2011 Video Games Thread

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Any of these issues with Battlefield 3 also showing up in the console version? I need to make a Best Buy run after work and am wondering if I should pass on this or not.

It's an EA/Battlfield release. You won't be able to play it without server issues for a couple weeks.

[Scoobz0202]

Yea. Unfortunately for BF3 in my case, by the time they have it ready I will be knee deep in Uncharted 3, Skyrim, and Batman. Or, Uncharted 3 and Batman, because who am I kidding, Skyrim will probably be fucked at launch, too.

[JonInMiddleGA]

MP servers (360) are down for at least most of the past hour. Despite the reviews, my son decides to try single player since he can't play multi.

Words fail me.

The single player has to be some of the better unintentional comedy I've seen in a long time. This isn't just bad, it's extremely funny bad. Worst AI since ... hell, I don't I've personally seen a dumber shooter AI. Can literally walk up to bad guys, stand beside them while they shoot at your NPC squad, kill them when the mood strikes you. Flank the bad guys, leisurely kill them in quantity while they never turn around. Shoot but not kill 2-3 baddies, they stand & stare at you while bleeding, kill 2 others then turn around and finish off the wounded. Never mind that they're still armed, they aren't going to bother to shoot at you as you stroll past them.

Dead enemies that just sort of stand there until they disappear (instead of falling to the ground first) are a nice touch too.

[Scoobz0202]

The fucked up thing is that I went back to playing BF2 earlier tonight on PC, because well, it's amazing and I don't necessarily need BF3.

I got booted by Punkbuster for the first time in ever.. again..and again..and again... Now not only can I not play BF3 but apparently my BF2 is broken.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

MP servers (360) are down for at least most of the past hour. Despite the reviews, my son decides to try single player since he can't play multi.

Words fail me.

The single player has to be some of the better unintentional comedy I've seen in a long time. This isn't just bad, it's extremely funny bad.

[SirFozzie]

Interesting: Apparently Blizzard is bringing out the big guns to try to reduce subscriber drops for WoW. If you sign an agreement as a current subscriber that you will not drop the service for a year (and you do not have to pay up front, you can stay on your current plan), you get free in game stuff, guaranteed Beta access to the next expansion..

and a free copy of Diablo III.

[JonInMiddleGA]

BF3 campaign hilarity continues.

At some point your character needs to go through a door (which only an NPC can open of course). You wait patiently on the stairs, a couple of NPC's pass you ... and phase right through the door. A moment or so later, one of them phases back through the door & opens it for you per the script.

Darned decent of them to remember that you're unable to turn doorknobs & come back and get you.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

The fucked up thing is that I went back to playing BF2 earlier tonight on PC, because well, it's amazing and I don't necessarily need BF3.

I got booted by Punkbuster for the first time in ever.. again..and again..and again... Now not only can I not play BF3 but apparently my BF2 is broken.

At least punkbuster is keeping cheaters away...

[mckerney]

It's ridiculous PunkBuster is still being used, especially for a game like Battlefield 3. With Origin already monitoring everything installed and running on your PC plus Battlelog you'd think they could develop their own anticheat that actually works and doesn't have so many false positives.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Interesting: Apparently Blizzard is bringing out the big guns to try to reduce subscriber drops for WoW. If you sign an agreement as a current subscriber that you will not drop the service for a year (and you do not have to pay up front, you can stay on your current plan), you get free in game stuff, guaranteed Beta access to the next expansion..

and a free copy of Diablo III.

There's only so much WoW can do as they get closer to level 100 content. They are already adding a Pokemon aspect to the game. With TOR coming out, it's going to take a hit. The good news for them is that they already have their next MMO in development. I wouldn't be surprised if it drops, and WoW goes F2P.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by mckerney

It's ridiculous PunkBuster is still being used, especially for a game like Battlefield 3. With Origin already monitoring everything installed and running on your PC plus Battlelog you'd think they could develop their own anticheat that actually works and doesn't have so many false positives.

Up until earlier this year I had been out of the PC gaming loop for close to 6 years maybe (outside of text sims) due to finances and what not. But I actually recall when I first started playing BF2 on PC this year being sort of shocked it used PB. I remember playing Counter Strike and I believe America's Army used PB and never did I feel like PB was worth a damn then.

[wade moore]

The above screenshot is one of the reasons I moved to exclusive console gaming awhile ago.

I got BF3 yesterday. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) for me, my XBOX Live account got hacked a couple of weeks ago. MS has a process for getting it cleared up, but it takes 25-30 business days.

