TI - Past Year's Terrors, or: What Were We thinking?! news - TI: Reloaded

So yes,

the only time that TI really got a significant amount of reviews from professional websites, magazines and critics was about two years ago, back when TI was first released. And, due to a permament lack of funding (haven't found a cure for that one yet), the game was unstable, ugly, slow and, in more than just a number of cases, ridiculous without being fun at the same time (and this has, in fact, significantly changed).

Anyway, here are the reviews.

Enjoy the read as much as we have - we're past the stage of feeling physical pain, so it's alright.

KOTAKU

Kotaku.com

Destructoid

Destructoid.com

Rock Paper Shotgun

Rockpapershotgun.com

Eurogamer

Eurogamer.net

"Highway is worth playing once, especially if you've got friends you hate." - I mean, really?

The sad truth, however, is, that they were right.

But the game has changed; and our attitude along with it. Since we're no longer forced by publishers to make inaccurate statements just for the sake of baiting players, we can now admit

Hostages and their animations? Ridiculous, and we know that. Next big thing on the to-fix-list.

Lack of music? Yeah, once this was sold as a "feature". Sure......
the truth? We simply didn't have any music working in-game.

We do, now.

Performance worse than better looking games? This was a biggie, and we knew it. Which is why Tony has spent hundreds of hours analyzing code and optimizing effects so that, as of now, we can run TI 25% faster than two years ago - and it looks better.

Then, possibly the worst fact of them all about this game: TI was famous to be terribly unstable, full of glitches, bugs and involountarily ridiculous situations caused by all sorts of exploits that couldn't be fixed in time. We were desperately trying to get the game done in time for the release dates, but it was impossible back then. And all this thanks to management and publishers - who are no longer part of our lives.

Make no mistake, TI still has issues, quite a lot, frankly, but we're aware of them, we're addressing them, fixing them one by one, and these are no longer part of it. This list doesn't include any of the fixes we've been working on, which will be introduced with our new patch; the beta is running now, we're testing every single day and, if all goes well, we can set this game right - step by step:

Changelog - Steam Release Day up to what's currently available on STEAM:

