https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-ik5hH9gGU 

Just waiting for a shitty game to install I'll let ya'll know of a few I played lately:

Metro: Last Light - 8.5/10
It's funny that Metro gets away with a lot of things other games would be hammered for (extremely linear, not the greatest AI, pointless upgrade system, and just being a straightforward FPS really) . But it's my kind of game; slow, atmospheric, detail-rich. Having said that, I didn't bother completing the DLC's even though I had them, so perhaps the length was just right. Much more forgiving and more action, less survival than the first game. It's a shame the filters force me to rush all the outdoor sections and just run past most of the enemies, I think they need to fix that for Metro3. But yeah overall I loved it.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - 6/10
Very average, web swinging is hideous, keys layout a mess. The characters and boss battles were good though, and the stealth kills are fun. By the end of the six hours I found myself really getting the hang of all the different attack types and it was becoming pretty fun. Just takes a while to get there.

Enemy Front - 7/10 (metacritic 52%!!)
I feel like the games industry just loves to violently assfuck any game that tries to hark back to an age of simple FPS's, unless you're a well known franchise (COD, Battlefield, Metro, Bioshock, Wolfenstein, Far Cry, Crysis). City Interactive made a tonne of these basic WW1/2 based shooters, they've come back to do another one with Enemy Front but with much better graphics (CryEngine) than their old games (Lithtech from memory). But everyone just shits on it because it's paint by number WW2 FPS. So fucking what? I love WW2 FPSs! There's actually not a huge difference between this game and Metro, except that Enemy Front takes itself a lot less seriously. The gameplay isn't all that different. Or any COD, MOH, Battlefront game. Enemy Front is a lot more basic, you pretty much just use the sniper rifle, enemies are dumb, story is weak. It's the same old German/Russian locations we've seen before. But I had a lot of fun with it.

Game of Thrones - A Telltale Games Series - 5.5/10
Another Telltale games slog. I play these games for the story because after 1-2 Telltale Games you realise that different endings and having any plot choice making a difference, is a lie. Story in this good, but the writers just copied GOT writers in having the protagonists repeated kicked and tortured and in the end can't even have them win. Just about every good guy in this thing gets murdered and in the end I just couldn't give a fuck anymore. GOT the tv-series crosses the line in killing off characters for shock value (and GRRM trolling all the fans imo) but GOT Telltale writers just laugh at that line, kick it out of the ballpark, you just completely disconnect from the story because there's no payoff or hope at all with the characters you've put 12 fucking hours into suffering their torture. Bordlands Telltale game next :D 

...Playing good game and giving it good rating correlation shocker ;)

Metros do transcend their basic structure. I think it's the details, atmosphere, and sheer sense of place they have. And all the Russianness. 

Finally got around to playing and finishing this. Not sure how long it took as I deleted it off my Steam account straight away.

Pros:

+ It looks amazing throughout, lighting, effects, theme, atmosphere - everything is spot on, even 3 years on.

Cons:

- Crashed 2/3 of the times I first loaded it, and 1/3 the times I first went to a new area via train etc. You'd think in the last 3 years it could have acheived some sort of stability. No other games I've owned are this unstable.

- Far too long for a game of this ilk. Given the obvious flaws it drags on a lot. Half the length might have been tolerable.

- Goals are far too repetitive and dull - go to area, discover power is out, restore power. Find keycard, use keycard to restore power. Set Alien trap by closing doors, restore power. Escape area, restore power.

- Randomised loot is BS in a game that relies in part on loot-based crafting.

- Randomised Alien behaviour is BS in a game where the Alien is an instant death trap.

- Auto-saves are completely fucked i.e. almost all the times where you do significant events, get cutscenes etc, the game - unlike every other game in the history of auto-save games - doesn't save. So you have to sit through all that again when the inevitable death / replay happens.

- Given the above, the Alien is generally overplayed and boring. Drawn out sitting in closets / under desks with no option to plan what to do and no possible respite if you don't guess what the randomised AI does next. The worst bits of Alien Isolation were those which involved isolation with the Alien.

- Control system is a bit bolloxed i.e. radial menu being the same button as "escape action" so trying to check inventory while in hiding = escape hiding = death. Accidentally escaping a loot box = default switching back from flamethrower to custom buttplug or something useless etc.

- Overly-clunky controls for actions are constantly tedious. There's a select button AND a use button but too many actions require switching to arrow keys or pressing aim and fire then left or right or back or some other gobbledegook.


In short it's boring, frustrating, repetitive, fan-boy only rubbish. The worst equal game I've played in recent years along with The Solus Project which was even duller but less frustrating. 

