NV-man wrote:
Hey guys, it's good to be back! It's been like 8 months since my last post, so I thought I'd drop by and give my two cents on what I'm currently playing.
Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising: Honestly, I'm seriously addicted to this game, and even though the interface is anything but intuitive, the game itself is simply amazing! Don't get me wrong, it takes a while to get used to it, but once you call in that first artillery strike on a patrol of unsuspecting soldiers you can't help but fall in love. Freakin' awesome!
Batman Arkham Asylum: Definitely a good game! I was never much of a comic book/super hero fan, so maybe I can't quite appreciate this as much as the next guy. Still, I've been enjoying the hell out of it, and it looks great!
NFS Shift: Looks great, unfortnately does not run very well on ATI based systems. It's a little choppy in spots which for a game like this, that is all about precision completely kills it.
Fear 2: Yes, still playing it and enjoying it. I can honestly only play this game in short increments, yes I'm a bitch I know.... lol
Anyway, there's several games I'm dying to play this coming month. Firstly, there's Assassin's Creed 2 which judging by the videos looks awesome! And then of course there's COD Modern Warfare 2, which looks just as promising! Also, judgin by what PS2Fish has said about the new Uncharted, I really wanna give it a go! Maybe it's time to spring for a PS3.....
Good to have you back! I hope you'll stick around. And yes, if ever there was a game worth buying a system to play, it's Uncharted 2. Easily the most enjoyable game I've ever played. See AcydRaine's comments on the game above too. No one should miss out on it.
bysmitty wrote:
Just checked my Forza 3 stats. 9 hours of time spent driving and I'm less than 10% done with the career! This game is HUGE! On top of that I've also spent 6 hours painting and 1 hour picking out upgrade parts.
...bysmitty
Coolness. Gonna grab it as soon as I've gotten my fill of DiRT 2, maybe sooner.
Call of Duty 4...
The first mission was intense! I am somewhat more dissatisfied with what followed it, however.
Infinite enemy spawns, with the end of an encounter triggered seemingly arbitrarily = LAME.
Not being able to open doors to get to other parts of the building to flank or bypass your enemy = LAME
darkportal_4 wrote:Call of Duty 4...
The first mission was intense! I am somewhat more dissatisfied with what followed it, however.
Infinite enemy spawns, with the end of an encounter triggered seemingly arbitrarily = LAME.
Not being able to open doors to get to other parts of the building to flank or bypass your enemy = LAME
Yeah, Call of Duty is just what would happen if you made a war movie like Saving Private Ryan into a game. It's all about the intensity, the explosions, the shooting, the visuals, the epicness, etc. There's no tactics or thought. Which is fine in its own right. There's only so much frustration you can take from a game like GRAW, ARMA, OFP, etc.
Yeah, maybe I should pick up GRAW again. The original Ghost Recon on PC absolutely kicked my ass, though, so I decided the genre wasnt for me. Now that I do not have these tactical options, though.... I miss them :-(
And the game definitely feels... cinematic. And not in a good way... I never really appreciated having my hand held during entertainment, and this game feels more like an amusement park ride and less like the thought-provoking game I thought it would be. It's fun, and the intro sequence was pretty damn cool, but still....
I'm playing Torchlight now. To put it simply, it's Diablo. In every sense of the word but with a few new features to make less annoying. Like loading your pet up with items and sending it back to town to sell all of it so you can keep plugging away at the dungeon. The graphics are cartoonish but well done with a nice artistic style. The music is right out of Diablo (makes sense since some of the developers created Diablo 1 and 2) along with the loot system. The voice acting is flat. Luckily there's not much dialog so it's easy to over look. My biggest complaint is that it is way too easy on normal difficulty. I died once towards the end. Still, if you enjoyed the Diablo series or Titan quest, you'll enjoy Torchlight. The best part is that it's only $19.99 off steam and has crazy low system requirements. It looks like it has the potential for lots of playablity.
bysmitty wrote:Roughly how long did a single playthrough take you? Do you know if they plan on patching in a co-op option or not?
...bysmitty
If not then why not just ask them?
I'm playing Torchlight as well and my thoughts on it pretty much mirror jwhxs' thoughts on it. I probably only have about 3 hours in and I am level 9. I thought I read that it was supposed to take about 10-20hours to play through the main story but that was from the developers mouth so it may be a little stretched. It is a downer that it doesn't have some form of multiplayer but so far the single player alone is worth the bargain price of $20.
Well, I'd say 15 hours. I'm not entirely sure as I did do several side dungeons. However, once the main story is done a second area opens up that I haven't realy poked around in yet so there very could be more to it. I've started another character to play in the main area but I'm sure I'll get to the new part soon enough. The second part seems harder so that's nice. At $20, I highly recommend this game. Hell, it only took me about 30 mins to download it but I have a speedier connection than most.
Just downloaded the demo for Psychonauts last night and had a blast! $10 on GOG or Steam - I think I'll get hold of the real thing next pay day! For those of you unfamiliar with the game, I'd recommend watching the Zero Punctuation review (here).
