Topic: Rate The Last Game You Played

[Ymeegod]

? That's why you have a party?  I was still using combo's with my party members biotics, like Jack's Shockwave right after someone uses overload, and if they still live I'll use Shepard's slow down time and blast them before the can even hit the ground.

Also, since I had the resources I was able to get all the skills/biotics anyway for him anyway, the only difference really was he didn't get a boost to them (power and recharge was set as standard).

As for buying blueprints, yeah some could be bought but there were specific ones on certain missions and if you missed them then you were out of luck or course they might have fixed this now but at launch you couldn't go back and get missing blueprints.

 

[broodwars]

As for buying blueprints, yeah some could be bought but there were specific ones on certain missions and if you missed them then you were out of luck or course they might have fixed this now but at launch you couldn't go back and get missing blueprints.

No, they haven't fixed this.  If you miss out on a blueprint while on a mission, it is gone forever as far as I can tell.  I was pretty thorough scouring the environments, so I don't think I missed anything I would actually want, but it is possible.  I was more annoyed that there are some missions that end automatically, and they don't allow you to search the environment first.  There are some scenarios where there would be a massive firefight in one room and some stuff I could search and hack, but if you didn't find a way to search and hack them while under fire you wouldn't be given a chance to get them.  That's just unfair, especially because if someone shoots you while hacking the device locks-up and you don't get another chance.  At least the mission blueprints tend to placed out where they're easy to find.

[kraken613]

It's just a pity that this game is a 360-exclusive, because this is Epic Space Opera at its finest.

It's on PC too where it is better cause the 360 sucks.

And yes ME2 is AMAZING! I still think the first is a 9 and the 2nd is a 10 and my game of the year by far so far in the year.

[broodwars]

It's just a pity that this game is a 360-exclusive, because this is Epic Space Opera at its finest.

It's on PC too where it is better cause the 360 sucks.

And yes ME2 is AMAZING! I still think the first is a 9 and the 2nd is a 10 and my game of the year by far so far in the year.

Sorry, it's easy to forget that the PC is still technically considered a gaming platform.  :

[kraken613]

It's just a pity that this game is a 360-exclusive, because this is Epic Space Opera at its finest.

It's on PC too where it is better cause the 360 sucks.

And yes ME2 is AMAZING! I still think the first is a 9 and the 2nd is a 10 and my game of the year by far so far in the year.

Sorry, it's easy to forget that the PC is still technically considered a gaming platform.  :

Say that in a few months when you see StarCraft 2's sales.

Really PC is doing just a good as ever. You just don't hear about the sales because most of them are digital distribution like Steam where no sales numbers are released.

A PC may be a bit more of the initial investment but if you work the Steam sales you make it up fast. I got ME1 for $5 on a Steam sale. Or the 12 games I bought last Christmas for around $50.

PC owns any console, better controls and better graphics.

[KDR_11k]

And better prices, new games are at least 10€ cheaper than the console versions and pricedrops are much more common.

[Ponch]

Hunting Bad Guys Down, Taking Away Their Contraband, and Tossing Them in the Clink Game - 10/10
Never gets old.

[broodwars]

Naruto: Rise of a Ninja - 7.5/10 - I'm not a big Naruto fan.  I've seen the first 150-ish episodes and found it to be ok, but it's a show that drags on way too long stretching out every major event as long as humanly possible and then throwing in heaps of filler for good measure.  That said, this 360 Naruto game is surprisingly good, focusing on telling roughly the first half of the first Naruto series in abridged form via a GTA-style Open World rather than a typical fighting game.  There's even a bit of RPG in here as you run around the Hidden Leaf Village and do (fetch) quests from villagers to earn money, new abilities, HP, and (essentially) MP increases.  In a cool nod to the show, to perform the game's magical attacks (jutsus) you even have to perform a series of handsigns using the two analog sticks.  When you run into a scripted battle, you enter a fighting game-based combat system that's shallow and occasionally frustrating but fun.  The game's production values are excellent, using a cel shaded graphics engine that suits the source material well with English voice acting from the show and clips of the show itself to pad out the story.
 
