My Dark Motives & 3 Dimensions of Murder Review (spoilers/very wordy)

[Sanda]

Hello all!
Just figured I'd write in my personal thoughts on the two games I have played.
(I recently ordered the other 3 on eBay, so soon I will have input on them all)
Also, I should warn that I will freely talk about cases, so if you don't want spoilers I'd suggest you head elsewhere... Sorry but I just wanna discuss the stuff freely. Also, I get so rambly so I apologize in advance for boring you to death. I just felt like writing about it, and knowing me I won't be able to stop :'P

Anyway, I finished TDoM yesterday (PS2) and replayed DM (PC) over the past few days...Let me start off by saying that both are amazing games. Very different from the TV show in my opinion, but I love them none the less! Honestly, I actually think I like DM slightly better than its successor. I say this for several reasons:

1) I love the character's lines. I think they made Brass, Robbins & Greg much more loveable (as they are in the show) in Dark Motives. I liked how in Dark Motives when you asked Brass for a warrant (and you had enough evidence for it etc) he would list off clever words/phrases about it. That didn't happen in 3 Dimensions of Murder, and I must say I quite missed it. He was just always like "lets bring them in for questioning" or "here's your warrant." I am sure many Brassofiles out there didn't appreciate him not getting the great one liners. As far as Robbins goes, I loved the things he said in DM. It made it feel more personal to me, and yeah that sounds weird since it's a game, but I felt it was much more enjoyable (: In TDoM he just kinda said what he needed to, which was effective, but I like the chattiness. Ooh, that brings me to another point: Greg. While I love the fact that Greggo is out in the field (power to him!!) I did miss that element in the lab. Don't get me wrong, it was indeed fun to use all the new high tech gizmos in TDoM, but I missed Sanders terribly. In the game's defense it evolved and I just need to adapt to it.,, But what got me is that Greg also lost his one liners ): I loved the comments he would make about the evidence you would hand him. I can see why they made the lab more "hands on" in TDoM, as I said it's a natural progression. And I realize that while you're working with him in the field it might be slightly tougher to get those phrases in there, but I wish there had been more of an effort. CSI's catchy quotes are part of what sets it apart from the other shows in its genre; the writers are very adept at it and I think it's a shame that the game doesn't make use of clever things like that.
I think in future CSI games they should make use of Hodges, Wendy, Mandy, Archie, Wendy & Bobby (: That would be way cool! That way the player would still get the experience of "processing" the evidence themselves, but for specialized things the lab techs could make funny comments when they process it or whatever.
In general, I think the dialogue in TDoM was much weaker. I don't recall laughing at all because one of them said something clever/funny/silly. I can remember laughing at least twice for DM. Once in Diggin' It when Sara was at Mme. Lazora's Parlor and looked into the crystal ball, and a second time when Nick asked "you think these would fit me?" about the underwear found at Heather Colby's place in Miss Direction. I know there were more times, I just can't think of them off the top of my head.

2) The music. I loved the music used in DM...Straight from the show! I'm still trying to track down the soundtrack to that by the way, if anyone has it please please please let me know!
While I really did enjoy TDoM's music, there was just something missing without the usual CSI tunes. DM's music is memorable; infact it is stuck in my head at the moment. TDoM's isn't...the only thing I can think of from there is the music that plays in Carie Cannelli's appartment, while I can think of any given song from DM. Minor detail I know, it's just a personal preference of mine.

3) I personally think the characters looked better in DM. I know TDoM was higher quality and more advanced graphics wise, but as far as making the characters look like themselves I think DM takes the cake. Aside from Sara having blue eyes (um wtf?) I think they looked much more like themselves. Sara, Catherine, Grissom, Warrick and especially Greg and Robbins were so much better than they were in TDoM. I think Robbins was scary looking and Greg looked like Greg from far away, but when you zoomed in on him it didn't resemble him in the slightest! Catherine was pretty good in TDoM, and Nick was WAY better. Really, Nick was the only character in DM that I thought they did an awful job on! They made him look so scary ): Nicky is incredibly gorgeous and they really messed him up in DM, yuck...So TDoM nailed it, as I remember I was impressed with the job they did on Nick in First Person Shooter. As far as Brass goes, I think he looked more like himself in TDoM but they screwed him up in both. Guess his unique looks are just hard to mimic? Whatever the case may be, he just looked terrible either way. Bottom line: if you only care about Nick looking good, TDoM is the game for you!

