Last game you finished, tell us about it

If it sucks on his GTX 470 then it'sll suck even more on my GTX 460. I'll skip it. Thanks JDR.

Um... But one question... Are there boobs in the game? If yes... Well... I won't mind a slideshow. :)
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
Alan Wake

The last game I finished was Alan Wake. A thriller game with complex story (a little confused me), perfect narrative and excellent characterization. I'm about to play it again in "Nightmare" difficulty because the first time I finalized it in "Normal" mode couldn't find all manuscripts of Alan's book :(. There are some unanswered questions (or maybe plot holes) that force me to play it again. After that I'll play both two DLCs. Regarding the score I give Alan Wake 9/10 however If there were some outstanding innovations in terms of gameplay mechanics I'd give it better score.
 
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Joined
Mar 30, 2012
Messages
37
Location
Iran
Just finished Legend of Grimrock.

Took ~21 hours according to the gamesave times, but if you count the number of times I re-did stuff it was probably closer to 25.
I thought I was being pretty slow and careful, but somehow still managed to miss two of the seven "treasures". The only other things of significance I missed out on were the FIghters Challenge and the Sword of Nex on level 6, but mainly because I got sick of failing the button pushing exercise to open the secret area. My keyboard and mouse coordination sucks these days!

Still, all in all, this was the best 15 bucks I've spent in a very very long time.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,245
Location
New Zealand
Battlefield 3
Just a brief review on this one. BF3 is really a multiplayer game but I only played the singleplayer campaign.

Story
The game begins with Seargent Blackburn being interrogated by the CIA. Every level of the game is a past event retold by Blackburn and not neccessary in chronological order. This slowly builds up a story with several different people that connects to the same events, most of which are connected to a conflict in Iran. Difficult to say much more about the story as it didn't connect to me at all, had no major surprises and I didn't feel much for any of it's characters.

Engine: Graphics & Sound
The game looks fantastic and the sound is great. Really, it difficult to go into details but this is one of the best looking games out there and the audio is just as good, especially the gunsounds which really stands out.

Gameplay
It's very obvious that the game were inspired by the Call of Duty series. Start calm and walk into a scene that overloads you with rich content, check. Uncomfortable first-person scene, check. Nukes, check. Push the button on screen quick or die, check. Radical jumps from one environment to another, check. Some russians involved, check.

The game uses some of it's advantages from it's multiplayer setting, including a large scale battlefield, driving a tank and even a great flying scene which I found to be the most memorable for it's originality, but I believe they could have done more.

Verdict
Like I said in the beginning, Battlefield 3 is made for multiplayer, they tried to make a singleplayer campaign but it seems they had no story to tell so they just reused every cliché from the book.
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
6,027
Borderlands GOTY
I actually finished Borderlands earlier this year along with three friends online but didn't have time to write a review. This will include a minireview of each of the four DLC's as well.

Story
Borderlands takes place on Pandora, a planet filled with mostly desert. Marcus, who is actually a weapon trader, drive four fortune seekers to the little settlement known as Fyrestone. Almost right away they get a strange vision from a woman telling them to find a mysterious vault which contains something spectacular. After awhile they meet up with the archeaologist Patricia Tannis who explains that there's indeed a vault on the planet that opens up once every 200 years, which is just about to happen. However, there's competition. Commendant Steele who belongs to a mercenary group called the Crimson Lance claims that the planet, and the vault, is theirs.

While the story definitely do not take itself seriously, it's characters, artstyle and voice acting makes it compelling to push on.

The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
Jacobs Corporation asks you to investigate Dr. Ned who was supposed to assist Jacobs Cove that is now overrun by zombies. The first DLC was a horror-themed zombie-fest that fits well into the rest of the non-stop gorefest. That said, it's one of the weaker DLC's in the game. It's fairly short and doesn't really add anything unique in loot or rewards. It's main attraction is it's theme and the tiny story there is.

Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot
Mad Moxxi, as the introduction points out, is searching for her 4th husbound and pass the time by setting up arena fights to a cheering crowd. What she have to offer is unfortunately the weakest DLC in my opinion, just an arena that throws wave upon wave upon you. At least you get a skillpoint for your effort. At least the DLC added a bank for you to store your items in.

