TallGuyCalif's Computer Gaming and Entertainment Site

Category: Games I’m Playing

  • GTA V for PS4 is pretty fun

    I bought Grand Theft Auto V for PS4 before release day, but haven’t really played it much until Thanksgiving weekend. I have all the previous GTA games on Steam and have played bits of them, but never really got into them. I liked the look of GTA IV, but didn’t enjoy beating up shopkeepers, so gave that one up. The driving in GTA San Andreas and Vice City was super annoying, with cops following at the slightest infraction. So while I was a fan of the concepts of the games, I never enjoyed them much. GTA V seems like fun, though, so I’m enjoying playing it.

    GTA V on PS4 looks really great. They’ve condensed Los Angeles County into a sprawling, yet manageable Los Santos. That the port is just south of the airport, skipping the South Bay, is a little disappointing, but it looks like they transplanted the Strand of Hermosa and Manhattan Beaches to just south of the Santa Monica area. So driving around Los Santos is a real treat for those of use familiar with LA. For others, they did such a good job that you can feel that you’ve had a bit of the LA experience through the game (but come visit LA anyway, because they need your tourist dollars).

    When I comment about what you’ll see when driving around Los Santos, it is because you’ll be doing a lot of driving. Seriously, too much. But at least the driving is pretty good in this game. Traffic is terrible, which is correct for the region, and all the stoplights are red, which matches my commute most days. In fact, they other drivers are pretty stupid, and often make left turns from the right lane and vice versa, thus really messing up traffic. If I waited for traffic, I’d never get anything done, so I mostly split the lanes, drive on the wrong side of the road (or the sidewalk), and in generally disobey traffic laws to get where I’m going. Luckily the cops and other drivers are very forgiving. The other drivers, in fact, have terrific reaction times, so almost never run into me. The same can’t be said of me – I hit lots of cars, posts, fire hydrants, and a few pedestrians. Luckily, NPCs in the game are pretty tough, so they tend to get up and curse you out, so no harm done.

    So getting around kinda stinks in the game, compared to games like Saints Row 4 where you could call for a car anywhere and even a jump jet. In GTA V, I have a blimp (pre-order bonus?), but it is placed in just a few far away spots when I call for it, so I still have to drive to get there. I did have fun in my blimp, until I went over the military base north of town and got shot out of the sky. A better way to travel is by cab, but they’re not always good at getting to you, especially if traffic is lousy. I’d say they show up in a timely way about 50% of the time. When in the cab, you can pay extra to just skip the drive and arrive at your destination, so that’s handy.

    The game doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is a nice change from GTA IV. Sure, there’s lots of killing, but the banter and attitudes of the companions make it not seem so dire. The dialog, particularly when playing Franklin, has more “N words” in it than I’ve ever heard in my entire life. I hope that’s not really the way people talk and that it is just exaggerated for the game. There are some very funny bits in the game and the scenery, so I’m very impressed with the effort Rockstar put into making this vast game.

    Since I’m still reasonably early in the game, perhaps the travel problems will get better, but overall, I’m enjoying it. More than Destiny? Well, yes, because I feel like I’m making progress and having a minor impact on the game world (the stories on the radio news say I am 8-). The shooting mechanics are way behind Destiny’s, but they work well enough. And there is a plot, which is a nice change. I still like the fun and gameplay and banter of Saints Row III and IV better, but the amazing city of Los Santos is not to be missed.

  • Destiny is Rage Inducing

    Is Destiny like an abusive relationship? I ask myself, nearly every day, why I keep coming back to Destiny. I have lots of great games and are more meaningful than Destiny or look like lots of fun (GTA V, Infamous Second Son and First Light), yet I keep coming back for more Destiny. I suppose it is because Destiny is very comfortable and predictable, plus the game mechanics feel about as perfect as I can imagine.

    But yesterday, Destiny pissed me off several times. The first and most upsetting was when I jumped to the Tower to turn in a bounty, then promised to rejoin a friend on the Moon Patrol (she needed to kill Hive and I needed to get public events for another bounty). From the Tower, I joined her fireteam and started flying to the Moon. My friend told me that a “Defend the Warsat” public event was starting. I was still loading (covered up by the flying animation). After a minute or so, she said that the Warsat was about halfway done, but I was still loading. After another seeming interminable time nothing changed and my anxiety to get there turned to FURY. I was so mad at the fucking load screens that take forever on modern gaming systems with the game loaded on the hard drive. At that point, I just turned off my PS4 and played LOTRO for the first time in 2 weeks. LOTRO was very relaxing and non-rage inducing.

