Where are my Satellite Guy's gamers at?

[king3pj]

Just got the email from Gamefly saying that GTA V has finally shipped. Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim have been holding me over nicely but I can't wait to play this. It should be here Monday.

I can keep the copy they are sending me for $47.49. If I really get into the online mode I might do that because that is a decent price. If the online mode isn't for me I will just play the campaign and send it back.

I am also downloading the Battlefield 4 beta right now. I don't plan on putting a ton of time into this beta but I wanted to try it out as a demo. I absolutely hate the way BF3 requires Origin to open a window in Firefox or whichever browser you are using to launch the game. It is extremely clunky. I want to see the interface BF4 is using so I can decide between PC and PS4.

 

[Zookster]

For the first time since I got it, I spent way more time playing my Vita this past week than my PS3. I beat the Uncharted Golden Abyss campaign last Friday night, and even though I thought the story was a bit meh, if not formulaic, and the new characters lacked some of the warmth and depth of those in the other Uncharted games, I went right back in for a second campaign on hard difficulty, which I'm still working on, as I couldn't get enough of it. My OC tendencies were also kicking in and driving me to complete the treasure sets -- one of the coolest differences between this and the PS3 Uncharted games is that the collectibles (over 300!) in Golden Abyss actually tell some of the game's backstory as opposed to just being random trinkets.

On top of that, I finally "splurged" and bought an 8 GB memory card from eBay (only $17) so I could have a couple of other AAA titles going on the Vita at the same time. My first order of business was Rayman Origins, which I got totally hooked on this week even though I apparently really suck at platformers that don't have LBP in the name. I knew that going into it from when I tried the Rayman Origins demo a couple years back on the PS3. But for free, I can't resist the awesome the visuals, humor, and gameplay mechanics, in spite of my frustrations.

Due to my overwhelming backlog now, I decided to cancel my pre-order for Beyond Two Souls, which I had pre-ordered on Amazon the first day the page went up in July 2012. As much as I'm still interested in the game, I can no longer bring myself to spend $60 on a 10 hour campaign, regardless of what it's replayability might be. That, coupled with the fact Black Friday is just around the corner, when I should be able to snag it for ~$30 (Last year, every game I bought or wanted to buy day one in Sept/Oct I could have had for at least half the full retail price on Black Friday without getting up early or leaving my home.)

 

[king3pj]

For the first time since I got it, I spent way more time playing my Vita this past week than my PS3. I beat the Uncharted Golden Abyss campaign last Friday night, and even though I thought the story was a bit meh, if not formulaic, and the new characters lacked some of the warmth and depth of those in the other Uncharted games, I went right back in for a second campaign on hard difficulty, which I'm still working on, as I couldn't get enough of it. My OC tendencies were also kicking in and driving me to complete the treasure sets -- one of the coolest differences between this and the PS3 Uncharted games is that the collectibles (over 300!) in Golden Abyss actually tell some of the game's backstory as opposed to just being random trinkets.

On top of that, I finally "splurged" and bought an 8 GB memory card from eBay (only $17) so I could have a couple of other AAA titles going on the Vita at the same time. My first order of business was Rayman Origins, which I got totally hooked on this week even though I apparently really suck at platformers that don't have LBP in the name. I knew that going into it from when I tried the Rayman Origins demo a couple years back on the PS3. But for free, I can't resist the awesome the visuals, humor, and gameplay mechanics, in spite of my frustrations.

Due to my overwhelming backlog now, I decided to cancel my pre-order for Beyond Two Souls, which I had pre-ordered on Amazon the first day the page went up in July 2012. As much as I'm still interested in the game, I can no longer bring myself to spend $60 on a 10 hour campaign, regardless of what it's replayability might be. That, coupled with the fact Black Friday is just around the corner, when I should be able to snag it for ~$30 (Last year, every game I bought or wanted to buy day one in Sept/Oct I could have had for at least half the full retail price on Black Friday without getting up early or leaving my home.)

When you are going through those free games don't overlook Gravity Rush. I know I would have if a friend wouldn't have recommended it. It turned out to be the first game I spent any real amount of time with on Vita.

