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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.