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Gaming Forums => Nintendo Gaming => Reader Reviews => Topic started by: D_Average on September 12, 2009, 09:43:58 PM

Title: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on September 12, 2009, 09:43:58 PM
In drive by fashion, this thread is a place to toss up a quick review for the last game you played.  Whether you played it 5 mins, or 5 months, toss it out there and let the developer know how you felt.  Hell, you can even throw demos in here, just make sure to specify.  I'll start:

PS3 - Los Angeles Club Midnight - 3/5
Though the graphics and controls were nice, the overall experience just felt booooring.  Nothing new for me.  But a solid game for fans of thug racing.  I only rented it b/c Batman was all gone.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 12, 2009, 09:50:08 PM
Silent Hill (via PSN download on PS3) - 2/10.  I'm amazed this game ever got a sequel, let alone ones as good as Silent Hills 2; 3; 4; and Homecoming.  Even lousier combat than is typical for the series, incredibly confusing progression, pseudo-biblical and paper-thin story that suddenly gets...not explained at all in the final 5 minutes of the game, bizarre and nonsensical cast of monsters, incredibly obtuse puzzles, and elements just strange for the series like your radio-emitting a telephone ring instead of a radio crackle.  O_o  Still really good atmosphere and sound, though.  Well, the series had to start somewhere...

I actually just put down my pre-order for Shattered Memories today, because I figure however bad that game is it can't be as bad as the original.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: kraken613 on September 12, 2009, 09:57:00 PM
The Beatles: Rock Band - PS3

10/10

ITS THE BEATLES!!!
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Morari on September 12, 2009, 10:47:43 PM
Wolfenstein - PC

7/10

Solid gameplay and nicely done graphics, especially in comparison to what we're used to seeing from Id's Tech4 engine. That said, the paranormal elements were surprisingly scarce and the regenerative health (ala Halo and Call of Duty) made the game far too easy. The HUB area was squandered by not really having much to do, and the opposing factions weren't played up enough (both negative steaming from the lack of side missions, I believe). The ending was pretty lame too. Hans Grosse should have simply been a sub-boss, and we should have fought him in a level akin to his from Wolfenstein 3D. That said, a good handful of the environments were interesting, and the combat was solid. I really wish that I could have turned my mouse sensitivity up a lot higher however. Also, next time Raven makes a game, they should leave all of the dumbed-down console **** out. The menus were especially bad about this.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on September 12, 2009, 11:02:56 PM
Virtual Valerie - PC

#/10

It's old, but i can do almost anything I want.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Mop it up on September 12, 2009, 11:28:35 PM
Mario Kart Wii

8/10

Enjoyable, unpredictable gameplay, but lacking in presentation and modes.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on September 13, 2009, 01:04:19 AM
My memories of Silent Hill are clouded by nostalgia, so it'll be interesting to catch up with it. I'm saving this one for the airplane to London, when I have no other choice. Well, besides Mario & Luigi 3 or FlipNote.

12-hour plane ride = epic penis gag animation.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: BranDonk Kong on September 13, 2009, 01:18:22 AM
Rock Band 2 - 9.5/10
It would be a perfect game if it had Expert+ like GH Metallica and the newer games.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 13, 2009, 03:27:55 AM
I won't count Blueberry Garden because I didn't play it so much as laughed about the absolutely inexcusable performance on my system before Alt-f4'ing it.

AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA! A Reckless Disregard For Gravity (PC)

Plain, simple fun with a really random sense of humour. Some levels aren't as interesting as others and sometimes the feedback on how well you're doing is a bit lacking but all that goes out of the window when you're again trying to avoid smashing your face on a girder while flipping some protestors off and defacing a government building.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on September 13, 2009, 03:30:58 AM
Muramasa: 8/10

I'm impressed so far, the visuals are absolutely stunning and the fighting mechanics are lots of fun. I only dock it because each world tends reuse assets section to section.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Stogi on September 13, 2009, 04:41:48 PM
Double Dragon II NES

Every since I gave away my Wii, I've been backlogging all my old games that I've never been able to beat. Double Dragon II was one of them.

There's a lot of things to like about this game. First of all, it can be hilarious. Second of all, once you figure out how to pull of moves like the tiger knee or the uppercut, things become a lot more interesting.

But there's also a lot to hate about this game and it all stems from one game-breaking mechanic: jumping. I hate this game sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much because of the stupid platforming elements. I can beat the **** out of dagger throwing ninjas, dual sword wielding soldiers, terminator looking motherfuckers, and even texas chainsaw super men, but I CAN"T JUMP ONTO THIS STUPID FUCKING DISAPPEARING PLATFORM. This isn't mario, this isn't a game about jumping. It's a game about beating the **** out of everyone on screen.

I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 14, 2009, 03:30:47 AM
Air Raid (http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=20296)

I think it's awesome but if I didn't think that I would hardly be making it, right?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: vudu on September 14, 2009, 01:55:51 PM
Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure - 8/10

It's a pretty good 2D action-platformer mixed with Planet Puzzle League.  What's not to like?  Gets pretty darn difficult near the end (I'm currently stuck on the final boss).

Virtual Valerie - PC

#/10

It's old, but i can do almost anything I want.

I lol'd.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 14, 2009, 03:40:43 PM
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (PC)

Got it for 5€ so I figured I could take the risk with a tactical shooter, so far I get the shooter part but teammates seem fairly unnecessary so far because I can kill enemies way faster just by manually shooting them than by hoping they'll finally hit one. Even alone it's mostly just being careful and spotting enemies quickly. One shot kills an enemy (even if it's just to the hand or something) so it's fairly easy.

Of course I'm not very far yet so that will probably change later on.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: EasyCure on September 15, 2009, 10:21:07 AM
StarFox Command: 5/10

I'd actually rate this game under StarFox Assault..
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on September 15, 2009, 06:51:50 PM
StarFox Command: 5/10

I'd actually rate this game under StarFox Assault..

Wow someone who agrees with me that StarFox Command was pretty average, I found it horrific to control, not to mention extremely bland and repetitive. The open worlds had promise but they had little variety.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 15, 2009, 07:11:47 PM
StarFox Command: 5/10

I'd actually rate this game under StarFox Assault..

Wow someone who agrees with me that StarFox Command was pretty average, I found it horrific to control, not to mention extremely bland and repetitive. The open worlds had promise but they had little variety.

Ditto here as well.  I did really like the Strategy portion of the game.  Pity the actual shooting action is such a chore to control and so painfully uninteresting as well as boasting a completely arbitrary time limit.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on September 15, 2009, 07:31:22 PM
StarFox Command: 5/10

I'd actually rate this game under StarFox Assault..

Wow someone who agrees with me that StarFox Command was pretty average, I found it horrific to control, not to mention extremely bland and repetitive. The open worlds had promise but they had little variety.

Ditto here as well.  I did really like the Strategy portion of the game.  Pity the actual shooting action is such a chore to control and so painfully uninteresting as well as boasting a completely arbitrary time limit.

Yeah the strategy element was fun but everything did go down the drain pretty fast when you went into the battle arena.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on September 16, 2009, 12:03:52 AM
PS3 - Dirt 2 - 4/5

Fun, flashy, gritty.  However, at the end of the day, nothing really too new to see here.  Just a very well crafted off road racer.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 16, 2009, 07:27:56 AM
Saints Row 2 (PC)

The framerate is total arse (AFAIK reviews complained that you can't get a decent framerate with any reasonable system) and the controls are questionable. It's a very fun game but the framerate hurts the controls at times (e.g. when steering a car) though the gun aiming seems to work well with the mouse, I have no difficulty headshotting car drivers. I know the PC port is shoddy, that's why I only paid 5€ for it. At that price it was worth the risk.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: EasyCure on September 16, 2009, 08:32:22 AM
StarFox Command: 5/10

I'd actually rate this game under StarFox Assault..

Wow someone who agrees with me that StarFox Command was pretty average, I found it horrific to control, not to mention extremely bland and repetitive. The open worlds had promise but they had little variety.

Ditto here as well.  I did really like the Strategy portion of the game.  Pity the actual shooting action is such a chore to control and so painfully uninteresting as well as boasting a completely arbitrary time limit.

Yeah the strategy element was fun but everything did go down the drain pretty fast when you went into the battle arena.

Exactly. The strategy element held promise and made sense as an edition to the gameplay, considering the storyline, but the biggest problem is it took precedent over what makes StarFox games what they are; shooting down bogies and flying through space obstacle courses! Add that with the terribly uncomfortable control system* and the fact that all stages are "all-range" stages (oh and the fan-fic that they called a storyline) and this StarFox was just a dud.

I actually thought about making a new StarFox Wii discussion topic when I noticed the last one (rumoured NP thread) was locked, but I'd be afraid I'd just end up ranting about how bland this game was. It did some things right, but for every step forward there were two steps back until you ended up just kinda stuck in the middle.. hence the average score.

*One note about the controls; Using a Comfort Stylus (the bendable rubbery ones) makes the game a little more comfortable to control, but not much. With one of those wrapped around your thumb in a certain way, you can control it as if you were using an analog stick, but more importantly lets you distribute the weight of the DS evenly in your hands, as opposed to letting one hand hold it up to hit the fire button while the second hand hovers over the screen with a normal stylus. You'll cramp less this way, and it makes playing thru this EPICLY SHORT GAME just a little more bearable.

The only trade off the controls had was that because of the games hard-on for all-range levels, you didn't need to manauver all that much to avoid enemy fire/flying in to ****. The most manauvering you had to do was fly through those red gates two destroy missiles and motherships. Just imagine how much you'd have to slide your stylus around if the game played anything like the first 2 star fox titles? Again, this is something that took away a series staple.

Better luck next time, I hope.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 16, 2009, 10:06:15 AM
MS Gundam: MS Sensen 0079 (Wii)

A pretty nice FPS for the Wii, the beamsaber fighting is just pure waggle due to the way the game interprets the input though (you pretty much have to swing the Wiimote before you can swing the actual sword again to continue a combo, it queues those inputs up) and almost all the heavy weapons have too little ammo (except for the megacannons on the Zeon amphib mechs, those things deal out death like it's on sale). The cost balancing is a bit questionable too (why does the Gelgoog cost 145 points without a weapon when you can just take the Z'Gok for 85 and it comes with dual beam guns and a crapload of ammo while any beam weapon would run you an additional 25+ points with the Gelgoog and be depleted after the first 3-4 enemies you fight?) and the game has an epic hard on for escort missions but it's still pretty fun.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: EasyCure on September 16, 2009, 10:41:23 AM
KDR, you're playing so many games right now i don't understand how you have the time to post about them on the forums :P
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 16, 2009, 12:17:28 PM
It's easy, semester break.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 17, 2009, 02:09:42 PM
Droplitz (PC)

More or less my go-to casual puzzle game. It's a LOT of fun but extremely badly made, it'll freeze my PC quite often (after requiring a workaround to even START), the last two times after using the freeze powerup... I've heard from plenty of people who couldn't even get it to run at all.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: DAaaMan64 on September 18, 2009, 04:26:09 AM
StarFox Command: 5/10

I'd actually rate this game under StarFox Assault..

Wow someone who agrees with me that StarFox Command was pretty average, I found it horrific to control, not to mention extremely bland and repetitive. The open worlds had promise but they had little variety.

Ditto here as well.  I did really like the Strategy portion of the game.  Pity the actual shooting action is such a chore to control and so painfully uninteresting as well as boasting a completely arbitrary time limit.

Yeah the strategy element was fun but everything did go down the drain pretty fast when you went into the battle arena.

Exactly. The strategy element held promise and made sense as an edition to the gameplay, considering the storyline, but the biggest problem is it took precedent over what makes StarFox games what they are; shooting down bogies and flying through space obstacle courses! Add that with the terribly uncomfortable control system* and the fact that all stages are "all-range" stages (oh and the fan-fic that they called a storyline) and this StarFox was just a dud.

I actually thought about making a new StarFox Wii discussion topic when I noticed the last one (rumoured NP thread) was locked, but I'd be afraid I'd just end up ranting about how bland this game was. It did some things right, but for every step forward there were two steps back until you ended up just kinda stuck in the middle.. hence the average score.

*One note about the controls; Using a Comfort Stylus (the bendable rubbery ones) makes the game a little more comfortable to control, but not much. With one of those wrapped around your thumb in a certain way, you can control it as if you were using an analog stick, but more importantly lets you distribute the weight of the DS evenly in your hands, as opposed to letting one hand hold it up to hit the fire button while the second hand hovers over the screen with a normal stylus. You'll cramp less this way, and it makes playing thru this EPICLY SHORT GAME just a little more bearable.

The only trade off the controls had was that because of the games hard-on for all-range levels, you didn't need to manauver all that much to avoid enemy fire/flying in to ****. The most manauvering you had to do was fly through those red gates two destroy missiles and motherships. Just imagine how much you'd have to slide your stylus around if the game played anything like the first 2 star fox titles? Again, this is something that took away a series staple.

Better luck next time, I hope.

WTF ALL OF YOU

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=27074.0

Muramasa, 9.somthing outa 10. This game is real addicting beautiful and fun. Been marathoning it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on September 21, 2009, 08:47:17 PM
PS3 - Stuntman Ignition - 4/5

Despite average reviews.  This game if very unique and a blast to play.  On top of that, the presentation and different directors you work with are executed quite well.  I think the reason the reviews stunk it up is the reviewers played it all in one sitting.  Its not that type of game, as you have to restart or retry a LOT.  But, in short bursts, its tons o fun, to live the life of a stuntman on a wide variety of sets, vehicles, and tricks.  Sadly, I think the franchise is now dead.

Had they retroactively included trophies, the game would have been a 5.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 23, 2009, 07:49:15 AM
I came across some free MMO called Entropia Online and tried to use it but apparently all you can do without spending real money is stand around and get maimed by wildlife (yes I asked another player about that). I'm normally not one for scores but I can confidently award this a 0/10 and would like a refund on the time and bandwidth I wasted on it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 26, 2009, 10:26:37 AM
Armored Core For Answer:
10% "hey this is like a Gundam game", 10% "cool, customization!", 80% "WTF?"

It vomits enough stats at you to fill the whole screen and the manual doesn't even explain a fraction of them. Your only hope is to stick stuff together and hope that it flies and has enough dakka.

Also what idiot decided that the firing functions should go on the bumpers while the thrusters go on the trigger?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 27, 2009, 07:34:45 PM
Bioshock - 10/10 - I recently replayed this game twice on both Hard and Survivor Difficulty levels with the Vita-Chambers turned-off, and it really showed off just how incredible the game's design is.  Despite playing the same game twice back-to-back, I had two different experiences and ended up exploring new tactics using weapons and plasmids I never used before.  The game constantly asks you to improvise on the higher difficulty levels, and it's all satisfying.  Still an awesome game, and an awesome showcase for the positive value of an achievement system.  I'd never have played this game like this without it, and it really enhanced my experience.

Fallout 3 - 7/10 - Unfortunately, I can't be so kind here.  With the acquisition of Broken Steel I could finally finish the game, and honestly aside from the story missions the game gets pretty boring when your character hits levels 20-30.  You're just too powerful, and if you've been doing the quests you have all the weapons and armor you'd ever need...and the game just keeps adding more.  There's no more point to exploring and adventuring, because you've seen all the game has of value to offer.  I enjoyed my time with this game, but I'm not playing the other 4 DLC expansions.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on September 29, 2009, 12:41:29 AM
PS3 - Wet - 3/5

Rented this last week.  Its a classic case of controls ruining the fun.  You constantly feel like you're fighting them (as well as the camera).  Given the amount of energy that went into casting voice actors, creating a new IP, and some decent cut scenes, my guess is they ran out of funds and just rushed this one out.  In addition, shooting foes outside of slo mo is pointless.  Had the controls worked fluidily, it would have been a 4/5.  Damn shame.  We'll probably never see a sequel.  I really liked the main character.  I'll take her over Lara Croft any day.  Hot, mysterious, aggressive, and sassy.  She kind of reminded me of a hotter version of the girl from LA Ink.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 29, 2009, 07:55:53 AM
Addendum to my AC for Answer review: With longer playtime the WTF wears off in some areas (but not all, there's still a ton of undocumented stuff), the controls become a bigger issue though. Stopping in order to take off is already extremely annoying (easy way to eat some heavy weapons) but you pretty much HAVE to hold the thruster button down when moving if you don't want to go at a snail's pace (and if you stop even once that makes you take off and fly away) while also working two weapon triggers and the quick dash button. Holding four trigger buttons simultaneously has a tendency to confuse me so I release the wrong button (e.g. the left fire button instead of the thruster button) at times. The control schemes sound like one of them includes auto-boosting when you just push the analog stick to the edge, maybe I'll try to get that working. There's also a quick turn maneuver that is pretty hard to get working and mostly works when you don't want it to (turning you away from your target). Even if I could get the specs of my machine to the levels of mobility enemies exhibit (good maneuverability is probably the hardest thing to get right in the game) there's no way I could control that, I'd lose my target on every second dash and with the way some AI mechs fly that's about two seconds. The only thing I found manageable was a four legged hover mech with dual gatlings where I can just hold down both fire buttons and thruster and only have to worry about hitting the dash at the right time. Anyway, I'm probably at the end boss of my second run-through and have about 20 hours on my save file after one weekend so the game is pretty damn addictive to me.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on October 02, 2009, 02:14:26 PM
I'll make it a bit shorter since I have a batch (a store had a 20% off sale for a few days and over here I have to take what I can get):

Children of Mana (DS): Nice idle game for the commute, it's too easy to be overlevelled for an area though and kill everything with one attack. The strictly level limited equipment doesn't really make loot interesting there but the gem system is somewhat nice, many gems just tend to be too large to be usable though.

Assassin's Creed (360): Finished the first three assassinations so far, while the mechanics are nice it seems like there's a lack of variety in the information gathering activities and the information they yield is practically useless anyway because you'll see it when you approach the target anyway. Maybe it'd have worked better if the activities yielded more important information that's vital for a successful strike. Rescuing citizens all the time gets repetitive too.

Prince of Persia (360): The parcours sections feel pretty rigid since you pretty much just hit the matching button for whatever thing you touch, I haven't seen much timing stuff so far. It's annoying how some actions have the prince pause and wait for Elika to get into position, especially climbing. Combat feels extremely rigid, almost turn based. The prince should've dropped that sarcastic attitude after **** got serious, it just feels retarded to have him act like that while he's fighting for his life.

Viking: Battle for Asgard (360): Hard to say... It's lacking a bit in variety.

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 10, 2009, 11:38:40 PM
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 - Well, it took me nearly a year to finally beat this game (including having to play through most of it twice because I wasn't satisfied with my S-Links and started over), but I finally did with the "True Ending" and all S-Links maxed.  Overall, I'm quite happy with the game and it's by far my favorite Persona game.  I have a few minor issues with the game, such as how it devolves in the stereotypical "save the world!" RPG cliche towards the end (really, merely stopping the homicidal rampage of a deranged serial killer wasn't enough?); how many of the S-Links solve themselves without you really doing anything; and how much of the game feels like a secretarial simulator with all the scheduling.  The music's also all over the place in quality, ranging from mediocre to awesome.  That said, though, the battle system is awesome and the story's very well-written, as are the characters.  9/10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on October 11, 2009, 02:59:37 PM
Got Metal Drift (PC) on an impulse via Steam, was cheap enough. Technically it's not released yet but if you preorder it you get access to the beta which is pretty much the same thing as if they had released the game now (except with a 20% discount). It's pretty fun, especially against real players (which requires finding a server in your area and so far only the US has official servers, I had to play on a user server). It's pretty retarded that all the equipment and weapons are locked away at the beginning and you have to grind up levels to unlock them which is WAY easier in offline botmatches because scoring goals against bots is much easier than against real people and goals bring MAD points. In fact the scoring may be biased so much towards goal scorers that you'll encounter backstabbing from players who'd rather get those points for themselves and noone will play defense because one goal is more points than you'll make as defense in a whole match. That may get fixed though (remember, it's officially beta)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on October 11, 2009, 11:45:37 PM
360/PS3 - DJ Hero - 2/5

Though the remixes are cool and everything on screen looks fine, the actual gameplay is a joke.  It makes Guitar Hero look like a guitar sim.  This game couldn't be further from what scratching/DJ'ing is.  That said, most musicians will scoff at it.  As far as non-musicians and Rock Band fans, I don't really think they'll like it either.  It just feels goofy.  At its core, its just not much fun, and they'll probably realize pretty quickly its a cheap novelty, as many of the notes you hit are during the beat, moving the turntable has nothing to do with a beat.  There's a reason why this genre died over five years ago.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 14, 2009, 05:29:36 PM
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 9/10 - I thought the original Uncharted was rather mediocre, so I was pleasantly surprised by Uncharted 2.  For the most part, they removed the things I hated and made the game faster; more exciting; and much more awesome in general.  Highly recommended, and (for me) possibly Game of the Year material (though it has strong competition from Batman).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Stogi on October 16, 2009, 02:29:57 PM
What about MW:2? Looks like that **** to me.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 17, 2009, 09:49:37 PM
What about MW:2? Looks like that **** to me.

I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in Modern Warfare 2, just as I had absolutely no interest in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.  So from my vantage point, my personal GoTY comes down to either Batman: Arkham Asylum or Uncharted 2...and after all these repeated playthroughs of Uncharted 2 I actually have to lean towards Batman on this one.  Just too many small issues that bug me about Uncharted 2, where Batman is practically flawless in its execution.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on October 17, 2009, 10:17:15 PM
What about MW:2? Looks like that **** to me.

I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in Modern Warfare 2, just as I had absolutely no interest in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.  So from my vantage point, my personal GoTY comes down to either Batman: Arkham Asylum or Uncharted 2...and after all these repeated playthroughs of Uncharted 2 I actually have to lean towards Batman on this one.  Just too many small issues that bug me about Uncharted 2, where Batman is practically flawless in its execution.

Here's a question to anyone who's played Batman.  Its obviously a great game, but my question is, do you think it would it receive the same praise if 95% of all other super hero games didn't suck?

As far as Uncharted 2, I only have a few chapters left, but unless something ridiculous happens, I'm seeing this as my game of the generation.  Just don't foresee anything in the next year oh so that could give it a run for its money for what I'm looking for in a game.  God.  I love it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 17, 2009, 10:20:10 PM
What about MW:2? Looks like that **** to me.

I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in Modern Warfare 2, just as I had absolutely no interest in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.  So from my vantage point, my personal GoTY comes down to either Batman: Arkham Asylum or Uncharted 2...and after all these repeated playthroughs of Uncharted 2 I actually have to lean towards Batman on this one.  Just too many small issues that bug me about Uncharted 2, where Batman is practically flawless in its execution.

Here's a question to anyone who's played Batman.  Its obviously a great game, but my question is, do you think it would it receive the same praise if 95% of all other super hero games didn't suck?

I'd like to say it wouldn't because I'm predisposed to be cynical, but I think the game can stand on its own merits.  I think we'd be seeing the same praise if weren't a rare case of a good licensed superhero game, but perhaps less enthusiastic?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on October 18, 2009, 04:05:53 PM
What about MW:2? Looks like that **** to me.

I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in Modern Warfare 2, just as I had absolutely no interest in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.  So from my vantage point, my personal GoTY comes down to either Batman: Arkham Asylum or Uncharted 2...and after all these repeated playthroughs of Uncharted 2 I actually have to lean towards Batman on this one.  Just too many small issues that bug me about Uncharted 2, where Batman is practically flawless in its execution.

Here's a question to anyone who's played Batman.  Its obviously a great game, but my question is, do you think it would it receive the same praise if 95% of all other super hero games didn't suck?

I'd like to say it wouldn't because I'm predisposed to be cynical, but I think the game can stand on its own merits.  I think we'd be seeing the same praise if weren't a rare case of a good licensed superhero game, but perhaps less enthusiastic?

Yeah, thats what I'm thinking.  It'd still be great, but less enthusiasm and shock.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 04, 2009, 07:08:52 PM
I haven't done one of these in a while, so I'll just throw a bunch of them up here:

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - 7/10.  Still don't like the game, though you can't argue with the technical polish.  The gunplay's just too tedious, especially after playing the sequel.

A Boy & His Blob - 8/10.  Fun game that needed more content.  Never did get the hang of the Cannon Blob, so I didn't complete 2 of the Challenge missions in World 4 that featured heavy use of that, but I did complete all the others.  Mecha-blob kicks ass.  Pity you get him so late in the game, because I'd have settled for getting a less over-powered blob form in exchange for good puzzle usage.  It's unabashedly a kid's game, but there's nothing wrong with that.  I wish the kid's games when I was growing up (outside of Capcom's efforts) were this good.

Borderlands - 5/10.  Lousy singleplayer game somewhat supported by a good multiplayer mode and addictive loot-hunting.  It's a shame a game this pretty was cursed with such a horrible color palette of brown; darker brown; and gray.

Trine - 9/10.  Awesome adventure-platformer with incredible music and gorgeous graphics.  Pity the framerate dips to sub 10 FPS when there's a lot going on on-screen (as happens frequently in the final levels).  One of the more enjoyable games to Platinum as well, especially with all the Experience bottles to find that are so cleverly hidden and allow for a wide range of strategies.

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction - 8/10.  A decent platformer with good shooting mechanics that's really only hampered by a certain lack of both originality and an impetus to keep playing.  Features lousy Pikmin-esque Clank sections as well as absolutely horrible Sixaxis-controls that thankfully you can disable.  I'm still working on this one, but it's been pretty enjoyable (especially the light-hearted tone set by the humor).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on November 05, 2009, 12:44:58 AM
Wow.  That's the first non raving Borderlands review I've seen. I love the look but I think it's too much of an RPG for me.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 05, 2009, 12:57:41 AM
Wow.  That's the first non raving Borderlands review I've seen. I love the look but I think it's too much of an RPG for me.

Borderlands is far more of an FPS than an RPG.  And as I noted, how much mileage you get out of the game depends entirely on how well you can put together a multiplayer game with 3 of your favorite suckers.  I only played enough multi to Platinum the thing, and during that time the game was passable (as opposed to utterly boring, which is what it's like on your own).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on November 05, 2009, 04:50:21 PM
Last game I played? Torchlight. It's a Diablo clone by the people who made Diablo (not Blizzard, the employees who left and formed their own company). Probably the best implementation of that concept lately, it's just a bit too liberal with "rare" items (you get one of these for every two enchanted items and magic to non-magic items are roughly 1:1...). Also make sure you pick one of the higher difficulties, normal is ridiculously easy.

Other than that, been a while so I can list a few more.

Borderlands: Yep, pretty boring. It's playable alright but lacks much interesting stuff. As a Diablo clone I'd rate it below Hellgate London which had much more extensive equipment options, let you tune the weapons you have instead of grabbing and ditching them and gave you tons of active and passive abilities instead of the pathetic excuse Borderlands gives you.

Brütal Legend: It's a nice game but fell short of what could have been. The characterization and humor fades away as the game progresses, the demo really shows the high point of it, even the inventiveness of the units goes downhill (headbangers were probably the best idea of the bunch, stuff like the fire barons just seem more like generic war stuff instead of music-stuff-turned-weapon). Also it needs more Metal, in the overworld you only got music as long as you stayed near the car and if you died or left the car behind or got a briefing or whatnot the song status gets reset so it'll pick a new one the next time you enter the car, considering many Metal songs are 5+ minutes long that's not a way to enjoy them.

Eufloria: An RTS that lacks strategy, while there's some fun in the early stages when you have to make sure you build up properly the AI almost never punishes you for mistakes and once you get enough seedlings together it's just a boring game of mopping up. The authors hide behind the "ambient gaming" label but IMO they just made a flawed design.

Sacraboar Demo: It looks like a shoddy Arena Wars clone as far as I can tell, not easy though since all I got to see of it was overly condescending tutorials (that force you to "practice" stuff after any sane person should have gotten it, e.g. it doesn't just tell you to click on the minimap to move the view, it then tasks you with clicking on this, clicking on that, etc like the developers seriously expected the player to be so fucking retarded that he can't tell how that works after doing it 1-2 times). Even worse, I did the tutorials in the tutorial mode, the campaign mode duplicates them but unlike the tutorial mode doesn't let you skip any of them. At that point I deleted the demo and filed it under "total garbage".

Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ: A nice DSiWare title ( :P ) though at times I think it gets too fillery and it seems too easy so far. The tutorial was also pretty condescending, acting like humans are incapable of understanding that moving to the left is not the only direction the movement can take you without being explicitly told about it.

Wii Sports Resort: Worse for my arm than Wii Sports baseball. Seems fun so far but I can't play it much because of the pain it causes after prolonged use. I don't think human arms are suitable for constant rapid harsh movements.

Dynasty Warriors Gundam: It's really stupid... Most of the time you bash away at the health of fields by hitting mostly harmless enemies (they barely ever attack) for minutes at a time, then you get to fight a hero who can rape you in no time if you are unlucky and if you die at any point in the mission (and the really hard heroes tend to appear towards the end of 20-30 minute missions) you have to do the whole thing over again, especially the mind-numbing mob bashing.

That may or may not be a complete list, I honestly don't remember.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 11, 2009, 02:35:48 AM
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time - 9/10 - I already gushed about this game enough in the official R&C thread, so I'll keep it brief here: unlike its predecessor Tools of Destruction, A Crack in Time has heart.  It's well-written and I actually cared about the characters (which is something of an achievement with me).  Throw in ingenious time puzzles; particularly funny dialogue; impressive visuals; and even a little Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and you have a phenomenal game.  Newcomers to the series, this is the Ratchet & Clank game to play.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: GoldenPhoenix on November 11, 2009, 02:51:35 AM
I loved Tools of Destruction though.  >:(
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 11, 2009, 03:07:13 AM
I loved Tools of Destruction though.  >:(

Then you should adore A Crack in Time.  ;)  I don't hate Tools of Destruction, and in fact think it's a pretty decent game.  I just constantly felt playing through it that it was missing "something" and after beating A Crack in Time I discovered that it was "heart" and "flow."  Sappy and cliche-ic, I know, but that's what I got out of the games.

BTW, I rated ToD before I had quite beaten it, so now that I have I'm going to revise that to a solid 8/10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: EasyCure on November 21, 2009, 02:23:22 AM
StarFox Command: 5/10

I'd actually rate this game under StarFox Assault..

Wow someone who agrees with me that StarFox Command was pretty average, I found it horrific to control, not to mention extremely bland and repetitive. The open worlds had promise but they had little variety.

Ditto here as well.  I did really like the Strategy portion of the game.  Pity the actual shooting action is such a chore to control and so painfully uninteresting as well as boasting a completely arbitrary time limit.

Yeah the strategy element was fun but everything did go down the drain pretty fast when you went into the battle arena.

Exactly. The strategy element held promise and made sense as an edition to the gameplay, considering the storyline, but the biggest problem is it took precedent over what makes StarFox games what they are; shooting down bogies and flying through space obstacle courses! Add that with the terribly uncomfortable control system* and the fact that all stages are "all-range" stages (oh and the fan-fic that they called a storyline) and this StarFox was just a dud.

I actually thought about making a new StarFox Wii discussion topic when I noticed the last one (rumoured NP thread) was locked, but I'd be afraid I'd just end up ranting about how bland this game was. It did some things right, but for every step forward there were two steps back until you ended up just kinda stuck in the middle.. hence the average score.

*One note about the controls; Using a Comfort Stylus (the bendable rubbery ones) makes the game a little more comfortable to control, but not much. With one of those wrapped around your thumb in a certain way, you can control it as if you were using an analog stick, but more importantly lets you distribute the weight of the DS evenly in your hands, as opposed to letting one hand hold it up to hit the fire button while the second hand hovers over the screen with a normal stylus. You'll cramp less this way, and it makes playing thru this EPICLY SHORT GAME just a little more bearable.

The only trade off the controls had was that because of the games hard-on for all-range levels, you didn't need to manauver all that much to avoid enemy fire/flying in to ****. The most manauvering you had to do was fly through those red gates two destroy missiles and motherships. Just imagine how much you'd have to slide your stylus around if the game played anything like the first 2 star fox titles? Again, this is something that took away a series staple.

Better luck next time, I hope.

WTF ALL OF YOU

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=27074.0

Muramasa, 9.somthing outa 10. This game is real addicting beautiful and fun. Been marathoning it.

meh, i don't listen to people with terrible usernames, OR rainbow bunchies :P



Guitar Hero: Van Halen buh?/meh

how the hell is this game lacking features introduced in GH5??? GH5 made some decent strides in updating the series formula, and they promte getting a free copy of GH:VH only to have you think "wow what a peice of ****, glad this was free".

there's no drop in/out play, the graphics don't seem on par with those in GH5 (yes, even on wii) etc etc. Why? If i had a couple of friends over and we all wanted to pretend we were Eddie, why can't we!? The series took two steps forward and FOUR steps back with this one.

Oh and having only the current, old and crusty band members being represented (minus wolfgang) was a baaaad move. I'm not really a huge fan of Van Halens music, and half of these songs I've probably never heard before, but even i know i'd rather see dave donning the spandex and teased hair than blue jeans and haiwan shirts.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 21, 2009, 02:30:31 AM
Super Mario World - Well, it was fun to return to this childhood favorite after all these years, but honestly there's just something about it that doesn't appeal to me much anymore.  Despite incredibly tight controls and some creative (and sometimes sadistic) level design with secret exits, the theme-ing is weak and the overall level design just doesn't inspire much excitement.  The game's also considerably easier than I remember, outside a few areas towards the end of the game and the Star Road Specials.  Fun, but we've seen better Mario platformers, especially SMB 3. 8/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on November 21, 2009, 03:22:48 PM
Mostly been playing:

Dawn of War II Last Stand mode: This was added in a later patch (hooray for PC gaming!), 3 player coop against powerful waves. It's much closer to the singleplayer than the regular MP mode and you really need the cooperation, especially later on when the waves reach "how the **** are we supposed to kill THAT?" proportions. Ton of fun.

Pokemon Rumble: Appeals to the "collect tons of ****" impulse within us. I'd compare it to Diablo to some degree, instead of capturing and then training Pokemons you just sometimes drop enemies and can take them. They have different power levels and some have special titles (e.g. one that triples all money income, another that grants near-immunity against attacks of a certain element, increased critical hit chance, etc), when you grab a better one and your old one is obsolete you just sell it off (they call it releasing and getting parting gifts but it's really just selling, if you sell a lot of one type you have a chance to get a coupon for the evolved form). The action combat is fairly fast paced though too easy in the regular levels. Level design is nonexistent, just long corridors filled with random enemies. Buffs have a noticeable effect, e.g. an attack up seems to roughly double the damage output. The collecting is addictive, especially finding some good mons (though those are unfortunately obsoleted fairly quickly) like the high powered fire-proof earthquake using Chansey I got.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 26, 2009, 09:25:23 AM
Assassin's Creed - To keep this short and family-friendly, I'll just leave it at this: this game is horrible, with constant repetition; unreliable controls (the Right Trigger and X together represent 90% of all the possible commands in the game, and as such the game frequently gets confused); constant design elements intended to irritate you constantly getting in your way (beggar women, lepers/drunks, people carrying junk that just like to run into you) that you get penalized for dealing with; a combat system horrendously bad at dealing with mobs in a game where you spend the entire last 1/4 of the game just fighting mobs; and a story that just stops when the credits roll.  Despite its many flaws, I still kind of liked the game if only for the story and atmosphere (which are both excellent).  The game was just kind of refreshing, as I haven't really played a game quite like it and I do want to see where the story goes in Assassin's Creed 2. 4/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on November 26, 2009, 04:22:29 PM
New Super Mario Mario Bros 4/5 - Was it fun?  Yes.  But the whole time, I found myself wanting to play Mario World instead.  Instead of a cohesive new experience I felt like I was getting recycled ideas.  But at the end of the day, a good mario game, is still an awesome video game.  So its hard to complain about this one.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 28, 2009, 03:28:20 AM
Flower - I picked this up due to Jonny's recommendation while it was (and still is, btw) $5 off the PSN, and finished it with all the trophies.  Now, like its similarly over-hyped cousin, Braid, I found Flower to be a bit overrated as one of those "revolutionary games of this generation" but it is a pleasant experience.  It took me a long time (the entire game, in fact) to get used to the phenomenally imprecise SIXAXIS controls (which I blame more on the controller than the game.  It's no secret that that controller's motion control is even worse than the Wii's sans Motion +. ), which often caused me to miss my targets while flying around at top speed.  The first few levels are also a little weak, with the game not really hitting its stride until the game transitions to night for the 3rd level.  The game does finish very strongly, though, with a particularly spectacular 6th level and then the credits stage.  I also thought the game really didn't hit its stride in art design till around halfway through, though when it does it is very striking in how it uses color and mood to convey the "dream" concept.  I do think the game could have used more levels, even as DLC if needed.  8/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on November 28, 2009, 01:23:52 PM
Yeah, I'd give Flower the same score.  It was over hyped, but nevertheless, a very interesting and relaxing experience.  I disagree on the controls though, I thought they felt very natural, I remember being surprised as every other Sixaxis game has been a disaster.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 28, 2009, 02:06:08 PM
Yeah, I'd give Flower the same score.  It was over hyped, but nevertheless, a very interesting and relaxing experience.  I disagree on the controls though, I thought they felt very natural, I remember being surprised as every other Sixaxis game has been a disaster.

Like I said, it could just be a question of getting used to the SIXAXIS controls, since I had a noticeably easier time after beating the game and going back to the older levels while working on the "Nature" trophy.  I just felt them too unresponsive for the speed you're capable of going, so combine that with the flower buds often being difficult to see and I found myself constantly stopping and turning around to get ones I missed.  To me, that hurt the flow of the experience.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on December 01, 2009, 10:57:43 PM
Batman: Arkham Asylum

Holy sh*t/10: Incredible experience. Story-driven, but with enough of a Super Metroid-like sense of level progression (and backtracking!) that it just sucks you in. Incredible graphics, although the Commish looks a little burly. Final battle is a little disappointing, and all of the "boss" encounters amount to throwing tons of dudes at you at once. Happily, the combat is so fluid you barely mind.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

9/10: Multiplayer is fun, but not the focus for me. This game feels like what the DS game SHOULD HAVE been. A little simplistic at times, with way too much focus on big spinning environmental objects, but just plain fun nonetheless.

Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time

Can't Say Yet/10: I just started it, only a few hours in. I don't care for the spaceship segments (sooooo boring) but the rest is R&C bliss. The Clank puzzles make my brain hurt, but there's a great sense of accomplishment when the puzzle "clicks" in your mind.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on December 07, 2009, 03:59:57 AM
Assassin's Creed 2 - 8/10 - Long story short: it's a huge step up from the last game, both in terms of pacing and execution (pun not intended).  It can't escape from the general flaws that just come with being an open world title and the meta story is an absolute joke of Dan Brown proportions, but it is a good game.  It's not a game I'm likely to ever play again, though.  Really abysmal ending, as well.  And Ubisoft, if you're going to have us perform pinpoint Prince of Persia-style platforming under time constraints with these controls, you have to be more lenient with the level design because these controls just weren't built for that.  This is also the only game I've ever seen that's managed to correctly time a humorous "it's-a-me, MARIO!" reference that doesn't sound completely lame.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on December 07, 2009, 09:06:08 AM
Dragon Master Spell Caster: Got it for laughs, what reviews don't mention is that it has a classic controller option (maybe it was patched in later) that has none of the problems the motion control setup apparently has. Still one of the ugliest console games I've ever seen.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: kraken613 on December 07, 2009, 09:27:21 PM
Left 4 Dead 2 9/10

Its just more L4D and thats good with me. There is a ton of content packed into this game. I would say more than double what the first game launched with. 5 campaigns which all very a lot from the first game and have amazing level design. Your good old versus mode, its great with the new infected a lot more variety. Scavenge were you have to power a generator by carrying gas cans and filling it up, think short Versus. Survivial mode is back, get ready to have tons of zombies try to kill you! Then realism mode mere is just bumps up the difficulty, on Realism-Expert the game is nearly impossible unless you have amazing team work. So if you didn't like the 1st you won't like this one. If you loved the 1st one you will love this one too!
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on December 08, 2009, 07:34:17 PM
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories - Just take what I wrote here: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=27619.msg570398#msg570398 and add a 8/10 to it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on December 11, 2009, 03:52:54 PM
Boy & His Blob

Can't Say Yet/10. Just started it, I'm about six or seven levels in. My god, this game is incredible. I'm a little iffy about the control scheme (no D-pad movement, selecting jellybeans can be wonky on the Classic Controller) but the animation absolutely sucks me in. I love the bonus stages, too.

Wario Land: Shake It

9/10: I've not played this in a long time and picked it back up to find all the bonus levels. I wish the reward for getting all the goals in a level were better (stage soundtrack? Yipee.), but I don't really care. The game itself is reward enough. Between this and Boy & His Blob, I'm in hand-drawn, 2D heaven.

NyxQuest
8/10: Some awkward multitasking, but overall it's a great game. Finding all the treasures is gonna be a b*tch, though.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: vudu on December 11, 2009, 04:07:33 PM
NyxQuest
8/10: Some awkward multitasking, but overall it's a great game. Finding all the treasures is gonna be a b*tch, though.

How do you mean?  I'm about 60% of the way through the game and so far I have all the treasures.  They're really not that hard to find--they're generally just in out-of-the-way places, so as long as you don't blow past everything (which is hard to do considering how slow Nyx moves) you shouldn't have too many problems.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on December 12, 2009, 03:50:29 AM
The multitasking is what makes NyxQuest so awesome.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on December 13, 2009, 09:28:58 PM
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - 9.5/10 - Still my favorite Zelda game, though that Water Temple is even more obnoxious than I remembered.  Some truly great cinematic moments, though (the scene where you summon the giants to stop the falling moon is still very emotional) and the game as a whole is still very emotional as a whole.  Playing this game, it makes me wonder where the manic energy and inventiveness that made this game went because I don't think we've seen it since.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on December 13, 2009, 09:33:53 PM
Topatoi: Spinning Through The Worlds - PS3 - 1/5  Damn.  Thank god I played the demo first.  Cute graphics, interesting idea, but its like controlling a water bumper car with a 10 second delay.  Stay far away from this one.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on December 13, 2009, 09:36:19 PM
Topatoi: Spinning Through The Worlds - PS3 - 1/5  Damn.  Thank god I played the demo first.  Cute graphics, interesting idea, but its like controlling a water bumper car with a 10 second delay.  Stay far away from this one.

I do believe that James called this one back at E3.  Nope, different crappy game.  Thanks for the heads-up, though.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 02, 2010, 03:26:57 AM
Portal - 9/10 - Very good, funny, and inventive.  Too short for its standard $15 price tag, but at its current $5 sale price on Steam it's definitely worth it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on January 02, 2010, 04:59:43 AM
Shattered Horizon: Cannot connect to server/10
Seriously, I didn't even get it to run for more than a few seconds before losing connection.

Modern Warfare 2 (Multiplayer): A neato casual game that has rewards around every corner. I wouldn't recommend playing it seriously though, it's all "you haven't unlocked the right tools yet" then.

Harvest - Massive Encounter: One of those network-and-resource based tower defense games, pretty fun. Also has a creative mode that lets you build that deathstar laser you always wanted.

Go Go Cosmo Cops: Awesome grapple-based game. I guess I should try the multiplayer mode too.

HAWX (iPod): Gameloft really missed the core of HAWX. The OFF mode is a central part of it and they completely missed that OFF mode is more than just a camera angle, the physics don't change at all and you can't drift or stall. Also there's no difficulty selection. HAWX was easy enough on the highest difficulty and this one is locked on the lowest.

Catoon [sic] Wars Gunner: Nice game that appeals to the "gotta upgrade 'em all" aspect. A bit opaque what the stat upgrades really do though (how much HP do I get for a level?) and could get fairly repetitive.

Doodle Jump: Yep, nice casual timewaster.

Ice Age 3 (iPod): It's made by the Toki Tori guys and you can tell! I'm not very far into it but since I loved TT I think it'll be worth the 80 cents I paid.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: oohhboy on January 05, 2010, 06:40:29 AM
Crysis

This game is a lot of fun until the aliens show up, then it feels a little more of a chore to play. Not helped by the lack of ending. It also somewhat lacking in the weapon selection. It's expansion, warhead is even more fun to play, but suffers from the same problems. It's Farcry on on steroids and superpowers. Never get tried of throwing Koreans at shacks.

Modern Warfare 2 singleplayer

I like the first game better. This game feels like it jumps the shark a little with the story and it just jumps around too much to stay cohesive. You play as a total of 4(5) different people and it just gets confusing who you are and where you are within the story at any moment. That said, when the game is good, it's really good. But there are some pretty deep lows.

Dawn of War 2

This game is a real blast to play. In terms of unit count, it's a much smaller game than it's predecessors, but the amount of tactical control is much greater giving a much more satisfying experience when you destroy foes more powerful than you. In the campaign mode there isn't any resources beside strategic assets and wargear you can capture and equip on your squad. So instead of quickly teching up and sending in massive waves of Marines, you pick which of your squads you deploy and off you go. The fastest missions can be completed in 5 minutes, while the longest can be about 20. One small issue around the endgame is that your can get some really powerful wargear and pretty much start throwing aways tactics by rushing the closest xenos.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Peachylala on January 05, 2010, 11:52:21 PM
Might as well take a crack at this. Short blurbs, no score.

Rabbids Go Home
Very hilarious game, but can get on the repetitive side at times. Shows what happens when UbiSoft gets their **** together to make a competent game that Wii owners (aka us) will play.

Super Mario Galaxy
SMB3 in 3D. Yoshiaki Koizumi is a force to be reckoned with.

Metroid Prime Trilogy
All three Metroid Prime games, with the first two getting much needed Wii FPS controls. A must have for anyone who never owned the GCN games.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on January 07, 2010, 11:06:46 PM
Eternal Darkness: 8/10
Love it. LOVE IT. Combat is a little middling (anytime you face a Horror, it's not great), but the story is fantastic. The game is begging for a proper Wii remake.

Wario Land: Shake It (9/10)
Going back through, getting all the secret maps. God, this is an incredible piece of software.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 11, 2010, 05:28:17 AM
Final Fantasy 7 - 7.5/10 - Yeah, I've been replaying this old game for the first time in about a decade, and contrary to all the complaints it's not all the different in the PS1 version (via PSN on PS3) than the PC version I played (yeah, One Winged Angel plays with vocals in the final fight...big frickin' deal considering I usually kill him by the time the vocals really kick in).  Despite my growing dislike for this game over the years due to the overwhelming number of fanboys this game has (who always whine every time a new Final Fantasy game is announced that isn't a remake of FF7), replaying the game I was relieved to see that the "fun, but dumb" game I played all those years ago still holds up..somewhat.  The gameplay's as moderately entertaining as ever, there's plenty of stuff to find (including killing the Weapons, which I actually did this time...ouch), and the graphics hold up better than you'd expect given the PS1's complete incompetence at rendering good-looking 3D models.  The story's just as mind-numbingly stupid and obtuse as ever, though, and the pacing in the cutscenes is agonizingly slow.  Still a decent enough romp, though.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: sladeadams on January 25, 2010, 02:32:57 PM
WiiWare - Muscle March - 4/5
I found Muscle March to be a fantastic, over the top, cooky game. For 500 wii points (5 dollars), It is great fun and extremely funny in sometimes an uncomfortable way. You have a very simple concept that is performed in a very simple way. The game does tend to be short and very simple, but do not forget how much you spent. 5 dollars... Up to 4 player madness and simple gameplay makes this game more than worth the price. The only gripe I could have with this title is the unresponsive controls, but that is to blame the controller not the game.  If you can get past watching but shaking action with your characters, I feel you can easily find enjoyment out of this title. Just do not do the actual poses the character does, it doesnt work...
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on January 25, 2010, 06:35:56 PM
Assassin's Creed 2
Almost finished with it. So much better than the first game, which I also loved.
 
Braid
Can't decide whether this game is challenging or frustrating. Either way, it's pretentious.
 
Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
Just beat it with four people. Good arcadey fun, wouldn't pay any more for it than half-off, which is what I bought it for.
 
Excitebots
Super-fun! Kind of hard sometimes, the course designs are either awesome or kind of poorly laid-out.
 
Let's Tap
LETS TAP LETS TAP CHOOSE A TAPPING GAME. It's actually really fun!
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on January 25, 2010, 07:57:18 PM
lol at Braid review.  I feel the same way.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 25, 2010, 08:04:55 PM
lol at Braid review.  I feel the same way.

Same here as well.  I finished that pretentious mess of a game, but I never once got into it.  Some clever puzzles and a generally appealing art design don't make up for how utterly artificial the whole experience felt, like it was made by a guy demanding to be called an artist rather than letting their work speak for itself (which it was).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: SouthFork on January 27, 2010, 04:24:45 PM
Puzzle Quest 9.0/10


If the story were a bit more tied together I would give this game a perfect score. The puzzles are engaging, the level up system which takes advantage of the mana you collect while playing puzzles is innovative. And the tone of the game immerses you in an ancient, old-world RPG setting which is made perfect by the soundtrack.


A must have for fans of Dragon Age, Bejeweled/Tetris/Peggle and Lord of the Rings.





Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on January 29, 2010, 12:27:00 PM
Raving Rabbids Go Home - 3/5
I rented this game after reading all the high praise. I think this is a simple case of over rating a game due to a lack of competition. There just aren't many new platformers on the Wii. Given that Ubi took the franchise in a new direction I believe that garnered them a large amount of goodwill from the press. As for the game itself, while the levels look great and the music ads a nice touch, the actual gameplay is pretty stale. I kept waiting for things to freshen up or become a bit more challenging but it's very monotonous. Collect a bunch of random crap and move forward as fast as you can, or take your time, it doesn't really matter. It reminds me of the early 90's when we saw a lot of generic platformers gamers quickly grew tired of. Some kids may enjoy it, but seasoned platforming fans looking for a new adventure will certainely grow bored.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on January 29, 2010, 08:32:50 PM
Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines
Pretty decent sequel to the original on the PSP, and ties nicely into AS2. The combat is more simplistic, but that's fine. There's plenty to do, and connecting the game to AC 2 opens up a bunch of new weapons which are very useful early in the game. Unfortunately, once you beat the game, there's no unlockable content (as far as I can see).
 
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
I forgot how crazy this game can be. The move lists are plagued by bizarre symbols that aren't explained (kind of like Soul Calibur...) so you end up doing a lot of button mashing. Wonderful sprite animation and great character designs, though. Best in a two-player setting. The online play is decent, but I get my ass whupped by people who actually know what they're doing. Technical 2D fighters aren't really my bag.
 
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
Is it just me, or does this not feel like a Zelda game? I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm two dungeons in and still not really liking it.
 
God of War (GoW Collection)
Oh my gosh this game looks incredible on the PS3. Anti-aliasing! Hilariously, the gameplay looks better than most cutscenes. Beat the original on Hard, fully intend to beat God Mode before going on to GoW2. Played the E3 demo, it was too short! Anyway, this most recent playthrough reminded me why I love the series so much. GoW is just plain EPIC from start to finish, and on the tougher difficulty levels, it's not a button-masher, you've gotta know what you're doing.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 29, 2010, 08:46:03 PM
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
Is it just me, or does this not feel like a Zelda game? I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm two dungeons in and still not really liking it.
 
God of War (GoW Collection)
Oh my gosh this game looks incredible on the PS3. Anti-aliasing! Hilariously, the gameplay looks better than most cutscenes. Beat the original on Hard, fully intend to beat God Mode before going on to GoW2. Played the E3 demo, it was too short! Anyway, this most recent playthrough reminded me why I love the series so much. GoW is just plain EPIC from start to finish, and on the tougher difficulty levels, it's not a button-masher, you've gotta know what you're doing.

Well, for me Oracle of Seasons was the game that didn't feel like Zelda, with its combat focus and lame puzzles.  Oracle of Ages with its puzzle focus and dual world mechanic really felt like Zelda to me.

As for God of War, "meh."  I've beaten both games, and while I like the second far more than the first neither really strikes me as all that interesting.  It's just one long button-mashing extravaganza with one of the worst cameras I've ever seen in a 3rd person action game (which especially becomes problematic in the first game where you have platforming sequences).  There's also Hades in the first game.  *shudders*  Maybe the biggest reason I didn't like either game all that much, though, is that I can't stand Kratos.  We're supposed to be invested in his story, but he's a **** who deserves everything he gets.  Hopefully God of War 3 ends with someone killing him permanently.  That's probably why I'm much more interested in Dante's Inferno than God of War 3.

And incidentally, the reason the cutscenes look worse than the in-game action in the God of War Collection is because the in-game stuff was redone in HD while they left the cutscenes alone (probably because they would have to re-record them using the new in-game assets).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on January 30, 2010, 04:11:51 AM
Tatsunoko vs Capcom: You all know about it, it's one crazy fighting game. What's interesting is that one of the giant characters is actually viable, usually you'd think characters like that end up useless in any situation with a modicum of skill.

AI War: Fleet Command: They call it a combination of an RTS and Tower Defense, it's pretty much you vs an AI that has no unit limits and owns the entire galaxy, your only hope is to stay under its radar and make it not care enough to crush you with its full force.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 12, 2010, 08:22:24 PM
Bioshock 2 - 9/10 - Not as good as the original Bioshock, but still a very quality game that FPS fans should definitely check out.  The pacing's a bit off (my first time through, I felt like the game just dragged on way too long for what the story could handle), the game is exceptionally linear (once you finish a level, you cannot come back), the ending still feels way too brief (though longer and more satisfying than the first game's by a healthy margin), there isn't a great amount of environmental variety, and there's only one really interesting new plasmid (the Cyclone trap).  That said, the gunplay's better and faster than ever; the story is still excellent and philosophical (better than the original game's IMO); and you still have that wonderful atmosphere with Rapture that's unlike every other FPS on the market.  There's also a surprisingly fun multiplayer mode (even if some modes, like Capture the Sister, don't really work as of this writing due to pretty-hardcoded stalemate situations) that's also surprisingly story-based.  On the presentation side, this game is only marginally better-looking than the original Bioshock and has a fair number of bugs (audio logs that don't play audio unless you quit out of the game and re-enter, water that doesn't have a graphical impact on your helmet, etc.), but it still has that eye-pleasing art deco look and a wonderful soundtrack.  Not a perfect game, but it's still "the thinking person's" FPS.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on February 12, 2010, 08:36:06 PM
Hmmmm. I'll definately buy it, but I'm a little wary. BioShock was such a...shock (snicker) that I felt like a sequel would just insult it. I don't like that you speak of bugs...maybe I'll wait a few months until (hopefully) newer disks fix those errors or patches are available.

