Advent Rising Pre-release

It does indeed look cool. Excellent name, by the way.

Weird. I heard about this thing a while ago, saw some screenshots and thought it looked pretty crummy. But I just checked out that trailer and it's kinda piqued my interest a bit! And it's only a few weeks away to boot! Rockin'!

Thanks Chef Tony!

June 1st is coming up....this does look really great and certainly haven't seen one cross word spoken about it yet...

Here's to hoping...

I'm a big fan of Orson Scott Card's written work and I'm looking forward to seeing how his vision translates to the video game medium. Had my eye on this one for a while and it looks like it's going to be flying under a lot of people's radar.

Can't wait.

Since last week they have been pimping the hell out of this game on tv and in movies. It got its huge trailer played in front of star wars when I saw it.

I am intrigued at the idea of a planned trilogy of games, but with the next gen looming...how do the developers plan on carrying over the character I may have gone through the first game with into the planned sequels? Or have they dropped this idea all together?

Still haven't seen any reviews for this.

Release date is today, right? Odd that there are no reviews.

Maxim Online gave it a 4 out of 5, and we all know how reliable and professional their game reviews are.

I think it would have gotten that other star from Maxim if it had some depressed looking skinny models hanging around wearing bikinis in odd locales. I think seriously enough the reason that it didn't get 5 out of 5 was due to "the main character wearing a shirt the whole time. Its like, loosen up dude and show off those pecs already".

As you can tell, i love me some Maxim.
Maxim is a magazine....isn't it?

Gamespy says, "Eh..."

Translates into 2.5/5 stars. Basically, the game has nice ideas but lacks polish to truly strengthen these areas (i.e. clunky framerate, simplistic action).

Might make a decent rental.

I don't have LIVE, but a specially-marked version of the XBOX game offers a two-month free trial, so I may try that. Also, I want to win me some prizes!

Sucks to hear that the game is average at best from Gamespy though.

IGN gave it a 7.8. See review here.

They give high marks for storyline and sound, but counted down on the framerate issues. I'm still kind of intrigued but the game length isn't making me very happy.

Was always interested in the story and game concept more than anything else so the reviews don't really scare me away...but the length DOES disappoint me to say the least.

What the hell happened to games that took a good 20 hours? I mean, you'd think with a story with this scope would be longer than Half-Life 2 you know...

Ithink this game looks okay but I think there contest idea is kina neat. I am on some XBOX emailing list and I got this the other day. They are trying something different that's for sure. I just copied and pasted, so the words describing how "great" it is ar theirs, not mine!

Edit: Even with the contest, I think this is just a rental for me.

Gamespot ripped this game a new one.

Umm, ouch.

On a positive note, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the case. And the gamedisc is the ideal shape for playing on your XBox... flat, round, with the hole precisely in the middle.

Everything else sucks.

Alright, don't know if it's due to tempered expectations but I spent about 3 to 4 hours on this game last night and I absolutely love it. There is framerate issues but nothing absolutely major (hiccups here and there) and it doesn't stop you from enjoying the game. The driving parts can suck too but outside of racing games themselves...well you aint gonna find good racing.

For the good, well the cinematics are great and the story is fantastic a game that really does the whole alien invasion thing perfectly. You feel like you're in a war and the carnage is great. As for the battlesystem, I'm loving that too. The "flick" targeting system is great and the weapons are quite incredible to mess with and just create mayhem with.

There's more but this game is a lot better than the scores it has been given. Just for the incredisble music alone.

I've got to strongly disagree CT, this is one of the worst games I've played in a while. The controls are crap, the game stutters along even when you're just walking around, graphics are first generation PS2 looking, flick targeting is annoying and the camera is junk. Story isn't bad though, I guess.

Not even worth a rental.

This game is a cockpunch. The control is somewhat clunky, the slowdown is equally horrendous (more than just a few "hiccups," at least from my perspective), and the flick targeting system - while a good idea - isn't so great in execution.

