No new post this week as I'm off on holiday. Regardless, it's been a busy week so haven't had much time for gaming.
See you next week!
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Aliens: This Time It's War (redux)
Managed to get in another solo game of Aliens: This Time it's War recently. While the game is very tactical, as opposed to strategic, I have to admit that I really like the game due to the cinematic situations that develop naturally while playing the game.
Game report below.
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The Aliens got off to a slow albeit steady start. They were never able to massacre the marines but were able to kill off at least 1 marine per round. This meant that, relative to the movie, they were slightly behind (Apone didn't die until the marines were escaping by way of APC).
Game report below.
*******************************************************
The Aliens got off to a slow albeit steady start. They were never able to massacre the marines but were able to kill off at least 1 marine per round. This meant that, relative to the movie, they were slightly behind (Apone didn't die until the marines were escaping by way of APC).
However, in the mid-game, the Alien player managed to pull off another dropship disaster which helped to thin down the marines. The murder of Ferro lead to an additional 2 rounds in the Dropship Evac stage which gave the Aliens a chance to recover and get some kills. Particularly helpful was the lack of operations cards during the same period.
Moving into the final stage on the Sulaco and things were pretty tight. The marines still had Ripley, Bishop and Newt. By now, the Alien player was starting to feel pretty good albeit the marines did have a pretty decent handsize as the marines were unable to play many operations cards during Dropship Evac.
These cards were promptly discarded to power the Sentry Gun! Woohoo!
However, the joy was shortlived as the Aliens threw down an Alien Swarm and managed to kill off poor little Newt. Advantage to the Aliens!
However (again!), a lucky draw in the second round of the Sulaco (after poor little Newt got eaten by a passing Alien) allowed the marine player to field the Powerloader. Together with the Sentry Gun and other ops cards, the marines now had 13 power on the Sulaco stage! Firepower FTW!
The last couple of rounds were brutal as, in desperation, the Alien player threw everything he had at the marines. Two security doors dropped to delay the marines final escape - pushing back the turn marker back twice in the final rounds. However, this would only delay the inevitable if they couldn't pull any Alien cards to overwhelm the marines firepower. With the lack of marine kills, the Nuke counter was also ticking perilously close to zero!
Aliens kept coming at the marines in waves. Some were devastated by careful controlled bursts by the marines. Others were blown apart with grenades. Despite this, the Aliens kept coming - knowing it was their last chance to take out the last surviving marines before their timely escape.
Ultimately, despite Bishop being torn in half, the marines were able to keep the Aliens at bay and scrape out the win. It was a close call but, in the end, the combined firepower of the Powerloader and Sentry Gun proved too much for the Aliens to deal with.
Moving into the final stage on the Sulaco and things were pretty tight. The marines still had Ripley, Bishop and Newt. By now, the Alien player was starting to feel pretty good albeit the marines did have a pretty decent handsize as the marines were unable to play many operations cards during Dropship Evac.
These cards were promptly discarded to power the Sentry Gun! Woohoo!
However, the joy was shortlived as the Aliens threw down an Alien Swarm and managed to kill off poor little Newt. Advantage to the Aliens!
However (again!), a lucky draw in the second round of the Sulaco (after poor little Newt got eaten by a passing Alien) allowed the marine player to field the Powerloader. Together with the Sentry Gun and other ops cards, the marines now had 13 power on the Sulaco stage! Firepower FTW!
The last couple of rounds were brutal as, in desperation, the Alien player threw everything he had at the marines. Two security doors dropped to delay the marines final escape - pushing back the turn marker back twice in the final rounds. However, this would only delay the inevitable if they couldn't pull any Alien cards to overwhelm the marines firepower. With the lack of marine kills, the Nuke counter was also ticking perilously close to zero!
Aliens kept coming at the marines in waves. Some were devastated by careful controlled bursts by the marines. Others were blown apart with grenades. Despite this, the Aliens kept coming - knowing it was their last chance to take out the last surviving marines before their timely escape.
Ultimately, despite Bishop being torn in half, the marines were able to keep the Aliens at bay and scrape out the win. It was a close call but, in the end, the combined firepower of the Powerloader and Sentry Gun proved too much for the Aliens to deal with.
