2012 Games of the Year Play-through Club

I'm completely down with forming multiplayer groups to tackle Borderlands 2 if anyone's interested. Otherwise, I'm in for all these games except Journey (I play PC mostly) and Diablo 3 as Ive beat it already.

Oh, the discussion is happening in IRC on a specific day? I must've missed that.

Mucked around in SR3 for a bit tonight. Still very early into the game. I've now got a Logitech controller that's setup like a 360 controller (the F710?) and that's made the game significantly more playable than trying to run X360CE on a RumblePad 2 which I tried last year. However, PC performance is still bleh on my AMD 5850. I did enjoy the side missions I was doing, blowing stuff up with a tank never gets old.

Only real gripe aside from performance issues is that I'm utter rubbish at aiming with a controller. I miss my lock-on from GTA

Nothing else to say other than I'm definitely making room for this game this year.

It'll be interesting to get into a discussion with the rest of you about Saints Row, as I think by buying the Steam "Full Package" (or whatever the equivalent was during the Summer Sale) version I got a lot of DLC that adds bonuses to cash/respect that may have made the game a bit easier (or at least opened the game up sooner). I'm about 50% through the main quest, and The Trouble With Clones DLC completed.

I plan on spending most of tonight burning through a lot of the main quest. Basically this game gives me the same giddy feeling I got when I first played Grand Theft Auto III--just insanely fun screwing around in the world. Also, I love the DJ for the Adult Swim station--not sure if it's the sound of the voice masking or just the sheer random crap that guy says, but he definitely gives me a Lazlo vibe which is all sorts of good

Aiming on a controller can get a little loose in this game, however, I've found that the reticle moves in very horizontal and vertical lines. This means that once I get the gun lined up at head height, I just spray to the left and right a bit and clear some fools out.

I rolled through the Deckers Die mission last night, and it's still pretty great.

1-13 at 9:30 EST Saints Row 3 - GWJ IRC Channel
1-17 at 9:30 EST Diablo 3 - GWJ Vent

And just a reminder, if you don't want to play D3 or already did, I'll be getting started on PC Syndicate starting probably tonight.

Well. Saint's Row is pretty damn fun.

Am I weird with making my Boss a red-headed angry Russian chick who likes to look like she is straight out of the Matrix? I hear half of the fun is making your avatar as insane as possible, but with the rest of the game looking semi-serious I didn't want to be a blue diamond-skinned zombie.

My first double post! Shehecheyanu!

Vrikk wrote:

Am I weird with making my Boss a red-headed angry Russian chick who likes to look like she is straight out of the Matrix?

No weirder than my British muscle head running around in a G-String, Wizard robe, and Wizard hat.

I hear half of the fun is making your avatar as insane as possible, but with the rest of the game looking semi-serious I didn't want to be a blue diamond-skinned zombie.

I hear you on that, after about an hour last night I bought some sensible clothes for something different. I like this aspect though.

Playing some D3 to get ready for Thursday. It's making me miss Torchlight 2...

I don't like Syndicate =(

oilypenguin wrote:

I don't like Syndicate =(

Say what!

Play some co-op.

My co-op time is spoken for as soon as we remember to get started.

oilypenguin wrote:

My co-op time is spoken for as soon as we remember to get started.

Dude, i didn't even game this weekend. The girls had the flu and then the bride and I caught it. Probably my most miserable weekend ever.

SallyNasty wrote:
oilypenguin wrote:

My co-op time is spoken for as soon as we remember to get started.

Dude, i didn't even game this weekend. The girls had the flu and then the bride and I caught it. Probably my most miserable weekend ever.

Oh I wasn't blaming you, I totally forgot and what little game time I had was SR the 3rd =)

I have a daughter with a sinus thing. She's not sleeping = we're not sleeping. It's awful, there should be a support group. Actually, I should just move out West with you guys so I have one.

Ok.

Saints Row The Third is beaten.

Good game. Short story though.

I also played through Saints Row The Third and liked it, perhaps the only open world game of its kind that I finished. I still didn't really like most of the side missions, especially the Saintsbook stuff, but the core story missions were fun. I still don't see how it's so overwhelming popular to place in the top ten two years running. I feel like the overall high concept of the game still outpaces its execution, although it is a good core concept.

You admit to not finishing (not enjoying?) open world games, but this one was so good you finished it. Seems like compelling evidence that it's a great game. :R

Well, let me be the clear dissenter and say I do not understand the excitement and praise behind Saint's Row: The Third at all. As others have pointed out, the main mission structure isn't very long and most of the side material is really weak so that can explain finishing the game despite ambivalence about it.

