is the fact that I have this game that has been released in a state where it is in-completable. I read one review today which said that it was almost reviewed without even being completed.

I mean the game has a story. I would quite like to see how it pans out! And it's not because my machine isn't up to scratch!

I really feel ripped off. It's like buying a car only to find that that you can't drive it.

Where do I go to demand my money back? 

Doom3 crashes my PC for some reason and I haven't bothered to fix it yet - got sucked back into DOW.

So I can't play through Doom3 again, irritating. 

Played some more (25-30%).
The engine is kind of nice. It's a vast open world with fast loading times and no perceivanble in-between loading (except when fast-travelling). Details and theme are generally good, but it also looks very samey in many places. Buildings and areas of special interest often feel too artificially cluttered, messy and worn-down.
I wonder what Stalker could've been like with this engine, though I guess its large industrial ruins crammed with details would have had to be drastically simplified.
A cool feature is the spreading of fire from explosions and molotov cocktails to grass and trees which sometimes burns semi-large areas. The water doesn't look so good. There isn't even splashing or ripple when walking/driving through and when bullets hit the surface.

What really sucks is the fact that the player can't jump over many obstacles that don't look insurmountable. This is particularly annoying if one has to walk around rock formations or along riverbanks for some time only because so much stuff is unclimbable (even if there's no risk of getting stuck or whatever).
I like that there's no crosshair (optional - disabled by default) and no permanent HUD.

The game's main problem, however, is that it becomes somewhat boring quickly, because the missions are repetitive and there's not much going on in terms of main story yet. Maybe it picks up later on, but so far I don't find it overly immersive. Could also be a bit related to obvious elements of consolization.
Also, perhaps I missed something, but what exactly does this game have to do with Far Cry? I mean, it would be cool if suddenly monsters dropped in for an "ah, right" reaction, but I doubt this is going to happen. Wouldn't be so bad really, it might spice the combats up, as enemy (and buddy) AI is average at best. More often than not, enemies just stand there waiting for me to pick them off, or they crash their cars back and forth into every wall or object available. Though it can also make for some laughs: one of my buddies once ran up a cliff, telling me to follow her or something and then suddenly jumped down and died. Maybe it was a hint at things to come? 

Yeah, I agree with most of what negke just said.

Guess it's a bit similar to Assassin's Creed in that aspect, there seems to be alot going for it when you first start off, but you quickly realise that it doesn't have much depth. It really lacks mission diversity.

A few other complaints I have with it are:
The headbob when you run is just horrible, makes my head hurt when I run too much.
The way they integrated the map is interesting, as the player actually takes it out like a weapon, but when you're looking for something (like diamonds) it's always in your face and really annoying, I'd much rather have a minimap.
The dissapearing HUD is ok, but not for me, I'd rather have that info visible at all time + a minimap.

All in all it's not a bad game, plenty of fun to be had, but it gets boring long before you reach the end. As the comparison is inevitable, I think it's a better game than Crysis / Crysis Warhead, even though the engine isn't as pretty. 

I like the headbobbing and blurring. Somehow feels more realistic (dunno if it is).

The animations are nice too, e.g. unjamming a gun, getting into vehicles, map view inside the cars.. Nothing special really, but for some reason I always tend to compare such things to HL2's telekinesis thing.
Agree about the map taking up too much of the view - it should be lowered to the bottom of the screen when moving. 

With:

"Oblivion: Lost 2.2"
and
"Worldwide patch 1.0005"

It Works!!! No CTD yet, my gun shoots straight, people die when you shoot them.
Also the main improvement is the mutant presence. Makes the game feel more exciting and unpredictable, some of the mutants are fucking scary!

I just hope they hurry up and do the same thing for Clear Sky. It is pathetic that it takes community members a couple of years to finish a game which should have been finished in the first place.

Far Cry 2 - saw it for �25 in Morrisons supermarket. Probably decide I can afford it on Thursday.... 

Yeah, the animations are great, Ubisoft have some really talented animators (this is also vissible in the Prince of Persia games and Assassin's Creed).
I pick up used guns just to watch the unjamming animation. 

So far negke is pretty correct. I, however, really like the engine. I think the world is one of the most beautiful I've seen. I often find myself not paying attention and just looking at the world and end up getting shot or driving off road.

Other than that, the missions are just "go here, kill people" so far, but the firefights are usually really intense. My experience is different from negke's, where enemies have flanked me to smoke me out, and have tried to drag wounded soldiers back out of the firefight. Maybe there's a difference in AI when playing on different skill settings?

