It is an awesome game, and depending on a few games like LA Noire, Deus Ex, Battlefield 3 and Uncharted 3, will probably be my GOTY. However it isn't without its negatives...

Difficulty -

I had planned to play through the game on Easy my first time through, and I certainly didn't didn't expect to die as much as I did. It is very easy to get swarmed by enemies and die in seconds. On my second playthrough I switched to normal and I managed to get to the courtyard fight in the monestary before you raise the gate to let Foltest in, and I just got bored of it.

Constantly rolling in, hitting an armoured enemy once or twice and rolling away, over and over again. If you get hit you end up running around the courtyard in circles until you health regenerates...I mean it is just ridiculous. Geralt is supposed to be a bad ass, and at no point in the Prologue on normal difficulty did I feel like a bad ass.

I read somewhere that the developers loved Demons Souls and wanted to implement a similar level of difficulty. Well, they are nothing a like. Demons Souls' difficulty was never monotonous, and no normal enemy ever took longer than 15 seconds to kill. I tried using signs and traps, but at that point in the game your signs are weak and you don't have a lot of gear to work with.

Also the fact the game doesn't allow you to drink potions on the fly is a bit weird, but that's more personal preference.

Combat -

The combat is much improved from the original (which I still didn't mind), but it does feel slightly loose. Perhaps holding down a button to lock on to an enemy would have been better. Still I did enjoy the combat for the most part.

Stealth sections -

Sometimes they work (lke in the dungeon), and sometimes they don't (sneaking through the camp). Stealth is a hard element to implement in a game that focuses on action, so I'm not too bothered about this.

The save system -

After consulting this forum earlier today, I wiped the majority of the contents of my save folder, which amounted to 3.7 GBs... WHY OH WHY does a manual save take up a new slot every time? Why can't I just pick from a number of slots like in the first game? This should be relatively easy to fix...

Crashes -

Every hour or two my game will boot me to the desktop for no apparent reason. Normally happens when I open the menu or enter a door. This is what led to the manual saves every 5 minutes, which in turn led to the 3.7GB save folder, and the complete slowdown of the menu system as a result (sometimes opening the menu would take 12-15 seconds).

Gamepad issues -

They bigged up the fact that this game was designed with a gamepad in mind, and for the most part it works. However, a few things could be tightened. When you are trying to bribe someone, the keyboard doesn't work, which means you have to hold down the left stick until you reach the allotted amount. If the bribe is rejected, you have to do it all again, from zero...which is massively time consuming. All they have to do is either let you type in a number or remember what sum you got to last and open on that sum.

Some of the menus also spaz out a little on the controller. Scrolling through mutagens one by one is impossible on my gamepad, they normally skip two or three, even if I use the d-pad.

I picked up Homefront yesterday and F***ING HELL. Wow. It is a seriously bad game.

I thought for a long time that the game looked very promising. The idea of setting the game in an American suburb of a f***ed up alternate future where Korea becomes an Imperial superpower intruiged me.

The developers said their biggest influences were Half Life 2 and Children of Men - in my opinion two pieces of media that have a brilliant atmosphere and an appealing setting.

They promised it wasn't just going to be another COD clone; shuffling behind Activision's behemoth, feeding off of any scrap or morsel that it leaves in it's wake.

They promised the game would focus on the people, and the real horror of war and occupation. That it would focus on the lives of Americans trying to survive in an unimaginable situation.

If only...

I think the moment that I came to the realisation that I hated Homefront was when I was tasked with blowing up AA guns. Not being funny, but how many times have I blown up AA guns in a game before? In fact, I think I have blown up AA guns in every single COD game I've played. The first COD game had AA guns, and it came out in 2003...seriously I'm f***ing fed up with AA guns.

****************SPOILERS INCLUDED FROM HERE ON OUT. NOT THAT THERES MUCH WORTH SPOILING************

Rage {ON] OFF

The first 10 minutes or so are very promising. The introductionary cutscene does a good job of explaining how world events have created the future of Homefront, and the bus-ride is honestly one of the most poignant moments I have ever experienced in a game. Then you are rescued, and from that moment on the game takes a pretty big swan dive; never truely recovering. A moment when you walk through a resistance camp gives you a nice breather, but when you later return to the base and find everyone dead, there hasn't been enough of a connection with the resistance themselves to truely give a s***.

The fact that KAOS were apparently aiming to avoid similarities with COD surprised me, since there are so many things copy pasted from COD games: a fight on a bridge, PERHAPS ABOUT HALF THE GAME THAT IS SET IN AMERICA SINCE MW2 ALREADY DID THAT, a level where you are tasked with sniping specific targets, a level where you and your mate(s) move around stealthily knifing people and you CANT BE CAUGHT, an ingame cutscene in a moving vehicle, forcing you to watch horrifying events, a fight in a farm, a vehicle turreted section, a keep the convoy alive level, and they even manage to shoe-horn in one of those COD levels where you're in a really high plane using the black and white grainy camera to destory vehicles and people...