So far I found it to be fun, had a few challenging features, but they were focused on the keyboard / mouse controls. I will say the mouse feels either too sluggish or too fast and I'll have to put some extra time into working out the right sensitivity level for my style of play.
I've just finished NOLF for the second time (still love this game, though there are one or two areas where the difficulty, even on normal, is through the roof and I had to drop it down to easy to get past. However, otherwise it was a good romp.
I'm still in the mood for a game that is fun rather than deeply engrossing and want to run through NOLF 2 again, and get Psychonauts as well. However, I'm feeling guilty for not finishing Timeshift or Fallout 3 yet. They are looking at me sadly over their shoulders with tears in their eyes and I think I'll have to finish them before they get jealous and do something... unwise.
X3 Terran Conflict
New mouse-based control schemes sucks balls. X3 Reunion got it right... lots of keys to memorize and the interface was a little confusing at first, but it was crazy effective. Now with using the mouse clicks to steer your ship (when not in flight mode) I can't double click on distant objects to set course for them. Sad :-(
Also I am told they decreased the xp needed for combat levels, and it shows. I am not very far in the game, still puttering around in my starting Terran Sabre with a couple of 5MJ shields and some captured freighters, and because I've been taking assassination missions (they pay really well and are fairly easy) my combat level is way ahead of my ships capabilities, and now I am regularly crossing paths with small squadrons of Xenon/Pirate/Kha'ak ships complete with a couple cruisers. I am good enough that I can take out a single lower-specced, unguarded cruiser on my own, but this stuff is just too much. Luckily combat ranks decrease over time if you dont get in any fights, and the game has 10x time acceleration AND the ability to run the simulation while you are ALT+TABed out. Half an hour in-game time took place while I typed this :-)
And, finally, while they made getting substancial sums of money in the game far easier (read: assassination missions), my usual money-making strategy (capturing ships and selling them) is not working out very well, because pilots simply are not bailing out like they are supposed to. This kind of sucks... I have 200,000 credits saved up but I need 500,000 to buy a Trader Pilot and the Trade Command Mk3 software for my super freighter...
Also, the placement of jump drive vendors in the starting Terran campaign SUCKS
Despite all these complaints I still love the game and I cannot wait for it to turn from a space shooter sim to a open-universe, economy-based RTS. God I wanna jump in some epic space battles right now :-(
PS2Fish wrote:^ I've still never played NOLF 2. It's just been sitting on my shelf for like two years. I need to play it.
^^ Did you watch the ZP review on Psychonauts? You know that thing with the pen between the fingers he does at the beginning? I want you to try that right now! and for much the same reason!
NOLF 2 is definitely my preferred game of the two. The good bits are still there, but the things I think were weaker have been removed. I found that that there were more opportunities for the stealth elements of the game, which I personally found wanting in NOLF. Plus the bonuses you get from finding intelligence items and completing missions can be used to develop Cate the way you want to, similar to the experience upgrades in the first Deus Ex.
Grey_Area wrote:
PS2Fish wrote:^ I've still never played NOLF 2. It's just been sitting on my shelf for like two years. I need to play it.
^^ Did you watch the ZP review on Psychonauts? You know that thing with the pen between the fingers he does at the beginning? I want you to try that right now! and for much the same reason!
NOLF 2 is definitely my preferred game of the two. The good bits are still there, but the things I think were weaker have been removed. I found that that there were more opportunities for the stealth elements of the game, which I personally found wanting in NOLF. Plus the bonuses you get from finding intelligence items and completing missions can be used to develop Cate the way you want to, similar to the experience upgrades in the first Deus Ex.
You forgot to mention the tricycle chase. Let me repeat that: tricycle chase
jwhx wrote:
Grey_Area wrote:
darkportal_4 wrote:You forgot to mention the tricycle chase. Let me repeat that: tricycle chase
<self slap!> Yes! So I did. It was an oversight, and shall not be repeated!
That was indeed pretty awesome but I must add a few words. Four actually: Trailer park tornado level.
Ok look, this is getting silly now. Why not just give away the whole plot twist at the end while we're at it?
Ready?
<spoiler>
Cate Archer is really Dmitry Volkov's mother.
</spoiler>
There, are you happy now?
^^ In case anyone was worried, that wasn't a real spoiler up there, just my lame attempt at a joke...
Anyway, quick thought on the game I'm trying to play right now but it keeps crashing on me is, Fallout 3 is, was, and ever shall be the most buggy game that I will still attempt to play even though it crashes repeatedly! Course I can't complain, I had loaded heaps of mods that are probably causing all the conflicts, but still! I mean, why make a game that is meant to be modded and still have it crash half the time!
Arrgh!
Grey_Area wrote:^^ In case anyone was worried, that wasn't a real spoiler up there, just my lame attempt at a joke...
Anyway, quick thought on the game I'm trying to play right now but it keeps crashing on me is, Fallout 3 is, was, and ever shall be the most buggy game that I will still attempt to play even though it crashes repeatedly! Course I can't complain, I had loaded heaps of mods that are probably causing all the conflicts, but still! I mean, why make a game that is meant to be modded and still have it crash half the time!
