Cl_Flushentityhero

Can you explain this a bit? Lets say you have one party member and kill one darkspawn for 100xp. If you have two party members kill one darkspawn both get 100xp each? Not 50xp each? That sounds likely, as other Bio games have done the same. I think there is a mortal fear these days of having underlevel friendly NPCs, so the solution is to lock the entire party at the same level. Thus, if you could solo and gain loads of XP, the game would level up your NPCs to match and it would be 'cheap.' I don't agree with the sentiment, but I understand where they might be coming from.

I don't know if Men of War is necessarily more realistic, but it is definitely more detailed. You can re-equip units, do melee attacks, stealth (not CoH's invisibility), and all kinds of other tricks that are beyond CoH's level of micro. I picked up MoW on a $7.50 steam sale, haven't really managed to dig into it proper yet.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

It's not useless in the least, it's just simplistic. Re, other games, you might be interested in the Ninja Gaiden Sigma games. Other worthwhile exclusives include Uncharted 2 and MGS4.

Does that include Alpha Protocol? I'm many more hours in at this point, and I'd say knowledge is perhaps more important in surmounting the starting difficulty than anything else. Even in the first dungeon, there is a path of least resistance that makes it much more manageable once figured out. From there, there are certain areas and items that can give a low-level character a serious jump-start. Heck, there are even pros who play through at starting character level by cheesing items as effectively as possible. In a sense it's an elaborate system of exploits, but it's not like the game cuts you much slack. One gripe similar to Sawyer's I have at this point is the ranged combat. It feels like a crutch, where I end up using it often for survival purposes but there really isn't much to it. It feels more like a method to avoid frustration or tedium than as a rewarding mechanic in itself. Overall, I'm still enjoying it though. The atmosphere and diverse combat styles keep me coming back. There's also the revenge factor of retreading old ground at higher levels and the involved weapon customization. Basically, I beat Uncharted 2's singleplayer, did some MP, and now I'm back to mostly playing Demon's Souls.

Oh yeah, and I want 3-5x the XP (depending on party size) if I solo.

Far Cry is awesome. Aside from being a technical power-house of the day, it was one of the first (and few?) games to bring together leaning, prone, and sprinting. I found the gameplay more compelling than Far Cry 2 and Crysis, personally.

Uh, that was kind of a strong response. As I see it, nobody is complaining about anything, because we don't know what's there. My point was that it is possible to have frustrating difficulty in a game with infinite retries. Also, if the mechanics gimp certain character concepts (like oh, the entire rogue class tree), difficulty could become restrictive. Hypothetically speaking.

Er, continuing to fail and getting stuck?

Make no mistake, it's a day one buy for me and I expect it to be good. I don't expect the second coming though.

= prepare for disappointment.

Yeah, it'd be silly to say the move is commercial suicide; but it's still stupid on IW's part.

As long as the next game stays in Obsidian's hands, they can do whatever they want.

OFP1 had character, drama, and a reason to care? I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one. I think you're confusing mission design and incorporation of vehicles with plot and character. I suppose for people who consider vehicles the be-all end-all of the original, OFP2's SP would be very disappointing. Setting aside my own nostalgia, I watched the video. What I saw was somebody sitting in a turret for 5 minutes blasting away enemies too stupid to respond effectively. And yes, that was how I beat the mission too, and I thought it was awesome at the time. It wasn't realistic or tactical in the least, nor was it a display of player skill. At best it was the same kind of thrill as turning on god mode. Honestly, if you just want vehicle power-tripping, there are plenty of open-world games now that offer precisely that without the spurious implication of authenticity. I can understand frustration if you went into OFP2's SP expecting a vehicle-centric game, but focusing on infantry doesn't make a game bad.

I've made it to the 9th of eleven missions in singleplayer. Thus far, I find it to be one of the more compelling representations of infantry tactics to date in a video game. Suppression, flanking, and cover are all useful. I never really got that from OFP or ArmA because the AI was too glitchy to implement much in the way of effective plans, and so accurate that firing from cover made little difference in survivability. In OFP2 the AI actually misses, which gives you time to hit the dirt, go for cover, and figure out a way to turn the tables. It's still possible to eat it instantly out of nowhere, but unlikely unless there's a sniper (I've seen two in the game so far). The friendly AI also listens to your commands most of the time, which is a huge step up. I also found the atmosphere and environment more compelling than ArmA 2. OFP2 both looks better and runs better on my rig, which is not to be underestimated with the amount of time you spend wandering through the wilderness. It also has practical implications in terms of cover. I agree that the stealth is maybe a bit forgiving at times, but that's better than being useless. I also find that the enemy AI is kind of ruthless in CQB, which is odd since the game was clearly designed with medium range in mind. Hopefully this will be tweaked with patches. Lastly, there are some glaring issues with multiplayer (master server drops people's logins, no dedicated server, no mid-game joining). Some of them will no doubt be fixed with time, though others may or may not. For the moment, I'm just playing SP.

