Yes I've mumped on about Portal 2 for god knows how long, well it's out now, I've played it and last night I finished it, well the single player mode anyway.
To be fair, it's as good as I expected, maybe better! The game is superbly paced throughout, the difficulty curve spot on, with only a few baffling moments, all of which can be worked through with a bit of thought. The voice acting cast features excellent performances from everyone with a decent cast of Stephen Merchant, J. K. Simmons, and Ellen McLain, who of course gives us a song at the end. Stephen Merchant in particular has an almost perfect script for his voice and personality, a source of constant hilarity. Simmons gives an excellent, borderline eerie performance as Cave Johnson though some of the most interesting levels of the game.
Some slight disappointments though, the single player campaign isn't the longest, still longer than the first game though obviously. I also I did find the final boss a bit easier than I'd expected, especially after the pain in the arse to beat GLaDOS was in the first game.
Plot wise, the story was varied and pretty good, I wont go into spoilers and the works or the 6 people who will read this may get upset with me, but needless to say, the mid game twist wasn't all that expected and I laughed a couple of times at the ending. Especially one line in particular which thinking about it is pretty innocuous but just struck a chord with me.
And then the ending closes with... 'Want You Gone" by Jonathan Coulton. Following the tradition set by the first game JoCo writes the song and GLaDOS sings us out! This song, while not maybe quite as good as 'Still Alive' was still a funny and good tune. I will be getting myself a copy as soon as iTunes has one to sell me!! It's made me a little happier I'm off to see him in 6 weeks in Bristol, as long as he plays it that is.
Overall, the game is superb, so many strong aspects come together to form easily the best of the year so far. Please God make a Portal 3, I'll preorder it now if you want.... Please Valve?
Showing posts with label portal 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label portal 2. Show all posts
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Homefront
About E3 time last year I noticed a trailer for a game I'd only heard vague things about before. The trailer was a back story trailer and used very believable plot points to eventually develop the story into the Korean invasion of America. The trailer was excellent and the story got my attention from the outset, I had high hopes for the game! I thought if narrative of this standard could be maintained through this game, and could be this interesting, it could help supplement what is getting to be a very tired genre.
As things got closer to the release I began to hear very mixed things about the gameplay. Formulaic, uninteresting were just some of the words that were banded about, and in the end I didn't end up buying it. But thankfully due to a work friend lending me his copy I did get the chance to play it.
Well, that was a lucky escape! Yes the plot is still good, but the game... not so good. Where to start? The characters, well each is a stereotype. Only the woman ever shows any real emotion (well a man wouldn't would they) The dialogue is dreadful, not so much the cut scenes, but the 'on the move' dialogue is a few lines repeated over and over again. The objectives generally switch between 1) Follow Connor 2) Shoot stuff 3) Follow Connor to next laid on set piece 4) shoot more shit, and become tiresome quite quickly.
It follows the COD blueprint of throwing in sniper levels and vehicles, but this is the best and worst of the game. The sniper sections are reasonable enough, as good as it gets anyway, but the vehicles, especially the shocking helicopter level, are beyond poor. The helicopter is painfully difficult to control and about as much fun as waxing (or so I'm told...).
The enemies are all the same pretty much to look at, (except for 1 level where they're different, but still the same as each other) but they die randomly. I killed one guy with 2 to the kneecap, but his mate took 3 or 4 to the head... that does not make sense.Why would a Wookiee, an 8-foot-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of 2-foot-tall Ewoks? That does not make sense!
In generally the single player is a let down, a horrible disappointment, but at least it was over quick, what was that 4, 4.5 hours? Not allot of bang for ya buck and ended with what can only be described as a weak ass ending, no spoilers here though.
Now throw in the traditional graphical glitches, corpses falling through walls and the like.
I've not tried the multiplayer, I've no inclination too either, I have Bad Company 2 if I wanted that.
Such a pity, could have been amazing, Portal 2 will be amazing. 1 more week!
As things got closer to the release I began to hear very mixed things about the gameplay. Formulaic, uninteresting were just some of the words that were banded about, and in the end I didn't end up buying it. But thankfully due to a work friend lending me his copy I did get the chance to play it.
Well, that was a lucky escape! Yes the plot is still good, but the game... not so good. Where to start? The characters, well each is a stereotype. Only the woman ever shows any real emotion (well a man wouldn't would they) The dialogue is dreadful, not so much the cut scenes, but the 'on the move' dialogue is a few lines repeated over and over again. The objectives generally switch between 1) Follow Connor 2) Shoot stuff 3) Follow Connor to next laid on set piece 4) shoot more shit, and become tiresome quite quickly.
It follows the COD blueprint of throwing in sniper levels and vehicles, but this is the best and worst of the game. The sniper sections are reasonable enough, as good as it gets anyway, but the vehicles, especially the shocking helicopter level, are beyond poor. The helicopter is painfully difficult to control and about as much fun as waxing (or so I'm told...).
