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Post by Draxas on Aug 16, 2011 9:18:35 GMT -5
Finished Mass Effect 2 last night, which had a suitably epic conclusion including the unsubtle cliffhanger lead-in to ME3. I'd have to say that I really enjoyed the game quite a lot; I know ME got some bad press around here, but I think most or all of the problems with that game were fixed for ME2. Combat never really started to grate on me, and the increases in power you gain from acquiring better weapons or improving skills were quite noticable. Battles remained strategic through the whole game, and never turned into a slog; the combat in the final mission was particularly intense, between dealing with some of the most powerful enemies in the game, finding suitable cover, and trying to budget ammo well enough to keep going. I'm tempted to start a second run right away, but I think I may take a short break and try to get back into New Vegas instead. Still, I recommend giving the game a shot, even if you didn't like ME1 much.
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Post by N3B on Aug 21, 2011 22:40:05 GMT -5
Finished Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two. Not much to say about them besides the "usual Valve comments," what with the games being really good at immersing the player and making you feel heavily involved and part of the experience. Except that Episode Three is on infinite delay, and that what should've been a 6-9 month wait has turned into 4 whole years.
There's quite a few interesting indie games coming out, Bastion, Avadon: The Black Fortress, From Dust, Limbo, Trauma, Space Pirates and Zombies. I don't have the finances to afford them, but fortunately I can rule out From Dust because of Ubisoft's "always online" DRM.
Started playing Assassin's Creed, and so far I'm really annoyed by the consolitis. I thought Singularity was bad, Assassin's creed might be worse.
1) There's no ini file anywhere to be found for me to customize settings properly 2) The HUD, tutorial directions, and button layouts are all modeled for a controller 3) There's absolutely no manual save system 4) It takes 11 clicks to exit the game. "Escape -> Exit Memory -> Confirm -> Exit Animus -> Escape -> Exit Game -> Confirm -> Press Any Key -> Select Profile -> Load -> Exit."
That fourth one is absolutely mind-boggling to me. You have to exit the game-within-a-game, then you have to get out of the device that hooks you up to that game, then you have to exit the full game. Instead of just quitting the game, it sends you back to a main menu but then you have to select your profile and "continue" to even quit. I mean who designed this crap?
Even though my computer can handle the gameplay at full resolution with decent specs, once I get into a cutscene the video lags behind and then doesn't sync up with the audio which really breaks the immersion. So I've had to drop the resolution down in order for it to synchronize properly which is a little absurd.
As for the gameplay, it looks like it could be fun but it's holding my hand so much right now that I'm not really having fun. I went through the world's longest tutorial section, and then missions limit what you can do and tell you what to do and you can only do it context-sensitive areas. And then they took away all of my items/abilities as "punishment" (part of the story) and start me back over at novice forcing me to earn the rest of my stuff. It would be more fun if they'd give me some freedom to do stuff on my own.
And of course, there's the whole "framework" aspect, where you're really Desmond Miles, some guy strapped to a table trying to access genetically-encoded ancestral memories. You're not really the white-robed assassin Altair. So the "memories" function like missions and every so often you cut back to reality and do stuff in the science room before going back into the memories.
It's a really cool idea, because it gives you an explanation for why you have a GPS and radar, and why you have what is essentially a health bar and status indicator. It gives you the basic tools you need to make the gameplay functional and fluid, while justifying them in a way that adds to the immersion instead of detracting from it. It also gives them a chance to manipulate the pacing without breaking the immersion. In order to get you straight into action, they can "fast forward" the memory. And since they obviously want to break up the assassination stuff with slower, more relaxed content, they can take you back into reality and have you learn more about your character/history.
But those moments in reality, when you're not the assassin Altair, are really boring. There's not much to do except play with camera angles. You can't interact with anything at all, just somewhat long moments where you sit around listening to people talk when you just wanna shank some more people.
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Post by niff on Aug 23, 2011 9:47:25 GMT -5
bastion is [CENSORED]ing. oh my god. so awesome. not astounding in terms of gameplay, or mechanics, or really anything like that.. but the setting, story, and the narrator. holy [CENSORED], everyone get this right now if they can. hell, pirate it, but once you realise how good it is buy it instantly
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Post by N3B on Aug 23, 2011 20:43:18 GMT -5
That's quite a profanely strong recommendation. I'd already been considering it (my brother gave it a positive recommendation and RPS seems to think highly of it), so you've convinced me.
