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Started by Keef Monkey, 11 June, 2011, 09:35:35 AM

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radiator

Isn't that the one Rennie worked on?

NapalmKev

Dishonored: I've played a couple of hours of this and on the whole I think it's actually not bad. The game can be played stealthily (knives to the back of the neck, hiding bodies), or in a more robust fashion; killing everyone loud and excessively violent, leaving bodies everywhere leading to an increase in guards and rat infestations. There's even a perk system for the various abilities/powers that you can acquire.

Worth a look,

Cheers  :)
"Where once you fought to stop the trap from closing...Now you lay the bait!"

Richmond Clements

Quote from: radiator on 17 October, 2012, 05:56:23 PM
Isn't that the one Rennie worked on?

Yeah I think so.

Just got around to Assassin's Creed Revelations. Bloody loved it. Can't wait for AC3.

Judge Fish

I'm currently on my second complete playthrough of Max Payne 3 (at hardest available difficulty level), in order to complete all the grinds. Most games once I have completed them once go back on the shelf to collect dust until the end of time, but this is one of those rare titles that has enough old school playability to keep me coming back.

Still got a few other games in my pile of shame to work through once that is done, however. Though I do want to pick up Sleeping Dogs, Dishonoured, and eventually, Assassins Creed 3.
Bloop.

The Enigmatic Dr X

Quote from: Judge Fish on 21 October, 2012, 06:58:56 AM
I'm currently on my second complete playthrough of Max Payne 3 (at hardest available difficulty level), in order to complete all the grinds. Most games once I have completed them once go back on the shelf to collect dust until the end of time, but this is one of those rare titles that has enough old school playability to keep me coming back.

Still got a few other games in my pile of shame to work through once that is done, however. Though I do want to pick up Sleeping Dogs, Dishonoured, and eventually, Assassins Creed 3.

I'm shocked to read this. I gave up on Max Payne 3 at the bit in the second level where you shoot from a helicopter. I just could not face more interminable cut scenes.
Lock up your spoons!

JamesC

I've just started playing Max Payne 3 and actually just got past the helicopter bit.
So far I haven't seen anything very original and the whole thing feels very much on rails - you literally go from corridor to a room full of baddies to another corridor and so on.
The writing is good though and the main character is convincing and well acted.
I'm glad this is just a rental though and that I didn't buy it on the strength of the reviews.

Judge Fish

Honestly it wasn't until about level four or so on my first playthrough where everything really kicked in for me, before that point I just couldn't quite get the feel of the controls down to a point where I felt truly happy with them, and it felt a bit like I was fighting against them, until suddenly it all just started to click and I got properly into the groove.

I actually felt disappointed with the game to start with too for the first few hours, as an old school Max Payne fan, but once it finally clicked for me from that point on I honestly loved every minute of it.

I do wish you could skip through the cutscenes after your first playthrough though, as even though I actually think the story is really quite good in the way that it unwinds and draws you in deeper and deeper, and that is important on your first playthrough, after that sometimes you just want to get to the business of gunning.
Bloop.

radiator

Unskippable cut scenes are one of my gaming pet hates. It betrays a certain arrogance on the part of the developer.

Keef Monkey

Generally unskippable cutscenes are masking loading times, so the cutscene is seen as the lesser of two evils where the alternative would be a loading screen. Where it bothers me is when games pop an unskippable cutscenes immediately after a checkpoint, really adds to the frustration on repeated attempts!

The Enigmatic Dr X

Splitting my time between Dishonoured and Doom 3 BFG Edition (the joy of mutliple trade ins!)

I must say that Dishonoured is great (if easy). It's a real fun game - I said to the missus I can't remember the last time I have enjoyed playing a game as much. It's no Mass Effect on the story front, but it is exhuberant and a great wee world to potter around in. The simplicity makes it easy to think you really are a supernatural killing machine out to clear your name. (Note: It may be harder if you don't possess every damn thing in sight).

Doom 3 is fab, too. I played it when it first came out and my bug-bear was that Hard difficulty was unfair: enemies required more damage to put down compared to easier difficulties while ammo was harder to find. That's a double whammy and it was wearisome - without the torch - to get a headshot with every shot or die. The tweaks to the BFG edition are subtle. It plays faster, and there is much more ammo. Now, I'm ready if they try to Hurt Me Plenty.

Although the unfair teleporting in of bad guys (you can spin and see them appear behind you when you hit a trigger point, appearing from nowhere) is still present and annoying.

Doom and Doom 2 are also fun with a gamepad.
Lock up your spoons!

radiator

Quoteso the cutscene is seen as the lesser of two evils where the alternative would be a loading screen

Not if you have to watch the fucking thing 10+ times it's not.

Another thing I literally do not understand is the prevalence of extremely repetitive looped/canned dialogue. Would it kill the developers to record a few subtle variations on phrases and sound effects?

Halo was amazing at this, over ten years ago, as the NPC chatter was almost always different and funny. GTAIV also did a great job of having multiple takes on the same conversations so you didn't have to listen to the same thing over and over again, but the vast majority of games still suffer greatly from these problems.

Keef Monkey

I'm with you on that. Disc space is a big concern (chopping a few lines of non-essential dialogue can free up space for other things, which at the 11th hour can make a huge difference) but where it really rankles with me is when multiple voice actors record the exact same line (Skyrim's arrow in the knee stuff was a recent one that bothered me).

You've got different voice actors in, and multiple readings of the same line will take up as much space as getting each actor to say something differently, so I can't see any excuse for it.

Professor Bear

I'm not sure disc space is an issue these days given that a single layer blu-ray disc holds 25gb, and even with Microsoft determined to hold out against admitting defeat - several years after losing the format wars - bigger games on XB just come on more than one disc.

I'm with Radiator - unskippable cut scenes are indicitive of either arrogance or bad design.  I rarely play a game for the story*, and I would be highly surprised if this was an atypical opinion.

*RPGs being the only possible exception, and even then stuff like Fallout lets you advance dialogue delivery at your own pace.

radiator

I also despise semi-interactive cutscenes, like where you have to walk your character really slowly while they have long, boring conversations or 'dream' sequences that only exist to serve the 'story' that I usually care nothing about.

A good example is the bit in one of the Call of Duty games where there's a whole level where you crawl around dying from a nuclear blast. Boring. Pretentious. I'm playing a Call of Duty game because I want to shoot people, and those kind of things really drain the life out of the game, especially on replays.

JamesC

The thing I hate is when there's a long cutscene immediately followed by a Quick Time Event.
I don't mind QTEs in action games like Vanquish or Bayonetta where they are essentially a way to give a combat bonus to your character.
In games where a QTE follows a long cutscene, I always miss it. Usually because the controller is on my lap and I'm taking a swig of tea or something.