U too high.. maybe I have to cool it more or something. Whatever :) It still owns.

Dopeman

i agree, it is extreeeeemly kick ass. i think i will buy 2 friggin copies just to support these guys (assuming that it's not Romero, staging some Andy Kaufmann type stunt).

Sure, Daikatana is about shooting mosquitos and frogs...

I think The Romero is behind this Croatia thingy.

well i just downloaded the serious sam alpha test and was actually pretty impressed. runs as good as q3 engine would in such enormous spaces and with so many effects. haev you guys looked at the fog in 16bpp? it is so much better looking than quake3's by far. it blends together very nicely. very impressive, loads fast and the levels are ENORMOUS!

http://www.shugashack.com/news_reply.x/7061/

Hahah

However, it's not 'gayer' it's 'more gay'

I just wanna know how a headless kamikaze screams when he has no head?

hehe

heres one for ya...


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suck my cock you poostabber
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see, mine's funnier.

lets take a vote...

One of those creatures looks like a giant Tooth. Or maybe some malformed Tomato running after you.

Hows it going vertigo, where have you been lately?

I vote for FatCracker. So its Fatboy 1, Spamming Turd 0.

I dont get it. Where's the fun after doing it for about an hour already! Hahah. I mean, that should have hit him when all he could drum up was "paint my ass red and call me jesus" and "big weiner".

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