Jump to content

What are you playing now?


Gorth

Recommended Posts

No, but I just don't see the point in a game like Red Faction to make everything kaputt. That's just stupid and serves nothing.

 

I, for one love destroying stuff and watching giant towers crumble under their own weight. It's also not all about that, it's just the defining mechanic, while the rest of the game is mediocre at best.

 

I just thought that destroying things was part of human nature.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If anyone is wondering about Red Faction then here's a video review that includes stuff blowing up.

 

Honestly, Red Faction doesn't have the storytelling depth of MGS4.

 

MGS4's story has the depth of a bottomless hole, that doesn't make the story good, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even for its many problems, I liked Jade Empire a good deal more than Mass Effect.

I can see why! Beyond some moderately shiny graphics and... erm, OK real-time combat, this game has "mediocre" stamped all over it. All right, so the first part was unnecessary, but I was trying to find something distinctly positive about the game. I suppose the areas are reasonably built, although again, nothing special, and the size and habit of including superfluous changes in level and random, purely decorative walls makes them a little labyrinthine.

 

I'm really not seeing what the fuss is about, and as I suspected, the similarities between the Alpha Protocol dialogue stance system and the "dialogue wheel" that ME uses are purely cosmetic. Also, this game is about as well-optimised as NWN2, if not slightly worse. My laptop is supposedly well above the minimum specs, but the game still runs laggily even on mid-low settings.

 

I'd turn the texture detail down further, but everything already looks fugly. The story is bland even by BioWare standards, and the voice acting, for the most part, is diabolically bad. Especially for Shepard. To top it all, the majority of the party members have even less personality or interest than usual. And the (bland-to-dreadful) dialogue is unskippable. Oh, paroxysms of joy. Seriously, why do people praise this game? Of BioWare's recent output, both JE and KotOR easily trump it, from what I've seen so far.

I waited until price dropped to 20

- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the other hand, I don't understand where your criticism of writing comes from - unrealistically high expectations, I'd say. The one word that defines Bioware's writing is corny, and it's been that way since day one. But I don't see this as a necessarily bad thing; most attempts at coming up with overly sophisticated and deep plots and characters for games end up trying too hard and the result tends to be utter pseudo-intellectual tripe - or what's worse, they actually succeed at creating a cult title that bombs. If outstanding writing is what you're after, I'd suggest another medium - books, mainly.

 

I'd say the writing in ME was in some ways a bit worse than in previous Bioware games, due to them shortening most main character dialogue lines in order to accommodate the VO budget. The vast majority of the main character lines seem to be variations of "Tell me about this or that."

"My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian tourist
I am Dan Quayle of the Romans.
I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.
Heja Sverige!!
Everyone should cuffawkle more.
The wrench is your friend. :bat:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A bit worse? It's only a small step above a Saturday morning cartoon.

 

 

Yes, just like KOTOR.

 

Don't start this again, please. ;)

"My hovercraft is full of eels!" - Hungarian tourist
I am Dan Quayle of the Romans.
I want to tattoo a map of the Netherlands on my nether lands.
Heja Sverige!!
Everyone should cuffawkle more.
The wrench is your friend. :bat:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Femshep is voiced by Jennifer Hale, who has also done Fall-From-Grace, Deionarra and Bastila along with a billion other things. She has an awesome voice. There's even a
on youtube.

Too bad Bastila herself deserved the opposite of praise, and the good voice acting didn't help her case either.

Nice vid btw.

Edited by Oner
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Too bad Bastila herself deserved the opposite of praise, and the good voice acting didn't help her case either.

Nice vid btw.

Fake British accents FTW.

 

I like all BioWare games. But then, I'm but a lowly casual gamer. :)

Edited by virumor

The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Visually, Jade Empire is the best game BioWare has ever done. The setting is also the most creative.

Nice setting, but not exploited in a creative way. It's just Kotor in an Asian setting...quite unimaginative, actually.

QFT. If they ever do a sequel they must improve on pretty much everything.

1.13 killed off Ja2.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with numbers man.

 

I played (and enjoyed, so biases beware) Mass Effect. While I didn't find the voice overs to be particularly "OMG WOW," I rarely do. I tended to listen to all the conversations rather than skipping, so I think it is clear that I feel that the voice acting was at least even in terms of net contribution to my experience. I did really enjoy the cinematic feel of the game, and loved the fact that the PC was voiced over. But I didn't find the writing to be poor. It seemed pretty standard, nothing overly special, but functional with some interesting characters that I enjoyed. I liked a lot of the interactions with the party members on the ship.

 

A friend of mine said it felt a lot like KOTOR in a new Universe, and that is exactly the feeling I got. I really enjoyed KOTOR, and for much of the same reasons I really enjoyed Mass Effect as well.

 

My issues with the game were the Citadel and side missions. The Citadel was too empty and I felt could have been exploited better. Whenever I would rather use the speedy transit system right from the get go, I consider that to be a flaw in the level. The side missions were boring and exceptionally repetitive. Too much asset reuse (as numbers man stated), and the only ones I really cared for were the ones that were unique to my character backgrounds. Aside from that, I stopped doing them when I realized it was just a slog for more XP.

 

 

But I love the feeling that I am playing an interactive movie, and I actually liked the dialogue wheel for the fact that it didn't fully tip off what the PC was going to say, and hence, it was fresh to me when it was spoken. Is it better than old school dialogue? Probably not. But I thought it added an interesting element, and I'm looking forward to the similar system incorporated in Alpha Protocol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Visually, Jade Empire is the best game BioWare has ever done. The setting is also the most creative.

 

FemShep's voice is better than DudeShep.

 

Jade Empire has gotta be the worst Bioware rpg eve-- well, okay, besides the sonic the hedhehog one

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IMy issues with the game were the Citadel and side missions. The Citadel was too empty and I felt could have been exploited better. Whenever I would rather use the speedy transit system right from the get go, I consider that to be a flaw in the level. The side missions were boring and exceptionally repetitive. Too much asset reuse (as numbers man stated), and the only ones I really cared for were the ones that were unique to my character backgrounds. Aside from that, I stopped doing them when I realized it was just a slog for more XP.
Yes, well, the Citadel and the UCW were the only ones where you could do any exploration and side quests, so not really like KOTOR.

"Moral indignation is a standard strategy for endowing the idiot with dignity." Marshall McLuhan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Zelda: Phantom hourglass

 

It's been some time since a game was so enjoyable ;) The one gripe so far has been the

ghost girls, where the ever so seemingly precise controls really let me down in doing what I wanted...

, and maybe the whole "talk to your DS"-thing, but it can be avoided by blowing into the mic.

Citizen of a country with a racist, hypocritical majority

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...