Sombre

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Posts posted by Sombre

  2. Posted

    I don't think this is a good game at all. Infact, I'd say it's actually quite terrible. I'm playing it at the moment,

    specifically the point where Zeke abandons you to be with Kessler

    . It's just ridiculous. The enemies take insane amounts of punishment, and their AI is just bizarre. There's no seeming way to get to one place without being riddled by bullets consistently, it's so sporadic- either jokingly easy, or ass rapingly hard. I can't make it to the next sewer, because I get annihlated when I'm within 50 feet by the INCREDIBLY long ranged enemies, all the time, who have infinite health. Climbing is another problem. Because it's so context insensitive, I can't climb what I want, it just does what it feels like, it's like the world is metal and my guy has a magnet for a dick. Endlessly frustrating.

  4. Posted

    I still think the game should have taken a screenshot of patters shooting someone in the back of the head with the shotgun instead of showing the number of friendly fire incidents.

    The custom battle music is in audio options, at the bottom. I've now added the a-team techno remix from Spaced!

    BEWARE OF THIS MAN.

  5. Posted

    So a friend pointed out the custom combat music option where you can throw music from your pc in for the game to play during dramatic moments. Elevator event + the theme from beverly hills cop = amazing.

    Brilliant. I need to find out how to do this for next time.

  12. Posted

    Also, you set up interesting combat encounters with cover (which doesn't mean you need a cover SYSTEM), lots of enemies, varied geometry, different behaviors, and so on. I mean, easier said than done, but the way to ensure your game is ruined by headshots is just to keep sending a few guys at you two by two, which is what Singularity often does. If you set up an arena where the player actually has to think tactically, even if it's just on instinct, he's not going to have the time or the security to sit there lining up headshots one by one.

    I think with that, you have to be kind of careful that you don't make your game too formulaic by having a like "Here's the bit you can run to. Here's a sniper nest". I think it's a hard thing to make feel "Realistic", in regards to just believable human AI.

    F.E.A.R was the first thing to make me REALLY get into the mechanics. Because the AI was so brilliant in its time, it really made you use the time freezing stuff, grenades, melee stuff, I found it really exciting how the game made you feel like YOU were the prey for the entire game, which was really cool as a player, because as you said, it puts the pressure on you and forces you to have more dynamic combat situations.

  14. Posted

    Halo is one of the only games in which I enjoy fighting aliens. (I still DON'T enjoy fighting the mutant/zombie-like whatever-they're-called.) Not only that, it's probably my favorite overall combat in any shooter, at least in terms of the low-level tactical moment-to-moment feel. The weapon selection in that game is also unparalleled in my opinion when it comes to non-"real-world" weaponry; the variety and genuine utility of the radically different weapons really meshes well with the variety of the enemy behaviors.

    If you can't pull that kind of variety off, and the core of your game is just going to be "shoot at guys with assault rifle/shotgun/sniper rifle," don't fucking make me flail around with obnoxious little explodey guys flying at my face or big dudes running up to me and clawing at me. Don't pretend I'm going to do anything else than just line up headshots as much as possible, because that's what the arsenal you've developed is actually for.

    In relation to that, I know exactly what you mean Chris. Recently on the Bombcast, Jeff Gerstmann was talking about how he felt that "Headshots have ruined video games". It obviously wasn't as black and white as that, but allow me to expand with a personal explaination of how i feel, in relation to what you said.

    I think locational damage is a good thing, to an extent. It makes games feel more realistic, because hey, if you shoot a guy in the head, his brain is there, and he dies. However, that leads to so many just...sloppy game design choices. I feel with something like (Excuse me) Bioshock, they supply you with a wide enough variety of choices, and ways in which to kill enemies that it's not a pain in the ass to experiment, and set up all these weird traps. But take something like...the new Splinter Cell game, or Metal Gear Solid 4. For games which focus on stealth based mechanics, with a lot of "Gadgetry"- Little robots, mines, grenades, and so on and so forth, essentially a lot of "Fun ways" to try and kill enemies, there's no real incentive to do it.

    Why would I spend 5 minutes setting up an elaborate trap of barrels, breaking line of sights, and having 5 seconds of "Hey that was cool, I guess", when I can literally grab a rifle, with no relative falloff with bullets (Because games have magic infinite range bullets), and just shoot the dude in the head. In a way, this is what Gerstmann argues, just how basically as games have developed, it's easier and easier to just be like "Okay, I have a rifle, and I COULD make a weird trap...or I could just shoot him in the head".

    Not to say it's entirely bad, headshots are cool. But when your game essentially becomes min/maxed down to "Hey, shoot these guys in the head", it kind of diminished any kind of new mechanic, or specific gameplay point kind of moot, because there's no player incentive for it.

    Not played Singularity yet, but from what I've heard about it, the TMD shit sounds cool. I hope this post made sense.

  17. Posted

    Still not done with Assassin's Creed 2, somehow. after 30 hours. How the hell is this game so goddamn long. I'm pretty much enjoying it but their systems really can't support the sheer volume of geographical area and insane number of total missions they have here. No new gameplay situations are occurring any more at this point. No matter what happens, it's something I've already done.

    EDIT: So it looks like I've actually "completed" the game as it was originally released on consoles. For the PC release I guess they just incorporated the DLC seamlessly. I never would have realized that on my own, because it's a direct continuation of the game's storyline. I guess I may as well finish these chapters at this point, considering how far along I am.

    I got that kind of apathy towards the gamea fter a very short period of time. After about 6/7 hours, I just couldn't be bothered to play it anymore. It felt like just too much running and gunning, fancy pants arsing about. While I know a lot of people really liked AC2, I think it follows the modern gaming model of "Here's a big open sandbox and a way to make things happen, please go and do it. And here's a flying machine, sometimes".

    I guess my problem with AC and AC2 was that I didn't really FEEL like an assassin. I felt like a clumsy idiot trying to make assassinations, but really fucking it up, much akin to Blood Money. I'd try and set up these really elaborate ideas, then I'd accidentally get into the enemies peripheral, and it just derives into clangy clangy sword fighting.

  21. Posted

    Put a bow on Mario Galaxy 2. Inferior to the original, but still good, and here's why.

    The initial whimsy of Mario Galaxy was enough to carry the game on it's own. Seeing Mario in an entirely new scenario and set of places was great. Add to this the incredible music, lush visuals and great pacing, and it was a neat game.

    Mario Galaxy 2 had all these...but that's it. Nothing felt particularly...new. Now don't get me wrong, it's still an amazing game, and I really liked it. But it didn't really give me that same euphoric feeling that SMG did. Combine that with the fact that it really did drag at the end, in regards to once you had to get to the last 3/4 galaxys, it really did feel like I was being forced back into extremely tough purple star/speedruns/clone runs. Still a great game, and infintely repeatable, but if you really enjoyed SMG for the reasons I mentioned, you might prefer to stick with your memories of that.

  22. Posted

    Things just went from panicky to best!

    I have a really hard time being patient, and waiting for results, in this case from my university course. I live out in the sticks, so getting them by mail is gonna take fucking forever, so I managed to get them online. They were to be released today, at an unnamed time, so I've been up since midnight checking nonstop. They seemed to go "Live" at about 20 past 11, and I was presented with:

    Name

    Carl Howard

    Course

    BA(H) FILM AND MEDIA STUDIES

    Year

    2

    Result

    Pass and Proceed to next Level

    Crisis averted, now maybe I can go shower off ALL this cold sweat. And get pancakes for breakfast, before buying minecraft as a congratulatory present!