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STEAM | May 2014 - every time improve protection Steam Guard
- Thread starter MRORANGE
- Start date
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trailmix16
Member
yeah I was eyeing both of those. Thanks!
Joe Molotov
Member
Nope, take advantage while you can. I'm currently trying to collect card money, hopefully it pays off.
Approaching 300 games, just need to start playing them
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
I beat Killzone 2 (PS3) today, a little under 3 years after I bought it. How about that backlog? It's not a terrible game. The reviews feel substantially too generous to me. Edge's review has been pulled, but at a 7/10 I think that's probably pretty close to an honest score. I mean it has a bunch of dumb shooter clichés, especially the character writing and voice acting and story. There's a dumb emotional moment about 3/4s of the way through that isn't as bad as Gears of War 2's MARIIIIIA nonsense, but it's still pretty bad. When a major character died, I actually thought it was a different character because I hadn't properly learned their names by that point. Whoops. The ending is also dumb and clearly sets up a sequel. There are lots of setpieces, all of which are par for the course; mounted turret, jeep, tank, walking mech and so they feel a little blasé.
Guns feel iffy. Shotgun headshots are pretty satisfying, and an unlimited ammo arcing homing lightning gun feels great. The flamethrower is also probably the best flamethrower I've used in a game, with the fire coming out in rich, soupy streams and the enemies reacting very realistically to it, yelling and sort of running-rolling around. Also fire seems to catch from enemy to enemy. Way fun. Melee feels terrible and the enemy AI is too smart for grenades even on the medium difficulty level. Enemy AI is quite smart in general. Lots of flanking. Lots of diving behind cover. If you iron-sight at an enemy that has popped out of cover they're going to go back into cover. In a lot of levels, your best success will come from shooting enemies who are distracted by one of your team-mates.
The controls are also all kinds of weird, because of course it uses a DualShock 3 (aka a terrible controller for FPS games). Crouch is L2, crouching near a wall activates cover, L1 is melee, R1 is shoot, R2 is throw grenade, clicking the right analog stick is iron-sights. This is so plainly inferior to the Xbox 360 / PC standard controller layout. In addition, control lag is terrible, controls are way too clunky, and there's no good sensitivity option. Worse, the game makes you do a bunch of motion gesture crap for things like opening a valve or planting a demolition charge. Man, PS3 motion controls were so bad. You move very slowly and you're heavy as hell. I never felt like I could turn quickly enough either.
On the other hand, one thing the game does very wisely is that every enemy has a glowing orange mask which makes it very easy to spot distant enemies peeking up from cover. This means that the combat design is totally built around fighting distant enemies, so it's a very defensive game IMHO. A lot of combat scenarios seem to have unlimited enemy spawns and make you progress by crossing invisible lines on the map, which gives it the feel of a sort of warzone, that game of attrition.
It still looks really great in parts though. Nice skyboxes, great effects (fire, dust, dirt, smoke). And despite what's gotta be a low average framerate, it moves very smoothly. There's some weird LOD when you are aiming down iron-sights at a really distant enemy and the character models feel very 2008 unsurprisingly, but that's OK. I think at 60fps with some high-res texture packs this would still be an excellent looking game.
It took me a hair over 6 hours to complete but felt longer. Not sure if it's counting death->respawn loops or what. I died very often, it's a very defensive game like I said. The last boss is a major vertical difficulty jump.
Why am I posting it in the Steam thread? Well, I don't know I guess. It's Sony developed and published so it clearly wouldn't and couldn't get a PC port. It's an older game so it doesn't really make sense to compare to new releases. PC specific content for this post, hmm... I do think it'd have been a better game on PC, because PC would really make the game's strengths shine. It's interesting to see the kind of budget pumped into the game, which is I think something you never really get with PC releases because they don't have that kind of loss-leader budgeting the way a good console game can. Like, Killzone 2 was a matter of pride for Sony whether or not it made money. They were also able to throw teams at the game to help Guerrilla, which is a luxury a lot of PC devs don't have. I wish I could have taken some screenshots to show some of the scenes I liked. Oh well.
Guns feel iffy. Shotgun headshots are pretty satisfying, and an unlimited ammo arcing homing lightning gun feels great. The flamethrower is also probably the best flamethrower I've used in a game, with the fire coming out in rich, soupy streams and the enemies reacting very realistically to it, yelling and sort of running-rolling around. Also fire seems to catch from enemy to enemy. Way fun. Melee feels terrible and the enemy AI is too smart for grenades even on the medium difficulty level. Enemy AI is quite smart in general. Lots of flanking. Lots of diving behind cover. If you iron-sight at an enemy that has popped out of cover they're going to go back into cover. In a lot of levels, your best success will come from shooting enemies who are distracted by one of your team-mates.
