Discussion 2022 Backlog Thread

Page 7 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,508
474
126
January - Chasm, Black Mesa, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, Serious Sam 3: BFE
February/March/April - Skyrim, Skul: The Hero Slayer
April/May - Battlechasers: Nightwar, Vampire Survivors, Rogue Legacy 2
May/June - UnMetal,
July - Rogue Legacy 2 (again), 9th Dawn 2
August - Crysis 2

Crysis 2 feels like twenty giant steps backwards from a series that originally came out already on top.

Graphics - 4/10
The graphics look like they've been dumbed down but that's likely because it's set in yet another city-scape and there's only so much you can do when you're looking at concrete buildings and asphalt for 99% of the game.

Writing - 2/10
The writing is absolutely horrible as all of the military lines sound as if they were some bad fan fiction written from a 14 year who only plays Call of Duty and the voice actors put about the same amount of effort into voicing their lines.

Sound/Music - 4/10
The sounds are all pretty lackluster as every gun with a suppressor sounds exactly the same and the explosions have no bass.

Gameplay 3/10
As far as the gameplay goes, they decided to dumb that down as well in damn near every facet you can think of from the first game. Instead of giving us the ability to seamlessly switch between, speed, power, armor, etc. modes, we only have stealth and armor leaving power and speed just implied through our normal actions. The AI wasn't the brightest in the first game but they would come looking for you if they knew you were in the area or if you had previously been detected, they would be on high alert constantly. In this installment, you can literally shoot someone in the face and the person they were speaking to will look around as if someone just hit them with a spitwad. As long as your gun is suppressed, the AI acts as if you don't exist. Then there's the fact that the aliens are almost a direct copy/paste of the Covenant from Halo. You have Elites that cloak and Hunters with shields and will shoot explosives at you with only one other alien enemy type that's basically just a Wraith on legs. Lastly, the biggest complaint of them all and the main reason why I stopped playing the game after just 20 minutes the first time is the incessant hand holding that EA forces on their players. Some people say that EA wants all of their players to be included but it's honestly offensive how stupid they assume their players must be. Every single goddamn area you go to in this game, not only do you get giant markers showing up on your screen, but your dumbass suit even tells you when there's alternate routes or secrets around. It's infuriating to play a game that's basically pulling you onto rails at every possible opportunity simply because the developers don't think you're smart enough to assume that the sniper rifle left near the elevated platform would be a good place to snipe. The constant hand holding is what truly ruins this game for me.

So, if you enjoyed the first Crysis and the expansion pack, do yourself a favor and forget this game even exists. I've heard the third game is a lot better, but after this experience I doubt I'll give it a chance.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GodisanAtheist

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
31,549
9,907
136
January - Chasm, Black Mesa, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, Serious Sam 3: BFE
February/March/April - Skyrim, Skul: The Hero Slayer
April/May - Battlechasers: Nightwar, Vampire Survivors, Rogue Legacy 2
May/June - UnMetal,
July - Rogue Legacy 2 (again), 9th Dawn 2
August - Crysis 2

Crysis 2 feels like twenty giant steps backwards from a series that originally came out already on top.

Graphics - 4/10
The graphics look like they've been dumbed down but that's likely because it's set in yet another city-scape and there's only so much you can do when you're looking at concrete buildings and asphalt for 99% of the game.

Writing - 2/10
The writing is absolutely horrible as all of the military lines sound as if they were some bad fan fiction written from a 14 year who only plays Call of Duty and the voice actors put about the same amount of effort into voicing their lines.

Sound/Music - 4/10
The sounds are all pretty lackluster as every gun with a suppressor sounds exactly the same and the explosions have no bass.

