From the opening shot Saints Row 4 is filled to the brim with pop culture references, both blatant and obscure. I was wondering what your favorites were?

I have to admit, the Game of Thrones opening shot took a bit to sink in before I caught on (sitting on a throne in the exact position and objects as the promotions for Season 1 Game of Thrones). 

But by far my favorite was this line when being rescued from the alien mothership: "What?! You rescued Keith David before me? What, because he's more famous? **** this." The fact that I used the Nolan North voice made me die with laughter.

Wait if that's a 2 minute long trailer and they're playing the whole thing shouldn't it be costing them 4 times that $3 million dollar 30 second ad?

That's not to say they'll play a teaser 30 sec ad instead. I was just wondering which one they're coughing the cash for.

....

Also that was a terrible ad.

After my 50th hour of Planetside 2 I deleted it off Steam in frustration. It was not at my ability to play (though I admit I'm a lot worse at it than most shooters), but at my frustration at the first MMO shooter to grace popular gaming in decades having terrible game mechanics. Not broken, but intentional mechanics that don't add up to good tactical gameplay. It was not fun, it was not entertaining, and though I wished it to be so it simply flopped.

I don't mind giving a game a grace period, but there are things about Planetside 2 that will plague its gameplay as it develops. Here are some of them I see:

The Zerg: The "zerg" is the semi-affectionate name given to that huge group of players running amok the continents until it hits another zerg. You can tell the difference between a tactical group and the Zerg because the Zerg will normally lock itself down against another Zerg for 90% of its lifespan instead of actually trying to capture territories or flank or give ground. A good example is the constant fighting over "The Crown" territory in the middle of the map, normally with players running straight into their deaths.

The zerg is a difficult problem for most shooters to face, but when a zerg can be upwards of 500+ people per team it becomes a nightmare. That many people means tactics just fall apart. You may try to flank a position, but no matter how much you flank there will always be the other team further on the flank. Unless you go around entire territories to do so it is impossible, and the mindlessness of the zerg means even a good flanking manuever won't be exploited by your team. So kudos for parking your Sunderer behind the enemy base, but no one will spawn fast enough to defend it. Small groups broken off from the main force might be able to take key positions, but why would you when...

Cert/XP Gain: ...you have absolutely no gain in comparison to kills. A single capture of a minor base will take around 3-5 minutes AT BEST with a FULL TEAM. It nets 250xp. A kill can net you 200xp, and takes 3-5 SECONDS. So why waste the 20 minutes it takes to slowly infiltrate a base and take it from under the enemies nose and then defend it when you could have zerged yourself ten times the amount of xp in that same amount of time? And again, with the imminent danger of open terrain and low TTK meaning death is measured in seconds, not minutes, the usefulness of base gain is negligible. Reminding me...

Little Rock/Paper/Scissors Diversity: Low TTK is never a problem in games if there is a good chunk of diversity. For instance, if infantry have a high AA gameplay, and tanks are good against infantry, and planes are good against tanks, you have a nice circle of life. But heirarchy in play (infantry are low, with everything else above) means infantry need to have something vehicles can't offer that is a step above the rest. In this game, they don't. Capture points maybe. Worse off, none of the classes feel different on a fundamental level. It's not necessary to be as diverse as Team Fortress 2, but when every single gun on the team is about the same in terms of damage output, and every gun that can be bought is simply an extension of one of those samey-style guns it makes cert/xp gain quite pointless.

Share your input, if you will.

Yeah, first time on the forums, and was wondering what people have to say about the complicated world of the squad control interface system. From Rainbow Six to Freedom Fighters to Half-Life to even the Battlefield genre, there's always been squads to control, and where there's squads, there's your interface. Some are really complicated (Operation Flashpoint, do we seriously need a menu of keys 1-10 to move a squad from A to B?) or some are real simple (point-click Half-Life 2).

So, let's break this one up. 1.) What's the best squad interface on a single-player game and, 2.) What's the best squad interface on a multiplayer? Give pros, cons, and your final decisions.

For me, I'd say:

1.) Republic Commando. It's like the AK-47: sure, you can have a system that allows your squad to go prone, watch the horizon, or eat a biscuit, but when it boils down to it, all you need is something real simple that works well without complication. Heck, even an 8-year-old can do the point-click on this sucker, but what's so nice about it is that you have four basic commands, or you have action positions that allow for sniper fire or turret control in one click. It's the least complicated I've ever seen, and it ACTUALLY WORKS. Being able to shoot AND tell each one of your squad to do something in seconds is a great gift, instead of having to sort through drop down menus or walk through hotkey hell.

2.) Battlefield 2. I liked the idea of a commander system where one takes charge of an entire group, and each group can go into their own squads. Anyone can make a squad, or you don't even have to be in one. If you are, your SL takes orders from the commander, and you can go do objectives as a team rather than running willy-nilly like some multiplayer games (TF2, I love you so much, but I'm referring to you here). What I love best, though, is the VOIP can be restricted to a squad only, mean you don't have 32 8-year-olds talking at once. Simplicity is sometimes the best.

Of course, these are my opinions, and they're likely to change over time. Alright, m8s, have at it!