Does the story break completely from the first game, or does it tie in with it? As in, is the story in BioShock 2 present BECAUSE OF the events of the first game?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 12, 2010, 08:50:38 PM
Does the story break completely from the first game, or does it tie in with it? As in, is the story in BioShock 2 present BECAUSE OF the events of the first game?

That's actually kind of a hard question to answer.  Most of the characters are new (with the exception of Sinclair, who you see hints at in Fort Frolic in the original Bioshock), and they have roles in Rapture that were previously unknown.  You also visit completely new areas that were perhaps hinted at in the first game (like Fontaine Futuristics) and see the evolution of concepts from the first game (again, Fontaine Futuristics).  A great example of this is Ryan's Amusements, which is an amusement park/museum area dedicated to Ryan's Objectivist ideals, and it is suitably hilarious and fitting for what we know of him and Rapture. 

For the most part, Bioshock 2 feels like its own experience and it seems to me that the development team went to great lengths to answer the questions "how did the world of Rapture function prior to the Civil War of 1959" and "what kind of society would arise in the aftermath of the loss of its two major leaders"?  In the first Bioshock, the environments you went to were designed to show you how Rapture may have functioned for the elite and the criminal underworld.  The story and environments in Bioshock 2 seem to be geared towards showing you what Rapture may have been like for the average citizen, if that makes sense.  This changes a bit towards the end when the villain's Ultimate Plan is revealed, and you find out that this plan occurs directly because of one incredibly minor plot thread (one that was hinted at maybe a handful of times) and one incredibly major plot thread from the first game.  The villain in Bioshock 2 also assumes power because of the events of Bioshock 1.  That said, I really feel that this is an intelligent sequel that pays homage to the first game, but really tries to do its own thing.  I was wary of the game going in because I hold the first Bioshock in such esteem, but I'm satisfied with what we got.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on February 12, 2010, 10:48:54 PM
Man, what the hell, why haven't I played Bioshock yet???  Gotta get on that.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KnowsNothing on February 16, 2010, 11:55:23 PM
It's time to review every Steam game I have...one in sentence or less.  Most of these I haven't even come close to finishing...some I haven't even started!  IT'S UP TO YOU TO FIND OUT.  Or not.

Audiosurf - 3/5
Fun diversion, not worth the asking price.

Braid - 4/5
Beautiful graphics, beautiful music, extremely creative puzzles.

Morrowind GotY - 4/5
When this came out it was a 5/5, but in terms of combat and quest tracking it has not aged well.

Fallout 3 - 4/5
Repetitive environment, weak story, terrible AI...still addicting.

Left 4 Dead - 5/5
Hours of cooperative zombie killing fun, but make sure you know the people you're playing with

Left 4 Dead 2 - 4/5
Technically better than the first one in every way, but not creative enough have me coming back to it again and again.

Mass Effect - 4/5
The above average (but not spectacular) story is made better by extremely high production values and a decent morality system, but the frustrating combat mechanics and abysmal squad AI keep this from being perfect.

Psychonauts - 4/5
Hilarious, fun, and creative, but poorly paced a mechanically frustrating.

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl - 3/5
With the 2009 mod this game is very atmospheric (in a terrifying way!) and could be incredibly fun if you can get past the insane difficulty.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition - 5/5
I HAVE TO GIVE THIS GAME A PERFECT SCORE it's really freaking hilarious and awesome...but I'm not very good at it...

Civilation IV + Expansions - 5/5
I don't know why I bought these games, there isn't enough time in the world for them.

Team Fortress 2 - 5/5
Best online shooter around.

Torchlight - 4/5
Worth the $5 I spent on it but the content is too sparse to warrant the full asking price.

Doom 3 - 1/5
Okay I'll be honest here I've played none of this.

Half Life 2 - 5/5
One of the best single player shooters ever made.

HL2: Episode 1 - 3/5
Meh.

HL2: Episode 2 - 4/5
A little more than meh, but still not perfect.

HL2: Lost Coast - 5/5
This is only a single area as opposed to an entire game, but it gets a perfect score for introducing developer commentary, a feature which was then used in both HL2 episodes and...portal? Maybe?

Portal - 5/5
YOU MUST PLAY THIS

Mirror's Edge - 2/5
Creative I guess, but frustrating to play...especially the TERRIBLE shooting portions.

Prey - 6/5
I've played none of this one either.

Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 - 3/5
It would get a lower score but user made mods really improve the packaged experience, but note that i've never played the actual management portion...I just like building stuff.

Rome: Total War - 4/5
A bit dated but still fun.

Knights of the Old Republic - 3/5
Sorry nerds, but neither the story, characters, or game play are really astonishing me.

Trine - 3/5
Trine is another title not worth the retail price because not only is it short, but really after the first couple levels you've seen all it has to offer.



Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: oohhboy on February 21, 2010, 08:16:23 AM
KOTOR has aged very poorly and it's sequel does no better.

I would rate FO3 a hair lower than that since the combat is pretty terribleand random.

DOOM 3 graphically still holds up somewhat, but the gameplay just don't and never had along with surprisingly terrible weapons for a FPS.

Prey was pretty average with some cliched to hell American Indian mystic stuff. If your willing to laugh about it, it's not too bad.

I would also rate Mass Effect a bit lower just because the Gameplay wasn't all there. The prefab planets were terrible as with the driving. As mentioned, the combat is arbitrary and AI is definitely in the running for the Darwin Awards. The Hacking mini game is a joke.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 24, 2010, 10:24:58 PM
Heavy Rain - 9.5/10 - Let me get this out of the way: This is a flawed game, with significant mechanical problems with the gameplay (namely the walking controls, especially when you're in tight spaces) and some major plot elements that literally vanish halfway through the game.  That said, I love this game and feel its pros far outweigh its problems.  The music is phenomenal, the story generally well-scripted and paced, the action exciting and engaging, and there's a great feel of authorship in this game.  You might not always have control over the story but the game constantly makes you feel like you do, that your choices matter.  The story builds to a nice, satisfying conclusion that leaves even myself (as cynical as I am about games these days) quite content and wanting to explore more of what this game offers.  To that end, I'm really looking forward to the "Chronicles" DLC packs that will be coming out in the near-future (especially the first one, because I'll be getting that for free).  Highly recommended for fans of Adventure games, though I definitely think you should check out the demo up on the PSN first to see if this game is for you because it's definitely not for everyone.

Robert Ebert once said that video games can never be art because the player is the one in control of the game, so the director can never convey a vision for the project.  I wonder what he would say of Heavy Rain, where the player is the director and (to some extent) the writer.  Actually, I'm kind of curious how Hollywood might view this game, because this might be the future of cinema as video games continue to slowly eat away at movie sales.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: King of Twitch on March 01, 2010, 04:30:26 PM
Wave Race: Blue Storm 7.5

A fun, challenging game that gets bogged down by a cruel hard mode (to say nothing of expert level) which is a shame because on easy, the difficulty is just right.

Stunt mode is again a fun diversion, and the scenery and water effects are still--after 8 years--easy on the eyes and better than anything on Wii.

The various riders give a good range of control stats and the turbo system is good. In the original, following the buoys would fill your maximum speed meter, but here, a full meter allows the use of a turbo boost. Performing stunts will fill it up even faster, giving a nice incentive for hardcore racing, but the rubberband AI always manages to overcome this and they never crash into buoys or rocks. Similarly, trying to get your best possible score on hard stunt mode will make you feel more like an angry, killer orca than a graceful dolphin.

If Nintendo is working on Motion Plus Wave Race, I hope they realize this amount of frustration is not something the blue ocean crowd would be willing to barrel-roll with, but that the graphical flourishes and beautiful weather effects are something that everyone can appreciate.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on March 01, 2010, 10:45:22 PM
Thats awesome you took Blue Storm for a spin!  I was just playing it last week.  First time playing it?  I thought the game was great, but the N64 one is still my favorite.  It has the perfect blend of difficulty, while as you mentioned, Blue Storm is punishingly brutal.  You've really got to dedicate yourself to beat the game.  I'd say both games have great courses though.  I believe you can pick it up for like five bucks at Gamestop now.  Despite its difficultly, I'd recommend it to anyone at that price, plus the visuals still hold up.

**Goes back to praying for Wave Race Wii***
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: King of Twitch on March 01, 2010, 11:53:12 PM
Ya I got it for about $4 along with Excitebots because you can never have too many racing games.

I remember being put off by the load times and for some reason thought you were supposed to hold the trigger buttons at all times in order to steer, so my original view of the game was slightly warped :X

The interaction with the waves is definitely a giant leap forward but...unless you're playing on easy mode, you're going to be throwing your controller.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KnowsNothing on March 03, 2010, 01:35:43 PM
The GC versions of both Wave Race and 1080 were both titles that I disliked at first but grew to love after a while.  1080 Avalanche in particular became tons of fun when I finally realized that I needed to stop trying to pull tricks like in the original and just race.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on March 04, 2010, 01:34:22 AM
Dante's Inferno - 7/10 - I'm not a big fan of Hack & Slashers, but the demo really got me interested in the story (something none of the God of War games have ever managed) and I had an opportunity to pick the game up at the low price of $20 so I thought I'd give it a shot.  Overall, I really liked the game.  It's not the least bit original, but like Visceral games' other works (Dead Space and its prequel Extraction) it feels like they took something famous and put their own interesting spin on it.  The story's interesting and reasonably well-told, most of the Circles of Hell are well-designed (except for a couple at the end of the game, where it's obvious the developers ran out of time and money) and beautiful in a grotesque sort of way, I like the way the game worked its upgrade mechanic into the narrative, and the combat system is more fun than I ever had with the God of War games.  This is also one of the strangest games I've ever played when it comes to explicit content: this game is gory and filled to the brim with explicit imagery, and to its credit none of it feels forced or exploitative but it is disarming to see so much of it in an M-rated game.  My big complaint is that the game really runs out of steam right at the end with the 2 final Circles, which just aren't fun in any conceivable way.  The game is also surprisingly difficult, especially the boss battles.  In fact, the final boss is probably in my Top 5 of Most Difficult Bosses in video games, so much that I had to swallow my pride and bring the difficulty down from Normal to Easy just to beat his second form (and there is a wide gulf between Easy and Normal).

Now, I know it's easy to look at that score and just dismiss this game as a second-rate God of War ripoff, but it's really a lot of fun and has an awesome soundtrack.   I just couldn't let the aggravation and repetition of the final Circles slide.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on March 15, 2010, 07:58:36 PM
Dante's Inferno - 7/10 - most of the Circles of Hell are well-designed (except for a couple at the end of the game, where it's obvious the developers ran out of time and money) and beautiful in a grotesque sort of way,

I agree.  I had a lot of fun with it, and found some of the low reviews it received rather puzzling.  Sure it copies GOW, but lets not get all high and mighty, the vast majority of games copy each other.  I think reviewers crucified this one b/c it was one of the first games to blatantly rip GOW.  But look at the new Sonic racer.  Its receiving mighty praise for ripping off the Mario Kart formula.  It seems reviewers are letting that slide for Sonic since so many others have tried to copy Mario Kart and failed.  That said, I'd give Dante about the same score and encourage others to try it.


Oh yeah, saw this today on Joystiq.  Figured I'd post it since we were just talking about Wave Race.  Looks like the PSN is getting a water sport game similar to Wave Race, but its wake boarding, and it looks pretty slow.  Its from the same folks who made Smash Cars, a very mediocre Excitetruck + Mario Kart type game.  So I'm not expecting much, but you never know.  Link to trailer --> http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/15/wakeboarding-hd-splashes-onto-psn-this-month/1#c26258023 (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/15/wakeboarding-hd-splashes-onto-psn-this-month/1#c26258023)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on March 15, 2010, 08:13:05 PM
Playing several games right now:

Endless Ocean 2: I CAN'T STOP PLAYING IT'S SO GOOD

Pokemon HeartGold: It's Pokemon. Again. That's all you need to know so far.

Bioshock 2: I totally see what broodwars means about the "average citizen" angle. I wish you could sit there and watch the ocean go by on the train, although maybe it's in a tunnel like the train in Dead Space? I dunno. Anyway, the game is gorgeous and the story is engrossing. Much creepier than the first Bioshock, too. I like that Sophia Lamb IS Andrew Ryan, just on the opposite end of the individualism/community spectrum. I am disappointed by how the Big Sisters are handled. They're basically boss scripted boss fights (get all the Little Sisters, fight a Big Sister), although they're not particularly hard once you upgrade your sh*t.

The one thing I'm not loving is that there's a larger focus on gene tonics, rather than Plasmids, this time around. It is cool that plasmids have secondary uses, though. Guarding Little Sisters is something of a chore, especially when there are three in a level. The rewards do tend to be worthwhile, though. PROTIP: Use the "Enrage" Plasmid (or whatever it's called this time) on Slicers when you're guarding Little Sisters. You'll be able to pick them off while they're fighting each-other.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Kytim89 on March 20, 2010, 11:48:01 PM
I just played Dead Space Extraction and I would give it a 9/10. I was a little hesitatnt towards the game at first because it was a rail shooter, but I warmed up to it once I played the first couple of hours. Graphically the game is amazing, but the game play does get a little repetitive going through countless dark corridors with necromorphs jumping out at you. The game does this for suspense and there were times when I ws cought off guard in the dark parts of the game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on March 21, 2010, 03:45:51 PM
I just played Dead Space Extraction and I would give it a 9/10. I was a little hesitatnt towards the game at first because it was a rail shooter, but I warmed up to it once I played the first couple of hours. Graphically the game is amazing, but the game play does get a little repetitive going through countless dark corridors with necromorphs jumping out at you. The game does this for suspense and there were times when I ws cought off guard in the dark parts of the game.

Did playing the game ever put this expression on your face(the gal's expression)?

(http://www.juegomania.org/Dead%20Space%20Extraction/foto/wii/0/709/456wii_709_c.jpg/Foto%20Dead%20Space%20Extraction.jpg)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on March 23, 2010, 06:19:54 PM
Batman Arkham Asylum: Yep, it's great.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on March 29, 2010, 09:31:26 PM
Beat BioShock 2.

My biggest disappointment is that the game doesn't have any sort of jaw-dropping "makes you rethink the entire game" moment like the first one did. It's more of a steady build to a barely interesting (in retrospect) plot point, and the game's grand finale is anti-climactic. Overall, Bioshock 1 is a much better game, but there are moments of brilliance in Bioshock 2. It is by NO means a bad game. It is excellent in its own right--it just had WAY too much to live up to, and that's not really its fault.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on April 03, 2010, 11:02:13 PM
God of War III - 8.5/10 - I'm not usually a fan of hack-and-slashers, but this one's pretty decent.  The game has all the usual flaws and annoyances the series has had since its inception: horrendous camera for platforming, random difficulty spikes that lead to unnecessary frustration, unlikeable protagonist, silly and convoluted story, etc.  However, for all that this game does wrong, the gameplay is still solid; the Greek mythology (even as loosely-interpreted as this series uses it) is well-implemented; the production values are outstanding (though, IMO, not quite up to the level of something like FF XIII or Uncharted 2); the puzzles can be both interesting and clever; and this game has some incredible set-piece moments that are really exciting and fun.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on April 04, 2010, 10:16:30 AM
Picross 3D: Start playing and you'll have to force yourself to stop. It's awesome.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on April 19, 2010, 03:37:09 AM
Final Fantasy XIII - 9/10 - I'm going to try to keep this mini-review short, because I just now utterly finished this game (Platinum #16) and I'm exhausted.  The plot is good, the characters well-defined and well-voiced, the graphics gorgeous and extremely well-designed (seriously, this game is going to look outstanding for years out of sheer art design), and the soundtrack is one of the best Square-Enix has ever done (naturally, this means they fired the composer shortly after the game's release, along with the rest of their musical pool).  The battle system is also IMO the best the franchise has ever had, a perfect balance of strategy and action that leads to hectic and difficult fights the entire game that requires wit and fast reflexes to overcome.

Where I have problems with this game is in the finer details: the battles are so taxing and come so frequently that it's very easy to get tired and even a little irritated.  I don't miss JRPG towns and their incessant and inane fetch quests in this game, but I will admit that I could have used more of a breather in places during this game.  While I find the game beautiful, there are a lot of cut corners in the form of enemy palette swapping and I don't care for the techno-organic look of some of the enemies that comes off a little generic.  The game also takes way too long to roll out all its systems, to the point where a lot of players will give up before they've truly seen what this game can do.  It's much the same problem that Nintendo has with the Zelda series, where it constantly treats the player like an idiot that has to be spoon-fed every wrinkle of the mechanics before finally taking the training wheels off.  The weapon upgrade system is also abysmal because of this, as you don't receive either the components or the cash to partake in the system till you're nearly at the end of the game and don't care anymore, and even then you don't get much of either unless you grind.

And speaking of that most-loved of JRPG conventions, this game has an extensive series of bonus missions that pad out the post-game content (most of the trophies are awarded here).  Generally, these expand the game world; give you a much-greater appreciation of the nuances of the battle system; and are generally quite enjoyable.  It's the free-roaming exploration that everyone who reviews this game whines about not being present.  Where this pisses me off is that everything outside the game's main storyline is grinding-centric.  I hate grinding.  It's lazy, tedious, and stupid.  Do you want to have a fighting chance at clearing the missions?  Go grind for CP to upgrade your characters and components to upgrade your weapons.   What?  You want to know where you are supposed to get such massive amounts of cash?  Go kill one of the most difficult enemies in the game repeatedly for 20+ hours (seriously) for your 1/5 chance he'll drop an item worth a great deal of gil (and this is the only way to obtain the kind of money you need).  Want rare components that all the best equipment and weapons require?  Go kill the TWO most difficult enemies in the game repeatedly for hours upon hours for your 1/10 chance they'll drop those components, or see the above sentence about how to get the cash to buy them.  Seriously, I have never seen a game so gleefully, deliberately designed to waste your time in the most painful of fashions.  This game is supposed to be the one that pushes JRPGs in a new direction, yet its bonus content is held up by endless and incredibly-painful grinding that's been derided in JRPGs for several decades now.  It's just unbelievable.

Oh, and by the way: one of your tasks is to do these monster-hunting missions until you beat them under a certain time limit (which is determined by your equipment and character stats), yet Square-Enix for some bizarre reason decided not to give you a "retry" option for missions you've already completed.  This means you are constantly running from one end of the game world to the other, activating Mission stones and then running all the way back to where the Hunts take place.  Why?  The only reason I can think of is to pad the playing time.  Yes, you do have Waystones you can use to teleport your party to certain sections of the game world, but it still takes way longer than it should.

A great game that's less than it should have been because Square-Enix didn't have the guts to really give us the game that a nation of RPG fans constantly living in the past (Japan) would hate for being too different.  And they hated it for that anyway.  Figures.  And this review went on way longer than I anticipated.  Figures.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on April 22, 2010, 11:25:56 AM
Beat Hazard: Effin' awesome. I tried the 360 version but honestly, the PC one has much better music included and it's probably easier to get your own music in there too. Basically a twin stick shooter that uses music as its level generation system and flashing lights EVERYWHERE.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on April 22, 2010, 04:49:12 PM
Hazzard sounds pretty cool. Is it on PSN at all?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on April 22, 2010, 06:17:27 PM
Odin Sphere. The slowdown is just unbelievably bad.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on April 23, 2010, 11:58:23 AM
Hazzard sounds pretty cool. Is it on PSN at all?

No idea, I don't have a PS3 but I doubt it. It's an indie game on the 360 so the developer probably doesn't have any full dev license.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: D_Average on April 24, 2010, 01:06:42 PM
Sonic and Sega All Star Racing 5/5

Man, I picked this PS3 game up on a whim after playing the demo, and bam, this is what I was looking for in a kart racer!  Fans who declare Mario Kart 64 the premiere game should definately check this out.  It seems faster than Mario Kart Wii and the developers really put a lot of TLC into the tracks.  Its like candy for the eyes.  They look great, with tons of variety.  Each one really has a different feel and speaks volumes to the game it represents.  And man, the Samba De Amigo track absolutely blew me away.  Blew me away, like playing Rainbow Road for the first time on the SNES.  The announcer is cheesy, but a good cheesy, had me cracking up with his casual sarcasm.  Usually I turn the sound off and listen to music or a podcast when playing racing games, but the annoucer, combined with the music and characters voices made keeping the sound on really worth while.

The only thing you can knock this game for is its another cart racer.  I say big deal.  Games copy each other all the time, and its for the gamers benefit.  On top of that, almost every other non Mario kart racer has sucked, so churning out a good one, is a rarity these days.  The development team didn't just take Mario Kart and slap Sega skins over it.  This team really understood what Sega stood for and completely interjected that personality into this game.  I'll go ahead and say what all the mainstream reviewers didn't have the balls to say.  Sonic and Sega All Star racing is the definitive kart racer this generation!


Sadly, it will receive mediocre sales as teh casualz already have Mario Kart Wii.  Why on Earth would they try another game? 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 05, 2010, 10:44:31 PM
Fragile Dreams: Farewell to the Moon - 3/10 - Long story short: Beautiful visuals, great music, and one of the worst gameplay experiences I've played in years (it seems to follow in Suda 51's footsteps by "daring to be boring").  Insipid dialogue, constant barrages of never-ending insipid dialogue, boring combat, stiff and clumsy controls worthy of a Wii launch title, pointless mini-games (also worthy of a Wii launch title), mediocre localization, tedious backtracking, and a dull story all destroy what could have been a great game.  I really wanted to like this game, but I just can't.  Hopefully the art and musical talent from this game get another crack at actually doing work on a good game sometime in the near-future, because they turned in an outstanding effort here.

God of War Collection- 7/10 - It's God of Wars I and II in HD, which looks perplexingly both more impressive (things look nice and shiny) and less impressive (it's still PS2 visuals) than you'd expect.  The problems with the games' conversion to HD have been well-documented (though, to be honest, seeing the original graphical quality of the 2 games in the in-engine cutscenes gives you a lot more appreciation for just how much work went into making the main game experience look as good as it does in HD), but the big problem with this collection is the sheer presence of God of War I.  I hate that game.  I hated it back when I first played it, and time hasn't made it any better (though surprisingly I had much less trouble with the horrendous platforming this time, especially in Hades).  God of War II is still quite enjoyable, though, with great pacing; great boss battles; really good art design; and just a good sense of fun.  In fact, I think I enjoy GoW II much better this time around, especially since playing the two games back-to-back I can see that all but one of my most-hated moments (the "one" being the final QTE in GoW II) in the series originated in the first game instead of the second.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: King of Twitch on May 12, 2010, 06:40:39 PM
Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past 10/10

- Gets annoying when enemies are stuck in you.
- Some framerate slowdown.
- Dungeon maps are way too small
- Sometimes refuses to give bombs or magic when I need them the most. It's like the game can read the fact I have jars of blue magic that I'm saving for a boss battle and will decide that enemies will only drop rupees.
- Devilish dungeon design wants to kill you.
- A few unclear objectives.

+ A sense of surprise under every tree and rock. Seriously, my favorite part was ramming into things hoping it would shake loose a fairy instead of angry bees, and how later on in the game it becomes a useful strategy to memorize them so that I wouldn't have to hunt down the fountains between dungeons. This element is missing from the 3D games thanks to fewer, weaker enemies and giant empty spaces.
+ Music and characters. There are good guys, bad guys that try to kill you or steal your stuff, and bad guys who sit around in caves saying they're bad guys and that you shouldn't be there, but don't mind giving you rupees or advice (laughter).
+ Devilish dungeon design comes with a sense of accomplishment.
+ Oh yeah, the whole Light/Dark World thing.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on May 16, 2010, 01:30:46 PM
Resonance of Fate: So far I really like it but the balancing between hero actions and normal attacks seems out of whack, it's fairly easy to regain those hero points and there's only disadvantages to using normal attacks, can't even be sure you get the time to charge the shot to level 1. I'd have liked some kind of precision aim bonus for regular attacks so you can use them for accurate attacks while using hero actions when you just need to deal damage up close...
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 16, 2010, 01:33:42 PM
Resonance of Fate: So far I really like it but the balancing between hero actions and normal attacks seems out of whack, it's fairly easy to regain those hero points and there's only disadvantages to using normal attacks, can't even be sure you get the time to charge the shot to level 1. I'd have liked some kind of precision aim bonus for regular attacks so you can use them for accurate attacks while using hero actions when you just need to deal damage up close...

As you progress through the game you'll run into enemies that can't be easily dispatched in 1 or 2 Hero Actions (especially the second boss, which is a giant electric turtle), and that's when Normal Attacks come into play.  But yes, they are kind of a "last resort" sort of thing.  I have a lot of problems with Resonance of Fate, and if I ever get back to playing it I probably won't have a favorable review for it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on May 17, 2010, 10:11:32 AM
Giant electric turtle? You mean in the powerplant? I completely wiped the floor with that thing using hero and resonance attacks.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 17, 2010, 10:13:03 AM
Giant electric turtle? You mean in the powerplant? I completely wiped the floor with that thing using hero and resonance attacks.

*shrugs*
 
Well, it was the last boss I had any trouble with, and it pretty much required using Normal attacks for throwing grenades and whatnot since I needed to save all the Hero Actions for my Machine Gunner.  Unfortunately, the game kind of goes downhill after that fight (I believe I'm in Chapter 6-7), with grinding quickly taking a choke hold on the game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on May 18, 2010, 04:51:13 PM
Grinding? I feel like I'm only grinding to get energy hexes (and that's because I love to throw them everywhere), in combat it's more about figuring out the best way to use the hero actions, kinda like a puzzle game. I feel like I need a second SMG for more tactical flexibility though.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 24, 2010, 02:08:57 AM
Grinding? I feel like I'm only grinding to get energy hexes (and that's because I love to throw them everywhere), in combat it's more about figuring out the best way to use the hero actions, kinda like a puzzle game. I feel like I need a second SMG for more tactical flexibility though.

I'm through the critical path in Chapter 8 with all characters level 58-59 (I'm back to playing the game now), and I've had to do all sorts of grinding: grinding for colored energy hexes, grinding for level-ups (mostly in the arena), grinding for components to make new gun parts and fulfill guild missions, etc.  If you don't have the First Aid Kit equipped on a character when you enter the dungeon (and I don't because Leanne needs that second pistol a LOT more, as does Zephyr with his second machine gun and Vosh with his grenade box), you have to trudge all the way in and all the way out when you defeat the boss, fighting enemies every goddamn step of the way because the game won't let you access your inventory screen.  Trying to get from Point A to Point B on the world map takes forever because you have random encounters popping up every few steps that take upwards of 5-10 minutes to defeat.  While I kind of like it for its setting and underplayed story, it is one of the most thoroughly tedious and unenjoyable games I've ever played.  I easily understand now why so many RPG gamers hate Tri-Ace (outside of Star Ocean 4, which I've played a bit of and liked): they're just utterly incompetent at making entertaining games.  If RPGs like this are what Japan's into now, I wouldn't mind if the entire J-RPG genre just died.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on May 25, 2010, 07:42:25 AM
I suppose it starts out much better than it goes on.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: EasyCure on May 26, 2010, 09:17:13 AM
mushroom men: the spor wars - 3/10

this is one of those games i bought for cheap, played for an hour and left collecting dust for some other, bigger game.
After finally starting to catch up on my backlog of games, this was one of the first games i tried to finish.

the controls are horrible, especially the camera. it auto adjust behind your character and its a constant battle to move it, via the dpad, while also switching back to hitting the A button from the constant jumping you have to do. What this means is horrible hand-cramps for the player.

the level design has good intentions but falls short. being a tiny mushroom in ordinary real world environments gives a good sense of scope, and most levels have a lot of vertical room too, which make for some awesome platforming moments. However, there are far too many times where items or exits are hidden in the most retarded places that, in conjunction with the horrible camera, are almost impossible to find. It's not too bad with items, like say.. a powerup "hidden" behind a tiny crevice behind the toilet, or a cracked open medicine cabinet, but when an exit is hidden behind an unassuming pile of leaves and you can't tell unless you've happened to fall thru the little ditch near said pile of leaves, it gets frustrating. The muddy graphics don't help either.

the storyline was pretty basic, got a litle more interesting halfway thru, juts enough to keep me from giving up on the game, but i had to trudge thru it because of the contorls. Also, this game has the most anti-climactic boss battle ever (unless i'm missing something) and the ending is just.. well, stupid. so stupid i dont even remember it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on May 27, 2010, 04:32:18 AM
Is that the Wii or DS version?

I'm through the critical path in Chapter 8 with all characters level 58-59 (I'm back to playing the game now)

I just got that far and my characters are levels 32-34 (main weapons ~level 20), I guess that shows a difference in playstyle. The only one I could even use extra levels on is Zephyr because the SMG does more damage with higher levels and I've upgraded my current one to the point where I can reach maximum charge even during a normal attack. I don't use guns akimbo much, pistols akimbo has little use because you rarely need them doing damage, any serious target is too far out of their league and I've decided to upgrade only one SMG and do that without weight limits (guns akimbo means all stats except bullet count and damage are averaged between them so I'd need all that expensive gear on both guns to get comparable akimbo performance and the weight limit doesn't permit that), means I have no trouble getting maximum multiplier shots off and those seem more important than more bullets to me. Using special bullets can make a massive difference (going from 1 to 10 base damage on heavy armor with FMJ rounds, for example) and I find them more useful than bothering with grenades (which do as much damage as one bullet from my SMG right now so they're not good for big damage and since they hit only one body part they suck for fixing scratch damage too).

Seriously, my SMG is like 200+ base charge speed and 28% speedup. That thing spits out max multiplier attacks like nobody's business. If something doesn't go at least 60% blue with one attack from that you're using the wrong bullets. Right bullets+max multiplier = all blue in 1-2 attacks (only needed 2 on really tough enemies like chapter bosses and extra bosses).

Of course I can't be arsed to bother with the arena, the rewards worth getting all require gold coins anyway and I didn't even see gold coin challenges in the list when I last checked so I assume I have to go further in the story for that. The only good I got from the arena was a ton of energy hexes (I played up to rank 8 IIRC).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 27, 2010, 10:21:39 AM
Of course I can't be arsed to bother with the arena, the rewards worth getting all require gold coins anyway and I didn't even see gold coin challenges in the list when I last checked so I assume I have to go further in the story for that. The only good I got from the arena was a ton of energy hexes (I played up to rank 8 IIRC).

I'm going to try to keep this brief (any more discussion of this game's gameplay would warrant its own topic), but suffice to say I'm in Chapter 10 with all Ranks cleared with a Star ranking up through Rank 40 (my characters are all level 80-81).  The Arena basically exists as the best place in the game (until Neverland) to level-up your characters and get energy hexes/components/cash, and that's about it.
 
Honestly, the more I play this game the more it looks like its main problem is just that the developers created a fairly minimalistic critical path, and then padded it with really tedious; grind-intensive; backtrack-favoring; and sometimes just blatantly unfair optional tasks (the challenge battle against 3 Mad Goliaths comes to mind) and frustrating random encounter rate.  The story-related stuff can have some pretty tedious dungeon crawling, but overall it's not too bad (especially because my severely overleveled characters just massacre anyone in their way).  I get the feeling this is a game I'll enjoy better on a New Game + when I can just focus only on the critical path.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on May 27, 2010, 12:27:18 PM
The 3 Mad Goliaths did take me a few retries but didn't feel all that unfair, it requires precision play and using all your abilities but that's how RPG battles should be, not just waltzing in and letting your stats do the talking but actually watching the situation and reacting appropriately. I think they might have very hard armor so if you went in without an ammo box you may have crippled yourself there. When pushed to the limit RoF's battles feel pretty puzzle-like.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 27, 2010, 12:43:37 PM
The 3 Mad Goliaths did take me a few retries but didn't feel all that unfair, it requires precision play and using all your abilities but that's how RPG battles should be, not just waltzing in and letting your stats do the talking but actually watching the situation and reacting appropriately. I think they might have very hard armor so if you went in without an ammo box you may have crippled yourself there. When pushed to the limit RoF's battles feel pretty puzzle-like.

Yeah, that I did.  I didn't have either the ammo box or the first aid kit equipped, given that 90% of the time my characters have done just fine with Vashyron being the only one with an alternate weapon (grenades) and the other two dual-wielding machine guns (Zephyr) and Pistols (Leanne).  In fact, those are the very loadouts that got me through the Arena battles, which get fairly difficult towards the late-30s.  I ended up having to get really lucky with Vashyron chucking Molotov Cocktail ++s, which on one run severely crippled one Mad Goliath and instant-killed another. Otherwise, my characters could barely dent those things even at full charge and I ran out of Bezels quickly, especially when the Goliaths would finally succeed in putting full scratch damage on a character to force me to lose 4 bezels at once.
 
Where I found that battle blatantly unfair is that when you enter these battles, you don't know what you're going to be facing and once you're in the battle you can't get out of it unless you win or load an old save.  If the game allowed an FF XIII-style system where you can change-up your weapons loadout upon retrying a lost battle, the game would become about learning from your past mistakes and adapting.  Instead, the game's just punitively hard when it wants to be and you have to pray you can get lucky with the equipment you have.  I'm fine with the whole "puzzle" aspect of battles...I just wish they had designed the game's mechanics better to be more user-friendly.
 
And what is this game's problem with not letting you access your inventory screen once you're in a dungeon?  I can't think of a single good reason for the designers to implement that.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on May 27, 2010, 02:31:34 PM
I always save before going for an extra battle but yeah, that needs a "restart before joining the battle" feature. More silly is that you cannot trigger escape cells from a dungeon "middleworld", only in an actual battle area. I suppose the inventory limit is so you've gotta decide on a loadout and keep it for the whole dungeon (if you find it inadequate early you can still leave on foot).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 31, 2010, 11:12:42 PM
Resonance of Fate - 3/10 - We've already had a bit of discussion on this game here, but now that I've finished it...twice (yes, for trophies.  Shut up.)...I can now render final verdict on it: this is one of the most tedious games I've played this generation.  But let's start at the beginning: the back of the box promises that this game is "RPG Redefined."  Well, "Rocket Propelled Grenades" might certainly be redefined by this game, but in terms of being a JRPG it's the same ol' JRPG crap: objectification of women (from multiple breast jokes and sequences to Leanne's painties clearly visible when she attacks in the air); convoluted battle system that's only complicated because no one explains it very well; an extremely nonsensical story that the game doesn't even bother having go anywhere; and a short critical path (seriously, I completed my second playthrough in 5 whole hours in New Game +.  Even accounting for my characters' extreme over-leveling, you're looking at maybe 15 Hours before diving into sidequests) padded by extreme amounts of filler sidequests (the vast majority being fetch quests), constant random encounters, constant backtracking, and battles that take way too long to complete.  Considering the eccentric nature of JRPGs, I was also surprised to see that every single character in this game (save perhaps for Nolan North's character, and that's only because Nolan North voices him) is completely forgettable and lacking in any depth whatsoever.  In fact, one of your party members grows increasingly unlikeable over the course of the game as you learn the 1-2 details of his past the game deems worth noting.  Also strange for a JRPG, while the concept of the world is very interesting, the art direction is not.  This is a game Pro could make a brown shading joke about, and I'd have to completely agree with him: color seems to have been completely banned from this game, outside fiery explosions; your characters' outfits; and the color gray.  The vast majority of the game just looks identical, and monotony sinks in quickly.  Easily the worst offender is the story, though: I've played through the entire game twice now, and I still couldn't tell you what the story was, or what the goals of the various characters were.

And heaven help you if you're OCD like me, because this game has one of the worst Platinums I've ever faced at 133 Hours of pure grinding and tedium, mostly in the Arena and sidequests.  And I thought Final Fantasy XIII's was bad at 105 Hours (most of which spent grinding)...Man, I'm increasingly starting to think the Japanese just don't understand that Achievement systems are supposed to make you better appreciate a game's systems and try out aspects of the game you wouldn't otherwise.  If you must play the game, just ignore the achievements because the ones here will just drain the life out of you.

Now, it's not like this game is without any redeeming features.  When the game is at its best, which honestly is probably the Bonus Dungeon Neverland, the battle system can be extremely strategic and rewarding.  I also like the extreme amount of customization you have with your characters' outfits, which are reflected in all the cutscenes.  The world Tri-Ace created here is interesting...they just didn't do anything with it.  And as bad as this game's Achievements/Trophies are, Tri-Ace at least was kind enough to put in something that apparently no one else feels necessary: an in-game chart where you can keep track of your trophy progress.  The voice acting, at least for the main cast, is also pretty decent.  The problem is, this game is not fun, and why should I recommend even stalwart JRPG fans play this game when we have much better games on the market (Final Fantasy XIII, Star Ocean 4, Valkyria Chronicles) they could play instead and actually enjoy?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on June 01, 2010, 02:42:33 AM
IMO it makes sense to put achievements at the end of every difficult side goal chain, they're supposed to tell others what goals you have reached in the game. Would be much worse to have some kind of giant side goal that doesn't even tag you with an achievement for getting it. Imagine if Braid's stars had an achievement, the OCD crowd would complain but those who fought tooth and nail to get those stars would be proud of being able to show others that they did the impossible.

I'm not as OCD as you so I don't grind and don't feel the game is tedious and most of the bonus battles felt quite tactical to me.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 01, 2010, 03:01:08 AM
IMO it makes sense to put achievements at the end of every difficult side goal chain, they're supposed to tell others what goals you have reached in the game. Would be much worse to have some kind of giant side goal that doesn't even tag you with an achievement for getting it. Imagine if Braid's stars had an achievement, the OCD crowd would complain but those who fought tooth and nail to get those stars would be proud of being able to show others that they did the impossible.

I'm not as OCD as you so I don't grind and don't feel the game is tedious and most of the bonus battles felt quite tactical to me.

IMO, Achievement systems should reward those who truly invest into the game's mechanics and learn to look at situations in a brand new light.  An example I love to bring up all the time is Bioshock's trophy for completing the game on the hardest difficulty with the vita-chambers turned off.  This is a game where ordinarily you can die as much as you want with little consequence, so it accomodates a wide variety of playing styles.  When you remove the vita-chambers and crank the difficulty up, however, the game becomes about survival, understanding the complexity of the level design, how to conserve supplies, and how to use the environment as your weapon in the most efficient way possible so engaging a target directly is a last resort.  I had to come up with strategies against Big Daddies I never would have thought to use otherwise, such as when I had to take one down and all I had was a clip of electric buckshot and a hacked rocket turret.  When you get that Achievement, you've shown a higher level of play and you feel like you've accomplished something.  What I see with JRPGs, though, is this trend towards not rewarding skill but time investment.  Instead of encouraging players to truly understand the game they're playing; play with aspects of the game they might otherwise ignore; and to think outside the box, they encourage players to simply dump mountains of time into a task and grind their way to victory.  It's dull and lazy, and it's getting old.

And as I said, while the monotony of the sidequests really drove me insane, the killer for this game was the cluster**** that is the story.  It goes nowhere in the most pretentious of fashions, eager to dump speech upon speech all about nothing just to eat up the clock.  I was actually pretty ok with the whole "slice of life" angle the first half of the game takes, but then in the second half it just meanders around while muttering pretentiously.  Playing through it a second time, I was reminded of Linkara's joke about the Monitors in Countdown, how all their dialogue could be summed up as follows: "Should we do something?  We should do something!  Should we do something?  We should DO something!"  Story is everything in an RPG, especially JRPGs, and this one was total FAIL.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 04, 2010, 05:39:27 PM
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (PS3) - 7.5/10 - If you've played a Prince of Persia game before, especially one of the Sands of Time games, you've already played this game.  Sure, the platforming is as competent as ever; the story is adequate for the experience; the visuals look nice and crisp; the game is just as long as it needs to be; and the voice acting is very well done (with some particularly amusing lines from the Prince), but in the end the game doesn't do much to ratchet up the thrill of the platforming; there's little original here; and there are some truly horrendous bugs.  In fact, I'd say this game supplants Warrior Within as the buggiest Prince of Persia game I've ever played, from hand-holds the Prince will randomly just not grab when you jump at them, to music that just randomly cuts in and out, to a truly head-scratching bug at the end of the game where I beat the Final Boss without killing one of his spawned minions.  The final in-game cutscene just played on with the minion standing there swinging at the Prince until he hit the camera, spawning the game to load my last checkpoint and make me fight the Final Boss again.

Other notable problems I blame you for...yes, YOU, anonymous person on the internet who whined about the last Prince of Persia actually being new and different.  Gone is the delightful technicolor color palette and style of Prince of Persia 2008, replaced by the same dull color palette of the Sands of Time games.  Gone also is the interesting strategic combat that required you to react to visual cues, replaced by a half-assed button-mashing ripoff of God of War with lame elemental powers.  Also gone is the last game's view on player death.  Yes, when you run out of sand and die, you have to load your last checkpoint, which could be 5-8 of lost progress and forcing the player to rewatch or skip all the cutscenes and re-obtain any lost power-ups.  All this because people complained that being sent back to your last solid ground upon "dying" (as opposed to getting a "you died" screen and getting sent back to that ground as a checkpoint anyway)  made the game too easy.  Well, the joke's on them because this game make the 2008 Prince of Persia look like Ninja Gaiden by comparison in terms of difficulty, only really ramping up in the final 2 areas where the developers decided to go nuts with the traversal powers.  When I died most of the time it was because I couldn't see what I was trying to reach, especially towards the end when the restoration power is introduced and combined in platforming with water freezing.  When you're using the freezing power, the frozen water and restor-able objects look exactly the same, causing screw-ups just because you can't tell what you're jumping at.
 
The game also has a real controls problem: the game uses every button on the controller, and towards the end of the game Ubisoft really ups the ante on the complexity of the platforming.  Just to give you an idea, L1 (toggle) is used for making broken objects whole; L2 (holding) for freezing water into interactable objects; R1 (hold) for rewind; and R2 (hold) for your general climbing action.  Towards the end of the game, you might have a scenario like this: freeze two waterfalls, wall jump between them, then jump off one wall, unfreeze the water long enough to pass through the waterfalls, quickly freeze again so a spout of water becomes a pole you grab on your way down, swing off the pole, let go of the freeze so you pass through another wall of water, hit the restore button to materializea hand-hold, etc.  The controls for this game work fine on their own, but when you start to combine powers it becomes apparent that these controls were made for people with 3 hands.  Just to be fair to Ubisoft, though, they really milk that water power for all it's worth, even this level design is probably the most contrived Prince of Persia has been in 3D.  Seriously, who builds palaces like this?
 
Overall, a good Prince of Persia game, but one definitely released before it was ready and one that not even the plot can justify should actually exist (seriously, absolutely nothing happens with the Prince's character as a result of this story).  Hopefully, now that Ubisoft has satiated the Sands of Time fans, they'll return to the 2008 Prince and release a new game that fixes a lot of the issues that game had ala what they did with Assassin's Creed.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on June 05, 2010, 02:26:54 AM
What I didn't like about '08 was how the platforming felt more like simon says, more difficulty in remembering which button corresponds to the given obstacle than anything else.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on June 05, 2010, 02:30:38 AM
Dementium 2: Read my review.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 05, 2010, 06:09:30 PM
What I didn't like about '08 was how the platforming felt more like simon says, more difficulty in remembering which button corresponds to the given obstacle than anything else.

This game's not much better in that regard, really.  It's pretty textbook Prince of Persia, and doesn't really (outside a few brief moments) embrace the fantastic despite the Prince's fantastical abilities.  The thing about the 2008 Prince of Persia is that what problems it had could easily have been fixed and refined for another installment, yet apparently it wasn't worthy of the treatment Assassin's Creed (a far worse game) got.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 06, 2010, 04:08:32 AM
Split/Second - 9/10 - I hate racing games.  I try to give the genre a try every once in a while because once upon a time I really enjoyed Mario Kart, but that series has become so ridiculously cheap over the years with its AI and by-the-books in its formula that I just don't enjoy it anymore.  "Realistic" racing games bore me to tears, as if I really wanted a life-like driving experience I'd just get in my car and go somewhere. 

You may notice in my posts that I like to use the phrase "embrace the fantastic" a lot in reference to games and animation, pushing an idea to an extreme that could only be conveyed in these mediums and wallowing in it.  Split/Second is a game that embraces the fantastic, playing on the idea of "what if Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay got together and made a badass car racing game?"  It's loud, it's fast, it's gorgeous, and it's filled to the brim with explosions; destruction; mayhem; and pure arcade-y fun.  I tried the demo for this game out one day on a whim, having heard the game was good but not knowing what kind of game it was (I actually mixed it up with a similarly-named FPS game) but falling in love with it when I did.  The very next day, I bought the game and after introducing my best friend to it, now he's going to buy a copy of it.  See what happens when you make a good demo and put it out there for free, companies?  That's TWO New Game sales you got from two people who don't like racing games.

But I digress.  Split/Second is made by the Disney-owned Black Rock studios, who made another racing game called Pure a few years back.  The basic idea is that you are racing in the latest "season" of a hit reality TV show of the same name that apparently has an unlimited budget and total legal immunity.  It's a simple story framework that basically just shows up at the beginning and end of each episode as teaser trailers to hype the coming carnage.  Each episode, You and 7 other racers compete in a variety of events on a man-made "set" composed of all sorts of delightful traps, from minor things like exploding cars and helicopters that drop explosive barrels to course-changing mass destruction like exploding buildings; crashing jet liners; collapsing bridges; and derailing trains.  The environment is your weapon.  Every course has a variety of these scripted "Power Plays", and you trigger them by filling a meter fueled by drifting, drafting, and jumping as you roar down the course.  You may trigger them on any racer in front of you who can potentially be harmed by the scripted event, though unlike Mario Kart your targets aren't instantly screwed just because you used the play.  Depending on the level of the Power Play; the target car's location on the course; and the target driver's driving skill, these death traps are perfectly avoidable so timing is everything.  You also have to be careful you don't kill yourself with your own Power Play, a costly mistake that is all too easy to make.  The "season" is composed of 12 "episodes" and is general well-composed and well-paced with plenty of exciting moments as you race through what often feels like barely-controlled chaos.  You can also use a Power Play to open up shortcuts, leading to a high level of risk-vs.-reward that reminds me a lot of the N64 Beetle Adventure Racing.

I should reiterate just how great this game looks.  The developers went with a very realistic look, but they didn't fall into the common trap (as I saw today when my best friend brought over his copy of Modern Warfare 2) where the visuals are "so realistic" that everything blends together and it's difficult to distinguish important information.  Despite much of the game taking place either mid-day or sunset with explosions constantly happening around you, the colors are vibrant and it's very easy even at high speeds to distinguish opposing cars and the environment from one another.  The game also features a decent musical score that serves the action well, though to be honest only the "Split/Second Theme" and this cool choral theme that plays at the end of Elite Races really stood out to me.  There is really good sound design, though, including lots of little touches like the music just briefly fading out for a moment during major power plays to emphasize the sheer power of the moment.

Where this game runs into trouble is in two key areas: first, there are way too few tracks in this game at only 12, and honestly those 12 tracks are really just 5 central locations (the airport, the harbor, the city, the power plant, and the airport graveyard/canyon) using different routes with different Power Play opportunities.  I really enjoyed the tracks here, but repetition in Season mode kicks in really quickly as you repeatedly compete in various events on each track.  This is a game that could really benefit from more courses introduced via DLC.  The other problem is a major one, and that's that this game has the most blatantly cheating AI this side of Mario Kart.  It is impossible to get and keep a lead in this game for very long, as I've seen everything from wrecked cars respawning less than a second after I wreck them to cars coming out of nowhere to steal the lead at the last minute of a race where no one was near me.  There's an extreme amount of rubber-banding, and it's incredibly frustrating though I can see how it may be necessary.  After all, this game thrives on keeping the pack together so the Power Plays can inflict maximum carnage, but unfortunately the rubber-banding only works one way: when you're in front.  When you're behind, the AI is more than happy to simply out-race you and the AI almost always has better cars than you.  Unlike Mario Kart, I don't think this rubber-banding breaks the game because the outcome of the race still depends greatly on your skill level and your intelligence with using power plays, but it can make the game very frustrating.  Playing Online is a different story: Black Rock had the "brilliant" idea of having Day 1 DLC out there you can buy that instantly unlocks all the best cars and tracks, which you can take into Online multiplayer.  This completely breaks the game (and ruins Online, IMO) and brings us back to the flaw I just mentioned: if you don't have a race where the racers are relatively close to each other, there's very little you can do if you're lagging behind to catch up because drafting behind another racer is the best way to fill the Power Play meter and slow the other racers down with crashes.

All that said, I loved this game and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves the spirit of pure arcade racing, even if they don't usually enjoy racing games.  And explosions.  LOTS of explosions.  It's a very simple arcade racer, but it knows exactly what it does well and executes it with perfection.  Both HD platforms have an excellent demo for the Airport track up on their respective download services, so check it out if you're curious.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on June 06, 2010, 05:04:37 AM
Grokion (iPhone): It's kinda like Metroid (even has a similar music style) but the damage balance seems wonky as ****, you need to shoot enemies like 10 times to kill them while you die if an enemy explodes so much as on the same screen as you (yes, enemies have death explosions and they are extremely damaging).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 27, 2010, 01:11:33 AM
Alan Wake - 9/10 - As it turns out, Alan Wake had the honor of being the last game I completed at my old residence, as I write this on the eve of my Moving out of this apartment.  Thankfully, it looks like my gaming career at this apartment will end on a high note because Alan Wake is fantastic.  It is everything I've wanted Silent Hill to be for many years: extremely atmospheric, great music and sound design, great production values (aside from the human character models), and exciting combat that really immersed me in the experience.  It also features the indisputable best "forest" environments ever made in gaming, which never feel like "levels" or "tree boxes" trap like many games (especially Zelda) fall into.  When the wind kicks up and the trees start swaying as the fog rolls in, you really feel like you're up against a force of nature.  The game also features an interesting "TV episode"-style presentation that's generally executed well with climaxes and cliffhangers that keep you wanting to keep playing till you've seen the whole story. 

I really only have a few complaints with the game:  first, the human character models are abysmal up-close and have really poor facial animation, an unfortunate consequence of Remedy farming out their development to China years ago as this project went through development hell.  Second, while this game's forests are amazing, the game spends way too much time in them, with only a brief period of one of the last episodes giving you somewhere new to fight.  Third, while I was always invested in the game, towards the end of the 5th Episode (of 6) I really felt like this game started running out of steam and the game just started getting a little too repetitive.  The game had long since run out of new enemy and weapon types, and the game's only real plan to keep the game going was just to throw wave after wave of Taken at me.  The game's clever-er bits with the excellent radio segments and occasionally-amusing "Night Springs" segments started feeling decreasingly interesting.  Finally, the ending is just...aggravating.  It's yet another example of a development team installing a "hook" at the end to leave plenty of room for sequels when the fate of the first game is still very much in doubt.  While I hope very much that we'll see an Alan Wake sequel, I wanted this story tied up by the end and it's very much not.  Maybe the 3 upcoming DLC packs will address this.

Overall, Alan Wake is one of the best survival horror games I've played in recent years, and feels like the true successor to Silent Hill as that series continues to flounder for identity.  Highly recommended for 360 owners.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on June 27, 2010, 03:32:40 AM
I probably played some iPhone game afterwards but I'll just ignore that:

Necrovision: It's pretty much a mindless shooting FPS with some nice influences from splatter flicks, just strange that the first chapters of the game decide to be all serious about the horrors of WW1 until your dude starts dual-wielding heavy machineguns and spouting one-liners taken straight out of Evil Dead. Physics are wonky (especially jumping to places that are uneven like rubble) and the enemy chatter is weird (why the hell do the German soldiers give orders in badly accented English while other shouts are purely in German?), loadtimes are long, etc but the game is just plain fun so far. Combat has a good combination of close and ranged attacks and combining them together makes the game bill your attacks as combos and give you temporary bonuses like bullet time for a second or two for landing a headshot. Since it's based on WW1 proper melee weapons aren't rare or misplaced (you can fight with a detached bayonet, a shovel (commonly sharpened and used as a weapon in WW1) and stuff like the bayonets attached to your rifles) and it just gives way more variety than running backwards and spraying bullets.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on June 28, 2010, 07:47:10 PM
Muramasa: The Demon Blade: One-trick pony/10

Here's the basic gameplay flow: Run around a series of backdrops with very few warp points (which cost money to use), being interrupted occasionally to fight a band of ninjas or trolls or giant frogs. Kill everybody using button mashing and special attacks. Gain a level, forge new weapons, equip your new swords, repeat. Endlessly.

The plot of boring, but told exactly how it was in Odin Sphere (here's a "talk to people" area!). On the plus side, the boss fights are spectacular, the art direction is amazing, the animations are incredible, and a LOT of female NPC's (friends and enemies) have enormous, heaving breasts. Despite the game's extremely repetitious nature, I'm still enjoying it and may yet beat it, with Momohime, at least.

Games I Just Bought for a Song: Dark Void (PS3), The Conduit (Wii). Still haven't touched either one.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on June 30, 2010, 01:49:15 AM
Yeah, I see Dark Void for dirt cheap in many places.