The problem with COD and its clones is that they don't understand pacing. At all. Not even in the slightest. In fact I always liken COD games to Michael Bay movies - a lot of flash but no f***ing substance. Homefront follows suit, though does have a few breathers.

Then there's the story. Not even really worth mentioning.

And the characters? Wow. That guy, the generic macho, angry, tattooed, veteran guy. Why...WHY do people put these types of characters into games? Even COD manages to avoid them (except Black Ops - thanks Treyarch).

There's that girl and shes sad because the other guy dies, and there's the guy who looks east-asian that everyone they meet seems to hate, and I still felt no sympathy for him what-so-ever because NO ONE IN THIS GAME IS FLESHED OUT. NO ONE. NOT EVEN BIG-BALLS (I forget his name - the angry one).

To top it all off, the game took me all of 5 hours to complete, and there's no difficulty levels...and the difficulty spiked quite wildly. Also, why do bullets hurt more if they are shot by someone who is closer to you? Is that a real life thing? Because it started massively f***ing me off.

The checkpoints were **** too, especially on the convoy level...

So yeah don't play this horrible f***ing game. Just watch the opening 10 minutes on youtube and think about how awesome the game could have been.

I only rented it so yeay.

Rage ON [OFF]

Bought in the 2K steam sale for like a quid, and then got round to playing it today and WOW. The first mission tasks you with losing a vehicle that can double your speed and knocks you into walls. The amount of times I got stuck in a wall, unable to move, or clipped into another car, only for my ****head passengers to be shot...

I literally spent 15 minutes trying and retrying the first mission. Then, by complete luck, on my 9th try I manage to lose the enemy. Afterward, my new buddies tell me to drive them back to a bar or a cafe or something, so off I go with nowt but a compass to direct me.

I realise too late that I need to cross a bridge, so I back track and accidentally run into a cul-de-sac. As I go to turn my vehicle around, I come to the odd realisation that MY ****ING VEHICLE DOESN'T REVERSE. So I'm stuck, with the clock ticking, unable to turn my car around. I go into the options and change the key for reverse, and nothing happens. All the while my passengers are telling me to hurry up.

I exit the vehicle, and re enter, hoping that these pointless actions will somehow appease the game. But no, I'm sat, car unable to reverse, in a ****ing cul-de-sac. Knowing full well I will have to outwit these guys and start the game all over again, I quit.

And I will never play this game. Ever again.

Money well spent. ****ing brilliant.

Leads me to wonder how the **** this game was so critically acclaimed back in the day. The first mission is probably the most difficult and unfair in any open world game I've played, there were no checkpoints and no 'save where you like' system...

When I completed Mafia 2 and was very disappointed with it, a bunch of people told me to play the original because the story is better...but wow how did anyone put up with this?

Hmm.

At the beginning of every single player level they ask if you want to join someone elses game.I said no for the first few levels, and thenI thought I'd allow people to join mine.

As soon asI allow people to join, about three pop in; in the space of a minute or so.

Anyway, one of them is wearing a crocodile outfit and proceeds to leg it through the level. Unfortunately the camera folows the sackboy that's made the most progress, regardless whose game they're in, so off he goes and my character disappears off the screen.

As he gets to checkpoints my character is spawned in and he again proceeds to run off. Some one else joins the game and decides to literally drag me down a hill.I cant get out of his hold, soI let him drag me off whilst we are periodically spawned by the crocodile sackboy.

Then I'm like '**** this ****', and quit out. Somehow,they follow me into my pod. I go into another level, specifiyI want to play it by myself, and they follow me anyway.

Offgoes the croc.

Off goes the console.


10/10

I really like the gameplay in the MGS series, but there isn't enough of it.

The series is full of over the top b movie voice acting and most characters have stupid catchphrases (when Snake dies...I mean it isn't supposed to be funny but it always is, people constantly go "HUH?!" in surprise and Metal Gear is said about 120 times in each game except the 3rd. Also Drebin continuously saying I. HAVE. YOU. and jumping around theatrically is really unnecessary)

Ridiculously overflamboyant mo cap. Most of the enemies basically do a little dance before you fight them (Vlad VS Raiden should have been epic but turned into a hilarious dance with people licking knives and holding swords with their feet, Ocelot in MGS3 actually MEOWS...I mean come on)

The dialogue is so verbose because they reiterate EVERY SINGLE GODDAMN POINT THAT IS MADE. (This doesn't really need to be explained, it is obvious to everyone "Metal Gear?" Yes, Metal Gear. "METAL GEAR?!)

