Best Buy PS3 Sale

[Smooth Groove]

Just wanted to remind you guys that Best Buy still has a Buy 1 get 2nd 50% off sale for PS3 games this week.

Also, please help me decide if I should get Infamous + Killzone 2.  I have rewards + money to spend since BB didn't have the games I wanted during last week's 360 sale. 

[Third]

Infamous is great. Killzone 2 is pretty meh.

[drew]

B==D

[duckman2000]

Killzone 2 is a damned good FPS if you can deal with the controls, and if you really want to kill people. It's one long, intense skirmish against very adept opposition (on harder difficulties, it's some of the best), but it's really nothing more or less than that. You really have to be in the mindset of shooting a lot of dudes, all the way through one torn up environment to the next. And the controls seem capable of completely making or breaking the game for some, so that may or may not work. They have supposedly caved to demand and patched that.

Infamous, on the other hand, is plain awesome. It might take a few power ups before it gets there, but I think you'll appreciate that gradual progression later on.

[Human Snorenado]

You've gotta be able to find another game you want more than KZ2.  Batman maybe?

[drew]

reading comprehension is awesome

[AdmiralViscen]

Infamous is great, Killzone is not worth it IMO.

[duckman2000]

Do you still play it online, admiral?

[Don Flamenco]

hmmm, that's still $90+ tax (which would be $9 in my county.)  Seems high for games that will probably be a part of Black Friday sales. 

and KZ2 sounds mediocre.  I'll pick it up when it's $20 for the eye+sound candy, since I don't plan on doing MP.

[drew]

neither are worth it (the system) imo

[cool breeze]

What others said.  Infamous is really great.

Killzone 2 is good if you like a CoD style shooter and can put up with the controls.  There is a demo up, but I don't know if the control fixes are implemented in that.  Should at least give you a feel for the style of game.  And the last section/boss of the game is shit, other than that it was enjoyable for that type of game.

You've gotta be able to find another game you want more than KZ2.  Batman maybe?

Batman is out on PC this week.  If he wants to stick with PS3 only games, there are slim pickings.  Motorstorm 2 (off-road racing) and MLB 09 the Show (Baseball game) are both great.

[duckman2000]

and KZ2 sounds mediocre.  I'll pick it up when it's $20 for the eye+sound candy, since I don't plan on doing MP.

The SP is one of the better FPS released this generation, bested at its own game only by R6V2. Great A.I. has that effect. The problem is that it's stuck in the same gear throughout pretty much the whole thing, with the exception of one anti-air and one mech segment. Oh yeah, and it has a pretty shitty final section.

Killzone 2 is good if you like a CoD style shooter and can put up with the controls.  There is a demo up, but I don't know if the control fixes are implemented in that.  Should at least give you a feel for the style of game.  And the last section/boss of the game is shit, other than that it was enjoyable for that type of game.

Weren't you pretty much praising the game before?

Oh, and the demo would be a better demonstration if it wasn't stuck on normal difficulty.

[AdmiralViscen]

Do you still play it online, admiral?

No. I haven't even tried the new controller patch. It's just too hard to arrange a match with your friends. Have they done anything about that? You'd join up with someone and be stuck on different teams for your first match. And it was hard to find matches that you liked because the server selector was so bare bones. Was that fixed?

I don't quite regret buying it but I definitely didn't get my money's worth.

[ch1nchilla]

I'm gonna say it... KZ2 BLOWS. It's not just mediocre, it's a horrible game. Maybe I'll find my rant about it from earlier in the summer.

[duckman2000]

And it was hard to find matches that you liked because the server selector was so bare bones. Was that fixed?

I have no idea, I sold it once I had completed the campaign and played a few rounds of MP. It never hooked me like COD, but I guess I knew that from the beta.