The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
General Knoxx haven't had the best time and he's really tired. He have worked his entire life to get to his position but have to work under an admiral that is just 5 years old. Until he gave up and took over that is. That's why you are sent over to his armory to take him out. This is actually one of the best DLC's I have seen regardless of game, similar to classic expansions. The map is really large, the DLC's own campaign is pretty long with several of the key NPC's making a return. The DLC also have a lot more of Scooter who provide you with new cars which come handy since there's a lot of driving in this one.

Claptrap's New Robot Revolution
The claptrap, a droid character who you met several times throughout the game, went mad and now calls himself the Interplanetary Ninja Assassin and calls for a revolution. Of course, you're the one who have to clean up the mess. Unfortunately the final DLC doesn't really reach up to Knoxx. It's large, but not as large as Knoxx. Worse, the new areas were pretty short on quests.

Engine: Graphics & Sound
There's almost no game like this out there. Borderlands have a very unique style, using cellshaded graphics and a lot of attitude, including awesome voice acting. The music is just great and add a lot to the atmosphere and so does the large landscapes where you can often see right across to the other side if you find a good overwatch spot.

Gameplay
Ah, gameplay. So much great stuff to mention here that I will just take a shortcut... I will go the cliché route and claim that Borderlands is like a mix of first person shooter and diablo. Every area will overload you with new equipment and quests and soon enough you cash in more and more money and more and more xp, get new levels and new powers, then new equipment that is somewhat better than what you had, then the whole cycle start over again. This is classic rpg content as its finest. Just do not expect to care much about the missions you do as they are usually silly. All that said, the singleplayer game might not be good enough to be worth wasting your time on. But!

I couldn't speak about gameplay without mentioning that Borderlands is one of the finest Co-Op titles out there that I know of and I was happy to find three friends who could play the game an hour from time to time online right before bedtime. Just avoid playing the game while other gamers do not, as the game can become unbalancing and unfair to those who didn't.

Verdict
Borderlands have a lot to explore, plenty of easter eggs and having all the four DLC's packed into Borderlands just make it larger and better. If you are looking for a co-op title and aren't through Borderlands yet, well there you go.
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
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6,027
Men of War: Vietnam
Men of War: Vietnam is, as the name implies, a game that takes place in Vietnam, during the Vietnam war, to be more precise. It is an RTT (Real time tactics) game, and it uses the same engine and has similar mechanics to the famous Men of War series.

Graphics
The game looked pretty nice. While it might not be on the same level as today's AAA titles, the graphics does a good job of conveying the fact that you are fighting in a jungle (or swamp, as is sometimes the case). Things look the way they should (though one can make a case for the US soldier's backpacks being of the wrong type), and animations are quite smooth. Sometimes things can be a bit hard to spot, due to the amount of vegetation that gets in the way, but this was most likely intentional.

Sound
The sound never really shines in Men of War: Vietnam. Things sound quite alright, but neither the sound effects or music really stood out. Neither were bad, but nor were they anything special.

Gameplay
Men of War: Vietnam plays like other entries in the Men of War series. You have soldiers who can be moved individually, or in groups, and you can also take direct control of individual soldiers, which is the thing that sets this series apart. When taking direct control, you can aim at specific locations (like for an example a wall, if you know that an enemy is hiding on the other side, or the machinegunner in a tank. Heck, it is even possible to hit the driver in a tank, through the small vision slit, though this is incredibly hard, and the time I did it, it was down to dumb luck). The rest of the controls are your standard RTS-fare, move, attack, take cover, change stance, use object.
There are quite a lot of equipment that soldiers can use, all of which seem to be relatively historically accurate in how it works.

Historical accuracy
While I'm no expert at the history of the Vietnam war, it all seemed to be relatively historically accurate. I suspect that they "spiced up" the levels a bit, to make them more interesting (by adding more enemy soldiers and such), because I highly doubt a team of 5 soldiers were able to take out several hundred enemies, repeatedly (though not at once). Nothing stood out as being incredibly historically inaccurate, at least.