    But LOTRO got boring after I did a bunch of quests in Western Gondor, so I needed my FPS action fix, so I jumped back into Destiny. Then a couple of other annoying things happened, both involving “Kill Target” public events. I didn’t bother rejoining my friend’s fireteam, because I was embarrassed that I rage quit because of the stupid load time. Instead, I found a Kill Target event on Earth. I wasn’t able to kill the target alone, because I couldn’t keep his shields down long enough. In fact, the only Kill Target that I can do by myself is a Servitor on the Moon that doesn’t have shields – it’s an easy one. So I failed and got a “participation notice.” Thanks, Destiny.

    Then I went to Mars to kill Cabal elites. There is a circuit there where we can kill between 1 and 4 elites every few minutes (depending on who spawns). I had 3 other people doing the circuit with me, which led to timing issues of someone killing an elite before I could get there, but it worked out. Then another Kill Target event started, while the other 3 were still around, but as soon as I jumped down to engage the target, they all disappeared. Once again, I could hurt the target, but not kill him, because I couldn’t keep his shields down long enough. What the hell happened to all the people competing with me for elite kills? I have no idea, but I was completely puzzled by it.

    So the two Kill Target  event-related annoyances are no big deal and part of the game, but that damn forever load screen was just too long and too infuriating. I need to find a way to cut my addiction to Destiny and stop the abuse it does to me. Time to go beat up hookers in GTA V (or whatever the bad behavior is in that game).

    On a side note, I got an Xbox One that was on sale at Costco, so I may have to shut down the PS4 for a while and try XBone games, including AssCreed Unity that came with it!

  • The Problem with Digital Download Games

    I’ve been buying more games recently as digital downloads rather than physical media for many reasons, including convenience, not having the disc spinning and vibrating in the drive, and simply not having to keep track of the disc media. When things are working, it is great, but sometimes the system breaks down, and then we consumers are screwed.

    Recently, I’ve had a few problems with games bought through the PlayStation Network (PSN). When PSN is down, these games lose their ability to be played on my second PS4, which is the one I use, as opposed to my “main” PS4 that my wife uses. So last night, as I was playing Destiny (yes, my last post was a bit of exaggeration, and I still play Destiny sometimes), PSN went down for (all too frequent) maintenance. Then the system told me that I would be kicked in 15 minutes because the PS4 couldn’t verify my permission to use the game. Of course, I was in the middle of a Nightfall strike at the time, so I was quite concerned. Luckily, we finished the strike, but I was booted a few minutes later and remained unable to play. Of course, when I fired up my other PS4, PSN was down, so I couldn’t log in and play from there either. It wasn’t a Destiny server problem, but PSN was preventing me from playing. So I played LOTRO on my trusty PC.

    So the problem is that Sony has draconian anti-piracy measures in place that punish their own customers when Sony breaks its own network. I can’t recall ever having a problem with Steam preventing me from playing a game, nor even Origin doing so, but Sony has done this to me a few times (Columbus day, for example – thanks Sony). Do I believe that Steam and Origin have better, more clever network engineers than Sony? Well, Steam for sure does, but given that Origin is EA and Origin has other stupid problems, perhaps the Origin folks are only a little better than Sony’s.

    So what’s the solution? First, Sony should NOT enforce the crazy 15 minute license expiry when they caused the problem by taking PSN down. If the PS4 is verifiably on the internet and yet PSN is down, extend that timeline to 12 hours or so. That will give Sony time to fix PSN yet not inconvenience customers. Seriously, Sony, patch that into the next OS update! It is more important than fancy themes.

    The long term solution is for Sony to stop thinking of PSN as a monolithic entity that is either “up” or “down.” The login and licensing servers should be separate and VERY stable, basically never going down for more than a few minutes at a time. Then, player communications should also be a separate service that is very reliable. Things like trophy handling and inspecting other player can be less reliable, because they aren’t as critical. The PSN store is only critical to Sony and its revenue, so it is in their best interest to keep it working, but if it is down for maintenance, it shouldn’t affect other things. Yes, I’m suggest re-architecting PSN so maintenance on one service doesn’t wipe out everyone. It’ll be a challenge, but your customers will be more satisfied and think more highly of you. This is an area where Sony has trailed Microsoft in the past, but Sony needs to take the lead now since they have the most popular console! Time to fix your network problems, Sony. And maybe then, we could try that Drive Club thing you’ve been teasing for a year…

  • Destiny is KILLING me!

