Author Topic: Rate The Last Game You Played  (Read 187117 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Ceric

  • Once killed four Deviljho in one hunt
  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #500 on: February 22, 2012, 10:55:12 AM »
fragile dreams

today i made a new bestest friend


This guy's a playa

We now need an additional button to go with Applaud and Smite.  Shoot lets just replace applaud.
Need a Personal NonCitizen-Magical-Elf-Boy-Child-Game-Abused-King-Kratos-Play-Thing Crimm Unmaker-of-Worlds-Hunter-Of-Boxes
so, I don't have to edit as Much.

Offline Lithium

  • disparaging user title
  • Score: 14
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #501 on: February 22, 2012, 11:41:32 AM »
lmfao


but yeah this game has tons of filler. Also, this game has zelda-like combat but with no z targeting! :(
« Last Edit: February 22, 2012, 11:45:16 AM by Lithium »



Offline Lithium

  • disparaging user title
  • Score: 14
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #502 on: February 23, 2012, 02:53:53 AM »

Offline jrlibrarian

  • Small Staff
  • Score: 6
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #503 on: February 24, 2012, 06:17:09 PM »
Well, I just finished powering through Elite Beat Agents at the highest difficulty setting available from the beginning. Definitely not that difficult of a game, and very short too, with only 15 songs available from what I can see. I enjoyed the hour or so I got out of it, although Let's Dance and September kinda got on my nerves. Might try to play through the 3 star difficulty here soon. For $4, definitely worth it.

Oh, and I absolutely despise the spinning thing you have to do. I feel like it just totally interrupts the flow of the gameplay.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2012, 06:30:44 PM by jrlibrarian »
I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar.

Offline Lithium

  • disparaging user title
  • Score: 14
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #504 on: February 24, 2012, 10:42:16 PM »


Fragile Dreams


This game is extremely immersive, the art, sound, voice acting* and premise are all great. The first hour and a half is excellent, even though you're in a drab abandoned shopping mall your companion PF makes up for it, she was everything that Fi should have been, robotic sure but still had a personality, it was kind of funny seeing PF get all jealous when you were talking about trying to find "the girl" (a survivor Seto runs into early on) despite the fact that she's a robot/A.I. The interactions between PF and Seto were genuinely entertaining to hear and I was genuinely bummed out when her batteries ran out and "died"





The environments in this game range from extremely beautiful to generic and bland, most of the game is spent in underground tunnels or buildings, but when you emerge from the light at the end of the tunnel (sometimes literally) the reward is stunning, its not a technical achievement by any means, if we're talking polygons here what he have is fairly rudimentary but it's the art direction that carries it. The story, while fairly minimalist is pretty compelling for what it is and fits the mood very well thorughout the game, the ending however left me kind of pissed off at how dumb and immature the main villian is. Seriously that's all it took for him to give up? well he had typical anime character logic though, i was willing to forgive Seto's immaturity since he looks about 14-15 years old and is to be expected but christ, really? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCrY0y4RQ7M&feature=related)


Unfortunately this game is a big letdown, Fragile Dreams hits all the right notes but stumbles face plants on the game play. The game's combat is very similar to 3-d Zelda games, except they give you resident evil 1 controls and don't give you Z targeting, Seto's clunky controls means that any difficulty isn't derived from the enemy A.I but rather struggling to make Seto do what you want him to. This is amplified in boss fights, the frustration even more so since the strategy to beating them is simply to keep pressing A until they die. It would have been far better to fix the controls than to dumb A.I down to accommodate them. Due to the highly immersive nature of the rest of the game it would have been far better off if combat was non-existent and exploration emphasized. At least an hour of game play was running around trying to catch a guy who stole your locket around an amusement park then followed by a 2 hour long fetch quest. The combat and the blatant filler leads me to think that less really would have been more.

5/10
Fragile Dreams is an example of big potential held back by poor game design choices. Because of this I cant bring myself to recommend it  despite all the things it does right.

*played with original Japanese voices
------------------------------
Oh, and I absolutely despise the spinning thing you have to do. I feel like it just totally interrupts the flow of the gameplay.



Yeah i hated those as well, pretty much whenever those came up i had to make sure i had enough of a buffer to not fail the song.
« Last Edit: February 27, 2012, 11:39:03 AM by Lithium »

Offline jrlibrarian

  • Small Staff
  • Score: 6
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #505 on: February 25, 2012, 01:08:11 AM »
Starting to play Kingdom Hearts :258/2 whatever the **** the number of days is.
I just got through the tutorial, and I already want to bitchslap Roxas. This is gonna be painful..
I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar.

