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This thread has been linked to the game 'SWAT 4'.
Picked it up this morning as my bank account was a little more fri*ged than I originally thought :) (got it from Gamestation Bullet, cheers)...
Firstly I will get all the major jizzums out of the way and will give an overview of pretty much what to expect.
The premise of the game for those who don't know is as such. You control a 5 man squad (you are only fully in control of a the leading office) which consist of a 2 man red team and a 2 man blue team, you can command each individually or you can issue commands to the whole squad. Each mission is totally unique and there is by no means any story linking them up, any crappy cut-scenes, no over the top FMV's etc, you get the picture. Before each missions you get a really in-depth briefing, some of them you get to listen to the 911 calls and you can study the floor plans which is really helpful as due to the random NPC's/enemy placements you can't memorise where they are laid out and rather than having set patterns it appears they are completely random each time, an example of this was the first mission was when I started firing bean-bags at a chef having a cig round the back of a restaurant, this set the dogs off and the element of surprise was screwed, the time before that there was no one there and the time before that the restaurant manager was taking some bags outside, really unpredictable.
Equipment selection is really important as well as the M4-A1 is really difficult to control when set to automatic mode so in close quaters it is really worth picking up a tactical shotgun or none leathal shotgun. Outside of the rifles, hand guns you can take pepper spray, breaching shotguns for locked doors and even door wedges to stop people from making a run out a door you don't want to cover with one of your squads, the attention to detail and attention to realism is absolutely incredible. The pepper spray is really funny as it sounds as though they are in serious pain so it's worth taking to use on all the suspects that are really hard to get under control. Snipers aren't selectable and are in place automatically in crucial positions but you are in full control of when they shoot as you have to enter a viewing window and actually aim/pull the trigger yourself. Those who have played Rainbow Six Raven Shield/3 will be aware of the Zulu command, this is slightly different as you can actually enter a seperate window, travel to a different door yet still see the door through their visor and pick the command you want them to use, works a lot better for me.
Ordering your team about is a piece of pish, you have four button layouts to choose from as to how you want it setup, I chose right lick to bring up the menu, another right click to select and left click to exit, that is how easy it is to bring up the available actions for your selected team for the object you are pointing at, aside from that everything is context sensitive. Your action button will enable any action brought up on screen at that current time and if you don't have any context options it acts as your Swat shout which is used when chargring towards the enemies/after breaching a room, depending on how scared they are some drop the floor straight away, others will take cover or make a run to get out of that room, for this reason I always take a none-leathal weapon with me. The none-lethal shotgun is excellent as it fires bean bags which is enough to make them drop most of the time and if that doesn't one of your other guys will shout as a last resort. This isn't the type of game like Rainbow Six 3 on the Xbox where you can shoot anyone down at any stage, you get punished for not following the police/Swat code and shooting lethal rounds is a last resort, thankfully you are in full control of which each member of your team uses for all their equipment, unless it is a really tough mission (like a bank robbery) then I usually only let 2 of the members take lethal rifles.
The environments are unbelievable, they look real and as pretty much every review has pointed out, they feel like people have actually lived in them etc. The Hitman games have a similar feel to them but this takes it to a totally new level (mainly because of the sweet visuals which push it a hell of a lot further than Swat 3). The first mission takes place in a restaurant where-by a Columbian Hitman is meeting the owner of the restaurant to get his weapon modded for a new hit. The restaurant looks superb and the owner lives in a flat upstairs which has so many little neat touches (and a few cliches like a Chinese guy having a kung-fu DVD collection and a calendar of mid 20's American sweet hearts laying in the buff, as well as rats running around etc, never played a game with environments so vibrant with real life references in such amazing detail, not even Half-Life 2 felt this real.
A few extras worth pointing out... The training mission covers everything, play that and you will pick it up straight away - it does sound hella lot more complicated than it is in practice, the interface simplifies it in a really good way. AA and AF will have to be activated outside of the game but everything else is completely customisable from the visuals to key bindings. The missions work on a scoring system where you have to hit that score before the next mission will be available to you. Elite requires 95/100, Hard 75/100 right down to Easy which just requires you complete the mission. You are punished for opening fire in a public place, taking damage, shooting compliant enemies and are rewarded for cuffing/arresting as many as you come across, reporting them back to HQ and in general following the real life Swat code and if you think you can get away with tricking the system it really doesn't work (tried it myself :D). The AI is incredible, really clever, if you stick a door wedge under a door and they try to leave that way they will sometimes kick the door and swear in desperation, your Swat team don't crack jokes as such but they make some really funny but really believable comments. All the missions are apparently based on real life Swat situations, right down to the locations.
