GasBandit
Staff member
12 hours IS short. I blame all the recent first person shooters whose campaigns clock in at 4-6 hours for lowering expectations. I remember when it was considered not worth the money if a game had less than 20 hours of gameplay, and good games had 80+. Maybe that's part of why I like Skyrim so much. There's so much to do, the road goes on forever and the party never ends. I'm 53, finished the guild of thieves and dark brotherhood storylines, am partway through the mage academy, and most of the way through winning the civil war for the stormcloaks. It's easily been 40-50 hours so far and I haven't even done a single companions quest yet, and haven't advanced the main quest any further than was necessary to get "Dah" for the Unrelenting force shout. I've come so far, but there's still so far to go. THAT is a game.
Also, I like RTSes with skirmish modes and good AI. I still play lots of Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance.
As for games coming out in 2012... I've got my eye on Guild Wars 2, I like what I've read about it's PVP... also, gonna HAVE to check out the Warhammer 40k MMO when it hits. Apart from that, I think Skyrim and Saints Row have me covered until the next Big Bad Game comes out... hell, I STILL haven't installed Arkham City yet.
Also, I like RTSes with skirmish modes and good AI. I still play lots of Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance.
As for games coming out in 2012... I've got my eye on Guild Wars 2, I like what I've read about it's PVP... also, gonna HAVE to check out the Warhammer 40k MMO when it hits. Apart from that, I think Skyrim and Saints Row have me covered until the next Big Bad Game comes out... hell, I STILL haven't installed Arkham City yet.
Team Fortress 2. Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in.
Seriously though this is just becoming a great goto game for me. I can start playing in less time than it takes some games now-a-days to get to the main menu, and it's still probably one of the most fun FPS games of all-time. It's really hard to find fault.
Been playing Spy this time around. Equipped with Your Eternal Reward, Ambassador, and the Cloak and Dagger.
Seriously though this is just becoming a great goto game for me. I can start playing in less time than it takes some games now-a-days to get to the main menu, and it's still probably one of the most fun FPS games of all-time. It's really hard to find fault.
Been playing Spy this time around. Equipped with Your Eternal Reward, Ambassador, and the Cloak and Dagger.
How do you equip the Dead Ringer and the Cloak and Dagger at the same time?
I got the Spycicle to drop, and it's incredibly fun. Fire resistance basically removes the Spy's only hard counter, and when the Spycicle melts I can just hide somewhere with my Cloak and Dagger, and wait for it to regen.
Now if only I wasn't useless at Spy.
I got the Spycicle to drop, and it's incredibly fun. Fire resistance basically removes the Spy's only hard counter, and when the Spycicle melts I can just hide somewhere with my Cloak and Dagger, and wait for it to regen.
Now if only I wasn't useless at Spy.
Bhamv, if you want to be less useless, stop using the c&d
I'm guessing it's because when you use the other watches, you die all the time. That's fine. That means you're going for backstabs, shooting people, or sapping. The more you play, the better you'll get at surviving.
When people who are bad at spy use the C&D, they spend a lot of time being invisible and not going for anything. The aggressive spy who dies a lot is going to be way more useful simply because they try to shoot weak targets, stab people, or sap buildings. The C&D spy players are usually just killable spectators.
PS: It's not like Medic, where staying alive is an extremely high priority. As a spy, you're much more expendable.
When people who are bad at spy use the C&D, they spend a lot of time being invisible and not going for anything. The aggressive spy who dies a lot is going to be way more useful simply because they try to shoot weak targets, stab people, or sap buildings. The C&D spy players are usually just killable spectators.
PS: It's not like Medic, where staying alive is an extremely high priority. As a spy, you're much more expendable.
Do I?
I too have gotten back into TF2. Been shooting the hell out of spies using my Engineer's Widowmaker (I will never need another shotgun) and blowing up sentries with my Loch and Load on my Demo. Finally made my first hat too.
If you make a list of which skylanders you are looking for I can do my best to pick them up and then ship them out to you when they come in. I run the video game dept at best buy so I'm usually the one pulling them off the trucks and putting them out on the floor. Wouldn't charge more than they cost, $9.99 CDN + the shipping.
Soul Calibur 5, which came out today in the US. It's really fucking good.
