Game Releases for the Week of 10/17/05: <liljon>HEYEEAAAAAAAA</liljon>

[Fabricated]

I wasn't able to get into BB today to pick up FEAR. I will have it tomorrow. It does however rape my computer sideways if the demo is any indication.

When I get paid next however, I WILL be getting a 6800GT, which when properly abused with Omegadrivers, should play it quite comfortably at high settings.

[Jain Zar]

I ended up getting Castlevania DS, Land of the Dead Unrated, and Teen Titans Season 2 Volume 1 today.  Almost picked up the Howling, but put it back last minute.

Castlevania DS is a bit of alright, though its not as simple as the first 2 GBA Castlevanias.  (Missed out on the prequel to this one.) 

[Azazel]

Schild wanted me to warn/ask anyone who is buying or has already bought Quake IV. He thinks it may have Starforce on it, because it has that little disclaimer on the box that might as well say "This is a digital veneral disease." Can anyone confirm or deny that?

There is no confirmation of this yet.

[EDIT] This is the text that people are worrying about:

Copy Protection
This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that does conflicts with some disc and virtual drivers.

Reminds me of Doom3.. I bought it and had to no-CD patch the fucking thing to get it to run.

And then I never got around to finishing it...

[Abel]

So far, FEAR reminds me an awful lot of Clive Barker's Undying, but with average-computer-crippling graphics.  Me like.

Good to hear. Clive Barker's Undying must be the most underrated FPS/Survival Horror game ever made. Dang that game was good, how it didn't get a cult following of some sorts is beyond me.

[Ironwood]

I really need to purchase and complete Thief 3.

I wish I could find it in the stores.

[tar]

I really need to purchase and complete Thief 3.

I wish I could find it in the stores.

Thief: Deadly Shadows is available on amazon uk. I think that's the third one, right? Dirt cheap if you get it from a marketplace reseller too.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, but I'm wanting it now.

Instant gratification for the win.

[Hokers]

Blitz: The League supposedly came out yesterday, but few copies made their way to the Chicago burbs.  All 3 stores I tried had run out of copies and commented on the small number they were shipped.

I guess I am going to have to wait a bit to juice up a team.

[Sky]

Blah, a couple shooters and an rts. Civ 4 is really the only thing I'm looking forward to. Well, and Silent Storm Gold, I'll finally have a chance to play that game after it's long complete absence from store shelves. We need new distribution channels where old shit sits on the shelves for years imo. Goddamned efficiency.

Plan on getting Oblivion, but plan on it being underwhelming, too.

Playing Jade Empire now that it finally hit bargain pricing ($20). Wish it were a PC game, though, consoles are fucking nasty. Going from 720p Bloodlines with highres textures and all the gewgaws of a modern gpu (fsaa/af etc) to the shitbag xbox 480p is disgusting. Stretched, too. It's like a beaten-up little ugly gnomish midget whore giving great head. Lots of fun, you just don't want to look at it.

[Sky]

Good to hear. Clive Barker's Undying must be the most underrated FPS/Survival Horror game ever made. Dang that game was good, how it didn't get a cult following of some sorts is beyond me.

Had to quit it after an early level where these stupid things kept coming out of the floor, ran out of ammo or whatever you shoot, they kept respawning. Made me really despise that game's more shootery segments.

[HaemishM]

I work at BB right now, and can fully attest to the fact that 95% of the staff there, including the managers, have no fucking clue what's going on and are complete and utter corporate slaves.  "How come we can't put that new TV over here where it will really show off?" "Because it's planogrammed to the back." "What about the whole store-ownership that you guys keep telling us." "Corporate says it stays in the back."

My brother-in-law that's living with us works at the new Best Buy now and let me tell you, that place is managed like the Speical Olympics. Any flaws that the individual sales people have are going to be magnified by some of the worst leadership I've heard of since FEMA.

Also, there's one guy who works at the local EB I frequent who is just a born dumbass. Nice guy and all, but I swear asking him anything will return the look of complete and utter cluelessness that most dogs have when you try to speak to them in words they haven't heard before.

[Rasix]

Only people that seem to really know their shit there are the people working in home appliances.  Every washer/dryer/fridge guy we've talked to really knew the products in and out.  Talking to the TV guys just gets me blank stares when I talk about the new Sony Grand Wegas and then ask whey they've got the old Sony Rear Projection sets out and not the new ones.  Usual response is.. "umm, let me check the computer."