Last game I played was Uplink, it's fun though kinda repetitive while you grind for the money to get the tools for better jobs and the font is so small I get eyestrain from playing it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: King of Twitch on July 13, 2010, 05:47:48 PM
Pikmin 2 - 0/10

Bombs. :moonface: :moonface: :moonface:

---EPILOGUE---

OK, maybe a score of 0 is unfair. It's been so long since I've played this that I forgot everything! I approached this game with totally fresh eyes after playing through P1, and it is definitely more challenging. The caves are brutal; I have never been happier while killing animals/insects than I have since... probably the last time I played this game. There's a cave with bombs, bomb spiders, floating things that drop bombs, bombs falling from the ceiling out of nowhere... They should've named it Pikmin 2: Al-Qaeda Planet to at least give a warning at what lies ahead. Seeing a squadron of Pikmin get blown up is more enraging than heartbreaking this time around.

But once I got over that, the game is loads of fun. The lack of time limit is liberating, yet... it somehow devalues the life of a Pikmin if you can just spend your time freely growing more...

The additional helper helps to speed things along, but can sometimes make it even more stressful when you start to notice the day running out of time and you've got Pikmin divided into 4 different tasks.

The new purple and white Pikmin are not that exciting, and it's a hassle keeping track of which cave they spawn from since you have to go back into specific caves to get more (sometimes only 15 at a time ). As a result, the player will want to leave them in a safe place anytime a battle is approaching, bringing them out only once the area is secure.   

The graphics are even better than the first, with forest leaves constantly falling and sunrays shining through, and it looks like someone installed some stepping stones along the way. Several areas are recycled, but are given a sense of the passage of   time, which is a nice touch.

Jonny's review (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/4262) has an epic first paragraph, i lol'd. I'd bump it down to 8.8 or 8.9 for having too many cheap enemies and the Pikmin are constantly singing 'mow mow meowmeow mow mow' which is a great way to drive players crazy. I'm surprised it hasn't been used in more games since then; annoying, repetitive, babyish cat-taunt calls are what modern console games are missing. Maybe the 3DS can breathe new life into this tortuous sound design if Pikmin 3 is ever released.
 
But you probably won't play this rare game anyway.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 14, 2010, 03:51:41 PM
A couple Xbox LIVE Arcade titles today:
 
Banjo-Kazooie (360) - 7.5/10 - A decent game that's been much improved from its original N64 outing with better textures and some much-needed improvements from Banjo-Tooie.  With the game performing an auto-save every time you grab a noteworthy item, collecting is so much more tolerable now.  I just wish the game would save when you've made major changes in an environment (extending a bridge, killing special enemies, etc.).  In the end, tedium still sets in as the grating character noises really get unbearable and the stages start showing a distinct lack of creativity in gameplay variety (thankfully, Banjo-Tooie would fix the latter).  And even though I got all the Jiggies, the final confrontation with Grunty was surprisingly brutal.  A fun day's play, but I don't think I'll ever play it again.
 
Perfect Dark (360) - 8.5/10 - Now here's a game that improved in nearly all the right ways in the conversion to 360.  The graphics aren't astounding, but they do serve the purpose of looking like how you remember Perfect Dark looking on the N64 if not in reality.  The framerate is also very fluid and consistent, which is a monumental improvement from the original title, and the controls have just the right additions (such as mapping alternate fire to the right bumper instead of holding down the "reload" button).  The game also has online play if you are about that sort of thing (I'm not).  My only big complaint is that the missions still lack checkpoints, even when the flawed Perfect Dark Zero (I'll get back to that mess of a game eventually) had them, and there are some bugs left over from the original N64 release.  There were no improvements made to the AI, either (CPU opponents still roll at the drop of a hat, making them easy targets).  Finally, the game doesn't really get interesting till the final levels of Agent mode, and I'd say it doesn't actually get fun until Secret Agent and Perfect Agent difficulties, but those were flaws in the original game.
 
Looks like Mass Effect 1 will probably be my next entry, followed by perhaps its sequel or Perfect Dark Zero (which I still need to finish...ugh, I'm glad I only paid $5 for that).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on July 15, 2010, 03:52:56 PM
I've been playing through several games simultaneously, but haven't actually beaten any of them yet:
 
1. PixelJunk Shooter
This game is incredibly addictive. My brother-in-law and I have been going through every stage with a fine-toothed comb to find all the diamonds. I think we've opened all of the ice cave levels but can't seem to get beyond that, despite having found well over 100 diamonds. Go figure. Still fun, though. I love the water/lava animation. Two-player is a blast!
 
2. Uncharted 2
I've played and beat his game before, but my brother-in-law wanted to see it. I'd forgotten how damn long the game is, almost irritatingly so, and the firefights are still too numerous. However, I love the story and the characters' interactions. I just can't believe that the bad guy hired what appears to be the entire population of a small country to fight Drake 'n' Co. I'm finding a lot of treasures this time around than I found the first time, which is awesome.
 
3. Tiger Woods 11
Finally got my swing right. Now I can actually start playing for real. That "Club Tuner" is a lifesaver.
 
4. ModNation Racers
Great game, but the load times are atrocious.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 15, 2010, 04:08:56 PM
Mass Effect - 8/10 - This one gets the 8 just from the sheer writing and the cinematic feel, because everything else is either mediocre (the combat, the copy & pasted sidequests) or awful (inventory management, constant 2 minute rides in elevators, anything to do with the MAKO till near the end of the game).  I do love the universe that Bioware has created with this game, so much in fact that I've ordered all the Mass Effect CD audiobooks and I already have the second Mass Effect game.  The one real saving grace of this game is just how much control you have over your character's actions.  It's bizarre considering your character is just a blank slate, but by the end of the game I really felt myself attached to my Shepard and his crew.  Unfortunately, aside from a couple crew members, your crew doesn't get much character development and most spent the entire game on the Normandy.  I couldn't even get myself to care about the one I lost due to plot reasons.  This game also has an extremely high difficulty curve early on if you don't pick the exact right class, as I saw when I picked the Sentinel class and spent half the game constantly dying and reloading my save.  By the end of my game, though, my Sentinel was a god so I guess it evens out.
 
For all its many flaws, though, Mass Effect is an excellent game...if not one I see myself ever playing again unless I want to import a female Shepard into Mass Effect 2.  Speaking of which, I have played the first 30 minutes or so of Mass Effect 2, and the combat and inventory management are so much better in the sequel it's incredible.  And the MAKO was apparently removed altogether outside of a couple DLC missions.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on July 15, 2010, 05:07:18 PM
Quote from: broodwars
And the MAKO was apparently removed altogether outside of a couple DLC missions.
Nope. Not in DLC either. It exists, but I won't spoil it for you.

Quote from: broodwars
I have played the first 30 minutes or so of Mass Effect 2, and the combat and inventory management are so much better in the sequel it's incredible.
Don't know if it's for the betterment of the game though, but that's just my opinion. I'm going to wait and see what you think of Mass Effect 2 once you write a review for it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: jrlibrarian on July 26, 2010, 02:27:26 PM
Super Mario Land: 9.5/10
 
I have been going through a retro game kick, so my reviews will focus around those games for a while. This was Mario's first outing on the Game Boy, and the first apperance of Princess Daisy. You are no longer in the Mushroom Kingdom, but in Sarsaraland, where all the peaceful creatures have been brainwashed to kill Mario.
 
The game is fun with the difficulty spiking once you get to the second half of the game. Since I have never played one of the original Mario games, I was not used to the fact that he drops like a freaking boulder. Once I got used to that, I found a great game which I will come back to in the near future, after I clear out the other games on my list of shame (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=32012.new#new).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on July 26, 2010, 02:57:34 PM
Arkham Asylum (again): Holy Missed Bossfight Opportunity, Batman!/10

My brother-in-law's been staying with us, so I've been replaying some of my favorite PS3 games. Arkham Asylum goes by really quickly the second time, especially if you're not going for all the Riddler stuff (which I did complete the first time through). However, every boss fight in the game is kind of silly because, ultimately, they're all slight variations on "beat up a bunch of random thugs while avoiding the boss itself, who you can't hurt directly."

They need to get Gordon's voice actor from the animated series for the 2nd game. Whoever they got for Gordon here was a terrible choice, and the man looks like body-builder.

Dark Void (PS3): Started this one a few nights ago. It's got some very interesting gameplay mechanics, and it's a great-looking game. I really like the look of the Watcher robots. The main character's voice actor is the same as Nathan Drake, which is funny because that's the game we replayed right before Batman. So I call the game "Uncharted with a Jetpack." The over-the-shoulder shootout areas are surprisingly similar.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 27, 2010, 02:51:54 PM
Mass Effect 2 - 9.5/10 - If Split/Second was my most surprisingly awesome game of this year so far, Mass Effect 2 would be my most expectantly awesome game of the year.  Mass Effect 2 is what its predecessor most definitely wasn't: fun.  Sure, the first Mass Effect was intriguing and I enjoyed the story, but the actual game part of that video game was abysmal.  Yeah, the combat can get to be a bit too much at times in ME2 and sometimes I wished I could just talk my way around it like I could in the first game, but when the combat's as well-done and entertaining as it is in this game that doesn't really hurt the game all that much.  The planet scanning can be dull, but I only probably spent maybe an hour the entire game doing it and I had more than enough resources to purchase anything that uses resources.  I don't like how limited credits can be compared to all the upgrades you can purchase, but that just steered me towards only purchasing upgrades I'd actually use rather than just purchase them for completion's sake.  The DLC characters can also be cool and useful in combat, but they have no bearing on the story and have nothing of interest to say or do once you complete their loyalty missions.
 
I've seen numerous complaints about this game from hardcore Mass Effect players complaining about the changes from the first game, and honestly it's hard to see them as anything more than complaints that the game actually dares to shake-up the RPG status quo (something I know signals the End of the World to diehard RPG fans who never want the genre to change, I know).  Inventory management was a disaster in the first game, and ME2 is better for it being gone.  Instead of piles of weapons and armor that exist just to be sold and ground into omnigel, the different classes use specific weapons and armor and you just upgrade them.  It's quick and easy, and there's still an RPG element of exploration and decision finding and purchasing equipment.  Instead of spending hours roaming around generic planets looking for stuff to interact with, you just find planets with missions on them and go down to the area of importance in a shuttle.  If you really missed the MAKO all that much, both the Firewalker and Overlord DLC (more the latter than the former) will make you happy and are probably an indication of what we'll see in Mass Effect 3.  Combat areas are more linear now, but that also allows better scripting and more interesting areas.  Besides, I'm here for the story and I just want to keep moving forward.
 
Overall, Mass Effect 2 is an outstanding game topped by a particularly emotional and exciting conclusion that probably singlehandedly boosted my score 1/2 a point (all my crew survived, btw).  It's not perfect, but its flaws are vastly outweighed by its strengths.  Your choices, as always, matter (and it's great to see how your choices in the first game has impacted the second); the writing's sharp; and I felt more attached to my crew in this game than I ever did in the first.  The structure of the game has changed from the first game, but the soul of the franchise is still there and it's actually fun to play now.  I'll probably never replay the first game ever again, but I'll probably replay the second in anticipation of the hopefully-thrilling finale sometime in the coming years.  Highly recommended.  It's just a pity that this game is a 360-exclusive, because this is Epic Space Opera at its finest.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on July 27, 2010, 03:00:40 PM
How much of the powers, and your teammates did you use compared to your Mass Effect 1 play-through?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 27, 2010, 03:08:53 PM
How much of the powers, and your teammates did you use compared to your Mass Effect 1 play-through?

My character was a Sentinel, so my character was all about the powers since he wasn't really all that skilled with the power weapons (though as my Tech Barrier skill grew, I was able to be part of more extended firefights).  That meant a lot of Cryo Blasting and Warping.  I never used Throw all that much, though. Towards the end of the game, I did lean a bit hard on the Submachine Gun and my inherited Anti-Armor Rounds skills I got from Archangel. 
 
When my teammates weren't using their powers automatically, I was constantly bringing up the wheel to order them to use their skills so that didn't change all that much from the first game.  As for how much I used the various party members, in the first game I pretty much exclusively used Tali and Garras.  In the second game, Miranda; Tali; Archangel; and Kasumi all saw heavy use, with the remaining party members used in specific scenarios or not at all.  That's par for the course, really.  You'll notice that the characters I liked to use were either from the first game or show up early in the game, so they're the ones I got used to using the most.  I found all the party members fairly capable, though, with a good balance of powers.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on July 27, 2010, 03:40:44 PM
Ah I see. I should have gone for the Sentinel then. I chose the Soldier class, and I barely needed to use any powers. It was a straight up shooting fest for me, which was fun, but I liked the constant wheel popping I did in ME1.

One thing that this game left me wanting for is that I want to be allowed to specifically control one of the crew members in missions specific to that character. I really like the crew mates in this game. Grunt, Thane, Mordin, Kasumi, and Legion are my favorites.

I would also have liked to see more armor choices, and I hope that in Mass Effect 3 they allow to take off the helmet from the armors that come with pre-order codes and the collector's edition.

They should have also included more diverse looking weapons. They all looked a bit too much like they were derived from human technology, rather than Salarian, Krogan, or Asari for example.

Overlord was awesome, and I too think that the way the DLC was made is some indication of what ME3 missions might be like, or at least we can hope for.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on July 28, 2010, 10:27:37 AM
See what killed the upgrade weapons/armor ect was you needed to find the blueprints and if you missed blueprint level 1 then collecting the rest would be utterpointless.

Yeah I was a soldier class as well which made the game real easy, just used the right ammo type and slow down time and I mowed over them like they were paper--the enemy AI is still rather weak IMO, didn't use cover worth a damn or their ablilites.  I used most of the characters quite evenly minus Legion because you didn't get him until the end. 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 28, 2010, 10:30:06 AM
See what killed the upgrade weapons/armor ect was you needed to find the blueprints and if you missed blueprint level 1 then collecting the rest would be utterpointless.

From what I understand of the upgrade system, all the schematics for Upgrades 1-5 for any given weapon can be purchased or found in any order.  There are supplementary upgrades for each weapon that require you to perform a certain number of the main upgrades first.  I'm fine with that.
 
And I really have to ask at this point what you all were expecting combat to be like when you selected Soldier at the beginning of the game, a class that even in the first game was focused on combat-oriented traits like heavier weapons and armor.  If you want to use a bunch of powers, pick a powers-oriented class like Sentinel or Biotic.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on July 28, 2010, 11:28:50 AM
? That's why you have a party?  I was still using combo's with my party members biotics, like Jack's Shockwave right after someone uses overload, and if they still live I'll use Shepard's slow down time and blast them before the can even hit the ground.

Also, since I had the resources I was able to get all the skills/biotics anyway for him anyway, the only difference really was he didn't get a boost to them (power and recharge was set as standard).

As for buying blueprints, yeah some could be bought but there were specific ones on certain missions and if you missed them then you were out of luck or course they might have fixed this now but at launch you couldn't go back and get missing blueprints.

 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 28, 2010, 11:34:46 AM
As for buying blueprints, yeah some could be bought but there were specific ones on certain missions and if you missed them then you were out of luck or course they might have fixed this now but at launch you couldn't go back and get missing blueprints.

No, they haven't fixed this.  If you miss out on a blueprint while on a mission, it is gone forever as far as I can tell.  I was pretty thorough scouring the environments, so I don't think I missed anything I would actually want, but it is possible.  I was more annoyed that there are some missions that end automatically, and they don't allow you to search the environment first.  There are some scenarios where there would be a massive firefight in one room and some stuff I could search and hack, but if you didn't find a way to search and hack them while under fire you wouldn't be given a chance to get them.  That's just unfair, especially because if someone shoots you while hacking the device locks-up and you don't get another chance.  At least the mission blueprints tend to placed out where they're easy to find.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: kraken613 on July 28, 2010, 04:08:08 PM
It's just a pity that this game is a 360-exclusive, because this is Epic Space Opera at its finest.

It's on PC too where it is better cause the 360 sucks.

And yes ME2 is AMAZING! I still think the first is a 9 and the 2nd is a 10 and my game of the year by far so far in the year.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 28, 2010, 04:11:51 PM
It's just a pity that this game is a 360-exclusive, because this is Epic Space Opera at its finest.

It's on PC too where it is better cause the 360 sucks.

And yes ME2 is AMAZING! I still think the first is a 9 and the 2nd is a 10 and my game of the year by far so far in the year.

Sorry, it's easy to forget that the PC is still technically considered a gaming platform.  :P:
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: kraken613 on July 28, 2010, 04:30:21 PM
It's just a pity that this game is a 360-exclusive, because this is Epic Space Opera at its finest.

It's on PC too where it is better cause the 360 sucks.

And yes ME2 is AMAZING! I still think the first is a 9 and the 2nd is a 10 and my game of the year by far so far in the year.

Sorry, it's easy to forget that the PC is still technically considered a gaming platform.  :P:
Say that in a few months when you see StarCraft 2's sales.

Really PC is doing just a good as ever. You just don't hear about the sales because most of them are digital distribution like Steam where no sales numbers are released.

A PC may be a bit more of the initial investment but if you work the Steam sales you make it up fast. I got ME1 for $5 on a Steam sale. Or the 12 games I bought last Christmas for around $50.

PC owns any console, better controls and better graphics.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on July 29, 2010, 02:56:38 AM
And better prices, new games are at least 10€ cheaper than the console versions and pricedrops are much more common.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ponch on July 30, 2010, 01:42:26 AM
Hunting Bad Guys Down, Taking Away Their Contraband, and Tossing Them in the Clink Game - 10/10
Never gets old.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 30, 2010, 10:04:55 AM
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja - 7.5/10 - I'm not a big Naruto fan.  I've seen the first 150-ish episodes and found it to be ok, but it's a show that drags on way too long stretching out every major event as long as humanly possible and then throwing in heaps of filler for good measure.  That said, this 360 Naruto game is surprisingly good, focusing on telling roughly the first half of the first Naruto series in abridged form via a GTA-style Open World rather than a typical fighting game.  There's even a bit of RPG in here as you run around the Hidden Leaf Village and do (fetch) quests from villagers to earn money, new abilities, HP, and (essentially) MP increases.  In a cool nod to the show, to perform the game's magical attacks (jutsus) you even have to perform a series of handsigns using the two analog sticks.  When you run into a scripted battle, you enter a fighting game-based combat system that's shallow and occasionally frustrating but fun.  The game's production values are excellent, using a cel shaded graphics engine that suits the source material well with English voice acting from the show and clips of the show itself to pad out the story.
 
Where the game runs into problems is in the repetition, which really raises its ugly head towards the end of the game.  You only control Naruto in this game (unlike the sequel, which allows you to use multiple fighters), and his moveset gets old fairly quickly.  Most of the fetch quests also constantly force you to trudge back and forth between the same 3-4 environments, and it gets tedious quickly fighting the same goons and dodging the same traps at the same locations for hours on end.  Ubisoft also didn't seem to realize the problem with having somewhat-tricky platforming sequences in a game where the main character is as fast as Speedy Gonzalez: it's extremely easy to fall off of platforms and lose health or have to repeat large sections of the game.  The gameplay variety is a bit lacking as well, with only fetch quests and variants on races to keep you occupied when you aren't exploring the Open World.
 
Overall, it's a decent if not exceptional game.  Your mileage will vary depending on how much you like Open World games (I'm not a huge fan).  I'm playing the 360 sequel right now, and it improves on quite a bit of my problems with this game (if not all of them) and is a good deal prettier.  Huh, imagine that: one of the best Naruto games, a franchise created by the Japanese, was made by a French company based in Canada for a platform the Japanese don't buy.  Go figure.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on July 31, 2010, 05:47:11 AM
unRevolutionary (XBL Indie games): 5/5 (I rated it on the service, might as well mention the rating here)
Another one of those twin stick shooters. This one comes with a ton of hand-designed levels (I'm at 33 or so with a hint mentioning levels up to 48) and a lot of variety, not only do different enemy combinations change the gameplay a lot but there are also race levels and boss fights that change it even more. It has RPG-elements in the form of 4 classes (you chose a half-class at level 1 and your final class at 10, so far I tried the passive class Blade and of course the Engineer in the demo) with different spells. These spells are absolutely vital as the enemy counts quickly ramp up to levels where your regular guns don't stand a chance. Out of my 4 spells the only one I don't use regularly is slowdown (basically bullet time).
At 5$ it's one of the pricier indie games but the crazy amount of content makes up for it. It's easy to overlook because it's an expensive twin stick shooter on a platform absolutely flooded with them but compared with the big name titles it's still cheap. Instead of throwing 15$ at the 2 hour Limbo why not get an indie game for a third of the price? My ingame timer is approaching 10 hours and I've only played with one class and am not even near the end yet. Since spells change the game so radically replaying with a different class will likely feel extremely different. Oh and the boss fights are effing awesome so far. And if it gets too hard for you, every time you continue the game gives you an additional extra life.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 02, 2010, 03:06:21 PM
Limbo - 9/10 - Atmospheric; beautiful; and clever, this is one of the most satisfying downloadable games I've played in a while.  The game is short, but I feel it ends just as it begins wearing out its welcome and running out of ideas.  I'm more bothered by the ending, which is very brief and employs a slow motion effect so severe I actually thought for a while that I had triggered a bug.  I would have appreciated a narrative beyond Stream of Consciousness, but overall I think this game is worthy of the accolades it is receiving (far more than Braid, the over-rated pretentious mess this game is often unfortunately compared to).  The pricing issue is getting blown out of proportion (as it often does: see Portal): if an engrossing experience with clever puzzles is what you're looking for in a game, than Limbo is easily worth that $15 price tag.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on August 02, 2010, 04:32:40 PM
I played the demo, and got stuck at a certain puzzle, so I said "screw this". Deleted it. Though I am willing to give it another try based on your post.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 02, 2010, 04:41:01 PM
I played the demo, and got stuck at a certain puzzle, so I said "screw this". Deleted it. Though I am willing to give it another try based on your post.

Yeah, I frequently got stuck near the end of the game.  I actually found this to be a surprisingly good Co-op game.  My best friend and I had some good fun during the last hour or so just bouncing puzzle solution suggestions off each other until we figured it out.  The game can be very frustrating, though.  I suggest taking a break when you run into a wall, as towards the end of the game it can be very easy to miss small details in the environment that are actually key to the entire puzzle.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on August 04, 2010, 05:21:45 PM
Dragon Quest IX:

Nowhere near finishing it, of course, but this game might never leave my DSi.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on August 05, 2010, 02:54:55 PM
Castlevania: Harmony of Assets (demo)

So, stupid linear level design (any branches only lead to treasure chests) and a demo for a multiplayer-based game with only singleplayer enabled... Also that boss design was lame, they realized the boss's pattern was too easy so they just made his second stage dump a ton of enemies into the arena. Cheap.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 05, 2010, 03:12:50 PM
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm - 8/10 - Hey, another Naruto game, this time on the PS3 and covering all relevant story in the first series (it ends with the big Sasuke/Naruto fight just before the series spent a few years in Filler territory).  It's interesting having played 3 Naruto games now how similar they all are to each other, and yet so different.  Like the 360 Rise of a Ninja/Broken Bond games, this game also features an Open World where you explore for stuff and accept quests where you fight things using a Fighting Game combat engine and Cel Shaded graphics engine. 
 
That's where the similarities stop, though.  Whereas the 360 games were all about telling the story and exploring the world, Ultimate Ninja Storm uses a segmented mission-based structure that makes it feel more like a handheld game.  You run around the Open World buying stuff and accepting quests, and then you open your Quest log and just select to jump into the quest (as many times as you like).  Each event within a story is part of its own mission, and when you complete that mission you get sent back to the Hidden Leaf Village to do whatever until you decided to do another mission.  While this allows for more "pick-up and play"-style gaming, it also means the storytelling is shot to hell.  This is a shame because the few cutscenes in the game are very well done and the game overall is gorgeous.  This may very well be the closest I've seen a Cel Shaded game come to capturing the energy of an animated action series.
 
The fighting engine is also much faster and more fun than the slower 360 titles, though I do miss doing the Hand Signs to use Jutsu.  The fighting system here is similar to Marvel vs. Capcom in a 3D field: you pick a main fighter, pick 2 more characters to act as support, and then assign special attacks (which you earn in story mode) to each character.  In battle, you press a button to call that character in to perform a support attack while you spam the Circle and Triangle buttons to attack and use jutsus.  It's a very simple, button-mashing system but it's very fast; fun; and looks awesome.
 
Overall, that pretty much sums up my opinion of Ultimate Ninja Storm: it's not a very good story-telling game, but it's definitely the most fun Naruto game I've played.  And the 3 boss fights against giant creatures are incredible, melding very nicely Quick Time Events; cinematic scripting; and standard combat.  I also really appreciate that everything you can do or find in the Open World is marked on your map, so you don't have to spend hours looking for stuff.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 06, 2010, 11:11:05 AM
Transformers: War for Cybertron - 6/10 - Are you a G1 nut who could name all nearly-identical Autobots and Deceptacons on command?  Congratulations, this game was made for you and only you, the person who willingly bathes themselves in the rosy glow of nostalgia.  The rest of us will see an average, repetitive 3rd person non-cover-based shooter where you spend hours fighting wave after wave of generic robots in nearly-identical robotic hallways playing through a story that's almost impossible to care about for roughly half the game.  The visuals are mostly unimpressive, but the voice acting is generally well-done (especially from Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime and whoever they have voicing Soundwave, who sounds dead on).  There's also an insane amount of loading throughout the game and really aggravating difficulty spikes that can make certain sections really frustrating.
 
The singleplayer portion of the game spans 10 missions, 5 for the Dectacons and 5 for the Autobots.  Unfortunately, the Deceptacon campaign is chronologically before the Autobot campaign, so if you want to experience the story the "right way" you have to play the Deceptacon campaign first.  The Deceptacon campaign is terrible, full of seemingly-endless corridor-shooting with generic Autobots, no gameplay variety, and characters (outside Soundwave) who are just completely uninteresting.  The campaign turns around a bit towards the end with 2 levels devoted to fighting Omega Supreme, but overall the Deceptacon portion of the game feels tacked-on and boring.
 
Then suddenly the game transitions to the Autobot campaign and quickly becomes a lot better: the story becomes interesting and entertaining to follow, the gameplay starts getting more varied, there are quite a few references to the 1986 Transformers movie, and there are several fights against named Deceptacons like Soundwave (complete with cartridge Transfomers) and Starscream.  The game culminates in an exciting battle with a huge foe that more than a little pays homage to the planet-eating Unicron from the Transformers movie.
 
If the game had focused exclusively on telling the Autobot story, this could have been a fun but repetitive romp through the world of the original Transformers.  Unfortunately, it's too little too late.  I honestly don't know how this game managed above-average reviews (that it seems to be compared so often and so favorably to Batman: Arkham Asylum is insulting), but then again I've never understood how a series as terrible as the original Transformers has managed to keep such a large and rabid fanbase while the much superior Beast Wars is just a cult classic.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 09, 2010, 01:21:02 AM
Wow, I hadn't really realized it until I glanced at the above reviews, but I do seem to be on quite the roll lately getting games knocked out and out of my backlog.   :P: : :

Splinter Cell: Conviction - 8.5/10 - Just to make one thing clear going into this game: I've only previously played one Splinter Cell game, the original that was ported to the GameCube.  I hated it.  The controls were needlessly complicated, the old-school "stealth" gameplay tedious and unforgiving, and the overall game was just not fun.  Flash-forward to 2010 in this new post-Arkham Asylum world (the first game I ever played where "stealth" was actually fun) and (after enjoying the demo) I surprisingly found myself really enjoying Splinter Cell: Conviction.  Just like Arkham Asylum, this game focuses on empowering the player in the shadows while giving them the tools they need to solve each room in whatever manner suits them.  You aren't some weak little man memorizing guard patterns so you can quietly snap a guard's neck and hide him a locker so you can creep into a room, all while holding down 5-6 different buttons at once and ensuring that one mistake doesn't make you repeat the last 20 minutes of gameplay.  You are a predator, skulking around in the shadows and picking off enemies one-by-on as you prowl around a room searching for the best way to take everyone out with just a few shots.  The interface is smart and simple with contextual icons and story/objectives writing themselves on the walls, the level designs allow for a wide variety of approaches, the story is entertaining enough (though very "by the books" for a Tom Clancy product), and the game has some great set-piece moments towards the end.  Aside from one incredibly frustrating mission about 2/3 of the way through the game that returned the gameplay to the frustrating "make one mistake and you have to start all over again" design of the previous Splinter Cells, I had a consistently fun experience from beginning to end.

That isn't to say the game's without faults.  The various goons you fight in the game are hilariously stupid, making even the goons in Arkham Asylum look intelligent.  They're also incredibly loud and fond of shouting their current location/situation.  When you die (and you will die often in certain sections), the checkpoints are placed very far apart so you often find yourself playing some sections many times until you finally get it right.  The character models outside of Fisher himself are also very poor, especially compared to the environments.  Also, the music is annoying and I found the story a little hard to follow at times because it seems fond of referencing previous Splinter Cell games I've never played.  Finally, the game is a little on the short side, about 8 or so hours long.  I thought the game ended when it needed to, but there is very limited replay value and if you don't have a friend to play Co-op multiplayer there's a lot of content on the disc you simply can't access.

Overall, much like Arkham Asylum this is how stealth games should be: fun.  Hopefully, Ubisoft won't drop this new direction for the series just because (as they did with Prince of Persia) the die-hard Splinter Cell fans didn't like it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 10, 2010, 01:32:04 AM
Condemned: Criminal Origins - 7/10 - This is an old favorite of mine, one I originally played on PC back in 2006 or so and now I play on 360.  Sadly, time hasn't been kind to this 360 Launch title, but it still remains a very immersive horror mystery game that does a great job of maintaining tension as you inch through darkness and wreckage with only your malfunctioning flashlight and whatever you can grab standing between you and the madness around you.  The sound design is still phenomenal, though Steven J. Blum really is phoning it in as the lead.  The game also features one of the most effective final levels of any game I've ever played, as you race through a derelict farm in pitch-black night with only the torch in your hand lighting your way 3 feet in front of you as insanity itself stalks you.  The game does an excellent job of making you feel like your character is going insane with some degree of subtlety.  It's a pity that the repetitive level designs and nonsensical "B Story" (towards the end, the game often feels like it's using some elements just for the sake of using them, even when they don't make sense) sometimes get in the way, though at least it's nowhere near as bad as it is in the sequel (oh wait, that game doesn't exist).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 10, 2010, 10:46:58 PM
Perfect Dark Zero - 3/10 - Whatever you may have heard about how bad this game is, you heard incorrectly: it's far, far worse than anyone could have thought possible from a game named Perfect Dark developed by Rare.  This game is the video game equivalent of children being brought in to sit at the grown-up table in the aftermath of all Rare's talent leaving to form Free Radical.  The controls are awful and inconsistent, the level design is abysmal with a tendency towards labyrinthian, the objectives unclear and lame, the missions are boring with a story that's just pitiful, and the production values aren't anything special even for a 360 launch game.  No, I didn't play the multiplayer, which (judging by the game's achievements) is the only noteworthy feature about the game.  It was hard enough dragging myself back to finish this horrible game.  The thing that bugs me most about the game, though, is how desperate it feels: with the heavy jazz/rock music; the "hot" new look of Joanna Dark; and the sometimes absurd number of troops thrown at you, the game really feels like it's trying too hard to be "hip" and fails miserably.

As bad as the game is, though, it's not without some ideas that were good for the time: you can outfit yourself before each mission with whatever combination of weapons you can fit on your character; a couple of the co-op-centric missions are kind of fun; the cover system may be poorly implemented but at least it's there; and each mission has a mid-level checkpoint (something the 360 remake of the original Perfect Dark could have used).  Although I don't know why you'd ever play it, it does have an extensive list of online co-op and competitive features as well.  In the end, though, I picked this game (the collector's edition, even) up used for $5, and I still feel ripped off.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on August 10, 2010, 11:10:33 PM
I had a lot of fun with Perfect Dark Zero's multiplayer (I actually bought copies for friends of mine because it was so cheap so we had something to play on Xbox Live), but you're right, the single player was terrible.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on August 11, 2010, 01:33:58 PM
I liked the released concept art for Joanna Dark (the more cartoony stuff) before they switched styles and went all rock-chick. It doesn't feel desperate--it feels like it was made by an out-of-touch committee, and may as well have been.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 11, 2010, 01:54:51 PM
I liked the released concept art for Joanna Dark (the more cartoony stuff) before they switched styles and went all rock-chick. It doesn't feel desperate--it feels like it was made by an out-of-touch committee, and may as well have been.

Meh, I can't say I cared for the cartoony look of the original concept art.  It reminds me of that fake-looking Flash animation they use for the E-Surance Commercials.  Maybe Cel Shading a little darker would have worked.  I do think we are getting at the same problem with the game, though: it's trying to hard to be "extreeeeeeeeeeeeme! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMZ_IlMAvNQ)" from the absurd characters ripped out of a Bond movie ("Mai Hem"?  Really?); to Joanna's "extreeeeeeeeeeeme!" teenage "attitude"; to her ridiculous "extreeeeeeeeme!" Rogue-esque hairdo; etc. A perfect example for me is during the setup to an early mission where you are supposed to be sneaking around, which kicks off with a frickin' biker gang attacking you.  Its all comes off feeling really out of place and fake.  Speaking of Joanna, though, she is almost completely unlikeable in this game, too, with her "I don't have to listed to ANYONE, because it's all about ME, ME, ME! WORD!" attitude.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on August 11, 2010, 02:27:27 PM
Hahahaha...yeah, I don't like the E-Surance commercials either. Way too Flashy. On the other hand, with the success of the DC Animated Universe cartoons, that art style is becoming more and more prevalent. It's not quite so obvious during the first three seasons of Batman or Superman, but it's pretty clear by the time you get to Gotham Knights, Batman Beyond, and Justice League.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 14, 2010, 12:28:01 AM
The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom - 8.5/10 - Now this was an interesting one.  For a while, I saw this game compared a lot to the incredibly-overhyped XLBA title Braid, and indeed they are quite similar...if you remove all of Braid's pretentiousness and focus on solving mind-bending puzzles in the framework of a light and entertaining (and, most importantly, understandable) story.  Suffice to say, I really enjoyed this game, though it did really frustrate me at times with the insidious difficulty of its puzzles.  The game is structured as a series of puzzle rooms based around the loose story of a bumbling pie-thief who is so obsessed with stealing pies that he doesn't notice that he's inadvertently destroying everything around him, and then (due to a time-rewinding giant pie) is sent back in time to make a mockery of the space-time continuum by inadvertently reversing the damage as he runs around stealing more pies with the aid of temporal clones.  Yeah, it's definitely a story we've all seen before.   ;) 

Each of the 5 stages contains 10 puzzle rooms, each stage having a different rule about how you can manipulate time with your time clones.  In one room, you  might have to grab the pies in a particular order within a certain time limit.  On others, maybe only your time clones can grab the pies.  On still others, maybe your clones attack you instead of aiding you.  The variety and cleverness of the puzzles is truly impressive, though they can also be pretty sadistically hard as the game wears on.  Each room is bridged by amusing black & white "silent film"-style narration slides that tell a Dr. Seuss-style story (it's really one long poem using a simple rhyme scheme), and the game features a strong black & white art style with jazz soundtrack I really enjoyed.  Fans of World of Goo will also appreciate the captions that appear at the bottom of the screen in every room, as they simultaneously drop hints for the puzzle as well as mock the main character.

Overall, Winterbottom is a great, probably under-noticed game that's hampered a bit by being so focused on its puzzle structure, being so difficult, and being a little on the short side.  When you beat each stage, you also unlock associated "challenge rooms", but there's really no point to doing them unless you're either an Achievement nut or a glutton for punishment.  It's a pity the Wii's file size restrictions keep this game from being on WiiWare (the game's something like 230 MB large), because there's really nothing about this game that couldn't easily be done there and I think this game could have ridden the coattails of World of Goo nicely.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on August 14, 2010, 01:16:56 AM
I went to a panel at PAX with the developers of P.B. Winterbottom. It seemed like a cool concept, but I don't think I ever checked it out when I got home. I'll have to do that.

Madden NFL 11 (Xbox 360) - 9/10

As I've mentioned before, I've bought at least one copy of Madden for the last 9 years. Over that period of time, the series has been pretty steady in terms of quality, with some years bringing more improvements than others, but never being less than good (something that can't be said of the other exclusive-licensed sports series, Take 2's MLB 2K). This year's Madden, from the admittedly short time I've spent with it so far, is one of the biggest improvements the series has seen in a long time.

One of the major new features this year is a revamped animation system, and it shows. Looking at the instant replays the game shows, players move in a much more realistic manner. Another new feature, not as hyped by EA, but in my opinion much more significant, is the new kicking meter. Madden's kicking meter has been changed pretty frequently over the years, with mixed results, but they've finally nailed it. The new meter is essentially the same thing as the meter in Mario Golf and other older golf games, and I love it.

Madden 11 makes a pretty radical change to the game, by getting rid of the sprint button. This, combined with mapping jukes and other movements to the right analog stick, is a significant change to how you control the ball carrier. I like this a lot. In previous years I'd often fall into the pattern of just hammering on the turbo, whereas this year I've found myself more likely to use special moves and look for holes because that's no longer an option. Another change I like is that, when on defense, at any point you can hold down the A button and all your players will be run by the CPU. This lets you make sure not to make a stupid mistake, and then jump in and control it yourself when you need to.

EA's really played up the new GameFlow feature this year, but I heard so many bad things about it that I turned it off without even trying it. It's supposed to automatically pick plays for you, with the option of switching to a different play. It's basically the old Ask Madden feature, but more streamlined. I'd give it a shot if I could use it only on defense, which I've never been any good at calling plays for, but it doesn't give that option, and I want to call my own plays on offense.

In conclusion, this is the best Madden in years. If you were on the fence, or only buy it every few years, you should get this. EA has been on fire recently with their sports games, with amazing entries in the NHL, FIFA, and Tiger Woods series, and while this isn't quite on the level of those games, it's pretty close. No matter how you feel about EA's exclusive NFL license, they're still clearly working at improving the game, and they did a great job of it this year.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 14, 2010, 03:04:31 AM
I went to a panel at PAX with the developers of P.B. Winterbottom. It seemed like a cool concept, but I don't think I ever checked it out when I got home. I'll have to do that.

Madden NFL 11 (Xbox 360) - 9/10

*stuff*

I really can't stand Football (it's right up there with Baseball and Golf on my list of the most "exciting" sports to watch on TV), though I recently gained a grudging appreciation for it due to lengthy experience with NCAA 10.  Still, it's good to see that EA isn't resting on its laurels just because there is no other licensed Football game, that they're actually trying to make that impenetrable simulation mess approachable.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Marty on August 14, 2010, 08:22:05 PM
 Marty's Fashionably Late Review 
Devil’s Crush (virtual Console)
Genre – Pinball Sim.
Cost – 600 Wii Points
System – TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine)
 
http://yfrog.com/b5scrushcoverartp (http://yfrog.com/b5scrushcoverartp)
 
Devil’s crush is an easy recommendation for people who enjoy small, bite-size, inexpensive, but addictive, games. Devil’s Crush is essentially a Pinball Sim. It is the second installment in the Crush Pinball series (the first being Alien Crush), and it managed to improved on its predecessor in a number of ways; namely the addition of a third playfield, an even better soundtrack, and a much more elaborate layout, with various bumpers, ramps, targets, and switches, all of which are perfectly animated, and strike a great balance between evoking the feel of an actual pinball machine, with all their flashing lights and mechanical sounds, while also introducing features which are not possible on a real machine (namely the various creatures that swarm the table). This is all brought together with a very novel occult theme which includes demons, skulls and monks, which when combined with the great rock soundtrack, makes for a great game of pinball.

As with actual pinball machines, the layout of the payfield, the speed of the table, and the weight of the ball, all need to combine to make a game which is addictive without being frustrating, and it is in this crucial respect that Devil’s Crush succeeds.
 
As with actual Pinball machines, the primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible, with the supplementary objective being to earn extra balls, thereby maximising the time spent playing. It is from this very basic premise that Devil’s Crush is able to generate quite alot of mileage. Indeed, attempting to keep a ball in play as long as possible is surprisingly intense, as is the joy felt when you earn an extra ball just when you need it.
 
The controls are pretty basic, and as such the wii remote flipped NES style woud be the recommended control scheme. Any direction on the D-Pad controls the left flipper, while the 2 button controls the right flipper. That’s pretty much all you need to know (although if your like me, the minute you lose your first ball you’ll want to restart. Just pause using the Plus button, then press Plus and Minus together to get back to the start screen).
 
The other great thing about Devil’s Crush is the amount of secret areas and hidden objectives. There are several hidden stages that you can unlock by performs certain tasks. One such task involves breaking open a mask with the portrait of a serene woman, only to uncover a demon beneath; enter the demon’s mouth to unlock said bonus room. You’ll also discover and exploit various techniques as you find the best ways to build up multipliers and accumulate bonus points and extra balls, it all gets rather addictive.
 
All in all, I found Devil’s Crush to be a great little pick-up-and-play game, and is perfect for anyone who has an insufferable itch to play some video pinball.
 
Gameplay - 7/10
Visuals - 7/10
Controls - 8/10
Audio/Music - 9/10
Overall - 8/10
Title: Plants vs Zombies
Post by: Killer_Man_Jaro on August 20, 2010, 12:17:48 PM
Plants vs Zombies - Game of the Year Edition - 8/10

My apologies for being awfully late to the game here, but when I saw this on Steam for £6.99 a few days ago, I couldn't pass it up. Despite being a part of the oh so voluminous tower defence genre that everyone loves to poke fun at, I was always intrigued by Plants vs Zombies as it seemed to share several traits with Swords & Soldiers, a strategy game on WiiWare that I truly love. It goes beyond that though, having now played it very extensively. Plants vs Zombies may just be the best tower defence experience out there.

Muted praised, you might think, although I suppose it depends whether or not you've been overexposed to this kind of software. What makes this particular foray into the genre addictive and a lot of fun is the evolution of the gameplay. So many tower defence games fall into the trap of poor progression. They only become more difficult because of pure statistical changes: enemies gain more health, so you use "towers" with higher power. Not a lot of strategy there and not really much fun. Plants vs Zombies is much more intelligently designed. For one, it used grid-based level designs as opposed to the typical mazes, which may not sound like much out of context, but once you get a feel for it, the strategies you employ are more thoughtful. Almost every level (of which there are 50 in the primary mode of play) adds a new plant to your rapidly expanding inventor, each one balanced well and mostly with special abilities rather than 'it does more damage than the previous one'. Furthermore, by limiting the number of different types of plant seeds you can bring into a level, you are forced to mix & match and find good combinations to make a solid defence.

The tactics continue to develop as new wrinkles are injected into the levels. All of the main adventure's five chapters make a pretty radical change to the environment - these include day and night cycles, the addition of graves, fog and swimming pools, and in the last chapter, setting the defence on a sloping rooftop. These cause you to alter your play style not only because of the difference in terrain and conditions, but also because of the new zombies that are thrown in. Like the plants, new zombies quite often have special abilities instead of just being stronger and you must adjust your battle plan accordingly to deal with these threats. To sum up my thoughts, Plants vs Zombies actually offers the sort of progressive strategic gameplay that the majority of recent tower defence titles have been sorely missing.

Presentation-wise, this game is leaps and bounds above its competitors in that respect as well. Everything is really colourful without being garish and it uses the Nintendo-ism of sticking faces on inanimate objects to give them some personality. All the plants are expressive and constantly moving to the beat of the music. Speaking of which, the soundtrack is great, somewhere between cheerful and ominous, though it is unfortunately sometimes drowned out by sound effects when the action gets busy. Plus, there is plenty of good humour in the writing, primarily for Crazy Dave, your punch-drunk neighbour/shopkeeper/advisor, and there's some really amusing descriptions in the almanac encyclopaedia.

Finally, if you're worried about the value proposition, fret not. Plants vs Zombies is certainly not want for content. After finishing with the adventure, which unlocks a more challenging version, there are 20 minigames that provide variations on the standard gameplay. Some of them are fairly throwaway, but a lot are worth looking into and there's even some interesting takes on other games developed by PopCap. On top of that, there is an endless attack mode and, as one would expect from a game featuring plants, a zen garden mode that is relaxing, albeit not all that substantive and unlikely to hold your attention for long. That said, for the right price, I would definitely suggest you pick this up on PC or Xbox 360 (not sure about the one on iPhone). On Steam, it's going cheap, so do not let this pass you by.
Title: Re: Plants vs Zombies
Post by: apdude on August 20, 2010, 01:33:34 PM
Plants vs Zombies - Game of the Year Edition - 8/10

I totally agree.  I'm having fun with this one and plus my version came with an avatar maker so I'm no longer using using a default one.  Lots of fun and content for a low price that you can play for as long or as short as you want.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 20, 2010, 01:48:20 PM
Sounds like a decent game, though probably not one I could enjoy (Tower Defense games are really not my thing).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: TJ Spyke on August 20, 2010, 06:33:17 PM
(not sure about the one on iPhone).

It came out on iPod Touch/iPhone last month and iPad earlier this month. The iPod Touch/iPhone version is $2.99 and the iPad version is $9.99
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on August 21, 2010, 02:45:31 PM
I got it hours before it came out (got the preorder bonus, a free copy of Heavy Weapon Deluxe, it sucks but hey, free game!), was 10€ back then and totally awesome. The only tower defense game I like.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 01, 2010, 10:28:08 AM
Super Metroid - No, I'm not going to attach a score/10 - This game is a longstanding nemesis of mine, one that despite numerous attempts to get through I've never managed to summon up the interest to finish.  Over the weekend, I finally sat down and played the game from beginning to end in preparation for Other M's release.  In the end, I still can't say I'm fond of this game, but it's one that I have trouble really attaching a score to.  I don't tend to like 2D Metroid in general (with the exception of Zero Mission), as the "exploration" tends to boil down not to solving puzzles, but just shooting random blocks until finally something happens.  Playing through the game, I rarely felt altogether invested in the experience: the action was competent, the atmosphere excellent, and the music generally more than excellent...but there was just something missing, something I can't quite put my finger on that would make me eager to play more.  It often felt like I was just going through the motions, but then again this was something like my 6th attempt to get through this game.  I also feel like the game's pacing slams right into a wall around the point you head to the Sunken Ship, and it doesn't really pick up again until you reach Ridley's Lair.  Not coincidentally, this is also where water becomes a major hassle. 
 
In the end, while I feel like this game is pretty vastly overrated, it did pretty much write the book on modern 2D action adventure games, though, so I can at least respect its contributions to gaming.  It's a thoroughly competent game I just didn't like.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 05, 2010, 09:31:52 PM
Metroid: Other M - 7.5/10 - A step in the right direction on establishing a new and different direction for Metroid while Retro is taking a breather and working on other franchises, but the writing is terrible (and, IMO, destructive) to the Samus character and the way the game issues your upgrades is especially contrived.  I went more into depth on this game in the Metroid: Other M topic, so if you want to read more go there.

Shank - 5/10 - Pretty art, great animation, boring gameplay with some especially terrible level and boss design in places.  It was fun in spurts, but it was just lacking something to make it more interesting as a beat 'em up.

I'm currently playing Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World (PSN) after having recently seen the movie.  So far, I like it but it's way too focused on grinding and really punishing difficulty.  While the gameplay is actually even more repetitive than Shank, this game has a strong personality to it that Shank lacks.  Like the source material, it's a love letter to old games and video game culture.  Plus, the music's pretty awesome.  I'm also currently playing Dark Void (PS3), and man that game is troubled.  It's not terrible, but let's just say I'm glad I only payed $10 for it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on September 06, 2010, 06:59:52 PM
I payed $12 for Dark Void, Brood. I like it alright. It's not incredibly or anything, but it's good in a "turn your brain off and shoot things" kind of way. But yeah, it's definately got issues.

I just beat Hard Mode in Other M to find that you get NOTHING, and in fact when you re-load your "completed" save, you're chucked right back in front of the final boss. So you don't even get the post-game scenario. Disappointed.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 08, 2010, 10:29:25 AM
Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World - 7/10 - A decent-enough brawler if you're into that that sort of thing and are already familiar with the source material.  If you aren't familiar with at least the movie, though, you'll probably be lost trying to follow the story because this game seems to think still images of Ramona and Scott kissing apparently suffice for storytelling.  Really pleasant SNES-style visuals and a particularly chiptune good soundtrack as well.
 
Dark Void - 4/10 - Wow, this game has problems, so much so that it's pretty obvious that Capcom shipped this game just scraping together whatever scraps they could find that didn't crash, fusing them together into something only somewhat approaching a cohesive experience (good luck trying to follow the story).  This game's biggest problem is that it doesn't know what it wants to be: it's a fairly competent (though not noteworthy) 3rd person cover shooter unfortunately married to a really terrible and buggy 3rd person flight combat game.  As a result, the game is very schizophrenic: for the first 1/3 of the game, it wants to be Uncharted with a focus on vertical cover; then you get your upgraded jetpack and suddenly the game wants to be a really terrible Rogue Squadron with a focus on Defense and Escort Missions (yay, our favorites!); and then after a while it wants to be Uncharted again before switching back to Rogue Squadron with the final 2 missions.
 
This game is also full of bugs, from being able to just walk through trees, to hijacking UFOs leading immediately to the player getting sent right into a cliff, to player deaths occurring for seemingly no apparent reason.  It reminds me a lot of the most recent Alone in the Dark in that respect, although that unfortunate collection of glitches and ambition eventually coalesced into something coherent and enjoyable (at least on PS3).  And I can't stress enough how terrible the aerial combat is, especially the camera.
 
It's unfortunate that the game is such a mess, because its core idea of using a jetpack to attack 3rd person combat from different angles is a really cool one, but you only really get a chance to see that in action a couple of times in the game.  Capcom should have never released this game in the state it was in, and it deserved to fail as miserably as it did.  Hey, at least the music from Battlestar Galactica composer Beary McCreary is awesome.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on September 10, 2010, 01:54:17 PM
Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den
 
DLC: $9.99
Totally Worth It/10
 
This is a fantastic single-player expansion to Bioshock 2. Personally, I think it's better than the main game. There's a new weapon (the Ion Laser), a new Plasmid (Gravity Well), a few new Tonics, and lots of new environments to explore. The pacing and build-up are more similar in tone of the original Bioshock tha the lackluster ending sequence of the sequel. The game generally feels like an extremely streamlined, shorter, but FULL Bioshock game. Traditional elements of the series have been tweaked: you find upgraded weapons rather than using Power to the People stations; the Little Sister defender missions are quicker; and some security bots now use elemental attacks.
 
You'll go from pretty de-powered to fully-powered during this roughly six to eight hour journey through Rapture's computer core. The game takes place in or just after 1968, parallel to or after the main events of Bioshock 2. You again a Big Daddy, and you are being directed by CM Porter to make a duplicate of Rapture's central computer ("The Thinker") and take it to the surface. Porter's deranged partner is the antagonist, sending Splicers after you in an attempt to block your progress. The story is more inspired and more interesting than the main story of Bioshock 2. More tragic, certainly, and CM Porter is a likable, engaging character.
 
He's also voiced by the same guy who players Martian Manhunter in Justice League/Unlimited, so you're really be bossed around by J'onn J'onz. Which is awesome.
 
I can't recommend it highly enough if you like Bioshock.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 10, 2010, 01:58:48 PM
Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den
 
DLC: $9.99
Totally Worth It/10

I really wish that 2K Marin hadn't decided to waste our frickin' time for 6 1/2 months after the launch of Bioshock 2 with useless multiplayer DLC and "protector" missions, because I got so tired of waiting for them to release DLC that actually catered to fans of the singleplayer (the mode that should be that game's priority) that I traded in my copy of Bioshock 2 months ago.  If I still had the game, I'd totally purchase that DLC because it looks like exactly what I had been waiting for.  But 2K Marin decided they'd rather add hats and level cap raises to the multiplayer that no one bought Bioshock 2 for.   :@
 
I might repurchase Bioshock 2 sometime down the line once it drops to around $20 (because it really wasn't a game I wanted to get rid of, but I had new games that needed buying and 2K Marin wasn't supporting it), and then I'll check out Minerva's Den.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 12, 2010, 04:00:17 AM
Old School Platform Adventure (XBL Indie Games): Really fun little platformer, not very long but probably would outstay its welcome if it was. Costs a dollar so that's not a problem. The level design really stands out IMO, some really cool sequences in there and the powerups change it up regularly (if you only played the demo, don't worry, you don't get to keep the winged boots for the rest of the game, it's back to regular platforming pretty quickly). Only downside is the picky did-you-jump-on-or-into-an-enemy logic, if you don't enter their hitbox at the absolute top you get hit (the original SMB logic was "if you move downward faster than the enemy it counts as jumping on it").
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 13, 2010, 02:19:08 PM
Earthworm Jim HD - 5/10 - Pretty but boring and increasingly frustrating as the game goes along, much like its original incarnation.  The LCD-grade humor really bugs me, too, like the music in What the Heck, which goes from the classic "Night on Bald Mountain" to a bouncy tune composed of fart sound effects.  This is supposed to be funny or clever?  The game's quirky and weird, I'll give it that.  But it's just not that fun or interesting.
 
Modern Warfare 2 (Singleplayer) - 7.5/10 - Great set-piece moments brought down by frustrating level design marked by frequent deaths, and a graphical look that often makes it extremely difficult to see what is shooting at you and what is an environmental object.  By far the best parts of the singleplayer are when it's just you and another AI teammate sneaking around picking guys off.  Whenever the game decides to do events much larger in scope, the game just gets too chaotic and populated by guys sniping you from 30 feet away for my tastes.  There are some great ideas in play here, though.
 
