toxicitizen

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.

I actually got through hard mode pretty quick on my second run. I thought the game just gets really easy after you play through it once but maybe my reflexes are just really good or something. Javier gave me hell the first time around but the second time on hard mode I made him my bitch. Could be. I don't know, it took me a couple of hour-long sessions before I managed to beat him. It actually made me dread the final boss but I beat that one fairly easily. There were something like four fights total that gave me some trouble, but nothing compared to Javier. X'Tabay was also a bit of a pain in the ass but only because, for some reason, I'd reach the halfway point and the scripted scene where you talk to her would trigger but the room would stay in the dimension with spikes, so my character would blindly run into them and kill himself. Happened three or four times, it was kind of aggravating. But yeah, even the third Caverna del Pollo trial and the two insane platforming orb levels I got through very quickly this time around.

So, I only had the two hard difficulty related achievements left for Guacamalee! so I said fuck it and did my hard run right away while my skills are still fresh. I'd advise staying away from hard unless you want to start hating the game. Jesus christ, the fight against Jaguar Javier almost made me give up entirely. The final boss was a fucking joke by comparison.

Mark of the Ninja: Special Edition. It was my New Game+ run but I played it exclusively with the new Path of Wisdom and items introduced in the DLC. They're actually kind of overpowered lol. The moths make it really easy to stun the late game enemies that you can't normally do takedowns on (like the Elite Guards and the Stalkers) and the fungus just fucking kills everything it comes into contact with. I figured I'd be spending all week-end on it but I ended up just blasting through the whole thing today. I really, really loved the challenge of New Game+, though. Mark of the Ninja's design was brilliant in how it gave you tons of information purely visually. Noise rings, cones of vision, colors vs darkness to indicate if you're hidden, etc... In NG+, the fog of war becomes 100% line of sight dependant. So if something isn't directly in front of you, you can't see it. That includes enemies you've just sneaked past. It makes previously trivial actions such as coming out of air vents much more tense. Normally, you'd peek out and see the entire room but in NG+ you only see a narrow cone right in front/above you and you can't be certain whether or not there's a guard standing just to the side, right outside of it. Other than that, the developer commentaries are pretty damn awesome. As someone just starting to learn programming and really interested in getting into games programming, they provided a lot of fascinating insights into how the various systems of the game work.

It's DLC that came out today. Adds a new flashback level in which you play as Dosan (the tattoo artist), two items and a new style with a non-lethal takedown. Also, a bunch of developer commentaries throughout the levels. I've been waiting for it to do my New Game Plus run and after playing the first few levels, the commentaries are pretty interesting.

I've been waiting a long time for this!

Well, I don't know about challenging, but I wouldn't say it was easy, I guess. There were many sections where you definitely couldn't just run and gun. Had to use your abilities and make sure to be aware of what enemies were around and plan accordingly. The combat was really satisfying in that way, now that I think about it. As for the coop, didn't have a chance to try it out. I knew the game was a huge failure for EA but I went back to look at reviews and was surprised because it scored relatively well (GiantBomb even gave it 5 stars) and most people had high praise for the coop. I assume it's a completely different campaign?

Syndicate a.k.a. Lens Flare: The Game. So, yesterday I logged in to Origin to redeem my bundle keys and Syndicate was just sitting there looking at me all "Yo, what up!". I had completely forgotten that I had bought it a couple months back. So I figured I should play it before starting Dead Space 3. Anyway, I actually kind of enjoyed it. More so in the first half but thankfully it's fairly short (something like 6 hours). The story is mostly shit but the gameplay/combat is kinda like a dumber, shooty-er version of Deus Ex, I guess. It was really fun at first but once the novelty wore off (about halfway through) it was just kind of okay. If it had been twice as long, I probably would've lost interest before finishing it. I don't remember how much I paid for it but it couldn't have been more than 5 bucks, so overall I'd say it was worth it.

I see. Thanks.

I heard about the drop in quality but I'm unfamiliar with the creative forces behind the series. Is it more of a revolving door kinda deal like most comics where different writers and artists take runs on it? Or is there a single creator/mastermind behind the whole thing?

He probably just didn't pay attention. I normally give all my money to the devs, unless it's a publisher bundle in which case I tend to either give to Humble tip or charity. Here, I went straight to charity and didn't know EA was giving their cut until you mentioned it. Also, Origin key redeem is seriously being hammered right now. I haven't managed to redeem a single game. I've spent all afternoon wondering what to play next and Dead Space 3 came along at just the right time. I just wish I could redeem it already!

Yeah, what I've read of the comic was pretty great. It seemed like they did a lot of really interesting things with it. The first story arc was a murder mystery while the second one was basically Animal Farm. I should probably take the time to read further than that.

Oh, most definitely. This is a nice gesture and all but it's 100% motivated by PR and trying to get more people on Origin. @Ethan: Have you checked your bundle page? It's all there. You get both. One thing I'm curious about is why they included Dead Space 3 and not 2. I would expect them to include 1 and 2 to get people to buy 3.

