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Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit. Some nice character art, but heavily flawed. Constantly struggled with the zoomed-in camera, forcing me to move slowly through new areas lest I fall into unseen instant death spikes, firing blindly at large offscreen enemies using a tiny minimap as a guide. What's worse is that the devs did implement a zoom out button, but it pauses the entire game when used and is mainly just for solving a repeated puzzle. Load times were super long on the XBLA version, particularly annoying when it amped up the backtracking near the end. 

 

I liked a lot of the character designs and the promise at the start of a game where every enemy is unique, but they quickly broke that promise with slogs through filler enemies and repeated enemy behaviors and death minigames.

 

Might have redeemed itself through writing, but it's not my sense of humor. :tdown:

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I finally finished Playstation Battle Star Royale yadda yadda whatever... The game doesn't seems as polished as I expected and even the Cartoon Network one was more fun to me, I don't know why, but I kept forgetting which one I was playing, which is probably not a good thing.

 

It's rather upsetting to see that almost a third of the roster is not even from Sony, Big Daddy, Dante, Raiden, Heihachi, Isaac Clarke and 90% use almost nothing but guns. 

 

I also don't think they "got" Smash Bros, or that they changed in ways that made it much worse than it should. In this game you fill in a meter for super moves, but you can only kill them using a super move, which can be very annoying since they are very easy to cancel or dodge, or course, you could use the higher level super moves which are harder to avoid, but as you get to higher levels the meter fills up even slower.

 

The thing is, most moves barely fill up the meter, making the game a chore, specially since most levels are "see how many kills you can get before the times run out".

 

At the same time, it's actually fun to play as characters you like and see them use items or weapons from their games, and while the plot is as dumb as it gets, it's also almost funny to see why things happen. Sweet Tooth fights Kratos because he knocked down his ice cream? Yes, please!

 

The companion part is stupid, they are just there to cheer you when you kill several enemies with one super move, they probably did this because if they actually did anything on screen, people would have cried fowl and that was an obvious Smash Bros rip off, which they already do... and the other Smash Bros rip offs do anyway.

 

And why does the game have TWO Coles? Yes, Evil Cole as a few moves different from normal Cole, but seriously, I would rather have a different character from a series I didn't even care about than a clone.

 

PS: Heihachi has the best super moves, his level 2 ones summons Kuma to help him for a while and his level 3 one ties everybody on screen to rocket ship and launches them to space.

 

Call me crazy, but I'd choose Cartoon Network's Punch Time Super Explosion XL over this game. *shrugs*

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Saints Row 4 :tup:

I finished the game at about 94%. I loved this, there's so much wacky stuff going on, I cannot say anything without spoiling too much. But the wackyness is pretty much like the SR3 DLC except that it's more or less the whole game. SR4 has more or less the same structure as SR3, there are a bunch of original missions which are mostly story missions or and a few side missions. All other side missions in the game are just completing the various activities throughout the city.

Unlike the previous SR games (and GTA games) you're not really building up an empire or taking over the city. Given SR4's story that wouldn't make much sense anyway. But it's a shame nonetheless.

SR4 feels like a gift to the fans of the series rather than a game that stands alone. A huge part of the game resolves around the events from SR2 and SR3, which would be quite difficult to follow if this was your first SR game. (I played SR3 before SR2; SR3 doesn't rely a lot of the story of SR2; but SR4 does).

 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the 2 large mission packs for more messing around (I will probably go back to improve some activities, but I doubt I will go for the 100%).

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It has taken me since February, but early this morning I finally finished Assassin's Creed III. While I had several problems with the combat system and enemy AI, I really enjoyed being in the world. Some of the best moments were spent wandering in the frontier, which seemed much more unique than the towns. The hunting, homestead, crafting, and other systems seemed interesting enough, but I never felt like it had much impact on the campaign or my character. I only upgraded a few things and didn't dive that deeply into it, so it very well may have a larger impact than I perceived.

 

There's also the weird disconnect between the main storyline and all the side content in a way that doesn't usually bother me that much. It felt like there was enough activities for a entirely seperate game about a entrepreneuring Native American who manages trade routes, runs a craftsmen's guild, and hangs out with Benjamin Franklin. I don't plan on going back to complete all that side content, but it seems like reasonable stuff for a semi-retired assassin to occupy himself with after the war, I suppose. During? Not so much.

 

It was my first AC game, and while I was hoping for more stealth/assassin-y things and less action, I'd like to check out the previous games. I've watched a friend play parts of ACII, and I think that would be closer to what I expected. While firing cannons, steering ships, and other Revolutionary War activities are neat and all, I'd really like to just climb tall stuff and sneak up on some dudes.

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Metroid 2, on the other hand, catches a lot of flak for being the odd duck of the original series, having a somewhat more linear structure, but it's a game i've always really loved. It has a ton of really moody, creepy ambient themes, and also defined a less overtly cartoonish visual aesthetic for the series. (Most of the sequels have hewn very closely to Metroid 2's designs for Samus.) It also established a lot of new items and other small, important conventions for the series, like being able to shoot downwards and having a normal crouch in addition to the morphball. (It can be jarring going back to the original game and realizing you can't hit one block tall enemies.)

