CaptainFish

Sorry I have a tendency to be verbose and then I think of new stuff to say and fit it in.

As I said in the Tomb Raider thread I've been working my way through the Crystal Dynamics Trilogy, and I finished up Anniversary today. Legend was a fun platformer, I really enjoyed the more strict elements that force you to perform even more than in Sands of Time. Although it is a huge bummer when Lara fails to jump to a pole because you jumped a bit early, or the thing you thought was a ledge turns out not to be. There were definitely some frustrating moments in both these games, but when it works it works. There was also a small element of finding your way through the level, although the game was very critical path and IIRC never used a hub that you went back to after multiple puzzles. The story was meh. I'm not a fan of the supernatural elements of these types of stories, even though I guess they all have them. I prefer it to be about two rivals racing each other to the prize, rather than fighting an ancient god. I though that exploring the death of Lara's Mom, and the life's work of her father would have more gravitas then it did. There was a nice moment in Nepal (?) where she retrieves a medallion and goes into a reverie, but throughout the rest she's just cracking wise with her side crew. Zip and Alistair were so poorly characterized throughout this game. I guess they're her employees? In London they attempt to humanize them as Zip, Alistair and even Lara start ribbing each other, but it comes out of nowhere. It didn't seem like run of the mill everyday jokes, but rather unearthed bitterness after having to work together for such a long stretch. The combat was pretty bad, just having you hold down attack and repeatedly press jump until everything dies. The motorcycle sections are the worst example of this, where you have even less control over who you auto target, so it's just hold attack and dodge obstacles until you finish the level. They even put in explosive hazards you're supposed to use to kill enemies faster, but there's no way to target them with any consistency. All in all I had a pleasant experience. Anniversary does a lot of the things in Legend a lot better. The controls feel a little bit more lenient on timing for things like jumping immediately on a swinging pole. This better timing is utilized as a lot of the platforming requires swinging off of a pole that lowers once you're on it, or leaping up from a ledge that does the same. There's still a bit of frustration, especially with jumping away from walls during a wallrun. The camera never really shows you your destination well, and it requires some precision at times. The structure itself is much better, with the short 10 minute or so levels of Legend replaced with four 3-4 part levels that really give the sprawling feel of a ruined temple. Unlike legend there are item collection puzzles, that often result in doing different themed rooms of a hub to proceed. My favorite is the series is Greece, where you must traverse a vertical hub to visit various rooms themed after the gods. Also the larger rooms and areas lead to a bigger need to figure out where you need to go and there is usually a few different ways, so you feel like you're actually exploring a space. Combat is actually a little bit better, with all your enemies being some sort of animal. You shoot them until they rage and charge, at which point it becomes an issue of dodging at the right time and timing your shot for a kill move. You end up doing a lot more than in Legend. There are some major issues with the targeting. In the last level you have to fight enemies on a small ledge with shootable buttons in the background, and there is no reliable way to target the monsters first. The camera is also pretty bad for these sections, forcing itself behind you so you can't really get a sense of how much room you have on either side. I feel like in general this game could do with some God of War or Prince of Persia style pulled back cameras, although that would take away some of the sense of exploration. The story is less prominent in this game, but there is a great moment near the end when Otherwise the story is pretty lame, she has to find the three pieces of this Scion thing and then supernatural stuff happens. The lack of story cutscenes meant that by the end I had totally forgotten her motivation. I think her father was looking into the artifacts in connection to her mother's disappearance, but it never really comes up past the first couple missions, which start with her father's voice over. Overall, except for the disappointment of the combat heavy last level I had a good time. Oh another thing, I really enjoy the Croft Manor parts of these games, Anniversary especially. It's just presented as a giant free form puzzle. Even though I never owned Tomb Raider 1, wandering around in the hedge maze is a very strong memory I have connected to the series, and it was cool to revisit it in Anniversary. I kinda wish they would punctuate these games with more mundane exploration areas. Things like the Library scene in that one Indiana Jones adventure game (Fate of Atlantis?). There's something cool about knowing you have complete control of a space, and are free to go back and forth, but you still have clues to find and puzzles to solve. It's also really relaxing.

