I think you are missing the point, he's not talking about things like Xboxs melting at least once, if not multiple times. It's talking about E3 announcements being leaked before E3.

This comment was edited on Jun 14, 2009, 05:27.

Forza was named best racer with GT 5 not being included in the judging. Yet later they had GT5 judged with other games. IGN = I Get Nonsense.

They apparently make up catagories and add new ones just to say more about things they either get paid to talk about or want to press (just check the format from year to year, not quite your Oscar style catagories).

Hey they gave Spore 4ish awards in 2008 including best PC game... That speaks for itself.

This comment was edited on Jun 14, 2009, 04:57.

I love the western games. However the last COJ I wasn't too fond of. The platforming stuff in a bad 3D engine is just crap. I am looking forward to this one none the less hoping they learned from the first one.

That's just extraneous stuff for the people who have OCD and need 100% completion and all that.

That's really a train of thought that is a disservice to people who do find it enjoyable to track down milestones to glean more time out of a title. I find it entertaining on some. I would have found it entertaining on this one for sure if it wasn't for some of the trophies (which make it seems more work than it should be).

With PS3, the mega trophy (platinum) is a goal of all consumers who care about trophies at all. On Xbox, the system doesn't really account for anything other than 1 large score. With PS3 it's broken down into 4 grades of trophies, a total score, and also a player level (different ways to represent the same data). The Platinum trophies are in fact more prized, therefore when a developer sits down to make these trophies, they need to consider this instead of just stamping Xbox stuff on the PS3. Either modify both to be reasonable to get 1000/1000, or make sure the PS3 top trophy is reasonable.

The Platinum in every event alone is easily 2-3 days play time. Playing a game through on easy to get some of the ones mentioned. Then you have to play through on Hard to get one as well. Finding 200 unmarked collectables, then another 50 is also a nuisance worthy of days of game play. The Replay is good, it's the tedium ones that ruin the time/worth equation in people's heads (inFAMOUS allowed for tracking collectables on the radar which was still tedium but manageable). As it is, it's a bit over expectant which tends to defeat incentive and instead creates disappointment.

Re:Targeting

Agreed but you can switch targets by flicking the right analog stick. It uses a priority system because manually targeting in this game would be impossible with 40-50 enemies at a time in some of the bigger battles.

This is really a bigger problem in a game that demands high speed accuracy which Prototype also requires. I find I am often off target just trying to kill 1 of 3 choppers in the air. While flicking the right stick by itself seems easy enough, add to that you are handling altitude, direction and heading, new threat assessment, evasion, weapon selection, and firing a weapon too. All the while the AI is doing this perfect. So while this one simple targeting thing may seem reasonable by itself, in a mix of activities it's very touchy, and imperfect in a game that really demands perfection and precision to do better in every encounter.

The short version, this could have been better. I do sense there is a priority targeting system at work, but in the flurry of using the whole controller for encounters, that right stick is real easy to move too far or not far enough when needed.

Re: Blindspot

It's to encourage players to use the roll instead of letting them have eyes in the back of their heads and make them completely invincible as a result. If you could see everything coming, you would never get in the game given your speed and powers.

Once again lets go through what a player does in a fight with a Supreme Hunter (let's make it the really nasty one). X, R2, R2, X, R2, R2, X, R2, R2, R2 roll to side, O (pick up something to throw if you didn't grab on way yet), L turn, L2 (target), R to make sure on target (90% of the time the Supreme Hunter, who as right behind you, already knocked you on your ass for 50%+ damage), if you are lucky you can hit O hold to throw. Repeat this over and over or use a rocket launcher to get the stuns. The fact that players have 180 degree blind spot where one can't target, sluggish ablity to turn, target, and fire, makes this all seem more like a cheapshot exploiting an interface vulnerability+required player tactic instead of a clever AI tactic. What's worse is that turn, target, fire is several buttons and stick movements, which take a lot of time to execute, all working in unison, that have to all go off without a problem or you miss.

This is further a problem in a group of targets where some are the Super Soldiers or the Hunters. This game is played at the blink of an eye pace, and the AI can only go to 1 place, that is directly behind the player giving chase. This causes problems in being able to respond and react to the game like the AI, or what it would take to become a better player.

In other words, the envelope for doing better is a hard cieling imposed by the interface that comes down to how fast you can execute an inefficient cammand string in a space of time that really requires an efficient command string. The end result is often misfires, poorly executed efforts, and balks which start you running for more "room" to try and do the inefficient string of button presses and stck movements all over again, in hopes of actually succeeding.

I think at the end of the day this is a extremely well envisioned game, this choice to do targeted this way lends itself to problems that killed Stormrise. Prototype actually pulled this off to a large extent successfully. The problem is they could have tuned this a lot better and didn't. I see a target lock being a very beneficial thing for this kind of game, but it's not in there. There are a couple of attacks too, like the arm whip to latch on to things, that just balk for weird reasons when they come in to contact with the environment in a non normal way. It's these things that stick out like a sore thumb when you have a game that is moving at the speed of real time. Still a very good game. Just leaves me wishing for tighter controls at that turn.

