Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Dark Athena - Atari publishing, PC ver confirmed

EvaUnit02 on 6/1/2009 at 11:44

Quote Posted by Koki

It is must-play in the sense that, this being TTLG, everyone is expected to be Thief fans, and this leads to being stealth game fans, and this leads to Riddick having stealth elements - as poor as they might be. But to outright buy it on the premise of stealth gameplay? No way.

Personally I'm committed to Deus Ex and SS2. Thief is just an occasional fuck buddy.

Hesche on 6/1/2009 at 12:11

Quote Posted by dethtoll

I'm a fan of Pitch Black and I've been thinking about picking up Butcher Bay for years; should I wait for Dark Athena instead?

Also, once you´ve finished EfBB you´ll have the option to replay it in "developer mode", basically an interactive making of. That mode was my first insight in level and NPC design, scripting and basically things you don´t worry about or don´t even recognize as a player but took a lot of work and time for the developers to implement. Also the developer commentaries and anecdotes really make for a great experience...and funny swedish accents.

Thirith on 6/1/2009 at 12:24

I liked the devs' comments, but there were too many of them and they could have done with some serious editing (also because English was obviously not the speakers' first language in most cases, so there was more time spent on looking for the right words). I should probably go back to it at some point.

Shadowcat on 6/1/2009 at 19:49

Quote Posted by WingedKagouti

So the game was capable of looking like the screenshots, but performance suffered heavily on any PC available, to the point of being unplayable with everything at max settings.

You know what? I have no problem with that. Because you missed the "currently" between "PC" and "available". I like it when games are moderately future-proof, and still look good when you play them again five years later.

Think of it like the ultimate fan-made graphical enhancement pack. But it's done by the developers, in advance. Sweet.

EvaUnit02 on 6/1/2009 at 20:38

Quote Posted by Shadowcat

But you get the scenario that occurred with Crysis' launch, people bitched that the highest settings weren't running satisfactorily on their entry level to mid range enthusiast PCs (I suppose Radeon x1950/NV7900 series were at the low end and early garbage DX10 cards like the G80 8800GTS and HD2900 series were in the mid range). Sales weren't as strong as expected, likely from people waiting until there was better performing affordable hardware and piracy. This caused Cervat Yerli to have a big whinge.

In other words, people can be idiots whom over-react easily, without knowing the reality of things.

Angel Dust on 6/1/2009 at 21:27

Quote Posted by Koki

I always thought the Riddick was must play for TTLGers not because it has stealth elements but that it is a FPP game with a lot more going on than shooting. It's one of those hybrid games that we generally go bananas over.

june gloom on 6/1/2009 at 21:33

Yes, we do seem to enjoy our hybrid FP games.

Koki on 7/1/2009 at 08:17

Saying Riddick is a hybrid game is like saying HL2 is a hybrid game because in one level you're shooting, in other you're driving, and yet in another you throw stuff at zombies.

Shadowcat on 7/1/2009 at 09:10

Quote Posted by EvaUnit02

In other words, people can be idiots whom over-react easily, without knowing the reality of things.

For sure. But I can't say that's a problem I'm especially concerned about, personally :)

It sounds like they've heeded one lesson from the Crysis outcry, though: Hiding the settings until the hardware is available:

Quote:

special settings, that made the game run far worse than under anything available in the normal settings menu

At least that way, everyone who uses them knows damned well they have no right to bitch about the performance hit. (Not that that will stop some of them, but it still seems like a sensible move.)

Angel Dust on 7/1/2009 at 10:24

Quote Posted by Koki

Saying Riddick is a hybrid game is like saying HL2 is a hybrid game because in one level you're shooting, in other you're driving, and yet in another you throw stuff at zombies.

Half Life 2 has variation, yes, but it can still comfortably fall into the FPS category whereas Riddick feels like a different beast entirely. Perhaps hybrid is the wrong word but it is a unique mash-up of adventure/FPS meelee/stealth/FPS shooting and that is why it is of great interest to TTLG folk not because it has some stealth bits.