Recent reviews by djlslee

cracking little game ssi awesome stuff

love the atmosphere well designed fantastic graphics and animation

do not be fooled by my used hours i have only this week moved to steam, i backed this all the way back to its first rebirth guru classic ( fpsc reloaded)
i am going to be fair with this product.

1. they are very good with keeping us in the loop weekly videos and suggestions and you get demos and a whole plethora of news and interaction.
2. they have totally delivered with the landscape. however at present it is hard to manipulate and make it yours, but in time this will be changed
the downside is that it is not continual world scape - means it looks and has procedural but you are confined to a 5km square play area per level- so mmo and huge worlds are going to be a no. skyrim nowhere near but it is still a huge level and to get from one side to another takes an extremely long time and i got bored trying so it is large but not enough to be a huge world.
i had requested loading areas of levels so you can enter a cave (new level) and exit that cave at a different location (old level) not able to do this so it is very limiting meaning when you reload the level you somehow always end up at the starting mark- this is a huge bugbear

3. the character creator is delivered brilliantly and has a lot of potential and ( in time) we will be given the tools to add our own to it. in time.
4.
a)the enemies are no longer corner guys, in the past they got stuck on corners and it was hard to add custom models as the neutrals and enemies got stuck or just didn't go into them, i jumped for joy when they moved around my dungeons. and houses. so this is excellent and the nav mesh is a winner, no issues here

b) ai is much more advanced and the speech and extras and the behaviours and flags for defined movement work a treat too however it is at present minimal and i would not bother if you want to make an RPG at present( suggest wait to buy till they release the RPG element which has no release date at all if you are buying to make a skyrim

5. the logic is a huge and will be a fantastic addition and i cant fault this as it is evolving and expanding as we go so no problems and in time this will be amazing

6.world mechanics - this i think is where they need to look at completing an area
there is no day/night cycle
the under water is an effect from 2005 ( fog)
the weather system is not a system it snows or doesn't it rains or doesn't. i am sure with logic trigger zones you can get them to work but there is no weather system as such, also the rain is terrible at present its 2001 standards although is a particle effect there is no thunder and lightning effects either
there is a tree system that is fantastic however it is a minimal selection at present but it is a very impressive one
the vegetation is great however they have restrictions on it the further you draw the sparser it gets but this acceptable and in original you got one choice now as many as you want
there are roaming animals however very few choices at present and could do with an expansion pack which i am sure would be fantastic for all.
particle is a good little tool and i think that will be worth its wait at some point
there are ambient sounds that are a lovely touch to this engine.
7 weapons there is i have heard going to be a way to attach and develop the hands and weapons which i look forward to seeing but at present its what you buy animated and stock.

8. no VR as yet but they have the technology in there as they released a cheeky classic guru version to a company so this i believe will be in soon.

CONCLUSION
they have come so far with this tool and they have a potential winning tool in their hands. however they are very slow on the entire development and use early access to get out of jail as it were and i know they are a small team but they seem to get sidetracked by things like marketplace and other little niche things when they could just complete some engine little things like finish off the rain or day and night or a better water effect they can add effects easily and quickly like they did with SSAO a quick and to be honest none asked to do yet the lead developer was impressed with it he showed it off. so i think they need to have one member tie off the little touches to finish sections. and continue with the development as planned they as i say have a super tool here but they are just missing the little things. but in time this will be the best on the market but until they address all the little things like loading to specific locations and transferring the data and the little extras this will just frustrate people.


GETTING A THUMBS UP BUT I WILL COME BACK AND REVIEW THIS IN AUGUST

October update

small amount of progress has been achieved however the logic is being put in by a forum member and they chose to implement a none pitched Building editor and left a lot of the other said pitched bits like VR, RPG, PUZZLE and even classic now has a better sky system created by a none TGC member max does not have night and day or RPG or PUZZLE or VR or decent under water the weather is a very basic 2000 and you get good light snow but its not increased,

the frame rate has lately dropped from 40 to 50 to 10 to 16 FPS- this i believe has to do with x12 integration so i will review again in December

Character creator no changes
water no changes
RPG nothing
PUZZLE nothing
VR nothing
UI no changes
weather no changes
night and day nothing
building editor implementing not complete
x12 implementing not complete

since the last review they have behind the scenes been working on Building editor they have informed us and going to x12 due to reasons they had to

Frame rate has dropped on an nvidia card about 35FPS - expecting an increase when completed

CONCLUSION
will they ever actually complete this engine?
it has been in early access since march/april and still have no where near completed what has been pitched. the engine was built starting in 2012
they have now got wicked engine for graphics and bullet for physics and have had so many things in place since 2012 - they have rewritten a few times going to C++ and have updated to x11 now x12 and have had to update to the latest wicked engine updates.

but the road map has been unclear in the last few years and they have taken their foot off the accelerator and are getting sidetracked again this is what ultimately cost Game-guru classic as it ran out of money and they added none essentials the biggest time consumer was the failed building editor took them 8 months and then hardly used. i do fear they aqre making the repeated pattern i hope they prove me wrong as it has potential but they get too excited and a bit over zealous and take on too many things and it falls by the wayside
this is from experience as i have been with them since 2008 and it is a repeat offender what they do.

this engine started before covid 19 started and was to be up and running in 2020 september. however they saw potenial and we all accepted september was not a good time to releaes.

roll on over 2 years the engine is still in early access with no release date and an unfinished engine and the most parts of the engine are unfinished i will review again in january

april 4th update
since the last update and my lack of road map to review in January i feel i owe a new up to date review


since i last wrote they have been busy.
the check list is
1. RPG - they have a full implemented RPG system and Puzzle has plenty
2. VR - now working
X12 has not been implemented yet and i think with this the wicked engine latest update is impossible- this i believe is stopping weather and underwater efx ( 1997) but i think they will work on it at some point,
NOTE - you cant do an RPG game with abroken world (night/day - good water for swimming- et

loving this game sadly had to break off to get the shopping, i love the feel and the graphics are sleek and the atmosphere is great, i recommend and at this price is great

Archon is one of the orignal games to have chess elements and combat with elements of different fighters unique, the game is good single player or fighting your friends. this game i believe in the day was ground breaking in the 80s and many have teken elements into other games and genres, now it has been updated and is brilliant

very cheap and adds a nice touch to the screen and many choices, so for its price very good, i like th snow and rain scenes

since it was released a few years ago the shoot em up kit as gone from strength to strength, they always promptly reply and always listen and are open to new ideas and will try to accomodate you, this software unleashes many possible game scenarios with easy and manageble content, it is not hard to make a game and it is flexible and if you really want to make unique blasters then this is up your street. if you like me remember back in the 80s, some classic shoot em ups like commando, zaxxon, raid over bungalin bay, zynapps, uridium and parallax and all the memorable games, this will help you with the bonus of far superior graphics particles and more options, and enjoy making games this is for you. there is a learning curve like to all creators but if you stick with it you and your friends will be blasting the universe within no time at all

awesome and 2 is on its way