UC 3 beta impressions (ND has turned my around on Uncharted MP)

As much as I love the Uncharted games, I feel like I haven't really been dragged along on a thrill ride like many people.  No matter how techinically superior the second game is,  I still prefer the story and setting of the first game.  I also was less than thrilled with the MP component of UC2 as well.   The co-op maps were lots of fun but after a few times it got old and it was never intended to carry the game.  Other modes like goldrush felt like a waste because if you didn't finish the whole game(and you wouldn't finish if you ever played with a random person) you got almost no money at all.   I think all I wanted was just a barebones 'shoot dudes' option to simplify the whole thing.

As shooters have gone forward I still just can't accept all the perks and boosts that seem to be the norm.  Too often the game fails to acheive a proper balance of all the variables in play and 3/4 of the community use whatever the 'best setup' is thought to be.  Sometime it feels like the developers are trynig to put as many obstacles between shooting a gun and hitting someone with it as possible /rant  

When I first heard all the details of UC3 I was even more disappointed:  character boosts, gun boosts, one-round payed boosts, kickbacks (a super boost you spend medals to get).  The whole thing sounded like the worst possible clusterfrag,  there could be a half dozen factors altering the fairly simple process of  'point and click'.   Well, after playing many hours last night I have to say I'm impressed as hell and I'm glad Naughty Dog is finally listening to everyone and not just the people yelling about how they 'ruined Uncharted 2 after patch 1.05'.

Firstly is the 'hardcore' mode.  It's just what myself and lots of people wanted!  Just guns and shooting and skill (I use that word loosely)  It's kind of funny that they call it 'hardcore' when it feels the opposite way to me.  The speed and style of the game have always been great but it's just so much better IMO when people don't drop grenades when they die or suddenly heal themself.  After playing it, the boosts in the game feel almost like super powers and I'm glad I can play without them.  The 3-team DM mode seems to be lacking use of kick-backs as well, although the weapon mods seems to be still present.  Working with a single teammate fits the game vary well and if you know what you are doing you are goin to be bro-fisting with your partner all day.

Speaking of which, the 'buddy system' makes an apperance and it seems to be in most modes of the game.  When you enter a team game, you are assigned a buddy.  Any time you get a kill with you buddy you can to a dual taunt over the body for bonus money and a medal.  Not only that but your buddy can pick up your treasure for you to help out (the random treasure system is a great addition too).  It's a very interesting way to encourage ranoms to work together/

The co-op mode present (arena) is also a great twist on the UC2 co-op games.  You play 10 rounds against the AI but now every round is different.  You switch bewteen goldrush, seige, and survival round by round.  The big co-op set-pieces they have shown look amazing but think I'll be spending most of my time playing the arena mode.

The money you earn in MP no longer seem to be weighted to the competitive mode, you can earn tons of cash and treasure playing any way you want.

The beta is ROUGH with it's looks and bugs but they are already in a great place and you can tell ND is going full-on to bring a great experience.


Is IGN trolling beta code hunters for clicks?

So a bunch of us have been trying to get Journey beta codes from IGN. The faster way to enter them is on Qriocity. If the code is correct but used it says it's used, if the code is wrong, it says it's wrong. Punchline: IGN seems to be padding it's beta codes with fake ones to do more code posts and farm crazy clicks off of refreshing users. The last post seemed to be mostly bad codes... awesome! Pretty Sneaky IGN!


Shooters, TF2 and chasing the dragon

Why the hell haven't I been playing this already!?!?

I've been complaining lately about how I'm like a junkie that just can't get his shooter fix. Nothing was getting the job done, not Uncharted, bot Bioshock 2, and not ever Socom. Good games, but I felt like I wasn't gettng the experience I kept looking for. Well, I swear last night I caught the fucking dragon!! I didn't need vehicles or leveling or boosts or perks, just good shooting action with good mechanics that keep it fresh. Loot and items and equpment sets are such a great way to add the variety need to play the game for a long time without it being a clustersprunt of variables that aren't balanced right. I didn't even need to upgrade my laptop, just go. I bought ~$3 worth of small stuff to get started. I'm already looking on steam of other fun games that run on minimal hardware. Do you have any clue how happy I was when I found the blackbox rocket launcher?  I'ts not ever that great but its good and fun and it changes how you play.  I did much better the next round by getting all that health back.  Valve is damned smart.
Maybe I'm just getting games with noobs but it's just so much fun to constantly see people grabbing loot and achievement all the time. I also love how hard the game tries to make you feel good. I was SOOOO close to my damage record on that life lol
I'll be tonight, but I don't have anyone on my steam friends list so please add my sorry butt and shoot me in the face like you've always wanted to. ID: BobTheFork.


I just got the Disgaea 3 platinum after playing the game for over 3 years. I was all ramped up to come make a blog post and finally add my trophies to GB. That didn't fucking last long :p