By the way, I'd personally wait and buy Infamous and Ratchet, even if it's not 50% off. Two games that don't really have equivalents on other systems. And it seems like they have actually put some new stuff in Ratchet this time. Killzone 2 is when it comes down to it just another shooter. Very pretty and it has smart enemies, but it's still a shooter.

[ch1nchilla]

To quote my drunk-ass self on KZ2:

276     General / Gaming Forum / Re: What are you playing?    on: June 16, 2009, 10:07:01 PM
I'm only a few hours into Killzone 2 and I'm already really tired of it. In addition to the height gripe, the whole game feels really claustrophobic in terms of how much you can see. It feels like it should maybe be zoomed out a little bit? Also, I'm tired of this fucking garbage "HOLD THE FUCKING POSITION UNTIL REINFORCEMENTS COME!" bullshit every five minutes in the game. Give me some progression, I don't give a damn how linear the game is. Horrible pacing. Also, loading issues are constant, and the game more or less controls like shit, even with "high precision" phantomness turned on. My final complaint is that the AI partners in the game are dicks. If I wanted to be yelled at all day about focusing and getting my ass in gear, etc., I would wake up and go to my shit ass construction job in the morning (oh wait, I do that anyway). The next time I hear "C'MON SETH HIT THE FUCKING SWITCH" I'm returning this game to Blockbuster. Let me dick around and enjoy the visuals, you asshole fuckhead AI jerkoff.

The main things that stand out to me are the pacing, controls, and weird field of vision.

Don't get KZ2, it's a waste.

[Yeti]

Infamous is pretty much the only PS3 game I'm a little interested in at the moment. Well, maybe Uncharted as well. I might pick them up just to have a couple of games for my PS3. Then again, I've got a huge backlog of xbox games I need to get through, and my PS3 is fine as just a media center.

[duckman2000]

The team mates are definitely shit in both attitude and action, but that's alright since they have no real effect on the game, and because the Helghast for its part is the best, most vicious and most capable enemy to come along in an FPS in a long time. The midget thing, on the other hand, is weird.

Also, the hold this position stuff actually lets up later on. But yeah, that's the pacing deal. I can agree with any review score from 6.0 to 9.0 simply because it's monotonous, but it's very good at the one thing it does.

[Mr. Gundam]

Infamous: YES YES OH GOD YES.
Killzone 2: meh.

[ch1nchilla]

Infamous: YES YES OH GOD YES.
Killzone 2: meh.

Is Infamous really that great? The demo was kinda meh for me.

[duckman2000]

Infamous: YES YES OH GOD YES.
Killzone 2: meh.

Is Infamous really that great? The demo was kinda meh for me.

The demo is pretty scattered, and obviously didn't show off the progression at all. Whether you like the story or not, it's a pretty strong narrative for an open world game, and the progression of powers is really well designed, with each power being given its own introduction through a real mission. Throughout the game, you feel really powerful, but you're still very much limited by your human abilities. Not everyone is going to love it and it's certainly not flawless, but this is some of the most fun I've had with a game this generation. The Amon Tobin soundtrack doesn't hurt it either.

[Great Rumbler]

Infamous: YES YES OH GOD YES.
Killzone 2: meh.

Is Infamous really that great? The demo was kinda meh for me.

I didn't really care for it that much. Some part of it were fun, but other parts were more frustrating than they should have been.

[pilonv1]

Infamous is fun but not out of this world spectacular.

Killzone is generic shit (I HAVENT PLAYED IT ONLINE DUCKMAN)

[Jansen]

killzone 2 fucking sucks but infamous is decent

[cool breeze]

Killzone 2 is good if you like a CoD style shooter and can put up with the controls.  There is a demo up, but I don't know if the control fixes are implemented in that.  Should at least give you a feel for the style of game.  And the last section/boss of the game is shit, other than that it was enjoyable for that type of game.

Weren't you pretty much praising the game before?

Oh, and the demo would be a better demonstration if it wasn't stuck on normal difficulty.

