Picto Synthesis

Forget about commanding armies, fighting monsters or killing soldiers from the Third Reich. Take a breath of fresh, creative air with these to, poetic games : Cloud and Flow by  Xinghan "Jenova" Chen

You will understand why they were presented at the experimental gameplay workshop and received several awards since.

For more details about his wonderful philosophy, don't miss his presentation about Designing games for Entertainment. 

After spending too many hours grinding through the same tasks, killing wave after wave of the same monsters, fighting incomplete games with incomplete patches, repeating the same parts of a game again and again because nobody thought about allowing a proper save mechanism... I wish more game designers and their marketer masters would pay attention to these principles.

Games should be fun ! 

 

Oblivion is here !

The discovery of the new world of Oblivion and the re-discovery of the depth of Morrowind (enhanced with years of mods) are perfect occasions to open a new site - The Elder Scrolls Trekker - dedicated to the two games. 

 

If you ever see this green guy, step away from your computer. You've just met a dealer of one of the most powerful drugs in the gaming community - MMOG.

Side effects of MMOG include :

• loss of time
• tiredness due to loss of sleep
• distraction outside of the game
• loss of contact with family and friends
• email backlog
  

As a recovering addict, I can speak from experience.

It started just before christmas.

I was already weary of MMO after reading about the effects of variants such as Everquest or City of Heroes. But this little green guy seemed so cute and harmless, I felt safe enough to listen to him and give it a try.

I followed him to the buzzing streets of Stormwind, in the heart of World of Warcraft.

The first weeks where full of discovery and excitement. The feast of Winterveil brought elves, snowfights and presents. From the snowed mountains outside of Ironforge to the lush forest surrounding Darnassus, the scenery was exciting to explore.

The feeling of a persistent, living and breathing world was too engaging to resist, and the overall feeling of mutual help among total strangers was a pleasant surprise. No sneak attack on unsuspecting newbies from bored veterans. No annoying fights from overactive players... at least not at the beginning.

But once the initial quests were completed, reality started to send warning signs ... which I completely ignored of course. Maybe it was because of the boredom of grinding repetitive quests such as 'find me x items', 'bring this to x character' or 'go out and kill x creatures'. Or maybe it was because of quests too difficult for a particular level. Whatever the reason, the game quickly expose you to the appeal of playing with other people. After all, isn't that what MMOGs are all about ?

So .. I played with other people and liked playing with some of them. Added them to my friends list. Played with them the next day. And ended up joing their guild. Where I met other people. And played with them in dungeons.

It was all great fun at first. But slowly, the warning signs because louder. More difficult to ignore.

Take a break from the game for a day - when you return, your 'friends' have completed some of the quests you were planning to explore with them.

Take a break of a weekend - when you return, your 'friends' have leveled up. Sometimes by two levels or more.

Soon, they are playing in a different region of the world. They try to come back and help you catch up.

And if it turn s out you want to have a life and play at the same time, soon you are left behind, looking for new friends as you watch the old ones level up and away.

Add this to the repetitiveness of the constant hunting, mining or skinning required to amass enough materials to progress in whatever skill you chose and the experience starts to look more like work than a game.

And if you throw into this mix, glitches introduced by new patches, unstable connections, and longer waiting queues when you want to play,  the game becomes downright frustrating.

Until one night, you want to play for about an hour or two and you end up spending 30 minutes waiting in line to get in the game, another 20 mins waiting for other friends to join your group only to be disconnected after 15 minutes of play.

So I did what I should have done the first day I met that little green guy. I stepped away from the computer. Deleted my characters and terminated my account.

Just in time to get my hands on Oblivion... but at least, I had years to get used to that kind of offline drug :)

 

In the current landscape of first person shooters for PC, XIII looks like a mutant.

While other titles reach for ultra-realistic, highly detailed graphics, this game is making a more clever use of current video boards capabilities.

