Hidden, and not so hidden gems

[TRON.dll]

I finished the Penumbra trilogy tonight. Unfortunately, the many issues I had on my ATI card have colored my perception of them a bit. Without the problems, I'd have been very enthusiastic and stated that it was the best $5 I'd ever spent on a PC game (or games, in this case). With the problems, I've been leaning a bit more toward "glad I only spent $5".

Of course, now when I was almost finished, that's when Frictional Games released new patches and ATI updated their drivers. The patches helped a fair bit . . . but updating to the latest ATI Catalyst drivers fixed all the problems. Why couldn't the situation have been this way earlier, when I started playing? .

I was able to play the last game, Requiem, flawlessly. But when I played the first two, they were plagued with problems.

Anyway. Like I said earlier, the Penumbra games are a bit like System Shock crossed with adventure games. There are also little homages to Half-Life in the story and gameplay. If you like spooky atmosphere mixed with a bit of action and puzzle solving, you'll like the Penumbra games.

The first title, Overture, I actually didn't find that spooky. This one is probably the longest of the three. Unfortunately, in order to accomplish this, the game makes you backtrack a lot in some places. There are also a couple of challenges at the end that I really didn't care for. One is basically a timed obstacle course. You have to get through an area without making one single mistake, or else you're dead. Without the quick save hack, this section would have been torture. The other challenge was having to keep holding an object (you have to keep holding down the mouse button) while jumping, without dropping the object or bumping into anything. Gah!

The second title, Black Plague, is the creepiest. Unlike the first game, in this one you have no weapons and can't easily defend yourself. This adds to the tension. It's hard to say which one I prefer. A lot of the reviews say Black Plague is the better game. I'd probably say it's just . . . different. There's more voice acting here, though. And the levels are far more varied.

The third title, Requiem, is kind of an afterthought. You have to know the history of these games in order to understand what happened here. Frictional Games originally had a different publisher with the first two Penumbra games. But the publisher didn't treat them well and more or less forced them to cram what was planned as three games, into two. Then when they managed to switch to another publisher, by that point the first two games had already been released. They'd already crammed all the story into the first two titles. Now they tried to come up with something new for the third title.

Requiem is esentially just a physics puzzle game. A creepy version of Portal. There's a bit of story here that kind of wraps up what happened in the first two games, but you could easily skip Requiem and not really be missing anything. Also, I found the ending of Requiem to be a bit unsatisfying. It doesn't really make a statement and ultimately confuses more than it offers story closure. I also didn't like the fact that while notes would be taken automatically (to help you remember details later, like codes and passwords) and you could add items to your inventory in the first two games, in Requiem there are no notes and you have to carry everything one object at a time in front of you. So if there's a code, you have to write it down on a piece of paper or remember it. And if you need an object, you have to pick it up and hold it (keep holding the mouse button) and carry it all the way to where you need it. It's just like that challenge at the end of Overture that I complained about, only now it happens the entire time in Requiem. Stupid!

Overall though, except for the problems I had, the Penumbra trilogy still gets my recommendation.

That sounds pretty cool, is there a demo?

I just tried out Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings on the Wii. Game is awesome. Combat system is nice because it's not just traditional waggle mania. If you don't like Staff of Kings, the point and click CD game "Fate of Atlantis" is also on the same disc. Definitely rent this one if you have a chance.

[TronFAQ]

That sounds pretty cool, is there a demo?

Yup. There's a demo of the first game.

http://www.gamershell.com/download_23483.shtml

[TronFAQ]

Arise, thread! Arise!

Doing brief reviews of a couple of titles, that I recently played.



I installed Cryostasis, partly because it's supposed to be an early example of a showcase for Physx. The game was being rendered by my AMD 6870, while the Physx was handled by my Nvidia GT240.

Even patched up, the game does run pretty horribly. There were moments where it ran smoothly, and then inevitably it would stutter once more. There were two points in the game where I had to disable Physx, because the game would crash and I couldn't continue without disabling it temporarily.

Despite the terrible performance, I'll repeat a speculative statement I made earlier in this thread. Cryostasis is a flawed jewel.

I understand why the critical press came down on this game, because of the technical flaws. But even so, I don't feel the game quite deserved the collective drubbing it received. I pretty much agree with Win3K's assessment. The game took some risks, and should have been rewarded for it.

