The Video Games Thread II - The Resurrection

[Langers]

Do - you'll love it.

Some of the set plays are fabulous - a real sense of scale and drama.

TBH when I heard they were totally rebooting the franchise, I was hoping it'd be like this. The save function is quite clever - it constantly saves itself making it much harder to put down. There isn't much wandering around at all, it's right from one puzzle/fight etc to the next one. Seamlessly done.

 

[WolfiePhil]

Just went onto Amazon to have a look at the pricing for Sim City now that it is released and found a lot of negative reviews already! Did anyone pre-order this and having the same issues?

Users are saying that because the game needs constant Internet connection for the DRM they are pretty much unable to play as the EA servers aren't up to the task!

 

[Bandyrastard]

EA are already on it to fix this issue. I have got it, and after all the updates are installed I can finally play it. Will try and give a review later.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I was tempted to buy sim city on my way home, bit of nostalgia and all that, that issue has sort of put me off now. I don't really want a game to be completely dependant on me having an internet connection for me to be able to play it.

 

[James]

I am so glad it's been delayed on the Mac. I'd be demanding my money back over this BS. I suppose this is what you get when you buy a DRM game.

 

[Hereford Wolf]

That's why you never buy games on release.

Buy them a year later with all the DLC included, no connection problems and a third of the price.

You know it makes sense. (I broke the rule twice - Skyrim & Far Cry 3!)

 

[Carrotdude]

Langers review has convinced me to get Tomb Raider at some point, I absolutely love the Uncharted games. Gonna wait until it's cheaper though I think as I still have things on the go and have other things I still want to get!

 

[Bandyrastard]

Sim City is a great game. You can spend hours playing it. But do not buy it. After spending about 5 hours on my city I decided to take a break. Had an hour off it then I tried to go back on, all servers were full and I had to wait 19 minutes before it tried to reconnect.

Also, I turned it on this morning to find none of my data had saved to the server and I will have to start again. Once it is fixed it will be great, but till then I would steer clear.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Fuck that then, so much for a flashback playing Sim City, if i've paid £30 for a game i want to be able to play it whenever i fancy, not at the whim of my internet connection, what a crock of shit idea.

What's the point in having the game on the disk in the first place?!

 

[Bandyrastard]

It's simple to fix, just turn single player into exactly that. Why it needs to have an internet connection to play single player is beyond me.

Could this be what the new xbox will be like as that will need a 100% internet connection.

 

[Langers]

Completed Tomb Raider last night - absolutely superb game. A decent length too - roughly 10 hours or so I reckon, and there's tons of things left to find and explore on the island once you're finished.

Very much like Uncharted the more you play through it, and whilst it doesn't quite hit the heights of that series (which is a very, very high bar - I'm a huge fan of those games) it's still a very solid 9/10 and oozes quality all the way through (QTE's excepted, but I did notice they seemed to decrease the further into the game I got).

The different weapons are superbly balanced and you level them up as you go along, and I don't think there's any weapon which is drastically better than any other - it's purely down to personal choice. And how much damage you want to make. I REALLY enjoyed using the bow, but the grenade laucher is GREAT fun. As is a headshot with a pistol. Or a close range blast with the shotgun. Or bludgeoning someone with a pickaxe. It's often fun.

The only downside to the game are the aforementioned QTE's and the really shit characters who you suss out within seconds of meeting them. Lara's character is well done, but it's obvious that they spent a while researching her background and just settled on some really bad 2-dimensional token characters to assist her. Sadly that means you don't really care if they die or not and you end up thinking 'fuck them - just find a bloody boat and leave the island'.

But they certainly don't detract from the game, mainly because 85% of the time you're on your own.

It's ace - recommended.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

It's simple to fix, just turn single player into exactly that. Why it needs to have an internet connection to play single player is beyond me.

Could this be what the new xbox will be like as that will need a 100% internet connection.

It's a crock of shit, i'd have no interest in any of the online, helping/ruining other peoples cities aspect of it at all so there's no reason for me to need the internet connection other than their bullshit security measures. What would happen if i was playing on my laptop and we got a power cut, losing my internet connection? Does the game just 'log you out' and you lose everything you've done to that point?

If the same sort of shit is coming in on the new Xbox then i wont be getting one of those, no chance.

 

[Bandyrastard]

I started a new game this morning. After 10 minutes a message popped up saying server maintenance was happening right now and the game turns off.

Boot it back up an hour later and my game has gone again and will need to start a new city again. I also noticed that all my achievements haven't saved and the game thinks I haven't played it once asking me to do the tutorial every time I start up.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Internet reliance FTW!

 

[Langers]

There's no way the next generation of consoles will only work via the internet. Sure, it'll be far more important to get the best out of games but it won't be dependant on it - so many people still prefer single player games, and you only have to look at the likes of Skyrim, Dishonoured, Batman: AA/AC etc etc to know that many developers create games solely for the single player experience.

I expect multiplayer to become even better, but having a solid single player game will always be important for gaming. They won't jeopardise that.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Surely they'll create an offline mode for whatever app boots the internet, Steam does that with FM. You just have to make sure you turn it off.

 

[Bandyrastard]

The reason xbox will do it is thus :

The next Xbox console will reportedly block second-hand gaming thanks to a combination of permanent internet connectivity and game activation codes.

Edge magazine notes that, although the console will still have the capacity to play games issued in physical form, these games could ship with activation codes effectively tethering them to the initial user's account.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

It isn't a multiplayer over single player issue, not for Sim City at least.

It's a new replacement for the old product code activation thing. Instead of that process to prove the authenticity of your game you have a constant connection to a server which makes sure you're using the original copy constantly. It's ridiculous.

How does it work if you wanted to play the game on different computers? Could I install it on both my laptop and desktop or would I need separate copies?

 

[Bandyrastard]

I think it would go through Origin.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

I have managed for years not having my Xbox connected to the Internet. I will be pissed off if future consoles have to have an Internet connection.