I previously reviewed the Dark Messiah demo, and since I've had my hands on the full, retail, complete, whole and final version of the game I decided I'd review that too. I'll try to keep this one brief and to the point.
Single Player
20 FPS on a freakin' menu is what I'd call a bad start. My video card has been giving me grief (constant overheating) so I'm willing to consider it may be due to my card, but I don't think it is. This is with the Optimal Recommended settings by the by. And anyone that's used the Source Engine knows that the only graphics options that do anything are Textures, HDR and Gamma. Everything else looks exactly the fucking same no matter what settings you put it on. That said I knocked all the settings down and managed to double my menu frame-rate without it actually looking different at all (except for the HDR which was only giving me a headache).
The game itself is actually pretty cool. It's an FPRPSâ„¢, combining the worst of First-Person-Shooters (straight-forward linear storyline with bland, repetitive environments) with the basic elements of RPG (experience points that can be spent on upping certain parts of your character. Strength, Agility, Bow Skill and so forth) making a pretty average game.
The only thing that was entertaining was finding hidden items. There were a couple of challenging puzzles that I found pretty entertaining as well.
It has three or four different endings and a couple parts where you can branch out and do different things (save the damsel in distress or let her die? Purge the evil demon from your soul or <3 her long time) so I guess there's that for replayability, but between the constant crashing and handbags full of bugs I really don't think I care enough to get them.
PS. What kind of icon is that? This is 2006 you noobs, try something with more than 3 colours. Oh, and there's this freaky new invention they've named "Transparency". I hear it makes those ugly white backgrounds INVISDABLE. I know!
Multiplayer
30 minutes to copy my steam folder over to a partition with more than 10 megabytes free so I can install this bad mamajama.
1.5 hours to download via Steamâ„¢.
20 minutes to load one map.
Map loads to see the final scoreboard and people saying "gg".
20 minutes to load the next map.
10 minutes of gameplay on an incredibly laggy (all my settings were on low), uninspired map before some 1337 mother fucker caps all the flags.
20 minutes to load the next map.
5 minutes of running around aimlessly.
Get burned alive by some randomly aimed fireball and the game crashes.
5 minutes to uninstall.
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Sounds like you had fun. Are you playing on an old crappy computer or something? Seriously... I can play HL2 in WINE with the settings turned all the way up and it's fine. Keep in mind... That's not REAL DirectX... It's emulating it.
But yea... sounds like you need a new HD and graphicalmagic card. Get an Nvidia. Sure sure sure... ZOMG ATI IS TEH PWNAGE!!!1ELEVEN. But only on Windows... I've ran two cards side by side, an Nvidia, and an ATI, and the ATI died first, actually, the ATI died two years ago, and the Nvidia is still working, and I still use it.
You know what I really want? A Goldeneye or some other 007 mod for one of the HLs. Sure there's that Goldeneye:Source crap, but it's only multiplayer, and I don't want to pay people to act out the parts and imagine I'm completing objectives. For now, I'm stuck playing Goldeneye in a fusking emulator:
http://linuxinit.net/site/images/screenshots/img_0245.jpg
Which isn't that bad, aside from the fact that aiming is a fuckin bitch because when I try to use my crosshairs it goes all over the place because I'm using a mouse and not a happytwig. BTW you don't happen t know where I can get some hidef textures do ya? DO YA?!
kthx bai gord(o/a)n(o) out.
I can run Half Life 2 like butter. Clearly they haven't optimised the engine or something because, as I said, even the menus run like crap.
I put everything on low on most of my multiplayer games to milk the frames.
I actually did have fun, for the single player anyway, the multiplayer was a complete waste of time, so retarded. It was like a poor mans ET what with the crappy classes and upgrades and what not.
I was looking forward to that Goldeneye: Source but the demo was a real let down. If you still have a 64 controller hanging around you can pick up a USB > N64 adapater and that should make the aiming and general gameplay feel a lot better.
seriously... how can you fuck up something that bad that even the menus are laggy? :'( and about goldeneye... i know about the controller thing... i'm just too lazy to buy an adapter.
Goldeneye: Source is going to kick ass. I don't care what anyone says.
Actually I haven't played the demo yet... (haven't actually touched my PC in weeks), but it looks fun.
GE:S is decent... Multi-player is just fucking boring... I still think I should go hobo for money and then pay people to act out the single player roles...
http://linuxinit.net/site/images/screenshots/img_0237.jpg
ZOMG! Is teh seniab dead?
Now I am teh wondering about teh bainez. Is teh bainez teh alive?