@Bouchart: My favorite on GBA was Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
Oh god how I loved that game. It's of course, a Tactical RPG and not the typical rpg you may be thinking of.
A more typical RPG would be Golden Sun as mentioned. That one was really well done and I would have no problem recommending it to anyone who likes these kind of games. One of the best on that system.
A couple other fun little RPG's were the Shining Soul games, I and II but they are Action RPG's and again, not your traditional party based games. They're great though (II was way better and you may want to start there if interested if you can find it that is.) I would love to see a new Shining Soul game for the DS one day.
@Bouchart: Pokemon too... but I find it hard to believe that you never play it.
I loved Golden Sun 1&2.
Summon Night - Summon Sword 1 & 2 are obscured game I enjoyed too. If an Action RPG that reminds me a little bit like Secret of Mana
Speaking of Secert of Mana, there is Sword of Mana, which is a GBA remake of the early gameboy Final Fantasy Adventure (which is another great game). To be honest I perfer Final Fantasy Adventure over Sword of Mana.
Also Tales of Phantasia, which was ported from the SNES verison. One of my favorite RPGs
Riviera The Promised Land is also a great Adventure/RPG hyrbrid. The world need more adventure games.
For a while, I was also shamefully addicted to Harvest Moon.
I not sure... but I think some of the Breath of Fire games was ported GBA. I remember the SNES version was fun as hell.
That all I can think of off the top of my head... heh~
I know this question is probably asked alot and yes, I'm gonna be that guy.
Me and my brother just beat Ratchet and Clank on the PS3, it certainly redeemed itself from the horribleness of the first PS3 Ratchet game.
That said, we were considering on getting Assassins Creed 2 but we're not sure...mostly because we were burned on AC 1 and it's overall lacklusterness (that...and the game glitched on us....:cough:).
So, what do you guys think? Is there enough good in AC2 to make us want to jump back into Ubisoft's world? Or should we hold off and wait for another game?
@Rachel Fogg: I'm enjoying it quite a bit, and it looks like it will be the first game where I've actually managed to get all the Achievements for (1 left to go!), unlike the first one with it's semi-unachievable ones for those damn flags.
As I've said to several of my friends now, they seem to have taken all the negative feedback on the first game and fixed all those issues. Though I will say, it has frozen up on me twice since last Tuesday during loading screens (on the 360). Both times were after several hours of gaming though, so it may have just been the console getting a little warm.
@Rachel Fogg: I can't recommend AC2 highly enough. If you don't love it, I really would be shocked. There's not much else out with a better value for the money besides Dragon Age.
Oh lol, there are hookers on nearly every corner Rachel. And you can hire them cheap, four at a time. Yeah.
@Rachel Fogg: People always talk about the gameplay etc etc etc... Why not talk about the realist, the "open world", I mean come on, who in AC1 while riding a horse, didnt stay shock by discovering the first city, his majesty, his realism!
P.S. I always wonder Rachel, are you a guy or a girl
I bought 600 dollars of computer parts(well, my dad did) for christmas.
I am excited as HECK.
They will come pretty soon and I have no idea if I will have to wait until christmas to use them or not.
But I got 4GB of RAM, a Radeon 4870, an AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor, a relatively large hard drive, a shiny new motherboard with pretty colors on it, a sexy case, and a power supply.
And I'm upgrading from 1.4GB of ram and a GeForce 5500FX in a prebuilt eMachines from 4 years ago.
@WhiteMåge: Awesome! I want to let you know though that the video has the largest effect in terms of gaming performance. I had a quadcore and 8gb of ram which I upgraded my computer from a dual core and 2GB and the performance jump was like 5 fps. I was still using my 8500 back then and when I finally got around to getting my current GTX260 it ran immensely better. I'm running dragon age on nearly high everything at 60fps before it ran at around 15-20 on bottom everything.
So if you upgrade again make sure your computer supply has enough watts and your video card is what you want to put money in.
From what I've been told this is a pretty damn good build for a budget. Supposedly I can play even recent stuff on relatively nice settings.
