Recently completed video games

[ThunderPeel2001]

I remember having to kill infinity Metal Gears on the hardest difficulty on the PS2. It was a lot of chaff and stingers and luck. Not sure if that difficulty is the same as in substance.

Anyhoo, I never played Substance and was bummed out about it, so I'm kinda glad to hear that it isn't a bunch of crucial content.

I think you'll really enjoy MGS3 though, it's my favorite of the series. There's something about the style and some of the trappings that make it pop.

I heard so much hype surrounding MGS3, but I hated it... It was too different. Maybe I'll give it another go one day.

[Tanukitsune]

If I do get a 3DS I'll probably get that version, although I think a certain version of the PS2 one has the old MSX games?

I just beat Jame Pond 2: Robocod, I had forgotten it was Christmas themed, I could swear you picked up candy bars instead of elves.

[CaptainFish]

I heard so much hype surrounding MGS3, but I hated it... It was too different. Maybe I'll give it another go one day.

Did you play the Subsistence version* with the new camera? I remember a lot of people having issues with the gameplay because of how the original camera worked.

It's definitely a very different game with a different style of play, but I really took to creeping through the grass in camo. It was also fairly easy to just not stealth and kill everyone, once you had a few weapons.

*Tanu, that version had both MSX Metal gears in it.

[syntheticgerbil]

I remember having to kill infinity Metal Gears on the hardest difficulty on the PS2. It was a lot of chaff and stingers and luck. Not sure if that difficulty is the same as in substance.

I would guess the main game has remained unchanged, but I did read a few extra dog tags were added in the marine holds. It seems on the Metal Gears that the chaff was not working to me in on the hardest difficulty, so I just skipped that and kept moving in order to win. It may have worked by whatever variable, but at that point I wasn't sure if the effect of the chaff grenade had been taken away or what as it didn't seem to trip up anyone's homing missle ability.

Anyhoo, I never played Substance and was bummed out about it, so I'm kinda glad to hear that it isn't a bunch of crucial content.

Yeah I really don't think anything would be missed by anyone aside from a few really clever or really jokey VR Missions. The Snake Tales become even more nonessential, because I forgot to mention they are all non-canon. They aren't non-canon in a way where you can think, "hmm... this could have possibly happened," leading fan boys to argue and such. Instead they are clearly taking place in weird alternate universes where things are rewritten to make certain boss or side characters alive or related that weren't before in the main storyline just so they can reuse skins or boss fights already on the disc. Then there's this one where

Meryl is evil and you must stop her (she's just the Olga fight reskinned.)

Funny enough, I've already finished the MSX games on Subsistence far ahead of time, so I think I've already done a major chunk of what's extra on that one.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Did you play the Subsistence version* with the new camera? I remember a lot of people having issues with the gameplay because of how the original camera worked.

Yep. I didn't like the 360 degree camera, myself. I tended to get lost.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I finally got the SMILE achievement on Geometry Wars 2: War Harder... but I can't get the one that everyone else seems to find easy: TREATY. Annoying.

I also finally got around to completing Brutal Legend 100%. Still plenty of achievements to get, but they seem pretty fun.

[pabosher]

So my interview with the Red Faction Guys is now up. I really hope you guys like, because I took a lot of inspiration from the way the ITs think about games, and really tried to make it an interview that would appeal to the thumbs.

I don't know if I succeeded - you take a look http://t.co/JSc67qD

[MrHoatzin]

Man, way to not answer any of your questions. The thoughtfulness of it is astoundingly one-sided. You did your best man, but the dude was obviously not concerned about thinking about things he's making.

[twmac]

The interview was interesting as it felt like you were pushing him in a direction that he wasn't prepared for.

It also makes me sad as Red Faction: Guerilla was one of my favourite games of 2009 and this game seems to be moving away from what made it good.

Just finished Plants versus Zombies on the X360. Fantastic game, just everything about it is polished to perfection.

[Nicholololas]

I finally got the SMILE achievement on Geometry Wars 2: War Harder... but I can't get the one that everyone else seems to find easy: TREATY. Annoying.

Wow, that's pretty awesome. Sequence is definitely the mode I played the least of in Geo Wars 2 so I never got Smile or the one for just completing sequence itself. As for Treaty just rush through as many zones as fast as possible, with a bit of luck you'll get it eventually. For my money Deadline and Pacifism are definitely where it's at.

