come anticipate a TS w/me: infamous Vs. prototype Vs. I am alive

rolling thread for incoming sandbox-em-eps '09

new infamous gameplay video...
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/44185.html

infamous looks like crackdown in liberty city. i like.

plus Assassin's Creed-style running-all-over-everything gameplay too!

Prototype is by the guys that did Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, which by itself is pedigree enough for me. Very excited.

i am alive trailer is gorgeous

I didn't realise I am alive is going to be an FPS when I started this thread : /

I thought it was going to be in the style of raw danger/SOS: final escape

: ///

so uh Infamous

I haven't played the demo since I'm an inveterate pleasure-delayer but everyone who has says it's the greatest thing since sliced bread

There's a demo out?

sort of. you have to enter a code to dl it, but since the code is infinitely shareable foax are just passing it around.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=360892

btw I actually think this inconvenient-ass process is an uncharacteristically (and most likely inadvertent) brilliant move on Sony's part - word-of-mouth hype around this game has gone through the roof ever since they launched it.

http://ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/800208/sucker-punch-project/videos/infamous_vdr_051109.html

Yeah, IGN's text review was practically orgasmic. They tend to inflate a bit (like all gaming press) but this still looks fantastic. Between this, Prototype, Uncharted 2, Brutal Legend and (maaaybe) Batman Arkham Asylum, this looks like a fantastic year for action games on the PS3.

Oh hey soundtrack by Amon Tobin! Used to love that guy, I'd been thinking about digging out his albums lately...spooky.

I don't suppose anyone's got a copy of the HK account info from that NeoGAF post? They've apparently decided that we lowly gmail users can't be allowed in their precious, precious forums.

Dear Everyone Who Doesn't Own A PS3,

http://www.thevancouverite.com/pictures/nelson-muntz.gif

Sincerely,
Sucker Punch Productions

dear jamescobo

prototype looks like it pwns

sincerely

coz rrod. en

Prototype does look fantastic. But Infamous, at least so far (I think I'm about 30% in) is the bee's knees. Aside from the inevitable PS3 jaggies and the surprisingly poor facial animations, no complaints at all, and it's filled the all-important super-compulsive Ratchet & Clank niche for me with the side missions, clearing the streets, hunting for blast shards and dead drops, etc. Do wish the shards were a bit more challenging to climb to- most are just jabbed into the sides of buildings- but the sheer OCD completist aspect is quite fun.

WAIT SHIT I do have a complaint- the fuckers on truck-mounted turrets are ridiculously hard to deal with before you get the Precision power. The regular machine gun nests can be approached from outside their angle of fire, the guys with riot shields are vulnerable to ambushes from above and Sockwave, but the assholes on truckbeds have a 360 degree field of fire, reacquire you in a split second if you try to sneak around a building, and pretty much have to be taken out with headshots, which is only really possible with Precision's slow-motion sniper zoom.

I'm seriously psyched for Prototype - I still throw in Hulk: Ultimate Destruction for silly sandbox fun with arbitrary goals (can I wreck every light source in the city; can I do laps around the island by chaining super jumps; can I take out attack helicopters only by throwing soldiers at them; can I make it around the city by only landing on moving vehicles).

The demo for Infamous (I refuse to do the silly punctuation) left me more frustrated than excited. I hate proximity suction sticking - sometimes I'm trying to go past that obstacle, you know? Also, aren't we past the auto-find enemy detection stage? I'm three blocks away, behind buildings, circling around and they shoot me as I round a corner from the opposite direction I disappeared from their view. Bull.

I played Infamous. Parts of it are pretty awesome, but the basic combat of the game is pretty unsatisfying to me. That might change when you finally get some of the powers. But the way you move around is fantastic.

I'm semi-enjoying Infamous. The technical issue take me out of it a bit, particularly the horrible civilian programming, weird behaviors and clipping issues. The city just doesn't feel alive enough, particularly a year after GTAIV - yet it's not cartoony enough or as polished as Crackdown - it's sort of stuck in a weird middle ground. Missions so far are okay - occasionally so short as to be comically pointless (I've beat several missions in under fifteen seconds!). Combat is fine for me so far - I enjoy the lightning powers and jumping from tall buildings. Also weirdly enjoying healing downed civilians. Not super far into the game yet (still on the first island). The storytelling, especially early on was surprisingly clunky

^^^. I've been thinking while playing it what a COMPLETE RIPOFF it seems like that I didn't even enjoy GTAIV that much but that it's completely ruined for me other openworld games that could otherwise be a lot of fun. I think the combat's fine, but I feel like there should be some sort of a lock-on, even just for melee, and I can't understand why there isn't, especially since every single bad guy in the game can hit you 95% of the time, no matter what you're doing, unless you're hitting the "evasive manoeuvre" button. The story is surprisingly terrible and poorly-told. And--and I don't know why this bothers me so much--I keep wanting to be able to pick up and throw people and objects and it seems like a terrible injustice that I can't.

