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I've seen different gameplay vids. It looks pretty awesome. I especially love that you could play different ways to and maneuvering around the alien. Getting different aspects of each scene of the game getting alternate outcomes. I like to sit and think, delve and wonder what and where to go... rather than just shoot, kill and move on. That get's old. Although there are some weapons in Alien Isolation lie a flamethrower and such.

I'm really looking fowrard to this, especially the added DLC playing as Ripley and all.

A sneak peek at Cyan's upcoming game (2015), Obduction... (Cyan is the maker of the Myst series.)

http://www.pcworld.com/article/26907...r-to-myst.html

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That's interesting because I've seen many people say it's a 4 or 5 hour game, but who knows how many they represent.

My mind's not built for clicking every millimetre of screen real estate so that's a factor. You can probably skip an awful lot of the puzzles as well but in a game this gorgeous rushing through it is very hard (you'll miss scenery ) unless, like me, you miss clues completely because they're just arbitrarily hidden.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Mario Kart, Pokemon and World of Warcraft. None of them currently though I'd like to do so again.

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This game is a little bit nicer (or it seems to be, anyway) because if you get close to something hidden in the grass, it'll turn into a marked hotspot. So, yeah, you have to walk around a bit, but it's fun exploring and you don't really have to click everywhere along the way. Not really a true pixel-hunt, anyway, which I appreciate (having played pixel-hunt adventure games).

I played for about two hours yesterday. On my non-officially gaming machine I had to reduce the settings quite a bit but it still looked pretty lovely. Had a tough time adjusting things like the mouse sensitivity (and it's still not quite right), but considering what I've heard about other people's issues, I am glad to be able to play the game.

Taccy, you'd mentioned issues with the first "mini-puzzle." Do you mean before you even cross the train bridge, or after? I must admit, the stuff that happens right out of the gate outside the tunnel entrance made me jump.

Yep, the traps before the train.

Also, turn mouse smoothing off - It's awful.

I did turn camera smoothing off -- that was one of the suggestions in the Steam thread about game issues so I tried that early on and it helped.



FWIW, my system is a 64-bit quad-core with 1TB hard drive, 6GB RAM, and a probably embarrassing ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics card. I did buy a new graphics card recently and keep telling myself I'm going to install it, along with the upgraded power supply to manage it, but haven't worked up the guts to do it. (If something goes wrong, I wouldn't be able to do some of the work I do only on the desktop. The laptop just can't do everything.)

Someday soon, though... Maybe now that I've got this game, it's time to buckle down and put in that new graphics card.

I wrote a post and lost it (ugh), so I'll summarize: finished The Walking Dead season two. Really glad I played it. I think the idea that throwing the occasional choice/action at you automatically makes you more invested in the story is really clever. Maybe cheap, but clever, and for the moment it really works. I found myself wanting to play more and more often until I finished. The art style is lovely, the voice acting is really good, and the dialogue (if not the overarching plot) is probably better than the TV show as often as not.

And despite my complaints about how little some of the choices actually branch off...some things happen at the end that seem like they'll have to if if and when the game continues. We shall see, but it feels like they might have heard the complaints on that front and really worked hard to address them.



I would definitely recommend this for you, specifically, Austruck. There is "combat," but it's all in the form of little arcade-style mini-games that any reasonably dexterous person could usually accomplish the first time, and certainly after a try or two. And the overwhelming majority of it is just dialogue options (though you have a time limit for those, too). I think you'll find it pretty manageable, and while it can be awfully disturbing, it's nothing you won't be ready for by watching the show. Definitely give it a try!

Oh, and I could be wrong, but I think season 1 might be free for Prime/Kindle Fire users. I'm not sure, and I'm not sure if that version differences much from PC. I kinda feel like it'd lose a lot on a smaller screen given how good the sound is, among other things, but if it's free it might be a good way to try it and see what you think.

Cleaving through the first round of bosses fairly easily at the mo in SoM, but it's still pretty fun planning the approach - even if these fellas go down to a stun-flurry-finish routine mostly. Have managed to dodge death for quite a while now, so the Orc board looks like a right graveyard. My biggest nemesis is the guy I failed to kill right at the start... the not-very-intimidatingly named 'Pot-licker'



He's managed to amass immunity to all the core attack moves. Got quite a shock when I tried to clear him out of an area and found everything I did bouncing back. Ended up just burning him out of dodge, but not sure how I'd kill him if I needed to. Thinking he'll make quite a good 'ally' when I finally unlock that power - really looking forward to that level of conniving

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YODA, re. The Walking Dead: I might just do that. I've had this series in the back of my head for a while now, since the show doesn't disturb me. The problems I have with FPS games are the constant barrage of KILL OR BE KILLED and how much more graphically realistic those sorts of games are becoming. Things chasing you, intent on killing you in horrific ways ... stuff like that. My nerves just don't like that sort of pressure.

Strangely, games like Guild Wars don't bother me so much, but that's mostly because you run around going TO the bad guys and choosing your battles (literally). Or maybe it's because I started GW with a bunch of sad Myst players who all gravitated there after URU LIVE went belly-up, so I learned it in the safety of numbers.

