The 2010 Video Games Thread

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Sadly, this is becoming the norm for almost every major release. Seems like the companies go barebones, figure out the demand, then setup the servers. I'm at a point where I won't even touch a title till 2 weeks after launch that is primarily online play.

In this case the problem is that it's only a 13 day beta, hard to wait two weeks for that one

Then again, watching the fanboys line up online to scream "it's a beta, it's supposed to break" shows how little it matters I guess. No idiots, betas are meant to "break" the game, not the servers. Both the load & the server capacity needed to handle the load should be pretty predictable.

But I'm getting even more frustrated with it, just a short while after actually going Gold & starting to play online for the first time in my life. Kind of like Lloyd Bridges in Airplane, I picked the wrong time to start.

I get into MW2 a bit, I manage to reach the point of being "not a complete embarassment" ... they release new map packs which brought the hardcore players back & make the game pretty much useless for me since going 1-18 with 17 deaths by melee isn't my idea of fun.

I get into BFBC2 & start thinking "y'know, this is pretty cool" ... we get bit by the apparently randomly occurring (but entirely persistent once it starts) can't-crouch-and-weapons-switch-randomly-bug which hasn't even been acknowledged by the developer. That's now a $60 coaster sitting here, completely unplayable (and the single player wasn't worth squat, even to me as a traditional single-player guy).

I try to backtrack to COD:WAW, figuring even if it is relatively old, it's still newish to me... and discover that not only is it nearly abandoned online but the older matchmaking style/map-pack issue is incredibly annoying.

Halo never grabbed me personally, I found that I liked the concept of both L4D and Bioshock 2 more than I liked actually playing them.

At this point, I've gone from suddenly near-addict player to "tell me again why I would renew that Gold subscription when it expires". Sigh.

[RainMaker]

I'm sort of in the same boat when it comes to online play. I can't play a game enough to where I can compete with the hardcore players. So I enter MW2 and get slaughtered by people who have thousands of hours on their resume.

BFBC2 is fun if you play with people you know. Otherwise it can be tiresome. We should find a group of guys on here willing to enter a squad and play online. You'd be amazed how much easier the game gets when you have 5-6 guys working together in a party. Someone yelling "2 guys at B" or "cover the MCOM in smoke while I set it".

[RainMaker]

I'd also love to see matchmaking take into account how long someone has played. For instance, you should be getting into games with people under 25-50 hours of playing the game. When I started playing the game I was getting killed by guys who literally had 200 hours of gameplay under their belt.

[k0ruptr]

I'm not a first person kind of gamer, I like 3rd person games much better, and I think splinter cell is supposed to be pretty fun online from wat ive heard. maybe u could try going that route.

maybe even Army of Two or something.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

But I'm getting even more frustrated with it, just a short while after actually going Gold & starting to play online for the first time in my life. Kind of like Lloyd Bridges in Airplane, I picked the wrong time to start.

I've never really enjoyed on-line games. The only one I ever played with any consistency was L4D. I loved it. Not only is the whole zombie thing right in my wheel house, pretty much all of my friends were also playing. So, far the few months we played the game we always had at least 4 us on at the same time and even had a few epic 4 vs. 4 match-ups.

Playing with random strangers has no appeal to me. Especially as time wore on and more and more griefers started showing up in L4D to just fuck up your game before signing off.

By the time L4D2 came out, the magic had kind of faded. In fact, I pre-bought it, installed it the day it came out and... have never played it once. My friends similarly lost interest and we haven't rekindled it.

I love co-op games. They are by far my favorite. Even when I play sports games, I'd prefer playing on the same team with my friend than against him. I have played hours of GRAW, GRAW 2, Modern Warfare 2, but have never even once been tempted to fire-up the single player campaign or go on-line (where available). I only play the split-screen co-op options. Good co-op play is hard to pull off with a stranger on-line. It can happen, but most folks out there are tools.

Big death-match or capture the flag type on-line games, however, have no real appeal to me.

[JediKooter]

I heard about Halo: Reach, didn't know it was far enough along that it was in beta. Dang.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I love co-op games. They are by far my favorite. Even when I play sports games, I'd prefer playing on the same team with my friend than against him. I have played hours of GRAW, GRAW 2, Modern Warfare 2, but have never even once been tempted to fire-up the single player campaign or go on-line (where available). I only play the split-screen co-op options. Good co-op play is hard to pull off with a stranger on-line. It can happen, but most folks out there are tools.

