If I owned it I'd be more than interested. But I don't. Although I'm sure I can find it used cheap enough, and Dorian likes the game mechanics and general aesthetic, so if I pick up a copy I'll let you know. We're friends on live, yeah?

It's not even non-linear. It's a corridoor shooter, except sometimes the walls are replaced by cliffs.

Just saying.

Wait, Rage or Borderlands?

Yeah, we're friends on Live.

Never was cel shaded, still looks crazy close to Borderlands. From what I understand its open in the fact you drive to places instead of choosing a level from a screen, the levels are all linear from what I have heard. Have no idea about quests or how close it is to Borderlands.


I've heard this complaint a lot, and I somewhat agree with it. I loved the dark and dreary environments of the first and dislike that they are mostly shunned in the sequels. At the same time, I love the new set pieces and action packed feel of 2 and 3, which I guess some people don't. Also, yeah Gears 3 didn't deviate from the stop and pop as much as the second, in some parts it did seem to just go on and on. I still loved it for the most part. So if you don't like the main gameplay mechanics, definitely not the thing for you. Have you tried Horde though? I cannot stress how good Horde is. Horde is so good.

Rage.

Borderlands... I believe that's open-world. It's so randomised it's hard to tell what it is.

Speaking of randomisation, I keep getting to the second-last level on The Blinding of Issac.

It's a good little game, I was always good at those Asteroids-style space-shooters so this is a game I'm actually good at. It's basically just McMillen and Baranowsky letting their hair down before they go engineer whatever monstrosity they're raising in their basement. As with most roguelikes, the true fun comes from finding an item you've never seen before, and the little tingle you get when you press the 'use' button...

if you liked Gish for the character design (and in my controversial opinion, there wasn't that much else to like), it's worth taking a look. Monstro is awesome.

I've been playing 3D Dot Game Heroes on the PS3. It's a lot of fun, but it's more of a blatant rip off Zelda than it is an homage. Still fun, though.

Personally I find RAGE refreshing with all the call of shits and gears of boring flooding the market. RAGE is fast, brutal and gorgeous-just as I expected from id. It's a shooter-not that snoozefest borderlands, also known as diablo with guns. And diablo was fucking terrible anyway.

BURN HIM!

BURN THE UNBELIEVER!

lol blizzard can suck my ass for killing all of its franchises and becoming activision's sex slave. Diablo, as repetitive and dull as it is, is sparkling in comparison to world of warcraft, which not only killed a fine rts, continues to look and feel like someone threw up a rainbow on tolkien and create an army of mindless "its teh popular!!11!!" asshats as a fanbase, but all at once lose all creativity and soul as developers. For shame, blizzard, for shame. Oh, and Statcraft 2. What the fuck was that? Well, blizzard?

I love hearing how bad World of Warcraft is from people who've never played it. The ignorant cliches spewing from your mouth keep my soul toasty on this chilly autumn morn.

And why is it worth blizzard's soul and creative spirit, oh enlightened one? I remember there was once a time when they made well thought out and fun games...then came the dark ages of repetitive quests, terrible pvp, further ripping off tolkien (the lich king? Seriously?) and sucking from the teat of wealth with such vigor that was previously reserved for EA and activision. And I found the experience dull and average. So I moved back to rpg's that dont wreak of unimaginative garbage. Otherwise, entertaining comment. If I had not have tried the damned thing, I would have had to back down.

Okay first of all the Lich King was from Warcraft III. At least get your facts straight.

Secondly, the case of 'Ripping of Tolkein' could be made of at least three quarters of Western Fantasy. Blizzard actually play with the cliches of western fantasy and twist more than enough shit around to keep the world vibrant and interesting. Also, for the record, there are far greater superficial similarites between LOTR and WoW than The Lich King. Which you might know about if you, you know, knew what you were talking about.

The storyline of World of Warcraft is also far more involved and intricate than it ever was in Warcraft II and III and builds on an impressive legacy to give pretty much the most rounded fantasy world I've seen. I play WoW for the story and I came back to WoW after a two year absence for exatly that.

Now, there are (Or rather: Were) huge problems with the way WoW plays. These are mostly gone. PVP is still shit, but that's mainly to do with the idiots who play it (And frankly if I wanted to play a PVP game I'd join Quake Live) and Blizzard as a game company learns from their mistakes and continually tries to better their product. Boring repetetive quests simply don't exist anymore outside of a slim layer of content that's escaped being updated since 2006 and the game is now highly storyline involved, rich, fast paced and fun to play.

