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LEGO City Undercover |OT| This city has no ports

Mileena

Banned
Game looks surprisingly good. Too bad, if this came out anywhere in January or Feb it would have been a buy. Because of MH3U release I'll be happy to pick up LCU for cheap some months down the line. Whoever scheduled these releases for Nintendo really fucked up.
 

MrT-Tar

Member
Just came back from uni and my copy of Official Nintendo Magazine has arrived. They gave the game 90%, and there main issue with the game is the lack of multiplayer, either on or offline
 

Effect

Member
I thought this game already had Zelda and Mario references shown in some old vids?


Rich
‏@RichIGN
Just ran into a cool Nintendo-related hidden... thing in LEGO City Undercover.

https://twitter.com/RichIGN/status/310261852355575811

Seems like there are even more then what has been shown in trailers. I just hope this really does mean the game was funded by Nintendo. I would love to know if they're in the credits.
 
This game looks so fun. Map seems small looking at the map but as long as there is plenty to do, better then a bigger empty map.
 

Davey Cakes

Member
Just came back from uni and my copy of Official Nintendo Magazine has arrived. They gave the game 90%, and there main issue with the game is the lack of multiplayer, either on or offline
90% is too good of a score. Official Nintendo Magazine has an agenda and is biased.

I will trust the Edge score. They speak the actual truth.
 

Effect

Member
Wow, it really is last gen.

The disc drive speed is higher/faster then the PS3 so the Wii U doesn't need to install games. I thought the reason for the installs on the PS3 was because of how slow the blu-ray drive was. Thought the same was true for the 360. If the drive is fast enough installing shouldn't be needed.
 

Hiltz

Member
Yeah, I wouldn't put much trust into ONM's review. Unfortunately, I'm gonna lower my expectations for this game.It might to be one of those games that looks fun but may no be that much fun to play. After playing Lego Batman, I'm concerned Undercover is going to suffer from the same general issues as most of the other Lego games in terms of disconnected and weightless combat, floaty platforming, and loose driving controls as some of the bigger issues.
 

monkeyhat

Member
This probably won't mean anything to 90% of people reading, but the voice cast includes Peter Serafinowicz (who recently described the game as "BRILLIANT" and "super funny"), Adam Buxton, and Josh Robert Thompson (who appears in the More Than Freeman TV ads).

This is one of the reasons I'm hoping the game will be funny in the same way as the surreal Shawshank / Dirty Harry / Arnie spoofs shown earlier. The recent "webisodes" feel like badly done edits of older trailers, with seriously clunky jokes.
 

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
For people who never played Lego Batman 2 this is what they could be talking about with "loading" missions: LB2 uses the same environment as the open world for missions taking place outdoors. When one triggers, the game pauses and starts an instance of the area you're in. It has borders to keep you from wandering away, sometimes a special locked camera to facilitate platforming without having to adjust the camera. And special props or enemies relating to whatever the mission is.

If you go indoors, then you get a typical loading break to load a separate map or environment representing the inside of larger facilities.

Otherwise, it keeps sounding like the quality of the game is on par with the latest Lego games, which is to say pretty good, and reasonably polished. The joke here to me is that stuff like platforming can't be worse than the character handling in many open world games, like GTA4 or Saints Row 3. The standards for certain things in the open world genre aren't that high. Such games usually trade resolution of quality for scale.

As for the size of the map, the big grey area in the center of the central island looks like a wilderness region. The later day Lego games do tend to pack a lot into a small space. There's a lot of stuff to collect, items to find, and small puzzles to solve using character/costume abilities.

Yeah, I wouldn't put much trust into ONM's review. Unfortunately, I'm gonna lower my expectations for this game.It might to be one of those games that looks fun but may no be that much fun to play. After playing Lego Batman, I'm concerned Undercover is going to suffer from the same general issues as most of the other Lego games in terms of disconnected and weightless combat, floaty platforming, and loose driving controls as some of the bigger issues.

To be frank, I'm expecting the game to play/feel like Lego Batman 2, so your suspicions are probably correct. Personally, I can't see this as worse than most other big sandbox games. They don't play as well as focused 3rd person action/platforming games in general. I wasn't bothered by Batman 2, but it's something where your mileage will absolutely vary.

In the end, I think the game is probably just this: TT's best Lego game, due to scope and their freedom to write their own story and construct their own universe. But it's still a Lego game. Nothing more or less.
 

Effect

Member
I am curious if random crimes will be taking place as you drive around the city. So there is something to instead just driving around.
 
Otherwise, it keeps sounding like the quality of the game is on par with the latest Lego games, which is to say pretty good, and reasonably polished. The joke here to me is that stuff like platforming can't be worse than the character handling in many open world games, like GTA4 or Saints Row 3. The standards for certain things in the open world genre aren't that high. Such games usually trade resolution of quality for scale.
Most other open-world games like GTA4 know better than to try to cram in platforming to the extent that TT seems to. I'm in the middle of Lego Batman 2 and it really suffers from too much platforming and too little of everything else. It's a very mediocre platformer with a very basic open-world aspect tacked on that overall gets by through it's good use of license.

The gameplay design faults/shallowness would be a lot more obvious if there was any penalty for failing, and those faults are barely present to the same extent in other similar games. It's why I've never spent more than $10 for a Lego game.

In the end, I think the game is probably just this: TT's best Lego game, due to scope and their freedom to write their own story and construct their own universe. But it's still a Lego game. Nothing more or less.
I haven't seen much to indicate that the apparently minimal gameplay improvements can overcome the loss of established assets. The Superman elements of LB2 are pretty bleh/buggy in gameplay but I'm not going to pretend that the John Williams music kicking in doesn't make the experience a lot more fun that it would be otherwise.
 

