Be Excellent To Each Other

I've recently finished Deus Ex: Human Revolution (which was excellent) and, from a few hours spent with it today, am very strongly thinking of chucking 3D Dot Game Heroes because it's a 2D Zelda clone without any charm or direction. So, that leaves me with the following games actually currently in my possession:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops
• Crysis 2
• de Blob 2
• Gears of War 3
• Halo: Reach
• James Bond 007: Blood Stone
• LittleBigPlanet 2
• Medal of Honor (I have no idea why I picked this up and it can pretty much be discounted unless anyone's got a strong opinion on it)
• Metal Gear Solid 4
• NIER (I'm very, very intrigued by this and it's currently the front-runner. It reviewed really badly but I have a strong desire to play the game that mixes action-RPG with 2D platforming with top-down shooting with fucking full-on text adventure. It's worth noting here that Deadly Premonition was one of my favourite games of this generation so it's possible my brain is actually broken in a way that makes me adore fucked up and badly produced weird shit.)
• Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty
• Vanquish (this looked really nice and reviewed well but I didn't enjoy the demo and suspect it's a bit 'twitchy' for me so it'd take a lot of convincing for me to pick this up)

However, in 'life's too short' type conversation recently Mrs B and I talked about how we'd never get through all the games we wanted to unless we really started prioritising hard so I don't have to pick from the above list just because I already own them and am perfectly happy to run out and buy any of my 'want to play but don't own list' which is as follows:

• Asura’s Wrath
• Darksiders II
• Dishonored
• El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
• Far Cry 3
• Fez
• God of War Collection: Volume II
• ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
• Mark of the Nina
• Max Payne 3
• Papo & Yo
• Sleeping Dogs
• Trine 2
• The Unfinished Swan
• Yakuza 4

Note that I don't give a shit about multiplayer so this is only on merits of the single player campaign.

Initially this seemed like a terrible and selfish idea for a thread but it struck me that there must be times when other folks are swithering over which game to move onto next so maybe this thread can provide some kind of community service? Also, people arguing about the relative qualities of games in general is never a bad idea surely? I say all that with the sinking feeling that this entire idea will just, well, sink to the bottom of the forum but 'nothing ventured' eh? Eh? Ehh?

*thread dies*

Oh well.

*weeps*

Nier is bloody awful. The "full-on text adventure" is nowt of the sort. You watch the text scroll on the screen letter by letter and press a button to go to the next page. You have about 3 options to make through the entire thing. It smacked more of wanting to do a full section, but either not having the time or budget to actually make it.

Did you actually play the full game through then? I'm interested in other opinions because currently it's either loads of bad professional reviews or places like Something Awful fawning over it so it'd be nice to get an overall opinion from someone I actually trust. We don't mind if some bits of it are shite or the graphics suck or whatever; if it's interesting/weird/amusing then we're in!

Play ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection. Now. If you've not played them before, that is.

If you've played them before, I'll pick something else.

But seriously, they're single handily the greatest single player games ever. Don't make me fawn all over them in front of these people again. I'll do it. Don't make me do it.

I played in through thrice to max it. It's just so.... "bleurgh 73%" didn't stir anything in me. The added rubbish Harvest Moon crop thing was half baked too. It had added aloof female character that I'm supposed to care about, too.

This is, sadly, the worst R&C game on the ps3. If it were one of the other two I'd recommend them most heartily. But not this one.

For balance, I thought NIER was awesome, though a bit lacking in variety and heavy on repetitive fetch quests. I liked the characters and the storyline, and the general atmosphere. The 2-D platform elements and text adventure weren't implemented too well (the former just not used a great deal meaningfully), but I enjoyed the top down bits, and also just running around battering the shit out of baddies.

I haven't played some of the games on your list but here's my thoughts.

Gears of War 3 - You'll have this completed in no time. It finishes the story off so I'd only bother if you really want to see what happens, other than that.. It's the same as the 2nd.

Vanquish - I can't stress how great this game is but if you didn't like the demo, you're kind of stuffed.

El Shaddai - Fantastic presentation behind a dull game. Don't bother.

Halo Reach - One of my favourite games ever. If you've played any of the other Halos then you know what to expect but it's got a pretty good story going for it.

Ico/Shadow of the Collosus - I didn't like Ico but SOTC is great if not a lonely/sad kind of game.

And since I'm on the mobile site and can't see your post, that's all I can remember. I have got Asuras Wrath on my play list too, quite close to the top. I don't think it's very long but it does look intriguing.

I fully intend to play them at some point because everyone goes on about them so much so rest assured I will make time for them at some point; probably the next time I see a decent price for them. I've got half a suspicion I'm not going to like ICO for some reason but SotC I'm definitely looking forward to.



A 73% opinion isn't all that bad, and it can't have been completely hateful if you managed it three times through. Also Curiosity has some good words for it so I'm still strongly considering it...



Eh, the only reason I've got it is because it was a freebie apology from that time the Playstation network was hacked; it's not the kind of thing I'd go for because, well, I'm terrible at platforming in 3D so I'm happy to not to have to consider this one!



Aye, I'm expecting to be able to just blast through this one pretty quickly at some point and never bother with it much further. Mrs B's not a fan though and I need something she'll be happy to watch this time round as she was utterly bored by Deus Ex.




