Re: What have you been playing in August?
- From: "Alfie [UK]" <me@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 02:44:20 +0100
On Mon, 28 Aug 2006 08:46:09 +0930, FoolsGold <fg@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:Shadowgrounds was OK, I spent about 10 hours playing through when I
Shadowlands (new) - actually, I played this one last month, but I
forgot to list it. A modern-day isometric shooter in the vein of
Crusader No Remorse (or Contra), the game features some good graphics
and artistry, a forgettable plot, and mediocre gameplay. Its fun in
brief spurts, but over the long run you really feel the lack of
variety.
You mean ShadowGROUNDS. I know, cos I bought it on Steam. :)
Lack of variety? Trying playing though again with different upgrades to
your weapons; that tends to increase the replayability as you try
different weapon combos.
first got it (up to going inside the downed cruiser), but then lost all
my progress because I hadn't set an active profile when I first started
(why wasn't that made clear at the beginning ?).
I started again and it took about 7 hours to get back to that point and
on to fixing the shuttle. Real life intruded and I haven't gone back to
it yet.
It was fun playing an essentially FPS Action type game in that top down
setting, there are a few surprises and some interesting exploration
bonuses but as Spalls said I did find it a bit 'rinse-repeat'.
Red Orchestra kept me busy for nearly a fortnight before I had to come
Schrodinger wrote:
BF2 Reality Mod.
By Jim, this mod is *hard*. Still, it feels better when you know that one,
max four, shots will kill an opponent. No kill messages, either, so you
have no idea if you *have* killed that sniper. The points system needs
tweaking (you can lose 6 points for being the Humvee gunner and getting
killed for "losing" the Humvee). Other than that, very hard but MP gaming
at its finest.
Man, just play Red Orchestra if you want reality gaming. Kill messages
can be disabled in the server settings easily; no need for a mod. Plus
the game is geared for a more realistic style of play, which ultimately
makes it very hard but MP gaming at its finest.
up for air and interact with real humans again :) As with all MP FPS
battle games find a good server and get friendly with the regulars.
RO tries to be a bit more realistic; no aiming crosshair, locational
damage, physical effects from damage (get hit in the leg and you can't
move as fast, etc), a well placed shot kills instantly, stamina model to
stop bunny-hoppers/perma-sprinters and lack of stamina affects accuracy,
non-tank crew roles cannot use tanks, commanders can call artillery
strikes by using binocs and field radios on some maps (devastating in
the right hands), built-in voice chat, etc, etc. Best of all the devs
are promising to patch and add features/models over time.
Downsides, the usual for this genre; team killers and team wounders can
be found on the public servers although most servers auto-kick TK'ers,
on some maps entering spawn areas kills you instantly but not all (where
spawns are also capture points) so still the odd spawn killers, on maps
with vehicles most people still charge off with only 1 in a 3-man tank,
few people seem to use the voice chat, or the odd tank commander
overuses it directing his driver (talking on team instead of local
channel), and not always a downside but for UK players a lot of US
players clogging the UK servers late evening.
I'm currently playing through Far Cry for the first time! When the demo
came out it ran like a slideshow during multi-opponent combat so I
ditched it, but now I have a much more powerful rig (can play with most
bells'n'whistles up high) and the PC Gamer edition was on sale for £7.99
so I thought I'd try it.
On the middle difficulty level with adaptive AI it's been reasonably
challenging (enemies flank you, grenade flush, and call for
reinforcements) but it does expose some AI exploits (like finding a
'kill corridor/zone' and making a noise to bring all enemies to you for
easy dispatch one after the other [with a lot of enemies the AI seems to
default to the 'approach last point of contact' method, it only gets
clever with a few enemies left], or the AI getting stuck on trees/rocks
when they come looking for you, plus my fave for scripted assaults
whilst you wait for something else to happen; hide before they get there
and they never find you).
In some indoor levels theTriGen seem to always know where you are even
if you don't move or make a noise, and even when you're crawling the
snipers (and rocket mercs) seem to be able to spot you with their back
to you at extreme range (why doesn't the walk key affect your stealth
when crouched or crawling? I understand the technical reasons behind
foliage not presenting an obstacle to AI but why have it in that case?).
The binoc tagging makes things too easy sometimes. Find somewhere out of
the way and high up outdoors and tag as many enemies as possible, plus
use the mic feature to find hidden mercs/TriGens, you can then sit back
and use a sniper rifle or G36/OICW zoom to pick them off and channel
them where you want. The tagging keeps track of them for ever so you
hardly get surprised outdoors.
The large play areas are a bonus, plus seamless transitions through
areas (indoors/outdoors whilst retaining binoc tags), the gameplay
'feels' open, although levels are carefully designed to channel you
through key points of contact, but there are often multiple approach
methods to these points. You can play it 'rambo' or stealth and all
grades in between to suit your play style.
I don't like but am getting used to the checkpoint save system. Some
levels are a real pain if you go 'off track' and miss a vital save point
but it's becoming easier to spot where they're likely to be.
--
Alfie
<http://www.delphia.co.uk/>
Love conquers all, unless of course you're playing tennis.
.
- References:
- What have you been playing in August?
- From: Spalls Hurgenson
- Re: What have you been playing in August?
- From: Schrodinger
- Re: What have you been playing in August?
- From: FoolsGold
- What have you been playing in August?
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