Ombrenuit

Specs: 1022mb RAM Intel Pentium 2.66ghz processor (2 CPUs) Nvidia GeForce 6600 LE I ran into some lag, although it wasn't bad. I was in an underground room filled with glowing green ooze and flashing lights and in a firefight between about 4 military personnel. The more I offed the better the lag improved. First real "wow" moment: By the way, anyone know how to attach a silencer to a pistol? I found a silencer that says that it is universally attachable, but I can't seem to figure out how to do that. And yes, there are difficulty settings. You can play on an easy mode. Although this is a survivor game. The point is to kind of out-think the AI (through stealth or otherwise. Man, storming the army base and knifing out sniping towers was great). In a way, the challenge is for there to be a challenge. So I wouldn't exactly say its the type of game for a softcore experience.

I grabbed the game this morning and I've been playing it for a few hours, so I'll give my first impressions: I have to say that I'm surprised. This game has two things it does great: atmosphere and survival. I'm playing the graphics on medium settings, and as Redface said, it's not exactly gorgeous, but the frame-rate is constant and there are no problems with lag, so the game-play is intact. The game constructs it's world well. You actually feel you are there. Gun battles are short and fierce; take a few shots and you're dead. You have to plan your strategies accordingly, and also deal with guns that are realistically inaccurate. They definitely have a unique flavor and feel exhilarating. Also the game play in general feels solid. You can sprint and walk a bit faster then a normal person would, and for much longer, but this doesn't break the immersion and definitely is a good compromise when there aren't vehicles. The quest system could be a little more strait-forward, but no real complaints there yet. The control is tight and the art style fitting. It's just a shame I have to play it on the specs I have. I just don't want to pay a couple hundred for a top of the line video card. That said, the world feels as harsh as it should. You walk down the road for the first time to see rippling air and mutant dogs gnawing at a corpse on the side. You definitely start to watch your back and take precautions wherever you go. The AI is also impressive. Dogs won't attack you unless they feel they have the advantage and a pack. For the most part, I've found its best to just disperse them, or rather, try to intimidate them by lobbing off a few shots their way (with a noisy gun), and then moving in. The Russian adds a unique flavor to the game, and its walking out of the bomb shelter you start out in to hear the military blaring out warnings that trespassers will be shot on sight. The game's enemies and tension is also the kind I enjoy; sure its horror, but you have the firepower to deal with it. For the most part this really is Morrowind with guns (and mutants), and its great. I'm much happier with my purchase then I expected to be, and its the first game in a long time that I've been so sucked into. For forty dollars, its definitely worthwhile for the experience alone.

Its not that we are bashing, but certainly we aren't hyping it as much as you are . I don't know. I guess most of us have gotten pretty weathered and cynical about these sorts of things. Expectations are almost always not met. Its not really a pessimistic view most of us have, but rather a realistic view. I know my computer could play the game, but for me at least, there is a point where a game becomes unplayable simply because it lags to hell and looks like @#%!. Example? Neverwinter Nights 2. The interface was god-awful, the graphics hideous, and the camera angles made me cringe. On an high end system, maybe I would have given it a chance (well the graphics were still hideous, but with that much bloom, how could you tell?) There are plenty of games that allow for play on lower end models, but there are plenty of low specs that I wouldn't call playable, or at least would be an embarrassment to. Half Life 2 could pull that off. Then again, they are a well known company with plenty of funding. This developer is on shakier ground is all. I'm happy its getting at least an 8; that certainly reassures me. I'm not expecting this game to blow my mind, but if it has an immersive atmosphere I'm sure I'll enjoy it. Hopefully its the experiment that tells developers that this kind of open-endedness can be done right.

Well, I can say that a lot of my faith has been restored by that Eurogamer review. I just love survival games. I just hope to god my nvidia 6600 can handle it...

Mind posting a link or two? I'd really like to read up on what people are saying about it before I reserve a copy tomorrow.

I'm honestly nervous as hell to put my good dollars towards this game. I had been very excited for it, but then again, all I've been hearing other than delays were how promises were being broken. From what I've seen, just about the entire game is based around their AI system, and that's about it. After the disaster that was Gothic III, I'm just not so excited about dealing with another European developer; especially when the game is being marketed at a discount rate (because the company acknowledges that they couldn't charge 50 dollars?). I guess forty dollars isn't such a big loss in the end. I'll report on it when I do get it. I just can't help but have a sneaking feeling that I'm going to be sorely disappointed.

1. Thief 2 2. Resident Evil 4 3. Final Fantasy VII 4. Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (Every game since has been a rehash, and I can't take the formula except the first time I was introduced to it) 5. Diablo II 6?: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Some of the missions in Thief 2x are top quality (some aren't but hey, it's a great mission pack)

Honestly these posts are getting old. Ever since there was that guy who made the fan mission about poop...yeah. I've never gone back to ttlg. There are far too many people that I'd like to ask that very question of.

