2011 Video Games Thread

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Random observation from watching my son start Homefront -- there's no tutorial. I guess we've reached the point that it's safe to assume that virtually everyone playing has played their share of shooters, but I thought that was interesting to see since I think every one of these I've played had some sort of tutorial mode at the beginning.

I think it has more to do with this being a shitty game that isn't polished at all. Really disappointed in this.

[MizzouRah]

LA Noir

This game is going to be a "must have" for me.

30-35 hours of game play without adding any DLC content...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQbi0...layer_embedded

[MizzouRah]

More Battlefield 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-x1t...mbedded#at=131

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

LA Noir

This game is going to be a "must have" for me.

30-35 hours of game play without adding any DLC content...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQbi0...layer_embedded

Yep. Really excited for this.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

LA Noir

This game is going to be a "must have" for me.

30-35 hours of game play without adding any DLC content...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQbi0...layer_embedded

Rest assured they'll still have DLC available.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Rest assured they'll still have DLC available.

Oh I know.. but that's some serious gaming time without DLC.

[DataKing]

I'm amazed at how closely the characters are moddled after the voice actors...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Since I bitched about this, figured I ought to follow up. At least at the moment, I'm able to level up in Homefront multi-player beyond the Lvl 5 cap supposedly applied to anyone who didn't enter their little code.

Either they've gone with a one code needed per console model or else it's just not working.

My two cent take is that it feels a lot like playing Battlefield: BC without the destructible terrain. It would have been a darned good arcade game (kind of what Blacklight Tango Down was supposed to be) but it's certainly not something worth $60 IMO unless you have zero interest in single player and have never bought BF or a recent MW.

[Matthean]

Champions Online goes F2P to much success. Granted, as a CoH fanboy I have a rather low opinion of Cryptic(too long to detail here), but it's interesting to see another game take off after making the switch.

Free for All is a Hit! | Cryptic Studios

[jeff061]

Monday Night Combat is free to play on Steam all weekend, full version.

Messed around with it a bit, seems like a good amount of fun to be had, especially at $10.

[EagleFan]

About six week until Duke... reserved mine today...

Have a feeling it is going to suck with all the expectations but hopefully I am surprised.

[sterlingice]

I think the expectations are pretty darn low at this point with it being almost dropped multiple times

SI

[MJ4H]

So I played a 3DS today at Best Buy. It was pretty awesome. It was set up with a demo of Pilot Wings. Started out with the 3D on and was just mowing through the targets. As an experiment, I turned the 3D effect off and I immediately sucked at the game. The depth perception made a huge difference in gameplay.

I'm a little disappointed in what I hear about the 3D effect draining the battery, but I am definitely pumped about the gameplay effect of the 3D after playing it today.

[stevew]

I agree about the 3DS. I didnt like having to hold it so close to my face. But otherwise it was pretty neat. Always a fan of Pilotwings.

[sterlingice]

Same- KMart is doing a buy 3DS and get $25 off a game and I was thinking about biting on that and getting Pilotwings.

I haven't been able to test it out yet, tho

SI

[mckerney]

Imagine That: Duke Nukem Delayed. Again | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Duke Nukem Forever has been delayed? Inconceivable!

[jeff061]

Duke never comes early.

[mckerney]

I wonder if I'll be able to somehow get a copy of Duke to 16 year old me who was so excited by the E3 trailer in 2001.

[jeff061]

I remember telling my mom she should buy me Duke for Christmas...in 1998.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by jeff061

Duke never comes early.

I like Valve's announcement of the Portal 2 delay better.

VALVE ANNOUNCES SHORTEST DELAY IN VALVE HISTORY

Valve today announced that Portal 2 — the sequel to the ground-breaking title that won over 30 game of the year awards, despite missing its original ship date — will now be available the week of April 18th, 2011. This two month slip not only marks the shortest delay in Valve’s proud tradition of delays, it represents the approaching convergence of Valve Time and Real Time. Though this convergence spells doom for humanity, it will not affect the new Portal 2 release date.

[jeff061]

Hah, I had missed that. Nice.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by jeff061

I remember telling my mom she should buy me Duke for Christmas...in 1998.

I asked for Team Fortress 2 in 1999 and remember how excited I was when Half Life 2: Episode 2 was only being pushed back to 2008.

