miffy495

I don't know that I said awful. I did say that it goes beyond mediocre into "bad" territory. Still, a "bad" game doesn't mean it's unplayable. It just means it's, well, BAD. Lucidity is not a gut-wrenchingly terrible game. It is also not a good game by any means. I have played games I would consider mediocre. This is worse than them. That doesn't mean that there are not countless games worse than Lucidity, I'm sure there are. That admission does not however change the fact that Lucidity can accurately be described as bad. A game is still perfectly capable of being bad, even if it doesn't provoke feelings of intense rage and frustration from the player. If you really need to prove this to yourself, play Lucidity. I haven't hated it while I was playing, and I may even go back to make sure that I'm justified in staying away in the future. I have however felt a profound sense of disappointment while playing this game, which is what prompts me to say it is a bad game. I haven't played Action 52, but the way you described it I think I can confidently say that Lucidity is better than it. It is still bad. One game being godawful does not make any other game less terrible unless it's all you ever play. Even in that case, it is a matter of exposure, not of the game being good. Being gaming consumers, we have the option of playing good games. We may be willing to sit through a mediocre experience if we have nothing better to do (contentious, but for me, this would be something like Hotel Dusk). When a game is not even worth that much, I think it is safe to say we can call it bad.

Hey, I think 'blix and I have proven by now that we are not of that ilk. Anyway, Lucidity feels like a game where they took Tetris and Lemmings and tried to mash them together without ever questioning if that was a good idea. The looming presence of insta-death removes the safety net Lemmings had (even if your first guy dies horribly, the line behind him can be saved) and the random block selection means that you're often stuck plopping down pieces anywhere on the screen in the hopes that the one you need will come up. This couldn't be saved by a radial menu or piece selection, as the aforementioned insta-death means that you likely wouldn't have time to analyze the situation before the girl dies in some way. The game just feels like it is unable to be anything but frustrating without some major overhauls. Broken at an almost fundamental level. Also, this may be exclusive to the PC version, but the fact that it is mouse controlled but also on a grid means that everything sticks really awkwardly. If you move your mouse just a little bit, the piece will stay exactly where it is. So you move your mouse a bunch. This results in the piece being about 5 lines on the grid past where you want it to be. By the time you can correct for this, the girl is either dead or really close to being dead. On PC, I'd go so far as to say the controls feel busted as well. On a personal note, not regarding broken gameplay or controls, but something much more a matter of opinion, my god the game is saccharine. I like cute games. I will defend Wind Waker to no end. I love The Legendary Starfy. I really want to buy A Boy and His Blob. I'm not against things that can melt your heart by any means. That said, Lucidity is trying so damn hard to tug at your cute receptors that it comes off almost as a cynical parody. Too much.

Wait, you mean he says other things?

Hey, I'm happy to represent with you. I play most things on Easy or Normal mode unless the game is a much poorer experience for it. When a game doesn't have difficulty mode at all, I'll play through it and usually find my gaming skills sufficient. If I have the option though, I'll usually choose the easier one.

Should be in

I really want this game, but for what I could probably find for $5 somewhere used, $20 seems a bit steep. Especially given the game's age. I'll probably shell out when it goes down to $10 or $15. The co-op in 2nd Encounter was brilliant, so I'm excited for that at least.

Yeah, the few levels I've played now aren't exactly great. I'd go so far as to say that the game is straight up bad, not even mediocre. Oh well. Cost as much as vending machine pepsi, so I guess I can't complain too much.

Just played through Hard Rain with a buddy of mine from Uni and two bots. Because of the bots, did it on Normal. Shit, that 53 minute game was a 53 minute cardiac episode. The difficulty is too much for me sometimes, but I'm certainly constantly afraid of death. If that's what they're going for, success.

Actually, that's a thought. Those of you playing L4D2 primarily right now, what say one of these days we get a group rallied and blow through the first game which will now seem comically easy by comparison?

World of Goo is $5 on Steam today if you don't already have it for whatever reason. It's excellent. I bought it twice myself, once for the PC and once for the Wii. It plays equally well on both. Also, if you're curious about Lucidity but hadn't made up your mind yet, it's $2.50. I went for it. Don't know if I can recommend it or not yet though.