Final thoughts
Overall, Men of War: Vietnam was an enjoyable experience. It would seem like they toned down the difficulty a bit for this entry in the series, because it felt considerably easier than the earlier games that I have played (Soldiers: Heroes of World War 2 & Faces of War, which were the two first parts of the series, even though they are not named Men of War). One major issue with the game was that it had no tutorial what so ever, so don't make this your first Men of War game.

Time spent playing (according to steam): 12h.
 
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Jun 2, 2011
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Stockholm, Sweden
After getting sidetracked by Risen 2, I was now finally able to finish The Witcher 2 (Enhanced Edition).

CDP's latest has definitely secured its place among my top favorite RPGs. If they can iron out a few of the issues that hold the game back from total awesomeness then The Witcher 3 will be a serious contender for best RPG ever made.

Quick prologue for anyone who does not know: The Witcher is based on a Polish series of novels by Andrzej Sapkowski. You play as Geralt of Rivia, a mutant professional monster hunter who is mostly a "gun for hire" in a dark, gritty, mature medieval fantasy world.

Graphics
The Witcher 2 is an insanely good looking game on the highest details, even with the unplayable UberSampling disabled. My GTX 680 produced a stable 60fps with Adaptive VSync turned on. There was some occasional stuttering when a lot of dynamic light sources like torches appeared in a scene but other than those very few times it was smooth sailing all along.
The animations are top notch with one notable exception. There is a certain erotic Tête-à-tête in the early part of the game where Triss Merigold goes from moving about naturally to moving like a robot when she takes off her clothes. I'm talking about this scene right here. The drop in quality can be witnessed starting at 1:20 when Triss somehow switches from natural movements to being a Barbie doll.
On a whole the game is extremely pretty though. The camp fires with rising smoke, the fog in the forests, the lighting depending on the time of day, the incredibly detailed monsters and characters, … you name it. Their art department has done an exceptional job of capturing the atmosphere… of creating the environments and the scenes just as they had to be to carry the story and the dramaturgy.
I have attached a few screenshots below as "proof".

Characters
This category really deserves an extra mention. CDP has once again done an exceptional job here. I do not know the source material (Sapkowski's books) so I can't speak for the veracity of the characters but what I do know is that every major character is extremely well fleshed out. Everyone has a personality, they have their motives and they behave accordingly, they just feel right and natural and not just like digital actors or like quest automats as in so many other RPGs.
The voice acting is also as good as it gets. Every character from the snobby nobles and sorceresses to the dwarves and the cynical Elven leader Iorveth has a voice that fits perfectly to the role they are playing. Whoever did the casting here deserves a freaking Oscar or two ;) .

Sounds & Music
I know that I'm beginning to sound like a slobbering fanboi here but sound and music is once again a category where CDP have outdone themselves and many others. I really like the music that has elements of Gregorian chants. It fits the realistic depiction of this cruel, medieval world perfectly with its melancholy.
The sound effects are also very fitting. They have once again paid so much attention to detail here. For example, you can always hear what kind of shoes and gear a character is wearing. You know exactly -without looking- how heavy he/she is and what surface they are walking on. They've really worked this out to AAA movie-like perfection.

Gameplay
We're finally over with our fanboi rant ;) . Well, almost. The game is generally lots of fun but it definitely does have its weaknesses that taint the otherwise near flawless experience.

Generally, the gameplay is very typical of a RPG. The game has three main areas to explore that are reasonably open and large. You have story objectives and a few side quests (less than in other RPGs but the side quests here are more fleshed out), you talk to NPCs, you explore, you fight, you play the mini games (arm wrestling, dice poker), you can let NPCs craft items for you, you brew potions, you level up your character, and -yeah- you go to the brothel to fuck around - literally ;)

One of the biggest issues of the game is its somewhat laggy controls. There is about a 0.5s input lag between pressing a key and the action being performed. This can be extremely irritating, especially in harder fights and in the boss fights. I originally started to play on hard but due to this issue switched to normal about half way through the game and I'm not ashamed to admit that I lowered the difficulty to easy for some of the boss fights (thank you for on-the-fly adjustable difficulty, CDP!). It was simply too annoying when Geralt did not do what he was supposed to do.

