NikG

If you don't already know, which I'm guessing most don't, I'm a games reviewer and I thought I'd just open a thread to discuss new/imminently released PC games. I only get a handful as I'm one of a few PC reviewers on the team but certain weeks there's a huge selection to choose from, unfortunately Civ4 and AoE3 aren't up for review. Apparently they haven't been received blame on part of royal mail or the publishers especially when my copy of Civ4 is supposed to arrive tomorrow.



The previous few games I'd highly recommend to anyone would be Black & White 2, as it's simply amazing although semi-demanding and the new tribute system completely sucks. Another would be X3, which is a lot better than the original it's gone darker but looks amazing, although it's got a weird crash to windows bug.



My recent disappointments are Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion as it's basically new units and nothing new to the actual game, even the music is almost completely repeated and the new features add nothing to the game and it should really come with a time-back guarantee. The other would be Metal Heart: Replicants Rampage, it claims to be the next Fallout but apparently the Russian Company that made it works in an isolated community that still works coldwar style and hasn't had an RPG game ever imported, or stolen by the KGB, for them to see what one is supposed to be like.



Dungeon Lords looks okay but I haven't had time to play it yet, but it's more positive than negative. Psychotoxic from what I know about it, it looks like anyone seriously considering buying it needs some mental help or the developers were on acid when developing the game.


BTW most of the things I'll say in here is the stuff that can't be said in a review without loosing the review material from the developers. Just thought this might be of help to people who can't see if they like a game till a demo, or don't like the false politeness in reviews (like almost all gamespy reviews).

Ahdkaw

I got X3 on pre-order from Egosoft, not really played it yet, but after a quick sneaky peek into the game, I must say it's a much improved graphical engine as well as GUI. I just wish it didn't have to run in the very lowest settings on my computer so it doesn't jitter everywhere.

As for the crash, I dunno whether the patch they released fixes it, but there is a patch available from http://www.egosoft.com/ anyway.

Winters_Sorrow

I agree about Barbarian Invasions. I was very disappointed with it. Even the new 'religion' aspect is not as important/invasive as it's made out to be. It's also suppose to have new 'skills' for your generals - again I couldn't see the slightest bit of difference with this. The ability to (occasionally!) fight at night adds an interesting dynamic to the game but I would argue it's more of a gimmick.

I've recently purchased Civ 4 but it's a bit too soon to make any informed comments on it's new features yet.

__________________
"I'm always happy. Which is kind of worrying when you really think about it."

NikG

Thanks Ahd, didn't know about the patch. It's fixed the sector jump crash but it hasn't fixed it bombing out at stations, thankfully that's only annoying as it makes the autosave. I just recently doubled my hardware and X3 still jumps, but it supposedly happens even for top end computers so it's nothing to worry about and the SETA is jumpy because of how it's actually done and nothing to do with the system it's on. One thing that’s annoying me about X3 is all the rearranged station prices, it’s now nearly impossible to get the money to get a station but so far the Khaak haven’t attacked. I remember when playing X2 I was unable to complete the story because the Khaak attacked Argon Prime and destroyed the Argon Prime with my story mission in it, this about 1/2 way through the game so I gave up and just built an empire.

Civ 4 looks good and I think that's its actual selling point. The jump from Civ 2 to Civ 3 wasn't noticed by me until later in the game, I just took it as Civ 2 with better graphics. Hopefully it'll have enough in it to make it refreshing but nothing to experimental to ruin the fun of the game.

All I can say about Barbarian Invasions that signifies how bad it was for me was, I'm so glad I didn't have to waste my money buying it. The religions only served to slow the game down and the new loyalty system is a nice idea but I ended up fighting 4 Rome’s, but then I took up Eastern Rome and it took me almost 10 hours to even get my cities into a place where I could expand because it's so much micro-management when you've got lots of provinces. This would be easier if the computer was actually competent at city building, one of mine insisted on building the finest buildings while it was on the frontier to the roman empire but hadn't built a single military structure, it wouldn't even build walls!

I loved the normal Rome Total War, just hopefully I'll be able to love it again once the torture of BI wares off. Maybe they should lisence copies to the police for interrogations

chump

Age of Empires 3 is a very good game and I have heard that civ 4 is even better but I have yet to play it.

NikG

In AoE 3 have they fixed the appalling problems the demo had, like shooting through the brick walls or the buildings collapsing from someone throwing a flaming stick at them?

I just remember hearing they were using the HAVOK physics engine and thought it'd be amazing like soldiers: heroes of world war 2, but when I played the demo I was appalled. It was like they'd killed all the people who worked on physics and replaced them with monkeys taken from lobotomy experiments. In AoE 2 arrows going over wall made sense, because you fire them up, but if you fire a gun at 45° it's going for miles and to be fair I have no idea how far even a poorly propelled bullet could go at 45°.

