Bioshock Infinite is the third game of the Bioshock franchise. The game was hyped up delayed and many people left the company. There was also the whole ending fiasco.
"There was a scene in the game at the end where . . . one of our artists--who got to a point in the game, played it, turned off BioShock, opened up his computer, opened Microsoft Word, and wrote a resignation letter; it had offended him so much," said lead designer Ken Levine in an interview with GameSpot.
Really? Because the ending sucked about as much if not more ass than mass effect 3's ending. Only difference was Mass Effect spanned three games so the build up was bigger before the fall.
Bioshock Infinite takes place in SURPRISE another dystopian city, this time Columbia that flies over America led by the prophet Comstock. The game starts with you, a man named Booker DeWitt who to pay off gambling debts have to kidnap a girl called Elizabeth. As you do this you get dragged along different factions. The rich white folk the Founders, and the Chinese, Native, Black, Irish folk, the Vox . Basically the game is a social commentary of the 1900's except it suddenly changes halfway through the game and focuses solely on Elizabeth.
Now Elizabeth is a pretty useless character. She points out stuff, like explaining about the military and other things. What I found confusing was how she even know all this being locked away in a tower. Other than that she is used as a portable lockpick. Walk up to a locked door and click F. She will walk over and unlock it for you. Other than that she doesn't do anything other than throwing you an occasional item. Although she does give conversations sometimes which makes the game a little less lonely. However, the first two Bioshock games had people radio you so there is really no difference in her being there or not.
She also whines and cries. When things doesn't go her way she cries and runs away in a tantrum. When she runs off she is immediately captured and requires you to rescue her. Isn't that a great thing to teach women? A battered woman running away from the man and then get punished for doing so! This happens a lot in the game actually. Pretty much the whole game revolves around her getting captured again and again and requires your rescue. One thing I noticed in the game is she gets more and more battered as the game goes on. There is even a long torture scene where you can hear the sounds of her screams. Then you rescue her half unclothed 17 year old body from the chair and "help her." In the end of the game she is covered with cuts and bruises everywhere.
What I find annoying as hell is how powerful she is. She is able to bend space and time yet she has to be "protected." You are constantly telling her to stay behind and leave everything to you. She never joins you in battle. Like what the fuck? Shes a fucking God, let her do some work too. Its not like your guns or vigor powers are any good either. Compared to the other games it feels lacking.
Near the second half of the game, everything falls to shit. There was already a huge shortage of character compared to the first two games. Having killed off the few major characters like 25% of the way into the game wasn't really much help either. It ended up with just the two of you versus Comstock. The story became weird and haphazard as if it was suddenly rushed to meet a deadline. The two factions as said above were claimed to be "equal." The Vox is just the Founders with a different name was what Booker pretty much said. I found that to be quite bullshit because the Founders pretty much have government sanctioned stoning to death for interracial couples, while the Vox is trying to change things albeit a bit violently but what other way could they have done it?
Either way the factions merely exist as fodder. The game isn't about Columbia, it isn't about the factions, it all about you and Elizabeth and Comstock. The ending doesn't really explain everything either. Its filled with plot holes and pretty much ruins everything you've done in the game. Its also a 15 min long exposition from Elizabeth. But don't worry, all this can be solved with the season pass! The season pass is basically another name for the DLCs.
They're now selling DLCs before they even come out.
Showing posts with label FPS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FPS. Show all posts
Friday, March 29, 2013
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Mechwarrior Online - Yet another update
So MWO is out in open beta now. I've commented about it several times, and have raised many concerns as to its future. Unfortunately, I was right. Very right.
It's a F2P game that is very shallow in nature, repetitive in its grind, and completely unsuitable for release in its current stage. Netcode sucks, performance sucks, the awful motion blur, film grain, HDR, and bloom are obnoxious, content is lacking, game mode is boring, mech prices are WAY too expensive, matchmaking is nonexistent, the grind is painful even for the cheapest mech, and they still pushed it out the door into open beta anyway. The developers knew too, but they had deadlines to meet, which is a shame. They settled on releasing a minimum viable product (their words), and thus, I do not understand how they expect to receive anything more than a minimum viable score. What a terrible business plan.
They cited a bunch of other similar F2P games (namely World of Tanks) to justify their pricing and launch quality, but like I said before... F2P isn't a cureall, and a game released years ago shouldn't be used as the measuring stick for today.
Sadly, I really wanted to be wrong on this one, and for MWO to succeed. But I don't think it will. The biggest chance for MWO to get noticed was at launch, and they blew their chance. Even if they do fix up the game, it'll be too late, as Mechwarrior has always been a small community without the same level of magnetism. Even though it has only been the first 2 weeks of launch, the numbers are disheartening. The devs, PGI, have smartly pulled out the online players counter that was present in every iteration of beta. Worse, they're using a terrible engine (CryEngine 3) which suffers from persistent netcode problems and poor handling of fast moving vehicles (CryEngine 1+2 also had this problem, so MWLL was affected). Its engine also has shockingly poor performance despite being tailored to adhere to console specifications.
Well, I tried my best back in beta to warn the devs of this problem. I even spoke to them personally. They did stall beta few times to increase it's standard of quality, but this isn't enough. At least I enjoyed my time in the beta with it. You know, back when these flaws were 'acceptable'.
"It's just a beta, it'll be fixed on release." Yea, right.
It's a F2P game that is very shallow in nature, repetitive in its grind, and completely unsuitable for release in its current stage. Netcode sucks, performance sucks, the awful motion blur, film grain, HDR, and bloom are obnoxious, content is lacking, game mode is boring, mech prices are WAY too expensive, matchmaking is nonexistent, the grind is painful even for the cheapest mech, and they still pushed it out the door into open beta anyway. The developers knew too, but they had deadlines to meet, which is a shame. They settled on releasing a minimum viable product (their words), and thus, I do not understand how they expect to receive anything more than a minimum viable score. What a terrible business plan.
They cited a bunch of other similar F2P games (namely World of Tanks) to justify their pricing and launch quality, but like I said before... F2P isn't a cureall, and a game released years ago shouldn't be used as the measuring stick for today.