• Added 3 more hostage models
• Fixed up cars during planning so they don't roll away from spawn
• Some adjustments to player-car impacts
• Some fixes for functionality that uses the steam overlay
• Localization and icon adjustments
• Updated player models and skins
• Temporary possible fix for OSX 10.9
• Optimized game content
• Added Flash Metro for Mission (Hostage Rescue)
• Updated Construction TDM
• Modified the game options, added the option to enable low violence
• Fixed bunnyhopping
• Added a third option for the sa/map to use both if you like
• Revamped +use to use a priority list
• Advanced video no longer does the annoying warning confirmations, displaying what each option does
• Made the backgrounds darker so it is a LOT less distracting
• Fixed tooltip colours
• New icons for the new player skins
• Revamped options menu
• Fixed issues with the dismemberment
• Fixed exploits on airport
• Fixed bug with vip waypoint beam
• New map TDM Terminal
• Show number values beside weapon sliders
• Walking through paper now breaks it
• TDM kill-streaks loop around
• Fixed bug with changing video settings and getting stuck requiring using task manager to kill the game
• Fixed collision models for trucks and some huts on highway
• Tweaked stamina
• Revamp and optimization of player attachment models
• New weapon M4 Star 10
• fixes for M4STAR10 updating M4 Statistics
• Increased stability for dedicated server connections
• logos and copyrights updated
• updates to [TDM] Construction
• updates to [TDM] Terminal
• updated to [TDM] Office
• updated to [TDM] Flash Metro
• updates to [MISSION] Skyrise
• updates to [MISSION] Airport
• updates to [MISSION] Flash Metro
• updates to [MISSION] Highway
• voice status panel (shows who is speaking with microphone) now shows up on-top of the game-panel
• Pet Perks are now selectable in Inventory again
• fixed all third person (other players) muzzle-flashes to now actually show up
• fixed the Super-V third person magazine, no longer does it float between the players legs.
• you can now die in TDM before the live match starts if you spawn while waiting for people to finish loading
• reduced first person muzzle-flash sizes a bit
• the room game state label now clearly shows if the game is in the final round
• pressing ready while in intermission is ignored, to not be confusing
• The out of Zone penalty in Hostage Rescue is back again, however in a much more reduced Capacity. Defend Zones are now visible on both the planning panel AND the mini-map. Boundaries are now always known. Time before you start being shot at is increased, and damage is reduced. Time is also shown.
• Items are now displayed in Rack, Shop, Inventory with a Quality based Colour system. Unique: Purple, Customizable: Orange, Default: Blue, Common: Grey
• fixed not being able to bash immediately after emptying your magazine (or running out of ammo)
• fixed a long-standing bug with recoil not functioning properly
• removed the delay on bashing because of inconsistencies with ping
• fixed the planning panel rendering of Map and Objectives, including CT Squad B spawn not using the correct location, and displays additional information, hovering over squad buttons in hostage rescue will highlight the plan on the preview
• Terrorists now also have access to the GPS in VIP Car Maps
• when items are requisitioned in mission mode, you are now notified
• load-out screen now remembers the choice to have details (attributes) visible
• made ammobags collide with player clips so they don't get stuck in weird places
• fix explosions so a table leg does not protect you
• beefed up flashbangs and made them actually effective
• made grenades bounce more reliably to line up throws
• added the ability for room owners to ban armour in TDM
• fixed lastinv command, and added it to the key options
• made some improvements to cars to keep them from driving up walls
• CTs no longer win if they drive away from the drop off point after reaching the car goal
• fixed bug with passworded rooms
• total ammo count now shown on hud instead of reload counts
• fixed the bug that allowed a defuse be successful after the defuser is killed
• fixed the bug causing cars to spawn in the center of the map at the beginning of a round in some instances
• Networking has taken a substantial optimization, reducing the amount of traffic, Still more to come though.
• Don't swap to new grenade unless it's better than the one you have active already on requisition / kill streak
• A number of other minor fixes, tweaks, and balance issues have also been addressed
• a lot of changes to all weapons (which do require additional skill to master) these are not 100% final and may change in the future, but this is going closer to what TI was like a long time ago. [Less point and click, instant headshot]
• made a number of improvements to the OSX version, however bootcamp + windows is still recommended unless you have a current generation mac, these changes might also improve windows performance slightly on some setups as well
• gave sniper rifles a slight sway and kick reduction while crouched and in cars
• some other performance and balance adjustments
• fixed issue with fallback equipment failing and always giving shield
• prevent fire/teargas from spamming damage notifications
• drastically improved and fixed up issues with horitontal viewkick
• toned down ak/dsa/17/amd65 vertical kick
• balance tweaks for p90 and superv
• fixed zoom sway in cars
• you can now name your loadout slots
• fixed regression that broke standing in smoke
• increase tear gas duration, gas cloud radius, and duration of cloud
• increased view range while looking down
• prevent teargas grenade from rolling around unrealistically
• fixed a couple issues on Mall
• adjusted the voting hud
• some fixes for team-only votes
• when purchasing an equippable item from the shop, you are notified and asked if you'd like to equip it