However! Lots of fun, and it really pushes a lot of my buttons. And the grind where you beat an NPC unconscious and then heal them for the EXP is hilarious. I think the karma evens out for beating them and healing them, too. I did it for like an hour.

could we discuss crackdown 2 on this thread, too?

antexit, did you play Lost & Damned?

No, I'm banned from XBL, so I wasn't able to grab it, but I hear there are some big improvements. I'm waiting for that standalone disc in October.

you know, it's starting to seem a little too de rigeur for games to have a karma/reptuation system. if it doesn't affect the gameplayer and/or play to an appreciable degree it's kind of annoying, maybe because if the game is faux-sandbox then it just highlights the fact that you only have the illusion of free play. just thinkin' y'all.

In this case, it's particularly dumb, because you have to choose a side early on and then stick to it unrelentingly if you want to unlock all the abilities-- many are only available to the higher levels of goodness or badness. More than once I found myself inadvertantly slipping back onto the good side and had to spend a tedious couple of minutes walking around slaughtering people.

I'm having the opposite problem as of 60 percent into the second borough. I try to stay good, heal up injured civilians and cuff surviving baddies after every fight, etc (it's weirdly satisfying to clean up like that), but end up getting slightly evil karma at the end of some missions because it's impossible to avoid massive collateral damage and the mission ends before I get a chance to mop up. It doesn't help that half the time citizens have no sense of self-preservation and would rather stand around taking pictures while I fling cars at a 30-ft tall trash robot instead of, oh, I don't know, RUNNING AWAY.

How is I Am Alive similar to the other games?

Oh, that's right - it isn't.

I didn't realise I am alive is going to be an FPS when I started this thread : /

I thought it was going to be in the style of raw danger/SOS: final escape

: ///

― ur bisexual btw (cozwn), Friday, 9 January 2009 18:16 (4 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oh, that's right - 4 months ago

BAM

anyway, I guess we can add crackdown 2 to this list. prototype is supposedly out next week?! no reviews and no demo yet

apols I'm still just sour that I am alive is another FPS :((((((

I've hit a game-breaking bug about (I think) halfway through Infamous. Starting to think maybe the decision to push the release date up a week wasn't the best one, because this is making it completely impossible to progress and happens 100% of the time whenever I attempt the story mission that's the only one I have left. I've emailed Sony's customer support with all the relevant details, but it's 72 hours into their promised 48-hour response time and I'm starting to think no fix is incoming. If they end up emailing me back with advice like "restart your game and hope for the best" I will be fucking pissed.

wth are the reviews for prototype?

I'm guessing most sites didn't get their copies soon enough before E3 to get enough time with it to review. However, it could be one of those "embargoed till releases date" deals, which rarely bodes well. I'm tempted to just pick it up because I love Hulk: Ultimate Destruction so much.

Definitely getting a weird vibe from the lack of reviews. Then again, the (review-les) IGN page for the game did have a little "editor's choice" banner on it when I checked last night, which given IGN's standards at least indicates it runs properly and doesn't have anything massively, obviously terrible about it.

Meanwhile, I managed to get myself un-stuck in Infamous, and it only took an hour and a half of repeated attempts, trying every little variation I could think of, finally ending when a combination of totally unintuitive behavior and luck managed to keep the game from seizing up long enough to complete the mission. I feel like I should tally up my time spent and send a detailed invoice to SCEA; if I'm going to be a QA tester I'm goddamn well not going to do it for free.

Heard from a reliable source that there was an Activision embargo on Prototype reviews. That is not a good sign...

None of the retailers in my area had it today, and even Gamestop didn't expect to receive it until tomorrow. Which means I won't be able to check it out until next week as I'm heading out of town. Grr.

Is that like not screening a film for critics? Oh dear. Definitely not a good sign.

