Those games never end

One of the most amazing things about gaming, is to find out that a game is still being played after years of its release date. Maybe this is the usual practice for someone used to the likes of old gaming platforms and the availability of emulation software, but we also have the usual late-to-mid 90s "PC game" which became a cult. Quake 3 is still active and many other fun LucasArts games are also actively played in public servers. This is the case of Jedi Academy and a bunch other titles from the same company. The interesting point is how things are shifting towards more massive multi-player games and the role-playing genre, instead of the good old FPS. LucasArts has a rather exciting title (Force Unleashed) in the works which may be only available for consoles, and many other game development companies are doing the same.

Something changed in the game industry that makes most companies release the best games primarily for gaming-oriented platforms. If the graphic drivers for Vista didn't suck...

Game bugs?: Jedi Academy, gravity out

Playing multi-player online games is fun. No one else doubts that, well, no average human at least. But some people, as it happens mostly everywhere, also have fun making the experience of others the worst possible. From so-called "spawn killers" (yes, those who don't let you play even a second, throwing thermal detonators right next to you when you get "spawned" in the area) to spammers (those who should keep out of playing for a while, as announcing their new kill record gets boring for most of us) and the more-than-hated h4x0rs. Those are the real problem. Either an unfair administrator or a player with some skills and knowledge, can take advantage of specific problems inside the game engine to do all shorts of tricks.

Today's episode is about a little trick that will make most Jedi Academy players out there smile the first time they see it in action. Beware of bugs, gravity doesn't seem to affect them.

Short explanation: gravity value is used to calculate the height you can gain when jumping, the velocity needed to get back to the ground, etc. The problem is that, if gravity value changes when a player is jumping or "flying", the new constants are applied immediately. The result in this case, is first putting the player characters at the highest height and then literally crunching them into the ground.