Damage Report

So the Steam Summer sale has ended, and my wallet can rest easy once again. I’m very pleased that the damage was nowhere near as extensive as the winter sale last year. With tremendous self control, I limited myself to only purchasing games on my wish list, and only then if the reductions were significant.

I was tempted by several other titles, but with steely nerves I resisted. My backlog was intimidating enough already, without making it even worse. So what did I pick up?

Well, I kicked things off with the Alan Wake Bundle. I’d already completed the core game on the 360 after a friend got it for me. I really quite enjoyed it, so I was happy to pick up the PC version with all the DLCs included and the American Nightmare spin off. Next up was Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition. I’ve not played a Street Fighter game in years, but recently I had an itch to try out one of the new ones, and at 6 quid this looked like a great investment.

Batman: Arkham City was my next purchase. I thought Asylum was excellent, so I’m really looking forward to playing this. And to round things off I finally picked up Crysis. I played a demo of this back when it was released, but my PC at the time simply wasn’t up to the job of running it well even on the lowest settings, so I never got the full game. I always said I’d get around to playing it eventually though, and finally the day has come.

So yeah, it’s not as bad as I expected and I’m really looking forward to playing some of these titles. I really have to focus on finishing the draft of my book first though!

Now Playing: Deadly Shadows

Is Deadly Shadows a worthy entry into the Thief franchise? Definitely! Is it as good as the previous games? Nope! So let’s look at the negatives first. The levels of Deadly Shadows are very small and linear compared to the first two games, with few opportunities to approach missions in a variety of ways. They are still, overall, well designed and varied in content and location, but the size is an issue, especially when they are broken down into even smaller areas punctuated with irritatingly frequent loading screens.

What else? No rope/vine arrows! Climbing gloves seem to be provided as an alternative but are just plain rubbish. Length / challenge – Deadly Shadows is shorter than the previous games and feels less challenging. Okay, so what did I like about it? Well, as with the previous titles, the world, atmosphere, music, sound and VA is all top notch.

The story isn’t quite as good as the previous games, and the ending is a bit rubbish, but it does the job okay. I also loved the chance to actually explore the City between missions, finding side jobs and loot, and visiting fences and shops as I travel.

So yeah, if you liked Thief 1 & 2 you’ll definitely get a kick out of Deadly Shadows, even though it doesn't quite match up to them.

6/10

Steam Summer Sale 2012

It begins.

Work in Progress: WFTD

So I’m half way through Part 3. It took a little longer than I expected to reach this point. I had a lot of unforeseen delays crop up which has put me behind schedule. I’m now planning to have the first draft completed by the 29^th at the latest.

But at least Part 3 has developed better than I thought it would. I’ve got a few concerns about a couple of dialogue heavy scenes, but those will be edited down later. Better they’re on the page than just in my head though. At least I’ve got something to work with now.

I also keep wondering if the book as it is will be too short. It feels short, although I’m aiming for something like 70k words. I think it’s because the story is so fast paced. On the one hand, I like that and I hope it’s as gripping as I intended. On the other hand though, I hope it’s not so fast that people don’t get a good feel for the characters. Because if people don’t connect with the characters, they won’t care what happens next anyway.

Even once the first draft is complete there will still be a ton of work to do on it before I let anyone near it. Because it’s so different in style and tone to my previous stuff it’s hard to gauge how it will be received. I think if I’ve pulled it off right it should be pretty damn cool. If not…

Now Playing: Far Cry 2

Everyone Hates You: The Game is pretty darn good. But my initial enthusiasm kind of waned over the course of the game. You see, Far Cry 2 does a lot of things right but it sadly falls short of greatness due to four unfortunate issues. Set in a large, fairly varied slice of Africa, you play as a merc for hire, with the overall goal of assassinating an arms dealer.

There’s a ton of content to be found in the game’s beautiful, open world even if you only focus on the primary missions. So let’s look at the positives. I found Far Cry 2 to have extremely satisfying, free flowing combat. I actually enjoyed the collectibles in the game and I liked the weapon upgrade/purchase system.

Enemy AI is also pretty decent, as they flank, take cover and even retreat in response to your actions. There’s a lot of little touches that I like in this game. I love the fact that guns can jam or even back-fire on you and I love the DIY surgery you perform to heal yourself.

Okay, onto the negatives. One: Everyone hates you. People will drop whatever they’re doing to mercilessly hunt you down. It feels a bit silly when some guy in a crappy car passes you on the road, immediately does a U turn and starts trying to ram your heavily armed assault truck off the track. Two: A very repetitive mission structure. So yeah, lots of content, but practically zero variety.

Three: Re-spawning guards. It wouldn’t be so bad if they re-spawned every few days of game time, but they literally re-spawn when you’re twenty feet down the road. Four: The lack of a decent fast travel option. Combined with the constant re-spawning and the angry NPC populace, and getting to and from mission areas becomes a really painful chore.

But you know, despite these irritating issues, I still had a lot of fun with Far Cry 2. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but the game did surprise me in a good way. It’s definitely worth checking out if you think you can live with the flaws.

6/10

Rome 2 Announced

I think I need a new PC.