alanschu

Which is (once again) something I didn't say or even agree with AT ALL... Well, you did specify those two games specifically, so it can be hard to look past it. Especially when Bioshock is going to most be compared to those two games. F.E.A.R. is also an excellent game. Too bad for you you couldn't enjoy it. Since you were criticizing the quote, I don't think it's a stretch to say that these games DO have "run and gun corridors" as well. The FPS genre is still very much shoot first, ask questions later. And this includes games from Half-Life, CoD, and FEAR, as well as games That's nice. Lots of people like Painkiller. Lots of people like CoD, FEAR, and Half-Life as well. They didn't claim that all games are Painkiller style. Games like CoD and Half-Life are still on a rail games, and still quite run and gun. As for the AIs, perhaps Ken feels that the AI in a game like FEAR is still subpar, and that what they have in Bioshock 2 is much improved over it. I found Half-Life 2 (and FEAR) much, much more fun than Painkiller. I also prefer both the Serious Sams to it. You can't ask one of us for a game that is "as fun" as Painkiller as some sort of evidence. On a final note, you're making a mountain of a molehill. Not surprisingly, Ken Levine is excited about the game he is working on and thinks it's going to make a significant impact on the gaming world. He's excited about stuff like the AI, and feels it's significantly better than other FPS games.

I didn't have too much problems with random crashing, though I did get slowdowns on occassion (which is odd, given my computer).

The uneven terrain makes for cool looking cities: http://media.pc.ign.com/media/800/800327/img_3860055.html

Hahaha. Doom and gloom!

NOt having the money is a poor excuse. No one is entitled to read/watch this stuff.

The only ones I can remember being that bad are Squaresoft's games.

How could the Death Star win, when it's weakness is fighters which the Star Forge can make bazillions with, and it could take it out before the Death Star ever got into firing distance? The first Death Star was taken out by like 20 fighters alone! The second one required a fleet, but that's more to offset the battle fleet that happened to be in the area as well. It was still a fighter (actually a FREIGHTER) that took it down.

I haven't seen any.

Yeah! Cue the vapourware comments.

I can kind of agree with it. I think that cutscenes should always be skippable. Especially if you think your game is good enough that someone will play it more than once (which all devs should think).

I still say that the game design of SS2 and DX has certainly not become passe. I love Half-Life and Half-Life 2 as much as anybody (maybe even more, given my self-proclaimed fanboi status), and I don't think DX really mimics the experience I get from either of those games. Most shooters now days seem to be relatively on a rail, dealing heavily with scripting with little deviation in multiple playthroughs. The game experience is relatively static. Not that this is a bad thing. As I said, I'm a Half-Life fanboi, and Call of Duty is a phenomenal experience. So when Serious Sam says they are going "old school," I see it more a deviation from those types of games. Not games like System Shock 2 or Deus Ex.

Naturally I played HL first, so it provided me with my gaming Mecca. I guess 1998 was a good year. Half-Life is what brought me back into PC gaming.

There was a Half-Life: Day One demo. I don't know when that came out relatively speaking. Though by the time Thief's demo came out, it would have been waaaaaaaaay to late for Half-Life to start changing things. The thing about Thief was the supernatural stuff. It turned me off immediately.

The game itself played fine (better IMO) with mouse and keyboard. But yeah, I wanted coop. But I had heard good things about the game. All in all I enjoyed it, just not the repeated level design crap.

I don't care for this excuse either. Not having the money is not a path to entitlement.

The copy and paste school of level design was an excellent idea!!!! I actually enjoyed the last level, though I played it on the PC and it would have been infinitely cooler if my friend could join in and play the game as well!

<nitpick> Half-Life came out a month before Thief. </nitpick> Thief was definitely a bit of a paradigm shift.

It could be that, except he's 16.

Sounds like guilds approach you based on how you act, and you can allow them to set up a guild hall in a province. Making lots of trade income, the merchants guild will come calling. Assassinating people, sniper crossbow style? Assassin's guild comes a knocking. The guilds will also provide missions for you to do. I'm not sure if you'll be able to approach the guilds or whatnot, but it sounds like they provide some pretty significant bonuses. I imagine an Assassin's Guild will probably get you higher quality assassins (always sucks training them on useless captains and crap diplomats in Rome). The merchants guild seems to have significant boosts to your trade economy. To make things interesting, it sounds like you can only have one guild per city (now when it says city, I'm not sure if it means town/province, or actual city as opposed to castle....I'm interested either way), so you have to make some decisions. Speaking of missions, it sounds like when a factions asks you for help in exchange for something, it sounds like it becomes a mission. Helps with record keeping and whatnot...reminding you of the details of the mission.

Why would getting the toolset now (rather than when the game gets released) result in you losing your module and all your work (to bandits no less!)?

Hehehe. Plus, the game did predate Far Cry by a great many years.

Be patient, and you should be able to get by with one grenade on the way back up. Make sure to not fall off the ladders and make a "thud" when you land.

Make sure to toss grenades and use crouch. They sense you by the noise you make.

The Sims does fly off the shelf. (Note, while I don't care much for The Sims, I think it's an excellent game for the PC game industry, as it will get people involved in PC gaming).

Well, Rome is the star of Rome: Total War, so it probably makes the most sense. It's also a faction that (barring mods) everyone is going to play. As for M2TW, I sort of expect a bit of bias towards Western Europe (Eastern Europe and the Middle East/Africa seem to have less cities). Looking forward to the Zweilhanders of the Holy Roman Empire. The fights also look cool, with soldiers actually parrying, and providing visual feedback of actually landing blows. Eye candy, but when it's a good game, eye candy is always appreciated.