Another annoyance is the lack of zooming. The point of view is very far zoomed in which is a real pain in the butt in some of the boss fights where it would be great if you could see more of your surroundings (like the Kayran fight where it would be very helpful if you could see the tentacles before they one-hit kill you).
Another controls issue is the targeting. It is incredible how hard it can be in this game at times to just pick something up from the floor. Sheesh. Forward. Oops, too far. Turn around. Oops, too far. Hold the 'walk' key to slowly turn around. Bingo. Got it. It's really annoying how you sometimes need to maneuver Geralt into a position so you can correctly target whatever you wish to interact with.
There's also a bit of interface overkill. The game constantly shows some pointers and helpers like a mouse symbol and some text that tells you to left-click to initiate dialogue. OK, maybe this can be turned off somewhere in the options but thanks to the poor targeting, I felt kind of forced to leave it on to make sure I wouldn't miss opportunities of interaction.

The game also suffers from some consolitis. For example, the arm wrestling mini game was definitely made with the analogue stick of a console controller in mind and not for a mouse. With a mouse it's way too easy in the early and mid game and too hard (unless you up the sensitivity like mad) for the final opponent that you meet in the game's last area.

Combat
The Witcher 2 has a different combat system from the first game. There is no longer any timed clicking when a little pointer lights up but now there is just a fast attack, a strong attack and blocking as far as melee combat is concerned. In addition to that you have secondary weapons like throwing daggers and bombs or traps that you can throw at or set up for the enemy.
With regard to magic there is once again the 'Signs' (schools of magic) so you can obtain a decent variety of offensive and defensive spells.
I found the combat to be quite a lot of fun and reasonably challenging (on hard). As stated previously, the boss fights are an exception to this positive impression because the input lag and camera issues make those fights very frustrating. Frustrating enough for me to lower the difficulty.
On normal difficulty you can quite casually hack your way through the game. It will only get dangerous when you are overwhelmed by several high level enemies. The game is fairly easy on a whole (normal difficulty).

Story
Don't worry. We'll keep this spoiler-free. The story of The Witcher 2 basically revolves around the assassination of several kings (d'oh - thus the subtitle of the game), one of whom Geralt was supposed to protect from that fate.
Geralt now needs to find out why (he already knows who did it) someone is having the kings murdered and he slowly uncovers a pretty convoluted conspiracy.
That would also be my main criticism here: Convolution. I don't know if it was my lack of background (i.e. no knowledge of Sapkowski's source material) or just a lack of paying attention but at times I was thoroughly confused about who wanted what from who and why.
There were the interests of (by region) Kaedwen, Temeria, Redania, Aedirn, Mahakam and Nilfgaard.
It was clear that the Northern kingdoms were going through times of trouble and Nilfgaard (the south) -among others- was trying to take advantage of the situation but some of the exact details were lost on me.

Anyway, CDP once again did an exceptional job of capturing this very realistic setting. The events from the game depict pretty much exactly what must have happened in the real medieval ages as well when there were many neighboring kingdoms and kings were murdered and power vacuums required filling. They really nailed the visceral cruelty with which interests were pursued back in the day. When a human life (or in case of this game non-humans, too) counted nothing. Terrific job by CDP on this end.

It is also nice that you basically get two games in one since it does make a big difference whether you side with the human special forces commander Vernon Roche or the Elven leader Iorveth.
I chose Iorveth's path and only did some reading on the differences to Roche's path (the CE of the game included a guide book which I used for reference) but it is clear that contrary to other RPGs where only a few quests differ, you are pretty much playing a completely different game depending on the path you choose.