The other possibility is that they didn't want reviews lost in E3 coverage. I mean, how many people would notice if a review came out last Thursday? Kind of surprised they wouldn't want it out Monday night though.

Played some more Infamous last night. My friend is farther along in the game. I like the flow of the game when you're running from rooftop to rooftop, using your power on wires and to float and etc. In a way, I kinda think Infamous does everything Mirror's Edge does, but better (but doesn't look as cool, and is third-person).

the early consensus on prototype is tht it's basically just a new hulk:ud and if you loved that, you'll love this

early reviews trickling out

http://www.gamepro.com/article/reviews/210743/prototype/

That review makes me pine for the quality writing of IGN. Serious sub-message board English usage.

haha

sadly the quality writing of ign has yet to show itself for this game

can I say 9bargo again?

hulk is exactly what the game store guy said about it when people (inc. me) were drooling over the demo

I bought this because of you fools. Ive been needing a new game to play since I finished off Fallout 3 for good. Started playing WoW like a crack fiend during the 10 day free period and Im glad I can walk away from all that.

which one did you buy, infamous or prototype?

More Prototype reviews are in, all in the 90+ range so far (though none of the major outlets or my personal favorite, Eurogamer, have weighed in yet).

Infamous is still coming along; in the Historic District (third island) now and my god, the First Sons conduits are fatherless bastards. Some fun climbing to be had, though; it seems like they're making the buildings higher and more complex with each island. My favorite part of the game so far has been climbing Transient Tower- come to think of it, I would buy a game that was just climbing if it was at a budget price and they could come up with more interesting challenges like that.

http://www.cheatcc.com/xbox360/rev/prototypereview.html

god DAMN those IGN fake embedded videos that are just screenshots of the video that link to a separate page.

gets me every. fucking. time.

ANOTHER

GOD

DAMN

BUG

On the last island, "ride the bus and keep it safe" escort mission. Everything goes fine until the bus reaches its destination, at which point the bus stops, its damage indicator disappears, the electric grid on the top of the bus stops crackling (though it's still there, and I can still drain it), the minimap blips for the next wave of enemies appear then just as abruptly vanish, and the mission is over. Not complete, but just *poof*, suddenly I'm no longer on a mission. I don't think I got the XP for it, and somehow I doubt it'll be counted toward trophies, etc. I like this game but it is buggy as shit.

I picked up prototype. Only gone through the tutorial but it seems pretty fun. Also plays alot looser than infamous seems because running up walls is basically automatic. Will play some more later tonight.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/prototype-review

That Eurogamer review makes it sound wonderful. Truly just H:UD for this round of consoles. Shame that I'm heading out of town and won't get to try it out for a week or so.

Massive x-post, but I'm sorry I was "pining for the quality writing of IGN" upthread. Their review sounds like it was written for telegraph transmission. If you place the word "STOP" in all caps between each sentence, the flow doesn't seem quite so stodgy and stilted.

If you think that's bad, read their review of the Ghostbusters game. Painful.

Massive x-post, but I'm sorry I was "pining for the quality writing of IGN" upthread. Their review sounds like it was written for telegraph transmission. If you place the word "STOP" in all caps between each sentence, the flow doesn't seem quite so stodgy and stilted.

― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, June 10, 2009 12:53 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i thought you were being ironic hahaha

Just read the Ghostbusters one and you're right; it makes the Prototype review shine. How incredibly sad. Especially when the Australian IGN team can do a passable job: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/993/993389p1.html

I should remember that you can't spell "ignorant" without IGN.

By the way, did you get past the latest Infamous bug?

slocki - It was sadly ironic; IGN sucks, but in comparison, they rarely reach the depths of that Gamepro review, which was a "how not to write" guide for people in ESL courses.

off topic, but brian ashcraft of kotaku gets my vote as worst games journalist out there. he's essentially just prefacing links to off-site stories, which is the mostly the substance of kotaku's weak sauce, but he manages to do this so badly it becomes painfully fascinating:

http://kotaku.com/5285481/video-game-argument-ends-in-accidental-death

Xpost- thankfully the latest bug didn't keep me from finishing a story mission like the earlier one. The issue will be whether or not it counted the mission as complete for the purposes of claiming territory- it's meaningless, I know, but if it keeps me from getting my trophy for clearing the third island completely it'll suck. I haven't checked yet; I did save it on a different slot so I can (sigh) go back and redo the couple hours of progress beforehand if necessary.

