Ben-DutkaStarhawk this week and then Max Payne 3 …two games I can't wait to try. 🙂
I suppose we have to talk about Black Ops II
Now that we have the official announcement , I guess it's a law that we need to discuss Call of Duty: Black Ops II . My impressions of the debut trailer are as follows: There are some parts of it that do look dated to my eyes, and I don't think I'm the only one (I still think that EA manager said it looked "tired" because of this), but I'm still intrigued. Treyarch has delivered on the campaign front; World at War and Black Ops were very entertaining and well constructed. No, I'm not really into multiplayer so I'm focusing on what nobody cares about.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the game is already burning up the pre-order charts , but even so, it's getting just a tad tiring. I remember getting a little bored at the Guitar Hero hullabaloo, too, but that didn't last quite as long, I don't think. Oh well, maybe Activision will do what EA said they'll do…kill off another billion-dollar franchise by mismanaging it. But I kinda doubt it. Doesn't seem possible.
I hope Dead or Alive 5 gets some respect
I'm not a fighting fan and yet, I've always enjoyed the Dead or Alive series. The purists out there will just roll their eyes and scoff, saying there are only two reasons I like it: 1. the ease and accessibility, and 2. The chicks. #2 is incorrect; I've never played a game simply for the sake of staring at hot virtual characters, and I probably never will. It can be a bonus , but it never factors into a purchase decision. As for the accessibility, yeah, I admit it. It was always easier for me to pick up and play. But that doesn't mean the games had no depth, and it didn't mean that button-mashing would win the day. Anybody who tried that against me would invariably lose.
But if the whole "bounciness" aspect gets all the press, then I'm afraid DoA5 will once again get zero respect. Actually, in some ways, I wonder if Lollipop Chainsaw will have the same problem…they could produce a surprisingly in-depth action game that has some substance to it but of course, nobody will notice because of Juliet and Jessica Nigri. But then again, maybe that really will be a button-masher.
Personal gaming update
Still lying in wait for the two games mentioned above ( Starhawk and Max Payne 3 ), and working my way through Shadow of the Colossus in HD. Mortal Kombat for the Vita was excellent and I had a lot of fun playing it, but I can't keep playing it the way I can with the DoA games. Not sure why. Too combo-heavy and demanding on the fingers, maybe. I'm also in the process of trying to nail down multiple interviews; you know about one of them already: Amanda Mackay .
Maybe we should start some new interview segment exclusively dedicated to gaming girls, because they tend to come to us. Mia Rose, Jo Garcia, Mackay…I sought none of them, but they all ended up in my email in some capacity. Or their agents/managers/PR people, anyway. In this case, I'm not really familiar with the interviewee as I don't watch Spike TV that often, but I'm sure I can figure out a few questions. Oh, and I think they're taping the interview and they'll send it to me when it's done, so I should be able to throw it up on our YouTube Channel.
Are we going to see a Prototype 2 review here at all?
Cod… how often can you run the same hype machine and expect it to pay off? Apparently almost an entire generation.
DOA will be mine, I can't match you disciplined fighters in the ring so I'll play for the SP fun and accessibility of that series alone.
Currently pounding away at Tales of Graces F and I started The Soboteur. Great game, I love the atmosphere and unrealistic romanticism of the era. HOWEVER, I was hit with the terrible reality of those online content passes they pack into new games: once the servers close they are useless.
Prototype 2 was reviewed the day after it came out.
https://temp.psxextreme.com/ps3-reviews/585.html
oh thanks, looks like I posted there too, guess I've lost track of where I am sometimes.
Also Ben, sorry if you get any spam from me as I noticed your email addy in a spambot email that is using me somehow.
Was thinking of picking up Saboteur… looks like a good and rather underrated game. Wonder why the market didn't think much of it at the time…
Are you enjoying it World… worth getting it?
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
I am, it's definitely worth the pick up. You've got diverse missions in a GTA/LA Noire type sandbox, an adventurous plot, cool atmosphere, Uncharted/inFamous style cityscape climbing abilities and plenty of stealth.
I think it got passed over a bit because the graphics aren't cutting edge and the voice acting isn't fantastic. But the whole thing just gives me this likeable Indiana Jones style setting right down to the sexy spies.
You know, i'm not gonna lie. Cod blops deuce had got me interested. I may buy it out pre order it. But that all depends on you're you have to go about unlocking the weapons and attachments.