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Post by N3B on Aug 25, 2011 7:42:33 GMT -5
[CENSORED] Assassin's Creed. [CENSORED] it right where the sun don't shine. [CENSORED] this [CENSORED]ing game [CENSORED] [CENSORED] [CENSORED]. This is the worst [CENSORED]ing piece of [CENSORED] ever, who the [CENSORED] thought this game was a good idea, for [CENSORED]'s sake.
In short, Assassin's Creed is pretty much the worst game ever. It showed a lot of promise at the start and then it just kept going downhill. Further and further into the abyss of suckiness. The whole thing is a kick in the balls, and if I had a physical copy of it I would blow it up with a pipe bomb.
Words cannot describe how pissed off I am about the ending sequence. Instead of being a more advanced, tense version of the fun stuff you've been doing they just throw endless hordes of enemies at you and turn it into a bull[CENSORED] action game with the [CENSORED]ty combat mechanics. Once you think one wave is over ANOTHER 15 ENEMIES (I'm not exaggerating) drop in to fight you all at once.
Let me take a break to remind you that this is not a game like Drakengard where you just mow down groups of enemies. You attack one enemy at a time, and it takes multiple hits to kill them. You've got to block about 5-6 enemies at a time while finding opportunities to land hits. Oh, and the enemies know all of your moves so they can counter-attack you and break your defenses. So everything you do against them they just do right back to you.
After killing like 70 enemies in a long, linear path to the penultimate boss, the guy says "We'll let combat decide this," and I'm thinking "Oh good, one-on-one," and then he leaves and I get to fight 12 more beefed-up templars. All-the-while my character has inexplicably stopped doing lethal counter-attacks and instead just punches people with his fist. WHAT'S THE POINT OF USING YOUR FIRST WHEN YOU HAVE A LETHAL ASSASSIN BLADE ON THE SAME ARM!?!?!
I died about 15 times, got pissed and took a break. Came back and because of the bull[CENSORED] save system I had to do EVERY BATTLE UP TO THAT POINT AGAIN. I read a guide that was telling me to do something that had never been explained before in the game---switching to the Assassin Blade as the primary weapon. The concealed, spring-loaded stealth-assassination weapon. The idea is to counter-attack and then you can one-hit-kill the enemies. Except that you cannot block at all. So if your timing is off there goes 40% of your health. Oh, and the timing for pulling off those kills is inconsistent, flawed, broken.
And then once that obnoxious fight is over, you fight the final boss. Except they drop you down to basically zero health so one hit and you're dead. This. Is. Retarded.
It's like they thought "How can we make the final build-up exciting and epic?" and someone said "I know! Have the player fight dozens of enemies at a time so that he feels like a badass! Then when he's fighting the final boss, let's drop his health down to zero so that he's a one-hit-kill. That'll make it really tense."
They abandoned all of the fun aspects of the game (the only thing that gave the game any sort of appeal or potential), tossed it out the window and have you do a bunch of repetitive, obnoxious bull[CENSORED] combat. And this is AFTER you've played the entire game which is a bunch of bull[CENSORED] repetitive chores.
I just don't understand how anyone thought this was a good idea. How could a game with such great potential turn to total [CENSORED]? I've got the second game (bought them both in a sale), which I've heard is a lot better, but I don't even want to play it because I'm so [CENSORED]ing pissed off at the first game.
I haven't been this pissed off at a game in a very, very long time.
EDIT: I just a bunch of forum topics where people detail exactly how AC2 is better than AC1. Now I want to play AC2 because it actually does sound really interesting.
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Post by Draxas on Aug 25, 2011 9:16:19 GMT -5
Wow. Did AC just earn a place in hell with Dungeon Lords?
Spent the last week playing through and finishing Lego Batman on a loan from our local library (yay free!). Every one of the Lego Whatever games that I've played really is a ton more fun than anything ostensibly "kiddie" has any right to be, and are great ways to let off some steam if you've been frustrated by some of your other games lately (hint, maybe?) Tt handles the licensed material very intelligently, there's a ton of stuff to do (though they're not long games by any stretch unless you're going for obsessive 100% completion, and then it's just a lot of grinding for studs adding the extra length), and they're generally fun to play.
Game goes back to the library after work today. I'll see what they have on the shelf (selection is poor, as a side effect of being free I suppose), and may just end up with another Lego game if there's nothing else that piques my interest.