They often have cut-scenes within cut-scenes to try and add exposition to the stuff the characters say (example would be the explanation of the SOP system in MGS4. This isn't clever this is just really really badly written)

Really out of place humour that often involves people soiling themselves in someway...Otacon in MGS1, Akiba is first seen ****ting in a barrel and then throughout the game is constantly soiling himself (until the end when he turns into a suave, honourable superhero type...)

The childish voyeurism that seems to be in every game. In a couple of the games they give you the option to press a button and stare at boobs...It's like people accept this cos it's out of Japan and they have pretty weird **** in their games, but at the end of the day for a series that obviously models itself on predominantly western culture, it comes off as creepy. Also Naomi, a 'scientist' is showing ample cleavage in MGS4...for no reason other than to oogle.

I know people figure calling something gay on the internet is supposed to be offensive but that wasn't what I was getting at. I literally meant it is similar to a gay opera with weapons.

I rented this today. Thought it might be good pretty good, but no.

• Combat is ultra repetitive and enemies block most of the time, meaning every fight is drawn out to snoredom. Having to rely on holding down the button that corresponds with the colour the enemies attack with is just frustrating. I want to kill ****, not play guitar hero.
• The SHOOTING SEQUENCES. Wow. How did these even make it past test stage? At some point someone must've said "Actually guys, take this **** out because it's god awful", to which they no doubt replied "No". Aiming is woefully slow and it's all done with the left stick, which feels so un natural these days.
• The sixaxis sections. Probably the worst thing about it. Who actually enjoys spending 5 minutes trying to guide a shield through a puzzle with the ****ing controller...Or the cannon balls in the second sequence. I bet at some point you have to be the weird furry girl and sit their shooting air with her stake gun. THAT WILL BE A BARREL OF LAUGHS. Where do I sign up?
• Boring level design so far. Can't really see it going much further than sandy corridors, rocky pathways and stoned areas, but you never know.
• The camera keeps severly interferring with my game. Panning left and right with the shoulder buttons is a little much to ask in the thick of combat.
• Frame rate drops pretty severly in certain areas so far. Mainly the ones where loads of people are there, parrying your hits whilst you remember WHAT BUTTON TO PRESS SO YOU CAN ACTUALLY HIT THEM.

To its credit, the game's cutscenes look awesome, and the facial animations are some of the best I've seen. Voice acting is good too, even if the main antagonists seem to be ridiculously evil and vile for the sake of it.

****ing ridiculous corporate 'joliday' that pushes us to spend cash we dont have on gifts for people that we dont really care about. at the same time it tries to make single people insecure about their choice/situation. i mean...what the hell. do people really need a day set aside to really think about their 'loved one'?! has it really come to that?

nearly every couple i know doesnt give a **** about this day either. and thank **** for that.

im not the only one.

so is anyone gonna buy me a card or what?

hmm...been suspended for so long now, is this finally on?

EDIT - I mean of course it's on, pfffft. Suspended? No, not at all. Never was, never will be.

So anyway...crazy weather and stuff

Sandwiches.

Placemats.

Gummy wand mess!

General hotel acceleration.

Smadge.

This might be in bad taste but **** it I wanna talk about it.

As you all no doubt know, this girl was stolen from a hotel room in Portugal whilst her parents were doing something else. Since then, there has been a massive media frenzy surrounding her, and many celebrities and politicians have called for her safe return. A large ransom has been offered, and thousands have been received from generous folk, to help get her back.

You'd think that no one had ever been kidnapped or gone missing before...

I figure that the media focus was to shy away from other world matters, such as how Iraq isn't going so swimmingly, the reshuffle at No.10 etc etc, and it amazes me how people can get sucked in so easily.

Suddenly, rather than matters that affect us all covering our front pages and news broadcasts, we have all this drivel bull**** shoved in our faces. "FIND HER". "WHERE IS MADELEINE?". Blah ****ing blah.

We have much more important things that need to be concentrated on, like the rising threat from North Korea, or relations between Pakistan and Iran. Iraq. Afghanistan. Today a car was discovered in London with a homemade bomb in it. It was parked in the middle of the West End, no doubt set to detonate when it would cause maximum carnage.

Is it just me, or do her parents seem particularly calm and emotionless. Even at the beginning, her father just seemed...bored.

Whatever. I just think it's ridiculous. The ammount ofkids and adults that go missing each year, who get **** all news coverage is significant. Imagine how their parents/partner/siblings feel about this whole media fiasco. Pretty ****ty probably.

But to be fairI don't really care about any of them and they can all **** off.

Theeeeenks