Topic: Prey is breathtaking.

[Pugnate]

When Prey started with Tomo in the washroom, I immediately thought ooh man weak textures. But as soon as you get on board the alien vessel, you are hit by a lot of beauty. The colors look gorgeous, and the game is so cool. I really enjoyed the weird doors and how the developers messed with the gravity. I haven't played too much so far, but it looks like it was well worth the purchase.

http://cc.1asphost.com/Pugnate/Prey10.jpg
http://cc.1asphost.com/Pugnate/Prey16.jpg

[gpw11]

fuck, I need a new pc.  But this thing was the bomb for Jedi Outcast.

[TheOtherBelmont]

That's another game I need to play, my computer seemed to run it ok on medium settings when I played the demo.

[Pugnate]

Hey don't they have Prey for the 360? gpw I think that may be a good investment for ya?

Also I recently started spirit walking. Hmmm... I think they introduced it a wee bit too soon, as things were moving along at a atmospheric pace, and this jumbles it up a bit. Still it is very cool. But yea I normally hate simplistic shooters -- despised Quake IV -- yet I enjoyed the simple gameplay quite a bit in Prey.

Anyway things have taken a turn for the fucked up. Children + evil is always awesome. You NEED to see the screenie below. (56k warning)

http://cc.1asphost.com/Pugnate/Prey36.jpg

No he wasn't pissing blood.

But before they introduced the fantasy element, I was thinking it would be cool if they built on the more realistic approach of the alien invasion by teaming you up with other survivors or just joining up with some marines Halo style. I knew that wasn't going to happen, having read a lot on the game and from the hints the game gives you early on.

[iPPi]

The game looked interesting, but not interesting enough for me to buy.

[Pugnate]

But oh so pretty:

http://cc.1asphost.com/Pugnate/Prey109.jpg

Besides you can find it for $20 incl. shipping on eBay. Worth it I think, though I haven't given multiplayer a whirl.

[Pugnate]

This game makes me think id should stick to just making gorgeous engines and let others make the actual game. Doom III was very cool, but stuck to being a one trick pony that really made things dull. I mean did anyone actually buy the expansion?

Prey is pretty sweet in managing to be an indoors only game, yet being very heavy on the atmosphere and storyline. There are constant transmissions being caught from radio on earth, that keep the mood going. I wish the voice acting was a bit better on these transmissions, as they don't sound as dire as they should. So far it seems that they are pretty sure something fishy is going on, but that's about it. Still it really does push the storyline forward.

Also as I was going up an elevator, I had a good view of the humongous alien vessel outside of the tiny corridors that I had been (and probably will be till the end of the game) restricted to. Well something extremely cool happened as I was going up the elevator. The aliens teleported something inside that they couldn't quite control:

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o19/Pugnate/Prey119.jpg
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o19/Pugnate/Prey129.jpg

[MysterD]

This game makes me think id should stick to just making gorgeous engines and let others make the actual game. Doom III was very cool, but stuck to being a one trick pony that really made things dull. I mean did anyone actually buy the expansion?

Yup, I did.

I ain't started the Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil expansion yet, though I did finish Doom 3.

[poomcgoo]

I agree.  I hadn't gotten around to Prey until a few days ago, myself.  I just never had enough interest in it to install the thing.  I'm glad I finally did, though, because there are just so many awesome little things in it that make it stand out.  I'm pretty early in the game like you, pug, but I'm digging it tons.  The whole Native American folklore part of the story is kinda lame, but other than that it's awesome. 

***minor spoiler***
How badass was it when "Don't Fear the Reaper" was cranked up all of a sudden as the roof of the bar was torn away?

[Quemaqua]

Yes, I was championing this one for a while.  It's a fairly simple shooter, but it just gets so many little details right and it's just FUN.  My only complaints were a few of the odder elements they added to the story, which I thought kinda' took things in a direction just a wee bit too cheesy, and the fact that the game was so short.  Still, the game is great and due to its short nature it's a little more like a movie -- the kind of thing you can safely consider playing through several times to relive the experience, which in this case I think is well worth it.  A few months down the road and the experience still feels pretty fresh.  Great stuff.

Oh, and the MP is good.  Think modded Quake 2.

[MysterD]

I'm surprised Que bought the retail version over the STEAM version.

[scottws]

I thought Prey was kind of ho-hum.  Not a bad game by any stretch, but nothing amazing.  The portal technology was pretty impressive, but after seeing them all over the place, the effect kind of wears off.

