ive been trying not to get drawn into this topic but i carnt hold back
....
The only real way you can tell if LFS is getting old is when the # of racers drops off and all im seing IMO is growth, so that shoots that idea in the foot, a game (or anything else for that matter) can only grow if the market for that product is there, as far as LFS goes i think its more than there.
as for the game technology itself LFS was never "CUTTING EDGE" but this is where SO MANY games go wrong, yea we all like eye candy and TBH i dont think LFS disapoints, but games produced by all these big companys(cough EA cough) seem to think that eye candy is the be all and end all of a computer game, but then again they are just interested in selling millions of copies and don't give a flying (sensored) what people think after 2 weeks...
there has been a growth of games being produced by smaller independent dev teams and they are doing a way better job of it than all these big companys and you know why???? becasue they know what makes a great game and that is NOT KILLER GFX, ya see when developing a game the devs have a given space to work in as regards (AVERAGE) PC specs they have so many credits to work with and produce a game, MOst of the big companys spend 80% of those credits in the grafix department, looks great on the box but once you get used to the grafix you find there is no content,
the LFS devs on the other hand and used there noodle a bit more and actualy given us somthing to play not just look at, and for that they deserve a medal....
last thing to note is reliability and ease of use....
ive been in the web development world for a good few years now and one thing if you have to realise is (and is a fact) that if a webpage doesnt load within a given time period the viewer will more than lighty go to another site, especialy these days people are very impatiant, now just take a look at the
Technical Assistance section of this forum and then go and check out one of the big EA games, ok you have to take into account the playerbase size but you can see where im going here, the big companys use the most demanding gfx engines known to man to give you those great looking games, you need a top end rig overclocked to near meltdown to get playable frames, if you have a AVERAGE rig your screwed and your £50 just flew out the window becasue the company says its playable on a cirix 386 with 12 mb ram and a 4 mb 3d card
illepall ....
but even if you do get it to run you have to fight your way through the many bugs (in a retail game) and do you think you can get help off the company when THERE product just doesnt work.... i let you answer that one...
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so in short what do we have here with LFS??
Decent grafix that "WORK"
Content that continues to keep delivering
The best netcode ive ever seen in a race sim
a Dev team thats there for there customers and continues to privide regular quality updates..
a great comunity thats not moded by complete anals
and mutch more and all for 20 sheckles???
so is LFS getting old? i thinks its just starting, if this was a EA game i promise you it would be gathering dust on some top shelf with the rest of the money wasters... in years to come im positive that if the devs continue with this the way they are LFS will still be going strong -er) and will be a classic,..
i say lets enjoy being part of this becasue you dont get this happen very offten in this day and age....
long live LFS