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Post by Draxas on Aug 26, 2011 11:00:22 GMT -5
So I swapped out Lego Batman for Perfect Dark Zero at the library yesterday. First impressions are... not great. I've played through the first 6 or so missions, and at some point, every single one of them has devolved into me feeling like I haven't got the faintest clue what is going on. Without the navigation path to the next objective I probably wouldn't have managed to finish the tutorial mission, let alone any of the others. That's not to say the game is difficult (at least on the lowest difficulty level, anyway); there's some sort of bizarre health mechanic going on that I don't entirely understand either, but seems to prevent me from falling below full health about 99% of the time, even when being actively shot. The only time I've been in danger is when I've been hit by crazy powerful weapons like sniper rifles or missiles, and even still, my health seemed to regenrate after hiding for a while. There's also some sort of twisted cover mechanic in play, which has been entirely useless to me; I can't seem to hit anything while popping out of cover, and also seem to wind up getting shot more frequently when I do so rather than simply stand behind the same object like a typical FPS.
I do like the way the game unlocks your arsenal and lets you choose your weapons loadout before each mission; I like the idea that you permanently gain weapons when you take them home from a mission (Hitman 2 did this also, and I liked it there too), and the ability to bring whatever you like along at the start of a mission is something I wish more games let you do rather than procure every gun in a level. However, this is all tempered by two major flaws: First, the default P9P pistol is practically a silenced sniper rifle in practice, with a fairly powerful zoom, high accuracy, big clip, and easy aiming; it makes it pretty pointless to bring anything else (even doubling up on the P9P, because then you can't use the zoom; realistic, yes, but terribly obnoxious. Second is the cripplingly small inventory space that prevents you from carrying whatever you want; also (somewhat) realistic, and also stupid. You seriously can't find room on your person for more guns than a pair of pistol grip SMGs? Come on.
I can't dismiss the game out of hand yet, because I really want to like it. I have a week to play around with it, and haven't tried the combat simulator yet, so maybe that will be better. But so far, it's been a bit disappointing.
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Post by Draxas on Aug 30, 2011 13:33:33 GMT -5
Well, PD Zero goes back in a couple of days, and I'm still not thrilled with it. I've finished the single player campaign on Agent, started on Special Agent, and messed around with the combat simulator for a while, and the whole package is decidedly mediocre. Missions are confusingly laid out, and frequently have obtuse, non-intuitive objectives. New objectives pop up frequently, and the only warning is a comm call (which is frequently lost in the clutter of background noise; why are there no subtitles for important dialogs like this?) and a tiny indicator in the bottom corner of the screen (which is similarly very easy to overlook and miss). Considering the ease with which you can fail certain mission objectives and the sometimes narrow timeframes you're given to act upon them, it winds up being a bad combination. The there's the trial and error objectives... That mission was particularly infuriating. Fortunately it doesn't show up in Agent.
I also really have to ask: did the people who made this game even play the original, or did they just get a plot synopsis and roll with it? I'd say about 90% of the backstory of PD is directly contradicted by the events of this game, which is forehead-slappingly stupid, but they also screwed up the setting. Considering the rather believeable "20 minutes into the future" setting of the original PD, the tech level in PDZ has taken a significant leap forward, which is surprising considering it's supposed to be a prequel set some time beforehand. Yet dataDyne has an undersea research platform (if they had this already, why the big fuss over the Pelagic II? Just build another one of these and keep things quiet) run by a seemingly sentient AI (I thought Dr. Carroll was a unique breakthrough in sentient AIs?), filled with holo-projectors for the most mundane things (I thought this was tech the Skedar kept to themselves?), everyone is sporting obvious cybernetic enhancements (I thought Darksims were a new breakthrough in cybernetics?), etc. etc. etc. It's a little embarrassing. I realize they wanted to avoid using aliens as a focal point for this game (and they even lampshade it during a cutscene), but seriously, why not just make a sequel if the setting wasn't flashy enough?
