So many topics, so little time to discuss them. It's been about a week since I last put something up so I figured now was as good of a time as any.
I have been back nose deep into Fallout: New Vegas and its DLC for the last couple of weeks, loving it. When the game was first released I burned through the story, doing several side quests but never really exploring like I did in Fallout 3. The Capitol Wasteland just felt so interesting to me compared to the Mojave, the ruined landmarks, the subtle differences of said landmarks from their real-life counterparts and even the outrageous misuse of the Brotherhood of Steel. But looking back on the whole thing it was the DLC packs that kept me playing for such a long period of time.
The original DLC, Anchorage, was a wash, it wasn't even Fallout. It had no real exploration and a run and gun follow-orders plot that felt alien to the Fallout style of play. But they improved, offering new areas to be explored and more loots to be discovered. Each new installment had a unique style and flair that was instantly recognizable. Returning from The Pitt or Point Lookout had you looking like a foreigner when you re-entered the capitol. Instead of feeling like 'The Vault Kid' the boxed game painted you as, you began to look and feel like a seasoned adventurer, the kind of guy or girl who had experience getting things done. As a role playing game it changed the dynamics of the experience without really changing a thing. You had weapons nobody else in town had, you were strange and unique and really stood out as the hero.
Bethesda while creating new content for their already enormous game made their original offering better. I'm not entirely sure it was intentional and if you're playing on the PC mods can easily offer the same experience but they did it. Fallout 3 as a package with its DLCs is remarkably better than the sum of its parts.
But that's the past, lets get back to the now.
I'm not going to lie, personally I think Old World Blues looks like the most promising Fallout DLC yet.
When I was in high school I had the pleasure of playing Fallout 2 and yet I'm ashamed to admit I've never found the time to play the original. My memories of Fallout 2 are hazy but I remember it being jam-packed with pop culture references and being downright zany at times. If we just ignore all the crappy in-between titles like that one on Xbox, FO:3 was like a modern re-imagining of Fallout in the same vein as a film re-imagining. The concept was the same, as were some of the factions and characters for nostalgia's sake, but it was a completely different monster. Fallout 2 never really took itself seriously. It was full of sex and drugs, the violence was laughably over-the-top and the game constantly poked fun at itself. Fallout 3 on the other hand took itself quite seriously, instead of making fun of celebrities it hired them as voice actors. Instead of painting a post-apocalyptic USA in a sort of ironic 'lets all keep repeating the same mistakes' sort of way Bethesda chose to go state-of-nature on us. I'm not going to try and argue which is the better approach, obviously both camps have their supporters.
Back to Old World Blues, remember at the time of writing this it hasn't been released I have no idea what it will really be like. OWB looks to be like an attempt to recapture some of that old school Fallout feel. Something that I think newcomers to the franchise will find different at first but lead them to ultimately experience what earned Fallout so many fans in the first place. I'm not going to speculate on content, more on it in the future once i get to play it.
Cheers,
Gibbo
Monday, July 11, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Love is a Battlefield
I'm going to jump right in and say it, I love the Battlefield franchise. They've perfected a style of multiplayer in which it is primarily a team game, but a single exceptional player can still rise up and become the deciding factor in any given match. They've never really offered much in the way of single player experience and I for one haven't missed it, their games warrant their purchase price simply with their multiplayer design alone.
The current iteration, Bad Company 2, obviously isn't the full bodied Battlefield we've enjoyed in the past but I still find myself jumping in for a game or two whenever I have the time. There's cheaters, you can't lay prone, the voice chat doesn't really work, but it's still Battlefield. It's certainly not their greatest release, but the fun is still there under it all.
Their greatest release is coming at the end of the year, if you believe the hype. What hype it is too, just look at this stuff.
Now if that doesn't get you ready for some Battlefield, nothing will. But wait, that's the single player? That's not how I remember Battlefield. That looks more like something else...
But it's fine, DICE always deliver with the multiplayer goods, if anything it's better if they include a full fledged COD style single player, it just makes the purchase a more complete package.
Then the info starts to trickle in, those bloody location specific DLC exclusives. Buy it from Gamestop you get an extra gun, buy it from Amazon.com you get different outfits, buy it from Walmart and the Hummers are replaced with horses. Obviously these aren't the real exclusives, you'll have to go to a real game site to find out what those are. Now I shouldn't have to tell you, I'm Australian, I don't shop at those stores, I don't know where they are (Well, I know where Amazon.com is...). But they do the same thing here, they divide those location specific DLCs between the retailers in our country, like GAME, EB Games, Big W, Target etc. Now in all honesty how much can they really get out of Australian retailers in this initiative? We're not the USA, we're not even the UK, our video game market is minuscule compared to the world market.
