Where are my Satellite Guy's gamers at?

[yourbeliefs]

I am now convinced that 343i is the worst company ever (yes I realize I'm saying this facetiously)

king3pj and I did some more Halo Co-Op last night and discovered a fatal flaw: There's NO checkpoint saving if you quit the game. We found this out the hard way when I stopped a game so I could get a breather to start some cooking (because God Forbid they put in a PAUSE feature), and we ended up losing over 30 minutes worth of gameplay because it sent us all the way back to the beginning of the chapter. If Gears of War had had this I think the two of us would have committed Seppuku on that theater section, knowing that stopping would have sent us all the way back to the beginning of the level.

We may end up trying Borderlands Co-Op, but in the meantime it looks like it's back to Policenauts for me while I wait for the new Tony Hawk to arrive.

 

[king3pj]

I am now convinced that 343i is the worst company ever (yes I realize I'm saying this facetiously)

king3pj and I did some more Halo Co-Op last night and discovered a fatal flaw: There's NO checkpoint saving if you quit the game. We found this out the hard way when I stopped a game so I could get a breather to start some cooking (because God Forbid they put in a PAUSE feature), and we ended up losing over 30 minutes worth of gameplay because it sent us all the way back to the beginning of the chapter. If Gears of War had had this I think the two of us would have committed Seppuku on that theater section, knowing that stopping would have sent us all the way back to the beginning of the level.

We may end up trying Borderlands Co-Op, but in the meantime it looks like it's back to Policenauts for me while I wait for the new Tony Hawk to arrive.

I would suggest that we skip straight to BL2 unless you plan on playing all of them. You know I love my loot games so I would be up for all of them if you want but that would take a ton of hours.

If you are just interested in playing one of them BL2 is the one to pick though. BL1 is very light on story and what is there isn't that important. The gist is that you are a vault hunter looking for good loot. You kill bad guys who drop loot so you can get to the next set of tougher bad guys who drop better loot. People don't play Diablo for the story and the same is true for Borderlands.

Borderlands 2 improves on the original in just about every way. The gameplay is better, there is a bigger variety of loot, and there is a lot more story to get invested in. Some of the DLC is also really good and it's a better PC port. I would argue that you would be better off playing BL2 again in new game plus mode so you can get the higher end gear and fight the higher end bad guys than you would be playing BL1 first and then BL2.

Again, I'll play them all if you want to make that time investment but I have a lot more free time available to me than you do with your kids. I've never finished The Pre Sequel so I would actually like to play that one. I haven't seen enough of it to say whether it's as good of a stand alone experience as BL2 is though. Most reviewers still say that BL2 was the peak.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Ok let's just skip to BL2. I don't need to experience the entire trilogy. I do have a copy of the Pre Sequel (Got it for like $6 from the Humble Store a while back thanks to coupons) so maybe we can delve into that at a later date.

 

[king3pj]

I got a chance to test out Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD tonight. Don't get this confused with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 which came out this week. This is a reimagining of THPS 1 and 2 and since I bought the DLC it also includes some elements from THPS 3. First, I want to say the game is fun. It's not amazing but it feels the way I remember the old games and I'm surprised how much I remember about these levels.

There are some issues with it though. The soundtrack feels very Tony Hawk and about half of it came from the old games. The problem is that there isn't enough music here. There are only 13 songs. 12 songs came with the base game and one came with the DLC. I have only been playing for one play session and I've already heard many of the songs at least twice. If you put a ton of hours into this game I'm guessing it would get old fast.

The rest of my problems are PC related. First, all the button prompts in the game list keyboard controls even if you are playing with a controller. This is true for everything from the menu to the trick list. I'm trying to figure out my special moves and it's giving me down, right, ?. Sorry but I can't find the ? on my Xbox One controller. Im not sure I've ever had a PC game do that to me and this is a 360 port so it makes even less sense. The controller works great for actual gameplay.

Second, the only graphics setting in the game is the resolution choice. Apparently, at launch even that wasn't there and the game was locked to 720p. Luckily they patched that in and I was able to switch it to 1080p.

