Steerpike said
Did you play System Shock 2, Toger? Refresh my memory.

Some. Those damned monkeys scared the bejeebers outta me. I remember I played up until I kept getting killed in a room with operating tables(?). I'm pretty sure I'd spec'd myself into a no win situation from the get-go.

I had an idea (anyone who knows me in RL always runs in the other direction when I say this):

One of you playing Infinite needs to do a video "walkthrough" of the first... oh, hour or so. That would be immensely helpful in deciding whether I want to spend my hard-earned pennies for the game!

Isn't that a great idea?

When you put it that way, no, I'm not sure... to be honest.

Watching someone else play is a double-edged sword: it gives me an idea of a game's mechanics, theme,etc.; particularly if there are features I universally despise (re-spawning enemies). On the hand, I don't play the way other people do (I'm one of those people that invariably breaks a game because I don't play in the order the devs expect) and I'm constantly saying "What's that over there?" or "Go over there!" while watching videos... which is annoying for me.

I wasn't going to play the new Tomb Raider at all, but after watching about 10 videos of the gameplay I grabbed a copy when Amazon had it as a Gold Box offer.

:shrug:

You still need to do a video, though. I really liked the Alan Wake video.

The forum effect will eventually be too much to bear and I'll buy it at some point... sooner, rather than later, I'm sure.

Thanks, xtal!

Thanks! That was quite helpful.

I think I need to play it just to hear the period music. And the announcements.

Yeah, I just posted a rant that is using BioShock Infinite as a springboard but that doesn't necesarilly condemn the game. But I know it will feel pretty negative. So, to preempt the backlash or at least to voice my opinion about the game itself:

Steerpike is right in saying that BioShock Infinite makes you criticise small things with great intensity because a lot of what the game does is incredible. Unsurpassed even.

I love the setting. I love the mixture of styles, period(s) symbols and even the hands-off take on politics that some reviewers criticised. I felt it was a well handled backdrop with convincing displays of both right and left extreme, for a story that is actually personal and not all that political anyway.

I love the characters, I am especially happy how Elizabeth was handled, with respect and intelligence. A female character that is NOT designed to make you fall in love with her or desire her sexually or even get your white knight armour out? That IS awesome. Sure, her gameplay role is a bit... restricted, but so is everything else about the gameplay.

In short: for my taste the game gives up on exploration too heavily, it has barely recognisable customisation/ RPG lite mechanics, it ditches inventory management almost entirely so as a result everything outside of shooting feels like a chore. Sure, the tourist sections are lovely but there's very little to do there and what you have to do outside of the shooting boils down to a menial task of scavenging everything without thinking or planning.

And the shooting... The Kotaku article from a few days back breaks it down pretty well, but here's my 2 cents:

I love that you fight in arenas, not corridors and I love that you have so many options: guns, vigors, melee, skyhook rails, summoning stuff from tears and getting Elizabeth's assists. That in theory feels empowering. But playing on hard made for many unsatisfying combat encounters for me. The tactics go to hell as soon as the fighting starts: everything moves so quickly that you can't really plan and execute so it boils down to using area of effect vigors and shooting everything you can. I hate it how every single adversary knows where you are all of the time, so breaking line of sight and going into cover means nothing, they still pound on you all the time. This grates because you feel like you are not given a fair chance to use your skills and especially after playing Far Cry 3 it feels quaint. I hate how their AI seems to be stuck in pre-Halo, pre-MOHAA era: they stand and shoot at you or race at you regardless of whether you're shooting at them or not. This is Serious Sam-level AI and it simply does not work here. There is no effective crowd control tactic here besides murder of crows/ bronco vigors and, at least on hard, the game is so tightfisted with resources that I kept dying and respawning and chipping at the enemies one at the time. Battles become about attrition, not tactics about half way in and I didn't like that. The final battle is grandiose and really satisfying to win but it took me at least fifteen tries...

And those fucking Motorised Patriots? Jeeeez... can you say bullet sponge fast enough, before they cut you down and send you to a respawn point? They felt extremely cheap to me.