The Games we play...
- Thread starter Ormerod
- Start date
So, Dirt 2 then... Review???
The original Dirt for me was one of the best early release titles for the "next Gen". I played my copy off and on for the best part of two years. For a simple racing game, that's a lot of time and effort. I ran through the main game completing it twice (on the second run upping the previous level I'd completed the races on). Some of the different races and vehicles were more challenging that others. Personally, I disliked the Rally and Rally X stages the most. Preferring the Raid, Buggy and hill challenge events.
So the game offered a massive amount of replay value, high production values and good fun.
Prior to Dirt, I'd been a big fan of Colin McRae Rally 4 - the first rally game to really grab my attention. Handling was superb, as was the ability to simply change the specs to match the road (so a degree of strategy was needed). It was all rally, but with a good selection of different rally classes to keep you going. It was a tough game, a real challenge.
So, we've moved from the Colin McRae games which are 100% rally focussed with a need to form a racing setup strategy. Onto Dirt where multiple racing disciplines are involved, less strategy, simpler game play.
What about Dirt 2? Well, oddly, it's stepping back a little towards the McRae rally games.
There are primarily only two type of event. Rally or Offroaders. Yes, you have Rally-X in the Rally cars and Trucks or buggies for offroaders - but essentially in a race you'll either be in a rally car, or some kind of offroad beast. There are different types of event based on those (gate crasher being a fun way to learn racing lines as you attempt to smash plastic gates in the track).
The question is, has the limit of vehicle types available made the game more focussed and better, or do you feel constricted. At least in Dirt, if you struggled with a Rally event, you had a lot of other options.
It works, kind of. There's not enough variety in there really. You'll end up choosing a Rally car, a truck and a buggy that suits you and always use that same car. So essentially out of a choice of 70 cars or something, you'll just be using the same three.
Does this make the game bad?
Well, not really. The game is one of the best presented games. EVER. It is slicker than Mushrooms comb! The way the music is blaring out of tinny PA speakers outside, then it muffles as you go into your trailer - then comes full on when it's loading. It's hard to explain, but it's the little details like this that make it such a brilliant experience.
As for the game? Well, it's a rally game - if you don't like rally games you're going to struggle. The cars don't react as well as they did in Colin McRae 4 - but they do react how you expect them too. It's not as real, but it's designed to mix a real simulator feeling, but to make it accessible. You still need to be able to learn to drift the cars - you need to know how to balance your accelerator to hold a line without causing oversteer , or how best to get your nose pointing the right way out of a corner before laying on the acceleration.
It's frustrating at times when you get in the heat of a battle and floor it too much causing you to lose control (and the race). Yet you don't feel cheated because you KNOW it was your fault.
So, racing? It's tight, tense and enjoyable. This is increased 20 fold when playing with a decent force feedback wheel. All of the sudden the handling becomes incredible. The minute control you can get over the car using a wheel and pedals really makes the racing much more fun. Not particularly easier - come off a jump badly and the wheel will fight you into a hedge, but that's all part of it
Graphically, the the game is stunning. It uses an enhanced Grid engine, so it's everything Grid was, only better. There are some brilliant crashes due to the excellent physics engine, and the environmental graphics are stunning to the point of making you crash drooling over it. Then you crash into the church you're stunned by and it collapses under the weight of your truck! Brilliant.
So the presentation is brilliant, the graphics are brilliant, the physics are brilliant and the sound is brilliant. Is the game brilliant?
Yes and no. It's a stunning game, and very addictive. There's just enough variety to keep you entertained, and enough familiarity so you get to be very comfortable in the cars your driving. It's just about right on balance there - it is a steadily increasing challenge as you make your way through that the familiarity is required.
However, the replay factor is limited by this. You're not going to want to play through the game again (I don't think) as it's just "more of the same". It's also not quite sitting right between the McRae games and Dirt. It needs to be either completely accessible as Dirt was, or allow the "hardcore" their fun by giving you the settings for changing the car and planning a rally strategy. It's just too "rally" for casual players, and not deep enough for hardcore rally fans.
It's great for me, as I fall between the two
I havn't played online yet, so can't comment but it looks good. This is the one area Codemasters have once again compromised. Rallying is a solitary sport. You race against the clock and just let the elements, car and skill challenge you. In Dirt 2, even the pure rally stages have you catching up to other competitors. It's frustrating, as you can be running a perfect course, then catch up to somebody and they wont shift, so you lose the racing line and you momentum.
This is the same in a lot of the races. Rally more than any other sport depends on good racing lines - impossible when you have eight trucks heading into each corner - somebody will come a cropper.