Gameplay 3/10
As far as the gameplay goes, they decided to dumb that down as well in damn near every facet you can think of from the first game. Instead of giving us the ability to seamlessly switch between, speed, power, armor, etc. modes, we only have stealth and armor leaving power and speed just implied through our normal actions. The AI wasn't the brightest in the first game but they would come looking for you if they knew you were in the area or if you had previously been detected, they would be on high alert constantly. In this installment, you can literally shoot someone in the face and the person they were speaking to will look around as if someone just hit them with a spitwad. As long as your gun is suppressed, the AI acts as if you don't exist. Then there's the fact that the aliens are almost a direct copy/paste of the Covenant from Halo. You have Elites that cloak and Hunters with shields and will shoot explosives at you with only one other alien enemy type that's basically just a Wraith on legs. Lastly, the biggest complaint of them all and the main reason why I stopped playing the game after just 20 minutes the first time is the incessant hand holding that EA forces on their players. Some people say that EA wants all of their players to be included but it's honestly offensive how stupid they assume their players must be. Every single goddamn area you go to in this game, not only do you get giant markers showing up on your screen, but your dumbass suit even tells you when there's alternate routes or secrets around. It's infuriating to play a game that's basically pulling you onto rails at every possible opportunity simply because the developers don't think you're smart enough to assume that the sniper rifle left near the elevated platform would be a good place to snipe. The constant hand holding is what truly ruins this game for me.

So, if you enjoyed the first Crysis and the expansion pack, do yourself a favor and forget this game even exists. I've heard the third game is a lot better, but after this experience I doubt I'll give it a chance.
I'd give Crysis 3 a chance. I really enjoyed it compared to Crysis 2, in which I had no idea wtf was going on story-wise.

Crysis 3 = cloak + bow = godliness. The music is also pretty good
 
  • Like
Reactions: Stg-Flame

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,508
474
126
I'd give Crysis 3 a chance. I really enjoyed it compared to Crysis 2, in which I had no idea wtf was going on story-wise.

Crysis 3 = cloak + bow = godliness. The music is also pretty good
I really want to see how the third one plays out but the second game was such a horrible experience, I'll likely have to replay the first and Warhead before I decide to get Crysis 3. I have watched the trailer for Crysis 3 and while I love ZZ Top, the entire trailer gave off huge Battlefield/CoD vibes. It's still $30 for some reason with a $15 DLC so if I see this drop down to around $5 on the next big Steam sale, I'll likely pick it up just for the stealth/bow recommendation. Though I do have some hesitation about playing it with my current PC and curious if it'll sit in my backlog until I build my new PC later this year (or whenever GPU prices decide to finally drop).
 

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,508
474
126
But now I have a predicament that I've been mulling over. Lately I've had the Fallout itch and was talking to my brother about Fallout 3 and New Vegas and realized during the conversation that I've never actually completed either of those games. I've played them both hundreds of hours but I usually get sidetracked by the side quests and burn out before continuing with the main quest which is odd considering I've played them countless times. I think with New Vegas I started back on the main quest and completed the Vegas questline multiple times, but when it's time to hit Hoover Dam, I decide to jump into the DLCs/Expansions and spend another 50 hours trudging through them and get burnt out.

So now I'm wondering if I should try to knock out two birds with one stone with the AToTW mod or just mark them as complete since I've seen the endings for both games multiple times (whole family played them multiple times and I've watched them both at various GDQ events).

Edit: I have no idea why this was posted separately. I meant to put this under my comment above... Maybe a mod can work their magic and merge these two or just let me live with my shame of double-posting.
 

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,508
474
126
January - Chasm, Black Mesa, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, Serious Sam 3: BFE
February/March/April - Skyrim, Skul: The Hero Slayer
April/May - Battlechasers: Nightwar, Vampire Survivors, Rogue Legacy 2
May/June - UnMetal,
July - Rogue Legacy 2 (again), 9th Dawn 2
August - Crysis 2, Life Goes On

Triple Post...

