PC Gamer UK gave Doom 3 a 90% IIRC, it was the US one that gave it 94%.

This comment was edited on Oct 4, 14:46.

My source told me PCGamer (US) gave HL2 98% and it won't come out anytime soon (b4 Christmas though).

Good for you. I linked the whole (P)review last week as a scan.

/edit http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=51825&id=201797&boardid=1&view=threads

/edit 2 Looks like they took it down. Bummer.

I will be honest everyone, I have come down pretty hard on HL2, and I think the people (face rendering, detail, etc.) in the game look great, BUT! - I hope the gameplay is out of this world, because these screens don't look like anything spectacular.

Some of the others that have come out look better, so I hope these aren't final.

I am excited about the game, cause it will be just another new game I can play. I don't think it is going to be the game of the year, I don't think it is going to blow anyone away, nothing spectacular. I also hope I am wrong.

I have many many titles of games to play, just like everyone else, and it will most likely just be a part of that vast list.


This comment was edited on Oct 4, 13:12.

My source told me PCGamer (US) gave HL2 98% and it won't come out anytime soon (b4 Christmas though).

The main reason for my purchase of HL2 will be to FIN(ALLY have new online game to get into.

You do realize of course that the only (announced) online component for HL2 is Counter Strike Source - where all the 10 year olds will most likely play. Sure there are other possibilities, but who knows when they will be released. Personally, I am geting it for the singleplayer experience, which I hope will be a step up from Doom 3 (and Valve will not have to do much to achieve that %)).

I am hoping Valve releases HL-DM-Source and TFC-Source. I would be more than ecstatic if they do that. But who knows what Valve is planning.

Edit - in the mean time, have you looked into picking up UT2K4? I am having a blast with all the mods that have been released, as well as Onslaught.

You cannot make anything fool-proof. The fools are too inventive
This comment was edited on Oct 4, 12:39.

"94% for doom3? I think that's a situation where the game is not worthy of the score. In other words, the low 70's would have been more accurate in terms of gameplay.
"

Yeah it can be misinterpreted easily. What I mean was the figure was too high and therefore not worthy... if that makes sense.

Am I the only person here who knows that many, many visual effects in 3D games DO NOT SHOW UP WELL IN SCREEN SHOTS? Especially specular effects.

Anyway, I'll be happy even if the graphic are just "average" by today's standards and I'm sure they will be better than that. I was sorta let down by DOOM 3. Sure it looks pretty enough, but as many have noted, the gameplay was pretty much vanilla fps. The main reason for my purchase of HL2 will be to FINALLY have new online game to get into. I haven't been stoked to play online much since quake3 came out. Maybe it will suck, who knows?

Tribes:Vengeance turned out to be a highly dumbed down version of the old games. Have I mentioned lately that the Unreal Engine looks like shit? Won't be buying that one, unfortunately. What a let down.

STALKER has a lot of promise for gameplay innovation. We'll see how that goes.

94% for doom3? I think that's a situation where the game is not worthy of the score. In other words, the low 70's would have been more accurate in terms of gameplay.

space captain said:

"if STALKER delivers, it will probably revolutionize FPS games... dunno bout the world"

I LOVE IT!

People move from one game to the next to put their "faith" in when each one turns out to be..GASP...only a game.

Trust me, STALKER will not "revolutionize" the genre any more than HL2 will. There is no evidence that this will be so. The genre was only "revolutionary" when it was basically first invented and then after the first few major leaps. It will now not be revolutionized for a long, long, time, if ever.

We CAN expect some really well made and graphically amazing shooters in the future, but I really think this expectation that each game is going to be the Holy Grail is vague, wishful thinking by people who put too much energy and focus on games and what they're supposed to mean.

I put it all to the Max Payne 2 test. Max Payne 2 was really fun, had a good story and interesting maps and situations. I had a really memorable time, almost as much as any other game before or since. But for the life of me I can't tell you what was so "revolutionary" about it. Nothing, really. It was just a well-done particular game.

Its like a well-done action movie. I mean, come on, action movies don't massively change. They are linear stories with tension and violence, etc. But there is all the difference between a well-made movie and a poor one. People can seem to understand this about movies, but I think they are spoiled by the "newness" of FPS games and expect to be as surprised as they were by the first time they played DOOM every time.


Remember, no game is a time machine that will take you back to when you were ten years old.


This comment was edited on Oct 4, 10:15.

HL2 is just another standard FPS - albeit with a supposedly "great" storyline and some fun with physics (which I bet is alot more secondary than people might hope) ... fully destructible environments is one thing - destroyable "key items" is another.. CS:S looks more fun to me than HL2 - but i'll play em both


And there you have it. The definitive appraisal of Valve's latest opus from a man who speaks in an authoritative manner, obviously as a result of having played the game extensively.

