Video Games Thread

[jman]

Looks like Smartglass is available on android already... will download that tonight... not that I'll actually be able to do much other than look at and dress my avatar.. whoopeee!!

[Late]

...The only complaints I've heard were regarding the controls on earlier builds...

Really? The vast majority of complaints I've heard are that it's got no multiplayer...

Looks like Smartglass is available on android already... will download that tonight... not that I'll actually be able to do much other than look at and dress my avatar.. whoopeee!!

Nice - didn't think we'd see that any time soon.
Have just had a look on my phone, and apparently the app isn't compatible. Disappointing, but not surprising - it was a budget phone when I got it two years ago, so isn't exactly a forerunner now. Hopefully my tablet will be compatible. Budget, again, but newer and running ICS (the phone is still on froyo).

[jman]

Oh yeah bollocks didnt think there would be minimum specs.. thats me screwed then as my phone never got the update for ICS... stuck on Gingerbread forever ... (thanks for that sony btw!)

Not sure if tablet support has been finalized yet... I think it was an app specifically for android smartphones for now..

[Late]

Aye, I've just read it's phones only at the mo - no tablet support yet. And it's stated as being for Android 4.0 and up.

I might just side-load it onto the tablet and/or phone, tonight, see how/if it works - assuming I can find the apk.

[harv]

Thought it was a daft decision from them not to have at least one of the two available at launch.

And regarding ZombiU's multiplayer, it does have it. Just not online multiplayer. It does have online leaderboards and other online features such as your zombiefied self and your friends' zombiefied selves appearing in each other's games forcing a race between you both to kill them and nick their stuff lol. And considering your new survivor respawns with a crappy gun, 6 bullets and a cricket bat it's going to be a possible huge advantage to your game if he/she has got some decent gear.

There's also the Souls feature of leaving messages for other players too.

And like I said I'd much rather have a 15-20 hour single player campaign with plenty of replay value and local multiplayer than online multiplayer with a 5-6 hour campaign. This gen has really suffered in terms of single player value.

And don't even get me started on online bloomin co-op Co-op for Dead Space 3..? Resident Evil..? It's bad enough these days that survival horror has become action horror but now we're looking at games that have gone from having a lone protagonist to having two protagonists working together which means that the sense of vulnerability in these games has gone before you take into account the shitloads of ammo you get in these games these days.

[Late]

You don't like playing games online - but most people do. (I'm not big on online gaming, personally - none of my RL friends have consoles. But online gaming is a necessity these days, and it's fantastic fun playing with strangers on games like COD, FIFA, and L4D...)
It's completely ridiculous that a premium FPS game in 2012 doesn't have online multiplayer.
Having local multiplayer and a couple of online gimmicks doesn't help. Quite the opposite - both factors just emphasise the fact that the developers know the game should have online multiplayer, and the engine is capable of it.
Not sure how the online zombiefied friends thing works, but from what you've posted there it sounds like it's open to abuse, with people able to gift weapons etc. to friends to give them a head start, by suiciding... There's probably more to it than that, and hopefully such abuse isn't possible, but tbh I don't really care one way or the other, because it's a massively flawed game(#1) on a massively flawed platform(#2).

As for the length of the single player campaign, why would they chop 10 hours from the campaign if they added online multiplayer?!

"Look chaps, we've just about finished making our game but the online feature still isn't working right. We can get local multiplayer working fine, we just can't get the online version to work because Nintendo's online infrastructure is so shite.
I feel bloody aggrieved about that, but we'll give the punters some silly gimmicks instead. You know - online leaderboards, their reanimated corpses pop up on each others' consoles, that sort of thing..."
"Boss, boss - we've finally figured out how to get online multiplayer to work. Turns out Nintendo's online infrastructure is workable afterall - we'd just put a zero in the code where there should've been a one!"
"Fantastic news, lads. Start hacking the story to pieces - I want you to dump two third of the story and locations so that we can add online multiplayer."





(#1) No online multiplayer = massive flaw.
(#2) "Asymetrical gaming" console = massive flaw.

[ancelotti]

GTA V announced for Spring 2013 release - buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Might have to get Smartglass on my S3 just to see what it's like. Running Jelly Bean as of last week!

[jman]

  cant wait, preordering asap

No announcement for Wii U - ooops   

[harv]

The lack of online multiplayer for ZombiU has nothing to do with how good or bad the online infrastructure is. It's a launch title, you can be sure that the inevitable sequel will have it included. And who said anything about hacking the story to pieces..? My point was that the majority of FPS and TPS games that have online multiplayer usually have a single player game that's on average 5-8 hours long. Which is bloody terrible. Developers and publishers have limited resources to get these things done, even more so when a console is launching.