Life Goes On is a fairly simple 2D platformer puzzle game in which you use the bodies of your previous tries to aid in solving the puzzles. Don't think of them as failed attempts because you actually need the extra bodies to help hold down buttons, make electrical connections, ride platforms, etc. The levels are pretty short and for the most-part, fairly easy. There's a handful of stages that made me stop and go back and fourth before I could figure out how to solve the puzzle so it made for a nice transition from going to some easy levels into some pretty challenging ones. Overall a really fun puzzle platformer with a unique gimmick but the only complaint I have is that the hitboxes are pretty janky at times - especially when you're trying to use your previous bodies as stepping stones on spikes. You'll often find yourself sliding off into the spikes or when sticking your bodies onto a spike wall, when trying to grab their backs to jump up higher, you'll randomly just merge into the spikes. Not a huge deal if you don't care about 100% completion since you get an infinite number of bodies but a small gripe nonetheless.

If you want a short relaxing puzzle game, grab this on sale. Steam says I bought this in 2017 during the summer sale for a few dollars so grab it this winter during the next sale.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GodisanAtheist

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,783
7,117
136
Still trucking away on The Outer Worlds. Good lord the first few areas were absolute snoozefests but I've finally gotten to Monarch and things seem to be perking up. That's usually a sign that I'm not too far away from the end of the game when Obsidian is involved :p
 

JujuFish

Lifer
Feb 3, 2005
11,003
735
136
I've been doing a pretty good job of playing games, but a pretty terrible job of tackling the specific ones I chose to start the year. Since I posted about Chrono Chross months ago, I finished that, Radical Dreamers that came with it, The Room series, 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors, Firewatch, Guardians of the Galaxy, Life is Strange True Colors, Limbo, Jak and Daxter The Precursor Legacy, Raji: An Ancient Epic, Escape Academy, and The Looker. Some of these were in the backlog, some of them were through Game Pass. Enjoyed everything I played, more or less.
 

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,508
474
126
January - Chasm, Black Mesa, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, Serious Sam 3: BFE
February/March/April - Skyrim, Skul: The Hero Slayer
April/May - Battlechasers: Nightwar, Vampire Survivors, Rogue Legacy 2
May/June - UnMetal,
July - Rogue Legacy 2 (again), 9th Dawn 2
August - Crysis 2, Life Goes On, Regions of Ruin

Pretty fun game with a nice mix of base building, resource gathering, and combat. I will admit that I used a guide for some of the puzzles because I just didn't have that much time to start scouting all over the world trying to find the clues for that specific puzzle. Some of the clues are literally on the other side of the map and there's very little indicators as to what region the clues are even for. You also don't get to see the name of the area you're in but instead you have to go back into the map and click on the region icon just to see where you are so it would have taken me a very long time of going back and fourth between areas just to figure out some of the puzzles. Since the rewards are just unique gear, it's not a huge deal if you don't do most of the puzzles, but they are pretty fun if you come across them organically.

I will say that the vast majority of the game was really fun with most of the local puzzles (ones where you don't have to bounce between regions) were a nice mix of challenging and just a matter of paying attention, but once you get about halfway through the main quest, you start encountering a large amount of rubik's cube puzzles where you have six buttons and six pillars and each button moves different pillars and you just have to figure out the right combination. Normally I love those puzzles, but there's two particular areas where you cannot see half of the pillars so you're just flying blind. Other than that, it's a solid indie game. Definitely grab this on sale next time around since it's pretty cheap during the seasonal sales. There's also a second game that's being released sometime this year so I'll probably add that to my backlog this winter if it's cheap and play it sometime next year after they've ironed out some bugs.

Edit: I do have one major complaint with the game but it contains major end-game spoilers, so...
The end-game boss just sits on his fat ass during the entire battle. He's built up during the entire game as some sort of Goblin King (literally his name) that is threatening the entire continent but when you finally reach him, he just sits there. I honestly have no idea if he bugged out and there's supposed to be a major battle, but all he did was spawn two black goblins and then just sat there. I was very confused and was expecting a second phase or another boss to pop up, but no, just screen faded to black and queue the credits... A pretty massive letdown on an overall decent game.
 
