What are you playing?

I'd say the game is underrated going by the user reviews, but that's metacritic. User review bombing en masse.
 
It's hard to properly give a score to a game that was really quite good right up to the very end when it gives you the middle finger.
Basically this. A Critic can look at a game and give it a high score despite the utterly inane ending because everything up to that point was amazing. A fan is just going to see that nothing that happened had any point after that ending and now the franchise is in a questionable position. Both are right and both scores/opinions are important.
 
Personally, I don't like websites like that as it promotes bandwagon mentality where people follow and conform and hop on different bandwagons.
I don't trust critics neither as I have an issue with people who work for their advertisers who are the same people who sign their paychecks.
You have to find a happy medium by using word of mouth and reddit.
All I can is, I was apprehensive about the game, I got a copy of it (non-legit) and played it, after 2-3 missions I moved on to other games.
Thief however, was my life for weeks.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
I grabbed Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes because I wanted something easy and fun to play. Well, it is fairly easy, and it fun collecting stuff, but it's also frustrating to see just how unpolished this game is. The control scheme seems unrefined. There are quite a few times I've run into very bad or broken level design. The in-game instructions either nag with the same minor point over and over, or don't give any explanation of a feature at all. The method to resume a saved mission is unclear and needlessly complicated. It's absurd that it's not possible to just save & quit from anywhere in the open world gameplay.

That said, it's more fun than it is good. The humor is goofy, if mostly simple. The world is colorful and there are some nice animations. The controls work, even if they don't feel especially responsive. There is some nice variety to the gameplay, and it's very satisfying to collect gobs and gobs of lego coins for destroying stuff.

If I can shut off my brain and stop trying to analyze the game design, this will turn out to be an enjoyable distraction.
 
In addition to WoW, Minecraft, Endless Space, and Torchlight 2, I've been spending quite a bit of time lately replaying FF1 on my iPhone. It's just as fun as I remember - enough so that I've been considering plugging the Wii in so I can play it on a bigger screen.
 
UFC Undisputed 3, oddly enough.

It's actually pretty decent, though it's pretty clear that EA Sports is just better at presentation than THQ. There's a million menus to go through, and a zillion loading screens. The actual fights are pretty fun though. Now that EA Sports has the license, the next MMA game will hopefully be pretty awesome.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Serious Sam 3, or as I'm feeling it, the last good fps.
Serious Sam 3 was fantastic... until the last level before the final boss. Then it got stupid. Not a "Mass Effect 3" level of bad ending, as it didn't ruin the entire trilogy, but it does make me not particularly care if I play the game again.
 
Serious Sam 3 was fantastic... until the last level before the final boss. Then it got stupid. Not a "Mass Effect 3" level of bad ending, as it didn't ruin the entire trilogy, but it does make me not particularly care if I play the game again.
Aww, so far it's been amazing. Just the right amount of overwhelming odds and leaping off Eqyptian ruins shooting rockets into throngs of enemies bad ass.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Aww, so far it's been amazing. Just the right amount of overwhelming odds and leaping off Eqyptian ruins shooting rockets into throngs of enemies bad ass.
Oh, I remember. It absolutely was. Right up until the last level before the ultimate boss fight. And then the boss fight is fun on a bun, too. It's just that ONE. LEVEL. It's too long, there are too many things that take too much ammo to kill, and after about 45 minutes of having to put up with it, and realizing you are only halfway through the level, if that, just kills the fun.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Still playing Lego Batman 2. This game is definitely more fun than it is good. The controls continue to be awful, flight around the open world especially. There are so many little bits that need polish, obvious little tweaks that have been in many other games, and would make the user experience more fun. That said, holy crap this game is fun.

Awesome stuff I've seen:
- Batman riding the teacup ride at the amusement park.
- Batman and Superman riding the bumper cars until one car explodes.
- Superman hopping into Batman's vehicle and driving away, leaving Bats to walk. (Not even a cinematic or anything, just the way the game handles your partner if you hop in a vehicle. I find it hilarious that I can make Superman be a total dick to Batman.)
- Batman wearing explosive firing power armor, riding around on a lion, and mauling gun toting penguins.

I haven't even gotten to the point where I can play all the other heroes like Flash, Green Lantern, Huntress, Batgirl, Hawkman, etc.
 
