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Necronic

Staff member
One thing I liked about Farcry 2 was how every fight was a real challenge. It really wasn't ever possible to just go guns blazing at your enemies. They would take cover, flank you, hunt for you, and even have snipers. But for that same reason, yeah it was a bit of a pain to have to clear checkpoints every time you came near one. On the other hand you could usually bypass them and only needed to hit them to restock on equipment.

The thing I hated about the game was how all your buddies die....
 

figmentPez

Staff member
I liked a lot of things about Far Cry 2, but I think the moment I remember most was storming through an enemy encampment, and then hearing some guy sobbing in a corner "I don't want to die; I just want to go home...", and that after spending most of the game up until then hearing these guys mocking me and trying to flush me out of hiding. I think that's the interesting part of the game's story. It builds you up, and you gradually feel like more and more of a bad-ass mercenary. It really gets you to relish the destruction and fear you're causing... then it turns around and kicks you in the stomach by using that feeling against you as part of the story. For all the same-y feeling that most missions gave after a while, I really felt that the story was well told on an emotional level, because it took the way I felt playing the game and managed to link that back to the story.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
One thing I liked about Farcry 2 was how every fight was a real challenge. It really wasn't ever possible to just go guns blazing at your enemies. They would take cover, flank you, hunt for you, and even have snipers. But for that same reason, yeah it was a bit of a pain to have to clear checkpoints every time you came near one. On the other hand you could usually bypass them and only needed to hit them to restock on equipment.

The thing I hated about the game was how all your buddies die....
Are you referring to

the endgame where they all turn against you, or were you just really bad at the game and couldn't keep any of them alive thru missions?
Added at: 14:28
I'll also chime in about how much I like Just Cause 2 for similar reasons. Open world, do whatever the hell you want, even if it gets a bit repetitive sometimes. I have to tell you though, the first time I was doing a mission with a helicopter endboss, and the other mercenaries around me were pissing their pants... and I just ripped a minigun off it's fixture and started hosing down enemies like I was putting out fires... and then the helicopter smashed into the ground in a massive fireball causing secondary explosions in nearby fuel tanks that even Michael Bay never dreamed of... and by this time none of the other guys on my side are even bothering to shoot, they're just yelling and cheering "SCOR-PIO! SCOR-PIO! SCOR-PIO! YAAAAAAHHHH!" and I just drop the hissing minigun like an extremely heavy wad of litter...

That was like, the crowning moment of awesome for gaming that year.

And then it happened at the end of almost every mission after that. Almost kinda made me feel bad I was a CIA mole and was going to turn on them, because I was their frickin combat GOD.
 
Holy Christ, how did I not know Toys for Bob are the makers of Skylanders. Man, I'm happy for them for their insane success and sad because it really does mean my chances for another Star Control game are all but dust.
 
That was like, the crowning moment of awesome for gaming that year.
I believe the Crowning Moment of Awesome page on TVtropes for Just Cause put it best when they said, "The gameplay mechanics are such that Rico can star in one every thirty seconds or so."

My personal best in awesome came when I was being pursued in a car by several military vehicles, at max heat. I jumped out onto the roof of my car and shot up the nearest military car behind me with my machine gun, until it blew up. The car immediately behind it plowed into the wreckage and flew into the air, turning end over end as it soared over my head. It landed upside down on the road in front of me, I shot it until it blew up, and my car (with no one driving it, mind) crashes right through the burning wreckage and corpses.

Now, at this point my car was damaged to the point where flames were shooting out of it, so I parachuted off it - right before it exploded - and into the air, grappling onto a nearby military helicopter and toss the pilot out. Then I start shooting the crap out of everything in sight, destroying cars, helicopters and ships like there's no tomorrow. Finally, my helicopter gets taken out, I parachute out of the burning chassis, which lands on top of a group of soldiers, blowing them all up. I calmly land and find a health box.

