Things that make you go "meh"; games between heaven and hell

[win3k]

Evening chaps.

Time to have a go at this.

From 2K games comes the return to Rapture, the dystopia created by Andrew Ryan. See also: full price expansion pack, "new" features that should have been in the original, and bugs! bugs! bugs!

<spoilers ahoy>

You play this expansion pack as an early prototype big daddy - that's right, attentive one, just like one of the least entertaining closing segments of the original. Also, your plasmids are largely the same, as are most of your weapons. On the plus side, you now get the Big Drill (tm), only (seeing as it's a prototype and everything) you can't use it for more than about 10 seconds without a refill. The enemies are pretty much the same as episode 1 save for three: the Brute splicers (the Tank, from Left 4 Dead), the Big Sisters (skinny big daddies on illegal drugs) and the other prototype big daddies (nerfed and slightly camp looking big daddies).

Plot wise, there's more of the same ho-hum moral imperative. Do you save or harvest the little sisters (yes, they're still there, yes, they're still annoying) for Adam? How do you respond to the (very small number of) moments where you can execute or spare an NPC who deserves a thorough spanking?

Security cameras, turrets, and research cameras are all present and correct, as are the numerous voice recordings acting as back-filler for the plot. Splicers are still deranged, theres still an omnipotent voice in the sky (except its a woman!) and there's still a grating voice in your ear (another bloke with a dodgy accent). Rapture looks just like it did in the first one, except we no longer have the clever bits like Sander Cohen.

Unlike the first one, you don't get to harvest/save little sisters immediately after laying the smack upon their associated big daddy. In order to get at the adam, you have to plant them on adam-rich corpses and then fend off the inevitable waves of incoming splicers until they're finished drinking their organic Sunny-D. For reasons that we'll simply call "deus ex machina" (see also: making arse-biscuits up on the fly), these little sisters aren't immune to damage, and your Big Daddy armour is about as effective as damp sponge.

Bugs, bugs, bugs. We'll ignore the fact that on first loading the DVD-ROM, "autorun.exe has performed an illegal operation" - details, amirite? For me, the major annoyance was that the game is simply incapable of remembering your mouse settings. Every-fricking-time you load, it resets your mouse sensitivity to "spaz", requiring you to hit escape...control options...apply...back...back before continuing your electric videogamery. That might not sound much, but when the game throws you into a big sister fight when you're holding nothing more than a soiled tissue in your armoury, quickload becomes your bestest fried. The forums (angry Internet men ahead) are full of the usual righteous storming about law suits, bugs and the general crappery of the QA team, but this is a console port (it still tells you to not turn off your computer when saving, for God's sake), so you pays yer money and takes yer choice.

Securom is still there, mod tools are not (tho' reading the license, it basically states that if you did create anything, you waive all rights (moral and legal) to your works for ever and ever, amen). Disk check? Check? Online authentication? Check. Games for Windows Live!!!!!! Checkity check check. The usual crap applies.

Overall, there are worse ways to spend 4.5 hours of your life; Hypnotising a big daddy to fight a big sister whilst you stand there stroking your mustache? Hell yes. But full price? No. Wait for it to hit the bargain bins, and for it to get properly patched.

Finally: Multiplayer. Don't.

win3k

[TronFAQ]

Here's a review I found that nails why I didn't like the first Bioshock.

I stayed away from Bioshock 2, because I knew it could only go downhill from there. Different team, again made for consoles first, yadda yadda. Jordan Thomas being "creative director" was not enough to get me interested. (In case you don't know who he is, he was responsible for the only memorable levels in Thief 3 and the first Bioshock.)

Yahtzee's review summed up Bioshock 2 well, I take it. "Knock off piece of s.h.i.t."

I might pick up B2 eventually. But not until it hits the bargain bins.

In fact, I find I'm buying most of my games that way now. You get the game for a cheaper price, and hopefully all patched up by then. Plus, if the game is a disappointment (which it usually is these days) you won't be kicking yourself for wasting top dollar on a turd.

Tron Evolution might be an exception. Even if it is a turd (and I expect it will be), I'll buy it at release simply so I can play against my LDSO teammates and for the modding possibilities. The fact that there will be three versions (PC, 360, PS3) will split the player base, mind you. Though as Load and I concluded, the PC version will probably be the longest lived.

And I'm calling it now: Tron Evolution on the PC will use Games for Windows Live. Yep, I'm probably going to end up installing that piece of garbage thanks to Tron. I've managed to avoid it completely so far.

[Jizaboz]

Ah man, ANOTHER console port? Glad I didn't buy this. I was holding it off because I've never gotten more than about half-way through the first one without quitting.

I bought the "new" Wolfenstein in August. Same type of thing. Console port. BAD ONE. I mean don't get me wrong... it's a cool looking game and can be pretty fun, but the bugs are awful. In Single Player, my sound repeats and pops very often and it's annoying as HELL. No one really cares for the Multi Player. It's just Quake Wars MP without the vehicles and.. well, all the stuff that made QW fun. It's also very laggy and the weapons and items are just plain dumb. Total crap for community support. No SDK or map editor!!!!! I wasted 50$ on that damn game the day it came out... only to rather play Return to Castle Wolfenstein instead.