Hoo ah!
Sunday, February 8, 2015
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
I got this game as part of the Humble Bundle a while ago but didn't have a chance to play it till now. Which turned out to be a good thing.
Unfortunately, the game isn't very good. To be fair, it's not bad and it has a couple of interesting ideas. It's just very very average.
With that said, there are two things about the game which are bad. Naturally, I'll talk about that here.
:)
Voice Acting
If I was being generous, I would describe the voice acting as wooden. Most of the lines are delivered flat. Those that aren't flat are delivered in a gritty annoyed tone - mainly because those lines are being delivered by the main character.
To be fair to the voice actors, I'm not sure if the bad voice acting is due to poor voice actors or if its down to poor voice direction or poor writing. Which brings me to my next point.
Writing
The writing in this game is atrocious. And I mean really really atrocious.
To illustrate how bad, let me give you an example from near the start of the game. At this point, you have gone through the first mission and have just gone to your new XCOM base.
As you explore the base and talk to people, you very quickly realise that they are still scrambling to get the base fully operational as there are a lot of signs of chaos. Corridors are blocked with boxes. Entire sections of the base are unreachable as they haven't been powered up yet. Also, someone tells you that they are scrambling to get the base operational.
While you wander around, someone tells you that one of the scientists has gone missing. In addition, he took a bomb with him so people are concerned with what he might be up to. However, agent Nils, one of the agents who helped you in your first mission, is tracking him so hopefully, we will find him soon.
At this point, you get a call from that other agent. He says that he tracked the scientist to the morgue and that there is no way out other than through the main door. He tells you to hurry. You tell him that you are on your way and then hang up. Then, you say in a really anguished and desperate voice "Hang on, Nils!"
Wait, what? Why the anguish? Did Nils get shot or something? As far as I know, he was just tracking a scientist, found him and was now waiting for me to go over there. Why the (melo)drama?
This moment is a perfect example of narrative failure. I'm actually fairly forgiving of plot holes and will breeze over most of them without question as long as I'm having a good time. However, occasionally, the plot is so badly written that it pulls me straight out of the story. At that point, I start asking questions instead of enjoying the story and unfortunately, things just fell apart for this game once I started doing that.
By the way, the reason for the melodrama is that agent Nils goes into the morgue after the scientist, who turns out to be an Alien Outsider and promptly gets killed by said Alien Outsider. Natureally, your main character knew agent Nils would go in on his own despite Nils not giving any indication of this during the call.
You see what I mean about poor writing?
Unfortunately, the game isn't very good. To be fair, it's not bad and it has a couple of interesting ideas. It's just very very average.
With that said, there are two things about the game which are bad. Naturally, I'll talk about that here.
:)
Voice Acting
If I was being generous, I would describe the voice acting as wooden. Most of the lines are delivered flat. Those that aren't flat are delivered in a gritty annoyed tone - mainly because those lines are being delivered by the main character.
To be fair to the voice actors, I'm not sure if the bad voice acting is due to poor voice actors or if its down to poor voice direction or poor writing. Which brings me to my next point.
Writing
The writing in this game is atrocious. And I mean really really atrocious.
To illustrate how bad, let me give you an example from near the start of the game. At this point, you have gone through the first mission and have just gone to your new XCOM base.
As you explore the base and talk to people, you very quickly realise that they are still scrambling to get the base fully operational as there are a lot of signs of chaos. Corridors are blocked with boxes. Entire sections of the base are unreachable as they haven't been powered up yet. Also, someone tells you that they are scrambling to get the base operational.
While you wander around, someone tells you that one of the scientists has gone missing. In addition, he took a bomb with him so people are concerned with what he might be up to. However, agent Nils, one of the agents who helped you in your first mission, is tracking him so hopefully, we will find him soon.
At this point, you get a call from that other agent. He says that he tracked the scientist to the morgue and that there is no way out other than through the main door. He tells you to hurry. You tell him that you are on your way and then hang up. Then, you say in a really anguished and desperate voice "Hang on, Nils!"
