And the willing suspension bridge of disbelief came crashing down....

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Yeah, I'm feeling you there, I've complained as much myself. I actually stopped playing the campaign (something that rarely happens for me) midway cause I got to a point where a combination of that and a bug (more like shitty 'event' timing actually) just stopped me. You get into a position where you have enemies at both the front and the sides, your own team mates die and they don't respawn until you walk forward for a while. Problem is, walking into the trigger area means walking into a hailstorm of bullets and even after that, the mobs are far happier shooting at you and they have a combination of uncanny awareness (able to sense me flanking them and see me through bushes) and ridiculous precision, which, coupled with the fact there's ~5 of them and none of them are interested in my team mates unless I'm in cover, means I get my ass shot to hell every time I lift my head up.

I tried to get through a number of times, but in the end decided it wasn't worth the fucking headache, the multiplayer is far more fun and there's still a lot for me to do in it in terms of progress (leveling/unlocking/etc.)

Y'know, I'm trying to figure out where you got stuck, but that's such a good description of over half the game I'm totally stumped!

As far as MP goes, I think long term players benefit from levelling systems as it always gives them something to strive and work for, but I can see how more short term or casual players are better served by a Halo style system that gives immediate access to all the good toys. Personally I'm in the former camp, and one the things I really liked about MW2 was the Prestige system that allowed players who had maxed out to voluntarily wipe their progress and start again from Private. Has B3 got anything similar, or do you just max out and that's it you're done?

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Fringe is pretty ridiculous now. I was struggling with it but once Leonard Nimoy possessed the main character that was it for me I couldn't watch it anymore.

fringe is pretty ridiculous right from the first episode, isn't it? although i'm not so sure because i never got past the first... 20 minutes of it, i guess... i just finished watching all the X Files episodes, and i was expecting something like that, a show artfully balancing on the edge of sci-fi/conspiration theories, and reality/debunking them, not letting you to breathe properly in anticipation, until the last moment and even after that.

and what i got was "OMGZ GENETICALLY ENGINEERED MUTANTZ", or what... it was just so silly and cheap compared to X-Files that i wasn't even willing to watch more

At first it is kind of x file like but it just gets more and more ridiculous as it goes on. If you couldn't sit through the first episode then you would rofl at the later ones that's for sure.

It's like they sit down and say 'How ridiculous can we make this next episode compared to the last one.'

 

[CODE-D]

Figure it out....

 

[Vrach]

Yeah, I'm feeling you there, I've complained as much myself. I actually stopped playing the campaign (something that rarely happens for me) midway cause I got to a point where a combination of that and a bug (more like shitty 'event' timing actually) just stopped me. You get into a position where you have enemies at both the front and the sides, your own team mates die and they don't respawn until you walk forward for a while. Problem is, walking into the trigger area means walking into a hailstorm of bullets and even after that, the mobs are far happier shooting at you and they have a combination of uncanny awareness (able to sense me flanking them and see me through bushes) and ridiculous precision, which, coupled with the fact there's ~5 of them and none of them are interested in my team mates unless I'm in cover, means I get my ass shot to hell every time I lift my head up.

I tried to get through a number of times, but in the end decided it wasn't worth the fucking headache, the multiplayer is far more fun and there's still a lot for me to do in it in terms of progress (leveling/unlocking/etc.)

Y'know, I'm trying to figure out where you got stuck, but that's such a good description of over half the game I'm totally stumped!

As far as MP goes, I think long term players benefit from levelling systems as it always gives them something to strive and work for, but I can see how more short term or casual players are better served by a Halo style system that gives immediate access to all the good toys. Personally I'm in the former camp, and one the things I really liked about MW2 was the Prestige system that allowed players who had maxed out to voluntarily wipe their progress and start again from Private. Has B3 got anything similar, or do you just max out and that's it you're done?

It's the bit where you come out of the canals and have to go around taking out a few enemy nests (you need to lay down suppressive fire while friendly NPCs throw grenades into them). What's stopping me from going back and trying again is how massively scripted the singleplayer is, it's just silly at times.

Just max out I believe, that's how it worked in BFBC2 and I don't think they changed anything. Not sure how the Prestige thing works in MW, but I'm not seeing the appeal so far. As for the newer players, they're pretty ok, the starting weapons are pretty decent. They don't have scopes, laser pointers, tac lights and such, but then again, giving those to them from the get go would both diminish the value of earning them and far more importantly, probably overload them with too much they can do - starting from "simple" is just as important as starting from "equal"

 

[Tonimata]

No, I play games to believe I can fly. Or, scratch that, jump around random stuff like an assassin.