Where the game runs into problems is in the repetition, which really raises its ugly head towards the end of the game.  You only control Naruto in this game (unlike the sequel, which allows you to use multiple fighters), and his moveset gets old fairly quickly.  Most of the fetch quests also constantly force you to trudge back and forth between the same 3-4 environments, and it gets tedious quickly fighting the same goons and dodging the same traps at the same locations for hours on end.  Ubisoft also didn't seem to realize the problem with having somewhat-tricky platforming sequences in a game where the main character is as fast as Speedy Gonzalez: it's extremely easy to fall off of platforms and lose health or have to repeat large sections of the game.  The gameplay variety is a bit lacking as well, with only fetch quests and variants on races to keep you occupied when you aren't exploring the Open World.
 
Overall, it's a decent if not exceptional game.  Your mileage will vary depending on how much you like Open World games (I'm not a huge fan).  I'm playing the 360 sequel right now, and it improves on quite a bit of my problems with this game (if not all of them) and is a good deal prettier.  Huh, imagine that: one of the best Naruto games, a franchise created by the Japanese, was made by a French company based in Canada for a platform the Japanese don't buy.  Go figure.

[KDR_11k]

unRevolutionary (XBL Indie games): 5/5 (I rated it on the service, might as well mention the rating here)
Another one of those twin stick shooters. This one comes with a ton of hand-designed levels (I'm at 33 or so with a hint mentioning levels up to 48) and a lot of variety, not only do different enemy combinations change the gameplay a lot but there are also race levels and boss fights that change it even more. It has RPG-elements in the form of 4 classes (you chose a half-class at level 1 and your final class at 10, so far I tried the passive class Blade and of course the Engineer in the demo) with different spells. These spells are absolutely vital as the enemy counts quickly ramp up to levels where your regular guns don't stand a chance. Out of my 4 spells the only one I don't use regularly is slowdown (basically bullet time).
At 5$ it's one of the pricier indie games but the crazy amount of content makes up for it. It's easy to overlook because it's an expensive twin stick shooter on a platform absolutely flooded with them but compared with the big name titles it's still cheap. Instead of throwing 15$ at the 2 hour Limbo why not get an indie game for a third of the price? My ingame timer is approaching 10 hours and I've only played with one class and am not even near the end yet. Since spells change the game so radically replaying with a different class will likely feel extremely different. Oh and the boss fights are effing awesome so far. And if it gets too hard for you, every time you continue the game gives you an additional extra life.

[broodwars]

Limbo - 9/10 - Atmospheric; beautiful; and clever, this is one of the most satisfying downloadable games I've played in a while.  The game is short, but I feel it ends just as it begins wearing out its welcome and running out of ideas.  I'm more bothered by the ending, which is very brief and employs a slow motion effect so severe I actually thought for a while that I had triggered a bug.  I would have appreciated a narrative beyond Stream of Consciousness, but overall I think this game is worthy of the accolades it is receiving (far more than Braid, the over-rated pretentious mess this game is often unfortunately compared to).  The pricing issue is getting blown out of proportion (as it often does: see Portal): if an engrossing experience with clever puzzles is what you're looking for in a game, than Limbo is easily worth that $15 price tag.

[Caliban]

I played the demo, and got stuck at a certain puzzle, so I said "screw this". Deleted it. Though I am willing to give it another try based on your post.

[broodwars]

I played the demo, and got stuck at a certain puzzle, so I said "screw this". Deleted it. Though I am willing to give it another try based on your post.

Yeah, I frequently got stuck near the end of the game.  I actually found this to be a surprisingly good Co-op game.  My best friend and I had some good fun during the last hour or so just bouncing puzzle solution suggestions off each other until we figured it out.  The game can be very frustrating, though.  I suggest taking a break when you run into a wall, as towards the end of the game it can be very easy to miss small details in the environment that are actually key to the entire puzzle.

[Halbred]

Dragon Quest IX:

Nowhere near finishing it, of course, but this game might never leave my DSi.