[PyroMenace]

I got the same vibe from it as you did Scott. It really is a great game, solid FPS fun, but its portal effects and spirit walking tactic didnt really do enough to put it past say another simple yet solid FPS like Quake 4.

[Quemaqua]

Both are somewhat simple FPS games that use established conventions, but Prey did its very best to break those wherever it could, in the environments and in the artwork and in the story.  No, none of those things drastically change what the gameplay is, but how can you possibly say it isn't better to innovate in *some* regards than it is to innovate in no regards whatsoever?  Even if Prey didn't do anything to shake the gaming world to its roots, it certainly did more for it than Quake 4 which attempted no innovations at all.  And that isn't to say I don't like Quake 4, because I thought it was a pretty fun romp as well, but at least give credit where credit is due.

[idolminds]

I think there is something to be said for games that are simply well executed despite their lack of innovation. Prey is one example, same with Painkiller and Okami. They don't really do much thats new, and they may just be "ripoffs" of other games (PK = Doom/Serious Sam, Okami = Zelda), but...damnit they are solid games that are fun to play.

[PyroMenace]

I guess I worded that wrong. I never meant to say that innovation is never worth it. Despite Prey's new gameplay mechanics, Quake 4 was about as fun and immersive. Which is still saying a lot because I found Quake 4's SP to be pretty damn awesome, though thats probably whats more arguable.

[Xessive]

Nice, I just started playing it again That's one great game

[Pugnate]

Again I haven't gotten too far in Prey but I think there is a massive difference between Quake IV and Prey... at least from what I've played so far.

The best way to put it would be that Quake IV was very loose while Prey is much more tightly knit. Firstly the performance of Quake IV was atrocious, while Prey seems to run much better on a similar system as it works alright on my sister's comp. Secondly Quake IV seriously lacked any ooomph in the fighting. While the combat in Prey feels like cutting a steak, the combat in Quake IV was like passing a knife through butter.

Also so far there is a massive difference in pacing. Each piece of combat in Quake IV felt meaningless, like they were just throwing one enemy after the other. That sorta thing was fine 10 years ago, but not now. You could say it works really well in Painkiller, but Painkiller used hordes of enemy units to test your skill... in Quake IV it felt like nothing.

The weapons in Quake IV all sucked. They lacked recoil, and they all pretty much felt the same. Prey has been quite innovative in its weapons so far.

Lastly I felt zero immersion in Quake IV, while the storyline seems much more tightly knit in Prey. The constant news updates and reminders that the planet earth is under attack really keep things going.

Quake IV's storyline was like a lost opportunity. The biggest disappointment was when you get converted to a Strogg. I thought that would be the turning point, and had been anticipating that moment since the first trailer. But when it finally happened... nothing. They could have made that moment a fantastic plot device, but hardly anyone in the game reacted to your conversion.

For me Quake IV was poor all round.

Anyway I am yet to finish Prey, so you guys could be right...things could get overly gimmicky. But so far it has been a good experience.

[Jedi]

Quake IV's storyline was like a lost opportunity. The biggest disappointment was when you get converted to a Strogg. I thought that would be the turning point, and had been anticipating that moment since the first trailer. But when it finally happened... nothing. They could have made that moment a fantastic plot device, but hardly anyone in the game reacted to your conversion.

Oh I totaly agree with that, that should have been a kickass moment that perhaps turned the game up on its head. But all it did do was give you more HP... and I never understood why no one said anything? What the hell.
I never bothered to finish that game to be honest that twist and the total lack of reaction and meaning from it killed what interest i had in playing.

[PyroMenace]

Meh, its really just personal taste because I felt the exact opposite with every one of your points. It seems like you were looking for too much of something in Quake 4. Like comments about the storyline, thats all just filler. Quake 4 got what counted, the atmosphere. I loved the way the weapons felt, the pacing was just right. I mean I really didn't see any of what you saw in your knocks against it.

[Pugnate]

Yea Jedi that's what killed it for me as well.

And Pyro, that's what's beautiful about this world. There is something for everyone. Also I never tried the Q4 MP.

When Quake IV was released there were many rumors about them having nerfed the multiplayer so that they could release a mulitplayer only Quake game in the future. Turns out that rumor was correct, as Quake Wars was announced not long after. I was pretty astonished on how they had gotten so much done on the game so quickly.

Also playing Prey for some reason keeps reminding me of Jedi Knight.

I want another Jedi Knight game damnit!

[scottws]

I guess I worded that wrong. I never meant to say that innovation is never worth it. Despite Prey's new gameplay mechanics, Quake 4 was about as fun and immersive. Which is still saying a lot because I found Quake 4's SP to be pretty damn awesome, though thats probably whats more arguable.

