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Jer said:
I would like to just take this time quickly to recommend and remember how trippy Child of Eden is, for the first time in a while I fired it up, and it is a complete trip, it looks amazing, and it plays amazing, and while it isn't as great as Rez (which it is a spiritual successor to) it is still a great game in it's own right, and is much more of a trip than Rez.
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I think it's gorgeous, but I find it really hard. There's so much going on I keep on missing things being shot at me, plus because controllers. I don't know which is better though CoE or Rez. I love the way that Rez plays much more to the funky beat, but CoE is a much better presentation. I just need a mouse to enjoy them both :p

I started Uncharted3 after eventually finding a fixed version delivered with PS+ (three downloads of a 14Gb file and the long install over the course of a week to discover it also needed another 12Gb download and the 5Gb multiplayer download to get it working and it had taken Sony a week to offer the correct package - bunch of incompetent idiots).

I really enjoyed the first Uncharted. It was a breath of fresh air and played really well as a balance between cover based shooter and exciting platform/adventure game. Then the end happened and it became a choreful shooter, but overall, really good.

The second one I played, but it added a lot more "stealth" into it, which was really long and drawn out. If you messed the stealth up, it failed, or you were overwhelmed. Beyond that, it was pretty much exactly the same as the first game, only it didn't seem to play as well (mostly due to the stealth stuff, but it was too samey so a bit dull). I got about halfway through and gave up on a really tedious platforming puzzle bit I think... Or it may have been when I met the "surprise monster". I can't remember, I just know I'd had enough.

Uncharted on the Vita I really enjoyed though, with a much more action based game - lighter, but good fun.

Uncharted 3 though is a flawed masterpiece. I've almost completed it and I've pretty much enjoyed the whole game. There's been a little too much caught "unaware" in buildings and shooting down dull stone corridors/passageways . There are some quite tedious platforming bits too, but they're offset by the enormous vistas they happen on (thinking of the boat stuff here in the docks).

The entire game is enormous in scale, with some superb set pieces. It mixes up the levels later on to make for some brilliant, outstanding game level design. Sadly, it kind of makes some parts of the game just feel like filler. Oh, another warehouse, another open window I need to climb up crates to get near to, then a drainpipe - what a surprise the drainpipe fell and dumped me on the place I wanted to go to.

For everyone "wow" moment, there's an hour of tedium. Plus, it eventually gets tiresome with how indestructible Drake is. It's a constant series of falls onto things which collapse (used so much it's not a surprise), getting shot at (and punched), walking for days in the desert without food or drink and then just getting right up and killing loads of bad guys right away. If it was a film, you'd have walked out after ten minutes in disgust.

It's fun enough to get you through the duller moments though and the way it mixes things up with the large set pieces, or the slight change in game play style make it very playable. Sadly, the story is telegraphed massively (it's not a complex plot, but you can see where it's going within two or three chapters out of 20-odd) and the moments of peril are obvious, as are the deus ex machina that are always there to save you. So it loses tension, and because Drake is so indestructible, you never really have any concern for him.

The game is gorgeous in parts, and the water motion (when you get that far (over halfway), and it's worth choring through the boat graveyard to hit that point and beyond) is superb. At times, it really is making defining gaming moments.

So much more playable (for me) than the second one, but by being so much bigger, the flaws are more obvious. As a smaller game, the original was much more even, so you never felt it was lagging anywhere and the one or two "big moments" were really stunning. Uncharted 3 has so many big moments that the rest feels inadequate and bland.

Brilliant for free though and I can see why so many people raved about it - though they did seem to forgive it a lot too :)

Oh and Grid 2 is going back. There's a major bug in the game which at random points in the career mode can lock you into the end race session for "season 1", making it unplayable unless you start the career again. I'm not paying for software which leaves it unplayable.
 
^ It's a shame you didn't stick through with Uncharted 2, it's definately my favourite of the series.

The Last of Us

I just finished this and have been left feeling pretty conflicted with the ending. Not because it was bad, it was utterly brilliant, but because of the morality involved. It's definately very clever. Throughout the story there are definate hints towards the characters morality, and it's clear a number of times that you're not a conventional hero, or on the 'good' side. One example, as you play as Ellie, trying to escape capture, it's clear that the people you're killing are part of a community, with wives and kids.