So overall it's a mixed bag. It's sheer brilliance and "just not quite good enough". However, it's well worth buying just to experience a game that is so well made, and that will actually offer you a challenge. You'll not be completing this title over one weekend.
9/10!
The original Dirt for me was one of the best early release titles for the "next Gen". I played my copy off and on for the best part of two years. For a simple racing game, that's a lot of time and effort. I ran through the main game completing it twice (on the second run upping the previous level I'd completed the races on). Some of the different races and vehicles were more challenging that others. Personally, I disliked the Rally and Rally X stages the most. Preferring the Raid, Buggy and hill challenge events.
So the game offered a massive amount of replay value, high production values and good fun.
Prior to Dirt, I'd been a big fan of Colin McRae Rally 4 - the first rally game to really grab my attention. Handling was superb, as was the ability to simply change the specs to match the road (so a degree of strategy was needed). It was all rally, but with a good selection of different rally classes to keep you going. It was a tough game, a real challenge.
So, we've moved from the Colin McRae games which are 100% rally focussed with a need to form a racing setup strategy. Onto Dirt where multiple racing disciplines are involved, less strategy, simpler game play.
What about Dirt 2? Well, oddly, it's stepping back a little towards the McRae rally games.
There are primarily only two type of event. Rally or Offroaders. Yes, you have Rally-X in the Rally cars and Trucks or buggies for offroaders - but essentially in a race you'll either be in a rally car, or some kind of offroad beast. There are different types of event based on those (gate crasher being a fun way to learn racing lines as you attempt to smash plastic gates in the track).
The question is, has the limit of vehicle types available made the game more focussed and better, or do you feel constricted. At least in Dirt, if you struggled with a Rally event, you had a lot of other options.
It works, kind of. There's not enough variety in there really. You'll end up choosing a Rally car, a truck and a buggy that suits you and always use that same car. So essentially out of a choice of 70 cars or something, you'll just be using the same three.
Does this make the game bad?
Well, not really. The game is one of the best presented games. EVER. It is slicker than Mushrooms comb! The way the music is blaring out of tinny PA speakers outside, then it muffles as you go into your trailer - then comes full on when it's loading. It's hard to explain, but it's the little details like this that make it such a brilliant experience.
As for the game? Well, it's a rally game - if you don't like rally games you're going to struggle. The cars don't react as well as they did in Colin McRae 4 - but they do react how you expect them too. It's not as real, but it's designed to mix a real simulator feeling, but to make it accessible. You still need to be able to learn to drift the cars - you need to know how to balance your accelerator to hold a line without causing oversteer , or how best to get your nose pointing the right way out of a corner before laying on the acceleration.
It's frustrating at times when you get in the heat of a battle and floor it too much causing you to lose control (and the race). Yet you don't feel cheated because you KNOW it was your fault.
So, racing? It's tight, tense and enjoyable. This is increased 20 fold when playing with a decent force feedback wheel. All of the sudden the handling becomes incredible. The minute control you can get over the car using a wheel and pedals really makes the racing much more fun. Not particularly easier - come off a jump badly and the wheel will fight you into a hedge, but that's all part of it
Graphically, the the game is stunning. It uses an enhanced Grid engine, so it's everything Grid was, only better. There are some brilliant crashes due to the excellent physics engine, and the environmental graphics are stunning to the point of making you crash drooling over it. Then you crash into the church you're stunned by and it collapses under the weight of your truck! Brilliant.
So the presentation is brilliant, the graphics are brilliant, the physics are brilliant and the sound is brilliant. Is the game brilliant?
Yes and no. It's a stunning game, and very addictive. There's just enough variety to keep you entertained, and enough familiarity so you get to be very comfortable in the cars your driving. It's just about right on balance there - it is a steadily increasing challenge as you make your way through that the familiarity is required.
However, the replay factor is limited by this. You're not going to want to play through the game again (I don't think) as it's just "more of the same". It's also not quite sitting right between the McRae games and Dirt. It needs to be either completely accessible as Dirt was, or allow the "hardcore" their fun by giving you the settings for changing the car and planning a rally strategy. It's just too "rally" for casual players, and not deep enough for hardcore rally fans.
It's great for me, as I fall between the two
I havn't played online yet, so can't comment but it looks good. This is the one area Codemasters have once again compromised. Rallying is a solitary sport. You race against the clock and just let the elements, car and skill challenge you. In Dirt 2, even the pure rally stages have you catching up to other competitors. It's frustrating, as you can be running a perfect course, then catch up to somebody and they wont shift, so you lose the racing line and you momentum.
This is the same in a lot of the races. Rally more than any other sport depends on good racing lines - impossible when you have eight trucks heading into each corner - somebody will come a cropper.
