Ok so this week I decided to branch out a bit and go with a game that I've never played before. Also it was game of a kind that I am not good at and have never really been keen on them. This mystery game? Dishonored.
Characters- Well hmm. The characters within the game were largely caricatures instead of ones that felt like you'd find on the street. This didn't get any help with the player character being a silent protagonist. Things may change farther into the game but I seriously doubt it.
Gameplay- The make or break portion for any game. Dishonored's is largely based around stealth and if you screw up bad enough, which is easy to do, combat with sword and gun. Now the inherent problem with this game is that its a stealth game but its done from the first person. The game doesn't show the player just how visible they are so you have to guess just how fat your person is. Also since its a first person if you are hiding behind a wall you get to admire that wall's texture and hope you wander out after the guards have left. Should you get into combat, it might just be me, but I found it to be sticky and slow to engage. My biggest gripe with the gameplay is that on more than a few occasions I was found out because the context sensitive button press didn't work. This left me standing around like an idiot as the guard turned around and tried to fillet me.
Story- Well they weren't trying to reinvent anything here. Its reminiscent of about a hundred different stories that we've all seen before with no real new ideas of its own.
Graphics- This might be me but the unreal engine is old and is really showing its age. The character models were stunted and statue looking. Now again might just be me but I don't really recall any color outside of a few patches of red. With the aesthetic I didn't really see anyone trying to do anything unique. Just smashing different ideas together in the hopes that people will ignore it. Now I'm not exactly an expert on it but it just didn't seem like anyone really cared.
Odds and Sods- Now here's where I have to admit I didn't finish the game. I spent around three hours on the first assassination mission only to be told once I finished that I'd killed someone I had made sure not to and I was done. Now that might invalidate my opinion but I don't think it does. I served my time. Now the powers you gain felt more like an addition to hide flaws with the system instead of really adding anything. They really didn't do anything along the lines of Bioshock's powers which they really feel like.
Well that's it for me.
Good Gaming everyone
Hambone Out.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Xcom Enemy Unknown
So this week we're going to move onto one of my favorite games. The game I think is also deserving of the Game of the Year award but will probably end up snubbed in favor of standing franchises like Halo, Mass Effect or Call of Duty. Xcom Enemy Unknown.
Character- Ehh ok there are three in the base game but frankly that's not really a strength here. I wouldn't call it a weakness but I always feel a need to put this piece in here.
Story- The story is decent but it is fairly pulled back from what you as the player are doing. It is deep enough to be serviceable but not so deep as to be hard to discern. Its a simple story, in a lot of ways the best kind. I understood the story here better than the train wreck that was the Black Ops 2 story. Alien invasion of the planet now you must fight back.
Gameplay- Its good. Not for everyone though. Its based on a random hit chance based on a trooper's aim skill. Cover is extremely important to keeping your guys alive. They divided it into two parts. The missions where a selection of your available troops are sent in to kill all aliens and the base segment where you build and research new gear to use on the aliens. In some ways it is based on the concept of trial and error because it'll take some tries to get through a game. There are four classes available for your people and each one feels distinct and has its own strengths and weaknesses. My only real problem with the classes is that you cannot pick a units class. You have to hope an individual is assigned the class you want. You'll also often end up with a large amount of one given class or a dearth of another. The game is unforgiving in its difficulty, a dead trooper is dead and they won't come back. This combined with the aliens constantly running in new and harder units makes it hard to simply pick one unit and run with them. Speaking of the difficulty increase. I prefer that. So it doesn't matter if you got the laser rifles they will still be dropping more and more difficult units on top of you. Again on that same note you don't find out what an alien can do before it actually does it. While this can be a painful experience it does give many oooo moments.
Graphics- Passable. Its a top down interface so there isn't much to really show. I think its on the now fairly old unreal engine. But each alien is easy to identify and know exactly what they are at the outset.
Odds and Sods- The ability to customize your squad is a big thing to me. Being able to go into battle with a squad made up of my friends is a fun thing. A problem with the game I think is that it can be buggy. Every now and then a soldier on overwatch can see through walls and some times enemies will seem to spawn behind your forces. These can be fun and annoying but its always balanced out by that moment a pair of snipers in the right place take down an enemy walker in two shots.
Good Gaming everyone
Hambone out
Character- Ehh ok there are three in the base game but frankly that's not really a strength here. I wouldn't call it a weakness but I always feel a need to put this piece in here.
Story- The story is decent but it is fairly pulled back from what you as the player are doing. It is deep enough to be serviceable but not so deep as to be hard to discern. Its a simple story, in a lot of ways the best kind. I understood the story here better than the train wreck that was the Black Ops 2 story. Alien invasion of the planet now you must fight back.
