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Started by Spalls Hurgenson
Mon, 01 May 2017 22:59
What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: Spalls Hurgenson
Date: Mon, 01 May 2017 22:59
Date: Mon, 01 May 2017 22:59
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Let me just double-check; I've gotten these subject lines wrong too many times recently. Is it April? Is it 2017? Yeah, that looks good; let's get on with it. Welcome to our end-of-month (or is it beginning-of-month?) thread; time to talk about games again. I mean, we always talk about games here in c.s.i.p.g.a (well, almost always) but this is the thread where we talk about games we've played... specifically, the game's we've played in April. Of 2017. Which it is - April the 2017, I mean; I know, I double-checked. You all know what to do. Here's my list. -------------------- Short and Sweet -------------------- * Homefront Revolution (new) * Stronghold (1993) (replay) * Ultima VII (replay) * Raptor Call of the Shadows (replay) * Star Wars Alliance (replay) * Oh Sir! The Insult Simulator (new) TL; DR ---------- * Homefront Revolution (new) The original "Homefront" (2011) was awful. A badly made "Modern Warfare" clone, it took all the bad aspects of the genre - linear levels, straitjacket scripted encounters, stupidly bombastic storyline - and wrapped it in generic gunplay, visually unappealing graphics and an idiotic set-up. The core of the game - playing as freedom fighters waging war against foreign invaders in downtown USA - was interesting enough, but the implementation was terrible. So when the sequel was announced, you can understand if I approached the game with a great deal of trepidation. There is a lot to dislike about "Homefront: Revolution". The voice-acting stands out with how terrible it is, and the backstory remains idiotic even after they turned the whole thing into an "alternate history" in some vain attempt to make a Korean invasion seem more plausible (it doesn't help). The bad-guys are cartoonishly evil, apparently now poison-gassing whole cities just for the LOLz. The good guys aren't much better - some taking vicious joy in torture - perhaps because the developers were aiming for a whole real-politick, shades-of-grey attempt at realism - but when the villains are so unbelievably evil the whole thing just feels nasty and flat. The maps are fairly large and reasonably detailed but disappointingly the world is divided into distinct maps and transit between them is controlled through level advancement, completely ruining any feeling of an open world. Within each map the game falls back on the usual tropes: hidden goodies and the usual capture-the-base missions that have been the standard since 2008 and Far Cry 2. The game does expect you to stealth often, but - again - this system is poorly implemented, largely because the enemy attacks immediately upon spotting you. "Revolution" also relies heavily on respawning enemies to bump up the difficulty level rather than strong AI, and at times the game feels almost like Robotron with how many soldiers it throws at you. So, another terrible Homefront game, eh? No surprise given its legacy, right? Well, not quite. "Homefront Revolution" isn't a great game; I'm not even sure it's a good game. It is, however, head-and-shoulders above its predecessor and not completely without merit. Graphically, the game is surprisingly appealing, with some very good lighting and textures (the animations could have used work). The firefights were solid, with good gun-play and level design that supported the close-quarters urban combat. I found the motorcycle - the sole player-controlled vehicle - a bit pointless; between the too frequent enemy spawns and the rubble-strewn streets, it was just faster and easier to run everywhere and I almost never used the thing. But the game had a solid foundation; it was just everything built atop that foundation that was crap. More variety in enemy types, a larger, more varied and cohesive game-world, a more robust stealth system, more mundane enemies who were individually threatening - rather than dangerous because they were thrown at the player in waves - and more things to do in the game beyond the token collectibles and base-capture would have made the game far more enjoyable. (As an aside, the game's visuals - especially at night, with all the tracer-fire and the imposing steel-clad fortress of the Koreans - looked peculiarly post-apocalyptic and made me wish for nothing more than this game be re-done using the Terminator license, perhaps as a remake of Bethesda's "Terminator: Skynet" game from 1996. Anyone else feel the same?) "Homefront: Revolution" surprised me in that it wasn't as horrid as I expected, and honestly I don't really regret the 20 or so hours I invested into playing it, but it's really quite flawed and not a game I expect to return to anytime soon, nor a game I could easily recommend. There are just so many other, games that do it better. * Stronghold (1993) (replay) Having nothing to do with the 2001 medieval strategy game beyond a similarity in name and genre, this 1993 game was one of the last-gasps of SSI's D&D license. Contemporaneous with games like SimCity, Caesar, Civilization and Master of Orion, it is a rather simplistic strategy game compared with its bigger brothers, and left little mark on the industry. I didn't install Stronghold thinking I was going to play it; I just wanted to see if its graphics were as cute as I remembered. Stronghold isn't a great game, but it's not really that bad a game either. If anything, it feels a game too early for its time, released before the technology could support its gameplay or before its audience - strategy grognards still grumbling about the move away from turn-based design - was ready for its hands-off approach. In gameplay it is most similar to 2001's "Majesty", so much so that I checked to see if the two games shared developers (they don't). Like Majesty, the player doesn't have direct control over his units, but rather can only influence them with the construction of specialized