It's way too damn brutal. As someone who is not that good at FPSs, even Normal kills me way too often. Still fun, but approaches not-fun with its difficulty with surprising frequency.

If we're going to throw classic PC gaming into the mix, I became gaming-verb literate when I was 4 thanks to playing Lemmings with my mother. Doesn't get much better tha that for a kid learning that games have their own logic and how to exploit it.

Yeah, I used that fix myself on my second playthrough. I can vouch for it.

I caved and bought Borderlands. Installing it to my laptop now. Will try to play an hour or so at work tomorrow in between actual work and trying to get some headway on a paper that's due Monday.

Preordering helped me by getting me free shipping. Otherwise, yeah, I'm with you.

Yeah, Mario Tennis is spectacular. The character's signature moves are a bit irritatingly over-powered, but even something like pitting Diddy Kong against Boo is enough to make up for it. Definite recommendation. Wave Race is more difficult to recommend. Partially just because it's more difficult, period. It's a tough game, and can get really frustrating. I got it when I was 13 myself, and even then it drove me crazy on the lower settings. You really need to buy into that one all the way if you're going to play it. I would say Strikers and Power Tennis are definite gets. If you have a chance to try Wave Race before you buy it, I would. It wasn't until getting the N64 one on Virtual Console that I finally worked out why the game was good. As a kid, I just didn't get it. ...oh yeah. I can't remember if anyone has said it yet, but Mario Kart. Freaking Mario Kart. Get it.

On that note, memes more often than not irritate the hell out of me. If this happens, can we please try to avoid stuff about wizards, boosting, or the like? I actually like things like "seg" as they are more like legitimate additions to the vernacular than memes in themselves. Much like "abilitease" from Giant Bomb. It's a word that has use and isn't just exploited for a cheap laugh now and again. That's not to say that an in-joke that we come up with would be bad, but using other people's in-jokes always feels weird to me. Anyway, that's just me. Feel free to ignore me if you find these things as funny as all that. The very fact that things become memes speaks to the fact that other people don't get tired of them nearly as quickly as myself.

I'd certainly say it is. It's one of the few things my sister would play with my back in the day, so even though the game isn't really that great I have some awesome memories of Mario Party 2. One of the easier things I found to play as a kid was a sports game. The rules are already defined, and odds are, they know them. I spent so much damn time with NHL 94 as a wee one. More cartoon-y ones work as well. One of my favorite sports games to date is Mario Strikers on the GCN, so if you can find it for cheap I'd go for it. The majority doesn't seem to share my love for that game, but I think it's really accessible and a ton of fun.

Wanted to get free shipping on an Amazon order, and figured I'd buy it eventually anyway, so I have a pre-order in. Can't wait, actually. I love PH (played through twice now) and am always excited for more in the Wind Waker style.

I'm assuming that it's much harder than it looks, and if I end up being a part of a thing it will probably be terrible. That said, if we want people to say a thing, I can say a thing.

Steam version is $33.50 today. Worth it, or no? Would there be any Thumbs willing to co-op th PC version with me, despite Gamespy?

At $10 on Steam today, it was too hard for me to pass up. I just sunk two hours into it, and it's really sweet. I didn't expect it to make me chuckle either, so consider that a pleasant surprise. I don't know if I'd recommend it for the $40 regular price, but damn am I happy I jumped on that deal.

Yeah, yeah they were. I don't know if it's old enough for you folks, but I started up a game of Paper Mario earlier this week. It's still as rad as ever, and dare I say, prettier than a lot of much newer games. I count N64 era as old, as that generation ended while I was in Jr High school. If that's not old enough, too bad.

I have not unfortunately. I doubt that my opinion would be worth much, as in general I completely suck at strategy games. Still, I figured it would be $10 of fun, and the concept was intriguing enough for me to want to go for it, regardless of how frustrated I'll inevitably be when the tutorial starts kicking my ass.

My guess would be region 2. Brutal Legend already, huh? I've never not replayed a Tim Shafer game, so I guess the stuff I've heard about not being up to his usual standards were true.