Welcome to the Next Level, a.k.a. The Video Game Thread Options

[monkeyman]

Deadspace is very good. Not particularly scary but its an amazingly atmospheric third person shooter with some fantastic gameplay mechanics. I'm just about to head to engineering which I assume is chapter 3. The story isn't particularly original though what with it being Doom and everything.

I agree that the story isn't particularly original, and neither are a lot of elements of the game really. It's taken (stolen?) influences from major films and games, but what it does, it does very well. And I think the Zero-G moments are fantastic.

[Jimmay]

I agree that the story isn't particularly original, and neither are a lot of elements of the game really. It's taken (stolen?) influences from major films and games, but what it does, it does very well. And I think the Zero-G moments are fantastic.

That whole section where they introduce the vacuum and zero G mechanics was excellent. Part of me wished I had more air supply as I found myself just staring out of the breached hull into space.

[monkeyman]

Oh indeed, I almost died the first time as I started running out of air after looking for so long.

I've played a bit of Farcry 2 now, one of the biggest complaints I had read form people was therat there is too much travelling to do; I'm not to fussed about the travelling, I have diamond searches and the odd battle to fill the gap, and I've found the buggy is pretty damn fast even if it doesn't have a mounted gun on it. What does bug me is removing the save anywhere feature PC players have, that was a dick move. The graphics have been toned down more than I was expecting (on both consoles), certain objects have terrible textures, it's most apparant on vehicles. Some textures are still nice but the car ones are pretty poor.
Another thing that really has bugged me is the weapon sound effects, they are.....weak. Maybe Killzone 2's meaty and noisy weapons have spoiled this kind of thing for me, which is a real shame as firing them is actually fun. Hearing them isn't.

The game has moments of absolute greatness surrounded by mediocrity. The foliage is excellent (both in terms of how it looks and reacts to fire/explosions[blowing around and shit], and how ferns bend out of your way instead of you just floating through them), the fire propagation is a thing of sublime beauty as well, the way it moves with the wind and burnable materials is fantastic.

I did an excellent mission last night, it was one of the radio tower assassination type ones. The target was on a sort of villa on a lake. I scoped the place out from a distance in the day, and then rested in a safehouse until night. I swum to a jetty in the middle of the lake and stabbed up the lone guard there, found where the sniper I'd spotted was and rocket launched him to oblivion before starting my attack in earnest. it was good sneaking up on the guard and removing the threat of the sniper in a (sort of) sneaky way. I also started taking damage after firing my rocket and was wondering what was happening until i turned and realised the rocket launcher exhaust (or whatever it's called) had obviously spewed out flames into the grass and set it alight. Brilliant.

Is the stealth suit worth it? I've noticed the AI is a bit hit and miss on whether they spot me in the grass or not, I'd quite like to be better hidden as I will eventually use a sniper rifle. I just about have enough diamonds for it now.

This post has been edited by monkeyman: Apr 2 2009, 01:22 PM

[Nonus Aequilibri...]

I think I bought the stealth suit and found it made almost sod all difference. The AI still detected me way too often in times when there was no way they should have.

The travelling doesn't seem a big deal at first but after a while it starts to get insanely tedious, the random encounters occur way too often, and you realise that every type of mission just follows the exact same formula. All the radio tower missions are "go here, kill a man", all the gun shop missions are "go here, blow up a truck", identical except in a different location each time. The radio missions even give you the exact same dialogue every time on the phone.

The choice of which weapons to use was completely gone early on for me. Once I had the sniper rifle, the Saw and the silenced pistol I've never seen any need to change away from this as they cover every need in every circumstance.

[logger]

The poor friendly AI in Killzone 2 is starting to spoil the game for me now. At best they get in the way when you're trying to fire. At worst they are bullet magnets that push you out of cover. I now spend half the game running away from them. At one point I even had one stand directly in front of me just as I fired an RPG, causing it to explode and kill me instantly. They survived. It's a pity because the action is great and apart from the cover system being a bit awkward, this is the only major drawback. They're not even needed. I wouldn't even mind if they just got killed of straight away as soon as you got into a skirmish but they're indestructible.

[fatseff1234]

Well the fact that she doesn't exist kind of does, yeah. You're essentially turned on by the work of a graphic artist.

Hentai?

I don't really care, I still "would".

[Nonus Aequilibri...]

Well, I now have a PS3, and Killzone 2.

[monkeyman]

I would highly recommend picking up Uncharted: Drakes Fortune at some point as well. It's a platinum game now so won't cost you much and it is a brilliant title.

[Sir_Robin_the_br...]

I could do with a Blu-Ray player, but I'll probably hold off until Heavy Rain comes out as I probably ought to play at least one game on it.

Might give MGS4 another go through as well. Best to get a job first though.

Also, House of the Dead: Overkill is great fun. I'm suprised nobody realised the comic potential for a Grindhouse style pisstake rail shooter before.

[Nonus Aequilibri...]

I would highly recommend picking up Uncharted: Drakes Fortune at some point as well. It's a platinum game now so won't cost you much and it is a brilliant title.

I might just take a look at that then.

It's going to take some getting used to this, the PS3 control pads are utterly awful, and Killzone 2's not exactly helping matters by having daft controls like the analogue right trigger being "throw grenade". Who the hell makes a first person shooter and doesn't have the analogue triggers as primary fire?

[mcraigclark]

I second the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune suggestion. It's very good.

[logger]

Who the hell makes a first person shooter and doesn't have the analogue triggers as primary fire?

They are, aren't they?

I second the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune suggestion. It's very good.

I'll third it.

[Nonus Aequilibri...]

No, the default configuration is R1 for fire and R2 grenade. I found this out as I threw a grenade right into a bunch of my squad.

Is there any way to set a global default (like on the 360) for stuff like inverting the Y axis so that I don't have to set it in every game?

[monkeyman]

No theres isn't a global preset like that.

I also prefer the PS3 pads, having the analogue sticks being symettrical feels more comfortable to me.

[Atara]

I have got used to the PS3 controller now and do prefer it to the 360 one, it was weird at first since it is so light but I am over it, I imagine once we get the dualshock I will be happier as it will probably feel a bit more substantial.

This post has been edited by Atara: Apr 4 2009, 03:25 PM