Though I got it for the games from 2005-now that I missed out on, namely The Sims 3, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Dungeon Siege 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, Resident Evil 4, and for better running of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and a few other games I've got that don't quite run as well as I'd like. So it can do those perfectly, and that's what I want. :D
@WhiteMåge: Congrats! Yeah that is a pretty sweet rig for the price you paid (Take notes all you PC is too expensive people). It should definitely last you a good 3-4 years and even so you could just upgrade the GPU as Shykin said.
Oh and don't forget to buy Torchlight. Its awesome.
@Revival: That's what I was thinking. How the heck do people end up with such expensive builds? 600 bucks to play up to current games is pretty damn good, where does the extra 2400 come from? @_@
Then again, I got my OS for free(Windows 7 Professional from a friend who gets it free for IT :D), and am re-using my disc drives, monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse.
@WhiteMåge: I wish I was getting that :( At least I'm getting a good Wireless N card for Christmas so that I can have fast, stable wireless on my PC finally. What wattage is the power supply? Hope you got a good one because some of those newer video cards require a LOT of wattage.
@WhiteMåge: Lucky :) Does he have a site set up or something? I'm gonna need a new custom machine built in the next year and don't know where to look to ensure that kind of compatibility.
I asked Kotaku a lot, too, actually, in TAY. I didn't ask for builds, but I did give my build and ask for help/if it would do what I want/if everything would work together.
@WhiteMåge: Nice! I was thinking of building mine as well, but after a bunch of research I realized it was way above my head. Buuuut, I found a pretty sweet BF deal on newegg for a prebuilt and I'm very excited for it. It will be the first 'not-too-shabby-for-its-time' computer I've ever had.
Screw you MW2. My house looks like a bomb went off, my diet consists of anything I can grab and shove in my mouth within 40-odd seconds, and my sleep schedule isn't a schedule, it's a patch-work series of maybes and dreams of running around Karachi, getting hit from out of nowhere by those MOTHER-LOVIN' NOOB TUBE BASTARDS, but still somehow miraculously finishing 30 - 0 (dreams, heh), even though I've only actually ever had 30 kills ONCE, in free-for-all, but good thing I mostly only play Hardcore TDM these days, stupid goddamn knifers with Commando on, screw YOU too.
@MrBionic: XD. Your love of Modern Warfare never ceases to amuse me.
I'm the same way these days; literally flipping a coin each night on my way home from work to decide whether to play more or spend some much neglected time with my friends. I've even been sleeping on my couch since the game came out to curb the amount of time it takes for me to wake up and get to a game lobby. As a result, my clothes and laundry from the past few weeks are scattered wall to wall across the floor of my living room. I should really get to cleaning them soon... maybe the next time the batteries in my headset die I'll get on that...
Ooh; saw a nifty trick for Afghan on YouTube yesterday. Jump up onto the wing of the plane where it touches the ground (kind of tricky, you sort of have to jump twice), then run up the wing and jump over to the cliff wall. You should land on a vent and climb up. It's an incredible sniping spot with very low visibility. Tried it out last night and it works wonders if you can pull it off. Here, check out the video, you can see it about 20 seconds in. [www.youtube.com]
@NeöStarr: Yes, that trick has become rather popular, and to tell the truth, it's also become annoying, because everyone I play with regularly knows it, and just camps opposite from it to take out the sad, sad people that keep going up there. Me? I'm a cave clearer. I love going in there guns-ablazing and semtex at the ready.
@hismastersvoice: make all the snide comments you want, I'm enjoying myself immensely, and nothing can take away from that. If you choose to not have fun with it, that's up to you, but... well, just remember this when I go off on the Wii and motion controls at some point in the future :D
@MrBionic: III can't wait to get home from the holidays and crack some online skulls. I feel like I'm starting to get a hang of this one - ridiculously fun and addictive.
Which console do you have it on, Bionic? (Or do you have it on PC?)
If you have it on 360 we should rampage around a bit!
@(Starman) Starman: Because the country is bankrupt, and we spend all of our money on corruption and foreign corporate endeavors, rather than domestic programs and infrastructure development.
No really, I don't know. But it's kind of a microcosm of the entire country.
@Manly_McBeeferton: I thought you guys were over it? It has been 8 years after all. I thought it was no longer a big deal 4 years ago. Sure, it's good to remember what happened, but the area is just physical space. That's kind of a premium thing in New York and shouldn't be wasted on bad memories.