EDIT: Modern Warfare 2 score boosted to account for time spent playing co-op in Spec Ops.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on September 13, 2010, 02:41:30 PM
I would argue that the sidescrolling platforming/shooting segments in Earthworm Jim are some of the best of that generation. There was some really wonderful level design there, and a wacky sense of humor. However, anytime the game tried to do something different, like the gawdawful underwater maze or the bungee-chord kerfuffle, it just falls apart.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 13, 2010, 02:44:42 PM
However, anytime the game tried to do something different, like the gawdawful underwater maze or the bungee-chord kerfuffle, it just falls apart.

Indeed.  I got to the stage where you have to keep the pink dog happy as it prances across the stage and I just quit right there.  It just wasn't fun (then again, when has an escort mission ever been fun in a game?).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Dasmos on September 13, 2010, 10:51:42 PM
The HD remake just looks ugly though, I would rather just play the original.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 15, 2010, 11:32:53 AM
I would argue that the sidescrolling platforming/shooting segments in Earthworm Jim are some of the best of that generation. There was some really wonderful level design there, and a wacky sense of humor. However, anytime the game tried to do something different, like the gawdawful underwater maze or the bungee-chord kerfuffle, it just falls apart.

I only have EWJ2 and that had practically no sidescrolling platforming levels.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 16, 2010, 02:47:57 PM
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (PS3) - 8.5 - This was surprisingly one of the more enjoyable games I've played in a while, despite its repetitive nature.  Sure, you spend a lot of time beating up on goons and saving civilians, but guess what: that's what Spider-Man DOES.  Each of the 4 dimensions is visually distinct and attractive (especially Noir, which just oozes style) and the gameplay is about as varied as you can expect for a beat 'em up.  I really like the linear nature of this game, as it allows the game to have a great sense of speed (in fact, the somewhat open-world Ultimate level with Deadpool is one of the worst in the game due to its lack of momentum).  I was especially impressed with how fun and somewhat-improvisational the combat is (something I take it the developers learned from Web of Shadows), and the boss fights are generally pretty well-done.  The game's also full of Spider-Man fanservice, particularly on the audio side as all 4 Spider-men are voiced by people who had voiced him before in various animated series.  Oddly enough, I found the voice actor from Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (who voices Spider-Man 2099) to have the best delivery of the lot, though the voice actors for Amazing (Neil Patrick Harris - Spider-Man MTV) and Ultimate (Spectacular Spider-Man) aren't far behind.  The game also features a very extensive in-game achievement system called the Web of Destiny that I felt really complemented the game, doing what achievements should be doing and pointing you towards exploring everything you can do in the game.
 
The game's only serious flaws, IMO, are the presence of some irritating Spider-Man video game legacy issues (seriously, Activision, after all this time you still haven't fixed the camera issue with wall-crawling?) and the overall troubled nature of Spider-Man Noir.  While I really like Spider-Man Noir (hey, this game got me to read to the comics, and I'm not fond of comics), his levels only kind of work.  It's obvious that Activision was trying to copy Batman: Arkham Asylum, but the rules for the stealth feel very fast and loose, and the levels can get frustrating.  The story's also weak, pretty much just an excuse to bring all these Spider-Men together in one game, and even then they don't ever really interact outside of a few moments in the ending.  Noir attempts to tell an abridged version of the comics, but it's the only one with something approximating a story.
 
Overall, the game is troubled but I had a great deal of fun with it.  Highly recommended.  Incidentally, from the looks of things the Wii version isn't all that different graphically due to the 4 universes focusing on style over tech, so if you can tolerate the waggle that might not be a bad version to get either.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 17, 2010, 03:59:40 PM
Space Invaders: Infinity Gene (XBLA)

The demo is deceptive. It's so much more crazy than the actual game that it borders on bait and switch. What you get in the demo is a medley of levels from all worlds in the game, the actual game is much less crazy and fast moving. Yes, it's still a good game but it doesn't feel as amazing as the demo does with its rapidly changing gameplay, perspective, etc. In reality the big differences only arise between worlds which last quite a while so it's not a firework of imagination as much as a new thought or two getting stirred in once in a while.

Also the balancing is a bit off, all the big high scores in the online rankings were set with the Field weapon which is just amazingly overpowered when it comes to killing every tiny enemy on the screen fast (leads to a high multiplier and a long life) and some of the other weapons kill bosses so fast it's almost game breaking.

It does get quite hard and requires quite some thought along with constantly introducing new boss enemies, new player ships (weapons) and new looks. There's not much of Space Invaders left in the game but whatever, it's fun.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on September 17, 2010, 04:18:33 PM
So I downloaded the demo but haven't played it yet. Is this anything like the Extreme games, or am I in for disappointment?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 17, 2010, 04:19:57 PM
So I downloaded the demo but haven't played it yet. Is this anything like the Extreme games, or am I in for disappointment?

I played the demo, and I was pretty disappointed.  I was hoping for something in the spirit of Extreme, and the demo is very random and segmented.  The whole "music" element seems to be completely gone, too.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: FZeroBoyo on September 17, 2010, 07:51:44 PM
I picked up Metroid Prime Trilogy for the first time in months last night. 10/10, enough said.

And on Pedro's decent score, I rented Despicable Me: The Game, and I agree with his score of 7. Not the most entertaining or longest game, but it held my interest for the five or so hours to play it to the end.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 18, 2010, 02:13:46 AM
Brood: As I said, the full game is much less frantic with its changes, they only happen every 6 levels.

So I downloaded the demo but haven't played it yet. Is this anything like the Extreme games, or am I in for disappointment?

It's extremely different. Extreme was more ponderous with precise shots to keep the chain going, Infinity Gene is all-out carnage with you blasting hundreds of enemies.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Killer_Man_Jaro on September 21, 2010, 01:26:22 PM
Sam & Max: Season Two - Beyond Time & Space (PC) - 8/10
Game developers often comment on how difficult it is to write humour, and those that try to do so often resort to crude humour because that's considerably easier to make. A round of applause for Telltale Games then: they sure know how to produce a humorous script in their games. Sam & Max: Season Two raised quite a few laughs amongst myself and the two friends who watched me play it for a while. Some jokes feel a bit forced, but the satire and slapstick is, for the most part, written to a high standard. The comic timing and character chemistry is instrumental in the humour as well - David Nowlin and William Kasten are excellent as the titular duo, though that is not to discredit the rest of the voice cast, who also do an bang-up job.

On to the game itself. Mechanically, it functions similarly to Season One. For those uninitiated, Sam and Max is a point-and-click adventure spread across five episodes, in the fashion of a cartoon series, in which you manipulate things with items in your inventory and move through dialogue trees to progress. Each episode has its own plot, but there is an overarching story linking them all together. In fact, the interconnectivity is really impressive; as the subtitle implies, there is some messing with the space-time continuum, allowing many wacky scenarios, as well as a number of interesting callbacks to episodes in both seasons (and foreshadowing to future ones in certain cases). The puzzles themselves within the episodes are really satisfying to solve, excepting a few instances of oddball logic. It is difficult to discuss these aspects of Sam and Max without spoiling anything.

In terms of improvements over the first season, Beyond Time and Space has a handful of notable tweaks. As a whole, the structure of the episodes is much more unpredictable. From a gameplay standpoint, you will find several action-based minigames across the season, most of them necessary to advance, including frequent challenges that involve Sam's DeSoto car. This was perfunctory before, but this time, it is featured regularly and the addition of arrow key control for these segments is extremely welcome. The only annoyance which was not fixed, something that plagues every Telltale project, is the on-and-off nature of the clicking to move the character. Basically, ensure that the mouse cursor is on the ground before clicking! If you did not click somewhere on the ground, the game seems to decide for itself where you meant for the character to go, which is usually not where you meant. Whether it's a programming issue they can work around is beside the point: it is a problem.

After this, I am now psyched to play Season Three a.k.a The Devil's Playhouse, which I snatched up during the 40% price cut last month. The verdict appears to be that it adds a bunch of pretty cool ideas into the mix.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 22, 2010, 10:46:21 AM
All the games Telltale made after S&M S2 used keyboard or virtual analog controls for movement instead of clicking. While we gamers like that I know it confused the hell out of my mother when she tried playing Grim Fandango back in the day.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Gameboy Freak on September 28, 2010, 10:09:50 PM
Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance

3.5/5

I don't know why people give this game so much crap. I actually think it is alot of fun, more so than Circle of the Moon was.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: FZeroBoyo on September 30, 2010, 10:41:20 PM
Trauma Team - 9/10


Played the game recently and had a lot of fun, so it'll be a contender for my top 10 games of the year. Have to give props to its length; took me over 25 hours from start to finish. =D
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on October 02, 2010, 03:20:34 AM
Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance

3.5/5

I don't know why people give this game so much crap. I actually think it is alot of fun, more so than Circle of the Moon was.


Oh, Dissonance. For a moment I thought you said Despair. Yeah, Dissonance is a nice game. It doesn't stand out that much but it's still a lot of fun.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on October 03, 2010, 01:40:42 AM
Metal Gear: Peace Walker (PSP)

Pros: 
it's still a good action game even if nothing's new
the plot was pretty decent and the voice acting was solid
the soundtrack was great even though it was taken for pervious MGS games
lots of extras which added quite a bit of replay value
Cons: 
Controls, while it does bettter than other 3d games on the PSP there's still issues--aiming for one, ok sense there's no second analog stick you'll be aiming with the four face buttons similar to an N64 setup.  It really wouldn't be much of an issue but for some reason the game's auto aim isn't all that helpful.  You couldn't lock on to one point and fire, it keep switching points on what's closest which can lead to your death in the bigger mech boss fights
Inventory:
You can't pause the game while trying to get an certain item out and there's no real workable quickswitch.  For some reason I couldn't get it to bind Rations for Faulton Recovery System to the left directional pad which annoyed the hell out of me.  Not sure if this has been patched but it simply defaulted back to "no item" whenever I clicked left.  Same for the right, it defaulted back to the taser instead of the last weapon I used.

Small maps,  damn maps were tiny so there's plenty of loading going on

Overall score 8/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 12, 2010, 02:21:27 PM
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - 9 "What is a Man"s / 10 "But a Miserable Pile of Secrets"s - Long story short, this game is awesome and a much-needed new direction for the series after Konami beat the Metroidvania formula to death with Symphony of the Night clones.  The music is outstanding, the art direction is gorgeous, the combat is satisfying, the puzzles are generally well-done if a bit bizarre at times, the game is generally well-paced and lengthy, and the story is fairly well-told even if it isn't particularly creative.  The developers even managed to sneak a fair bit of exploration and traversal into the game, encouraging you to replay previous stages  with new abilities as you search for upgrades you couldn't get your first time through.  There are also a great deal of little details to the presentation that give the game a certain polish that are too numerous to name.  Probably my only issues with the game are the steep learning curve only on; a certain amount of bugginess; some frustrating sections late in the game (frickin' Chupacabras!); and a fair amount of hamminess from Patrick Stewart.  I also found it perplexing how Patrick Stewart's observations about Gabriel Belmont's supposedly "increasingly-bloodthirsty" demeanor directly conflict with how we see Gabriel act in-game.  I guess Writer A didn't keep Character Animator B and Voice Actor C in the loop as to what they wanted to do.
 
My biggest problem with this game, though, is the way that the gaming community and reviewers have reacted to it.  Reading reviews and opinions, I keep seeing the game reviewed for what it's NOT rather than for what it IS.  Yes, this isn't a Metroidvania, and thank God for that because it was getting incredibly stale (especially since Nintendo revived Metroid).  That does mean that the exploration elements are de-emphasized, but there's still a fair amount of it, and anyone who has played God of War could tell you that this game is a fair bit more sophisticated and layered.  I'm also seeing a lot of complaints about the game "not being original", which is hilarious coming from people and sites who highly regarded such games as God of War 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, games that are practically carbon copies of their predecessors.  Yes, Castlevania grabs elements from such games as God of War; Shadow of the Colossus; and Uncharted/Prince of Persia.  So long as the experience is still fun, though, does that really matter?
 
And while we're at it, anyone who complains that this game isn't "Castlevania" either hasn't played beyond the first Lord of Shadow, which is coincidentally Chapter 3 of Twelve, or what they really mean is that game isn't "Metroid"Shortly thereafter, you start entering very gothic and horror-based environments fighting vampires; ghouls; reapers; etc.  The game just uses its opening 1/4 or so of Lord of the Rings-esque environments and whatnot to lead up to that, and that was fine by me.
 
Overall, Lords of Shadow is a much-needed new direction for the franchise (and, mind you, Konami is still welcome to keep the cloning vats at the ready for 2D handheld installments, just as they have for the past decade), and I highly recommend it.  "THIS IS NOT GOD OF WAR WITH A WHIP!  IT'S MUCH MORE SOPHISTICATED!  I KNOW It's NOT '2D'!"
 
And, yes, a grand total of 2 people will probably get that reference.  ;)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: vudu on October 12, 2010, 02:46:05 PM
Bit.Trip Runner

9/10

I love this game.  Parts of it are as hard as balls, but it put a huge smile on my face.  Highly recommended for anyone who likes rhythm games or old-school NES games.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 12, 2010, 02:52:56 PM
Bit.Trip Runner

9/10

I love this game.  Parts of it are as hard as balls, but it put a huge smile on my face.  Highly recommended for anyone who likes rhythm games or old-school NES games.

I don't think I'd rate the game that high (there are just too many absurdly and unfairly-difficult levels where you can repeatedly fail without understanding what you did wrong), but that is a fun game.  I wish there were more level varieties, though.  I got pretty sick of the 3 level backdrops by the end of the game, especially with how often I'd have to repeat stages from the beginning.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: vudu on October 12, 2010, 03:06:03 PM
There were only two stages towards the end that I was stuck on--both for well over an hour!  But even when the game was frustrating, it was incredibly fun.

Also, I forgot to mention it before, but the bosses of worlds 1 and 2 are phenomenal!  They mix things up enough to feel like unique challenges without breaking the basic game play.  Sadly, the boss of world 3 isn't nearly as entertaining--it's pretty much just a normal level (which isn't a bad thing, but after the first two boss encounters I was hoping for another totally unique stage).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 12, 2010, 10:06:40 PM
Alan Wake - DLC ("The Signal" and "The Writer") - 8/10 - Alan Wake was one of the main deciding factors in my decision to purchase a 360 (along with Tales of Vesperia and Mass Effect) back in June.  Several months later, I find myself finishing the second and last piece of DLC that means it's time to put the game to rest.  Looking back over the DLC, I have to say this is one of the better uses of the format I've seen in a game, certainly outside of the RPG genre, and it stands in stark contrast to the blatant abuse of the format by most companies on the HD consoles.  The DLC consists of a lot of re-used assets, but those assets are used in new and interesting ways and it doesn't feel like you're just playing more Alan Wake.  The use of "words" as opposed to relying entirely on your flashlight and guns (as you do in the main game) completely changes the experience, and there's a great deal of satisfaction in taking out 4-5 taken in one shot because you lured them to a single "boom" word.  Both DLC are the length of your typical Alan Wake "Chapter" in the main game (about 1 1/2 hours or so), one even came for free, and both give the main game a much more satisfying/hopeful ending.  Both DLC have pretty good production values as well, with all returning characters sporting their original voice actors and some decent FMV.

So where does this DLC go wrong?  Well, despite re-using assets in clever and interesting ways, it still doesn't completely hide that you've seen all of this before somewhere.  There are no new weapons (outside of "your words", of course), and what few new enemies there are aren't any different from previous foes.  The story, while interesting, also doesn't really add anything other than an interesting coda to the main game's ending.  The situation Alan finds himself in at the end of the main game has not changed, just that he's somewhat more sane now.  It's also worth mentioning that The Signal is just sadistically difficult and its gameplay runs completely counter to how the player is trained to react by the main game (where you can always take out hordes of enemies with careful crowd and inventory management).  The hordes in The Signal just don't stop coming, and it can be very frustrating to continually die because you play the game how the game has taught you to play it.  The Writer, on the other hand, is much more relaxed and simpler.  The mechanics are the same, but it's paced like the main game and much more enjoyable.

Alan Wake wasn't much of a hit (considering the hopes Microsoft placed on it and its development costs) at only roughly 600,000+ units sold since its launch, but hopefully we will see a sequel because I want to see where this story goes.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 13, 2010, 10:36:16 AM
Dead Space Ignition - 2/10 - Do not buy this game.  I know it's tempting considering it's only $5 and you get a bonus suit for Dead Space 2.  I get that.  That's what I bought it.  But to quote Han Solo: "No reward is worth this!"  The artwork is bad, the animation (what little there is) is bad, the writing is bad, the voice actors are disinterested, the controls are bad and 2 of the 3 mini-games (especially the frustrating first type, where you awkwardly try to race a glowing line through an obstacle course while everything else is trying to kill you AND outrace you) are awful.  The only reasons I gave this game a score at all is that it never crashed (and the suit does unlock after your first playthough) and the third mini-game (where you place a series of mirrors on a board to redirect light beams to specific markers on the board) is actually kind of cool.  This "game" is just not enjoyable.  If you must get it, get it as a free trinket for pre-ordering Dead Space 2.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 15, 2010, 02:26:36 PM
Medal of Honor (Singleplayer) - 7/10 - Let's get the big issue out of the way first: this is not as good of a game as Modern Warfare 2.  It doesn't look anywhere near as good, there's significantly less variety in objectives/environments/weapons, and there's a lot less to do when the main story is completed.  That doesn't mean this is a bad game, however.  I liked the game's campaign (which is a LOT more comprehensible with the subtitles turned on), but it doesn't really gel until about halfway through the campaign and is heavily reliant on scripting that works most of the time, but is frustrating when it glitches up and doesn't.  The good news is that once the campaign settles into a groove (around the mission where the Army Rangers get thrown into the mix), it's quite enjoyable and the first half is pretty decent as well.  It's at the halfway point, though, where the various characters you've been using up to that point start crossing paths with one another and it works pretty well.  There's a heavy emphasis on stealth; sniping; and quick squad-based action (as opposed to Modern Warfare 2's emphasis on large-scale battles), which appeals to me.  The few vehicle sections in the game are fairly well-done as well.
 
EA made a big deal with this game about attention to realism and respect for the troops (the controversy over the Taliban in the multiplayer nonwithstanding), and overall I think they succeeded (though probably too well).  The plot is significantly less goofy than Modern Warfare 2's (though, to be fair, less interesting), and there's a certain amount of believability to it and it doesn't come off as exploitation (at least, nowhere near as much as MW2).  The problem is that while it is kind of cool to see a view of the war in Afghanistan closer to reality than usual, it's problematic as a game.  There aren't a lot of set-piece moments, though the ones there are work pretty well.  I also thought the game ended pretty well, especially since when you think about it the final mission in the game was pretty much a near-total failure.  Although they rescued the 2 Army SEALS, they lost a SEAL, 2 troop carriers, and probably dozens of Army Rangers in the proccess.  That was an interesting way to end a game that praises the glory of the US armed forces, and in fact ends with a lengthy couple of text screens praising their sacrifice.
 
Where the game falls really flat is that the campaign is really short, around 6 hours.  That was ok with me since I didn't pay $60 for it, but I would not recommend this game as a SP experience for full price in any way, shape, or form.  Unfortunately, once you complete the campaign, you only have the choice of either replaying the campaign in the uber-hard "Tier 1" mode (where you try to complete missions under a time limit on Hard with auto-aim turned off and no checkpoints) or going online.  On the upside, the PS3 version of the game currently comes with a PS3 upscaled port of the PS2/Xbox/GCN Medal of Honor: Frontlines, which is a pretty decent (if pretty hard) game that makes up for the short campaign of its HD successor.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 20, 2010, 02:59:46 PM
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Singleplayer) - 8/10 - Now THIS game's campaign is more like Modern Warfare 2's, and is actually better in some ways if not as spectacular.  The setpieces are filled with firefights where you get picked off by guys 100 miles away with pinpoint accuracy with a rocket launcher (incidentally, there are WAY too many goons packing RPGs in this game), the story (which is surprisingly cohesive) is an epic quest to stop a big bad Russian dude from destroying the United States with a super weapon, and there are numerous comedic moments.  The ability to level cover or even entire buildings with explosive weapons is cool, though it's a mechanic that barely gets used in the campaign.  My biggest problem with the game is that it's...well..forgettable.  Aside from some inventive moments in the singleplayer (like a level where you have to kill enemy troops as you run from shelter to shelter in a blizzard to avoid freezing to death), the experience is fun while it lasts (and I loved the banter between your squad members) but I feel no particular compulsion to play it again.  This is also somewhat odd to say, but the game feels too long given that there are several late-game missions that just aren't fun and just drag on.  The multiplayer may also be awesome, but that's really not my thing.  Rent it if you have an interest in these sorts of games, but otherwise you aren't missing much.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 25, 2010, 02:22:19 PM
Terminator: Salvation - 1.5/10 - This game ended up in a stack of games I asked to borrow from a co-worker, and now I find myself contemplating what form of revenge to take on him because this game is awful.  Think of a longstanding problem with movie-based games, and you'll find it here: bad visuals, bad voice-acting, bad combat, bad animation, bad scripting, bad writing, bad coding (the game frequently crashes), bad loading, etc.  The only saving grace to this game is that there is still a certain amount of bad assedness to killing terminators in a cover-based shooter while the kickass theme song from Terminator 2 blares in the background.  The only saving grace (besides apparently being a PS3 trophy gold mine, with all trophies being Gold or Platinum) is that I don't need to tell you not to buy this, because no one did.  This and Bionic Commando put GRIN out of business, and if this game is any indication the industry is better for it.
 
X-Men Origins: Wolverine - 5/10 - I was actually really looking forward to this game since I really enjoyed the original demo and had heard that the game was pretty much nothing like the movie it was named for.  Playing the game, though, the first section of the game is pretty much as good as it gets, and soon after repetition sets in.  This reminds me a lot of the issues I had with this company's previous X-Men Legends games, in that reptition just kills the experience despite how much variety the game seems to have early on.  The game is just too long and dull for how little content there is in it, and the story is a total snore.  Plus, while the M-rated gameplay may be dramatically different from the PG-rated movie, there are still plenty of signs of horrible writing from the movie in play here (behold, the Adamantium bullet!).  The story is nebulous and hard to follow, character (especially bosses) and plot threads just flit in and out of the game with no setup or development, and after a couple of missions it was just impossible to care.  There are some truly-funny moments early on, but they're few and far between.  Boss battles also frequently devolve into dull wars of attrition with you just hammering away at an impossibly long health bar trading blows with the boss until one of you falls.  Compared to Terminator Salvation, this is practically a work of art and it's fun in small doses, but I really don't see why this game had such a positive reception when it launched.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on October 30, 2010, 01:05:14 AM
Modnation Racers PSP

I was really excited to see a Mario Kart clone with an editor but in the end Modnation for the PSP simply disappoints.  Lets start with the positives, first off the track editor works rather well, it's easy to create and download/upload them.  The game looks great and runs at a nice steady framerate.  It was a story mode where you can spend hours unlocking all the goodies.  Races have certain secondary objections to carry out (like slideswipes enemy bosses) in exchange for special unlockables.
The bad, first off you have to deal with the controls.  There's only two options for controls (you can't customize it your way at all) and neither of them work all that well.  Drifting is a pain because the key is bound to your hop function as well.  Also your slideswipe and stomp moves are a bit hard to pull off at the right time.  I had a hell of a time with stomp, could never get it to go off when I waited too and I kept slideswiping when I didn't even hit the key which could have been a glitches.  Speaking of that, there's another issues with the game, it has bugs--plenty of them.

Clipping annoyed me.  Nothing beats losing at the last second because you kart ended up clipping the bottom of the track. 

Overall, this game really didn't have much going for it other than a track editor.  You can modified your cart and character as well but that didn't effect your stats one bit so I didn't bother much with these.  You'll better off waiting for the next Mario Kart then playing this game.

5/10 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 08, 2010, 02:40:44 PM
I've finished a couple of games lately, one of which I've been putting off talking about for a while and that is Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.  Honestly, the more I've waited to talk about this game, the less I have to say about it.  Suffice to say, this is an average game with decent storytelling but unlikeable characters.  Monkey doesn't come off well at first, but over time as he warms up to Trip and the audience it gradually dawned on me that Monkey is hilarious.  He's moderately heroic, snidely sarcastic, and easy to empathize with.  Trip, on the other hand, is a cold-heated; narcicistic; mass-murdering; horrible person, despite how hard the game tries to make the audience sympathize with her.  Everything she does is in the service of her own self-interest, and the one "good" thing she does the entire game she only does out of guilt that she didn't do it earlier.  And playing the game, it becomes increasingly obvious that she gets off on "using" people, such as how she allows Monkey and Pigsey to essentially fight over her (which nearly kills Monkey several times). 
 
As for the story, it's good in the first half of the game where Trip and Monkey are just wandering around the ruins of New York City getting to know one another, but the storytelling takes a major plunge once they leave the city and it never really recovers (especially with a nonsensical ending that just comes out of nowhere, as well as showing that Trip is still a fundamentally evil person).  I still think the game is worth checking out, but it's nowhere near as good as the critics have made it out to be.
 
I've also recently completed the new GoldenEye on Wii.  As I stated in the game's thread, it's astonishingly good considering it was financed by the most fundamentally evil company in the business (Activision).  My only complaints were that Daniel Craig really doesn't do anything for me as Bond, I don't think some of the "reimagined" sections of the game work as well as the developers think they did (such as the chapter in the Nightclub), and I don't care for how most of the objectives basically come down to pointing your cellphone at things.  Otherwise, the game is excellent and highly recommended.  If more Wii 3rd parties put as much effort and money into their games as this developer and Activision did with GoldenEye, the Wii 3rd party lineup would be an entirely different situation than it currently is.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on November 19, 2010, 01:14:20 AM
Valkyria Chronicles 2 PSP

One of the best reasons to owning a PSP IMO even though the game isn't as great as the orginal.  My biggest gripe has to deal with main story which is pretty damn weak.  The layout on paper sounds great, 2 years has past and a rebel army is trying to overthrow the Queen who if you played the first game is a Darcsen--a race that's hated for the past centries.  That part makes total sense but when the main character story's thrown in then whole thing falls flat on it's face.  Good thing the secondary party members have interesting story points, some of them are silly but I enjoyed those bits of humor.

As for the gameplay, much of it is the same as the orginal.  They added a melee class which ended up being a major kicker IMO.  They improved the leveling up for classes as well.  You have four basic classes which can be upgraded with various options like a scout can become a sniper or an advance scout.  Each upgrade has it's plus and minuses and it's works really well.  The engineer class could have been a bit better, they can fix your one tank units, heal, or boost stats but I found that I really didn't use the tank at all this time around (in the orginal the tank was a monster--this time around the tank is rather weak) and you can heal squad mates faster by having them retreat.  You can retreat squadmates and re-deploy them at 100 health the next turn--and you'll have to in order to win. 

Pro's:  Great gameplay, good cast of secondary characters, silly humor events, long--plenty to do over 30+hours just to beat it once, another 15 just to beat all the secondary character missions, the game looks and sounds great

The Ugly:  main story's a mess, reused maps alot (think I replayed the same field over 10 times), weak AI, can't find anybody to play against on MP.

Overall 8.5/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 23, 2010, 02:22:04 PM
I've been playing a lot of games lately and have even manged to finish a few so I'll try to cover them quickly:
 
Call of Duty Black Ops (Singleplayer) - 8.5/10 - Not as spectacle-filled as Modern Warfare 2's Singleplayer, but also not as spectacle-focused.  There is a pretty good story told here, and the storytelling is pretty decent as well once you turn the subtitles on so you can understand what people are saying.  Aside from a bit of an underwhelming start with the mission in Cuba and some issues with particular levels (such as the legendary hill where you have to run up and kick some explosive barrels down a hill to stop an endless wave of NVA, yet the game never makes it clear what you're supposed to do), I really enjoyed the campaign.  My big issue with it (besides the overly-cryptic story early on) is that the campaign is a bit schizophrenic: the campaign will throw out an excellent idea (such as switching between commanding a squad from the air RTS-style to fighting as that squad on the ground), use it for 5 minutes, and then quickly dash back to familiar Call of Duty territory.  As a result, the campaign's not as fresh as it should have been.  It's interesting that Treyarch gets dumped on so much for being "the inferior studio" making Call of Duty, because I enjoyed this game a lot more than I did Modern Warfare 2.  Pity that Zombies can't quite make up for the loss of Spec Ops.
 
Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den DLC - 9/10 - Awesome DLC that should have been released near launch when people still owned Bioshock 2.  It's well-paced, fun, and you get a very nice array of weapons, plasmids, and places to use them.  The way the DLC ends is a fitting way to end Rapture's story, though I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't truly the end.  Unfortunately, the Bioshock engine is looking pretty dated by now, and the art design at times has trouble making up for the technical deficiencies.
 
The Sly Collection - 9.5/10 - A great collection of 3 of the best platformers of the previous generation.  All 3 games look gorgeous with that art style in HD, all 3 games have trophy support (though Sly 3 requires that you complete the Master Thief challenges to Platinum...bah.), and aside from some annoying audio bugs (like the "sneak" sound effect constantly playing in Sly 1 and massive audio issues after finishing a mission in Sly 2 that are only fixed by rebooting the game) the presentation is pretty flawless.  I haven't reached Sly 3 yet in my playthrough (I'm nearing the end of Sly 2), but I can't see there being any major issues in that one.  Best of all, the collection revealed that we have a new Sly 4 coming on PS3 sometime in the future, which makes me very happy.
 
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 - 9/10 - This one I haven't finished yet, but as I'm 2 chapters from the end I think I've played enough to judge it.  Simply put, this game fixes almost every issue I had with the first game.  The game is more focused, the storytelling is much better now that the game doesn't kick you back to the village every time you complete a portion of a story quest, and there's more appearances of fights that use Quick-Time Events to showcase truly spectacular fight choreography that is incredibly cinematic.  My two big issues with the game are that the "Ultimate Ninjutsus" are much less spectacular than in the first game, and there's still too much fussing around with collecting junk in the overworld so repetition can set in quickly.  Overall, awesome game and a shining example that you can make a good anime-based game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on November 24, 2010, 04:20:37 PM
Titan Attacks! (PC)
TA starts out being like Space Invaders but as the game slowly evolves you realize it has suddenly turned into Galaga, then Centipede. You upgrade your "ship" (I think it's actually a tank but the game calls it a ship) and fight off wave after wave. The downside to the game is that despite its arcade nature it takes very long to play. I got up to level 68 last time, yet it's a game where running out of shields means game over, no continues. That makes it a bit awkward to play.

I got the game as part of the Puppygames (http://www.puppygames.net/) pack, that's really worth getting (though the regular price is waaaaaay too high for what's being offered).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: oohhboy on November 25, 2010, 11:25:38 PM
I like the concepts that puppy games have, but all their games have some annoying flaw and always grossly over priced.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on November 28, 2010, 07:23:56 AM
VVVVVV Demo - 8.5

I was looking through the list of available Steam games for Mac, and came across this little gem. I just played through the demo, and I loved it. It's an old-school platformer, with the twist being that your character can't jump, and you maneuver around obstacles by reversing the gravity of the stage. It's very hard, but you get unlimited lives and checkpoints are very frequent. It gave me a Super Meat Boy vibe, though I think I may have liked this even more if I weren't in the middle of playing that game, since this one isn't quite as polished. Still, I'm definitely going to buy the full version (only $5!), and I advise anyone reading this to give it a shot if you're a fan of platformers.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on November 30, 2010, 01:15:52 AM
I bought the Steam pack that included VVVVVV, you should have done the same. Also Captain Veridian is going into Super Meat boy PC.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: EasyCure on December 08, 2010, 11:08:59 PM
Mario Galaxy 2 (100% complete play-through) 10/10 I'll elaborate in a moment.

Mario Galaxy (Second Playthrough Luigi run 8/10

Now originally, I'm sure I would have rated the first Mario Galaxy 10/10 because it was a phenomenal game, but after doing a straight 100% play-through of MG2 followed by immediately returning to MG1 to get 100%, it's clear that MG2 is the superior game. The overhaul of the world map is a much more welcome change when you actually go back and replay MG. It's not to say a free-roaming overword isn't a bad thing, because we've seen it can be done well, it just wasn't executed very well in MG and it has to due with the restraints of the Rosetta's odd star-ship.

The level designs and the goals, hell everything in MG2 just seem so much better/funner and surprisingly more polished than those of MG1. You can really tell the gang was pouring their heart into this one. Yeah, a lot of effort and heart was put into MG1 and making it the bet Wii game by the time it launched, but with MG2 you can just feel that the devs were having a blast throwing around ideas that they couldn't implement originally due to time restraints.

I wish I could glow about MG2's soundtrack, but honestly I didn't listen to it much while playing, so I couldn't distinguish it from the frst game's (which is great, albeit over-rated IMO) but overall, I definitely call MG2 the better game.

Also recently completed The Beatles Rock Band. It's hard to rate a game like this, but I'm going to try anyway.

Overall experience was probably an 7/10. The game isn't perfect, no game is. With a minimal set-list (obviously expanded by DLC which I don't really plan on purchasing) it did the best it could with the songs available, which were all great tracks, a lot of which I consider favorites of mine by the band. The gameplay was the same ol' same ol' at first, then we picked up a second mic to try our hand at harmonies, which while not technically adding much to the game, did add to the fun factor. By that I mean, the score's don't matter much but it was definitely fun to see "x2 FAB!" for the first time, but also - there were some pretty funny/hectic moments when say Yours Truly would take up backing vocals (and bass) and realize I wasn't the proper range for that song, and having to have my cousin switch mics quickly so I could take over lead vocals, because they were out of his range too.

In the end, while a short experience (the story mode that is) and an easy one, it was still enjoyable and totally worth the $15 I spent on it ;) In other words, sooooo glad I didn't ever pay full price for this.

Next review:

Fragile Dreams ~Farewell Ruins of the Moon~

Here's a teaser: The controls are as wonky as people say, but so far they're not THAT bad. Also, while the voice acting has some rough spots, it's surprisingly good! The actors do a good job at conveying emotion and pulling you into their desolate setting, they just needed to work on some of those awkward pauses between words.. haha.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on December 09, 2010, 05:48:24 PM
Darksiders: 9/10

Loved every second of it. Gotta go back and find all the Abyssal Armor pieces.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on December 09, 2010, 06:43:56 PM
VVVVVV - 9

I finally went in and played the full game, and it was fantastic. There was a Metroid-esque exploration element that wasn't in the demo, and the platforming was excellent the whole way through, though it got incredibly hard by the end. It only lasted a little over two hours, but it was a hell of a ride, and easily worth the $5.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Pixelated Pixies on December 11, 2010, 09:45:51 AM
Just completed Cave Story for the first time. Really great game.

I beat it on normal and got the so-called second best ending. I plan on playing through it again to try and get the best ending. I'd give it a 9/10.
 
I've got a quick question though, perhaps someone could help. I don't seemed to have unlocked any of the additional modes.

I understand the boss battle and time attacks modes still being locked (as i think you need to do the best ending for those), but shouldn't i have unlocked Curly Mode? Everything that I've read suggests that you just need to defeat curly in story mode to unlock this, which i have. Any information would be appreciated.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on December 12, 2010, 05:37:32 AM
N3II

So far not bad, having four independently recharging special attacks and swarm enemies that actually attack you makes it more fun than any other Dynasty Warriors-like game I played. Just the bosses I fought so far had WAAAAAAAY too much health. The first one might be justified since it's a brutal lesson in how to approach very dangerous enemies in the game but the second one had a very easy pattern and was pretty much just a waste of time.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on December 14, 2010, 11:21:37 AM
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP)

I'm a huge KH fans so I had high hopes for this one and saddly it's quite disappointing.  Where's all the humor & charm gone to because it's unlikely you'll find it this bland group of characters.  First off you'll have three new playable characters but the whole "friendship" relationship has been done multiple times before with the series so it's getting pretty damn stale.  The story is pretty weak and the new cast simply couldn't hold my attention.  First you have Terra who's like a big brother who's fighting the darkness withiin himself (though it never did state what was troubling him), Aqua the sister like character who's fun to look at but empty on the inside, and then there's Ven who ends up with a split personality/amensia complex.  Squaresoft barely even scractched more than a sentence for these characters backstories. 

As for the supporting cast, there's plenty of Disney characters, a handful from the Kingdom Hearts series, but only a couple from the FF series :(.  Felt like the B-team with the choices they made, Snow White?, Zack from FFVII series, ect. 

Now lets get to gameplay.  The level design is pretty damn weak, most areas are nothing more than straight lines and there's only a couple with good platform segments & puzzles.  The combat is about the only thing worth nothing because it's alot of fun even though it can be unfair at times.  There's certain ablities you'll need just to surive on Proud Mode because the bosses can easily kill you with a few hits.

---------
Another gripe, you have three characters with their own story mode but all that means is you'll go though each part of the game multiple times while facing the same monsters while trying to upgrade the same ablitiles you with your first character.  You'll get all these cool ablities just to restart the game with nothing but standard attacks.  Bleh.

I can rant on and on about how disappointing this game made me feel, yes it looks good and plays well but where's the plot and the charm? 

6/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: vudu on December 16, 2010, 03:19:18 PM
I've got a quick question though, perhaps someone could help. I don't seemed to have unlocked any of the additional modes.

I understand the boss battle and time attacks modes still being locked (as i think you need to do the best ending for those), but shouldn't i have unlocked Curly Mode? Everything that I've read suggests that you just need to defeat curly in story mode to unlock this, which i have. Any information would be appreciated.

If I recall correctly, those modes are unlocked from the start of the game.  The menu's setup a bit weird so it's tough to tell, but you can rotate the menu options to get to boss mode, etc.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: lolmonade on December 18, 2010, 02:04:48 AM
Super Mario All Stars 25th Anniversary Edition - 7 out of 10 for new owners, 4/10 for anyone who owns any of these games already.

Everyone knows the drill by now.  I purchased this version because I grew up playing the Mario All-Stars versions of Mario 1-3 (cousins owned them, I was a Sega Genesis kid), and this is the first chance I've gotten to own those copies. 

The extra CD & booklet are still factory sealed, which should give you an indication as to how much worth I give those, so I'm essentially paying $10 extra over the VC releases for the updated graphics and the ability to own it on a disc.  Since my Wii seems to be on its way out (disc read errors left & right and other problems), it makes the extra $10 digestible, but I can't say it doesn't leave a bad aftertaste.

My complaint is the same as everyone else who has rated the game:  Why the hell couldn't they have added more games to the list.  Sega at least did one thing right in the past 10 years: include a ton of value in their Sonic Mega Collection (http://www.sonicscene.net/media/scans/boxart/cube/megacollectionusa.jpg) (Also see the Legend of Zelda Collectors Edition (http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/1076380187-00.jpg)).  If they would have added that much value in this re-release, and added say Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Super Mario Land Games, and possibly 1 or 2 3D games, I would have easily paid full retail price.

Even as someone who didn't own any of these games, it's still a toss-up as to whether I'm getting value out of my purchase, but they're still great games.  I can't see any scenario to buy this if you already own the games other than if you're a collector nut.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on December 31, 2010, 11:50:18 AM
Hammerfight (PC): Whoever designed that first boss encounter needs to be strangled. Boss encounters should NEVER be escort missions where the boss can instakill the escort target just by casually brushing against it!
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on January 07, 2011, 10:16:46 PM
Metal Gear Solid: Acid (PSP)

It's a spinoff in case you didn't know, instead of the 3rd person action game we all know and love it an card-based-turn-based tatic game?  Yeah not really sure what they were smoking because an turn-based tatic game could have easily have worked (Final Fantasy Tatics or Fire Emblem series) but making it a cardbased game was a bit to much of a challenge for the developer. 

The problem with card games it's just as much a game of chance than tatics.  You'll end losing both time and lives trying to either get the cards you'll need.  And in a few missions I had to restart from the begining because I didn't include a certain card (say C4 for example) which was vital in the mission, so I ended up losing 20 minutes to replay that map.  You couldn't add that cards once that mission has started :( .

Pro's: 
It has decent amount of cards and you'll have multiple ways of completing your tasks, the gameplay is fun at times and rather fustrating at times

Con's: 
The game felt more like an user-created xbox live arcade title than a retail product, the graphics are pretty weak and the cutscenes are just artwork with a few dialog sentences.
 
The story was a little to wacked as most MGS games are.  Just about everyone was a backstabbing SOB and it's gets predicable after a while.

Needs more guides because some of it I had to figure out myself through trail and error. 

I give it an 6/10; I'm playing the sequel MGS Acid 2 and it fixes alot of issues with the gameplay--so far I'll say it's a much improve version of the game and if you'll going try one you should start with this one, the stories have no tie-ins so you'll won't lose out of anything. 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 08, 2011, 02:57:39 AM
I've been playing quite a few games lately, so I'll just throw out some quick thoughts on each (most of which I've beaten by now):

Marvel Pinball - The tables could use a bit more variety, 2 of the 4 are too claustrophobic for my tastes (Wolverine and Iron Man), and Blade was lame to begin with.  Still, the physics in play feel very good and the tables themselves are well-constructed and fun to play.  Highly recommended.

Costume Quest: Grubbins on Ice DLC - It's more Costume Quest, which means more critically overrated and extremely average RPG gameplay, without anything akin to the level of humor you'd expect from a Double-Fine game.  The new costumes aren't all that useful until you reach the final boss, and there really isn't anything approaching gameplay variety in this.  Still, it's decent enough.

X-Men Arcade - Nothing special (outside of the hilariously bad dialogue and voice acting), especially since you have unlimited lives so you can just spam your Mutant Powers continuously and beat the game in less than a half hour with no negative consequences whatsoever.

PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX - Surprisingly awesome, considering I'm not the biggest fan of the original Pac-Man.  It's fast, it's fun, and it makes all the right gameplay tweaks to make Pac-Man relevant for a new gaming era.

Epic Mickey - Needed Voice Acting, a competent camera, optional tasks other than endless fetch quests, more "forgotten" Disney attractions (most of what's here not only isn't overlooked or forgotten, but is still in active service in the various Disney parks), less tedious back-and-forth through the 2D platforming sections, and the ability to backtrack so you can explore.  The sense of choice is good, though, I thought the game looked good for the platform, and the paint and thinner mechanics work well when the game lets you use them.  They should have ditched the combat entirely, though.  It just isn't interesting.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - The best Assassin's Creed by far, with the focus on one smaller city and various gameplay tweaks that dramatically speed up progression and make the player feel more like an assassin.  The missions are getting increasingly stale, though, and the plot has long since lost any sense of credibility it might have had due to the endless barrage of conspiracy theorizing and the sense that the writers are just making the story up as they go along.  To be frank, despite Ubisoft's rush to milk this series to death with yet another Creed game next year, this franchise needs to rest for a few years and return with a new design document, as it just feels like it's spinning its wheels with marginal improvements.  I did not have a good experience with the online multiplayer, which shows promise but I had severe technical issues with.

Super Mario All-Stars: 25th Anniversary Edition - A perfect symbol of the complacency and laziness Nintendo has started to show in recent years: the game itself is fine, but it shows exactly zero effort in the porting from SNES to Wii and the packaging extras are lamer than expected.  It's not even the version with Mario World that was released a year later with the tweak to Luigi's sprite.  It's a pure nostalgia cash-in that I can only recommend because Nintendo will never put the game on the Virtual Console so long as rabidly nostalgic gamers will line up to pay $30 for a $8 SNES ROM.

Dragon Age: Origins - Not my thing.  The game world just feels incredibly generic, and the gameplay looks like it was lifted from a 15-year old PC game (which, considering this was made by the creators of Neverwinter Nights, it probably was).  There's probably something wonderful in here for people who can get into it, but it's just not for me.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on January 08, 2011, 03:55:16 AM
How long did you invest in Dragon's Age?  It startes off slow like most RPG's but by the end the gameplay really does pick up so well as the story.  It's not as hardcore as NWN and it has it's own rule set though it's similar to D&D and theres plenty of tatics. 

Hell, I think I recall there's 6 beginings at each one takes at least 6 hours to complete so you might want to try placing 10+ hours in at least--get a few of your party members and hear their sob stories. 

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 08, 2011, 01:14:46 PM
How long did you invest in Dragon's Age?  It startes off slow like most RPG's but by the end the gameplay really does pick up so well as the story.  It's not as hardcore as NWN and it has it's own rule set though it's similar to D&D and theres plenty of tatics. 

Hell, I think I recall there's 6 beginings at each one takes at least 6 hours to complete so you might want to try placing 10+ hours in at least--get a few of your party members and hear their sob stories.

I didn't play much of it, and from what I've heard I picked the worst origin story at the outset (I generally play Mage-type characters in RPGs when I have a choice).  I played enough to get a feel for how conversations worked and how the battle system worked, and it just wasn't for me.  Maybe I'll give it another shot later on down the road, maybe not.  I prefer Mass Effect.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 09, 2011, 06:31:54 AM
Singularity - Inconsistency, thy name is Singularity.  This was one of two games (the other being Sin & Punishment: Star Successor) I picked up dirt cheap via Amazon earlier in the week, and having now finished it I'm finding myself very conflicted on this one.  I've often heard it said that this game is basically "Russian Bioshock", but that statement really does both games a disservice.  While Singularity "borrows" some UI elements and traits from Bioshock (such as the audio diaries and the E99 Tech Items, which are this game's version of ADAM), the combat (where there's a lot of experimental ideas) and exploration (there's very little) really don't feel anything like Bioshock.  Sadly, I'd only say the first half hour or so of the game feels like Bioshock, and it's easily the best part of the game: you're just wandering around ruined buildings with haunting audio trying to creep you out and the occasional monster.  After that point, though, the game feels much more like your typical 1st person shooter, "borrowing" quite a bit I suspect from the Half-Life games, including a gravity gun; the legendary exploding head crabs (which are incredibly lethal and annoying); and a female partner who's modeled suspiciously like Alex Vance.

The audio diaries never do an altogether good job of telling the game's story, you never get a feel for the game's characters, and the game's atmosphere is all over the place.  Sometimes it's there in spades, and sometimes it just feels like a continual barrage of linear shooting gallery-style corridors with doors locking behind you and invisible walls deterring you from backtracking and exploring.   I still don't have the faintest idea why messing with the flux capacitor causes people; plants; and insects to turn into something out of The Conduit, and as a result the foes you shoot at feel pretty arbitrary and random.  There are some really inventive weapons in play, though, like a Sniper Rifle with a temporary bullet time mode; a grenade launcher where you can steer the grenades along the floor; and (my personal favorite) a rifle with exploding shells that you can guide in mid-air to take out targets on the other side of the playing field.  Your Time Manipulation Device has some interesting tricks, but it doesn't really feel fleshed out.  Overall, the game as a whole feels like a combination of several other games, whose pieces function well individually but never really mesh together.  In many ways, the game reminds me of the GameCube FPS Geist in that way.  I recommend the single player experience, but don't expect the 3rd coming of Bioshock because this is nowhere near as polished or refined.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: lolmonade on January 13, 2011, 01:15:52 AM
One Chance - Flash game on Newgrounds. 

This is a game that has gotten a lot of news coverage due to a unique game mechanic: You are only allowed to play the game once (unless you use a work-around solution).  The synopsis is that you are a doctor that found a cure for cancer, but the following day, you find that the vaccination is too powerful, and destroys all cells.  You are then given this cryptic message:

(http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/file:///C:/Users/JOELDE%7E1/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-4.png)(http://www.gamingangels.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/OneChance.jpg)

The game then continues on a day-by-day basis, allowing you to make choices on how you are going to spend the remaining 6 days on Earth.  This game's strengths and weaknesses are the same as Heavy Rain: gives you the impression of freedom of choice, but they are usually binary choices that will drastically change the end of the game. 

Two things this game has over Heavy Rain:

1)  Each choice you make matters - In Heavy Rain, too many times I found that only about 1/4th of the actions you made make a sincere effect on the outcome of the story.  In this game, every choice you make will impact the outcome of the game.  This is most likely due to the limited amount of choices you are given throughout the game, though.

2)  Length - While I loved Heavy Rain, I couldn't bring myself to play it too many times due to the repetitiveness of each segment after you've beaten it once.  With One Chance, it's only a 10-15 min game, and is condensed to the point where you shouldn't get bored with playing it.

Graphics are 8 bit style with large sprites.  Nothing to write home about.  The music fits the game well, although a bit repetitive.

(http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/189094-one.jpg)

While not groundbreaking material, it is an enjoyable 15 mins, and I do encourage anyone to try it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ShyGuy on January 13, 2011, 11:37:54 PM
I failed, the world died. Not many options.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on January 14, 2011, 04:01:35 PM
Hammerfight: The idea of combat with giant helicopter-mounted weapons like maces, swords and axes is fun, it has many fun parts but it also has depths of frustration few games ever reach. Like the first boss being an escort mission where the boss can instakill the escort target with a stray movement or some enemies exploding which will hurt you badly when you are around and since it's a melee focused game you will be around.

Also the ringing ears effect trope has to die, seriously.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on January 15, 2011, 12:25:41 AM
Metal Gear Acid 2 (psp)

If you read my above review of the first game you'll find this is a much more refined version of that game.  The story is still an joke and the graphics are bland to say the least.  Not sure what they smoked but instead of adding details to the graphics they just went ahead and splashed BOLD-Bright colors all over the place.  Not sure if this one one sad attempt to 3D gameplay since it had some option about 3d glasses but bright colors didn't keep me from looking at a poorly detailed game.

The gameplay is the only thing that kept me going while it's not the best tatical-turn based card game it does have some nice moments where your ingenuity plays out.  Best tatics ever--lighting oneself on fire and then spreading it to the enemies or using knockdown weapon blasts to send enemies failing from platforms to their graves.  Good moments when your tatics work and this game does a much better job telling you what a card does and how to actiavte it.  The only gripe about the gameplay is it's still cardbased so you might lose a couple of rounds simply because you were delt a bad hand for the start.

I'll give this one a bit higher score than the orginal:
7/10 passable
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on January 15, 2011, 12:36:03 AM
Killzone 2 (PS3)

Well this game recieved tons of hype from it's E3 show a couple of years back but it ends up being a very genertic shooter--a well polished one but still a clone with little personality of it's own.

The graphics are sharp but nowhere near what was shown at e3 (the game only runs in 720P) and the sound effects are good but there's nothing to special IMO.  The gameplay is your standard linear shooter where you'll lend from one checkpoint to the next without interacting much other than flip that switch. 

Still, I only played the single player mode and while it's not the most orginal game it's still a good way to blast away one afternoon, I give this an:

8/10 good
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on January 15, 2011, 01:04:41 AM
Infamous (PS3)

It's strange when two games launch roughly at the same time and yet feel so remarkable the same--I'm talking about Prototype.  Both games are open world action game where you'll placed in a town during some freak accident and have to clean up the town with new found powers. 

The story isn't going win any awards, you'll some "chosen" hero/villain out to find out who set him up as a human bomb.  You'll have to make a few choices along the way, good vrs evil, which helps you unlock new ablities--BTW:  why do all the evil ones kick major ass vrs the goodie-to-shoes? 

The gameplay is a hit or miss, exploring the town and collecting blast shards is kinda boring because there's little to distract you.  Once in a blue moon something happens, mostly news bulletins, but most of the time it's just the normal--group of thugs are attacking you--kill them and move on.  Could have used more variety IMO.  While it had sidemissions and a few pop-up ones you'll never find them to exciting.

Combat is the one saving grace in this game.  You'll get new abilities just at the right time when the old oles were getting a bit to stale.  You'll even get to throw in a few cool combos like air blasting a guy off a roof and then shooting him down like a clay pigion or crushing them by tossing a car atop of them.  I have to say I enjoyed the combat quite a bit minus the fact that you'll want to be the baddie because he gets all the good abilities.
 
I give this one an
7/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: lolmonade on January 15, 2011, 01:21:34 AM
Infamous (PS3)

It's strange when two games launch roughly at the same time and yet feel so remarkable the same--I'm talking about Prototype.  Both games are open world action game where you'll placed in a town during some freak accident and have to clean up the town with new found powers. 

The story isn't going win any awards, you'll some "chosen" hero/villain out to find out who set him up as a human bomb.  You'll have to make a few choices along the way, good vrs evil, which helps you unlock new ablities--BTW:  why do all the evil ones kick major ass vrs the goodie-to-shoes? 

The gameplay is a hit or miss, exploring the town and collecting blast shards is kinda boring because there's little to distract you.  Once in a blue moon something happens, mostly news bulletins, but most of the time it's just the normal--group of thugs are attacking you--kill them and move on.  Could have used more variety IMO.  While it had sidemissions and a few pop-up ones you'll never find them to exciting.

Combat is the one saving grace in this game.  You'll get new abilities just at the right time when the old oles were getting a bit to stale.  You'll even get to throw in a few cool combos like air blasting a guy off a roof and then shooting him down like a clay pigion or crushing them by tossing a car atop of them.  I have to say I enjoyed the combat quite a bit minus the fact that you'll want to be the baddie because he gets all the good abilities.
 
I give this one an
7/10

I think that's a fair grade.  I loved this game, and spent several hours just exploring the city, but your complaints are spot on.  I guess I was just able to overlook those flaws moreso than you.

Did you play Prototype?  How was that in comparison?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: lolmonade on January 15, 2011, 01:57:28 AM
Super Meat Boy - PC

After hearing such glowing praise from RFN, and finally having some disposable income, I decided to purchase Super Meat Boy off of Steam.

If you are a fan of platformers, then there is no reason why you shouldn't own this game. 

It's like they took the difficulty of Super Mario Bros 2: The Lost Levels, replaced Mario with a meat cube, switched goombas with tons of saws/hazards, and added in the wall jumping part of New Super Mario Bros.

The only fault I have with the gameplay is that the jumping seems a bit floaty (feels similar to the jumping physics of the online freeware game "n", for a comparison).  A game like this requires precise controls, and this makes it difficult to time things correctly.  For the most part, I fault my problems with being accustomed to Mario physics, but it's still difficult to adjust to the way the character moves.

