Did anyone ever play Zone of the Enders?

Believe it or not I just turned on my PS3 on a whim and was informed that the PS+ automatic download system had installed the patch for me. God knows why it didn't prompt me to download it a couple of days ago when I actually put in the game.

Seventeen hours in and the download is currently sat at 73%. As good an idea as digital downloads are - especially when they're this much cheaper than boxed copies - this just illustrates that the idea of digital-only really isn't yet viable without the high-speed infrastructure to support it.

It took me a couple of hours to download it, and as everyone knows I live on a farm in the middle of nowhere.

You must have North Korea-tier internet Simian, the Sony network isn't that bad.

Internet in Norfolk is utter shite. Checking the status of the download and it's downloading one MB roughly every six seconds. It's an 8.2gb file.

I'd swear it's never been as bad as it is now though - I remember downloading some stuff over PSN when I first bought the PS3, so roughly five years ago, and it taking a few hours but nothing like this. ISP is the same, router is the same, PS3 is the same... I have no idea what's changed but something, somewhere is eating my bandwidth.

Finally downloaded the game. I left the PS3 on last night so it could finish the download whilst I was asleep, and I fired it up this morning. What's this, a patch to download? Fine. 594mb? Another 67 minutes to download? Oh for fuck's sake...

Jesus, I remember ZOE being short but that is ridiculous - four and a half hours and I'm done with it.  That time also includes doing all the SOS missions (getting C's on all of them) so could have been even shorter as well.
 
Maybe that's not a bad thing though.  I recall thinking it a very solid game, but time has not been kind.  The graphics are passable, though the cut scenes are in a different style from the main game, which jars slightly, but the controls feel awkward (there's no way to invert them either) and battles boil down to hammering fire until something dies.  Most of the sub-weapons are useful on one occasion and are then forgotten about, which may not be a bad thing.  You can only cycle between them with up/down on the d-pad, so in the heat of battle if you need one quickly it can take vital seconds scrolling through them all, more so given that doing so necessitates removing your thumb from the left analogue stick and therefore leaving yourself stationary.  
 
The story was weak as well, and Leo is such a whiny little bastard I just wanted someone to slap some sense into him.  Basically, the combat is repetitive and dull, the controls are far from intuitive, the boss AI downright laughable, and the characters are utterly one-dimensional. frankly, for most of the game I was bored, and I'm struggling to see many redeeming features.

I just hope ZOE2 is markedly better than this.

It is. ZOE2 makes ZOE look like doodoo on a stick.

SOK wrote:

It is. ZOE2 makes ZOE look like doodoo on a stick.

Glad to hear it.

I think you should find more games that take longer to download than complete.

Get the PC version of Max Payne 3, it's 33gb so if you start downloading it now you might be able to play it next year.

Okay, playing ZOE2 and yes, it's a big improvement. The landscapes are more detailed and varied, the combat has had an overhaul; it's faster, more varied and more fluid, with new attacks introduced very early on really help break up the monotony of hammering the fire button.

The bosses are tougher too - the first boss took me three attempts to figure out her weakness, and by that time I was half an hour into the game. The second boss didn't take me quite as long, but still handed me my arse on my first attempt.