@(Starman) Starman: As a Manhattanite born and raised, yesterday at thanksgiving with many friends this exact question was brought up. Usually I don't like to talk about this kind of thing as it isn't a source of happy memories for me but, you asked nicely. Freedom Tower is a source of a lot of stress for New Yorkers because no one can agree on anything concerning it.
Local government isn't that much better about agreeing on it either. My friend's sister works in the City Senate and she was telling us about all the debates people get into with that space.
Several factors are: Money. Who actually owns the space? Public? Private? Contractors in New York are all scam artists. Are the architects designs pleasing to Everyone? What do the families of the diseased think? Etc. etc.
@(Starman) Starman:Because the site is the king of all red-tape private, government, state and local clusterfucks. There's lots of other issues at hand (Like how they are still finding bones and clothing) but due to the government's hand in this, it may be 10 more years before anything's done. Which does not help things at all, because it shows others who might be planning such actions that they will have a public reminder of their acts for years.
For a second example of what happens when state, local and the feds can't agree how to get something back to 100% order, look at New Orleans.
I think another theory is that as long as the new site is unfinished, more people will look at the site, remember what happened, and think there is a real threat of another large terrorist attack, resisting less as their freedoms continue to erode in the name of fighting invisible enemies...
@Foxstar is in love with Kotaku's two Brians.: For a second example of what happens when state, local and the feds can't agree how to get something back to 100% order, look at New Orleans.
New Orleans is doing just fine, thank you. The city and surrounding parishes are mostly restored, and I'd say things were basically fine and settled by year three after the flood. While you would be right to cite the reaction to the initial levee breeching and resulting chaos as a sign of government not working together to address a problem, the recovery has been reasonable and quick for the most part considering the damage done. The same cannot be said about the WTC, whose reconstruction remains stalled thanks to useless bickering and red tape some eight years later.
So, now that GOTY awards are right around the corner, I was wondering if you could come up with any specific awards that aren't normally given out but should be.
Personally, I think there should be an award for Best Individual Level, Quest, or Scenario (with my choice being No Russian from MW2), as well as another category for Best Boss (I'd pick Elise from MadWorld; the hide-and-seek battle).
@NeöStarr: I'd like to see Uncharted 2 win Best Opening Level of a videogame. And seeing as the gaming world is obsessed with casual now, Best Casual Game should be a given, and Best Fitness Game.
@No I wouldn't like tea and crumpets: Some people are gonna be more affected by it than others. I agree with Mr. B that it was kind of a farfetched plot element, but if you take it out of context and consider it on its own merits, it's a really powerful scene and I think that's precisely because of the gameplay. Sure it's unconventional and bears no challenge whatsoever, but on the other hand what could have been shown as a mere cutscene becomes much more powerful when you're forced to carry out the actions yourself. There's that really confusing moment at the start of the level when the guns come down in front of the crowd of people, and out of instinct I found myself opening fire as well but purely out of habit. Then that "What have I just done" feeling came over me and stayed with me through the rest of the level. And I think that's what makes it so great; it takes your preconceived notions of what you'd expect a game to portray and turns them upside down. It's the first time in an FPS that I've ever felt remorse for just blowing things apart.
@JayUnreal: The more I think about it the more I like the idea of a "Best Fitness Game". I think the major problem with them right now is that they don't produce results; not that I think it's entirely impossible for somebody to get fit playing on a motion controlled system. I mean, surely they have dumbbell peripherals and whatnot by now, yeah? I think an award for such a category might actually encourage gamers to get fit with the right games.
I'm actually surprised Wii Weights never caught on. They were essentially those weighted wrist straps worn by neon-clad fitness gurus of the eighties; only with a sleek white Wii design and logo.
One of the must underrated games of the year on the Xbox 360 and PS3 (and, I would imagine of 2008, on the PS2 and Wii), has to be Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection. It's overlooked because it's a niche product, and could be considered as a 'casual' game, but in terms of value and fun, the game deserves some recognition.