Gameplay- Its good. Not for everyone though. Its based on a random hit chance based on a trooper's aim skill. Cover is extremely important to keeping your guys alive. They divided it into two parts. The missions where a selection of your available troops are sent in to kill all aliens and the base segment where you build and research new gear to use on the aliens. In some ways it is based on the concept of trial and error because it'll take some tries to get through a game. There are four classes available for your people and each one feels distinct and has its own strengths and weaknesses. My only real problem with the classes is that you cannot pick a units class. You have to hope an individual is assigned the class you want. You'll also often end up with a large amount of one given class or a dearth of another. The game is unforgiving in its difficulty, a dead trooper is dead and they won't come back. This combined with the aliens constantly running in new and harder units makes it hard to simply pick one unit and run with them. Speaking of the difficulty increase. I prefer that. So it doesn't matter if you got the laser rifles they will still be dropping more and more difficult units on top of you. Again on that same note you don't find out what an alien can do before it actually does it. While this can be a painful experience it does give many oooo moments.
Graphics- Passable. Its a top down interface so there isn't much to really show. I think its on the now fairly old unreal engine. But each alien is easy to identify and know exactly what they are at the outset.
Odds and Sods- The ability to customize your squad is a big thing to me. Being able to go into battle with a squad made up of my friends is a fun thing. A problem with the game I think is that it can be buggy. Every now and then a soldier on overwatch can see through walls and some times enemies will seem to spawn behind your forces. These can be fun and annoying but its always balanced out by that moment a pair of snipers in the right place take down an enemy walker in two shots.
Good Gaming everyone
Hambone out
Monday, December 17, 2012
Knights of the Old Republic 2 The Sith Lords
For this one we head back a few years. Knights of the Old Republic was one of the best RPGs on the original Xbox but the sequel had some troubles out of the gate. Nothing major but it never really garnered the same amount of praise that the first one did.
Character- Rather obviously the main character, the exile, has no personality beyond what the player ascribes to them. Dictating their actions and power ups as they see fit. While a couple of characters return all of the new ones have some manner of good personality inherent to them and it works well. My personal favorite of the new batch of characters is probably Mira. They are all distinct and different, even though most people will probably find their preferred team and run with that for most of the game.
Story- Now here is what makes or breaks RPGs. In this case Sith lords is good. A good overarching goal while you explore planets. I'm not so keen on returning to two of the ones we went to in the first game but that doesn't hurt the game. In addition I thank Obsidian for not making us go to Tatooine again. The place where the game is let down is that the big reveal of the game isn't as well done as the first game. It also is pretty easy to see coming. You obviously can choose your path on how exactly to go about completing it but you will go to each one eventually.
Gameplay- Ok this was a problem in both games. Since it uses the D20 system all combat is turn based. I don't have a problem with it but I have talked to a friend of mine who has been unable to actually play the game because the combat is so terrible. Most of the game though will be walking around and entering loading screens. The game is littered with the things. And unfortunately many of the quests take place in areas that the player must go back and forth between loading screens making the 20+ hour playtimes a misnomer as much of that is loading the next area. The game can also be obtuse at times Nar Shadaa is a good example of this. You have to do something very specific to get the appropriate event to trigger properly and allow you to continue the story. I really enjoyed the ability to make any of your character party (excluding the droids) into Jedi. Though doing so almost requires a guide and creates a dearth of lightsabers. The force powers availible consists of many varied choices from healing to force lightning. My personal beef with this is that in Kotor one using an ability that was contrary to the characters alignment cost double. In two they changed it to making the majority of your force powers be discounted. This creates a weird situation where the character can be a light jedi and be throwing around life drains and force lightning.
Graphics- Well its old what do you want. They aren't the best but for the time the game was good looking. I really don't have anything to say on that. The voice acting was good and other sounds were authentic.
Odds and Sods- Well the game is buggy at times. The disc that I have includes the republic commando demo and when I began the game I couldn't use any of the workbenches. Completion of the demo unlocked the benches and allowed me to continue. Also a problem with how they did things is that the first of the sith you kill, the biggest guy on the box and the one played up to kill planets is the first one you kill and he goes down like a chump.
Good Gaming.
Hambone out
Character- Rather obviously the main character, the exile, has no personality beyond what the player ascribes to them. Dictating their actions and power ups as they see fit. While a couple of characters return all of the new ones have some manner of good personality inherent to them and it works well. My personal favorite of the new batch of characters is probably Mira. They are all distinct and different, even though most people will probably find their preferred team and run with that for most of the game.
Story- Now here is what makes or breaks RPGs. In this case Sith lords is good. A good overarching goal while you explore planets. I'm not so keen on returning to two of the ones we went to in the first game but that doesn't hurt the game. In addition I thank Obsidian for not making us go to Tatooine again. The place where the game is let down is that the big reveal of the game isn't as well done as the first game. It also is pretty easy to see coming. You obviously can choose your path on how exactly to go about completing it but you will go to each one eventually.
