[Adabiviak]

Good heavens - some of you are asking for Prey 2 to be written on the Crysis engine with HL2's portal tech (that will still work on DX9). Do we know that the sequel will definitely be using their modified Doom3 engine? That probably rules out dynamic portals and Crysis-caliber environments (interactivity and detail). If Human Head implements all this, I wouldn't expect to see the sequel for several years.

If they're using the same engine technology, I'd like a stronger report from the acid gun. I thought the other weapon sounds were fine, but the 'shotgun' should have a stronger sound.

I didn't think the AI stank - F.E.A.R. has perhaps some of the best AI I've played against, but compared to most of the games available, I find that Prey's critters were up to par. For example, the flying harvesters were some of the funnest fights I've had in a while. The fodder or mutilated humans aren't supposed to have brilliant AI, and frankly, they shouldn't. I don't recall too many fights with other enemies in areas where their AI could be really shown off. To really see good AI, the level has to support it. If you put a character into a closed room with an enemy, a couple of pillars to hide behind doesn't leave many options for the AI to shine. Implementing this into every single level is a bit much, but if you present us with a pitched battle, make the level such that the enemies' AI can shine.

I'm content with their previous environment choices - people complained about Halo's environments and that game had a huge variety (beaches, jungle, alien compounds, alien warships, human warships, snow, canyons, rolling hills, etc.) Prey's storyline I don't think would have lent itself to this variety of environments - there wasn't much to be done on earth about it other than basically the scene we saw at the bar, but that scene would have replayed basically the same at a different environment. If we were putting up a resistance, that would be a different story, but the idea here is that the Sphere came and just started sucking people up. You can get sucked up in the Louvre, downtown L.A., or a reservation bar, but the story takes place on the Sphere. F.E.A.R.s environment was very very limited, but it rocked because the level design combined with the AI was done well. Whatever you do, as long as your level design is okay, the environment can be whatever fits the storyline.

I'm always down for more enemies. Painkiller had a different batch of enemies on every level (with few exceptions). That's a tall order, but would be, I think, appreciated by all. Weapons? It's hard to think of truly unique weapons (that aren't different versions of, say, the shotgun.) The Needler from Halo, Snarks and the Hornet Gun from Half Life are a couple of good examples that don't fit the mold exactly yet are fun and useful in gameplay. I thought Human Head did a good job of using a rational amount of 'standard' weapons themed for the game. The alt-fire of the Launcher in Prey was a pretty unique change, which put a twist on gameplay that I hadn't experienced before. I'd experiment with a new weapon type perhaps, but I thought the weapon selection in Prey was fine.