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Arx Fatalis 3/5.

While it clearly is a labour of love I must say that it incorporates many design choices that I dislike. First of all it's a dungeon crawler, which isnt my favourite subgenre. Second it's extremely linear and event driven, which is made worse by bugs (I had a goblin chef get stuck unable to deliver "spiced up" pie to his king, forcing me to go back to an earlier save), limited inventory space (which doesnt make sense since there is no weight limit to what one can carry), and full of find the lever/button puzzles that forces me to spend a lot of time backtracking searching for that one obscure hidden button.

The magic interface is nifty but could have been a bit more tolerant to variation, I often find it hard to draw runes the right way.
 
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Playing the demo for Lego Indiana Jones. WooHaa!! It's so funny when the lego men die they break into seperate pieces.
 
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Playing the demo for Lego Indiana Jones. WooHaa!! It's so funny when the lego men die they break into seperate pieces.


I also downloaded that and gave it a try. I thought the graphics, music, and animation were outstanding. I enjoyed the demo, although I probably wouldn't buy the full game as it was a little too lighthearted for my taste.
 
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Yes, I'm debating that one myself. I liked the demo, but jumping was a little tedious and I just don't know if such a lighthearted game is worth the money right now. I will definitely buy the Lego Batman game when it is released though - I'm a huge Batman fan.

...Still, when Indy pulls out everything but the kitchen sink (including the head of C-3-P-O) at the end of the demo trying to avoid giving up the idol... that was halarious!
 
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I downloaded & tried it yesterday evening, but apparently I was too tired for it. ;)

I don't like WASD very much, but haven't found a way to switch the keys or to the second keyboard the game offers.
 
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I downloaded & tried it yesterday evening, but apparently I was too tired for it. ;)

I don't like WASD very much, but haven't found a way to switch the keys or to the second keyboard the game offers.


I thought it was terrible with the keyboard, I used a Logitech dual analog pad (the one that looks like a PS2 controller) and that worked a lot better. It definitely wasn't designed with keyboard in mind.
 
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Yes, it's primary a console game, I see.
 
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Arx Fatalis 3/5.

The magic interface is nifty but could have been a bit more tolerant to variation, I often find it hard to draw runes the right way.
I would give it a slightly better score, but yes, it's a dungeon crawler, which is not my favorite genre, either. My main criticism would be that the game has such an empty feeling.

And yes, drawing those runes could be tricky. Fortunately, you could store three castings and didn't have to do it during an emergency situation.
 
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And, and additional point: Isn't BG the first case of exclusive in-game items ? I mean these merchants ?

Because I don't know any other games that did it at that point (except online games, maybe).
I honestly don't know. I would think some of the sports games might have started that, but I hardly play anything else than CRPGs on the computer.
 
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I also downloaded that and gave it a try. I thought the graphics, music, and animation were outstanding. I enjoyed the demo, although I probably wouldn't buy the full game as it was a little too lighthearted for my taste.

I still haven't had a chance to play the demo, but will likely end up getting the game. The LEGO Star Wars games were some of the best stuff in the past few years, so I am predisposed to liking it .

I won't even try a keyboard and mouse ... recently picked up a wireless X360 controller to replace the wired one that didn't survive the move ...
 
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Soulcalibur III. Man, it's a blast, especially if compared to Tekken 5 which made me wonder why I had ever liked the series. It it hadn't been for Jack...
Anyway, SC III is awesome in that you have - in story mode - different options to play through individual characters' storylines, with decisions to make in between fights. This might mean at least two playthroughs of one character to get the full story (and all items), but that's hardly bitter since the game is - once again - real fun. And there are two different additional single player story modes where you can create and use your own character.
 
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I would give it a slightly better score, but yes, it's a dungeon crawler, which is not my favorite genre, either. My main criticism would be that the game has such an empty feeling.

And yes, drawing those runes could be tricky. Fortunately, you could store three castings and didn't have to do it during an emergency situation.

3/5 is average/descent and still playable on my scale:). I would have rated it higher if they got some design decisions and interface issues right.

Now I've reached a point where I'm a bit tired of the linear premise. There is really only one place to go and some of my skills are on the inadequate side.

The NPC and monster density is fine to me given the tiny world size (though as usual the "kingdom" in a 1st person RPG is ridiculously and unbeliably small), but the rarity of some items bugs me (I never liked games with finite amounts of wooden stakes, mushrooms, pieces of woods, or standard arrows).

I've not had any real problems with the magic system (I'm playing a heavy fighter and dont need it much), but it can be very tedious to try to activate portals. Reading runes is more or less a simple OCR mechanism and they've made it way too sensitive to minor deviations in angle. While it is fair that some heavy duty runes require more intricate patterns the game should allow for a few degrees of variation when drawing a vertical line or the like. It's a system with potential that I wish someone picked up, but I'm rather dissatisfied with the implementation.
 
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The NPC and monster density is fine to me given the tiny world size (though as usual the "kingdom" in a 1st person RPG is ridiculously and unbeliably small), but the rarity of some items bugs me (I never liked games with finite amounts of wooden stakes, mushrooms, pieces of woods, or standard arrows).

Arx Fatalis really wasn't that small, I think the entire story taking place underground made it seem smaller than it actually was, although it certainly wasn't a large world either.

The size of the game didn't bother me at all. What did bother me was the low level cap and the unfinished feel in some parts. I still rate the game quite highly though due to the great atmosphere.
 
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Arx Fatalis really wasn't that small, I think the entire story taking place underground made it seem smaller than it actually was, although it certainly wasn't a large world either.

I'm admittedly a sucker for worlds that at least give the illusion of being large (Two Worlds, Morrowind, and to some extent Gothic 2:s add-on world are IMHO the only reasonably modern games to give that illusion:)).
 
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I thought it was terrible with the keyboard, I used a Logitech dual analog pad (the one that looks like a PS2 controller) and that worked a lot better. It definitely wasn't designed with keyboard in mind.

Yup. I'm using the exact same controller. I can't imagine trying it with the keyboard.

About Arx Fatalis: The atmosphere was so incredibly well done. It did feel empty compared to other games, but to me that was just part of the setting. It truly felt like you were living on the fringe of humanity. The sounds were great to begin with, but play the game with EAX echo effects turned on.... OMG! It's so awesome - feels like you truly are in a cave.
 
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I learned today that sometimes "more" isn't a<lways = "better".

I was happily buying and installing Battlefront III - and was underwhelmed.

The short, simple fun game is gone. New are so much improvements that I just can't have any fun with it anymore - although it's still an impressive game.

I think I'll return to the first games of both again. *sigh*
 
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I learned today that sometimes "more" isn't a<lways = "better".

I was happily buying and installing Battlefront III - and was underwhelmed.

The short, simple fun game is gone. New are so much improvements that I just can't have any fun with it anymore - although it's still an impressive game.

I think I'll return to the first games of both again. *sigh*


Huh? Are you talking about the Star Wars Battlefront series? There is no Battlefront III yet.
 
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Huh? Are you talking about the Star Wars Battlefront series? There is no Battlefront III yet.

Same thought I had ... I assume there is another game in Germany with the same title?
 
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I meant II.

Seems I had the I once too often. ;)

Besides, I wonder whether the rumor of an BF III is really true and how it might look like (I'm not talking about Renegade Squadron).
 
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