Finished this amazing game. A lot less game play than I first anticipated. 18 hours or so total. I could go do a few more side missions and stuff but pretty much did most of them and found half the hidden items.

Game suffers from targeting issues when things really crank up (10-20 targets in range). Too many damn buttons to do simple things, big ass blind spot behind you that you can't target when you need to like when Supreme Hunters are on your tail (and just about every other strong enemy in the game, always go straight for the game's weakness, behind you and untargetable).

I loved the helicopter jacking and crazy fast paced action of the game in general. It's a shame you gotta use a trigger for most of the movement in the game. Afer awhile though, everything just seemed the same over and over. Some of the missions bugged out on me, and didn't like the grappling arm buggng out every time it nicked an object. But for the most part very smooth.

I wish they did more with the stations/hives being a bigger part of the game. Really enjoyed the aspects they did have of this. Felt some of the boss fights were waaaay too long and an excercise in endurace and patience. Adding a timer to the last fight was lame.

All in all I enjoyed the game up until the last 5 missions or so. That's when it started to feel more work than fun. There is a Game+ mode, not sure if it's like Bioshock or a little different. After you finish the story you get dropped back in the city in free roam mode, so you can do whatever you feel compelled to do. Hopefully the bases and hives respawn because that's my favorite part of the game.

Trophy stuff is stupid. "Play entire game without dying" and "Complete all special events with Platinum rating". There are a few other ridiculous trophies barring the way to platinum, so the game loses a lot of my interest after first play through. Since I can go back and play in the city when I want it gets a 9/10. Based purely on the other stuff, it's an 8. Either way it's pretty much a must buy for anyone who can run it and has the dexterity to control this monster at it's hardest points.

@Tumbler - I am embarassed for Sony over that Bundle and agree with what you said.

This comment was edited on Jun 12, 2009, 08:12.

@Verno - Yeah I know the controls, the game doesn't like small posts or rails. It will flip you around them. This game for the most part has no finese controls, it's all high speed hit or miss, which takes getting used too.

@Space Captain - Yes! I kept thinking "that's Stephen!".

@ D.D. Yeah him and J'kar. The latest B5 release had talks with the cast. Said they think of Jakar and Stephen as "Beyond the Rim". Didn't see Lando, it was really just the 2 commanders and some support story and animation (but B5 looked really done up nice).

Playing Prototype some more. This whole game feels like the 80s movie John Carpenter's The Thing but from the monster's perspective, who can also run up walls (a good thing). I am annoyed with the finese controls. jump, climb is ok until the object you climb on gets small then you start spinning around it. I am spending most my time gathering collectables and hints. Those collectables give some pretty nice exp once you get them over 50 or so. Plus it helps me learn the movements so they become second nature as opposed to winging it in missions as I go. Plan on playing this one till completeing and even entertaining a platinum trophy effort.

This comment was edited on Jun 11, 2009, 02:09.

Picked up Prototype. Install bug (I had 358 gig free) just makes you delete 700 mb of anything and it will install. Major oops on Acvtivision's part but no big deal really.

First Impressions of Prototype = The Incredible Hulk who can run up walls. It's a melee brawler with the ability to sometimes grab a ranged weapon or throw stuff. Takes some serious time coordinating all the control elements. Because of the 3D speed in movement, any mistake is a large overshoot so it takes a bit to get used to. It's better than I expected but you are core evil and the world is doomed to zombie plague. It's a good buy if you like fighting games and runs flawlessly after the fast install.

InFAMOUS = Spiderman with force powers, a shooter. I still prefer it. I just like the game play better and more in control. I actually like Cole and the story seems more enjoyable to me. You have a moral choise and don't have to kill thousands of innocent people to achieve your goals.

inFAMOUS = shooter
Prototype = brawler

They are different as apples and oranges and one is not the replacement for the other. You should just pick what you enjoy playing.

This comment was edited on Jun 11, 2009, 00:13.

Ouch!

Half the hard part of that game is getting golds. The hard part of a lot of golds is gaining the knowledge of what you need to do, and where things are, mission flow etc.. You should be able to go back and zip right through it to where you were.

This should have come out 3 weeks ago. As of now, way done with that game.

I got this day 1. It's got potential but felt super unfinished and buggy. I haven't been following the patches. I shelved it waiting for the final patch. It is like Jagged Alliance with nice 3D graphics.

I see a lot of people talking about Red Faction. I finished the game the other day and here's my take. It's pretty much a must buy as a tech demo. As a game it suffers. Since it markets itself as a game, it should be treated like one. There really isn't much of a story. The NPCs are braindead and do more harm than good. The enemy AI is good as far as group behavior (one of the few bright spots). The problem with that is enemies never stop spawning. They are endless. You can't really feel like you get better when you don't have a finish line. Instead you either retreat, or get overran by endless spawns. A good portion of the game is driving boats, er cars across the longest points of the map in time-sink manner. Expect to do almost every mission 2-4x.

