Where are my Satellite Guy's gamers at?

BobMurdoch said:

OK, how many hours until the media outlets start blaming the Moscow airport shooting on the COD: Modern Warfare 2 game?

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It wasn't a shooting, it was a suicide bomber attack.

*Blows off some dust*

Since my in-laws left my game playing time has taken a significant hit. I don't play unless my daughter is sleeping, meaning nowadays I'm usually lucky if I can get an hour in of gaming every few days.

My most recent rental has been Kirby's Epic Yarn for the Wii. It's a standard platformer somewhat reminiscent of Mario and LBP. It's not like other Kirby games in that you can't eat enemies or blow wind on stuff. Instead you mainly whip stuff like in Castlevania and occasionally transform into different forms to change around gameplay like in LBP2.

While this is an amusing game and is very cute, I don't see myself finishing this one before I send it back. This game is insanely easy, to the point where you can't even die. And I don't mean like in the rebooted Prince Of Persia game where you got to restart scenarios after falling off a cliff, but rather, when you get hit/fall you lose some/all of your collected jewels and need to grab them before they disappear. It's similar to when you got hit in a Sonic game with your rings, but imagine if you didn't die if you got hit without them. This does make the game much more appealing to young children, but for platforming veterans like myself I need a motivating factor other than simply getting a high score. If you can't die, beating a level doesn't have much of a sense of accomplishment, and the unlockables you get aren't very motivating either IMO.

I also got Rock Band 3 recently. I got it with the keyboard, but I feel like I shouldn't have even bothered because it is just taking up space on my shelf. Luckily I got it with an old gift card and it was heavily discounted as well. While the game is still classic RB fun, I'm starting to get annoyed with the lack of people to play with. My wife likes to sing but her song list is very small considering she's only been in this country for 6 years, and I don't even have enough local friends to fill all the slots in a band. I've tried playing online but I keep running into the same problem that I've had with other music games in that it's nearly impossible to find other players that have all the songs that I do. You can't play songs unless everyone has them, so often I'm limited to just the songs in RB3. For someone who has songs imported from RB1, 2, Lego, and even AC/DC and albums from Pearl Jam and No Doubt along with other various random songs, having my selection reduced by nearly 70% is very frustrating. I also feel inadequate at times because it seems like 95% of players online do expert on instruments (and do it very well), while I'm more of a hard level player who can handle the first few tiers of Expert songs.

Next up I'm waiting on Homefront and Bulletstorm (whichever becomes available first) although I also put Persona 4, an old PS2 RPG in my queue after I read numerous praises for it as being the greatest RPG of the PS2 era. I figure it at least merits a look with praise like that. Also, I've been playing Mass Effect 2 again in preparation for final upcoming DLC.

I love Rock Band 3

I played pretty much nothing but Fallout:New Vegas from Christmas until I beat it about a month ago (110 hours total on my save game.. whew). Don't know if I feel like going through and playing like bad guy like I did with Fallout 3. Kind of burnt out on it for a while..... Been playing the new Avatar enhanced Poker Arcade game which is pretty good. Also, NFS: Hot Pursuit and You Don't Know Jack..... STILL haven't played COD: Black Ops... Want to start that when I have a solid afternoon to devote to getting into it.... Picked up Batman: Arkham Asylum as a $15 Black Friday special and plan to get around to playing that too someday.

Last night, I platinumed Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, which I got as an x-mas gift. Very fun and easy game. Just wish there was more to it. 20 hours (2 playthroughs) and I'm done. I'll probably pick up the PoP PS2 HD collection that releases on disc next month at some point. In the meantime, I just took advantage of a sale price on Amazon to pick up Assassins Creed Brotherhood for $30. Very much looking forward to it. Never played AC1, but loved AC2. While I'm waiting for it to arrive, I'll probably play some more LittleBigPlanet 2 community levels and PSN stuff.

I finally got a copy of Homefront. I haven't delved too much into it yet, but I do have some early comments.