3) The load times on TDoM were annoying. DM didn't have any. Perhaps this is what I get for having the PS2 version, but the load times were obnoxious. Also I constantly had to save it incase it crashed (because I had read about the PS2 version crashing and whatnot so I wanted to be safe rather than sorry) DM automatically saved which was really nice. Plus, as I said no loading time. Bottom line: TDoM for the PS2 wasted a lot of time loading while DM didn't.

4) Ok now this next part drove me crazy about TDoM: THE DARKNESS. My goodness, I realize that the TV show would have you believing that CSIs work in the dark but geez, do they have to apply that same logic for the game too!? There were several times when it was really dark in the game and I had to refer to walkthroughs just to know what I was even looking for! The time that readily comes to mind is the warehouse at the end of Big White Lie in TDoM. I was SO frustrated looking for the medical kit in the absolute pitch black section of that stupid area. Seriously that was ridiculous! The entire warehouse was hard for me to navigate through because I had trouble finding stuff in general but wow that one thing really was just hell to find. Now I realize these games are designed to be a challenge in theory, but making something impossible to find because it is impossible to see is just idiotic in my opinion. I know others had issues seeing it too judging by my google searches, and I sure as heck wasn't about to wait until night time to see if playing in darkness would resolve my problem because I was too darn impatient. I don't like playing games that force you to play them at night because they are so dark (and don't have settings to make it otherwise!). It totally reminded me of playing Silent Hill Origins on the PS2, which was incredible, but impossible to see for sh!t. Drove me nuts then, still does now as TDoM proved. Yeah, so bottom line: Hard Evidence better not pull that "we're CSIs and therefore too cool to use real lights" crap or I will be very, very sad ): IT IS cool on the show, not so much when you're struggling because you know something is there and just can't click on it.

5) TDoM was much more particular about evidence hotspots. Ok, while I can see that yes that does make it harder, it also makes it more annoying. I didn't have problems collecting evidence from collected evidence. (That is to say, getting a hair/fiber off of some clothing etc)
Oftentimes, it was just seeing the evidence itself that gave me problems. Sometimes it could be attributed to darkness. Sometimes not. Also, I would've liked it if they let you USE the flashlight when you felt like it. Then they can make it as dark as they want to! But without that I just don't think its fair to submerge players in complete + total darkness. Bottom line: TDoM, please don't be so picky about where the pointer is! Grrr.

6) I really disliked how sensitive the controls were for the PS2! I had so much trouble collecting evidence because I would barely touch the controller and it would shoot me across the room. Granted, I did enjoy the new way of storing the casefile+evidence by attaching it to the L1 command. Kept it off the screen unless I wanted it. Also, it was pretty cool getting to go around looking at the set designs. Like, in Daddy's girl I went to every corner of the hospital because it simply amused me. Bottom line: TDoM's controls overreact but it has a more convenient layout and more to explore.

& finally... Overall, I think there was just much more of a CSI feel to Dark Motives. Again, it's personal preference I suppose. But I definitely felt that ALL of the characters' personalities showed through way stronger in Dark Motives. And that to me is what really made the game fabulous.

[Sanda]

That being said: don't get me wrong, DM was full of problems of its own. For one, the buggyness was simply terrible. I remember when I first played it years ago on an ME operating system and I literally had to stop every 5 minutes and restart the game. It was impossible to get through cases because I would just lose the cursor, text and the screen went black etc. It was just awful and required SO much dilligence on my part to even complete. Quite honestly if I didn't love the show so much (and I had just picked the game up randomly at the store without knowing the series) I most likely wouldn't have wanted to continue playing it because the constant restarts of the game were so distracting to the storyline. Infact, I really disliked the game at first. I thought it was weird and just didn't enjoy it. (I was younger then, so perhaps that factored into the equation too). Upon replaying it with an XP operating system, I don't find this to be the case as much...Infact, not at all. I could play it through like a normal game! I had to restart it once because the text disappeared. That isn't too bad, considering how terrible it was before. TDoM had the occasional sound bug, where one line would not get read by the character but that didn't bother me much at all. Now, this could just be because I have it for the PS2, because according to many threads on here it is buggy (I assume they mean for the PC, although I know I've seen some instances where it was the PS2). Bottom line: DM is dreadfully buggy on ME/2000 operating systems so avoid using it on them at all costs!

