since everyone's being positive, i feel i should mention this:

most of the cave levels blew. :(


I'm not entirely positive about Ep2. I agree with czg; while it isn't bad, I wasn't blown away by it the way I was by HL2 and Ep1.

What was it though about the cave levels that "blew"?

I thought the actual sculpting was superb, really the first cave map to actually be shaped exactly the way real caves are. I wondered if it had been made as a model in max or maya and then imported, until I played with commentary and discovered it was done with Hammer's 'displacements'. I've heard of this before, but I have no idea how it works.

I also thought the custom shader written specifically to render the look of a flashlight casting long shadows off every little protrusion on the surface was the first use of bump mapping I've seen that added something useful to the experience.

The colors otoh I was less impressed with. The same green and blue the Valve team apparently decided to make the signature palette of Ep2. Kinda bleh, and gray/brown would have been fine

The Larval Essence was also a disappointment. As an item significant for being both:
1) the key to saving Alyx's life
2) the goal of a sizeable chunk of stylised mapping in the episode
it should have had a unique model, placed in the center of a spiral-like cavern path.
Instead, I wanted to ask the Vort why we couldn't have just got some from the identical honeycombs I'd been fighting my way past for the last quarter of a mile.

But I still found the caves a cool place to be, and the combat fortunately wasn't tediously hard, unlike when you are later bludgeoned with the Hunters.

So what blew? 

My parents had a box of old board games from the 60s and 70s. One of them was twixt. Another one was that version of mastermind with the james-bond-themed cover:

http://www.junkyardclubhouse.com/2007/04/08/mastermind/

Here was the twixt cover:

http://members.aol.com/ttonuch/images/twixt.jpg

And of course everyone seemed to have yahtzee back then. 

that mastermind as a travel-version right here, I'm holding it in my hand as I type. Parents have the normal bigger version at home.
Game of the year! 

that version of mastermind with the james-bond-themed cover

Oh dear god >_<

Yes, when you look at this distinguished man sitting at the table, you can now know that his lap is secretly spoiled with cat pee.

The world is now a very slightly, but permanently, better place ^_^ 

I used to have that version of mastermind too! I remember thinking even back then it was a slightly odd cover, and the guy didn't look like a mastermind of anything much, and the girl didn't look much like a bond girl. 

sorry, i should have explained what i meant in the original post.

it's not so much that it blew in the sense that i thought it was not well done. it's just that that set of levels is incredibly visually boring. the part where you have to basically run from one hidey hole to the next before the antlion guard kicks your ass bugged me. 1 because i don't really enjoy gameplay like that when i can't really fight back and 2 because the tunnels all look so damn similar, i was never really sure where to go.

the last part, where you see the antlion standing across a chasm, and then you have to make the longest run to the next hidey hole than any of the other runs, for example.
i didn't actually know where to go, and the first time i took the correct path to go the long way, i thought i had taken a wrong turn (because of the incredible distance vs the other times) and so when the antlion headbutted me, i didn't bother trying to actually get into the hole and just reloaded, instead trying to go the other way which leads back to the beginning.
it took me like 4 reloads before i realised which way to go and it was really annoying.

also: regarding the honeycomb model, i noticed that too! hehe

i think another reason i didn't really like it was because i was really looking forward to seeing more of the city/town stuff and almost from the start you're plunged into (what i found to be) really boring caves.

i would have loved to see more of the topside mine entrance area. instead, i had to run through really quickly because antlions were making eyes at me.
also, the area right after alyx is healed where you fight in the huge canyon, as well as the spot before you heal alyx where you take that long elevator up and watch the vort take on a horde of guys for a little bit.

otoh, i really liked hunter combat! i liked how they were introduced early on at the mine entrance, and then the first combat at the communication building at the top of the hill. really fun and fast paced fighting = win, for me. :)
i also thought the fight in the hotel when the combine traps you was awesome. what with all the dudes outside shooting in, and the hunters breaking through the walls, it was hectic and awesome.

i have yet to replay with commentary on, mainly because i don't really feel like it. maybe when i hear some of the rationale for the choices they made i'll like it more, but i don't think it should be necessary to listen to dev commentary to like a game.

sorry for the disorganization of my thoughts, btw. >_< 

Heh, I have the same version too. Never put the cover in relation to a James Bond theme (though it actually fits well). Never liked the game much either. 

