toxicitizen

Sonic Generations. I'm of two minds on this one. I don't want to be too harsh on it because it's the first Sonic game I've played since I was a kid (before all that 3D nonsense), so it was really nice to revisit the series after such a long time. For the most part, I enjoyed the gameplay. It's really fun when you go fast, that part works. But holy shit the platforming is horrendous when it forces you to slow down or stop. Even as a kid, I always thought the way Sonic controls made any slow platforming kinda shitty and that hasn't changed here. Other than that, the story was kind of cringe-worthy. I guess the cutscenes were written with kids in mind? I didn't realize Sonic was aimed at young kids specifically nowadays. Or maybe Sega just has shit writers. Oh and that final boss fight was terrible. I mean, I get what they were going for but it played the worst of the entire game. It was the only one that just wasn't fun. Seemed kinda weird. Also, looking at the thread I guess I forgot to post about it but I also played through Analogue: A Hate Story a few days ago. It was alright. I mean, it's a visual novel. I don't expect they get much better than this considering the story was interesting enough for me to finish it. I kinda liked the prequel Digital: A Love Story better, though. I really liked how it was set in the late 80s and had you using an old OS in the early days of the internet and message boards. A new sequel called Hate Plus just came out on Steam, I'll probably grab it at some point.

Can't wait to play it. Gonna get started on it as soon as I finish Sonic Generations and Catherine, which I expect will be tomorrow.

Interview on RPS. Sounds like there's still a bunch of stuff they're adding to the strategic aspect (base management) that they're not talking about just yet. Also, it's not the first time they've been asked about base defense since they announced EW and they basically dodge the question instead of flat out saying no. It's possible they simple don't want to create negative buzz by saying they haven't added it but... one can hope.

Not sure what you mean with Minecraft but fair enough. Like I said, it's just assumption based on what the devs both have and have not said.

The difference is I used to buy my EA games on Steam. I have no reason to want to move to another platform now. Origin isn't really doing anything that Steam wasn't already doing. There's no advantage for me to be using it. Whereas the Blizzard games were their own thing to begin with. And now they all use the same launcher so I can at least just run the one thing and they all get patched. It's an improvement. Another useful thing is you use your battle.net credentials to log in (which you can set the app to remember) and it carries the session over into the game. So you don't need to type it in every single time anymore. True. But like I said, it's all about perception. I'm significantly less worried about Valve doing it than EA doing it given the history of both company. Besides, Steam is clearly Valve's main source of income nowadays, so they have every reason to keep it alive. But, judging from the recent Bundle, I doubt Origin is doing anywhere near as well. That might change now, though. We'll see. Nah, nothing official. But they've been increasingly dodging the question so people have started assuming. If it was a true exclusive, I would expect MS to leave no room for doubt and to be shouting it from the rooftops a bit more, to be honest.

Having never played the original myself, from what I heard you had to be strategic in how you positioned the facilities in your base. Like, if you didn't have choke points you were basically fucked when a base defense mission happened. Not sure how the actual mission played out, though. I kind of assumed it was similar to the regular turn-based combat but NeoStarr comparing it to tower defense makes me think that might not be the case. I tried the original a few times but could never get into it because of how dated its UI is. I'm seriously looking forward to Xenonauts for this reason. It's a more faithful recreation of the original than EU but with a much cleaner and modern interface.

Eh, to be fair, I'm never exactly keen to pay 60$ for any game. But in the case of Origin vs Steam, it's a matter of perception, I guess. Steam doesn't really register as DRM for me. It's just where I buy my PC games. It's something I want installed on my PC anyway. It launches right alongside Windows. It's something I use day-to-day. I'd also argue that Steam offers a lot more features to the user, and that counts for a lot. For example, Blizzard's battle.net desktop app just went into open beta and I gladly installed it. I hate that Origin is forcing me to use an additional app because it doesn't provide me with any benefits for using it. Blizzard's app, though, consolidates the launchers for all my Blizzard games into a single program. It might not sound all that significant but there are advantages to using it, however small they might be. Origin, on the other hand, feels like it's being forced on me and doesn't really add anything that I want or need. And that alone is enough to make me dislike it immensely. Same reason some people dislike Steam, I guess. Ubisoft have their shitty uPlay stuff and Ubistore, but at least they still offer the option to buy their games through Steam should I want to. And then there's how I do not trust EA one bit. And that's not to say Valve is necessarily trustworthy, either. A company's a company. But EA have a history of shutting down servers and killing off games and such so I'm really hesitant to invest any significant amount of money in a library on their platform. For all I know, they could easily just decide to pull the plug on the whole thing in a few short years.

Yeah, this is looking absolutely fantastic. Sucks that the chances of it being on Steam are slim to none, though. Because I'm still not too keen on paying a full 60$ for an Origin game. This is one I might actually consider getting on PS4 instead, once the timed exclusivity ends.