Since its story is adapted from a famous european graphic novel, most of the game is rendered with a cell shaded look, with original use of comics conventions such as text bubbles, sounds, and layout of additional views into multiple squares.

The cell-shaded effect is smooth and well renderedthroughout the game,but it is not the only original use of graphics acceleration. Flashback scenes rendered with a shiny, flickering, black and white feel are a nice way to draw the player into a real story.

The story itself, with the unveiling of a global consipiracy, add a lot of this overall well balanced game. I found the game well balanced and very enjoyable, with a minimum of frustrating areas (which had mostly to do with trying to find out the weakness of some of the 'bosses').

It is so refreshing to see that this kind of creativity still exists. I can't help wondering, going through this game, about what truly original visual experiences will be available in the future - once the novelty of realistic lighting and high dynamic range glow will wear out.

Far Cry is the next title to check off on my list of games to complete.

Months after a rocky release, with a stable version and better video drivers, this game is a pleasure to play most of the time.

Overall, the game is nearly flawless. The story is engaging, with some plot twists and well scripted sequences. Paired with a captivating soundtrack and the brilliant graphics, it delivers the right balance to draw you right in the middle of an action movie such as Die Hard.

The graphics are just spectacular. If Doom III set the standard for claustrophobic lighting and Half Life 2 for scripted action and physics, Far Cry raises the bar for rencering vast, outdoor landscapes. Its jungles are deep, shaded, luxuriant places that deserve to be cited as a character in their own right.

This is also the only game I can think of with actually challenging AI. You just have to see how enemies react to your moves, change tactics and adapt to whatever you throw at them. In what other game can you create a diversion in one area and watch your enemies rush toward the noise as you discretely crawl around them. The level of unscripted behaviour in either mercenaries or creatures is high enough to ensure replayability.

And I just might replay it again, if it was not for some difficulty balancing issues that plague the game, especially near the end. Some of the last stages of the game are tedious and sometimes just plain impossible to go through without some kind of cheat code.

If finished "Vampire: The Mascarade - Bloodline" today with the feeling of reaching the last pages of a novel that dragged on for too long.

The begining of the game was novel, dark, sexy and enticing.... but somewhere down the storyline, this game turned into a tedious, painlful and dreadful experience.  The last chapters of the game are blatantly unpolished and unfinished, with huge shortcuts in the storyline, unbalanced opponents, unsurmontable obstacles and a fizzling end sequence.

Here is a perfect example of how much  people are willing to tolerate as long as they are told an interesting story. In spite of the obstacles near the end, this game still manages to remain interesting.

The complexe story with multiple allegiences, side quests and separate endings play a big part in  keeping interest in the game alive. The impressive gallery of characters makes you actually care about how you interact with them. The soundtrack is detailed and almost hypnotic, to the point of becoming a character in itself like in any great movie.

I have mixed feelings about the graphics - they were dazzling enough to create a coherent dark and creepy universe, but the textures were not detailed enough to be competitive with modern 3D games such as 'Half Life 2' or 'Far Cry'.  The Physics engine shared with 'Half Life 2'  made only anecdotal  appearances, contributing the the feeling the game was released far from being finished.

Yet, with all its defects, this game was a memorable experience. I would almostplay it again with different characters if only it was not so tedious near the end.
  
 

I finished 'Half life 2' and it was a hell of a ride.

Unfortunately it was also just that - a ride.

Granted the game was great fun. Passed the first bitter taste of Steam, sound glitches and crashes, running through the rest of the game was tremendously enjoyable.

Reaching the end without having to jump through the usual impossible levels and their nearly invicible 'bosses' was a pleasurable surprise as well.

But 'Half Life 2' turns out to be a one trick pony. In site of the great experience playing it a first time, there is almost no value at replaying it again. Every step of the hollow storyline is scripted, leaving no surprise. In the end, it feels like a summer blockbuster - great visuals, thrilling ride, anemic story but not the kind of movie you would want to watch over again .

