Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, The Mets signing Adrian Beltre, mediating Pacquiao/Mayweather, or awesome steak, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
As I mentioned yesterday, the next three editions of Coffee Talk will have us counting down our most-wanted games of 2010. So let’s get to it! Coming in at #3 on my list is SmackDown vs. Raw 2011. Some of you might remember that SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 was one of my favorite games of 2009. So it should be no surprise that I’m greatly looking forward to this year’s version!
Obviously, the award-winning writing was the best feature of last year’s game. I have a pretty good feeling that this year’s game will feature even better writing. Call it conjecture or a guess, but I’m fairly certain that the writing in SvR 2011 will be awesome. And that’s the bottom line, ’cause R.Pad said so!
Now it’s your turn. What’s #3 on your list? List your game and why you want it (please)!
Speaking of SvR 2010 and it's stellar writing, I just had to play through Mickie's RTWM again to get Kendrick's alternate attire and get the achievement. If it was your idea to make people play through it twice R Pad, I'm a little disgruntled… but it wasn't that bad.
For Mickie's RTWM next year, I expect to hear a voicemail on her phone that says "Hi Mickie, this is Raymond Padilla. I had a great time last night and I love that thing you did with hot sake, but I left my pants in your hotel room. It wouldn't be such a big deal, but my Blackberry was in the pocket. Nevermind my wallet, there's nothing in it anyway, it's the phone I can't live with out. I had to borrow someone's iPhone to make this call and AT&T is so crappy that…" (call disconnected).
@N8R I will plead Han Solo on that one and say, "It's not my fault!"
As for the phone call…I was thinking hot wax, not hot sake.
Random status update: I'm at JFK on my way home. My route is JFK > SFO > LAX. I don't mind the connection since it's the beginning of the year and I need miles to requalify for United 1K. Plus, the upgrade to biz was free. I'm still debating on whether I should work or sleep (or watch movies) on the plane.
@Ray
You don't have a car right? Get drunk, relax..pay the cab fare, nap and then get some coffee. In that order.
@topic
Bioshock 2 : The first one had great style. I love the 1950s set pieces and the great atmosphere the abandoned city gave. I have high hopes for the 2nd outing. I know Levine isn't part of the team and that could hurt it. I'll just be optimistic like the God of War 3 people are.
As per Starship Troopers (the book), catching up on sack time is never looked down on.
@Topic – I don't think I can qualify this list for the entire year of 2010, as our beloved game developers like to commit to dates like a … well they don't is the point. So I am going to change it up a bit and just do a "Most Anticipated of First Quarter" Top three.
*general prefacing note – #1 auto changes to B:AA2 the moment a date is announced. It is the most hotly anticipated title of this and or any year.*
3. God Of War 3 – Easy pick. There is just something about revenge, gallons of blood, and free-flowing chain blades or godly carnage that makes you feel like you are alive. I haven't messed with the demo at all, and I fully plan on crashing through 1 and 2 in the collection before it releases in March. Can't wait.
@SvR2010 – I don't think I have played a WWE game since the third SmackDown iteration (I think it was Know Your Role), but seeing that the writing is so stellar, I might have to check it out.
#3. Red Dead Redemption
I loved Red Dead Revolver on the PS2. It was one of my favorite games last gen. I've read that this one is more open world and can't wait to play it. Now if only those rumors about Twisted Metal were true………….
#3 Battlefield Bad Company 2
I love being able to exit a building via a solid wall if need be. Also going a Predator on a grove of trees and mowing them down is fun to watch. I do hope they keep the humor of the first one alive.
So I was looking for a list of 2010 game release when I came across a game called Mass Driver. Anyone heard of it? I can't find any info on it except at the one site, but it looks to be cool.
http://www.cracked.com/article_15662_12-awesomest…
Not to detract from the topic at hand, I'm curious to see everyone's wishlists but I played MAG last night. I'm not impressed. Took a while to get in a game and when I did, damn was it hard to see people to frag. The opposing factions didn't look that different and the map ( jungle) made it even more difficult.
I also thought shooting down the iron sites left you at a critical disadvantage as far as getting strafed or if you miss.
