Where are my Satellite Guy's gamers at?

[Zookster]

Bioshock 2 got a LOT of unjustified flack mainly because many people saw it as a quick cash in (even though it came out years after the original), Kevin Levine wasn't involved with it, it added unnecessary multiplayer, and the original didn't leave a lot of room for a sequel so it felt like an unnecessary story. While all those complaints are valid, it didn't mean the game wasn't fun. Yes the story was not up to par with the original, but that's like saying that Steve Young as a quarterback wasn't up to par with Joe Montana. It was still better than about 75% of other game stories, and the improvements in gameplay were greatly appreciated, such as refining the hacking minigames, and also adding the much desired weapons/plasmid functionality at the same time. The biggest knock against BS2 was that it came after BS1. If you liked BS1 and Infinite there's little reason to fear that you won't like BS2.

I agree. Bioshock 2 definitely suffered by virtue of the fact that it was a follow up to Bioshock and a lot of people hated the MP. It's still one of my favorite games, and what Bioshock 2 may have lacked in story, it's excellent DLC, Minerva's Den, more than made up for it. One of the few DLCs I've bought that I thought was more than worth the asking price. Very emotional and worth replaying for the story alone.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Still replaying Infinite. I like taking random screenshots and this is my best one so far:

 

[Quarkinator]

Sadly I haven't picked up many games recently, I've bought Far Cry 3 and ARMA 3. It's probably because I'm playing EVE Online, and my time is already pretty limited.

 

[king3pj]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/04/lionhead-teases-fable-hd-remake

Fable 1 is getting a 360 remake. If they actually do this right like 343 did with Halo:CE Anniversary I'll give it a shot. I'm not normally in to all these cash grab "HD" remasters. My main problem with them is that they call them HD because they upped the resolution to 720p but they use the exact same textures so it doesn't actually look any better than last gen. In that case you basically get the exact same game plus trophies. Sony has been notorious for this in the last year or two with just about all of their big PS2 exclusives.

343 actually put some work into Halo Anniversary so I felt like it was worth my $40 to play one of my favorite games again. They released it with all new 360 quality HD textures plus a classic mode with the old textures at 720p. You could just pause it and switch back and forth in the settings to compare the two. I thought that was a great idea. By doing that they made everyone happy by giving us the original game with nostalgia and an actual upgrade. Don't just give me a new resolution if you want my money, actually take the time to remake the game. Halo Anniversary didn't look as good as Halo 4 but at least it looked liked it actually belonged on 360.

I have never actually played any of the Fable games. I had the original Xbox but at the time I wasn't in to RPG style games. Now most of my favorite games have RPG elements. I have wanted to play the original Fable for quite a while now because I heard great things about it. I never got into the series because Fable 2 and 3 on 360 didn't generate near the praise. Do this right and I'm sold Lionhead.

 

[yourbeliefs]

If you really want to get into Fable you're probably better off just getting the PC version which has the better PC resolution and only costs $10 on Steam right now unless you really care about the remade textures.

 

[king3pj]

If you really want to get into Fable you're probably better off just getting the PC version which has the better PC resolution and only costs $10 on Steam right now unless you really care about the remade textures.

I'll see what they do with it. If they are redoing everything Halo style I'll probably wait and rent it on gamefly. If more details start leaking out suggesting it is only a resolution bump plus achievements I will pick it up on steam.


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[king3pj]

So I just listened to the Major Nelson podcast with an interview with the lead designer. Apparently it is being rebuilt from the ground up. New textures, new particle effects, new lighting, new cutscenes, better controls, better checkpoint style autosave system, etc... As someone who's never played the game, I'm actually excited about this. I have to say I love the way Microsoft does their HD re-releases compared to Sony's resolution bump plus trophies equals a new game.


Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!

 

[yourbeliefs]

So I just listened to the Major Nelson podcast with an interview with the lead designer. Apparently it is being rebuilt from the ground up. New textures, new particle effects, new lighting, new cutscenes, better controls, better checkpoint style autosave system, etc... As someone who's never played the game, I'm actually excited about this. I have to say I love the way Microsoft does their HD re-releases compared to Sony's resolution bump plus trophies equals a new game.


Posted Using The New SatelliteGuys Reader App!

Here's a photo comparison. Looks like it's more than just a texture bump...

 

[king3pj]

Here's a photo comparison. Looks like it's more than just a texture bump...

