This article is the opinion of the author and does not represent the opinions of Mod DB or its staff.
Download DIPRIP – it’s only 200MB – and play it now. It’s a success, and you’ll find this article far more readable when you’ve had the experiences it talks about.
Back? Your first impressions were probably good. Production values are truly fantastic, particularly the team’s particle effects and destructible scenery. Sound is meaty and instructive, performance on all fronts is great, and if you get the chance to view the car models in HLMV, prepare to be gobsmacked at the craftsmanship that has gone into each one.
Spawn, however, and you encounter DIPRIP’s first flaw. Turning is ridiculously slow. It’s actually faster to crash your car and hope to be spun round by the impact to vaguely the correct direction than it is to steer – until you know the secret, which is to enable your boosters before hitting A or D. With this in mind turning becomes a breeze and you’re free to have fun. And what fun!
Yet while they might be easy to overcome, slow turning speeds are the tip of a rather large iceberg lurking below DIPRIP’s outward appearance. It can be understood as a question: what does the mod’s presentation of vehicular combat achieve?
A theme, and a good one at that, certainly. What else? Ramming? Yes, that’s fun too, especially barrelling through two players at once. Beyond these benefits however the vehicular movement model serves only to remove choice from the game. Gone are dodging and strafing, jumping, and, for both of the main weapons, aiming in any direction that isn’t in front of you. To what end? Unlike in, say, UT2004, every other player you meet has the same set of wheel-borne advantages and disadvantages – and the disadvantages both number and weigh much more.
This isn’t to contradict my earlier compliments. DIPRIP remains chaotic, visceral entertainment, and if you’re at all a fan of cars or a LAN player you’ll get even more out of it than I have. I just can’t escape the feeling as I play that the mod’s design, both current and future, doesn’t justify the huge amount of effort that has been poured into it by some immensely skilled people. With a solid release out of the door, now is the time to push, convey and explore!
To clear up any potential confusion, this is my own opinion. It doesn't represent ModDB's.
I would have preferred this as a review.
Well it ain't one. :-p
While we're talking about this, could an "Opinion" category be added? I've had to use the hopelessly generic "Article" instead...
Agree, the blog doesn't have the same amount of text editing goodness that an article has, but article implies a bit of critical distance.
Wow, can we all write up our own opinions on the front page?? What's the point in this?
I feel the same way about this mod!
Un muy buen mod!!
A very nice mod!!
This doesn't belong on the front page.
However, the mod is fun though still pretty rough and frustrating at times.
Oh, and you failed to mention the ENORMOUS amount of lags in the mod.
Even on servers with a <50 ping and only 8-10 players is pretty damn laggy.
Reason enough for me to not play this anymore until the next version.
I've never pinged below 100ms, but only once, on one server, have I encountered lag. Unless you're referring to the /delay/ in steering, which is a problem with Valve's shipping vehicle code that I believe the team are now starting on a fix for.
It actually feels like there is a huge packet loss (abrupt movements, sometimes not moving at all for a mere second, stuff like that)
Pings are fine though and my system is more then powerful enough to run HL2 and its mods
And I have no problems of this kind with any other mods I'm playing.
I don't really care that much though. I'll just wait for the next version :)
Yeah, that's what happened on the server I was talking about. Never seen it before or since...
to be honest is a refreshing blast to to this heavy populated fps game.. it needs work as do a lot of games but the game works, it creates a new feel for the game...
the only gripe i had about the game was how the cars looked so radical but the environment just did not suit the game to much. Its almost too pretty if you know what i mean?
While the game looks great, the game was just frustrating for me. The turning/input lag, while not really their fault, completely takes all the fun out of a driving game. I have a top of the line pc, and ping less than 100, and while it was playable, it was frustrating and took any joy out of driving the vehicles. This was even in unpopulated servers, and just got worse with more people. I played it for 30 mijns, then uninstalled it. If I see they release a patch that solves this issue, I'll give it another shot, but right now its a no go for me.