Some modern developers seem to think that oldschool means that they just threw the game together, that they didn't work hard for months on end and impose crunch of themselves (before that term was coined) in order to make a great game.

So they do a half-arsed job without any soul or proper balancing, then slap the name old school on it when all it deserves is 'poor'. 

Soldier of Fortune 1 

"Oldschool" is used quite freely in certain contexts, as if the term was a definte concept, while in reality it closely relates to feelings of nostalgia, which differ from person to person and over time. If there was a new game that's 100% like Doom, it might still not get the same love and everything, simply because it's judged from a different context (now vs. 17 years in retrospect). I was actually going to make a discussion thread about this topic for some time... 

And I'm not going to attempt to define it because I don't think you can. I think most FPS's stopped being oldskool after Half-Life 1 - suddenly it was all about coherent stories, and a coherent progression through a convincing environment. A lot of the abstract and arcadey elements seemed to vanish. Yeah, you had stuff like Painkiller that ignored all that, but Painkiller sadly forgot to add any interesting gameplay. 

I enjoyed Painkiller, but as a game, Serious Sam is far, far better. Serious Sam doesn't have the level design complexity of Doom or Quake, either, but it does have even greater monster variety and uses that variety well, and becomes it's own game.

Really the level design and variety is a key thing always missed. I think a lot of people, especially in reviews, haven't actually played Doom, or played it years and years ago and don't actually remember what it's really like.

Having said this, comparing the default maps of Doom to Quake's maps or modern user made wads like Scythe or Speed of Doom is pretty amazing. You see how unfocused and tedious a lot of Doom maps were, and how refined the craft has become :) 

PS The idea that 'arena combat' is oldschool is pretty funny really, because that's exactly what a modern shooter level does. Stick you in a fixed area and spawn stuff for you to kill, move to next area, repeat. 

DNF felt a little old skool to me, in that the gameplay was not really all that complicated by the awful plot, and it really seemed that it was an anything goes kind of game. Almough many of the levels were super generic, there were a few gems in there such as the one set in the fast food restaurant where you are shrunk down and have to navigate many obstacles for whatever reason...

Then again, due to its ridiculous development, I think DNF also showed the difference between pre and post half-life fps games, since it seemed like they started off as a classic shooter with a few crazy elements, then later toned things down and tried to match what hl and later hl2 had done.

I id make a new Quake, I doubt it will lack a story or obviously linear levels, but I hope id at least look at why we are still making levels for it 16 (argh!) years on. 

Finally played Bioshock and rated it 9/10. Pretty lenient because the gameplay got a bit shit in the second half of the game.

Review here:
http://www.etherealhell.com/etherealhell/reviews/2012/bioshock.php

Looks like Crysis is my game of the year for 2007 now that I've played everything. 

So apparently the first three "DLC" for Risen 2 are already included in the game --> and can be unlocked by a simple cheat code! While the pirate clothes are usable just like that, Steelbeard's treasure isle and the Stormisle expansion will lack the corresponding dialogue voiceovers, but they're still fully playable with subtitles. The only actual downloadable part is the dialogue files.

On the one hand, this is a case worthy of outrage similiar to the ME3 controversy, but on the other hand it's also quite a lol. I'd like to think PB did it on purpose as a sort of retort to this dick move by Deep Silver. :D 

Most DLC's are already inside the game and unlocked when you buy them. It's how games are made. Downloadable Content typically isn't, because games are built in a modular form and the publishers only want to pay once.

Also, making genuine DLC incurs greater costs from Microsoft / Sony. 

DLC = Downloadable Content. 

Forget the acronym and the orginal meaning of it, Bal. Bonus content (or the majority of it, anyway) for add-on packs and extra 'DLC' is often included with the assets for the original version of the game, as ijed says.

The nerd rage that ensues when gamers get wind of it is always at least vaguely amusing, but it's getting a little tired nowadays due to sheer repetition. I'm always completely astonished that the indignant spankers getting up in arms about it completely ignore the business aspects of it and can only repeat ITS ON THE DISK SO I ALREAdY PAID FOR IT again and again, like a toddler having a tantrum. 

