Over the last few days I've been playing Lego Star Wars II on the DS and Need For Speed ProStreet on PS3.
In my 30th May entry I promised more on NFS ProStreet and hear it is. Sorry if I've repeated anything. I wrote this entry completely forgetting that I'd written about the game before.
ProStreet is a pretty sound racing game from 2007 which, though it wears the guise of a Need For Speed bad boy street racer type game is actually a pretty well put together racing sim.
In the career stage of the game you take part in a series of meetings each of which features about 5 or 6 races of various kinds including Time Attack, Grip (normal races) Drag and Drifting. Once you have done respectably well in all the races you will have enough points to have won the meeting. You can elect to carry on until you have dominated the meeting, which will usually involve going back and repeating the races until you have won almost all of them. You get a reward for winning the meeting and another for dominating. These can be cash, markers to get your car fixed for free or car upgrades like tyres, engines, nitrous etc.
Once you have done well enough in enough meetings at one stage you unlock a showdown (which is very like a normal meeting) and if you can win that you get through to the next level.
My particular downfall is the race type called Sector Shootout. The track is divided into about 4 sectors and your time is measured over each sector and compared to that of your rivals. If you beat the best time yet for that sector (including your own best) then you score points. You do about 3 laps and everyone's points are totalled at the end.
I am always rushing so much to cover the next few hundred yards that I never take enough account of the corners and bump the side-walls constantly - which is fatal in this race type. I do especially badly if there is a tight turn just after a timing point as I'll be hurtling towards it, hoping to post a good time, and will be in the gravel trap and mess up my chances for the sector right at the start of it.
The tacked-on theme of this game (which is that some racer-dude thinks he's the baddest and you have to beat all his mates then him) is so underplayed that it does not matter that it's pointless and rubbish; it does not spoil an otherwise excellent game which is full of challenge and will keep me occupied for a good while yet.
I'll write about Lego Star Wars II very soon.
Wednesday 27 June 2012
Saturday 23 June 2012
God is Dead
The end of Deus Ex Human Revolution took me by surprise; not because of what happened but because it happened a bit sooner than I expected.
Since I started to play games with the specific intention of finishing them I have almost always been taken aback to discover that they end at all. It's hard to say whether this game was short or not both because I have so few completed games to compare it to and because I played it over a very extended period with long gaps between sessions. It does feel slightly as though some aspects of the game were underdeveloped and there were not many city locations to explore: Detroit and Heng Sha both being visited more than once.
The plot seems barely concluded as well. As I wrote recently, loads of different organisations are mentioned in the game but how they all relate to each other and what becomes of them in the end is far from clear. It felt slightly like the world of Human Revolution was developed and then the game ended and I can't help feeling that this was an ambitious project which had to be finished in a hurry, like a story I wrote at school but ended very suddenly because I reached the 2000 words I needed to write so the characters had outlived their usefulness to me and could be killed in a crash before their spaceship reached it's destination.
The game's playability and the depth of its world kept me interested to the end. I will miss the mechanics of the game and nostalgically wish to hack a security terminal and turn a bot against its masters then watch on the camera as it mows them down. I will long to take down a group of security guards one by one and hide so many unconscious guys in a vent that no more can be squeezed in.
Every time a write about a game I seem to pedantically draw attention to it's negatives but the positives in this game far out weigh them. I hope I will find time to play through it again some time.
Changing the subject, I have bought Mafia II recently. It was a bit of an impulse buy and I don't know if it is the right game to be getting so soon after playing a lot of GTA 4. I have played the very start but I am going to put it to one side and play NFS ProStreet for now.
Since I started to play games with the specific intention of finishing them I have almost always been taken aback to discover that they end at all. It's hard to say whether this game was short or not both because I have so few completed games to compare it to and because I played it over a very extended period with long gaps between sessions. It does feel slightly as though some aspects of the game were underdeveloped and there were not many city locations to explore: Detroit and Heng Sha both being visited more than once.
The plot seems barely concluded as well. As I wrote recently, loads of different organisations are mentioned in the game but how they all relate to each other and what becomes of them in the end is far from clear. It felt slightly like the world of Human Revolution was developed and then the game ended and I can't help feeling that this was an ambitious project which had to be finished in a hurry, like a story I wrote at school but ended very suddenly because I reached the 2000 words I needed to write so the characters had outlived their usefulness to me and could be killed in a crash before their spaceship reached it's destination.
The game's playability and the depth of its world kept me interested to the end. I will miss the mechanics of the game and nostalgically wish to hack a security terminal and turn a bot against its masters then watch on the camera as it mows them down. I will long to take down a group of security guards one by one and hide so many unconscious guys in a vent that no more can be squeezed in.
Every time a write about a game I seem to pedantically draw attention to it's negatives but the positives in this game far out weigh them. I hope I will find time to play through it again some time.
