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This week I have mostly been playing
Topic Started: Apr 2 2006, 06:11 PM (37,821 Views)
dunkle
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The Eurogamer review saw me cancel my pre order for Mafia II however I still have this niggle I really want to get it. Ill probably pick it up in Tesco when we go shopping at weekend although I know ill be annoyed with the checkpoint thing
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Retrovertigo
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Been playing some Mafia 2 today and I'm loving it. Some of the incidental details are fantastic. The way some people go about their business - for example where you live you see the landlady(?) cleaning the halls, but sometimes she will be eavesdropping at peoples doors and have a wry comment to make. If you keep your mate waiting at times, he makes snarky comments.

Plus the city looks lush. I'd read that the graphics on the 360 weren't up to much, but it certainly looks nicer than GTA IV (though to be fair to GTA, this city is probably a third of the size of that one - disappointingly). It does have some bad screen tearing at times though.

Not had much gunplay yet, but fist fights feel good with a nice auto block if you hold down the A button. There is something about the period setting and music that makes me pootle around everywhere in a car obeying the speed limits. It even has a function where you can set the speed limiter to make sure you obey traffic laws - and cops will give chase if they see you speeding.

Oh and it has my favoruite feature that I expect to see in the next GTA - shops have windows with items in them. They aren't simply low res textures.

The voice acting is nice as well, and the story seems like it will shape up quite nicely. Only downside is that I've read it can be finished in around 10 hours or so. Which for an "open world" game doesn't cut it these days.

Eurogamers review is a million miles wide of the mark. For starters they complained that missions lack frequent checkpoints, but that is bollocks, the saving icon pops up constantly in the corner of the screen.

Apparently the guy who wrote it has only reviewed 3 games for them, and the others were less than stellar write ups from what I gather.

Thumbs up from me for this so far. A solid 8/10 based on what I've seen so far.
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Juz
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Interesting feedback dude! I'll get it eventually from LoveFilm...
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dunkle
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Retrovertigo
Aug 26 2010, 08:18 PM
Been playing some Mafia 2 today and I'm loving it. Some of the incidental details are fantastic. The way some people go about their business - for example where you live you see the landlady(?) cleaning the halls, but sometimes she will be eavesdropping at peoples doors and have a wry comment to make. If you keep your mate waiting at times, he makes snarky comments.

Plus the city looks lush. I'd read that the graphics on the 360 weren't up to much, but it certainly looks nicer than GTA IV (though to be fair to GTA, this city is probably a third of the size of that one - disappointingly). It does have some bad screen tearing at times though.

Not had much gunplay yet, but fist fights feel good with a nice auto block if you hold down the A button. There is something about the period setting and music that makes me pootle around everywhere in a car obeying the speed limits. It even has a function where you can set the speed limiter to make sure you obey traffic laws - and cops will give chase if they see you speeding.

Oh and it has my favoruite feature that I expect to see in the next GTA - shops have windows with items in them. They aren't simply low res textures.

The voice acting is nice as well, and the story seems like it will shape up quite nicely. Only downside is that I've read it can be finished in around 10 hours or so. Which for an "open world" game doesn't cut it these days.

Eurogamers review is a million miles wide of the mark. For starters they complained that missions lack frequent checkpoints, but that is bollocks, the saving icon pops up constantly in the corner of the screen.

Apparently the guy who wrote it has only reviewed 3 games for them, and the others were less than stellar write ups from what I gather.

Thumbs up from me for this so far. A solid 8/10 based on what I've seen so far.
Cheers
It was the checkpoint thing putting me off but if thats ok I will get it
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Retrovertigo
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I don't get what Eurogamer were playing at really. I'd say that so far the checkpoints are spaced similarly to Ballad of Gay Tony or Lost and Damned. After each significant moment in a mission there seems to be a checkpoint.

As an example I did a mission where I had to drive myself a two others somewhere to kill a guy. Once you are there and involved in a shootout you have to make your way up a couple of floors of a building shooting the shit out of enemies. I died at one point (that isn't to say the game is difficult, because so far it isn't so bad) anyway, I died and was put outside the building at the start of the shootout. It put me back maybe 5 minutes.

They also said you can't skip cutscenes, but most I've seen have been skippable. There are the odd exceptions but otherwise you click thee start button and get the option to skip them.

