Headshots & Friendly Fire: Round 8
The gaming industry has gotten bigger and better with each passing year, but sometimes they just don’t do things right. Whether it’s game play, story, pricing, or business practice, sometimes the industry needs a little friendly fire from the gamers to keep it in line.
Other times, developers look down their sight and fire off a well placed bullet right into our unexpected head. This is Josh & Cameron, and this is the last Headshots & Friendly Fire of 2009.
A Bit of Friendly Fire
Keep Your DLC Out of my Game
I was having fun playing through Dragon Age: Origins as a Dalish Elf. After I left that first town with all the refugees and dirty peasants I pick-pocketed, I found myself in a small camp. I started talking to this one dude, and I became really interested in what he was saying. Apparently, he lost his sister, or wife or something, and i was all ready to bust some darkspawn and save the chick, so I could pick-pocket her later. When it came time for me to accept the quest, I was told I had to purchase the DLC……mother @!#%*$. If I can’t do this quest, then why is this guy in my game? This guy should be invisible to me until I actually buy the DLC. Yes, it’s the developer trying to provide the incentive to purchase the DLC, but it’s a shitty incentive. Anybody who would buy Dragon Age: Origins would know what kind of DLC that is available for the game. They would know that the DLC provides more awesome story and sidequests, and they wouldn’t need some idiot standing next to a wagon to tell them that. Al, I don’t think it is a coincidence that on the other side of the wagon is a retarded dwarf.
Remote Play?
First off this is a great feature and when I recently picked up my PSP I was pumped to give it a go. I don’t own a lot of PSN games but i went through the 10 or so that I have on my PS3, trying over and over again to get one to work. Out of the 10, I got one game to work and that was the recently released PixelJunk Shooter. This has always been touted as a pretty big feature of connectivity between the PS3 and PSP yet it seems more and more that hardly any titles released on the PlayStation Network support it. Now I am sure this comes down to developers on whether they want to implement this feature or not and I wish they would. If you don’t plan to bring the game to the PSP, why not at least make the game you release on the PSN compatible, possibly bringing in more people who might want to give it a play while being mobile.
A Tale of Activison and his Periph
Oh Activison, did you really think that consumers would want to buy a new peripheral every 2 weeks or so? I mean I know the general customer out there is not the most intelligent but even they saw a flooding on the market of overpriced peripherals. First came DJ Hero and its high priced hardware and while the game is really not that bad it is a lot to ask of customers to drop $120 or so on a game. Then not too long after that they decide to drop Tony Hawk Ride and its extremely overpriced skateboard. On top of that the game has been met with poor reviews from critics. I think Activision might start to realize that people might not be willing to drop 100 plus on a new piece of hardware or a new Guitar Hero game with a different band on the cover.
Assassin’s Creed Controls
First of all, they suck. Ubisoft has put a lot of emphasis on animation, especially when climbing. They want Ezio to look good when he is climbing, and if that means that Ezio climbs a little slower, then you are going to have to sit there and wait. The slowness is a further exasperated by how fast Ezio can run along rooftops and the ground. Ezio can run along rooftops, leap from beam to beam, and scurry along wires at a fast, exciting pace. However, as soon as Ezio jumps and grabs the side of a building, he all of a sudden moves like he is climbing a fake rock wall on a Caribbean Cruise ship. He also has this annoying habit of pausing for half a second at the very top of a building. This sluggishness also carries over to combat, A lot of people complained about enemy A.I. because the enemies just stand there and don’t do anything, but the A.I. has to be like that. If the enemies were any faster in their attacks then it would be impossible to switch weapons. Half of the time I get interrupted anyway. The only controls they fixed were the horse riding controls, but the inclusion of the fast travel system has pretty much made that obsolete.
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9 Responses to “Headshots & Friendly Fire: Round 8”
That sucks about Dragon Age Origins. I’m pretty interested in that game, but the thought of being introduced to a quest only to be confronted with “Give us money now”…f*** it.
As far as Activision, Kotick’s strategy of releasing inferior games at inflated prices – gosh, who would have ever thought that wouldn’t work out in the long run?
Gotta chuckle about Assassins Creed. Everybody says that game is sooooo great, yet the controls suck and the enemies just stand there and don’t do anything? Sounds like the hype machine has brainwashed another million gamers. Oh well, what else is new.
Thats pretty lame about DAO – but at least some developers are doing it right. Frankly thats the first console game I’ve heard about doing this cheesy method, and its so gimmicky I would refuse to buy it as a result. Borderlands and Uncharted 2 seem to be doing it right, by listening to their community and forming DLC based on that.
I didn’t really have a problem with the AC2 controls. If you learn to play the game well, they don’t get in your way, you simply begin to realize that taking an alternate route is faster. Find things that gradually step up, dont try to run straight up a wall like you’re spider man – cause you’re not. Yea, its gonna take you a moment to do a straight pull up on a ledge, versus just hopping from one roof to another thats at the same height. Duh dude. I will agree that the combat is a bit slow, and the AI is pretty lame. However, the controls are still responsive as hell. Pulling counters and disarming enemies is easy peasy, and regular attacks work pretty well too, especially if you use the right weapon. If anything, its too easy, I tore through this game like a fat chick in a cake factory.
MW2 doing things right? Perhaps if it weren’t one of the glitchiest online experiences I’ve had in years… yea. Releasing a game without bug testing it, on the basis that there’s a huge fan base to support it no matter what they do wrong, is lame.
With Q-games and Shooter, I can agree! Thank god for simple fun well made games that have clever twists to familiar game mechanics. If you beat shooter, you may notice that theres probably more coming – I’m assuming a DLC pack? Or perhaps an unannounced sequel? Either way, I’m there.
Ha! I knew Something had to suck about AC.
@BigWhoopMagazine
yea, they will release an encore pack. Just like they released pixeljunk eden and pixeljunk eden encore, and pixeljunk monsters and pixeljunk monsters encore.
he climbs buildings too slow in AC
@WTGP
lmao! same thing i was thinking…
Wow. I can’t believe DLC has spread that boldly into the fiber of the games. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s limiting the game and making consumers pay for what is already included.
However, it’s not like DA:O is a short game so…. I’m mostly just shocked at the presentation. What a cheap trick.
looking forward to getting to the hover boots, if i ever make it to the R&C game in reference.
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