Alone in the Dark V

If you're thinking about buying this - don't… it's crap. I mean, not in the sense that the three new Star Wars movies are crap… because it's definately worse. It's more like Dungeon Lords carp.
So stay away from it… it bought it and I deeply regret it.

I'm not familiar with the series, is this refer to the new Atari's Alone in the Dark? Some interesting news around the net regarding the game:

"Within an hour [after posting], Atari called to have the review pulled off, claiming there was an embargo till Friday," Bergervoet said in a comment to Shacknews. "Our review copy was sent directly to us by Atari and [was] not a pirated copy. They explicitly told [Gamer.nl] that they only let high scoring reviews break the post-release embargo date."

Linky

well plenty of games that get eager bad reviews i enjoy quite a bit--see recent kane and lynch thread. also i've enjoyed hydravision's prior work with the obscure series. i'm not expecting a great game anyhow which is why i've always planned on waiting for the game to hit $20 range which is typical for my 'limit' for the loose genre of 'action adventure' game. i do appreciate the heads up, but ionstormsucks maybe you could elaborate a bit more as to your problems with the game?

Originally Posted by curiously undead
well plenty of games that get eager bad reviews i enjoy quite a bit--see recent kane and lynch thread. also i've enjoyed hydravision's prior work with the obscure series. i'm not expecting a great game anyhow which is why i've always planned on waiting for the game to hit $20 range which is typical for my 'limit' for the loose genre of 'action adventure' game. i do appreciate the heads up, but ionstormsucks maybe you could elaborate a bit more as to your problems with the game?

Well, the main point are really the controls. The game was designed for a console audience in mind. Even on consoles and with a joypad the controls are utterly complicated, but on the PC with mouse and keyboard it's an absolute nightmare. This is especially bad since there are quite a few sequences and actions in the game where you have to act fast. After a while you'll get more into it, that's true, but even then you'll encounter situations which are utterly frustrating, because you'll simply be not fast enough. That's what really kills the game off. Simple actions which should only require a few clicks become a nightmare in this game, it simply sucks after a while.
Another thing is that the game offers a first person view (which allows you to strafe), but the game is full of scripted sequences that throw you out of the first person and into the third person mode which is simply crappy. You cannot strafe in third person and the wasd controls function pretty much like the analog stick of a joypad - it's horrible. The game does not always stay behind you, in fact very often it will change to a disturbing angle - absolutely not state of the art if you're asking me.
The gfx are not bad, but also not really good for pc standards… you can clearly see it was ported over from a console. Of course it has a lot of clipping bugs, who would have guessed it… and some textures are simply ugly.
Then there is saving… you can save any time, but up until now, I have not found out what the save function actually does. If I die I start where the game wants me to start, and not where I saved. As expected these save points are often poorly chosen which makes the game even more frustrating.

What makes matters worse is that AITD V could be very good game. It has a great atmosphere, and you really want to like the game. The problem is really that the game mechanics utterly suck and make fighting, etc. a nightmare. Playing AITD feels a bit like being a disabled or handicapped person - even the most simple actions turn into complex and complicated undertakings.
I can only recommend you to wait until the price drops (which cannot take too long really) and pick it up then. Maybe they'll even have it patched up by then…

Originally Posted by Remus
I'm not familiar with the series, is this refer to the new Atari's Alone in the Dark? Some interesting news around the net regarding the game:


Linky

Yes, Atari threatened several websites to sue them if they don't take down their reviews. Of course these reviews were all rather unfavourable for Atari and their game. Atari claimed that these websites did not stick to an embargo which prohibited them to post a review prior to the release of the game. Atari claimed these websites used pirated copies of AITD so they play and test it before the official release date.

Originally Posted by Ionstormsucks
The game does not always stay behind you, in fact very often it will change to a disturbing angle - absolutely not state of the art if you're asking me.

But this was one of the trade marks of the original Alone In The Dark games. As far as I know the Resident Evil series' horrible camera angles was "inspired" by AitD. It wouldn't be a proper AitD title if there wasn't at least some sequences with extremely annoying camera angles.

Of course I haven't played it yet, so I may be barking up the wrong tree.

Originally Posted by fatBastard()
But this was one of the trade marks of the original Alone In The Dark games. As far as I know the Resident Evil series' horrible camera angles was "inspired" by AitD. It wouldn't be a proper AitD title if there wasn't at least some sequences with extremely annoying camera angles.

Of course I haven't played it yet, so I may be barking up the wrong tree.

Well, AITD was published 1992… it was another time back then and games worked differently. PC gaming has simply developed away from the way camera perspective worked in AITD and rightfully though. You also have to keep in mind that in the original AITD the camera was static. In the new AITD the camera is somewhat dynamic and sometimes it stays behind you, and then suddenly it shifts to some strange perspective with the effect that you confuse controls and make stupid mistakes.
You could even argue that in the original these strange perspectives made sense since they gave you see feeling of being watched by some invisible thing, but in the new AITD this is simply not the case. If you're a console gamer these switches in perspective probably won't even bother you much, but I'm a hardcore PC gamer (I think I never owned a console in my whole life) and I'm simply not used to it.

