I recently finished Batman: Arkham City. It was a lot of fun; as in the first game they've managed to strike a decent balance to  create a Batman who is tough and extremely versatile but certainly not invincible. And I enjoyed the relative openess of the game with all the optional things to do, although I still have a lot to find.

I'm done with SimCity for now, it's a very fun game but alas plagued with some gamebreaking bugs.

Apart from the server woes, the simulation falls apart for larger cities.

Once you hit the 100.000 population mark, gameplay mechanics bring your city to a grinding halt.

Since there's only one highway connection to your city, traffic piles up at the entrance of your city.

Thereby bringing your import/exports to a grinding halt and preventing new citizens to enter your city.

On top of that your entire city will become gridlocked, preventing fire trucks, police cars and ambulances doing their jobs properly.

Because of this 2 of my metropolises have had a nuclear meltdown, burned down half the city and killed the rest of my city from radiation sickness 

Since there's no way to build an extra highway connection, the game is unplayable until they fix this.

Do you have an Airport/Train? Those can bring in people without using the main highway.

Still though the gamebreaking things do fall apart. Mainly the fact that they "fluff" your population a lot. You have 100k pop, but they only show a small % of it.

The AI for the game is terrible. People just take the shortest route possible, even if it's jam packed and there's a full open road with zero traffic right beside it that any logical person would use.

On top of this the AI for servcies (Trash pickup, police/fire/ambulances, buses, etc) doesn't patrol well at all. You will constantly find them all "bunched up" together clogging up in triaffic, meanwhile the area's around your city pile up with the need for them.

I ended up having people complaining about trash and I couldn't understand what I was doing wrong. IP had two trash dumps, plenty of space for the trash, and TWENTY TWO garbage trucks for my city, yet I was having aepidemic of trash and I bring up my trash map to see almost all of my 22 trucks bunched up in one area of the map, which was clean o ftrash, meanwhil ethe other 90% has a huge trash problem.

Then there's the "simulation" part that just falls part if you follow any small details. People don't actually KEEP jobs or houses.

The way it works is that you have a housing building, depending on it's density and the land value, it creates "x" number of people which ar ethen a % of either "shoppers, workers, etc" Then it sends them out to do these tasks.

People that leave that house will go to oa job (if they are a worker) or shopping if they are a shopper. They will go to the nearest industrial building to find a job or shop. If the nearest shop/industrial building is full already, they go to the next one and so on.

When work is done, that SAME sim will then go to the "nearest" available house (not the one he was in at the start of the day). So bascially every single day that specific sim has a new house/new job, they don't keep their house or job like you'd expect a "sim" to do (like in the base "sim" games).

Also the city size is so small now. It is quick to fill out compared to Sim City 4, to the point you can no longer build mega cities, or cities that are that self-sufficent (to try and force you to interact with other "regions" and online.

The online part was broke for many days. EA has been caught in lie after lie about the reasoning behidn the online-drm and connectivity and how it's "needed" for the game.  Saying things like the server did some of the "computing" for the simulation and how it needed to do so. Well modders already hacked it, found a way to allow people to play offline, the server does none of the simulation and is bsacially more or less just a normal server that's mainly there for the region to region trading and things.

Games online-drm and all the PR from EA trying to cover it up is even getting blasted by mainstream media (Forbes, the Times).

All in all it's Sad, because the game itself can be quite fun, but Maxis just seems to hav ebeen shackled by EA and forced into making the game "socially interactive" instead of being allowed to make the game what many people wanted from a Sim city and so far it's ruining the game and it's image and has backfired on EA with all the backlash from fans and the media.

Originally Posted By Stiler (18 MAR 2013 9:11am)

 

The online part was broke for many days. EA has been caught in lie after lie about the reasoning behidn the online-drm and connectivity and how it's "needed" for the game.  Saying things like the server did some of the "computing" for the simulation and how it needed to do so. Well modders already hacked it, found a way to allow people to play offline, the server does none of the simulation and is bsacially more or less just a normal server that's mainly there for the region to region trading and things.