A few things, actually. In my last stretch before going back to school, I've been mostly sticking to shorter games. Stuff I can beat in a day or two and move on. But now I felt like playing something a bit more substantial. Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes. I fucking love this game. JRPG-inspired story and with the addictive Puzzle Quest kind of gameplay but with a much more interesting and strategic mechanic than simple Bejeweled-style connect 3. Played this on PSN a year or so ago but never finished it because of the difficulty spike in the last chapter. Grabbed it again on Steam at some point because, well... Steam sale, most likely. Started it again out of boredom a couple days ago because I couldn't decide what to play next. It just sucked me right back in. Almost done with the second campaign now. Sonic Generations. This and Rayman Origins were two platformers I normally wouldn't have bothered with but bought during Steam sales because of all the praise I kept hearing about them. With Rayman out of the way, I figured I'd give this one a shot. After playing the first few stages, my initial impression was "I am going to fucking hate this game". As someone who hasn't played a Sonic game since owning a Genesis and Sonic 2 (so, like... 15 years ago?), I am absolutely godawful at it. Then I made it to the first boss. "Oh shit! That's the robot from the end of Sonic 2!!" Nostalgia is a funny thing. The game pretty much won me over from that point on. I don't see myself playing this for long sessions or anything. I just beat the second set of stages and boss and stopped. Probably won't touch it again until tomorrow. Catherine. For some reason, I felt like playing some Persona last night. Of course, with only a week of vacation left, that just wasn't an option. So I went back to this one instead. When I first bought it over a year ago, I ended up getting stuck (on the fifth night, I think) and never went back to it. Didn't remember much of the story, so I started over from the beginning and I'm almost back to where I was. I definitely intend on finishing it this time.

Oh, I don't remember that then. Been a while since I played it.

You only played the campaign once, though, right? Once you figure out what works most efficiently, it just doesn't make sense to do it any other way. Having multiple bases can give more room to try different things, like specialized bases for example. That being said, it might not really work with the current way of doing things. But yeah, if I had to just pick one thing from the stuff I listed, multiple bases wouldn't be my first choice here.

Assuming you mean Nomad? Mystery, then. That was the one thing that bugged me the most with the story. I was under the impression that Crysis 3 addresses this but I haven't played it yet so I have no idea. Not sure where the game lost you but that's how I understood it. So yeah, I never really got the sense that there was some plot mix-ups (wasn't the leak only a few weeks before release anyway?). Just a really convoluted shitty plot.

Well, it's not like there isn't room to continue the story. Especially considering that the ending hints that there's a greater threat still out there. When they do make a sequel, I kinda hope they don't just remake Terror From The Deep and actually come up with something new. But yeah, the structure would be more or less the same. Personally, I'd be excited for a sequel/new campaign mostly in hopes that they would rebuild the game from the ground up. Go back to randomly generated maps, make a deeper tech tree with more varied options and sidegrades rather than a single clear upgrade path, different tile sets for different areas of the world (say what you will about Slingshot but those chinese maps were fucking great; it's a shame they only showed up in those specific missions), multiple bases, base defense, etc... Basically, now that they've successfully modernized the concept they should bring back some of the depth the original had. I fucking loved Enemy Unknown and couldn't get enough of it at launch but I can definitely see why some people feel that it doesn't have a lot of replayability compared to the original. They need to bring that back.

Joe Danger 2: The Movie. The original was a lot of fun and this one just goes a little bit crazy with minecart, ski and jetpack levels. Also TF2 characters. So you can fly around with a jetpack as the Heavy. It's amazing. It's also quite a bit easier than the original, I managed to 100% the Movie Mode (what you'd call the main campaign) without too much effort. Really glad I got those two in the summer sale. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. Oh man, this one was long overdue. I've been a huge fan of Capybara games since Critter Crunch and Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes came out on PSN. I've wanted to play this one since it came out on PC but for some reason never bought it. Ended up getting it through a Humble Bundle, I think, and it just disappeared in the backlog. It's kinda short but I really liked it. I guess it's technically a point-and-click adventure, but it's clear they were going for something a bit more out there. Some kind of musical "experience" or whatever. It's kinda weird. The game actually has events that are dependent on the phases of the fucking moon, of all things.The music of Jim Guthrie is pretty good, though, so it kinda works and ties the whole thing together rather well. Actually, I think the game was developed based on the music and not the other way around. The controls are kinda weird, though. It was originally an iOS game and they really didn't change anything when porting it so you just kinda use your mouse as if it were your finger on a touchscreen. It works well enough, I guess.