Well that's good to hear! I am probably not playing it soon, but I feel better knowing I will probably appreciate it more since what you are saying seems like it is going to be somewhat closer to Super Metroid and Zero Mission in terms of mechanics and fun factor. The further it is away from the NES game, the better.

 

My original post seems to be a bit more negative than I remember, but I did love Zero Mission, even the hard maneuvers. I wasn't too keen on getting all the endings, that was not very fun, but that is really more of a problem with my OCD and it forcing me to mimic expert gamers instead of really any problem with the game itself. Definitely playing Zero MIssion completely defined the addictiveness and tight design of the series and why I shouldn't be missing it.

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Dead Space - Is this the best realised survival horror game ever? So much to love. The zero gravity srctions, the terrifying critters, sound design, lighting... Constant peril. Constant 'oh shit, what next?' Really feels like a journey. Even the boss fights didn't suck. One of the highlights of my 'PS3 catch-up' journey so far.

 

Hotline Miami - Just beat the epilogue last night. Apparently there’s puzzles. Will probably look them up on the internet, because, yeah. This one got under my skin, in a different way. Such addictive gameplay. Incredible aesthetic.

 

Aaaaaaaand (drum roll please)

 

Far Cry motherfuckin' 2 - Have kept coming back to this in-between other games. Finally went on a jag and finished the main story a week or so ago. Played both endings, just to see it out. It's Far Cry 2. I had to be in the mood, sometimes it felt like a grind, other times an exceptional open world experience. That depended entirely on my frame of mind. The game is the game. It doesn't appear to care what you think of it. I loved it for that.

 

So, now on Dishonoured for 1st person, with GTA IV for 3rd person. This should take a while...  :)

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Dead Space - Is this the best realised survival horror game ever?

Not in my opinion at least, I found it more comical than anything with the ridiculous stomping. It started development with the intention to be a spiritual successor to System Shock 2 which does everything better as far as I'm concerned.

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Not in my opinion at least, I found it more comical than anything with the ridiculous stomping. It started development with the intention to be a spiritual successor to System Shock 2 which does everything better as far as I'm concerned.

 I loved the stomping - felt so 'grindhouse horrror'.

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DAMN! Harsh words from osmo!

 

I loved Dead Space, but I don't play enough survival horror to rate it in the grand scheme of things. I will say I didn't think it was scary so much as tense. But I guess that's sort of how SURVIVAL horror works, as opposed to something like Amnesia.

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DAMN! Harsh words from osmo!

 

I loved Dead Space, but I don't play enough survival horror to rate it in the grand scheme of things. I will say I didn't think it was scary so much as tense. But I guess that's sort of how SURVIVAL horror works, as opposed to something like Amnesia.

 

Yeah, I think that's right. The sense of anticipation was really high. It also got to the point where even the act of acquiring ammo and items was stressful, because if the game is giving me all this stuff, some MAJOR shit is about to go down... Also the way the environment would often change during/just before combat (lights going out, vents exploding etc.) would get the heart rate up. The goddamn sound design though… so so good.

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 I loved the stomping - felt so 'grindhouse horrror'.

I think most of our difference is due to this, ie. physical vs. psychological horror. Dead Space (1 at least, I haven't bothered with the sequels) tries to have its cake and eat it too a bit in this respect, with both trying for a eldritch horror/corruption metanarrative but all the moment-to-moment stuff being about physical stomping/squishing/monster closet scares. It's an excellently-made game that is groundbreaking in its UI and has amazing sound design, but just is thematically all over the place which didn't work for me.

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The first Dead Space is probably one of my personal top games out of the entire last console cycle, but i think it falls pretty flat as a "horror" game, it's very much a product of post-RE4 survival horror.

They focus very much on telling you that you should be afraid, throwing big, meaty, scary monsters at you in poorly lit environments, making you suffer gruesome death animations, telling you that you're just an everyman engineer, and it all doesn't work because the gameplay it's hung around makes you feel incredibly empowered. You have some unbelievably powerful weapons at your disposal and you feel awesome using them.

So it's not a great horror game, but it is a totally awesome third-person shooter. Their dismemberment mechanic, the way they handle zero-g and low oxygen environments, the gravity and time manipulation, even their basic progression systems and the sense of exploration, Dead Space is booming with great stuff. (It's a beautiful game too, i think they nail the kind of gothic sci-fi horror thing they were going for.)

Dead Space 2, i think, starts going off the rails a bit. It's a little too focused on its action, and it's much more linear path-focused, there's a lot less of you just existing in an atmospheric environment and poking around it. It also tries to do some ambitious free-floating zero-g stuff, but then does absolutely nothing with it. There's virtually never any combat in those sequences, while the first game's zero-g sequences made for some of the best combat scenarios in that first game.

Dead Space 2 was still really good though. (They made some really clunky mythology retcons that don't really sync up with the first game, but whatever.)

Dead Space 3, however, is a total piece of shit, it's dreadful. That game really just went flying off the rails, it's shocking that it's as bad as it is. The constant prodding for microtransactions, the clumsily implemented co-op, the poorly balanced weapon crafting, the universal ammo that prevents you from ever experimenting with weapons once you find the one you like. The feel of the game is just completely messed up too, dismemberment is downplayed, the enemies are less reactive to the damage you cause them. The whole game feels really shoddy.

