I have now calmed down about the Batman corrupted save (although I am still annoyed) hopefully a fix will be arriving soon for the various issues on the 360 version of the game.
So I needed something else to start & back to PS+
Remember Me & Metal Gear Rising were this months offering & both look interesting enough to play so I started with Remember Me.
You control Nilin who is having her memory wiped by the Memorize corporation, she manages to escape & with the help of her friend Edge your story begins to bring down Memorize.
I love the graphical Deus-Ex style futuristic look of neo-Paris but was surprised when I got into combat to discover it is a brawler type game. This is not a bad thing but the combat could be more refined to offer a Batman Arkham style experience.
I've completed the first two chapters which also involved an enjoyable memory remix section which is similar to the current Batman Arkham Origins detective sequences but more involved. I also love the music in the game with it's electronic touches.
This is one of those rare type of middle tier games like Enslaved that would be released in the hope they would become successful but alas the sales figures come under 250K which I assume is not enough to warrant Capcom investing further. I will however be investing more time to continue playing.
Xcom Enemy Unknown – Completed
The Uber Ethereal is dead & Earth is saved but “MR T” sacrificed himself to let the rest of the squad escape & destroy the Temple Ship. The six KHANS were united for over 50 missions between them, each complimenting each other’s abilities & skills. Shooting, scouting, healing & by using psi-ops to destroy the alien invasion.
Great game & very satisfying when you manage to pull off an ‘overwatch’ strategy to take out a sectopod or a group of muton soldiers. It is tough and many times I would reload a save point to try a different approach. The main story is very brief in that you only three main missions you have to complete to finish the game but you will be given many random missions that give you the time needed to level up your characters & upgrade your facilities.
So another PS+ game chalked up to completion, that makes three now (Uncharted 3 & Specs Ops). £35 for a year’s sub is proving great value for money. I have started downloading this month’s offerings of Metal Gear Rising & Remember Me but they both will have to wait because the Bat will be arriving soon !!
Great game & very satisfying when you manage to pull off an ‘overwatch’ strategy to take out a sectopod or a group of muton soldiers. It is tough and many times I would reload a save point to try a different approach. The main story is very brief in that you only three main missions you have to complete to finish the game but you will be given many random missions that give you the time needed to level up your characters & upgrade your facilities.
So another PS+ game chalked up to completion, that makes three now (Uncharted 3 & Specs Ops). £35 for a year’s sub is proving great value for money. I have started downloading this month’s offerings of Metal Gear Rising & Remember Me but they both will have to wait because the Bat will be arriving soon !!
Spec Ops: The Line: Completed!
The title seems overly jovial, but in some ways it's fitting. I'm glad I've finished the game, relieved in some ways, because the last few hours were the most harrowing experiences that videogaming has ever given me. If you've not played the game, do yourself a favour and do so now. Play it to completion, no matter what choices you make throughout. Do not read the rest of this post until you've done so.
Right.
As I said in my previous posts, I was finding that there was an increasing gulf between the choices I was playing and the way my character was acting in cutscenes. As I moved through the game, I was less and less willing to kill everything in my path, but was forced to do so as this was the only way to progress. The path to reach the radioman was full of commentary on the people I was killing - they had wives and children, they were close to retirement, they never wanted to be a soldier. As I jumped into the helicopter, some of the broadcasts were starting to ring true. Were we really the good guys? What were we trying to achieve?
The game dealt with the descent into uncertainty really well. It wasn't just the changes to characters' actions and dialogue, but little things such as the messages on loading screens and the way the characters dress changed. Walker's burnt face and ragged clothes were a far cry from the immaculate uniforms he started in.
Not right at the start, however. The first mission of the game is actually repeated later on, flying through Dubai in a helicopter, shooting down others. Why are there so many helicopters, when the population is considered stranded? Where did they come from? Most games wouldn't have had me questioning this, since the narrative would already have been full of holes, but the world and path in Spec Ops is robust enough for things like this to matter. There must be a reason for the helicopters, and that reason was becoming very uncomfortable.
