To respond to an earlier issue, yes, I hate popular games. Its also why I hate people. Indie developers with great ideas are pushed to the side for yet another bland shooter that somehow gets so much praise. I mean christ, what the hell is wrong with people? Modern Warfare 3 was an overblown map pack with a 60 dollar price tag, not to mention the completely asinine money scheme with that "Elite" thing. The only two 'popular' games I'm getting until the end of the year are Saints Row 3 and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3; and yeah, I know they're the same as their predecessors, but you see, if I'm going to boycott something, I'm going to boycott things that ruin other things.
As much as I love Skyrim and I'm still playing it,it won't get my GOTY vote.
That vote goes to Witcher 2 which won my heart the second I received the Collector's Edition and I started playing it(my most biggest anticipated game ever if I must be frank).
As much as I love Skyrim and I'm still playing it,it won't get my GOTY vote.
That vote goes to Witcher 2 which won my heart the second I received the Collector's Edition and I started playing it(my most biggest anticipated game ever if I must be frank).
Ditto for me, I would vote Witcher 2 as GOTY if I could even while I am having fun with Skyrim. What Skyrim has is tons of content and mega hype. You can basically lose yourself in the sandbox and stop giving a crap about the actual story and these games seem to win out these days instead of more linear story driven games. I absolutely love W2's chapter 2 change up(replayability) and if it was longer(like 4 chapters) it would have been even better IMO. I've finished W2 3 times(on normal,hard and dark mode) and each time I cringe at the shortness of act 3.
But for the narrative(which I can appreciate more than newbies since I finished W1), oustanding visuals and the C&C factor, W2 gets my vote.
Still, my head hurts when I think of all the absolutely terrific games that came out this year.
Again, I think DXHR was a very solid and pretty enjoyable ride despite some minor complaints here and there. But it failed when it was most important to shine, IMO.
Yeah...I found the gameplay to be an excellent marriage of new and old. I never would have thought a stealth/cover system from today would have worked so well for this sort of game.
Of course, it helps that the sneaky elements from the original were preserved.
I like the spy/agent-nature of the game, and the voice-acting was some of the best I've heard in a long while (ironically, except for Mr Jensen who sounds like he gargles gravel for a living). The plot...it has a strong basis, but an ultimately weak and predictable delivery.
I could even forgive the boss fights, despite how out of place they are (they're annoying, but ultimately really easy).
But the part I absolutely cannot forgive, is the ending system. We reach the climax of the story, and it completely falls apart.
And really, there was no reason for it to come apart at the seams at the end. The only things that absolutely had to be maintained in canon for all endings are:
1) The fall of the Illuminatti, or some way that allows for the Illuminati to fall before Deus Ex 1's timeline begins.
2) The introduction of the project that creates the Denton brothers. This isn't much of a problem, given how secretive the D Project would have been regardless of how Human Augmentation turned out politically.
Human Revolution well-exceeded my expectations, which so rarely happens these days in gaming.
However, that ending system pissed me off so much...ugh.
The voice-acting was pretty good, yeah. Too bad the animations got repetitive. At least I quickly recognized from which other scenes they borrowed animations, but I guess that's just the equivalent of poking the same NPC 30 times and getting the exact same response 30 times, so yeah.
I have mixed feelings about the cover system. It was alright when I was actually playing it, but on retrospect they could've done much better, and without third person (Which I think is like cheating when the majority of the game is first person) or lean keys (which you'd think are mandatory in
I thought they could've taken a lesson from Crysis 2. No, I didn't mix up any names. At first I didn't see it, but Crysis 2 actually has really, really solid gameplay aside from the regen health.
Anyway, in Crysis 2, you got your right mouse button for aiming down the ironsights and if you're close to cover and press it, you get glued to the wall, and when you're close to an edge, your character will automatically take a peek around the corner if you use WASD in the direction where the cover ends. Release and you return behind cover. In Crysis 2 you always have a weapon equipped, but in DXHR where you don't have to hold a weapon, you could do all of this without looking through ironsights.
I think that's much smoother than the 3rd person zoomout and it combines a lot of different function and puts them on a single button. DXHR also suffered from "use your glue-to-wall button, nobody sees you. Release the button without moving an inch, and suddenly the enemy can see you"-syndrome sometimes.
And yeah, it's kinda sad DXHR failed when it came to the endings
But in a case of Fridge Brilliance, Cassan's "Everybody lies" holds absolutely true - you either lie for Sarif so he can shovel some more money, or you lie to the Illuminati so they can get drunk on some more power, or you lie for Darrow so he can exact personal revenge for being incompatible with his own tech, or you withhold the truth from everyone which in court is technically a lie.
GREAT JOB.
Man, frickin' Cassan was such a humongous waste of a character as well. Then again the only well-characterized side-characters IMO were Prickchard and maybe Sarif.
It also didn't have the philosophical mix DX had due to its Cyberpunk elements. The discussion with Morpheus really stuck in my head, but DXHR barely had anything of it. Just a crowd of "oh no we don't like our prosthetic limbs to advance beyond wooden legs because fuuuck yoooouuu cripplesssss" VS "Imma be a sweet sweet deathmachine" guys.
But yes, the gameplay outclassed the original in almost any aspect. Like I said, the game had a really good base, but I guess finding that base was all the newfound studio (who initially had no idea how to multipath at all) was able to do, hence the outsourced boss battles.
Won't be playing Skyward Sword until like January, but I'm already nervous about how motion controls are used (particularly flying the bird.) So my enthusiasm went down for that, even though people are saying it's a really amazing game.
So it's definitely gonna be Skyrim. I'm having a blast, and I've already put 40 hours in, which is ridiculous for a game that's been out a week. (Granted, 7 or 8 of those hours was the game on pause while I went and ate dinner or whatever, but still, 30+ hours in a week is silly.)
I'm honestly not sure what my favourite is. This has been the best year for games for a while, best since 2007 at least.
Portal 2 was incredibly funny, smart and well written. Undoubtly the best story for this year, and possibly the best art design. The co-op was great and the puzzles were a lot of the fun, the only down side being that it might be too easy. But I just can't forget the best ending to a game EVAR!
Arkham City blew me away completely. The combat is some of the best combat I've ever experienced in a game, hands down. The story was really well told too, and there were just so many "holy shit!" moments, especially the villain surprises. As a comic book nut it was a dream come true, now all we need is Rocksteady to get their arse on that Superman game. This game blew my mind, now all I can think is Batman.
And I'm playing Skyrim right now and I've probably played as much as both the other 2 games combined and I still haven't even brushed the surface. This game is incredible. This is coming from someone who has problems with Fallout 3 and loathed Oblivion, this game is just so, so good! The world is fansinating (unlike Oblivions fantasy world 101), the exploration is fantastic, the character leveling system is the best I have ever seen in an RPG. With a game this large there are little problems; combat isn't brilliant and there are other niggerling problems like bugs and the still odd looking people. But with a game this big it's hard to hold much against it, and more than any game I have played in a very long time it's worth every single penny. I will say that this is a much, much slower paced game than anything else I've played this year; there are very few blow mind moments like Portal 2 or Arkham City, but I kind of like the change of pace.
As far as indie goes I'd also give a shout out to Bastion, which was a beautiful bit of story telling in the way only a game can and From Dust, which despite it's problems captured my heart just because of weird it was and the nostalgia for Black & White I got.
But I can't choose one game, and there's still so many I haven't bought (Uncharted 3, AC:R and Skyford Sword chief amoung them)
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