Singularity

[FullAuto]

Anyone played this yet? It's in the post to me now, and I'm fidgeting.

 

Time travel, mutants, zombies, naughty Russians, guns, silliness. What's not to like?

 

The gravelly voiceover is so bad it's good. Where did that crap start? The earliest one I can remember is Russell Crowe in Gladiator, and it's now so popular every action hero is doing it (stand up and get out Adrien Brody).

[Thorondor]

I see you're successfully curbing your gaming spending. Sent for it to be delivered by express mail service have you?

 

To tide yourself over, you could check out the demo for this driving and demolition game called "Split/Second".

 

::

 

And, yes, it's by Disney... >:]

[FullAuto]

Got it! And I got Blur, too, at the same time. I'm not even good at driving games.

 

I think the main thing with Singularity is, I'm going to be able to pretend I'm playing TimeSplitters 4. >:]

[Thorondor]

I rarely touch driving games and I think I've never actually bought one. But if it looks fun and is polished enough I have a look for sampling.

 

A while back I tried Grid which was pretty nice too.

 

::

 

Singularity should be a decent game (75% average score), though some people downplay the time manipulation side as not too relevant a gameplay mechanics innovation element...

[FullAuto]

I love how it's crates and explosive barrels. Again. Good Lord.

[Thorondor]

Doomed...

 

::

 

...since 1993. >:]

[FullAuto]

Right, it is very silly but it's also good fun. There's collectibles, tape recordings left lying around all over the place, no regenerating health thank God (so there's health packs everywhere instead, hee hee), Nolan "Ubiquitous" North is voicing one of the characters (hope he dies soon), and it's dodgy Soviet stereotypes ahoy.

 

Strictly old-school linear FPS. Got zombies though, so I'm happy.

[Thorondor]

Health refills, whatever the type, are mostly an intrinsic necessity, because dying and staying dead or having to start over again, retreading, is generally no fun.

 

::

 

...unless you're a zombie, of course.

[FullAuto]

Aye, for action games I think you have to go with one or the other, and in a lot of situations, regen health makes no sense.

 

It's good dumb fun overall, been giving it a hammering today. The best bit so far was on a sunken ship. Using my Time Manipulation Device, I brought the ship back up and restored her to her former glory. However A) This happened in a cut scene, which is bollocks, why the best stuff is reserved for when you're not actually playing the game is beyond me, and B) Because of the size of the ship, the TMD's effect is strictly time-limited, meaning that it started to decay as soon as I wandered through it.

 

It was a pretty good effect, watching metal refresh and 'grow' a skin of paint, then scab over with rust, metal being eaten away, water pouring in etc. I struggled to think where I'd seen that sort of thing before. It reminded me of several things (an early X-Files episode about unnaturally quick aging set on a ship, the terrible terrible film Ghost Ship, and the not-so-terrible film Triangle).

 

There are messages from the past/future to hunt down, although some hint at possible future/past betrayals they are useless because the game is linear (haha, a linear game about time travel, who would have thought) and the rest offer 'advice' so stupid as to be insulting (My favourite so far: "Get off the ship before it sinks.").

 

There's some nice weapons, including a rifle that lets you steer the bullet, an exploding dart gun, a sniper rifle with a time-slowing scope, a minigun, and a weird grenade launcher that lets you launch a grenade in ball form, and control it.

[Pete]

I don't get the Chernobyl reference in the trailer - is the game set in a nuclear power plant? Do you build a concrete dome over the island at the end?

 

I'm confused

[FullAuto]

You could build a dome over it from the amount of the bullets you've fired by the end, certainly. Lead's good shielding, too.

 

No, the Soviets were investigating a new element, E-99, on the island of Katorga-12. E-99 is even more potent than nuclear power, mutates organisms, can mess with spacetime, etc. When things go pear-shaped, the Soviets shut the facility down and pretend the island doesn't exist. About 50 years later, the Americans check the island out, get curious, and investigate, sticking their size 12s into a sort of time loop (the Singularity). Naturally their interference changes history, and then the future, so you have to go back and forth to sort it all out.

[Pete]

It does sound cool, AND it's out for PC too which is handy given my lack of consoles (Wii doesn't count ). Might try it when I can spare the cash.

[FullAuto]

I paid