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!! 

Judging from the demo it feels like an okay game, but nothing more. Seems like standard (Farcry) gameplay for the most part. The suit powers are quite interesting though. Graphics (I only played on medium detail) look ok but definitely not outstanding. Actually, it reminded me of Gothic3 - potentially great, but way too bright, too much gloss, and meh.
I don't think I'm going to get the game in the nearer future. 

so apparently gears of war is being released on the PC in a week or so.

i only found out yesterday browsing through gamespot.

i've seen screenshots of the xbox version and it looks great. since i never play console games, it was a pleasant surprise. :) 

Crysis Demo: Looks laavely, although the AI is rubbish by today's standards. Check out the editor - it's very nice, especially with its graphical state-machine-like interface to the triggering system.

Halo3 - as a vehicle-based open battle game it's brilliant. As an indoor FPS it's very mediocre. I didn't try the multiplayer.

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!!

I hope you don't mean that fleshy pink cave network near the end, because I thought that was about the worst level design in the game :p 

I got lost in there. Me and my friend were playing on split-screen co-op. We blasted our way through so far, and then we seemed to be running around in circles, unable to progress any further. But eventually, thinking outside of the box a bit we realised the only way of getting out was to climb upwards, by doing a bit of jumping and traversing. Genius! Probably the most interesting part of the game! Plus I wouldnt fancy trying to do a Quake re-make of that level. Halo3 weapons are just like other Halo series weapons. One of the guns used by the aliens is a sorty of long-range artillery style one-shot thingy, which I though was rubbish cause of the re-load times on it. But in that cave it was very usefull for picking those fucking spider things off of the walls.

I dont think Halo3 has moved on much from Halo2 as far as gameplay goes, but the graphics and level design are better. The gameplay and co-op modes are (always have been) very good fun!


On another Point

*||New Soldier of Fortune!!!||* :)

Really looking forwards to this! I love Gore in video games. Doom3 was a dissappointment (for me, anyway) in this department. S.O.F. 1 was the only game to have really got it right!

I just hope the new game has good gameplay. I watched some videos on IGN, and it looked OK but the player needed to be moving a bit faster. But REAL LOCALISED DAMAGE!!! Hehehe!!! 

Is fighting the flood still a mindblowing tedious chore as it was the first time?

I automatically hate anything solder of fortune since paying SOF license money is utterly depressing. 

I'll take the silly gibs in TF2 over any kind of sick SOF type gore any day thankyouverymuch. 

I never played the console version but I am looking forward to playing it on the PC. It is the only game in recent history that reminds me of Quake -- dark atmosphere, monotone textures, marines vs. monsters -- and that includes the later Quakes and Doom 3 ;) 

I hate you all. I hate the world. I hate you. 

I thought it was good. The combat system is pretty original. The graphics were sweet, some good level design. It was a bit short though. Plus the cut-scenes were dumb. Also over here the christmas commercial for Gears of War had that bloody depressing Tears for Fears cover on it. I didnt get that at all!! Also, if any of you guys thought 'The Sickbase' was too hard, there are some very hard bits in Gears. (I admit the Sickbase was too hard, badly balanced gameplay BTW:(

Luckily loading times are quite short (on a 360) 

Gears of War had that bloody depressing Tears for Fears cover on it.

The HaloIII commercial had a freeze flash battle scene with Chopin's Raindrop Prelude playing in the foreground (sounded like it was coming from behind me on my surround sound television setup, gave a real tingly feeling up my headshaft). Kind of an interesting approach, but I need some hurtful (heh, see what I did there) metal for my FPS carnage. 

You invented yet another metal subgenre, adding to thousands. 

but I was going for this:

http://www.amazon.ca/Hurting-Tears-Fears/dp/customer-reviews/B00000K413 

only done 3 levels so far.

it's fun, but more of the same. i really am starting to hate the way they keep locking you in and spawning in monsters. there's very little variety for the horde combat this time, and the second level is very cramped and not very fun.

also, visually, i find the levels not as interesting as the original.

i'm hoping there will be some hidden jewels later on for maps though. like the mine shaft from the exp or like the island with the cathedral in the original.

to me, painkiller has always been about generally fun gameplay taking place inside amazingly beautiful maps. this new exp started out as a fan project, and i think they somehow forgot about that. at least so far. :x 

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/35419 

I liked the original as well, but the first expansion got lost somewhere, most of the guys here turn out better design consistently.

Forcing the player to rely on trick maneuvers like bunny hopping is a criminal, newbie mistake.

Sounds like this new expansion is repeating old errors - a shame. 

Somebody tried it? The time-suit generates great variations (slowmo, stop and reverse) on a known gameplay... At first, you have to get used to the kinda clumsy aliased visuals but once you're in, the well made lighting and design and colorful, quite cartoony textures add some olkskool fun to the experience. AI is correct, weapons are powerful. I'm not ashamed to say I really LIKE this game!

If you had fun with F.E.A.R. or HL2 (urban levels) and Painkiller type weapon effects, just grab the 1Gig demo (one full SP level) and see for yourself...

http://demo.timeshiftgame.com/

Settings and menus are plain and efficient. In the 'video' section, I found 'hardware quality' settings on 'good' might really boost fps without ruining the visuals too much. DoF might be turned off with no regrets too. And hey! There's a built-in FoV cursor in the 'game' settings!

Unlike Crysis or Jericho, this game runs fast and smooth in 1920x1200 here. Pent D 3.2 - XP SP2 DX9c - SLI GeForce 7900GTX (Forceware 169.04 beta required, but working well)

http://www.timeshiftgame.com 

Not convinced yet but will check it out.

I need more demos and stuff to try. Someone give me some links. 

Flash puzzle/platformer:

http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/tallstump/play.php