Erkki

Update: new patch (1.2) greatly improves load/save times!

I don't know. I laughed out loud.

I haven't played Mass Effect yet so I can't comment on that, but I think The Witcher for example has nicely short dialogue for an RPG. Maybe even too short. It's also bad occasionally, but that's not the point.

To be completely honest, I also don't see Half-Life 1 as being as great as most people seem to think. I didn't like many of the levels and I think the soldier AI is unfair (too fast or something, I don't remember which difficulty I'm playing). But it's definitely a great game, and I actually started replaying it (Half-Life: Source) recently... hmm... one more item I missed from my already-long-enough-backlog

I agree with Thrik. [a bit off topic rant] Also, I think the Wiimote is such a great concept that it could even work for many other living-room devices, such as digital TV boxes, TVs, DVD players etc. -- of course it would probably need a few more buttons, but most interfaces could be moved to the screen. I'd really like to get rid of the pile of different remotes on my living room table, but would the hardware manufacturers ever agree on a standard remote?

Oh my... There are more, but these I can easily remember - System Shock 2 - Aliens vs. Predator 2 - Thief: The Dark Project (I'm kind of ashamed of this one. The Thief series is one of my highest regarded ever, but somewhy I never managed to finish the first one -- I've tried twice) - Morrowind (I really want to continue this one, but not sure if I still have the save games) - F.E.A.R. (not sure if I even intend to finish it, it has felt too long for a time now and I don't even know how far along I am) - Desperados 2 - Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (I got tired of retrying the first action sequence) - Bioshock - Company of Heroes - Crysis DEMO (I don't intend to play the full game at all) - Colin McRae DiRT: the game crashed on me and messed up the saves, I have to redo it until I can get back to beating some records ( at some time I managed to hold records on 3/4 of the mud tracks -- at least so the in-game leaderboards said ) - Runaway: A Road Adventure Recently started playing (clearly too much at the same time) - Fable: The Lost Chapters - Wheel of Time - The Witcher - God Hand - The Simpsons Game And I have some games for the PS2 that I haven't finished mostly because we only have one TV and it is hard to find time when noone wants to watch some stupid reality shows or whatever (TV is a curse I tell you) - Shadow of Colossus - God of War - Bully (not sure if I like it that much actually, but it was kind of fun) - The Warriors - Resident Evil 4 (not even started yet, thinking of getting the Wii version instead but also don't want to waste money buying two versions at full price) [Edit]and there's also the list of games "I kind of liked but will probably never ever bother to finish": - DOOM 3 - Every HOMM game after the second one - Warcraft 3 - Hmm... I'm starting to see a pattern here. Actually pretty much every good strategy game there is -- some of them are great, but just never hold my interest long enough. It's probably my genes or something.

I recently started reading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (just finished book two) and since I remember hearing good things about the game, I thought I'd give it a try. I must say I'm quite impressed so far (right now I'm in Shadar Logoth)! I like the level design a lot, and it looks good enough that occasionally it doesn't feel as dated as it is. The gameplay could be better but most of the time it's quite good -- close combat feels kind of awkward because it's hard to actually hit an enemy with some of the projectiles when they are close to you. Has anyone else played this? What do you think? PS. Does it contain a lot of spoilers for the books? Perhaps I should put off playing this lest I spoil them? I did already notice a few things that could be spoilers, but I'm not sure...

If I remember correctly, in Unreal engine games, you could edit some .ini file to change the CD drive letter. I may be wrong though.

Ok, maybe you're right. I didn't/don't really have enough info to say that. So it's actually me who's being superficial... (we need a smiley for embarrassment) Sorry, Jade.

This time Yahtzee takes on the latest F.E.A.R. expansion: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2675-Zero-Punctuation-F-E-A-R-Perseus-Mandate

I bought F.E.A.R. soon after it came out, but still haven't finished it. I keep the save games so I can continue from where I left off if I ever feel like it. I basically like it, somewhat, but it's way too long and gets repetitive. This is one game that I think would have been a lot better if it were shorter. Maybe people who are bigger FPS fans will disagree, though.

