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| This week I have mostly been playing | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 2 2006, 06:11 PM (37,808 Views) | |
| Diddly | Mar 11 2011, 10:51 AM Post #1051 |
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Chef Coque-Knockeur
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It would basically sound the same as Morgon's explanation as to why Mygamercard is no more >here<, only I'd name a few of the names of the responsible and mention a few other useful dedicated sites and utilities that have got exactly ZERO fucking support or backup from M$ (or Sony or Nintendo for that matter) and would, of course, be punctuated with expletives in capital letters. But as I hope to get sent review material again by them one day I will keep my big gob shut and move on. |
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| Retrovertigo | Mar 19 2011, 09:53 PM Post #1052 |
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I've been playing Homefront Now I went into this expecting an absolutely abysmal game judging from the reviews I had seen. However, maybe it's because I am not any kind of FPS expert, but I can't see why it is getting quite the slagging it has been doing. I've seen the story slated, but fucking hell, do these same reviewers listen to the shit that is spouted forth in stuff like COD? I've seen the graphics slagged off, but it doesn't look that bad to me at all. In fact some bits look pretty nice to be honest. Maybe because I have it installed on my HDD, but I haven't seen any of the dreaded texture pop-in mentioned. Other than that, it feels like a shooty game, and praise be, one that doesn't have dreaded COD style endless waves of enemies until you push past checkpoints. You shoot all the bad guys - and the area gets cleared letting you loot ammo and look for hidden collectibles if you wish. My only gripe, is that sure, in places the lack of polish can be evident. I have been blown up by grenades because the indicator didn't appear onscreen, or somehow bad guys manage to get a few shots in when I'm supposedly hidden behind something solid. It does suffer my biggest pet peeve though - just like COD your squadmates can properly take cover behind objects and pop out to shoot. But because it isn't a cover based shooter I can't do the same. Why the fuck do devs make FPS games based on supposed elite military forces, and not allow them to do the most basic of actions that would be drummed into every single fucking soldier on the planet?????????? |
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| Juz | Mar 21 2011, 07:10 AM Post #1053 |
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Graphics Whore(TM)
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Dude- I've seen at least 2 reviews that say that you get caught a number of times just waiting for your AI's to open doors or whatever and that it really grates; you seen this? |
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| Retrovertigo | Mar 21 2011, 11:01 AM Post #1054 |
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I've seen that waiting for the door open thing, but they really failed to put it into context I feel. First off, most of the levels are BIG. So as an example, you make your way to an encampment and there is a big battle that takes place in a large car park, of a shopping area (kind of like the industrial estate type things) from the car park you proceed into one of the large shops and fight your way through there. Now, they do stop and talk for a second before you go through a door, but it's masking loading times - which to me at least, seems a better way of doing it than a fade to black as it is much more immersive feeling like you are making your way through a big world. And the wait is minimal, maybe 5-10 seconds at most. It happens like this a few times and for me, staying in game is infinitely preferable than a fade to a loading screen. The trade off, of really large levels is worth it - to me at least. Like a lot of the games flaws, I think it has been over-exaggerated by reviewers. Oh and the last level is really quite superb. My biggest gripe remains the feeling enemies can shoot you when you are in cover. But I did play it on the hardest setting where you can't take many hits at all, which probably made it feel worse. Edited by Retrovertigo, Mar 21 2011, 11:04 AM.
