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Cyber Rat
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Be ready for the game to be twice as long as you thought it'd be. It overstays its welcome pretty fast. But I still suggest getting through it. The second half of the game is pretty awesome, despite the gameplay being a GoW clone that doesnt know when to quit.

Yeah, I went in knowing it was a long game. It's also hard to ignore that after 9 hours I'm only on Chapter V of XIV. If it gets better like you say, then I don't expect to have a problem with the length. So far, the gameplay is merely serviceable but I'm really liking the atmosphere and the story seems like it might do some interesting things. The soundtrack is also pretty great, reminds me of LOTR. If anything, I feel like length might add to how epic it all feels.

 

One thing that sucks is I got a detail of the ending spoiled but it's kind of hard to avoid if you haven't played it but have been following marketing for the sequel...

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Yeah, it's pretty much 3D Metroidvania. Not sure how you missed that the first time around. :P

 

I agree that it was kind of lost in subsequent games, though. It's still a little bit there but, like I said in the other thread, the open-worlds feel more like hubs to me. It doesn't really feel like you're exploring as much. You're just following waypoints.

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Yeah, I'm not sure how you didn't realise that either.

 

But, I mean, all it really is is 'come back to this same place when you have a new gadget' as well as some changes in the level after particular story events. I'm happy to accept a less inter-connected feel for the different vibe that I get from City, because that other stuff is still there to some extent. As for the hub-style, I like that sometimes you have/get to be smart about how you approach your objective as well. Being able to plan your 'assault' on a group of enemies is a lot of fun, like when you're getting into the other steel mill entrance or even just clearing a rooftop.

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I missed it because when I played it the first time I was only passingly familiar with Metroidvania, so it didn't jump out at me. Now that I'm replaying it after having played a few Metroidvania games it's much more obvious.

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I'm playing Skyrim. Currently doing the Hearthfire stuff. If I complete quests along the way of building my dream home then so be it. Playing with the Another Life mod which means so far no dragons (though folks still talk of them now and then).

 

Also I'm apparently quite ill looking, despite the fact I've had the Cure Disease potion and stuff. So I've the feeling I got bitten by a Vampire (well, the vampire. A master vampire that popped up in Falkreath, I assume as part of the Dawnguard DLC).

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XCOM: Enemy Within. I'm still early on in the campaign (have to capture the Outsider next) but so far holy shit did the game need this! It isn't too drastically changed but it is improved in a few key ways.

 

Gene mods are cool and really useful but holy shit are the MECs a ton of fun! There's just something so satisfying in the way they loudly stomp around. The first time I used a MEC to destroy cover to clear a shot for my sniper, I was giggling like an idiot. It's also kind of awesome having a sniper that can run around and effortlessly jump up on any ledges or rooftops. Or an assault that recovers a little bit of HP each turn. I'm actually kinda worried that having a fully augmented and modded squad might be overpowered in the late game. It feels kinda weird that you can just start researching them almost right at the beginning but honestly, who cares when it's this much fun. There's also medals you can award to soldiers now. It gives them little bonuses. Nothing too crazy but a nice touch.

 

Then there's the new maps. I think the replayability of XCOM mostly lies in its maps, so the limited pool in Enemy Unknown made it feel really repetitive after a few runs. Adding new maps was great but the way the old ones have been tweaked really makes the game feel fresh again. A few times I thought I was on a new map only to realize it was an old one, just with a different starting location. Then there's the urban UFO crashes. I only did one so far but it was great. The close-quarter nature of the map gave it a completely different vibe from the usually open forest maps. Those got old real fast and were my biggest issue with vanilla XCOM.

 

Also, I didn't expect this but the council missions are actually handled a lot better. In vanilla, if you owned the Slingshot DLC, the first council mission was always the first Slingshot mission. And if you ignored it then the story arc never came up again in that campaign. If you chose to do it, the next few council missions would be that story. Here, you can activate it by checking a box when you start a new campaign. I got the first mission very early on but the next one I got was something completely different so their integration into the campaign is much more seamless.

 

I was also really happy to find out that the other DLC story pack (the one that was scrapped after people complained about Slingshot) appears to have been incorporated in the expansion. I thought Slingshot was kind of alright. So, even though what I really wanted was an expansion, I was kinda bummed out that I wouldn't get to play those missions. This one is also activated at the beginning, like Slingshot.

 

So, yeah, if you liked Enemy Unknown then this is definitely worth the 30 bucks. Really glad I picked it up. This will probably get me to sink another 100+ hours into the game. :D

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People shit all over the campaign of BF4 but so far it doesn't seem that bad to me. It isn't great but it's not bad. I think the problem is that military campaigns just aren't that interesting anymore. How many times can you fight terrorists and use gunships and save America as a marine before it just gets old, regardless of story or set pieces? It's serviceable at least. I'm just playing through it while I wait for EA to fix the multi.

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I haven't given the single player much of a go yet, but the single player in BF3 was just awful. They forced you to sneak in a lot of the game, but the AI was able to instantly locate you. The sneaking and the AI being telepathic or something made the single player just un-pleasant.

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