[KDR_11k]

Castlevania: Harmony of Assets (demo)

So, stupid linear level design (any branches only lead to treasure chests) and a demo for a multiplayer-based game with only singleplayer enabled... Also that boss design was lame, they realized the boss's pattern was too easy so they just made his second stage dump a ton of enemies into the arena. Cheap.

[broodwars]

Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm - 8/10 - Hey, another Naruto game, this time on the PS3 and covering all relevant story in the first series (it ends with the big Sasuke/Naruto fight just before the series spent a few years in Filler territory).  It's interesting having played 3 Naruto games now how similar they all are to each other, and yet so different.  Like the 360 Rise of a Ninja/Broken Bond games, this game also features an Open World where you explore for stuff and accept quests where you fight things using a Fighting Game combat engine and Cel Shaded graphics engine. 
 
That's where the similarities stop, though.  Whereas the 360 games were all about telling the story and exploring the world, Ultimate Ninja Storm uses a segmented mission-based structure that makes it feel more like a handheld game.  You run around the Open World buying stuff and accepting quests, and then you open your Quest log and just select to jump into the quest (as many times as you like).  Each event within a story is part of its own mission, and when you complete that mission you get sent back to the Hidden Leaf Village to do whatever until you decided to do another mission.  While this allows for more "pick-up and play"-style gaming, it also means the storytelling is shot to hell.  This is a shame because the few cutscenes in the game are very well done and the game overall is gorgeous.  This may very well be the closest I've seen a Cel Shaded game come to capturing the energy of an animated action series.
 
The fighting engine is also much faster and more fun than the slower 360 titles, though I do miss doing the Hand Signs to use Jutsu.  The fighting system here is similar to Marvel vs. Capcom in a 3D field: you pick a main fighter, pick 2 more characters to act as support, and then assign special attacks (which you earn in story mode) to each character.  In battle, you press a button to call that character in to perform a support attack while you spam the Circle and Triangle buttons to attack and use jutsus.  It's a very simple, button-mashing system but it's very fast; fun; and looks awesome.
 
Overall, that pretty much sums up my opinion of Ultimate Ninja Storm: it's not a very good story-telling game, but it's definitely the most fun Naruto game I've played.  And the 3 boss fights against giant creatures are incredible, melding very nicely Quick Time Events; cinematic scripting; and standard combat.  I also really appreciate that everything you can do or find in the Open World is marked on your map, so you don't have to spend hours looking for stuff.

[broodwars]

Transformers: War for Cybertron - 6/10 - Are you a G1 nut who could name all nearly-identical Autobots and Deceptacons on command?  Congratulations, this game was made for you and only you, the person who willingly bathes themselves in the rosy glow of nostalgia.  The rest of us will see an average, repetitive 3rd person non-cover-based shooter where you spend hours fighting wave after wave of generic robots in nearly-identical robotic hallways playing through a story that's almost impossible to care about for roughly half the game.  The visuals are mostly unimpressive, but the voice acting is generally well-done (especially from Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime and whoever they have voicing Soundwave, who sounds dead on).  There's also an insane amount of loading throughout the game and really aggravating difficulty spikes that can make certain sections really frustrating.
 
The singleplayer portion of the game spans 10 missions, 5 for the Dectacons and 5 for the Autobots.  Unfortunately, the Deceptacon campaign is chronologically before the Autobot campaign, so if you want to experience the story the "right way" you have to play the Deceptacon campaign first.  The Deceptacon campaign is terrible, full of seemingly-endless corridor-shooting with generic Autobots, no gameplay variety, and characters (outside Soundwave) who are just completely uninteresting.  The campaign turns around a bit towards the end with 2 levels devoted to fighting Omega Supreme, but overall the Deceptacon portion of the game feels tacked-on and boring.
 
Then suddenly the game transitions to the Autobot campaign and quickly becomes a lot better: the story becomes interesting and entertaining to follow, the gameplay starts getting more varied, there are quite a few references to the 1986 Transformers movie, and there are several fights against named Deceptacons like Soundwave (complete with cartridge Transfomers) and Starscream.  The game culminates in an exciting battle with a huge foe that more than a little pays homage to the planet-eating Unicron from the Transformers movie.
 