The Williams Collection (which adds a couple of boards not included on the Wii/PS2 version, including the excellent Medieval Madness) features rock solid physics and spot-on visual and aural recreations of 13 notable cabinets from Williams' heyday. Because of the old-fashioned design sense of the boards, and the modern day physics simulation, there is a weight and delight to this game that has been perpetually missing from video pinball. At around $30 new, this game is a great value, and is a great palate cleanser after dropping hours into a more traditional console gaming experience. I only wish there were plans for dlc expansion (Cyclone, Earthshaker). And I'm hoping licensing issues don't prevent us from someday playing Addams Family as part of a Bally Midway collection.
If your misspent youth included time along the back wall of the arcade getting your pinball wizard on between bouts of Street Fighter, Golden Axe and Sinistar... do yourself a favor and add some pinball back into your virtual arcade.
Any good music from your genre of choice release lately? As far as Hip-Hop goes, Lupe just dropped a new mixtape yesterday and I've had Wale's Attention Deficit on repeat for a good while.
@Trey: I've been meaning to check out Attention Deficit. Weezer's new disc is stupid fun, and you can even order it with a Weezer Snuggie, or Wuggie, I guess.
@Showmeyomoves!: His album is tentatively slated for a December release, but he's coming out with another mixtape on the 25th so it looks like his album is going to be an early '10 release.
@Trey: Well, I've been listening to a lot of originals and arrangements of music from the Touhou Project games the last few months... here is one from the newest(?) 12th game in the series that caught me off guard with its funkiness; it's the level 4 theme "Interdimensional Voyage of a Ghostly Passenger Ship"
Careful though, this series has some earworms that never leave... I still get "The Fantastic Legend of Tohno" stuck in my head out of the blue... and anything from the 10th and 11th games.
No good PSP Go sales this Black Friday as I had hoped. :/ In fact, it seems that the better gaming deals were all the ones held prior to today as many titles now are priced higher than they were just days ago (Dragon Age, Madden, etc.).
I don't care if I don't get the pride of doing it right, I WANT THE REAL MEGA BUSTER. e_e Killing 54k zombies is WAY TOO HARD ;-;
Speaking of Dead Rising I'm trying overtime mode again. FIrst time I gave up in seconds because the special forces kicked my ass, but this time I literally just ran past them and got all the items needed. Now I need to find 10 queens and am not having an easy time...
I wouldn't be the first to say that I'm enthralled with Assassin's Creed II. But I think the game begs the question in how far can you stretch believability when you set to create an accurate representation of a time period with a living breathing city?
I'm not talking about the dodgy AI or the deaf and blind guards. I'm thinking specifically about incredibly convenient posts and poles. Things that make perfect jumping off points or easy paths up the sides of buildings. I thought the awesome part of parkour was to sus out these paths and create your own way through normal and everyday areas.
Expanding the question, is there any way for a "realistic" platformer to not rely on obvious and signposted climbing points? Perfectly collapsed pillars, storage crates piled in stair like fashion, handy vines growing on that ancient wall. These are just as ubiquitous as the exploding barrel, but they're far less lambasted. Sometimes, when you stop to admire the craft and meticulous majesty of a world created, you might end up lingering on the obvious artifice. And that, I think, strains believability.
Whether or not this is detrimental to the overall effect of a game, is difficult to measure. Though objectively, if were were to look at the reviews for Uncharted II (a fantastic game filled with such obvious artifice) then one could say the negative impact is zero. But I wonder then, if it would be a worthwhile challenge to build a playable and beatable (platforming) world that does away with the artifice. Is it worth trying, would it be worth playing if someone could make a game without the obvious paths or the handy handholds? Could Assassin's Creed have been made without hundreds of convenient hay bales?
@Psudonym: Expanding the question, is there any way for a "realistic" platformer to not rely on obvious and signposted climbing points?
Yes, but it'd be worse for it. When designing a project, you have to keep in mind which medium it's using, and for games, that boils down to control and gameplay. Movies "cheat" with cutaway walls, soundtracks, and other elements which would not be present in a realistic depiction of the events in order to help establish and improve its atmosphere. I don't see games' level design being any different -- you go with what works best, even if some sense of "poetic license" requires the developer to deviate from what would be acceptable in a realistic setting.
