Medal of Honor: Generic Warfighter

So, after my last blog post about games, I feel like I’m obliged to admit that I’ve recently acquired Medal of Honor: Warfighter and Bioshock: Infinite, which I pretty much bought from the credit I received for handing in ‘a couple’ of old games I’m never playing anymore.

Two games :3

Yep, I pretty much only included the receipt there to show how long it was, because that’s twelve games I handed in, mostly because I’m never going to play them anymore and have zip emotional investment in them. I kept games like the Army of Two games, mostly because of the fun I had with my little brother playing them and the fact that at least the first one had great humour, even if it was a bit lacking in the story department.
The same goes up for the Gears of War games, of which I beat the first two in co-op with my bro as well, and I still need to see if I can bait him into playing the third one together. Probably won’t happen, though.
What I’m in doubt about, is keeping both HAWX and HAWX2, because I greatly enjoyed HAWX, but the story and missions of HAWX2 were really starting to get on my nerves real quick. I’m a bit of a military plane fan, but the arcade style of the first game was a lot better than the style of the second one, where things were a lot more unclear and there were quite a few points of unfair difficulty (instant-death space lasers, anyone?) that really threw the reality out of the window with about as much force as it could possibly manage. I know, Tom Clancy games tend to do this (anybody who played Endwar knows what I’m talking about, and HAWX2 appears to play at least around the same time period…), but the first HAWX didn’t do that and remained feasible at least. Kind of. If you disregarded the military strength a corporation managed to muster, anyway (spoilers). I liked that one better.

Anyway, on to the point I was trying to go and make. I played Warfighter and beat it in a day or two. It was way shorter than what I was expecting it to be, though I think it equalled a Call of Duty game in length. It was a disappointment.
Why, you may ask. I knew what I was going in to, what with spectacle-based Modern Warfare shooters being the short campaign beasts they are. However, when I opened the case, I saw two discs. Two. So I put the first one in, booted up the game, ran the patch (because there’s always a patch) and allowed the game to boot properly. After the obligatory ‘press start’ screen, I was confronted with the question of whether I wanted to ‘install the HD pack for the full game experience’, which was partnered with the message that this would require 1.7 gigabytes of hardware space.

1.7 gigabytes.

I hate to be honest, but I didn’t exactly splurge when I bought my XBOX and went for the one with the smaller hard drive (40 gigs, if I remember correctly), which has started to fill up over time. I don’t have the space to manage what would essentially be a 1.7 gigabyte texture pack, so I decided that no, fuck you, I don’t want your ‘HD pack’, hit ‘no’ and went on.
After I pushed that aside and entered the start screen, I wanted to start the campaign (I’m a single player guy), only to be prompted to ‘insert the single player disc’. So, the game didn’t actually run the amazing graphics that were promised, it had also taken the trouble of dividing the multiplayer (which I have no intention of even trying, if there’s even a multiplayer base left) and the single player content over different discs. Considering the size of the HD dvd’s of the XBOX, that means there’s quite some room left to make an AMAZING single player experience, right?
WRONG.
It was generic, at best. Having played the previous modern Medal of Honor game, I recall an amazing chopper level, where you actually controlled the gunner of an attack helicopter. Though it wasn’t an actual shooter mechanic and it could be made out to be ‘gimmicky’, I enjoyed that part immensely (see the part about HAWX, above). There was nothing like that, though there were two incredible clusterfucks they called driving levels, where all you did was drive a car through busy streets at high speeds. Though exhilarating during play, I frequently found myself being frustrated by them (one mistake and you were as good as done for, with very little recovery possible if you, say, hit a wall and came to a full stop) and realized, afterwards, that I didn’t even enjoy them.

Another point was the gunplay. So far, I haven’t found a way to see what gun you’re holding, except for the ones you pick up from the enemy. However, there is no reason to pick up a gun from the enemy, because you’re never without an ally and your allies are walking ammo containers that give out ammo like candy on request and don’t appear to run out of ammunition or grenades… ever. So you never really ditch your starting weapons, which means you’ll never find out what guns you’re using (because of the aforementioned point).
One of the strong points of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was the weapon customisation option during the campaign, which basically gave you the chance to choose which weapons and attachments your character was going to carry at the start of the mission. Sure, there were a couple of suggested options, which meant that you would be ‘optimised’ for the tasks at hand, but nothing was forcing you to follow those suggestions.
This system allowed you to get familiar with the different weapons and find preferences. I know I never ran without an LMG as soon as I saw the destruction one could create with those beasts, something that I couldn’t possibly do with Warfighter. I never knew what kind of weapons I was using, never had the option to choose a different loadout, and even if I managed to find what kind of weapon I was using, all the enemies were using different weapons (there’s even an achievement for getting 50 kills with ‘enemy weapons’ that’s called ‘Tier 1 imports’, or, basically, weapons that are too shitty for the main character to use), so there was absolutely no way for me to acquire my preferred gun. As such, all guns felt the same (mostly. Some, like shotguns, still had a clearly different feel, but there were awfully few differences with the ‘Assault Rifle’ category), and led to an ‘eh’ feel with each and every one of them. A real shame, because I play the modern shooters because of the guns. Sure, I’ll beat the story a couple more times for the achievements (I fancy myself a bit of an achievement hunter), but after that, it’s going straight back for store credit…