Also, for the record the worst of WoW was before the Activision Blizzard merger, and the game has become a lot lot better since then. So yeah. You do not know what the fuck you are talking about.

By the way, don't post like that. It's not nearly as clever as you think it is.

Starcraft ripped off 40K lol

I never said warcraft before hand was all that imaginitave either. Dont put words in my mouth. And my issues with them lie more in their inability to support their other games or create new concepts. And I do not find myself clever in the slightest. In fact between self loathing and general lack of self confidence, I find my last few posts terribly written and as repetitive as the game I am slamming. But it is good to know that things have been fixed. Great, now they should do something new that doesnt become vaporware. And yes, most fantasy is derived from tolkien, and therefore norse mythology and such, but warcraft still comes off as uninspired and tacky. And yes it did rip off 40K, but anything with space marines does as well. lol

You say Blizzard sold off their creativity. You've said that you don't like Starcraft or Diablo, so what on earth was I supposed to infer?

This is the internet. I'm a tremendously nice guy, but for the love of God don't bring up your personal hangups in the middle of an argument. I'm giving you that advice free as a fellow Dr Who/Firefly/Evangelion fan and open bisexual.

You're going to have to expand on this point or we're at an impass. Before you do I suggest bringing yourself up to date on current Warcraft lore (Spoiler: There's a lot of it and I own all the novels) because whilst in a perfect world your opinion would be just as valid as mine, this isn't a perfect world and I'm damn sure I know more about the universe than you do.

Thrall should have ended up with Jaina.

Eh, fuck it. Im too tired to continue this argument. And as for the lore, Im sure its quite interesting. Anyway, My point about them losing their imagination and artistic soul is that old warcraft, which I enjoyed, had a charming yet dark feel to it. Not the cartoony commercial work it has become.They build their world for cash and popularity now. Its like how star wars became a cluster fuck. and as for starcraft 2...Just a terribly dissappointing sequel. Im not trying to continue the argument-just elaborate on what went wrong. Oh, and you missed a particularly imaginitave creation of theirs: Lost Vikings.

Nah, old Warcraft was just Warhammer with names switched, it took Blizz til 3 to actually start writing their own new stuff.

Which happened to be the last game from them I liked. But seriously-am I the only one who remembers lost vikings? lol

Oh, don't even get me started.

40k is a lovingly made ripoff of pretty much every gothic sci-fi that preceded it, and space marines had a good few outings before Games Workshop.

That said, I argue that after ripping off from a sufficient number of sources a fiction gains its own being, a bit like a piece of space debris gaining mass until it becomes its own body*. But at that point people seem to tell me to shut up.

Rumours fly around all the time that Blizzard were originally going to make Warhammer licenced games, then GW pulled out.

This is officially recognised bullshit. Both parties have denied it long enough. It was still a ripoff though. Starcraft... I think that just managed to nudge over the blurry line between 'plagarism' and 'heavy inspiration'.

Interesting fact: Warhammer invented green Orcs. Before they were all red-raw pink or ruddy, filthy brown. There even used to be a Citadel paint called 'Orc Brown'. Then some group of Warhammer hobbyists ran out of brown paint, and the rest is history...

EDIT: *I just realised this may be a subconscious Space Hulk reference.

Essentially I think you're correct, but there's still a line to be drawn when an inspiration becomes plagiarism.

Look at that Limbo of the Lost game. Or don't.

Played the Need for Speed: The Run demo today,

It was awful!

I will not be buying this game!

Criterion didnt do it then? Their take on hot pursuit was pure excellence.

I agree there,

I don't think Criterion were in on this one, but if they were, they should be ashamed.

Unlikely, they wouldnt leave the cars. They know what works.

I have. It's okay, not great. I play with Dorian sometimes and it's sort of fun, but...Eh.

Borderlands was a...Snoozefest? Alright. As for the rest of the silly things you've said following this post, thanks for the laughs. Really. I appreciate it.

I'm late, but I'd just like to say that I thought Starcraft II (especially in comparison to the first one) had a terrible storyline.

Considering all you do is shoot the same few enemies with a few element variants and the guns are the usual randomized stats? Yeah, snoozefest. The weak story and repetitive mission structure didnt help either. It was fun as tits for awhile with a friend, but beyond that its mileage is pretty damned low. Hopefully the sequel improves, I love Gearbox...but it was underwhelming after all the buildup. Style and early parts were great though.

Man, I swear the voice-actors for that game weren't even human.