@bocckob: @shadefyre: Actually there is a final circle, its about 50 ft in diameter. Its pretty rare for the game to go that long though, I've only seen it once. So theoretically this game could fulfill your wierd virtual orgy fetish :)
Squads are def the wtg. Basically its Arma lite with a few battle royal wrinkles. Interested in Arma but thought it was too complicated, get this game instead.
@eccentrix: I'm not sure you understand how large the map is my dude. Think Skyrim, then add more buildings. Its a big part of the reason why the graphical fidelity isn't that great. In your hypothetical last 2 standing 1 on 1, its likely they wouldn't even find each other for the better part of an hour.
Also the circles prevent people from camping in a windowless bathroom with only one entrance. I mean camping sucks in every fps, but its an actual viable strat in this game if there are no circles.
Some tips for anyone wanting to get into this game.
1) Don't play in first person mode. Noticing your opponent before they notice you is obviously harder when your FOV is restricted.
2) Always be in cover or running to cover. The end of this video they tried to run to a distant house instead of using the trees that were right next to them. In the first game Vinny was on an open road and the guy who killed him was using a car as cover. Sorry for putting you on blast Vinny :(
3) Don't be on the roads unless you have a vehicle.
4) If you have to cross a river to get to the white circle don't use the bridges(unless you have to because you're short on time), they're deathtraps.
5) Be wary of towns and other clusters of buildings after the looting phase of the game. Running up on a town from an open field is super dangerous. If someone's sniping out those windows you're dead. Also firefights in enclosed spaces are basically coinflips.
6) Get a rifle and a 4x or 8x scope. Pistols and Melee weapons are useless after the first minute of the game. Long distance engagements are 90% of the firefights you're gonna get into.
7) If you have to go into buildings later in the game(for loot or safety), check for open doors. Most players don't close doors behind them, an easy way to tell if someone has been in there. If someone is in there make use of grenades to try to flush them out.
8) Clearing buildings is the only time a shotgun is useful.
9) Your ears are one of your best weapons. If you hear gunfire nearby don't ignore it. Use it to get the drop on people. Or adjust your cover situation to protect yourself on that side.
10) Because gunfire gives away position, suppressors are extremely important. Every time you fire your gun unsuppressed the person you're firing at immediately knows where you're firing from(as well as anyone in the vicinity). Knowing you can fire your suppressed gun with impunity is a huge help(also watching people take cover on the wrong side of a rock is funny).
11) As far as I know clothes are just cosmetic. You wanna look for police/tactical vests and helmets.
12) Lead your shots. Bullet travel is a thing in this game.
They're a lot more stuff about positioning and flanking based on surrounding terrain and distant gunfire, but that gets a bit too technical for a comment. Good luck!
I'm gonna go ahead and authoritatively say that opinion is very unpopular on this site. There have been multiple polls(favorite GB staffer) in the forums if you wanna go take a look(plus general community sentiment).
As far as GBW is concerned they've leaned heavily on content that involves or revolves around Dan since he was hired. When Vinny left taking his enthusiasm and energy with him, they had Dan(with his enthusiasm and energy) ready to replace him almost immediately. Like it or not most, if not all, of GBwest's most popular series in the last 2 years have involved or revolved around Dan. To be honest it felt like a little bit of a crutch at times.
Now with both of those guys in NYC there's a sizable hole in GBW's lineup. I might have been overly scathing in my initial comment, but it worries me a bit.
Lol I love GBW and all but man oh man.... This was video ambien
Agreed.
GBW is in a rut. I barely watch any content coming out of the SF office anymore. Why would I, when GBeast is in such a good place both chemistry-wise and creatively. West needs new blood fast imo.
I tried playing through Contra solo the other day because of this feature. After a few hours I had to give up and use the Konami code. Let me ASSURE you 2 player Contra is far easier than single player Contra(except maybe for the couple stages that are more about platforming than shooting).
The enemies split their focus, giving you opportunities to fire without worrying about dodging(i.e. you can bait turrets while your partner takes it down). You can fire in 2 directions at once taking down double the soldiers in the same amount of time(taking down the spiked snowplow things by yourself is very very hard, you just can't fire fast enough, 2 of your 3 lives gone unless you have the spread gun). Most importantly, you have double the lives.
