fishinwithguns

I recently bought The Darkness for PS3.  When I originally played the demo years ago, I was blown away, so I decided to buy it a few days ago since it was very very cheap and I had always been curious about what the rest of the game would be like.  At first I was thinking "this isn't exactly as mind-blowing as I remember it," but I still got a strange sense of satisfaction from it.
 
The Darkness is certainly plagued with many problems.  Sometimes the characters' mouths barely movie at all when speaking, the controls can be confusing, sometimes making it difficult to use certain darkness powers and shoot guns every once in a while.  It froze up on me once, the physics aren't that great, it's often laughable when you kill someone because their body just flops around like a ragdoll filled with helium.   Also, a sprint button would have been nice, because Jackie certainly does take his sweet time trying to escape from a helicopter.
 
This game would be nearly unbearable if it weren't for its strong, inventive story, its striking art style, amazing voice-over work, and many other things that usually aren't necessary for me to enjoy a game.  The character of Jackie Estacado may seem too one-dimensional to many people.  I got that vibe at first, but hearing the way he talks, and witnessing how stoic he is in the face of tragedy makes him a very strong character.  He may seem shallow at first, but with every twist of the story, a new layer of depth to his persona is revealed.  I've always wanted a character who was a badass but wasn't constantly trying to prove it with lame one-liners.
 
You do get to talk to random people along the way, and choose what you say to them, which took me back to playing the original Deus Ex.  And most of the locations, and the mood of the settings remind me a lot of Max Payne.
 
I haven't beaten the game yet, but I've been really enjoying its neo-noir/supernatural horror feel.  What really gives this game personality is that it has some of the best dialogue I've heard in a game, and it's all expertly delivered.   Dialogue in games is just lame and ridiculous 95% of the time.
 
Like I said, I haven't finished the game, and story is the dominant element in The Darkness, so there may be something that happens at the end that would make a sequel impossible, pointless, or stupid.  But I do sorta wish it will get a sequel so they can have a chance to improve all the shortcomings of the original game, then you'd have a truly amazing gaming experience.

I'm relatively new to owning a PS3, and when I first got it it was so slow I wasn't able to do anything online except stream Netflix.  I soon fixed the problem and everything ran fine...for a while.
 
The games I play online are Black Ops, MvsC3, and SSFIV.  For Black Ops, the lag is barely noticeable, in fact, if it were the only game I played online I wouldn't claim that I had a problem with lag at all.
 
It's the fighting games that are giving me trouble.  I altered some things with my PS3 and router (linksys) last night that improved online matches significantly, but there is still always considerable lag in the matches at one point or another, and many times I get dropped out of the game altogether and if I'm losing, people will inevitably accuse me of "rage quitting."
 
My PS3 has a static IP, and all the right ports on my router are being forwarded.  I also have a DMZ set up, but UPnP disabled (which someone suggested to enable but it made things worse).
 
It seems like my connection just keeps fluctuating from really good to significantly bad.  I've googled for stuff related to having an Open Nat Type yet still having problems with lag, but all I got were sites and videos explaining port forwarding which I've already done and am all too familiar with at this point.
 
So that's why I'm asking the Giant Bomb community now, I think you guys could help me better than google can.
 
Thanks.

yep...I like this game, hate the people who play it...because of this...the unnerving level of dedication to making a damn emblem, and to try and make it offensive.  I'm not offended by crude representations of penises, I just think it's incredibly stupid and a waste of time, and the bulk of the Call of Duty audience is comprised of serial time-wasters, that's why the games are so successful.

I don't get why this is exciting, even though I've owned every Halo game except ODST at one point or another, I'm totally done with it, and I didn't think anything about the first was that great compared to the others.  Why is it considered the best of the series?  Or at least, why are people claiming that that's the case?

He was involved in 9-11?  Jeez, what didn't Diddy do?

This is a swell thread, and Mr. Tennis seems like a super fun guy.  I like Batman, Netflix, and touching boobies.

I have a feeling a lot of people are going to make fun of you for this post but I'll take the high road on this one.
 
It seems that you are around my age and I've had similar problems.  There was a girl who liked me yet who I pretty much ignored and was very dismissive with (I was dating someone else at the time and they didn't like eachother so I tried to keep a safe distance).  She would get drunk often and be very bold and say stuff like "I think you're awesome" and "you're adorable."  She seemed to want me more when I was actually unavailable and somewhat rude to her.  Later on, I broke up with my gf (more on that later), but then I began to actually kinda like the other girl.  I was intrigued just by the fact that she liked me.  Things started to escalate, it seemed like we were on our way to starting a relationship, but for some reason I became fixated on her.  I think I flirted a little too much too soon, came on too strong, and the more it was obvious I liked her, the more she seemed to be weary of dating me.  She told me she'd love to date me, but didn't want to be in a relationship because she'd just got out of a rocky 5 year relationship with this other guy.  She claims to hate him and want nothing to do with him.
 
  Interestingly enough, I was over at the guy's house recording some music and she shows up out of nowhere with some friends.  She seemed really excited to see me and said "I didn't expect you to be here."  I was thinking "I'm in a band with the guy, you're the one who supposedly hates him, it makes more sense for me to be here."  I wasn't hurt by it, I just came to the realization that many (not all) girls can be very very fickle.  AND it seems that most girls claim to want one thing but actually want another, in some cases it makes them liars, but sometimes they really don't know and are just indecisive about it.  And lastly, it's kinda human nature for us to all want things that seem unattainable.   We like a challenge.
 
Most of the time, don't ask me why, but ignoring a girl and being passive aggressively rude will make them more interested in you.  It's fucked up, I know.
 
But one last bit of advice.  Girls, even ones who aren't incredibly attractive, are constantly getting compliments on their looks, hearing lame pick-up lines, being hit on, so they get incredibly tired of it.  You can be nice to a girl, but if she's really attractive, that won't make you stand out from the crowd...she's probably constantly fighting off the advances of five other guys while you're trying to get with her.  You have to stand out, be nice, but not too nice, basically do the opposite of what every other guy does, don't fawn over anyone.  Make your presence known, but keep a distance, "hard to get" if you will.  It's a fucking ass-backwards way of doing things but it works.  It's fucked up, but the girl will probably subconsciously be like "why isn't this guy crazy over me?"  It'll probably make her pursue you more.  A lot of girls like guys who are assholes...I'm not saying you have to become an asshole, but you have to be different from the rest.  You'll know things are going well when she's contacting you more than you are contacting her.
 
Oh yea, about that break-up.  The last girl I dated basically claimed over and over insane things like how she KNEW she wanted to marry me, she was obsessed it seemed.  The last month of our relationship I didn't see or talk to her.  She just vanished and she'd never answer her phone, I couldn't even contact her to ask what the fuck was going on.  I finally had to break up with her THROUGH TEXT, because it was the only way she would even pay attention to what I had to say.  She was insane and that was one of the strangest relationships I've ever been in.  And later on, I realized she was a compulsive liar, meaning she lies even about things that aren't worth lying about.

There was a very similar glitch in Skate or Skate 2.  I'm pretty sure they used Havok physics too.