Tonight I played a few hours of the Battlefield 4 PC beta. It looks nice but the graphics aren't as huge of a jump up from BF3 as I was expecting given that BF4 is designed for next gen consoles too. I guess Dice didn't hold back their PC version to cater to the console ports because BF3 is already one of the better looking games on PC. They didn't have as much room for a drastic improvement. If you are a console gamer the gap will be significant including 64 player matches on next gen consoles. The beta level seems have more destructible elements. That might be the biggest improvement.

My PC is decent but it's not the powerhouse that some people use. I have an AMD FX6300 3.8Ghz CPU overclocked to 4.2Ghz, 8GB of 1600Mhz Ram, and an AMD 7850 GPU. With this setup I am able to play with the ultra settings and steadily stay between 34-48 fps at 1080p resolution. This isn't the 60 or even 120 fps that some PC gamers need to be happy. It is acceptable to me though. Coming over from 360 and PS3 where most games are lucky if the have a steady 30 fps I don't really notice slowdown for most games unless it dips below 30 fps. I don't typically lower any settings unless I am below that point.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[king3pj]

http://mp1st.com/2013/10/01/dice-te...-4-graphics-release-will-better-andor-faster/

Turns out that the graphics in the beta aren't the final graphics. The developer has said that not everything is turned on yet and the final graphics will look better. Maybe this will be closer to the big jump over BF3 I was hoping for. I assumed that this beta was mainly a server test and marketing tool. Most betas released these days aren't really betas. They are released just a week or two before the game to drum up excitement and really more of a demo than a beta.

 

[yourbeliefs]

http://mp1st.com/2013/10/01/dice-te...-4-graphics-release-will-better-andor-faster/

Turns out that the graphics in the beta aren't the final graphics. The developer has said that not everything is turned on yet and the final graphics will look better. Maybe this will be closer to the big jump over BF3 I was hoping for. I assumed that this beta was mainly a server test and marketing tool. Most betas released these days aren't really betas. They are released just a week or two before the game to drum up excitement and really more of a demo than a beta.

 

[king3pj]

Oh I know that the PC version is a huge leap up from the console version. I have BF3 on both PC and PS3. They aren't even the same game. The PC looks way better and has the huge 64 person matches that aren't available on console. What I was comparing is the PC version of BF3 vs the PC version of the BF4 beta. BF4 does look better, don't get me wrong. It just isn't quite as big of a difference as I was expecting. Anyways, the developer said that all the effects aren't enabled for the beta and the actual release will look even better.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Zookster]

When you are going through those free games don't overlook Gravity Rush. I know I would have if a friend wouldn't have recommended it. It turned out to be the first game I spent any real amount of time with on Vita.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Thanks for the recommendation. Gravity Rush is definitely high on my list and part of my motivation for finally breaking down and buying a Vita. I'll probably tackle it as soon as I'm done with my current playthrough of Uncharted GA.

Just too many games now with Kingdoms of Amalur added to the PS Plus IGC. I also am seriously considering grabbing Dishonored GOTY, which comes out tomorrow.

 

[king3pj]

Thanks for the recommendation. Gravity Rush is definitely high on my list and part of my motivation for finally breaking down and buying a Vita. I'll probably tackle it as soon as I'm done with my current playthrough of Uncharted GA.

Just too many games now with Kingdoms of Amalur added to the PS Plus IGC. I also am seriously considering grabbing Dishonored GOTY, which comes out tomorrow.

I just downloaded Kingdoms of Amalur too. I knew nothing about this game until it because one of the PS+ free games. I looked it up and it has very positive reviews and sounds like the type of game I would like. I am a big fan of Dishonored too. I played through the game and bought the DLC but I haven't played it yet.