Sadly, I really wanted to be wrong on this one, and for MWO to succeed. But I don't think it will. The biggest chance for MWO to get noticed was at launch, and they blew their chance. Even if they do fix up the game, it'll be too late, as Mechwarrior has always been a small community without the same level of magnetism. Even though it has only been the first 2 weeks of launch, the numbers are disheartening. The devs, PGI, have smartly pulled out the online players counter that was present in every iteration of beta. Worse, they're using a terrible engine (CryEngine 3) which suffers from persistent netcode problems and poor handling of fast moving vehicles (CryEngine 1+2 also had this problem, so MWLL was affected). Its engine also has shockingly poor performance despite being tailored to adhere to console specifications.
Well, I tried my best back in beta to warn the devs of this problem. I even spoke to them personally. They did stall beta few times to increase it's standard of quality, but this isn't enough. At least I enjoyed my time in the beta with it. You know, back when these flaws were 'acceptable'.
"It's just a beta, it'll be fixed on release." Yea, right.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
MechWarrior Online (formerly MechWarrior 5, or MechWarrior 3015, or MechWarrior, PayToWin)
Remember this post I made 3 years ago on the upcoming MechWarrior game?
It has been announced officially as MechWarrior Online, a free to play game, launching sometime this year, and with no singleplayer campaign at all. They're aiming at an action oriented online arena feel, ala MechAssault.
I should have added another criteria to that wishlist: that it wouldn't be a whored out f2p game with tons of cash shopping to win. In my inbox today, I received an email offer from MWO for their upcoming cash shop packages. There are $30, $60, and $120 packages, giving you 1, 2 or 3 months of exp boost respectively. You also get some exclusive founders-only mech variants with a reskin. It's not clear from the wording whether or not the variants will be exclusive too, or if it's just a reskin/remodel of an existing variant available to all players. You also get a bit of in-game cash shop currency and some prestige crap.
Holy damn, that is a massive amount of money to pay, especially before a game launch. $120 is beyond what I'd even expect for a collector's edition, so why would anyone pay that except to get massive advantages? I'm not against all F2P games, but the setup here gives me the wrong vibe. I was expecting players would pay maybe $10 and be able to buy/unlock 3-4 items which could be obtained over a period of 1-2 weeks. But 60 USD for a 2 month buff, 1 reskin and $80 of cash shop? Just how pricey are the items going to be??
Next, it really seems these guys are copying the Tribes: Ascend formula. Fast-paced, jump-into-action game with unlockable items per class in an online arena. It worked pretty well for Tribes, but I'm not so sure it will for MWO. It's going to be just like MechAssault if it does that, and that's not how Mechwarrior is supposed to play at all. MechWarrior isn't about arena-deathmatches (although Solaris Arena is), instead, you play a battlefield with objectives and smart tactics and coordinated strategy with a full arsenal of Air, Infantry, Vehicles and Mechs.
Worse, MW has an incredibly rich history of lore that's just going to be abandoned for F2Ping. No doubt they'll add more and more items as the game goes on to milk it, but the rich backstory that MW is built upon is going to be unimportant. Who cares what's happening in Tribes? Who even knows the lore for that? You just go in and FRAG. That's not a mold MW fits into, no matter how hard MWO is jammed into that role.
Last thing, it seems rather likely now that mechs cannot be customized, and players will be limited to variants. This is probably the best way the devs can continue to milk players harder and harder. It also means things will be a little more bland, and less freeform as MW is supposed to be.
Well... At least there's MechWarrior Tactics coming out soon.
Wait, that's F2P too. Shit.
It has been announced officially as MechWarrior Online, a free to play game, launching sometime this year, and with no singleplayer campaign at all. They're aiming at an action oriented online arena feel, ala MechAssault.
I should have added another criteria to that wishlist: that it wouldn't be a whored out f2p game with tons of cash shopping to win. In my inbox today, I received an email offer from MWO for their upcoming cash shop packages. There are $30, $60, and $120 packages, giving you 1, 2 or 3 months of exp boost respectively. You also get some exclusive founders-only mech variants with a reskin. It's not clear from the wording whether or not the variants will be exclusive too, or if it's just a reskin/remodel of an existing variant available to all players. You also get a bit of in-game cash shop currency and some prestige crap.
Holy damn, that is a massive amount of money to pay, especially before a game launch. $120 is beyond what I'd even expect for a collector's edition, so why would anyone pay that except to get massive advantages? I'm not against all F2P games, but the setup here gives me the wrong vibe. I was expecting players would pay maybe $10 and be able to buy/unlock 3-4 items which could be obtained over a period of 1-2 weeks. But 60 USD for a 2 month buff, 1 reskin and $80 of cash shop? Just how pricey are the items going to be??
Next, it really seems these guys are copying the Tribes: Ascend formula. Fast-paced, jump-into-action game with unlockable items per class in an online arena. It worked pretty well for Tribes, but I'm not so sure it will for MWO. It's going to be just like MechAssault if it does that, and that's not how Mechwarrior is supposed to play at all. MechWarrior isn't about arena-deathmatches (although Solaris Arena is), instead, you play a battlefield with objectives and smart tactics and coordinated strategy with a full arsenal of Air, Infantry, Vehicles and Mechs.
Worse, MW has an incredibly rich history of lore that's just going to be abandoned for F2Ping. No doubt they'll add more and more items as the game goes on to milk it, but the rich backstory that MW is built upon is going to be unimportant. Who cares what's happening in Tribes? Who even knows the lore for that? You just go in and FRAG. That's not a mold MW fits into, no matter how hard MWO is jammed into that role.
Last thing, it seems rather likely now that mechs cannot be customized, and players will be limited to variants. This is probably the best way the devs can continue to milk players harder and harder. It also means things will be a little more bland, and less freeform as MW is supposed to be.
Well... At least there's MechWarrior Tactics coming out soon.
Wait, that's F2P too. Shit.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Portal 2 - I like it when you hurt me
I have to say this game isn't bad. I liked it. While I enjoyed it, there was something missing. Portal is a side project for Half-Life. It was popular enough to get its own sequel. I always wondered why Portal was this popular? Most people say its the portal gun with its unique and fun puzzles while others say GLaDOS with her black humor and sarcasm that made the game. I found the first one ok. It didn't stand out that much while I thought GLaDOS was amazingly well done she wasn't that memorable because of how short the game was. When Portal 2 was announced I was skeptical. Though I never played the first of the series when I heard about it, I knew what the game was about. How could they possibly expand on the game?
