Well, it looks pretty, and it seems like it may have a grander scale than the previous incarnations - but I'm completely at odds with the is-it-isn't-it edging around one simple question:
Can I play the new SimCity solo, without any upload/download, connection or communication with any servers or other players whilst playing or not playing (so not counting DRM checks), so my experience is never affected by other players?
If not - count me out. SimCity for me is about my building up my own little world. Multiplayer breeds leaderboards, childish nonsensical competition filled with cheating, griefing or whinging, further costs (DLC), etc.
2. Their stores became uncomfortable places where you had to squeeze past the 2nd-hand shelves just to get to have a look at the new stuff, 90% of which wasn't advertised or displayed properly.
3. They pissed off the game producers by pushing 2nd-hand (screw saying 'preowned' - it's 2nd hand) sales so high - it was a brilliant move by EA to refuse credit to GAME for ME3 - it essentially stabbed GAME straight through the heart. Whether you agree with 2nd hand game sales or not - you have to appreciate a perfectly-timed business FU.
4. I remember the first day I walked into Tesco and whilst waiting for a prescription I wandered over to the games shelf and thought 'Hey! That game is £10 cheaper than in GAME'...and after a mild world-spinning-dizzy-fit-where-everything-seemed-to-have-gone-topsy-turvy I realised just how badly GAME were ripping off their customers...a bloody SUPERMARKET outpriced them, when it used to be that you would go to GAME for the £10 cheaper price!
I'm not sorry to see GAME go, not now I spent all my stored points and got a free headset, xbox controller, battery and charger.
I read the Register's review and found it much more straight out. This really doesn't sound like a 4* to me.
Still - abilities available in a small bunch of co-op missions that aren't in the main campaign? WTF? Why isn't everything in the main campaign? On top of that - why isn't there a steady build-up campaign? Team combat between humans that is more than shoot-shoot-shoot?
On top of that - how long IS the campaign? Am I going to finish it by the end of the weekend and then wonder why the f--k I bought yet another FPS that's over already?
I LOVED Syndicate (the original) but playing another linear FPS based on the same story-premise as Deus Ex (the new one) and having a few never-dynamic missions to do (ie you'll learn them all by rote within a week) sounds tedious and definitely not worth the money.
I think I'll hang on until it's REALLY cheap and I'm feeling rich, or maybe just skip it by. I played the multiplayer in the demo and just found it a very dull FPS with nothing new to see.
@HardBoiled2009 I'm pretty sure you were downvoted because of your atrocious spelling, grammar and punctuation.
I'd also consider that your attitude, 'bad for the environment' comment (over the piddly amount of 6 weather balloons), your insulting comment to other commenters and petty whining didn't win you any upvotes either.
Believe it or not, you'll find many people just bemused by this marketing event, and people aren't as blind or fanboistic to gaming companies as you seem to think. They just aren't over-reactionary enough to somehow turn a tiny molehill into a f-ckoff huge melting glacier.
Blimey - it's just a silly stunt with the environmental that's probably less than the energy cost you used to power the PC you used to type your comment.
Online? Meh. I wish they'd focus all of that energy onto a longer, better, more powerful single-player experience first - or if it is online then make it a joinable campaign or competitive tactical and strategic game. Playing a series of 'maps' repetitively over and over with a bunch of people who all think they know best and half get loud and abusive about it puts me off.
I immediately question the validity of any review that starts out so utterly negative about the prequel that this game is based on.
The immediate negativity about FFXIII shut down any possibility that this review could be anything other than negative.
Granted I'm about as thrilled about playing Serah (boring) or Noel (tosser) as I am about root-canals, but I'm expecting that there'll be alot more to the game where it comes to characters - after all, this is a whole new game, not some DLC. If there aren't a series of characters to play as then this one REALLY destroys any Final Fantasy aspect to the game.
I enjoyed FFXIII, so this review to me says I very may well enjoy the second one.
What makes me laugh is the amount of people who feel they need some sort of logic or justification, and can't just say 'you know, I play a female character and I want to have same-sex in-game relationships because I get a cheap sexy thrill out of it'.
I like playing female characters as I find the voice-acting to be more pleasant to my ears, and the dialogues usually come across funnier - whereas I find that the male side tends to just make the men come off as dickwads. However, I'll openly admit that if (and it's not every time) I decide to play a female character and romance a female NPC sometimes I get a slight naughty thrill out of it.
You can call it what you want - a guilty pleasure, a perverse side to my nature, sick and wrong, or just damn normal that I have a slightly kinky nature - but frankly your opinion doesn't matter as regards to who and what I am. I'm not going to sit here and live my life by your rules and approval, making myself miserable in the process, just because you have some overly self-righteous, snotty, arrogant lack of self-esteem and need to attempt to control others. As long as I'm not hurting anyone I can do whatever I want, and if people want to sell stuff that gives me cheap thrills, and I feel I want to spend the money I earned on such things - butt out (so to speak).
Being a good neighbor in SimCity
Mar 30th 2012 11:08AM (Joystiq)Can I play the new SimCity solo, without any upload/download, connection or communication with any servers or other players whilst playing or not playing (so not counting DRM checks), so my experience is never affected by other players?
