Posts by PaulH

  • Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

    I do think this looks cool and will likely give it a go, but at the same time I'm a little disappointed that the original rumours of the DLC being basically FC3 + Dinosaurs aren't true. Maybe that's boring of me, but I liked the original island setting and this doesn't really look like the same game at all.

  • What have you watched recently?

    Quote from blackdog

    Gave it a go when it was first coming out, didn't like the first two episodes so I didn't bother.

    I guess if you really didn't like them then I wouldn't say to bother, as the style of the show doesn't change. However the first series (whilst still enjoyable I thought) is the weakest of all of them and this is reflected in the review scores from various outlets when it was on TV. The second season saw the ratings jump and since then it's consistently good. Could be something to do with it switching channels as well, it was dropped after season 1 and TNT renewed it.

    I think it's great personally, and I watch a lot of shows. Kind of seems to me like End of Watch - The Series

  • What have you watched recently?

    Quote

    That news about Andrew Lincoln leaving TWD was an April Fool's joke

    Also found it difficult to get back into GOT, but then it's always the case as they have so many characters to remember! Was still a good episode though and good to have it back on. Have been watching all seasons of Southland recently, have made it to Season 5, this show is really good

  • Bioshock Infinite - Spoilers thread

    Furyo

    Thanks for clearing up some of those inaccuracies in the post I originally quoted. I actually read up online more about it afterwards and realised some of it was wrong, think am about 99% clued up on the whole story now

    This link actually explained it even better than the first I posted, but still has bits missing:

    http://www.reddit.com/r/Bioshock/com…attempt_at_the/

    dux

    What you said about finishing the game and being a bit annoyed about it going over your head was pretty much what I felt too, but then reading around it seems everyone felt that way. Not sure if it's a good or bad thing that the ending confused people and forced them to read up on it, maybe it was intentional? Or maybe the story was just too grand to explain through a FPS?

    Whatever the case I enjoyed both playthroughs, just did it on 1999 mode. It almost seemed a different game the second time around, as I actually understood what was going on in all the recordings and everything. If I had to offer any constructive criticism towards the game as a game (rather than a storytelling medium) I'd say the AI would need focusing on if there were to be future installments. It was really highlighted during my second run through that you could just enter many areas, then back out a bit and you'd easily reach points where the AI didn't bother with you any more. At one point a Handyman ended up standing behind a pillar and didn't seem to be able to see me, even though most of his body was exposed. I just stood back and shot him over and over in the heart till he died. Any of the boss fights with Lady Comstock I just ended up hiding behind a pillar, or around a corner, then popping out and shooting her, reloading and repeating. It didn't seem like there was a way I was 'supposed' to be able to defeat her, and it felt like I was just glitching a bit.

    There's also plenty of areas at the end of the game where you can either just run past the enemies (the bit with Liz in the Operating theater for example - I ignored the enemies, flipped the switches and after the cut scene the enemies disappeared). Also on the last level airship I ran through the whole deck with the handyman on it and went straight to Comstock. On the deck before that a countdown starts when you flip the switch to clear the rails, and waves of enemies come, but I just went and sat in the room behind me and waited until the coutdown finished,then nipped up to the top deck without seeing any enemies. Obviously I'm only cheating myself by doing these things, but on a second playthrough on what was supposed to be a super hardcore difficulty, I found it surprising that I was able to.

    I'm only really highlighting these things as whilst I agree that for everything else in it, this is pretty much a 10/10 game, it's not a perfect game. But it is still the best game I've played in a long time, and in terms of games with a great central story and theme I can't actually think of a better one that I've ever played.

  • Bioshock Infinite - Spoilers thread

    Ok don't read this HP...