Changing the subject, I have bought Mafia II recently. It was a bit of an impulse buy and I don't know if it is the right game to be getting so soon after playing a lot of GTA 4. I have played the very start but I am going to put it to one side and play NFS ProStreet for now.
Sunday 17 June 2012
Not Devine, But Still Good.
I'm back to playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the break I've had from it is making it hard for me to concentrate on the plot. There are several different Corporations and interests and I can't remember who I'm working for half the time.
The game remains excellent, but I have had slight problems with the shooting. The first and most serious is that I am bad at it. The second is that I seem to resort to it all the time. It somehow seems more comforting to kill enemies rather than sneaking around them and risk being caught. If I instigate a firefight I know where I stand. The frustrating thing is that when I do remember to use stealth I find it quite effective as long as I concentrate and don't get lazy.
I am about to attempt a side quest which involves taking down a group of suited goons without killing any of them (this is happening in China), and Jensen is currently crouching behind a concrete pillar and I can see them on the screen engaging in their clockwork patrols. I will be extremely pleased with myself if I can take them all down without alerting any others to my presence but I think the best I can hope for really is to do the task by hook or by crook.
I have only done two of the reputedly terrible boss fights from this game so far. I have, of course, died several times in both but not had to repeat either as many times as I might have expected. With the big burly guy I found a corner where you could take cover from him so that he could not shoot you. He can still get you when he throws a hand full of grenades, but if you turn and empty a clip into him every time he has to reload and just keep your head down otherwise you will get him after a handful of tries at most.
The second one is the electrical chick. I slightly fluked this but I think I get some credit. The second time she hit me with her main attack I used the typhoon on her while she was dazed and then the machine pistol at close range and kept firing with the same gun as she ran away. She was supposed to be invisible at this stage but I think her cloak might have been failing because there was a shimmering image of her. As I was firing she became fully visible and started to fall over and then it went to the cut scene. More relief than joy!
I will try to play to the end of the game if I don't get bored before then and then I'm going back to NFS ProStreet.
The game remains excellent, but I have had slight problems with the shooting. The first and most serious is that I am bad at it. The second is that I seem to resort to it all the time. It somehow seems more comforting to kill enemies rather than sneaking around them and risk being caught. If I instigate a firefight I know where I stand. The frustrating thing is that when I do remember to use stealth I find it quite effective as long as I concentrate and don't get lazy.
I am about to attempt a side quest which involves taking down a group of suited goons without killing any of them (this is happening in China), and Jensen is currently crouching behind a concrete pillar and I can see them on the screen engaging in their clockwork patrols. I will be extremely pleased with myself if I can take them all down without alerting any others to my presence but I think the best I can hope for really is to do the task by hook or by crook.
I have only done two of the reputedly terrible boss fights from this game so far. I have, of course, died several times in both but not had to repeat either as many times as I might have expected. With the big burly guy I found a corner where you could take cover from him so that he could not shoot you. He can still get you when he throws a hand full of grenades, but if you turn and empty a clip into him every time he has to reload and just keep your head down otherwise you will get him after a handful of tries at most.
The second one is the electrical chick. I slightly fluked this but I think I get some credit. The second time she hit me with her main attack I used the typhoon on her while she was dazed and then the machine pistol at close range and kept firing with the same gun as she ran away. She was supposed to be invisible at this stage but I think her cloak might have been failing because there was a shimmering image of her. As I was firing she became fully visible and started to fall over and then it went to the cut scene. More relief than joy!
I will try to play to the end of the game if I don't get bored before then and then I'm going back to NFS ProStreet.
Monday 11 June 2012
More GTA 4
I have now progressed to into both Algonquin and Alderney. The missions are getting harder and I have had to repeat some several times.
I came up against a glitch in the game and had to retry one mission many times, not realising that it was not running properly. Little Jakub and I had to take down a helicopter by flying next to it in another chopper. I had to line us up properly and Jakub's job was to shoot at it with a rocket launcher. What happened most often was that Jakub would take a single shot when we were not in a suitable position, the shot would miss and it would cut to the mission failed clip of Jakub getting out of the now landed chopper.
On a couple of occasions I lined up the helicopter pretty well next to the enemy one but Jakub did not take the shot and several times the enemy chopper landed and just sat on the tarmac while I tried to get get ours along side it in the vain hope that we would shoot at it but nothing transpired and this usually finished with our 'copter breaking up due to me flying it into things.
This went on with me trying again and again until about three in the morning and eventually I threw in the towel and went to bed. The next day when I tried again, Jakub took a shot on the first occasion and it missed and I swore, assuming that the chance had passed. I could hardly believe it when Jakub fired a second shot, this was unique in the history of all my attempts. The shot missed but the third hit the target. Unfortunately, I messed up the landing and we went into the sea and Jakub drowned but the next time it all went smoothly.