If the game had focused exclusively on telling the Autobot story, this could have been a fun but repetitive romp through the world of the original Transformers.  Unfortunately, it's too little too late.  I honestly don't know how this game managed above-average reviews (that it seems to be compared so often and so favorably to Batman: Arkham Asylum is insulting), but then again I've never understood how a series as terrible as the original Transformers has managed to keep such a large and rabid fanbase while the much superior Beast Wars is just a cult classic.

[broodwars]

Wow, I hadn't really realized it until I glanced at the above reviews, but I do seem to be on quite the roll lately getting games knocked out and out of my backlog.   : : :

Splinter Cell: Conviction - 8.5/10 - Just to make one thing clear going into this game: I've only previously played one Splinter Cell game, the original that was ported to the GameCube.  I hated it.  The controls were needlessly complicated, the old-school "stealth" gameplay tedious and unforgiving, and the overall game was just not fun.  Flash-forward to 2010 in this new post-Arkham Asylum world (the first game I ever played where "stealth" was actually fun) and (after enjoying the demo) I surprisingly found myself really enjoying Splinter Cell: Conviction.  Just like Arkham Asylum, this game focuses on empowering the player in the shadows while giving them the tools they need to solve each room in whatever manner suits them.  You aren't some weak little man memorizing guard patterns so you can quietly snap a guard's neck and hide him a locker so you can creep into a room, all while holding down 5-6 different buttons at once and ensuring that one mistake doesn't make you repeat the last 20 minutes of gameplay.  You are a predator, skulking around in the shadows and picking off enemies one-by-on as you prowl around a room searching for the best way to take everyone out with just a few shots.  The interface is smart and simple with contextual icons and story/objectives writing themselves on the walls, the level designs allow for a wide variety of approaches, the story is entertaining enough (though very "by the books" for a Tom Clancy product), and the game has some great set-piece moments towards the end.  Aside from one incredibly frustrating mission about 2/3 of the way through the game that returned the gameplay to the frustrating "make one mistake and you have to start all over again" design of the previous Splinter Cells, I had a consistently fun experience from beginning to end.

That isn't to say the game's without faults.  The various goons you fight in the game are hilariously stupid, making even the goons in Arkham Asylum look intelligent.  They're also incredibly loud and fond of shouting their current location/situation.  When you die (and you will die often in certain sections), the checkpoints are placed very far apart so you often find yourself playing some sections many times until you finally get it right.  The character models outside of Fisher himself are also very poor, especially compared to the environments.  Also, the music is annoying and I found the story a little hard to follow at times because it seems fond of referencing previous Splinter Cell games I've never played.  Finally, the game is a little on the short side, about 8 or so hours long.  I thought the game ended when it needed to, but there is very limited replay value and if you don't have a friend to play Co-op multiplayer there's a lot of content on the disc you simply can't access.

Overall, much like Arkham Asylum this is how stealth games should be: fun.  Hopefully, Ubisoft won't drop this new direction for the series just because (as they did with Prince of Persia) the die-hard Splinter Cell fans didn't like it.

[broodwars]

Condemned: Criminal Origins - 7/10 - This is an old favorite of mine, one I originally played on PC back in 2006 or so and now I play on 360.  Sadly, time hasn't been kind to this 360 Launch title, but it still remains a very immersive horror mystery game that does a great job of maintaining tension as you inch through darkness and wreckage with only your malfunctioning flashlight and whatever you can grab standing between you and the madness around you.  The sound design is still phenomenal, though Steven J. Blum really is phoning it in as the lead.  The game also features one of the most effective final levels of any game I've ever played, as you race through a derelict farm in pitch-black night with only the torch in your hand lighting your way 3 feet in front of you as insanity itself stalks you.  The game does an excellent job of making you feel like your character is going insane with some degree of subtlety.  It's a pity that the repetitive level designs and nonsensical "B Story" (towards the end, the game often feels like it's using some elements just for the sake of using them, even when they don't make sense) sometimes get in the way, though at least it's nowhere near as bad as it is in the sequel (oh wait, that game doesn't exist).