I'm in mostly this same boat, except I do play the single player quite a bit. But I've found it is generally much easier to find good strangers to play with in coop modes, especially if the game has other modes that the griefers tend towards (like deathmatch). L4D only has coop, so the griefers only end up there, but I've had some great matches in some of the other games in coop with complete strangers because that's where the folks who want to play with teamwork tend to congregate. But it's also a great place to play with friends; I'm playing some Gears 2 Horde mode right now with co-workers and having a blast.

So I'd suggest finding some good coop games, then find some folks you'd like to game with, and you'll get quite a bit of gaming out of that Gold Live account.

I can't wait for U-Verse to get in this area so I can get a reasonable upload speed and start hosting again, then I might have to host some FOFC GRAW2 coop

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I've never really enjoyed on-line games.

Glad to know that I'm at least not the only person on earth who can say that.

It was my son's constant prodding about "you gotta just try this" that finally broke me down & frankly, there still are few & far between I've enjoyed.

The learning curve was soooo steep on some of them, for me as a non-shooter player & doubly as a non-MP'er, that it was brutal. The only way I ever managed to get into even MW2 was seeing incremental improvement after surviving about 20 levels of what amount to masochism
(I believe I was on the losing side of something close to 200 consecutive matches, regardless of type, before finally winning one). I say "even MW2 because that's what I ended up playing the most hours on, mostly in the middle of the night.

Oddly though, I found that I actually enjoyed playing with strangers more than playing with people I know. I think that's mostly a function of me knowing how fully I suck & not wanting to be an albatross to someone I know as opposed to a rank stranger (and even that actually detracts from my enjoyment to some degree).

The biggest surprise to me playing online though? The relatively low amount of asshats I encountered compared to the number I expected to find.
I mean, yeah, there are people who annoy me with their playing style or use of outright cheap exploits but as far as personal asshattery, I might have run across one or two every 24 hours of game play. I figured it would be much much worse than that (remember, I ain't known for my tolerance level ).

I only play the split-screen co-op options. Good co-op play is hard to pull off with a stranger on-line. It can happen, but most folks out there are tools.

Best I've been able to figure, split-screen co-op games are pretty few & far between. Pity too, really, at least as far as this dad-of-a-gamer is concerned.

And yeah, solid tactical play (or even compatible play style) is awfully hard to find with strangers, to the extent that I can actually name the specific instances where I found myself playing & thinking "damn, we're really good together". That's almost like a Holy Grail thing in & of itself I think.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

I heard about Halo: Reach, didn't know it was far enough along that it was in beta. Dang.

Yep, 13 days (IIRC) and then a Fall '10 release. I dunno about the gameplay but it sure is pretty.

While I'm posting on H:R again anyway, I'll mention that my son finally got to play for about 30-40 minutes .... and then things went wonky again & the matchmaking reverted back to refusing to load.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Yep, 13 days (IIRC) and then a Fall '10 release. I dunno about the gameplay but it sure is pretty.

While I'm posting on H:R again anyway, I'll mention that my son finally got to play for about 30-40 minutes .... and then things went wonky again & the matchmaking reverted back to refusing to load.

Crazy. Maybe the days have gone by faster than I remember. It seems like I was just reading something about it back in March. Cool though. I have enjoyed the Halo franchise quite a bit and have been playing Halo Wars a lot lately.

Cool, at least got to try it out for a little while!

[spleen1015]

StarCraft 2 on July 27th!

[JonInMiddleGA]

According to the Bungie website:

"...our test team just broke away from an epic struggle with some molten server metal and 600,000 players to deliver us some quick tips to help you get games going a little bit faster.

1. Don't restart your search, even if load times are long. The initial load for map and game type will take a really long time, which is super lame, but once you've made the connection, the files will be cached to your hard drive and the next time you load to same map/game type, it should be nice and fast.
2. Don't reboot or reload the beta. It won't help and it will actually clear your cache, making your wait times much longer.
3. Don't leave your party. Since everybody in the party has to load the same files, your wait is tied to other player's download process as well. Stick with the same crew and things should iron out.

Rest assured that we're working on the issues and as soon as things start to smooth out, we'll let you know."

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I'd also love to see matchmaking take into account how long someone has played. For instance, you should be getting into games with people under 25-50 hours of playing the game. When I started playing the game I was getting killed by guys who literally had 200 hours of gameplay under their belt.

Do they not have that on some of these big FPS releases? I honestly haven't really played any of them. I'm a huge Warhawk fan (put in about 300-350 hours over 3 years and servers are still going). That game has matches that have a 'maximum rank' limit that did basically what you are talking about. Allows for four different levels of gaming depending on your experience level.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Do they not have that on some of these big FPS releases?

