twmac

Damn, that was two years ago? What happened?

Ah, this is PC gaming thread. Am getting it on the X360, if anyone is interested, my gamertag is twmacb

It is funny that people want Crystal Dynamics to do another Legacy of Kain game. The main writer on that series now works for Naughty Dog. So I finished it this weekend and it is now done and dusted. I went and did a few of the optional tombs and they fail to impress as I think I beat all of the ones I tried in about 5 minutes of starting them. Not really worth it at all. Exploration is dull and the fixed camera is pretty awful. Despite of a few good(ish) moments that felt like a huge waste of my time.

Welcome all, sorry Stark that I took a bit of a poop on one of the non-retro games you liked! Clyde - I utterly agree - I wish it was realistic to make this into a board game as I reckon people would love it.

Okay, from that respect the AI definitely has its moments I do like their mobility. I think what irks me the most about this game (I played it this morning and noticed this feature) is that there are lots of points where it lock the camera. This goes some way to losing the tension and suspense of the original games that had a free roaming camera no matter how buggy it could make it. As soon as the game wrestles the control of the camera away from you, you know that you are relatively safe and at that point I just don't care. When this happens while climbing it means that I don't really ever get a feeling of depth and scope of what is going on. For all its fragility, the free camera could scare the crap out of you, by your own hand, when you swung it around and realised you were really high up.

My enjoyment of the game has improved a little but not greatly. Too Uncharted-alike. Randomly spawning enemies was that it feels random where they appear. I will walk into an area, kill four dudes and then all of a sudden I will have 2 guys spawn behind me. Tedious and annoying. The beach was very pretty, and I finally had to deal with a puzzle as part of the storyline, it made me very excited. Sorry to be such a downer on the game, it is just such a crushing disappointment after Crystal Dynamics seemed to totally get what made Tomb Raider great. Not excited about the sequel at all.

Finally! Someone else who has played Greed Corp! I wrote about how it turns people into monsters a while back: http://www.arcadianrhythms.com/2013/03/nyr-greed-corp/

Damn.

I just made it to the Shanty town and I would agree with the design on that. However, I am not enjoying the randomly spawning dudes that come out of nowhere to attack me in there like they are in little monster closets.

It is funny Thrik because your two points of reference (Uncharted and Lost) as positives are the exact two things I do not like. The AI is pretty terrible (you shoot guys in the face right in front of their buddies and the buddies don't react), the Vistas seem so tame in contrast to previous Tomb Raiders as every seems to be that overly textured nonsense that Naughty Dog favours that ends up with me finding it really uninteresting and too busy. But hey, at least someone is enjoying it and it isn't quite the same wrong turn as Angel of Darkness.

I will likely keep playing. I've just seen an Oni.

Finished Dynasty Warriors 8 - It is Animal Crossing with combos. So, it's alright.

I am slowly becoming an old man, a grumpy old man. I played the first 28% of Tomb Raider over the weekend and I have been utterly bored from the beginning. There are no mandatory puzzles, the platforming is uninspired with no real sense of scale or wonder. The combat is massively better but the music cues are all present from Uncharted 4 (Last of Us). There are no surprises, no discovery, everything is signposted or Lara will just straight up tell you what to do. I've deliberately not used her survival instinct ability (the detective vision from Batman: Arkham whatever) because it is intrusive and so far I haven't needed it as the game is so linear, so bereft of exploration that there is never any danger of getting lost. Then there is the 'push forward to make things explode' this is my new least favourite thing next to unskippable cutscenes and Quick Time Events. The characterisation is fine, it doesn't really get in the way. I just don't care about any of it. There is nothing in this game that I cannot get elsewhere, and better. It is depressing how little I am enjoying this given that I loved the last 4 installments for Tomb Raider (I am including The Guardian of Light in there). The game isn't shit, it is just neutered to the point of irrelevance.

Same.

I started listening to the one prior to Ryan's death. There is one point where Brad said 'Next time Ryan isn't on the podcast, we should do emails first'. It was such a casual comment but it was heartbreaking.

Fuck, this is the worst end to my day ever. I saved last week's bombcast until last on my list of podcasts to listen to. I hope he isn't on there as I am not sure I could bare it.

