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I don't have a real problem with this split. The old way was fine with me too.
The only downside is that all the older console discussion will be in the PC thread. shambler has changed so much ever since he touched balls with another guy... :D
i don't care for nextgen consoles anyway (yet), so whatever... got mine preordered, but going to Bic Camera in Osaka to camp out for the launch anyway (yeah, I forgot to preorder games and accessories :D )
we have a wii in the office and i�d call myself a diehard nintendo fanboy - but wii sp�rts is just a bit naff. its a strange idea and nobody else but someone in the industry who looks for this stuff would even notice but i miss the �real� controller and well animated, textured, modelled characters and scenery (having the (admittedly fun)customisable characters is no excuse for not doing the job well).
the wii�s alot of fun and i will be buying one for twilight princess (don�t care if it gets 1% in reviews(it won�t despite the joystiq nonsense)) - but i get the feeling its straying from the diehard tradition of ninetendo that made me such a cash cow for the company in the first place. the 360 is a dead duck. its only saving grace is xbox live and its ease of hackability. personally i prefer to pay for games and support the people who made it - weather its a keeper that i�ll play for months or part-time gimmick, but there are many who do not. as to the machine itself: the xbox 360 is poorly made. a mobile phone (made by any company) has more abilities texture wise. a typical devkit ships with 50% �known issues� no, not a devkit of six moths ago; today. aside from this its a downgraded PC . . . it handles graphics very well - the architecture is well built, it�s only the mehcanics of the physical unit that are poorly thought out - although mysterious blind spots (the semi-aforementioned the main reason i will not be buying one is because there will be a new version in not too much time - if its backwards compatable and a complete unit (don�t need to pay extra for stuff that should be onboard) i might reconsider. as to the big spender�s option - i�m interested. paying the extra csah for a new format can work out well - if you�re lucky and so enarmoured with new tech, but can also be the same (betamax!) as flushing your cash down the pan. i started the �best quake monsters� thread in a moment of boredom and i have never been able to view all threads. my two pence. i just meant that the next generation's next generation probably isnt far away - they also make small improvements constantly to the hardware; case, joypads etc. you've probably seen the pictures of the badly made plastic pads where the analogs were stripped of thier coating.
i work in games so thats how i get to see alot of the dev hardware early - though no ps3 as yet. have fun contributing to the death of the industry!
</troll> simple graphics are fine as long as they're done well (i doubt i'll ever stop playing quake) but sports seems to lack an extra level of polish on all fronts visually which (genuinely) detracts from the game since all the characters are animated like weebles and they didn't have to be.
but it is alot of fun to play; so who cares. Call of Duty 3: PS3 vs XBOX360 vs Wii, direct graphics comparison:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=15369&type=mov&pl=game regular http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=15368&type=mov&pl=game HD http://pix.blakespot.com/view/computers/screenshots/wii_composite_vs_component/
Yes, a component cable makes THAT much difference. two thumbs up :)
a few niggles, but nothing like the shit that xbox 360 launched with, and thankfully nothing near the price to enjoyment ratio of PS3 at the moment (about 0.1 I'd say, where Wii is about a 1.0 - aside from the Virtual console...). We had a great plan to play Wii at work today, but then none of us took them in because we all assumed someone else would.
Wii is great fun though, just got started into Zelda today when I get home. So I got to the final boss in Gears of War today. Couldn't get past the fucker, oh no, but I reached the bastard and after about 20 attempts to kill him I'm willing to call it a day.
Anyway, here's my review: It's the first truly great 360-exclusive game. The 360 has other great games - it has Oblivion, and it has...err...well ok the 360 has one other great game in the form of Oblivion, but you can also get that for PC. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. Gears of War is not perfect however - the control system is flawed - mapping "sprint" and "attach to cover" to the same button was a bit of a mistake - you often find yourself brushing up against, and therefore sticking to, cover objects when you're in actual fact just trying to get the fuck out of dodge, but it doesn't happen often enough to really mar the game. Side note: "Active Reload" is the best idea ever. Gah whatever, I'm gonna stop writing and play this some more. After an embarrassing number of attempts, I have at last finally beat the fucker.