Conclusion
I think I'll just repeat what I said in the intro to this post. If CDP can iron out the mostly technical issues and weaknesses then they have an excellent chance to become the best RPG developer of our time. The Witcher 2 is an excellent and -as far as our historical knowledge of the European medieval ages is concerned- realistic, and accurate portrayal of the cruel life during those dark, war-torn times. This is almost more of a movie than a game with extremely high production values in visual and aural fidelity. The characters are detailed and memorable and the story -while at times a little convoluted- is well written and directed. All I can hope is that in addition to the just announced Cyberpunk RPG The Witcher 3 is coming along nicely as well…
 

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Joined
Oct 18, 2006
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Game of Thrones (RPG)

A game which starts like an extremely slow and unambitious 4.5 but finishes on a high (~7.5) despite keeping its linear nature.

While I bought this mainly to get my GoT fix after the season finale I must say I enjoyed it more that I expected to. The first 5 chapters, out of a total of 15 (in terms of game time they do not represent more than 1/5), played much like the Prologue of Witcher 1, the weakest IMO part of that game. Walking for point A to point B through stale non-interactive environments only to talk to NPCs to progress the main quest gets tiring relatively quickly especially considering how slow the story itself is in the beginning and how you do not develop interest for your characters until later on. The fights early in the game are not very frequent and may appear relatively simplistic due not having unlocked a wide range of abilities. The gameplay is very thin and while the game often presents you with choices in approaches and actions in dialogue they appear to either make little difference (all choices lead to quest progress) or sometimes lead to the exact same result.

Fortunately the game picks up after chapter 6/7 and becomes a much more fun experience as well as a more complete RPG after that point.

The combat is very similar to what Bioware had in Dragon Age and KotOR and although the OTS camera* may have been an awkward choice for a tactical pause-heavy combat system it does not get in the way after a while. The key differences to how combat is implemented in GoT is that the game is not a walk in the park on the normal setting and that abilities can only be assigned via the "pause" menu (thus forcing the player to spend most of the combat in it) and that you only have a maximum of 2 characters to micromanage. The enemy AI is hardly impressive but the flaws are never really blatantly exposed due to how all battles are on a small scale (don't remember having to fight more than 8-10 enemies at any time). Finishing animations are present but do not interfere or annoy in any way as they happen once every 20/30 kills.

The second and more important pillar of the game, story, is a bit more standardized in its structure and easier to get into. While it is almost completely separate from the developments of the books/series it does not feel restricted or limited. In typical GoT fashion the game isn't afraid to surprise by killing off characters in the most absurd of ways and the plot revolves around political and personal backstabbing.

The voice-overs have been heavily criticized but I can't say they made any difference to me, then again the voice overs present in Two Worlds didn't annoy me either. From the actors that are come from the TV series Varys' performance is again perfect.

Contrary to voice acting I'm pretty confident the graphics of the game are unfairly scrutinized. Unlike acting where not being a native speaker of the language can be my excuse for not noticing what everyone is talking about I think the looks were good enough and not in any way detracting from the experience and that is with Witcher 2 being the last game I finished.

As far as I'm concerned while the game was somewhat lengthy by today's standards (~25 hours) I didn't run into any bugs (v1.10) and the most harsh of reviewers must have confused the lack of polish and small scope (which can be excused as the game did not have AAA production values) with a bug ridden experience. I think being unaware that this was in development before the TV series influences what reviewers thought the budget of the game was.

Despite the overall improvement the exploration remains limited with the only rewards being codex entries and the interactivity of the environment and the non-quest NPCs never really letting the game escape the similarity to W1's Prologue. On the bright side I was pleasantly surprised to see and be affected by consequences to choices I made even 7 chapters earlier. Towards the end of the game side-quests suddenly appeared and I was finally made to use map traveling but although some of them being as good as main quests in other games (arena fighting in which you can bet, dive in your own fights, win over the crowd and choosing to kill/spare your defeated opponent; ALL choices having consequences) they didn't even reach a total of 10.

If you are fond of ASOIAF/GoT and like story-driven (very) linear experiences with choices and tactical combat all set in a grim/gritty world this may be worth paying the full price (40€) that Game of Thrones (RPG) is currently sold for. For half the price and as long as you realize that the game suffers from low ambitions rather than low substance it is worth both the time and the money.

*I had to tweak the FoV and play with a gamepad as it felt unnatural any other way.
 
