I see a few people on steam have this, how is it? Worth getting???

Also, how scalable in the engine? Can you turn stuff off to make it run smooth on an older pc? I have a 2ghz athlon X2 with a nvidia 9600gt and I'm doubting I will be able to get a decent framerate out of it! 

Finished through the third (or was it still the second) mission. So much fun to find secrets and loot. Next is the mission where I enter the city watch. Yikes! 

Jesus! Who's stupid idea was it that when you are hurt your screen is covered in blood so you cannot see to take cover and the freakin indicator of which way enemy fire is coming at you is red as well!?! grrrr >:( 

it looks awesome though. 

damage indicators that actually make it near-impossible to fight back along with "realistic headbobbing" are some of the stupidest things in games these days. I don't know about you folks, but when I run down the hall, my head isn't doing any owl-like movements. 

Mine does.

But then I am generally listening to tunes while walking... 

When you're done with Thief 2, be sure to check out the quality fan missions out there! 

Is motion blur. 'It's more realistic' they cry. 'It's a fucking game' the rest of us say.

Engine programmers drunk on how awesome they are. 

just buy a crappy LCD... instant motion blur at no cost to framerate! 

Depth of field. Or... let's entirely forget how the eye works. 

Guess who's custom map reviews made me install the game in the first place. 

That's nice to know they encouraged you to do that. If you do plan to play custom maps, you'll need something like DarkLoader/GarretLoader (no unzipping the FM files) if you don't already know. TTLG forums should have all the info you need to run FMs - I plan to type up simple guides on my site one day.

I've been neglecting my site lately though... plan to get back to it. Have more Thief/Quake reviews to do afterall. 

What a disappointment! I expected something like Stalker, but it's actually just another stupid and ugly console game.

Thematically, it feels like the Fallout 3 subway tunnels + DC ruins but without the freedom. Hardly any game I've played exhibits MSD better than this one, as nothing about it stands out in any way - it felt pointless and uninteresting with mostly unspectacular and confined levels, linear and boring scripted gameplay, average graphics, and few light quicktime events. I couldn't care less about the story - a nuclear apocalypse with four types of mutants vs. communists vs. Nazis vs. bandits, and in the end everything blows up... or something. Often there aren't even smooth level transitions.
Gameplay allows for brute or stealth approaches, but it doesn't really matter in the end. Did someone say it was to have RPG elements? Sure.. if the ability to buy weapons and ammo constitutes an RPG already.
A couple of nice gimmicks, like the watch (gasmask timer) showing the actual system time :P, or a section where you have to carry a child on your shoulders which slows down your view/movement.
Apparently it's based on a novel? Lots of wasted potential then.

Bottom line: a fairly bad game and a waste of time in my view. Not recommended. 

The SDK needs to come out.

Unless all the excuses we've been seeing so far are just that, excuses and the real reason for not releasing the SDK is that the publisher would likely no longer be capable to charge stupid amounts of money for DLC. 

"Is motion blur. 'It's more realistic' they cry. 'It's a fucking game' the rest of us say.

Engine programmers drunk on how awesome they are."

"Depth of field. Or... let's entirely forget how the eye works."


Seriously, why work on graphics technology at all? You guys are fucking retarded. :) If you don't want that stuff you have an option - keep playing Quake. 

I felt the motion blur in Crysis was awesome, its the best ive seen in a game to date.

Mass Effect 2 uses DoF to its advantage also, it really enhances the presentation of the story cutscenes and the dialogue camera angles.

Honestly, I think DoF in games is mimicking the DoF of camera lenses rather than the human eye.

Its quite exciting really, graphics technology is getting to the point where if you squint it does look real. Its things like animation and floating objects that give it away, rather than the graphics themselves being nowhere near realistic.

I remember watching a video of some game on youtube a few months ago, and as the video quality was 480 maximum, it hid some of the giveaway details and it really did look real, it was some racing game I forget which one. I think that was the first time I genuinely thought to myself "that looks totally real" when looking at game footage.

Err, this kind of meandered off topic :P 

And as an aid to those who want to go off on these ridiculous rants in the future ... it's the artists who ask for all of that stuff, not the engine programmers. Blame them. :) 

yeah, motion blur and DoF and other stuff of that nature is more about simulating a real camera as opposed to an eyeball which isn't a bad thing by any means. besides, motion blur goes a long way towards hiding lower framerates.

i really liked the DoF effects in crysis and farcry 2. 

It's the coders who introduce it. The artists work constantly to marginalise the effects since the coders don't want to remove them.

Spose it depends on the quality of the effect. Or maybe I'm just retarded. 

I like motion blur on tf2, don't know why. Sometimes I'll just zig the camera around as fast as I can to look at it. Seriously.

DoF is ... okay I guess because it's supposed to make the game feel more cinematic, but yeah doesn't really mimic the human eye.

I like a lot of graphical innovations in games, but it's really how the stuff is used. Some examples of just rampant over-use of features ... well, nm. 

I think DOF is ok when used sparingly. It can be quite useful to simulate somekind of atmospheric haziness in the distance, or coupled with distance fog to get some nice silhouettes against the sky. 

I feel the DoF in Dead Space worked really well, especially during cutscenes. 

Mass Effect 2 uses DoF to its advantage also, it really enhances the presentation of the story cutscenes and the dialogue camera angles.

Honestly, I think DoF in games is mimicking the DoF of camera lenses rather than the human eye.

And when it's used in cutscenes, it works brilliantly, because that's exactly where we're used to seeing such effects. When there's a barrel of a gun stuck in the middle of your screen and your eyes wander around, it feels wrong and distracting.


Seriously, why work on graphics technology at all? You guys are fucking retarded. :) If you don't want that stuff you have an option - keep playing Quake.

Oh I forgot, criticism is bad. All that time and money could've been spent on improving better aspects of the game. For example. 

When there's a barrel of a gun stuck in the middle of your screen and your eyes wander around, it feels wrong and distracting.

100% agree, it certainly has its place. I assume your talking about Crysis & to an extent Stalker : Clear sky, which are both at fault here. At the end of the day its down to common fucking sense, which is seems some developers leave behind.

All that time and money could've been spent on improving better aspects of the game. For example.

I don't agree with this, I think that having cutting edge visuals is a very important part of the game. It helps with immersion, characterisation, and stops the player thinking "lol this looks like ass" when they start it up for the first time (always a plus!).

Stalker : SOC for example would have been a much worse game if they had not pushed the visuals as much as they did. The experience of exploring through all those ruined buildings with the lightning flashing in from outside, and rain pouring through holes is simply unmatched in anything that has come after it (including its sequels). 

Graphics that support it are great, but most of the time the player doesn't know the difference between graphical feature X or Y - unless they've spent a lot of cash on a fancy new graphics card and need to justify the expense.

I'm not making any friends here am I?