Thursday Next

See, I thought the gang warfare ruined the game. I hated being on one side of the map trying to do something, and then getting a notification that my territory was under attack. I also hated the forced reset halfway through the game. It was annoying as hell having to retake all the territory.

Nope.

Unless this game has some really good crafting mechanics, it's not getting near my console. I hope they do something along the lines of Dead Space 3 weapon creation.

Maybe (probably) you are right, I've only had limited interaction with GTA V on friends' copies so not got in to the detail, and I tend to think that you're pretty spot on when you comment on stuff I have played more thoroughly. At this point, I've got more games than I can play, and GTA is traditionally too much of a time sink for me to jump on especially since when I've tried it, it's failed to grab me. It's not played straight like Watchdogs (surveillance state, etc etc etc), but not ott and humorous enough to be Vice City (where I think the series peaked). So it just kind of sits in a messy middle ground. For an anglo-centric illustration, it's like going to see Stewart Lee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOb2KQHr7V0 share the stage with Roy Chubby Brown have an audience, but there isn't much room for overlap.

I suppose that's where I diverge from your opinion. I totally agree that lobbying the government to ban it encroaches on artistic freedoms and is a BadThing™. However, once it is in a shop it becomes any random product and I'm totally in favour of market forces determining the sale of products. Games (perhaps due to the nature of my work) are sort of quantum art/product entities to me.

I do mean stagnant in terms of gameplay. It's done little that compels me to play. I feel the same about the AC series, both are (for me) suffering from franchise fatigue and could do with being shelved for a while until there are some fresh ideas. Also, the characters feel like rehashes of Tommy and CJ. It just doesn't *feel* new and there's not really a particular thing I can put my finger on that explains it. As for Puerile, it's rehashing the same jokes, peados are perverts, governments are corrupt, blah blah blah, but it doesn't actually say anything new about them. It's the difference between someone in the pub going "Hah! The taxman is stealing my money, he should wear a mask and carry a swag bag." or actually making humorous commenting on a government official claiming expenses to maintain the duck house in his pond, when his constituents are homeless. Both are technically political satire, one deals with a broad, almost monomyth type thing that the "taxman" is a boogey man out to take your hard earned cash. It's lazy and easy to do because it never changes. It's also deeply flawed in its reasoning as taxes pay for stuff. The other relates to a particular individual, but also speaks to the general issue of politicians getting more than their fair share. Not to mention all the crap like internet cafes called "tw@" which is about as infantile as it gets.

I'd say it's also fair to lobby people to agree with you and to use that power to apply financial or other pressure to get your way. Provided that people always have a choice to go against that and continue to stock it and deal with the consequences. Basically, I don't have an issue with anything that happened re: sex workers, Target and KMart, and GTA. If I were in charge of KMart and Target, I would have looked at the size of the petition, the demographics, the potential for lost sales and the current level of GTA sales and made a decision based on the numbers. I assume they did the same and decided the cost of dumping GTA was worth the goodwill of the petitioners. If there were no numbers involved and it was just a moral stand point, I'm not sure if I would have gone on selling something that upset a lot of people, or if I would make a stand for free speech. As someone who finds GTA a bit stagnant and puerile, I would probably junk it.

Oh yeah, forgot this thread. http://www.rakuten.co.uk/shop/shopto/product/PS4BU03/ Use GIFT40 for additional £10 off. 5xPS4 games for £90. Niiiice.

Steam ID/Wishlist/Country (in case of regional restrictions) http://steamcommunity.com/id/victoranalogy/ | United States of Kingdom (Englandshire) General criteria For Steam games, anything that I can play in short bursts or with frequent pauses, like FTL, Frozen Synapse and Papers Please. Otherwise, EU PSN credit would be awesome. My wishlist is pretty short at the mo, but I'll try to beef it up. What are your favorite genres? Indie games. Roguelikes. What are your favorite games? Journey, The Last of Us, DA:I. Are you looking for any non-Steam gifts? PSN store credit please. Will you take games not on your wishlist? I'm always happy to check out new games I've never heard of, so yeah. Any other information you think relevant? Nahhhhhh.

What? The one as big as me?

I'd be surprised if Sam didn't end up being the bad guy. Wrapped up in some ambiguous, Lando-esque "I had to do it" thing and then some sort of redemption in death / noble sacrifice job.

Thanks Eleven, that's exactly what I meant. Also, I agree, it won't happen. ND have a reputation for nailed together polished games. It would tarnish that rep. But I still want it. Either way, I am buying this when it releases. I'm a big UC fan.