Gameplay- Ok this was a problem in both games. Since it uses the D20 system all combat is turn based. I don't have a problem with it but I have talked to a friend of mine who has been unable to actually play the game because the combat is so terrible. Most of the game though will be walking around and entering loading screens. The game is littered with the things. And unfortunately many of the quests take place in areas that the player must go back and forth between loading screens making the 20+ hour playtimes a misnomer as much of that is loading the next area. The game can also be obtuse at times Nar Shadaa is a good example of this. You have to do something very specific to get the appropriate event to trigger properly and allow you to continue the story. I really enjoyed the ability to make any of your character party (excluding the droids) into Jedi. Though doing so almost requires a guide and creates a dearth of lightsabers. The force powers availible consists of many varied choices from healing to force lightning. My personal beef with this is that in Kotor one using an ability that was contrary to the characters alignment cost double. In two they changed it to making the majority of your force powers be discounted. This creates a weird situation where the character can be a light jedi and be throwing around life drains and force lightning.
Graphics- Well its old what do you want. They aren't the best but for the time the game was good looking. I really don't have anything to say on that. The voice acting was good and other sounds were authentic.
Odds and Sods- Well the game is buggy at times. The disc that I have includes the republic commando demo and when I began the game I couldn't use any of the workbenches. Completion of the demo unlocked the benches and allowed me to continue. Also a problem with how they did things is that the first of the sith you kill, the biggest guy on the box and the one played up to kill planets is the first one you kill and he goes down like a chump.
Good Gaming.
Hambone out
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Call Of Duty Black Ops 2
So Call Of Duty Black Ops 2. This particular franchise is one of the most successful franchises out there. Everywhere you look people give it high marks. But when you look into it the reasons are a little unclear.
Character- Well...they exist? The issue with this franchise is that they try and formulate characters for the player to care about and they fall flat. The bad guy is motivated by a reason that makes sense but is so overdone that it makes him less of a person and more of just the antagonist. The player characters also get put through the ringer a bit and never gain a lot of personality. The reason for that might be varied but they are just the exact same character as we've seen in every COD game to this point.
Plot- There was one? This is another problem with the game itself. They fill the game with cool looking set pieces but the plot just doesn't appear to make a big appearance. The plot itself is a massive problem with most of it being summed up as bad guy wins. I might be one of the only people bugged by this but throughout the game the bad guy seems to have DFCS or Developer's Favorite Character Syndrome. He is always ahead of the player for no better reason than the plot requires it. Spoilers. At one point in the plot one of your guys betrays you. Why? I have no idea it makes no sense as to why he should or anything in the plot. This doesn't excuse the part where this terrorist guy has enough people to wage full scale war with TWO global superpowers. That doesn't happen. It makes no sense and screams bad guy of the current generation instead of legitimate threat.
Appearance- It looks like every COD game. No real change since they released COD 4. 0 points for that and irritation from me. I don't understand why they don't do anything to the game play visuals while many others are.
Multiplayer- While I will say this one has my favorite maps since COD 4 there is no real innovation. They are still playing off of the success of COD 4.
Accessibility- Well its the same game as it has been for years. Nothing new and therefore nothing to talk about.
Odds and Sods- The technology that they show in the future time are cool. The strike missions are an interesting idea but it fails miserably. The controls are terrible and the A.I. bad. There is no need for the piece. In addition the fact that different completions of objectives can change the story is another interesting idea. Unfortunately it doesn't work. I don't know where many of them are and it felt forced in. Zombies has taken another hit as they continue to make it over. The problem with this mode is that the developer keeps trying to make it bigger and better when it was perfect at the outset.
In summation- A good, if lackluster addition to the COD franchise. Plenty of decent elements but best played and then forgotten about. Its not going to change the world or make most people care. Also I have apparently discovered that the people in charge of innovation over at Treyarch just aren't good at it.
Hambone out.
Character- Well...they exist? The issue with this franchise is that they try and formulate characters for the player to care about and they fall flat. The bad guy is motivated by a reason that makes sense but is so overdone that it makes him less of a person and more of just the antagonist. The player characters also get put through the ringer a bit and never gain a lot of personality. The reason for that might be varied but they are just the exact same character as we've seen in every COD game to this point.
