Rate The Last Game You Played

[Balton]

I've heard the 2nd game is better. Maybe it is.

Proph, IMO GOW is a coop shooter (best with a buddy offline besides you)and playing it any other way must make it suck. edit: since you got an xbox, if you're live add me under BSTRDSLYR

today I bought Perfect Dark on XBLA.

minus: I couldn't find a single online mp session.
the good: PD on my xbox with hd graphics!

 

[Mister_Prophet]

Proph, IMO GOW is a coop shooter (best with a buddy offline besides you)and playing it any other way must make it suck. edit: since you got an xbox, if you're live add me under BSTRDSLYR

today I bought Perfect Dark on XBLA.

minus: I couldn't find a single online mp session.
the good: PD on my xbox with hd graphics!

I've got XBLA and Perfect Dark as well. Consider yourself added. Been a few weeks since I had anyone to play PD with.

 

[Balton]

I've got XBLA and Perfect Dark as well. Consider yourself added. Been a few weeks since I had anyone to play PD with.

awesome
I'll be playing tommorow some.

 

[cooloola]

Not really the last games I've played but some of the most underrated games I've played.

Cryostasis 7/10 if you're a regular gamer, 10/10 if you're a games as art guy.
First I'd like to get the negatives out of the way, the gameplay is clunky the level design gets a bit repetitive and performance is god-awful. But disregarding that, this is the "purest" game I've ever played, in a sense that it borrows literally nothing from any other medium to achieve its artistic goal. it uses "tools" that are unique to the gaming medium. As a work of art it is almost flawless, everything in the game ties into the games central theme, but as entertainment it could certainly have been better.

Zeno Clash 8/10
Zeno Clash is a first person brawler, which to my recollection has never been done so some issues are to be expected. But it's surprising how right the game feels, the core mechanics are polished to perfection, you feel the impact of each punch you throw and you feel each punch you receive as well. There are two main flaws that bothered me the most with this game, first of all the difficulty. It's not difficult in that it's challenging, it's difficult in that it's unfair. There are plenty of situations where you have to face 6 enemies and most of them have guns. The second issue is that the gameplay doesn't have much variety, after a while you figure out a strategy that is practically foolproof and you stick with it. On the bright side the game has fantastic character design, environments and a solid, memorable and intelligent storyline.

Metro 2033 8/10
Most of you have probably heard about it, if you're on the fence about getting this game then get it. It's a sold shooter, highly atmospheric and very engrossing. The storyline is good by video game standards but nothing spectacular. All in all it's a very good shooter if you value atmosphere and tension over explosions and mindless action.

 

[Trynant]

Not Seen in This Post: Umlaut

Well your original post stated you just hated Hope. If you can't stand the other characters then well I am sorry for your loss. I will say that Hope does grow some balls at the end of Chapter 4. Vanille was probably the only character that I was annoyed with, and that was after she revealed her deep dark secret.

I never said I hated Hope (although I sure as hell implied it), nor did I say I didn't hate any of the other characters. In fact, all directly stated was that there was a white-haired pre-teen with a name that is more effeminate than tampons and this game expects you to take it seriously. But yeah, with the exception of Sazh I hate the entire cast and their melodrama.

The first five or six hours of FFXIII's story is one where I joke that a really stupid plot twist or cliche line will be thrown at me, AND IT HAPPENS. REPEATEDLY.

Spoiler

I'll still play it though. I think the gameplay is okay enough for that so far.

ANYWAYS

Brutal Legend 5/5 (OUTSTANDING)

Yes, that's right. 5 stars for the game most of you seem to hate. The reason is for its multiplayer, i.e. the gameplay everyone seems to hate. You know what? This is some of the freshest, funnest, and fantastic stuff of this generation and you all think it has too much RTS or too little action, when the idea that it's as much akin to convential strategy game as Diablo is to Baldur's Gate doesn't cross your mind. This is an Action/RTS and the best of its ilk. The multiplayer alone is a great game. But the fantastic combination of art direction, sound (the soundtrack!) and story added onto a great game solidify this as one of my top games of 2009.

