Comments on: City of the Daleks now up for download!

By: Steven

Steven — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:34:16 +0000

Most of it was highly enjoyable. Bits of it were tough, especially the getting back to the TARDIS avoiding the Daleks in London.
I found the last maze to be particularly irritating. With a shaky hand like mine I couldn’t get all three ‘balls’ in the holes without one of them touching the edge or hitting a lightning bolt sending all three ‘balls’ back to the start. Took THREE hours to do that one puzzle.

Good graphics and a good fun game. Took 2 days to finish the episode. Bring on the next one!

By: Simon Ward

Simon Ward — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 11:51:49 +0000

Wasn’t this topic supposed to be about the game…?

To that end, here’s a quick review (with mild spoilers)

Let me first say that I am not the best gamer in the world. Football games tend to be my bag and the number of games completed in my life is one (it’s Hook since you asked).

So the fact that I completed this game with some ease speaks volumes about the simplicity of this product. It’s very basic and fairly repetitive stuff (no, RTD didn’t script it).

I say this only to temper expectations. I’d say that it’s difficult enough to make you happy once you’ve completed it – but it’s not so difficult that it’ll take hours to do.

Saying that… IT’S A DOCTOR WHO VIDEO GAME SO WHO CARES?

Moving on to the graphics.

Another confession – I have a new computer so I was expecting this game to run very easily. But when I first ran it, the graphic simply stunk.

The lip sync was out of time – making it look like an overdubbed martial arts film – and it was very slow and difficult to move around the environment.

But after reinstalling, all those problems were fixed instantly.

And I must say that, for a free game, the graphics really look sensational. The sets (as I want to call them) are beautiful – particular ruined London and Skaro.

The Doctor, Amy and the Daleks also look brilliant. Yes, Amy’s legs don’t glisten quite as much, but the characters look smooth and about as good as any half decent £40 computer game.

Anyway, did I mention IT’S A DOCTOR WHO COMPUTER GAME?

Finally, the story.

It’s not mind-blowing stuff but it’s good enough to easily become by far the best Doctor Who computer game ever made (remember Top Trumps *shudders*).

The Doctor, after all, can’t shoot, punch or intentionally cause death of any kind – it’s essentially the dullest brief for a game ever?

But they’ve done a great job. The script also has some quite funny lines in it, and it has to be said that the voice acting by Matt and Karen is simply top notch.

It’s got a proper story too. Yes, it wouldn’t be good enough for the TV but, in some ways, I actually prefer to Victory of the Daleks.

And the Doctor acts, well, like the Doctor. And I particularly like that the Sonic Screwdriver isn’t simply a magic wand to complete every puzzle.

So in conclusion, as long as everyone doesn’t mind the length or repetition of gameplay, I think most fans will truly love this game.

And in any case…

IT’S A DOCTOR WHO COMPUTER GAME!!!!

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 11:37:52 +0000

@TSG If you go into your options you should see resolution and graphics quality, the resolution is the size of your computer screen so do not change this... if you lower your graphics quality to around medium it should run smoothly.

By: Russell

Russell — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 11:34:30 +0000

For all of you having jerky graphic problems, I’ve got something that might help. Go to options, set the graphics and screen resolution a notch or two lower, and simply restart the game! It worked for me, and I hardly noticed a difference graphic-wise, so I think that doing that should do the trick.

By: Bob Tannis

Bob Tannis — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 04:20:03 +0000

Thanks for sharing those details, however we cannot endorse downloading it in that manner.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:21:53 +0000

@TWWL Really. And pray tell, what happened to the 13 episodes of Torchwood which was hacked down to 5, much to the casts disgust? The BBC wanted to save money because investment was need for their "empire building" (a quote directly from the BBC trust) and both DT and RTD wanted to do other things.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:09:25 +0000

@Pete And that's the kind of attitude that wins you (by "you" I'm being global here referring to people who use the outdated licence fee excuse, not "you" specifically) win few friends. If the licence fee is all powerful why are we able to view BBC News worldwide? It's inexcusable that the BBC made no mention of this in all of its publicity for the game. Plus, I take it you enjoy the idea of people paying $5, $10, $20, $50, $100 or whatever the hell they are going to charge for a game people in the UK are reporting is a) buggy as hell and b) can be finished in a single sitting.

By: TE

TE — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:48:53 +0000

@TWWL
Exactly, the specials were mainly RTD’s idea.

Getting back on topic: I’m debating whether or not to download this. While the gameplay did look good in DWC 5.5, I’m not that impressed by the graphic design. In my personal opinion, they should have opted to go with Flash/Illustrator-created graphics. Not hard to turn 2D to 3D, really. Also, Flash and Illustrator produce much better graphics (excl. The Infinite Quest…)

By: Caroline

Caroline — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:37:55 +0000

@Steve
I will agree that we have more to watch over here, if you pay for it. And there is so much reality TV it’s ridiculous, but we do have many more options as well. Damages? I haven’t even heard of that show. haha. There is just so much junk on the TV these days that it’s near impossible to keep up with something that’s good. And most of our shows are put up on the internet by the networks for anybody to watch for free and BBC should do the same. Also, I have never watched a show or listened to the radio without there being commercials. You’re lucky that they don’t interrupt your shows and such. And BBC has to making some money from the people who have a cable bill into the hundreds of dollars a month to receive channels like BBC America. So, they should let us use their services as well.

By: TWWL

TWWL — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:10:30 +0000

@Steve The show being cut to the specials last year had nothing to do with money. The BBC actually lost potential revenue by agreeing to only do the specials.