I think the single biggest problem with Brutal Legend was it's focus: It should have been God of War, seeped in Heavy Metal, not a strategy game. It really doesn't help that they focused the advertising as if it WAS God of War.
Yeah, I can understand that frustration. And yeah, the most fun I have with the game are the non-RTS moments. BUT, going in well aware of what to expect as far as gameplay, I was able to enjoy it for what it was.
I always back up saves regularly as a rule... that way when i want to format i don't have to bother with it.Snark: Because when your computer needs formatting, or the motherboard dies, or you're just doing routine back ups of important files such as school projects, work, tax info, et cetera, video game saves are very low on the priority list.
Yay! That makes being sick worth it
.Ah, Tactics. The one PS1 game I didn't sell (though now I have the PSP version). The one game I can always hop into and have fun.
For once, I find all my gaming needs fulfilled.
Play alone: Half-Life 2
Play with buddies: Left 4 Dead 2
Play and Julie watches: System Shock 2 and Psychonauts
Play with Julie: Borderlands and Mario Kart Wii (eventually to hit back on Tactics and Dissidia)
There's pros and cons. You can take it anywhere, which is awesome. There's a couple new classes, although the Onion Knight sounds kind of useless. There's some new side quests late in the game. Some of the spells are clarified. The best thing in my opinion is the multiplayer, but unfortunately it's not online (unless you use Ad Hoc with a PS3, or get sneaky with certain computer programs), so it's not worth anything unless someone else has a PSP and Tactics. Still, it's nice to have on-the-go, because it's one of those games I never get tired of.
The only cons are that some of the spells lag a little (you'll see this on occasion in the PS1 version, but it's pretty constant in this). The other con, in my opinion, is the new translation. While Tactics did kind of need a new one, because it became a jumbled mess when all the back-stabbing takes place, and it's nice for some of that stuff to make sense right away, the translators decided to do this weird, overdone English. I don't know how to describe it exactly. An example would be... in the original if someone said "I'll kill you" in this it would be something like "You shall rue the day of your birth when you meet your end at my hands." Like some bad fantasy novelist did it. This doesn't seem to irritate Julie because she didn't play it to death like I did, she just laughs at it, but I played it enough to know what the old dialogue was and it gets on my nerves at times.
Again, personally it's worth it to have it whenever I want and playing against or with Julie, and I don't think those cons ruin it, but if you're getting a PSP over it, you should consider how much that's worth.
The only cons are that some of the spells lag a little (you'll see this on occasion in the PS1 version, but it's pretty constant in this). The other con, in my opinion, is the new translation. While Tactics did kind of need a new one, because it became a jumbled mess when all the back-stabbing takes place, and it's nice for some of that stuff to make sense right away, the translators decided to do this weird, overdone English. I don't know how to describe it exactly. An example would be... in the original if someone said "I'll kill you" in this it would be something like "You shall rue the day of your birth when you meet your end at my hands." Like some bad fantasy novelist did it. This doesn't seem to irritate Julie because she didn't play it to death like I did, she just laughs at it, but I played it enough to know what the old dialogue was and it gets on my nerves at times.
Again, personally it's worth it to have it whenever I want and playing against or with Julie, and I don't think those cons ruin it, but if you're getting a PSP over it, you should consider how much that's worth.
The Onion Knight's job level goes up as you master other jobs, and if you can get the Onion Knight up to job level 8, they'll become more powerful. Also, if you play the game's multiplayer modes, you can earn some powerful "Onion" equipment that only Onion Knights can equip. In other words, it's powerful but you really need to work at it. Black Knights are generally a better option though.
I'm playing Bioshock 2, which is startlingly terribly optimized. I have an x6900 processor (which I know isn't the big dog anymore, but should still be more than enough for this) and dual 285 GTX's, a game that is in no way a graphical improvement from Bioshock 1 should not have framerate issues.
That's what I was afraid of.
I haven't played either Bioshock game, though I watched a playthrough of the first on YouTube once. Honestly, from everything that I can tell, the second one seems barely different at all. The only difference I can tell is that you play as a Big Daddy. But the location is the same and even the set up is the same (collect McGuffins from the little girls by killing or curing them), etc.
