Talk:Serious Sam II

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Serious Sam II has had a peer review by Wikipedia editors which is now archived. It may contain ideas you can use to improve this article.

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The following users are actively contributing to this topic and may be able to help with questions about verification and sources: Rodzilla (talk • contribs • email)

	To-do list for Serious Sam II:	edit  · history  · watch  · refresh
Here are some tasks you can do: Requests: A good, high-resolution image of in-game action, featuring a wide open area with numerous enemies on screen (characteristic of the game's appeal and notability) PLEASE NOTE: High-res screenshots, are, by fair use rationale, prohibited. Dåvid ƒuchs (talk • contribs) 00:11, 16 January 2007 (UTC) A better, more colorful in-game screenshot Cleanup: Weapons / Bosses / NPCs - Move to separate article(s). Include a brief summary here Development - Focus more on actual development and design decisions More information on the development itself - A new paragraph before the E3 and pre-release promotion paragraph would probably be sufficient Expand: Plot - Add the main plot of the game Reception - More information about the reception, specifically notability (Does it need more?) Serious Engine 2 section Include technical details Could be expanded Development reports Could be expanded Info on Serious Editor 2 Notable levels that have been developed and released - Are there any? An image of Serious Editor 2 in action SDK info - Is there any? Subsequent releases - Should be expanded a little bit so it's not quite as dense.

Non player characters is not noticeable. Enemy list should be better.

Why don't we start the "Notable Enemy Info" part of the article? Some info about notable enemies in the game. The pictures might be a problem though.

Contents 1 Boss Rewrite 2 Notable enemies 3 Notable enemies 3.1 Common enemies 3.2 Computer-controlled(enemy) turrets 3.3 Bosses 4 See Also 5 Spoilers 6 GA on hold

[edit] Boss Rewrite

The boss section needs a complete revision. The way it's done (IE a list format of sorts) just seems too unorthodox compared to other articles that mention videogame bosses. Perhaps the smaller entries in that section should be rewritten as "normal" entries as opposed to the current list-like ones we have now. I'd do it myself, but I haven't had enough practice with Wikipedia editing just yet. 207.200.116.199 16:48, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

As creator of the boss section, I know I'm responsible for its maintenance, but I'm having some trouble at home, and I'm a bit preoccupied at the moment because of school exams, so I'm open for suggestions about it. T-borg 12:03, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

To me, the bulleted list format just seems a little... well, just not as professional-looking as it could be. I think it'd be better if it were written as a straight description without the bullets. However, I'm willing to help out with a revision as soon as I get some free time and polish up on my wiki-ing skills. It wouldn't be too hard, as I own a copy of this game and play it frequently. 207.200.116.199 03:37, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Notable enemies

I need to know if any of the material listed below can be incorporated int the article:

[edit] Notable enemies

Here are listed the most notable enemies from Serious Sam II:

[edit] Common enemies

• Biomechanoids: Much more diverse that the biomechanoids in in the prequels, there are 3 different types: Biomechanoid Tanks, Bull Soldiers, and T-Mechs. Biomechanoid Tanks come in two varieties: several stories high red ones with rocket launchers, and player high yellow ones with pulse lasers. Bull Soldiers are also red skinned and use rocket launchers, but unlike Biomech Tanks, they are only two times as big as the player, and have legs. Unlike them, T-Mechs are modeled after the Major Biomechanoids from the prequel games, having the same weapons, and the T being short for Tyrannosaurus as they look like dinosaurs. Their name is also a play on T-Rex.
• Kleer Skeletons: The Kleers are the native population of Kleer. In the game, the most common types bare no difference from their prequel counterparts, except their appearance.
• Kamikaze units: Kamikaze units are employed for suicidal attacks. There are two types. The first type is a revamped version of the Beheaded Kamikazes from the earlier games, dressed in sport outfits, and with one "Sirian bomb of death" for a head. The second type is called Marcel the Clown, featuring an evil clown on a unicycle, carrying explosives in each hand.
• Ork Warriors: The grunt soldiers of Mental's army, Orks come in several varieties. Simple soldiers, with gray or yellow uniforms, carry simple laser weapons, or rocket launchers. Ork commanders wear red outfits, and have better weapons, including a version of the grunt soldiers' weapon with homing abilities, and grenades. Some commanders also have jet packs. Ork Destroyers, with blue uniforms, carry the most powerful pulse lasers among the Ork Warriors. Ork Footballers are unlike the other orks, as they are bulky, wear football uniforms, and employ charge attacks, as well as foot bombs. They're modeled after american footballers (refering to the sport, not the nationality). All orks have one thing in common- their skin is green.
• Albino Cyclopses: The result of genetic experiments with apple worms, Cyclopses are several metres high, and have just as long arms. As well as a melee attack, they also have highly toxic spit, which explodes on impact. On a number of occasions they have been noted to spawn lesser enemies.
• Zombies: Zombie Stockbrokers, and Minigun Wielding Zombies. The first type as implied by their name are dressed as businessmen, and carry malfunctioned shotguns. The second type are dressed in green pants, and spiked helmets. One of their legs is mechanical. They use mini-guns, similar to that of the player. Both types can regenerate over time when damaged.
• Rhino Cybertoy: The equivalent of the Sirian Werebull, the Rhino Cybertoy behaves exactly as it.
• Slime Snail from Rigil Centaurus: Hailing from the same planet as the Serious Sam Enemy biographies#Marsh Hopper, Slime Snails also attack in groups, but unlike Marsh Hoppers, they bite the player, as oppose to exploding and covering him with toxic slime.