Overall so far it has serious jizzum value, excellent fun to play, look superb, sounds superb and it has gone straight up into the number one tactical shooter slot as far as I am concerned.
In a word...
Sexual.
Firstly I will get all the major jizzums out of the way and will give an overview of pretty much what to expect.
The premise of the game for those who don't know is as such. You control a 5 man squad (you are only fully in control of a the leading office) which consist of a 2 man red team and a 2 man blue team, you can command each individually or you can issue commands to the whole squad. Each mission is totally unique and there is by no means any story linking them up, any crappy cut-scenes, no over the top FMV's etc, you get the picture. Before each missions you get a really in-depth briefing, some of them you get to listen to the 911 calls and you can study the floor plans which is really helpful as due to the random NPC's/enemy placements you can't memorise where they are laid out and rather than having set patterns it appears they are completely random each time, an example of this was the first mission was when I started firing bean-bags at a chef having a cig round the back of a restaurant, this set the dogs off and the element of surprise was screwed, the time before that there was no one there and the time before that the restaurant manager was taking some bags outside, really unpredictable.
Equipment selection is really important as well as the M4-A1 is really difficult to control when set to automatic mode so in close quaters it is really worth picking up a tactical shotgun or none leathal shotgun. Outside of the rifles, hand guns you can take pepper spray, breaching shotguns for locked doors and even door wedges to stop people from making a run out a door you don't want to cover with one of your squads, the attention to detail and attention to realism is absolutely incredible. The pepper spray is really funny as it sounds as though they are in serious pain so it's worth taking to use on all the suspects that are really hard to get under control. Snipers aren't selectable and are in place automatically in crucial positions but you are in full control of when they shoot as you have to enter a viewing window and actually aim/pull the trigger yourself. Those who have played Rainbow Six Raven Shield/3 will be aware of the Zulu command, this is slightly different as you can actually enter a seperate window, travel to a different door yet still see the door through their visor and pick the command you want them to use, works a lot better for me.
Ordering your team about is a piece of pish, you have four button layouts to choose from as to how you want it setup, I chose right lick to bring up the menu, another right click to select and left click to exit, that is how easy it is to bring up the available actions for your selected team for the object you are pointing at, aside from that everything is context sensitive. Your action button will enable any action brought up on screen at that current time and if you don't have any context options it acts as your Swat shout which is used when chargring towards the enemies/after breaching a room, depending on how scared they are some drop the floor straight away, others will take cover or make a run to get out of that room, for this reason I always take a none-leathal weapon with me. The none-lethal shotgun is excellent as it fires bean bags which is enough to make them drop most of the time and if that doesn't one of your other guys will shout as a last resort. This isn't the type of game like Rainbow Six 3 on the Xbox where you can shoot anyone down at any stage, you get punished for not following the police/Swat code and shooting lethal rounds is a last resort, thankfully you are in full control of which each member of your team uses for all their equipment, unless it is a really tough mission (like a bank robbery) then I usually only let 2 of the members take lethal rifles.
The environments are unbelievable, they look real and as pretty much every review has pointed out, they feel like people have actually lived in them etc. The Hitman games have a similar feel to them but this takes it to a totally new level (mainly because of the sweet visuals which push it a hell of a lot further than Swat 3). The first mission takes place in a restaurant where-by a Columbian Hitman is meeting the owner of the restaurant to get his weapon modded for a new hit. The restaurant looks superb and the owner lives in a flat upstairs which has so many little neat touches (and a few cliches like a Chinese guy having a kung-fu DVD collection and a calendar of mid 20's American sweet hearts laying in the buff, as well as rats running around etc, never played a game with environments so vibrant with real life references in such amazing detail, not even Half-Life 2 felt this real.