    Destiny has been out for a few weeks, and while the critics kind of hate it and the shine is wearing off because of all the grinding, it still has me in its clutches. Whereas LOTRO or Star Trek Online used to be my “comfort games,” now Destiny fills that role. I always felt like playing LOTRO or STO, even if I just has a little while. I could blow off steam, accomplish something, and complete a mission or two. I didn’t touch either LOTRO or STO this weekend, but opted for Destiny in every moment I could spare. I’m a little sad about this. I have a lifetime subscription to STO, so I’m not wasting money by not playing it, but there are still places to see and aliens to kill. I do pay yearly for LOTRO, so if I’m not playing it, I’m wasting money. Besides, I still haven’t even finished the new story that came with the latest update. So I feel guilt over my choice in how to waste my time.

    Destiny, on the other hand, has a very short story that I’ve finished. Everything else PvE is just replaying the same things over and over, with the exception of the Raid, which I won’t be able to tackle maybe ever. But the gameplay mechanics are so comfortable and natural and satisfying (note that I didn’t say “rewarding” – more later) that it is easy to jump in and do a couple patrol missions or even a short story mission when I have a few minutes available. If the infernal and interminable loading could be reduced or eliminated, the game would be even better and less annoying.

    The game isn’t very rewarding, however. Most missions give no reward or perhaps some random crappy reward. The Queen’s Wrath missions are a great way to get good gear, but they are very hard and often give the same damn helmet over and over! Random loot drops are all we can hope for, and I got very lucky yesterday when my first and only Legendary Engram turned into an Exotic sniper rifle. Yay!

    And then I went into the Crucible (PvP) and got my ass handed to me.

  • Finished Destiny’s Story Missions

    I finished the “story missions” in Destiny last night after nearly 18 hours of play. So all the people that claimed the Destiny world is small (myself included in previous posts) are both right and wrong. It turns out that we only get a small region to explore on each of the game worlds (Earth, Moon, Mars, Venus), but those areas are pretty big, detailed, and complex. Also, if you think about it, 18 hours is a lot longer than it takes to finish most games other than RPGs and MMOs these days. It’s way longer than The Last of Us and Tomb Raider, to name a couple.

    So now that I’ve finished the story missions and reached the level cap (20), what’s next? Well, now the game takes on a new life. I haven’t even touched the PvP Crucible, nor have I put much effort into maxing out my reputation with any of the various factions. I’ve only played one Strike mission (twice, though). I’m not even high enough level to play the current raid nor some of the harder mission difficulties. The game changes into a lot more grinding, which could be bad if it weren’t for the good game mechanics and nearly perfect feel of the action. There is a lot more to do, much more to explore, and more fun to be had. Places to go, things to see, baddies to kill…

    I haven’t even tried out all three character classes (only the Warlock so far). In addition, each class has two different skill trees that are apparently quite different, but I haven’t touched the 2nd Warlock skill tree.

    Now that I’ve reached this milestone, however, I will try to obsess over Destiny a little less and get back to LOTRO, STO, Diablo III, and more. But Destiny certainly offers more compelling future fun than Titanfall does, in my opinion, yet the costs the same (at release).

  • Glitches in the Destiny matrix

    I played the first 4 missions of Destiny last night and enjoyed them, even though they were exactly like the beta, as far as I could tell. I got the slight impression that thing were a little harder than the beta, but that may just have been my lack of practice. But I did notice some glitching that wasn’t in the beta: Some enemies were glitching between a couple of different spots, much like laggy play in other multiplayer shooters. Except these were computer controlled enemies, not players, so it wasn’t due to someone’s crappy internet connection. These were also very low level enemies (level 2), so it wasn’t some special ability – it was a glitch. It wasn’t a terrible problem, but it sure messed up my aim as I tried to kill them. It also messed them up, too, so at least the disadvantage went both ways.

    Other than that glitch, all seemed just as good as the beta, and it was good fun. I played the 4th mission with a friend (who was much better than I am), so that was great fun.

    One of the things I like about Destiny is that the enemies are not omniscient. They can be surprised if you sneak up on them, and some of them can even be a little cowardly if you knock down their shields. Overall, the feel of the game is great, so I’m looking forward to playing more.

