5/30 - Shadowrun (PC, Xbox360)

[Wolf]

Ok, how about the game? Is it crap? I heard that the studio that made it was already disbanded, so we can forget about future updates. Can anyone comfirm this? A pure multiplayer game without any further balancing and/or updates doesn't sound too good.

[Zonk]

Zonk, if it was called Splorgenborgen, you probably would have liked it.  Edit: Also, obviously not made for PC Gamers. The only thing I can see is that you really wanted it to be made for PC gamers and that's raping your sensibilities a bit.

I completely and totally agree. If they had come up with a new IP, say, or twisted anything else into this shape, I would have nothing else to say about this game other than 'meh'. Basically, I've taken it upon myself to be 'that guy' about this game. I completely understand this is irrational, and so (I hope) I'm trying not to be too assy about it. The reason is simple: it is tremendously disappointing to me that they chose to squander such a remarkable IP on this game.

I actually think it's a pretty good game on the 360, so I wouldn't say I 'really wanted it to be for PC' ... I just don't understand why the released it on that platform. :)

Ok, how about the game? Is it crap? I heard that the studio that made it was already disbanded, so we can forget about future updates. Can anyone comfirm this? A pure multiplayer game without any further balancing and/or updates doesn't sound too good.

... I find it vaguely amusing that you're named Wolf. Character from an old Shadowrun novel. To answer your questions: FASA studios has been disbanded, for sucking too hard to exist. I don't know if another team is going to do continued balancing/updates. My impression is that the members of the team have largely been moved into other parts of Microsoft Games Studio. Some of the honchos saw their heads roll, I believe.

As for quality: My view is that if you like console shooters, there are several better options out there besides Shadowrun. If you're looking for something distinctly *different*, that is something you can find here. Playing a magic-heavy character empasizing mobility and support is unlike almost any other multiplayer FPS experience I've had. Teleporting through walls to reach a downed character, Rezzing them while fighting off his killers, dropping a Tree of Life to keep him alive, and then moving off to repeat the process ... it beats the pants off of the medic in Team Fortress.

That said, it's just something that could hold my interest long-term. I'm going to be playing the shit out of Halo 3 and Team Fortress 2 later this year, and I have no interest in getting involved in an online FPS at the moment.

[Wolf]

... I find it vaguely amusing that you're named Wolf. Character from an old Shadowrun novel.

Yeah... it's also a somewhat common animal...

[Velorath]

This is what I'm fricking saying. They've killed FASA for sucking so badly, and they're never going to make another SR game now because this has been such a shit-vortex. For the love of all that is holy, why did they do this?

Before this, there hadn't been a Shadowrun game in the 11 years since the Sega CD game.  We're pretty much lucky to have even gotten this.

[Yegolev]

I'm going to be playing the shit out of Halo 3

Everything you say is now suspect.

[Zonk]

Everything you say is now suspect.

I should have a big * hanging over my head about stuff like this. I should point out I also played Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End for the Xbox 360 this past week. It's ... not very good, by the by.

When you review games as part of your job, you don't always get to play what you want. : /

I think Halo is an 'okay' shooter for the console. I still like PC FPS titles better (HL2 may be one of my favorite games), but I've grown to accept that console shooters have a place in the world too.

[Yegolev]

Ah, I read the wrong thing in there.  I didn't take "playing the shit out of" as "playing for work".  I get your point.  There are, however, better console shooters than Halo 2, especially if you consider crossplatform things like F.E.A.R. as well.  Then again, we are arguing opinions, so WHEEEEE!

[Zonk]

Right. :)

Yeah, it's ... blah. It's weird, because I basically get to pick and choose what I review; Microsoft sending me a game is a rarity. My super-seekrit insider access to videogames for review is the GameFly service.

Next week I'm doing POTC, and then Odin Sphere is the week after that. Won't be as good as schild's, though. I can't say 'fuck' on Slashdot.

[schild]

Why are you reviewing bad games on Slashdot?

Do you really need to have a good relationship with Buena Vista?

I mean, really?

Also, trust me when I say, don't review games you aren't sent. It's a waste of your time and companies don't deserve otherwise. (Unless it's to inform people something is WORTH buying - people don't need to be told Pirates 3 isn't worth buying). I tend to cover niche stuff and freebies. it's just the way to handle it.

[Morfiend]

Sounds like I am giving this one a pass.

[Sky]

To sum:

Vista Only
Gimped PC controls
Maybe no patches

I'm sure it'll sell in the tens.

[Zonk]

My leaning worked, wonder of wonders. Shadowrun on the 360 in-hand. We can now 'get our elves on'.

[Nonentity]

I played a little bit last night, did some bot matches.

Fuck - for the bot matches you do after the training missions, you can select one of five difficulty levels (training, novice, veteran, and two more above that).

Even on Vet level, I was getting stomped. These bots were teleporting through walls, zapping me, destroying my corpse so I couldn't rez - they were good.

