The last game you completed, and rating.

Half-Life 2, Episode 1, Episode 2 on Linux.

Still as good now as it was in 2004, 2006 and 2007.

9/10, 8/10, 9/10 respectively

Also left with the same sense of longing disappointment that I was in 2006 and 2007. Sigh.
 
Working through library backlog:

Crysis 7.5/10

Well i never actually got to complete this due to the horrendous glitches. Could get past the final boss with the TAC gun after replaying the level twice to try to avoid the glitch. Encountered multiple glitches throughout the game too, but not even glitches that allow you to continue playing but instead those that you need to surpass to progress. Apart from the glitches the gameplay was really enjoyable and switching between suit modes is a great touch.


Red Faction Armageddon 7/10

Enjoyable game but i felt the combat and range of weapons became a bit stale after a couple of hours. Path to War DLC was a let down as it felt rather 'last minute' .
 
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Call of Juarez 1

Solid 8/10 for me, the story was pretty much spot on and never seemed to get boring. It was not an amazing story but it was simple and just plain fun. Some of the Billy parts were a bit annoying, the ones with the whip and the jumps but the game has a quick save so you can save before a jump which helps.

Walking around as Ray was badass, I had my bible out in game the whole time making my character read it everytime I killed someone, felt really badass (felt like a wimp with Billy so they did that really well). The ending was good and DX10 maxed it also looks pretty damn nice. It took me about 12 hours to complete, it could be done in 8-9 I reckon but I prefer to take my time looking around

Gun is next on my list :)
 
Outlast

7/10

For someone who loves horror, it's surprising that I have not played more horror games.

Quite enjoyed this one, and as a result will be playing more of the unplayed horror games I have in my Steam library.

Initially, it nearly made me wet my pants, but about 2/3 of the way through it did start getting a little samey.

It's short, but only paid a few quid for it, and overall happy with the purchase :)

Next: Cryostasis or Amnesia: Dark Descent?

Though I may play through Dead Space 1, 2 and 3 back to back :)
 
Alan Wake:

Didn't really like the character Alan Wake, story was ok once you knew what was going on. Thought the game was a little repetitive, and the controls were a little frustrating at times. 6/10

Mirrors Edge:

good game that I think could be improved on, especially the controls when you had to get into combat. Liked the gfx style and atmosphere was good, although could get frustrating sometimes when you are not sure where to go or get stuck in an area and don't know how progress. 7/10

Both games above I guess I got to about 70% complete before having a long break between playing them again.
 
Metro LL for me. Loved it. Brilliant story. Looking forward to more. 9/10

Not sure what to go to next.
 
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

I love the AC series. AC2 and Brotherhood are two of my favourite games. 3 was a massive disappointment due to the worst main character in history, and confusing mess of a story. AC4 does slightly improve on these areas, but the gameplay has devolved in to a poor mix of 'do as we say, when we allow you' and limited freedom that never quite works.


Positives


  • The setting. Ubisoft create amazing settings for their games. The world is bright and vibrant most of the time, and exploring the islands can be a lot of fun. The AC games know how to create settlements probably better than any else. There are only three cities in the game, and they are much, much smaller than ones from previous games, but they feel alive and are genuinely fun to walk around/explore. Also, the game looks incredible!
  • The ship, and Naval Mechanics. They feel very intuitive, and make sailing, pillaging, naval battles really fun. There are only a few different types of enemy ships, but they are kind of spaced out so that you can't take them all at at the start, and the upgrading of your ship is quite well done. Just sailing around, attacking the odd ship as you come across them can be immense fun, and storms are incredible!
  • Amount of content. There is plenty to do(though a lot of it is no fun at all to me tbh). Assassin's contracts, Templar Hunt quests(best missions in the game imo, Naval Forts, Naval contracts etc. The hunting is pretty poor, but I suppose adds a bit of depth to it if you really want to do it. The Whaling, and shark fishing is pretty epic though
  • Pirates! Being a pirate is just so much fun!...and generally you get the freedom to go about it as you wish outside of missions.
  • Edward Kenway. The main character is pretty good. A certain improvement over the plank of wood that was Connor from AC3!(did they actually ask the VO actor to do it as badly as he could?). In general, the voice acting is of the usual high standard you would expect from the series. Blackbeard is also a great character.
  • Mobile App. There is good integration of the mobile app, to use Kenway's Fleet whilst you are not at the main game. This means you can still earn money/resources outside of the game. A lot of people don't like this kind of thing, but it works really well, and is in no way essential
Small problems

  • Performance is apparently quite bad for many. Personally wasn't bad for me though.
  • Fiddly combat mechanics, especially on board ships.
  • camera angle often obscures enemies and makes combat awkward
  • The usual niggles with the free-running and accidentally jumping off things etc
  • Only two real types of enemies in the game.
  • Gameplay doesn't really add anything new. Very disappointing for a supposed next-gen game


