83 replies to this topic

[Smoke_Tetsu]

teflon, on February 1st 2008, 07:31 PM, said:

you sure? i thought you could. or maybe im getting confused with Bioshock...

I'm positive.

[nagromme]

I thought you could too--and I think the reason is that I hit the thing at the moment it was falling apart on its own. I thought I caused it but I didn't.

Supposedly the idTech 5 Quake game will be a sequel to Q3A. If true, that's a WHOLE lotta Q3A lately, when you count Q4 multiplayer and Q0!

I wouldn't mind if growing Mac marketshare, the existence of UE3 on Mac, and the (future) success of UT3 and Gears, led to a late decision to port over Bioshock It will still be fun 2 years late, after all. AvP was!

[Huntn]

I enjoyed Prey despite being short in play time. And I liked the bio-mechanical aspect of the space ship.

When it comes to avoiding repetitive environments, I have to give the award to Half Life and HL2.

When it comes to repetitive combat many games tend to be that way. The combat mechanics though out a game tend to be repetitive, such as walk up and pull the trigger or hide behind a box, aim and pull the trigger.  In Bioshock, I enjoy my wrench- dance around a bit then land a couple of good raps to the noggin. Yeah it's kind of repetitive but I'm hanging in there with BS.

What makes combat different and enjoyable is offering different tactical environments and different ways to achieve goals. I'm ready for someone to disagree with me on this , but in HL2, driving around like a mad man launching sticky mines at the walkers then shooting the mine was very inventive and entertaining to accomplish.

[Sargiel]

Back in April 2007 when I completed Prey I had to say it was a satisfying experience. The graphics were nice and I could run on High settings on my 24" iMac at 1920 x 1200.

It was also one of the few games I've liked well enough to play all the way through, a part of that was due to the interesting handling of death. It ensured I didn't feel that getting killed put me so far behind it was almost prohibitive to want to continue. The storyline was adequate and the portal/gravity walkways and environs made the game interesting to explore.

It's no Deus Ex but it's worth a look - the Aspyr port is top notch and if you're looking for some FPS action that a sidestep from the usual you won't be disappointed.

I've also completed Doom 3 and Quake 4. Out of the 3 I'd say Quake 4 was the best with Prey a close second. Doom 3 had the scariest sound/environment but didn't have as much to keep you playing. I've only just completed Doom 3 whereas I had enough interest to plough through the other two in relatively short order (I tend to take my time so you can add quite a few hours to completion times for me ).

I think all are worth giving a go though. A pity we didn't get the Doom 3 expansion though - I'm curious to know if that would stand up more against the other games.

[ikir]

I like Prey.... it was different from other fps. Nice mini review :-)

[G-News]

I bought the PC version of the Doom3 expansion for like 2$ out of a bargain bin and played it on Windows (Bootcamp).
Unfortunately, it didn't add that much to the game in general. Somewhat more interesting level design maybe, but the same pop-out-shoot-down playstyle that gets rather repetitive pretty soon. For 2$ it was totally worth it, but if I had spent 30$ on the expansion, I'd have felt let down.

[Gloops]

I liked Prey. The whole Portal/which way is up? thing was quite innovative. I just wish I'd realised sometime before the last act that switching to spirit mode sucked up dead foes spirit ether wherever they fall; I would have made more use of the bow. My only gripe was the environments all got a bit samey - lots of Doomesque, dark, pipe lined corridors. The designers could have really gone to town and had the sphere incorporate other environs it had sucked up on its travels, like the bar you encounter near the start. They could have done pretty much anything - forests, houses, other alien world interiors/exteriors. But, as it says at the end: "the story continues", so maybe in the sequel...

[nagromme]

I'm now most of the way through Quake 4--so it's too soon to make a final judgement. But so far I'd rate it just ahead of Doom 3 but not as good as Prey.

I say a tie, because I really like the atmosphere and the hellish enemies in Doom, while I find Quake 4's interiors to be the most boring of the three. (They're like Doom with the lights on!) But in terms of gameplay alone, Quake 4 is far superior to Doom, with some squad action and occasional vehicles and outdoors scenes for variety. Generally less monotonous than Doom--so unless you're a fan of Doom 3's theme like I am, Quake 4 is the better game. The "big surprise" of Quake 4 would have broken the tie with Doom easily (Doom had NO story to speak of)... except they didn't let it BE a surprise.

Regardless, I like Prey better than both, so far.

(And I'm looking forward to Quake Wars: I see stuff in Quake 4 that Quake 4 borrowed, which I didn't realize before: the Tormentor/Hornet fighters, the flaming orbital drop-turrets, the scoped assault rifle, references to battles on Earth, etc. - nice continuity. I kind of wish the GDF used nice clear uniforms like the later marines do!)

[PeopleLikeFrank]

For anyone who wants to check this one out on the cheap: Prey for $5 this weekend on Steam.

[Sargiel]

I picked up a copy of Call of Duty Deluxe Edition and rattled through the main game in short order (while still waiting for NWN to be released in the UK) and am onto the expansion.

I know it's an oldie but as I didn't get round to playing it when it first came out it's been a new and enjoyable experience for me. The graphics aren't bad when using the highest settings and resolution and the weapons & sound effects are enjoyable and atmospheric. Teamwork and knowing how to move around in a combat zone are essential - you can't just run in shooting wild and expect to survive for more than a few seconds. I did find a couple of levels that were bugged and I needed to use the terminal and 'spdevmap [next map name]' to progress. That was my only frustration really - but it didn't stop me completing the game and I can confirm there was only 1 in the main game and I've only found 1 so far in the expansion.