I can't imagine how good the bots are higher then that.

It's fun, though. I don't think I could see myself playing it online and getting all into it, but playing a match with some people I know from here or whatever would be fun.

[Azazel]

To sum:

Vista Only
Gimped PC controls
Maybe no patches

I'm sure it'll sell in the tens.

A shame for Shadowrun, but hopefully a good thing for us XP Gamers if the "Vista-Only" thing takes it in the arse. MS might not care, but other development houses who want to sell their fucking games might take notice. Crytek, I'm looking at you.

[Big Gulp]

A shame for Shadowrun, but hopefully a good thing for us XP Gamers if the "Vista-Only" thing takes it in the arse. MS might not care, but other development houses who want to sell their fucking games might take notice. Crytek, I'm looking at you.

Not going to happen.  Microsoft isn't going to port DX10 to XP, not only because it doesn't make financial sense, but because they can't due to fundamental OS architecture issues.  If you're a dedicated gamer sooner or later you're going to have to go to Vista.  That's just how it is.

[hal]

We do not have to like it. And, We do not have to be eager.

[schild]

My copy of Shadowrun does not connect to the net. It is a PROBLEM.

The local EB said a lot of customers could not find or start games people could join while their Lost Planet still works. They said they'd give full refund for defectiveness. So if you're having this problem, do youself a favor and call the local store.

[Trippy]

A shame for Shadowrun, but hopefully a good thing for us XP Gamers if the "Vista-Only" thing takes it in the arse. MS might not care, but other development houses who want to sell their fucking games might take notice. Crytek, I'm looking at you.

Not going to happen.  Microsoft isn't going to port DX10 to XP, not only because it doesn't make financial sense, but because they can't due to fundamental OS architecture issues.  If you're a dedicated gamer sooner or later you're going to have to go to Vista.  That's just how it is.

While it's true they they couldn't do a straight "port" of DX10 to WinXP they could rewrite those parts that are incompatible but have choosen not to for reason I mentioned earlier. It's the same reasoning that had them take Halo 2, an Xbox DirectX 8 game, and made it Vista-only, even though they know it's only going to get them a small faction of the sales they otherwise would've gotten.

[Azazel]

A shame for Shadowrun, but hopefully a good thing for us XP Gamers if the "Vista-Only" thing takes it in the arse. MS might not care, but other development houses who want to sell their fucking games might take notice. Crytek, I'm looking at you.

Not going to happen.  Microsoft isn't going to port DX10 to XP, not only because it doesn't make financial sense, but because they can't due to fundamental OS architecture issues.  If you're a dedicated gamer sooner or later you're going to have to go to Vista.  That's just how it is.

No, I'm talking about 3rd-party devs (you know, the ones who are actually trying to sell us their software, and not copies of Vista) deciding to either offer games in dual-compat mode (like Lost Planet). Sure, Vista will eventually take over, but for the time being it makes financial sense for software houses to either stick with DX9 or dual-compat.

MS can afford to take losses on game software in order to sell us Vista. I'm not sure it's in EA/Ubi/etc's best interests to want to eat sales losses in order to help MS sell copies of their latest OS though. It's not exactly taking a bullet for the team, after all.

[Trippy]

A shame for Shadowrun, but hopefully a good thing for us XP Gamers if the "Vista-Only" thing takes it in the arse. MS might not care, but other development houses who want to sell their fucking games might take notice. Crytek, I'm looking at you.

Not going to happen.  Microsoft isn't going to port DX10 to XP, not only because it doesn't make financial sense, but because they can't due to fundamental OS architecture issues.  If you're a dedicated gamer sooner or later you're going to have to go to Vista.  That's just how it is.

While it's true they they couldn't do a straight "port" of DX10 to WinXP they could rewrite those parts that are incompatible but have choosen not to for reason I mentioned earlier. It's the same reasoning that had them take Halo 2, an Xbox DirectX 8 game, and made it Vista-only, even though they know it's only going to get them a small faction of the sales they otherwise would've gotten.

Apparently a 19 year-old kid has figured out how to get DX10 stuff to run on Windows XP:

http://alkyproject.blogspot.com/

[Murgos]

Apparently a 19 year-old kid has figured out how to get DX10 stuff to run on Windows XP:

http://alkyproject.blogspot.com/

I'm not entirely surprised.  Claiming that you can't send certain command strings to a hardware device because of OS architecture seemed a little circumspect.

[Miasma]

The steam survey now has a DirectX 10 section to show those who have both Vista and a DX10 video card.