It took a few months of patience but I finally got Helf Life 2 to work. I made several changes at once so I am not sure which one actually fixed my issues. I will list them all here in case that can help someone else.

The first change was a bit extreme in most cases - I replaced my Nvidia GeForce 5900 by a new ATI Radeon 800 Pro. Both vendors are coming up with new PCI Express models, so I figured it was the right time to get my last AGP card before upgrading my motherboard in a year or two. I was a bit tense switching over to ATI after years of Nvidia, but I don't regret it so far. This new card is cooler and quieter than the old one. And most of all, the visual quality I get out of it is well worth the jump.

The next change was to wait long enough after the initial release of the game to download the latest patch level. I can't tell how much I dislike the lack of control while using Steam. Valve's online distribution system splashes news like a spyware and downloads updates wether I need/want them or not. There is also little indication where these updates are loaded or wether I can make an offline backup of these files. I sincerely hope this is not the future of game delivery. If it is, I am afraid I will have to cherish my current collection of 'normal' games while I can.

Next update was to run a utility released by Valve to check the integrity of Half Life 2 files. Corrupted files can lead to an unstable system according to the online support site. This utility can be ran by clicking on the the corresponding links from Valve's support site.

The final stop was a Tweak Guide for Half Life 2 strongly recommended by gamers on the official forum. This help file walks you step by step through a series of updates that are supposed to make the game run smoothly. It seemed to work so far :)

So how is the game now that I can finally play it ?

It feels like a semi-interactive movie. It is a one way ride , alternative between mad dashes on foot and with vehicles, and from time to time, a 'big boss' or a Physics Puzzle (tm). In spite of the lack of depth and a weak story, this game is still a lot of fun. The physics system is just amazing, as is the AI and scripting sequences (ntohing is more fun than throwing antlions to a squad of combine soldiers and watch them fight it out).

I can't wait until someone uses this game engine in a non-linear, story based game.

Since I couldn't get 'Half Life' to run, I thought I would try the next game on my list. 'Vampire: Bloodlines' was more than a pleasant surprise. It dragged me into its dark and sexy atmosphere as efficiently as a good movie, and left me with a strong feeling to continue the story even after a few days away from it.

Forget about the fiasco that is 'Half Life 2'. Released in the shadow of Valve's hit, and sharing the same Source graphic engine, 'Vampire: Bloodlines' is arguably a lot more interesting to play.

Instead of a graphically intense shooting gallery like 'Half Life 2', 'Vampire: Bloodlines' offers an immersive game, with an interactive world to explore. It follows the same tradition of role playing games as 'Deus Ex 1', 'Pandora Directive' and to some extend 'Morrowind', even though it doesn't go as far in creating a self contained world. The game mechanics are non-linear, leaving it to the player to decide whether pursuing the main story or explore the world through smaller quests.

One of the main features of this game is its story. Right from the opening scenes, the creative storyline and imaginative side quests create the illusion of a coherent world. The game remains faithful to the role playing game that inspired it by weaving a complex web of clans, sects and races (vampires, werewolves, ghouls, ghosts and other monsters). It is so faithful in fact, that it features definitely mature content. It is refreshing to see violent and sexy content used maturely at the service of a story and not just as an excuse to be offensive.

The second most important feature of this game is its incredible gallery of characters. Although the game does reuse some models in order to generat crowds of secondary extras, the main characters in the story are individuals. They are expressive, with a personality, an attitude and highlights in their eyes. I have rarely seen characters in a game that I could so easily care about.



Interestingly enough, the graphics in this game take the back seat. Even though they do not feature as many bells and whistles as 'Far Cry',' Doom III' or 'Half Life', they contribute to create a solid atmosphere. And guess what ? The story is so good that I could care less about using the latest shading or lighting technique.

Of course, the game is not perfect. I already found a few technical glitches, stuttering sound, some lag in cut scenes (a little like 'Half Life 2' issues, probably due to the shared graphics engine, but not as bad).