"Just in case anyone is interested PC Gamer in the UK has reviewed HL2 and given it a 96%."

THat doesn't mean anything. They also gave Doom 3 94% if I recall correctly. A figure not worthy of the game.

It's just a opinion. Personally I loved Doom3 and think they underscored it.

Gravity gun sounds like fun, a gimmick, but it sounds like it's the gimmick that 'makes the game fun'. I mean really, so some guy runs out and starts shooting at you, so you shout "hold on a sec, just let me use this gravity gun to suck that radiator of the wall to use as a shield" so assuming it has enough power to rip the thing of the wall and bring it hurtling toward us, does it then reverse the field so you don't get flattened by it? I guess the AI is coded to miss for the first 5 seconds or so to give to time to suck some piece of furniture to use as a shield.

I'm still looking forward to playing with a gravity gun in Doom3, just for laughs. Someone already has a working prototype able to pull physics objects and bodies towards the player and then throw them again.
The vechicals will be fun too ( I played the leaked HL2 non-alpha, non-alpha because it whould have to be a lot closer to compelte to be an alpha, as in it still needed another year. ), looking forward to the Doom3 SDK with it's promised map with vechical support.

"Just in case anyone is interested PC Gamer in the UK has reviewed HL2 and given it a 96%."

THat doesn't mean anything. They also gave Doom 3 94% if I recall correctly. A figure not worthy of the game.

Cheap gimmicks like the grav gun (not unprecedented (see D3's flashlight).

How exactly do these two compare?

This comment was edited on Oct 4, 02:41.

Am I the only one that's just surprised that they actually have made more content than the redigested e3 video that we've been seeing all year?

DISCONNECTED!

zolder!!!..loading... ZoldNER!!!!....loading ZOOLLDDDNNNERRRRRRINO.....loading

Stalker looks great, but so did Soldner. I think.


I expect little from it, but I could be very surprised.

from the PC Gamer Review:

------------------

But the core process of this new physics, the key to the success of the game, is to be found in the Gravity Gun. Once you’ve experienced vehicular action and got to grips with combat, Half-Life 2 introduces a new concept – the idea of violently manipulating objects with this essential tool. The gun has two modes: one drags things towards you and can be used to hold, carry or drop them. The other projects them away and can be used either to smash and punch or, if you’re already holding something, hurl it with tremendous force. A filing cabinet becomes a flying battering ram, dragged towards you and then fired into enemies, only to be dragged back and launched again to hammer your foe repeatedly, or until the cabinet is smashed into metal shards. Pick these up and you can blast them through the soft flesh of your enemies. Killing the bad-guys with nearby furniture becomes habitual, instinctive. Or perhaps you need cover from a sniper – picking up a crate will give you a makeshift shield with which to absorb some incoming fire. Likewise, you immediately find yourself using the gravity gun to clear a path through debris-blocked passages, or to pick up ammo and health packs, or to grab and hurl exploding barrels at encroaching zombies, setting them ablaze and screaming. You can even use it to grab hovering combine attack drones and batter them into tiny fragments on concrete surfaces.
Soon, the gravity gun is proving useful in solving puzzles, or knocking your up-turned buggy back onto its wheels. Yes, a buggy. I’ll come back to that. The gravity gun isn’t just another weapon, it’s the soul of Half-Life 2. Do you try to bodge the jump over that toxic sludge, or take the time to use the level’s physics objects to build an elaborate bridge? Do you waste ammo on those monsters or pull that disc-saw out of where it’s embedded into the wall? Of course, you always know what to do. When there’s a saw floating in front of your gravity gun, and two zombies shamble around the corner, one behind the other, well, you laugh at the horrible brilliance of it. Yeah, I think that was the moment I sat back and laughed. It’s just too much.

---------------

Look, you guys can all piss and moan, but that sounds like a shitload of fun to me.

Admin/Editor - http://www.beyondhalflife.com

maybe it has had some features cut, but dont compare it to fable just yet

that game sucked a HUGE cock... if molyneaux wasnt so full of shit, i could almost forgive it - but he was always saying "it will be the greatest rpg of all time" etc.

and he was so very, very wrong... the thing had less content than the 8-bit Legend of Zelda

__________________________________________________
"I spat the silly formula of Man upon the waters and fashioned his spirit after the image of mine own,
for JHVH-1 is a vengeful god, and I urinate on the heads of men."

High concept...but in the end I think too many of the features have been axed/seriously scaled back. It had potential but as soon as I heard that "The Zone" would be split into zones, it killed it for me.

Well haven't read (scanned) PC Gamer....it looks like most of the HL2 hype isn't hype...