Eidos has lost it - Project Snowblind for the PC

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So, Project Snowblind is being hyped by Eidos and it is a budget title
for the PC, $10 less than the consoles. The trailers and gameplay
videos don't look all that good but what the hell, go out and get it.
The first thing is Crystal Dynamics must have one of the most
irritating opening logo splash scenes ever. It sounds like loud TV
static with some crackling and a big pop added in plus it is butt ugly.
The game comes on DVD, which seems like a plus but the install takes
forever, time enough to make a sandwich and eat it.
Start it up and the game looks like ass. It is hard to come down off
the graphical highs of Far Cry/Doom 3 /Half Life 2/Riddick and realize
that it will take game developers some time to get their programming up
to those standards, but this game looks like it is using 4 year old
graphics technology. Plus, the graphics somehow have no contrast,
almost like there is not enough definition or separation of colors, so
it is very hard to pick out the things that need to be picked out. It
isn't really the display settings, which by the way there isn't any
option for in-game, but just some way the game engine is displaying the
scenes, very muddy looking.
Well, get past that. Supposedly, this was going to be some kind of
expansion to the Deus Ex 2 story which should have been enough warning
right there. The story makes no sense, something about some renegade
general toppling the Hong Kong of 2065 with super soldiers and that
will cause global warfare and then the end of civilization with the,
you guessed it, Ultra Secret Project: Snowblind. Snowblind just ends up
being some supposedly global EMP system which will cause all toasters
to quit working so everybody on Earth will go back to the Stone Age.
OK, ass graphics, ass story. So, maybe there is some gameplay. Nope.
Even worse, the fricking thing CTDs at the worst times, usually when
taking over a turret gun. On top of that, it has checkpoint saves,
which isn't always a total killer, but there are no intermediate saves
from checkpoint to checkpoint, so if it CTDs, then you have to start
all over from your last save.
Well, no point in going on about the huge HUD that overlays the view
at different times without much rhyme or reason except to be a big
pulsating green ring right over the scene, strange breakdowns in
graphics quality during the cutscenes, incredibly low polygon
characters and props, the wildly unbelievable "realistic" character
shadows that look like pulsating square mosaics, the mushy controls,
and so on. Well, at least I learned a lesson. I will not be buying an
Eidos game from here without trying a demo and with a high probability
not even after that, unless they get their act together. The way things
look now though, is they have become the next Acclaim.
 
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On 20 Mar 2005 14:30:38 -0800, "Blig Merk" <blig_murk@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> So, Project Snowblind is being hyped by Eidos and it is a budget title
>for the PC, $10 less than the consoles. The trailers and gameplay
>videos don't look all that good but what the hell, go out and get it.
> The first thing is Crystal Dynamics must have one of the most
>irritating opening logo splash scenes ever. It sounds like loud TV
>static with some crackling and a big pop added in plus it is butt ugly.
>The game comes on DVD, which seems like a plus but the install takes
>forever, time enough to make a sandwich and eat it.
> Start it up and the game looks like ass. It is hard to come down off
>the graphical highs of Far Cry/Doom 3 /Half Life 2/Riddick and realize
>that it will take game developers some time to get their programming up
>to those standards, but this game looks like it is using 4 year old
>graphics technology. Plus, the graphics somehow have no contrast,
>almost like there is not enough definition or separation of colors, so
>it is very hard to pick out the things that need to be picked out. It
>isn't really the display settings, which by the way there isn't any
>option for in-game, but just some way the game engine is displaying the
>scenes, very muddy looking.

All the same arguments came up about DeusEx2:IW when it came out, and
while less noticeable in Thief3, it was definitely there too. Saying
the game looks like 4 year old technology is a bit harsh. There are
some engine weaknesses, but if you actually did grab a fps shooter
from late 2000 or early 2001 and had a look, you'd find your statement
is an exageration.

<SNIP cut&paste DeusEx3:IW bitchfest & spoilers>

All of your complaints seem match the common DeusEx2 complaints word
for word, how does it compare to DeusEx2? I was one of the few that
sort of enjoyed DX2. It wasn't as good as the first game, but then
nobody really expects a sequel to be better than the original. If
it's reasonably bug free and the play experience is similar, I may
just give it a try, especially if it's priced as a budget title.

---------------------------------------------

MCheu
 
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On 20 Mar 2005, "Blig Merk" wrote:

> So, Project Snowblind is being hyped by Eidos and it is a budget title
> for the PC, $10 less than the consoles. The trailers and gameplay

all pc games should be at least 10 bucks cheaper than the same title
for consoles! there are not making us a favour by doing that!
console titles pay extra fees to the console manufacturer and pc games
don't so pc games must always be cheaper than consoles! always!

again thank you very much for giving us your review of pc games released
at the moment you have become a important poster in this group and please
keep those reviews coming!