The last few missions continued this story. The endgame meant that I started to question everything that had happened, unsure of what was real and what wasn't. As an example, one of the flashbacks shows the soldier and civilian hanging and Walker being told to make a choice. These people flit between being living, breathing, struggling, and being lifeless corpses. Was Walker imagining their life at the time, or is it now that he is seeing that they were both going to die anyway? Or are both cases true? They were once dead, but Walker saw them as living through his insanity or through the fact that he was replaying the passage of time in his mind as he lay dying? Did Walker actually die in the helicopter crash in the very first mission and the rest of the game is his recollection of how he got to that point - and what would happen afterwards?
One of the great things about this game is that these questions are not answered and it's left to the player to make their mind up. Depending on the final choice of the game - an abstract choice of whether to kill the player's demons or himself - there can be an epilogue which can reassure players that much of the game was imagined, but that in itself leads to more questions - did Walker actually kill people in his delusion or were the street empty? Had the 33rd died long before Walker reached them? Did his companions actually exist - and if they didn't, why did Walker's mind kill them off?
It's rare for a game to explore such deep questions and difficult situations, and even rarer for a game that does try to be more than a superficial shooter to not make a huge deal of it. This game started as a relatively generic shooter, but transformed through its story into one of the best narratives I've experiences. I can't recommend it enough - but you'll already know that, since you've completed it, haven't you?
Right.
As I said in my previous posts, I was finding that there was an increasing gulf between the choices I was playing and the way my character was acting in cutscenes. As I moved through the game, I was less and less willing to kill everything in my path, but was forced to do so as this was the only way to progress. The path to reach the radioman was full of commentary on the people I was killing - they had wives and children, they were close to retirement, they never wanted to be a soldier. As I jumped into the helicopter, some of the broadcasts were starting to ring true. Were we really the good guys? What were we trying to achieve?
The game dealt with the descent into uncertainty really well. It wasn't just the changes to characters' actions and dialogue, but little things such as the messages on loading screens and the way the characters dress changed. Walker's burnt face and ragged clothes were a far cry from the immaculate uniforms he started in.
Not right at the start, however. The first mission of the game is actually repeated later on, flying through Dubai in a helicopter, shooting down others. Why are there so many helicopters, when the population is considered stranded? Where did they come from? Most games wouldn't have had me questioning this, since the narrative would already have been full of holes, but the world and path in Spec Ops is robust enough for things like this to matter. There must be a reason for the helicopters, and that reason was becoming very uncomfortable.
The last few missions continued this story. The endgame meant that I started to question everything that had happened, unsure of what was real and what wasn't. As an example, one of the flashbacks shows the soldier and civilian hanging and Walker being told to make a choice. These people flit between being living, breathing, struggling, and being lifeless corpses. Was Walker imagining their life at the time, or is it now that he is seeing that they were both going to die anyway? Or are both cases true? They were once dead, but Walker saw them as living through his insanity or through the fact that he was replaying the passage of time in his mind as he lay dying? Did Walker actually die in the helicopter crash in the very first mission and the rest of the game is his recollection of how he got to that point - and what would happen afterwards?
One of the great things about this game is that these questions are not answered and it's left to the player to make their mind up. Depending on the final choice of the game - an abstract choice of whether to kill the player's demons or himself - there can be an epilogue which can reassure players that much of the game was imagined, but that in itself leads to more questions - did Walker actually kill people in his delusion or were the street empty? Had the 33rd died long before Walker reached them? Did his companions actually exist - and if they didn't, why did Walker's mind kill them off?
It's rare for a game to explore such deep questions and difficult situations, and even rarer for a game that does try to be more than a superficial shooter to not make a huge deal of it. This game started as a relatively generic shooter, but transformed through its story into one of the best narratives I've experiences. I can't recommend it enough - but you'll already know that, since you've completed it, haven't you?
XCom – Overwatch
One of favourite tactics is to put five soldiers into overwatch & use the last soldier to lure out the enemy. When they move BOOM !! five soldiers attack & take them out. It is very satisfying luring the enemy into a trap & having them destroyed in what is essentially the aliens turn in the game.
I have upgraded my main group of six (two support, two assault, sniper and a heavy) to maximum levels unlocking all their abilities whilst also equipping them with titan armour & plasma weapons.
Satellites have now been launched over all the countries & all that remains is to upgrade the interceptor fleets & equip them with plasma cannons. If I had only one wish for this game it would be the chance to increase the squad size to eight this would allow be to have another sniper & heavy in the team.
