So I decided I’m Gonna Play Sleeping Dogs. Upon loading this game up I do what any self-respecting PC gamer does and head straight into the graphics options. When selecting ‘high’ for textures, I got a message asking to download ‘free DLC high textures’. Which I find weird. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anything like that before. Anyway, slightly deterred I load up the inbuilt benchmarking and get flown through what I assume is an (in-game) market set in Hong Kong. I just finished playing Deus Ex for the first time about a week ago and instantly get swept up in thoughts on what a HD remake of Deus Ex would be like… Which would be incredible if it’s anything like the benchmarking sequence in Sleeping Dogs... Anyway, so now I’m going to download these damn high-def textures and after they’re done I’ll get around to actually playing Sleeping Dogs.
Soooooo while that happens I’m gonna play Crysis: Warhead - which in my opinion the best of the crysises, although I am yet to play Crysis 3. I have been meaning to play this again for a long time now.
This intro video is so boss. Pew pew pew, BzzzzrkBOOM. Just a good showcase/reminder of the suit functions, developments(?) in the story(?!???) since crysises 1 - gets ya’ll all hyped for what’s about to start.
Okay here we go…
First thoughts - what’s a precursor? And can you have multiples of them? I’ll have to look that up.
So you start off the game gaining consciousness in a crashed mini plane-troop transport-hoverthing. In the cutscene you unstrap yourself, check out the guy sitting slumped opposite you who is still unconscious and proceed to throw his limp body over your shoulder. You carry him to the doorway of your planething and all the other troops that were also involved in the crash are outside waiting for you….jees thanks guys. Thanks for getting me out of a fucking burning wreckage and thanks for helping this other motherfucker out too, your fucking comrade. Jerks.
Upon reflection I see that this is done on purpose by Crytek, serving as a commentary on modern AAA shooters and the 'you-do-everything' style of gameplay and the typically crappy A.I of my teammates/accompanients/brain-dead escorts.
Upon reflection I see that this is done on purpose by Crytek, serving as a commentary on modern AAA shooters and the 'you-do-everything' style of gameplay and the typically crappy A.I of my teammates/accompanients/brain-dead escorts.
Christ, it is pretty. So pretty. I think I’m going to try and find a mod that eliminates the HUD as I’m expecting it to be pretty linear gameplay - so going for full immersion. Also playing on Delta difficulty which increases A.I awareness, disables the crosshair, (human)enemies speak in Korean and you can actually die(!) due to general enemy fire.
(Nope, cant eliminate the HUD from what I can tell, oh well.)
Crysis was a real treat for me. I have played it through about 3 or 4 times, but only once using guns. I found putting on the hardest difficulty and going full jungle-assassin (fists only) was such a deeply gratifying way to play the game. I felt I was actually in the enemies head, that (if it was possible) the A.I would be afraid as they would have no idea where I was coming from. Whether darting from bushes, grabbing a single guy from out of a group of say 5 or more, punching him in the face and throwing him skyward and then disappearing again into the bushes. Or jumping into groups and just punching them to pieces while being showered with bullets and surviving by the skin of my teeth, or sprinting at guys 150m away in half a second, grabbing and then throwing one of them into a clustered group, getting a few valuable seconds while I one-punch-KO the rest of their teammates to death.Or just picking them off, one by one. Now that is fun. And it is a challenge too, especially on the hardest difficulty. Warhead has been such a bore challenge wise so far playing it as a regular FPS, (even on the hardest difficulty) through the first level that I think I’m going to play it the same way that I did for my multiple replays of Crysis. I am not sure whether this is a note that the gunplay in the game is boring or not. Perhaps it is my fault, but each fire fight just feels like a terrible shootout where I kill everyone from behind a rock, lose a bit of health, collect their guns/dropped ammo and then seek out the next confrontation. It is linear with an asterisk, as you can sneak by enemies if you wish due to the width of the corridor you’re travelling down and activating stealth on your suit, but since there’s no challenge in each firefight why not just kill everyone. With this jungle-assassin approach there’s a lot more waiting/consideration as to each fight and how to go about it. This way/style of playing certainly explains why I enjoyed Dishonored so much.
- I took a recording of this style of gameplay and posted it at the end. -
And awwww yis, confirmation of fun style mentioned above. I just took on 8 guys, changing between the suit abilities quickly on the fly, using stealth and throwingyourcomradeinyourface approaches simultaneously and laughing the whole time at the sequence of events. I didn’t survive, last two guys caught me out in the open but mmm, this is such a (better?), incredibly fun way to play. Good game so far, once I began playing it this way.
Good one Sleeping Dogs. I planned for my first in I’m Gonna Play post to based around you but instead I’m still waiting for these textures to download and so that glorious title goes to Crysis:Warhead.