[floven1]

wow, i hope that starcraft 2 doesnt turn out like this

i just changed my backgrounds not that long ago (guess to what?)

[TronFAQ]

Over the years I've been reading comments from lots of people, stating that Condemned: Criminal Origins was pretty good. Since it was a Monolith title, and its development team composed of many of the same people that worked on Tron 2.0: I finally decided to give it a try.

Even though the game never received a patch, it seems to work very well. Never ran into any bugs or crashes. This was the first Monolith title released on console before PC, so they probably had a chance to work out the kinks. Luckily, Monolith didn't screw us over on the PC customization features. The game supports all resolutions, including widescreen. And the controls are fully remappable. Even more than three mouse buttons are supported, something that a lot of games nowadays don't allow you to use without futzing around with a separate utility.

Unfortunately, though, by the same token: the "consolitlis" still does show through a little in Condemned. The graphics seem worse than what I remember of FEAR, which was made for the PC first and then ported to console. There are also checkpoints. But at least you can save manually as well, wherever you want. Finally, the game has several achievements you can collect. Which are obviously inspired by Xbox Live achievements. But the game doesn't use Live; the achievements on the PC version are its own specific variety.

The forensic tools you use to investigate crime scenes are automatically selected for you depending on the nature of the evidence, so you don't have to hurt your poor little brain trying to figure out which ones to use. There's also a hint system, but this can be turned off.

Condemned has to be one of the most linear games I've ever played, though. There isn't even an illusion of open spaces and freedom of movement. Almost the entire game takes place inside buildings. Condemned buildings. I've never seen so many run down locales in a game setting, ever. Just how many condemned buildings does this city have? The game certainly is eponymous, living up to its own name in that regard. Also present are the requisite modern office buildings, with assets clearly taken from FEAR to shorten the development cycle. As you progress, the game will create obstructions behind you to block off where you previously were. Lame. And there are also a ton of obstructions ahead, to herd you where they want you to go. Invisible walls are the soup du jour as well.

The story doesn't make a lot of sense, and when you reach the end most of the questions you had aren't even answered. There's no sense of closure. Because - wait for it! - you're expected to buy the already planned sequel, in order to find out. Only, Condemned 2 wasn't released for the PC and is a 360 exclusive. Thanks, Monolith. But, frankly, I don't care because I'm not eager for more based on what I just played.

And this game commits a huge sin by giving you a choice to make at the end, only for it to have absolutely no effect on the ending. WTF is the point, then? Just to get a different achievement? Gah.


Now, so far it's sounding kind of crappy right? Well, it is. But what's sad is that there are some flashes of brilliance in this game that almost save it. Almost.

Condemned at least tries to be original in the way its melee combat is handled. It has an entire smorgasbord of objects you can tear out the environment and use to beat your opponents senseless. I've never seen such a variety of improvised weapons that could be used, in any game. And every item has its own unique characteristics: where you have to weigh the pros and cons of damage, blocking ability, speed, reach, and durability. As you prepare to pick up an object, the game will show you how the item you're thinking of grabbing stacks up against the item you're currently using. There are a plethora of opponents of whom you can bash their skulls in. Though the constant parade of bums and thugs you have to tear through, does get a bit ridiculous. Again, just how many criminals does this city have?

The atmosphere in the game is suitably depressing and eerie, but it's not that scary despite what some people have claimed. There's only one brown trousers moment in the game that IS seriously creepy as hell. There was also one laugh out loud moment, where something quite funny happened. Toward the end the game does finally let you out into the open a little, and it is a rather unique experience. But those were pretty much the only memorable moments for me.


So, as the title of this topic states, Condemned gets a "meh" from me. It's okay, and probably worth a shot for the melee combat alone. Certainly not a bad game. But not as great as everyone seemed to make it out to be. Somewhat disappointing, considering the pedigree of the team behind it.

And by the way, does this character from Condemned look somewhat familiar to you? Resembles characters from another game, perchance? Yet this game pre-dated that other one by a year.



There's also another opponent type in Condemned that resembles ones from that other game. But I don't want to spoil Condemned for you guys any further by posting more screenshots.

If you noticed that this shot is 1920x1080, then give yourself a cookie because I just got a new monitor a few days ago. It's the BenQ EW2420, and it has a far better image quality than my old 1680x1050 Acer 2216W ever did. I upgraded part of the way through playing Condemned, and the difference in dark scenes is nothing short of startling. I noticed a lot more details in the dark with the new monitor.

[TronFAQ]

Sp.A.I page on IndieDB, sister site to ModDB

As a fellow independent developer (who, admittedly, has yet to tackle a project as big and complex as the one we're about to discuss here), it pains me to say this. But, Sp.A.I is a disappointment.

What is Sp.A.I? It's a free indie game developed using Epic's UDK, made by university students as a semester project. This fact already caused me to cut them some slack when evaluating the game. But, despite the great visuals and some innovative game design ideas: Sp.A.I is, frankly, not worth playing because of all the technical problems (I'm not alone here, this isn't me having a poorly configured system) and the fact that the game apparently has no ending. Or, at least, a very anti-climactic one. When you reach the end, you'll be staring at the screen blankly and exclaiming: "that's it?!"

