[DustyShinigami]

DOOM 3

As I've mentioned somewhere before, this was the first 'horror' FPS I played. Okay, for some people it's debatable as to whether it's scary or even good. But to me, it's one of my favourites and it really had an effect on me when I first played it. I usually replay this game from time-to-time anyway, but I decided to give it another go with my new computer and graphics card.

Time to sum up my overall opinions...

Positives:

+ Very atmospheric/moody and scary. Not for the faint of heart. And although, after playing/watching numerous horror games/movies, I've become a bit hardened, this game still has the power to make me jump.
+ Actually has a bit of a plot compared to the original DOOM game, which I found interesting to follow during my first playthrough.
+ Even though it's a few years old now, the graphics are still fantastic and detailed. It's almost like watching a CGI movie. Added to this, the light and shadow effects are simply great.
+ Plenty of detailed/disturbing levels to explore
+ Whilst a bit on the repetitive side, I do enjoy the gameplay. Afterall, DOOM has always been about killing demons, collecting key cards or unlocking doors in order to reach the end of a level. But it's just what you encounter as you try to get from point A to B that makes it nerve wrecking and fun.
+ Voice acting is very good
+ Music and sound effects are top-notch. These two elements really help the overall atmosphere and mood of the game.

Negatives:

- Although the game does have a plot, it's nothing particularly great or new. What's ironic, is that Valve were inspired by the original DOOM game when they made Half-Life. And yet, DOOM 3's story is very similar to that of Half-Life's.
- As I've mentioned, the gameplay is on the repetitive side and plays like any other FPS. Not only are the missions samey, but your enemies, their behaviour and the scares become predictable after a bit.
- Just like the original DOOM, the DOOM Guy/marine you play never speaks and has no personality to speak of.
- The shotgun looks too big and sounds tinny
- Considering the game is set in the year 2145, none of your weapons have any light sources/attachments. It can be a pain having to swich between your flashlight and weapon when fighting in the dark.

Overall:

****

[DustyShinigami]

DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil

Not as enjoyable as the original DOOM 3 I don't think.

Positives:

+ Includes a few new weapons such as: the Grabber, the double-barreled shotgun (my favourite) and the Hellstone. These new weapons add a bit of variety to the gameplay.
+ The ammo capacity for weapons has increased slightly
+ Includes new monsters
+ More disturbing environments to explore.
+ Ties up the ending to DOOM 3
+ Graphics and lighting effects are still great
+ Music and sound effects are still great

Negatives:

- Although there are 12 missions, the game is on the short side
- Still has the same gameplay formula and samey missions/objectives
- The Grabber is a bit of a rip-off of the Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2. id say otherwise as it was planned to have been in DOOM 3, but... meh.
- Still have to switch between weapons and flashlight
- The plot is wafer thin

Even though I have the same amount of Pros and Cons listed as my mini-review of DOOM 3, the expansion pack didn't really feel as satisfying or as good. It feels like more of the same but with 2-3 extras. So...

Overall:

***

[Crunchy in milk]

Originally Posted by AFGNCAAP

Off-topic, but - wow. Does it mean that The Last Wish was the only short stories collection published in English? If so, why on Earth did they choose to skip The Sword of Destiny? It's not only almost as good but also its last two stories 1) pick up a plot point started in Last Wish and 2) tie directly into the five full-length novels that follow.

That's just how the english translations went, the next to be released is the second novel, Times of contempt. I don't know why they went that way, perhaps the short stories will be staggered or gotten to later if the appeal is strong.

---

On topic. I'm really just killing time till Dragon Age becomes available to me, it won't be on november 3, but soon.

I've played through on normal difficulty, Torchlight's main story as both a Devastator (barbarian) and Alchemist (necromancer), and nearly finished it with a Vanquisher (rogue). The game isn't supposed to end exactly, there is an infinite dungeon with repeating, random fetch item & kill boss quests that hardly differs at all from the main plot.

Infinite dungeons don't really suit the Vanquisher or Alchemist classes though, they're skill builds (and skills cap at 10) so trawling randomly generated floors only for new weapons and items isn't as much fun with them, Devastators get the most out of new gear.

That leaves retiring your character and starting a new one on a harder difficulty, much like Diablo (no surprise). Not exactly keen on that yet. Torchlight is a wonderful looking and sounding game but the skills need serious balancing or better yet, uncapping. If your skills just mathematically progressed infinitely too, to keep pace with the infinite dungeon it really would be a never ending dungeon hack for loot whores.

