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[Angst]

Got this little gem yesterday and sofar I like what I see (or shoot). The graphics are crisp and clear and the framerate seems pretty stable (60fps I presume, but I could be wrong).

The action, as heralded, is pretty intense with bombs going off everywhere, bullets spraying the walls, cars blowing up when you fire a couple of roudns into them, barrels exploding et cetera.

The control is fine IMO, too bad there's no jumping button. I actually would have liked a lean-button as well, as it would have come in handy when crouching behind a blown-out car or behind a wall. But nevertheless, this is quite a solid FPS and - dare I say it? - the best FPS on PS2. I havent' played many fps'es on PS2 mind you, just a short and frustrated period of Half-Life and MoH.

I wonder why the designers decided that you can only carry one weapon at a time as sometimes it's quite cumbersome. For example early on you get an RPG (yeah!), but when you're out of rockets you have to find a new weapon to replace it.

Can't say anything about game length as I've just started, but sofar this is really, really good.

Edit - Damn, I meant for this to be in the official Black thread. I hit the wrong button

 

[FlyinJ]

You can carry two guns at once.

 

[kurisu_1974]

you can carry two weapons, use the arrows to swap... when picking up a weapon it will replace the one you are holding at that point.

the jump button had been nice, but they built the levels so that you can't go back because of these little ledges, i think as not to mess up the scripted events.

i don't like the fact that the levels are very long without the possibility to save. i got tired once and just had to shut it of pretty far into a mission... now i have to play that part again.

so yeah, it's an excellent fps... and an above average game.

 

[element]

 

[8bit]

Not necessarily. My local had it on shelves yesterday, even though the street date is Friday.

 

[Pedigree Chum]

Wait, this game comes out this friday? Sweet, I assumed it was next tuesday. I can buy this and take it to Uni, woot!

Too bad I won't be able to beat Kameo in time (X360 am borked), that's the trade-in fodder for this :/

 

[Burger]

Blacks damage model is up the shitter, it just plain SUCKS.

If you shoot a guy with one bullet, you get a 1 second stagger animation. During this time, the enemy seems to go into god mode.

So it's going to take you 5 seconds to kill one dude, REGARDLESS of how many bullets he takes, unless you get a head shot.

This is just stupid, and reminds me of gameplay from yesteryear.

 

[SpokkX]

Blacks damage model is up the shitter, it just plain SUCKS.

If you shoot a guy with one bullet, you get a 1 second stagger animation. During this time, the enemy seems to go into god mode.

So it's going to take you 5 seconds to kill one dude, REGARDLESS of how many bullets he takes, unless you get a head shot.

This is just stupid, and reminds me of gameplay from yesteryear.

I also noticed something like this. During the stagger-animations the characters seem invincible. Haven´t looked into it that much though, it just seemed to be this way

 

[sol_bad]

Well ...... Criterion did say they wanted to bring the fun back into FPS games.
Never said anything about realism.
They want you to have a crazy fun time like you did with Burnout (which wasn't realistic either ;o)).

 

[SpokkX]

it is kind of fun despite all the flaws... so in a way they succeded

Black strikes me as a game that will probably improve a lot in the inevitable sequel though (if EA don´t make it a yearly affair)

 

[Mr Mike]

Blacks damage model is up the shitter, it just plain SUCKS.

If you shoot a guy with one bullet, you get a 1 second stagger animation. During this time, the enemy seems to go into god mode.

So it's going to take you 5 seconds to kill one dude, REGARDLESS of how many bullets he takes, unless you get a head shot.

This is just stupid, and reminds me of gameplay from yesteryear.

Yep, this is ridiculous - especially with the heavier-armed shotgun men.

I really liked the game - but the acted cut scenes are absolute shit. Really bad sub-24/MGS acting. Stick to making games, guys, not films.

 

[Sjoerd]

The 'story' of this game is horrible. And I hate having to see those movies everytime when starting a mission...

 

[Ranger X]

Well ...... Criterion did say they wanted to bring the fun back into FPS games.
Never said anything about realism.
They want you to have a crazy fun time like you did with Burnout (which wasn't realistic either ;o)).

I pretty much agree with what you say here. I like unrealistic and different FPS like that. I've been very pleased by the Black demo and i may just buy the game on release.
I prefer Doom, Serious Sam and all those unrealistic shooters than Call of Duty or other pseudo realistic FPS anyway. In Black, it feels "intense" pretty much like the old Doom games and i guess that's what makes this game good.

 

[rocksolidaudio]

Not necessarily. My local had it on shelves yesterday, even though the street date is Friday.

the street date is the 28th. but yeah, it's already shipped to some stores.

