I heard most of the recent Nvidia cars 8x, and 9x mostly, have had lots of problems with faulty components... =\ 

Not quite sure what to think of it so far. On one hand, there's great visuals, lots of small improvements and upgrades, and the game is far less buggy than it's predecessor. On the other, the flavour and charm of SoC seems to have largely been lost.

Clear Sky is not as fun as SoC. Combat is more annoying, weapons less effective, many of the voice overs are completely inappropriate, there's increased pressure on resources, and getting hold of artifacts is an exercise in waiting for the last quicksave to load. If that wasn't enough, the brilliantly creepy underground levels that were my favourite part of SoC are gone.

The only truly remarkable part of Clear Sky so far has been the trip through Red Forest. I turned up at night, low on medkits and antirad, and stumbling alone and terrified through that pitch black radioactive forest was some of the most enjoyably tense gaming I've ever done. And then just as I left the treeline, dawn was breaking.

That was pretty cool. I'm going to reserve judgement until I've played more. 

On the other, the flavour and charm of SoC seems to have largely been lost.

100% agree, and it is a shame. It is still a very atmospheric game but the atmosphere certainly isn't as deep and brooding as SoC.

the brilliantly creepy underground levels that were my favourite part of SoC are gone.

Yes this is a real shame, as they were my favourite areas also. Clear sky doe's add a couple of new indoor/underground areas but nothing approaching SoC.

One of the other major annoyances I have with Clear Sky is that every single enemy is shown on your map, so you know exactly where they all are at all times, I mean wtf was GSC Gameworld thinking? It really doe's totally remove the suspense of mutant attacks as you know they are in the area way before you even get near it.

I'll bet there is a mod that removes this "feature" already, I must go and look for it.

The random attacks / encounters involving other npc's seem to happen much less in CS also, almost to the point where they never happen at all. in SoC I loved being able to load in a new area and not being totally sure what I was going to find, even though I had been through it 40 times before. In CS there seems to be nothing happening at all in 99% of the areas, occasionally a bandit raid will attack a group of stalkers or a herd of mutants will get too close to an outpost and cause a shootout, but these are exceptions rather than the norm...

I'm sure there will be mods to breathe some life back into areas too, its just a shame that mods are needed at all for these kind of things.

Still loving the game though :D 

Very much looking forward to what modders do with the material in Clear Sky.

Unfortunately the game is now crashing upon entry to the Warehouses. I might have to play through from an earlier save. :( 

The ending fucking sucked. As did the last few levels.

Meh. 

How fucking ridiculously hard are the Sacred Grounds? :D
That was really not worth the xth playthrough I think. 

So I reached a point where I've done quite a few missions, but I can never complete any of them cause no NPC seems to accept the fact that I have whatever bloody PDA they want in my inventory, so I stopped playing.

Fuck you stalker. =( 

Stalker is short for Shit Talker. Cuz apparently every one who plays it talks shit about it afterwards. 

That's what makes Clear Sky so disappointing. It's not just a crap game, it's a wasted opportunity to improve on the flawed gem that was SoC. 

I lost interest after reaching the Cordon. Maybe I'll give it another try when the next patch comes out (tomorrow?).

One should think GSC have learned their lesson, but as it turns out they even put some icing on everything that's wrong with the industry these days. 

it seems that this is a game that's worth playing, but patience while they patch up stuff would probably be worth it. 

Medal Of Honor, and in fact the entire realistic war-setting FPS sub-genre, flew under the radar for me. I like pure action, fantasy, medieval. Having to use realistic strategy and tactics in order to avoid the one or two hits it takes to put you down is not what I'm used to. Until MOD:AA, I'd never actually played a game from this genre. But having played through it, it's in fact very similar to the Soldier Of Fortune and NOLF series'. And in those games I actually enjoyed sneaking around corners and trying to make every press of the trigger a headshot. This is the same, only even more emphasised.

You can take a number of hits before hitting dirt, but there is more reloading in this game than any I've ever played. At times this can be slightly annoying, especially in the sniper town where you'll have to reload many times over before you figure out where the next sniper is hiding. Nonetheless, this was my personal favourite part of the game. The comparison to Saving Private Ryan was obvious; and a smart move as it made it even more realistic actually pitting yourself in a destroyed town with snipers everywhere, pretending your actually in Saving Private Ryan.

The other highlight was, of course, Omaha Beach, again from Saving Private Ryan. It was a very difficult level to begin with. I ended up getting through with 4% health left, even with many, many reloads. But while it was a highlight, it could have been much more on a grand scale - the feature of the game. I'd love to see the battle remade in a newer engine.

The gameplay was surprisingly enjoyable and well-paced throughout the game. But while it was very fun, MOD:AA does have some drawbacks. Firstly, it's far too short. The ending was very abrupt, with no big battle at all. The entire game I completed in just two days, 3-4 sittings. Other games would only be reaching the halfway point by this stage. Fortunately, there are two mission packs available for extra playtime.

