Topic: Rate The Last Game You Played

[Lithium]

holy hell Broodwars.




As for me it looks like im in the last act in Xenoblade. I swear to god if i have to activate another lift im going to choke a bitch.

[NWR_insanolord]

Sony needs to put their money where their mouth is with all the talk of how easy it is to port to Vita from PS3 and port Starhawk to it, because based on broodwars' review I'd buy it in a second if it were available for that platform.

[broodwars]

Sony needs to put their money where their mouth is with all the talk of how easy it is to port to Vita from PS3 and port Starhawk to it, because based on broodwars' review I'd buy it in a second if it were available for that platform.

I think the problem with such a port would be handling the high player count, as well as the sheer amount of carnage that can happen in a given match at any time.  The Vita really hasn't had any games that have pushed team-based online multiplayer, so it's hard to say for sure how badly the player count would have to be cut.  As one of the keys that makes Starhawk multiplayer work is being part of this big epic battle that's constantly adapting, I think you'd lose that with a significantly smaller player count on Vita.

The idea has merit (especially since Sony isn't doing jack to hype Starhawk right now on PS3), but I'll have a better idea what the Vita can handle in terms of online play next week after I pick up Resistance: Burning Skies (which has a maximum of 8 players).

holy hell Broodwars.

Thank you.  *takes a bow*     Yeah, as you can see there's a reason I'd been putting all that writing off for a month.  I have to be in a certain mood to write for almost 4 hours, though once I get past my usual writer's block with the intro things tend to move along nicely.  As I said, I'm going to try to avoid having to do so much writing in the future by getting these things out sooner.

By the way, you should know that it was your Hotel Dusk review that inspired me to try to add some visual flavor to my reviews.   

I need to get back to Xenoblade at some point.  I got to Sword Valley sometime last year, but a particular plot point just before it disappointed me and I was growing tired of grinding Affinity so I put the game back on the shelf.  I did really enjoy that game, though, and I'll probably be in a "big, epic RPG" mood again sometime in the near future.

Incidentally, the PS3's new Move-only game Sorcery is probably going to be my next review, as I picked it (and Mass Effect 3, which was on sale for half off) up today.  I am looking forward to actually having something seemingly decent to play with my Move controller for once.

[NWR_insanolord]

Ah crap, that's right, I wanted to get Resistance too. Something is going to have to wait with all the money I have to spend in the next few weeks.

[broodwars]

Ah crap, that's right, I wanted to get Resistance too. Something is going to have to wait with all the money I have to spend in the next few weeks.

You should probably factor into your purchasing decision that apparently Resistance: Burning Skies' SP Campaign is, at best, 6 hours long.  That just leaves the multiplayer, & I don't know how much you're into online deathmatch multiplayer.

Between what I've heard about Resistance and what I've played of Uncharted, I'd probably recommend Uncharted (though it should be noted that Uncharted will cost you $10 more because...it's Uncharted).  There's more SP content there (though no MP at all), the production values seem better, and there just seems to be more overall polish.  Of course, I'll throw a big wrench into that clear recommendation by reminding you that Lumines: Electronic Symphony is awesome, and it has a demo if you need convincing. 

The nice thing about Vita, though, is that most of the retail games on it cost $5 less if you buy the digital version off PSN.  Of course, though, Sony's $100 price tag for the only Vita memory card you should buy (32 GB version), is an extremely bitter pill to swallow to store those retail games.
 

[NWR_insanolord]

I actually already bought the 32 GB memory card. It's $80 on Amazon at the moment, much easier to swallow than the MSRP (still about four times what I could get an SD card of the same size for, though).

Lumines sounds interesting, but it's just not worth what they're charging to me. I'll check out the demo, though, maybe that will convince me otherwise. Do the Resistance games offer bots for multiplayer? That seems like a good feature to include in a handheld FPS, but they're pretty rare these days in any shooter.

[broodwars]

Do the Resistance games offer bots for multiplayer? That seems like a good feature to include in a handheld FPS, but they're pretty rare these days in any shooter.

None of the previous Resistance games have supported offline multiplayer with bots, and after some quick research just now it looks like the Burning Skies devs have confirmed that their game doesn't have it either.  Maybe that feature will come in a future Vita Resistance or Uncharted game, but not these ones.  But hey, Gravity Rush releases on June 12th, and that looks to be a pretty cool and meaty experience.

Incidentally, a cool thing about Starhawk that might interest you is that it's one of the exceptionally rare PS3 games (I've only previously seen it in LittleBigPlanet) where you can play online multiplayer with a friend in Split/Screen mode, each of you signed into your own PSN account (provided the PS3 has that account already loaded onto it).  You can play Co-Op that way as well.