I was fine with Heavy Rain's length, but I also got it as a gift (so not my money exactly) and the person who bought it only spent $10.80 since it was used from Gamestop.
figmentPez
Staff member
I've been playing a lot of Crysis 2 since I bought it yesterday. I like it, mostly. I think what I find flawed about the game is different than most people. I don't mind the linear structure, I think it works, though I never played the first game. There's a big difference between this and something open-world like Far Cry 2, but I see the advantages to both. I think the biggest problem Crysis 2's arenas have is that they can't seem to decide what scale the game wants to work in. I think they shrunk down some areas too much in order to keep the stealth gameplay fast, matched with having a relatively short cloak time with high movement cost. This does keep the pace of the game up, but also feels ridiculous when you've got a giant walking alien tank trotting around in a square the size of a mini-mart's parking lot. I don't think this game decided what it wants to be, and suffered a little because of that.
The Good:
- The graphics are pretty, though I can't compare them to the original game.
- There is a nice variety of weapons, and some of them are a lot of fun to use.
- The voice acting is decent, and sometimes impressive.
- Weapon design is nicely varied, it's usually easy to tell what you're using by it's shape. Enemy design tends to be good enough to see differences as well.
The Bad:
- The visor mode to tag enemies and get tactical options is a pain. This should have been handled better. It's clumsy and awkward and the HUD elements aren't always visible because of contrast issues. It feels like busy-work.
- Some of the special weapons I've only seen once so far, and I'm wondering if I've missed any others. It's fun to get a super-powerful weapon to play with for as long as it's ammo lasts, but I hope these gadgets show up again. It sucks to just be getting used to how a weapon works, only to find you're out of ammo.
- Stealth kills are hit-or-miss. I really can't figure out why the game just decides to punch an enemy sometimes instead of grabbing them to put a knife in their throat.
- Sniping against the aliens seems to be heavily discouraged, because they drop "nanocatalyst" and sometimes it won't be there when you're done picking them all off from a distance.
- Weapon switching is awkward, and seems to lag inconsistently.
Overall, it's definitely worth at least the $10 I paid for it. Not yet sure how much more I could have paid for it and still have been happy.
The Good:
- The graphics are pretty, though I can't compare them to the original game.
- There is a nice variety of weapons, and some of them are a lot of fun to use.
- The voice acting is decent, and sometimes impressive.
- Weapon design is nicely varied, it's usually easy to tell what you're using by it's shape. Enemy design tends to be good enough to see differences as well.
The Bad:
- The visor mode to tag enemies and get tactical options is a pain. This should have been handled better. It's clumsy and awkward and the HUD elements aren't always visible because of contrast issues. It feels like busy-work.
- Some of the special weapons I've only seen once so far, and I'm wondering if I've missed any others. It's fun to get a super-powerful weapon to play with for as long as it's ammo lasts, but I hope these gadgets show up again. It sucks to just be getting used to how a weapon works, only to find you're out of ammo.
- Stealth kills are hit-or-miss. I really can't figure out why the game just decides to punch an enemy sometimes instead of grabbing them to put a knife in their throat.
- Sniping against the aliens seems to be heavily discouraged, because they drop "nanocatalyst" and sometimes it won't be there when you're done picking them all off from a distance.
- Weapon switching is awkward, and seems to lag inconsistently.
Overall, it's definitely worth at least the $10 I paid for it. Not yet sure how much more I could have paid for it and still have been happy.
GasBandit
Staff member
I liked Crysis 2, but not as much as Crysis 1. I liked the way the suit operated better in 1 - Strength and Speed were discrete suit modes rather than normal buttons, and the open-world nature (it had linear objectives but a HUGE WIDE OPEN AREA like far cry). Crysis 2 felt more console-ey. It was still pretty good though, and I loved the theme song.
I loved Crysis until it became fight a ton of stupid alien nonsense. The first few areas where you're using all the suits different abilities to fuck up a bunch of North Koreans was amazing. Actually, I had the same problem with Far Cry. I thought it was one of the best FPSs I had ever played...until it became fight a bunch of mutant nonsense corridor shooter.
GasBandit
Staff member
"Bitch, have some dumpster" is still probably my favorite image macro, too.
Did you play Far Cry 2? Not a corridor or mutant to be found. Gets a little repetitive though.
I have yet to figure out how Farcry 2 got any praise whatsoever. I found it to be clunky, ugly, and just plain no fun to play."Bitch, have some dumpster" is still probably my favorite image macro, too.
Did you play Far Cry 2? Not a corridor or mutant to be found. Gets a little repetitive though.
figmentPez
Staff member
I felt that way at first, then I realized that trying to do anything at dawn or dusk in that game is futile. If you stick to day or night, the game looks a lot better, I think pretty damn good at times. I also thought it was a lot of fun, very good at making me feel like a bad-ass.