Bioshock 2 is what you get when you change the story of Bioshock from one that features Radical Rightism as the cause of the problem to one the features Radical Leftism as the cause of the problem. To sum it up:
- In Bioshock 1 you have a society destroying itself by it's unbridled greed, over competitive nature, unregulated markets, and by essentially deifying an egotistical hypocrite who believes that people will follow his example because it's his. When people show that they are willing to resort to any means to get what they want, Rapture is destroyed in a war between the Haves and the Have Nots. The Have Nots win because there are many, many more of them due to how the system is set up. Ryan, angry that his vision has failed, mind controls nearly everyone still alive and locks them inside of the hell he and they had created. Then you show up and basically fuck everything up even more.
- In Bioshock 2, that same society is getting worse because of a philosophical cult the believes that only by homogenizing everything can everything be equal, having said cult be filled with people who are clutching onto a hope that is beyond their means, and by essentially deifying an Ivy League Intellectual who believes that the good of the many is worth destroying the lives of the innocent. That's basically all I can say without spoiling EVERYTHING.
In short, the Bioshock games are basically a message against extremism in all of it's creeds. It's actually quite subtle about it too.
- In Bioshock 1 you have a society destroying itself by it's unbridled greed, over competitive nature, unregulated markets, and by essentially deifying an egotistical hypocrite who believes that people will follow his example because it's his. When people show that they are willing to resort to any means to get what they want, Rapture is destroyed in a war between the Haves and the Have Nots. The Have Nots win because there are many, many more of them due to how the system is set up. Ryan, angry that his vision has failed, mind controls nearly everyone still alive and locks them inside of the hell he and they had created. Then you show up and basically fuck everything up even more.
- In Bioshock 2, that same society is getting worse because of a philosophical cult the believes that only by homogenizing everything can everything be equal, having said cult be filled with people who are clutching onto a hope that is beyond their means, and by essentially deifying an Ivy League Intellectual who believes that the good of the many is worth destroying the lives of the innocent. That's basically all I can say without spoiling EVERYTHING.
In short, the Bioshock games are basically a message against extremism in all of it's creeds. It's actually quite subtle about it too.
Irrational Games had really nothing to do with Bioshock 2 at all. 2K just shunted it onto one of their other developers.
And it really feels like a half-assed sequel, like, really half-assed.
Irrational Games had really nothing to do with Bioshock 2 at all. 2K just shunted it onto one of their other developers.
And it really feels like a half-assed sequel, like, really half-assed.[/QUOTE]
I dunno... all new weapons, new plasmids and new ways to use them, a completely re-worked hack mechanic, new ways to get Adam, and a story that completely flips the ideological perspective while remaining as deep as the original and STILL retaining the same message? Plus a brand new multiplayer mode? It seems to me this is a worthy successor. If I was going to complain about anything in the game, it would be that it's music doesn't seem as strong as in the first game, that it re-uses almost every enemy from the last game (with only 3 or 4 new enemy types), and that Lamb's intellectual ramblings get on my nerves far more than Andrew Ryan's ever did.
The story is alright, but it just seems like someone's fanfiction (which it essentially is since there's no Ken Levigne magic at all present). All, the retconning going on everywhere gets ridiculous and there's fucking
And yes, half-assed. The hack mechanic is possibly the simplest and fastest minigame ever created (now, I like Bioshock's original Pipedream minigame, but it did get old after a while). This new hacking minigame might as well not be there. The multiplayer is the most unbalanced mess ever created (and created solely for the HAS MULTIPLAYER bullet point on the box). The weapons are basically reskins of the original ones (with some exceptions) and the game's texture work is fucking atrocious, anything they didn't just lift from the original game looks like hell.
Now, being the world's wussiest big daddy I can understand is game balance and to make it actually exciting, but it's still funny that you can go down to two shotgun hits from a splicer while the Rosie you had engaged can take 2 straight minutes of concentrated machine gun fire. I think it's pretty lame. as well, that Rumblers are more of a threat than the supposed big bads of the game, the Big Sisters. I got taken out more fighting a Rumbler than I ever did with a sister.
Tannenbaum, who shows up for 30 seconds, says see you later and is never heard from again. What the God damn? Seriously?
And yes, half-assed. The hack mechanic is possibly the simplest and fastest minigame ever created (now, I like Bioshock's original Pipedream minigame, but it did get old after a while). This new hacking minigame might as well not be there. The multiplayer is the most unbalanced mess ever created (and created solely for the HAS MULTIPLAYER bullet point on the box). The weapons are basically reskins of the original ones (with some exceptions) and the game's texture work is fucking atrocious, anything they didn't just lift from the original game looks like hell.
