I suppose its kinda funny. A week ago I was here complaining about a lack of “Summer” in my area, today we’re experiencing our second day of temperatures in the mid-nineties and enough humidity to make it “feel” like its above 100 degrees. Why was I complaining again?
Its been a mostly interesting week. What with the United State Supreme Court ruling that videogames deserve First Amendment protection, Halo Creators Bungie announcing Aerospace a new launching pad for Independent game makers, a surprising leadership shake-up at Sony, and even Nintendo using a social networking website to denouce plans of bringing a trio of highly anticipated Japanese RPGs to the US market. That’s a surprising amount of news considering we’re coming off a busy E3, which is usually seen as a slow news period.
Next week is a VERY slow new game release week, featuring just one semi-notable title: the sequel to the surprise cult hit Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon. Sure the PC will see the release of Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, while the PS3 will see a re-release of the two Resistance games in one package with the “Greatest Hits Resistance Dual Pack”, as well as a new Move title: Playstation Move Ape Escape – but I personally wouldn’t count any of those as “major releases”.
Film wise this week sees a trio of distinctly different films hitting theaters. For fans of Summer popcorn action fests there is the third Michael Bay Transformers flick – “Dark of the Moon”. And for the ladies who would rather see something a bit more light hearted there is the new Tom Hanks / Julia Roberts Rom-Com “Larry Crowne”. Then there is something for those who like their comedies a bit more raunchy with the Cameron Diaz starring “Bad Teacher”. And just in case you’d rather sit at home on the couch to enjoy your films new releases this week include: “Season of the Witch” the latest Nic Cage crap-fest, “Sucker Punch” the failure from “300″/”Watchman” director Zach Snyder, the teens only remake of “Beauty and the Beast” – “Beastly”, and finally the long awaited BluRay premiere of the Extended Editions of “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy”.
So with that I’ll call it a week. What Games Are YOU Playing This Week?
I've been having a lot of fun with The Saboteur. I had to start over after losing my save, but I've unlocked all the Perks again and completed most of the story and side missions. I keep telling myself I don't need to clear the map of every secondary objective (there's something along the lines of 1300 at the start of the game) again, but I probably will... I just can't leave a Nazi be. After I finish the main story again, though, I think I'll put away for a while and start over on Assassin's Creed II to get me ready for Brotherhood.
I'm also still playing a level here and there of Batman: the Brave and the Bold, which is a lot of fun in small doses. I ordered Child of Eden yesterday during Amazon's DotD, too, so I may have to unpack my 360 when that arrives.
Oh crap... the new EDF game is almost out already? There was something way too compelling about the last one for how basic a game it was. Gotta get my preorder in while there's still time!
First up, Happy Canada Day!
I played about three hours of Uncharted 3 beta multiplayer last night. I'm enjoying it, but I tell you, I cannot kill guys with guns. It's all about sneaking up on people for me since aiming is spastic at best.
Minecraft.
Infamous. I'm starting to figure the game out a bit. For the first few hours of the title I was pretty disappointed by it, but now that I'm coming along with more powers, it's a bit more fun. I say a "bit more" because damn do I die a lot and I'm only on normal settings.
Also, Happy Independence Day to you awesome Americans in a few days time. I love this time of year. Get those BBQs going!
I'm not sure if you've heard of it. team forts too?
Coming towards the end of Assassins creed 2. What a ride it's been. This is clearly one of the best series on consoles right now. The second game has really taken everything from the first game and just cranked it up to 20. The missions are varied, the environments are a sight to behold and the conspiracy plot is at it's best. Can't wait to start Brotherhood.
I had a free rental coupon for Blockbuster so I nabbed a copy of Shadows of the Damned. So far it's not bad, although it's not as insane as I would have expected from a Suda 51 game. The gameplay is better, however (although that's not saying much, most of his games are pretty terrible/repetitive to actually play). Feels kind of like a Resident Evil game set in hell, with blood and bodies everywhere on spikes.
