Not to derail the discussion, but the excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown was just released for iOS and I'll be damned if it isn't a pretty good port. Graphically it runs well, and it has almost everything the console version has (apparently fewer maps, and no multiplayer, which they say will be added with a future update for free). The only downsides are that it is big (3.2 gigs) and expensive ($19.99) for an app, but it is basically a console quality game. I'm only about an hour in, but it is great so far. Touch controls are intuitive (if a bit "touchy" on my iPhone), and the gameplay is good. I can pick it up, play a mission for 15 minutes, and then put it right back down. If you have an iPad or iPhone, I'd recommend it.
The Last of Us is as good an argument as I've seen for video games as art. Does it play kind of like an interactive movie? Sure, a bit. I like it. It probably helps that I've been playing on a gorgeous 60" 120Hz tv with surround sound and the lights down low, but holy fuck is it gorgeous. The beauty is in the details - it has a wholly believable atmosphere, character interactions are legitimately compelling, the soundtrack is awesome, and at least at first the zombie attacks were fucking terrifying. After I got the shotgun (I don't think that's a spoiler - it's a zombie game, of course there's a shotgun) it got a little less tense, but I've had some serious "HOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKHOLYFUCKSHITSHITSHIT" moments of frantic shooting and beating the shit out of zombies with baseball bats, pipes, and homemade spiky bashin sticks. I actually really like the mostly-calm-with-lots-of-talking-puncuatated-by-really-really-intense-encounters style. It's a nice change of pace from most games these days, and plays, in my opinion, significantly differently from the Uncharted games to which it's been compared so much. I dunno, it seems that a lot of people feel it didn't live up to the hype, but if you turn the lights off and really let yourself get sucked into it, I can't imagine how people don't like this game.
The Last of Us was great, but that game is way too short to be $60. I'd rent it from redbox and spend the weekend playing it, you'll finish it and it'll only cost you 6 bucks.
I don't either, I'm head over heels in love with it. I think that with all the hype around the story and the main campaign the multiplayer is being seriously overlooked as well. It's phenomenal. Tactical, strategic, reminds me quite a bit of SOCOM, but only with the ability to craft all the goodies you get to in the main game. The purpose of it is a neat little ribbon to it as well. I let the game access my Facebook page and it trips me out the way it names the people of your clan after your friends list.
A couple of times an enemy soldier has shone their light on Allie (not me) and then followed it with "there's nothing here" or something to that affect. On a couple of the earlier missions, when our team had three people, they'd often rush straight past the other two to run at me blindly. Other than that, the reviews are definitely justified. I'm sure the problems/glitches I mentioned get fixed eventually anyway, and they're not taking away from my experience with the game.
Can you imagine the game where your companion's position actually mattered? Where you were responsible for your movement and the movement of NPCs you had no physical control over? How many broken flatscreens would it take before you stopped throwing your controller across the room? I've no doubt that Naughty Dog has thought of this, of what it would take to implement it in a realistic way. And then they realized "holy shit this is the worst idea ever, we gotta keep the game playable above all". Be careful what you wish for.
I would imagine the coding has been implemented in a way that your companions are unseen until you are detected, despite the occasion where Ellie or another companion is pretty much teabagging a Clicker while you hide behind a end table. And even then you the player are the priority on the kill list. It probably detracts from the immersiveness of it but it's probably necessary when it comes to gameplay.
One of the game designers came out in an interview with IGN or something and basically said "Come on, its still a video game" when presented with the "THEY STILL SEE ELLIE" nerd criticism.