Am I not praising it now? I still think it's better than CoD4 (single player, definitely not multiplayer).  If you're into the type of shooter where they put you in scripted fight to fight, Killzone 2 is good.  I'm just taking into considering that a lot, and I mean most people, had problems with the controls.  And about multiplayer, it was fun for the week or two that I played it regularly.  That said, there was probably a lot of hyperbole in impressions posted when it came out; usually that's intentional and meant to be sort of a parody, but I guess it's not as obvious as I thought   Honestly, I did like Killzone 2 for the type of shooter it was, even if I'm not too fond of that type of shooter.  I played FEAR 2 right before it, and ignoring the annoying story elements in that game, I liked both roughly the same amount.

And it seems like they have actually put some new stuff in Ratchet this time.

yeah, wtf.  I was initially down on whatever Insomniac would put out next, especially if it was another Ratchet game, but the new game looks surprisingly great.  It may be a few shallow ideas and the same old Ratchet gameplay, but they're doing a good job at hiding all that stuff for now.

[duckman2000]

Just saying, there is a bit of difference between "damned awesome" and "enjoyable." Granted that most things become tempered over time with reasonable people, but hey.

As for Ratchet, I'm trying to not expect too much from it. Worst case scenario is that the new additions will play a smaller role and it will still be another entertaining (admittedly very pretty) but predictable Ratchet, and I guess that's alright. But it seems like they are trying this time.

[Kestastrophe]

I wanted to get Uncharted and MGS4 (lol) but the two BBs I went to didn't have Uncharted and it wasn't available online. Meh

[Bebpo]

KZ2 was a great SP fps campaign with varied scenarios, intense satisfying gunplay, and incredible graphics/sound.  It might not be Halo (what else is?), but it's quite good.

That said the final room is the most bullshit unfun section this entire generation.

[cool breeze]

Just saying, there is a bit of difference between "damned awesome" and "enjoyable." Granted that most things become tempered over time with reasonable people, but hey

like I said above, I'm also being a bit more considerate and not trying to oversell it.  The OP is going to be spending money here. and realistically, a lot of people didn't like it too much.  If I played it now, I would probably enjoy it just as much.  If anything changed, it would not being as amazed by the visuals.  and great, now it seems like I'm backpedaling back and forth.  Not my intention, I'm just trying to clairify.

[Brehvolution]

Get Uncharted 2 10/13.

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Motorstorm Pacific Rift.  Best PS3 game of 2008.

[Mr. Gundam]

Infamous: YES YES OH GOD YES.
Killzone 2: meh.

Is Infamous really that great? The demo was kinda meh for me.

It's not that great, I was just emphasizing how much better it is than Killzone 2.

[Smooth Groove]

Thanks for the feedback. 

I'm sold on Infamous but I think I'll wait for a better deal for Killzone 2.  I already own Motorstorm 2 so I can't think of another PS3 game to get.

Does anyone know if you can do the deal and then return 1 of the games? 

I think BB just average out the discount for both games so it might be possible to get just 1 game for $45. 

[Kestastrophe]

I'll sell you my mint copy of Killzone on the cheap, if you're interested Smooth 

[Smooth Groove]

How much?

[Kestastrophe]

$25 shipped to U.S. 

[Smooth Groove]

$25 shipped to U.S. 

Sounds fair but where are you?  I don't wanna wait 3 months for it to arrive. 

[Kestastrophe]

michigan

[G The Resurrected]

Killzone while better than I thought it would be is way too short for my taste. It only took me 4h22m to beat the game. Good rental but not something thats worth full price.

[Smooth Groove]

michigan

PM me on payment details. 