buildings. It's a very slow-paced game, where much of my time was spent just waiting and watching as my structures were slowly built and my heroes haphazardly ambled across the map. It is actually possible in certain configurations to win the game without fighting any battles, simply by growing your city. This is fortunate, as the pathfinding AI of the heroes you depend upon to defend your realm is abysmal, and its one of the major strikes against the game. The game also struggles to provide you with enough information; what it gives you is mostly two or three menus deep, and sometimes not available at all (telling me that a "Fire Giant is attacking!" is great, but I'd like to know where so I don't have to scour the entire map, thank you). These faults, combined with the glacial speed and lack of any real threat make it feel like an early attempt at a "casual" strategy game. Played in a window in the corner of my desktop while I'm working or surfing the net the game is a fun distraction, but it just didn't have enough depth to be taken seriously twenty-five years ago. It's a great concept - as proven by Majesty, which greatly improved the pace and interface - but Stronghold was just way before its time. The graphics are as charming as I remember, however. * Ultima VII The Black Gate (replay) Whenever I think of Ultima VII, I think of twittering birds. This is partly because the first time I played it was on a warm May morning in 1992, but mostly because that's the first thing you hear when the game starts: a chirping bird (powered by the all the awesome fidelity of the SoundBlaster's OPL3 FM Synthesis chip could provide). To this day, when I hear chirping birds, I still flash back to that morning. It was a slow start to the game, which made its big reveal a few minutes later when the game's big bad shoved his fully animated face onto the screen and talked - with full speech! - all the more memorable. Few games before or since have impressed me like that intro did in '92. In truth, that introductory cinematic was the high-point of the game, but that's not to diminish the excellence of the rest of the adventure. Ultima VII presented an amazingly vivid world, filled with memorable characters that was - for its time - far more realistic and alive than anything else on the market. Its NPC's each had their own schedules, dialogues and character. The world was amazingly interactive; "baking bread" - shorthand for the game's surprisingly deep crafting system - became the rallying cry and standard for CRPGs for decades to come. Completely mouse-driven, running full-screen and without a visible GUI, the open world was picturesquely rendered, impressive in scale and detail, and one that I enjoyed exploring and virtually living in almost as much as questing... which I did, over and over again. Well, it's been a quarter of a century later and it has probably been at least fifteen years since I've last played this title to completion. This has less to do with any interest in it and more due to the fact that it holds no surprises for me; I overplayed this title and have its story and map indelibly etched into my brain. Knowing exactly what to do and what all the characters are going to say and do destroys a lot of the wonder and mystery, and even when I try to resist the urge I can't help but use short-cuts to bypass the more tedious parts of the adventure. Worse, for all it boasted an innovative interface on its release, these days playing the game feels clunky; combat is completely out of a player's control, inventory management is a mess and I started to dread locked doors because finding the bloody key was unacceptably frustrating. (But at least this time I didn't have to worry about the dreaded "key bug", where keys disappeared into the ether; in 1992, I got to the very end of the game only to discover the key to the titular black gate had vanished, forcing me to restart the game. Ouch.). The actual adventure in Ultima VII was actually fairly poor - it was a meandering quest with too much filler and not enough direction, or even a proper villain - and it hasn't aged well at all. The teleport- and trap-filled dungeons were no fun either. So I got very little satisfaction from the actual /playing/ of the game. Most of my enjoyment came from nostalgic remembrances of previous play-throughs and a technical and historical appreciation of the title; the former with how ground-breaking it was (even if it did use the hated "Voodoo Memory Manager") and the latter because its shadow still lays long on the industry; for instance, all modern crafting systems owe their existence to Ultima VII's use of the technique to make its world more "realistic". So for all it was a painful game to play /today/, but I nonetheless still consider it an amazing title and one of the best CRPGs ever written. * Raptor Call of the Shadows (replay) I played the 2015 remake of the game, but only to avoid any difficulties in getting the game running on modern hardware. I played it because I wanted a brainless shooter and I remember liking the soundtrack. The game is fine. And that's pretty much all I have to say about it. It's a vertical shoot-em-up from the '90s and - beyond its soundtrack - is pretty much forgettable. Raptor's major distinguishing feature is that you buy new power-ups between missions, which lets you tailor the game somewhat to your play-style. It does result in a lot of extra grinding - you play and replay earlier levels to earn the cash for the aforementioned power-ups - and some of the later levels are brutally hard unless you do that. But assuming you have the necessary arsenal, the game is an adequate shooter. Not exceptional, not bad. Just fine. It's got some rocking music, though. * Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (replay) It's more than time for another X-Wing game. I think everyone who is a fan of the space-sim genre can agree on this fact. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as though Disney - current owners of the Star Wars license - have any immediate plans in that direction, so like many gamers I have to get my fix re-playing the older games, which are a bit long-in-the-tooth. Fortunately, fans of the series have modernized the game somewhat and it's still a looker, even if it's not quite up to the standards set by games like Elite or the never-going-to-be-released Star Citizen. The gameplay of "X-Wing Alliance" remains as solid as ever, even if this title is far more forgiving than that of its predecessors. But spiraling an X-Wing through a cloud of TIE Fighters, trying to get a bead on a target as you simultaneously balance your shields and manage your speed and power settings, is an artful experience that I have greatly missed. It is far more fulfilling than the more arcadey versions released since, either as stand-alone titles (the "Rogue Squadron" games) or as part of larger games (e.g., the "Battlefront" games). But oddly enough, it's not a game I can ever finish. It's the campaign, you see; it's rubbish. Too many of the missions are focused on propelling the story forward rather than just launching a mess of enemy fighters at you and letting you swat them out of the sky like the annoying bugs they are. The worst are the ones that have you bumble about in your family's star-freighter; the ship is slow, clumsy and under-powered and the missions are tedium defined. I struggle to fly the campaign, and rarely do I get past the halfway mark before I give it up. Instead find myself gravitating instead towards the Quick Skirmish feature where I can set up my own battles. Even so, the lack of mission variety proves its undoing, although the sheer number of different fighters - 58 with the mods - is impressive. It's just the campaign that is so lackluster. But even if I never finish the game again, I know I'll keep returning to it, just to hear the wicked scream of a TIE Fighter as it roars past. That's /classic/ gaming, that is. * Oh Sir! The Insult Simulator (new) +"Oh Sir!" is, at heart, intended as a party game; something you play with others. It has a rather clever set-up - two twee Brits politely exchanging insults over some inconsequential difference - and its retro-art is charming... in a retro-art sort of way. But it's lacking... something. As a single-player game, it really doesn't stand up on its own merits. The gameplay is too minimal and too dependent on chance to be much fun. It also has a disturbing lack of content; with a mere handful of characters and locations, it doesn't take too long before you start hearing the same insults (or segments thereof) again and again. The gameplay itself is fun - each round, both players have a limited - and shared - pool of words with which to create their insult, and the game is as much as building your own zinger as preventing your opponent from doing the same. Unfortunately the end result - a point value assigned based on how insulting your creation is - seems random and non-coherent. The different characters have certain weaknesses (for instance, insults against their social status, parentage or country may grant bonus points) but even this isn't certain. Even as a party game, played against friends, the game is limited. The insults are too nonsensical, and the charm of the game's weirdness lasts about ten minutes. After that, people quickly start looking for greater depth - and there just isn't any to be found. According to Steam, I got 66 minutes of gameplay out of this title, and that was only by really, really trying; I think most people will move on after half an hour, and never return. It's just to thin on content and concept to stick with it otherwise. -------------------- And that's what has occupied my time. How about you? What have you been playing in April (check) of 2017 (check)?
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: Justisaur
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 02:36
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 02:36
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On 5/1/2017 3:59 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote: > Let me just double-check; I've gotten these subject lines wrong too > many times recently. Is it April? Is it 2017? Yeah, that looks good; > let's get on with it. Well, no, it's not April. It's May. :) But yes, we're talking about what we were playing in May. > * Stronghold (1993) (replay) I've heard this was good, and have it on disks from a couple years ago purchase. I don't remember why I didn't play it, or did for only a couple minutes. > * Ultima VII The Black Gate (replay) > all modern > crafting systems owe their existence to Ultima VII Damn you! Damn you Ultima VII! So, I can blame you for that! > * Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (replay) I never did get into the Star Wars space combat. It seemed pretty lackluster for whichever it was I tried after playing Wing Commander III. I keep thinking I'll go play WCIII again, but never seem to get around to it. > * Oh Sir! The Insult Simulator (new) Sounds like Monkey Island is still the way to go for a good insult battle. > What have you been playing in April (check) of 2017 (check)? Dark Souls II. Still. I think I'm done now though, I finished the base game with 3 different characters, a hexer, a mundane & a quality build. I've got 2 I haven't finished it with, a paladin (str/faith) and a pure sorcerer, the sorcerer I only started a couple weeks ago so that's why I haven't finished that one, but my paladin has been stuck even though it's my 2nd character. But I can't bring myself to finish the first DLC, I haven't started it up for 3 days now. The DLC might just be a bit too hard. So I'm thinking about what I want to do now. I could go back to GTA V, which I never got very far in. I've got Tales from the Borderlands and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel I haven't played in my recently bought list (well 12/30/16) or look for something else, or maybe just take a break for a bit. I tried to play Dungeon Robber some more but it's in flash and Chrome disabled flash and I haven't felt it's worth the bother and security issues to use IE and start over or try to get flash working in chrome just for Dungeon Robber. I played about 5 minutes of Tetris on my phone. I'm off to jury duty tomorrow, not sure what I'll do on my phone then (if that's even allowed), and it'll probably die far too fast. Or maybe I'll be playing "Hangman R.L." edition. - Justisaur