Why can't I mute individuals???
#3 – Heavy Rain
I think it's more intrigue than anything else, I know the story is going to be captivating and thoroughly incredible. I'd say my biggest concern is QTEs. those should be erased from gaming. At any rate, this could be one of my favorite games of 2010 should Quantic Dream accomplish what they set out to do.
@Smartguy – you can't mute individuals? In all fairness it is a beta. but considering we're three weeks away MAG has to be gold by now or very soon.
how many people were there in the match? Also, how large was the level?
@MAG
I STILL cannot connect to the damn servers. It seems like they are always down. I quit even trying after a while.
@shockwave
32 v 32 approximately.
I had the option of adding the player to a block list, maybe that is the mute?
Level was quite large. The players themselves seemed very tiny.
@MAG Well I'll be getting my hands on it when it is released but if I were to guess I think that many players at once might be more chaotic than good. I don't know how you'd get 32 people working together as a team, let alone over 100
@Topic: Gears of War 3. I know it hasn't been announced, but the timing is right based on the spacing between the first two games for it to come out this November. And I really enjoy the series.
Whatever happened to utilizing analog capability on game pads? Why must I press the left in in order to run? Why can't I just control my speed by how far I move the stick?
@MAG: I've got to say, while I appreciate what the developers are trying to do, I can't imagine having that many people in one game at once and having it go particularly smoothly. You can't get a squad of 4 random people to work well half the time. The idea of Trying to get that many people working together sounds as appealing as a Jonas marathon on the Disney Channel.
damn, where to start, such great games coming out this year to burn a hole on my damn wallet.
#3 final fantasy 13
final fantasy has been in my life since i first played FF7 when i was 8 years old, so i am not missing out on this gen's final fantasy. (since i missed out all the final fantasies last gen).
im having fun playing GTA 4 right now, the car physics do kinda suck, but the story is just sucking me in. i cant wait to DL the lost and damned, and the ballad of gay tony.
@MAG
i had second thoughts of that game since it was announced. but a friend of mine played it on E3 last year. he said it was awesome.. i tried the beta out, couldn't get in a game.
@Rbee – I liked Gay Tony a lot more than TLAD. but that's my opinion, I wasn't really in to the biker theme. I will admit that the story in GTA4 is one of its strongest qualities.
I bought lost and Damned and couldn't get into it. Gotta add that to my lust of games to finish. I really need to avoid bestbuy.
@Nightshade
I remember reading an article with Epic saying that there will be no more Gears on current gen consoles. But, I guess they could change their minds.
Off topic:
My Falcons didn't make the playoffs but at least we finally broke that tradition of not having back to back winning seasons.
@N8R
I guess Troy P. is really that important to the Steelers.
@Nightshade
*shakes head* I don't know what to say about the Giants. What the heck happened?
@Shockwave
As always, strong start to a poor finish for the Broncos. Looks like you'll be losing Brandon Marshall to boot.
@Smartguy
The Saints lost the last 3. There will be stiff competition in the playoffs. What do you think of your chances?
@Giants: When the defense becomes a MASH unit, it's hard to stay competitive. But the lack of effort down the stretch was pretty appalling.
@RROD
we won't be using Jenkins to cover #1 WR from here on out.
Saints pulled starters against TB and didn't play starters vs Carolina. I wouldn't look too much into the last two losses. The Dallas game started out bad because of Jenkins on Austin. Remember, Saints D stiffened up and we were Close to winning that game in the 4th.
Sean Payton is a quirky guy. He didn't care if we were the 1 or 2 seed. He knew that regardless both games were going to be indoors. I think that if the other teams think we are soft or done, they will get blown out. In fact, I think we will blow our the divisional round opponent.
Blow out not blow our (LOL)
@RROD – Ya, unfortunately I don't know what next year holds just yet. hopefully we'll get another first round pick for Marshall
Has anyone played Bayonetta yet? If so, what do you think?
Nope, played Darksiders for a while yesterday evening. That game is very fun.
I've heard good things about darksiders
Haven't played anything in a couple of days as I'm still waiting for a game to come from Gamefly. Lackluster Video only has new copies of either game for purchase and won't get the rentals till Friday.