I remember rumours, playing the Quake 1 demo, that the other 3 episodes were unlockable if you just had a certain "hack." Lol, as if the other episodes and extra monsters etc were included in the quake demo - why bloat the demo DL size especially in those days.

That said there is absolutely a psychological difference between "I'll sell you this cookie jar," and "well technically you already have the cookie jar, but I'll sell you a key to get into it." The latter pisses people off, I don't understand how you don't understand that Frib. People's calculation of winning, losing, and especially "having a right" or "getting screwed" are not necessarily rational. Seriously, don't give them data they can't unlock and then offer to sell them the key, it's douchey - sorry for thinking like a caveman about it heh. 

I know from my experience on Gears that this is not entirely true. Generally, we're working on DLC content after the game ships. Are there recent examples of companies having shipped DLC content on the original game disc? 

I do understand, and you're right from an absolute perspective about the psychology behind it... but seriously, after the initial outrage, why can't people just take a step back and actually think about it?

- Buying the physical disc doesn't mean you 'own' what's on it. You're paying for the advertised content and set of features, and gaining the right to use them only in the ways set out in the EULA. I'm not saying I necessarily approve of these practices, but that's the terms and conditions that we're agreeing to when we purchase the games.

- Further to the above, just because it's on the disc (or in the initial download) doesn't mean you paid for it. The extra content cost extra money to develop, and the developer/publisher wears that cost under the assumption that they can recoup (and hopefully profit) via the 'DLC' fees.

- It costs a lot of money to deploy a patch or update on services such as Xbox Live. Not a trivial amount, either.. it's enough that even the big boys hesitate because the cost could cut heavily into profits or even cause them to lose money. This is why the Xbox version of TF2 didn't get all the free incremental updates that the PC version did, if you recall. For this reason, bundling the extra content on the dics makes a lot of sense.

- Sometimes having the extra content is done in part for the convenience of the users. A recent example was one of the Street Fighter games, where all of the extra characters (which were to be sold as 'DLC' later on) were on the disc in part to allow players to join servers and play against those characters (rather than being locked out of the game entirely, or having to download the content just to get in the game).

- Not everyone has fast/cheap/always on internet.

You don't have to be a developer to understand these things, the average gamer that follows the news could connect the dots (and to their credit, they often do). 

I think Mass Effect 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken were the big ones causing a kerfuffle recently.

http://au.gamespot.com/news/on-disc-dlc-an-ugly-truth-says-gears-of-war-designer-6370601 

That was my point, and why I used both DLC and the phrase downloadable content in the same post.

The reality has little to do with the name.

Willem, I work almost exclusively on full DLC games - only done a single disc game and hopefully won't be doing more.

But we usually develop the content paralell to the game, and include it in the same package.

With the advent of freemium and live teams (as in, big publishers are realising they're losing a serious amount of market share), this'll be set to change soon as well. 

I bought the latest Indie Royale bundle:

http://www.indieroyale.com/

It's better than the last one, Data Jammers, Weird Worlds and Containment are quite nice. I wasn't so happy with Dungeon Defenders, felt like they were immediately trying to milk me for more cash and I didn't find it too fun either.

Anyway, I'm not just plugging the thing. It seems that Weird Worlds was mainly made by none other than Iikka Ker�nen.

It's pretty good as well.

If you don't know who that is then first punch yourself in the nose, then check Quaddicted. 

Just bought the game on steam ($9.99), and now I can't stop playing it. Also purchased Jamestown and Legend of Grimlock. Played those for a short while too. 

yeah it looks cute aye. i might go back and play it one day.

legend of grimrock looks a bit shit. 

Is an excellent game.

The amount of variety and humour in there WITHOUT including BS driving sections or even parts that just feel broken or like a cop out, is amazing. 

nice game. much better than brutal legend 

A fantastic little survival horror-ish game by Jasper Byrne. Looks gorgeous and has some of the best audio work I've heard in a video game. Qba'g gnxr vg ng snpr inyhr.

http://www.lonesurvivor.co.uk/