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| Diddly | Mar 21 2011, 11:13 AM Post #1055 |
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Chef Coque-Knockeur
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Haven't had this at all, in fact the AI seems really good, leading when they say they will and actually killing the odd enemy (unlike Black Ops dumbasses who frequently seemed to have Naked Gun-style point-blank shootouts and manage to expend unfeasible quantities of ammo without killing so much as an enemy flea). I haven't seen any texture pop either, and haven't had any outrageous glitches like both CoD and MoH frequently exhibited. I'm not sure I'm a huge fan though, as Retro said it lacks polish, the character models are pretty good but the lip synch is rubbish, and as scarily plausible as the plot is, I preferred Frontlines (Kaos's previous title) gameplay, mainly because it seemed to feature vehicles and UAVs a lot more, setting it apart from all the other CoD/MoH clones. In Homefront I didn't get to drive anything, flew an helicopter once (on probably the best level in the game) and briefly control a UCAV. Where's the all tanks and APCs to rumble around in? Homefront's also fucking SHORT - 4 n' a half hours-ish to play through on 'Normal', whilst looking for collectible newpapers all the way? It's a worrying trend when yet another big name FPS lasts only a bit longer than some movies. I'm sure the multiplayer is great, and there's weeks of potential gameplay and plenty of vehicles to play with in that, but what about all the people who don't play online MP shooters, or those of us who avoid them simply because they daren't get addicted to the things again or just don't have the time to invest? Where's the value? And regarding cover, I don't know why all FPS makers don't just bite the bullet and admit that EA have got one thing dead right over the last few MoHs, and copy its infinitely adjustable crouch/lean/sorta-dynamic 'cover system', it works way better than sticking to walls or basic CoD/Halo crouch/go prone controls. |
Subtitles are available on Teletext page 888![]() You forget a thousand things every day pal. Make sure this is one of 'em. | |
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| Retrovertigo | Mar 21 2011, 01:24 PM Post #1056 |
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Yeah one thing I forgot to mention is the A.I. It can be a little janky to be honest, but I have had areas (again playing on hardest setting) where I was getting wasted, so hung back and let the A.I kill off a decent amount of enemies before pushing on. And because enemies don't infinitely respawn, they do help quite a lot. There are instances where they are dumb of course, but compared to say, that bastard hill section in Black Ops, the A.I in this are of einstein proportions. The shortness is why I played on the hardest setting to be honest. It took me maybe 6 hours? I'm going to go through again on easy - not only because I enjoyed it - but for the points for not using retries
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| Diddly | Mar 21 2011, 05:53 PM Post #1057 |
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Chef Coque-Knockeur
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Playing level one through again I now know exactly what they're talking about; if you don't pick up the first assault rifle you come across (as clearly instructed) the enemy helo comes around and blows you away, as your friends won't open the door until you've picked it up. Kind of petty to whinge about getting killed because you don't do as you're told, and it's not like the checkpoint is way back or anything. ProCoD whiners? I've also been looking for texture pop, and other than a couple of bollards zapping in when crossing a road behind a patrol it really isn't any worse than any number of other "Triple A" games, and the draw distance is at times, extremely impressive. I still think the AI's pretty good, and they certainly kill a lot more bad guys for you than CoD's pacifists, more like MoH's squad AI. |
Subtitles are available on Teletext page 888![]() You forget a thousand things every day pal. Make sure this is one of 'em. | |
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| Retrovertigo | Mar 24 2011, 11:16 PM Post #1058 |
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Soooo, had a dabble with Crysis 2 earlier. Initial thoughts are that graphically I preferred Homefront to be honest. Crysis does indeed look amazing at first glance (360 version by the way) but fuck me, it is plagued by issues that distract you regularly. Shadows seem to be animated at something like 5 frames per second. There are a ton of LOD issues (higher poly count models load into view very close to where you are positioned) grass and other small objects pop into view. Water reflections appear out of nowhere. Homefront took some flack in reviews for some texture pop-in. It is a shame those same reviewers are failing to mention even worse issues with Crysis. I'm not feeling the gameplay either though. I am also finding it incredibly hard to pick out bad guys in the distance. Partly a problem because they devs clearly wanted to say "hey, look at us making a cutting edge game fit on current gen consoles) but it comes at the price of resolution, slowdown and that all making enemies a pain to see. Maybe it will click. But I played for maybe an hour and it all felt a little ....empty. The first level is impressively large, but is inhabited by a minimum number of enemies. For what it's worth I'm playing on normal and have no idea if ramping up the difficulty makes them smarter, or adds more of them. So yeah, if I were to judge some recent FPS's on first impressions, Homefront and MOH would rank above Crysis for me personally. Which I never would have expected, even with me having never played the first Crysis - I was still expecting big things from the off. |
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| Diddly | Mar 28 2011, 02:33 PM Post #1059 |
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Chef Coque-Knockeur