Not on most of them, at least not that I've played, although it appears that something like that will be a part of the final release version of Halo:Reach with the introduction of "seasons" & "leagues"

There's a very small amount of it (like through Lvl 10, which doesn't take very long at all) in MW2 and IIRC in COD:Waw as well, but on the whole there's basically a quick "absolute noob" sub-section and often a "uber-players" levels but there's not much (or anything) that keep the ubers from beating the crap out of the masses in the middle.

[spleen1015]

I'm in the same boat as you Jon. I have a couple of friends who play MW2 and they are fairly decent. I have played with them on numerous occasions and I rarely have more then 5 or 6 kills in a game and I die a lot.

It is not very fun dying all of the time and you have a lot of idle time waiting to respawn.

I'll play WoW instead and enjoy my time more.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Best I've been able to figure, split-screen co-op games are pretty few & far between. Pity too, really, at least as far as this dad-of-a-gamer is concerned.

Yeah, they are. I try to keep tabs on them, since I never fire up my Xbox 360 unless I have a friend over.

Some good ones for the 360 that I have played are:
GRAW 1 & 2
Gears of War 1 & 2
Modern Warfare 2
Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Borderlands

Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

[k0ruptr]

The humble indie bundle (pay what you want)

The Humble Indie Bundle (pay what you want for five awesome indie games)

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

The humble indie bundle (pay what you want)

The Humble Indie Bundle (pay what you want for five awesome indie games)

Did they get the Rappin' Duke to do the voiceover?

[k0ruptr]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Did they get the Rappin' Duke to do the voiceover?

lol, I thought it was pretty clever

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Yeah, they are. I try to keep tabs on them, since I never fire up my Xbox 360 unless I have a friend over.

Some good ones for the 360 that I have played are:
GRAW 1 & 2
Gears of War 1 & 2
Modern Warfare 2
Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Borderlands

Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

I have to admit that I really wish MW2 had split-screen online play (instead of only s-s offline/local play). My son & I are on the opposite ends of the skill spectrum but we're also almost totally reversed on style, I think we might actually be decent together because our strengths & weakeness are so opposite.

To your list, you could also add L4D 1 & 2, Halo 3 & ODST (not sure about the others, never tried them myself), and COD:WAW both campaign & Nazi Zombies (I've been forced to play the latter with my son way more than I care for).

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

lol, I thought it was pretty clever

Clever, yes. But I still expected him to break out with, "Da-ha, Daaaa-ha. Da-ha-ha-hahahaaaaaaaaaa!"

[k0ruptr]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Clever, yes. But I still expected him to break out with, "Da-ha, Daaaa-ha. Da-ha-ha-hahahaaaaaaaaaa!"

LMAO, that wouldba been more than awesome hahaha

"I'm talkin, here and now
Later for the cattle and rustlin the cow
If I had a chance to do a repeat
You can bet your sweet dippy I'd be rappin to the beat"

[JonInMiddleGA]

Incidentally, after playing Halo:Reach beta for about an hour last night, albeit in fits & starts with the server issues, I'll throw my two cents worth here.

Speaking as someone between Halo total noob & neophyte (i.e. I've played it but probably less than 15 hours ever & almost all of that on ODST), Reach feels very much to me like MW2 with a different skin. Almost identical in fact, virtually nothing to distinguish the two games to me other than the visuals.

My son argued with me that the same could be said for pretty much all FPS's, I disagree but don't know that I can defend my disagreement with anything more than vague things like "some of them just feel at least a little different to me" sort of stuff.

For him, the prospect of the full release of H:R is still a VERY big deal but I think that's based largely on the Halo series being the first FPS he really got into. For me, it's pretty much "eh, it's okay" since MW2 was the first FPS I ever spent any significant time with.

YMMV, just figured I'd throw the impressions out there.

[JetsIn06]

The Halo games have always had a skill/ranking system in place to have you play with people who are similar to you.

In Halo 3, there were 50 levels. They were based on skill, not time played. So if you suck, you couldn't just play forever and be a level 50. For example, I got to 41 in the Team Doubles playlist. But eventually, I wasn't good enough to be a level 41, so I ended up a level 39. It's a very smart system.

Of course, you have the idiots who are selling and buying level 50's. Why? I have no idea. You don't get anything special other than a good ass-kicking when you play.

You also have the people who will buy a new live account so they can beat up on early level players. But again, eventually the system will bring them up to the level they should be at.

[JetsIn06]

Also, I had trouble with the beta early on as it disconnected quite a bit, but since 7PM last night I haven't had one issue.

FWIW, I think the game rocks.

