Yeah playing the ND Collection did remind me how fun the games can be and did perk my interest more for 4. Luckily my copy just shipped out, but due to Gamefly speeds I can only hope I'll get it before Friday.
Where are my Satellite Guy's gamers at?
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I'm not sure what you are talking about. Friday sounds like great Gamefly shipping speed to me. If it were me I would probably get it next Tuesday or Wednesday.
I'll grant that the shipwreck sequence smacked of side mission filler to extend the game, but the worst sequence in the history of gaming? Really?
For me it ranks among the most memorable sequences of the Uncharted series.
By shipwreck sequence, I assume you are talking about from the moment
Nate starts in the water and has to make his way through the ship graveyard to the point that he jumps off sinking cruise ship after confronting that main pirate guy.
I was much more annoyed by the many scripted quick time chase scenes and melee fights in Uncharted 3.
As I've said before, the reason the Shipwreck/Shipyard chapters are, IMO, one of the worst sequences (when I say "Sequences" I mean ALL the ship levels and what they entail, not just the end when the actual "Shipwreck" happens) in the history of gaming is because they fail on nearly every level. They're not fun, they don't move the story in any meaningful way, they're drawn out, and they're difficult. I mean okay, it's memorable in that it looks nice and is quite a sight, but Uncharted is all about huge, elaborate set pieces. That means that Naughty Dog merely did its job. It's like commending a good section of voice acting in a BioWare game. They're so good at it that it's to be expected. And Naughty Dog is good at telling stories and conveying an interesting plot, so when they mess it up, like they did with the Shipyard/Shipwreck, it sticks out like a sore thumb. It's akin to TLoU when you nearly wipe out an entire group of bandits in a city, and then after you move on to an area outside of the city, that same group of bandits follows you and wants to kill you because....apparently chasing after a duo of ruthless killers that have already done extensive damage and have already moved on is an AWESOME idea when resources like food, water, and people are extremely scarce.
So yes to some it may be nitpicking on what is otherwise a very well put together and genuinely fun game, but when I'm playing a bunch of levels that aren't fun (meaning they failed on the gameplay) and said levels are filler and could have been completely taken out and made the game better (meaning they failed on the story) then I feel the need to complain because the developers failed on the two gaming fundamentals: Story and Gameplay. At the very least I have yet to hear anyone "defend" the ship levels in any meaningful way other than from a presentation perspective.
So yes to some it may be nitpicking on what is otherwise a very well put together and genuinely fun game, but when I'm playing a bunch of levels that aren't fun (meaning they failed on the gameplay) and said levels are filler and could have been completely taken out and made the game better (meaning they failed on the story) then I feel the need to complain because the developers failed on the two gaming fundamentals: Story and Gameplay. At the very least I have yet to hear anyone "defend" the ship levels in any meaningful way other than from a presentation perspective.
So what exactly was it about the gameplay of those levels didn't work for you or weren't fun ? Was it just because it represented a new challenge (difficulty spike) that took you out of the story -- and in that, not deemed necessary to the story anyway? (Speaking of Mass Effect, there are plenty of missions that aren't necessary to the story but are a lot of fun). Were you annoyed by the rocking motions of the ships?
I won't defend the gameplay other than to say it was different; some of it worked for me and some of it didn't. But combined with the visually spectacular presentation, I thought it was worth the effort, and I feel the game as a package would be much less without it.
The parts where he was shooting from the water were a bit frustrating at first, but just like in any set-piece arena, once you learn the map, enemy patterns, and the location of rocket launchers and sniper rifles and other one hit-weapons, the section opens up and can be a lot of fun. As a collectible hunter, after taking out all the enemies, I personally enjoyed exploring the shipping crates, climbing ship masts, venturing into rusted out galleys, and other unique environments looking for treasures. And the only scripted chase scene I can say I enjoyed in the entire game was when
Nate was running through the sinking ship
Yeah, apparently people have been complaining that Bastion is overpowered since the betas first began. He is my go to choice when I have to defend an area so that is probably true. Bastion has a weaker gun that can be fired while moving and a much stronger gun that can fire off 200 rounds before having to reload if you transform into turret mode.
The only downside is that it takes a while to transform and you can't move when you are in turret mode. Still it makes you a beast if you are trying to defend an area and you don't really have a need to move around.