 

[Zookster]

I played the KoA demo when I was just getting into RPGs, but only to unlock some bonus armor and weapons for ME3 (they were doing a special cross-promo at the time that ME3 was about to release). I got so bored and so frustrated with tasks like lock-picking, which were totally foreign to me, I didn't even bother finishing the entire demo to get my ME3 rewards. Fast forward a year and half later, and now I can easily sink 100-plus hours into any half-way decent fantasy RPG (evidenced by the fact that I've played through Dragon Age II twice! lol). So I'm definitely looking forward to plunging into this world that I hear is very good and the combat mechanics very well done. My only issue is that the main character you control in the game is what I call a mute telepath (i.e., he or she magically communicates with everyone in world without actually speaking). I've obviously been spoiled by the Mass Effect series—my first and primary RPG experience.

I wasn't expecting a GOTY edition of Dishonored, but now that one is releasing, I'm definitely glad I waited on my only remaining "must-have" game of 2012.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Due to my overwhelming backlog now, I decided to cancel my pre-order for Beyond Two Souls, which I had pre-ordered on Amazon the first day the page went up in July 2012. As much as I'm still interested in the game, I can no longer bring myself to spend $60 on a 10 hour campaign, regardless of what it's replayability might be. That, coupled with the fact Black Friday is just around the corner, when I should be able to snag it for ~$30 (Last year, every game I bought or wanted to buy day one in Sept/Oct I could have had for at least half the full retail price on Black Friday without getting up early or leaving my home.)

According to the reviews that are going up, cancelling the preorder may have been wise. Scores are all over the place with this game. Many are citing that the story is too noninteractive and the player's contribution is passive at best. However, others are claiming that apparently the story is so well done that it excuses the lack of interaction. I'm a fan of David Cage's previous work (Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain) but I'm not a big fan of being forced to make decisions that don't ultimately affect the storyline. That was my one major knock against The Walking Dead. Regardless my copy is already in the mail thanks to Gamefly, so we'll see what happens. It is nice to know that it is a relatively short game so I can easily plow through it and get my queue free in time for Batman: Arkham Origins.

 

[king3pj]

Yep after reading reviews I definitely won't buy Beyond. I still want to play it though so it will likely be a Gamefly rental for me after I play GTA V. I got it in the mail yesterday but haven't popped it in yet.

I am getting close to the end of Mass Effect 3 and that series has me hooked again. Like I said before, I really want to go back to the beginning and play through all 3 games with a new Sheppard. I just don't think I can put another 100 hours into a series I have already played when I still have so many games I haven't played yet. I'm only about 5 weeks from having a PS4 too and I probably won't want to spend a ton of time on finishing up my PS3 backlog after I get my new toy. I need to knock out as many PS3 games as possible before It gets here.

 

[Zookster]

According to the reviews that are going up, cancelling the preorder may have been wise. Scores are all over the place with this game. Many are citing that the story is too noninteractive and the player's contribution is passive at best. However, others are claiming that apparently the story is so well done that it excuses the lack of interaction. I'm a fan of David Cage's previous work (Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain) but I'm not a big fan of being forced to make decisions that don't ultimately affect the storyline. That was my one major knock against The Walking Dead. Regardless my copy is already in the mail thanks to Gamefly, so we'll see what happens. It is nice to know that it is a relatively short game so I can easily plow through it and get my queue free in time for Batman: Arkham Origins.

I was actually on Metacritic myself earlier this morning, feeling grateful for my cancellation. Whether justified or not, the low scores certainly will mean a quick price drop for this. Too bad, though, that these reviews might steer folks away from a solid game. I really enjoy story- and character-driven games with good production qualities and voice acting (Enslaved, anyone?), and The Walking Dead game proved an interactive movie with decisions that don't matter in the end could do well with both critics and audiences. Perhaps the expectations were just too high for Beyond, based on the success of Heavy Rain, the big name actors, and Sony hyping this heavily for the past year. However, I haven't read the reviews too closely for fear of any tiny bit of story spoilers to know what other issues the reviews bring up.