Setback #2)
DM's cases were also painfully short whereas TDoM's were substantially longer. The longer cases were so nice! On my DM replay I didn't even use a walkthrough (referenced it once or twice maybe) and I could still breeze through the cases. (Maybe it only felt fast because there was no buggyness this time through...) There wasn't nearly as much evidence as I had remembered. Basically, TDoM's back and forth definitely prolonged the cases but they were also longer in general with much more to explore, collect and analyze. This brings me to another point. I felt like some of the evidence in DM was kinda hard to "piece together" (no pun intended haha). What I'm saying is that I just didn't think the connections were obvious enough sometimes and there were some things that I STILL missed as far as collecting the evidence goes in DM on my replay such as the red paint at the asylum in Prints and the Pauper. Assembling different pieces of evidence together into one didn't always follow logical progression in DM in my opinion. I felt that TDoM was much more successful in that respect; things just made more sense to me.

Another good thing about TDoM were the new gadgets that players get to experiment with! So many new collection and detection tools. There were even two ways of getting blood: Crystal Leukowhatchamacallit and Luminol. An SLR camera as well as a high powered flashlight were also added to the evidence collection arsenal featured in TDoM. I think the heavy brush was taken away since there was no use for it in TDoM. Anyway, more tools of the trade=more fun. Ooh and it was nice to be able to "tick" off evidence as you processed it. In DM the little tags didn't always get the red dot upon successfully processing the evidence whereas they did in TDoM (or at the very least you could press the square button and tick them off yourself). That feature kept me much more organized and got my priorities straight. It was great how your partner told you what to do with the said evidence as well. TDoM definitely had much more hand holding than DM did. Even the tips your partner gave you were MUCH more specific; listing off evidence in certain locations at times! That was perhaps a bit much, but hey some people might need it I guess. It's a nice option to have. I felt that a lot of the hints in DM were just generally useless. Like, you would ask: What evidence can I collect [insert location name here]. And your answer would be: You should look harder and follow the evidence. Yeahhh, and that helps me how!? :P
I have often seen people say the addition of the mobile lab is stupid and pointless. I think not! While the game could definitely have made MORE use of it, I don't think they could've used it better. It was a neat little change and plus the truck alone just looked way badass so I mean why not haha.

Something they both need to work on: the suspects/victims. I think in both games the bodies themselves were badly done. But more importantly, the suspects were just...I don't know, they were so insincere. It sounds so petty of me but I just think they should make them more emotional. The CSI cast was pretty good in both games, but consistently the other characters didn't even have human reactions. Sounds weird, but I just feel like there was a disconnect somehow which made it less enjoyable.

Casewise, I think both games had a good variety of scenarios. Like the show they were full of twists and turns and just when you think suspect A is looking ever so guilty, suspect B shows up and incriminates themselves with overwhelming evidence. I liked how in TDoM you had familiar faces in cases 1 and 5. I also liked how there were new faces too though because otherwise it would've defeated the purpose and become boring. I also liked TDoM's brazenness with the gory crime scenes. In Daddy's Girl, that was pretty grizzly even if it was just a game. Something the crime shows never show is the true amount of blood that there is. There is only so much they can show on TV, but they are so much messier I would imagine. So I thought it was interesting to have a nasty one in one of the games...

Something funny about TDoM: branding...so much...branding XD
Where DM veered away from that course, TDoM took it head on.

Something funny about DM: The evidence trinity...guess Grissom can't swear by it *too* much because it was not featured in the next installment in the series. Oh well, I never used it anyway.