I don't need a ton of graphics options because I'm not playing a port of an Xbox Live Arcade game for its visuals. I would be fine with the lack of graphics options if it wasn't for the terrible screen tearing. There is no VSYNC option in the game to fix the tearing problem. The only other game I can remember having tearing this bad with no VSYNC option is The Witcher 1 and that came out in 2007. The point is that it's a standard setting in basically every PC game.

Luckily Nvidia Control Panel has a way to force VSYNC. Since I don't want this on for every game I will have to turn it on and off every time I play Tony Hawk. AMD users are screwed because there is no way to force VSYNC in Catalyst Control Center. I learned that the hard way when I tried to play Witcher 1 on my old GPU.

 

[king3pj]

I finally got around to playing The Stanley Parable tonight. It's definitely an interesting game and worth checking out. I don't want to go into much detail outside of saying I like what they did because it's really better if you go in with as little detail as possible.

I had heard a few details before I played so some moments didn't have as much impact as they otherwise would have but there were still plenty of big impact moments for me. If anyone is interested in checking this game out for themselves I'm pretty sure I have two extra Steam keys available.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I finally got around to playing The Stanley Parable tonight. It's definitely an interesting game and worth checking out. I don't want to go into much detail outside of saying I like what they did because it's really better if you go in with as little detail as possible.

I had heard a few details before I played so some moments didn't have as much impact as they otherwise would have but there were still plenty of big impact moments for me. If anyone is interested in checking this game out for themselves I'm pretty sure I have two extra Steam keys available.

The game is also a free Half Life 2 mod, which can be checked out here. http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-stanley-parable

Obviously the stand alone game is more robust, but this is a nice way to see what you're getting into. And yes I also highly recommend the game as well, and am looking forward to playing its spiritual sequel, The Beginner's Guide

 

[king3pj]

The game is also a free Half Life 2 mod, which can be checked out here. http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-stanley-parable

Obviously the stand alone game is more robust, but this is a nice way to see what you're getting into. And yes I also highly recommend the game as well, and am looking forward to playing its spiritual sequel, The Beginner's Guide

Hearing about The Beginner's Guide is what finally got me to play this after having it in my Steam library for a long time.

 

[king3pj]

So I grabbed Until Dawn for $40 on an impulse buy at Walmart yesterday. I love the Cabin in the Woods style movies this is trying to emulate and I've been wanting to play some horror games to get in the Halloween mood.

I just got my first chance to play it and I really want to enjoy this game but some audio bugs are really killing the immersion for me. According to Reddit these problems seem to be mostly effecting people with good 5.1 audio systems. I have a decent one myself so that may be where the problem is stemming from.

First, the audio is out of sync with the characters' lips. For a game that went to so much trouble getting real actors and using their real faces it really hurts the immersion factor. They spend a lot of time in close ups and seeing the sound not match up with the awesome visuals kills it.

Second, the characters' sound like they are speaking through a tin can. Apparently this is a bug where the center channel speaker isn't getting fed sound properly. All the ambient noises in the surround speakers sound great but the voices sound so bad I can't even understand them when there are background noises at the same time. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this is the worst voice audio I have heard in modern gaming (PS3/360 era forward).

Both of these problems seem to be tied to surround sound setups since many people just playing through TV speakers or a stereo headset say it sounds great. Coincidentally people who invest in a nice surround sound setup are also the most likely to be upset by sound problems.

I'm going to try my stereo PC headset plugged directly into the PS4 controller and see if that makes things more enjoyable for me.

Edit: I just tried it through a stereo headset. The lip sync issues are gone and the audio sounds normal. On that front it's a huge improvement. The only problem is I already heard how awesome all the ambient noise sounds through my surround sound. I have a nice PC headset, the HyperX Cloud, but when connected directly to a PS4 controller that gets its audio from the console over Bluetooth it can't come close to my home theater setup. Still, this is the way to play this game until they fix the surround sound bugs.

 

[Zookster]

So I grabbed Until Dawn for $40 on an impulse buy at Walmart yesterday. I love the Cabin in the Woods style movies this is trying to emulate and I've been wanting to play some horror games to get in the Halloween mood.

