Ben X

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Everything posted by Ben X

  1. I really enjoyed the first two episodes of the season's second half! I recommend everyone who was wavering (and even those who have dropped it at any point) to give them a watch. Orville really doesn't sound like my cup of tea from your descriptions of it...
  2. Star Wars Episode 8

    Yep. Although I realised later the title we both quoted is a little misleading, as it was just one MRA rather than a concerted group effort (which may be a reason no one was interested).
  3. Star Wars Episode 8

    Beat you to it by 5 posts (no one seemed interested).
  4. The Big FPS Playthrough MISSION COMPLETE

    I was even a little tempted to immediately start a replay of Dishonored, see if I could approach the early levels with more finesse, but I decided against it. Maybe some day. So, Paul's comments are spot on. Bioshock Infinite feels really linear compared to the other games. I've got to the Hall Of Heroes, which is I guess a couple of hours in, and I don't feel like I've been let loose yet. It's all very nicely presented and everything, so it's not a big problem, but combined with the simplification of the mechanics (two-weapon system, no holding onto medkits, autosave only) and a lot of hand-holding with health/salts/ammo never in short supply, a regenerating shield, and Booker and Elizabeth waffling on at me to make sure I understand what to do at all times, it feels closer to a walking simulator than a shooter at the moment. I really hope it opens up soon and lets me use the skylines and vigors tactically for firefights. I don't necessarily mind them making more of a linear shooter than the previous games, but it at least needs some proper action bubbles - so far it feels like I'm stuck in a loop of the first fight in an RPG where I'm really just quickly shooting a couple of people so I can get back to admiring the art design and then rummaging through it for spare change.
  5. Star Wars Episode 8

    MRAs Make 46-Minute Cut Of ‘The Last Jedi’ That Edits Out All The Women
  6. The Big FPS Playthrough MISSION COMPLETE

    No, although it is tempting from a story point of view as I know they tie in with Rapture (and perhaps the first game's events?) more.
  7. The Big FPS Playthrough MISSION COMPLETE

    Yeah, it's a shame that this (according to many) isn't nearly as good as the previous games. I have to say, it does feel a lot more showy so I can't help but wonder if they got caught up in the acclaim of the first game and focused on their environmental storytelling and political themes rather than the gameplay or narrative. It's amazing walking around Columbia at the start, but it also does feel a little aimless, and I feel like the game wants me to be picking up vigors and coins and looting trashcans even though it doesn't really make sense for DeWitt to just start doing that when all he needs to do at the moment is find the girl. I've avoided most of that except the free sample (I felt it was in character to take that) of machine possession. Still, the environmental storytelling is gorgeous and full of detail. The barbershop quartet is fantastic. Also all very intriguing - a quote on trans-dimensional travel and then a place that mirrors Rapture in many ways. I've taken the baseball (that show - wow, they are fully tackling the racism thing head-on) and got in a fire-fight. The juxtaposition of this idyllic city and then suddenly the brutal gore of the melee fights (and the eruption of racism, fanaticism and violence) is really effective. Unfortunately the game crashed when I possessed the sentry gun (love the metal-man design) a second time. Not sure if it was a scripted event or I got too close when I did it and something just borked. When I go back to play, I'm going to see whether there's any way around taking part in the raffle (and if not, how well they accomplish that).
  8. Kona

    Nope. John Walker says "if you want the experience as I had it – going in completely blind, knowing nothing other than it was a scripted adventure using the techniques of survival games – then take my word for it that it’s a top-notch experience with a slightly damp ending". https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/03/24/kona-review/
  9. The Big FPS Playthrough MISSION COMPLETE

    Oh, ha ha, I thought you meant Dishonored! Nah, I wouldn't bother with the sequel to Homefront unless it got extremely good reviews (and went down to silly prices). It's a relatively good follow-em-up, but nothing special. (Oh, and to be pedantic, this one was set in future America with all the build-up starting in 2011.) "Press E to jump in mass grave" pretty much sums this game up. Some attempts at 'war is hell' but a lot more 'war is hella exciting!' gamey stuff. They at least put a Korean-American on your team (though he is the tech nerd) and have you stand off against some nutso survivalists. But then they do give the female member tight jeans and a top with the sleeves rolled up and the midriff burnt off, and all the "oh the humanity!" dialogue. It lacks polish, too - lots of wonky AI, glitching and uncanny valley moments. That said, the shooting's fine if basic and there are lots of exciting things happening throughout. I almost quit at the incredibly frustrating helicopter level, though. Worse than the tank level in Crysis. If FPSes really want to give you a vehicle section, they should make damn sure it handles well and is a fun respite rather than a fiddly and overly-demanding challenge. Onto Bioshock Infinite! I've played the first ten or so minutes of this to test some hardware, and I remember the production values being hugely impressive. I think it's mostly fallen out of favour as a game and a philosophical discussion, but hopefully I'll find stuff to enjoy.
  10. The Big FPS Playthrough MISSION COMPLETE

