Ok, I'm gonna finally get around to reviewing things this week (hey, at least it's the right day!). I've been enjoying both Lost Planet 2 for PC (yeah, I know, I'm like the last person on Earth to get games), and Part-Time Gods (unless they're tabletop, since I review for DriveThruRPG).
So, let's see here. Lost Planet 2. It's good, I like it. I've played through it on 360, so my review probably will miss out on some things.
So, let's see here. Lost Planet 2. It's good, I like it. I've played through it on 360, so my review probably will miss out on some things.
Ok, Lost Planet 2 is a pretty standard 3rd person shooter, with a light survival mechanic (that more equates to "get moving, stupid", rather than "must find energy"). I enjoyed the first, and I got the second because I loved it, and now I got it for PC again to play with my friends (and it was on sale, let's not forget that).
But enough about my motives. Lost Planet 2 is a game with epic graphics. Even with the only setting on max for my rig being textures, in DX9 mode, it looks pretty good. Loading times are usually pretty decent, too, much better than on 360 (we're talking 5 seconds at times, for the really quick ones, and about 30 for the longest [I alt-tabbed during that, so it's not really fair, and I had a lot of stuff running in background]), even on my computer with about a dozen things open (including the Part-Time Gods PDF). The settings are also pretty good. They're not all necessarily the best thing since sliced bread, but they're well-put together, and if you maxed the settings they'd be beautiful (unfortunately, if I did I'd get 18 FPS, but the benchmark looked nice).
Gameplay wise, my only gripes with LP2 are the controls, and the grappling hook. And for the most part I like them. The controls are good, with the only exception being the mouse sensitivity. It's choppy as all get out. I was trying to snipe, and I couldn't move the mouse at all. Even with maxed out settings, more often than not I miss because I couldn't move the crosshairs rather than because I overshot. Also, the grappling hook is kinda lame at times. Maybe Just Cause 2 spoiled me, but the grappling hook feels like it's got really short range, and since you can't use it if you're jumping half of the point is gone. The transition between on foot combat and the pseudo-giant robot "VS" combat is smooth and easy, though it's way too easy to have a mishap in a VS. It's also possible to exit VS's at almost any time (except in cutscenes and maybe a couple sections, but I can't recall any), and in the case of flying VS's that can be bad (I've lost helicopters multiple times, partly because the standard eject key is right next to the standard "fly down" key).
There's nobody on multiplayer, and I doubt that will change for future readers, but it's still fun for a co-op game with friends, since the servers are up (as of July 2011). Worst come to worst you could probably put it through LAN with Tunngle.
I'd say that Lost Planet 2 is a go for fans of the genera, but not necessarily a perfect pick, since it has control issues on PC and there's some grating and irritating minutiae.
Now, on to Part-Time Gods. It's a fun little tabletop game by Third Eye Games, whose work I've reviewed before.
Part-Time Gods is awesome. It's well-written (with the occasional mistake- but that could be attributed to sleep deprivation (misspellings, homophone misusage, etc) or just plain not having enough editing), has lots of content, good art, and enough fluff to smooth things along but enough crunch to get things going.
Now, I liked Wu Xing, one of Third Eye Games' other games, so I wanted to see how this compares. Part-Time Gods focuses a lot less on martial arts, but comes out the better for it (mind you, not if you wanted martial arts), with a d20-based system with modifiers (normally I'd whine endlessly, but for gods I'll make an exception) powering a smooth narrative gameplay. It takes what I like about d6's advantage/disadvantage system, adds in a non-obtuse magic system, and ports it to d20, more or less, if you want a general feel of how the system works.
There's also a focus on nice, consistent styled art. It's good, but there are a couple times when I feel that the proportions are just too horrible to comprehend (almost every woman in the book has a midriff that would imply a 45 degree turn away from the viewer in relation to the rest of her body, without appropriate cues for this). All in all, though, it's well done and interesting without being intrusive.
Admittedly, it really depends on what group you could get in when roleplaying, but with the right group Part-Time Gods would be wonderful and excellent.
But enough about my motives. Lost Planet 2 is a game with epic graphics. Even with the only setting on max for my rig being textures, in DX9 mode, it looks pretty good. Loading times are usually pretty decent, too, much better than on 360 (we're talking 5 seconds at times, for the really quick ones, and about 30 for the longest [I alt-tabbed during that, so it's not really fair, and I had a lot of stuff running in background]), even on my computer with about a dozen things open (including the Part-Time Gods PDF). The settings are also pretty good. They're not all necessarily the best thing since sliced bread, but they're well-put together, and if you maxed the settings they'd be beautiful (unfortunately, if I did I'd get 18 FPS, but the benchmark looked nice).
Gameplay wise, my only gripes with LP2 are the controls, and the grappling hook. And for the most part I like them. The controls are good, with the only exception being the mouse sensitivity. It's choppy as all get out. I was trying to snipe, and I couldn't move the mouse at all. Even with maxed out settings, more often than not I miss because I couldn't move the crosshairs rather than because I overshot. Also, the grappling hook is kinda lame at times. Maybe Just Cause 2 spoiled me, but the grappling hook feels like it's got really short range, and since you can't use it if you're jumping half of the point is gone. The transition between on foot combat and the pseudo-giant robot "VS" combat is smooth and easy, though it's way too easy to have a mishap in a VS. It's also possible to exit VS's at almost any time (except in cutscenes and maybe a couple sections, but I can't recall any), and in the case of flying VS's that can be bad (I've lost helicopters multiple times, partly because the standard eject key is right next to the standard "fly down" key).
There's nobody on multiplayer, and I doubt that will change for future readers, but it's still fun for a co-op game with friends, since the servers are up (as of July 2011). Worst come to worst you could probably put it through LAN with Tunngle.
I'd say that Lost Planet 2 is a go for fans of the genera, but not necessarily a perfect pick, since it has control issues on PC and there's some grating and irritating minutiae.
Now, on to Part-Time Gods. It's a fun little tabletop game by Third Eye Games, whose work I've reviewed before.
Part-Time Gods is awesome. It's well-written (with the occasional mistake- but that could be attributed to sleep deprivation (misspellings, homophone misusage, etc) or just plain not having enough editing), has lots of content, good art, and enough fluff to smooth things along but enough crunch to get things going.
Now, I liked Wu Xing, one of Third Eye Games' other games, so I wanted to see how this compares. Part-Time Gods focuses a lot less on martial arts, but comes out the better for it (mind you, not if you wanted martial arts), with a d20-based system with modifiers (normally I'd whine endlessly, but for gods I'll make an exception) powering a smooth narrative gameplay. It takes what I like about d6's advantage/disadvantage system, adds in a non-obtuse magic system, and ports it to d20, more or less, if you want a general feel of how the system works.
There's also a focus on nice, consistent styled art. It's good, but there are a couple times when I feel that the proportions are just too horrible to comprehend (almost every woman in the book has a midriff that would imply a 45 degree turn away from the viewer in relation to the rest of her body, without appropriate cues for this). All in all, though, it's well done and interesting without being intrusive.
Admittedly, it really depends on what group you could get in when roleplaying, but with the right group Part-Time Gods would be wonderful and excellent.