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BadLlama posted:Are they like boomers in L4d though so that when you melee them they fly back 100 feet and are dazed for an hour? No, the melee doesn't push them back that far and the stun is maybe a second long. Perhaps a decent team would be able to combat suicide spitters a few times, but that would essentially become the game. How long can you avoid getting suicide bombed. Latency blows for everyone besides the host, so the chances of being able to stun and safely kill them is a pretty hilarious idea. Although I'm sure you'd see a lot more marines carrying the Tactical Shotgun for the stun secondary. But it's a projectile, not hitscan so it's not that easy to hit with.
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Feb 13, 2013 18:32
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ReV VAdAUL posted:If Gearbox PR can shift the medium long term narrative to "Gearbox were lazy and choose the wrong people to subcontract to" that'll be a hell of a lot better for their image than "Gearbox made a bad game." Aren't these the same thing, though? I mean, I'll give a pass for DNF because that was mostly them picking up 3DRealms' work and turning it into a disc, but Aliens was started by Gearbox and ostensibly finished by Gearbox, no matter who the game (or parts of it) was contracted to.
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Feb 13, 2013 18:44
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An Actual Bear posted:Except Inversion was dreadful. It's like a parody of the modern 3rd person shooter except they're totally serious about it. You fight the same boss literally 5 or 6 times, and the plot is so incredibly stupid it's hilarious. I mean come on now, the plot twists are that the Earth is actually a dome on a spaceship and your daughter, the primary motivation for the entirety of the game, was dead the whole time and your partner didn't tell you because reasons. Also about half way through the difficulty goes from "can finish this with one arm tied behind my back" to "bosses can instantly kill you and has attacks that cannot be dodged." No, your partner doesn't tell you because he doesn't want you to lose the will to fight because you're the player character in a first person shooter which means you can kill thousands of mans without breaking a sweat. So yes, GOTY.
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Feb 13, 2013 18:44
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your evil twin posted:Except I think Aliens fans should buy this game, if they can get it for £10. I found the the multiplayer to be decent, but certainly not worth the launch asking price. It's worth picking up in a Steam sale if you are an Aliens fan and want to be part of a squad of marines or a pack of Xenomorphs. "Buy this if you're a huge fan of the source material and can get it for a quarter of the current asking price." sounds like the sort of advice that accompanies a 2/5, though. Think of it like a movie review- if a movie gets 2 stars, that generally means bad-to-mediocre, which this game is. I know that Giant Bomb's scoring system is unusual in this capacity, but it generally goes like this: 5/5 - Game of the Year Contender 4/5 - A solid game, should probably buy, but if you can only buy a couple games this year, you might want to pass. 3/5 - A good game, but due to some issues, this game could either be a must-have, or should-pass depending on your relationship with the genre and/or source material. 2/5 - The sort of game that's really only a should-buy for people who have something they already adore about it. 1/5 - Don't buy. 0/5 - A noxious stain on all that is good and holy about video games. From the way you're describing your relationship with A:CM, it's probably a 1, a 2 tops. The idea that you think it deserves a 5/10- which most review sites consider "mediocre"- when you can't think of a single person who should buy it at retail price, is really odd. Mediocre games should get bought at asking price by SOMEBODY. If nobody should buy the drat thing, then it's not mediocre, it's bad.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:01
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Honestly, to me the biggest issue in this whole debacle was the complete dishonesty of Pitchford and the overall marketing campaign. Companies make bad games sometimes, it happens, and I certainly don't expect their marketing campaign to be "don't buy our game we hosed this up whooooo boy", but I think there's a point where you need to just take a bullet instead of loving your consumer base over. If that bullet was pissing Sega off by asking to delay the game again, so be it. I don't know what the proper way to handle it was but it certainly wasn't "Tweet constantly saying how great the game is/would be". Maybe it's just me but I'd be more likely to give "Gearbox: Made A Bad Game" a 2nd chance over "Gearbox: Liars".
