That's how it works most of the time. Remember Quake? ;)
If there is enough of a chance to find out the way to proceed in an entertaining way I'd say all is well even if the player dies several times (if there is a quicksave function!). 

some you can kill with weapons, others you have to work out some trick. but there's never any indication as to which ones are killable because you can nver see them get hurt. 

Never any indication? Fire a few shots, see if the giant health bar for them at the top of your screen goes down... If not, obviously you need to do something different. The first boss is just a straight shooter, the second one takes a trick but its extremely obvious, the third is obvious in how he regenerates... the fourth? Well I wouldn't know, the game locked me out for some reason and though I liked it, I don't feel like replaying the first 3 episodes once again because of its insistence of a bad savegame. 

That the hammer boss was just plain stupid. Kill the stick its waving around before you can kill it. Dumb.

In the expansion it got really convoluted; the orphanage miniboss was unkillable until you realised you had to burn the sarchophagus. But not just an accidental blast - I'm still not sure if it was up to a certain amount or on all four sides.

Lucifer was crappy as well - I reckon everyone checked a readme there.

The bosses were inventive but a long way from intuitive.

scar3crow - the corrupt savegame thing hit everyone a few times - lots of bugs in the card system as well, although they could be used to your advantage. 

hmm, I never got a health bar. I just thought it was a 'feature' rather than a bug.

And talking about bugs, I lost count of the number of times the game crashed during the swamp boss level for me. Got through and havent had other problems yet. 

Keep extra saved games in the open slots. 

Rock. Thats pretty much it. 

With nitin and ijed, of course. 

mixed feelings overall. Some of the levels were great and so were some of the design concepts (hell was a very good idea, the frozen nuclear stuff was brilliant), but overall I didnt really warm to it.

I know a lot of people liekd the tarot card and soul stuff but I didnt really care for it. And while the base monster designs were good, some variations on it apart from a different skin/model for different sections would have been welcome.

Also like frib said, too many levels felt cluttered and put together by artists rather than proper mappers.

As for the gameplay, I have nothing against horde combat, nor arena combat, but this was way too 2D for most the time. At least serious sam had a 3d element to most its arena combats (although the base weapon/monster design is better in this).

Still, going to play the expansion now.

Oh, one more thing, when you have such a D grade 'story', please dont have 5 minc cutscenes FFS. 

Is better in some ways, much worse in many others; it breaks alot of golden rules of design, like making the player rely on trick jumping in one section of the colliseum (bunnyhopping).

The soul cards thing could have been alot better; it was a bit too rigid to be useful; I'dve preferred some more complexity there since you just end up finding a good card set and sticking to it.

It was a nice evolution over the standard powerup system, linked over levels and tied into the secrets, but it just didn't go far enough.

The game is very flat and I agree with the put together by artists thing - its becoming a very common industry standard now.

Seems like the team had some very good artists and programmers, but a lack of designers.

Id've preferred if the episodes were thematically linked as well, sometimes there were style changes that made the whole thing even more incoherant. 

I have no idea if this has been previously mentioned, but Left 4 Dead is clearly the best game that hasn't been released to be coming out ever.

Created by Turtle Rock and Valve it's a horror/survival FPS where you work within a team to get from point A to point B while avoiding hordes of zombies in a cityscape environment.

"Super Zombies" with different, special powers are controlled by other players and they also work hard to get you maimed by the relentless hordes of undead.

Perhaps the best feature is the use of what seems to be called "The Director". It changes the flow of every level, so you never quite know what to expect. One time you play the game and you may walk down a passage, open a door and enter an empty room. In the next game you play on that level you may go down that passage only to find it burst open before you reach it while you shoot wildly at the sudden zombie rush.

Either way I am a total fan of zombies, teamwork, first person shooters, survival and horror stories so this game represents - to me - the absolute peak of gaming.

If only those bastards would release it...

More info @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_4_Dead


I haven't been so excited about a release since Diablo 2. I remember the countdown to that game... agonizing! 

ijed's right, amplifies both the good and bad parts.