On a lower brow note, I just saw 'This is the End' and 'This is 40'. This is the End is a bunch of self-indulgent, unfunny crap in which they tried to make Jay Baruchel a leading character. This was a big mistake as he is so unlikable it killed any hope the film had of being good. Awful film with little to redeem it - other than an amusing cameo by Emma Watson. In contrast, I really clicked with This is 40, it reminded me of my parents and how they struggled a lot with their own problems, while me and my sister generally ran around like little terrors oblivious to the bigger picture. Some very warming performances by the likes of Jon Lithgow and (!) Megan Fox help round out the film and it feels like Apatow just nailed it. The most important part is that this is a couple with a life and a family that say horrible things to each other in one moment and then are genuinely loving in the next. Maybe it is the household I am from but it pretty much nailed it in terms of my own experiences. Also, no embarrassing vomiting or shitting scene.

Oh man, the roads that have cars driving on them for no reason. Later there are 'kill spots' that are holes in the ground that can only be used once. No reason for it other than, you know, video games. Do they show the Rage mode? It is amazing.

Cheeky gits! The revision history from August 2012 is a little more accurate. Mington - I never joke about these things, the allure of a bad game is like pooping in the woods to bears.

Oh man, I played this over the weekend. It is a thing that has to be seen to be believed. Textures that take forever to load in, game play taken straight out of Crime Life, motorcycle 'action' that makes Road Rash look futuristic... amazing.

I Saw Dasein - I think the fundamental mistake you are making is that you are talking about bending the story to fit the game play element, rather than the other way round. I don't think that the story needed to change at all but the overly gamey elements undermine it. Although it was the hundreds of deaths that did that for me (I've given up in trying to condemn that in games like this although it did bother me but I just chalked it up to Naughty Dog) it was the division of elements that I talked about earlier. You also argue that you play a game for the game play and that you would not be happy if The Last of Us expunged the game play. I think what everyone is saying is the direct opposite of that and they would have been happy to lose most of it.

With you on that one Sno. Although Dead Rising 2 is only made okay because of the hilarious Co-Op. I almost picked up Off the Record.

Mine is due to arrive next week. Psyched.

Yeah, that was phrased poorly. I find the musical and audio cues in The Last of Us to be lazy - in the way that a lot of films are lazy in their use of music. I was trying to say that a good film generally doesn't rely on that. Not that all good films don't. Although, does it surprise you that I find Opera and Musicals dull? As soon as the music starts I switch off. The quiet of films like Elephant and Buffalo 66 I find far more effective. Although I appreciated the banter in The Last of Us, it is those moments that jar me out and make me think of all those horror movies where the writer and director have decided that exposition is needed no matter how improbable. There are ways to create quiet and calm moments and I think that there are points in the game that do it believably and effectively. It is just there are too many points when it doesn't.

Cigol & I Saw Dasein - I was playing on Normal, from what you are telling me I should have played it on Hard. I used to play all games on Hard until I realised that shitty developers don't know how to make Hard games well and started playing everything on Normal. This was a mistake for The Last of Us, I see. I Saw Dasein - I hate films lazily trying to manipulate me through music. A good film generally will wait until action, emotion or mood has taken hold of a scene before they allow music to kick in and some of my favourite films barely have any music in them. For an interesting comparison, if you have any interest in horror films, go back and watch Halloween and Halloween II. I prefer the second film for its restraint in using the music. Instead of having a Jaws style build up there is no music until Michael strikes. This means that every scene you see could be when he attacks and amps up the tension. The Last of Us irritates because it tells me exactly when it is safe rather than letting me ascertain that for myself. I don't think comparisons with Left 4 Dead work (I haven't played STALKER so I cannot comment on that), that game gives you safe houses that are only safe, mechnically, once you have closed the door not because the developers decided they weren't going to spawn any enemies. That was what was kind of interesting on the first play through of L4D, every area felt like a potential hot spot so you were on your toes in anticipation, you couldn't wait to get to a safe house (similar to the save points in Silent Hill 2) even though there was the dread that you were going to have to go back out there. The Last of Us doesn't have that at all, it is partitioned very neatly and clearly a bit like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories - Here is your shooty bit, here is your exporation bit etc. I am being way harsher on it than I really want to, I did enjoy the game quite a bit.