I don't think I've got an intelligent response out of a clerk working at a game store for the past 6 months.  Our local ebgames guys used to be smart. 

PS. Batman Begins on DVD is love.  This movie is better than I remembered it to be.

[voodoolily]

Heh, yeah whenever I go into EB I just want to play "surprise the geek" by asking very specific questions that a) I don't look like I should be asking and b) they can't possibly answer. Then I buy whatever I actually went in there for and smugly walk out. I think it shatters their fragile egos when some girl who's been shopping at the Gap or Forever 21 comes in and hands it to 'em.

[Fabricated]

The Best Buy here is alright outside of the absolutely braindead management. There's at least 2 people in every department that know what they're talking about, so you have a pretty good chance of getting someone who isn't retarded.

One of my best friends works there as I mentioned, so I'm on a first name basis with most of the employees there.

The Gamestop here in the mall is staffed by game geeks amazingly.

[Pococurante]

Then I buy whatever I actually went in there for and smugly walk out.

Ruins the effect though when you buy the pink version... ;)

[Toast]

What kind of question do you actually need to ask these clerks? I use the interweb to research then I go up to the store and buy stuff. I never need to petition the poor high school kid in the blue shirt for help (nor should I).

To join the Best Buy hate, the constant pressure to upsell to service contracts and other garbage is really irritating.

[voodoolily]

omfg Shadow of the Colossus is fucking beautiful. The opening cutscene made me misty-eyed.

[MrHat]

To join the Best Buy hate, the constant pressure to upsell to service contracts and other garbage is really irritating.

But I'm really good at it!

Go Go GROSS OVERQUALIFICATION.

[schild]

omfg Shadow of the Colossus is fucking beautiful. The opening cutscene made me misty-eyed.

Just wait til you beat the rock phoenix on the lake. That was one of the most epic things in a game. Ever.

[Toast]

omfg Shadow of the Colossus is fucking beautiful. The opening cutscene made me misty-eyed.

Just wait til you beat the rock phoenix on the lake. That was one of the most epic things in a game. Ever.

Shouldn't you be playing F.E.A.R.?  PS. It's really annoying to type F.E.A.R..

[Ironwood]

Can someone please play Fear and tell me if it's as bad as the Demo ?

[Nija]

F.ight E.nemies A.nd R.epeat is pretty decent singleplayer. It's very predictable though.

The pattern is like this:

Scary shit happens
wander around for a bit
enter an area that has 3-4 paths leading to your entrance
get jumped by the bad guys who flank you and shit, in this 'perfect area for an ambush' type of environment
wander around for a bit
repeat


quake 4 is like this, in comparison:

kill bad guy
kill group of bad guys
kill group of bad guys
backtrack to bring some NPC to another NPC
kill bad guy
kill group of bad guys
kill group of bad guys
go ahead solo while 3 guys wait on you for some reason, so you can push a button that opens a door for them
kill a group of bad guys
repeat

[voodoolily]

That was my impression of FEAR based on the review X Play gave it. If I really wanted something scary, I'd just cut to the chase and get that one Japanese ghost game that looks like Eternal Darnkess but is Japanese (help me out, Sauced or schild) or something. It looked like every other fps but with little snippets of Ringu.

[Rasix]

Fatal Frame?

[Shockeye]

I tried to play F.E.A.R. today but it refused to run because I had virtual drive software installed.

Irritated am I.

[Fabricated]

Can someone please play Fear and tell me if it's as bad as the Demo ?

If by bad you mean "really good", then yeah. It'll rape your system sideways though.

It's exhausting to play since you almost never feel safe at any moment. I HATE the fucking stealth ninja things. I get nervous whenever I enter an area with cealing tiles now.

[Ironwood]

Well, I have a confession.  I didn't like the demo.  The Graphics and Sound in Half Life 2 were better, the scares in Vampire were better, the bullet time in Max Payne was better and  the AI in Half Life 1 was better.

All in All, I gave it a meh.  But I am working on the proviso that all I've seen so far is the demo, which seemed really disjointed.  What I really wanted to know was the story worth it ?  Does it weave the whole lot into a seamless game that's well worth the playing experience ?

Looking forward to opinions.

(Oh, and don't worry about raping my system.  I've spent too much on it to fear.)