I'm surprised that yesterday's scares with Ethan Carter didn't turn me off the entire game -- I'd had the sound up too loud because I was expecting mostly ambient sounds and some creepy music, so those early scares were completely unexpected. I yelled a quick "OH SH*T!" the first time, then realized I was going to have to yell it a few more times before I could move on.

But I'm still very excited to be playing the game at all. Will see about having hubby help me install the power supply and new graphics card in the next few days. What could go wrong?

Don't worry, it's not an FPS. There are a couple of moments where it kinda-sorta looks like one, but the mechanics are so simple (IE: stand in place and shoot these few zombies, usually with more than enough time allotted) and so rare that they're hardly worth mentioning.

You do need to do things to stay alive, but it's the equivalent of digital flash cards. IE: "tap Q repeatedly to push the zombie off" or "hit the left arrow to dodge." They give you ample time and your actions are strung together with scripted sequences, so you don't actually have to exercise much in the way of reaction or coordination. The overwhelming majority of the game is played out in front of you, and most of what you do is make choices.

Obviously, there'll be stress, but the mechanics of staying alive are simple and, frankly, incidental to the story you're experiencing. They just keep you in the moment and add a little edge to things.

I also did my biannual "pick dust out of the computer" routine yesterday. Been running a little hot lately and it'd been awhile. Already running a lot cooler. Watch_Dogs is still the only title I've had any significant trouble running, and these days I'm not buying too many AAA titles that would strain my system, but I was getting a little concerned that I'd have to upgrade soon. Hopefully this'll fend that off until the middle of next year, though the new Sherlock game (and Ethan Carter) will probably tell me where I stand pretty quickly.

Thankfully, I always go big on power supply so whenever I do get a new GPU, I should be able to just pop it in. Only question is if I wait a bit longer and combine it with a new computer, since this one's a couple of years old too.

Yeah, I can't believe my "new" computer is now four years old. (I've got the old one, circa 2005 and WinXP, set up on my secondary, writing desk. Still runs great, though the DVD drive is squirrelly. Still, I don't need to install anything on there anyway, so it's a great second machine for things like, well, writing. )

Four years is ancient in computer terms, but I've upgraded the graphics card (kept the old card in so I could have a dual-monitor setup) and have two large monitors, a good ergo keyboard and better mouse (and awesomely huge gaming mousepad), and aside from games like Ethan Carter (and Alan Wake) I never even think about upgrading. If the new graphics card does the trick for me for a while longer, I'll be happy. The CPU on this computer is so quiet I have to look at the lights on it to see if it's on sometimes.

You're reminding me that it's way past time to un-dust-ify the thing, though. Maybe that alone will get me to open it up and upgrade the power supply and graphics card soon...

Gameplay time never correlates to real play time anyway. I just finished playing Silent Hill 3 (game holds up except for a sometimes wonky camera and the graphics in spots are fantastic--love the style) and gameplay time was nowhere near my real time. Wonder if anyone ever studied the difference between the two.

Glad you got the game running. In my experience a slow mouse is usually an indication that your system is struggling with the game. Lowering the resolution can help a lot as can lowering all graphic settings, even turning certain ones off if the game allows.

I only played the the first game and it's certainly not an FPS; it's an interactive novel without much interaction and it wasn't very scary, though ymmv. I may have to try out WD2 after your brief review. I did like the first but felt there wasn't enough interaction to justify playing the sequel.

How do you go about doing that? I'd like to clean mine but worry about messing around in there. Do you use compressed air?

As of lately, all of my playing time has gone to Blacklight Retribution (PC version).

I used to play a bunch of other games, but I quit them all due to ISP issues. My connection during the daytime is horrible, and my ISP still has yet to fix the issue after a year of waiting + multiple calls/complaints.

Into the last third of Divinity now, and battles are getting to be very challenging. I think I am getting close to the end!

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There isn't a whole lot more interaction in season 2, but they do add a mechanic where you have to hit arrow keys to move or dodge. It's not any more sophisticated or difficult than the others, but having an extra one does sort of "enhance" the others in the sense that you can't as easily predict what it's going to ask you do at any given moment.

If you're mainly looking for interaction I'm not sure I'd recommend it. There's definitely, as I mentioned, some indication around the end that they might actually be branching off the storylines more, but they might still tie it all back together quickly into one common thread. If you played the entire first season and didn't find the story compelling in it's own right, I'm not sure this one would be any more enjoyable. Though I did wonder if I liked it more as I went on specifically because it works better as you build up more and more shared history with the characters.

That's the ideal way, and that's what I did last time. But this time I didn't bother to pick any up, so I just did it "by hand." The nice thing about waiting forever to do it is that the dust is clustered enough that you can pull most of it off with your fingers, though I grabbed some tweezers too, and ended up removing the GPU to get most of it. A little tedious I guess, but it's kind of enjoyable too.

I probably have it worse than most, because I leave the side of my case off. Helps with temperature overall, but makes dust accumulation worse.

Buy a case with some dust filters, man! MIne has a couple of 140mm fans on top and a 120mm at the rear. They're all exhaust fans so fresh air gets sucked in from the front - The thing's like a fridge inside and is practically silent (I replaced the case fans with low noise versions) with no dust at all.

A case like this should do the job. It's cheap and understated too.

Also, I recommend using Swiffer dry cloths for the parts you dare to touch. It picks up the dust and takes it along OUT of the case. Seriously great invention, those Swiffer cloths!