Add to this a dark and gothic soundtrack and you have the elements of a great gaming experience. 'Vampire:Bloodlines' is a perfect illustration that a game doesn't have to be gorgeous, cutting edge or perfect, as long as it is fun to play.

I'm sorry to report that, at least in my experience, Half Life 2 has been nothing but a series of disappointments. So far, the ultimate experience promised by the game is seems as unreachable as the top of that blue tower dominating City 17.

Over the past week, I have barely played a total of 4 hours into the game. This time was not spent at once, but it was spread out over multiple attempts.

Here is how these attemps ended :

1- Sound glitches. One security guard dismembered with polygons for arms and legs orbiting around his head. PC freezes.
2- Sound glitches. PC freezes during a scripted sequence. Sound stuck in a loop during the freeze.
3, 4 ,5 - Dead end. New level not automatically loaded. Menu scrambled - impossible to quit. Had to reboot.
6- Game freezes just before loading a new level. Sound stuck in loop.
7- PC reboots by itself just before an explosion in the game

Attempt #7 was the last time I could play. Since then, saved games won't even load. I can't get past 80% of the loading progress bar before the game crashes back to the desktop with two 'beeps' from windows.

I tried the game with and without Norton running. I tried it with and without sound. With low and high graphics settings with no result. Now I basically have to shelf the game until they come up with a patch which, hopefully, will make it functionnal. In the meantime, I will have to take a seat and watch the news about Half Life issues and monitor the Steam User Forum.

Needless to say, I am less than impressed for a game that has been hailed so far as the Second Coming by every game site I could find. Have any of these places experienced any glitch so far ?!

Between the Steam platform and the game itself, I have never seen such a convoluted installation procedure. Valve should have spent a little less time trying to block piracy attempts (that will happen no matter what) and invested more time into making sure the game would just work.

In no other industry are we willing to live (and spend money) on deficient products. I know bugs cannot be avoided, but there has to be some limit to what you put on the market.

Is that so much to ask to have a game that just works ?!

The wait is over. Gordon Freeman is back, with his crowbar and hoards of crab head zombies.

You can believe all the hyperbolic reviews that have started to appear all over the place. This is it - the best first person game ever.

But first, a reality check.

Before getting back to the goodness of playing this game, let me give you a little spoiler. As good as it is, Half Life on PC does not fare better than FarCry or Doom III as far as first impressions are concerned.

It is as expensive (about $60 with tax) and as frustrating to install as the other block busters.

First disappointment, the game requires a network connection to unlock its content through the creation of an account on Valve's Steam system. The experience of setting this up is as chilling as the oppressive totalitarian atmosphere the game is supposed to create. This activation system means that, in the (unlikely ?) event Valve goes down, you may not be able to install the game in the future. You can also forget installing the game behind a strict firewall or on a stand alone (offline) machine.

The activation phase itself is slow, partly due to the overwhelming response to the game. Apparently, Valve and Vivendi Universal did not anticipate there would be so many people trying to activate the game at the same time. After an aborted lauch in September 2003 and a year of wait, what did they expect ?

About 45 minutes and a few downloads later, the Steam platform is installed and Half Life ready to run. The game starts smoothly and the train station of City 17 appears in all its glory.... that is until one of the characters starts losing polygons and ends up dismembered in a spectacular freeze of the game.

One reboot later, a second attempt is a little more successful. After about half an hour of game, a teleporter sends Alex, one of the main characters, in a flashy... freeze and crash to the desktop.

Playing one last time after this second crash goes a little better. Loading times are long. The game stops for a couple of seconds from time to time and the audio skips a word here and there. These little glitches spoil te atmosphere and give an aftertaste of imminent crash. Not a good thing for a game where suspension of disbelief is key.

Hopefully, these glitches will be resolved over time. That would really make Half Life the best first person game I ever player.

For the rest, like I said, you can believe the reviews. The story is captivating, the music and twists send rushes of adrenaline through your spine. The atmosphere is deliciously oppressing. And the graphics are simply stunning, even though it is not always safe to stop and admire the view.

