I'm three hours in (by the in-game clock; probably more like four, four and a half hours of actual butt-on-couch time, including reloading to try things out). I only just now got to lower Seattle, around where the demo takes place. So, some thoughts:

• I'm not feeling too concerned about length. I'm three hours in and only just about to contact the second major organization vying for my services. The upper Seattle area alone has multiple maps, and probably a dozen major and minor quests.
• Making choices without enough information is what this game is all about, and it's great. Some have complained that the inventory system doesn't require the same juggling as the original did, but I disagree; the only thing that's missing is objects taking up different amounts of volume. Which I don't miss at all.
• As promised, you have a variety of ways to solve any problem. The physics engine even plays in: at one point, I realized that a locked door led to an open ledge above. If I'd emphasized jumping, I could have reached it with biomods, but that gave me the idea to run around, find boxes, stack them, and use them to get up there. Another time, a bunch of thugs tried to mug me. They opened fire, and I ran around the corner to where a security bot was waiting; it took them out handily and I didn't have to break any laws.
• Unified ammo and no-reload seems fine to me. It's a nanotech world, baby!
• The demo map is not at all representative of the real game's maps. The demo dialogue felt stilted to me, but in game the writing feels great.
• The nanotech upgrade system is great. I've always thought XP was an overlly artificial construct, especially when the game takes place over a short period of time. The biomod stuff gives you the ability to customize your character in a plausible in-game way. Also, you can change your mind about your biomods, although you end up sacrificing the biomod units you spent before.
• The audio is outstanding. As promised, audio propagation through walls and doors is modeled faithfully, and you can really notice it.
• Light is also fantastic. The demo shows this off well.
• The enemy AI seems nice. Like in Thief, the actors seem to have convincing situational awareness and search behavior. If you can open the door with the multitool while the guard's turned the other way, you can get away with it. Flying casual and faking out the man is perfectly acceptable strategy.

I ended up buying the XBox version. It looks great, and it plays smooth. I've seen the frame rates stutter slightly from time to time, but it always remains playable.

So, yeah, LOVE IT. Looking forward to playing more!  9:03:59 PM  (comments [])   

So the main reason to get the XBox version is that it can take best advantage of my gratuitous surround sound system. And that the controller is easier on my wrists than a mouse & keyboard. Maybe I need to try to find one of these, because patches and crisper graphics (and no contention for the TV as I power through this) are sounding pretty darn good to me.  10:08:35 AM  (comments [])   

I love audio books. I recently re-subscribed to Audible's two-book-a-month plan, and have now finished Jasper Fforde's two books (The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book), and have just finished listening to Steven King's second Dark Tower book, The Drawing of the Three.

Ffforde's books are great, and you've probably never even heard of them. If you enjoy that sort of daffy English adventure (I kept feeling like I was reading some kind of clever, funny mix of Harry Potter and John LeCarre) you'll love these books. They're hard to characterize -- they're set in an alternate modern day where classic literature is pop culture, wacky inventions abound, and the Crimean war never ended. As Salon says in their review of Lost in a Good Book, "it's the introduction of the literary into Douglas Adams territory that makes Fforde's books so delightful."

I don't know what to say about King except that I invariably love to listen to his books on audio, and The Drawing of the Three is no exception. The man is a gifted oral storyteller, and that doesn't always play out to best effect unless you hear an actor read it to you. I did find DoTT to be immensely satisfying, and a clear leap forward in quality over the first Dark Tower book. I've got the third book on tap, and will probably start listening to it today.

Later today, Deus Ex: Invisible War and Beyond Good & Evil come out. BG&E has been getting great reviews on the PS2; people are comparing it Zelda: Wind Waker. You play a plucky action journalist who's trying to uncover a government conspiracy that's masking an alien take over. Apparently it mixes many different game types (adventure, action, sneaker, hovercraft!?) to great effect, and the only complaint I've seen has been it's brevity. Brevity is mostly fine with me, since lack of time means I have too many games on the shelves that are unfinished. A tight narrative is a bonus.

On that same line, Deus Ex: IW has also been getting dinged on the brevity front. Considering the epic length of the first one, that's probably OK, although I do fear (in both cases) that I will reach the end and say "more! more!" So it's good they're both coming out today :). People have also been dinging DX2 for lousy controls, poor framerates, and stupid AI. Personally, I think they've conveniently forgotten that these were all flaws of the first game, which also rocked once you got past the rough spots. But the demo's floaty controls were troubling to me (although I have yet to try the tip here for reducing the floatiness).

Pretty much every preview & review agrees that the twisty plot and the alternate styles of gameplay have been preserved, to which I say "hooray!" Supersecretnanoagent Alex D rides again tonight.  10:02:54 AM  (comments [])   

"Inviting Bush supporters to a fund-raiser, the host wrote, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." No surprise there. But Walden O'Dell [~] who says that he wasn't talking about his business operations [~] happens to be the chief executive of Diebold Inc., whose touch-screen voting machines are in increasingly widespread use across the United States." [Paul Krugman in the NY Times]

Ye gods and little fishies.  9:43:44 AM  (comments [])