    ..I noticed something else. When you meet Elizabeth she tries to hit you with a book, the books called 'The Principles of Quantum Mechanics'. I see this as a cheeky reference to the ending and the IG guys metaphorically and literally trying to hit you over the head with the main thing that explains the ending

  • Bioshock Infinite - Spoilers thread

    Just started it on 1999 mode, amazing actually how many little references there are to what it's all about, for example:

    - The very first thing you see is a quote about how the mind will fabricate memories, related to how Booker makes up memories when the Lutece's take him through the tear at the end of the game. The book that the quote is from is written by R. Lutece and is called 'Barriers to trans dimensional travel'

    - There are scrolls in the gardens that state 'What is Columbia, if not just another Ark for another time'

    - The first time you use a viewing telescope you can see the Lutece's down below you through the scope. However when out of the telescope, they're not there

    This game is awesome

  • Bioshock Infinite - Spoilers thread

    Ok so in case anyone has wandered in here by accident, I'm going to start by talking about:

    THE ENDING

    It's very rare that I care about the story in a game, and I didn't approach Infinite expecting to care so much but I did expect a bit of a twist at the end as I'd read about it in previews and such. Whilst playing through the game I tried to absorb everything I could, collect as much as I could and take in the world while playing, but still when I got to the end i found it threw so much information at me I couldn't quite get my head around it all. I was a little disappointed, rather than being blown away as I was expecting to be, but disappointed in myself for not understanding it rather than disappointed in the ending as a whole.

    Since I finished it I've been trawling forums and reading up on other people's interpretations of what the hell happened in this game. Below is a summary (that I did not write) which I think sums it all up pretty well. There's loads of questions that can stem from this though still, and different takes to be had on different aspects of it, it's all very interesting though.

    I'm so used to playing through games like CoD that try to have 'clever' stories and they just get lost in amongst the gunplay and over the top action. What I appreciate about Infinite is that it will actually reward people for investing their time in it and stand up really well to multiple play-throughs. I'm not surprised that I read that Ken L said it took the team 4 months to piece together the ending!

    --------------------------

    Summary from http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/605052-…finite/65798681

    It is my understanding that the story starts at the river baptism. In this scene, our male lead chooses to be cleaned of his sins and be reborn as Zachary Comstock. Comstock is a zealous man with vision beyond his time and becomes obsessed with the ideas that eventually manifest into the flying city, Columbia. At some point after his baptism Zachary Comstock meets the Lutece twins, genuis physicists exploring, for the first time in the history of man, quantum physics and the mysteries of space and time. This part of the story is very vague, and is up to interpretation, but I believe that the Luteces' scientific curiousity coupled with Comstock's ambitions for a new world birth successful space-time travel. Comstock uses the tears as windows into the future, and gains fame and fortune by predicting future events. A following begins to grow around him, which he uses to create his own religion and society -- the infancy of Columbia. Later, he attemps to conceive a child with his wife, referred to in game as Lady Comstock, but has become infertile due to his exposure to the Lutece's devices which are the means for his fortune-telling. A middle aged Comstock then travels to an alternate reality; where he refused to be cleansed of his sins, and keeps the name Booker Dewitt; with the male Lutece and convinces a down-and-out Dewitt to sell his daughter, Anna, to clear his gambling debts. Booker hands the child over, but quickly regrets his decision and chases Lutece and himself (Comstock) down an alleyway, but is unable to save his daughter as they slip through their tear back into Comstock's reality. Anna loses her finger as she reaches back to her father and the tear closes.

    This traumatic event really mucks up the universe. Anna is removed from her own reality and Booker comes in very close contact with an alternate version of himself, traumatizing the both of them. Anna is too small and her mind is still developing to feel the effects of this event, but her father's adult mind becomes completely muddled. The ideas, thoughts, and memories of his child are not clear, as shown by his response to the question, "Do you have any children?" -- he replies with a very hesistant and almost confused, "No," despite recent events. Booker's daughter, however, lives for years in a reality that is not her own. It is unexplained, but I believe that her being 'out of place' is the cause for her ability to create and open tears -- in fact, her being in Comstock's reality is most likely the reason any tears exist to begin with. The realities created when Booker chose or didn't choose to be baptised are experiencing 'friction' after the event. The Lutece Twins undoubtedly realized that they were playing a dangerous game, but their curiousity drove them to follow through with this expirement regardless.