So overall it's a mixed bag. It's sheer brilliance and "just not quite good enough". However, it's well worth buying just to experience a game that is so well made, and that will actually offer you a challenge. You'll not be completing this title over one weekend.
9/10!
Couple of interesting ones for you today.
Has anyone been keeping up on the game "3D Dot Game heroes"? Other than MrClam?
It's a PS3 exclusive which takes 2D pixel sprite based classic 8-bit games and... Well, puts them into 3D.
It's a really odd concept, but essentially, each 3D model is made up of block pixels. The current game being shown is a very Legend of Zelda-esque looking game.
Video here:
http://www.joystiq.com/tag/3d-dot-game-heroes
I do love these interesting concepts.
Secondly, anyone remember "Onlive"? You must, we had pages dedicated to it Where you play a game through the internet, so you don't own hardware, just the games that are "rented" off a server and the screen images piped to you.
Well, Spawn Labs have the next best thing. It's a server that connects to your Wii/PS3/360 and broadcasts it over the internet. All you need is a Broadband connection and it promises to deliver 30fps gaming from your very own gaming console. So no matter where in the world you are, you can play on your very own console.
Apparently other people can also hook up while you're playing it live at home - so you could have sitting room gaming against somebody sat on the other side of the world.
I think it's a complete waste of time personally, but it's interesting none the less
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/14/spawn ... ole-games/
Has anyone been keeping up on the game "3D Dot Game heroes"? Other than MrClam?
It's a PS3 exclusive which takes 2D pixel sprite based classic 8-bit games and... Well, puts them into 3D.
It's a really odd concept, but essentially, each 3D model is made up of block pixels. The current game being shown is a very Legend of Zelda-esque looking game.
Video here:
http://www.joystiq.com/tag/3d-dot-game-heroes
I do love these interesting concepts.
Secondly, anyone remember "Onlive"? You must, we had pages dedicated to it
Where you play a game through the internet, so you don't own hardware, just the games that are "rented" off a server and the screen images piped to you.Well, Spawn Labs have the next best thing. It's a server that connects to your Wii/PS3/360 and broadcasts it over the internet. All you need is a Broadband connection and it promises to deliver 30fps gaming from your very own gaming console. So no matter where in the world you are, you can play on your very own console.
Apparently other people can also hook up while you're playing it live at home - so you could have sitting room gaming against somebody sat on the other side of the world.
I think it's a complete waste of time personally, but it's interesting none the less
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/14/spawn ... ole-games/
I finished the main part of Arkham Asylum and I am now finishing off the rest of it.
What a game, probably one of the best games I have ever played in terms of story and action. A few bits are anoying in terms of if you die you can end up having to redo 30 mins of game play, but thanks to Big John I now know all you have to do is enter another room for it to save.
Some of the game is so scary as well and just so well done. All the Scarcrow stuff really got to me, and yes I though the PS3 had crashed lol.
Really is a 10/10 game.
What a game, probably one of the best games I have ever played in terms of story and action. A few bits are anoying in terms of if you die you can end up having to redo 30 mins of game play, but thanks to Big John I now know all you have to do is enter another room for it to save.
Some of the game is so scary as well and just so well done. All the Scarcrow stuff really got to me, and yes I though the PS3 had crashed lol.
Really is a 10/10 game.
Ollie
CF Legend
^I'm planning to rent that soon. Went into Blockbuster today but it's not available to rent yet so got Killzone 2 instead. It's really good actually. The graphics are stunning and there's plenty of action. There's little narrative or development of the characters but it's one of those games that you show your friends on the PS3 to amaze them and show what the machine can do.
Not finished the story yet or played it online but impressions with it at the moment are pretty good as I thought it was going to be crap like the first one was.
Got a really good deal with Blockbuster as well. Usually it's about £6 to rent a game for a week. But I got a voucher that lets me get 6 tickets for £5 that can be used to rent any games, DVDs or Blu-Rays.
Plan to use them over the next few weeks to try out some games I've been wanting to play for a while.
Not finished the story yet or played it online but impressions with it at the moment are pretty good as I thought it was going to be crap like the first one was.
Got a really good deal with Blockbuster as well. Usually it's about £6 to rent a game for a week. But I got a voucher that lets me get 6 tickets for £5 that can be used to rent any games, DVDs or Blu-Rays.
Plan to use them over the next few weeks to try out some games I've been wanting to play for a while.
mrclam
Giga Poster
Today is "Talk like a pirate day" and to celebrate - for today ONLY get episode 1 of "Tales of monkey island" for free here:
http://www.telltalegames.com/playlikeapirate
Valid until midnight tonight (GMT)
http://www.telltalegames.com/playlikeapirate
Valid until midnight tonight (GMT)
Ollie
CF Legend
Urgh. That 'journey to the city unscathed' trophy is still doing my nut in on Flower. The video guides on Youtube make it look easy and say just keep to the left and up high but whenever I go up the wind forces me back down into the pylons. It's really frustrating me as it seems impossible and everytime you fail you have to replay the whole ****ing level. :x
Furie help me if you've done it.
