Tanukitsune

Playing on easy for newcomers can be detrimental for them in the end, like I said before, while I played shooters on easy I never got any better until I played those that didn't have easy mode, you don't learn how to play the game properly unless you play on harder modes, but since you can't play properly you play on easy.... Maybe there are good example of games were easy mode is just right to get you ready for the other modes, but I can't think of any right now....

Really? That's what I get for assuming the first one was as borked as the second...

So let me get this straight, most of us were brought up on "retro games that were broken and terrible" and yet we love gaming, but the new generation of gamers must be held by their hand constantly? I don't think that really works... I used to play FPS games on easy because I was still getting used to them, but the games were so damn forgivable I never got better at them.... until I played Borderlands which didn't have difficulty levels.... THEN I learned how to play an FPS properly, I played Bioschock 2 on Normal and it was quite manageable... It might work for strategy games though? Oh, and if you're talking about the modern Ninja Gaiden, that game makes everybody not want to pick up a controller again! I don't think I said I wanted various parameters to toggle in a game, I just want developers to remember that skills are more complex, some games do a fine job of scaling from difficulty mode to difficulty mode and if every game did such a good job at it I wouldn't be here whining about it.

The game is Fairytale Fights... you have unlimited lives and respawn where you died, more or less and yet... it's was frustrating AND boring, imagine a game that respawns you next to fire trap and you have a 90% of dying again immediately after respawning... And yet today we have games that do thing more messed up that the kamikaze hawk in Ninja Gaiden... Okay, maybe it's more common from smaller companies and not the bigger ones... Or sequels to hardcore retro games that are way too messed up compared to the original. I don't play that much strategy games, but I don't notice it in other genres, if the enemies are dumb as bricks on easy, they still are on hard...

I said that more or less right after the part you replied to... I just beat a horribly broken game today, and... Surprise, surprise! It only had two testers! So yeah, it still applies to smaller or mid range companies... And some of the bigger ones too.

I heard on a few podcast interviews that testers refuse to play on easy... because they fear it make their "e-peen" shrink... I've experienced it myself, I played Postal 2 on the special difficulty mode where the enemies ONLY have melee weapons, making it a killing spree, except.... All of the sudden I enter a room with a troop of elites with machine guns and I only had a machete because of this mode. I doubt that was on purpose... Bigger companies might have more testers, but not all of them have "variety" within those testers...

Some games like Mega Man 10 or Bionic Commando Rearmed actually made the platforming easier on easy. They could hire and actual casual gamer to play the game on easy? They never do that... Maybe getting rid of difficulties is going too far, but I do think difficulty levels are usually borked, besides haven't most of us started gaming when games didn't have difficulty levels? Thief altered the enemies "awareness" depending on the difficulty level... I'm not saying there should be several difficulty settings depending on your skills on a game, I'm just saying that simply giving an enemy more health and making it do more damage is too lazy. Back in the "old days" games didn't have difficulty levels, or they rarely did, but what really bothers me is that up to today all the do when changing difficulty levels is making the enemies stronger... That doesn't sound challenging... It just takes more time to kill them.... But making them more aggressive? Now that's a challenge?

I just beat Fairytale Fights... it's not the worst 360 game out there, but it gets pretty boring... Brawlers should be SHORT! This game has way too many levels that are way too long for it's own good... The final two levels are kind interesting... conceptually at least..

Mysterious Affair at Styles was the first one for me and I loved it and Poirot Investigates, the next one, was one of the worst? No wonder I hated it, going from the best to the worst makes the worst look, well... even worse!

So... either I screwed up? Or there is a final mission after the end of the game?

Hmmm... I think I'll just skip to Orient Express and then to Miss Marple.. it seems her stories are better and more "fair play"?

I just beat Red Dead Redemption.... I don't know why I didn't see the ending coming...

I just finished Poirot Investigates.... Poirot is vane egotistical bastard who I want to punch in the face! Does Murder on The Orient Express get any better? Is Miss Marple a jerk too? What really cheeses me off is the fact that he kinda keeps clues to himself, sure, he'll point them out, but he won't say why it's important until the end and he almost deliberately misleads the reader to think that the culprit is someone else... I know I'm no genius, but in the ending everything seems a bit far fetched... Am I supposed to be able to solve the mystery or just marvel at Poirot flexing his brain cells like a guy flexes his muscles at the beach?

