Anyone try out the new free to play games that are being offered on Steam? Free to Play Spiral Knights looks like a pretty cool Gauntlet clone. I'm going to give that one a try first.
Got an older puzzle game on XBLA, Polar Panic. It's a puzzle game with Polar Bears. It was half off, so why not? I also got Islands of Wakfu. That looks like fun.
Hopefully these games will satiate my urges to play WoW.
I finished Infamous 2 over the weekend. Although I'm not particularly happy about finishing it, because they did something at the end of the game that I found to be an unacceptable game design decision that made me not want to finish the game. Aside from that it doesn't really do anything better then the first game, except the movement powers (which were fun in the first game and more fun now.)
Okay, did anyone else get Dead Nation on the PSN Welcome Back deal? If so: was it way more fun than anyone else expected? I've only been playing it co-op, which might have something to do with it, but for some reason I'm really, really getting into this game.
Also:
Free to Play Spiral Knights looks like a pretty cool Gauntlet clone
It's boring.
All I'm saying is: you're both right, but Josh if you liked Gauntlet you'll probably really like Spiral Knights anyway.
Gauntlet had puzzles. Simple puzzles, but puzzles. From what I played of it, Spiral Knights does not. It's just running around and hitting stuff with no real cooperation required.
I busted out my PS from the bottom of my closet. I had to blow some dust off it, but now I am playing FFVII. I happened to find that I had a save on my memory card. I am on disc 2 and level 71. Loving it.
I finished Infamous 2 over the weekend. Although I'm not particularly happy about finishing it, because they did something at the end of the game that I found to be an unacceptable game design decision that made me not want to finish the game. Aside from that it doesn't really do anything better then the first game, except the movement powers (which were fun in the first game and more fun now.)
I finished Infamous 2 over the weekend. Although I'm not particularly happy about finishing it, because they did something at the end of the game that I found to be an unacceptable game design decision that made me not want to finish the game. Aside from that it doesn't really do anything better then the first game, except the movement powers (which were fun in the first game and more fun now.)
I'm still playing, because I pressed the wrong button on one of the karma choices, so I had to backtrack 10 missions back to my last save. In terms of core gameplay, the only things they needed to polish were the movement and powers (sticky grenade is really useful, as are those things that rocket you up the building,) but the entire Karma gimmick has made me realize that moral choice systems are a false dichotomy. Morality isn't something that is polar the way gaming paints it. I wanted to side with the bad girl, but didn't want to abuse the city. That gets on my nerves, but I'm still enjoying the game. I look forward to getting pissed off by the ending.
Yeah, the game is never really grey with it's choices, it's always obviously good and obviously bad. It would have been more interesting if it sort of played in the middle a bit, or just didn't tell you what was good or what was bad.
Duke Nukem Forever is exactly what you think it would be except with annoying long load times.
As much as I've been anticipating this game, based on the reviews I've been reading I think I may wait until it has its first price drop (or I can pick it up used or something) before I purchase it.
Duke Nukem Forever is exactly what you think it would be except with annoying long load times.
As much as I've been anticipating this game, based on the reviews I've been reading I think I may wait until it has its first price drop (or I can pick it up used or something) before I purchase it.
I was going to say I'd buy it when it hits $4.99, but the reviews are so bad and the gameplay videos so dire that I will ignore Forever entirely.
I was going to say I'd buy it when it hits $4.99, but the reviews are so bad and the gameplay videos so dire that I will ignore Forever entirely.
I'm too much of a Duke Nukem fan to rule it out completely like you did, but I may get it when it drops to $20 or $30 or so.
Interestingly, many of the user reviews on Metacritic aren't so bad... So I wonder if this is a "you'll love it if you love Duke Nukem but hate it otherwise" sort of thing.
ohmigoshohmigoshohmigoshohmigoshohmigoshohmigosh! I wasn't paying attention to BF3, because I'm generally uninterested in MW shooters, but this looks incredibly bad ass.
Seriously Scott, play Battlefield Bad Company 2 and realize where you have gone wrong. The thing is one of the tightest tactical shooters there is, with brilliant class interplay, dynamic and destructable environments which are central to gameplay, a realistic edge to it in both the action and the atmosphere, a well-executed unlock system that gives you new kit at exactly the right pace to keep you interested, a fun little singleplayer experience, and a set of very interesting gamemodes on extremely well laid out maps. The weapon and gadget balance is so well worked out that picking a kit is an agonizingly important choice every time.