There are some other cool features as well.  Once you beat a level, it'll show a replay of your attempts to beat the level at the same time.  When you get further into the levels, this will look like dozens of meatboys all trying to go forward, and several going through grinders as your one successful attempt beats the level.

I highly suggest utilizing a controller over a keyboard.  Again, due to the difficulty of the game, you're going to want to have the least amount of barriers to your success possible, and this is one of the few genres of games that doesn't benefit from a keyboard and mouse.  By default, the PC version accepts the Xbox controller, but I have found a way to use a gamecube controller to work. 

I'll give this game a solid 9 out of 10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on January 15, 2011, 02:25:14 AM
I did play Prototype way back when and for the most part they are the same but I would give the edge to Infamous because Prototype had a few more issues, namely the pacing and some control issues.  If you played one of them you really don't need to play the others or in Prototype case you can just try the first few hours because in that game there's alot more grinding vrs Infamous where you could have just skipped over the sidequests and got on with the main.  Prototype also had issues with air born enemies and tracking killing them.  You had to do this "cannonball" move to get within reach of them but for some reason the camera would do funky dance or something causing you to miss or do another move entirely--that could have been fixed with a patch but I played it before any patch was applied.

But what killed it like alot of openended games was the lack of life in the world--GTA spoils us and we expect it now.
 
 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Killer_Man_Jaro on January 15, 2011, 03:29:55 AM
By default, the PC version accepts the Xbox controller, but I have found a way to use a gamecube controller to work.

Really? How'd you manage that?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: lolmonade on January 15, 2011, 08:39:09 PM
By default, the PC version accepts the Xbox controller, but I have found a way to use a gamecube controller to work.

Really? How'd you manage that?


 I have a USB connector that lets you connect original Xbox, PS2, or gamecube controller to the PC.  Usually works pretty well for emulators, but Super Meat Boy wouldn't recognize it.

After spending some time searching the Google, I found a program called JoyToKey (http://electracode.com/4/joy2key/JoyToKey%20English%20Version.htm), which basically lets you assign keyboard key inputs to a joystick you have plugged in.  Assign the left & right arrow to the d-pad, and the shift & space key to the A & B button on the GC controller, and it works pretty well.
 

This game really isn't very playable on keyboard.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on January 16, 2011, 08:04:06 PM
I have Prototype. Played it for a long time but it got kind of boring, mainly because you just keep doing the same sh*t over and over again. I liked the abilities, though. I hated the emo atmosphere of the hero and the plotline. I think that's why I stopped playing.

I just got inFamous for Squidmas and I'm amazed at how similar the games are. I do like inFamous' comic book style, though. The hero still seems a little emo to me.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on January 17, 2011, 12:28:31 PM
I think at some point he stops being emo and just becomes pure evil.

Prototype is really a game about doing unnecessary nonsense, nothing makes that more clear than the curb stomp move which only works on dead enemies anyway. And hey, when would you ever NEED to use a civilian as a surfboard down a flight of stairs?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on January 31, 2011, 05:37:46 AM
I'm making the most of my medical leave from college due to my broken ankle by playing through as much of my backlog as I can. I started with Henry Hatsworth, which I'm holding off on reviewing here until I finish it (right now I'm stuck in world 5).

My most recent choice was Phantasy Star 0 for DS. It works well enough, but a couple flaws make me think I'm not going to spend too much time with it, which sounds like a textbook 7/10 to me.

My initial reaction was that I really hope they make a follow-up to this on 3DS, because I think it would work a lot better there. Analog control would be a massive improvement for the game. What's less obvious is how they'd fix the camera controls. As it is, the camera remains stationary unless you center it behind you with the L button. Mapping the camera to the D-pad on the 3DS might help, but it really needs at least a bit of automatic management. Aside from those issues, the game is basically Phantasy Star Online with a more substantive story, which is just fine by me, and I'd probably sink a lot of time into it if not for the aforementioned problems.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 07, 2011, 12:02:10 AM
Dead Space 2 - Not a masterpiece, but a decidedly creative and exciting follow-up to the much-beloved original Dead Space.  The game starts out strong, hits a nice stride around the middle, and then sadly starts to wane as the story approaches its conclusion and level design starts to become "have player walk through generic room where 30 Necromorphs attack him nearly simultaneously."  The final boss is a joke, and the lack of bosses in general is disappointing.  The best thing I can say about the game is that there are lots of appreciated tweaks to the Dead Space formula (stasis now recharges, kinesis is more useful, you can equip any suit you've previously purchased, and different suits convey different stat bonuses) and a much larger focus on big set piece moments, but the game still feels true to the spirit of the original Dead Space (even if Isaac Clarke feels strongly inspired by Master Chief this time).  I completely ignored the multiplayer, and I suggest you do the same considering the poor reception it has gotten.

And yes, I did in fact manage to complete the game on Hard Core difficulty (where the enemies and ammo are set to higher-than-normal difficulty, you have no checkpoints, and you get only 3 saves the entire game), thus earning me my 28th Platinum trophy and the Hand Canon weapon.  Bang!  Bang!  Pew!  Pew!  Pew!   ;)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on February 07, 2011, 06:05:42 PM
28th Platinum? Holy geezus! I haven't even earned ONE yet!
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on February 12, 2011, 09:54:40 PM
Alan Wake (Xbox 360)

What can I say I love this game, yeah it's a bit cheap with the scares (guys jumping you from behind similar to Doom 3 Imp's) but the story is great and the way it's told.  It's not the longest game (think I logged in 6 hours) but it's a masterful piece of work.  My biggest gripe was the whole "funny-man" side kick.  Why would you throw in a chester in a game that's all about supense? It's kills the mood.  Liked the game best when your alone--no allies.

I never did get to the DLC pack the Writer but I plan on buying both today.  The game's on sale for download for $12.99 or something and the Writer is on sale for $7.  Damn shame the game just didn't sell.


Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 12, 2011, 10:02:28 PM
Alan Wake (Xbox 360)

What can I say I love this game, yeah it's a bit cheap with the scares (guys jumping you from behind similar to Doom 3 Imp's) but the story is great and the way it's told.  It's not the longest game (think I logged in 6 hours) but it's a masterful piece of work.  My biggest gripe was the whole "funny-man" side kick.  Why would you throw in a chester in a game that's all about supense? It's kills the mood.  Liked the game best when your alone--no allies.

I never did get to the DLC pack the Writer but I plan on buying both today.  The game's on sale for download for $12.99 or something and the Writer is on sale for $7.  Damn shame the game just didn't sell.

Just grit your teeth and get through The Signal, because that DLC is terrible on many different levels.  The Writer, on the other hand, is excellent.  I share your sadness at the game failing to sell, though.  Alan Wake was one of the more enjoyable games I played this year, and Red Dead just wiped it out.  Damn open world Rockstar games...
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 13, 2011, 05:45:01 AM
Tron: Evolution - Before you ask, I received this game as a gift from a co-worker, since he bought the game when it came out and he received a PS3 copy of the game for Christmas.  Thus, I felt obligated to put the time and effort into this game to play it through, and I even got my 29th Platinum (I don't know what's more surprising: that the Tron multiplayer servers are still up, or that there are people online actually playing it.   :Q ).  Having played through it 3 times for that lovely little task, I have to say overall the game is just below average.  I've seen far worse movie-based games like Enter the Matrix and Terminator Salvation, as well as far worse games in general like Dark Void.  The game suffers from all the usual movie tie-in-game problems: lackluster visuals, a relatively nonsensical plot that is very poorly told, an extremely short running time, an uninspiring multiplayer mode, and gameplay that's utterly bland.

In fact, I would have loved to be in the boardroom where some rather-brave soul had the sheer nerve to pitch a half-assed Prince of Persia game with a Tron Legacy skin.  The "programs" in the Tron world must be ridiculously athletic, because apparently the only way to get anywhere in this generic and empty world is by wall-running, ledge shimmying, and platform-springing.  The on-foot gameplay isn't terrible, but it isn't the least bit exciting either (it's basically 6-8 hours of throwing discs at different varieties of guards "programs") and makes little sense for this game world.  Considering that everything in the game glows a neon color at some point, it can also be strangely easy to lose track of where the game wants you to go, and cheap deaths from the poorly-designed platforming (particularly at the end of the game) are common.  The vehicle sections fare much better, especially the sections of the game where you control a Light Tank and cruise through highways blowing up everything in and above your path.  The Light Cycle sections aren't what you think they would be from watching the original Tron, but they work alright though they are rather fond of springing obstacles and disintegrating roadways on the player before they can possibly react to them.

As you might have guessed, my biggest problem with this game is that as bland as the gameplay is, this game just doesn't feel like a Tron game.  I haven't seen Tron Legacy yet so I don't know how the world has changed since the original Tron, but I don't get the sense playing this game that this world and these characters exist as programs inside a computer.  It just feels like a generic action game with a slightly retro-80s vibe, and I've played far worse action games.  Hey, at least it isn't a crash-factory like the games I've mentioned.  For all its problems, I never had a single game-killing bug.  Mass Effect 2 on PS3 sure as hell can't say the same.

Speaking of which...

Mass Effect 2 (PS3) - It's Mass Effect 2...on PS3!  Yeah, I already played through the 360 version and loved it, but I could get this version for cheap and hey I could always do with more trophies so I picked this one up as well.  Overall, the 360 version is still the definitively better version.  The PS3 version tries valiantly to replicate the Mass Effect 1 import with a decent (if poorly placed) interactive comic that lets you import 6 key choices from Mass Effect 1 into Mass Effect 2...with no context whatsoever (seriously, why would I choose to kill Wrex if you're not going to give me any insight into his character and the context for the scene?).  The comic needed to be longer to flesh out the story, but at least the essentials are covered.  However, as decently as the comic works, importing 6 choices can't replace importing the hundreds from the original Mass Effect on 360.  There's a noticeable emptiness in the experience on PS3, though the game doesn't suffer too badly for it and you do get all the DLC 360 owners had to pay for.  What does kill the experience, though, is the totally inexcusable level of sloppiness in the port job.  The Overlord DLC is especially atrocious, with textures constantly corrupting around the Hammerhead as it moves through the overworld and the Hammerhead often sinking right through solid ground.  And the game frequently crashes when the game stops to auto-save or load textures as the user moves through environments.  Until Bioware issues a patch that fixes these problems, stay away from this version if you have any interest in it.  Otherwise, stick with the superior 360 version.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: jrlibrarian on February 22, 2011, 08:12:31 PM
Professor Layton and the Curious Village: Headache ending/10
Just as great as I was expecting from Crimm's explanations of it on RFN. I still have about 30 puzzles to go since I've completing the main game, but I'm going to let that wait for a while before picking it up again.
 
I'm about half way through playing Sigma Star Saga for GBA. Anyone here played that before? I love it so far, even though it's very easy to get lost trying to find your way to your next objective.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on February 25, 2011, 05:08:44 PM
They never released Sigma Star Saga here, I was pretty interested in that back in the day.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on March 04, 2011, 09:09:49 PM
Just finished up Transformers: War for Cybertron (xbox 360) and here's my review.

If you're looking for a short-forward shooter with bots this this game's for you but for everyone else there's plenty of other shooters worth your attention.  The game has a great backstory but it never gets around to telling it?  What happens between Megatron and Optism in the past?  It's bought up in the game but there's no flashback or memo or anything?  Just some bad blood between the two and that's all you as gamer needs to know?  Thanks a bunch!  What this game needed to do was shift down a gear and let the gamer into the unverse the developers created.  Instead the game focusses on just action--pure action.  Go there and shoot that--here I'll highlight if for you--that's basically the whole mission outline.  As a gamer you were never given a chance to think for youself. 

I'll give it an 5/10--it could have, it should have been Great.

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on March 04, 2011, 09:32:57 PM
Resonances of Fate Xbox 360  

Yeah, I'm a little late to the party since a few already reviewed it but here's my take if anyone gives a crap:

The game's plot is just like Blood said "utter sh!t that goes nowheres", if any game felt incomplete I'll say it was this one--nothing is really explained or what was the importance of "freedom from the stone " when the outcome is illness anyhow?  There's a few funny scenes that i enjoyed but the developers needed to pick one--gloomy kid with a troubled past or happy goof who googles at boobies.  Can't have both.

As for the combat, Tri-Ace should at least get credit for trying something new--I'll give them credit--but it needs a lot of refinement.  As others pointed there's issues with the balancing.  For some reason even though I had everything  I can do to block poisoning I ended up losing anyhow?  90% chance of block with 1/2 damage yet I end up infected and dead.  It's the same mission KDR and Blood bitched about so I'm glad those three giants gave everyone else issues as well.  Some ablities also made you a tank at the same time, Hawk-eye or whatever reduce your enemy's shields down to 0 so all you had to do was shoot once?  Ended up killing the end three bosses like that.  So there's lots Sega's Tri-Ace team needed to do to get a "fair" balance.

I'll give this one a sad 5/10 as well.



Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on March 22, 2011, 08:58:34 PM
It's been a while since I've done one of these, so I'll just do a quick synopsis of some stuff I've beaten (all but Judgement, anyway) lately:

Stacking - Another overrated Double-Fine game.  The experience is particularly dull (the lame music certainly doesn't help), the story isn't particularly interesting, and the game's mechanics are way too simple until nearly the end of the game when combination effects come into play.  I'm glad this game was free via PS Plus, or I would have felt ripped off paying $15 for this.

Nier - Surprisingly good.  An above-average soundtrack compliments a game that's a little schizophrenic (each dungeon in the game changes up how the game plays) and a little repetitive (most of the dungeons in the first half of the game are repeated in the second half).  There's some very funny writing, though, and the story isn't half-bad...though understanding it is a little dependent on the player having gotten one of the alternate endings in the PS2 game Drakengard.  There's a lot of little jokes at the expense of Zelda and RPGs in general.  The game has an interesting New Game Plus mechanic, where new cutscenes unlock upon replaying the game to flesh out the story.  Pity the game's...well...not up to Square-Enix standards graphically.

Bulletstorm - The most fun I've had with an FPS in years.  Excellently designed and well-written in terms of being pretty hilarious.  The campaign slowly unlocks new weapons and upgrades, and along with them new skill shots that use those mechanics.  This means that the player is constantly encouraged to experiment with the game's mechanics and change-up how they play the game.  The only real weakness is a very lackluster final chapter and extremely obvious sequel-baiting.  The game's more intelligent than most would give it credit for.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night -
Overrated as far as hype is concerned, but it's a decent game that gets better the further in the player gets.  The level design is pretty shoddy, though (I frequently didn't know where the game wanted me to go), and the secret to unlocking the game's second half isn't hinted at in the least in-game.  The localization is...well...legendarily bad and the music is surprisingly poor and unmemorable for a game named after music.  I was satisfied by the time I completed the game, but I really had to fight to get through the first few hours of this one.  Still easily bested by both of the "Sorrow" Metroidvanias.

Castlevania: Judgement - Yep, it's crap, though it does sell me on the idea that maybe a Castlevania fighting game doesn't have to suck.  The game's a snore to play through, with the story mode topped off by one of those cheap Final Boss Encounters truly there because the designer hates the player.  I'm glad I picked up this one used so I could just return it the next day.

Dragon Age 2 - This game is getting a lot of crap and anger thrown at it right now and it doesn't deserve it.  I couldn't muster the interest to care enough to play the first Dragon Age more than an hour or so, but I was really hooked by this sequel.  Dragon Age 2 actually plays like a modern console RPG, rather than an homage to mediocre PC RPGs like the first Dragon Age.  The combat is fast and fun (at least as a Mage), the horrible dialogue trees have been replaced by a Mass Effect-style dialogue wheel, and the game is as well-written as most Bioware games are.  The game's serious flaws are an incredibly slow first Act (where you literally just do sidequests until you have enough cash to buy into the Act's big Main Story quest) and a lot of repetition in environments and enemies.  It's not up to the standards of a Mass Effect 2, but I enjoyed it and its emphasis on actual Role-Playing.  I do think the plot wouldn't have worked nearly as well if my character wasn't a Mage, though, and so had a personal stake in the story.

Mega Man 10 - I wasn't particularly fond of Mega Man 9.  It was ridiculously hard, mainly due to cheap level design.  Maybe once upon a time when I was growing up on my NES, I would have really gotten into it.  But I'm in my late 20s now, and I just don't have the time or patience for NES-era Mega Man B.S.  So I decided to give MM 10 a try on Easy mode, and I had a pretty enjoyable time with it.  First Mega Man game I've beaten in years.  I do think the game (even without the extra platforms and nonlethal spikes) plays a little on the easy side with easy and obvious enemy patterns (and enemy weapons that aren't particularly useful), but like I said I enjoyed being able to beat a Mega Man game for a change.  The game has one of the better Wily Castles I've gone through in a while as well, with some excellent fanservice for longtime Mega Man fans.

I've also been playing through Castlevania: Rondo of Blood on the VC, and to my delight it's probably my favorite traditional-style 2D Castlevania game.  I haven't beaten it yet, though.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on March 22, 2011, 10:23:33 PM
Stacking's a good game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on March 22, 2011, 10:29:49 PM
Stacking's a good game.

Eh, to each their own.  Like pretty much all Double-Fine games I've played (Psychonauts, Costume Quest, Stacking), the game thinks it's funnier than it actually is.  There's just something about the gameplay in Stacking I didn't find altogether compelling.  It's a lot of wandering around until you find a given doll that can do something useful, and then using it.  The game doesn't do a really good job of fleshing out its mechanics and increasing the complexity of solutions until the game is nearly over.  I was pretty bored almost the entirety of playing the game.  DoubleFine's apparent new design decision to cheap out on the music and have no voice acting whatsoever really hurts the experience as well, IMO.  It's not as lame a game as Costume Quest, but this game is getting some seriously good reviews and I can't understand why.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Oblivion on March 22, 2011, 10:44:23 PM
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
 
Very amazing sequel to the first Dissidia.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on March 22, 2011, 10:52:03 PM
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
 
Very amazing sequel to the first Dissidia.

So I've heard.  Pity it's cursed with being on PSP instead of a platform people outside Japan actually own.  Would've liked to play a PSN version of that.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on March 22, 2011, 11:31:58 PM
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
 
Very amazing sequel to the first Dissidia.

It's a prequel.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on March 25, 2011, 02:17:17 PM
I'm in something of a Castlevania mood right now, so I've been trying to get through some of the ones I have in my backlog and I finally just finished one:

Castlevania the Adventure Rebirth - Weak.  Yeah, that just about sums it up.  The music is bland (and sounds so synthetic it sounds like it's coming out of a Sega Genesis), the enemy designs are just odd (rolling eyeballs?  Really?), the action and visuals aren't anything extraordinary, the level designs aren't particularly interesting, the game is extremely short, and there's pretty much no reason to replay it.  The experience is just surprisingly average for a CV game.  There's also a very strange difficulty curve: the first two stages are absurdly simple, and then there's a huge leap in difficulty starting with stage 3.  It's not the worst CV on the Wii while Judgement exists, but if you really want a good 2D Castlevania game stick with Rondo of Blood or Super Castlevania IV.  At least this is one CV game I could actually beat after a few attempts at stages 3 and 5.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on March 28, 2011, 08:14:50 PM
Rolling Eyeballs were in the original GB game (Castlevania: The Adventure). Awwww, I love Rebirth!
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on March 28, 2011, 08:48:23 PM
Rolling Eyeballs were in the original GB game (Castlevania: The Adventure). Awwww, I love Rebirth!

But that's the big problem with the game: it plays like strictly a remake of a GameBoy game, with none of the advancements brought on by the later Castlevania games (aside from route changes, but that's nowhere near as well done as Rondo of Blood since they never lead to new stages, just slightly different routes of the same stages).  Given that it would have been the first 2D action-based Castlevania game since Rondo of Blood, you'd think Konami would have pulled out all the stops and made something really special that encompasses the best of what 2D Castlevania can do.  Instead, it's a somewhat lame remake of a very poorly-regarded GameBoy Castlevania.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on March 28, 2011, 09:12:52 PM
I think it's just an hour of fanservice, which is really all I wanted. ;-)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on March 31, 2011, 09:24:58 PM
Infamous - I tried to play through this game almost 2 years ago, but just got frustrated and ended up putting it up.  Now that I have a bit more free time on my hands (and a mountain of podcasts to listen to), I finally got around to finishing this game (twice) and getting my 31st Platinum.  Overall, I don't really care for Open World games but as far as Open World games go, this one's ok.  The powers on both Alignments are fun to play with, there's plenty of stuff to explore and discover without being too much, boss encounters are usually well-done, and there's a good sense of progression to the game.  Unfortunately, the enemies in this game are ridiculously accurate with their machine guns from a truly ludicrous distance and height, so you spend most of the game soaking up gunfire (usually without knowing where it's coming from)...especially since the enemies actually have better range than your standard lightning bolt shot.  On Normal and higher difficulties, it can get extremely irritating but at least you can minimize it a bit by performing sidequests that banish the enemies from the rooftops.  You also obtain a Power late in the game that lets you block enemy gunfire that's extremely useful.  Oddly, for a game that has some fairly decent music, there's barely any of it in the game.  The "comic book"-style cutscenes are very well-done, though.

Unfortunately, this being an Open World game means the game's also loaded with glitches and crashes.  I crashed twice playing through the game, and had several really odd glitches (like one where every time I hit solid ground, Cole started sliding through it until he hit the "water" underneath and died) and areas where I could easily walk through ledges and obstacles.  The game's "Good vs. Evil" alignment system is also legendarily goofy, frequently fond of giving "gray" moral choices akin to "I could save this orphanage, or I could shoot this box of puppies."  I would laugh at how extremely binary the "choices" are if the game wasn't actually expecting me to take them seriously.  What's especially odd is that the game is named "Infamous", Cole's voice the entire game reeks of "evil", yet the story is clearly geared towards Cole being a Hero.  I played through the entire game once on each Alignment, and being utterly evil changed a grand total of 3 cutscenes and some minor dialogue, none of which have any real impact on the story and Cole frequently acts in cutscenes as if he's a selfless hero.  The collectible Blast Shards are also not the least bit fun to scour the map to find (the main map doesn't display them at all despite them being on the Legend, and they're frequently hidden on your minimap by water), especially if you're trying to get all of them for the associated trophy.  Finally, the animation is this game is very weird, with movements very sudden and at angles.  It's a style that worked in the Sly Cooper games due to their Cartoony style, but in the "realistic" world of Infamous it just looks silly.

The game's decent overall, but I hope Sucker Punch stepped up their game with Infamous 2 with a more fleshed-out world; more interesting powers; less irritating enemies; a better-designed moral choice system (or at least stop pretending it's a real moral choice); and more user-friendly collectibles.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on April 01, 2011, 12:31:23 AM
Finally gotten around to playing Fable 3 (Xbox 360) and I actually found myself enjoying it.

What game allows you to have a 5 person orgy that are all male?  Better yet, it upgrades my weapon at the same time.  :0.  The game is filled with humor and even a bit of more serious topics and it mixes the two rather well IMO.  Not many games could do that. 

There's always a few drawbacks from the Fable series like it's freaking to damn easy.  Even if you die, you'll just continue from where you left off without the soul points you collected.  Hell I had to let them kill him just to see if I can die--yeah the game is that freaking easy that you can just tape down the magic button or fire button and beat the game.

Also, there's alot of fetch quests though these are easily done now with a killer quick travel but I really didn't need to be jumping from one town to the next as a mail carrier.  The overall quick travel map worked well enough but I wouldn't mind a map to go alone with that.  The game provides an trail to follow (yellow no less) but a couple of times I found that it didn't work 100%--ended up wasting as hour+ running laps.

Overall I like this game the best of the Fable series and anyone looking for an RPG with Sims elements than this game for you.  If you're a diehard stat RPG gamer than you'll better off skipping this one.

8/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on April 01, 2011, 09:50:02 PM
(Discusses Infamous)

I got that game for Christmas (late to the party, much?) and while I enjoy the game, I'm not loving it. Interestingly, I had purchased Prototype like a year before because I thought it looked cooler. Turns out it was pretty lame...the sidequests had nothing to do with the story, and even most of the story had nothing to do with the story. The powers were cool, though. InFamous is okay, but I'm not really digging the city and enemies have too much leeway in targetting and generally being powerful. I feel like my character should be much more powerful, this many hours into the game, but he's really not.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on April 01, 2011, 10:05:47 PM
(Discusses Infamous)

I got that game for Christmas (late to the party, much?) and while I enjoy the game, I'm not loving it. Interestingly, I had purchased Prototype like a year before because I thought it looked cooler. Turns out it was pretty lame...the sidequests had nothing to do with the story, and even most of the story had nothing to do with the story. The powers were cool, though. InFamous is okay, but I'm not really digging the city and enemies have too much leeway in targetting and generally being powerful. I feel like my character should be much more powerful, this many hours into the game, but he's really not.

Yeah, I took advantage of a 1-hour trial for Prototype on PSN, and I was extremely unimpressed.  I liked the mobility of the player character, but that was just about it.  If your character is way too underpowered in Infamous, your character is way too overpowered in Prototype.  I was playing the game and was left wondering why I should because there was nothing in even these early hours of the game that could pose a significant threat to me.  Plus, despite the narrative problems with Cole in Infamous, I felt even less attached to the psychopathic Alex Mercer in Prototype.

Infamous has its problems, though now that I'm finally allowing myself to view footage of Infamous 2 it looks like many of them may have been addressed in the sequel.  Cole seems to have a lot more mobility now, including being able to slide along walls.  I'm about of the same mind as you on the original, though: I enjoyed my time with it, but more as an indication of what we could see in the sequel (much as I very much dislike the first Uncharted but love Uncharted 2).  Hopefully, the copy & paste side missions from the original game will be trimmed down and made more unique for the sequel as well.  Some alterations to the climbing mechanics so Cole doesn't stick on every surface in his path when you're trying to make a jump or drop would be nice, too.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on April 14, 2011, 10:07:56 PM
I recently finished Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and its sequel (Platinums 32 and 33, btw).  Overall, I'm pretty amazed that the original game was such a fast seller and even won several writing awards, because neither game is above-average.  Their stories aren't particularly well-told, their gameplay gets more than a little monotonous (though IMO less so in the sequel simply because the combat's more entertaining), and both games are lacking in length.  At this point, the second game is getting a lot of criticism thrown at it by fans of the first game, and to be honest I don't understand why.  Force Unleashed 2 is practically the same frickin' game, just with a flimsier story; less physics/platforming puzzles (which I have to admit I miss); less repetition of environments; and better moment-to-moment gameplay.  That said, I did enjoy playing these two games.  Sometimes I'm just in the mood for a simple experience where you run around mowing stormtroopers down by the dozens with blasts of Force Push and finishing off big enemies with cinematic Quick-Time Events, and both games fulfilled their end of that bargain.

I haven't truly beaten Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 yet, as I still have to beat Arcade mode with 12 remaining characters.  Still, I think I've played more than enough to pass judgement on this one, as the game is so utterly lacking in content that if you've beaten the game once, you've seen all there is to see.  Overall, this game is just lazy.  Despite such a huge emphasis on the scenario pre-release, the game itself has no story.  It's just a string of random matches until you fight Master Hand Galactus (same difference.  They attack the same way, and you fight them the same way).  You beat Galactus, and you're treated to a 20-second completely random "ending" for whoever delivered the finishing blow, and calling that "underwhelming" is quite the understatement.  There's a Vs. mode and Online Play, but neither really seem worth the effort unless you're really into playing Vs. matches ad infinitum.  If I ever needed a reminder why I routinely ignore online play, I certainly got it today when I was right on the verge of winning my first online match ever in the game, and the jerk I was playing against disconnected, thus depriving me of the match actually registering with the server.  The game is pretty and can be fun to play in short bursts, but the experience overall is archaic; repetitive; and dull, especially with Fighting Games out there like the BlazBlue series that actually try to expand the genre experience with a plethora of modes.

On the upside, considering I suck at fighting games (as an online game today against apparently a true master quite shows) I am pretty proud at having completed 160 of the 360 "missions" (combo-oriented scenarios) to earn the related trophy.   ;D   Sure, it was only a bronze, but considering some of the missions I completed had around a dozen steps in them I had to do in quick succession, I'll take my glory where I can get it.   :P:
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: FZeroBoyo on April 15, 2011, 11:43:16 PM
Pilotwings Resort - 8
Really enjoying this game. Have completed all of the missions with 3 stars up to the Diamond level. Really like Free Flight mode.


Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition - 9
I'd say it's just as good as the console version.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Killer_Man_Jaro on April 24, 2011, 01:58:09 PM
Quick fire round of mini reviews. These are titles I've been playing through very slowly the past couple of months. Sorry if some of these seem terribly behind the times.

Boom Blox: Bash Party - 9/10
A brilliant example of accessible but deep, carefully considered gameplay. It's simple to play and simple to understand, hence why I actually managed to convince some people to play multiplayer, which is a rare occurrence - they had great fun with it. However, earning those high scores once the difficulty curve gets going requires a lot of thought. Furthermore, the excellent variety of level types prevents you from becoming bored with it, an important trait considering the enormous quantity of levels. And in terms of making a unique, compelling use of the Wii Remote, I'd say this is the second best on the system, closely behind only Zack & Wiki.

Picross 3D - 9/10
Addictive for reasons I'm not entirely sure of. It really is a 'just one more' puzzle game, and I have to tear myself away because of my work situation.

de Blob 2 (Wii) - 8/10
Totally worth it for the music. Seriously, the funky jazz soundtrack is one of the best I've heard in recent years. Even if you have no plans to purchase the game (which I regard as a good improvement over its predecessor with more platforming, but still suffers from repetition), I recommend searching for a de Blob 2 sound dump on the internet and shoving it onto your mp3 player.

Mini Ninjas (Wii) - 8/10
While it may lean slightly towards a younger audience, I enjoyed Mini Ninjas for the unexpected level of freedom for exploration and the cohesive, if sometimes childish, presentation; somewhat similar to de Blob 2 in that way, I suppose. Anyway, there are many things to commend, including stealth sections that are surprising effective and some cool magic powers. Combat is a bit too simple due to how hapless most of the enemies are, although the bosses redeem this to a certain extent. It's also a shame that you aren't really given much incentive to switch between the six playable ninjas - I swapped amongst them regularly for the sake of it, but there's no impetus to do so. Overall though, it's a fun little adventure, worth at least a rental for those sceptical about value for money on a purely single-player game.

Rayman 3D - 7-ish/10
My first time with Rayman 2: The Great Escape. Naturally, the design is starting to show its age. That said, I like the seamless transitions from ordinary platforming to fast set-pieces like riding a missile or jet-skiing. Some might be against the "collectathon" nature of the progression, but that isn't a problem if you are thorough, and in fact, I appreciated the presence of little nooks and crannies to find. The pacing is strong, as is the audio, although there are annoying bugs related to the music in the 3DS port. Speaking of which, the 3D effect works fine during gameplay -- less so in cut-scenes, with the character renders clearly splitting into two despite being in the sweet spot. I have a couple of significant gripes: the camera is hard to work with, and the flying controls have no option to turn off inverted control. In one level, the player has to navigate a rocket barrel through tight passages, and I died a dozen times because the inversion screwed me over, which was immensely frustrating. The finale was fairly weak as well. Still, I don't regret playing this, especially for the discount I bought it for.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on April 24, 2011, 02:16:06 PM
A couple of mini-reviews from me as well:

The Saboteur - This game has excellent atmosphere, well-designed story missions, and has some much-needed additions to the Open World formula (like when you place a marker on your map, if you're in a car the game traces a GPS route for you to take to get to that marker.  Collectables and side missions are also marked on your map when you buy maps).  Unfortunately, despite being very "inspired" by Assassin's Creed (very funny, Pandemic: you named your starter car "Altair"), Devlin really sucks at climbing buildings and escaping from alarms is tedious.  Also, pretty much everything in the game boils down to sneaking to spots and blowing stuff up, which can get pretty repetitive.  Still, it's a pretty good Open World game IMO, and does an excellent job of capturing the feel of Paris (having actually been there, I can attest to the game world being a pretty accurate simplification of the real city).

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time HD (via PoP Trilogy PS3 Collection) - Sands of Time was one of my favorite games last generation, but I'm sorry this version of the game kind of sucks.  It's extremely buggy (I had several instances with exploding polygons, 1 occurrence of a character just appearing in front of me who shouldn't have been there, and there's a very frustrating sequence in the game where the game won't let you use your best ability for no apparent reason); the camera really sucks (which is odd because I remember the Sands of Time camera being quite good); and the visuals are just "meh".  I have a strong suspicion that this was converted from the PS2 version, because I didn't see any of the lovely Bloom Lighting I remember from the GCN version and the game as a whole looks quite flat.  In fact, it can be pretty hard in this version to make out what you can and can't interact with.  What's really a cardinal sin, though, is that the volume on the voice acting is extremely random.  Sometimes you can hear it quite easily, and sometimes it's so muffled you can barely hear it.  And although it's not a fault exclusive to this HD version, the combat in Sands of Time is still atrocious.  Bleh.  Easy Platinum, though (as was Saboteur to some extent).   :D   I hope that Warrior Within and Two Thrones shaped out better from being newer games, especially Two Thrones since it's my favorite of the trilogy.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Killer_Man_Jaro on April 24, 2011, 02:25:51 PM
Easy Platinum, though (as was Saboteur to some extent).   :D

I don't know how you have the motivation to go for Platinum trophies. Without owning a PS3, maybe I can't understand its appeal. My experience with achievements on Steam games, though, has been nothing more than incidental. A lot of them I see just seem like so much effort that it would become tedious, and perhaps even risk feeling antipathy towards a game when before there was none.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on April 24, 2011, 02:48:50 PM
Easy Platinum, though (as was Saboteur to some extent).   :D

I don't know how you have the motivation to go for Platinum trophies. Without owning a PS3, maybe I can't understand its appeal. My experience with achievements on Steam games, though, has been nothing more than incidental. A lot of them I see just seem like so much effort that it would become tedious, and perhaps even risk feeling antipathy towards a game when before there was none.

Well, I'm one of those freaks who likes to "100%" things (most of the time.  I draw the line at crap like Star Ocean: The Last Hope's trophy list and the sidequests in Final Fantasy X), so it's fun to do so and get a little virtual sticker for it.   :P:   Besides, if a trophy list is done well, by going for the Platinum you tend to explore every facet of a game's mechanics, and it gives you a better appreciation for how the game comes together.  For example, I actually gained an appreciation for Saboteur's climbing system after all the monument climbing I had to do to fulfill all the side missions.  I just don't think that system works when you're trying to do something quickly like escape Nazis during an alarm).

...or it can be completely tedious and only serves to feed my obsessive compulsive nature, which is usually the case in Japanese games since they have that quaint love of grinding.   :(    I can totally understand why people wouldn't be into Achievement/Trophy hunting, but I enjoy exploring every facet of my games.

That reminds me, I forgot a game earlier...

Portal 2 - Unlike apparently everyone on the internet, I don't think this is a perfect game.  The singleplayer campaign has pacing issues.  It's divided into essentially 3 Acts, and of the 3 I found the middle act incredibly tedious since you spend most of it playing with the frickin' gel painting walls and floors.  It can also be really hard in some environments to tell what you can and what you can't stick a Portal on, so there were occasions where I got stuck purely because I couldn't see where I was supposed to go.  The first Act is also essentially the first Portal again, which gets old.  The game does recover nicely in its final Act as the designers combine all the game's mechanics, but it doesn't quite make up for the 2-3 hours of drudgery painting walls with gel.  As for the humor, I found that some of it worked (Cave Johnson and Weatley's lines) and some of it didn't (much of GlaDOS's).  I haven't tried out the co-op campaign yet, but to be honest I don't see myself enjoying that very much.  I like to take my time with Portal Chambers figuring out solutions, and that just doesn't work in online play.  Still, the game is fun and the test chambers are very well designed, with a definite "aha!" feeling of supreme intelligence when you figure out the solution.  It's just not as well-paced or funny as its predecessor.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Killer_Man_Jaro on April 24, 2011, 03:00:44 PM
I can't speak about the game mechanics beyond the Hard Light Bridges in Portal 2, but I agree on other points. The humour for GLaDOS is starting to feel one-note to me already, and I'm only about a third of the way through. At the start and end of every puzzle, it's like "okay, what roundabout way are you going to insult me this time?". Unlike the first Portal, the progression of her personality isn't really grabbing hold of me. Wheatley, on the other hand, is a character I have a great affinity for, and in my opinion, he's a testament to why designers should allow voice actors to ad-lib their lines.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on April 24, 2011, 03:16:35 PM
I can't speak about the game mechanics beyond the Hard Light Bridges in Portal 2, but I agree on other points. The humour for GLaDOS is starting to feel one-note to me already, and I'm only about a third of the way through. At the start and end of every puzzle, it's like "okay, what roundabout way are you going to insult me this time?". Unlike the first Portal, the progression of her personality isn't really grabbing hold of me. Wheatley, on the other hand, is a character I have a great affinity for, and in my opinion, he's a testament to why designers should allow voice actors to ad-lib their lines.

That's exactly my problem with GlaDOS in Portal 2.  In the first game, my favorite lines of hers were just little incidental ones often related to what was going on at that particular moment, my favorite being her "Weeeeeeeeeeee!" when you finished your first chamber where you flung yourself across the room via portal drops (because what she said was basically what I was thinking at the time).  But in Portal 2, all she has are insults, and that gets old really quickly.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on April 29, 2011, 06:09:10 PM
much-needed additions to the Open World formula (like when you place a marker on your map, if you're in a car the game traces a GPS route for you to take to get to that marker.

Isn't that standard in open world games? Saints Row did it (in SR2 you could unlock shortcuts by taking them which made the GPS route through them instead of the long way around) and in Red Faction Guerilla you even get a trail of arrows displayed in the regular view.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on April 29, 2011, 08:36:18 PM
much-needed additions to the Open World formula (like when you place a marker on your map, if you're in a car the game traces a GPS route for you to take to get to that marker.

Isn't that standard in open world games? Saints Row did it (in SR2 you could unlock shortcuts by taking them which made the GPS route through them instead of the long way around) and in Red Faction Guerilla you even get a trail of arrows displayed in the regular view.

Well, the only Open World games I've played in recent years are Infamous and the Assassin's Creed series, which don't have that UI feature.  You can place markers, but they just sit on your minimap as markers you just head in the general direction of.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on April 30, 2011, 07:46:43 PM
Conduit 2 -- Wait for the review (I'm struggling through the writeup), but the bottom line is "Meh."

Combat of the Giants: Dinosaurs 3D -- As Josh said in his review, it's dinosaurs fighting in 3D. I wish there was more meat to this game, but...it IS dinosaurs fighting in 3D.

Super Meat Boy -- I'm getting to the really hard stuff now. This game is boneriffic.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ShyGuy on May 03, 2011, 02:08:30 AM
I disagree.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 03, 2011, 02:22:04 AM
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - Eh, this game was ok, but really felt like a missed opportunity.  The central core of the story with the Marvel Civil War (which was a big Event story in Marvel Comics a few years ago, which I haven't read) is very good, but unfortunately the moral dilemma of Pro and Anti Superhuman Registration put forth by the game feels half-hearted and is abandoned relatively quickly.  The story splits at one key point, but the twin storylines cover the same maps, have extremely similar boss fights, and ultimately cancel each other out.  As for the writing, it's just...bad, something I do blame on the original comics.  Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic's actions are just comically badly written (they literally do what they do because a calculator told them bad things would otherwise happen), to the extent that they practically become Looney Tunes characters.  And in the final 1/3 of the game, the story just takes a totally stupid twist that's just lame and contrived, not to mention makes the main characters look exceptionally stupid.

As for the gameplay, well it's a further evolution of X-Men Legends' "Marvel meets Diablo" concept.  It's certainly enjoyable enough, though the hero Fusions are ridiculously overpowered and definitely cloned many times over between the 276 different combinations.  There are some nice touches like being able to swap out your characters at any time and having auto-leveling, but ultimately the formula gets a bit old and repetitive towards the end.  Not having your AI teammates continually die from falling into pits was definitely appreciated.

Ultimately, I recommend the game if you can get it for a pretty cheap price.  It doesn't do the excellent job that X-Men Legends did of easing newcomers into the Marvel Universe, but it's still pretty accessible.  Otherwise, there are better superhero-licensed games on the market.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Dasmos on May 04, 2011, 06:20:34 AM
Red Dead Redemption - Man, this is leagues better than just "GTA with horses" as I had the unfortunate preconception it was. This shits all over GTA IV. Everything is fun, there's not too much filler here. The story is perfect. More than once I had thought it was going to end, but the story kept going strong. The ending is probably one of the best out there, sad but satisfying.The characters were great, and even the smaller ones were memorable. I was sad I didn't get to see some of them again. My horse, who I had named Jolly, stuck with me for most of my initial stay in America, was killed by bandits as soon as I arrived in Mexico astre I had stopped to help some lady. I was horrified, that horse was the only one I could trust. Jolly 2 died in a flash after being attacked by cougars and Jolly the third died with me after I fell of a bridge.

The controls are great. Horse-ing around is a little jarring at first, but after a while feel natural. Dead-eye is pretty cool, I found my self using it less and less as the game went on though. I started to use it just as I was about to die in some last ditch effort to survive.

The character animations were great also, looked much better than GTA IV's (which I felt looked abit like Sims when the were talking). Horses looked amazing. And the landscape never felt too same-y wherever you went. The soundtrack fit perfectly too.

I can't wait to get stuck into Undead Nightmare, but lol PSN.

9/10: Rockstar need to make more games like Red Dead Redemption and less games like GTA. Despite having so much to do and see in GTA, it just feels empty in comparison. I have high hopes for LA Noire though.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 09, 2011, 08:01:16 PM
Majin & The Forsaken Kingdom - It's a shame that Namco-Bandai decided to release this in the midst of a busy Fall 2010 with absolutely no fanfare or marketing, because this is a pretty decent game that you can actually get for pretty cheap these days (I paid $12 for the PS3 version).  The game's budget shows in its mediocre visuals and weak voice acting (outside the Majin, who I liked but his voice is an acquired taste), but I still just found something really charming about this game.  It reminds me a lot of what we're being promised with The Last Guardian, but splashed with a little fanciful Winnie the Pooh-esque atmosphere.  And honestly, if that child-like atmosphere doesn't appeal to you, you're not going to like this game.  I thought the game had some clever puzzles (if sometimes obtuse where it's hard to tell what the game wants you to do), a well-implemented teamwork mechanic, generally functional controls, good exploration, a well-told if very simple story, and a generally smooth difficulty curve.  With the exception of the last area of the game (which is incredibly tedious with difficult combat), this is actually a game I wouldn't have much trouble recommending to children (and that's not an insult).

I'd also like to give the game a little gold star for bucking the trend a bit with these sorts of games: the game informs you very early on that there's a kidnapped Princess sleeping in a crystal.  Your character being the archetypical hero, you'd think that when she's woken up that she'd be a demure flower or something.  Turns out, when she wakes up she's actually a bit of a badass and is actually much cooler than your character.   :D   Aside from a bit of grinding towards the end of the game, it's also a very easy Platinum (unlike the next game in my list.  Seriously, **** playing that game on Hard).   ;D

I also recently finished Infamous' well-known rival Prototype, and man does that game suck.  The city design is bland and ugly, the enemies are obnoxious, the difficulty curve is utterly ridiculous (towards the end of the game, raising a military alert will send waves of tanks, helicopters, superhumans, and guys with rocket launchers at you.  And it's very easy to raise an alert near the end of the game), there are way too many powers and you'll never use most of them once you gain the "extending arm blade" power, the story is generic and poorly told, and the game is just boring and frustrating to play.  The collectibles are also incredibly annoying to collect and due to the frequent draw-in; fog; and Alex's insane speed they tend to be very difficult to see.

The only thing that Prototype arguably does better than Infamous is the way that you get around the city, but even that raises control problems.  Instead of climbing buildings and slowly gliding over rooftops like Cole, Alex Mercer sprints up the sides of buildings and flings himself through the air at Mach speeds with the propulsion of his own blood.  That works great for getting around the city quickly and getting out of close quarters situations, but when he's moving anywhere near top speed Alex becomes very difficult to control.  Have fun trying to keep your bearings in some of the enclosed environments.  I'll give props to the Helicopter controls in the game, though.  They are really well-done.

Other than that, though, stick with Infamous and its upcoming sequel.  It's a far, far better game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 11, 2011, 09:48:41 PM
The nice thing about Shooters is that you can get through them extremely quickly, as was the case with my recently-finished Resistance 2.  I never played the first Resistance, but the series is generally well-regarded so I thought I'd check it out.  Playing through the single-player campaign, probably my reaction to it can best be summed-up with "meh?"  The story is badly told, players new to the franchise are not given a good sense of the first game, the levels are decently designed but loosely connected, and I never really felt anything fighting the Chimera.  The game just comes off as bland to me, and towards the end of the game the campaign gets frustrating with some poorly-designed scenarios (with particularly useless AI teammates).  The game's graphics don't impress me on either a technical or artistic level, the former I can excuse due to its age but the game just looks bland.  And despite the game supposedly being set in the 1950s, there really isn't anything outside the well-done instruction manual that sells that setting.

That said, despite its mediocrity I did have some amount of fun with the campaign, helped greatly by the nice variety of weapons.  Many of these inventive weapons would return in some form or another in Insomniac's later Ratchet & Clank games so they weren't particularly new, but I thought they were well-implemented (especially the Auger, a weapon that lets you see and shoot enemies through walls as well as deploy an anti-projectile shield).  There were some portions of the campaign that were very effective as well, such as the trial & error Predator-esque sections where you have to keep an eye out for invisible chimeras with one-shot-kill melee charges.  The campaign is also paced much better than most modern shooters, with periods of calm to complement the hectic firefights.

Overall, I'm surprised this game is getting a sequel later this year, because my impression of this franchise from this game is that it's decent but just nothing special.  I only hope that my next PS3-exclusive shooter, Killzone 2, fares much better.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on May 12, 2011, 02:49:10 AM
Not sure if you'll like KZ2 that much better.  Yeah it looks pretty but that's about it, it really doesn't pull you into the story that you seem to love.

What happened to your PSP?  No reviews yet :0
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 12, 2011, 03:02:16 AM
Not sure if you'll like KZ2 that much better.  Yeah it looks pretty but that's about it, it really doesn't pull you into the story that you seem to love.

What happened to your PSP?  No reviews yet :0

Yeah, story's a bit of an important thing with me, since I primarily play games for their Single-player content.  The story doesn't have to be massively elaborate or anything, but it at least has to be well-told.  Vanquish, for example, looks like a game where story is not the least bit important.  But what I've played of Vanquish shows me that the game in return is just having a massive amount of fun with the concept, and that's just fine with me. It's all about balance and pacing in single-player modes.

My PSP has been neglected for a bit, that's true.  There's just been too many console games I've been enjoying lately.  But if you're curious, there is a PSP game I have "beaten" but have refrained from talking about because I haven't completed it, and that is Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.  I've only beaten one of the 3 stories in the game, so I was refraining from talking about it here until I had completed the other two characters' stories and seen "the whole story". 

In general from what I've played of Ventus' story, I really like the game.  It ditches a lot of the pretentious stupidity the franchise has built up since Kingdom Hearts 2 in exchange for a much more straightforward tale of 3 warriors battling "The Darkness" (my god, the Kingdom Hearts series has a dangerous drinking game with the number of times characters say "darkness") in their own way.  And better still, the story isn't a throwaway sidestory like most KH spin-offs, as the story seems to directly lead into threads for Kingdom Hearts 3.  And even though you visit the same planets with each character, you see different parts of the story each time since characters visit the worlds in different orders and explore different areas.

The battle system's also quite possibly the best in the series, and the game looks gorgeous for a PSP game.  From what I've seen, the 3 characters all play significantly differently: Ventus is fast with light attacks like Sora (and thus is my favorite character), Terra is incredibly slow but powerful (and thus my least favorite character), and Aqua is...I don't know, I haven't played her story yet, but I've heard she's frail but with extremely powerful magic.

I can't give final judgement on the game just yet, but so far I recommend it if you enjoyed the first few Kingdom Hearts, but lost interest when the series went off the rails after Kingdom Hearts 2.  The game's a lot of fun.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on May 16, 2011, 03:00:09 AM
Now that I got my roster update, I've started putting time into MLB 11 The Show for PS3. I originally wasn't going to buy a baseball game this year, but my Indians have been really good, so I caved and bought it. I've played previous versions of The Show and never really cared much for them. I would have bought a different game, but 2K has the exclusive third party license for Major League Baseball and they have yet to make a good baseball game going all the way back to World Series Baseball 2K1 on the Dreamcast, so I didn't have much choice.

My main issue with previous games in the series was the pitching. I could never seem to get the hang of it, and I had no real way of figuring out what I was doing wrong. One of the reasons I gave in and bought The Show again was the news that they had introduced a new control option for pitching. I'm glad I took a chance, because I absolutely love this new meter. It's a lot clearer on what you're supposed to do, and when you mess up, you see exactly how you messed up, and the pitch misses in a way that reflects how you missed. If you push the stick too far to the right in your follow-through, the pitch goes farther in that direction than you aimed it. Starting the forward motion too late or too soon will result in pitches being high or low. After a little while with the meter, you get the hang of it. It's still challenging, but it's easier to understand.

I am personally a huge fan of the late, great MVP Baseball series that was an unfortunate casualty of EA's exclusive deal with the NFL. To this day, I still consider MVP 2005 to be the best baseball game ever made. The pitching meter in this game is the first time I'd argue a baseball game did a better job than MVP '05 outside of presentation or online capabilities.

I like the new hitting controls, too. The analog control doesn't add as much to it as it does with pitching, but it still feels like an improvement. The same can't be said for the fielder throwing controls, though. Luckily, you can switch back to the old style of control, and you can do so independently for each of the three control types, so I can use the new analog controls for pitching and batting and still field with the buttons.

Outside of the controls, it's basically the same game as last year, which is not a complaint at all. The game is PS3-exclusive of course, being developed by Sony, and it definitely looks like it. The presentation is top-notch, and while I haven't put much time into them, the various modes seem to have seen a fair share of polish and tweaking.

This is by far the best baseball game to own this year. If you don't own a PS3, you're really out of luck, due to 2K's complete incompetence. Luckily, their exclusivity deal ends next year. I'm already looking forward to the inevitable MVP Baseball 2013. Until then, though, you can't go wrong with MLB The Show.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 16, 2011, 11:50:03 PM
With PSN back up, I finally put in my best friend's copy of the Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition so I could play the 4 non-Broken Steel DLC (I already played Broken Steel when I originally completed the game) I hadn't played.  Overall, I'm pretty indifferent to all of them.  None of them work well on PS3, with frequent crashes and horrendous slowdown common in all the DLC packs.  Operation Anchorage has an interesting premise, but in execution you're just walking down Call of Duty corridors and shooting dudes with barely any story.  The Pitt has a fairly interesting story with an excellent moral choice near the end, but fairly dull execution and a bland environment.  Point Lookout has the massive exploration you expect from Fallout 3, but in the end the story is lame and there just isn't much of interest to find wandering the Maryland swamp.  It does have one moderately-well done hallucinogenic sequence that's cool to play, though.  Mothership Zeta is just...dull.  It's 2-3 hours of just wandering down corridors shooting Aliens you can't understand with barely any narrative.  The DLC as a whole has some nice trophies, all silvers and golds mainly for just playing through the DLC.   :D

Well, it looks like it's time to turn my attention to Killzone 2.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on May 17, 2011, 10:04:00 PM
Yeah, I haven't finished all of Fallout 3's DLC but Operation Anchorage did annoy me because it was just VR meaning you couldn't keep any of the gear.

Speaking of Fallout, I just finished Fallout Las Vegas and it's a total disappointment.  It's just plauged with bugs--and I'm not talking about the ugly kind that you blast, I'm taking about the ones that wipe out your save files by corrupting them.

The damn game is just plain BROKEN.  This game shouldn't have been shipped period.  If you ever want to be in a beta then all you have to do is play a Bethesda Softworks game.  Worst publisher around when it comes to quality control and this game is by far the worst in the lot.

Can't recommend this one until they patch it the fook up. 

5/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: jrlibrarian on May 25, 2011, 11:10:15 PM
As it is my birthday today, I decided to sit down and start a brand-new game of Chrono Trigger. I played all the way through up to the final Lavos fight before, but could never beat him. In one sitting, I blasted through all the way to the Masamune fight, which I just finished.


Also, with my birthday Amazon gift card, I bought Mega Man Zero Collection, Retro Game Challenge, and FF: 4 Heroes of Light. Looking forward to playing those whenever they arrive.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 27, 2011, 01:02:48 AM
Two more games off my pile:

L.A. Noire - A favorite hobby of mine is listening to old detective radio dramas from the 1930s and 40s: the Golden of Radio, and as such I was really looking forward to this one.  Having finished it, though, I'm pretty conflicted: I really enjoyed my time with the game, but it's a very flawed experience and smells of meddling from Rockstar to make the developers put out a game that's more like GTA/Red Dead Redemption.  Watching the trailers, it's kind of funny to see so much emphasis on action sequences, because in the end this is a modern evolution of the old-school Point & Click Adventure game.  You drive to crime scenes (or if you're smart, you order your partner to drive you to them); you collect evidence; and you interrogate witnesses.  Once in a while, you pull out a gun or enter a foot/car chase, but this is fairly uncommon outside of the non-story "street missions" you can do during a story mission or after completing a full set of cases.  That's a good thing in the end (I love Adventure games!), because the "action" elements are pretty weak, with some odd controls and a lack of much of interest you can do in combat outside of standard cover-based shooting.  The Open World aspects of the game feel completely tacked-on and dull, as there's really not much you can do outside of some tedious collectathon-ing (collecting the 95 cars was especially tedious, but I did manage to do it and obtain my 39th Platinum  ;) ).