The plot for this game is one of the strongest I've played for a long time, and provides some real emotional parts. I loved that this wasn't a zombie game, but is based on the Cordyceps infection. I remember when I first watched the episode of BBC's Planet Earth featuring the infection and thinking about the connotations of what would happen should it ever jump to humans, and the Last of Us portrays it in a good fashion.

Gameplay relies on pretty standard 3rd person shooter/stealth gaming, and Naughty Dog have done away with the huge set pieces that the Uncharted series is built around, giving a much more down to earth and realistic feel. There is a lack of ammo and utilities throughout the game giving a real sense of survival. One thing I liked about the gameplay is that stealth worked like in real life. The amount of games I've played where you make one noise and the entire troop of bad guys knows exactly where you are from then on has always annoyed me, but the AI in this game made it so the bad guys would head towards the origin point of the sound, rather than suddenly and magically knowing exactly where your character is from now on.

The game does tend to run similar themes in each location - there's the landmark in the distance, that's where we need to get to.

I think the realism of this game is its strongest point. All the characters are brilliantly portrayed and the world 'feels' almost real, in a "**** what if this actually happened" kind of way, and it sticks well away from the clichés of the zombie genre.

All in all, while some parts of the game play can feel repetitive, the plot is exceedingly strong and the suspense is excelent. Go play it!

9.8/10
 
Crazycoaster said:
^ It's a shame you didn't stick through with Uncharted 2, it's definately my favourite of the series.
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Nah not really :lol:

I found the game a tedious chore to get to the point I did (about five or so hours in), repeating what I'd already done on the first game but in a more irritating manner. So I'd say it was the right choice, otherwise I'd have finished the game and really hated having wasting such a huge amount of time and effort constantly flogging away at something I really didn't enjoy :p

Crazycoaster said:
One thing I liked about the gameplay is that stealth worked like in real life. The amount of games I've played where you make one noise and the entire troop of bad guys knows exactly where you are from then on has always annoyed me, but the AI in this game made it so the bad guys would head towards the origin point of the sound, rather than suddenly and magically knowing exactly where your character is from now on.
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This kind of system was in Hitman Absolution and Sniper Elite V2 which I made my way through recently - so yeah, it was a shock in Uncharted 3 to go back to the old way. It's good that it's being pursued by a lot of developers now though :)

I'll wait for a long time until I play The Last of Us (no doubt it'll be a big PS+ game in the future). I've no burning desire to play it (got enough to play as it is) so I can wait, but I do like a well told story in a game. It doesn't really bother meif the game play is pretty repetitive if the game play is good, and it moves you on through a decent plot. Not that it happens very often mind... ;)

Does sound good though.
 
One of the most realistic parts of The Last Of Us is the weapons, I literally never have more than 11 bullets for one gun at a time, the game just feels so real.
 
Tru dat - I'm sitting here in the office with just 10 bullets in my clip ;)
 
I played the DS version and it was a game I hated to love. It's one of those incredibly tedious, eats up a few hours of every day doing nothing to achieve, well, virtually nothing :lol:

It's so addictive though and is designed to help people with OCD to stop them polishing there elbow or something.

Fortunately, the Wii version used motion controls, which is an immediate barrier to having fun. So I never got drawn into it (except we still regularly go to a KK concert every Saturday night :lol: ). I guess that having a DS with you all the time makes it easier to drop in and out wherever too.

Though I find Knights of Pen and Paper on a phone or tablet is much better for that kind of thing (check it out Kim)
 
Pretty excited about Oulast. Seems like good clean fun.

Playing Shin Megami Tensei: Persona on my Vita currently. Its fun, but very tedious and I still have no clue on what buildinfs are what lol.
 
Can't disagree with anything Crazycoaster said about the Last of Us. Such a fantastic, epic game. The AI is superb, reacting realistically - if you make a noise in a part of the room, they'll investigate it but you've evaded the area they won't follow you as other games AI do, but they'll be more alert as they know someone/something is around them.

The storyline is just superb and obviously a major factor in the games success (in reviews so far anyway) - I too was left feeling a little conflicted, part of me wanted to know what if they went ahead with it?

Superb game - one that was definitely worth waiting for... it's also topped the charts in the Japan in its first week apparently, which is a long time since a game of Western Origin has done so - but then the Japanese have always loved the horror genre.