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: rri... Ross Ridge
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 06:37
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 06:37
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Spalls Hurgenson <spallsh...@gmail.com> wrote: >* Ultima VII The Black Gate (replay) ... >(But at least >this time I didn't have to worry about the dreaded "key bug", where >keys disappeared into the ether; in 1992, I got to the very end of the >game only to discover the key to the titular black gate had vanished, >forcing me to restart the game. Ouch.) Both times I played Ultima VII I couldn't finish it because I made the mistake of flying over the final dungeon in the magic carpet which triggered locking a door that was supposed to lock you in the dungeon. Which brings up my big problem with the game, by using one scale for everything they made the world feel ridiculously small. In Ultima IV and V travelling from one city to another in Britania was an adventure itself, in Ultima VII (and to a lesser extent Ultima VI) travelling to neighbouring city was like crossing the street. At least Ultima VI didn't cram the dungeons on the same map as everything else. >* Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (replay) ... >It's the campaign, you see; it's rubbish. Too many of the missions are >focused on propelling the story forward rather than just launching a >mess of enemy fighters at you and letting you swat them out of the sky >like the annoying bugs they are. The worst are the ones that have you >bumble about in your family's star-freighter; the ship is slow, clumsy >and under-powered and the missions are tedium defined. I struggle to >fly the campaign, and rarely do I get past the halfway mark before I >give it up. I've never gotten far X-Wing Alliance though it's more just because I'm not that good at the X-Wing games. I always reach a point where some mission just becomes too difficult. There was one mission during the prologue where you're piloting that star-freighter that I had a lot of problems with as I recall. Ridge Ridge -- l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU [oo][oo] rri...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca -()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/ db //
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: Rin Stowleigh
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 13:01
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 13:01
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On Mon, 01 May 2017 18:59:32 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallsh...@gmail.com> wrote: >"Homefront: Revolution" surprised me in that it wasn't as horrid as I >expected, and honestly I don't really regret the 20 or so hours I >invested into playing it, but it's really quite flawed and not a game >I expect to return to anytime soon, nor a game I could easily >recommend. There are just so many other, games that do it better. I evaluated it from the standpoint of "wow, I only payed ten bucks for this", and from that perspective it's quite good. I didn't get anywhere near 20 hours into it though. The game started feeling a bit repetitive after about 8 or so, but it was still worthwhile and something I'll go back to. I agree about the motorcycle (for the most part), the maps aren't well suited to even using it. On the other hand there are times when its nice to blast past the bad guys on the way toward a destination. I went back and watched Mack's review of this when it first came out. Most of the reasons he trashed it (like keybinding issues) I think were problems at release that have been worked out by now. It still has bugs, but nothing like the reviews right after release portray. All in all a nice game for ten bucks. I'm pretty sure I'll never complete it unless maybe someone here tells me the gameplay changes dramatically after then 10 hour mark. I just have this feeling that I've already seen all the game has to offer.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: Spalls Hurgenson
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 13:34
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 13:34
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On Mon, 1 May 2017 19:36:23 -0700, Justisaur <just...@gmail.com> wrote: >On 5/1/2017 3:59 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote: >> Let me just double-check; I've gotten these subject lines wrong too >> many times recently. Is it April? Is it 2017? Yeah, that looks good; >> let's get on with it. > >Well, no, it's not April. It's May. :) > >But yes, we're talking about what we were playing in May. >> * Stronghold (1993) (replay) > >I've heard this was good, and have it on disks from a couple years ago >purchase. I don't remember why I didn't play it, or did for only a >couple minutes. It's not really "good". It's adequate at best, with its major faults being that it didn't give the player enough control or information. It's so strategy-lite that you can almost win the game without doing anything at all; a lot of the time you just let the sims do their own thing without too much intervention on player's part. Today, when I can just leave it running as a 320x200 tiny window in the corner of my desktop, this isn't such a sin; as a game give your full focus - as was intended when developed 20 years ago - it's something of a failure. But as I said, it's charming graphics - not least it's rendering of a 3D world on a 2D plane - were enough to make the game bearable. >> * Ultima VII The Black Gate (replay) >> all modern >> crafting systems owe their existence to Ultima VII > >Damn you! Damn you Ultima VII! So, I can blame you for that! The other day I learned that the voice of the Guardian was none other than that of Bill Johnson