Anyway, I’m going to try and be done with it, soon. If I manage to find some regular play time (and I won’t), it’ll be done in about a week or two, so we’ll see…

Responsibilities

So, at work today, they actually let me run the show for the evening.
Sure, there was someone more experienced than me to back me up and take care of missing things, but the plan is for me to do this more often. That, maybe, I can start closing shop on my own in the near future.
To be completely fair, I stopped enjoying my work a while ago. It was starting to get frustrating, and I didn't go home happy anymore. The fun was just gone from it all. Today was pretty intense, though, despite the fact that it was 'leadership light', and if it always goes like it went today (it won't), it'll be fun and games. It might just bring the fun back into my work, which is something I crave, despite the fact that I'm still planning to go and find a real job when I've finished my bachelor's degree.
So, let's see how this goes. Who knows, it might just give me a sense of responsibility and experience. Spooky...

Game Time

During a previous blog post, I promised to make a backlog list of the games I still want to play, but which I don’t have in my possession just yet. It actually required a bit of thinking, considering the fact that I’m not that good at remembering things, and I eventually decided to call in the help of xboxworld.nl, which conveniently allows me to look back at the releases per month, so I can actually find what I’m still missing.
Now, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t make some kind of system and make a somewhat longer list with a bit of a story and explanation, so… Let’s do this thing. Word of warning ahead: there’s probably going to be quite some shooters in here, because I’m not ashamed of the fact that I enjoy games like Call of Duty. It’s mindless fun.

Asura’s Wrath, released on February 24, 2012. I’m not all too sure about this one, I’ve played the demo and actually enjoyed it, but I noticed that it was mostly QTE’s and a lot of spectacle, and something is telling me that the actual game might not be that great. A second-hand tryout, I guess…

Prototype 2, released on April 27, 2012. I… guess I enjoyed the original? I don’t know, I never really got around to unlocking the full story of the original. Second-hand, definitely.

Lollipop Chainsaw, released on June 15, 2012. The sex appeal, mostly, though I watched a lot of gameplay video’s and achievement guides, and it appeared to be pretty tongue-in-cheek next to that sex appeal, which can be quite fun. Worst case scenario, I return it for store credit.

Spec-Ops: The Line, released on June 29, 2012. The story has been applauded as being deep and, quite frankly, rather broody and dark. The ally AI has been condemned for being stupid and suicidal. If I’d buy this, it’d be for the story, I’m sure. I don’t think I’ll feel forced to play it for the gameplay or the achievements…

Dishonored, released on October 12, 2012. I’ve heard many good things about this game, and I’ve come to understand that the story is quite excellent while the gameplay is interesting and innovative. That’s a lot of big keywords, which really don’t mean anything when considered, but I’m willing to believe the critics (and no, I don’t consider Yahtzee to be a critic) that it might just be a good game.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown, released on October 12, 2012, as well. This one is probably more of a legacy game, even though I never really played the original XCOM’s. I’m pretty unsure about how much enjoyment I’ll get out of this, considering the fact that I heard it contains quite some bugs that only the real die-hard XCOM fans can look past. It’s probably a game I’ll pick up second-hand somewhere when it becomes available and I need to kill some time.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter, released on October 25, 2012. This is mostly because I’m not ashamed of the fact that I enjoy Modern Shooter games, which includes their linearity and spectacle effects. I might be a bit of a freak, there, so don’t mind me in my little hole.

Halo 4, released on November 6, 2012. I’m really not all that sure about this game, actually. I picked up the other Halo’s during sales, second-hand, etcetera, and I never really enjoyed them all that much. I’m hearing good things about it, just like about the other ones, and it’d be a shame if I left a legacy game of the 360 behind, especially if it turns out really good. I’ll probably give it the same treatment as XCOM, see if I can find it second-hand somewhere.

The Crysis trilogy, which is released at various dates, is just about the same as the previous ones. I never really got interested in the original Crysis, mostly because it was akin to torturing my computer when it was just released, but now it’s one of those games that can prove to be quite the experience once again. Back then, when I was able to play it for about an hour or so, I saw quite some things I liked, and now that it’s available as an XBOX downloadable, it might be worth it to invest in that one and get the other two, again, second-hand somewhere.

Gears of War: Judgement, released on March 19, 2013. This is one of the big ones, which I actually really want to have. I was one of the few who actually liked the story in the Gears of War games and I’ve read four of the novels that connect the different games to each other, so I’m considering myself to be quite invested in the story. I’m pretty interested in what happens during that game.

Bioshock Infinite, released on March 26, 2013. Another big one, probably the first one I’ll pick up. Again, Bioshock and Bioshock 2 were really fun and interesting to play, and I’ve only heard better things about Infinite. It’s even gone so far that I’ve purposely been avoiding reviews and blogs containing spoilers, mostly because I want to find out by myself.

Army of Two: the Devil’s Cartel, released on March 29, 2013. My brother and I beat the original Army of Two and 40^th Day in co-op together, and I actually hope to be able to do that with The Devil’s Cartel, as well. Though I thought that Army of Two: 40^th Day wasn’t as much fun as the original, lacking a lot of the feel of and being a lot more dark and serious than the original. I’m also unsure about how I’ll deal with the lack of the original protagonists (spoilers, I guess), but we’ll see.

Deadpool, released on June 28, 2013. This one really slipped underneath my radar, and I really don’t consider myself to be a fan of Deadpool, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about the game and the character, again, so I guess I’ll give it a whirl if I can find the time for it…

So, concluding… That’s a lot of games I’ll pick up second-hand. I actually always try to do it like this, mostly because it safes me a bucketload of money, so it was one of the reasons I was starting to doubt about what I’d do after the whole XBOX One debacle. With it’s lack of second-hand compatibility (until the One became the One-Eighty, at least), it would seriously hurt my funding. Thankfully, the guys at Microsoft decided that the negative backlash they had received after that little announcement was enough to make them re-think their strategy and back-pedal a bit, which means I don’t have to be afraid of that fact. Making the One-Eighty backwards-compatible would be awesome, but I think that’s a little more difficult. I’m no expert, but I’d be willing to buy it if they said it was harder.

So, when the time comes around for me to buy a new console, I guess I’m going to stack the XBOXes in case I ever feel like going back to the older games, though I have to admit, aside from a recent Freelancer craving (ten years later, still a great game), I don’t tend to suffer from that kind of things. We’ll see.

Kickstarter: Savage Worlds Character Sheets

So, today, one of my backed Kickstarters delivered, which is always a joy to see.

It was the Savage Worlds Character Sheet pads one (link), which was actually one I was looking forward to, what with me preparing a homebrew Savage Worlds setting for some time, now. I like the system, because it allows easy access to just about every kind of game you want to run, without being forced to homebrew stuff, and it advertises it's combat as being 'fast, fluid and fun'. That's one of my pet peeves in DnD4e, where combat, with the massive amount of available powers and abilities at higher levels, can quickly slow down to a crawl when one or two people start pulling out the big guns. With SW's simplified combat system and its allowance of making roleplay-heavy games, it seems like an excellent alternative, just like the (new) World of Darkness.


The pad and card, next to a printed Deluxe Edition Character Sheet

A while back, I took the liberty of statting out one of the important NPC's of the homebrew world I mentioned above and printed out the sheet to make this easier to do. As you can see, the sheet has started to curl a little, which I blame mostly on the cheap quality of the printer paper we use over here, combined with the liberal amounts of ink applied to it thanks to the full-color page I printed. It wasn't cheap.
Now, when you look at the pad, you can see that, though it's black-and-white, the paper is of high quality and it probably won't start curling up unless you start rolling it. I've got five of those pads, and there's twenty-five sheets per pad, so that's 125 characters ready to be made.
Above the pad are the businesscard-sized mini-sheets, which are really more to 'take your sheet with you', so you don't have to slog around a character sheet and can, basically, play your character everywhere, every time, if you keep it in your wallet. They're very small and basic, though, and especially advanced characters probably won't manage to fit everything on there. I've received 120 of these, as well, so I'll see how much we can do with those.

Now, I just need to find a way to get that game going. We've got a lot of things going, already, so I told my friends I won't start anything new until we've finished off something else, so it might be a while, but these things will be ready when the time comes!