I finished up Dirt 2 last night, or at least the main portion of it - there's still a bunch of events I haven't finished, but I did the final X-Games tourney

as well as the Colin McRae tribute one

. All in all I'm pretty satisfied, especially considering I bought it super cheap on Steam during some sale last year. The presentation got a bit too Duder, Sick Nasty Extreme at times but it wasn't really that bad, especially compared to most games who go down a similar route (skate., I'm looking at you), and it never really got too much in the way of the racing, which is ace! For me at least it struck the same balance as PGR did, in being quite arcadey but still having an air of realism to it, making you feel pretty badass for cutting a corner perfectly or generally just driving well. Content wise there's some nice variety, from classic rallying to the more chaotic Baja races. Sort of wish there'd be more of a focus on traditional rally events, and I wouldn't mind a bit more variety in the track department - most of the locales only offered a couple of different routes, or the routes linked together or perhaps backwards - and while there's plenty of sand, dust and jungle, I was missing more traditional forest landscape and not to mention snow. That said Codemasters seem to be taking note of these complaints and are correcting them in the third iteration so whoop whoop I guess.

Anyway really fun game, must be hellish to play with keyboard but being a Games for Windows Live title it accepts the X360 pad right out of the box which works great. Looks pretty astonishing too, lots of nifty motion blur and particle effects going on. If you're looking for a rally game that isn't too punishing while still offering a bit of a challenge I'd say go for it (or alternatively just wait for Dirt 3 which should be coming out soon).

[Tanukitsune]

I finally beat Dead Rising 2 and I think the DLC costumes make the game much easier... almost too easy for a Dead Rising game! I only died once and got the best ending at my first try! And I didn't even use a walkthrough!

The worst part about the game? Since it takes place in Las Vegas it HAD to have gambling and the poker mini game is excruciatingly boring!

I also beat Cotton...Another of those shmups I only seem to care about... Either bullet hell games are making me better at these games or Cotton is rather easy?

I barely understand Japanese, but it seems to be about a witch who is helping a fairy because she promised her candy if she did?

[toblix]

What in the hell? DR2 was impossible! What manner of superpowers did the DLC costumes give?

[pabosher]

Man, way to not answer any of your questions. The thoughtfulness of it is astoundingly one-sided. You did your best man, but the dude was obviously not concerned about thinking about things he's making.

The interview was interesting as it felt like you were pushing him in a direction that he wasn't prepared for.

It also makes me sad as Red Faction: Guerilla was one of my favourite games of 2009 and this game seems to be moving away from what made it good.

Hey, thanks guys!

[Tanukitsune]

What in the hell? DR2 was impossible! What manner of superpowers did the DLC costumes give?

Well, the psycho costume makes him harder to kill and new attacks with psycho-like weapons like chainsaws and machetes, the soldier one makes him better with firearms, the ninja makes him nearly invisible to zombies and the sports one gives him better attacks with sports themed weapons and the ability to drink without getting sick.

You can also combined different parts of each costume, so I had one of each, I could kill almost any psychopath without stopping to heal, and if I did need to heal I could use the beer helmet as much as I wanted because beer didn't make me sick.

I only died once during the "final" battle because I was too reckless and waited till I had nearly no health to start healing.

[Hermie]

So my interview with the Red Faction Guys is now up. I really hope you guys like, because I took a lot of inspiration from the way the ITs think about games, and really tried to make it an interview that would appeal to the thumbs.

I don't know if I succeeded - you take a look http://t.co/JSc67qD

Those are some really solid questions, too bad the guy you were talking to clearly doesn't spend any time thinking about game design, and could only reply "Uhm... we put more guns in the game!".

[toblix]

Interesting questions, but is the technical director the right man to ask? I'm seriously wondering; I know roles – maybe in games especially – are not that clearly defined, but from the title it seems this guy would have more knowledge about shaders and asset streaming than themes and story.

[pabosher]

Interesting questions, but is the technical director the right man to ask? I'm seriously wondering; I know roles – maybe in games especially – are not that clearly defined, but from the title it seems this guy would have more knowledge about shaders and asset streaming than themes and story.

As far as I understand, he was actually game director/whatever title means that he was looking over the entirety of the game. That's what I was led to believe before speaking with him, anyway.

[Ben X]

I liked the direction of your questions, Speedy, but I think they were a little narrow. You really hemmed him into very specific areas. The shorter and more general ones were better. (I think avclub does brilliant interviews, for reference.) But yeah, he did seem to want to talk more about mechanics than meanings.

[pabosher]

I liked the direction of your questions, Speedy, but I think they were a little narrow. You really hemmed him into very specific areas. The shorter and more general ones were better. (I think avclub does brilliant interviews, for reference.) But yeah, he did seem to want to talk more about mechanics than meanings.

Thanks guy! (Call me Phillipe)

As for the narrow questions, I tried to make them narrow in order to ensure he answered the questions I actually asked. Clearly that didn't work too well, but there's nothing more frustrating than asking an open-ended question and having a guy talk about something that everybody already knows, and that every other site could have asked.

