Prey

[OldsterHolster]

I just finished Prey a few minutes, ago. I just saved the world, again, so y'all can relax. Mother is dead, and her "sphere" of influence has burned up in the Sun. Fire-water for everyone; let's party!

I guess I started playing the game not expecting too much, since the reviews weren't stellar, and it was supposed to be a short, easy, game; but I ended up having a pretty good time with it. It was easy, although I did look at the walkthrough a couple of times. Figuring out the gravity tricks and portals wasn't a problem, and wasting the bad guys was straightforward, but there were a few spots where I just didn't know what the hell it was I was supposed to be doing.

The game had enough new twists on standard shooter ingredients to make it feel "new," and everything was done well. The gravity walks and "switches" were OK, although a little confusing at first, but the Spirit Walk, and the re-spawning procedure, were quite innovative, in my opinion. Dying, reloading, quicksaving, etc. can be a game-killer, sometimes, especially if you are forced to replay sequences over and over, again; but the way they handled it, here, really added continuity to the gameplay, and plinking arrows at the little flying spirit gizmos was kinda fun, to boot. Not having to quicksave every time you inch forward is a real plus in my book.

I thought the eye-candy was great. It started off slow, but it got prettier and prettier as it progressed, and, even though I'm not a big fan of bio-mechanical guns and writhing intestinal-looking spaceship parts, they did it pretty well. It had some pretty nice musical scores, too, at various places.

The storyline (kill the bad guys, save the girl, save the world) was standard sci-fi shooter fare, but I'll have to admit it almost brought a tear to my eye to have to kill Jen; and the visits to Grandfather broke things up, nicely, from time to time. In fact, the whole spirit world thing, including the ending, sort of held everything together well.

All things considered, I liked it; and, after a little break to play the F.E.A.R. expansion, I'm looking forward to re-playing it on a more difficult level, and I'd probably buy the sequel that is hinted at in the ending. How about you folks? I know a lot of you have played it, but I haven't really seen many posts describing your impressions. It wasn't a Half-Life or Far Cry, for sure, but I thought it was definitely worth playing. Edward.

[Karlsweldt]

Guess you have more "play" time at your disposal than I do. Looks like I will have to take this post as a recommendation to get Prey.
Oh, but of course.. you don't have the short Winter days us "Yankees" do, way 'up here'. :lol: :lol:

[OldsterHolster]

I seem to have more time than games to fill it up, these days. When there are good, long, games available, I like to play a couple of hours every evening, but I haven't been putting that much time into gaming, at all, lately. I made Prey last almost a month, because there's just not much to look forward to in the shooter genre.

Don't know what day length has to do with gaming, but they're short this time of year down here, too. Dark by six isn't my favorite day, but what are you gonna do? Actually, it tends to get me inside and at my computer, earlier, so I tend to have more gaming time than in the Summer.

As for you "Yankees," we love you, down here. This whole state is full of northerners who fall in love with the weather and move down for good. If all the "Yankees" were to leave, the economy would collapse and the alligators would take over. Heh, heh. Edward.

[Nyghtfall]

I played the demo, but found myself in the same spot as you, often encountering situations I didn't have even the faintest clue how to get out of. The demo proved a bad enough first impression that I decided not to buy the retail version. I wasn't surprised to see so many average reviews. Many of the complaints I read about the game echoed my own feelings about the demo.

It's really unfortunate, too, because I absolutely adore this genre. Graphically, the game is incredibly beautiful. The ship is gloriously grotesque, and the atmosphere was very haunting. I guess I just tire too easily of games that require much thought. There are few notable exceptions, including FEAR. On the whole though, I just want stuff to shoot at and not have to deal with any puzzle solving.

On that note, my single most favorite shooter, right now, hands down, is Call of Duty 2. It's a straight forward, no holds barred shooter that does an amazing job making you feel like you're in WWII. No puzzles, just a lot of bad guys and a few goals to complete during any given mission.

Reflecting back on the history of FPSs, part of me can't help thinking that I may have to just suck it in, swallow my pride, and accept the fact that run-and-gunners are fading into obscurity. Ever since Half Life, more and more shooters are being expected to be more involving than simply mowing down hordes of enemies. I'm even considering restarting Doom 3 and just playing on Easy mode so I can adapt more to its blend of action and storytelling without getting too frustrated with the game.

One thing's for sure... Unreal Tournament 2007 can't get here soon enough!

[engrpiman]

Prey was the best game this year so far. I loved it.

[Karlsweldt]

Edward, if you don't have the Delta Force-Extreme game, look for it. It isn't expensive, but is a darn good FPS setup. You have to keep your head down to stay alive!!! Good graphics, and you are not pressured to a time course.. but do follow orders. You also get some nice 'toys' to play with! For older games, RTCW has a great story line, great graphics (for its issue) and will give a good play time. If you care for ancient lore and magical spells, then there are many offerings. And for anyone who has Doom 3, it is a must-have to get the Classic Doom mod and play your heart out. I am still waiting for DNF to be ready.

[OldsterHolster]

Great! Thanks, Karlsweldt. I've never even heard of Delta Force-Extreme. Is that a squad-based shooter? Seems I did play some Delta Force game, years ago, and I didn't care for the squad-based stuff. Even if it is, I should give the type a more thorough try, especially if you think this game is that good.

I've got Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and I've played through it twice. It was good, but it's not one of my favorites.

