Zero Punctuation: Vanquish
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
I remember that thing with the near-death-auto-slo-mo that you can't turn off to save the rest of your energy being a total showstopper for me.
It was a relatively small problem, but one that occurred so often it became a big problem. Kinda like how a sharp stone in your shoe ruins a hike because you're reminded of it with each step.
It was a relatively small problem, but one that occurred so often it became a big problem. Kinda like how a sharp stone in your shoe ruins a hike because you're reminded of it with each step.
I'm surprised that between all the politics (he even squeezed in a GOP crack) he didn't mention that Hillary is president in Vanquish and she's literally up against Mecha-Putin. How relevant that could have been.
They did fix the 60 fps double-damage thing though.
They did fix the 60 fps double-damage thing though.
Like Shadows of the Damned, it's a short, indistinct, pointless non-event, because nothing anybody does in the story matters. It's also a lot of fun, and one of the few games I replay now and then. Maybe it's a good thing it always leaves you pining for more.
One thing I always wondered is why cover-based shooters (most of them) have regenerating health, while fast paced ones like Painkiller or Doom have health packets, should't it be the other way around? You get in cover and and has to become tactical about the way you manage your health and the way forward and the fast paced one, you can't shoot if you want your health back, adding moments of tension.
Who came up with the "Stolen orbital superweapon to attack America" plot first, Vanquish or CoD:Ghosts? And where is Yahtzee living now? This video and the WATCH_DOGS_2 one have topical jokes about the San Francisco Bay Area that are really funny if you live here.
Since Yahtzee seemed to like the word "ploppy" so much, might I offer a piece of chocolate?
Sounded like he also liked this game. Kinda rare for a cover based shooter.
http://sunnliden.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/plopp.jpg
Sounded like he also liked this game. Kinda rare for a cover based shooter.
Vanquish, their's was first. To be fair, Ghost's Kill Sat was a railgun and not a laser cannon, so it isn't a COMPLETE ripoff. I think either Star Wars or Moonraker did the Kill Sat first OVERALL< though.Darth_Payn said:
Lineage really.Igor-Rowan said:
Halo popularized the concept in shooters. Gears of War was also a Microsoft deal and took on the concept itself, and kind of ran with it, and the barrage of chest-high walls scattered across games largely stems from emulating Gears of War. I'd guess it bled into other AAA shooters because before everyone was trying to make CoD, the big FPS target to match (on consoles) was Halo.
On the other side, Doom, and the other run'n'gunners are inspired by well, Doom. And having health packs scattered around provides incentive to mobility. If you can't heal without moving, then trying to hide out in a choke point and plink at enemies becomes a much more adverse proposition.
On the more mechanical side, the regen health is meant to facilitate a lower (or "realistic") time to kill factor, while still allowing recovery so one tiny screw up doesn't mean you're boned. If 3 bullets from a basic enemy killed you in Doom, it'd become impossible in the game as stands. On the multiplayer side, the lowered time to kill facilitates higher scores and gratification in the gameplay. Not that you can't kill people incredibly fast in Doom or Unreal Tournament (or whatever), but its usually related to either an extended application of skill or having controlled the map well enough to pick up the higher tier weapons.
Geez Yahtzee, what took you so long to review this one? It's 7 years overdue. Well, better late than never.
In older games, bullets were so slow you could move out of the way. It then became a matter of strafing out of the way of most attacks to avoid damage. If you were skilled enough, you could complete an entire stage without being hit once. Health packs were there to incentive exploration and let you have some leeway in how many times you could screw up. Needless to say, the harder the level or the setting, the least health packs you could find.Igor-Rowan said:
In most modern games, dodging is barely an option, since most bullets are hitscans. In those cases, it doesn't matter how good you are, you are going to get hit.
The regenerating health is mostly to allow you to survive combat situations and to incentive a certain behavior... in games like Call of Duty or Gears of War is about being methodical and using the terrain to your advantage, in games like Doom 2016 or Warhammer 40k is about being aggressive and in the face of the enemy.
Yes, totally overrated game. Did not interest me back then and even less now.
A Game-Mechanics is NOT a game.
A Game-Mechanics is NOT a game.
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Actually..Level 7 Dragon said:
It turns out the attack on San Fransico was organized by the president with Russia to establish a new world order... So... its... uhh... hmm. I feel like this plot would have felt sillier last year.
Fortunately they have since fixed the framerate-damage bug with a patch.
(I do find it a tad funny that he had the PCMR guy focusing on playing at 60 though; the hardcore audience has been going at 144Hz for a pretty good while now and it's not like Vanquish is hard to run at such speeds.)
Whereas nobody much cares that Serious Sam can eat rockets so long as they're having a good time gleefully massacring monsters, so they leave health packs to give you a way to patch yourself up to a limited capacity instead of making you nigh-unkillable so long as you can find a nice corner to hide in on the occasion that you're running low.
(I do find it a tad funny that he had the PCMR guy focusing on playing at 60 though; the hardcore audience has been going at 144Hz for a pretty good while now and it's not like Vanquish is hard to run at such speeds.)
I think it's more that the slower-paced shooters don't give you much health to begin with because being able to soak 20 rounds with your face undercuts their aims for tense, pseudorealistic combat. But only giving you 3 hits to survive an entire firefight would be excessively punishing, hence regeneration.Igor-Rowan said:
Whereas nobody much cares that Serious Sam can eat rockets so long as they're having a good time gleefully massacring monsters, so they leave health packs to give you a way to patch yourself up to a limited capacity instead of making you nigh-unkillable so long as you can find a nice corner to hide in on the occasion that you're running low.