Hey, break enough bones and it's bound to happen, no?

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

It's the bit where you come out of the canals and have to go around taking out a few enemy nests (you need to lay down suppressive fire while friendly NPCs throw grenades into them). What's stopping me from going back and trying again is how massively scripted the singleplayer is, it's just silly at times.

Just max out I believe, that's how it worked in BFBC2 and I don't think they changed anything. Not sure how the Prestige thing works in MW, but I'm not seeing the appeal so far. As for the newer players, they're pretty ok, the starting weapons are pretty decent. They don't have scopes, laser pointers, tac lights and such, but then again, giving those to them from the get go would both diminish the value of earning them and far more importantly, probably overload them with too much they can do - starting from "simple" is just as important as starting from "equal"

Ah, I know which bit you're at now. Best thing to do there is try and snipe the guys who stick their heads out over the sandbags and hope your AI buddies nail the grenade rush. Other than that keep your head down and let the AI do the dirty work. I know it's letting the game play itself, but that's unfortunately the way a lot of the Battlefield campaign works out.

Cheers for the heads-up re the Battlefield levelling system. 3 is my first introduction into the series, so I wasn't sure how it worked. As far as the CoD prestige system works, levels go from one to seventy. Once you hit seventy and have unlocked everything, you get the option of entering 'Prestige' mode, which knocks you back to Prestige 1 Level 1, locking out all the gear you had previously unlocked as you are now effectively level one again, but you are (every other Prestige level) granted an extra custom class slot. In MW2 there were ten prestige levels allowing for another 5 custom class slots taking the total from five to ten, and effectively meaning that the maximum level you could achieve was not seventy, but seven hundred and seventy. It does look on paper like an arse-over-tit way of handling levelling, but believe me it works. The main gripe about levelling systems is that the good players get the best stuff whilst the newbs get the crap, but with this system a level 20 player (relatively new) can rock up against a prestige 3 level 12 (well blooded) and have the advantage of better gear.

 

[Vrach]

It's the bit where you come out of the canals and have to go around taking out a few enemy nests (you need to lay down suppressive fire while friendly NPCs throw grenades into them). What's stopping me from going back and trying again is how massively scripted the singleplayer is, it's just silly at times.

Just max out I believe, that's how it worked in BFBC2 and I don't think they changed anything. Not sure how the Prestige thing works in MW, but I'm not seeing the appeal so far. As for the newer players, they're pretty ok, the starting weapons are pretty decent. They don't have scopes, laser pointers, tac lights and such, but then again, giving those to them from the get go would both diminish the value of earning them and far more importantly, probably overload them with too much they can do - starting from "simple" is just as important as starting from "equal"

Ah, I know which bit you're at now. Best thing to do there is try and snipe the guys who stick their heads out over the sandbags and hope your AI buddies nail the grenade rush. Other than that keep your head down and let the AI do the dirty work. I know it's letting the game play itself, but that's unfortunately the way a lot of the Battlefield campaign works out.

Will give it a go, but the problem is that my squad either dies or respawns and I don't get a new one until I move forward to the event trigger where they jump out of a canal or something.

Cheers for the heads-up re the Battlefield levelling system. 3 is my first introduction into the series, so I wasn't sure how it worked. As far as the CoD prestige system works, levels go from one to seventy. Once you hit seventy and have unlocked everything, you get the option of entering 'Prestige' mode, which knocks you back to Prestige 1 Level 1, locking out all the gear you had previously unlocked as you are now effectively level one again, but you are (every other Prestige level) granted an extra custom class slot. In MW2 there were ten prestige levels allowing for another 5 custom class slots taking the total from five to ten, and effectively meaning that the maximum level you could achieve was not seventy, but seven hundred and seventy. It does look on paper like an arse-over-tit way of handling levelling, but believe me it works. The main gripe about levelling systems is that the good players get the best stuff whilst the newbs get the crap, but with this system a level 20 player (relatively new) can rock up against a prestige 3 level 12 (well blooded) and have the advantage of better gear.

Well BF only has a leveling system since BFBC2 (or maybe BFBC1, that one I skipped), before you just had several classes with their own stuff.