[twothree]

Introducing Premier Manager – Exclusive PSN Soccer Management Game – PlayStation Blog

Premier Manager on PS3 came out last Tuesday on PSN in the US for $9.99. I believe it has been out in europe already for around six months. Here are some reviews I found for it.

Premier Manager PSN - Review | Soccer Gaming
Re: PREMIER MANAGER - First Review! - Official PlayStation® Community -PlayStation.com
Premier Manager PSN - Review

The above reviews were written when the game first came out in europe, since then there has been at least two patches and one paid DLC for it. The patches have added and improved on some things and have made the game more stable. (I haven't seen the game crash.)

The paid DLC was called the transfer window update and added the English Conference National league as a playable league among other things. The version for the US already includes all the patches plus the paid DLC in the game for $9.99. No where does Sony advertise this, and I only found out after purchasing the game and seeing the English Conference included. A big mistake not to advertise this, IMHO.

The game includes the top two Italian, Spanish, French, and German leagues. The top 4 Scottish leagues, and the top 5 English leagues. Tactics are simplified with a choice of 25 formations, 4 ways to advance the ball on offense (patient passing, direct passing, long passing, or counter attack), 2 defenses (man marking and zonal marking), and you can choose your team captain, penalty taker, corner kickers, and free kickers.

I purchased the game on Wednesday and since then I have played every night until way past my usual bedtime. It takes awhile to get use to the interface, but after about 12 hours of playing it is now familiar to me. There are some things I don't like, such as being unable to directly compare two players side by side, but overall I have gotten that 'just one more game' feel over the last four days of playing.

Edited to add: There is a demo available for download.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by twothree

Introducing Premier Manager – Exclusive PSN Soccer Management Game – PlayStation Blog

Premier Manager on PS3 came out last Tuesday on PSN in the US for $9.99. I believe it has been out in europe already for around six months. Here are some reviews I found for it.

Premier Manager PSN - Review | Soccer Gaming
Re: PREMIER MANAGER - First Review! - Official PlayStation® Community -PlayStation.com
Premier Manager PSN - Review

The above reviews were written when the game first came out in europe, since then there has been at least two patches and one paid DLC for it. The patches have added and improved on some things and have made the game more stable. (I haven't seen the game crash.)

The paid DLC was called the transfer window update and added the English Conference National league as a playable league among other things. The version for the US already includes all the patches plus the paid DLC in the game for $9.99. No where does Sony advertise this, and I only found out after purchasing the game and seeing the English Conference included. A big mistake not to advertise this, IMHO.

The game includes the top two Italian, Spanish, French, and German leagues. The top 4 Scottish leagues, and the top 5 English leagues. Tactics are simplified with a choice of 25 formations, 4 ways to advance the ball on offense (patient passing, direct passing, long passing, or counter attack), 2 defenses (man marking and zonal marking), and you can choose your team captain, penalty taker, corner kickers, and free kickers.

I purchased the game on Wednesday and since then I have played every night until way past my usual bedtime. It takes awhile to get use to the interface, but after about 12 hours of playing it is now familiar to me. There are some things I don't like, such as being unable to directly compare two players side by side, but overall I have gotten that 'just one more game' feel over the last four days of playing.

Saw this on the PS Store and was waiting to hear more. Thanks for the feedback.

[MJ4H]

Got the 3DS. I have it charging right now so I haven't tried it. Tough decision between buying Pilot Wings or Street Fighter. Went with Street Fighter. Will post impressions when the device is fully charged and I get a chance to play.

[Big Fo]

I picked one up this morning too. Got Pilotwings (haven't played it yet), Ghost Recon (which is actually an Advance Wars/Fire Emblem kind of game and seems pretty good early on), and PES 2011 (which is proving difficult for me now that I am so used to playing FIFA).

[sterlingice]

Thinking about it today but didn't have time. Want to go test it out at the Best Buy that has it. Trying to decide between Pilotwings and Street Fighter

SI

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by mckerney

I like Valve's announcement of the Portal 2 delay better.