I was ready to blame my earlier installation issues on an aging system. Now I can say that again - Doom III has serious issues with its installation procedure.

I spent the past 3 days rebuilding my PC - new motherboard, new CPU and memory, new main harddrive, new CD player. Tonight, most of my software has been reinstalled. Time to bring Doom back to life on this new system and see how it feels compared to the old one.

The result was the same :

- Norton Anti Virus had to be disabled (or it stops the installation dead in its tracks)

- The windows installer had to be updated with the runtime components available on the CD1.

- All three CDs had to be copied in a single folder on the harddrive for the installation to run smoothly.

It took only 45 minutes this time, instead of 2 hours, but it is still not an acceptable behavior from such an expensive game. After being in the making for 4 years, you would think they could have spend some more time testing the installation procedure.

Ok... the rave reviews were right after all. Doom III is an amazing game.

From the beginning, the game is a claustrophobic, oppressive experience. Like in the best horror movies, it takes you through a constant flow of creepy sounds, menacing shadows and flickering lights. Everything conspires to give you that nagging feeling that something is right behind your back.

They were not joking when the Mature Rating displays a warning about 'strong horror sequences'. The game should also carry a Surgeon General Warning about the effects it can have on your nerves.

A lot of people have complained about having to switch between using a flashlight or a gun, to the point that someone even created a mod for the game to simulate attaching a flashlight to some of the guns with duct tape. While this mod adds some realism of its own, having to decide between light and firepower is a great way to create terror.

Like Horror Master H.P.Lovecraft repeatedly said, there is nothing more terrifying than what you can imagine. The true horror of this game comes from what you cannot see. You are never quite sure there is not  something lying in the shadow of a room. The sounds behind your head could be the screams of a demon or just steam rushing through a valve. In this category, Doom III is an extraordinary achievement.

The game is not without defaults of course. The story and interactivity are kept to a minimum (but at least, there is a story unlike other mindless shooting games). I can just imagine what it would be like to recreate a game like System Shock II with this technology. Hopefully someone will create that mod.

The artificial intelligence of the creatures is a little light compared to games like Far Cry or the upcoming Half Life 2 (if I can believe the videos). But the creatures pack in brutality what they lack in intelligence. As the game unravels, new and more powerful creatures start showing up. I can't wait to see what the end looks (and feels) like.

So far, about a third into the game, Doom III definitely deserves the title of the best survival game ever made.

 

Here is something you are not likely to read in the mountains of amazing reviews of Doom III - a $60 game should not take 2 hours of battle to install.

Like legions of other fans, I waited patiently the arrival of a new level of experience in PC games. I even avoided the rush of the first couple of days in a video game store and get my copy from a well supplied store. I finally got home with the precious box in my hands, opened and ploped the CD into my drive and.... nothing.

Two seconds into the installation sequence, Windows installer decides this game is too evil for me and just rolls over... dead. Windows soon follows and begs for a reboot.

Second attempt - I disable Norton Anti Virus in case it was the source of my problems... same result.

Third attempt - the README file on the CD make a vague reference to the fact that the windows installer will detect if the PC has an older version and will install a new version automatically. Like that was going to happen... An installation and a reboot later, I finally get past the first CD. This time, the installation hangs on  the second CD. Back to the drawing board...

Fourth attempt - Copied all three CDs in separate directories (Disk1, Disk2 and Disk3) on my harddrive only to find out the installer cannot find the other folders after taking care of Disk1.

Fifth attempt - Copied all CDs in a single folder, disabled Norton AntiVirus just in case and.... finally ! The installation went through... that is, until it reminded me that I had to install DirectX9b.

A last reboot later, I can finally watch with anticipation Mars Station coming to life on my screen in all glorious colors, shadows and nightmarish screams.

Doom 3, Half Life 2, Call of Cthulhu, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.... the end of the year is promising some very exciting games. Time to clean up the shelves and go over some older games I have not finished yet.

