Fm 2010 - Season 2011/12

Sigh.

Excuse me for a depressing post but I'm really not feeling particularly buoyant at the moment. Unfortunately, season 2011/12 will be a season to forget for numerous reasons. For starters, I forgot to take screenshots at the start of the year so not much of a pre-season report to give you.

The big changes were that I signed Igor Akinfeev to replace Reina and also managed to bring in James Milner. It was actually a toss up between Lennon and Milner but in the end, I went with Milner as he had slightly better all round stats (Lennon having slightly better attacking stats).

Unfortunately, neither Akinfeev nor Milner did particularly well this year. As a result, Cavalieri managed to get a lot of playing time. And this highlighted a broader problem with this season. Right from the start of the season, my team really struggled to beat our opposition. All too often, my team was outplayed by the opposition (which is what really grates - the fact that we were so often outplayed).

Another issue is that my team seem to be full of bottlers. I noticed this at the end of last season when my team buckled (but still managed to win the Prem as MC bottled it in the final game of the season). However, in the current year, despite MC making a few mistakes and giving us the opportunity to win the Prem, my team always managed to find a way to lose. For example, in a key game against MC to take the Prem lead, my team were 2-0 up but still managed to let in two late goals.

The only upside was that Torres was fantastic this year and managed to pull our ass out of the fire more times than I can remember. If it hadn't been for Torres, we would have had a lot more draws and losses.

Final league table below:


Final team ratings:



And the board - not very happy (understandably)


Just in case it isn't obvious, we won nothing this season. Not only did we not win anything, we were knocked out of all the cup competitions at an early stage (CL - quarter final, FA Cup - 4th round, League Cup - 4th or 5th round

Roll on 2012/13. Sigh.

Fallout 3 - quick rant

Can you believe that I have only just started playing Fallout 3 but already have stuff to rant about? 

Anyway - language warning.  This starts off with a major rant.

Manual
First off, I want to say to Steam and Bethesda - FUCK YOU!

As you know, I bought and installed Fallout 3 from Steam.  Seeing as this is an RPG, the first thing I did was to go looking for the manual (normally, on the games product page on Steam, there will be a link to the games manual).  However, in the case of Fallout 3, it said that there was no manual.  I had a quick look around on my hard drive to see if the manual had been part of the download in pdf form but I couldn't find it there either.  As a caveat, this might simply be because I missed it but regardless, I couldn't find it.

Although this was annoying, I figured it wasn't a big deal and turned to the internet for help.  More specifically, I turned to replacementdocs (a great online repository and my no.1 go-to-source for game manual downloads).  Unfortunately, this is what I found.  The short version is that Bethesda won't allow the site to post any of the manuals from their games.

So in summation - I buy one of Bethesda's games from Steam and not only do I not get the manual but Bethesda seem to be going out of their way to prevent the manual from being posted online.  What a fucking bunch of bastards.

PS I do have the manual now.  In the past, it had been uploaded to Steam and all Steam did was remove the link to it without actually removing the manual.  Of course, I was only able to find this out via a google search. Considering I actually went and bought the game though, getting a copy of the manual was way more difficult than it should have been.

Quest log
The quest log in this game sucks eggs.  Minor spoilers ahead - very minor though as this is all very early on in the game.

Anyway, I have escaped the Vault and have just arrived in Megaton.  After talking to Moriarty and trying to find news of my missing father, I realise I need some bottle caps to purchase this information from him.  Naturally, rather than blindly following the obvious route of talking to the junkie who stole caps from him, I wander around town to talk to the townsfolk to see if there are any odd jobs that I can do for money (hey, it is an open world RPG!).

As I wander around talking to people, I find several possible quests.  One of the settlers is a junkie and the local doctor needs help in getting him to break the habit, the water pipes are old and broken down and need to be repaired and one of the settlers seems to be very worried about something.  None of these quests were logged in my quest book.  Furthermore, the quest book doesn't allow me to type in my own notes so I can't create my own quest notes either.

WTF?  Seriously?  Am I supposed to memorise this crap?