The controls are also all kinds of weird, because of course it uses a DualShock 3 (aka a terrible controller for FPS games). Crouch is L2, crouching near a wall activates cover, L1 is melee, R1 is shoot, R2 is throw grenade, clicking the right analog stick is iron-sights. This is so plainly inferior to the Xbox 360 / PC standard controller layout. In addition, control lag is terrible, controls are way too clunky, and there's no good sensitivity option. Worse, the game makes you do a bunch of motion gesture crap for things like opening a valve or planting a demolition charge. Man, PS3 motion controls were so bad. You move very slowly and you're heavy as hell. I never felt like I could turn quickly enough either.
On the other hand, one thing the game does very wisely is that every enemy has a glowing orange mask which makes it very easy to spot distant enemies peeking up from cover. This means that the combat design is totally built around fighting distant enemies, so it's a very defensive game IMHO. A lot of combat scenarios seem to have unlimited enemy spawns and make you progress by crossing invisible lines on the map, which gives it the feel of a sort of warzone, that game of attrition.
It still looks really great in parts though. Nice skyboxes, great effects (fire, dust, dirt, smoke). And despite what's gotta be a low average framerate, it moves very smoothly. There's some weird LOD when you are aiming down iron-sights at a really distant enemy and the character models feel very 2008 unsurprisingly, but that's OK. I think at 60fps with some high-res texture packs this would still be an excellent looking game.
It took me a hair over 6 hours to complete but felt longer. Not sure if it's counting death->respawn loops or what. I died very often, it's a very defensive game like I said. The last boss is a major vertical difficulty jump.
Why am I posting it in the Steam thread? Well, I don't know I guess. It's Sony developed and published so it clearly wouldn't and couldn't get a PC port. It's an older game so it doesn't really make sense to compare to new releases. PC specific content for this post, hmm... I do think it'd have been a better game on PC, because PC would really make the game's strengths shine. It's interesting to see the kind of budget pumped into the game, which is I think something you never really get with PC releases because they don't have that kind of loss-leader budgeting the way a good console game can. Like, Killzone 2 was a matter of pride for Sony whether or not it made money. They were also able to throw teams at the game to help Guerrilla, which is a luxury a lot of PC devs don't have. I wish I could have taken some screenshots to show some of the scenes I liked. Oh well.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
I tried replaying that game recently Stump and I lost interest during the train level. I think I would enjoy it if they upped the FOV in a PS4 edition and made it feel responsive shooting-wise (basically run at 60 fps). I preferred KZ3 artistically.
Opting in to the latest Steam beta fixes the missing images in grid view.
Sorry, you judge a port by the standards of the platform, not by the standards of the platforms it has been ported from. If a game was ported up from the Wii to the PS3, and it ran and looked the same on PS3 as it did on Wii, would you think that game had a good port? Of course not.
By PC standards, Dark Souls PC was a bad port. Period.
I appreciate the input. I think I'll wait for now...if it's in a Humble Bundle, maybe pick it up then. But just don't want to risk having it be unplayable.
charlequin
Banned
2000+ game master race, checking in
This was my birthday gift to you, Jase. ☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦o .｡.:*☆
This reminds me, how hard is it to track down a Blur key these days?
*slowclap*
You can get a (i'm guessing) non-steam version for $5.77
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002AQNT96/?tag=neogaf0e-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002AQNT96/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Last Baron
Member
Some spares for SteamGAF:
ModBot said:Instructions for participants:
I am giving away 3 Steam keys. To enter this giveaway, send a PM to ModBot with any subject line. In the body, copy and paste the entire line below that corresponds to the key you want (if you include more than one game, you will be blocked from entering).
Rules for this Giveaway:
- If you won a game from ModBot in the last day, you are not eligible for this giveaway.
- I really appreciate thank you messages, but please send them to me (Last Baron, not ModBot!) via PM instead of in thread.
- This giveaway has a manual blocklist. The giver has identified members who abuse giveaways and restricted them from participating.
- Do not trade keys you win off-site to enrich yourself. Don't try to claim games you have no interest in collecting or playing. Don't claim games to give them to friends off-site.