[CaptainFish]

Beat Mafia II last night.

I enjoyed it. The shooting felt nice and all the weapons were effective the whole way through. The story was alright, although I was more in it because of an affinity to the characters. I loved the checkpointing. Never having to drive to a place again because I got gunned down was a relief.

I didn't really miss the open world side mission stuff. I think I'm more interested in doing that stuff in worlds with more unique mechanics like Red Faction: Guerrilla and Just Cause 2.

Edited March 15, 2011 by CaptainFish

[toblix]

there's nothing more frustrating than asking an open-ended question and having a guy talk about something that everybody already knows, and that every other site could have asked.

There is a more frustrating thing: reading those interviews. There are too many sites where an interview is just letting some PR guy read from the back of the box. Thanks for not being like that.

[GameDreamer]

Just finished Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on Saturday.

I went in expecting the "psychological profiling" thing to be a gimmick, but it ended up being completely awesome. Your choices affect everything from the clothes other characters wear, their dialogue, the way they feel about you, and even the clothes your character wears and choices that get laid out in front of you throughout the game. I'm thinking of doing a write-up about it where I'll compare and contrast it with Heavy Rain. (I know it's apples to oranges but I'm speaking strictly of the choice mechanic present in each title)

I recommend it, even if you've never played a Silent Hill game before (the narrative is a "re-imagining" of the first game, so it's not the same canon). It has it's faults but the good things outweigh the bad.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Wow, that's pretty awesome. Sequence is definitely the mode I played the least of in Geo Wars 2 so I never got Smile or the one for just completing sequence itself. As for Treaty just rush through as many zones as fast as possible, with a bit of luck you'll get it eventually. For my money Deadline and Pacifism are definitely where it's at.

Yeah, Deadline and Pacifism are great fun. I did love Sequence too, though. That damned treaty achievement, though... Ugh!

[Noyb]

I agree, I think it's the best example of

a disappointment

in any recent game I think of. Having

absolutely nothing

at the end of the game was a big surprise, especially the bit where Levi the Hobo

didn't even acknowledge your achievement

. I can't wait for the everyone else here to discover

the non-ending and feel as let down as us

, especially when they see

there's no final

cut-scene. Of course, like you say, I think

a small budget

was probably responsible for all of these things.

Does anyone know if Brutal Legend had the same type of ending?

Just 100%ed it. Damn you all.

(Also, Toblix is totally right about this thread. I thought these posts were in the original Stacking thread and was confused when they weren't.)

Edit: I am fully aware of the irony of posting my support for Toblix's proposal in this thread instead of the meta-thread about this thread.

[CaptainFish]

I beat Dead Space 2 yesterday. I couldn't find any threads, so I guess it wasn't much of a discussion point.

I thought it was awesome. I played it on PC just like the first one. First of all, all the swimmy mouse controls are fixed. The first game always felt a bit like aiming in molasses, but here it's sharp. The kenesis ability is also a lot faster. No more waiting for the beam to retract before carrying on.

It's a good thing too, because the enemies are just that much snappier. The best example are those long tailed two armed necromorphs, who can leap and rush you much more effectively than in the original. All the enemies act quickly, which is great, because the first game could be cheesed to some extent by giving the enemies the run around. All in all the combat feels like the first one, but tighter, with some enemy varieties that force you to use different weapons and abilities.

There are a lot of nice interface/usability changes. The weapon select plus now shows total ammo for each weapon. Stasis now has a slow recharge, and when empty, the stasis button will use a module to get you to full, rather than just failing to fire. Inventory and armor upgrades for Isaac are permanent upon purchase of a new suit, and older models are selectable for cosmetic choice. Save for the first real suit, all models have a passive ability as well. Benches allow for a respec for 5000 credits, letting you remove all nodes from a weapon for reuse (or reorganization).

I like what they've done with the story and with Isaac's character. He's no longer a silent protagonist. He reacts to every silly order or turn of events, and has a few moments where his face is visible for emoting. I thought this was a great improvement over the silent lapdog nature of Isaac in 1. I wish there was even more dialogue for combat situations, but I realize that's a thin line to tread.

Much like the first game, there isn't that much plot in every area. Most of what is going on is depicted through logs and conversations. It starts off with your character in the dark and just trying to survive, but you never get a scene that just lays out every fact, and how every faction is involved. They give you pretty much the bare minimum number of facts to know what is going on. You're very much focused on your survival and the objectives at hand, which I like.

Anyhoo, I liked it, and I'm gonna play it again to try out more weapons.