First off, the storyline is a little off. I'm not saying that the idea of Korea uniting and going crazy on the world isn't unfathomable, but what IS unfathomable is the idea that during this Korean conquest that the rest of the world goes on vacation. I found it hard to believe that a superpower like China would just let Korea run wild in Asia, or that our allies in Europe wouldn't help us out when Korea started attacking the west coast. Also, for a game that takes place in like 2025, I find it hard to believe that people are still using the same technology as they are now in 2011. Finally, this game reminds me quite a bit of Half Life 2. This may sound like a major compliment, but it what it reminds me of is the stilted animation and blank stares that people give each other. After seeing games like COD and Mass Effect, seeing such work makes me feel like I'm watching marionettes interact with each other.

Still, I am having good vibes about the game. One thing I like is that they do give you very limited ammo. This isn't like COD where you pick up ammo at every 3rd step and can always hold on to your favorite weapon. In this, weapons usually have 2 clips max in them, and often in the middle of heavy fights you'll find yourself running to get another gun to continue the fight. Also, while I did complain about the logistics of the storyline, the idea of Americans being the occupied rebels is a nice twist as opposed to the reverse being true in BF, COD, MOH, etc. Hope I can finish it up in time so I can have a slot open for LA Noir in my Gamefly queue.

I've been playing alot of NHL 11 on the 360. Haven't touched Black Ops in a couple of months. I'm itching for a racing game. No Forza for me. Don't have time for all the tweaking involved to be competitive. I may go back to playing Blur. Bought it when it 1st came out, then sold it a a couple of months later.

I'm sorry to say that I have given up on homefront. The game is amazingly mediocre. I don't doubt that a lot of effort was put into this, but it is all for not. The game tries really hard to evoke emotion but it just falls flat all the time. And as far as the action goes, if you want a generic short fps experience you're better off just playing Modern Warfare 2 again. Back to Gamefly it goes.

I recently finished Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, which I bought on sale just before the PSN went down. Probably the best downloadable game I've ever played.

Zookster said:

I recently finished Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, which I bought on sale just before the PSN went down. Probably the best downloadable game I've ever played.

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That is a good game. I should get back and finish that off, and since I'm unemployed I got nothing but time on my hands.

So I just finished Crysis 2 and here is my mini review.

I'll get the bad out of the way first. For a game as lauded and hyped as this, it isn't as "great" as it thinks it is. The graphics overall can be stunning at times, but I was shocked at the amount of texture pop in I saw while playing. I mean it reminded me of gta 3 for the ps2. There were also a number of bugs and glitches as well. On a number of occasions I saw my teammates shaking in place, apparently having a massive seizure. And at least twice my weapons failed to "appear" and my character was literally holding gun shaped air. Sadly this did not translate to invisible bullets and I had to reload my last save point. The enemy ai was also rather thick, making it very easy to run up and give them a wedgie and run ning away well before anyone noticed or cared. Speaking of the enemies, there's literally about 6 enemies total in the game and for about 95% of the game you face two of them. The final boss fight is hardly a fight either, as you just face 4 of the same enemy and you can easily beat them as long as you know your suit powers. The same can be said about the weapons. I think Doom 2 had more variety than this game does. Finally, the plot is rather convoluted and skitzo. The change in tone between the first and second half of the game is rather jarring and you are given little to no explanation about why you changed your focus of goals.

Having said all that, I found Crysis 2 to be quite enjoyable. It is quite a bit of fun to basically be a cross between Dutch and The Predator with super speed, invisibility, and armor shell. It is good to know you have the option for nearly any situation to either stealth your way across and not fire a bullet or run in blasting away like you're playing a 90s fps. it's a nice departure from the standard army grunt of games like Battlefield and Call of Duty. Also, Manhattan is imagined rather well in this game leading to a fun, immersive environment when you aren't being distracted by texture issues. It also can get fun to be drained of your health and energy and you run into a corner and pray for your shields to come back online as the enemy starts closing in on you.

