Can't stop playin Deus Ex..Y no dev evolved this gamestyle?

[cardtrick]

How good is Vampire: Bloodlines? I've heard some mixed things about it

Ridiculously awesome for the first two hubs, and not nearly as bad as you've heard for the last two. Buy it -- prior to MOTB and The Witcher it was the only good "modern" RPG.

The quality of the facial animations and voice acting is completely unparalleled, and the writing compares favorably to pretty much anything but PS:T. Combat and stealth are easy, but fun. Character system is awesome.

 

[Argosy]

Other than the ones mentioned, Stalker and the upcoming White Gold are the only ones I can think of.

It's not got some of the evolution and RPG-style elements of Deus Ex, but no other shooters do, really. I also keep thinking "hey, I'm playing Fallout 3 early!" every time I play it, but that's another story entirely.

Also, Strife? Really? Might as well include Terminal Terror if we're stretching that far.

 

[sportforredneck]

Ridiculously awesome for the first two hubs, and not nearly as bad as you've heard for the last two.

People are saying the last two hubs suck? I mean, sure they're small, but you've still got a lot to do.

 

[Satori (original)]

No, they say that they're too action orientated and rushed, for example the sewers and Hallowbrook Hotel.

 

[Wyrmlord]

The quality of the facial animations

You have got to be kidding. Have you seen how Romero's eyes disappear into his sockets whenever he talks and how is head leans to the side like it's going to fall off? Or how Strauss shrugs his shoulders and looks sideways after every phrase?

 

[racofer]

The quality of the facial animations

You have got to be kidding. Have you seen how Romero's eyes disappear into his sockets whenever he talks and how is head leans to the side like it's going to fall off? Or how Strauss shrugs his shoulders and looks sideways after every phrase?

*facepalm*

 

[Jabbapop]

No, they say that they're too action orientated and rushed, for example the sewers and Hallowbrook Hotel.

for as open ended people laud vtm:b for being, each individual mission area is extremely linear and carnival ride railish. most of the missions are: enter area, go down path, enjoy the sights, maybe go in a duct instead of the door, exit and DON'T YOU EVER SHOW YOUR FACE HERE AGAIN.

 

[gromit]

Did Boiling Point ever get any love from the modding/fanpatching commmunity? I always wanted to play it, but the horror stories kept me away.

The initial mod community spent time on stuff like real-world gun names / renaming "not coke, we swear!" to "cocaine," etc. The later community seemed to oscillate between this, game-breakers / trainers, and a presumably discontinued attempt to make the content-free world even more sparse, by spreading it out to the "promised" 400x400 map. There is one mod, made after the too-late SDK release, named "Renegade Storm," but good luck ever finding a working link for it. The once go-to site for BP (and its two upcoming successors,) xenus-hq.net, is now parked w/ links and a picture of the 2nd-greatest pad-only controller in existence.

After two patches which fixed glaring "this looks wrong" bugs (flying cats, invincible grannies, etc,) left broken quests / content holes, and broke a great (when functional) implementation of first-person, hand-on-wheel driving, I finally quit for my own good. The game tended to stutter, quite a bit, even with 2gb RAM, if you got going too fast down those jungle roads; I got the dreaded 0.5 FPS on a straightaway - during those two undrawn seconds I had apparently elected to turn perfectly perpendicular, drive through (THROUGH through) a copse of trees, and top it off with a round of "soak the coke." Then an aqua-jaguar bit me and the underwater fire finally hit my gas tank, taking my trunk-full of drugs and ammo with it.

Think of that paragraph less of a condemnation, and more of a testament to the game that it took that much to make me stop playing. I wouldn't recommend putting yourself through it, but I'm now considering having it be next up as my "brain-dead game" because snorting an entire kilo of coke, busting through a checkpoint in a flaming jeep, taking out everyone you can in a mad-dash to the production facility, running out the back with bullets whizzing over your head, and navigating by river to conclude this glorious caper in my thoughtfully-stashed Bell 47 was just that fun. But you must be very good at making your own fun, or not concerned about whether you have it or not, to not quit when the content begins to repeat itself.

There are two successors, one building off of the mystical and sci-fi elements, and another sticking to bombs, booze, bimbos, and bribes. I don't care that it's hideous, but if "White Gold" sucks I will probably cry... I think it was supposed to be out last quarter.

