Bit of a change for me here: I've been in deep with L.A. Noire for the past few weeks.

It's a very interesting take on the hardboiled crime drama translated into a game. It's got all the characteristics of a film noir plot-line, which I don't want to spoil (but fans of film noir will understand what I mean). Plus you get to run around in a 1947 version of Los Angeles, when the freeways didn't exist yet and there was still a height limit for buildings, not to mention bowler hats being in fashion at the time.

And believe me, they weren't lying about the facial animation technology they used in the game.

I found that there were too many cutscenes in the game for me to enjoy it. Plus certain parts of the game really drag on. I didn't finish it, because of this.

It is about a 3:1 ratio of cutscenes to actual gameplay, which is very distracting after a while.

The facial animations are some of the best I've ever seen but people behave in very unrealistic ways when they're hiding something during interrogations. I get that it is a game mechanic but sometimes the guy looks like he's twitching and looking off into random directions when he's lying.

That was a bit of a turn-off for me too. Not to mention that, while the faces are excellently done and rather realistic, the bodies themselves aren't that high quality, so you get this bizarre look where you've got rather mannequinish bodies and ultra-realistic heads, and it ends up having an effect of feeling a bit like you're playing a game set in a puppet show where the puppeteer has gone too far...

I'm currently playing Team Fortress 2's new Mann Vs Machine co-op mode and generally getting back into Team Fortress 2 as a whole. It's a great game; the multiplayer is perfectly balanced and encourages teamwork, which generally leads to a good gaming community and the gameplay is fast-paced and fun. And it's got fantastic cartoony visuals too, which makes gaming a charm.

Not to mention all of the expanded universe comics that Valve have made are 100% pure awesome. Such as this recent gem, the main feature of which is an Australian man having a fist-fight with a Yeti.

Very true, the game is quite a good case of the Uncanny Valley effect. Nevertheless, I liked the game because I'm actually okay with a slower pace and repetitive objectives (I do play Skyrim, after all ) because the story does a good job backing them up.

The primary reason the animations for lying look odd is because the actors were told to exaggerate them. Several may have taken it a bit too far (Frank Morgan's first lie, where he actually mouths out "no" being the prime example).

This post has been edited by Thomas Kaira: Aug 19 2012, 09:50 PM

Other than Oblivion, I've recently cracked open my old GameCube and started playing one of my all time favourite games! Resident Evil (REmake)!

Amazing game. I remember when I was younger I tried playing it but couldn't finish as it was WAAAAAAY to scary. Haha.

Just finished off Bastion; excellent game, with well put together combat mechanics, brilliant art style and environments and superlative writing that manages to tie together gameplay and story in perfectly. Easily one of the best games I've played, no doubt about that.

I am not playing it now (since it is not out yet), but X-Com: Enemy Unknown is looking very interesting. I am a huge fan of the original X-Com games, and it looks like they are keeping to the spirit of those, just with a real 3-dimensional environment and better graphics. The only thing that turns me off is that the characters have a kind of cartoonish look to them.

I dusted off my old copies of No One Lives Forever and the Tie Fighter Collectors Edition. I had to find a fan-made installer on the web to get the latter to install on Windows 7. The original installer just won't play with a 64 bit OS. I played out the first mission, and it was a lot of fun. Although I have completely forgotten the myriad of controls you have to use to play that game. I guess I will have to dig out the paper manual for it, it had a keyboard layout in there.

I spent a lot of time playing No One Lives Forever. I was surprised at how good it looks once I got my Nvidia settings to override the ones in the game (It was made before Anti-Aliasing was even an option in games). But the real joy is of course the whole tongue-in-cheek way the game spoofs the whole 60s spy genre. Most especially by having a female protagonist Goddess do I love Cate Archer. I think that once I finish the first one, I will try out the second game, since I never did play it.

BTW. whatever happened to Lithtech? Once upon a time their engine was one of the top gaming engines out there, with only the Quake and Unreal engines as competition. But the company seems to have vanished.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Dec 2 2012, 07:22 PM

Heh...That's cool, because I've just dusted off my X-Wing novels... ...

Aaaamywho...Due to my current over abundance of energy and inability to concentrate on one thing at a time...

SQUIRREL!!!...

Umm...

I'm playing...

Skyrim...
Kindoms of Amalur: Reckoning...
Assassins Creed II...

And that well known RPG...Madden NFL '10... ...

All of them...At some point or other... ...

I have one of the X-Wing novels - Wedge's Gambit. I read the other two in the trilogy, but borrowed them from friends rather than buy them. That was a long time ago!

I tried Kingdoms of Amalur, but I could not take the controls. It was just too hard to do anything, especially use a bow. So I gave up on it before finishing the tutorial.

Lindsey Stirling makes me want to play Assassins Creed 3. But unfortunately you do not get to play her in the game. You are stuck with some sausage instead. I do love the idea of a game set during the American Revolution though.

I'm currently playing Metro 2033 at the minute, which I got as part of the Humble THQ Bundle (a good package, really; you pay however much you think the bundle is woth, and some of the cash goes to two charities, Child's Play and THQ*). It's a fantastic game; excellent atmosphere, intense combat with a strong focus on stealth and planning when it comes to the gunfights (with the mutants, it's more a case of backpedal and shoot whilst trying to avoid getting backed into a corner) and it manages to find a perfect balance between being challenging without being frustrating.It also has an absolutely excellent mechanic with it's use of 'dirty bullets', which are homemade rounds that aren't particularly effective, and the military-grade ones that are far more powerful but are also used as currency; using military rounds might help you in a firefight, but it's certainly an expensive strategy.




*Yeah, I went there.

"GAAAAAH!" * mALX points to her avatar while growing to giant proportions, rips shirt off and turns green when she see's what appears to be derogatory Squirrel remark *

I've been playing quite a bit if skyrim since the dragonborn DLC came out for Xbox. I also have black ops II, so I've been playing a lot of COD zombies.

Dragonborn DLC must have come out while I was gone. I'll have to check it out, see if my son got it in my absence.

I think it depends on the console; it's out on Xbox 360, I think, and then PC and PS3 get it in January.

I've kind of been getting back into Skyrim lately. I'd been distracted by other stuff, but it's a lot of fun.

He has it on the XBox, with my credit card riding on the "XBox Live," lol. I have it for the PC, but didn't get any DLC for my game yet.

Mmmm...*Nods*... ...

*Continues*...

...

*Continues*...

*Coughs*...

Go watch Pixar's film from the other year, Up...You'll get what I meant... ...

Oh, I had also done about 20 levels worth of Fallout 3, started New Vegas again...

I've finished simming the San Francisco 49ers through to 2039 on Madden '10...I won!!...

Aaaand now I'm on Oblivion again....Booyah!!!...

Aaaand after Christmas I shall be on Assassins Creed 3, Lego Lord of The Rings and, when it comes out, the Dragonborn DLC...

Squirrel!!...

*Continues*...

*

Awww...That's just so cuuuute!!... ...

Like this one...

This post has been edited by McBadgere: Dec 11 2012, 08:47 PM

I LOVE it !!! The squirrel with the hammer was great both times, but the squirrel with the hot chili sauce was the best !!!