Offline Ceric

  • Once killed four Deviljho in one hunt
  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #506 on: February 25, 2012, 08:20:01 AM »
Starting to play Kingdom Hearts :258/2 whatever the **** the number of days is.
I just got through the tutorial, and I already want to bitchslap Roxas. This is gonna be painful..
I just couldn't beat that game.  Its not bad really its just if it was Grass I never have to mow.  Not to mention it is bursty, but mostly slow.
Need a Personal NonCitizen-Magical-Elf-Boy-Child-Game-Abused-King-Kratos-Play-Thing Crimm Unmaker-of-Worlds-Hunter-Of-Boxes
so, I don't have to edit as Much.

Offline jrlibrarian

  • Small Staff
  • Score: 6
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #507 on: February 27, 2012, 01:19:12 AM »
Just beat Chibi-Robo. Let me just say, I absolutely love this game. You really were able to connect with the characters in my opinion, especially Jenny. The game makes you want to do whatever you can to make her smile just one more time. The only problem I had with the game is the final hour or so, when you are just trying to find enough Moolah to set the final cutscene in motion. I still really enjoyed it, and definitely recommend it to everyone.

Anyone have any thoughts about either of the DS games? In regards to the third one, which only came out in Japan, how import friendly is it? I know Greg played through the New Play Control version on Wii, and I'm considering doing the same with the DS one.
I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar.

Offline broodwars

  • Hunting for a Pineapple Salad
  • Score: -1011
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #508 on: February 27, 2012, 03:48:18 PM »
Well, after the hell that was working the Daytona 500 yesterday, including standing in 4 hours of pounding rain & wind, I'm pretty exhausted so I might as well finally talk about these games:

Jak 2 HD (Platinum #53) - It takes a lot for a game to actually make me angry.  In previous impressions, I've been everything from enthusiastic to disappointed to bored, but no game has previously made me incensed with utter hatred like Jak 2 did.  This game is horrible on its own (and abysmal as a sequel to Jak 1), as well as easily one of the most frustrating games I've ever played.  What's really frustrating, though, is that with some tweaks here and there I could actually have enjoyed this game.

Easily the high point of the game is its story, which is interesting and has some nice twists on time-travel.  The animation is excellent and expressive, and the voice acting is generally acceptable.  It's a pity that the 20+ hours I spent on this game wasn't just watching cutscenes, because I despised every single moment I spent playing this game.

Why did I hate playing this game so much, you ask? Because there isn't a single moment in this game that was actually play-testedThere wasn't a single element of the gameplay that wasn't designed to piss me off.  This was one of the first games made in the wake of GTA 3, and as such the series needlessly went Open World...which accomplished nothing.  The city of New Haven is impressively large for its time, but there's nothing of interest to do in it, and crossing from one end of it to another to start or complete a quest is an exercise in tedium and frustration.  This is because every civilian and enemy soldier in this game is designed to kill you...repeatedly.

You hijack a hover vehicle and within 30 seconds one of two things will happen:

1. You will run into an enemy soldier on the ground, triggering a city-wide alert that sends squad upon squad of enemy soldiers and hovercraft after you until you either die or you manage to last long enough to wait it out (during which, you cannot accept any sidequests).

2. You attempt to avoid the soldiers by rising up to the upper hovering level where all the CPU vehicles are floating around, at which time they all attempt to ram you until your vehicle exploads.

It's also worth noting that the vehicles in this game have some of the floaty-est, imprecise, and unreliable controls I've ever seen in a game that prominently features driving.  Eventually, you receive the obligatory Back to the Future-style Hoverboard that gives you more mobility on the ground, but at this same time the game adds more soldiers on the ground for you to collide with.  These soldiers have huge hit boxes so they're extremely easy to hit by accident, and colliding with these characters not only deals damage to the player but also knocks them off the hoverboard.