That said, I don't really care much for story. Outside of Card's penning, it's pretty much of the "Bad Aliens invade, you get powers, you're the ONE" type. I will agree that the game gets the alien invasion right, especially in regards to the carnage, and the powers you receive are equally nice.

Other than that, I'd say it's a good rental, but I'm not so sure I would buy it.

Oh well, I'll defintely say the game isn't polished like it should be but I lov it, period. I'm just hoping a lot of things are fixed for the possible second in this trilogy. I guess I just can forgive the game due to it's ambition and scope.

*Shrugs* Don't know why non-polished games don't bother me much, oh well.

I guess for those who weren't looking forward to it....rent it.

Good story, nice sound but, framerate sucks, it's boring and despite being drawn from original sci-fi fiction, it's a half-ass HALO ripoff.

I am amazed that today's games still show up with framerate issues. I wonder what the game makers thought, no one will notice? I mean give me a break. WIth 2 years in development time for so many games, you have to at least get a minimum of 30 fps steady, if not you have failed.

AR has nothing in common with Halo thankfully. That is except the fact that they're both sci-fi games. Other than that they are completely different. I beat the game the other night and have to say it was a great game. The minor annoyances of frame-rate and other issues almost disappeared by the end either becasue I didn't give a shit about them and was too involved with this kick ass story or because they weren't there. If you head over to playmagazine.com there's a good review for it to read from someone who isn't completely jaded about gaming. What you have to consider is this is GlyphX's first game if I'm not mistaken and a very ambitious one at that. They are not ID or Bungie so probably don't have the power to say it'll be ready when it's ready. AR has some excellent dialogue and some cheesy dialogue but overall the story is top notch and has what Halo doesn't. Emotion and humanity. When playing Halo I could give a shit about any of the characters including Master Cheif but here in AR I actually care about what's going on with them. The powers are awesome and the flick targeting system works quite well. I mixed up the use of the powers, moves and weapons throught the game and had a blast. You can bet that the next game won't have the same issues. I hope some people aren't swayed by these horrible reviews and give AR a shot. You'll probably like what you're playing. It's incredibly cinematic and the score is fantastic.

Don't get me started on what I think of Bungie and Halo 2. I'm not a fan anymore.

Halo ripoff. That's terrible to hear that a game rips off another shitty one. Halo was a hodgepodge of scifi cliches, none done well. Natch. Anyways, I might give it a rent. It was great to see Gamespot SW explode though Stupid Xboys.

Well, the game did get better. The framerate issues declined for me as the game progressed but as your power increases, the game gets incredibly easy. Floydian is right though, the game is cinematically and thematically good. The score is also good and they went a ways to get good voice actors, IMO. However, the editing of the game and the use of cutscenes for plot development were done poorly. The pacing of the game was off and it skipped around when it didn't need to. My HALO comparison may have been a bit hasty but the look of the game throughout rings similar, albeit from a 3rd person perspective. Anyway, I'd say it's worth a rental, or at least it was for me. I played it sparingly and beat it handily so it's not something you have to play endlessly and beat your brain about.

I think what's important is these guys got the first one under their belt and can now concentrate on the sequel which should be easier for them. If they fix the issues and make the story just as compelling we could be in for a great sci-fi epic. I haven't heard if Card will work on the next one though I imagine he will. It is a bit easy and it was on the short side I agree but nonetheless enjoyable. Give it a rental at least but if you're any kind of sci-fi geek a purchase wouldn't be a bad thing.

My 6 year old beat the game in two days after watching me beat it the first time.

This game's included with the dvd of Uwe Boll's Seed, for no reason whatsover (maybe cause Postal came with the game?)

Worth the 5.5 gig installation?

If I recall correctly, I did not like this game whatsoever.

Apparently, from all of the reviews I've read, no.

I was semi interested in playing this until I heard that Card is a complete fuckwipe and all around awful human being. So I haven't touched this.