So yeah, they seemed to be insinuating it is like GTA IV checkpoint wise. But it is much more in line with the two DLC packs for that game. Not caused me any issues at all.

edit: the incidental details still impress me. I won't spoil them though, but it does seem like they have thought to include little snippets of dialogue for people doing things outside the box,

One nice touch, is that if you are in a car and pull away on a slope of any kind, the car does a little roll backwards before setting off forward, just like a real car would. It is those kid of things which add so much to the immersion.

Also impressive that interiors don't load up. Whenever I've had to go inside (fairly large) buildings, there is no load time at all. Nice stuff.
Edited by Retrovertigo, Aug 27 2010, 09:10 PM.
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Juz
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Cheers for the updates bro.

Incidentally, GamesTM gave it an 8/10 and said that it was a story-driven game that just happened to be in a kinda sandbox....and that was why the 8-12 hour play time was acceptable, and equally why there weren't oodles of side-doobries to fuck around with.
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Retrovertigo
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Yeah very story driven. In fact there is no day night cycle because of it. The time of day does change, but is totally dependent on the chapter/mission you are on - so it makes sense as it improves the atmosphere no end. Plus the story takes place over a long period of time, so the seasons change as well making areas feel fresh again when you revisit them.

I'm still loving it and have been surprised by some of the details again today. It's great seeing pedestrians fall on their arse in the snow for example. There has been so much work put in to the details that it does seem a shame there is nothing of interest to find should you go exploring - save collectables. It does mean that if they release DLC though, that they can use areas that didn't feature so prominently.

edit: I have read a few posts on the net from people saying they wish the last few missions toward the end of the game had maybe 1 or 2 more checkpoints. Just a heads up for people worried about that. I am surprised as up until now (I'm on chapter 9) they have been fine - and to be honest I haven't struggled at all with the game to need to rely on them.

There is one drawback to the game. If you go on a walkabout to steal cars or rob shops, there is no manual save. You need to sleep in your bed which in turn then forwards the story. It is strange why they did it like that. But if you are collecting wanted posters or playboy magazines, then it does save after you get each one. Tiny complaint though really.
Edited by Retrovertigo, Aug 28 2010, 10:44 PM.
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Indie
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Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Finished the single player campaign yesterday having had this in the wrapper for months. Really enjoyed it actually - personally preferred this way more that the MW2 single player campaign. Which was over in the blink of an eye and story utterly ridiculous.

Red Dead Redemption
Finished the story, strangers missions a while back. Now working through the challenges and taking a looooong time! Still not much out at the moment until the autumn/winter deluge of releases. So filling the gap for now.
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And if I may say so, what a charming smashing blouse you've got on
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Retrovertigo
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Come on Diddly you miserable old bastard ;) tell us what you think of Mafia 2 as I see you have been playing an awful lot of it - and I assume not because you need to, as the review is already up.
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Diddly
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I think it's one of my games of the year m8. I'd prolly have given it a 9 rather than the 8 (which me n' Sloppy argued about as I contributed quite a bit to it), but it does have a couple of glitches, seems limited in other respects and it isn't all that long (unless like me you go looking for all the collectables). I would have bought the DLC if it weren't for Reach, but will probably get it after, it's just such a fanatastic environment to play in. :thumbsup:
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Diddly
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Halo: Reach - Well, if it is the last Halo game (mmmyeah, right) ^o) then it's a damn good way to sign off. It's an almighty package and I'd forgotten how cool it was to watch movies of missions over again from absolutely anyfucking where on the theater mode - no idea how they do that, and you can even rewind them now (don't think you could before). Without really doing anything radically new it's a spectacular game and does some things that the developers of lesser games can only look at and wonder. Finished it solo on Legendary yesterday and found it (along with daughter Beeb) incredibly hard and yet as addictive as the best puzzle games out there (if a tad more exciting and violent.)

