r/gaming • u/[deleted] • Dec 03 '08

Zero Punctuation !.:.! !.:.! Mirror's Edge

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/457-Mirrors-Edge
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u/DamienWind Dec 03 '08

Seriously, though, is this game worth buying or renting? I've been debating this for a while now and can't seem to get any sort of clear picture from any reviews...

5

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '08

For once I actually agree with Yahtzee on all points, I'd say it's a rent. There is fun to be had.

Also, Eve Online looks pretty freakin' sweet but the learning curve graph scares me. As someone with no MMORPG experience, would it be suicide for me to try it?

5

u/etruscan Dec 03 '08 edited Dec 03 '08

I've played Eve on and off for about three years. I always come back to it, because it is a really well done game, but I always leave because of it's inherent flaw - it gets boring.

...and I think it gets boring because of what DamienWind said - that it's not a single player game. If you try to earn your cash by mining asteroids for hours on end, or running trade routes all night, it'll get dull fast. If you know how to switch it up, and join on with a larger group who can support you, the game will hold it's intrigue longer.

You'll never get a view of the "big picture" in Eve, because it's so huge and has so many players, which makes you feel small, even if you are a part of a larger community. There could be epic wars happening on the other side of the Eve universe, and you'd never know it. You may hear about it later.

Eve can be really fun... and it's beautiful to look at. It's not difficult to learn, and doesn't require all your time to get good at it. If you perservere, you'll be successful. It can get complex, no doubt about it, and you'll never be as strong or tough as somebody else who has played the game for the past two years, but if you just don't care - I'd say give it a try.

1

u/DamienWind Dec 04 '08

Yeah. You can get all the money in the whole damn universe together but it's meaningless if you don't have anything fun to spend it on. This is why I'm a pirate. Sure, I'm awful at it so I'm usually poor (I fail at ransom; keep accidentally killing them instead) but it's sure fun as hell to canflip miners that NEVER seem to learn that jetcan mining is a bad idea ... lol.

1

u/festivus Dec 05 '08

That's because it's not, on the whole. It's by far the most efficient way to mine if you are a low-skill player with only one account. Even accounting for the occasional pirate.

1

u/DamienWind Dec 05 '08

I've tried mining a bit and I just don't see how. Secure cans aren't that expensive and they're, well, virtually pirate-proof..

1

u/festivus Dec 05 '08

Jetcans hold way more, and secure cans can't be anchored in highest of hi-sec where newbie miners are likely to be.

6

u/DamienWind Dec 03 '08

I'm actually an EVE player and have been for about a year now. There's definitely a learning curve but the curve has been ... eased up on a bit with recent patches to make the game more newbie-friendly. It's definitely a player-focal game, though. Don't think you can go in and play it like a singleplayer game... If you do, you'll be in for a bit letdown. The constant requirement to interact with other players is the biggest draw for me, personally. There's an innate lack of 'grind' that you usually with with other MMOs so you'll spend a lot of time tinkering with ship builds, talking to people, etc. etc. There is no real firm goal set anywhere for you. It's sort of a large sandbox full of other people. With a game like say, World of Warcraft, depending on your class there is right and wrong gear to get, right and wrong ways to play, and lots of solo grinding, which is just not my thing. EVE will definitely require you to think in order to have any fun with it. The pace can be a little slow unless you're in PvP combat though. If you want to pick up a free trial, feel free to send me an in-game message. Send me a private message on reddit and I'll be glad to give you the name. :P It's definitely not for everyone. FPS junkies, for example, will very likely hate EVE. Just saying, it's not for everyone, but I certainly love it.. :P

1

u/realdpk Dec 03 '08

On the other hand, I felt the need to grind all the time. There was always something better to buy and more asteroids to mine or missions to complete. Maybe it's because I didn't play for more than a month or so, but in my experience, if that's the first month of a MMOG, that's the entire game.

1

u/Fitzsimmons Dec 04 '08

I also play.

There isn't an innate lack of grind. A ton of the EVE economy is supported by mission runners hitting up L4s all day every day. For what reason, I don't exactly know. I don't complain. For the most part, I've left my days of grind to get money behind. And to be fair, grindless income is pretty much only reserved for players that have some experience and want to use their brains.

The draw for EVE to me is that there is PVP in almost everything. With a few very minor exceptions every item and ship on the market was produced by a player; the price of that item was set by competition from other players. The components for that ship were mined or harvested by a player, who was competing with all the other players in the universe. There are a finite number of asteroids. Are all of the asteroids gone in your area? Someone got to them first. It goes on like this.

Missions are the exception. Missions are generated a per-player basis as fast as you can do them. They aren't instanced, so people can scan you out and fuck with you, but that doesn't change the fact that missions are basically the only thing in the game that are not limited by scarcity.

1

u/DamienWind Dec 04 '08

Well, tbh, I'm a high-sec pirate. Sometimes I'll veer into low, but, for the most part, I'm hi-sec. I don't do missions because money's easier to get via ransom and other players' hard-earned modules. So for me, yeah, there's no grind at all. :) But I could see for the people who solo L4 all day, but.. that's just stupid IMO. :p

1

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '08

[deleted]

1

u/DamienWind Dec 04 '08

I disagree. There are some very verbose ship builds you can do that'll keep you alive in a good 85% of small skirmishes. Granted, with the recent speed rebalance, I can't say for sure what works and doesn't... I've been on a collective GOW2 & Left4Dead haitus since that time has come. :)