Brad Shoemaker is back in the saddle this week and kicks off the podcast discussing his recent playthrough of Heavy Rain with surprising detail while remaining spoiler-free. Following this all four guys get into a very lengthy and in-depth discussion about the Starcraft II beta, followed by a bit more RTS with Command & Conquer 4. This part of the show was a bit difficult to get through for someone who has as little interest in the genre as I have, so be forewarned.
Most of the rest of the segment is spent talking about previews that each of the guys have seen. Vinny and Ryan saw Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening and seem to be into it. Brad speaks up again and talks about the new Prince of Persia semi-movie-related game coming out within the next few months which sounds like it has some interesting mechanics to it. Jeff seems very excited about the now-released Borderlands expansion while Ryan and Brad seem hyped for Just Cause 2. Bad Company 2 and Alan Wake also get their mentions.
The remainder of the show is filled out by news on DICE, Fallout: New Vegas, and XBL Block Party. New releases and emails close things out.
Covered games and topics: Heavy Rain, Starcraft II, C&C, Dragon Age, Just Cause 2, Prince of Persia, Bad Company 2, Stephen King, bottle caps
A smokey-voiced stranger pulls up a chair and joins in on our discussions of Heavy Rain, StarCraft II, C&C4, Dragon Age, Prince of Persia, Borderlands, Just Cause 2, Bad Company 2, Alan Wake, Fallout: New Vegas, and more. Damn, that’s a lot of games!
Runtime – 2:26:14
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What Vinny said about ME2 on insanity is true. I love ME2 but that game on that difficulty is awful. It goes way past being just not fun to being a full on rage inducing travesty. I find it hard to believe they did much if any play testing for that mode. Your teammates seem to be suicidal, your skills as a Vanguard are rendered not just useless but dangerous (charge will get you killed instantly), and it just plain fucking sucks ass. Worse than CoD MW on veteran.
You people are crazy anyway. Erik said that he was trying it on insanity as well and I still don't quite understand that mentality. Maybe I'm just not a "hardcore" gamer, but normal is just fine for me. I'm glad there are people like you, Brad and Erik out there though.
The only reason I tried it was for the 150 or so achievement points (beat the game twice and on insanity), and the only reason I finished was that I switched to the soldier class. Using the sniper rifle, adrenaline ush and Thane's shredder ammo, headshots were 1-shot kills for most low-tier enemies up until the end. I also upgraded Grunt's health bonuses which seemed to keep him alive longer, and his Krogan charge saved me a number of times.
I still had some throw-the-controller sections, especially Archangel's 'close the shutters' and any husk/scion fights; but it wasn't quite as bad as I expected. It would have been impossible if I stayed as a vanguard, though.
Related to this subject, Giantbomb has a fun video called Ryan's Inferno where he spends 40 minutes trying to beat one challenge section in Dante's Inferno that has been holding up his review. I could definitely relate to his rising frustration through the video; but there's something really satisfying about being able to finally beat something.
I'm an achievement whore. I would never play ME2 on insanity for fun.
I'd disagree, I decided to try it out for my second playthrough and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I will admit the squad AI is absymal on insanity but even so I've found it to be immensely satisfying. Every firefight is a proper battle that you really have to work at to win. I'm not usually one for trying things on high difficulties but I'm glad I did with this because it's been great fun. I do worry about the later levels though and if it gets too much I'll happily lower the difficulty.
Ross – I think it actually gets easier toward the end as you improve your weapon power and skills.
And insanity should probably only be tried on the second playthrough, I doubt it'd be fun without the extra help.