What sucks least? Red Faction, Prototype and inFamous

[Covenant]

Yeah, I rented too, so it's easy to play all/any of them in a short time for less than I'd pay to go to the movies. RF:G and InF are both available to rent, I haven't played Prototype, but it seems a lot like tentacle-hentai flavored InF rather than the default flavor of I Sing the City Electric. I'm sure they're all fun, and I'm sure they're all pretty insubstantial. Sometimes that's all you need to enjoy it, especially if it's just a rental. I'm not sure I'd want to pay 60 bucks to own any of 'em. Being able to beat a game in a single rental session doesn't inspire me to spend an additional 60 bucks just to be able to repeat the procedure at my leisure. If I really like it a lot, I can just rent it twice more and still only pay half.

[Ford Prefect]

As for computer games, "it doesn't run on my system" is as good excuse as any.

EB Games actually allows for full money back returns in the first week based entirely on you not liking a game, which is pretty boss.

[Losonti Tokash]

Yeah well here they sure as fuck don't. They'll even sell a game they've opened and gutted for display and all that bullshit as "new."

[JointStrikeFighter]

Turns out Australia has consumer protection laws and America doesn't?

[Stargate Nerd]

Turns out Australia has consumer protection laws and America doesn't?

I think once upon a time you were able to return PC games in the US as well. Apparently Alien Vs Predator was returned in droves ten years ago due to the difficulty of the game.
(something I read when I was still living in Germany, where returning games is equally impossible).

[General Zod]

Turns out Australia has consumer protection laws and America doesn't?

I think once upon a time you were able to return PC games in the US as well. Apparently Alien Vs Predator was returned in droves ten years ago due to the difficulty of the game.

Yeah, you used to be able to rent CDs too I think. They stopped doing that when broadband became ubiquitous.

[Starglider]

The number of things Saints does right that Red Faction does wrong is really quite amusingly long.

Such as? I was planning to get RF:G largely because I found Saints Row 2 really fun.

[Samuel]

Can someone explain the ending for Infamous? I looked at it on youtube and
Spoiler

What the hell? Your future self goes back in time to toughen you up? Why not try and train you and fight by your side? Or try to get you built up as the savior of humanity in the populance's eyes instead of sabotaging you? Or use the Terminator method and kill those responsible for the beast? As it is his method manages to kill your support network (which tends to leave people unstable), trash a major city, possibly kill you and has a good chance of making you a sociopath.

[CaptHawkeye]

It actually makes me really sad to see that even if you have an open gameworld, you can still make a universally boring and/or shitty title. Why is it that all the games that SHOULD be open world are not? (Halo, Gears, Call of Duty) While all the games that should NOT be, are?

Of course, the triple suck of all these titles might have more to do with obvious gimmicky features and little beyond that. Basically, they performed all of 10 minutes of brainstorming in the office and then, satisified with that, ran over to the local Chile's to celebrate over the swaths of cash they'd soon be making anyway. Because who needs fun core gameplay when you can drop some videos at E3 showing off your title's grand total of 3 features and still make millions?

Just like World War 2 before, open world backgrounds are now just a popularity excuse. And just like the WW2 setting, the proliferation of low quality shovelware titles will destroy what is actually an excellent base to work off of.

[Stark]

Such as? I was planning to get RF:G largely because I found Saints Row 2 really fun.

Okay, you know how Saints 2 was a remarkably open game with things to do everywhere, both single and multiplayer, where the plot was present and amusing but unnecessary? How it had a better menu and inventory system than GTA4 and had a cruise control button to make shooting while driving less impossible? Or how the side missions gave you cool bonuses that made them worthwhile to do on your way through the game, and the respect system encouraged you to fuck around in between missions in this way even in integrated multi? Where there was a high level of customisation present at every level of the game and thus everything in the game was more engaging as you could create anything from a self-avatar to a homicidal granny to a greek hoplite, a map that unlocked GPS shortcuts when you took 'shortcuts', and a high level of wholesale over-the-top destruction without being brutally penalised?

Yeah, RF:G is pretty much nothing like that. It's an on-rails linear plot with side shit that does nothing but give you money (with which to buy more game-breakingly unbalanced weapons), has a terrible inventory system (no you can't ever put your hammer down) with 'upgrades' that are laughably cheap, almost nothing can be customised, fighting in vehicles is laughable, the map NEVER learns shortcunts (and will direct you to drive around a huge kilometer detour when you can just cut across a square or off a bridge and ONLY WORKS ON ROADS FFS), has no multi elements or other 'freeplay' entertainment options integrated, and the plot you're forced to play through is utterly retarded with a protaganist so bland nobody can even remember his name (and yet the whole revolution is focused on him despite LITERALLY having just stepped off the boat). The map (which I guess is big) is largely empty and worthless (I think about 15% is the 'free fire zone' and 10% the 'irradiated zone' that is just used for a single mission and then ignored) and you'll be doing a lot of driving until halfway when they give you fucking fast travel.

It's seriously a giant 180 from Saints. I didn't mention the unlimited armies of headshot-crazy cops that will spawn on you at a moments notice until you decode the arcade 'alert' system, because it makes me too angry.

[Darwin]

I've only played Prototype on account of not having a PS3 and THQ hating PCs enough to delay the release by months.

That said, I've enjoyed Prototype more than any other game in recent memory. seamless across the entirety of Manhattan and the ability to flying-kick helicopters is not to be undervalued.

[Starglider]

Ok, I picked up RF:G relatively cheap second hand, and it mostly feels like a physics engine demo. Seriously, it looks exactly like the 'structure destruction modelling' demos presented at Siggraph in oh, 2001-2002. I've only had time for one session as yet, but so far it seems like a study in blandness. Nondescript forgettable characters (less fun than even Mercenaries 2 style caricatures), boring samey map, really offensively bland music. So far I'm not getting that 'too much driving' feel though, if anything the map seems to small and crammed together to suspend disbelief at all (might just be the first sector though). Also the weapons seem fine so far, though I am playing on 'hard'.

[Big Orange]

I love this video by a snarky Australian games reviewer comparing Prototype and InFamous.

[Oskuro]

Sorry for the necro, but the pressing issue of the superiority of either Infamous or Prototype has been settled. We can now be at ease knowing this contest has been properly addressed.

[CaptHawkeye]

Yahtzee has a blog on Escapist now? Meh. He's good enough for the occasional laugh but I hardly consider his reviews accurate or usefull for telling me about a game anymore.

Edit: Oh ho! The developers came through on the bet he made? Now Yahtzee gets to pocket cash from Valve and Sucker Punch!

[Samuel]

Yahtzee has a blog on Escapist now? Meh. He's good enough for the occasional laugh but I hardly consider his reviews accurate or usefull for telling me about a game anymore.

Edit: Oh ho! The developers came through on the bet he made? Now Yahtzee gets to pocket cash from Valve and Sucker Punch!

Eh- I find unskippable to have better humor.