Wow I didn't think it was possible to make AaAaAA!!! more abstract but here it is. This game looks really cool though, music integration is pretty much always better.

I only know that I never got to see any of the detail except for the few barbs at the start. I retried with more obeying and saw all the stuff.

The only real problem with the Mako, in my opinion, was the almost computer generated landscapes of each world. There was never a flat path, you always had to drive up some ridiculously steep mountains. And it's not that some of the planets were like that, every single one was super mountainous, except when you fight the Thresher Maw. It made every planet feel too similar. They should've broke it up with some caves/underground sections, planet hazards you have to jump over like chasms or loose earth, or just some earlier civilizations' ruins. At least it still felt like a part of a video game. On the other hand, scanning is terrible, I can't believe it made it in. You are literally moving a cursor until a graph maxes out, and then pressing a button.* It's not fun, or challenging. It's just a time waster. I guess it's relaxing, because I definitely fell asleep scanning during long play sessions. Disappointingly I never found any anomalies that I wasn't already aware of on my quest list by just scanning, so there weren't even any quest hooks attached to the ordeal. It also doesn't make sense from a fiction standpoint. Here we have Shepard, hero of the Citadel, reborn Spectre, a person with shit to do, sitting at the science console and scanning for minerals? There's no dude you could ask to do that while you feed your fish or something? In fact that would be better. Whenever you pull up to a planet you want to scan, Shepard says "I'll be in my quarters", and you have to waste time. Feed your fish, read a book, dance to your awesome stereo music, paint your ship models, feed your hamster, talk to crew members, participate in team building exercises, train your men, check if you have enough fuel or maybe just take a 15 minute nap, you are a busy guy. I reallize they're trying to simulate a space world, but they should've made it a skill based game. You pull up to a planet, EDI says "We've found 4 mineral deposits." You're given a cross sectional view of the first source in the planet, with all the mineral striation and lodes, as well as the Normandy's position in orbit. You are given use of your stock of 30 probes with inertial extractors. Controlling the thrusters, you have to shoot down a probe with enough speed for it's extractor to burrow down to the centre of the lode. The closer you get the more ore you receive. You can send down multiple probes to one lode, but you must be careful that their extractors don't intersect previous ones. How much force you need is altered by the geological composition of the planet, anomalies of more or less dense unwanted materials, planet radius and planet gravity. Here you still have the problem of doing something that should just be an automated function in the fiction, but at least you're doing something that resembles a game. Maybe they could take that into account by having a minimum automated yield. *I guess that is the same as what you do in a shooter, just with more facade.

Did anyone else purposely do nothing but disagree their first time through? I was too antagonized to follow orders.

