The Shrine

Bought it as a reward for finishing an exam yesterday, and while it got somewhat mixed reviews (really good but not fantastic) I'm having a blast with it so far.

It's kind of like Crackdown got infected by the Zerg and had a baby with the bastard son of Assassin's Creed + The Force Unleashed. The story's actually got me pretty interested so far, and I'm having a blast with the side missions... they're for the most part your normal side missions, but they're never really repetitious, some actually help you further in the storyline, and they're short enough that you don't get tired of them. There's a lot to do and a lot to explore, upgrades, plenty of attacks.

I got it for 360 because a game like this I just prefer on a controller... I know Shrin got it for PC though so I'm curious to see how the controls are for him. Having to re-apply my "powers" after each mission is becoming a pain in the ass, although I just figured out how to do it quickly.

The controls for the PC are indentical, assuming you have an adapter that lets you use your 360 controller on your computer. ^_^

And yeah it's a fun game, the powers are a blast.

I use my mouse and keyboard. It works out well most of the time, but the timed events with the waypoints sometimes screw me up because WASD doesn't work perfectly with the precise movement needed to move up the walls of a few surfaces. If the game didn't slow down for the power wheel things would definitely be different.

So far I'm having a blast using the hulk fists to screw shit up.

This is a game about screwing shit up. I've stopped with the story for a bit to run around the city grabbing collectibles and finding the random people in the web of intrigue. I'm disappointed that once again a game that's perfect for XBL achievements isn't part of GFWL.

What are the physics of getting shot and taking damage but being able to jump off a sky scraper and shrug it off immediately with no consequences? Still. Bad ass.

the elbow drop is maybe the greatest thing ever.....fuck yeah

My humor apparently aligns with PA on this game... Here's a chat log between Tessian and I from last Friday the 12th, a week ago:

Knuckles06 (9:24:19 PM): yeah the reviews are kinda eh
Knuckles06 (9:24:25 PM): 7.5 isn't exactly stellar
shrinweck (9:24:58 PM): jump kicking and destroying a helicopter is pretty fucking stellar
Knuckles06 (9:25:07 PM): lol

Great minds?? lol

I'm still having a blast with the game... played over 7 hours and I'm afraid I won't have many hours left

Tessian wrote:Great minds?? lol

I'm still having a blast with the game... played over 7 hours and I'm afraid I won't have many hours left

I could just keep running up and down buildings elbow dropping soldiers that I've made cry due to using their buddies to take down helicopters

Chris wrote:the elbow drop is maybe the greatest thing ever.....fuck yeah

That was my reaction when I play the first five minutes. "Did I just do an elbow drop on a fucking tank?!" Shit, that should have been the PA comic.

What's funny about the jump kick on the copter is that it's probably one of the best ways to get rid of them. Charge jump then charge jump kick.

Just got it yesterday, but I have to go to work now, dammit.

SineSwiper wrote:

Chris wrote:the elbow drop is maybe the greatest thing ever.....fuck yeah

What's funny about the jump kick on the copter is that it's probably one of the best ways to get rid of them. Charge jump then charge jump kick.

Just wait until the cannonball move... bye bye helicopter.

Although it's such a waste. I just hijack them and rain chaos down on the streets.

Was a good game. I got gold on every single event. Too bad it was on PC on not 360, achievements would have been nice.

I just beat the game, 14 hours of gametime later. It was a lot of fun and I'm pleased to see they let you stay in free roam mode after you beat it AND you unlock not only hard mode, but Plus mode, where you can play Normal again with all your abilities already unlocked. I'll probably just back into it later just to mess around more.

About 80% done with the game. I'm glad they dived a little bit into moral issues, but it's really too little, too late. The story is interesting enough to keep me playing, but there is just so much lost potential here.

Gameplay is still damn good, even if the difficulty has a bipolar disorder.

lol Moral issues. the first time I picked up a car and ran through a crowd using it as a shield I realized moral decisions were not a part of the gameplay.

Well, it's not like you're playing GTA. You're not a criminal in the normal sense. You're supposed to be this normal guy who got caught into this transformation into a bioweapon. Just because you can kill many people doesn't mean you're just going to do it because you can.

Again, a bunch of wasted potential here.

There IS a 40pt achievement , "Nice Guy, for finishing the game without feeding on more than 10 civilians...

I enjoyed the story, but I will agree it could have been better.

