The last game you completed, and rating.

Finished Sleeping Dogs today - 8.5/10

Wow, what a surprise. Really enjoyed this game. I didn't expect the story to be so good!

Positives-


  • Some very interesting characters
  • Story is also very good, and very consistent. There are no lulls in the gameplay and it manages to keep it going all the way through
  • Just the right length. Finished it in 19.5 hours.
  • Good variety of side missions.
  • Combat and free-running are very good and fit the game perfectly
  • Looks incredible and performance is excellent

Negatives

  • Driving- controls are too 'arcadey for me' and the physics seem off
  • Some elements could have been handled a bit better such as homes. You just appear in them once you get them through a mission, as opposed to buying them, which would have worked better imo.
  • a few gameplay elements are introduced and then not used to their potential- Stealth, lockpicking, hacking. Never used outside of scripted events, when you are told to use them.
  • QTEs. I hate them, and there were far too many of them.
  • Some weird love interests, who just appear out of nowhere and are gone just as quickly, feels like they should have been fleshed out more.
  • A feeling that bits have been cut, or maybe not developed as much as they could have been.
  • The big one- a few choices would have been nice, letting you go down one path or the other- let someone live or not for example, which affects your standing as a cop. A bit more blurring between Triad/cop would have elevated the game even further.


Overall I was very impressed with it, and it has been left open for some story dlc, which I am hoping for soon!
 
Sleeping dogs 8.5/10

Pretty solid game enjoyed it a lot although it has a very consoly feel to it. If only the side missions and the stupidly simplistic mini games were a bit more interesting...

The writing/characters/story were great. The fighting was very well done and quite brutal too :D It was also the only challenging aspect of the game really.

If they are making a sequel hopefully it will be more challenging.
 
Splinter Cell: Double Agent 7/20

+I like the optional objectives etc
+General premise of working undercover is pretty good and adds a bit of variety compared to working for Lambert
+Excellent performance, runs at a steady 100fps
+Underwater sections are quite well done in terms of animation and giving a bit of variety
+Possible to Rambo a few sections
+Feels nice when you finally get to be able to attack in JBA HQ!

-Really buggy game, from crashing after alt-tab, to errors when browsing computer menus too quickly, to broken missions (Shanghai is appalling, opening sequence had no sound and got stuck when you get off the helicopter the first time I played it… then later on when trying to record a meeting it kept bugging out and terminating the meeting early despite 5 attempts – after restarting the game it worked first time)
-Sorry did I mention this game is REALLY BUGGY! :mad: No excuse for these not being fixed within 5 years of release, seems like fairly typical ubisoft shenanigans. I mean even the ENDING CUTSCENE is broken, I defuse the bomb and the camera angle changes and it just freezes up, I literally don't think I've ever played a 'big name' title as buggy as this. After some googling it seems the solution is to reset the config back to default, as I committed the heinous crime of changing my screen resolution and FOV.
-Oh yes, that reminds me, pretty shoddy that the game doesn't support 1080p out of the box considering Chaos Theory does.
-Safe cracking is stupid, the dials don’t turn at all if you have decelerated (which in a level where you need to sneak up to the safe without being spotted, is extremely likely!) and also spin round too quickly using keyboard control
-No way to disable controller vibration in the menu, you have to edit the config file. I’m playing with mouse+kb, why the hell would I want a controller vibrating on my desk making a huge racket?
-The lighting seems wrong, many of the levels don’t seem to have much in the way of shadow. Even the thermal imaging view isn’t very good.
-Context menus are worse than Chaos Theory, massive boxes that come up with awkward selection methods – basically a blatant console port
-Load times are pretty bad considering how average the game looks
-Unskippable cutscenes
-Repetitive levels i.e. JBA HQ several times over
-Lacklustre minigames
-Save games seemingly get listed in a random order on the load menu
-Really dodgy AI, at one stage on the JBA HQ level I had a guy shouting at me that I shouldn't be here, that I'm going the wrong way etc even there it was impossible for him to see or hear me - he's behind the locked door to Emile's office, I'm hiding under a truck OUTSIDE THE WHOLE BUILDING ACROSS THE YARD, heck even if the guy opened the door I'd still be out of sight due to the lip of the building and truck.
 
