Choice of four. Picking one.

aguywhoplaysthief on 15/4/2009 at 09:01

Dead Space. Get FO3 later.

Scots Taffer on 15/4/2009 at 09:03

Yeah, Thirith, but - and I'm speaking out of school here as I haven't played FO3 - I'd imagine that the stuff STALKER nails, FO3 does on a passable surface level (i.e. atmosphere, lived-in-ness of the environment and the lonely desolation) whereas the stuff that STALKER sucked ass at - meaningful plot progression and worthwhile discussions with NPCs FO3 beats it hands down.

mothra on 15/4/2009 at 09:15

stalker and fo3 is like apples and oranges. they have nothing, absolutely nothing in common you could compare. well, maybe yes, the unbelievable BAD dialogues and voiceovers, but keep in mind: one being an american "top" developer, the other a (back then) small russian one suffering through translation and evidently, poor choice of words.

out of the list I would have picked Zeno for design-novelty or DeadSpace for tried and tested gameplay and genre. Riddick: online activation + installation limits, they do have an impact if you installation fails 3 times, you'll see. FO3: see above and when it's properly priced for its sloppy gameplay and bad visual design (brown, brown, brown): bargain bin

Thirith on 15/4/2009 at 10:08

Quote Posted by Scots Taffer

I'd agree with mothra on this one: the two games are very different beasts and very different gaming experiences. To that extent, the answer to DN's question would have to be: If you're looking for an RPG, go for Fallout 3. If you're looking for an FPS, go for Stalker.

I haven't played Fallout 3 yet, but from what I've seen and read it's clearly satirical and over-the-top to a large extent. Stalker is deadly serious. I can't see many people looking at Fallout and thinking, "Ah, it's Stalker done right!"

Vivian on 15/4/2009 at 10:43

FO3 is great (really great for the first 40 hours or so) but tooooo long and toooo repetitive after a while. There's a mod that puts trees in that looks kinda cool, would definitely liven up mucking around in a landscape made entirely of dust.
Deadspace is reasonably diverting fun if you're not bothered about cleverness. I found it bit too full-of-itself when it came to being scary when really its just a bit silly. Like a po-faced resident evil 4 but you have a bucket on your head and there's some seriously questionable talk about DNA recombination.
Riddick was ok, dunno what else to say (haven't played the upgrade obv, but I'm sure its pretty good).
Zenoclash, on the other hand, looks genuinely fucking intriguing: A first person brawler (with guns made out of fish) set in one of Jean Giraud Moebius's flu dreams? I'm definitely throwing my lot in with that one for a bit.

Rogue Keeper on 15/4/2009 at 10:54

Quote Posted by dethtoll

I love Stalker, but I feel like Fallout 3 is what Stalker wishes it could've been.

Stalker has been stripped of several concepts in the process, especially in the area of ecology and AI behavior, as the concepts have proved to be too ambitious for the developing studio and it seems that all those experiments created more issues than it was healthy. Various mods improve it though. But the ecology and AI in Stalker is still much better than what F3 presents.

Another difference is that Stalker is a serious post-apo, while F3 is a humorous post-apo. And Stalker never meant to be 'Oblivion with guns' in the first place.

Still, I'd recomment Digi Fallout 3 as well, partially because I have little idea about the others.

Vraptor7 on 15/4/2009 at 11:21

Fallout 3 will last you til you're ready to buy another game from the list. I enjoyed Dead Space but it's incredibly short, at my leisurely pace it took around 11 hours, whereas with Fallout 3 I was in a little bit of a hurry by the end to finish it so that I could move on to the second playthrough, and I clocked in 63 hours.

Angel Dust on 15/4/2009 at 12:00

I found Falllout 3 to be a complete and utter bore after my initial 3-5 hours of wasteland exploration. I just couldn't get past the writing which prevented me from getting as immersed in it like some here. Dead Space however was a complete surprise and quite fun indeed. Not earth shattering but a highly entertaining survival horror pastiche with a few Shock echos as well.

While the reviews for Riddick haven't been too strong you didn't mention whether you had played Butcher Bay. If you haven't I would strongly recommend you pick up Dark Athena then.

Zeno Clash is, of course, a complete unknown at this stage but it's obviously much cheaper than any of the others so you might be able to even pick that up as well as one of the others should the reviews and general consesus be positive.

mothra on 15/4/2009 at 13:00

I would go for ZenoClash. It just uncomparable to any other game on your list and that makes it special and support-worthy. well, maybe hand2hand combat is featured in riddick as well, that could be worth a comparison but certainly not with FO3 (slomo repetition of dread) or DeadSpace (whack+stomp).
I certainly bet my money on Zeno (as opposed to Braid, I have enough of platformers and puzzles for the time being)

Fragony on 15/4/2009 at 13:19

I would go with Dead Space, it isn't that long but you will probably want to play it on a harder difficulty after your first go because it's so much fun. It's one of the coolest horror-games in years, and you will probably apreciate all the ehm, tribute it pays to System Shock 2. It's incredibly gory and moody, I get scared pretty easily and Dead Space was absolutely terrifying for me at some points. My only complaint is that it doesn't feel like being on a spaceship where something went very very wrong, where people used to have a life, have breakfast, made love, etc, the feeling of dread however is all there and the monsters you are fighting are just sick, you'll want them dead. Dead Space is a near miss, and totally worth your cash.