Combat simulator is a bit better, but still fairly mediocre overall. Much like the main game, the level design is cluttered and confusing, or alternatively when it's not, the levels are fairly dull, like they simply couldn't find a good middle ground at all. The level design is bad enough that I dislike their renditions of the classic levels Temple and Facility: both are largely shrouded in darkness (presumably to take advantage of the new flashlight mechanic that some weapons use, but only a couple of guns have that ability), the facility is full of fog in some areas making it even harder to see, both have added extra clutter in certain areas, and neither is designed for the 16 players that the game allows making them feel claustrophobic (especially the Facility, which was supposed to be claustrophobic to begin with). The bots also seem to have taken a step backward. While they play competently enough in a standard deathmatch (or any other game mode where the objective is just to kill the others), their AI falls flat on a lot of the more interesting modes, especially Capture the Flag (where they get so hung up shooting at each other that they forget the whole point of the game mode). They also have an irritating habit of running away really fast when they've taken damage, which makes sense considering the regenerating health mechanics, but it's still terribly obnoxiuos trying to chase down a bot with superhuman reflexes through narrow corridors or the like because so many of the weapons are so weak. Yeah, there's that, too: unless you have an assault rifle, shotgun, or heavy weapon, odds are good that one clip is not going to kill your target, leading to the pursuit phase of combat. All the guns have secondaries (and a few have tertiaries, even), but a lot of them are not that interesting or useful (but a few of them are really awesome; the RCP-90 is a standout here, with both IFF vision and the ability to reprogram enemy sentry guns to switch sides, not to mention enough stopping power to actually get some kills). Even the bot customization has taken a hit; you can still select difficulty levels and personalities, but not individually; that selection is applied to all bots. There's also no way that I've found to give bots commands like in PD, which is something sorely missed when a flag carrier is running around shooting at people rather than running the enemy flag home and scoring points, or you have a crowd of "friendly" bots swarming around you, all trying to shoot at a nearby enemy target but mostly just making nuisances of themselves and pushing you around or dashing across your line of fire.
I suppose it's not all bad. Some of the weapon functions are cool and unique (like the aforementioned RCP-90). Some of the multiplayer modes are alos good ideas: I particularly like DarkOps in general, which is round based multi where you score cash for kills and meeting objectives, and buy new equipment between rounds. Infection mode is also great fun: it's similar to Virus in Timsplitters, but you have to kill people to infect them rather than just tag them, plus it's a DarkOps mode, so if everyone gets infected it just moves to the next round instead of ending the game right away. the music is mostly pretty good, but the designers really must have liked ambient noise better since it's frequently used only in special circumstances in missions, and there's never any music in multiplayer (though that didn't stop them from adding an obnoxious voiced announcer for any non-DarkOps mode, ugh). But overall, there's just a few bright spots in an otherwise mediocre murk, which is a damn shame.
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Post by N3B on Sept 1, 2011 6:14:12 GMT -5
I remember playing a couple of level in co-op with my brother, and while it was nice to be playing a another Perfect Dark in co-op, I remember one of the levels (might have been like the third or fourth) was down right abysmal. It had some kind of finicky stealth system where you had to infiltrate someplace undetected, and resulted in a bunch of trial-and-error, which was compounded by the fact that we had two players making mistakes in different places. I don't recall if we ever put forth the effort to get through that level or not, but I never played more a few hours of it. Surprisingly, the game's Metascore is 81, which is fairly high. Would've expected something in the "yellow" range, like a 72 or so. Let's see. I started playing Assassin's Creed 2, and it's a lot better than the first game. I'd say every one of my complaints has been addressed; the expository dialogue is concise with interesting animation/camera angles, the stealth/hide system is less obnoxious, the missions have more variety, the repetitive chores are now optional and they give you monetary rewards as incentive, there are jump attack assassinations, you can defend and use the assassin blades in active combat, the stuff with Desmond Miles (the guy strapped to the memory machine) now seems to actually have a point to it. Beyond that, they added a lot more depth to the gameplay. Now there's a notoriety system that makes you notorious the more blatantly you kill, the more pockets you pick, the more trouble you start, etc. You can do various things to lower this (making guards less suspicious of you), or you can run amok as a wanted man. You use money to buy armor and weapons, and there's an interesting economic revenue system with the villa that you come to own. All of this makes the game a lot more fun to be in, and I find myself doing as much as I can to maximize the experience, unlike in the first game where I just trailblazed through the main stuff as quickly as possible. I also purchased and completed Bastion. I second Niff's recommendation to "get this game right now if you can." It's like an Action-RPG with really refreshing atmosphere, between the narrative style, the graphic design, the setting, and the music. I found the gameplay mechanics rewarding and compelling, and was very pleased with the game, especially considering its $15 asking price. I wrote a more-detailed review of it on my blag if you want some more words to justify your purchase, but it's definitely worth it. On my blag I've also written several new articles: Majora's Mask is Better than Ocarina of Time: Basically an analysis of the ways that MM improved upon OOT's foundation and delivered a more poignant gaming experience. Episodic Games: Still Waiting: A short bit just talking about the pros and cons of episodic games, and kind of lamenting that they've yet to be done properly, which is a shame because there's a lot of good potential there. Motion Controls Disrupt Immersion: Here I talk about how modern motion controls are actually a step back from true immersion, because they do more to remind me that I'm playing a game than just using a regular controller. I've got a fully-typed, lengthy analysis of why Twilight Princess sucks and why I think it's the worst Zelda game ever. I'll be posting that one some time in the near future.