I agree with Pyro.  Actually, I liked Quake IV more.  Please note that I'm not saying I didn't like Prey.  I did.  But it's probably a good thing it was short because my attention to the game was definately waning by the end.

It seemed to rely too much on the portals and the gravity ramps, like, "Look at me!  Isn't this so awesome?!  You can go upside down!  And check this out!  You can crawl through this box and be totally someplace else!  Crazy!"  Meanwhile I'm like, "Yeah, I know, I know already.  Geez."

That stuff wasn't nearly as cool as it was in the trailer.  It just seemed really gimmicky to me.  Well the portals were technicially and initially impressive, but then I just got the feeling that they could have just had a regular door there half the time.

[MysterD]

$19.99 @ CircuitCity.com for the Prey: Limited DVD Edition (PC)

Remember, if you spend over $24, free shipping @ CC.com for Standard Shipping -- 3-10 business days
 

[Jedi]

I did play the demo for Prey and I was like that, all "wow check that out, this is cool" but I never felt compelled to buy the game. So with that said I can't compare Q4 and Prey, which is too bad becuase I would like to right now.
When I think about it I haven't really been invested in a game other than WoW (and a few games on the 360 recently) for a very long time, I don't know if I'm waiting for something new or fresh or if I'm just burnt out on the FPS and RTS's. On the other hand I've been playing FPS's on the 360 so maybe it just that the console is getting the games I want first...? Yeah I'll go with that for now 

[Xessive]

Yea Jedi that's what killed it for me as well.

And Pyro, that's what's beautiful about this world. There is something for everyone. Also I never tried the Q4 MP.

When Quake IV was released there were many rumors about them having nerfed the multiplayer so that they could release a mulitplayer only Quake game in the future. Turns out that rumor was correct, as Quake Wars was announced not long after. I was pretty astonished on how they had gotten so much done on the game so quickly.

Also playing Prey for some reason keeps reminding me of Jedi Knight.

I want another Jedi Knight game damnit!

HAha Oh man! I just installed Jedi Knight 2 right after about an hour of playing Prey! I was itching for some lightsaber action, and there's nothing more satisfying than slashing through stormtroopers!

Stormtroopers have my vote for most fun enemies to kill.

[sirean_syan]

I think I'm going to have to say hordes of minor demons takes my vote.

[MysterD]

My copy of Prey: Limited DVD Edition just arrived.

That is one of the best packaging I've ever come across for a game. PERIOD.

I just love the tin-case. I wish more Special Editions came in those.
Game on DVD is always nice.
An art book's always nice.
The mini-figurines are freakin' cool.

Though, I wish the soundtrack was on CD, not DriectSong. Hell, I didn't even know the soundtrack came w/ the game, even if it is in Digital Form...

[Pugnate]

The following are my views on Prey and you shouldn't read them until you are done with the game:

Possible Spoilers:

Just finished Prey, and was quite good. I'd give it a score around the mid 80s. It lost its innovative appeal mid way through, as its unique aspects became less awe inspiring. Still what it did right was to keep things interesting through out. It wasn't a monotonous shoot em up, and I appreciated that. And while the storyline was a bit cheesy, it did involve you none the less. It made me care about the characters, which is something I can't say for just about every shooter I've played.

I was disappointed with the fact that the radio transmissions you hear from earth weren't fully fleshed out. I wanted to hear a lot more panic and widespread acceptance of an invasion. But that design decision made sense at the end of the game, when it turns out six months after the event the planet is still unsure of what happened.

I also like how they gave Tommy a military background. It is just a little thing, but helped connect the dots. I still can't figure out why Gordon Freeman, who is an award winning scientist, is also a genius with weapons.

In the end I'd say the game is quite excellent, but falls short of greatness. It wasn't an epic but I think the length was perfect for the ideas and gimmicks they had. While something like Half-Life 2 kept throwing interesting and exhilarating situations at you, there was only so much Prey could do. While the combat was good, on its own it wasn't that exhilarating. It was fun, but lacked the intensity of something like F.E.A.R. or even HL2.

The limitations of the Doom III engine meant you couldn't really have massive environments filled with all sorts of structures and enemies. They worked with what they had, and did an excellent job. However I think this is one of the last Doom III engine based games we will see. Even the boys at iD have admitted this and are working on a new engine. A Quake engine this was not.

While the ending leaves things open for a sequel, I think they firmly shut the door on any sort of an expansion.

