*sigh* Game Developers Conference 2010 is coming to a close. I’ve really missed San Francisco (except for the cold-ish weather). It has been amazing catching up with friends, developers, PR people, agents, and game writers. The trip has been super fun and very productive (potentially huge story coming soon!). As much as I want to stay for more catchup and partying, part of me really wants to open my copies of Final Fantasy XIII that are waiting for me in my apartment.
I’m going to be all about FFXIII this weekend. How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?!?
I'll be playing some Rock Band 2 since I just downloaded some White Stripes music, MLB 10: The Show, I started another play through of Heavy Rain, and probably some MW2 with my best friend.
i'll be playing some Battlefield: BC2 on the PS3, just rented it yesterday but didn't get to play it. FF13 on Ps3 and that's about it.
The better question is, "What won't Nightshade being playing this weekend." lol.
I've got reviews to work on for both MLB 2K10 and FFXIII. Plus I'm working through another playthrough of Mass Effect 2 and trying to get the hang of MLB: The Show. Plus I've got Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time and Demon's Souls sitting at home from Gamefly. Add to that I've got both God of War 3 and the new Dragon Age expansion on preorder for Tuesday and pretty soon I'm gonna need a clone to be able to play all of this stuff.
Bad Co. 2 and FFXIII for me. Maybe some Bioshock 2 if I decide to download it this weekend. ($37 on Windows Live this weekend)
Whatever game I buy tonight any suggestions for PS3?
@Nightshade386 On the plus side, at least you're reviewing good games this time around. Reviewing really good stuff and really bad stuff is easy. Reviewing mediocre games was always more challenging for me.
@redtailman
what games do you have already? don't want to suggest one you have already.
@Tokz
Bear in mind the servers are gonna be down for extended maintenance tonight and tomorrow.
@Big 3lack
PB Winterbottom is a fun game isn't it? I think I will buy it soon.
As for me this weekend…Probably some Bad Co. 2 and Demon's Souls. Possibly MAG if the server situation with bad company is dicey. (no pun intended)
@redtailman
Might I suggest Heavy Rain and MLB 10: The Show if you're a baseball fan.
@Nightshade
Which baseball game do you like better this year?
@Ray: MLB 2K10 kinda falls into the mediocre pile actually, but in a strange way. Certain play modes and aspects of the game are really good, and others are really bad. There seems to be no middle ground. I actually really prefer the pitching and hitting in the 2K series to The Show because I like the analog controls, but The Show is clearly much more polished overall. The hard part (as usual) is putting a number on that kind of inconsistency.
BTW, really liking FFXIII. I had some concerns going in about the way they were implementing some things, but it really did seem to work out pretty well. I do fear that even this streamlined version will have a hard time crossing over to the non-FF diehard's though.
@Nightshade
I think you last comment just answered my question.
@RROD: I really like the pitching and hitting mechanics in the 2K series, and the franchise and MLB Today modes are very solid. Online lags pretty badly though and the My Player mode is only good if you're a pitcher. I'm having a hard time adjusting to using the pitching meters in The Show, but the game's overall design is superior, especially when you compare the Road to the Show mode to My Player (and the graphics are light years better). I prefer the booth team in 2K though.
That being said, I might stick with 2K. While "inferior" to The Show, it's actually a competent baseball game this year (which actually speaks volumes about how far the series has come in a short period of time) and it just feels more comfortable to me.
Also, for some reason I see the ball in the batters box better in 2K than in the Show. The camera angles are just a little bit different and the one in 2K just suits my eye better I guess.
@smartguy
Bah! I saw your post i thought it would be affected yesterday that's why i didn't play it. This ruins my plan about that. Maybe i'll just play some Fight Night Round 4 and MW2 then.
@RROD: I don't know if there's been any pitching meter changes per se, I just personally don't adjust well to meters in video games. 2K offers "classic controls" with metered pitching that I just can't get the hang of either, and when I play Tiger Woods I use the analog swing controls too even though they offer a classic metered control scheme. It's all personal preference I think, not a knock on the game itself.
@Tokz
Yesterday they had issues where everyone or most everyone was a level 0 again for a few hours lol. I guess they are seeing more traffic than they had ever anticipated.
@Nightshade386
It might pull it off this time. The more linear narrative is definitely flushing out the characters better this time around. I've only played ~8 hours so far, but I think I understand all but two of the characters.
@Nightshade
Understood. But, the meter is the classic control. The baseball games of old had meters because that was before the analog stick was out. I downloaded the 2K baseball game demo last year and I had a hard time getting the hand of pitching with the analog controls.
@Smarguy
400% more than any Battlefield made before. Also, the servers will be down Saturday and Sunday morning so that they can add more "hardware".
@Smartguy : yea man its hella fun but some of the stages make you want to throw your controller at the television. I have encountered 3 so far and Im on the last level.
@smartguy
I just went on the EA website, they're only going to be down from 12a-4a PST, meaning 2a-6a my time, I'll be able to get some gaming in at least, when i get home.
@Sandrock
That's an amazing number. This game is so much fun. Though I do hate those games where your whole team decides they want to be a sniper and never advance. Maybe they are the MW2 ppl seeing what the game is about?
@Smartguy
In their defense, MW2 has nothing on Bad Co 2's sniping.
@RROD: one of the MANY flaws of last year's iteration of the 2K series was that you didn't get to choose you pitches, you just made the motion and thus sometimes you'd end up throwing the wrong pitch. This year you choose the pitch before you make the motion and it judges the pitches effectiveness based on how well you make the motion. It works much better.
@RRoD: Don't know if you saw or not, but we had a developer interview with the team from The Show on 3/4. Here's the link:
http://www.gamerswishlist.com/news/494-EXCLUSIVE-…
FF XIII here.
