So I found myself realising that my current computer is definitely dying and I'd rather prolong it's suffering by not using it for gaming anymore. Having not so much money available, I went affordable and grabbed a laptop - which came with Windows 8 installed. I thought: "Not too much of a problem, apparently this 8.1 thing is supposed to be a marked improvement for non-tablet users, and they'll be supporting it for much longer". Note that this is the same rationale I used when I got Windows Vista, self-delusion basically.
Got it home, fiddled a bit, looked around for 8.1, spent the afternoon waiting for it to download, then hooray, install time. Except it won't let me. It seems others have had this issue, and still others refuse to make/use a Microsoft account and provide contact information (one person was even paranoid enough to think they were giving this info to the NSA, which is silly because it's more profitable to sell it to direct marketers, and they're far less discreet with it). But not I, you see. I got to the step that says "Help us protect your account" - which is where they ask for further contact details - and while there is a "skip this step for now" button that just reloads the same screen, it won't actually let me provide further information. I enter an alternate email and it says it will send a code to it in the next step - a step I can't get to because the "Next" button just reloads the same screen. Try a phone number for text (or call), same thing.
This is a new level of incompetence here. They go to all the effort of making the damn thing only to screw up the part where people get to use it.
Tuesday 26 November 2013
Wednesday 6 November 2013
Howl stretching time
So the people at Overkill decided to extend the Halloween event for PAYDAY 2 for a few more days... I'm noticing a pattern, let's call it the "holiday season" (because it's already called that anyway). The weird thing here is that it's an extension after the holiday in question (though it's not so holy). All that build-up to Halloween and all its associated nonsense fueled by capitalism. Although it might have been slightly overshadowed by the fact that preparations were also underway for Christmas, as of a couple of weeks ago I've already seen the "photo with Santa" stations in shopping malls. Anyway, the point being that prolonging the season after the holiday (whatever, it's the word people use) is what is striking me as odd. Since it's usually all prelude then out with a bang and then roll over and fall asleep. Christmas being the noteworthy comparison here where the only extension of the holiday is the post-Christmas sales. Then it's a week long plateau before the great piss-up known as New Year's Eve. You don't really get extensions of those holidays.
And why the hell was I seeing children doing trick-or-treat? This is Australia, we don't do that sort of thing here. I wouldn't be surprised if it were being used as a way to teach children the importance of disappointment. That I would approve of.
And why the hell was I seeing children doing trick-or-treat? This is Australia, we don't do that sort of thing here. I wouldn't be surprised if it were being used as a way to teach children the importance of disappointment. That I would approve of.
Friday 1 November 2013
Nightmares in 1080p
So I actually get to do a Halloween post, complaining mostly about the PAYDAY 2 Halloween weekend event. In short, it's BS. Overkill have decided that what gamers find scary is ridiculously overpowered enemies that are in the game just to piss off the people who paid money to play it. The Bulldozer enemy has been upgraded to a headless horseman with at least four times the health of the regular Bulldozer. Yay, just what we all wanted, even more BS in our "entertainment". They even added a special Halloween job called "Safe House Nightmare" because apparently bank robbers have nightmares about evil forces taking their hard-stolen money away. And floating baby face masks, because why not? In this job, the only enemies you face are Bulldozers. Lots of Bulldozers. I found it easier to try to avoid them than fight them, that's how BS they are.
Most of the youtube videos I've seen about PAYDAY 2 were from a couple of months ago, after which there seems to have been a game patch that made enemies do more damage, or armour less effective, because I've seen videos of Enforcers really tanking, and you can't do that now, you die too easily. So here's another developer who seems to think that when you're facing endless swarms of respawning enemies that outnumber you 50:1, the biggest problem is that the players don't die quickly enough. The other developer would be Gazillion, the makers of Marvel Heroes. At least those are two I've encountered recently, I'm sure there are more.
Basically, if you normally play PAYDAY 2, I'd recommend you avoid trying to grind for experience this weekend, it's more trouble than it's worth.
Most of the youtube videos I've seen about PAYDAY 2 were from a couple of months ago, after which there seems to have been a game patch that made enemies do more damage, or armour less effective, because I've seen videos of Enforcers really tanking, and you can't do that now, you die too easily. So here's another developer who seems to think that when you're facing endless swarms of respawning enemies that outnumber you 50:1, the biggest problem is that the players don't die quickly enough. The other developer would be Gazillion, the makers of Marvel Heroes. At least those are two I've encountered recently, I'm sure there are more.
Basically, if you normally play PAYDAY 2, I'd recommend you avoid trying to grind for experience this weekend, it's more trouble than it's worth.
Thursday 31 October 2013
Backhand
So yet another post referring to PAYDAY 2 but this time it's totally the same. I just undid all of the "fixes" that were supposedly helping the game to run and it ran fine for a couple of hours. I'm convinced that not even the people making computers and software understand the problems, it's just some cult of "insider knowledge" and they're all huddling in candle pentagrams and chanting the OS system code out loud.
I did also forget to mention in my attempt to be helpful that though you can redistribute your points in each skill tree whenever you want, you don't get all of your money back, so experimentation can cost you. Or did I actually mention that?
And wow there are some weird ads showing up on this thing. I suppose I might have to do some kind of moderation for it to seem more in line with the theme (if any) of my blog. Have I mentioned that "blog" isn't even a word and I hate it along with many other things so it kind of gets lost in there with the rest I don't have time to focus on; and even the spell-checker doesn't like it.
I did also forget to mention in my attempt to be helpful that though you can redistribute your points in each skill tree whenever you want, you don't get all of your money back, so experimentation can cost you. Or did I actually mention that?
And wow there are some weird ads showing up on this thing. I suppose I might have to do some kind of moderation for it to seem more in line with the theme (if any) of my blog. Have I mentioned that "blog" isn't even a word and I hate it along with many other things so it kind of gets lost in there with the rest I don't have time to focus on; and even the spell-checker doesn't like it.
Wednesday 30 October 2013
Helping somewhat
With a thought to all the recent youtube videos I've watched recently that were about build ideas for PAYDAY 2, here is some of my own advice:
First of all, be sure you want to play it.
Second, if like me you encounter the random crashes and have followed all the forum listed advice for preventing it and find that they still occur, try this: lower your graphics settings. This seems to have helped me (at least so far) and it was much the same issue with Marvel Heroes, for some reason most, if not all of the crashes for PAYDAY 2 are C++ errors, and lowering the graphics settings made a difference. Other than making the textures look all blurry and ugly.
Third, unlike most of the videos I've watched, I've only played it after they altered the in-game descriptions of skills and weapons. Which means as far as build concerns go, you can get a much better idea of what a skill will do for well before you are even able to purchase it. While I wouldn't discourage experimentation such as I did, if you don't plan to play this obsessively for a few weeks you won't really have enough money to experiment with how different skills work together. So checking beforehand means you can plan around your play style in advance.
Third part 2: weapons are a little more difficult to plan around because while you can see the base weapon stats in the shop, you don't get any idea of what kind or how many mods can be applied to it, meaning that you can't really pick the most appropriate weapon ahead of time and save up for it. The most obvious clues you get are the stats such as "concealment" and "damage" as they will give you some idea of which build style they will fit with most. High concealment suggests they're good for a stealth/Ghost build (and the Ghost skill tree has skills affecting SMG so they're an immediate association). High damage weapons will most likely have a very poor concealment rating, meaning they are for going LOUD!
Third part 3: the above information about guns doesn't quite cover secondary weapons so much as primaries. All SMG are secondaries, and pistols can be quite powerful with a fairly good concealment rating. Though as above you can't get a great idea of what kind of mods can be applied. There are several basic types of mods though. There's a bunch of suppressors that have varying degrees of damage reduction mitigated by improved concealment or stability. Barrel extensions that improve damage at the cost of concealment. Extended magazines that reduce concealment. Generally a mod will either increase combat effectiveness or increase concealment, usually at the expense of the other.
Fourth and probably final: don't go nuts. Sure, there's no real consequence for failure, it is after all, a game. But you will avoid the ire of fellow players if you don't act like a retard. When you start out, don't go assuming that you can undertake a job on overkill difficulty and not die repeatedly and irritate your fellow gamers to no end. You'll find yourself kicked out of many lobbies if you try to reach beyond your grasp. Unless of course you already know someone who has played the game a while and is willing to help you level up faster by carrying you through harder missions. But stay away from "Pro" jobs while you're still a noob.
That is probably it for now. I'll likely only be playing PAYDAY 2 for a little while longer, then I guess I'm back to Marvel Heroes unless I find something else to play. I'm tempted to add an "advice" label but I'm not sure how many times I'd be using it. Maybe a future advice thingy for Marvel Heroes might be in order, they've apparently got a fair amount of marketing geared up for the release of the new Thor movie.
First of all, be sure you want to play it.
Second, if like me you encounter the random crashes and have followed all the forum listed advice for preventing it and find that they still occur, try this: lower your graphics settings. This seems to have helped me (at least so far) and it was much the same issue with Marvel Heroes, for some reason most, if not all of the crashes for PAYDAY 2 are C++ errors, and lowering the graphics settings made a difference. Other than making the textures look all blurry and ugly.
Third, unlike most of the videos I've watched, I've only played it after they altered the in-game descriptions of skills and weapons. Which means as far as build concerns go, you can get a much better idea of what a skill will do for well before you are even able to purchase it. While I wouldn't discourage experimentation such as I did, if you don't plan to play this obsessively for a few weeks you won't really have enough money to experiment with how different skills work together. So checking beforehand means you can plan around your play style in advance.
Third part 2: weapons are a little more difficult to plan around because while you can see the base weapon stats in the shop, you don't get any idea of what kind or how many mods can be applied to it, meaning that you can't really pick the most appropriate weapon ahead of time and save up for it. The most obvious clues you get are the stats such as "concealment" and "damage" as they will give you some idea of which build style they will fit with most. High concealment suggests they're good for a stealth/Ghost build (and the Ghost skill tree has skills affecting SMG so they're an immediate association). High damage weapons will most likely have a very poor concealment rating, meaning they are for going LOUD!
Third part 3: the above information about guns doesn't quite cover secondary weapons so much as primaries. All SMG are secondaries, and pistols can be quite powerful with a fairly good concealment rating. Though as above you can't get a great idea of what kind of mods can be applied. There are several basic types of mods though. There's a bunch of suppressors that have varying degrees of damage reduction mitigated by improved concealment or stability. Barrel extensions that improve damage at the cost of concealment. Extended magazines that reduce concealment. Generally a mod will either increase combat effectiveness or increase concealment, usually at the expense of the other.
Fourth and probably final: don't go nuts. Sure, there's no real consequence for failure, it is after all, a game. But you will avoid the ire of fellow players if you don't act like a retard. When you start out, don't go assuming that you can undertake a job on overkill difficulty and not die repeatedly and irritate your fellow gamers to no end. You'll find yourself kicked out of many lobbies if you try to reach beyond your grasp. Unless of course you already know someone who has played the game a while and is willing to help you level up faster by carrying you through harder missions. But stay away from "Pro" jobs while you're still a noob.