Best of luck with that. I hope you don't hit anymore bugs.

x-post Do we have a thread discussing writing about games as opposed to the writing within games? There have to be good and bad examples we can talk about, and also what we want from writers covering the industry.

I agree Ashcroft is like a hack bot. That first sentence is just ugh.

Infamous, curing trophy whores one bug at a time.

Speaking of open world games with bugs (which are obviously the kind of games hardest to discover and cure bugs in, not that I'm trying to make excuses for Infamous), it reminds me of when I was playing the original Crysis and the game was telling me I had to pass through a tunnel to get to the next level, but a giant bolder was blocking the entrance of the tunnel. I kept thinking there was something I did wrong, something I had to do before that point and spent hours walking all over the island, backtracking and trying a million different things until I realized the boulder was a bug. After doing a bunch of research on forums I finally found out that the only two solutions (and this was months after the game was out) was to either start over and pray you don't get the bug again (it was only about two hours into the game) or you could launch console commands and go into god mode (developer mode) and just move the camera through the boulder till you triggered the next cut scene.

Haha, that's a pretty big bug!

I think I'm going to load up my pre-bug save and plow through to the end of the game- I've done all the good side missions and maxed out my battery cores, so side missions and shard collection aren't getting me any new powers or anything but XP- and come back to it after a patch or two have addressed some of the more glaring bugs.

Once I'm done with Infamous, it's definitely on to Prototype- after going to ridiculous lengths to protect Infamous's borderline retarded citizens I need a good dose of the ol' smashy-stabby.

infamous and prototype really look EXACTLY the same eh

Well, one of them looks like it's covered in slaughterhouse runoff but there are undeniable similarities. More importantly one gormless NPC bystander is the same as any other and oh LORD do they have it coming.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/10/ps3-version-of-prototype-features-installation-bug-annoying-wor/

...How does shit like that (and the Terminator game blue-screening on PC) make it into the final release candidate?

Yahtzee likes it.

I am as surprised as anyone.

I'm really enjoying Prototype despite its shortcomings.

It's great and rubbish at the same time. I can totally understand why some people would rate it a 5 and others rate it a high 8. It starts off at eleven and doesn't really calm down until later when the full city opens up and you can just roam about. Once you have wall tap, double air dash, better jump and glide you can really just fly about the city and it's quite graceful and enjoyable. Before that though, exploration feels a little clunky and frustrating. The first 'boss' is quite frustrating, because the targeting is tricky in this game and the brutes are hard to kill. Once I realised I can tap RT to evade, I can do combos with X+Y and I can change my skills mid-battle (it slows the action) then it all got a bit more manageable. I can now jump into the air, dash, glide, dash again target a helicopter and blow it to smithereens.

It can be tricky trying to land on exact spots or run up a certain thin structure, which is why I understand when people say it lacks finesse. But it's outweighed by the fun feeling of flying around, calling in artillery strikes, stealth consuming grannies and then cutting soldiers in half. The base 'side missions' are quite a neat touch too and the stealth aspect is not tacked on and really works quite well.

If we're doing this then: it's a solid 7, in my opinion, and to give that opinion some context I thought GTAIV was a high 6, Crackdown an 8 and Saints Row 2 also an 8. My favourite colour is purple and I am a Gemini.

I recommend getting air dash, glide and better jump as your first upgrades. It's no fun just running up a buildings walls if you can't get any momentum or flying in when you get to the top. Jumping off a building only to miss the next building and have to run up another building is OK but not as great as hopping from building to building, dashing, gliding, picking your spot, etc. When you are powered up a bit, the game flows better. That was my reaction, anyway.

It's a fancy sandbox button basher, tbf. The combat isn't as deep as something like Ninja Gaiden 2 (well, that may not be strictly true, you can unlock combos but I haven't done so yet) but it's certainly better than Crackdown (though it suffers from similar lock-on problems that game had). The combat does feel good though, especially when you start to figure it out (the evade, the powers) and is certainly pretty bombastic. It can be hard to get a bead on who is attacking you at some points but thankfully your powers seem 'intelligent' and only attack 'baddies' and your lock-on seems quite smart too (can't lock-on civilians e.g.) You have a lot of health too (also upgradeable) so bullets don't do much damage but bazookas and the brutes can mess you up, so you can't just be mindless.

