twmac

Have you played Clover? That reminded me of the Dizzy games.

Drath, don't forget that Borderlands has a ton of DLC. My recommendation would be both Zombie Island of Doctor Ned and the Secret Armoury of General Knoxx. The other two are only for the guys who want to be a perfectionist. Can't help but feel that people have, generally, recommended cutesy games. If you are looking for something other than that Gears of War 2 and Halo 3 are not bad places to go. That said, I am playing D&D: Heroes at the moment. It is an Xbox original that I picked up for 5 dollars and is fully backwards compatible with the X360 it is a good co-op hack and slash with a enjoyable levelling system (me and my housemates have been playing for about 14 hours so far). Two players is a little difficult as you need to pick the perfect balance of characters. Depending on shooters you like and your tolerance for graphics, Sniper Elite on the original Xbox (is BC) is another good splitscreen shooter. Other good Xbox LIVE indie games for Co-Op is Explosionade, radiangames Inferno, Shoot 1up. Admittedly, combined, they may only last you an evening but it will cost you about 5 dollars for all three.

Ego draconis: Divinity 2 is actually pretty good but extremely unforgiving. Two worlds, it was mainly the draw distance and expansive world. so, yeah don't waste your times unless some one has modded the crap out of it on PC.

Now this is something I keep finding interesting about your definition of 'broken'. Pretty much everything you cite is not so much as 'broken' from a QA perspective but actually poor design. Even the extreme respawn examples you gave, because of the way the life system works (although my memory is a little vague on that aspect as it was over a year ago), would not be flagged as high risk due to the way the game was designed. Of course if the game was designed with a 3 life limit or something similar then those 'design choices' would then immediately be considered broken by QA as they would akin to progression breakers One thing I would agree with is that in the smaller teams where they cannot afford to play test is that usually, by the end of the project the testers are so familiar with the content that they will often not encounter a lot of these issues. You have to appreciate that some of them will work on the project for 9 months from very early Alpha all the way to gold master candidate and be expected to complete playthroughs in the space of a day. This leads them to be able to breeze through the parts you are struggling with. That said even if they brought some people in from outside to critique the broken elements of their design who would do it for free, it would still be a waste of time as budget constraints will often leave developers unwilling to change code unless they absolutely have to. I am using Fairytale Fights as an example but note, I have not referred to any part of the QA work explicitly on that project and I can say that all of the above counts for about 80% of the projects I have ever worked on. This has derailed the thread a little Tanu, and I already feel like I am saying too much. If you are interested in continuing chatting about this, PM me as I can talk a little more freely. As for difficulty levels it really depends on the design of the game. I really wouldn't want to see Demon's Souls get a difficulty setting as it would undermine the intent. However, games like CoD(even if I think that the implementation is terrible) and Halo merit them due to the market they are aimed at. The same for Bioshock, some people just want to experience the game and don't want to get stuck. So for them a scalable difficulty is acceptable. For some games the stress and difficulty is the experience.

Have you reached the Beaver boss battle yet? That is probably the most broken part of the game. Like I said, our focus and brief was about getting the game through submission the issues you described were most likely present but that was not threatening to submission so was not our priority. Standard functionality QA would probably flagged it as a mid-range bug (the fact that you respawn infinitely means that it is not a major game breaker but jarring to the end user) and Play-tester would have cited as extremely annoying. I can't say much more than that without getting myself in trouble.

I worked with the QA team that helped get that game through submission, so yeah, I've played the game. Quite liked it actually. Checked the credits: http://www.mobygames.com/game/xbox360/fairytale-fights/credits Yup, we're not in the credits for it, of course.

"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..." Ooooh I wasn't going to make any comments on this thread and then you had to bring this game up. I can tell you now, for a fact, that just because only two testers were credited, there will definitely have been more than two testers working on it. A lot of the time these small to mid range games outsource their work to QA houses that are on a strict remit to only test certain things (ie: submission threat worthy bugs). You also seem to be confusing QA testers with play-testers or focus groups. I've worked in both fields and the scope of what you are looking for is very different. QA generally would bug things like that fire trap issue as it is a genuine bug but it would depend on what their remit is. Play-testers would not bug it but would report it and use it as an example of inherent frustrations in the level.