Last edited:

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,783
7,117
136
Wrapped up The Outer Worlds. Started off incredibly weak, ended surprisingly strong. Not Obsidian's strongest entry by a longshot, had a lot of room for improvement, but it certainly laid the foundation for a truly excellent franchise so long as each game builds on and plugs in the gaps let open in the initial installment.

I'll do a full write up later.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Stg-Flame

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,783
7,117
136
Alright folks, I'm finally doing it. I'm playing Undertale.

Edit: Aaaaaaannnnnddddd I'm putting that on hold for right now. Maybe its some sort of gaming masterpiece but I'm just not in the mood for 8 bit bull**** right now.

Fired up Narita Boy, yet another throwback 2d platformer game. I have a hard time disliking the 2d platformer genre, even if the games are about as derivative as it gets. Not sure if this game is going in a Metroidvania direction or pure platformer direction quite yet, but it feels more like the later than the former.
 
Last edited:

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,508
474
126
January - Chasm, Black Mesa, Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, Serious Sam 3: BFE
February/March/April - Skyrim, Skul: The Hero Slayer
April/May - Battlechasers: Nightwar, Vampire Survivors, Rogue Legacy 2
May/June - UnMetal,
July - Rogue Legacy 2 (again), 9th Dawn 2
August - Crysis 2, Life Goes On, Regions of Ruin
September - (Doom 2016)

I played Doom (2016) a few years ago but got burnt out because I kept missing secrets and the completionist in me refused to allow that. This time I had to force myself to completely ignore the objective menu as well as limit how closely I checked the map because if I saw I missed a secret somewhere, I'd spend the next half hour going back to find the hidden ledge or switch that I missed. Granted, given that I love breaking the game by trying to go out of bounds or just checking every single nook and cranny, I found all the secrets this time and over half I stumbled upon by complete accident. Still, the game is a lot of fun if you ignore the objectives and just play it normally because there were a few levels where I found one spot and just reloaded the checkpoint to get the objective done which started to drain the fun of the game.

If you are a completionist like me and want to grab every single secret, objective, data file, etc. then I give this game a 6/10.
If you just want some mindless demon-slaying fun accompanied by kick ass heavy metal, then I give this an 11/10.

Honestly, I'm more impressed by the fact my ancient PC can run this game flawlessly at 2K resolution completely maxed out. If I dipped below 60FPS it was micro-stutters and they were few and far between. Going to take a break from the backlog and play through Fallout 4 with a ton of mods and work on finishing up the final few achievements for Binding of Isaac.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: GodisanAtheist

SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member
Oct 20, 2014
6,865
5,803
136
I really want to see how the third one plays out but the second game was such a horrible experience, I'll likely have to replay the first and Warhead before I decide to get Crysis 3. I have watched the trailer for Crysis 3 and while I love ZZ Top, the entire trailer gave off huge Battlefield/CoD vibes. It's still $30 for some reason with a $15 DLC so if I see this drop down to around $5 on the next big Steam sale, I'll likely pick it up just for the stealth/bow recommendation. Though I do have some hesitation about playing it with my current PC and curious if it'll sit in my backlog until I build my new PC later this year (or whenever GPU prices decide to finally drop).

3770K and 980 Ti should be great for 1080p on Crysis 3. 1440p though probably not.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,783
7,117
136
Completed Narita Boy. Solid platformer that isn't a souls like or Metroidvania. Well executed, if somewhat tired, 80's synthwave theme.
 

SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member
Oct 20, 2014
6,865
5,803
136
better nate than lever ;)
how'd you like it?