@Psudonym: I think at a certain point you have to draw the line between realism and fun there. I mean, with an open-world stealth game like AC2, how much fun would it be if you died 5 or 6 times in a mission not because you did something wrong, but because this particular alley didn't have something you could use to scale the wall at the end? If you like parkour-style gameplay, may I suggest Mirror's Edge? To get the feel you're looking for, you need to turn off Runner Vision in the options when you play, but I felt that most of the areas in that game were pretty plausible, and left you with a few choices as you zip through the areas. Plus, it never fails to punish you properly for making the wrong choice.
@Psudonym: Totally understand where your coming from on this, although ive not played AC2 yet. For me the answer would be...why bother? We all know about the reality, if i wanted to try and scale a Cathederal i could...as it goes i really dont want to, im not physically able and its to dangerous. However, stick me in days gone by Italy playing the role of a fleet footed assasain and i'll happily scale up the side of the tallest building possible without a moments hesitation.
The real challenge in what you propose would be to keep it entertaining, only being able to do things that you would in real life probably doesnt appeal to the masses, where as being an athletic treasure hunter whos handy with a gun appeals much more.
I'll chuck the words Mirrors and Edge in as well, not played it so not entirely sure if its closer to realistic platformer or not but would be fairly close i imagine.
@Kobun: @Gazuk50: @Griffehpoo:
Mirror's Edge is a good example where it doesn't look "fake" but it remains easily playable. Turning off the sign posting helps the illusion, as does turning off the HUD in Assassin's Creed too.
Making it fun can be measured in by different metrics. Some people have great fun dealing with games like Silent Hunter which does away with most of the things that make a tactical game "playable". One of the attractions to a game like Bushido Blade was the elimination of health bars, a staple of fighting games. And Skate is a wonderful game when you stop playing it like your traditional game, look around a bit, and just see if you can grind that rail.
Realism shouldn't preclude fun, but it can make it a different experience than one made accessible by artifice. And that difference, may just make it all the more a positive or eye opening experiment at the least.
@Psudonym: The only real alternative would be to pull something like Modern Warfare 2 and give you the equivalent of ice picks so that any surface could be climbed; but that adds new difficulties also.
In all honesty, as I play AC2, it's quite rare that I think about how out of place an object is that was placed specifically for gameplay purposes. It has happened, but not enough to detract from my enjoyment of the game. To me, I feel AC2 has a nice balance most of the time between the artifice (as you put it) and the natural.
The hay bales though I think it could do without. I hardly ever use them; medicine is my hay bale :)
12:39 PM
Do not include Final Fantasy 4-6 or Mario & Luigi. Thank you.
01:05 PM
Oh god how I loved that game. It's of course, a Tactical RPG and not the typical rpg you may be thinking of.
A more typical RPG would be Golden Sun as mentioned. That one was really well done and I would have no problem recommending it to anyone who likes these kind of games. One of the best on that system.
A couple other fun little RPG's were the Shining Soul games, I and II but they are Action RPG's and again, not your traditional party based games. They're great though (II was way better and you may want to start there if interested if you can find it that is.) I would love to see a new Shining Soul game for the DS one day.
01:06 PM
I loved Golden Sun 1&2.
Summon Night - Summon Sword 1 & 2 are obscured game I enjoyed too. If an Action RPG that reminds me a little bit like Secret of Mana
Speaking of Secert of Mana, there is Sword of Mana, which is a GBA remake of the early gameboy Final Fantasy Adventure (which is another great game). To be honest I perfer Final Fantasy Adventure over Sword of Mana.
Also Tales of Phantasia, which was ported from the SNES verison. One of my favorite RPGs
Riviera The Promised Land is also a great Adventure/RPG hyrbrid. The world need more adventure games.
For a while, I was also shamefully addicted to Harvest Moon.
I not sure... but I think some of the Breath of Fire games was ported GBA. I remember the SNES version was fun as hell.
That all I can think of off the top of my head... heh~
10:55 AM
I know this question is probably asked alot and yes, I'm gonna be that guy.
Me and my brother just beat Ratchet and Clank on the PS3, it certainly redeemed itself from the horribleness of the first PS3 Ratchet game.
That said, we were considering on getting Assassins Creed 2 but we're not sure...mostly because we were burned on AC 1 and it's overall lacklusterness (that...and the game glitched on us....:cough:).