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I found Double Agent a real love/hate game. I would play a level and think "Wow this is awesome...best SC ever!" and then then next one would let it down. First level is excellent I think(maybe a bit short, can't remember). A great start to the game though, which really had me thinking the game would be classic SC ....then the Prison level I thought was poor. This cycle repeated throughout the game for me.

I would probably say it is the weakest SC tbh. Ultimately I found it a bit of a chore to finish.
 
Yeah bit of a mixed bag in terms of level design First level in Iceland did seem OK although as you say a bit short. I actually quite liked the Prison level, and the cruise ship, but in general it is a pretty poor. With only 7 different locations it simply can't afford to have any duds. Kinshasha was dull as dishwater once you get outside, in fact the whole doing missions outside in broad daylight thing doesn't quite feel right.

Just started on Conviction but performance seems pretty bad, looks as though it is massively cpu limited as I get low fps even with gpu usage is only at say 70%. Think I may leave it until I upgrade and go back to the original Splinter Cell, I only got to around the third mission on that.
 
FEAR: Perseus Mandate - 13/20

+I always liked the combat in the original FEAR and this doesn't disappoint. By far the best thing about the game, it lifts this up a notch from being a very dull mediocre shooter. Great example of why focussing on the fundamentals can make an otherwise drab game enjoyable.
+Best AI I've seen from a FPS game in years; the enemies make use of cover, flank you, and understand how to use grenades
+Great performance, solid 120fps
+Quite atmospheric when it comes to the creepy sections, with good use of sound and dynamic lighting

-Starting to show its age graphically, the textures in particular could do with a brush up
-Environments are very samey and offer nothing new over FEAR/XP
-Ghost sections can be annoying
-Storyline is hard to follow... I was chasing this bloke for a couple of levels but I really didn't know - or care - why
-Adds nothing new; the game is exactly the same as FEAR (a largely linear corridor shooter through bland environments with under-developed companion characters, littered with some excellent fights and the odd mind**** creepy bit).
-A bit short, only lasted me 6hrs

In some ways I think it is a shame no more shooters were built using the FEAR tools i.e. engine and AI... if you beefed up the textures and wrote a decent story through a wide range of environments, you'd have the platform for an excellent FPS game.
 
Uncharted 3: 6.5/10

INCLUDES SPOILERS
I played Uncharted 1 and 2, and I liked them both. I was expecting a great game from the third too. Sadly, it kind of disappointed.

First of all, it had close to no puzzles. There were like 5, which were pretty easy to be honest. It was just a lot of running around and shooting people. It had a lot of climbing, which is a bit tedious. Second of all, it was so predictable. I was guessing what was happening at each 'major' event. It was identical to the other 2. You go to find a treasure with bad guys running after you, you fall back and get help, you get to where there is the treasure, you end up finding a lot of monsters and stuff, and then the whole place comes down whilst you have a boss fight. Also, I felt it was too drawn out. The whole pirate thing could be a bit shorter (for example), they could have left out the effects of the fountain etc. These things were major downfalls for me.

It was a great game nonetheless. I never actually felt bored of the game which I think is a positive thing. It still had the epic-ness of Uncharted. Still, I feel they need to refresh it if they want to continue the series.
 
Gave the PC versions of Halo 1 & 2 a replay the past few weeks, I'm probably bias with being a huge fan of the Halo universe, but still I enjoyed them as much as I always have. Wish they would release some sort of mega Halo pack that included the new ones on PC.

Halo 1: 18/20
Halo 2: 16/20

Also played Dear Ester recently, for what it is I think it's brilliant, it definitely took me elsewhere for the short period of it's story. Hard to rate it as it isn't really a traditional "game", but I'd give it a 17/20.
 
Deus Ex Human Revolution - 9/10

Passed on this at release as I'm not usually a fan of stealthy games and took a chance on it in a sale not long ago.
Absolutely superb game, only people I killed were the bosses, it's so much fun experimenting and picking at the ai using the enhancements. Loved the sneaking and hacking, solid story as well. Easily the best game Ive played in quite some time.
 
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