Also completed Killzone 2. It's quite short actually but still seems to drag about 2/3rds in. I guess it's because it's as generic as FPS' come and all the wasteland levels all feel the same.
Still it's a great game and full of action.
Furie help me if you've done it.
Also completed Killzone 2. It's quite short actually but still seems to drag about 2/3rds in. I guess it's because it's as generic as FPS' come and all the wasteland levels all feel the same.
Still it's a great game and full of action.
Nic
Strata Poster
New Professor Layton advert! VERY excited! I can't wait! I LOVED the first one... couldn't put it down until I had completed it. Totally lost a whole weekend.
Yes, I know... I am very girly when it comes to gaming But hey, of all the consoles I've ever owned, the DS is the one that I've played the most, and stuck with for the longest. I still play on it every single day. Hurrah!
Yes, I know... I am very girly when it comes to gaming
But hey, of all the consoles I've ever owned, the DS is the one that I've played the most, and stuck with for the longest. I still play on it every single day. Hurrah!
Ollie
CF Legend
^^Oh I forgot that was coming out. The first one was excellent but the puzzles were really tough near the end which was great for making it last a while.
Now that I've got a huge Hard Drive and TV for my PS3 I've decided to make a download list of loads of old demos I remember playing and enjoying and left the downloading last night and today (about 15 demos lol).
Stuntman Ignition seems better than I remembered. I was crap at it before but now I can go on it and do quite well.
And I totally forgot about Super Rub'a'dub. It's so quirky and fun although I'm not sure if I'd want the full version.
Clive Barkers Jericho is ok but it fails at being scary which is what it's meant to be. The main characters are all marine/army people and have super powers which just makes you feel stronger than the creatures. The graphics of the monsters are great though.
Played Lego Batman with my little sister earlier. She seemed to really enjoy it as well and we had alot of fun and laughs. Mainly me stealing all the vehicles and driving round in circles as she wanted to drive it but didn't know the button to get it (she's only 6) :lol: .
Fight Night Round 4 is really visually impressive and the controls are great but gets a bit confusing in the heat of a fight.
Simpsons Game. Still can't get onto the higher platforms on Lard Lads back. He never comes over by the high buildings I need to jump off and when he does all the little Krustys attack me
That's it for the moment I think. Been playing Killzone 2 online a bit as well. It's pretty good but the online matches last ages as it's made up of about 5 or 6 games so you find you have to play for at least an hour as opposed to CoD where you can hop in, play an excellent 10 minute game and do something else.
Also I'm really annoyed as the American PSN has the original Tomb Raider and Silent Hill games available for download but the UK Store doesn't.
Now that I've got a huge Hard Drive and TV for my PS3 I've decided to make a download list of loads of old demos I remember playing and enjoying and left the downloading last night and today (about 15 demos lol).
Stuntman Ignition seems better than I remembered. I was crap at it before but now I can go on it and do quite well.
And I totally forgot about Super Rub'a'dub. It's so quirky and fun although I'm not sure if I'd want the full version.
Clive Barkers Jericho is ok but it fails at being scary which is what it's meant to be. The main characters are all marine/army people and have super powers which just makes you feel stronger than the creatures. The graphics of the monsters are great though.
Played Lego Batman with my little sister earlier. She seemed to really enjoy it as well and we had alot of fun and laughs. Mainly me stealing all the vehicles and driving round in circles as she wanted to drive it but didn't know the button to get it (she's only 6) :lol: .
Fight Night Round 4 is really visually impressive and the controls are great but gets a bit confusing in the heat of a fight.
Simpsons Game. Still can't get onto the higher platforms on Lard Lads back. He never comes over by the high buildings I need to jump off and when he does all the little Krustys attack me
That's it for the moment I think. Been playing Killzone 2 online a bit as well. It's pretty good but the online matches last ages as it's made up of about 5 or 6 games so you find you have to play for at least an hour as opposed to CoD where you can hop in, play an excellent 10 minute game and do something else.
Also I'm really annoyed as the American PSN has the original Tomb Raider and Silent Hill games available for download but the UK Store doesn't.
mrclam
Giga Poster
rollerdude said:
Guess it depends on whether you're playing online or not..
ODST will be the first halo i've never bought due to three reasons:
1. I rarely play games online
2. Halo 3's single player game sucked balls
3. ODST is apparenly completable in single player in less than 4 hours.
So Im saying "screw it " :lol: