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[Knurek]

WHAT?!?!?! Why did I never heard of it before? Does it allow to download videos in 1080p?

Not sure, I have only a 768p monitor, so didn't see the need to try anything above 720p - everything I tried so far downloads fine though.

//EDIT

Just tried a random 1080p video, no problems with downloading.

 

[morningbus]

wall of text...:O

Stump's response is of course much nicer, but his post contributes something while your post is literally worthless.

This is coming from a person who mainly posts esoteric jokes, too. Don't take anger with what I'm saying: reevaluate yourself and what you hope to accomplish with what you post.

 

[maneil99]

Is Franchise Hockey Manager like Football Manager?

 

[Stallion Free]

Great write up some, you did a great job breaking down what's wrong with the game. People waving the infamous gif around bothered me a bit too after seeing the sequence it came from because it shows that people are just so eager to take a dump on verified awful games and throw context/playing the game out the window before joining the fun.

 

[BorntoPlay]

Just know that when you post something like this instead of moving along or even better being polite enough to read, the message it sends to people is "don't bother contributing to the forum". GAF is a good forum to read and post on precisely because we're capable of having discussions that go beyond "this sucks lol". My review was shorter than Destructoid's or Giant Bomb's were and well in keeping with the length standards for a typical game review online.

Stump's response is of course much nicer, but his post contributes something while your post is literally worthless.

This is coming from a person who mainly posts esoteric jokes, too. Don't take anger with what I'm saying: reevaluate yourself and what you hope to accomplish with what you post.

Sorry, it wasn't my intention.... i was just kidding, great review Stump, congratz!! =)

 

[maneil99]

Considering his post history, I don't think that his presence here comes off as being genuine. Other posters have kindly told him to take his peddling elsewhere, yet he has ignored these complaints and taken every little opportunity to promote his operation.

This is not the trade thread.

To each his own

 

[fluffydelusions]

6.2m people on steam atm...

 

[maneil99]

They don't have the rights to sell those games anymore. So they'd have to just give them to us for free.

You'd have to pay me to play Stalin Vs Martians lol, that game was terrible

 

[Stallion Free]

6.2m people on steam atm...

Dat Nvidia next-next-gen moneyhat renewed faith in gamers.

 

[maneil99]

CSGO Key to open a crate vs Guardians of Middle Earth Backgrounds...

 

[Stumpokapow]

Great write up some, you did a great job breaking down what's wrong with the game. People waving the infamous gif around bothered me a bit too after seeing the sequence it came from because it shows that people are just so eager to take a dump on verified awful games and throw context/playing the game out the window before joining the fun.

Yeah that's something that's really key for me. A game can be an awful game, but that doesn't mean that there aren't some interesting ideas in it. Likewise, a game like BioShock Infinite can be a great and significant game, despite having flaws. And it's just better for everyone if we actually get in the habit of understanding things that work and don't and sort of coming to more nuanced conclusions than just reducing bad games to LOL and good games to OMG

 

[fantomena]

6.2m people on steam atm...

Everybody logged in to buy Star Trek.

 

[iavi]

6.2m on Steam is some kind if record isn't it?

It usually floats around 5.5 on the usual busy times, but this Labor Day has people gaming.

 

[fantomena]

6.2m on Steam is some kind if record isn't it?

It usually floats around 5.5 on the usual busy times, but this Labor Day has people gaming.

Yes.

 

[Omega]

CSGO Key to open a crate vs Guardians of Middle Earth Backgrounds...

GoME backgrounds

At least you'll use it.

You'll spend $2.49 on a key and get something like FAMAS Doomkitty which you can resell for $0.04

 

[delirium]

Damn, I can't believe I miss out on that Sales Greenlight sale. I needed to buy a game through Steam (and not a 3rd party Steam key) so I could sell items on the marketplace and that was probably the cheapest way.

 

[morningbus]

Yeah that's something that's really key for me. A game can be an awful game, but that doesn't mean that there aren't some interesting ideas in it. Likewise, a game like BioShock Infinite can be a great and significant game, despite having flaws. And it's just better for everyone if we actually get in the habit of understanding things that work and don't and sort of coming to more nuanced conclusions than just reducing bad games to LOL and good games to OMG

Have you ever played the Precursors? It seems like a game that might be up your alley.