Plot- There was one? This is another problem with the game itself. They fill the game with cool looking set pieces but the plot just doesn't appear to make a big appearance. The plot itself is a massive problem with most of it being summed up as bad guy wins. I might be one of the only people bugged by this but throughout the game the bad guy seems to have DFCS or Developer's Favorite Character Syndrome. He is always ahead of the player for no better reason than the plot requires it. Spoilers. At one point in the plot one of your guys betrays you. Why? I have no idea it makes no sense as to why he should or anything in the plot. This doesn't excuse the part where this terrorist guy has enough people to wage full scale war with TWO global superpowers. That doesn't happen. It makes no sense and screams bad guy of the current generation instead of legitimate threat.
Appearance- It looks like every COD game. No real change since they released COD 4. 0 points for that and irritation from me. I don't understand why they don't do anything to the game play visuals while many others are.
Multiplayer- While I will say this one has my favorite maps since COD 4 there is no real innovation. They are still playing off of the success of COD 4.
Accessibility- Well its the same game as it has been for years. Nothing new and therefore nothing to talk about.
Odds and Sods- The technology that they show in the future time are cool. The strike missions are an interesting idea but it fails miserably. The controls are terrible and the A.I. bad. There is no need for the piece. In addition the fact that different completions of objectives can change the story is another interesting idea. Unfortunately it doesn't work. I don't know where many of them are and it felt forced in. Zombies has taken another hit as they continue to make it over. The problem with this mode is that the developer keeps trying to make it bigger and better when it was perfect at the outset.
In summation- A good, if lackluster addition to the COD franchise. Plenty of decent elements but best played and then forgotten about. Its not going to change the world or make most people care. Also I have apparently discovered that the people in charge of innovation over at Treyarch just aren't good at it.
Hambone out.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Halo 4
So Halo 4. If you have an Xbox, barring a couple of my weird friends, you own this game. You have probably beaten this game as a point of fact. Well let's get right on into this bad boy.
Characters- Well here is a place that Halo has never been a big fount of characters and good characterizations. Halo 4 doesn't do a whole lot to dispel this notion but the Chief continues to be a strong character despite, and almost because, he does a lot of minor elements that demonstrate just who he is. A great example of this is when he is going to go after the big bad of the game and he stands up to the captain of the Infinity. There is just a quiet confidence in himself that really comes through in this scene. Cortana shows up again and her slow degeneration gave me a lot of laughs throughout the game. Especially when she causes the crash of the ship that the Chief stole. Unfortunately the rest of the characters within the story aren't really portrayed very well. The commander and the Spartan Palmer show more in the Spartan Ops mode but given that it is a weekly episodic thing it is difficult to say much more about them. That is the problem with a one man army type story. The antagonist characters of the Didact and to a small extent the Librarian character are flat and scream plot point. Not character.
Plot- The plots of the Halo have an advantage over many other games by actually being able to track down what the hell they are trying to do. At its surface it is the Chief against the Didact but on a deeper level it is about the Chief trying to keep the last member of his team, Cortana, alive. It is well done and it is a nice change from the normal stories of games like this. For some reason, possibly due to a lack of concern the Covenant show up again. This wouldn't be an issue but it isn't explained well enough. Are they there because they are salvagers and that's why they shoot at the chief. Or is it something else. More telling why they show up would have been nice. But I can go popping grunts any time.
Appearance- Ok hands down this is probably one of the best looking games I have played in a long long time. I might actually suggest that it is the best looking of all time. It took a long while into the campaign until I had gotten to the point where I realized that the cut scenes were digital and not made the same way as Transformers or something you would see in a high valued Hollywood blockbuster. The sounds of the game are awesome, despite my original consternation at the altering of things that I had thought sacred of the series. The shotgun sounds like a thunderclap and the assault rifle sounds beefy. Everything about the game's appearance would get top marks if I actually rated things.
Accessibility- Simple and easy to get into. I had some difficulties getting my head around the new changes to the change to the control scheme. Changing crouch to B was an interesting choice and even though I didn't like it at first when I thought about it I realized that there was really no better button to use there.
Odds and Sods- As usual with a new Halo we see bunch of new guns. The forerunner weapons I could take or leave, preferably leave, but they don't give you enough ammo for them to really make them count. I played through most of the game with a Lightrifle because it was the only gun I could reliably have ammo for. Now I understand the story reasons why. But it screamed to me that the developers were just widely proud of their weapons so those are the ones we see much more. I say I didn't like the new weapons and that is perhaps a bit strong. I wasn't entirely sure the Lightrifle did more damage or less when scoped. The design on them was cool but I don't know that the game really needed a fourth weapon that does that kind of scoped precision damage. Especially because the DMR and the Battle Rifle return in the game. They said that the lack of ammo was to encourage people to experiment and what it really did was to make the game slow down while you hunted a new gun down.