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Joined
Aug 17, 2008
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Dear Green Place
Modern Warfare 3
I finished MW3 earlier this year but never had the time to write a review for it. So I will write a really short one, here goes.

The singleplayer campaign (because that is what I play) of Modern Warfare 3 should be considered an ending of a trilogy. It's a direct sequel to MW2 (more so than MW2 to MW1). The main target is the ultranationalist Vladimir Makarov who were introduced in the earlier games. If you played the earlier ones, by all means see the end. MW3 carries few surprises beyond the plot, everything is over the top and use similar story techniques that we have seen before in a few new areas. If you didn't play the earlier I would play them in order because I cannot see that people would feel attachment to the characters or understand what's going on without having seen the story up to MW3. I would even begin with Black Ops which is a completely different story but uses the same style. If you like that one you can look forward to the Modern Warfare trilogy but if you do not you have no "gotta play" sequels to worry about.

I believe MW3 brings closure. I cannot see that they can continue the plot from this point as it leaves no open questions and there are also other events which kinda closes the book. I have to say though that I do not consider it to be the best of the series and it even jumps the shark towards the end, becoming a bit more futuristic than people would hope for.
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
6,027
Demon's Souls
I finally tackled Demon's Souls having had it sitting around for a while. I have to say, I approached the game with a lot of trepidation, given its reputation for difficulty.

The reputation is pretty well deserved in many respects. The health bar seems all too short given the punishment one receives at the hands of the enemies, who can often kill you in 2-3 hits. However the combat is fluid and as I picked one of the faster classes (thief) I found I could roll around enemies, backstab the slower ones or at least attack effectively from the rear.

The lack of a pause function was one "feature" which I thought I would hate. In the end it didn't cause many problems, simply because with no respawning enemies (until you leave a particular world) and limited roaming, I could usually just backtrack slightly and I would be safe to leave the game. The other "feature" which I particularly disliked from the outset was multiplayer as I simply don't like sharing my games with other people, but this could also be circumvented by signing out of the Playstation Network prior to play, forcing the game into offline mode.

The game is split into 5 worlds and a central hub - each world is filled with lots of enemies, a very small number of friendly NPCs, and bosses (usually 3-4 in each world) acting as gatekeepers to the next stage in each world. I liked the enemy variety, many of which required some variety of tactics in tackling them. The currency of the world is souls - enemies and some objects yield souls which are used as the means to level up, buy supplies and magic, and repair/buy/upgrade weapons and armour. At first you gain pitiful numbers of souls from enemies, but once you take down some of the harder enemies (usually after numerous deaths until you learn their attack pattern) the souls begin to flow in.

I enjoyed the atmosphere of doom and gloom, particularly in world 3, a prison tower environment which reminded me a bit of the Silent Hill otherworld. Music was sparse, fortunate in the event given that you often need audio cues to warn of enemies approaching such as rapid footsteps.

I think there are two ways to beat Demon's Souls - skill and grinding. Skill in dealing with enemies naturally develops as you work through the game, but things went much faster once I found a good "grinding spot" in world 4, and began to ramp up the number of souls into the tens of thousands. This meant I levelled up rapidly and upgraded equipment. Towards the end the game became fairly easy, due to a combination of the fact that each enemy type/world environment was familiar to me, but also because I was pretty powerful and could finish off most enemies with 1-2 hits. Even the bosses in the final couple of worlds became relatively easy.

All in all - Demon's Souls is not a story- or dialogue-rich game, but it is an enjoyable action RPG with a great combat mechanic, and I was glad I persevered beyond the initial frustration to experience the full game.
 
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Aug 12, 2007
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542
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Englandland
Just finished Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land.

In case you don't know, CoC:TWL is a strategy-RPG that was originally created for iOS and then ported to PC. It's not very long, but considering it's only $5, I thought it was a satisfying experience. Seeing as how there are so few computer games set in Lovecraft's universe, I consider it a worthwhile purchase for any gamer who's a fan of his work.

Even if you're not familiar with Lovecraft, it's good enough to stand on its own as a decent strategy-RPG. If I had to rate it, I'd say it's a 8 - 8.5/10. That's with the price factored in.

