Just bought it for $20 played for only 5 minutes b/c I have a lot of other games I am working on (Far Cry, The Chronicles of Riddick, and HL2 MP). So far I don't like it that much. Too dark and just walls of bad guys walking toward me and I shoot them. I will finish off Far Cry and give it a little more time before I pass judgment on it. I knew it was just a mindless throwback to the old FPS, but from all the positive reviews, I thought it would be better. Will check back later when I give it more time.

I didn't D/L the demo first. Maybe I should have, but no big loss since it was only $20 if I end up not playing it much.

From what I understand the boss battles are suppossed to be incredible, so maybe you can still look forward to those? I plan on playing the game in a bit myself, but I have a MASSIVE (for me) backlog of games.

Yeah, that is something that sold me on trying the game. I felt that was a weakness of HL2 not really having good "boss" characters though the striders were pretty hard to beat. Besides the games I stated above, I also have KOTOR I and II to play. Depends on how close we are to Revenge of the Sith coming out when I get done with Far Cry and Riddock if I go for those or try to pound out Pain Killer.

Riddick can be finished in a day if you get up early and stay up late.

I never liked the idea of "boss" battles. The word "boss" has always annoyed me when applied to video games. It just seems like a cheap uncreative way to end a chapter. I'd rather have good writing and level design.

Actually was playing Riddock before Far Cry but got down in the mines and things slowed for me with no weapons and lack of stealth caused everyone to be after me. I got away from it and haven't played for at least a month. Now basically play Friday and Saturday night after the wife goes to bed so my progress has been slow. Plan to finish Far Cry and then look at Riddock again.

I think you can have good level design and writing and still include boss characters. In fact, it makes sense that you are going through all of these demons, bad guys, etc and that they must be a higher-up, more powerful "thing" in charge of them. Of course my first real computer games were from the Doom series so that is kind of what I grew up with and expect in my games. I haven't played RE4 but from what I have seen in reviews and on G4, the boss characters are very well done. Wish all games could be like that.

I didn't finish the final boss battle, but I still enjoyed Painkiller a lot. In fact, I'd place it on top in the "FPS: Run & Gun" catagory. (With Far Cry being on top in the other, 'tactical' catagory.)

I watched my cousin play the demo for this a few weeks ago, and it honestly made me want to pick up FPS games again. I pretty much swore them off years ago. I can't honestly say how good of a game it is since I didn't really play much, but it was care-free killing. After seeing it for like 10 minutes, I got the bug again... it reminded me of the old days of just messing around playing Quake or Rise of the Triad, games like that. Of course when I got home, I had to pick up Doom 3, Halo 2, and I've been addicted to Unreal Championship 2's demo. I may even check the game out on my own one day.

If you are back into FPS, then you really must go out (or better yet get through steam) Half-Life 2.