Cullen
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Post by Cullen on Dec 31, 2008 14:08:14 GMT
Tried out the Mirrors Edge demo last night. I loved the art style of the opening cut scene but was disappointed that this didn't carry over to the game (which was more realistic looking especially on the dodgy character models). The gameplay was a bit meh so I'll give this one a pass.
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Post by Cullen on Jan 5, 2009 14:19:17 GMT
Well aren't I the little hypocrite? The afforementioned Chris told me about a free arcade game, Dash of Destruction, in which cybernetic dinosaurs chase Dorrito delivery trucks. He told me about it as you can collect all 200 points from it within about 20 mins. And I did it even though it was crap. I must admit a little bit of me died inside when I won a multiplayer game against myself in order to get the final achievement. What have I become?
However I also notices James, Jaymz and Alan all did the same thing...
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Gav
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Post by Gav on Jan 5, 2009 16:16:04 GMT
*tuts*  I'm on the fence with achievements. It all depends on when and where they occur. Dead Space is a good example of my love/hate feelings. You get points for completing each chapter, which seems a bit redundant. There's no need for fanfare when the game already tells me I've completed the chapter in question. Alternatively getting achievements for doing certain things which require effort or skill (playing the Zero-G basketball well for example - or decapitating 5 beasties at once with the line gun) is rather gratifying. I'm guilty of spending hours trying to unlock certain achievements, not so much for the gamerscore (i think i'm on my way to 5000 at the moment) but 'cause i know the developers have basically included wee extra challenges - and i like that. My mate also got the Doritos game for the 200 points, and i felt like a disapproving parent, having just found his collection of smut. |
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Post by Cullen on Jan 6, 2009 10:19:32 GMT
I like them as they link all your games together, and provide a rough estimate of how far you are through them. I dislike them as they sometimes push you past playing a game for fun and playing it to completion. I got like this with Rez the other night - completed the main game and some of the bonus missions then decided to try and get the extra achievements. After an hour it felt like work so I've given up lest I taint what was otherwise a fantastic game experience (seriously if you haven't played Rez then at least try the trial).
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2009 15:54:12 GMT
I have also downloaded "Dash of Destruction", and got the 200 points it offers.
I like achievements but I m not obsessed or bothered by getting them all from a game. There will always be people with more or less achievement points than myself.
Shame I can't put my achievement points can be put on my CV.
David
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Post by Jaymz on Jan 7, 2009 0:02:18 GMT
However I also notices James, Jaymz and Alan all did the same thing... What? I enjoyed the game. I don't even own an Xbox360. |
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Post by jameso on Jan 7, 2009 12:01:28 GMT
I really, really like achievements. They encourage me to the get the most of the game. When sometimes you've paid £40 for a game that extra incentivement to explore all aspects of it is welcome, for me.
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Cullen
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Post by Cullen on Jan 7, 2009 15:21:24 GMT
However I also notices James, Jaymz and Alan all did the same thing... What? I enjoyed the game. I don't even own an Xbox360. Well it wasn't poke your eyes out horrible but 20 minutes was more than enough. And you don't own a 360? You're on it every night! |
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Post by Jaymz on Jan 7, 2009 21:13:20 GMT
Well it wasn't poke your eyes out horrible but 20 minutes was more than enough. And you don't own a 360? You're on it every night! I was when I was in Ireland, but now I only get to play one if I go to O's place. |
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Post by Jaymz on Jan 7, 2009 21:19:05 GMT
I really, really like achievements.  |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 7, 2009 21:21:29 GMT
Heheh!
Andy
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Cullen
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Post by Cullen on Feb 19, 2009 13:30:57 GMT
So after saying I wouldn't get the rest of the points on Rez, I did, and enjoyed almost every minute. Such a great game.
Another great game is Braid. I was seriously impressed by its puzzley/platformy goodness.
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Post by jameso on Feb 24, 2009 12:33:24 GMT
 It is wrong how sexy this is. |
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Post by legios on Mar 5, 2009 21:58:05 GMT
It just looks like a 360, only red, to me I'm afraid. But then I am of the opinion that electronics should probably be either in shiny metallic cases or in sleek black affairs (preferably with a big red light that looks disturbing like an eye......). :-)
But anyway.... I've been playing Half Life 2 Episodes 1 and 2 a bit recently, having picked the Orange Box up cheap.( I have resisted starting on Portal as yet because I have been too busy to risk getting too drawn into it). I wasn't initially impressed with Episode 1. Note to Valve: refusing to give me anything other than the gravity gun for a large chunk of the beginning of the game will not make me like your gravity gun. It will just make me less well disposed to your game. Also, making Dog the first thing I see in the new game is almost guaranteed to start things of on the wrong foot, and saddling me with Alyx perpetually just adds insult to injury. Initially I found Ep 1 a bit of a slog - it didn't really get going until I got out of the subway into the sunlight, after that it was relatively fun. Except for Alyx's ability to get me killed repeatedly. I lost count of the number of times that I ended up getting caught in the open when she was blocking doorways or shoving me out of cover. I think I have a much more cautious approach to shooters than Valve bargains for.
