File system access is relatively slow; pak and other such formats allow you to open one file handle with the OS and then just read different chunks out of it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YPQRE57hNQ

Other than the tiny player-to-level scale, this looks like the dog's bollocks. 

That looks surprisingly fun.
I love how they kept those floating circular platforms, they make no sense at all in that warehouse level, who would use antigrav platforms where you can just have normal stairs, that's great. :)

ROTT is the first game I mapped for, plenty of fond memories from it. 

i like how you pick out the floating platforms as what's unrealistic. To me that entire level looks like any deathmatch map with industrial-themed textures with arbitrarily placed bridges and jump-pads and i had to go re-watch the video to see that it was even intended to look like a warehouse :) 

Apart from from tidiness and easy managability, having all files in containers speeds up access (no defragmentation) and (de)installation. Copying/moving a large number of individual files takes considerably longer than the same amount of data in few container files. 

No "fragmentation" obviously. 

Yeah I agree, I just picked out the floating platforms because they were an important part of the original ROTT (you could only create any kind of vertical gameplay by placing them).

Honestly the level itself (layout, design, etc.) is pretty generic and doesn't look very good as far as deathmatch levels go, those random diagonal bridges made me cringe... 

with 1997 brushwork and layouts is not a good look. It looks like a retexturing project. Gameplay looks nicely oldschool though. 

Meh. There's a very nice deal on Amazon.com today (and only today): All Borderlands 2 diginal codes are off 67% - unfortunately only available to US customers. If some charitable Americano reads this, go buy me two keys for the BL2 Season Pass, would you ($9.99 each)? I can pay you back in USD or BSP. :>
And while you're at it, go grab the game for yourself, it's a lot of fun in coop. 

Looks dire in pretty much every way. 

-fast oldschool gameplay
-$100 mln art budget

choose one 

A valid criticism here is that the map layouts do actually look like pimply 1997 box-map arse.

Nothing to do with the "art".

I mean, really - the layout for the first map in that video is about as primitive and ugly as you can get. 

Scale is totally wrong, it looks like a shitty Quake1 engine putting way too many 'realistic' shaders on flat geometry, and even 'old school' gameplay wasn't '1 hit kills constantly'. Not to mention the level design is a shitty gimmick map that were played out even when RotT was new.

Sorry, making an 'old school' game doesn't mean 'make absolute shit'. 

the second map looks far better though. 

you can buy games from Amazon even if oyu are outside of the US by putting in a fake US delivery address.

As what you are buying is digital, there is no issue with delivery obviously. 

Digital items are only purchasable with a US billing address unfortunately. 

never had that requirement when I bought from Australia, I've always just put in a US shipping address. 

Thanks to whoever mentioned it first. I'm enjoying this game a lot. 

Shipping != billing. Those digital items are not available for people outside the US. It even says so on the page. I tried to buy the code myself, but to no avail. Physical items are another thing, they typically work fine.

Or do you mean you registered a credit card with a fake US address? 

Those arguments make sense, good reasons for using PAK files then :) 

You can also easily patch by simply adding new higher numbered files without having to overwrite older versions (needs more space of course). Quake 3 used that.

In-file filesystems can also be tailored to your needs and do not care about the filesystem they are on. Eg you might be on a case-insensitive filesystem but inside your archive you can be.

You can compress them.

You could encrypt them (half-assed).

Big files still fragment btw.

Back to Teleglitch. The line of sight effect looks great but since I know how it works, I always see how it works and it became super distracting. :( 

Second try (after first perma-death of course). Currently at the beginning of level 5. Detector comes handy to get ready for the upcoming swarms. Powerlegs make a great difference too. I only wish there was a button for unloading the ammo out of the scavenged weapons. 

My bad. It seems that picking up any weapon and dropping it back unloads the ammo that comes with it - handy! This little gem of a game gets harder, tenser and more enjoyable as the player progresses deeper into the installation. Great stuff, I don't remember being this thrilled with a PC game in a long time. 

yes fake US address (using one of those fake web address generators) entered as shipping address works fine for me. If it is not working for you, you could try ticking "billing address same as shipping address" to see if that works maybe.

Transaction goes through fine on my Australian credit card and no issues in downloading it because there is no physical shipping to my fake address.

Google amazon digital downloads outside US, quite a few links on different ways of doing it. 

Teleglitch is done (the stats screen tells that it took 362mins) ...and so are my nerves. Once you get your hands on experimental, energy-based stuff, you have a fair-chance against the metallic nasties that dominate the later levels. Though the transition is a bit brutal: I barely survived the 7th level. Still, it was worth all the trouble. I could have never imagined that such a lo-fi game would be this atmospheric and heart-pounding. Now, I wonder what are those few remaining items (or weapons) that I haven't figured out how to produce?