And no surprise about GTA V unfortunately after their recent comments regarding their doubts that 'core' titles will sell on the system, although given the state of their finances I'm surprised they haven't decided to spread the cost to a fourth platform. I think that Rockstar/Take Two are going to be amongst those developers and publishers kicking themselves when they see how well these titles are going to sell, even on a console with an installed userbase of zero in the beginning.

The late ports like Mass Effect 3 and Arkham City might not do great, although that does depend on marketing, but the likes of Assassins Creed 3, FIFA 13, Black Ops 2, ZombiU should do fine. Considering it's costing Ubisoft just a million Euros to port games to the U it's madness for Take Two not to bring GTA V to the same platform. Mind you, some of these decisions made by board members really don't surprise me tbh. It's only the GTA franchise that's kept Take Two afloat. Losses every year until a GTA game appears if I remember correctly. Someone on another forum not so long ago posted their financial results for the last 10 years, and it was quite shocking

The only title I can see that won't do well is Mass Effect 3, but given the apparent ease and cost effectiveness of porting to the platform they might only have to shift 150,000 units before they start making a profit.

[jman]

I bet nintendo wished Rockstar had kept that news quiet until the U had launched... 

...nintendo have got a few screws loose to let a game like GTA5 release on everything but... its going to be, by far the biggest selling game of the year, decade and probably generation... instead you've got crappy exclusives in niche games like Bayonetta 2..

...if you think its just going to be GTA5 missing from the Wii U aswell, think again... thats just the tip of the iceberg.. there will be plenty of other developers (such as Bethesda) following suit and not releasing their franchises on the nintendo console...

[harv]

We should easily see the next Elder Scrolls and Fallout titles being released on the U. Probably a year at least before we see either one of those, and by that time we should see the U having an installed userbase of between 10 and 15m and the likes of ZombiU, Rayman Legends and Aliens Colonial Marines in particular will show publishers that 'core' games that make good use of the GamePad and that have decent marketing will sell. You're not going to see publishers leaving money on the table now that Nintendo will have released a console with a standard rendering pipeline.

It would be a no-brainer for Bethesda to bring Fallout 4 to the U, same with the next Elder Scrolls installment. A Pip-Boy in the palm of your hands and being able to level up, change inventory/weapons/magic and checking the map/setting waypoints without needing to pause the game is going to be excellent.

[Late]

Aye, I've just read it's phones only at the mo - no tablet support yet. And it's stated as being for Android 4.0 and up.

I might just side-load it onto the tablet and/or phone, tonight, see how/if it works - assuming I can find the apk.

No joy on either of my devices.
Fingers crossed for tablet support some time soon.

[jman]

Well surely it was a no-brainer for rockstar to bring one of the biggest selling franchises ever on any platform onto the Wii U too harv.. but they havent.. soon as you realise that this gen will hardly be different from last gen the better - western developers just dont do nintendo consoles, not since the snes Im afraid 


Carried on with Enchanted Arms last night - 4.5 hours in - 15% through apparently.. the storys getting better, some battles are getting harder (meaning user intervention which is good!)... but unfortunately, the characters are getting more annoying and I've realised that its nearly on level with FFXIII in terms of linearity... at least the gay guy has left my party for a while... some parts of the gameplay are so frustrating though.. for instance, you dont get instant HP, MP gains when you level up.. nope.. you have to go in and micro-manage each characters HP/MP/ATK/AGI/RNG levels after you've accrued enough SP from fighting.. I've already got over 8 characters I can do that too so thats already a fag... plus I had to work that out myself.. theres no tutorial on it.. yet the game keeps wanting to give me tutorials on the smallest of things.. after about 3 hours in, I've done about 15 tutorials where it basically says.. use "A" to do this, press "A" to do that.... I'd kinda worked out that "A" is the action button... then it feels the need to give me a tutorial on how to climb a ladder... which as you might guess, you have to press "A" to do 

I'll carry on, but this game could of been so much better to play if it had just stuck to some basic JRPG gameplay features... its nowhere near as good as Lost Odyssey or Blue Dragon though.

[Late]

... at least the gay guy has left my party for a while...

lolz

Ordered "Dungeon Siege 3" last night. Haven't played any Dungeon Siege games before, and this one seems to have mediocre reviews, but it's just another game for the pile - got to be worth a punt, for a few pence under seven quid. Unlikely to look at it in the next couple of months...

I believe I'm now getting close to the end of Lost Odyssey. Am over 70 hours in, and half-way through disk four - and am supposed to be heading to Grand Staff for a confrontation with the baddy (Gongora? Summat like that. He's probably better known as "Eyebrows" tbh).
Gonna do some grinding first though, I think.

[jman]

Think the beach near where you had to do that ship defense mini-game is the best place to grind in the game...

AC:Revelations got finished with last night - couldnt be arsed to do about 3 of the single player achievements or any of the multi-player ones..

Just pre-ordered 2 games...
Army of Two : The Devil's Cartel
and
GTA V

While to wait for them both still