But dammit, the publishers had no ****ing balls and wouldn't reveal to anyone that this was an RTS and advertised it as an action-adventure a la Psychonauts. The biggest flaw Brutal Legend had was not marketing its best feature. Ugh.

 

[xMurphyx]

I played the demo, liked it, but then I heard the game was almost nothing like it and effectively an rts. Great, how am I supposed to know if I like that? What purpose did the demo serve again?
A benchmark to see if my xbox can run it, lol?

 

[Trynant]

I played the demo, liked it, but then I heard the game was almost nothing like it and effectively an rts. Great, how am I supposed to know if I like that? What purpose did the demo serve again?
A benchmark to see if my xbox can run it, lol?

Considering it's on consoles you could try renting the game.

Or watch some of the multiplayer videos online.

There are legitimate ways to gauge if you like the game or not.

 

[dragonfliet]

Finally got around to playing Trine: 8/10 it is gorgeous and innovative. Okay, it's not really that innovative, but they really hit this game on the head with gameplay it it feels natural switching between the characters to solve the puzzles. I also like how I didn't feel restricted to they way they wanted me to solve the puzzle, but felt like I was in charge of getting it done, no matter. Great stuff. My only real complaint is that it was pretty short and I wanted more. Good complaint to have.

Bad Company 2: 10/10. Okay, the single player is sort of weaksauce (it's not bad, but the story is dumb (though fairly well written) and the gameplay isn't particularly challenging), but you don't buy this game for the single player. I have a crappy k/d ratio (partly because I care more about fulfilling objectives than maintaining k/d and partly because I suck), but the game is still quite fun and engaging. It still isn't perfect, but it is pretty well balanced and infinitely amusing.

~Jason

 

[Trynant]

I'd rate Bad Company 2 if it ever decided to stop white-screen-of-death'ing on my PC all the frickin' time. Crashes, kicks from servers, the thing is practically unplayable online and it's bugging me to no end. Because I actually do enjoy the game when I play it

 

[dragonfliet]

That sucks. I've luckily not had that problem. At launch it would C2D after three hours or so, but they fixed that pretty quick. Games crashing annoys me to no end.

~Jason

 

[Sjosz]

Alan Wake: (so far, only completed first chapter, score subject to change) 9/10
Such a wonderful setup for a story-based game, and such good characters/voice-acting/tension/story-telling. I'm enjoying this immensely, and the episode based setup that recaps what you just did in the last episode (like good TV shows do) is so well done. I'm loving it.
EDIT: Completed now, and still a 9/10. As crazy awesome as most of the game's story is, I found the ending to be somewhat weak. Extra thoughts may be spoilery:

Spoiler

No grand 'season finale' in my mind. The game is really good at building up a couple of strong mechanics and sticking with those mechanics for the biggest part of the game, and then introduce a new gimmicky mechanic at the very end for no good reason other than it being different somehow. Oooh, shine a flashlight on WORDS and they become their meaning!
Shame, because the rest of the game is so incredibly powerful. I'm definitely looking forward to any 'season 2' they might release, and the DLC.

 

[Mister_Prophet]

Bioshock 2 - 6.5/10

It really should have been an expansion pack. Playing as a Big Daddy has its novelty though, and the drill weapon certainly didn't get old for me. To its credit, the game is more difficult than the original game, but alas the same God Complex aspect rears its head once again to enable you too quickly too early. I said this about Bioshock and I'll say this about Bioshock 2; there are two too many guns. The first game could have easily done without the Gel Thrower and the Crossbow, two weapons that were fun to use perhaps but quickly threw the difficulty out the window if wielded. The second game introduces all similar versions to what was used in the first, and this time they are even less necessary. You get them at different intervals then you did last time, and while it was nice to have a stronger shotgun right off the bat as opposed to the first game's gentler default version, weapons like the grenade launcher and harpoon gun were not necessary! You get the GL last (whereas it was found earlier the first time around), and by the time you do it has a rather useless purpose (like the Gel Thrower). I don't remember even using the GL in any major fights. Luckily there is a tonic that decreases your EVE use and limits you to only the Drill, and once I unlocked it that's how I played the rest of the game.

