Time was, I'd buy a new game, rip off the cellophane, ignore the instruction manual and plough several hours into my new purchase. These days, what with being 'grown up', having 'responsibilities' and a pathetic craving for 'sleep', I take my new-purchase gaming where I can find it.
Which brings me on to Left 4 Dead 2. I bought the game on release day (20th November in the UK) but was going away for the weekend for a pre-Christmas visit to relatives, so could not play it until Monday night. And, as it turned out, into Tuesday morning.
My initial impression is that L4D2 is bloody hard! The first game was no walk in the park (other than the bit that was, actually, a walk through a park) but this ratchets the difficulty level up a notch. I've only played through one campaign, 'Dead Center', so far and if that's a sign of things to come, there'll be a few more late nights in my future. The campaign took two and a quarter hours to complete, which is about an hour more than a campaign in the first game would take.
The new infected are both interesting and hard to kill (I hate the Jockey) but, in the player's favour, you are given melée weapons (which rock). The set pieces are a lot more involved than in the first game. In the campaign I played, I had to steal some cola (really) from a store in order to bribe some guy to blow something up and, for evac, had to find fuel cans around a mall, with which to fill up a Nascar-style car. I thoroughly enjoyed these events, which showed more depth than just blasting scores zombies, wave after wave, as in the first game (though I enjoyed that too).
I think that this added layer of complication kills the single player game, as the CPU-controlled characters simply do not have the nous to use the tactics necessary to progress. Hand them a petrol can and they'll just drink the petrol and wear the can as a party hat - they're that dumb. I played with one other real person, with the other two in the party in the hands of the 360 and even then we struggled.
After I've played it some (lots) more, I'll post a full review. Of course, I would have played it some more last night but my 7-year old was still awake at 9pm, my L4D buddy had to work on an important job tender and I was crazy-tired. Responsibilities, eh?
Showing posts with label Microsoft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Microsoft. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Curse you Microsoft - you've won, OK!
As I've said before, I'm playing inFamous at the moment. It's, well, 'OK', I suppose - nothing out of this world but it rolls along at its own pace and gives you plenty of toys to play with. In short, somewhat giving away the review that I intend to write when I'm done with it, it's fun - an engaging way to spend your gaming time.
It's just that.......it's a bit longer than I thought it would be. I'm not sure how long I've been playing it (if only Raptr worked with PS3) but it's been a while and it's certainly the most I've played my PS3 since January, when I played through Uncharted. Since then, I've dipped in and out of Little Big Planet and Burn Zombie Burn, I've played a fair few Wii games and spent time on the handhelds (anything to escape the X Factor) but this year I reckon I've spent at least 75% of my gaming time on the 360. I didn't think it would ever bother me but I am concerned that my current gaming isn't increasing my Gamerscore!
When I first got my 360 I can honestly say I didn't care about Achievements. I took quite a low gp yield from my early games - Bioshock, Crackdown, Battle for Middle Earth II and others - as I never gave the Achievements and gamerpoints available a second thought. My disquiet over the time spent with inFamous has made it apparent that now I do, in fact, care about them. And that's made me angry with myself and with Microsoft (though the latter is tinged with a crudging respect at how they've played me).
Hopefully, this self-realisation will be enough to 'scare me straight' and I'll just concentrate on the games from now on. I'm getting Uncharted 2 for Christmas and God of War III and Heavy Rain look the most interesting games on the horizon, so I need to stop thinking about my Gamerscore and go back to thinking like a gamer.
It's just that.......it's a bit longer than I thought it would be. I'm not sure how long I've been playing it (if only Raptr worked with PS3) but it's been a while and it's certainly the most I've played my PS3 since January, when I played through Uncharted. Since then, I've dipped in and out of Little Big Planet and Burn Zombie Burn, I've played a fair few Wii games and spent time on the handhelds (anything to escape the X Factor) but this year I reckon I've spent at least 75% of my gaming time on the 360. I didn't think it would ever bother me but I am concerned that my current gaming isn't increasing my Gamerscore!
When I first got my 360 I can honestly say I didn't care about Achievements. I took quite a low gp yield from my early games - Bioshock, Crackdown, Battle for Middle Earth II and others - as I never gave the Achievements and gamerpoints available a second thought. My disquiet over the time spent with inFamous has made it apparent that now I do, in fact, care about them. And that's made me angry with myself and with Microsoft (though the latter is tinged with a crudging respect at how they've played me).
Hopefully, this self-realisation will be enough to 'scare me straight' and I'll just concentrate on the games from now on. I'm getting Uncharted 2 for Christmas and God of War III and Heavy Rain look the most interesting games on the horizon, so I need to stop thinking about my Gamerscore and go back to thinking like a gamer.
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