Serious Sam 3

[GooberMan]

So what are y'all waiting for? Go get it!

_________________

[Frozencry]

Bought.

Also according to WSGF, it supports Eyefinity perfectly and runs super well. Centred HUD, menu systems and FOV optimisations. That alone was enough to sway me, shows very good support for PC users.
_________________

[GooberMan]

Ah, quicksave, how I've missed the actual need for thee.

Most other games, surround sound is a nice feature to have. It's pretty much a requirement to play this game. Trying to spot the suicide bombers through all the grass and trees is rather tricky.

Gotta say though. These early levels aren't quite as full on as I remember early SS:FE levels - and I recently played the HD editions through. Hoping it picks up soon, but I have only done the first two levels.

The gap between "small indie with talent" and "massive money-eating studio" seems to have widened too. Graphically, the first game rivalled Quake 3 back in the day. These days, I can only really describe the graphics as "competent". Certainly not unattractive by any stretch, but they seem about a year behind the console pack.
_________________

[Frozencry]

Apparently it picks up in scale big time over the next few levels.

Only did first two levels as well and yeah, gameplay is awesome and arcadey. Serious mode is a good challenge too. Auto detect puts it all up for Ultra straight out and centred Eyefinity, which made me very happy.

Also, Gore in surround
_________________

[GooberMan]

Speaking of which, they should re-remake the first one and put the sledgehammer in it.
_________________

[GooberMan]

Don't forget to get this translation if you're going for that achievement:


_________________

[Frozencry]

So quick saves destroy your score, figured out why my Serious difficulty multipliers weren't too high.

So I've stopped quick saving and yeah, level I did just then put me up in the top 100 worldwide currently for that specific level. Also holy fuck it's hard as hell on Serious. Crazy adrenaline rush though.
_________________

[GooberMan]

Yep. I've been running off the autosaves. Which can be a problem, because the autosaves don't seem to trigger sometimes. Can't work out if bug or if it has a health threshold. I suspect the latter, but it's gorram annoying when you go past the autosave, then dominate the area, get full health, die, and spawn where you were 20 minutes ago.

Haven't found as many silly secrets as they usually have in the games. Did find this though:



On the other hand, it seems there's always time for fan service:



EDIT: Also, looking at my friends leaderboard, I think 30,000 sales is a decent estimate so far. Considering they self published and funded, that's a nice chunk of pure profit going their way. But those are still some low sales. It's had virtually no exposure in gaming press despite the great previews it was getting.
_________________

[GooberMan]

Oh lawds, this game picks up significantly once you get out of the urban areas. The last part of the urban areas is like the village in the original game, and then it gets to all the pyramids and now-ruins.

It's at this point that the two best additions to the game make themselves known:

1) The worm
2) Destructible environment

The worm's a fairly smart addition - in the originals, you'd always think "If things get too tight, I'll back in to the desert some more." Backing in to the desert in this one gets you eaten fairly quickly. It forces a play area on you, and adds to the tension because not only are you trying to not be overwhelmed but you're also trying to not be eaten.

The destructible environment though. Where to start. There's the simple overview of it - enemies shoot you and get rid of any kind of cover, again forcing you in to battle. But then things get interesting when you try to use it to your advantage.

Need easy access to some much needed health/armour/ammo? Put yourself between some enemies and the area in question and blammo, you can go straight in while still firing away at them.

Space monkeys annoying you? Take away their precious pylons by spamming it with C4, or wait for a rocket enemy to appear and save ammo for another fight.

And then there's secret items that require you to shoot the environment to get to them.

It really is unfortunate that they decided to go urban first, as their strengths are definitely not in making a realistic game. It's a two hour misstep, but once you get past that it's proper Serious Sam action.

Also, try Survival mode. I lasted 1 minute 30. And killed something ridiculous like 150 enemies out of a possible 150,000. Good times.
_________________

[GooberMan]

Finished! #87 on world leaderboards currently. Only one or two above me did it on Hard, the rest were on Serious or Mental.