It was pretty much the only time I wished I had screen recording software.
 

fade

Staff member
Finished Arkham City. Which was actually a huge surprise. I really thought I was at about the halfway point when the credits rolled. This game was inferior to Arkham Asylum. It didn't have the big building story--which is why it surprised me. Instead we got a story that sort of puttered along without really going anywhere and never built up suspense. Character cameos are nice, but don't contribute much. Instead of having a moderately challenging near-endless fight with Titan goons we get the lameness of
7 snipers, which are dead easy to take out if you just look which way their guns are pointed and go round the outside of the circle
. Voice acting was lovely, and the character models are much improved, but overall, the story was much weaker, and much more poorly constructed. Very short game. Also seems like someone wanted to come up with a contrived way for
a bunch of major characters to die all coincidentally without any direct killing from Bats
.
 

Zappit

Staff member
Holy Christ, how did I not know Toys for Bob are the makers of Skylanders. Man, I'm happy for them for their insane success and sad because it really does mean my chances for another Star Control game are all but dust.
Yep. Sequel has already been announced with an October release date. They belong to Activision, now.
 
Thanks to the curiosity piqued by the board, I now own my first Pokemon game. holy shit is that thing addictive. I've had to put a moratorium on using my DS until spring break because of this game.

For the record, I picked up Black.
 
Left 4 Dead

I...don't really like it. Maybe I've been spoiled by the Half-Life series and how engrossing the story and gameplay is in those. With L4D, it was just sort of...eh, a shooting gallery and little else. Then again, I've only played the solo campaign and I get the feeling it's a lot more fun online.
 
And that's probably why. I'm not really a big fan of online co-op. Probably because I never really know anyone to play with on any kind of regular basis.
 
Thanks to the curiosity piqued by the board, I now own my first Pokemon game. holy shit is that thing addictive. I've had to put a moratorium on using my DS until spring break because of this game.

For the record, I picked up Black.
I hope you picked the fire pokemon. Otherwise you can't be a part of the club.
 
I started playing L4D2 solo only after I kept joining games only to be votekicked within 30 seconds. I have yet to be votekicked by the bots.
 
Well... that just sucks. Too bad you couldn't have played with the Halforums people when we were doing that.
Yeah, I'd've liked to play with you guys, at least I know you all. But being on the Pacific rim, we'd be hard pressed to find a server with a decent ping for everyone involved.
 
Yeah, I'd've liked to play with you guys, at least I know you all. But being on the Pacific rim, we'd be hard pressed to find a server with a decent ping for everyone involved.
When I saw you'd quoted my post, I was afraid the response would be "I was playing with Halforums people." :p

Yeah, that makes sense.
 
Yeah L4D 1 and 2 are all about co-op, which is why I played them pretty regularly until my roommate and I got bored of it. I'm generally wary of online shooter communities, never really had a good experience.
 

figmentPez

Staff member
The last time I played L4D2 was trying to get an achievement for the Steam summer sale. I totally lucked into an awesome group. Chatty, helpful, good humored and reasonably competent. I had a blast... and then died saving someone else and didn't get the achievement. Still had fun, but that's far from the norm this far into the game's lifecycle.
 
Oh, as to what I'm playing, mainly Old Republic. Finally got around to playing Bastion a couple weeks ago and loved it, wish it had a bit more replayability. Once my tax return comes in I might get Kingdoms of Amalur, the demo was a fun 3rd person hack/slash, even though the camera is kinda wonky. Also got super into Final Fantasy XII up until a week or so ago, the difficulty spike goes waaaaaaay up out of nowhere and I'm not sure I want to deal with the 1 million+ hp bosses to get the ultimate weapons (the RPG completionist in me won't let me skip these kinds of things).
 

Necronic

Staff member
I picked up Mount and Blades: Warband this weekend as an impulse buy (wish I had caught it during a sale). I played the original M&B extensively, and was really hoping this one was a lot better. To be honest there are few changes, the game seems almost identical except for the online component, but there seem to be a couple of mods (only way to play it) that are only available for Warbands. I guess that has justified the cost more or less.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I must be the only person who didn't mind playing left 4 dead solo, but I do have to admit it's even more fun playing it with friends.
 
I logged over 600hrs during my L4D2 days. I wasn't a big fan of the first one, but L4D2 VS mode? I actually played next to no WoW for months to a year because of L4D2 and TF2.

Single Player Campaign or even Co-Op? I'll pass.
 
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