 

Worse yet, it turned out that the hackers just found something that already was a part of the game code, they hardly had to edit anything, they just found the debug mode. (It was apparently as easy as setting debug=1 to debug=0). The only thing that is done server-side is saving. 

People have found ways to break basically everything that has to do with the online part, from finding ways to play offline, to finding out how to take control over other peoples cities to being able to have larger plots of land than the game intended you to have. 

And apparently EA's viral marketers have been found & banned on several larger forums. http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-SimCity-Viral-Marketer-Gets-Banned-From-NeoGaf-53658.html

At least those vids prove that it should be fairly easy to add features like offline mode, bigger cities and highway editing.

I'm still hoping that over time it will become a good game.

There's one terrible thing I didn't mention yet, there're no manual saves or an undo button. So basically your stuck with every mistake you make. Plopped an expensive building in the wrong place? all you can do is bulldoze it or don't let it work as it should be.

On the plus side EA is giving away a free game for everyone that bought Simcity, a free copy of Battlefield 3, Dead Space 3,... is an acceptable apology.

Originally Posted By markornikov (18 MAR 2013 5:05pm)

 

There's one terrible thing I didn't mention yet, there're no manual saves or an undo button. So basically your stuck with every mistake you make. Plopped an expensive building in the wrong place? all you can do is bulldoze it or don't let it work as it should be.

Won't that make playing with disasters entirely unfeasible? The childish part of me loves unleashing terrible disasters (well, the UFO or Godzilla lookalike at least) upon my poor city, only to later re-load.

On a more positive note, Sleeping Dogs is an outstanding game. Going straight from Saint's Row 2 to Sleeping Dogs might mean that I look at Sleeping Dogs in a more favorable way than I would otherwise (I'm not sure actually) because unlike SR 2, Sleeping Dogs controls well, runs at a good speed (no sudden framerate drops or CPU-dependent movement speed) and the combat is far better. Actually, the combat system reminds me a tad bit of Arkham Asylum (which was an excellent game). 

Originally Posted By Fnord (19 MAR 2013 4:39am)

Originally Posted By markornikov (18 MAR 2013 5:05pm)

 

There's one terrible thing I didn't mention yet, there're no manual saves or an undo button. So basically your stuck with every mistake you make. Plopped an expensive building in the wrong place? all you can do is bulldoze it or don't let it work as it should be.

Won't that make playing with disasters entirely unfeasible? The childish part of me loves unleashing terrible disasters (well, the UFO or Godzilla lookalike at least) upon my poor city, only to later re-load.

Indeed, there's no way to undo a disaster. So messing around with disasters isn't fun anymore

Even worse one can't disable disasters (except in sandbox mode), so your city can be crippled without a moments notice.

I once had a tornado pass my nuclear power plant, without doing any damage, a few minutes later i had a nuclear meltdown because of it. I've learned that one should close down it's power plant when disaster strikes, but alas that city is lost to me now because of one stupid mistake 

Originally Posted By markornikov (19 MAR 2013 6:48am)

 

 

Indeed, there's no way to undo a disaster. So messing around with disasters isn't fun anymore

Even worse one can't disable disasters (except in sandbox mode), so your city can be crippled without a moments notice.

I once had a tornado pass my nuclear power plant, without doing any damage, a few minutes later i had a nuclear meltdown because of it. I've learned that one should close down it's power plant when disaster strikes, but alas that city is lost to me now because of one stupid mistake 

 

 

What happens to the other people in the region if your city closes down? Does that mean that they no longer can receive support from your city, or is there some kind of system that prevents some of the cities in the region being destroyed (or abandoned by their players before they actually grow into something useful) from ruining the region? 

Originally Posted By Fnord (19 MAR 2013 7:04am)

Originally Posted By markornikov (19 MAR 2013 6:48am)

 

 

Indeed, there's no way to undo a disaster. So messing around with disasters isn't fun anymore

Even worse one can't disable disasters (except in sandbox mode), so your city can be crippled without a moments notice.