With the variety of tactics and departure from standard AAA FPS rules, I can easily recommend Crysis 2. It's not perfect but the flaws are so superficial that you'd be hard pressed to find them seriously reducing the amount of fun you're likely to have in this game. Overall, I give it a B.

Sent from my iPad2 using SatelliteGuys

I finished DNF, which you can read about here.

I also finished up Portal 2. Overall I have to say I enjoyed it. It certainly is more of a complete game than Portal 1 was, although it also is broader and not necessarily completely superior. It has more of an actual plot and storyline which I enjoyed, and it has a number of twists and turns that keeps you guessing throughout. I was able to complete at least 75% of the puzzles without needing to look at Youtube, but I attribute that more to my being impatient as opposed to them being insanely difficult. Still, as one game reviewer put it, "I hope you like playing 'Hunt around this huge detailed environment for the one solitary patch of portal-able wall and move on to the next big detailed room.'" And that takes up much of the 2nd act of the game and it does cause it to drag on quite a bit. Still, whether or not you'll like Portal 2 comes down to your answers to these questions: Did you like Portal 1? Do you like games with a dark and quirky sense of humor? Do you like challenging your mind and solving some puzzles? If you answered at least 2 of those questions with "yes" then you should give Portal 2 a look. FYI, if you buy the PS3 version you get a code to download the PC version for free, and apparently the 2 versions can share saved games, meaning that if you get to a particular level on the PS3 version, you can then continue right from that point on the PC.

Finally, in an embarrassingly long track to the finish line, I finally finished off inFamous, luckily just in time before the sequel arrives in my mailbox via Gamefly. Again, an enjoyable experience. For those of you who haven't played it, it's basically an open world game set after you accidentally blow up the world and are given the powers of electricity where you can then either clean up the mess you made as a good guy, or crush what remains by being a jerk. The story is interesting, although rather wonky as it goes on, and the final twist at the end makes you wonder if it was written by M. Night Shyamalan. Also, after coming from Prototype, a very similar game where your character has more personal weapons than Casey Anthony has incidents of bad parenting, just being able to use lightening attacks gets rather old quickly. Still, the characters are interesting and the game itself is enjoyable. Unfortunately I couldn't give this recommendation before Sony's Apology package expired, as I would definitely have recommended people grab it as one of their free games. Even so it is a greatest hits game which can likely be found even cheaper via used games. Definitely worth your time.

Now I have inFamous 2 on the way, with LA Noir hopefully soon to follow. Ultimately I'm just waiting for the fall to arrive, as that's when most of the really good stuff is coming. Between Arkham City, Gears of War 3, and the BF3/MW3 brawl, I doubt I'll be bored in front of my console much and may finally have a reason to cash in all my Best Buy gift cards I got with my credit card points.

This past month I've mostly been working through older games I got via the PSN (welcome back, sales, etc):

Wipeout HD -- excellent racing game; hard but fun and rewarding
Dead Nation -- took me a while to get into it, but enjoyed the first complete playthough
SuperStardust HD -- Old school arcade style. Can only handle it in short spurts.
InFamous -- Just started. Having trouble getting into the characters and story, but I love the gameplay
Burnout Paradise -- picked this up this week for $8 - no brainer! awesome easy fun and a nice break from the brutal Wipeout
Sly Collection -- been meaning to buy this for some time; played Sly 1, enjoyed it, but it was harder than I expected (but not hard, hard); the four extra mini games are a joke
Sport Champions -- finally bought a Move controller. Can't throw a frisbee worth sh*t, but all the other sports are excellent. Great workout to boot (especially gladiator)!

Amazingly, my copies of inFamous 2 and L.A. Noire both arrived today after allegedly being shipped out today.. usually games take a good 2+ days to arrive, but I guess these ones couldn't wait to be played. On a side note, did you know that L.A. Noire on the Xbox 360 is 3 discs long? I felt like I was playing a PS1 RPG again. In any case it looks like I'll be occupied for a while.