 

[Gio_CoD]

Isn't the whole premise of this game that the entire level is supposed to be destructable? I played the demo in OXM and I could't blow up shit. Sure, there were bullet holes everywhere, but if an enemy is behind a concrete wall, I can't shoot the wall apart until I can get at the enemy. I thought that was the premise of this game.

And yeah, the enemy soldiers are fucking superhuman. I unloaded an entire AK-47 clip into a couple of guys without killing them.

 

[Ranger X]

Isn't the whole premise of this game that the entire level is supposed to be destructable?

You got owned by journalistic hype. It's just a manner of speaking that there's alot of breakable. And it's actually true. I can't recall many FPS with that much stuff going on.

 

[Dr Zhivago]

Any significant differences between PS2 & XB versions?

 

[mr_sockochris]

the street date is the 28th. but yeah, it's already shipped to some stores.

Yeah, looks like it was released a bit earlier than normal. I got mine this morning from Gameplay.co.uk, usually things arrive on the Thursday.

 

[Gio_CoD]

You got owned by journalistic hype. It's just a manner of speaking that there's alot of breakable. And it's actually true. I can't recall many FPS with that much stuff going on.

But it wasn't only the journalists. The guy that runs Criterion, Alex something or other, was going off about how they made the game so that if an item looked breakable, it was. I'm pretty sure multiple shotgun blasts would do some damage to concrete walls.

 

[Ranger X]

But it wasn't only the journalists. The guy that runs Criterion, Alex something or other, was going off about how they made the game so that if an item looked breakable, it was. I'm pretty sure multiple shotgun blasts would do some damage to concrete walls.

Well, it always seemed obvious to me that the main structures and walls wouldn't be breakable. And even sometimes they are. Next-gen you'll see that level of destruction where the main structures of a level could blow up maybe. But then again, for the level to stay a level, it will not happen that you can destroy everything.

 

[kurisu_1974]

i felt like i could destroy more in mercenaries than i can in this game. and mercenaries is more than a year old.

 

[dark10x]

Demo didn't impress me, so I probably won't bother. I agree that the reaction of everything to weapon fire is very poor. For a game to take on a label such as "gun porn", you'd think they would have focused on making sure that those guns were actually enjoyable to use. The reaction from enemies is just terrible.

It seems like the game suffers from simplistic AI with very poor hit reaction. That is enough to kill the game.

 

[Warm Machine]

Blacks damage model is up the shitter, it just plain SUCKS.

If you shoot a guy with one bullet, you get a 1 second stagger animation. During this time, the enemy seems to go into god mode.

So it's going to take you 5 seconds to kill one dude, REGARDLESS of how many bullets he takes, unless you get a head shot.

This is just stupid, and reminds me of gameplay from yesteryear.

Welcome to Metal Gear Solid

 

[gigamex]

Welcome to Metal Gear Solid

At least at it's core Metal Gear Solid isn't a pure shooter. There are many different ways to diasble a person or sometimes go around a situation. Black has one game mechanic and it's not executed very well.

 

[Red Blaster]

Welcome to Metal Gear Solid

Incorrect. In MGS2 and up you can hit them in the heart or the crotch to knock 'em out with one round. They do stagger if you hit them elsewhere but you can keep shooting them. They don't go into god mode like in Black.

And MGS is a stealth game anyway.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Welcome to Metal Gear Solid

Shoot them in the Head or Heart they go down. Shoot them in the Arms or Legs they stagger.

 

[human5892]

The "God Mode" during animations really has no place in a game coming out in 2006.

 

[Burger]

The game is pretty nice looking and everything, but that stupid bug is a deal breaker for me. I've just given up, it's no longer fun.

Oh and while I'm here, the intro sucks and the story (if you can call it that) is a pile of dog shit. Why they even bothered is beyond me. You fail to connect with the character you are playing, and fail to give a crap about what's happening. Tacking on "Generic Terrorist Plot Story #47" just seems silly.

 

[Warm Machine]

Incorrect. In MGS2 and up you can hit them in the heart or the crotch to knock 'em out with one round. They do stagger if you hit them elsewhere but you can keep shooting them. They don't go into god mode like in Black.

And MGS is a stealth game anyway.

In the first PSX game you could empty a clip into a guy and he wouldn't go down because after the first hit subsequent hits did nothing until the reaction animation had completed. 3 or 4 bullets timed with the animation would kill an opponent. When ammunition is a valuable commodity that design decision is pathetic.

This shitty temporary invincibility crap on enemies doesn't give ANY game genre a free ride. I don't care if the game is an RPG, adventure game, puzzler or whatever. If something is shot and have damage done to it, continuous shooting should result in more damage being applied to it. Imagine a beat em up where after the first punch in a combo subsequent punches did nothing.