aka Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I KNEW that big red muppet wasn't to be trusted! Even his voice is evil. >> * Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (replay) > >I never did get into the Star Wars space combat. It seemed pretty >lackluster for whichever it was I tried after playing Wing Commander >III. I keep thinking I'll go play WCIII again, but never seem to get >around to it. Oooh, statements like that used to lead to epic Usenet flamewars! But Wing Commander's gameplay was a sad comparison to the X-Wing series. Even with WC3 - which added a very rudimentary power system - it lacked the depth of X-Wing games. Wing Commander also sported relatively tiny battles, rarely pitting you against more than a handful of enemies at a time, whereas the X-Wing games sported battles with dozens of fighters and multiple capital ships. The AI was far craftier in the X-Wing series too; of course, this was helped by the far more nimble fighters. Wing Commander also relied more on missiles than close-in dogfighting; it was far more forgiving gameplay. Where Wing Commander really shone was in its story-telling and characters; Alliance tried to its hand there but failed miserably. But the actual gameplay? The X-Wing series wins hands down! ;-) >I'm off to jury duty tomorrow, not sure what I'll do on my phone then >(if that's even allowed), and it'll probably die far too fast. Or maybe >I'll be playing "Hangman R.L." edition. Last time I got called up, they wouldn't even let me read an ebook on my device while waiting to be selected in the jury pool. It wasn't the reading they were opposed to, it was the fact it was on an electronic device. So make sure to bring some sort of analog backup to help pass the time, just in case.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: Spalls Hurgenson
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 13:44
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 13:44
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On Tue, 02 May 2017 09:01:44 -0400, Rin Stowleigh <rstow...@nevrhadgmail.com> wrote: >On Mon, 01 May 2017 18:59:32 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson ><spallsh...@gmail.com> wrote: > >>"Homefront: Revolution" surprised me in that it wasn't as horrid as I >>expected, and honestly I don't really regret the 20 or so hours I >>invested into playing it, but it's really quite flawed and not a game >>I expect to return to anytime soon, nor a game I could easily >>recommend. There are just so many other, games that do it better. > >I evaluated it from the standpoint of "wow, I only payed ten bucks for >this", and from that perspective it's quite good. I didn't get >anywhere near 20 hours into it though. The game started feeling a bit >repetitive after about 8 or so, but it was still worthwhile and >something I'll go back to. It is fairly repetitive, yes. The first few maps are basically all the same: ruined cities that you skulk about in, taking out enemy bases. In the middle, you infiltrate a not-ruined part of the city, which is a nice bit of variation but the gameplay remains mostly the same. After that it's back to the ruins again for a bit, and then an attrocious end-game sequence which is as tightly scripted and linear as almost any Call of Duty game (albeit not done as well). >I went back and watched Mack's review of this when it first came out. >Most of the reasons he trashed it (like keybinding issues) I think >were problems at release that have been worked out by now. It still >has bugs, but nothing like the reviews right after release portray. I'll grant the developers this much; I didn't have any real technical issues, at least none that I can remember. Not even any technical annoyances, like being unable to bind controls the way I like. It did pretty much everything I expected from a PC game. >All in all a nice game for ten bucks. I'm pretty sure I'll never >complete it unless maybe someone here tells me the gameplay changes >dramatically after then 10 hour mark. I just have this feeling that >I've already seen all the game has to offer. I try to evaluate a game not so much on how much a game costs in MONEY, but how much in costs in TIME. The game is low average in quality; it doesn't do anything really bad, but it fails to do anything really well either. As such, there are better games in which to invest your time, games with more polished gameplay, with better settings and more variety. You won't be miserable if you play Homefront Revolution - which is an incredible improvement over the first game - but it's the sort of game you only play after you've played the better games and need something to fill the time ;-)
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: Rin Stowleigh
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 15:50
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 15:50
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On Tue, 02 May 2017 09:44:45 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallsh...@gmail.com> wrote: >On Tue, 02 May 2017 09:01:44 -0400, Rin Stowleigh ><rstow...@nevrhadgmail.com> wrote: > >>On Mon, 01 May 2017 18:59:32 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson >><spallsh...