When I first started Portal 2, I was surprised by another character, Wheatly. He's entertaining enough but he's no GLaDOS. Have no fear though, after awhile you meet up with your nemesis GLaDOS and start doing the puzzles again. I have to say I was disappointed. I'm glad people kept telling me to continue playing or I would've just stopped after the first few stages. It starts off slow, very slow. The puzzles are stupidly easy and doesn't give any sort of challenge at all. I suppose it was because I played Portal 1 about a week before Portal 2 came out. I found puzzles to be more challenging in the first game than in the sequel. Like someone said, once you add more elements to the game it becomes easier because there is only one specific easy to see way to get past. While I like puzzle games, the puzzles in Portal 2 didn't entertain me that much.
The biggest reason I liked the game was the quirkyness of it all. You have a psychopathic AI(I don't think AI's have empathy so it would probably apply to all AI) out to kill you who wants to test you in the name of science all while spouting off insults and sarcastic remarks. I love GLaDOS, she may be one of my favorite video game characters. I guess I have a thing for abuse or people trying to kill you but say what you want GLaDOS is as likable as she is entertaining. There has been some debate about her amongst feminists but I won't get into that but I'll leave a quote here.
He added that Chell and GLaDOS serve as opposing sides of femininity; where Chell is "dutiful and does every task assigned of her", GLaDOS is "aggressive and seemingly dangerous to the order of a male-dominated society". He also described Chell as a "domestic icon" while he described GLaDOS as a "progressive, intelligent working woman" and that by killing her, "Chell can be seen as the dutiful “safe” woman conquering the “dangerous” feminist"
Its funny though, the more abusive she becomes the more people like her. Or that goes for me at least.
Halfway though the game you find out more about the real story. Like the first one it starts after the tests "end." I liked these parts way more than the standard tests. I felt like the standard tests were "filler content" while these free puzzles to be more entertaining. The constant fear of the unknown and/or death was what the puzzle rooms were severely lacking. You start finding about how Aperature Science came to be and more backstory to GLaDOS. She becomes more and more uh, human? While at the same time you are introduced to two new characters, Cave Johnson and Caroline.
But as quickly as it started, it ended. The game itself is short and the free puzzle sections were even shorter. The atmosphere and ambience of the place itself is amazingly well done. It actually feels like its in terrible shape with broken rails and overgrowth everywhere. But the puzzle rooms are all perfectly constructed. I suppose its because GLaDOS puts testing people in puzzle rooms above the welfare of the laboratory. I like the ability to explore and wander around there but to annoy you more you have to do more puzzle rooms again after you get back to Wheatly after the free puzzles.
Overall its fun but I felt it lacked a lot of meat on the bones. Its a good game I wouldn't argue against that but if there were just a bit more content outside the puzzle rooms I would be more content. I don't know why it has this much praise. Maybe it was because everyone telling me its the best thing since sliced bread that I would be a little disappointed after playing it. Too much hype can do this to a game I suppose.
When I first started Portal 2, I was surprised by another character, Wheatly. He's entertaining enough but he's no GLaDOS. Have no fear though, after awhile you meet up with your nemesis GLaDOS and start doing the puzzles again. I have to say I was disappointed. I'm glad people kept telling me to continue playing or I would've just stopped after the first few stages. It starts off slow, very slow. The puzzles are stupidly easy and doesn't give any sort of challenge at all. I suppose it was because I played Portal 1 about a week before Portal 2 came out. I found puzzles to be more challenging in the first game than in the sequel. Like someone said, once you add more elements to the game it becomes easier because there is only one specific easy to see way to get past. While I like puzzle games, the puzzles in Portal 2 didn't entertain me that much.
The biggest reason I liked the game was the quirkyness of it all. You have a psychopathic AI(I don't think AI's have empathy so it would probably apply to all AI) out to kill you who wants to test you in the name of science all while spouting off insults and sarcastic remarks. I love GLaDOS, she may be one of my favorite video game characters. I guess I have a thing for abuse or people trying to kill you but say what you want GLaDOS is as likable as she is entertaining. There has been some debate about her amongst feminists but I won't get into that but I'll leave a quote here.
He added that Chell and GLaDOS serve as opposing sides of femininity; where Chell is "dutiful and does every task assigned of her", GLaDOS is "aggressive and seemingly dangerous to the order of a male-dominated society". He also described Chell as a "domestic icon" while he described GLaDOS as a "progressive, intelligent working woman" and that by killing her, "Chell can be seen as the dutiful “safe” woman conquering the “dangerous” feminist"
Its funny though, the more abusive she becomes the more people like her. Or that goes for me at least.
Halfway though the game you find out more about the real story. Like the first one it starts after the tests "end." I liked these parts way more than the standard tests. I felt like the standard tests were "filler content" while these free puzzles to be more entertaining. The constant fear of the unknown and/or death was what the puzzle rooms were severely lacking. You start finding about how Aperature Science came to be and more backstory to GLaDOS. She becomes more and more uh, human? While at the same time you are introduced to two new characters, Cave Johnson and Caroline.
But as quickly as it started, it ended. The game itself is short and the free puzzle sections were even shorter. The atmosphere and ambience of the place itself is amazingly well done. It actually feels like its in terrible shape with broken rails and overgrowth everywhere. But the puzzle rooms are all perfectly constructed. I suppose its because GLaDOS puts testing people in puzzle rooms above the welfare of the laboratory. I like the ability to explore and wander around there but to annoy you more you have to do more puzzle rooms again after you get back to Wheatly after the free puzzles.
Overall its fun but I felt it lacked a lot of meat on the bones. Its a good game I wouldn't argue against that but if there were just a bit more content outside the puzzle rooms I would be more content. I don't know why it has this much praise. Maybe it was because everyone telling me its the best thing since sliced bread that I would be a little disappointed after playing it. Too much hype can do this to a game I suppose.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Duke Nukem ForNever
Although in some instances we have strayed, the original intent of this blog was to discuss the trends and lessons in gaming and the development of games. This was because I do not expect readers to have played EVERY game. Nor for them to be too interested in the game we have to discuss as a case study, but rather for them to understand the concept at hand and filter it through their own previous experiences and then apply it towards future experiences, hopefully for the betterment of all gaming, and potentially, humanity. In this way, I'm not interested in telling you all the ways Duke Nukem Forever was terrible as a game, but rather, to tell you why it was bad as a concept of a modern game, or anything marketable.