So, SP only for me. So, played about an hour last night (I don't get a ton of gaming time) and really enjoyed the mechanics. Yes, the AI is pretty dumb - but I can already tell I will like the MP way better than I did for CoD.

I played a LOT of BF2. I also played CoD:MW2. BF2 was certainly more up my alley, and I believe BF3 will be the same.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

BF3 campaign hilarity continues.

At some point your character needs to go through a door (which only an NPC can open of course). You wait patiently on the stairs, a couple of NPC's pass you ... and phase right through the door. A moment or so later, one of them phases back through the door & opens it for you per the script.

Darned decent of them to remember that you're unable to turn doorknobs & come back and get you.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by wade moore

The above screenshot is one of the reasons I moved to exclusive console gaming awhile ago.

I got BF3 yesterday. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) for me, my XBOX Live account got hacked a couple of weeks ago. MS has a process for getting it cleared up, but it takes 25-30 business days.

So, SP only for me. So, played about an hour last night (I don't get a ton of gaming time) and really enjoyed the mechanics. Yes, the AI is pretty dumb - but I can already tell I will like the MP way better than I did for CoD.

I played a LOT of BF2. I also played CoD:MW2. BF2 was certainly more up my alley, and I believe BF3 will be the same.

It's just as easy to hack the consoles now unfortunately. It's likely more prevalent too since there's more of a market for console hacks now.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Atocep

It's just as easy to hack the consoles now unfortunately. It's likely more prevalent too since there's more of a market for console hacks now.

I prefer to stay naive and believe it's not just as easy .

Honestly, I'm not good enough that I really care THAT much because I won't be competing with those guys in points/etc anyways.

[RainMaker]

I think the game looks like dogshit on the consoles. Going to try it on the PC. I get that it's cool to be able to see the bullet in the chamber on the gun and a blade of grass up close. But anything at a distance is a blurry piece of crap with shitty framerate.

Bad Company 2 was a better game on the console. Much better.

[Scoobz0202]

It's not even close, RainMaker.

Even with BF2, I'd play it on PS3 with my buddies then hop on the PC and fire it up and sometimes I'd be like, "woah...forgot this it what it was supposed to look like."

[JonInMiddleGA]

So if I understand the various mumbo jumbo correctly, I'd have to install & run "Origin" (basically EA's in-house version of Steam) just to be able to create an ID that would allow me to log into this "battlelog" thing that's being hyped in the margin of the main menu on 360?

Right?

[Mota]

It's brutal, because my Xbox Live profile is on my old EA account, not the one I currently use. There's no way to transfer your Xbox Live profile from one account to another.

Especially BS considering that I just want to play the game on my 360. Why do I need to think about this at all?

[EagleFan]

Just picked up Arkham City today. Quick early opinion but it seems great so far (though there seem to be some lag issues).

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm genuinely bewildered at how consistently EA fucks up major releases like BF3. It's not surprising, I mean we had so many problem with BF2 that we sold it & eventually repurchased used many months later, but damn ... you know how many preorders you had, they had to have an idea of the total sales in the first 48 and yet the longest we've been able to stay connected is just under 2 hours before the servers go down completely & the most common response is "unable to connect to EA servers".

I don't get how they can fuck this up after a gazillion dollar marketing blitz (short of simply acknowledging they don't give a shit once they have your money) & I've even more astonished that consumers seem willing to let them get away with it.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Matthean

There's only so much WoW can do as they get closer to level 100 content. They are already adding a Pokemon aspect to the game. With TOR coming out, it's going to take a hit. The good news for them is that they already have their next MMO in development. I wouldn't be surprised if it drops, and WoW goes F2P.

This is what I don't understand. Even if the numbers I've heard are accurate and they have lost 1/4 of their subscriptions, that still leaves them with what, 9,000,000 subscriptions? Even if ALL of them are paying the 6-month-at-a-time price of $12.99 or whatever, that's $116 million PER MONTH. Why in the blue hell would they EVER go to free to play? The Old Republic is just another of the contenders. Do they have a leg up on everyone else as a competitor to WoW? Hell yes - the Star Wars brand is huge, and Bioware is a big deal. Even so, WoW is a ridiculously difficult nut to crack, and I don't expect it to happen any time soon.

[spleen1015]

There were only about 6 million subs in North America and Europe. They've lost 1 to 2 million of those 6 million.

I think they're freaking out and trying to get them back. I am 1 of those 1-2 million that won't be coming back any time soon. SWTOR is my WoW replacement.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I'm genuinely bewildered at how consistently EA fucks up major releases like BF3. It's not surprising, I mean we had so many problem with BF2 that we sold it & eventually repurchased used many months later, but damn ... you know how many preorders you had, they had to have an idea of the total sales in the first 48 and yet the longest we've been able to stay connected is just under 2 hours before the servers go down completely & the most common response is "unable to connect to EA servers".