[JetsIn06]

Oh yea...that made me think of another thing that I haven't tried yet but looks very cool.

In Reach, there are 4 or 5 settings. My girlfriend is on the XBOX so I can't look now, but some are things like "Teamwork," "Chattiness," "Trash-Talk," things like that. For example, for Teamwork, the options are "Team player," "Balanced," and "Lone Wolf."

The game will then match you up with people who have similar settings. Will the trash-talkers and asshats purposefully join the "Team Players" and "Non-Talkative" players? Maybe, but I do like the concept of it.

[k0ruptr]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Yeah, they are. I try to keep tabs on them, since I never fire up my Xbox 360 unless I have a friend over.

Some good ones for the 360 that I have played are:
GRAW 1 & 2
Gears of War 1 & 2
Modern Warfare 2
Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Borderlands

Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

have you tried army of two?

[spleen1015]

I have never understood the draw of Halo. I know that the last 3-4 versions of COD have been big hits because of MP, but what about Halo? I have never known it to be a big MP game.

I played through the SP campaign of the original and it pales in comparison to Metroid Prime, yet Halo is huge and Metroid Prime is laughed at on the same scale.

[JetsIn06]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

I have never understood the draw of Halo. I know that the last 3-4 versions of COD have been big hits because of MP, but what about Halo? I have never known it to be a big MP game.

I played through the SP campaign of the original and it pales in comparison to Metroid Prime, yet Halo is huge and Metroid Prime is laughed at on the same scale.

Halo is the type of game that can be enjoyed by everyone. There's a VERY deep story there if you're willing to look. If you just want to blow things up, that works too.

It's kind of funny, because in my opinion, I never understood the knock on Halo's story. To be fair though, I'm the guy who has read the novels and all that dorky stuff.

[JetsIn06]

And Halo has been a huge MP game.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

I have never understood the draw of Halo. I know that the last 3-4 versions of COD have been big hits because of MP, but what about Halo? I have never known it to be a big MP game

Umm ... even I knew that the Halo series had the most played online 360 game for pretty much ever until MW2 finally toppled it (and even then, not by a huge margin even vs a game that was over 2 yrs old at the time of MW2's release). Taken as a group instead of individually I don't believe any game/games could even come close to Halo in either sheer number of unique players nor in total hours played. It's basically been the WoW of XBox Live

[JonInMiddleGA]

Maybe I missed it but apparently last week was the debut of the official trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops, from Treyarch.

Looks to be set in the Cold War era with missions/episodes in locales including Russia, Cuba, and Vietnam.

[DaddyTorgo]

ORLY?

on pc, or only on consoles?

answered my own question. available for PC also.

[Greyroofoo]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

StarCraft 2 on July 27th!

What year?

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Greyroofoo

What year?

Same year as Duke Nukem Forever...

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

have you tried army of two?

I haven't yet. I have been meaning to give it a try. I heard some interesting things about the latest one in terms of how they do co-op.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

Halo is the type of game that can be enjoyed by everyone. There's a VERY deep story there if you're willing to look. If you just want to blow things up, that works too.

It's kind of funny, because in my opinion, I never understood the knock on Halo's story. To be fair though, I'm the guy who has read the novels and all that dorky stuff.

Probably one of the better story lines a game has had in years in my opinion. Plus, I think it helps if you like the sci-fi genre.

I've also read the books too and have a couple of the audio books on my iPod instead of music.

[JetsIn06]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Probably one of the better story lines a game has had in years in my opinion. Plus, I think it helps if you like the sci-fi genre.

I've also read the books too and have a couple of the audio books on my iPod instead of music.

Have you read this yet?

Ascendant Justice

It's a good example of how you can find an incredible story if you want to. "The Terminals" in Halo 3 are out of the way. If you want to ignore them, you can. But if you do decide to read them, you're in for a treat.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

Have you read this yet?

Ascendant Justice

It's a good example of how you can find an incredible story if you want to. "The Terminals" in Halo 3 are out of the way. If you want to ignore them, you can. But if you do decide to read them, you're in for a treat.

No I haven't read that, but, I do seem to remember something about the terminals though. Thanks! Now I have something to read for a little while.

[stevew]

I suppose I'll pick up Halo:Reach if it comes with some free months of Live. I haven't turned on my Xbox in about 6 months, I hope it still works.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Kenshin Kawakami hurls perfect game (sorta) *| ajc.com

You mean the same Kenshin Kawakami who has zero wins and a 5.47 ERA for the Atlanta Braves this year? Yes -- in name only.