Multiplayer- Works well enough but it works just like COD. Of course this is praise. I think that Halo does it a bit better. One of my friends doesn't really care for the COD system and I can understand his problems with it. I agree with many of them despite debating the point on a regular basis. The unlocking of armor types and stances and things is cool because it allows for almost unlimited customization of your Spartan and it creates that connection with the online character.
Characters- Well here is a place that Halo has never been a big fount of characters and good characterizations. Halo 4 doesn't do a whole lot to dispel this notion but the Chief continues to be a strong character despite, and almost because, he does a lot of minor elements that demonstrate just who he is. A great example of this is when he is going to go after the big bad of the game and he stands up to the captain of the Infinity. There is just a quiet confidence in himself that really comes through in this scene. Cortana shows up again and her slow degeneration gave me a lot of laughs throughout the game. Especially when she causes the crash of the ship that the Chief stole. Unfortunately the rest of the characters within the story aren't really portrayed very well. The commander and the Spartan Palmer show more in the Spartan Ops mode but given that it is a weekly episodic thing it is difficult to say much more about them. That is the problem with a one man army type story. The antagonist characters of the Didact and to a small extent the Librarian character are flat and scream plot point. Not character.
Plot- The plots of the Halo have an advantage over many other games by actually being able to track down what the hell they are trying to do. At its surface it is the Chief against the Didact but on a deeper level it is about the Chief trying to keep the last member of his team, Cortana, alive. It is well done and it is a nice change from the normal stories of games like this. For some reason, possibly due to a lack of concern the Covenant show up again. This wouldn't be an issue but it isn't explained well enough. Are they there because they are salvagers and that's why they shoot at the chief. Or is it something else. More telling why they show up would have been nice. But I can go popping grunts any time.
Appearance- Ok hands down this is probably one of the best looking games I have played in a long long time. I might actually suggest that it is the best looking of all time. It took a long while into the campaign until I had gotten to the point where I realized that the cut scenes were digital and not made the same way as Transformers or something you would see in a high valued Hollywood blockbuster. The sounds of the game are awesome, despite my original consternation at the altering of things that I had thought sacred of the series. The shotgun sounds like a thunderclap and the assault rifle sounds beefy. Everything about the game's appearance would get top marks if I actually rated things.
Accessibility- Simple and easy to get into. I had some difficulties getting my head around the new changes to the change to the control scheme. Changing crouch to B was an interesting choice and even though I didn't like it at first when I thought about it I realized that there was really no better button to use there.
Odds and Sods- As usual with a new Halo we see bunch of new guns. The forerunner weapons I could take or leave, preferably leave, but they don't give you enough ammo for them to really make them count. I played through most of the game with a Lightrifle because it was the only gun I could reliably have ammo for. Now I understand the story reasons why. But it screamed to me that the developers were just widely proud of their weapons so those are the ones we see much more. I say I didn't like the new weapons and that is perhaps a bit strong. I wasn't entirely sure the Lightrifle did more damage or less when scoped. The design on them was cool but I don't know that the game really needed a fourth weapon that does that kind of scoped precision damage. Especially because the DMR and the Battle Rifle return in the game. They said that the lack of ammo was to encourage people to experiment and what it really did was to make the game slow down while you hunted a new gun down.
Multiplayer- Works well enough but it works just like COD. Of course this is praise. I think that Halo does it a bit better. One of my friends doesn't really care for the COD system and I can understand his problems with it. I agree with many of them despite debating the point on a regular basis. The unlocking of armor types and stances and things is cool because it allows for almost unlimited customization of your Spartan and it creates that connection with the online character.
Monday, November 12, 2012
Back again.
Ok I am really terrible at this, I'm back again though I can't guarantee for how long. I'm going to try and shift things around here at the Randomness. Over these past few weeks I came to a realization. I play a lot of games and once I get around the fact that I'm playing the game for fun I analyze the things that are going on within it. So long story short I'm likely to start working reviews on here about once a week. Now given the fact that I'm a poor as hell college student and don't have much money these reviews will jump around between a lot of the things that interest me. We'll go from recent games, first on the docket is Halo 4, to older games, to anime things. Why? Because I'm the one with the blog control and I have the power.
Should be fun,
Hambone out.
Should be fun,
Hambone out.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Ghost Hunting
So Ghost Recon Future Soldier.
I recently got this out of a local Redbox because I'd played GRAW when the 360 first came out and I actually liked the game. Of course its been such a long time since I played it that I might be imagining things. Regardless.
Things I liked about the game,
The characters while not exactly fleshed out are somewhat funny to listen to when they actually start talking to each other which isn't often.
The amount of weapons I first thought was a little light considering most have about thirty different rifles alone. However while the amount of weapons might be a little light to me the amount that the player can customize them is kinda bonkers. Pretty much everything that goes on the guns can be customized down to the barrels and gas systems that they have. I'm not an expert on these kinds of things so I don't know if that's actually possible but I thought it was cool.