Yeah, my one complaint about the game is that they dump most of the other heroes on you right near the end. But they did it because otherwise you'd be able to unlock everything right away: You need the Flash to get the last two villains and you need them to get a good portion of the gold bricks.
 
Well, I finished Metro 2033. Honestly it didn't feel quite so linear later on, possibly because I was trying my darnest just to survive. So if I see a safe path away from the mutants trying to eviscerate me, I'm gonna take it, whether it's the only path available or not.

Some pretty intense sections near the end though, particularly the library.


It was actually kinda funny. Miller tells me, "If you attack a Librarian, it will kill you. So if you see a Librarian, just stare at it until it leaves." So I figure, "Oh okay, it's kinda like Witches in L4D. Don't attack the Librarians, got it."

And then the first time I see a Librarian, I try to stare it down but it decides to attack me anyway, I shoot it a few times with my Volt Driver and it drops down dead. "Dammit Miller, you pussy."

Cue me depopulating the entire Library.
 
I'm pretty sure you need to AVOID looking at the Librarians. Regardless, they take a ton of damage... I think it's at least 2-3 auto shotgun faceshots.
 
I'm pretty sure you need to AVOID looking at the Librarians. Regardless, they take a ton of damage... I think it's at least 2-3 auto shotgun faceshots.
Really? Pretty sure you're remembering that backwards, because I played it last night and Miller definitely said something along the lines of "If you turn your back to a Librarian, it'll attack."

And yeah, they definitely take a ton of damage. The Volt Driver's incredibly powerful, one bodyshot was pretty much a guaranteed kill on almost every other enemy, human or mutant. Librarians could take up to ten shots to kill. I tried killing one with my AK and it required something like four full clips. Good thing I'd been hoarding my Volt Driver ammo up to that point in the game.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
Lego Batman 2: I drowned while playing as Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter can't turn invisible. What the hell game, what the hell?

Still, lots of fun, and the Flash is a blast to run around as.
 
Just finished the vanilla part of Borderlands 2. There aren't words for the last 4-5hrs of the game. I'm already getting ready for Playthrough 2 and buying some DLC. Just damn man... wow.
 
Just finished the vanilla part of Borderlands 2. There aren't words for the last 4-5hrs of the game. I'm already getting ready for Playthrough 2 and buying some DLC. Just damn man... wow.
Gaige is a ton of fun, assuming you don't already have her from pre-order.
 
Gaige is a ton of fun, assuming you don't already have her from pre-order.
Good friend of mine played Gaige and I played Salvador. It was crazy fun. She looked like fun but her action skill wasn't up my ally. Salvador on the other hand, -GUNZERKER TIIIIIIIIME!-
 
I didn't get far with Gaige (for some reason BL2 just didn't hold my interest) but her action skill is stupid good. The bot takes a major beating and hits pretty hard, especially early-game.
 
I didn't get far with Gaige (for some reason BL2 just didn't hold my interest) but her action skill is stupid good. The bot takes a major beating and hits pretty hard, especially early-game.
Not only that, he can fly, and kill flyers with a ranged attack. It's easily the strongest of all the 5 characters Action Skills.
 
The bot is pretty great He's basically a less powerful version of Axton's turret (in damage terms), but his ability to move around and always hit enemies with ether his laser or electric shocks more than makes up for it.
 
Not to mention ANARCHY! Every time she empties a clip or kills an enemy, she gets a stack of anarchy, which lowers her accuracy but raises her damage. And with the right skills she can stack it up to 250 times. Your accuracy will be shit, but you're damage will be amazing. Combine this with her ability to regen Shields in enemy death, and she was a goddamn wrecking ball with a shotgun up close.
 
Not to mention ANARCHY! Every time she empties a clip or kills an enemy, she gets a stack of anarchy, which lowers her accuracy but raises her damage. And with the right skills she can stack it up to 250 times. Your accuracy will be shit, but you're damage will be amazing. Combine this with her ability to regen Shields in enemy death, and she was a goddamn wrecking ball with a shotgun up close.
That's exactly how my friend was playing her. Between her and my Gunzerker, we pretty much mowed down everything upclose within mili-seconds. We're debating doing playthrough 2 or replaying the game with new characters.
 
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