Tthe in-progress thread

ríomhaire

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So I figured a lot of people would have new games right now considering the time of year and it would be nice to have a thread to give impressions of games that you're in the middle of playing. I got two new games today, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. I've only just finished the prologe of No More Heroes so I won't bother posting about that yet. So here's my impression of Silent Hill Wii so far:

My only point of reference with the Silent Hill series is Silent Hill 2, so any comparisons will be to that. Firt impressions were positive. The start was a bit more abrupt that I was expecting but I liked the game from the get go. The controls are much nicer than the old fixed camera views and controlling the flashlight and game more directly helps immersion I think.

The update of the radio to phone was also a good idea and the texts and voice mails replacing the books and notes makes more sense (who leaves detailed instructions lying around all the time?) and when things are written down, you actually read them off the walls instead of cutting to a reading screen. It all feels much less artifical than before which is really nice. The lack of loading times helps too. The world suddenly and very visibly transitioning between normal and icy is also very cool. The one thing about the new system I'm not terribly impressed by is the the camera: While neat, it isn't original and could be used a bit better I think.

The mosters are scary, but in much more a of a survial based way but not that much in a psychological way (though they do look creepy) and nothing like the terror of the slow advance of Pyramid Head. Some slight variety would be nice, even if it was just different warped skins on the same monsters.

The exploring and getting texts and voice mail of various happenings from people is cool but I wish there was more info on each little storyline (or am I just missing a bunch of messages?) and more exploring in each area. The most intensive bit so far was the school but there was no where near the kind of detail that was in the previous game.

There were a few puzzles and some plots but the gameplay area felt so small and only one puzzle was done under the pressure of possible attack. The puzzles are a lot less cerebral though. So far I've had to find a bunch of keys that were found by walking ten feet in some direction and opening something, I had to take some photos and I had to figure out how to reset a password on a computer by scanning a room for clues. It all feels very simple and the levels feel a little shallow.

It would be kind of nice if the freezing could sneak up on you sometimes. It could happen slowly instead of all at once or stay frozen for a while with no monsters so that you don't know when they'll show up, or a different, weaker sort of enemy when it's not frozen. It's pretty obvious when you're in danger or safe now which really lessons the tension a little.

Last note is that the hospital was disappointingly short but I'm about to head through the mall, I hope that addressing some of the issues I've had so far. I guess I'll find out. I also kind of wish I knew what can change and what can't, but then again I really want to find out myself. Will definitely have to replay this game at some point after I'm finished.
 
I dunno why everyone ignored this thread, but it's a damn solid thread idea and I'm gonna make somethin' of it, gawt-dammit.

I'm currently halfway through Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Was there ever a thread on that game? If so I didn't notice it, but it's been pretty big on reddit so I imagine some of you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, this game is scaring the pants off me in style. Ravenholm is only mildly creepy in comparison. I spent all last night holed up in my room, playing Amnesia in the dark by myself with headphones on. By the end of a 3 or 4 hour session of this I was a nervous, shaking wreck jumping at any semi-loud noise in my house. The water segment is already infamous online for being ****ing scary and I have to admit there were some muted shrieks that issued from my mouth on more than one occasion during that part. It has some decent adventure game style puzzles but nothing super special in that department (the puzzles are pretty basic and nowhere near as polished or awesome as Portal or Research and Development or something like that).

Other than that, I'm also playing Hot Pursuit (which is awesome... HP2 was always my favorite NFS title when I was younger so it was nice to see a modern take on it). It's managed to retain everything I love about NFS games without any of the bullshit in Most Wanted and Carbon etc. I love the racing and in-game handling, drifting is fun and easy and generally it's really enjoyable, not to mention pretty.

And of course, Bad Company 2 Vietnam, but I never even touched the BC2 singleplayer. In multiplayer I guess you could say lately I've been practicing helicopter piloting (basically doing stunts on pub games, flying under bridges and below tree level and stuff).
 