I'd say graphics but since everything has the same ones now its not worth mentioning.
I applaud the effort of making the game be more about teamwork with the sync kill where you mark up to four unfortunates and are able to get them with one pull of the trigger by getting your AI allies to help out. That worked very well and it was extremely enjoyable to move through levels getting help from them to avoid detection.
However that mention of avoiding detection is where we break away from the things that I actually thought were really good with the game. Don't get me wrong I did enjoy the game when I got things to work right but there were faults.
Story Note Spoilers continue at own risk Well I think there was one but honestly I didn't really care it was one of those things happening in the background and all I was concerned with was accomplishing the current mission. I know it had something to do with a coup in Russia, because if we aren't shooting at Russians of some flavor we're doing it wrong. The story dropped a pretty huge ball as well with these bad Ruskies wheeling out a band of guys with the same kind of gear that you get and in larger numbers than you and better with theirs able to work while they are walking while yours doesn't. This comes up as a bad guy but is never dealt with which is pretty weak seeing as how you are supposed to be top of the line in tech and now we find that we've been beaten to the punch. I'm not saying it needs to take center stage but come on at least let me go find out how this came about.
The AI.....Well honestly its crap I had to restart a section at least three times because they got stuck and I couldn't proceed farther into the level. They also don't seem to understand that they are supposed to help you by shooting bad guys. It wasn't until I got to the level that you have to do on your own that I finally realized the only reasons they were there was to give me four guys to simultaneously shoot bad guys who don't know you're there and to revive me when I got killed by one of the other AI who forgot this isn't Halo and rushed me.
Speaking of the combat well...Its also a crap shoot since the friendly AI is so bad it struggles with the weapons in its hands combat becomes extremely risky to engage in since you will be fighting tons of guys at the same time. In addition its very trial and error with you only learning about the guy that wanders around that particular building only AFTER he had filled you with bullets.
Actually thinking about it Ghost Recon Trial and Error probably would be a better name for the game since that's what's driving it. Many of the levels have an alert=fail. Now while this is automatically stupid I did like that it does tell you when that's the case. I understand that many of the game's missions are supposed to be on the sneaky sneaky but come on give me a break. Maybe I lack the stealth mindset but I don't want to have to spend ten minutes waiting around and planning every little detail only to be screwed because while I'm using that stupid drone to do all this an enemy walked up to me and shot me to hell.
Finally lets get one thing straight here. Third person cover based with light health should not have as its climactic piece a chase through dozens of bad guys shooting at me. That's just trying to irritate the player because they need to move fast while the ENTIRE game up to that point was slow and sneaky and it should stay that way.
Last point that I want to make is that the game installed something on my console in order to "enhance the sound experience" Wait hang on what? I don't have surround sound and I don't have one of those headsets that creates an ambiance. I sit around with podcasts/music/the other tv in my area going at once I don't need a enhanced audio experience and I don't want to wait ten minutes to play the game.
So all things considered its decent but not great and not terrible. Probably end up playing it and forgetting about it because nothing about the game really stood out to me.
Take that for what you will
Hambone Out
I recently got this out of a local Redbox because I'd played GRAW when the 360 first came out and I actually liked the game. Of course its been such a long time since I played it that I might be imagining things. Regardless.
Things I liked about the game,
The characters while not exactly fleshed out are somewhat funny to listen to when they actually start talking to each other which isn't often.
The amount of weapons I first thought was a little light considering most have about thirty different rifles alone. However while the amount of weapons might be a little light to me the amount that the player can customize them is kinda bonkers. Pretty much everything that goes on the guns can be customized down to the barrels and gas systems that they have. I'm not an expert on these kinds of things so I don't know if that's actually possible but I thought it was cool.
I'd say graphics but since everything has the same ones now its not worth mentioning.
I applaud the effort of making the game be more about teamwork with the sync kill where you mark up to four unfortunates and are able to get them with one pull of the trigger by getting your AI allies to help out. That worked very well and it was extremely enjoyable to move through levels getting help from them to avoid detection.
However that mention of avoiding detection is where we break away from the things that I actually thought were really good with the game. Don't get me wrong I did enjoy the game when I got things to work right but there were faults.
Story Note Spoilers continue at own risk Well I think there was one but honestly I didn't really care it was one of those things happening in the background and all I was concerned with was accomplishing the current mission. I know it had something to do with a coup in Russia, because if we aren't shooting at Russians of some flavor we're doing it wrong. The story dropped a pretty huge ball as well with these bad Ruskies wheeling out a band of guys with the same kind of gear that you get and in larger numbers than you and better with theirs able to work while they are walking while yours doesn't. This comes up as a bad guy but is never dealt with which is pretty weak seeing as how you are supposed to be top of the line in tech and now we find that we've been beaten to the punch. I'm not saying it needs to take center stage but come on at least let me go find out how this came about.