> and so on. Well, at least I learned a lesson. I will not be buying an
> Eidos game from here without trying a demo and with a high probability

eidos is in big trouble so buying pc games from them is a way of us
supporting them in a moment of need and trying our best to not let
them go bankrupt

> not even after that, unless they get their act together. The way things
> look now though, is they have become the next Acclaim.

oh so you don't mind yet another pc game publisher closing doors?

--
post made in a steam-free computer
i said "NO" to valve and steam

against steam campaign
http://nosteam.afterdarknet.at/

steamwatch - independent observatory about steam
http://www.steamwatch.org/

please sign petition "Say NO! to Steam!" available at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/nosteam/petition.html

what steam does to pc gamers in a million word worth picture:
http://www.nforce.nl/forum/images/avatars/1405845568421463c26ef44.gif
 

Pluvious

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On 20 Mar 2005 14:30:38 -0800, "Blig Merk" <blig_murk@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> So, Project Snowblind is being hyped by Eidos and it is a budget title
>for the PC, $10 less than the consoles. The trailers and gameplay
>videos don't look all that good but what the hell, go out and get it.
> The first thing is Crystal Dynamics must have one of the most
>irritating opening logo splash scenes ever. It sounds like loud TV
>static with some crackling and a big pop added in plus it is butt ugly.
>The game comes on DVD, which seems like a plus but the install takes
>forever, time enough to make a sandwich and eat it.
> Start it up and the game looks like ass. It is hard to come down off
>the graphical highs of Far Cry/Doom 3 /Half Life 2/Riddick and realize
>that it will take game developers some time to get their programming up
>to those standards, but this game looks like it is using 4 year old
>graphics technology. Plus, the graphics somehow have no contrast,
>almost like there is not enough definition or separation of colors, so
>it is very hard to pick out the things that need to be picked out. It
>isn't really the display settings, which by the way there isn't any
>option for in-game, but just some way the game engine is displaying the
>scenes, very muddy looking.
> Well, get past that. Supposedly, this was going to be some kind of
>expansion to the Deus Ex 2 story which should have been enough warning
>right there. The story makes no sense, something about some renegade
>general toppling the Hong Kong of 2065 with super soldiers and that
>will cause global warfare and then the end of civilization with the,
>you guessed it, Ultra Secret Project: Snowblind. Snowblind just ends up
>being some supposedly global EMP system which will cause all toasters
>to quit working so everybody on Earth will go back to the Stone Age.
> OK, ass graphics, ass story. So, maybe there is some gameplay. Nope.
>Even worse, the fricking thing CTDs at the worst times, usually when
>taking over a turret gun. On top of that, it has checkpoint saves,
>which isn't always a total killer, but there are no intermediate saves
>from checkpoint to checkpoint, so if it CTDs, then you have to start
>all over from your last save.
> Well, no point in going on about the huge HUD that overlays the view
>at different times without much rhyme or reason except to be a big
>pulsating green ring right over the scene, strange breakdowns in
>graphics quality during the cutscenes, incredibly low polygon
>characters and props, the wildly unbelievable "realistic" character
>shadows that look like pulsating square mosaics, the mushy controls,
>and so on. Well, at least I learned a lesson. I will not be buying an
>Eidos game from here without trying a demo and with a high probability
>not even after that, unless they get their act together. The way things
>look now though, is they have become the next Acclaim.


Welcome to the age of simultaneous game releases on all platforms.
THIS is exactly what I was raving about. Frickin Consoleitis.

Pluvious
 
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On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 10:01:42 +0000, sayNO2steam
<sayNO2steam@yahoo.com> wrote:

>On 20 Mar 2005, "Blig Merk" wrote:
>
>> So, Project Snowblind is being hyped by Eidos and it is a budget title
>> for the PC, $10 less than the consoles. The trailers and gameplay
>
>all pc games should be at least 10 bucks cheaper than the same title
>for consoles! there are not making us a favour by doing that!

I thought you were all about rewarding the middle man, publisher and
developer (in that order)?

>console titles pay extra fees to the console manufacturer and pc games
>don't so pc games must always be cheaper than consoles! always!

But they have to make up for lost sales due to piracy. Any TRUE pc
gamer, which you are not, would realize this and not complain.