The enemies are all the same pretty much to look at, (except for 1 level where they're different, but still the same as each other) but they die randomly. I killed one guy with 2 to the kneecap, but his mate took 3 or 4 to the head... that does not make sense.Why would a Wookiee, an 8-foot-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of 2-foot-tall Ewoks? That does not make sense!
In generally the single player is a let down, a horrible disappointment, but at least it was over quick, what was that 4, 4.5 hours? Not allot of bang for ya buck and ended with what can only be described as a weak ass ending, no spoilers here though.
Now throw in the traditional graphical glitches, corpses falling through walls and the like.
I've not tried the multiplayer, I've no inclination too either, I have Bad Company 2 if I wanted that.
Such a pity, could have been amazing, Portal 2 will be amazing. 1 more week!
Thursday, 14 April 2011
JoCo comes to the UK!
Some very exciting news (I think anyway) broke last night! Jonathan Coulton will be, briefly, in the UK in June! For those who have no idea who he is he's a singer! A singer of a highly geeky nature and to be fair has done some cracking songs in his time. He's best known (among geeks and gamers) for writing the song 'Still Alive' from the quite simply awesome game Portal. He also performs a good version of the song himself (in game it's sung by one of the characters) which is on the official orange box soundtrack. Go find, it's worth it.
Yesterday evening he announced via a blog via twitter (Jesus who would plug a blog via twitter, loser) that he'll be playing 3 dates in the UK! Now, there's no Cardiff date, I'm fairly sure he doesn't know Cardiff even exists and funnily enough he's not down to play Merthyr either. I have thoughts on bands who skip an entire country as I've posted previously. But I have travelled to see the likes on Ben Folds, Green Day, Barenaked Ladies so I clearly will do it. Coulton is playing Bristol so I'm thinking, as it's a small tour, I've never seen him before, I can let this one slide and take a trip over the bridge to see his acoustic delights!
This isn't of course a random trip, he has a new album due out any time now called Artificial Heart, which to be fair I'm also looking forward too. I can only urge everyone to check out his best of, it's surprisingly good, but as he doesn't own it, neither version of Still Alive is included. Valve have the rights as the game publishers.
He's also done a song for Portal 2, I'd imagine to take the same role as Still Alive, and my enthusiasm for this game is very high, as I may have mentioned. Only a 8 days to go! Plus I have to finish Fallout 3 before then!
So JoCo, when are the tickets out??
Yesterday evening he announced via a blog via twitter (Jesus who would plug a blog via twitter, loser) that he'll be playing 3 dates in the UK! Now, there's no Cardiff date, I'm fairly sure he doesn't know Cardiff even exists and funnily enough he's not down to play Merthyr either. I have thoughts on bands who skip an entire country as I've posted previously. But I have travelled to see the likes on Ben Folds, Green Day, Barenaked Ladies so I clearly will do it. Coulton is playing Bristol so I'm thinking, as it's a small tour, I've never seen him before, I can let this one slide and take a trip over the bridge to see his acoustic delights!
This isn't of course a random trip, he has a new album due out any time now called Artificial Heart, which to be fair I'm also looking forward too. I can only urge everyone to check out his best of, it's surprisingly good, but as he doesn't own it, neither version of Still Alive is included. Valve have the rights as the game publishers.
He's also done a song for Portal 2, I'd imagine to take the same role as Still Alive, and my enthusiasm for this game is very high, as I may have mentioned. Only a 8 days to go! Plus I have to finish Fallout 3 before then!
So JoCo, when are the tickets out??
Friday, 8 April 2011
3DS
I had significant doubts when I heard about the 3DS. It must be the 5th version of the hand held Nintendo have banged out over a reasonably short space of time, each time offering an upgrade yes, but also each time demanding more money, as well as horribly devaluing any consoles already in circulation. But now I've tried one and I can confirm they are good.
My initial doubts were how they would present the 3D effect, however it is good and does look good, when potentially I suppose it could have been a disaster. The effect gives a great impression of depth and the augmented reality software that comes included is excellent. I also had a quick go at pilotwings and it was nice to look at, easy to control, everything you'd want or expect from a game of that series.
Of course there are limitations to the system, Nintendo have introduced region locking on games going forward sop no importing titles early. Security has been stepped up to try and prevent DS cards fitted with micro SDs (such as the R4) running nicked software (you'll never stop them Nintendo, give up), and the 3D effect does have a tenancy of dying on its arse if you don't have the console at the right angle.
My question is what kind of software support it'll get. The Wii was a cracking idea as was the original DS, but one thing they have been plagued with from the start is mountains and mountains of shovelware. The kind of crap cheap to produce game that is purely a money maker, I'm on about the 5000 party games compilations, the 2000 variations on the sims and nintendogs. It's very easy for software companies to shovel out this crap knowing people will buy it, than invest in a deep, clever, fun game that may not appeal to a good proportion of the userbase.