I also finished a replay of Max Payne this past weekend. That game has aged extremely well imo. Great story, writing, atmosphere, etc. I had forgotten how difficult it can be though. I actually rage-smashed a keyboard about halfway through. :blush:
 
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Oct 21, 2006
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Location
Florida, US
I started to play Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land on iPhone after it was just released, but the small screen became an obstacle. I was thinking about having a go on PC later on, if I can find the time.
 
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
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6,027
Metro 2033
It have taken me a year to finish this game, much thanks to being a perfectionist and being annoyed with the savegamesystem. Question is then, was it worth it?

Plot
Moskow is destroyed in a nuclear war. The survivors have gone underground and now lives in the subway metro. You play Artyom who are one day visited by one of the experienced rangers that beings known as the "dark ones" threaten the station. He must go to another "city" (subway station) and seek help. Throughout his juorney Artyom travel alone but ever once in awhile he picks up a few buddies who travel with him. In the beginning there are plenty of stations to visit and people to talk to, but further ahead Artyom must travel through less and less comfortable areas. Ever once in awhile he gets visions with dark shadow-like beings who seem to threaten him.

The story is really the strong point in Metro 2033. It's based on a novel and like many russian games it's a mix between depression, hopelessness and horror, but in a good way.

Engine: Graphics & Sound
Metro 2033 is one of the best looking games out there and one needs a strong PC to play it properly. Even with my 4ghz overclocked i7 with 2xSLI 480GTX I saw framedrops in some areas, especially outdoors. With the right equipment the game is almost a showcase for what modern games can do. The game really use light in a great way, you can often spot enemies or friends by looking for lightbeams in the darkness. Smoke and fog also looks very very good. The audio is good with a melancholic guitar in the background and a narrative with a strong russian accent, just like most of the voices of NPC's you meet in the game.

Gameplay
Oddly enough this is a game that is at one time unique as a shooter but at the same time not very great. In fact, I would definitely forgive you if you played it at an easier setting just for the experience, because like I said; this is a game you play for the story, the experience and the atmosphere alone, not adrenaline pumping fights. There are a lot of unique content here for a shooter, it's just that Metro 2033 do not offer the feel of a good shooter. Weapons are often too inaccurate, you move too slow, enemies are too few and just pour in in waves and you never feel the need to experiment. Many areas are sneaking areas in which you just wish to avoid foes anyway. In others your primary target is to protect your gasmask from breaking because else you may end up wasting too many filters and have to restart the game which happened to me one time.

As a shooter you get 3 main weapons to drag with you, weapons you may exchange throughout the game. One is your trusty revolver which exist in various versions such as an accurate version with extended barrel or silenced version with less damage. Then you have your assaultrifle/submachine gun and finally you get a special weapon that can be exchanged between a sniper, a spearthrower, shotguns and a few other variations. You also get grenades, sticky grenades and knives. The throwing knife is one you will use a lot during sneaking missions. Many of these weapons are unique and some needs to be pumped up before they can be used. Your flashlight also needs to be pumped.

When you are in cities you can buy upgraded weapons or exchange your ammunition. The game uses strong ammunition as money so you can either use poor ammo and buy better weapons, or you can use your poor weapons with better ammo. In cities you can also upgrade armor into sneaky armor or heavier armor, the former comes with nightvision goggles. In cities you can also talk to people which often gives enlightenment points required to get the good ending. There are also a lot of annoying achievements to get so I am actually happy I played the PC version.

One thing I appreciated was that the game keeps feeling fresh from one level to another. It was impossible to guess how the next map would play out. The game was also a bit longer than I had expected it to be.

Verdict
I believe Metro 2033 should be approached as an interactive story more than a shooter. I didn't think the actual shooting sections felt as good as modern shooters like Battlefield 3, Call of Duty or Crysis. I rarely played around, I just mashed whatever popped up with excess ammo and moved onto the next area. I also didn't think the story was that great. I never felt a pull to continue the game just to see what would happen next. But the game have a really strong atmosphere that kept with me throughout the entire game and that's what kept me going. Metro 2033 thus feels more like an experience than a game and I can recommend it for those who have the computer to play it and look more for story and atmosphere than a shooter.
 