Last year, when I heard about the impending arrival of DNF (and not the dozens of false alarms before), I was unimpressed. DNF was a zombie, being raised from the dead to prove a point: that what could not be made, finally was. But the highlights end there. I knew that this game would be hollow and incapable of impressing from that instant onwards. As I discussed with my friends that they shouldn't look for a blown-away experience, they responded that they sought nothing more than to own the legendary, nay, mythical title for its posterity.
It's unreasonable to expect that this shoddy production was to achieve little more than to end one of the greatest vaporware jokes in history, but what was reasonable? When I reflect back on my childhood, Duke wasn't even a big deal to me then. He was badass, but rather thin in terms of personality beyond that. I played him as an Apogee sidescroller, where he carried tons of guns and killed all sorts of aliens. Who really cared beyond that anyway? Then he got a FPS game, but honestly, people loved it because of how ridiculously wacky and broken it was (and perhaps the way it pushed the limits of censorship, or lack thereof). At least the gameplay was smooth and the controls were crisp though, which was a lot more than what I could say for DNF, which tried too hard to give that realistic clunkiness feeling. DNF shouldn't have tried at all to be like that, since it was NEVER like that. It was more in line with Serious Sam, which was an acceptable game, but the developers obviously wanted to accomplish more with the franchise, including the part where they make a ton of money and spawn a new set of sequels.
I'm not sure how to break it to them... But Duke wasn't really that great back then either. We just had a poor frame of reference. Surely, we'll find that Modern Warfare won't be so hot in another 15 years... Oh wait, I already feel that way 3 months after it released. =_= Sometimes, we have to take a good hard look at games we feel nostalgic about, and really consider if they were actually genuinely good experiences that can stand the test of time. Only then can they be true classics, and only then, can they be considered reviving.
Last year, when I heard about the impending arrival of DNF (and not the dozens of false alarms before), I was unimpressed. DNF was a zombie, being raised from the dead to prove a point: that what could not be made, finally was. But the highlights end there. I knew that this game would be hollow and incapable of impressing from that instant onwards. As I discussed with my friends that they shouldn't look for a blown-away experience, they responded that they sought nothing more than to own the legendary, nay, mythical title for its posterity.
It's unreasonable to expect that this shoddy production was to achieve little more than to end one of the greatest vaporware jokes in history, but what was reasonable? When I reflect back on my childhood, Duke wasn't even a big deal to me then. He was badass, but rather thin in terms of personality beyond that. I played him as an Apogee sidescroller, where he carried tons of guns and killed all sorts of aliens. Who really cared beyond that anyway? Then he got a FPS game, but honestly, people loved it because of how ridiculously wacky and broken it was (and perhaps the way it pushed the limits of censorship, or lack thereof). At least the gameplay was smooth and the controls were crisp though, which was a lot more than what I could say for DNF, which tried too hard to give that realistic clunkiness feeling. DNF shouldn't have tried at all to be like that, since it was NEVER like that. It was more in line with Serious Sam, which was an acceptable game, but the developers obviously wanted to accomplish more with the franchise, including the part where they make a ton of money and spawn a new set of sequels.
I'm not sure how to break it to them... But Duke wasn't really that great back then either. We just had a poor frame of reference. Surely, we'll find that Modern Warfare won't be so hot in another 15 years... Oh wait, I already feel that way 3 months after it released. =_= Sometimes, we have to take a good hard look at games we feel nostalgic about, and really consider if they were actually genuinely good experiences that can stand the test of time. Only then can they be true classics, and only then, can they be considered reviving.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Duke Nukem Forever - It should've remained dead
Back in the day there were a few games called Duke Nukem. I didn't really play much of it, I played a bit, knew people that played and didn't get too far. From what I remember you pretty much go around spouting one liners and giving money to hookers and shooting chicks. It may be wrong but whatever. Then the game Duke Nukem Forever was announce and everyone shit their pants. Fourteen years later the game came out. Yes fourteen fucking years later. For once I'm not exaggerating. I'm not going to go into this but long story short, it was finished, it was released, and the sound of 20000 Duke fanboys cried out in unison at the same time
The game itself received massive amounts of negative reviews. So bad that I have to try real hard to find a game with a review just as bad.
Ok that was unnecessary torture on your eyes. But at least that game was hilariously bad. Duke Nukem Forever wasn't even hilariously bad, it was horrendously bad. No ones laughing at your jokes. Its not funny so stop it. Its like watching a 40 year old trying to look 19 with a horrible tan, lip gloss and fake breasts. Its not working, you're trying too hard, and you're not fooling anyone but yourself. This is what this game is like. Its nothing but a old aging wrinkly piece of shit that desperately try to look new and fresh with "better" graphics and game play. A lot of people go "The graphics was nice so I don't care if the game sucks." Those are the same type of people the 40 year olds go for. Those are the same type of people that should stop gaming and watch a movie filled with CGI.
This game is filled with terrible one liners and voice actors that sound like they're having a constipation or filled with 2 gallons of helium in their lungs. Theres no emotion in Duke's voice. Some say he doesn't need emotion and he's a tough motherfucker going around blowing up shit. When Duke's two whiny fucking helium filled twin pop-star fuckbuddies called Mary and Kate Holsom gets kidnapped Duke got mad and started yelling angrily in monotone. It was pathetic. No words can describe it. So we're moving on.
The game is filled with stupid boring unavoidable mini games. It also contains the worst fucking controls for driving anything that I have ever played. You have to do stupid shit like piss in a fucking urinal to gain bonus ego. Health in this game is called Ego. Instead of recovering health through health packs, all you have to do is stand behind cover and it recovers like any of the modern FPS. Theres dumb shit like playing pinball and slot machines and other boring stuff. Why is this even in the game? Whats the point? Is it fun? No. If I wanted to play fucking pinball I would. Plus the pinball in this game is stupid. The flippers are unresponsive the balls get stuck and half the time you can't see where the hell it is. You might be going "Yeah you're bitching about the small shit you're forgetting the game play." Then I will respond, "What fucking game play?"