Haha, I totally lied. I loaded up my pre-bug save and found myself doing the side missions again anyway (though this time I saved after completing every one of them, something I'd advise anyone playing Infamous to do). Thankfully, Supply Run didn't bug out on me this time and I was able to complete it, but immediately afterward I ran into something that perfectly embodies this game for me. A mission (Against the World) that's really well designed, fun, and plays to the game's strengths (it has you hunting a bunch of hot-air balloons across the rooftops to stop them dumping Magic Crazy Gas on the city), followed immediately by a crippling bug. This time, I took some crazy gas to the face after taking out the last balloon, but instead of wearing off when I left the block or two immediately under the balloon, the gas effects kept up indefinitely, possibly because there was no area of effect for me to get out of, if that makes any sense. When you're gassed up, your camera goes all weird, you can't shoot, and more importantly, you can't jump or hit the circle button to drop down. Since Infamous keeps you from running off ledges, and since I couldn't jump or drop down, I spent five minutes running around the perimeter of an island to find a spot where I could walk into the harbor, die and respawn. FUN TIMES

this thread is exhausting! lol

i ordered Infamous, not sure why i chose this over prototype they both sound very similar. am i correct in thinking that?

or is one predominantly better than the other?

I think you'll like infamous more, maybe. the controls are apparently a lot tighter, it's more polished in terms of graphics etc, has a better story and presentation. as I understand it, the city is more vibrant and there's one of those tacked-on morality systems games are so fond of these days

prototype is messy and anarchic, the controls are sloppy, the story is drivel, the graphics are a bit dull, and it has no moral equanimity. it is HEAPS of fun however. like crackdown crossed w/spiderman. it has orbs too. everyone loves orbs right?

Infamous has its shards/orbs that you can collect to power up too. Less than Crackdown though & they're more semi-hidden around the city, usually in places where it's a slight challenge to see and get to them. The graphics aren't super polished either - they're okay, but the engine has lots of minor technical issues, with pop-in, and sometimes pretty awful clipping / collision detection and the like.

"your amazon order blah blah blah Infamous HAS BEEN SHIPPED"

excitement.

Logged about an hour with Prototype last night and before work this morning- Infamous is definitely prettier and more polished (though, aside from the install glitch I didn't experience, Prototype seems less buggy). Completely crap storytelling aside, though, I'm finding myself leaning toward Prototype- Infamous manages your experience in a way that I wouldn't mind as much if it were a more engaging story, whereas Prototype just throws you at its (even worse) plot with a giant toolbox of COMPLETELY LUNATIC SHIT and cuts you loose with minimal handholding. More thoughts later, maybe; it's a fun comparison of design philosophies

Infamous, played 12 hours straight today. damn its fun, tho not without it's flaws.

i got stuck in the 'prison' mission, endlessy waiting for my extraction. i had to die to restart it.

more than likely going to get prototype now.

By the prison mission, do you mean "Alden in Chains" on the second island? That's the same one that had me stuck for days. What happened to you?

If it's the same bug that got me, the solution was to ignore it when they tell you OHMIGOD CLIMB THE BUILDING START THE GENERATOR NOWNOWNOW THIS IS SERIOUSLY IMPORTANT FOR REALS, stick around in the prison yard, leisurely finish killing off all the enemies (it's not a series of continually spawning waves like you would expect), then climb to the roof and proceed as normal. There's no timer so you'll be fine.

No it was a bug right at the end (after the huge climb to the top and back down again), when you have to hold the courtyard until help arrives. It just seemed to get stuck in a loop sending me bad guys and didn't end. At least it scored me a heck of a lot of XP's though.

There's a very fallout3 feel to some of this game, and i don't just mean because there's rubble everywhere.

some amazing climbing, like in the prison level mentioned, and also the fab tower of junk.

i really enjoyed developing the confidence to throw the player about more as the game progressed.

stopped playing for now, the city was getting chaotic!

haha and i was all 'fuck people lets get nasty and evil' right at the start. Then, after the first karma deciding mission I could overhear people saying nasty thing about me, i couldn't stand it!

Prototype is exactly what I imagined it to be; overpowered mayhem simulator with collectibles and silly races. I haven't gotten too far in the story because I'm having a blast futzing about, disguising myself as an emo chick and playing a fun version of Mirror's Edge. I understand how some people might take issue with some of the jankiness, but everything is improved from Hulk: Ultimate Destruction so I'm in heaven.

