Deus Ex Halo 3 vs Predator

Crysis 3 came out yesterday, and I've already completed it.  Not to say that's a bad thing, it's to say that I haven't got much of a life.

I had the Xbox loaded up out in the loungeroom to enjoy the beautiful Vista's of the game.  That was a bad idea, because I'm a little jaded since those few times I went to the Imax to watch awesome movies from the third row on the idea that "if your vision is not filled to more than 120 degrees, you're not experiencing the full movie."

So watching the 48" LCD TV from about 2-3 metres away doesn't give that effect.  My 21" LCD monitor however from about 2 feet away makes all the difference.  If only I could get it through the DVI with Sound, then I'd be cooking with Lard.

But I threw myself into the game, and for a little indulgence I started with the Tutorial and my first thought was "I'm in the new Tron."  That wasn't really the case, but it was a pretty cool simulation run, showing all the basics of what you can and can't do.

Then the game really began, showing the cinematic of a small group of insurgents sneaking onto a dock and releasing Prophet, the main character and your role in Crysis 3.  You begin running between containers, sneaking and waiting for someone to come around a corner and start shooting at you, but they've well prepared you for that with your old buddy, Psycho, who leads you to your first bit of retraining, where you sneak around and practice how far you can spin someone's head around.

Around this time, particularly after walking through a couple of vents, my thought was "I'm playing Deus Ex."  I had a pistol with a Laser Sight and a Silencer, I'm sneaking around behind people and either Stealth Killing them or popping them in the head.  It felt a LOT like Deus Ex. The only difference is that hugging walls isn't the same and you don't get a small cinematic as you execute them.  And there's definitely no non-lethal option.

Moving on, you move on to you next part of training: Archery.

The Predator Bow is specifically designed for your Steath Hunters, because you get limited ammo including specialised ammo such as the Electro Arrow, the Super-Thermite Arrow, and the Airburst Fragmentation Arrow, all on top of your standard Carbon Impact Arrow.  They're all limited, 3 each of the specialised and 9 of the Impact arrows, but you can reclaim your Impact arrows from dead corpses and walls you've hit.

Sidenote: I was playing for a bit the other day, and I was using as many of the Specialised Arrows as possible.  Got a really good spot with five or six guys gathered together.  Got one guy in the arm with a Super Thermite arrow, and while it was counting down all you could hear was "OHGODGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITO-" Boom.  Had to pause the game to laugh.

Then you get three choices of Draw Weights, the Light Draw which is quick but won't guarantee a kill (Though I never had a problem with it against Cell goons), your mid range, and your Heavy Draw, which can pin people to walls.  You can even get an Achievement for retrieving your arrow 10 times from a pinned goon.

Eventually after going through a few waves of enemies, and a helicoptor, you reach inside the Dome of New York 2.0, the mainstay location of many various end of the world scenarios.  In this edition, the entire city of New York has turned into a Biodome, where the ruins of homes and businesses are overgrown and rusted away from time.  Water flows, creatures prace, and Cell maintains a strong guard around their main complexes.

And these levels are fucking GORGEOUS.  And when I was running through the fields of high grass, it gave me a throwback to when I was a kid wandering through empty overgrown lots and fields, all abandoned and unkempt.  It was great.

Then I was thrown back into the situation where I had to avoid the Line of Sight of a defence tower that had the gall to point me out and make sure I had my dose of High Velocity Rockets for the day.  That or having to deal with Ceph Stalkers, who LOVE the tall grass and love running around before coming up to you and giving you a loving hug from a fan of Edward Scissorhands.

Eventually Psycho and Prophet caught up with the Rebel HQ, only to start layering on the subject of being Inhuman due to Technology, because Prophet has gone from being dead due to shooting himself in the head in the previous game, to being the proud protagonist of this current game.  But the subject begins to layer on like a vegemite enthusiest, and keeps going throughout the game.

Then we lead into the Demonstration level of the game.  Probably the prettiest and most comprehensive level of the whole game.  It's a Dam, set right in the middle of the city, and it's powering the complex down the road that is providing a large section of the world with Power, and giving Cell their dominance against the world, because they first provided it for Free, eliminating competition, and then start jacking up the prices to con people into becoming their slaves by making it too expensive for them.

And this level is probably the most gorgeous level in the game.  It's large, it makes you think about where you're going and what you're doing.  It almost seems a shame to see it get destroyed.  Because that's what protagonists do, they destroy shit.