Negatives



  • Missions. Lack of mission variety. Just doing the same things over and over with no real aim, or explanation of why you are doing it
  • Gameplay. A lot of the gameplay within missions is truly appalling!...You are told to do it stealthily for some reason(no reason!) and if you are seen, you get a game over screen:mad:...truly unbelievable that anyone could think this was a good idea! Other times you get (a lot of) eavesdropping missions, that mean you have to stay within a certain range of some guy, whilst staying unseen. They are tedious beyond belief! Also, some chase missions that are the usual rubbish(though nowhere near as bad as charles Lee), featuring the obligatory older, less fit, but much quicker than you characters!
  • Needless restrictions. As Ubisoft are so out of ideas gameplay-wise, they simply impose needless restrictions on you, in the guise of 'new' gameplay. You are constantly told to do things without being seen, for no reason...why can't you fight your way out? what difference does it make if that guy sees me? You often have to stay within certain areas or missions fail, again for no reason.
  • Immersion. Ubisoft simply can't do immersion in any of their games, and they take it to new levels in this game!...at every opportunity, they do their best to pull you out of the moment, whether it is by desychronising you for some reason, having a message pop-up telling you where to go, having characters start flashing white. ...even trying to blend in with a crowd is accompanied by you and the NPCs flashing white, and a little sound playing. Rather than have invisible walls block off areas, and the edge of the map(probably the least intrusive way of doing it tbh), you get a massive white flashing wall, the screen starts flashing, a strange sound, oh and a message pops up of course. It really is awful design! Want to buy something from a vendor...no problem, he is on the mini-map, in a shop with a sign, the door to the shop is flashing white, and when you get in the shop, he is flashing white, just in case you are so retarded you still don't know what to do!..../rant:p
  • Narrative. Wow...what a disaster! The whole story is a pile of tosh, and is so barely held together it is quite difficult to imagine someone writing it. Very often, a cutscene will play, and tell you nothing, or very little, and then when the gameplay starts again, you are doing something that makes little sense, or has no relation to the scene you have just seen. I very rarely knew why I was doing something, and I couldn't even tell you anything that happened before about half-way through the game. Also, once again, the modern bits are poor, but at least most of it is optional this time.
  • Assassins? This is not an Assassin's Creed game. They clearly wanted to make a pirate game, and just used AC as a base. Assassin's barely feature in the game. You are not an Assassin. Occasionally someone mentions the word Templar in some context, but that is about it. There is little beyond the mechanics to relate it to the previous games tbh
  • Lack of interesting characters. Bar Blackbeard, most of the characters are instantly forgettable. There is some kind of man/woman that crops up occasionally, but is very uninteresting. I couldn't tell you the names of any of the supposed bad guys, or why I was killing them tbh, apart from the Sage guy.
  • Stealth mission...on the ship! There are occasional missions where you are sailing, and you have to remain unseen:o...it is just basically just watching the radar to navigate around cones of vision(seriously, we are back in the 90s!). Or other times, there are incredibly tedious missions where we are following ships/boats very slowly whilst remaining unseen that just don't work.


Despite the God-awful gameplay, needless restrictions, immersion-breaking and mess of a narrative, there is still fun to be had in this game. Just wandering around one of the towns is more fun than you can have in many games, and there are plenty of activities to distract you from the story and tediousness of the main campaign. Sailing around, boarding other ships and pillaging is immense fun when left to your own devices. It is just a shame that when playing the actual missions, the gameplay becomes so bad, and the story, such as it is, is so weak.


Overall, I would give it 6.5/10. Worth playing, at a discounted price
 
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Pighardia said:
I love the AC series. AC2 and Brotherhood are two of my favourite games. 3 was a massive disappointment due to the worst main character in history, and confusing mess of a story. AC4 does slightly improve on these areas, but the gameplay has devolved in to a poor mix of 'do as we say, when we allow you' and limited freedom that never quite works.

Overall, I would give it 6.5/10. Worth playing, at a discounted price
Click to expand...

Very nice summary. Just a shame they did`nt spend more time and effort on the game play and story. It`s all well and good having lovely graphics but not at the expense of the overall game.
Although I found it amusing in the Astergo research, they were advised not to make AC3. :D
 
Over the last 4 weeks

X Rebirth 2/10 so many bugs unbelievable I had to abandon my lets play until a later date because of it

COD Ghosts I don't play multiplayer but the campain was fun and i enjoyed doing its lets play 8/10

State of decay a nice little gem campaign a little short and if you suck around for to long things become repetitive fast. 7/10

BF4 currently about halfway thro the campaign and tbh its poor the AI is dam awful and the characters are just annoying cant give a rating yet as not finished it but atm looking like 4/10
 
Batman Arkham Origins: 8/10

More of the same Arkham gameplay really which isn't a bad thing, not quite as slick and polished as rocksteady's efforts though.

Dead Space 3: 9/10

Again more of the same good old DS gameplay (really like the mix of action suspense and dash of puzzle solving) and better than DS2 imo. FOV and weapons crafting was a pita though.
 
Battlefield 4 - 5/10

+Decent array of weaponry
+Good performance
+Decent visuals
+I like FPS with AI teammates

-Fairly short, around 5-6hrs gameplay
-Uninspiring storyline... I'm shooting Chinese and Russian people but I don't really know why
-Lacklustre characters that I didn't really build any empathy with
-Vehicle sections are generally poor
-Few checkpoint issues e.g. on the 6th mission where you have to progress to Old Town I spent several attempts rushing to the objective until I realised you have to eliminate specific enemies to trigger a checkpoint. Also it often isn't clear when you've triggered a checkpoint as you only get a small white cursor flash up in the top right
-Engage command is really spammy i.e. a cheap one way of spotting enemies and is very very poor in comparison to say the orders in the Brothers in Arms series
-FOV locked to some utterly ridiculous low value in SP
-Excessive use of interactive cutscenes that don't really achieve a great deal e.g. pointless conversations, getting everyone lined up at a door/lift etc

Overall I'd say this is the worst BF Campaign since BF2 and is inferior to any of the CoD/MoH series with the possible exception of MoH:Airbourne.
 
Finished Spec Ops: The Line last night

Just as I was thinking it was a bit of a derivative cover/shooting gallery type FPS, the story goes and completely pulls the rug.

It became harrowing, affecting, uncomfortable, and turns the tables on the player in a way that, rather than feeling cheap, packs a real emotional and interrogative punch.

Feeling like this will take me a few days to get over, in fact.

Superb narrative and game direction. Have to rate it at 8 or 9... call it 8.5/10
 
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