I'm having so much more fun with Prototype than I was with Infamous it's not even funny, and I liked Infamous. Infamous just seems so mannered and restrained in comparison- even playing as a bad guy, there's not really much potential to Fuck Shit Up beyond three or four gas stations that all go up in the same, minimally destructive explosion and cars that detonate in the feeblest way imaginable. Meanwhile, Prototype lets me destroy a Blackhawk by throwing a goddamn tank at it. And the Whipfist! Oh my god, the Whipfist alone is more fun than any of the powers in Infamous by an order of magnitude.

I enjoy throwing people at helicopters. Futile yet fun.

I haven't tried it yet, but I think doing that with Muscle Mass and Charged Throw can actually do some damage. My default helicopter weapons have been rooftop A/C units and Whipfist so far- sadly, I just hit a point where a fully-charged special with the Whipfist will no longer one-shot a strike team helicopter.

re Infamous, I'd forgotten how tedious round bosses are, as are sewer missions.

this game gave me a huge lucid dream last night, my own fault of course. I was "Molecule Man" with the ability to become at one with any item in the universe. trippy shit.

ordered prototype today. when does it end!

Keep on reading thread title as "come anticipate a TS whine".

Thinkin' 'bout getting prototype, got nothing else going on on t'xbox. However all the stuff about "relentless onslaught of your adversaries, who are increasingly difficult to evade" and "nearly half an hour of slog against a Who's Who of what not to program: flying blobs that stun, respawning tentacles, unpredictable wave attacks, and inconsistent damage conditions among them", doesn't sound like fun.

In a game like Prototype, missions are really just for unlocking new skills with which to wreck havoc, so I don't care if I reach a point of abject frustration; that's just when I'll quit getting new skills and screw around for the next four years. I've played Hulk: UD since it came out and never bothered to finish it, so if the same happens here I won't complain.

I've never really cared about finishing games. Most of the time, the fun to frustration ratio tips past my tolerance point before the end (usually a sequence with a time limit, come to think of it) and I put the game aside.

I do like to finish videogames, often feels like a waste if i don't. Obviously not all games are designed for 'finishing' but prototype feels like it would be - does it really have enough depth to keep playing without aiming for any particular goal?

I've only done like four story missions in my five hours of playtime; maybe I'll get bored, but I expect it will be one of those games I throw in to just screw around for an hour to blow off steam after a long day.

There are army bases and hives you can just go to and cause mayhem; you can just mow down pedestrians, or cars, or jump around, dive bombing from the Empire State Building, etc.

what is a "TS" anyway?

Instead of playing two similar super-hero / villain games in a row, you all should consider picking up the new Red Faction if you still want an open world game where you can really destroy lots of stuff. I've yet to play a ton, but so far consider it superior to Infamous.

taking sides. it's like pick a team and then try and kneecap the other guys. on the internet.

I loved the demo of RF:G- does it keep up that kind level of fun?

I didn't like the demos of either Infamous or Red Faction, so I'm glad Prototype is working for me. I'll take a brawler over a shooter any day. Though I need to do more missions and less goofing off - I've bought all the stuff I can at this point and have 1.2 million points for future use.

Well I'm near the end of infamous now, and I've done most of the side missions too. Whilst it's been a fun run, I don't think it has any replay value as has been mentioned there isn't actually anything much to do and the climbing novelty has soon worn off.

gta still rules the sandbox, for me.

Telephone - I still haven't got very far into Red Faction (my attention is really divided this month), but I've enjoyed what I've played (just got to the second town). It's very similiar to the demo so far - just a lot more - not sure if that's exactly a good or bad thing yet. While the game is packed with content, so far it does have a bit of that samey feel to all the content that lots of open world games seem to get. Of what I played, what I like most is the SF atmosphere, design work (different vehicles are great) and of course, the super destructability - which is really what the game is about - blowing shit up. Also the guy who gave you orders in Crackdown is the guy who gives your orders in this game. Unlike Infamous or Prototype, the game includes a fairly robust multiplayer suite (which I've barely tipped my toes in, unfortunately) as well as some party modes (like who can blow up the most shit the fastest). Overall, it just seems really solid to me, if not quite GREAT.

ugh Prototype is ugly, feels really cheap compared to Infamous. Might take some getting used to. Also manages to make NY look reeeeally dull.

called it

Loving, loving, loving Prototype. Seriously cannot believe the amount of crap that can appear onscreen with no slow down. The story is striving for mediocrity, but I like the Web of Intrigue stuff - completely unnecessary but adds something to the game, much like the additional dialogue opportunities in the last Prince of Persia.