Fortunately Ep 2 seems to be better. I'm not sure it is quite up to the standards of the best bits of Half Life 2, and certainly not up there with the original, but it is decent enough. It has a very nice seige set-piece halfway through, which I can only assume is a rather marked tribute to Aliens (so of course deploying the shotgun was almost required there. It would have been impolite not to).
I figure that as I only paid a bit over a tenner for it I'm still ahead on terms of enjoyment to cost ratio so that is fair enough...
Karl
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Post by karla on Mar 5, 2009 22:03:17 GMT
I love the suicidal zombies in ep 2!
you haaaaaaaave to play portal, or there will be no cake for you
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Post by legios on Mar 5, 2009 22:16:14 GMT
I love the suicidal zombies in ep 2! I think of them as being more Walking Anti-Zombie devices. They even provide a free grenade for blowing up Zombies with. How very thoughtful of them. Portal shall be played. But I still have to finish getting all the Ace paint schemes in AC6, and get some flight-time on the aircraft I have neglected - Super Hornet, Rafale M and the Flanker - before I can in good conciousness move on and get deeply involved in another game. Karl |
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Post by legios on Mar 10, 2009 21:56:03 GMT
I have started Portal, and am rather enjoying it. They have judged the difficulty curve very well - every time I am about to scream in frustration and give up I have a sudden moment of insight and think "wait, what it ....?". As a result I have so far never felt hopelessly frustrated.
I do love playing around with the physics engine as well. I spent a while on some of the early test chambers just playing around to see what I could do with the portals. ("Speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out"). I do love the AI as well, creepy but also very amusing - "Did you know that you can donate one or all of your organs to the Apeture Sciences Self Esteem fund fo girls?" and "Please note, the floor in the next chamber is lethal. Try to avoid contact with it" are sufficiently bizarre in context that they rather amuse me. So far I'm not sure why folk are hung up on the cake line, when some of the rest of the monologues are far more odd.
I like the games sense of humor, after playing through Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two - which seemed terribly po-faced most of the time - it was nice to encounter a game which didn't entirely take itselt seriously.
Karl
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Cullen
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Post by Cullen on Aug 14, 2009 10:58:56 GMT
Just finished playing Ghostbusters on the 360. Had to import it as Sony has exclusive rights to publish the game in Europe until later in the year so only the PS3 and PS2 versions are out here. Fortunately the US publisher decided to make the US version region free so it runs on a PAL console with no problems.
Absolutely love this game. If you are a fan of the films then its a must. It's voiced by all of the original cast and the humour is just right. Really feels like a third film. And the gameplay is bustin' ghosts which, as you should know, makes you feel good.
The game is only about 5-6 hours long but I thought that was perfect. I'm just starting a run on Professional to get the last few achievements. Online is good too but I mainly stuck to the mode in which you team up with four fellow Ghostbusters to capture ghosts, as it makes me feel like I'm living the Ghostbuster life.
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Post by Cullen on Aug 26, 2009 11:57:25 GMT
Completed Ghostbusters on Professional at the weekend and I downloaded Shadow Complex and the Monkey Island remake. Only played Monkey Island at the moment and have just completed the first part. It still has the magic and I'm constantly swapping between the classic and new look to see how things have changed.
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Post by legios on Aug 30, 2009 21:03:36 GMT
I picked up Mirrors Edge this weekend (preowned for £7 so it was one of these "If I don't like it I haven't lost much). I'm surprised by how much I am enjoying it. There is something quite refreshing about the design of the game - all distrubingly pristine steel and concrete rather than the usual "dystopian future is brown" - and I'm actually enjoying the gameplay so far, the idea of using free-running skills to escape from folk with guns rather than shooting at them is quite refreshing. It struck me when I finished the first chapter that normally in a first-person perspective console game the player can expect to personally rack up the body-count of a medium-sied war by that point. Instead I had punched a grand total of one person in the face and still had tremendous fun. Wouldn't want all games to be like this but it makes for a tremendous change of pace.
In more traditional style, yet another game featuring Batman appears on the scene. Now whilst there have been many games that have had Batman in that have been quite fun, there hadn't really been anything as yet that made me feel like I was being Batman. But when playing "Batman: Arkham Asylum", perched on a Gargoyle with two henchmen dangling from the rafters and another henchman down below panicked out of his wits as I lined up to descend on him and knock him out of commission with a gliding kick and swift follow-up it occured to me that yes, now I feel like I am being Batman. It has a rather good rendition of the Joker and Harley Quinn to recommend it as well. Not that far into the game, but so far it look like a genuine home run.