@nightshade – I was afraid some rental blockbuster stores still did that
@Shockwave: Yeah, that's the way it was when I used to work for the company. Same situation with my local store. Hopefully Gamefly sends me something soon. I've beaten pretty much everything I got for X-mas except for inFamous, but what little I played of it, it didn't grab me the way I thought it would. :-/
@nightshade – at times I struggled to finish infamous. it was a good game just not to my particular taste. Now Crackdown 2 is a sandbox "superhuman" game I can get down on!
Gamefly shipped Bayonetta yesterday so I should be playing it soon. First game from them too.
@Gears
I haven't heard anything about when 3 will be released, but now that Microsoft's 2 game agreement is over with Epic, you can expect things to be different this time around. Epic has an ace up their sleeve and Microsoft is going to want it. I don't see a two year turn over as the first demand Epic will make is a longer dev cycle. Probably PC support as well.
I thought the story in inFamous was supposed to be the big draw? I will pick that game up later this year and try it. I don't have time for it right now…maybe ever to be honest
I guess the Blockbuster video stores are all different. The one down the street from me gets games on release day.
@RROD – that makes sense, it's a poor move not to get games on release day if you ask me
@Smartguy
I loved Infamous. It was my first platinum. I think you should try it.
@Shockwave: It was more cartoony than I thought it would be. The character movements remind me too much of Sly Cooper for the setting (not surprising considering the development team, I guess).
But the thing that really disappoints me I guess is that the controls and character movements seem very loose. This was one of the things I really disliked about Prototype as well, was that the sense of power they were tying to give the main character also kinda took away a bit of the more finite control. For a game with a lot of free running and climbing, there are games that do it better and more intuitively.
I don't know, I'll probably give it another shot. But unfortunately when I did the mandatory DL for R&CF:ToD, I was forced to erase something of at least 500MB from my near vacant HD because of a known bug (although unknown to me at the time), and I ended up erasing my saved data for inFamous, which means I'll have to start all over from the beginning. I think that my sense of disgust at having to start over is also influencing my lack of desire to start the game over and give it another shot.
@RRoD: Most BBV's are corporate stores, but there are still a few franchise stores that may operate differently. The one you go to may be one of those. Or they may be incompetent employees breaking rental street date regs. The computer system should date all games for Friday release, where as movies are dated for Tuesday. But everything is usually in the store about a week before release.
Spent last night playing Darksiders as well. Vigil did an excellent job. All the way through the first "dungeon" and it is very satisfying. Lots of great exploration and the combat system, while you can button mash, has a lot of depth. Aiming is a bit wonky, especially with some battles where it has you clicking R3 to bring up the cursor, locking on to tragets for your CrossBladerang with L2, and then pressing R2 to throw while trying to hit R1 to dodge out of the way. I think they had an octopus test certain parts of this. But very cool nonetheless and extremely worth the money so far.
@Larcenous
Completely agree.
@ RROD
We'd be in if the Patriots and Bengals didn't lay down against the Texans and Jets last Sunday.
The Patriots didn't use Brady and didn't even try to win and the Bungles lost 37-0 to the Jets…. I never liked the Pats, so my relationship with them stays the same, but now I hate the Bengals more than i did before.
@N8R – even before the games on Sunday I was reluctant to have faith in the Raiders beating the Ravens or the Bengals coming through to secure a playoff spot if we won. I guess the worst part is I thought the Bengals would at least try, especially after all the crap Ochocinco was talking before the game.
I'm a Dol-fan, so I hate the Patriots and Jets by default.
BTW, has anyone here played Bayonetta yet? Is it any good?
-M
Key factor- F**k the Bungles.
Here's the Steelers schedules for next year:
Home: Oakland, New York Jets, New England, Carolina, Atlanta and their three AFC North foes, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Baltimore.
Away: Tennessee, Miami, Buffalo, Tampa Bay, New Orleans and their three AFC North foes.
So, with the exception of Shockwave and Nightshade, the Steelers will see ALL of your teams next year. I can't wait.
@ Correction to #44
And Cami… we won't see the Colts next year (thank Jeebus).