[NWR_insanolord]

Well I'm definitely getting MLB and Rayman, and I'll have to look into the rest. Also, since I never owned a PSP, I've got a pretty huge backlog to work through, and if they ever get around to supporting PS1 games there's a good amount of stuff there I'd want to play as well.

[Lithium]

Xenoblade

lolend.
it's like if gurren lagan and evangelion had a baby....No scratch that, somebody at monolith watched Madoka Magica.
its too bad i couldn't save right before the final area, it was pretty cool.

best rpg of the generation/10

[Oblivion]

I liked the first person ending.

[Ymeegod]

Just finished up Assassin's Creed Revelations (360) and here's my quick review.

First off the game really does a poor job of "recapping" previous events to help new players entering into the series, which really didn't bother me much since I played them all but for new players that might be a problem.  Also, for main plot stake it's a bit thin, like only two or three sentences at the end actually applies to Desmond the rest of it is just plain filler and it's nothing all that great.

Plot aside the gameplay is better tuned but you'll find most missions are a bit simple since you can call for reinforcements, use bombs, ect to blast apart the poor AI who really don't have a chance.  There's nothing really "new" to mission structure outside the new mini-game with is a type of defend-rts.  Overall it's all feels the same.

Overall it has high production valve but it doesn't have many epic moments where it's going set it apart from the 3 other AC games.  An 7 out of 10.

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For Broodwars since he mentioned the crossbow's poor aim.  The newest patches haven't fix the issues,  You have to just tab L2 to switch between characters but the autoaim seems to miss when there's a group of people and there's also issues with it failing to work at all when it comes down to locking on to enemies on the ground.  There was one mission where you had to protect someone from the rooftops and to get the 100% sync rate you couldn't let that person get hurt.  It seemed almost impossible but I found that throwing bombs down worked and it didn't hurt your squire or whoever it was so that's how I avoided that mess.
====================================
Next up, Uncharted 3--yeah, i'm still working on 2011 games .
 

 

[Ymeegod]

Finished up Uncharted 3 (PS3) and here's a few of my thoughts.

While it's still an great game a couple of odd decisions where made that kept the game from being a classic.  For starters the game's tone beomes to serious--with a couple of jokesters like Nate and Sully the game should have stayed in it's element with great one liners.  A couple of characters get dismissed early in the game, Chloe and whatever that meathead guy's name was let go 1/3 of the game in which really only leaves you with two characters to work with. 

Another odd design was the game's choice of "rail" sections.  Seemed alot of time you'll just guiding Nate down a tunnel or walk through a desert but it was a bit overdone. 

Still, I love the Uncharted series and while this game isn't the stellar game 2 was it's still an great way to waste an weekend.  An 8.5/10.

[Lithium]

Deus Ex: Human revolution
not a fan of Jensen's voice actor, it really seems like they were basically trying to make the game star Keanu Reeves but didnt have the budget so they hired someone who sounded like him and based their character design off of him. That aside this game is really good at scratching my mass effect dialogue tree itch.

[lolmonade]

LIMBO (PC)
 
 Picked up this game on the most recent humble indie bundle.  An indie puzzle platformer with a unique visual aesthetic.  The game starts simple enough with the puzzles, and build in complexity as you go along.  Near the end, the puzzles seemed to involve specific step-by-step solutions that needed to take place in perfect succession.  While I found the puzzles themselves to be challenging but not frustrating, most of my mistakes that led to my death involved a mistimed jump, which can be aggravating.
 
 The character designs and environments were for the most part visually pleasing and a nice deviation from other indie games, but I found at times that it was difficult to distinguish the foreground and background.
 
 I was surprised at how short the game was.  If the price is right, this is definitely a worthy investment of time, but I'm not sure how i'd felt if I had paid the full $15 price tag.
 

[Lithium]

Finished Deus ex: human revolution

a first person game with a good story? *gasp* it can be done! Don't get me wrong it isn't like the best thing ever but at least it wasn't the typical lowest common denominator stuff. I remember the marketing talking big game about how you can play this game any way you want but it was clear to me from the very beginning that the dev team clearly wanted you to go stealth. as a stealth game it was actually pretty good, i usually just end up getting frusterated at stealth games too. If you're still iffy about whether or not you should buy it just wait for a steam sale where its sold at a stupidly low price.

also this game suffers from mass effect 3 syndrome where all the endings are the same. well i wasn't THAT surprised since i knew the game was a prequel to the original Deus ex. the ride there was worth it though

[Ymeegod]

Just finished up Metroid Other M (WII) and it truly is as bad as people claim it is.  First off anything to do with FPS mode in that game was freaking garbage, you're forced into this mode to look for clues and 90% I couldn't tell what the fook I was supposed to find.  I'm not the only one since the net is filled with 100's of people getting stuck and luckly since I'm playing an 2 year old game there's plenty of helping guides.

