Be Excellent To Each Other

Forget CODBLOPS - this is where it's at: an XBLA FPS with the graphical stylings of Team Fortress 2, but you're acting out scenes for an evil film director's latest horror flick, only it isn't acting - it's phor reelz!!!!

Best of all, it's only 400pts. I demand you all at least download the trial and see what you think. It probably hasn't got immense mileage, but for a few quid I think it should be a laugh.

I was wondering when someone was going to mention this. Too busy playing CODBLOPS innit.

Was planning on getting the trial though. Listening to the Europlonks podcast, one of the guys on there disagreed with their 6/10 review and said it was actually aces, and at 400 points, it seems like a good deal to me. Apparently it has a game mechanic (assassinating a specific player or something?), which ASSCRUD BRO EDITION also has, and because they're both UbiTwot games, it was released to little fanfare so people are more excited about ASSCRUD. Well, that's the conspiracy theory.

Sounds interesting.

I played the trial but was massively confused as to what I was supposed to be doing. Maybe it's one of those games which you need to play a fair few times to get to grips with the scoring mechanics and stuff.

Time I don't have, as I MUST PRESTIGE.

This sounds relevant to my interests.

Yeah, I'm interested enough to take a look at the demo.

These are the guys who did The Ship, right? Where you had to mingle with other players in a big AI shindig aboard an ocean liner, while trying to emulate AI behaviour but also track your assassination target while avoiding whoever has targeted you.

If I were to get this, when would a Myp be available for some playing fun?

Tuesday.

Will buy tonight just for the name, will play when I'm told to.

Buy it!

Buy it!

Yes, buy it!

Tonight, buy it!

Three posts, and not an answer to my question.

Bad form, if you ask me.

See you next!

(Buy it!)

Buy i - oh, carry on.

I totally changed time before you posted.

Ok, I will buy it and be there tonight.

Edit: boughted.

I shall join you guys. Perkies Stew is currently simmering happily on the stove so it won't be before 7pm at the earliest.

I'm still at work, but will be home by 7pm.

First game, after three rounds, final scores

Me: 25
Perkies: 11
Myp: 1

Amusingly, Myp lost 4 points in the final round. He's rubbish.

I did muchly enjoy this. Not a game that you'd want to play to death, but for the occasional game night, much fun and quite chucklesome.

Yep, good fun. It's certainly something different, in any case.

Kind of like Team Fortress 2 then...

The only real similarities with TF2 is the graphical style and the fact it uses the Source engine. The gameplay is totally different.

I meant in the sense that it's a bit different but not something you could play over and over forever. Obviously I can't be commenting on the actual game yet can I?

We played this for what, five hours last night?

It's very much a PC game, in that it's brutally violent and incredibly complex. It's also hilarious if you've never played it and are listening to people playing it...

"I'm coming I'm coming... now, humiliate me!"
"My woman has bad farts"

...as poor Dimrill had to.

The basic concept is: You have someone you have to find and kill. Someone else has to find and kill you. Go and kill your target while avoiding (or identifying and pre-emptively killing) the person who's after you. Avoid being seen by guards, and avoid killing innocents.

That's as simple as it gets. So there's more to it than that.

You have three Sims-style 'need' meters: the need to sleep, the need to eat and drink, and the need to sing and giggle happily to yourself while farting into a toilet (really). If you don't keep and eye on these, you'll become slower and weaker. However, you're also completely vulnerable while doing them, and can't interrupt the action once it's started. So if you see your target hopping around clutching at their groin, wait until they go to the restroom and you'll get an easy kill.

You have two types of equipment: weapons and 'murder aids'. Weapons range from guns to the by-now obligatory 'wacky' stuff like frying pans and flare guns. You also have murder aids, which can put people to sleep, make you more invisible than myp, give you a shield, etc.

Scoring is based on fame stars. Killing your target and the person hunting you earns you stars. Weapons go in and out of 'fashion' after each round (or 'scene') so killing someone with a 'popular' weapon gets you more stars.

There's also a few 'bonus' levels which add a twist. Infection has you touching other players to give them the Zardoz Lurgy, Hunt the Leader has everyone trying to kill the player who had the highest score, Blood Money is a free-for-all, and there's a final one where you hold a not-Oscar statuette for as long as possible.

And that's it.

It's hilarious mayhem! There are traps scattered around the environments that activate hazards. Dimrill, for example, decided to go to sleep on a couch, and I hit a button to make the fireplace blast outwards, incinerating him. Chasing Dave (was it Dave?) I climbed up a ladder and then immediately fell back down the otherside as someone had just activated a trap which causes the catwalk to open.

The level design is a bit confusing (only the beach level, with the two very obvious and distinct buildings, is easy to understand) and poor Dave kept hitting Y to change guns only to plonk himself in the minimap and return to the game to find himself stabbed. I'm sure the developers thought it was hilarious to make the evil director putting you up to this sing 'Rule Britannia' because he's so British don't you know, but we couldn't think of any British directors apart from Guy Ritchie and Danny Boyle.

For 400 points, it's a bargain. A fucking bargain. Strange, experimental games that potentially have short lifespans (you'll go from baffled to almost complete understanding after a game or two) should be sold for this sort of price as WE WILL IMPULSE BUY THEM.

"That fucking clown's on the toilet again!"

I repeat, this sounds highly relevant to my interests. Would anyone be around to play today between, say, 5pm and 10pm?

Aye, I would be.

Sounds good, I shall give it a try.

I am out this evening but will be around tomorrow and next week.

Interested. This sounds like the sort of thing you'd all stop playing after about three weeks though, which gives me much to think about. I only have 400MP and I want to buy my avatar a Chun-Li outfit.

Yes!

One of the achievements is to get 2,000 stars, so I expect I'll be dipping in and out forever, seeing as I get about 1 star per game.

How many people can play in one game. I have to admit, Perkies has made it sound like fun.

Up to 8, but you need 4+ really.

Yup. With only three, as Dave put it, 'you're involved with the other two players' as one will be your target and the other will be targeting you.

While you can add AI 'extras' to fill the place out, they don't go too involved in proceedings and just wander around. They are never actually out to get you or vice versa.*

*an obscure menu option suggested otherwise but we haven't worked it out yet

I downloaded the trial, but all the dickheads on there were playing Deathmatch, which I am assuming is by far the crappest way to play it. I remain to be convinced.

We haven't played one game of deathmatch - I don't see the point.

I'll consider it, still. Was a big fan of The Ship. Am in a huff with you because you killed me during CODBLOPS Combat Training at the moment though.

CODBLOP's Combat Training is an offline deathmatch with bots. It names the bots after people in your friends list, which is pretty awesome. At one point, I killed two ex-girlfriends with one grenade.

It is quite amusing! Haven't got the hang of the robo-rat or the behaviour of some of the weapons yet (hold down the button to Boast? What?) but I do like the running about as a beach babe looking for the nearest portaloo

Nice if there could be a small new bezzie fad with a game that isn't COD and doesn't cost 40 quid though.

Join us!

I think I've already had more fun with this than Reach multiplayer.

RoboRat, pull the trigger and you are now controlling the rat. Drive around. Pull trigger again to make it go boom.

Boasting gets you stars. It's not a weapon, but it can reveal someone who is intending on killing you.

RC-XD spotted!

Because Halo now sucks, can we play this? 9PM.

Perkies has successfully made this game sound good. I may have to give it a try sometime soon.