So what you're left with is a constant cycle of: Ridiculous over-the-top cutscene - generic and tedious shooting mission - ridiculous over-the-top cutscene - generic and tedious shooting mission.

I can understand people liking it if the humour really works for them (for me, most of it fell flat because it was trying way too hard to be "crazy" and wasn't actually funny), but I don't understand putting it on a top ten list of the year when all the actual gameplay is wholly forgettable.

SR3 only had to do two things to make me love it forever, and that was make the music selections they made for the wrestling mission and the last mission.

Mr Crinkle wrote:

SR3 only had to do two things to make me love it forever, and that was make the music selections they made for the wrestling mission and the last mission.

I need a hero... I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night...

It really got me pumped as I was fighting my way up the statue.

I also like the tune that plays when you are tinkering around in your garage.

Squee9 wrote:

You admit to not finishing (not enjoying?) open world games, but this one was so good you finished it. Seems like compelling evidence that it's a great game. :R

Eh, I feel like it is possible to make an open world game that would appeal to me so I wouldn't say it's fair to lower my standards for them just because one like that hasn't been made yet. Also I'd say the main reason I finished the game was because I was sick this week and decided I'd rather power through this than bang my head against Dark Souls while also running a fever.

I will say that the overall feel of the game rang true for me and I liked the comedy, style, and use of music. Although I wish more of the missions were concentrated awesome like deckers.die. I agree that the combat gameplay was mostly dull except when you first get overpowered items like explosive or incendiary bullets. In fact I wish the game was even more a series of moments where you get one overpowered upgrade after another. Getting all the best upgrades felt like too much of a time/money grind.

Also I still hate driving in games. Oh, the place I have to go to is 6000 feet away? And I have to drive on a highway going perpendicular to where I want to go? And I need to be level what to unlock nitrous for all cars? And half the time I still struggle to find a fast car to hijack? I feel like hours of the game is wasted on boring driving that would not be so bad if I could just fast travel to cribs or at least instantly warp into a fast aircraft.

Latrine wrote:
Squee9 wrote:

You admit to not finishing (not enjoying?) open world games, but this one was so good you finished it. Seems like compelling evidence that it's a great game. :R

Eh, I feel like it is possible to make an open world game that would appeal to me so I wouldn't say it's fair to lower my standards for them just because one like that hasn't been made yet. Also I'd say the main reason I finished the game was because I was sick this week and decided I'd rather power through this than bang my head against Dark Souls while also running a fever.

I will say that the overall feel of the game rang true for me and I liked the comedy, style, and use of music. Although I wish more of the missions were concentrated awesome like deckers.die. I agree that the combat gameplay was mostly dull except when you first get overpowered items like explosive or incendiary bullets. In fact I wish the game was even more a series of moments where you get one overpowered upgrade after another. Getting all the best upgrades felt like too much of a time/money grind.

Also I still hate driving in games. Oh, the place I have to go to is 6000 feet away? And I have to drive on a highway going perpendicular to where I want to go? And I need to be level what to unlock nitrous for all cars? And half the time I still struggle to find a fast car to hijack? I feel like hours of the game is wasted on boring driving that would not be so bad if I could just fast travel to cribs or at least instantly warp into a fast aircraft.

You have a phone, you can have a homie deliver you a car.

oilypenguin wrote:

You have a phone, you can have a homie deliver you a car.

Or better yet--have those homies deliver you a VTOL

Yeah, I did that sometimes but you have to wait for the car and even a tricked out sports car doesn't feel much faster than the average sedans you can find. The aircraft are worse because you have to wait for the AI to land it and that can take forever too.

I played SR3 way back when it came out. Mechanically I thought it was probably the best GTA-style game ever, at the time (Sleeping Dogs would be now if not for some unfortunately hiccups).

I liked it considerably less than SR2 though, because the tone is just way off. SR2 feels just barely close enough to reality to make the moments where they turn the crazy up to 11 really memorable. SR3 is at 11 the whole time, and I became totally numb to the silliness.

Still a good game, but I feel like they took the wrong approach compared to the prior game. Nothing surprised me because they made clear so early that anything could and would happen.

Blind_Evil wrote:

SR3 is at 11 the whole time, and I became totally numb to the silliness..

Yeah, this was pretty much my experience with SR3 in a nutshell. I was planning to go back and play SR2 at some point just to see how the previous game compared, but by the time I got to the end of SR3 I was pretty much burned out. Whether it was from the craziness of the game or just the genre itself, I can't exactly say.

I think it's probably from the genre itself, since the next game on my list is Sleeping Dogs and I'm not really feeling like popping that in at the moment. I will probably switch over to Dishonored.