Plasmids come next in my scrutiny. As with the first game, there are only really two or three that you'll need for the course of the game and all the others are just gravy. Even if you rescue all the little sisters, the whole Adoption process will ensure that you'll always get way more Adam than you'll ever need. I spent most of my Adam opening Tonic slots. The dual wield system makes a little more sense this time around, and that's something I liked. The hacking interface was awkward at first because I missed the pipes, but it makes more sense not to pause gametime while you fiddle with the machines, and making a Hack Dart gun was a pretty wise idea. I found the research system from the first game rather trite...and it only made an already easy game even more easy. They improved it a bit here, using a recording medium instead of snapshots, and the bonuses unlocked are a little more even (even with damage bonuses it never gets as pathetic as in the first Bioshock, where after a while you could drop a charging bouncer with two or three trap bolts). But still, I'd much prefer having to find all those special tonics. I like how all the plasmids have real upgraded versions now, and how these all seem much more worth the purchase due to their unlocked abilities (Electric 3 and Incinerate 3 were my two favorite along with Hypnotize 3). I found the Scout Plasmid to be rather cheap...and yes, you can even get the cheapskate invisibility tonic from the first game again.

The game itself...meaning the story and level progression...seemed stupider somehow. Don't get me wrong, I really liked a few of the new characters (especially the old lady), but the grand scheme is rather dull compared to the first game. The levels still look really cool and the underwater sequences are truly awesome. But there isn't a locale that's as intriguing as Fort Frolic, Arcadia, or even the boiler room level from the first game. Things I liked the most were the Big Sister battles, the tougher Splicers, and the Gil Alexander sequence. The endings are a bit more interesting than the abrupt way they left you in the first game, although the finale is anything but climactic. When all is said and done, this is the Mass Effect 2 syndrome; they simplify some things, tighten the pace, but ultimately shave off much of what was so mystic the first time around.

 

[Capt.Toilet]

Turok (pc) - 6.5/10

I finally got around to finishing this up and I must say it was pretty decent. Definitely picks up during the second half and the dino variety was better than I expected. Why the low score, well I am about to explain.

You need a beast to run it properly

The game uses UE3 but you wouldn't know it by looking at the game in motion. It does have some pretty spots in it and the models are halfway decent, but the environments on a whole look no better than a hi rez version of Turok Evolution. On my old Quad core system with 2 gigs of RAM, it literally took nearly a minute to load the game proper and about 40'ish seconds to load a save or quick load, yes it was a quickload. My new machine has 7 gigs and that time has since went down to about 10 seconds on average. Speaking of quick loads.....

Do not use quick save/load

For one thing the game doesn't do a traditional quick save, but only saves at your current checkpoint. This can be bothersome if you are in a hard battle and need to QS in case you screw up.

Glitches

My first time through the game I decided to quick save about halfway up this elevator as it was a rather difficult part. I died, reloaded my quick load, and saw myself back at the checkpoint with no elevator in sight. Yes the elevator was gone and I was stuck. I also encountered whole areas not loading correctly so it looked like an abyss, and certain game sequences not loading correctly.

Guns as a whole suck

The old Turoks had some amazing weaponry(cerebral bore) with some pretty badass explosions. It was something I always expected when a new Turok comes out. This title however has your basic pistol, AR, a wannabe plasma gun, shotgun, and flamethrower. At least the tek bow is somewhat faithful.