That question is on everyone's mind when they play this game. Where the fuck is the game play? It looks like they spent most of their time on juvenile "humor" and fucking mini games instead of focusing on the game play. You first start the game shooting some giant fucking shit with rocket launchers then you pull out its eye and kick it across the football field that you just happen to be fighting in. Then it turns into a TV screen where you're playing on your Duke Nukem XBox and the Holsom twins comment on how awesome you are in bed and in playing the game. Then Duke makes a stupid joke about how it took 14 fucking years to make and it better be good. Yeah the first scene in the game is foreshadowing how shitty the game is going to be. Then you start walking around the fucking place for 5 minutes. Then you talk and then walk around for another 5 minutes. Then you walk around more and talk some more then the fucker tells you to go back to where you started and you spend another 15 mins backtracking. This whole time with no action. And then finally like 2 hours later you meet your first enemy you walk over punch him in the face get a gun then you walk around through vents for another 20 minutes. WHAT THE FUCK?
Finally like 5 hours into the game you get to some reactor where you have to get power cores. Then you walk around shoot some stuff for like 10 seconds and then wander around for a few minutes until you see a fucking controller for a fucking race car. You then move it around with shit ass controls to push the core out of the bottom of the door and get it and put it into the reactor. Then you go wander around for another 2 hours. Then you are sitting on a turret holding the fire button shooting ships. You blow it up it shoots at you blowing you up and you fall down the shaft while giving it the middle finger. Then you go wander around for another 50 fucking hours and turn tiny and start riding around in the race car for fucking 16 more days. Playing through what is probably the most boring level in a video game you turn big and the two twins start making out and gets kidnapped and then nothing happens for the next 3 months. Then I stopped.
I know what you're saying. I only played the beginning, but do you really want me to torture myself that much? I know I'm a masochist and I like to fucking torture myself with this shit but theres a limit. I like pain but I don't like to eat away 14 years of my life from playing through this game. This game should never have been completed. The only reason people would buy this game is because it has the name Duke Nukem Forever and it was notorious for its vaporware title. Like someone once said, "It doesn't matter how good or how bad the game is. It could just be Duke taking a shit. All you have to do is make a game slap on Duke Nukem Forever and everyone would buy it just to say they finally got Duke Nukem Forever."
Well, you won. You made the worst game in existence and everyone is buying it up like retards. You showed the world that it doesn't have to be a good game as long as it has the franchise name on it. But unlike Final Fantasy and its countless carbon copies of shit, this will be the last Duke Nukem game. Some think thats a shame, I think its for the better. Duke was classic. Every kid growing up back then knew Duke's cheesy one liners. It doesn't work here anymore. This was a insult. Its defamation. And I don't even like Duke. But I feel second hand embarrassment playing this shit. Some things should have remained dead and this was one of them
Friday, April 3, 2009
F.E.A.R. 2 - Children aren't scary anymore. They're just annoying.
I never finished Monolith's FEAR 1. It's a shame I am told, but I did thoroughly experience FEAR1's multiplayer through FEAR Combat to compensate for it. Although it doesn't fill in the singleplayer aspects I missed, since I already read about the plot development, I ruined any motivation to actually play through FEAR1, and jumped right ahead to FEAR2.
Firstly, before we do that, I must say, I liked FEAR Combat; its unique fast-paced, heart-thumping frenetic melee system; its awing display of sheer firepower without excessive effects flooding; its no-holds-barred deathmatch system where players were rewarded for their fearlessness. It did everything right in turning their slower singleplayer experience into an exciting, replayable multiplayer fragfest where you just could not find any better feeling than staking your enemies to the wall or exploding them into a cloud of blood with a hitscan weapon.
But that's the problem with FEAR2. They took everything great about the old FEAR and tossed it away, leaving nothing commendable, in singleplayer or multiplayer. Already, with just the sequel, the series seems tired and uninspired, the ideas worn thin.
The singleplayer feels like work. You slog through thousands of enemies, each taking nearly an entire clip unless you take the time to solidly put a burst of fire into the target's head. But there's the problem right there. You could carefully try to set up your headshots, by getting the initial surprise shots and slow-mo headshots... but what's the point? You'll kill 5-6 enemies this way, and then everyone else in the room (at least a good 20-30) will be alerted to your attention and you'll be caught out in the open without any slow-mo to save your ass from the hail of bullet-beatings you're about to receive. Trying to sneak around is impossible, since your enemies are literally superhuman anyway, and are capable of hearing your heartbeat and maybe even the tapping of your keyboard. And you often have to kill everyone in the room to progress the mission scripting to allow you into the next room. The player doesn't feel like he has a choice, but rather that he must tediously trudge through a sea of bodies to reach his destination. But here's the main question: Is it faster to run and gun through the hordes or is it faster to plan it out? The answer is quite clear in FEAR2: you rush, you spam everything you have, and you try to pick up just about everything you can. You turn your brain off, and you repeat an unpleasant task for the next few hours for the sake of some promised recompensation. Worse, whether you try to be smart or try to be accurate, the speed at which you drop bodies isn't going to change. Applying skills or thought to your task is an unrewarded waste of time. Like I said, it's akin to menial labour. Nothing you do will get you through it faster, you just have to sit it out.
Frankly, its level of boredom and mundane gameplay is compounded by the fact that everything is too easy! You may notice that you will not always be picking up armor and health whenever you see them like everything else in the game. But it's not because you're trying to save your health/armor boosts for the most efficient moment... It's because you just have too many of them and will never use them. With excessive healthpacks and armor abound, even on the hardest difficulty, the game was never in the least bit challenging. How are you even going to try to frighten me when I'm fully capable of singlehandedly annihilating armies without a scratch? the entire game feels like a method of conditioning you to become fearless of any possible threat... But not even for the right reasons. Fear Combat had you be fearless because the more you killed and the more you rushed, the more medpacks you'd receive from your fallen enemies. FEAR 2 has you fearless because it's too damned boring to be doing things any other way!