[scottws]

The limitations of the Doom III engine meant you couldn't really have massive environments filled with all sorts of structures and enemies. They worked with what they had, and did an excellent job. However I think this is one of the last Doom III engine based games we will see. Even the boys at iD have admitted this and are working on a new engine. A Quake engine this was not.

This is the first I've heard of this.  I thought that the DOOM III engine led to small, indoor environments just because it was so advanced that current hardware couldn't handle larger environments in the engine but would be able to over time.  I didn't realize there were true limitations like this.

In the end, I think the DOOM III engine was a bit of a disappointment to some degree.  I mean it's pretty, but there are some weird things like how some objects cast shadows but others do not.

[Quemaqua]

I'll agree that the Doom 3 engine was no Quake 3 engine, but still, I think it has been sufficiently proven on more than one occasion that Doom 3 can do big environments full of stuff.  It's just that few people have really bothered to build that kind of game with it.  But even Doom 3 and Prey had a few moments that showed it could do more without a performance hit, and some of the user-made stuff I've seen only confirms it.

[Pugnate]

Well maybe I remember wrong, as the article was from two years ago, but I remember Carmack talking about how the engine wasn't designed to be feasible for larger environments, and it was a more of an closed environment tech. He also talked about other issues like seams on textures and the inability to do high gloss metal right. Also he conceded that human skin wasn't as he would have liked.

I can't seem to find it. But here is what Wiki says:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_3_engine

MegaTexture rendering technology
The original version of the Doom 3 engine was criticized for its perceived inability to handle large outdoor areas. The MegaTexture technology addresses this issue by introducing a means to create expansive outdoor scenes. By painting a single massive texture (32,000×32,000 pixels) covering the entire polygon map and highly detailed terrain, the desired effects can be achieved. The MegaTexture can also store physical information about the terrain such as the amount of traction in certain areas or indicate what sound effect should be played when walking over specific parts of the map. i.e. walking on rock will sound different from walking on grass. [2] It is expected that this will result in a considerably more detailed scene than the majority of existing technologies, using tiled textures, allow. and add the terrain creation tool called "MegaGen".

Yea I wouldn't call the Doom III engine a failure yet, especially with Quake Wars around the corner. But then again QW will be using the Mega Texture tech patch.

Here I found something:

http://www.gamerwithin.com/?view=article&article=1319&cat=2

[idolminds]

Megatexture was actually in the engine when Doom 3 was released. It wasn't completed...because it wasn't needed. But it was already there. See this thread. Someone got it working.

There were no sdk changes. There is no gamex86 in the package.
All that was required was a vfp. Doom 3 already had the necessary code to handle everything else.

ET:QW has fleshed it out a bit more...but D3 engine has more to it than people give it credit for.

[Pugnate]

It definitely does then!

[MysterD]

Doom 3 is an outstanding engine. Doom 3 proves it, graphically and performance-wise.

Quake 4 proved it, too. Quake 4 ran great and played great; it rocked.

From the Prey demo, looks like Prey is another bad-ass shooter on the Doom 3 Engine. I will begin Prey when I finish Dark Messiah, probably.

[idolminds]

Heh. speak of the devil.

[scottws]

Heh. speak of the devil.

Weird.  They talk about it like it is awesome, but I personally think it looks like shit.  I guess it's the guy's admitted weakness with trees.

Reading that thread was pretty crazy.  I have never heard of half of those things before.  This one in particular really got me:

it seems to assume the texture has been top-down planar mapped onto the model irregardless of how it actually is, meaning that if you distort the coordinates too much the high detail center becomes offset from you

 

Also, he used the "word" irregardless... I hate that freaking word.  It's just "regardless" everyone!  Didn't you get the memo?

[Quemaqua]

That always bugged me too.  It's just like "inflammable" meaning flammable.  Where the hell do these anomalous words come from?

[idolminds]

By "awesome" I'm guessing they mean "awesome" that Doom 3 even had the capacity for a terrain that large. Quake Wars has this tech fleshed out a bit more, but the basics were there all along.

[Pugnate]

And now I am educated on the matter.

I think he was just excited because he is a modder.

[MysterD]

I started up Prey: Collector's Ed, from scratch.

When I started and clicked to SAVE, I looked at my saved games list -- all my saved from the DEMO, which I never deleted, were there!!!! How many games are that cool that they let you use the saves from the DEMO for the FULL thing???

So, I did start from the beginning b/c I really love the opening of the game. I played quite a bit yesterday -- the single player is freakin' awesome.

2006 PC Shooter of the Year, if you ask me.