http://www.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=12222

The Boomtown site has reviewed Nexuiz.
What do you think of the review?

The bad things:

Too bad the controls feel somewhat unresponsive, which takes a lot away from the fastpaced feel the game promotes.

I'm sorry but i really have NO idea what they are talking about. Unresponsive controls? I play Nexuiz since the day 1.0 was out and i never found the controls unresponsive. Could ANYONE please enlighten me as to what is unresponsive in Nexuiz? I really mean it. If there is anything wrong maybe it can be fixed but i just see nothing wrong.

The sometimes weird physics aren't too helpful either when it comes to fluent movement.

The movement in 2.0 is very similar to quake so again i have no clue what is strange about the movement. And i think there is lots of room for fluid movement. I guess there are enough examples by kojn, morfar, green or my humble self to prove this.

The gameplay is a mix of elements from other games, but in all honesty, it offers nothing really new to hold a player's interest for a long time.

Nothing new? Hmm the health regen/rot maybe not be totaly new but i think its the only DM game that currently has such a thing. The huge possibility of changes to the gameplay via settings and variables, LOTS of gamemodes, nice community and cool maps do not make the game interesting for a long time? Hmm please tell me when was Nexuiz 1.0 available and why the hell do i still play it when its so boring???

The game consist mainly of online deathmatches or botmatches.

It might sound worse then it was intented.. this is also true of MANY other games so i see nothing bad there.

The only gripe is that it's hard to tell which weapon does what, especially because the models have a similar look.

Hmm maybe you should play for more then 3 hours? I think its easy to see what weapon your oppenent has but yeah i play the game for a long time.. Is it really that hard? Do People really need a 'red' rocketlauncher, a 'green' grenadelauncher and a 'blue' plasmagun to see what guns the others have? I think this makes q4 (or better its mods) ugly..

You could compare them to Quake 3's or UT99's graphics, with some extra special effects.

Huh? Q3, UT99 have real time shadows? bumb mapping? Or are those now called 'some extras' ? I think those features and those that are 'too advanced for current hardware' set Nexuiz apart from many other games. And the good thing is that you can disable most of those things. I found out this week that i can play Nexuiz a lot better then quake4 fps wise..

The good things:

The artificial intelligence is good, and bots can and will surprise you from time to time.

Thats nice and the next patch will even improve them

The arsenal is well balanced, and if you've played shooters before, most of the weapons will feel familiar.[/quote
It might not be perfectly balanced but its good the way it is because i think there needs to be a slight inbalance as to make one want to attack because he is (feels) stronger.. This makes matches interesting..

On the other hand, if you tweak down most of the advanced options, even a GeForce 1 card should be sufficient enough to run the game at a good framerate.

Thats almost too much flattering..

Not sure:

The sound effects are good, though more diversity would add a lot to the overal experience. The music tends to become tedious pretty fast, and can luckily it be turned off.

Sound is a weak point in Nexuiz but i think its good enough and the sound track is good while driving around in the car.. i never listen to music while playing So i'm not sure what to say about this. The announcers again are just cool and the effects are nicely done.

Conlusion:

All taken into consideration, Nexuiz is a decent game worth trying out. The oldskool gameplay is straightforward and easy to jump into. And the forgiving system requirements are a pro in this age of nextgen gaming.

Their conclusion sounds way better then the rest and says what i think is the truth. Its just a shame that the text does not fit to the conclusion

esteel wrote:The bad things:

Too bad the controls feel somewhat unresponsive, which takes a lot away from the fastpaced feel the game promotes.

I'm sorry but i really have NO idea what they are talking about. Unresponsive controls? I play Nexuiz since the day 1.0 was out and i never found the controls unresponsive. Could ANYONE please enlighten me as to what is unresponsive in Nexuiz? I really mean it. If there is anything wrong maybe it can be fixed but i just see nothing wrong.

mind you I always had bad unresponsive and sluggish controls with darkplaces, in both non SDL and SDL builds

They really seemed kind of harsh on Nex compared to the other reviews, in particular the Saurbraten one, in which they really skimmed over a lot of the flaws in the game. For example, the deluxemapped edition of it is really underwhelming and seemed rushed - textures which should not be shiny (skin, wood) are noticeably shiny. Also, I may be wrong, but I think all of the media (at least models and sounds) are straight from Cube? They're aging, at best.