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Post by Draxas on Sept 1, 2011 10:50:22 GMT -5
I remember playing a couple of level in co-op with my brother, and while it was nice to be playing a another Perfect Dark in co-op, I remember one of the levels (might have been like the third or fourth) was down right abysmal. It had some kind of finicky stealth system where you had to infiltrate someplace undetected, and resulted in a bunch of trial-and-error, which was compounded by the fact that we had two players making mistakes in different places. I don't recall if we ever put forth the effort to get through that level or not, but I never played more a few hours of it. I know exactly which level you're talking about, where you sneak into the mansion. Augh. This is one of those "trial and error" levels I was talking about; while Agent is pretty forgiving, once you get to Special Agent, there are several points where you need to complete objectives by impersonating one of the guards and BSing your way through. You get 3 "conversation" options each time, but only one is correct, and the others will cause a squad of heavily armed and armored guards to show up and quite likely send you back to the start of the mission as they wreck your [CENSORED]. Considering this is one of the more demanding stealth missions before you even get to the talking part, it quickly becomes one of the Scappier levels in the game (but isn't the worst by far). I'm guessing this is because there's a fairly sizable and active online community for the game. Some of the multiplayer modes are pretty enjoyable, I'll admit, but the level design totally kills the appeal for me. I'm torn, but I still lean toward OoT as the better game. Yes, MM is more open, more emotionally engaging, and more dark and gritty. But with the severe lack of dungeons (which should be the meat of any Zelda game, as far as I'm concerned, and with only 4 it has the least ever), some poorly implemented minigames (beat your own top score three times? Really? Come on.), and a seriously obnoxious forced stealth sequence (Yes, I remember the one in OoT, but at least that was short), it's not all sunshine and roses in Termina. In fact, I'm willing to say that all the minigames and sidequests make the whole thing a much less streamlined experience. Besides, there's nothing more infuriating that trying to finish one of those gold skulltula mini-dungeons and finding out that you're going to miss ONE skulltula because you lack the proper tool; between that incident, and the knowledge that the next main area I would have to visit was the Gerudo Fortress, it terminated my last playthough of the game. Conversely, I've never not finished OoT once I started playing it. Now, I'm no fan of Twilight Princess, but calling the worst Zelda game ever is a bit of a stretch. Even disregarding the CDi games (I actually played a little bit of Faces of Evil eons ago in an in-store demo, and it was pretty awful), there's still the Adventure of Link, the Oracle games, and Phantom Hourglass to contend with. That's some stiff competition, and I don't think Twilight Princess is worse than any of them. You're going to need to provide some compelling reasoning for this one.