 

[Parsnip]

Not to drag this thread off into a tangent, but what's the currently-recommended method for downloading YouTube videos in 1080p? I usually use the Easy YouTube Video Downloader extension for Firefox, which worked fine in the past, but it's presently awaiting a review by Mozilla and thus hasn't been updated in a while, rendering it useless. Keep-tube.com is apparently of no help also "due to a recent change by YouTube" and the alternatives the site mentioned got me nowhere.

I use a Greasemonkey userscript called YouTube Center that does stuff to youtube layout, including adding download links.
Tried downloading that link you posted and it worked out.

 

[maneil99]

GoME backgrounds

At least you'll use it.

You'll spend $2.49 on a key and get something like FAMAS Doomkitty which you can resell for $0.04

Yea, might wait a few days for the price to drop on the witch king background

They should add a random drop background like boosterbacks that lets you upload a custom image

 

[Volotaire]

6.2m on Steam is some kind if record isn't it?

It usually floats around 5.5 on the usual busy times, but this Labor Day has people gaming.

Such an alien holiday to me, Labour day...

 

[Stumpokapow]

Have you ever played the Precursors? It seems like a game that might be up your alley.

I bought Precursors and Xenos from Gamersgate (LOL! Mascots! Blue coins! What the fuck is this nonsense?) a while ago but didn't put a lot of time into them. But yes I'm totally willing to entertain that kind of stuff.

 

[Buster Machine]

I use a Greasemonkey userscript called YouTube Center that does stuff to youtube layout, including adding download links.
Tried downloading that link you posted and it worked out.

Was about to mention this. It also fixes pretty much all of the other crap I can't stand about Youtube like a layout for widescreens and grid view in subscriptions.

 

[Lasthope106]

6.2 million and I ain't even playing.

 

[iavi]

Such an alien holiday to me, Labour day...

'Murican BBQ day.

 

[morningbus]

I bought Precursors and Xenos from Gamersgate (LOL! Mascots! Blue coins! What the fuck is this nonsense?) a while ago but didn't put a lot of time into them. But yes I'm totally willing to entertain that kind of stuff.

I did the same from Beamdog (mascots wtf indeed). I put a couple hours into Precursors, but hit a wall with the translation and the performance. I keep telling myself that I'll get back to it, though, because it has so many interesting concepts.

 

[drizzle]

Such an alien holiday to me, Labour day...

'Murican BBQ day.

I find it more strange that Labour Day here is on May First.

I wonder why there are different dates around the world to celebrate the same thing. It must be something to do with each country regional holidays and how you can't have too many holidays on the same month or something.

 

[JaseC]

I use a Greasemonkey userscript called YouTube Center that does stuff to youtube layout, including adding download links.
Tried downloading that link you posted and it worked out.

It's okay, I found what I can only assume is Russia's Facebook equivalent, which happens to have a particularly active Saoirse fanpage, and tucked away in the images section was an album of screenshots from the clip.

 

[RionaaM]

I beat Aliens: Colonial Marines on hard, all collectible dog tags, all audio logs, all legendary weapons. My Steam playtime was about 12 hours, but the timer keeps ticking when you alt-tab out so my total actual playtime was more like 10. If you count all the crummy checkpointing and near auto-deaths that I got from playing on Hard, I suspect this is more like a 6-7 hour game for most people playing. I played with a 360 pad.

What worked:
- Moving and shooting is basically competent, although weapons feel samey and weapon feedback is not great in audio or visual terms.

- Most of the minute-to-minute stuff in the levels was decent although pretty linear. Some visual design aspects were nice. The variety of areas was fairly low, though.

- The score is good, but maybe a little too bombastic for what's going on. It's especially annoying when an event happens, there's 20 Xenos, massive score up in here, and then... you kill 19 and you're walking through a mostly empty room with one Xeno left but the score is still playing like it's an adrenaline pumping moment.

- There's a good number of collectibles that help encourage you to pace yourself more slowly. Many of the collectibles are references to non-in-game Alien stuff, so if you're a series fan there's some stuff here that's cool

- It's neat that you can level up and unlock upgrades for weapons, but the system is too shallow. Most of the upgrades are more like side-grades, and actually function mostly to lower weapon variety. Given that I can carry an Assault Rifle and a Shotgun, why would I choose an upgrade that switches my Assault Rifle's grande launcher alt-fire with a shotgun alt-fire? Likewise, the legendary weapons are neat throwbacks to Alien/s but they don't actually play any differently. Weapons boil down to semi-automatic assault weapons and shotguns. Period. You have pistols but you'd never use them. Grenades suck. No matter what upgrades you get you get some variety of semi-automatic assault weapons and shotguns.

