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I was playing Dragon's Blood on the Dreamcast this morning, fun stuff, you are a Medieval Knight with a big sword who goes around in third person perspective chopping up ogres and trolls. Great stuff, very bloody, you can see why it got a 15+ rating, but also very annoying.
The camera angles. It's fine when you're running about, it jogs along nicely just above shoulder height behind you so that you can see where you are going.
It's fine when you stop and take a look around, full 360 degree spherical swoop, very handy for spotting those hard to get to places.
But get into a fight, and basically the camera becomes your own worst enemy. You do a double forwards somersault, hit the thrust button, and you land on both feet and lunge forward with your sword/mace/double-headed axe hoping to disembowel your opponent before his mate gets you from the side, and all of the sudden the camera ZOOMS around, trying hard to catch up, and swings back to shoulder position. Meanwhile, your enemies have jumped to the side, and they are still there but somewhere offscreen, and you have to frantically try to spin around to see where they are.
Did these developers actually PLAY this? I thought maybe it was just me getting used to the controls, but after 2 hours of hacking and slashing my way through the first of 15 levels and picking up numerous unnecessary injuries to boot, it got worse. More enemies on screen means more dramatic swooping from the camera, and before you know it they are all over you and you haven't got a hope.
It's a good game, I'll stick at it, but they should fix that ruddy camera next time.
They aren't the only culprits either, Tomb Raider had its niggly camera moments, Shenmue was by no means perfect, PSO was occaisionally awkward...in fact the only 'perfect' use of the camera in any 3-D game seems to be in the Fighter genre, I've yet to play a beat 'em up where you lose track of your opponent onscreen for any significant period of time.
Dragon's Blood was developed last year, you'd have thought that by then they'd have sussed out how to use a third person perspective properly, considering that the title itself is an epic game by any standards, huge levels they are, massive mazes, all beautifully detailed.
If you are playing action/adventure games, I've come to the conclusion that it's vital that the camera be fixed in place at all times for your perspective so you've got your bearings at all time, until such a point as YOU want it to move.
The camera angles. It's fine when you're running about, it jogs along nicely just above shoulder height behind you so that you can see where you are going.
It's fine when you stop and take a look around, full 360 degree spherical swoop, very handy for spotting those hard to get to places.
But get into a fight, and basically the camera becomes your own worst enemy. You do a double forwards somersault, hit the thrust button, and you land on both feet and lunge forward with your sword/mace/double-headed axe hoping to disembowel your opponent before his mate gets you from the side, and all of the sudden the camera ZOOMS around, trying hard to catch up, and swings back to shoulder position. Meanwhile, your enemies have jumped to the side, and they are still there but somewhere offscreen, and you have to frantically try to spin around to see where they are.
Did these developers actually PLAY this? I thought maybe it was just me getting used to the controls, but after 2 hours of hacking and slashing my way through the first of 15 levels and picking up numerous unnecessary injuries to boot, it got worse. More enemies on screen means more dramatic swooping from the camera, and before you know it they are all over you and you haven't got a hope.
It's a good game, I'll stick at it, but they should fix that ruddy camera next time.
They aren't the only culprits either, Tomb Raider had its niggly camera moments, Shenmue was by no means perfect, PSO was occaisionally awkward...in fact the only 'perfect' use of the camera in any 3-D game seems to be in the Fighter genre, I've yet to play a beat 'em up where you lose track of your opponent onscreen for any significant period of time.
Dragon's Blood was developed last year, you'd have thought that by then they'd have sussed out how to use a third person perspective properly, considering that the title itself is an epic game by any standards, huge levels they are, massive mazes, all beautifully detailed.
If you are playing action/adventure games, I've come to the conclusion that it's vital that the camera be fixed in place at all times for your perspective so you've got your bearings at all time, until such a point as YOU want it to move.
I was playing Dragon's Blood on the Dreamcast this morning, fun stuff, you are a Medieval Knight with a big sword who goes around in third person perspective chopping up ogres and trolls. Great stuff, very bloody, you can see why it got a 15+ rating, but also very annoying.
The camera angles. It's fine when you're running about, it jogs along nicely just above shoulder height behind you so that you can see where you are going.
It's fine when you stop and take a look around, full 360 degree spherical swoop, very handy for spotting those hard to get to places.
But get into a fight, and basically the camera becomes your own worst enemy. You do a double forwards somersault, hit the thrust button, and you land on both feet and lunge forward with your sword/mace/double-headed axe hoping to disembowel your opponent before his mate gets you from the side, and all of the sudden the camera ZOOMS around, trying hard to catch up, and swings back to shoulder position. Meanwhile, your enemies have jumped to the side, and they are still there but somewhere offscreen, and you have to frantically try to spin around to see where they are.