Also, whatever games I currently own that will give me Steam tickets for the summer sale. Today that's Team Fortress 2, although I don't even know what maps have water to grab the achievement.
And more Ocarina of Time 3D.
For getting that TF2 ticket I'd recommend cp_well or the first stage of pl_thundermountain.
I am now really stoked and really want to just complete this game and get on with Brotherhood. And, of course, people have been raving about the Revelations trailer from E3 and I really badly want to see it.
Apart from AC2, I am having a lot of fun with Bulletstorm as well. The skillshot system is really nice and the game makes it really interesting to pull off even the weird and funny skillshots. So, a bit of that too.
Thought this was a cute little shop I ran into while playing Infamous 2. Audio is pretty bad, but you're not missing anything anyways in this particular scene.
Shifty, how on earth did you get all the perks? Like the two-shot sniper hit, and blowing up so many Nazi cars in just a few minutes? And getting all those vehicles?
I am going to get every single secondary point in this game. I'm roaming the countryside hitting everything and am probably about 40% done overall with that. I just wish I could hold more than 16 dynamite.
So that for me. LA Noire for Kim. Mutant Storm for Dean. He's loving this game.
For this glorious Independence Weekend I'll be tackling mostly Infamous 2 (about halfway through it now... but man do I hate the idea of an entire section of the city being flooded, considering I'm a guy that conducts electricity and touching water usually means a quick death ).
I've also got Shadows of the Damned, Zelda 3D and ResEvil Mercenaries 3D to tackle when I need a break. Not to mention a few games on my backlog, some L.A. Noire DLC content and some sort of fireworks extravaganza on Monday.
Add Civ V to my list.
I haven't played much yet but I like the small changes, the interface, the hex, and the overall look of the game. I'm also pleasantly surprised how well the game runs on my aging computer (1920x1080, everything high, and it's smooth enough). I have a feeling if I select a larger map size, more civs, and get further along so there are more units everywhere...it might start bogging down a bit. But it's not as if performance really affects a Civ game anyway.
It's double XP weekend for Black Ops so I've been playing a lot of that. Also picked up Bulletstorm from the library so I'll be playing through that whenever I'm not playing Black Ops. I'm glad I didn't even bother waiting until Bulletstorm dropped to $20. It's fun but a bit clunky to control and kind of derivative.
Then I'll need to get back to RDR at some point.
Man I had forgotten how much I hated being inside Zabbu Zabbu's belly, carrying that darn fish princess around. Sure some people complain about the actual water temple ... I complain about the EASY version of the temple....
Looks like I missed my free "Welcome Back" PSN stuff. I took "expires July 3" and "available through July 3" to mean "You can still get it July 3". Apparently not. Oh well. Obviously I didn't want it that bad, or I would've tried to get it before the last hour and a half.
Broc - The offer has been extended until Tuesday, 9am Pacific.
guess I better find a ps3 controller
I started up Metroid Other M off my backlog. I'm about 2 hours in. The gameplay is pretty fun, and the exploration is just like Metroid. So overall the gameplay itself is pretty good. But oh man did Nintendo screw up Samus. She used to be a badass bounty hunter. Now she has an endless Japanese monologue about growing up, doubt, regret, what true friendship is, etc. She's become a stale stereotypical JRPG character. And seriously, the military salute is the thumbs up gesture?
Other than that, some Magic 2012. I'll be playing a little bit of Motorstorm Apocalypse every week thanks to the new weekly challenges. I probably should start on some of those Steam summer achievements on the games I have. I didn't even realize the TF2 one. Think I have AaAaA! and Defense Grid as well, plus Magika now. Also I really should play some of the Uncharted 3 beta. And I did beat Sam and Max Season 3 Episode 4 this weekend as well.
played some re5
what a good game
I Started out not "feeling" Infamous 2 - but now I've REALLY gotten into the groove of it. Just like the first game its almost caught me in the same way the Assassin's Creed games did. I guess its a combo of the free roaming, building climbing and all around being a bad ass. While with Ezio I had nothing but my fists and some throwing knives, with Cole I've got lightning shots and missiles (which sorta makes up for the fact that the enemies CAN fire back and are nearly as deadly as you are). After starting slow I now find myself just playing for hours at a time, looking for blast shards, doing side quests, doing missions two at a time (one for the Good Trophy, one for the Evil). Great times.