Originally Posted by fatBastard()
But this was one of the trade marks of the original Alone In The Dark games. As far as I know the Resident Evil series' horrible camera angles was "inspired" by AitD. It wouldn't be a proper AitD title if there wasn't at least some sequences with extremely annoying camera angles.
.

I wouldn't call the camera in Resident Evil "horrible". Sure there were some spots that it was annoying, but not any more so than other games that used a similar view ie: Metal Gear Solid, etc.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I wouldn't call the camera in Resident Evil "horrible". Sure there were some spots that it was annoying, but not any more so than other games that used a similar view ie: Metal Gear Solid, etc.

I may have generalized a bit there, especially considering that I haven't played any of them apart from the first one, but it was the "horrible camera" that made me quit the first Resident Evil game halfway through it and it made me lose interest in the others since then.

Originally Posted by fatBastard()
I may have generalized a bit there, especially considering that I haven't played any of them apart from the first one, but it was the "horrible camera" that made me quit the first Resident Evil game halfway through it and it made me lose interest in the others since then.

You're missing out big time. The Resident Evil series is excellent, I put it among my top 3 game series on consoles. Was it the original Playstation Resident evil that you played? The remake on the Gamecube was much better and had an improved camera.

Originally Posted by JDR13
You're missing out big time. The Resident Evil series is excellent, I put it among my top 3 game series on consoles. Was it the original Playstation Resident evil that you played? The remake on the Gamecube was much better and had an improved camera.

It was the PC port that I played a bit.

I actually have RE4 for the PS2 lying around at home, I just haven't gotten around to actually playing it more than past the initial village where I got swamped by crazed villagers creeping up behind me where I couldn't see them due to the limited camera angle. When that happened I thought to myself: "Oh well, they are still using the same approach as the first game. I'll give it a miss."

I've heard many great things about the RE games, but I just haven't hit the dry spot in games in years that I need to be able to suck it up and get past my phobia of the RE camera angles

Originally Posted by fatBastard()
It was the PC port that I played a bit.

YIKES! No wonder you didn't like it. RE1 for the PC was legendary for how bad a port it was, probably the worst console to PC port I've ever seen. Too bad you don't have a Gamecube\Wii, those are the systems you need to really experience the RE series.

actually…dreamcast --resident evil:code veronica was the best!
after being put of by re4 pc, i picked up resident evil essentials for under $20 which contains the ps2 version of both those games in addition to the online one. some day i'll get around to them, hopefully while i still have our dvd player, otherwise known as my brother-in-law's ps2.

i was pleasantly suprised with re0 which i played on a borrowed friends gamecube a few years back. however, i haven't liked the shift of the story/setting the series has taken with re4 and soon re5. the wilderness setting and the zombies that aren't zombies are major put offs for me as other survival horror action games have already done this, and probably better too.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica was indeed great. I remember buying a Dreamcast just to play that game….it was worth every penny. The Gamecube\Wii port is the exact same game though, and even runs a little smoother. That was my favorite console game for a long time.

I bought a gamecube last year to play the whole Resident Evil series, although I played RE4 on PC. I consider the GC remake to be the best one, and it's really really good. I also enjoyed Codename Veronica, although I know there are those who don't.

I played Alone in the Dark ages ago on Macintosh. I played the fourth "A New Nightmare" when the game came out. Last year (I think) I played Alone in the Dark 2 and 3.

The first three stories, the first in particular, were inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and their timeline were set in the 20'ies. Edward Carnby back then was a private detective and he was not a young person, but rather 40-50. I also remember he was dressed like a gentleman and even had a well-kept mustache. I was surprised to find a game of that age, that put so much effort in fleshing out the story.

Alone in the Dark 4 was a different one. The game was set in Massachusetts (classic location for CoC adventures), but the time was moved to y2k and Edward Carnby was alot younger. The overall theme of the game was darker, gloomier and gothic. Carnby himself had long hair and a skin jacket. Just look at the trailer. The real game have no techno music like that and it was actually rather creepy. It scared the crap out of me a few times.

And oh. Alone in the Dark by Uwe Boll is the worst movie I have ever seen. Considering I watch over a hundred movies each year, that's quite bad.

Originally Posted by JemyM
although I played RE4 on PC. I consider the GC remake to be the best one, and it's really really good.

There is no Gamecube remake of RE4, that was it's original platform.

Originally Posted by JDR13
There is no Gamecube remake of RE4, that was it's original platform.

There's only one RE "remake" on GC. The remake of the first game. I haven't played RE4 on GC.

Originally Posted by JemyM
There's only one RE "remake" on GC. The remake of the first game. I haven't played RE4 on GC.

Ok I see, you said "although I played RE4 on PC. I consider the GC remake to be the best one" - so I thought you were talking about RE4.

Yes, I agree the RE1 remake was excellent, although I don't know if I'd rate it higher than Code Veronica or RE4.

Originally Posted by Remus
I'm not familiar with the series, is this refer to the new Atari's Alone in the Dark? Some interesting news around the net regarding the game:


Linky

A similar thing happened with 4Players … and seemingly with a few other online sites, too.

Atari threatened them to shut up.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Yes, I agree the RE1 remake was excellent, although I don't know if I'd rate it higher than Code Veronica or RE4.

I liked Code Veronica but I consider RE4 to be extremely overrated. My greatest grief with RE4 is how it parts didn't fit together.