If I like the mayhem and silly anarchy of this should I give Saints Row 2 a try? I've stayed away because I don't like the GTA series, and I know the first SR was maligned as a poor version of GTA. Saints Row 2 never even made my radar.

I have now gotten to the point where I have more powers than I can possibly remember. Annoyingly, one of the most useful moves in the game so far, the elbow drop, is an absoute bastard to pull off- you have to hit triangle (or Y I guess for teh Xb0xors) WHILE wallrunning. Not while in the air, or immediately after a wallrun. Which means you have to cope with the camera staying locked on your target while you wallrun (because trying to acquire a specific target in the middle of a run is damn near impossible), and since this target is usually a tank trying to shoot your protoplasmic mutant testicles off it can get quite stressful.

yeah the controls/camera seem rough, but its pretty damn fun.

Hammerfist Elbow Drop has totally replaced my need for the regular elbow drop, and you can pull it off from a simple jump. Yay! Meanwhile, the plot keeps getting dumber and dumber, which is a shame because the "web of intrigue" thing is a really neat storytelling device that deserves a better plot than this stuff.

the flying kick thing is really annoying and counterproductive like 90% of the time.

The cannonball move is the shit, though- kind of disappointed I can't one-shot helicopters with it, as it seems to do only a bit more damage than a properly-charged kick, but it's such brilliantly stupid fun.

For me, Prototype is a clear game of the year candidate. It is mega-fun.

Me too - just taking my time screwing around. I Have no idea if I'll ever finish the story.

I'm close to finishing Infamous as a good guy. I've had a good time with it. I never finish games. I refuse to let myself buy Prototype until I've finished it. After reading about Prototype on this thread and hearing about it from friends, it's hard to imagine it being the type of game I finish.

I may finish it despite the fact that I rented it and only have six days to do so.

I finally beat Infamous last night. Tried playing as evil today, but quickly got bored of not having all my skills.

It's the first game I've beaten in years, btw.

I found Infamous to be really moreish, particularly the standard hand-bolt weapon. icing the reapers in the face is hella satisfying. Once I'd started on the side missions I couldn't stop.

Both games take themselves far too god-damned seriously. Prototype has you doing the most ridiculous stuff ever, and then some amazingly dour cutscene comes around and deflates all the fun. Infamous's story bits aren't quite as annoying, but it's also not as fun.

and yeah, I'm enjoying Red Faction: Guerrilla over either of the superhero games. Hammering a radio tower into oblivion on Mars may not be as purely awesome as elbow-dropping a tank from the top of the Empire State building, but at least you don't have to sit through increasingly humorless cartoons every ten minutes.

I skip all the Prototype cutscenes pretty much as soon as possible.

Also, I thought the story stuff in Infamous was way more annoying. Diff'rnt strokes I guess.

I found myself wishing there were no conventional cutscenes at all in Prototype (mostly because they're so, so very awful) and they'd expanded the Web of Intrigue enough to rely on it as the game's main storytelling mechanism. The Web cutscenes aren't any great shakes either, but it's harder to egregiously fuck up a choppy fifteen-second clip of interior monologue and generic sinister flashbacks, and it's actually fun to do- I found myself twice bailing out of helicopters hundreds of stories up just to get to those sweet, sweet blinking head icons. It's even more addictive than the shard collecting in Infamous was.

I ditch any and all missions for the orbs in prototype. I am almost through it and it definitely could have used more closed-in boss fights. the zero punct review was dead on: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/789-Prototype

Funny, I hated the closed-in bossfights, especially the first Leader Hunter- the Times Square fight with Greene was one of my favorite moments of the game so far (though I bet I wouldn't be saying that if I hadn't bought Air Groundspike Graveyard right before).

The groundspike is so satisfying.

I'm more of a tentacle explosion kinda guy. Great for just ruining the insides of military bases.

So it's safe to say there aren't really wrong decisions about which powers to train? More a matter of preference? I'd gotten the impression from some reviews that there were must-have powers.

The tentacle one is the most useful, for sure.

So it's safe to say there aren't really wrong decisions about which powers to train? More a matter of preference? I'd gotten the impression from some reviews that there were must-have powers.