My gig ratio of game/other stuff is incredibly high, whereas my internal/external storage ratio is incredibly low. And, not to put too fine a point on it, have you ever actually done a comparison running the same game on a 7200 rpm internal vs. external via USB2? I have, and the difference isn't as dramatic as you imply.

Same reason my gaming rig is a laptop: mobility. It's actually worked pretty well for me over the last 4 years.

The main issue I have is HD access. The game tries to stream the city as you drive around, which leads to a noticeable hiccup on my rig (7200 rpm USB interface). Some people might say that makes the driving unplayable, but I managed. I got it on D2d's $5 sale, so I feel I got my money's worth.

I know, they can use the extra time to come up with day one DLC! *ducking and running*

Lame. How about a 6-month early beta access for pre-orders?

Nightshape: Well, look at it this way. If an IP is rebooted into something that doesn't draw much from the original games, then what does slapping the IP's name on it even mean?

Just checked out the character builder, cool idea on Bio's part. A lot remains to be seen in terms of weapon and armor types, mechanics, etc., but so far it looks pretty good. Definitely not as flexible or diverse as, say, NWN2, but accessibility to new players was obviously a priority. Also, any game with a feat devoted to kicking people in the nads can't be that bad. The rogue's selection of feats in particular look pretty compelling. That said, I'm always skeptical of balance when it comes to rogues and dexterity in general.

Ahem, demo has a *part* of one level. Anyhoo, just finished the SP, good times. I think the reason so many reviewers hail it as the best game ever is because, while the gameplay boils down to platforming and shooting, it often does everything in its power to distract you from that. Instead of just platforming, it will have you platform while a helicopter chases you. Instead of QTEs, it will bring up a reticle and have you start shooting during a cutscene. Nowhere is this design philosophy more evident than in the vehicle sections, where you are not actually driving a vehicle but rather climbing on them as they move. In essence, you're just shooting your way through a linear level like with any shooter, but because so much is going on in the environment it is more exciting than it would otherwise be. UC2 may indeed be a masterpiece, but it is arguably one of pacing and production values more than actual gameplay. This is not to say the pacing is consistent throughout. At times it will seem like one crazy scripted event after another, and then you'll spend most of the next hour platforming and puzzle-solving in a deserted ruin. For me, there were indeed times where I grew rather tired either of fighting increasingly large hordes or of platforming; particularly as the game neared its end and felt compelled to "challenge" me. That said, it does a good job of keeping things moving in most cases, and depending on your tastes the pacing may be perfect. As for the story/characters/tone, like the gameplay it's a series of interwoven cliches. The story is faithful to the first game's formula, starting out with a treasure hunt and taking a turn towards the supernatural. Characters exist pretty much for the purpose of banter and occasionally as a prop. As with their combat AI, as long as you don't expect much out of them they add flavor. The sense of humor is similar to the first game, though slightly improved if I may be so bold. On a personal note, the CQC has been slightly beefed up for UC2, which I found quite enjoyable. Don't expect to do the same cool combos in PvP though, as they were removed from those modes. To sum up, UC2 has improved on pretty much everything from the first game and added good multiplayer functionality. For me, this elevated the franchise from a competent yet somewhat bland experience to a legitimate contender for PS3's killer app. Because the SP really is just a spectacular wall dressing for the same old mechanics, I can't in good conscience call it the best game ever. That said, I pity anyone who can't enjoy the game for what it is.

I had a blast. The story was functional, but what more do you expect from a dungeon crawler? In fact, it reminds me of Demon Souls in a number of ways, which received almost universal praise from critics. Hmm . . .

So, I just picked up my pre-order today, and thus far the SP is about what I expected. Basically, it's the game equivelant of a summer blockbuster: short on substance, but plenty of explosions to help you forget that. Gameplay-wise, everything does pretty much what you'd expect, with shooting dudes from behind cover and platforming being the primary activities. That said, I hear that the game kicks into overdrive in the last half, so the best is supposedly yet to come. Also, having played the MP beta, I can vouch that that aspect s pretty fun and full-featured.