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How do you determine which attacks are being used? Is melee tied to a single button, or multiple (or combinations of)? Or is the move dependant on the actual scenario (range, position, etc)? There is only one attack button for unarmed attacks. Attacks change based on Mike's state (standing or walking vs. running), the enemy's state (hostile vs. unaware or stunned) and length of button input (tap vs. hold). Standing/walking Mike vs. a hostile enemy will perform a hard strike with a held button, and will perform chained hits with taps. The chained hits are randomized linked combos. So there may be a total of five hits in combo A and five hits in combo B. When you start the chain, it randomly picks between combo A and B, though you are still giving individual inputs for each attack -- so you can stop whenever you want. But once combo A starts, it will only use combo A attacks unless you let the chain expire and start a new sequence. Do the attacks / attack animations change with skill? If I have level 10 unarmed do I just do more damage or will I pull off more complex / impressive moves and combos?

There will be weapon customization, and grenades. It doesn't look like there's much in the way of loot at all, given you use found weapons. Maybe they'll have an MGS4-style system where you sell what you pick up even if you can't use it. And the slo-mo has been touted from the first preview. Have you just looked this game up?

I don't think online review sites, even relatively well-regarded ones like the Escapist, have that kind of money. They likely provide the systems necessary to play the games (Yahtzee played Crysis on a high-end rig provided by the Escapist, for example) but covering the cost of games might be too much. Maybe they go halfsies? Maybe we can get Matt Rorie in here to tell us how many free samples Obsidz gives out to reviewers, and which ones get them in particular.

Why were you using the keys? Use your mouse.

I don't think they'd have diplomacy as a skill. This game seems more Deus Ex-y than Mass Effect-y.

Left 4 Dead The lead-in's funny, considering L4D's actual origins.

Synaesthesia is common. Most people have it in some form or another (most people would say that a K sound is jagged and an O sound is round, despite sounds not having shape in actuality), but a few experience it more vividly than others. I've known several people personally who do. It's generally much more complex than "seeing sounds" or "tasting shapes". One of my friends feels time as an irregular shape, with a certain time of day at a certain day of the week at a certain spot on the loop, as well as each day having a color and a name. My first name is dark green to her, my full name powder blue. Some people feel numbers as a zig-zagging line rather than a sequential set of variables. A synaesthate with that particular condition can memorize several million digits of pi just by virtue of the way his brain handles numbers.

That's an interesting choice.

You know what would also be realistic? If you had to watch your ammo use. C'MOOOOOOOON

If it is Mike's line then we can be assured that it's mid-dialogue, as in, the text is being shown after it's been selected.

C'MOOOOOOON

I'm sure not everyone in Taipei (or wherever that is) regularly dresses as though they just got out of an initiation at the chapter house.

The text at the bottom of the screen was the other guy's speech. Given that we know player responses are timed it doesn't make any sense at all to show a full response before you say it.

Magic! Also, this show is the second season of Twin Peaks all over again. It's a massacre.

In addition - Pics! We get our first glimpse of the actual game interface. So now we know that there are 4 gun skills, and that certain skills will influence dialogue. Neat.

Here tis

No, it was still the case in Blood Money, just didn't factor in as much in the lower difficulties. If you've got notoriety and people are suspicious as soon as they see you, running will tip them off.

AIs also don't take point. Their routines dictate that they follow players. If you have a versus game and all the human PCs drop out the game will effectively stop, as the AI survivors lose a leader to follow and stop in their tracks.

AIs don't use grenades. Which is as it should be, think of the carnage a molotov-bearing bot could bear on his teammates. It's hard enough with humans.

No it wasn't, FEAR was awful.

Maybe it was because of the difficulty level I was playing on, but the QTEs in Fahrenheit were never more than leisurely for me, and it was pretty cool for awhile. But at some point in the game the mechanics that were prevalent at the beginning (the conversation system, the puzzles and most importantly, the time attacks) disappeared and the game became entirely QTE based.

They've had those since the days of the Sega Genesis. Pretty sure my old gravis gamepad had one.

(psssst, QTEs are minigames)

I haven't run into any instances in which two different things you can say illicit the same reply. The trees are very basic, but at least they make sense.

Actually in a lot of ways I thought the dialogue system was better designed than, say, Mass Effect's. At least you don't have any false choices.