Gone through most of FEAR 2, only got a scare a couple times. They seem to have gone COD style with the iron-sights as well with the combat in general. The story seems to be less interesting than the first title but better than Extraction Point (if there even was a story there). Grenades are like smoke grenades in terms of visual effect as well as sound which is really strange. I'm going to withhold final judgment until I finish the game but overall I'd say I enjoyed the first title more. Maybe F3AR will be better, maybe not, but overall this was an addicting game to say the least.
 
I am currently playing through WAY too many games, but here are some that I am attempting to get through:

Deus Ex - Still chugging along in this game. Made it through most of Paris so I think I am at least halfway through the game. This game is fantastic, one of my all-time favourites and one that makes me very excited for the new one coming out in a few months.

Dead Space - Currently in the fourth area I think. So far this game is excellent. This is one of the few times where I think sluggish mouse controls actually help contribute to the atmosphere of the game, along with the neat menu/inventory style. Lighting in this game is superb, and the models and textures are normally quite good. I agree with most people that the game itself isnt really scary as it is tense (monster designs are wonderful). The lack of quick movement while shooting makes taking down multiple enemies a short exercise in prioritization and strategy. Hope to finish this quite soon

Super Meat Boy - I was on a roll for the longest time in this game... then I got to the 6th world. My God those levels are difficult. I've only beaten one so far, so I imagine this will take me quite a while.

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Great game, though mostly messing around right now. Love the world design in this game, and the lack of things like insta-fast travel and compass markers make exploring the land really seem like exploring. Also this game is far more challenging that Oblivion ever was. Havent progressed too much in the story, I've just been doing guild quests and looking for sweet loot on my own (found a unique hammer for the "Sixth Bell" or something like that, it rules). Only downsides to this game are the characters look like absolute booty even for an old game, some of my quests broke, and the combat system is awful.

Fallout New Vegas - Cant say too much about this game yet, but its pretty good so far. Much more likeable characters, and exploring the Wasteland has been fun. Very much the same as Fallout 3, though New Vegas has a much more intriguing storyline. Bugs have been more amusing than frustrating or game-breaking.

STALKER: Call of Pripyat - Man, I am glad I decided to buy this game during the Steam sale. I think this is the best STALKER game of the three for a number of reasons. It got rid of the rather annoying faction system in Clear Sky, but kept the upgrade system and streamlined it. The land no longer feels like a number of confined areas like it did in the first (and a bit in the second). But by far the biggest improvement is the mission design. They managed to make missions more than just "go here, kill this, get that", now you have the occasional moral choice, or a stealth section thrown in. They may not be up to the quality that Bethesda is famous for, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise for me while I was playing.
 
My main gaming goal at the moment is to reach 100% in Just Cause 2, currently at 98%.
 
My main gaming goal at the moment is to reach 100% in Just Cause 2, currently at 98%.

Good lord, 98%???

That game is full of so much stuff I cannot fathom spending that much time getting to 100%.
 
I'm predominantly playing the shit out of three games right now - BC2, GTA4, and Call of Pripyat.

BC2 is just... fantastic. I love this game. It took everything I loved about BF2, everything I loved about Bad Company, and cut out all the bullshit. No overpowered aircraft, no clumping of two-thirds of soldier capabilities into the Medic class, no overly-big maps with nothing to do, no shitty soldier combat, no shitty netcode (for the most part), no menu-based world interaction (i.e. Q is now context-sensitive) or retarded and repeated un-re-re-unbinding of keys to get your controls working. Fantastic game.

GTA4, less so, but still a fun game. Entirely worth the $10 I spent on it and Episodes from Liberty City. I grabbed a few mods for it - one to enable a bullet-time toggle, one to fix up graphics sharpness, a trainer to let me fool around with my wanted level and health/weapons, and a mod to enable first-person perspective for the entire game. This last one is crucial, as it makes it feel like a completely different game, and a more contiguous gameplay experience. It's no longer half driving, half running and shooting, but instead a pretty seamless experience of GTA city life. It's really interesting because it's not just a half-assed attempt at turning the game into an FPS. Rather than simply being a floating perspective, the camera is tied to Niko's head at all times. If you headbutt someone, YOU headbutt them. If you combat-roll out of a long jump, YOU combat-roll, just like in Mirror's Edge. If you hotwire a car, your face is in the dashboard (and once you're driving, you can look out all the windows with free mouselook). The only real downside to this mod is that occasionally, it will mess up camera positioning for mission intros and outros, but it seems to be concentrated in the no-effort-made camera setups, where the characters in question use generic NPC animations instead of full body scripting, so it's not much of a loss.