The computerized Kawakami did, in fact, toss a perfect game under the shrewd guidance of a 24-year-old retirement account specialist from Semmes, Ala. The feat earned Wade McGilberry $1 million for throwing the first verified perfect game in 2K Sports' "Major League Baseball 2K10."

"I was playing as the Braves against the Mets, pitching as Kawakami," McGilberry told ESPN.com. "The way [the contest] worked, you could only choose the real-life games and lineups from that day. I mainly chose the Braves because they were the local team. I'm a White Sox fan, so I'm not crazy about the Braves. But I'm even less crazy about the Mets."

McGilberry said his wife, Katie, convinced him to enter the contest.

"A few weeks before the competition, I saw an ad on Xbox Live for it," he told ESPN. "I went to her and said, ‘Honey, can I go out and buy this game? I might win a million dollars.' We don't normally buy new games. She said, ‘Yeah, that sounds like a good opportunity.' "

McGilberry said he had played the game only five times before. "The sixth game it just happened," he said. "Almost magically."

Any tips for fellow gamers?

"I didn't try to overpower hitters," he said. "I looked at the hot and cold zones, and I would actually never throw it over the middle. Just stay around the corners, keep it low, throw it weaker so they would be more likely to swing at it. I got a lot of ground outs."

Sounds like good advice for Kawakami, who's 7-19 in his Braves career. For the record, the real Kawakami lost that April 23rd start against the Mets, allowing six hits and three runs in six innings pitched.

[Atocep]

Figures that it would happen against the Mets....

[DaddyTorgo]

lol

[MrDNA]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs2

FWIW the preorder deal on MW2 kept going up as well, and each time it happened I got an email saying I qualified for the new deal. Haven't gotten one yet for RDR but I expect it to happen again.

I never got an e-mail. Checked my amazon account and it was still showing the old deal, so I cancelled it and re-ordered. Also, amazon is now offering some sort of exclusive in-game weapon. I love price wars

[Big Fo]

The last two paragraphs in the EDGE review of Super Mario Galaxy 2 make the game sound pretty awesome. They gave it a 10/10 btw.

That desire to experiment is this astonishing game’s most dangerous achievement. As the adventures soars onwards, its various spaces become increasingly warped, and the final levels switch the emphasis from perfecting the 3D platformer to deconstructing it. Mario is rubbing up against the limits of the form as much as the edge of the universe here, and you’ll see worlds where ledges hang sparse in the air, and where ghosts plucked from the entire sweep of videogame history emerge in half-familiar clumpings of cubes or a nimble arrangement of switches.

Marvel at the pieces, but appreciate the whole. This isn’t a game that redefines the genre: this is one that rolls it up and locks it away. We’ve come so far, from stepping on mushrooms to drop-kicking meteors into the heart of the sun; Galaxy 2 offers a new understanding of where we’ve been, a new sense of wonder at where we’ll go next.

full review here

Only a few more weeks of waiting.

[MJ4H]

Well thanks for that. I thought I could maybe avoid getting fired up about this one so I didn't have to insta-buy it.

No chance of that now.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Well thanks for that. I thought I could maybe avoid getting fired up about this one so I didn't have to insta-buy it.

No chance of that now.

If you're planning to instabuy, Amazon is offering a $20 video game credit on a preorder.

[MJ4H]

I'm going to try not to. We'll see if that works out. Thanks though.

[k0ruptr]

UPDATE: As an official EA Sports weblog post specifies: "With your Online Pass, you’ll have access to multiplayer online play, group features like online dynasty and leagues, user created content, and bonus downloadable content for your game including, for example, a new driver in Tiger." Gamasutra has confirmed that if you don't have an Online Pass, you will not get access to any online modes.

EA just announced that from now on they are going to make online access in there games through a one time use code/ OR you can purchase it for 10 dollars to try and prevent used game sales. I understand where they are coming from (although I think they make enough money) but since they don't profit from used games, i guess I understand. But this totally sucks for people like me who usually wait 1-3 months and buy the games used cause I ain't rich, and saving 10 bucks a title can really add up and help.

Anyway, basically EA Sports is going to start only allowing online access in its games with one time use codes that come with a new game or you can pay 10 bucks to get online if you buy it used (basically your screwed and have to cough up 10 bucks if you buy the game used if you wanna get online)


reading back through my post I realize I can't type for shit today and its hard to understand, so here is the article:

Gamasutra - News - EA Sports Introduces 'Online Pass' For Premium Content, Online Play

[DeToxRox]

Apparently IGN gave Red Dead Redemption a 9.75. To compare that to another new game, the new Mario got a 9.25.