So basically this game is Turok in name only, with a little bit of Native American heritage thrown in for the fanboy effect. So why the above average score? The game picks up like I say about half way through and gets pretty intense I felt. Yeah the story isn't anything special, but neither have the other games. The dinos were well done, and my fears were put to bed as a portion of the early game features alot of soldier fighting and not enough dinos. The dinos definitely stole the show.

Overall if I had bought this for the console I would have given it a solid 7.5 or an 8, but instead I waited a few months for an inferior, but ultimately satisfying romp through the jungle.

 

[dragonfliet]

Okay, replayed some games over the last week while visiting a buddy of mine in Milwaukee and then generally enjoying my summer.

God of War (from the ps3 rerelease): B+ -- This game has aged extremely well. The bump to higher resolutions makes this game honestly compete with some of the lesser games of the PS3 generation, despite being in the middle of the PS2 generation. It honestly looked better than Army of Two (which I shall get to). The combat is all around fun and interesting, though not particularly difficult, though the quick time events were all around annoying. It's hard going back to silly QTE that if you fail anything you immediately restart after Heavy Rain's clever use of QTE fails as a game action. The puzzles were sometimes quite clever and sometimes just random and annoying, but in general were pretty standard. One note: climbing the rotating blade towers out of Hades was a ****ing nightmare. I'm extremely glad I picked up the PS3 rerelease of this game and can't wait to get to GOW2 later this summer.

Army of Two: D -- What a ****ty game. The graphics are frighteningly bland and the coop is capricious at best. It's nice to boost your friend up and have him pull you up, but having to wait for your buddy just so you can open two doors at once? And they go to a ****ing cutscene for that 2 second clip? Combat is decent, but the controls aren't particularly good. The aggro idea is well done, but visually retarded. The one thing I greatly enjoyed was blinging out my weaponry, though I was extremely pissed that a blinged out AK47 was more powerful, more accurate, drew more aggro and was all around more useful than a ****ing minigun, which, for some reason, couldn't be blinged. Lame.

Uncharted 2: A -- The story isn't perfect and there are too many HE WENT OFF OF A CLIFF, NO, WAIT, HE'S OKAY moments (I think it happens something like 4 times), but the story is surprisingly well written, brilliantly acted, fun and swashbuckling and totally awesome. Additionally, this game is one of the best looking games of all ever, filled with excellent animations and plush set decorations. Honestly the environmental artists win the world with this game. Controls are pretty much the best 3rd person shooter controls ever and the platforming is great (thank you, Naughty Dog, for getting rid of the silly six-axis controls for grenades and walking across trees). One of the best games for the PS3, period.

Little Big Planet: A -- Another solid game. There are a few moments of extreme anger and a few times getting stuck--not to mention the fact that when playing with 4 people you essentially don't ever get to retry an obstacle, but must restart to level--but this game is pure joy. Playing this game again, the focus was on silly dressing up of the dolls, which was just grand.

Red Dead Redemption: A- -- A good looking game that is oodles of fun. The main story is better by far than GTA IV, the minigames and sidequests much more appropriate to the setting and make perfect sense and the achievements are a fun, fun, fun distraction that will keep me entertained with my OCD behaviors for a while. There are numerous annoying breakdowns between the open world and the linear narrative, such as the old man referencing me doing missions for the mexican army even though I hadn't done any of them yet, wanting to make him out first (Yo, Rockstar, simply adjusting a few dialogue options based on behaviors would be a great idea) and simple incongruities like bonnie calling me a good man in a cutscene after I had lassoed one of her workers in front of her and dragged him around from my horse not five minutes prior.

So yeah, it's broken, but it is damned, damned fun. Multiplayer is decent, but not particularly great (the combat is mediocre, just like GTA IV, even though the exploration and horse riding is great) though the multiplayer co op coming soon should be a blast.

Next up is Deus Ex (though the first level is so freaking bad it has drained my will to push on), Alan Wake or Assassin's Creed 2. God I love summer.