Any of you brokedicks playing Firefall beta? It's kind of like Borderlands MMO. I never played Planetside, but this game is how I imagined it was when I heard FPS-MMO. You troll around all the time with your jetpack just blasting bug creatures and zombies and sometimes armoured evil dudes (there is no story cohesion). The ways you upgrade your character are pretty cool. There are like 5 different "classes," which are really kits that you can don at any of these mech garages. You gain experience while you are in a particular suit and you level that suit's abilities up with the experience. I haven't gotten too far into it, but it doesn't seem like you are able to differentiate between different "specs" of the same suit. In other words, your recon suit and my recon suit may incorporate different weapons, but our four or five basic abilities will be the same. I'm not positive on this, though. The pvp is frantic and fun, but poorly balanced. Everyone plays the heaviest class b/c they just longdick the lightly armoured, scout type characters. I play recon and I think I would be more effective in a coordinated team, although people move so fast that relaying enemy positions is not really feasible. It's kind of like a scaled-down version of Tribes. I'm having fun with it and my only complaints are that the menus lag and hang up sometimes, I have no wtf is going on because the introductory experience is kind of garbage, and the aiming and hit detection just isn't what I'm used to from playing real FPS. This game incorporates real time, spontaneous events far better than anything else I have seen, including Rift, GW2, AION, etc. It's a decent game and the beta keys are coming out like candy right now, I had five but sent them all. If I get more I'll post and offer them up, but once you join you get five immediately, so ask around and I'm sure you can drum one up.
That's fair. I was basically nitpicking. I did ride a horse through a truck yesterday too. My only point was if someone wanted to play it but didn't mind waiting a little bit, I'm sure they'll have fixed a few of these minor glitches anyway. I think my favourite part of the game so far is after you kill someone by bludgeoning them in the head with a brick, or putting a knife through their neck etc you'll hear Ellie scream "OH FUCK, SHIIIIT" in the background. Gets me every time
And sometimes when you whack someone with a brick she will jump on their back and stab the fuck out of their neck with a knife while screaming "OH FUCK SHIIIIIIT" - she's a little badass.
Well it is a piece of art, in videogame form. But I think he was saying in context no matter how realistic and great it is in some things it still has to have gamey aspects.
Last of Us Spoiler Spoiler I'm going to need counseling after that ending. Fuck me it got intense. There will definitely be a sequel
Anybody else surprised at how violent the finishes in the multiplayer are? Holy shit, point-blank executions and all!
So I picked up X3: Terran Conflict for $7.99 on Steam and goddamn has it stolen my time. I guess it's a lot like EVE, except single player and with saves, but it's basically just a huge space sandbox with a handful of factions and races to ally or go to war with, randomly (I think) generated missions, a pretty flimsy plot, and the freedom to do basically whatever you want. You can get wealthy as a merchant or trader, and eventually build your own production facilities and industry, or as a soldier, or whatever. You can capture ships, build gigantic space stations, set up mining operations to fuel your weapons production facilities, claim territory as your own (out of I think 120 zones, many of which are 100km across or more), amass an armada of enormous warships to conquer whoever you can, or... whatever really. ~10 hours in I'm still learning how to play but I foresee spending probably hundreds more hours with this game. It's pulled me away from my Skyrim rediscovery and League of Legends, which is quite a feat.
In news that likely only Rei will care about. Nice of Blizz to nerf Hellbats...while buffing Banshees. What really gets me is that everyone seems to be ok with this. Are you fucking serious? Yes, hellbats were a bit overpowered, but I would've rather just make them actually mech units so that they don't get healed by Medivacs and we're fine. Instead, Blizz just made it possible for Terran to go cloak banshee off one gas. Neat.
Gameplay trailer of GTA V. Looks friggin sweet. I like the fact they seemed to focus on improving the biggest gripe from the series, the shooting system. It also looks like they are trying to make the actual storyline less linear, which is one of my biggest complaints of GTA IV. Though I think switching between multiple characters seems like a gimmick, we'll see how well it is implemented in game I guess.
Strong first day on Steam summer sale. Picked up Counterstrike & 3 variations, Don't Starve, Hotline: Miami (read up on this game, it's badass and I don't even like indie stuff), and some kind of ULTIMATE LEGENDARY COLLECTOR"S EDITION dragon age for 27 dollars. 10 more days of this. holy shit.
Because someone confused my post about Call of Pripyat with Call of Duty, I'm going to mention this again. Go look into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Stop griefing people in LoL and just youtube it. If you've played Metro 2033, the Russian environment will be somewhat familiar, except that the world of 2033 looks like a happy paradise by comparison. No game has ever scared the shit out of me like this series has. It's not a perfect game, stealth is near nonexistent outside of some work by the massive mod community, but the environment is immersive and fucking creepy. For anyone who has Steam, it's normally $20, but I'd expect to see the titles in the summer sale. Also don't even fucking bother with Clear Sky unless your doctor has recommended a massive increase in blood pressure.