[Marcus Vesper]

I haven't seen this light switch thing you're talking about.

I didn't find anything that bad about the voice acting, with the exception of Alex Denton's own voice which was quite boring and generic. The rest seemed pretty good to me. Some of them did have a noticeable recording-like feeling to them (just in terms of the sound quality), but it didn't bother me much.

  The light switch thing applies to any 2d sprite being rendered on a wall, depending on the angle you're looking it will get brighter or darker, or disappear entirely from certain angles.  It's extremely annoying and looks REALLY stupid, considering the original game had fully 3d keypad/lightswitch/you-name-it models and it's sequel is slapping on the equivalent of a decal (which doesn't always show up).  Now that I think about it that's probably exactly what they did, I've noticed blood splatter from various titles not always displaying properly from all angles, but it's not really an important feature that gets on your nerves if it flickers into and out of view.  I know it's not a video card problem as I've gone through 4 different cards from both Ati and Nvidia, and it's not system specific because I've replaced every component in my computer twice since I first got this.  A fresh re-install last week confirmed it still does it.

As for the actual voice acting?  Yeah, other then Alex being ultra boring and not at all cool like J.C. was, the voice work itself isn't bad.  I just can't stand the playback quality, every other game in my 225+ collection featuring voice actors sounds better then Invisible War, which is pretty sad.  And I'm an audiophile, so it REALLY bugs me.  For some reason I'm recalling (possibly erroneously) a study linking audio quality to perceived video quality, if that's not just something I imagined then Invisible War is going to look crappier then titles with identical graphics just because the audio sucks so much.

[Rictor]

Apparently it's going to be powered by the Tomb Raider engine.

Eidos has big plans for the new installment in its esteemed Deus Ex franchise, and will be using the game engine from another of its next-gen revamps, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, to power the new game.

D'Astous explained: "This is a very important factor for us. In former positions where i worked technology was always a grey zone, a question mark. I'm relieved that here at Eidos we have two great internal engines - one from IO and one from Crystal. We chose the Crystal engine because we plan to help develop this engine more and then share it back with the rest of the company, the other Eidos studios. Having that technology from the start gives us a great advantage and foundation for our coders - there are no doubts about the approach, and we have few uncertainties. We just want to all work together on improving the same technology as we develop our game."

Has anyone played the newest Tomb Raider and want to weigh in? They say they're going to make improvements to the engine, so it might be OK.

Wonder if they'll bring JC back with huge boobs.

[diceman111]

Apparently it's going to be powered by the Tomb Raider engine.

Eidos has big plans for the new installment in its esteemed Deus Ex franchise, and will be using the game engine from another of its next-gen revamps, Lara Croft Tomb Raider, to power the new game.

D'Astous explained: "This is a very important factor for us. In former positions where i worked technology was always a grey zone, a question mark. I'm relieved that here at Eidos we have two great internal engines - one from IO and one from Crystal. We chose the Crystal engine because we plan to help develop this engine more and then share it back with the rest of the company, the other Eidos studios. Having that technology from the start gives us a great advantage and foundation for our coders - there are no doubts about the approach, and we have few uncertainties. We just want to all work together on improving the same technology as we develop our game."

Has anyone played the newest Tomb Raider and want to weigh in? They say they're going to make improvements to the engine, so it might be OK.

Wonder if they'll bring JC back with huge boobs.

I though the latest tomb raider 10th aniversary or watever it was called was really good ( a remake of Tomb Raider 1 i think) and also the tombe raider before that cant remember the name though, and the games looked pretty good so why not.

[Kosh]

Yeah, the whole intro sequence was pretty bad, but the game got much better when you got out into the Seattle streets.

Yeah, but not enough to save the game from being craptacular. I still gripe about the amazingly shallow characterization.

[Rictor]

CVG (Computer & Video Games magazine) has speculated that DX3 might be a prequel, based on a date shown briefly in the teaser trailer. I hope it is, because the further the story moves into the future (I think DX:IW was around 2070) the less grounded in reailty it will be, and the less realstic the setting/gameplay will be. I don't want to see crazy mechs and teleporters and all that far-futuristic sci-fi baggage.

As an aside, I've started playing Invisible War and so far I'm about 3 hours into it. Not bad, not particularly good either. There's definitely some good stuff in there, but it's buried beneath a big pile of poorly-designed, poorly-implemented crap. My main complaints so far are that the levels are tiny (making loading a pain) and that the whole game somehow feels loose and floaty, probably due to its console origins.

[Marcus Vesper]

the whole game somehow feels loose and floaty, probably due to its console origins.

Ah!  So I'm not alone when I said Alex's movement just felt....off.

[Rictor]

Just finished the game, and I was pleasantly surprised. Not nearly as bad as I expected it to be. Really, it's just the first bit that's weird and boring - after that, I either got used to the feel of the game or the game itself picked up, probably both. And while it's no Deus Ex, it's not terrible either. Aside from a few deficiencies such as the unified ammo and simplified RPG elements, the game was remarkably close to its predecessor.

Well, at least now I'm ready for DX3. And I can see why they would choose to go with a prequel, given that DX:IW had even more (and more divergent) endings than the first.

[CP5670]

That's what I was saying earlier. If you can look beyond the (admittedly major) bad aspects of the game, there is actually a lot to like in it.

[Roanoke]

I don't like games that make guns look "cheap". I mean, if a weedy scientist dude can take 3 head shots it just looks absurd. Much rather the mechanics of something like Rainbow6. Took a while to get over that with the original DE but I'm glad  I perservered with it.

Actually reminds me of the ending to FarCry2. I'd just nailed the bad guy with grenades, shotguns, Sniper Rifle shots and an assault rifle and then seeing him speared by a chunk of wood is supposed to be dramatic ??

[CP5670]

Far Cry 2 isn't out yet. I'm guessing you meant Far Cry 1, as that had an anticlimactic ending like you describe. (IIRC the final enemy was some scientist who goes down with a single pistol shot)

I would actually like to see more games with non-realistic weaponry. It places more emphasis on movement and dodging and makes combat more drawn out and interesting. We used to have many such games in the past, but they're increasingly become rare these days. The only recent one I can think of is UT3.

[Rictor]

I just assumed it was a thinly-veiled knock at Crysis' lack of innovation.

[CP5670]

Well, there is actually a separate game in production called Far Cry 2. Some of the pre-release info suggested it may be quite good, better than Crysis.

[Roanoke]

Far Cry 2 isn't out yet. I'm guessing you meant Far Cry 1, as that had an anticlimactic ending like you describe. (IIRC the final enemy was some scientist who goes down with a single pistol shot)

I would actually like to see more games with non-realistic weaponry. It places more emphasis on movement and dodging and makes combat more drawn out and interesting. We used to have many such games in the past, but they're increasingly become rare these days. The only recent one I can think of is UT3.

FarCry Instincts Evolution. The fight with that Tribal/Guerilla Leader in a mountain-top temple complex.