I have again pre-ordered Batman Arkham Origins hopefully I can complete XCOM before the Dark Knight arrives.
Red Dead Redemption: stupid horse
I finished Spec Ops, but it's a game worthy of a much longer completion post than I currently have time for.
I've heard increasingly good things about Red Dead Redemption, with praise becoming more concentrated the further we get from the release date. Indeed, RDR was one of seven games to which Edge recently awarded a retrospective ten - of which, RDR was the only one which I hadn't played. Wanting something that was open-world, outside the standard space or city location, this seemed the obvious game to play next.
It started off incredibly slowly. A train ride, with random people talking about mundane details. Given control of my character, I veered all over the place, walking slowly and bumping into walls. I'm not sure if this is due to the PS3 controller - which is pretty awful - or the game, but after controlling Assassin's Creed II I feel pretty disconnected from John Marsden. I'm fighting against the controls, rather than interacting effectively with them. After two hours of play, it's settled down a bit, but when I get on my horse I still have real difficulty turning around to ride off.
The first two hours have been incredibly impressive, though. The environment is immense; I've rarely felt quite so awed by the size of a game's world, particularly since there are no artificial barriers pushing me down corridors or restricting access to the next area. I've not felt the need to ride to further towns yet, but I've ridden a fair bit around the countryside and come across odd shacks and dwellings. I found an old lady who was waiting for her groom so she could get married - I later found out that he'd died several years before. I was accosted by a man asking for help to save his friend who was being hanged. I didn't manage to shoot the rope in time but I did kill the bandits who hanged him.
The combat mechanism feels much more refined than I remember from GTA IV or other Rockstar games. Locking on with a single shoulder button feels quite natural, but there's flexibility for more accurate aiming when needed. I've particularly enjoyed a couple of shootouts I've had while riding my horse at speed. It's one area where the controls do work, but maybe too well - I was once riding through town and accidentally pointed my gun at a bystander, who then started shooting at me. Of course, shooting him back wasn't the done thing and I found myself being arrested for murder. Not fun.
So, so far, a good variety in missions, great world, interesting characters, occasionally frustrating controls. I just need to learn the route between Armadillo and the McFarlane Ranch so I don't keep on running into the cliffs and getting stuck. This is where the Wii U's gamepad maps would be invaluable.
I've heard increasingly good things about Red Dead Redemption, with praise becoming more concentrated the further we get from the release date. Indeed, RDR was one of seven games to which Edge recently awarded a retrospective ten - of which, RDR was the only one which I hadn't played. Wanting something that was open-world, outside the standard space or city location, this seemed the obvious game to play next.
It started off incredibly slowly. A train ride, with random people talking about mundane details. Given control of my character, I veered all over the place, walking slowly and bumping into walls. I'm not sure if this is due to the PS3 controller - which is pretty awful - or the game, but after controlling Assassin's Creed II I feel pretty disconnected from John Marsden. I'm fighting against the controls, rather than interacting effectively with them. After two hours of play, it's settled down a bit, but when I get on my horse I still have real difficulty turning around to ride off.
The first two hours have been incredibly impressive, though. The environment is immense; I've rarely felt quite so awed by the size of a game's world, particularly since there are no artificial barriers pushing me down corridors or restricting access to the next area. I've not felt the need to ride to further towns yet, but I've ridden a fair bit around the countryside and come across odd shacks and dwellings. I found an old lady who was waiting for her groom so she could get married - I later found out that he'd died several years before. I was accosted by a man asking for help to save his friend who was being hanged. I didn't manage to shoot the rope in time but I did kill the bandits who hanged him.
The combat mechanism feels much more refined than I remember from GTA IV or other Rockstar games. Locking on with a single shoulder button feels quite natural, but there's flexibility for more accurate aiming when needed. I've particularly enjoyed a couple of shootouts I've had while riding my horse at speed. It's one area where the controls do work, but maybe too well - I was once riding through town and accidentally pointed my gun at a bystander, who then started shooting at me. Of course, shooting him back wasn't the done thing and I found myself being arrested for murder. Not fun.
So, so far, a good variety in missions, great world, interesting characters, occasionally frustrating controls. I just need to learn the route between Armadillo and the McFarlane Ranch so I don't keep on running into the cliffs and getting stuck. This is where the Wii U's gamepad maps would be invaluable.
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