I am on a roll of inapropriate posts so I figured I might as well link my review: http://twmacb.posterous.com/dead-rising-2-review

Pursuit of Happiness like it should be done :

I have been listening to a random folk cover of Kid Cudi's 'pursuit of happiness' and felt the desire to post here. Don't ask me why it must be the Corona. This was me 3 years ago, still me.

I am in two minds about this blurb. I understand the frustration and anger. But having worked in the industry for over 6 years I am pretty sure there are some guys who have been and gone who are saying the exact same thing about me as I tend to speak my mind and a lot of people don't like it when I do. There is stuff I can relate to, but again, I can imagine some pretty vindictive people I have worked with putting me on the receiving end of this kind of vitriol.

* Being able to restore durability on the workbenches I disagree, it would mean that you would stick to one or two weapons and never improvise on the fly when your weapons break. At the moment if you want to do that you need to memorise the locations of the wepaons and make it there. This suggestion also means there would be a lot of people who would grind areas outside of workbenches. * Being able to store items in the maintenance rooms This is probably the only one I agree with. That said, one of my favourite moments in Co-Op was prepping up for a boss fight and having to visit a couple of the shops first in anticipation * Prompting for a confirmation when changing zone and one of the useless civilians you're escorting is just outside the transition zone because she's being attacked by a fern that toppled onto her. This is already in there, a little green icon appears inside their preview screen indicating that they are within range. I like that I need to stop before each zone transition to check the party. It feels like a classic horror film trope, where the one guy in front has to urge the others to safety. * Indicating boss fights on the map Even the surprise ones? The ones marked out by the woman on the radio are pretty obvious, for example 'there is a man herding people into La Cucina', I knew that was going to be a boss fight. * Checkpoints when transitioning No, definitely not. I completely disagree. This game is all about awareness of your environment, monitoring of your inventory and health and constantly making sure that you are not about to die. It is about tension and stress in a hostile environment. I feel like Blue Castle has already made so many concessions to things people didn't like about Dead Rising without taking too much away from what made it unique. This is pushing this game too far into the realm of generic Zombie game. A lot of what he is suggesting is missing the point. It would be like being able to repair guns in Far Cry 2, or have every single patrolling jeep marked on your map, or indeed pausing the game when you brought it up. That isn't what the game is about.

If anyone is interested in the some X360 multiplayer. Just grab my gamer profile, add me and send an invite. I have pretty much levelled up to 48 now but I always enjoy running about and helping others with their play throughs. The boss fights are way easier that way. Top tip: Mix 2 Whiskeys, or 2 vodkas or 2 beers and you make 'Painkiller' those will instantly refill your entire life bar and make you more sturdy. Only the last two bosses stand a chance at that point.

This one is rumoured to be multi-platform. That makes me happy as it means I can stave off buying a PS3 for a little longer.

Having already posted in a previous thread about these, I decided to delve through a few more of the indie releases on the Xbox Marketplace. Sweet SEGA there is some dross in there. That said there are some perfectly wonderful games (some recommended by people here) so far the list of ones I have enjoyed: Weapon of Choice - Great Contra-style game with multiple characters and endings I MAED A GMAE W1TH ZMOBIES INNIT!!!!!11 - You should get it because it is only a dollar on XNA and it has zombies in it. Twin Stick shooter by the same studio that did 'Dishwasher: The dead samurai', best song ever. Beat Hazard - Procedural twin stick shooter that uses the music on your hard drive to spawn enemies and power your bullets. Great visual treat. Bit Stream - Simple racing game for up to 8 players on the same console (2 people sharing a controller), you play a pulsing dot racing through neon tracks. I can't beat the firs tournament but it is awesome. Clover - It is basically fantastic Dizzy with an awesome soundtrack and an entertaining plot. It has references to UKResistance in the opening 10 minutes. Boom Chick Chick - Four player 'single stick' shooter. The interesting part is as you kill stuff they turn into pastel splats in the background and that builds up over time. It isn't the best game I've played here but it is 80MSP. Carneyvale: showtime - Cool platformer where you have to chuck a performer from rotating platforms. The game is highly addictive with its multiple challenges for each level. It encourages you to go back and replay areas you were stuck as it introduces new skills. I was wondering if anyone had bothered to look through the hundreds of massage games and fireplace screensavers and found anything else worth playing? I'm eyeing up a couple more 'Angry Barry' and 'Frequency', but I haven't heard any other positive things about any other games.