Rubius

Member
The disc drive speed is higher/faster then the PS3 so the Wii U doesn't need to install games. I thought the reason for the installs on the PS3 was because of how slow the blu-ray drive was. Thought the same was true for the 360. If the drive is fast enough installing shouldn't be needed.

The Ps3 is a 1X bluray, the Wii U is 2x or 4 x?

who said it's small. it takes 15 minutes to simply go around the city without doing nothing.

Well size depend on the vehicule and walk speed. Walking around GTA 4 islands must be around 30 min? In car its maybe 7-8 min?
size.jpg


For information sake, the maximum size for a Minecraft world is 9 258 235 times the size of the planet Earth.
 
I am curious if random crimes will be taking place as you drive around the city. So there is something to instead just driving around.

"However, Cork felt that the game could have done a better job with its world so that players could be more motivated to participate in additional missions. Other than citizens involved with Undercover’s critical path, you won’t come across strangers on the streets in need of help."

From the Game Informer review link in the OT
 

Effect

Member
"However, Cork felt that the game could have done a better job with its world so that players could be more motivated to participate in additional missions. Other than citizens involved with Undercover’s critical path, you won’t come across strangers on the streets in need of help."

From the Game Informer review link in the OT

That answers that. :( That is disappointing to learn but oh well.
 
Love the header image!

Early reviews be damned, nothing will stop me from buying this game. My Wii U has sat unused for TOO LONG. Been anticipating this for months.

It's only $49.99, too. Though like most LEGO games it should drop in price fast and be on discount frequently

I've enjoyed the LEGO games up till now... and I'm sure this will be no different... but I gotta say, as an aside, LEGO has really lost their way when it comes to these games. They really need to create a building game, after Minecraft they have no excuse not to go all-in and leverage their brand towards that market which has shown itself to be there and in large numbers.

My thought to why they've avoided making a lego game like minecrat is that it would hinder sales of physical legos.
 

Jac_Solar

Member
The Ps3 is a 1X bluray, the Wii U is 2x or 4 x?



Well size depend on the vehicule and walk speed. Walking around GTA 4 islands must be around 30 min? In car its maybe 7-8 min?
size.jpg


For information sake, the maximum size for a Minecraft world is 9 258 235 times the size of the planet Earth.

People need to stop posting that image -- it's blatantly false information, regarding Guild Wars and Lord of the Rings Online.

I think the various areas in Guild Wars are instanced, or separated, and you can't go all over the world. Whatever the case, it's nowhere near 15,000 square miles.

Lord of The Rings Online is most certainly not even remotely close to 30,000 square miles either. It's more like 40-80 square miles. Fuel, Daggerfall, Just Cause 2 are definitely procedurally generated with tons of repeating content. I'm pretty sure Asherons Call and Test Drive Unlimited are probably generated to some degree as well.

I'm not sure they've commented on the official size of TDU, but the back of the cover says "Explore and race over 1,000 miles of open road on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu". There is no point in driving off the road in any case, and the off-roading itself is very unpolished. They probably got a satellite map and just generated a map based on that, and placed the roads.

Size also depends on the size of the character model, and the relative size of the models around the map such as trees, benches, other people, buildings, highways, etc.

A 5 inch character, on a map with 10 inch trees, 12 inch buildings, etc. would look normal, and would make the map a certain size. If you scaled the character up to 50 meters, with 100 meter trees, 120 meter buildings, it would still look normal, and the map would suddenly be a lot smaller.
Something in 3D space isn't any size until there's something there to provide a sense of relativity and scale. 3D programs might make this a lot easier to work with since they provide a virtual scale though.

My point is that the models in the game make the scale -- speed could make it seem bigger or smaller, but if scaled correctly, you'd know whether or not you were going really fast or really slow.
 

axisofweevils

Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
Got the new issue of Official Nintendo Magazine today - they give it 90%.

"TT Games has managed to capture the very essence of what a LEGO Videogame should be."
 
Most things, sadly.

I have a question for you:
The latest trailers have shown no screen tearing at all, but the eurogamer's review said they're still there. Have you noticed it when you have played it? And if so, is there plenty of them?
 

Drago

Member
My friend is Gameflying this for me. Pretty excited to try it out, but I haven't been super fond of the Lego games I've played before this so we'll see about this one.
 

axisofweevils

Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
According to the latest ONM, the game features lego versions of the following Nintendo characters -
Bob-ombs, Bullet Bills and Wigglers. The magazine has pictures. They all look suitably lego-y.
 

farnham

Banned
According to the latest ONM, the game features lego versions of the following Nintendo characters -
Bob-ombs, Bullet Bills and Wigglers. The magazine has pictures. They all look suitably lego-y.

lego nintendo (as actual toys and as video games) would rake in millions right?


but then again it would be on wiiu so probably not.
 

Levyne

Banned
Yeah more than 50% of the area on that GW: Nightfall map you can't even go to. I mean, good game but not really regarded for its size.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
So hyped for this. First real Wii U game for me.

Does anyone know the radio situation? Or if it's just the jazz that's in the gameplay videos?
 

Snookie

Member
I pre-ordered it. I plan on playing this with my kid anyways and he is really into the Lego City toys so I'm glad it not overly huge like the GTA games.
 
lego nintendo (as actual toys and as video games) would rake in millions right?


but then again it would be on wiiu so probably not.

Lol, you've got a real agenda against Nintendo. I've been reading your posts in that Kimaya thread, they're hilarious. =P
 

Berg

Member
Will download this at midnight on the 18th. will be my first retail downloaded game. hopefully it will be done downloading when I wake up at 8am.

8 hour download?
 
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