Ultimate Videogame Topic 2: Because 600 pages isn't enough.

[Rainbowdash]

NFS Most Wanted is out. Yay.

First day one release buy in a long long time. Who cares if it is mostly a mashup of NFS: HP and Burnout Paradise two of my top 10 games and borderline top 5 [burnout is 6] for xbox? Goodbye free time.

[Rainbowdash]

nfs most wanted is one of my favourite racing games after burnout 3

The new one is very much a combination of Burnout Paradise and NFS:HP although it does borrow some ideas from the old Most Wanted game. Good game if you are a non-realistic racing game fan, probably a worthwhile rental otherwise.

At the rate im going the main story looks like a 10 hour one if you just are grinding it out, but it has the "unlock all" thing that goes much deeper. Sorta like Paradise where Elite liscense took about a third of the time as the Burnout Elite license.

Minor gripes

1) Car switching in pursuit mode is very clunky, almost to the point where its not worth it
2) Main story finishes too fast, two hours of gameplay and im at least a quarter done
3) "Easy Drive" is not easy if you are driving.

What I do love though is that it makes great use of autolog and it actually has your car able to take damage unlike the old NFS:MW which you basically were indestructable.

Rubber banding (cars way behind catch up, you can make up impossible gaps) is always there, but its necessary for racing games where cars are desructable. Otherwise they become just a "kill the other driver" in the first ten second and ride that to an easy victory.

[Rainbowdash]

Wait it's like Paradise? Paradise was not very good...

Rubber banding is fine if its not really obvious.

Its basically take the concept of NFS: Hot Pursuit, drop it into a paradise world and borrow the story line from the old NFS:MW.

Think Paradise with cops and cars that dont disinegrate if they touch anything.

Completely open world, each car has five unique races to it which unlock mods for the cars. To get a car you literally just have to find it (which im undecided if I like or not) allowing you to just grab whatever car you want and even swap cars in pursuits. Its very fun, if you like racers its a game to eventually buy. If you are more like me where they are your gaming bread and butter you need to buy it. For the rest of the world, it could be a good 10-20 hour gameplay rental.

Plus the speed events (keep average speed over X) are very innovative and I like them. Really rewards ability to e-break a tight corner instead of hit the wall hard and keep going.

[Rainbowdash]

There are three ways that racing games can compensate for this sort of behavior in a reasonable manner without rubberbanding (which is the devil).

The problem is almost every racing game on the market is not a racing simulation so it automatically calls for rubberbanding. Calling a game anything like Burnout <Something> though basically disqualifies it from being a simulator instantly. While sims can be fun, they dont tend to have as long lasting of an appeal and feel a whole lot more repetitive.

The new NFS did do the very nice addition of the Speed Run events (similar to old NFS:MW concept) where your 'time' is the average speed in a point A to point B race and you are given points accordingly. If you run through reckless you are going to get burned by someone who plays it smart.

Either way in any of the games where there is traffic rubber banding is needed regardless due to luck. Probably in ~5% of races you just have that stray completely unavoidable car, or someone wrecks in front of you in a one lane area or something to that extent. The worst are the cross traffic cars, if you cant get out of a drift and wreck there thats your crappy driving and not the cars fault for being there.

Least traffic in this one is smarter, NFS:HP traffic had the reaction to "oncoming car at 180 MPH" of "turn sideways and occupy as many lanes as possible".

Game getting better even though I beat 'storyline' (loose term) at about the seven hour mark not grinding at all. If I went straight at it I think five is a good time. I do like the addition of 'normal' cars which make cop involved events actually difficult as its much harder to lose them in a Ford Fusion then it is to lose them in a top of the line Porche.

[Rainbowdash]

an arcadey style of racing game doesn't need rubberbanding if done correctly, the reason rubberbanding exists is because people are whiny bastards who can't stand being behind

Its harder because if you are dealing with different classes of cars, you can just take the tank type car and if you get near the front just start wrecking all the competition.

are we using a different definition of rubberbanding? I thought it was when you were so far ahead of everything else, the computer cheats by going 300 mph faster than should be possible to catch up

Works both ways. Computer cheats to catch up and computer cheats to let you catch up.

[Rainbowdash]

a properly balanced game means that your standard tank-type car would have too much of a natural disadvantage to get near the front naturally anyways

Depending on the track and mods (if applicable) it can be in it enough to get a jump to at least eliminate a few cars right out the gates.

I think any 'dont close the streets' type game though automatically needs rubberbanding just to prevent randomness from becoming any sort of a factor. You have to have the very pure sim games to eliminate those type of things, and even then a poor CPU move can cost you the race in an event thats unavoidable. Its a necessary evil in racing games, which to an extent is why the NFS Autolog server is brilliant.

[Rainbowdash]

OK, this Halloween I've resolved to stop being a baby and play some scary games. I'm trying to take advantage of the Steam and GOG sales. So far I've got Amnesia: The Dark Descent and F.E.A.R. 2. Re-installing Dead Space as well. I like the look of Alan Wake, Home, the Alone in the Dark games, Outlast, and Scratches. I want to get into RE or Silent Hill, but have no idea where to begin. And what about some of these indie games? Anna, Lucius, Damned, Deadly Premonition, Dark Fall... anyone play these?

Would like some feedback.

If you are talking about the 2008 Alone in the Dark, don't play it. Its one of the only games I actually stopped playing because it was so unfun. The controls are bad, the story is bad, the characters are bad, the "horror" is not there, the platforming and driving sections have been done better by any game that has a platformer or driving section (for that matter probably some that DONT have platformer/driving sections)... its just a really really bad game. I actually feel ripped off having paid under $5 for it.

FEAR2 also is just your standard simple shooter you should be able to beat in a weekend on the hardest difficulty. Not "horror" apart from the predictable jump scares, fairly nonsensical in plot, and for some reason gives you next to unlimited bullet-time ability that basically turns a simple shooter into one that you almost feel bad for the computer because almost as unfair as the "Press X to kill anything" mech segments