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Feb 13, 2013 19:10
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Require More Fire posted:Honestly, to me the biggest issue in this whole debacle was the complete dishonesty of Pitchford and the overall marketing campaign. Companies make bad games sometimes, it happens, and I certainly don't expect their marketing campaign to be "don't buy our game we hosed this up whooooo boy", but I think there's a point where you need to just take a bullet instead of loving your consumer base over. If that bullet was pissing Sega off by asking to delay the game again, so be it. I don't know what the proper way to handle it was but it certainly wasn't "Tweet constantly saying how great the game is/would be". This isn't the first time Pitchford aggressively hyped up a game before release only for it to suck/bomb hard. See also: DNF's marketing campaign.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:13
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Require More Fire posted:Maybe it's just me but I'd be more likely to give "Gearbox: Made A Bad Game" a 2nd chance over "Gearbox: Liars". I can tell you that all future titles attached to Gearbox have made my "wait until they are on a holiday sale on steam" list. VVV BL1 was not nearly as poo poo as this or DNF. There were big issues with it, but the 4 player Co-op was legitimately really fun for a lot of people.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:14
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Require More Fire posted:the complete dishonesty of Pitchford and the overall marketing campaign. Who knows, maybe it'll stick this time. Hopefully. Edit: BadLlama posted:BL1 was not nearly as poo poo as this or DNF.  RoadCrewWorker fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Feb 13, 2013 |
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Feb 13, 2013 19:14
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Palpek posted:If any of you find multiplayer in this game playable then do yourself a favor and just go buy Natural Selection 2 or even Primal Carnage. Both of those games do the same thing but better by an order of magnitude. It's laughable when Colonial Marines is being defended by mentioning a completely skippable and unbalanced multiplayer mode when really solid alternatives exist. Seconding this. From what everyone says, this game's MP will be dead in weeks. Do yourself a favor and play a good game like Natural Selection 2 instead. It has sentries, exoskeleton suits, wall climbing aliens, and is pretty balanced and fun for many hours on end.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:20
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PonchAxis posted:This isn't the first time Pitchford aggressively hyped up a game before release only for it to suck/bomb hard. See also: DNF's marketing campaign. Yeah, that is the other thing, that this isn't the first time. DNF was essentially the same scenario: A blatantly bad game marketed as amazing. BadLlama posted:I can tell you that all future titles attached to Gearbox have made my "wait until they are on a holiday sale on steam" list. Same here and that sucks, because I am admittedly a huge fan of both Borderlands games. I pre-ordered BL2 and after this and DNF I kind of feel like I dodged a bullet. Definitely won't with BL3.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:22
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I don't want to be the negative  type, but what are the chances that this even has an impact on game marketing/pre orders as a whole? I really hope this shows people how loving dumb pre orders are in general and hopefully Gearbox takes a huge loving hit, but I just doubt it. I just see Gearbox spinning the PR machine super hard and leaving this whole debacle in the dust.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:27
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Stele007 posted:Seconding this. From what everyone says, this game's MP will be dead in weeks. Do yourself a favor and play a good game like Natural Selection 2 instead. It has sentries, exoskeleton suits, wall climbing aliens, and is pretty balanced and fun for many hours on end. Hell, play Natural Selection 1 if your PC can't handle NS2. Still loads better than A:CM.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:27
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quote:Not the greatest screenshots in the world but its what I could get at the time when I left the project. The lighting engine was only 45% done for the project and it really made it hard to get good cubemaps and gi on the environments. Hopefully I can get my hands on the game soon and get better screens. For now this is all I have also on ACM a lot of the game art asset wise was outsourced to Shanghai so nothing you can do to really point fingers. Also keep in mind the game was in development for 6 years so when a lot of us polycounters joined the project the game was still filled with 6 year old assets that we had no time to fix or replace. From polycount
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Feb 13, 2013 19:28
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Any idea where I can buy AVP2 for digital download?
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Feb 13, 2013 19:33
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OldTennisCourt posted:I don't want to be the negative This is not the first time Pitchford pulled this off and isn't last. Nobody ever holds him accountable for lying, the game will sell and that's that. Gearbox will release a few minor patches fixing bigger bugs so that fanboys can shout "SEE? THEY CARE!"  and then a season of plot DLCs will roll out that most likely is already long in the works at the outsourced studios and it's too late to do any major changes in release schedule.Next time Gearbox will release a good game from their own IP and the cycle will continue (I'm betting the next poo poo game will be a Duke Nukem sequel). Palpek fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Feb 13, 2013 |
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Feb 13, 2013 19:38
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OldTennisCourt posted:I don't want to be the negative There already seems to be a shift from standard pre-orders to Kickstarter like stuff, the Steam pre-orders for Company of Heroes 2 and Tomb Raider are good examples, clearly borrowing the idea of stretch goals. As the Total Biscuit video points out, one of the best things about pre-orders (for publishers) is that it makes consumers feel attached to the game, to the extent they'll defend a bad game because they pre-ordered it but don't want to appear foolish. Kickstarter style stuff makes people feel even more involved, in the examples above their efforts have actually affected in game content, so expect Publishers to push this kind of pre-order more. It would be difficult for Publishers to justify asking for crowd funding outright, but expect them to try and appropriate more and more of the concepts of Kickstarter, donations to Kickstarters have little legal protection and can be used to fund development with no expected return on investment beyond the game. Fat_Cow posted:Any idea where I can buy AVP2 for digital download? Nowhere sadly: Xenomrph posted:Unfortunately this will never happen, since Monolith is owned by Warner Bros. It's the same reason we'll never see a re-release of AvP2. ReV VAdAUL fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Feb 13, 2013 |