You can tell its a quick little niche filler of a game, but in no way will it ever compete with the slickly polished and slightly genre evolving (a guess on my part) Diablo 3.

--

I Also just finished Half Life: Episode 2 again, in anticipation of Black Mesa (source)'s release sometime this year. I don't expect to see so much as a screenshot of Episode 3 this year but the thought of replaying Half Life (1) in the same spiffy engine as Episode 2 has my juices flowing (adrenaline...). I think I'll miss Alyx and Dog playing it though, they really add a sense of connection to Half Life 2 (especially in eps 1 and 2) and the original Half Life will seem rather lonely without them or any of the other support staff Half Life 2 gave us. Episode 3 really can't come soon enough.

[AprilLives]

Nikopol: Secrets of The Immortals
This game was very good in so many ways. The atmosphere of post-war France 2023 is thick with chaotic ruins co-existing with beautiful futuristic architecture. The voice of the lead actor (Geczy Matthew) is excellent. His voice and performance is smooth as silk, which keeps down stress during difficult situations. The mechanics of the game is player-friendly and intuitive as were most puzzles. That game went by too quickly, though, and was too short.

I wanted more of this interesting world. More places to explore between puzzles, more people to interact with, more information about the background story and more film clips. But that would surely have cost a lot more money. I would rather have a good short game than a long poorly made and boring game.

After playing the game, I learned that the plot for Nikopol is from a French science fiction trilogy by Enki Bilal. The story is about Alcide Nikopol who returns from a 30-year sentence spent orbiting the earth under “cryopreservation” to find France under fascist rule following two nuclear wars.

I hope this production group consider doing Part Two of the game and broadening this exciting world … maybe including a love interest for the lead. A very good game. 7/10

[Shany]

There is a movie based on the trilogy called Immortel: Ad Vitam if you're intersted to see more of the world and can't find the graphic novels. There is sort of a love interest there...

[AprilLives]

Originally Posted by Shany

There is a movie based on the trilogy called Immortel: Ad Vitam if you're intersted to see more of the world and can't find the graphic novels. There is sort of a love interest there...

Oh ... I had no idea. Thank you for letting me know, Shany! I will look into this. I love ideas or interpretations that are original and this sure seems like one.

[Denaron]

Woah, i don't know if that count but, I've finished watching on youtube a playthrough Scratches. I'm not brave enought to play it by myself so i rather watch others playing that kind of game. Nice game at all, finally an awesome ending.

8/10 (It should have more cutscenes!)

Obs: Does "playthroughs" gaming agains't law or forum rules? If it is, i'm sorry.

[Zack]

I just finished replaying the PC Version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (the first game) for what is probably my tenth time, if that's possible. It's my all-time favorite action game.

I plan to replay Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic again, later tonight.

[M-E]

To borrow Gazzoid's layout:

Professor Layton And The Curious Village

After a very long time of not playing this game and a crashed/deleted save I picked this up again recently. I just had to complete this before starting with the second game, which I already bought last September. I bet everyone knows about this game, but for those who don't know it (and probably lived in a cave the last year and a half): The game is about a professor and his student who get an invitation to look for a hidden fortune in the town of St. Mystere. Here the player needs to solve lots of puzzles in order to progress with the story. In Japan there's already a fourth game, but here in the Western world the second game was just released last September. There's even an animated movie coming to Japanese cinema's. Talking about popular, eh?

Pros:

+ The game has the perfect atmosphere thanks to the graphics, the wonderful music and the lovely animated cutscenes.
+ To build upon the last pro: The characters and town are just so strange and unique, which makes me love the game even more.
+ Although the story was a bit predictable after 1/2 of the game, I just loved it nonetheless.
+ The music, did I already say the music is wonderful? :p
+ Although the puzzles aren't connected with the story, most of them are really nice and cool.

Cons:

- I think that the beautiful animated cutscenes are way too short and there are way too little in the game. I know that the DS cartridges have limited space, but I hope the second game has more and longer cutscenes.
- Most of the hint coins were kind of useless. At the end of the game with around 100 puzzles solved I still had way too many of them. But it might be the case that some players might need more of them to complete the game.
- My biggest complaint about the game is about the game's core gameplay element, the puzzles. I thought there could've been a little bit more variety after playing a dozen logic puzzles about lying people. Also, at the end of the game there's a bit too much slider puzzles for my liking.
- Did I say the slider puzzles? I had those darn slider puzzles. Someone should burn them all.


All in all it's a great game, but there's still some room for improvement.