I honestly don't know how I never played through this on 360. Unreal 3 looked, well, unreal at the time. But I think I shouldn't have bought this and Rainbow Six Vegas at the same time (the other Unreal 3 cover shooter that came out then). Blasted right through Vegas but then never got more than halfway through GOW, maybe because it played so much like Vegas. But got the Ultimate Edition finished with one day left on my Game Pass lol (prob won't get Game Pass again until Starfield launches). Got my $1 month of Game Pass mostly to see if I liked MS Flight Simulator, and after screwing around with that for a few days and then getting bored with Jedi Fallen Order after a few more days figured I'd give Gears 1 a playthrough finally. I'd give it a 7/10. Story was corny as hell and the world was pretty drab, don't know why that was so huge that console gen to have such lack of color everywhere, but the combat was pretty fun.
 

Stg-Flame

Diamond Member
Mar 10, 2007
3,508
474
126
Been trying to push my way through Majesty 2 but I'm barely five or six levels in and hit a brick wall. It took me about two hours of searching online to learn that the in-game build timers are directly tied to your FPS for who knows why but it makes a lot more sense now that I can get some buildings constructed before the enemy waves hit me. Still, there's something else going on since I actually went to Youtube to watch how someone else beat a certain level and the amount of enemies that hit them at the start is a fraction of what I'm getting and there's been a lot of speculation that enemy spawns are also tied to a graphical setting, but nobody could narrow it down. Some people reported they barely saw any enemies attacking their base and others were in the same boat as me where I can't even get my economy up and running because it's being depleted almost instantly from enemy waves.

I'll probably keep chunking away at it, but it's pretty annoying to restart a level 20 times just until you figure out the only one way that will work to beat the level. The worst part is that the game is pretty fun but the difficulty curve is insane on some of these levels.
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,783
7,117
136
Wrapping up the HBS Shadowrun games with Hong Kong extended edition.

Gawd I love Shadow Run. Will be interesting to play Cyberpunk after, wonder if I'll just end up wishing it was the Shadowrun world.
 

JujuFish

Lifer
Feb 3, 2005
11,003
735
136
Old school time.

I played Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, a game from 1992. First half was pretty smooth. No crazy adventure game logic. Second half, things took a downturn. I eventually gave up and started cheating. Decent game, and it's surprising playing a fully voiced game that old.
 

CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
5,510
588
126
That game has 3 different branches (chosen when you talk to sophia in your office), which are each almost like 3 different games. They should have made a movie out of it.
 

SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member
Oct 20, 2014
6,865
5,803
136
Been playing Far Cry 5, much better than I was expecting it to be. First Far Cry I have played since Far Cry 3 in maybe 2015. LOL this item description from when I burned a cow with molotovs and then harvested the meat.

lolnotsee.png
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
20,841
3,189
126
Been playing Far Cry 5,

I think to be honest, the best was probably 3 story wise and the impact of your choices.
Then it was probably 4, and 5 would really rank near the floor unless we include the DLC which could be a farcry 6 itself, if 6 was not out yet.
Farcry 6 i have no clue, as i have not tried that yet, waiting for it to come out on steam and on sale.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Stg-Flame

SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member
Oct 20, 2014
6,865
5,803
136
I think to be honest, the best was probably 3 story wise and the impact of your choices.
Then it was probably 4, and 5 would really rank near the floor unless we include the DLC which could be a farcry 6 itself, if 6 was not out yet.
Farcry 6 i have no clue, as i have not tried that yet, waiting for it to come out on steam and on sale.

I actually like 3 the least between 3, 4, and 5, mostly because I like the mountain scenery of 4 and 5 so much more. 6 I think I wouldn't like the setting much, but might give it a try when it heads to Game Pass like 5 is on right now.
 

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
58,133
12,316
136
Wrapping up the HBS Shadowrun games with Hong Kong extended edition.

Gawd I love Shadow Run. Will be interesting to play Cyberpunk after, wonder if I'll just end up wishing it was the Shadowrun world.
Funny timing, I just started up Hong Kong the other day myself.