I just got my first chance to play it and I really want to enjoy this game but some audio bugs are really killing the immersion for me. According to Reddit these problems seem to be mostly effecting people with good 5.1 audio systems. I have a decent one myself so that may be where the problem is stemming from.

First, the audio is out of sync with the characters' lips. For a game that went to so much trouble getting real actors and using their real faces it really hurts the immersion factor. They spend a lot of time in close ups and seeing the sound not match up with the awesome visuals kills it.

Second, the characters' sound like they are speaking through a tin can. Apparently this is a bug where the center channel speaker isn't getting fed sound properly. All the ambient noises in the surround speakers sound great but the voices sound so bad I can't even understand them when there are background noises at the same time. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this is the worst voice audio I have heard in modern gaming (PS3/360 era forward).

Both of these problems seem to be tied to surround sound setups since many people just playing through TV speakers or a stereo headset say it sounds great. Coincidentally people who invest in a nice surround sound setup are also the most likely to be upset by sound problems.

I'm going to try my stereo PC headset plugged directly into the PS4 controller and see if that makes things more enjoyable for me.

Edit: I just tried it through a stereo headset. The lip sync issues are gone and the audio sounds normal. On that front it's a huge improvement. The only problem is I already heard how awesome all the ambient noise sounds through my surround sound. I have a nice PC headset, the HyperX Cloud, but when connected directly to a PS4 controller that gets its audio from the console over Bluetooth it can't come close to my home theater setup. Still, this is the way to play this game until they fix the surround sound bugs.

That's too bad. And thanks for the warning. I assume you've tried every tweak imaginable, but just in case, did you switch between PCM and bitstream and can you test the difference between having audio go over HDMI versus optical? (I can't remember if PS4 has optical output like PS3 does). Just a thought.

 

[king3pj]

That's too bad. And thanks for the warning. I assume you've tried every tweak imaginable, but just in case, did you switch between PCM and bitstream and can you test the difference between having audio go over HDMI versus optical? (I can't remember if PS4 has optical output like PS3 does). Just a thought.

I haven't tried an optical cable. I'm not sure I even have any of those around anymore. My PS4 is normally setup to output PCM but I did try bitstreaming both Dolby Digital and DTS. I also did a couple full power cycles on my PS4. Unfortunately the game has no audio settings besides a couple volume sliders. None of the things I tried had any positive results for me. Fortunately I had a stereo headset lying around because that seems to work much better.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I figure I'll try Until Dawn next year once demand drops and that 1st quarter gaming drought starts and it'll be easier to get. Right now I'm playing the Nathan Drake Collection.

There's not too much to say about the game. It's the 3 PS3 Uncharted games with enhanced graphics, gameplay tweaks, and 60 FPS gameplay, and in that regard it works quite well. I originally was going to play UC 1 and 3 to completion since I hadn't beaten them, but I decided to change that to just beating UC 3, because A: I don't think I'll have time to beat both, and B: Literally EVERY review I've read has pointed out that UC 1 is basically sh*t and didn't age well, so there's no real benefit to torturing myself when beating 3 will most likely give me some story insight before UC 4.

 

[king3pj]

Since I have no self control I grabbed Guitar Hero on my lunch break. Looks like it's Until Dawn and Guitar Hero when I get home tonight. I'll be leaving town for a week on Saturday and I really want to finish Until Dawn before I go. I also know I won't be able to make myself wait until I'm done with UD before checking out Guitar Hero.

I'm going to get The Nathan Drake collection at some point too but I figure there will probably be some decent Black Friday deals on it and I don't mind waiting a bit for that one. I have had Uncharted 2 and 3 sitting on my shelf for years at this point and I still haven't played them. What's a couple more months?

 

[yourbeliefs]

So I just finished Episode 5 (and thus the entire first season) of Tales From the Borderlands.

