Here it is, the weekly Open Discussion for August 23rd, 2012. Now’s your chance to choose the topics, whether they be in relation to what game’s you’re playing or news items that have caught your interest.
As opposed to last week – which saw the release of two high profile titles (Darksiders 2 and Sleeping Dogs) and the final release of XBLA’s Summer of Arcade promotion (Dust: An Elysian Tail) this is a more tepid week for releases, with only one major title dominating the store shelves. We are of course talking about Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, High Moon Studios’ highly anticipated sequel to the breakout hit War for Cybertron.
High Moon is attempting several new things with fall – chief among them a focus on mostly playing as one Transformer per mission – which they hope will make the experience feel more guided and story driven. Fall of Cybertron still looks and feels the part (at least as far as previews of the game are concerned), but it’s only when fans see the complete story that they will determine if this is a worthy follow-up.
On the news front its been an even quieter week as far as big reveals, but several new pieces of information regarding bigger games did catch our eye. A few new screenshots for GTA 5 were released that continue Rockstar Games tradition of making titles that surprise us visually, but still carry a specific aesthetic.
Along with that news were a couple reveals about Assassin’s Creed 3, including how long it will take gamers to complete and how the game’s opening will surprise players. It’s a forgone conclusion that the game must be played, but a better understanding of what type of investment Ubisoft’s sequel will require is always nice.
But those are only just some of the topics worth discussing; feel free to share your thoughts or gripes about any recent news or game that has caught your fancy.
Also, respect should be paid towards every commenter, and that no disparaging remarks will be tolerated. This is a place for gamers to get together and discuss the things they love, so have at it.
And if you want to talk about Movies or TV, head on over to Screen Rant’s Open Discussion post.
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Is anyone getting Madden next week?
I’m playing it as we speak, look for the review to hit tomorrow.
I got Sleeping Dogs two days ago, and I’ve been enjoying so far. For some reason, after the opening chase scene, I was having trouble getting into it. But now I’m engaged in the game and I love the variety of things to do. There’re the main missions, which have been varied so far; the drug busts, which are usually a challenge; the favors, which are usually varied; the races, which aren’t all they’re cracked up to be; and lots more. The story suffers a bit from incoherence and could use a few twists, but overall it’s decent. The combat is pretty good, although it is kind of a button masher. I don’t like Sleeping Dogs’ driving as well as GTA IV’s. Sleeping Dogs has good drifting (when you’re in a car; it sucks when you’re on a crotch rocket), but the the feel of the cars just doesn’t feel right to me. And when you start going fast, the camera gets shaky, which is a poor design choice; I don’t believe it’s a bug. The graphics are pretty good, as is the radio music. That about covers it for now.
Definitely going to start playing this soon.
Great!
Hey rob we’re you a fan of the original splinter cell games? And how do you feel about what we’ve seen from blacklist so far?
I love the original 3 but for some reason I never got into Double agent. But I did enjoy conviction though I missed the stealth aspect it felt more like. Action shooter. And I hope blacklist goes back to the stealth gameplay. And I wanna be able to hide the bodies again. It just didn’t feel right in conviction not hiding the bodies.
Also any news on when you’ll have the transformers review?
Hey!
Loved the original Splinter Cell on Xbox but didn’t really get into the sequels until I did co-op with Conviction. I love the ‘Wanted’ style gunplay of the new game and I think the animations are very cool. It blew us away in our behind-closed doors demo at E3 and so we gave it several GR E3 nods.
We weren’t able to secure an early review unit for Fall of Cybertron unfortunately so hopefully sometime next week.
Just curius, i have no reason to go back to skyrim/the playstation store, will Game rant post a story when it is released?
For the Dawnguard DLC you mean?
Yes.
I picked up Darksiders 2 yet haven’t played it at all. It took me over half an hour just to get to the actual start up screen since the limited addition copy I purchased had all these freebies. In order to get them I had to create a profile on THQ, and enter codes there record them and then input them into XBL. One of the content DLC’s isn’t even made yet but they have a code for it.
I’ve been playing Rift and actually liking it so far. So much that i’ve paid for the subscription past the free trial.
Hey Greg,
That’s great to hear about Rift. Do you play other MMOs and are you looking forward to trying Guild Wars 2?
I think I may pick that up next week since a friends and Game Ranters are jumping on.
As for Darksiders 2, I didn’t finish the original so it’s further down on my ever-growing ‘To Play’ list.
Picked up Transformers:Fall of Cybertron and have been playing since release day. The gameplay is awesome and imo precedes war for cybertron the G1 optimas that was included with the retro pack just looks bada$$. I love the amazing detail and the story so far is really great, this game is definately worth picking up.
I also won a free copy of Retro/Grade earlier this week. Many of you probably haven’t heard about it, but it’s a space rhythm game that actually plays in reverse—you start by un-defeating the boss and continue backtracking from there. Although I’m not a big fan of rhythm games, I really like Retro/Grade. The colorful visuals and impressive original score really make the game great. The gameplay is varied, so as not to get stale, and although the campaign is short, there are 100 challenges to complete, which takes awhile. Complete enough challenges and you’re rewarded with an alternate space ship or concept art; you can even unlock tracks from the game that you can mix on a virtual turntable. For only $10 on PSN, it’s easily worth purchasing.