Just finished it. Liked it. 

I never tried a web flash game before. It's pretty addictive.

I've done it a few times and am very slowly picking up some vague ideas how to do it. But I still feel I'm not grasping the game mechanics, more just floundering around and occasionally glimpsing what to do... 

in dark messiah, holy shit is some of the mapping good. Even that gimmick level where you chase the ghoul is excellent. 

First thoughts anyone? 

i shall have to try that one out, thanks for reminding me :)

has anyone played the hellgate demo? i wasn't really impressed by it, any other opinions? it might be one of those games that gets better near the middle and end. 

Crysis Was interesting, it's really pretty similar to Farcry, except you have the suit powers, which makes it a bit more interesting, as you can approach situations differently. I played it on low, so I can't really say it's gorgeous, but even on low it's looks ok-ish. Looking forward to playing the full game with a new 3D card later on...

Hellgate london demo was pretty trash, but being so weak when it comes to these type of games, I still feel tempted to try it some more... =\ 

Anybody already tried this game ?

http://www.direct2drive.com/2/5210/product/Buy-Clive-Barkers-Jericho-Download 

Yeah I tried the demo for a bit, and it made so little sense and ran so poorly I just uninstalled it right away. Maybe I'll give it a fairer try if it gets awesome reviews, but even though the visuals looked fairly good, the gameplay didn't feel like anything so interesting. 

I thought Jericho would have been one of the suprise good games this year, like Undying was.

Spose I'll wait for a metacritic compiled review
score. 

just finished the demo. feels exactly like farcry. sadly, the part after the demo looks cooler than the demo itself. :\

still, the suit powers are cool, but i think they need some balancing or something.

cloak would be a lot cooler if it lasted for more time. i don't think that would be overpowering or anything, since without it, those koreans have much sharper eyes than anyone in farcry did.

speed is probably one of the more useful ones in almost any situation. you could fall back on armor, but i found the improved maneuverability of speed to be more useful than being able to take more hits.

strength... i dunno, i mean, it's effective because i can one-shot npcs with my fists/gunbutt, but i don't really see it as all that useful since melee range is not something you're in most of the time. i suppose you could sprint up with spd and switch to str and pummel someone, but sprinting uses up a lot of energy, so you'd probably only get a single punch anyway. not something you can use for a group of dudes.

once i got the shotgun, i pretty much just stayed on speed mode and ran around blasting everyone. now THIS is how a shotgun should be like. pretty much guaranteed kill at medium to close range which is awesome and very satisfying. add to that, npcs fly backward and into the air just a bit (ok, not totally real, but cool) and it's my favourite weapon in the demo. ^_^

i liked how the binocs worked in farcry but i know it's not the same game. it's just that it's even harder to see these jokers in the bushes now, and the binocs don't identify npcs as well as the farcry version did. also, you have to actually 'mark' hostiles before they show up on the minimap/radar so it kind of goes against the whole idea. maybe i'm just a wuss though. :P 

i did like the way you can pull up the menu to select the suit powers although i would have liked the option to map individual powers to a single key.

the menu for weapon mods is awesome though. i like the ability to change anything on the gun at a moment's notice and the use of the mouse interface means you can't just do it in the middle of combat. it's a good way of making it non-instant without artificially slowing it down (long change animations). 

I use to spend thrilling nights playing Undying. I've always been a big fan of this game for its scare factor and powerful ambiance. So I had big expectations about Jericho. After the demo, my feelings were so-so but anyway I decided to give the full game a chance.