But who cares right, small location specific game changes, how does it effect the game? It doesn't, it just divides up what's already on the disk on release and only makes certain parts available should you have the access code. I just don't like the trend, if it comes on the disk, it should be included in the (already sizable if you're Australian) purchase price. If you want to add stuff to the game later, make me download it, that way I don't mind paying the extra and I don't mind if I miss out.
But forget all that marketing crap, it's still Battlefield, you've just got to push through the tough, noisy EA exterior and get down to the juicy DICE centre. Once we get the game and we're playing it, it'll be just like we wanted it... right?
He changes to English, stick with it. Watch around the 2:00 mark. Good, you done? Moving on.
If you haven't had the time to download and try out Project Reaility you really are missing out. It's basically the greatest example of what a community who loves your game can do for a game as it ages. To stand there in your red shirt and say that the community who made that is too stupid to mod with your engine is outrageous. Shame on you red shirt man. I don't care about your tactical light shooting, you just insulted me.
Wow, this got kinda long. Am I going to buy and play Battlefield 3? Yes I am, I think in the same way that I can ignore all the parts of BC2 I don't like and still enjoy it I will be able to do the same with Battlefield 3. I just hope this is as far as it goes. Battlefield 3 will obviously sell well enough to warrant another sequel, I just hope by that point it's still Battlefield we're playing.
Thanks for reading
- Gibbo
The current iteration, Bad Company 2, obviously isn't the full bodied Battlefield we've enjoyed in the past but I still find myself jumping in for a game or two whenever I have the time. There's cheaters, you can't lay prone, the voice chat doesn't really work, but it's still Battlefield. It's certainly not their greatest release, but the fun is still there under it all.
Their greatest release is coming at the end of the year, if you believe the hype. What hype it is too, just look at this stuff.
Now if that doesn't get you ready for some Battlefield, nothing will. But wait, that's the single player? That's not how I remember Battlefield. That looks more like something else...
But it's fine, DICE always deliver with the multiplayer goods, if anything it's better if they include a full fledged COD style single player, it just makes the purchase a more complete package.
Then the info starts to trickle in, those bloody location specific DLC exclusives. Buy it from Gamestop you get an extra gun, buy it from Amazon.com you get different outfits, buy it from Walmart and the Hummers are replaced with horses. Obviously these aren't the real exclusives, you'll have to go to a real game site to find out what those are. Now I shouldn't have to tell you, I'm Australian, I don't shop at those stores, I don't know where they are (Well, I know where Amazon.com is...). But they do the same thing here, they divide those location specific DLCs between the retailers in our country, like GAME, EB Games, Big W, Target etc. Now in all honesty how much can they really get out of Australian retailers in this initiative? We're not the USA, we're not even the UK, our video game market is minuscule compared to the world market.
But who cares right, small location specific game changes, how does it effect the game? It doesn't, it just divides up what's already on the disk on release and only makes certain parts available should you have the access code. I just don't like the trend, if it comes on the disk, it should be included in the (already sizable if you're Australian) purchase price. If you want to add stuff to the game later, make me download it, that way I don't mind paying the extra and I don't mind if I miss out.
But forget all that marketing crap, it's still Battlefield, you've just got to push through the tough, noisy EA exterior and get down to the juicy DICE centre. Once we get the game and we're playing it, it'll be just like we wanted it... right?
He changes to English, stick with it. Watch around the 2:00 mark. Good, you done? Moving on.
If you haven't had the time to download and try out Project Reaility you really are missing out. It's basically the greatest example of what a community who loves your game can do for a game as it ages. To stand there in your red shirt and say that the community who made that is too stupid to mod with your engine is outrageous. Shame on you red shirt man. I don't care about your tactical light shooting, you just insulted me.
Wow, this got kinda long. Am I going to buy and play Battlefield 3? Yes I am, I think in the same way that I can ignore all the parts of BC2 I don't like and still enjoy it I will be able to do the same with Battlefield 3. I just hope this is as far as it goes. Battlefield 3 will obviously sell well enough to warrant another sequel, I just hope by that point it's still Battlefield we're playing.
Thanks for reading
- Gibbo
Time to dust this thing off
Hello there, whoever is unfortunate enough to be reading this. I haven't posted on this blog in quite some time so I very much doubt anyone will read this, but I feel the time is right to kick this thing off as I intended.
All posts before this one were written during university classes and can pretty much be ignored unless you're really keen on finding out how I write hung-over 3 hours from due time. Don't make that facial expression, you all did it.
Steam sales, Steam sales, Steam sales. It's funny, I'll march in the streets against over-developed mediocre titles like Homefront stealing talent and funding away from more interesting projects, but offer it to me for half the price and I'll buy it. It doesn't even seem to be the price that pushes me to the purchase, it's the fact I'm not paying what I paid for a good game that allows me to justify it. Somewhere in my mind it cheapens great games if I pay the same amount for something sub-par.