That is probably it for now. I'll likely only be playing PAYDAY 2 for a little while longer, then I guess I'm back to Marvel Heroes unless I find something else to play. I'm tempted to add an "advice" label but I'm not sure how many times I'd be using it. Maybe a future advice thingy for Marvel Heroes might be in order, they've apparently got a fair amount of marketing geared up for the release of the new Thor movie.
Friday 25 October 2013
Mechanical decay
While I'm on the subject of my dying computer and incompetence related to people making things for it - for some reason lately after closing a game the sound will occasionally stop working. The sound device will claim that it's still functioning but I can't hear anything and as soon as I attempt to run a program the will utilise sound, said program will not operate correctly if at all. This happened to me sometimes about a year ago and I could disable the sound device and then re-enable it to restore sound. But not now, now I have to restart the computer to restore sound. This is maddeningly retarded, "you've stopped using the sound device, so you don't need it anymore right?" It's like cutting out your tongue after you finish a meal.
Fear not, once I've obtained a new computer I will still have many, many things to complain about, it's just a matter of remembering them long enough to write them down...
Fear not, once I've obtained a new computer I will still have many, many things to complain about, it's just a matter of remembering them long enough to write them down...
Wednesday 23 October 2013
Meander
I suppose some extra information should be provided so that there is more clarity - I do think I am in need of a new computer so many of the complaints I make about games stuffing up should be tempered by this. And since I'm unemployed and poor my next machine is likely to be some cheap(ish) laptop that will be far from ideal for gaming which might end up making me complain even more.
If all this swinging back and forth makes me seem like a moody bastard it's probably because I am. Carry on. I'll be doing something. I'll figure it out and maybe get back to you. And when I say "you" I mean "me" because this is akin to a great big reminder note except other people can see it. Eventually I might get around to writing up some of the other article ideas I had. Won't you be lucky?
If all this swinging back and forth makes me seem like a moody bastard it's probably because I am. Carry on. I'll be doing something. I'll figure it out and maybe get back to you. And when I say "you" I mean "me" because this is akin to a great big reminder note except other people can see it. Eventually I might get around to writing up some of the other article ideas I had. Won't you be lucky?
Tuesday 22 October 2013
Retraction of retraction
Or recanting my recant. PAYDAY 2 is back to random crashes or loading screen crashes so I'm back to my original theory of game developers being incompetent at the one thing they are supposedly good at. They suck, and they wonder why people pirate their product.
Don't bother with it, it gets more full of BS the longer you play.
Don't bother with it, it gets more full of BS the longer you play.
Saturday 19 October 2013
More pay... day... 2 (well, 3)
Just going to start with the reason these are separate posts instead of edits onto existing ones: because I have very little readership and I doubt I get many people coming back to see if I've added to my existing rants and stuff.
Something I forgot to include in the "what I don't like" about PAYDAY 2 was the purchasable assets for each job. Some of them are downright misleading, such as the "insider info" for the Bank Heist, which provides a blueprint with the location of the security room and vault. Except there are two potential locations for each, meaning that you are always given the same one of four different possible layouts. I learned quickly never to buy this. Another is the "expert driver" which prevents you from having to do an escape if the police are alerted. An escape is not a certainty either way, but with the expert driver you never have to do one. What I don't like about this is you are unable to designate an extraction point, which would be really useful on the Nightclub job, where one of the exit locations is in an alley accessible from within the club, making it a brilliant place for a stealth operation to depart. But you can't choose where the driver goes, meaning a full stealth infiltration of the club could leave you needing to exit through the front door, running past guards and civilians, not exactly a clean getaway. For that same job, there is the option of a "loot truck" that will pull up outside the manager's office window, allowing you to divest yourself of the loot without having to carry it all the way to the escape van. But you aren't told this in the asset menu, all it says is "loot truck" and tells you that it's an alternate way of retrieving the loot, no details.
But then again, I did just complete my very first solo stealth bank heist. It took over an hour, most of which was picking locks on safety deposit boxes, but it felt good at the end of it. There are more efficient ways to gain XP and money than this, but this way actually feels like an accomplishment. Make of that what you will.
Keep on gamin'.
Something I forgot to include in the "what I don't like" about PAYDAY 2 was the purchasable assets for each job. Some of them are downright misleading, such as the "insider info" for the Bank Heist, which provides a blueprint with the location of the security room and vault. Except there are two potential locations for each, meaning that you are always given the same one of four different possible layouts. I learned quickly never to buy this. Another is the "expert driver" which prevents you from having to do an escape if the police are alerted. An escape is not a certainty either way, but with the expert driver you never have to do one. What I don't like about this is you are unable to designate an extraction point, which would be really useful on the Nightclub job, where one of the exit locations is in an alley accessible from within the club, making it a brilliant place for a stealth operation to depart. But you can't choose where the driver goes, meaning a full stealth infiltration of the club could leave you needing to exit through the front door, running past guards and civilians, not exactly a clean getaway. For that same job, there is the option of a "loot truck" that will pull up outside the manager's office window, allowing you to divest yourself of the loot without having to carry it all the way to the escape van. But you aren't told this in the asset menu, all it says is "loot truck" and tells you that it's an alternate way of retrieving the loot, no details.
But then again, I did just complete my very first solo stealth bank heist. It took over an hour, most of which was picking locks on safety deposit boxes, but it felt good at the end of it. There are more efficient ways to gain XP and money than this, but this way actually feels like an accomplishment. Make of that what you will.
Keep on gamin'.
PAYDAY2/Steam supplement
Apparently the way to get Steam to recognise the game data that you already have is to make sure to "delete local content" then copy the data to the "common" or "(username)" folder of the "SteamApps" folder (where username is your Steam account name, somewhat obvious I would have thought but here for the sake of clarity). Then you go into Steam and tell it to install that game, then it will find the data already there and reinstall. This has seemingly worked to (for the moment) prevent random crashes in PAYDAY 2 so thereby allowing me to continue to play it.
While I'm on the subject, if I gave a favourable impression of the game, let me be clear: PAYDAY 2 is really frustrating to play. In addition to the already mentioned issues, I've since been reminded that a lot of the game is complete BS. Cops can shoot through otherwise impenetrable objects, preventing you from returning fire. There is no real clear indication of how "concealment" affects anything outside of Casing Mode. The Enforcer, ostensibly the combat class only really fares better in combat when equipped with the heaviest armour and because of passive tier bonuses that increase health by up to 50% total, which can still be wiped away in seconds because enemies never miss. Just now, within five minutes of the first day of the "Rats" job, a Bulldozer appeared, which is again, complete BS, because there is no way an enemy that tough should show up that early on the lowest difficulty.
Stealth is really only viable if you've several people all geared for it and who are very high levels so that they have access to the best abilities. Otherwise you will end up relying on luck, and out of every 10 or so stealth attempts, one might be successful. This still applies to what are seemingly the jobs tailor made for stealth: Framing Frame and Firestarter. Both of which are quite well paying and clearly designed for stealth, yet so frequently end up in combat anyway. As I said before, this is a shooter with a potential for some stealth tacked on. I'd recommend serious thought before plunging yourself into the swirling pit of madness that is PAYDAY 2.
While I'm on the subject, if I gave a favourable impression of the game, let me be clear: PAYDAY 2 is really frustrating to play. In addition to the already mentioned issues, I've since been reminded that a lot of the game is complete BS. Cops can shoot through otherwise impenetrable objects, preventing you from returning fire. There is no real clear indication of how "concealment" affects anything outside of Casing Mode. The Enforcer, ostensibly the combat class only really fares better in combat when equipped with the heaviest armour and because of passive tier bonuses that increase health by up to 50% total, which can still be wiped away in seconds because enemies never miss. Just now, within five minutes of the first day of the "Rats" job, a Bulldozer appeared, which is again, complete BS, because there is no way an enemy that tough should show up that early on the lowest difficulty.
Stealth is really only viable if you've several people all geared for it and who are very high levels so that they have access to the best abilities. Otherwise you will end up relying on luck, and out of every 10 or so stealth attempts, one might be successful. This still applies to what are seemingly the jobs tailor made for stealth: Framing Frame and Firestarter. Both of which are quite well paying and clearly designed for stealth, yet so frequently end up in combat anyway. As I said before, this is a shooter with a potential for some stealth tacked on. I'd recommend serious thought before plunging yourself into the swirling pit of madness that is PAYDAY 2.
Thursday 17 October 2013
PAYDAY 2 - the sequel to a game I only played on a free weekend and didn't really like all that much (now with more pointed complaints)
So random crashes aside, which by the way when the suggestion for fixing a crashing game involves uninstalling the game and video drivers and supplementary software and disabling features of the launch system it was designed to run through, well that just isn't right and says that all this technobabbling nonsense we are relying on daily is really, well, unreliable.
Anyway. Issues, in reverse order of my normal reviews I'm starting with what I don't like. Bloated file size for one, apparently PAYDAY 2 takes up heaps of disk space because the developers are generously endowing us with assets that they aren't currently using but think they may want to some time in the future so can we just hang on to them for a while, as a favour? If you're saying I need to reinstall to fix your mistake, I had better not blow half of my monthly download quota and spend half a day doing so. Especially since Steam decided to go and make its game data immune to substitution - a recent need to reinstall Steam also deleted most of my game data and it seems that the games that survived will not be permitted to be copied from the remaining data. Computers suck. And they lie, Steam tells me that it's a 6GB download that takes up 20GB of disk space, go figure. Oh and it seems that the game may have been built on Mac and then ported to PC, because that's a great idea (something about .bundle files being a Mac thing that some person said on a forum post).
Infinite replay value means grinding for what you want from a random drop at the end of every heist, because letting the player get away with "millions" needs to be restricted for some reason so that they can't simply get what they want out of a game that they paid money for. The "offshore account" is insulting, sure you can spend it all getting the missions you want - because that part is random as well, of course, why would you want to be able to consistently choose from one of the very few available missions anyway - but otherwise it has no value, no purpose. You have spending cash with which you buy guns and apply mods (which are randomly attained from the end-heist-drop) and buy skills, because why not have two currencies for character improvement? (skill points and money). Offshore money would have been a reasonable way to acquire weapon mods and masks, but no, let's randomise.
About 90% of the time you will end up in combat. One of the things that made me actually buy and try PAYDAY 2 was the lure of being able to approach missions with stealth. In reality we're left with a stealth component tacked on to a first-person shooter. Even the stealth "class" Ghost has combat improving abilities. Every class is geared for combat, because the slightest little thing can turn your stealth run into a relentless police assault. And if you didn't gear or spec for combat, you're going to die. The Enforcer class is ostensibly the combat focused class, and even then it's mainly because they can get the heaviest armour, which they can only acquire but taking a particular skill, which is top tier, meaning that you can't get the heavy armour for quite some time. In fact you don't gain any armour until you reach a certain level. The levels required aren't all that high, but it does mean that you are seriously screwed as a noob unless you play with some really good or at least high level players.
