Syndicate Catch-All

iaintgotnopants wrote:

I didn't mean to start an Origin "thing". All that was meant by it was pretty much what Rebel Blob said. I don't have any faith in being able to regularly find coop games on Origin so I'm not going to waste my time. I'm not happy with the way EA has acted but I'm not specifically boycotting them. I made a comment about a game that I legitimately wanted to play but has a feature that, to me, makes the game a nonstarter. I'm sorry I didn't come in here to praise everything about the game and I guess I should refrain from making any negative comments in the future.

Also, it's nice to find out that my reasons for being unhappy with EA are disingenuous. I'm going to run right out and buy every game that they make right now. Thank you for showing me the error of my ways.

Like I said,

Blind_Evil wrote:

If one wants to be platform exclusive, that's their business.

if your beef with EA/Origin is serious enough that you're willing to not play stuff that interests you, more power to you. I made the same decision about PS3 exclusives after having so many PS2s break. I struggle with it sometimes, but there's a big wall ($300) to caving.

Regarding EA, they publish way too many good games for me to miss out on. Two of my top ten last year came from them (and two of the community's overall), and my two faves so far from this year. Being a console guy I also dodge what seem to be their most flagrant offenses.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

I didn't mean to start an Origin "thing". All that was meant by it was pretty much what Rebel Blob said. I don't have any faith in being able to regularly find coop games on Origin so I'm not going to waste my time. I'm not happy with the way EA has acted but I'm not specifically boycotting them. I made a comment about a game that I legitimately wanted to play but has a feature that, to me, makes the game a nonstarter. I'm sorry I didn't come in here to praise everything about the game and I guess I should refrain from making any negative comments in the future.

Also, it's nice to find out that my reasons for being unhappy with EA are disingenuous. I'm going to run right out and buy every game that they make right now. Thank you for showing me the error of my ways.

You could have made a way better argument. EA server shutdowns. I skimmed to the end of this cause I wanted to gauge how many pc players there are. I am looking to buy this game specifically after seeing the coop on Giant Bomb. But yeah the ultimate argument is EA shutdowns and the fact that they don't release any kind of support for players to run their own servers.

Valve with their own games does it right by the PC community to supply server side tools so there are no incurred costs maintaining.

Anyways I am looking to be convinced to play the PC version. Podunk is on my friends list. Anyone else on Origin feel free to add me up.

Edit: Yeah really the only thing disappointing to me about EA is how they handle the server nonsense. I think everything else is A-OK

Server shutdowns (or the insistence that they circumvent XBL service to do so) are indeed a terrible offense. I'm just never affected by them. I very rarely play the same thing online for more than two months at a time.

Just got this. Why is the text so small?

Because you're playing it on Vita?

The text size for the infobank is a shame. There's some good flavor in there.

Just got in some co-op. It's very cool. The upgrade system looks like it should be really interesting.

Now if only I can get my Ventrilo settings working again. It was fine yesterday. Today when I go to play something, instant fustercluck.

*

So.. I figured it out. Whatever you do, don't have VOIP turned on in the Syndicate audio options and try to use Vent at the same time. It doesn't make nice. As soon as I turned that off Vent started picking up my mic just fine again.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

I didn't mean to start an Origin "thing". All that was meant by it was pretty much what Rebel Blob said. I don't have any faith in being able to regularly find coop games on Origin so I'm not going to waste my time. I'm not happy with the way EA has acted but I'm not specifically boycotting them. I made a comment about a game that I legitimately wanted to play but has a feature that, to me, makes the game a nonstarter. I'm sorry I didn't come in here to praise everything about the game and I guess I should refrain from making any negative comments in the future.

Also, it's nice to find out that my reasons for being unhappy with EA are disingenuous. I'm going to run right out and buy every game that they make right now. Thank you for showing me the error of my ways.

So go buy it on the Xbox 360.. probably find a much bigger community there with co-op anyway..

iaintgotnopants wrote:

Also, it's nice to find out that my reasons for being unhappy with EA are disingenuous. I'm going to run right out and buy every game that they make right now. Thank you for showing me the error of my ways.

That wasn't really aimed at anyone in particular. Like I said, it's just a general gripe that's been kind of building for a bit.

Nothing aimed at you dude.

Ok the armor guys are annoying... and its getting harder.. mission 10 and I'm retreating a good deal more.. it gets hectic when you are disarming grenades..trying to dodge fire..return fire..and backfire.. good stuff..

I'd love to see some more impressions from the single-player crowd on this one. Are there any environmental puzzles/non-combat segments to do? (walk around, explore buildings, talk to folks) Interesting characters/subplots, etc.? Fun cut-scenes? I saw that there was a 'dude-stun' power or similar - are there non-violent conflict resolutions available ( Deus Ex: HR kind of stuff ) ? Emails/journals to find?