What Ethan said. I want half assed coop, I know I won't get it. I know it would break at points and be ugly and that's not what ND do. I'm ok with that. If they continue with a side of coop I hope it's more fleshed out. Maybe they could do a back story thing where Nate and Sam do some adventuring together that can be coop focussed? I'm just seeing that two Drakes as an opportunity for gameplay. If it's a pure narrative tool, so be it. With employer bias noted, the coop in Dead Space 3 was brilliant. It made the game huge amounts of fun. Especially when . Offtopic/ Also, people moaning about microtransations in Dead Space can jog on. You didn't need to spend a penny unless you really wanted to. It was just an alternative to grinding. /Offtopic Finally, I do enjoy the popcorn story of UC games. It's just not my priority.

Single Player Action / Puzzle / Platform game vs Single Player Action / Puzzle / Platform game. Aesthetics aside, there are a lot of similarities. In both games you either have to fight off a wave of enemies, solve a puzzle, or complete a (sometimes crumbly) platform section to continue. These are both broken up on occasion by cut scenes, you even have sections where you have to leave an ageing fatty behind to go do some athletic stuff. The fact that ND use a more photo-realistic aesthetic or focuses on a (really not amazing) plot is neither here nor there. I primarily play Uncharted games for the fun of the game mechanics, not for the cinematics. If I could have a friend drop in on that too, so much the better.

Where does anyone claim this? Have you played Knack coop? It pretty much works as described. You spawn in a second Knack. If a ledge crumbles and they fall behind then they respawn. It works fine as a way to crowbar in coop without changing the SP experience. They can join in the combat stuff, they can hop around a bit, but if they fall behind it's no great shakes. I know you don't want this. I'm not telling you to want it. All I'm saying is that I want at least a half assed coop so that I can coop when I want to.

Who says I didn't check? As a result of a keen desire to remain an EA insider I shall remain mute on the motivations. (I actually haven't checked, but I doubt it is the case).

100% agreed. Helmets look rubbishhhhhh.

Yeah, if 2x enemies pop out of the monster closets, then that should only happen while you are cooping. I'm not suggesting single player change at all, barring that a reskinned DrakeBro be dropped in to the game so that I can play with a buddy. In my ideal world, the game would have an entirely optional coop structure built from the ground up where Drake never ends up alone so that you could have less immersion breaking coop, but really, I just want to be able to have a friend drop in / out so I can keep playing. I'm able to suspend my disbelief to follow cinematics..

Wanders into thread... Re: ME -> ME2 and DA:O -> DA2. Alien was a horror film. Aliens was an action film. Both are awesome films. Just because something changes tone, or genre, or whatever doesn't mean it has been dumbed down, or is worse, or that anyone has been betrayed. For every person that doesn't like the change, there will be someone who does. To avoid a sense of betrayal, disabuse yourself of the idea that a sequel has been made for you. No one cares what you (as an individual) thinks. Companies care what communities as whole think, they care what (they think) the wider market thinks, but there is not a single game company in the world that makes games for FLD, or for TheMightyEthan, or for that Tornado lunatic, who I never had the pleasure of meeting, he seems as bad as that guy from the original Kotakuites forum... the lemon guy... captain logic... what a tool that guy was... was his name Dick? Or was he just one? Anyway, I digress. In short, take each game on its merits, don't expect a sequel to be the same as the last instalment, don't make the mistake of thinking that any company cares what you think and you will not feel betrayed in the future.

I think Ethan and I are approaching UC from a point of view of "Sometimes I want to play Uncharted, but I don't want to be totally antisocial." In such events, having a drop in doppleganger who can take part in the shoosting of mans and the jumpings about, would allow us to continue to play the game without our friend sitting in the corner watching it. Yes it would be half baked and immersion braking, yes sometimes your coop buddy would get stranded and have to respawn at your location and no, those things are not ideal. I only want this thrown in as an optional way to play, like it was in Resistance and Halo and Knack. The benefit of being able to play games with mates and beers outweighs the breaking of the cinematic experience. Bear in mind that this will not effect how FLD plays at all. Unless his housemates are the types to burst into a room and grab a controller despite his protestations.

I don't see how optional drop in/out coop would affect anyone who wants it. I don't care if it is immersion breaking, UC storylines are popcorn fare at best. The option to have someone else play along beats out the negative effect of playing alongside Drake's older brother and then have him appear out of context. Where this idea does break down is that ND usually have plenty of platform sections that are scripted to crumble, so what you scramble up one minute your coop partner will be screwed on. All I'm saying is, having two Drakes of similar age is a clear opportunity for cooping without immersion breaking "As if Sully could make that jump." moments.

Sooooooo... Now that we have two Drakes... Coop? That would be nice. A friendly bit of optional coop? Yes? No? I would like Coop. Especially with a split screen/online option.

If you want to catch up on the UC story so that you don't miss any of the important character development... just watch the Indiana Jones trilogy.