Cause I rather like the way its done in the modern warfare games, you hit levels, and the weapons and attachments and perks unlock. But in cod blood, not only did you have to level up, but you also had to earn money to buy three things you wanted. Now that wouldn't have been so bad if once you bought whatever you wanted you could use it for Abby one of the 5 out 6 classes you start out with. Hut now, you had to buy each gun and each attachment for each of the different classes in order to use them. I just thought that was lame.
So if blops 2 is like that, than mw3 will be the kart cod game I ever buy. If blops 2 isn't like that, than that will be the last cod game I ever buy.
I really hate the Swype keyboard on my phone, please forgive my incorrect spelling and wrong words.
I hate that thing too, and predictive text on my tablet.
you can turn it off.
I use SwiftKey on my mobile, and that's a nice keyboard replacement.
What makes it different is that it keeps track over the *combination* of words you type in it's own little database, so it suggest words for you already before you type the first letter in your next word. And amazingly often it's correct. So usually I don't need to type more than one or two letters max of any word I want to write before I can jump to next.
Last edited by Beamboom on 5/6/2012 4:07:24 AM
Can't get used to that. Just glad I have the option of a regular keyboard on my phone.
Every system=ports
Preordered Blops2 -yippee
Picked up Serious Sam bfe 3 on steam sale – it's a blast
Cannot wait for Max Payne 3! Does anyone know if Max Payne is worth a 10$ buy from the Ps store? Can it be played on the vita?
It's worth it, but bear in mind the controls are extremely archaic compared to games today. No clue about Vita.
Im putting all my faith on you world. Im purchasing it based on your reccomendation!
of course you cant play it on the vita its a ps2 game.
vita cant even play ps1 games yet!
Well, Killa, keep in mind that World is *the* guy around here who find amusement in the oddest of games. The more obscure and less loved by the reviewers, the more he seem to be forgiving of the faults and focus on the good bits.
A fair warning! Gotta love Word. 😉
Is there something wrong with loving obscure and odd games or is it right to only like popular games? Is originality and diversity bad?
@killatequila
You should be able to get a free download code for Max Payne with the purchase of Max Payne 3 at Walmart.
Last edited by cLoudou on 5/6/2012 7:01:51 AM
No no by all means – nothing wrong whatsoever! Quite the contrary, it's cool. It's just nice to be aware of when taking advices from someone, is all.
Although I must say, without having played the ps3 version, that I do wonder how well the original Max Payne possibly can stand against todays shooters. That I must be allowed to say. I did play the original Max Payne back then, and well, I'm not so sure I'd bother playing it again, today.
Last edited by Beamboom on 5/6/2012 7:28:32 AM
Sweet I`ll just get it from walmart then! Sucks you cant play it on the vita though, that was the reason i wanted it in the first place. To play it on the vita.
I appreciate the vote of confidence. All the better if you can get it free. As far as Max Payne goes I didn't have to forgive anything back when it was new, now you just need a handle on the controls and the bullet-time. Once you can use the bullet-time effectively you'll have plenty of fun.
Cloudou you are right, sticking with popular games will guarantee you a good experience but it's sort of like eating your favorite food every day, there's so much more to enjoy that gets overlooked.
Black Ops2 whoopie-do. nah, im sure itll be good at worst and a bit better than good at best, but I'm just not fan enough to be excited for it. I'm with Ben on DOA. I really have loved the series for a long time. I've always felt it was the last really progressive attempt at evolving the traditional 3D fighter. DOA5 looks to do some things I felt and expected should've happened a long while ago for the series. I'm glad to see how it's not afraid to do more wiht environmental interaction. It'll be D1P for me.
PGU: I've set NG3 aside for a bit of time. I've rented SCV and I'm trying to get into it. There's some odd changes to characters, not sure why Kilik has been replaced by a Justin Beiber wannabe or why Sophita's double is now a weak willed inconfident girl, but whatever. It's cool. Good o' Ivy-cougar is all there.
Anyway, The SC games have always striked me as the least ambitious in sequel overhauls. I can look at each Tekken and clearly see very defined changes to their core play, but with SC5 Im still getting that feeling that the series isn't evolving at the same clip other franchises seem to. I dunno, I'm not the SC expert it just feels that way to me. It can be quite the pretty game, no doubt.
