Dead Island

[Art Blade]

That vid had me chortle quite a bit, too  :-() :-X

[spaceboy]

Two of the things aboud DI that actually puts me off a bit is the info/health bar over the zombies heads, and the floating XP amounts.  Perhaps it makes it a bit less scary when it becomes a true "game", but I guess that isn't what I'm looking for.

Anyways, between that and the apparent PS3 save game glitch I'm holding off, instead I've decided to get a zombie fix by finally getting the RDR Undead Nightmare along with a 2nd copy of RDR so my son and I can roam RDR together  - definitely fun and worth it! 

Oh, and as for From Dust.  I can't speak about other games in this genre, but I'm amazed at how intense the gameplay is.  It's fun, I guess, but more from the end of each level, the feeling of accomplishment, rather than the gameplay being "fun".  I never played sim city or civilization games, I suppose it's like those.  Just when you think you have one thing taken care of and you move to another village, erosion, time, fire, or water wreak havoc where you were.  I am enjoying it for sure, but after each level I realize how tensed up I am lol.

[Fiach]

Two of the things aboud DI that actually puts me off a bit is the info/health bar over the zombies heads, and the floating XP amounts.  Perhaps it makes it a bit less scary when it becomes a true "game", but I guess that isn't what I'm looking for.



Oh, and as for From Dust.  I can't speak about other games in this genre, but I'm amazed at how intense the gameplay is.  It's fun, I guess, but more from the end of each level, the feeling of accomplishment, rather than the gameplay being "fun".  I never played sim city or civilization games, I suppose it's like those.  Just when you think you have one thing taken care of and you move to another village, erosion, time, fire, or water wreak havoc where you were.  I am enjoying it for sure, but after each level I realize how tensed up I am lol.

Well, the Health bar you dont really notice on ordinary zombies as the combat is pretty frantic at times and you kill them so fast, you dont really notice it, also, you dont see that bar until they are quite close. But, on the bigger zombies, they have so much health and you need strategies to defeat them, you really need to see how much damage you are doing. I'm guessing you havent played Borderlands, which is similar.

Undead is great, I actually preferred it to the original game, so you should have a blast :)

Are you playing FD on console or PC, how are the controls are they comfortable?

[spaceboy]

oh - good to know on the health bar,  thanks  :)

I'm playing FD on PS3, clearly a Mouse/keyboard would be the best control scheme.  The controller works ok, but it's hard to be precise at times.  Not that you always need to be overly precise, but it would help to dump earth where I want it with more finesse than I can do now.  You use the L2/R2 to pick up and drop earth/water/lava etc.  And just move the left stick around.  You can zoom in/out with R1, and watch a villager with L1.  The camera is ok, but could be better.  This is a game that would have worked well with Move controls I think, but the DS3 is sufficient enough.

[Fiach]

Cool, I'll get the PC version, cheers :)

[Fiach]

84% through the game at this stage, was supposed to give the game back to my mate, but he got Gears 3, so I have a slight reprieve :)

Thoughts at this stage, well, this is one of the best and one of the worst games I have ever played, I still recommend it highly though, The story narrative is pretty good, you get to kill zombies and there are nice weapon progressions as you get to higher levels, with cool mods, like fire, electricity, poison etc.

The problems with the game are the following:

I am always scared my save will corrupt, consequently I have to keep backing up my save, easy enough on a PC, but if I was using a console it would be really annoying. The thing that causes the save corruption? If you pick up too much loot...WTF were they thinking with that one? The corruption occurs if your save file gets past a certain size.

The Quest tracker seldom works, meaning that you have to find alot of quests with trial and error, the map is pretty crap too and when you go into maze like places, eg. The Sewers, you may never find your goal. This only affects side quests and only a handful of them really, but its fecking annoying at times.

The game can be really cheap, you can get outrageously mobbed by zombies, but respawns are quick, so it kinda balances, but it seems like a badly crafted game, with regards to combat.

There are guns, but I have never felt comfortable using them in the game, maybe I have consolitis :)

Escort quests can be a bit annoying.

Normally I am not a forgiving creature, regarding poorly made games, but for some reason I really like this game and I do tend to forgive its annoyances, more readily than other games, I cant see myself replaying the game soon, but I probably will buy it when its selling for about a tenner and maybe revisit the tropical non paradise.

Fiach : Thinking of buying cheap games, so you dont have to.

