Finn said:
...then, of course, there's this bit. I can understand that from a layman's point of view, it may seem a bit otherworldly a kid who's probably never handled a gun can pick it up so quick.
A point of clarification: Earlier in life I was a NRA-certified instructor in both black powder and basic rifle, and spent a couple of summers teaching kids (12-16) in their use. So, while I agree with you on the relative ease of use, there
is a learning curve. Jason Brody, however, goes from 0-60 without any evidence of acquired experience. For a game that wants to chronicle the rise from callow youth to hardened killer and the resulting descent from this "high", missing that vital first step is a critical failure.
Let's take a sidestep back into the seamy side of Hong Kong. After installing a gig-sized update, I spent a couple of hours refamiliarizing myself with the controls and busting a few drug dealers in the process. Dealt with Charlie Pang's gun, too. You do remember
Charlie Pang?
Don't click on the link if you haven't played the game through this point, please. It should be experienced organically.
This was a phenomenal bit of design and storytelling. Not only does it advance the story by evolving two characters and their relationship, but teaches you the game's shooting mechanics without breaking the fourth wall. It wouldn't have been hard to implement something like this in
Far Cry 3's very brief hand holding section.
Finn said:
There's another adjective I'd find worth adding: he's an experimental protagonist.
If I may get back to this for a moment, he's only experimental in the FPS genre. The adventure game genre that we enjoy is ridiculous with fish-out-of-water type characters. They're even fond of female protagonists.
Black Mirror,
Runaway,
Broken Sword, and the phenomenal
The Last Express all come to mind.
Finn said:
But if what I've read is true, the meticulousness definitely is an option.
No comment on
Hitman: Absolution yet. I still haven't even installed it. Though, that meticulousness is definitely an option. The biggest hindrance to skulking about in
Dishonored is the Omniscient City Watch Syndrome. In order to insert difficulty, once one watchman knows where you're at, they
all do. I ended up killing a couple more watchmen than I wanted to because of this. Still, I will
gladly set foot back into Dunwall once the story based DLC is released, and my backlog is thinned out.
Attila the Professor said:
Is that this game, The Testament of Sherlock Holmes?
That...um, review(?) is wa-ay to critical. It raises a couple of interesting points (changing to Watson was generally useless), but traditionally you as a reader/viewer/gamer never know what's going on in Holmes' head.
Also, playing Holmes' baying rent-a-hound was hilarious if a bit non-nonsensical. I'll take my gold trophy for the undertaking, though.
It does seem that
Frogwares has heard the hue and cry, and will attempt to put you in full control of Holmes' faculties in the next outing,
Crimes & Punishments.
Frogwares said:
Unlike the previous adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in Crimes and Punishments you will not be a mere spectator during the detective?s investigation. It is now your turn to truly become Sherlock Holmes and lead your own investigation?actually, your investigations, as 8 captivating cases await you! Murders, disappearances, spectacular thefts, and other investigations will bring you to the cutting edge of the detective genre and these cases will be the bread and butter of this game, written in the pure tradition of Conan Doyle?s novels. Each case offers real freedom to players, who will have to make important moral choices instead of simply enforcing justice by the book. All decisions have an influence in the game and affect your character?s reputation in addition to having realistic, sometimes unexpected, consequences. You will have to bear the weight of your choices, as Crimes and Punishments offers an exciting system of actions/consequences that forces players to think before acting by giving true depth to every decision they make.
I'm not sure how far into the development cycle the game has gotten, but those screenshots look great. They're a vast improvement over the last outing. The fog alone assures that the decision to switch to the ubiquitous Unreal 3 engine was a good one. Aside from the choice to update the character of Holmes to a more modern sensibility, there isn't anything about this title that I don't like so far.
Truth be told, I would rather have an updated take on Watson. Do something more than act as Holmes' chronicler!
In a final bit of news, Square Enix has
announced their 2013 DLC plans for
Sleeping Dogs. While the bulk of it appears to be another round of cosmetic updates, there's at least one more story update to be had in The Year of the Snake!
IGN said:
Set immediately after the new game, players will encounter ?a vicious end-of-the-world cult hell-bent on cleansing the city of its evils.? Players will get new outfits, new weapons including tear gas guns and electroshock pistols and will ?enter a race against the clock to bring the cultists to justice before Judgment Day.?
Getting to play as the famed Monkey King also sounds enticing.
No dates as of yet, but with the original statement indicating that
Sleeping Dogs would receive DLC for six months after release, that would put April as the outlier. I wouldn't expect anything beyond that except for the inevitable sequel announcement.
CVG is
reporting that insiders have told them that the 20th of February conference in New York will indeed be the public unveiling of the Playstation 4. I'm cautiously excited.
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