The other part of FPS mode is you have to track you enemies with the pointer which means Samus has to be standing still to use it and it's the only way for you to fire super missiles which is needed for shielded enemy types.  Hated it.  Takes too long to charge (though you can find items in game to reduce charge) and some of the later bosses don't pause long enough for you do get an lock anyhow.

As for the side scroller segements they weren't as bad to play but there's too much backtracking and there's plenty of places for you to get stuck in as well.  To many vents or doors where blended in with the environment that it was easy to miss them.

And then you have the story--there plot holes that just don't add up but overall it was an least somewhat enjoyable to watch. 

If you avoided this one then you're better off, if you still intend to play--use an guide. Pixel hunting = lame.
An 4/10.

[Ymeegod]

Deus Ex Human Revolution had four endings?  Though you can choose any of the four regardless of how you played but there was four of them.  One of them you destroyed the station and yourself in the process to prevent people from ever learning the truth, other one you exposed the truth, one of them you side with the suits and hide the facts, and one of them was something like attaining the power all for yourself.

[Lithium]

Deus Ex Human Revolution had four endings?  Though you can choose any of the four regardless of how you played but there was four of them.  One of them you destroyed the station and yourself in the process to prevent people from ever learning the truth, other one you exposed the truth, one of them you side with the suits and hide the facts, and one of them was something like attaining the power all for yourself.

yeah except the outcome is the same no matter which choice you choose actually (video after credits)


1)you choose Sarif's message, which allows for company's to experiment with augs with absolutely no regulation


2)you choose Taggart's message, heavy regulation of augs are passed but you end up supporting the Illuminati as a side effect


3)you choose Darrow's message and it scares everyone into abandoning aug research

4)you blow up the facility with you inside it and society doesn't know why the augs went crazy, forcing mankind to just figure it out themselves

anyways you can see all the endings here


but no matter what you do this is the outcome


now don't misunderstand, i'm not angry about since i went in knowing it was a prequel to the original deus ex and they had to tie the story together (and i loved the story up until then) it just destroyed the gravity of your final choice is all im saying (since i knew ahead of time).

[Ymeegod]

Oh I see what you're talking about now, I must have nodded off during the credits because I missed the secret ending.  Really hope they plan on "remaking" the orginal, damn that would be sweet .  The orginal was pretty damn "flawed" but the story/setting/gameplay were all there.  The damn bugs/glitches/AI/crashes/slowdowns needed to be addresesd.  There was an fan site that used I think source engine and redone the whole game but I never did check that out.

[Ymeegod]

Nintendo really have 2D side scrolling games down and Kirby's Return to Dreamland (WII) is another gem in nintendo's platformer library.  It really doesn't have a plot and they teased me with four playable characters, namely there's no online play and you'll only get to be Kirby if you're playing single player like me.  It's to bad they didn't have specific stages for the different characters that way a least you get to try them all out.

Still I can easily recommend this one an 8.5/10.

[Ymeegod]

Just finished up my first indie game, Bastion (PC) and it's well worth the $10 I paid for it.  First off it's hack & slash which we seen hundreds of clones but where Bastion stands out is in the sound department.  The narrator to top notch and continues to talk thoughout your gameplay giving you little bits of data or giving you play by plays.  You fall off the cliff, he'll comment on it, upgrade you weapon and he'll mention how destructive it now is--the game doesn't miss a beat.  Also the music in the game has some of the best soundtracks I've heard in a couple of years--very original stuff--like this Zia song.

Gameplay the game really isn't all that remarkable but it's still serviceable.  You get a nice variety of weapons thoughout the game each with it's own challenges and tech trees.  The game is a bit short (roughly 7 hours) for an RPG but there's new game plus and challenges to give you a couple more hours. 

Overall, I was surprised by the quality of the game (my first indie game after all), great 2D drawn artwork and soundtracks that are easily ranked with the best in the business.  An 8.5 out of 10.

[Ceric]

I really enjoyed Bastion as well.  Though I actually found it sort of long in a way.

I'm in here to talk about Mass Effect 2.  I finally beat it this weekend and I have to say...  Meh.  I enjoyed different parts of it, but the overall package meh.  I enjoyed the original one much more.  The story is ok.  I started the third one after finishing the second and man does it do a horrible job setting up for the first 2 hours or so of the third one.  I just feel like Mass Effect 2 was a very long Side Quest that ultimately did nothing for me.  ME2 could go away and I think the Transition to ME3 would not have suffered in the slightest. 