Now, it's possible I didn't actually reach the end, due to the aforementioned technical issues. If so, a proper ending might change my opinion quite a bit. There's no complete walkthrough out there, to tell me if I reached the end or not. But as far as I can tell - based on what others have said - I did indeed reach the end.

The problems with this game are many. There are no options to configure. There's no way to save your game. Framerates sometimes nosedive, and Sp.A.I starts to chug. And I'm not playing on an anemic system here, folks. I have a Phenom II 1100T processor, 4 GB memory, and a Radeon 6870 video card. A reasonably powerful system.

When you start the game, it displays in a 1024x768 window. The only way to change this is to hack the .ini files. Want to configure the controls? Same thing again. Time to go digging in the .ini files. The students who created the game talked about adding menus to configure options and a save game feature, but that was many months ago. We probably can't expect these to arrive any time soon.

After mucking around with the .ini files, I got things the way I wanted and started playing. The visuals are very nice, obviously Tron-inspired. And the gameplay, which consists of hacking security barriers in your way, is fairly innovative. But then come the jumping puzzles.

Jumping puzzles, in and of themselves, are not necessarily bad. It's how they're implemented. The jumping puzzles in Tron 2.0 were somewhat annoying, but not so awful that they made you want to stop playing. At least, they didn't do that for me. While in Tron Evolution, the incessant jumping puzzles (among other things) completely turned me off the game.

The same goes for S.p.AI. The jumping puzzles start off easy enough, but quickly spike in difficulty to the point that they become a chore. Without being able to save the game at all, if you miss a jump you'll often have to start a puzzle all over again. Screw that. You'll end up just wanting to use the fly cheat and be done with it.

Not all the level sections are jumping puzzles, of course. These parts are much more enjoyable. The hacking and security avoidance puzzles show some innovation and clever ideas. Thumbs up for these.

But as I played through the game, many glitches occurred. My weapon stopped working. Doors would not open, despite having the key or password. The next level wouldn't load. Then, finally, came the ending. If you can call it an ending.

It's almost hard to believe S.p.AI won awards. For its level design and aesthetic, the flashes of gameplay innovation, and the fact that it was done by a small team of students in school . . . certainly, it should be rewarded on that basis, alone. But when you take the technical problems into account, the game is barely playable.

Perhaps after another update, I'll change my mind. But as it stands right now, S.p.AI should be treated as a curiosity rather than a full-fledged game. Something to mess around in while appreciating the visuals, but not to seriously spend time with as a proper game.

[win3k]

Afternoon chaps

The subject of today's discussion:

This is the latest offering from ID software, showcasing their Tech5 platform technology. Some, myself included, were confused into thinking that this was a game.

Lack-of-plot wise, think Fallout meets Mad Max and you'll have the bones of it. You play an un-named survivor of a catastrophic asteroid impact, saved as part of a not-genius plan to repopulate the Earth later on. There is some kind of barely-explained conspiracy going on with a new authoritarian regime (named, not surprisingly, The Authority), and the first half of the game has you running and driving around killing a broad assortment of bandits and mutants.

As the feeble remnants of the plot come into play, you join an underground rebel group and take the fight to the Authority.

Sadly, QA has gone the same way as the story. There are huge numbers of people whose experience of this game can be summarized as "Rage.exe Has Stopped Working". Good luck with that. Reports are rife of graphics glitching, screen tearing, all-black geometry, impossible missions (I had that fun and games myself) and generally making the whole thing somewhat akin to applying a hammer, repeatedly, to the backs of your own hands.

Gameplay wise, there is the usual assortment of guns, pretty much all of which are made completely redundant by the very first firearm you obtain - the settler pistol. This, plus half a pair of binoculars (apparently, thats all you need for a deadly accurate rifle scope) plus the fatboy ammo (magnum bullets) can take down pretty much anything except the very few-and-far-between giant mutants and heavily armoured Authority goons.

There's a bunch of craftable stuff (but you'll only really bother with the lock grinder and EMP grenades), some of which can be fun but is basically pointless, as you will always be much more effective with the pistol (for long range sniping) and shotgun (for immediate environment waste disposal).

Graphically, once the bugs have finished snacking on your GPU, this game looks (as can only be expected) stunning. With that said, it is clearly evident that the cost of world building and modelling is prohibitive - presumably this is the reason why you will frequently revist the same area (subway, dead city, bank vault etc) multiple times over the course of a single playthrough.

Above all else, this has left me with the feeling that much, much more was planned, but that the development was curtailed with the immortal words: "It compiles, ship it, we'll patch it later". The ending, in particular, was a major disappointment, with the difficulty level fixed somewhere around the remedial level.

It's probably worth a look at the sub ten-pound pricepoint, or simply to look at the pretty pictures on a top-specced machine, but anything that can be so easily completed on nightmare difficulty isn't worth that much of your hard-earned.

win3k