The rest of the game has it's highs and it's lows.  While it's fun to be like Predator, what with going invisible and turning on Nanovision (very similar to thermal imaging) and trying my best to kill them without anybody picking up on it, it does get a tad tedious.  Especially when the levels begin to lose a bit of imagination which I found in the last few levels.  Sure, it may be considered a well designed level, what with well placed cover for both you and your opponents, but if I wanted to go through a paintball arena, I can go to Skirmish out at Samford.

On top of that, the story was so obvious that the directions it was going could be spotted by a teenager.  I could hear the plot twists straining against the potential of something actually awesome.  Instead, the game felt like it lost traction, dropping the scenic vista's that it began with to focus on scenarios that weren't difficult and were designed to layer on more of this morality of digitizing the human condition, then leading on to an inevitable boss fight that lacked threat, let alone imagination.

But that's what you get when you walk into a new game expecting something different.  Instead I got Deus Ex crossed with Halo, set in abandoned and unkempt train stations.  Cos, lets face it, I'll probably play those levels again.  I've already finished it twice now just to make sure.  And my statement still stands.

Next Gen Consoles

I sit here drinking a Roy Rogers from the limited edition Batman Cup that I got from the Dark Knight Disappoints, and I think about the next generation of Consoles. Because it pisses me off.

Now mostly it’s rumours going around. Only a few days from now will there be an announcement/presentation on the Playstation 4 and will eliminate any misconceptions for it, so that we know what the hell we’re getting out of it.

The biggest pain I still find is that reporters who are cogitating on the upcoming systems seem rather obligated to state immediately that there likely won’t be any backwards compatibility. That still pisses me off. I’ve said to myself again and again “Why is it not standard practice?”

“It’s not a selling point” has been stated before. Sure, that’s true. I wouldn’t base my purchase on whether my library of games from previous generations of consoles would be usable on a new console. It wouldn’t have been a thought at all.

But now it’s one thing I have to ask when I look at a new console. Because I have a collection of games for my PS3 and my Xbox360, all games that I have gone over again and again, that I would like to have not go to waste. But I would rather not continue to have more and more consoles connected to my TV because I have no reason to simply replace my old consoles.

That’s another thing I’m worried about with this DRM feature that’s been heavily rumoured and speculated. The DRM Restriction is like buying a game from Steam. Once you buy it, you own that copy of it for as long as that account exists. The Rumour is that Consoles will be going along a similar line. Once you’ve played a game on a particular account or console, you can’t trade in that game or loan it out. It is restricted to that account.

The reasoning behind it is that it will potentially eliminate the Used Game market, which is apparently making a significant impact on the developer market. How big an impact, I have no idea. I know through a friend that as a technical writer, he has a massive worry about it since there are many who require his books and a large portion of that market are simply finding the torrents and downloading them for free.

So I’ve got mixed feelings about it. While I would like to buy a game and then trade it in to get a discount on a new game (especially if I don’t like the game I’m trading in), it’s unfair to the developers because they’re not getting anything out of that game being resold. But then the brick and mortar shops are losing a rather large market because they are getting all profit from those games.

These two things tie in largely, and that worries me. I have games on my Playstation and Xbox accounts, all of which I can re-download if I have to replace my consoles.

So what about these future consoles?  Digital Distribution is becoming a household feature, so assuming using the same account, but if the console isn’t backwards compatible, what about those games in your Library from your PS3/360 days? Will there be any point in downloading those games again? Because without backwards compatibility, you have games on your account that you can download just to use up the space on your Console.

Or you could do what is expected of you and make room for a new console and keep your old console sitting there to collect dust?  Cos fuck that for a PC that can still download and play COMMANDER FUCKING KEEN.

Musings of being Bored

"Where'z da Any Key, Boss?"

Thinking is my biggest thing lately.  What with being unemployed and spending most of my time applying for jobs that don't have the decency to respond with an email saying I had been declined for an interview, I spend the rest of my time playing video games and considering my move to the 'zoo.

I've been making room for my video games for the big move by Min-maxing my stuff.  I'll be taking two consoles with me, my PSP and my Xbox, and working around taking them.  Like getting a CD Wallet and filling it with my Xbox games and favourite movies and TV shows. (Firefly was first in line)

When I chose my Xbox, I thought about how I wanted to continue interacting with my friends at home as The Boys all have Xbox's, so that was an easy choice.  But The Lads, they're a different kettle of fish.  They're mostly PC players, and the biggest game we have in common is Bloodbowl (though a few do stand out of that particular group).

I hope that'll be easy to sort out, because I have Blood Bowl on my PC and so do most of The Lads (I'm pretty sure).  So I would love to see the Blokenstein League start sometime not long after the move, but we'll see.

