Ben's Week In Review: May 20

When it comes to Naughy Dog and their "anything you can do I, can do better" game developing, the only question I have is...

...why does it seem like ND is one step ahead of EVERYONE?

12 up, 1 down

Time machine

5 up, 0 down

cause they want to take their skills serious.

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Just finished Max Payne 3, great game, Rockstar dosen't know how to make bad games. Got a review copy of Starhawk this week too, the multiplayer hasn't caught on with me yet. I've had a lot of issues with spawn camping in ctf. Hopefully it gets better for me.

1 up, 0 down

I'd love to take Lollipop Chainsaw for a whirl, just for the silliness, but I really have not the time, energy or money :/ Such a shame because I really do want to support Suda, I just can't really afford anything that I don't deem must-have. Even so, I think the overt sexuality of the title puts me off a bit. It just makes me feel a bit sick to see such fanservice. *shrugs*

I can't wait to see footage of TLOU in action. From what I've read, the core tenets of Uncharted remain firmly in place, but they've been melded with survival gameplay and a few other small changes to the mechanics. It certainly like an awesome combination and if they don't manage to blow us all away I'll be very surprised indeed. That being said, it absolutely must release this year... I don't want to miss it.

Personal Update:
Planning to hammer through the rest of Sherlock this week. I've spent altogether too much time reading the series and I've picked up the newest novel from my favourite contemporary author to read. Bitter Greens, by Kate Forsyth, and I really can't wait to get into it. One thing at a time though... Also picked up Bourne Ultimatum and I'll read that following.
Been playing KZ2 slowly. About halfway through. Bought Max Payne, but it'll likely be at least a fortnight before I can play it. Ghost Recon comes first.
With the weekend almost gone... it's time to get productive :D
Peace.

P.S. I may throw my name in the hat for the CoD-love contest (WHAAAA?!). Giggles. Has to be in by Monday, eh... I do believe I have some meditating to do.

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PGU: Tuesday was my birthday the day started off kind of on a bad note instead of shipping me Max Payne 3, GF shipped me Dead Island. But I got a 50 buck gift card for Gamestop turned around and got NHL 12 and Heavenly Sword with it. Planning to save the 65 buck gift card til next month.

Hoping to get Ghost Recon from GF or someone ship their copy of Max Payne 3 back.

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happy bday how old are ya now?

1 up, 0 down

Where is a review for The Walking Dead?

5 up, 2 down

I've got LPC on pre-order, it's a good price and a good cause. MP3 will have to wait as there is still a backlog. I'm glad there isn't much slated for the holiday season. (I'm leaning towards making a big gamble on Dishonored though).

Finally finished Two Worlds II and I've got 40 hours (Level 50) in Tales of Graces F. I have no clue how much of the game is left to play but I'm gonna have to take an RPG break after those two long adventures.

Might try to finish KZ3 before I sell it, just to get my moneys worth. With Resistance gone and KZ no longer up to standards I'll have to find a new FPS to back.

Went to the Science Museum and saw some epic recoveries from the pirate ship Whydah. Made me think that Rockstar should do for pirates what they did for westerns in RDR.

Oh and I finished Minerva's Den for Bioshock 2. If anybody missed it and was upset at Infinite's delay, it's a great self contained campaign that's basically Bioshock 2.5

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To each his own, but I'm not sure why you find KZ3 substandard. It's controls felt more responsive than KZ2's, yet it retained the realistic feel. The visuals, like in the ice level, were even more dynamic, showing excellent particle effects, whether effects, and anti-aliasing. And even if you're not into MP, it's a great game to keep around for split-screen coop, or even for trying out a 3DTV if you have one or ever plan to get one. The only thing I didn't like about the stories of either game is that they're a little flat.

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The graphics are great of course, but that's where things seem to begin and end.

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Then, I'm curious to know how you think gameplay was better in KZ2 than in KZ3.

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The controls dropping the weighty feeling in favor of the more common gliding feel was a big turn off for me. Also I've noticed that the game keeps a tight leash on the player, where KZ2 had shootout areas set up (talking about the single player) so you could choose various positions of effectiveness for a strategy, I've noticed KZ3 has a single way you need to play to survive and progress. If you try to choose your own strategy everything goes to hell and you're in a no-win situation. The stealth area was poorly done in my opinion as well, the AI didn't always respond properly in that a stealth kill occasionally set off a firestorm even when I was in cover.

And maybe this is nitpicking but the audio is off a lot, whether its lips and voices or sheer silence when I should be hearing impact it really takes me out of the game.

Feels half-assed and gives up ground that KZ2 made. I do like the addition of heavy weapons though.