Although I would at this stage very much like to personally strangle with my bare hands, the person who designed the final boss battle, I'd just like to say thank you Epic for making the coolest and funnest shooter I've played in many years. I fear that going back to FPS games, without a context cover system, is going to feel somewhat limiting from now on. Alas the game was far, far too short - understandable when you're making a game of such resplendent visual density, but I was sad when it ended so abruptly. On the plus side, I now have in my vocabulary a clutch of remarkable new swear words which had never even existed up until the point at which I encountered the final boss battle that inspired me to invent them, so cheers again for that. English man walks into a bar in Boston, and proclaimed for all to hear, "ah! such resplendent visual density!"
He was never seen nor heard from again. Paddy O'Brien, the proprietor, was asked if it had anything to do with 'The Troubles.' "Oh, no, we forgave the English a long time ago. That had nothing to do with it." The final boss truly was the greatest design cock up in recent memory. It exemplified a problem that happened in quite a few places though, which was that a lot of set pieces seemed to have been balanced for co-op play, and were unreasonably hard with only an AI Dom at your side. The game is definitely worth replaying in co-op - in fact for new players, having your first run in co-op won't diminish the experience. Great game overall.
I'm posting this from my Wii by the way. Never again, typing is too slow even with the autocomplete. was a bit annoying even in coop, but once you figure out the easy way to do it, it isn't hard. The first time me and my pal beat him, one of us accidentally hit a button and skipped the end cutscene. Luckily we killed him again with no problems whatsoever.
I can imagine that and also the first encounter with the blind charging monster are fucking annoying with an AI buddy though. The charging monster was totally fucking awesome in coop though. The only bit I didn't like even in coop was the bit where you have to drive the tank and kill krill. That was shit and truely the low point of the game for me. How I beat the final boss in single player.
First, there are so many random factors going on in this fight, that blind luck probably accounts for 75% of the success. How quickly Dom gets killed is a very important factor. With Dom alive he can distract RAAM giving you time to get some clear shots on him whilst there is still plenty of distance between you and him. With a dead Dom, RAAM will be on your arse like a ton of bricks before you know it. This is the major design fuckup, as Shallow said. AI Dom is stupid and will typically charge straight into RAAM and die very early in the battle, leaving you having to do everything on your own. Most of my attempts to kill RAAM involved the tactic of staying behind the first low wall, and hitting him with the Torque Bow to disperse the cloud of Kryll, then switching to the sniper rifle and aiming for a headshot. Repeat as necessary. The problem with this method is that constantly switching between the weapons means that half the time you will find yourself holding the Torque Bow when he sends his Kryll horde after you, meaning you miss the chance to headshot him until you switch to the rifle and reload, by which time his Kryll swarm might be back in place before you can get a good shot in. After many failed attempts I decided to just forget about trying to disperse the Kryll swarm myself, and just concentrate on headshotting him as soon as he sent his Kryll after me. All I had to really worry about was avoiding death when he physically reached the wall I was hiding behind. When he's inside a certain proximity to the wall, staying down and blindfiring grenades or whatever you've got left is your best bet (all I could do was blindfire with the sniper rifle at this point) until he actually breaches your position, at which point it's time to scream your battle cry of choice and run like the fucking wind. When you have no option left but to expose yourself and make a dash for it, you'd better be praying to all of God, Allah, Buddha, and the six arms of Vishnu, that neither Kryll are airborne and that RAAM isn't currently firing his gun, or you're pretty much instagibbed the minute you poke your head out. If the wind is blowing in the right direction, and the planets are aligned correctly, you might survive the dash to the next safe cover point. Perhaps you even managed to get to the opposite side of the train - if so, congratulations - RAAM is hopefully now in the distance and you can resume the same tactics that you adopted at the beginning of the fight. So many things can go wrong along the way - you can easily trip up whilst running due to the aforementioned sprint/stick to cover button clash. Even if you manage to avoid RAAM, at some point you will inevitably find a random Reaver to your flank ploughing your arse with hot lead. Hilariously, a chokepoint lies immediately in front of the cover point on the far side of the train (where RAAM starts). This makes the mad dash past RAAM much more dangerous from this position as you cannot flank him, and you will often have to literally brush past him on your suicide run. Fun for all the family! one player shoots the bow to get rid of the krill, the other player snipes. The krill never do much damage if you are in the light, so just ignore them. When Raam gets close enough to your cover, both player should run to the other end of the train and start shooting him again. A coupld more shots later and he's dead.
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