lttp: Kane & Lynch and Just Cause

[brawndolicious]

I saw both of these for about $10 so I decided to try them out.

K&L: It is actually now one of my favorite third-person shooting games.  It has the most satisfying gunplay I've ever played and the story actually is good.  Not not crappy like you would expect from the most decent "mature" games, but good.  Combine that with fresh and imaginative environments and you get a great single player game.  The one downside is that while the character models look good, the environments look a little rough sometimes.

Just Cause: It's the sandbox supersoldier idea done perfectly.  The graphics still look decent today.  There is little to no story.  What else do you need to know?

[The Fake Shemp]

:gerstmann

Never Forget.

[brawndolicious]

Kane & Lynch is AIDS: The game of the disease.
Just Cause is fun but buggy.

What's wrong with K&L?

I don't like that Gerstmann got fired but his video review did not go past the first 20 minutes of the game (I actually watched the review right before playing the game).  I honestly think he finished the review less than an hour after popping in the game.  If you really care how this game turned out, just buy it since it's so cheap.

[cool breeze]

you just reminded me about Just Cause 2 coming this year

 

[Human Snorenado]

I was unaware that there was a party in any way associated with K&L.

[Jansen]

kane and lynch is really not that great

[brawndolicious]

I've been partying ever since I saw that this was Heat: The Game.

It really is solid imo but I would like to know if anybody (who played it) has any significant complaints.  It's a unique game and I really hope that Eidos didn't let gerstmanngate poop the party.

[Third]

I'd rather throw $20 away than buy those games.

Both are absolutely horrible.

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

I rather liked Kane and Lynch.

It made for a great rental.  I didn't have a chance to go through it all co-opsie, but I'd bet its pretty good for that.  I liked playing a shooter that appeared as if it could conceivably take place in the real world, some of the levels were outstanding ( disco shootout ), and I liked the uncompromisingly bleak story and nasty characters.

as a gamer geek bonus.  The guy who voices Mario is Lynch, the wife-beating/killing, profane, violent-prone psycho.  That's kind of awesome.

as its content challenged, and I'm guessing nobody is playing the actually sorta good multiplayer anymore, paying 60 bones for it would not be a good use of funds.  But at a cheap price, I'd say its well worth it.

But that's just me talking.  I'm not with mainstream opinion, but I dug it plenty.

[GilloD]

I was defending K&L when it first came out. The core gameplay is kind of loose, but it has some of the BEST action set-pieces of any game ever made. Some of it fuckin' rules. There are some ridiculous story gaps (Hey we're in a city now we're in a jungle what happen) and the characters are unlikable, but the feel is good and the action is fuckin' killer. Especially the first time that dump truck tries to run over you. My oh my,

That said, it was entirely clear that gertmammnamanamn played all of the first 15 minutes. He deserved to get fired. For 10 bucks or a rental, K&L is a killer deal.

[GilloD]

Oh yeah, that boardroom seizure is so fucking cool.

[trippingmartian]

If it wasn't for Gerstmann-gate I think K&L would have been championed as an underdog in the gaming community. Some of the dialogue is a bit over-done, but otherwise the presentation is strong and the shooting mechanics seem to be lifted straight from the Hitman series. It's a good co-op game and definitely worth $10. IMO

I played the demo for Just Cause, but it didn't grab me. If I see it cheap I might pick it up.

[brawndolicious]

If it wasn't for Gerstmann-gate I think K&L would have been championed as an underdog in the gaming community. Some of the dialogue is a bit over-done, but otherwise the presentation is strong and the shooting mechanics seem to be lifted straight from the Hitman series. It's a good co-op game and definitely worth $10. IMO

yeah, I'll be a very happy camper if Eidos fixes up the issues with K&L and Hitman.  Both games are fun and have amazing presentation but they do have some wasted potential I think.

[chronovore]

So was it ever proven that Gerstmann only played 20 minutes (or being generous, "the first hour") of the game before writing the review?

If so, my opinion of games journalists just went down another notch. Seriously, WTF is so hard with a job that requires playing a finished (or nearly finished) game through to its end, and then writing a brief criticism comparison with other current offerings?

[brawndolicious]

I dunno.  The video review is entirely in the first 15 minutes (the tutorial level).  He does spoil some story twists midway in the game but he could have heard that from somebody else.  The game is mostly exciting because of the unique situations that you're having the shootouts in (prison, night club, under a dump truck).  It would have made a lot of sense to have videos of other areas besides the tutorial level.

Even if he finished the game, the review wasn't very informative about the pros and cons imo.

[chronovore]

I suspect Gerstmann was not in charge of capturing the video; that would likely have been a different employee's responsibility, and would have been hampered if they were in a rush, or had not been provided appropriate save game files to capture the more advanced points in the game.

The main problem is that EIDOS and other game companies influencing the game sites. I think, since Gerstmanngate, I've been back to gamespot maybe 4 times, where I used to visit it every other day.

[brawndolicious]

Eidos did influence gamespot but not intentionally (I would guess).  They had banner ads on the site that linked directly to the review so they decided to pull all their K&L ads from that site since it wouldn't do much good.  If the ads were still there (so gamespot was still getting money from Eidos) then I would be pretty suspicious.  It is kind of unfair that Gerstmann got fired for one review.

[chronovore]

At this point, all conversation on the topic on my part is "well, I don't know anything about it." The timing makes it look like he was canned for one review, though it could also have been the straw that broke the camel's back. A big nasty straw, but...

K&L is good, though? Really? I want to believe! I really liked that Red Dawn game that wasn't really Red Dawn -- Freedom Fighters? It's the same dev team, I think. And much of the gameplay looks similar.

[AdmiralViscen]

If I was being pressured to give the game a certain rating no matter how much of it I played, I probably wouldn't bother either.

I was hard on Gerstmann in the past but GiantBomb rocks.

[brawndolicious]

I don't totally blame Gerstmann but I do feel that his review had some problems.

I think it was EA that published Freedom Fighters.  Both of these games were published by Eidos.

[TakingBackSunday]

just cuz

[chronovore]

If I was being pressured to give the game a certain rating no matter how much of it I played, I probably wouldn't bother either.

I was hard on Gerstmann in the past but GiantBomb rocks.

Well, that's the thing? Was there pressure? Do any of us know?

And if there was pressure, does it matter? It was clearly woefully ineffective; Gerstmann labeled the game with the score he felt was appropriate. I guess where my complaint against games journalists my perception that they (a) believe themselves to be journalists rather than receptacles for PR chaff, and (b) that they sometimes resent having to play a finished game thoroughly, and then review it -- for which they are being paid.

I'm reminded of Mark Twain's observation, "that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do." Tom Sawyer manages to trick his friends into actually enjoying doing the work of whitewashing a fence, but half the time the people professionally reviewing the games can't be bothered to remember that they're being paid to play something which anyone else will have to pay to play.

[E-DuB]

I was unaware that there was a party in any way associated with K&L.

It was more of an execution if you thinks about it. But Just Cause was a damn fine game.