I saw inFamous 2 running at Best Buy yesterday, and the frame rate looked really quick for the most part. Like in the original when you were on the edge of a pier looking out at the water and there was almost nothing to render, so it was really quick and you wished it ran that smooth the whole game.
Playing some Burnout Paradise now. It's alright. It's Burnout, more or less. As much as I thought Burnout 3 was cool back in the day, now it's just making me shrug.
I almost feel like starting with Fallout 3, though given how little I cared for New Vegas, I'm not sure if that's a great idea.
fallout 3 is a good game but not on ps3.
EXTREMELY MILD SPOILERS BELOW
I did it at the garage by the Belle. First I loaded a Nazi vehicle I had collected, but left it parked in the garage. Then I went out in the street and started shooting the place up to draw the Nazis... there's a foot patrol that goes right past there even if you've cleared the area. Every time a vehicle drove up I'd kill the Nazis, take the car and jam it in the garage, then run back out for more. If it gets too hot, retreat back into the courtyard; the garage keeper helps you hold the Nazis off, but you do have to watch both entrances. Once you pile 5 vehicles in the garage, plant your dynamite and run.
The RDX you unlock from this one is sooo handy throughout the game... you can wander in disguise through a Nazi base placing RDX everywhere, then amble off to a safe distance and send the whole place to hell. Works great as a distraction, too.
The double-headshots is tricky, since early on you have to take scoped weapons from Nazi snipers to have access to them. Generals always have two bodyguards that are often lined up for a double-snipe. Sometimes the layout at checkpoints is friendly to a try, too. On AA guns one Nazi usually stands still and the other paces, so if you line up and wait you can get them both. The easiest way, though, is there's a couple guards standing outside a building near the Belle (there's nothing in or on the building, so I think they're there just for this Perk) that are lined up and waiting to get plugged, and always respawn after a while.
The vehicle collection Perks are what I used my buyouts on. They're pretty easy to do, but tedious. Especially buying the Level 3 Perk is useful because you can store tanks and such in the garage afterward, which makes some other Perks much easier.
One thing that made my second playthrough much easier was going for the Perks early. Especially the one for stealth-killing Generals. In my first playthough I'd offed quite a few of them with guns or explosions, so I had to go further afield to find any Generals left. On that one, you can always use a long-range weapon to take out the bodyguards, wait out the suspiscion, then stealth kill the unguarded General.
I'm an extra double dummy. I went and got the free Welcome Back games with the extra time, but figured I'd leave the PS+ redemption until after midnight Pacific, and then forgot about it before I went to bed.
I did it this morning
but somehow I didn't get little big planet psp even though I selected it. somehow I ended up with two redeemed psp promos but no little big planet
whatever
I never even bothered with the PS+ redemption.
The only parts of PS+ I'm interested are not features that are going to do me a lot of good for just a month (auto updates for instance). If this steam sale is any indication, I really don't need a bunch of free games to play for only a month, especially when they're games I couldn't be bothered to buy in the first place.
well they're giving away four games to play forever not just for a month
right?
ps+ is a pretty dumb service I'm not even interested in, but I was under the impression that the two free ps3 and two free psp games weren't 'play for a month ps+ games'
PSplus offers, amongst other things, the ability to save certain games "to the cloud", gives early access to game demos and betas, allows you to download "full" PS3 games for hour long "Trial Demo" demos and also allows you to download and own certain games (PSP, PS2, PSN) for free as long as you are a subscriber. So basically if you subscribe forever - you'll keep those free games forever. But if you let your subscription lapse, then those free games are gone as well.