Early impressions of L.A. Noire:

If you're looking for a modern revival of the old Police Quest series, you're going to be very disappointed. This game doesn't make you feel like a cop much. Most of your game is taken up by talking to various people and trying to figure out if they are telling you the truth or BSing you, walking around a scene waiting for your controller to vibrate to tell you to hit the action button and find an item, and chasing various suspects around who are dumb enough to run from the cops.

The interrogation part isn't too bad. It isn't very hard to tell when someone is lying to you, as they start looking down, squirming, or scan all over the room. Still, sometimes it is hard to interpret how you doubting or accusing someone of lying will pan out. For example, in an early mission you find glasses at a crime scene that are obviously old and have been repaired recently. When you interview the person's wife about it, she claims that he had recently purchased new ones. Knowing they were old, I accused her of lying and selected the new glasses as my proof and all she did was yell at me and I got that part of the interrogation wrong. Turns out I was supposed to select the "Truth" option (The options are Truth, Doubt, and Lying) even though what she said wasn't the truth.

In a related incident,
Investigating a crime scene can also be monotonous. You walk around a place looking for evidence, which means you move until your controller vibrates and you pick up whatever is there. Thing is that 8 times out of 10, what you pick up will be absolutely meaningless. This would be okay if you were picking up legitimate stuff that you should be ruling out, but in one case, I was looking through a kitchen and the controller vibrated they had me literally "investigate" a lime and a lemon. Also, while I am no crime scene expert and have never seen an episode of CSI in my life, I find it odd that even back in the 40s, cops wouldn't use gloves when they were investigating scenes, especially when moving investigating a dead body on the ground.

Finally, the chase scenes (so far anyways) are not as exciting as they sound. Car chases can be rather thrilling at times, but these are a mainstay in the Rockstar world, and frankly I found the chases in GTA:VC to be more fun when I was the one doing all the shooting as opposed to my partner. The on foot chases are especially dull. Basically, you hold forward on your left analog stick and hold down the trigger as you watch your character slowly shorten the distance between him and the perp. I think it would have been more fun if they had made this into a mini game or a QTE based event so that the variety could have been enhanced. Finally, the gun play isn't much to write home about. It's basically the same you've dealt with in GTA4 and RDR, but for some reason now you have unlimited ammunition, making shootouts incredibly easy.

Assuming you've read all this without navigating away from the page, you may think that this is a bad game, but I actually am having fun. I'm a player who loves a game that sucks me in, and as with most Rockstar games, this game has no problem doing that. The dialog is very well written and the lines are delivered just as well. The dialog and interactions your character has with his various partners is also fun to follow. The faces look especially good with the special technology used to capture the actors, although as with most Rockstar games the movement style of the characters is still very robotic, and this is made even more glaring by the good looking faces, a'la the uncanny valley theory. Still, once again, if you're looking for something fun and different, so far L.A. Noire seems to be a good fit. Again, I would recommend the PS3 version as it has an exclusive case in it, as well as being on 1 disc as opposed to 3 on the 360.

Finished up L.A. Noire. Can't add much from what I said in my early impressions. Most of that remains consistent throughout the rest of the game. I do have some complaints about the plot and the story, but obviously I can't delve into them because it would spoil the story. Let's just say that the story is much better than average but it certainly falls flat in a number of places. Overall I do recommend it to anyone who's looking for something different. Now I can jump back into inFamous 2, although I may instead work on Assassin's Creed Bloodlines so I can get that wrapped up before the next game comes out. Hopefully the next game to come will either be Catherine (which I doubt will happen) or Shadows of the Damned (more fun Sudha 51 hijinks)

I've been playing "Black Ops" and "RDR" since they came out and not much else. Uncharted2 blew it with their 1st attempt at multiplayer (in my opinion) and did little to improve it with their UC3 beta. Red Dead's "free roam" was a lot of fun at first but the way too visible name tags took away any chance for it to keep any serious following. Too bad, because that's the biggest thing holding it back (again, in my opinion). "Black Ops" on the other hand is still gathering over half a million plus online players at any given time.