Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Time for more singing!
(with apologies to Billy Joel)

It's 4 O'clock on a Thursday
Regular gamers shuffled in
There's an old poster sitting next to me
he's griping and complainin'

He says, "Epic can you give me a free game,
Something that I can download
Just make it free and cool and maybe also new
That I may just play down the road

Give us a game, you're the Epic Store
Give us a game tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a free game or two
And you've got us feeling just right

* REDOUT 2
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/redout-2
At it's simplest, "Redout 2" is basically just "Wipeout"
updated for modern systems. You got your little hover-
sled, you race it down colorful techno-tracks at breakneck
speeds, maybe grab a few pickups that accelerate you to
ludicrous speeds or let you shoot the guy in front of you.
Rinse and repeat across 30+ tracks, play offline against
bots or online against others. Where "Wipeout's" hook
was its sharp 3D graphics and colored lighting
(exciting features back in 1995!), "Redout 2" takes
a more stylized, cel-shaded look. Other than that,
yeah; it's Wipeout circa 2024. It's fine if you like
that style of game. It has, unfortunately, been abandoned
by its developer, but for a freebie that you play a few
times and then forget? It's not a bad addition to
the library.

(Also, D&D Idle Champions. Again. Which is always free anyway. So stop putting it up like it's some special bargain, Epic!)

And now... More singing!

Now Tim at the Store is a friend of mine
He gets me my games down low
He's quick with his code, or to balance the load
When the servers are runnin; too slow

He says, "Spalls I believe Epic is killing me"
As a smile ran away from his face
"I really thought if I shared these free games
Everybody would come to this place."

Now Paul is a hard core gamer
He plays way past midnight
And he's talking to Davy, who's equally lazy
And probably will be for life

And the servers crash and the client is shit
And the exclusives annoy all the fans
But we don't care much because we get free games
And think we're sockin' it to The Man

Give us a game, you're the Epic Store
Give us a game tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a free game or two
And you've got us feeling just right

(I put /waaaay/ too much effort into those lyrics ;-)

ah right, Redout. I already have the first game in my library,
also from one of Epic's free giveaways.
I never got around trying it.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

Time for more singing!
(with apologies to Billy Joel)

It's 4 O'clock on a Thursday
Regular gamers shuffled in
There's an old poster sitting next to me
he's griping and complainin'

He says, "Epic can you give me a free game,
Something that I can download
Just make it free and cool and maybe also new
That I may just play down the road

Give us a game, you're the Epic Store
Give us a game tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a free game or two
And you've got us feeling just right

* REDOUT 2
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/redout-2
At it's simplest, "Redout 2" is basically just "Wipeout"
updated for modern systems. You got your little hover-
sled, you race it down colorful techno-tracks at breakneck
speeds, maybe grab a few pickups that accelerate you to
ludicrous speeds or let you shoot the guy in front of you.
Rinse and repeat across 30+ tracks, play offline against
bots or online against others. Where "Wipeout's" hook
was its sharp 3D graphics and colored lighting
(exciting features back in 1995!), "Redout 2" takes
a more stylized, cel-shaded look. Other than that,
yeah; it's Wipeout circa 2024. It's fine if you like
that style of game. It has, unfortunately, been abandoned
by its developer, but for a freebie that you play a few
times and then forget? It's not a bad addition to
the library.

(Also, D&D Idle Champions. Again. Which is always free anyway. So stop putting it up like it's some special bargain, Epic!)

And now... More singing!

Now Tim at the Store is a friend of mine
He gets me my games down low
He's quick with his code, or to balance the load
When the servers are runnin; too slow

He says, "Spalls I believe Epic is killing me"
As a smile ran away from his face
"I really thought if I shared these free games
Everybody would come to this place."

Now Paul is a hard core gamer
He plays way past midnight
And he's talking to Davy, who's equally lazy
And probably will be for life

And the servers crash and the client is shit
And the exclusives annoy all the fans
But we don't care much because we get free games
And think we're sockin' it to The Man

Give us a game, you're the Epic Store
Give us a game tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a free game or two
And you've got us feeling just right

(I put /waaaay/ too much effort into those lyrics ;-)

but to riff on my complaint from a few years ago:
Redout 1 has about 5gb
Redout 2 has 33gb

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, 13 Jun 2024 18:59:50 -0000 (UTC),
<smaug@ereborbbs.duckdns.org> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

* REDOUT 2
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/redout-2

ah right, Redout. I already have the first game in my library,
also from one of Epic's free giveaways.
I never got around trying it.

I haven't tried the second, but the general opinion I've seen is that
while "RedOut 2" is an okay game and in some ways fixes some issues
with the original, the first game was overall the superior racer. And
that publisher shenanigins have forced the developer to stop working
on the sequel (leaving unfixed issues) and pushed in unnecessary DLC.

The original - which I really only gave a very little time too
evaluate - was... well, it was fine. I mean, it was very obviously
"Wipeout" with the serial numbers scraped off. It felt a bit floaty,
but that's par for the course with the genre. I was never a huge fan
of "Wipeout" style games. I fiddled around with "Redout" for a little
while (less than an hour) and never really felt an urge to go back. I
think both games are worth a look but I don't see either as games that
will occupy any but the most devoted fan's for very long.

so, I installed Redout finally. And it's... fine.
It's an ok game, but it's basically like the whole other genre of
futuristic racers (I wouldn't even start with WipeOut and put it in a
line with F-Zero, which clearly was an inspiration for Wipeout)
And I remembered why I didn't actually like these games so much:
they are trying hard to be interesting, but there really isn't much
you can do with these generic vehicles.

I remember playin the Star Wars episode 1 racing game and that was
done in a way that actually worked. It also wasn't that drastically
different, but the pods had their own behaviour and character, and
of course the Star Wars ambience helped.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)