Yea it is a blast. I am playing it. Thou i am playing on a premium account. Below tier 5 it doesn't make much of a difference. But above that, that extra 50 percent income and xp boost is very welcome. And premium isn't too bad, think 100 dollars does you for a year, and you have a little left over. I am mostly working on my american tank line, mostly at tier 8. Add wexton if you want to play some time.
<a class="postlink" href="http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9778718&rrid=_2130bda3-4555-58aa-84af-0b8be170881b" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9778718 ... 8be170881b</a> ^referral link, I get points if you join. If you have Xbox Live Arcade, why in the everloving fuck have you not bought Bangai-O HD yet? This game is the only game you need to play for the rest of your life. It's a retardedly deep, ridiculously long, stupidly hard twin stick shooter. Use any of six weapons, Dash attacks, Freeze attacks, EX Counters, Counter Multipliers, MAX attacks. Combine them to kill everything on the screen. 47 main stages, plus a bunch more bonus levels, and if you're lucky you'll beat 5 of them a day. It's like Sonic plus Geometry Wars, for God. Haven't figured out if this is a ++ or +++ yet. I'm top 40 in the world for Stages 1 & 2 time attack. Come at me.
System Shock 2, one of the best and scariest games ever, is finally available on GOG.com for $9.99 all fixed up to work in Windows 7 & 8. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.gog.com/gamecard/system_shock_2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.gog.com/gamecard/system_shock_2</a>
Ah the perks of my job. Picked up Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance as a pre-street to give it a whirl, and I am about 4 hours into the game. I can describe this game pretty easily: Metal Gear Solid meets Ninja Gaiden with a dash of Devil May Cry thrown in... with a stupid title. In this game you are Raiden in full ninja cyborg mode. If you saw Raiden dismember a bunch of Metal Gears in Metal Gear Solid 4, that is who you are, not the Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2. This game is significantly more action-oriented than regular Metal Gear games, so if you expect stealth and sneaking, you're in for a surprise. The story takes place after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4. Raiden is a member of a Private Military Company known as the Mavericks, and their goal (seemingly) is to keep other PMCs in check and work towards peace. He has just helped an African country get back on its feet and they've trained the country's military, only to see the countries Prime Minister kidnapped by other cyborg ninjas. Apparently, in this future, the vast majority of PMC members are becoming cyborgs, so pretty much all of the enemies you fight are other cyborgs. Combat: This is the primary aspect of gameplay, and you can tell they spent a lot of time on it. Aside from the usual hack-and-slash strong-attack-weak-attack combos that every action game has now, along with blocking attacks that is pretty standard fare, this game as what is called "blade mode." When you hold L1, the game slows down and you can manually control where and how Raiden slashes his sword, and slows down time slightly for precise slicing. You can use this to completely dismember enemies. Cutting off different limbs can earn you more points towards upgrades (specifically cutting off the left hand). You can literally cut an enemy into small pieces, hacking off limbs in an incredibly bloody display. It is way more fun than it should be. Going into blade mode takes energy, however. You regain energy by just melee fighting. If your energy is full when you enter Blade mode, a target appears on the enemy, and if you slash through it, you can grab the enemy cyborg's power source and refill your life and energy, and gain more points. There is a slight stealth aspect. If you sneak up on enemies from behind or above, you can easily one-hit-kill them. It is also worth noting that there are a quick-time events, but that is almost SO standard for action games now that it is to be expected. There are other methods of fighting, too. Sub weapons are obtainable throughout, such as grenades or rocket launchers, but I haven't found them very useful. What CAN be useful is that you can cut a LOT of surfaces in the game. If there are a bunch of enemies above you, you can run past the pillars supporting the ceiling (their floor) and cut them down, causing the enemies to fall and giving you the chance to take them out quickly. Enemy hiding behind a car? Slice the car in half and take them out. Difficulty wise, some of the battles can get kind of tough. Reflecting attacks from the bigger cyborgs is a pain in the ass, and they don't hold back (in the first chapter you're fighting a Metal Gear Ray). It isn't impossible, but it is tough, and I just have it on Normal mode. Again, it is a LOT like Ninja Gaiden in this aspect. There is also a bit of Devil May Cry in there, in that battles are graded at the end, and higher grades result in more BP. You're awarded BP for kills, for the style of kills (i.e. stealth kills, blade mode kills, longer combos, etc), and for finding items. BP can be used to purchase upgrades for Raiden, which is a pretty basic system that is similar to what is in most action games now-a-days. Movement and Other Gameplay: Most of the movement is basic, but they also have the 'ninja run.' Just hold a button, and Raiden will vault over obstacles and up walls. He can slice down trees and pillars while running, reflect bullets shot at him, and slide into enemies to attack. It does make running around environments kind of fun, but it isn't exactly difficult. There are item boxes scattered throughout for you to find, which contain helpful items to regenerate health, give you BP, or other secrets to find. BP is also earned through battle. Graphics and Sound: Graphically, it is on par with pretty much all newer PS3 games. The voice acting is very good, but I'd expect nothing less from a Metal Gear title, a series that virtually perfected the voice acting and cinematics in video games. The music is good, too, but the hardcore scream-rock during boss battles seems a bit over-the-top and screams of a Devil May Cry ripoff. I haven't had a lot of time to get to know the characters, but thus far the new supporting cast for Raiden isn't too bad. None of them are cringe-worthy annoying so far, but this is something I'd have to play more to be able to judge a bit better. Overall: I do think I may pick up this game. I had no intention of buying it before playing for a few hours, but I find myself enjoying the gameplay and the fighting system, and the fact that I love the Metal Gear Solid universe and the (exceptionally convoluted) storylines therein tends to make me gravitate towards these games, but I do think it is a game I'll end up picking up. The battle system is really a fairly generic hack-and-slash game on par with Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden until you get to the blade-mode aspect of it, which is a great twist and more fun than it should be. There isn't a lot in this game besides "Blade Mode" that is different than other action games, but it is still fun enough that I am thoroughly enjoying it. Score*: 8/10 *Note that score is based on about 4 hours of gameplay. Battles are still fun and new enemies are still popping up, but it is entirely possible that they become repetitive grind-fests. I am just really hoping not.
