What games are you currently playing?

[Shrooblord]

Ah, you have Halo 4. My friend preordered it and is going to pick it up on Friday. I already saw some footage of it and what I can say about it at first glance is that I really don't like the textures that for example the ground has. I mean, look at this. This really doesn't turn me on (funnily enough, the cliffs look great though).
http://i45.tinypic.com/dcd6pz.jpg
And the other thing is that I despise the new armour and armour colouring. I guess I could get over that and enjoy the game for what it is, but I'll just have to see.

Please tell me more things you notice about Halo 4 (whether you like them or not), because I'd like to get a good non-commerical look at it.
Oh, can you dual-wield?

[Haruka]

I've been playing Crash Bandicoot 1 and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. Also, the Rayman 1 for Atari Jaguar since I'm recording a walkthrough.

[BzzitTheMoskito]

I been replaying some Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction and playing some Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Arkham Asylum is a incredible good game. I have soon finished it, and i think i will order Batman: Arkham City soon.

[Bzzit]

I been replaying some Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction and playing some Batman: Arkham Asylum.

Arkham Asylum is a incredible good game. I have soon finished it, and i think i will order Batman: Arkham City soon.

Ive been meaning to replay tool of destruction for like 5 years now D: You played Q force/Full frontal assault? I have and I gotta say its defiantly a step up from all 4 one. Also if you enjoyed Arkham Asylum you will reeeeallly enjoy Arkham city!

[Shrooblord]

I already saw some footage of it and what I can say about it at first glance is that I really don't like the textures that for example the ground has. I mean, look at this. This really doesn't turn me on (funnily enough, the cliffs look great though).
http://i45.tinypic.com/dcd6pz.jpg
And the other thing is that I despise the new armour and armour colouring. I guess I could get over that and enjoy the game for what it is, but I'll just have to see.

Please tell me more things you notice about Halo 4 (whether you like them or not), because I'd like to get a good non-commerical look at it.
Oh, can you dual-wield?

[[MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]]

Okay I was in a 'fuck it, I'll just go get it' mood and now I have Halo 4. Most of my presumptions were wrong. The game's textures are great. The location of filming in that screenshot must be somewhere in an out-of-bounds place where the devs never expected people to go (so they didn't care what texture they stuck on that rock). The armour colouring is not even that bad in-game; you hardly notice it. To answer my own question: no, you cannot dual wield anything.

There are some great new features/gimmicks too. Some of the new armour abilities are great. I like how you can always sprint and how that's no longer a specific armour ability. There's things like Ordnance Drops that I thought were a nice addition. The overall changes to HUD (like that it moves a tiny bit as you run) make it feel more realistic and this is a serious pro. The physics are great in this - better than in most games I've seen so far. The sound is really good too: if there's an explosion around the corner and quite far away, you can hear it all muffled and distorted like you would; if you find yourself surrounded by explosions, you will experience hearing impairments for several seconds; the sounds are overall more realistic.
The campaign is great. Cool new story, but I won't go on to tell you what it is (and don't go on to tell me; I haven't finished it yet!) - don't want to ruin it for you.
There's one thing that I notice immediately: the game is really based on on-line experience. About half of the content or more is locked as long as you don't have a LIVE Gold account. What really disappointed me was that I can't even use the File Share anymore without having a LIVE Gold account. Shame on you, 343 - it seems it's all about the money now (welcome to life in the human world, I guess).

Then there's one more silly thing that I'm disappointed about in Halo 4. The explosions aren't great. In fact, they're a bit of a letdown. Things no longer explode in grand flashes of light and displays of epic fireballs - maybe a tad more realistic, however - not quite what you're used to after playing 1, 2, 3 and Reach (and ODST). Things explode weirdly too. Where first things made sense as they exploded, now they blow up into such pieces that you can immediately see that those pieces could have never formed the initial shape to begin with. The whole explosion mechanic looks a bit mediocre. Like I said, it's something silly that disappoints me; it's not really anything worth the attention I'm giving it.