Thanks, that is the first image I have seen. It looks like a nice upgrade from the original.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[yourbeliefs]

Not much new on the game front for me. I got Gears of War: Judgement in but I lost interest in it quite quickly, which is sad because I used to LOVE the Gears games. Hell I loved the first one so much that I played it to beat Insanity mode (although I did need help from my gf's brother to take down RAAM at the end.) My interest waned quite a bit though with the 3rd one and with the 4th (Judgement) I just couldn't care enough. So I sent that back and am waiting for Last Of Us to arrive in the mail (which likely won't happen until Monday given how the postal service is around me.) In the meantime ironically I've been playing games I've already beat, mainly Bioshock: Infinite on Hard mode and Alan Wake. I must say that Bioshock Infinite is quite more frustrating on Hard, but mainly because they just give the enemies a crap load more life. More often than not I've had to buy more ammo because gunfights would leave me drained. I'm dreading when I get to that final battle. I barely beat it on Normal and am not looking forward to dealing with a 10/15 minute battle over and over. However, that may be put on a long hiatus once Last of Us arrives.

 

[king3pj]

Not much new on the game front for me. I got Gears of War: Judgement in but I lost interest in it quite quickly, which is sad because I used to LOVE the Gears games. Hell I loved the first one so much that I played it to beat Insanity mode (although I did need help from my gf's brother to take down RAAM at the end.) My interest waned quite a bit though with the 3rd one and with the 4th (Judgement) I just couldn't care enough. So I sent that back and am waiting for Last Of Us to arrive in the mail (which likely won't happen until Monday given how the postal service is around me.) In the meantime ironically I've been playing games I've already beat, mainly Bioshock: Infinite on Hard mode and Alan Wake. I must say that Bioshock Infinite is quite more frustrating on Hard, but mainly because they just give the enemies a crap load more life. More often than not I've had to buy more ammo because gunfights would leave me drained. I'm dreading when I get to that final battle. I barely beat it on Normal and am not looking forward to dealing with a 10/15 minute battle over and over. However, that may be put on a long hiatus once Last of Us arrives.

I failed the final mission over and over again before I finally beat it. A friend told me a little tip I didn't think of at the time though. He claimed he couldn't beat it until he tried using the Undertow Vigor. He said once he did that he could just push the enemies over the side instead of fighting all of them and he beat it on his first attempt after trying that.

Gears... ah it didn't suck me in as much as 1, 2, and 3. That's for sure. I did have a good enough time with it to get through its short 6 or 7 hour campaign. There was no gripping story there and it's safe to say I'm done with that game now.

As for The Last of Us... did you get it in the first wave from Gamefly? It has been at the top of my queue for quite a while now. I cleared out every game in my queue except for that one and sent back a game which they marked as received on Monday to make sure I had an open slot. I don't think I made the cut though. I didn't receive any email telling me it was shipped today and it is listed in my queue as a low availability game. The family is debating whether or not to go out of town this weekend anyways. If we don't I'm going to be very tempted to just go buy it tomorrow so I can play all weekend because I have a feeling it is going to be unavailable for a long time. For now I'm keeping the open slot with no other games in my queue.

 

[waltinvt]

What - no Call of Duty players here anymore? Black Ops II ???

 

[king3pj]

What - no Call of Duty players here anymore? Black Ops II ???

I play from time to time with friends. It's nice to catch up with the old college roommates for a couple hours over the headsets while we play zombies or team deathmatch together. It just isn't a series I like to play by myself. I haven't played through a campaign since COD4 and I don't really like playing it online in the public chat channels with screaming racist 12 year old kids. Like I said though, I have had some great times over Xbox Live party chat on all the COD games with my old friends.

When I'm playing games by myself I am more of a story game guy than an online multiplayer guy. I do like the occasional night of stupid fun with Halo or Battlefield online though.

 

[Zookster]

I'm currently wrapping up my hard difficulty/no alarms/no kills run through Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I actually bought this game for $10 two months before it was offered free to Plus members this month, but I certainly don't mind throwing a few coins at such an excellent game (I also bought all the DLC on sale and enjoyed The Missing Link quite a bit). By the way, it was announced yesterday that the Director's Cut version that was created for the Wii U is being ported to PC/360/PS3 sometime this fall, though I doubt I'll be double dipping.

Next, I'm having trouble deciding between Borderlands 2, which I bought three months ago, and XCOM, one of the new free games for Plus. I've never played a pure strategy game before, but I hear good things about XCOM and alien invasion stuff is right up my alley in terms of subject matter. I actually tried the demo last weekend, and it seems fairly straightforward, but I know it ramps up in difficulty and complexity quite a bit, even on easy and normal difficulty settings.

