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'Defiance' Ultimate Edition.
Apr. 15th, 2013 11:59 pmI'm going to start out by saying now that there are going to be lots of pictures in this post. I'd apologise, but I'm too excited about it. XD
So, today my copy of 'Defiance' arrived. I ended up ordering the Ultimate Edition, because it wasn't that much more expensive than the collectors edition, and came with some cool stuff. Specifically, a limited edition messenger bag, which is one of the cooler things that I have seen in a game collection. ^__^. I wasn't going to do a box opening for it, though, but.....
...the box is soooo huge! ^_______^. About a foot and a half long, to be exact!
(The warning on the side says 'WARNING: Death or Injury May Occur if Contents are Released.')
( It's not a doll, but it's still a box dammit! )
Anyway.....
The game itself is pretty damn awesome. ^__^. I've never played a shooter before on a PC, and the ones I have played on consoles have... er... not gone well. >_> I am, generally speaking, a panic-gamer, which means the moment something on screen moves I shriek like a banshee and run away. Generally speaking, shooting games have a higher proportion of things that run fast and kill you, so I've never really tried them much before. Also, I seem to have a fundamental problem with aiming guns. I can do melee combat with ease in most games, but ranged stuff seems to really mess me up. So buying a game that revolves around shooting was a big risk for me.
But hey- it paid off! Despite being a shooter, 'Defiance' is fairly easy to get to grips with, and even though I still suffer from the 'EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ITS GOING TO KILL ME' reflex, the way they handle death and respawns means that it's not the end of the world if I turn tail, run, and get blown up. XD
It's also a lot of fun story wise. You get chucked right in to the action, get a vehicle really early on (which you need- the place is huge) but it doesn't feel contrived (or at least, no more so than any other game I have played.) The bad guys are fairly interesting, and the missions have some good variety to them. They range from timed tests, to instances, and giant free-for-all events (called Arkfalls). You can pick them up almost anywhere, too- there are side missions as well as main story missions, and because the game is running along side a TV series, there are also 'episode' missions, that change each week to match the show. The result? I played 7 solid hours of this game, and it felt like less than 2. XD
That's not to say that it's flawless, though. The inventory screens drive me nuts, and this is the first game I have played where it was a struggle to work out how to log out. >_> The vehicles are hard to get to grips with too, but then, they handle more realistically than any mount I have had in other MMOs, meaning that they can be a bit feisty. The fact that I can't drive for crap doesn't make that any easier, of course- if my character had a license, it would have been taken off him about 30 seconds after his boot hit the accelerator.....
Another big flaw is that there is no in-game screen-shot function, so you need a 3rd party program to do it (you can use print-screen, but only in windowed mode.) You also can't rotate the camera to see your character front-on, which is a bit annoying... but hopefully something that will be fixed in upcoming patches.
But yeah, it's a good buy and I'd recommend it. The community is still forming, and so far people are quite quiet, but the game allows for seamless intergration of missions with other people's, so you can team up and help people out without really noticing that you are doing it. I think that's really going to help, because if the TV show takes off the place is going to get pretty crowded! ^__-
And now.... more pictures! Yay!
This is Iyra. He's an Itherient, which is some kind of alien, apparently. Presumably from a planet where driving licences are optional. He is very good with a sniper rifle, though... although I'd imagine he's not very stealthy, given that he arrives at every fight with a lound scream followed by the sound of an exploding dune buggy.
( More pictures... if you can stand it! )
This is a shot of an Arkfall event.
If you look at the mini-map in the top corner, all those purple dots are other players. ^__^. You can also see them all dancing about in the picture- most of them are still wearing their starting outfits (like Iyra is). A lot of humans about, too....
'Defiance' has a wardrobe system where clothing can either be unlocked in-game through missions, or bought with salvage points or real money. So far, everything in the shop can be bought with in-game currency as well as real money, which is cool. Anyway, the main point of this picture is the pretty flare effect. It's very shiny.