A nitpick for the combat is that you are not provided with any notion of a gun's range, only its accuracy. I suppose the idea is that higher accuracy means you can hit targets further away and you're just missing them with poor accuracy guns. Except that effective range is actually a component of the game. Up close, you can kill someone in one hit with a shotgun blast, especially to the head. Go a short distance away and it can take three or four headshots with a shotgun to get a kill. So having some kind of range indicator would have been nice. And as a corollary to the class combat system, it mainly associates different classes with different weapon types. There are a few skills that give a general buff, but Mastermind is pistol focused, Enforcer shotgun, Technician rifles and Ghost sub-machine guns (with a general buff to "silenced" weapons).
Armour gives a massive speed reduction the heavier you go, but on higher difficulties you're still going to die in a few hits. A beat cop with a pistol took out my heavy armour in one shot on overkill difficulty. And they never miss, I hate that games like this sabotage the player so heavily, first by greatly outnumbering us, then by making enemy skill so proficient that there is no learning curve. They either kill you in a few hits, or kill you in one hit. The best you can aim for is to shoot them before they shoot you, that's the only margin you're given. So you can't move very fast and you can't take many hits and they still expect you to sit in one place guarding a damn drill while you wait for it to get you into the vault where you still have to bag the loot and then get it to the escape van without dying.
And why does everyone always bang on about the graphics. I'd make this a separate post but I'd probably never get around to writing it but when I was a kid we had an Atari 2600, and today I would still play Joust or Pitfall because they were awesome. One of my favourite games of all time is X-COM: UFO Defense (or UFO: Enemy Unknown in some parts of the world, and I think it's a way better title) and people today would probably puke at the sight of it, because they're so used to CGI rendering in movies and complain if a game doesn't have high resolution textures. What about the game part of this that somehow escapes your attention? Early 3D games do tend to look rather ugly compared to recent ones but I've seen people complain about Mass Effect 3 looking like it came out in 2011. It's running on an engine that came out in 2007, retard, most of these games are built to run on consoles that are using fixed hardware from the time of their manufacture, get over the graphics already and pay attention to the game in video game. System Shock 2 is not pleasant to look at by today's standards but it is one of the best games of all time, and you'd be missing out on that if you simply turned away after glancing at some screenshots.
Anyway. You know what I do like about this game. It's fun. I won't be playing it for the next week or so because I don't want to use up all my download quota to reinstall it, but aside from that... It is exemplary of all the design issues endemic to the current mode of thinking about video game development; but when you successfully escape after clearing out a bank vault, it feels good. It feels like an actual accomplishment. We're Pavlov's dogs in this instance, drooling at the mere thought of an intangible reward related to whatever conditioned behaviours we willingly entangle ourselves in to distract ourselves from the vast mind-numbingly pointless existence we have been thrust into without our consent and we'd do anything to turn off awareness of abstract concepts just to escape the creeping madness in our consciousness.
Or at least that's why I play games, what's your excuse?
Anyway. Issues, in reverse order of my normal reviews I'm starting with what I don't like. Bloated file size for one, apparently PAYDAY 2 takes up heaps of disk space because the developers are generously endowing us with assets that they aren't currently using but think they may want to some time in the future so can we just hang on to them for a while, as a favour? If you're saying I need to reinstall to fix your mistake, I had better not blow half of my monthly download quota and spend half a day doing so. Especially since Steam decided to go and make its game data immune to substitution - a recent need to reinstall Steam also deleted most of my game data and it seems that the games that survived will not be permitted to be copied from the remaining data. Computers suck. And they lie, Steam tells me that it's a 6GB download that takes up 20GB of disk space, go figure. Oh and it seems that the game may have been built on Mac and then ported to PC, because that's a great idea (something about .bundle files being a Mac thing that some person said on a forum post).
Infinite replay value means grinding for what you want from a random drop at the end of every heist, because letting the player get away with "millions" needs to be restricted for some reason so that they can't simply get what they want out of a game that they paid money for. The "offshore account" is insulting, sure you can spend it all getting the missions you want - because that part is random as well, of course, why would you want to be able to consistently choose from one of the very few available missions anyway - but otherwise it has no value, no purpose. You have spending cash with which you buy guns and apply mods (which are randomly attained from the end-heist-drop) and buy skills, because why not have two currencies for character improvement? (skill points and money). Offshore money would have been a reasonable way to acquire weapon mods and masks, but no, let's randomise.
About 90% of the time you will end up in combat. One of the things that made me actually buy and try PAYDAY 2 was the lure of being able to approach missions with stealth. In reality we're left with a stealth component tacked on to a first-person shooter. Even the stealth "class" Ghost has combat improving abilities. Every class is geared for combat, because the slightest little thing can turn your stealth run into a relentless police assault. And if you didn't gear or spec for combat, you're going to die. The Enforcer class is ostensibly the combat focused class, and even then it's mainly because they can get the heaviest armour, which they can only acquire but taking a particular skill, which is top tier, meaning that you can't get the heavy armour for quite some time. In fact you don't gain any armour until you reach a certain level. The levels required aren't all that high, but it does mean that you are seriously screwed as a noob unless you play with some really good or at least high level players.
A nitpick for the combat is that you are not provided with any notion of a gun's range, only its accuracy. I suppose the idea is that higher accuracy means you can hit targets further away and you're just missing them with poor accuracy guns. Except that effective range is actually a component of the game. Up close, you can kill someone in one hit with a shotgun blast, especially to the head. Go a short distance away and it can take three or four headshots with a shotgun to get a kill. So having some kind of range indicator would have been nice. And as a corollary to the class combat system, it mainly associates different classes with different weapon types. There are a few skills that give a general buff, but Mastermind is pistol focused, Enforcer shotgun, Technician rifles and Ghost sub-machine guns (with a general buff to "silenced" weapons).
Armour gives a massive speed reduction the heavier you go, but on higher difficulties you're still going to die in a few hits. A beat cop with a pistol took out my heavy armour in one shot on overkill difficulty. And they never miss, I hate that games like this sabotage the player so heavily, first by greatly outnumbering us, then by making enemy skill so proficient that there is no learning curve. They either kill you in a few hits, or kill you in one hit. The best you can aim for is to shoot them before they shoot you, that's the only margin you're given. So you can't move very fast and you can't take many hits and they still expect you to sit in one place guarding a damn drill while you wait for it to get you into the vault where you still have to bag the loot and then get it to the escape van without dying.
And why does everyone always bang on about the graphics. I'd make this a separate post but I'd probably never get around to writing it but when I was a kid we had an Atari 2600, and today I would still play Joust or Pitfall because they were awesome. One of my favourite games of all time is X-COM: UFO Defense (or UFO: Enemy Unknown in some parts of the world, and I think it's a way better title) and people today would probably puke at the sight of it, because they're so used to CGI rendering in movies and complain if a game doesn't have high resolution textures. What about the game part of this that somehow escapes your attention? Early 3D games do tend to look rather ugly compared to recent ones but I've seen people complain about Mass Effect 3 looking like it came out in 2011. It's running on an engine that came out in 2007, retard, most of these games are built to run on consoles that are using fixed hardware from the time of their manufacture, get over the graphics already and pay attention to the game in video game. System Shock 2 is not pleasant to look at by today's standards but it is one of the best games of all time, and you'd be missing out on that if you simply turned away after glancing at some screenshots.
Anyway. You know what I do like about this game. It's fun. I won't be playing it for the next week or so because I don't want to use up all my download quota to reinstall it, but aside from that... It is exemplary of all the design issues endemic to the current mode of thinking about video game development; but when you successfully escape after clearing out a bank vault, it feels good. It feels like an actual accomplishment. We're Pavlov's dogs in this instance, drooling at the mere thought of an intangible reward related to whatever conditioned behaviours we willingly entangle ourselves in to distract ourselves from the vast mind-numbingly pointless existence we have been thrust into without our consent and we'd do anything to turn off awareness of abstract concepts just to escape the creeping madness in our consciousness.
Or at least that's why I play games, what's your excuse?
Tuesday 15 October 2013
Getting paid
I've been playing PAYDAY 2 a lot these last couple of weeks, and I find myself frustrated at an industry that can't seem to couple enjoyment with competence - a quick search reveals that I'm far from the only person experiencing persistent random crashes and I have to wonder if anyone in the gaming industry really knows what they're doing. Or is it just that the games that are more fun to play come from smaller developers who don't have the resources to ensure their product functions properly?
In short, PAYDAY 2 is quite a lot of fun when it actually works, which is not very often. Last night I played for four or five hours without a crash, today I can't seem to last much past half an hour before I'm looking at the desktop yet again.
In short, PAYDAY 2 is quite a lot of fun when it actually works, which is not very often. Last night I played for four or five hours without a crash, today I can't seem to last much past half an hour before I'm looking at the desktop yet again.
Wednesday 2 October 2013
Nostalgia
So the video game industry has looked to Hollywood in order to find their direction. And that direction is "backwards". A couple of re-releases have appeared this year in promotion of remakes. Rise of the Triad got the treatment. Shadow Warrior has just come out following its re-release. Now there is promotion of a remake of Thief: The Dark Project cleverly titled Thief. Oh and Flashback is getting the treatment too. Thief and Flashback I can kind of deal with, even though they're unnecessary. It might be good to see a good platformer and a real stealth game (don't think about Dishonored [sic]) to open up the landscape away from endless first- and third-person action shooters. But RotT and Shadow Warrior? Do we really need these throwbacks. I know that a large portion of the gaming community is getting older, sure, but when everything has been going Modern Warfare and Gears of War do people really want old-school (not very old, but anyway) shooters a la Doom?
Ah, what do I know? Maybe kids will embrace the silliness and simplicity of simple run & gun gaming. I'm unqualified to accurately predict human behavioural patterns.
Ah, what do I know? Maybe kids will embrace the silliness and simplicity of simple run & gun gaming. I'm unqualified to accurately predict human behavioural patterns.
Tuesday 1 October 2013
Going nowhere
I've been a while away from here, wasting my money, time and life plugging away at Marvel Heroes of which I must now rescind any hint of a recommendation that you play it, because it has been endlessly crashing with no fixes or help from the developers. So fuck them, fuck that stupid pile of coding errors they call a game and I really suggest you avoid not only that game but anything developed by Gazillion. They're dedicated, yes, but incompetent and nothing really makes up for that. Technically the game is free, but I have spent money on it and I think it reasonable to expect a functioning product in exchange for currency, they have not delivered.
Otherwise carry on, nothing to see here.
Okay, they are dedicated, and not everyone is having my problems playing the game, but still, I was mad and wanted to tell the internet so.
Alright, might have sorted out my problem with Marvel Heroes constantly crashing, so neat. But still, they push out patches way too quickly and then have to address additional problems caused by that so they take ages to get around the problems that have been around for a while.