Why is it that EA games are always crap for the simplest yet most intrinsic things? 007 Nightfire had the exact same problem except that the enemies would sometimes not even play animations if they had gotten hit.

 

[gigamex]

Oh and while I'm here, the intro sucks and the story (if you can call it that) is a pile of dog shit. Why they even bothered is beyond me. You fail to connect with the character you are playing, and fail to give a crap about what's happening. Tacking on "Generic Terrorist Plot Story #47" just seems silly.

Baffling decision to have such a lame story and tell it the way they do. Really does take the incentive out of it when you are actually doing the missions. For a game that I assume had a megabudget seems oddly cheap and not very involving.

 

[siamesedreamer]

BUT YOU CAN BLOW STUFF UP.........sorta

 

[gigamex]

BUT YOU CAN BLOW STUFF UP.........sorta

Yep.

Too bad it gets old after like an hour or so. Between the trade off of getting to blow stuff up versus actually having compelling smart and diverse enemies it's not good they went the direction they did.

(To give the game some credit in what is generally brain dead AI, I like how they react to grenades)

 

[Red Blaster]

In the first PSX game you could empty a clip into a guy and he wouldn't go down because after the first hit subsequent hits did nothing until the reaction animation had completed. 3 or 4 bullets timed with the animation would kill an opponent. When ammunition is a valuable commodity that design decision is pathetic.

MGS is almost 10 years old buddy. Not many games had hit specific damage modeling back in 1998. And like I said, MGS2 and MGS3 don't have this "feature" anymore.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

I still think a lot of people will like it ok. It does have some neat moments. I also still submit that it's better than Killzone which has a fair number of fans.

 

[Sander]

Did anyone notice the funky swimming textures up close? Or is my old PS2 buckling under the strain?

And I thought this game was going to be 60fps like Burnout, bit of a disappointment.

 

[Kevtones]

And yeah, the enemy soldiers are fucking superhuman. I unloaded an entire AK-47 clip into a couple of guys without killing them.

Were you fighting the Chuck Norris boss?

 

[Larry Bird]

MGS is almost 10 years old buddy. Not many games had hit specific damage modeling back in 1998. And like I said, MGS2 and MGS3 don't have this "feature" anymore.

Yeah but this game is brand new

 

[urk]

Were you fighting the Chuck Norris boss?

Obviously not. He didn't mention being roundhoused in the face.

 

[Warm Machine]

MGS is almost 10 years old buddy. Not many games had hit specific damage modeling back in 1998. And like I said, MGS2 and MGS3 don't have this "feature" anymore.

First person shooters from Doom to Goldeneye say hello as well as loads of side view scrollers from the 8 to 16 bit days days where this was never an issue. MGS doesn't get a get out of bad design free card becaus it is a Metal Gear game.

 

[gigamex]

I still think a lot of people will like it ok. It does have some neat moments. I also still submit that it's better than Killzone which has a fair number of fans.

I'm sure a lot of people will like it also but that being said, some people are far less critical of their games and what they play. People keep buying those generic Bond games they churn out so there is always a market for this kind of stuff I suppose.

This will be my last post in the thread as I've made it fairly clear where I stand. For 6 hours of mid level enjoyment for a game that has a bad story, and no multi-player, there is no way I could recommend the title to anybody. As in all things I will admit hype plays a part in determining my feelings on the game. If it was from Joe Blow generic studio and publisher, it would still be a thoroughly average game, but I wouldn't make multiple posts on it. From a game that generated this much hype it's a major dissapointment. With far better fps's on the market I just don't see it.

 

[Burger]

I agree.

Black looked pretty awesome before I played it. But then you play it and it's all a bit "oh.. right". It's more fun to turn it off and go have a wank.

"average, not spectacular"

 

[Angst]

the street date is the 28th. but yeah, it's already shipped to some stores.

The release date is the 23rd here in Sweden. I got it one day early from my shop.

And yes, you can carry two weapons at once.

I've played some more and I still think it's a really good game. My one grief would be the long intervals between checkpoints. If you die just prior to reaching a checkpoint, you'll have to start waaaay back.

 

[itsinmyveins]

First person shooters from Doom to Goldeneye say hello as well as loads of side view scrollers from the 8 to 16 bit days days where this was never an issue. MGS doesn't get a get out of bad design free card becaus it is a Metal Gear game.

No, it doesn't. But still, the stagger animation isn't nearly as frustrating or crippling compared to games like Black; simply cause it's not a shooter. It doesn't affect you in the same degree. End of story.