[broodwars]

Perfect Dark Zero - 3/10 - Whatever you may have heard about how bad this game is, you heard incorrectly: it's far, far worse than anyone could have thought possible from a game named Perfect Dark developed by Rare.  This game is the video game equivalent of children being brought in to sit at the grown-up table in the aftermath of all Rare's talent leaving to form Free Radical.  The controls are awful and inconsistent, the level design is abysmal with a tendency towards labyrinthian, the objectives unclear and lame, the missions are boring with a story that's just pitiful, and the production values aren't anything special even for a 360 launch game.  No, I didn't play the multiplayer, which (judging by the game's achievements) is the only noteworthy feature about the game.  It was hard enough dragging myself back to finish this horrible game.  The thing that bugs me most about the game, though, is how desperate it feels: with the heavy jazz/rock music; the "hot" new look of Joanna Dark; and the sometimes absurd number of troops thrown at you, the game really feels like it's trying too hard to be "hip" and fails miserably.

As bad as the game is, though, it's not without some ideas that were good for the time: you can outfit yourself before each mission with whatever combination of weapons you can fit on your character; a couple of the co-op-centric missions are kind of fun; the cover system may be poorly implemented but at least it's there; and each mission has a mid-level checkpoint (something the 360 remake of the original Perfect Dark could have used).  Although I don't know why you'd ever play it, it does have an extensive list of online co-op and competitive features as well.  In the end, though, I picked this game (the collector's edition, even) up used for $5, and I still feel ripped off.

[NWR_insanolord]

I had a lot of fun with Perfect Dark Zero's multiplayer (I actually bought copies for friends of mine because it was so cheap so we had something to play on Xbox Live), but you're right, the single player was terrible.

[Halbred]

I liked the released concept art for Joanna Dark (the more cartoony stuff) before they switched styles and went all rock-chick. It doesn't feel desperate--it feels like it was made by an out-of-touch committee, and may as well have been.

[broodwars]

I liked the released concept art for Joanna Dark (the more cartoony stuff) before they switched styles and went all rock-chick. It doesn't feel desperate--it feels like it was made by an out-of-touch committee, and may as well have been.

Meh, I can't say I cared for the cartoony look of the original concept art.  It reminds me of that fake-looking Flash animation they use for the E-Surance Commercials.  Maybe Cel Shading a little darker would have worked.  I do think we are getting at the same problem with the game, though: it's trying to hard to be "extreeeeeeeeeeeeme!" from the absurd characters ripped out of a Bond movie ("Mai Hem"?  Really?); to Joanna's "extreeeeeeeeeeeme!" teenage "attitude"; to her ridiculous "extreeeeeeeeme!" Rogue-esque hairdo; etc. A perfect example for me is during the setup to an early mission where you are supposed to be sneaking around, which kicks off with a frickin' biker gang attacking you.  Its all comes off feeling really out of place and fake.  Speaking of Joanna, though, she is almost completely unlikeable in this game, too, with her "I don't have to listed to ANYONE, because it's all about ME, ME, ME! WORD!" attitude.

[Halbred]

Hahahaha...yeah, I don't like the E-Surance commercials either. Way too Flashy. On the other hand, with the success of the DC Animated Universe cartoons, that art style is becoming more and more prevalent. It's not quite so obvious during the first three seasons of Batman or Superman, but it's pretty clear by the time you get to Gotham Knights, Batman Beyond, and Justice League.

