I'm partial to fantasy-type themes (not cliche, RPG fantasy if possible, but fantasy anyway). That particular map was inspired by Rune (new at the time!) with the Nordic theme and all.

In my opinion, Raven made Quake IV because id wants the Quake series, like basically all of their series' now, to go on indefinitely, so that there will always be a new game in development (on whatever platform)... but I was really disappointed that they chose to do that, because to me Quake IV looked _exactly_ the same as Doom3. I suspect this is a consequence of id designing an _extremely_ limited engine with Doom3, which was really only suited to rendering dark, futuristic indoor environments. They (id) have come a long way from the groundbreaking, dark violent bunch of nerds who unleashed Quake on the world, and I think they've basically lost everything which made them great in the process. And Raven has basically gone down the same path with them.

On the bright side, though, now that Intel has purchased Project Offset it is almost guaranteed to actually come out. My PC will NOT be able to run it, but I'm sure I'll be able to play it somewhere. 

On the bright side, though, now that Intel has purchased Project Offset it is almost guaranteed to actually come out.

Word. Word? Hit me with some details homie. Was always well keen on Offset. 

I don't know any more than they posted at http://www.projectoffset.com/news.php

The only fact I can derive from this is that it almost certainly will come out. Intel would be dumbfucks indeed to buy an engine and spend the money on nothing. Even if the engine is used for TONY HAWK TIGER WOODS FOOTBALL WARCRAFT THE SIMS NOOB AWESOME LOOOL games, even if that is what Intel wants to do with this engine, the game itself based on this engine (aka, conceived and created, for the most part, before some asshole in a suit had a chance to influence it in any way) WILL come out. Dark Messiah was great (I loved the archery), I can only hope this will be even better. 

They will probably never make a game of it and just use it for tech presentations. 

Cynic.

Of course it'll get released, why give out a tech demo for free when you can charge people 30� to install it for you? 

Sadly there aren't too many cool Hexen 2 maps, even though it's based on Quake... the textures are nice... the monsters are supernice...

why is no one making maps for it? I'd play them...

I think the original game's levels weren't convincing enough, for example the castle wasn't constructed properly, it was a bit like some nerds from California (or wherever) imagined the middle age...

now if there was a Hexen2 unit that looked like Day of the Lords... and was pretty dark... oh yes please... I actually really like the game, just the maps weren't convincing enough.

Raven, hire some history students, lock them into some Scottish castle with the extended version of LOTR and enough beer and pizza, and remake it properly... 

was utter rubbish. It was ultra disappointing. The level design was sub-par at best, enemies were lame and unimaginative. The puzzles were either too easy/dull or too difficult/unfair. The reason no one maps for it is because it fux0ring sucks (even though I've contemplated mapping for it.)

If you want to map for a cool game, map for that Quake mod on the Doom 3 engine. There's a lot of promise there. If you want to map for a cool Raven game, map for the original Hexen. Actually, that sounds like a good idea. Anyone wanna work on a Hexen map pack? 

Hexen II. With some Exotic Moods of Les Baxter playing in the background. There's a lot of kitsch-gothic to it and Q1 engine is at it's best here, say, as a 'mod'... Hexen II being the ultimate final fantasy Quake ever! I rushed 2 times across the Portals. (Praevus = lotsa giggle but challenge). [Kona], beyond all mappers, captured and sublimated such climate in Quake. (Thinking to Hrimfaxi's Castle of the Winter mappack too). I'm sure they might be wicked ways to map for Hexen II. 8)

I'm reluctant to play the current Hammer of Thyrion (solid Win & OS X HX2 port, btw) cause there's no fov cvar implemented, wtf... But, yeah, I'm a huge fan of this underestimated game.

OK... I've to go back to Grim Fandango... 

This is a huge mod for H2 -
http://ravenhurst.raven-games.com/Main.shtml
It's a bit meandering at times, but do-able, and worth playing through. 