First in line - Deus Ex II : Invisible War.

I have mixed feelings about that one.

On the one hand, it was exciting to follow the initial storyline. Going through some places from the initial game, meeting some familiar faces made the game feel like going back home after a long time on the road. Things are not quite the same but they remain familiar.

On the other hand, while the original story was dark and deliciously complexe, this one is needlessly complicated. Right from the beginning, the little game of factions and political powerplays turns into a confusing labyrinth of names, groups and leaders. If it was not for some cool graphics and a comfortable user interface, the game almost lost me in the first two levels.

Fortunately, perseverance eventually pays off once the storyline forces the player to make some critical alliances. The story throws in some rare comments about Society and Control, too little compared to the first game, as if they decided to dumb this one down to make it more accessible.

The story is also much shorter. It took me about 12 hours of gameplay, while I recall spending almos the double in the first one.

Overall, the game was not very difficult, not very challenging and quite linear, although it was still possible to resolve situation in many ways (lethal and not). Choice in this game is very superficial. yes, you can chose sides and make alliances that result in very different endings. But the progression towards that end still feels too linear.

Too bad this sequel was a little disappointing. It is still a lot of fun to play but I can’t shake the feeling that it missed becoming so much more.

Although I purchased Far Cry about a week ago, I haven't played more than an hour of it, and it was not for lack of trying.

So far, this game has been a lesson in patience and frustration.

First mistake was to install the newly release patch. The game was out for less than a week when the patch was made available. I should have taken that as an hint. The patch was supposed to improve performance and get rid of some visual glitches. It turned out that it did not really like to coexist with an Nvidia GeForce FX 5900. Performance was so slow it reminded me of software rendering back in the days of Unreal wthout hardware acceleration. Some textures of trees or entire portions of sky turned into blinking noise reminiscent of glitches in the Matrix or on a bad Holodeck exercise. And at the first sign of gunshots, large polygons just came blazing through the screen and brought the whole game to a crawl. Not a good thing for an action title.

I had to reinstall the game and not apply the patch to find satisfying performances. Now the game runs as expected, with only minor visual defects (mostly bright blue shadows in some areas... not too appealing but harmless for the rest of the game).

That's too bad because both demos of the game turned out great and I could not wait to sink my teeth into that title. So, after much frustration, what does the game have to offer ?

• The most beautifully rendered outdoor scenes I have ever seen. The water is gorgous. The jungle is most credible. The special effects add a glow to the scenes that only increase the contrast between sunlight and shadows. Bugs buzz around you. Birds fly up in the sky. Fishs swarm in the water. Just walking through the game makes me wish I was there on vacation.
• Great story telling. Although the introduction could use some explanations, I liked how every element of gameplay (namely, the usual tutorial and explanations about HUD elements) were weaved into the story. I haven't got very far, but what I saw was promising.
• Cunning ennemies. The mercenaries that swarm the islands call for reinforcements, turn around you and run for cover. This game is difficult at times, even in 'Easy' mode.
• Credible vehicles. I was pleased to see that driving heads on into a truck will cause your own vehicle to explode and kill you in the process. Likewise, you have to push a beached boat into the water before using it. These are nice touches that make the game a lot more fun.

The game is well worth trying to get it to run. It is just unfortunate that technical glitches come and spoil what would have been (and could be still)  a great gaming experience.

Bottom line. If you own a GeForce FX 5900, DO NOT install patch v1.1 and the latest NVIDIA drivers (v56.72 dated April 1st). Just run the game out of the box and ignore those light blue shadows that pop up from time to time. Hopefully, future patches will take care of these issues.

After going through two of the most amazing demos I have seen in the long time, I finally got my hands on "Far Cry".

Well... the enthousiasm generate by the demos was short lived. The game turns out to be sluggish, with visual glitches that bring up memories of the first 3D accelerations cards. Once again, this is a game that was not tested well enough on existing hardware and rushed through the door. Even after a patch, the game is unplayable.