Arrgh!
Yeah, I know what you mean. The mods cause too much instability. Unfortunately, the vanilla game just isn't awesome without mods. >_<
^^What gets me, what really really gets me, is the way that I had a set of mods loaded and they ran fine, and then I found that they didn't run so fine, like they crashed the game on load every time. Reboot, try, crash. So I unloaded all of them and started to rebuild the list from the ground up, testing each mod as I go... and now I'm back to the same list of mods, and the thing works again and loads every time.
It really is enough to make me want to tear my hair out. If it wasn't such a damn good game!
Well, I finished the main mission (at long last) and have now started on some of the DLCs. I'm trying Project Anchorage for a change of style.
Also loaded NOLF 2 which doesn't crash at all, and stars a hot chick. With lots of guns.
Heh...
After not liking the demo very much, I figured I'd still give the final release of InFamous a try. For a game that's gotten some pretty consistent good scores, it's awful bland. It's basically Crackdown with prettier graphics and the use of electricity instead of guns. The game's made by SuckerPunch, who did the Sly Cooper series. Surprisingly, InFamous has a lot of similarities to Sly Cooper. Still, the game doesn't lift its head above other inner city sandbox games much at all. While the premise is decent and the platforming is done well, firing balls of electricity from your hands just isn't as fun as using conventional weapons. But don't take my word for it. There are tone of really good reviews out there for InFamous. Plus, my view is probably slanted due to my being tired of inner city sandbox titles.
PS2Fish wrote:After not liking the demo very much, I figured I'd still give the final release of InFamous a try. For a game that's gotten some pretty consistent good scores, it's awful bland. It's basically Crackdown with prettier graphics and the use of electricity instead of guns. The game's made by SuckerPunch, who did the Sly Cooper series. Surprisingly, InFamous has a lot of similarities to Sly Cooper. Still, the game doesn't lift its head above other inner city sandbox games much at all. While the premise is decent and the platforming is done well, firing balls of electricity from your hands just isn't as fun as using conventional weapons. But don't take my word for it. There are tone of really good reviews out there for InFamous. Plus, my view is probably slanted due to my being tired of inner city sandbox titles.
I've actually played the full game at a store and absolutely loved it. Way better than Prototype.
Synchronous Failure wrote:
PS2Fish wrote:
After not liking the demo very much, I figured I'd still give the final release of InFamous a try. For a game that's gotten some pretty consistent good scores, it's awful bland. It's basically Crackdown with prettier graphics and the use of electricity instead of guns. The game's made by SuckerPunch, who did the Sly Cooper series. Surprisingly, InFamous has a lot of similarities to Sly Cooper. Still, the game doesn't lift its head above other inner city sandbox games much at all. While the premise is decent and the platforming is done well, firing balls of electricity from your hands just isn't as fun as using conventional weapons. But don't take my word for it. There are tone of really good reviews out there for InFamous. Plus, my view is probably slanted due to my being tired of inner city sandbox titles.
I've actually played the full game at a store and absolutely loved it. Way better than Prototype.
Glad you think so. I didn't want mine to be the only opinion out there.
Got hold of Psychonaut the other day, and I have to say that I pretty much agree with Yahtzee on the whole thing.
Great game, wonderful idea, interesting environments. It puts me in mind of American McGee's Alice.
Pity about the poor port to PC from console though, and who the hell gives you free camera movement in a third person game and then decides to revoke your privileges it right when you get to a boss fight? I mean really?
Overall though, it is great fun, and I cannot stress the FUN aspect enough. This is definitely worth a try, if you haven't done.
Yeah, Psychonauts is also on my list to try out. Only $10 on gog.com. I hope I'll get around to it, I quite liked the demo.
Speaking of American McGee's Alice, I'm playing that game right one. Lots of fun and holds up pretty well, it's not supposed to be an ultra realistic environment (like Crysis or something), it's more of a fantasy landscape, so the lower poly count doesn't bother me as much. Worth a try if you've never played it.
This afternoon I was at my parents' house and I played and finished (wasn't that long) the excellent HL1 single player mod Poke646: Vendetta. One of the best HL1 single player mods I've ever played, and I've played quite a few. Cool new environments with new textures, and new weapons that are fun to use.
My parents' laptop has a crappy integrated Intel video chipset, so I'm stuck playing very old games on it, but that doesn't stop me from having fun. On the ancient PC in the attic I've installed C&C, Red Alert, Starcraft and System Shock 1 so I have something to play when I'm there.
There's a demo available for a quick look. As Harvester said, it's a 3rd person platformer shooter thing. The whole game is based around a return to Wonderland, where everything has gone even more screwy. Alice is a disturbed teenager with a carving knife!
I think it was built on the Quake 2 engine, from memory, so that should give you an idea of what to expect.
Still one of my favourite games of the style. The Mad Hatter's levels were the best IMO.