If not - count me out. SimCity for me is about my building up my own little world. Multiplayer breeds leaderboards, childish nonsensical competition filled with cheating, griefing or whinging, further costs (DLC), etc.
PSA: BBC iPlayer now available on 360 in the UK
Mar 23rd 2012 9:27AM (Joystiq)GAME enters administration, delisted from stock exchange
Mar 23rd 2012 9:22AM (Joystiq)2. Their stores became uncomfortable places where you had to squeeze past the 2nd-hand shelves just to get to have a look at the new stuff, 90% of which wasn't advertised or displayed properly.
3. They pissed off the game producers by pushing 2nd-hand (screw saying 'preowned' - it's 2nd hand) sales so high - it was a brilliant move by EA to refuse credit to GAME for ME3 - it essentially stabbed GAME straight through the heart. Whether you agree with 2nd hand game sales or not - you have to appreciate a perfectly-timed business FU.
4. I remember the first day I walked into Tesco and whilst waiting for a prescription I wandered over to the games shelf and thought 'Hey! That game is £10 cheaper than in GAME'...and after a mild world-spinning-dizzy-fit-where-everything-seemed-to-have-gone-topsy-turvy I realised just how badly GAME were ripping off their customers...a bloody SUPERMARKET outpriced them, when it used to be that you would go to GAME for the £10 cheaper price!
I'm not sorry to see GAME go, not now I spent all my stored points and got a free headset, xbox controller, battery and charger.
Assassin's Creed 3 screens leak (again)
Mar 23rd 2012 8:55AM (Joystiq)Syndicate review: The business of aggressive expansion
Feb 24th 2012 8:25AM (Joystiq)Still - abilities available in a small bunch of co-op missions that aren't in the main campaign? WTF? Why isn't everything in the main campaign? On top of that - why isn't there a steady build-up campaign? Team combat between humans that is more than shoot-shoot-shoot?
On top of that - how long IS the campaign? Am I going to finish it by the end of the weekend and then wonder why the f--k I bought yet another FPS that's over already?
I LOVED Syndicate (the original) but playing another linear FPS based on the same story-premise as Deus Ex (the new one) and having a few never-dynamic missions to do (ie you'll learn them all by rote within a week) sounds tedious and definitely not worth the money.
I think I'll hang on until it's REALLY cheap and I'm feeling rich, or maybe just skip it by. I played the multiplayer in the demo and just found it a very dull FPS with nothing new to see.
Deja Review: Alan Wake (PC)
Feb 17th 2012 8:34AM (Joystiq)Marketing zenith reached: Early copies of Mass Effect 3 on weather balloons
Feb 17th 2012 8:17AM (Joystiq)I'd also consider that your attitude, 'bad for the environment' comment (over the piddly amount of 6 weather balloons), your insulting comment to other commenters and petty whining didn't win you any upvotes either.
Believe it or not, you'll find many people just bemused by this marketing event, and people aren't as blind or fanboistic to gaming companies as you seem to think. They just aren't over-reactionary enough to somehow turn a tiny molehill into a f-ckoff huge melting glacier.
Blimey - it's just a silly stunt with the environmental that's probably less than the energy cost you used to power the PC you used to type your comment.
Syndicate will not have an online pass, EA confirms
Feb 2nd 2012 3:09AM (Joystiq)Online? Meh. I wish they'd focus all of that energy onto a longer, better, more powerful single-player experience first - or if it is online then make it a joinable campaign or competitive tactical and strategic game. Playing a series of 'maps' repetitively over and over with a bunch of people who all think they know best and half get loud and abusive about it puts me off.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 review: Fixing the past
Feb 2nd 2012 2:54AM (Joystiq)The immediate negativity about FFXIII shut down any possibility that this review could be anything other than negative.
Granted I'm about as thrilled about playing Serah (boring) or Noel (tosser) as I am about root-canals, but I'm expecting that there'll be alot more to the game where it comes to characters - after all, this is a whole new game, not some DLC. If there aren't a series of characters to play as then this one REALLY destroys any Final Fantasy aspect to the game.
I enjoyed FFXIII, so this review to me says I very may well enjoy the second one.
Activists target SWTOR's future same-gender romances
Jan 31st 2012 9:01AM (Massively)I like playing female characters as I find the voice-acting to be more pleasant to my ears, and the dialogues usually come across funnier - whereas I find that the male side tends to just make the men come off as dickwads. However, I'll openly admit that if (and it's not every time) I decide to play a female character and romance a female NPC sometimes I get a slight naughty thrill out of it.
You can call it what you want - a guilty pleasure, a perverse side to my nature, sick and wrong, or just damn normal that I have a slightly kinky nature - but frankly your opinion doesn't matter as regards to who and what I am. I'm not going to sit here and live my life by your rules and approval, making myself miserable in the process, just because you have some overly self-righteous, snotty, arrogant lack of self-esteem and need to attempt to control others. As long as I'm not hurting anyone I can do whatever I want, and if people want to sell stuff that gives me cheap thrills, and I feel I want to spend the money I earned on such things - butt out (so to speak).