Speaking of sub-par, what was with Brink? I actually convinced friends of mine to purchase that. I guess I had it in my head how good the concept could be, didn't take the time to analyse the product they laid out. I tried to play it for about a week, just couldn't do it, it offered me nothing of interest.
So what does interest me these days? I played L.A. Noire and I really, really wanted to love it. I only played it when I was in a good mood, trying to maximize my opinion of it. But it was in vain. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly not a bad game, there's a lot going for it. I enjoyed the voice acting and the case work/notebook system was handled elegantly allowing you to rattle through the cases at a decent pace.
But it just felt so.... disjointed, I never really cared about doing the cases and it didn't take long until I didn't want to do them any more. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the type of guy who needs non-stop action in a game in order to enjoy it. In fact, my favourite parts of Half-Life 2 are the parts where you stop for a second and there's some tid-bit of story that offers a glimpse into the game world. L.A. Noir's story feels like a sticky slow swamp you need to wade through to get anywhere interesting. That's not to say it isn't well written, that isn't the problem, the whole game just feels as though it's missing a hook, some great game play spark that makes the ordeal worthwhile. Maybe I just really wanted it to be better, as an Australian I'm well aware of the problems the Australian games industry has had over the last few years. Team Bondi did the industry proud, L.A. Noire is a fine game, a game of quality, it's just not the game I wanted it to be.
A friend and I played the hell out of dungeon siege 1 and 2 back in the day. We loved that Diablo style of co-op. I picked up the new one was actually pretty eager to give it a go. Ignoring the awful monologue/story preview at the beginning I prepared myself for a bit of old fashioned gaming. I played it for three or four hours before I stopped and realized I was was forcing myself to play. Perhaps it was that I was playing on my own, but the style of game play, the isometric click-fest, just felt... well dated. Maybe I'm just out of practice, or maybe I need to actually get together with a friend and play it co-op (sorry about Brink guys...) but I was downright surprised at how bland and lifeless the game play felt. More on Dungeon Siege in the future though, I haven't given it a fair enough run yet to make a decision.
Anyway, this was fun, more in the future.
-Gibbo
All posts before this one were written during university classes and can pretty much be ignored unless you're really keen on finding out how I write hung-over 3 hours from due time. Don't make that facial expression, you all did it.
Steam sales, Steam sales, Steam sales. It's funny, I'll march in the streets against over-developed mediocre titles like Homefront stealing talent and funding away from more interesting projects, but offer it to me for half the price and I'll buy it. It doesn't even seem to be the price that pushes me to the purchase, it's the fact I'm not paying what I paid for a good game that allows me to justify it. Somewhere in my mind it cheapens great games if I pay the same amount for something sub-par.
Speaking of sub-par, what was with Brink? I actually convinced friends of mine to purchase that. I guess I had it in my head how good the concept could be, didn't take the time to analyse the product they laid out. I tried to play it for about a week, just couldn't do it, it offered me nothing of interest.
So what does interest me these days? I played L.A. Noire and I really, really wanted to love it. I only played it when I was in a good mood, trying to maximize my opinion of it. But it was in vain. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly not a bad game, there's a lot going for it. I enjoyed the voice acting and the case work/notebook system was handled elegantly allowing you to rattle through the cases at a decent pace.
But it just felt so.... disjointed, I never really cared about doing the cases and it didn't take long until I didn't want to do them any more. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the type of guy who needs non-stop action in a game in order to enjoy it. In fact, my favourite parts of Half-Life 2 are the parts where you stop for a second and there's some tid-bit of story that offers a glimpse into the game world. L.A. Noir's story feels like a sticky slow swamp you need to wade through to get anywhere interesting. That's not to say it isn't well written, that isn't the problem, the whole game just feels as though it's missing a hook, some great game play spark that makes the ordeal worthwhile. Maybe I just really wanted it to be better, as an Australian I'm well aware of the problems the Australian games industry has had over the last few years. Team Bondi did the industry proud, L.A. Noire is a fine game, a game of quality, it's just not the game I wanted it to be.
A friend and I played the hell out of dungeon siege 1 and 2 back in the day. We loved that Diablo style of co-op. I picked up the new one was actually pretty eager to give it a go. Ignoring the awful monologue/story preview at the beginning I prepared myself for a bit of old fashioned gaming. I played it for three or four hours before I stopped and realized I was was forcing myself to play. Perhaps it was that I was playing on my own, but the style of game play, the isometric click-fest, just felt... well dated. Maybe I'm just out of practice, or maybe I need to actually get together with a friend and play it co-op (sorry about Brink guys...) but I was downright surprised at how bland and lifeless the game play felt. More on Dungeon Siege in the future though, I haven't given it a fair enough run yet to make a decision.
Anyway, this was fun, more in the future.
-Gibbo
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