And every time you have to cross the city, be it between or during missions, you have to contend with this B.S.  But I'm not even at the worst part of this game yet.  No, even worse than the extremely emo tone and drab color environmental color palettes is the game's checkpointing, to be more precise the total lack thereof.  Most missions in the game have one checkpoint about halfway through the 10-30 minute missions, if they even have one at all.  You make it through 5 waves of enemy attacks, jump past several death-trap gauntlets, but bungle the last tough jump or have your last (of 4) hit points lost to a lucky enemy hit (btw, health packs are absurdly rare in this game)?  That's 30 minutes of progress gone and you're back to the beginning of the mission.  Add just some plain brutal mission scenarios (especially one where you have to fend off literally at least a 100 respawning enemies on the docks at once without benefit of health packs), and this is just an incredibly cheap game that revels in how much pain and frustration it inflicts on the player.

The only reason I played this game to completion was because I knew that its story and characters would be important for Jak 3.  And speaking of which...

« Last Edit: February 27, 2012, 04:04:05 PM by broodwars »
There was a Signature here. It's gone now.

Offline broodwars

  • Hunting for a Pineapple Salad
  • Score: -1011
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #509 on: February 27, 2012, 04:03:04 PM »
Jak 3 HD (Platinum #54) - So, is this game as bad as Jak 3?  No, it's not the massive pile of FAIL and cheap design that Jak 2 was.  It's merely boring, which I know sounds like damning it with faint praise but that is a significant step up from Jak 2.  Jak 3 at least usually feels fair about the situations it puts the player in, and missions usually feature multiple checkpoints so it doesn't feel like the game is constantly trying to kill the player and artificially extend the playtime.

Instead of emphasizing the extremely labyrinthine and congested city of New Haven, Jak 3 spends most of its playtime emphasizing a large open desert environment with Mad Max-style combat against bugs and dune buggies.  I hate desert areas in video games on sheer principle (I hate their drab, washed-out brown color palette), but it was somewhat tolerable here.  Unfortunately, to navigate this environment you have to drive a dune buggy (until you eventually unlock the desert turbo upgrade for your hoverboard, which I highly recommend doing ASAP because it easily cuts travel time in half), which is one of the worst-controlling vehicles I've ever seen in a game.  The slightest movement causes the buggy to drift out of control, and the slightest contact with just about anything will cause it to flip over.  Naturally, just about every enemy buggy in the game's top priority is to ram you.  Naturally.

To get back to its good parts, there is a much greater emphasis on platforming this game, and it generally works very well.  And when the game returns to New Haven, the city is in such bad shape that there's barely any air traffic anymore and soldiers will no longer trigger alarms when you accidentally run into them.  It makes navigating the city actually tolerable now, though not particularly interesting.  As for the story, there are elements of an interesting narrative here and there, but it feels very under-developed.  The game sets up one character with an interesting motivation to be the main villain...and then he's quickly replaced by a generic terminator as the main villain.  Lame.  The true nature of the Precursors, though, is both brilliant and hilarious, and the ending is a fitting conclusion to the trilogy.

So how does the Jak & Daxter HD Collection hold up as a whole?  Well, I loved the first game, loathed the second game, and I had fun at times with the third game.  I think it's worth checking out, but I have to laugh when people act like this was the best platforming series on the PS2.  C'mon, this mess of a series was "better" than either Sly or Ratchet?   :confused;   Even more oddly, a company that produced games with such abysmal vehicle controls was tasked with making a racing game after Jak 3?  HUH?!  :Q

« Last Edit: February 27, 2012, 04:06:26 PM by broodwars »
There was a Signature here. It's gone now.

Offline broodwars

  • Hunting for a Pineapple Salad
  • Score: -1011
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #510 on: February 27, 2012, 04:32:55 PM »
OK, a couple of other games now to get me caught up:

Rhythm Heaven Fever - Oh hey, a Wii game!  And wonder of wonders, I did not like it.  ::)   Now, full disclosure: I did not finish this game.  I did not even get halfway through it (I only played long enough to unlock the Wrestling and Samurai mini-games, which were the ones I bought the game to play in the first place).  This game is just not for me, as I really didn't enjoy the mini-games I played and several of them I just could not get the rhythm on.  I like the game's sense of style and I really do appreciate that after 3 failures the game will let you just skip the mini-game and unlock the next in the series for you.  My general problem is that the game does a really terrible job of telling the player what they are doing wrong when they fail.  Sure, it'll tell you what you failed at, but not what you did that was wrong.  And there are no guides that I could find that helped me get better at them.  So yeah, I can tell it's a good game with a good variety of wacky ideas, but I just could not stand playing it.  Whubadubaduba that's true? Yes.

Syndicate -
Ok, full disclosure once more: no, I have not played the original Syndicate.  Nor do I plan to.  At the time of this writing I have also not played the game's allegedly great co-op mode, though I do plan to.