 

[king3pj]

I was actually on Metacritic myself earlier this morning, feeling grateful for my cancellation. Whether justified or not, the low scores certainly will mean a quick price drop for this. Too bad, though, that these reviews might steer folks away from a solid game. I really enjoy story- and character-driven games with good production qualities and voice acting (Enslaved, anyone?), and The Walking Dead game proved an interactive movie with decisions that don't matter in the end could do well with both critics and audiences. Perhaps the expectations were just too high for Beyond, based on the success of Heavy Rain, the big name actors, and Sony hyping this heavily for the past year. However, I haven't read the reviews too closely for fear of any tiny bit of story spoilers to know what other issues the reviews bring up.

Without playing it myself, I would bet that this is the problem right here. Sony hyped this game up big time at E3 and made a huge deal about having a bonafide movie star like Ellen Page being the main character. Then a little while later we find out that Williem Dafoe is part of the game too. I really liked Heavy Rain but I don't remember it ever getting the kind of prerelease hype that this game got.

Heavy Rain was a also a game that most people didn't play even if it did have a cult following. It kind of felt like Sony tried to market this as a huge AAA game that everyone should play like Halo or Uncharted when in reality the "interactive drama" audience is still a pretty small group. I don't mind games that focus on story over gameplay like The Walking Dead or Heavy Rain but those aren't mass market games like Sony seemed to want this to be.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Yeah but these are professional game reviewers that typically don't get swept up in hype like regular gamers do. The problem with games that are so narrative/story centric is that grading them becomes much more subjective. It's "easier" to like a game like Halo or Super Mario because they're all about gameplay, and there's at least a blueprint already of what works and what doesn't. How people react to a particular story can be much more polarizing. As was evident with The Last of Us, most people here really liked the story and characters, but I did not, and it was all about perception of the story. This is a similar problem I'm having with GTA 5, where the heavy story focus isn't working for me because I don't particularly like the story (so far.) Still, like I said it's on the way to my house now (I just wish shipping from Pittsburgh to CT didn't take 3-4 damn days) so I'll be putting Saints Row 4 on hold for a bit so I can get through that in time for Batman.

 

[Zookster]

Yeah but these are professional game reviewers that typically don't get swept up in hype like regular gamers do. The problem with games that are so narrative/story centric is that grading them becomes much more subjective. It's "easier" to like a game like Halo or Super Mario because they're all about gameplay, and there's at least a blueprint already of what works and what doesn't. How people react to a particular story can be much more polarizing. As was evident with The Last of Us, most people here really liked the story and characters, but I did not, and it was all about perception of the story. This is a similar problem I'm having with GTA 5, where the heavy story focus isn't working for me because I don't particularly like the story (so far.) Still, like I said it's on the way to my house now (I just wish shipping from Pittsburgh to CT didn't take 3-4 damn days) so I'll be putting Saints Row 4 on hold for a bit so I can get through that in time for Batman.

I suppose a game involving an emotional story and pseudo-New Agey paranormal elements (from what I gathered from the E3 presentation--I've been on a media black out since) would be less accessible for the typical gamer crowd than another story-driven game involving killing zombies and surviving an apocalypse (The Walking Dead), thereby, as you indicated, either resonating or not resonating with each given reviewer. A lot of hard core gamers also seem to have an aversion for QTE-centric gameplay, as I've seen come up a lot in another gaming forum I frequent.

As excited as I was about this game, to the point of pre-ordering more than year in advance, I find it interesting you guys will end up playing in well before I do. lol I wonder if I signed up for Gamefly today, if I'd still be able to get it this week.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I suppose a game involving an emotional story and pseudo-New Agey paranormal elements (from what I gathered from the E3 presentation--I've been on a media black out since) would be less accessible for the typical gamer crowd than another story-driven game involving killing zombies and surviving an apocalypse (The Walking Dead), thereby, as you indicated, either resonating or not resonating with each given reviewer. A lot of hard core gamers also seem to have an aversion for QTE-centric gameplay, as I've seen come up a lot in another gaming forum I frequent.

As excited as I was about this game, to the point of pre-ordering more than year in advance, I find it interesting you guys will end up playing in well before I do. lol I wonder if I signed up for Gamefly today, if I'd still be able to get it this week.

No way. You need to add these games well in advance. If you DO decide to become a member PLEASE let me know so I can refer you and we both get a free month.