While the game absolutely nails the 1940s atmosphere and the facial animation (thanks to the much-touted facial capture technology) is both wondrous and frightening at times (especially on female characters), the game ultimately runs into a problem story-based games shouldn't have: the over-arching story is pretty weak in execution (though fine in the individual cases), and by the end of the game you'll probably hate your main character (I certainly did).  You should also play this game in small chunks, as I felt the game's formula really got repetitive as I played in longer sessions. This game's also going to be more dependent on DLC than most due to the lack of replayability in the various cases once you know the solutions.

Overall, it's an excellent game, but one not really designed for your typical Rockstar fan.  Just know what you're getting into before you try it.

I also recently finished the Killzone 2 single-player campaign, and while it has some issues with not having enough downtime and some control issues I really enjoyed the campaign.  The weapons are your standard-issue shooter weapons (outside of the fun gun that shoots javelins that nails enemies to walls, as well as the really awesome Electricity Gun) and the plot is your standard-issue Sci-Fi War Story, but unlike something like Resistance 2 the game isn't putting any emphasis on these things so they didn't really bother me.  Instead, the emphasis is on what the game does well: big action set piece moments; constant movement; and cover-based "trench warfare" with weapons that have a nice weight to them, making you feel like you're clawing for every inch of ground in the game world.  The game also has an interesting graphical style (there's a lot of rounded edges with soft colors) that helps it hold up several years later when most "realistic"-looking games would look pretty dated by now (such as Resistance 2 or CoD 4: Modern Warfare).

I'm currently playing Killzone 3 now, which seems to fix some of the minor control and camera issues I had with the last game, and it's quite fun.  Melee combat is especially awesome now.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on May 27, 2011, 02:34:41 AM
Just finished Medal of Honor SP on the Xbox 360 and while I enjoyed it there was some glarring flaws.  For one it's freaking short (4 hours and that includes the 10 intro and 25 minutes of credits)--was able to finish it in one sitting.
Two, the AI hasn't improved at all with the series IMO.  There's two types of guys, there's the type that will stop in plain sight and the other who hids and pops out of the same damn position.  The game also relies on scripts way to much.  For example there's an AA MG nest and I storm the damn thing only to find out that I couldn't destory it at all and had to backtrack down the hill to an specific spot to get scripted scene. 

Overall, an solid 7 out of 10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on May 28, 2011, 04:11:43 PM
I just got to the credits on Donkey  Kong: Jungle Beats and let me say this game should be a solid 9 but I give it a 7.  Mostly due to controls.  Every water level I felt I was fighting the controls more than playing the level.  Which would have made this just an 8 but, then the developers in their infinite wisdom made a level where I had to race 4 Turtles in water. What got me was not that the turtles where that fast but, more that I couldn't get DK to go up and down like I needed him to.  Also whoever bright Idea was it to make the birds disappear after touching anything should be taken out back and flogged. Besides water levels and anything to do with those birds I think the game is very enjoyable and polished.  Its a fun game and I especially enjoy the bull things level.  This game ironically really reminds me of Sonic 2. It has that type of pacing and feel but, as I said the developers insisted on those birds and the water way to much and that's mainly why it get a 7.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on May 28, 2011, 11:57:42 PM
Did you play with the WII remote or the Bongo's?  I've been looking for the bongo's myself.

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on May 29, 2011, 09:35:38 AM
Did you play with the WII remote or the Bongo's?  I've been looking for the bongo's myself.
I'm in the process of getting Bongo's.  I've been playing through it with the GCN controller, its the GCN version(Got it and Donkey Konga 1 & 2 from about $15.)  The swimming issues I can't see being fixed with Bongos.  How do you tell it that Yes I definitely want to go down with this taps.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Dasmos on May 29, 2011, 11:00:34 PM
I just got to the credits on Donkey  Kong: Jungle Beats and let me say this game should be a solid 9 but I give it a 7.  Mostly due to controls.  Every water level I felt I was fighting the controls more than playing the level.  Which would have made this just an 8 but, then the developers in their infinite wisdom made a level where I had to race 4 Turtles in water
  What got me was not that the turtles where that fast but, more that I couldn't get DK to go up and down like I needed him to.  Also whoever bright Idea was it to make the birds disappear after touching anything should be taken out back and flogged. Besides water levels and anything to do with those birds I think the game is very enjoyable and polished.  Its a fun game and I especially enjoy the bull things level.  This game ironically really reminds me of Sonic 2. It has that type of pacing and feel but, as I said the developers insisted on those birds and the water way to much and that's mainly why it get a 7.

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is my favourite game of all-time and I still beat-off reguarly to this day. I wouldn't change a thing. The controls are perfect, two buttons and a microphone is all you need. The level design is perfect as well, and many are designed so that they can be combo'd all the ay through. This is why the birds are the way they are, they're not supposed to pander to the "casual" audience. You make a mistake, you pay the consequences and lose your beats.

The water levels are great too, I don't know what you're crying about unless you're playing the New Play Control version in which, you deserve to have shitty controls by playing the game in a way that wasn't originally intetended.

Did you play with the WII remote or the Bongo's?  I've been looking for the bongo's myself.
I'm in the process of getting Bongo's.  I've been playing through it with the GCN controller, its the GCN version(Got it and Donkey Konga 1 & 2 from about $15.)  The swimming issues I can't see being fixed with Bongos.  How do you tell it that Yes I definitely want to go down with this taps.

o. m. g. just read this after original post.

you don't have the npc version and you're not using the bongo's in the gc one? yeah, there's you're problem right away, you have chose the absolute worst control scheme available in the game. also god knows why you'd buy the donkey kongas without bongo's as well, you're severely limiting your experience.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 30, 2011, 12:18:38 AM
I just finished the Killzone 3 Single-player campaign, and I have to say that that is probably the best FPS Single-player campaign I've played since probably Bioshock 2 last year (though BulletStorm's and GoldenEye's was good as well).  Where the Killzone 2 levels felt small and claustrophobic with an emphasis on trench warfare, Killzone 3 opens up the arenas to allow you much more freedom of movement to tackle areas as you like.  The control in the last Killzone was rather loose as well, leading to scenarios where I couldn't get and keep a bead on Helghast soldiers.  By comparison, Killzone 3's controls feel substantially tighter (it helps that the SixAxis motion control blessedly no longer has any influence upon your aim), especially now that cover has been set to a Toggle so you no longer have to hold the Cover button, as well as allowing you now to aim down your sights while within cover.  And Melee combat is so much more visceral and entertaining with the Brutal Melees, though there could have been more types of them.

I can't emphasize enough how welcome the addition of color and environmental variety is in this game, considering Killzone 2's stages were almost entirely set in either war-torn trenches or heavy industrial buildings.  And the campaign does an excellent job of changing up the experience, with the game quite frequently switching game scenarios and offering new, more powerful weapons.  This game seems especially fond of rail-shooting, which only stands out as silly in the final stage of the game where the game decides to be an on-rails Wing Commander.  This has been mentioned a lot in reviews, but the stealth level through a Helghan jungle (though how there's a jungle on seemingly barren Helghan is anyone's guess) halfway through the campaign is especially well-done.

Speaking of the weapons, though, all feel very responsive and useful (except for, oddly enough, the much-hyped Jet Pack, which makes you a huge target for not really anything worthwhile in exchange) and Guerilla Games did something that really enhanced my enjoyment: they constantly throw power weapons at the player, which you can carry around and refill ammo for quite frequently along with your standard pistol and assault rifle.  While this essentially throws any idea of game balance out the window, it does mean for once I can just sit back and enjoy that this is a game meant to be fun as I run around the environments as the Harbinger of Death wielding a Chain gun I just ripped off a turret.   ;D

The best thing I can say about the story is that I was invested in it, but not surprised.  As was the case with its predecessor, I was much more interested in the internal politics of the Helghast than my motley band of I.S.A. troopers, though the "trapped behind enemies lines and totally screwed" angle of their story worked too.   The story pretty much hit all the notes I expected, but I came away entertained (especially with Malcolm McDowell's typical performance as an evil businessman with grandiose ambitions).  I could have definitely used more levels in the SP campaign (and would enjoy DLC to that effect, though it won't happen), but I'm satisfied with the experience provided.

Overall, Killzone 3 is an awesome game and I haven't even played the multiplayer yet.  If you have a PS3 and like FPS games, definitely check it out.  It's probably the best game of its genre (excluding the Bioshock games) on the platform.  My only real problems with it are the total crap-shoot over whether an AI teammate will heal you or not when you go down (I've seen AI partners standing right next to me let me die), as well as the fact that your character never crouches low enough behind cover for it to truly be cover much of the time.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on June 02, 2011, 03:30:14 PM
I just got to the credits on Donkey  Kong: Jungle Beats and let me say this game should be a solid 9 but I give it a 7.  Mostly due to controls.  Every water level I felt I was fighting the controls more than playing the level.  Which would have made this just an 8 but, then the developers in their infinite wisdom made a level where I had to race 4 Turtles in water
  What got me was not that the turtles where that fast but, more that I couldn't get DK to go up and down like I needed him to.  Also whoever bright Idea was it to make the birds disappear after touching anything should be taken out back and flogged. Besides water levels and anything to do with those birds I think the game is very enjoyable and polished.  Its a fun game and I especially enjoy the bull things level.  This game ironically really reminds me of Sonic 2. It has that type of pacing and feel but, as I said the developers insisted on those birds and the water way to much and that's mainly why it get a 7.

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is my favourite game of all-time and I still beat-off reguarly to this day. I wouldn't change a thing. The controls are perfect, two buttons and a microphone is all you need. The level design is perfect as well, and many are designed so that they can be combo'd all the ay through. This is why the birds are the way they are, they're not supposed to pander to the "casual" audience. You make a mistake, you pay the consequences and lose your beats.

The water levels are great too, I don't know what you're crying about unless you're playing the New Play Control version in which, you deserve to have shitty controls by playing the game in a way that wasn't originally intetended.

Did you play with the WII remote or the Bongo's?  I've been looking for the bongo's myself.
I'm in the process of getting Bongo's.  I've been playing through it with the GCN controller, its the GCN version(Got it and Donkey Konga 1 & 2 from about $15.)  The swimming issues I can't see being fixed with Bongos.  How do you tell it that Yes I definitely want to go down with this taps.

o. m. g. just read this after original post.

you don't have the npc version and you're not using the bongo's in the gc one? yeah, there's you're problem right away, you have chose the absolute worst control scheme available in the game. also god knows why you'd buy the donkey kongas without bongo's as well, you're severely limiting your experience.
Ok, How do the Bongo's make going up and down easier in the water levels?  I can see how the birds be easier (but still 1 hit from anything and their gone.   I would be totally fine if it items that could hurt me that makes sense but slightly brushing the wall come on.)
Does the Bongo magically have a third pad I could use to flip between going up and down?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Dasmos on June 03, 2011, 04:47:40 AM
To tell you the truth man, I never had the slightest trouble with the swimming sections, so I'm not sure what you're specifically having trouble with. Your problem may be helped by using bongo's or it might be the way you're playing, I don't know...
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on June 03, 2011, 10:21:56 AM
To tell you the truth man, I never had the slightest trouble with the swimming sections, so I'm not sure what you're specifically having trouble with. Your problem may be helped by using bongo's or it might be the way you're playing, I don't know...

I get in a situation where I need DK to go down or up and he does the opposite.  So I'm motoring along and I'm about to run into a shocking jelly and I need to go up but I can't convince him to go up or I need to go down to get something but he is sure I want to go up.  Its annoying but not overly so in the regular water level.  When I got to the Turtle Race one... It made it nearly impossible.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 11, 2011, 12:49:54 AM
So, in the midst of the annual E3 nonsense (this has to be one of the more underwhelming shows in years), I've managed to play through and complete Infamous 2 on the Good path.  Overall, it's...more or less the first Infamous again, but with more polish and some much-needed gameplay tweaks that add both speed and power to the game.  The new city of New Marais is both more interesting and much better rendered than the first game's Empire City, and character animation and in-game cutscenes are loads better (they're not using the Sly Cooper-style twitchy character animation anymore) and more epic in scope.  The story is much better told than in the first game, and while moral choices remain obvious and binary they don't descend into the level of "I could help this guy out, or I could shoot this box of puppies!" silliness that the first game did.  Melee combat is so much better now than in the first game, as well, with a simple combo system.  And really, if you aren't smacking the scum of New Marais around with the Sly Cooper cane (forget that silly tuning fork the game wants you to use), you're playing the game wrong.   ;)

While most abilities are taken away at the beginning of the game, you retain many of your important ones from the first game (notably power line grinding and the Static Thrusters) so you start off the game actually feeling empowered and mobile (both of these were abilities granted late in the first Infamous, and radically change how you play the game).  And as opposed to the first game's consistent grind, Infamous 2 starts throwing new powers at the player fairly quickly, and to my delight the game does NOT fall into the same trap that Prototype did and dish out too many.  At least on the Good path, each core ability has several alternate versions you can swap between as you like, so it's more picking the flavor of your attacks than picking whole new ones.  For instance, do you want Sticky Grenades or Ice Grenades?  Do you want to be able to shoot your lightning blasts at exceptionally long range, or do you want more of a machine gun-like rapid fire?  Speaking of the new elemental powers, though, I'm a little underwhelmed by at least the Ice powers of the Good path.  They're not as useful as your electrical powers, and in the second half of the game you face enemies who use the same abilities so they're even less useful.  Being able to buy a radar ability to track down blast shards from the other side of the map, though, is so useful I'm annoyed you have to wait until the end of the game to get it.

Probably my biggest complaint about the game (besides some annoying crash and camera bugs, one of which popped in up in the final boss fight, forcing me to die to reset the camera), is that while the enemies in this game don't have the godly sniping ability of those in the first game (who could kill you from a rooftop a mile away before you could even see them), they are still rather annoying to kill.  As the game goes on, larger and more powerful enemies are added to a mix in even common fights and while it makes combat consistently chaotic, it also can make it a royal chore to get through large-scale mob battles if you don't have any of your godly ionic powers handy.  I also have to complain about the sound design a bit: while the music is very good and adds a nice cinematic atmosphere when it's playing, it is also completely absent at the oddest times.  Just wandering around the city with nothing playing in the background is very strange.

Overall, I view Infamous 2 the same way I viewed something like the Assassin's Creed sequels: it's much more polished than its predecessor; its systems are much better integrated; and it's much more fun, but ultimately it's the same game.  It feels like with at least the Good path that Sucker Punch may intend this to be the last game in the franchise, and if so the franchise goes out on a high note.  Very much recommended.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on June 11, 2011, 02:18:47 AM
Hmph. See, I never finished Infamous because I got sick of the movement not being as nice as Prototype and the combat was pretty terrible IMO. I also didn't like the stark B&W moral choices that actually gave you a freaking on-screen CHOICE. It was just so blatant, and I'm sick of games playing with "morality" but not really. I don't think I'll be into Infamous 2, but maybe I'll try the demo and see what I think of it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 11, 2011, 02:34:48 AM
Hmph. See, I never finished Infamous because I got sick of the movement not being as nice as Prototype and the combat was pretty terrible IMO. I also didn't like the stark B&W moral choices that actually gave you a freaking on-screen CHOICE. It was just so blatant, and I'm sick of games playing with "morality" but not really. I don't think I'll be into Infamous 2, but maybe I'll try the demo and see what I think of it.

Meh, to be honest the demo's kind of terrible and takes place during quests right at the beginning of the game when you don't have many (if any) new abilities.  I don't think there's even any music in it, which was the first thing I noticed booting it up.

As for movement, having the Static Thrusters and Electric Grind abilities from the start of Infamous 2 definitely speeds up your movement tremendously, and late in the game you get another upgrade for the static thrusters (which I think actually is in the demo) that allows you to fly much faster and gives you a little upward movement as well.  It also helps that there are now little vertical grind rails on buildings that shoot you halfway up the building when you grab them, so that definitely speeds things up a well.  It also may just be me, but I think Cole actually runs a little faster now by default, but that could just be a smoother framerate or whatnot tripping me up.  You still can't move anywhere near the insane speeds that Alex Mercer can in Prototype, but it's definitely better than in the first Infamous, which took too long to give you mobility upgrades.  The combat's pretty much the same as the first Infamous, but you do have more options in combat (such as melee actually being worth a damn now) and the enemies aren't quite as annoying since they don't snipe you from the other side of town anymore.

As for the morality choices, they're still black & white but are better handled in Infamous 2.  The game doesn't do that whole sequence anymore every moral choice where the character inner-monologues about making it.  With few exceptions, it's pretty much "do I go there and do this or do I go there and do that?"  If it helps, the game does try to present a much more compelling argument why you would make the more destructive/evil choices, and they're championed by a reasonably sympathetic character.  I didn't choose to side with her in all but one quest because I was on the "Good" path, but there are definitely some fun-sounding missions on her path.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on June 11, 2011, 03:42:27 AM
I'm going try Infamous 2 later but I was wondering did you try any of the UGC levels?  I'm going hold back until later this year to see what the users come up with, if it's similar to Little Big Planet or ModMation then the best missions are still to come.

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 11, 2011, 02:10:58 PM
I'm going try Infamous 2 later but I was wondering did you try any of the UGC levels?  I'm going hold back until later this year to see what the users come up with, if it's similar to Little Big Planet or ModMation then the best missions are still to come.

Yeah, I tried a handful of UGC missions.  Bear in mind that this was only the day after the game launched so the community really hadn't had a chance to play with the tools yet, but I was pretty unimpressed by the levels available at that time.  It's a good way to get XP, though.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 13, 2011, 12:12:29 PM
I started this game before I left on my big week-long roadtrip, but I finally managed to force myself to finish the SOCOM 4 Singleplayer campaign.  Honestly, there's not a whole lot I can say about this game except that it's textbook "blah", "bland", and "mediocre".  It commits the unforgiveable video game sin of being unbelieveably boring.  This game feels like the developers at Zipper were just trying to throw a game out there with the least amount of effort, and it definitely shows.  The shooting is pretty standard and the squad commands only kind of work: your teammates don't see to understand that when I point at cover, that means I want them to take cover behind it.  Instead, one takes cover behind it and another stands either in front of it or to the side.  Sometimes, they just ignore your orders altogether.  The story is boring and nebulous, and any attempts at actual drama come laughably forced because there isn't a single reason to care about any character in the game except maybe Lt. Park ("Fourty-Five").  At least the voice-acting isn't terribly mediocre: it's downright horrible, and I spent most of the game trying not to laugh at it.

This was my first SOCOM game, and Zipper has ensured that it will be my last as well.  It's not a bad game, but it's so painfully mediocre and dull that I wouldn't recommend anyone play it under any circumstances.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 14, 2011, 02:10:51 AM
Nice, I'm on a roll lately knocking stuff out of my backlog!  Well, 2 months and one week-long roadtrip from hell later, I've finally finished my first PSP game: Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.  Overall, it's...uneven, and really only 1 of the 3 stories is all that interesting, but it does get this wayward series back on track.  Terra's story is predictable and lame, and Aqua's is almost completely pointless until the very end of the game (though her story is somewhat redeemed by the Final Episode unlocked by completing all 3 stories and getting all the Xehanort reports).  Both of these characters also pretty much require an obscene amount of grinding due to either extremely slow speed (Terra) or being as fragile as glass (Aqua).  Ventus' story, though, is quite good (and mercifully free of a lot of Kingdom Hearts series cliches) and his playing style pretty much matches Sora's from Kingdom Hearts 2, so I do highly recommend his.  The production values are pretty good for a PSP game, as the worlds look and sound as good as those in the first 2 Kingdom Hearts games, though the worlds are a fair bit smaller and the music loops way too much.  We actually get mostly new worlds this time (Hercules' world and Radiant Garden are the only returning worlds), though the stories of the new worlds aren't terribly well-done and Disney Town is the new KH World I hate the most. The battle system is excellent, though, and I hope we see it again sometime.

As for the story as a whole, it does what Square-Enix set out for it to do: justify story-wise that Kingdom Hearts 3 is a game that actually needs to be made.  When I finished Kingdom Hearts 2, I was ready to be done with Sora but after watching the Bonus Epilogue/KH3 teaser in Birth By Sleep, I can acknowledge that there's still an interesting story to be told using him.  I'm now pretty eagerly awaiting Kingdom Hearts 3, hopefully on PS3/360/(Wii U?) provided Square-Enix ever decides to actually make it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on June 15, 2011, 12:28:44 AM
Yeah, wasn't to keen on Birth by Sleep either, good for the combat but that's about it.   Did you play the DS game, KH 358/2 days?  Storywise that's the better of the two.

And now you get to move on to VC2 :).  I was the poor soul crying during e3 when Sega didn't announce the NA release for VC3 for the PSP. 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 15, 2011, 12:38:08 AM
Yeah, wasn't to keen on Birth by Sleep either, good for the combat but that's about it.   Did you play the DS game, KH 358/2 days?  Storywise that's the better of the two.

And now you get to move on to VC2 :) .  I was the poor soul crying during e3 when Sega didn't announce the NA release for VC3 for the PSP.

The thing is, I had a lot of fun with Birth By Sleep.  I'm just annoyed that:

1.  They chose to split the story up to make you run through it 3 times when only ONE of the stories was actually any good.

and

2.  That despite the entire game seemingly existing to give background information and setup we're going to need for Kingdom Hearts 3, we're still not going to get Kingdom Hearts 3 now.  Instead, it's going to be Birth By Sleep 2.  That reminds me, I'm really getting sick and tired of Square-Enix continually making these Final Mixes for every single Kingdom Hearts title, putting important new information in them, and then making them Japan-only while basing all future continuity on them.  What.  The.  Hell?!  And no, I haven't played either of the DS games.  I'd long since sold off my DS by the time those two games released, and the reviews on both haven't been very kind.

Yeah, Valkyria Chronicles 2 is on the docket, but it's not the next game on my PSP list.  That belongs to my other UMD title: Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth.  ;)   But before all that, I'm currently working on the original American McGee's Alice and its sequel Alice: Madness Returns.  Let's just say that the first Alice doesn't live up to my nostalgia and really shows how far Action-Platformers have come since the year 2000.  I don't know how I managed to play this game on my PC back in the day.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 19, 2011, 01:09:56 AM
Well, I've finished up both American McGee's Alice and Alice: Madness Returns...somehow.  OK, let's get the crappy one out of the way first: the original Alice is a terrible game by modern standards.  The combat is poor (though the weapons are nice), the platforming is quite possibly the worst I've ever seen in any game with incredibly floaty jumping and an unfriendly camera (the closest game it reminds me of is Castlevania 64), and the level designs are drab and uninspired.  There's also one completely unfair boss fight that can easily annihilate the player within a few seconds.  The controls work surprisingly well in general, considering this is a PC port, with the exception of firearms control.  There's one major weapon in the game that has to be charged, but the main fire button is Square (PS3)/X (360).  Trying to use it while moving your character on the left stick and aiming with the right stick requires hand contortions so uncomfortable that I just rarely used the weapon.  Along with numerous technical hitches (and several crashes), this port also has quite possibly the worst save system I've ever seen, something I blame on being a quick and dirty port of a Quick Save/Instant Kill-happy PC game.  Where the game (and its sequel) really shines is in the dark and twisted atmosphere, story, and characters.  But more on that with its sequel...

Alice: Madness Returns is a game I never thought I'd see made, considering the license has been dormant for so long and the story appeared wrapped-up in the original game.  But I am delighted that we got a sequel, and it's just as dark and twisted as its predecessor, just in glorious HD.  Unlike its "Proof of Concept" predecessor, Madness Returns is actually a good game and a much more polished one at that.  The overall flow of the game is more or less the same as the original game, playing very similarly to an N64-era Rare platformer: do a sequence of complicated platform-hopping, flip some switches, grab some collectables, fight some enemies, wash, rinse, repeat.  The combat is very satisfying now (and rather hard at times) with a lock-on mechanic and 4 weapons with a focus on melee combat and split-second dodging; the platforming is substantially improved with the ability to glide through the air and performing 3 jumps in the air.  I never saw a framerate dip, and the game looks gorgeous most of the time

As for the story, this game seems strongly influenced by Silent Hill, with the game flitting between Real World London and an increasingly distorted Wonderland as Alice struggles to regain her sanity.  The brief sections in the "real world" don't work as well as the designers probably hoped since you can't really do anything in them except run through corridors, but it was a nice attempt and occasionally works well.  The story has a few nice twists to it, and I'm satisfied with how it resolved despite some issues with how the final villain is brought into the story.  There is a definite emphasis on psychology and how Alice uses her Wonderland to work through mental problems in her real life, and it's much appreciated.

Where Madness Returns falters is in its pacing and some technical issues.  This game has 5 real levels (the 6th is the final boss), and the game is roughly 15 or so hours long if you're exploring and looking for collectibles.  Do the math, and you can see that these stages are ridiculously long, and despite some genuinely inspired environmental concepts several wear out their welcome long before you reach the end of the stage.  Getting through one of these chapters is very draining, and while there are some diversions along the way (my favorite being some 2D platforming sections based on Japanese scroll art), repetition is easily the game's worst enemy.  The game also tries to supplement the story a bit with "memory" collectables that serve as one or two sentence audio logs from members of the supporting cast, but these tend to be very random and come off as fairly pointless.  I'm also not altogether sure what actually happens in the "real world" in this game, as the game seems to be deliberately vague about it.  I also ran into several major and minor bugs, the most common of which is textures failing to load quickly enough towards the end of the game (apparently, this is a much more major issue on 360).

Overall, Madness Returns is a very flawed game that's only going to appeal to very accepting players.  I love what it does because we haven't really gotten an exploration-heavy action platformer since the Rare games on the N64, but there is no denying that this game has a definite formula and it unwaveringly sticks to it for roughly 15 hours.  If you can get past that, though, this is a cool game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on June 20, 2011, 12:09:42 AM
Yeah, was kinda looking forward to the Alice's return but from other reviews it sounds like a skip.   Had fond memories of first one though I played it on the PC which if I recall correctly had an quick/save option. 

Just finished a few games off my list as well; first my thoughts about Tactics Orge Let Us Cling Together PSP.  To start off this is an port/remake from an SNES title and it's the was successful in Japan so much that Square copied it's forumla in the better known US title Final Fantasy Tactics.

The story for me was a bit disappointing because I never felt anything for any of the characters.  The dialog between characters is thin even for major characters and you really don't get much of an feel for some of these additional characters that you can gain thoughout the game.  Both FFT and Fire Emblem series had alot more dialog which gave you a better feel for members in your party.

Gameplay suffers from poor level design and poor AI.  For level design I'm talking about it's just about the same setup each and every time minus maybe one or two differences.  Just about all of them gave the enemy the height advantage (meaning you're always at an disadvantage with range weapons).  As for the braindead AI--it does the reverse of the FireEmblem series--I would say it was suicidal.  The boss (AI) would charge straight at you while his alllies are failing back?  Makes alot of missions/maps that freaking easy because all you had to do was gang up on him.  Guest AI had the same issue.  Some maps had quests in your party or on the map and they were all pre-programmed to annoy me the most.  Had to restart the same map three or four times simply because the guest AI was killed :(  nothing you could do because he started out in the middle of the map and ran straight at the enemy AI.

Overall Tactics Orge was an great game for it's time but you really can't go back in time.  It doesn't hold up all that well and there's better games out there now so I give it an:

6/10

Also finished up Dead Rising 2 (Xbox 360).  I never really did play the first one so I don't have that game to compare to but here's my take of on the second one:

To start while my biggest gripe about the game--the WATCH--yes, you are on the clock.  I hate--and I mean Hate--games that have these built in clocks that you have to follow.  I like to look around and experiment with the enviroment and whatever else I see fit but NOO this game throws the clock right in your face.  Didn't see an option to turn if off maybe they fixed it in a patch.

Also the game has one glaring other flaw.  Backtracking.  You save these people but then you hold their hands back to an safe house.  True you don't have to do this but you won't gain exp fast that way.   I bet I ran the same damn hallway over 100+ times which got old after the first 50 times.  They could have easily fix this by having multiple safe houses in the mall.

The other flaws were a bit minor, it uses an crappy save system, save points that are mostly out of your way which doesn't help because if you losing time getting to them. 

Still the game it fun, loved all those sick-twisted mini-bosses and all the weapons and combining them into all kinds of crazy but sadly the damn timer sticks it's ugly head instead of having fun mushing zombies heads in I ended up running/shoving to mission to mission.
Dead Rising gets an 7/10.  Without a timer I think I was easily gave it an 8.5.





Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 20, 2011, 01:47:13 AM
Yeah, Tactics Ogre PSP's on my PSP games list, but it's near the bottom right now.  Ever since Valkyria Chronicles, I find it very difficult to go back to isometric turn-based cookie-cutter Japanese Tactical Strategy Games.  Considering Tactics Ogre invented that formula, it's not fair to hold that against it, but it still deters me whenever I think about picking it up.

As for Dead Rising 2, I've played the demo for the original Dead Rising and I'd totally love to play either of the games...IF Capcom removed the frickin' timer.  I hate when games ask me to explore and do whatever I want, and then penalize me against an arbitrary clock when I don't do what it wants me to do.  Some games like the Persona series work around that a bit by charging you units of time to go somewhere, but then let you do whatever you want while you're there without incurring time penalties.  While that's not an ideal solution, it's one that I can deal with in some games.  Most of the time, though, it just ruins my fun and turns my games into secretarial simulators ("Ok, I can pencil you in for 3 PM on Monday, and I'll make a note of your appointment at 5:49 PM on Tuesday for this as well!").  That's somewhat of an issue I'm having trying to work up the will to start Valkyrie Profile Lenneth right now, actually, as it also features an overall time limit while asking you to do your RPG exploring thing.

As for Alice: Madness Returns, I took advantage of an Amazon temporary sale and store credit to bring the price down to $30, and for that price I'm satisfied with what I got.  Like I said, I enjoyed what I played (it became Platinum #40 today, btw), but it's a game with serious pacing issues and some technical issues you have to be willing to look past in favor of a fairly well-done story and some fantastic art design.  I suggest waiting for a price drop or rental, and then give it a try.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Nick DiMola on June 21, 2011, 10:44:14 AM
I felt that the timer in Dead Rising 2 worked out a whole hell of a lot better than it did in Dead Rising. Most of the time, it came down to more efficiently completing tasks on the first play through. This meant that you had to plan your actions and execute well, which was a fun little restriction that drastically altered how you play the game.

Plus, you aren't meant to get everything on a single play through, so assuming you hit half of the stuff (most of it isn't mandatory), a second play through is practically a second game set in the same area. Dead Rising didn't encourage this type of play, which made it a far less enjoyable experience. Plus escorting the people you rescue was miserable.

I'd suggest checking out Dead Rising 2 in spite of the timer. It's not a mechanic I typically like in games either, but I felt it was done pretty well here.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on June 21, 2011, 11:06:12 AM
"Finished" Super Princess Peach(SPP)  This game does a lot of things right at the core.  Peach's moveset is a great extension to the traditional Mario moveset.  The levels are fairly well laid out with a few exceptions, I'm looking at you random find the right pipes.  Its clear this game started on the GBA and was moved the DS.  Though a lot of the effects in this game and how it does what it does would really really shine on the 3DS if a sequel was made.  Now to my biggest complaints.

The story is not bad but their are two going on.  One about the umbrella that gets told throughout but doesn't get resolved and another about Mario being capture that gets resolved but not told throughout.  This game would have seriously benefited from a series of cutscenes like it has to setup the game showing what Bowser has been doing to Mario etc.  Luigi is in the game and is totally ignored.  Much of his treatment like in the Mario and Luigi series.  Another problems are Toads.

Some of them are interesting to find but they give you and exclamation mark when one is around so you know where to look.  Which makes it less frustrating but, I have another complaint about them.  You HAVE to collect all the Toads to beat the game you find out the last level.  My biggest problem with that is you do celebrate when you find a toad but, you only get a star when you on the circle indicating the level when you collect all 3 in a level.  The game should have made that feel more epic and special so by the time you get to the last world you would have naturally gotten them all.

Their are also a lot of mini-games which I haven't really played.

Overall this is a good game.  I give it a 8-8.6 simply because of some of the things above.  That being said I wouldn't hesitate buying a 3DS sequel.  I know NSMB is the platformer to beat on the DS and seeing that I hate that game with a passion for variouse reasons, mostly disappointment, I can easily say that SPP is one of the best platformers I have played on the DS.  If you are going to buy it the game is a little rare but a little searching should be able to get a copy for $35 dollars at a BnM Toys R' Us.  Its going for $40 online so if you don't like it you can get your money back. Now to find Hatsworth.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 21, 2011, 10:33:48 PM
So now that both the Reverie and Resurrection DLC chapters are out for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, I can actually talk about them.  Simply put, there's a worthwhile experience in here, but it's not worth the combined $20 asking price.  Reverie features several new environments, some collectables to find, a couple reasonably engaging combat sections, and some interesting platforming areas and puzzles.  It also changes up how you play the game a bit by introducing a new playable character with their own unique moves.  Resurrection, on the other hand, is one boss fight strung out over two levels, both of which take place in the same area.  It's a well-done boss fight with some QTEs worthy of one of the epic boss battles from the main game, but it's not worth $10.  The story is interesting and told in Infamous-style comic book-esque cutscenes, but in the end it's basically an epilogue for the main game that sets up a recurring villain for any future Castlevania games in this timeline.  I'm also disappointed that Gabriel doesn't learn any new moves in this DLC, despite some rather major plot developments.  At least they managed to get the original voice actor for Gabriel to return to voice his lines, and there's a rather amusing dialogue reference to Symphony of the Night.   :P:

If you liked Lords of Shadow, this DLC is good but overpriced.  Pick it up when it is slapped into a bundle for $10.

Incidentally, I'm currently working my way through Suda 51's latest head trip Shadows of the Damned, and while I'm still pretty early in this one I think I can comfortably say this is probably Suda 51's first good game and I'm probably going to recommend it.  To think, he only had to be anchored by two other Japanese All Stars to make him capable of it (Resident Evil's Shinji Mikami and former Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka).  As you would expect from Yamaoka, the soundtrack's excellent.  I do have to laugh, though, that he went to all that fuss to leave Konami to work on something other than Silent Hill, and what's the first game score he makes as a freelancer?  Essentially a Silent Hill soundtrack.   :P:   Sadly, the content of Shadows of the Damned means I'm going to have to be rather heavy on certain puns in my review of it.  With the emphasis this game puts on one particular thing in nearly every line of dialogue, you just can't do a proper review without it.  :-\
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Nick DiMola on June 22, 2011, 02:52:47 PM
I just started with Shadows of the Damned too. Posted my full thoughts in some initial impressions in the usual place (http://www.pixlbit.com/preview/152/shadows_of_the_damned_preview).

As a fan of Suda51, I wouldn't say it's his first good game, but it's clearly his most polished game. I haven't played all that much as of this writing, maybe an hour or 2, but the usual rough around the edges stuff you see in his games is totally absent here. Everything looks to have been gone through with a fine toothed comb. Whether that's the work of Mikami or some close monitoring from EA it's hard to say, but hopefully he recognizes how much cleaner this experience is over past ones.

The gameplay in particular has been really great so far, blending some of the concepts of Resident Evil 4 with the style and flair of Suda/Grasshopper Manufacture. I'm really enjoying the dialog between Garcia and Johnson, keeps the game lively and fun, despite the dreary surroundings. The phallic jokes are fantastic and I think Fleming's character design is totally kick ass.

All that being said, I can't wait to play some more after I get my son to bed tonight.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on June 24, 2011, 11:33:53 PM
Just finished up Heavy Rain on the PS3.

It's a nice change of pace and I loved the concept.  Basically gameplay follows an old school button presses at certain times (think of it as an modern day Space Ace) but even if you fail it doesn't led to certain death instead the game adapts from your success and even your mistakes.  It works great IMO, I replayed a few scenes a couple of times just to test how steamless it felt.  If you miss a punch then it goes straight to another scene, make contact then you get something else but whatever you do or don't the game will simply continue on. 

My only gripe about this game was the story which is great 4/5th though.  Not sure why developers always throws in that "twist" in the storyline but in this case there's to many holes that simply don't fit. 

Overall I say this gets an solid 9/10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 25, 2011, 12:37:46 AM
Just finished up Heavy Rain on the PS3.

It's a nice change of pace and I loved the concept.  Basically gameplay follows an old school button presses at certain times (think of it as an modern day Space Ace) but even if you fail it doesn't led to certain death instead the game adapts from your success and even your mistakes.  It works great IMO, I replayed a few scenes a couple of times just to test how steamless it felt.  If you miss a punch then it goes straight to another scene, make contact then you get something else but whatever you do or don't the game will simply continue on. 

My only gripe about this game was the story which is great 4/5th though.  Not sure why developers always throws in that "twist" in the storyline but in this case there's to many holes that simply don't fit. 

Overall I say this gets an solid 9/10.

If you liked Heavy Rain, you should check out L.A. Noire.  While Noire doesn't use QTEs like Heavy Rain does, they both strive to be the next evolution of the P&C Adventure game...and they both have issues with their stories towards the end.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on June 27, 2011, 01:27:49 AM
Just purchased L.A. Noire but my copy was "lent" to my cuz who's "great" about returning games in a reasonable amount of time.

Finished up De Blob 2 (WII) and there's not alot I have to say about this platforming game.  It's charming and funny but it lacks the one thing that makes the WII other platformers great--varity.  The game tends to drag on in spots without adding anything new to the gameplay so I found myself getting bored rather quickly.  Two, they made the game way to easy compared to the first one.   You have this new "lock" down button which pretty much defeats all enemies with a simple two click.  All you have to do is hold down Z button and mash the A button for 90% of the battles.

Still it's an decent platformer with great funny videos so I give it an 7/10.

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 03, 2011, 09:20:07 PM
I finished up some games lately.  I'm in a bit of a mood, so I'll make these short:

Back to the Future: The Game - All 5 episodes are out now so I can talk about this.  Basically, these games are all extremely easy and simple (especially compared to other Telltale games), but they do that rare job of capturing the essence of the films.  Christopher Lloyd is a bit spotty as a VA at this point but he's a more than welcome voice in the game, and the Michael J. Fox Soundalike they got for this game is amazing.  As for the story, it does start to feel a bit dull and stretched out by Episode 3 (and Episode 4 is pretty awful), but it does recover nicely in the very well-made episode 5 season finale.  Highly Recommended.

Shadows of the Damned - The controls are a bit stiff, the game is surprisingly not very long or hard, the game runs out of ideas and climaxes unfortunately early, and the gameplay feels at times like Resident Evil 4's "sloppy seconds" mixed with some increasingly irritating puzzle design and environments lacking in visual variety.  It's still a fun ride while it lasts, though.  Incidentally, Suda 51 really does have to learn that just because you put something "retro" in a game, that doesn't make it automatically satisfying.  The music kicks ass, though.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin - Nothing special.  I wasn't a big fan of the first F.E.A.R. (I much prefer Condemned: Criminal Origins), but I thought that maybe the sequel might iron out the problems of the first game and actually be a scary game.  Unfortunately, outside a few well-done creepy sections, it's pretty much the first F.E.A.R. all over again.  If you liked that one, you'd like this one.  If you didn't like the first game, this brings nothing new to the table.  On the bright side, although they have no place whatsoever in a horror game, the sections where you're in a bipedal mech blowing stuff up are pretty fun.   :D   They made me really long for a real Mechwarrior game on a modern console.

I recently picked up Red Dead Redemption; Alpha Protocol; and Crysis 2, so I'll be playing those in the near-future.  With Birth By Sleep finished, I'm finding it hard to sit down and play PSP stuff now.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 11, 2011, 11:27:54 AM
Red Dead Redemption - While I think this game is more than just a tad overrated (c'mon, people really think this was last year's Game of the Year over Mass Effect 2?), it is a pretty good Open World game.  My only really major criticism of the game is the same as most folks': the first and last 1/3s of the game are pretty good, but the middle section in Mexico is tedious and boring.  I'm sorry, Rockstar, but I don't care about the self-inflicted problems of the real Mexico, so your tired; tedious; and boring attempts to make me care about the self-inflicted problems of a fake Mexico aren't going to change my mind. 

Thankfully, once you leave Mexico the game recovers nicely, and the game concludes in a rather well-done last few hours.  It's odd, but it really feels to me like in a way the first 30 hours of the game exist purely to justify the last few "Little House on the Prairie"-esque hours of it.  You just don't see games often try to simulate family life like this, and frankly I would have preferred the whole game have been like this instead of the 30-hour murder-fest that preceded it.  At least it would have given John Marston a much more concrete character, because as it is he's more of an avatar than a character.  Regardless of whether they conflict with his stated values, he'll do pretty much anything for anyone on the frontier, and because it's based on GTA that includes the wanton slaughter of innocents whenever the player's feeling bored.

There are also lots of little problems that really hurt my experience in the game.  For example, while the game look rather lovely while you're outside and roaming the plains, the interior environments and the character models can be pretty awful.  The game also tends to lean too heavily on your reading the controls page in the options menu instead of teaching you how to execute certain actions.  I never did figure out exactly what determines how you win a gunslinger duel, because the same actions will sometimes lead to dramatically different results.  The mini-games are lamer than I thought they'd be, especially Texas Hold'em Poker since that's pretty much entirely decided by luck.  And at this point I have to wonder which Open World screw-up is lamer: Cole from Infamous 1 not being able to perform any meaningful interaction with chain-link fences, or John Marston (badass extraordinaire) drowning in 2 feet of water because Rockstar couldn't be bothered to create a swimming mechanic.  Oh, and the multiplayer's pretty lame and tacked-on, just folks running around the Open World shooting at each other.  And man does John Marston never hesitate to take an opportunity to tell pretty much every single person on the Frontier his life's story.

Overall, a good game but I hesitate to say a "great" game.  I'll probably check out the Undead Nightmare DLC sometime down the line, but after 100%-ing the Singleplayer Campaign I'm rather sick of this game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 19, 2011, 12:33:51 AM
I just finished the Wii version of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands.  I've never before had a reason to utter these words, so now's as good a time as any: this Wii version of the game is a far, FAR better game than its HD counterpart.  The story is a bit weak, but it's serviceable and at least doesn't completely retread Sands of Time like the HD Forgotten Sands does.  It does give the game a nice "1001 Arabian Nights" feeling that was completely missing from the HD Forgotten Sands, and it suits the game nicely.  The game looks OK overall, but the art design is lacking.  The game consists of quite a few near-identical room and corridors, all of which use a very limited color palette (though not as limited as the HD game, which was pretty much all shades of brown and gray).  Although I have issues with the waggle-tastic combat (which at least you can exploit extremely easily to minimize the waggle), the gameplay's where this version shines...with a few caveats.

In many ways, this Prince of Persia feels like something of a successor to the 2008 technicolor Prince of Persia.  There's a lot of messing with power plates, there's a certain fondness for "corruption" and evil vines, upon death you are returned to the last piece of solid footing you touched, and some of the Prince's standard moves are simplified so they aren't too dissimilar.  Where the game shines is in the Prince's pointer-controlled powers.  Where the HD Forgotten Sands made the mistake of making most of its powers combat-centric (almost always a weak point in the series), the Wii version's powers are pretty platforming-centric (which is the series' strength).  The way the game mixes and matches between the mystical hook (which you can place on nearly any wall for an instant grip-point), whirlwind (which levitates you), and magic bubble powers (which allow you to create a temporary platform at nearly any point in the air) actually brings something new to the Prince of Persia formula, and it's much appreciated.  Having the game trace a little trail that tells me where the Prince will go when I'm about to wall-run or wall-jump is greatly appreciated as well, since that can be hard to tell in these games based on the camera angle.  It's cool to have an achievement system as well, which has a tangible reward in XP for leveling-up your skills.

Where the game falters a bit is in the implementation of those powers via the Wii remote and the really obstinate camera.  I can almost give Ubisoft Quebec a pass on the camera, since unlike most games you can take direct control of it at any point even while platforming.  Besides, it's not Ubisoft's fault that Nintendo thought the casuals couldn't handle the "complexity" of a second analog stick, which in 90% of games exists for the sheer purpose of controlling the camera.  Unfortunately, Ubisoft didn't really think things though when they were mapping the powers.  Placing hooks and whirlwinds is done by pressing the B button when pointing at either a wall or floor, and triggering a bubble requires pressing the same button while in the air.  The thing is, unless you point the remote straight up (which is what I had to do), 99% of the time when you're in the air your cursor is GOING to be pointed at either a floor or the air, so the wrong power gets used and you die.  This really could have been solved by just having the player hold a different button (like the A button) while in the air.  Another minor gripe is that the game feels kind of slow in places, as you spend a lot of time working off central hubs and accomplishing minor tasks to open doors.  It means a lot of backtracking, and it can get needlessly tedious.  I also think the game misses some opportunities to really go as wild with the platforming as it could have, though that could be Ubisoft acknowledging the problem with triggering specific powers on command in a speedy manner.

Overall, the game has some minor problems and it's not as wild as I've come to expect in my Prince of Persia platforming, but it's a damn fine game.  I wish the HD version was as inventive.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 28, 2011, 02:33:51 AM
I finished Crysis 2 the other day, a game I'd been playing off and on for a few weeks.  In short, the game is good, but it falls just short of being "great".  The campaign is generally well-paced with plenty of quiet and high action moments, but I suppose my big issue with it is that those "high action moments" don't go big enough.  The game just feels very pedestrian, even when things look like they should be getting very hectic.  You can often see exciting-looking things happening off in the distance or happening in a cutscene, but you don't often get to really take part in them outside the occasional Quick Time Event.  To use a simple analogy, if the Call of Duty franchise is a frantic roller coaster ride that doesn't give you a great chance to take in the experience or appreciate the epic scale of the scene, Crysis 2 is a roller coaster that's very steady and constant (not to mention pretty) with a few dips every now and then but not as exciting by comparison. 

As for the plot, it's is a real mess of talking heads and generic alien invasion while two human factions bicker amongst themselves.  The game does a great job of making your nanosuit-augmented soldier feel really vulnerable several times throughout the game, but it misses a big opportunity for character empathy by making the character a silent protagonist.  Even worse, its excuse for this is that your character is hung over.  Seriously, Crytek?   ::)

The game does feature really nice open levels you just don't see in First Person Shooters anymore, and in theory your Nanosuit's upgradeable features should allow players to tailor the experience to suit their particular gameplay styles (though the suit really needed more abilities).  Unfortunately, there are a few issues with this: first, the UI is pretty terrible.  Unless you're looking through a solid surface, I dare you to be able to see the icons that appear on-screen to highlight targets you've marked with your visor.  The visor display becomes a sea of icons and numbers that becomes really cumbersome to sort out as well.  The other big problem is that your ability to Cloak and sneak around enemies is so useful that there's really no reason to use anything else, and its upgrades only make it even more ridiculously useful.  To give you some idea of how useful, it took me a good 13 hours to play through the entire campaign my first time through on Easy.  I took my fully upgraded suit into a New Game Plus on the game's hardest difficulty mode, and I finished the game in about 4.5 hours just cloaking and running around all the enemies.  I think I maybe killed 50 enemies in the entire game, and that was only when the game forced me to kill them in arena combat situations.  That's not necessarily a bad thing (it's certainly a choice you can't exercise in any other FPS), but it is a really odd thing that the game rewards player skill with removing the need to play the game in the conventional sense.

Overall, I liked the game but I'm probably never going to play it again.  Recommended if you are looking for something just a little different from your typical FPS, but I suggest waiting for Bioshock Infinite or maybe even Battlefield 3.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 02, 2011, 02:53:15 PM
Catherine (PS3) - "The Incredibly Challenging Game has appeared.  It is the Killer.  Do Not Die!"  Yeah, this game is already proving to be very polarizing due to its radically unique gameplay (climbing block towers), but I found it to be an excellent game.  A sort of occult puzzle-platforming game with a big emphasis on challenge and adaptability, it's both very much in the spirit of and yet couldn't be more different from Team Persona's previous Persona titles.  Personally, I found the puzzle-based "nightmare" stages to be very addictive and exciting as I had to think very tactically on the fly, but your mileage will vary.  It will especially vary because while I wouldn't say this game is the hardest thing I've ever played on the Normal difficulty setting, it does require you to cast aside your preconceptions and think outside your comfort zone so it can get really challenging. 

My problem with the puzzle sections (besides a few just sadistically hard levels) is that there isn't a good balance between them and the story-based downtime where you view cutscenes and interact with the other characters.  The strength of Personas 3 and 4 is that while you might spend several hours crawling through a dungeon, you could also spend an equally long time outside the dungeon building up your social links and pursuing sidequests.  Catherine doesn't have that.  While you can walk around the bar (and on the between-stages landings in the nightmare stages) and advance some sidequests that determine if several minor characters live or side, these sequences pass very quickly.  And after spending several hours clawing my way through these block tower "nightmare" stages and engaging in a race to the death with a hideous abomination (great boss "fights", by the way), it's disheartening when the game only gives you 10 minutes of relaxing downtime before sending you right into another gauntlet.

As for the story, it's pretty hit or miss with me.  The themes are good and the game feels like it belongs alongside the MegaTen games, but the only choices the player can make that actually matter to the story occur at the end of it, leaving the player very much "on rails" for a good 10-12 hours.  And until the game hits the point where your choices actually matter, it's very frustrating to tolerate the sheer amount of spinelessness Vincent exudes.  The story takes a nice Shin Megami Tensei-style twist towards the end, and depending on your ending (there are 8 of them, and I got the best possible one with Katherine) the story wraps up nicely, but it does feel like a lot of lost potential.  As a nice bonus, though, if you manage to get a Gold Ranking on a puzzle stage, you can skip it on any subsequent playthrough.  I got all Golds on my Normal Playthrough, so I can skip all the puzzle stages now for incredibly short replays to see the other endings.    ;D

This is a game that people are going to either Love or Hate, especially if you believe that Team Persona shouldn't be making games like this when they specialize in JRPGs.  Still, I really enjoyed the game, so much so that I think I'm cursed now to have block tower puzzles constantly running in my mind's eye ala Tetris.  It's a highly unique experiment with great remixes of famous classical music and a great sense of artistic style (it will be a crime if this engine isn't used for another Atlus game), but I hope after this game that Team Persona focuses their considerable talents on Persona 5.  We certainly could use a quality JRPG on the HD consoles.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on August 03, 2011, 01:03:33 PM
(http://www.romaccess.com/images/boxart/2001-3000/2809.jpg)

Castlevania: Order of ecclesia

As part of my backlog of all the games on the NWR top 30 (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/26084) that i haven't played yet.

This was my first Castlevania game, at the start i wasn't sure if i liked this game or not, in fact it was pretty frusterating. However as you get further into the game and gain more glyphs and abilities this becomes a fairly enjoyable experience. I wasn't really fond of the music in this game though, I ended up turning the music to zero and then just playing my own music in the background, the story was weak but who the hell plays Castlevania for the story anyways...

If you're in the mood for a fast paced action game this wont dissapoint, but be prepared for some difficulty.

7/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on August 03, 2011, 05:37:19 PM
Lithium, you should play Aria and Dawn of Sorrow. They're bettter introductions to the modern Castlevania. Order of Ecclesia, while excellent, is basically for Castlevania fans who want a meaty challenge but area already familiar with the formula. You're got a leg up now, so you might appreciate Aria/Dawn even more.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 03, 2011, 06:03:17 PM
Yeah, I have some pretty big issues with how poorly Ecclesia treats its main character as well.  For me, Eccelsia was kind of a mediocre game.  I definitely recommend Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow, and even Portrait of Ruin over Ecclesia.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on August 03, 2011, 10:42:21 PM
Yeah I just beat Dracula about an hour before I wrote that post so I've already finished the game. I'll probably play Dawn of Sorrow later because my order of Henry Hatsworth just shipped from amazon :)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on August 04, 2011, 03:12:42 AM
Just finished Arc Rise of Fantasia WII and here's a quick review.

It's basically as what most people stated, it's an low-production JRPG game will the same look as a Tales game but with different gameplay.  The story is a snore will all kinds of problems and the characters are very by the book for this genre.

As for the combat, this the only area where the game tries to be different and it ends up failing for the most part.  Basically you have zero control over your stats, there's only one selectable armor slot, ect so you're basically stuck with whatever the game gives you.  Now you still get to do some tweaking but it's all done with weapons tweaks and blocks.  It's kinda hard to explain but your weapon has slots and special abilites that unlock as they level up.  These mods come off in blocks (like Tetris) and each weapon has a grid where you can place those blocks--basically an 4 by 4 grid.  Fill the block and it's unlocks a special bonus to that weapon.  Some mods are like Add defence, auto-cure, add hp ect. 

Here's the ugly--bosses, midbosses, ect.  You're going end up wasting alot of time and loss a few straids of hair over them because you really can't scan them all that well, for example it tells you what magic there are strong against and what they are weak against and their HP but it doesn't tell you what effects will work on them or are they immune.  Basically they are more or less immune to anything that kicks ass so having all those mods like sickness (prevents the enemy for healing), silence, ect are utterly worthless.  So you really don't get to many options on how to defeat enemies other than to relay on your combo excel (you group your special attacks together) while you defend and heal and wait for it to recharge.  This can take hours.  What's worse is the bosses can easily wipe out your party members with magic/spells/arts that you never seen up to that point so losing a fight after an hour or so is fairly common unless you're following a guide which I would recommend but I fought them without one and wasted hours (at least 6) on one boss alone.

O-yeah, you really shouldn't turn off the audio because you'll need it because the characters will give you clues on the enemies attacks.  Not sure why the developers didn't give you a subtitile option or visual otherwise you can turn the voices off and just read the game because everything else has subtitles.

I can't recommend this game to anyone for any reason other than to punish themselves--a whooping 4 out of 10.