The AI.....Well honestly its crap I had to restart a section at least three times because they got stuck and I couldn't proceed farther into the level. They also don't seem to understand that they are supposed to help you by shooting bad guys. It wasn't until I got to the level that you have to do on your own that I finally realized the only reasons they were there was to give me four guys to simultaneously shoot bad guys who don't know you're there and to revive me when I got killed by one of the other AI who forgot this isn't Halo and rushed me.
Speaking of the combat well...Its also a crap shoot since the friendly AI is so bad it struggles with the weapons in its hands combat becomes extremely risky to engage in since you will be fighting tons of guys at the same time. In addition its very trial and error with you only learning about the guy that wanders around that particular building only AFTER he had filled you with bullets.
Actually thinking about it Ghost Recon Trial and Error probably would be a better name for the game since that's what's driving it. Many of the levels have an alert=fail. Now while this is automatically stupid I did like that it does tell you when that's the case. I understand that many of the game's missions are supposed to be on the sneaky sneaky but come on give me a break. Maybe I lack the stealth mindset but I don't want to have to spend ten minutes waiting around and planning every little detail only to be screwed because while I'm using that stupid drone to do all this an enemy walked up to me and shot me to hell.
Finally lets get one thing straight here. Third person cover based with light health should not have as its climactic piece a chase through dozens of bad guys shooting at me. That's just trying to irritate the player because they need to move fast while the ENTIRE game up to that point was slow and sneaky and it should stay that way.
Last point that I want to make is that the game installed something on my console in order to "enhance the sound experience" Wait hang on what? I don't have surround sound and I don't have one of those headsets that creates an ambiance. I sit around with podcasts/music/the other tv in my area going at once I don't need a enhanced audio experience and I don't want to wait ten minutes to play the game.
So all things considered its decent but not great and not terrible. Probably end up playing it and forgetting about it because nothing about the game really stood out to me.
Take that for what you will
Hambone Out
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Gaming
Hey all Randomness peoples I'm back again.
My Rockies are going alright which always makes life quite a bit better.
So all y'all here at Randomness are gamers right? Of course you are. And of course you have played Bioware's juggernaut of Mass Effect 3, any gamer who enjoys an RPG should hit up as many bioware games as possible to see how a good RPG is done. That said people got all up in arms over the ending to Mass Effect 3 and they seemed to believe that even a great game designer like Bioware would be able to deliver a game built entirely around the different choices made throughout the game. While this was what was advertised in the marketing blurb by Bioware it had to be known about how this would have been a monumental undertaking to accomplish. Apparently some overly offended dude complained to the better business bureau about the game and while assuming that everything in marketing ideas will be there is an ok way to go about things its also remarkably short sighted. Games are set up to get hype working for them so the consumer goes and buys it. thus putting money in the hands of the company. This is not a bad thing its just how our society works. My opinion, is more along the lines of leave the company alone on that angle and simply express outrage as many did. I wasn't one of them. To be honest I just thought about what my ending was going to be as I played through and the "canon" ending almost regardless wouldn't have been the same and similarly I wasn't bothered by the way the game ended. One thing that people need to remember about the Mass Effect games is that they aren't really about the universe. They are about Shepard and their adventure to try and stop the destruction of their world.
Good Gaming everybody
Hambone Out
My Rockies are going alright which always makes life quite a bit better.
So all y'all here at Randomness are gamers right? Of course you are. And of course you have played Bioware's juggernaut of Mass Effect 3, any gamer who enjoys an RPG should hit up as many bioware games as possible to see how a good RPG is done. That said people got all up in arms over the ending to Mass Effect 3 and they seemed to believe that even a great game designer like Bioware would be able to deliver a game built entirely around the different choices made throughout the game. While this was what was advertised in the marketing blurb by Bioware it had to be known about how this would have been a monumental undertaking to accomplish. Apparently some overly offended dude complained to the better business bureau about the game and while assuming that everything in marketing ideas will be there is an ok way to go about things its also remarkably short sighted. Games are set up to get hype working for them so the consumer goes and buys it. thus putting money in the hands of the company. This is not a bad thing its just how our society works. My opinion, is more along the lines of leave the company alone on that angle and simply express outrage as many did. I wasn't one of them. To be honest I just thought about what my ending was going to be as I played through and the "canon" ending almost regardless wouldn't have been the same and similarly I wasn't bothered by the way the game ended. One thing that people need to remember about the Mass Effect games is that they aren't really about the universe. They are about Shepard and their adventure to try and stop the destruction of their world.
