October-November Release Review Roundup

[Patton]

I've spent far too much money on games in the past 3 weeks. Late October/Early November saw the release of some pretty big-name titles. My gaming ADD forced me to buy so many.

I figured I would share some of my experiences and thoughts on them with you all.

Far Cry 2: Excellent game. Very pretty. Quality combat. Some big mistakes were made, however, that prevent it from getting top scores. Everyone outside of the big towns is always hostile to you. They tried to make this a GTAIV-like game, and almost succeeded, but it seems like everyone with a keep or an AK47 in Africa hates your character, because you're getting out to fight your way past an outpost 6 times on your way to a mission objective. Fun, but I did not complete it. Shelved for the dry months.

Fallout 3: It's Fallout on the Oblivion engine with some major changes, all for the better. I love post-apocalyptic settings. The VATS combat system is great, as is the traditional Fallout sense of humor, and the absolutely horrific ways you can separate limbs and heads from their bodies. Fun to play, and many different ways to play it. I still haven't finished the game, and I have shelved it for newer games already with the intent of going back and putting in some serious exploration time in said dry months.

Gears of War 2: It's Gears of War. 2. I loved the first one and I love the second one for the same reasons. High level of polish, extremely fun to play coop, and the new multiplayer modes (Horde specifically) are a blast to play. Can't wait to get my friend back over to finish the Campaign in coop mode.

Fable 2: I'm surprised I bought this. I did not enjoy the first one at all. But either I have changes or the changes made to the game have made it excellent. I love the sense of humor, I love the art direction, the combat is fun and visceral, and there is alot going on and alot to do in the world. I like how my actions have serious impacts on the world, but I am not very far into the game yet.

Mirror's Edge: I was very on the fence with this game. The free messenger bag from Gamestop is actually what sold me, but I'm glad I picked this up. This is a big surprise in how fun it is. Very non-traditional FPS, very fun, and very intense to play. Jumping between buildings is far more fun than it sounds, and I didn't think someone could make a good game out of it. :)

I left Left 4 Dead and Warhammer out. I also bought Rock Band 2. There isn't much to say about these games that you guys don't already know.

[Dg3Nr8]

dont forget Dead Space

[Patton]

I just listed the ones I actually bought. :)

Dead Space wasn't a must-have.

[Creole Ned]

Nice reviews, Patton. I have had to resist adding too many games to my legendary backlog but I gave in on the hype at Qt3 and picked up Far Cry 2 (I'm a sucker for open world games). I've only played the opening section and will go back to it eventually (in 2015 or something).

I've also picked up Fallout 3 but haven't installed it yet.

I never paid enough attention to Mirror's Edge to give it much thought but I'm reading more about it now and will probably have a look at the demo.

GoW2 -- still haven't played the original. But have it, of course! :P

Fable 2 intrigued me because of the co-op then I read the co-op mostly sucks, so it's off the list.

On the other hand, the co-op in Saints Row 2 is supposed to be several shades of spiffy, so that's on my "hmm, maybe" list.

Then there's WotLK today, MoM next week and probably a bunch of others. And my backlog of 50 thousand games. And probably other upcomnig ones I'm forgetting. So yeah.

But I'm still interested in your thoughts on WAR, Left4Dead, etc. More opinions are always good.

[Dg3Nr8]

I just listed the ones I actually bought. :)

Dead Space wasn't a must-have.

You should check it out for sure. I really enjoyed it and honestly thinks it's up there with BioShock on the SP experience level. If it wasn't for Fallout 3 I might even put it up there for my SP GOTY vote. It's just got a great atmosphere and the sound is top-fucking-notch.

[jackrabbit]

Spot on. I like that Patton writing reviews saves me from writing them. I don't have a single varying opinion on them except that Fallout 3 is a sometimes game. There's too much to do and it takes to long to do it for it to be one of the games I sit down and beat in three days. I tried that approach and was bored silly. In smaller doses (a new concept to me) its a great game.