So, what do you guys think? Is there enough good in AC2 to make us want to jump back into Ubisoft's world? Or should we hold off and wait for another game?
11:51 AM
As I've said to several of my friends now, they seem to have taken all the negative feedback on the first game and fixed all those issues. Though I will say, it has frozen up on me twice since last Tuesday during loading screens (on the 360). Both times were after several hours of gaming though, so it may have just been the console getting a little warm.
11:56 AM
Oh lol, there are hookers on nearly every corner Rachel. And you can hire them cheap, four at a time. Yeah.
11:57 AM
P.S. I always wonder Rachel, are you a guy or a girl
12:10 PM
Did you say hookers? Well fuck, that's a must buy there.
Everyone loves hookers!
I'm very interested in AC2, it's getting the big brother to agree on it...we always agree to a get a game before buying it.
12:12 PM
There were plenty of great things about AC but the game kept freezing on us...it was overhype too.
Oh, I'm a girl unit. ^-^ I know..I don't act like it but mention either Dante, Gene (Godhand) Cloud or Drake and I'll squee.
12:14 PM
See, I'm not expecting like complete overhaul...just fix the things that need fixing.
If it's done that, then I'm sold.
12:43 PM
Plus, there ain't nothin' like sneaking around and stabbin' people in the back, legally!
10:15 AM
I bought 600 dollars of computer parts(well, my dad did) for christmas.
I am excited as HECK.
They will come pretty soon and I have no idea if I will have to wait until christmas to use them or not.
But I got 4GB of RAM, a Radeon 4870, an AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor, a relatively large hard drive, a shiny new motherboard with pretty colors on it, a sexy case, and a power supply.
And I'm upgrading from 1.4GB of ram and a GeForce 5500FX in a prebuilt eMachines from 4 years ago.
:D
10:28 AM
So if you upgrade again make sure your computer supply has enough watts and your video card is what you want to put money in.
10:33 AM
From what I've been told this is a pretty damn good build for a budget. Supposedly I can play even recent stuff on relatively nice settings.
Though I got it for the games from 2005-now that I missed out on, namely The Sims 3, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Dungeon Siege 2, Neverwinter Nights 2, Resident Evil 4, and for better running of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and a few other games I've got that don't quite run as well as I'd like. So it can do those perfectly, and that's what I want. :D
11:09 AM
Oh and don't forget to buy Torchlight. Its awesome.
11:14 AM
Then again, I got my OS for free(Windows 7 Professional from a friend who gets it free for IT :D), and am re-using my disc drives, monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse.
But still!
AHHHHH I'm so excited ;-;
11:53 AM
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12:06 PM
Which is the biggest worry I have. @_@
12:07 PM
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12:52 PM
I asked Kotaku a lot, too, actually, in TAY. I didn't ask for builds, but I did give my build and ask for help/if it would do what I want/if everything would work together.
04:13 PM
[www.newegg.com]
About to get a pretty nifty monitor too:
[accessories.us.dell.com]
It's way more money than I should be spending, but ohhh, I'm excited to have a spiffy new rig.
09:41 AM
I need a valium.
09:56 AM
I'm the same way these days; literally flipping a coin each night on my way home from work to decide whether to play more or spend some much neglected time with my friends. I've even been sleeping on my couch since the game came out to curb the amount of time it takes for me to wake up and get to a game lobby. As a result, my clothes and laundry from the past few weeks are scattered wall to wall across the floor of my living room. I should really get to cleaning them soon... maybe the next time the batteries in my headset die I'll get on that...
Ooh; saw a nifty trick for Afghan on YouTube yesterday. Jump up onto the wing of the plane where it touches the ground (kind of tricky, you sort of have to jump twice), then run up the wing and jump over to the cliff wall. You should land on a vent and climb up. It's an incredible sniping spot with very low visibility. Tried it out last night and it works wonders if you can pull it off. Here, check out the video, you can see it about 20 seconds in.
[www.youtube.com]
09:57 AM
10:10 AM
10:14 AM
Victorious!
10:16 AM
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10:18 AM
I mean, there's 15 minutes of fame, and then there's 15 years of infamy.
10:18 AM
10:23 AM
Have fun for both of us. I'm waiting for BC2.