Thanks

[Don Flamenco]

Killzone while better than I thought it would be is way too short for my taste. It only took me 4h22m to beat the game. Good rental but not something thats worth full price.

wow that's short. 

do ps3 fans even like this game anymore?  people were more interested in it pre-launch.  back when it was the best game ever

[duckman2000]

Killzone while better than I thought it would be is way too short for my taste. It only took me 4h22m to beat the game. Good rental but not something thats worth full price.

wow that's short. 

do ps3 fans even like this game anymore?  people were more interested in it pre-launch.  back when it was the best game ever

I haven't played it since I completed it, but I thought it was pretty wicked, mostly thanks to the weapons and the Helghast (great A.I., great presentation). It's good at what it does, the question is if that's appealing considering that it really only does one thing. A lot of the real PS3 fans adopted it as their new best FPS ever (and were finally allowed to let go of the uneasy relationship with Resistance 1 and 2, given that those games along with the original Killzone were about the only FPS they had played), and I'm sure that's still what they claim. Whether they are still playing it or not.

That hour counter sounds off, at least for a normal person. I think it took me around 9 hours on the second highest difficulty setting. You will spend a lot of time fighting from cover to cover when you play on anything but Normal.

[Mr. Gundam]

I'm at the very end of Killzone 2, but I never bothered beating it. I should probably do that and sell the game before it drops too much in price.

[Kestastrophe]

The final boss fight is soooooooooo shitty. I raged so hard

[Bebpo]

It's near unbeatable outside luck.  Guerrilla employees should be appropriately kicked in the nuts for that section so that they don't pull that again with KZ3.

Some of the stages are great though.  The sand dunes were fun, the robot ship boss was cool, the train was rad.  The factory after the train was real neat with that weapon :O  I dunno, I went into KZ2 with low expectations cause I thought the demo sucked and Sony fan worshipping was a real turn off.  But I was pleasantly surprised with a good fps once I got the hang of how to play (quick charge forward combat instead of gears cover-based).  It was also just really intense since you could die so easily.  I got a good sweat playing it by the end.

[AdmiralViscen]

Yea, it only took me like three hours and forty minutes to get up to that last boss room of KZ2. Then I never touched it again. I did it on the bumped up difficulty but I turned it down to normal by the end iirc.

Just another reason why ODST is fine at $60.

[duckman2000]

The desert stage, the battle inside the space cruiser and the train are genuinely great skirmish moments, but that intensity had a numbing effect on me. I think if I take an honest look back at it there probably were calmer moments, but it didn't feel that way while playing. By the time I had gotten to the last level, I was so numb to it all that it just blurred. And by that point, they more or less threw the tactical skirmish format out the window anyway, and that was the thing that kept the game running. Hopefully for the next one, they will work on pacing, maybe include some Shadow Marshal levels. It was a bit strange that they decided to drop the one genuinely cool thing from KZ1.

[Andowsky]

KZ2's SP is generic, monotonous crap. There isn't one redeeming quality about it, cept of course that it looks purty. $25 sounds just about right for it so long as you plan to play online.

[Kestastrophe]

KZ2's SP is generic, monotonous crap. There isn't one redeeming quality about it, cept of course that it looks purty.

I agree with this. It goes out of its way to be average, except in presentation. You will most likely be offended by some of the worst dialogue ever. The multiplayer is alright, but since you're a big PC gamer you probably won't like it. There isn't much attention to detail when it comes to important stuff like balance and network performance.

[duckman2000]

I agree with this.

Urgh. I mean, really? The game is far above average when it comes to enemy intelligence and skirmish design, as well as weapons design. I'll agree with the general design being square in the middle of everything with everything feeling very familiar, but claiming that it has no redeeming qualities is absolutely fucking distinguished mentally-challenged. It's a well designed game, and it goes well above the norm in some ways while struggling and often failing to maintain an identity.

[Human Snorenado]

duckman, your fevered defense of a game that you admittedly played through once, farted around with online for a couple of hours and then SOLD is pretty comical.  I mean, if it's that fucking awesome, WHY NOT KEEP IT??? 