 

[burrie]

If you're interested in a DX-like game, you might want to keep an eye out on the Nameless Mod. I recall having mentioned this one before, and the fact that I chat with the project lead every now and then likely has something to do with it, but I really think that it's a mod that you folks will appreciate.

To quote the feature list once more...

Features:
* An imaginative new setting unlike any game you've played before (yet very familiar to any netizen).
* 59 levels of gameplay plus a new training mission, 6 intro and endgame cinematics, and three secret bonus maps!
* 20 original new weapons, many of which are unique and may only be acquired once through the game.
* Several unique pre-modded versions of original Deus Ex weaponry to be stolen from particular characters upon defeating them.
* The ability to fight with your bare hands, or to make use of several different gloves to augment your furious blows.
* A weapon shop where you can buy original DX weapons, equipment, and ammunition.
* Hundreds of emails, books, newspapers, notepads, and datacubes.
* Multipage info-devices allow for many pages per book or datacube for the really inquisitive player.
* Over 100 entirely new character skins and many more combinations of old skins!
* Actual nanoaugmented enemies. You can view their augmentations with the Targetting aug and disable them with EMP attacks.
* More customization: Choose between two different character models, 5 different faces for each, and eyewear!
* A ton of new decorations and items.
* Two parallel story arcs, that branch early in the game, and plenty of side-missions.
* An almost ridiculously responsive story with a detailed denouement at the end.
* Choice and consequence: Major characters will remember if you knock them out.
* A script of 200,000 words of dialogue, monologue, infolink messages, and AI barks.
* More than 13,000 fully recorded lines of very high quality.
* Eye-pleasing graphical detail with HDTP support!
* New high-quality ogg music for every level (well over 100 tracks!).
* A myriad of secrets, easter eggs, and little details to encourage replaying.
* Goals will be updated as you progress through the missions.
* Greater implementation of difficulty levels: Enemies and pickups will depend on your chosen difficulty.

The amount of choice/consequence they're building is impressive. I'd highly recommend keeping an eye on it.

BTW. It recently went into beta.

 

[buccaroobonzai]

If you're interested in a DX-like game, you might want to keep an eye out on the Nameless Mod. I recall having mentioned this one before, and the fact that I chat with the project lead every now and then likely has something to do with it, but I really think that it's a mod that you folks will appreciate.

To quote the feature list once more...

BTW. It recently went into beta.

So this will be a stand alone campaign, it will not add on to the main campaign but be playable exclusive to it? This sounds too good, hopefully the quality of the writing and plots are gong to be at least adequate . These guys deserve some applause for this, if they actually make a mod that delivers all of those features in the list, they could sell the mod as a true expansion to the game or even DX2.5! To bad they don't own the rights.

 

[J1M]

Or you could play some good mods that are actually finished. Zodiac and Rising Sun come to mind.

 

[Suchy]

There's still Deus Ex 3 coming... But after DX2 you can only hope that Eidos learned something from its shitty sales.


Also

The developer has also sold the movie rights for Deus Ex to Columbia Pictures and producer Laura Ziskin.

Last we heard, screenwriter Greg Pruss was drafting the script. He told IGN that the game's main character, JC Denton, will be "a little bit filthier than he was in the game," and that the film will be somewhat darker than the source material.

Who the fuck is Greg Pruss? Where's Uwe when you need him?

 

[The Vanished One]

No Uwe = NO WAY!

Funnily enough, I've never seen any of Boll's movies. I've just avoided them.

Also:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... -The-Movie

 

[sportforredneck]

No, they say that they're too action orientated and rushed, for example the sewers and Hallowbrook Hotel.

You can get into Hallowbrook Hotel? I haven't been able to yet, seemingly. And I haven't been in the sewers there either...I suppose my first playthrough is more of a story one with the more prominent side missions...

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

No, they say that they're too action orientated and rushed, for example the sewers and Hallowbrook Hotel.

You can get into Hallowbrook Hotel? I haven't been able to yet, seemingly. And I haven't been in the sewers there either...I suppose my first playthrough is more of a story one with the more prominent side missions...

Later on. I didn't mind the hotel, it was actually kinda fun. But the sewers and the house of infinite Chinese super ninja (what da hell?) was just dumb.

 

[sportforredneck]

the house of infinite Chinese super ninja (what da hell?) was just dumb.

Spoiler

Which one was that? Right now I'm getting the guy back from the Society of Leopold, so was it before then?

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

the house of infinite Chinese super ninja (what da hell?) was just dumb.