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I think most of our difference is due to this, ie. physical vs. psychological horror. Dead Space (1 at least, I haven't bothered with the sequels) tries to have its cake and eat it too a bit in this respect, with both trying for a eldritch horror/corruption metanarrative but all the moment-to-moment stuff being about physical stomping/squishing/monster closet scares. It's an excellently-made game that is groundbreaking in its UI and has amazing sound design, but just is thematically all over the place which didn't work for me.

 

Yeah, that's totally fair enough. I didn't really feel like Dead Space was trying for psychological horror particularly, it was more monster scares/jumps haunted house stuff for me. The story was fine, but not the point of the experience for me - for me, the point was being in a zombie movie in space with added Clive Barker-esque gross creatures. In that capacity, it freaked me the hell out, in a great way.

Plus, the final boss is basically Cuthulu. I mean, come ON!  :) 

. But the story is definitely weaker than the atmosphere of the moment-to-moment play. That said, for me it all hung together pretty well.

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Yeah, if that's what you're looking for it's a great game. It's just, for me I was really looking forward to a new entry in the Explore A Space Station Where Everything's Gone Haywire genre (EASSWEGH) and was disappointed at it not being system shock-like enough.

 

Eventually the Bioshock series might continue its vertical ascent into space and I'll get my wish!

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Shadowrun Returns I definitely enjoyed this, and can see it having a lot of future potential. Fun little noir story, and I liked the tactical combat. There are a number of areas where I think they could really expand, which gives me a more positive feeling about a game. The difference between "it would be great I could do more of this" vs "I wish it didn't do this."

 

I like how it lets you build your own class, with essentially no "game oversight." I wound up with a Pistol/Rigger. The drones were nice, though sending them through the vents was almost always a waste of their action points, as it always seemed to take at least 2 APs, when walking around would take 1. Drones should move fast/or get some kind of bonus in those situations. I also picked up a bunch of decking skills, which were needed for certain plot missions, but I wish I could use those skills as more tactical support.

 

I hope the next major module is a bit more open.  

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The drones were nice, though sending them through the vents was almost always a waste of their action points, as it always seemed to take at least 2 APs, when walking around would take 1. Drones should move fast/or get some kind of bonus in those situations.

 

Yeah, a drone at the edge of a vent is stated to have zero movement points to exit, so I thought I could pop out, fire a few shots, then crawl back in the vent.  But instead it used 1 AP when it said zero, and 2 when it said 1 (when I wasn't at the edge), so that strategy was gone.

 

I am playing a user created mission now that is basically impossible with a new character.  My adept cannot connect a punch with the weakest of gang members.

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Shadowrun Returns I definitely enjoyed this, and can see it having a lot of future potential. Fun little noir story, and I liked the tactical combat. There are a number of areas where I think they could really expand, which gives me a more positive feeling about a game. The difference between "it would be great I could do more of this" vs "I wish it didn't do this."

Yeah, i felt much the same way. I think they had established a really great set of systems, and i look forward to seeing what future add-on content might draw out of them.

 

I hope the next major module is a bit more open.  

That's apparently their plan, the Berlin campaign is supposed to be much more open-ended.

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I just started playing Dead Space 3 and it will probably wind up being a candidate for quitters club before long.

 

I agree with Sno wholeheartedly about the entire series. It just gets further and further off the rails. All of the tension and horror of the series has been completely drained out by the third installment. I mean you already start fighting a weaksauce cthulu an hour or so into the game!

 

Dead Space 1 totally nails that resident evil dynamic of building up to giant crazy bosses. 2 has some of that but the whole second half of the game is a barrage of sensory overload. It's a great example of how adding shit on top of what already worked fine is a terrible path for sequels (and operating systems, windows 8!) to take.

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Oh god, and the glitchy cover-based shooting in Dead Space 3, i completely forgot about that stuff.

What an awful game.

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Yeah, i felt much the same way. I think they had established a really great set of systems, and i look forward to seeing what future add-on content might draw out of them.

 

That's apparently their plan, the Berlin campaign is supposed to be much more open-ended.

 

Cool! Thanks all!

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I'll add my love for Dead Space 1. I have played almost no survival horror games besides this and RE1 so I found the way they tried to elicit scares totally worked for me. I actually at one point had a nightmare about that game where I was just going around on the ship opening lockers. So creepy those lockers...

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Dead Space is the most terrifying game I've ever played and the thought that there might be more terrifying games out there is too terrifying to comprehend. I'm not into horror games/films at all but it hooked me (in short bursts, alternating with the original Little Big Planet, as I couldn't handle more than a chapter a day) and whatever mysterious allure it had the sequel certainly didn't based on the hour I played after it came to PS+ last year. Not even close.

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I own that somehow, think I got it in a Humble Bundle aaaages ago. I'd be interested in giving it a brief shot as I know its reputation full well but it doesn't look that intimidating from screenshots, sadly this computer can't play 3D anything though.

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