Also, the trainer lets me toggle Drunk Mode, and let me tell you, there are fewer things in the GTA series funnier than Drunk Mode + firstperson stumbling + slowmo + pedestrians calling you a hermaphrodite in slow-mo speech as you push them down a flight of stairs.

Call of Pripyat is pretty damn good too. I haven't put as much time into this as I'd like, but I've modded it as well. I got the COP Redux beta, which updates the environment and structural textures as well as adding AtmosFear 2.1 and some minor gameplay changes. I've only done like, two missions, but the first blowout was so unbelievably atmospheric (oh ho ho) that I know I'll be back for more. I just need... more... time................ for BC2........
 
Can you link to these GTA4 mods you are talking about? That sounds cool to me and I'm tired of typing in the cheat code phone numbers every time I want to blow stuff up. Also the FPS mod sounds interesting.
 
No prawbs :D It'll take a bit of configuration.

Also, note: The only ASI Loader that is compatible with the FirstPerson mod is Xliveless, which completely removes GFWL from the game. This means that none of your saves are valid. However, once you start a new game your non-GFWL saves will persist between game launches. I'm at Bohan right now. Besides, it's not so bad starting a new game, since the perspective makes the whole game a pretty new experience.

Downloads
ScriptHook .NET 0.893b - http://www.gtagaming.com/downloads/gta-iv/tools/2941 (download site)
ScriptHook 0.51 - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6D055SXZ (megaupload)
XLiveless ASI Loader - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S5I5S2KA (megaupload)

VisualIV - http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=415952&st=0 (thread)
BulletTime - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=76NBUUSG (megaupload)
First Person - http://www.iol.ie/~fcorp/gta/iv/FirstPersonV1.22.zip (direct download)
Trainer - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6KHX5URU (megaupload)

----------
Game directory: c:\...whatever...\grand theft auto iv\GTAIV. This goes for the Steam version as well (steamapps\common\). If you do not have a Steam copy of the game, make sure it's patched to 1.0.7.0.

1) Open ScriptHook.NET, and extract to the main directory. It will add a folder called "scripts", as well as other files in the main directory.
2) Open ScriptHook 0.51, and extract ONLY Scripthook.dll to the main directory. Replace the file.
3) Open Xliveless, extract xlive.dll to the main directory.
4) Open Trainer, extract to main directory.
5) Open FirstPerson, extract to main folder.
6) Open BulletTime, extract the files to the scripts folder. There's a handy file in there called "_PUT .NET SCRIPTS HERE" :p
7) Open VisualIV, open folder Grand Theft Auto IV, extract both folders to GTAIV main directory. Overwrite.

Notes:
- BulletTime is the only mod that requires scripthook.NET. It won't hurt to have both installed, but only ScriptHook 0.51 is necessary for the others. If you are only installing 0.51, you would extract all the files, instead of just Scripthook.dll.
- FirstPerson is the only mod that requires the "Xliveless" ASI loader. If you're not going to use it, use this one instead: http://www.gtagaming.com/downloads/gta-iv/tools/1976. All your current GFWL saves should work with this one.
- All mods (except VisualIV) have .ini config files. BulletTime's will be in the scripts folder, the others will be in the main directory.

Once this is done, just boot the game and everything should work fine. No external trainer .exes to be run, no weird hackware launchers to fiddle with. All the mods have a readme and a .isi config file. Hopefully nobody runs into any problems installing this!

Also, as far as uninstalling goes:
- For everything except VisualIV, just delete the files from your GTAIV directory.
- For VisualIV, copy the contents of the folder backup (IV) into your main directory and overwrite.

None of any of this will affect your save files, outside of Xliveless and GFWL saves not being intercompatible.
 