Wait, what? Why the anguish? Did Nils get shot or something? As far as I know, he was just tracking a scientist, found him and was now waiting for me to go over there. Why the (melo)drama?
This moment is a perfect example of narrative failure. I'm actually fairly forgiving of plot holes and will breeze over most of them without question as long as I'm having a good time. However, occasionally, the plot is so badly written that it pulls me straight out of the story. At that point, I start asking questions instead of enjoying the story and unfortunately, things just fell apart for this game once I started doing that.
By the way, the reason for the melodrama is that agent Nils goes into the morgue after the scientist, who turns out to be an Alien Outsider and promptly gets killed by said Alien Outsider. Natureally, your main character knew agent Nils would go in on his own despite Nils not giving any indication of this during the call.
You see what I mean about poor writing?
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Bioshock 2
Well, that's me done with Bioshock 2. Unfortunately, when I say done, I don't mean I completed the game. I mean I won't be playing any further.
The main problem is that I keep running into a save game issue where my save file keeps getting corrupted. I've restarted the Ryan Amusements level 4-5 times now and at this point, I just can't be bothered restarting again.
In addition to the save file problem, which I could probably get around if I was determined enough, I'm also not enjoying the game that much. Primarily the reason is that the game itself is too similar to Bioshock - to the extent that I feel like I'm playing Bioshock 1.5 rather than an actual sequel.
The main issue I'm having with the game is actually the narrative - or rather, the fact that the mechanics of the game go completely counter to the games narrative.
In Bioshock 2, you are supposed to be a Big Daddy.
If you're familiar with the game, you will know that Big Daddy's are big monstrous creatures who are fully encased in deep diver suits. They are big, hulking creatures which are extremely dangerous and extremely hard to kill.
Unfortunately, none of that translates to the actual gameplay.
In game, you are completely squishy - in fact, as squishy as you were at the start of Bioshock when you were just a normal plebby human. In addition, you don't even feel like a big monstrous creature when moving around. You zip around just as if you were a normal human. The game tries to sell how big you are by adding in some sounds but the problem is that it doesn't work because the only thing that is different Bioshock is the sound. For example, if you drop off some crates onto the floor, you hear a big clang as you land. But the screen doesn't show how ponderous you are. It feels like they took the animation from Bioshock and just added in the extra sound effect.
To be fair, I'm probably nit-picking here. However, the net result is that I never felt like a Big Daddy and I just could't get past that in my mind when I was playing. Unfortunately, I just wasn't able to immerse myself in the experience.
The main problem is that I keep running into a save game issue where my save file keeps getting corrupted. I've restarted the Ryan Amusements level 4-5 times now and at this point, I just can't be bothered restarting again.
In addition to the save file problem, which I could probably get around if I was determined enough, I'm also not enjoying the game that much. Primarily the reason is that the game itself is too similar to Bioshock - to the extent that I feel like I'm playing Bioshock 1.5 rather than an actual sequel.
The main issue I'm having with the game is actually the narrative - or rather, the fact that the mechanics of the game go completely counter to the games narrative.
In Bioshock 2, you are supposed to be a Big Daddy.
If you're familiar with the game, you will know that Big Daddy's are big monstrous creatures who are fully encased in deep diver suits. They are big, hulking creatures which are extremely dangerous and extremely hard to kill.
Unfortunately, none of that translates to the actual gameplay.
In game, you are completely squishy - in fact, as squishy as you were at the start of Bioshock when you were just a normal plebby human. In addition, you don't even feel like a big monstrous creature when moving around. You zip around just as if you were a normal human. The game tries to sell how big you are by adding in some sounds but the problem is that it doesn't work because the only thing that is different Bioshock is the sound. For example, if you drop off some crates onto the floor, you hear a big clang as you land. But the screen doesn't show how ponderous you are. It feels like they took the animation from Bioshock and just added in the extra sound effect.
To be fair, I'm probably nit-picking here. However, the net result is that I never felt like a Big Daddy and I just could't get past that in my mind when I was playing. Unfortunately, I just wasn't able to immerse myself in the experience.
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