Also they released some very cool 'artwork' images of what some iconic UK landmarks would look like had they been abandoned and left for nature to reclaim its stake with the infection...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... demic.html
 
Just completed the Last Of Us and..

I understand Joel lied, killed, and sacrificed the future of humanity to not lose his 'daughter' again, but I think Ellie shouldve died as much as i loved her. It was such an anticlimax.

Also... Giraffes <3 best part of the whole game.
 
The Deadpool game has my interest. The thought of a Deadpool game is scary, especially after reading a few reviews. Anyone play it so I know if it's worth the time to try it?
 
Playing Shin Megami Tensei: Persona on my Vita currently. Its fun, but very tedious and I still have no clue on what buildinfs are what lol.
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Mmmmm, Persona 4 <3

where 'bouts are you?
 
tomahawKSU said:
The Deadpool game has my interest. The thought of a Deadpool game is scary, especially after reading a few reviews. Anyone play it so I know if it's worth the time to try it?
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It's just a button masher like God of War isn't it? So it's probably fine if you like that kind of thing, with the added appeal of the wit of Deadpool if you like that kind of thing.

So basically, if you like both those kinds of things, it's probably worth the time to try it :p

I don't, so I wouldn't recommend it ;)

Bloody X-Com: Enemy Unknown though is. It's really fab, really, really fab. I especially love the free price on PS+ :)

I thought it was going to be just another one of those free games where I play the tutorial and decide it isn't worth my time bothering with. I've played turn based games like this before, and they tend to be very dry and overly heavy in trying to work out movements, loadouts, etc, etc, etc. It's all number crunching all the time and trying to work out the odds. X-Com has it perfect. It's fast and fluid, so you don't even really feel like it's a turn based game. The only other game series that comes close are the Heroes of Might and Magic games. They manage to mix up a good, turn based strategy with the outside "base building" too.

X-Com does it so much better though. It's tense, challenging and it doesn't mind screwing you over completely because, well, life screws you over. You're lost in a new situation, and it always feels like a learning experience.

When you get it wrong (and you will get it badly wrong a fair few times), you realise it's because you're in the same situation as the character you play in the game (as the commanding chief of X-Com). How would somebody in that position deal (as they've just been given the new job that didn't exist) with an alien invasion, knowing nothing about the aliens, technology, etc. They would learn the same way you do in the game.

Random encounters mean that you can at times have a lot of resources in and, then go through a drought of them for months stifling development and engineering builds which can lead to massive collapses of ability to react and help people.

That's just on the "not so important building time" phase. In the guts of the game sending squads out to meet the invaders can be harrowing. Sudden attacks by new aliens from behind. Sending soldiers into situation you know will get them killed, but you need to for the good of the mission. Losing civilians because you haven't moved out fast enough (or worse, losing them because the aliens are simply bastards and slaughter them before you get a chance to even attempt to rescue them). Do you try and incapacitate a mind controlled fellow soldier (with a high risk of killing them), or try and get to the alien controlling them before your own buddy murders you all?

Do you make your squad look like friends and give them friends names so that when they die, you feel even sadder.

It's a simple game, with masses of complexity underneath and incredible depth. It's depressing at times when you see the world going down the pan because you made a mistake months in the past and didn't know it was a mistake at the time. That's life though, and X-Com doesn't pussy foot about.
 
^ I had the same feeling about 'I'll play the tutorial and it'll just sit there taking up HDD space (although I need to stop being so tight with that now I have 500gb and not 80gb :lol: ) so didn't download - will give it a try though.
 
Some games like Bulletstorm, Hitman and Uncharted 3, I download and just hammer through them. I don't love the games, but I like them enough to pay through until the end if I can (they're usually good enough to make it worthwhile). I know I'll play them, but I only have a kind of "floating" 50-60Gb spare on my PS3 now. So I need to play them and delete them before the next month's offering arrives.

Some games (like the Middle Earth tat they gave away) are just play it through the tutorial or first couple of levels and then you know if you're going to get any enjoyment from the whole game or not. Stuff like LBP/2/Karting stay forever (F1 Race Stars didn't, what a turd).

X-Com isn't too big luckily, I think it's around 1Gb - not that you have to worry now Pierre :p
 
Digital copies of games should have the most recent version to download direct from store. Not download a 13gb game to be then greeted with a 2gb patch (that appears to have stalled on its download).

I'm specifically referring to BF3 here but LBP2 was also a guilty party.
 
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