Because of this problem I have loads more failed missions in my stats than I should have and I feel a bit hard done by. Never mind.
My other comment for today is that drunkenness is represented better in this game than any other I've played.
Despite the huge number of hours I've played this game for I am still excited about playing the rest of it, and about the thought that there is plenty more in the Episodes from Liberty City pack.
I came up against a glitch in the game and had to retry one mission many times, not realising that it was not running properly. Little Jakub and I had to take down a helicopter by flying next to it in another chopper. I had to line us up properly and Jakub's job was to shoot at it with a rocket launcher. What happened most often was that Jakub would take a single shot when we were not in a suitable position, the shot would miss and it would cut to the mission failed clip of Jakub getting out of the now landed chopper.
On a couple of occasions I lined up the helicopter pretty well next to the enemy one but Jakub did not take the shot and several times the enemy chopper landed and just sat on the tarmac while I tried to get get ours along side it in the vain hope that we would shoot at it but nothing transpired and this usually finished with our 'copter breaking up due to me flying it into things.
This went on with me trying again and again until about three in the morning and eventually I threw in the towel and went to bed. The next day when I tried again, Jakub took a shot on the first occasion and it missed and I swore, assuming that the chance had passed. I could hardly believe it when Jakub fired a second shot, this was unique in the history of all my attempts. The shot missed but the third hit the target. Unfortunately, I messed up the landing and we went into the sea and Jakub drowned but the next time it all went smoothly.
Because of this problem I have loads more failed missions in my stats than I should have and I feel a bit hard done by. Never mind.
My other comment for today is that drunkenness is represented better in this game than any other I've played.
Despite the huge number of hours I've played this game for I am still excited about playing the rest of it, and about the thought that there is plenty more in the Episodes from Liberty City pack.
Thursday 7 June 2012
E3 2012
EA and Ubisoft both did great presentations at this years E3 and kept it interesting, but out of the three hardware manufacturers I think the marginal winner of the event was Sony.
It seemed disappointing that there was no new hardware shown off but none of the main players are really due to reveal anything. I think we did not learn anything about the Wii U that we did not already know except that very few of the big games being released next spring will be available for it.
Microsoft's smartglass was not at all the hardware which the name implies, but an application to turn your tablet or smartphone into a controller for the Xbox 360. There are many uses for this but as far as gaming is concerned it will be useable as a game controller and additional game info can be displayed on the extra screen. In the example we were shown Halo 4 was the game used and I find this telling. Halo is a Microsoft game. Third party developers might well be more reluctant to put in the extra time and effort to work in this extra feature and it is likely to put costs up. The Xbox currently has the slight advantage that some games tend to be a little bit cheaper on that platform. They could lose that advantage by insisting that developers exploit this feature and I could not see many gamers abandoning the purpose built controller in order to use their phone to play an Xbox game.
Xbox somewhat redeemed themselves by showing to the world Halo 4 which looks like a great game. The Halo series is the only thing that I feel I miss out on by not having an Xbox.
If I did not have a PS3 I would miss out on far more and that will be even more the case in the future. Sony announced that the Heavy Rain makers Quantic Dream will be releasing a new game called Beyond: Two Souls. There was not much in the trailer in the way of gameplay but I trust this developer. They also showed a new God of War game and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, which is a multiplayer fighting game and crosses over between the PS3 and Vita, so that players on the two platforms can compete against each other. It looks like outrageous fun. The last scoop they had was a new Assassin's Creed game for the Vita which has a female protagonist. It looks like it takes place in a 3D world like the other AC games and seems to have great potential, though not much was shown.
As far as what went on on stage was concerned it was (as far as I could tell from watching it streamed on the web) a bit of a rubbish E3. I might have thought that Rockstar and 2K parent company Take-Two could have done an onstage presentation and told us more about Borderlands 2 and GTA V but no such thing emerged.
Maybe next year will be better.
It seemed disappointing that there was no new hardware shown off but none of the main players are really due to reveal anything. I think we did not learn anything about the Wii U that we did not already know except that very few of the big games being released next spring will be available for it.
Microsoft's smartglass was not at all the hardware which the name implies, but an application to turn your tablet or smartphone into a controller for the Xbox 360. There are many uses for this but as far as gaming is concerned it will be useable as a game controller and additional game info can be displayed on the extra screen. In the example we were shown Halo 4 was the game used and I find this telling. Halo is a Microsoft game. Third party developers might well be more reluctant to put in the extra time and effort to work in this extra feature and it is likely to put costs up. The Xbox currently has the slight advantage that some games tend to be a little bit cheaper on that platform. They could lose that advantage by insisting that developers exploit this feature and I could not see many gamers abandoning the purpose built controller in order to use their phone to play an Xbox game.
Xbox somewhat redeemed themselves by showing to the world Halo 4 which looks like a great game. The Halo series is the only thing that I feel I miss out on by not having an Xbox.