Well seeing as I'll soon be caught in a hot and sweaty foursome of myself, my console, Uncharted 4 and Doom 4, I may as well catch up on what I've been playing.
On the mobile front I finally beat Downwell. Downwell is a very rare instance of a game (a new IP) that I basically knew I would like just based on gameplay footage, and it was this footage that did it for me:
I had to wait until 2016 to really play this because I wanted the Android version, as this game hits my sweet spot of rouge like gameplay where an entire gameplay session can just be a few minutes, which is how I like my mobile games. Gameplay is fun and addicting and is a shoe-in for a GOTY award from me.
Still, the game isn't perfect, but my complaints are very minor. The main complaint I have is with the upgrade system. As you play and collect gems it goes towards a running total, and when you get certain levels it unlocks different characters and color palettes for the game. The problem is that there are only 5 characters, and only 2 (possibly 3) are ones you'd like to use based on their benefits/detriments. And it doesn't take very long to unlock all of them and afterwards all you're doing is unlocking different palettes, which are rather useless in my opinion. I find the black/white/red default palette to be the best one, so I kept unlocking stuff I didn't want. There's 38 palettes to unlock, so basically once you get the characters all you can really do is try to beat the game, which is quite hard but very satisfying. After that it unlocks a "Hard Mode" and believe me they're not kidding. In fact it's so hard that I don't feel like playing it because it'd be more of an act of frustration. Still, for a mere $3 you get a LOT for the money. And the fact that it's on a touch screen shouldn't dissuade you from picking it up on such a device.
I also recently tried out Lifeline. I hesitate to call Lifeline a game though, because it really is more of an interactive narrative. In fact it's really the epitome of "Choose Your Own Adventure" turned into a "game." You are, well, you, and you get a distress signal from a scientist stranded on a random moon in outer space after their spaceship crashed. The scientist's name is "Taylor," but their gender has been explicitly omitted, so it's up to you whether or not it's a male or female. I decided to take this to the next level and went through the experience thinking I was communicating with Taylor Swift. Anyways Taylor tells you what's going on around them and you will come up to various decisions. Taylor may be on their way somewhere but then come upon something of interest, and it's up to you to tell them whether to investigate or keep going. As such, the decisions you make affect the overall plot, meaning your decisions DO matter and you'll actually get different endings. After you reach a conclusion the first time, the "game" will let you start over and give you extra options, such as rewinding on decisions or playing without delays. What I mean by "delays" is that the game plays out in quasi-real-time. Oftentimes you'll see "Taylor is Busy" because they're out doing something. So for example, Taylor may go to sleep, which means the story suspends until they wake up, or they'll say "I'm on my way. I'll let you know when I get there or something comes up" and again it'll be busy. It does add a nice dynamic to where you feel like this is actually going on, as opposed to just sitting and plowing through, which can kill the immersion a bit.
I should note that I picked up Lifeline and its sequels in a sale. Each "game" was discounted to 20 cents. Each game is $1.99 regular price, but I think it's worth it. If you were a fan of CYOA books like I was as a kid you'll eat this up. Even if you decide to only play once I think the experience is worth the price of admission.
Lastly, I FINALLY got back to play Wolfenstein: Old Blood. I had started playing it in July of 2015 but got stuck somewhere and just abandoned the game. It wasn't until recently (and after a few cocktails) that I decided to fire up the game again. Turns out I kept dying because I was too stupid to realize that there was a massive mounted gun on the boat, as opposed to me trying to kill everyone with a standard machine gun. So since getting past that hump I've been playing through the game again and enjoying it quite a bit. It's really case of "Second verse: Same as the First" and "If you like X, you'll like Y." Old Blood is literally just more of New Order action, but less in other areas, such as plot development and world building. It almost comes across as something that could have been a DLC upgrade as opposed to a completely separate game. Another issue is that the game is a prequel to New Order. If you remember, the whole plot of New Order was that the Nazis won WW2 and completely took over the world. This means that the plot/overriding drive of Old Blood is moot because at the end of the day, what you do means nothing. The Nazis are still going to win the war and take over the world, and presumably, they're going to lose it at the end of New Order (I'm assuming that's what happens in New Order as I never finished it, but I do plan on going back to do so.) But yes, if you enjoyed New Order's 1 man army style gameplay then there's little reason to think you won't like this as well. If you've been on the fence about the Wolfenstein games, I'd ask this: If the idea of walking into a room carrying 2 automatic shotguns blasting the legs off of super powered Nazis on the moon sounds appealing, then you'll feel right at home here (Note: Moon Nazis are in New Order, not Old Blood).