So, uh, wat? The Humble Origin bundle. Been meaning to get the Steam version of Crysis 2 Maximum Edition for a while but what made me go over was the inclusion of Dead Space 3, which I have yet to play. I also beat the average and got Battlefield 3. I kinda feel like I'm being pranked here. Like, seriously. Some of these even include Steam keys. I don't know what to believe anymore. Complete list: Dead Space Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box Crysis 2 ME Mirror's Edge Dead Space 3 Medal of Honor BTA: Battlefield 3 and The Sims 3 + Starter Pack

Didn't see this posted and I don't think we have a thread on this one. I kinda wanted to post it in The Walking Dead thread just to annoy Dean. Anyway, first trailer is out for the new game series from Telltale based on the Fables Vertigo comics. Having read the first few issues of the comics (something like two story arcs), I'm really intrigued to see what they do with this. It's a really cool setting. The trailer is looking pretty good, with visuals very similar to The Walking Dead. Considering how hit-and-miss Telltale have been in the past, I'm really looking forward to see how they'll follow up The Walking Dead. Hopefully they can apply everything they've learned from making TWD and start making quality games more consistently.

Does it? I must've missed that. Might be interesting to replay it with those. And the Soundtrack was pretty good, yeah. I'd probably buy it if it was available on Steam.

Yeah, I was really surprised as well when I checked the store and saw it was 10$. I figured the narrator seemed like the most likely reason but while I was aware he was somewhat known, I have no idea who he is. Holy crap, looking at wiki he also voices Shaun in the AC games. No wonder he sounded so familiar. First time I heard him, I wondered if it was Stephen Merchant.

Thomas Was Alone. Short and simplistic gameplay but the writing and especially the narration are quite good. I hesitate to even call it a puzzle platformer, though, since I don't think anything in there qualifies as a puzzle. Was worth taking the evening to play through it (took me about three and a half hours) but I am really glad I got it from some bundle because I don't think I'd recommend it at 10$. 5$ feels like a more appropriate price for it.

Ah okay, that's the one I was thinking of then. Yeah, it has a Super Meat Boy vibe in the way it's designed but it's nowhere near as hard as Super Meat Boy past the first couple worlds. Took me like 20-30 mins tops to get through that one. The only part that really gave me trouble was the bit with all the spinning saws right before the end. I also got legitimately enraged at the game there, but I get enraged at games all the time so... yeah. Well, the quick travel stones are pretty much impossible to miss. So if you can't get somewhere then you haven't been there yet. There's one like right before the final area and another one right before the boss. I'm with you there. These are challenging but Super Meat Boy was something else. I don't think there's any other game of which I would say I'm proud that I managed to beat it. Maybe Demon's Souls.

It probably helps that I'm stubborn as fuck, too. So the easier and faster it is to go back then the less likely I am to rage quit. Probably why I went to bed so goddamned late last night. Went to fight the final boss of Guacamelee around 3h30 AM and ended up going to bed around 5 Got stuck on the boss for at least 30-40 mins and then spent something like 45 mins more on some ridiculously difficult platforming section to get the last collectible afterwards. I'd missed it on purpose because I knew having them all would give me an alternate ending so I went for the default one first. Also, now that I've beaten the game, I'm not sure which optional parts Tenshi was referring to. Did you mean the challenge rooms in El Infierno DLC? The only other parts that come to mind are two of the orb rooms, but those factor into which ending you get so they don't seem optional to me. Anyway, great little game. My one complaint would be that it's too damn short. Not because I didn't get my money's worth but because I don't want it to be over!

I disagree on the not being a "fun" game front but yeah if it wasn't so well designed I wouldn't love it anywhere near as much as I do. I guess it depends on how much satisfaction you get out of finally beating a level after 30 mins of non-stop retries. I find the reward far outweighs the frustration.

By contacting support and asking them nicely. It's far from ideal since it absolutely has to be before the game releases, so if you have a last second change of heart and support takes too long to reply then you're shit outta luck.

Good! But seriously, though, why such strong feelings towards it? Is there something in particular about SMB or you're just not into difficult precision platformers in general?

You're dead to me.

I'm only about 3 hours in but I'm a huge fan of Metroidvania games so I'm loving the hell out of it. As far as frustrating goes, only one section really comes to mind. I'm not the best when it comes to platforming so when you have enemies on the platforms AND flying enemies that shoot projectiles at you, it doesn't take me long to start raging. But since the game just instantly respawns you right on the last platform you were on, at least you don't lose progress over it. It just gets kind of annoying to repeatedly fall to your death. Also, Drinkbox sure love their references... Mutant Blobs Attack was also full of them. I don't really mind the gaming references. They can be pretty cool, especially when they're relevant (like the Metroid statues you break to get power-ups). But when fucking internet memes started showing up I cringed pretty hard. Don't know what they were thinking there, these are going to be dated pretty damn fast. I only saw a couple so far, though, so at least there doesn't seem to be too many of them.