That said, I had both a good and frustrating time with Syndicate's Single-player campaign.  Let's get the bad stuff out of the way: first, I don't know what EA's problem is with making their text legible, but I have never seen a company that manages to so consistently publish games where I can't read the on-screen text.  The on-screen text is about the size of the text you're seeing now, even on my nice 26 in. HD TV.  This makes on-screen labels (which there are a ton of since every object in the game has a little text label stating what it is) and the in-game datalog completely unusable to me.

Also, the story and characterization in the single-player campaign are extremely weak, generic cyberpunk.  Whereas one might argue that the characters and stories in the similarly-styled Deus Ex: Human Revolution had some nuance and depth, Syndicate's are outright cyberpunk stereotypes.  Evil corporations?  Check.  A civilization based entirely around commercialism, inhumanity, and every stylistic thing displayed in Blade Runner?  Check.  Inevitable betrayals by said individuals?  Check.  Silent Protagonist with an extremely silly name (Miles Kilo)?  Check-wait, WHAT?  Yep, that's right: In a game that features a lot of radio chatter and conversations, you spend the entirety of it being talked at because your character both doesn't speak, and characters within the game do not act like he ever does.

That said, as completely stock as the game's story and setting are, I thought the game did an excellent job in selling its atmosphere, and the things you do within the various levels I found very entertaining.  Because I couldn't read half the things the game displayed at me, it took me a long time to get settled into the flow of Syndicate's combat, but once I did I enjoyed it.  There's a great sense of empowerment and strategy into every combat scenario, and I was never bored.  Much like The Darkness 2 recently, I felt there was a lot of emphasis on experimentation and adaptation, trying to take advantage of any opportunities available to survive against some pretty tough odds.  And despite all the inevitable detrimental comparisons this game has drawn against Deus Ex: HR, this game easily surpasses it in the shooting mechanics and boss fights, each of which feels like its own unique experience emphasizing different abilities and tactics.  Unfortunately, there's no New Game+ option, as I'd like to play the beginning of the game again with all my upgrades to get the rest of the upgrades and see if I'd have enjoyed the first half of the campaign much better.

Taken on its own merits as a Cyberpunk shooter, I enjoyed Syndicate.  It's not the best FPS I've ever played, but I think it brings enough unique to the table to merit a recommendation if you're somewhat curious.

« Last Edit: February 27, 2012, 04:36:41 PM by broodwars »
There was a Signature here. It's gone now.

Offline Lithium

  • disparaging user title
  • Score: 14
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #511 on: February 28, 2012, 01:05:08 PM »
a boy and his blob (wii)
alright i give up, I can see that this game is obviously well crafted but I finished the first two worlds and i'm just not having fun.  Gameplay wise it feels very bland. I gave up since i didn't see the point if I was grinding through it just for the sake of saying that i completed it, I made it through half of the game so I'd say i at least gave it a fair shake.


I'll let it sit for a bit to see if i want to give it another shot but right now I'm just met with apathy towards this game.
« Last Edit: February 28, 2012, 04:39:28 PM by Lithium »

Offline lolmonade

  • I wanna ride dolphins with you in the moonlight until the staff at Sea World kicks us out
  • *
  • Score: 29
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #512 on: February 29, 2012, 07:58:08 AM »
Skylanders (PS3) - Originally bought this for my wife to enjoy, but I ended up giving her so many tips that I decided to join in instead of being an annoyed spectator.  Gameplay is very akin to Gauntlet (N64) in that you explore areas for keys to further progress the levels, but there are sections that are restricted unless you are playing with a certain element type (there are 7, typical earth, water, fire, magic, etc).  Fortunately you can swap your characters on the fly, but only if you own the different figurines, which plays into the whole "physical DLC" moniker people use while describing the game.  These extra areas mostly consist of collectable hats that give your character a stat boost, but they aren't necessary to enjoy the game if you're just wanting to use the initial three figurines you get.
 
  Each of the characters have fairly different play styles that suit the needs of different levels along the way, which is another means of them encouraging you purchase more of their figurines, so you can have options.  If you lose all your health as one character during a level, you can no longer use that character until the level ends, but you can continue on with another one until you run out of them or beat the level (you'll beat the level first).  If this weren't geared towards kids, I would have a bit more disappointed that there wasn't any more cost to revive them, because it would force a player to think a bit more about how they play a level.
 