It's not about her being a woman, it's about how she presented the game, never going deep into any topic, always focusing on the superficial. Ah, nevermind, I don't really want to go there...

Wired has a review as well: http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/11/review-why-assa.html This is the most negative review yet, I think? I only skimmed the others. This actually made me both want it more and not want it so much at the same time. I think I will be disappointed as well, but now I know what to expect and still want to see what it's about. And I will probably enjoy the free running in/and the awesome looking environments. But taking the PoP: Sands of Time sequels and now this into account, I'm really really disappointed in Ubisoft. To ruin such potential... I just hope there won't be a more Xtreme sequel to Assassins Creed. In hindsight, it should have been obvious that this game was going to be somewhat shallow, by who was chosen to present and hype it to the public -- Jade Raymond, a really cute girl who never really seemed to have much of a clue.

You are much stronger than me. I couldn't even get close to that.

It's actually first person, though

Congrats! I'm also planning to get my own place soon.

Quoted from the Mass Effect thread: http://idlethumbs.net/forums/showthread.php?p=84828#post84828 Really? So even the big massive* RPG-s are getting shorter these days? Some years ago getting 40 hours out of an RPG game was expected... Not that I mind the trend for shorter games so much -- I also don't have as much time to play games as I used to. I also liked the length of Portal and Episode 2, although I wouldn't have minded if they were longer either if that wouldn't have brought the quality down. Well thankfully there are still games like GTA San Andreas, Oblivion, Gothic etc. * or maybe I've just misinterpreted the title / advertising

If Chalk an Crayons aren't enough, there's also static to play with: http://silverspaceship.com/static/ It doesn't really have any interesting gameplay, but I urge you to play it (i completed it in 10-15 minutes I think),

Yep, I have a Wii and I'm quite happy with it, mostly. Some of the games have not lived up to what I expected, but some are very good. I hope to see better games on it in the future. Thanks for your recommendations, I think I'll get the 360 (maybe not immediately). Can't afford both right now, but maybe I'll get the PS3 after a year or so.

Me too. The most disappointing moment of the game for me was seeing them appear for the first time. Thankfully, they played only a small part in it. In some episodes they were funny, but I do hope they find some way to off them (or just not put them in any more episodes) The computers are cool, but the one pretending to have a Russian accent has a really annoying voice imho.

Same here. I started playing it for the first time about two years ago, but only played five hours or so before I lost interest. The respawning enemies bothered me too. Also, I can say the same about Aliens vs. Predator 2.

This was one of the best episodes yet!

There's one thing I wish would have been different after reading the Developer Commentary: I wish the physics puzzles weren't "dumbed down" so much. You can hear in some of the commentaries that some puzzles were initially more difficult, but were simplified based on feedback from playtesters. I don't mean "dumbed down" in a strictly bad way, but the adventure gamer in me wishes for more challenging puzzles in Half-Life games (and to a lesser extent, I'd say the same about Portal). But I guess what I really want is an adventure game done with the source engine (or another similar level) technology, not half-life itself to become an adventure game. I'm actually surprised that no source engine games / mods have tried to create more physics puzzle based games by now. Maybe Portal will change this and more games like that will start getting made?

I also didn't like the controls very much. Nowadays, I'd expect a bit smoother controls from platformer type games. Only played the tutorial and a bit of the first level so far, so I'm not giving a final verdict yet. Another fun fact: me and Kingzjester were working on a 3D remake of 5 Days a Stranger (the first Trilby game) some time ago, using the Deus Ex engine. We didn't finish it, though. Now some other team is trying to do a remake of it using the Source engine: http://fivedaysastranger.com/

This is pretty cool. I played the earlier prototype, and the biggest thing I immediately missed was drawing any shape but looks like the final game will allow you to do that.