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>>"Homefront: Revolution" surprised me in that it wasn't as horrid as I >>>expected, and honestly I don't really regret the 20 or so hours I >>>invested into playing it, but it's really quite flawed and not a game >>>I expect to return to anytime soon, nor a game I could easily >>>recommend. There are just so many other, games that do it better. >> >>I evaluated it from the standpoint of "wow, I only payed ten bucks for >>this", and from that perspective it's quite good. I didn't get >>anywhere near 20 hours into it though. The game started feeling a bit >>repetitive after about 8 or so, but it was still worthwhile and >>something I'll go back to. > >It is fairly repetitive, yes. The first few maps are basically all the >same: ruined cities that you skulk about in, taking out enemy bases. >In the middle, you infiltrate a not-ruined part of the city, which is >a nice bit of variation but the gameplay remains mostly the same. >After that it's back to the ruins again for a bit, and then an >attrocious end-game sequence which is as tightly scripted and linear >as almost any Call of Duty game (albeit not done as well). > >>I went back and watched Mack's review of this when it first came out. >>Most of the reasons he trashed it (like keybinding issues) I think >>were problems at release that have been worked out by now. It still >>has bugs, but nothing like the reviews right after release portray. > >I'll grant the developers this much; I didn't have any real technical >issues, at least none that I can remember. Not even any technical >annoyances, like being unable to bind controls the way I like. It did >pretty much everything I expected from a PC game. > >>All in all a nice game for ten bucks. I'm pretty sure I'll never >>complete it unless maybe someone here tells me the gameplay changes >>dramatically after then 10 hour mark. I just have this feeling that >>I've already seen all the game has to offer. > >I try to evaluate a game not so much on how much a game costs in >MONEY, but how much in costs in TIME. The game is low average in >quality; it doesn't do anything really bad, but it fails to do >anything really well either. As such, there are better games in which >to invest your time, games with more polished gameplay, with better >settings and more variety. You won't be miserable if you play >Homefront Revolution - which is an incredible improvement over the >first game - but it's the sort of game you only play after you've >played the better games and need something to fill the time ;-) The first game sucked at single player by comparison, but had competitive multiplayer that was incredibly fun (much more so than the SP campaign in Homefront Revolution). Revolution only has co-op. Rumor has it that co-op is pretty good, but by the time I bought the game on sale, the multiplayer crowd was long gone and I couldn't get a session going to find out. I'm not a huge fan of co-op with random strangers anyway, because there's this feeling of not being on the same page most of the time. At least back when I used to occasionally play co-op games with friends, things were well-coordinated and we functioned as a team. The terrorist hunt mode of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is incredibly worthwhile and immersive when played with a group of friends over Teamspeak. These days, I'm rarely in contact with most of my old gaming buddies now (I think a lot of them abandoned gaming due to the lack of worthwhile team MP titles), and shut down my Teamspeak server a few months ago. I've heard that Ghost Recon Wildlands is quite fun with friends, but I passed on it for the reasons mentioned above.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: rms
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 17:48
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 17:48
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>What have you been playing in April (check) of 2017 (check)?
Homefront: Revolution
Homefront Revolution This game got a really bad rap, that is not in any way
deserved. The graphics and artstyle are topnotch, the combat mechanics,
weapon mods, and parkour movements highly enjoyable, the missions get better
and better as the story progresses, and the environmental scenery gradually
changes as you 'free' sections of town in a way reminiscent of The Saboteur.
The plot, with it's racist and nationalist undertones, should be embraced by
the player, not rejected: Just retain a meta-view and self-awareness that
Spec Ops: The Line attempted to instill. Just look at the current situation,
with both Kim and Whatshisname in the WH on both sides threatening and
posturing, both using the publicity as a distraction.
Life is Strange
Now that I've finished and uninstalled LiS, I'm less impressed than while
playing. EP5 in particular had 'avoid the monstar' & timed sequences that I
found quite annoying, and when combined with the highly telegraphed ending,
just had me wanting it to be over. If you haven't played this yet, EP1 is
free or nearly free, but basically it's an over-the-shoulder camera, fairly
linear 3D adventure game. The mechanic of time-rewinding provides the one
unique gameplay hook, and does encourage some involvement in the
gameworld -- thinking about events in the world, how their sequence could be
altered, and allowing you to craft somewhat how you wish to be perceived by
other characters (and of course, yourself, in a typical game design feedback
loop).
But the real draw is the writing, art style, and quality voice-acting, or
world-building. The voice of the main character (and the others as well) is
just so well-knitted to her onscreen avatar, and is very effective in
drawing you in to the teen drama and murder mystery of the plot. It's well
worth experiencing LiS just for these qualities. Be sure to watch the
alternate ending, as it provides a good WTF laugh; watching it, I felt like
Trump jetting off to mar-a-lago, past the shambles of a country, mouthing
see-ya-suckas.
Syberia 3
Here's my impression after 90min of play (I haven't yet left the clinic,
just went up the elevator to ask permission). Basically, it's positive. I
like the puzzles so far a lot: They've involved simple manipulation and
examination of objects. Physically doing this with an xbox360 controller
took a small amount of experimentation (after a glance at the menu's control
diagram), as often selecting a hotspot in a scene will reveal a number of
other hotspots – identified by small white circles, which take a few
repetitions to spot quickly – that then have to be panned over to be
selected. As the very negative pcgamer review admitted, there's a
satisfaction in this virtual manipulation, such as turning a screw by
circling a joystick.
It looks good, or I guess I'd say good enough. Areas have been small with
few hotspots or scenery to wonder at, but Kate herself and her animations,
as well as the faces of people she talks to, are detailed and quite lovely.