Long story short, this last episode continues the high standards set by the previous ones, and while the story does get wrapped up, much like previous Tell Tale games it doesn't so much leave on a cliffhanger as it does an open door to Season 2. To be fair, I only finished on my "main" playthrough and haven't tried with my alternate to see how the experiences differ, but I think I can say rather safely that nothing from it will drastically change my opinion of this game. It's a winner, and a damn good story. This is Tell Tale's best work since The Walking Dead Season 1, and I highly recommend anyone and everyone to pick this up. And no, you do NOT need to know anything about Borderlands to enjoy this game. Granted, you'll likely appreciate it more and understand various references that others won't, but I knew nothing of BL lore and still had a blast. In fact for a short time it got me interest to learn more about the main games, until I went back to them and then realized that I didn't really care and would like to stay compartmentalized to this particular story (No offense to the BL fans out there.)

In conclusion, it appears we have a shoe-in for a GOTY award here, and I highly encourage any and everyone to try this game.

Part of the reason I grinded through the episode in 1 night was because I still have 10 chapters to go in Uncharted 3 and I need to get that game done ASAP considering my free time is going to be reduced even more with my mother in law heading back home and thus having more kids than grown ups in my house (Meaning the inmates now outnumber the wardens.) I also need to clear up my rental slots in time for Black Ops 3 and then Battlefront. I'll likely play my other save through at a more gradual pace, but I can't wait too long as I don't want to forget my choices.

 

[king3pj]

So I just finished Episode 5 (and thus the entire first season) of Tales From the Borderlands.

Long story short, this last episode continues the high standards set by the previous ones, and while the story does get wrapped up, much like previous Tell Tale games it doesn't so much leave on a cliffhanger as it does an open door to Season 2. To be fair, I only finished on my "main" playthrough and haven't tried with my alternate to see how the experiences differ, but I think I can say rather safely that nothing from it will drastically change my opinion of this game. It's a winner, and a damn good story. This is Tell Tale's best work since The Walking Dead Season 1, and I highly recommend anyone and everyone to pick this up. And no, you do NOT need to know anything about Borderlands to enjoy this game. Granted, you'll likely appreciate it more and understand various references that others won't, but I knew nothing of BL lore and still had a blast. In fact for a short time it got me interest to learn more about the main games, until I went back to them and then realized that I didn't really care and would like to stay compartmentalized to this particular story (No offense to the BL fans out there.)

In conclusion, it appears we have a shoe-in for a GOTY award here, and I highly encourage any and everyone to try this game.

Part of the reason I grinded through the episode in 1 night was because I still have 10 chapters to go in Uncharted 3 and I need to get that game done ASAP considering my free time is going to be reduced even more with my mother in law heading back home and thus having more kids than grown ups in my house (Meaning the inmates now outnumber the wardens.) I also need to clear up my rental slots in time for Black Ops 3 and then Battlefront. I'll likely play my other save through at a more gradual pace, but I can't wait too long as I don't want to forget my choices.

Wow! Reading that has me pretty excited to start a new playthrough and finally finish Tales From the Borderlands. Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to do it until I get back from the trip I'm taking next week.

 

[Zookster]

Sounds like Tales of the Borderlands is easily worth $15 in that I'd likely play it at least twice. I already have the first free episode on my HDD, but haven't had a chance to get to it yet.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Yes it is easily worth $15, and like I said, play the 2 runthroughs concurrently, with 1 chapter after the other. That way you'll more easily remember the decisions you made. I'm really interested to see how the last episode plays through given there's a major decision you make early on, and a bunch of other decisions you make throughout the game comes up right near the end, and I'm REALLY interested to see how my more smart*ss playthrough treats me.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Well I'm sending back the Nathan Drake collection as I finally beat Uncharted 3 after a long hiatus. If you want a more entertaining review that pretty much matches what I think, you can watch it here.

In case you didn't know, I have a rather checkered past with UC 3. I get especially annoyed when games force me to rage quit, and what made UC 3 an interesting case is that when I played it again for the PS4, I nearly rage quit on the same awful chapter (More on that later). I was ready to pack the game in and send it back when I said, "Let me give it ONE more try" and apparently that try was good enough and I finished the game. I do have to say that overall I did thoroughly enjoy the experience. If there's one thing I'll give Naughty Dog credit for it's that they make beating their games feel like an accomplishment. Aside from the issues with the ship level I did have a few other complaints, mainly with the combat. I really don't like how they try to portray Nathan Drake as some sort of "every man" when he can take more bullets than Marcus Fenix and can mow down literally hundreds of people without so much as a flinch. I mean this is the third game and Drake seems like as much of a psychopath in this as he did in UC 1. I had more fun when I viewed Nathan as a killing machine, almost like a robot, than I did when I tried to view him as some sort of "relate-able" guy.

