FoolInjection

Syndicate came out not too long ago and through all the hype and general chat about it, I was really into playing it. I managed to get a hold of a copy on PS3 through my work (the perks of working in a video game store!) and bounded home to play it that night.

Now. I'd been playing a lot of Modern Warfare 3 before picking Syndicate up, so I don't know if it was because of this that the aiming felt off or what but I just could not seem to get to grips with the games aiming at all. It just felt so sluggish and imprecise, like you were turning through treacle. I'd kind of muddled through the game with it and persevered, as I really liked the story and the games premise, but the big fire-fight in the nightclub almost had me lobbing the controller through the window in sheer frustration. I couldn't hit a barn door if I was holding it by the handle. I just could not get past it and died a bunch of times in the process.

For clarity, I was playing on the default difficulty and I hadn't messed around with the sensitivity sliders for the aiming, if there was any. Although I think by that time I'd gotten so pissed off with it I wasn't in the mood to go looking for aiming options and start messing about with sliders.

It's a real shame though as I really liked the look of the game, the art style was pretty good for the most part of what I'd seen and the guns felt really chunky as if they had some power behind them. The story was pretty interesting too and I was just getting into it when I seemed to hit this brick wall.

Did anyone else who played Syndicate find the aiming to be off like this? Was it because I'd become so accustomed to the MW3 aiming? Or, and this is the most likely, am I just really shit at shooting games and should stick to racing, sports and strategy games?

As a side note however, one customer I served traded the game in and he had the same complaint, so maybe it's not just me. *shrugs*

@BigChickenDinner: If your referring to my avatar pic then that is me. I work in a video games store and they were doing a promotion when, I think, Sonic Colours came out and I picked up a Sonic hat from the left over ones after the promo had ended. =)

@TheDudeOfGaming: I think you could play as Serbia although at that period of time, around 1066 onwards, I think they would be swallowed up inside the Byzantine Empire. You'd just need to start off as a Serbian Duke or Count and fight your way out of the Empire for your own Independence.

Recently I've been playing a lot of Crusader Kings II. After watching the Quick Look for it here on Giant Bomb and after watching a play-through campaign on YouTube I decided to bite and bought it on Steam.

I've been finding it really fun to play. It's a little different from your usual strategy games as you play as one guy or gal rather than an entire nation. You also have to make sure that you have an heir to your throne because when your guy shuffles off his mortal coil you become your heir and continue on from there.

It's a little slow to start most games, especially if you decide to start small and work up. I'd imagine if you started as the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire you'd be getting dropped straight into it without a paddle. Once you lay claim to some lands however and start to marry into other families and set up a bit of a kingdom of your own, it really kicks off.

A game I've been playing recently has seen me start as a Duke in Scotland. After having conquered about half of Scotland as my own through dodgy claims, I realised I was set to loose half my realm because the succession rights were set to Gavelkind. This meant all my land was split pretty much 50/50 between my two sons. I tried to change the rights so only my eldest son inherited but I couldn't as I was under the King of Scotland's rule and his crown authority wouldn't allow it. BLAST!.

The game then became a race against the clock to conquer Scotland and become the King. To do this I had to ask permission from the Pope to invade, which cost me a LOT of piety; piety being like currency you get for good standing with the church. Got permission, invaded, was in the process of kicking the King of Scotland's door down when... I snuffed it. My guy died and because of that the war ended inconclusively and my land got split up the middle in the process. DOUBLE BLAST!

Waited a couple of months in game and decided that I was having my old land back off my younger Brother. Declared war and went to smash his face in. All was going well until the Duke of the Isles, who was an independent Scottish Duke like I'm playing, saw red and declared war on me. So now I'm fighting a war on two fronts, which as we know from the WWII history books isn't a good idea. Even less of a good idea because he invited his Norwegian allies into the fray, who brought MASSIVE armies to the table. TRIPLE BLAST!

I was managing to hold them back by using every man available to me as well as a couple of bands of paid mercenaries. However having them raised so long costs gold and as my coffers were running dry the final nail in the coffin was when the King of Scotland declared war on me as well. At this point I'm flat broke, my armies are about to revolt, the peasants have revolted, I'm fighting a war on three different fronts and I'm about to get thoroughly stomped. So I gave it best, did my best Brave Sir Robin impression and surrendered to save my own skin.

I lost everything, was stripped of all my titles and sent back to square one with the same little Scottish province that I started with, 200 in game years previous.

Unforgiving game... is indeed... unforgiving! Bloody good fun though.

I said this at the time the first announcement was made. No Neo Turf, No Sale!.

Top Players Golf is good but Neo Turf Masters is the better golf game.

You know what I'm actually pretty gutted by the news of this development myself. I actually thought that Blitz would be a boxed product like NBA Jam was but then I heard it was a download, thought "okay, points card"... then when I went looking for it the only listing is for NFL Tour which, from my recollection, was the biggest bunch of spanners out.

Why the F would they not release this worldwide. We got Madden, Backbreaker, NFL Tour... I don't get it.

It would be nice if someone at EA would come forward with a reason... but all people seem to be getting is the bog standard "We have no plans to release this game in any other region than North America"... and the only reason I can think of for it is the ladder style match up system that they have in place where you are ranked state-by-state in the US. Would it have been that hard to make it country-by-country for the EU?

You know what, to be honest, I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up about this game. EA are the biggest jerk company going at the moment I think... I shouldn't have known better than to look forward to a release from them.

Upon hearing the news that EA was going to revive the NFL Blitz series I thought, great! NBA Jam wasn't too bad when it was revived by EA last year, it stuck to it's roots and delivered 2-on-2 hoops with a dash of crazy just like its 90's arcade counterpart. All I need is for them to revive NHL Hitz and I can complete the set.

Then I read this :- NFL Told EA Sports to Keep Late Hits Out of Blitz - Kotaku

Ross said at the time they were still working through approvals with the league, but promised it'd still "contain over-the-top, fast arcade action with big hits and guys catching on fire."

Well, since then, the NFL has ordered late hits removed from the latest game. Speaking to GamesRadar, Ross said the EA Sports Tiburon team did include late hits, a staple of the hold series, in early builds of the game, including one shown to the league. But the NFL said no and asked EA to prohibit contact after the whistle.

This sucks! The whole point of NFL Blitz was the over the top action and blatantly late hits and tackles after the whistle had blown. In what other NFL game can you pile-drive your opponents into the turf after the play has gone dead and then elbow drop him for good measure? NONE!

Taking late hits out will just make the game seem really weak. In my mind that's like taking the ability to smash the backboard out of NBA Jam or removing the fighting and the ability to body-check players through the plexi-glass in NHL Hitz.

Now, don't get me wrong, I can see where they are coming from as no-body wants anyone in the NFL to get injured. I can also see where they are coming from, from a fair play aspect. There was a while there when football/soccer games didn't have a dive button because FIFA were cracking down on it as part of their FIFA Fair Play initiative. But the point is that NFL Blitz at its core is just so over the top you would never see that kind of thing in real life, so why sensor it if it's so out there it's beyond the realms of reality.

I don't see why the NFL couldn't just put a big disclaimer at the start of the game saying "Hey kids. Play fair, play to the whistle, play with respect for your fellow team and don't try to replicate any of the hits you see in this video game. Winners don't break bones." and allow EA to treat us to more of the same great arcade action Midway made us love.

It's PEGI who rate games, there's no U or PG. The BBFC only come in to hand out 18s on games like Grand Theft Auto or Modern Warfare.