The thing is, Battlefield doesn't have "better weapons" per se. There's no damage stat even in BF3 on weapons so picking your weapon is pretty much completely down to what suits you and again, the beginner weapons can serve you well for quite a while, if not for the entire game. You unlock upgrades, but as I said, giving a first time player all the upgrades would be silly, partially because they too are often less "upgrade" and more "if it suits you" sort of thing. The tactical light for example is great for blinding enemies in close quarters, but I remember back in beta seeing tons of new players running around with it always on, being ridiculously obvious targets.

I admit, the player who's been playing for a while will be more powerful than the new player in terms of gear, but the facts are that it's a small difference and far more importantly, Battlefield is more about the strategy/teamwork than it is about gear. If you're running in the open, no amount of gear will help you. If you're being careful, you'll easily get a drop on someone and since killing someone in Battlefield doesn't take long, you can easily get kills without the enemy having a chance to retaliate.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

>snip<

Cheers for the heads-up re the Battlefield levelling system. 3 is my first introduction into the series, so I wasn't sure how it worked. As far as the CoD prestige system works, levels go from one to seventy. Once you hit seventy and have unlocked everything, you get the option of entering 'Prestige' mode, which knocks you back to Prestige 1 Level 1, locking out all the gear you had previously unlocked as you are now effectively level one again, but you are (every other Prestige level) granted an extra custom class slot. In MW2 there were ten prestige levels allowing for another 5 custom class slots taking the total from five to ten, and effectively meaning that the maximum level you could achieve was not seventy, but seven hundred and seventy. It does look on paper like an arse-over-tit way of handling levelling, but believe me it works. The main gripe about levelling systems is that the good players get the best stuff whilst the newbs get the crap, but with this system a level 20 player (relatively new) can rock up against a prestige 3 level 12 (well blooded) and have the advantage of better gear.

Well BF only has a leveling system since BFBC2 (or maybe BFBC1, that one I skipped), before you just had several classes with their own stuff.

The thing is, Battlefield doesn't have "better weapons" per se. There's no damage stat even in BF3 on weapons so picking your weapon is pretty much completely down to what suits you and again, the beginner weapons can serve you well for quite a while, if not for the entire game. You unlock upgrades, but as I said, giving a first time player all the upgrades would be silly, partially because they too are often less "upgrade" and more "if it suits you" sort of thing. The tactical light for example is great for blinding enemies in close quarters, but I remember back in beta seeing tons of new players running around with it always on, being ridiculously obvious targets.

I admit, the player who's been playing for a while will be more powerful than the new player in terms of gear, but the facts are that it's a small difference and far more importantly, Battlefield is more about the strategy/teamwork than it is about gear. If you're running in the open, no amount of gear will help you. If you're being careful, you'll easily get a drop on someone and since killing someone in Battlefield doesn't take long, you can easily get kills without the enemy having a chance to retaliate.

I did kinda get your point about weapon damage tables playing through the campaign, it did very much feel like all guns in a class were pretty much the same. I'm used to playing CoD titles, where there are distinct differences between weapons, so that a loadout of an M4A1/M1014 plays very differently to a FAL/SPAS12 loadout, but it did seem that in Battlefield it didn't really matter just so long as you had Assualt Rifle/Shotgun - the makes and models didn't really count for much, just the class of weapon altered it's behavior.

I take your points about B3 being all about the teamwork though. That's one of the things that really drew me to the game in the first place. CoD is great and all, but usually a team game in CoD is just a loose collection of Rambos who just happen to be on the same side. I'm definitely gonna give the MP in Battlefield a try, as it seems I'd really enjoy the tactical side of things. Ta for the heads up.

 

[Queen Michael]

Figure it out....

I think I have. Is it the way the character at the front looks 100% not like a manga drawing from an actual manga by a real Japanese mangaka? Or is it the way they assume that "draw manga" means "draw a head with stereotyical big eyes" and not actually "draw comics?"
Or is it the way they assume that the big-eyed look is what you're going for, even though there's tons of great manga out there without the big-eyed look?

 

[tahrey]

blah

The blaster bolts are vaporised gas and the lightsabers are ironically enough plasma contained by a controlled magnetic field.

good one lucas.

the lightsabers are being powered by their version of AAA batteries.

