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I didn't expect anything from Vanquish; it looked like (and is) a gimmick third-person shooter. Surprisingly, however, the story is told in a relatively decent way and the battles and levels look interesting. It can invest more pathos into a cutscene about random people that aren't a part of the plot than Reach could into a heroic sacrifice by a father-figure, so they're doing something right.

The combat is Gears of Lost Planet. You have dash and slo-mo, recharging health, three guns and a nade toggle, etc. Cover is deformable and the controls are close enough to Gears to be fine. It quickly becomes repetitive (especially after the eighth time you 'fight to door' 'open door' 'fight guys chasing you through door' 'fight guys at next door') and the dash is pretty limited, but the bosses are interesting in an 8-bit kind of way. The scale of the game blows the Halo series away, amusingly, with huge space battles, detailed capital ships crashing overhead, space colony environments, huge waves of badguys, and loose ammo restrictions.

The biggest innovation of the game is replacing 'walk slowly with finger in ear' load screens with 'switch to first person and walk slowly' load screens.

I was skeptical until I played the demo a few weeks back; it is quite fun. I don't know if I'm ready to swallow what you're saying about the story, it looks like stock standard America-through-the-Japanese-eye plot from what I've seen so far. And I disagree, the most important innovation in the game is the ability to smoke while in cover.

Does the smoking actually do anything?

The story is rubbish, but the STORYTELLING works fine. It's sort of Gears of Lost Planet Galactic Heroes with the scale and the two insane leaders and the pretty large jeopardy - the character conflicts are typical anime stuff, of course.

The best part about your character being Solid Snake is he can use cigarettes to even distract robots. Worst robots ever?

It's sort of Gears of Lost Planet Galactic Heroes

Neither Gears nor Lost Planet has a particularly wonderful story. Never seen LoGH though. I'll still pick up the full game eventually but I've got exams exams exams for the next three weeks.

being Solid Snake

Pfff. Voice is not nearly deep and gruff enough for that. Steve Blum as the-dude-with-the-beard is much closer to the mark on that respect.

Worst robots ever?

No, it's just on-screen evidence of the super ECM deployed by the Rebel Alliance as outlined in the novelization.

adam_grif wrote:Neither Gears nor Lost Planet has a particularly wonderful story.

HAHAHAHAHAHA

adam_grif wrote:Never seen LoGH though. I'll still pick up the full game eventually but I've got exams exams exams for the next three weeks.

Same, I only bought it because I knew it would be shit. The play is 8-bit Lost Planet with Gears shooting, the story is Metal Gear Solid in Gundam, and the huge pew pew space fleets and politics is LOGH.

Pfff. Voice is not nearly deep and gruff enough for that. Steve Blum as the-dude-with-the-beard is much closer to the mark on that respect.

Yeah, cause Snake has a giant cyberarm, right?

No, it's just on-screen evidence of the super ECM deployed by the Rebel Alliance as outlined in the novelization.

The starvation-wracked Russia might have built a giant unstoppable army of space galleons, convertibles and robots but they only had enough left over for one bondage outfit.

While playing htis game, I, in no particular order:
-jumped onto a three story robot and hyper-punched its face off
-jet-slid around the backside of a buzzsaw-equipped tank and fired a rocket into its ass while flipping up behind cover
-distracted a giant robot that was 90% drill and 10% Bayformers Megatron with a cigarette
-drilled through the heart of a giant spider tank using my feet
-assaulted a walking fortress the size of a city block

Honestly, I loved this game, if only for its over-the-top high speed hilarity. The story is hamfisted but told well, the battles are insane and chaotic and intense and beautiful, the war feels like a huge freaking war, and the environments and scale are appropriately epic and huge.

And I'm fighting side by side with Oghren armed with a minigun and a bionic arm, so fuck yes.

Yeah, cause Snake has a giant cyberarm, right?

Yes, just like he goes guns blazing into every fight in his robot supersuit that slows time

The only things he has in common with Snake are cigarettes and poorly localized Japanese dialogue.

The starvation-wracked Russia might have built a giant unstoppable army of space galleons, convertibles and robots but they only had enough left over for one bondage outfit.

Tom Clancy novels and moustache twirlers are more expensive than you might think.

Same, I only bought it because I knew it would be shit. The play is 8-bit Lost Planet with Gears shooting, the story is Metal Gear Solid in Gundam, and the huge pew pew space fleets and politics is LOGH.

Are the pew pew space fleets good though? I could use some starship porn after Andromeda started circling the drain in Season 3.

adam_grif wrote:The only things he has in common with Snake are cigarettes and poorly localized Japanese dialogue.

The game was never really localised. Going by Shinji Mikami's blog, it was either English first, or was developed in both languages simultaneously.

EDIT: Oh, wow, shit. Sorry everyone.

Hey Stark, for someone who will not have access to Xbox Live for a few months, would you recommend Borderlands or Vanquish? I'm trying to decide between the two, and I'd go for Borderlands in a heartbeat, but I won't have Live when I move for a bit.

Edit: Dammit, Frod.

Blands is still good SP (in a Diablo way). Vanquish is short and not very replayable.

Agree with Stark. get the GOTY edition and you will be rewarded with endless hours of fun and mayhem. The Mad Moxie DLC is sooooooooo bad, though stay away from the Underdome Riot. the only thing useful it adds is a bank vault.

Thanks Stark, Chards. I have a Target gift card for $40 (USD) and both those games were on sale for $35. Blands it is, then. Vanquish does sound fun, though. I'll have to rent it sometime.

I enjoyed the hell out of this game, but seeing Stark's equivalent of genuine praise makes me like it even more for some reason.