The other disappointment for me was the design. While this is a 2002 game, getting on six years old now, the Quake3/IDTech3 engine is capable of better. Games that come to mind: RTCW, American McGee's Alice, FAKK2; all of which were released well before MOH:AA. However, it was probably slightly better than Soldier Of Fortune II, which used the same engine and was released only months later.

Having said that, some of the design was great for 2002 - the war-battered sniper-town, the dark snowy forests, small villages set among countryside. But there were other levels looking very flat and plain such as the submarine and Omaha Beach itself.

Overall though, the design was good enough and even for a short game, MOD:AA was a load of fun. Probably not quite as fun as Soldier Of Fortune 2, but I'll be sure to play the two mission packs and look forward to the two PC sequels released since MOH:AA. 

i worked on Breakthrough, let me know what you think. 

oh sweet, what did u do on it?

i'll probably review both the mission packs next :) 

i'll tell you after the reviews :P 

I could never get that to run on my old gfx card, should try it now. 

Add more turret combats? 

The first mission pack for MOH:AA, did not really live up to the original game, but only due to many small problems. It really needed more polishing and playtesting.

Spearhead is made up of three missions, each containing roughly five levels each. The first mission takes place around the French countryside of Normandy. The visuals were good, living up to the original game, as was the gameplay. I will say the video intro is quite possibly the best intro to a video game I've seen. It begins with you parachuting out of a plane, flying through the air with carnage all around you, and eventually crash landing through a barn. Very intense.

For me, mission two was where the problems begun. Mission two took place in a nice snowy atmosphere, but it's the gameplay that ruined it. I eventually got up to tank, and having not received my stickybombs yet, could not proceed any further and had to start the level again. It was not clear at all the steps required during this level, as you need to blow up various equipment.

The third mission took place in Berlin and was really quite bland and ugly. The level design was flat, very open and the destroyed buildings were just a little too destroyed. Eventually I got to a point where I had four tanks to take on with a single rocket turret. Completely impossible, and I was forced to put god mode on. I'd already also left another two tanks behind. I'm guessing at some point I was supposed to have received sticky bombs, but that was not the case. Eventually I then get my own tank so here begins a long tank level, the finale. The tank level in MOH:AA was my least favourite, so having to play through more of this in what is already a short mission pack was not a good way to end it.

Add to this short playtime (only a few hours) the endless clipping problems as you get stuck on all sorts of small trees and even changes in terrain level. In the last mission I was able to use tiny pieces of barbed wire to my advantage, blocking tank rockets.

Apart from the final mission, the level design only barely lives up to the original MOH:AA, but gameplay needed much more playtesting and it was far too short to cough up money for. 

http://www.rocksolidarcade.com/games/dogfight2/

Too bad it's so fucking difficult and you have limited lives :( 

The second mission pack for MOH:AA, titled Breakthrough is exactly that; a breakthrough. But while it's much improved on the previous mission pack, titled Spearhead, yet it was the very brief and unpolished Spearhead that was more popular and received the favourable reviews.

Of course Breakthrough still had it's own set of flaws, different from the original game and Spearhead again. But it was the professionalism of the level design that saved Breakthrough - it looked much better than it's predecessors. Same engine, same graphics, but better build quality and a much more intense atmosphere. It kicks off intense right from the beginning in the Battle Of Kasserine Pass - a pass which is so thick with fog you can barely see in front of you. Very atmospheric and intense. This continues throughout right until the finale in an Italian castle. There are no levels here that really stand out as being sub-par, unlike the original game.

That covers the positive, so what of the flaws? This time, it's fairly big one - lack of ammo. While I never completely ran out of ammo, throughout the game it was really touch and go. I was forced to make every single hit count. Even then you may be reduced to the pistol in a couple of levels. Mission two, which takes place in a canal, is the worst for this. All I had left were about 30 shotgun shells, but a shotgun is hopeless when your enemy is 100 metres away sitting in a machine gun turret. So while I never truely ran out, it did force me to play much more conservatively, which had a slight impact on the enjoyment levels.

The other problem I found was the amount of times your put in a gun turret, the back of a vehicle or a tank having to hold off enemies. The problem is your nothing but a sitting duck which a huge gun. While this was fun for a while, it occurs a little too often in Breakthrough. The worst of it being in control of two rather awkward and frustrating mortars as several tanks appear over the horizon. I prefer solid run-and-gun gameplay, with only the very odd gimmick.

Breakthrough is overall a much longer experience than Spearhead and with the subtly improved level design, fans of MOH:AA really should not skip on Breakthrough. Just make sure your hits count, because the level of difficulty is slightly harder this time. 

and you better be ready 

Just a shame the concept is as old as the hills.

http://fantasticcontraption.com/ 

they may as well not bother, the greatest game ever made has already been made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLuYpxbP2EY 

 

What are the best Quake 4 sp mods ?