In conclusion the Nathan Drake collection is an easy sell if you've never played the UC games, or if you have and want to experience them again. At $50 for 3 high quality games (minus multiplayer but honestly UC multiplayer was about as fulfilling and necessary as Mass Effect Multiplayer) it's one of the best values you can get. And the 60 FPS really does make a welcome difference. Enough with the "Cinematic Experience" and I REALLY hope that ND does the right thing and is willing to pull back the visuals a bit in UC 4 in order to maintain that 60 FPS because it's going to be really awkward if they don't have it.

I realize this next section is me beating a dead horse but I don't care. I honestly think that the ship levels in Uncharted 3 are possibly some of the WORST levels in the history of gaming. First off, they're hard as hell. Like I said I barely got past them, and I like to think that while I'm not great, I'm certainly better than the average gamer. Hell at one point the game literally set up a checkpoint in the middle of a gunfight. Secondly, the levels aren't well designed. There's no real "flow" to them like there are the other sections of the game. It feels like a roller coaster that keeps stopping then changing paths. Finally, and the most egregious fault, is that they are COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY! They literally have NOTHING to do with the overriding plot. Nothing advances, no one grows, no one of importance dies, and when it ends they basically just walk back into the regular plot. It is the worst case of unnecessary padding. I honestly think that at some point during the development of Uncharted 2, someone at ND mentioned this "great idea" for a bunch of levels in a ship graveyard, culminating in a great cinematic escape from a sinking old cruise ship. Of course this didn't make sense in Uncharted 2 given the extended cast, so they said, "Well, maybe in the third game." Then the third game came and the same guy again bugged ND about this, but this came right around the time that the writers had experienced writers block and couldn't come up with anymore great set-pieces to advance the plot (the developers have said that that is how they do it, proof here.) So low and behold, we have our crappy ship levels. As I've mentioned before, I don't like it when in story focused games bad story telling elements are used and the ship level is just a big annoying groups of levels that exist for the sole purpose of padding. I honestly think that the game would have scored better reviews if they had abandoned these levels because then it would have made a tighter, more cohesive experience with the ongoing plot. So in conclusion, F*ck chapters 12-15 of Uncharted 3.

For now I'm awaiting WWE2K16, and following that will be Black Ops 3 of course.

 

[Zookster]

Well I'm sending back the Nathan Drake collection as I finally beat Uncharted 3 after a long hiatus. If you want a more entertaining review that pretty much matches what I think, you can watch it here.

In case you didn't know, I have a rather checkered past with UC 3. I get especially annoyed when games force me to rage quit, and what made UC 3 an interesting case is that when I played it again for the PS4, I nearly rage quit on the same awful chapter (More on that later). I was ready to pack the game in and send it back when I said, "Let me give it ONE more try" and apparently that try was good enough and I finished the game. I do have to say that overall I did thoroughly enjoy the experience. If there's one thing I'll give Naughty Dog credit for it's that they make beating their games feel like an accomplishment. Aside from the issues with the ship level I did have a few other complaints, mainly with the combat. I really don't like how they try to portray Nathan Drake as some sort of "every man" when he can take more bullets than Marcus Fenix and can mow down literally hundreds of people without so much as a flinch. I mean this is the third game and Drake seems like as much of a psychopath in this as he did in UC 1. I had more fun when I viewed Nathan as a killing machine, almost like a robot, than I did when I tried to view him as some sort of "relate-able" guy.

In conclusion the Nathan Drake collection is an easy sell if you've never played the UC games, or if you have and want to experience them again. At $50 for 3 high quality games (minus multiplayer but honestly UC multiplayer was about as fulfilling and necessary as Mass Effect Multiplayer) it's one of the best values you can get. And the 60 FPS really does make a welcome difference. Enough with the "Cinematic Experience" and I REALLY hope that ND does the right thing and is willing to pull back the visuals a bit in UC 4 in order to maintain that 60 FPS because it's going to be really awkward if they don't have it.