We ended up owning approx. 9 different characters, but have invested only about $80 in the Playstation 3 game, figurines, and the 3DS game thanks to some trade-in credit and buying used as much as possible.  If you're not interested in the online interaction or the collectible cards that come with the characters, then I highly suggest going to your local used video game outlet.  We filled in all of our elemental gaps (as far as I know) by doing this method, paying 1/2 what they cost at retail. 
 
Overall, I have enjoyed playing the game (I don't think we're more than 25% through the game).  I can't get too invested in the story as it's very silly and saturday-morning cartoon style, but again, geared towards kids.
 
Score - 7.5/10 (add 2 points if considering for a kid)
 
Side note: I haven't played a Spyro game since the original PS1...what the heck did they do to him?!?!
« Last Edit: February 29, 2012, 09:53:01 AM by lolmonade »

Offline Lithium

  • disparaging user title
  • Score: 14
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #513 on: March 04, 2012, 03:51:56 AM »
alright i decided that i would wrap up metroid prime 2 on the trillogy disk since i had an itch to play and i left off right before the Torvus Bog boss and just finished everything in the Sanctuary Fortress, unfortunately in prime 2 the worlds arent as interesting as in prime until you get there. The Sanctuary Fortress is pretty awesome and up until that point like nothing you've seen in the prime games.

Now I just have the 10 key fetch quest to get into the Sky Fortress, not that i could even tell since all the dark world locations look exactly the same, seriously this game makes me hate the colour purple.
----


Update:

after traveling around the game world doing the sky temple key fetch quest (not that i could even tell since all the dark world locations look exactly the same, seriously this game makes me hate the colour purple) and beating the incredibly frustrating emperor ing which has got to be the worst designed boss in metroid history (Seriously, even with the wii controlls) in which you have to beat 3 forms, the first two being increibly annoying where you have to aim straight up in a 90 degree angle most of the time and the 2nd form where you're in the morph ball trying to bomb weakspots but tentacles knock you off into the poisonous gas below in one hit and finally the final form which from a gameplay perspective is actually decent but by then your health is so beaten down and his health bar so massive that you'll end up dying a few times. (which doesn't sound so bad until you realize that's about a half an hour down the drain each time) Oh yeah btw when you die you get to complete the entire fight again.


Then when you finally kill the emperor ing you have to escape before the world explodes (literally) but then theres no save point after the boss, and just as you're about to make your escape you have to fight ANOTHER BOSS... to which I exclaimed..


NO! NOO! NOOOO!
It's not fair!



luckilly however the boss wasn't that hard, it's just there to troll you when you think you were about to end the game. I never beat this game before since i rage quit while playing it on the gamecube back when it was new. However I 100% completed this game, ironically so i never have to play this game ever again. Don't get me wrong, mechanically its a good game but the dark world ruins the experience for me, I hated the art design in there (I hope you like Purple!) and it was just a royal pain in the ass to get through (oh wait, the item i needed to get is here but in the dark world! oh well i guess i better traverse halfway across the map to get to a light portal!) it might not have been so bad if you ever got an equivalent to a link to the past's mirror but you don't.


so dark world, you can go eat a dick.
light world, you're cool.


7/10
its amazing how someone who can love Metroid prime so much (its actually my favorite game of all time, and i usually replay it at least once a year) can be so ambivalent to it's sequel (comparatively) but there you go.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2012, 09:08:05 PM by Lithium »

Offline Shaymin

  • Not my circus, not my monkeys
  • NWR Staff
  • Score: 70
    • View Profile
    • You're on it
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #514 on: March 04, 2012, 07:42:55 AM »
Final Fantasy II (PSP)

fgsfds / 10

I'm sorry, but when Frog'd characters are using Maiden's Kiss items (which cure Frog status) and they are MISSING, your game is officially broken. It's like they created the "predict what you want to do and screw you at every opportunity" gene that would later infest Pokemon's Battle Frontiers.

I only beat this game because I'm trying to beat every Final Fantasy mainline game (substituting direct sequels where the MMOs go) this year, and I'm so glad I got this one over with because it means I never have to play it again.
Donald Theriault - News Editor, Nintendo World Report / 2016 Nintendo World Champion
Tutorial box out.