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Feb 13, 2013 19:40
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This is a pretty good look at the demo and final differences of the game. Its a very good question they ask, what the hell happened to this game?! Apologies if its already been posted. But seriously, the lighting, just 
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Feb 13, 2013 19:41
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Palpek posted:There were bigger disappointments than this and they changed nothing. The only thing that speaks to publishers is money and seeing as Colonial Marines sits firmly at #1 top seller list on Steam - there won't even be any message. The ONLY way I see this going bad for GB is if they try to pull the "give us more time for the game" while they work on BL 3 oir something and a company tells them that they're not pulling that bullshit anymore. I just hope GB gets a really hosed up reputation from this.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:42
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Fat_Cow posted:Any idea where I can buy AVP2 for digital download? Nowhere. The rights are a clusterfuck. You have to get an old copy from Ebay or something like that.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:42
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Palpek posted:There were bigger disappointments than this and they changed nothing. The only thing that speaks to publishers is money and seeing as Colonial Marines sits firmly at #1 top seller list on Steam - there won't even be any message. I'm not sure that is the case. I'm pretty sure a lot of those sales are preorders and the like, and there hasn't really been anything major released (or on sale) that is competing with it. We don't really know what "#1 top seller" means here, so saying that the game is a commercial success seems unwise at this point given the development costs implicit in a title 6 years in the making and the probability of poisonous reviews and word of mouth will kill off the volume of post-release sales. LGD fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Feb 13, 2013 |
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Feb 13, 2013 19:45
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The best part will be when I go into Gamestop(yes I shop at gamestop sometimes, not trying to derail) to cancel my preorder and the guy at the counter will ask why. I will tell him because the game is clearly poo poo and he will act shocked like he's never heard this before. He will shrug his shoulders as I walk out like I'm the idiot who's missing out on a kickass game.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:45
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Palpek posted:There were bigger disappointments than this and they changed nothing. The only thing that speaks to publishers is money and seeing as Colonial Marines sits firmly at #1 top seller list on Steam - there won't even be any message. At this moment in time ACM is competing with preorders for Tomb Raider, DLC for a game released over a year ago, and fable 3 at 75% off. So essentially, it means nothing. The actual sales numbers are going to be what fucks the publishers and Devs and a game that is getting this harsh a reception is unlikely to make enough to justify touching it ever again.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:48
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Popelmon posted:Nowhere. The rights are a clusterfuck. You have to get an old copy from Ebay or something like that. Oh boy, Amazon is selling it for 70$ what a deal.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:48
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It's actually more dangerous that Colonial Marines has no big competition as that actually generates more sales BUT I can only hope you guys are right. We'll see when we read sale reports. Developers/publishers only learn from financial failures.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:50
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I also have to disagree with the comparisons with DNF. Aliens had a shot at actually being a decent game, DNF was always going to be poo poo. I'm not giving Gearbox a break, but I have to say this is a much bigger failure. DNF was a piece of poo poo, but unless they worked a god drat miracle it only had a shot of being maybe mediocre.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:51
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From later on that page; Holy poo poo 
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Feb 13, 2013 19:51
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30.5 Days posted:"Buy this if you're a huge fan of the source material and can get it for a quarter of the current asking price." sounds like the sort of advice that accompanies a 2/5, though. Think of it like a movie review- if a movie gets 2 stars, that generally means bad-to-mediocre, which this game is. I know that Giant Bomb's scoring system is unusual in this capacity, but it generally goes like this: Most review sites and magazines use a 1 to 10 or 1 to 100 scale, and the scores are skewed towards the top end. So a mediocre game gets 60 out of 100. It's pretty rare for anything to get less than 50 unless it is horribly offensive or significantly broken. And on a 1 to 5 scale, 50 translates as 2 and a half. And places that do have a 1 to 5 scale... well, it's a 1 to 5 scale, not a 0 to 5 scale. As for buying full price... for me price is a big factor. There are mediocre movies that are not worth spending £10 (plus travel costs) to see in the cinema but are worth renting for £3 or watching for free on TV. I didn't get Aliens vs Predator 2010 when it came out because from reviews I knew it wasn't great, but on the other hand I am a fan of Aliens so I was sure I'd have some entertainment from it, so I got it a bit later when it was a bit cheaper. I reasonably enjoyed it, mostly, and I was able to overlook the weaker aspects of the game cause hey, a few hours of Aliens-themed entertainment for a few quid. If I'd bought it full price, I'd be thinking "wow did they not playtest this bit?!" or "oh come on, that is so bollocks!" So I'd have been pleased with the good bits and angry with the bad bits. There's also the aspect of playing time and value for money. If a game has a long singleplayer campaign or a lot of multiplayer content, then that's probably worth £30, while if a game has a 5 hour singleplayer campaign and a limited amount of (fun) multiplayer content, then your £30 doesn't go as far. But if the game is only £15, they hey, that's pretty reasonable.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:52
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Endymion FRS MK1 posted:This is a pretty good look at the demo and final differences of the game. Its a very good question they ask, what the hell happened to this game?! This is a great comparison. It certainly backs up Jim Sterling's accusation the "gameplay demo" was fake.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:55
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Endymion FRS MK1 posted:This is a pretty good look at the demo and final differences of the game. Its a very good question they ask, what the hell happened to this game?! Holy loving poo poo. I guess I never really payed much attention to that old trailer but goddamn. I really, really hope we hear more about what happened with this game beacuse I find stories like that absolutely fascinating.