  • Fellow Guardians, I did buy Destiny for PS4

    Despite my previous plans not to buy Destiny, I did pre-order it at the last hour, so now my PS4 surely has it all downloaded so I can play tonight.

    I didn’t succumb to the hype, but I bought it because some of my friends pre-ordered it, and I decided that if I wanted to play with them, I’d better get the game. As with so many games (Titanfall, anyone), my friends and I have a burst of playing, then the interest fades. Since I’m not a big multiplayer shooter player, I have skipped all the Battlefields and CODs, but because I enjoyed the Destiny Alpha and Beta, I knew I would enjoy playing the game to some extent. Let’s hope my $60 was well spent…

  • Finished The Last of Us and now addicted to Diablo III on PS4

    I finished The Last of Us on PS4 and think it was overall very good, but I’m pretty disappointed in the ending. It’s not that it wasn’t well done, but that I didn’t have a choice in how it went. I may have even made the same choices Joel made, but it is possible that I would have wanted to choose differently. Frankly, in the end, Joel turned into a selfish a**hole. I haven’t played the DLC mission yet, because I was so disappointed in the main ending, but I will get to it sometime when I’m done with Diablo III.

    Yes, I’m playing and am addicted to Diablo III on the PS4. Note that I’m calling it Diablo III, but there’s all sorts of additional crap in the name, just like with The Last of Us. Since my interest is in the games, not helping their marketing, I won’t bother with superfluous words in their titles.

    I played Diablo III when it first came out for PC (and had to deal with the annoying Battle.Net authentication crap and always forgetting who I was). I finished the game with a Wizard and enjoyed it, but the mouse-based UI was a carpal tunnel-inducing nightmare! So I waited for the PS3 version, which I bought so I could play with my wife. We played for a few hours, but my wife didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. Now this new version for PS4 looks great, includes all the content from the DLC, and has a great control scheme using the controller. The game hasn’t crashed on me, but has done so for a friend. It also has a few annoying bugs/omissions. The first thing it did was ask me to join my Battle.Net account to my PSN account and they would give me a gift (at least I’m pretty sure that’s what it said). I did that before creating a new character, but then, when I created a character, it asked me to do it again. Well, once I logged in, the accounts were connected. But as far as I know, I didn’t get any goodies because of it. Not a big deal, but an unsatisfying experience.

    The game itself looks great. I’m playing a crusader this time and started on Hard mode, but quickly bumped up to Expert. The Crusader is a serious butt-kicker and none of the bosses have given me much trouble. I died twice in the main campaign and not yet in the Resurrection of Evil expansion missions. Once I finish, my wife promises to play with me, so I will suggest she create a Crusader and I’ll play some other class that I haven’t played.

    The co-op aspects of the game are great! It supports couch co-op, so my wife can pick up a controller, select her character, and join my game. Loot is separate, so we’re not competing for gear, which is a huge improvement over most RPGs that support co-op. Additionally, it is easy for friends to join your game over the Internet. I’ve had a friend join me a couple of times, and it works very well. In couch co-op, both players remain on the screen, so it limits how far apart we can be. Network co-op players have their own screens, so they don’t have to be near each other or even enter dungeons together. It is pretty flexible.

    Two other interesting co-op aspects make this game shine. Sometimes you find gifts for your friends who play the game. You can’t do anything with it other than send the gift to your friend. These are usually legendary items, so it is worth sending and receiving gifts. In addition, if a monster kills your friend, it may pop into your game world as a mini-boss, almost always at a bad time, like when you’re in the middle of combat with a big mob. If you kill the “nemesis,” then you get nice rewards as well as a gift for the friend that was killed. If the nemesis kills you, it may appear in another friend’s world to try to kill them. It is a nifty mechanic that keeps players on our toes.

    I highly recommend Diablo III for the PS4. It is a terrific package that has the potential for many tens or even hundreds of hours of fun. The Last of Us is an extremely well done game with engaging gameplay, but a disappointing ending.