Otherwise carry on, nothing to see here.
Okay, they are dedicated, and not everyone is having my problems playing the game, but still, I was mad and wanted to tell the internet so.
Alright, might have sorted out my problem with Marvel Heroes constantly crashing, so neat. But still, they push out patches way too quickly and then have to address additional problems caused by that so they take ages to get around the problems that have been around for a while.
Friday 23 August 2013
Around
I've been very inconsistent with this lately, not that it really matters, but I'm still here for anyone who actually notices. Swung the other way on this whole Adsense thing, wanting them to realise that I generate insufficient page views to warrant placing ads here. When I discovered that I'd probably need thousands of views and clicks to make any money, I thought it time to give up that idea - I only seem to get views after a new post and that's probably from people who click on every new link that shows up on Google+.
Still playing Marvel Heroes even though I think I'm nearing the end of enjoying it, at least for now. Recently played MASHY SPIKE PLATE, uh, I mean Portal 2. Good fun. Bought Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition during the Steam sale, and I regret paying $20 for it... no fun. While I think fighting games should make a return to the PC due to the availability of controllers, I still really need actual people to play against, computer just cheats. And since I have no friends it's unlikely I'd enjoy PC fighters.
Uni has been postponed for me again, personal issues which I don't want to divulge to complete strangers, I don't even like speaking to family about it. Still have ideas for articles, just not the motivation to actually write them. But I'll be around, if you really need reassurance...
Still playing Marvel Heroes even though I think I'm nearing the end of enjoying it, at least for now. Recently played MASHY SPIKE PLATE, uh, I mean Portal 2. Good fun. Bought Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition during the Steam sale, and I regret paying $20 for it... no fun. While I think fighting games should make a return to the PC due to the availability of controllers, I still really need actual people to play against, computer just cheats. And since I have no friends it's unlikely I'd enjoy PC fighters.
Uni has been postponed for me again, personal issues which I don't want to divulge to complete strangers, I don't even like speaking to family about it. Still have ideas for articles, just not the motivation to actually write them. But I'll be around, if you really need reassurance...
Sunday 28 July 2013
Whittlin'
So no new post for three weeks. What have I been doing with my time? Playing Marvel Heroes, despite the somewhat tepid review I gave it. I've even spent money on it, so any complaints, well I've only myself to blame. Not much to say really, just letting any of my fans (chortle) know that I'm still here. Just passing time, whittling down the stick of my life until it eventually forms the shape of my existence - I'm guessing it will be an abstract.
Uni started again, yay. If you can't hear the sarcasm it's because you're reading.
Uni started again, yay. If you can't hear the sarcasm it's because you're reading.
Thursday 4 July 2013
Marvel at it
So, Marvel Heroes.
Not heaps to the story of this one, save that they went with their go-to guy Doctor Doom as the main villain. Not that there aren't plenty of other villains along the way. Free-to-play, so most of my complaints should be offset by the fact that not only did I not pay for it, but the developer is still working on the game. Seems to me that there are plenty of people paying for characters and costumes. Characters are unlocked with rare item drops, so you could effectively play the game totally free. Plus, this game does right what DC Universe Online got wrong - namely, you play as the famous (some not so famous) heroes from the comics.
Gameplay - much like Diablo, but with Wolverine and The Punisher. Isometric view and randomised dungeons crawling with enemies and the occasional boss enemy. Loot grinding is the name of the game here. Random maps, random loot, level up and keep going. Most games try to hide the fact that you're really doing a simple repetitive task, this one can't hide it. Click, click, click. Over and over. Just keep clicking. Then click some more. Story mode is fairly short and straight forward, that's where the repetition comes in - with daily challenges and of course levelling up your other characters. Or if you really really want to, you can reset the story and play it again.
The microtransactions I can forgive - free-to-play after all - it's that the in game currency is so hard to come by. You can sell your loot, obviously, but in order for the vendors and crafters to have better stuff available you need to donate you gear to them in order to level them up. That takes a loooooooooooong time. I've racked up over 50 hours playtime, and I've got the crafting vendor to rank 10 (of 20). Other vendors nowhere near that high, and the most suckiest thing about it, is that the crafters require components and credits and they demand a HUGE PILE OF MONEY just to put a fairly ineffective low grade randomised buff to your costume. That's just ridiculous - play the game and you'll soon see what I mean. 150000 credits for a grade 4 affix. Even the 25000 needed for a grade 3 is too much of an ask, because instead of selling your loot, you'll need to donate it in order to have access to the upgrades.
What I liked: I like the simple clicking gameplay - provided I'm in the right mood. The character personalities are fleshed out with random banter based on other nearby characters, or combat taunts and whatnot.
What I didn't like: In game currency, just so poorly handled. Maybe they'll fix it, since they seem to be interested in feedback. They are also apparently into updating the balance issues you come across while playing. They've already patched a few times and it's only been out for a few weeks. Also, the free-to-play model only has a few characters to select from at the start - and whichever one you pick, that will be your only character for a while. I did receive a new character token fairly early on, but I'm not sure if that's the standard or not. At least Daredevil was one of the free characters, the others were not some of my favourites (I'm looking at you, Hawkeye).
Play or not, I don't think I'm that persuasive a writer. If you try it free, at least you've only spent time instead of money. Unless you like it, then you can go nuts if you want.
Not heaps to the story of this one, save that they went with their go-to guy Doctor Doom as the main villain. Not that there aren't plenty of other villains along the way. Free-to-play, so most of my complaints should be offset by the fact that not only did I not pay for it, but the developer is still working on the game. Seems to me that there are plenty of people paying for characters and costumes. Characters are unlocked with rare item drops, so you could effectively play the game totally free. Plus, this game does right what DC Universe Online got wrong - namely, you play as the famous (some not so famous) heroes from the comics.
Gameplay - much like Diablo, but with Wolverine and The Punisher. Isometric view and randomised dungeons crawling with enemies and the occasional boss enemy. Loot grinding is the name of the game here. Random maps, random loot, level up and keep going. Most games try to hide the fact that you're really doing a simple repetitive task, this one can't hide it. Click, click, click. Over and over. Just keep clicking. Then click some more. Story mode is fairly short and straight forward, that's where the repetition comes in - with daily challenges and of course levelling up your other characters. Or if you really really want to, you can reset the story and play it again.
The microtransactions I can forgive - free-to-play after all - it's that the in game currency is so hard to come by. You can sell your loot, obviously, but in order for the vendors and crafters to have better stuff available you need to donate you gear to them in order to level them up. That takes a loooooooooooong time. I've racked up over 50 hours playtime, and I've got the crafting vendor to rank 10 (of 20). Other vendors nowhere near that high, and the most suckiest thing about it, is that the crafters require components and credits and they demand a HUGE PILE OF MONEY just to put a fairly ineffective low grade randomised buff to your costume. That's just ridiculous - play the game and you'll soon see what I mean. 150000 credits for a grade 4 affix. Even the 25000 needed for a grade 3 is too much of an ask, because instead of selling your loot, you'll need to donate it in order to have access to the upgrades.
What I liked: I like the simple clicking gameplay - provided I'm in the right mood. The character personalities are fleshed out with random banter based on other nearby characters, or combat taunts and whatnot.
What I didn't like: In game currency, just so poorly handled. Maybe they'll fix it, since they seem to be interested in feedback. They are also apparently into updating the balance issues you come across while playing. They've already patched a few times and it's only been out for a few weeks. Also, the free-to-play model only has a few characters to select from at the start - and whichever one you pick, that will be your only character for a while. I did receive a new character token fairly early on, but I'm not sure if that's the standard or not. At least Daredevil was one of the free characters, the others were not some of my favourites (I'm looking at you, Hawkeye).
Play or not, I don't think I'm that persuasive a writer. If you try it free, at least you've only spent time instead of money. Unless you like it, then you can go nuts if you want.
Tuesday 2 July 2013
Dunno
Things might change, I could be back on course for this whole world domination thing - Adsense is actually trying to review my blog instead of just carrying on about "copyright material". Also, still have some ideas for a few posts, they just won't be very current. Although I've been mucking around in Marvel Heroes and might have some nice things to say... Give me a day or two (which is rather absurd, as I have nothing but time on my hands at the moment).
Thursday 27 June 2013
Just plain dead
A quick word about the new Deadpool game. Don't buy it, because it's a game you don't want to play. You'll endlessly repeat sections and boss fights because all that tactics that the game teaches you will fail to save you from hordes of enemies with automatic weapons. The aim feature of guns actually centres on the chest and keeps pulling back there, making headshots difficult. Most of the melee enemies will block your attacks and you have to wait to counter their attacks before being able to retaliate. They want you to build up long combos, but you can't try to pay attention to the combo meter because the action is too hectic.
Despite its being relatively cheap on Steam, I'd still say stay away from it. Watch a video of someone else playing it, because as far as I'm concerned, it would be better watching than playing. It's absolutely hilarious, until things go against you, which they always will.
ADDITIONAL
Just to elaborate slightly - the writing, humour and performances in this game are great, spot on for the character. It's just that the game gets far too frustrating to play, and I'm not even playing on hard. If playing on easy is the only way to enjoy playing the game, sorry guys that isn't proper as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I just suck at it, but I don't think it's just me. If you think you can handle the irritation - go right ahead and try it. I wrote the original post just after a rage quit, but the point still stands - the game has an artificial difficulty made by swarms of enemies. The controls are kind of awkward as well, the original "use" key was U, that's just wrong. There was something of a focus on the melee and it looks fine, handles OK, but it's when you're dealing with melee enemies while also being shredded by gunfire that the game gets annoying. And Deadpool's healing factor doesn't kick in until a few seconds after you stop taking damage, so if you've got nowhere to hide, you're screwed.
ADDITIONAL ADDITIONAL
Seems that the fight causing me the most frustration (took nearly an hour to do, retried about 25 times) was actually the prelude to the final boss fight - which was actually less frustrating than the build up. Now my other complaint is that the game is fairly short. Since it might technically be classed as a budget game ($29.99 on Steam) I suppose there is a little less to complain about, except that now I know how annoying it would be to play on hard. I think all my points here still stand, which is why I haven't retracted them. Hilarious, but frustrating.
Despite its being relatively cheap on Steam, I'd still say stay away from it. Watch a video of someone else playing it, because as far as I'm concerned, it would be better watching than playing. It's absolutely hilarious, until things go against you, which they always will.
ADDITIONAL
Just to elaborate slightly - the writing, humour and performances in this game are great, spot on for the character. It's just that the game gets far too frustrating to play, and I'm not even playing on hard. If playing on easy is the only way to enjoy playing the game, sorry guys that isn't proper as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I just suck at it, but I don't think it's just me. If you think you can handle the irritation - go right ahead and try it. I wrote the original post just after a rage quit, but the point still stands - the game has an artificial difficulty made by swarms of enemies. The controls are kind of awkward as well, the original "use" key was U, that's just wrong. There was something of a focus on the melee and it looks fine, handles OK, but it's when you're dealing with melee enemies while also being shredded by gunfire that the game gets annoying. And Deadpool's healing factor doesn't kick in until a few seconds after you stop taking damage, so if you've got nowhere to hide, you're screwed.