The weapons in FEAR2 don't help. Their variety is terrible, as certain weapons are often spammier versions of another, just with a larger clip and less damage; they're just the same weapon with just about the same average damage. The only thing you're really going to be taking into consideration is whether or not you want to fill up one of your few weapon slots with something that you may find no more ammo for later on. Weapons aren't creative either. Their effects are unimpressive at best, and even the Penetrator's effect has been scaled back. Most weapons though are very conventional, and lack the sort of high-tech feel that FEAR1 had. Now it wouldn't be an issue if your guns still felt powerful... But they don't. They feel cheap and tacky, as if you were firing pellets out of your plastic gun. The problem lies in a combination of the sound, the feel, the kick and the damage dealt. It's all wrong. Even the shotgun was terrible, until you got the Combat Shotgun, which was still mediocre, even in its most optimal situations. What ended up being the best weapon that gave you a sense of lethality? The sniper rifle. Yep. The conventional Sniper Rifle trumps the Laser Gun, the Pulse Weapon, the new Penetrator, even the RPG. Despite being carried by fairly normal trash mob opponents only halfway through the game, it only makes appearances in very specific sections where long range shooting is prevalent, so ammo is scarce. The problem is, Monolith wanted you to only really use the Sniper Rifle in these specific spots and throw away the gun right after, where they expected it to be useless. Essentially, the Sniper Rifle was a mini-game weapon, a gimmick. However, since it was the only weapon they got right, in the hands of a good player, it became your ultimate weapon to get you past the baddies that were just too much of a pain to dispatch any other way. For me, it WAS my Pulse Rifle, and was worth carrying around for 2-3 levels just to use it to clear a specific chokepoint room. That either says really good things about the Sniper Rifle, or really disgraceful things about the Pulse Rifle, the supposed BFG of FEAR2. Often times developers will put in a massive drawback to super-weapons, often a low rate of fire or ammo capacity... And Monolith gives the Pulse Rifle and Laser Rifle the same treatment. The problem is they took it too far. The Laser Rifle has very limited ammo and can deplete its entire magazine in 5 seconds, and considering it takes 3.5 seconds to down a single enemy, there is no place in the game worth using it. It has the lethality of the Link Gun from UT3. In fact, I'm sure its even weaker than that. The Pulse Rifle is worse. It fires a plasma fireball, which feels like the Shockball from UT3, except its a lot smaller, and is slow. Real slow. It is slower than the speed at which you walk at. You can literally out run this projectile even when its fired in your face. The speed of the fireball slows down as it moves away from the point of origin, so it gets even easier to evade. Forget using this weapon at long range, the fireball will slow to a crawl and self-detonate before it even gets anywhere close. An AOE superweapon with low accuracy that is effective only in short range, yet has a low rate of fire and small clip? Really? Who would use this thing? It's not even like the Gluon Gun in Half Life, since that, although short ranged, was very devastating and hard to dodge in close quarters. No, the Pulse Rifle is a single slow moving projectile that starts small and is easily dodged at close range, even more easily dodged at far range, and the AOE is easily predictable. You can't even use it like a slow-ass rocket launcher, since if it were like that, you'd at least be able to aim at the wall and the ground to use the AOE to your advantage. The plasma ball BOUNCES off every surface until the full distance is covered (also the point where the sphere slows down to a crawl and expires) before the AOE effect occurs. What a bitch.
Where are the FEAR1 weapons that actually had some potential in the right hands? The Particle Weapon was godly, the G2, ASP, Penetrator could all kill with relatively few shots to the torso, and the Repeating Cannon, while difficult to use, was a guaranteed one shot kill at any range. Sorry to spend so much time on the weapons, but the weapons make up a huge part of the gameplay, and the gameplay is a huge part of any FPS.
The story was rather bland, although I appreciated the unveiling of the conspiracy and the developing surrounding the Harbinger project. While most of this stuff should be pretty obvious to those who played the first FEAR, their presentation was decent, without a lot of intrusive 'oh btw, this is what you missed'. However, there were too many PDAs and intel documents to collect. Basically 90% of what you learn about the conspiracy, the organizations, the characters, the buildup is all from reading PDAs. Even Doom 3 didn't go overboard with it like this. Anyway, having read the PDAs, the unfolding of the story was unsurprising, and your allies weren't of much help. 'She's attracted to you like pizza at an anime convention'? Is this something you'd expect special operatives to say?
In the early stages of the game, you'll immediately notice that something feels different with the UI of the game. Then you realise, you're wearing some souped up shades with an integrated HUD display and the most obnoxious color tint in the world. At one point, you'll take your shades off, and it'll feel like a breath of fresh air. Don't get used to it; it doesn't last, and you'll be trying to peer out of a coffin again. What bothers me is I don't get a choice. You have helpful things displayed with your shades, like your ammo and HP... but also an array of paranormal hallucinations, sudden visual lighting compensation failures and a constant flickering. You won't know whether or not the contacts on your glasses need resoldering or if someone is playing with the light switch. I guess that was Monolith's objective. But also, in that case, I'd whip off the glasses and throw them away at first indication of it's faultiness. I could do without the ammo and hp meter - the game is easy enough - but Alma's hallucinatory effects are not scary, just migraine-inducing. Get rid of the glasses and the game no longer aggravates brain tumors.
Scary, the game is not. Like I mentioned, the glasses contribute a large role to the problem, but once you get it in your mind that you're a walking deathdealer with full hp, armor and bristling with weapons, there's not a lot that can shake you up. Most of the hallucinations are just that, so they can't really hurt you. The paranormals can eventually deal damage to you, but it is so minimal, they mind as well just be tickling you with their ethereal feathers. Not like it matters, one single snapshot bullet from your weakest weapon will dispatch them. What a joke, was this supposed to be difficult for any one that wasn't trying to play on a gamepad with a capped sensitivity? When Alma shows up and starts ripping people to shreds, you'd think you'd feel a little bit anxious. But you don't. They are such clear cutscene moments, that you know you are not in control of your character, and thus, Alma won't hurt you. When Alma is finally capable of inflicting some pain, it's pathetic. She tries to strangle you... And after you spam melee to throw her off, she disappears. Considering how this hardly even makes you gag, you'll be conditioned into laughing off every encounter with Alma, and just casually walking by and snapshotting her telekinetic baddies with your pistol. What a scarefest. What happened to her super powers that she utilized to obliterate each one of your teammates one by one? So much build up, and then for what? She tries to choke you to death like she's the villain of a B-slasher flick after easily being capable of sending her acid tentacles through warped time and space?