You know, I think those first few levels set in the urban area is just trolling players. Throw a SS spin on a modern FPS, just to show how lame it is in comparison to the pure SS gameplay that follows. It had me more on edge than Dark Souls ever did, and you'd only realise it after you kill the last of a horde and notice how tense you are and slowly release the mouse.

Someone else buy it and stop playing Skyrim so I can try some coop.
_________________

[Frozencry]

Jump on co-op with Myles and I, that's how we're going about it. Some levels have been fucking insane on the stress levels. I haven't been this challenged by an FPS in a long time.

Honestly out of all the FPS games this year, this one takes the cake for pure fun. It's awesome and is it just me, or is the level design generally quite superb? It's not purely open areas but littered with nice egyptian architecture that you can use to your combat advantage.

And yeah, those first levels are a definite troll.
_________________

[GooberMan]

Played co-op last night with Denny and Myles. And then Pudding joined and made us screw around for 10 minutes on an elevator because he wanted to look at the options menu - and somehow we still got in the top 20 of the world for that level.

I really want to get a 16 player co-op going. Hurry up and buy the game people!
_________________

[Pagan's Mind]

Modern games have made me lazy. I keep forgetting to quick save in Serious Sam and end up doing the entire stage again.

[Frozencry]

Quick save lowers score.

I don't quick save.
_________________

[Jarrod]

Weeks pay in, today I buy Sam.

If it isn't good I'm going for Denny and Goober's heads.
_________________

[Frozencry]

You can go for our heads anyway, everyone knows you can't aim for shit.
_________________

[Jarrod]

That...is a fair call.
_________________

[Jarrod]

The game is good so far, but reloading is a poor addition in my opinion (though that's more of a taste thing as it's implementation isn't bad), and unless I'm missing some crucial mechanism element there's a bug on the sledgehammer which causes it to sometimes fail attack input. Oh, and the engine rocks, but the brown/grey art looks poop compared to First/Second Encounter.

Who's a negative Nancy? Me. Thankfully shooting stuff feels good so the game is still fun.
_________________

[GooberMan]

I hated reloading at first. Until I realised how many "OHSHI-" moments it gave me in the latter half of the game causing me to switch weapons and barely escape an encounter. Even the ammo limits seem designed with that in mind. The amount of balancing this game's gone through is nuts.

Game starts looking better once you hit the Sphinx level. Those first levels really are a troll in every way. I loaded up Second Encounter HD last night (which allows you to play the "Egypt" episode if you have First Encounter installed), and I'd say the Sphinx level onwards looks better than those two. The enemy redesigns really stand out as being superior in every way.
_________________

[Jarrod]

Yeah, the reloading thing is perfectly balanced, I'm just not big on the style. More of a persona grievance than anything. I do get those "OHSHI-" moments, but I'd happily pass on them for a more old school system. I hear they're patching in a no reloads mode, so yay for that.

And yeah, the level I'm up to is outside of the Sphinx and its a wonderful change of scenery. I'm told a lot of the assets used in the first few levels were recycled from a dead project Croteam had going on with the now defunct GameCock, which was your more 'realistic' shooter style. Given they're a small team it makes sense to use the assets you've got.

Otherwise the game is stupid fun.
_________________

[Jarrod]

After sinking more time into this it's clear this is one of the most balanced first person shooters in forever. Croteam went over every encounter, spawn, and weapon/health/armour placement with a fine tooth comb to the point where it's actually jaw dropping how beautifully and seamlessly level progression flows between encounter to encounter. So good.
_________________

[G3ck0]

This game is amazingly awesome. I'm not even out of the beginning levels which most people seem to hate, but it's still heaps of fun! Forget Battlefield 3, this game justifies building my PC.

[Pagan's Mind]

I am seriously stuck on Serious difficulty and it's only the third level... can't beat the red rocket mech that smashes through the wall. I'm thinking if it's this hard to take down one of these things the later levels are going to be impossible for me .

[GooberMan]

Nah, that guy's a pest because the strongest weapon you have at that time is a shotty. Enemy management is far easier once you have the full arsenal spectrum at your fingertips.

Just run around the central building a lot and sprint through it, using each corner as cover (i kno rite, all cover no man? It's part of the first-four-levels-troll).
_________________

[Pagan's Mind]