» Thu Dec 08, 2011 2:06 pm Now that I've gotten to see some of the little touches, the attention to detail, the nods to other games or past id games... the game has really endeared itself to me a lot and I've played a few missions which were just downright fun. Vehicle combat is downright fun. The game has an awful lot going for it, really.
It's a shame that the problems which plagued the game on PC at release have and continue to mar the ability of people to properly appreciate it and look at it with the right sort of eyes. Ideally we could've all just appreciated the game and taken in what it had to offer, which is flawed but pretty awesome over all. There are some aspects of the game which bug me make no mistake.
I feel like it's a bit too cute with "okay you finished the mission, now magically you can get right back out of the area! nice and convenient" yea it is easy... but it feels a bit cheap/cheesy.
The mayor needs to Please continue, my good sir.. We don't need a constant drone of his voice commenting on every single thing you've done... take it down a notch.
The bandits and mutants may be a little bit *too* acrobatic, it makes for a challenge, and that's good, and the fights do really feel very cool, but maybe they don't need to be Darth Maul parkour dancing around me quite that much. It might be just a bit over the top.
Some of the textures, in indoor environments in particular, really are pretty atrocious... I have a hard time believing the game couldn't have had better interior textures and details (I saw some chemical jars in a hospital which literally, honestly were lower polygon than similar chemical jars in Doom 3) in these enclosed, loading environments... these areas are not connected to the main outer world, and thus I would've thought could've afforded to have crisper texture work and higher poly count. Also, on a related note, sometimes indoor areas where you go into the dark look very washed out and blue-tinted.
But I didn't mean to get carried away with negatives, my feeling about the game right now is really great. I'm having a blast.
The outdoor environments are beautiful, when you hear them talking about their strategy for unique looking outdoor environments it can sound a little bit nebulous but when you experience it, you see what they mean and why it's so great. The wasteland is FANTASTIC. Not just the look fo it but the feel and layout, yea it's definitely a bit "on rails" or "corridorish" for sure, but it's still awesome.
Vehicle combat is a lot of fun, someone said the game could've done without it but I disagree, I really think it's a neat element. I have always loved the feel in games of having a vehicle I park somewhere and get out, and return to, the first game that gave me that awesome feeling was Blaster Master for NES I believe. Fallout 2, which was nowhere near as good as Fallout 1, did have one very cool aspect which was again, having a car you could feel ownership over, it made you feel like a badass to roll up in your machine, get out, go tackle some guys on foot, and return to it. It's just a cool element for a game to have and I would miss it if it weren't here.
Overall the characters look really good, and are well voice acted. I do think the sarge who's in charge of you in Doom 3 voice actor might have gotten used a few too many times though, I can always tell it's him and he voices multiple characters. The mayor voice actor could've been better too. John Goodman does a great job.
The gunplay and dungeon environments are really cool, a couple in particular, one in particular... which is inside of a town, was really really fun.
So yea, I just wish I hadn't had to buy the game twice (first on PC then on XBox 360 due to being unable to play it on PC) and I wish I wasn't having to experience it with far less attractive visuals than if I were playing through my PC copy... but as of now the texture pop is still not something I'm able to ignore on my PC version. It's gotten a lot LOT better since how it ran night 1, but it's not to the point where I can switch right now. I wouldn't want to start over anyway, not yet. I'll make it a point to play through the game again on PC, looking gorgeous, at some point down the line when all the problems are ironed out, or maybe on my next PC. It does look like my current one can handle it fine though, I can tell it's not the PC's fault at this point.
Anyway, great game, just a shame about the shoddy release on PC.