Still playing Skyrim. Between this and New Vegas, I'm wondering when I'm next going to need a video game.
fade
Staff member
Hmm. Arkham City.... again going to have to go against the critics a little. The graphics are better, but the controls are sludgier than AA (and paid critics noted this too), and the city is so bleak, it's hard to see anything. It's nice to see other baddies. Overall, it feels like the AA devs played Infamous and then decided they wanted to make a sequel that was like that. Except the setting itself lacks the richness and reality of Infamous. I'm guessing that's because they didn't want it to be a sandbox game, and it certainly isn't. The city is just something you walk through to get to the next more or less linear destination. I have to say I liked AA more than AC so far.
Just finished:
-Halo: Reach - Best non-MC Halo game, and better than most of the main-series Halo games. Take that as you will.
-Transformers: War for Cybertron - Totally awesome. Felt like the Transformers game I've wanted for years (and the '05 one wasn't bad).
Currently playing my way through the following:
-Infamous 2
-Skyward Sword
-Assassin's Creed Revelations
-SWTOR
-Arkham Aslyum
-Deus Ex
In the waiting list:
-Fable III
-Bayonetta
-Arkham City
-Skyrim - this one is waiting until I have a new PC
-Dark Souls
-Soul Calibur V
-FFXIII-2
Coming out in 2012:
-SSX
-Warriors Orochi 3
-Guild Wars 2
-The Secret World
-Resident Evil ORC
-Resident Evil 6
-XCOM: Enemy Unknown
-WoW: MoP
-Diablo 3
-GTA V (maybe)
-WH40K MMO (unlikely, with THQ's problems)
I'm not even sure I'll make it into the 2012 releases in 2012
-Halo: Reach - Best non-MC Halo game, and better than most of the main-series Halo games. Take that as you will.
-Transformers: War for Cybertron - Totally awesome. Felt like the Transformers game I've wanted for years (and the '05 one wasn't bad).
Currently playing my way through the following:
-Infamous 2
-Skyward Sword
-Assassin's Creed Revelations
-SWTOR
-Arkham Aslyum
-Deus Ex
In the waiting list:
-Fable III
-Bayonetta
-Arkham City
-Skyrim - this one is waiting until I have a new PC
-Dark Souls
-Soul Calibur V
-FFXIII-2
Coming out in 2012:
-SSX
-Warriors Orochi 3
-Guild Wars 2
-The Secret World
-Resident Evil ORC
-Resident Evil 6
-XCOM: Enemy Unknown
-WoW: MoP
-Diablo 3
-GTA V (maybe)
-WH40K MMO (unlikely, with THQ's problems)
I'm not even sure I'll make it into the 2012 releases in 2012
GasBandit
Staff member
Gave up on the orc? I just hit 57 today on my khajit. After maxing out the thief/archer type skills, I've been raising the fighter and mage ones. It's stupid how easy it is to raise mage skills, once you've got an enchanted suit of "mana means nothing to me." I got destruction from nothing to 95 in two playings, just loading up Incinerate in both hands (and no dual casting perk, so that you are literally casting twice) and just ran through burrows WTFPWNing Draugr Deathlords. Took about six pairs of shots each to do. Illusion and Alteration were easy too. Muffle. Courage. Muffle. Courage. Muffle. Courage. Muffle. Courage. Repeat as necessary. Clearly magic was not thought all the way through in this game. And I can't seem to get heavy armor above 75 because nobody does damage to me any more besides ancient dragons
One of these days I may have to stop dicking around and actually play the main questline.I didn't have any problems with these sorts of things at all... hrm. Of course, the very first thing I did was turn off bloom... it abuses the shit out of that for no good reason (but what doesn't these days). Personally I enjoyed it, but never got around to finishing it because, well, one can only approach the exact same encounter so many times in a game before something new and shiny distracts you into another game. But I really enjoyed approaching it from a stealthy playstyle. And when I got the dart rifle, it just all fell into place.
figmentPez
Staff member
Yeah, that was a flaw that bugged me a lot at first. It's less of a problem once you know your way around, and even less of a problem on the second map, but early on in the game it's a huge annoyance. I enjoyed the combat enough that I got enough into the game where I didn't feel like I was fighting every checkpoint over and over again, but I won't pretend that wasn't bad game design.