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I never new there was a "good" ending and I hardly rushed through the game. Although now that I've researched it a bit, even looking past it not being cannon according to the new game, it just doesn't seem to be the clearly "correct" ending.
 
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Just finished Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of The Earth.

Not my first time finishing it, but the first time since it was released. I thought maybe I'd enjoy this playthrough more since I'm more familiar with Lovecraft lore now, but I couldn't wait for this game to be over once I got close to the end.

Despite having some great atmosphere in places, DCoTE is just a clunky console shooter at its core and is more frustrating than fun a lot of the time. It also suffers from some pretty severe bugs, and I had to install a fan-made patch to be able to finish the game.

Imo the Chtulhu mythos has to be one of the most underutilized settings for gaming. It's pretty sad that no one has managed to make an above-average game after all these years.
 
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Just finished Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of The Earth.

Not my first time finishing it, but the first time since it was released. I thought maybe I'd enjoy this playthrough more since I'm more familiar with Lovecraft lore now, but I couldn't wait for this game to be over once I got close to the end.

Despite having some great atmosphere in places, DCoTE is just a clunky console shooter at its core and is more frustrating than fun a lot of the time. It also suffers from some pretty severe bugs, and I had to install a fan-made patch to be able to finish the game.

Imo the Chtulhu mythos has to be one of the most underutilized settings for gaming. It's pretty sad that no one has managed to make an above-average game after all these years.

I already know your answer, but if you really like Lovecraft - you should consider checking out The Secret World.

Even as an MMO, it really seems like a strong singleplayer experience with a VERY strong atmosphere.
 
Imo the Chtulhu mythos has to be one of the most underutilized settings for gaming. It's pretty sad that no one has managed to make an above-average game after all these years.

It's a very difficult world to write a good story in that world that fits a game. The movie industry the same, few titles and most of the mediocre. There's Shadow of the Comet and Prisoner of Ice that I have wanted to check out when I have the time.
 
Joined
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6,027
Just finished Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of The Earth.

Not my first time finishing it, but the first time since it was released. I thought maybe I'd enjoy this playthrough more since I'm more familiar with Lovecraft lore now, but I couldn't wait for this game to be over once I got close to the end.

Despite having some great atmosphere in places, DCoTE is just a clunky console shooter at its core and is more frustrating than fun a lot of the time. It also suffers from some pretty severe bugs, and I had to install a fan-made patch to be able to finish the game.

Imo the Chtulhu mythos has to be one of the most underutilized settings for gaming. It's pretty sad that no one has managed to make an above-average game after all these years.

I think you should try Amnesia:dark descent if you haven't already.Somewhat similar game but with better atmosphere,story and without shooting.
 
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I already know your answer, but if you really like Lovecraft - you should consider checking out The Secret World.

Even as an MMO, it really seems like a strong singleplayer experience with a VERY strong atmosphere.

If only I had a nickel for every time I've heard that claim about an MMO. ;)

TSW does sound interesting though. I'm not too impressed by the footage I've seen, but I'm looking forward to hearing more feedback once the final version is released.


It's a very difficult world to write a good story in that world that fits a game. The movie industry the same, few titles and most of the mediocre. There's Shadow of the Comet and Prisoner of Ice that I have wanted to check out when I have the time.

I think DCoTE had a pretty decent story actually. It was the gameplay that sucked.

They've managed to make a successful tabletop RPG using that material, so I'm surprised that no one has attempted a crpg yet.


I think you should try Amnesia:dark descent if you haven't already.Somewhat similar game but with better atmosphere,story and without shooting.

Yeah, I've played that as well as the Penumbra games. I enjoyed them, but I didn't find them very memorable.
 
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If only I had a nickel for every time I've heard that claim about an MMO. ;)

TSW does sound interesting though. I'm not too impressed by the footage I've seen, but I'm looking forward to hearing more feedback once the final version is released.

Yeah, but you know it means more hearing it from me ;)
 
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