Currently after a whole night of playing through some levels, things come to mind such as: Damn, this game is nothing more than a rehash of D3 (all, I mean ALL levels, even outdoors are sooo dark you have to use the flashlight...) and UT (the look of the characters...). But imo the worse is it doesn't scare at all! Gore and supranatural elements are there but the fact you can't escape from switching between characters all through the game removes yourself from any possible single player immersion. In the end, you don't feel concerned at all for what happens to the crew. This kind of forced schizoid way to progress dissolves it all.

On the design, everything is so mushy-blurry in the background, kinda these Quake 4 outdoors ugly flatty backgrounds, but worse...
Gameplay is heavily scripted, with savepoints, Quick Time events and all that shit.

I'll play some more levels to face a boss, in a desperate search of scary moments of some sort, but I'm already very near to give up.

Gimme back the twisted Covenant family and the howlers. Back when I was playing Undying I had nightmares filled of these monsters. Jericho is definately not this type of game, alas. 

I enjoyed the demo. Graphically, it's pretty underwhelming overall (surprisingly so - I honestly was expecting it to be a bit nicer than that, even though many of the screenshots I've seen looked decidedly average).

Of course, that doesn't really matter too much, as long as the gameplay is solid. This is the new Diablo. Kill 'em and take their stuff. If I hadn't already decided to buy the game, the demo would have been enough to convince me - I played it through 3 times, even though the limited areas and quests in the demo weren't terribly exciting - I just wanted to play more.

What really impressed me about the demo was how comfortable and natural it felt to play. Do you find yourself struggling to understand how to do things, or arseing about with clunky controls/methods in most "modern" (aka shit) games like Oblivion? I know I do. In contrast to that, playing Hellgate for the first time felt more like playing a familiar old game, with intuitive controls and actions. Also, quite notably, the game handles the transition from first person to third person seamlessly and naturally, and it feels equally comfortable to play in either mode.

This is a game you're either going to enjoy and play for a long time, or skip entirely. If you played Diablo II to death and often lament the fact that nobody has even come out with a respectable clone in the 8 or so years since the release of that game*, then you probably need this. If not, look elsewhere.

* close-but-no-cigar award goes to Titan Quest. They tried, but they obviously missed the point - or at least they couldn't quite nail the fun factor and addictive nature of the Diablo II gameplay. 

Shit me there's quite a few around at the moment isn't there.

Very useful comments on this thread. Jericho had caught my eye (not least because of how class Undying was). Hellgate too, I've been following.

Guess I need to download some demos. And start playing again... 

Actually, I kinda disagree, it was easy enough to play yeah, I mean, it's hack&slash, so that's normal, but the user interface didn't feel half as good as what I was hoping for. Really, it's barely better than Diablo2's UI, and Titan Quest still kicks the shit out of it any day. It just felt so wrong not having any indication of your damage per second, damage per hit, and hit rate, and sometimes it felt really clunky having to unequip items to put them in the nano constructor thing, etc...

But unfortunatly I'm quite afraid I'm still one of your kind, and will end up buying it cause I require to kill monsters and pick up their loot... =(

On a side note, I thought Titan Quest was Diablo2 made perfect, and the visuals were really perfect in my opinion. 

so yeah its pretty cool overall, I much preferred the levels with outdoor areas in it though or at least some huge inside areas because they were very impressive.

Game on the whole is pretty good, although the RPG element is very half baked. I mean half the time I didnt even know how much armor I had or how much damage I could do so all those different weapons etc didnt really do a whole ot. Basically, like Rune, pick the biggest weapon or one that has the most requirements and off you go.

Movement was also shitty, but the combat options were quite nice and varied. I also liked the non-linarity present in parts, although wish more levels had it.

so yeah, another worthwhile addition to the fantasy genre. 

I really need to get both Titan Quest and Hellgate, I'm just like you people, I can't escape the Diablo II urge to kill monsters for loot. So damn satisfying. 

I would just like to say that that is one hell of a game. I was near the end (I think) at the part where you are fighting the flood in a massive catacombe style level, and it is one of the best environments to have ever graced a computer game of any kind!!