Whats games have you been playing of late? Exclusive Beta Edition.

[Rhaco]

Something that annoys me is the fact that in the multiplayer it looks like you don't get access to all the guns n perks from the get go. It's an interesting idea but on the surface it does seem to start you on the back foot.

You have access to arguably the two best weapons (M16 & MP5) and perks (Stopping Power & Juggernaut) right away. If there's any weapon in the game that's overpowered, it's the M16 -- high damage, ROF, range and accuracy. It's a sniper rifle at long range and a shotgun at close range.

[DJDonegal]

I agree with Wert on respawns as well. Nothing annoys me more than feeling like everything I'm doing is actually doing nothing. If I feel a snipe tactic is the best way to clean up an area, I'd like to be left alone to do that rather than eventually give up and run in all guns blazing.

[Brys]

I've been playing Fallout recently. A good game, but the interface is terrible. It's just horrible to use. Why couldn't they have come up with something more like the Infinity Engine games? Having most of the information in a small box in the bottom left of the screen (which as far as I can tell isn't recorded) is really unhelpful. Half the time I have no idea if I've completed a quest, because I've looked at an item in the world and so the text telling you you've completed the quest has disappeared. It's also a very ugly game, but as a 1997 game, that's not a huge surprise. And no journal! It makes it so much more confusing. The interface pretty much means it can't be a contender for my favourite RPG. I've got to say, that despite its many flaws, Fallout 3 seems to be the better game to me so far, at least partly because it's got a much better interface. Isometric can work very well (eg Baldur's Gate series, Planescape: Torment etc), but in Fallout it's just so unwieldy it's a hindrance to enjoying the story and game behind it.

[Serious Callers Only]

Quests are recorded in the pipboy (well most of them).

You're also a brain dead idiot.

Better game indeed.

[Mackaxx]

Regarding COD4

The initial guns you start with are fine, it was the absence of the little things like the laser sight that you mentioned that annoyed me. But again it's not such a big deal.

I agree the respawning enemies stuff is annoying at times, clearing a path so my boys could get to da choppaaaa was pain in the arse, even with air strikes. Glad I decided to play through first on hardened and not veteran or whatever it is.

Reading a few things online it seems a few knob jockeys were modifying their controllers so that the trigger was a kind of auto fire. You could then fire pistols like an automatic gun. Looks like they limited the rate of fire in their latest patch and all the COD4 serious business people are pissy.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Jon As and others,

thanks--your replies to my Baldur's Gate questions were very helpful. I know I said before I never read any of the dialogue on the first play through, but I figured out why. I had a mod installed that increased the dialogue so every few minutes, it seemed like, the NPCs would stop my progress and start talking.

Playing it the original way was much better. I wouldn't say the writing is great still, but it is decent and thankfully not nearly so intrusive as I thought before.

I started over as a Ranger. I decided that would be more fun than fighter. I've killed off some characters but settled on my party as myself (obviously), Imomen, Adjantis, Jaheira, Bren...something (the cleric lady who was stone), and the elf sorcerer I found in the mines of Nashkel. Jaheira and Branwin seem very similar and maybe redundant, but I hate to let Jaheira go because finding her and that little pussy guy at the inn on my first play through reminded me so much of reading my first fantasy novel back in the day, the Sword of the Shannara. It reminded me how Shea and Flick were hunted relentlessly until they found friends of Allanon in an inn that would help them. Or at least one of the Shannaras was like that. So I hate to let her go.

Anyway the game isn't bad. It isn't phenomenal, but it is far better than a lot of current shit out right now.

[Max the Mostly Mediocre]

Not so much. As I said, I've played both prior CoD games (CoD3 never making it to the PC) and games like Far Cry. None of these are tactical FPS at all, but the very basic tactics those games ingrain in you are worthless in CoD4. When taking a fortified enemy position, the best tactic is to hold off and snipe/grenade or rocket them out, and only make a direct assault when the enemy's numbers have been whittled down. That's not exactly a GRAW tactic, that's something going back to Half-Life or SiN, or for that matter Quake 2.

To be fair, CoD/United Offensive did have respawning enemies. As you shot some guys hiding behind a wall more would run out of doorways to take their place. It's just that they were limited respawns; eventually the fuckers stopped coming. Eventually.

[Inigima]

Quests are recorded in the pipboy (well most of them).

You're also a brain dead idiot.

Better game indeed.

Not the most tactfully phrased sentiment, but... yeah. You're blaming the game for not having something that's there, because you didn't look for it.

[Jon AS]

I had a mod installed that increased the dialogue so every few minutes, it seemed like, the NPCs would stop my progress and start talking.