I'll be trying to get some of the multiplayer achievements on Gears 2. (I'm such a whore) If anybody wants to join me, let me know. Aside from that, a buddy of mine from college is going through MW2, I I'll probably start playing that this weekend with him… just the campaign, not the multiplayer part. I've heard some crazy things from MW2 multiplayer; things that involve bulletproof banana leaves and limitless tactical airstrikes of death.
-M
@Iceman: I'm down for some Horde Mode on occasion. Hit me up. Same GT as my name here.
… also, sex.
-M
@Iceman: if you scroll on back up to post #4, you'll see that my weekend is already pretty jammed with games I'm trying to play. Although, hopefully there will be other more "interactive" activities for my wife and I as well.
Recently got bioshock, finally. So I will be playing that, finishing my 1000 miles on Dirt, and trying to finish my 13% playthrough of shadow complex.
trying to beat bioshock 2, got to get out of the way before GOW3!
I’ll be playing some Borderlands DLC (my bad last night N8R lol) Fable 2, Sonic (1,2,3 and S&K) and PB Winterbottom, anyone care to join later?
Probably nothing. I leave tomorrow night for Arkansas for my orientation and will be away from home this time for about a month and a half. My hope is that after this I will have a Semi and can be home for a few days after. But this week I have been home I was playing Saints Row. If I DO get the chance to play anything it will be my DS or something on my Palm Pre.
@Nightshade
You know, I bought MLB 10: The Show on release day but I haven’t played it yet. I will definitely play it tonight though. I wasn’t aware of any pitching meter changes but I guess I’ll find out about that tonight.
@ Nightshade;
My GT on XBL is: Silicon Iceman. I’ll send you a message if you’re up for it. Although I don’t know if I can spare too many hours this weekend. My wife is comming back home after a week away on business and we’ll probably have to do a lot of bonding to make up for lost time.
-M
Wow just wow. I rented FFXIII on Tuesday and just now got to play it. I just can't see what the appeal is with those games. Every 2 steps there is a cut scene with and incomprehensible story and characters they act like everyone should already know. Then when you get to a battle its just pressing Auto-battle over and over. I am sure with enough time there will be more abilities, but I gave it over an hour of my time and it was the same thing over and over.
@Slicky: Over the first 25 hours of the game the story slowly opens up and you begin to understand all of the characters. The battle system also becomes much more in depth as you gain abilities and such. Honestly, it's a hard game to explain to someone else. And I completely get that 25 hours of gameplay for things to "open up" may seem absurd to some people. But when you hit about the 20-25 hour mark the battle system really clicks with you and you really get a feel for how it works. At that point the battle system just oozes with awesomeness.
@smartguy/sandrock
I got to play the single player campaign on bf:bc2. I like the control response more for this game that mw2. I'm looking forward to playing the 4 man squad dm. I'll have to rent te 360 version to make my choice of which version to get but it is a buy for me.
@Nightshade
20 to 25 hours is fuggin ridiculous.
@Smartguy: If you're into JRPG's you know that it generally takes time for things to open up. Considering 20-25 hours is 2-3 complete FPS's, I can see how that might not translate over to a lot of gamers.
@ Smartguy;
Welcome to the world of Final Fantasy. I honestly can't think of one Final Fantasy (the main games, not the spinoffs) that didn't require at least a 30-hour commitment. It's almost like a girlfriend. The longest it's taken me to complete a FF game is two years. That was FF 2 (the Japanese IV) for the Super NES back in the day. It was my very first FF game and I got stuck on the part with Milton, the fiend of the earth on top of the mountain and gave up only to pick it up a year later and figure it out after I got a tip to use healing spells on the undead creature. A truly "eureka" moment.
Ah, the things FF teaches us.
OMG! Mr. Padilla; new coffee talk subject: "The things we've learned from playing Final Fantasy games."
-M
@Nightshade
If you used FPS to try and illustrate my attention span then you are sadly mistaken. I think any game that requires that much time to really make itself apparent is not worth my time. MGS took maybe 20 minutes for you to realize what kind of game it was. Grandia and Grandia 2 took perhaps an hour. Skies of Arcadia didn't take quite so long either. Mass Effect didn't take long either.
I understand that the Japanese method of telling stories is different, but limits must be drawn somewhere. FF:IV took some time in the fact there was a significant transition due to story, not by ambiguity.
@Iceman
I have beat most FF games up to FF:X. I never beat the first two. I also beat Chrono Trigger. I understand how JRPGs go. The commitment to beat the game isn't my issue, it's the statement of:
"Over the first 25 hours of the game the story slowly opens up and you begin to understand all of the characters"
which turns me off. Why should I play a game for 25 hours before the ambiguity begins to wane?
Once the Paradigms become available to you, at the end of Chapter 1 (I think) there's more to do with the gameplay. But it's really more about reacting to the situation and choosing tactics on the fly than picking individual actions like previous FF Games. That being said, the chaos on the screen is not necessarily representative of how much control you have over the gameplay. But I keep finding myself unconsciously hitting the action button even when I don't need to because of how fast paced the action feels compared to the actual required button presses in the control scheme.
@Ray: The early storytelling is a bit confusing, but I always feel a bit like a fish out of water for the first few hours of any FF game until threads start getting connected.
@Smartguy The early storytelling isn’t the problem. I’m enjoying that part. I am mildly amused that in the first few hours of this game, I’m doing less than I did in Heavy Rain. There isn’t much at all to the gameplay (yet), but the graphics and music are some of the best in this generation. I’m enjoying the story too, but can see how some people might find it confusing with all the L’Cie, Fal’Cie, and Cie’Th stuff.