If I did not have a PS3 I would miss out on far more and that will be even more the case in the future. Sony announced that the Heavy Rain makers Quantic Dream will be releasing a new game called Beyond: Two Souls. There was not much in the trailer in the way of gameplay but I trust this developer. They also showed a new God of War game and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, which is a multiplayer fighting game and crosses over between the PS3 and Vita, so that players on the two platforms can compete against each other. It looks like outrageous fun. The last scoop they had was a new Assassin's Creed game for the Vita which has a female protagonist. It looks like it takes place in a 3D world like the other AC games and seems to have great potential, though not much was shown.
As far as what went on on stage was concerned it was (as far as I could tell from watching it streamed on the web) a bit of a rubbish E3. I might have thought that Rockstar and 2K parent company Take-Two could have done an onstage presentation and told us more about Borderlands 2 and GTA V but no such thing emerged.
Maybe next year will be better.
Saturday 2 June 2012
Grand Theft Auto IV
I should not be writing this. I should be playing Grand Theft Auto IV, and so should you.
I have played some of it in the past on the PC but it now runs so slowly on that ancient machine with it's clogged hard-drive that I could no longer help myself from breaking open the original PS3 copy that I had in the draw and was meant to be saving to sell in the future when it was worth more.
This boxed edition was really quite a beautiful thing in itself. If was so perfect and had real weight (it includes a map and decent sized booklet). It had it's original PS3 tear-off ribbon and I was reluctant to open it and spoil it's perfection but it remains lovely.
I once read on the cover of a boxed copy of the PC version the review comment "So much better on the PC it's criminal". I cannot remember clearly what the game was like on the PC but some things do seem different on the PS3.
I remember more chance encounters on the PC version. I have only met one person by the roadside who I have had dealings with. I might have missed others. I have now met the same guy three times and had fairly bland adventures with him.
I do not remember being quite so incessantly harassed to socialise before. As I remember it I used to cruise around for ages without a care in the world but now if I spend any time not taking part in a quest of some kind I am called and asked to go out by Michelle (girlfriend), Little Jacob or most often Roman (Cousin). If you say no then they go off you but socialising is the least exciting part of the game. I think I've been to play darts four times now and it is losing its lustre.
Despite these complaints, this is a game which all gamers should play. I wrote previously about GTA Chinatown Wars and how it captures the atmosphere of the city. GTA 4 does the same thing, only with a lot more visual detail to work with it can achieve much more.
The many radio stations play decent songs from within their genres, not just unwanted album tracks. There are a massive array of vehicles to choose from. The plot missions are interesting and don't take you through too many boring bits again if you fail and have to repeat them.
There is masses of content. I have played a lot in the last two days and I have not got into Algonquin (Manhattan) yet and am only 19.89% of the way through the plot. (I haven't reached the point I got to only the PC yet, so maybe some of the things I remember from that version will soon start to happen.)
I would encourage anyone to visit amoral Liberty City and indulge in all it's vices.
I have played some of it in the past on the PC but it now runs so slowly on that ancient machine with it's clogged hard-drive that I could no longer help myself from breaking open the original PS3 copy that I had in the draw and was meant to be saving to sell in the future when it was worth more.
This boxed edition was really quite a beautiful thing in itself. If was so perfect and had real weight (it includes a map and decent sized booklet). It had it's original PS3 tear-off ribbon and I was reluctant to open it and spoil it's perfection but it remains lovely.
 |
| Even the loading screens are great! |
I remember more chance encounters on the PC version. I have only met one person by the roadside who I have had dealings with. I might have missed others. I have now met the same guy three times and had fairly bland adventures with him.
I do not remember being quite so incessantly harassed to socialise before. As I remember it I used to cruise around for ages without a care in the world but now if I spend any time not taking part in a quest of some kind I am called and asked to go out by Michelle (girlfriend), Little Jacob or most often Roman (Cousin). If you say no then they go off you but socialising is the least exciting part of the game. I think I've been to play darts four times now and it is losing its lustre.
Despite these complaints, this is a game which all gamers should play. I wrote previously about GTA Chinatown Wars and how it captures the atmosphere of the city. GTA 4 does the same thing, only with a lot more visual detail to work with it can achieve much more.
 |
| A hazy day in Liberty City. |
The many radio stations play decent songs from within their genres, not just unwanted album tracks. There are a massive array of vehicles to choose from. The plot missions are interesting and don't take you through too many boring bits again if you fail and have to repeat them.
There is masses of content. I have played a lot in the last two days and I have not got into Algonquin (Manhattan) yet and am only 19.89% of the way through the plot. (I haven't reached the point I got to only the PC yet, so maybe some of the things I remember from that version will soon start to happen.)
I would encourage anyone to visit amoral Liberty City and indulge in all it's vices.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)