Offline Ymeegod

  • Score: -16
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #515 on: March 13, 2012, 03:40:40 AM »
Finished up El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (Xbox 360) and here's my quick review:

Gameplay wise the game throws in tons of platform jumping (mix of 2D and 3D) with a little bit of 3rd person action.  The jumping puzzles are a bit basic but I still found them a nice throwback to earlier days and the checkpoint/restart points where great, fall of cliff, restart at the same point from your attempt.  The combat is the same, fail in battle you can can revive your character to that specific spot. 

Story, while it does tell a tale it's a complete mess, something about angels falling to the darkside, your job to capture them to overturn god's plan of flooding the earth. 

Where the game shines is the art direction.  The levels are something to see, not for the design since it's linear but for the visual aspect of it. 

The sound is the same as the art, the music is great but the effects are average.

Nice rental game, an 7/10.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Offline Ceric

  • Once killed four Deviljho in one hunt
  • Score: 0
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #516 on: March 13, 2012, 09:49:40 AM »
Finished Mass Effect finally.

Once I figured out that there was nothing in the game I couldn't kill with my Pistol and Sniper rifles things changed for me.  The Mako became just a fast travel mount to get me to Mountain Sniper positions where I would then Devastate everything that was meant to be killed by the Mako.  Which also give you 4 times the XP for doing that way.

When I had stopped earlier I had lefted the Citadel and was dumped into the Galaxy.  If I would have pushed on more they game got more direction later.  The equipment situation never got better.  I was clearing my bags more then finding anything useful.

Geth are Easy but Krogans are a pain.

I ended the game at Level 49.  If the last boss would have given me some XP I would have been 50.  In my first play through no less.  I'm a little annoyed by the Achievements.  Mainly you can't get a lot of them with 1 play through.  I didn't get Quiran and Krogan ally.  I exclusively used those two since getting them...  I had maxed out my Charm and Intimidation stats and there were still options that weren't available in the game.  The giving of Renegade points seem random.  A clear good choice had given my Renegade points.  Which you can get when Charming.  I never get Paragon points when Intimidating.

Also I did get the Romance scene with Kaiden.  That wasn't hard.  When it was time to make the games "Hard Choice" the only reason it was hard for me was just deciding who I thought was more amusing because I didn't really care much about either of them.

Overall its a good game and the story is interesting.  I got my character imported into Mass Effect 2.  I'm a little wary of Ammo.


8/10
Need a Personal NonCitizen-Magical-Elf-Boy-Child-Game-Abused-King-Kratos-Play-Thing Crimm Unmaker-of-Worlds-Hunter-Of-Boxes
so, I don't have to edit as Much.

Offline broodwars

  • Hunting for a Pineapple Salad
  • Score: -1011
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #517 on: March 19, 2012, 07:44:15 PM »
I suppose I've put off talking about these 3 games long enough...

Journey - Well, it was exactly what I thought it would be coming from the creators of Flower: a pretentious arthouse project that reminded me heavily of Doug Walker's (The Nostalgia Critic) review of The Cell.  The storytelling is so vague and open to interpretation I constantly imagined Jenova Chen (one of the head guys at That Game Company) jumping around in the background screaming "Ask me what it means! Ask me what it means!"

Visually, this game should present a lot of problems for me, as I despise deserts in video games.  "I hate sand.  It gets everywhere...", it limits the color palette to various shades of brown, and it limits visual variety to sand dunes and rock.  However, I think That Game Company did an astounding job making a desert look interesting.  The game world has a vague Shadow of the Colossus-esque feel to it of an empty and dead world where people used to live, and I really felt interested in exploring and learning more about it.  The game has astounding use of lighting, no better exemplified than the sequence where you "surf" through gates down a continuous sand "slide" at sunset, the sand glittering like gold in the sunlight.  Throw in some aquatic-looking underground sections and some really lovely snowy areas late in the game, and this is a very attractive-looking game.

I just wish there was more to do in it, and that the game itself was longer than at most 2 hours.  You spend most of that time wandering around, hoping that the game will finally pick up the pace and let you enjoy the experience more than just constantly trudging through sand.  You have a flight ability that's a lot of fun to use, but it drains your scarf quickly and needs to be constantly recharged.  The only way to enjoy the game at its most fun and with the most energy is to find all the hidden glyphs in the game to unlock the white cape that has a regenerating scarf.  There's a co-op system in the game that's interesting, but to me the lack of any real ability to communicate in a game that's largely about communication is a misstep.

Overall, I liked Journey, but I think Flower was a much more meaningful experience and there really aren't any emotional beats in Journey that weren't done better and with more visual flavor in Flower.  It's a pretentious arthouse game that's been making game critics go insane, but I really don't think it's worth the $15 for a 2 hour game with limited replay value.