A few extras worth pointing out... The training mission covers everything, play that and you will pick it up straight away - it does sound hella lot more complicated than it is in practice, the interface simplifies it in a really good way. AA and AF will have to be activated outside of the game but everything else is completely customisable from the visuals to key bindings. The missions work on a scoring system where you have to hit that score before the next mission will be available to you. Elite requires 95/100, Hard 75/100 right down to Easy which just requires you complete the mission. You are punished for opening fire in a public place, taking damage, shooting compliant enemies and are rewarded for cuffing/arresting as many as you come across, reporting them back to HQ and in general following the real life Swat code and if you think you can get away with tricking the system it really doesn't work (tried it myself :D). The AI is incredible, really clever, if you stick a door wedge under a door and they try to leave that way they will sometimes kick the door and swear in desperation, your Swat team don't crack jokes as such but they make some really funny but really believable comments. All the missions are apparently based on real life Swat situations, right down to the locations.
Overall so far it has serious jizzum value, excellent fun to play, look superb, sounds superb and it has gone straight up into the number one tactical shooter slot as far as I am concerned.
In a word...
Sexual.
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Holy ship. I thought they'd never patch this baby. I love it too. Battlefield has/will consume a lot of gaming time, but now this is patched - Yay!
Just want to point out to people who still have this game a patch was released today!
[URL]http://www.sierra.com/downloadfile.do?gamePlatformId=1735&mediaid=14787[/URL]
[URL]http://www.sierra.com/downloadfile.do?gamePlatformId=1735&mediaid=14787[/URL]
Doubt I will be on it before 6:15pm, will have a bash with you tomorrow.
Tonight I'll be coming offline around 18:15. If you can make it before then, sure. If not, I'll be online tomorrow daytime.
Online Deathmatch, how exactly do you make an arrest? I know if someone was trying to arrest me, I wouldn't go down without a fight and would just keep shooting until one of us died. I'm a little confused as to how it would work...
Online Deathmatch, how exactly do you make an arrest? I know if someone was trying to arrest me, I wouldn't go down without a fight and would just keep shooting until one of us died. I'm a little confused as to how it would work...
Yeah the second mission is awesome, really really freaky and life like.
You can't use Voice Command to order your team around though.
Fancy some CO-OP tonight?
You can't use Voice Command to order your team around though.
Fancy some CO-OP tonight?
So I began playing this last night.
Wow, bloody excellent stuff. Mint graphics (especially when cranked up to max), immersive sound, creepy surroundings (especially level 2). The choice of weapons is great, my preference is the paintball gun with pepper pellets (BAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAM! *cough* *choke* HANDS UP! BAM! *keel over*), then a lovely Tazer to the face :D
Up to the Victory Auto Center at the moment, level 5 I think.
My team can be pretty retarded at times though - 'open bang/gas/sting clear', enter room and wait for suspects to fire off a few rounds, usually resulting in dead (or 'incapacitated') teammates.
And who needs Optical Cables when you have an Optiwand?
Is there any Thermal vision? I don't think there is, but if there is, it'd be nice to utilise.
Online-wise, I couldn't see any CO-OP modes, but I only had a quick shufty about and went into a Team v Team game and didn't last long.
Also, can you voice command your team?
Wow, bloody excellent stuff. Mint graphics (especially when cranked up to max), immersive sound, creepy surroundings (especially level 2). The choice of weapons is great, my preference is the paintball gun with pepper pellets (BAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAM! *cough* *choke* HANDS UP! BAM! *keel over*), then a lovely Tazer to the face :D
Up to the Victory Auto Center at the moment, level 5 I think.
My team can be pretty retarded at times though - 'open bang/gas/sting clear', enter room and wait for suspects to fire off a few rounds, usually resulting in dead (or 'incapacitated') teammates.
And who needs Optical Cables when you have an Optiwand?
Is there any Thermal vision? I don't think there is, but if there is, it'd be nice to utilise.
Online-wise, I couldn't see any CO-OP modes, but I only had a quick shufty about and went into a Team v Team game and didn't last long.
Also, can you voice command your team?
I might grab this on friday when I get paid. Then again I'm pretty skint after building this new comp. Bloody car tax is due as well.
Haven't played it for a couple of weeks. Give me a shout when you have gotten to grips with it, wouldn't mind some online CO-OP, excellent fun from what I have played in CO-OP.
Picked this up yesterday for £20.
Can't wait to get into it, was going to boot it up last night, but that dirty wh*re Warcraft seduced me once more.
Damn you Blizzard!
Can't wait to get into it, was going to boot it up last night, but that dirty wh*re Warcraft seduced me once more.
Damn you Blizzard!
I'm going to have to practice in single player .. keep on getting shot when they don't give up.
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