Transfusion: A Users Perspective

General discussion relating to the Transfusion project.

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Tchernobog
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Transfusion: A Users Perspective

Post by Tchernobog »

I was recently digging through one of my old backups when I found some Transfusion files I had downloaded a year ago. At that time I was unable to get sounds or bots working, so I mostly just forgot about it. Considering I am an active member of the Transfusion forums however, I decided to give it another shot this time.

Installation:
I found that I had download both the transfusion-1.0-linux.i386.zip archive and the transfusion-patch-1.01-linux.i386.zip when I tried to run it previously. I started by extracting the former to my home directory, and then tried to run the file marked transfusion.glx with no success. I then extracted the patch archive into my transfusion directory, where it created a sub-directory also called transfusion. I tried running the transfusion.glx from there, and it ran.

Getting Started:
After loading, it began playing the opening demo, and to my surprise the sounds were working this time. This was probably caused by the fact that OSS never seemed to work on my computer until I upgraded to Fedora 10 last December. After doing some slight tweaks to the Transfusion keyboard and gamma controls, I decided it was time to start a game.

This is Where Things got Bloody:
After hosting a game, it loaded up the familiar architecture of the Altar of Stone, the map I had picked to test with. I spent the first little while running around like a maniac, testing the weapons and controls and killing myself a few times. Not entirely happy with the default alt-fire control, I went to the options menu where something caught my eye. There in the list where controls for spawning bots, by default set to del and end. After loading The Pit of Cerberus, I pressed the del key and hoped. There in front of me was a freaky Caleb look-alike trying the gore me with his pitchfork. Before long I was chasing a group of four bots down a hall with a napalm launcher.

Some More Fighting:
After staging a few more battles, I remembered that the only thing I managed to get working the last time I tried to play was the CD music. Unable to find my Blood CD, I instead grabbed one of my Warren Zevon disks and popped it into my drive. When I booted up Transfusion however, there was no music to be heard. After a little messing around, I found out that the problem was actually because my CD audio was set to mute. Booting up Transfusion once more, music began blasting from my speakers, but nothing else was. This was when I first encountered the fluctuating sound bug. When this happens, all you can do is try and restart Transfusion a few times and pray that the audio returns. It should come back after only a few restarts, but it is an annoyance I would prefer to not have to deal with.

Back to the Killing:
Now with fully functional audio and music, it was time to do a bit more experimenting. After playing a few more Bloodbaths, I noticed that you could also play a game of capture the flag. Loading up Cradle to Grave, I found myself inside the familiar mortuary with a bunch of Calebs in red trench-coats beside me. As they started an all out assault on the Blue base, I sneaked inside and grabbed the Blue flag while the team was distracted. Leaping wildly around the funeral home's corridors, I searched around, trying to find our own flag. Then I saw it, placed on top of a tomb in the grave yard. I started leaping towards it, a maniac Blue Caleb trying to stab me in the back. A message flashed on the screen, Lovecraft was coming to assist. I leaped on a tombstone, then on the metal fence. The Blue fell behind me to Lovecraft's shotgun. With one final leap, I reached the Red flag, and we scored.

Typical Cabal Construction:
Transfusion is already a fun game, but there are still a few annoyances to work out, the most obvious being the audio problems. Sometimes the game crashes when you try to load a new map, retuning you to GNOME with the resolution messed up. Sometimes when trying to load a map it just freezes up at the loading screen, and you have to forcibly restart X widows. Sometimes you get a “couldn't load gfx.wad“ error, which can be fixed by booting it from the terminal as shown below:
[hamish@localhost ~]$ cd /home/hamish/transfusion/transfusion/
[hamish@localhost ~]$ /home/hamish/transfusion/transfusion/transfusion-glx

I was also unable to play a network game, though this may be due to me being unsure of the procedure more than anything else. The rest of the annoyances are due to personal taste. I would prefer it if it was a bit more varied in track selection with the CD music, it gets a little old when you have to hear “Mohamed's Radio” for the fifth time. The graphics and models range from great to mediocre, but everything is suitable enough for game-play. Overall, these problems are worth fighting in exchange for actually being able to play the game.

Summing Up:
Transfusion promises a solid and frantic Bloodbath experience, and it provides just that. Although it still has many bugs to work out, it is more than suitable for your average Blood player to entertain him or herself with. Hopefully there will be more updates released eventually.

The Good:
  • Solid Gameplay
    Challenging Opponents
    Nice Variety of Maps
    Absolutely Bloody
The Bad:
  • Fluctuating Audio
    Couldn't load gfx.wad Bug
    Crashes during map load
    Slows down when reloading CD Audio
    Some Models could be better
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DustyStyx
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Post by DustyStyx »

Thanks for the belated review =]
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Slink

Not to be a dick, but...

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Post by Slink »

Indeed. :) <3
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Tchernobog
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Post by Tchernobog »

The full review with a few more bells and whistles can be found here: http://blood.wiki-site.com/index.php/Us ... ransfusion
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