In Other News:
I have done nothing productive all day. And chances are, I won't be doing anything productive tomorrow, either. >_>;
So, today my copy of 'Defiance' arrived. I ended up ordering the Ultimate Edition, because it wasn't that much more expensive than the collectors edition, and came with some cool stuff. Specifically, a limited edition messenger bag, which is one of the cooler things that I have seen in a game collection. ^__^. I wasn't going to do a box opening for it, though, but.....
...the box is soooo huge! ^_______^. About a foot and a half long, to be exact!(The warning on the side says 'WARNING: Death or Injury May Occur if Contents are Released.')
( It's not a doll, but it's still a box dammit! )
Anyway.....
The game itself is pretty damn awesome. ^__^. I've never played a shooter before on a PC, and the ones I have played on consoles have... er... not gone well. >_> I am, generally speaking, a panic-gamer, which means the moment something on screen moves I shriek like a banshee and run away. Generally speaking, shooting games have a higher proportion of things that run fast and kill you, so I've never really tried them much before. Also, I seem to have a fundamental problem with aiming guns. I can do melee combat with ease in most games, but ranged stuff seems to really mess me up. So buying a game that revolves around shooting was a big risk for me.
But hey- it paid off! Despite being a shooter, 'Defiance' is fairly easy to get to grips with, and even though I still suffer from the 'EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ITS GOING TO KILL ME' reflex, the way they handle death and respawns means that it's not the end of the world if I turn tail, run, and get blown up. XD
It's also a lot of fun story wise. You get chucked right in to the action, get a vehicle really early on (which you need- the place is huge) but it doesn't feel contrived (or at least, no more so than any other game I have played.) The bad guys are fairly interesting, and the missions have some good variety to them. They range from timed tests, to instances, and giant free-for-all events (called Arkfalls). You can pick them up almost anywhere, too- there are side missions as well as main story missions, and because the game is running along side a TV series, there are also 'episode' missions, that change each week to match the show. The result? I played 7 solid hours of this game, and it felt like less than 2. XD
That's not to say that it's flawless, though. The inventory screens drive me nuts, and this is the first game I have played where it was a struggle to work out how to log out. >_> The vehicles are hard to get to grips with too, but then, they handle more realistically than any mount I have had in other MMOs, meaning that they can be a bit feisty. The fact that I can't drive for crap doesn't make that any easier, of course- if my character had a license, it would have been taken off him about 30 seconds after his boot hit the accelerator.....
Another big flaw is that there is no in-game screen-shot function, so you need a 3rd party program to do it (you can use print-screen, but only in windowed mode.) You also can't rotate the camera to see your character front-on, which is a bit annoying... but hopefully something that will be fixed in upcoming patches.
But yeah, it's a good buy and I'd recommend it. The community is still forming, and so far people are quite quiet, but the game allows for seamless intergration of missions with other people's, so you can team up and help people out without really noticing that you are doing it. I think that's really going to help, because if the TV show takes off the place is going to get pretty crowded! ^__-
And now.... more pictures! Yay!
This is Iyra. He's an Itherient, which is some kind of alien, apparently. Presumably from a planet where driving licences are optional. He is very good with a sniper rifle, though... although I'd imagine he's not very stealthy, given that he arrives at every fight with a lound scream followed by the sound of an exploding dune buggy.
( More pictures... if you can stand it! )
This is a shot of an Arkfall event.
If you look at the mini-map in the top corner, all those purple dots are other players. ^__^. You can also see them all dancing about in the picture- most of them are still wearing their starting outfits (like Iyra is). A lot of humans about, too....
'Defiance' has a wardrobe system where clothing can either be unlocked in-game through missions, or bought with salvage points or real money. So far, everything in the shop can be bought with in-game currency as well as real money, which is cool. Anyway, the main point of this picture is the pretty flare effect. It's very shiny.
In Other News:
I have done nothing productive all day. And chances are, I won't be doing anything productive tomorrow, either. >_>;