The Free PSPlus games are NOT the same as the PS3 & PSP Welcome Back free games.
Yeah, I redeemed all four of the free games, I just didn't bother with the PS+ piece.
You could download the PSP games whether or not you own a PSP. (I don't.)
faits, if you didn't get your games "properly" the first time around (neither did I), but still redeemed them in the store, these are the instructions to actually download/"purchase" them:
Yeah - I redeemed the Plus service, for no other reason that it was A: Free and B: extremely simple to do. Seriously all I had to do was download the damn client and I was a Plus member. The only real "bonus" I got out of it was having that gold "+" sign next to my camercard for 30 days, otherwise it was really a wasted download. I looked through some of the "free" games, but there were none that I really had to bite at, and I'm really not interested in watching that Qore show that Sony runs (....yet I'll watch ALL the videos the chumps on the 360 post go figure).
Otherwise - of ALL the four games I got from the "Welcome Back" program, I loaded up WipeOut ONCE for a 5 minute race where I reminded myself that NOPE - still don't understand WipeOut what-so-ever.
Thanks, Shifty, gotta do that. For a minute I considered just beating The Saboteur, but I realized I just HAVE to get this game DONE. The only thing I think I'll pass by is getting all those kisses. I've never seen how I could do that even once.
Got the double shot perk, that wasn't so hard once I stopped and did it. The Wulf + Zeppelin one wasn't THAT hard once I knew where to find the Wulf at any time.
Blowing up X in X seconds to GET RDX is infuriating because the challenges would be MUCH easier with RDX, but your idea sounds great, so I'll try that tomorrow for sure.
I tried to jump the Eiffel Tower a few weeks ago and it did not work. Not looking to try it again, but I will work it in with the Level 5 Escape Perk because you can do both there, I've read.
A few interaction points have been difficult to find or have taken a lot of trial and error to get to. I've been using YouTube vids here and there to figure some of it out.
Yeah, a lot of the perks seem to involve making you prove that you can do crazy stuff without the really nice abilities, then telling you you won't ever have to do it all again. Unless you're a dufus and don't back up your saves regularly, of course. I know what you mean about needing to totally complete the game, too... I was about 98% done the first time, and even though I had to start over, I WILL get to 100%.
The Eiffel tower is one of the two places you can escape a level 5 alarm. I had a pretty interesting time of that one thinking that fightback zones would be active during a level 5 alarm. I started my spree in the middle of town, leading towards a fightback zone, staying just outside it to nudge the alarm up. Once I hit level 5 I turned around and the fightback zone was gone. I ended up getting chased by by half the occupation forces from city center to the far northeast countryside (the only other L5 escape spot), an inch from death half the time. Man, what a great game.
I missed the jump from Eiffel the first time, too. I went and climbed the whole outside of the thing though, only to find out later there's elevators all the way up. Climbing the ferris wheel was even more tense, though... I actually got vertigo a few times.
If you're really obsessed with the game and just have to do everything, no matter how stupid, there's an easy spot for the kissing achievement. Across from the garage in Le Havre there's a couple of small buildings and walls. During alarms there's a girl on the side of one of those buildings that you can kiss for cover. That fort on the hill is also right there, with 3 guards standing by the base of the road up. You can kill one of them to raise an alarm, jump over a couple walls, and sexually harass the poor lady all in a few seconds.
Wow, I hope no anti-video game crusaders get hold of that last sentence.
I'm kind of enjoying Fallout 3. These games seem to be pretty hit-and-miss with me. Didn't like Morrowind, but kinda enjoyed Oblivion for the sub-dozen hours I played it. Didn't really find my groove in New Vegas at all (between it crashing and me/my character sucking at combat and whatnot), but #3 is alright so far.