Karl
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Post by Cullen on Aug 31, 2009 15:40:39 GMT
Yeah heard good things about Arkham Asylum. I'll pick it up soon if I can stop buying games! Everytime I finish one I buy three more - why can't I help myself?
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Post by legios on Aug 31, 2009 18:24:44 GMT
I'm exactly the opposite there - these two are the first games that I have bought since February, when I picked up Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and GRAW 2 cheap.
There's probably only one more game I am likely to be buying this year, and I shall probably put off picking up ODST until December or thereabouts.
Karl
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Post by Cullen on Sept 3, 2009 10:07:11 GMT
Just started playing Shadow Complex last night. I can't remember the last time any game left such a positive impression within the first 30 seconds. Its essentially a cross between Metroid and Metal Gear: 2D gameplay in the classic Metroid format (open world, lots of items and power ups to collect) with 3D graphics in a Metal Gear style (stop those terrorists!). Absolutely fantastic so far.
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Post by Cullen on Sept 7, 2009 11:43:01 GMT
Now about 75% the way through Shadow Complex and its the best game I've played in about 10 years. Go buy it. Now! I think its as good as Super Metroid. And (as you can tell from here) I love Super Metroid. |
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Post by legios on Nov 19, 2009 22:20:12 GMT
Judging by the reactions I'm seeing online elsewhere I think I am the person in the world who likes Tekken 6. The fighting engine is pure undiluted Tekken - yes, it isn't updated or tweaked that much (in fact it feels pleasantly like Tekken 3 in the arcades) but I don't necessarily demand innovation in a game that isn't really that broken. The roster is good - Julia Chang is still in there so I am sorted for my go-to girl for planting boot in an opponents face and just about everyone else I remember from previous versions are present and correct.
But most importantly, it feels no shame about its comedy characters. There is a Bear, a Panda bear and a boxing Kangaroo, and they aren't locked away to be unlocked at some future date, instead they are right up there on the character select with everybody else. Tekken 6, a fighting game that feels that fighting a bear is as valid a match as a fight against a Karate expert......
Karl
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Stomski
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Post by Stomski on Nov 20, 2009 9:39:18 GMT
Judging by the reactions I'm seeing online elsewhere I think I am the person in the world who likes Tekken 6. The fighting engine is pure undiluted Tekken Got it for PS3. I've been crazy about Tekken since I got in to it in TTT. Used to play seriously in arcades/meet ups/tournaments and things, but this took a back burner for me a few years back. Tekken 6 console release is actually the updated arcade version Tekken 6:Bloodline Rebellion. Because of this, Namco have undergone a process of data collection in order to balance the game. Unfortunately, to the layperson, these updates to movesets are meaningless. Reviewers and the general public don't understand the game engine and why moves change between games, and why things don't change. Really, it's like the evolution between sports games from year to year and no one complains about the supposed lack of innovation there. Some say the fighting engine is too simple. Personally I like the fact that high/mid/low is essentially stone/paper/scissors and moves have simple properties (time to execute, advantage on hit/block/counter hit). Most players (with Bound) can achieve 60-70 pt juggles, but setting up the launcher isn't always that simple. The only sucky thing I've seen so far is rage, I just don't understand why Namco didn't put an option in to turn this off. Just gives the opponent more of a chance to pull the round back from being 1 jab away from death, and to me that's pointless. I'd much rather see them pull it back with hitting a launcher, juggle and then setting up some decent oki to win the round... |
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Post by legios on Nov 22, 2009 21:17:50 GMT
Got it for PS3. I've been crazy about Tekken since I got in to it in TTT. Used to play seriously in arcades/meet ups/tournaments and things, but this took a back burner for me a few years back. I've never been into the Tournament scene or taking it particularly seriously, but I did play Tekken 3 in the arcades in Wellington quite a bit when I was over there - my introduction to the game was driving one of my acquantances into a rage by insisting on using Julia instead of a "better" character and still managing a reasonable win rate. It seems straight-forward to me - fix the things that need fixing and leave alone the things that aren't broken. I guess some folks just expect to see the pattern that you see in some other fighting games, where the developers throw bucket-loads of changes in and everytime they fix something they break something else I like the fact that it is fairly elegant - four buttons, one for each limb, that is the sort of set-up that I can wrap my brain around. It gives it a solid foundation that allows folk to pick it up and start to get a handle on it without being so complicated that new players look at it and go "huh"? But they have built a good structure on that foundation. I find that it is easy to pick-up but it rewards practice and experimentation to really get a feel for what you can do. Heh, I can do it with some characters, but not with others. Heck, I can't manage to do air-juggles at all with Xiajou or Julia (I compensate by getting my foot-work down pat) Yeah, I've not played this version against another human being