I'm watching you, Pandemic in Off Topic

ID:47504
 
Sep 2 2008, 5:06 am
Keywords: mercs_2
So, Mercenaries 2 comes out here in the next few days, but seeing as I've recently taken a strong anti-DRM stance on what software I buy, I thought I would ask on the Pandemic forum what DRM technologies were going to be used on Mercs 2.
Their answer was to delete both of my posts, ostensibly because they were 'duplicate posts' of other threads discussing DRM. So, off I went to the search page only to find that there were only 2 threads discussing DRM - one only showing a question, the other buried 8 pages in the forum.
So, I'm guessing that DRM is a bit of an awkward subject for Pandemic. I'll be watching closely, particularly given their response to my first 2 posts.
#1 Sep 2 2008, 5:55 am
I just bought it for PS3, where DRM is required for all games. All or nothing?
#2 Sep 2 2008, 11:32 am
What are you buying Mercenaries 2 in the first place? The first one sucked hardcore and the gameplay videos don't look all that convincing.

Actually, judging by the videos on Game Trailers I'd say Mercenaries 2 has terrible graphics. Everything is bland and flat compared to other 360/PS3 games.
#3 Sep 2 2008, 11:47 am
That's what you get from judging a game on a few quick gameplay videos.

That being said, the graphics aren't great, the vehicle handling isn't great, the voice acting is down right horrible at times, and damn repetitive. All together, however, it is fun. Which, video games being a media for entertainment, is the important thing.

The first Mercenaries game didn't suck hardcore, it was just a B game. I will give you, however, that if you played it on the XBox, the "Jump out of the car" button being the left trigger was a horrible idea, and nearly ruins the game. But the PS2 version didn't have that issue.
#4 Sep 2 2008, 12:04 pm
Danial.Beta wrote:
That's what you get from judging a game on a few quick gameplay videos.

There are many, many videos of the game around. The only one currently being circulated, however, is the stylized dollar commercial which doesn't show any in-game footage.

That being said, the graphics aren't great, the vehicle handling isn't great, the voice acting is down right horrible at times, and damn repetitive. All together, however, it is fun. Which, video games being a media for entertainment, is the important thing.

The first Mercenaries game didn't suck hardcore, it was just a B game. I will give you, however, that if you played it on the XBox, the "Jump out of the car" button being the left trigger was a horrible idea, and nearly ruins the game. But the PS2 version didn't have that issue.

So the only redeeming qualities of Mercenaries was it was "entertainment" with a button to jump out of cars (ps2 only)?

Doesn't sound very promising to me.

This is just another one of those Mature rated fluff games with no substance, flat characters, and a few explosions. The only people buying it are mothers of stupid adolescent boys.
#5 Sep 2 2008, 12:15 pm
No, I was saying the jump out of car thing was a flaw. I wasn't going in depth about the game. Mercs was a fun game. If you didn't like it, well, too bad for you, but it wasn't a horrible game. It just wasn't an A title. It was a B game, and that was clear from the beginning. Mercs 2 is about the same, but that doesn't stop it from being fun.

I've seen plenty of "B" movies that were well worth the price of a movie ticket, sometimes they are worth more than the big budget "A" titles.

The graphics aren't great, but they are reasonable. The physics can be silly at times, but can still be a lot of fun. You don't get hurt most of the time if a vehicle you are in explodes. This is silly, but it's a great gameplay addition to not piss off the user when he turns a corner on a tank.
#6 Sep 2 2008, 12:27 pm
So far you haven't really been able to list any positive selling points. It's like you're just psyching yourself up because you know the game wasn't that great to begin with and you don't want to admit you wasted money on it.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/38345.html

Just look at how flat, bland, and just generally shitty this map is. This game is fucking garbage.
#7 Sep 2 2008, 12:37 pm
I don't believe I ever tried to list any good points. Truth be told, I don't have to. I had fun with the game yesterday, and plan on playing it more tonight. I'm having fun with it. That simple. Do I need to go more in depth? I'm justifying nothing. I bought a game, I enjoyed it.

So far, I've had as much fun with Mercs 2 as I did Soul Calibur 4. And Soul Calibur was marketed as in "A" game.
#8 Sep 2 2008, 12:56 pm
Too Human was a Triple-A game and nobody liked it. The silly title means nothing when a $15 game like Castle Crashers can blow full-fledged $60 out of the water.

No game should receive special treatment just because they didn't spend as much on their PR as Microsoft did for Halo 3. A shit game's a shit game no matter how you look at it. Doesn't matter how bad it is, someone will still end up liking it though. I guess that's why it got a sequel.
#9 Sep 2 2008, 1:05 pm
SuperAntx wrote:
Just look at how flat, bland, and just generally shitty this map is. This game is fucking garbage.

If you watch a couple of other videos you'll probably see the fully-destructable cities and dense, destructable forest areas.
http://www.msxbox-world.com/xbox360/screenshots/screenshots/ 214/Mercenaries-2-World-in-Flames.html
#10 Sep 2 2008, 1:07 pm
I agree, how a game is billed has nothing to do with the ending quality. What I am saying is that Mercs 2 is a fun game.

What I don't think you understand is that it isn't all about shiny graphics. Sometimes you have to pickup a control and play around for a while before you understand what makes a game fun. And sometimes you don't like a game, no mater how much other people do. But just because you don't find a game fun, doesn't mean it's a "shit" game. Sure, some games are bad to start with, but many are just games that appeal to people other than yourself.

Games are art, and art is subjective.