I am a few hours into the game, the 4th mission IIRC. Actually, it's on pause now in the other room while I check my email and GFF. Was going to turn it off as well, but figured I'd have nothing better to do but move forward...

I think I'm on the 4th mission too...or 5th? I just got done with the refinery and weapon plant. I'm having plenty of fun with Black but then I'm also not sitting through mission after mission and pretty much going through one mission, taking a break from the game and then giving it another go later on.

I have to say though the visuals for the PS2 version are pretty impressive.

Ive been sick with a slight fever and a really bad cough/cold so while ive been missing school, im lying in bed playing. Im at the bridge mission which is like the 7th i believe. I cant seem to put it down, its a bit repetitive sure, but something about it brings me back.

I just bought my copy of Black of eBay a few days ago. after reading and viewing the numerous reviews, i'm looking forward to this game. i'm not into shooters that much, but the graphics alone sold me! those explosions are almost "hollywood-esque".

I have played so many games uptill now and have to admit that the SOUND in this game rocks.Best sound ever.

I agree. From the sound to the gun models, along with physics and other details you can see that Criterion was really trying to make a top notch shooter. And while perhaps a bit on the short side, one can still admire how hard they worked on this title and how well they pulled it off.

Some may say that the story is too simple, but with BLACK it's slight simplicity is what makes it's story a breath of fresh air in the current chaos created by the spider webs of other elaberate but weak storylines of other titles. And from what I can tell by the ending video of BLACK, the situation is about to become much more complicated.

As far as I'm concerened though, it's the best single player campaign that I've played for an FPS yet, and has raised expectations for upcoming FPS games. Hopefully they can measure up to BLACK. (who needs a 360 and PDZ when you've got BLACK?)

BTW, anyone else get to the final mission? Just got past the checkpoint and the final battle is pretty cheap IMO. Enemies no matter how many you take out keep re-spawning. I understand what to do, but to do it, it would help if once I find cover an enemy didn't respawn every 10 seconds in that exact space. Decided to quit for the night... ;)

Damn the game was easy up till this point and didn't have to restart a mission but a few times. Oh well, I'll try again, but this comes off just as a cheap gimmick to make an otherwise easy game, hard!

I remember seeing a preview screen for this game about a year or so ago. I had high hopes for it, but its too short. It would of dazzled a year ago, but with games like fear and PDZ out now, its just not impressive.

Hmm... two questions. What has better graphics? FEAR played on highest graphics settings or BLACK? And does BLACK have realistic shadows in it or shadows at all?

Well F.E.A.R and BLACK have totally different engines so it's hard to tell. BLACK have best graphic and music from all FPP games on PS2. I was writhing Review of it for one Polish magazine and I gave 9/10 for Graphic and 10/10 for Music.

As for the game it self it's to short. 6-7 hours of playing is not much for game so awesome as BLACK.

You don't want to rush in just yet - step too far into the chamber, and the entrance door closes behind you. Instead, remain inside the doorway and kill as much as you can with the M249 (yes, it's very possible to squeeze off single shots with this beast; as always, aim for the head), with the revolver being reserved for those tangoes headshots on whom are impossible from your position. It's also good for the shotgun troopers (two hits from it will put them down for good). The shield-carrying elite troopers are problematic, because they have revolvers of their own; use grenades to make life easier.
Yes, the respawning is practically infinite, but it comes in waves. After 2-3 of these is as good a time as any to commit; collect whatver you need on your way to cover (most likely one of the cubbyholes on either end of the near catwalk).
More killing, and the end is in sight: RPG troopers start spawning, one at a time, on the far catwalk. Given the extreme threat they pose, and the fact that they move around a lot... well, they're really what the revolver is for.
A little more, and the two machine gun nests at the far end of the room come online. Once this happens, rush to the cubbyholes nearest them (again, collecting what you need along the way) and feed them grenades until they, ah, involuntarily disassemble. Walk through the resulting opening to end the level.
NOTE: do not be surprised if you can't do this on the first try, especially if you're initially playing on Hard.

So ive kinda hit a road block. Im at the bridge crossing level, now it takes me forever to cross the last section of the bridge because i tend to hang back and pick people off, then i get to the last part, blow up the mines and proceed to the barracade then a whole bunch ambush and proceed to kill me.

Actually, that's what I have been doing! But, unless you go in the RPG enemies won't appear. Anyway, went through about 10-12 times, as I said, cheap... :D

I myself managed to do it on mysecond try. But I'll admitt that it wasn't easy and that 70% of it was dumb luck. If you're stuck, try playing the previous levels on hard and then try it again. You'll get experiance from playing it on hard that should give you the upper hand on the final part on Normal.

Just a thought. Either way may the gods of destruction be with you ;)

If your comparing FEAR to BLACK, go with FEAR, hands down. Its longer and has a nice little story too it. Ill admit it kinda gets repetitive toward the end, but youll enjoy it regardless. Its also fairly long.

While I liked the originality and difficulty of FEAR's gameplay, along with everything else. I found that the firefights in BLACK were more intense. But in the end are they really comparable? In my opinion, not really. It was kind of like when people tried to compare Killzone to Halo 2, but in the end most realized that depite that they were both in the same genre, they really were nothing alike in how you had to handle the situations in each game and I feel that the same can be said between FEAR and BLACK.

BLACK is a little more run & gun while FEAR is more focused on presentation and tactics.

It's just my opinion though. Take from it what you will.

Well, my main comparison point was with the effects that bullets leave on the terrain and enemies. Of course im talking about FEAR on top notch settings, but I think in terms of intense firefights FEAR could go toe to toe with Black.

Theres nothing better then blowing an enemy half in two with a shotgun at point blank.

You're right there. The intense AI and effects, especially the intense slo-mo makes for great firefights. But I just never felt that they were at the same scale as BLACK. But like I said, each game was shooting for different gameplay types. I'm not saying that BLACK is better or worse then FEAR or visa-versa, I'm just saying that they're both amazing games for different reasons.

F.E.A.R felt alot more visceral to me than BLACK. The dust, particle and gore effects were all top notch and added an awesome atmosphere to the game, especially in tense fire fights. Black feels more like a toned down version of that (not necessarily a bad thing) with more focus on explosions and the guns. Oh how i wish there was blood in black =( I suppose i could always just go play FEAR though =P

Heh heh. I totally get where you're coming from. ^^

You kinda need to take into consideration that Black is a console only game. The graphical prowess is limited, and it proably limited the effects they could throw in there. I think they did a good job for a console game.

Wait... THERE IS NO BLOOD? Why?

Because the amount of awesome would make your head explode.

I believe because they were using the Burnout Revenge engine which does not have a blood splatter effect within the engine. And seeing how BLACK was just a side project (as many great games are, Katamari anyone?) I can't really see Criterion tearing down parts of the engine just to add blood, where it wasn't REALLY important. Sure it would have been nice, but during gameplay I never really stopped and said "where's the blood?"

Well, since the emphasis in BLACK are the ballistics and the guns themselves, I just think they could of done something cool with the blood to make the overall presentation that much better.