Multiplayer is really no better. It's confined to very few modes, on very few maps. It's a bit like COD4 in that you have customizable loadouts for when you spawn in, and you can pick up additional weapons from map spawns or off your enemies. Your health automatically recharges in multiplayer, but you need to stand next to an ammo box to steadily regain armor. Health kits are still present, but I haven't found any outside of actually spawning in with them. You can also pickup health injectors, but not everyone drops them, unlike in Fear Combat. Nor do Health Injectors restore 50% HP anymore, but only a mere 25%. The weapons in Multiplayer are further dampened in strength, and the Sniper Rifle requires at least 2 bodyshots to kill a medium armored target. A highly armored target requires 3 bodyshots (or 1 headshot and a bodyshot). That's weaker than in singleplayer, but not by much. Comparing to Fear Combat, people on average take about twice as long to kill. Meleeing is no longer instant kill either. It will take more melee hits, depending on how much health or armor they have remaining. A fully armored target takes 3-4 melee hits to die. Why must you ruin a good high-risk/reward mechanic, Monolith? Another thing that is gone is sprinting. While in FEAR you could run forever by holstering your weapon, you could close distance fast, get around the map quickly, and still not be completely undefended, as you could still melee while running. FEAR2 does away with this by giving you a generic stamina bar, but it's ridiculously short and unhelpful. Your sprint doesn't do much to get you anywhere, and usually it's just not worth the risk to sprint a short distance without having the one-hit-melee to defend yourself.
Basically, FEAR2 Multiplayer has been toned down. It's not as fast paced, it's not innovative, and it doesn't reward players for doing something out of the ordinary like the first one did. It is a stale and uninspired multiplayer that feels like a tacked on afterthought component. When you really have no modes outside of TDM and CTF, things can really get boring. Even FEAR Combat was more exciting in CTF, with much larger map rooms, where teams would engage each other, tearing up the walls and peeping around corners (leaning is gone btw) with much faster runners attempting to circumvent the blockages and flank or snatch flags.
Sometimes you just don't mess with what works, and FEAR2 is a perfect example.
Firstly, before we do that, I must say, I liked FEAR Combat; its unique fast-paced, heart-thumping frenetic melee system; its awing display of sheer firepower without excessive effects flooding; its no-holds-barred deathmatch system where players were rewarded for their fearlessness. It did everything right in turning their slower singleplayer experience into an exciting, replayable multiplayer fragfest where you just could not find any better feeling than staking your enemies to the wall or exploding them into a cloud of blood with a hitscan weapon.
But that's the problem with FEAR2. They took everything great about the old FEAR and tossed it away, leaving nothing commendable, in singleplayer or multiplayer. Already, with just the sequel, the series seems tired and uninspired, the ideas worn thin.
The singleplayer feels like work. You slog through thousands of enemies, each taking nearly an entire clip unless you take the time to solidly put a burst of fire into the target's head. But there's the problem right there. You could carefully try to set up your headshots, by getting the initial surprise shots and slow-mo headshots... but what's the point? You'll kill 5-6 enemies this way, and then everyone else in the room (at least a good 20-30) will be alerted to your attention and you'll be caught out in the open without any slow-mo to save your ass from the hail of bullet-beatings you're about to receive. Trying to sneak around is impossible, since your enemies are literally superhuman anyway, and are capable of hearing your heartbeat and maybe even the tapping of your keyboard. And you often have to kill everyone in the room to progress the mission scripting to allow you into the next room. The player doesn't feel like he has a choice, but rather that he must tediously trudge through a sea of bodies to reach his destination. But here's the main question: Is it faster to run and gun through the hordes or is it faster to plan it out? The answer is quite clear in FEAR2: you rush, you spam everything you have, and you try to pick up just about everything you can. You turn your brain off, and you repeat an unpleasant task for the next few hours for the sake of some promised recompensation. Worse, whether you try to be smart or try to be accurate, the speed at which you drop bodies isn't going to change. Applying skills or thought to your task is an unrewarded waste of time. Like I said, it's akin to menial labour. Nothing you do will get you through it faster, you just have to sit it out.
Frankly, its level of boredom and mundane gameplay is compounded by the fact that everything is too easy! You may notice that you will not always be picking up armor and health whenever you see them like everything else in the game. But it's not because you're trying to save your health/armor boosts for the most efficient moment... It's because you just have too many of them and will never use them. With excessive healthpacks and armor abound, even on the hardest difficulty, the game was never in the least bit challenging. How are you even going to try to frighten me when I'm fully capable of singlehandedly annihilating armies without a scratch? the entire game feels like a method of conditioning you to become fearless of any possible threat... But not even for the right reasons. Fear Combat had you be fearless because the more you killed and the more you rushed, the more medpacks you'd receive from your fallen enemies. FEAR 2 has you fearless because it's too damned boring to be doing things any other way!
The weapons in FEAR2 don't help. Their variety is terrible, as certain weapons are often spammier versions of another, just with a larger clip and less damage; they're just the same weapon with just about the same average damage. The only thing you're really going to be taking into consideration is whether or not you want to fill up one of your few weapon slots with something that you may find no more ammo for later on. Weapons aren't creative either. Their effects are unimpressive at best, and even the Penetrator's effect has been scaled back. Most weapons though are very conventional, and lack the sort of high-tech feel that FEAR1 had. Now it wouldn't be an issue if your guns still felt powerful... But they don't. They feel cheap and tacky, as if you were firing pellets out of your plastic gun. The problem lies in a combination of the sound, the feel, the kick and the damage dealt. It's all wrong. Even the shotgun was terrible, until you got the Combat Shotgun, which was still mediocre, even in its most optimal situations. What ended up being the best weapon that gave you a sense of lethality? The sniper rifle. Yep. The conventional Sniper Rifle trumps the Laser Gun, the Pulse Weapon, the new Penetrator, even the RPG. Despite being carried by fairly normal trash mob opponents only halfway through the game, it only makes appearances in very specific sections where long range shooting is prevalent, so ammo is scarce. The problem is, Monolith wanted you to only really use the Sniper Rifle in these specific spots and throw away the gun right after, where they expected it to be useless. Essentially, the Sniper Rifle was a mini-game weapon, a gimmick. However, since it was the only weapon they got right, in the hands of a good player, it became your ultimate weapon to get you past the baddies that were just too much of a pain to dispatch any other way. For me, it WAS my Pulse Rifle, and was worth carrying around for 2-3 levels just to use it to clear a specific chokepoint room. That either says really good things about the Sniper Rifle, or really disgraceful things about the Pulse Rifle, the supposed BFG of FEAR2. Often times developers will put in a massive drawback to super-weapons, often a low rate of fire or ammo capacity... And Monolith gives the Pulse Rifle and Laser Rifle the same treatment. The problem is they took it too far. The Laser Rifle has very limited ammo and can deplete its entire magazine in 5 seconds, and considering it takes 3.5 seconds to down a single enemy, there is no place in the game worth using it. It has the lethality of the Link Gun from UT3. In fact, I'm sure its even weaker than that. The Pulse Rifle is worse. It fires a plasma fireball, which feels like the Shockball from UT3, except its a lot smaller, and is slow. Real slow. It is slower than the speed at which you walk at. You can literally out run this projectile even when its fired in your face. The speed of the fireball slows down as it moves away from the point of origin, so it gets even easier to evade. Forget using this weapon at long range, the fireball will slow to a crawl and self-detonate before it even gets anywhere close. An AOE superweapon with low accuracy that is effective only in short range, yet has a low rate of fire and small clip? Really? Who would use this thing? It's not even like the Gluon Gun in Half Life, since that, although short ranged, was very devastating and hard to dodge in close quarters. No, the Pulse Rifle is a single slow moving projectile that starts small and is easily dodged at close range, even more easily dodged at far range, and the AOE is easily predictable. You can't even use it like a slow-ass rocket launcher, since if it were like that, you'd at least be able to aim at the wall and the ground to use the AOE to your advantage. The plasma ball BOUNCES off every surface until the full distance is covered (also the point where the sphere slows down to a crawl and expires) before the AOE effect occurs. What a bitch.