The final verdict:
Both games are amazing. This entire post has basically been me bitching about them but in all honesty these games are fantastic. Aside from the bugs which are just really not fun to deal with, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the games. I would definitely suggest them to any CSI fan (avid or not). I say CSI fan because if one is looking for some good entertainment, I'm not sure this is the right place to look if you aren't used to the show. It definitely helps to know the characters personalities and quirks of the tools used. Once you get used to the format/way things work it's a blast! The cases all are interesting and plausible...so yeah I would definitely say GO BUY THEM!
I can't wait to play the first CSI game, Hard Evidence & Miami!
Hopefully they will make a Miami 2 with Wolfe in it ; ) And an NY with Aiden and an NY2 with Lindsay.
Haha ohh how I wish for those (:
Given the success of these, I'd say it isn't too likely sadly. For whatever reason reviewers/critics give them low scores ):

Wow, I sure went on forever about these games XD;
I know I missed a lot too, I have so much to say about them ):
If I remember more I will edit my post later I suppose...
Hope this helped or something, I'm not even sure what the point of me writing this was actually...

[Steve V]

I would say your reviews are pretty spot on though I think its only the console version of Three Dimensions that has the 'darkness' problem - if you check out some of the help threads for that game its obvious that those of us who play the PC version only don't understand whats going on in the console version.

Dark Motives is my favourite CSI game, because its actually the toughest, even with Greg still doing his stuff in the lab for you, you need to work with the close up evidence views more than in any other game in the series. In three dimensions the mobile analysis unit is really just a gimmick, they could have implemented it in a different way, maybe with timed sequences because actually that's why the mobile unit is there, to analyse evidence that is time sensitive to degrading or giving false positives.

The product placement in Three dimensions and Hard Evidence is really irritating and unnecessary. Its obvious that they were only allowed to use real product names with the proviso that no competitors could ever be mentioned or even ficticious generic products shown. I much preferred working with the no brand items in the first 3 games because it is gratingly unrealistic that everyone drives GMC's or uses Nokia cellphones (for example)

I also find it disappointing that while the game has advanced graphically in certain respects, the representations of the cast members have got steadily less realistic, all of the regular characters in Dark Motives looked uncannily like the real actors, while in Three Dimensions and Hard Evidence they are more like caricatures.

Also, I think you might find the first CSI game and Miami a bit disappointing for different reasons - you will find the first game is pitifully easy, especially now that you have played Dark Motives. Miami is just strangely unlikeable, without really being able to put my finger on it, it just doesn't work as well as the Vegas games.

Now that Warwick and Sara have left the CSI TV Series I doubt the next game will be based in Vegas. Its probably time they based a game on the NY show...

[Sanda]

Thank you (: I appreciate the feedback & love to read what other people have to say!!

Ok yeah, I have since read about the first aid kit fiasco and how there is not an issue on the PC version. From what I gather, as asinine as it is, the PC version places it near some sort of machine in the back of the warehouse while the PS2 version places it impossible to find because the area where it is located is on the wall where it is completely black and surrounded by numerous "good job being thorough but there is nothing there" hot spots. Ughh that drove me i-n-s-a-n-e. I would never replay that particular case for that reason alone! ): I suspect they were trying to come up with ways to make the game more of a challenge, and in the process created that whole caboodle...

Mhm I see your point about the CSI game.
I have since gotten my hands on the first CSI game...I played through the first four cases in like 2 hours (and that was going slowly)
Seriously, the tutorial was annoying...And after the first case was over I was just like UHH WHAT? It built up and looked so promising...only to wind up with 2 suspects? ): It's incredible how far they have come casewise since the first game in TDoM.

Haha yeah product placement to the max...Visa...Nokia...GMC.
I loved the Bruno Pagolis in Dark Motives...Sometimes, the fake names just make you smile, you know? I agree with you that it's a little sickening to keep getting that thrown in your face D:

I totally agree with you. Out of the three I've played thus far, Dark Motives is WAY harder than the rest. Like, there are so many things I forgot to do, even on the replay. And while the cases are considerably shorter than TDoM, I still think Dark Motives mastered the difficulty thing. Like, assembling partial prints. That took me forever to think of (amongst other things such as the lighter fluid on the bat etc)
You're also right about them nailing the characters in that game. I realize that the first game will make the CSIs look the least like themselves, since it used the oldest technology and all, but I've seen screens of Hard Evidence (YUCK!?) and the characters looked terrible. I wasn't too thrilled by them in TDoM as I said before...They look ok from a distance but if you get closer the bear no resemblance to their real life counterparts. I just LOVE the way they all look in Dark Motives...The more games I play, the more I realize that those models were absolute perfection. They truly (for the most part) looked like the characters. Except poor Nicky, who seems to look silly in all three games I have played.