I thought I could exercise my frustration by installing "XIII" - I bought tht one over christmass for a rainy day. Even that was impossible to do - the game turned out to be so fun to play that the kids literally stole it from me :(

I will have to wait before going through that one....

I thought the Normandy beach scene in "Medal of Honor" was it - the perfect immersion in a brutal battlefield, with its exploding boats, random blanket fire from unreachable machine guns and screaming soldiers running up a hill.

Forget about "Medal of Honor" - "Call of Duty" is here.

This is not a game. "Call of Duty" is a cinematic experience. It becomes obvious at the first scene of assault in a farm in Normandy. After a stealh exercice to set up a radio beacon, airborne troups land in the middle of a field and all hell breaks lose. A plane crashes in a building. German and American screams are barely covered by the roar of guns and in the background, anti aircraft stations illuminate the distant sky with their flak.

The game is so intense at times that I had to stop and really look around, each new step possibly the last. And to make things more interesting, the game features the same realistic touch introduced by Halo - only two main weapons can be carried at any time.

The story is linear, viewed through multiple characters instead of a "one man war" from so many games. But the storyline develops fluidly from assignment to orders, each new situation providing occasions to shine with heroism or just sit back and cower.

And then there are moments of sheer brilliance, such as how the game slows down and the image blurs when a mortar explodes nearby, or when you spend a few minutes with other soldiers in a glider on its way to a strategic bridge.

Going through the first part in Normandy was in many way comparable to being drawn into such movies as "Saving Private Ryan" or "Band of Brothers". It took me close enough to the experience of a battle that it made me hope I would not have to live through one.

Three years since the first screenshots published in a magazine, Halo has finally landed on PC and despite some technical difficulties, it was worth the wait.

This title brings a level of immersion rarely achieved in video games. The blend of dramatic music, amazing graphics and incredible amount of details is near perfect.

Just as in Half-Life, the opening scenes seamlessly work as a tutorial to handling the game, but as soon as the initial exercises are over, it becomes appearant that this is not just another shooting gallery.

In fact, the sense of immersion I felt with this game is high enough to forgive the nagging reminders that the experience could have been much closer to an interactive 3D movie.

The game IS a shooting gallery. There is actually not much to do other than kill aliens and find your way in numerous, repetitive corridors. The game turns a boring shooting range into an experience in survival by allowing to carry only two weapons at a time, forcing the player to constantly plan for the next time his current weapons run out of ammo and scavenge the battle field for supplies.

There is not much interactivity, with aliens and marines alike, but the level of artificial intelligence enhance the feeling of figthing side by side with squads of teammates. On the marines side, characters have little problem following, they run for cover when necessary and even call for backup. On the alien side, the sense of intelligence is even more challenging with one notable exception - aliens seem to have a fascination with grenades coming their way. Although they scream ’grenade !’ when they see one next to them, they invariably stay around long enough to be blown up to pieces.

The level of details is exceptional. You just have to see shells bursting from your gun and rolling down an alien hallway, or the light from your gun illuminate a dark corner, or even a semi transparent cloaked alien coming out of nowhere. Unfortunately, this level of details comes at a price. Although the game runs smoothly with full details on a decent configuration (P4 2.4 GHz, 1 Gb of RAM with a GeForce fx 5900), it comes to a screetching halt in indoor scenes. I have still to understand why four walls and a few doors takes longer to render than an open landscape with trees, waterfalls, rocks and dozens of aliens.

The story is pretty much linear, but it contains enough twists and turns to make it interesting to follow and actually wonder where this is all going and care about the plot. This is rare enough in current games to be worth mentionning.

Actually, Halo for PC can be considered as what Unreal II might have been. The level of graphism between the two games is similar. The type of story (race to recover an ancient alien artifact/weapon) is nearly identical. The only difference is that Halo actually succeeds in bringing the player inside its world.

That and driving a Warthog...