Where are the FEAR1 weapons that actually had some potential in the right hands? The Particle Weapon was godly, the G2, ASP, Penetrator could all kill with relatively few shots to the torso, and the Repeating Cannon, while difficult to use, was a guaranteed one shot kill at any range. Sorry to spend so much time on the weapons, but the weapons make up a huge part of the gameplay, and the gameplay is a huge part of any FPS.
The story was rather bland, although I appreciated the unveiling of the conspiracy and the developing surrounding the Harbinger project. While most of this stuff should be pretty obvious to those who played the first FEAR, their presentation was decent, without a lot of intrusive 'oh btw, this is what you missed'. However, there were too many PDAs and intel documents to collect. Basically 90% of what you learn about the conspiracy, the organizations, the characters, the buildup is all from reading PDAs. Even Doom 3 didn't go overboard with it like this. Anyway, having read the PDAs, the unfolding of the story was unsurprising, and your allies weren't of much help. 'She's attracted to you like pizza at an anime convention'? Is this something you'd expect special operatives to say?
In the early stages of the game, you'll immediately notice that something feels different with the UI of the game. Then you realise, you're wearing some souped up shades with an integrated HUD display and the most obnoxious color tint in the world. At one point, you'll take your shades off, and it'll feel like a breath of fresh air. Don't get used to it; it doesn't last, and you'll be trying to peer out of a coffin again. What bothers me is I don't get a choice. You have helpful things displayed with your shades, like your ammo and HP... but also an array of paranormal hallucinations, sudden visual lighting compensation failures and a constant flickering. You won't know whether or not the contacts on your glasses need resoldering or if someone is playing with the light switch. I guess that was Monolith's objective. But also, in that case, I'd whip off the glasses and throw them away at first indication of it's faultiness. I could do without the ammo and hp meter - the game is easy enough - but Alma's hallucinatory effects are not scary, just migraine-inducing. Get rid of the glasses and the game no longer aggravates brain tumors.
Scary, the game is not. Like I mentioned, the glasses contribute a large role to the problem, but once you get it in your mind that you're a walking deathdealer with full hp, armor and bristling with weapons, there's not a lot that can shake you up. Most of the hallucinations are just that, so they can't really hurt you. The paranormals can eventually deal damage to you, but it is so minimal, they mind as well just be tickling you with their ethereal feathers. Not like it matters, one single snapshot bullet from your weakest weapon will dispatch them. What a joke, was this supposed to be difficult for any one that wasn't trying to play on a gamepad with a capped sensitivity? When Alma shows up and starts ripping people to shreds, you'd think you'd feel a little bit anxious. But you don't. They are such clear cutscene moments, that you know you are not in control of your character, and thus, Alma won't hurt you. When Alma is finally capable of inflicting some pain, it's pathetic. She tries to strangle you... And after you spam melee to throw her off, she disappears. Considering how this hardly even makes you gag, you'll be conditioned into laughing off every encounter with Alma, and just casually walking by and snapshotting her telekinetic baddies with your pistol. What a scarefest. What happened to her super powers that she utilized to obliterate each one of your teammates one by one? So much build up, and then for what? She tries to choke you to death like she's the villain of a B-slasher flick after easily being capable of sending her acid tentacles through warped time and space?
Multiplayer is really no better. It's confined to very few modes, on very few maps. It's a bit like COD4 in that you have customizable loadouts for when you spawn in, and you can pick up additional weapons from map spawns or off your enemies. Your health automatically recharges in multiplayer, but you need to stand next to an ammo box to steadily regain armor. Health kits are still present, but I haven't found any outside of actually spawning in with them. You can also pickup health injectors, but not everyone drops them, unlike in Fear Combat. Nor do Health Injectors restore 50% HP anymore, but only a mere 25%. The weapons in Multiplayer are further dampened in strength, and the Sniper Rifle requires at least 2 bodyshots to kill a medium armored target. A highly armored target requires 3 bodyshots (or 1 headshot and a bodyshot). That's weaker than in singleplayer, but not by much. Comparing to Fear Combat, people on average take about twice as long to kill. Meleeing is no longer instant kill either. It will take more melee hits, depending on how much health or armor they have remaining. A fully armored target takes 3-4 melee hits to die. Why must you ruin a good high-risk/reward mechanic, Monolith? Another thing that is gone is sprinting. While in FEAR you could run forever by holstering your weapon, you could close distance fast, get around the map quickly, and still not be completely undefended, as you could still melee while running. FEAR2 does away with this by giving you a generic stamina bar, but it's ridiculously short and unhelpful. Your sprint doesn't do much to get you anywhere, and usually it's just not worth the risk to sprint a short distance without having the one-hit-melee to defend yourself.
Basically, FEAR2 Multiplayer has been toned down. It's not as fast paced, it's not innovative, and it doesn't reward players for doing something out of the ordinary like the first one did. It is a stale and uninspired multiplayer that feels like a tacked on afterthought component. When you really have no modes outside of TDM and CTF, things can really get boring. Even FEAR Combat was more exciting in CTF, with much larger map rooms, where teams would engage each other, tearing up the walls and peeping around corners (leaning is gone btw) with much faster runners attempting to circumvent the blockages and flank or snatch flags.
Sometimes you just don't mess with what works, and FEAR2 is a perfect example.
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