I started really getting the hate part of this love-hate experience at about Eos (5th area or so). The last fight is hard to like. It's more shooting through smoke than anything. Once you get on foot, good luck staying alive. I just wanted to be done with the game so I cranked the skill level down. Instead of being ripped apart by endlessly spawning, always-try-to-run-you-over, perfect shooting swarms, I was just barely ripped apart by endlessly spawning, always-try-to-run-you-over, perfect shooting swarms. None the less I finished the game which honestly generated so much hate I probably won't ever load it up again. I put this game down bored to tears about 5 times through out playing it from start to finish (I actually went back to playing more Farcry 2).

Volition is capable of doing so much better as a game. There are some cool touches here and there and things worth mentioning but I just don't really care anymore. Maybe multiplayer has some decent gameplay, but I just don't care anymore about that either. But as a tech demo, it's a buy (you will get tired of blowing the same stuff up, I promise). This game could have been GOTY material but it relies way too much on it's technical prowess (it is impressive), and that's just a shame. 7/10

OT -> Valkyria Chronicles is a must buy for people who liked Jagged Alliance.

This comment was edited on Jun 9, 2009, 23:50.

The first stealth action game I played was on an Apple ][. It was called Castle Wolfenstein. I will never forget the scream of "SS, SS!" when the meaner guards appeared. It would startle you.

this is just an unsubtle attempt by you to paint Microsoft as the evil corporation.

I need to paint them?

they're all big evil corporations

See even convinced you.

Slow down son, you are confusing yourself.

Sony, "35 PS3 exclusives". That's all I needed to hear. Funny I counted 55 and even listed them. They were just being modest.

The point is the theatrics of shows are wonderful for marketing. Xbox will undoubtedly get a lot of milage out of it. For gamers like me, and apparently unlike you and Verno, subtance matters more than flash. "Show me the money"!

Hello! Welcome to Xbox's E3 presentation! We only have 6 exclusive games to talk about but we have one hell of a show for you!
Please welcome The Beatles!
Please welcome Tony Hawk!
Please Welcome Steven Spielberg!
Please Welcome Peter Molyneux!
Please Welcome Hideo Kojima!
Please Welcome Natal!

I think they won the show too. I think they failed at E3.

If they do Godfather 3, and really polish and expand on this strategy map, it will be pretty amazing. The game just needs some more fleshing out of the territory war, some depth to options and more dynamic events. The skills need to be utilized a lot more (at least arson and some of the others). The AI needs to really put up a better fight too.

I think the experience is lost on people who aren't 35-40+ years of age, which probably hurt it. May not be GOTY stuff but it was good for what it was trying to be and I loved it none the less.

I am objective about the games. The systems I easily prefer PS3 and have stated so. In fact my E3 rant is that MS doesn't have enough of games coming out, while getting buzz off a concept device. I own all the machines, and honestly, I got to this point from Xbox to PS3 by playing the games. It's kind of hard to be pro Xbox about anything when they haven't had many exclusives lately other than Battlestations: Pacific and maybe a DL title or two, and don't really offer much at E3 (that is depressing no matter what console you prefer). I am all about the games. The systems that get me there without trying to screw me, I will gravitate towards. If Xbox drops a bad ass machine next year that fixes all the problems with the current machines (heat, instability, capacity, speeds), I will be buying Xbox single player software again. I still however despise Xbox Live's DLC DRM and pay for use. So I would probably get the DLC games on PS3 still. I care about the best deal for me and my family first, and as it stands now, PS3 is easly the best deal and performance in town in my opinon.

This comment was edited on Jun 5, 2009, 20:51.

Natal Fakery is a good read. One thing that kind of struck me odd is how people are making a big deal over the drawing of a picture, showing it to the camera, then the software making an object in the virtual world. Sony Eyepets has had this feature shown already. I still think if you take away the buzz about Natal, there wasn't enough about games, remember games?!

The wolverine DLC doesn't really encourage me to go get it even though I liked the game.

This comment was edited on Jun 5, 2009, 20:15.

I was just thinking about this after reading it yesterday on other sites. No matter what platform you like, this is a really good game. I enjoyed it more than GTA4 (which I stopped playing 2x after restarting only a couple missions in to the game). You get to hand pick a gang of guys who have different abilities. You have territory wars and gain income, then use that income to buy defense. There are a few skills that while useful, are under utilized. But it's got 3 very large city maps (New York, Miami, Cuba) to play and conquer. The story is good if you are in to mob stories and honestly I would forget that it's named after Godfather 2. It's got moments and tie ins but this game is better than you would think (don't read review scores on this one). The strategy map adds depth I wished other games had. The cars, music, clothes, lingo all made me feel like it was the 50s-60s, even has topless women in the casinos. Very mature script, language, and attitude. A solid game, kept me playing until the end, and I am glad I purchased it (make sure you play the hardest difficulty level).