ADDITIONAL ADDITIONAL
Seems that the fight causing me the most frustration (took nearly an hour to do, retried about 25 times) was actually the prelude to the final boss fight - which was actually less frustrating than the build up. Now my other complaint is that the game is fairly short. Since it might technically be classed as a budget game ($29.99 on Steam) I suppose there is a little less to complain about, except that now I know how annoying it would be to play on hard. I think all my points here still stand, which is why I haven't retracted them. Hilarious, but frustrating.
Wednesday 19 June 2013
Awake
A short review of Alan Wake.
Short because it's not all that great and also because it's not a brand new game. Astute readers will have noticed that I discuss little of the story and here will do less so due to the fact that this game is all story. Well, mostly plot anyway. Big maps, nice scenery, but generally a straight line. Slight deviations for collectibles but despite some open looking areas, exploration is not really rewarded. You'll follow a path towards a pool of light, where you get a checkpoint save. Normally I hate checkpoint saves, but at least here you get plenty of them.
The game is really aiming for atmosphere, which it does well but still can't really frighten the player with much other than jump scares, though it has some creepy moments. But there is plenty of darkness and the game features an excellent lighting engine. Seriously guys, make Pitch Black into a game with this engine. As much as they touted the "light as a weapon" though, it's really "use light, then a weapon" most of the time. The light has to burn off shadow to make enemies vulnerable. Thematically this is somewhat coherent, but I really get the feeling that it was "I have this story in mind, and here's how we can make a game out of it". And I don't recall, but was this game released in episodes? Because it plays as episodes. This means that you start over fresh as far as weapons go, every time you have an episode break.
Combat just feels really jarring at times, even though it looks cool when you fire a flare gun (the game's super-weapon). Part of my issue with the combat is that the controls aren't always responsive; try to dodge and you get hit, dodge too much and you can't run away and jumping doesn't always happen. And enemies spawn all around you most of the time, so you'll be lighting up baddies in front and get hacked at from the side. What's weird though is that the camera is positioned so Wake is always running at an angle to the centre of the screen, but seems to back off a little when enemies are around.
What I like: The lighting is fantastic, the graphics in general are great and despite playing out mostly in darkness, this game features more colour than Tomb Raider did. I kind of like the story, but I definitely like the in-jokes and Max Payne references (Sam Lake is not above self-satire).
What I didn't like: The camera and controls. Combat. Huh, that's about it really, although combat makes up a fair amount of the game.
So far the Nightmare mode pages haven't been hard to find, but it doesn't really lend itself to repeats. I got it very cheaply, so a few (OK, several) moments of frustration during combat and occasionally falling off a ledge can be overlooked somewhat. And this came out about as long as my other game reviews, hmmm.
Short because it's not all that great and also because it's not a brand new game. Astute readers will have noticed that I discuss little of the story and here will do less so due to the fact that this game is all story. Well, mostly plot anyway. Big maps, nice scenery, but generally a straight line. Slight deviations for collectibles but despite some open looking areas, exploration is not really rewarded. You'll follow a path towards a pool of light, where you get a checkpoint save. Normally I hate checkpoint saves, but at least here you get plenty of them.
The game is really aiming for atmosphere, which it does well but still can't really frighten the player with much other than jump scares, though it has some creepy moments. But there is plenty of darkness and the game features an excellent lighting engine. Seriously guys, make Pitch Black into a game with this engine. As much as they touted the "light as a weapon" though, it's really "use light, then a weapon" most of the time. The light has to burn off shadow to make enemies vulnerable. Thematically this is somewhat coherent, but I really get the feeling that it was "I have this story in mind, and here's how we can make a game out of it". And I don't recall, but was this game released in episodes? Because it plays as episodes. This means that you start over fresh as far as weapons go, every time you have an episode break.
Combat just feels really jarring at times, even though it looks cool when you fire a flare gun (the game's super-weapon). Part of my issue with the combat is that the controls aren't always responsive; try to dodge and you get hit, dodge too much and you can't run away and jumping doesn't always happen. And enemies spawn all around you most of the time, so you'll be lighting up baddies in front and get hacked at from the side. What's weird though is that the camera is positioned so Wake is always running at an angle to the centre of the screen, but seems to back off a little when enemies are around.
What I like: The lighting is fantastic, the graphics in general are great and despite playing out mostly in darkness, this game features more colour than Tomb Raider did. I kind of like the story, but I definitely like the in-jokes and Max Payne references (Sam Lake is not above self-satire).
What I didn't like: The camera and controls. Combat. Huh, that's about it really, although combat makes up a fair amount of the game.
So far the Nightmare mode pages haven't been hard to find, but it doesn't really lend itself to repeats. I got it very cheaply, so a few (OK, several) moments of frustration during combat and occasionally falling off a ledge can be overlooked somewhat. And this came out about as long as my other game reviews, hmmm.
Friday 7 June 2013
Who's counting?
I know I haven't posted for a few weeks, I'm sure you're all overwrought with anticipation of... who am I kidding?
Haven't really felt like writing. Still have things I could post about - made a little list and everything. Still have older games to talk about, other game related stuff. Just started playing Alan Wake so I might have something there - I like the Max Payne references so far. Deadpool is coming out in a few weeks, so I should have something there as well. Can't promise anything though, wait for me. Or don't, whichever is easier.
Haven't really felt like writing. Still have things I could post about - made a little list and everything. Still have older games to talk about, other game related stuff. Just started playing Alan Wake so I might have something there - I like the Max Payne references so far. Deadpool is coming out in a few weeks, so I should have something there as well. Can't promise anything though, wait for me. Or don't, whichever is easier.
Friday 17 May 2013
Illusion of Choice
As something of a corollary to my Bioshock Infinite review (which I thought of updating but it really would be just to discuss this issue) I'd like to point out one of the great nuisances of its gameplay. The few "choices" you're presented with have either little or no impact of the outcome of the game. The pendant choice is purely cosmetic; not killing Slate has him show up in a prison cell later, eliciting a comment from Elizabeth; and a choice I'd forgotten - whether to draw on a ticket booth guy or let him stab you in the hand has the impact of some comment from Elizabeth followed by her bandaging the wound, or not if there is nothing to bandage. And it seems that if you are aggressive and harm unarmed, non-combatants, someone notices and offers you gear as a reward for your bloodlust.
That's it. Completely linear rail shooter of a game (with some literal rails) that offers choices that really have no impact. If anyone wants to complain about my complaint, let me put it this way: If the choices have no meaning, then don't bother putting them in there. If a game says it's a linear story game, I can deal with that. Giving me choices as if a second playthrough could lead to a different outcome only to leads to my disappointment. You want people to pay $80 for something that gives about 10 hours of fun? At least in other games there is lateral gameplay, such as "RPG" (to be discussed in a future post) like The Elder Scrolls series, which lets you do different things and play the game different ways. They're equally disappointing in terms of not really being able to change the outcome, but they're also relying on that lateral gameplay (not to mention lots of exploration) to extend the life of their games.
Bioshock Infinite is a straight line, and if it had been upfront about that, I wouldn't be as irritated as I am.
That's it. Completely linear rail shooter of a game (with some literal rails) that offers choices that really have no impact. If anyone wants to complain about my complaint, let me put it this way: If the choices have no meaning, then don't bother putting them in there. If a game says it's a linear story game, I can deal with that. Giving me choices as if a second playthrough could lead to a different outcome only to leads to my disappointment. You want people to pay $80 for something that gives about 10 hours of fun? At least in other games there is lateral gameplay, such as "RPG" (to be discussed in a future post) like The Elder Scrolls series, which lets you do different things and play the game different ways. They're equally disappointing in terms of not really being able to change the outcome, but they're also relying on that lateral gameplay (not to mention lots of exploration) to extend the life of their games.
Bioshock Infinite is a straight line, and if it had been upfront about that, I wouldn't be as irritated as I am.
Friday 10 May 2013
Blah
I have nothing to talk about, this has been a very disappointing week, lots of inanity. Why I'm bothering to post about nothing bewilders me. Try harder world, be a better place.
Friday 3 May 2013
Tomb Raiding (optional)
A review of the latest Tomb Raider game from Square Enix.
This is from the perspective of someone who has never played a Tomb Raider game, so I have no opinions on how this reflects on the series. I don't mind platform games, which I understand most of the series were, and there are elements of the platform style here, at least when it comes to moving around environments. However I find there to be a startling lack of depth in both the story and the gameplay.
So after being shipwrecked on a mysterious magic island (which is kind of Lara's fault since she's the one who led everyone there) we get to see the systematic breakdown of Lara's character. Everything gets taken away from her, friends, mentors and of course her humanity. Because after coming to terms with the need for survival (the overarching theme of the game) Lara fairly quickly becomes a mass murderer. That is not a joke. While there are attempts (at least early on) to show Lara struggling with her new found blood lust, she fairly quickly gets over it in the name of survival. I'm stressing the survival because the game uses this as an excuse for lots of violence. Technically all the bad guys are out to kill you and technically you could call it self-defence, but I don't think you can call it realistic to have your character kill a few hundred people and not come out as a stone cold psychopath.
General madness aside the game handles the motion of exploration and combat fairly well. Most of the time it's preferable to stealth kill so as to avoid enemies alerting the swarm of guys hanging around. Open combat is a little unusual in that it utilises a soft cover system - there's no "enter cover" button, but Lara will hunker down next to objects and pop out to aim. Of course you could try charging in, but you can die pretty quickly.
Speaking of quick, Quick Time Events are something you'll have to get used to. This is not handled very well because you can't always tell when they're going to appear and when they do, they can go by fast. So at least at the beginning, expect to see Lara die a few times while you sort out which buttons to push and when. Also there are button mashing episodes, which I'm sure everyone can't get enough of. I mention both of these because I find it annoying that in a game with a fairly decent control system for third-person movement also throws in the occasional button mash or QTE. At least in games that use heaps of QTE you know to expect them; here they just pop up at inconvenient moments.
As my review title suggests, most of the "tombs" you'll discover aren't the primary objective, which even for me makes the game title rather misleading, serving simply to tie it to the series despite being a prequel/reboot. Most of the plot is about the crazy cult inhabiting the island and an undead queen, so yes there is supernatural magic involved in this game which is ostensibly about archaeology.
What I like: The graphcis are good but very bland - mostly grey, even Lara's tank top is grey. I don't understand why everyone wants newer and better ways of rendering grey. Graphics have been pretty good for several years now, can you start focusing on something else? The controls are easy to use, movement is good and doesn't screw you over most of the time. The weapon modding/upgrading system is nice, letting you focus on your preferred weapon to save on "salvage".