Whenever I post these sorts of questions I hope they don't come across as snide/accusatory. I'm genuinely curious, as they're aspects that the reviews I've seen haven't really touched on much.
Are we closer to Bioshock or Serious Sam in this one?

Puce Moose >> the new quick look on Giant Bomb gives a pretty good slice of the SP action with an enthusiastic Jeff Gerstmann driving and Brad riding shotgun.

iaintgotnopants >> If Origin annoys you there's always the console option. Unless FPS on consoles annoy you even more.

Not sure how far I'm in but there isn't much in the way of DX like conversations or walking around exploration.. It's very linear and tunnel like..you progress through levels killing everything along the way.

I'm stuck on this Rocket Launcher boss...ugh..any tips?

TheGameguru wrote:

I'm stuck on this Rocket Launcher boss...ugh..any tips?

My strategy was die a whole lot until it finally magically worked out for no visible reason. Are you sending his rockets back at him?

I didn't want to continue talking about this but I wanted to address a couple things.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Like I said,

Blind_Evil wrote:

If one wants to be platform exclusive, that's their business.

I completely agree with you. They can do whatever they want with their games. My problem was with the way they handled it.

rickyyo wrote:

You could have made a way better argument.

I wasn't making an argument. I wasn't trying to convince other people not to get the game. I was just stating my reason for not getting it.

TheGameguru wrote:

So go buy it on the Xbox 360

No. This isn't a console game.

I may not be long for this game. The atmosphere and vibe of the game make me want to pop Deus Ex back in. I love Starbreeze. Escape from Butcher Bay (which this definitely has DNA from) is one of my favorite games ever. But I'm really disappointed at the lack of variety so far and more importantly at the size of the text. This is like an XBox 360 year 1 mistake, like the text in the original release of Catan or Dead Rising. It's too hard to read and thus I'm skipping a lot of the content.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

I didn't want to continue talking about this but I wanted to address a couple things.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Like I said,

Blind_Evil wrote:

If one wants to be platform exclusive, that's their business.

I completely agree with you. They can do whatever they want with their games. My problem was with the way they handled it.

rickyyo wrote:

You could have made a way better argument.

I wasn't making an argument. I wasn't trying to convince other people not to get the game. I was just stating my reason for not getting it.

TheGameguru wrote:

So go buy it on the Xbox 360

No. This isn't a console game.

In philosophy and logic, an argument is an attempt to persuade someone of something, by giving reasons or evidence for accepting a particular conclusion. I was giving you a better reason. Then again it is much more productive to argue with a wall in today's world because of radically strong opinions and irrationality to the max. Also, that definition was pulled from wikipedia. An argument is a way to explain a case much like the arguments in a math problem are used to prove something. You take argument to mean a different "approach" that involves anger which based on your position you do seem a little peeved...

So excuse me for addressing something you didn't want to address dress. VIDEO GAMES.

EDIT: Also, convince and persuade mean the same thing in case I needed to go down that rabbit hole for some reason.

Christ, when did everyone get sticks up their asses? An opinion isn't necessarily an argument, so get over it. We're here to discuss our likes/dislikes/anticipations of Syndicate and all that it comes with, so let's do that instead of invoking the Holy Wiki.

Anyway, I haven't picked this up yet for a few reasons, and I'm still on the fence as to what system (PC or 360?). I played a bit of the Co-op demo on 360, but it definitely feels like it should be a PC game. But then, I kind of work and play in front of PCs at least 12 hours of my day each day, so I'd kind of like to get away from that for a while. Also, I don't want to support Origin until EA gets their sh*t together and puts a clock in the screen overlay (is that a petty enough reason for you mugs? ). Hopefully I'll get it (and have time to play it) in the next couple months. I am glad to hear that the SP is good, as the co-op will probably be dead by the time I get this.

Thin_J wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

I'm stuck on this Rocket Launcher boss...ugh..any tips?

My strategy was die a whole lot until it finally magically worked out for no visible reason. Are you sending his rockets back at him?

Yeah..I'm fine up until he launches 4-5 at the same time...maybe my mistake is I'm playing on a console

Ugh survived a couple times to the part when he starts tossing the disrupting grenades...I take it I'm supposed to just survive? Didn't seem to be rockets to send back to him. Just machine gun and straight rockets that I can't scramble

WipEout wrote:

Christ, when did everyone get sticks up their asses? An opinion isn't necessarily an argument, so get over it. We're here to discuss our likes/dislikes/anticipations of Syndicate and all that it comes with, so let's do that instead of invoking the Holy Wiki.