Anyway, I've been very busy with life and gaming has sort of been on the outskirts these days. It has it's place still for sure, just it's more challenged to get my time.
Anyhow, downloading Arkham City from Steam for $15. I get to hold my breath to see if it boots and plays without too many problems, always the concern over PC games. Sucky, but true. But it's cheap!
sorry to hear that arkham city has some serious issues on PC!
i couldent play my copy at all, every time i booted it up it was constantly freezing, severe frame rate issues and such.
had allot of issues with DX11 too turning it off helped a little but not much.
ended up having to contact steam and got a refund.
probably why its on sale so soon, allot of people have had to get refunds for it.
It had a lot of issues when it launched, especially if you tried running it in DX11 mode which caused framerates to drop to single digits. It runs pretty much perfectly now on my system, now that patches for that problem have been implemented.
Last edited by Geobaldi on 5/6/2012 2:28:33 PM
I'd still like to pick up SCV on the cheap but based on what everyone says it can wait.
Sorry to hear that no name man, luckily for me it seems to be running like a champ.
that was a few weeks ago dunno if they have released a patch since then.
it was really weird i was flying through the benchmarks no problems but once i fire the actual game up no matter DX11 or 9, high or low settings, my usages on both cards refused to go above 10% thus causing sub 10FPS.
disappointing considering that the game got delayed 7 weeks and ended up buggier then the console versions!
Yes, Black Ops 2 does look "tired" in some parts of the trailer… nonetheless I did think the subject matter looked interesting. Pity the engine still looks old though even though the action seems to have been taken up a notch!
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
its funny this year how every single game has turned out the exact opposite to what i was expecting!
i was expecting ME3 to be a brilliant story but a bit lacking in the gameplay department, and it was the complete opposite.
a MASSIVE improvement in the gameplay department, and a massive decline in the story department.
sniper elite v 2 is sadly exactly the same.
i was expecting it to be a typical rebellion game, ie buggy, rushed, but allot of fun and really well designed.
its not.
i was expecting it to be a proper sniper game, every mission you will spend most of your time on rooftops sniping enemies from long distances away, and at the end of each level you have a target to eliminate stealth fully if your caught you fail.
a proper sniper game!
but its not, 99% of your time is spent on the ground 1m away from your enemies!
WTF!?
why would you use a sniper when your enemies are so close to you?
i was expecting it to be so well designed and have massive open areas like crysis 2.
enemies are down a alley way, well common sense is to climb a roof top and get above them, or flank to get behind or around them.
but nope you have to park your a$$ right in front of them and snipe them from right in front.
i was expecting a open world game but sadly what i got was a corridor shooter!
thats made worse by the fact that allot of levels are in doors.
those are the worst levels because 1 your so close to your enemies its so hard to use the sniper, and 2 since there so closed the enemies are of course close to each other watching.
so its impossible to use stealth and take them out one by one, you kinda just have to wing it!
its really inconsistent too.
it likes to tease you it does the exact opposite to what you would expect.
you enter a area which is really open for example a warehouse which has climbable shelfs so there is heaps of areas you can hide and silently eliminate enemies.
so there are no gun fights there, you just enter there to find a radio or whatever.
wherever you expect something to happen the opposite happens.
another example theres allot of background events that can help drown out the sound of your sniper.
some levels have church bells, or FLAK fire or whatever so you can use this to drown out your fire.
you start a level and theres a church bell ringing so you think of great i can use that to my advantage!
you slowly walk around looking for the enemies, surely theres enemies here right because the bell.
right?
wrong!
no enemies till you reach the next area and the bell stops then a million enemies magically appear.
what the?
so what was the point of the bell?
just to trick me?
it gets really annoying because then you start to think well ok last time there was background noises there were no enemies, so this time it will be the same.
if 1 + 1 = 2 today, then tomorrow it should be the same result no?
nope!
it leads you into false hopes, so you go sprinting around expecting no one and end up walking into a ambush.
its such a shame because done really well it could be such a awesome game!
they just need to take the ideas of background fire and actually USE it when there ARE enemies to take out not when there are not.
and obviously have the open locations, again, where enemies are not where there not.
its almost like the developers put these things in there just so they could tease us, like they want the game to be crap but have all these great ideas in there just to tease us.
i wish a proper developer would do a sequel.