VALVE ANNOUNCES SHORTEST DELAY IN VALVE HISTORY

Valve today announced that Portal 2 — the sequel to the ground-breaking title that won over 30 game of the year awards, despite missing its original ship date — will now be available the week of April 18th, 2011. This two month slip not only marks the shortest delay in Valve’s proud tradition of delays, it represents the approaching convergence of Valve Time and Real Time. Though this convergence spells doom for humanity, it will not affect the new Portal 2 release date.

Thanks mckerney

[Atocep]

Traded in the boy's DSI XL and a bunch of old PS3/DS games and ended up paying $50 for a 3DS and a game. I really didn't have any interest in getting one at launch until I saw the deal gamestop had on trade-ins.

The technology is fairly impressive. Definitely a worthy upgrade, but unless you have a similar trade-in I wouldn't recommend it to anyone other than hardcore Nintendo fans and anyone with $250 they're desperate to spend. The launch lineup just isn't impressive enough IMO .

I am excited to see the games that are being released for this system 6 months to a year from now. Like I said the technology is impressive and unlike previous handhelds there aren't any glaring issues with the hardware (other than the disappointing battery life).

[terpkristin]

As one who only sees 3D sometimes and gets headaches when I do, is there any compelling reason to buy the 3DS? Or should I wait for some must-have game to come out?

/tk

[MJ4H]

Played SF a little bit last night. It is beautiful and plays just like you'd expect Street Fighter to play. The over the shoulder camera is better than I expected, and I prefer to play from there for now (probably just because it's different).

The buttons are all responsive and the action is fast, no problems on that end. Lots of characters (35 I think, looked like they were all available from the outset, no unlocking or anything).

As for the 3D, I personally find it very impressive. It doesn't bother my eyes at all. However, I gave it to a friend of mine (who claims he can never see 3D movies or any of those 3D trick pictures, etc.) and he couldn't look at the screen for more than a few seconds. He would shake his head and try to refocus and just couldn't get it. I find that pretty weird, but I guess it really happens.

There is a definite sweet spot, and if you move the 3DS around relative to your eyes until you find, it sharpens it up considerably. The gameplay in Street Fighter doesn't really benefit from it much (though I'm sure it is a big help in the over the shoulder view--I didn't try that with the 3D off yet, but I probably should), but it definitely enhances the experience for me.

The wife was pretty disappointed when she found out the new Animal Crossing game wasn't planned to be released until August. She bought Okamiden to tide her over. It's just original DS, but of course it plays on the 3DS just fine. She seemed to be enjoying it last night.

I do like that you can use the camera to take a picture of yourself and then have the Mii Creator use the picture to give you a bunch of options based from that picture. It is much faster. You can then edit your Mii from there, of course.

[MizzouRah]

Anyone have Crysis 2 yet? My friend was telling me not only is it the best looking x360 game, it's quite a blast to play.

I'm going to pick it up this weekend.

[MJ4H]

At least he mentioned the most important thing first.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by brassmonkey32

MJ4H

on Street Fighter. do you press the bottom gamepad screen to choose the moves you want to do for your character on the 3DS?

You can, yes. There are 4 big touch screen buttons for special moves down there, but you can do the same moves the traditional way with the d-pad/buttons. It is definitely a little slower to reach across to the touch-screen so it is a trade-off of speed for simplicity. I personally think it is great.

[SirFozzie]

Well, gamestop has finally decided to get into the digital pc computer market, acquiring Impulse from Stardock:

GameStop Bulks Up on the Web - WSJ.com

(and yes, it's not an april fool's joke)

(insert used PC game joke here)

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Well, gamestop has finally decided to get into the digital pc computer market, acquiring Impulse from Stardock:

GameStop Bulks Up on the Web - WSJ.com

(and yes, it's not an april fool's joke)

(insert used PC game joke here)

[mckerney]

Super Meat World is now available for Super Meat Boy, a free update adding 140 levels, and all of them are really fucking hard.

Dejobaan Games released their newest title, 1... 2... 3... KICK IT!, on Steam today, on sale for $4.99.

[Kodos]

Got Lego Star Wars III for my son for his birthday. Wow does it put a lot of characters on screen at once. The battles are crazy.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Homefront apparently got a patch today to fix the profile freezing issue.

[cartman]

Trailer #3 for LA Noire.

[RainMaker]

Has anyone ever played the game Deadly Premonition? It's insanely good, especially if you like Twin Peaks.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Got Lego Star Wars III for my son for his birthday. Wow does it put a lot of characters on screen at once. The battles are crazy.