Did anyone play Tidalis? I know that this is about talking about Indie games you have played but I was curious to see what anyone had to say about it after reading this article. Seems to suggest that it is actually quite good but Arcen's move away from niche games to something with a broader scope has actually been less successful. I know there are a few people out there who like match three puzzles a lot(and even make them) so I was curious as to what other people thought about it.

I got to play this for two days while I lay in bed with the Flu. I will agree the characterisations of some of the Psychos are great, if a little predictable. 'One hit Wonder' was probably my favourite. The escort missions were made much accessible in this version, toblix if you found it frustrating here then you should not play DR. After that game I was expecting more of the same (anytime anyone was in desperate trouble I automatically switched to fisticuffs) from DR2 but the companion AI is surprisingly adept at looking after itself and I found the escort missions to all be a breeze. What I didn't like was the last segment, I won't say much more but it is probably the worst in a game I have played in the last 5-10 years. Confusing, stupid and deliberately frustrating. Otherwise everything else in the game rocked.

I am very conflicted by that video. The guy talking, clearly loves EDF (you don't name drop Lysander Z like that unless you know what you are talking about), and a lot of the improvements sound good it is just that the videos don't look right. The explosions aren't daft enough, there aren't enough creatures onscreen and the game looks a little too serious. I am still excited about this but I am hoping that they will insert some more 'silly' into the game.

A quote from a dude on the backloggery: Enter my DLC marathon, which I dont know if you notived while visiting my page. But ive just been playing DLCs for a couple of weeks since work and friends have taken most of my time lately. Playing the DLCs has enabled me to take a break from new stuff and just sit down and have an excuse to revisit some games i really loved. Playing the Mass Effect DLC was amazing, and the BioShock 2 Minervas Den was even better than the main game in my opinion. Currently Im adventuring around in Fallout 3 and absolutely loving it. I plan to get the Star Wars force unleashed dlc and the RE5 remaining one as well.

hey Nick, agreed on going for consistent content. I can't remember where I read it but the most important thing with a lot of this stuff is to stick to a schedule. If it is going to take you several weeks to release an hour long piece, instead release 15-20 minutes of content on a weekly basis. But I am sure you already know that.

Wow you guys certainly love Halo, it was a nice podcast with some pretty serious talk about the mechanics, the exploits etc. I am surprised you resisted the urge to call out 'Odious Tea' but then again when you are discussing the game with some one who has read all the books then it might go down as well.

I've been obsessively listening to Phantogram for the last couple of days. Previously it had been all about Machinehead and listening to Ministry's back catalogue but there is something about Phantogram's 'Mouthful of Diamonds' it kind of reminds me of Portishead mixed with The Kills. Check 'em out if you like either of those bands.

Sadly, I do not have the means to purchase this or else I would. I finished my breakdown of my 'Xbox LIVE Summer of Indie games', most of the developers very politely agreed to interviews (I linked the Brendon Chung one in the Flotilla thread). For those interested: Breath of Death VII Leave Home Tobe's Vertical adventure Beat Hazard Flotilla All got my vote.

North America have it better, at the moment I have Mushihimesama Futari, Death Smiles IIX, Raiden IV, Raiden Fighters Aces on disc alone that have been absolutely awesome. If you are into shooters Raiden fighters Aces is the best value of the lot. It has three distinct game from the series on it and I managed to pick up a copy for 29.99 brand new.

Meant to post to this thread a few days ago. I went from quite excited to not interested about DR2 to a proportion that I did with Crack Down 2. Except I then played Case 0 and I am now very much looking forward to Dead Rising 2 again (especially now that they announced Case: West). It looks to me like they managed to keep enough the core concept that made me love Dead Rising, only included one thing I don't like (multiple save slots = rubbish) and fixed my major gripe: You can now move and shoot at the same time! I sort of miss the photography element but it was heavily exploitable in the first so I understand its exclusion. Also, 'Case 0' is something that all X360 owners should download now. It is short but there are 6 endings so definitely worth it.