by Martin » Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:29 am
GoldenEye 007: Reloaded - PS3
Nearly completed this one. Very enjoyable FPS game. It doesn't live up to the original N64 game, but that's OK. I've been playing on 007 Classic difficulty, which tries to emulate the N64 game. In short, no regenerating health, occasional body armour, and guards who could shoot a peanut off your head at 1,000 yards.
I don't know what it's like on the lower difficulties, never will. On 007 Classic, it's a great romp! Sort of quasi open-ended levels. A lot like the levels in Black, in that sense. It's not a straight line littered with cut-scenes like COD, but it's not the totally-open levels of the N64 classic, either.
The feeling of being Bond is awesome, the music is awesome, and the sound design in general is great. Shoot a dude in the head and you get a little Bond audio cue. Kill someone before he can raise the alarm (and without alarming others by killing him), and you get another Bond cue. Awesome sauce! Additionally, it's a nice-looking game, and the controls are good.
There's two things I'm disappointed by. FIrstly; the loading times. They're not 'big', but when constantly dying on a level and reloading checkpoints, they can become a significant annoyance. Given that the game has a 3.5GB install, I would expect better than that. COD doesn't install at all on PS3, but reloading checkpoints is instantaneous.
The other thing I'm disappointed by, regrettably (especially given the N64 heritage), is the multiplayer. Specifically, the online multiplayer is dogged with lag in a way I don't think I've ever seen in a shooter. The framerate itself chugs away down to single digits. I have no idea why this is. The game runs beautifully in single player at 60fps. Multiplayer levels have worse graphics for a start, and then it lags horribly.
I'm gonna put that down to shitty net code. Inexcusable given that the publisher has extremely robust net code in it's repertoire. Even when I barely have any signal at all in COD, the game itself still runs just as smooth as ever. Damn shame, as I did have one good game with no lag, and it was a blast. No cruise missiles coming from nowhere and killing you. No chopper gunners. No UAVs. Just you, your gun, and the enemy.
PROTOTYPE - 360
Was hankering after an open-world game. I'd never played this before, but have played inFamous on PS3. Anyway, I thought I'd give it a whirl since it got OK reviews and it was cheap. Have to say I've enjoyed the game very much. The sense of total devastation in this one is probably better than most of the other open-world/sandbox games I've played over the years.
Mercer's powers are very, very cool. The level of gore is tremendous. You can literally cleave people into bits with your blades. The way he moves about New York is amazing. Running up buildings, flying, falling thousands of meters to leave your own impact crater in the road. The sense of carnage is huge, and at times there's so much action going on, with some very tough enemies.
Prototype does a lot of things right. The graphics are good. I think this might have the largest number of pedestrians of any sandbox game I've ever played. Don't quote me on that, but New York seems densely-populated in this game. The powers are all really cool, as is upgrading them. Grabbing a pedestrian and sprinting up the side of a building with your hand round their neck is really cool.
Which brings me to my favourite feature; the 'consume' power. Basically, you hit B/circle near something, and you pick it up. If it happens to be a human, you can 'consume' them by pressing Y/triangle. This gives you some health, and allows you to assume their identity by pressing left on the D-pad. This 'disguise' is remembered, and you've always got your last human consumption to hand as a disguise.
You can don it and take it off repeatedly, whenever you like. If being chased by the military, you can duck behind cover and don the disguise to throw them off. If they see you do it, then obviously it doesn't work. Military personnel give you perks for consuming them and being disguised as them, too. As a soldier, you can commandeer tanks without having to cause a scene by killing the dude in it, walk into military barracks, and you can call in airstrikes.
In short, I love this one so much because 1) I don't think I've ever seen anything like this. Certainly not done in this way. Adds some nice depth/options to gameplay and missions. There's a few ways you can do things. Mercer is certainly powerful enough to go in and tear everything up, but you can use subterfuge if you like. 2) It reminds me of The Thing.
As for bad stuff.. well. The storyline is dog shit. Which would be OK if it was in a 'shit and I know it' kind of way, but it appears to be taking itself seriously very often. The 'web of intrigue' is a nice idea, but it should have been given a better story. I guess while I did say the graphics are 'good', it's in a 'quantity, not quality' kind of way. Lots of stuff looks kind of bland, but then there's a lot on-screen, and it barely ever slows down. Uh, there's no weather system. It's just sunny days and clear nights. I guess some people might think it's an ugly game?
I like it, anyway.
Martin has received 2 thanks from: OL, Who Really Cares?