Okay, I'm going to use the C-word now, I don't normally stoop so low, but in this instance its necessary.

Codemasters.

They used to produce racing games that were about racing, until they discovered hyper refined graphics and all of their energy went on making their games look beautiful but play like frozen dog turds.

Alan Wake suffers too much from the same kind of preoccupation. I'd rather have a game with non-state-of-the-art or even pretty looks but plays like I want it to than something equivalent to a dumb posturing blonde with a black hole between her ears. To me the focus is too frequently in the wrong place. We had the same conversation some while back, and its no surprise to me that its come around again.

In that case your priorities are spot on ;-)

Okay...have to say it. I don't say it very often AT ALL, but I'll say it now.

Sometimes pills are good things. =)
They had good ideas in spots, but to me, the people who did Max Payne 1 and 2 screwing up so hard when it comes to combat was really, really bad.
It's dull, the flashlight gimmick gets old, and the main character can't dodge for shit.

As for atmosphere, they screwed that up with way too many enemies, telegraphing when enemies showed up so there's no suspense, and making Alan Wake talk like he just ate half a bottle of Valium despite the extreme, supernatural nature of his experiences.
Not to mention, having bear traps frigging everywhere was really stupid.

That might be one of the most irritating things to witness playing games - seeing something with a lot of potential that people screw up and completely wreck.
(Goddamn Fahrenheit coming to mind yet again...)

Additional - Holy shit, Risen hasn't gone through round two yet. You might be able to luck out on that one.

I baffles me how this stuff gets through. Maybe their target audience it teenagers who don't give a shit, which is still falling short of their obligations in my opinion. They make crap games and they get crap reviews. People who are serious about games read reviews by people they respect. But the crap games still keep coming. Huh? What the phuck goes..?

Shadowgate was on j0ekerr's want list wasn't it?

Any idea how many in round two to go?

I'm not sure. I'll page back a bit.

It's on their wishlist. Can't remember them mentioning it in here, but it's on the list.
23 items and Risen remain in round two for newer items.

Couldn't see any mention of it up to 12 hrs ago.

I'd say it's a combination of low standards on the part of some of the consumer base, and alternating laziness or disconnection from the process on the part of developers.

Someone should have noticed that using a flashlight, then shooting an enemy the same number of times was garbage. Or that the dodging was crap. Or that the game had no suspense. Or that the driving should've been removed completely.

But when you're packed in with your coworkers, and everyone thinks it's great, then it's the echo chamber of bullshit until reality comes along, tells you your ideas sucked, then makes sure you don't get to try again.

Well, it might turn up before I pass out ;-)

Unless you're Codemasters, in which case you keep right on doing it.

I'm going to defrag my system; I take it that it would be a bad idea to check on the sale while I'm doing that?

Found it 13 hours ago, wow I've been at this a while today. :)

I'm not sure a browser would affect things much.

Not a bad idea but it'll be pretty slow.

Nice one Columbo ;-)