I'm spending a good amount of time just dinking around, digging through dialogue trees in Megaton. And yes, I've heard what happens there. Don't know if it's an inevitable part of the story, or if Bethesda's games are open enough to avoid it, or what. I doubt I'll play long enough to see it anyhow.
I'm not sure what you think is inevitable there.
I've played some of New Vegas. It didn't grab me as well as the first so far, but it does feel wonderfully familiar.
I finished off Shadows of the Damned today. I feel pretty mixed about the game.
Started off really enjoying it - the setting, the characters, the craziness, the relatively accessible shooting mechanics. Then a little over halfway through the game it all just started grating on me. Little twists were more annoying/difficult than anything, the humour just went on and on with the same jokes, unskippable cutscenes prior to instant kill deaths ate away at me, and the combat just stayed the same the whole way through. And it doesn't even feel good - it's awkward in a way that even Resident Evil 5 wasn't, the levels are insanely linear, and the enemy design is boring as shit. Even the bosses are just unimaginative. And I feel really weird saying that a Suda 51 game is unimaginative. But it is - he's crafted a shooter, and it feels just like any other shooter, only with slightly clunkier mechanics and endless penis jokes.
The story doesn't even feel properly resolved at the end. Cutscenes are few and far between other than the beginning and the end, the big bad looks ridiculous and acts ridiculous. The game's only real redeeming features are Johnson, the little storybooks you come across, the baby heads you feed stuff to unlock doors, gratuitous violence, and the music, which is hilariously varied. Everything else is pretty forgettable.
The game is also only six hours long - and I was constantly poking down side corridors looking for red gems (I only found 40/60, though, so obviously I didn't look hard enough). They also commit one of my silly annoyances with any game, and that's failing to unlock the easy achievement when you beat the game on normal. I don't usually care, but it's just one more thing about Shadows of the Damned that just doesn't work.
Though pretty much the next thing I did was go to the saloon and meet the dude in the corner who gave me the job to set off the bomb. So maybe it was an optional quest. Then I tattled on dude in the corner to the sheriff, who tried to arrest dude, and dude shot sheriff in the back, so I beat dude with a bat and took everyone's stuff. Then sheriff's son came in and started talking to me about how he misses his dad, when dad's corpse is still on the floor.
I am getting Shadows of the Damned eventually, but after hearing enough impressions like yours DJ, it probably won't be until it goes down in price.
I though Suda + Mikami again would mean some kind of game of my dreams, but it sounds more like an RE4-lite with dick jokes. I'm sure I will enjoy the campiness but dang.
It's not an awful game but definitely a rental, or a sub $20 purchase or so. And other people don't seem as annoyed at the mechanics as I was...though for a game so short, there are some real filler levels in there.
The sense of humour kind of peaks in one of the later levels (this isn't really spoiling anything). So you get to see his gun sprout out from his crotch with the skull shouting "Sha-wing!" over and over again, and then for the next 10-30 minutes you get a level where you shoot dudes with this new thing and with EVERY single shot you make the main character spouts a line. I'm pretty sure there are only three. One of them is "Eat my big boner!" and it seems to pop up the most. Oh, and the enemies take anywhere from one hit to four, depending on where you hit them.
"Eat my big boner. Eat my big boner. Oh yeah. Eat my big boner."
Yeah.
I've been playing back through Assassins Creed II again after losing the original save, and I think I'm enjoying it even more this time through. I was actually hunting the feathers in an organized way this time, so I collected the last one last night and did my celebratory lap in the Auditore cape for the platinum trophy. Has anyone here played any of the DLC for ACII? I buy very little DLC, but I've been enjoying ACII enough to spend a few bucks on prolonging the experience if its good stuff.
The DLC for AC2 is memories 12 and 13 that were left out of the main game. They are a lot of fun. I'd recommend getting them. I had them from the beginning, but I believe they add an entire area to Florence. That is the land below the river. There aren't any flags or treasure chests to hunt for but it's still cool to jump around there.
