sneaky

I played quite a bit of the game so far, and from what I understand the single player campaign isn’t that long so I think I’m getting close to the end. Its been pretty challenging by time laying out the room for your mark and execute, and doing so quickly so that the marks don’t patrol out of the area or away from the kill spot you had planned. I can see this game being several times more fun the second time through when you are more comfortable

The story isn’t any to talk about at this point, they’re mixing in flashbacks (meh) and flashforwards, which I’m finding don’t work very well, or aren’t creating the drama/tension they intended to in my opinion..

The goons need more lines of dialog, they keep saying the same stuff all the time and its already getting annoying. And I’m finding most of the voice acting really rough, especially Sam’s during a scene with his young daughter, he’s still talking to her with that tough guy voice of his (although it is much better than Kratos’). The silver-lining however is Grim. Her voice actor is easily the most convincing in the game so far, and is on par with some the best in the industry. She is probably my favorite as a character as well, The imperfections on her face and, and the natural looking physique, really makes her believable, something that is usually pretty rare for females in video games.

It seems like they keep repeating the context around the first mission over and over again, that is to say, I’m chasing down a lot of EMPs, really no other objectives. And they keep mixing in these other missions for variety I’m sure, but they simply aren’t fun. For example there is 1 mission in Iraq that was unnecessary, you basically get a simpler version of Sam, in broad day light, with some of the moves missing and you just have to go through the level, it feels like a very generic third person shooter, not what I signed up for. There is also there is a mission where you play camera man, and video tape a meeting for like 10 minutes… also not really fun, although I admire the attempt to try something new to deliver story elements while the player is still in control, although I’m pretty sure this approach has been done somewhere before but I’m forgetting where exactly I’m recalling it from. I’m also not really buying into this interactive interrogation thing… They made it out to be like it’s this great innovation in gameplay that you are taking control of what would normally be a cinematic, but you’ve only got 1 button to play with, and a few objects scatters around the environment that you can smash with your victims face.. it’s pretty limited really.

All that aside, I am having a lot of fun with the game when Sam is being Sam, and it only seems to be getting more fun the more comfortable I get with the controls. I really do see me playing through this a couple times at least just to see how things play out when I’m in better control of the scenario, when you get that perfect multi-kill it is truly satisfying, and find different solutions while avoiding detection is really fun gameplay.

Here we go again

So after spotting the price tag on the spring xbox elite bundle, and noticing it included Halo 3: ODST and Forza 3, 2 games I would have picked up anyway had I had any confidence in my 3rd cycle xbox 360 refurb lasting through the course of an entire game, I decided that 300$ was reasonable, especially since Splinter Cell: Conviction is around the corner… This also means I get to catch up on all the awesome XBLA DLC I passed on, like Shadow Complex, Trials HD (I absolutely love the trials games…) and there were a few more that I remember wanting to play but the names are escaping me at the moment. But that means some of my upcoming posts are likely going to contain some dated information while I get caught up. Heres some early impressions so far:

Forza 3

Forza 3

So I’ve put a bit of time into this, I’ve finished my first season and they’ve given me a much of cars to use so far. I like the ‘quick upgrade’ system, but it almost feels too easy and I’m not really making any decisions about my upgrades because of it. I’m sure that was the idea though… I seem to be approaching it the same way I did previous Forza games, if you can get out in front quickly, its very easy to win the race… that probably has a lot to do with the difficulty I’m playing on but it doesn’t feel all that challenging at the moment. So the MO is get a car that over powers the rest of the competition and then win… I probably won’t play this one all that much more, but it should hold me over until Gran Turismo releases.

Halo 3: ODST

Halo 3 ODST

sure does feel like a halo game… they don’t really work for me; I find the controls floaty, and the journey not all that compelling. Halo 2 was the last one I finished, and that was most likely because I was playing coop with a friend. I want to like them, I just dont apparently.

Fable II [on deck]

Fable 2

I saw this on games on demand and I couldn’t resist, I really liked the first one despite being disappointed that it didn’t live up to the hype.  So, since I’ve got realistic expectations for the sequel, I think I’m really going to like it… but I haven’t had a chance to try it yet.

Euro Box Art! Cause it's way more appropriate

I tweeted earlier this week about picking up The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom, I did so on a whim cause I was looking for a little distraction… why I picked this game up out of all the games I could have grabbed I’ll never know, I didn’t play the previous iterations nor had I even heard of them leading up to this one. I do know this much though, It has now consumed 14 or 15 hours of my life, and when I’m not playing I’m thinking about how I can be better at it…

It’s an RTS game, that much is clear, but in every way that the modern RTS games are going, I’m looking at you Dawn of War II, Demigod, and C&C4, The Settlers has gone in the complete opposite direction. The majority of your time is spent developing an economically strong kingdom, and while that includes military this is not where the strategy in this game comes into play. The strategy comes from collecting resources… (I know… sounds kind of lame…) but there are so many resources that have so many different uses that it is challenging to use the limited space, and limited resources you have access too in the area you start in and use them to expand your kingdom to begin production of different resources.

The game has the notion of Victory Points, you need X number of victory points to win a match, and these can be obtained a number of different ways. For example, you can gain a point by having more territories than your competitors, by owning specifically designated zones, or by completing  map based quests.

An example of a map based quest may be delivering 80 shirts to the quest giver, so it becomes a race to see who can get 80 shirts the fastest… this may mean establishing a trade route so that you can trade for the shirts, set up your own production line for tailoring, which involves having a series of different constructs in place… in this case, a shepherd, a weaver, and a tailor… The nuts and bolts of it is you can collect any X of the many victory points defined for the match, and you can use any means available to do so.

You also have to consider upgrade points gained by ‘prestige’ (which is also a victory point, having a high prestige level than you opponent). It may be in your best interest to advance your Export houses if your focus will be in the trade game, or into the Church if you opt for the Technology side of things… There are other options available to improve your fortifications in the choke points on the maps.

Overview Map, Identify and protect those choke points and important natural resources!

Ultimately you’re going to need some combination of these things to be successful, but doing things in an order that is effective for your strategy, and in a way that suits your playstyle is challenging, and rewarding. I’ve got to say this is hands down this is some of the most fun I’ve had in a strategy game in a really long time. It brings me back to the nights playing Warcraft II when the matched would last for hours.. matches seem to be lasting me an hour, hour and a half on average in the campaign and in multiplayer.

I don’t think I could justify this game by trying to explain how deep the economy system is in this game, there is a lot of stuff you need to consider, and I’m not even to the point of the campaign where I have all the units unlocked, if you’re into strategy games at all, and can live without the ‘action’ part of it, I’d strongly recommend grabbing the demo. This game certainly won’t be for everyone, but this has been the surprise of the year for me so far, it wasn’t even close to my radar and I’m having a lot of fun with it.