Man this is tough. I like a lot of the 20 or so 2010 games I played. Also I don't really have a good way to check which ones are 2010, because Wikipedia doesn't list a lot of indie titles. I guess these are my GoTYs? No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle This game just knocked my socks off with how it improved on the original NMH's progression. Although a lot of people praised the mundanity of it, gone was the fairly annoying open world and instead there was a map menu? In 2010? Good on you Ubisoft! That and fun retro minigames, so many clothes customization options, weapons you can change on the fly and great and tough bosses! Super Meat Boy Great perfectly solid platforming with 100s of levels and no pauses between deaths! This game has the perfect combination of bite sized accomplishments and larger incentives to go find bandages and finish dark world levels. Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse I was blown away. I really didn't expect that much of a leap in graphical fidelity, or that many mechanical changes, both for the season and episode to episode, and for the ending to be as poignant as it was. Story-wise actual things happened in this season, like losing characters I really enjoyed, and introducing new ones that I thought were really great and very much in the S&M vein. Other games I think are cool if not GoTY Sonic Colors After the incredibly derivative Sonic 4, it was great to play a new Sonic game that felt new and still played great! Amazing music, fantastic settings, fun powers are coupled with incentives to S-Rank levels and find all the Red Rings meant I spent a lot of time poking the nooks and crannies of these levels. They even made a couple changes to current Sonic homing attack controls to make it more manageable in a 2d setting, something Sonic 4 failed to do completely. Also the tone of the characters was great! Makes me feel good about Sonic again, and that's a tall order. Starcraft 2 I've played a ton of this game, just on the strength of it's team multiplayer and that doesn't happen often. Spent many a night staying up too late with friends, trying to crack a strategy on how to beat the next pair or trio. Tons of fun, although I haven't gone back in a while. Just Cause 2 I probably put more time into this game just grinding basically the same actions, because it is so much fun to do! This game for me, above all other games, deserves it's open world, because the amount of ridiculous things you can do is staggering. Not only do you have the shoot something build wanted level mechanic, but you can also fly jets and helicopters, jump from cars on the freeway to others, and generally be a badass who doesn't look at explosions. Also, best title ever. Games I liked but won't really talk up because damn this post is long: Assassin's Creed 2 (PC) Improved upon the first games base. Rocket Knight A fun sequel to a series I loved back in 16 bits. Hard. Civilization V Love it, but had too much other stuff to do to play a lot of it. Will revisit. VVVVVV Great platforming. I have a soft spot for it. Beat Hazard Fun shooter, has some moments where you must simply avoid obstacles that are punctuated with soft music. It's a great effect. Mass Effect 2 Damn this is down here? There were way too many good games this year. Games that kinda blew Red Steel 2 Ugh. Empty boring levels, boring quests. Fights are great, although the controls fail every once in a while, but most of the game is walking around empty areas smashing detritus for money. It's like some sort of Japanese Cowboy Hobo simulator. Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 Destroyed by Colors in retrospect, this game had terrible music, partly super derivative levels, bad controls for it's playstyle and copycat bosses. I liked the parts that shied away from literally copying old mechanics, but there wasn't enough of it. I'll buy the next episode with hopes that Dimps/Sonic Team move away from nostalgia, and focus on providing a new fun experience. Bit.Trip Beat Man fuck the boss at the end of world 3. It's so fucking unfair to . And the level is hard/long enough that I just don't feel like trying anymore. Otherwise the game is great.

I prefer the way it looks when you disobey.

This is a good point, it reminds me of when comedy skits reference Monty Python. It's like they don't understand why the source material is so good.

I'm actually working my way through the CrystalD trilogy right now. I've finished Legend and I'm a level and a half through Anniversary. Lobotomy, I totally agree, even the first article reminded me of the Other M backlash in a lot of ways. In respect to trading one type of sexy for another, a lot of it is aided by technology as well. The ability to render more realistic proportions to greater detail will mean that this character will look more like an actual woman, and probably end up being more attractive in that way. The full drawing reminds me of Sheva Alomar from RE5, who was a not over-sexualized, but still attractively designed fairly realistic proportioned character. (Don't link any of her ridculous costumes to prove me wrong. I prefer default or business Sheva) Say what you want about Lara's physical design, but I've never really had a problem with her attitude and personality in game. Let's ignore her marketing centerfolds for a moment. Yes she was always confident and strong, and yes that clashed with the fact that she might die on every jump you make, but it really cemented your successes. And in Legend, there were several moments where Lara felt genuine concern or worry, but lame status quo storytelling meant that it never ended in someone getting hurt. No bystanders get hurt in her Yakuza shootout, Zip and Alistair are never injured when they are attacked, and even Amanda doesn't really care about what happened in that tomb. She does have a nice reaction in Nepal, but in a story about her parents legacy, there should be much more room for reflection, sadness and vulnerability. If you want your character have real reactions, you have to give them something to react to. I can't comment on how this is handled in Underworld, but obviously if they're making these changes they can't have really succeeded in making her character more real there. Some of the changes sound like they'll feed into gameplay, at least. Young Lara makes getting stronger over the course of the game possible, her inexperience could make for interesting survival mechanics and because she's just starting out we could see her do things that wouldn't fit into Lara's strict routine (like using a bow). All in all this seems like the easy way out. Rather than iterate on a character that has been redeemed to some degree, they've just basically thrown out all their work in favour of an easy reboot. However, I will say that I think the game still sounds interesting mechanics wise, even if it doesn't feel all that Tomb Raidery.