[broodwars]

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom - 8.5/10 - Now this was an interesting one.  For a while, I saw this game compared a lot to the incredibly-overhyped XLBA title Braid, and indeed they are quite similar...if you remove all of Braid's pretentiousness and focus on solving mind-bending puzzles in the framework of a light and entertaining (and, most importantly, understandable) story.  Suffice to say, I really enjoyed this game, though it did really frustrate me at times with the insidious difficulty of its puzzles.  The game is structured as a series of puzzle rooms based around the loose story of a bumbling pie-thief who is so obsessed with stealing pies that he doesn't notice that he's inadvertently destroying everything around him, and then (due to a time-rewinding giant pie) is sent back in time to make a mockery of the space-time continuum by inadvertently reversing the damage as he runs around stealing more pies with the aid of temporal clones.  Yeah, it's definitely a story we've all seen before.    

Each of the 5 stages contains 10 puzzle rooms, each stage having a different rule about how you can manipulate time with your time clones.  In one room, you  might have to grab the pies in a particular order within a certain time limit.  On others, maybe only your time clones can grab the pies.  On still others, maybe your clones attack you instead of aiding you.  The variety and cleverness of the puzzles is truly impressive, though they can also be pretty sadistically hard as the game wears on.  Each room is bridged by amusing black & white "silent film"-style narration slides that tell a Dr. Seuss-style story (it's really one long poem using a simple rhyme scheme), and the game features a strong black & white art style with jazz soundtrack I really enjoyed.  Fans of World of Goo will also appreciate the captions that appear at the bottom of the screen in every room, as they simultaneously drop hints for the puzzle as well as mock the main character.

Overall, Winterbottom is a great, probably under-noticed game that's hampered a bit by being so focused on its puzzle structure, being so difficult, and being a little on the short side.  When you beat each stage, you also unlock associated "challenge rooms", but there's really no point to doing them unless you're either an Achievement nut or a glutton for punishment.  It's a pity the Wii's file size restrictions keep this game from being on WiiWare (the game's something like 230 MB large), because there's really nothing about this game that couldn't easily be done there and I think this game could have ridden the coattails of World of Goo nicely.

[NWR_insanolord]

I went to a panel at PAX with the developers of P.B. Winterbottom. It seemed like a cool concept, but I don't think I ever checked it out when I got home. I'll have to do that.

Madden NFL 11 (Xbox 360) - 9/10

As I've mentioned before, I've bought at least one copy of Madden for the last 9 years. Over that period of time, the series has been pretty steady in terms of quality, with some years bringing more improvements than others, but never being less than good (something that can't be said of the other exclusive-licensed sports series, Take 2's MLB 2K). This year's Madden, from the admittedly short time I've spent with it so far, is one of the biggest improvements the series has seen in a long time.

One of the major new features this year is a revamped animation system, and it shows. Looking at the instant replays the game shows, players move in a much more realistic manner. Another new feature, not as hyped by EA, but in my opinion much more significant, is the new kicking meter. Madden's kicking meter has been changed pretty frequently over the years, with mixed results, but they've finally nailed it. The new meter is essentially the same thing as the meter in Mario Golf and other older golf games, and I love it.

Madden 11 makes a pretty radical change to the game, by getting rid of the sprint button. This, combined with mapping jukes and other movements to the right analog stick, is a significant change to how you control the ball carrier. I like this a lot. In previous years I'd often fall into the pattern of just hammering on the turbo, whereas this year I've found myself more likely to use special moves and look for holes because that's no longer an option. Another change I like is that, when on defense, at any point you can hold down the A button and all your players will be run by the CPU. This lets you make sure not to make a stupid mistake, and then jump in and control it yourself when you need to.

EA's really played up the new GameFlow feature this year, but I heard so many bad things about it that I turned it off without even trying it. It's supposed to automatically pick plays for you, with the option of switching to a different play. It's basically the old Ask Madden feature, but more streamlined. I'd give it a shot if I could use it only on defense, which I've never been any good at calling plays for, but it doesn't give that option, and I want to call my own plays on offense.

In conclusion, this is the best Madden in years. If you were on the fence, or only buy it every few years, you should get this. EA has been on fire recently with their sports games, with amazing entries in the NHL, FIFA, and Tiger Woods series, and while this isn't quite on the level of those games, it's pretty close. No matter how you feel about EA's exclusive NFL license, they're still clearly working at improving the game, and they did a great job of it this year.