[edit] Computer-controlled(enemy) turrets

• Energy turret: Like the other energy turret this one also uses charges, but is controlled by the enemy. An interesting fact is that it's projectiles fly on a semicircle trajectory. Another thing to note is that they have to scan the player's position before firing.
• Rocket launcher turret: Uses one optical sensor to locate enemies. It's missiles have slight homing abilities.
• Cannon ball turret: Similar to the enemy energy turret, the cannon ball turret's projectiles also fly the same trajectory as the charges. The cannon balls are affected almost immediately by gravity.
• Laser cannon turret: Although never seen as an actual enemy, in an introduction to one of the final levels we can see Sam's plane being attacked by what appears to be a laser cannon turret.

[edit] Bosses

• Kwongo: The first boss in the game, Kwongo is considered by the Simbans to be a god. He has no range weapons, and due to his size, he's considerably slow. Extremely resilient to conventional weapons, the player needs the help of catapults, created by the Simbans, to defeat him. After being defeated, as the outtrough shows, Kwongo is devoured by the newly liberated Simbans. As his name suggests, Kwongo is a parody of King Kong, and looks like a giant gorilla.
• Zumzum: Boss of the Magnor Chapter, Zumzum resembles a gigantic bee. He seems reminiscent of another boss from the series- the Exotech larva, as it also can spawn mini-kamikaze insects. But unlike it, Zumzum can fly, and does not have lasers, but uses pollen bombs. Another similarity between them is their ability to regenerate, through means, the player can remove.
• Prince Chan: Resembling a giant sumo player, but with the character of a huge baby, Prince Chan is actually hundreds of years old. Feared by the Chi Che, because he eats a few every day, Chan particularly loves singing, even though he's not at all good at it. His only weakness is the sound of the Holly Gong, situated in his arena.
• Count Kleerofski: As seen in an intrough, Kleerofski works in the circus as a magician. His tricks were considered superb by the crowd of kleers, even though he failed to perform one trick a few times, which resulted in completely different results. He is also a true wizard, and one of his duties includes The Black Altar Ritual, in which he prays to the gods of Fortune and Bown Marrow. Like the common Kleers, he uses a melee attack, but he can also regenerate with the help of the main crystal in the arena. Kleerofski resembles a large Kleer Skeleton with a cloak.
• Cecil the Dragon: A stereotypical dragon, Cecil has fiery breath, and sharp claws. After kidnapping princess Olga, and seeing what she looks like, he desperately wanted to return her. Ultimately he struck a deal with Sam- in exchange for the medallion piece, Sam would return the princess.
• Hugo the Robot: Mental's best robot, Hugo is tasked with guarding the Grand Laser on Kronor. His weapons include rocket launchers, laser beams, and a cannonball launcher. After being defeated, Hugo's escape pod is seen flying away.
• Mental institution building: Mental's home, this pyramid-like building has shown an amazing defence system, utilising kamikaze planes, fireballs, bomber planes, cannonballs, fighter planes and missiles as weapons. It's only weak spot appears to be it's crystal core.

So, what do you think?T-borg 18:33, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] See Also

Regarding the removal of the links to Croteam and Serious Sam in the See Also section of the page, I believe that these should still be there. Yes, they're both listed in the main text, but having them listed again under See Also benefits skimmers and those who simply want to view directly related articles without reading through the whole article and picking out links. --Rodzilla 03:42, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spoilers

Half of this article is within spoiler tags. Is this really necessary? Specifically, is it necessary to have a list of all the levels in the game? I'm not so much debating whether the levels names are spoilers, as some would consider them to be and thus it's best to err on the side of caution, but they're taking up a lot of space and really don't provide much useful information. --Rodzilla 14:33, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't think a list of levels is necessary either, as it's somewhat of an indiscriminate collection of information. This isn't done to other game articles. I'm going to go ahead and remove it. If you object to this, please discuss here before reverting. --Gray Porpoise_{Your wish is my command!} 02:55, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GA on hold

Minor issues before I could give this a GA:

• Perhaps the most important: fair use tags. The auto-generated ones don't cut it. I suggest you take a look at the pictures and cover for Halo 2 (another recent GA grad) for what they look for. Why is it this way? Don't ask me.

