I'm actually kinda expecting rpg elements in this, since the development studio is Streum on, and the last game they made was E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy, an excellent FPS/RPG.
Nice list there, however, I'd like to expand a bit on some of them:
1. Mouse and keyboard support - I think this should be "Whichever control scheme you like"
Yes, M&K combination is great, but there are genres where some people are willing to trade precision for comfort. Anything that doesn´t need precision or a good deal of accuracy can be played with a pad, and there are genres such as fighting games that are just not enjoyable without a pad. The real strength of the PC, on controls schemes, is that you can just use whatever you like. M&K, pads, wheels, joysticks (and "professional" variants), arcade joysticks (you can make your own), etc. Besides, there have been pads and joysticks for the pc since pc gaming began (I remember playing doom with a pc pad back in the day)
4. Upgradeable hardware - and let´s make an emphasis on "flexible/adjustable performance"
Yes, if you can´t max a game, you can upgrade a bit of your PC to get it there, but what if you just can´t ? (not enough money, other expenses, unemployed at the moment). Well, just adjust your settings. You dont have to wait until your next GPU arrives, just disable AA, or lower the resolution, or disable some shaders, shadows, etc., and you still have a game looking as good as the consoles counterpart (or looking a bit worse it you really are struggling for performance). Take the Witcher 2 for example. Yes, it is gorgeous with everything maxed, but more modest harware still managed to run it without ubersampling, or at medium (even low) configurations. And even then, you still have the option to turn off some features and leave others on. On PC there´s a lot of flexibility on the hardware AND on the software part.
5. Cheaper games - You just can´t make enough emphasis on this. And Steam is not the only service that has such sales. Gamersgate, Green Man Gaming, GOG also offer some sweet deals. Let´s not forget the Humble Bundles. Why would you need used games market when you can get them "new" at such low price?
10. Unofficial fixes for older games - let´s not forget "also for newer games"
Dark Souls is as good example as Skyrim. FPS problems, unoptimization, bugs left, scripts broken, etc, can be fixed by the gaming community when devs just won´t do it, or before they do.
11. Abandonware - I think the important part here, apart from free games, is "compatibility/possibility to run a whole back catalog of games (almost the whole history of PC games"
While consoles "feature" backwards compatibility with past generations (not always), on the PC you can just put your old CD and run that game you loved. 2013, and you still can get the original DOOM to work. OS change? no problem, there are source ports (DOOM as an example), compatibility modes, virtual machines and DOS emulator (DOS box). And even if you have some problems running a particular game, it's almost sure that you will find an answer on the internet or that somwone will just port it/fix it/patch it (see System Shock 1 and 2). You don´t lose any money spent on games, and you don´t have to keep that old console just to play some game you really liked (with the space problems that causes).
Oh, by all means you should buy them. And fear not, there are ways to get the expansions too. Just check the steam and gog forums for tomb raider. There are guides and/or instructions there.
Also, I think there are ways to get the original psx music to work without glidos. Haven´t looked for it, i prefer the pc ambience sounds ;)
Oh yes, I forgot to mention. The version he (Johnny) is playing is the Steam one (and for that matter, the GOG one). I'd really recommend changing the glide wrapper. By default, the package comes with openglide (i'm not so sure) and it has problems with gamma ramp (that´s why the game looks too bright on the video) and with vsync.
I'd recommend getting nglide. There's also vgVoodoo (1.5 beta2), and it works fine (even better for the gamma problem) but it didn´t solve the vsync for me. Finally, if you want the easiest/best solution, hi res textures and the original music from the psx version, go for Glidos. The only problem is that it costs $10 (yep, thats 10 besides what you pay for the game). You can try it for the first 2 levels before the glidos logo show up on screen.
Nice summary I guess, but let me set some things straight. First of all, this is tomb raider 1, not 2 nor 3. So, no crouching, no flares and no change direction mid-air. Flares and changing direction mid air, and in water, were introduced in Tomb Raider 2. Crouching was introduced in Tomb Raider 3.
About the large jumps, I find easier to just make one backstep (no shift), run and almost immediately after pressing forward press jump. This way you always jump at the ledge at the right moment (it is mentioned on the tutorial too [lara´s house, on the ramps in the ball room]).
Ton interact with things, as you said, you must be facing them directly, but also centered on the object. The same goes for those blocks. To move them, yo have to face directly to them, and be centered to them. There´s no such thing as pushing blocks from the right/left side (as in the video).
Also, you forgot to mention the sidestepping. By default they are assigned to numpad 7 and numpad 9. Those will help you a lot centering lara to the objects.
Also, i'd recommend playing with the numpad, By the default key assignments, on the numpad you have easy access to all commands. 8,4,6 and 2 are your movement keys. 7 and 9 are your sidestep. 1 for walking (you can press shift as well, but for some reason [cheap] my keyboard doesn´t recognize shift + numpad 2, so no step backwards) and 0 for looking around. After this, you just use your left hand for alt, ctrl and space (jump, action and draw weapons respectively).
Finally, and I think one of the most important things about this game (if not the most important) is PATIENCE. The controls feel sluggish and lara feels like a truck (but somehow this always struck me as kinda realistic. It feels as if i am really controlling a person), the camera 80% of the time just sucks. But at the end, I would say that all things considered this is a great game. You just have to "learn" it (just like much of the old games).
I liked the article and have to say that I completely agree with you. I am a designer (an architect and furniture designer) and definitely, the "customer is not always right". Although you have to "give them what they want" in a sense. It's kind of a "tug of war" between both of you until you find the middle point, where you can create something that satisfies them but with enough of your personality to call your own. Now, as for the article, yes i know that houses and furniture are quite different from videogames, but only on the consumer side, because on the developer side, both are a creation, a piece of his/her mind, creativity, even love. It's pretty sad when you cannot express something because of unflexible demands and in the end it becomes just another piece of "something". I agree with your examples. ME3 ending? yes it is flawed, but they didn´t have to change it. Doom 3 flashlight? same case. Both are flawed products, and either you hate them or love them, but that´s the way they were created (just like all of us). *Demanding* so radical changes (we're not talking about fixes, or bugs) was unnecesary. If i was in their shoes, i wouldn't have made any change at all. Fix bugs? hell yes. Fix errors? absolutely. Polish the product? of course. Unnecessarily changing the product only because people didn't like them? definitely not. And I know what i'm saying, i've let go by a some jobs and clients (in my fields of specialization) because of this.
This article is a little reasuring. Now i actually have a little hope that this game turns out to be good. I feared that the developers had turned this Hitman into an action game (even more after that last trailer). I love action games btw, what i don't like is a lack of diversity on the gaming market. Looking forward for this now. Still a shame they ditched 47's original voice and jesper kyd though.
@PixelAddict I see you point, and i agree with you on the "care and attention after release" part. I wish other developers took that route with some of ther bug filled products.
However, i don't think both games launch day are directly comparable, because they essentially work quite different. Yes, Diablo 2 had a ton of issues at first, but as you put it, it was "virtually" unplayable, not truly/really unplayable, as is the case with diablo 3. If battle net went down, you could continue playing/testing on the single player part, offline. Besides, i don't remember stop playing it until i finished the normal difficulty-single player campaign ("bug filled" as it was).
Of course it is expected of a game to have problems/bugs/complications/not-be-perfect at dat 1, and of course it is expected these will be fixed and the game will be polished post launch. What isn't expected is that you can´t play at all said product. Hopefully, this problems will be fixed only days later, not years later.
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