- If the key is already taken you will not receive a reply. Replies may take a minute or two:
The Lord of the Rings Online Steely Dawn Starter Pack --MB-D91D111D5A49A3C0- Taken by $h@d0w
COH 2 Soviet Commander Conscripts Support Tactics --MB-F381D32B6FF253BE- Taken by Dice
Batman Arkham Origins Millenium Skins Pack --MB-EA5DF58E7CA6701E- Taken by Shalashaska
maneil99
Member
I'm just gonna leave steam and buy games from sellers. Fuck you valve, fuck you ubisoft, fuck you Quebec
BinaryPork2737
Unconfirmed Member
I do like it when games have good flamethrowers. I might have to pick it up whenever I pick up a PS3, especially since I think it's sold for a cheap price.
spindoctor
Member
Well it seems to me that we're lowering our standards for this one particular game then. Comparing favorably to the console versions isn't really something to trumpet as a positive as far as I'm concerned. That's a bare minimum requirement. Just like resolution support should be.
Would everyone be just as reasonable if a Ubi or EA game shipped like this? Would we be okay if we started getting games at 792p-900p with a framerate between 20 and 40? Because that's what these new consoles are getting, and apparently matching that is all it takes for a port to not be called terrible.
Kinky John
Member
Nay for $9, but if you're already buying the bundle at $6, another $3 for Riptide is probably worth it. Maybe.
In my mind, a port is terrible if it is inferior to the original. Something like Viking: Battle for Asgard, where the controller support is awful and the game has additional bugs constitutes a terrible port. Or Saints Row 2, where it basically requires the fan patch to be playable at all. If a game doesn't have all the features you might want, but still runs fine and as well as the other platforms, it's a port. That's pretty much the definition of a port. Yes, it's largely semantics, but to call Dark Souls a terrible port by any reasonable standard is hyperbolic. A great version unmodded? Of course not. But not terrible. My biggest concern with the coming generation of PS4/Xbone games is not terrible ports, it's that we'll go back to an era where we get no ports at all because it isn't worth the trouble. And the last thing we want developers to think is that we'd rather have no version than an identical version, because that's drastically worse. I'd take "terrible" ports of the quality of Dark Souls of games like Red Dead Redeption and Bayonetta any day of the week over not having them at all.
corrosivefrost
Member
Nah. I've played tons of FPS games with a DS3, but what you really need is real triggers if you don't have them. I generally still use my DS3 for everything these days. Just played through Doom 3 BFG with it and it was great.
There's a major difference with this game that DOES make it an exception to the rules you're stating. When a company decides, of it's own volition, to go out and invest resources into creating a version of that game for PC, I'd be inclined to agree with you. When a game is developed solely for a console and NEVER had a PC port planned, that's an entirely different case.
====
I meant to comment earlier on someone's curiosity about Dead Island.
The Hakuto No Ken mod makes it entirely worth a couple bucks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoLadZotBuE
Northeastmonk
Gold Member
Blood of the Werewolf isn't that bad for 99 cents. It's a platformer where you aim your weapon's direction with the second analog stick. You also transform into a werewolf in certain areas of the level. It's indie for sure (no disrespect). It's like half the charm you get from traditional platformers, sized like a web based platformer, for the price of a single hamburger at BK.
Steam summer sales are coming too. I want a nice Steam UI, but I have no idea which one is the best. I wish Valve would make a store for Steam skins.
Steam summer sales are coming too. I want a nice Steam UI, but I have no idea which one is the best. I wish Valve would make a store for Steam skins.
VikasNarula
Member
Happy Birthday JaseC
Atraveller
Banned
The picture screams "BLACK UPLAY" to me, I don't know why.this is getting popular on reddit; future skin someone's working on:
I think it looks like shit but hey
Looks nice. Love that the steam wallet is yellow.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
So long as you don't state that you have a preference towards white uplay.
morningbus
Serious Sam is a wicked gahbidge series for chowdaheads.
Man, the Twilight Zone episode ahead of you when you look at your Steam client and its the same shitty custom skin and you realize that all custom skins look varying levels of incoherent garbage.
You know, we have 2 Black Ops, but you know I'd be strung up a tree if I said I wanted White Ops.
SteveWinwood
Member
man uPlay is awesome
i got a free far cry 3 wallpaper just for playing my games
i got a free far cry 3 wallpaper just for playing my games
Atraveller
Banned
I'm not a racist, I have a black game client.
spindoctor
Member
I'm not sure how much the intent of developers (or their circumstances) should factor into this. Missing features are missing features. And especially when you look at how Durante managed to fix it so quickly. They were unwilling to make that much effort on the PC version. I'm glad the game exists on PC but I am not going to excuse the shoddy state it was released in.
Chance Hale
Member
I'm pretty sure you can change the controls in Killzone 2 to make iron sights work like every other game.