I really haven't been keeping up with this thread so it's very likely this has already been mentioned, but... Screens that basically say "Lol. You suck. How about playing on easy instead, faggot?!?" You most often see them in combat heavy games like Devil May Cry. But even then, you can usually tell them to fuck off once and that's the end of it. But Rayman Origins brings the annoyance to a whole new level. There aren't any difficulty levels so instead you get a condescending "Oooooh, this place is dangerous! Wanna leave?!?". You get that shit like every fifth time you die. When it's one of those fast-paced platforming section and you're trying to get it just right, you're gonna see it a whole fucking lot. It made me want to punch kittens. Just make changing the difficulty an option accessible from the pause menu and stop suggesting it! I'll decide if and when I want to do it!

Rayman Origins. So, in the currently playing thread I said I kept going back and forth between loving and hating it. I think it actually won me over around halfway through. When the "tutorial" part ends and the game opens up a bit and you gain access to four new worlds all at once. I actually ended up completing 3 of those 4 in the same evening. I don't know if the gameplay just grew on me or if those levels were just that much better, but I started having tons more fun. Fuck those water levels, though. Seriously. Whoever thought those were a good idea should be flayed alive. I still feel like the controls are kinda shit sometimes and I really don't get how it managed to score 9.5s almost across the board. But it was still pretty good. I'll most likely grab Legends but definitely not at launch and probably not until I can get it for cheaper than I got Origins (which I think was something like 13 bucks).

A few more details: New Crusader class (basically the Paladin) Act V Level cap incrase to 70, with new skills and runes Loot runs: completely randomized short dungeons something called Nephalem Trials additions to the Paragon System new loot system Transmogrification brings back the Mystic so you can modify gear attributes I'm sure most people will still find ways to hate it but honestly, this all sounds fantastic to me.

Yeah, I can definitely see where you're coming from. I see it similar to Civ in the sense that the "story" is mostly irrelevant and you're meant to replay the campaign over and over. Obviously, some people feel like there's not enough to it to revisit it. But I loved the combat so much that I couldn't get enough of it. So this is just the excuse I needed to get back to it.

A very linear tech tree is still a tech tree. Also, lack of new campaign is a bit disappointing but I didn't really expect there to be one. I figured they'd follow the Civ model and just add content to the existing one. And honestly, I'm pretty happy with this. I kinda hope there's still more to it they haven't revealed (like more in-depth base stuff), but the non-forest UFO crash maps alone make me want it. Having replayed the campaign multiple times, those forest maps feel pretty fucking boring and tedious by now.

Definitely. They've already added a lot of content through patches, too. Especially to the endgame with Paragon levels, Monster level setting and like rare items you collect to gain access to uberbosses or something. Pretty cool stuff.

According to this, it's rather easy to plat. Rating's at the top. http://www.ps3trophies.org/forum/kingdoms-amalur-reckoning/146374-kingdoms-amalur-reckoning-trophy-guide-road-map.html Pretty handy site. Can easily see how difficult a game is to get everything and whether or not there's any missable stuff you need to look out for. I usually avoid looking at it on a first playthrough, though.

So, I don't expect anyone here still gives a crap about this game? Haven't touched it in like a year but I'm really looking forward to getting this. I had actually been meaning to do a new run/character over the summer but never got around to it.

Awwwww yissssss! 30$ expansion on PC, 40$ standalone on consoles. New Mech class with new tech tree and everything! Genetic modifications you can unlock for all soldiers. 40 new maps, including UFO crashes in urban and rural areas! (those forest areas got old so fucking fast) New soldier VO based on nationality! (about fucking time) edit: from what I understand, this isn't new recorded VO. you'll just have access to audio from localized versions. So your german soldier won't have a german accent, he'll speak german. Still pretty cool. New items New Second Wave options General balance changes Welp, that probably settles what my GOTY is this year. Coming out November 12.

Decided to give another shot to Rayman Origins. I kind of hated it the first time. I don't know about this one, I keep going back and forth between loving and hating it. Most of the time it's fun, the levels are mostly well designed and it oozes charm from every pore. When it all comes together it can be an absolute joy to play. But I almost always inevitably end up feeling like I'm fighting the controls in some way. The game looks beautiful but that's kind of irrelevant when I get so pissed at it that I want to fly to France and stab Michel Ancel in the balls. I recently played a few platforming-heavy games and had a lot of fun with them, which is what made me want to revisit it. But this game genuinely makes me wonder whether I just hate platformers. Which is really weird considering how much I fucking love games like Super Meat Boy, They Bleed Pixels and Spelunky because that's about as challenging as platforming gets. I get angry at those games but I never feel like I hate them.

Yikes. Destructoid jumped the gun and accidentally posted their 4.5 review this morning but it was Sterling so I took it with a grain of salt since I rarely agree with his harsher reviews. But now that the embargo's been lifted and reviews are coming out everywhere, it's not looking great. Scores seem to go from shit to average. Sounds like it's a meh third-person shooter with a shitty story, at best. Doesn't sound like the ties with XCOM make that much sense, either. I was worried that would be the case. I still want to play it but I'll wait until it's cheap as fuck. Too bad, I really wanted this to kick ass.