Overall:
****

[Fantasysci5]

Just finished "The Longest Journey" again. Just as magical and detailed as I remember it. Now moving on to "Dreamfall".

[Roper Klacks]

Finally i decided to go back and finish Metal Gear Solid 3. I must admit i didn't really enjoyed the first part of the game (even if it was good) so i lost a bit of interest back then. However the second half (after beating The End and infiltrate Grosny Grad) is just a glorious experience, easily the best moments of the MGS games i've played, surpassing almost everything from the first game.

Loved the Bond homages and inspirations, the cold war depiction, the narrative (a lot better than the "mexican soap opera" kind of narrative from the first two game, specially MGS2 ) and the characters. The Boss is a great character and John/Jack/Naked Snake/Big Boss is a fantastic protagonist, i liked how he grew as a person in the game. Much better than Solid Snake IMO.

I'll give it an 8/10. Although i prefered the MGS3 story, the actual gameplay was a bit more enjoyable in MGS1. MGS2 was a mess, i didn't like it at all.

[M-E]

Originally Posted by Roper Klacks

Finally i decided to go back and finish Metal Gear Solid 3. I must admit i didn't really enjoyed the first part of the game (even if it was good) so i lost a bit of interest back then. However the second half (after beating The End and infiltrate Grosny Grad) is just a glorious experience, easily the best moments of the MGS games i've played, surpassing almost everything from the first game.

Loved the Bond homages and inspirations, the cold war depiction, the narrative (a lot better than the "mexican soap opera" kind of narrative from the first two game, specially MGS2 ) and the characters. The Boss is a great character and John/Jack/Naked Snake/Big Boss is a fantastic protagonist, i liked how he grew as a person in the game. Much better than Solid Snake IMO.

I'll give it an 8/10. Although i prefered the MGS3 story, the actual gameplay was a bit more enjoyable in MGS1. MGS2 was a mess, i didn't like it at all.

And now onto MGS4, the best game in the series (although imo it's on the same level as MGS1).

[Roper Klacks]

Originally Posted by M-E

And now onto MGS4, the best game in the series (although imo it's on the same level as MGS1).

Yeah, unfortunatly i dont have a PS3, and i'm not buying one for a long time. :/

[Denaron]

Originally Posted by Roper Klacks

Yeah, unfortunatly i dont have a PS3, and i'm not buying one for a long time. :/

Ohh, i know exactly how you feel. After a long time waiting i finally bought mine recently just to play MSG4. What a masterpiece!

You could watch those Playthroughs on youtube with HD quality man, it's not the same thing as play by yourself but...

[taterfyrings]

Originally Posted by M-E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Roper Klacks View Post
Finally i decided to go back and finish Metal Gear Solid 3. I must admit i didn't really enjoyed the first part of the game (even if it was good) so i lost a bit of interest back then. However the second half (after beating The End and infiltrate Grosny Grad) is just a glorious experience, easily the best moments of the MGS games i've played, surpassing almost everything from the first game.

Loved the Bond homages and inspirations, the cold war depiction, the narrative (a lot better than the "mexican soap opera" kind of narrative from the first two game, specially MGS2 ) and the characters. The Boss is a great character and John/Jack/Naked Snake/Big Boss is a fantastic protagonist, i liked how he grew as a person in the game. Much better than Solid Snake IMO.

I'll give it an 8/10. Although i prefered the MGS3 story, the actual gameplay was a bit more enjoyable in MGS1. MGS2 was a mess, i didn't like it at all.

And now onto MGS4, the best game in the series (although imo it's on the same level as MGS1).

Thats strange, for me its actually quite the opposite. My favorite is MGS2 because of the gameplay which is best in this game, AND the story which is just amazing. I really love how Kojima made us doubt the democracy itself, and how Snake was portrayed from the view of another. Definitely made him grow as the series main protagonist to see him from the outside like in MGS2. And i also did not dislike Raiden as a lot of other fans seems to do. Ofcourse, he is no Snake, but with his appereance in MGS4 as well, he is certainly growing as a character (looking forward to MGS: Rising next year).

My second favorite is a very close tie between the first and the fourth game, both excellent games. But i think i prefer the fourth one, mostly because the gameplay in the first game is pretty messed up (a lot of scenes that feels very "forced", like when you get caught in the elevator, or when you have to run up all those dam stairs). However, i did not like how they killed of a lot of cool characters (like Vamp), so for the story i think MGS1 is better then MGS4.