have open areas like crysis 2 so i can choose what i want to do, if i climb a rooftop and run from rooftop to rooftop.
or if i take cover on the ground and do so, or go under ground or whatever have some variety!
give the player the deck and let them choose which cards they play.
we need more weapon variety too, the characteristics of the guns are very similar.
ok one might have a larger zoom than another, or one might have a higher rate of fire, or a lower muzzle velocity but big woop!
you VERY rarely have to shoot over a large enough distance to have the lack of muzzle velocity or scoping to be a issue.
only characteristic that you really need is rate of fire, simply because your fighting enemies so close to you with such a zoomed in sniper your going to miss ALLOT!
theres really not enough variety for you to customize your character and weapon.
theres really not enough emphasis on the explosives either.
you can set traps for enemies but i never really found it necessaries.
trip mines for example i think i used them maybe 5 times, and 4 of those was in the level where you have to protect a friendly and enemies keep rushing the room your in if you dont booby trap the door.
its a shame when developers give you tools but really dont give you enough reason to use them, just a waste!
disappointing, yet another game to put in the decent but could of and should of been so much better pile!
and another game to put in the great idea but poor execution file.
lets just hope sniper ghost warrior 2 turns out a dam side better!
PGU: None. Nill. Nothing. I havent played a single game this week. Not because of lack of titles, I even got SSX still in its plastic wrapping, but there is no time.
A full time job and a little baby really is a gaming time killer.
And, as politically uncorrect that it may be: I hate it. I miss my gaming sessions. No baby, regardless of cuteness factor, can compensate for some quality gaming all by myself. Not over time.
So keep this in mind, all you single unemployed gamers out there!
Last edited by Beamboom on 5/6/2012 4:17:19 AM
Well, I've got 2 kids and another on the way. I can pretty much guarantee that your gaming time becomes harder to find as your family grows.
However, it also opens up new opportunities (to relive your childhood) like Family Gaming Time! Playing co-op games like Little Big Planet 2, PixelJunk Shooter, ModNation Racers, etc, is a big hit with the kids! They also enjoy the Move games like Start the Party.
And speaking of games still in their plastic wrappers! I've got between 5 and 10 of those, all mature games though, including Deus Ex.
So many (good quality) games, so little time !!
Last edited by Dukemz_UK on 5/6/2012 8:06:43 AM
I have one kid and another on the way. I'm a night owl so I still find some time to play games at the end of the day. I feel the exact opposite. No amount of gaming time is compares to the time spent with my daughter. Making a child laugh is so easy but still one of the most rewarding experiences a father can have. It's very fun. As Duke said above, it gives you a chance to relive some old times. As has they grow and become more competent, you gain a gaming partner.
Oh and not to nitpick Beam, but it should be politically *incorrect*, not uncorrect. 🙂
Lol! Look at me correcting your spelling and my dependence on my phone has failed me.
Aha but then you are ahead of me, guys. My little princess here now is only three months old so we are a long way off before the dualshocks can be of any use.
But I also got a 12 yr old son from a former relationship, and we've played quite some over the years. But even though the coop gaming with Lego, LBP, Rayman, Toy Story & co is quite fun for a while it can't really compare with a whole weekend by myself, a stack of pizzas in the freezer, loads of energy drinks in the fridge and my regular coop buddy in the headset as we venture out on some quality adult gaming bonanza, with the obligatory trash talk between two good pals.
Or dive into a really great single player campaign with a great story and interesting characters, like anything BioWare, and just get lost into the game.
Nothing beats that! Nothing can compare to it! And omg how I do miss it.
(And thanks, Jawk! I've actually asked for corrections for misspellings and grammatical errors before.)
Last edited by Beamboom on 5/6/2012 9:49:02 AM
exactly why i never plan to get marred or have kids i like my freedom being able to do what i want go where i want whenever i want and not have to answer to anyone!
but eh i'm 22 maybe that'll change when i'm older i imagine alot of people are that way at my age 😛
Last edited by TheCanadianGuy on 5/6/2012 1:04:09 PM
I would like to get a gaming weekend to myself, but when? How?
Any tips Beam? 🙂
Canadian Guy, I felt the same at 22. Things change.
Last edited by Dukemz_UK on 5/6/2012 1:15:21 PM
I managed to squeeze in some gaming time this eastern. My misses and the little one went a few days to her parents, and omg did I use that time for all it was worth. I quite literary did nothing other than eat, sleep, play.
