LOPcagney

Demoooooo. Get the demo.

Yes, to both points. I hate to say it, since I totally bought into the Half-Life 2 universe since I first bought it off Steam 2 or 3 years ago, and Episode 2 was incredible: I liked is as much as the original. However, I can honestly say that I found Episode 1 to be a chore. It was virtually a rehash of the original game. In fact, my advice to anyone else still on the wall about Half-Life 2 would almost be to buy Episode 1 first, as a sort of trial, since it's essentially a clone of the first game compressed into a 5-hour gaming experience. That frustrated me so much. It really made me appreciate the variety and the inspired genius of the first game. Even on this thread, people attribute HL2's greatness to it's gameplay, artistic direction, architecture, storyline, personality, etc. but ultimately what Valve did right was to combine all of these aspects to create possibly the first modern gaming experience which has the emotional power of a film or a novel. Half-Life 2 was an example of what games can be if we can be as a story-telling medium. Episode 1, on the other hand, was just a "game". And yes, my favorite part was the bridge as well. I saw it as kind of an extension of the "duct-crawling" concept of the first game (and a precursor to Portal's (spoiler) escape sequence) in that is gave the player a look behind the scenes at the sort of infrastructure of the world they are playing in, deepening the experience. We've driven across bridges in games countless times, but how many times have we stopped to think about what exactly constitutes a bridge and if a bridge is a structure beyond simply another stretch of road to get from here to there? Plus, the sheer elegance and simplicity of scaling this sort of larger-than-life work of engineering and then looking down and realizing that all that's in between you an the river hundreds of feet below is a narrow i-beam is one of the most compelling and memorable experiences in modern gaming. So yeah, give it another try

I watched the link and I knew it sounded familiar. I saw Shockheaded Peter a couple years ago in New York. It was spectacular, although I have to say: I enjoyed the music in the context of the musical, but I'm not sure I'd get a CD.

Cake concert tomorrow night

Just based on the demo, I had the same impression as you. My computer couldn't run the game at higher details, so I was forced to play with the lowest settings. What I realized as soon as I had stripped away the unbelievable shiney-ness of Crisis was that the core gameplay was miserable. It's funny, because I think Crisis is a very shallow experience. I've been replaying Deus Ex recently and I'm finding exactly the same thing as you did with Half-Life in that the world is more believable in a way in the sense that there is a distinct style that makes it memorable and an artistic direction which helps to drive the action of the game. With Crysis, and I know I've said this before, I think there was an interview where someone involved with the game said that their goal with Crisis was to try to remove all artistic style from the game, the implication being that when the graphics kick in, realistic detail would create the mood of the game, effectively replacing creative level design. Maybe the best comparison to make is to a game like Bioshock, effectively a contemporary of Crysis, and another game praised for it's graphics. As pretty as Bioshock was, the technology behind the graphics in the game couldn't match Crysis' photorealism. However, the often stylistic and exaggerated visuals (for example, the (spoiler) Fitzpatrick piano scene from Fort Frolic) made the game immersive not only at the highest detail settings but even at the bare graphical minimum. I think until it can be assumed that your average gamer had a rig capable of playing Crysis on even the medium settings, the designers should remember that immersion is not always dependent on graphics. I'd also like to say that I think that unless a game is accessible and enjoyable on all levels of detail, it's misleading to label a game as having lower minimum requirements than are necessary to play the game the way the creators wanted it to be played for the sake of reaching a wider audience.

Koyaanisqatsi! I've been wanting to see that for a while now. Actually, this will be the only time I admit it, but I was inspired to see it after the first GTA4 trailer simply because I hadn't heard about it before.

Invite sent.

Pioneered by such classics as Sim Ant.

"Flesh level"? Whats an example from Ep. 2?

I agree. I thought the characters brought the world to life even if the cities were limited. In fact, I thought the map-makers did a good job of making you feel like you were in a much larger city even though the maps only spanned a few blocks.

I'm definitely not a PS3 person. But the reason I'm not a PS3 person is that it's just so overpriced when you look at the other systems. Get a PS3 if you have the chance to get one free, since you have a 360 and the Wii is only $250, right?

Absolutely! I got NOLF2 for my last birthday, and it was just so good. People have forgotten that First Person Shooters can be as charming and funny as any other genre. I especially loved the memos and the side conversations by the guards.