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Yeeeeeees, Hmmm.... it's a nice looking game with some tremendous effects but feels kind of... fragile somehow, like it's all going to chug to a halt at any moment. I know it's drawing a highly detailed section of Manhattan at all times and switches from epic outdoor sections to interiors beautifully but it doesn't feel anywhere near as solid as, say, the Halo Reach engine to me. As for glitches the texture pop is often horrendous - especially when using the zoom on the sniper rifle! I don't recall ever going "eeek!" at texture pop so often when playing Reach or Homefront, and certainly not Bulletstorm. Although it does work most of the time the AI seems to lose the plot altogether now and then with enemy soldiers just falling over edges, falling down steps and dying - even grenading themselves on occasion... They seem to fall over and "bounce" up again a lot too. I've also had basic, shamefully poor aiming issues (couldn't fire through one set of handrailings, right at the start of a level, that were 12" apart!), and Harry had a complete lock up after getting stuck on a wooden dock. The invisible walls also seem a bit clumsy and abitrary, with some areas that look like they need investigating blocked off for no apparent reason. As for the gameplay I'm of the same opinion. I feel like a crap, clumsy and underpowered Prototype at the moment, where as the game Prototype made me feel like a GOD (or maybe a demon). It's certainly given me some thrills, but many levels feel like a set test rather than something dynamic and exciting. In some strange way levels often remind me of the VR missions in MGS... (with marginally better graphics) I think we're seeing here prooof positive that the Xbox 360 will run Crysis 2 (they even give you an achievement for it, cheeky buggers), but there's no fucking way it'd have run Crysis, not with all those trees and physics. |
Subtitles are available on Teletext page 888![]() You forget a thousand things every day pal. Make sure this is one of 'em. | |
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| Juz | Mar 28 2011, 08:37 PM Post #1060 |
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Graphics Whore(TM)
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Yeah I'm playing Crysis 2 and, rather astonishingly, feel the same as you two ringpieces ie kinda empty and underwhelmed. Completely agree on the engine - it DOES feel like it's gonna bust at any time and the pop in is fucking G-A-Y. With Retro on the enemy visibilty too..... Something the enemy seems to have the exact opposite of by fucking immediately "seeing" me through walls the nano(!)second I de-cloak. Guessing 90% dev time to multiplayer, 10% single? |
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| Retrovertigo | Mar 28 2011, 11:54 PM Post #1061 |
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Further into the game now - I do appreciate they have made it a lengthy quest by the way. Seen some bugs though - enemies glitching onto higher levels of scenery, them standing still and just staring at me without shooting. I've fallen through the floor and below the scenery (took a photo of that for giggles). The enemies all fell through after me which was strange. It seems to have settled down with pop-in etc though since the levels have closed in a little. Wide open spaces it obviously still happens a lot. It still feels a little lifeless though when shooting anything. I'm enjoying it a little more now I've started to be more stealthy, even though stealth isn't my thing really. Going to finish it though just to see the sights as I progress through the game. Shame Homefront got slated for many of the same issues though - so glad to see it sold fairly well despite the grief it got. |
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| Diddly | Mar 29 2011, 09:38 AM Post #1062 |
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Chef Coque-Knockeur
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Yeah I fell through the scenery last night, blasted there by being hit by a drop pod! I could wander around beneath a pond and even seemingly resurface, but was stuck beneath the map's mat bottom so couldn't actually continue or kill myself and had to quit (no checkpoint restart, how fucking dumb is that?) I've also managed to throw an alien through a solid wall, and had a complete ammo gauge malfunction that cleared up when I reloaded the game, so I know it wasn't an in-game HUD glitch. Being able to only run one powerup at a time is gay too, and what a stoopid suit/weapon upgrade menu system, it makes me feel even more cack-handed than usual! Running around and gathering the magic sparkly dust from dead enemies so you can afford all the upgrades? (some of which are SO fucking stupid and annoying that you'll use them once and then turn them off for EVER by the way) Fuck me how gay-makes you feel like you're playing Mario or Ratchet & Clank... I wouldn't have believed anyone if they'd told me that Homefront was the slicker of the two games but that is clearly the case, despite C2's glossy initial impressions. I've got to say that the infected NPCs are also pathetic, way lower detail than any other character in game, why don't they ever react to you, and why can't you put them out of their misery? Perhaps because that would push it to an 18 cert and affect (legal) sales? The core gameplay becomes an awful lot like Halo, 2, 3, ODST/Reach in places too; small, mostly nimble but weak enemies, lumbering, heavily-armoured ones with big guns, tall annoyingly tough and accurate ones... a small group of marines to fight along with that make you feel guilty if you let them all die, shoot-downable dropships that come in and strafe you as they arrive/leave? Hmmm... familiar much? I think I can see where they got most of the plot elements from and can even include it in an ammended title: CryofDuProtoHalosis 2..? On the plus side it does look absolutely fucking stunning at times, LOVE it when anything explodes, and the weapon set is really good (although the iron sights on many of the weapons, which admittedly can often be swapped out, often totally obscure the target, which is ridiculous) with some real fun toys to play with without going all sci-fi, even better than Homefront's. Edit: Just had it lock up solid for the first time, during an unremarkable shootout inside a building near what I presume is the climax of the game. It seems to get glitchier and glitchier the longer you play it, maybe it's overheating the 360 CPU?