I also recently played the two God of War Origins games: Chains of Olympus HD and Ghost of Sparta HD, and....they're definitely God of War games.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Everything I like about God of War games is there (the even more-twisted Greek mythology, the flow of combat, etc.) and everything I don't is there as well (Kratos the generically angry, cheap enemies, etc.).  They're obviously both PSP games blown-up to HD, though the HD conversion is pretty amazing in Ghost of Sparta (it's about up-to-par with the PS2 GoW HD conversions, which is impressive considering the PSP is weaker than the PS2) and both games benefit enormously from having a defensive roll mapped to the right analog stick.

If I had one major complaint about both games, though, it's that they feel very safe.  While both games definitely make a valiant effort to change-up the gameplay with secondary weapons and spells that are definitely useful, the overall flow of the game is the same as it's ever been in the God of War series.  That isn't to say that either game is bad, though.  Chains of Olympus was an entertaining ride when it wasn't irritating me with some of its QTEs, and I think I like Ghost of Sparta and its storytelling far more than God of War 3.  I just wish both games were more ambitious than they were.

On a sidenote, I did manage to Platinum both these games (#s 56 & 57), which was a delight considering I've never been able to even get close on the other God of War games.  And whoever came up with these trophies has a great sense of humor because the circumstances you get them in and the names they have are hilarious.  I especially love that there's a trophy in Chains of Olympus for "completing all beam crossings" (I hate crossing beams in GoW games) when there's only ONE beam in the entire game; it's very wide; and it's in the very first room of the game.   ;D


 
« Last Edit: March 19, 2012, 07:48:58 PM by broodwars »
There was a Signature here. It's gone now.

Offline Halbred

  • Staff Paleontologist, Ruiner of Worlds
  • NWR Staff
  • Score: 17
    • View Profile
    • When Pigs Fly Returns
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #518 on: March 20, 2012, 05:43:54 PM »
I still need to get the PSP HD collection. I don't think they're "safe" so much as "packed as much as we could onto a UMD." I like them both a lot because there's no room for extraneous crap. Everything about the games feels tight and honed for a quick portable ride.
This would be my PSN Trophy Card, but I guess I can't post HTML in my Signature. I'm the pixel spaceship, and I have nine Gold trophies.

Offline Lithium

  • disparaging user title
  • Score: 14
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #519 on: March 20, 2012, 08:48:59 PM »
Super Paper Mario

The writing while very good is too plentiful, which lead to me just mash the 2 button screaming "JUST LET ME PLAY THE DAMNED GAME" that aside, it was pretty enjoyable but I wouldn't blame anyone for dropping the game because of the sheer volume of text.


With Super Paper Mario down, I only have one game left on my Backlog :D
« Last Edit: March 20, 2012, 08:51:00 PM by Lithium »

Offline NWR_insanolord

  • Rocket Fuel Malt Liquor....DAMN!
  • NWR Staff Pro
  • Score: -18986
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #520 on: March 20, 2012, 08:50:30 PM »
The text is really well written, and is a testament to how good the Treehouse team is, but there is a whole hell of a lot of it.
Insanolord is a terrible moderator.

J.P. Corbran
NWR Community Manager and Soccer Correspondent

Offline Ymeegod

  • Score: -16
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #521 on: March 22, 2012, 05:48:25 AM »
Just finished up Gears of War 3 Single Player mode (Xbox 360) and here's a quick breakdown.

There's not much new or "great" about this game.  A few new weapons, enemy types, female AI partners, but there's not much else that's new.  The maps don't have memorable pieces, the voice acting is average, and the plot is just utter nonsense. 

7/10--decent, a sequel that doesn't take any risks.

Offline ejamer

  • Does he even know Khushrenada?!?
  • Score: 24
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #522 on: March 22, 2012, 11:47:35 AM »
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Wow... how to rate this game.

The story is interesting and well enough written/translated that it really does make you want to see what happens, and since this is essentially a glorified "Choose Your Own Adventure" book turned into a game, that's great news.  But outside of the story, the actual gameplay involved is very limited and weak.

Escape the room puzzles have never been a favorite of mine as they often rely less on logic than on pixel-hunting skills, and the puzzles you must solve here have no pressure - there is no risk of failure or death due to making a mistake or running out of time during puzzle segments.

