Ben X

The Big FPS Playthrough MISSION COMPLETE

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It didn't occur to me until just now but Sanctum has co-op.  I wish I realized this the other day when I was looking for things we both own as I have the game as well.  Maybe we can do this sometime.  I have very little time with it myself so it would be interesting to give it a try.

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Oh really? Okay, cool. Maybe I'll play it a bit in single-player then keep it in reserve for whenever people are free for online co-op.

 

Do people have much experience in playing something like Half-Life 2 co-op? I understand that's basically a fan-hack, though; are there any online co-op FPS  campaigns that were created specifically with that sort of experience in mind?

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Left 4 Dead and L4D2, Rainbow 6 Vegas and Vegas 2, Sven Co-op, Borderlands 2, Portal 2, Viscera Cleanup Detail, SWAT 4, Rainbow 6 Raven Shield, Ghost Recon.

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Hmm, but the L4Ds are wave shooters with squad mechanics... What I meant was more like a long single-player campaign with designed encounters but for 2+ people. Again, like playing through HL2 with two players but if the levels had been designed for that rather than it being hacked in...

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I don't know what separates a wave shooter with squad mechanics from a long single-player campaign with designed encounters for 2+ people. What's the difference? HL2 throws waves at you and although it lacks "squad mechanics," it also lacks a squad, because it's single player, and presumably any multiplayer game will have "squad mechanics" simply in virtue of the fact that 2+ people constitute a squad, right? L4D certainly has a long campaign with designed encounters.

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SAM: Sweet, I'll take a look. I'll see how much I like Sanctum, maybe we can keep an eye out for one or the other going on sale or something.

 

Tycho: yeah, to be honest I was struggling myself to put my finger on the specific differences. But you can see how playing HL2 with someone would be different to playing L4D? I guess a good way to put it is that L4D is surviving an ordeal with friends, what I'm looking for is sharing an adventure.

 

...

 

:barf:

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On easy mode (such a thing exists, right?) L4D is probably sharing an adventure, not surviving an ordeal. And if the difficulty were on the highest, HL2 would probably feel like an ordeal. Anyways I suggested like 12 games in that post or whatever, I feel like you sort of ignored everything after the first three words, or more specifically the first two words and first number.

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Sorry, I just thought it was worth making sure we were on the same page before considering the others. I haven't played any of them except Portal 2 co-op (which was awesome but puzzle-based so not quite the thing I'm talking about here either), so I concentrated on L4D. I'll take a look at all of them, thanks!

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Borderlands is probably the closest to what I think Ben means, you go on a romp, shoot mans and share loot. Destiny and its upcoming sequel also scratch this itch. I've played through all the id Software games in coop when that was a thing - very fun & recommended.

 

The most collaborative adventure game I can think of (outside of Portal 2) is Trine, but that's a bit outside the scope here.

 

The Sniper Elite games also have some pretty neat co-op or so I'm told. I've been meaning to try that out. http://www.co-optimus.com/review/1989/page/2/sniper-elite-4-co-op-review.html

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Borderlands seems quite close, yeah. (I played Trine with my girlfriend and we both bounced off it pretty hard.)

 

SecretAsianMan and I are trying to get together some Team Fortress 2 tonight, in about 12 hours from now. There are at least 3 slots open if anyone fancies it. Bear in mind I have never played it and it is free, so noobs and veterans are welcome! Check out the multiplayer thread.

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Okay yeah, Sanctum is a pretty vanilla tower defense thing, which I'm not that interested in. I'll keep it installed in case someone wants to co-op with me. Onto Duke Nukem Forever!

 

Ridiculously, I'm pretty excited to play this game, for a few reasons:

 

Morbid curiosity

The hope that it will be like a B-movie Crysis 2. Full of stupid bombast (though with less fidelity and cohesion)

Because I went to the press launch party and had a great, memorable time*. To finally actually play the game will hopefully add some extra nuance to that memory.

 

For a reminder of my reaction to Duke Nukem 3D, head to page 4 of this thread.

 

*

 

I managed to get invited as a +1 despite not being press, I think by Steve Hogarty. Will Porter, Matt Lees and Suzy Wallace were there amongst others. It was not as gross as you might expect, although there were women dressed in school uniform pouring shots into people's mouths. There was a big throne to take photos in, a lifesize statue of Duke, and a big dude dressed up as Duke. At one point I posed for a photo pretending to fellate the statue. I suddenly noticed people were gathering around and watching, and I thought I'd somehow got traction with a pretty standard 'joke'. I then realised that the Duke Nukem guy was standing behind me, as I pretended to suck off the statue of him. I backed away slowly into the crowd. I also got a copy of the game which I must have ebayed and a crappy t-shirt which is too small for me and so sits in a binbag somewhere until I lose 4 stone and can wear it proudly.

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I just looked at the number of pages, checked out the post date of the thread and blanched. What a project, Ben. It's been fascinating to read and I'm happy I've been able to get some games in with you as well. 

 

Duke Nukem Forever, damn. I still remember reading this pcgamer issue. The original was one of our playgroup's absolute favourites at the time. Squishing shrunk friends under the mighty boot took a surprisingly long time to get old.

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I look forward to the next game in this topic tomorrow.

 

I concur with Osmosisch! What a project. But aren't you grossly burned out on shooters at this point? Surely if you binge this stuff for years and years, nothing will tickle your fancy anymore?

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15 minutes ago, Roderick said:

I look forward to the next game in this topic tomorrow.

 

I concur with Osmosisch! What a project. But aren't you grossly burned out on shooters at this point? Surely if you binge this stuff for years and years, nothing will tickle your fancy anymore?