I don't get how they can fuck this up after a gazillion dollar marketing blitz (short of simply acknowledging they don't give a shit once they have your money) & I've even more astonished that consumers seem willing to let them get away with it.

When I called customer support to try and get some help with my issue the guy mentioned their server load. Keep in mind this is some tech support guy so it may be bullshit. He mentioned that they expected 850K people for the beta when 8+ million people downloaded it and that the release was similar in unexpected server load.

First, how the fuck do you think a game getting this much coverage is going to get less then a million downloads for a free two week sample of a beta across three platforms. Second, how have they not been scrambling the past few weeks to get their shit straight after their expectations were blown out of the water.

Either the guy was feeding me bullshit which is likely, or EA/Dice really are dumb as hell about this kind of shit.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

When I called customer support to try and get some help with my issue the guy mentioned their server load. Keep in mind this is some tech support guy so it may be bullshit. He mentioned that they expected 850K people for the beta when 8+ million people downloaded it and that the release was similar in unexpected server load.

First, how the fuck do you think a game getting this much coverage is going to get less then a million downloads for a free two week sample of a beta across three platforms. Second, how have they not been scrambling the past few weeks to get their shit straight after their expectations were blown out of the water.

Either the guy was feeding me bullshit which is likely, or EA/Dice really are dumb as hell about this kind of shit.

The beta server load alone was several million, even my game-hating wife could have done a better job anticipating demand for the full product (especially if you gave her the pre-order figures). No chance in hell that every single person in the EA food chain is that stupid, this is nothing more nor less than a big case of "we got your money, we really don't give a major fuck, we know you're compulsively stupid"

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

This is what I don't understand. Even if the numbers I've heard are accurate and they have lost 1/4 of their subscriptions, that still leaves them with what, 9,000,000 subscriptions? Even if ALL of them are paying the 6-month-at-a-time price of $12.99 or whatever, that's $116 million PER MONTH. Why in the blue hell would they EVER go to free to play? The Old Republic is just another of the contenders. Do they have a leg up on everyone else as a competitor to WoW? Hell yes - the Star Wars brand is huge, and Bioware is a big deal. Even so, WoW is a ridiculously difficult nut to crack, and I don't expect it to happen any time soon.

I don't think free to play necessarily means less money for Blizzard.

League of Legends has become its biggest competitor. It's not a MMO, but it does appeal to a lot of the same players. WoW's decline in subscriber numbers lines up perfectly with LoL's explosion. The free to play format LoL has probably makes them far more money than they would make selling their game for $30-$50 in retail. I doubt they're bringing in WoW's numbers as far as revenue goes, but it also isn't a MMO so it's not something that pulls you in for several hours at a time and puts that carrot in front of you.

WoW is still in good shape at this moment, but their player base is in sharp decline and the biggest MMO release since WoW came out in '04 is less than 2 months away. Unless Bioware completely drops the ball WoW is going to lose even more subscribers.

Free to play with micro-transactions just makes sense when you look at how multiplayer games are evolving along with the fact that they have another MMO in development. The odds of them getting a significant number of people to pay for 2 MMO subscriptions is pretty slim. Getting people to pay for 1 game and then play the other casually while paying money for things like mounts, pets, certain items for leveling, ect is more realistic.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

I think the game looks like dogshit on the consoles. Going to try it on the PC. I get that it's cool to be able to see the bullet in the chamber on the gun and a blade of grass up close. But anything at a distance is a blurry piece of crap with shitty framerate.

Bad Company 2 was a better game on the console. Much better.

Have to completely disagree with the "dogshit" comment.

Perhaps it's not as nice as the PC, but dogshit is just silly.

[mckerney]

A Note On Battlelog And Battlefield 3′s SP | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Earlier today I mentioned, via the tweetohorn, that I was having trouble launching Battlefield 3′s single-player because the Battlelog website was offline or something. My confusion came about because the game’s single player directs you to a web page to launch itself. But it turns out that actually you just have to switch Origin to “offline” mode to get it running. Ha. Yeah. It’s a feature, you see.

Sigh.

It should also be mentioned that while all the stat tracking and stuff is a-mazing, Battlelog also the server browser, for some reason. Yep. The server browser for the game, is in your internet browser, and is a website. Not that we’re unused to external apps, but… well it’s no All-Seeing Eye, I tell you that. I miss you, All-Seeing Eye.