The "heat as health" and mental echo game mechanics are somewhat unique. The cutscenes are all incredibly atmospheric, and most are even interactive. The story is steeped in metaphor and allegory. Despite critics claiming the environments were drab and repetitive (well it is the inside of a ship most of the time, so what would one expect?), there were a few areas that were actually quite breathtaking. There was a particular section of the ship where seeing it abandoned, frozen over, and the sunlight pouring in through the portholes, was jawdropping.

Cryostasis is almost more an artistic, interactive film, than a game. And I enjoyed it.



Welcome to Penumbra Part 4.

I know you're supposed to think otherwise. Amnesia: The Dark Descent has a different story and setting, after all. But that's really what this game is. Nothing wrong with that, mind. But Frictional re-used identical gameplay mechanics, and even a few assets from the previous Penumbra titles.

So if you enjoyed the Penumbra games, you'll enjoy Amnesia. It's as simple as that. The graphics are a bit better, though. Frictional improved their engine a fair bit in the meantime. However, one thing I don't like about this latest title is checkpoints/autosaves. If you want to manually save your game, you can only save and exit. You can't just save and continue on. They force you to quit the game. I take it this was done to discourage constant saving and reloading. But I'm still not pleased with this change.

The conscensus seems to be that Amnesia is possibly the scariest game yet made. I disagree. It is creepy, yes. No doubt about it. But! (I'm going into slight spoiler territory here, so I'm going to hide my next few sentences.) The enemies announce their approach. You can always hear them in the distance, before they get near. This kind of ruins the scares, because you almost always know something is coming. There were only two moments in the game where I was freaked out by something unexpected. If more of the scares had been unannounced, then I would have agreed that Amnesia is scary as hell.

I recommend picking up Amnesia, especially if it goes on sale. I picked it up during a Steam sale, which brought it down from $20 to just under $7. In a way, I'm guilty about it and feel like I'm cheating Frictional, by having bought both Penumbra and Amnesia on sale. I hope they continue to earn enough to keep making more games as PC exclusives, without having to resort to developing for consoles.

Still, having said all that, I actually prefer the previous Penumbra titles to Amnesia. Amnesia is good, yes. But I felt Penumbra had the better narrative and was a more memorable experience. (That's probably due, in part, to the fact that Penumbra is a bit longer. Since it has more installments.)

[win3k]

Afternoon chaps

Cryostasis is almost more an artistic, interactive film, than a game. And I enjoyed it.

This. If more developers took the chances that the Cryostasis team took, there'd be a load more interesting and innovative games than we've got today.

To contribute:


Not normally the type of thing I'd go for, but I picked this up for a small amount of change, and had a go with it. Your character, Sean Devlin, is an Irish motor racing champ with a sideline in explosives, brawling, free climbing and gunplay. The wafer thin plot hinges around a revenge motif, and is set in occupied Paris during World War 2.

As a newly recruited member of the Paris Resistance, you are tasked with following a broad range of missions, some of which are plot-advancing and some of which are optional side quests. These cover the usual suspects - escort missions, assassination, item retrieval - and are played out in 3rd person view (which works pretty well, and rarely lets the camera point at stupid, an all-too-common fault with 3rd person games).

Combat is pretty good, with a broad range of weapons from the simple pistol through to the specialist "terror" shotgun, MP60 and Flamethrower. There is a degree of stealth gameplay available - if you kill a nazi with your bare hands, you get to play dress-up which allows you to walk though secure areas without being shot at, although all other nazis are, of course, telepathic, and will gradually realise that you are not one of them if you move anywhere in their vicinity.

The main gripes I have with this game are twofold. First, most of the missions can be accomplished by just bullying your way past the opposition. Health is regenerative (a la Mass Effect 2), and the enemy AI is woeful. Having tried a number of times to play the levels the "right" way, I soon learned that holding down sprint and running between cover points will get you 90% of the way.

The second part that doesn't quite work is the alarm system. Any time you are spotted by a Nazi doing something naughty, a suspicion meter gets filled up. Once full, any nazi will then sound an alarm, which will draw all the surrounding nazis to you. To "escape", you must leave the bounds of a circle (the diameter of which corresponds to the alarm severity), and which is re-centred on you every time you are seen. So far so good, but in practice, any alarm can be escaped by sprinting or driving to open countryside - apparently, nazis are allergic to mud.