I plan to either rent Fable 2 or have my brother buy it and borrow his. I did like the first one, but my save game got corrupted. Even though I own it and had beaten the story boss, I never finished the bonus stuff in the Lost CHapters because I don't have the energy to start over just to see them.

I don't know if I'll even rent GoW2. As glowing a review as Patton's is, I don't plan to play the multiplayer, and the gameplay wasn't unique enough to squeeze into my currenly remarkably narrow gaming time.

I grabbed the demo for Mirror's Edge, but my Xbox HDD buried it someplace. I haven't found it yet, but read the game is maybe six hours long. Probably a rental in spring.

The demo for Tomb Raider: Underworld, makes a compelling case that I would love the game. I loved the last one, but the game in general needed useful or interesting unlocks. Busting my ass in time trials to earn an evening gown outfit for Lara adds no replay value, except if you count masturbating as replay value. Cause I heard some people might do that. But not me. Cause I respect Lara as a person.

Dead SPace will be this year's Dawn of War: a game with great reviews that I'd probably love that will get overlooked because it came out too close to a WoW product. Maybe I'll go back and rent it sometime, but realistically I know I wont.

I'm still trying to get excited about Left4Dead, but there's some weird energy that keeps me from it. Kind of like when everyone said that ET was such a great movie that I ended up hating it, and dedicating my life to destroying anyone involved with it. He was a creepy puppet that looked like a penis with eczema. Enough hype over a great game will just make it annoying (Tai and Rat, I'm looking at you and your friend TF2).

PS. I'm a bit punchy today. Not enough sleep.

[Falhawk]

jesus christ you've spent like $500 on games this month patton


Also, Warhammer continues to be fantastic. I have a blasty blast every time I play. I attribute a lot of that to the group we've got though. The PVP is unmatched by anything I've played thus far and makes pve mmo's (like WoW) seem totally pointless.

[Patton]

I think I will be renting Dead Space and Star Wars The Force Unleashed.

I'm not sure where or why I drew the line in the sand with certain single player games where I buy some and decide to rent others. I'd probably save a bunch of money (480 or so) if I were more picky about what I actually purchased. At least I am supported the economy. Or something.

Left 4 Dead is the kind of game I can see myself playing for a long time after release. The base game is entertaining, and beyond that it is a matter of introducing new maps to keep it going, and Valve will more than likely do that. I still haven't actually gotten into a Multiplayer game of it, but I am quite excited to do so.

Since Fal brought up a good (monetary) point [from chat]:

there's a few games there i know i will get my money out of, like mirror's edge, fallout, and gow2
but far cry 2 could have been rented
fable 2 is still undecided

That is alot of money to spend on games. I kinda feel like a dope now.

[Falhawk]

left 4 dead sounds neat but zombies are totally played out now.

I think the next co-op game that will grab my interest is diablo 2

[Creole Ned]

Lucky for you Diablo 2 released eight years ago. No waiting!

Zombies are played out but Left4Dead does zombies very well and the co-op is not bolted on, it's the core of the gameplay. It's very fun. And the vs. mode should be a hoot plus one-half, too.

[Falhawk]

er I meant Diablo 3

[F7]

Nice reviews Patton. Agree on pretty much all of them. Also, I'm looking forward to trying Mirrors Edge based on your review.

I've been having a blast with Fallout 3, taking my time and playing it from a 'If I were there' (in the loosest sense possible) aspect. Instead of directly hopping from objective to objective, I just kinda wander around and stumble across things. Then again, I love Bethesda games and have been hooked to the 'open sandbox' style since Arena and cannot even begin to fathom the amount of time I've spent in Daggerfall and Morrowind.

LBP hasn't grabbed my attention as much as I thought it would. I think the cuteness factor is too much for my senses.

From the beta, Resistance 2 co-op was awesome. I liked the 3 classes system with leveling and class specific unlockables and enjoyed playing combat medic. I'll actually be picking this up this week.