Sidenote: It is sad that FPS games like the new Wolfensteins and Shadow Warrior are considered "unique" with their one man army gameplay when back in the day, that style was the norm. Games like Doom, Blake Stone, Duke Nukem 3D, and Rise of the Triad just to name a select few were all about blasting through hordes of bad guys with awesome weapons while you looked for healthpacks after each encounter to recover, forcing you to adjust your gameplay style in case you were still weak after a fight. I mean I'm not saying that dual weapon, regenerating health FPS games are inherently bad and the Halos and CoDs have a deserved place as well, but is it too much to ask to go back to the "Kill everything and have fun doing it" style that made the genre so much fun in the first place? Why do such games have to constantly be a "novelty?" New Order showed that you can still mix "Unkillable Death Machine" with a decent plot and get good results. I mean hell, Half Life 1 and 2 were basically "One Man Scientist/Death Army" gameplay but their stories stand out as some of the best in the genre. Does everything have to be so "realistic" in order to convey a good story when we've already seen the good marriage of both already? Just a thought...
On the mobile front I finally beat Downwell. Downwell is a very rare instance of a game (a new IP) that I basically knew I would like just based on gameplay footage, and it was this footage that did it for me:
I had to wait until 2016 to really play this because I wanted the Android version, as this game hits my sweet spot of rouge like gameplay where an entire gameplay session can just be a few minutes, which is how I like my mobile games. Gameplay is fun and addicting and is a shoe-in for a GOTY award from me.
Still, the game isn't perfect, but my complaints are very minor. The main complaint I have is with the upgrade system. As you play and collect gems it goes towards a running total, and when you get certain levels it unlocks different characters and color palettes for the game. The problem is that there are only 5 characters, and only 2 (possibly 3) are ones you'd like to use based on their benefits/detriments. And it doesn't take very long to unlock all of them and afterwards all you're doing is unlocking different palettes, which are rather useless in my opinion. I find the black/white/red default palette to be the best one, so I kept unlocking stuff I didn't want. There's 38 palettes to unlock, so basically once you get the characters all you can really do is try to beat the game, which is quite hard but very satisfying. After that it unlocks a "Hard Mode" and believe me they're not kidding. In fact it's so hard that I don't feel like playing it because it'd be more of an act of frustration. Still, for a mere $3 you get a LOT for the money. And the fact that it's on a touch screen shouldn't dissuade you from picking it up on such a device.
I also recently tried out Lifeline. I hesitate to call Lifeline a game though, because it really is more of an interactive narrative. In fact it's really the epitome of "Choose Your Own Adventure" turned into a "game." You are, well, you, and you get a distress signal from a scientist stranded on a random moon in outer space after their spaceship crashed. The scientist's name is "Taylor," but their gender has been explicitly omitted, so it's up to you whether or not it's a male or female. I decided to take this to the next level and went through the experience thinking I was communicating with Taylor Swift. Anyways Taylor tells you what's going on around them and you will come up to various decisions. Taylor may be on their way somewhere but then come upon something of interest, and it's up to you to tell them whether to investigate or keep going. As such, the decisions you make affect the overall plot, meaning your decisions DO matter and you'll actually get different endings. After you reach a conclusion the first time, the "game" will let you start over and give you extra options, such as rewinding on decisions or playing without delays. What I mean by "delays" is that the game plays out in quasi-real-time. Oftentimes you'll see "Taylor is Busy" because they're out doing something. So for example, Taylor may go to sleep, which means the story suspends until they wake up, or they'll say "I'm on my way. I'll let you know when I get there or something comes up" and again it'll be busy. It does add a nice dynamic to where you feel like this is actually going on, as opposed to just sitting and plowing through, which can kill the immersion a bit.
I should note that I picked up Lifeline and its sequels in a sale. Each "game" was discounted to 20 cents. Each game is $1.99 regular price, but I think it's worth it. If you were a fan of CYOA books like I was as a kid you'll eat this up. Even if you decide to only play once I think the experience is worth the price of admission.