 

Ha ha! Well, the reason it's taking so long is that I'm not really binging (I have been a little over the past couple of months but that's about it), I'm fitting it into my normal life as I usually would. And as it's backlog, it's almost all games I actively want to play, and the size of it means I feel free to uninstall as soon as I stop enjoying a game. Also there's been a fair amount of variety so far, especially as I'm moving through decades of genre evolution. When it comes down to it, FPS along with adventure game is my favourite genre - it'll take a lot for me to tire of it! I've actually had a few games on the side as well: I play any Size Five game a lot, obv, plus I recently caught up on a load of indie classics (Thomas Was Alone, Passage, Dear Esther, Limbo, Fez, Kentucky Route Zero, Braid, To The Moon, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Papers Please, Super Meat Boy, VVVVV) and jumped on Split/Second when I wanted some quick arcade thrills.
 

To be honest, once this is done I'm probably more likely to funnel my leisure time into catching up on film and tv for a while rather than different gaming genres. I do have a handful of walking simulators and film/tv tie-in games that I'd like to play after this, though.

 

Oh, and Osmo, that 1997 Nukem Forever preview is fantastic.

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Oh yes, the Duke Nukem Forever timeline of previews and teasers is a joy to follow. Related: do not forget to watch the classic, official trailer 3D Realms put out to its Duke trilogy in 2008.

 

 

When it comes to my gaming appetite, I notice that I need quite some variety. It just won't do to play two Mario games in a row for instance. I need to switch up between platformers, adventure games, action, 3D stuff...

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I will say that when I played multiple Bioshocks in a row I started to get a little burnt out on that.

 

Well, this game certainly reflects its predecessor so far: dense interactivity, and cartoonish machismo. I'm barely out of the first level and so far, I've pissed in a ton of toilets, washing and drying my hands afterwards, drawn on a whiteboard with the dexterity of a two year old (I drew a winky on the alien), taken down the EOGB from DN3D without breaking a sweat in what turns out to be me as Duke playing as Duke in a video game called Duke Nukem Forever, received a blowjob from identical schoolgirl twin popstars The Holsom twins (which I'll take to be biting satire on sexualisation of minors in the media) - competing with Call Of Juarez for start-to-blowjob - looked out on a Las Vegas expanse from my hideously gaudy Donald-Trump-esque penthouse (floor 69), played some pool (I must have spent 15 minutes trying and failing to sink all the balls in the hopes of increasing my max Ego, i.e. health, to the amusment of the Holsoms), turning off all the lights which caused the Holsoms to alternately get scared and suggest hide and seek, walking around a talk show studio punching out a Christian Bale-a-like ranting at some sound guy, exploded a rat in a microwave, found the make-up person's Duke-branded dildo, used a remote controlled car to push an energy core within hand's reach, taken a wrong turning in some vents and spied on a lesbian couple, shot some hoops, lifted some weights, played some pinball, and shot down an alien mothership.

 

The shooting's not great and the graphical fidelity's a few years behind - it's hard to find a definitive answer as to what engine it's in though it feels very DooM3, especially as it seems to straight up copy the 'imp crawling past on a window' animation - but I'm having fun! They do seem to be taking the piss out of Duke in this game, rather than buying into the worship, and I've chuckled a fair few times. Plus the opening was genuinely stylish and well done, a pulpy Robert Rodriguez type thing.

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Wait, you're already up to 2011? I'll get E.Y.E. for you then. How does Steam gifting work now though? I know they changed it to make it more cumbersome

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On 9/28/2017 at 4:08 PM, eot said:

Wait, you're already up to 2011? I'll get E.Y.E. for you then. How does Steam gifting work now though? I know they changed it to make it more cumbersome

 

Ooh, thanks! Usual proviso applies ;) I have no idea how gifting works, I'm afraid...

 

On 9/28/2017 at 4:56 PM, Roderick said:

That description is better than anything I read on the game when it released, Ben.

 

Thanks! Better written or more accurate or more factual or..?

 

Predictably, the game is getting worse. There was a fun section where I was miniaturised and doing sweet ramps in an RC car or fighting with rats (they came for revenge!), but then the shooting proper started and the DooM3 engine is just not suited here. Where that game utterly reinvented its predecessor into a slow horror with a custom-fit engine, this one tries to stay the same blastathon and it doesn't fit. For one thing, there's regenerating health and I as Duke am often running (or rather speed-walking - Duke is as slow as Doom Guy here) away and cowering in corners to recover. Also, there are only 4 weapon slots, and I had to go into the settings to change that up from the default 2 (as well as taking auto-aim off) [EDIT: apparently the 4-slots option was patched in after release]! It's also really stingy with ammo - I've come perilously close to running out a few times. I really wish I'd taken my own advice from DN3D and put it on easy!

 

I've also got to the alien hive level, where the treatment of women gets really gross. It's the old Aliens cocoon gag from DN3D, but in hi-res and with a lot more invasive imagery. The game condones shooting them through Duke's dialogue, and the alien rape is made explicit and wholly sexual - the women weep about what was done to them, and the cocooned and nude Holsom twins (who are recurring sympathetic characters at this point) talk about it being their first time, before their bellies suddenly swell and burst, releasing a bunch of scuttling little aliens. It's repulsive in all the wrong ways.

 

There are still some redeeming qualities, though -  it continues to introduce fun little moments (although there are also physics puzzles and hunt-the-battery bits) and make good jokes. It also pokes fun at contemporary(ish) FPSes Doom and Prey - the marine armour is offered to Duke by an EDF soldier, to which he replies "power armour is for pussies", and in the alien hive Duke gets through sphincteral doors by gently tickling them with his finger.

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I just got to the worst boss fight ever. It is fucking awful. Takes so long, is insanely difficult, there's no cover and Duke's shitty health system means that it's incredibly easy to get one-shotted when you're seconds away from finally finishing it.

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