Is this for real? i am in Chapter 4 (the floating cards) with about 12 hours in (you get your moneys worth *and* your frustrations worth in this game), and there is no end to the amazing variety of artwork and the constantly changing level design and layout.

Unfortunately, it reminds me of the old Ninetendo games where you had to memorize an exact sequence of jumps and the imprecise controls that made me want to smash the TV screen and the controllers (back then).

There is even a side scrolling section that pays tribute to the most difficult of them. And the controls now turn 90 degrees so you are very much third person; worst of all, they are imprecise. Very worst, is that you get to repeat this mini-game many times and each time they get harder jumping between the fire-breathing dragons, the wasps shooting arrows while platforms move up and down to crush the slightest deviation from the path.

It is a very difficult game even on 'easy' as there are a multitude of enemies that mob you at once. Unless you master the controls and find the weak spots, you will be replaying some of the boss battles over and over. After that, they toss in the boss AND respawing flying enemies whose source you need to (quickly) find and eliminate before you are overwhelmed. Fortunately, Alice's weapons get better and they can all be upgraded if you explore (which means even more challenging jumping)


Alice is a game that i both love and hate. It's impossible to score. IF you love jumping platform games with a great story and unreal artwork and level design, then Alice is heaven (with the weakness of being repetitious and ultimately hack and slash. If you miss anytime save and hate having to memorize an exact sequence, it is absolute hell.

Fortunately, this game allows for some nice tweaking of the initi files that allows the player to have a little challenge and still enjoy the story and the many (many) hours of artwork unfold. If not, i would have not completed level 2.


Anyway, my Kingston 96GB SSD review is coming up tomorrow and then there will be an Alice Performance Summary with emphasis on evaluating PhysX/3D Vision coming later on in the week .. then the big project the 3D Vision mega-review .... *maybe* a Cat 10-6 performance analysis .. and back to Crossfire vs SLi at high resolutions.


Don't forget there is a week to go in the Freedom contest .. just enter that thread and you have a VERY good chance of winning a Kingston SSD!

Apoppin cheaters never win, Lol!!!!!

Forreals doe, it sounds like a terribly hard game which i find somewhat sad cause i really was looking forward to it. I most likely will take your approach cause i dont have time really at all for much of anything. Its a great yr for gaming ppl!!! And here i am pressed for time that i am already lacking!!!1



I found Fallout NV dissappointing myself. I think it may have been because i spent like 300+ hours (or something) of my life on fallout 3. I swear i didnt leave a single rock unturned. From expansion to expansion i got more bored of it. Maybe i just got burned out on the engine cause to me fallout NV felt like another expansion and a waste of money. It felt very aged and dull experience. I guess my expectations were too high yet i am not sure what i wanted. Perhaps some of the annoying glitches and poor aspects of the engine to be more ironed out. Maybe i thought fallout3 was such a huge success that NV should look to be more than a fallout 3 expansion with a slight upgrade to ppls faces. It still didnt matter cause most of the npc's had terrible voice acting and pretty much all looked and sounded similar to on another. I expected more on that side for sure.

Anyway,

1050 end ////gripe

Yes, Alice is a difficult game. It is very much like its predecessor - but harder, i would say - and i spent many hours in that game - i thought it was too long.

Now that i have a schedule and am reviewing HW, i simply don't have time. i do enjoy the occasional game review and will aim to evaluate at least a couple of full games a year (to stay in practice}. However, if i keep on getting evaluation copies of the latest games, i expect to do performance reviews (with emphasis on multi-display, PhysX and S3D) at least once a month and i can give a little synopsis of beginning game play.

Even though i have 12 hours into Alice (5 hours with cheats) and it is going swiftly - i still don't think i am going to finish the game. From what i understand the jumping just goes on and on and on

Not to my taste. But i do see where the platformer would love this game just for the challenge. So i am back to my SSD review.

My vacation is over

OK, so the damn game is addictive. i finished it.

It is hard to score - if you were expecting a FPS, it is a 6/10
- if you are a platformer, it is an 8/10

Great - very adult - story with a ending i saw coming a mile away
.... still very good .. editing the ini saved my own sanity

Letsee . . . our freedom contest is over; congrats to the winners! .. muvee's contest is ongoing - check
96GB SSD review is up - check
Crysis 2 completed - check

i am starting to write the "Platformer Madness - Alice Returns with PhysX and in 3D" full game evaluation now.
Crysis 2 performance review is next ..
and i will get that 3D mega-review out the next week
Notebook makeover is beginning and i will be back to Driver analysis and HW reviews again this month
-MrK has a Class 10 SDHC card review coming up this month (it is delayed to test with a DSLR; the smartphone tests were inconclusive) .. and even Leon appears to be back to work


Galaxy offered me a 2GB version of the GT 520 to evaluate but i told them i already evaluated the 1GB version and that the extra 1GB of DDR3 is meaningless except for marketing
(hopefully i was more tactful than that)


Any requests? i am just beginning to write the Alice review .. anything you want me to focus on? Or for future?

Alice is your passion, so I trust that you'll do it with such!

What I really do envy you on though is that you've beaten DNF (especially in S3D) and now Crysis 2 (in DX11 with a power rig)! ARGH! I'm losing patience during my silly summer vacation!

Have you considered getting a gaming notebook? They are great for vacations.

i have *completed* more games this year - so far - than in the nearly 3 years i have been associated with ABT
(Metro 2033/Bulletstorm/DNF/Alice/Crysis 2)

It called 'returning to your roots'
-- all that is lacking is sleep

Well, I don't see much reason to have lots of high power video cards and CPU's around if you are not going to game with them. Despite what Rollo might think, I doubt they impress the neighbours and onlookers all that much.

The entire reason I developed any interest in video cards and cpu's outside of basic curiosity is because I like to game. Other things like folding/research etc are a side interest at best for me (and unless I get a kickback for the power consumed doing the research I don't really see why I should bother to participate at my expense).

Of course, ABT site is by PC gamers; we all have that in common. What good are these high powered PCs if not for entertainment? And to relate the benchmarks to the game, it good to play the game.

i am in the middle of choosing screenshots - out of many hundreds for both Crysis 2 and Alice (i am sort of writing the reviews, simultaneously although performance numbers for Crysis 2 come later. And i also revisited a couple of games - like Bulletstorm - that i was able to improve the 3D experience by changing a few in-game settings.

It is good to hear. One wonders if some of the other tech sites (larger ones in particular) feel the same way.

The benefit to gaming is also why I focus as much as I do on IQ (performance is easy to fix - spend more on faster silicon or SLI). What is the use of purchasing an expensive graphics card to game with if the IQ it produces looks like something you could get out of a $50 budget card or IGP? That is why nvidia supporting the enabliing of things like AA & SSAO in games that otherwise don't have them is so very important, and AMD should seriously ask themselves why they don't put at least as much effort in as nvidia if they want people to purchase their higher end products.