Edited by Diddly, Mar 29 2011, 01:21 PM.
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Subtitles are available on Teletext page 888![]() You forget a thousand things every day pal. Make sure this is one of 'em. | |
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| Retrovertigo | Mar 30 2011, 09:19 AM Post #1063 |
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No restart checkpoint is a fucking pain in the arse in this game. Had a few glitches and blips and had to quit the game and restart. Surely during testing, someone encountered the same glitches and commented on what a pain it was to get back into the game??? I'm enjoying it more and more as time goes by, mainly because they do throw up some really nice set pieces. I do especially like some of the transitions from one area to another where they have some kind of event that disorientates you as it loads sections in. Gunplay is still weak though - at least I think so. Probably because unlike something like MOH, you aren't up close and personal a lot of the time and so you lose the feeling of impact when you shoot something. I agree with you as well Diddly - only being able to choose select powers is rubbish. This suit is supposed to be evolving as you advance through the game, so why am I not really evolving with it. Instead I'm just getting options, which isn't the same thing. I should be turning into a super awesome badass, but I'm not really. Still, the graphics whore in me can appreciate some of the sights, so I'll be playing again later. I've also been playing some Moto GP 10/11. Really torn on that one. The bike handling is pretty bad to be honest. I have started doing the career mode with the 125's, and they really don't take that much effort to change direction. But in this game you really have to plan out your racing line (which sounds realistic) but you need to play to see what I mean. Subtle adjustments should be really easy, but they aren't - even slight changes in direction can result in lots of over-correction. But I'm nonetheless impressed that it plays quite smoothly even with 27 bikes on track, and some tracks have some pretty damned nice detail as well. No mean feat having that many separate vehicles on track at once. I also like having a p.r manager and mechanics and having to factor in the cost of development of the bike as the season progresses. Just wished it handled better. |
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| Juz | Apr 5 2011, 06:10 AM Post #1064 |
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Eventually abandoned Crysis 2 in the end. Very unusual for me not to finish a game these days, but it just felt like work instead of fun. Didn't even touch multiplayer so can't comment on that. |
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| Retrovertigo | Apr 5 2011, 09:10 AM Post #1065 |
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Shift 2 It has been a long time since I have actually felt excited while playing a racing game. Mainly down to the sound design and rawness of this game. I've read a few complaints of people not getting on with the handling. While I was happy with the initial settings, once I found a setup online (even the controller can have deadzones etc all customised) it has really come alive. It has a fantastic selection of tracks as well - and what I like most is that, right from the off you get to race on a good selection of them. I recall Forza 2 starting with you doing the same couple of tracks over and over again. It also has night racing which certainly changes the way you tackle the tracks. In fact a lot of the tracks - including favourites like Bathurst and Spa - have night racing options and dusk variants as well. I'm sure that the dusk ones have the sun settling a little as well as you race. Making approaching some corners very tricky as the light hits your eyes. I haven't managed to get to grips with the helmet cam view yet, as it is slightly disorienting, having the view shift slightly left or right ready to line up the approaching corners. I highly recommend this though if you like your racing games. Yeah the graphics are a little rough in places, and car models aren't the most detailed ever. But it's rawness gives a racing experience quite different from the likes of Forza and GT5. |
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