    Ha, I am tempted to try the DLCs and sequel, as this game was really close to letting me enjoy it and I hear they improve on it, but unless they go down to silly prices I can't justify it with such a massive backlog.
  11. The Big FPS Playthrough MISSION COMPLETE

    Okay, that got it working. Looks pretty nice, if rather blandly realistic, especially after Dishonored. It has a COD:MW feel to it, and much like that game it's a mix of cheesy - big pyrotechnics, fighting North Korean forces in the US through suburban back-gardens littered with passenger jet debris and past White Castles, the idyllic all-American rebel hideout with kids on swings and delicious home-cooking - and some pretty affecting stuff like a convincing lead-in to the North Korean invasion (especially unnerving these days), a toddler watching his parents getting executed and a firefight with a Korean mother and baby cowering the corner and both screaming. As with Modern Warfare though, the cheesiness is winning out so far. There's no difficulty setting and it's auto-save only. The shooting is a little wooly but pretty forgiving to make up for it, especially with health regen. I'll likely barrel through this until it gets irritating or boring (though at around 5 hours it may not get the chance).
  12. The Big FPS Playthrough MISSION COMPLETE

    Done. Quite disappointed overall, for all the reasons I've gone into. Lovely art design, although even that started to get a bit dull by the end, but the story and gameplay just didn't click for me. Watching the credits, though: wow, that voice cast. Susan Sarandon, Lena Headey, Carrie Fisher, John Slattery, Brad Dourif, Michael Madsen and Chloë Grace Moretz! Forum thread Making of A video by that one guy (contains spoilers for the whole franchise, I think): Alrighty, onto Homefront. EDIT: ugh, there's some problem where it says it needs to instal PhysX but then doesn't do it. I'm going to try updating my Nvidia drivers, though I suspect that won't help. (It may even hurt, depending on whether this is one of the more unstable updates) I really don't want to have to start uninstalling and reinstalling various components of my graphics setup, especially if I've got to install the 2011 version of it then remember to update it afterwards and all that. EDIT2: jesus, Nvidia update failed. Tried 'GeForce Experience' and that's installed a shitty front-end thing that I need to register with to use. And Nvidia's site itself is impenetrable.
  13. Favorite/Best Game Trailers

    Well yeah, I figured it was all production-designed to within an inch of its life, that's why I found it amusing!
  14. The Big FPS Playthrough MISSION COMPLETE

    Well, I finally got back to Dishonored today (aka "Dishonored tomorrow"). And I'm still a little bored by it. I took out the Regent, got back and was (utterly unsurprisingly) double-crossed by the dudes at the pub. Then it was the old 'recover your gear' level plus a ton of zombies and spitting plants in a sewer level. There's still some stuff that is consistently fun, like pulling off some nice swordplay or blinking around the place, but I'm not finding the story or characters particularly interesting (although I do like Emily and Samuel, so I am at least invested in rescuing the former and sad that the latter is disappointed in me just because I essentially helped invent the atomic bomb), and when I see a level swarming with enemies, I don't get that buzz of anticipation I got from the Crytek games for example, because I'm just not enjoying the combat or stealth that much, it's all too fiddly. I'm on the last level now, it's a dreary dark rocky bit. I think I might try to finish this evening, then I think I'll blast through Homefront on Easy for a bit of simple shooting before I get into Bioshock Infinite.
  15. Favorite/Best Game Trailers

    I like how that room in the Gorn trailer is full of hip nerd stuff. Persepolis, Maus and Watchmen! Black Cobra poster! Famicom console! Cacodemon plushy! Adventure Time skateboards!
  16. RPS post! https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/01/10/the-world-begins-with-you/
  17. Favorite/Best Game Trailers

    Bennett Foddy's "Getting Over It" is my favorite game trailer of 2017. But also, I love that Syndicate one. I think that was my intro to dubstep, certainly to Skrillex. It's an amazing cover of the little music loop from the original game, and the trailer is edited so well to it.
  18. Star Wars Episode 8

    ah yes, the joke here
  19. Star Wars Episode 8

    Fucking misogynists making it difficult for me to publicly dislike shit films >:(
  20. Movie/TV recommendations

    The trailer for The Meyerowitz Stories didn't look great, despite it being Baumbach and having a good cast. As it's on two of your lists, I've watchlisted it. (Need a better verb for that.)
  21. Star Wars Episode 8

    Except it was called Revenge Of The Jedi and Harrison Ford decided not to come back so Han Solo stayed frozen in carbonite.
  22. To further pedantricise the pedant, they claimed that saying humans are the only sapient species in the universe is tautological because the word sapient comes from the term homo sapiens. This is incorrect; they both come from the same root, one does not come directly from the other.
  23. Star Wars Episode 8

    Wait, what was this iron joke? edit: n/m, I managed to find a description. I don't remember if I realised I definitely found the thing rather incongruous, though.
  24. Marvel movies

    I can do this all day.
  25. Movie/TV recommendations

    Watchlisted. I went for the subtitled version though, because I never seem to enjoy dubbed anime.