[EagleFan]

I made a serious jump tonight. FM 2012, Rugby Challenge and MLB 2k11.

Tried Rugby Challenge. So far it seems fun as hell but the problem is that I have no freaking clue what I am doing. So far learning a couple things but it will be a steep learning curve.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Originally Posted by Atocep

I don't think free to play necessarily means less money for Blizzard.

League of Legends has become its biggest competitor. It's not a MMO, but it does appeal to a lot of the same players. WoW's decline in subscriber numbers lines up perfectly with LoL's explosion. The free to play format LoL has probably makes them far more money than they would make selling their game for $30-$50 in retail. I doubt they're bringing in WoW's numbers as far as revenue goes, but it also isn't a MMO so it's not something that pulls you in for several hours at a time and puts that carrot in front of you.

WoW is still in good shape at this moment, but their player base is in sharp decline and the biggest MMO release since WoW came out in '04 is less than 2 months away. Unless Bioware completely drops the ball WoW is going to lose even more subscribers.

Free to play with micro-transactions just makes sense when you look at how multiplayer games are evolving along with the fact that they have another MMO in development. The odds of them getting a significant number of people to pay for 2 MMO subscriptions is pretty slim. Getting people to pay for 1 game and then play the other casually while paying money for things like mounts, pets, certain items for leveling, ect is more realistic.

Even with another MMO in development, I can't imagine that Blizzard would do ANYTHING to mess with its bell cow. Can you imagine how the fanbase would react if they decided to do anything that would imply that they aren't going to be putting as much effort into WoW? I mean, you have people that have over 7 years invested in this game. Flipping it to a freemium model would be tantamount to suicide, in my eyes.

After very brief perusal of numbers, it seems that there are four types of MMO:

1. Many Millions of subscribers - WoW
2. ~300k subscribers - Rift, Aion, EVE, LotRO
3. ~100k subscribers - City of Heroes/Villains, Star Trek Online
4. The ones that don't make it.

I don't know how they're going to handle multiple MMO's being out at the same time (I can't see people paying for multiple MMOs either, and I can't imagine they think so either), but I don't see them changing WoW until something far more drastic than what we've seen so far happens.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

This is what I don't understand. Even if the numbers I've heard are accurate and they have lost 1/4 of their subscriptions, that still leaves them with what, 9,000,000 subscriptions? Even if ALL of them are paying the 6-month-at-a-time price of $12.99 or whatever, that's $116 million PER MONTH. Why in the blue hell would they EVER go to free to play? The Old Republic is just another of the contenders. Do they have a leg up on everyone else as a competitor to WoW? Hell yes - the Star Wars brand is huge, and Bioware is a big deal. Even so, WoW is a ridiculously difficult nut to crack, and I don't expect it to happen any time soon.

Just pointing out when I said "it drops" I mean Blizzard's next MMO which is going to be awhile until it comes out since the only thing known about it is that it's a new IP. F2P looks to be the model where a number of MMOs actually make more money. It's why a number of MMOs are switching to a hybrid model.

[jeff061]

Picked Limbo up off Steam. I'm not yet sure it's worth the 8 or so bucks, we'll see how long it keeps me busy. But the art and cool factor is way off the charts.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by jeff061

Picked Limbo up off Steam. I'm not yet sure it's worth the 8 or so bucks, we'll see how long it keeps me busy. But the art and cool factor is way off the charts.

Defnitely think it's worth that.. I enjoyed it.

[DeToxRox]

Uncharted 3 reviews look pretty fucking good eh

[rowech]

Originally Posted by DeToxRox

Uncharted 3 reviews look pretty fucking good eh

This game series is fantastic and I can't wait for this one. Can't find any nice deals on it but so be it.

[Scoobz0202]

You should see some of the internet outrage over the Eurogamer review. It's hilarious.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

You should see some of the internet outrage over the Eurogamer review. It's hilarious.

The outrage of over it was ridiculous. The review summed up the series for me though. I can 100% see why it gets great reviews and why people love it so, but the Eurogamer review is exactly how I see the games.

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

You should see some of the internet outrage over the Eurogamer review. It's hilarious.

Agreed. So many people were upset by a positive review not being positive enough and they hadn't even played the damn game.

[Scoobz0202]

But dudes.. the meta score.. the meta score.

[mckerney]

Can't wait to play Uncharted 3, after which my anticipation will turn to Uncharted Racing!

[tyketime]

Originally Posted by jeff061

Picked Limbo up off Steam. I'm not yet sure it's worth the 8 or so bucks, we'll see how long it keeps me busy. But the art and cool factor is way off the charts.