Lastly, I FINALLY got back to play Wolfenstein: Old Blood. I had started playing it in July of 2015 but got stuck somewhere and just abandoned the game. It wasn't until recently (and after a few cocktails) that I decided to fire up the game again. Turns out I kept dying because I was too stupid to realize that there was a massive mounted gun on the boat, as opposed to me trying to kill everyone with a standard machine gun. So since getting past that hump I've been playing through the game again and enjoying it quite a bit. It's really case of "Second verse: Same as the First" and "If you like X, you'll like Y." Old Blood is literally just more of New Order action, but less in other areas, such as plot development and world building. It almost comes across as something that could have been a DLC upgrade as opposed to a completely separate game. Another issue is that the game is a prequel to New Order. If you remember, the whole plot of New Order was that the Nazis won WW2 and completely took over the world. This means that the plot/overriding drive of Old Blood is moot because at the end of the day, what you do means nothing. The Nazis are still going to win the war and take over the world, and presumably, they're going to lose it at the end of New Order (I'm assuming that's what happens in New Order as I never finished it, but I do plan on going back to do so.) But yes, if you enjoyed New Order's 1 man army style gameplay then there's little reason to think you won't like this as well. If you've been on the fence about the Wolfenstein games, I'd ask this: If the idea of walking into a room carrying 2 automatic shotguns blasting the legs off of super powered Nazis on the moon sounds appealing, then you'll feel right at home here (Note: Moon Nazis are in New Order, not Old Blood).
Sidenote: It is sad that FPS games like the new Wolfensteins and Shadow Warrior are considered "unique" with their one man army gameplay when back in the day, that style was the norm. Games like Doom, Blake Stone, Duke Nukem 3D, and Rise of the Triad just to name a select few were all about blasting through hordes of bad guys with awesome weapons while you looked for healthpacks after each encounter to recover, forcing you to adjust your gameplay style in case you were still weak after a fight. I mean I'm not saying that dual weapon, regenerating health FPS games are inherently bad and the Halos and CoDs have a deserved place as well, but is it too much to ask to go back to the "Kill everything and have fun doing it" style that made the genre so much fun in the first place? Why do such games have to constantly be a "novelty?" New Order showed that you can still mix "Unkillable Death Machine" with a decent plot and get good results. I mean hell, Half Life 1 and 2 were basically "One Man Scientist/Death Army" gameplay but their stories stand out as some of the best in the genre. Does everything have to be so "realistic" in order to convey a good story when we've already seen the good marriage of both already? Just a thought...
Since Black Ops 3 multiplayer is free to play on Steam this weekend I decided to give it a shot. It felt great to play COD with a mouse and keyboard on a 1440p monitor at 180 FPS.
That being said, I can see why they have the $15 multiplayer option on PC. Even with it being free right now there is barely anyone playing on PC. I tried several of the multiplayer modes and the only one I was able to find a game in was Team Deathmatch. Every other mode I tried put me in a lobby by myself and no one ever joined.
There were also a lot more connection issues than I am used to from the PS4 version of the game. I had a couple games that were unplayable because they were so laggy and two others that said I was disconnected from the host. Host? The console versions have dedicated servers. Why are they using a host system on PC?
Anyways, COD does feel good on PC and the $15 multiplayer only option is pretty attractive. Even if they offered that for future COD games to try to build the audience I don't see myself buying them. If there aren't enough people to play Kill Confirmed or Domination while they are having a free weekend I'd hate to see what it is like on a normal day.
That being said, I can see why they have the $15 multiplayer option on PC. Even with it being free right now there is barely anyone playing on PC. I tried several of the multiplayer modes and the only one I was able to find a game in was Team Deathmatch. Every other mode I tried put me in a lobby by myself and no one ever joined.
There were also a lot more connection issues than I am used to from the PS4 version of the game. I had a couple games that were unplayable because they were so laggy and two others that said I was disconnected from the host. Host? The console versions have dedicated servers. Why are they using a host system on PC?
Anyways, COD does feel good on PC and the $15 multiplayer only option is pretty attractive. Even if they offered that for future COD games to try to build the audience I don't see myself buying them. If there aren't enough people to play Kill Confirmed or Domination while they are having a free weekend I'd hate to see what it is like on a normal day.
Well, thanks for reaffirming my decision to get that game on console.
EDIT: I think there may be something wrong with the BLOPS3 servers. I just tried playing on my One and had issues finding matches, so perhaps your experience wasn't a real representation of what it's like on PC.
