In Reply To #345

As well as driving & shooting, it's definitely worth checking out the in-game internet. Not just to meet girls (!), but because it's fucking *brilliant*.

(... although meeting girls translates to in-game bonuses, so that's handy too)

OK, so I have finished my first game of Civ5: Brave New World.

There are some small tweaks which are nice:

• The confirmation screen when you declare war now includes what trades and alliances will be affected. So you will know what deals will be broken, and what city states will declare war on you if you confirm.
• Submarines have a new "Wolfpack" upgrade which increases attack strength by 25% per level. This is opposed to the regular naval upgrade which increases attack and defense by 15% per level. So far I've found it to be quite devastating - the lack of defense doesn't matter so much when each enemy ship is dead in one hit.
• The ability to select the next unit and give it orders without needing to wait for attack animations to finish on the previous unit. I think this may have been patched in just before the expansion pack though, so everyone can now get this.

The larger changes are interesting. The World Congress lets you play around with a few fun mechanics, but even if you get nothing through, the way you vote can have diplomatic consequences which is nice.

The AI builds far too many archaeologists though. In fact it seemed to me they built just as many of them as they built workers, it was silly. Lots of excess archaeologists floating around their territory.

Diplomatic victory still seems too easy, especially now that trade routes make it so much easier to get so rich, you can just buy them all out - the same problem the game had on launch a few years ago.

Finally finished Assassin's Creed III, thoughts:

- Never got used to killing redcoats.
- Some piss annoying forced stealth bits with not enough checkpoints
- Gave up on 100%ing it after one of them
- Desmond bits were actually excellent (a first for the AssCreeds)
- Naval bits were also brilliant (I think this is not a popular opinion, in general)
- Economy still doesn't work, you're a squillionaire within minutes of learning how to trade
- Combat still getting better as each game progresses

In general, better than the one before (what was that one again? Revelations?). Glad they didn't bottle it and shove an Ezio cameo in, too.

Oh and in an astonishing and amazing leap forward for videogames in general - the DLC was in many ways better than the main game. All the animal powers? Fucking awesome.

(and the 'Washington goes mad and declares himself king' was a fun plot, too - and not just because it meant that AT LAST I wasn't fighting English soldiers...)

Oh, but I do have to award Ubisoft the "fuck off and die" award for creating something even more annoying than an unskippable cutscene.

An unskippable credit sequence. An unskippable 25-minute-long credit sequence, with some stuff afterwards so you can't just turn the xbox off.

Yeah, that can fuck RIGHT off.

(the DLC proved better here, too, with credits you CAN skip. Huzzah!)

I downloaded Dota 2 the other day to give it a go.

I am kinda surprised at how bloody similar it is to the original WC3 scenario. I mean it's... really... really... the same. All they've really added to distinguish it are features for competitive play and spectating.

I guess they were just unwilling to really touch what must be a very successful formula.

Agreed on those.

Although I didn't bother becoming a squillionaire. Did I miss much?

Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't just call it Dota Classic instead of Dota 2. But to be honest I really can't stand the game's art style. It feels very muddy and distinguishing objects when the action is in full swing becomes difficult.

I thought they could have taken the CS route and called it "Dota: Source". Since that's really all it is.

I was playing Unreal last night. Got up to the rocket launcher. The game is a lot more survival/horror than I remember it. I don't remember those giant flies at all. I don't remember a few of these level areas either. Then again, I played the game once twelve years ago...

I will go back to GTAIV tomorrow, maybe.

Not really.

The best weaponry in the game you find or craft, rather than buy (Captain Kidd's sword, Royal pistols), so you don't really need the money for anything.

Makes it easier to afford maps to find collectables and so on - but you only need so much money for that, anyway (and it depends whether you can be arsed collecting them, too)

Oh and there's a couple of trading achievements, if you're achievement hunting.

I need a helicopter to get this next pigeon? Where the fuck do I find where one of those is?

And where is a reliable place to find a motorbike? I need to stock up on them again...

In Reply To #356

There are tourist helicopters near the statue that isn't the statue of liberty. You can nick them instead of going for a tour.

Bikes? I can't remember.

Near where you start? There are some biker bars there, I think.

I don't think I did any gaming this weekend...

I'm playing through The Last of Us. I must admit that so far, I'm not impressed.

Sure, it's good. It's very pretty and the gameplay is solid overall, but it's nothing like the epic "OMG BEST GAME EVAARR" type of experience most people seem to have had.

Also, there's the stealth gameplay. I *love* stealth games, but there are a few major problems with the way stealth is handled here.

1. It's far too easy. I'm playing on Hard and I'm just breezing through these stealth segments. I could've chosen Survivor, which is supposed to make enemies twice as tough, but when you're already killing everybody through instant takedowns, that wouldn't really change much.

2. Clickers. For the uninitiated: these are zombies who can't see, but respond to any noise you make. In other words, as long as you stay low and walk slowly (which just happens to be my default behavior in stealth games), you can pretty much do whatever you like around these guys. Where's the challenge in that? Seems more like a way to frustrate impatient kids than anything else.

3. I'm missing motivation.

Thief: Garrett wasn't the best fighter around and, more importantly, was very, very proud of his skill. Going full on "ghost" was a matter of pride.
Splinter Cell: Sam Fisher does not have the luxury of making a lot of noise, as it might lead to a diplomatic incident. Stealth is part of the job.

But here? "Ooh, I'd better stay out of sight, because I'm low on ammo and health packs." That's pretty much it. Staying out of sight feels like the easy way out, instead of the greater challenge it's supposed to be. There are no consequences (not even implied) beyond your immediate surroundings.

End of rant. Back to the game ;)

I am not a little over three hours into Unreal, and just got the hidden Flak Cannon in the Nali church steeple that is opened up by the Nali priest. yay? Now I am entering the other crashed ship by the village. I really wish there was more ammo in certain parts of this game.