As to the 'bad', the lip movements and glimpses of tongues flopping around
in mouths during speech are poorly done, and the english voice-acting is
perfunctory. I'm not going to fixate on these, as they are not deal-breakers
for me. Playing post-patch 1.1, which came out a couple days ago, I haven't
seen any performance issues to speak of on my all-AMD system, though nvidia
users are reporting problems still. Being rapid-fire pestered to make
dialogue choices is a bit annoying too, hopefully that's patched soon.
I do get a sense of a lower budget production, as there was little effort
put into an introductory segue from the earlier titles (I think I'll go back
and try to view the cutscenes from the earlier games, which were of
excellent quality) but I'm still getting the old Syberia vibe of gentle
fantasy and expectation of wonder, and am looking forward to continuing this
game! BTW I just read the RockPaperShotgun sneering 'review' and it made me
sneer in response. Trashing titles is practically a cottage industry, and
all indications are the reviewer has played less than I have and never left
the starting clinic level. Regardless, I'd say this is not an A title, but
a solid B title; the highs are subdued, and the story feels somewhat rushed,
like they ran out of production money to make it flow better, but I haven't
hit lows that make me feel playing it is a waste of time.
rms
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: rms
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 19:01
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 19:01
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>I agree about the motorcycle (for the most part), the maps aren't well
>suited to even using it.
Not really true; some of the alternate entry points for attacking bases
involve motorcycle jump ramps. Also hopefully you've seen the 'puzzles'
involving getting a motorcycle to power a generator, which often require
navigating through and between buildings. I had great fun scrambling to
locate, then driving cycles to a distant 'flash point', often banzai-ing
into a crash or various other hyjinx.
rms
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: Rin Stowleigh
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 19:30
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 19:30
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On Tue, 2 May 2017 13:01:34 -0600, "rms" <rsqui...@MOOyossmanMOO.net> wrote: >>I agree about the motorcycle (for the most part), the maps aren't well >>suited to even using it. > > Not really true; some of the alternate entry points for attacking bases >involve motorcycle jump ramps. Also hopefully you've seen the 'puzzles' >involving getting a motorcycle to power a generator, which often require >navigating through and between buildings. I had great fun scrambling to >locate, then driving cycles to a distant 'flash point', often banzai-ing >into a crash or various other hyjinx. > >rms Fair point, there are some ramps that are beneficial. There may be more than one puzzle like the one you mentioned, but there was one quest where I recall seeing a ramp after I'd already gotten where I needed to be, and thought to myself that I could have gotten there easier if I had a bike. It might have even been a power generator mission, I don't remember. There were multiple ways to access some of the objectives.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: rri... Ross Ridge
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 20:01
Date: Tue, 02 May 2017 20:01
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Justisaur <just...@gmail.com> wrote: >I'm off to jury duty tomorrow, not sure what I'll do on my phone then >(if that's even allowed), and it'll probably die far too fast. Or maybe >I'll be playing "Hangman R.L." edition. You're going to be juror in a capital case? Ross Ridge -- l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU [oo][oo] rri...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca -()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/ db //
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: Spalls Hurgenson
Date: Wed, 03 May 2017 12:51
Date: Wed, 03 May 2017 12:51
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On Tue, 2 May 2017 13:01:34 -0600, "rms" <rsqui...@MOOyossmanMOO.net> wrote: >>I agree about the motorcycle (for the most part), the maps aren't well >>suited to even using it. > > Not really true; some of the alternate entry points for attacking bases >involve motorcycle jump ramps. Also hopefully you've seen the 'puzzles' >involving getting a motorcycle to power a generator, which often require >navigating through and between buildings. I had great fun scrambling to >locate, then driving cycles to a distant 'flash point', often banzai-ing >into a crash or various other hyjinx. Argh, those "motorcycle puzzles" were awful. They felt very "gamey", e.g., something added into the world solely for the challenge that fit very poorly into the overall setting, and ruined that feeling of immersion. They really didn't do anything that any other platforming puzzle did, except you had to do it with a clumsy motorcycle. Definitely one of the low-points of the game. I never found ramping into the bases that effective; actually, quite the opposite. It leaves you completely vulnerable and you can't shoot the bad guys and in exchange you... what, get into the base? The front door (or the not-so-hidden "back door", usually a vent of some sort) does the same thing except without painting a big target on your back. No, I definitely wasn't sold on the utility of the motorcycle in this game.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: Justisaur
Date: Wed, 03 May 2017 18:16
Date: Wed, 03 May 2017 18:16