@N8R
I can't wait either.
@N8R – consider yourself lucky – I can't remember the last time we didn't play the Colts in regular season, and we're playing them in 2010. hopefully we'll play them at the end of the season with the way the NFL is getting these days.
@ Shockwave
We'll see the Colts next year when we beat them in the playoffs.
in other NFL news I'm happy for Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan's new jobs in Washington D.C.. Hopefully they can turn that nightmare of a Redskin franchise around.
@ Shockwave
I was looking for the Broncos schedule for next year and couldn't find it. You may avoid the Colts next year.
The way it works is you play everyone in your division twice (6 games), one entire division from the other coference (NFC/4 games) and everyone else in your division plays that same division, every team in another division in the same conference (4 games/AFC) and everyone else in your division plays that same division, and the 2 teams who finished the previous season on the same rank as you (2 games, Broncos came in second). All in all, there's your 16 games.
Being as how the Broncos came in second this year, you'll only play the Colts if everyone else in your division plays the Colts.
@ Correction to #50
and the 2 teams who finished the previous season on the same rank as you *in your conference and the other divisions* (2 games, Broncos came in second)
@N8R – next year we're playing the AFC South and NFC West. On a side note, the fact that Indy is considered a south team baffles me
http://broncotalk.net/2010/01/13323/broncos-news/…
@ Shockwave
Well it's not like there's an AFC central anymore, and when there was it consisted of Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, Tennessee, Jacksonville, and Cincinnati…. Tennessee is the only one I'd call central there.
@ Shockwave
The good news is, everyone else in your division plays the Colts as well, otherwise San Diego would just have to play them. The Bungles have to play them AND the Saints AND the Pats (hardy-har-har).
I also just got back from the NY/NJ area. Luckily I got on my plane before morons try to run through security.
As far as the topic is concerned, My #3 Has to be Super Street Fighter IV. I am a die hard fan of the series and I just can't help but speculate what characters will be reintroduced or new ones. That and beating up the Car has a certain nostalgia to it.
Back in LA! Too bad I'm stuck in traffic. I love that I'm totally comfortable in a Yankee jersey. I miss many things about NY, but definitely not those winters.
@Ray welcome home!!
@ MAG There was a couple of times yesterday I had trouble connecting but backed out once or twice and connected.The graphics are not up to uncharted standards but they suffice especially considering you are dealing with 256 players tossing grenades shooting launching rockets driving tanks firing from said tank parachuting in to battle, airstrikes etc.
As far as working as a team you work with your squad of ten people voice chat is only with your squad.Your squad has an objective set and that is the only ten you worry about unless you are squad leader and they generally work together.
Starting off you do get stuck with iron sights and its a disadvantage but you can hit lvl 3 on your first battle and get a scope if you do well enough.End not zero lag
Hoping people give this a chance might have some hiccups in the beginning but i think it will yurn the corner
oops end note zero lag
@trikkey
I found it to be quite difficult to see the other team. It wasn't camo either. The avatars are too small in my opinion.
Finally beat Dragon Age. Now time to beat Mass Effect one more time before 2 comes out.
@Trikkey
Agreed on MAG. I played for a couple of hours and enjoyed it. Communication is key though. The COD run and gunners won't like it though. And yes, ZERO LAG like all PS3 exclusives.
@RROD
What did you not like about the game?
@Smartguy
I don't like that there is no campaign. I also think it can be a little more polished.
@RROD
I never gave it a thought about the lack of campaign. I too think some things could use some tweaking. Overall I was happy with the way it ran.
I watched the trailer for the first "expansion pack' for Dragon Age. A continuation of the story is a fine bargain in deed.
@Sandrock323 Obviously, I'm totally down with that too. Ha! I loved the Baldur's Gate expansion packs and expects something similar for the DA packs.
@smartguy and shockwave
is there a connection between TLAD, and gay tony? plotwise?
@Rbee – the story in GTA4, TLAD, and BOGT are all intertwined in a small fashion. But you don't need to finish one to play the other imo
@shockwave
i see. thanks, well, still buying both DLC though, once i finish niko's story
@rbee
you can buy a disc that has both.