Oh and while I'm thinking about it, that one case in the first game REALLY stood out amongst the rest I'd say. Grady Beat I think it's called. Wow, what a twist that the professor was the killer in both crimes! I really wish they would've built on that more...That would've made for a "killer" episode had they woven more into that plot. Also, I must say I loved the interaction between Stokes & his ex-prof. That was pretty awesome right there (: That sort of thing is sorely missing in TDoM (and I'd assume HE too for that matter)
The first CSI game definitely has those one liners...so good for them there, but they perfected those in Dark Motives for sure. One more reason to say that is the best game overall I suppose.

Oh crap...you're absolutely right...
With Warrick & Sara gone (;___;!!!!) I don't see how another CSI game is possible for the time being...That makes me incredibly sad...*sigh*
Perhaps they will either make an NY game as you say or another Miami one and have Wolfe on the team in place of Speedle.
And yikes! I hope Miami isn't *too* bad?? I'm playing it last I think, or at the very least after I finish this final case on the first game (which should only take me about 30 seconds, give or take 5 seconds haha...) Well not really, but you get the point. Short cases = ):



Mmm in my previous posts I forgot to mention several things about DM+TDoM...I should also take some time to go over the first game while it is fresh in my mind xD;

Ok so another bad thing about TDoM:
SARA'S VOICE. Cath's too, but really, what could be worse than someone trying (and failing) to mimic Sidle's unique pattern of speech? Absolutely nothing. Cath's was -passable- at best...not offensive at least. But whoa, Sara's was just terrible. And talk about annoying. I wonder why those two didn't voice their own characters? I know it must be a lot of work to record all that, but the men of CSI have always voiced for their characters so what gives? ): It was so nice to hear Helgenberger & Fox's voices in the first and second installments in the CSI game franchise. I am not looking foward to being subjected to that same torture from TDoM again in HE.

On a more random note...did TDoM come out in 2007? Because I don't think Sara's hair looked like that since...season 2 was it? I can't remember exactly but I thought her wavy look was from when the show first started. Not that it's bad of course, but they had Cath's hair styled like it has been in recent seasons. So I was just curious.

I really must say I liked the comparison stuff in Dark Motives the best. TDoM's DNA comparing was sorta hard for me to discern at times, and the fingerprints were too. DM succeeded in making it easy enough to see, but not so easy that it was mindless. So yeah, yet another bonus point for DM.

As far as the first game is concerned, I think it set a pretty good path for the other games to follow...I mean, they had the right idea. And the scenes were well done, detailed. The lack of depth though, was just...sad I guess. I don't even know how to describe it? They had so much potential, and then just fell short. It's a real pity in my opinion. As I said before, Grady's beat was the most interesting for me! I wish they would've made use of those other computer features more. To me, those 3 other buttons on the computer were like the mobile lab from TDoM, rather pointless. They could have made so much more out of them. They also could have made more out of that mysterious phonecall in case #4, "More Fun Than a Barrel of Corpses." I thought it would be all cool and such, and it wound up being pretty routine...nothing mysterious or whatever. It was pretty sad to find the vic in that steel drum though ): Something kinda annoying about this game were the many quick movements of the characters. They were too sudden/jerky for me.
The first case "Inn and Out" (oh very clever *insert eyeroll here* was kind of stupid to me...couldn't really care less about the vic at all, and the suspects were just...dumb? I know that sort of thing doesn't matter, cases are cases and you just have to do them. XD Wow I sound so silly right now...But really, I didn't care for that case at all.
Let's see, case number two, was it "Light My Fire?" That one too could have had SO many freakin' twists...and just nothing ): It was completely predictable too. But nothing was actually bad about it, just fell short.
Grady Beat. Wow, where to even begin. That one actually got me excited & engaged in the storyline. It was definitely interesting. I liked the internet website component of it, original. I liked the plot in general, I actually really wanted to get to the bottom of what really happened. And like I said before, loved the Stokes/professor chatting...gleaned some interesting tidbits about Nick's past in Dallas so that was neat! And whoa the twist at the end, I sorta figured it out, but didn't want to believe it. Very captivating case, still has me thinking about it hours later.
More Fun Than a Barrel of Corpses...second best case thus far...Interesting twists. But I think the best thing about the case was the method in which the vic was murdered. Very original!! What wasn't original was the repetition of the poker chips in her mouth (going back to that awful first case with the money in Karen's mouth). But whatever, that's a stupid minor detail. As a whole I thought this case was pretty darn good.
Leda's Swan Song, haven't played it yet but I hope it's a good one :D

