new demos on XBL

Mr Kleen · Post by **Mr Kleen** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:10 pm

John Woo's Stranglehold
anybody give this a try yet? I've played through it 4 times now, can't wait to find out if the full game is as much fun as the demo suggests.

Bioshock
the aiming system will take me some time to get comfortable with, but the graphics look really nice and the story and art direction are very cool.

Cereb Daithi · Post by **Cereb Daithi** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:29 pm

I wasn't TERRIBLY impressed with stranglehold. It'll probably just be a rental for me. It was a blast but I don't know how the replability will be. Definitely an interesting story though. It's certainly worth playing the whole way through. The action was what sort of left me "meh"ing. It's certainly action packed and is very obviously from the mind of John Woo. What sort of got me was the "use your environment as a weapon" gimmick. It was cool for a while. But after a few minutes I noticed that at almost every single encounter with a group of baddies.. almost every single one of them was standing under a sign that you could drop on their head, standing next to an explosive propane bottle that you could take them out with, standing under an awning or on a platform that could be toppled with a well paced shot to a support, or near some other well-paced death-dealing device. I mean comon... I've never been to china, but there CANNOT POSSIBLY be that many propane tanks with people standing right next to them over there.

On the flipside though.. damn it's fun going into slow-mo and using those environmental "weapons"

Bioshock will suck me in like a goddamn hoover vacuum. It's fun, beautiful, disturbing, creepy, awe inspiring, and very immersive. I was extremely impressed with the demo. The make-or-break factor for me in every game is the story. A post-50's utopia gone wrong set in a neo-classical art-deco city full of all sorts of surprises around every corner is just my kind of setting. Tie that in with the already intriguing story-line and you've got yourself a potentially amazing game.

Osiros · Post by **Osiros** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 5:12 pm

Downloaded the new demos last night and will be messing around with them this evening. Looking forward to all of them really. I will post again (rather than editing this post) with my opinions so as to add another post to my post count.

chicken n waffles · Post by **chicken n waffles** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:45 pm

Osiros wrote:I will post again (rather than editing this post) with my opinions so as to add another post to my post count.

eric, dear friend, i bestow upon thee an introductory

reply.

welcome to the fold. beer's on the left, julian, gabe, and chuckenschlobenheiser's on the right.

Mr Kleen · Post by **Mr Kleen** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:22 am

[no comment]

Osiros · Post by **Osiros** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:01 pm

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Demo's were cool by the way. I think I enjoyed Stranglehold more than BioShock. Don't get me wrong - BioShock was quite cool and made me jump a few times - but, like Gabe, I'm not huge on the aiming system. Also - the frequent use of combos (a shock or a fire thingy or something else followed then by a weapon or gun) could get pretty tiresome. I got pretty frustrated in the demo when I had 3 nasties coming at me at the same time and I missed a couple of times and didn't have the EVE (or whatever it's called) necessary to hit them again. Then I just blasted away with the gun for a few shots and ran out of ammo.

But, much like the Wheel of Fortune to BioShock's Jeopardy, Stranglehold was fun, ammo was plentiful, and some of the combos you could make happen were quite cool....slide down the rail onto the cart, shoot that guy in the head with the shotgun, get off the cart, roll, change to pistols, take out the next guy - etc.... I had a blast.

I also dl'd the Sonata one - it was wierd. And was just like the last Final Fantasy I played on my PS2.

Anyway - that's that. The whoring is complete. I hope I made it worth your time.

Please leave the money on the nightstand.

Mr Kleen · Post by **Mr Kleen** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 1:34 pm

give Bioshock another go. the second time through I was more comfortable with the aiming. I found the pyro ability in one of the bathrooms - MUCH more fun than the lightning ability.

don't forget to search every body and trashcan for extra bullets. I also managed to hack a security camera and get drunk (in game).

Eternal Sonata would have been a lot of fun 10 years ago.