[Binnatics]

There are guns, but I have never felt comfortable using them in the game, maybe I have consolitis :)

I certainly have Fiach, shooting with a controler is like walking with crutches to me ^-^

Fiach : Thinking of buying cheap games, so you dont have to.

You've made a great review on the game, and it was a pleasure reading it. I might buy the game as well when it's a 'tenner'.

Kudo for the great and entertaining read! :-X

[Art Blade]

Aye, well done, Fiach :) :-X

[Fiach]

Finished! It took 42 hrs and 36 mins, I did 99 quests, skipped about 15 or so. Now I get to do it all over again, yeah, broke down and bought the game this morning, when you finish, you get to replay the game with your current level (mine was 36) and all equipment. The enemies scale with you, so they will be lv 36 in the starting area too, so, yeah, a cool game for just kicking back and killing zombies.

There was a nice mix of levels, Seaside Resort, City, Jumgle and a Prison level. As regards the Jungle level, I'm sure anyone that has played Far Cry will wonder what I thought of the Jungle area, well.... its quite large, but you do seem to be confined to certain routes, graphically its nowhere near FC2 of course, but on saying that, the graphics suited the theme and were quite immersive.

All in all, I did enjoy the game, it is definately greater than the sum of its parts, the minor bugbears are (when you look back) really quite minor.

Evidently the game sold 2 million, so there will definately be a sequel, hopefully Techland will have learned some lessons and implement them in the next game.

This is Fiach, your roving reporter in Banoi, signing off :)

[Art Blade]

 ^+-+ :-X :-()

[fragger]

 ^+-+

Great reporting job and very entertaining reads, mate :-X

Glad you didn't end up as zombie food :)

[mmosu]

Well, I picked up Dead Island on an impulse buy this afternoon.  Haven't played yet, but I'm looking forward to splitting some zombie skulls, especially since new episodes of The Walking Dead won't start up again until February.  Fiach, you better not have steered me wrong mate!  :-D

[Fiach]

Well its been awhile since I played it mate, one thing I will say is that they did release a new patch, which makes the game more difficult, so do what you will with that bit of info.

Best tip I can give is stand on cars and crouch, then hit the zombies, dont go toe to toe with them if you can help it.

Dont sweat dying, enemies you killed/wounded stay that way when you respawn, so it saves on health packs.

Thugs give alot of XP, use molotovs to take them out.

To get molotovs, a guy will ask you to get gasoline to burn bodies, after that mission you can get molotovs.

You need 5 (i think) bottles of alcohol, you will find a bar in the hotel with about 12, I kept going into the hotel, getting the bottles, leaving, then re-entering and the bottles will have respawned, so I had a ton of them.

Carry plenty of weapons, they degrade like hell, especially modded ones. Dont make a shooter character until you get good at the game as there are no guns until the second act, pick the chinese girl, she has good stamina for running away and there are plenty of slashing weapons.

I really enjoyed the game alot, hope you do to :)

A guy will ask you to get two cartons of juice and show you two petrol stations, go to the furthest one, you can get both juices there (its the one with the electricity killing the zombies) and on the way there, you will see a woman at the side of the road looking for help, help her and a bit further on you will see zombies attacking a fence, kill them and do the quest for that guy you save. After you get the juice, drive past the station, you will see a tunnel, climb the ladder and turn the switch. Its just a handy way to do four quests in a very short time all on the same route. :)

If you target a gas cylinder and throw a weapon at it, it will explode, so if you see any gas cylinders, think strategically, pick them up, place them at a choke point, then draw zombies to you and detonate the cylinder :)

LOL I want to play it again! :)

Not sure what you mean about The Walking Dead, season two is on now, its at about episode six or seven currently. Is it season 3 starting in febuary?

[mmosu]

No, still season 2.  They might be airing them differently in your part of the world, but here the last new episode they showed was the "mid-season finale".  Looks like they are going to take a break in the middle of season 2 and re-show the 1st half of the season before showing any more new episodes.  It's just a big tease and a way of selling more advertising.  Overall though, I love the show  :-X  What was the last new episode you saw Fiach? 

[Fiach]

I havent been watching it, I just noticed it on TV, I saw the first series and thought it was great at the start, but just kept going downhill from there.

I've noticed a few series taking a break til the new year, its really annoying when they do that, a similar thing happened during the writers strike, with shows getting pushed back like that, by the time they started showing again, I kinda lost interest.