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 04, 2011, 05:00:30 AM
Yeah, I have to admit that Arc Rise Fantasia's been tempting me lately, especially as it drops in price (I've seen it for as little as $20 lately in retail).  I'm not sure why, though...it's not like I'm in danger of running out of massive JRPGs I still have to finish (Tales of Vesperia, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Ar Tonelico 3, Record of Agarest War Zero, etc.).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on August 04, 2011, 09:53:49 AM
...
Here's the ugly--bosses, midbosses, ect.  You're going end up wasting alot of time and loss a few straids of hair over them because you really can't scan
them all that well, for example it tells you what magic there are strong against and what they are weak against and their HP but it doesn't tell you what effects will work on them or are they immune.
...
But that's true for most of them and it annoys the ever living snot out of me.  It becomes to the point that most of the time I end up getting the max I can on the basic weapon skill that works on everyone and brute forcing it.   The bad part is that Most of the time you can't become super immuned in these games.  I like the games where I can do status effects and they mean something.  Let's me play with different strategies.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: FZeroBoyo on August 07, 2011, 11:05:43 AM
I'm still chewing away at Fallout: New Vegas but I can say that I really, really enjoy this game. Knowing this, would anyone recommend that I go back and play Fallout 3?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: oohhboy on August 07, 2011, 01:59:56 PM
It's effectively the same game, so knock yourself silly. Be warned about FO3's retarded ending. I don't like FO3 mostly due the rubbish gameplay. With how they setup the mechanics, it couldn't figure out whether it wanted to be a 1st/3rd person shooter or some quasi RPG realtime turn base not really kind of thing. Not helped by basing the game off Oblivion, a game I hate due to how poorly it plays and how utterly boring the whole exercise was.

So yeah, if you like FO:NV, go play FO3, it's more of what you want.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on August 07, 2011, 05:07:40 PM
I liked FO3 better than NV myself.  Sure you might tire of the game since you just played NV and the gameplay is nearly exactly the same but FO3 has the better cast and missions IMO.

Just finished 3rd Birthday (PSP) and here's a quick breakdown:  I'm really glad Squaresoft is turning my beloved RPG games and spinning them into crappyass action games.  *rollseyes*  This game is bad is so many ways but the frist one is easily the most common for an PSP title.  The CONTROLS don't work, periord.  It's hard for many developers but in Square's game it's really their fault.  It has an auto-lock which would have been great if it worked 90% of the time like you wanted.  It's supposed to target the closest enemy by default but 9/10 times it wouldn't, instead it would target some distance foe who would be behind some wall or something.  Two, you couldn't make an Lock stick, enemies have a bad habbit of knocking you down and you have to re-target the enemy each time.  Other times the enemies will teleport which also nagged the hell out of me. 

To top it off, some weapons there's isn't an autolock function which means manual aim.  There's no control option so to manual aim you have to use the direction pad which means you have to come to a complete stop unless you have two left-handed thumbs.  For the most part I didn't bother with manual aim and just stuck with assualt rifles but there's a mission at the end where you had this beam weapon to defeat a reaper or whatever and that mission sucked.  Not only does the reaper teleports all over the freaking place but it also has wide area attacks that you really couldn't dodge all that well.

Another issue was the cheap ass enemies.  The main bosses where actually quite easy but common enemies can kill you without much fuss.  Why?  Alot of enemies have teleporting abilites, homing missles types, and massive wide angle attacks.  There's fix barriers but hiding behind them is for the most part pointless because the enemies can destory them with one or two hits or the homing beams would just hit you anyhow.  Also, if that wasn't bad enough there's a couple of enemies that have grappling abilities and once the get you it's game over.

And then there's the friendly AI.  For the most part these guys have one script and once it's broken they'll just end up standing there and do NOTHING.  One great example is there I am hiding behind one barrier when backup arrives.  He runs to the barrier nudges me out into the open.  The enemy notices me out of cover so he comes charging in a knocks down the barrier.  The soldier then just stands there in the open until he dies a few minutes latter without firing a shot.

The concept behind 3rd Birthday is neat how you can jump from one soldier to the next but it was excuted poorly.  The story is an utter mess of nonsense and top it off with it trying to be an 3D action game without an second analog--you can say this one deserves to fail.  Not only did it suck but it took something that I cherished (Parasite 2) and smeared crap all over it. 

3/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 07, 2011, 11:32:00 PM
The first Parasite Eve and its sequel (whenever it finally hits PSN) are in my backlog, but it's sad to see Square-Enix so completely FAIL on 3rd Birthday, if only because it's an IP they have rarely used.

I played about 10 or so hours of Fallout New Vegas, and I was so fantastically bored by it that I stopped playing and I never intend to pick it up again.  That said, Fallout 3 is an excellent game, if a bit tedious in places due to repetitive environments and enemies.  If you liked New Vegas, definitely check it out.

As for me, with Deus Ex Human Revolution fast approaching at the end of the month, I figured if I didn't play through and finish Alpha Protocol by then I probably never would.  Well, I did and I have, and overall I thought it was a pretty decent game with some very annoying design quirks.  Maybe it's just because it's been a year since the game launched, but the game wasn't as egregiously buggy as I expect from an Obsidian product (Hello, Fallout New Vegas!).

The voice acting is quite good (outside of the absolutely terrible voice acting from your main character, Michael Thornton), the music is pretty decent, and I really liked how much the game allows the player to shape the story.  The dialogue system is quirky and it can get annoying trying to make major decisions with only a few seconds' worth of thought, but it keeps the game moving and suits the game.  The visuals are pretty "meh" and there are some major draw-in issues, though not as bad on PS3 as I expected from Angry Joe's review of the game.

Where the game fails for me is in the story and the combat system.  The story is pretty "blah" from beginning to end, a seemingly never-ending parade of talking heads and overly-complicated conspiracies.  You might want to sit down for this, but apparently a Private Military Contractor is EVIL!  Thankfully, this is a nice cast of characters, and there are several that are truly memorable (especially one boss who is in love with 1980s America, and you have to fight him against an 80s pop song on a disco floor).  The combat is just frustrating until you really build your stats up and get used to pretty much sticking with stealth builds.  Like the original Mass Effect, pulling the trigger when your gun reticule is pointed at an enemy usually doesn't result in the bullet actually hitting them (unless you wait for a critical hit meter to fill), because the game is checking invisible dice rolls instead.

One other major annoyance is that you can't save your game at any time.  You can only save where you were at your last checkpoint, and it is very easy to screw-up certain hacking minigames and trigger alarms.  Your only option at that point if you want to completely stealth areas is to reload a checkpoint that might be 15 minutes prior and lose all that progress.  It's just completely inexcusable when games like Mass Effect (which this game clearly wants to be) allow you to save practically whenever you want.

Alpha Protocol is a decent game that's interesting enough for me to recommend, but be very aware of what you're getting into if you're considering it.  It's a game with a lot of problems you have to be willing to tolerate or completely work around.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on August 09, 2011, 09:58:31 PM
Went with the tank option with Alpha Protocol myself, maxed out toughness, martial arts, assualt rifles, and then buy the best armor and forget about noice reduction.  Worked great especially the martial arts and assualt options because they have active skills like slowmo-auto-aim that just donimates the enemy even bosses.

Just finished Killzone 3 (PS3) and it's just an solid FPS.  Can't really say anything to negative about the game other than the weapons.  You really don't get much of an option and the developers have a bad habbit of taking away your heavy weapons choice.  It's strange but there's a couple of weapons from KZ series that were left out and a few new ones added but for the most part they were genertic.  Still overally I still say this is a decent way to blow a weekend, good production values and some nice mini-rail-shooting stages.

Out of the three KZ titles this one is the best IMO but it somewhat fails at being epic because it just doesn't have much "new" to the whole FPS thing.

8/10

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on August 14, 2011, 04:08:04 AM
Just finished 3rd Birthday (PSP) and here's a quick breakdown:  9/10

BOX QUOTE! :P:

E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy
A janky-ass PC-ass PC game. EYE hasn't come out that long ago so we're still waiting for the first patch and it needs one. The game's made by a French mod team and people complain about the translation a lot. Beyond that, it's a good FPS with the RPG taking more of a backseat, at least if you, like me, spec for firearm usage. It was very interesting for the first two playthroughs with the weirdness adding a lot of exploration but going past that feels kinda like a chore. Of course playing through a game twice is already good enough in my book. I don't buy the hundreds of hours claim of playability, I beat it the first time after 10 hours after which it goes straight into a new game plus. Then you can experiment with different story branches and stuff.

Aside from some GUI jank and an alleged fourth ending that I don't think exists it's fun. The campaign takes a big change of pace after you get to Mars, going from populated, sidequest-heavy maps to more barren combat-only maps and most of your weapons become useless as anything without armor piercing won't cut it then. I'm not sure which is the better half, on my first playthroughs I liked the initial quest-heavy maps more while on the third (where I was getting tired of the game) I preferred the later straight forward shooty maps.
7.5/10

[reverb]Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet[/reverb]
ITSP is kind of a Metroidvania game though it feels more linear than your usual Metroidvania with distinct areas you beat and then only return for missed gear to. Maybe it should be compared to Zelda instead then. It's very puzzle -heavy (nothing really mind-bending, mostly straight-forward) which results in combat being fairly unsatisfying. You can upgrade your main gun three times but against most enemies it's still not useful as many require specialized tools or approaches to defeat (especially the annoyingly ubiquitous dodge-their-charge-and-shoot-their-back type). The game is very short and the 15€ asking price is too much for that. IMO the art style would go better with a World of Goo-style soundtrack, not epic Dimmu Borgir music. It's not a bad game but it's overpriced and they probably put more money into the graphics design than any other part of the game.
6/10

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
Okay so they handed one of my favourite franchises to a different developer who's known for crappy games and completely missing the point (Matt Hazard looks NOTHING like an 8 or 16 bit era hero, people had hair and color back then!). It's not all bad but it lacks most of the strengths of EDF games. The good features are the different armor types (though the implementation details may be debatable, e.g. the Tactical's special abilities are useless for several ranks due to lacking damage upgrades), the vastly improved handling of homing weapons and online coop.  Vehicles work well but are doled out very sparsely, you don't get the whole motor pool thrown at you in every mission, they're dealt out when the devs want you to use them.

Now for the bad things: The game just isn't really challenging. It's too easy to revive downed squadmates and they gain full health from that, making health pickups not very necessary. You have to beat the campaign once before they let you disable the bots that revive you so quickly. Enemies are much less aggressive, you can run through a bunch of ants or spiders and barely take a hit because their melee attacks are rare and slow, by the time they finish the animation you're already past them. The game's so easy you could play it on Hard with your starting equipment if it wasn't totally boring that way. Enemy health goes up like crazy on higher difficulties, turning the already bullet-spongy enemies into nearly indestructible piles of boredom. For reference, in Sandlot EDF games the enemy health doubles with every difficulty level so ants go 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 instead of the 60, 500, 2500 they do here. Also while enemy health and damage grows their speed doesn't. In Sandlot EDF the ants would get faster and faster as you dial up the difficulty so even if you can find appropriately powerful weapons you'll need to act quicker and quicker to avoid being overrun.

EDFIA also has a leveling system. By itself not a bad idea but it limits you to weapons that you have leveled to (half of which you can just buy for ingame money then so you can always get your favorite weapon on every tier), even if you found better ones in missions. Then it simply replicates the same weapons for every level with stats always going up, up and up (in Sandlot games higher tier variants could come with downsides like slower reloading, inaccuracy, stupidly short range or simply lacking DPS growth). Later levels require so damn many points to reach that it turns into a grind, forcing you to play WAY more missions than the game has. It has 15. You'll be sick and tired of them by the time you can reliably play on Hard difficulty.

It doesn't help that the missions drag on and on. They're long which isn't good in a game where a wipe means having to start over so you'll never want to push the game's settings too hard against yourself (winning a hard fought battle just to be told to fight another one isn't very encouraging). Enemy numbers are low. Well, not quite. You'll fight the same number during a battle but instead of spawning them all at once and letting you see your progress against the wave by the number of surviving enemies it only spawns a small fraction and keeps spawning more to replace killed ones, making it feel like an endless battle until the game finally gives the go-ahead. Some enemies were declared as Elites which means you'll only see at most 2 of them at once (anything non-boss could appear by the dozen in Sandlot games, no matter how crazy powerful) and they have crazy amounts of health, making you wail at them for minutes without interruption before even the smallest mechs finally die. That's extremely tiring.

Also minor but I don't like the tone of the game. In EDF2017 you'd constantly hear radio chatter about losses, desperate plans to rescue people before they're overrun by the enemy, other cities being obliterated by the aliens, etc. In IA it's mostly stupid (and soon repetitive) jokes by your squadmates (tellingly one of them is voiced by Nolan North) and a blundering idiot heading up the intelligence division. It doesn't feel like Armageddon, it feels more like "yeah, whatever, it's just a minor attack".
6.5/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: lolmonade on August 14, 2011, 07:22:10 PM
Tried my hand at a few games lately in-between work and school.

I first rented inFamous 2 a few weeks ago.  Wanted to rent before buy because as much as I loved inFamous 1, I have a tight budget at the moment and don't want to waste precious video game purchasing dollars on a similar experience.  inFamous 2 is very much more of the same from the original, but almost every change in the game has greatly improved the experience of playing the game.  Movement is much more fluid than the first game, and you'll find yourself moving throughout New Marais at breakneck speed in comparison to Empire City.  Melee combat is greatly improved as well with the inclusion of the amp.  It is much easier to chain melee and electric attacks and hit enemies with much more fluidity.  My complaints are small.  The story imo wasn't as compelling as the first, and The Beast was a bit underwhelming in my opinion as a boss, but playing it once has convinced me to buy a copy once the price goes down a bit.

I probably made a mistake by then playing Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions afterwards.  I found Spider-Man to move a bit robotic in each level, which is disappointing considering how fun the last Spider-Man game I played, Spider-Man 2 was so fun just to move around and explore.  I also found combat to be a bit underwhelming in the game, given the typical light attack/heavy attack/dodge system.  I appreciated the variation of the villians in the game, but found myself returning the game early after getting bored in the 2nd act of the game. 

Next: found a copy of Luigi's Mansion for cheap at a local pawn shop.  Figured I'd give it a try to determine if the new one for 3DS would be worth my time/money.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on August 15, 2011, 11:22:58 PM
I actually liked Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, loved the skill-unlockables-challenges.  You didn't get that far in but you do get more combos to unlock.  What I didn't enjoy was the lame ass story and I hated Nior Spider-Man levels.  One of the better Spiderman games to date IMO, with only the orginal PC game Spiderman beating it.

Just finished Bulletstorm (PS3) and here's my review:  It's the best new IP this year IMO, it's what Duke Nukem Forever should have been.  It has a great single player mode with only one negative complaint--enemies don't vary all that much and the game throws the same groups at you all the time.  What I loved, the story and the characters dialog--some of the funniest smack talk around, got to love the good ole general. 

Also I loved the weapons and the skill challenges each weapon has.  Found myself replaying stages just to get all of them, not because I had to but because of how enjoyable they were.  Slide kick an enemy and kick him away while rapping his head with a frail (two grenades on a chain).  Or picking up the drill gun and turning them into overhead fans.  There's alot of fun to have with the weapons and the only downside was the game only let you carry three at a time but there was plenty of ammodrops where you could switch out them at any time.  And the ammo, you had to BUY ammo nearly 90% of the time because the enemy drops so little or you simply couldn't find the bodies/weapons.

The other negatives are minor as well, the game reuses a lot of textures like the same damn burnout car that's looks like it was created for an last generation title.  The game sometimes skipped or paused for a few seconds.
Overall it was a great game and hopefully we'll see a sequel. 
8.5
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on August 16, 2011, 11:25:59 AM
Multiplayer in Bulletstorm also seems like it could be fun if it wasn't so damn laggy.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on August 22, 2011, 01:05:48 AM
Just finished Duke Nukem Forever (PS3) and here's my review:

Utter disappointed, the whole game should have been scrapped years ago.  It isn't broken like Diakatana but considering it's been 14 years or so in the making this game feels like three different games slapped together.  The weakest link in the game has to be the GAMEPLAY.  Standard weapons, piss-poor turret rail-shooting sequences, lack of enemies ai, only able to carry two weapons, ect make all the FPS shooting parts BORING as all hell. 

The graphics is another area where you can actually tell where Gearbox added to.  One area would look somewhat decent while other areas are dated last generation.  The animation for most characters look more like puppets on strings.  It's not the worst but a far cry from any of the other major titles that have been released in the last 5 years.

And lastly the story/humor ect.  The main story is about a paragraph long, so that just leaves you with a few lines from NPC which doesn't move the game forward at all.  The oneliners came off a little flat.  Most of it you heard before and a few of those "game related" humor wasn't all that funny. 

I still found myself enjoying some of the game, you can interact with TONS of objects which was kinda nice because most FPS don't offer any of it.  I also found myself likely the little shirking stages, the monster truck stage, ect so it wasn't all bad just 3/4th of it.

An 4/10.

 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 22, 2011, 01:13:42 AM
It's nice to see the rest of you guys join in on reviewing games in here.  For a while there, this was looking like my own personal thread.   ;)

As for me, I'm currently struggling to claw my way through the PS3's "International" version of Star Ocean: The Last Hope.  It's an odd situation in that I do like the game, but it's in spite of a LOT of problems.  The game's also quite possibly the most gluttonous game I've ever played in terms of how little respect it has for the player's time.  I'm well over a hundred hours into this game, and I'm closing in on only the 2/3 mark with mountains of side content to do.  To put this into the proper perspective, I PLATINUM-ED both Final Fantasy XIII and Resonance of Fate (no slouches in their own regard in terms of time commitment) in that amount of time.  Hell, I probably Platinum-ed Fallout 3 in that amount of time as well.  It'll probably be a month or two before I actually review it, but right now I'm pretty on the fence with it.  It's certainly nowhere near the best JRPG this generation.

And incidentally, I really enjoyed Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions last year.  There were some problems with repetitiveness and the Noir levels really brought out some legacy camera problems Spidey's had for quite a few games now, but I'll gladly take that over yet another Spider-Man 2 clone.  It was just a really fun game that did a great job of highlighting the many different interpretations of the character over the years.  Plus, the game got me back into comics for the first time in decades as I started collecting the Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man Noir graphic novel collections.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on August 30, 2011, 09:41:25 AM
I'm currently playing Goldeneye Wii, i haven't played a fps on the wii since prime 3 back in 2007 so i forgot how much the bounding box/dead zone setting matters for the overall enjoyment, before i figured this out I was thinking "maybe wiimote fps controlls werent as good as i remembered, then i switched to classic controller and then remembered how much i hate using joysticks to controll FPS games. anyways once you make the bounding box smaller it plays like a dream. As a PC gamer its almost as intuitive as a mouse and keyboard setup. I just finished the first 2 missions so i dont really have an opinion yet as far the game goes though.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Oblivion on August 30, 2011, 10:30:44 AM
I always thought Goldeneye was better played using the Classic Controller Pro. I guess I just didn't tweak it enough.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on August 30, 2011, 01:46:35 PM
I always thought Goldeneye was better played using the Classic Controller Pro.

As did I.  It's just easily the more comfortable of the control options for me.  Anyway...

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - A decent P&C Adventure game that translates...ok...to Dualshock 3 control.  The puzzles aren't as amusing as they were in the first game, and if you're going to play this game I highly suggest using a walkthrough.  It's just really hard to take a look at any given screen and tell what you can and can't interact with, and many of the puzzles are maddeningly obtuse and nonsensical.  The writing is as amusing as ever, though the ending is just bizarre.

Deus Ex Human Revolution - I never played the first Deus Ex (and I never will), but I did play Invisible War and thought it was a pretty decent game.  Playing this game, though, I feel like I just did play the first Deus Ex.  It's a very good game, but that comes with some huge caveats.

First off, this game advertises itself as a game where the player is always free to decide how to tackle a given situation.  However, the game puts an absurd emphasis on stealth, and it showers XP upon players who do so.  Sure, you can just shoot guys in the head and essentially play the game like a 1st person shooter, but when you can obtain 50 XP from taking a guy down non-lethally in melee combat (with additional 250 and 500 XP objective bonuses for not being seen and never triggering an alarm) and a maximum of 20 XP from taking a guy down with a lethal headshot, 9/10 players are going to go the stealth route.  If you throw a gamer a purely mathematical situation, most gamers are going to go the route the benefits them the most.  There's no reason whatsoever to play this game like a traditional FPS, so the combat option might as well not exist.

Another extension of this is in the hacking.  Apparently, no one in this entire universe can remember their computer passwords, so the thorough player will clog their logbook with a sea of codes they'll never use.  Why?  Because you can get 25-125 XP (plus cash and XP bonuses from the mini-game) simply hacking the terminals, and hacking is not difficult.  The developers also apparently thought players love reading emails, because there's a ridiculous number of them in the game and 99% of them are useless fluff.  And because 99% of them are useless, most players will never read any emails after a while because they are so tedious, and there's interesting story stuff hidden in the garbage.

What this all leads to is a tedious amount of repetition that builds to the breaking points towards the end of the game.  While you do acquire upgrades that change how you can progress through an environment and the level design is really good, most players are probably just going to do the same things in every environment because it's how the game conditions them to act.  Simply put, if you don't like playing stealth, don't play Deus Ex HR because there's nothing for you here.

Another issue I have with the game is that the sidequests are both pathetically weak and few in number.  They are neither memorable nor particularly difficult, and I had several as well that broke due to bad coding (thankfully, various internet forums guided me to where I was supposed to go in the quest, and the quest fixed itself).  The game looks alright with an interesting art style, but it does get tiresome towards the end and there is really very little environmental variety.  The voice acting is decent, with some performances better than others but it's all pretty flat overall.

Overall, a good game that's getting a bit more of a pass from the media than it deserves.  I still think it's very much worth playing, but only if you're willing to play the game its way rather than your own.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on August 31, 2011, 03:19:38 AM
Finished up a few games:

Quick reviews:  Mafia 2 (PS3)--good when's you're in quest mode but the game lacks alot of side-missions for an open gameworld.  The driving is a bit stale and you'll be wasting lots of time just driving extra distances just to start quests.  Still it's decent and it's the best you'll get to an Godfather game.

8/10

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow(PS3) --it's a great reboot of the series and it's copies alot of modern day action games like GoW.  Good pacing for the most part (it's only a couple hours long) and I loved the story, especially the ending which leaves you drooling for the next installment (hopefully there is one).

Another 8/10

And lastly there's Infamous 2 (PS3)--it really does have a faster feel to the game as other's mentioned but I wished there was more compeling side missions.  The ending boss was such an letdown.  Not sure if I'm going replay to get the evil-powers and I never did any of the UGC levels.

An 8.5 for this one.



Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 06, 2011, 01:43:37 AM
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (DLC) - When this DLC shipped last year, it was truly astonishing how many people lost their **** over this DLC pack, so much so that it was actually shipped as its own standalone game on disc.  So after all that hype (and after getting my RDR disc back from the friend I loaned it to), I finally sat down and played through it.  Wow, what a letdown.  There isn't a single aspect of this DLC that is above-average.  The missions are lame and extremely lacking in objective variety, most just generic fetch quests all over the damn map.  And speaking of which, this DLC was a great opportunity for Rockstar to really cut loose and just fill the game world with cool stuff to see and do, to really play up the tongue-in-cheek spookiness they were obviously trying to go for.  But no, the game world is just as barren and empty as before (and just as much of a snore to slowly cross on horseback), if not even more so because so many of the towns are destroyed and/or overrun by the Undead.

That leads to the gunplay, with the big change this time around being that you have to shoot the Undead in the head or they'll just get back up again.  But because the default aiming difficulty (Casual) just aims for the head anyway, that changes precisely nothing.  It's not like you'd want to individually aim anyway, considering the undead can irritatingly mob you swarms of around a dozen or so.

"But surely the trademark Rockstar wit and clever writing with the story make up for all that, right?"  Eh, no...not really.  There are some attempts are dark humor in some of the sidequests, but they are so predictable the punch line is worn out well before it's triggered.  And the story itself is not particularly interesting, and it features no interesting twists or turns.

In the end, Undead Nightmare has a fair amount of content, enough to justify my $5 sales purchase anyway.  The problem isn't that the content is bad, just that it isn't altogether noteworthy (especially in contrast to the two other big pieces of DLC released last year: Mass Effect 2's "Lair of the Shadow Broker" and Bioshock 2's "Minerva's Den").  If all you want is an excuse to roam around New Austin shooting zombies by the dozens, well you're in luck because that's just about all this DLC knows how to do.  It feels cheap and a little lazy, with quite a few missed opportunities and obvious signs of budgetary constraints.  Pick it up if you can find a good sale price.  Otherwise, you're not missing much.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: UltimatePartyBear on September 06, 2011, 04:42:47 PM
Homefront (Single player) 4 horrifying war crimes out of 5.  This game obviously wants to be Modern Warfare, but I think it's actually a better game.  The story is easier to relate to, leaving aside the massive suspension of disbelief required to accept North Korea both making a huge economic turnaround and remaining a belligerent jerk (and that's all I'll say about anything political).  Staying with one player character helps the story a lot, even if he is a typical video game mute even when it makes no sense for him to stay silent ("I'm not dead!" might have been helpful to share with the others at one point, but at least that didn't last long).  There are a lot of interesting details in the story, like the American born Korean on your team facing some rather unkind remarks and the aforementioned war crimes.  Early on, there are so many children crying amidst the carnage that it was honestly a little difficult to deal with.  Most games shy away from involving children in violence.  Half Life 2 wrote kids entirely out of the setting, and MW simply doesn't ever show kids even when there logically should be kids around, such as the infamous airport level in MW2 (not that I wanted to see kids there).  So props to Homefront for taking that extra step to drive home the horrors of war, and here's hoping I never see it again, even virtually.

This game also drives home the war by using product placement.  Among others, there's a major battle at a Tiger Direct store, and a White Castle features prominently in another.  I have to admit that it made the game seem more realistic than it would if the store had a lame faux brand name, but I'm still cynical enough to cringe at any product placement.  Not that I can figure what Tiger Direct gets out of having their store burned down in the game.

Control wise, there's not much to say about the on foot action but that I found it much easier to get head shots than in MW.  Almost laughably so at times.  The helicopter level was problematic near the beginning, but fortunately you don't have to be as good at flying as the game tells you to be.  For example, you don't have to "hold it steady" to let your friends jump to a moving vehicle; just zip in close enough and hit your use key.  That gave me fits until I figured it out.  Fortunately, it's virtually impossible to actually crash the thing.  Most of the problems come from the helicopter controls being simplified in the single player campaign, I think, but I haven't tried them in multiplayer.

Like MW, the other characters ask quite a lot of the player character.  I didn't feel like it was quite as bad as MW in that regard, but considering they only recruited you because you're a former USMC helicopter pilot, and a huge part of their plan requires a helicopter, they use you to do a few too many of the really dangerous things.  One notable part involves climbing into a church's bell tower to do some sniping so they can sneak through an area.  This involves you killing about a dozen guys all on your own just to reach your perch, and then while they hold the position you helped them stealthily reach, you have to run a gauntlet of bad guys to catch up with them.  Not that any modern FPS ever makes much sense, what with the player character being the only one who can do much of anything violent even though he can't operate a door knob.

Overall, though, I can only really fault the game for feeling a little short.  It really isn't all that short (again, compared to MW), but the ending is so sudden that it makes the game feel shorter, I think.  It's a really good MW clone, essentially.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on September 08, 2011, 05:26:56 AM
Goldeneye Wii

It's pretty much call of duty with a james bond spin to it, the controlls are pretty nice but the AI on the final boss gimped, he was basically running into the wall while i shot him point blank with a shotgun. The graphics are pretty much late era Ps2 level (and on online multiplayer it looks like early ps2 era), but thats to be expected for third party games on the wii. This was a good effort overall, so the development team gets some points out of me for actually trying to make a decent shooter on the wii. Get this game for the single player because the online multiplayer is pretty weak imo, but thats more the fault of nintendo wifi connection than the actual game.

6.5/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on September 11, 2011, 05:05:06 AM
Quick reviews:

Dragon's Age 2 (xbox 360)--rushed job, there's only a couple of levels and a few of them are just mirror images of others making so for the 40+ hour of gameplay you're just going be replaying the same levels again and again;  the new combat system works ok but there's alot of skills that are now worthless, the ai is dumbed down and barely use any skills minus the bosses, and the main plot is thrown together with chapters missing== like you get the cliff notes edition instead of the whole thing.

It's not a bad game but it really lacks the shine Bioware usually delivers and it just feels like EA forced them to finish this in a year.  Hopefully the same fate doesn't happen to ME3. 

An 7.5 out of ten.

L.A. Noire (PS3)

Nice story and I loved the plot but the game suffers on the gameplay.  For one it's open-world but for the most part it's just a big empty city (god I say that often about these games).  What's the point wasting time driving?  Lucky Rockstar fixes this by having your AI partner drive you to points instead which I would recommend.  As for the CSI bit--it really doesn't allow you to form your own clues/fieldwork and for the interviews it's down to just eyes.  They could have some guy twitch or sweat or something but it mostly came from where the eyes where pointing and if they blinked. 

Flat 7.  Great story but boring gameplay.

Vanquish (Xbox 360)--very by the books FPS.  Had some interesting weapons like the lock-on laser but it was so underpowered--it was level 5 and it still couldn't kill the weakest of enemies with all 4 beams?  Some of the bosses had one-hit killshots that were a bit cheap and there wasn't much in terms of level design. 

And of course you'll get the cliff-hanger-ending which I really don't see them continuing considering the poor sales. 

A disappointing 6/10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on September 11, 2011, 08:54:13 PM
Metroid: mother M

I was lucky enough to find this for $10 new so i thought ok what do i have to lose?
the story.the dialogue.the voice acting....
 
(http://www.untoldentertainment.com/blog/img/2010_02_18/indian.jpg)
 
why did they think this was a good idea?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: oohhboy on September 11, 2011, 10:03:46 PM
Just finished playing Homefront. Party Bear is pretty much on the money for most part. The Story is pretty ok until the last act where any sense of grounding it has built up goes right out the window. You also have to make absolutely massive leaps of faith to allow for the whole North Korean invasion scenario given the ridiculous number of hoops and hand waving needed that would even make Tom Clancy blush. War crimes are left, right and center. Although I was surprised the NKs didn't just burn down the country from the start given the stupid amount of resources needed to run the labour camps compared to razing everything.

The Helicopter is bugged, you can't change your altitude it you have a joystick plugged in. Otherwise it's fine, although it is absurdly resilient. Shooting from a Humvee is terrible since at no time does not-John Conner ever drive smooth enough to get a clean shot at anything other than a very broad side of a barn. I keep thinking "Let the women drive, she can't be worse than you".

The scripting also breaks a lot forcing a restart from the last checkpoint whenever you "regroup" to kick down a door. The set pieces and level design is better than MW2. Better diversity, more "fair"(Eg MW2 Brazil levels) and more interesting.

There are less guns than MW2, but there is a strange design decision where you can only get ammo for your gun from the exact same type right down to the mods. Which means you can have some M16/M4 variant but not get any ammo even though they all share a common mag and calibre across the family unless you find your exact variant, which is made worse by the very low ammo count. It means you will be doing a lot of New York reloading.

It's an amusing short game, but the whole COD style FPS sub-genre is as stale as last years bread no matter who makes it or what story it might have. If must get a COD like fix, sure, why not, otherwise your only pretty much only here for the War Crimes.

I rather go play more SWAT 4.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: UltimatePartyBear on September 11, 2011, 10:32:57 PM
Just want to say that the scripting never broke on me, and I didn't even notice the ammo thing.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on September 12, 2011, 04:30:02 AM
just finished "dont take it personally babe, it's just not your story" (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/04/06/dont-take-it-personally-review/)

terrible name, but awesome game. If you're familiar to the pheonix wright style of storytelling (ie: a visual novel) then it wont be such a leap for you. This game features excellent writing and extremely realistic, 3 dimensional characters. It centres around John Rook a highschool teacher and the students in his literature class. You'll deal with high school drama and whatnot. It's not really a game but a visual novel. This game also makes me glad that im not in highschool anymore and decided to stay away from facebook XD yes i realise that the author basically made an argument for social media and that erosion of privacy isnt nescesarly a bad thing but that doesnt mean i have to agree

10/10

this is a free game and you can download it here (http://scoutshonour.com/donttakeitpersonallybabeitjustaintyourstory/)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 12, 2011, 09:14:52 PM
If anyone actually reads these things, they might remember that I played Resistance 2 a while back and suffice it to say I wasn't a fan despite liking the premise.  So Resistance 3 is now upon us, and despite some reservations I decided to check it out.  Having finished the Single-player campaign and a few multiplayer matches, I can say I like this game a LOT better than Resistance 2, though it's still a problematic game.  First off, the Single-player campaign is generally well-done and well-paced (though some parts of the game do drag a bit through repetition), with plenty of "downtime" to balance out the high-intensity firefights.  As for the story, the macro story about Joseph's journey to NYC is told decently in the sense of A->B->C progression, but his personal story regarding him missing his family after leaving them comes off as cheesy and tacked-on rather than earnest.  The atmosphere is very nice and oppressive, though, with a very real sense that humanity is about to become extinct.  There's also an odd disparity between the start of the game, where your characters are terrified of a squad of Chimeran footsoldiers, and the end of the game, where your character single-handedly takes out entire armies.  And while this game does seem to close the book on the Chimeran invasion of Earth, the way it does is...goofy and contrived.

The weapons are as fun as ever, if less interesting in some respects this time to some of the ones in Resistance 2.  And taking a page from the Ratchet & Clank games, the weapons level-up and acquire new abilities the more you use them.  Since you can carry them all at once now with a weapon wheel (as opposed to Resistance 2's 2-weapon approach), there's lots of room for experimentation now and it works out well.  The new graphics engine looks very lovely as well (especially the lighting...wow, it looks nice), though human characters still fall on the ugly side of the uncanny valley.

Unfortunately, the game's a bit buggy, even after 2 650+ MB patches released in the game's first week.  This game has a thing for NPCs having to open doors for you, and several times in the game I ran into issues where they just wouldn't so I had to reload my save.  I've been blown through the environment a few times, as well as seen the screen split and go white without crashing.

Then there's the multiplayer, a feature I usually don't bother with but decided to try this time.  Good god, is this game's multiplayer broken, both from a design and technical perspective.  There is no level-based match-making that I could find, and this is a game that starts Level 1 players off with the worst weapon in the game.  Given that level-ups reward veteran players with more and better weapons/perks, beginning players are at a LUDICROUS disadvantage without a way to battle just each other.  You're lucky if you can score 1 kill out of every 4-5 deaths, and that's a major turn-off for me (especially since most higher-level players have the Rossmore shotgun and bullet-proof shields, which are extremely overpowered).  And then there are the multiplayer bugs.  I've had games randomly terminated by network issues, games terminated because the game thought my game in progress was already over 4 minutes after I joined, and major lag that makes the experience borderline-unplayable.

Overall, a great single-player game, but right now a lousy multiplayer game with major design issues even if you can get past the horrible technical issues.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: lolmonade on September 12, 2011, 09:57:33 PM
Quick reviews:

L.A. Noire (PS3)

Nice story and I loved the plot but the game suffers on the gameplay.  For one it's open-world but for the most part it's just a big empty city (god I say that often about these games).  What's the point wasting time driving?  Lucky Rockstar fixes this by having your AI partner drive you to points instead which I would recommend.  As for the CSI bit--it really doesn't allow you to form your own clues/fieldwork and for the interviews it's down to just eyes.  They could have some guy twitch or sweat or something but it mostly came from where the eyes where pointing and if they blinked. 

Flat 7.  Great story but boring gameplay.

I rented L.A. Noire when it came out.  My wife and I had a lot of fun playing together much like we did for Heavy Rain, but like that game, the replay value is severely limited.  You're right that the driving, chasing people down, gun shooting, and fighting in general are somewhat pointless.  They just seem like they were tacked on for "variety" sake, and it feels disjointed when it transitions from investigation to action.  One of the coolest little touches was the ability to switch off the color.  The first sequence my wife was commenting that if it were really a Noire game, that it would be black & white, and I joked that maybe there was an option.  low and behold, there was! 

My biggest complaint is the story.  Not because it's bad, but a few missteps sour the experience.  I won't go in details, but in the story they allude to certain happenings that come to a head mid-way through that made me really care less about what happens to the main character.  If they handled the storytelling better, I could have had more sympathy towards what was happening, but the way they go through this particular story arc pulled me out of the story a bit.

Synopsis: A fun diversion, but the style of the game and a craving for an investigative game will be what keeps you going through this game, not the storyline or action sequences.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: UltimatePartyBear on September 15, 2011, 03:06:01 PM
NES Open Tournament Golf.  I hate this game, so why can't I stop playing it?  It's full of numbers with relationships I don't understand.  I feel like Gabe trying to play the weather (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/20).

Also, I hate hate hate that golf pro who keeps telling me "Try to play well."  YA THINK?  He's got to be a zombie, because there's no way someone so annoying has never been murdered.


Edit: Am I the only one who hears "We've got stacks and stacks of letters" in the music?  Does Letterman even still do that segment?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on September 15, 2011, 04:49:01 PM
I have yet to hit the ball in that game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: KDR_11k on September 20, 2011, 04:09:21 PM
Vanquish (Xbox 360)--very by the books FPS.  Had some interesting weapons like the lock-on laser but it was so underpowered--it was level 5 and it still couldn't kill the weakest of enemies with all 4 beams?  Some of the bosses had one-hit killshots that were a bit cheap and there wasn't much in terms of level design. 

And of course you'll get the cliff-hanger-ending which I really don't see them continuing considering the poor sales. 

A disappointing 6/10.

Odd, I seem to recall the laser killing the basic enemies with one shot on hard (i.e. four in one volley) but it's been a while. It's the bigger enemies that take countless shots to kill. Back when I played it I liked the gun that shot large orbs through cover and killed enemies on the other side but now that I've played Space Marine I like the meltagun more than that (like a shotgun that vaporizes everything in its range).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 23, 2011, 11:48:04 PM
After Platinum-ing both Killzone 3 and Resistance 3 (Plats 42 and 43), I went back and played through Prince of Persia: Warrior Within HD via the PS3 Collection.  Overall, while I still like the game as a whole and thought it did some clever (if confusing) things with its story and improved the combat as a whole, I still came away from the game really annoyed with it.  The amount of backtracking through the same areas in the game is ridiculous, even if you know where you are going (and given that the game is not very good at telling the player where to go, that's unlikely for first-time players).  Over time, fatigue just sets in and the game becomes tedious to play through, especially as enemies become more and more sheer damage sponges capable of withstanding an obscene amount of sword swings from your most powerful blade.

The other aspect of the game that makes it incredibly tedious is one that commonly gets the most derision, and that is the game's tone.  Godsmack's music may very well be the worst thing that ever happened to the franchise, and the ridiculous amount of T&A in the game really made Ubisoft look desperate back in the day.  I suppose I can't fault them too much because their strategy worked and raised enough sales to justify the far, far, FAAAAR superior successor Two Thrones (my personal favorite game of the trilogy).  Still, it's embarrassing seeing the lows the game will stoop in places to get those sales, though it did inspire one of my favorite Penny Arcade comics ("I BURN with generic rage!").

On a technical side, Warrior Within HD holds up a LOT better than the HD Sands of Time.  Textures look good, audio is much more audible (though still a little muffled), and there are some bugs from the GameCube version I didn't see here.  For instance, on the GCN version I often saw the Dahaka's tentacles reappear in areas I had to retread.  HOWEVER, I also some some new ones in this version, including one very nasty early game-breaking bug where loading my save caused the game to load me as the Sand Wraith.  I had the Wraith's health-drain and sand tank regen, and this bug caused a game-breaking glitch where the Dahaka did not appear in an area to break a wall so I could proceed, forcing me to restart the entire game (thankfully, that glitch only appeared early in the game and I never saw it again).  The music still cuts out all the time for no conceivable reason, though that may be a godsend in a game with a soundtrack this bad. 

In the end, Warrior Within retains its crown as the buggiest Prince of Persia game I've ever played, though it's still not a bad one.  The game tries too hard to be "edgy" and "adult", but the story is legitimately good and the PoP gameplay is as solid as ever.

On to far greener pastures with Two Thrones HD, which so far is easily holding up the best of the 3 games in the collection.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on September 24, 2011, 06:41:18 AM
Finished a couple of more 11' games and here's the quick reviews:

Shadows of the Damned (Xbox 360)--it's another Suda 51 game so expect alot of crude humor which I love.  Weapns with names like Big Boner, animations with you dying holding on to your torch, even a stage with portals through asschecks, it's all screams Suda's name.  It's a solid third person shooter with limited weapons (you only get 3 but they upgrade) that can be finished in 5-8 hours.  It does have a couple of old 8bit side stroller stages that drag on for a bit.  Decent game to rent but there's little replay value so can't recommend anyone to buy this one for $60.

6/10

Dungeon Seige III (PS3)--it's another loot-fest hack and slash.  While it doesn't do anything that we haven't seen before it does a nice job of spicing up the combat with defending button.  Instead of just hacking away you can now dodge and block if you time it right.  Also your mana doesn't auto-charge, you have to attack for it to go up and there's no potions at all in the game.  The AI partner does a good job at getting to you to relieve you and that's a plus but you can't control him/her at all, which is kinda lame.  Since you can't control your one and only ally, your stuck playing the entire game as one class?  Wouldn't have been great if you can mix it up a little just by trying the different classes (there's four).   

The plot is decent enough but the developers never did get the characters any depth.  The story changes a bit depending on your actions but I think you'll only get deeds (you recieve bonuses to your stats) for doing good which means if your evil your going get nothing for it at all.  My gripe about these types of dungeon crawlers is the game's viewed at a damned 45 degree angle downwards.  Meaning you'll get to see alot of floors and little else. 

7/10

Crysis 2 (Xbox 360)--great FPS with a crappy storyline.  Your main character can't talk or respond so he might as well be an machine because all he does is follow orders from anyone that gives them.  Crytek needs authors--hell I wouldn't even call this a B movie script--it's that bad.  Still the blowing up sh!t part with tons of weapons with dozens of custom parts is a blast. 

8/10 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on September 26, 2011, 04:10:09 PM
So now we come, at last, to Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones HD (via the PS3 collection), Ubisoft's grant apology for Warrior Within.  This was my favorite game in the trilogy on the GameCube, but is it still? Well, let me put it this way: I played through this entire game 3 times in the span of 72 hours for the Platinum (#44), and if I didn't have so many other games to play I'd happily play it again.  I can't say that about Warrior Within, which I still have to play 2 more times for its Plat.

If Warrior Within was Ubisoft making all the wrong choices with the series' formula, Two Thrones was Ubisoft making all the right ones.  The tone is back to the "Arabian Nights"-style of whimsy; the Prince is back to being voiced by Yuri Lowenthal; once-tedious combat is supplemented by the very enjoyable "Speed Kill" system (still one of the best implementations of QTEs in a game, as it combines the series' platforming and combat into something actually fun); and progression is nice and fast once again.  In fact, quite possibly more than anything else, what I love about this game is emphasis on momentum, on constant movement and progression.  The story also nicely wraps up the rather convoluted Sands of Time storyline in a very fitting manner that was probably considered quite risky at the game's release.

I really only have a few major complaints with this game: first, this is a problem in the entire Sands of Time trilogy, but Two Thrones really could have used a much wider color palette than shades of brown and yellow.  This would be rectified with the 2008 HD Prince of Persia, but it does get tiresome here.  This version of the game is also based on the PS2 version, which seems to have some graphical features inexplicably missing (such as a sunset that is supposed to occur at the end of the game during a major sequence).  Unfortunately, I also had some major crashing issues with this game on the Trilogy Collection when trying to either load the game's menu or load into game.  That shouldn't deter anyone from playing this game who hasn't already, but you should be aware that Two Thrones has these issues native to the PS3 disc version.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 01, 2011, 09:08:14 PM
So after all these years, I finally had a chance to sit down and play through ICO via the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection.  I'm sorry because I know this game is so beloved to so many people, but I definitely did not enjoy this game.  Good god, this game has so many mechanical and instructional issues.  First off, this game's camera is one of the worst I've ever seen in a 3rd person game, as it's fixed and set at a far distance from the player character.  You can pan the camera a bit and temporarily zoom-in on your character, but otherwise you are at the whim of a camera that likes to hide important details and doorways where they aren't easily seen, as well as making many jumping-based puzzles incredibly frustrating and tedious.

The less said about the tedious; stiff; and bare-bones combat (which makes the horrible combat in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time look like a godsend), the better.  You spend most of the game with a weapon that takes forever to kill basic enemies, and enemies often dance and fly around your pathetic attacks with ease.  Yorda's AI is also one of the worst I've ever seen in any game: she's slow; she's clumsy; she tends to ignore your orders; and she frequently gets caught on objects.  And let's not forget that if you're away from Yorda too long or she gets dragged down a shadow pit for too long because you were busy with the 5 enemies continually knocking you down, you lose.  Babysitting her is just tedious and it gradually drains all the fun out of the game for me.  You can't even save if she's not around, which leads to literally a good 1/2 hour to an hour at the end of the game where you can't save.  Joy.

I'd also like to give a shout-out for how this game explains nothing about its mechanics in either its manual or in-game.  I got stuck on several puzzles not because I hadn't figured out the puzzle, but because the game either didn't inform me that I could do something or how to do it.  I don't have a problem with puzzles that encourage exploration and experimentation.  I have issues when I can't solve a puzzle and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong because the game has not prepared you for the puzzle's solution (or even told you the rules of the game).

Is ICO an artistic achievement with great art direction and some really cinematic direction?  Yes.  Is it a great GAME?  No, and too many games have come since ICO that do what it does better to recommend playing this game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on October 02, 2011, 01:08:31 AM
ICO isn't about the combat it's all about exploring and the unknown.  Too many games led you by the hand and this game doesn't do any of it which I loved.  As for you problem with the baddies is you're either taking to long figuring out the puzzles or you're leaving the girl for to long.  The best solution is to always hold her hand instead of the follow option. 

I wonder if they made those shadows harder in the PS3 HD version because in the orginal you can take them down with a simply couple of hacks.  They never did pose much of a threat in the orginal.

As for the puzzles--the game just shines.  By adding an helpless girl they were able to come up with some of the puzzle designs in the gaming industry. 

And don't worry we won't hang you for dissing an gem of a game like ICO, naw we perfer roasting instead--more meat =).

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 02, 2011, 01:40:01 AM
ICO isn't about the combat it's all about exploring and the unknown.  Too many games led you by the hand and this game doesn't do any of it which I loved.  As for you problem with the baddies is you're either taking to long figuring out the puzzles or you're leaving the girl for to long.

But that's the contradiction with the game's design in a few places: it's designed as this contemplative game where you're supposed to wander around and think things out as you discover them.  But the game makes you ditch Yorda for long stretches at a time, and unless you figure out the puzzle AND how to solve it fairly quickly you're looking at having to double-back and babysit Yorda for a few minutes.  That the game likes to hide important details or tricky platforming behind bad camera angles doesn't help matters.

Take for example one of the first puzzles I got stuck on: it was the main hallway leading to the courtyard that leads to the main gate.  I had already gone up to the upper level to dislodge a chandelier from the ceiling.  A cinematic had triggered to let me know I needed to destroy the pillar supporting the lower staircase.  So I go down there, and I see the following tools: fire on the chandelier candles, the stick I wield as a weapon, the pillar I need to destroy, and some odd-looking wooden barrels lined up in the corner with some intriguing-looking red warning labels on them.

Now, if I hand you that description in any other game, any gamer's going to think the following: the barrels are explosive, gunpowder most likely.  You place a barrel by the pillar, you light your stick on fire from the candles, and then you light the barrel with your stick to blow it up the pillar.  Except that's not the solution, and it took me a good half hour to figure out why: the barrels aren't explosive.  In fact, those barrels (and some pots as well) exist for no other reason than to fool you into thinking they're important.  What I had thought to be little blue pots outside the door to the room were actually bombs with little wicks sticking out of them.  Knowing that crucial piece of information the game didn't think was important enough to share, the puzzle was easily solved.  But up until that point in the game, the game had neither shown me what those "pots" were or had me use them in a puzzle.  That's just poor design, IMO.

I also had another puzzle a little later that required swinging on a chain to get to a higher platform.  I had to look up how to do that because neither the manual nor the game tell you how you can swing on a chain instead of climbing it.  Once again, poor design.

You can't plop a player into a magical new world and expect that they will intuitively know the world's rules and what they can do in it.  That's why we have tutorials, or at the very least helpful camera angles to point out objects of interest.  Hell, I can't even count the number of doorways in this game that are barely visible that any sensible modern designer would highlight with a nearby light source just so the player can see it.

Contrast this with the first 5 minutes of Shadow of the Colossus, where the game walks you through an easy Colossus fight with helper text telling you how to ride your horse, how to grab and climb walls, how to shoot your bow, and how to find and attack Colossi weak points.  After that opening battle, you occasionally get hints on how to start your ascent on various Colossi, but that's all the help you get.  That's how immersing a player into a new game world should be done, but when Team Ico made Ico apparently they thought they were above such minor concessions to player useability.

Quote
I wonder if they made those shadows harder in the PS3 HD version because in the orginal you can take them down with a simply couple of hacks.  They never did pose much of a threat in the orginal.

You spend the vast majority of the game with the stick as your weapon.  By my count, it takes 5-7 hits from the stick to kill your typical shadow creature with it.  When you get the sword, that becomes 3-4 hits.  If you get the secret Mace or "Shining Sword" (i.e. lightsaber) near the end of the game, that becomes 1-2 hits.  And the final sword you get kills shadows in 1 hit.  All that, of course, is assuming you can hit the damn things, because the vast majority of the shadows in the game can fly so they like to fly up in the air out of your reach when you swing at them.  They also like to pick Yorda up and carry her to the other side of the area to throw in a hole, which at times can be practically impossible to reach in time depending on the complexity of the area.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on October 02, 2011, 02:21:31 AM
Both those points are covered in the manual :0.  Recall the chain one because I skipped the manual as well :(. 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 02, 2011, 02:25:33 AM
Both those points are covered in the manual :0.  Recall the chain one because I skipped the manual as well :( .

You're talking about the PS2 manual, right?  Because that information is not in the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD manual as far as I can see, which only has a couple of pages for both games.  If that information was in the PS2 version's manual, fair enough.  But in that case, if they weren't going to include that information in the PS3 version's manual, they should have coded that information in-game somewhere so it doesn't just completely blindside the player.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on October 05, 2011, 01:28:05 AM
Henry Hatsworth (DS)
As part of my backlog of games on the NWR's DS top 30 that I haven't played yet.

This game is tough as nails however I never felt like it was being cheap, chalk that up to the excellent level design in the game. I loved the silly tone, I only wish that tea time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZhsmN79owM&NR=1#t=4s) was that awesome in real life. Unfortunately the levels get extremely long near the end, the last level excruciatingly so.

8 steam powered robots out of 10


Metroid: other M (Wii)
I found it for $10 new

Gameplay wise this game is solid with a few caveats: it would have been better with a nunchuck/wiimote control scheme since the game insists that you move into the first person despite the fact that other M would have been better off without it; In fact if there wasn't any first person integration the classic controller would be the way to go. The Hunt and peck portions of the game do a good job of replacing any enjoyment with frustration, spending 20 minutes not being able to move Samus while trying to look for anything that will trigger the next event is not fun in the slightest. I'm not even going to bother writing about the terrible story/dialogue; that horse has been beaten to death, ground into meat and made into glue. Just know that my score accounts for it. Like I said before though, the core gameplay concept of other M is solid and if the above issues were resolved I wouldn't have any objections to the next Metroid game following the same formula.

6 unskippable cutscenes out of 10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on October 07, 2011, 02:22:40 AM
Golden Sun Dark Ages (DS)
Saddly this isn't the comeback that I waited 7 years for.  The story is just nonsense--you'll end up running all over hell and back but still not find a single thing about the voids or the enemy's intent.  And it ends with a cliff hanger which I doubt there's be an conclusion too.  The gameplay is pretty much the same for the series--turn-based combat but you'll not going need a brain for this one--it's freaking easy, so easy I didn't even get wiped out the entire game.  There's some +'s like the new graphics looked alright and there's some neat summons/spells to see but overall the game comes up short comeparred to the orginal.  I play these types of games for good strategies, story, and character development and this game lacks all three.

Something that I found funny, it's sales were THREE times greater in the US than in Japan.  Just saying Nintendo.

An 6/10.

Fight Night Champion (XBox 360)
The main difference with this one over the older ones is the one thing I had the most problems with--Full-Spectrum Punch Control which means it uses both analog sticks for punching and movemets/weaves.  Couldn't get used to it--either I was throwing in more punches/wrong one or not weaving like I want it but it just felt unresponsive to me.  Some say I just need more time with the game but I'm 8 hours in and I'm not some noob to gaming.  Besides that I was enjoying the game alot.  The single player campain mode was great but the game needs a better training program because this game IS TOUGH.  The only other complaint is the ref backs your view quite often--he needs to go--have him make calls but get him out of the ring because nothing pisses you off more than being knocked on your ass because the lame ref was in the way.

An respectable 8/10.   
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 09, 2011, 11:50:13 PM
Rage - It has a nice visual aesthetic, the crafting is some of the better-handled I've seen in game with RPG elements, there is some fantastic character animation on NPCs (something that's incredibly rare in games), and the main quest is fairly well-paced.  Unfortunately, the gunplay is pretty average, the driving (which this game has you do a LOT of) is pretty mediocre at best, and the RPG elements are few and far between.  And while the game looks lovely, it only appears so from a distance as textures are very blurry and very noticeably draw-in as the character approaches things.

