frankatank

While I was skeptical about Sunset Overdrive I have been extremely impressed so far. I tried to stay as out of the loop as possible for the game since it looked like it had the fun WTF moments similar to Saints Row: The Third, and I wanted to be surprised by that. My only real exposure was during the Microsoft press conference in 2013 and 2014. With that said, I think this game is amazing. I think traversing the world actually makes getting the collectibles entertaining, and I often just challenge myself to get as many as I can in one continual combo chain. The fact that combos keep building by grinding and bouncing is a awesome idea for keeping the energy up. I agree that the multiplayer of the game falls flat, but it is fun to defend the base with six or so other people doing insane things! Oh, and the story is really entertaining. The missions are unique enough that I don't feel like they waste time, and they are usually really hilarious. That said, I did cringe at some of the jokes and how dumb they were, but on average the humor was spot on for the punk feel of the game, something I'm normally not interested in.

The only thing that surprised me surrounds the concept of how quickly the game opens up. If you aren't grinding or bouncing the entire time (or if your ever on foot), the game's mobility suffers and really slows down. I was watching my roommate play the other day, and it was frustrating to see him not working on chaining the kills with the movement. While he is a great player, missions usually took twice as long because of being on foot. I just wonder why they didn't limit you more in the beginning to force people to get the hang of the traversal mechanics before throwing an overwhelming (yet fun) horde of OD at you.

I should preface this by saying this is my first true Grand Theft Auto experience, but I have had some interesting encounters with the police in GTA V.

First, I think the world is naturally a great environment for randomly encountering the cops. It's a great improvement on just having the cops on your radar at all times, now I have to look around first before I steal a car or etc. Second, I feel like the time period I have to hide from the cops is extremely long, and I'm always uncertain how much longer I will have to dodge them.

Finally, I have had some of the worst luck with cops seeming to spawn at strange places while I'm running from them. I have heard some complaints of how easy it is to lose them when you go off road, but I have had some issues of them showing up out of nowhere off road at incredibly illogical (and inconvenient) places.

What about you? What are your impressions on notoriety and escaping the police?

I say once they hit two hash tags per show, like on the screen at the same time, that is too far. It would be really funny though. I always love it when a commercial has a hash tag. I have seen a few and it's just stupid.

@Tim_the_Corsair: It would be could to see a character have a disorder and have it just be who he is, and not have it relate to gameplay necessarily, but just to add depth. That is a really cool idea.

@Cathryn: I forgot all about A Night to Remember! I really enjoyed that quest, it shows how good of a sense of humor Bethesda has. It was a nice change of pace from the normal dragon slaying.

Friday was the day. I completed the trifecta of video games. I now own a Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 (in that order). Today I'll just focus on the PS3 instead of looking at why I bought a Wii before a 360. The PS3 is one of the most fascinating consoles I have owned. It has blue-ray functionality, but I already have a blue-ray player, it has Netflix and the like, which I already have, and it has many many exclusive games which the Xbox 360.... doesn't have. And that is what it came down to. The exclusive games.

It has been almost one week since I bought this black beauty of a console, and I already own 15 games.. All of them exclusives. I was sitting there watching the Sony E3 press conference, and must say I was decently impressed. The amount of characters Sony has is an outstanding, and the games that have come out have been very intriguing. Another thing is how much I love adventure games. Uncharted and Infamous are both great games so far, and I already am excited to play my God of War and Sly Cooper collections. Microsoft really needs to get in gear. While I still use the 360 for gaming with my friends and third party games, I need more exclusives to motivate me to use that as my main console. Who knows, maybe the PS4 will win me over, and I will start playing my third party games on that console.

Don't get me wrong, I am well aware that the PS3 is not perfect. While I do love the Xbox 360 controller and set up of the dashboard, the games just aren't there. If Sony works on their friend system and trophy system, tightening those up making them more accessable, then I will gladly make that my main console next generation. The ball is in either companies court, and I am very excited to see what news we will hear from both companies this fall and next spring.

What is your favorite quest? Why? I would have to say mine could be almost any of the daedric artifact quests. They are so fascinating, and the story with the daedric lords is always interesting in my opinion. What do you guys think?

@Dagbiker said:

@dabe said:

I would like to see more overweight people or characters of differing sizes in sprawling RPGs (see Skyrim, Deus Ex etcetera). I'm also aware of the premium on character modelling. I'm also not overweight in the slightest.

This, I would like to see better characterized over weight people. Rather then just for laughs.

Whenever I think of overweight characters in video games, I always think of my character in Fable 2, considered an "evil" corporate fat character. But that would be interesting and nice to see more diversity in character appearance as well. I'm tired of the fit and tall stereotypical male character. Where is my Tyrion Lannister game!?!

I suppose I also see@Questionable said:

We need more character flaws in general. Weird disorders, fetishes or addictions could be great tools to make characters come over as more believable.

Right now villains always feel like they resort to the same 2 flafors, those with a total lack of conscience and psychopaths.

This is so true. I feel like game characters need to have more depth and more detail in general. It would also make them seem more human, maybe see their pain, a huge benefit. I wonder though if game companies are afraid of offending anyone though. Many people take things so personally, and might find it inappropriate to be playing as a character feeling these mental or physical pains. Villians would be an interesting take, what if in a way you would sympathize for them while your goal is to destroy them? It would definitely add to the overall aspect of the game.

What downright depressing news to start out the week!