Thanks Killes. Yeah I enjoyed it, especially the second half.

Been trying to play something new this weekend. Tried America's Army 3. Didn't realise it's just a bunch of lame training missions. Graphics are utter shit. I did the first level and couldn't hit the targets, not because I'm a fkn noob but because the giant ironsight so so unreliable, waves around everywhere and jumps on the mere movement of the mouse instead of being smooth. FUCKING DELETE.

Then tried Overlord II. Mint design, the tower looks so fucking cool, why can't there be some good third/first person games like this with proper combat, but Overlord II combat was shit, from what I could play. Lame melee button smash then all these stupid minions covering the screen screen that are supposed to kill for you. Unfortunately I couldn't play it, one of the moves you need to use through the game is bugged (basically my minions won't return to me) so it's impossible to complete the first level. I only managed to play a few levels using someone elses saves, but I'd missed too much to continue. Probably a good thing, I can't be bothered to play a game with pretty below average gameplay just for the graphics for almost 15 hours.

Now installed Section 8. I'll review this one, as I will complete it, but it's just a botmatch for 3 hours across 8 levels. Waste of money so I'll have to get something else to play this week. Just as well my list of games to play is almost 200 long, and doesn't include any 2013 or console games yet :P 

Just picked up Teleglitch Die More Edition for �2.25...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqpgYphxPu0 

http://i.imgur.com/EuglQEO.jpg 

and were suddenly silent.

RIP Thief, you were beautiful. 

Apart from the top right main paragraph which sounds like dick. Still mostly sounds like a medieval / victorian Deus Ex which is fine. 

You mean Deus Ex: Human Revolution, not Deus Ex. 

but I don't know how they can get Thief so wrong.

No hammerites? No pagans? An emphasis on combat? Linear maps? Easier game? Removal of all slang and accents? Rope arrows are limited to pre-set points?

It goes on and on. I'm disgusted. 

The new Thief game is not aimed at original fans, it is designed for a new generation of console players. Most new players have not played or even heard of the original series, it is pretty much a clean slate. 

But then, why call it thief? 

why call it thief?
Because of marketing and brand awareness. The game developer and marketing department are often separate entities with different goals for a game. The reboot of Syndicate is a classic example of building on an existing brand name but going in a different direction to the original. 

They can just call it fucking
Thief: Next Generation
Thief 2013
ThiAf
Thief: Unlike Thief
Casual Thief
Thief for consoles

or anything like that. Words are free! But I guess alienating old fans is irrelevant. 

 

This strategy is supposed to succeed. If you are relying on the strength of a brand then you use the strengths and core aspects of said brand in the game.

Syndicate was an abomination. 

Deus Ex HR was pretty good in my opinion, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt for Thief. Obviously it'll be quite "modernized", but it still might end up being a good game. 

you did see quake 1-4 right, each not at all like the last? 

The thing is the old-time fans of Thief think this game is going to be a turd and most of the profane audience think this is some kind of edgy Dishonored knock off. Most of the reviewers also seem to think the game is meh at best. I honestly highly doubt this game will be successful. 

yeah, but there's not that many old-time thief fans in the grand scheme of things.
the biggest problem is getting someone to give you money to develop your game. if you throw a title that has made money in the past at them, they are more likely the green-light it.
that's why you see all those 'reboots' of old films.

my only problem is that it just sounds like more lowest common denominator fare, but that is the price you pay when you go AAA. (hey, that rimes!) 

thief is a niche market game. not everyone likes stealth, especially those that played the originals and will like it more because of nostalgia. sounds like they're trying to get out of that niche to make more money from the console gamers. I don't know if it's the right choice, could be... the modern console gamer is a fucktard, afterall.

but I seem to remember the old thief having a great story (well, thief3 that is) so I don't know what they're going on about saying this isn't 1998 anymore and games need a story. 

But will still sell moderately well. 

Well I'll defs play it, but I won't be eagerly awaiting it. I'm certain they won't be able to top Thief3.

Anyway, played a couple more games this week. Section 8: fucking 3 hours of crappy bot matches. 5.0/10

Then Bionic Commando - great game, 8.5/10.
Reviewed here http://etherealhell.com/etherealhell/reviews/2013/bionic_commando.php

By the way, is GTA4 worth playing? I forgot about it, but just watching over some reviews of it, it looks pretty poor graphics. Definitely hasn't aged well for a 2008 game. Although it is a city, and there's only so good a modern city can actually look. I'm not sure I need to sit through a 30 movie/game filled with meaningless minigames when there's plenty other RPG's since then. Unless it's had some good graphic enhancement mods. 

Actually re gta4, sounds like everyone on metacritic says the pc version is a buggy mess. Good, I can cross that off my list I didn't really want to play it anyway haha 

It's a good game, I enjoyed it at least. Doesn't seem overly buggy to me and it looks fine on PC (plus there are graphics mods). I think most people are probably just biased in their evaluation due to the DRM and not so much because of actual shortcomings of the game itself. If this type of game is your thing, it's well worth a try. If you're more into tight-packed action games with no leeway inbetween, skip it. 

During the Steam Summer sale I almost picked it up, but a couple people I know said it ran awful on PC unless you have a really good system, far beyond it's recommended specs.

I have it on 360 anyway, and grew tired of it quickly. I'm not sure what it was, but something about it missed what made the GTA3 line of games so fun to just dick around in. Haven't gotten GTAV yet, not sure how that compares. 

The main story is OK, the main character becomes irritating after a while. I've been playing the Lost and Damned DLC, that is more like it :)

TBH GTA4 seems to run nicely these days, I guess the drivers have improved since it came out.

And the performance thing - it really is highly scale-able. The console counterpart graphics are about equal to medium/low settings on the PC, the PC version has higher-res textures, bigger draw distance potential and a highly enhanced lighting option.

I would recommend it, don't dismiss it. It's true there were a lot of bugs when it released. But it runs fine now.

I've got an i5 2500K and a 5850, and it runs FINE. :) 

One of the best games I've ever played. Very happy I got it on sale from Steam for $4.99

I'm beginning to think it's a little too long though.

Also, I had a heck of a time getting it to actually run on my PC. Took about an hour of googling and fiddling around with software.

Apparently, BioShock has problems with various sound setups. In my case it turned out that the driver built into Windows 7 for the VIA sound chip on my PC's motherboard won't work. Why? I don't know, I've never had any other game have this problem. BioShock refuses to start.

I had to install the VIA driver and even then it was necessary to change an obscure recording setting (Stereo Mix) before the game would run. Weird.

Excellent game though.