I once had a tornado pass my nuclear power plant, without doing any damage, a few minutes later i had a nuclear meltdown because of it. I've learned that one should close down it's power plant when disaster strikes, but alas that city is lost to me now because of one stupid mistake 

 

 

What happens to the other people in the region if your city closes down? Does that mean that they no longer can receive support from your city, or is there some kind of system that prevents some of the cities in the region being destroyed (or abandoned by their players before they actually grow into something useful) from ruining the region? 

When a player abandons his city it becomes useless, the only thing other players can do is take over the city and try to fix it.

Unlike previous editions one can't obliterate and reset a city. 

Ofcourse this makes the game much more realistic, but when one plays with other idiots  players this system can be quite frustrating.

I've been playing Assassin's Creed Revelations, unlike previous editions there isn't a lot of new exciting things to do, just the same old which is still fun ofcourse.

I'm not too sure about the tower defense mini games, i don't think they fit very well into the game and i'm afraid they'll become tedious after a while.

Constantinople (Istanbul) isn't as interesting as Rome or Venice either, i hope later on more interesting places are to be discovered.

Anyone else get Bioshock Infinite?

Played it a couple hours since it unlocked at 12 and having a blast with it.

I have to say it's one of the most breathtaking games i've played. It's like the opposite of Rapture (in a good way). Where rapture was brilliant dark and dreary art deco Columbia is super bright vibrant colors with an "Americana" atmosphere. 

I spent hte first hour or so just wandering around, listening to npc conversations, exploring every nook and cranny for loot/money and taking in all the sights/sounds before things got  a bit heated. 

A couple pics:

Lots more here:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Stiler/screenshots/?appid=8870&sort=newestfirst&browsefilter=myfiles&view=grid

I love the art style in that game, and the pre-order incentives have been great (Xcom!), but I'm going to wait a bit before I get it. 

ohmygod, i was so busy playing my free XCOM game, i hadn't even noticed Bioshock Infinite has been released.

I'm really looking forward to playing it though.

I've come to a point in XCOM where it's obvious i should've build more space ships, because i'm being overrun by alien invasions 

I would love to play this game.....but I don't want to fry my laptop.  

Originally Posted By Bonsai-san (26 MAR 2013 5:43pm)

I would love to play this game.....but I don't want to fry my laptop.  

System requirements are actually surprisingly low, so it might well be worth checking to see if you'll be able to play the game.

Anyway. Hitman 2 is up next! A friend of mine has been playing the latest game in the Hitman series, and that reminded me that I own the Hitman collection (that is Hitman 1-4, and yes, that includes Contracts, a game that you can't buy anywhere these days), but that I've only beaten the first game. 

Ugh! Bioshock Infinite isn't well optimised for high-end pc's, there's a lot of stuttering at random points.

The game's engine is quite old so high-end pc's shouldn't have problems running it, i'm currently more busy with tweaking then actual gaming *sigh*. I'm even having troubles with graphic settings on 'medium'

It seems there might be a problem with how it streams the things in the backround.

The "Fix" that works for most people is this:

in file XEngine.cfg (Documents\My Games\BioShock Infinite\XGame\Config)
change "bUseBackgroundLevelStreaming=true" to "bUseBackgroundLevelStreaming=false"

As turning off that stops the stuttering issues for most people, HOWEVER this also breaks the game, as you'll get to where you need to go into a new area , or an event is meant to happen but it can't because you turned that off.

So it's not really a good fix

I tried that, but it has indeed gamebreaking effects. Changing VSYNC settings in the nvidia panel does help.

But the game regularly freezes for a few seconds, especially while on rails which is unfortute because those moments should be very exciting 

I'm having a real love and hate relationship with the new Bioshock.

