Andy of Comix Inc said:
I paid $100. That's right: $100. I live in Australia. That's common. But don't you dare complain a game isn't worth $60 when I'm in the room.
...
I don't buy that the gunplay wasn't solid. Because it was. In an FPS, that's half the work done. Especially on higher difficulties, that shit gets genuinely intense. The health system worked fine because you could still gain health from, say, executing enemies, and the two-weapon system worked because levels were designed around it. Was it patronising and silly? Yeah. It was. But didn't make it less fun. Not for me, anyway.
So you paid about $98 USD for a game that's worth about $15 or $20. That makes you seem a little warped, man. Maybe that's just what all those beaches and venoms do to a man.
The gunplay was crap. But then again, if it isn't Q3A, UT2k4, Painkiller, or Serious Sam, its gunplay is crap. Sorry, I just judge games by the best possible examples of their genre, rather than by the crappy Call of Duty games and even worse Halo games.
Only two weapons at a time and regenerating health, and that didn't bother the fuck out of you? Did you not play Duke3D? I was honestly expecting Duke, of all franchises, to revive the old-school medpack-based gameplay where you carry an entire armory with you and you have to decide how to manage your ammo. Instead, we got just another stupid, simplified-for-the-fratboys modern shooter that basically means you only get to the guns that the enemies are using unless you like running out of ammo. Yeah, you'll find rocket launchers and freeze rays and shit positioned here or there when they want to go "hey dude here's a sniper rifle now go shoot that big pile of exploding barrels near the pigcop squad to watch it all go booooooom!" (say that sentence really fast for maximum effect), but you'll throw it away for a shotgun, assault rifle, or submachine gun the second you're done using it for that set-piece because, again, you use what the enemies are using.
Managing medpacks is also done away with by regenerating health - just hide behind a chest high wall for a few seconds. Wait, Duke's HIDING from the aliens? The fuck is this shit!?
And most importantly, since there's no possibility of finding a mega-health or that really rare ammo for your belt-mounted pelvic thrust death ray, there's no reason to explore, either. That's something that both Painkiller and Serious Sam have, and what I feel is horribly missing from modern shooters. You can spend combined hours exploring every nook and cranny in the SS games and in Painkiller, just looking for goodies. Medpacks, rare ammo, or even weapons before you're supposed to get them in Serious Sam (you can find a Rocket Launcher well before you're "supposed" to get one and it makes the highest difficulty levels actually doable), or the rare doohickeys in Painkiller that help you earn cards and unlock slots.
Maybe it's just my mindset. I absolutely
DESPISE (imagine that in massive, pulsing red letters) modern shooters and what they represent. The pinnacle of single-player/co-op shooters is Painkiller and Serious Sam, while the pinnacle of multiplayer shooters would be Q3A and UT2k4 (take your pick, I'm a UT guy myself.) They're fun, action-packed, and in the case of Serious Sam, almost like ballet with guns at the highest difficulty settings (where you're basically a one hitpoint wonder.)