Currently playing through:

Dead Space - Really enjoyed this! I don't know why I never played it before. I agree with Wanted Bob, it's not so much scary but it is really tense. I'm always on edge waiting for something to crawl out of the vents! I generally don't sprint everywhere for fear of this. The story is alright so far (currently on chapter 9 or 10, so near the end I think) but everything that can go wrong does go wrong on this ship. I'm surprised it's still managed to stay in one piece!

Looking forward to Dead Space 2 now, played a short part of it at Eurogamer Expo and looks to be better than this! :D

GTA IV: Lost and Damned - Only a few missions into this, but I like the new weapons and driving round as a gang, all on bikes. Like I said, not too far into this yet, but damn Billy is an asshole! :D

Mass Effect - Almost at the end of this too, playing it in preparation for my Mass Effect 2 playthrough (Thanks, Shaker! :D) Hope ME2 is more epic than this one.
 
Alpha Protocol - something has backfired in Mike Thorton's brain. While retrieving NSB information from a hotel in Taipei, the agent suffered a psychotic episode and slaughtered every armed civilian he came across in the hotel, earning the hatred of Mina Tang and the respect of Steve Heck. For reasons unknown, he spared Omen Deng's life, which coupled with president Sung's survival earned him two powerful allies. Upon completing Operation: Blood Heirs, agent Thorton moved to Moscow, where his first order of business was smashing a major informant's face with a vodka bottle for good measure.

The agent's psychotic rage across the world is expected to continue.
 
Just completed Dead Space.

Last boss was pretty easy to be honest. Just aimed and strafed from side to side whenever it swung it's tentacles at me and it couldn't hit me. I kind of expected his wife to be dead or something; especially since the other woman kept seeing her brother on the monitors and everyone else kept seeing things also.

Overall pretty good game! I liked how you could still shoot the giant aliens when they've grabbed you, nice mechanic. Had a couple of jumpy moments at the end, but the whole game kept me on edge.

I think I'll finish off Mass Effect later.
 
lol they're all "in progress"

red dead redemption
fallout new vegas
the witcher
Dragon Age
Alpha protocol
Arma 2
GTA 4
Batman AA

etc etc

hell it's just easier to list the games I have finished in the last year or so:

Mass Effect 2 ..that is all
 
Minecraft and Penumbra Overture.

Just recently I've given up playing The Void and Deus Ex for a time when I can better deal with (the frustration that comes with) them.
 
Super Meat Boy - I was on a roll for the longest time in this game... then I got to the 6th world. My God those levels are difficult. I've only beaten one so far, so I imagine this will take me quite a while.

oh god same! I'm at the boss now for world 6 but jesus i've been stuck for ages!!


so yeah right now I'm playing super meat boy as mentioned above and:

medal of honor frontline HD: I feel like i'm going through this out of sheer stubborness now, this game has dated extremely badly >_> It's just soo basic =/

deadly premonition: the story and cutscenes are awesome :LOL: but the game?
throw-up.gif

yea i needed a break from it. Again i'm sure i'll finish it eventually out of sheer stubborness.

Heck i finished yakuza 3 which lasted about 15 hours for me and I HATED that game. I don't know when to give up =s
Also i'll probly start AC: Brotherhood after my ****ing exams are over at the end of the month.
 
I've just started GTA 4 (That + expansions for $10 via steam!) but am usually playing MineCraft a good 90% of the time.
 
Seeing as there are a couple of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s here and eveyone seems to agree that CoP is superior to CS then is it worth playing CS considering my free time is so limited? I'm not even wholey sure that I have the time to play one of them considering how many games I have and how long they are?

Also, I've finished Silent Hill and I plan to post a new Silent Hill thread soon and I'll also be posting my in-progress of No More Heroes 2 as well.

Also I just noticed the spelling mistake in the thread title.
 
Thanks for the info Stigmata! I do have the Steam version, so you are sure that this ScriptHook program isn't going to be detected by VAC as a hack and ban me? I have no idea whether VAC pays attention to GTAIV but I do believe it runs as part of Steam (not just individual games) so it might be wary of anything attempting to hook into the program. Regardless thanks, 'twill be useful. I also love that I can strip GFWL out of the game because I have no use or desire for GTA4 multiplayer and I absolutely loathe GFWL.