Actually, now I'm curious... HAS there been a game company that hasn't done a bad PR stunt?

Hamlet is a quirky game I discovered recently. This is basically a more casual Samorost-like game, it's about a time traveler who accidentally knocks out Hamlet and must take his place and rescue Ophelia and defeat Cladius... It's more cute than humorous, it's rather short and claims to have "boss battles", which is a lie! Sure, you'll meet a character with a health bar, but once you solved the puzzle he'll die in one hit, you never have to hit a boss twice! Since it's a casual game it has a "skip puzzle" button, or maybe it's a hint button... I never actually used it... And since it's a casual game it will have a trial version for you to try out the game, so you can at least get a good taste of what it's about, but I don't think I can say much more about the game, it's a casual Samorost with a Shakespeare theme to it with a time traveler!

All "casual" games used to cost $20 back then... Now they all seems to cost about $7-8?

I just went there to do some sightseeing and it looks like my house is still intact, but my craft room is now a community chest?

I just played one of the Gundemonium, they are PC indie bullet hell games all right, but... You have to beat the game on the hardest mode and do almost perfectly to see the REAL ending.... EDIT: Forget what I said, GundeadliGne is the only "not insane" one of the the collection... in Gundemonium Recollection the final bosses has way too many forms.... I gave up on the 7th form... Hitogata Happa.... Am I missing something here? I can't even beat the first boss on the easiest mode! And not because I die, it's because the timer always kills me! The game has a super bomb, but it requires you to sacrifice a WHOLE life.... If you can beat Ikaruga blindfolded... you might be able to deal with these games...

Was this a special attack insta kill move? That would be a bug, but friendly fire has existed in so many game I could never name them all. If you fire a rocket launcher at your allies and he dies, that your fault, but if you have special kill move and the game lets you use on an ally, it's on the game.

That's your complain? Friendly fire? Or does he actually do heavy and special attacks like the drill bucket on them? The first is understandable, the second isn't...

One thing is for sure, most people who were saving up for an DS to DSi upgrade are going to skip the DSi directly, I know I am.... And I just remember that Nintendo never drops prices... the price of the 3DS won't drop unless they make a 3DS Lite.... which the will, obviously...

It's a good thing I don't have a DSi yet, although it would suck if the only DSi game I want to play (Shantae) ends up being incompatible with the 3DS...

Nintendo must have brainwashed me... I keep saying that I haven't enjoyed most of their games lately and that I don't give a damn about Nintendo anymore, but.... Something tells me I'm going to sell a few organs so I can afford this....

When I heard about this I though it would be like Lost Winds on PC (It was on WiiWare, but who wants to waggle around their hands?), but it surprised me and was much more! A simple Google on who Nyx is will kinda spoil the game, but I'm pretty sure you don't have to Google it, because I figured it out by myself... But it does make sense because it makes the Sun God is the bad guy... except he uses shadows? Oh well, Helios the Sun God has made the word an inhospitable dessert and EVERYONE IS DEAD, EVERYTHING IS IN RUIN! Except Ikarus who was flying around with his wings who just fell... Nyx's quest is to find Ikarus and even though , she's forgotten everything.. how convenient! She can kinda fly... it's more of a quintuple jump? And she can glide too! At first all you do is glide, jump and dodge, until you meet you first god who gives you a mild telekinetic power, and as you advance you'll get a power or two more! Visually it's OK, the platforms are practically the same the whole game, the only thing that changes is the background. One thing I have to say about this game is that it's VERY HARD, possibly more than VVVVVV, while it doesn't require you to be as precise the game doesn't have many checkpoints or health packs and you're practically defenseless for most of the game. But since it's a physics based game, using your brain can help a little, but unfortunately you have you use your skills mostly to advance and rarely to defend or attack yourself. The physics engine seems to work fine for once! In most physics based games you can either abuse it to make it too easy or it's borked and you can't do anything right. This game doesn't kid around, one of the levels has a giant eye-gong thing that will summons an insta-kill sand storm if it sees you, so you now you have to find a hiding spot while you try to NOT DIE HORRIBLY! So... it's ridiculously hard... Imagine a Mega Man game where you can only take 4 hits, the physics work, the graphics are OK if not repetitive... Steam has a demo, but I don't think it gets to the hard part? *shrugs*