Not to say it's a bad game, but they really seemed to skim over those easily noticeable facts where in Nex they downplayed some of the things that really make the game shine.

CheapAlert wrote:mind you I always had bad unresponsive and sluggish controls with darkplaces, in both non SDL and SDL builds

Even in singleplayer games?

I suppose it might have been lag which caused them to think that...

I generaly disagree with almost every point of this review. however thers a few things i can agree with.

phys is odd, or at least feels diffrent. the big aircontrol surely adds to this. i was very enoyed abt the aircontrol at first, but i got used to it. still i think its a bit to mutch tho.

Hard to spot the nmys gun. yes, hell sometimes i even have a hard time spoting other players; let alone what gun thay have. untill they fire that is.

Sound.. yes theres alot to be done. nuff said.

Abt the gfx. Again most likely teh lack of multistage shader, blends n stuff like that. it does give teh game a very "oldscholl" look. presonaly i kinda liek it, but i see what teh reviewer means. Not that hes right in hes statement tho, basicaly there nothing similar to q3.. ut99 i dunno, never played the ut games.

perhaps the main point to be learnt is that almost every reviewer have missed teh games main point so thise obviosly need to get more focus soemhow. More visible dokumentation, quickstart quides whatever. in short; it needs to be less of a learning curve to understand the game.

esteel wrote:

On the other hand, if you tweak down most of the advanced options, even a GeForce 1 card should be sufficient enough to run the game at a good framerate.

Thats almost too much flattering..

it seems to be an based on this:

http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/index.php?module=info wrote:Nexuiz will not require a high end system. Video cards such as a Geforce1 will be able to run Nexuiz...

tZork wrote:perhaps the main point to be learnt is that almost every reviewer have missed teh games main point so thise obviosly need to get more focus soemhow. More visible dokumentation, quickstart quides whatever. in short; it needs to be less of a learning curve to understand the game.

A good start would be a new "press" section on www.nexuiz.com which would include the information from the "info" "media" and "team" sections, and would incorporate more detailed information about the game, such as how to take advantage of the game's unique features (and explicitly describing the game's unique features), for use in reviews.

of course they have unresponsive movement because they didn't know that most server use the "feature" sv_clmovement_minping 100 which fucks the movement up (imo). if they have ping 80 they have additional 80ms lag for every movement-key, and people do recognize that (although developers claim that they don't but I can't even play on the RBI server where I have a ping of 30-60 due to lagged movement)

I am glad that they revealed that "con" of nexuiz (luckily I could prevent ladder matches to become lagged in this way, too)

Btw, I am aware of the sideeffects of non-lagged (clientside) movement

I can't believe it got the same "graphics" rating as Warsow and Sauer. Sauer's a good game, but it's graphics aren't in the same league as Nexuiz.

... and the sound track is good while driving around in the car..

i think esteel left the state of forum addon to something of a completly higher level.

divVerent wrote:

CheapAlert wrote:mind you I always had bad unresponsive and sluggish controls with darkplaces, in both non SDL and SDL builds

Even in singleplayer games?

I suppose it might have been lag which caused them to think that...

Yes, even in single player.

Lag could definitely be confused for sluggishness, especially if one has to play on a server overseas.

The statements about the GeForce1 seems somewhat inaccurate........

He should've reviewed Alien Arena as well.

It would have made Nexuiz look a lot better.

CheapAlert wrote:

divVerent wrote:

CheapAlert wrote:mind you I always had bad unresponsive and sluggish controls with darkplaces, in both non SDL and SDL builds

Even in singleplayer games?

I suppose it might have been lag which caused them to think that...

Yes, even in single player.