~Jason

 

[Capt.Toilet]

Okay, replayed some games over the last week while visiting a buddy of mine in Milwaukee and then generally enjoying my summer.

God of War (from the ps3 rerelease): B+ -- This game has aged extremely well. The bump to higher resolutions makes this game honestly compete with some of the lesser games of the PS3 generation, despite being in the middle of the PS2 generation. It honestly looked better than Army of Two (which I shall get to). The combat is all around fun and interesting, though not particularly difficult, though the quick time events were all around annoying. It's hard going back to silly QTE that if you fail anything you immediately restart after Heavy Rain's clever use of QTE fails as a game action. The puzzles were sometimes quite clever and sometimes just random and annoying, but in general were pretty standard. One note: climbing the rotating blade towers out of Hades was a ****ing nightmare. I'm extremely glad I picked up the PS3 rerelease of this game and can't wait to get to GOW2 later this summer.
~Jason

If you hated the QTE's in that game, you should have an easier time with GoW3. The buttons appear on the sides of the screen mirroring the control setup(Triangle at top, Square on left, etc). That way you can keep your eyes on the action and use your peripheral vision to nail the buttons.

 

[Juggalo Kyle]

Alien Breed - Impact (demo) 7/10

The demo was pretty fun. I would love to see more obstacles and puzzles, and for once a demo to have a freakin boss fight!

 

[Juggalo Kyle]

Hazard - The Journey to Life (UDK Demo) 10/10!!

Holy freakin crap, talk about an awesome demo for an awesome puzzle game! I highly recommend you guys check out the demo. Put on your thinking caps, it took me about 45 minutes to beat it. (about 20 was for the end demo puzzle)

http://www.udk.com/showcase-hazard

 

[Fuzzle]

Picked up Supcom2 since it's just $11 lately (or 16.5€, bleh. Helps with american pushers). It's alright (7/10?), but I can definitely see why people would be disgruntled if they were expecting a "supcom1 but better".

I'm trying to approach it as a different game alltogether and I'm having a bit of fun with it. There's some features I really like (target painting, experimental ferries), but the researching doesn't sit right with me. It doesn't feel satisfying to unlock stuff and you can't tell what your opponent is getting, which makes it really difficult to estimate how your units will match up against the opponent's.

 

[Rohit]

Bad Company 2: 1/10: Don't care for multi-player, quit single-player during the jungle level. I have decided - I want my old shooters back, game industry.

Quake 2: 9/10 - Went back to this after quitting Bad Company 2. What a breath of fresh air. Great levels, great enemies, great ways of killing them. Haven't finished yet.

Sin Episodes Emergence: 8/10 - Too little enemies, too little weapons, but damn is it still fun, especially after Bad Company 2. Back in 2006, I preferred the "cerebral" Half-Life 2 to this. Now I know better. Shame this never developed into a full series.

X-COM: UFO Defense: 10/10 - Decided to play this ever since the new XCOM was announced by 2K Marin. Yeah, now I know why the old-school purists are pissed - this game is awesome! We need turn-based squad level tactical games again. Haven't finished yet.

Deus Ex: 9/10 - I don't care about the crappy voice acting, bad voice-acting, stilted animations, or cheesy story. I have fun playing this.

Unreal Tournament: 9/10 - One bot match made me realize that I needed to stop fooling myself into keeping UT3 installed.

Torchlight: 6/10 - Charming little game, but starting to wear thin. Story isn't important (especially not here), but the gameplay isn't compelling either. Will drop completely after one playthrough.

 

[Kantham]

Bad Company 2: 1/10: Don't care for multi-player, quit single-player during the jungle level. I have decided - I want my old shooters back, game industry.

Well, even though I personally despise Bad Company 2, you should really consider at least experiencing the Multiplayer before judging the game itself, the Singleplayer was quite forgettable.