I did wonder if that would be the case; obviously it's gorgeous and a bit different from the norm which is why I wanted to give it a shot but I was suspicious there was a lack of depth hiding behind the visuals. Hmmm. I'm thinking about taking this off the list entirely to be honest.



I'll definitely play this at some point as I played, and mostly enjoyed, Halo 3 and ODST (the atmosphere in the hub world was a real surprised to me as I went in just expecting to be running and gunning as usual) also Mrs B really loves watching the Halo games for some odd reason.



I suspect it'll get boring pretty quickly in terms of actual gameplay but I'm determined to give it a shot because the demo was such utterly fucking comedy ridiculousness. Who doesn't want a game where your enemy stabs you on the moon with a sword so long he actually pushes you all the way to the surface of the Earth and then through it? Fuck yeah! Also, the boss fight against the planet sized angry man who pushes his finger in from space all the way through the atmosphere and onto your face.

So, NIER is still currently my top choice with Halo Reach bubbling under. Thanks for all your comments chaps.

Vanquish, ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection & Dishonored would be my recommendations.

Vanquish isn't very long, but it's an incredible spectacle from beginning to end. It's is fairly twitchy, but you can always drop the difficulty down a bit if you want to. I believe it is one of the games that PS+ subscribers get this month.

Both ICO & Shadow of the Colossus are utter classics, magnificent games that absolutely must be played, and the PS3 HD collection is the definitive version.

Dishonored is a legitimate assassination simulator, where you have superhero powers. It works excellently as a stealth game, all out action game, or anything inbetween the two. Also not that long, but packed with amazing looking and interesting locations.

Edit: Do you play games on the PC? Hotline Miami is this years gaming masterpiece, as far as I am concerned. Half price on Steam right now too.

Max Payne 3 is definitely worth a crack, and I assume it'll be available fairly cheaply now?

Absolutely superb single player campaign, had a little sag in the middle but was basically fucking brilliant.

I never bothered with multiplayer at all (literally didn't even load it) but you're not fussed about that anyway.

Of the ones mentioned above, Max Payne 3 would get my vote (though I've not played many of them) but I'll also put in a mention for Bulletstorm which was great fun and is now dirt cheap.

I'm looking forward to this because it does look right up my alley but having just come off the back of Deus Ex I'm pretty stealthed out at the moment.



I do play the odd 'proper' game on the PC (recently Spec Ops:The Line and currently Alice: Madness Returns off and on) and pick up decent indie weirdness if I hear of anything (e.g. Dear Esther). I took a look at Hotline Miami when it first came out and watched a guy play a couple of level on YouTube a minute ago but I think it's the kind of thing that would have me hurling the mouse out the window in frustration.

HOTLINE MIAMI.

It is the best game. It's not really too frustrating, the levels are broken up into floors that you probably won't spend more than two minutes on, and if you die it restarts really quickly. It's funny, menacing, and has the best soundtrack of any game ever. Got to be played. HOTLINE MIAMI.

I'm watching a video of this on YouTube now, it looks rubbish.

What's the big deal with it?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Never underestimate the power of Dimrill's OCD.

It's free on PSN+.

Nier is cacky pants! Cacky, clagged up pants. It's so bad it's not even bad. Mush. Grey claggy cack mush. Calling the missing lump a text-adventure would be like calling a chip shop menu an epic novel. 20-30 pages of turgid rubbish that has nowt to do with the rest of the game scrolls past letter by letter, then it asks a question based on it. "Were you paying attention?" you're a better dwarf than me if you did. Get it wrong and it starts all over again from the start.

Worst is reserved for the cheev hunters who will have to play the game through three times, grind for hours for rare drops to forge all the weapons, and, AND there's one for completing the sodding thing within 15 hours. Any developer who puts shit like that as an achievement needs to be kicked up the stairs of a lighthouse.

The ten or so areas in the game are mercilessly re-used to the point of me wanting to join the bad guys trying to destroy them. The village clinging on to the side of a canyon I'm somehow supposed to care about, but the only interactions you can do with the townsfolk is to hear them whining behind locked doors. I'm supposed to care about the main guy's daughter, but she's an aloof fragile character with lung crapness who stays at home and you hardly interact with.

Halfway through the game the main character decides to put his pants on his face, too.

GRAGH!

I can imagine trying for the cheevos would be a massive pain. Just dicking around having fun was fun, though, and I really liked the main characters (though admittedly the ancillaries were often ciphers).

What did you do to "dick around having fun"? Go to the two open areas and brainlessly and artlessly hit the respawning enemies? Grow crops in the eight bits of soil in your garden? Those are the only two things I can think of besides trudging through the turgid plot.

Sleeping Dogs is a fantastic game, and gets the Grim... Vote!

Well, that'll teach me to doubt Dimrill's word: I've just played about an hour and a half of Nier and it's fucking terrible. Some of the worst graphics I've seen this generation coupled with some really boring combat and some bizarre quests (deliver a package to a weird city with no people in it but don't use your dodge move on the way or the package will break instantly).

I only got as far as the part where you meet what will obviously become your grudging partner with whom a friendship will slowly blossom and after smacking each other around for a bit this fucking dragon with throat cancer attacked us both. The fight with the dragon, like the previous boss fight, went on for what felt like fucking hours and it kept regenerating health if I didn't manage to hit his foot when a clock randomly appeared on it; despite the fact I couldn't hit it with my sword and the clock only appears after I've hit him with some magic which doesn't recharge until the clock runs out. Fuck that noise, on to something else!