SomTervo

Yeah I'm more than happy here like - I just use GAF for the most up to date gaming news, and on 9/10 threads I see a post or two I'd reply to in an instant

'Dear ShamFishy, Unfortunately your registration at NeoGAF did not meet our membership requirements. Therefore your registration was deleted. Sorry, NeoGAF' Okay... Cool. I guess? I seriously lurk on there like 1-2 hours a day, it's fucking great and I'm keen to join. I never have nothing to say and don't want to be inundating every PXoD thread with replies!

Yeah I heard Death Note dips a bit. I've got the first 4 volumes of the manga, cracking stuff So, last night I finished Gantz. More accurately, I watched 25 episodes over 4 days, and then 5 minutes before the end of the last episode I quit. Fucking anime bullshit. I had no idea that Gantz was cancelled at like episode 22 or whatever. I had no idea they were about to begin running the thing into the ground from episode 23 onwards. Earlier this week I read a couple of tidbits of plot - about the purpose of Gantz and what it all means. I read this mainly by accident, it was minor spoiler stuff from the middle of the overall story. So when I hit episode 26, realised that it hadn't introduced a single plot development since episode 18 or so, that they hadn't introduced really basic stuff which I knew was in the story (like what really happens when you hit 100 points) and that the TV show was obviously about to do what every single fucking anime ever does and cop-out on a good finale - I just quit. Fuck that shit. I read how it ends online when lying in bed and my blood boiled. A phenomenal piece of entertainment which I devoted many hours to and they let it fucking deflate right from a key scene. Now I have to go download the manga and read up to where I watched to find out how stuff actually goes down. Christ. The reason I'm actually so bitter is that it was amazing. Up until cancellation point, episode 22 or so. Like borderline best anime I've ever seen. Even the horrible anime tropes like objectified female characters and structural homophobia were addressed in later episodes, when the characters actually developed and realised how meaningless all that shit is. It was amazing. It was like the anti-anime. Not to mention it has actual sex scenes, actual brutality, actual realism (eg characters traumatised by various events and their psychologies being affected by them, real time). It was a near-masterpiece, I couldn't get enough. Then that final stretch... Christ

Unity is the best AC in the series imho. It's great, im preferring it to Mordor actually. I loved Mordor for a while but couldnt finish it, eventually the lack of mission/mechanic depth really finished it off

Did you buy it? Seriously, stick with it The opening 2-3 hours are the weakest in the entire game. Between hours 5 and 18 it's a borderline masterpiece, with maybe two hours which are slightly offbeat Read my first post about it - I felt broadly the same about my first couple of hours. They really flop the pacing until about hour 4, when suddenly it becomes perfect for the rest of the duration. It's almost like CoD in space to begin with. But then, as I say, the levels open up, it throws in more and more mechanics, overlapping factions of bad guys... And the alien turns it into one of the most fun things i've ever played. There are bits in the middle where you get totally immersed and it easily beats out Bioshock/Amnesia/Outlast. Playing the whole thing is worth it for these moments. It sounds like you've bought it so I recommend doing so

We watched Tim Burton's Batman last week (going in the OK thread), but last night we watched Batman Returns. I haven't watched this since I was about 10 or 12. It's bloody classic. Effortlessly rectifies all the problems and narrative corruptions Burton introduced in the first one. My partner hasn't seriously watched any of the Batman movies (don't ask me how), so we're watching them all in chronological order. She's loving it. 1966 was a hysterical romp. Batman was okay, a little dull and ruined our pace. But Returns just brought it right back up to speed. I wasn't planning on bringing in Forever or & Robin, but now I'm like "screw it, even though they're mainly shit it's worth it'. It'll all be perfect set up for Batman Begins, which, imho, is the best Batman movie yet made. Yes, yes. I think Django is the best movie he's made. That joint with Reservoir Dogs. These are his only two films which are totally singular, totally coherent, and totally entertaining to boot. I think there are a couple of mis-steps later in Django, but on the whole, great.

No I don't think so - good call though.

I read somewhere that Eagle Vision might be involved. I hope not, but that might make sense. Would be horrible because Eagle Vision is now on a timer and a cooldown... Which I'm fine with, but not when I have to repeatedly power it up and down.

As a big fan of the Holmes stories, crime fiction in general, and adventure games, would you recommend Crimes and Punishments? The sort of thing me and my partner would blast through over a weekend

They were finally up for me on Wednesday night, bit weird, I wonder what caused the 24 hour delay.