I keep wanting to continue playing Amnesiac, and some times I even launch it, but I always pussy out and cancel because I know it's going to be so tense and stressful and freaky. Oh well, shoot more people in BC2.
 
I'm guessing Human Revolution.

No, it's the original.

Frustrating wasn't really the right word. I played like three missions in, and I'm interested in the story and the world and all, but I just can't get into the game. I feel like I'm presented with a lot of room to explore and check different things out, but none of it ever leads to anything really worthwhile, I just go out of my way, and for nothing really. I started a little side mission where I'm supposed to deal with some hostage situation, but for the life of me, I can't find any hostages to rescue where it says there should be some. I don't find the core gameplay very fun, and visually I hate it. Will it be dark for the entire ****ing game?

But anyway, I'm planning to go back to it. Right now I just don't want to do deal with it, and I don't like juggling multiple games at once, I do it all the time with books, and every individual piece suffers from it.
 
Currently gravitating between WoW and Arma 2, with a bevy of unfinished games in my wake which I will probably never return to. About to start STALKER though, and then probably on to CoP.

I keep wanting to continue playing Amnesiac

Heh, you Radioheadhead.
 
(co?)incidentally Amnesiac is far and away my favorite Radiohead album. You may be on to something here.
 
Seeing as there are a couple of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s here and eveyone seems to agree that CoP is superior to CS then is it worth playing CS considering my free time is so limited? I'm not even wholey sure that I have the time to play one of them considering how many games I have and how long they are?

In my opinion, Clear Sky is not worth going back to play. If you own CoP just skip straight on to that one.
 
In my opinion, Clear Sky is not worth going back to play. If you own CoP just skip straight on to that one.

I couldn't even get two hours into CS, but I invested at least 20 into both SoC and CoP, probably more. So yeah, this.
 
I'd say CS is worth the playthrough. It may not be as awesomesauce as CoP but it's still got it's rightful place as a prequel, worthy.
 
Thanks for the info Stigmata! I do have the Steam version, so you are sure that this ScriptHook program isn't going to be detected by VAC as a hack and ban me? I have no idea whether VAC pays attention to GTAIV but I do believe it runs as part of Steam (not just individual games) so it might be wary of anything attempting to hook into the program. Regardless thanks, 'twill be useful. I also love that I can strip GFWL out of the game because I have no use or desire for GTA4 multiplayer and I absolutely loathe GFWL.
VAC doesn't ban you from playing a game, only from playing on servers that are VAC secured. You can even still continue to play online as long as all the servers you play on are VAC secured. I don't think GTA has VAC so you shouldn't need to worry. In any case VAC only bans you from games with that engine not all games. I.e. get banned in CSS get banned in all Source games but not in CoD. There have been cases of VAC banning people from every game that they launch but that is due to a hack that targetted VAC itself to try and disable it and caused cheats to be detected in every game, which I imagine is the opposite of what that hack was supposed to do.
 
So the other game I got for christmas was No More Heroes 2. I had wanted the first one for a while (and didn't know there was a sequel) so I was pretty damn pleased. First paragraph is about general gameplay. Second will be on what I've done so far.

The game starts off with a fairly simple fight which I took me ages to beat simply because I thought that attacks were supposed to be motion controlled. Turns out you're just supposed to press A and B to attack, swinging is not nessisary :p. Once I realised my own stupidity I got used to the fighting system very quickly. You basically have A to attack with the sword and B to attack with your fists. If you kill someone with an A combo you get to do a finishing blow (swing the remote in the direction that comes up) and A attacks do more damage, BUT if you attack with B you seem to have a higher chance of stunning your enemy and you can do wrestling moves on stunned enemies (this time swing the nun-chuck AND remote at the same time) that are instant kills. I'm not sure if I prefer sword or wrestling finishers. In either case you get a slot machine on your HUD when you finish someone off that can give you a free hyper mode thingy time which is awesome. The normal hyper mode is earned just by doing combos and its just makes you super fast and puts enemies in slow motion. It's ridiculous and really cheap because it justs lets you wipe the floor with them but it's really fun. Liking the gameplay so far even if I'm still not fully used to fighting the bosses, which this game seems to be all about.