Good Gaming everybody
Hambone Out
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Outdated Gaming
Lets get this first part out of the way, I am a gamer I’ve played pretty much every genre of em out there excluding the idiotic kiddy game tie ins and there is but one genre that I genuinely hate. I cannot fathom why this outdated and fairly crappy genre still exists. That simple genre is the 2d fighting game genres, there is simply no reason for this half assed god-awful thing to still exist in modern day gaming. Every other genre has progressed to a point where it is easy to see the innovation that designers had put into it but this one? Nothing not a single god-awful thing gets changed oh sure maybe the graphics get an upgrade from really bad pixels to really bad cartoony 3d but that’s pretty much it. Lets do a rundown on the things that games normally have and compare the lot of them to see if there is a reason for this to stick around.
Story: Well that’s a bust all fighting games usually have a story that you need to go on wikipedia for to find out what it is and to be honest many of those that I have looked at are fairly good but due to the constraints of this genre you never see them. For me a good story can excuse many flaws in the other things provided they are solid on their own.
Graphics: This one is usually ancillary to everything else, a stocking stuffer and not something I personally look to hard at since if the game is fun I really don’t care what it looks like. But these games I cant get past it the characters look cartoony and it keeps distracting me with all the special move effects being brighter than everything else and honestly that whole combination of the graphics just looks plain bad.
Controls: Yea I guess this is the make or break for games like these and honestly they always suck not explaining what does what and expecting you the player to figure out what they are talking about the absence of an actual relatable and teaching type training mode kills it. Say what you like about Dead or Alive 4 but at least its training mode would teach you how to perform the moves that the characters had. These just thrown them out there and don’t even tell you what buttons are supposed to be pressed. Yellow H on the training screen WTF does that mean no controller has ever had an H button you idiotic game. It doesn’t help that often the game just wont register a command because it doesn’t feel like playing nice like all the other games.
Gameplay: Relating to the AI here, and frankly as with everything else its retarded, after a few early fights it just gets unfair with the computer regularly beating the crap out of me with me not getting what is going on and why my moves don’t seem to count. To say nothing of the final boss which is just a plain exercise in how long before you snap you controller in half or go for the game. Setting up a player to fail is stupid and giving the already unfair boss character even more advantages is always going to be a not fun thing for the player but they keep insisting on developing this crap.
Now I know my comments on this stuff isn’t going to light the world on fire and cause mass destruction of the most outdated genre in gaming but this shit has to go it has no bearing anywhere nothing is done well on this, crappy and often unreliable controls combined with irritating gameplay, that might have been the root of gaming in the first place but I’m pretty sure we have gotten past that in modern gaming. Frustrating the player is fine because it keeps people playing but being insistently and regularly bad that is not what people show up for.
The All-Mighty Hambone
Story: Well that’s a bust all fighting games usually have a story that you need to go on wikipedia for to find out what it is and to be honest many of those that I have looked at are fairly good but due to the constraints of this genre you never see them. For me a good story can excuse many flaws in the other things provided they are solid on their own.
Graphics: This one is usually ancillary to everything else, a stocking stuffer and not something I personally look to hard at since if the game is fun I really don’t care what it looks like. But these games I cant get past it the characters look cartoony and it keeps distracting me with all the special move effects being brighter than everything else and honestly that whole combination of the graphics just looks plain bad.
Controls: Yea I guess this is the make or break for games like these and honestly they always suck not explaining what does what and expecting you the player to figure out what they are talking about the absence of an actual relatable and teaching type training mode kills it. Say what you like about Dead or Alive 4 but at least its training mode would teach you how to perform the moves that the characters had. These just thrown them out there and don’t even tell you what buttons are supposed to be pressed. Yellow H on the training screen WTF does that mean no controller has ever had an H button you idiotic game. It doesn’t help that often the game just wont register a command because it doesn’t feel like playing nice like all the other games.
Gameplay: Relating to the AI here, and frankly as with everything else its retarded, after a few early fights it just gets unfair with the computer regularly beating the crap out of me with me not getting what is going on and why my moves don’t seem to count. To say nothing of the final boss which is just a plain exercise in how long before you snap you controller in half or go for the game. Setting up a player to fail is stupid and giving the already unfair boss character even more advantages is always going to be a not fun thing for the player but they keep insisting on developing this crap.
Now I know my comments on this stuff isn’t going to light the world on fire and cause mass destruction of the most outdated genre in gaming but this shit has to go it has no bearing anywhere nothing is done well on this, crappy and often unreliable controls combined with irritating gameplay, that might have been the root of gaming in the first place but I’m pretty sure we have gotten past that in modern gaming. Frustrating the player is fine because it keeps people playing but being insistently and regularly bad that is not what people show up for.
The All-Mighty Hambone
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