Sounds like you also installed the script that makes these "banters" fire more rapidly than usual (or maybe the BG1 versions were scripted to fire that often).

This will come back in BG2, btw, but there is a limit to how much NPCs will chat in this manner, once they've exhausted their 1-3 conversations with you and another 1-3 with the other party members they will shut up. Mind you, in BG2 these dialogues fire about once every 20-30 minutes (and only in specific areas, usually dungeons are flagged to prevent them from discussing anything non-dungeoneering related there) in a game which, on your first time through, can take between 60 and 80 hours to complete.

Oh, and in BG2 a lot of the lines NPCs say will be voiced. I think at the time BG2 had single most voiced lines in a video game ever.

I've killed off some characters but settled on my party as myself (obviously), Imomen, Adjantis, Jaheira, Bren...something (the cleric lady who was stone), and the elf sorcerer I found in the mines of Nashkel.

Sounds good. As long as you keep Imoen as a thief (i.e. no dual classing) you've got all bases covered. Branwen has the advantage over Jaheira in that she is a single-classed cleric (plus she can turn undead, though I usualy don't bother with that on lower levels), while Jaheira on the other hand is a more competent fighter. There are a few more NPCs you can pick up fairly late in the game, but there isn't much of a point to that IMO.

[Brys]

Quests are recorded in the pipboy (well most of them).

You're also a brain dead idiot.

Better game indeed.

Fair enough - I just found some of them. Don't know how I missed it before. I would still like them to give a bit more information on them though - what's given is pretty bare bones and not always very helpful.

I did spend a while looking through every part of the pipboy for other useful information - which was largely absent. Is there any way to scroll back through the text that comes up in the monitor that would be really helpful? I haven't managed to find that anywhere. Not that that was the only interface problem I mentioned - the inventory's poorly done, most of the information is in a very small text box. I'm still not a fan of the interface.

[Relic]

You're also a brain dead idiot.

Better game indeed.

go away.

[Paddy]

I don't understand. There is nothing wrong with that game. I never played any GTA until 4 came out (I was a morale snob for awhile) but I've been replaying GTA4 and the story, action and character development all make for a great story, in my opinion, anyway.

What would you have improved?

Fun.

The game has no fun, no soul. Doing the missions became an absolute chore well before the end. There are some good ones alright, but I really found myself forcing myself to play on so that I could get the bloody game finished and not play it again.

I dont think the story or character development are that great either. Not bad, just straightforward.

I found the city to be the least interesting out of all the GTA games. In the others, I would just wander about the city and just discover cool things all the time.

I tried doing that a few times in GTA4, but never really found anything too interesting, so I sort of stopped, cos it was boring me.

It might just be that I the GTA formula is overdone at this point.

The freaking man-dates and minigames thing is really poor and I didn't like that you the game tried to make you feel bad for not doing shit with people all the time.

I haven't played it yet, but

for Saint's Row 2 pretty much nailed my major issues with the game.

After I completed GTA4, I played Crackdown, which is another sandbox game, but it was like a breath of fresh air compared to GTA4.

Nothing was a chore. Everything was so much fun, even just jumping around and climbing buildings to get the tokens to boost your agility so that you could jump higher and run faster.

Trying to decide what 360 game to pick up next, any suggestions?

Arkham Asylum is great.

[Jon AS]

Is there any way to scroll back through the text that comes up in the monitor that would be really helpful?

IIRC you can click on the monitor to scroll. Clicking near the upper edge should scroll backwards. Been a while since last I played though.

[Brys]

Thanks - I'll try that.

[Paddy]

Not really. Virtually every other FPS I've played in the last ten years - including Call of Duty and Call of Duty 2 - there are finite numbers of enemies in any one area and you can kill every single one of them. The few times you encounter an area with respawns there is some logical reason for it: a new enemy platoon is dropped onto the battelfield by helicopter or a truck drives in and enemies pile out. There are tactics and plans you can develop to deal with this situation.

In contrast, standing in front of a concrete building with only two entrances and you can see both of them with an infinite stream of men pouring out is immersion-breaking, very silly to look at and rather cheap.

That is not my experience.

The two times the infinite spawns were noticable were at the end of chernobyl level where the only way I could find to complete it was to go off around a corner behind the funfair to a spot where the bad guys would have to come round a corner to be able to shoot me, but I could see them coming long before and then hope that I could last out the time without getting a grenade landed on me.

It's not immersion breaking here, because the story makes it clear that they literally are sending the entire army after you :). I just think they made it too hard on the hardest level because the numbers they send after you are ridiculously difficult to cope with.

And the other was in the level where it's night and you have to progress by taking a bunch of houses in the country, one by one. You could sit there all night sniping from one house at the next, taking out everyone who moved, but if you didn't move forward to the house, you'd be sniping till you ran out of ammo.