Ni No Kuni is exactly what you expect from a JRPG. No more, no less. It doesn't try to reinvent the genre, it doesn't add extra frills... It's 40-160 hours of gameplay that's exactly what you think it will be. And I kinda love that. It's a bit cartoony in the animation as far as the story sequences go, but... If you like Final Fantasy, you will like Ni No Kuni.
Anyone following the new Tomb Raider game? I never paid much attention to it, but after watching this video I think I'll have to check it out.
Maybe I mentioned this months back, but has no one on here played STALKER? If not, I highly recommend it. Here's a SomethingAwful page which gives a much better description than i can be bothered to type out, but in very short terms, it's an exploration FPS which has you trying to uncover the secrets of a massive Zone that appears around the Chernobyl Plant. It's by far the most atmospheric game I've ever played, and it will scare the shit out of you more than once.
So after playing it more, I've opted to buy Metal Gear Rising. I was honestly not going to before I played it, but then I really got into it. I'll be picking that up tomorrow.
Crysis 3 today. Likely it will be finished installing in time to head to my hockey game. Haven't heard the greatest about it, but the first 2 were fun and the OCD in me says "get the set"
So the PS4 was basically announced today. Ill be getting it since Ive been a Sony fanboy since day one. The graphic leap shown so far is not as big as the last one but I guess that's expected. I like the new social media stuff theyve added. Im glad they didn't change the Dual Shock that much as Ive always liked it though it kind of looks like a 3rd party controller.
The Wii U is a financial disappointment and the delay in new console releases from Sony and Microsoft tells me developers are struggling to create and market substantial improvements upon the predecessor. Yet we'll end up having to purchase the next gen anyways to play new games.
I think it's less to do with game developers coming up with new games as it is changing the structure of how video games will be bought and consumed. With the Windows based architecture* it'll be easy as fuck for them to port/develop their catalogs on the new systems. Cloud gaming, streaming, software only game downloads, all fuck their old fucked out models of cash flows in da' ass. * (I didn't hear Sony come up with any buzz word name for their processor this time)
The graphical leap may not be huge, but it’ll be cool if we get smarter artificial intelligence and more characters on screen. My original plan was to wait a year or 2 before picking up a PS4, but I don’t think I’ll make it after seeing the new Killzone and Infamous trailers. Looks like I’ll be out 400+ bucks this holiday.
Signs are pointing to no. Looks like with the addition of their Gaikai service, they'll be super happy to make you pay for the ability to stream the entire Playstation Catalogue. Apparently since the architecture is entirely different and new, backwards compatibility won't be in the PS4. So I'd keep your PS3 for a bit and catch up on a few things. I still feel like its too early for the next gen, but whatever.
I guess we don’t really need new hardware, but I’m still excited for the new generation. Apparently the PS3 is very difficult to program for due to the complex Cell chip/processor/whatever and the limited RAM creating a bottleneck. That’s why a lot of multiplatform games run better on the 360. The late release of Move also fragmented the market, so the new machine should remedy these issues. I still think Move is a lame gimmick that can’t add anything to the types of games I like, but if it is included with PS4 I have nothing to lose by giving it a chance. Here's a link outlining some of the PS4 features: http://www.officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk/2013/02/21/12-things-you-might-not-know-about-ps4/ Apologies for the layout, it's annoying and makes you click a new page for each item.
Move shouldn't ever have been integrated into regular games. But I've said it once and I'll say it again, Sports Champions is fun as fucking shit. So is Tumble, Epic Mickey 2, and Sorcery was underrated. For the games that are made specifically for the Move, they are fun as shit. That one fighting game didn't work out as well as it should, but people didn't jump on Sports Champions and they took WAY too long with the sequal or support games like that. I also feel like its too soon because I had my PS3 crash 3 times and haven't been able to run through games at a normal pace because of my League of Legends addiction. I need more time to catch up on TV, burn through games, and play LoL. I'm excited for PS4, as it is a proper update to the system, but I'll probably let it cook a year before I jump on it only because there are so many great PS3 games that I should get through.
I'm with Parker in waiting to pick it up, for multiple reasons: First, my gaming time has been cut down dramatically since having a kid. Second, I still have a boatload of games to get through for the PS3 that will take me at least a year, if not longer (Ni No Kuni, Metal Gear Rising, ACIII, DMC: Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy XIII-3, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2). I also want to re-play a bunch of games (want to dive back into Skyrim and re-do the Dragon Age games). If the Wii U has taught me anything, its that diving in too soon will result in waiting a long time for good games to come out for the system. (Related note: I cannot WAIT for the Wii U to get their virtual console up and running in a couple of months). Third, very few systems have a lot of good games at launch, and the lack of full backwards compatibility means I have zero desire to pick it up. I know they want to make PS3 games stream-able, but that doesn't help me with my disc-based games. It generally takes at least a year to build up a significant library. Finally, I'll bet anything there are a lot of kinks early on that they have to fix via updates. I'd prefer not to have an outdated system that shits the bed all the time. My PS3 died 3 times before I finally traded it in to upgrade it to a slim model. I'll probably wait a bit for the 2nd generation of the PS4 to come out.
We really, really do. The shit developers have to put up with (and sacrifice) to make a decently sized game playable on the current gen is insane.