Video Game News and Miscellany

I '5 finger discounted' Thief this morning since no playable demo were made available to test the game's already notoriously dividing opinion of it. After chatting it up with 2 friends who played the game they bought Day 1 on Steam, both had to admit that while the game is DECENT its running bad on their PCs and they have better gaming rigs than my 3 year old system which I plan to upgrade completely at the end of the year.

I installed it and bench tested it on very high (all games I have ever run on max settings - thus why I don't believe I need to really upgrade yet) and I barely got 25 FPS out of the game. Playing the game gives a lot of tearing and lag and after playing with the settings to gradually down to MEDIUM (not even) to not feel sick while moving around. Seriously?

Isn't this on the same UE3 engine? How can this game run like shit when the likes of Dishonored, Borderlands 2, Mass Effect etc... run without issues on max settings? Eidos Montreal, you suck.

I was excited when this game announced, apprehensive when Dev took a nasty turn over the years and expected mediocrity when it was released. I got exactly what I expected.

But to fail to miserable to deliver a decent engine takes a special skill. Wow.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Unreal 3 engine is now very dated, but they could at least have been running Crytek. That engine is available for licensing and looks/performs amazingly on PC. It's sure polished the hell out of the Mechwarrior Online turd.
 
So apparently that new Lords of Shadow game is a real mess with some really, really bad design choices (not the least of which is putting important story shit in a throwaway 3DS game few people played and awful, awful stealth).

Next up for Mercury Steam, developers of said Lords of Shadow? Contra!
 
I could see them doing a Contra game well... the story is completely unimportant for Contra, so making it a crazy 3D shooter-ala Ratchet and Clank should be simply for them.

Regardless, this is probably going to kill Castlevania as a franchise unless they are willing to lower their expectations of it. A Metriodvania is always going to make money, but it's never going to be the HUGE TRIPLE AAA FRANCHISE they want it to be.
 
FTR : He's French, not French Canadian. That will be all.
If you were talking about Molyneux, isn't he a Brit with a French name.[DOUBLEPOST=1393549145,1393549048][/DOUBLEPOST]
I could see them doing a Contra game well... the story is completely unimportant for Contra, so making it a crazy 3D shooter-ala Ratchet and Clank should be simply for them.

Regardless, this is probably going to kill Castlevania as a franchise unless they are willing to lower their expectations of it. A Metriodvania is always going to make money, but it's never going to be the HUGE TRIPLE AAA FRANCHISE they want it to be.
I Jay'd up Lords of Shadow 2 today for PC to giver a shot. There's way too many mixed reviews to buy it outright for 60 bucks.

I guess there's no harm in letting them try out Contra, but like Castlevania, it has always been 100 times better as a 2D game.
 
Castlevania needs to stick to the SotN basic format. Every version on GBA/DS was fucking fantastic and never felt gimmicky, save for the one that had unkillable bosses unless you drew a glyph pattern when prompted. That was horrible. You can do 2D, 2.5D, whatever, but just stop trying to make them 3D. It doesn't work.
 
Castlevania needs to stick to the SotN basic format. Every version on GBA/DS was fucking fantastic and never felt gimmicky, save for the one that had unkillable bosses unless you drew a glyph pattern when prompted. That was horrible. You can do 2D, 2.5D, whatever, but just stop trying to make them 3D. It doesn't work.
It doesn't even need to be Metriodvania. I'd be happy for a classic style Castlevania game too. But if I wanted God of War, I'd be playing God of War.
 
Well, I'm glad I did anyway. After the lengthy tutorial, it's an incredibly boring 20 minute cutscene followed by really unfun stealth.

That's what I want when I'm told I'm playing Dracula in a video game. Boring stealth and shitty "platforming".[DOUBLEPOST=1393566828,1393566388][/DOUBLEPOST]
I thought you'd be flattered.
 
Angry Joe is really hit and miss with me, but his review of Rambo is hilarious. Who the hell would ever willingly pay for this piece of shit?

 
Holy shit that is the most obnoxious voice I have ever heard. Blow your Goddamned nose, dude.

Also haha Warhammer Plants vs. Zombies.

That's Jim Sterling, he's always sounded like that.

And he's seriously awesome, like... he went from being this total shithead to one of the few respectable people talking about the games industry. Check out the Jimquisition on the escapist.
 
That's Jim Sterling, he's always sounded like that.

And he's seriously awesome, like... he went from being this total shithead to one of the few respectable people talking about the games industry. Check out the Jimquisition on the escapist.
A thousand times this. Jim is basically the only consumer advocate for gamers out there and he constantly gets shit on by critics because he won't side with the developers.
 
On May 20th, Nintendo is killing online services for all Wii and DS games. Speculation indicates they're hoping the loss of Mario Kart Wii online will boost Wii U sales for when Mario Kart 8 comes out on May 30th.

It feels like the right time to do this would be in another year, but I'm guessing financially Nintendo can't keep the free online going for all those DS and Wii games for another year. But the next Super Smash Brothers isn't even out ... just seems like they should have the replacement ready before taking the old one's online capability away.

And on the Mario Kart front, on some level they have to realize they're competing with themselves. Mario Kart 7 has been around for a while, it's got heavy online play ... I mean, yeah, I plan to get Mario Kart 8 for Wii U at some point, but probably not right when it comes out. Maybe, but it's not a must-buy-at-release game for me, and the only reason I'm willing to drift from that is because even if I were to buy it months later, the price would be the same.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Still has an annoying as fuck voice.
You should hear this prat who's narrating a MWO tournament my outfit is participating in. He's physically incapable of pronouncing "TH," instead using F. Also, he drops almost every single T. "Cor, 'errs free Ba'ulmastas come round vat fing dere." It's like listening to the most effeminate Ork.
 
I know who he is, I just never listened to any of his stuff, only read an article here and there.

Doesn't change how horribly grating his voice is.
 
It's an acquired taste. I know, because I used to loathe how he sounds, equating it to someone with both hypogonadism and deviated septum. But it grew on me, now I really like his podcast Dismal Jesters.
 
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