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On 5/2/2017 6:34 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote: > On Mon, 1 May 2017 19:36:23 -0700, Justisaur <just...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> On 5/1/2017 3:59 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote: >>> * Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (replay) >> >> I never did get into the Star Wars space combat. It seemed pretty >> lackluster for whichever it was I tried after playing Wing Commander >> III. I keep thinking I'll go play WCIII again, but never seem to get >> around to it. > > Oooh, statements like that used to lead to epic Usenet flamewars! > Bring it! > But Wing Commander's gameplay was a sad comparison to the X-Wing > series. Even with WC3 - which added a very rudimentary power system - > it lacked the depth of X-Wing games. Wing Commander also sported > relatively tiny battles, rarely pitting you against more than a > handful of enemies at a time, whereas the X-Wing games sported battles > with dozens of fighters and multiple capital ships. The AI was far > craftier in the X-Wing series too; of course, this was helped by the > far more nimble fighters. Wing Commander also relied more on missiles > than close-in dogfighting; it was far more forgiving gameplay. > > Where Wing Commander really shone was in its story-telling and > characters; Alliance tried to its hand there but failed miserably. But > the actual gameplay? The X-Wing series wins hands down! > Maybe I found the complexity of SW too much to be fun for a game about going pew-pew at enemy space ships. I seem to remember some pretty epic battles at the end of WCIII too. :) > >> I'm off to jury duty tomorrow, not sure what I'll do on my phone then >> (if that's even allowed), and it'll probably die far too fast. Or maybe >> I'll be playing "Hangman R.L." edition. > > Last time I got called up, they wouldn't even let me read an ebook on > my device while waiting to be selected in the jury pool. It wasn't the > reading they were opposed to, it was the fact it was on an electronic > device. So make sure to bring some sort of analog backup to help pass > the time, just in case. Almost everyone had electronic devices here. Some people working on their laptops while waiting around. We had to turn them off once we went into the courtroom though. I mostly waited around, I was in the courtroom for maybe a half an hour until I was released. I listened to a podcast, read internet news, and played Ninjago Tournament until one of my phones died, then went back to podcasts. They were also playing movies for the people in the pool, but I wasn't paying attention to them. Back to work today. - Justisaur
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: Justisaur
Date: Wed, 03 May 2017 18:20
Date: Wed, 03 May 2017 18:20
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On 5/2/2017 1:01 PM, Ross Ridge wrote: > Justisaur <just...@gmail.com> wrote: >> I'm off to jury duty tomorrow, not sure what I'll do on my phone then >> (if that's even allowed), and it'll probably die far too fast. Or maybe >> I'll be playing "Hangman R.L." edition. > > You're going to be juror in a capital case? You never know! Or at least I don't, this was my first time being actually called - as opposed to just having to check every day for a week to see if they needed me to come in. - Justisaur
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: rms
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 14:51
Date: Thu, 04 May 2017 14:51
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>I never found ramping into the bases that effective; actually, quite
>the opposite. It leaves you completely vulnerable and you can't shoot
>the bad guys and in exchange you... what, get into the base?
Bah. Sometimes you gotta be Trinity at the power station, in 5 minutes
tear that whole gdamn building down.
rms
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2017?
Author: Anssi Saari
Date: Tue, 09 May 2017 19:41
Date: Tue, 09 May 2017 19:41
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Spalls Hurgenson <spallsh...@gmail.com> writes: > * Raptor Call of the Shadows (replay) I remember playing the original Raptor back when. Can't remember much. Some (arcade) shooters like R-Type and Gradius from the 1980s have left a mark in my memory but not this one. I also preferred side scrollers. Anyways, I guess shoot'em ups were no longer of much interest to me when this came out in 1994. > * Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (replay) > It's more than time for another X-Wing game. I think everyone who is a > fan of the space-sim genre can agree on this fact. Unfortunately, it > doesn't seem as though Disney - current owners of the Star Wars > license - have any immediate plans in that direction, so like many > gamers I have to get my fix re-playing the older games, which are a > bit long-in-the-tooth. You can say that again. I tried playing X-Wing some time ago, the updated version from late 90s but that only updated it to 640x480 resolution... And the cockpit overlays were just scaled not redrawn so they retained all their 320x200 resolution blockiness. I've kinda been meaning to play Alliance again, in fact I bought it in a recent sale and it's ready to go on Steam. I remember I got to the end back when but couldn't beat the final mission (blowing up the death star as in end of Return of the Jedi) and when I tried a cheat then the game didn't move forward, I was just floating there hoping for fireworks but nothing. I guess the cheat broke the game. > What have you been playing in April (check) of 2017 (check)? I had less time than usual for games in April, took a vacation. I guess it could be said I played tourist :) As for the gaming, I managerd just a little Life is Strange and also Deus Ex MD, finished the now free mission Desperate Measures and the story DLC System Rift. Desperate Measures was pretty good if short. System Rift I dunno, didn't seem to offer much. Still, it's Deus Ex... I think I'll get the second story DLC at some point too.
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