Though it brought me back to my Xbox because I remember when I was living with Richard, he had a copy of Blood Bowl for Xbox and then it went on to Cross-Platform compatibility, and while it does come down to nobody fighting fair, it's still a thought I indulge.

Playing Blood Bowl in the loungeroom, playing in a League with my friends in Australia, relaxing while I move my pieces around (only to get thwarted, naturally).  However that wouldn't be possible even the Cross-Platform compatibility was possible simply because the Xbox version is still behind by about 3 updates.  It has gone completely unsupported.  It would be easy to sort out, what with Downloadable Content being a large factor in the development of games today, but it comes down to what the developers can and can't do.

Downloading games is a massive thing now.  The availability, the range, the variety.  I just spent the Australia day long weekend downloading entire games for my nephew's Xbox because I promised them to him.  And conveniently, he had vouchers for a free copy of Skyrim and a Free month on Xbox Live.

I remember going through the Playstation Network Store months ago, just having a browse, and found that I could get the Monster World series.  I didn't purchase it, because I had it on my computer as part of an Emulator, but it still made me think how so many games from the past are still available.

Though I still resent the fact that I still have Playstation 2 games that I can't play on my Playstation 3, unless I want to buy them again.  Which I do not.  Backwards compatibility, in my opinion, still remains to be a standard feature.  But I would also like to see the option for the same game on multiple systems.

Playstation have that, with the PS Mini's, games that are playable on both their portable and home systems.  The games aren't complicated, they aren't fit to max the system of the Playstation 3, but they're there for the fun.  The way I look at it, PSP games are much the same.  They're not graphically able to max out the PS3, and they're really good fun.

So what's the harm in letting them play them on the Big Screen?  Heck, I would love to play Patapon on my TV.  I'd play while my nephews watch and order me around, or I could feel like i'm playing the original Final Fantasy Tactics like some of my friends have.

Same goes with other Companies, like Nintendo.  They offered Gameboy Advance games on your TV through an attachment on your Gamecube.  And they still offer many Gameboy games on the online store.  And with the release of the WII U, how difficult would it be to play a DS game through it?  If you can download it onto your system, you could easily play it without a hassle.

Though I wouldn't get myself a WII U, simply because I just don't have any inclination to, I do think about what I'm missing out on.  I have a Gameboy Advance emulator with a large set of games, and I've thought how nice it would be to play these on the big screen.  Especially Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, one of my favourite games, which I would like to see as a DLC for the PSP game.

But once again, I bring around the point that these are simply musings of a Gamer who wants the world.  If we ever see any of these in the future, I'll be happy.

Oh wait, the Steambox is coming.  It's a Console that allows you to play games from your Steam Library.

Close enough.

Heck, I may even be able to play World of Warcraft through it too.  Though I don't want to pay for it any more.  I think about when the game will actually die, and how much of a waste it will be to have a game like that closed up, and how cool it would be to have Blizzard make a stand alone RPG in it, covering all the significant events that cropped up, from clearing out the training grounds of enemies, to finding out what happened to Magni Bronzebeard after Arthur took Frostmorne, to the Cataclysm.

That or do a storyline on specific character combos.  Like the Orc Warrior, the Night Elf Hunter, the Human Mage, the Goblin Engineer, etc etc etc. But that'll have to wait for WoW to die out first.  I'm still waiting for Starcraft Ghost, regardless of it's Indefinite hold.

Laughing over Dice

Next week is Cancon.  And I'm sad I won't be going for a few reasons, mainly that I like some of the guys who rock up down there, and I have a few friends down there that I would have liked to have seen before I rock on to the 'Zoo, but it's mostly because of the games I had tonight.

It was a practice night for the Lads going down, and Greg was happy to play some games out on his back deck.  So we gathered together and began rolling dice.

I was playing with Humph, and while I usually somewhat dread it because Gorton Grundback is a Stunty Bastard, but I was surprised how well I played out!  I ended up crippling a Grundback Blaster, a Ghordson Driller, and destroying another Blaster and a Ghordson Basher!

I was very pleased with myself.  Sure, I lost my Behemoth next turn to my mistake of leaving him out in the open, and I stuffed up a charge thinking 14" was actually 11, but I ended up coming out pretty well.  May have gotten the chance to take out Durgen Madhammer if I hadn't lost on Scenario.

The game though brought back a good feeling of fun.  It's been a while since I've played Warmachine and tonight brought back memories of some of the other tournaments I've attended and how much fun I had.  And it made me wish I had planned well enough to actually make it to CanCon.