    At this point Comstock has used the Lutece's understanding of quantum physics and sciences to create Columbia. He realizes early that Anna, who he has renamed Elizabeth, has these powers involving tears in space and time. He and the Lutece Twins build her a tower in which to keep and supress her anomalitic nature, so that one day she can continue his legacy as the leader of Columbia. Lady Comstock, unwell with the idea that she did not birth Elizabeth, threatens the safety of Comstock's plans, and he thus has her killed. Comstock feels that there is no more reason for his prophecies, and destroys the Luteces' space-time device. This part is unclear in the game, but I can gather that the Lutece twins are not killed. It is not specified how or to what means they rebuild their space-time technology, but they come to the realization that that have destabilized space-time and have created an infinite loop. The male twin deems it necessary that they fix the mistake they created, giving Rosalind Lutece, who values her relationship with her brother over anything, the ultimatum -- attempt to fix the loop, or seperate forever. She decides their relationship is too important and goes along with the expirement.


    Bioshock Infinite begins with the beginning of The Lutece Twins' expirement. Their goal in bringing the traumatized veteran, Booker Dewitt into Comstocks' Columbia is to destroy the time paradox and stabilize time-space once again. There are two possibilities that exist; one says that Lutece brings Booker into Comstocks' reality, perhaps during one of his alcoholic binges, and leaves him to wake up to an offer of clearing his debt by bringing a girl to New York. During the game, he is questioned on how he could possibly not know about Columbia, his response is something along the lines of him being out of touch. The idea of him not even hearing about Columbia, which undoubtedly made headlines across the nation for years, while living in New York as a Pinkerton Agent is extremely unlikely. The second possibility is that Comstock created Columbia in a third reality where Booker also declined the baptism, but may or may not have given birth to Anna. I do not support this theory very much, but it is a possibility.


    Booker enters Columbia, but Comstock has seen this happen through the space-time contraption he used for his prophecies. He knows of the threat and prepares his city to reject him, branding him as the False Prophet. During their journey of escape, Elizabeth's unsupressed 'powers' begin to manifest. Two times (?) she channels her ability to tear open realities, which I believe are not existing realities, but entirely new ones that are affected by her feelings. The strongest evidence to support this is when she and Booker step into the reality in which Booker has died a martyr of the revolution -- a hero. Elizabeth had known Booker to be her hero, the knight who saved her from her imprisonment and freed her, just as the revolution was to free the people of Columbia. The reality became what she projected it to become. This is supported more by the various soldiers who were killed prior to their change of realities. In the new reality, those killed were still alive, but Elizabeth's projection of them conflicted; she knew them to be dead, but reality disagreed, causing massive brain lapses and nose bleeds. This anomaly is experienced yet again when the two approach the Comstock House and encounter Elizabeth's false mother, Lady Comstock.


    Elizabeth trades herself to protect the life of Booker who is nearly killed by the Songbird. During their time away from one another, an elderly Elizabeth appears to Booker and shows him proof that his dreams of New York burning under airships are true. She tells him that fate is inescapable, that he will always be stopped by the Songbird(the space-time paradox that the Luteces' created) and hands him a note to give to her younger self. Some amount of time has passed until Booker is finally able to reunite with Elizabeth. They vow direclty confront Comstock.


    Upon Comstock's airship, the three (two) main characters gather for the first time since the day Comstock took Anna away from her father. Enraged, he beats and drowns (baptises) Comstock, but not before the knowledgable villian hints at a deeper connection between Elizabeth and the ignorant Booker. At this point, like a few other scenes, Booker's nose begins to bleed as his muddled brain attempts to process the space-time paradox that he subconciously is aware of. Elizabeth deciphers the note and uses the musical notes C-A-G-E to tame the Songbird. The final stand ensues as Booker, Elizabeth, and Songbird, destroy the remains of the revolution. At the bow of the ship, Elizabeth transcends her knowledge of a single reality and tears into Rapture, the underwater city in the 1950s, where they watch as the Songbird drowns.