I'm quite tempted to get hold of Call of Duty 2 but I've also got Age of Mythology with my IMG Pro renewal (I'll need some new choices for next year though guys ) and NWN2 supposedly coming soon.

[AussieMacGamer]

Its already shipped, albeit with horrible performance supposedly.

[Smoke_Tetsu]

nagromme, on March 1st 2008, 06:53 AM, said:

I'm now most of the way through Quake 4--so it's too soon to make a final judgement. But so far I'd rate it just ahead of Doom 3 but not as good as Prey.

I say a tie, because I really like the atmosphere and the hellish enemies in Doom, while I find Quake 4's interiors to be the most boring of the three. (They're like Doom with the lights on!) But in terms of gameplay alone, Quake 4 is far superior to Doom, with some squad action and occasional vehicles and outdoors scenes for variety. Generally less monotonous than Doom--so unless you're a fan of Doom 3's theme like I am, Quake 4 is the better game. The "big surprise" of Quake 4 would have broken the tie with Doom easily (Doom had NO story to speak of)... except they didn't let it BE a surprise.

I agree but I think it's mostly because I think Quake 4 was more run of the mill sci-fi military shooter.. it seemed even more generic than Doom 3... but I really liked the weapons.

Spoiler

When he became a strogg his look kind of reminded me of Robocop

In my opinion but it was still pretty fun. I did think the artwork and atmosphere was better in Prey... and out of the three I agree it's the best one... I just wish it wasn't as short as it was.

I kind of disagree with you about Doom 3 having absolutely no story though. It may have been the standard id software story (scientist open portal, demons come out, hero has to stop them) but it was more story than in the original Doom. It had even more story than Quake 2 which Quake 4 is a direct sequel to. The only thing was you really had to read\listen to your PDA in Doom 3 in order to get most of the story.

I hated some of the vehicle parts in Quake 4 namely the ones that where on tracks and the one where you have to protect someone while they disarm bombs. Also I preferred the tanks to the walkers especially when you are having to face those giant tri-pod strider type mechs.

[the Battle Cat]

Smoke_Tetsu, on March 30th 2008, 08:25 PM, said:

I hated some of the vehicle parts in Quake 4 namely the ones that where on tracks...

Why do games makers think this is so fun?  I've never liked being trapped on rail shooting expeditions like that.  To me they are bottlenecks in the game.  I absolutely loved the free-ranging walker and hoover tank vehicles though.

[teflon]

a hoover tank? I didnt realise that this vacuum cleaner company had expanded into creating military vehicles...

i preferred the tank to the walker, and controlling the vehicle to just a gun. I too didnt like it in the context of Quake 4. mainly because youre just not afforded any means of evasion other than shooting down the missiles. It just stuck out like a sore thumb. specially cos thinking back to Q4, a lot of it was pretty forgettable to me, and it kind of just lowered the gameplay slightly.

[Hrunga Zmuda]

nobody, on January 31st 2008, 01:26 PM, said:

Doesn't even compare. DX is highly story-driven, and well written story at that. Prey's story is about on par with Super Mario Bros.

I'll add a recommendation for Q4 - it's a pretty solid shooter as well.

Yes, Deux Ex was a great game! Too bad the sequel was not quite up to it. And it was PC anyway, so who cares?  

[Tesseract]

Hrunga Zmuda, on April 1st 2008, 12:04 PM, said:

Yes, Deux Ex was a great game!

They should have called the sequel "Deus Ex 2: Deux Ex".  

[teflon]

they shouldve made Deus Ex 2 be a good game, at least on par with Deus Ex itself...

sequels always suck (apart form when theyre better)

[Smoke_Tetsu]

the Battle Cat, on March 31st 2008, 08:10 AM, said:

Why do games makers think this is so fun?  I've never liked being trapped on rail shooting expeditions like that.  To me they are bottlenecks in the game.  I absolutely loved the free-ranging walker and hoover tank vehicles though.

Yes, I died to many times and had to reload on those parts it isn't even funny.

While we are on that subject I also hate the following:

Forced stealth missions where you lose the first time you are spotted. That is something that's a bottleneck for me in an otherwise good game (RTCW). In the FPS game "sIn" they had a mission similar to it but in that game at least you could possibly stop the guy from getting to the alarm switch.. but it still kind of sucked.

Similar to the on rails missions I hate turret missions like in Star Trek Voyager Elite Force II

Spoiler

Where you are a manning a turret outside of the enterprise and the ships health becomes your health.. and it has as much health as you do.

in Quake 4 they had to put that kind of mission as part of the on rails parts. =P Although unlike STVEFII and RTCW it didn't keep me from completing the game.

I also don't care much for escort missions where if the person dies you lose... especially if they are constantly nagging you throughout the mission. One place where they did it right was in Doom 3 where

Spoiler

you escorted a guy with a lamp because you didn't actually have to worry about him dying.. especially since he's supposed to die anyway and it doesn't affect your mission.

A lot of these things don't make the games more fun they make them more frustrating.

[PeopleLikeFrank]

I think it's more "hey, our game isn't long enough, how do we make it longer without resorting to creativity?", than thinking it's fun.

[teflon]

forced stealth is bad. NOLF2 improved over NOLF in this way by making it so that stealth wasnt compulsory, but easier than shooting down a horde of angry indians. Also, you could run away and hide and so long as you did it properly, things would eventually turn back to normal.