So far I've had a bunch of "whoa" moments where something unexpected happened.

Last night while trying to destroy a convoy AK47s I blew up the truck with a grenade, first by stopping the convoy which were all gathered together on the side of the road. After killing the soldiers, I threw a grenade under the truck. I thought I was far enough away but because all the trucks were so close together the explosion was huge and sent one of the trucks way into the air, crashing down on my head.

I was pissed. :( 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/271-S-T-A-L-K-E-R-Clear-Sky

I actually think this guy has played it too, y'know... 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/24-Call-of-Duty-4 

I saw it in a shop and everything. Wanna buy it. So far I've resisted the temptation. Im re-playing SoC ATM, so I'll wait. To many good games = no time for mapping. (Which is still trickling along BTW) 

from a lot of different places. Though to be honest most of the people complaining were die-hard fallout - fallout 2 fans.

Im firmly on the fence on this one, if they release a demo (which I think they are not) then I will give it a go. 

But it's getting 'universal acclaim' over on metacritic. Most of those scoring lower saying they wanted to play another game, the typical whiney bullshit

<rant>
It's your fucking job to play games, deal with it. If you don't want to play a tennis game tough shit, you're getting paid to do it, don't write a bad review because you want to play a footbal game.
</rant>

And it sounds alot better than the usual tripe.

But $50 in these hard times . . . 

i would agree that 99% of the negativity towards Fallout 3 seems to be coming from Fallout1/2 fanboy faggots, bitter that Bethesda have stamped their trademark approach on it. That said, I wish Bethesda would just cough up and hire some fuckers who can animate worth a damn. 

"I wish Bethesda would just cough up and hire some fuckers who can animate worth a damn"

Yeah, they really do not seem to have improved the animations at all from the standard they had in Oblivion, which to be fair was wooden at best.

I also heard (dont know if its true) that Fallout 3 has a "point of no return" similar to the Stalker games, so if you are buying FA3 for the sandbox game, be wary of that and do some research to avoid disappointment.

Now then, Dead Space pc controls are fucked up I hear, far cry 2 looks pretty but is dull in the gameplay department, is the only thing to look forward to this Christmas Left 4 Dead? 

I wish Bethesda would just cough up and hire some fuckers who can animate worth a damn

man, i was really hoping it wouldn't be another repeat of this. oblivion animations sucked. morrowind animations sucked. you think these guys would learn-- or are they somehow not aware that their animators are shit? 

...to the anims, but I played for a while last night and am thoroughly enjoying it so far (just exited the vault-slash-training area).

I'm biased though; I've never played a Bethsoft RPG I haven't enjoyed--I even got a kick out of the horribly broken auto-generated dungeons in Daggerfall. :)

They've reportedly fixed one of the biggest shit parts of Oblivion, which was the auto-leveling enemies. The VATS turn-based combat option is interesting...

I suspect I'll sink a silly number of hours into this. 

it's probably the best post-ap game for a while, so i'll probably end up playing it anyway. 

 

The main story line anyway. At some point I stopped caring for any side missions and just tried to get through as quickly as possible. I found the game pretty boring to be honest. It's fun for the first few hours, but then it's basically just more of the same, with no variation and highlights. Just drive around and kill someone or destroy something on the other side of the map, then return and do pretty much the same mission for the rival faction. At least there were some nice-looking spots (e.g. that village)
I couldn't care less for the story - it felt shallow and tacked-on. None of the player's actions seem to have any impact.
A pity, as the game has some potential which isn't properly made use of. Or maybe I expected too much.

I found Uzi/silenced MP5+sniper riffle+heavy machinegun to be a good weapon combo, btw.
Also, the only game I played with subtitles on. :P 

The intro is delicious!
http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=55686 

that looks fantastic 

Yeah, I'm kind of the same way. I just got done with the 2nd barge mission, kind of struggling to continue on. It was really cool at first, but somehow turned into Assassin's Creed: Africa more or less.

Also, hate how you can't stop certain things from happening, even though your reputation with those people is super high. 

L4D! 

It was pretty damn good. I was unimpressed with the storyline and some of the poorly conceived set pieces, but the meat of the game is a fine, atmospheric shooter set in some of the best tech-themed environments I've seen.

Combat is tense, careful, and somewhat idiosyncratic. Instead of sprinting around blasting stuff, you stand your ground and place planes on damage into the enemy as they charge you. It works well, and the rather gory results are very satisfying.

There are mouse control issues, silly bits and endless shameless wallowing in cliche, but I enjoyed the heck out of this game.