But when will such an opportunity pop up next? I have no idea. It can be months…
@Canadian: Yeah, none of us wanted this when we were 22. 😀
And it's not like I would have wanted to be single with tons of spare time again. Not at all. The girls are gorgeous and I've got the best job I've had so far in my life, I'll not let anything take this away from me.
But man… I'd love it if I could have had every friday evening by myself, for example. That would have been just perfect. I need no more than one gaming evening/night a week. But boy do I need that.
Last edited by Beamboom on 5/6/2012 2:37:05 PM
Gaming time has basically been moved to an hour, or so, block near the end of the day for me. After my girls are in bed and my wife and I care for each other. Gaming is basically the only real entertainment I engage these days. I rarely to ever watch TV, sometimes the wife and I will watch a movie together, even that is pretty uncommon.
I do remember a year ago, or so, I got like 3 days to myself, and I gamed out on Assassin's Creed like an addict. It was good fun!
Last edited by Temjin001 on 5/6/2012 9:09:11 PM
Ben do you think you will ever review Binary Domain? You had a couple of good articles on it before it released but it looks like it slipped under the radar. Like it did for many. It seems people either love it or hate it. User ratings are mostly high. But I think its so underrated and its a shame because SEGA did a pretty darn good job with it. But apparently forgot to market it.
As for the interview, just ask them how they got started playing games, what there favourite games are, what do they think about the direction the industry is headed in, best video game moments that happened to them in either single player or multiplayer, preferred gaming platform, questions about sexist comments they deal with, how many times they have stomped a guy in a video game who was talking smack etc.
I'm sure you will come up with more fleshed out questions but those are things I would ask.
They never sent it to me, so when that happens, I tend to not review it out of spite. I know that sounds lame, but I don't think I should be forced to buy a game with the site's money just because your PR people wouldn't send me a copy.
I just get annoyed at that. If the game is significant, I'll still buy it for the review. But as I'm on the list for just about every major release, that doesn't happen often (thankfully).
Aw, yeah thats lame that SEGA didn't send you one. From what it seems they just didn't market or care about it that much, which is weird because its in my opinion a really solid game. Hope you get around to it one day, it wont blow your mind but I think you would enjoy it for what it is. Most of the people who bought it were surprised at how much they enjoyed it, myself included 😛
ben i'm guessing thats also why you never did yakuza dead souls ?
Yes, Sega has been flaking out on me. They usually do, though; I have to keep sending them reminder emails.
Not sure why they're the only publisher that can't get their sh** together.
xenris: I actually do plan to review it. A friend of mine has it so I should be able to check it out, but I'm just not sure when.
Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 5/6/2012 8:00:38 PM
and after all the good reviews you gave yakuza games in the past. very unprofessional if you ask me.
Cool cool. I was going to say you should find someone to lend it to ya. Maybe mid summer you might get some time, before the onslaught of triple A titles destroy everyones time this fall 🙂
PGU: Got my copy of Twisted Metal earlier this week and I gotta say, it is a blast playing it.
The icing on the cake was playing split-screen with my friends.
While the controls are kinda hard to get used to but it isn't so hard at all, I do think they should have included a custom controller mapping.
Aside from that, the game is pure fun, the graphic is not that pretty but with all the chaos and craziness happening around you, I'm sure you wouldn't even have the time to pick on the graphics.
Sadly, it doesn't matter how archaic Black Ops II looks. And i'm really excited for DOA, been a long time fan, prefer DOA above Tekken.
Yes, Mortal Kombat for Vita has been a lot of fun. I just finished Resistance 2 the other day and it was very tough for me. It was a love hate relationship through out! 🙂 I loved the ending which was very cool BOOM! to the head! I was so surprised! Picking up Resistance 3 at some point this month.
Nothing will be played once I pick up StarHawk on Tuesday!! Cannot wait to check it out. I didn't play the beta, had it, just didn't play it. I didn't want to ruin the first day feeling! Have a good week.
Last edited by CrusaderForever on 5/6/2012 4:13:52 PM
PGU: I rented The Darkness II and Prototype 2 managed to beat the Darkness II really enjoy that one. Couldn't finished Prototype 2 good game but I wished I could finished it. Got God of War III from Gamefly might play it tonight and up to Wednesday and sent it back to get Max Payne 3.