Video Games.

[jeffy]

Let me know your impressions.

[nakedman1664]

Reviews have been decent for it. I'll just have to wait til it goes on sale.

[nakedman1664]

Watch Dogs tomorrow. Anyone buying?

[julio]

I want to get watchdogs but haven't had enough down time to really get onto any new games. I only occasionally play madden and that is about it. I think my next game purchase will probably be the next installment of NHL.

[nakedman1664]

My friend ended up getting Watch Dogs, should be heading to his place at some point over the next couple days to at least get a couple hours in on it. Probably won't be buying it though, unless somehow I am blown away in that play session.

 

 

 

However...Mario Kart 8 is only a few days away though. That I will be buying (along with my Wii U).

[KingJeff]

I played Watch Dog and I'm not that impressed after all the hype.  Back to the Show for me.   Really want to play Mario Kart, but I'm not buying a Wii U just for the one game.

[nakedman1664]

I've decided there is enough out to warrant a purchase of a Wii U for me. I forsee myself dropping many hours into just Mario Kart and 3D World alone. Already stocked up on a few cheaper games like Wonderful 101, Zombie U, Rayman Legends, and Nintendoland. You also get a free game download when you buy Mario Kart 8, with four to choose from, so that'll add Pikmin 3.


I'm stoked. You guys might not hear from me for a while.

[jeffy]

I wish Wolfenstein had multiplayer.

 

Watchdogs looks too gimmicky.

[Luke]

Let me know your impressions.

 

Finally had some time to get through a few missions of Wolfenstein (PC).  Overall, pretty good.

 

Difficulty: Fair.  I'm playing on medium difficulty, and for the most part I'm only dying when I can't figure out where I should be going or what I should be doing right away.  The AI make some boneheaded moves in some areas, but does a pretty nice job taking advantage of available cover, setting up ambushes, flanking, and so forth in general.

 

Combat: Solid.  There is plenty of environmental cover available, but this is not a "press x to hide behind this conveniently placed chest high concrete wall" style game.  This is much more of a Half Life / Quake 3 style run-and-gun that leaves plenty of concrete pillars, convenient doorways and the like around if you want them, but if you can sprint through the level headshotting everyone with the pistol more power to you.  The game doesn't force you to play a certain way, and that's nice.

 

Weapons: Are responsive and relative power feels about right.  You are able to do some nice things (like dual wield assault rifles) almost right away.  Shotguns sound a little light, but the potency is there.  So far I feel like I'm missing a good long range option (assault rifle isn't cut out for longer ranged work - pistol does ok, but it is a little light in the damage department), but I have empty slots on my weapon menu so I suspect that is coming.  

 

Controls: Whoever designed the PC control scheme needs to be locked in a room with a standard qwerty keyboard and a stack of old school FPS's and not be allowed out until he/she can explain why you never, ever, EVER design a default control scheme that requires the player to use W, L-Shift, and L-Cntrl more or less at the same time.  I'm also not sure why melee stealth takedowns are defaulting to Mouse 3, but I can live with that one.  Other than those two oddities, it works.

 

Missions:  The first part of the initial sort-of-a-tutorial mission is heavily scripted, but that rapidly dies down.  Once you get into it, it seems like you won't be constant interrupted by one scripted event after another.  The game is willing to sit back and let you just shoot Nazis.   If you miss the days when you could get get lost in an FPS map, when hitting an intersection actually meant you had multiple paths, and when you weren't forced down one corridor after another, well... you'll still miss them.  So far Wolfenstein is flirting with that more open, non-hand-holding approach to map making, but it hasn't quite gone there yet.  Maps have trended towards the corridor - room - corridor - room approach, but the rooms are large, open, and diverse enough that it doesn't feel as linear as some other recent titles have. Still, fans of the old school can probably put away their pencils and graph paper.  At it's heart, this is pretty much another corridor shooter.

 

Story: Trying too hard.  The voice acting is alright and (so far at least) the character development for NPCs is solid.  You can recognize distinct personalities in various NPCs, and that's always a nice thing.  The story being told though, is really trying hard to relay the Nazi = Bad Guys message.  Too hard, probably.  I mean... they're Nazis.  The writers didn't need to go out of their way to give us lots of reasons to shoot them.  In video games, Nazis are the one constant bad guy.  There is no need to establish any emotional basis for slaughtering them in ridiculous quantities. Of course, because this is modernity, you can't have a clear You=Good, Nazi=Bad campaign.  The writers had to make your character morally ambiguous yada yada yada.  For me, video game stories fall into two main categories: Story as an Excuse (Mario, for example) and Story as an Experience (Zelda).  Wolfenstein is definitely in the Excuse category, but it is really trying hard to be promoted to Experience.  And it just isn't working for me.

 

Overall:   Worth playing.  I'm only a few  hours in, so keep that in mind, but I think if most gamers bought this game tomorrow they'd be pretty happy with it.  I'm not sure it is quite a full $60 value, but I'd not hesitate to recommend it at $45.  

[nakedman1664]

Odd, most articles I have read said the story is the strongest part, and the combat being the weakest.

[Auz]

I have been playing the new South Park game on the X-Box 360. I am loving it, it's like playing an actual cartoon. Fantastic fun to escape for an hour or two at a time, although probably won't hold up much interest on the long term. Plenty of gags and toilet humour. You can play a "Jew" class alongside a Warrior, Thief and Wizard. Some people might find that offensive whereas some might see the lighter side of it. They are actually a strong class to play mind you with some great 'special powers'.

 

I have also been playing the new Thief game. I was a massive fan of the early games during the late 90's - early 00's. The original FPS stealth game where you can steal shit and probably gave a lot of inspiration to such games as Assassins Creed and Metal Gear Solid. It plays just like the original games which is great if you're a fan, but it doesn't break any new ground. Good game for nostalgia's sake but it is very dated already. 

[CubbieBlues]

So, are you saying it's better than Wolfenstein 3D? That was killer a few years ago ...

[jeffy]

Thanks for the detailed impressions.

 

Man, I REALLY want this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu1I_Supvc8

[Luke]

Odd, most articles I have read said the story is the strongest part, and the combat being the weakest.

 

Keep in mind that I am a writer, so I'm probably going to be a little harder on game stories than a lot of other folks.

 

I think the combat quality goes back to what you are in to.  If you want hyper-realistic Call of Duty or Battlefield style meticulous weapon recreations, then you'll probably not like Wolfenstein.  If you prefer the older school shooter style combat, the type you saw in Quake, Doom, Serious Sam, and to some extent in Far Cry, then you'll probably like Wolfenstein.

[nakedman1664]

Then I should love it. I loaded up Quake 2 just this morning. Unreal Tournament right behind that.