There's a large amount of unavoidable bullshit in singleplayer Contra that is mitigated by having a partner. Watching Vinny or Dan slowly lose their minds grinding out a singleplayer run would just be frustrating.
IDK, I haven't watched all of this, but most of that singleplayer stuff can be mitigated, admittedly by never losing that Spread gun you get in the first level. I find two players get distracting and there are death traps in the energy level and hangar that are designed to mess with two players. Like that pit where your spawn point is set so if you are aggressive you will just drop into that pit. I think bosses are helped with two guns going, and maybe the base levels, but yeah I've died enough times with a partner that scrolled the screen too much to know it takes a lot more coordination in a duo than solo.
If I can weigh in on this: Contra was my favorite game as a kid, I've probably beaten it (w/o the Konami code) 50 times in my life, and have beaten it without dying maybe a dozen times. And I can say, with whatever amount of authority this gives me, that even if I could clone myself and play two player Contra in perfect sync with my clone, I'm pretty confident that I would still have more success playing by myself. Contra is much easier as a 1 player game than as a 2 player game.
Really Contra isn't much different than something like Dragon's Lair, it's just rote memorization. Once you've got the game memorized, it's actually very easy. However, adding a second player creates just enough randomness to make it more difficult to take advantage of whatever foreknowledge of the level you might have.
Take Dan's death at 21:25, for example. In a single-player game of Contra, I'm pretty sure (it's been a while) he would've been able to jump right back out of that laser pit, if he'd reacted quickly enough. In a one player game it would've taken a fraction of a second before the laser triggered, since he himself would be the one triggering it. Instead, Dan died because Vinny had already scrolled the screen far enough to the right to trigger that bottom laser before Dan had even jumped.
Or take the bubble that killed Vinny in the Base2 boss fight at 13:58. In a one player game, those things swoop down in a very predictable pattern and are very easy to jump over (as Dan very easily did). But in a two player game they're harder to predict, because their pattern can cause them to hone in on one player, then switch to the other. In this case, the bubble came from beneath Vinny, an extremely awkward angle that would never happen in single player. And it happened because it went after Dan first, then when it missed him, it went after Vinny.
Also, you really don't gain much with a second player other than DPS, and Contra is a game about not getting hit, and it isn't particularly about how quickly you can deliver damage to enemies. Yes, bosses go down faster with two players, as do the base levels. But there's no time limit in Contra, so the ability to go faster is basically worthless outside of a speedrunning context.
And yes, two players can clear the screen of the basic soldier enemies better, but the basic enemies aren't even remotely a threat if you're paying attention. Besides which, the downside of being so much closer to the screen when it scrolls more than outweighs the upside of having that extra firepower. There simply isn't any benefit to having a second player in my opinion, but the drawbacks are numerous.
So I've played another hour of Contra today, finally can get past the Energy Zone reliably without the Konami code. That earlier comment might have been frustration speaking, single player Contra is definitely doable. If you can hold onto the spread gun it actually trivializes A LOT of harder points in the game. Depending on the where I'm at, I find its better to straight up restart the game if I fuck up early and lose spread.
There's definitely a point where rote memorization makes Contra a cakewalk and I can appreciate that at that point the variables brought in by a second player is a distraction at best. I'm at that point through the first four stages, and I'm getting there with the fifth.
However, from the perspective of a new player who is actively going through the learning/memorization process right now, I really would have appreciated a second player in certain stages. Specifically, in stage 3 and especially in stage 5.
As veteran players you guys may have those generic soldiers patterns down, but they seem pretty random to me. Check 9:50 and 10:33 in the video where a random spawn would have screwed Vinny if Dan hadn't covered him. While the second part of the bubble boss may be easier with one player, I would counter that the first part with the soldiers is a huge pain, if I fucked up and lost my spread gun. The UFO boss isn't a huge problem, but is also made easier with a second player to mow down the projectiles.
Stage 6 and 7 are definitely single player oriented though.
Actively dreading the final boss with the spammy aliens. I died like 8 times when I beat it with the Konami code(with the peashooter).
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