What I didn't like: Button mashing, QTE, lacklustre visual style, lacklustre voice acting, lacklustre story. The open world exploration is also lacking in depth, all of the documents that give back-story only give fragments. I suppose they were going for suggestion of detail rather than having to come up with reams of text on the history of the island. Despite the open world, exploration is not really necessary and also not very rewarding unless you really want to get skill points and weapon upgrades.
This isn't a bad game, it's just rather bland. Not much about it stands out. It's also rather short, about 10-15 hours depending on how much exploring you do. Really though the exploration isn't necessary because if you focus on one weapon and the appropriate and related skills, you can just play through only picking up the relics and so on that you come across along that path. I haven't tried the multiplayer, so maybe that might add some longevity, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Buy it cheap and you shouldn't be disappointed.
MULTIPLAYER
So I've tried the multiplayer and I would suggest that you think long and hard about whether you enjoy being killed repeatedly. It seems wildly imbalanced towards higher level players since they have better weapons and abilities unlocked. Plus it's a bit jumpy so you may find yourself dying for no apparent reason because you have no idea where the enemy is. There are a few game modes but I found myself in team deathmatch most of the time, but at least when I saw another mode, people were going for the objectives rather than just kills. One saving grace is that one of the starting skills gives you more XP for kills, I guess it's to give a leg up to new players.
This is from the perspective of someone who has never played a Tomb Raider game, so I have no opinions on how this reflects on the series. I don't mind platform games, which I understand most of the series were, and there are elements of the platform style here, at least when it comes to moving around environments. However I find there to be a startling lack of depth in both the story and the gameplay.
So after being shipwrecked on a mysterious magic island (which is kind of Lara's fault since she's the one who led everyone there) we get to see the systematic breakdown of Lara's character. Everything gets taken away from her, friends, mentors and of course her humanity. Because after coming to terms with the need for survival (the overarching theme of the game) Lara fairly quickly becomes a mass murderer. That is not a joke. While there are attempts (at least early on) to show Lara struggling with her new found blood lust, she fairly quickly gets over it in the name of survival. I'm stressing the survival because the game uses this as an excuse for lots of violence. Technically all the bad guys are out to kill you and technically you could call it self-defence, but I don't think you can call it realistic to have your character kill a few hundred people and not come out as a stone cold psychopath.
General madness aside the game handles the motion of exploration and combat fairly well. Most of the time it's preferable to stealth kill so as to avoid enemies alerting the swarm of guys hanging around. Open combat is a little unusual in that it utilises a soft cover system - there's no "enter cover" button, but Lara will hunker down next to objects and pop out to aim. Of course you could try charging in, but you can die pretty quickly.
Speaking of quick, Quick Time Events are something you'll have to get used to. This is not handled very well because you can't always tell when they're going to appear and when they do, they can go by fast. So at least at the beginning, expect to see Lara die a few times while you sort out which buttons to push and when. Also there are button mashing episodes, which I'm sure everyone can't get enough of. I mention both of these because I find it annoying that in a game with a fairly decent control system for third-person movement also throws in the occasional button mash or QTE. At least in games that use heaps of QTE you know to expect them; here they just pop up at inconvenient moments.
As my review title suggests, most of the "tombs" you'll discover aren't the primary objective, which even for me makes the game title rather misleading, serving simply to tie it to the series despite being a prequel/reboot. Most of the plot is about the crazy cult inhabiting the island and an undead queen, so yes there is supernatural magic involved in this game which is ostensibly about archaeology.
What I like: The graphcis are good but very bland - mostly grey, even Lara's tank top is grey. I don't understand why everyone wants newer and better ways of rendering grey. Graphics have been pretty good for several years now, can you start focusing on something else? The controls are easy to use, movement is good and doesn't screw you over most of the time. The weapon modding/upgrading system is nice, letting you focus on your preferred weapon to save on "salvage".
What I didn't like: Button mashing, QTE, lacklustre visual style, lacklustre voice acting, lacklustre story. The open world exploration is also lacking in depth, all of the documents that give back-story only give fragments. I suppose they were going for suggestion of detail rather than having to come up with reams of text on the history of the island. Despite the open world, exploration is not really necessary and also not very rewarding unless you really want to get skill points and weapon upgrades.
This isn't a bad game, it's just rather bland. Not much about it stands out. It's also rather short, about 10-15 hours depending on how much exploring you do. Really though the exploration isn't necessary because if you focus on one weapon and the appropriate and related skills, you can just play through only picking up the relics and so on that you come across along that path. I haven't tried the multiplayer, so maybe that might add some longevity, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Buy it cheap and you shouldn't be disappointed.
MULTIPLAYER
So I've tried the multiplayer and I would suggest that you think long and hard about whether you enjoy being killed repeatedly. It seems wildly imbalanced towards higher level players since they have better weapons and abilities unlocked. Plus it's a bit jumpy so you may find yourself dying for no apparent reason because you have no idea where the enemy is. There are a few game modes but I found myself in team deathmatch most of the time, but at least when I saw another mode, people were going for the objectives rather than just kills. One saving grace is that one of the starting skills gives you more XP for kills, I guess it's to give a leg up to new players.
Sunday 28 April 2013
Plus Days
I don't want to build the expectation that I will post every day, so I'm countering that by trying to avoid empty days...
I don't know, but I think that sounded very stupid, even to me and I'm the one that wrote it then decided to share that brain fart with the rest of the world. So anyone who actually reads this blog, don't expect daily posts, but I'll try for at least one larger post per week. The retards at Adsense seem to think that I'm hosting copyrighted material and preventing both myself and them from making money out of nothing. The most appropriate counterpoint to that would be for my blog to become quite heavily trafficked. It's not likely, and it would also be disappointing to not profit from such popularity.
Anyway, posting later, it seems I've got myself into something of a pattern of writing for here, let's see if I can keep it up.
I don't know, but I think that sounded very stupid, even to me and I'm the one that wrote it then decided to share that brain fart with the rest of the world. So anyone who actually reads this blog, don't expect daily posts, but I'll try for at least one larger post per week. The retards at Adsense seem to think that I'm hosting copyrighted material and preventing both myself and them from making money out of nothing. The most appropriate counterpoint to that would be for my blog to become quite heavily trafficked. It's not likely, and it would also be disappointing to not profit from such popularity.
Anyway, posting later, it seems I've got myself into something of a pattern of writing for here, let's see if I can keep it up.
Friday 26 April 2013
Finite Shock
A Bioshock Infinite review, as will be obvious to anyone who continues to read this post...
Anyway, still figuring out how I'm going to format this thing, but given that it's going to be my opinion and impressions of the game, not a thorough description or recap of the plot.
Anyway, the opening has little in common with the majority of the game, although it does establish the Luteces and their confusing banter, which makes a little more sense towards the end of the game. While it's made very clear that you must succeed or face dire consequences, the most prevalent theme related to the player character (Booker DeWitt) is that of guilt over past actions. You don't find this out right away, rather your first experience is the whole " the South will rise again" attitude of the inhabitants of Columbia - which is a flying city held up by science-magic (quantum physics is the new magic, it seems). I initially thought (and was somewhat correct) that the theme of the game would be an examination of the cult of the USA, as "founding fathers" are worshipped by the locals. There is even a quote from the antagonist (Comstock) that "no animal is born free, except for the white man": subtlety in action. While this theme does carry through most of the game, it wanes in influence towards the later stages to make way for alternate realities and time travel. Like I said, science-magic.
Aside from this, most of the game is plot driven - go here, do this, go there, shoot things, run around, throw magic at people. Most of the game has you "escorting" Elizabeth, the girl you were sent to retrieve. I say "escorting" because you mainly follow her, she even runs faster than you do. And unlike the usual escort mission in games, Elizabeth is entirely immune to damage and enemies don't shoot at her. So in that regard, the game separates itself from the pack by not punishing you for failing to protect your companion. There is also a fair amount of self-awareness in the game, something of a hallmark of the series, that draws attention to the lack of real choices in the narrative. Highlighted in this case by the "infinite" in the title, there being infinite possibilities, but of course not displaying all of them to the player.
Speaking of choices, there were only a few here, unlike the previous titles which had a cumulative effect over the course of the game (which will be discussed in a different article I have planned). Your only choices are who to target at the raffle, which pendant to give to Elizabeth and whether or not you kill Slate after he requests it. Otherwise you really only choose how to engage in combat, whether to mainly use guns or vigours or some combination of the two, or to just swing your sky-hook around and carve people up. Having only played through once, I mainly focused on guns, which is done in a rather old-fashioned run-and-gun style most shooting games avoid these days, mainly because it's rather bland. But at least it's not some cover-based shooter that would be equally bland in gameplay. You're limited to only two guns at a time, and two active vigours, but at least you can always swap vigours around. This makes the weapon upgrade system a little useless, as you'll always need to pick up other weapons which may not have been upgraded. Either that or you can spend your money on ammo every chance you get. I didn't, but that's because I wanted to try the upgraded guns, and that costs a lot.
Well that covers story and gameplay, though not as thoroughly some readers might prefer. So I'll follow up with a simple "what I did/didn't like".
I liked the design, rather futuristic looking for 1912, but that was obviously intentional. Bright and colourful for the most part, getting darker as the game progresses, and eventually the nice looking city becomes cracked and ruined as revolution hits the streets. I liked the self-awareness, considering that most of the game is combat in various shooting galleries, the game introduces you to the combat controls by having you visit carnival shooting galleries. And the explicit reference to the previous Bioshock games was neat.
I didn't dislike much of the game, mainly just some little annoyances. It seems to be more linear than it's predecessors, which is saying something. And the few choices you can make have more obscured outcomes than the prior games as well. Even though I made a separate post about achievements, they have become somewhat integral to the way developers build their games - and here, the collection achievements bugged me because I thought I was quite thorough in my exploration, yet I failed to complete any collections. And I missed quicksaves the entire time I was playing this. Checkpoint saves on a PC game? Really?
Well there, not quite how I imagined the review might turn out, but the game wasn't quite how I imagined either. Perhaps it could have been more detailed, but I can't retain details of gameplay for all that long, so I'm left with impressions, which I have passed on here. Plenty of other places are discussing the game in more detail and laying out more of the plot/story. If you want the game ruined for you, go read them, of you want a recommendation, play the game, it's fun for the most part.
Anyway, still figuring out how I'm going to format this thing, but given that it's going to be my opinion and impressions of the game, not a thorough description or recap of the plot.
Anyway, the opening has little in common with the majority of the game, although it does establish the Luteces and their confusing banter, which makes a little more sense towards the end of the game. While it's made very clear that you must succeed or face dire consequences, the most prevalent theme related to the player character (Booker DeWitt) is that of guilt over past actions. You don't find this out right away, rather your first experience is the whole " the South will rise again" attitude of the inhabitants of Columbia - which is a flying city held up by science-magic (quantum physics is the new magic, it seems). I initially thought (and was somewhat correct) that the theme of the game would be an examination of the cult of the USA, as "founding fathers" are worshipped by the locals. There is even a quote from the antagonist (Comstock) that "no animal is born free, except for the white man": subtlety in action. While this theme does carry through most of the game, it wanes in influence towards the later stages to make way for alternate realities and time travel. Like I said, science-magic.
Aside from this, most of the game is plot driven - go here, do this, go there, shoot things, run around, throw magic at people. Most of the game has you "escorting" Elizabeth, the girl you were sent to retrieve. I say "escorting" because you mainly follow her, she even runs faster than you do. And unlike the usual escort mission in games, Elizabeth is entirely immune to damage and enemies don't shoot at her. So in that regard, the game separates itself from the pack by not punishing you for failing to protect your companion. There is also a fair amount of self-awareness in the game, something of a hallmark of the series, that draws attention to the lack of real choices in the narrative. Highlighted in this case by the "infinite" in the title, there being infinite possibilities, but of course not displaying all of them to the player.
Speaking of choices, there were only a few here, unlike the previous titles which had a cumulative effect over the course of the game (which will be discussed in a different article I have planned). Your only choices are who to target at the raffle, which pendant to give to Elizabeth and whether or not you kill Slate after he requests it. Otherwise you really only choose how to engage in combat, whether to mainly use guns or vigours or some combination of the two, or to just swing your sky-hook around and carve people up. Having only played through once, I mainly focused on guns, which is done in a rather old-fashioned run-and-gun style most shooting games avoid these days, mainly because it's rather bland. But at least it's not some cover-based shooter that would be equally bland in gameplay. You're limited to only two guns at a time, and two active vigours, but at least you can always swap vigours around. This makes the weapon upgrade system a little useless, as you'll always need to pick up other weapons which may not have been upgraded. Either that or you can spend your money on ammo every chance you get. I didn't, but that's because I wanted to try the upgraded guns, and that costs a lot.
Well that covers story and gameplay, though not as thoroughly some readers might prefer. So I'll follow up with a simple "what I did/didn't like".
I liked the design, rather futuristic looking for 1912, but that was obviously intentional. Bright and colourful for the most part, getting darker as the game progresses, and eventually the nice looking city becomes cracked and ruined as revolution hits the streets. I liked the self-awareness, considering that most of the game is combat in various shooting galleries, the game introduces you to the combat controls by having you visit carnival shooting galleries. And the explicit reference to the previous Bioshock games was neat.
I didn't dislike much of the game, mainly just some little annoyances. It seems to be more linear than it's predecessors, which is saying something. And the few choices you can make have more obscured outcomes than the prior games as well. Even though I made a separate post about achievements, they have become somewhat integral to the way developers build their games - and here, the collection achievements bugged me because I thought I was quite thorough in my exploration, yet I failed to complete any collections. And I missed quicksaves the entire time I was playing this. Checkpoint saves on a PC game? Really?
Well there, not quite how I imagined the review might turn out, but the game wasn't quite how I imagined either. Perhaps it could have been more detailed, but I can't retain details of gameplay for all that long, so I'm left with impressions, which I have passed on here. Plenty of other places are discussing the game in more detail and laying out more of the plot/story. If you want the game ruined for you, go read them, of you want a recommendation, play the game, it's fun for the most part.
Thursday 25 April 2013
Regarding the End
I was reading something somewhere somewhat recently about how the death penalty was not cost effective due to the expensive and lengthy appeals process (the author was from the USA). What struck me about the argument was that by factoring in the appeals process, they had accepted that the process should be there. I would ask: why? Why should there be a way for the convicted to escape their punishment? And before anyone thinks I'm trolling for some moral debate about whether governments have the right... oh you think there is a "right"? I don't think anyone would have the right or get the right or get it right at all. None is more right or correct or valid than any other. I don't deal in such absolutes because they don't really exist. Just a food for thought experiment.
Plus I'm using this post to introduce a new category for my posts. In future there will likely be more, especially if I take to posting about every stupid thing that occurs to me as I try vainly to avoid thought because thought just leads to thinking and I do too much thinking particularly upon subjects I'd rather not think about and most people seem not to think at all anyway...
So, new category, others potentially joining it in the future include (but not limited to): Literature (as in books), Film (as in movies) and actually I think it's just the two at the moment. I find there's no point in talking politics, especially since my location may not match up with the entirety of my audience (if I even have one). I'll try to curb my parenthetical remarks.
Plus I'm using this post to introduce a new category for my posts. In future there will likely be more, especially if I take to posting about every stupid thing that occurs to me as I try vainly to avoid thought because thought just leads to thinking and I do too much thinking particularly upon subjects I'd rather not think about and most people seem not to think at all anyway...
So, new category, others potentially joining it in the future include (but not limited to): Literature (as in books), Film (as in movies) and actually I think it's just the two at the moment. I find there's no point in talking politics, especially since my location may not match up with the entirety of my audience (if I even have one). I'll try to curb my parenthetical remarks.
Waiting impatiently
For the morons at Adsense to realise that when they reject an application for "copyrighted material", they could be doing the applicant a huge favour by pointing out exactly what material is leading to the rejection. I've removed all links from my NCT posts, but if links are the issue, how does anyone post anything at all? Are you only allowed to post bland and boring updates about your life as if it's somehow news the world needs desperately? With such strict standards, how does anyone - including you - make any money from their blogs?
So congrats, Adsense, you're fascists.
So congrats, Adsense, you're fascists.
Tuesday 23 April 2013
Progress
So I might be getting a jump on this whole world domination thing, did have to use a different browser but soon I should have ads. Now I just need to gather more minions. The modern world seems so confusing and frightening; I don't like it. Anyway, working on playing through a new game which, when reviewed, might garner me more attention. That seems to be what everyone is doing these days, trying to get the attention of others, as if it somehow validates their existence. Just look at reality TV, or better yet, don't. Not that my condemnation will stop you, of course. But when it all crumbles around you, I'll be there to say "I told you so".
What was I on about? Game review in process of being, or becoming; those weird types of phrases can be difficult to cram in sometimes. Also I will be trying to pace myself, since I've had a few ideas for posts. I don't want to do them all in a week and then have nothing to write about for months. If any of you have been paying attention, you'll recognise that basically describes most of the history of this site... Corrections to that behaviour are pending. And this stupid thing is telling me that I'm spelling words incorrectly. There will be a post about that sometime in the future, so hold your breath.
EDIT: Apparently my "share to Google+" counts as a comment and a +1, I don't see why. This stuff makes no sense to me.
EDIT: Apparently I'm hosting copyright content, and since I have no idea what it is, I guess I won't be putting up ads, so no money and no world domination.
What was I on about? Game review in process of being, or becoming; those weird types of phrases can be difficult to cram in sometimes. Also I will be trying to pace myself, since I've had a few ideas for posts. I don't want to do them all in a week and then have nothing to write about for months. If any of you have been paying attention, you'll recognise that basically describes most of the history of this site... Corrections to that behaviour are pending. And this stupid thing is telling me that I'm spelling words incorrectly. There will be a post about that sometime in the future, so hold your breath.
EDIT: Apparently my "share to Google+" counts as a comment and a +1, I don't see why. This stuff makes no sense to me.
EDIT: Apparently I'm hosting copyright content, and since I have no idea what it is, I guess I won't be putting up ads, so no money and no world domination.
Sunday 21 April 2013
New World
There might be some crap showing up on here in the near future, mainly because of all this newfangled "social networking" thing that everyone seems to going for. As much time as I spend in front of a computer, I understand very little about them. I understand people even less, which is usually OK because I hate them, but now my hope is to exploit them for profit (marginal profit at least). So there may be new "gadgets" and things floating around, plus I might add some imagery or colour to the layout. Also, I'll need to come up with a more varied approach, I've established my three Rs (rants, reviews, ruminations) but have really only talked about games so far. I'll attempt to remedy that.
But rest assured that you probably understand all this techno-stuff better than I do.
But rest assured that you probably understand all this techno-stuff better than I do.
Rewarding Gameplay
Achievements, aren't they fantastic? No?
I find that for the most part that achievements in games are either stupid or far too easy. When reaching a certain point in the story of a game is an "achievement", the game creators have very low expectations. Or they're struggling to find something to label as an achievement because achievements are the thing you do at the moment. I find them either too straightforward or frustrating to accomplish. Some times there are some in the middle there, when it does take some skill and effort to attain. As an example, the challenge mode achievements in Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. You have to get into the right rhythm for combat as well as know how to build up points. Granted the best method for gaining points in the combat challenges is to just have really long combo multipliers, which is simple but can be difficult in practice. Or maybe I just suck at it.
There are too many examples of the "reach this point in the story" achievements to cite here, so I'll assume you know what I'm talking about. If not, why are you reading about games if you don't play them? There are of course those that are a reward for some banal or random task, such as what I've heard about World of Warcraft which has an achievement for catching fish, even though fishing is just some idle thing that your character can do.
On the other hand, some games like to provide the players with a glut of achievements. Currently Killing Floor has 209 achievements, a large portion of which are for completing maps on different difficulty levels. Given that there are four levels for which there are achievements, they are a simple solution for the developers, but also rather annoying. At least they're annoying to me, I look at the list and think: "I don't want to play the game that much."
But I think this raises the most pertinent point: do players really want to achieve this? I suppose before the advent of in-game achievements, players would make up their own to brag to others about. Now the developers can decide for you. Except of course for the fact that many achievements are easily attained. So people will still find absurd applications of their time that add up to something worthy of bragging about; it's just that some of those things will have the equivalent of a boy scout patch to prove that they did it.
Which is why we still have leaderboards. Achievements aside - leaderboards show just how fast or skillful you are. Except of course where they don't. In the aforementioned Batman games, the number one position for challenges is usually held by someone who apparently earned about a trillion points in a millisecond. If that confuses you, they cheated, obviously. I've seen several leaderboards topped by obvious hackers, so we know that you really suck and couldn't accomplish that.
So, most achievements are pointless or they can be gained by cheating... is there a point to them? I think it depends on what use they are put to. In the first Mass Effect, achievements were awarded for various skill uses or character uses, but the achievements had an effect on actual gameplay: allowing access to certain skills that weren't available for your character class, health regeneration, faster skill cooldown and such. In Alpha Protocol you were awarded "perks" depending on your actions during gameplay that assisted is similar ways: faster skill cooldown, extra points for levelling up your skills, so forth. They meant something to the gameplay, rather than just being arbitrary awards for doing whatever.
I can't think of many ways that achievements could be put to actual use, other than those I've already cited. This is just a bit of rambling about a somewhat nonsensical subject. Gamers were always making up their own achievements anyway, even arcade games were about attaining a high score and getting your name (or initials) onto the scoreboard, even if most of them ended up being POO or ASS. I think that demonstrates just how seriously gamers take the issue.
