Just Cause 2

[Niloc]

Just Cause 2 comes out later this month. I hadn't given it much thought until recently, I played the demo of the first one, it was fine but not compelling enough to get me to buy the game, and it was released fairly early in the X360's life, so I pretty much forgot about it. Recently I started reading some news blurbs about Just Cause 2. Wouldn't have thought the first one was popular enough to warrant a sequel but apparently so. Still wasn't really on my radar though, but then I saw some videos of the gameplay like this:

Just Cause 2: 10 min ingame video

Also saw another one where he tethers an enemy to a propane tank - that draws the two together, then he shoots the tank, but instead of exploding as I thought it would, it took off like a rocket, dragging the enemy soldier off into the sky. Freaking awesome.

That tether/grappling hook toy makes all the difference in the world. It could have just been a fairly standard grappling hook, as in Arkham Asylum and many other games (and that's already pretty cool), but the ability to tie any two things together in a game with a physics engine and wreak havoc... that's awesome, looks like a hell of a lot of fun.

I'm getting very much the same vibe I got from Red Faction: Guerrilla, which was another great game where you run around and destroy buildings, really playing with the physics and open world.

In the meantime I picked up a cheap used copy of the first Just Cause, but the sequel is really what got my attention.

One more trailer:

Just Cause 2 - Official E3 Trailer [HD]

 

[Niloc]

Looks like the demo for this just came out too - PC/PS3/X360. Unfortunately the X360 version requires an XBox Live Gold sub for a week or two, so screw 'em, I'll get it on the PS3.

[Niloc]

Just Cause 1 is pretty much unplayable unfortunately. It has a lot of minor issues but the major problem is the save system - it uses checkpoints and the thing is it only offers you a save point after you complete a story mission, but not one of the many, many side missions that you use to gain territories, so it's easy to lose a lot of progress by getting stuck on a story mission. That's what really put me off it, the controls are also a bit wonky but I could have dealt with it if that was the only problem.

The game has a lot of good ideas though, it was just an early release for this generation of consoles and probably pushed out the door too soon. Got it for $6 used though so I'm not too bothered.

Just Cause 2 still looks awesome though. The demo is pretty great and it seems to fix the problems from the first one as well as adding a ton of new stuff (though unfortunately it doesn't show you what the save system will be like, so I really hope they fixed that too). I wound up deleting the demo just so I didn't play it too much, don't want to get burned out on the portions I'll have to play again in the full game.
The cut scenes still look pretty bad though, they were bad in the first one as well.


Also on the topic of cheap games;

Superman Returns is surprisingly decent for a movie-license game. The flying controls feel really good, particularly when you shift into super-speed. The combat controls are more problematic. They're OK if you're on the ground, but you're Superman, so of course you want to fly around (plus you're a lot faster in the air) - at that point they don't work so well. The lock-on kind of sucks.

Main problem is the game is just bland. It's not compelling. The city is small and there's not a whole lot to do. There are pedestrians and traffic but they're very robotic and unconvincing, much worse than a GTA game or most other sandbox games. Also Metropolis is on an island, which I don't recall from the comics. I was never a huge Superman fan but wasn't Metropolis supposed to be an analogue of Chicago? A big mid-western city right? Maybe a great lake on one side but not surrounded by water, it's just weird in the game. Again, not too upset though because it was $6 new.


Modern Warfare 2 is "unlocked" on XBox Live this weekend if you don't have a gold account (I'm that cheap), been playing a bit of that too. Usual problems with punk ass little kids. I never come in at the top of the scoreboard at any given round but never at the bottom either, which surprises me since I'm totally out of practice with this game and I don't play online shooters much in general.

Funniest thing I've overheard on the in-game chat, there was someone talking in an indistinct but high-pitched voice and one guy asks: "Is that a female or a little kid? Because either way I'm about to make this get creepy."

[number six]

Just Cause 2 sounds fun, but the pile right now is massive but it's definitely on the radar. The first one looked OKAY but never had a chance to get it.

Good to hear Superman Returns isn't total crap, next time i see it for $5 i'll pick it up. There are some decent bargain bin games at times. Even games that are fundamantally flawed are sometimes fun. I played the hell out of Star Trek Legacy, defintely got my $15 or whatever worth. Yeah it had a few annoying problems (you can't replay missions! only 1 save! stupid!) but overall it was fun enough. I can see why it got dinged in the reviews though.

MW2 - like i said played that online like once. Ended up down the middle again, but it was a huge difference between me and the top of the match. The lack of a skill based matchmaking turned me off. Here i am trying to figure out the maps and i've got 17 year old ace abb thats already played this map 9,000 times blowing me up from a helicopter. How do you even get a helicopter?? Hell i dont know. For multiplayer FPS i still like Halo 3, its more balanced. I can actually win those matches.. until i get promoted then i start losing.. but then they demote me and i'm fine again so it works out in the end.

[Niloc]

How do you even get a helicopter?? Hell i dont know.

Yeah, I had the same problem. It's a kill-streak thing, but I'm not sure how to trigger it. Something on the d-pad I think. I may have done it by mistake once or twice.

At the end of one round I got an "accolade" for "most Semtex explosive kills" and I was like "I had Semtex?"