Syndicate Catch-All

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I don't know the best sites to find deals in the US but I've been poking around and I'm amazed this is largely still full price everywhere. The game bombed, I would think EA would have slashed the price fast to try to move some inventory.

Yeah, I had to suck it up and pay a full 55 bucks for my copy. Oh well, it's been worth it so far! I'm on "milestone" 17 or 18 or whatever, approaching what I'm pretty sure is the end of the game. Other than a few frustrating moments (boss fights, usually) it's been a blast.

ianunderhill wrote:

The real Female Doggo of it is that it'd be worth $35 if enough cooperative, well-intentioned, fun-loving people played multiplayer. Besides all the shouting, swearing, and laughing last night, one of the big things that stuck with me was a remark on how f*cked it is that this game was a failure and as such we'll never see any DLC. I'd pony up $25 easy for as few as six new missions. It's very frustrating.

Absolutely. Parallax said it well, it's kind of a shame this isn't on a more mod-friendly PC engine, I could see an enthusiast coming up with some new levels. I might even get a gaming PC again to play that.

Glad to hear about the big win last Friday with the resurgence of StanliTech co-op action. I logged on and saw the room in full swing so decided to try out the single-player after my long hiatus. Got annoyed, hopped on to a public match and was paired up with a guy who seemed perfectly happy to solo the entire mission himself. There was already a downed teammate waiting for a resurrect that would never come and it didn't take me long to stumble into a gaggle of enemies and was overwhelmed. Watched the guy inch forward on his own and decided to cut my losses!

That's pretty typical of public co-op, unfortunately. Now that I've got my Expert achievement and all the applications/upgrades unlocked, I'm going for kill stats and the like, so I'll be more than happy to jump in on any lower-level matches. If you see me around and want to rock some Syndicate, I'm likely just playing something like Dragon's Dogma; shoot me a message and I'll plug my mic in and we'll get to it.

Is anyone playing on PS3?

Question - did this come with the ubiquitous online pass?

SallyNasty wrote:

Question - did this come with the ubiquitous online pass?

Negative. New console copies came with a rather worthless unlock code for some cosmetically-altered weapons, but you should be able to get up on it with a used copy just fine.

Providing people who aren't jerks are playing, I mean. If you pick it up, let us all know your platform (StanliTech's on XBL) and we'll hash out time to play. It's been a few weeks since The Expert Run and I'm getting the itch again.

ianunderhill wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:

Question - did this come with the ubiquitous online pass?

Negative. New console copies came with a rather worthless unlock code for some cosmetically-altered weapons, but you should be able to get up on it with a used copy just fine.

Providing people who aren't jerks are playing, I mean. If you pick it up, let us all know your platform (StanliTech's on XBL) and we'll hash out time to play. It's been a few weeks since The Expert Run and I'm getting the itch again.

That is good news, because the reason I am all interested is because you and blind and PA were talking about it. I will probably pick up a copy this week, and if i can get in on some expert runs - that would be awesome.

SallyNasty wrote:

That is good news, because the reason I am all interested is because you and blind and PA were talking about it. I will probably pick up a copy this week, and if i can get in on some expert runs - that would be awesome.

Sweet! One or more of us will need to take you through the Easy and Hard modes so you can a) get used to the play style of the game and b) unlock weapons/chip/application upgrades. The starting weapons are so-so but even less impressive when you're trying to coordinate meeting various mission objectives with your teammates and there's enemy agents healing each other and so on. Without upgrades, even Easy is pretty tough at a couple spots. Don't let that throw you, though: there's a particular pace and rhythm to this game which is downright stellar when you fall into it.

So yeah - give us a shout when you've got the game and we'll get something going.

Kincher Skolfax! Maclintock! Nicholaas! This may be a good opportunity for you guys to get in and do some upgrades, too.

ianunderhill wrote:

Kincher Skolfax! Maclintock! Nicholaas! This may be a good opportunity for you guys to get in and do some upgrades, too.

Totally. I can be around Thursday or Friday evenings.

I won't be available for any of next weekend as I'm moving house but any after that, I'm in!

ianunderhill wrote:

So yeah - give us a shout when you've got the game and we'll get something going.

I'd be curious to see if we could beat hard with the two of us and the newbie(s).

And see about messing with your router settings or something first!

ORDERED MY COPY!