Yeah.

So basically what you're saying is they milk previous classic adventure game for references like a dairy farmer.

How can Lara murder all the indigenous species with only a bow and a torch?

My computer crashed during a run and I lost all my progress. I am the saddest Meat Boy.

Man this game is great! I love it so much. The gameplay is solid, and I enjoyed all the new obstacles and enemies. The UI is handled really well, so that you never feel like you're wasting any time*. You just keep jumping in until you figure it out. I also like all the extra characters and how much variety it can add. If you're banging your head against a wall to an extreme as Meat Boy, you can try someone else to break the monotony. Some of them might be a bit broken though, I found a trick with Naija that allowed me to kinda cheat a few levels. At this point I've finished the light world, but I'm definitely going to go back to find all the warps and bandages. *Outside of bugginess, my only real complaint is the way the negative stages are handled, just because I feel that they are made overly hard because of how you have to go out to the menu, restart the level and wait for the title screen and stuff. It's the only time that the game presentation adds frustration on top of the actual challenge. I don't mind it as much in the warps because those also have the added difficulty of having to beat three screens in one go, so I feel it's more justified there. It's my Trine last level moment for this game, although it's such a small percentage of the game it's pretty much negligible.

Well after spending a morning watching Lisa Foiles clips and reading her response to this Kotaku Article, I realize that she actually knows what she's talking about. The Cattackalism girl is the complete opposite story.

This pre-order bonus stuff is pretty disappointing news, but I can't see myself going out of my way to buy this game at an EB Games just for that. I'm gonna ask a bunch of questions now. Can someone explain why companies still seem to go out of their way to provide incentives to purchase games from GameStop when it is the largest vector for selling used merchandise? Doesn't that just get more traffic in the store and increase the chance that used copies are sold? From what I've been listening to on the Bombcast, it seems Amazon is basically subsidizing the purchase and pre-order of new games through their gift card/credit system. Isn't that a much more healthy company to support through features like this? I realize that GameStop is probably the largest retailer, but I would assume the law of diminishing returns kick in at some point. Do they really need this incentive when they already have a strong pre-order mentality?

It looks like a black dog who turns toward you to reveal that his face is human. Wait, I totally see the guy sitting now. He's facing towards the left and there's some depth you have to imagine. Anyhoo, I still can't see Neo in it. I suppose that he's doing the famous 90 degree dodge pose, but all I can see is a sitting dude. But yeah, I feel like without the context of the titles, most of these would be entirely arbitrary.

I've never really cared a lot about this series. I played the first one and beat double agent, but I don't think I'll touch the most recent one. I think I preferred it when it was a super hardcore, don't push the analog stick to far or they'll hear you stealth game, than an action movie game. If they go back to the super early style, I'll probably give it a try.