I must say, after playing these three games I really like the fact that different tools are used in each game. Spices it up, keeps it from being bland/repetitive. So that's a nice thing (:
(even if the tools were hard to select in TDoM, I kept clicking the wrong one accidentally)

[Steve V]

Sanda, I guess you found the Tutorial in CSI 1 annoying because you already played the later games so you knew what to do. Fortunately I played the series 'in order' so it didn't matter to me. They were right to seperate the tutorial part from the main game in the later versions though.

What I find strange is that you were given tools in the first game that you don't have in the later ones - the gas detector in the arson case and the infra red heat scanner in A Barrel Full of Corpses. It would have been nice to have at least one case somewhere else that you use them.

About the first case, you go back to that in Ledas Swan Song so it gets sorted out in the end, although its a bit irritating that they give you new evidence that you couldn't access originally to solve it. Thats the way all the CSI games work, the final case revisits the suspects from earlier ones and resolves some missing details. When you play CSI Miami the final case really goes over the top in this regard.

I agree that Garvey's Beat is one of the most interesting cases in the whole series, but it aso has a few holes in it which aren't explained very well, like how come nobody in the world knew that the crime writer and the Professor were the same person. And if he wanted to take credit for the original murder why did he react like all the other suspects do, as if he was annoyed about being under suspicion?

Also with the Better than a barrel full of corpses case, notice anything familiar about the animal trainer at the start who calls you in?

Good luck with Ledas Swansong, it's probably the toughest case in that game, but that isn't really saying much

[Sanda]

I KNEW IT!
DOMINIC PETRENKO, right!? Or however you spell it?
Wow and I thought I was seeing/hearing things? XD!!!
I'm so glad you brought that up, I wanted to ask but forgot to (:

Ohhh yeah the tutorial in that game drove me absolutely nuts haha...Wish I'd played them in order like you had, that's the way to go ): I must say, I love the one on Hard Evidence! I went outta my way to play it (just on a whim) and discovered that it was actually rather entertaining!! I love how Brass is like, a warrant over a donut? But since this is a tutorial I'll give it to you...So yeah I liked that bit.

With the tools, I suppose they just did that depending on what case the particular game has. Like, the sniffer and infra red detector wouldn't do you much good in the later games. But I agree with you, that would've been cool to see them return later.

Thanks (:
And you're right, Leda's Swan Song was the most challenging. I liked it a lot actually! Second favorite to Garvey's Beat of course. (Even though I never can remember its name haha)

I'm sure you understand this, but I totally missed out on something in case 5. So, as you say, they are all connected. And Leda killed Karen. But, why was it that she did? I mean she was her pharmacist and all, but was it just to see if she could get away with it or...? I totally blanked out there and missed the reasoning behind that. Of all the cases on that game (Garvey's included) I think that case 5 had the most wasted potential. That plot was just fabulous, it is such a pity that it couldn't have gone on further. I must say, that case had me so involved and the concept of having to find Grissom was quite brilliant IMO. I really did enjoy it. You know, it's kinda funny I saw the money and chips in the mouths and I thought they were just recycling something I should've caught on...oh well...
Ahh Garvey's Beat was just so fabulous...true that about the plot holes. If he recreated the scene and all, why use pig's blood? I know you can never exactly duplicate it but wouldn't the head wound have still bled in a similar pattern? That kinda threw me, as did the issues you raised. You know, I can't decide now whether I think he knowingly had two sides to him or not. When I played it, I thought he had multiple personality disorder because when Nick called him the Professor he suddenly snapped out of his delusional talking. I felt like there were two sides to him. Although now that I think about it, I might just be remembering it like I "want to" because that's how I wrote it off as being. If that makes any amount of sense whatsoever.