Yeah I think AC3 is great, just very, very unfocused, with some pretty bad feature creep. The tree climbing and new aesthetic is a revelation. Some great set pieces and story, too (notwithstanding the present-day stuff which I've always hated). Unity is going very, very well whenever I play it. Did you know that, for the first time since AC1, they've made some of the collectibles (cockades and chests) not appear on your map until you find them? That is, without paying money to buy the maps for them. So you actually have to explore the city to find the collectibles now! I'm fucking loving it!

Styx: Master of Shadows It's like the stealth game ive been wanting for years but never knew i wanted So, so good Best bits of Thief, Splinter Cell and MGS with a phenomenally well designed dark fantasy universe Also inFamous First Light Which is also brilliant. Focusing down to just the Neon power, and refining it, has done wonders for the gameplay. I feel like an actual superhero actually doing stuff in a city. And no arbitrary moral choices in sight! Hallelujah! Also playing a female character who is very real is breathtaking. She's short, punky hair and trashed clothes. Still a badass superhero. Not the best written or acted, but more than good enough. So refreshing and a joy to play

This is making my month

What in god's name did that gif come from I need it

I know, but let's refrain from making the whole thing too self-referential in general, eh? What we should be saying is

I'm really worried we're looking at a "holidays" 2015 release. It'll be the most horrible wait in videogame history for Uncharted 4 and The Phantom Pain.

... has a shitty lining

Posts like this might contribute to that short new-member lifespan, y'know... Love you guys though

Oh, man, if we're getting into bothered territory - I literally don't give a damn about achievements/trophies any more and just enjoy my games!

Currently playing First Light and actually having more fun with it than the main game! It's almost like the Shadow of Mordor of superhero games. There are constantly enemies rocking around and getting in their own fights, and combat is so fun (once you get the full swing of Neon) that it's a joy just being a boss superhero for once Plus Fetch is a decent character and it's great to play a girl. Not to mention the game's fucking stunning

Made a daft error in my last post- meant to say UC1 and UC3 were the badly balanced ones, and 2 was near-perfect 3 is a bit of a mess in a lot of ways. They goofed the pacing, the plot, the level design and the balance of the encounters. I think Boosting is definitely justified, if we ignore the fact that cheevo hunting like that is meaningless. It's a bullshit move by developers putting any MP cheevs in past 'play a game'.

*Image of TN with a shotgun walking through a room blasting floating copies of UC1, 2, 3* In UC1 and UC3 I found it exactly that - a mix between 'kinda fun' and 'the most irritating thing ever'. UC2 is the only one that hit the balance perfectly. I can't think of a single encounter in UC2 which is unfair on Crushing. If you're skilled enough and improvise well enough, you can manage the whole thing without a cheap death in sight.

Uncharted 2 had some combat encounters which were borderline masterpieces - I still occasionally boot the game up today to play them. Eg the Tibetan villages, the Buddhist towers (the section leading up to the chopper/bridge collapse), the fight immediately after the train wreck in the blizzard, the more sandboxey bits in Shambala, all of the combat in the city... the Urban Warfare chapter which was demo'ed at E3 that year. Edit: Nepal, that's where it was. All of that chapter is amazing, especially the bits with wider areas and little buildings, with several waves of enemies and loads of weapons/gadgets. I've no idea why people complain. Did anybody play it on Crushing? On that difficulty you constantly have to retreat, flank, play tactically and be really accurate to outwit the AI. It's amazing. Like TLoU, the gameplay doesn't really come into its own until the hard/hardest difficulties. Uncharted 1 and 3 though, yeah, none of the encounters really did it for me in those. What was the point in improving fisticuffs in UC3 if you're going to make it impossible to get in a fistfight without being shot repeatedly?

That would be irritating - but is predicated on your hating the combat with certain enemies if they design the combat well enough, you might be glad for the combat instances over cool caves, &c. Though understand the FOMO from missing good routes. My concern is game length. Uncharted 2 was a perfect length, for me. Like 10-14 hours depending on how long you took. By 8-9 hours it felt like it was about to wrap up then BANG here are three/four more chapters with loads of added storytelling,level design, set pieces and some great fights. Uncharted 3, by comparison, is actually tiny when you stand back and look at it. Each level was very vibrant and very high fidelity, super detailed. But the plot actually barely moves before it finishes and it doesn't have that 'oh man I forgot about that level!' effect you get from longer games like TLoU or UC2. I'm worried that with bigger levels, multiple routes, and mad-good graphix, UC4 will be a really short game. UC gotta be a long adventure to work, imho.