    Elizabeth guides Booker through various doors, explaining to him the complexities of multiple realities through the use of a metaphoric lighthouse. She explains that there are millions and millions (infinite) realities that are all bound together by certain conditions. "Constants and variables. There's always a lighthouse, you, me, a Songbird. But sometimes something's different... yet the same." This ties Bioshock Infinite into the original Bioshock in a very esoteric way. The two ride a bathysphere to the lighthouse featured in Bioshock but are stopped a locked door. Suddenly, a key appears in Elizabeth's hand -- the key that was in the box given to Booker by the Lutece twins, and also the metaphor key to fixing the paradox they created. When asked where she got the key, Elizabeth replies that she feels like she had it the entire time. In the final scene, Elizabeth (Anna) takes Booker to the source of all of the encompassed realities, the river baptism. He relives his refusal to be baptised, and finally comes to understand that he is Zachary Comstock, had he let himself be cleansed. She takes him through one last door, leading to the river baptism yet again. Booker remarks that it is the same location, but Anna corrects him. Multiple visions of his daughter appear and grab hold of him, one says "He is Booker Dewitt," the other, "He is Zachary Comstock." As they lower him into the water, he replied, "No. I am both."


    After the credits, the player awakens in Booker's office. The cries of an infant can be heard in the side room. Booker opens the door and asks, "Anna? Is that you?" This scene is open to intepretations. My theory is that this is the result of The Lutece Twins' expirement, that it was a success, and the lives of Booker Dewitt and Anna Dewitt have finally stabilized. In no way do I think that the Booker after the credits is the same as the one who saved Anna. When Elizabeth/Anna enlightened Booker, I feel as if all alternate realities that stemmed from the baptism ceased to exist.

  • Battlefield 4

    Looks really nice graphically and well put together generally. Seems DICE looked at the critical reception for BF3 SP and then looked at how Bad Company fared, and decided to mix the two up - this looks like it has a bigger focus on your character working with a tight group of other characters who all interact with each other, Bad Company style. Something that was missing from BF3 and probably made it feel a little soulless in comparison. Still though, I would've rather seen MP footage, which I'm sure will be great when it comes along.

  • Bioshock Infinite - Spoilers thread

    Finished it off last night, it was awesome, the sort of game I wish I could carry on playing. I'm not doing 1999 mode though as I'm not a fan of replaying games with heavy narratives and decisions as I want my first playthrough to be 'my experience' if that makes sense. Not entirely sure on everything that happened at the end either, but I guess I can read up on what it was all about online. Overall brilliant game, anyone here who worked on it did a great job

  • Bioshock Infinite (Spoiler free thread)

    Ah I forgot you worked there too. It's not affecting how I think of the game overall, it just seems like the difficulty level really spikes here. I'm going to see if I can get past it tonight but it would be the third time I've loaded up the game to try it. It might help if you could PM me and let me know if there's any particular way to get past that bit

    Edit: finally did it

  • Bioshock Infinite (Spoiler free thread)

    Ok Vivi, excellent game and all but I have a bone to pick with you, seeing as you represent IG on this forum

    Quote

    Whoever designed the bossfight in the Memorial Gardens against Lady Comstock needs to be made to go stand in the corner for a little while and think about what they've done. I'm playing through on hard mode and have been stuck on this bit for a while...if there's a certain way to kill her it's not explained. It suggests using Return to Sender to protect yourself, fair enough until you run out of salts but how do you kill her apart from blasting away at her? Takes ages to wear her down and I end up running out of ammo and Salts and getting killed by the never ending waves of enemies. The difficulty throughout the game up to this point has been manageable but the spike here is insane

    Can't even imagine it on 1999 mode

  • Bioshock Infinite (Spoiler free thread)

    Just played the first hour of this, I haven't actually done anything of note yet except walk around the city and check everything out, it's all so well realised it's like some kind of theme park

    Is a bit annoying that you have to play it through twice to get all the achievements though

  • What are you playing now?

    Quote from Furyo

    Recently finished Hitman Absolution and slowly making my way through all the challenges I have left to unlock. I really loved the game despite some flaws in its missions during the second half of the game, where the game managed to forget all the tools a hitman usually would use only to get you through tedious spaces. When it shines, in the first half of the game, it really does though. I call this game the most underrated game of last year.

    I still can't bring myself to finish this. I was really enjoying it for a while but then it descended into levels in generic factories and underground installations and I got a bit bored. It also seemed to become more about evaded enemies rather than giving you lots of different ways to kill them. The best level was the Chinatown one near the beginning where you just had a large open area, three targets and multiple ways to decide to deal with them. After that it went downhill