I find that for the most part that achievements in games are either stupid or far too easy. When reaching a certain point in the story of a game is an "achievement", the game creators have very low expectations. Or they're struggling to find something to label as an achievement because achievements are the thing you do at the moment. I find them either too straightforward or frustrating to accomplish. Some times there are some in the middle there, when it does take some skill and effort to attain. As an example, the challenge mode achievements in Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. You have to get into the right rhythm for combat as well as know how to build up points. Granted the best method for gaining points in the combat challenges is to just have really long combo multipliers, which is simple but can be difficult in practice. Or maybe I just suck at it.
There are too many examples of the "reach this point in the story" achievements to cite here, so I'll assume you know what I'm talking about. If not, why are you reading about games if you don't play them? There are of course those that are a reward for some banal or random task, such as what I've heard about World of Warcraft which has an achievement for catching fish, even though fishing is just some idle thing that your character can do.
On the other hand, some games like to provide the players with a glut of achievements. Currently Killing Floor has 209 achievements, a large portion of which are for completing maps on different difficulty levels. Given that there are four levels for which there are achievements, they are a simple solution for the developers, but also rather annoying. At least they're annoying to me, I look at the list and think: "I don't want to play the game that much."
But I think this raises the most pertinent point: do players really want to achieve this? I suppose before the advent of in-game achievements, players would make up their own to brag to others about. Now the developers can decide for you. Except of course for the fact that many achievements are easily attained. So people will still find absurd applications of their time that add up to something worthy of bragging about; it's just that some of those things will have the equivalent of a boy scout patch to prove that they did it.
Which is why we still have leaderboards. Achievements aside - leaderboards show just how fast or skillful you are. Except of course where they don't. In the aforementioned Batman games, the number one position for challenges is usually held by someone who apparently earned about a trillion points in a millisecond. If that confuses you, they cheated, obviously. I've seen several leaderboards topped by obvious hackers, so we know that you really suck and couldn't accomplish that.
So, most achievements are pointless or they can be gained by cheating... is there a point to them? I think it depends on what use they are put to. In the first Mass Effect, achievements were awarded for various skill uses or character uses, but the achievements had an effect on actual gameplay: allowing access to certain skills that weren't available for your character class, health regeneration, faster skill cooldown and such. In Alpha Protocol you were awarded "perks" depending on your actions during gameplay that assisted is similar ways: faster skill cooldown, extra points for levelling up your skills, so forth. They meant something to the gameplay, rather than just being arbitrary awards for doing whatever.
I can't think of many ways that achievements could be put to actual use, other than those I've already cited. This is just a bit of rambling about a somewhat nonsensical subject. Gamers were always making up their own achievements anyway, even arcade games were about attaining a high score and getting your name (or initials) onto the scoreboard, even if most of them ended up being POO or ASS. I think that demonstrates just how seriously gamers take the issue.
Friday 19 April 2013
Excuse the mess
Don't know what I was thinking with the previous post. I was half asleep when I came up with it, seemed funny at the time. Might convince myself to add in some general game-related posts in the near future or sooner or later. Just ignore the previous post, even though I could delete it I think exploring the pointless should be recorded for posterity.
Introducing: The Adventures of General Fatman and Captain Starboy
CS: Starboy to command.
GF: Fatman here.
CS: Sir I've encountered a large asteroid on your flightpath.
GF: Good, I was getting hungry.
CS: It's largely silicate sir.
GF: You insubordinate cur, I was passing stones long before you were born.
CS: I was thinking about your health, sir.
GF: Listen lickspittle, I've got to show off my new look to Admiral Hotpants. The bastard thinks he's going to win the next catwalk medal. I cannot allow that.
CS: We all support you sir, but the asteroid?
GF: Very well, what's the forecast?
CS: Looming chance of showers.
GF: That will wreak havoc with laundry, I suppose I'll need to machine dry.
CS: Very good sir.
GF: Get back here, it's almost dinner time.
GF: Fatman here.
CS: Sir I've encountered a large asteroid on your flightpath.
GF: Good, I was getting hungry.
CS: It's largely silicate sir.
GF: You insubordinate cur, I was passing stones long before you were born.
CS: I was thinking about your health, sir.
GF: Listen lickspittle, I've got to show off my new look to Admiral Hotpants. The bastard thinks he's going to win the next catwalk medal. I cannot allow that.
CS: We all support you sir, but the asteroid?
GF: Very well, what's the forecast?
CS: Looming chance of showers.
GF: That will wreak havoc with laundry, I suppose I'll need to machine dry.
CS: Very good sir.
GF: Get back here, it's almost dinner time.
Thursday 18 April 2013
Some thing maybe
A while back I considered writing proper game reviews (as opposed to the rants that have so far appeared) but obviously didn't get to it. It was supposed to be a way to potentially generate page views and seemed like an idea at the time as I had three brand new games; normally I don't acquire games until they're much cheaper and therefore not new anymore. A major setback was that I had no idea as to the format the reviews would follow. So if you see some proper reviews here in the near future they will:
1. Likely be for games that aren't quite new
2. NOT use a rating of 1-5 or 1-100 or any numerical value
3. Be thoroughly opinion based, so you will have to read them, don't expect a concise summary
They'll probably be in sections relating to gameplay, story, graphics - the usual stuff, but no point scores. Point scores are misleading - that's how you end up with something like Metacritic, one gives 50 another gives 100 you get an average of 75 and it doesn't tell you that one person hated it and another prostrates themselves in supplication to the gods who allowed their puny existence to be enriched buy their marvellous grace. Or something. Not to mention that the standard now seems to be that 90-plus is great, 80-plus is OK and 70-plus is crap - which the astute among you will notice completely ignores the purpose of a percentage rating.
Thinking of general game related crap - why the hell are we still seeing four-player co-op as some sort of standard (think Left 4 Dead, Dead Island, and so many others involving some kind of dead). I know it arose from consoles having four controllers, but even on consoles these days you can't play these games on the same machine. So why four-player, not six or ten? Or more? If you're gearing up for a new system that you hope will last longer than the current generation consoles, maybe expand your thinking a little?
Side note, just linked to Metacritic because I thought it was time I learned how to hyperlink, so I just wanted try it out. You can visit them if you want, I won't be offended. I recommend you read the user reviews, they can be more helpful than the "official" reviews that come, of course, from people being paid to talk about games and who didn't have to buy their own copy to play it. Most of my frustration stems from having paid money for entertainment that doesn't entertain. Because I'm poor, but also angry and a little entitled.
And I'll try to avoid swearing in my reviews (if I do any reviews, this is still hypothetical) although really, they're just words. Books are full of them, do you hate books? If you do, remember I'm talking about the idea of books, not about some specific books that may be complete garbage. I recommend Ira Levin's This Perfect Day, for commentary on what society thinks is acceptable.
Where was I? Games, maybe later.
1. Likely be for games that aren't quite new
2. NOT use a rating of 1-5 or 1-100 or any numerical value
3. Be thoroughly opinion based, so you will have to read them, don't expect a concise summary
They'll probably be in sections relating to gameplay, story, graphics - the usual stuff, but no point scores. Point scores are misleading - that's how you end up with something like Metacritic, one gives 50 another gives 100 you get an average of 75 and it doesn't tell you that one person hated it and another prostrates themselves in supplication to the gods who allowed their puny existence to be enriched buy their marvellous grace. Or something. Not to mention that the standard now seems to be that 90-plus is great, 80-plus is OK and 70-plus is crap - which the astute among you will notice completely ignores the purpose of a percentage rating.
Thinking of general game related crap - why the hell are we still seeing four-player co-op as some sort of standard (think Left 4 Dead, Dead Island, and so many others involving some kind of dead). I know it arose from consoles having four controllers, but even on consoles these days you can't play these games on the same machine. So why four-player, not six or ten? Or more? If you're gearing up for a new system that you hope will last longer than the current generation consoles, maybe expand your thinking a little?
Side note, just linked to Metacritic because I thought it was time I learned how to hyperlink, so I just wanted try it out. You can visit them if you want, I won't be offended. I recommend you read the user reviews, they can be more helpful than the "official" reviews that come, of course, from people being paid to talk about games and who didn't have to buy their own copy to play it. Most of my frustration stems from having paid money for entertainment that doesn't entertain. Because I'm poor, but also angry and a little entitled.
And I'll try to avoid swearing in my reviews (if I do any reviews, this is still hypothetical) although really, they're just words. Books are full of them, do you hate books? If you do, remember I'm talking about the idea of books, not about some specific books that may be complete garbage. I recommend Ira Levin's This Perfect Day, for commentary on what society thinks is acceptable.
Where was I? Games, maybe later.
Wednesday 17 April 2013
Dishonest
Over the weekend, I made the seemingly rational choice to purchase an new game to play, to break the monotony essentially. The mistake however was that I purchased Dishonored [sic](yes, that is not how you spell it). I was sold on the promise of player choice and the opportunity of engaging in a stealth based game - something I've not really seen or tried since Thief: The Dark Project. This is not a stealth based game, this is a serial killer training simulator.
Hyperbole aside, one might think that in a stealth game where there is an achievement for not killing anyone and for remaining undetected, that one would be able to actually do either of those things. Without resorting to swear words, let me just say that in this instance, it actually is an achievement to accomplish these. Because you will spend a ludicrous amount of time replaying short sections and quick loading or reverting to the most recent auto save. I used one restart and a couple of auto saves in the first sequence (escaping from prison) and that gave me a sense that perhaps it wasn't beyond my abilities - limited though they may be sometimes. However after spending 4 hours attempting the first mission trying to be undetected and non-lethal, to be told that I was detected, even though I'm certain I wasn't and moreover that it won't even tell you when you were detected so perhaps it was in the early stages, perhaps it was during the constant retries of sneaking past the 10 or so guards in a tiny section of the map who were looking for me even though they hadn't seen me, I've decided to use swear words:
Fuck this game. Fuck the people who made it so shitty. Fuck the people who sold it as something that might be enjoyable. Fuck you for every time I had to slaughter those who spotted me even though they didn't and fuck you for charging people money for this frustration-fest.
Hyperbole aside, one might think that in a stealth game where there is an achievement for not killing anyone and for remaining undetected, that one would be able to actually do either of those things. Without resorting to swear words, let me just say that in this instance, it actually is an achievement to accomplish these. Because you will spend a ludicrous amount of time replaying short sections and quick loading or reverting to the most recent auto save. I used one restart and a couple of auto saves in the first sequence (escaping from prison) and that gave me a sense that perhaps it wasn't beyond my abilities - limited though they may be sometimes. However after spending 4 hours attempting the first mission trying to be undetected and non-lethal, to be told that I was detected, even though I'm certain I wasn't and moreover that it won't even tell you when you were detected so perhaps it was in the early stages, perhaps it was during the constant retries of sneaking past the 10 or so guards in a tiny section of the map who were looking for me even though they hadn't seen me, I've decided to use swear words:
Fuck this game. Fuck the people who made it so shitty. Fuck the people who sold it as something that might be enjoyable. Fuck you for every time I had to slaughter those who spotted me even though they didn't and fuck you for charging people money for this frustration-fest.
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