- The stealth level. So there's the famous GIF of the game where a Xenomorph walks right by a stationary player and ignores him. This gives the false impression that Xenomorph AI is terrible. Well, sorry, the xenomorph AI is terrible but this GIF is not accurate. The level in which this GIF takes place is a stealth level. The premise is that the type of xenomorphs you are in the level with are completely blind but hear sound. Make a sound and they will suicide bomb you. But walk quietly and you are safe. So what you see in the GIF is the intended gameplay. I liked this level well enough--but one problem: for plot reasons, the level takes away your weapons and scanner. That's fine. So why do I still have my welding torch to cut through doors?

- Graphics are a mixed bag. There are some pretty ugly textures, especially humans coccooned by Xenomorphs. Hideous modeling. But there's also some occasionally nice light and weather effects, mud looks decent, etc. Note: I played this post-graphics improving patch. Seems to me like a nice looking game that's been in development way too long.

- There are in-game challenges for you to complete while playing to encourage gameplay variety. This is very cool. The problem is the system is not that well implemented. There are three tracks of challenges. One is Xenomorph-related, so can only be worked through in Multiplayer. Fine. There are two tracks of challenges. Challenges include things like "Shotgun two enemies to death with one shot", "Fire an entire rifle clip without missing a single shot", "Headshot ten xenomorphs with your pistol", etc. The first major problem is that particular challenges are only possible on particular levels. So for example I got a xenomorph themed challenge in a segment of the game where I went about 45 minutes without fighting a xenomorph. You can't switch out challenges, and each track has a linear list--you can't complete a challenge that isn't active. As a result, I think it'd only be possible to actually get through all the challenges if you played 4 or 5 times or if some of them unlock in multiplayer

What didn't work
- Combat design basically consisting of insane amounts of identical enemies is boring. The game consists of human enemies, human tank enemies, xenomorphs, xenomorphs that spit acid, xenomorphs that hide and charge you, and facehuggers (and for one level the aforementioned blind suicide bombers). That's the extent of enemy variety. It's relentless. Every room you enter will have a half-dozen vents for Xenomorphs to jump out of. Xenomorph jumps towards you -> shotgun to face. Enemies are further away -> machinegun them.

- Cover. The game is built around cover based combat. There is no cover system, it's just manually ducking behind boxes. This is one way in which the game reminds me of DNF. It's a relic. When they started making this game, cover meant what it means here. Today we expect more agile cover options.

- Nothing really happens. The levels really lack either interesting design (like Doom, Quake, and other early FPS games) or interesting setpieces (like the modern CoD/Halo pedigree). You just kinda keep on keeping on. I liked maybe a handful of segments of the game outside the stealth level mentioned above. The few sections, particularly the hangar, where you had to defend against an onslaught of enemies were pretty neat.

- The story and characters. Dialogue is terrible and mostly just marine jargon. Everyone in this game boils down to being characterized as "Badass"--there's no real depth beyond that. The story makes absolutely no sense. I feel like I had an idea of what my current objective was, but looking back I don't really see how the story spread out. The ending especially makes no sense. Some of the story would probably make sense if you're a die-hard series fan and you've rewatched Alien 3 recently, but I haven't and mostly when cutscenes popped up (cutscenes btw are typical ugly in-engine pre-rendered macroblocked-to-fit-on-a-DVD crap) I groaned. The voice acting also sucks because the material they have to work from sucks. I can't imagine that either Alien fans looking for more or people who haven't seen Alien looking for original and interesting sci-fi would find much to like here.

- When fighting Xenomorphs, damage feedback is terrible. They jump near you and your health drains. You don't see any kind of clawing animation. There's no pain sound effect. You just take damage. I still don't actually know why. Also occasionally they one-hit kill implant you in a dumb death thing.

- Occasional QTEs add nothing and suck. Object interaction (cutting through doors, pressing elevator buttons, "hacking computers" by pushing X and watching a bar fill) is boring. Enemies can attack you just after object interaction and before you get your controls back including OHKOs.

