Grand Theft Auto IV:
This is one hell of a game! I'm playing it on the PC, and other than a truly buggy and terrible launch, I've been really enjoying it. When it was first released on PC, the were a long list of technical problems surrounding the game, unoptimised performance being the main complaint. I've got a pretty powerful computer ( E6600 Dual Core Processor, 4GB Ram, GTX 260 Video Card ) and I was getting about 20 frames per second on medium settings. Luckily a patch was released pretty quickly which improved the performance, and also Nvidia released a new beta driver which helped. Now on slightly above medium settings I'm getting a steady 30 fps.
Anyway, enough about the technical crap, and more about the game itself! I knew the game was going to be impressive, but it really is quite astounding just how in depth and absorbing the whole thing is. I'm only about 30 percent of the way through, but so far I've found the story to be really interesting. The action is tight, and apart from getting stuck on the wrong side of objects occasionally when trying to duck behind cover, the combat system is a lot of fun. The driving physics are really fantastic, and I've had a great time just driving around and trying to pull of jumps and stunts.
A great bonus on the PC version is the inclusion of a video editor. At any time during the game you can just hit F2, and it records roughly the last 30-60 seconds of action that happened in the game. GTA has been crying out for a feature like this. The open world, sandbox nature of the games give rise to some truly unique and incredible moments, and now having the ability to record these moments for posterity is awesome. The editor itself is very user friendly, and I've already put together a handful of videos documenting my exploits, here.
The multiplayer is also a hell of a lot of fun. The only problem I've really encountered is that it's hard to find a decent game with enough people playing. Hopefully that will pick up as more people get over their fear of the initial technical hiccups and purchase the game.
Overall, GTAIV is one of the finest games I've played in recent memory. And I've still got so much of the game to get through!
Dead Space:
I just picked this one up a few days ago from EB for half price. I've already clocked up about 5 hours on the game, and they've been a pretty tense, harrowing 5 hours. The game really is incredibly unoriginal, and is derivative of a handful of other games
( Bioshock, System Shock 2, Resident Evil 4 etc ), but it takes the best elements of those games and polishes them up to a shiny, shiny sheen.
Technically, the game is very impressive. The overall graphical presentation is spot on, and really keeps your eyes glued to the screen. The lighting in particular is very effective, with the crisp, accurate shadows really giving you the creeps sometimes. The sound is brilliant, and I really wish I had my 5.1 setup here in Australia ( I left my 5.1 speakers back in NZ ), as the sound is such a huge part of the game. The music is subtle and fits the mood of the game well, but it's the sound effects that really take the cake. They...are...amazing! The creaks and groans of the ship, the screeches of the Necromorphs, the almost imperceptible whispering coming from the walls of the ship itself. They all add up to a truly terrifying sound scape.
I've completed four of the games chapters so far. I think there's about a dozen, so I've got quite a lot more scary space action until I'm done. That's okay by me, because so far I'm really enjoying it.
Okay, that's about it for now. I'll get around to doing a retrospective soon...hopefully.
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