Tessian wrote:There IS a 40pt achievement , "Nice Guy, for finishing the game without feeding on more than 10 civilians... :P

How the hell do you do that? You end up running over a bunch anyway. I guess if it's just feeding, but sometimes you have a hard time figuring out the difference between infected and civilians.

I played a little of this game recently. Fuckin' fun as hell, though it can be bitterly hard at times. Would maybe buy it, though I'd like to try Infamous first.

RentCavalier wrote:I played a little of this game recently. Fuckin' fun as hell, though it can be bitterly hard at times. Would maybe buy it, though I'd like to try Infamous first.

infamous was ruined by it's moreal choice system. let's see. There is a box of puppies in danger what do I do, I can
A) Stand there and find them all homes really quick or
B Skin them and eat them raw then run across the street to the nursery and kick babies.

The choices are a joke. they are either unrepentantly evil or holier than thou good. also control is a bitch

SineSwiper wrote:

Tessian wrote:There IS a 40pt achievement , "Nice Guy, for finishing the game without feeding on more than 10 civilians...

How the hell do you do that? You end up running over a bunch anyway. I guess if it's just feeding, but sometimes you have a hard time figuring out the difference between infected and civilians.

Yes, it's specifically only CONSUMING civilians, and it wasn't hard... I managed to get it easy. I probably only consumed about 2 and that was before I noticed the achievement.

Chris wrote:

RentCavalier wrote:I played a little of this game recently. Fuckin' fun as hell, though it can be bitterly hard at times. Would maybe buy it, though I'd like to try Infamous first.

infamous was ruined by it's moreal choice system. let's see. There is a box of puppies in danger what do I do, I can
A) Stand there and find them all homes really quick or
B Skin them and eat them raw then run across the street to the nursery and kick babies.

The choices are a joke. they are either unrepentantly evil or holier than thou good. also control is a bitch

That's a problem with ALL games with a moral choice system. There is no middle ground. Fallout 3 is about the only one with at least some point to having a neutral character.

SineSwiper wrote:

Chris wrote:

RentCavalier wrote:I played a little of this game recently. Fuckin' fun as hell, though it can be bitterly hard at times. Would maybe buy it, though I'd like to try Infamous first.

infamous was ruined by it's moreal choice system. let's see. There is a box of puppies in danger what do I do, I can
A) Stand there and find them all homes really quick or
B Skin them and eat them raw then run across the street to the nursery and kick babies.

The choices are a joke. they are either unrepentantly evil or holier than thou good. also control is a bitch

That's a problem with ALL games with a moral choice system. There is no middle ground. Fallout 3 is about the only one with at least some point to having a neutral character.

there have been others. at least with some games the moral choice is between 2 things that are more ambiguous. or sometimes the logical choice is to leave someone behind to save something else. That's one thing I liked a lot about Mass Effect. It had a moral choice system that wasn't about how good or evil you were. It came down to how far you would go to get the job done. yeah the tendancy will always be to pick ne direction and keep going that way but sometimes I found myself picking the other because it seemed like the right thing to do for the character that I was playing. It actually seemed interesting to me. Even in other games with the moral choice thing going none come close to being as godawful as infamout. It's pretty much livke choosing whether to beat an old lady to death or helping her cross the street. It was fucking retarded and really killed the game for me.

PC version is 20% off ($40) this week on Steam.

As much as I will criticize Mass Effect, it DID have a pretty well-implemented moral choice system, so long as you are willing to listen to everyone TALK FOR FUCKING EVER AND GOD DAMN IT YOU WON'T SHUT UP.

I wish there was a path, though, to forgo the combat and just be a savvy politician. I had more fun manipulating the lives of simpletons and creating back alley alliances with crooked aliens than I did fighting to save the world. Combat was just dull.

RentCavalier wrote:As much as I will criticize Mass Effect, it DID have a pretty well-implemented moral choice system, so long as you are willing to listen to everyone TALK FOR FUCKING EVER AND GOD DAMN IT YOU WON'T SHUT UP.

I wish there was a path, though, to forgo the combat and just be a savvy politician. I had more fun manipulating the lives of simpletons and creating back alley alliances with crooked aliens than I did fighting to save the world. Combat was just dull.

Combat was alright, but like Fallout 3, you just did TOO much of it with the same situations. It's not like, say, Prototype, where there's a lot of variety to keep you interested.