Did these developers actually PLAY this? I thought maybe it was just me getting used to the controls, but after 2 hours of hacking and slashing my way through the first of 15 levels and picking up numerous unnecessary injuries to boot, it got worse. More enemies on screen means more dramatic swooping from the camera, and before you know it they are all over you and you haven't got a hope.
It's a good game, I'll stick at it, but they should fix that ruddy camera next time.
They aren't the only culprits either, Tomb Raider had its niggly camera moments, Shenmue was by no means perfect, PSO was occaisionally awkward...in fact the only 'perfect' use of the camera in any 3-D game seems to be in the Fighter genre, I've yet to play a beat 'em up where you lose track of your opponent onscreen for any significant period of time.
Dragon's Blood was developed last year, you'd have thought that by then they'd have sussed out how to use a third person perspective properly, considering that the title itself is an epic game by any standards, huge levels they are, massive mazes, all beautifully detailed.
If you are playing action/adventure games, I've come to the conclusion that it's vital that the camera be fixed in place at all times for your perspective so you've got your bearings at all time, until such a point as YOU want it to move.
The camera angles. It's fine when you're running about, it jogs along nicely just above shoulder height behind you so that you can see where you are going.
It's fine when you stop and take a look around, full 360 degree spherical swoop, very handy for spotting those hard to get to places.
But get into a fight, and basically the camera becomes your own worst enemy. You do a double forwards somersault, hit the thrust button, and you land on both feet and lunge forward with your sword/mace/double-headed axe hoping to disembowel your opponent before his mate gets you from the side, and all of the sudden the camera ZOOMS around, trying hard to catch up, and swings back to shoulder position. Meanwhile, your enemies have jumped to the side, and they are still there but somewhere offscreen, and you have to frantically try to spin around to see where they are.
Did these developers actually PLAY this? I thought maybe it was just me getting used to the controls, but after 2 hours of hacking and slashing my way through the first of 15 levels and picking up numerous unnecessary injuries to boot, it got worse. More enemies on screen means more dramatic swooping from the camera, and before you know it they are all over you and you haven't got a hope.
It's a good game, I'll stick at it, but they should fix that ruddy camera next time.
They aren't the only culprits either, Tomb Raider had its niggly camera moments, Shenmue was by no means perfect, PSO was occaisionally awkward...in fact the only 'perfect' use of the camera in any 3-D game seems to be in the Fighter genre, I've yet to play a beat 'em up where you lose track of your opponent onscreen for any significant period of time.
Dragon's Blood was developed last year, you'd have thought that by then they'd have sussed out how to use a third person perspective properly, considering that the title itself is an epic game by any standards, huge levels they are, massive mazes, all beautifully detailed.
If you are playing action/adventure games, I've come to the conclusion that it's vital that the camera be fixed in place at all times for your perspective so you've got your bearings at all time, until such a point as YOU want it to move.
The N64 has a number of great games that suffer from camera problems.
When used, the 'c' buttons are great for changing the angle, takig a look around etc, but when it decides to do it automatically....bah! it's useless!
Conkers Bad Fur Day has some seriously dodgy camera moments, in which it fixes itself at an angle so you can't see what you're walking towards, until you're almost upon it!
Mind you, 3D gaming is still in it's relatively early days, and I'm sure the camera work will improve as time goes by.
Surely?
When used, the 'c' buttons are great for changing the angle, takig a look around etc, but when it decides to do it automatically....bah! it's useless!
Conkers Bad Fur Day has some seriously dodgy camera moments, in which it fixes itself at an angle so you can't see what you're walking towards, until you're almost upon it!
Mind you, 3D gaming is still in it's relatively early days, and I'm sure the camera work will improve as time goes by.
Surely?
Want to get into bad camera land??? Just go off down the shops and hunt down a copy of MIssion Impossible. Good game and all, but sometimes the camera really lets it down.
Say for instance you are in a room with a table in the middle of it, you'd expect the camera to stay fixed in position (a la Resi Evil), but what do you get? A camera that follows you around the small room and makes it practically impossible (hehe that ironic) to walk around the room in a controlled manner.
Another good example of this was when I was playing the game yesterday and I got stuck on a box, nothing to do with the camera, but when I got stuck the camera just went beserk so I didn't have any hope of getting out of the box.
<];o|
Say for instance you are in a room with a table in the middle of it, you'd expect the camera to stay fixed in position (a la Resi Evil), but what do you get? A camera that follows you around the small room and makes it practically impossible (hehe that ironic) to walk around the room in a controlled manner.
Another good example of this was when I was playing the game yesterday and I got stuck on a box, nothing to do with the camera, but when I got stuck the camera just went beserk so I didn't have any hope of getting out of the box.
<];o|
Oh Hello Sailor, sorry i couldn't help myself.
I will shutup now!
I will shutup now!
Just as well mate, you don't want to see me angry.
<];o|
<];o|