I finished up AC2 last night as well. I ended up getting the full 1000 points of achievements I played it so much. I have to say I really enjoyed AC1 and thought it was an amazing game. The repetitive complaint I could understand but it didn't bother me. For me the setting, graphics, gameplay and especially the story were all incredible and added up to an experience that I rank up there as one of the best of this gen.
When you guys were saying the AC2 was better I was skeptical. But holy shit does this game improve on every aspect of AC1 and take it to another level. The story continues and gets better. Ezio is a living breathing character and is one of the most likable characters I've ever seen in a game. The environments are incredible and trump AC1 due to their historical accuracy and true to life landmarks. The fighting engine has improved with new moves, new weapons and a lot more depth. And the gameplay structure is also much improved and addresses the complaint of the first being repetitive.
Overall I think this might be the best game I've played this gen. I was trying to think what my favorite games were this gen and I came up with a short list. Borderlands, Batman AA, Halo Reach, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Oblivion, Halo 3, Demon's Souls, Crackdown and AC1. But AC2 goes to the top of that list.
Again I have a hard time believing that AC Brotherhood is going to be better. I hope I'm wrong again.
I loved all the AC games soo much it always caused me a bit of pain when I would read people knocking on them. You don't know how utterly refreshing it is hearing a fellow gamer who loved the franchise as much as I do.
As for Brotherhood...
It IS better than AC2, but not in the leaps and bounds that AC2 was over AC1. There are a few things that it does a little better, and admittedly there were a couple changes that I didn't like -nothing that ruined the game, just choices that I felt were better on the floor. I think what got me to love Brotherhood soo much is that when it came out I was expecting nothing more than an "expansion" pack of AC2 but with multiplayer, yet when I played the game and found that the STORY of Brotherhood was just as good and even MORE important than the plot of AC2 - THAT is what had me loving Brotherhood.
That plus the refined city building, the training and giving missions to Assassin trainees (which is just as simple as picking a name off a list and hitting "go", yet for some reason is addictive), and the overall "feel" of Rome - Brotherhood proved that it was much more than an expansion pack.
But HOLY SHIT. The ending of Brotherhood will leave you in a fury! There was only one other time I was as shocked towards a game's plot development - but that was many years ago. I can't WAIT till you finish this one Dan, I'm honestly looking forward to your thoughts on the developments at the end credits.
Well I plan to start Brotherhood right away. I was going to dive into something else to give myself a break but I'm just too into the series right now. I'll give you my thoughts as I go. Do you think Usisoft will announce AC3 soon after Revelations releases? Without giving any Brotherhood spoilers, where do you think or hope the next game will be set? Part of me thinks that 17th century Japan would be incredible as a ninja, but still part of the brotherhood. Somehow tie the start of the ninja profession into the assassins. Whatever they do I'm sure it will be sweet.
Brotherhood had one of the all-time HOLY WHAT THE FUCK endings of games, even moreso than the first two games. I mean I don't think anyone really saw that coming.
BTW, that Assassin's Creed PSP game? Yeah, you can skip it. I mean it's still AC, but it's so half-assed, simple, and short (and the story doesn't really add anything to the series, it's more of an excuse to make a PSP game) and hard to control at parts with the nub. That said I still played through it all in three sittings because it's still AC and has a bit of a pull. But if that weird sequence in AC2 gets you curious about the PSP game, eh.
Brotherhood had one of the all-time HOLY WHAT THE FUCK endings of games, even moreso than the first two games. I mean I don't think anyone really saw that coming.
BTW, that Assassin's Creed PSP game? Yeah, you can skip it. I mean it's still AC, but it's so half-assed, simple, and short (and the story doesn't really add anything to the series, it's more of an excuse to make a PSP game) and hard to control at parts with the nub. That said I still played through it all in three sittings because it's still AC and has a bit of a pull. But if that weird sequence in AC2 gets you curious about the PSP game, eh.