I've had a lot of good experiences when I went to tournaments.  Heck, made Best Sportsman before, which made me laugh.  But I always came out with new friends in them, or caught up with interstate friends.

I still remember a night when a fella from the Warmachine forums messaged me out of the blue.  I pretty much didn't know he existed until that point.  He said he was a Polish fella backpacking across Australia and thought it wouldn't be any harm to send me a message and ask for a bed for a night or two.  He got lucky.

So did I, in hindsight.  Letting a stranger stay in my house?  I shouldn't be so easy to convince.

When he arrived, I found him outside Central Station and gave him an option.  We can go straight back home, or we can go out for a game.  He took the game option, and I obliged.  They had some models there after all for us to play with, and it's great way to get to know each other by laughing over dice.

It's how I met a lot of my gaming friends.  And when I move to the US, I hope I'll meet people the same way.

X-Com

The past few months, about six of them actually, my friends have been going ga-ga over the Xcom: Enemy Unknown, not only after the release but in the lead up to it they were swapping war stories from back in yester-year.

And I haven't had a clue what they were talking about, whether it was panicking from the sudden arrival of a Sectopod, or firing several green orbs straight into the boss from the beginning of the map after mind-control hopping Aliens.

That was until I borrowed Aaron's Xbox copy from him.

I began the game on Normal, and immediately Aaron began berating me for my laziness, for not beginning on Classic.  I reasoned with him that I had never actually played an Xcom game before, so I haven't the foggiest how the game actually worked.  Movement, accuracy, defensive positions, let alone what I would have available for this fight against aliens.

But there I was, leading four hapless souls into battle, following the rails that the games tutorial provided, and a small story of how one Soldier, Santiago Gonzalez, later to be "Crater" the Heavy, survived an attack from two little grey aliens.

Then the game really began.  Randomly chosen maps.  Strange alien encounters.  Terrible match ups.  And cliche'd voice acting (A charm, i find).  I had worked my way quickly through everything, and Aaron commended me on getting halfway through the game within about 3 months of the games timeline.

The biggest encounter I can think of, where I began laughing maniacally (only slightly) was when an Abductor class ship had landed.  The gaping maw of the rear bay doors lay open, with raised pieces of cover lay about, and I stayed there, as wave after wave of enemy came into range only to be shot down by Plasma Fire, again and again and again.

Sidenote: Just saying you shot down a Heavy Floater to your partner gets a really confused response.

But after Aaron's commendation, I had decided to take the time to finish my researches, upgrade all my weapons, and properly equip my squad.  Because I was falling behind, and quite badly.  Elite Mutons tend to shrug off Light Plasma and Laser fire.

Then, I became... bored.  I felt like I had to get an entire set of Psychic Soldiers, and spent my time searching for new Soldiers and making them Colonels, because god DAMN Colonels are better than Squaddies.

Sure, you can give them Titan Armour with Chitin Plating, which will give them a great health bonus, but what about the bonus 3 spaces for your Support guy so he can bolt up and Arc Thrower a Thin Man?

Or what about the Close Quarters skill for your Assault Soldiers who will sit about 5 spaces away from a Muton Berserker, Shoot them, triggering the Berserkers insatiable desire to get close to whomever damaged him, and then get shot again because of the skill?  Double Whammy of Alloy Cannon, bitches.  It's great.

Then you get MIND CONTROL.  Which can be really dangerous.  You can't Mind Control Hop as I mentioned before, but you do gain the Line of Sight of the target alien.  And that can fuck up your whole day.  I had a Muton trigger another Muton Trio, an Elite Muton trio, and a Sectopod.  All running around your god damn flanks and making you panic when your 23 health Assault Colonel is being shot at by the whole fucking lot of them.

I digress.

But that is the charm of the game. You get dropped off in a random map, with a random set of enemies.  You'll get given a heads up of what's there, and how many there are, and on the way in you'll get a clue as to what map you're getting dumped at, but then you have to find your targets, get a hold of them, and strangle their little mongrel necks.

Occasionally the Council will ask something of you, a simple request of "Can you disarm this bomb" or "can you escort this such-and-such" and you'll be amply rewarded with Scientists, Engineers, Money and/or a new soldier.  The only thing you have to worry about are the numerous thin men that may or may not hoard you.

Though they do drop about a half dozen on you after you deactivate bombs.  That's pretty funny.  Especially when most of your squad is on Overwatch and then EVERYONE shoots that one guy who turned up.

Haha, classic.

Now I want to focus on one thing, and that's the end of the game.  For those who haven't done it, this is a spoiler alert.  So I bid you adieu, because you've got a surprise coming your way.