That said, those bits that work well (including boobies!) compensate for the bits that jar, so for the price this is worth some hard drive room.

win3k

[TronFAQ]

I found out that Cryostasis was the developer's last game. Action Forms went out of business. I guess the poor score from most of the press did them in. Shame. If it wasn't for the technical glitches, I'd bet Cryostasis would have scored a lot higher and Action Forms would still be around.

As for Amnesia and Frictional Games, it turns out there's no need to worry about them. Amnesia has done much better than they hoped for. Their "dream" number was 100,000 sales, and they've managed to double it at this point. A figure like 100,000 being a satisfactory sales number today may seem small. But for a title that's independent, done on a small budget, PC only, and had almost no marketing whatsoever . . . 200,000 in four months is pretty darn good.

http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/201 ... lease.html

[TronFAQ]

Time once more to raise this topic from the grave. Since I'm doing several reviews at once, I'll be keeping these relatively short.



I bought and played Dead Space 2 a year ago, so I'm going from memory here.

DS2 is a title I'm still somewhat undecided about. In some areas, it surpasses its predecessor. In other areas, it's inferior. But as you can tell - since this is in the "Gems" topic - overall, it's worth picking up.

What's better about it compared to DS1? There's more action. The battles are more intense, and there are more "exciting" frenetic moments. For the most part, the level design is very good even if they reuse some sections wholesale from the previous game near the end.

What's worse about it? There's more action. Wait, how can this be both better and worse you ask? While DS2 gets your adrenaline pumping more: it loses atmosphere, tension, and creep factor in the process. The first game gave me a far more unsettling and eerie sense of dread while playing it, because the battles were less frequent and somewhat less intense. It was the "calm before the storm" factor that kept me on edge the whole time. (Though DS1 still can't take the title from System Shock 2 for "scariest game I've ever played".) By amping up the action, DS2 loses the sense of surprise one gets from less frequent ambushes.

Other things that annoyed me about DS2:

• The music may as well not even be there. It's bland compared to the soundtrack in DS1.
• The hacking system added to DS2 was clearly designed with a console controller in mind. Trying to hack the electronic panels using the mouse is pretty aggravating. And you frequently need to hack systems to get around obstacles - there's no way to skip these. Do yourself a favor and buy the Hacking suit as soon as you can afford it, which improves your hacking skill. To make these sections a bit less irritating.
• While EA fixed the shitty mouse and keyboard controls from DS1 for the most part, they still won't let you rebind every key. For example, if you click the fourth or fifth mouse button: the game will recognize the button press, but pop up a notice stating that it refuses to let you use those mouse buttons. Huh? What kind of idiocy is this? You have code to recognize the button presses, but arbitrarily refuse to allow use of them?
• EA initially refused to provide any of the DLC content from consoles on the PC version. (In fact, the DLC Severed which added two new missions has still not been released on PC.) Then hackers exposed the fact that some of the DLC was actually in the game already, but disabled. This more or less forced EA to create an official patch that gave PC owners that DLC, for free. The DLC consisted of extra suits and weapons. There was also a hack released that allowed you to enter what are known as the "Conduit rooms", which were blocked off in the PC version and something that EA did not enable in their patch.
  
  Aside from the appalling attitude from EA regarding the DLC on PC, and despite the fact that they later enabled (some of) it for free: I have a problem with the way the DLC was implemented. In the console versions, the DLC gets unlocked later in the game and you have to pay for items with credits earned. But the way it was done on PC, is the all the DLC is just dumped in the first store and it's all free. This destroys the gameplay balance, allowing you to become all-powerful right at the start of DS2.
• As for Multiplayer? Well, who cares honestly. It was an afterthought, thrown in to help tick off all the boxes for the marketing department. Plus, you have to sign up for an EA account in order to play. No thanks.
  
  I can only imagine how awful Dead Space 3 will be, thanks to Origin. With DS3 we're going to have no choice but to create an account in order to play the game at all. Either that, or get a pirated copy with that garbage removed.

So the verdict is: DS2 is worth picking up. Especially now that the price has dropped to the bargain bin level. But aside from the official patch for the game that allows better keybinding and unlocks most of the DLC, look for the "Conduit room" unlock hack. (Though, to be honest, these rooms hardly add anything to the game. You really won't be missing out on much. But still, why not if it can be done?)

Let's just hope that, now that EA has a stranglehold on profits for their titles because of Origin, that next time they don't dick over PC players on the DLC content.