Columbia is indeed breathtaking and incredibly detailed, they've really done a marvellous job at creating a vibrant gameworld filled with colorful characters. On the other hand it's a world full of clones, there seem to be only three different male models for non essential NPC's. If you put so much effort in building such detailed locations, why not just add some more face models in your game. Also every NPC seem to live in a bubble, oblivious to what happens around him, you can waltz in a shop killing cops, looting the cash register, while the shop owner just stands there like nothing happens. Such things kill all immersion.

Same problem with the graphics, up far everything looks incredible, but when you take a close look at the walls or scenery, it's very obvious this game uses a dated engine. It's nowhere near as beautiful as The witcher or Crysis.

Last but not least: It's terrible thing that game designers decide not to implement a manual save system into their games, but it's completely unforgivable when they remove their save systems in their sequel games 

Also why did they remove the map, i would think both those features would be standard in games.

Strangely though, despite these issues, i can't stop playing and when i'm done i'll probably play it again to see what i missed.

You can push "N" to get your bearing on where you should be going next (for the main storyline) however you are free to explore quite a bit freely.

Teh rails work fine for me, no real problem with lagging/stuttering on them really.

Yea the textures up close can be a little low res for my tasts (reminds me of Dishonored, which also had this problem). As well the "clone" issue with npc's (I doubt they'll fix that, unlike CD Projekt Red who had this same complaint in the Witcher and then made the enhanced version which added more npc faces to make them look more varied).

I'm still enjoying the game a lot though. Elizabeth is probably one of the most detailed AI companions in a game. It's a toss up between her and Alyx from Half life 2.

They really spent a ton of time making Elizabeth react/behave more like a person and not your usual "stand around" character where they'll just follow you and stand still like a robot waiting for you to move. She constnatly interacts with your environement, looking out windows, leaning up against a wall, sitting on benches, talking with other people, tossing your some money she finds, looking at objects, etc. They really did a great job on this and it had to be a huge pita for all the animators lol.

The rails are a blast to use, it feels like a "Rollercoaster" that you get to contorl bascially, when they showed it off after the game was announced I thought it might be "gimmicky" but it does work quite well, and allows you to explore more freely, compared to the other Bioshock games.

I do wish the npc's (outside from elizabeth of course) reacted more, it does come off a bit strange/weird when they don't, aside fromt eh scripted events (IE that statue part shortly after you get Elizabeth).

Still, coming from Tomb Raider to This, both great games and I hope the year continues to be this good. Mainly waiting for The Witcher 3(though that's 2014) Dragon Age 3/Moebius.

Me & the crew.

The obvious ride for any real gangster. 

And another fine ride.

My co-op partner complains quite a bit about my taste in colours & my fashion sense. 

And on a slightly unrelated note, someone really feels the need to protect his coffee.

HAPPY EASTER you guys!  Nice pics.  Guh, i haven't gamed in ages.  Uninstalled most of them in the SSD struggle which i've given up cloning to.  Now just using it for games and doing my Witcher 2 alternative path replay on it. 

Any news on DA 3 yet, btw?

I've been playing Borderlands quite a bit lately, and have been enjoying it a lot. Not for the usual sort of reasons like the story, environment (though I do like the stylized graphics), or characters, I have to admit. Here, it's all about the combat and the incredible variety of loot, and trying to collect better weapons. It also helps a lot that the guns have a very solid and visceral feel to them, except oddly enough for what you would think would feel the most powerful, the rocket launcher. 

Anyway, I'm surprised more games haven't done a fusion of "hack and slash" RPG into this sort of FPS setting, one you might call "shoot and snipe". It's something of a refreshing change from the usual faux European medieval scenario.

I've beaten Saint's Row 3 now, and I actually liked the story & humor less than that of Saint's Row 2. The problem was that Saint's Row 3 was so over the top that when it was being over the top, it just did not feel special. In SR2 the games weirdness contrasted starkly with a far darker setting & story, which actually made the game funnier and made the odd elements of it stand out a lot more. Also, all the characters in SR3 had less personality. 

SR3 still had the better port though. It was not "good", but it worked. Most of the porting issues were with the multiplayer component of the game.