Turns out you can change the PS3 controls so L1 is aim (making L2 the Vigor, R2 change Vigors, triangle change weapons, and R3 melee.)
I like this better, since it’s nearly identical to what I was just using playing Far Cry 3.
Now that I’ve had a chance to play it, I see what you mean. However, I don’t think it’s that bad or maybe I’m just used to selection wheels.
It’s really engrossing, isn’t it? I am only here now on the Dope to give my eyes a break. I am literally putting Clear Eyes into my eyes every hour or so. The game is burning them up that bad…and no, not from that.
For those wondering whether to get it on PC on console:
Tl;dr: Good on console but if your PC can handle it, get it on PC.
I’m playing on normal. To be honest, when Liz is around I could probably manage just fine on hard, but the game gets a lot more difficult whenever she isn’t. It’s not that I couldn’t beat it on hard. I certainly could, I usually play games on hard – including older games like Half-Life. I just have little desire to. I’m mostly just playing for the story at this point anyway, I kept it on normal because easy would take too much challenge out of it, but normal is okay for a story runthrough.
For anybody truly interested, though, there’s a difficulty level called “1999 mode” that allows you to die if you don’t have enough money to resurrect, forcing you to reload a save. It makes you pick a weapon specialty that you can’t change. There are some other changes too, probably. I don’t know too much about it, but they apparently spent a lot of time balancing it specifically to be difficult rather than cheap (instead of just tacking on a Hardcore Mode where ammo boxes give 1 bullet a pop and giving enemies 12x health). You can activate it by entering the Konami Code on the menu (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, cancel, confirm).
ETA: What vigor and weapons are people using? I usually stick with carbine+(something else), where (something else) is usually shotgun, sniper rifle or RPG depending on circumstance. My main vigors are Murder of Crows (with the first upgrade) and Shock Jockey, though sometimes I pull out others when needed (bucking bronco is great when fighting fire or crow guys).
The problem I have with Elizabeth’s companionship is the amount of time it takes to accept her “help”.
You mean her medkits and ammo and stuff? You get invincibility frames when doing so and you have a long window to accept so I never really found it a problem. I guess if a mechanical patriot or other special unit is really closing the distance it could be a problem, but she’s usually orders of magnitude more helpful than harmful in my game.
One thing I found funny about Liz’s demeanor (minor spoilers):
[spoiler]After you catch up with her after being mad at you, they did a really good job of making her general disposition, facial expression, and mannerisms look sour.
Except when she finds coins, where suddenly she once again is like “Hey! I found money for you! ^_^”[/spoiler]
Yes, please spoiler everything in this thread. Learning about the baseball thing through here was a downer.
So I played it yesterday and got as far as defeating the Fireman and entering the next area. A few thoughts:
I agree with people’s feelings on a quicksave. I hate having to wait for a save area to quit the game.
I’m playing on Hard. I played both of the previous on Hard as well. (Actually, I played the first on normal and then played it a second time on Hard.) And I was playing on a console for those. One big difference is that those gave a bit of a ramp-up to difficulty even on Hard. This one seems to throw you right into a kick-your ass fight as soon as it starts. I died twice before I got to the fireman. (Who I managed to defeat without too much difficulty but it involved backing up and strafing rapidly while firing as quickly at him as I could, trying to get the headshots for the critical damage.) The previous Bioshocks had combat that seemed to be a bit slower and was as much about strategy as reflexes and accuracy. This one seems to require a bit more skill.
I’m playing on Very High graphics settings. I’ve got an unlocked i7 with 786 MB graphics card and 8GB ram. I don’t seem to be having many frame rate issues. I don’t think I can pull off ultra, though. I must say that the game is absolutely beautiful. The sun effects and water effects are stunning.
I miss hacking. Sure you can control a turret for a while, but than it turns back hostile. And even though the turret has a somewhat shy of 180 degree sweep and view, if you shoot it from the back, it whips around and unleashes automatic death your direction (one of the times I died). I found a good way to get rid of them was to use the control power on them and while they were taking out other enemies to shoot the turret. Sure the game tells you that you shouldn’t shoot friendlies, but the control power will wear off before you kill it anyway. In which case, find some cover in a location behind the turret. Pop-out and shoot it once, and then quickly get back into cover until it stops shooting you. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
With hard, you can’t go rushing into things at all, you will die. The lead-throwing enemies deal quite a bit of damage, but fortunately they don’t seem to rush your position, so you have time to use cover to your advantage. The melee fighters will bum rush you though, which sucks when they’re backed up by lead throwers. Fortunately, at this point they go down with one or two whacks with the rotary thing. Unfortunately they like to surround you and cause a world of hurt.
My only fear is that since it seems you can’t really stock up on healers this time around, is money going to become an issue. In the first two games there was an embarrassment of riches. This one it seems even taking it slow, I’m going to buy healers a good amount. (Of course, it took a bit to get a feel for the combat. My fight with the fireman and the guys that come out afterwards went significantly better than the first one.) I won’t mind too much, but I worry about any possible areas where enemies respawn. If it’s a fast respawn rate (cf. bridge of Rickenback in System Shock 2) the taking it slow strategy will make Hard pretty annoying. If the enemies don’t respawn or respawn at a similar rate to the previous Bioshocks, I’m not too worried.
But yeah, liking it so far. I guess if I find I’m burning through resources too quickly I can always crank the difficulty down, but I’d rather not, particularly if normal is as easy as has been mentioned in this thread.
Got it today. It is definitely beautiful. The savepoint system is a real drag, as others have noted. And the term “Murder of Crows” makes me think of Homer Simpson. And I am really liking the melee mechanic.
Played tonight. I really loved the game. Spent the beginning just looking at things and exploring. The setting is amazing. Turning Americana into a Fundamentalist religion is brilliant.
Like everyone else, I hate the save system. I would have liked to play a little more but hit a save point so I stopped. That is dumb. I am also out of practice. I died a lot (about five or six times) but I am having a ball!
One question: if I buy a med kit from a vending machine is there a way to use it later or is just going to heal me then and there? I could not figure out if I had an inventory.
No, you don’t have an inventory, any med kits are insta-heals (same with salts). The only “inventory” you have is your vigor selection, two guns, and “gear” (of which you can have one equipped in each of four categories, but you can seamlessly switch between any gear you own at any time).
I think this sucks. Being able to carry extras in every regard would be nice.
Just beat it. As all reviews have mentioned, the ending was superb. Don’t forget to watch after the credits (you probably would have anyway, they were entertaining). Anyone else that beat it have any idea what the post credit portion meant?
About how many hours did it take you to complete the game?
I’d say about 18 hours. I’m not quite a search every single nook and cranny in the game type, but I am fairly thorough.
Okay, I’m pretty far in and the bullet sponge thing is becoming a real issue. I’m in a section with no vendors and very limited scrounging. It’s essentially becoming “use all my ammo to kill one guy then die so I can respawn with enough ammo to kill another one”. It takes 6 headshots with a fully-upgraded rifle to drop one guy.
Melee? That’s what I did in Bioshock. With enough upgrades, I had a Wrench of Doom.
Still playing on Hard I presume? Would turning it down make it too easy at this point in the game?
Unfortunately, my experience with melee is that past the beginning of the game it’s a desperation tactic only. Though if I swapped my gear around it would likely be better. It would also probably been less of an issue if I had spent more money on vigor upgrades.
I’m about 80 or 90% of the way through the game so there’s really no way I’m going to drop down at this point if I can help it. In any case, it’s been better since I finished that part.