- The first boss fight, against the Raven. I talked about it earlier. It's terrible. You pilot a very very slow power-loader. You use melee attacks against a boss that does a third of your health in damage every time he hits. It takes 36+ hits to kill him on Hard. He's surrounded by smaller xenomorphs who also do 1/3rd of your health in damage. Your AI companions shoot at the boss, which they cannot injure, rather than the smaller xenomorphs, which they can. The suggested strategy is to glitch the boss into a wall and wail on it and hope the smaller xenomorphs do not kill you. The patch actually made this fight more difficult. This is inexplicable. Games that have parts that have nothing to do with the rest of the game and make those parts exponentially more difficult than the rest of the game are the worst (like Dead Space 1's asteroids minigame). This was a miserable experience, probably took me 50 tries. I googled it, and everywhere on the internet the feedback is that this fight sucks.

- Checkpointing is terrible. Lots of segments where there's checkpoint, long stretch of walking through nothing in particular, combat scenario, combat scenario, combat scenario, walking, combat scenario, checkpoint... so if you die in that final combat scenario, expect 5-10 minutes of replay and a total slog. No idea how they haven't fixed this with patching. And because health is segmented and regenerating and health drops appear in between the checkpoints this doesn't really make particular checkpoint gauntlets challenging or fulfilling... just long and annoying. There are no alternate dialogue lines for cases where you fail multiple times in arrow, so expect a lot of "Look at all DAT JOOOOSE!!!!" style frustration.

- The final boss fight, against

Spoiler

The Alien Queen

is very anti-climactic. The way you fight it is kind of neat conceptually but it's not really engaging or challenging when you play it.

- Lots of clipping glitches, several enemy stuck in wall glitches (including the aforementioned way to beat the first boss).

Final verdict
I can handle games that are rough around the edges because usually they try something different. Unorthodox mechanics, interesting themes or characters, maybe an emphasis on score attack or something that incentivizes alternate playstyles, whatever. I play a lot of "bad" games--I've played Neverdead, Dead Space 3, Too Human, Beowulf: The Movie the Game, Infinite Undiscovery, Darkest of Days, Secret Service, EYE, Exodus from the Earth, Deus Ex Invisible War, Lost the Game, most of Hitman Absolution, Red Faction: Armageddon, the Sherlock Holmes adventure games--some of these I really really enjoyed (and almost all of them I've finished). I think there's value both in playing a trainwreck to help better understand good games and why they're good, and because it's useful to understand that even when something doesn't work, some elements do.

All in all this is not a good game and more importantly, it doesn't bring anything new to the table. Because it doesn't bring anything new to the table, I wouldn't recommend it at any price. If you do choose to put yourself through this, play on a lower difficulty to avoid the boss fight difficulty spike and also to make the experience quicker. Most deaths come from instantaneous and unexpected sources rather than prolonged poor play.

I'd give it a 4 or 5/10 or so. It's functional, but boring and derivative and generally frustrating.

Fantastic review for a not-so-fantastic game. Thanks a lot for the impressions.

Not sure, I have only a 768p monitor, so didn't see the need to try anything above 720p - everything I tried so far downloads fine though.

//EDIT

Just tried a random 1080p video, no problems with downloading.

You're the doc, doc

 

[DukeBobby]

6.2 million and I ain't even playing.

Same.

However, that's because Splinter Cell: Blacklist is on fucking Uplay, which is something I had no problem with until recently. Now I understand why everyone hates it so much.

 

[xenoflux2113]

Stump's reviews are more sound then most professional reviews I think. I am amazed he found any redeeming qualities in Aliens at all honestly but I am glad he took the time to write it up with the good and the obvious bad.

 

[Sober]

6.2 million and I ain't even playing.

We're all waiting for Rome 2.

 

[Kade]

Ricochet just got a 5.3MB update.

New thread for new news?!?!?!??!?

 

[JaseC]

Ricochet just got a 5.3MB update.

New thread for new news?!?!?!??!?

I know you're joking, but I'll say that judging from the registry it seems to be a general GoldSrc update rather than a Ricochet-specific one.

 

[sibarraz]

I will wait for a bigger discount of a:cm which includes the season pass

 

[Giard]

Is Franchise Hockey Manager like Football Manager?

Yep. It's by the same developers as Out of the Park Baseball.

 

[Stallion Free]

Yeah that's something that's really key for me. A game can be an awful game, but that doesn't mean that there aren't some interesting ideas in it. Likewise, a game like BioShock Infinite can be a great and significant game, despite having flaws. And it's just better for everyone if we actually get in the habit of understanding things that work and don't and sort of coming to more nuanced conclusions than just reducing bad games to LOL and good games to OMG

When the story DLC hits 75% off I'll gift you a copy so we can discuss further lol.

