first impressions

[Dangerzone]

ok, i had the chance to sink my teeth into this game last night from 3:00 to 4:30............and i like the game, so far

so i will give you a brief report on the game

i have only got halfway through the first case (at least i think i am halfway done) sadly, i have to work today so i will not get a chance to play the game again untill tonight ( but i have plenty of time to write this while sitting behind the counter)

a lot of what i did was just messing around, i wasnt trying too hard to solve the case
but, i will walk you through what i have seen so far

first i can say that the 3D really makes a diffrence, and they have made several measures to enhance the gameplay

first off they have somewhat of an into to the game, a cinematic of sorts, it is basicly a csi into/credit peice

once you get into the game it is very rich in detail from the 3D, and things are animated to make the game come to life

the old games had a "flat" appearnce to them and it felt like you were on the inside of a cardboard tube with the scene painted on the inside of the tube

in this game the objects change perspective and "pop" when the camera moves around, they did a good job of making it feel like you are in the game

the camera "flies" around the room when you click on a hot spot, which is a cool feature since the last few games had no transition of any kind (only a fade in and out)
the camera moves at a good speed, a little faster than a walk, but not as fast as the "csi zooms" in the tv shows..........imagine swinging a tennis ball on a string over your head just fast enough to make it float, that is about as fast as the camera moves
but the quick zooms are still in there for the extreme closeups of certain items, and even though you cannot physicly move around the scene, you have more control over the camera than in the previous games

the tools are more advanced now, they are rendered in 3d and you see them physicly in action, when you do things like pick items up and dust for prints

they got rid of the bar with all of your tools, instead a "fan" pops up when you are close enough to use a tool, and it is gone any other time when you do not need it

the flashbacks are rendered in realtime as well and look very good, the shots have the effects like in the show to dim the colors and etc.

the characters are rendered with extreme detail, but most of them are un-true to their on tv versions, the non cast members look very good, but the cast (who you know what they look like in real life) are kind of sub par

on that note, the recent shots of catherene and warrick are the only ones who look like that in the game (everyone else looks kinda diffrent from the earlier shots) although i have not seen everyone yet, so it is too early to judge

a lot of the screenshots were of low quality and the game looks much better on screen and in action than it does in the shots

the vehicle and lab offer more advaned evidence interaction, and you really do process all of the evidence yourself, because greg is no longer sitting in the lab,
on that note thay have more tools and machines to work with, but it is easy to figure out how to use them
all of the evidence is rendered as well, so you can look at it from multiple angles, and really examine it like never before

and you always have your partner to ask for help,
the help feature is better in this game, it gives a lot of general hints and even has the ability to help you figure what tool is the right one for the job........it seems that the game itself can help you get through the cases

you work each case with one of the csi crew, but there are some brief interaction scenes where other characters come in for a bit
since there are more than 5 core cast members, this was a neat way to get everyones face in the game

the interaction scenes are better, because now they have a diffrent "view"
instead of the suspect being dead center of the shot
you now have one of the characters and the suspect in the shot
to make it intresting they have things in there like, a changing point of view, and subutle camera movements so you are not always looking at the same shot

they have a primitive lip synching system which gives the character basic facial expressions while saying words, which is an improvement over the previous games which had no lip synching at all

for a tidbit of useless info on how they did the lip synching in the PREVIOUS GAMES click below, otherwise keep reading on

the last 3 games had 2 five second recordings of a 3d model, one at rest, with the character breathing and blinking, and the second with the character moving their mouth in a random fashion, they would switch between the 2 animations to make it appear that the character was talking, but it really looked like they were chewing food

i will not go into any detail on the cases as of yet...........i am going to wait for other people to get the game, and play it so we can compare notes and talk shop
but in the meantime i am going to torture you and leave you hanging Muh-ha-ha-ha

screenshots are on the way too.............i want to get farther into the game and pick out some good scenes, i will definately have some by the end of the week

all i can say is that it looks like it was worth the 30 bucks i spent on it

stay tuned
_________________________

P.S. please, do not bug me for updates, i cannot play the game untill i close the shop and go upstairs to my computer at night

i will give updates when i get the chance to play the game

when i get some free time on the weekend i will go nuts with screenshots, walkthroughs, and various crap, untill you are sick of this game, and do not want to hear about it anymore

Oh, and feel free to ask questions and post comments, but i have the right to not answer a question if i feel that it will ruin something for someone

i have to leave SOME surprises in the game for everyone

anyone still awake after reading all that...........no, ok

P.S.S.my fingers hurt and my eyes burn

[Dangerzone]

WHOO..........6099 letters (including the title).........i think that was the longest single post i have ever written on any forum........lol

[Shocker]

nice review, can't wait for screen shots!

[Dangerzone]

thanks......i am trying to keep it very general

and i think that most of the info i just game is scattered around the various reviews alreay out on the game

although i have some stuff that was not mentioned yet by anyone on other sites

[Poseidon]

Dangerzone,
This game is the best of them all....period!! However, after all that fuss, the cases were not as hard as I formerly thought. More complicated, yes, but not harder than the others. It's on the same level, or perhaps a trifle above, Dark Motives.

[Dangerzone]

that is the general consensus around here.........