Zero Punctuation: Syndicate

[Atmos Duality]

Forced? Please.

The developers and designers aren't the people making the decisions anymore.

2k is the publisher. They already made that decision; Firaxis is just the one given the task.
As for doubt, I always have doubt. Quality is never assured, and high expectations are a double edged sword.

 

[TheUnbeholden]

People still buy EA games?
color me surprised

Yah I know after Battlefield 3, Stars Wars the Old Republic and Mass Effect 3 you'd think people would stop buying games by EA.

Yeah, their games just get worse after every installment. ME3 is losing more and more of its RPG elements, BF3 is the same shit we've seen before, and TOR basically puts linear maps into a MMORPG... its amazing people still shell out the cash for this shit anymore.
Max price for bare minimum enjoyment.

 

[zehydra]

lol they're still abusing that bloom feature, aren't they? Bloom, like many things, should be used with moderation.

I still turn it off in some games when it just ends up looking quite unnatural.

Off topic: My captcha was "HOT-N-READY PIZZA" (for an ad for Little Caesars). Goddammit I hate this kind of advertising.

 

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Anyone else having trouble getting the video to play? I just see a black square where it ought to be. I dunno.. maybe Firefox or Flash or whatever is mucking up..

Okay, got Flash updated, now I'm watching it...

His comment about how "the uncomfortable thing about Syndicate's plot is how you're barely involved in it" and "it turns out that you can't kill them cause they can just stop your brain chip".. This was exactly how I felt about Final Fantasy XII (that's 12), and one of the big reasons I kept getting frustrated while playing. Of course, it didn't help that FFXII kept trying to distract the player with pointless quests, minigames, and other grind-tastic diversions intended to prevent the player from noticing the incoherent or just plain lacking plot..

I mean, suddenly stopping the Storyline Express so you can go off and hunt marks (cause how else would you get the better gear and ability points and such), or going and doing a silly footrace with poorly designed characters that don't match the rest of the game AT ALL, or fishing in a way that makes you want to murder the developers.. it kind of makes it difficult to keep up with the plot. I'd often find myself forgetting what I'd been doing, or what my goal even was.

I suppose that doesn't relate a whole lot to Syndicate, but I have to say that part of the review really hit home with me on a couple of points regarding several games. I don't mind being put into somebody else's shoes, but if nothing I do is going to have any impact, we may as well be playing "Miss Bee's Grand Picnic" where you do NOTHING but flit from flower to flower collecting honey.. and the sole enjoyable part, stinging people, caused a game over cause we all know what happens when a bee stings you.

And I think that's part of the problem with Syndicate. Nothing you do really mattered for the most part. Like those boss fights in certain games where you lose even if you win.