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Very nice game indeed, but I am not going to get the full game...

I also got to play it tonight (I actually had free time and not in crunch mode?) for about 40 minutes (yes, it is short). The previews, screen shots, video clips, and trailers didn't excite me for this game. I kept hearing and reading very high scores from Xbox 360 port (demo and the full game that was sold earlier). Everyone was raving how scary, addicting, and pretty the game was. Now, I know why. The audio, graphic, special effects, etc. were very nice.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS: This 3D surrealistic first perspective shooter (FPS) game and story theme was an issue for me since it didn't hit me to excite me. It takes place in 1960 in an underwater city (it reminds me of Atlantis, Titanic, Blade Runner movie, etc.). The demo started out with an introduction that reminded me of Lost's Oceanic Flight 815 jetliner crash in the sea/ocean, but at night time. Wow, looking at the water was LOVELY and seeing the water splashes and droplets on my screen! While swimming to the lighthouse near by, I heard the flames, explosions, me coughing out water and breathing, etc.

The fun start begins in the lighthouse when I travel down to the underwater city named Rupture. At the same time, I met a guy helping me over the radio. You can hack robots to be on your side and protect you, security cameras, sentry guns, etc. There are various life spawn spots if you die. If you played System Shock 2, then you would recognize that this is the same people who worked on this game. The whole game system is based on it, but on a different game engine. The game still had scary parts, beautiful graphics and effects, objectives/missions, etc. It also reminded me of American McGee's Alice 3D FPS game for the surrealism and weirdness.

Check out the game if you have a decent gaming system or a Xbox 360 (heard it was good on the console as well and there's a free demo). Enjoy the graphics, special effects (check out those neat water falls, leaks, etc.), cutscenes, sounds, music, and horror. I was surprised it ran well on my not super fast system even without the beta NVIDIA driver that is supposed to be supported for this game.

Circuit City weekly ad/advertisement shows it for $39.99 for this week. So one extra copy for you to buy since I am not buying it due to above reasons and lack of free time (got other games to play and finish). If it was a sequel to System Shock 2 game, then I would be all over it just for SHODAN (I miss her harassing me like saying "Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?")!

I know of no game development companies from Boston (and I live next to it!)

Among some of the more noteworthy game development companies in the greater Boston area are Irrational Games (System Shock), Harmonix (Guitar Hero), and Stainless Steel Studios (Empire Earth).

Unfortunately Stainless Steel shut down a few months ago... maybe all those laid off employees were the ones who made the games in the article. :)

This article should make you an Irrational fan for life: http://pc.ign.com/articles/586/586914p1.html.

One thing you often find with publisher funded sequels is the desire to grow the market share of the game. This usually takes the form of a marketing-driven attempt to make the game more "broadly appealing" or more "mass-market". Given the size and dedication of our fanbase, we knew that the last thing we wanted to do was a make a follow up to Freedom Force that tried to expand the market to casual gamers. To do so would have meant alienating our core fan base, something we refused to do. Freedom Force is always going to be a PC game for people who love strategy, RPG and heroes. It's not going to be for everybody.

You might want to try the game Freedom Force.

Cars are throwing weapons, streetlights are clubs, and after a big fight half a city may be in ruins. Especially after that one deranged architecht who wanted to make room for his own buildings... And of course civilians who get caught in the middle are knocked out (after all, this is a comic book, so no one ever really dies).

Yes, if you want a superhero game, then there's nothing better.

It's a tactical team-based RPG type thing.

A sort of X-Com: UFO Defense - but with superheroes and supervillains instead of marines and aliens.

It was pretty well received despite being aimed at the low-system-requirement market (a bit behind the times graphically). It is certainly a quality title and is only obscure because of a near-complete lack of marketing. Gamer and critical reviews are nearly all praise.

There's a demo (windows-only) you can download when you're free of the fascist-network regime: here.

I know it's not directly relevant to the question, but FWIW the rather excellent Freedom Force uses Python as its scripting language.

Helped 'a bit'? Ken Levine is the co founder, general manager and creative director of Irrational Games and he used to work at Looking Glass. Look at their US team (the link to their Australian office is down unfortunately) and count for yourself how many people used to work at Looking Glass. To say ex-looking glass employees only helped IR 'a bit' is way understating th role they're playing in making IR such a success.

Do you have a link saying Doug Church retired from the gaming industry? He's credited with working on 'Backyard Wrestling: Don't try this at Home' and that only came out this year. Its also rumoured he's working closely with Warren to bring System Shock 3 to light.

I work for Irrational Games, developers of System Shock 2 and Freedom Force. We are currently working on a number of titles including Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich and Tribes: Vengeance, and have an office in Boston (USA) and Canberra (Australia).

We've grown and prospered over 5 years, and all of us look forward to making great games that people enjoy. We also enjoy the freedom of making decisions that affect what the game will be, rather than being told how we should make the game.

In addition, I am a judge for the Independent Games Festival, where 112 independent teams of game developers have submitted their independent games that they have funded and developed on their own to be judged and presented at GDC 2004.

While there is a lot of recent setbacks for independent developers, especially in the UK, the people who want to make their voices heard independently will continue to do so, reguardless of their financial situation. Independent games will continue to be made, and those voices will continue to be heard.

I installed the game using the switch mentioned in the FAQ, and then patched the game. Then it kinda worked, crashed every 5 minutes or so, but that was a problem with my current motherboard, was running something with the VIA133 chipset, but after upgrading to a nForce I had no problems whatsoever with SS2.

Sorry I can't help you anymore with this... SS2 is a game that deserves to be played :)

Maybe an MMORPG with some real meat to the ability to develop a world, i.e. Ultima Online 2k2 (and I mean a really new version, not just the updated client). Maybe one that has real, obvious, easy-to-get-involved with politics and stock marketing built in. Heck, maybe one like Freedom Force, where you can destroy everything, except with the addition of a building mode. Something to get out of the "Kill to get bigger to kill bigger things until you can sell your character on eBay" mindset.