The new capabilities in the Forge are, while not revolutionary (like one of my friends noted), certainly a big improvement for your efficiency when making maps. For a good overview on what's been added, why not check out this vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOJ5lqXXtpU

If you liked the other Haloes, you're most probably going to enjoy this one quite a bit too. It's a recommendation from me for sure.

[Minor-T5]

My brother loves Halo. He is already talking about how amazing this one looks. Boon once again .

[Adsolution]

The location of filming in that screenshot must be somewhere in an out-of-bounds place where the devs never expected people to go (so they didn't care what texture they stuck on that rock)

No, that's right smack in the middle of the map, closer the the waterfall base, facing the direction of the beach.

My brother loves Halo. He is already talking about how amazing this one looks. Boon once again .

What's your problem?

[Minor-T5]

My brother used to talk about Halo every single day. And now I have here him talk about it even more. It gets really annoying. That's what my problem is.

[Adsolution]

Ah, then don't boon unless you explain that beforehand, else it sounds like something completely different.

[Shrooblord]

The location of filming in that screenshot must be somewhere in an out-of-bounds place where the devs never expected people to go (so they didn't care what texture they stuck on that rock)

No, that's right smack in the middle of the map, closer the the waterfall base, facing the direction of the beach.

Beach? This is the Exile map, though I can see how you couldn't tell by the screenshot alone.

Do you have LIVE? What's the online experience like? I can tell from half of the options in the menus being greyed-out that it's a really big aspect of the game.

[Adsolution]

No it isn't Exile, it's Ragnarok/Valhalla. Do you not recall that one base in Valhalla is located on a beach that outstretches to a huge ocean?

And yes, I've always considered multiplayer to be the core of the Halo franchise. Interestingly, I haven't even started the campaign yet.

[Shrooblord]

No it isn't Exile, it's Ragnarok/Valhalla. Do you not recall that one base in Valhalla is located on a beach that outstretches to a huge ocean?

Here's a picture from a couple of seconds later. In the background, the two blue characters can be seen standing on that rock with the weird textures. This is Exile, right?
http://i49.tinypic.com/slnv5y.jpg

In any case - so far, that's the only place where I've been slightly disturbed by the textures. The rest of them are excellent.

[Adsolution]

Yes, your image is from Exile, but mine isn't. The picture I posted is Ragnarok/Valhalla. You can even see the giant spire of the beach base in the background.

I think the textures are very good indeed, as are the models, it's just the shading/atmosphere I find very ugly. Like I said before, they all seem to have that washed out, oversaturated yellow-filter look... all the multiplayer maps have this, and I find it very unappealing compared to the graphical style Bungie had.

[Shrooblord]

Yes, your image is from Exile, but mine isn't. The picture I posted is Ragnarok/Valhalla. You can even see the giant spire of the beach base in the background.

I saw that immediately. I thought we might have been talking about different things. I was talking about my picture because it showed the one example I had - before buying Halo 4 - of textures that I don't like, but I'm glad it stayed at that one example.

I think the textures are very good indeed, as are the models, it's just the shading/atmosphere I find very ugly. Like I said before, they all seem to have that washed out, oversaturated yellow-filter look... all the multiplayer maps have this, and I find it very unappealing compared to the graphical style Bungie had.

It's too bad that you notice this. I can see it in your screenshots too, but on my tv, everything seems fine. I guess I'm just lucky then.

[BzzitTheMoskito]

Halo 4 and some others from the Halo franchise other looks very amazing and unique. I would like to play some of em, someday. Too bad i don't own a Xbox360.

[Spanex]

Little Big Planet.

Yeah...

[Adsolution]

Little Big Planet.

Yeah...

Man.

[Spanex]

It's honestly not that bad. It's the community that peeves me more than the rest of the game.

[Adsolution]

I've played it, it's alright, but I don't think it's as "phenomenal" as people claim it to be.

[Spanex]

I've played it, it's alright, but I don't think it's as "phenomenal" as people claim it to be.

Yup. It's fun to create the craziest characters though and I enjoy messing with level creation.