Just so's you all who are on the fence know, you can get a NEW copy from NewEgg for $27.99 + Free Shipping right now (thats how I got mine!)

Mine should be here late next week, right as my work schedule winds down so I hope to get all up in there with you all!

All this 360 co-op talk has me jealous, seems like the PC co-op scene for this game is dead.

Just beat the single player campaign. The last third had some of the most intense gun battles I've ever experienced. I actually enjoyed the plot and the fiction surrounding the game, wish they would do more with it, though not likely based on the lackluster sales.

Yeah, unfortunately Starbreeze's CEO recently publicly said that the project was pretty much a mess and by the end, EA had no faith in it and pretty much sent it to die. I think this will sadly be the last we see of this for a while.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I'd be curious to see if we could beat hard with the two of us and the newbie(s).

I've run Hard missions with just myself and NightFox0042 before he had all his upgrades. It's tough, but doable. I bet we'd be champs.

And see about messing with your router settings or something first!

Ha. Yeah, that weirdness that evening was the only time I'd experienced that sort of thing. I haven't been able to replicate it with anything else since.

Yah, Amazon is supposedly having a sale this week for the 4th of July - i just want to wait and see if this is part of it. If not, I will go ahead and pick up at 30$ - should have by next weekend.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Yeah, unfortunately Starbreeze's CEO recently publicly said that the project was pretty much a mess and by the end, EA had no faith in it and pretty much sent it to die. I think this will sadly be the last we see of this for a while.

I'm an armchair business development guy with 20/20 hindsight but the whole situation is odd. The FPS genre is so competitive, Deus Ex: HR was still fresh in everyone's minds and you have to think they'd expected a backlash from old-school isometric-view Syndicate fans. Their best move was shifting the release date over to quiet February.

NEway... now that i wrapped up MW3's campaign, this is the sole remaining FPS i have any interest in playing these days. Friday may be tough but i'm sure i can block off some time Thursday evening... can be thrown into the deep end with Hard difficulty or do some leveling up on Easy. Me on Pacific time however, and looking like 9:00pm is the earliest i'd be free.

Maclintok wrote:

NEway... now that i wrapped up MW3's campaign, this is the sole remaining FPS i have any interest in playing these days. Friday may be tough but i'm sure i can block off some time Thursday evening... can be thrown into the deep end with Hard difficulty or do some leveling up on Easy. Me on Pacific time however, and looking like 9:00pm is the earliest i'd be free.

That's around the time I'm likely to be available. Hit me up if you're around.

Great! Will update if I think I'll be late going online.

EDIT: Well, poop. The future wife and I are hitting up the grocery shopping early this week in prep for the long weekend. Still intent on jumping online tonight but it will be later and hope ianunderhill & co. will not have packed it in already.

SallyNasty wrote:

Yah, Amazon is supposedly having a sale this week for the 4th of July - i just want to wait and see if this is part of it. If not, I will go ahead and pick up at 30$ - should have by next weekend.

Color me also interested. I'm finishing up a final runthrough of Binary Domain which I expect to complete this weekend, so I'll keep an eye out for this on Amazon as well.

A strange thing is happening. 14 'milestones' in and I'm beginning to like the single-player campaign. The DART mechanics, skill system and weapons are all very half-baked; Michael Wincott and Brian Cox are wasted in their roles and the story just sort of meanders. In spite of all this, I'm starting to crave playing the SP which is a complete surprise.

Shouldn't be surprised, I told ya!

Blind_Evil wrote:

I came away from the campaign much happier than Ian. Gun-feel goes a long way in my eyes, and Syndicate nails it, so that helps. Particularly toward the end there were some interesting, very challenging combat puzzles, the kind I hear praise for in Halo games.

I've got this as a rental on 360, so if anyone wants to do some co-op over the next couple of weeks, let me know and we shall set something up.

4dSwissCheese wrote:

I've got this as a rental on 360, so if anyone wants to do some co-op over the next couple of weeks, let me know and we shall set something up.

I've got my home theatre setup in the new house now so any time in the next couple of weeks will be good for me!

Picked this up today - co-op player still around?

You know it. Pick a day and time.

Seconded wholeheartedly. Just say when and we'll get people to turn up.

I am open Monday Wednesday or Thursday after 9 central. Very excited!

I can probably get in for about 2-3 hours on any of those three nights. Anyone else?