 

[king3pj]

I doubt it. They usually ship out new release games the day before they come out. If you don't get one in that day one shipment you have to wait for some of the first wave of people to send them back. It took about 2 and a half weeks of having an open slot in my queue for them to send me GTA V. Of course, you can't really compare anything else to GTA because of the crazy popularity.

Plus some people will put 50+ hours into GTA so they aren't going to be returning them very quickly. Supposedly Beyond's campaign is about 10 hours and there isn't any multiplayer so some people will finish the game and have it back in the mail within a day or two of receiving it. That may reduce the wait time.

 

[Zookster]

No way. You need to add these games well in advance. If you DO decide to become a member PLEASE let me know so I can refer you and we both get a free month.

I doubt it. They usually ship out new release games the day before they come out. If you don't get one in that day one shipment you have to wait for some of the first wave of people to send them back. It took about 2 and a half weeks of having an open slot in my queue for them to send me GTA V. Of course, you can't really compare anything else to GTA because of the crazy popularity.

Plus some people will put 50+ hours into GTA so they aren't going to be returning them very quickly. Supposedly Beyond's campaign is about 10 hours and there isn't any multiplayer so some people will finish the game and have it back in the mail within a day or two of receiving it. That may reduce the wait time.

That's what I figured about first-week availability. It probably works a lot like Netflix, which I've had for over 10 years (hard to believe).
If this game had gotten mainly good reviews (around a 90 average), I hadn't ruled out biting the bullet and buying it this week at Best Buy or Target. Oh well.

Good to know about the Gamefly referral program should I decide to sign up one day.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Speaking of Beyond, I finally got my copy and here's some thoughts.

I'm not going to delve into the plot because it's so story driven that spoilers are possible, although given the fact that the story jumps out of order makes such a thing rather hard as well. As far as gameplay goes, it's basically a modified version of the Heavy Rain engine. Be ready to do very little in terms of actually controlling Jodie, but still doing mundane tasks, and doing a number of "Time Wasting Simulators." In fact most of what I put in that review applies here as well.

The character acting has gotten better, thanks to the talents of Ellen Page and William Defoe and the supporting cast. The graphics have gotten a bump up since HR, although the uncanny valley effect is still noticeable. The implementation of a "second" character in the form of Aiden adds a little to the plot, although using him can be a little unwieldy at times, not to mention the game seems to arbitrarily declare what can be done with him.

Back to the plot.. what I have played is at least interesting. So far I feel like the story would have been better as a straight narrative as opposed to jumping around but I may be proven wrong. The developers definitely took the main complaint of HR's incredibly slow start and resolved that in this, although really the first 90 minutes of the game are mainly tutorials.

Overall I am looking forward to continuing Beyond. I do need to finish it quickly to ensure I have a free slot for Batman, but I also found myself playing a little longer in my sessions just to see what the next story segment would contain.

Oh, and one side note that I didn't see mentioned in any reviews I read was that you can actually control this game with your iOS or Android device. I was not aware of this until I ran the game. When it arrived I realized that because I hadn't used my PS3 in so long that my controller hadn't been charged. Still, since most PS3 games require an install (and this seemed like no exception) I decided to at least let it do that and then maybe actually play it later. However, on the install screen the game mentioned there was an app that would allow me to play using those devices. I got the Beyond: Touch app for my iPad, which uses your WiFi to allow the devices to communicate. Using the iPad was rather intuitive but not perfect. For one, you need to make sure your devices are near your router or else you're likely to run into lag, which can cause issues. Also, moving around is not the easiest. From what I can tell, the Touch app is more meant for the 2nd player. Oh yes.. this is technically a 2 player game. One can control Jodie while the other controls Aiden. I suppose it's a nice feature to have, but by no means a game changer, and I think I'll be sticking with my standard controller.

 

[Zookster]

Thanks for the early impressions. So they dropped the previously announced Move support in favor mobile app support? Shows you what Sony thinks of the future its highly touted (when first released) motion controller system. Sure glad I waited until I could get all my Move gear for half of MSRP.