Splinter Cell Pandora's Tomorrow - training sessions

[Garibaldi Biscuit]

Sorry we missed each other the other night Loop, when I got on you were playing PGR2 so I sent an invitation to chat but......eh.....I dunno, all of this is still pretty new to me.

So.....Good Friday, I trust that rather than fufilling practical and necessary tasks such as D.I.Y or clothes shopping you will all be whittling the day away on Live, if so what time can we arrange for a decent Pandora Tommorow session? I've been trying to learn the maps a bit in Tutorial mode ( easier said than done, some of them are suprisingly large ) so hopefully won't be a complete nightmare, what say you all?

[mt50]

i'd like to give this a try please, might be crap at it but it's worth a try.
i can play anytime really. my gamertag is EST1892

thanks
oh can't do tomorrow until after the liverpool game

[loop]

hehe. no problems mr biscuit.

I had a quick go at SC:PT later on, but found out how much I suck

It's really quite hard. if anyones feeling patient I might give it another go tonight though....

[mt50]

loop if you wan't i'll have a game with you, i've never been online with it so you will be better than me
let me know

[Garibaldi Biscuit]

Had a marvellous session on this tonight, hosted my own game so I could set the mode to 'revenge', it was either that or go into someone else's game and squabble over who gets to be a Spy ( this was my fifth game so far, and I had yet to play a Spy at all, it would be amusing if it wasn't so irritating ).

Was fortunate enough to have my server attended by a good group of folk, got some good communications going and, despite my team-mate not really knowing the map, we did suprisingly well. I tried to mix it up with the Mercs as a Spy and abruptly realised how fragile I was when a frag grenade threw me halfway across the room, so after that it was stick to the shadows time.

One great moment was hacking an NDA and, realising this would alert the Merc in the nearby vicinity, running out after about three seconds and doing a split-jump in a dark corner. I must have done this about three times, he was getting frantic, it never once occured to him to shine his light upwards.

The two classes just compliment each other so well; the spy's increased mobility to the merc's brute force, and while on some occasions I felt at a disadvantage I always knew this was down to my skill-level rather than limitations of my character - which is precisely the way multiplayer should feel.

Thanks for the game Unlighty, sorry I didn't see you in the second session but my console abruptly froze up and I had to reboot, it wasn't because I was a sore loser or anything, honest.

[The Raeven]

Anyone who wants to play tomorrow? (16-04-'04)
..Dunno, round the clock of 22:00 ??

Sure hope so... SC:PT =

[Garibaldi Biscuit]

Sounds good, I'll add you to my friends list.

I'm a bit surprised the SC:PT community on here has dried up so fast, where is all that interest which was present just a few weeks ago? I had some great games last night with chaps from RllMuk forums, learnt a few new things about being a Spy as well, also proved that Mercs can also be stealthy when I hid behind a counter in the Cinema and jumped out on a creeping Spy.

Also, finally hit Level2, w00t!

[mt50]

where is all that interest which was present just a few weeks ago?

i had a go of this online and can't really get into it SC2, i loved the 1st one but this just isn't the same for me
i'm going to trade it in against toca 2 i think

[the shape]

I think the press overstated the case. I guess RSix3 came out in October and folks got a bit antsy searching for a new king to crown.

It's also server size. We all know each other personally, and we're never a few games into Pandora when someone says, "X and Y are online! We've only got four slots here! Let's go play Rainbow/Gotham!"

In addition, the voice comms suffer an uncomfortable satellite-style delay and are over compressed to save bandwidth, making them sound like crap. You literally don't know what your friends are saying sometimes.

And have you seen the screen tearing when you look left and right? Especially as a merc? Ick.

And the Live implementation is poor. In Rainbow or Gotham, I can be playing single player and checking in under a second who's online, then getting back to my game. I'm also available for invites while doing this. In Pandora, I'm completely off the grid when playing single player - nobody knows I'm around - and to check who *is* around? Well, quit that game, load a menu, choose to go back to another menu, load that, choose multiplayer, stop the intro from playing, wait for multiplayer to load... nope, no-ones here yet, six more loads back to my single player game... Very poor Live awareness for a brand new, high profile game that sells itself on Live play.

Doesn't help that I find the single player game stuffy and linear compared to Hitman, and that despite the RENDERWARE PHYSICS logo on the back, I've yet to see anything that looks like a physics system.

Honestly, I _do enjoy_ the online game, really. Don't think for a moment that when I was 100 feet up in the museum, hanging by my feet from the ceiling, shooting two very confused friends of mine three stories below as though I were Leon, that I wasn't happy. But these are the problems as I see them.

[mt50]

and another problem, the last game i played online, one of the other team could hear what my team were saying to each other, but he couldn't hear his own team mate

the live part of the game is poor imo

[Prine]

im on almost every night this week at 12am (easter holidats )

[Garibaldi Biscuit]

I've suffered the Comms crossover once or twice, it was quite surreal to suddenly be able to hear the other team nattering away, thankfully this has only happened very occasionally.

It really does depend on who you play with; if your negative experiences of the game are based on partnering a level 3 player who keeps up good, constant voice comms and works in concert with you, rather than going off and doing his own thing, then you've given it a fair shot. If, however, you're basing it on gaming with pre-pubescent Americans who just occasionally exclaim 'oh crap!' over the headset, and have no idea where they're going or what they're doing, then I'd urge you to seek out the right people and give it another chance.

There are issues here which need addressing, as The Shape has pointed out. Voice comms are pretty bad atm, I don't so much mind the delay but it's the quality of the sample which proves a problem. The ranking system seems a bit erratic so that needs some attention, plus a variety of other smaller, but nonetheless annoying bugs.

Hopefully at least some of these will be addressed in the forthcoming patch.....sorry, update.

That said, I just love it. I had no idea that there would be such an ammount of strategy and nuances, just when you think you've got a handle on it your team-mate, or an enemy, does something which completly surprises you and makes you reassess your own game, marvellous.

[The Raeven]

^^ Agreed with all the above.

It's a great game with many, many options (nuances). The online play is rarely the same.
I love playing Merc as much as spy. Though the bugs the game has aswell as some really lousy gamers out there give this game a bitter aftertaste sometimes


Anyways... Garibaldi, I'll accept your friend request as soon as I'm on LIVE.

So... that'll mean that, so far, Garibaldi and I will play SC:PT multiplayer tomorrow (+/- 22:00).
No one else??!?

Just two more would be *thumbs up*.

[Mada]

I've had the game since Friday, and spent hours online allready, though mostly in free game but have been up till the early hours a couple of times. I'm not exactly uber now but i know what im doing - only problem is ntl has been playing up the last few days so i keep lagging and sometimes disconnecting else I'd be on even more, if im around I'll try to join if you need me to fill a spot - name is Madabot so if you need and I'm on give me a shout .

[gooner]

I gotta agree with all the above, this is a fantastic game online but its bugs drag it down, but the bugs are only tempory IMO a few patches down the line its gunna be one of the best gaming experiences ever.

when i first played the game, it was teamed up with camps, i sucked he didnt. i thought this was a welcome break from the ****heads who are not as newbie friendly in most other live games i thought it was great and not only did this learning/teaching/newbie enthusiasm come from camps but most other players i played with so everyone matured with the game together, this ive never seen in any other game ever. so not only is it an excellent game that has attracted the mature gamer who isnt out for stats, this appealed to me just as much as the great gameplay and thousands feel the same, so although interest has fallen recently when these few bugs are sorted its gunna be **** hot

im on tonight if anyone wants a whooping