Some of the levels are stunning, the dead city, colosseum, stony pit and leningrad. others not so good, although the first one is nicely demented and disturbing.

Worth a play though if you dont get bored of the main game. 

I found this on another site but couldn't find the source:

2K games PR representative for the the eagerly awaited title "Bioshock", Susan Keele revealed this to GameSpot eariler today;

"It's safe to say we are around 50 steps ahead of those looking to play Bioshock on their own systems without purchasing the game. Active internet connections and retail discs are mandatory for Bioshock to run on an individual's system. On disc insertion for the first time, the user will be prompted to connect to the Internet if not already connected. Several updates will be installed during the game installation and once the game is installed, digital IDs of the user's hardware such as RAM, CD drives and processors (in no particular order, and not necessarily all three hardware types) will be tied to a game-specific sector in the operating system. This sector is completely invisible to users and cannot be found, nor duplicated in any way what so ever.

On attempting to run the game, another game-specific sector available only on retail discs of the game will look to locate the digital IDs stored securely on the system - this will be digitally checked and signed by 2K again and is the only way to launch the game. The game-disc sector is just as secure as it's counterpart on the operating system, and cannot be copied in any way shape or form, as we have introduced a"security scramble" code system should any attempted copying of game discs take place. Durng gameplay, updates will relay from our servers to the individual and hardware digital ID verification locks will be checked, and changed, then digitally signed by 2K again, with this check and change occuring frequently.

We been working closely with IBM since August of last year, and Microsoft even further back to develop these new security measures. We are sending a message to stomp out piracy and we hear those who say our protection program will have been a wasted invesment but we will continuously strive to protect the interlectual property created by ourselves and our partners in any way deemed appropriate. I can also confirm any Games for Windows released after Bioshock will employ the same security measures.

In essence; no official disc, no play. We wish you all a happy, pleasant and exiciting gaming experience." 

Sounds like thier stalinist "interlectual" protection systems will at the very least cause problems for anyone doing so much as wanting to upgrade thier RAM.

I want to buy and play Bioshock, but I have a below par connection with scant chance of being able to upgrade it. I had alot of trouble connecting to Steam and eventually gave HL2 away as a gift (after completion) because staring at multiple connection failed screens over anything from five to fifty minutes was shit, no matter how good the game itself was. I do know there's a hacky method to enable offline play by default for that - but why should I have to bother? I bought a product to enjoy it, not be beaten with a 'YOU ARE AN IDIOT CONSUMER' stick.

Cheers 2K! 

YOU ARE AN IDIOT / POTENTIAL THIEF

It's great how they're really respecting thier ligitimate customers. 

will be cracked anyway

also

In essence: no broadband = no play
hardware change = no play (have to reinstall ?) 

it'll be cracked in a week, and then everyone buying it legitimately will have to put up with BS while those who download it will probably have an easier time.

gg. 

and bite them on the ass.

. . . will be tied to a game-specific sector in the operating system. This sector is completely invisible to users and cannot be found, nor duplicated in any way what so ever.

Hackers are licking their chops and grinning back at these muttonheads. 

so in addition to getting a no-cd crack, i need to get a no-internet crack? 

I was defo going to buy this, but as they seemingly trust me so little, I might just pirate it... 

as a complete lie.

http://shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=14867617#itemanchor_14867617

Jason Bergman of 2kGames says it is "definitely not true" 

Now all I have to worry about is buying a PC that can run more than Quake I . . . 

Hi guys,

This is all completely untrue. There is no Susan Keele who works for 2K Games. I don't know where the source is for this (it references GameSpot, but I can't find that) but it's inaccurate.

Thanks,
Jason Bergman (2K) 

looks like Bergman is all over that post trying to stomp out the fire. I hope he is the one for real and the story isn't. It does have a button pushing feel to it though many high ranking execs from Ballmer, Jobs, Newell to Steinbrenner have said things that pushed my button the wrong way that were equally as inane as what the purported PR lady in this article said.