I've thought about grabbing the PSP game if only because I love AC and I don't have a whole lot to play on the PSP other than RPGs. I may see if I can get it cheap at some point.
I also really enjoyed AC1, so I was jazzed for some more Altair in the PSP game. When I was buying a PSP for my brother's birthday I even made sure it was the one bundled with the game so I could borrow it when he was done, but I found it pretty disappointing--especially in the controls department. I'll probably finish it at some point, but it just doesn't hold a candle to its big brothers on the consoles.
Anybody interested in Lord of the Rings the War in the North game that's coming out this fall? I haven't heard anybody on here mention it but I saw a video for it today and it looked good. Doesn't follow the movie, looks to have a loot mechanic and graphically it looked pretty good. Also has 3 player co-op thru the campaign.
I'm keeping my eye on it but with the amount of quality games that are dropping this fall this one will probably drop thru the cracks.
the team behind it, snowblind, has my faith. very interested, but i never get games at launch anymore.
I think I may pick up Brotherhood from the library and try to play through it the same time as you (definitely do not wait on me - with 2 kids less than 3 years old, life can get a bit unpredictable as I'm sure some know). I was waiting on a price drop for Brotherhood but then Revelations was announced so I figured I could just borrow Brotherhood until Revelations was released.
Finished up Bulletstorm last night. I had some fun with it and I'm glad I got to play it but I can't see going back to it ever. It at least has me more interested in the inevitable sequel. Just seeing what kind of crazy shit would happen next was enough to keep me playing through it.
Have actually been playing Dungeon Siege 3 - its NOT that bad. Its not that good either, and apparently gimps on playing co-op (the co-op player DOES play a "Hero" character, but does NOT take anything back into their own game). Its not so bad if the players are ALWAYS going to be playing together on a couch... but who the hell does that?
Otherwise there is a decent plot with okay-ish voice-overs and "so far" a lot of loot dropped. It IS a bit more challenging than I'd like to admit - you can't just button mash to victory, you NEED to time shield blocks and special powers to win (the very first "boss" gave me quite a headache till I got it figured out).
So far the game does do its job of scratching that Diablo/Champions of Norrath itch - but it definitely SERIOUSLY drops the ball as far as co-op goes.
---
Hunted I ALSO have... heh heh heh. But I wouldn't put the two games into the same context. While Dungeon Siege 3 definitely plays and feels like a Diablo clone - Hunted plays more like Gears of War in a fantasy land. It shares the same look and feel as Gears, with that over the shoulder view complete with its own little roadie run. I wasn't able to "get into" Hunted as much as I thought I would - but then I DO have a ton of games competing for attention. Even though I've had Hunted longer, I have put more time into Dungeon Siege 3 ... if that tells you anything.
---
As far as LotR War In the North goes .... being a fan of Lord of the Rings since grade school, and loving these types of games.... yeah you could say that I'm excited for it. But after being SERIOUSLY burned after buying that LAST shit fest that was a LotR game (Conquest I think it was) - I will never buy another LotR game without some serious positive pre-release word of mouth and perhaps a review or two.
But yeah... an M rated Lord of The Rings game based in the film universe incorporating tales of the Similarion? Why would I NOT be interested???
Is that Ian McKellan, or singing Ian McKellan guy?
this morning dustin and I were playing re5 and we got to the giant spider-thing fight. it killed us like three or more times, and we're well in to the fourth or fifth try when suddenly I can't move sheva anymore and the sound for the game goes away. I can hear dustin talking, but can't move sheva around. Then the game minimizes and I'm looking at my desktop, where fucking apple is asking me to install an itunes or quicktime update or some bullshit
what the fuck?
I cancel that out, tab back into RE5 and SOMEHOW I'm still alive. We actually managed to get through the fight that time, despite me getting pulled to the desktop.
so yeah, that's one thing consoles have over PCs.
Same thing happened to me in TF2 last night. I *loathe* being pulled from one program to another for a software update.