--
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability
of the human mind to correlate all its contents." - H.P. Lovecraft
 
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In article <gntt31l9pvbh0o5229kv5h4speqi1knmhq@4ax.com>, Johnny Bravo says...
>
>On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 10:01:42 +0000, sayNO2steam
><sayNO2steam@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>On 20 Mar 2005, "Blig Merk" wrote:
>>
>>> So, Project Snowblind is being hyped by Eidos and it is a budget title
>>> for the PC, $10 less than the consoles. The trailers and gameplay
>>
>>all pc games should be at least 10 bucks cheaper than the same title
>>for consoles! there are not making us a favour by doing that!
>
> I thought you were all about rewarding the middle man, publisher and
>developer (in that order)?
>
>>console titles pay extra fees to the console manufacturer and pc games
>>don't so pc games must always be cheaper than consoles! always!
>
> But they have to make up for lost sales due to piracy. Any TRUE pc
>gamer, which you are not, would realize this and not complain.
>

Piracy is much more straightforward on an XBox or PS2 than a PC. Anyone with a
DVD burner and a $25 modchip can pirate any console game but very few people
have the skills and patience to defeat starforce or in this case securom
protection on the PC version.
But anyway the price of goods is not relative to the cost of inputs, rather it
is a function of demand; the higher the demand for a product the greater the
price. Under this scenario one would expect those goods which are most heavily
pirated to cost less as the demand is reduced by the availability of bootlegs.
Further to this a price set too high encourages potential consumers to opt for a
pirated version whereas a lower price may cause them to choose the real version
as there is less hassle and a better packaged product.
 
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On 21 Mar 2005 21:58:44 -0800, an@sshole.com wrote:

>Piracy is much more straightforward on an XBox or PS2 than a PC. Anyone with a
>DVD burner and a $25 modchip can pirate any console game but very few people
>have the skills and patience to defeat starforce or in this case securom
>protection on the PC version.
Yeah, its VERY easy to build a mod-chip from scratch. Any 5 year old
can do it.

In other words: really bad comparison. Very few people have the
skill and manufacturing capacity to make modchips, far fewer than
those with the skill to crack copy protection on PC games. It really
only takes one person to do it, though, and everyone else benefits (so
to speak) from it. Just like only one person has to make and sell
modchips for it to be easy to pirate console games, only one person
has to write and make available for download a crack to make it easy
to pirate PC games.
 
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On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 08:16:51 GMT, drocket <drocket@hotmail.com> wrote:

>On 21 Mar 2005 21:58:44 -0800, an@sshole.com wrote:
>
>>Piracy is much more straightforward on an XBox or PS2 than a PC. Anyone with a
>>DVD burner and a $25 modchip can pirate any console game but very few people
>>have the skills and patience to defeat starforce or in this case securom
>>protection on the PC version.
>Yeah, its VERY easy to build a mod-chip from scratch. Any 5 year old
>can do it.

>In other words: really bad comparison. Very few people have the
>skill and manufacturing capacity to make modchips, far fewer than
>those with the skill to crack copy protection on PC games. It really
>only takes one person to do it, though, and everyone else benefits (so
>to speak) from it. Just like only one person has to make and sell
>modchips for it to be easy to pirate console games, only one person
>has to write and make available for download a crack to make it easy
>to pirate PC games.


While I agree the original comparison was not the best, it should be
noted that a recent study indicated that 1 in 5* X-Box users have used
pirated games, which means at least 20% of the market has figured out
how to install a mod chip. So while it may be easier to pirate games
on a PC, it's obviously not so much easier that X-Box developers don't
have to worry about it at all.


* It might have been 1 in 6 users, I forget. And I think the report
was put out by the BSA or a similar company that makes its living by
constantly over-inflating how much piracy hurts the industry. Still,
eve if they doubled the actual value, 10% of x-box users is still a
huge amount, considering it requires the user to actually modify the
hardware, and most PC users I know -including gamers- are terrified of
changing the hardware, even with little things like the mouse.
 
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On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 08:16:51 GMT, drocket <drocket@hotmail.com> wrote:

>On 21 Mar 2005 21:58:44 -0800, an@sshole.com wrote:
>
>>Piracy is much more straightforward on an XBox or PS2 than a PC. Anyone with a
>>DVD burner and a $25 modchip can pirate any console game but very few people
>>have the skills and patience to defeat starforce or in this case securom
>>protection on the PC version.
>Yeah, its VERY easy to build a mod-chip from scratch. Any 5 year old
>can do it.
>
>In other words: really bad comparison. Very few people have the
>skill and manufacturing capacity to make modchips, far fewer than
>those with the skill to crack copy protection on PC games. It really
>only takes one person to do it, though, and everyone else benefits (so
>to speak) from it. Just like only one person has to make and sell
>modchips for it to be easy to pirate console games, only one person
>has to write and make available for download a crack to make it easy
>to pirate PC games.

Yes but the crack is different for each game that is released and you would
have to wait for a new one each and every time a new game comes out that you
want. With a console you have the one mod chip and even future games are
immediately playable. That's the difference you were looking for.