02-09-2011, 08:06 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-09-2011, 08:08 AM by Lee_Stricklin.)
Noticed quite a few things that Xonotic has that no mainstream commercial developer is doing right now, here's a few things I find interesting.
Graphics:
Xonotic does a good job hiding any and all graphical weak points it has by avoiding the lame-ass brown and bloom crap and favoring a colorful yet detailed approach with it's art while maintaining a mostly clean clutter-free environment. As a result the game looks very different than most first person shooters released within the last decade. I can think of VERY few other games that have done anything similar to this I've only seen it attempted in the Serious Sam, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Unreal Championship 2 games. Serious Sam lends itself to a cartoony style while UT2k4 lends itself to being a freaking mess, UC2 pulls it off well but does it in a different style than Xonotic. Xonotic also does something interesting with the player models which hasn't been pulled off in other games save maybe Warsow and that is giving them a dark color, a glow, and a bright color to keep them visible at all times.
Performance:
I got a git build (which in my testing runs a helluva lot worse than the preview version) to run at a playable frame rate on junk rig rocking less than a gig of RAM, a P4-based single core Celeron, and integrated pre-AMD ATI graphics. Not many other games can do this. This thing also runs on pretty much any-given OS that's in use now.
Gameplay:
As said in the graphics the maps were obviously built as fighting arenas first and tend have less clutter/bullshit in them making the game feel very fluid. Some of the very best arenas I've seen in ANY GAME (and I've played quite a few) are in this. It also has a focus on skill and mixes in MANY gameplay aspects from classic twitch shooters such as the original Unreal Tournament, QuakeWorld, and Quake III: Arena. There are VERY FEW twitch shooters (much less shooters that actually deserve the title twitch shooter) today and this one not only is a modern one, but one that has VERY unique gameplay that seperates itself from the crowd that inspired it.
Sound:
Due to this being a free project and not something commercial, most of the music has had to be cranked out using software tools. This is actually a good thing, because most current developers don't even think about cranking stuff out on synthesizers these days and instead focus on licensing musicians to do music that doesn't really fit their games well, plus the electronic music done in the game gives it a classic feel that no current game can capture. While not too unique it should also be noted that the sound effects for a lot of the weapons are truly devastating/satisfying. The singe sound you hear after a rocket explosion especially gives you the impression that you probably @$@%'d something up when you hit it.
Graphics:
Xonotic does a good job hiding any and all graphical weak points it has by avoiding the lame-ass brown and bloom crap and favoring a colorful yet detailed approach with it's art while maintaining a mostly clean clutter-free environment. As a result the game looks very different than most first person shooters released within the last decade. I can think of VERY few other games that have done anything similar to this I've only seen it attempted in the Serious Sam, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Unreal Championship 2 games. Serious Sam lends itself to a cartoony style while UT2k4 lends itself to being a freaking mess, UC2 pulls it off well but does it in a different style than Xonotic. Xonotic also does something interesting with the player models which hasn't been pulled off in other games save maybe Warsow and that is giving them a dark color, a glow, and a bright color to keep them visible at all times.
Performance:
I got a git build (which in my testing runs a helluva lot worse than the preview version) to run at a playable frame rate on junk rig rocking less than a gig of RAM, a P4-based single core Celeron, and integrated pre-AMD ATI graphics. Not many other games can do this. This thing also runs on pretty much any-given OS that's in use now.
Gameplay:
As said in the graphics the maps were obviously built as fighting arenas first and tend have less clutter/bullshit in them making the game feel very fluid. Some of the very best arenas I've seen in ANY GAME (and I've played quite a few) are in this. It also has a focus on skill and mixes in MANY gameplay aspects from classic twitch shooters such as the original Unreal Tournament, QuakeWorld, and Quake III: Arena. There are VERY FEW twitch shooters (much less shooters that actually deserve the title twitch shooter) today and this one not only is a modern one, but one that has VERY unique gameplay that seperates itself from the crowd that inspired it.
Sound:
Due to this being a free project and not something commercial, most of the music has had to be cranked out using software tools. This is actually a good thing, because most current developers don't even think about cranking stuff out on synthesizers these days and instead focus on licensing musicians to do music that doesn't really fit their games well, plus the electronic music done in the game gives it a classic feel that no current game can capture. While not too unique it should also be noted that the sound effects for a lot of the weapons are truly devastating/satisfying. The singe sound you hear after a rocket explosion especially gives you the impression that you probably @$@%'d something up when you hit it.
ECKZBAWKZ HUGE LIST OF ACHIEVEMENTS GOES HERE....
Oh wait.
Oh wait.