Hows the DI game going, have you started yet?

[mmosu]

Haven't had a chance to start actually, maybe tonight.  I will be letting you know how it goes though  >:D

[Fiach]

Hmmmm.... noticed a bug happened me the other night I started a new playthrough, After you get to the first beach hut (after you are rescued), you have to take an oar and go outside to help a friend.

The fight occured, but didnt end, after awhile and you kill the zombies, there is supposed to be a cutscene, but the zombies instead kept respawning. So, if this fight seems to be going on for too long, restart the checkpoint or reboot, never occured last couple of plays. :)

[mmosu]

I only had time to do the "tutorial" on basic movements and the like, and just got rescued from the corridor after the falling elevator.  It's hard to find time to play it with a 4 year old in the house    Hopefully I'll get to continue tonight...

[mmosu]

Finally got rolling in Banoi last night!  Got all the survivors to the life guard station, and also managed to scrounge up some car parts to get the truck running again (what a sweet ride that is!  :D) and also to raid a derelict ambulance for some much needed medical supplies.  Next I'm heading up the road to search for more survivors and to also snag a more powerful radio transmitter so we can get our comms up and running again.  I overheard a mayday call on the radio a little while ago and then saw a jetliner pass overhead - poor bastards have no idea what they just landed in the middle of... and I'm already thinking that plane may be our ticket off of this island - if the pilot managed to set it down in one piece...

Overall I'm enjoying the game so far - I really like the intense atmosphere the game creates along with the fact that I feel like I have to scour every building and piece of luggage for supplies and makeshift weapons.  I would classify it as a survival horror RPG - and I'm already agonizing over how and where to spend my skill points as I level up.  There are some things that could be better visually, but I can look past most of these.  For example, some of you know my rule about water in video games - the lagoons of Banoi look more like rippling bath tubs than what they are meant to be.  There have also been a few weird shadows, torn textures, and so on, but as I said, it's all pretty minor.  Occasionally a modded weapon will also be a little slow to render when I first pull it out of the inventory, and will suddenly pop into view in my hands.  Speaking of weapons, I'm currently carrying a blood-soaked baseball bat that I drove nails through to increase its efficacy.  Very nasty - and very cool  >:D  As I said, so far it's shaping up to be a game that is good enough that I want to forgive it's little issues that pop up here and there, and so far I have been able to do just that.  Hopefully it continues.

Following Fiach's trail of destruction,
mmosu signing off  >:D

[Fiach]

I had no problems with modded weapons, I used electrical mostly, but no delay in gfx tbh mate, I played the PC version.

That plane, you will get a quest to look for it, you cant find it until late in the game Act 3 I think.

Glad you are having fun :)

[Fiach]

Started this up again to get rid of the pre christmas blues, I'm playing as Purna, who I initially avoided as her skill structure is based (mostly) around guns, but you dont get guns until Act 2. I just liberated the armoured truck from the hotel, which I initially thought was a rather long mission, but after doing it a couple of times, you can really rush through it quite quickly.

Anyway, after further examination of her skill trees, she also has melee skills that synergise well with her gun totin'.

Her Fury Mode (Rage mode?) is pretty awesome, especially in Act one where there are no guns, because in her Fury Mode, she takes out a handgun and decimates enemies, three shots will take out a Thug. She has skills that raise her rage meter more quickly, giving you more frequent access to this skill.

Its amazing how after a couple of playthroughs you become really "cool" under pressure, nothing really fazes (phases?) you, you use kick and stomp more to save weapon degrades and bullets, but in a more controlled way as opposed to a panic striken first playthrough. I even got better at driving lol! :)

Definately one of my favourite games at this stage.

I read an article where the game is banned in Germany, so they distribute it to Austria instead. Art, you gotta emigrate to Austria mate  >:D

[mmosu]

I could see that.  It would be pretty hard to censor this game, there wouldn't be anything left!

[Art Blade]

Fiach, exactly..

I don't know about the game. Judging from "PEGI 18" and "Bloodbath" and the gore which seems to be key to the gaming experience, it might very well be censored. However, there are "German" (dubbed) games without any censorship involved, those are produced for our neighbours in Austria who do speak the same language. We may import games from them  ;)

[PZ]

My son visited for Christmas and managed to convince me to get the game - have started it, but still have to finish a couple of other games first.  Sure is tough to have to put games into a playing queue.  :-()

[Art Blade]

;D