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| The Chronicles of Riddick; Escape From Butcher's Bay | |
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| Topic Started: Dec 23 2006, 09:44 AM (134 Views) | |
| Darkstalker | Dec 23 2006, 09:44 AM Post #1 |
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~ The QUEEN ~
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What a fucking shocker. Released a few years back originally on the XBox, this game, promoting one of the worst movies I've ever seen, came as a surprise as I played the Director's Cut (which is the PC version). Okay, that was totally off tangent and weird and all, but I'm tired so nyaaaah. Okay, so first off, it's a first person shooter. That's the basic idea. HOWEVER, the main focus of this game is definitely the atmosphere. The team really went into detail with all the little touches. A prison looks like it's really a high security prison, the infirmary looked like how an infirmary of a sick, twisted, demented prison would be like, etc. The little details like the scrawlings on the wall, the sound your footsteps make, they all add to the experience. Even the lighting is awesome and realistic (if shadows are a little blocky). Which is good, because this game promotes stealth. Hiding in the shadows is heavily promoted and recommended, as a backstab using any melee weapon guarantees an instant kill. Not to mention there are whole sections of the game where you have your fists and you're in an area filled with Riot Guards and stuff like that. Speaking of fists, this game encourages melee fighting. While it's obviously no Dark Messiah (sorry, that game really spoiled me on melee FPS combat), it still holds it's own. You can do different attacks with different directions + attack button, you can block...in fact, think of the melee system as Dark Messiah Lite, as that's exactly what it is. You get three melee weapons, fists (with possible knuckleduster, fast but weak), shiv (sharper, can cut, goes through fists), or bat/club thingy (slow, but absurdly powerful) so there's some variety there as well. There's also counter moves, where if you do the correct move as the opponent does one, you score an instant kill, but predicting is practically impossible so it's really more of a lucky shot. Counters do look cool though. As far as shooting, it's pretty solid. Here, I'll say it's FEAR Lite. Cover is important (you'll be shredded in seconds against any self respecting enemy) so you'll need to use your weapons wisely. Nice balance, really. Could've used more grenades though (I only used them twice). Back to the atmosphere. The voice acting is really, REALLY good. Everything looks natural, the voice actors do a good job portraying their characters (go Xzibit!) and even the cutscenes are gorgeous, in a twisted, morbid way. Vin Diesel delivers his lines in that little monotone of his that made him famous, and that fits perfectly in this game (I love the "Beautiful" he mutters sometimes). Even the other characters, like Abbott and Johns, or even the minor characters get decent voice actors to cover their roles well. A real plus. Music and sound obviously fit too so it's all good. However, one of the highlights of this game (not counting the PC only level, which you have to experience for yourself) is the Director's Cut mode after finishing the game. You can essentially go through the game again, only this time with all sorts of director commentary, with some really stupid comments. I couldn't be arsed to play all the way like this (nothing wrong with the mode, I just wanted to play Company of Heroes more), but it was a good feature nonetheless. I like some of the comments. * Paraphrased * "None of us are native English speakers so...you will hear lots of horrible accents...and broken English...with annoying pauses..." And the classic "When I looked at it again, I realised it was MY head that was chopped off in that character model." I also like "I splattered blood in everyone's shower and I think everybody hates me now." Yeah, good game. While not the holy grail of FPS, it certainly is a shining example of what can be done in the genre, especially with the genre mixing that it employs (Story Based Stealth Based First Person Shooter Movie Game Director's Cut). 8/10 Beautiful. |
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| Runeslash | Dec 23 2006, 11:44 AM Post #2 |
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109th Star of Destiny
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I've been meaning to give this game a try, as I've not seen a single bad review of it anywhere despite the movie apparently sucking ass. How are the PC requirements? I've finally got some spending money, and to my understanding this is a cheap game now, soooooooo... |
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| Darkstalker | Dec 23 2006, 12:10 PM Post #3 |
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~ The QUEEN ~
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Ripped this off the demo requirements (easiest to find...sorry, I'm lazy). Normally retail requirements is quite a bit lower for minimum, as the demo is not the final version yet (did that sentence make sense?). Anyway, here it is. MINIMUM * Windows® 2000 (Service Pack 4) / Windows® XP (Service Pack 1) * Pentium® 4 1.8 GHz or AMD equivalent * 256 MB RAM * 64 MB AGP OpenGL 1.5-compatible video card, supporting programmable shading. (ATI Radeon® 8500 or NVIDIA® GeForce(tm) 3 and above - except GeForce(tm) 4 MX) * DirectX® 9.0 or better * DirectX® 9-compatible sound card * 353 MB hard disc space (recommend 400 MB of uncompressed disc space) * 16x CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive * Microsoft® compatible mouse and keyboard RECOMMENDED * Intel® Pentium® 4 2.6 GHz or AMD® Athlon(tm) XP 2500+ * Windows® XP (Service Pack 1) * 512 MB RAM * ATI Radeon® 9700 or NVIDIA® GeForce(tm) FX 5900 or better. OPTIMAL * AMD® Athlon(tm) 64 or better. * Windows® XP * 1024 MB RAM * NVIDIA® GeForce(tm) 6800 GT or better NVIDIA® card. |
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| Runeslash | Dec 23 2006, 12:18 PM Post #4 |
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109th Star of Destiny
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Ah, that's encouraging... my computer is right at the recommended requirements. My processor is slightly better (2.8 GHz), and my video card is slightly worse (GeForce FX 5200, and yes I know I need to upgrade that fucker, believe me), with everything else being right at the recommended level. I might actually consider (no promises) getting this game after all, especially with PC exclusives. Also, I'm assuming you're actually better off NOT knowing the story from the movies for once, right?
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| Renegade | Dec 23 2006, 12:32 PM Post #5 |
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what
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Actually I'm not sure how the FX5200 would do... It's basically a Geforce4MX with slightly higher clockspeeds and DirectX9.0 support (which is a bit of an lol because the FX series sucked at everything). I'd say download the demo first and see how it goes. If you can't put the settings up to at least Medium, then don't buy the game (on low, it'll be like playing a 360 game with PS2-caliber graphics). |
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