However, MGS3 is my least favorite of them all. Possibly because of how it has been perceived as extremely patriotic (when its not), but mostly because of the camo-index system and the plot that was simply not that good. I guess it was ok for a Bond-film, which it kinda aimed at, but for a MGS game it was definatly sub-par. It was pretty straightforward really, which is not hos a MGS should be. And where is this jungel in siberia i never heard of? And how did they f*ck up the story of MGS by relating the philosophers legacy to "agreements between Russia, US and China after the second world war"? I mean, come on, this game is not about realism, but when they want something to be in the near-past, it should at least try to depict it remotely accurate or probable. And the Boss' final sacrifice was just, i don't know, way over the patriotic top for me. But still, the game is pretty solid, just not as good as the others (which are simply masterpieces). I did however love that you had to disguise as Raiden, i mean Raidenokov or whatever his name was. That was hilarious The young Ocelot is also a great character. Too bad they ruined his character in MGS4.

But for this topic: I just completed Final Fantasy IV yesterday, one of the greatest rpgs i have ever played (FFVI is my favorite of all time). Now on to the superhyped and (so far) much more tedious Final Fantasy VII!

[Karmillo]

I was really dissapointed in MGS4 after playing 3, too much of the humour was lost along with the ammount of easter eggs you'd expect to see in an MGS game.
Also the camo system was really fun in 3, what with having to be creative to find the most suitible camo and mask combo. 4's camo system was kinda pointless, you just stopped moving for a second and had the best camo automaticly.

Anyway I just finished Ratchet and Clank: Crack in Time, was fun but one thing in the story kinda annoyed me.

Spoiler:

They kept saying the universe would be destroyed if they went back and changed time to save the lombaxes despite doing it twice to save others.

[kuze]

Finished CoD:MW2 in one day.

The predecessor took me by surprise with its style, fluidity and overall execution. MW2 was basically more of the same, with some parts blatantly recycled from CoD:MW and a story not worth paying attention to. It was a great ride, sure, with ridiculous attention to detail (I watched the eyes of a guard turn milky and losing their shine after I killed him) and superb action, but I immediately forgot almost everything I saw in this game... everything with the exception of that particular terrorist scene, obviously, which I didn't find that offensive but rather intriguing, in terms of emotions that this mission stirred up in me. There have been very few games ever that made me regret shooting a gun, one was in Soldiers of Fortune when I shot off some guy's kneecap, the other was the "No Russian" mission where I executed a civilian out of pure curiosity if the game would let me do that. The scene kind of reminded me of that bank robbery mission in Kane & Lynch where Lynch executes all hostages, something that left even more of an impression on me.

Other than that, I really missed Pripyat in MW2.

Very forgettable 9/10.

[booB]

The Witcher. Great ending! I can't wait to replay it so I can choose one of the other paths and see the stuff I missed.

[Lucien21]

Modern Warfare 2

Completed the single player game in one sitting (5:54:00).

While the story in Call of Duty 4 was slightly over the top, but still believable. This game completely jumps the shark with a seriously over the top storyline that is straight out of a B movie or a 24 series.

Ignoring the insane storyline the game itself is a non-stop rollercoaster ride that takes you from the desert of Afghanistan to suburban America, gives you access to a huge arsenal of weaponary to suit any tastes and asks you to let rip.

The mission where you can gun down innocent bystanders in an airport is an attempt ot court controvery and maybe to pose the question about violence in games, but it's pretty short and can be skipped.


Overall: It is a fun rollercoaster ride while it happens, but like the Mummy rollercoaster in Universal studios it is over waaaaaaaaaaaaay too soon. (less than 6 hours for a single player is pathetic)

8/10

[SoccerDude28]

I think why people rave so much about that game is the multi-player. I am more a single player guy, so like you to me, the value of the game is not much worth it.

Originally Posted by Lucien21

Modern Warfare 2

Completed the single player game in one sitting (5:54:00).

While the story in Call of Duty 4 was slightly over the top, but still believable. This game completely jumps the shark with a seriously over the top storyline that is straight out of a B movie or a 24 series.

Ignoring the insane storyline the game itself is a non-stop rollercoaster ride that takes you from the desert of Afghanistan to suburban America, gives you access to a huge arsenal of weaponary to suit any tastes and asks you to let rip.

The mission where you can gun down innocent bystanders in an airport is an attempt ot court controvery and maybe to pose the question about violence in games, but it's pretty short and can be skipped.


Overall: It is a fun rollercoaster ride while it happens, but like the Mummy rollercoaster in Universal studios it is over waaaaaaaaaaaaay too soon. (less than 6 hours for a single player is pathetic)

8/10