Now, being the world's wussiest big daddy I can understand is game balance and to make it actually exciting, but it's still funny that you can go down to two shotgun hits from a splicer while the Rosie you had engaged can take 2 straight minutes of concentrated machine gun fire. I think it's pretty lame. as well, that Rumblers are more of a threat than the supposed big bads of the game, the Big Sisters. I got taken out more fighting a Rumbler than I ever did with a sister.
Man, why change the name back and then have someone else do the game...
But i was saying that the MP souldn't have affected the SP because it was done by another developer then the SP.
W
Wyrminarrd
Currently I spend most of my gaming time playing "Kings-bounty: Armored Princess" which is a follow up to "Kings-bounty: The legend". This game is great and has my completely hooked, I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Heroes of Might and Magic or games similar to that.
Not gonna quote Frankie because I don't want to see the spoiler, this is all making me glad I didn't pre-order. I'll wait for a sale later this year.
I'm being probably far more harsh on the game than it really deserves. Here's a more fair assessment. It's not as good as Bioshock 1 in any way, except for in the shooter elements themselves. It's combat is improved. Being able to use both plasmids and weapons at the same time is nice. It isn't a bad game.
It has some performance issues with my PC, and runs more poorly than Crysis, which is insane. Completely insane. It doesn't seem to matter if I drop the resolution to 800x600 and turn every graphical effect to lowest possible or off entirely, it still stutters like crazy. It's, in the words of Morrigan when describing Dog, maddening.
It has some performance issues with my PC, and runs more poorly than Crysis, which is insane. Completely insane. It doesn't seem to matter if I drop the resolution to 800x600 and turn every graphical effect to lowest possible or off entirely, it still stutters like crazy. It's, in the words of Morrigan when describing Dog, maddening.
figmentPez
Staff member
Since I finally got a mic for my computer (and, DOH!, I've had all I needed for that sitting around my computer room for years now!) I've been playing even more L4D2 than I used to.
The real time adventure map stuff kinda turned me off KB... but i guess ut's just because there's no place for me to get my HoMM fix since H5 and Disciples 3 have been rather disappointing.
Sounds like a bug... google time or wait for a patch.
W
Wyrminarrd
The real time adventure map stuff kinda turned me off KB... but i guess ut's just because there's no place for me to get my HoMM fix since H5 and Disciples 3 have been rather disappointing.
[.[/QUOTE]
The real time adventure map took some getting used to but once I had adjusted I actually felt it was even better then the pure turn based system.
I didn't know that Disciples 3 was out, must have slipped by me. Sad to hear that it wasn't as good as number 2, I played that game constantly and was really hoping that D3 would be as good.
How could they have learned from Mass Effect 2?
Considering that only came out a week or two earlier...
As i mentioned earlier in the thread, only the russian version is out, and it's what one would describe as a beta state... you can find it around translated in english with google translate...
And it's not that bad, but they did some weird things, most weird being the way the units level... going from lvl 1 to 5 tight away, Orc chieftains being lvl 13 from the start etc.
Hopefully they'll fix most of that by the time the international version comes out... poor russians, they paid for getting into a beta test...
Bah, humbug... this trend to move away from TB in everything irks me to no end... but like i said, it's more that i have no alternatives that makes me not want to get into it, not the actual system, which seems fine.
---------- Post added at 08:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:06 AM ----------
@Frankie
Told you it was a bug.
That fucks up all my games.
Fix the things that need to be fixed, leave everything else (ie, the good stuff) alone.
Granted, Mass Effect 2 didn't so much as fix the broken things as completely removed them, but at least they're trying.
Disclaimer: I haven't played either Bioshock game.
Fix the things that need to be fixed, leave everything else (ie, the good stuff) alone.
Granted, Mass Effect 2 didn't so much as fix the broken things as completely removed them, but at least they're trying.
Disclaimer: I haven't played either Bioshock game.[/QUOTE]
It was a reference to the fact that they came out almost simultaneously, so any lessons they could have learned specifically from Mass Effect 2 would have been learned after development of Bioshock 2 was complete.
That fucks up all my games.[/QUOTE]
The Nvidia control panel, for those of you who use it, allows you to globally turn off Vsync. Personally, I've never seen the use for it. Dropped frames bother me WAY more than screen tearing ever will.