[img=http://www.sparkcaster.com/demotivational/images/tactical%20facepalm.jpg]

Aha... thought there was probably some better in-universe explanation than my Wild Mass Guessing style attempt.
Those are some damn long-lasting triple-As, though.
Also it's probably fair to call them light sabers despite them actually being plasma swords, given that plasma tends to give off quite a lot of light (and heat ... so much so that you really shouldn't be able to hold such a thing within a metre of your body... unless of course the conceit is that the actual plasma beam is sub-millimetre in width, not transmitting too much damage unless you come into direct contact, and it just looks a lot fatter to the eye/camera because of the intense radiance?)

 

[krazykidd]

That episode of CSI: Miami where a Glock blew up, Russian surplus ammo was supposed to be illegal and still contains gun-powder (despite the fact that it was from the 60's and even cordite was obsolete by then) blows up, bullets could differentiate from the "coldness" of a vest and the "warmth" of a human body.


Spontaneous detonation of smokeless powder is almost impossible in normal temperatures, and they misused the term "flashpoint".

Then a bullet that could go trough a vest because it is cold (like, a warm body and outside temperature? Thermodynamics won't let that vest cool down) and break apart in human bodies (because if the air temperature ever reaches 37º in Miami, you'll have ammo breaking apart).




I raged so much at that episode I haven't seen CSI ever since.

Speaking of CSI and guns . There was this one episode where a guy shot a pistol into the air from a balcony , the bullet flew up , and due to gravity it fell back down killing a woman lying on the grass having a pic-a-nic , is that even possible?

 

[Aurgelmir]

I never completed Valkyria Chronicles.

I was promised a War time epic.

What I got was a bunch of angsty kids playing dress up.

I got to a cutscene where there was a pig with wings and just said, "That's it. I'm done".


I just couldn't take the game seriously.

Sadly that game will fade into obscurity due to its poor packaging. Stuff like the kids and the over the top anime characters don't hit home with a lot of people.

Mind you the story is quite good, and the game play excellent, but the narrative is just a little to Anime.

 

[Tips_of_Fingers]

No actual mention of the Metal Gear Solid series? (someone mentioned MGS minigames in Yu-Gi-Oh??)

I fucking love the MGS series. Like...FUCKING BUM-LOVE. And the surreal self-awareness throughout the series just makes it so much better.

A few of my favourite moments of fourth-wall-breaking tomfoolery in the MGS series are:

Pyscho Mantis reading your memory card and the TV going to the "blue screen of death" during your battle against him.

Having to look on "the back of the disc case" to get Meryl's codec frequency.

Nearly every single moment of Sons of Liberty. Seriously, it's just one big postmodern mindfuck.

Admittedly, almost everything in MGS4.

Here's my personal favourite:

Spoiler: Otacon goes a bit mad

I can't stress enough how much I love the series for it's self-awareness.

 

[Wintermoot]

maybe you are genetically evolved to withstand more radiation then a normal person
OT
NPC,s trying to walk through walls silly NPC,s only cheating players can walk through walls!

 

[DracoSuave]

Figure it out....

I think I have. Is it the way the character at the front looks 100% not like a manga drawing from an actual manga by a real Japanese mangaka? Or is it the way they assume that "draw manga" means "draw a head with stereotyical big eyes" and not actually "draw comics?"
Or is it the way they assume that the big-eyed look is what you're going for, even though there's tons of great manga out there without the big-eyed look?

Don't be obtuse

Japanese comics have certain stylistic simularities that can be seen as having a common theme, identifying it as Japanese or Japanese-inspired. This is not that different from how a lot of American comics have stylistic simularities that identify them as American comics.

In turn, Japanese style was heavily influenced by Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop, etc. Japanese art in general changed because of that american cartoon influence. Traditional japanese art is closer to the style of Yoshitaka Amano, who is pretty much the only Japanese manga artist I can name off the top of my head to retain a more classic style.

Does all manga use 'big eyes, small mouth'? No. But you can still -tell- it's Japanese.

More importantly, some people enjoy drawing in the big-eye-small-mouth style. Why complain about a book that can teach them to do things in a style they enjoy?

GAH.

 

[MrFalconfly]

Well there was Haggards planespotting moment in BF: Bad Company 2 where he misidentified a An-124 Condor for an An-225 Cossack. It just left me thinking "somebody didn't do their research properly for the rest of the game.

 

[spartan231490]

There was a tv show that came out about a bodyguard and in 2 minutes of previews I saw at least a dozen things a person trained in personal protection would never do and was like: "Nope, never watching that."

In a good book series that I was reading, the military character called a flail a mace and chain, that bugged me but not enough to stop reading.