Ah yes. I have since gotten to case 4 on Miami (LOVESPEED!!!) Erm, aside from the fact that it has Tim Speedle in it, this game is my least favorite.
You're totally right! You said something was missing from it and you were spot on...I don't care for it much. It is so similar to Dark Motives, and yet, so different. It definitely falls short, but I just can't put my finger on the reason for why it does...Case 3 was so weird, and the hinting at that guy being into necrophilia? Yikes. I did like how you went to an underwater site there though, that's pretty cool. It would've been even cooler if it was like the PS2 version of TDoM and you could swim around. Took me forever to figure out I needed a flashlight for something that was clearly visible. I must say, the only thing I really like about that game is that you can use the flashlight when YOU want to, anytime anywhere. Case 4 seems interesting so far, dead guy and his dog...Not too far into it though. Can't wait to see what you're talking about in case 5; I bet H puts on his charm for it though (: Gotta love David Caruso and his sunglasses...

Oh, more questions for you (sorry, hope you don't mind!)
Case 5 on Dark Motives (Dragon and Dropping I think?) how does it tie the other cases together? I never caught that when I played it through years ago and recently I stopped at Miss Direction so I didn't replay the last case yet.
Also, in case 5 on Three Dimensions of Murder I remember it had Ackerman from Photographs at an Execution, and it had Carrie's boyfriend from case 3. Did it have stuff from 2 and 4? Or was it like the first CSI game where it was case 1 and 4 that led to 5? Am I missing stuff here? *confused*

I am also at case 3 in Hard Evidence.
That one is alright so far...the first case was pretty good. I also thought it was kinda interesting how the "victim" was kind of a "perp" at the same time, with the harassing and stuff. Just shows how regardless of who dies you have to get to the bottom of it. So I liked that aspect of the case. "Double Down" was a repeat of "Rich Mom, Poor Mom" for me so that was slightly boring since I played that case only 2 weeks ago or so. But, I will say this about it: I now can completely understand the difference between the PS2 and PC versions of these cases. In the PS2 version it was impossible for me to see the photograph on the furniture, and very hard to see the bullet hole in the wall. On the PC version? Not a problem. Very easy. It really makes an enormous difference. Case 3, no idea how it'll end at this point...interesting method of murder haha...Can't wait for case 4 though, working with Greg and all. Plus the description of that case sounds awesome.

Wow I have managed to ramble on AGAIN... Sorry~

[Steve V]

Originally Posted by Sanda

I KNEW IT!
DOMINIC PETRENKO, right!? Or however you spell it?
Wow and I thought I was seeing/hearing things? XD!!!
I'm so glad you brought that up, I wanted to ask but forgot to (:

Oh, more questions for you (sorry, hope you don't mind!)
Case 5 on Dark Motives (Dragon and Dropping I think?) how does it tie the other cases together? I never caught that when I played it through years ago and recently I stopped at Miss Direction so I didn't replay the last case yet.
Also, in case 5 on Three Dimensions of Murder I remember it had Ackerman from Photographs at an Execution, and it had Carrie's boyfriend from case 3. Did it have stuff from 2 and 4? Or was it like the first CSI game where it was case 1 and 4 that led to 5? Am I missing stuff here? *confused*


Wow I have managed to ramble on AGAIN... Sorry~

I didn't get the Petrenko connection til I had played both games twice, it is still a bit strange to me that they have no idea who he is in Case 5 of dark Motives

The motive for Leda kiilling karen was very straightforward, she 'stole' the doctor from her (in Leda's mind anyway).

The Pigs blood in Garvey's beat is simply a reference to the fact that cops are called 'pigs' by those who aren't on the side of the law.

Case 5 in Dark motives only has the victim from case 2 involved as far as I remember, so I was wrong to say that case 5 pulls all the loose ends together from all earlier cases..same thing with case 5 in Three dimensions, its only Ackerman and Michael from the earlier cases who appear again

[Poseidon]

Ask yourself these questions: What was Leda's maiden name? Who and, above all, what was her father's profession? How and in what way was Grissom involved?Then , once Leda is in jail, interview her...Then and only then, shall you know the true motive. As for Case 5 in TDoM , it completes number two. Petrenko is an entrepeneur , that being a logical extension of being circus manager.