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified - 6/10
I quite liked the story and style. Prev-gen graphics though and tactical is a bit annoying and challenging. But I did enjoy setting up turrets and health bots and using the special abilities. The shooting was decent. Quite fun game.

Never Alone - 5/10
3 horu Unity indie platformer. Shitty controls, annoying puzzles and many, many instant deaths. Nice different theme in the snow but really, it could have had some nicer backgrounds. Really overrated on Steam.

GTA V - can't decide on 8.5 or 9/10.
I wasn't expecting to like this so much, it's my first GTA experience. The graphics aren't that great, but probably the best so far for such a massive sandbox game. 90% of this game is story cinematics and driving to start the next conversation. But it is driving simulation at it's finest, and for what shooting there is, it is enjoyable. I loved the characters and story, this would make a fantastic tv series, like a mix of Breaking Bad and Sons Of Anarchy. Main story must have taken about 25 hours, I didn't do any sidequests because the game is really quite easy as it is, there's no need for levelling or upgrading equipment, you get tonnes of money for doing nothing. So yeah great game, I wouldn't bother with GTA Online though. None of the graphic enhancement mods really worked. I think by the time we get to GTA 6 on next-gen consoles, it's going to look amazing with proper high quality textures and better lighting and weather effects. 

 

It is free at
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/shadow-warrior-special-edition

Valid for 18 hours as of the time when this post is made. 

Downloaded it last night, gotta be worth a try at that price! 

Lucius is @ 0.89€ for 9 days. 

What is it with games not remembering AND/OR not letting you chose whether you want to launch singleplayer, multi or something else. I am looking at Doom and Titanfall 2 specifically. 

Definitely getting value for money from this. After the fiasco that was Alien Isolation, this is a bit of fresh air. Sure the design is a bit bland, the theme is one that doesn't do it for me personally, and the graphics are pre-last-gen-pre-millenium etc etc, but it's good fun and the humour is fairly tolerable. The only big issue I've had is the horrible head-bob. 

Well worth it's recent price. Numerous minor flaws as well as the headbob including overly-arenay combat and boring bosses culminating in a final boss I simply couldn't be arsed to get through, and sometimes crude "gamey" designs. BUT then again numerous things it does right - good movement, fun weapons, useful sword, useful loot / minor upgrades, really useful quicksave, balanced combat, tolerable humour, skippable cutscenes, good variety in locations, a proper theme, decent enemies. In short as game that encourages you to shoot the shit out of a lot of things, it hits the mark far more than themeless and/or overly cheesy stuff like Painkiller, Bulletstorm, etc. Still not sure it's worth the £30 full price it's back up to but maybe if you like the style. 

 

 

Stumbled upon this today. No idea what the game is worth but the player character looks like a total wet dream for pervs, complete with kardashianesque silhouette, buttcrack camera shots (remember the original Tomber Raider? That was nothing!) and exaggerated boob sway... xD Oboy!

Just in case some of my fellow quakers would happen to be said pervs, be aware that the game is still available @ half price for about 3.5 hours on Humble Bundle. 

Japanese theme, got "Shadow" in the name, but somewhat different:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/418240/Shadow_Tactics_Blades_of_the_Shogun/

Got a demo to try to. I'm sure someone must have posted it already? Not a big fan of the theme, really don't like the cartoony outlines, a little bit too isometric.....but it seems pretty damn good in general. Proper easy to grasp hard to master style. 

Never been a fan of the Commandos style of gameplay but it looks niceish (it's more the waterfalls than the rather light cell shading that bug me). Medieval Japan is a theme much less used in videogames than WWII so that's fine by me. This isn't isometry BTW but real 3D: you can see the cam rotate at the end of the trailer. 

I played a couple of hours of the demo last night night, I know it's not true isometric. BUT most of it is on quite squarish grid and you can't move the camera angle in the vertical plane. Not a big deal TBH but iirc something like XCom feels more natural (although it's still very griddish). 

looks like a game I really want to enjoy but something that I will not enjoy. But I can appreciate the aesthetic. 

Also did anyone else play Satellite Reign? Not as tactically deep as ST, and a bit repetitive, but a very nice cyberpunk style. 

on Humble Bundle. 40 to 60% off. 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/650670/Grimoire__Heralds_of_the_Winged_Exemplar/

Cleveland Mark Blakemore's Magnum Opus! The ultimate classic style turn-based roleplaying game in the tradition of Wizardry, Might&Magic, Lands Of Lore and Eye of the Beholder! A game that took over 20 years to produce! As much as 600 hours of play with hand-painted graphics and old skool goodness!

This is basically a huge CRPG of the blobber type made by an insane Neanderthal living in a fallout shelter. Perpetually delayed, the game was a running gag until a demo was released a few years back and impressed everyone with how great it was.