And lo On Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:55:06 -0000, Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom>
did spake thusly:

> Phil Cook v2 wrote:
>> It's also nice to be able to pick your career path, helps replayability.
>
> Career path? You mean like what skills you learn and what upgrades you  
> pick?

 From memory you start with a choice of Army, Navy, Special (Psi) and then
choice from nine year-long missions (arranged 3 by 3) that'll boost
certain stats. After that you get rewards that you can use at stations to
boost your stats again.

> Yeah, that's good too. I see that in Deus Ex and Bioshock too.

Pretty much same thing with a different name

> Thief, it's mostly a matter of "I wonder if I can do it this way..."  
> more than "let's start over and play it differently."   Altho you can  
> try it like "let's go thru and not ever get seen by anyone ever", or  
> "let's do it and inflict no damage anywhere" (which is a heck of a lot  
> harder).

Yeah in the other three games play style is largely dictated by stats,  
Thief just sets the stats and says "Do what you can with them"

>> halt at an invisble wall.
>
> Yeah, exactly the wrong answer.

And what with the abundence of natural formations that could stop you a  
very strange decision.

> Like Gorden Frohman said, "A locked door? He has a rocket launcher!"

Drives me mad, they tried to solve it in Red Faction, but even then you  
had solid doors set in corridors you couldn't dent. Saying that I do  
recall one blast door in a cavern I got around with using explosives. Be  
interesting to see what they do in RF3.

>> Ditto, I found it difficult to orientate myself at time with all the  
>> same door types, carpets, cave walls etc.
>
> I never got lost in the caves or outdoors. Just in the buildings, mostly  
> the square ones. The prison at least had signposts.
>
>> view, in F3 I can see Tenpenny Tower or the Washington Monument and  
>> just know where I am as I trapse along.
>
> In Thief3, Garret even says you can see the clocktower from anywhere in  
> the city and it makes a great landmark, but you can stand 30 feet away  
> and not be able to figure out that thing's the clocktower. :-)

Haven't played T3, I heard they nerfed it for the Xbox and at the time my  
PC was woefully unpowered for it. In terms of getting lost I think the key  
is to have a variety of 'keypoints' you can recognise without disturbing  
the aesthetic. That was one of the reasons I got lost in Oblivion "I'm in  
a forest" until I get to higher ground or break through the trees and see  
a landmark I'm lost - realistic I suppose, but annoying. Yet even in the  
subway tunnels in F3 I'd backtrack to a junction and know I'd already been  
down that side because of that embeded barrel, or the broken gas pipe, or  
the combination of other little things.

>>>>> And a novel way of doing things. Perhaps Mirror's Edge was inspired  
>>>>> a bit by Portal.
>>>>  Conceptually perhaps,
>>>
>>> That's what I meant, yes. More a "puzzle of how to get there" than  
>>> anything.
>>  Which as I said they then screwed up by adding the gun-toters.
>
> Yeah, I saw that. Well, I guess they figured it needed the action or  
> something.

Which they could have gotten by giving you a time limit. You're supposed  
to be a courier - get from A to B in X then get trophies for getting there  
under a set time. The guns just messed it up.

> Maybe some day when it's in the $5 bin I'll buy it.

Took a rapid drop to the £20 mark here on PS3.

> I like getting games like that then going thru them on god mode, just to  
> see them. I don't imagine there's an effective god mode for Mirror's  
> Edge, tho.

I don't know if it's the development engine or cycle, but I'm seeing a lot  
less cheats on the consoles. Kind of good in that without precautions  
you'd have cheaters knocking down the trophies/achievements, kind of bad  
in that yes it is fun to go through it as a cathetic release of  
invulnerability.

> Serious Sam is one I'd like to go thru on God mode, but it's not quite  
> cheap enough yet. Talk about beautiful sets...

Which one?

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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