12:02 PM
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04:18 PM
Which console do you have it on, Bionic? (Or do you have it on PC?)
If you have it on 360 we should rampage around a bit!
09:26 AM
[talkamongstyourselves.freeforums.org]
Also, someone please tell me:
Why hasn't there been much progress on the WTC site for the past 8 years? (Excepting WTC7, but that's not part of the main site.)
09:32 AM
No really, I don't know. But it's kind of a microcosm of the entire country.
09:36 AM
"Oh my god! They are just going to rebuild over the site?! How rude, ugh!"
I think we need to get over it and rebuild, already.
Just my speculation, though.
09:44 AM
10:05 AM
10:09 AM
Sorry, got my Chuck Sheen face on: where's the whores?
10:47 AM
11:10 AM
Local government isn't that much better about agreeing on it either. My friend's sister works in the City Senate and she was telling us about all the debates people get into with that space.
Several factors are: Money. Who actually owns the space? Public? Private? Contractors in New York are all scam artists. Are the architects designs pleasing to Everyone? What do the families of the diseased think? Etc. etc.
11:32 AM
For a second example of what happens when state, local and the feds can't agree how to get something back to 100% order, look at New Orleans.
12:50 PM
I think another theory is that as long as the new site is unfinished, more people will look at the site, remember what happened, and think there is a real threat of another large terrorist attack, resisting less as their freedoms continue to erode in the name of fighting invisible enemies...
03:09 PM
New Orleans is doing just fine, thank you. The city and surrounding parishes are mostly restored, and I'd say things were basically fine and settled by year three after the flood. While you would be right to cite the reaction to the initial levee breeching and resulting chaos as a sign of government not working together to address a problem, the recovery has been reasonable and quick for the most part considering the damage done. The same cannot be said about the WTC, whose reconstruction remains stalled thanks to useless bickering and red tape some eight years later.
09:21 AM
09:33 AM
10:00 AM
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09:15 AM
Personally, I think there should be an award for Best Individual Level, Quest, or Scenario (with my choice being No Russian from MW2), as well as another category for Best Boss (I'd pick Elise from MadWorld; the hide-and-seek battle).
09:31 AM
09:31 AM
What was so great about it that made that level anything other than a fairly boring on rails level?
I know it was controversial but in terms of game play it was the worst in MW2.
09:35 AM
09:58 AM
11:35 AM
11:41 AM
@JayUnreal: The more I think about it the more I like the idea of a "Best Fitness Game". I think the major problem with them right now is that they don't produce results; not that I think it's entirely impossible for somebody to get fit playing on a motion controlled system. I mean, surely they have dumbbell peripherals and whatnot by now, yeah? I think an award for such a category might actually encourage gamers to get fit with the right games.
I'm actually surprised Wii Weights never caught on. They were essentially those weighted wrist straps worn by neon-clad fitness gurus of the eighties; only with a sleek white Wii design and logo.
09:03 AM
The Williams Collection (which adds a couple of boards not included on the Wii/PS2 version, including the excellent Medieval Madness) features rock solid physics and spot-on visual and aural recreations of 13 notable cabinets from Williams' heyday. Because of the old-fashioned design sense of the boards, and the modern day physics simulation, there is a weight and delight to this game that has been perpetually missing from video pinball. At around $30 new, this game is a great value, and is a great palate cleanser after dropping hours into a more traditional console gaming experience. I only wish there were plans for dlc expansion (Cyclone, Earthshaker). And I'm hoping licensing issues don't prevent us from someday playing Addams Family as part of a Bally Midway collection.
If your misspent youth included time along the back wall of the arcade getting your pinball wizard on between bouts of Street Fighter, Golden Axe and Sinistar... do yourself a favor and add some pinball back into your virtual arcade.
09:13 AM
It's really accurate with the Pinball cabinets and the physics are top-notch, as well. Pretty fun to play in your own spare time.
09:40 AM
09:43 AM
@GunFlame: Hey hey, I AM a Time Lord, you know.
Can't just keep all the time for myself.
09:00 AM
09:07 AM
@Trey: I've been meaning to check out Attention Deficit. Weezer's new disc is stupid fun, and you can even order it with a Weezer Snuggie, or Wuggie, I guess.
