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[Tellaerin]

Oh, and they stole dual wielding and those little covenant pea shooters that you can charge up from halo. Well, not really, but you hold 2 of 'em in your hand and fire them with one button, and you can charge them up just like in the halo games, thought it was a bit much.

Except that the dispersion pistol (the default pistol that can fire single bolts or charged for a power shot) was the default weapon in the original Unreal (1998). (An updated version of the dispersion pistol resembling the one in UC2 later appeared in Unreal 2.) Wielding a pistol in each hand and being able to fire both with one button can be traced back to the first Unreal Tournament (1999), where you'd dual-wield the Enforcers (the game's default pistol) if you picked up a second one from a fallen foe.

There's more to the FPS world than Halo and Halo 2. Should the guys at Epic abandon elements of the Unreal universe just because Bungie did something similar in Halo years later?

 

[Mr. Lemming]

Except that the dispersion pistol (the default pistol that can fire single bolts or charged for a power shot) was the default weapon in the original Unreal (1998). (An updated version of the dispersion pistol resembling the one in UC2 later appeared in Unreal 2.) Wielding a pistol in each hand and being able to fire both with one button can be traced back to the first Unreal Tournament (1999), where you'd dual-wield the Enforcers (the game's default pistol) if you picked up a second one from a fallen foe.

There's more to the FPS world than Halo and Halo 2. Should the guys at Epic abandon elements of the Unreal universe just because Bungie did something similar in Halo years later?

To be fair, Bungie was ripping themselves off with the plasma pistol, seeing how the fusion pistol in Marathon was pretty much the same thing... except it could explode if you kept it charged long enough. Ditto with the dual wielding, it was in Marathon 2.

 

[Tellaerin]

To be fair, Bungie was ripping themselves off with the plasma pistol, seeing how the fusion pistol in Marathon was pretty much the same thing... except it could explode if you kept it charged long enough. Ditto with the dual wielding, it was in Marathon 2.

You'd know far more about Mac gaming that I would, so I'll take your word for it. However, that still doesn't change the fact that those elements appeared in Epic's 'Unreal universe' titles before showing up again in Halo. I just get a little tired of fans who assume that Halo is the wellspring for everything else in the FPS genre, and automatically label elements in other games that remind them of it as 'copied' or 'stolen'.

 

[Mr. Lemming]

Oh I agree, and its not just Halo... it seems like every game nowadays has to be 100% TOTALLY ORIGINAL or its contributing to the downfall of the industry and is not suitable to wipe the ass of whoever created the original game.

Things can get improved and bettered when they are taken from other games. Innovation isn't coming up with a totally new idea, its making an existing idea better.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

I got this today, icebergisonfire is the XBL name, I hope to see some of you there.

 

[Manders]

i just got it. it's okay. i don't have live, and i've only played the single player. i don't like the 3rd person shit. hard to control. the melee weapon sucks. too hard to use against someone w/ a gun. but other than that, it's okay

 

[HokieJoe]

Give it time Manders. Once you get the feel for them, you'll come to love the melee weapons. I've only played the demo, but I played it enough to get a good handle on the controls, and what not to do.

Work and school will delay my purchase until May. But oh boy, what a fucking month that will be- UC2, Forza, and then MotoGP3 in June.

 

[Alex]

The controls are just about perfect IMO, and what are your gripes with them and the melee gig?

And no, it's absolutely not hard to kill projectile whores with melee, it's the exact opposite. Reflect the big shots, block the small ones. You also have 2 different dashes to close distance. The game greatly punishes folks who don't use all of their arsenal.

French, well, how are you getting ravaged? The training mode doesn't really teach you shit, if you're curious. Pretty mediocre tutorial overall.

You can carry a total of four weapons, your melee weapon, default projectile weapon, one energy weapon and one explosive weapon. So yeah, that's a long and obnoxious way of saying two weapons, really.

As for blocking and whatnot. You press L to reflect, you can reflect anything, even melee swipes (though it's hard to reflect those, fun though). Press R+L to block, you can block anything until your meter drops, even melee swipes. I reflect a lot, but I really shouldn't. Best to mostly use reflect on rockets, big bio pieces, big flak pieces and of course the stun shot.

If they get in your face and you're having trouble counter attacking, I just use heavy melee dashes (jump + forward and b, don't push the R trigger) or rocket clusters. The heavy dash doesn't really do as much damage as you might think, and it consumes adreneline, but you can chain them together in quick succession.

Also, if you manage to get them off you while you still have some air time, remember that your R-trigger air dash has two levels of charge, hold it a bit and the graphic will enhance to let you know.

Also, pratice coup de graces. If you're up the creek without a paddle (low hp, no explosives, no adrenline) they offer a last ditch effort to close the fight. Plus, as I've discovered today, they REALLY piss people off if you keep doing them back to back. To those folks I say: cram it, they're easy to counter.

And if you mess up your coup de grace, just mash B to try and land a heavy melee strike, make sure that stun counts for something

 

[Brandon F]

It is definately a game that takes motivation and time to learn, most of which is the practicality of switching between melee and weaponry. It's easy to become dependent on one or the other, but juggling both as the situation demands is pretty key. A lot of people will have early frustrations getting a handle on this game, but once it clicks...hooboy.

It's good to start training with a human-type character. I really dug Sapphire and still do, the agility boost she(and the other women) has, really helps acclimate to the lightning fast pacing despite the low health base, which also helps to understand damage output. Plus she has the 'heal' adrenaline skill which can pretty much save your butt constantly AND train you to really abuse that precious X button. Her Ice armor skill is pretty helpful as well.

I finished the goth-chick's tournament which unlocked a new character and was pretty taken back at how much more difficult the game can feel without that instant heal skill. Vampire and Siphon is a lot more unwieldly, but an interesting dynamic combined with her ghosting abilities. She does have some slick animations too.

I also think online is the best place to learn rather than against the offline bots.

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

I bought the game too (traded in wmxxi for it ugh)


and so far it does indeed kickass


my tag is ZombieSupaStar on live

 

[Alex]

I'm starting to do pretty decently. Coup de grace's are fairly easy for me to pull off now, and I've gotten good enough at parrying/deflecting that I can even manage to do it to pounces and melee charges.

There are a few things I don't understand still though, some of the announcements. Like Eight Ball, Smackdown, ect. What is the spooky MK dude I have the game set to talking about? I only really understand the typical UT ones.

The melee combat keeps clicking for me as well, it's funny, it only has a few moves really. But you can make a really heated fight out of it. They did an excellent job of adding some much needed depth and dueling while keeping the pace of the series.

 

[AeroGod]

I got the game.. Nali Slaughter is the best freaking mode ever, especially with other people in the room. When you are both chasing after a 5 point Nali cursing each other out. "Thats my Nali bitch!" :lol I love this game.

 

[Manders]

took the game back. i just couldn't get used to the controls. picked up jade empire. so far, so good. i hear it's really short though. :/