Just finished a few games in the last week. I played Doom 3 again. After playing Wolfenstein I had a hankering to experience this game at the fidelity it was meant to be played at. I was kinda bummed out, though, because I was still in a run and gun mood, and Doom 3 requires you to slow down and read e-mails and listen to audio recordings. Outside of the exposition stuff, it did help to play it in a twitchy fashion. The hell section still stands out as being my favorite, especially because the lighting is better. I like id's use of darkness for the most part, but there were some sections when I was just firing my gun at a pitch black screen, hoping to hit something. Anyhoo, overall I had a good time. I beat Red Steel 2 today after picking it up for 30 CDN last week. I found the combat pretty fun when it worked and annoying when it didn't. Down slashes seemed to not register well. In terms of design, that game has an open world for no real discernible reason. So much of my time was spent simply going back and forth through slow loading Metroid Prime doors to pick up items or flip switches without any combat at all. Unless you count hitting boxes and other stuff as combat. I feel like that game would have benefited from more linear design, or more repopulating of areas with enemies. At least I have a motion plus finally. The third game I beat was Sonic Colors. I really enjoyed this one. Great music, lots of side scrolling gameplay broken up with behind the back sections. I was worried that the gameplay would be less interesting than the day stuff in Unleashed, but the use of the different power-ups really mixed things up. I'm also really pumped to retry the levels for S-Ranks and find all the Red Rings in each act. I understand it's hard to make levels of this fidelity when they're gone through so fast, so I'm glad they put in goals to make replayability important. I also like the arcade mode levels, but I wish they were also ranked like the main story acts. I was super disappointed that over 6 worlds there were only 3 unique bosses, with later ones being slightly more difficult versions of the first ones. The tone they took with the story was really nice, even if the dialogue itself fell flat more often than not. If there's going to be a story element, I prefer cartoon Sonic ( or Colors) to animé sonic (Sonic 2006). Also unlike Red steel 2, this game features a complete lack of hub worlds. You just go to a menu, choose an act and then play it. I hope lame hub stuff is a thing of the past. Unless it's as well done as it was in Super Mario Galaxy.

Ascend to the highest echelon of the Weapons Armor Recon Force in W.A.R.F. Ace!

Sorry for the long post, this is something I thought about a lot recently. This is a huge problem I've always had with games. If given health items, I will use spells, stations or save points. If given direct damage items, like bombs, in a JRPG, I'll use spells until the bombs are so weak that they are no longer relevant. I'm a hoarder, although less than I used to be. I think part of it comes from me wanting to prove that I'm great at the game by not using any items. It's a problem that has been compounded by Capcom games like Devil May Cry where using items actually lowers your rank, and buying them makes them more expensive. It's quite tricky there, because your currency for upgrades and items are the same (something they changed in DMC4). It's also present in games that give you score bonuses based on how many bombs you have at the end of the level (Beat Hazard), or your pistol-only run (Winback). I think in a lot of gamers there are one of two mentalities. 1. Using items or limited powers makes the game easier and it is more hardcore to struggle without them. 2. This part is doable, albeit tough, but there's gonna be a really crucial fight where these resources will be required. The first one is a dumb fallacy that has caused me to reload games and replay chunks of gameplay, just to avoid help. The second usually proves to be wrong too, either with the hard part being so easy that the items just make it moot, or just unaffected by their usage in any drastic manner. It also usually ends up with you having saved up 100 'x' for the BBEG and ending the game with 75 'x' left. Weirdly enough another Capcom game, Mega Man 9, weaned me off this problem. I'd gotten so used to just using a charged buster to deal with everything except bosses' weaknesses. Taking away charged busters, and allowing e-tanks to be purchased, encouraged me to try all the different weapons in regular situations, and use e-tanks when the boss door is just a few screens away. It added strategy to what used to be an entirely reflex/memory driven experience for me. I didn't just have a generally easier time, I also enjoyed it a lot more. Odin Sphere is also great for countering this, because eating food is part of your health bar xp progression, and making potions releases weapon xp. I've kinda learned that these things are all resources, along with your skills and time. If you don't exploit all your in-game resources you'll usually have to spend more time and/or just perform much better than normal. Just don't ask me how much BFG ammo I had left by the end of Doom 3.

Some of those are incredibly dumb, specifically the ones that are just logo treatments that have been cut out. They aren't even curved to look like they are on the front of a toadstool. The Mickey Mouse one is the worst. I'm also kinda half and half on whether faces should be incorporated into the face of the mushroom or just placed on top. I think they would look better as an altered face, but then what would you put for the top? I guess you could do more stylistic stuff, like a web pattern for Spidey's toad hat...

Oh man! Finally! The Star Trek Next Generation card game I've been waiting for my whole life! Oh wait that's Worface...

That was literally a duplication of a post from elmuerte on page one of that thread. It's a bot.