Limbo is one of my all-time no expectation but thoroughly high entertainment value games. And that was at $15. I just read an article where they are working on the next game - not a sequel.

[Lonnie]

I figured I'd answer a PM here since it might benefit more than one person. The question was does an acoustic electric work well with Rocksmith. I just played two songs with my Martin acoustic electric and it played just fine. It detected all the notes with no problem.

I will stick to my electrics as they are a little easier to play the higher fret stuff, but if that's all I had it would work fine.

Also if anyone needs a cheap electric, I have a SX Hawk Strat copy I'll let go for $80. I was going to put some upgrades into it to make it more like a strat, but I picked up a maple neck Mexican strat that I am going to do that to. The thing is brand new and sitting in my closet in it's gig bag.

http://www.rondomusic.com/hawkrn3ts.html

[JonInMiddleGA]

FWIW, the spawn system in BF3 seems to suck royal ass (at least on 360). I've lost count of how many times I've spawned into a virtual insta-kill, often as not right in front of someone who cuts my throat. And those are random spawns, not spawning on a squad mate who happened to be in close combat or anything.

I'm developing the same feeling about BF3 that I got with BF2: it's probably a better game than MW, but it's not anywhere near being as much fun to play. And BF2 seems like a better experience than 3 to me.

The reduction in destructible buildings hurts the latest incarnation, the frequent clipping/graphic issues is annoying, the head shots are still cranked up waaaay too high. On the bright side, at least shotguns no longer appear to have long-range sniper capability and the RPG's are noticeably more useful for killing rather than simple destruction.

[flounder]

The first DLC is out for Rocksmith

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird
Radiohead – Bodysnatchers
The Black Keys – Tighten Up

240 MS points each.

[PurdueBrad]

WOW, loving Uncharted 3 so far. I'm only about 2-3 hours into it, but some really nice cinematics and a lot of fun. Definitely recommend it. I rushed through Arkham City so I could trade it in for Uncharted and I think I'm having more fun with this than Arkham. Of course, I am working to beat this so I can trade it in for Skyrim or COD. This will be a rough four weeks of gaming!

[mckerney]

[MizzouRah]

Was just going to post that mckerney.. can't wait!

[MizzouRah]

Rainbow 6... looks promising..

Rainbow 6: Patriots - Gameplay Target Trailer Video - Xbox 360 - IGN

[sterlingice]

Ok, Nintendo fans who don't just hate their KMart outright, coupon train about to start (I'm just cutting and pasting my post from CAG):

KmartGamer 7.0: Uncharted 3 + $20 cpn, Sonic Gen & Goldeneye + $15 cpns - Page 234

11/6 Spend $40, get $15 coupon
11/13 Use $15 coupon on Super Mario 3D Land, get new $15 coupon
11/20 Use $15 SM coupon on Skyward Sword bundle, get new $20 coupon
12/11 Use $20 Zelda coupon on Mario Kart 7, get new (presumably $15) coupon
Then need to spend $15 coupon...

Hm... that adds up to
$40 in games, SM 3D Land, Skyward Sword bundle, and Mario Kart 7 for
40 + 40 + 70 + 40 - 15 - 15 - 20 = $140 + $15 coupon

Or, in short:
$40 in games for $25
SM3D for $25
Zelda Bundle for $50
Mario Kart 7 for $25

Sounds like a plan to me- as someone said a couple of pages ago, "unless you are a Nintendo fan the coupon train is pretty much over after next week", but for us Nintendo fans, it's time to get on after a long, cold summer.

No one is really offering great pre-order bonuses for any of the above so getting them for a better price sounds great. The only real fly in the ointment there could be if the $15 gaming coupon doesn't print or there are no Skyward Sword bundles where I live- both of those would be pretty annoying.

SI

[CrimsonFox]

This is not a 2011 game but I have just revcently started it and TOTALLY addicted.

FALLOUT 3!

Wow what a world, what a game. As all Bethesda titles, not perfect. In between missions I find myself dozing off sometimes trying to take care of all my business. Playing goody two shoes is very hard to keep a steady cap supply.

But I didn't want to blow up the town when I still had quests there.

BIggest gripe is finding my way around even to places I've been. There are usually no clues how to get town to town so I usually end up just looking it up online. Anyway
am loving the game though. The town of grayditch especially was the most intense session of gaming I have had in such a long time. Not since Return of the Cathedral level of Thief The Dark Project have I been that jumpy and afraid to walk down an open street or turn a corner for fear of instant painful death by those...those....THOSE! (love the quest name because I GET IT! )


I don't want to set the world on fire. I just want to start a flame in your heart.