This is an open world RPG.  As a general rule, ALL quests should be logged into the quest log and this rule should only be broken as an exception.  Finding 3 quests which are not logged within the first 10 minutes of entering a new town is simply taking the piss.

Freedom Force

Freedom Force was a game I initially got, together with the 3rd Reich expansion, way back in January during one of the sales on Steam. At the time, both of the games were being sold for USD2 which is an incredible deal. At that price, the game would still be worthwhile even if I only got several hours worth of entertainment out of it.

On a side note - I love the occasional sales on Steam. As I type this, Fallout 3 Game of The Year edition is on sale for USD25 and is currently being downloaded onto my PC. Can't wait to get started so let me know if there are any good mods I should be downloading as well.

Anyway, I finally got around to finishing Freedom Force after several months of occasional playing. The game itself is a real time strategy game where you take control of 4 members of the Freedom Force - a group of superheroes dedicated to Freedom, Liberty and all that good stuff. After forming your group of superheroes, you find yourself pitted against numerous superpowered enemies before finally taking on the big bad himself (who, in the greatest tradition of comic book villains, is out to destroy the Universe!).

Stuff I liked
Atmosphere
What you think of the games atmosphere will really depend on whether you like comic books. More specifically, whether you liked the silver age of comic books as this is were the game clearly draws its inspiration. However, what Irrational have managed to do is throw in a heavy serving of cheese with the game. The amount of melodrama belies description (at least for my paltry vocabulary) and really has to be seen to be believed.

Superheroes
You are controlling a squad of superheroes. I'm a serious comic book and superhero nerd. Come on - do I really need to elaborate on this?

Flexible powers
Irrational have done a great job in building up a diverse list of superpowers. Certainly, there is enough in the game that you can easily imagine building up a Marvel or DC superhero quite easily. In fact, you don't need to imagine it as the mod community has a library of skins and game mods for you to try out a new batch of superheroes. Spider-Man, X-Men, FF - they can all be recreated here for your amusement.

Characters
The heroes themselves are a great bunch of characters. I was tempted to immediately sub in my favourite Marvel superheroes when I started to play this game. However, I decided to stick with the default characters and I was really glad I did. The heroes in the default list you get to choose from are an eclectic and strange, but funny, bunch of characters and the developers did a fantastic job in designing them.

Stuff I didn't like
Superheroes?
Unfortunately, the superheroes you get to control feel seriously underpowered. At no point in the game do you feel as if you are controlling a group of superpowered heroes. If you ever get in a fight with a bunch of goons, you are going to be lucky to come out alive (even if the goons in question are your ordinary run-of-the-mill gangsters). I can understand that this is done for gameplay balance reasons - but still, its annoying to have to micromanage even when you face off against ordinary humans.

Not enough RPG
I really shouldn't complain about this considering that the game was designed as a real time strategy game. However, I can't help but feel that a more robust leveling up system would have helped the game. Possibly, this is tied into the first dislike that I had above.

On a side note, I know this will never happen but I really wish someone would develop a turn based superhero RPG. That game would scratch so many itches. Way too niche for a mainstream developer though. Maybe an indie developer?

Modern Warfare

The Call of Duty games by Infinity Ward (specifically, COD2, COD4 and Modern Warfare 2) are highly regarded games in the industry. Not only do they receive critical acclaim but they also get the sales figures to match. All in all, one of the highlights of the FPS genre.

Which probably makes it surprising for you to hear that I don't own any of the COD games.

The main reason for this is that Activision always prices the COD games with a heavy premium. The second reason is that I have a friend who likes the COD series and I was able to borrow both COD2 and recently, COD4 from him. And it was well worth the wait!

Stuff I liked
Set pieces
COD4 is full of fantastic set pieces. Right at the start of the game, you are involved in a night raid on a tanker in the middle of the ocean. Near the end, the tanker gets taken out by a Mig with you still inside and the game becomes a mad dash as you try and get out of the bowels of the sinking ship! And this is before the opening credits have rolled!

