I well realise that some crunch is present in the movie-making industry, but not on a scale anywhere close to that of game development, where having crunch periods is more of a rule, rather than exception. 

To do with the type of people that tend to work in games than, say, movies - I think.

There's always more to do - and nobody wants the final result to not be up to their own standards. 

software industry and games industry especially have lots of young people who don't have families or enough knowledge or self confidence to demand better so they go with the crunch culture.

Of course, it's not easy to avoid "crunches" from the top down either. You get delays and cancellations. You have to have a lot of slack in the time tables and still tolerate them going over. 

Uh, crunch in movies is probably just as bad as in games, for CG anyways. Pulling all nighters, and sleeping 5 minutes with an alarm clock while a test frame renders isn't so uncommon in post-processing jobs (post-processing is always the worst obviously since it's at the end of the chain).

I don't think crunch is in any way necessary, but yeah it's unfortunatly really hard to avoid, even with good management. 

"software industry and games industry especially have lots of young people who don't have families or enough knowledge or self confidence to demand better so they go with the crunch culture."

This is, again, somewhat naive. I mean, sure, you can say, "Yeah just stand up and leave." But when the project is over and they can afford to replace you with any one of the 1000s of people lined up outside the office - they will. That's not a threat and I'm not saying that to be mean, but it's the truth.

At the same time, there needs to be something at the end of the crunch for the employee. At Epic, we have an amazing profit sharing plan and that more than covers my pain and suffering. But at most companies, crunch is a pretty raw deal because generally at the end - you get laid off or the company closes or whatever. It's a harsh industry if you're not employed at one of the top players. 

There's something about a creative process that requires an extra push at the end.
That's the sort of thing that throws a carefully laid schedule out the window.

Seems to me, extra time needed is pretty predictable and easy to plan for. You just have to live with the fact that you can't account what you use that time for yet. Isn't there this rule: "take what the programmer says how long it takes, double it, and make it use the next larger unit" ? ;) 

in terms of performance it runs a lot faster than ut3, my guess is its less visually complex from its 360 origins, so I would not worry about performance.

The added single player segments are nice too :)

Single player co-op is great fun but you need games for windows live from microshaft to able to play online, and you guessed it. games for windows live BLOWS ASS CHUNKS :) 

Yes, it can be read as naive since it's a very short and simplified description of one hand of the whole affair.

It's one of those things where the whole unions, strikes, worker safety and an eight hour five day work week and communism started, ie that you can't just grab the next guy off the street.

Besides, in more complex jobs, people are actually worth something and it takes quite a lot of time to bring new guys up to speed. Not that management would often understand that though. 

Is really cool, was so thrilled when it finally came out and I didn't have to get a 360 to play it. I know the gameplay is repetitive, but the immersion is high, and the variances in setting are neat, as well as the whole group vibe. And I bust out laughing nearly every time Dom says "NICE!" 

Doms best line: 'sup bitches! 

aguire quake? 

got it, I thought it was different to regular glquake like in fitz.

But, what about half life 1? is there a vsync command there? 

you could set fps_max to your refreshrate, dunno about v-sync (except in vid card options under windows). 

this seems to be totally not-backed up bullshit: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3621/fewer_mechanics_better_game.php 

They print a lot of shite. 

... some people still wonder why Wii is outselling both 360 and PS3 combined. 

John Rose. 

I'm glad I spawned this whole discussion but I was waiting for maps to render and it was the day before a day off and the office was half empty and my CPUs were maxed and there wasn't a spare machine to do it on and I was just exceedingly bored. 

I sort of agree with his main point, but yeah, not well written. Oh well. 

I've worked no higher than manual labourer /item librarian/loader/clerk/assurer and I will tell you it is fucking chronic that management knows nothing about actual production.

By all means, the highest boss of production will know everything about production, will be reasonable, and cool, and intelligent (and have no percentage btw)... but higher than that, reasonability will not exist. Highest boss of production will himself flip off those higher than him (I've admired no one more in my life than seeing this), and it SHALT BE CALLED FOR.

Fatass White God, if ye have any mercy, give me a big fat scholarship next year so I don't have to go back...

In fact we all know (as foremen do) that the highest guy pays a slightly higher percentage if you can screw the guy below you. That is business. I understand how fair and intelligible it is. But I'm not in for 100 years of it. This whole percentages thing is not what I am in for. 

millions of people looking through a glass window at a massive banquet and ball where everyone's beautiful and rich, pounding on the glass wanting in, and thousands of people on the other side doing exactly the same thing. 

fuck you talking about? I'm beautiful and rich. 

no way y�re fat ugly and poor 

You're also impaled on a pitchfork in a well known picture. 

Fishy, but not quite fish.

Though you are golden as well.