Tell me exactly the Classic Doom mod is. Doom II for Windows 95 is the shooter that got me started, years ago. I'll bet I've played through that thing six or seven times, and I played Doom 3, twice. Tell me about the mod, because I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Doom, and I'd like to give it a try.

I find I don't care for spells, swords, armor, etc. Rocket launchers, sniper rifles, ass-hauling airboats with machine guns, (a la HL-2) or even a good ol' six shooter, as in Gun, are what juice me up. If you can add a story and some open-ended gameplay, I'm really in heaven. FPS/RPG hybrids are, without a doubt, my favorite games; but they're scarce. By the way, I mention Gun a lot, and nobody seems to take me seriously, but you should try it if you haven't already. If you liked riding the horse around in Oblivion, then you'll be blown away by riding a horse around the beautiful old west in Gun. I had already played Gun before I played Oblivion, and I was totally disappointed by the difference. It's a great game!

Thanks for the help. I installed the F.E.A.R. expansion, this afternoon, and cleaned up the old computer; so I'm ready to start playing it, this week. It won't last long, though, and I'll be gameless again within two weeks if I don't find something. I appreciate good advice, and I don't mind older games. Master Penrod advised me to get System Shock for years, and, when I finally listened to him and tracked down a copy, I had a great time with it. I'll look for Delta Force-Extreme, and let me know if you come across anything else you think I'd like. Edward.

[OldsterHolster]

Well, I read a few reviews and decided Delta Force-Xtreme is, indeed, worth checking out. I ordered it from the NovaLogic site, and, for twenty bucks, I can't be going too wrong. Thanks, again, for the tip, Karlsweldt. Edward.

[Karlsweldt]

The DFE game is not really a squad-based game, but you do work with others. The mission is clear.. capture the goals and delete the enemy. Some sets you are in a stealth mode, others are generic. Although there is no 'save' feature, you can learn to be cautious and survive. There are many caches about with health packs and ammo. The weapons you have do have scopes so you can scan distant areas. If you do the crouch or prone shoot position, you can be quite accurate. There are 'tracer' shots so you can home in on the enemy. The good feature is that you have 'markers' to denote friend/foe.
As for Classic Doom, the FSS group did an excellent job of modding the original Doom game into the new Doom 3 engine.. with spectacular results! There are several sites listed for DL from a Google search. You won't be sorry to get it.
When playing RTCW, there are some interesting scenes "outside" the box. By ghosting, you can view some interesting areas. But be warned, you have no protection if you are spotted by the enemy!! One particular scene is when you are in the 'forbidden' church ruins. Ghost out, and find a plane waiting to take you home! It has guns you can fire. But do a save prior! After playing the game many times, you seek new avenues of pleasure in defeating the enemy. With Doom and Quake, it is fun to watch the sprites battle each other, if you induce one to shoot the other.. then they don't care for you, until one of them is dead.

[Retribution.]

I just went out and bought Prey for the 360 and cant wait to try it tonight :)

(I did have it for the PC but watching paint dry was just as fun as the three frames a second I was getting..)

[OldsterHolster]

Heh, heh. Yep, three frames per second would drive me to wet paint, too.

I don't own any consoles, but I just noticed that GoGamer.com has Gun for the X-Box 360 for $19.95. You might want to consider it, since, as I keep saying, it's a great game. Meanwhile, have fun with Prey. It's pretty good, too. Edward.

[Retribution.]

Heh, heh. Yep, three frames per second would drive me to wet paint, too.

I don't own any consoles, but I just noticed that GoGamer.com has Gun for the X-Box 360 for $19.95. You might want to consider it, since, as I keep saying, it's a great game. Meanwhile, have fun with Prey. It's pretty good, too. Edward.
Cheers Oldster :thumbup:

I have no way to buy anything online (damn my bank) but they do have Gun in my local store and it's going for around twenty pound, I only gave it a quick browse over in the shop but if you say it's a worthy purchase I'll have to have pick it up for the weekend (it's one of those games I knew existed but never looked into, I shall now though)

P.S
played Prey last night and was quite chuffed with it, one of the things that was different from the PC version was the title screen, in the background you can see a large birds eye that takes up the whole screen and you can see it moving and blinking, when you choose single player or whatnot it zooms into the eye and you can see thousands of stars coming out of it, it's a small thing but I thought it looked brilliant (the small things in games allways get me..)

tis a grand game I think.

[Karlsweldt]

I can't believe someone is getting only three FPS with their PC!!! Some serious diags needed, there!! Running at less than 30 FPS would cause slight flickering of the image.

[Retribution.]

I can't believe someone is getting only three FPS with their PC!!! Some serious diags needed, there!! Running at less than 30 FPS would cause slight flickering of the image.
Hey my PC is top of the range i'll have you know, I think it pushed a whole 5 FPS with Oblivion.. :D:

(if I dont get something with 64 in the processor name soon, i'll cry)

[Karlsweldt]

How does it do with streaming video, or DVD movies? If the same results, then the video drivers are not the correct ones. Check for newer non-Beta drivers, and ensure that all older drivers are removed (uninstalled!) prior to the new ones being installed.
Check the Task Manager to see how many processes are running prior to gaming. If you have more than 60 processes, then you have too much overburden. It may be too, that the mobo driver set is not installed properly, or is corrupt. Those drivers provide maximum association with all features.