Spoilers for the first three levels:
This is certainly the most over the top game I've ever played. The first fight ends with you decapitating your opponent, whose neck fountains out blood and whose head flies off into the air, spins around and then lands back on his neck stump and his body just stays standing there for the next cutscene while you talk to someone about what happened between now and the first game (actually calling it the "first game" while looking straight at the camera) and then the dead guy starts talking again and pulls off his own head while laughing and then actually dies.

First boss fight is versus some sort of black Irish rapper who keeps shouting BLAST YOU and makes plant pots explode. Still haven't gotten the hang of bosses and I keep getting blasted across the room all the time (while my attacks do not make him flinch very annoyingly) but I beat him after a few tries. Second boss was much more amusing. He summons a giant goddamn robot called Santa Death Parade out of nowhere, at which point you summon your giant robot (Glastenbury) to fight him to the death. Santa Death Parade of course calls out all his attacks and you call out your special attacks "STRAW-BERRY SHOOOORTCAKE!" The entire scene had me laughing my arse off. It was definitely the most fun boss fight left but unfortunately my giant robot was confiscated afterwards :(

I only did one more fight after that, with some annoying girl who fancies Travis (the main character, can't believe I haven't mentioned his name yet). I really don't have the hang of this game's boss combat yet. I hit her a few times, it doesn't interupt her combo at all and then she blows me half way across the arena. It's really annoying. Am I just supposed to hit her once run away and repeat? How much of a pussy is Travis?
Spoilers end

The side missions are decent (some of them anyway, some of them can go to hell) and playing with your cat is more amusing than it should be. Good game so far even if I'm having trouble getting to grips with the bosses.
 
Until my new PC arrives in one or two weeks I will probably be playing WoW. My Goblin Mage dinged 70 yesterday so he might even reach 85, although I kinda doubt it. Until level 58 I had a good time. The new Azeroth is amazing and a vast improvement of the old content. Especially during the first 20 to 30 levels quests are actually interesting now and even have in-game cut scenes. Outland hits you like a wall though, because in an instant you are warped back to pre Cataclysm gameplay. Which isn't bad, but it is a big step back. Thank God I arrived in Northrend now. I am starting to have fun again, although I don't think I will keep on playing when my rig has arrived.
 
I saw my first in-game wang today on GTA IV: Lost and Damned.
 
Thanks for the info Stigmata! I do have the Steam version, so you are sure that this ScriptHook program isn't going to be detected by VAC as a hack and ban me? I have no idea whether VAC pays attention to GTAIV but I do believe it runs as part of Steam (not just individual games) so it might be wary of anything attempting to hook into the program. Regardless thanks, 'twill be useful. I also love that I can strip GFWL out of the game because I have no use or desire for GTA4 multiplayer and I absolutely loathe GFWL.
I haven't encountered any VAC problems - it isn't listed as a feature on the GTAIV store page, and from the looks of it people have been modding Steam GTA4 for ages without any issues. You might be right about VAC being a default Steam component, but these mods only hook GTA4 and it's .dlls so there isn't an issue, /knockonwood :p
 
So I finished FEAR 2 and I have to say it's TOTALLY WORTH IT
spoilers ahoy:

So the last level is hard as hell: survive a ****ing shitload of assaults from those ****ing soldiers but in the end? Alma has sex with you, that's what she wanted all along (I guess if she gets you beforehand it's just that you're dead in that 'you're not supposed to be having sex right now' kinda way). I mean if she wanted you dead the whole time she would've done it the same way she did it to your black team member: tentacles of flesh melting, but if you let her get you in the appropriate sequences all she does is grab you herself (doing nothing really). So pretty much: this game rocks because you get to do it with an undead telesthetic girl who just wanted to have a baby. Hell it makes as much sense as it could I suppose, it's what she wanted back when Point man and Fettel were taken from her.

Jesus I did not expect that to happen, and Keegan was jealous lol.
 
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