I somehow can comprehend what the author of the review is talking about. Especially when changing to 2.0 I had the impression that the movement had gotten quite lame. Which changed after I got used to it although.

Nevertheless Nexuiz' mixture of realistic and non-realistic physics is hard to understand. Not a big thing for me, I like it.

Sometimes I still find it hard to control my moves, which certainly is due to lag (caused by package loss). I sum up, the movement is quite hard to handle if you don't have a constant and steady Internet connection.

when he says unresponsive i think he means...in the speed of which it takes to gain ' responsive ' results in terms of movement...considering the game is quite fast paced they are saying it isn't that resposive to gain speed through movement / it could be quicker (at least this is how i interpret it).

by fluid movement...i will agree and i always have done, the movement ISNT as fluid as other games out there esteel (which what puts people off).

it's not as fluent turning corners for example compared to CPMA / Warsow physics + keeping speed.

Don't get me wrong movement is there...it's just not as fluid landing / keeping speed like how you can in CPMA / warsow bunnyhopping / turning physics mate.

hope my post kind of summed that up.

actually since i managed to force myself to release the forward key (and parksto coded me a speedmeter), i can gain speed really fast. (from 400 to 800 ups really fast).
i don't find it easy to gain speed in cpma or warsow... actually i tried but the learning curve is at least as long as nexuiz's one to get the speed i've seen in the movies.

anyway it's a matter of taste, but i really like nexuiz's physics, even if i'd like it to be a little bit faster (walking at 430 or 450 ups instead of 400 for example)

There is only one thing i could agree partially:

You could compare them to Quake 3's or UT99's graphics, with some extra special effects.

Well... that's this point and I'm still not clear "how" to agree but mainly I do.

Fact: Nexuiz has tons of special effects like Bumbmapping, Deluxemapping, Realtime shadows etc. that drive even my hardware nuts.

BUT: (and don't see this as stupid critic) If I only look to it as a "normal player" without technical background I could say:
"Nexuiz eats my hardware but Doom3/Q4 RUNS AND LOOKS BETTER on Max Details."

If I look back to 1.21 I can fully agree to this statement and even in 2.0 in some points.
But please don't get me wrong: The game is superb.
Nevertheless we know Nexuiz needs new models. And on this point I can agree the statement above:
At least the models still look like UT99 with "some improvements". Compared to the models in todays commercial (highlight commercial, which is Nexuis not) shooters they do not win.

I would also say the same to the levels. The levels ARE COOL, especially th light effects - BUT try to compare them with the "details" of an UT2k4 level...

Again - this is NOT meant as critic to Nexuiz after all. As said, levels, models can't compare to commercial games, but those games have teams of (good paid) coders caring about this stuff.

We should keep in mind, Nexuiz is free (no money, no closed source) and for this we have a VERY nice game.

Zico wrote:Fact: Nexuiz has tons of special effects like Bumbmapping, Deluxemapping, Realtime shadows etc. that drive even my hardware nuts.

BUT: (and don't see this as stupid critic) If I only look to it as a "normal player" without technical background I could say:
"Nexuiz eats my hardware but Doom3/Q4 RUNS AND LOOKS BETTER on Max Details."

That is true. I have heard many casual gamers say a similar thing about Doom 3 because they don't understand the real time lighting effects and complain about having stencil shadows.

Basically I think it IS true. The FIRST thing I saw on Nexuiz were the VERY COOL light effects in the levels and it blew me away. But it has it's price (hardware).
On the other side D3/Q4 has big textures on very small models and little details in every level. This can - in fact - look better... but who I am to decide over this. I can understand this statement even if I can't agree fully...
On the other side I don't think warsow looks better... But the "comic style" tells the player (and the man that has written the review): "we do NOT want to show Q4 graphics".
However.

DON'T GIVE TOO MUCH ON THAT REVIEW, YOU'RE DOIN A GREAT JOB!!!