The only other thing I would like to say is that if Xcom were made into a First Person Shooter, or a Third Person Shooter, Ala Gears of War, that would be very awesome.

---

So it's a bit shit.  It doesn't really explain anything, like why they're there or anything.  And yeah, sure, it's nice you're fighting a series of monsters that you've encountered over the course of your Xcom Career, and it's nice to be in a different map of an alien ship than that bloody stupid supply ship, but...

C'mon.  If I wanted to fight a rail shooter, I'd go play Gears of War.

But I effectively got that on the final run. "Oh look, Sectoids.  Oh look, Cyberdiscs.  Oh look, Floaters.  Oh look, Chryssalids.  Oh look, Mutons and a Berserker.  Oh look, three Ethereals and two Elite Mutons."

And I don't know what the fuck happened, but that last encounter didn't even finish?  I got two of the Ethereals down to 3 health in two turns.  They had a turn, and spent that dropping Jenny down by about 14 health and mind controlling my Sniper, but then it rolled on to the final cut scene where the Volunteer bravely sacrifices himself by taking the Alien Temple ship away from the planet as it turned itself into a black hole.

That was nice.  Yeah, totally nice.  Even let the rest of the squad get on the Skyranger first.  Very considerate of him.

But.  Yeah.  I would have liked to have fought more enemies.  What about a combo of enemies?  Enemies that match well when fighting me?  Hell, even hoard me with Thin Men if you want, just get me shaking in my boots more than when I first came across Chryssalids in that Terror Mission.

Chryssalids, which run around killing Civilians and START MURDERING EVERYONE INTO ZOMBIES.

But no.  I didn't get that.  It was... Dull.  And the most exciting it got was an unfinished fight with Three Ethereals and two Elite Mutons.

The fear in my boots.  I miss it.  Hence why I have begun again on Classic Mode.  And I will probably shit myself again when I see those Chryssalids again.

Yes, it certainly can.
Xcom 1994

Anniversary, Not Mensiversary

You know, there is a story that I have that I have told over and over again.  It's succinct, but the meaning behind that story has been a pivotal source of my life.

And three years to the day, that still applies.  I have been up, I have been down.  I have been across the world, and I have been host to an amazing woman.

I love you Jennifer.  I am happy that you have stayed with me for so long, and I can't wait to see more of our years together.

Another exercise in literary spewing

Happy Birthday Scott 2011

I've been staring at this blank page for about 2 hours now and I originally planned to write about how I wanted to go to scotts birthday, well I'm going but what i wanted to do like get a keg of cider but couldn't find anything but one keg which disappoints me because even though Pear and Strawberry sounds like a good cider, it's the lack of options that disappoint me, and that's a big thing too because sometimes I just want to get just 5L of Bulmers Pear Cider because it's a nice cheap cider, and I like the pear flavour better though Kel says he doesn't like pear cider because it's too sweet, but I just find it easier to drink, but anyway, Scott's birthday is this weekend and it's going all weekend so with my other plans of going to Kel and Tash's to see Alex on friday and then my nephews birthday on saturday (it's a lunch/dinner at sizzler) I can work it all together very well so long as I can get back to my house before mum heads off to sizzler, then I can get back to Scotts to play Warmachine, or Dystopian Wars, or Talisman and all the various expansions scotty has for it which will be crazy fun though I reckon we'll have to make an effort to do something about getting to the top because it can be very easy to just circle around the centre and level up and then climb your way to the top, so we might try and get a relic from each end of the three corner expansions and then climb up the middle, whether it's the normal version or the alternate dragon options, but that's something to sort out when we get there, otherwise we can play our xbox's like Borderlands and maybe even Halo 4 though I think I'll have to share with scott because i don't have a copy of Halo 4 and naturally that makes things difficult, but we'll find other games to play I'm sure because there are plenty of games out there, heck we might even play Gears of War 3 and finally get me to that level 50 of Horde Mode, and hopefully take on a goddamn lambent berserker and have her chase me while I Torque Bow her to death and, well, that'll be fun all in it's entirety, and now I'm really starting to run out of things to talk about even with this mindless ramble that I have because it's all I've been thinking about except for my arcade cabinet which I really want to do but can't because without a job i haven't any money and also if I leave it here it'll probably just rot away because it'll be made of wood and the dust might even set fire inside the playstation 2 that I would have inside it and Mum wouldn't appreciate me burning the house down while i'm living with Jenny, so I have to put that on hold until I move back and get my own place with jenny, and having my own man cave with a sonic the hedgehog arcade machine in the corner.