The Wii has had 'proper' titles, but few and far between, with the majority failing commercially (Okami anyone) regardless of their quality. I fear the same for the 3DS, I fear the same for all future consoles casual is ever mentioned in conjunction with, I fear the same for Kinect too if I'm honest.
But the hardware and the principle is sound. It'll doubtless get the usual smattering of traditional openers, I believe Mario Kart 3DS is already on route. I'm not ready to part with over £200 to own my own, I've just bought my netbook after all, but when the 3DSi comes out next year (followed by the 3DSi XL of course) I may pick one up cheap :)
Oh and everyone 21st of this month sees Portal 2 come out. Can't express my expectations for this game, not in words!!
My initial doubts were how they would present the 3D effect, however it is good and does look good, when potentially I suppose it could have been a disaster. The effect gives a great impression of depth and the augmented reality software that comes included is excellent. I also had a quick go at pilotwings and it was nice to look at, easy to control, everything you'd want or expect from a game of that series.
Of course there are limitations to the system, Nintendo have introduced region locking on games going forward sop no importing titles early. Security has been stepped up to try and prevent DS cards fitted with micro SDs (such as the R4) running nicked software (you'll never stop them Nintendo, give up), and the 3D effect does have a tenancy of dying on its arse if you don't have the console at the right angle.
My question is what kind of software support it'll get. The Wii was a cracking idea as was the original DS, but one thing they have been plagued with from the start is mountains and mountains of shovelware. The kind of crap cheap to produce game that is purely a money maker, I'm on about the 5000 party games compilations, the 2000 variations on the sims and nintendogs. It's very easy for software companies to shovel out this crap knowing people will buy it, than invest in a deep, clever, fun game that may not appeal to a good proportion of the userbase.
The Wii has had 'proper' titles, but few and far between, with the majority failing commercially (Okami anyone) regardless of their quality. I fear the same for the 3DS, I fear the same for all future consoles casual is ever mentioned in conjunction with, I fear the same for Kinect too if I'm honest.
But the hardware and the principle is sound. It'll doubtless get the usual smattering of traditional openers, I believe Mario Kart 3DS is already on route. I'm not ready to part with over £200 to own my own, I've just bought my netbook after all, but when the 3DSi comes out next year (followed by the 3DSi XL of course) I may pick one up cheap :)
Oh and everyone 21st of this month sees Portal 2 come out. Can't express my expectations for this game, not in words!!
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Fallout revisited
When I first played it, I hated Fallout 3. Found it drawn out, dull, uninteresting, unengaging etc. But then I received (at my request) Fallout: New Vegas as a crimbo present. Now essentially it's the same game, but weirdly I really enjoyed NV. It played the same, I think the characters were better (wonderful work from Odo from DS9 on the Mr House voice) but for some reason the game just clicked with me.
This has inspired me, I've gone tearing back to Fallout 3 and started a new game! I'm already doing better at it, as I know what I'm doing far better from the extended NV playing. The character I've set up is essentially the same as my NV character, which is far from how I tried to play 3 the first time. Basically in the space of 90mins I've got almost as far as my entire effort previously, infact I'm a single plot point behind and am further with one side quest.
That has made me think, what went wrong the first time then? Don't get me wrong, I'm still don't think 3 is the greatest thing I've ever played, so far the characters aren't as good, no doubting that in my head, but it's nowhere near as bad as I remember. No doubt something will frustrate me soon enough and I'll revert back to my previous opinion, but for now, game on!
Downside it is distracting me from Top Spin 4, which so far I must say plays wonderfully, but I've found shockingly easy. The AI tactics are predictable and repetitive and easy to counter. Played it online against a similar player and it was awesome though!!
These will tide me over until Portal 2 comes out at least. Can't say how much I'm looking forward to a bit of orange and blue action. The original was a triumph, I'm making a note here huge success (sorry, actually after that I'll leave it there)
This has inspired me, I've gone tearing back to Fallout 3 and started a new game! I'm already doing better at it, as I know what I'm doing far better from the extended NV playing. The character I've set up is essentially the same as my NV character, which is far from how I tried to play 3 the first time. Basically in the space of 90mins I've got almost as far as my entire effort previously, infact I'm a single plot point behind and am further with one side quest.
That has made me think, what went wrong the first time then? Don't get me wrong, I'm still don't think 3 is the greatest thing I've ever played, so far the characters aren't as good, no doubting that in my head, but it's nowhere near as bad as I remember. No doubt something will frustrate me soon enough and I'll revert back to my previous opinion, but for now, game on!
Downside it is distracting me from Top Spin 4, which so far I must say plays wonderfully, but I've found shockingly easy. The AI tactics are predictable and repetitive and easy to counter. Played it online against a similar player and it was awesome though!!
These will tide me over until Portal 2 comes out at least. Can't say how much I'm looking forward to a bit of orange and blue action. The original was a triumph, I'm making a note here huge success (sorry, actually after that I'll leave it there)
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