Even good points like the multiple endings can be frustrating when you find out how much time must be wasted playing through scenarios and discussions that you have already completed. The option to fast-forward text is good, but means you often spend minutes at a time doing nothing but holding a button and waiting for your chance to alter the path of events. Finally, getting the "true" ending requires either a reasonable amount of luck, a ridiculous amount of time, or the willingness to check a FAQ.

Note: I used a FAQ that showed the high level paths (no details) after getting a couple of endings, and am very glad that I did.  I would also recommend that anyone else playing the game do the same thing.

In the end, the compelling story wins out and makes the game worth playing despite feelings of disappointment that gameplay aspects weren't more exciting or challenging to match the intensity of the story being presented.

Rating: (just go play it) / 10
NNID: ejamer

Offline broodwars

  • Hunting for a Pineapple Salad
  • Score: -1011
    • View Profile
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #523 on: March 22, 2012, 04:30:23 PM »
I really need to get around to playing the Gears of Wars games one day. I'm only interested in playing the SP, though (because seriously...**** paying for online play).

I recently finished Silent Hill 2 HD (via the Silent Hill HD Collection), and I hate to be the one slaughtering all the sacred cows around here but I didn't really like this game back when I originally played it on PC (I'm sure Morari will love that) and I'm still really not a fan of it now.  While the atmosphere is superb and the story is arguably the best in the franchise, the actual GAME part of the experience is just dreadful.  Hit detection is all over the place, the combat is stiff and clunky at best, important clues and items are often hidden where you would only find them if you already knew where they were, the game does an astoundingly bad job of directing the player where they need to go and what they need to do, and a lot of the experience is just...boring.  It reminds me of Greg's impression of the response to No More Heroes: "It's a game that dares to bore you.  Well, daring or not I'm still ****ING BORED!"  And don't get me started on how bad the controls and camera are, even with the controls set to the ironically-named "2D mode" (which actually gives you more control over your 3D movement than the tank controls-esque "3D mode").

If it sounds like I'm bagging on an old game for having flaws common to old games of its genre that don't hold up today, it's not.  No, they certainly don't hold up today, but I had these issues with the game when I originally played it.  I'm much more of a Silent Hill 3/4/Homecoming fan, because at least those put some effort into the whole "gameplay" aspect of being a video game.

As for the HD conversion for this collection, it's pretty mediocre but I'm not sure how much better such an early-generation PS2 game with a realistic art style could look in HD.  It looks about the same as my old PC copy of SH2 looked, and that's...acceptable, I guess.  The big new feature of this version, though, is the DRAMATICALLY better new English dub helmed by Troy Baker as James and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn as Maria/(spoiler).  Words can't convey how much better these performances are over the originals, especially McGlynn's.  The only real downside to the new dub is that Konami didn't put any work whatsoever into making the new dub synch over the old animations (probably because fan bitching caused them to make the old, inferior dub available at nearly any time).  There are also numerious sound effects missing from various scenes, and some odd news ones that just pop up at random.

The die-hards should also be warned that apparently Konami also edited 2 seconds of footage from the infamous "Pyramid Head rape scene" with the mannequin legs early in the game. I've played the game 3 times now and I didn't notice the footage missing, but it's having the GameFAQs folks screaming bloody murder right now.

Overall, Silent Hill 2 is an important game for what it's done for the franchise, but I can't help but think that everything it does well is in spite of being a game, not because it's a game.  I don't think it deserves all the praise it gets as a great game, but I do still think the excellent story (helped a great deal by the gaming finally having a competent English dub) and atmosphere make it worth checking out.

I'm going to put some distance between me and this collection for a while before I check out the HD version of Silent Hill 3, especially since I still have to force myself to restart my playthrough of the new Silent Hill Downpour.  Meanwhile, it's back to Tales of Graces F for me.  The Tales games are well-known for their absurd length so it'll be a while before I can properly review this, but here's a hint: if you have a PS3 and like JRPGs, you should play this game.
There was a Signature here. It's gone now.

Offline Halbred

  • Staff Paleontologist, Ruiner of Worlds
  • NWR Staff
  • Score: 17
    • View Profile
    • When Pigs Fly Returns
Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
« Reply #524 on: March 23, 2012, 09:23:46 PM »
I actually think SH3 is the better game, overall--gameplay and storyline considered. Far darker, far creepier at times.
This would be my PSN Trophy Card, but I guess I can't post HTML in my Signature. I'm the pixel spaceship, and I have nine Gold trophies.