[comp.sys.atari.st] Obliterator - a game ? Pull the other one !

sqrkl@csvax.liv.ac.uk (07/08/88)

In article <880706041352.563066@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA>,
 Friesen@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA writes:
> 
> Well, this last weekend I went to my local Atari dealer, and purchased
> Obliterator.

Ho hum...Psygnosis have duped another poor soul out of his hard-earned
cash.

> This game is one of the best I've seen for the ST

Well you can't have many games then ! I suggest you look at Arkanoid,
Impact, Super Sprint and SideWinder...the 4 best games of all-time on
the ST (of course, Arkanoid and SideWinder are MUCH better on the Amiga !).

> The only thing I didn't like was that when a lot of things
> are on the screen, it gets slow.

This also, disgracefully, applies to the Amiga versions of ALL Psygnosis
games. They DON'T use the Amiga blitter !!!! They have a set of S-L-O-W
68000 routines which, I suspect, are very similar on the ST and Amiga.

> On the back of the box it shows the guy shooting up

I almost thought you meant he takes drugs during the game !

In conclusion : Haven't you noticed that the 'look and feel' of Psygnosis games
hardly changes from game to game ? I thought Barbarian had nice graphics, nice
sound, but was too S-L-O-W and ultimately a complete bore to play. Surprise,
surprise, the same could be said about Terrapods (all I ever do in that game
is shoot everything in sight until my ammo runs out - I LOVE the explosions ! -
and then switch off in disgust due to the lack of anything else interesting to
do). Now along comes Obliterator and I have EXACTLY the same moans about it -
it's yet another disk just waiting to be formatted...

Richard K. Lloyd,       ****** This is a VAX 11/780 running VAX/VMS V4.5 ******
Computer Science Dept., * JANET     : SQRKL@UK.AC.LIV.CSVAX                   *
Liverpool University,   * UUCP      : {backbone}!mcvax!ukc!mupsy!liv-cs!SQRKL *
Merseyside, England,    * Internet  : SQRKL%csvax.liv.ac.uk@cunyvm.cuny.edu   *
Great Britain.          *******************************************************

"My opinions and those of the University of Liverpool are completely unrelated,
so I'M THE CULPRIT if you feel offended by the above message - I just can't
help moaning about Atari STs, PCs or clones, U**X, C, IBM mainframes, the list
is endless..."

neil@hwcs.UUCP (07/11/88)

In article <3969@csvax.liv.ac.uk> sqrkl@csvax.liv.ac.uk writes:
>In article <880706041352.563066@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA>,
> Friesen@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA writes:
>> 
>> Well, this last weekend I went to my local Atari dealer, and purchased
>> Obliterator.
>
>Ho hum...Psygnosis have duped another poor soul out of his hard-earned
>cash.

Yeah! I agree. At Psygnosis I reckon graphic artists outnumber programmers
about 10 to 1. It's the old story "Nice picture, shame about the gameplay".
While I'm badmouthing game software, a friend of mine bought Carrier Command,
which has been hailed by airheaded reviewers as the new messiah/Elite, and was
severely dissapointed.

 1. The enemy carrier cheats: it teleports from it's actual position
    to it's apparent position sometimes (The docs lie).
 2. There are long periods of doing nothing (like 10 mins travelling time
    between islands)
 3. If you are crafty enough to trick the enemy carrier in to a meeting it
    takes only a few missiles to blow it.
 4. The enemy carrier doesn't have amphibious trucks, it's amphibious!
    (Docs wrong again) and moves faster on water than a plane at full tilt.
 5. The enemy carriers planes are indestructable.
 6. The strategic game is impossible since no factories get built.

On the plus side: It has the fastest, smoothest, solid 3D graphics I have ever
seen on any micro (The OS is kicked out so they use the fast addressing modes)
and if the game worked properly the concept is great.
Once again though "Nice picture ..."

 _____________________________________________________________________________
/ "I think all right thinking people in this country are sick and tired of    \
! being told that ordinary decent people are fed up in this country with      !
! being sick and tired. I'm certainly not and I'm sick and tired of being     !
! told that I am!" - Monty Python                                             !
!                                                                             !
! Neil Forsyth                           JANET:  neil@uk.ac.hw.cs             !
! Dept. of Computer Science              ARPA:   neil@cs.hw.ac.uk             !
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! Edinburgh                                                                   !
! Scotland                                                                    !
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whitbye@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (whitbye) (07/16/88)

I don't mind a small amount of constructive? criticism,but all you seem to
be interested in doing is telling people when "you think personally" that 
they are wrong.
	As far as a game as oblitorator is concerned,I personally don't 
like it but I know several people who think it is "brilliant".
Let's now talk about Carrier Command now.We don't all have very much money
which is reason for buying an Atari ST and not an overprised (my personal
opinion) Archimedes) which is really only a glorified BBC micro.Put simply
let's wait until "Abaq" is released and then I can say that all (yes I mean
all) Archimedes games are crap in comparison.After all I don't compare
the old 8-bit Atari with the Amiga,or the spectrum with the ST.In all honesty
there are a lot of games on the market that I don'like ,and that is my 
prerogative right,but apart from instances like now I don't annoy people
by saying that they are catagorically wrong in there own Opinions,because my
opinion is mine,and your opinion is yours.

p.s
	Borf is here.

jac423@leah.Albany.Edu (Julius A Cisek) (07/19/88)

In article <1894@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>, neil@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Forsyth) writes:
> Yeah! I agree. At Psygnosis I reckon graphic artists outnumber programmers
> about 10 to 1. It's the old story "Nice picture, shame about the gameplay".

Actually, there is only one artist working for psygnosis. His name is
Roger Dean and his art used to be quite popular. He did all the art for
Yes (pre-90125) and ASIA, as well as the pictorial "War of the Worlds"
(which features the Terrorpods)... He and his brother also designed the
stage setups for Yes in the 70's.

-- 
What about technology, computers, .------------------. J.A.Cisek
nuclear fusion?  I'm terrified of |Spectral Fantasies| jac423@leah.albany.edu
radiation, I hate the television. `------------------' jac423@rachel.albany.edu

neil@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Forsyth) (07/21/88)

In article <792@leah.Albany.Edu> jac423@leah.Albany.Edu (Julius A Cisek) writes:
>Actually, there is only one artist working for psygnosis. His name is
>Roger Dean ... 

I know he did the box artwork and title screens but does he design the sprites
and game backgrounds as well? Don't misunderstand me, I like his work but
I prefer to play a game than watch a slideshow.

 _____________________________________________________________________________
/ "I think all right thinking people in this country are sick and tired of    \
! being told that ordinary decent people are fed up in this country with      !
! being sick and tired. I'm certainly not and I'm sick and tired of being     !
! told that I am!" - Monty Python                                             !
!                                                                             !
! Neil Forsyth                           JANET:  neil@uk.ac.hw.cs             !
! Dept. of Computer Science              ARPA:   neil@cs.hw.ac.uk             !
! Heriot-Watt University                 UUCP:   ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!neil      !
! Edinburgh                                                                   !
! Scotland                                                                    !
\_____________________________________________________________________________/