F1 2010 - It's a long time since I gave a rats arse about an F1 game and the horrifically jaggy, PS2-looking Wii version had my warning bells ringing. I needn't have worried, we always wanted Codies to do an F1 game and they haven't let us down. It's superb looking (they sent us both PS3 and 360 versions) and the handling is just what I'd expect of it; you feel like you're barely controlling a moon rocket with brakes that can make your eyes pop out. Finding the exact difficulty to suit me may be a problem (I got pole and won my first race easily while driving a Lotus on 'medium' with ABS on but traction control off), so it seems a bit easy for a Codies game, but like most of them you can make it as hard as you want (there are two settings above the one I chose) or make it so easy as to even have recommended racing line and brake assist on if you're a rank beginner/drive like an old lady. Tuning/race length/weekend length are all selectable, there are load of control presets and you can edit your own if you want to. The AI seems lively (they try and pass and I've seen at least two make mistakes and spin off) and the collisions are very sensibly handled, you can make light contact without anything falling off, and you can make as surprisingly heavy contact with another car without gettting an instant drive through (y'know, like Alonso) - as long as you don't have a complete Barrichello you even (usually) get a warning for dodgy driving or corner cutting before they give you a penalty. It's easily as smooth as Forza 3, probably better looking and there's a superb sensation of speed with the in-car view or the view that most people use (top cam over the cockpit type-thing.) Very impressed initially. Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooooooooooowmmm! :thumbsup:
Subtitles are available on Teletext page 888
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Retrovertigo
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What about the bugs - specifically the pitlane one where the lollipop man doesn't let you out until every a.i car has left the pitlane? Have you experienced it at all?

I'm disappointed to read the a.i can have engine troubles, but you can't. Oh and that damage doesn't necessarily affect handling. I've also read of people staying on slicks during the rain and being just as fast as when it was dry!

I'm worried lots of stuff will rise to the surface if the above has appeared already.

Mine arrives this morning so I'll be trying it later. I must take issue with it being as smooth as Forza though - surely not when Forza is 60fps??
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Diddly
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I haven't experienced any of those yet m8, but I did enter the pits behind Vettel and leave in front of him, so maybe I've just got a really good pit crew or he's the one doing the complaining :ermm:

I have knocked one side of my front wing off this afternoon and it didn't seem to make a great deal of difference to the handling though, so if it actually doesn't then that's a shame - I think they may have overdone the strength/damage integrity of the player's car too, but being F1 it was always going to be a fine balancing act between being indestructible and things falling off at the slightest touch, only Geoff Crammond's game ever really got this close to being right in the past. :-/

We did some (deliberate) crashing and had some strange results too, with the cars sometimes falling apart quite spectacularly and at other times coming to a jarring halt without any visible damage, so that seems messed up.

I played Forza 3 to death, and had plenty of stutters when when cornering and when there were 3 or 4 cars in front, so I take issue with it being locked at 60fps as was claimed in more than one review. F1 may not be 60 (and being 60 certainly didn't make Forza feel fast or exciting) but it's smoother under stress, with several cars (or indeed all of them) on screen in front of you.
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Juz
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Yeah it's been roughly 13 years since I gave a shit for an F1 game and this one is interesting me - it's only in my rental queue though as I'm not sure it'll be all that and a bag of potato chips.

I saw a coupla vids of wet races and the player car was the only one kicking up spray - that seems a bit shite too - is it like that in the final code?
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Retrovertigo
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Jumped into it this evening and played a couple of career races and also ventured online with some mates.

Firstly, this does lack some polish it has to be said. I think if you gave someone who hadn't played any racing games, this game and Dirt 2, I think they would think Dirt 2 was the later game to have been developed. It looks better, it is more polished and less buggy.

One issue to annoy me, is that during qualifying, if you are on a flying lap and come up to a car leaving the pits, it won't yield at all. It will start to blast around the track and make no attempt to get out of your way. It just doesn't follow the rules, and should easily have been noticed during development.

Playing with a pad and ABS switched off, it is amazingly hard to lock up the wheels - which seems strange.

Oh and had some quite bad slowdown on occasion - Diddly we'll have to agree to disagree as I never saw any with FM3 - this has thrown it up within the first 2 races. But it isn't gamebreaking.

It's a really nice racing game, but it really feels like it should have been in development until the start of the next season and included fixes for the bugs - I experienced the pitlane bug first hand sadly - and just some tweaking here and there. Plus more sim options - this is sim light to say the least. That isn't such an issue in itself, but when you see codies boasting that they may well have made the ultimate F1 game, then I feel I'm within my rights to point out that it is far from it.

GP4 is still the daddy for me. I used to love playing that with a mate of mine using its take turn mode. Then at the end of the race we'd crash the car as fast as we could and literally watch it fall apart. This game doesn't get anywhere near that level of destruction as you say.

Online though - man it is awesome. Really good fun going out for qualifying and listening to everyone get pissed off as they waste precious laps as they spin their car. The races are suitably tense. I did think maybe so many cars on track would be a nightmare with crashes galore, but it is such a good experience. Really recommended for any who has played online racing games in the past.

Hopefully they will patch the small niggles and if I can, I'll grab an MS wheel from somewhere - god knows where though!

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