Sharp controls
As you probably know by now, bad controls piss me off. Luckily the COD games have always had great controls which are responsive and well adjusted to the xbox controller. Its hard to put into words but part of the reason that the COD games are so much fun is that the controls are so well done that you just don't need to think about them at all. I've played lots of FPS games on the xbox and very few feel as good as COD4.

Achievements
This may sound silly but I love the fact that all of the achievements for COD4 can be attained via the singleplayer. Considering how late I am to the game, there is not much point in me jumping online. The only people left playing online at this stage would be the die-hard experts and would likely be able to wipe the floor with me even if all they were armed with was a pistol.

Having said that, the achievements aren't easy to get. Completing the game on Veteran difficulty was hard. And frankly, getting the mile high club achievement looks like it may be out of my league (won't stop me trying though!).

Stuff I didn't like
Length
Its probably unfair to rag on this game for length as it seems like most FPS games these days last in the 6-10 hour range. Having said that, after finishing COD4, I really wanted to keep on playing. Also, I can't think of anything else to complain about and I couldn't just leave this section blank, could I?

Alan Wake

Alan Wake is an X360 exclusive which was developed by Remedy Entertainment - the same bunch of guys behind the excellent Max Payne. The game itself bears a lot of similarities to Max Payne (eg third person view, the main character is narrating etc). However, there are a couple of key differences - the main one being the style of game itself. Remedy are pitching Alan Wake as a psychological thriller. Everyone else is calling it a damn fine survival horror game!

The short version of the story was probably best explained by the Penny Arcade guys. Click here if you don't mind minor spoilers.

In Alan Wake, you play the role of Alan Wake (surprise!). Alan is a famous writer of horror stories (a la Stephen King) who is suffering from writer's block. To help overcome this, Alan and his wife travel to a remote village in the middle of nowhere so that he can recharge his batteries. This being a survival horror game, it isn't long before the fit hits the shan and you find yourself on the run from both the police and the creatures of the night which are out to take over the world!

Stuff I liked
Controls - Sorry for beating this tired old horse again but I really can't stress how important a good control scheme is. The fact is that Alan Wake uses the thumbsticks in an industry standard control scheme (left stick controls movement while right stick controls camera) and this allows me to jump straight into the gameplay without worrying about the controls.

Atmosphere - Remedy did a fantastic job with the graphics. Just like with FEAR, I only played this game at night with the lights down low and you really feel the tension when you are wandering around the woods at night with only your flashlight to show the way. This may sound cliche but I really struggled to play this game for a long period of time.

In many ways, the atmosphere is much better than in FEAR. In FEAR, there was a limit to the actual fear factor as you were generally armed to the teeth with guns and grenades. However, in Alan Wake, you generally find yourself being careful with your ammo in case you run out before the next ammo cache. This fundamental difference really changes the way the tension mounts during the game.

Episodic - Remedy also did a really good job in breaking up the game into episodes. Each episode starts off in relative safety before building up to a climactic finish for that episode. By the time you finish one episode, your nerves are shot through and its a great place to stop and take a break.

They also do a good job of selling the episodes as each episode starts with a summary of what has happened so far and effectively ends with credits (no actual credits scroll but you have a different song to end each episode).

Stuff I didn't like
Episodic - Unfortunately, Remedy didn't think through the episodic format very well. At the end of each episode, it automatically goes into the next episode without asking if you want to save and stop. Which defeats the purpose of having an episodic format to start with. If the intention was for the player to simply dive into the next episode, why bother breaking up the game with music and episode summaries?

Enemies - This is a bit of an obvious nitpick but a little bit more variety in the enemy types would have helped this game. Although I never got tired of the combat, it does reduce the fear level a bit when you know exactly what to do to defeat the enemy. In fact, it got to the stage where fighting enemies became routine and wasn't scary at all.


One last comment. This game has received a lot of criticism for the amount of real life ad placements within the game. Speaking for myself, I never considered it an issue as the ads were appropriate and didn't pull me out of the game. For example, you need batteries to power your torch so you are constantly on the lookout for more batteries. Does it really pull you out of the game if those batteries are branded?