I've only heard of this band, but just popped in to say - that caveman caressing a kitten image is wonderful - very descriptive.

I agree - make that relatively open world. That's one of the reasons the game feels to me a bit like Castlevania

That's actually spot-on - now that you've pointed it out, the mood in this game reminds me a lot of The Void or Pathologic.
 Wonder if their next game is going to be anything like Cargo?

Man, this game is great. I wasn't that interested in Demon's Souls, because as far as I understood it, it had fairly linear levels - the open world here, the sense of exploration, makes all the difference to me. If you run into any bottlenecks, you can go somewhere else to look for any number of secrets.
 Didn't expect…

As mentioned above, it's all setting, with precious little plot. The world is interesting, and some of the NPCs dispense a little lore, but it's all about exploration and combat.

Hmm. Some of the colossi (sp?) were hard, but the game around it was so much forgiving than Dark Souls, so I never had much of an issue with it.
 I never played Demon's Souls, but I'm finding that the difficulty of this game is pretty overstated by the media… it's harsh, not hard, and it forces you to stay on your…

Hate to be that guy, (well, not really) but crash mode was already on burnout 2, and there was a similar mode on Paradise - you could invoke crash mode at anytime, IIRC (it had another name.)

The orks on Retribution were a lot of fun. I do respect the fact that they're trying to reclaim Space Marines for the 40k universe, but sorry - this game would be heaps better if Kaptin Bluddflagg was the main character.

You know, your single-player criticisms can be levied against pretty much against any modern FPS/3rdPS. Other than an extreme (and to me, game-killing) lack of any sort of variety, you could say exactly the same of any CoD. With you on the multiplayer, though.

Russian Circles are great, but they're not quite as immediately accessible as Explosions in the Sky, though.

(I'm terrible at placing music in the larger pop-culture continuum, so forgive me if these bands were/are better known than I think)

Or a particularly violent dialect of sign language.

The only occupied nation, you mean.

About 100 gamerpoints…

Sure - the writing on Deus Ex wasn't all that great, (and oh, god - the voice acting!) but it went off in all sort of weird tangents. Here, it's just… soulless.
 But I'm only nitpicking, if that wasn't clear.

I've found shooting people with the tranq rifle on the head will sometimes kill them. I've mostly stuck with takedowns, anyhow - a lot more fun, and more xp that way.
 @avclub-53b765f9a43e37ed2076c45902067b1f:disqus - really? crap, I wonder if I've broken someone while putting him in the most ridiculous place I could…

Just add another unconscious goon to the pile.
The people mountain I built up on the gang territory in Detroit rivaled some of the ones I made on Thief 3. Sure brought back some memories.

They're saying they're going back to the uniqueness and the hand-crafted feel of Morrowind. Here's hoping that they follow through with the promises - but hey, it's not as if Oblivion was bad.
 Also - infinite dragons!

Really? Outside of Looking Glass games, who else made shooters like Deus Ex?
 Bioshock came fairly close, and its success is probably the main reason we've got this game, and Thief 4 and Dishonored (look it up if you don't know about that - you're in for a treat) on the way.
 I agree that there were a lot of elements…

The Ladies' restroom line was great.
 My only quibble is that the writing is way too workmanlike. The random NPCs, in particular, are terrible.