Upon further review, let me point out that this game really suffers from endlessly respawning enemies and mission objectives / puzzles where you frequently have no clue what you are supposed to be accomplishing.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Has anyone ever played the game Deadly Premonition? It's insanely good, especially if you like Twin Peaks.

I've played it and finished it. I would not say insanely good. In fact the gameplay more reminded me of Resident Evil 1 with PS1 era driving thrown in. That said the story kept me interested, but the game nearly lost me towards the end when they introduced the enemy with a very simple pattern that you have to shoot like 40 time to kill...and then five steps later another one pops out....and then five steps later another one....etc.

[JonInMiddleGA]

The Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation downloadable content pack will launch worldwide, first on Xbox Live on May 3, 2011.

Escalation contains 5 all-new exceptionally varied maps; featuring 4 Multiplayer maps and an epic Zombies experience with all-new playable characters.

In Multiplayer, battle it out in "Hotel", on the roof of a Cuban luxury hotel and casino against the vivid backdrop of old Havana; "Convoy" delivers intense, close-quarters combat at the scene of an ambushed US military convoy; "Zoo" takes you on a wild ride in an abandoned Soviet Russian Zoo, with danger at every turn; "Stockpile" pits players in a remote Russian farm town housing secret WMD facilities.

For Zombies fans, "Escalation" features a unique Zombies experience. We can't wait to take the wraps off of our new Zombies map, Call of the Dead, a very special creation for all Zombies fans.

Additionally, to celebrate the upcoming release, there will be a Black Ops Double XP weekend beginning Friday, May 6th.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

[ColtCrazy]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Upon further review, let me point out that this game really suffers from endlessly respawning enemies and mission objectives / puzzles where you frequently have no clue what you are supposed to be accomplishing.

I bought this for my son for his DS. At 6, he could easily beat every level in Lego Star Wars Complete, so it was odd to hear him constantly say he was getting stuck on this one.

I hope Lego Pirates is better. I plan on getting that for the 360 because I'm curious to play that one myself.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by dubb93

I've played it and finished it. I would not say insanely good. In fact the gameplay more reminded me of Resident Evil 1 with PS1 era driving thrown in. That said the story kept me interested, but the game nearly lost me towards the end when they introduced the enemy with a very simple pattern that you have to shoot like 40 time to kill...and then five steps later another one pops out....and then five steps later another one....etc.

Yeah, it looks horrible and does nothing well, but it was incredibly immersive. One of the most underated games on the system. I loved every minute of it, especially since you can pick it up for like $10.

[MikeVic]

Is Deadly Premonition widely available on the PS3? It seems to be a few years old already, but I don't see many reviews on it.

[RainMaker]

They released it in Japan on the PS3 but not in the U.S. Amazon is selling it used through their warehouse for $12. As mentioned, it has shit graphics, shit gameplay, shit everything, but it's one of the most bizarrely fun games I've ever played. As mentioned, an open world Twin Peaks style game with so many oddities in it to keep you enthralled. This is sort of an interesting take on it:

"Deadly Premonition" - 2010's Greatest Game to Ever Be Made in History of the World

And G4 gave it a strong review:

http://www.5min.com/Video/Deadly-Pre...view-288129499

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

They released it in Japan on the PS3 but not in the U.S. Amazon is selling it used through their warehouse for $12. As mentioned, it has shit graphics, shit gameplay, shit everything, but it's one of the most bizarrely fun games I've ever played. As mentioned, an open world Twin Peaks style game with so many oddities in it to keep you enthralled. This is sort of an interesting take on it:

"Deadly Premonition" - 2010's Greatest Game to Ever Be Made in History of the World

And G4 gave it a strong review:

http://www.5min.com/Video/Deadly-Pre...view-288129499

I don't see it on that Warehouse Amazon site... Saw it on play-asia for like $80... dammit.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Deadly Premonition is a very interesting game. The conversation between your character and his invisible friend about various movies, actors and directors is odd, hilarious and very entertaining. The open world is full of quirky characters and they all go about their daily business in a very realistic way.

As I understand it, the whole clunky third-person combat system wasn't originally part of the game, but was added later so that it would have more appeal to a broader audience. It feels very tacked on.