I realize this next section is me beating a dead horse but I don't care. I honestly think that the ship levels in Uncharted 3 are possibly some of the WORST levels in the history of gaming. First off, they're hard as hell. Like I said I barely got past them, and I like to think that while I'm not great, I'm certainly better than the average gamer. Hell at one point the game literally set up a checkpoint in the middle of a gunfight. Secondly, the levels aren't well designed. There's no real "flow" to them like there are the other sections of the game. It feels like a roller coaster that keeps stopping then changing paths. Finally, and the most egregious fault, is that they are COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY! They literally have NOTHING to do with the overriding plot. Nothing advances, no one grows, no one of importance dies, and when it ends they basically just walk back into the regular plot. It is the worst case of unnecessary padding. I honestly think that at some point during the development of Uncharted 2, someone at ND mentioned this "great idea" for a bunch of levels in a ship graveyard, culminating in a great cinematic escape from a sinking old cruise ship. Of course this didn't make sense in Uncharted 2 given the extended cast, so they said, "Well, maybe in the third game." Then the third game came and the same guy again bugged ND about this, but this came right around the time that the writers had experienced writers block and couldn't come up with anymore great set-pieces to advance the plot (the developers have said that that is how they do it, proof here.) So low and behold, we have our crappy ship levels. As I've mentioned before, I don't like it when in story focused games bad story telling elements are used and the ship level is just a big annoying groups of levels that exist for the sole purpose of padding. I honestly think that the game would have scored better reviews if they had abandoned these levels because then it would have made a tighter, more cohesive experience with the ongoing plot. So in conclusion, F*ck chapters 12-15 of Uncharted 3.

While Uncharted 3 is my least favorite of the Uncharted games, the ship levels did tie up the Ramses story -- another antagonist trying to find the Pillars of Iram. Sure it's a side story (aka padding), but without that sequence, you would have worst reviews for a six-hour campaign. And while that side story may have just been the pretext for a preconceived set piece, they were among the most enjoyable, memorable, and entertaining set pieces of the entire series for me.

Just as nobody plays Uncharted for MP, nobody plays it for original, taut storytelling. They play it for spectacular set pieces, though I admit, you are not the first person I've heard complain about those levels.

There definitely is a difficulty spike and learning curve to how you approach the ship graveyard, but once you know the lay of the land, weapon locations, and best stealth route, it isn't too bad. It can just get a bit tedious moving through the water.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I see where you're coming from but I still disagree. First off, even without those levels the game is longer than 6 hours. Second, I and everyone else do not give a sh*t about Ramses. The game was good enough with Marlowe and Talbot. They added him for the sole purpose of giving some sort of justification for these ship levels. They had totally fleshed out the antagonists of Marlowe and Talbot, and now this guy comes out of no where and now we're supposed to take him seriously as a villain? He's not a villain, he's a plot filler device. What they should have done was just try and poison Drake after he gave up his documents and have Elena come in for a last second save and get a cure, which would knock him out for 2 days and then they'd pick it right up at Chapter 16. Why the hell would they bother sending Drake off to someone else when they could just KILL HIM and be done with it? Oh, so all the other times Drake was around at a distance they were trying to kill him, yet when they have him served up on a silver platter they're going to send him out to be someone else's problem? And yes, I realize the writers at Naughty Dog aren't going to be winning any awards anytime soon, but that doesn't mean they're immune to criticism or shouldn't be expected to get some basic storytelling rules down. Quite frankly Uncharted would be a better series if they put more attention into their stories as opposed to the massive set pieces, which are likely responsible for the AWFUL decision to render the newest game at 30 FPS.

 

[Zookster]

Naughty Dog's biggest mistake was forcing Amy Henning out. With her there, we might not have been given so many of those forced quicktime chase and fighting scenes, which to me were the worst part of Uncharted 3--adversely effecting the flow, and perhaps a ship graveyard/sinking cruise ship chapter sequence would've been better integrated into the main story. Uncharted 3 definitely had a disjointed feel, and the "boss battle" was among the most underwhelming I've experienced in any action game.