Percentage of steam users who can play a DX10 game - 1.24%

[Trippy]

You don't need a DX10 video card to play Shadowrun (it's a DX9 game) so the percentage of Steam users that can play it is somewhere closer to 5%.

http://forums.shadowrun.com/forums/thread/53910.aspx

[Big Gulp]

The reviews are not being kind.  Gamespot gave it a 6.9 if memory serves, which seems about right from what I'm hearing.  Apparently climbing animations aren't even in the game yet, so your character just sort of glides up ladders while still looking like they're just standing there.  I suppose this makes the lack of a single player campaign and the inability to change your character's appearance understandable; this was a rush job.

[sinij]

PC users 'can't' swivel and turn faster than their console cousins. Hence, no mouse sensitivity.

WTFZORS

That is just fucking stupid. "Balance" be damned - lern2PC, nubs.

Not that I have Vista or plan to upgrade anytime soon just to play Shadowrun but can't you adjust mouse sensitivity for the whole system to get around it? My Logitech mouse came with neat software that allows me to set resolution, sensitivity and a lot of other parameters that carry over to anything/everything since it adjusts something driver-side.

[Daeven]

Here is my take on 'ShadowQuakeUnrealWithElves'

Step One: Get really excited about a Shadowrun cRPG.
Step Two: Get really disgusted because it's not a cRPG, but rather an online only shooter.
Step Three: Ponder the stupidity/idiocy/insanity/Marketdriodism of failing to make an RPG out of an RPG license.
Step Three point Five: Yes, I may have paid more attention of it was Froobles Online instead of 'Shadowrun'. 'Shadowrun', unfortunately, set a baseline of expectation, which they utterly failed to meet.
Step Four: Laugh because it is 'Vista only' and ignore it completely.

Resume waiting for Bioshock and the Medieval 2 expansion, whenever they are coming out.

[Ironwood]

Bioshock is also going to suck - Recent previews suggest a rather lame straightforward FPS with consoleitis out the ass.

I suspect I'll be doing much crying in the future.

[murdoc]

Bioshock is also going to suck - Recent previews suggest a rather lame straightforward FPS with consoleitis out the ass.

Really? I thought recent previews were doing a decent job of showing that it wasn't going to be a straighforward FPS.

[Yegolev]

Previews, or interviews with Ken Levine?  If you watch any of the videos, it looks like a possible Might & Magic or Oblivion, only without the arr pee gee.  I always thought that it would be, at best, Thief: Deadly Shadows with guns/magic.  Maybe I won't be disappointed with these low expectations.

[Ironwood]

Bioshock is also going to suck - Recent previews suggest a rather lame straightforward FPS with consoleitis out the ass.

Really? I thought recent previews were doing a decent job of showing that it wasn't going to be a straighforward FPS.

The Adam and modification stuff gives you 'powers' which are cool, but not exactly new.  The enemy AI is also a crowning achievement to mediocrity.  Further, the game is on rails enormously, making it pretty much a run and gun thing.

The latest PC Gamer or Zone took a big dump over it - but sneakily it was kinda 'between the lines'.  'Hey, this game looks great and zowie the powers are cool, but who really gives a fuck because you're going to complete it and never go back.'

I'll quote some of the more interesting passages when I get home.

[schild]

Yes, I care about the action in Bioshock.

About as much as I gave a shit in Deus Ex and System Shock 1 & 2. Which is to say - Zero.

It's like saying Fatal Frame is an On Rails Photgraphy Experiment.

[Ironwood]

It was only 3 sentences and the meaning of your entire post was lost on me.

What ?

[schild]

The Adam and modification stuff gives you 'powers' which are cool, but not exactly new.  The enemy AI is also a crowning achievement to mediocrity.  Further, the game is on rails enormously, making it pretty much a run and gun thing.

The latest PC Gamer or Zone took a big dump over it - but sneakily it was kinda 'between the lines'.  'Hey, this game looks great and zowie the powers are cool, but who really gives a fuck because you're going to complete it and never go back.'

I'll quote some of the more interesting passages when I get home.

The best FPS games I've ever played that weren't competitive had some zowie cool powers but the action was dull, practically were on rails (even though there were multiple sets of rails) and it was all completely run and gun.

I'm saying, how is that taking a shit on it?

TALK ABOUT THE STORY, KNOBBLER. WHAT DO THEY SAY ABOUT THAT?

[Ironwood]

Story ?  Again, from what I read, there isn't one.

Big undersea place where people have driven themselves bugshit trying to setup a wondrous utopia that turns into dante's hell.  3 'bosses' that represent geniuses of the place.  Kill, escape.

I don't think you're going to find Planescape anywhere near this poop.

I don't think you're gonna find Deus Ex or SS1 or 2;  and if you're really saying that those games were run and gun without any subtlety, well, I kinda have to disagree on it.  I could reinstall all 2 outta the 3 of them and have a different play experience.  I get the feeling that's so not going to happen with Bioshock.  The huge choices you'll have is fire or ice gene mods.

Sigh.

Hey, cheer up.  You could be right and I could be wrong.  And then we'd both be happy !

[schild]

I'm going to cry.

First Supreme Commander, and not this.