Like I said earlier in this thread, I do so love flawed masterpieces. You don't mention in the review outside influences on the game's quality, such as probability/frequency of official patches, and fan-made content/fixes for the game, which make or break games like V:TM:Bloodlines, The Elder Scrolls series, or this.
I can respect a decision to leave that sort of thing out of a review, though, since that's only the promise of content and fixes, and the game as released should be what's on the chopping block. However, I can easily see such a game as this becoming a huge triumphal timesink well beyond 50 hours, if given love and maintenance. And we do live in times when there are more programmers working on maintaining code for the original Doom than most studios use to make the latest games.
I looked it up and the official patches are already up to 1.13, with a long list of tweaks and fixes, and a hint at a release of a map editor. No sign of an SDK or more in-depth editing tools. Still, fingers crossed.
(09-19-2011, 12:40 AM)hollowleviathan Wrote: Like I said earlier in this thread, I do so love flawed masterpieces. You don't mention in the review outside influences on the game's quality, such as probability/frequency of official patches, and fan-made content/fixes for the game, which make or break games like V:TM:Bloodlines, The Elder Scrolls series, or this.
I can respect a decision to leave that sort of thing out of a review, though, since that's only the promise of content and fixes, and the game as released should be what's on the chopping block. However, I can easily see such a game as this becoming a huge triumphal timesink well beyond 50 hours, if given love and maintenance. And we do live in times when there are more programmers working on maintaining code for the original Doom than most studios use to make the latest games.
I looked it up and the official patches are already up to 1.13, with a long list of tweaks and fixes, and a hint at a release of a map editor. No sign of an SDK or more in-depth editing tools. Still, fingers crossed.
I reviewed the latest version of the game, and I'm pretty sure most of my footage is from the latest version too. I wouldn't normally mention mods and unofficial patches unless they were widely in use. As far as I know, there are no unofficial patches yet apart from one that mutes hacking sounds. I heard a rumor that there's going to be an unofficial new translation too, but this is just hearsay, and I don't want to get anyone's hopes up.
Were I to review System Shock 2 or Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines or S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky, I would mention the loads of unofficial compatibility/bug patches and visual updates and whatnot, but EYE is in its infancy so far.
Yeah, like I could wait for an ACE Team game to go on sale. Great summary of what makes that game great, although I did feel that the boss fights (except for the fantastic final one) were the least great portion of the game. Both the skillful map design and complimentary defense units create a game of staggering depth for a game about throwing rocks at each other.