    And while we’re talking about disappointing endings, I’ve given up on Far Cry 3. While the free-form gameplay is the best shooter I’ve played maybe ever, the scripted stuff was pretty awful. I’m now in the middle of the end of the game, and it is all scripted. As I was looking for hints on how to survive the helicopter mission, I saw that there is no more actual game play before the end and you get to make a choice from two lousy options. This isn’t much better than The Last of Us, in that here you are, the greatest warrior on the island and able to do pretty much anything, yet your only future is disappointment or death. I play games for fun, so these crappy endings are not making me happy. I know real life doesn’t have happy endings, nor do many movies, but games are escapist fare and should have happy ending possibilities. Even Mass Effect 3 had happy-ish possibilities if you worked hard enough and made the right choices.

  • I’m not enjoying The Last of Us

    I recently started playing The Last of Us on PlayStation 4, and I’m not enjoying it. I’m captivated by it and it gives me sleepless nights and I can’t wait to see how it ends, but I’m not enjoying it.

    The Last of Us is pretty grim, much like Tomb Raider is, but it is all of humanity that is screwed, not just Lara Croft and her wacky band of buddies. While Tomb Raider started out pretty grim, before long, Lara had lots of weapons and skills and was an ass kicking machine. In The Last of Us, there are no scenarios that I’ve found where I felt completely confident and able to control the situation.

    The writing is extremely well done, and the plot twists and turns make certain the player is never quite sure what’s coming next. The Last of Us is a very linear game, but they’ve done an amazing job of making you unaware of it. There are often multiple choices of where to go, but they all put you exactly where you need to go without making you feel that you’re forced to go that way. The areas are masterfully done and often creepy as hell. Walking through the science building at the fictitious University of Eastern Colorado is as tense a time as any other part of the game so far.

    There are a number of plot holes in the game, but they’re easy enough to ignore. For example, the infected are quite stupid, so they should have all died out of starvation or in the cold of winter, since they can’t light fires to warm themselves. But that would have made a boring game, so the infected are present in places like Colorado where one winter should have taken them out. And the amazing coincidence of bad guys showing up every time you reach a plot point and need to move on is a little tedious, but again, needed to make sure the game doesn’t turn into just a movie with little interaction.

    The Last of Us is great and well worth playing, but there’s not much fun to be had, as far as I’ve seen. The banter between characters is good and sometimes amusing, but the overall mood is somber. The combat is satisfying, but not rewarding. When you finish a battle, you are relieved, not exhilarated. There is never enough ammo nor crafting materials to be found. And if your pack is full, events will come shortly that will make you use much of it. The game is a constant struggle, yet one that will keep you playing for just one more checkpoint even after you should have gone to bed. Then, when you go to bed, the game will filter into your dreams and give you stressful, restless nights. And then you can’t wait to get back to playing.

  • Playing Far Cry 3 and enjoying it!

    In between getting my Risa starships in Star Trek Online and getting my Rune Keeper his war steed in Lord of the Rings Online, I’ve been playing and enjoying Far Cry 3.

    Far Cry 3 is an open world first person shooter/RPG game, in which you take out bad guys and wild animals on an island or two after you and your friends are captured by very bad guys. It is RPGish in that you gain skills and and crafting abilities with experience. Crafting is everything in the game. When you start, you can carry nearly nothing in your loot bag, ammo bag, syringe (for healing and buffs) bag, etc. You kill animals to craft better gear, which is mostly great, but sometimes frustrating. The animals in the game are not pushovers, either. The dogs attack in packs, the tigers and bears are tough, and snakes bite you while you’re sneaking through dungeons.

    Guns, on the other hand, are plentiful, and more unlock as you climb radio towers to scope out the landscape (much like synchronizing in the Assassins Creed games). Combat is fun, but not always easy. Many side quests require you to kill your target with a knife, so sneaking is important.

    A feature of the game I really like is that you actually have an impact on the world. As you capture enemy strongholds, the friendly islanders occupy them and the area around them becomes less dangerous.

    The checkpoint system is hit and miss. Usually, it doesn’t take you too far back when you die, but there have been a couple of missions (so far) that were very frustrating because of how far back the checkpoint took you.

    An unfortunate part of the game is that you kill the first boss (Vaas, the guy on the cover of the game, and a really bad dude) in sort of a drug-induced haze/dream sequence, so I didn’t get the satisfaction of putting a bullet into him and knowing he’s dead. I keep expecting him to pop up again at some inopportune time. During the first half of the game, he always has the jump on you, which was quite frustrating. I’ve just started the second part, which aims to kill Vaas’ boss, so we’ll see how that goes.

    But if any of this sounds fun, get Far Cry 3 (it isn’t too expensive these days) and play it. It’s pretty great!