If they've fixed the physics I'd buy it, if they haven't then I think I'll wait for it to come up for review, if it does. I'm getting The Movies for review, which is a game I've been looking forward to since it started being advertised. I get it on the 7th and it releases on the 8th, they give us so much time to work

bendoran

Played through a good bit of quake 4 and have to say i was pleasantly surprised. Began with not really liking it, but the game really started growing on me as the team aspect became more prevalent. The scene were you get turned into a strogg is awesome aswell, very gory would recommend this for the casual gamer lookign for some good fps action.

another good first person shooter is f.e.a.r. the game plays well on lower end machines, it is great fun and very tense. The story is lacking, but the whole paranormal thing really works and with the sound up and lights off this game is atmospheric as hell.

on xbox, i played through fahrenheit, also known as the indigo prophecy in america. was alright i suppose. certainly different although it could have been implemeneted better. theres too much of the whole simple simon following instructions on screen and not enough playing, plus its very telegraphed and liner despite its best efforts not to be. the game is fairly risque aswell with a few sex scenes(one interactive too) and full blown nudity. not one for kids then. also a surprising amount of death for this type of game and some strong religous themes. If your looking for a straightforward but different take on gaming i would recommend this, but if you want to really get in and play, look elsewhere.

ones to miss, batman begins, tiger woods 2006, brothers in arms, worms 4.

NikG

Fahrenheit in the US doesn't have the sex scenes, they were taken out as they aren't essential to the plot. I liked the game but I couldn't help but get the feeling that with all the simon says thing going on that it felt strange playing it on the PC, it felt like it should have been on an arcade machine or a handheld.



The thing that got me disinterested in f.e.a.r. was all the screen shots looked beautiful, yet they couldn't get the soldiers to look like they were even carrying the weapon. Half-Life 2 managed to get the combines carrying the weapons like they actually had a weapon, but from what I've seen of f.e.a.r. they hold guns like they're pieces of weightless plastic way out from the body where you'd hold one. Just seems to me all the time they put into the graphics they could have actually spent 5 minutes positioning the guns in their natural places.



I've just received The Movies. The first disk entitled 'All reviews embargoed until 11/8/05', which as first thing you see (besides the tree of paper) makes me a little cautious of what the game's going to be like. Well here goes the next 30 hours of my life, now where the heck is the CD key

Culhwch

Am really looking forward to The Movies, though I think I'll have to upgrade before I can run it. Also waiting for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Gun, but again, not without a new computer....

NikG

The Movies isn't that demanding, only requires:
Pentium(R) III 800 MHz or Athlon(TM) 800MHz processor or higher
256MB RAM
8x Speed CD-ROM drive and latest drivers
2.4 GB of uncompressed free hard disk space
32MB Graphics card

If they've given me the right requirements that is.

Culhwch

Shhh. You'll ruin my excuse to buy a new rig....

NikG

lol sorry. I've just managed to pull myself away from playing it, definitely worth buying a new rig for

I, Brian

Good to see you here, NikG - any more recommendations?

NikG

I only have so little time and so many games to review Of course I'd have more time if I wasn't working voluntarily (free games, who can resist?!). Right now I can only recommend past releases, apparently we have trouble getting the review material early because we're online where as magazines get them a month before publication and that's generally two months in advance. Probably why the code for The Movies was out of date, and thank the lord for malware copy-protection it's beautiful...

As for past releases definitely get the LucasArts 'The Entertainment Pack' if it's still on sale, it includes; Sam & Max hit the road, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle and The Dig. The latter being what I got my first review on, totally a must play game as it's based on a would-be movie by Spielberg and is a damn sight more fun than a movie would be.

Ahdkaw

Yeah, they actually released the patch before the game. Frankly I feel that they released the game far too early, I truly wasn't expecting the release of X3 until late summer 2006, but that may be due to the multi-player X being split off into X-Universe, making it easier for them to finish off X3, but who knows, I'm just grasping at straws here. Either way, it's still far too early by my reckoning and so haven't properly sat down to play it.

I have been told though that the second mission is bugged no matter what you do, and it's advised that you ignore the missions for now, and just build up your credits and stations/etc. (Another good reason to delay release).

Do like the improvements to the interface and environment though, and the almost-drift-forever ship movement is nice, as is the way that the sectors seem to drift.

I really need to start on this game, but on the last attempt I got as far as the sector I had to patrol to (no Khaak presence), and just as someone who looked like Ban Danna appeared on my comms screen, I was interrupted by some damn cop scanning my cargo. After that the mission had gone with no way to trigger it again, so I shutdown in disgust (I have shutdown in disgust with X2 many times previously, but it has that something that makes you come back for more, no matter how punishing it may be).