There are some that are must-haves- you'll want to spend the bulk of your XP early in the game maxing out the movement and survival upgrades, and there are a set of upgrades helpfully marked as "core" that are pretty important.. But there are usually two or three ways to get stuff done, so once you've got those, just wing it and it generally works out ok.

I borrowed Red Faction: Guerrilla and then bought Prototype. I've been playing quite a bit of Prototype, though. Some of the shit you pull off is ridiculous. My overall impression so far is that it's pretty god damn fun. Getting into The Zone when fighting a ton of bad guys is so incredibly satisfying. Here are some things I don't like:

- Side missions are mostly boring and frustrating - especially the checkpoint race ones. I find myself avoiding them and just running around starting trouble with the military.

- I really wish I had that fucking elbow drop RIGHT NOW. I hate fighting multiple tanks oh so much. Doing slow ass combos with that metal fist power while getting bounced around by other projectiles is really frustrating. I do better when jumping way up in the air and coming down on stuff.

- Story is really generic. Like many people, I found the plot to Infamous a tad more interesting. And I really prefer the creepy homeless mutant gangs to the generic zombie-beasts in Prototype. Fighting the military is a fucking hoot, though.

I really love the stealthy elements, too. I like how you can go from total godlike destruction of entire blocks worth of Manhattan to creeping around a military base looking for one guy. The scale shift from being in the air drop-kicking helicopters, to quietly slipping behind some guy in the base is really satisfying for me for some reason. Would like to see more of that in games: From guy on the street to total insaniac depending on what the situation calls for.

the 3 types of villains in Infamous were all fantastic, some of the best designs I've seen for a while.

I hope with future games in this genre, we get some slightly better A.I. out of the crowds of people that just seem to hang around while huge zombie beasts are fighting against tanks. Like, why would you even be on the street? I'd be in my apartment. It's like, "Well there's a total war going on outside, the building across the street has pulsating tumors on it with monsters coming out, but I really need to run up to the store for some bagels and coffee. Hope that guy out there with the huge tentacle whip doesn't accidentally hit me!"

Prototype is starting to get on my tits. All of a sudden I have crossed some kind of threshold where tanks and helicopters just destroy me. I have a ton of powers - all my movement and survivability stuff is maxed out - but I get bounced all over the place by their insanely accurate projectiles. I get killed just goofing around & trying to do side quests now. I guess I'm glad the game is challenging, but I feel less powerful than I did when I first started.

I just discovered something in Prototype - you can get the location globe things that are on top of the Empire State Building (and other pointy-topped towers that are a pain to jump/run up to) by flying through them in a helicopter! Frustration solved.

I said I didn't think I'd finish, but I've only got like three story missions left. Haven't done many of the side quests beyond the target gliding ones.

I just discovered something in Prototype - you can get the location globe things that are on top of the Empire State Building (and other pointy-topped towers that are a pain to jump/run up to) by flying through them in a helicopter!

...I've been trying to use the slow, "accurate" climb to get those, and when that proved nearly impossible tried jumping from helicopters and gliding to them. You just saved me hours of frustration there.

clocked about 8 hours on prototype yesterday - FUN! have barely messed around with upgrades, just running around and breaking shit mostly. hooray also for tank driving being well implemented.

Start with all the movement upgrades before you worry about the other stuff. Hauling ass, gliding off buildings - so much fun.

"i am alive" still looks like it could be amazing or terrible, no inbetween

idea sounds interesting but getting really fed up of this tried and tested monochrome colour scheme now, could they really not have put some more vibrancy in the graphics?

i think i'm going to give it a shot based on reviews, although i usually hate games that raise stakes/tension by limiting saves & checkpoints. it seems like it would be easy to include save-at-will as an option or lower difficulty mode.

this game has more than its share of flaws and the combat is very silly, but i'm having fun with the dystopian platforming. glad my expectations were lowered appropriately.

i still really like this game. except when i go the wrong way and it says "HINT: you're going the wrong way" and turns my character around.

played all the way through infamous and am on the final boss battle. it sucks.

okay, just beat it. Boy o boy the story on this is terrible.

The ending was terrible. I never did get properly into Infamous 2. It's on my to-do list along with Prototype 2.

I've never played either sequel. I was one of the only people to have a blast with the first Prototype, though like basically every other game I never bothered to finish it. Now that it's getting cheap I should pick up Prototype 2.

second son on sale.. worth it?

I had fun with it while it lasted - worth picking up for cheap for sure.