I don't like how they keep tweaking the combat.  I'm fine with the system in the 1st game.  Adding in ammunition and greater cover emphasis was not a super great move I don't think.  Let me first state that Cover as an Idea I do like,  its just the cover system isn't implemented well.  For instance it takes an act of God to jump over a cover object on PC and you have to at different times.  From the first part of ME3 it doesn't look as if they changed that, because I can easily identify that the majority of my deaths so far are Cover related.

The end of ME2 did not even slightly transition into the Beginning of ME3.  I felt like ME1's ending was a better Transition into ME3.  ME2 just feels like a waste of my time after starting ME3.  I shouldn't feel that way with a Trilogy. Then ME3 is keeping with enemy swarms, but wants you to get in there and Melee.  Great I don't mind Meleeing if after I break stealth I get Lynched by the other 6 guys in the rooms.  Suffice it to say  that Bioware went off the deep end with the comments from ME1 when all they needed to really do was tone down the number of equipment drops and vehicle missions.  Drop in the planet scanning from ME2 into ME1, Give ME1 the Branching Exp Choices,, limit the Rover to the missions like the DLC in ME2 and a few places it makes sense, and don't flood players with equipment.  Bam.  Good game.  I just think this series seems to be narrowing in on being more generic each iteration.

[broodwars]

It sounds like the PC version of Mass Effect 2 is just a bad version of the game, because I had no problem with the controls or mechanics on my 360.  As for the changes, I greatly prefer Mass Effect 2's gameplay to the original Mass Effect's.  Seriously, **** that game's inventory system (lessening the drop rate would not have made that awful inventory management system any better), and ditto to anything involving the MACO and copy-and-pasted planet environments.  And the best change Bioware ever did was taking random number generators out of combat, IMO.

I often think the complaints over the ME2 changes are a little overblown, as I think even the original Mass Effect game seemed like a shooter with RPG trappings and dialogue choices.  The following 2 games just refined on that and stripped out what didn't work.

As for Bastion, I got that as part of the last Indie Bundle, and I'll get around to it...someday.

I have 4 reviews I need to write-up in the near future, as soon as possible because they keep building up: Sorcery, Resistance Burning SKies, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, and Gravity Rush.  I have everything I need to write them right here and I think I know what I want to say, but I just never feel like dropping several hours to write the things.      But I'd better get on it soon, because Mafia 2 is almost done as well.

[Ceric]

It sounds like the PC version of Mass Effect 2 is just a bad version of the game, because I had no problem with the controls or mechanics on my 360.  As for the changes, I greatly prefer Mass Effect 2's gameplay to the original Mass Effect's.  Seriously, **** that game's inventory system (lessening the drop rate would not have made that awful inventory management system any better), and ditto to anything involving the MACO and copy-and-pasted planet environments.  And the best change Bioware ever did was taking random number generators out of combat, IMO.
...

I'm trying to think of any real RNG in Mass Effect 1 and I can't think of anything but the drops.  Very possible on the PC to get over cover you have to press W (Forward) and Space (Sprint/Cover/Get out of Cover) which a lot of time makes it think you want to just get out of cover.  They really should have done Space to get into cover Space again to go over and just walking back to get out.  The generic planets to explore would be addressed by using the scanner from ME2 for the mining.  The combat got easily to a point that I felt like I might as well be playing a brawler.  The first one I could plan my approach and snipe targets from afar pretty easily.  The second one most of the time you get to an area and then the enemies show up and there much to close to snipe.  As for the gear inventory stuff.  They could just include a button saying put the best I can wear on.  Bam done.  Get you semi-optimal.  It just feels more and more like a hollow gameplay experience.  Another thing that bugs me is you start the 3rd game and where is your team?  I have this huge threat that is still coming and I disband my team...

[broodwars]

I'm trying to think of any real RNG in Mass Effect 1 and I can't think of anything but the drops.

There's definitely some random number dice-rolling going on in the first game, because you can point your reticule right at a guy's face in ME1; pull the trigger; and have your shot miss because the invisible dice roll determined that your shot missed.  You can make that dice roll more favorable by increasing particular stats, but it's always there.  I was glad to see it gone in ME2.

Another thing that bugs me is you start the 3rd game and where is your team?  I have this huge threat that is still coming and I disband my team...

Well, in all fairness your team came together to perform a particular task, and they performed it.  I still haven't played my copy of ME3 yet (I recently got it when it was $30 on sale, but I'm holding it until the Ending DLC is released), but from what I understand your crew all has their own obligations to their people to perform.  Plus, after the events of The Arrival, Shepard had to cool his heels for a while under heavy guard, so it's not hard to imagine his team having things they needed to do in the meantime.