If it wanted to, BF3 could not advance at all from BFBC2's level of quality and depth and still be a day one purchase for me, but a cursory glance at any article about it shows some seriously awesome new features, like supression mechanics for machinegunners, melee sequences to nerf knifeplay, and really awesome looking squad interplay stuff, so I am seriously beyond excited.
(It is interesting how Bad Company set out to parody Modern Warfare and was so good at it that it ended up making a mockery of it instead.)
I don't know for sure, not having played it, but you just described on paper an FPS that I would not enjoy. Unlocking bullshit is immediate fail. Realism is fail. I stick with my NS and Counter-Strike.
Unlocks are indeed bullshit, however BC2 is hardly realistic. Or at least, not any more so than Counter-Strike. I've said this before, but BC2 is essentially GI Joe the video game.
I would normally agree that realism and unlocking are fail, but BC2's not a sim; perhaps realism is the wrong word. The game is both highly immersive and feels very real; it's not realistic in the way that, say, Project Reality or ARMA is realistic, but just playing it envokes, say, Generation Kill the same way the Modern Warfare games envoke a bad Micheal Bay movie. As for the unlocking, it's handled in such a way that you never feel like you are missing anything; you never really feel like "Man, this assault class could really use an underslung shotgun" at any point, but then one drops and you try it out, and then you go "Where have you been all my life!"
As you have an absolute ton of options per class when you unlock them all, having them all from the start would just mean people would pick a favourite set and never try anything else out. In the same way a singleplayer experience needs to build up instead of just frontloading everything, BC2's unlocks feel a lot like advancing through a singleplayer game as opposed to Modern Warfares where you spend the first eight hours online screaming about how you only lost because you are stuck with the shitgun. The weapon balance is outta sight; even though they all have noticably different characteristics and each needs to be employed differently, you never really feel cheated because no matter what gun you have, it has an arena where it is the shit and the game manages to train you to use them all.
I'm just going on what he said. I don't know anything about the game other than those pictures. I'll just say, iron sights, realistic wounding systems, etc. are all fail. Most attempts in FPS games to make gameplay mechanisms based on what happens in the real world, as opposed to what makes a fun game, usually just make the game frustrating and not fun to play. I'm trying to have fun here. Real war is the opposite of fun. It's among the worst things there is. The last thing I want is to simulate it.
BC2 is my favorite multiplayer shooter right now for it's high intensity, quick, and challenging gameplay. The destructibility of the environments is just astounding and quite novel. However, I disagree about iron sights. They are far from fail.
I disagree about iron sights. They are far from fail.
They are completely pointless. I can just put a tiny sticker on the center of my monitor. Then what? Making the player's aim intentionally wobbly like that just removes player skill in favor of what is effectively randomness. The only purpose it serves is to make the game seem more realistic for military fanboys and make game play frustrating and painful. In what way does it actually make the game a better game? None ways.
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Hopefully these games will satiate my urges to play WoW.
Also: All I'm saying is: you're both right, but Josh if you liked Gauntlet you'll probably really like Spiral Knights anyway.
Interestingly, many of the user reviews on Metacritic aren't so bad... So I wonder if this is a "you'll love it if you love Duke Nukem but hate it otherwise" sort of thing.
Crazy destructibility up in this bitch.
I wasn't paying attention to BF3, because I'm generally uninterested in MW shooters, but this looks incredibly bad ass.
If it wanted to, BF3 could not advance at all from BFBC2's level of quality and depth and still be a day one purchase for me, but a cursory glance at any article about it shows some seriously awesome new features, like supression mechanics for machinegunners, melee sequences to nerf knifeplay, and really awesome looking squad interplay stuff, so I am seriously beyond excited.
(It is interesting how Bad Company set out to parody Modern Warfare and was so good at it that it ended up making a mockery of it instead.)
As you have an absolute ton of options per class when you unlock them all, having them all from the start would just mean people would pick a favourite set and never try anything else out. In the same way a singleplayer experience needs to build up instead of just frontloading everything, BC2's unlocks feel a lot like advancing through a singleplayer game as opposed to Modern Warfares where you spend the first eight hours online screaming about how you only lost because you are stuck with the shitgun. The weapon balance is outta sight; even though they all have noticably different characteristics and each needs to be employed differently, you never really feel cheated because no matter what gun you have, it has an arena where it is the shit and the game manages to train you to use them all.