I felt the evidence was pretty compelling for a conspiracy theory at first...until I read one article: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=911_morons The point? We wouldn't even hear about a conspiracy if there was one!

I wouldn't exactly say they are in the wrong here, we just live in a qualitative society (aka the computer age); if you're over, you're over. Quantitative reason would find a different solution, but considering that programmers aren't exactly installing software like that anytime soon, I wouldn't exactly place the blame on the company. I've never had any trouble with paypal.

As I get older, though raised without a religion, the more good and less bad I see in it.

You don't need anything else if you have that

I'd say the red and cream is much better than green.

I honestly really like the view down without the stairwell, Bob. It would be more interesting if you connected those two openings with a cat walk I think; it would be some unusual architecture, but I think it would be very mysterious.

I'll continue to conveniently forget that those ever happened.

Thanks a lot, this is an enormous help and giving me some serious insight (though the drum article was a bit beyond my level, but it made for good reading; I only wish we had twenty mics for my band's drummer). I had no idea recording could be taken to this level. I actually got Adobe Audition per your request today, and though its definitely more overwhelming then audacity, I'm going pretty well fiddling around with the options. *edit* I fixed that mono/stereo issue

You also have to take into account the audience of the Mod, primarily existing Thief fans, which are already congregating at TTLG. I doubt that we could net very many new Thief fans with this, but I'm sure it would be nice.

I've recently been recording a lot of my own work directly through an interface, but I've run across some recording issues, and any tips would be greatly appreciated. Just a few quick questions are: Really the biggest problem I've run into is what the industry standard on volume is. How loud should I record? I don't really want someone to be listening to my music and have to either turn down or turn up their volume; that is just a pain and always a common complaint among my friends. I've been using a metronome, but are there any other tricks to help keep time? My audio set-up is fairly cheap, but I have a sub-woofer; is there any reason why music optimized for my own set up would be terribly different played on another computer (say without a sub-woofer?).

I do remember when this first came out, and it was a big deal for its time: innovative, fun, etc. But I don't feel like this game ages so well. And is it simply the multi-player? If so I'm not that excited.

I don't know how pick pocketing should be handled; but I always loved pick-pocketing guards and having it go unnoticed. I'd say the rate of failure should something rare, like 10% and only set the guard on alert mode. That way it would make you feel cool and keep the tension up. As for the save zones idea, I've never liked the idea of repeating section B of the game to get to section C only to die and have to go through Section B again. I'd just like to save right before section C, thank you. It curbs a lot of frustration and the number one reason why I've never been able to play through games that don't get me a save point every few feet. For those that want a more immersive experience, I agree with Zylon for once: that's why there are play styles.

Fidcal has a point. One of the things I absolutely hated in the Metal Gear Solid games was the art mode (especially in the third game) that took three minutes to count down. This was to encourage the player not to wait it out in the shadows, but rather to take out enemy AI in a more difficult environment. In a sense, Thief balanced this to my satisfaction. When you are caught, you are forced to fight or flee, of which I chose almost always to flee. I would enjoy figuring out escape routes before hand and ensuring safety, but I also liked that once I found a clever hiding spot, the fireplace perhaps, there was a tension, a waiting game; would he find me? was I well hidden enough? But this never lasted long, just long enough to discourage being caught. With every feature added, there must be a balance. With every new disadvantage or challenge there has to be ways to offset it: new choices to make that can allow the player to overcome it. So, the AI is searching for the player; the player overcomes this by hiding. The control comes in that they can develop a discrimination between good hiding spots and poor ones, where to go, where not. Difficulty is how hard this discrimination is. Balance is making sure the player is punished only just enough to discourage the action: getting caught, but enough to encourage them to keep playing the game, enjoying the challenge. I'm not saying though that the player should be given more tools...they have plenty already. I'm just saying to be wary of new features and how they may 'tip the scales'. For example: if guards comparing notes makes things too difficult, perhaps a way to balance it is that if the player successfully distracts a guard when he makes the comment, "I should probably report this" maybe the guard simply gives up and goes into apathy due to laziness and stupidity! "Ugh...oh well. I don't get paid enough for this." As has been suggested, the player could have a pebble thrown, "rap" on a close surface, or yell out "Hey you." enough to pull the guard from his path when the guard alerts the player that they are going to compare notes with other AI.

And then we have fear that if we raise minimum wage, companies will go under while those actually working on minimum wage don't have enough money to support their families and are needing to hit welfare.

After spending far too much time on WoW...I kind of like single player games as an escape, not a social replacement. I have a social life for that reason, and I really never enjoyed WoW that much.

As if a forum isn't enough, we would need an even more interactive way to kill time waiting for this mod?