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Post by N3B on Sept 1, 2011 20:50:03 GMT -5
BREAKING NEWS!The holy grail of RPGs, Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is now available 100% free on GOG.com, adapted for full functionality on modern Windows OSs (via streamlined DOSbox) and completely DRM-free. The first three games in the series are also available as a $5 collection pack. I've already downloaded it and am itching to get into this game. Currently planning to read up on the manual before jumping straight in. I gave MM one strike for not being as accessible as OOT. I agree that some of its gameplay is a bit tedious, and it generally demands more from the player. I gave it another half-of-a-strike for only having four real dungeons, but I felt this was compensated by the fact that there's so much else to do. I really enjoyed the side-content and felt like it added more depth to the gameplay. OOT is ultimately the more important game, and it's basically flawless for its time and presentation. MM is certainly not perfect (I gave it 1.5 strikes), which may seem counter-intuitive for me claiming that it's the better game. But despite its shortcomings, I still think that MM is the richer experience. It's not a perfect comparison, but it's like going from Star Wars to Empire Strikes Back; the first one is brilliant, and the second one brings greater depth and significance to the whole thing. As for Twilight Princess being the worst Zelda game ever, I tend to disregard the hand-held games (except for Link's Awakening). This is in part because I never beat any of them (I've also never even played Spirit Tracks), but also because they feel more like spin-offs that aren't part of the series canon. If there is such a thing. And I actually already mentioned the CD-i games as the exception to Twilight Princess, the very first sentence of the article ;P Technically speaking, TP is probably the best Zelda yet. It's streamlined, has great dungeons (mostly), highly functioning gameplay. It's basically OOT and ALTTP but with virtually everything improved. But I feel like the game just has no soul or conviction. Like there's no inspiration behind it, no wonder or charm involved, it's like a rote "by the book" sort of game. If we want to get technical, the original two games on the NES are the worst. Their gameplay just hasn't aged very well in the last 26 years, whereas every other game feels "modern" and playable. (Although this might just be because I wasn't even alive when those games were made.) But I don't think it's fair to criticize those games; there was no precedent to the original Zelda, we have no expectations so it is what it is. It set the precedent and established the series, which is itself a commendable accomplishment. The second game took a turn for the worse, but at least it was trying to do something different with the formula, which is admirable. The series hadn't fully established itself by that time, so again it's not like it had a legacy to live up to. TP, by contrast, had a lot of expectations. The series has been highly successful and literally every console iteration had some new, refreshing twist to make the game exciting, as well as innovating the gameplay. But TP doesn't do anything remarkable in this regard. Anyway, I'll have the full article posted tomorrow, perhaps. I might end up adding some of these words to the article between now and then.
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Post by Draxas on Sept 15, 2011 10:57:19 GMT -5
Been a while since I updated here. 2 weeks ago, I swapped out PDZ for deBlob 2, and of the 3 games I've borrowed from the library, I liked this one the best (enough to renew it once, and make it the first game I've acquired 1000 achievement points for). Mechanically, it's set up like a typical 3D platformer, but lies somewhere between action and puzzle in execution. The "paint the world" concept really makes the game feel much more interactive than a typical platformer, and gives you a real sense of accomplishment at the end of a level when you look back and see a colorful, vibrant city where it was entirely in grayscale when you started. My one minor complaint is that you can't reenter a stage after completing it without starting over from scratch (which is important, and would be convenient, for getting all the collectibles unless you're very thorough on your first pass), and that the time limit can be very unforgiving at times if you don't know exactly what you're supposed to do (AKA, your first time through a given stage). Nonetheless, they're pretty small marks against a game that is great fun overall.
In the interim, I picked up a stack of new games as well. I'm only at the very beginning of both Bioshock and Culdcept Saga, but am definitely looking forward to playing more of both. I also grabbed the Qubed collection for pretty cheap ($15, not bad considering the games would have been at least $30 if I got them from XBLA). E4 is a strange game, but I can't really evaluate it properly yet having only played one of the 4 modes. Rez HD is definitely a cool concept, but I'm terrible at the actual game so I haven't seen too much of it yet. My favorite of the 3 is Lumines Live, though. It seems like a pretty straightforward "dropping blocks" puzzle game at first glance, but the way it incorporates the audio and visual componenets into the game is pretty remarkable, and prevents the game from feeling "samey" or repetetive unlike many of its ilk. Haven't decided if it's worth getting the DLC yet, though, since it's pretty expensive.
Anyway, I'll be returning deBlob 2 today. Unless there's something I'm really keen on the shelves, though, I'll probably just stick to the new games I bought for a while.
EDIT: I've noticed Niff playing a lot of the new Deus Ex lately. How is it? I've heard mostly good things, but also some major complaints as well.