I can see how that could be annoying, but I personally didn't find it so. Again, I didn't find the immersion broken as it's explainable with enemies coming in as support.

Not so much. As I said, I've played both prior CoD games (CoD3 never making it to the PC) and games like Far Cry. None of these are tactical FPS at all, but the very basic tactics those games ingrain in you are worthless in CoD4. When taking a fortified enemy position, the best tactic is to hold off and snipe/grenade or rocket them out, and only make a direct assault when the enemy's numbers have been whittled down. That's not exactly a GRAW tactic, that's something going back to Half-Life or SiN, or for that matter Quake 2.

In CoD4 this doesn't work, as infinite streams of men come running down to replace the ones you have killed within seconds. Eventually, the only way to advance is to simply run straight into the middle of the enemy horde, hoping you hit the invisible trigger that shuts off the respawn point and then avoid dying so you don't have to do it again.

At this point you are no longer thinking, "I'm an American soldier fighting the terrorist threat," you're thinking "I'm a severely pissed-off game-player trying to beat a retarded piece of game design." And at that point the immersion of the game is dead.

I guess I learned different lessons from my FPSs :)

FPSs are my gaming bread. I don't think I'd be exaggerating to say that 90% of my game playing time since 1998/9 has been on FPSs and CoD4 was a fantastic experience.

It's weird. You hold up Far Cry as the shining example of FPSs a lot, but I found it rather forgettable. I don't remember finding it as open-world as you keep saying it is. Certainly not that much more than other games.

Don't get me wrong, the game was fine, but was definitely flawed.

I remember liking the level where the mutants escaped where you were in the sort of tree-house complex. There was a real sense of threat at that part. I liked the microphone scope thing, so you could hear far away conversations. The only part I can remember really hating was the final level where you have to cross the crater.

[Shryke]

It's weird. You hold up Far Cry as the shining example of FPSs a lot, but I found it rather forgettable. I don't remember finding it as open-world as you keep saying it is. Certainly not that much more than other games.

Wah ..... what ....what the fuck?

What game was as open world as Far Cry?

[Shryke]

Fun.

The game has no fun, no soul. Doing the missions became an absolute chore well before the end. There are some good ones alright, but I really found myself forcing myself to play on so that I could get the bloody game finished and not play it again.

I dont think the story or character development are that great either. Not bad, just straightforward.

I found the city to be the least interesting out of all the GTA games. In the others, I would just wander about the city and just discover cool things all the time.

I tried doing that a few times in GTA4, but never really found anything too interesting, so I sort of stopped, cos it was boring me.

It might just be that I the GTA formula is overdone at this point.

The freaking man-dates and minigames thing is really poor and I didn't like that you the game tried to make you feel bad for not doing shit with people all the time.

I haven't played it yet, but

for Saint's Row 2 pretty much nailed my major issues with the game.

After I completed GTA4, I played Crackdown, which is another sandbox game, but it was like a breath of fresh air compared to GTA4.

Nothing was a chore. Everything was so much fun, even just jumping around and climbing buildings to get the tokens to boost your agility so that you could jump higher and run faster.

You should listen to Yahtzee's Review of Saint's Row 2, as it is literally almost exactly what you said here.

Except, you know, funnier.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/vie...12-Saints-Row-2

[Weak With The Dawn]

Fun.

The game has no fun, no soul. Doing the missions became an absolute chore well before the end. There are some good ones alright, but I really found myself forcing myself to play on so that I could get the bloody game finished and not play it again.

I dont think the story or character development are that great either. Not bad, just straightforward.

I found the city to be the least interesting out of all the GTA games. In the others, I would just wander about the city and just discover cool things all the time.

I tried doing that a few times in GTA4, but never really found anything too interesting, so I sort of stopped, cos it was boring me.

It might just be that I the GTA formula is overdone at this point.

I'll just agree to disagree then, cause on my second time through I'm still having fun. I think though, for me, the City is fun and not boring because I live in NYC, so it's kind of cool roaming around familiar places, shooting people up blocks from my house :thumbsup:.

I'll definitely be checking out Arkham Asylum, everywhere I turn someone's drooling over it.

[Poobah]

You should listen to Yahtzee's Review of Saint's Row 2, as it is literally almost exactly what you said here.

Except, you know, funnier.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/vie...12-Saints-Row-2

Yeah that was one of my favourites of his.

[Shryke]

He's right too.

Look at Crackdown (which Paddy also mentions). The game, frankly, has no right to be considered good.

But the fact that they give you insane powers and then just say "Go nuts!" makes it amazingly fun.

It's the same thing with that recent Hulk game.