This game has done some pretty revolutionary things with graphics. From what I've seen, the photo-realistic textures are ridiculous and they use some crazy techniques like taking ultra high resolution 3d images of real life textures and put them into the game, which makes every rock and piece of moss look insanely realistic. Worth checking out:

http://www.theastronauts.com/2014/03/visual-revolution-vanishing-ethan-carter/ [External Link]

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Quoting: InokiLooks much like a pure copy of the old MS Intellimouse Explorer 1.1A by Microsoft.

I actually still use that mouse... Only Microsoft product I own.

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Who honestly is going to buy Tea Party Simulator 2015?

Ugh... Unfortunately the audience of 13-15 year olds that watch Pewdiepie and chums. Though the developers know that they won't actually play the games and they're not designed to be played, only watched by people as society and culture fade into irrelevance. [External Link]

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I find the fact that he mentioned Vulkan as the main deciding factor in porting or not to be the most interesting thing he said. If one developer is teetering on the edge of porting or not because of the API then it's safe to assume that others are as well. That also means that if the people at Khronos do a good job, we should start getting a nice steady stream of developers jumping on board.

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Looking at this (though the improvements are very nice) just shows how ahead of its time HL2 really was, it hasn't really aged that badly at all. Might use the new graphics as an excuse to re-play it though :)

I know I always post these, but there was a Zero Punctuation review on the re-make:

View video on youtube.com

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True. And it also had a definite Hollywoodian produced-rather-than-designed quality to it, like all modern big budget games tend to have. Playing it safe to appeal to the widest possible target audience and whatnot.

That goes without saying really, and that's pretty much the "glass ceiling" on AAA stories and unlikely to go anywhere unless The Market(tm) starts demanding quality. Or in reality, when those who control the market stop imposing mediocrity.

But yeah, you can only compare it to the manure the large culture factory pumps out, and I think compared to Fast and the Furious 17 and Call of Duty 31, it's very good.

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I'm surprised how far along the engine is, the levels look really good. A bit more work and this will be retail quality I think.

One thing though, why would they put the OSs at the end of the trailer in the order "Windows, Mac and Linux"... Surely this is the chance to put Linux at the start of the list for once.

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I'm all for stories in video games and, while not the best one I've seen, Bioshock Infinite's was thrilling and unique. Just make sure not to judge the story too much before seeing the end, as the game's story telling is by no means linear.

I thought the story was pretty mediocre at first, but then I watched a youtube video (won't link it in case of spoilers) about the ending which brought in lots of details which a lot of people might miss when playing it through and it made me appreciate it more.

Yeah, there's been games with better stories, but I think where this fell short is more a reflection of the genre rather than the quality of the writers. FPSs demand lots of fast-paced action and constantly moving from location to location, and while shooting racists can be fun, I think the story (and game as a whole) would have benefited from a slower pace and a bit of digression and time to explore the beautiful city and talk to a few racist and not-so-racist NPCs to develop the story a bit more through sidequests and such.

So yeah, I agree with everything that Samsai said about the game (especially the quality of the port, which was really, really good), I just wanted to give my thoughts on that. Also, "Linux-fu" is an awesome way to summarise the hacks and workarounds which we so often have to do, should use it more often :).

I'll probably be playing the DLC over the next couple of weeks and looking forward to playing a bit more in Rapture since I barely played the first Bioshock and also have a deep loathing for Ayn Rand and her lunatic "philosophy", so should be fun looking at a critique of the other side of the American right after seeing the weird patriotic racism side in the main game.

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Game so far has been great, runs well. Their DRM system is a little annoying to say the least, but once that's over with it's fine.

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Quoting: liamdawe

Quoting: Segata SanshiroNiiiiice, been looking forward to this for ages. Can't afford it though :( *waits patiently for summer sale*

It's 66% off right now FYI.

AWESOME!! :D

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