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Post by N3B on Sept 30, 2011 20:45:16 GMT -5
According to my list, I have since played and complete: Assassin's Creed 2, Bastion, and Aliens Vs Predator. Ass Cred 2 is better than the first game in virtually every way. Every single one of my complaints from the first game was addressed in some way. But in the end, it still suffers from being repetitive and shallow. The money system (buying weapons and armor and collecting treasure and doing the economy system to bring in revenue with your villa) is interesting at first, but you quickly run out of things to spend money on. The most expensive single item costs like 30 or 40k, and I ended the game with over half-a-million monies with nothing to spend it on. Bastion is totally worth it, and I apparently already spoke a few words about it, including a link to a blag post about it. AVP 2010 is kind of lame. There are only five missions for each species, and they all go by pretty quickly. 95% of the marine campaign is just shooting aliens, 95% of the alien campaign is killing marines, the predator is the only one who gets a decent mixture of 50% aliens 50% marines. The marine campaign feels like a dated, crude shooter (almost like playing Doom 3 with 2010's expectations), the alien campaign is really really short and the controls are hard to navigate, and the whole thing just feels like an uninspired re-hash of the original games. I'm now neck-deep in Dragon Age: Origins. That is a long game. Steam's got me at 93 hours so far, though maybe a half-dozen or so are from leaving the game running while researching skills and equipment or from just being afk. It's pretty good, in the sort of way that you'd expect from BioWare. But as is also typical of BioWare, By about half-way through the game I've become so over-powered that nothing is really challenging anymore and there are no more useful ways to advance my character build so I'm just throwing skill points into useless spells and talents. The longer this goes on, the more frustrated I get that the whole game is one big side-quest riddled with more side-quests. But I guess it's alright. Even though a huge bug forced me to replay 5 hours of content. I was going to get back into Persona 3 but I seem to have lost my memory card since moving out of my apartment in August. Normally I would've left it in the console, or put it into the memory card slot in one of my game cases, but it's not in any of the cases I brought home from school, it's not in the console. I'm beginning to suspect I recklessly tossed it into a bag, box, or container and that I'd have to turn the house upside down to find it. After checking the three next-most logical bags/boxes it could've gotten to, I still haven't found it. This is distressing. I've played a couple more noteworth free indie games. There's Ruins, a dialogue-based game where you play as a dog chasing rabbits in a dream, interesting story and gameplay mechanics here, very artistic; there's The Infinite Ocean, a traditional point-n-click adventure game about artificial intelligence, the kind of deal that asks us to reconsider our definitions of life, it's well-written and characterizes the AI in a uniquely refreshing way; there's Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer, a game about stalking people and seducing them to take them to your basement to torture them, somewhat revolting content, very disturbing, but artistic nonetheless; and there's The End of Us, a short game about two comets flying through the space, where the creators try to create a sense of relationship, endearment, and the natural progression of a friendship between these two "characters" wthout any overt narrative, very successful IMO. Article/blag-wise, I've written a few more pieces (among others) that might be worth a skim: Good Indie Games Need a Good Hook: All games need a good hook, but I've found it's especially important with the thousands of free indie games since players haven't invested any money into them to justify their continued play time. In Defense of "Artistic Indie Games": This is sort of a response to some Jim Sterling rants from Destructoid where he accuses "art games" ("artsy fartsy games") of being pretentious, self-righteous, and having no redeeming quality in their gameplay. I write my own opinion about their values and why Jim's a misguided troll, sort of. I Hate Preliminary Character Creation: Basically just me complaining about how games like Dragon Age and Morrowind force you to make a bunch of decisions about your character's stats and skills before you know anything about the game, and how "blank slate" approaches (like in Gothic) are in some ways better. Pretentious Dialogue Trees: Just me noticing that a lot of BioWare's so-called sophisticated dialogue systems are actually really shallow and aren't as deep or complex as they ought to be. Video Games in TV: Stargate SG-1: Another installment of the Video Games in TV series, another cliche "Trapped in a virtual reality game" concept that almost forgets it's supposed to be a video game.