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Feb 13, 2013 19:55
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Endymion FRS MK1 posted:This is a pretty good look at the demo and final differences of the game. Its a very good question they ask, what the hell happened to this game?! Wow I knew the demo definitely looked better than the game we got but side by side its just plain ridiculous the difference between the two.
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Feb 13, 2013 20:00
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Endymion FRS MK1 posted:This is a pretty good look at the demo and final differences of the game. Its a very good question they ask, what the hell happened to this game?! This is shocking... went from something that looked really, really good to Doom 3 circa 2003.
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Feb 13, 2013 20:07
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Wow. What's weird is how the graphics do not look like some re-rendered FMV or something; it does genuinely look in-game. Did they find that if they scaled back the textures/lighting/fog effects for the console versions it looked like poo poo so they rebuilt the levels with less advanced graphics? But that wouldnt' explain the inferior animations; the demo had better scripted sequences, it makes no sense that they wouldn't' keep those scripted sequences and animations in the final game.
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Feb 13, 2013 20:07
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Someone at Gearbox brought their electromagnet to work for show 'n' tell and... welp. vvv So glad this console generation is wrapping up vvv testtubebaby fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Feb 13, 2013 |
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Feb 13, 2013 20:11
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your evil twin posted:But that wouldnt' explain the inferior animations; the demo had better scripted sequences, it makes no sense that they wouldn't' keep those scripted sequences and animations in the final game.
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Feb 13, 2013 20:22
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zenintrude posted:vvv So glad this console generation is wrapping up vvv 
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Feb 13, 2013 20:27
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your evil twin posted:But then it was pointed out that when something is super hyped-up and made by a well-known developer then people expect a high quality product. If Colonial Marines was made by a lesser known low budget developer then some of the flaws might have been overlooked. That has actually happened sometimes. Look at STALKER Shadow of Chernoybyl, and Clear Sky, they were ridiculously buggy and had terrible AI issues but reviewers cut them some slack for being a small developer making an ambitious game, while warning readers/viewers that the games were buggy and issues.
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Feb 13, 2013 20:33
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Batham posted:From later on that page; Holy poo poo I turned that on at work and couldn't get through 30 seconds before turning it off, I was about to have a laughing fit in my office.
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Feb 13, 2013 20:47
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Midee posted:I guess that would line up with the story of the PS3 version being over the memory budget. Fancy animations are usually the first to go when that happens. Both PS3 and 360 are ancient consoles but I would hardly lay the blame there. For starters if Naughty Dog can make their games look a trillion times better than A:CM and have amazing animations in it at the same time there is clearly something wrong with Gearbox. Not to mention the PC version looks like something you would buy from GoG and not a game released in 2013.
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Feb 13, 2013 20:50
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Ravenfood posted:Yo, this is the difference. STALKER (except Clear Sky, really) was a really ambitious idea and game in a lot of ways. A:CM being a buggy mess but trying something new would be something I could overlook, but it doesn't. It goes for a CoD/L4D retread with a new skin. There's nothing innovative or interesting about it. That's a fair point. I suppose you could say "it's a 4-player coop game with a proper storyline!", except I guess that doesn't hold water as really it is more a singleplayer game that also lets you play co-op.
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Feb 13, 2013 20:50
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Ravenfood posted:Yo, this is the difference. STALKER (except Clear Sky, really) was a really ambitious idea and game in a lot of ways. A:CM being a buggy mess but trying something new would be something I could overlook, but it doesn't. It goes for a CoD/L4D retread with a new skin. There's nothing innovative or interesting about it. Yeah it's basically the double problem of being a lazy by the numbers shooter but then being loaded with a plethora of annoying problems/lack of polish.
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