[schild]

The AI in Half Life 1 wasn't better. That wasn't even snarky. The AI in HL1 was balls. Same with HL2.  Everything else in Half Life 2....better. Except the story maybe.

Ravenholm is still one of the best areas I've ever seen in a game, period.

[Fabricated]

Well, I have a confession.  I didn't like the demo.  The Graphics and Sound in Half Life 2 were better, the scares in Vampire were better, the bullet time in Max Payne was better and  the AI in Half Life 1 was better.

All in All, I gave it a meh.  But I am working on the proviso that all I've seen so far is the demo, which seemed really disjointed.  What I really wanted to know was the story worth it ?  Does it weave the whole lot into a seamless game that's well worth the playing experience ?

Looking forward to opinions.

(Oh, and don't worry about raping my system.  I've spent too much on it to fear.)

Horseshit on the scares in Vampire being better after playing through most of the gold release.  The hotel had about 2 great scares and that was about it.

The AI is downright awesome as well. Way better than HL1 and HL2. I noticed that the release enemies are way more aggressive and don't needlessly hop over every rail they see anymore.

As for graphics, eh. It's a style thing. I dig HL2's stark realism, but FEAR's lighting is damn good for setting a mood.

[Raging Turtle]

F.E.A.R. kicks ass, and I say that as someone who plays every big FPS that comes out.  Years better than Doom 3, every bit as good as HL2 (I'd say better based on many things, but it does get damn fucking repetitive in the corporate building, which is a large chunk of the game), and the ending... so nice.  Satisfied me in ways that the omg-what ending of HL2 never could.

The A.I. is a great improvement, but not quite as good as I was hoping with all the hype. 
Graphics are a little less than HL2, but this is the first game where I actually gave a damn about the lighting.  Uncovered humans look kinda plasticy.
Weapons are pretty standard, no complaints. The variety of grenades is nice, because really, theres few things more satisfying in an FPS than a well thrown grenade.  I do wish the shotgun did more than make little puffs of smoke when you fire it. 
Those ninjas go down pretty fast with a melee or pistolwhip attack.  I wish there would have been more of them, honestly.  The groups of 3-4 Replicas got old after the 83rd time. 

Slight SPOILER 




Watch the credits to the end. 

[Raging Turtle]

I forgot to mention this because I almost never used it - Yeah, the Slomo thing is mostly unnecessary and felt like a case of 'oooh we need another feature!'.  I mainly used it to kill turrets and those fucking laser flying triangle things, otherwise I forgot it was there.

If you didn't really like the demo maybe you should wait until it drops a bit in price.  I liked the demo, I thought the full game had a pretty similar feel.  The A.I. isn't so impressive early in the game, but really shines later on.

Storywise, first half or two thirds is slow.  The answering machine messages were pretty boring/uninformative and the lackluster voice acting didn't help. 

[Sairon]

Be sure to pick up Q4 if you feel like geting riped off. It's Doom 3 with the Q3 weapons + multiplayer. The single players lasted about 30 mins before I got totaly bored, and the multiplayer feels almost exactly like Q3 in every aspect, some hardcore Q3 fans might disagree though.

[Luxor]

Football Manager 2006 came out today in Europe, goodbye social life for another year. Time to elbow out Jose and spend Uncle Romans billions on the new galacticos. Was wondering whether to buy their stablemate game NHL Eastside Hockey Manager as well but have no clue about ice hockey, anyone tried that one yet? Is hockey an easy game to understand?

[Moaner]

Be sure to pick up Q4 if you feel like geting riped off. It's Doom 3 with the Q3 weapons + multiplayer. The single players lasted about 30 mins before I got totaly bored, and the multiplayer feels almost exactly like Q3 in every aspect, some hardcore Q3 fans might disagree though.

That and you need a fucking Cray to get more than 12fps.  It's going to be a good 6 - 12 months before I get to actually play this pile of shit, at which point I probably will be over it.

Back to CS:S.

[HaemishM]

quake 4 is like this, in comparison:

kill bad guy
kill group of bad guys
kill group of bad guys
backtrack to bring some NPC to another NPC
kill bad guy
kill group of bad guys
kill group of bad guys
go ahead solo while 3 guys wait on you for some reason, so you can push a button that opens a door for them
kill a group of bad guys
repeat

That does not compel me to buy it. Not that I would have anyway.