I was all ready to hate Deus Ex: Human Revolution (aka Deus Ex 3). The previews didn't look that promising, despite assurances from Eidos Montreal. We've all heard developers hyping their games to get you to pre-order, and then failing to deliver on those promises. I don't fall for the hype any more. I won't buy a game until it's released, so I can know whether they lied or not and avoid wasting my money.

While not quite reaching the lofty heights of the original Deus Ex in terms of storytelling, freedom of choice, and emergent behavior (the boss battles in particular are pretty terrible, and are widely derided): Human Revolution nevertheless turned out to be far better than I originally expected it to be - despite my trepidation about the third-person takedowns (which are still stupid and break the immersion), the cover mechanic, and the player hints and highlighting on the HUD (which, thankfully, can be turned off). It's absolutely a worthy successor to the original game, and makes Invisible War (aka Deus Ex 2) a laughing stock by comparison.

If you have any doubts about Human Revolution like I did, you can safely set them aside. You must play this game if you are a fan of the original Deus Ex. It's as simple as that.

I also have the DLC for the game, called Missing Link. I haven't finished it yet, but will post a review of it when I'm done. At its original asking price of $15 - so far, based on what I've played - I don't think it's worth that price. Even before I got it: I wasn't going to pay that much for a DLC anyway, out of principle. A DLC reportedly sitting at about 8 hours, while costing about 1/3 of what I paid for the original game, is too much to ask. I ended up getting about 100 hours of gameplay about of the main game, by comparison.

So I waited until the DLC was on sale, and picked it up for $5 during Steam's holiday sale last month.


I'd just like to add that, Eidos' decision to farm out the PC version to Nixxes was the right one. Normally when another studio handles a PC port, it means disaster. But as it turns out: Nixxes is a competent team made up of former demo scene programmers. It looks like these guys take pride in their work, and didn't want to be known as the ones who f'ed up a Deus Ex sequel on the PC.

If Eidos had done all the versions themselves, they probably would have released yet another crappy PC port. But by having Nixxes concentrate on the PC version alone and put in a lot of PC-specific features: DX:HR is one of the best PC versions of a game in years. Not only did they add stuff like excellent mouse/keyboard controls and rebinding all keys, in-game FOV adjustment, being able to turn off all the hand-holding crap on the HUD (like object highlighting), and DX11 . . . Nixxes released a series of rapid-fire patches for the PC to speed up loading times and fix numerous bugs, including a stuttering problem.

This is something that the consoles did not receive. For a change. It took months for the consoles to get any patches. And the PC also received all the same add-ons and DLC as the console versions, including special editions at retail.

In short, the PC version annihilates the console versions when you take every factor into account. It's by far the best version. Something that you rarely see, nowadays.



I finally picked this up over the holidays. I'd had my eye on it for a long time.

It's amazing how good this game is, considering it's programmed in BlitzBasic. You wouldn't even know it unless you did your research. The Steam version is the best one to buy, because it adds achievements. None of the other versions of the game have this.

Now, normally, I don't give a crap about achievements. I wouldn't avoid a version of a game just because it doesn't have achievements. Oh, boo hoo, cry me a river. But since all the various digital distribution outlets sell the game for the same price, and the Steam version is the only one with this feature: why not? All things being equal except for that, then go for the Steam edition. But if some place had been selling a game for significantly less, and the only difference was not getting the achievements feature? Then screw it. (Though I must admit, I don't like the idea of having multiple Steam-like clients to play various games. If I'm going to need a client, then I'd prefer to keep all my games limited to just the one instead of installing a dozen different pieces of crap on my machine.)

Tank Universal basically fulfilled a wish of mine, something that I thought was missing from Tron 2.0. Well, a couple of things actually. I suspect the programmer of the game created Tank Universal for the very same reasons: out of a desire to implement features that were absent in a game like Tron 2.0. Or any existing Tron-like game, for that matter. (I know for a fact that the game author dislikes Tron 2.0, but I won't hold it against him or TU during this review. Though based on comments from him I've read: it honestly sounds like he didn't pay attention while playing the game and didn't even give it fair shake, writing it off prematurely.)

The most obvious wish fulfilled is being able to drive a Tank. Why, oh why, BVG and Monolith did not include a feature to drive a Tank (or Recognizer) in Tron 2.0 continues to baffle me to this day. I'm guessing it was due to rushing to meet an already postponed deadline. At any rate, being able to drive around in a Tank and shoot things is loads of fun.

