Don't play long games that are a drag, play long games that are fun. 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1096-Dragon-Age-Origins 

to put off getting dragon age, i started playing quake4 again.

i like it a lot more now than when i played it the first time, for some reason.

the whole first segment (from the start up to when the mcc lands) is great. gameplay is fluid and continuous. radio chatter really conveys the sense that the war is more than just you. my favourite parts are when you're backtracking through an area but from a different path (you're on these catwalk things) and then some new guys are charging in through the original path through the area and they get ambushed by strogg, but the strogg don't see you.
it was really satisfying to blow them away and feel like you're helping someone else out even though they're just npcs. 

if anyone's interested, apparently, they released some of the music in the game: http://machinarium.net/blog/data/bonus_ep/machinarium_soundtrack_bonus_ep.zip 

Thanks for the link! 

Apparently you can get the .mp3s out of the game files anyway, all those .001 and .000 etc files are just .zips iirc. There's a post about it somewhere on the steam forums... 

http://www.mangledeye.com/ 

I shall "take one for the team". There's no pretending it's going to be anything other tha dreadful, is there?? 

There's no pretending it's going to be anything other tha dreadful, is there??

...I woefully overestimated that, then.

It is beyond dreadful. A proper low-quality Q3A mod, real Cranky Steve territory. Not even worth reading these last 3 posts about it let alone considering following links to the game. 

 

Seems a shame, since there's obviously alot of work gone into it.

http://www.darksalvation.com/screenshots.html 

We flamed those screenshots earlier (or maybe in #tf), still I gotta play it some time. 

Mostly bad VFX and neon complaints. 

Saying we flamed it isn't really going to help is it? ;p

(But yeh, we ripped those shots on here a while back. Can't see it playing any better...) 

http://celephais.net/board/view_thread.php?id=23795&start=2784 

The word shitty came up three times then. 

i meant non staged/promo pics, of course. to see all the badness. 

how far did you get shambler? i got to the first crystal, and then what? there's nowhere to go, am i missing something? haha lame so far. the intro was fkn shit, wtf was happening? and no save in the demo - not impressed. pretty cool textures and style though so i'm willing to give the full game a try if i can pirate a copy of it :D 

You press the button down below by the grate, this opens the door above. You then go into a lurid red box room with some lava and moving platforms. Lose some health to the lava because it's indistinguishable from the floor, then jump down onto a rock below with some health on it. Realise there's no way to get back up to the moving platforms, quit, and uninstall in disgust. 

Walkthrough. 

I think they pirated some textures too, someone said that. The voices are awful, lame Prey (etc) ripoff. Is it normal that I see no viewmodels? I use Wine... 

I think they pirated some textures too, someone said that

i'm reminded of that limbo of the lost game... was it ever explained how on earth so many assets from other (very popular) games made it in there? it just seems unfathomable that no one noticed. 

Okay finally had some time to play a few games recently, for the first time since February. I gave Machinarium a shot. I got stuck about 1/3 in, trying to use the oil thingy to get the dogs attention so I could catch him. Looked cool, but the puzzles are too hard for a dumass like me.

Dark Salvation demo. Gave up after the second room, the red one where you have to jump across the moving platforms, hit a button to open the door, then run back before the door closes. Does it get any more 90s than this? Pretty lame for a demo, which should feature some of the best parts of the game if you want people to buy it. Instead they have moving platform puzzles with no monsters. wtf.

And I played COD and COD:UO. Reviews below... 

Released 1.5 years after Medal Of Honor and on the same engine and almost the same settings, it's easy to draw comparisons between the two. Most players seem to prefer Call Of Duty, and I agree, but only by a small margin.

In fact, they could almost be the same epic long game, there's not much difference. The level design is good, but not particularly fantastic. The levels are fairly standard fare; either cross-country with some average looking greenery, or destroyed towns. The highlight is the final level and the level which takes place at a dam that you have to sabotage. Ultimately, the level design is an improvement over Medal of Honor, as there were no downright boring levels as MOH had.

The gameplay is all enjoyable, again the same as you would expect from this genre. High speed guns mixed with plenty of sniping means you won't get sick of the gameplay. What makes COD unique is that 90% of the game your fighting alongside computer controlled teammates. Fortunately, they're not complete morons and don't get in your way. They also don't take over the game and leave you with nothing to kill. It stills feels like your playing your own mission, but with a little help and company here and there. It was certainly a unique and satisfying feature.

The major problem with COD was it's length. I played the entire game within a day; in two sittings, and could easily have done in one sitting. This is a very short game, perhaps around seven hours. For a full game, this just doesn't cut it. I complained about MOH being so short, but this COD is much shorter. At least there is an addon pack which I'll be playing next.

So overall, Call Of Duty was a blast. Good level design, fun gameplay, not overly difficult or frustrating in any way. It's certainly the best WW2 based game thus far, despite the short length. 

Released a year after the original game, comes Grey Matter's expansion pack for the hugely popular Call Of Duty. And in most ways, it improved on what Infinity Ward did with the full game.

For a start, United Offensive, while being fairly short for even an expansion pack, was still almost as long as the full game. I estimated UO to be about 5-6 hours, with the full Call Of Duty game being 7-8. And that was my main criticism of Call Of Duty, that it being too short.

The other area Grey Matter have improved upon, despite still using the same engine and game, is level design. The levels in UO are a smidgen more impressive this time round. They feel more epic, especially examples like the lighthouse level. The only let down was the final Russian leg of UO looked exactly the same as the original game. They could easily have seamlessly integrated into part of the full game's Russian leg.

The other major difference between COD and COD:UO is the gameplay. UO features much more frantic action, with hordes of enemies running you down. Some of the battles just feel MUCH bigger. And in the process, hard as well. In some cases a little too hard. The sniper rifles with zoom features weren't used much in UO and you'll really miss them. At least in my run through I never picked them up much, if at all. Instead I stuck with the same few guns throughout the entire pack, which did get a little numbing by the end.

COD:UO is an improvement over COD. Slightly more epic levels and gameplay, a decent length when compared to the original game. But very much more of the same, just slightly better.