I don't know if this was said already, but this may in fact make windows more secure from Malware. It seems common that malware will install itself as a process AND an activeX control used by IE. Since IE is integrated into windows itself, those activeX controls are always running even when you don't want them too. Therefore, when you try to kill the malware's process, the activeX control restores it. Try and stop the activeX control and the process restores that.
Now remove IE's activeX out of the picture and you no longer have to deal with that dreaded "lock in". MUCH better.
"God of War? Good? It's a boring version of Painkiller with a slightly better theme."
I can't say I can agree to that simply because God of War is a third person action game while Painkiller is a first person shooter. Therefore, they don't match in terms of gameplay styles making them incomparable.
What I do agree with you on is your statement about the different standards between PC and console gaming. This is likely why I can't seem to enjoy certain games people have been praising on their respective console versions (Fallout 3 was actually one of them). Maybe it's because the PC is capable of doing so much more given the complexity and efficiency a keyboard can have in certain cases.
That and you don't need a brand new high definition television to enjoy it to its full potention (or a lot of room to swing your arms around for that matter).
The fact that a PS2 exclusive was released not too long ago (Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories) says something as well to that effect.
Yup. This is exactly why Duke Nukem 3D remains my #1 favourite game of all time (and the newer hi-resolution texture and music packs in combination with the modern windows port (eduke32) assures that it won't be aging all that soon). I loved playing it when it came out in 1996 and my interest hasn't died down even today in 2009 (I still install it after each time I re-format my PC). The amount of interaction with the environment was just astounding in Duke and it also encouraged a lot of exploration to uncover secrets (which might I add were not placed in insanely hard to reach areas like in Serious Sam). F.E.A.R 2 does seem to encourage some sight seeing as well (and it's real joy in certain areas such as the school how realistic everything looks) but not nearly the level of Duke Nukem 3D and more importantly, Duke did NOT have to rely on checkpoints and several "points of no return" (other than completing levels of course). The pool balls were an excellent example of Duke's interaction indeed. They had VERY reasonable physics to the point where you could kick the white ball (or nudge it) and it would literally scatter the other balls like in a real pool game. They even had the "holes" present for the balls to fall into. With a modern physics engines, that concept could have really gone far and I STILL await the day when there's a game with 100% fully destructable terrain. Shooting a rocket launcher at a wall and having that wall not even so much as scathed or charred just doesn't seem right nor does being able to break certain things while other (more fragile) objects can withstand any blast. In F.E.A.R 2, I noticed that quite a bit of detail was put into certain objects but neglected on others. For example, near the beginning you see a bunch of speakers where you can literally knock off the speaker covers just by hitting them uncovering the speaker itself. Given how insignicant this sprite was to the game, it was rather cool that this sort of detail was added. However, it is then ruined by the fact you can break certain PC monitors in the game while others seem to be bullet and explosion proof somehow (so where did the level of interactivity go?). I do like F.E.A.R 2 better than the first one though because at least the levels don't drag on and on with the same repetitive scenary and layouts padding hours to the game needlessly. With F.E.A.R 2, I can enjoy exploring each area I encounter.
Oh! Like you, I didn't think Halo was anything special. Definitately fun but not worthy of the level of praise it got.
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I don't know if this was said already, but this may in fact make windows more secure from Malware. It seems common that malware will install itself as a process AND an activeX control used by IE. Since IE is integrated into windows itself, those activeX controls are always running even when you don't want them too. Therefore, when you try to kill the malware's process, the activeX control restores it. Try and stop the activeX control and the process restores that. Now remove IE's activeX out of the picture and you no longer have to deal with that dreaded "lock in". MUCH better.
"God of War? Good? It's a boring version of Painkiller with a slightly better theme." I can't say I can agree to that simply because God of War is a third person action game while Painkiller is a first person shooter. Therefore, they don't match in terms of gameplay styles making them incomparable. What I do agree with you on is your statement about the different standards between PC and console gaming. This is likely why I can't seem to enjoy certain games people have been praising on their respective console versions (Fallout 3 was actually one of them). Maybe it's because the PC is capable of doing so much more given the complexity and efficiency a keyboard can have in certain cases.
That and you don't need a brand new high definition television to enjoy it to its full potention (or a lot of room to swing your arms around for that matter). The fact that a PS2 exclusive was released not too long ago (Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories) says something as well to that effect.
Yup. This is exactly why Duke Nukem 3D remains my #1 favourite game of all time (and the newer hi-resolution texture and music packs in combination with the modern windows port (eduke32) assures that it won't be aging all that soon). I loved playing it when it came out in 1996 and my interest hasn't died down even today in 2009 (I still install it after each time I re-format my PC). The amount of interaction with the environment was just astounding in Duke and it also encouraged a lot of exploration to uncover secrets (which might I add were not placed in insanely hard to reach areas like in Serious Sam). F.E.A.R 2 does seem to encourage some sight seeing as well (and it's real joy in certain areas such as the school how realistic everything looks) but not nearly the level of Duke Nukem 3D and more importantly, Duke did NOT have to rely on checkpoints and several "points of no return" (other than completing levels of course). The pool balls were an excellent example of Duke's interaction indeed. They had VERY reasonable physics to the point where you could kick the white ball (or nudge it) and it would literally scatter the other balls like in a real pool game. They even had the "holes" present for the balls to fall into. With a modern physics engines, that concept could have really gone far and I STILL await the day when there's a game with 100% fully destructable terrain. Shooting a rocket launcher at a wall and having that wall not even so much as scathed or charred just doesn't seem right nor does being able to break certain things while other (more fragile) objects can withstand any blast. In F.E.A.R 2, I noticed that quite a bit of detail was put into certain objects but neglected on others. For example, near the beginning you see a bunch of speakers where you can literally knock off the speaker covers just by hitting them uncovering the speaker itself. Given how insignicant this sprite was to the game, it was rather cool that this sort of detail was added. However, it is then ruined by the fact you can break certain PC monitors in the game while others seem to be bullet and explosion proof somehow (so where did the level of interactivity go?). I do like F.E.A.R 2 better than the first one though because at least the levels don't drag on and on with the same repetitive scenary and layouts padding hours to the game needlessly. With F.E.A.R 2, I can enjoy exploring each area I encounter. Oh! Like you, I didn't think Halo was anything special. Definitately fun but not worthy of the level of praise it got.