The other thing I like about Tank Universal is the minimalist design, that more closely resembles the original Tron film. While the aesthetic in Tron 2.0 is very similar to the original movie, it's also an evolved style of its own. Nothing wrong with that. I love everything about the design and atmosphere in Tron 2.0. But I wish there had been more levels that were a throwback to the original film's look.

Let's face it: Tank Universal is an obvious homage to Tron. It's a Tron game in almost every respect, but name. Even the marketing for the game loudly proclaims you're entering a "Tron-like world". Sure, there are enough differences to make it something unique, unto itself. But when you're playing it, you can't help shake the feeling that you're essentially playing what could - or even should - be Space Paranoids as envisaged by Flynn in the movie.

While the Tank combat is fun, it can also get a bit frustrating. At times, you can be overwhelmed with the sheer number of enemies, and combat gets very frantic. With no ability to save while in a mission, if you fail you must start over. It's somewhat aggravating having to start all over again from the beginning of a level if you fail. (Though there are some missions where if you fail, the game still continues.) Luckily though, dying is not a problem. You have an unlimited number of respawns in an attempt to complete the current mission. As far as I can tell, there is a small penalty subtracted from your score for each death. But it's still better than starting over.

Also, the game has no manual and in-game instructions are minimal. While I actually appreciate games that don't hold you by the hand and allow you to figure things out for yourself: Tank Universal really could have done with a manual and more instructions on how to use various Tank functions. Not to mention, the manual would have provided the player a backstory that would help to understand what's going on as you progress. The plot to the game is paper-thin most of the way through, and it isn't until the ending that you finally learn just what the heck is exactly going on and what it is that you're fighting for.

One other thing that bothered me, is that TU doesn't have any function to show you your final game score. This really should have been added as a feature in the game's main menu, or similar. The only time you get to know your (almost) final score is the summary screen you see when you complete the next-to-last level. Unless you take a screenshot at that point, you're out of luck.

A bit of a spoiler, though I don't think it's worth concealing: the game ends on a cliff-hanger. TU has been designed as a two-part game, from the start. It even says so on the title screen when you start the mission. From what I can tell, Tank Universal was first released in late 2007. It's now early 2012. The game author is pretty much creating the sequel alone, which is why it's been taking so long. But it's still nowhere near done yet. So if you'd played the game at release: you'd have been waiting a long time for the continuation, which is still nowhere in sight.

I have no doubt Tank Universal 2 will be completed, but I'm just saying that you should be prepared for a long wait. If I'd played the game at release in 2007, my patience would probably have run out by now. But seeing as I just played it for the first time over this past Christmas, I'm still looking forward to the followup.

Over on the forum of the Tank Universal site, the game author has been posting development updates for the sequel. And he's mentioned a couple of things that I find disappointing. Apparently, he's planning to do away with most of the on-foot sections in TU2. For me, this was the best part of TU1. I liked the fact that the on-foot areas broke up what would otherwise be a continual monotony of Tank battles. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the Tank combat. But you can get sick of too much of a good thing. Exploring the levels and drinking in the atmosphere is part of what makes games like Tank Universal and Tron 2.0 so appealing to me. Doing away with that will severely hamper my enjoyment of TU2.

The other thing he mentioned, is that he's thinking of replacing the fully animated 3-D cutscenes with 2-D comic-book like panels to tell the story. He wants to do this because it means less work than animating all the 3-D cutscenes, like last time. As an (amateur) independent developer, I understand that and sympathize completely. Creating a game almost single-handedly is an enormous task. But comic-book like story scenes would completely ruin the immersion for me. I appreciated the cutscenes in TU1, precisely because they were done in-game by the engine and didn't rip me out of the game world.

He's mentioned something to the effect of he's willing to do a compromise: comic panels, but using 3-D game models on the panels, rather than comic-book like illustrations. That would be acceptable to me, I suppose. I'd like to tell him that myself. But he's disabled posting for new members due to spammers, and he visits the forum so infrequently that it will probably be weeks or months before I get posting approval. *Shrugs.*

To sum up: aside from some frustration you may experience in the frenetic Tank battles, and the fact that you may end up starting over again on a level which could be aggravating, Tank Universal is a very nice indie game. Recommended to anyone who's a fan of Tron.