  I added fair use rationales to all of them, is it better now? --Rodzilla (talk) 21:08, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, that looks fine. Dåvid ƒuchs (talk • contribs) 21:22, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

• While Serious Sam for Xbox introduced a "lives system" to the series, Serious Sam II was the first PC game in the series to implement this. - source? The game manual would suffice, probably.

Added sources (both manuals) --Rodzilla (talk) 16:39, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

• List of Weapons in Serious Sam II- first off, linking to another page that doesn't cite your sources is bad. Secondly, why is this page even needed? Pages like it (List of Weapons in Halo 2) have been deleted as game-guidish, non-notable, unencyclopediac. I'm not going to bring them to an AfD, but I suggest striking the refer from the article and instead incorporating a general overview and why they are important in the main article.

Do you think that the existing summary is sufficient, and that the only thing that needs to be deleted is the "See also" link to the other article? --Rodzilla (talk) 16:39, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

More or less. I'd get rid of either the see also or the inline header link, pick your poison. Dåvid ƒuchs (talk • contribs) 23:10, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Done. --Rodzilla (talk) 17:12, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

• The previous games focused mainly on taking the player from place to place and killing as many enemies as possible in the process, with the plot consisting merely of messages that the player could disregard without consequence. Serious Sam II features the backstory more prominently, but still maintains the focus on killing as many enemies as possible.- what's the backstory? Also, source...

Rephrased, sourced Serious Sam article. The story itself is in the next paragraph. --Rodzilla (talk) 16:39, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Isn't there a rule against using Wikipedia articles for soursing other Wikipedia articles? --May the Edit be with you, always. T-borg ^{(drop me a line)} 20:07, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Ah, yes there is (WP:REF). The info about the previous games' focus on action and the use of its messaging system is obvious information that's in the game itself. Does it need to be cited at all? If so, can the game itself be cited? --Rodzilla (talk) 22:44, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

You can cite stuff like the game manual, but not the game or the game's page on wikipedia. Usually the manual works well enough, if it doesn't I wouldn't worry about it. Dåvid ƒuchs (talk • contribs) 23:10, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Added the game manual for SS:2 and SS:XBox as sources. --Rodzilla (talk) 07:04, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

• The game's famous minigun- POV. Source if able, otherwise remove.

Rephrased --Rodzilla (talk) 16:39, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

• The level-four headings- should the level editor be under the engine? Do you really need the headings for releases and initial development, or could you just say that in the article?

Rearranged to reduce the headings by a level --Rodzilla (talk) 16:39, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

• but more importantly it included Serious Editor 2 - more importantly? change to 'also' or something NPOV.

Other than that, I didn't see any grammatical or spelling errors, though once the other issues get fixed I'll give it another run-down. Dåvid ƒuchs (talk • contribs) 00:10, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll see if I can fix them in the next couple days. If any other editors want to help, feel free. --Rodzilla (talk) 08:05, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Ok, overall, I think its improved a good deal. I don't see any spelling errors, though I could be blind as a bat. Just make the minor changes when you get to them, maybe source what else you can. In the meantime, I'm passing Serious Sam II. Good job. Dåvid ƒuchs (talk • contribs) 23:10, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

How can you pass this article when the screenshots are still in high-res? WP:FU states that "Low-resolution images should be used instead of high-resolution images". This should apply to all articles and especially Good articles. --Mika1h 09:41, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I've reduced the resolution of the images in question. --Rodzilla (talk) 21:36, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Well you may have reduced them, but don't they have under 500X500?--Clyde (talk) 22:53, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Where did you get 500x500 from? An example is the Half-Life 2 article, which is a Featured Article. The Image:800px-Breen1HL2.jpg image there is 800x600. --Rodzilla (talk) 23:49, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Um....this is kinda big and this one is still a little bit larger than 800X600. I used 500X500 as a rule of thumb when I have FAs, but 800X600 should be good. I think it's supposed to be smaller than the orginal pic. That's all I was going for.--Clyde (talk) 00:51, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

I hardly think it's an issue for the screenshot to be 800x604 if 800x600 is acceptable. I tried to reduce the Editor screenshot to 800 pixels wide but it rendered the text illegible. The idea of low-resolution screenshots is so that they cannot be used for piracy and that they're smaller than the actual one. The Editor screenshot is significantly smaller than the original image (and it can't get much smaller while still retaining its value), and the Editor itself was released for free with a patch for the game, so I think that it's an acceptable resolution right now. --Rodzilla (talk) 03:11, 22 January 2007 (UTC)