Spoiler

Which one was that? Right now I'm getting the guy back from the Society of Leopold, so was it before then?

Nope, it's one of the possible endgame areas. And unless you are a super tank, or have the unofficial patch, it's gonna suck because I believe 4 out of 5 endings send you there and it really is a bitch. My combat/persuasion/stealth Ventrue got messed up in that place after walloping everywhere else. After that place, the second endgame area was nothing. My advice, save a flamethrower for the end. You'll probably need it.

 

[Hory]

How good is Vampire: Bloodlines? I've heard some mixed things about it

Buy it --

-- support Troika!

 

[Dark Matter]

How good is Vampire: Bloodlines? I've heard some mixed things about it

Some of the worst combat seen in any RPG + 75% of game involving fighting endless amounts of respawning enemies + difficult combat (not in a good way that requires tactics or even skill) = recipe for a horrible fucking game that makes playing stealthy or charismatic characters a non-option.

Game is pretty linear as well, filled with locked doors that only open up magically once you advance a quest which requires you to go through that area. So there's no room for freeform gameplay here. The handful of quests are all there is to do in the game, no room for exploration or anything of that sort here. The experience system only further facilitates this. Basically, you only get experience for completing a quest. So doing general things like successfully seducing a character, picking a lock, killing baddies etc. don't give you any experience.

The game is full of superficial choices that often get you the same responses - similar to the much hated Bioware games. Another odd thing about the game is that for some nonsensical reason, the game has a shitty consolized interface, in everything from the inventory screen to the dialogue screens. Maybe Troika was planning on porting it to the consoles before the game flopped and they went out of business.

The setting (although the story is pretty pointless) and characters are the only good things about it.

 

[Dark Matter]

How good is Vampire: Bloodlines? I've heard some mixed things about it

Ridiculously awesome for the first two hubs, and not nearly as bad as you've heard for the last two. Buy it -- prior to MOTB and The Witcher it was the only good "modern" RPG.

Fuck no. Pretty much every Bioware RPG is more fun than Bloodlines.

And what exactly was ridiculously awesome about the first two hubs? Sure, you didn't have to endure the shitty game as much as the latter areas, but it still had the retarded "doors that only open when the developers feel you should open it' design and it's not like it had lots of C&C or anything either.

 

[PrzeSzkoda]

How good is Vampire: Bloodlines? I've heard some mixed things about it

Some of the worst combat seen in any RPG + 75% of game involving fighting endless amounts of respawning enemies + difficult combat (not in a good way that requires tactics or even skill) = recipe for a horrible fucking game that makes playing stealthy or charismatic characters a non-option.

Not true. You're just retarded. Combat is ubereasy, and I attest to that even after struggling in the endgame areas a bit with a sneaky charismatic Ventrue that specialized in unarmed fighting (a pretty retarded build, an unarmed fighting Ventrue, but hey, it's roalplyign). Had to resort to the discipline thingies or whatever that's called at the very end, 'cause my punches didn't deal enough damage. Pretty much a no-brainer, though. Some bossfights (with the dudes that had life-bars) required actual approach. I remember having the most difficult time with SPOILER SPOILER the Tzimisce demon in his war form. Still, I had him beat. On another playthrough, with a melee-weapon using Malkav, it was easy. Like, really. The combat areas do get boring, though, especially on repeated playthroughs.

And really, the respawning ninja location is ubereasy for a sneak-orientated dude. Although them respawning right under your nose right after you've silent-killed one is ridiculous. If you don't wanna fight, SNEAK.

And yea, save the flamethrower for the endgame.

 

[Wyrmlord]

Why save it? You can just buy more napalm before you go to the endgame. I keep using the flamethrower on bosses all the way from that German guy to the end.

 

[PrzeSzkoda]

I'd rather beat them all up to that point. It's much more... satysfing that way. :evuhl:

 

[Kingston]

Deus Ex is free to play on Gametap right now btw.

Oh and fuck you, Bloodlines is awesome.

 

[buccaroobonzai]

You know whats interesting is that I believe Troika were going to make Journey to the Center of Arcanum using the Source engine, I wonder if they just made Vampire: Bloodlines instead of that. And if that were the case, would Arcanum 2 have been similar to Vampire except in Arcanum's setting-this seems likely.
I think I would of rather had a party Arcanum 2 instead of a FPS/RPG hybrid though, inless they would have made both!