Anyway, I haven't picked this up yet for a few reasons, and I'm still on the fence as to what system (PC or 360?). I played a bit of the Co-op demo on 360, but it definitely feels like it should be a PC game. But then, I kind of work and play in front of PCs at least 12 hours of my day each day, so I'd kind of like to get away from that for a while. Also, I don't want to support Origin until EA gets their sh*t together and puts a clock in the screen overlay (is that a petty enough reason for you mugs? ). Hopefully I'll get it (and have time to play it) in the next couple months. I am glad to hear that the SP is good, as the co-op will probably be dead by the time I get this.

Actually that is also a really good reason (The clock not in origin overlay is a travesty. I actually have to have my phone next to me while I play to check the time). Anyone that plays coop know how much faster hacking is when there are multiple people on it... Eyeballing and giving a multiple of time. On the giantbomb quick look there were a couple of instances of two people which looked something like 1.5 times faster. I presume that helps with boss battle stuff in an MMO sorta way.

Also, anyone find interesting loadouts for the coop.

One night of co-op with Julian, Shawn and Thin J, and now I can't stop thinking about it. I have to play more.

90 minutes into the SP and I'm not all that impressed yet. Gonna keep at it, though. Not sure if I like the keyboard or controller better yet.

Demiurge wrote:

One night of co-op with Julian, Shawn and Thin J, and now I can't stop thinking about it. I have to play more.

90 minutes into the SP and I'm not all that impressed yet. Gonna keep at it, though. Not sure if I like the keyboard or controller better yet.

SP picks up some more steam after you unlock the Persuade breach.

I may have resolved my technical issues by performing a clean install of the latest ATI pre-cert drivers and the latest CAP. I didn't get a chance to play for more than about 30 minutes yesterday, but I didn't encounter the stuttering/hanging thing at all. Fingers crossed.

Looking forward to taking co-op for a spin with you dudes.

I'll be looking for more co-op today I think. I played one map last night with pubbies and it actually went ok. There was one guy that was perpetually downed and needing a reboot, but it was fun even with that slowing us down a lot.

One thing I've noticed in this game is that there's this very fine kind of balance between feeling like a total badass and also feeling like you could die at any moment.

TheGameguru wrote:

Ugh survived a couple times to the part when he starts tossing the disrupting grenades...I take it I'm supposed to just survive? Didn't seem to be rockets to send back to him. Just machine gun and straight rockets that I can't scramble

Use your funky vision mode thing. When you open that time slows down for them but you move at normal speed. When I did finally win, I didn't know exactly why, but I'd started making very liberal use of that one ability.

Non-violent conflict resolution?

I suppose if I persuade-o-tron the guard into shooting himself, the blood isn't literally on my hands.

I actually haven't had enough time to dig into the SP. Just a few mintues for Co-op here and there. Bravely carrying the flag of StanliTech, a syndicate of one. :'(

Thin_J wrote:

I'll be looking for more co-op today I think. I played one map last night with pubbies and it actually went ok. There was one guy that was perpetually downed and needing a reboot, but it was fun even with that slowing us down a lot.

You sure that wasn't me?

Just out of interest, did anyone start a GWJ syndicate yet?

On XBOX, I set up StanliTech with the grey hat logo. Seemed fitting.

Demiurge wrote:

You sure that wasn't me? ;)

I'm pretty sure that was all of us when we played. We failed what, four times in three missions? I was the first to go down in a critical moment in at least one of those. But I find myself really liking that there's actually some difficulty there. I'm very much in the camp that thinks games have maybe gotten a little too easy in recent years.

That's not to say I'm going to run off and start playing Dark Souls or anything, but it's nice to have a game not let me just kind of stroll through it with no issues.

Thin_J wrote:
Demiurge wrote:

You sure that wasn't me? ;)

I'm pretty sure that was all of us when we played. We failed what, four times in three missions? I was the first to go down in a critical moment in at least one of those. But I find myself really liking that there's actually some difficulty there. I'm very much in the camp that thinks games have maybe gotten a little too easy in recent years.

That's not to say I'm going to run off and start playing Dark Souls or anything, but it's nice to have a game not let me just kind of stroll through it with no issues.

True. That's what really separates this from Left 4 Dead right now: The pace is just a little slower and the challenge is just a little more tactical.

I also dig how death is handled - it still hurts when a teammate goes down, but it's easier to rescue him or her.

Can't wait to start digging into the more advanced software options.

gains wrote:

On XBOX, I set up StanliTech with the grey hat logo. Seemed fitting.

Invite!

So do we know if there's going to be a patch at all? I hate to do this, but between the excessive bloom and the text being so small I'm actually inclined to try returning the game. Yes *returning*. See if my local big-ish box store will let me return it as I find it more or less broken based on the fact that I have 20/20 vision and find it hard to see what's going on.