The Videogames Tab

Addicted!

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I still play D2 to this very day

Dawnguard now out on Steam, dunno about the PS3 release date. Hopefully it's not as bug-ridden as the Xbox version is reputed to be.

I've started with a Breton Spellsword type and with a minimum (*cough* only 50) of mods as I dunno how many (if any) will conflict with the new DLC.

Thing is, I've never been fond of playing with vampires in earlier TES games and haven't touched it in Skyrim up til now so will probably end up joining the Legion.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

I know the Skyrim downloadable content is out on 360, and I think on PC now. Still unsure about the PS3 version of it.

Trophy patch for Metal Gear Solid 4 has come out on the Ps3. For those looking for an excuse to play the game again....or for the first time.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

I've heard many good things about MGS series. I tried playing MGS4 demo on the PS3 and just couldn't get into it. Maybe it's cause I really didn't spend enough time on it. But, who knows?

Aye, it's a nice surprise - You've also now got the option to install the entire game, not just 'chapters'. MGS4 got a bad rap in some quarters (mainly for being Metal Gear Solid and not some po-faced Splinter Cell clone) but I really liked it.

I'll play through it again some day. Lord knows when though.

Anyone playing Dawnguard yet? I'm messing around with it but haven't gotten too deep into the main quest yet. It looks ... substantial.

Tacitus - My friend played it and said it was really fun.

It's pretty big, although I think they went for quality over quantity. Both Vampire and Dawnguard quest lines are worth playing and give you totally different but equally fun perks, I think, so that doubles the playtime it gives you.

Has anyone tried "Slender"? I've watched a few videos and those were scary enough... not sure I actually want to throw myself into the game.

Got it (it's a free download so no reason not to) but have only tried seeing if it ran ok on my PC. It does.

Saw a lot of people promoting Slender when I was playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent. It was typical internet one-upmanship - Think Amnesia's scary? Nah, try Slender. That kinda thing.

As Indie Freeware's go, it seems polished enough.

http://slendergame.com/

I downloaded the trial version of Amnesia and didn't find it scary, and found Slender to be rather boring.

It's all subjective, but play Amnesia as the makers intended (lights off, headphones on) and I found it pretty unsettling. Go into it thinking "Ha! This is supposed to be scary so SCARE ME!" and you're wandering down the wrong path.

Free your mind.

MGS is a really story driven game and if you just jump in without any prior knowledge of the history, story and characters in the games then you rely solely on the gameplay, while good, it's just a part of what makes the MGS series so great.

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Let's talk some jive.

For no one's gratification but my own, here's my impression of some Kinect demos...



Steel Battalion

Didn't even get past the tutorial on this. Ambitious idea, pretty rubbish execution. The interplay with teammates in the 'vertical tank' seemed intriguing, and the idea of having a plethora of levers etc at your command is all very steampunk and inviting - but it just doesn't work. It took me about 3 goes to get each motion to kick in (and when this involved flipping open multiple panels to access further levers, the frustration was multiplied all the more). And that was when I was up against cactuses for enemies. The gesture recognition was just too poor - with too many comparable poses in close proximity. Might give it another quick go in the live game, as it did have an interesting vibe, but looks like a big miss overall.




PowerUp Heroes

This was fun, but also pretty unchallenging. Seemed to just be a simple mix of punch-n-kicks (but with no block function, no real skill), a basic strafe dodge, and a collection of special moves. Those supermoves are a good laugh to execute, especially the 'prepare a fireball'/Street Fighter style ones - and the move detection was snappy and all the poses very intuitive (with handy on-screen mnemonics). But ultimately the core fight mechanic seemed too simplistic for this to have any legs. Good for working up a quick sweat though in a cartoon fight environment.




Wreckateer

3D angrybirds, with a decent kinecty-twist in that you can bat at the balls mid-flight and alter their trajectory. All the reviews suggest the levels stay pretty samey, and the replay value is low. Didn't quite grab me, mainly coz it seems that it didn't really matter how accurate you were on the early levels - everything just exploded. Also the 'flying shot' that you steer early on seemed very unresponsive. Kinda diverting, but didn't seem worth a buy really.




Star Wars Kinect

The racing game on this was pretty generic and gained nothing I could see from being steered with outstretched arms. The lightsaber battles were very clunky, as you're basically recycling 4 moves, all of which were a bit unresponsive and not very creative (block lasers, swipe with your sabre, rush forward and force grab). The latter surely has room for being good with kinect, but it just seemed really unresponsive and limited.

The 'Rancour Rampage' section was the closest thing to a fun mini-game. It almost felt like it had nailed the 'moving through a 3D environment with body detection' - with the one major foible that I couldn't get the 'rush forward' move to engage reliably - so I had to hop to progress. Demos often lack decent tutorials, but this one totally needed a full one to work. Shame coz smashing buildings and grabbing droids was kinda fun. It actually had a fun range of inputs that were mainly responsive. I just needed to know how to move forward




Kinect Sports 2

Tennis was fun, but fairly loose, and not that much different from the (snappy and exciting) pingpong in the previous game. The golf on offer had that intriguing glimour of what supplementary-kinect could be like though - raising your hand as if shading your eyes to look down the course was simple but effective, as was asking for a club verbally. Aside from that putting etc had such strong visual guides to make up for lack of fine-accuracy (altho the little sidesteps to to line up were recognised well) it seemed a bit challenge-free. No nuanced rolling maps of the green here.

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

I'm playing it on the 360. It is pretty substantial, and does add several cool locations/items/abilities to the core game. But it's also got some kinks that Bethesda failed to work out before release. I haven't played it in a week, so maybe there's been a bug fix update since then.

I'm taking the Dawnguard route, by the way. I'm sure the Vampire route is more satisfying, gameplay-wise, but I'm pretty pleased with the story so far.

I've spent most of the day on Dawnguard and you're right, it's buggy as feck.

It's also ace.

My Breton Spellsword just couldn't resist going down the Vampire route. It seemed a natural progression from Thieves Guild and Assassin's Brotherhood membership.

My Vampire assassin, and friend:

Nice.

I'm playing through Dawnguard with my first character, a Nord brawler, so it's only right he should be hammering stakes into the Undead. But I've got a sneaky Khajiit that I've been bringing along in the Thieves Guild (and eventually Dark Brotherhood). He's good at heart, but part of me wants to take him on the vampire road just to have the run of that glorious castle.

That lil friend of yours freaks me out more than this snippet from the Olympics...

Been sinking my teeth into Red Dead Redemption lately. Extremely fun game, and I find it a lot more engaging than Grand Theft Overrated.

Yeah, the Death Hounds are kinda weird. When I first saw one I thought their coat was a texture glitch.

Then I saw the armoured dogs (!) and trolls...

Main fault I have with Dawnguard is the same one that I had with the Companions quest - the forced 3rd person aspect when you transform. Your Vampire Lord navigates indoors like a Prop Forward in a Wendy House - I guess there'll be a mod for it but there shouldn't have to be.

There are a ton of Dawnguard mods already but the only one I've installed is Gopher's Vampire Predator Vision. I think it captures the night vision aspect much better than the vanilla game without it being a cheat.

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