09:10 AM
09:19 AM
And The Cool came out two years ago.
01:04 PM
Careful though, this series has some earworms that never leave... I still get "The Fantastic Legend of Tohno" stuck in my head out of the blue... and anything from the 10th and 11th games.
08:58 AM
08:57 AM
Who else has experienced this same music glitch in the "Memo" scene as well?
(Thanks to MagicMagicPony for the music soundtrack.)
08:51 AM
09:09 AM
I'm just glad, though, that Cyber Monday is being discontinued. What a stupid term.
08:37 AM
MAN ALIVE I'M PUMPED UP!!
WOOOOO!!!
08:45 AM
11/25/09
I don't care if I don't get the pride of doing it right, I WANT THE REAL MEGA BUSTER. e_e Killing 54k zombies is WAY TOO HARD ;-;
Speaking of Dead Rising I'm trying overtime mode again. FIrst time I gave up in seconds because the special forces kicked my ass, but this time I literally just ran past them and got all the items needed. Now I need to find 10 queens and am not having an easy time...
11/25/09
Sure, offer a cheap cheat for people, but leave it in for us folk who really want an achievement to mean something.
11/25/09
I'm not talking about the dodgy AI or the deaf and blind guards. I'm thinking specifically about incredibly convenient posts and poles. Things that make perfect jumping off points or easy paths up the sides of buildings. I thought the awesome part of parkour was to sus out these paths and create your own way through normal and everyday areas.
Expanding the question, is there any way for a "realistic" platformer to not rely on obvious and signposted climbing points? Perfectly collapsed pillars, storage crates piled in stair like fashion, handy vines growing on that ancient wall. These are just as ubiquitous as the exploding barrel, but they're far less lambasted. Sometimes, when you stop to admire the craft and meticulous majesty of a world created, you might end up lingering on the obvious artifice. And that, I think, strains believability.
Whether or not this is detrimental to the overall effect of a game, is difficult to measure. Though objectively, if were were to look at the reviews for Uncharted II (a fantastic game filled with such obvious artifice) then one could say the negative impact is zero. But I wonder then, if it would be a worthwhile challenge to build a playable and beatable (platforming) world that does away with the artifice. Is it worth trying, would it be worth playing if someone could make a game without the obvious paths or the handy handholds? Could Assassin's Creed have been made without hundreds of convenient hay bales?
11/25/09
Yes, but it'd be worse for it. When designing a project, you have to keep in mind which medium it's using, and for games, that boils down to control and gameplay. Movies "cheat" with cutaway walls, soundtracks, and other elements which would not be present in a realistic depiction of the events in order to help establish and improve its atmosphere. I don't see games' level design being any different -- you go with what works best, even if some sense of "poetic license" requires the developer to deviate from what would be acceptable in a realistic setting.
11/25/09
11/25/09
The real challenge in what you propose would be to keep it entertaining, only being able to do things that you would in real life probably doesnt appeal to the masses, where as being an athletic treasure hunter whos handy with a gun appeals much more.
I'll chuck the words Mirrors and Edge in as well, not played it so not entirely sure if its closer to realistic platformer or not but would be fairly close i imagine.
11/25/09
Mirror's Edge is a good example where it doesn't look "fake" but it remains easily playable. Turning off the sign posting helps the illusion, as does turning off the HUD in Assassin's Creed too.
Making it fun can be measured in by different metrics. Some people have great fun dealing with games like Silent Hunter which does away with most of the things that make a tactical game "playable". One of the attractions to a game like Bushido Blade was the elimination of health bars, a staple of fighting games. And Skate is a wonderful game when you stop playing it like your traditional game, look around a bit, and just see if you can grind that rail.
Realism shouldn't preclude fun, but it can make it a different experience than one made accessible by artifice. And that difference, may just make it all the more a positive or eye opening experiment at the least.
#speakup
11/25/09
In all honesty, as I play AC2, it's quite rare that I think about how out of place an object is that was placed specifically for gameplay purposes. It has happened, but not enough to detract from my enjoyment of the game. To me, I feel AC2 has a nice balance most of the time between the artifice (as you put it) and the natural.
The hay bales though I think it could do without. I hardly ever use them; medicine is my hay bale :)