Like JR, I just can't get too thrilled about L4D. I kicked the tires on the preorder demo and found it to be mind-numbingly monotonous. It's fun in that the atmosphere is cool and you're constantly in a state of alert, but I attribute both to the game taking place at night and most of the lights being off in the buildings. Turn the gamma up and it becomes Serious Sam if Serious Sam had only one monster type (yeah I realize there's also a smoker and witch, etc.) and two weapons to choose from. The only saving grace is that it was the demo and hopefully the full release has more meat and potatoes.

I'd actually like to see a game done in L4D style but more attuned to 'I Am Legend'. Where you're stuck inside a city like NYC with the only ways out being tunnels and bridges with 4-6 others (multiplayer coop) and a game takes place over the course of an hour rather than the shorter L4D type games. There would be multiple ways to traverse the city (subway, rooftops, streets, building to building, etc.) and there would be puzzles that require teamwork to progress through with the ultimate goal being to leave the city.

Like Fal, D3 is my next anticipated game. Unfortunately it seems like my interest may doom it. I'm 0 for 3 in recent years with Spore, LBP, and L4D all disappointing me after my pre-release excitement.

Also planning on renting Dead Space based on the recommendations here.

[Shadowrat]

I find L4D to be 2 things. By yourself, it's kind of monotonous. But with a full team, it's a blast.

I appreciate the single player game as a way to hone your skills and learn the map, but it's really the other players that make the game shine. Once you have 4 people it demands communication and coordination. At least it does on the expert difficulty. for some reason even having one AI kind of ruins the panic. They dutifully follow you. They always help you when you are down, etc. Additionally, they don't do anything especially smart either. Having humans in the game gives you someone who will be both truly heroic and someone who will not even realize you are down.

ultimately i think it's going to have a similar appeal as tf2. If you want a bunch of cool environments and a story with great characters, it's probably not for you (though i do like the survivor's personalities and silly banter). If you just like the teamwork and are the kind of person who likes to tackle one thing over and over until you are perfect*, you'd like it.

i would recommend that anyone on the fence not do the preorder. Just wait for the free demo.

*people who like to play the expert tour on rock band, master dahlsim and zangief, throwing barbarians, enslave as many demons as possible because they think the chance of them breaking free is exciting, and generally look for the challenge of doing something the hard way fit into this group.

[Creole Ned]

The free demo has been out for a few days for Left4Dead.

Also, as I said above, this game is built for co-op. Not playing with AI buddies (which you can) but flesh and blood humans who can screw up or save your butt in heroic fashion, often within moments of each other. :P

[Tai]

I am so going to shoot each and every person on my team. :) Let's do this!

[F7]

Maybe it's just the pubs then. For all the time I've played, I've found the humans I'm playing with to be just as dumb and non-heroic as the AI.

[Shadowrat]

probably. it's fun with friends; like people who talk, and when they talk you want to hear what they say. Those are the kind of people you need.

Admittedly that's a select few. If you don't know 4 of those people, it's probably not going to be fun.



BTW F7 did you end up getting a notebook?

[F7]

Nah not yet. We just bought a new living room set, new LCD TV for the bedroom, and my wife just told me yesterday that she's pregnant! :D We both bumped up our 401K to the max as well so with the prospect of a baby coming, we want to see how the next few months go before we drop 5G on laptops.

We'll most likely buy them around next tax season. It's come down to a Sager and a MacBook Pro so I have a few months to decide.

[Creole Ned]

I would say the Left4Dead AI is considerably brighter than the average PuG player.

Also, congrats on the future F7ling. :)

[Tick]

F8?

Also, jesus that's a lot of people who mistakenly thought releasing their game at the same time as WotLK wouldn't hurt their sales.

L4D sounds like a cross between R6:3 and Serious Sam, which sounds awesome. If I ever pry my head out of Northrend, I'll have to give the demo a shot.

[Creole Ned]

If you want to try the demo with other people and not just the AI helping out, you need to try it before the full game releases on the 18th. After that the demo will not support true multiplayer. Or so sayeth Valve, anyway.