EDIT: I think there may be something wrong with the BLOPS3 servers. I just tried playing on my One and had issues finding matches, so perhaps your experience wasn't a real representation of what it's like on PC.
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Speaking of Black Ops 3, it looks like they're having a free Awakening DLC weekend, where you can play the first DLC package of maps for free. Also it looks like they're doing Double XP as well
After a few hours with Doom 4, I have to say that yes, this is the Doom game we've been waiting for. While Doom 3 was a major departure in the series (a departure that I actually enjoyed) Doom 4 really feels like a real "remake" or "reboot" of the original. Fast action, bloody action, and fantastic visuals, even on the Xbox One. Having said that, I can also say that after a few hours with Doom 4 I have to say that I can't in good conscious keep playing it on a console. While the performance is still good and fast, Doom 4 just feels weird with a controller and doesn't feel "right." Even though the game is running at 60 FPS, it feels like it's playing at 1.5X speed, like its running "faster" than 60. As a result I had to actually adjust my viewing to the game. I can't recall anytime when I played a game that I felt slight motion sickness, and I simply don't get motion sickness except when I intentionally spin in a circle dozens of times. This game needs to be played with a mouse and keyboard, which I am going to do. Once it goes on sale for 50% off (which, given Bethesda's track record, will likely be before the end of the year) I'll be picking it up.
Yeah, I'm only about 4.5 hours in on the PC but I'm loving it so far. This is coming from someone who has never played a doom game before.
Also, it sounds like people are making some pretty cool stuff with the Snap Map feature. I assumed that this would just be a custom multiplayer map editor like Halo Forge or the many other games that do similar stuff. It is that but it also allows people to make their own single player and co-op levels. From what I hear it's basically a stripped down version of Mario Maker for Doom. I'll definitely be checking it out after I finish the campaign.
I should point out that many PC gamers aren't real happy with it because Id basically gave us this instead of full mod support. My guess is that this was done because they want to make it accessible for console where it will sell better even though Doom earned its reputation on PC.
http://www.pcgamer.com/snapmap-doesnt-make-up-for-dooms-lack-of-mod-support/
I'm sure over time Doom 4 will get official Mod support. Very rarely does a game come out with official mod support at launch. I haven't looked at Snap Map at all yet but it does look quite cool, and I have no problem with developers releasing stuff that makes it easy for people to create their own content with it. One of the cool things about Duke Nukem 3d was that it came with a fully functioning level builder. Like it wasn't a mod tool: It was the BUILD engine that the developers used to make the game. And it was surprisingly easy to use once you learned the basics of how things functioned. Hell I was able to make fully functioning levels with it in Junior High and I had literally NO programming skills, and none were needed to get it running. And people did make maps that were quite fun and could be played online with others. I did see in that article that he was complaining about some limitations of the Snap Map engine, but I'm sure they'll make it more robust over time. Hell the Mario Maker engine has changed DRASTICALLY since it was released 9 months ago, and I get the feeling that the same will happen with Snap Map.
id Software has a tradition of being very mod friendly. Hell the source codes of the original Doom, Doom 3, Quake and Quake 3 Arena are available for people to download and do whatever they want with. I'm not saying we're necessarily going to have Doom 4's code made available in the very near future, but I think people complaining about no official mod support at launch need to cool their tits a bit.
id Software has a tradition of being very mod friendly. Hell the source codes of the original Doom, Doom 3, Quake and Quake 3 Arena are available for people to download and do whatever they want with. I'm not saying we're necessarily going to have Doom 4's code made available in the very near future, but I think people complaining about no official mod support at launch need to cool their tits a bit.
Yeah, I agree with all of this. Real mod support is great, and like you said it will probably be there eventually. Snap Map has the potential to be used by a mass audience the way Mario Maker is though. As cool as mods are there are plenty of people who are intimated about trying to get them running properly even if it isn't actually all that hard. Many of those same people will be willing to look at the top rated levels in the built in Snap Map section and download them.
Plus Snap Map is available to the massive console audience while mods most likely won't be. Fallout 4 is the only game I have ever heard of supporting mods on console and I haven't really heard anyone talk about that since it was released.
I remember playing the original doom and doom 2 in high school. We used to play multiplayer at night with our rocking 14.4 modems calling each other. No internet or TCP/IP multiplayer yet as I recall. I may have to buy doom 4 now.... Feeling nostalgic....
