blackmaniac's Wall

5/10/13 10:00am

Silent Protagonists and how their lack of a voice can hurt immersion

The silent protagonist. The ultimate weapon to allow players to identify with the hero. Or is it?

5/12/13 1:02pm

blackmaniac: No game can make you forget, that you are playing a game. Immersion is more a state of adapting to the world presented, thinking in the context of the world

5/11/13 6:24pm

darkhyrulelord: I honestly never felt "immersed" either unless its something that is highly cusomizable or something.

5/11/13 12:52pm

metabro: "Bioshock Infinite really had nothing going for it"

Got to disagree there

"Only thing it had was a so so story that wasn't really all that wonderful that people are hyping it up to be"

While I agree that the story is the best part of the game, it certainly was not so-so. How many other games (or even stories from other media for that matter) are able to create stories that juggle themes like racism, American exceptionalism, choice, and morality, wrapped in a narrative centering around parallel dimensions, WITHOUT being very cluttered or confusing? What other FPS game (or even other games) offers an environment and side characters as engaging or fleshed out to Bioshock Infinite's level?

"It's just a way to disguise the poor straight line gameplay that was very shallow and hardly had anything going for it"

First of all, when did linearity become so bad in games? Platformers like Mario, Crash Bandicoot, Rayman, and Donkey Kong are some of the best games out there, yet are also the most linear. Half-Life and Portal are extremely linear, yet each are genre defining in their own ways

As for the gameplay, plenty of reviwers and gamers thought it was well done. Bioshock Infinite may be a straightforward game, but as a sequel to Bioshock, it improves on what makes the series so unique tenfold. The world is richly detailed and feels like a character itself, and gives you plenty of areas to explore and uncover different sides of the story. The environment also offers plenty of approaches to combat with huge levels to work in. There are tons of options in combat, whether you want to abuse the skylines and pick off enemies from a distance with a gun or skyhook, run around and melee enemies, just use whatever combination of weapons you prefer, dominate with the variety of tonics by laying traps or combining them for better reactions, or run around like a maniac using all of the above. And that still ignores the possibilities with upgrades and gears to enhance the game too. Few FPS games have such variety

What else do you want from a Bioshock game? A large open world? That would be nice, but it would complicate the story, since the events are best experienced one after the other rather than on your own time. This is not Far Cry and it is not supposed to be. Did you want a multiplayer? This is not Battlefield and is better in its own way for that. Did you want a flowing narrative that grabs you into the story with its environment and characters like Half-Life 2? It does that, and I would argue has more fun gameplay

The fact is that in a genre of games that has saturated the industry and became stagnant, this game still sticks out as one of the best FPS games in years. It succeeds in so many gameplay aspects, like story and level design, that many other FPS (or even games in general) do, frankly, half-assedly or pay no attention to. In no way am I saying this is the most innovative or groundbreaking games ever, but it really does stick out in an industry filled with a recent and brief lack of creativity, and it deserves the praise it has gotten so far

5/11/13 6:22am

hazelnut1112: And sorry for going off topic there man.

5/11/13 6:19am

hazelnut1112: Should have double (cheeseburger) checked on that. My bad on that.

4/9/13 6:36pm

blackmaniac posted a new Blog Post.

A list of games I consider to be very meh

Not good, but not really bad. These are some of the games I played that are simply mediocre.

4/11/13 4:32am

blackmaniac: I do have the expasion pak. It was still more or less boring

4/10/13 4:33pm

Ferret75: I agree about Alan Wake, though the ideas in the overall game are interesting with some cool plot moments. The problem with mid-level quality games is that they certainly aren't bad and sometimes might have some creative ideas, but they're not good enough that they're worth the time spent playing them when you could be doing something else with that time. It's an interesting situation really. Good idea for a list blog post by the way.

4/10/13 3:26pm

Kenshiro3: Hey Black Maniac, Just out of Curiosity did you play Turok 3 with the Memory Expansion or without it? I ask because it makes a HUGE difference in terms of the game. If you play with it you get fully voice acted cutscenes and a pretty decent story as well. Though I will admit the game is pretty linear and the death animations are no longer weapon specific.

4/10/13 2:10pm

Tom the Iron Man: I can't agree with you about Alan Wake, but the rest I can perfectly understand.

4/10/13 2:10pm

Tom the Iron Man: Fun fact, when Croteam was original developing Next Encounter it was originally called "Word to the Mothership" but once they left and handed it over Global Software to work on Serious Sam 2 it changed.....to meh.

3/31/13 3:35pm

blackmaniac posted a new Blog Post.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted U - Review

Is Criterions ambitious port of their latest game worth your time and money?

3/31/13 5:15pm

blackmaniac: if you do, add me. I want to really see the Miiverse features in action

3/31/13 4:44pm

Canadian Brony: Hmmm. I might have to try this game out.

2/24/13 1:48pm

blackmaniac posted a new Video.

PC Gamers and Restricted Weaponry

Oh I'm sorry, you can't use that weapon here. But why is that?

2/22/13 9:37pm

darkhyrulelord: Before they would ban people for something like that, it would be nice if they warned them beforehand.

2/6/13 9:13pm

Lazera: I agree. If you're the one making the rules for the server, be the better man and resist using the things you've banned in the first place. Sadly, you get people who gain an ego boost for having their own server with their own rules so they can break them and laugh at those being killed...

2/6/13 9:02pm

Axolotl: GL = The bane of all campers. They're the ones that fuss about it because it counters them.
"Wah! Noobtubes take no skill" Neither does sitting in a dark corner with your rifle pointed at one doorway and a claymore at the other you fucking ass-clowns.

2/6/13 6:52pm

blackmaniac: I've seen banscripts for using weapons in action. And banning the weapon itself may be easy in games like counterstrike but it doesn't work in games like CoD. At least I've never seen a server where it was impossible to use the grenade launcher. In counterstrike, you can set up a script that either A: Intercepts your purchase request so that you cannot purchase the gun. Or B: forces you to drop your gun upon aquisition. Both options don't work with CoD, since you can't drop your weapons in CoD and since selecting your loadout doesn't trigger some sort of check serversite. In Counterstrike, you request to buy a weapon and the server checks if you have enough money for the purchase. In CoD you simply tell the server "hey, I'm gonna use the following weapons."

2/6/13 6:48pm

blackmaniac: I've seen varying stages of weapon laws on servers. From simply getting killed for using that weapon to getting kicked and even banned. It all exists.
And making it impossible to use a certain weapon is difficult in some games. It's pretty easy in counterstrike, you either make it impossible to buy the gun or you forced players to instantly drop the gun upon aquiring.
This doesn't work with CoD and Battlefield though. For one, you can't drop your weapon in those games. And having people killed for selecting a loadout that contains that weapon isn't gonna work either. For Example: Many Black Ops servers don't allow the Nova Gas grenade. you can't kill or kick or ban someone for simply having it your loadout. If your favourite loadout contains the nova, you need to live without it.
It's a difficult subject, but it really feels like most weapon restrictions only exist because the admin is butthurt about getting pwned hard by someone using that weapon.