By the way:
Different from other OpenSource game Nexuiz has ONE point I love:
Every release is like something i could say: "they could sell it". Every release looks like "DONE". I know developers always have new ideas, bugs to fix, code to rewrite, BUT every release is stable and looks like a STABLE game.
Other projects give you a welcome message with: "BETA! use at own risk", showing menus with "COMING SOON" features and much more.
Then new features get implemented they never can manage, bugs grow and some time in the future the project is stalled and bugged.
Nexuiz is different. You CAN actually play it without it screams out an early development status it would never get out (as many other projects).

the first release though was clearly too soon, and i don't think a lot of people would think 'they could sell it'. We would have had a lot larger of an impact if even the quality of 1.5 was initially released

I think that this reivew is fine - it's accurate, and almost all of the things I disagree with are merely minor nitpicks and gripes that are a matter of opinion. I agree with the conclusion that Nexuiz is a decent game that's worth trying out. There's only one thing that I really disagree with in this review and it's this:

You could compare them to Quake 3's or UT99's graphics

Nexuiz certainly doesn't look as good as Half Life 2 or Doom 3 or FEAR, but it DOES look a whole lot better than Quake 3 or UT99. Nexuiz's models are comparable, maybe, but the textures are better and the engine is lightyears ahead because of the effects like realtime lighting and shadowing, HDR, and offsetmapping. I think the reason why the reviewer said that the graphics were comparable to Quake 3/Unreal 99 is because he wasn't playing the game at full settings - the screenshots in the review appear to have most of the effects off.

They should've reviewed Alien Arena and Tremulous too.

Anyway, besides being inaccurate about one aspect of the game, I think that this is a pretty good review. Much better than that Moddb one.

CheapAlert wrote:mind you I always had bad unresponsive and sluggish controls with darkplaces, in both non SDL and SDL builds

CheapAlert: I'm very possitive that you know the effects ping can give so could you please test if gl_finish 1 does help with your lag problems? Either i'm just not sensitive enough to notice such a lag or your lag might be caused by something i do not have..
That gl_finish 1 is actually for anyone experianceing problems with input.. Its worth a try. That bad news is just that this hints at some problems with drivers or other stuff

Dave wrote:

tZork wrote:perhaps the main point to be learnt is that almost every reviewer have missed teh games main point so thise obviosly need to get more focus soemhow. More visible dokumentation, quickstart quides whatever. in short; it needs to be less of a learning curve to understand the game.

A good start would be a new "press" section on www.nexuiz.com which would include the information from the "info" "media" and "team" sections, and would incorporate more detailed information about the game, such as how to take advantage of the game's unique features

Yeah that seems like a good idea but on the other hand how many 'normal' people will look at a section called 'press'? I'm very sure i would not look for information under such a point. Your are right restructuring the webpage is something that should be done. More info about the gamemodes should be added. I think the information Greenmarine gatherd on his planetnexuiz.de site if something the official page also needs. Explain the weapons, the game modes and stuff. Make it easier for people to learn new stuff.
The Nexuiz wiki seems like a good place for this but its way too unpolished and also outdated in some parts. But maybe it can be used to gather stuff so that someone from the admins can just take that stuff, polish it a bit and put it onto the main page.

Vermeulen wrote:the first release though was clearly too soon, and i don't think a lot of people would think 'they could sell it'. We would have had a lot larger of an impact if even the quality of 1.5 was initially released

I really do not think it was too soon.. Nexuiz would have a much smaller players and supportes base and propably even less features then right now. There are other unfinished games that somehow managed to get more hype but i really think it was the right thing to do for Nexuiz!

Nexuiz wouldn't have had as much features, but I do think it would have had a bigger fan base. The 1.0 was not user friendly, and it was hard for a first time user who only gives the game a 5 minute try to enjoy it.
It needed bots, lower defaults, better movement, and more American servers

... "i shall not comment"...

even if it may not be relevant to their review, but i think it would be worth to mention, that warsow and sauerbraten have kiss-my-a** licenses :)

... and the author must be a true hardcore fan of super-mario style beep-beep ingame music!