• some minor localization fixes
• added monaco achievement
• don't hurt teammates with cars unless friendly fire is on
• fixed a major performance issue across all platforms
• Added Steam Leaderboards
• fixed bug with as50 having perfect accuracy when not-zoomed
• reduced damage as50 deals to cars
• slightly lowered as50 rate of fire
• anti-quick scope on as50
• fixed some UI issues
• fixed many issues with grenades
• increased point rewards
• don't do damage notifications on fire or tear at all anymore
• increased VIP car health scale a bit
• completely revamped the voting system
• new achievements for AS50, AMD65, Dual MTX, 17
• fixed issue with attachments on ingame panel
• minor bug fixes
• added crates to Monaco
• minor bug fixes
• server restructure for europe
• some fixes for spectating
• fixes to sniper sway to make it more accurate with lag (server client sync)
• minor bug fixes
• minor rendering optimization on lower quality settings to help with lower-end machines
• prevent spectator/observer from calling votes
• a number of collision issues fixed on innercity
• fixed the sun on morningcalm and flash metro
• changed the water to a garden in TDM office
• loaded truck is back in highway, but only on stage 1 and 3
• all npc cars are now optimized with no interior and opaque windows for the sake of performance, it's a little less realistic when they become player cars now, but better performance is a tradeoff
• fixed bug where when a damaged npc car becomes a player car.. the damage would vanish.
• changed some sounds
• re-work room ui so that room information can show if weapons/armor are banned or not.
• enhance client logging of lobby networking a bit more.. this will be enhanced in the future to help with bug reporting
• fix sniper sway when moving.
• fix the uzi + silencer issue, where it had flashlight instead
• fix the gsg9 2k10 boots
• new color blind mode.. for color blind people, that changes many icons on the hud / sa / minimap, etc to be a different color instead of red.
• no more FPS limit for driver selection, i don't think it was even working properly anyway.
• Additional skins and improved textures for a number of vehicles.
• Restored the old death screams partially, to bring some spice back to the slaughter
• fix bug with weapon rack and silencer/flashlight not being re-purchaseable after expiration
• fixed an issue with slot custom name saving
• made rpg7 explosions, blow doors
• made knife more effective
• fixed bug with the create/modify panel not having the correct kill/timelimit..
• [ALL] Changed the way Map Names are shown in the UI to eliminate confusion between FFA/TDM
• [FFA] reverse the score sorting at end of match so it shows the top 5 BEST players, not the top 5 WORST players.
• [FFA] Fix knife not damaging players on the same "team"
• [FFA] death notice shows in an orange colour
• [FFA] fixed an issue where spawn location selection was not random (but some maps still need updating with additional locations)
• [FFA] modified how certain strings related to a players team are displayed, to mitigate some of the confusion
• [FFA] hide "team score" from the top of the scoreboard (the scoreboard will be modified a lot more in the near future for FFA)
• [BETA]Milan updated with fixes and much more contrast to reduce the excessive flaring
• [BETA][FFA] Entrely new Spawning system
• [BOMBING]Uprising restored with correct spawn locations for terrorists
• Being Kicked for AFK will now eject you from the room
• Added a new Achievement -- "?IMEI? Seeking Rockets"
• Revamped the network usage settings in options, as well as the defaults. Settings will now also save correctly in Windows.
• Made some initial Modifications to muzzleflashes
• [OSX]Repaired some of the FONT issues, it's still a work in progress though.
• Added some missing content for colorblind mode
• fixed issue with not being able to shoot through glass with shotguns
• fixed a bug with friendly fire which gave team kills assists
• fixed the issue with uprising terrorist spawns
• fixed an issue with dogs where after the master was killed the dog would ignore nearby enemy targets
• completely re-wrote all damage functions
• ensure blood does not appear when damage is absorbed
• fixed an issue with footstep sounds not playing under certain circumstances
• allow weapon addons to be rented without permanently owning the weapon
• rpg can be aquired in tdm/ffa from kill streaks
• fixed a bug with the map in FFA
• fixed a bug with showing certain hud elements during freeze frame that are confusing
• changes to lag compensation for cars
• castalla tdm is no longer beta
• milan has a nav mesh and dogs will function correctly (this actually was actually done last update but not mentioned)
• when swapping passenger seats in cars, don't switch to primary weapon
• killing a teammates dog (friendlyfire) does not award points
• Added additional rooms for low level players
• new player bonuses (details soon) are now in effect
• when time runs out in FFA, scoring now actually happens instead of everyone losing
• adjusted the recoil system a bit more to smooth it out a bit and reduce the insane shaking
• speed up Ultima Ratio deploy speed
• as50 now has damage capped against arms/legs/family jewels, no other changes made yet.
• adjust the size of first person muzzleflahes and reduce the frequency of creating them so they are less distracting

The upcoming patch will include all the work we've done to TI in the past twelve months, so the changelog will add a number of lines to this list ;), so, while there was the old TI...

... there's a new one coming up, with a new look

... new maps...

...new skins...

... and entirely new scenarios:

At least one, probably even two of the new maps will be released in the upcoming patch, and the others are nearing completion, so it's going to be an interesting christmas season for us...

Have a great weekend,

Til