Bionic Commando. Love love love to shoot Hitler in his doughy, laughable master race face with a rocket launcher through the window of a fucking helicopter as I fall past it.
The Surge is way better than a sci-fi souls-like attempt that so many reviews seem to argue it is. And Shammy’s review of it really does it better justice than most reviews imo. The limb-targeting system makes it really engaging, and the sequel’s directional parry system adds the depth that Dark Souls and Elden Ring are missing. I highly recommend it for anyone tired of replaying Souls games
Lawbreakers was easily the most fun I had in a multiplayer game ever. Ok, maybe that spot is shared with Titanfall 2, but Lawbreakers is a far better competitive shooter.
I’m still holding out hope that the modding community will crack the server-side code and create a good server browser for it.
Extremely easy question: Sonic The Hedgehog (AKA Sonic '06). Such a buggy mess, but I absolutely loved playing it on 360 and definitely wanna play it again some day.
Brink was cool, if a bit flawed. It could have become better if they had given it more of a chance.
Shattered Horizon was awesome at first, but eventually the game changed entirely and at some point an update just broke the game for hella people (myself included) so we couldn’t even play on a local server with bots and it was never fixed. :/
I definitely think Microsoft is going to abandon Xbox because I think the see the writing on the wall in so far as why they are in this market. I think there will always be a place for dedicated gaming hardware like the PS5, but I think it will become more of a niche purchase as time goes on and I think Microsoft does too. I think they don’t like the numbers they are predicting for future console sales, but they do like the ones they are predicting for cloud gaming, since, in theory, anything with a screen and an internet connection could be a console these days. I have no clue if it will pay off for them (personally I hope not), but as technology gets better, the more space for people to settle throughout the wide spectrum of compute power. Microsoft I think wants to try to fill as much of the space as possible.
Just as a final note, that is a touch on my more personal opinion. I hope cloud computing is seriously considered as a huge source of the carbon footprint of the world with how much power it consumes.
I own Forza 5 on the Xbox, and GT7 on my PS5. Historically, I’ve preferred the Xbox over the Playstation, but my experience on GT7 with VR on the PS5 basically killed Forza 5 and the Xbox for me.
So if Forza 5 comes to PS5 with VR support, for me, this will be good news. But if it doesn’t come with VR support, I won’t bother.
And I guess, ultimately, it’s bad news either way, because I probably won’t be going back to the Xbox whatever they do.
Microsoft said in the past (around launch of Xbox Series) that they are not interested into VR. And given that the VR2 headset didn’t sell too much on the PS5, I don’t think that Microsoft goes the extra mile to implement this feature to a game that is not even build around it. Not saying it won’t happen, but its unlikely. Hope I am wrong though, for people who enjoy VR. Maybe this could be used as a “training vehicle” to port to VR, then port it to other VR platforms as well on PC.
I personally wait until Valve makes a VR headset for cheap price that can be used without cables, something like the Meta Quest but for the Steam eco system and by my trusted Valve.
For the most part, VR is a toy at this point. Interesting, but not compelling. The single exception I would say though, where it is genuinely transformational to gameplay rather than just gimmicky, is car/racing simulators and games. Most things, I can take or leave VR. But I can never play a racing sim again if it doesn’t have VR. But, even if it doesn’t come to Forza, it’s no big loss, as there are plenty of VR enabled alternatives out there (though mostly on PC to be fair)
I enjoyed my time with Redfall. The gunplay wasn’t anything special, but the atmosphere was great. I loved the setting and soundtrack. I thought the art style was cool, and I liked the little bits of lore you could pick up.
The final update brought some big QoL changes to the game. I just look at present day Fallout 76, which launched in an even worse state and wonder what could have became of Redfall if Microsoft hadn’t fired everyone.
Year and average review score across all available platforms in brackets. I played all of these on PC.
Trespasser (1998, 57): First person shooter based on Jurassic Park. Noteworthy for huge open areas, detailed dinosaurs with procedural animations and a physics engine that would only be surpassed by Half-Life 2 six years later. It is clunky, difficult to control and buggy, a challenge to get running both on contemporary and current PCs, but the atmosphere, the level design and the sheer awe at what they were able to pull off in the '90s is just unbelievable. I first played it many years after its release and it still blew me away.
Elex (2017, 62): Open World RPG from the creators of Gothic and Risen. It’s the definition of ‘Eurojank’, with controls that a bit of time getting used to, high difficulty and dated animations. I really enjoyed my time with it though, because it has a gorgeous, well-designed post-apocalyptic open world, clever quests that frequently allow for multiple approaches, factions that are truly different from one another, rewarding combat and interesting progression with tons of player choice. Just like previous games from this developer, it follows the formula of placing strong gatekeeper enemies at choke points, which serve to guide progression - but there’s nothing stopping a skilled and/or determined player from circumventing or outsmarting them. The inclusion of a jet pack makes this more fun than in any other game I’ve played. This device isn’t easy to use, but very early on, at the first location the first companion takes the player to, there’s a transmission tower with a reward at the top. Figure out how to climb it with the jet pack - which may take a few attempts - and you’ll have learned how to use this jet pack. This is a bit frustrating and can take 20 minutes to half an hour, but once you’ve done this, you’ll notice that the entire game was designed with this mode of transportation in mind. Watching other people play this game is incredibly frustrating to me, because they rarely if ever look up, rarely if ever use it to climb structures and natural obstacles to get to items or gain an advantage in combat. Maybe the developers should have created a more in-depth tutorial on this thing, but I think this is one of the main reasons why people aren’t getting this game.