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Post by Draxas on Oct 3, 2011 10:50:23 GMT -5
I'm now neck-deep in Dragon Age: Origins. That is a long game. Steam's got me at 93 hours so far, though maybe a half-dozen or so are from leaving the game running while researching skills and equipment or from just being afk. It's pretty good, in the sort of way that you'd expect from BioWare. But as is also typical of BioWare, By about half-way through the game I've become so over-powered that nothing is really challenging anymore and there are no more useful ways to advance my character build so I'm just throwing skill points into useless spells and talents. The longer this goes on, the more frustrated I get that the whole game is one big side-quest riddled with more side-quests. But I guess it's alright. Even though a huge bug forced me to replay 5 hours of content. I liked Dragon Age from what little I played of it (just the opening scenario and that first forest area). I've been looking for a copy for the 360 on the cheap, but no luck so far. If the Original + Expansion bundle pack goes down to $20, I'll probably pick it up. As far as bugs go, at least that one was recoverable. I just returned Lego Harry Potter to the library on Sat.; while it was probably my favoite game in the "Lego Whatever" series that I've played, I lost all my motivation to try for 100% completion when a game breaker sealed off an area of Hogwarts that I needed to get back into permanently. Since the game autosaves pretty much constantly, and the state of Hogwarts is held constant between levels (as the sandbox style hub area, this works really well most of the time), my only option would have been to start the game completely over. Suffice to say I was unwilling to do that. I traded that one out for Lego Star Wars 3 (and I admit, I did watch a few episodes of the the show when it was on Cartoon Network; it wasn't a great show, but there were a few stand-out episodes that I really liked). It was all very well and good until the game locked up; there was some pretty severe damage to the disc. I tried to buff it out, but may have inadvertantly made it worse... I'm going to try again later today to get it playable (or at least installable) before I give up entirely and return it. First impressions are not all that favorable, though; the game seems fond of a new "mass battle" mechanic involving lots of vehicles and troop formations, but it doesn't work that well in practice. You're still just a solo character, but now you have to deal with enemy (and friendly) troop masses running all over the place, plus vehicles and buildings you need to destroy which is tedious with just hand weapons. The enemy fire from every direction makes it very difficult to stay alive, and though death is barely penalized as per all of these games, it's still a huge nuisance when you're trying to get things done and taking fire from every direction. Of the 3 missions I was able to play, 2 of them were this type (and they just couldn't resist throwing in a pseudo-mass-battle in the intro mission as well), which doesn't bode well for the rest of the game. The cutscenes are also a bit disappointing; the original two LSW games had humorous cutscenes, but they were always done in a more understated, tongue in cheek style, but this one seems to find just about any excuse to ham it up for cheap laughs, and it just doesn't work as well. Granted, the original 2 games have more "all-ages" appeal due to the movies they're based on while this one is squarely aimed at the younger crowd like the cartoon, but even as a kid I remember excessively (intentionally) hammy stuff like this eliciting eye-rolls rather than appreciation. Still, I'd like to get a bit further into the game before I give it a definitive thumbs-down. I downloaded Torchlight during the one-day sale this past weekend, and I'm liking it so far. It's basically a more console-oriented version of Diablo, and I'm a sucker for a good dungeon crawl (and even today, still occasionally find myself going back and playing both Diablo games). It shares much of the same framing story as the original (you come to a town to find it besieged by monsters, and have to delve into the dungeons conveniently placed below in order to confront the source), and liberally borrows mechanics from both games (including smashing barrels for treasure or explosions, imps that run away when you kill their allies, socketing gems into equipment, etc. etc. etc.), but none of this is any surprise when you realize that the studio that made the game is basically made up of the same guys who made the Diablo games anyway, now dissociated from Blizzard. Overall, good fun if you like the gameplay style like I do, and for only $5 I couldn't resist getting the full game (though I think it's back to the regular price of $10 now). I also recently had the opportunity to play through Heavy Rain on a friend's PS3. That is definitely a unique game, feeling more like an interactive movie than anything else I've ever seen billed as such. The plot is interesting (though it does involve a fair bit of carrying around the idiot ball), and I honestly was blindsided by the big reveal at the climax. My only complaints are that the visuals wander into uncanny valley territory somewhat frequently, and that there is very little replay value once you've finished the story; yes, there are multiple endings, but most are variations of each other. Still, worth a play through, if not necessarily a purchase. Also, the DLC is probably not worth it unless you're completely enamored with the game; the plot has little to nothing to do with the main game, it's quite short, and it's expensive at $5 for what you get.
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Post by Draxas on Oct 4, 2011 9:28:35 GMT -5
Whelp. LSW3 was damaged beyond my ability to repair. Had to return it, and they didn't have another copy for now. Took out Lego Indiana Jones instead. Why yes, I am a fan of the Lego games, why do you ask?
Being one of the older Lego games, it's much more of a throwback to Lego Star Wars. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since it's much more focused on the action platforming the series started out with. Still, the depth of interaction with the game world seems a little lacking compared to LSW; all you can really do is either smash or rebuild objects since there are no force powers. However, the "modular" ability system is nice, and clever use of it can sometimes reduce the amount of work needed later on in free play mode, so it balances out somewhat. However, it still doesn't warrant the sometimes excessive cruelty the game levies at you in combat, where you're expected to take on crowds of enemies with guns (or worse, grenades) using just your fists... Death is common, though as always not much of a penalty.
Anyway, the game's left a better first impression than LSW3, so that's good at least.
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