I WOULD play it, but I don't have my install CD anymore, and you can't patch it unless you have that, so it won't run on modern systems for me - fuckers.

The level design I thought had a good style to it, BUT, the layouts were confusing, cramped, and generally bad. I didn't like the hub-based system either, I only made it into the Egyptian episode, and never finished the game.

Heretic II was a better example of Raven doing something unique yet keeping strong action and straightforward gameplay. 

Aargh! I meant Fortress of Four Doors -
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/uhexen2/fo4d.tgz?modtime=1140774887&big_mirror=0
http://www.filefront.com/?skin=120&file=16183&transfer=1

> The level design I thought had a good style to it, BUT, the layouts
> were confusing, cramped, and generally bad.

Yeah. The combat had good moments, but generally didn't hold a candle to doom or quake. 

no. 

I liked it, but it was very buggy, i.e. you take a "not intended" route, some script breaks and progress would become impossible, that cost me more time wandering around than the puzzles, which were good. 

Coincidentally, i saw this at techreport.com:

<quote>
Nvidia CEO talks down CPU-GPU hybrids, Larrabee ... Huang summed up Nvidia's position on Larrabee in one sentence: "We're gonna open a can of whoop-ass [on Intel]." ... [Nvidia VP Tony Tamasi] went on to shoot down Intel's emphasis on ray tracing, which the chipmaker has called "the future for games."
<quote>

Hmmm. If Nvidia are right and Intel have problems producing a proper GPU (which they insinuate in the article), maybe Offset wont get seen ?

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/14538 

lets hope the deal is something like Offset guys get the financing to make their game and Intel gets the technology from them in return 

I just had a good browse around the offset website, and the technology and art does look incredible! It will be a real shame if this game never sees the light of day... 

With all this talk I fell like playing Heretic2 again. its been been long time...
so, are there any patches or mods or enhanced engines and textures to get the most out of this game? 

Speeds, you can start from here:
http://www.raven-games.com/h2quickstart.php

Visit thefourwinds.net FTP server for the files you want or need. Among the mods, don't miss the Abode of Golgotha Saga - 2 great SP addons.
(all links on the same page) 

(for Heretic II) - unfortunately.

Btw, anyone play "The Witcher"? (stupid name, I know). It looked like a fairly interesting fantasy-action-RPG, third person like Rune or Heretic 2 I think. I'm gonna try the demo if my system can handle it. 

I'm reluctant to play the current Hammer of Thyrion (solid Win & Unix & OS X HX2 port, btw) cause there's no fov cvar implemented, wtf...

I checked, there is. I like to see the weapons though.

About the monsters, you have to admit that the spiders are rather nicely animated... the archers as the standard monster look and feel good, too. Technically, Hexen2 has practically everything that Quoth and Extras have: lots of colorful monsters, breakables, rotateables (not Hipnotic's), rain, snow, lots of triggers, traps, transparency, particle stuff, you name it, it's there. You don't have to use the hub system either; you could make a find-the-exit map just the same. 

Knights, rotfish, grunts, dogs etc aren't much more exciting than spiders, hydras and skull wizards. 

I checked, there is

Yes. In software mode only! No fov avail in GL... 

I played The Witcher, and enjoyed it more than any RPG in years. The most interesting thing about it, to me, is that they threw out the typical "pick your race and class" stuff. You're a specific guy (who's apparently the main character in a bunch of fiction that I haven't read), and this allowed them to make a more specific story (that's tailored around that guy) than most RPGs. I threw in a couple of mods that:
a) Expanded the semi-shitty greatly shortened English versions of the subtitles.
b) Re-added evil dangerous boobs for we poor fragile Americans.

It was damn good, and I highly recommend it. 

That bunch of fiction is one of the best things ever written. If it will be translated someday (or maybe it is already?) it's a *must read*. (: 

Anyway, We're doing a bug fix (and later, new stuff probably) for the *nix port of hexen, HHexen.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=4501