 

[FloatOn]

The more I play saints row 4 the more I'm frustrated by its special kind of stupid difficulty settings. Normal is far too easy and hardcore is mostly manageable until they throw an obscene amount of enemies at you from every direction. There must be a way to make games more challenging that doesn't involve throwing legions of enemies at you.

 

[Crayons]

Once again, anyone want to host a Skulls of the Shogun 4 pack?

 

[Giard]

Speaking of which, why is the latest OOTP not on Steam? I searched the store for it today and was surprised to find the '09 version being the only one available.

I think they no longer have a publisher. You can vote for them on Greenlight.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=100789580

 

[Stumpokapow]

When the story DLC hits 75% off I'll gift you a copy so we can discuss further lol.

Hahaha, happy to suffer for a good cause

 

[Alien8]

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl has been patched to version v1.006.

Previous version on Steam was v1.005, which didn't allow players to play online, but gamers who had bought the retail version could patch the game to v1.006 and play online. It seems that the relation between THQ and GSC didn't end well and THQ didn't bother to send the patch to steam. Now that THQ doesn't exist anymore, the patch has been submitted.

Pity that the online community is now almost dead (and also now breaks some mods).

 

[Nabs]

21 hrs to go.

 

[Stallion Free]

Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl has been patched to version v1.006.

Previous version on Steam was v1.005, which didn't allow players to play online, but gamers who had bought the retail version could patch the game to v1.006 and play online. It seems that the relation between THQ and GSC didn't end well and THQ didn't bother to send the patch to steam. Now that THQ doesn't exist anymore, the patch has been submitted.

Pity that the online community is now almost dead (and also now breaks some mods).

Did a really full playthrough last year so I'm in the clear with mod stress if they never get updated.

 

[CheesecakeRecipe]

21 hrs to go.

Man I really want this to be good.

 

[Of All Trades]

I beat Aliens: Colonial Marines on hard

Apologies if I missed an earlier explanation but I've seen you state the same regarding difficulty on other "troubled" games and I'm curious why? Having recently beat Hitman Absolution and Dead Space 3 (and currently playing the recent Wolfenstein), the idea of playing through those games on a difficulty that would more significantly impede my ability to get to the good elements seems counter-intuitive, particularly when the game may not really be tuned for those difficulties and would result in disproportionate frustration (Hitman certainly created this scenario).

Easy is often tuned too far down to pose any challenge (which is fine and IMO how it should be) but I've played many flawed games where a "correct" difficulty didn't exist and you're left teetering between "a little easy for my tastes"-medium and "gun in mouth if I have to replay that section"-hard, in which case the former option at least lets you experience the content without pointlessly wasting hours of your life.

 

[Tellaerin]

Apologies if I missed an earlier explanation but I've seen you state the same regarding difficulty on other "troubled" games and I'm curious why?

My only guess is that there may be an achievement associated with beating some games on hard, and if you're going into a game knowing it's going to be awful, you really don't want to go through hell a second time just to get that last one. Either that, or Stump has mad skillz and needs to crank up the difficulty a bit to enjoy most games. (Well, "enjoy" in the case of games like A:CM, but you know what I mean.)

Kind of curious myself, now.

 

[toddhunter]

Man I really want this to be good.

I have high hopes. I never really liked ducktales, but mickey mouse on the master system was a huge part of my childhood. I can still whistle the music.

Could this game be a big part of some kids childhood? Does that still happen with so many games? Hmm...

Btw thanks Stump for the great review. You never really know if you bailed out too early and detailed confirmation like that from a trusted source is very welcome.

 

[Firebrand]

1 day 21 hours here, durn. I shouldn't pick up more games at full price at the moment, but I've got a soft spot for CoI... I think it was one of the first 16-bit games I played, if not the first.

 

[RionaaM]

With so many people excited about the new DuckTales and Castle of Illusion, I realized that the best Disney game ever is still lacking a remake/sequel. I'm talking of none other than Donald in Cold Shadow, of course (Maui Mallard for the console gamers around here).

I mean, it was hard as fuck and I never got past the second stage, but I'd buy this at full price on day zero, no questions asked.

 

[rainking187]

It seems weird to put The 39 Steps on sale while it's still in a bundle. You can get it from Groupees for a dollar if you really want it.