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Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 5/20/2012 7:28:27 PM

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Max Payne is excellent, and while I agree with the cheapness of the AI at points I still think it should have gotten a 9.0 simply because it is such a well rounded game. These days it's rare to have a game with both an engaging and fulfilling single player as well as a great online mode.

0 up, 1 down

waiting for a demo and or a review for LC.

pgu: beat max payne 3, loved it! tried replaying for unlockables etc.
i just could'nt get into the replaying of the game.
my fault i think, i've been playing open ended games alot.
i got so use to doing what i want, when i want (fallout new vegas) for example.

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its nice to see a game with a little tongue in cheek humour.
but my problem with it is they have to rub it in your face!
its like shadows of the damned, ok 1 d*ck joke is funny, 2 ok, 3 fine, but 3 every second?
come on, it comes to a point where it stops being tongue in cheek and becomes down right childish!
besides that from the gameplay i played last year it was pretty repetitive and boring so ill be giving it a miss.
i wish more games would have the light hearted attitude towards it though.
look at DNF or bulletstorm for examples of how to do it properly without taking it too far.
DNF manages to be funny and respectful at the same time, where this is just down right insulting!

when i think of the last of us i think allot of the trailer from dead island.
you know the infamous early trailer which depicted it as a dramatic survival game.
that is really what im hoping from this, not a mindless action game like L4D but much more of a drama title.
a mix of that trailer and i am alive.
i just hope they dont take the survivalist part of it too far, one thing that really bugs me with i am alive.
i mean so many times you come up with 2+ enemies which have guns, but you only have 1 bullet.
yea, how am i suppose to shoot 2 enemies when i only have 1 bullet?
i almost want it to be a movie not a game, just a real dramatic flick.

im trying to finish MP3 and i say trying because its freaking torture!
the game just feels so outdated and slow!
the AI is cheap as hell, and it has some serious consistency issues!
for instance what is it this year and hit detection issues?
i remember allot of reviews slagged resident evil opperation racoon city for this, and now MP3 has the same issue.
you shoot 1 enemy 5 times with the uzi and there dead.
you shoot another enemy 5 times with the uzi their fine.
so you add another 5.
there fine!
so you add another 5.
so their fine!
its just so inconsistant, some times x bullets kill a enemy other times they dont.
one time for instance i was taking cover and a enemy flanked me and was shooting me 2cms away from me.
so i bullet timed backwards and filled his chest with 4 shotgun shells.
once i get up off the ground i turn to kill other enemies in front of me, turn back and here the same guy is shooting me.
WTF!?
4 shotgun shells in the chest does not kill him?
but than i fire a shotgun shell into a guys hand while hes blind firing at me and that kills him.
WTF!?
4 shotgun shells into the chest = alive.
1 shotgun shell into the hand = death.
what the?

its just far too repetitive too.
the take the family here, one gets kidnapped, go and save them cliche is getting REALLY old!
every level is a repeat of the past it just gets really boring playing out the same crap over and over and over and over again!
another thing that was really disappointing was the bullet time.
MP invented it, so i really expected R* to put a new twist on it!
but they havent, its pretty much exactly the same as it was in MP1, what 10 years ago!?
talk about bringing a musket to a gun fight!
the whole game just feels really out dated!
its a shame, but so many games that are stuck in development for this long end up like this.
its like the developers start creating the game for the times standards, and as the 6 years pass they dont bother updating things that have become outdated.
the whole game just feels a little flat, a little boring.

thats the thing that disappointed me the most.
it is just flat out plain boring!
theres no big set pieces or really anything to speed the gameplay up.
everything feels like a nice relaxing sunday afternoon, it just does not feel as hectic and fast paced as the action should.
its suppose to be a big fast paced michael bay film, but it feels more like freaking avatar!
more like slow paced romantic dinner under candlelight.
rather than fast paced action and explosions!
wheres the zing, the excitement, the ambition!
whole game feels like "meh, its good enough".
feels like it needs a fire lit under its a$$!

t

5 up, 4 down

I agree about and experienced some of the glitches and inconsistencies you did with MP3. I beat it yesterday after renting it for day and a half. And I realized that playing if for basically 12 hours straight sucked all the fun of it more than anything else. I'd still rather play Uncharted, Vanquish, or GT4.