[duckman2000]

duckman, your fevered defense of a game that you admittedly played through once, farted around with online for a couple of hours and then SOLD is pretty comical.  I mean, if it's that fucking awesome, WHY NOT KEEP IT??? 

I played it, appreciated some of it but have no desire to play it again, so I sold it while I could still get the most of my money back. Seems pretty reasonable to me. Seems especially reasonable now, seeing as how I don't have a system to play it on. That doesn't stop me from being sensible enough to give the game credit where credit is due.

[AdmiralViscen]

Nothing in your response really stops it from being generic or monotonous though.

[duckman2000]

Nothing in your response really stops it from being generic or monotonous though.

Nope. It does give it more than one redeeming quality, though. That is unless enemy intelligence, weapons and the resulting quality of point to point combat are now considered qualities irrelevant to shooters. I'd perhaps say that the cover system is also an attempt at going above average, but then you don't have to use it like you would in Rainbow Six Vegas, so that may or may not be relevant.

[Andowsky]

Since when is it special for a shooter to use cover? Plus fuck this games cover system. You have to hold every button on the controller to shoulder your weapon and fire when in cover.

And I don't see what is so special about the AI. The Helghast use cover well. What else do they do that is anything special? For the most part they just blindly run out and make a break for cover, where they will sit until you kill them, save for a few instances where they might try to rush your cover. But hell you can just annihilate them as they run for the initial cover because their brains apparently don't turn on until they are crouching behind something.

You know another game with aggressive AI that makes good use of cover and tries to rush you at times if you allow them? Call of Duty. Would you also say that game has great AI? Probably not, because you're going from mission to mission facing endless waves of them. KZ2 is basically set up the same way only there are only a handful of endless waves and KZ2 is just one big mission. World at War really toned down the endless waves of CoD4 and as a result it is a lot like KZ2. Heavily scripted, linear as hell. It just isn't nearly as repetitive or generic.

And if this guy is a big PC gamer then yeah even the MP probably won't be for him but at least he got the game relatively cheap.

[duckman2000]

Helghast behavior adapts to your approach, and they will stay in cover (or move between cover points) depending on your actions. They are capable of flanking, suppression, defense and some level of self preservation. Compare to COD enemies, then, which seemingly have one scripted method and path for each encounter, driven by one level of offense/aggression, and what seems like no situational awareness whatsoever. You'd have to severely distort the reality of the genre and COD in particular, to argue that the KZ2 A.I. is standard fare. Hell, the mechanical drones in KZ2 seem to have more usable battlefield smarts than your pissed off, preset and suicidal COD grunt.

[Bebpo]

The AI is good; they work as a team like Halo and try to flank you and kick your ass.  You have to be constantly on the move and constantly aggressive or else you get taken out real quick.  The weapons also feel really good for the most part and the level design is good.

Calling it generic or average is stupid.  Look at the FPS games over the last bunch of years:

-Half-life 2
-Doom3
-Quake 4
-Timeshift
-Call of Duty 4/5
-Halo 1-3
-Turok
-Bioshock
-Riddick

and I'm sure I'm missing a lot of forgettable ones that were so average or bad they can't even be recalled.  Average and generic is Timeshift, Turok, Quake 4.  Killzone 2 is far better than games like those.  Sure it's not as good as the BEST of the best like HL2/Halo but just because KZ2 doesn't dethrone the best fps games in the last 5-10 years doesn't mean it's an average FPS.  I'd say the gameplay in KZ2 is better than CoD4/5 even if the presentation isn't as good and people don't call CoD4/5 "average, generic FPSs"

[duckman2000]

Quake 4 had cool weapons, though. Every FPS needs a nail gun.

[AdmiralViscen]

CoD single player campaigns are shitty, a lot of people say that. KZ2 is better than that threshold ya. Gameplay is not better though and that shows in multiplayer.

[Bildi]

Average and generic is Timeshift

I thought Timeshift was a great game and a breath of fresh air in the genre.  That is all.