Homefront: The Revolution (2016, 50): Semi-open world first person shooter. Set in a USA that was somehow defeated and is occupied by a hyper-advanced North Korea that is certainly not a clumsy stand-in for China, you’re playing a brave American resistance fighter against the occupation. Spec Ops: The Line, this ain’t - don’t expect any subtlety or finesse to the narration here, but it works as a scenario. The gameplay is where it’s truly interesting. It’s kind of like the opening hours of Far Cry 3, except that you’re not fighting against a few pirates, but a vastly technologically and numerically superior enemy that will hunt you down mercilessly in a half-destroyed American city. The feeling of powerlessness, yet determination, the thrill of pulling off a successful ambush and then scrambling away as the enemy throws everything they have at you is quite something. It’s not without its flaws, mind you. More linear story missions are hit and miss, even after many patches there are still bugs and glitches, it is slightly generic in terms of gameplay, but when everything comes together, it’s a really solid experience.
AquaNox 2: Revelation (2003, 59): Underwater first-person shooter masquerading as a submarine game. This is actually the third game in the series, after Archimedean Dynasty (also known under its original German title of Schleichfahrt) and AquaNox 1. The setting is a post-apocalyptic irradiated Earth where the remnants of humanity have fled to the bottom of the oceans to survive. Naturally, the fight for power and resources continue there. I’ve never actually played the predecessors, but this game is one of my favorites from the early 2000s. It looks stunning for the time (no wonder they created a benchmark, AquaMark, using engine and assets from the game) and gameplay is a really interesting 3dof that blends stealth and action in bleak, but varied enough underwater environments. Story and characters are charming, the universe is interesting and it’s just a blast from start to finish. It did receive really high review scores in Europe and especially Germany (lots of 85), so perhaps it’s just a case of international audiences/reviewers not getting it, similar to how Gothic and Risen were far more popular there.
Damnation (2009, 38): Probably the worst game on this list. Damnation is a third person shooter set in an alternate-history US Civil War with advanced steampunk technology. The story is extremely poorly presented, controls are clunky, enemy AI is braindead, there are glitches galore, but somehow, I still had fun with it. While the graphics are nothing to write home about and perhaps the epitome of the brownness of this era of gaming, there is a sense of scale that is rare in games like these, with huge levels and impressive vistas. It’s not truly open world, but the sense of scale, the feeling of traversing large environments (an aspect that Elex also nails, but with a true open worlds) is something to behold. As poor as the narration is, the setting is also interesting enough to deal with the below-average cover shooting gameplay. If screenshots and videos appeal to you, then it might be worth checking out.
Velvet Assassin (2009, 59): Dreamy third person stealth game set in WW2. It’s a Splinter Cell clone at heart, but far more challenging. This is an unusually bleak and dark take on WW2 that, unlike most other games with this setting, doesn’t shy away from topics like mass murder and trauma - but it’s also willing to experiment: Most of the game is essentially the protagonist suffering through a fever dream, recalling her exploits as a British commando in her hospital bed. This leads to the surreal gameplay elements: The protagonist is heavily wounded, but if she injects morphine on her hospital bed, she can prance around the levels in a white nightgown, murdering Nazis in slow motion.The difficult, slightly unpolished gameplay is the main reason for the relatively low review scores, but fans of stealth games who want to explore a more unusual WW2 setting might want to give it a go.
Legend Hand of God (2007, 57): A Diablo-clone with a constantly talking and rather snarky fairy as your mouse pointer. German voice acting is good, English localization not so much. There’s nothing exceptional about it, except for its presentation: Instead of disconnected animations, there are custom ones for each weapon and enemy type, a unique feature in this genre. It just looks so much more immersive. The dynamic lighting and, for the time, very detailed environments are also quite a visual treat. The world is relatively compact, making it a nice hack and slash snack.
I truly need to give this game another go, can’t really say why I stopped playing it. But it is EuroJank all the way.
Funny tho, I noticed most of the character animations I saw in Elex are straight up the exact same they were in Gothic 3, possibly from even earlier games’ of theirs. Nothing wrong with reusing assets, but damn they’ve gotten some mileage out of them :D
I started Elex but probably stopped around the 3 horu mark, went to play something else. The character you control is a fucking unlikable asshole during those initial hours.
I think this is a great move. For context, I have the Xbox consoles, but play mostly or almost exclusively on PC. I think more people can play the games, its better for the gamer and for the publisher too. Xbox has too many good franchises and games as to hold them hostage on their platform (besides PC). This is one of the best moves of Xbox in my opinion.
However, there is the other side of the coin. Because this means less incentive for gamers to buy a dedicated Xbox machine. Which first doesn’t sound bad, because you are not forced into a hardware and eco system you may not want. The implication is, that the Xbox consoles will sell less and Playstation sell more. And its already a huge difference. Sony already show that they can do what they want, publish cheap remasters and sell expensive PS5 Pro and some other stuff I am not mentioning here. This will only get worse, the weaker its competition gets.
My hope is, that Valve will take its place of Xbox and Microsoft publishes for Valve consoles (based on PC technology and software of course). However this can take a decade maybe, we need to see if Valve is interested into a home console like system and what Xbox will do with their next generation. Nintendo is doing Nintendo stuff and Playstation, well we’ll see too.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne