Yeah, I used to play multiplayer on a lot of games, but it just seems like they're overrun with foul-mouthed punks and little kids (who also tend to be foul-mouthed punks), hackers and griefers. I just prefer to play SP campaigns as well. And here's what grinds my gears.....single player games that, for whatever reason, still have to check in with an online server. It's called "single player" for a reason, folks!
Played through Wolfenstein The New Order, first thing I've played in a long time. It's a pretty good game with some reservations. Not being able to save anywhere stinks. The final boss was tough because it would save you with a horrible loadout so every time I died I had to go run all over to collect firepower which added nothing but tedium to the process. There's some long challenging sequences where the checkpoints are so far apart that it discouraged experimentation because I didn't want to risk having to play through again. Playing on the PC the controls felt a little awkward. I imagine it was optimized for an X-Box controller. If anyone plays, I recommend switching the right mouse button to be "lean". By default, RMB is "iron sights" aiming which I didn't find too useful and leaning seemed impossible using the ALT key. However the Iron Sky like plot of the Nazis taking over the world made for a lot of fun b-movie moments. One thing that was surprising was the music, the game reimagines early pop music and rock and roll as it might have happened through the lens of Nazi Germany and those tracks are really fun. The final credits features a really cool haunting rendition of a Chris Isaac song. EDIT: Looking online there are only 3 records to be found in game but there's a bunch of tunes on Youtube. I thought I just didn't find them all. Anyone who's curious they're up here: http://www.wolfenstein.com/en-us/site I'm not sure from your post, have you played Half-Life 2? If not, you should start with that.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2. I say this because I recently picked up a Playstation in a trade (some WWII DVDs and a little cash), and I've been in the process of trading the few horrible, horrible games for some good PSX games. I've got a whole bunch of great titles coming through the mail, and I can't wait to play them. Until then, though, I'm going to play the hell out of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2.
"Watch Dogs" wasn't really grabbing me, so I'm pausing from it for a bit. I started playing "First Light," the Infamous DLC, which has started out a lot more fun, though that could be because I'm already used to the world and the gameplay, so it was easy to dive right in.
Played through the Cold Cold Heart DLC for Arkham Origins. Not bad but felt like they had gone back to the well one too many times. A fresh antagonist would've gone a long way toward making it more fulfilling. EDIT: I know Freeze sounded familiar, it was Calculon!
Played the last episode of 'The Walking Dead: Season 2' last night...I won't get into the spoilers, but I find it didn't hit me as hard as the first season did. That had me sobbing like a giant man baby, but this one just had such a relentless sense of inevitability about it that when it came down to "it", I barely hesitated. Still good though.
Heh, sounds like a game I would like. Save anywhere has always felt like cheating to me. A game without a penalty for death isn't a game. I much prefer a checkpoint system.
It depends on the game. There are a lot of types of games for which the checkpoint system is very poorly suited.
I just didn't like having to redo my steps every time I went back to the checkpoint. There was no challenge and more importantly no fun having to spend five minutes gathering supplies to take on the endboss as I mentioned. In this case, I don't want to spoil anything, but I was in one area by myself before going to the new area to confront the boss. Why not make the new area check point store my current state? It wasn't very fulfilling to switch all my guns to dual wield and reload them each and every time I went to challenge again. Granted maybe if I had better skills I wouldn't have to do this so many times but still... Other times it's annoying when checkpoints are so far apart that I have to abandon all my progress because something is calling in real life and I don't have time to get to the save point before having to go.
I prefer "save anywhere", as long as it has a checkpoint or autosave system as well. If a game solely has a checkpoint system, and the checkpoint sets me back 10-15 minutes if I make a fatal error, then I lose interest if I have to make more than three attempts. Then I have to step away from the game for a few hours, and approach it clear-minded. Besides, there are some pitfalls with "save anywhere" as well. -You could forget the cardinal rule of "save now, save often", especially when you feel you are doing particularly good on a game, and then find yourself set back about an hour or so because you got complacent and/or cocky. This has happened to me plenty of times in Oblivion and Fallout (3 or New Vegas). -You could save at a really inopportune moment...say, trying to save just before you launch your coup de gracie at a boss fight, only to find that the boss is about to launch its own (often cheap....and lethal) coup de gracie....and then you might be stuck. You'd have to reload the previous checkpoint (assuming the game has an autosave or checkpoint system as well). Some games actually have a system that will not allow you to save during combat...such as Mass Effect. If you want to save while on a mission, and you're in a firefight, you have to wait until you hear "all clear" from one of your allies....or you can just test to see if you can save if you think a fight is over. -You could save, thinking you are safe for the moment, only to find yourself inexplicably dying...often gruesomely....and then you discover that you saved just as an enemy shot you in the back! (gaaaahhhhh.....go back to last checkpoint!). ...or, as Daffy Duck might bellow: Maaaaaake Uuuuuuuuupppppp!!!! Has anyone ever accidentally saved or quick-saved during a really frakked up moment, such as falling to your death, or having a fatal shot come just milliseconds from hitting you?
I think "save anywhere" and auto-save checkpoints is the best approach in a FPS. People like me can pretend that the "save anywhere" option doesn't exist, and others can save whenever they want. Doom had a really good approach too. You could save anywhere, but the game was divided up into (30 I think) levels. Each new level served as a checkpoint.
There have been times in games like Oblivion/Skyrim or Fallout 3/New Vegas where I thought about playing those games with "permadeath" rules. In other words, play the game as long as you can, as far as you can without saving. Turn off the autosave feature. When time comes for you to have to leave the game (when real life rears its ugly head), that would be the only time you could save. To enhance the rule, you have to get your character back to their home, or just get them to the nearest inn or place that has a sleeping mat, and then save. So, during the off time, you can consider your character technically sleeping. Then, when you pick the game back up, you play again with the no-save rule. If your character dies....that's it! Now you have to create a new character, and start from scratch. To make it even more risky, play it at a harder difficulty setting. Or in the case of New Vegas, play under such rules on "realism" mode, where you also have to monitor your character's sleep, food, and thirst elements. It's something I've considered doing....but I ain't that brave yet.
Beat Max Payne (from 2001!), a game I never got around to playing originally. As crude as it is now there are times especially in the later sections where it pulls off its cinematic ambitions of John Woo/Matrix over-the-top action.
Back in the day, Max Payne was absolutely breathtaking. There was no game like it. It holds up pretty well. Also, it has Sam Lake's screwy face. The real Max Payne.
Played me some Borderlands 2 the past couple of weeks. Fun game with a quirky punky comic book style and no super-serious pretensions about itself. Been playing as Gaige, love summoning my pet robot to wreak havoc amongst the enemy hordes (it's the simple things in life you treasure). Loads of loot and dakka for the loot and dakka gods respectively, and I dig Handsome Jack enormously. He might just be becoming one of my favorite video game villains.