Because backlog?
It's done by the people behind the Metro skin btw.this is getting popular on reddit; future skin someone's working on:
I think it looks like shit but hey
what happens the day mods start posting unrelated stuff to the steam thread
we've gone full circle
Only Modbot can save us.
All part of Modbot's plans.
corrosivefrost
Member
You can -- there's an option that's pretty much ripped straight out of CoD4: MW.
They're kind of using my category system, so that's a plus.
While playing AC IV last night, I decided to check what these Initiate badges are. After logging in, I got some free cosmetic stuff. There are missions to fulfill in there but they are not retroactive and they will not count unless you have that current mission active.
For example, one mission requires you to get 3 viewpoints synced and another requires you to pick up 3 crates from sea. If you have the 3 viewpoints mission active, even if you pick up 3 crates, that will not be completed unless you have that mission set as active.
This is bullshit. This must suck for anyone that find this out too late when they are already in the endgame.
For example, one mission requires you to get 3 viewpoints synced and another requires you to pick up 3 crates from sea. If you have the 3 viewpoints mission active, even if you pick up 3 crates, that will not be completed unless you have that mission set as active.
This is bullshit. This must suck for anyone that find this out too late when they are already in the endgame.
OldAsUrSock
Banned
They need to port it to PC. 4k 60fps will do the game so much justice.
Well talking about a game Sony wanted as a set-piece and helped out a developer team build it due to the difficulties of programming due to the hardware and OS, it makes me wonder if Valve will do anything of the sort. I know they aren't trying for the same market, but I would think it would behove Valve to have a stand-out title, whether it makes money or not as long as it has a presence in gaming discussion, and of course help developers sort out some of the issues that are bound to arise on Steam OS.
Talking about Sony and Steam. God I wish they would let us have Lemmings.
Obviously that game would be Bad Rats 3
Talking about Sony and Steam. God I wish they would let us have Lemmings.
More_Badass
Member
Avoid is a solid twitch game
spindoctor
Member
To be fair, all that Initiate stuff shows up on the main menu and it's kind of hard to miss. Also, if I remember correctly, the only thing worth getting are the black sails which actually make your ship look like a pirate ship.
Yeah, got that already. I thought there would be more cool stuff since it said "Initiate DLC Bundle 1".
PLASTICA-MAN
Member
I hope someone generous profits from this and makes great giveaways:
http://www.twinfinite.net/blog/2014/05/13/get-new-humble-bundle-day-two-weeks/
http://www.twinfinite.net/blog/2014/05/13/get-new-humble-bundle-day-two-weeks/
RavenValor95
Member
A bit late, but Happy Birthday Jason(That's what Jase stands for in JaseC, right?)!
I hope you're having a good one.
KZ2 is imo the best Killzone game, KZ3 was even dumber(especially the ending, christ) and KZ:SF I couldn't be bothered getting past the third level because the level design really confused me(even with the pointer telling me where to go, it mostly just pointed to an area I had no idea how to get to =/ )
I do wish there was KZ game I could play with KB/M at 60FPS.
Oh well, maybe in 20-40 years when a PS3 emulator is made
I hope you're having a good one.
Christ, you actually played the game with the default controller configuration? that was so bad, the devs seemed to build on top of KZ1 instead of looking at the other FPS games and thinking about how the genre has evolved to have a less silly control scheme for FPS games.
KZ2 is imo the best Killzone game, KZ3 was even dumber(especially the ending, christ) and KZ:SF I couldn't be bothered getting past the third level because the level design really confused me(even with the pointer telling me where to go, it mostly just pointed to an area I had no idea how to get to =/ )
I do wish there was KZ game I could play with KB/M at 60FPS.
Oh well, maybe in 20-40 years when a PS3 emulator is made
bobnowhere
Member
I hope they are not just previous bundles with one more expensive game tacked on the end to raise the average price.
Am I the only one who thinks that unfinished episodic games (Telltale, KR0, etc) should be released on Early Access until they have last episode ready?
I mean, it's only fair - this would certainly motivate the devs to finish the game - none of this 'three months waiting for 90 minutes of gameplay' bullshit.
I mean, it's only fair - this would certainly motivate the devs to finish the game - none of this 'three months waiting for 90 minutes of gameplay' bullshit.
Happy Steam Birthday!
I hope you're using Enhanced Steam and saw the awesome logo and streamers!
This post reminded me that my Steam Birthday is somewhere in the middle of May. Color me surprised when I logged in a few minutes ago and was greeted by a much more colorful storefront. Pretty cool stuff, jschakles.
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