0 up, 1 down

just finished it tonight.
the story was really lacking too.
first off its not really clear why passos invited you over to brazil and what the family had to do with the hotel.
the plot is not very well explained.
it was a really good idea but poorly executed.
they missed allot of opportunities too, they could of easily thrown in some plot twists but they dident really.
disappointing it feels like they spend forever thinking up the perfect plot for the game, than said nah f*ck it id be too hard!

another thing that ruins the game is its babysitter feel.
every single god dam mission has you searching for someone.
take the family here, they get kidnapped, you have to go find them.
than you finally find them and they just slip through your fingers.
than the family babysitting stops and you star being the cops b*tch.
god, i really thought R* would of learned their lessons from GTAIV but i guess not!
it hurts the game, it really takes allot of personality and impact away from max.
you dont feel like hes doing these things because he wants to or needs to, he just feels like a gun for hire.
this would of been far better as a movie!
i found the parts where the game took control away from me and just played a cut scene i was enjoying it allot more!
it just feels so flat, everything is explicitly done but it just feels too sterile.
it just feels too joyless, it really feels like
it has no aspirations, no ambition.

dunno whats a bigger crime.
underselling yourself or overselling.
settling for mediocre when you can do great, or biting off more than you can chew.
i guess this will be a case for the former.
R* is so much better than this, it feels like they said no were not Ferrari were not going to make the worlds fastest car.
were just going to make a fast car thats good enough.
sets out to do 1 thing and does it very well, but it feels like it could of done and should of done so many bigger and better things!
like your math teacher coming to you and saying your doing extremely well how would you like to move up to 3 unit?
nah, 2 unit is easy why would i want to work my a$$ off?
MP3 is that, it just feels happy with good it does not want to reach any higher.
its happy with good enough.

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Last edited by ___________ on 5/21/2012 10:06:33 AM

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Well, I finished Starhawk SP this week and had a lot of fun. I played the MP and kind of felt underwhelmed. I will give it more time. I think I am just not interested in the game right now.

I am really looking forward to Resistance Burning Skies. I am hoping RBS doesn't suffer from frames per second issues. I am a little worried about a 6 hour campaign. I wanted to finish Resistance 3 before RBS so I may start R3 today.

I got my platinum on Trine 2! What a great game that is.

I want Max Payne 3 so bad! I really want Sorcery though and I am probably going to pick that up too.

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Been meaning to get Trine2. It's beautiful looking. Just haven't got round to getting it yet.
Well done on the Platinum though, always an accomplishment :)

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

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It makes me sad knowing that I won't be able to preorder lollipop chainsaw. KH3d Mark of mastery was announced so I had to get that. Then I have dragon's dogma and Agarest War 2 LE preordered. At first I didn't want to get chainsaw, but they eventually won me over as I got to know more and more about it.

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@frylock25
Thanks man I turned 32. Side-note it seems Gamestop trained their employees to harassing art of making you get the Power Discount card and getting Game Informer before leaving the store.

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i honestly like to get game informer just to have a magazine to read. its only $15 for a year so its not to over priced. they also sometimes get exclusive interviews or previews or games so it can be worth it. i seam to be lucky in that the ones by my house are not full of xbox pushers and dont really harass me. then again i dont really go there much. i love amazon because i dont have to pay tax.

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I was all about Prototype 2, Max Payne 3, and Starhawk this week, though, I didn't crack the plastic of Starhawk, yet. I beat Max Payne 3 after renting it for a day and 1/2 from Redbox. I agree with Ben's review on it, through, and through. But since I played it for practically 12 hours straight, I think that sucked all the fun out of it. Controls suffer GTA4 lag, some of the boss fights and level design are lame, and I was expecting better graphics after seeing the likes of Red Dead and LA Noire from Rockstar, but the presentation, voice acting, music and direction, and seamless cinematics were all bar-raising, benchmark setting fare that we've come to expect from R*.

Hearing his quips about life's regrets, self-pity, booze, hookers, drugs, while looking down on others was funny for the first 5 minutes, then they got old fast. He might as well perpetually talked about irritable bowel syndrome ad nauseum...speaking of which: I killed someone in prone position, and thought I didn't take any damage. When I got up, there was blood splotch right on my char's buttcrack, ya know, along the arsenholen.

I find myself surprised about how much I'm enjoying Prototype 2. I wasn't expecting to like it so much. More on that perhaps in my user reviews.

Next up: Starhawk.

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Well, to be honest, haven't done much gaming in the past few weeks as work has gotten me to travel a bit more than I would want.

Nonetheless, just got back from a great week in New Zealand after visiting a customer. Lovely cool weather, crisp air and the trees all wore their fall clothing in bright reds, yellows and bronze.

Went wine tasting at some of the prized vineyards in and around the greater Auckland area. Just great fun, relaxation, wine and food all around...

Q!

"play.experience.enjoy"

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