yet (no Live subscription) but it has been a little infuriating against the AI. It feels like it cheapens things a little and throws an element of randomness into the end of close round. (I guess the answer is to try to arrange for the fact that they only get into the rage zone just before your foot hits their face for a good solid kicking) Aha, you might be the best person to ask this - I am, as you have probably gathered not exactly hardcore when it comes to fighting games - I can't read the usual notation used for movesets (it just looks like algebra to me) or really have much affinity for thinking of characters in terms of "tiers" of competitiveness (I tend to pick characters because I am comfortable with their move-set, rather than because they are reputed to be better than others) - and am fairly much self-taught. You might be able to translate for me - what does "oki" actually refer to? (I suspect it is something that I do without knowing the technical term for it, and I'd be curious to know what it actually means). Karl |
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Stomski
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Post by Stomski on Nov 22, 2009 22:11:56 GMT
Oki is short for Okizeme. A japanese word (I believe) which means attacking a person when they're on the ground. The oki game in Tekken can be another situation when you get a guessing game. When an opponent lands after a juggle they can do various things... Tech roll (roll left/right as soon as they hit the ground), stay still, quick stand or roll back. So what you follow your juggle up with depends on what you think they will do. Which creates a guessing game on both parts. In Tekken 5, Nina was incredibly powerful because after a juggle she could choose between two moves which between them would hit no matter what you did, effectively creating a 50/50 to more damage. www.tekkenzaibatsu.com/ is where you need to go. Online games will suck even after Namco fix the netcode. When you're dealing with inputs of 1/60s in length, things need to be lag free. So get some friends round and learn against each other. It's the only way you'll get the most out of the game, especially if you're both reading up on move properties (i.e. WGF is 15 frames, knowing which moves leave your opponent at more than 15 frames disadvantage on block allows you to know when you can get a WGF guaranteed launch, if they know this, they won't use those moves if they think it will be blocked etc etc). Online/AI will not recreate this! |
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Post by Cullen on Nov 23, 2009 13:08:59 GMT
Online games will suck even after Namco fix the netcode. When you're dealing with inputs of 1/60s in length, things need to be lag free. So get some friends round and learn against each other. It's the only way you'll get the most out of the game, especially if you're both reading up on move properties (i.e. WGF is 15 frames, knowing which moves leave your opponent at more than 15 frames disadvantage on block allows you to know when you can get a WGF guaranteed launch, if they know this, they won't use those moves if they think it will be blocked etc etc). Online/AI will not recreate this! I completely agree and I think this is why I'll never play a fighter ever again. I logged 100s of hours into Tekken 3, and with one friend we had over 1000 matches of me just using Jin and him just using Lei. It's really fantastic when you know your character and know your opponent and the game essentially becomes one of prediction. Almost like a game of chess where you are trying to out manoeuvre your opponent, waiting to pounce on the slightest mistake. However I know that despite the hours put in, I probably wasn't a 'good' player by tournament standards. Knowing how good the game can get at the top-levels (and how shit playing against the AI is in comparison) and knowing the effort it takes to get there, means I can't bring myself to play fighters these days, not even casually. It's a shame really because I really do love them. |
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Post by legios on Nov 26, 2009 22:01:30 GMT
Knowing how good the game can get at the top-levels (and how shit playing against the AI is in comparison) and knowing the effort it takes to get there, means I can't bring myself to play fighters these days, not even casually. It's a shame really because I really do love them. I must admit that doesn't really bother me. I am fully aware that there are people who take these games very seriously, study things down to the level of individual frames of animation, and have daily practice routines to hone their skill and who make me look like an arthritic overweight bloke fighting against Tony Jaa. I simply classify that under "there is always someone better". I play these games for fun and to unwind, and the fact that I am nowhere near competitive (or even surviveable) in terms of the rarified atmosphere of tournamenting doesn't really impinge on my thinking. That said, I can understand why it might be off-putting. Oki is short for Okizeme. A japanese word (I believe) which means attacking a person when they're on the ground. Ah hah! Yes, I do know what this is then. It is my favourite (and least favourite depending on which end of it I am) trick of Eddie's (and also something I do with Mitsurugi in Soul Caliber 4 quite a lot). I think it is fair to say that most of my friends who play fighting games tend to be off the "very casual" player variety like myself. I for one tend to learn by doing and "feel" my way into things - I couldn't tell you how many frames any individual move of any character takes, I just "play by ear" so to speak. (Besides, given how few folk I know who play fighting games I think it is fair to say that 80 - 90% of my matches on any game are going to be against the AI). Karl |
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