I thought the interface kept it simple and clear while still being easy on the eyes. Plus, it's still an old game, despite the incredible design throughout. It didn't bother me. Plus, it is still very RPG-oriented, and the interface has to make sense in both the context of an FPS and that of an RPG. It was to, essentially, stay out of your way, and yet communicate vast amounts of information simultaneously. I think the interface, for me at least, served the purpose of really making me feel like there was more number-crunching and micro-managing involved than in your traditional FPS. Treating weapons as just another equipable item gave the game and using flat, straightforward menus with as little visual noise was possible really put me in that I-have-to-think-about-every-choice-I-make mindset, and I think I got more out of the game in the end.

Haha, wow. I was just looking for this all day yesterday. I had forgotten the name. Looks incredible, though, and I'm glad some developer's finally stepped up. i hope it hasn't become an XBox exclusive though.

Never mind, I found it. Metronome

Haha, I actually enjoyed it (wait! don't throw anything at me yet). Right off the bat I thought it was going to be just a cheap cash-in on the popularity of March of the Penguins (though someone told me later that this was actually in production before the documentary?). I thought it was an interesting take on the traditional kiddie musical, what with the entire soundtrack being mash-ups (nothing wrong with that). If you get over the campy-kiddie element, there were some pretty incredible visuals (in particular, I thought the idea of combining animated penguins with live-action human actors was brilliant). And of course, there was the not-so-subtle metaphor of the conflict between originality and the suppressive, radical regime... A regime of penguins... Old Scottish penguins... Well I didn't go into the theater expecting to like it, but I did.

I admit, I'm shamelessly leeching off this thread because I don't think my question merits a thread of it's own, but I'm driving myself mad trying to remember the name of a game I saw announced a while back. I think it was from a non-English game company, perhaps French, and, as far as I could tell from the trailer, it was this artsy game that took place inside this sort of clockwork musical world. Your character wore a gramophone on his back I believe and you used sound to manipulate the world around you. It looked great and it sounded like an interesting take on music in games in general. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

Yes! I saw this and I am absolutely ecstatic. I think they may pull it off, as long as they keep the RPG in favor of a more shooter-oriented approach. (By the way, did anyone notice the blatant similarities between the teaser and the Crysis trailer with the super-close-up of the combat suit?) I'll bet you it was Bioshock's success that inspired this sequel. I played the demo for Invisible War and, while it couldn't live up to the first game, I didn't think it was bad. It just didn't live up to it's name.

Let's talk about old/obscure games we remember and love. To start, does anyone remember Power Peter? I had it on my old Power PC. I LOVED that game, and played up until the last two levels when I discovered that they were somehow unaccessible (probably because I was playing on the easiest difficulty) and sadly my computer got thrown out. If I ever own a mac I'll buy it in an instant, but sadly it was never released for PC, and I don't think I have the time to figure out PearPC. Another one I loved (and still play from time to time) is Lode Runner: The Legend Returns (which you can now grab for free as part of Lode Runner Online). I went crazy with the level editor, of course making the obligatory world-entirely-made-of-timed-bombs. This was all before I really knew what gaming was, so I played whatever came with the second-hand PowerPC we got from a friend (or whatever my friends had). I also (fondly) remember Prince of Persia, Spectre Supreme, Riven, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 2, Scorched Earth and more educational games than I care to mention (Thinking Things, Legend of the Zoombinis, Treasure Mountain). Ahhhhhh. That felt good.

Well. I wouldn't call Lemmings obscure at all, since it was a huge hit when it came out. I'd judge a game's obscurity relative to the splash it made when it was released. For example, indie games now like Eets or Gibbage or ever freeware games like Cave Story and Knytt are obscure games.

Has anyone used Gametap? It seems really shady to me. Aside from Valve (which conversely I think is brilliant), all these internet-download-activated-direct-to-disc-limited-time-offer deals seem really unsatisfying. I want to know I'll still be able to go back to the game in a year or five. Might as well just snag a copy off ebay. I could be totally wrong. Has anyone tried Gametap?

Ooo! That reminded me. I forgot all the old Apogee games like Secret Agent and Commander Keen. I recently bought Secret Agent online somehow (I might have called customer service?). Apogee knew how to make a platformer. I was terrible at Oregon Trail by the way, as fun as it was. Everyone in my party died of scurvy.

On a slightly different note, I love listening to people analyze Mario and claim that it's come allegory for socialism.

Ugh. Sad to say but same here. I had my friend burn me a bootleg a few years ago but I never got it working.