Gabbo

Steve verbalized exactly how I feel about Cate Archer and the NOLF series. I should replay it again. Haven't laughed like this in a while (Samuel L. Jackson holding onto butts). 47 minutes went by way too quickly, but well spent.

I just meant that most other forms of entertainment/art will continue without any user input. A game will essentially stop if user input stops. I couldn't at first and only now barely grasp Inland Empire fwiw.

Books, music and poetry, etc can be used that way, but there is no set 'rule' that say you have do so. And depending on the work, may be created so that not doing so is just as fulfilling. I wouldn't use music as an example of something you have to listen to from beginning to end, as you can skip between tracks of an album or sections of a song as you please. These forms of entertainment do tend to have outcomes, but there are no victory conditions that require anything from the user, where as games have such conditions that must be met to eventually reach the outcome of the game. Not meeting those conditions for a movie won't change its outcome, the credits will still roll if you get up and walk out after 5 minutes. A game will end prematurely (generally death) and the outcome never arrives (other than 'game over', which doesn't conclude the story arc of the game).

I don't know if you're really meant to feel your life is at stake/in serious danger in any immediate sense. The zombies are harmless for the most part, it's the other humans that are dangerous. How would you implement it differently (honest, serious question), so that the stranded people were more of an issue the player has to choose between? The last part, that's not all that unusual in a lot of games that have AI teammates. Most have stormtrooper aim and can take as much punishment as a small child. I can't explain this other than to artificially make the game harder/fights longer and more focused on the player. If they didn't constrain you, what would you do? You'd be left to wander around and help people. They could have scripted it so Frank wasn't such a pushover, but they took the quickest route to killing things and moving the story along. I'd love if you were part of a functioning team and everyone did equal damage to enemies, but then I also enjoyed the smug satisfaction of knowing I, Frank West was better at handling this situation than a rent-a-cop and the Feds.

I never really hated exams too much. Profs generally gave the topics out before hand so we'd know what to study or write on when we all crowded into the halls. I was always nervous before hand but once I sat down and started writing, I was in my zone. Of course exams stopped altogether come 4th year becoming papers on topics of my choosing. About equal in difficulty really.

Otis radios you because you're kind of the defacto go-to guy to get shit done and he wants to see them rescued. They provide you with stat upgrades when you get them back to the safe room but are rather meaningless to the overall plot. So if you're beefed up enough as is, no need to get them. I did not notice you could spit on people. I know a a couple special agents who are getting spit on.

Civilization is TBS, and it does well enough to warrant expansions and sequels. What other numbers can the money people look to? I do realize there is a world of difference between XCom and Civ.

The first part of my comment is lamenting the change Ubi has made to those games, no need to dwell on that. I think if implemented like a mix of SWAT4 and the pre-mission planning out of the original Rainbow6, 2K could implement some level of the strategic and tactical elements from X-Com.

The planning in most Tom Clancy games has disappeared now for the most part, and was never on the scale that an X-Com game had.

Thanks for using my email as the example to nip the XCom questions in the bud. I get some weird pride out knowing of that. I will never send one that's mainly gut reaction while tired and hungry again. I don't think what I was trying to get at had to do with XCom so much as use Marin (which my email seemed to think was 'Marine' spelled wrong and autocorrected) as an example of a developer with a successful game and the timing worked out with the e-fury about the news. Does a game need to tell its story from a 1st or 3rd person perspective or use shooter mechanics in order to sell? I say this only because games that take old brands and make new games tends to stick to those gameplay mechanics. Could a studio like Marin not use their clout and Take-Two's marketing to jumpstart something like X-Com of old? Pipe dreams from a gamer who suddenly feels old perhaps... I really do hope whatever the hell Marin is working on is excellent and the internet along with my initial reaction, eats severe amounts of crow on this one. Oh, and my last name is pronounced 'Grove-nor', but most people initially pronounce it the same as you, so it's all good.

How would I know? How about the drivers actually work. In 1998 they were much more hit or miss. I've never seen a driver installer I would identify as pretty either way. I'd rather they keep the interface simple (KISS) and have it work than it use a fancy GUI and not.

Given the 'hidden' message at the end of the trailer, it seems like this is what they have in mind.

It's not only gaming, at least here in Ontario it's not. Does the new tax break system not have some serious stipulations attached to it? I read a bit on it earlier, and it sounds like there may be some hurdles (a points system) to overcome to actually get the breaks. Going to see a lot more games set in Britain with British voice casts me thinks. Not that I mind, would be a nice change of pace.

No Far Cry 2 tangents? Chris, this is disappointing. Where else am I going to get my usual FC2Talk fix?

It's hard out here for a wizardVideo Games.

I picked up on it, but I wasn't sure if I was projecting that into the game as a fan of Idle Thumbs or if they actually put it in a [not so] subtle nod to the 'cast.

Already own Arma2, was hoping this would be a different approach to the same sort of gameplay. From the sounds of it, I'll save my wallet the trauma.

I also would like to know this.

That voice gave me the sudden urge to play Sam and Max Season1 again...

That would only sell in Britain though

Chris Remo. Saving PC gaming one indie at a time

I haven't played CoP yet, so pardon my ignorance here, but if CoP is all these things the previous two games aren't (sans mods, and of which I've only completed SoC so far), wouldn't that turn people off eventually playing Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky upon completing CoP for the very same reasons you suggest they should play CoP first? Or will it be enough to draw them in

I finished up my first run through of Cryostasis on Wednesday night. Playing it back to back with Dead Space, really made me appreciate it and what it was trying to do a lot more than I think it would have otherwise. Yes the engine was unoptimized a bit, it would chug at times for no apparent reason (with PhysX off no less.) and this seems to be a common thread among all European games I've come across lately. My system is no slouch, so this really shouldn't have been an issue. Not really a detraction of this game in particular, but the state of a lot of games lately. The game was shorter than I would have liked, but the story and small cast of characters had me engaged throughout its short run-time. I really wanted to know how the two stories tied together/what happened to ship and its crew of mutated freaks. Linear as all get up, but I was happy to be lead along for this particular tale. That no one person was the 'bad guy' more than any other (at least in the flashbacks) and that I had some control over this was also a nice change of pace. I wasn't necessarily any more scared in this than I was than in, say, Dead Space, but the feeling of depression, dread and tension that runs throughout was also more engaging than Dead Space's atmosphere. I did find the characters rather menacing as well, especially the spiders. I hate games that use insects. I don't know why but they get to me much more than the average zombie/demon/terrorist ever does. Whoever came up with those deserves a pat on the back for a job well done. The body temperature mechanic could go either way. I never felt like I was in any real danger of dying due to the cold. If it had thrown me outside more often, I might have felt truly worried. It made for an interesting tweak on health packs (no regenerating health thankfully) and felt natural given that I was on a ship stuck in the Arctic, that heat would inevitably play a role in my survival so it's really give or take. I would love to see more games take a philosophical approach to their narratives, and hope whatever Action Forms does next is this good.

..Interesting.

Finished Dead Space (PC) recently, and I'm going to draw some ire with this, but it just wasn't as amazing as it was made out to be. A few interesting set pieces with decent atmosphere in places that ended up being repetitive fetch quests with very few actual scares in it. And no, having a creature bust through a wall/door/window/vent as the music has once again gone dropped out to emphasize that a monster is about to jump out of the closet is not scary. It was far scarier when all I heard were rumblings or voices, but the corridors were completely empty and nothing jumped out at me. The controls worked well enough, and it looked good (despite constant tearing), but I don't think those two things alone make up for the weakly strung together plot and blah gameplay.