EDIT: but all of the above best laid plans could change tomorrow if tomorrow's Fry's ad offers a good deal on The Last of Us. Once in a great while they'll offer a new release game for $50 the week it comes out, but I'm not holding my breath--though regardless, I'll be driving by my Fry's Saturday morning for an appointment, so who knows? lol

 

[yourbeliefs]

What - no Call of Duty players here anymore? Black Ops II ???

I'm COD'ed out for now. I played Black Ops 1 for easily 50+ hours multiplayer but that just didn't continue with BO2. I'm honestly considering just selling it. I have more fun playing Halo 4 online.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Next, I'm having trouble deciding between Borderlands 2, which I bought three months ago, and XCOM, one of the new free games for Plus. I've never played a pure strategy game before, but I hear good things about XCOM and alien invasion stuff is right up my alley in terms of subject matter. I actually tried the demo last weekend, and it seems fairly straightforward, but I know it ramps up in difficulty and complexity quite a bit, even on easy and normal difficulty settings.

You have to be careful with XCom because if you don't manage/upgrade correctly you can find yourself stuck and unable to proceed past the current mission, similar to what System Shock 2 did. I'd strongly suggest reading a FAQ or 2 before you delve deep into that game.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I failed the final mission over and over again before I finally beat it. A friend told me a little tip I didn't think of at the time though. He claimed he couldn't beat it until he tried using the Undertow Vigor. He said once he did that he could just push the enemies over the side instead of fighting all of them and he beat it on his first attempt after trying that.

Gears... ah it didn't suck me in as much as 1, 2, and 3. That's for sure. I did have a good enough time with it to get through its short 6 or 7 hour campaign. There was no gripping story there and it's safe to say I'm done with that game now.

As for The Last of Us... did you get it in the first wave from Gamefly? It has been at the top of my queue for quite a while now. I cleared out every game in my queue except for that one and sent back a game which they marked as received on Monday to make sure I had an open slot. I don't think I made the cut though. I didn't receive any email telling me it was shipped today and it is listed in my queue as a low availability game. The family is debating whether or not to go out of town this weekend anyways. If we don't I'm going to be very tempted to just go buy it tomorrow so I can play all weekend because I have a feeling it is going to be unavailable for a long time. For now I'm keeping the open slot with no other games in my queue.

I think I had it in my queue for quite a while, but even that has not been a 100% guarantee. It really varies because it's not just how long it's been in your queue (although it does appear to be first come first serve.) It also depends on how many they ordered. My favorite story is when I read the reviews of Mass Effect 2 the monday before it came out and based off them I added ME2 to my queue and not even 3 hours later they shipped out the game.

 

[Zookster]

You have to be careful with XCom because if you don't manage/upgrade correctly you can find yourself stuck and unable to proceed past the current mission, similar to what System Shock 2 did. I'd strongly suggest reading a FAQ or 2 before you delve deep into that game.

Thanks for the heads up. In another gaming forum I frequent, I see a lot of folks already getting stuck on easy difficulty, so I best find the wiki for this game before going too far past the point where I only have 2-3 aliens to shoot down as I easily managed in the demo.

 

[waltinvt]

I play from time to time with friends. It's nice to catch up with the old college roommates for a couple hours over the headsets while we play zombies or team deathmatch together. It just isn't a series I like to play by myself. I haven't played through a campaign since COD4 and I don't really like playing it online in the public chat channels with screaming racist 12 year old kids. Like I said though, I have had some great times over Xbox Live party chat on all the COD games with my old friends.

When I'm playing games by myself I am more of a story game guy than an online multiplayer guy. I do like the occasional night of stupid fun with Halo or Battlefield online though.

I hear you about the "screaming 12 year olds" - one of my pet peeves. I'm surprised with all the recent scrutiny into violent video games that something wasn't attempted to better enforce the "M-17" rating.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Thanks for the heads up. In another gaming forum I frequent, I see a lot of folks already getting stuck on easy difficulty, so I best find the wiki for this game before going too far past the point where I only have 2-3 aliens to shoot down as I easily managed in the demo.

Yes. Sadly XCom is another one of my games just collecting digital dust in my Steam Library.. But hell, $14 was too good of a deal to pass up..

And don't forget, we're all less than a month away from the annual Steam 4th of July sale..