Military mega-shooter Arma II has some mod tools out for those people who want to turn it into celestial strip-chess, and you can get hold of them here. Rather more interesting news for the general gaming public, however, is the announcement of an expansion back, Operation Arrowhead. The standalone expansion pack will apparently be shown at GamesCom, and takes place when “a new flashpoint in the Green Sea region heats up and coalition forces led by the US Army are sent to Takistan to quickly restore peace and prevent further civilian casualties.” So plenty more of the same, it seems. We’ll bring you some more details on that when we get hold of them, or you can keep an eye on this thread on the official forums.
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I don’t know how anyone who played SS2 could have liked BioShock. Even visually, BioShock was crap. The whole place looked like clown city on a very potent psychoactive. Is that the clue?
KP: Have you tried that in Chernogorsk? If you do, you’ll see at least two big problems: a) awful performance regardless of settings b) an AI that’s utterly incapable to dealing anything that’s not a flat, open space.
I feel kind of sorry for people that can’t enjoy a good game now just because once, long ago, they played a great one.
A fair point, Vinraith, but my inability to like Bioshock is actually nothing to do with System Shock. My complaint there is that Bioshock deliberately tried to peddle itself as the successor to SS1/2 when in fact all it does is rip them off. Everything in BS that resembles SS1/2 is just a cheap imitation of the massive innovations the first 2 games had, lashed onto the side of an ugly, badly crafted and entirely generic FPS corridor romp that, as I say, resembles Serious Sam more than it does something as eloquent and exquisite as System Shock.
Had Bioshock been honest from the start and simply sold itself to us as what it is, a basic, consolised FPS in an interesting surrounding, I would have been fine with it but the hyperbole and bullshit that surrounded Bioshock was staggering. Its developers just would not STFU about how creative, original and wholly unprecedented the game was, waxing continuously lyrical about how filled with choice and player decision it would be. The only decision you got in that game (bar the abjectly naive and dreadfully mishandled “kill or free” with the little sisters) is which one of the idiotically large arsenal of guns or force-powers you used to kill the legions of randomly spawning, identical (and identically FUGLY) enemies you encountered (thus my Serious Sam reference).
There was not a single stick of innovation in that game and while imitation can be the highest form of flattery this just abused a license.
The real question here is how either Bioshock or Arma2 compare to Starcraft (hint: both of them are nothing).
gb2 korea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpuv7VPb2rA
And Starcraft is nothing compared to X-Com.
So there.
@Howard,
You warned that using Bioshock as part of his argument was dicey, but then you made Dominic’s point perfectly.
We’re talking about subjective stuff, and there’s plenty of room for disagreement and taste, but when someone asks your opinion on Shakespeare and you reply with “Total crap, just a bunch of confusing mis-spelled words and fart jokes”, this does not make the listener look down on Shakespeare, but rather look down on you. Meanwhile, if you can say something like “He did some really interesting things with structure, and with combining low-brow and high-brow content, but I think he’s over-rated and not as good as [insert similar author]“, now you convey a sense that you understand the material being discussed, but disagree with the popular consensus.
Yes, Bioshock is not Shakespeare, but when you say it’s bloody awful, and the good reviews were insanity from Xbox 360 reviewers, it clearly reveals that you don’t know what you’re talking about. One of its vocal fans amongst the critics is Tom Chick:
http://videogames.yahoo.com/xbox360/bioshock/review-527065
Yes, I know that’s a 360 review, but if you’re at all familiar with Tom Chick’s work, you can hardly call him an insane simplified console player. And no, he’s not unfamiliar with System Shock:
http://fidgit.com/archives/2009/08/happy_birthday_system_shock_2.php
You’re welcome to disagree with him of course. Games are subjective experiences and we all have our own opinions and tastes, but when you speak so dismissively of it, you give the clear impression that YOU missed the point, not us. There is something there, really. The “insane” critics are not just imagining it or sucking up to their corporate console masters.
Which is the same point Dominic was making here – there’s something great in Arma2. There is. If you can’t see it, you’re missing it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. There are also problems there, which an intelligent critic can observe, but to dismiss it as crap is to reveal yourself as having missed it.
@Howard,
You warned that using Bioshock as part of his argument was dicey, but then you made Dominic’s point perfectly.
We’re talking about subjective stuff, and there’s plenty of room for disagreement and taste, but when someone asks your opinion on Shakespeare and you reply with “Total crap, just a bunch of confusing mis-spelled words and fart jokes”, this does not make the listener look down on Shakespeare, but rather look down on you. Meanwhile, if you can say something like “He did some really interesting things with structure, and with combining low-brow and high-brow content, but I think he’s over-rated and not as good as [insert similar author]“, now you convey a sense that you understand the material being discussed, but disagree with the popular consensus.
Yes, Bioshock is not Shakespeare, but when you say it’s bloody awful, and the good reviews were insanity from Xbox 360 reviewers, it clearly reveals that you don’t know what you’re talking about. One of its vocal fans amongst the critics is Tom Chick:
Review
Yes, I know that’s a 360 review, but if you’re at all familiar with Tom Chick’s work, you can hardly call him an insane simplified console player. And no, he’s not unfamiliar with System Shock:
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You’re welcome to disagree with him of course. Games are subjective experiences and we all have our own opinions and tastes, but when you speak so dismissively of it, you give the clear impression that YOU missed the point, not us. There is something there, really. The “insane” critics are not just imagining it or sucking up to their corporate console masters.
Which is the same point Dominic was making here – there’s something great in Arma2. There is. If you can’t see it, you’re missing it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. There are also problems there, which an intelligent critic can observe, but to dismiss it as crap is to reveal yourself as having missed it.
Bah. Sorry about the double-post. No preview/edit function, and I got back a “malformed reply” from the server.