Video Games Thread

[Late]

Yeah, I'll almost certainly be skipping the multiplayer side of things, too, when I get round to playing it (probably this weekend).

Want to finish off State of Decay first, at least once. Will probably play it through 2 or 3 times, but I might wait a few weeks before my 2nd/3rd playthrough, see how it gets patched.
Still thoroughly enjoying it - but didn't get a chance to put the xbox on last night.

[harv]

Whatever you do don't buy anything from WowHD. They're fucking useless. I ordered Monster Hunter 3G Ultimate from them ages ago and they posted it on 13th May. Still haven't got it. Emailed them and they told me I had to wait 20 days from the dispatch date. Emailed them again and they told me they were going to look into it and it would take 4 days. 7 days later - nothing. Have emailed them again today to find out what the fuck is going on. Really not worth it for the sake of saving a couple of quid. They're worse than Zavvi, and I really didn't think that was possible

[Late]

Have never had any problems ordering from either, personally, and I've used both extensively.
I know both have fairly bad reputations though.

[jman]

Bought Arma 2 tonight.. probably the only PC exclusive worth having to be honest.. really need to upgrade my gfx cards if I'm getting the 3rd one though.. thinking of a couple of GTX580s... but I'll see how I get on first.. its billed as a hardcore military simulation rather than an FPS so I'm expecting a very steep learning curve.  I guess the nearest game I had to it was Operation Flashpoint.. although that game really sucked and was boring.

[harv]

Fucking hell, 3 out of the 4 games that Nintendo have shown this E3 that have looked 'next gen' are running in 1080p native - Donkey Kong, Mario Kart and Bayonetta 2. The one that hasn't been confirmed is X

I'll dig up an off-screen video of Bayonetta 2 in a minute, it's a toss up between Bayonetta 2 and Mario Kart 8 for which game is technically and visually more impressive.

[harv]

Here she is.

There's a few framerate drops here and there but it's looking very impressive so far.

[Late]

Shame about the game, though. Hated the first, and the second is just more of the same. Incredibly repetitive button mashing against waves of very boring enemies, only made mildly interesting by the protagonist's catsuit and the camera constantly focusing on her arse, groin, and cleavage.
And what the hells the deal with her hair? It's her main weapon, so she's cut it all off?

Meh.

X is the only game Nintendo showed off that looked good.

[Late]

Ugh. Forgot how heavily Tomb Raider relies on QTEs.
The rest is all good. But it seems about a quarter of the game so far is sodding QTEs...

[jman]

The first 20 minutes are QTE heavy.. but its only on the cinematic parts...you'll see a lot less of them as you progress further.. saying that.. I think the majority of times I've died are from fucking up the QTEs and I'm playing on hard.. thankfully the checkpoint system is quite forgiving.. there are tons of games that are far worse with QTEs... I do love the fact that the cinematic progression from one section to another is seamless, no annoying load times.. and I'd rather put up with QTEs than loading screens.  I think I properly jumped about 2 or 3 times in that first 20 minutes too 

The only thing I'm slightly disappointed about is that the game seems to of changed from its roots as an acrobatic adventure game with portions of gunplay in it.. to a more gunplay centric game with portions of acrobatics in it... I guess in the context of the story - it kinda makes sense.. but it just doesn't have that real retro feel of an old school tomb raider.. the tombs you go into are disappointingly short and not that taxing.. saying that.. its by far the best entry into the series since the first one.

[ancelotti]

Just picked up The Last of Us.  Can't wait to get home later and play it now. Even tempted to pull out of going to see Man of Steel later. Hmmmm...

[jman]

Think I'm done with Tomb Raider.. I missed 3 single player cheevo's.. one which would require another playthrough (one of the secret ones - not going to happen)... one which seems glitchy (zip-lines - I've killed way more than 10 now and still no unlock)... and the other one requires a bit of patience (secret dynamite one - but no patience left trying to do that zipline one).  Not going to bother even starting multiplayer

Overall though, fantastic game.. looking forward to the next one.

[ancelotti]

I'm about 5 or 6 hours into The Last of Us and I'm loving it. It's a lot more stealthy than I expected, which isn't very good as I'm shit at sneaking around! I end up alerting zombies almost every time then having to fight them off. Although there's a type of zombie called "clickers" (named because they are blind due to their horrible facial deformities, so they walk around clicking to navigate, using sound to see, kinda like bats) who kill you in one by basically taking a chunk out of your neck. Have been killed a few times by them.

The game is beautiful though. The story is top draw and the facial animations are brilliant. I can see why some reviewers have been creaming over it.

[Late]

...the other one requires a bit of patience (secret dynamite one...

Heh - one of the first few achievements I got in the game, that one.
Wasn't deliberate, though (and I've not actually looked through the achievements list). Saw a baddie, shot at him, and just happened to hit a stick of dynamite he was chucking at me.

Don't think I'll be getting many achievements though. I'm not enjoying the game anywhere near as much as I did the old Tomb Raider games.
It's okay, and it's totally beautiful compared to the old stuff - but I don't like all the QTEs* (there's a lot less once you get past that first hour or so, but there's still way too many for my taste) and I've not been anywhere near as fastidious as I usually am - I've not really found many tombs, and I'm sure I've missed loads of other collectibles etc.
I think I'm about three quarters of the way through the game, and only have 210/1000 gamerscore...

*Of course, Tomb Raider games have always had QTEs - but I didn't hate them as much back then as I do now.

[jman]

Wow... you guys weren't lying when you said Saints Row 3 was shit.. 58 minutes in and pretty much hating it so far.. way to ruin a fairly entertaining franchise!  Will probably give it another go.. but not wanting to carry on playing again for a while now.

[bealec]

It's the equivalent of those action films were you just turn your brain off and go Ooo and aah at all the explosions.