What sidequests there are often send you back into dungeons you've already completed just to wipe out more generic enemies, which gets tedious after a while.  And the way the story plays out is abysmal, as the player literally spends probably 85% of the game just performing random tasks for random strangers that have no bearing whatsoever on the plot.  I could tolerate that in a game like Fallout 3 because the quests were so well-executed (especially the story ones), but here the quests are not particularly interesting.  There is barely any story here, and almost no memorable or notable characters.

Overall, it's a game I did enjoy playing, but the lack of story and mediocre gunplay (seriously, why do goons take three headshots to kill in a non-RPG FPS?) really took its toll on me over the course of my 21 hours with the game.  Sorry, id, but "slightly above average" just doesn't cut it during this Fall season with so many excellent games.

Child of Eden - I really liked this game, but man the final 3 or so levels of this game are pretty brutal (and there are no checkpoints).  It's probably the best Star Fox game I've played since Star Fox 64, though.   ;)   It's a strange game, though, in that the game is both too short and too long: there are only 5 stages + a challenge stage, but to unlock each stage the player has to collect stars by performing well in the stages.  This means you inevitably have to grind stars for the later stages, which didn't happen to me since I really enjoyed playing the first 2 stages but it could be an issue for other players.

The music in this game is outstanding, though I'm not fond of the track they remixed for the "Beauty" stage (I don't care for that stage in general, really).  And the developers did a superb job of complementing the remixed Genki Rockets music with perfectly timed sound effects and vocal samples that play when the player "purifies" targets on-screen or shoots down incoming "missiles", especially if the player times things particularly well and triggers a "Perfect" by purifying 8 targets at once with the beat of the music.  Likewise, this game is not technically doing anything extraordinary visually, but the way the visuals are used to complement the music is stunning.

I love what this game does, as it hits that same vibe that the Bit.Trip games do in giving you the impression that you are creating your own soundtrack unique to each playthrough, reliant on your skill at the game.  The game gets too hard too quickly for my taste and the lack of content does mean I can't recommend anyone buy it for full price at $40, though.  But by all means, play it when it gets discounted in the $20 or so range.  For all its faults, it's one thing that seems increasingly rare in Japanese-developed games these days: it's incredibly memorable and unique.  And yes, it plays fine with a controller.  Actually, I never could get the Move controller to calibrate right with this game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 13, 2011, 07:28:55 PM
After having the game in my backlog for months, I finally got around to playing through Vanquish.  Overall, the game's a decent ride while it lasts but it's ultimately forgettable.  My biggest issue with the game is that it never evolves past its first 5 minutes of gameplay, where you learn the formula of "zoom behind cover or near a dude, leap into slow-mo, blast him in the face, get away, wash, rinse, repeat."  That's the entire game, including boss fights.  You never learn any new tactics, there's no reason to use any weapons beyond your starter set and the sniper rifle (because you can just power them up to be more than sufficient), and your enemies never really evolve to force you to come at them a unique way.

Then there are the environments, which are just the same bland open room/corridor copied & pasted with slightly different wallpaper.  What set piece boss fights there are are nice, but they're repeated a fair amount throughout the game.  And the story is horribly written and stupid, though not in the way I expected.  I can enjoy a good, simple "this dude wants to destroy the world, so go take him out" story, if it's told well.  But oh look, one of the things I hate most in Japanese anime as well: the story tries to have a "serious message" about U.S. foreign policy, and there's more than a little implication that the United States government is responsible for all the world's problems.  If that was done well in this game, perhaps I could overlook it, but it isn't so it's just downright insulting and I came walking away from the experience disgusted.

Vanquish has some neat ideas, but there's just no meat to this experience and when I was done with the game I never wanted to play it again.  The Japanese games industry needs more games with the energy and sheer insanity that moments of this game whole-heartedly embrace, though.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on October 15, 2011, 12:40:46 AM
Finished up Goldeneye 007 (WII) and here's my single player review:

The controls were a nightmare--had to adjust quite a bit to get something decent.  Tried using either GC or the Classic controller but recieved so odd results--like like the analog was stuck in the up postion, tried multiple other games and the controllers worked just fine.

After fighting the controls I finally get into the game and I found a very average FPS.  007 games should be all about the gadgets but there's isn't much other than an PDA phone that can hack into consoles to either gain info or control SGs.  The gameplay is pretty linear and you don't need stealth though you can try that metioned but I found the AI to damn twitchy at times.  For example, the building on fire and there's explosions all over yet the AI zeroes in on my footsteps even though I'm crouching. Anyways  how can they tell Bonds footprint sounds for all the other AI's running around the place?  That's just poor IMO.

The graphics are still inferior to the other WII FPS--Metroid Prime 3 but I really didn't expect much to begin with.  They really need more textures on the floors and walls which were plain with zero bump mapping at all.

Overall the game's short and pretty damn average, Everything or Nothing is still the best Bond game IMO. 

An 5/10  Granted I only reviewed the Single Player mode--so if you're an MP nut you might find some joy out of this.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PS:  Did anyone else find it funny how some padlocks where on the inside of doors.  :0.  Also found one guy kicking the sh!T out of a vending machine even though the building was on FIRE.  That's one determine guy. 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on October 19, 2011, 01:25:17 PM
Gargoyle's Quest (3DS Virtual Console)
Verdict: 6/10


Taking the most annoying enemy out of Ghosts 'n Goblins and turning him into the protagonist for a separate game seemed like a great way to empower gamers and let them revel in being evil - at least for a while.


So outside of taking control of one of gaming's greatest bad-asses, what makes this game special? Mostly the interesting combination of RPG and action-platforming gameplay. As the demon Firebrand, you roam across a large overworld interacting with non-playable characters in towns and searching for powerups and the next boss stage. Action-platforming stages make up the most memorable part of the game - largely because of Firebrand's unique abilities to hover and grip firmly onto the sides of walls using his formidable claws. As the game progresses powerups are found that give you more life, the ability to hover for longer periods of time, and increased firepower.


The problem is that I just can't see this game appealing to many people who don't have experience with old-school gaming. Outside of random encounters while traveling to the next stage, RPG elements really felt like a token effort, especially when combined with the linear nature of the game and punishing difficulty in early action stages. If the game had a bit more depth and the questing portion was fleshed out then perhaps my final opinion would've been better. There is certainly a great deal of potential for this type of game; perhaps the NES sequel did a better job of reaching that potential?


I was glad to play through this game and finally get to see what the hype was all about. Unfortunately the amount of content provided and overall enjoyment received from playing just wasn't enough to recommend the game to anyone who didn't already know what they are getting into - even at a budget price.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on October 23, 2011, 01:30:30 AM
Just finished up Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess again (it's been 5 years after all):

Even after 5 years this game still shines but there was a couple of minor gripes about it.  The DS games allow you to scribble on the maps which is great for those trying to get the 100% complete list but in LoZ TP that ability isn't there and there's countless times I had to backtrack though looking for "Pols" or chests.  Also since this game was last generation I let it slide but there's alot of open spaces with awhole lot of nothing but walking distance. 

Still an 9/10 game even by today standards.  Bring on Skyward Sword.


Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 24, 2011, 11:04:24 AM
A couple of comic book games today, both of which I've finished.

Batman: Arkham City - Arkham Asylum was my favorite game of 2009, and its sequel may very well be my favorite game of 2011.  The combat; atmosphere; voice acting; and visuals are still fantastic.  The boss encounters this time are very well-done, especially one late in the game that plays like one of the Predator room segments where you have to continually out-think your opponent.  My biggest worry about this game going in was that making the game Open World would cause Rocksteady to lose focus and the game would be less memorable.  Thankfully, the game isn't really Open World.  It's just a much larger Arkham Asylum, one you can just glide across in the matter of a few minutes.

My main issue with Arkham City is the story, which feels like a real step down from its predecessor.  It's not very focused and is prone to getting sidetracked by one of the many encounters with the members of Batman's infamous Rogue's Gallery.  There are just too many characters in this story, and the encounters with some of them are less than memorable (especially in the sidequests).  When the plot finally gets back on message late in the game, it's fine but there's just too much meandering for my taste.

And that ending sequence...wow.  Some really incredible moments happen late in this game.

The other game I've been playing is Spider-Man: Edge of Time (Platinum #45).  I really enjoyed Beenox's Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions last year, but this is a considerably weaker game.  Considering Activision forced Beenox to make this game in a year while also splitting their teams to work on the upcoming Spider-Man movie reboot game, I still think Edge of Time is a much better game than it really should have been.

A lot of reviews have harped on the fact that the game takes place entirely in the Alchemax office building, and that is a problem.  To me, though, a much larger problem is the Web of Challenges feature.  In Shattered Dimensions, I loved its "Web of Destiny", a series of mini-achievements in each level that encouraged you to play the game in different ways and really take advantage of the level design.  Edge of Time's "Web of Challenges", though, very nearly ruined the game for me.  You enter a room, and you're told to slaughter a certain number of enemies in X number of seconds; or get to a certain point in the room within X number of seconds; or collect a certain number of orbs within X number of seconds; etc.  It's tedious busywork, and while it is optional you need the golden spiders you collect from them to power-up your characters.  So that means you'll be spending a lot of time reloading checkpoints to do these challenges, which destroys the pacing of the game and instead of making you fight strategically it tends to make you just button-mash your way through fights.

What saves the game for me, though, is the story (which is pretty decent for a Spider-Man game) and the dialogue.  The banter back-and-forth between the two Spidermen is fantastically well-written and consistently entertaining, mocking everything from 2099's very "90s" characterization to video game tropes and the ridiculousness of comic book writing.  I really don't understand how the games and animated series consistently get that this character is a smart-ass, but the movies never do.  It also helps that they are voiced by the two best Spider-Man voice actors: Josh Keaton (Spectacular Spider-Man) and Christopher Daniel Barnes (Spider-Man: The Animated Series).

So is Edge of Time a "good" game?  Eh, probably not.  The game is very formulaic and can get monotonous.  But did I enjoy playing it and would I recommend the game on the banter alone?  Sure.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on October 26, 2011, 10:12:02 PM
Punchout!
Wii

I completed the first run-though of all the fighters and lost interest halfway through title defense. I wouldn't say its worth $60 but now that's its $20 its worth considering. Although I still think its probably gamefly/rental material. Not that its a bad game its just pretty shallow.

6/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on October 29, 2011, 12:00:05 PM
I played the demo last night of Resistance 3.  It has move support and it has 3D.

The 3D was cool.  The Move support is terrible.  As someone who really stinks at dual analog control but can rip it up in a light gun game or RE4 Wii Edition I want to the dual analog controls.  I could get the cursor to be ok but the turn box not really.  Also all the targeted shot of the gun where they don't have nearly as large of spray pattern move like stirring molasses even with the Move.

The game wants me to use cover but has no cover system.  You can crouch but that's not a cover system.  In this day and age if you want me to take cover I expect better tools to do just that.

The enemy design isn't bad but the color scheme is horrendous.  In the abstract out of the game environment as just a character there fine but, in the game the whole game uses the brown, tan, more brown style color scheme.  Since the enemies are pretty much brown, tan, and more brown they blend right into the background.  It got the point where I found enemies 1 of 3 ways:

1) Muzzle Flash
2) Reticule going Red
3) Heat Vision from the one gun

I have yet to find how to get to the mythical gun information in the demo that was suppose to tell me the secondary modes.  I finally figured them out but, it would have been nice earlier to know I could send out drones or explode magnum rounds.

I think the game is killing itself with lots of Paper Cuts.

I have to give this game a 5/10 from the Demo.  It needed to bake longer.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on October 29, 2011, 12:17:24 PM
From the sounds of it, the demo takes place at the beginning of the game in Haven OK, which is a very brown section of it since it's largely rural farmland.  I suppose they might have set the demo in St. Louis, considering it sounds like you had the Marksman rifle.  The rest of the game is much more colorful, especially with one series of stages set at night and another set in an Iced-over New York City.

I've heard the Move support is bad, but honestly I've been finding the Move to be rather poor in general lately. I recently tried using it on House of the Dead Overkill HD, and the camera kept losing my Move so my cursor would just disappear.

It's odd that the game doesn't tell you in the demo what your guns can do, because in the main game when you pick up a new gun it tells you just that.  I never had an issue with the gun handling with the standard dualshock, though.  It always felt nice and responsive.

It sounds like it was just a bad demo.  The game itself is awesome.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on October 29, 2011, 06:12:13 PM
Time Crisis with the move is as good as your calibration.  EyePet its very easy to suddenly be stopped by the floor and you need to go forward.  It can be odd.  Wiimoye is just consistently better.  Even though the Move can be more precise.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on October 30, 2011, 03:54:30 AM
Just finished up another platformer, Super Princess Peach (DS) and here's my thoughts if anyone cares:

Nintendo isn't known for it's storylines but even by their standards this is AWFUL.  An talking umbellera who used to be an boy who was magically changed for whatever reason and kidnapped falls into the hands of Princes Peach who's castle was attack by Bowser's minions using an vile magical rod that makes the Mario bros powerless.  And if that wasn't bad enogh then you have the same crappy storybook images between levels where the only thing that appears to change is a few text bubbles. 

So what's good about the game?  That's easy to answer--the gameplay, while it's fairly on the easy side it's still an decent platforming game with some interesting challenges for upcoming gamers.  You get 4 special powers than you'll use for various objects to unlock passages to collectables like Toads and music files.  There's plenty to unlock like a few mini-games but I felt there were rather weak so I didn't bother much with them but there is an new game+ where Princess gets new powers and more collectables.

7 Peaches of 10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on October 30, 2011, 01:20:35 PM
SPP has a New Game + Mode.  I don't remember seeing that.  I'm going to have to dig out my Copy now and go through that.

While not as long as Super Princess Peach, I was super excited when my Wife got me as an Early Birthday Present, I was there when she bought it, Skylanders 3DS.

Everyone on this site has probably read the reviews. The 3DS version of Skylanders is a Platform Brawler.  I had a lot of fun with it but I beat the whole game and maxed out 2 out of 3 of my initial figurings in a little over ~6 hrs according to my 3DS.  Now I have done every challenge but enough to go through ever level and get the credits naturally.

As I said the game is fun.  Its not super challenging but its challenging enough to stay engaged.  They have done a wonderful job differentiating at the very least the 3 characters that come with the 3DS version.  Everyone will pick there favorites but a fully powered up Dark Spyro makes the defend style levels a lot easier then a fully upgraded Ignitor. 

Another thing I like to Squeeze in here is that the 3DS version has no puzzles.  No Switches.  No Boxes.  Nothing like that and I have to say its a much better game for it.

The hats I wish they were more then just hats and then as hats they sort of float above you characters head.  Which looks goofy.

Each of the levels are themed and they can correlate to an element type.  Though that is mostly because you know Elves and Walking trees are Nature, etc.  While I enjoyed the levels and they vary mechanics up a bit.  I can't help but wish there were a few more worlds to go to.  I like to see a fully realized Tech World for example, though the last level is in this style.

I know my wife got me some of the Adventure Sets and the PS3 version but she isn't letting me have them till Christmas and my Birthday (Thanksgiving).  I enjoyed the game but it really needs more worlds for the price.  The 3D is done well especially Hektor who sometimes look to be coming out of the screen to laugh at you.  I also don't know where in the timeline the 3DS game takes place.

The Camera for the Game is good if your going forward through the level.  It will have angles that intentionally had collectables and if you try to go up the flow to get something you miss you'll be fighting it because it won't reorient and you Skylander will be walking towards you.

I'm sad that you can't play with friends with the 3DS.  Online friend play be awesome.  Though without it there this has to be the fastest way to level up 2 Skylanders at a time.

The figurines themselves seem durable and are fun to play with.  For the cost if you had to decide between Skylanders and Super Princess Peach get Super Princess Peach.  I would have to give this game a 7 out of 10.  It has all the makings of a 9 out of 10 game but, it just cost so much.  There just isn't enough content in the game as a solo game to keep me running it to level up different figures that would also cost me $8.  I'm going to go back in since I just beat the game and look to see if maybe they had opened up a new world with a new set of levels.  Though I don't think so this would help elevate the content draught.

Good game, I like to play more but, there isn't more.


Edit: In case your wondering my Figurines are Dark Spyro 10 (Max), Ignitor 1 (Max), and Stealth Elf 7.


Alright I just finished maxing out Stealth Elf as well.  I'm going back and getting the crystals I can.  Which there are actually quite a few which is nice.  Unfortunately a lot of those are "No Food" ones so a lot of hard break going through the level just to accidentally run into a food trying for the exit...

Edit 2 The Continuation:
11:06 to get all the 85 Crystals you can get with just the Starter Pack.  I had fun with it and I'll have to wait to get new levels.  If they are the quality of the ones in the game they should be fun as well.  Though now I'm worried I won't like the console Version.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on November 01, 2011, 07:55:02 AM
Professor Layton and the unwound future
As part of my backlog of games on the NWR's DS top 30 that I haven't played yet.
I got it since I've only heard good things about this series. I'm not much of a puzzle fan so I didn't really like the game play but It's the presentation that makes this game. You should get it if you're a puzzle fan, if not then watch the movie instead. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGKW2d0pf90)

7/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on November 04, 2011, 01:27:15 PM
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (DS)

Finally polished off this lengthy RPG and have to admit that I really enjoyed it. While the main story was less impressive than I had hoped for, the game made up for that by providing nearly an endless amount of extra content: downloadable content, optional quests, unlockable character classes, secret treasure maps leading to randomly generated dungeons, hidden legacy bosses... even after you defeat the "final" boss there is more to the game (and the story) to keep you busy for as long as you want to keep playing. Be warned though: this is still an old-school RPG and anyone hoping to avoid the traditional genre trappings might not find Dragon Quest to their liking.

Funniest moment: After taking on the final boss and getting quickly dispatched (partly due to bad luck), I set out to explore some of the other game features instead of rushing back for a rematch. By the time I tired of side-quests and optional adventures and returned to fight the end boss, the strength of my party had grown enough that I was able to outlast him despite forgetting to equip any armor...   my characters were all undressed to help meet conditions for a side-quest. Fighting in the nude? Not a problem!

9/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on November 06, 2011, 08:40:45 PM
Finished up a couple of PC games that's been on an shelf the last couple of years:

Cyrsis
Even though it's 4 years dated it still looks great, the combat is a bit weak--blame the poor AI who run straight towards their doom even on Hard mode.  Still there's some epic moments in the game (mountain collapsing) that kept me entertained. 
8/10

Cyrsis Warhead
This expansion pack came with an 6 hour single player mode that delievers on the action but at the expense of the story.  Some of the graphically effects were turned down in this one (alot less objects I noticed), and there's not much to do than run and gun, besides a few "rail" sequences. 
An 7/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on November 09, 2011, 07:26:37 PM
im playing thorugh fire emblem: radiant dawn right now...

this game is too fucking long. Talk about overstaying your welcome.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on November 13, 2011, 04:41:35 PM
Fire emblem: radiant dawn

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Lf8k8bq7L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

As a fan of advance wars and tactical rpgs in general the core gameplay is fine. The story forces too much exposition throughout the game adding in details that wont mean much except to the most die hard of Fire Emblem fans. While the story is pretty bad at first as the story progresses it gets better until part 4 of the game where it does a massive nosedive.

The main issue i have with this game however is time... specifically the fact that this game does not respect the players time at all. If a unit dies, he/she is dead forever and with a game clocking 40 hours it just isn't an option to accept the losses and move on since in addition to being a time sink, this game is also pretty tough. Because of this you will find yourself resetting again, and again....and again. That is as much of a critique of the game and the series as a whole. The game's internal clock tells me i spent 40 hours on this game, but in real world time it's probably hovering around 60-70 hours.

In the end however i still enjoyed it because of the core tactical rpg game play, however I've come to the conclusion that im much better off sticking to Intelligent Systems' other game, Advance wars. Get this game if you're a fan of tactical rpgs and have unlimited time on your hands. For everyone else this game probably wont be for you.

6/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 17, 2011, 01:28:45 PM
Well, I haven't done one of these in a while, so I'm going to briefly cover a couple of games and focus on one of them:

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - Honestly, I was a huge fan of Uncharted 2, but I didn't like this game.  The writing is terrible and inconsistent with previous Uncharted games, the set pieces are few and far between, and the game just feels like it takes way too long to get going.  There are also some mechanical issues with the aiming that makes it harder to get a bead on enemies.  Probably my biggest grievance, though, is that Naughty Dog brought back the waves of cheap enemies from the first Uncharted, which gets tedious and monotonous.  It's still not a bad game, but I just didn't enjoy it.

House of the Dead: Overkill - Extended Cut  - It's House of the Dead: Overkill on PS3, but with two not very entertaining new stages; a minor graphical upgrade; and Move support.  And this game continues my current trend of being disappointed with the Move, as it's almost unusable in this game.  The game will frequently lose track of the Move wand, so the cursor had a tendency to just vanish after cutscenes, requiring you to constantly recalibrate the thing.  Not recommended.

Jurassic Park: The Game - Now this game, I did like.  It plays like a merger of Telltale's traditional Adventure games with the QTE action of Heavy Rain, and I think by the end of the 4th and final episode that really worked for me despite some major technical issues.  For one thing, the button prompts are way too damn small on PS3, making it hard at times to distinguish between a O and square; L1 or R1; or Left Stick or Right Stick callouts.  The window the game gives you for entering some button sequences is also absurdly short at times, so unless you're hammering on the appropriate button pretty much the second it appears, you're going to die.  The game also has some technical issues that are just native to Telltale games, with noticeable stuttering when the game auto-saves and after completing some button sequences.

All that said, I really enjoyed this game because of the writing and presentation.  The QTEs can get frustrating, but the cinematography and pacing of those sequences is really well-done and feels true to the movies.  As for the presentation, these are easily the highest production values Telltale's ever put into one of their games.  The characters and environments look like PS3 launch games (which, once again, is impressive for Telltale considering their low budgets and status as a small developer); the characters are fairly expressive AND mobile (which is usually a problem in Telltale games, where characters will just stand completely stiff and only move their head and arms); and the music (lifted from the films) and voice acting are pretty good overall.

But my main props to Telltale go to the story, which takes place during and following the events of the first movie.  While the story is pretty typical popcorn action movie, it fits so seamlessly in with the first movie and the book that I rather enjoyed it.  The storytelling is probably the best Telltale's ever done, and that's saying something considering how well Back to the Future turned out.  By the end of the story, I had a good feel for the characters and their motivations, and I actually cared when something happened to them.  I certainly couldn't say any of that for Uncharted 3, that's for sure.

Jurassic Park isn't for everyone.  If you didn't like Heavy Rain for its gameplay, you won't like this game.  There are some design issues and technical problems.  But I think this game sets a new benchmark for Telltale in cinematic storytelling, and I highly recommend it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Sundoulos on November 18, 2011, 01:19:07 AM
Thanks for the write-up about Jurassic Park!  I generally do like Telltales's stuff (and I didn't mind Back to the Future so much), but was leery of giving this one a try.  I'll probably pick it up when my I work through my fall backlog.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: UltimatePartyBear on November 18, 2011, 04:10:47 PM
You don't work for Telltale, do you, broodwars?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 18, 2011, 04:18:02 PM
You don't work for Telltale, do you, broodwars?

Heh, I wish.  No, I just enjoy the game for what it is: an interactive movie with some serious flaws but an overall enjoyable experience.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on November 18, 2011, 05:06:12 PM
Jurassic Park is actually good? I was worried.

INSTA-BUY.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 18, 2011, 05:15:12 PM
Jurassic Park is actually good? I was worried.

INSTA-BUY.

Just know what you've getting into beforehand, because it is definitely a flawed game with some major problems and its gameplay style has already proved divisive.  I just feel like its storytelling and cinematic strengths outweigh those flaws enough to recommend it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: UltimatePartyBear on November 18, 2011, 05:27:14 PM
I was tempted, but the dinosaur deaths gave me a Dirk the Daring vibe.  I suppose quick time events are slightly better than trial and error gameplay.  Is there logic to which buttons you press?  Does it flash a random button or a button associated with what you have to do?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 18, 2011, 05:34:01 PM
I was tempted, but the dinosaur deaths gave me a Dirk the Daring vibe.  I suppose quick time events are slightly better than trial and error gameplay.  Is there logic to which buttons you press?  Does it flash a random button or a button associated with what you have to do?

There is indeed more than a bit of a "Dragon's Lair" vibe to the game, just as there was in Heavy Rain.  But the button callouts are not randomized.  Generally speaking, the button callouts tend to match the relative position of where the action is on-screen (for example, left-hand actions use the Square Buttons, upper actions Triangle, and so on).  If your character has to change direction in one of these sequences, the game tends to use a direction on the right control stick.  And so on.  The choice of buttons doesn't always makes sense and can blindside you, but it's not random.  With some practice, the worst sequence probably took me maybe 2-3 tries to do right.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on November 19, 2011, 03:07:20 AM
Are there any "new" dinosaurs?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on November 19, 2011, 09:42:32 AM
Are there any "new" dinosaurs?

Yeah, there's a Mosasaur for an underwater section and a small dinosaur with a paralyzing bite called a Troodon, but apparently those were both real dinosaurs.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on November 19, 2011, 05:14:24 PM
Mosasaurs are certainly real, yeah. They ranged the oceans of the world, from small critters to Plioplatecarpus to huge monsters like Tylosaurus. But they're not dinosaurs--they're basically marine monitor lizards.*

Troodon is also real, one of the most "well known"** members of its family (Troodontidae) in North America. The paralyzing bite is an interesting addition. I wonder if that's a holdover from the compys in the Jurassic Park novel.

*Seriously, mosasaurs are marine monitor lizards. There's an excellent series of transitional animals between monitors and mosasaurs. The middle ground animals are called agilisaurs, and they gave birth to live young, which allowed the group to invade the oceans in the first place. They also had overlapping, keeled scales and caudal flukes, so they were effing awesome.

**Troodontids are a sister group to Dromaeosauridae, and those two together (Deinonychosaurs) are a sister group to Aves (birds). Troodontids are more poorly-known. They weren't as robust and tended to be smaller, so fossilization was rarer. They're far more common in Asia. The North American fossils have basically all been sunk into "Troodon," but most remains are so fragmentary that's it's entirely unclear what the true troodontid diversity in NA is.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on November 21, 2011, 07:58:30 AM
Ghost Trick (DS)


This is a tough game to rate.


The story was well-written and always compelling due to interesting characters and unexpected twists. Each stage introduces new environments that contain a series of short puzzles to solve. The graphics and animation in this game were very impressive; still screenshots don't do it justice. Unfortunately, because the game is highly story-driven and relies almost entirely on unique environmental puzzles to progress, after you've completed it once you've seen virtually all of the content available and have little reason to play again.


So who will like Ghost Trick? Fans of the Phoenix Wright series, point-and-click adventures, or games with strong stories. Who should stay away? Anyone who prefers action over cut-scenes or judges games based on how long they get played instead of how enjoyable they are while playing.



Ghost Trick is definitely worth playing. Just think carefully about how much you are willing to pay for a one-shot playthrough of 10 to 12 hours; personally, I feel that a sub-$20 price point is perfect for this game.


Verdict: 8.5/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on November 21, 2011, 09:54:22 AM
999

damn digital roots.
I'm pretty damn sure that zero was/is  a disgruntled math teacher
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on November 21, 2011, 10:16:43 AM
Mosasaurs are certainly real, yeah. They ranged the oceans of the world, from small critters to Plioplatecarpus to huge monsters like Tylosaurus. But they're not dinosaurs--they're basically marine monitor lizards.*

Troodon is also real, one of the most "well known"** members of its family (Troodontidae) in North America. The paralyzing bite is an interesting addition. I wonder if that's a holdover from the compys in the Jurassic Park novel.

*Seriously, mosasaurs are marine monitor lizards. There's an excellent series of transitional animals between monitors and mosasaurs. The middle ground animals are called agilisaurs, and they gave birth to live young, which allowed the group to invade the oceans in the first place. They also had overlapping, keeled scales and caudal flukes, so they were effing awesome.

**Troodontids are a sister group to Dromaeosauridae, and those two together (Deinonychosaurs) are a sister group to Aves (birds). Troodontids are more poorly-known. They weren't as robust and tended to be smaller, so fossilization was rarer. They're far more common in Asia. The North American fossils have basically all been sunk into "Troodon," but most remains are so fragmentary that's it's entirely unclear what the true troodontid diversity in NA is.
Pics or those pieces of Dinosaur Era's life didn't happen. :P
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on November 21, 2011, 07:01:42 PM
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fd/999_Cover_Art.jpg)

999


An engrossing story that takes some cues from the puzzles of professor layton and story elements of the pheonix wright games (near the end) while tossing in some mystery and gore...Minus gameplay. 999 is a visual novel folks, expect minimal gameplay and treat it as if you're reading a choose your own adventure novel with pictures. If you go in expecting a "game" you will be sorely dissapointed. It isnt perfect, some of the dialogue is a little cringeworthy but thankfully, are isolated moments and... (major spoiler dont highlight if you haven't finished)snake getting shot 6 freaking times by a revolver close range and somehow doesnt die from that...and we're talking about a scrawny guy here not Solid snake, that moment really took me out of the story but the story still manages to grab a hold of you and takes you for a ride.

The ending however dissapointed me with its intentional inconclusivness in an attempt to make me re-read the story with another ending. The rollercoaster ride there was worth it but I'd rather just look up the different endings online.

8/10
Its already out of print. its worth the regular retail price of $30 but i wouldn't go spending anything more than that.

btw this is rated M for a reason, don't buy it for your kidsunless you want to scar them for life.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on November 21, 2011, 10:52:10 PM



...


8/10
Its already out of print. its worth the regular retail price of $30 but i wouldn't go spending anything more than that.


Timely review.  I've been thinking about this game for a while but needed a shove to go ahead and purchase. Doubt that it'll be in print for long... so this review gave me the incentive necessary to order.


FYI: Amazon has the game available and on sale for $15.99. Anyone else looking for a copy should pick it up while they are still available... and while ordering, why not toss in a copy of Ghost Trick for an additional $14.50? Great way to qualify for free shipping!
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on November 22, 2011, 04:31:22 AM
Nice price for 999. 

Just finished a couple of titles and here's my take:
Fear 3 or F3AR (PS3) is going end up disappointing many of the orginal fans of this FPS-horror series.  It just doesn't have that scare factor so all you'll left with is a ho-hum single player mode.  Saddly I would think your character would be developing more "powers" as the series continues but the game never gives the player the ablity to use anything other than slowtime.  Tried the MP mode but couldn't connect because there's 0 players online.
An 5/10, not broken but there's plenty of other FPS worth playing.

Also wrapped up Call of Duty Black Ops (PS3) Single player mode.  Man is this single player mode brutal.  It's been awhile since I had to play an FPS in normal mode because of the challenge.  It's not really because of the AI but because there's no cover system and you'll only surive a couple of rounds in you.  Some of the set pieces where amazing and they picked songs that just fit the mood. 

An 8/10, decent singleplayer mode for an CoD game. 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on November 22, 2011, 10:25:45 AM
FYI: Amazon has the game available and on sale for $15.99. Anyone else looking for a copy should pick it up while they are still available... and while ordering, why not toss in a copy of Ghost Trick for an additional $14.50? Great way to qualify for free shipping!


Whoever hasn't played either of these should jump on that, both are great games.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on November 22, 2011, 10:26:51 PM
Mosasaurs are certainly real, yeah. They ranged the oceans of the world, from small critters to Plioplatecarpus to huge monsters like Tylosaurus. But they're not dinosaurs--they're basically marine monitor lizards.*

Troodon is also real, one of the most "well known"** members of its family (Troodontidae) in North America. The paralyzing bite is an interesting addition. I wonder if that's a holdover from the compys in the Jurassic Park novel.

*Seriously, mosasaurs are marine monitor lizards. There's an excellent series of transitional animals between monitors and mosasaurs. The middle ground animals are called agilisaurs, and they gave birth to live young, which allowed the group to invade the oceans in the first place. They also had overlapping, keeled scales and caudal flukes, so they were effing awesome.

**Troodontids are a sister group to Dromaeosauridae, and those two together (Deinonychosaurs) are a sister group to Aves (birds). Troodontids are more poorly-known. They weren't as robust and tended to be smaller, so fossilization was rarer. They're far more common in Asia. The North American fossils have basically all been sunk into "Troodon," but most remains are so fragmentary that's it's entirely unclear what the true troodontid diversity in NA is.
Pics or those pieces of Dinosaur Era's life didn't happen. :P

The mosasaurs?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on November 23, 2011, 10:39:25 AM
Yes.  Also the other ones to.  I'm sure you've got something more interesting then I could find.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on November 23, 2011, 05:40:28 PM
Hmmm...I don't really know how to post images, but Google search for agilisaurs (if there are even images of them) and tylosaurus or plotosaurus. Plioplatecarpus is a good one, too.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Shaymin on November 23, 2011, 06:50:31 PM
[ img ] (link to image) [ / img ]

Take out the spaces.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on November 24, 2011, 10:01:48 PM
Finished up the lastest Professor Layton & The Last Specter (DS) and here's my review:

This is the forth game in the series and it's flaws are beginning to show IMO.  To many puzzles are simply broken (either you can get multiple correct answers or the question is lost in translation).  My biggest gripe has always been with those crappy images puzzles mostly because of how grainy the low-res pic is and the lack of zoom--one simple function and all my issues would go away. 

The story is actually a prequel so you don't need to play the others to figure out who's who but I kinda missed the ole villain Don Paolo.  The new one barely makes an appearance and nothing is given about him other than an name.  So expect an nice cliff ending where the villain just walks away at the end.

An 7/10, the series needs fresh ideas and more functions added in order to grow.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on November 26, 2011, 09:43:38 PM
Radiant Historia

this is odd...I have skyward sword with me (still in the shrink wrap), can download skyrim off of steam have bf3 installed (but to be honest i didn't like it nearly as much as i thought i would) and could buy MW3 (bleh) if i liked that.

yet I'd rather play this obscure DS RPG instead.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: TrueNerd on November 30, 2011, 11:26:49 PM
I scored both Batman Arkham games from Walmart for $30 on Black Friday. I'm probably only about a third of the way through Asylum. At first I was pretty enamored with it, as it is HEAVILY inspired by Metroid Prime, a game that I love to say the least. But I must say the luster has worn off as it's gone on a bit. Maybe it's just the section I'm in, but it's kind of repetitive. Four times now, I've basically had to follow breadcrumbs and it wasn't very fun the first time. Combat is a mixed bag. I love running into the middle of a group of bad guys and taking em on. Fighting in these situations is based on timing and when you do it right, it's very satisfying. The stealth combat, on the other hand, is boring as hell. The whole, "swoop in, take a guy out, hide on the gargoyles, repeat" formula has already grown stale. You unlock more combos and stuff as you progress so hopefully it'll spice itself up at some point.

I just feel like I need more variety or I need more interesting environments to explore. They're not giving me either at the moment. Still, the voice acting, especially Mark Hammil's Joker, is superb and Rocksteady has really nailed the Batman feel in this game. I'll keep at it, hopefully it gets better.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on December 01, 2011, 12:34:46 AM
I loved Asylum, but you're right in that the combat opportunities never really got fleshed out (at least with armed thugs). They REALLY spruce it up in Arkham City.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on December 13, 2011, 09:47:20 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/Ihzt5.jpg)

Radiant Historia
Chrono trigger meets string theory


To me a good RPG is a good story, which is why i tend to dislike JRPGs since they tend to force feed you through 20 minutes of text/cut scenes whether the story/dialogue etc... is good or not.  Thankfully this is one of the few JRPGS with a story line that I actually gave 2 shits about.  It's not perfect, there are some plot holes and the like but I still enjoyed it.

The fighting system is enjoyable as well, Radiant Historia uses a grid battle system (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnk0FnrHPac&feature=related) which allows the player to push enemies into each other so that another party member can damage multiple enemies with one attack and a combo system that ups the damage and experience points the longer your party can land successive hits on an enemy in one turn. Because of this fighting battles aren't the typical menu simulators you might be used to and brings an element of strategy to them.

The music is excellent in this game as well however my one complaint is that there isn't enough of it so you'll be hearing the same tracks very often.  I guess hiring Yoko Shimomura (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Shimomura) for the job got a little too pricey for Atlus. Speaking of which since this is an Atlus game you probably wont be able to find it. I was lucky in that I found a random copy sitting on the DS shelf in a best buy. If you ever find yourself as lucky as i was buy it immediately. Even if you don't want to play it you can easily sell it for a profit.

9/10

If you had to choose 1 of the many jrpgs on the DS this is the one. (assuming you've played Chrono Trigger in one form or another)

final time: 41hr 27min
170/236 nodes, party ~lv50
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on December 14, 2011, 01:53:36 AM
Just finished up the Catherine (Xbox 360) and it's one hell of a feat. 
The gameplay is pretty damn brutal unless you realize that the "undo" button works for more than one block.  Meaning you get to rewind time if you make mistakes (something I didn't even use until 6c), otherwise you'll end up dying or getting stuck more often than not.  For a game based on building blocks it's actually quite fun once you get a hang of the controls which isn't perfect.  The game does a poor job with 3D camera angles so you'll end up missing glues or just hanging on the backside of some block without a clue as what lies next to you but if you stay in front (2D) than it's fine. 

Overall the story isn't all that bad and the anime is actual quite charming with some witty dialog so I enjoyed watching "Vincent" worm his way out of cheating.  I ended up getting the crappy ending but youtube had all the endings for you do enjoy regardless of your answers.

An 8/10 A challenging-charming puzzler hinder by camera controls.
 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on December 14, 2011, 07:33:11 PM
With the PS3 version of Skyrim pissing me off with its crashes and bugs and Skyward Sword pissing me off from its sheer mediocrity (and Xenoblade on hiatus while I tried to get those two out of the way), it looks like hell has indeed frozen over: I have 2 PSP games to talk about.  And great...they're both very flawed games that necessitate quite a few words.  I think I'll split these up into 2 posts for easier reading.   :-\

Corpse Party - Alright, I'm a big fan of the When They Cry (Higurashi) anime, a story about a group of teenage friends who find themselves constantly repeating 1 particular summer week that always ends with all or nearly all of them dead in particularly nasty ways (often with one of the friends the killer).  This game is kind of like When They Cry crossed with the Japanese horror film The Grudge, except not nearly that cool or interesting.

In this game, you play as members of a group of friends who incorrectly perform an occult ritual (because apparently all the cool kids these days are into that), sending them into a multi-dimensional Hell in the form of a derelict elementary school haunted by the ghosts of other occultists and serial killer victims.  Over the course of 5 chapters, they have to find a way to find each other across dimensions and escape the school before the local Happy Haunts cause them to kill each other or themselves.  Yeah, it's a happy story with some particularly grisly and painful deaths.

I know, it sounds pretty cool so far, right?  Well, here's where the other shoe drops: it's a 16 bit-style visual novel game full of so-called "Bad Ends" typically triggered by the most seemingly-inconsequential and asinine of actions.  And when you screw up, it's Game Over (sometimes 2 hours later) and up to 3 hours of play time lost if you didn't have a backup save early enough to change course.  And of course you can't skip dialogue.  Why would you possibly want to skip such classic exchanges as two characters talking about sharing ass cream (no, as a matter of fact I'm not making that up), "buttering [their] pooper", as it were?  This is a game designed to be played with a FAQ in hand, because you will not discover many of the obscure "Right End" triggers on your own.  Throw in instant-kill ghosts that can really ruin your playthrough, and you have a game that can be pretty tedious to get through.  And what little bonus content there is is pretty lame.

Visually, the game is pretty unimpressive.  This was originally made with that old classic PC program RPG Maker, and it looks every bit of it (note that there is no battling of any kind in this game).  The music fares much better with some pretty cool tunes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-kjljVWEuw), though in the early going it's pretty inappropriate for a horror game.  The Japanese voice acting is excellent, though, and the localization is pretty well-done.  Finally, I really don't care for how the ending plays out, but that has more to do with my dislike for the traditions of Asian Horror movies (where everyone is inevitably screwed no matter what they do).  The game did get a sequel, though, that presumably tied up this incredibly convoluted and plot hole-ridden story.

Overall, Corpse Party was pretty average.  I liked the story and atmosphere, but hated the trial & error gameplay and the way you pretty much have to follow a guide to get through the game with what is deemed the only good ending.  I would probably play the sequel if it was ever localized, though, just to see how the story ends.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on December 14, 2011, 07:36:34 PM
Fate/Extra - Similarly, I'm also a big fan of the Fate/Stay Night anime, a very Highlander-esque series where Magi from around the world gather in one city to battle each other with mythological and historical avatars called "Servants" to win the wish-granting Holy Grail.  Sadly, this game is significantly lamer than that.

Like the other Fate properties, this game takes place in its own universe with appearances by some familiar characters, only now apparently the Holy Grail War is one big 128-Magi Battle Royale inside...the Matrix (it might as well be).  After suffering through one of the worst 2-hour prologues this side of Kingdom Hearts 2, you can finally pick from 1 of 3 cool Servants and battle your way to the top...very, very, very slowly.  I hope you like reading reams of poorly-translated text (where it's nearly impossible to tell the difference between an internal monologue and verbal dialogue, and questions read like statements) and hours upon hours of dungeon crawling, because that's all you do in this game.  I also hope you like your 14 dungeons to have almost no visual variety beyond the one Tron-meets-The-Little-Mermaid aesthetic, because that's all the variety you get.

To be fair to the game, there are some good ideas at play in this game.  The Servants and story-important NPCs are engaging, and the rock-paper-scissors-based battle system (where the more you know about your enemy, the more of your opponents moves you foresee before they make them) is an interesting Fighting Game-esque spin on your standard RPG battle system.  At times, the game almost plays like Persona 3.  Unfortunately, all that is wasted on a game that has very little gameplay variety and a great deal of formulaic repetition, leading to an experience that just grated on me over the course of the 50 hours I put into it.  And like Corpse Party, you can't skip any dialogue and there are Bad Ends, though at least you can save whenever you want and you know pretty immediately if you made a Bad End choice.

Fate/Extra is a game I really wanted to love since it's based on a franchise I really enjoy and it has some fun gameplay ideas, but it wears its low-budget status on its sleeve and thus also wears out its welcome fairly early on.  If you can withstand the tedium of constant level-grinding, there's a decent story in here and it's a decent introduction to the concepts of the Fate universe.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on December 24, 2011, 04:27:13 PM
Just finished up Deus Ex Human Revolution (360) and here's my review:

It really does remind me of the original Deus Ex, a great game that had some major issues to overcome.  In the beginning you were very underpowered and you felt alot weaker than an standard human begin.  Your stamina bar is one bar and it depletes with a simple knockdown move meaning you'll spend a great deal waiting for it to recharge, two even when you get more bars with upgrades you'll find that once a bar is depleted it doesn't recharge (no skill for it neither).  So you'll get an great set of skills that you really can't use or abuse like you want to (there's items you can consume but they are very few in the beginning of the game).

Also the best augment in the game is "kill only 360 blast" so players trying to get the no kill achievement are out of luck (couldn't they have one that did 360 stun). 

And lastly, the MAP sucks.  The towns areas have hidden passages or blocks that the map simply didn't show even after you discovered them.  Also the pathfinder (mission quest indicator) sometimes messed up pointing you in the WRONG direction. 

It's not a perfect game but i still enjoyed most of this action/RPG game, an 8/10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on December 27, 2011, 05:26:44 PM
Super Mario 3D Land. I know, late to the party. It was a Christmas present.

Holy SH*T where has this game been all my life? This may be...this may be the best Mario game ever. That includes the 2D and 3D series. I'm just now delving into the excellent special world, and I can't stop playing.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on December 29, 2011, 03:27:26 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/z20V4.png)

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
copy/pasted from the Skyward Sword thread (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=28492.msg712525#msg712525) since I'm a little compulsive about posting in this thread haha

I feel as if this game should have been around 25 hours long, and I would have been quite satisfied if that were the case. However in the end it seems like Nintendo took some queues from Rare, and collecting musical notes is a little too close for comfort if you ask me. However zelda always had filler, the main difference here and the reason why I think we've seen many people (including myself) complain about filler is the fact that Skyward Sword takes very little effort to disguise it, doesn't  make the player feel purpose in going through it and becomes a grind because of it.

Due to the filler, this game becomes boring with spikes of brilliance. The Dungeons are very well designed and might be my favourite of the 3-d Zeldas, the motion controls are very responsive and might be the only game aside from Zack and wiki where the use of the motion controlls genuinely enhances the gameplay. The boss fights are as exhilarating as they've ever been because of both the use of wii motion plus and treating the boss fights as straight up fights instead of showpieces for your newest item. The puzzles are also a refreshing departure from what we're used to, the use of the timeshift stones especially so.

While the motion controls were excellent as a zelda game I was left dissapointed. It didn't live up to the level of quality gameplay I expect from zelda, However when compared to regular games it was still quite good.


7/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on December 29, 2011, 05:54:37 PM
I also completed The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, but if you want to see my thoughts on it I direct you to the Skyward Sword topic in the main Nintendo thread (spoiler alert: I didn't like it).

The first real game I want to talk about, though, is Teh Eldar Scrollz 5: Skirim for the PS3.  Hmm...something seems to be a little buggy about that title.  No matter.  I'll fix it 2 months down the line with a post-"post" edit when I actually give a damn.   ;)   Sadly, I put more effort into that cheap joke than Bethesda put into this port.

I can't stress enough just how abysmal the PS3 version of this game is, and how little Bethesda obviously cared about it.  I've run into at least 8-10 quests that are permanently broken, massive framerate drops, frequent crashes (many spawning corrupted save data, which if I hadn't stopped playing would have permanently damaged my PS3), and just overall weirdness all around.  It's sad because I did genuinely like this game when it worked, though I have to admit that the overall experience is kind of monotonous.  There's plenty to do and things to see, but none of it is altogether exceptional.  Even the epic "random" (yeah right...I fought so many "random" dragons in Winterhold that I swear it must be the Dragon Capital of Skyrim) dragon fights lose their edge when you've done 4-5 of them in the space of 3-4 hours just going about your business.

It's a tradition of mine to always finish a game before I talk about it, so I can have an educated opinion when talking about the full game.  Well, this time I got most of the way through the main quest (I was at the point where you need to make "Dragonsreach" live up to its name) before I just stopped out of sheer irritation with the general lack of effort and polish in this version of the game.  However, I did put in well over 120 hours into the game, so as far as I'm concerned it's perfectly fair since Bethesda couldn't be bothered to release a complete game.  As usual, Bethesda overreaches and creates a massive world full of somewhat-above-average content that they aren't talented enough to do without major issues.  Overall, even setting aside the massive technical issues I don't see how this could be a consensus "Game of the Year" title.  It's very addictive, but the overall experience is merely above-average.

And no, I'm not going to pick the game up on PC or 360.  I'm not repeating 120+ hours of content just because Bethesda can't ever be bothered to produce a quality $60 product on PS3.

The other game I want to cover is Trine 2, a game I did complete.  Overall, it's more Trine with much prettier visuals (seriously, this may be the most gorgeous game I've played this year) and fewer gameplay options, and there's really little else to it.  The only really new gameplay element added is using the environment to water plants that create platforms and bridges, and that gets old pretty fast.

As I mentioned, the game is actually nerfed somewhat from the original Trine, with some of the more interesting abilities of the original game removed (mostly involving the Wizard).  For instance, the Wizard can no longer "surf" across chasms by levitating a platform supporting a box the Wizard is standing on.  The Wizard can also no longer create a floating object in the environment that the Thief can grapple from.  The former's removal is especially baffling because it doesn't really change the game all that much.  Instead of "surfing" across chasms, you can now just stroll past many puzzles by creating a platform in mid-air, and then jumping on and off it to cross gaps as it falls.  So the game is still as broken in that regard as before, just less interesting.  Also unlike the first Trine, there is no inventory now (which makes very little sense, since that was one of the more fun aspects of the first game).

Aside from those changes, the gameplay is essentially unchanged from the first Trine, and so the game got a little monotonous for me towards the latter half of the game.  It even repeats mistakes of the original game, such as having 3-4 pretty much identical generic boss encounters.  On an interesting note, I had the Platinum for this game (#46!) around halfway through the game, because they are based around fairly simple gameplay tricks that Trine 1 players should be well-familiar with rather than progression.  I mention this because without rewards for acquiring the XP bottles (and with the player's ability to respec their characters at any time), there's really no reason to play through these levels again once completed.  That significantly diminishes the drive to explore the levels and find all their secrets.

Overall, Trine 2 is a good game that's probably a great game for players new to the franchise.  For returning Trine players, though, it's pretty same-y.  But man is Trine 2 visually astounding, every level flooded with color and detail.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on December 31, 2011, 01:22:50 PM
@broodwars

yeah thats why i decided i wont be playing skyrim until a year after it released, they have a pretty bad track record with bug riddled release software.

(http://i.imgur.com/3Z65H.jpg)

Gun.Smoke
This Capcom developed western themed shump has amazing music typical of NES era capcom games and tight, exhilerating gameplay. It's somewhat addictive in that "just one more try" kind of way but Gun.Smoke is a must play.

7/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: oohhboy on December 31, 2011, 01:53:04 PM
Wow, I haven't played that game for decades. It is badass. Just walking alone with a gun in each hand, blasting away at endless number of bandits. It's almost a proto twin stick shooter since every other shooter at the time had you either shooting straight ahead or in the direction of travel. Gun smoke allowed you to shoot in directions independent to your direction of travel.

Then you got a horse and the automatic lever actions.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: BeautifulShy on December 31, 2011, 10:13:17 PM
Just finished Skyward Sword the other day and I would give it a 9 overall. The only real gripes I have with the game is that the begining was kinda slow and there was a bit to much dialog when you messed up. I will have to say that the difficulty was balanced and it ramped up at a good pace and that there was enough game play variaty to make it enjoyable for long stretches. I did like the bosses in the game and they made good use of the Motion plus combat. I did see a few references to older Zelda games in Skyward Sword which was nice. The music I have to say was nice and it fit the area well and I liked the minor touches like the music changing depending on where you were in the Bazzaar. Overall it is a outstanding game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: lolmonade on January 02, 2012, 09:23:25 PM
The first real game I want to talk about, though, is Teh Eldar Scrollz 5: Skirim for the PS3.  Hmm...something seems to be a little buggy about that title.  No matter.  I'll fix it 2 months down the line with a post-"post" edit when I actually give a damn.   ;)   Sadly, I put more effort into that cheap joke than Bethesda put into this port.

I can't stress enough just how abysmal the PS3 version of this game is, and how little Bethesda obviously cared about it.  I've run into at least 8-10 quests that are permanently broken, massive framerate drops, frequent crashes (many spawning corrupted save data, which if I hadn't stopped playing would have permanently damaged my PS3), and just overall weirdness all around.  It's sad because I did genuinely like this game when it worked, though I have to admit that the overall experience is kind of monotonous.  There's plenty to do and things to see, but none of it is altogether exceptional.  Even the epic "random" (yeah right...I fought so many "random" dragons in Winterhold that I swear it must be the Dragon Capital of Skyrim) dragon fights lose their edge when you've done 4-5 of them in the space of 3-4 hours just going about your business.

It's a tradition of mine to always finish a game before I talk about it, so I can have an educated opinion when talking about the full game.  Well, this time I got most of the way through the main quest (I was at the point where you need to make "Dragonsreach" live up to its name) before I just stopped out of sheer irritation with the general lack of effort and polish in this version of the game.  However, I did put in well over 120 hours into the game, so as far as I'm concerned it's perfectly fair since Bethesda couldn't be bothered to release a complete game.  As usual, Bethesda overreaches and creates a massive world full of somewhat-above-average content that they aren't talented enough to do without major issues.  Overall, even setting aside the massive technical issues I don't see how this could be a consensus "Game of the Year" title.  It's very addictive, but the overall experience is merely above-average.

And no, I'm not going to pick the game up on PC or 360.  I'm not repeating 120+ hours of content just because Bethesda can't ever be bothered to produce a quality $60 product on PS3.

I've made it a rule for myself to wait for the GOTY edition of Bethesda games because of this.  I just started Fallout 3 because of this same problem.  I'll post comments after I get more than 2 hours into it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on January 02, 2012, 10:48:29 PM
Quick ratings for games I've been playing over the holidays:


Pushmo (3DS)
Good puzzle game with interesting concept and lots of content. My only real complaint is that puzzles - even tricky ones - tend to be pretty straightforward if you stop and think before moving around. The real value here isn't in the collection of puzzles included though, but the ability to create and share unique levels using QR codes. Endless replay value due to that great addition.
8/10


FreakyForms (3DS)
Expected to get tired of this quickly because the "action" portion of the game is very simplistic and doesn't really change or progress significantly as you continue playing... however, FreakyForms has chalked up a huge amount of playtime because of several factors: it's fun to see what you can create using the limited shapes available, there is a steady stream of unlockables goading you on, and the sharing aspect (via streetpass or QR codes) is hilarious. Not much of a "game" in the traditional sense, but a great buy for creative types.
9/10


Suikoden Tierkreis (DS)
(Still in progress.) Wasn't sure what to expect going in, but have really enjoyed my time with this game. The voice acting and video clips are nice additions in a portable RPG and the story was good enough to keep me coming back. The biggest downsides are that the quest has felt a bit guided and that combat seems decidedly old-school -- something that might limit the audience somewhat, although it didn't hurt my enjoyment at all.
7/10


Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)
First impressions weren't entirely favorable - graphics didn't wow me (although they are good considering the hardware) and the game felt a bit overwhelming with dozens of help screens explaining the various in-game systems. But the more I played the more engrossed I became. The affinity system that measures character relationships is neat, the combat is easy to pick up and always enjoyable, the soundtrack is beautiful, and the huge number of mini-quests and areas to explore is wonderful. This is a game that can easily suck hours out of your life as you become more involved in the game world.
10/10

Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again (DSiWare)
Although the base game is quite short and easy, the ability to create and share your own content gives this game nearly endless replay value. It's fast, fun (except for the annoying boss battles), and best of all free until Jan 10, 2012 -- as long as you don't mind dropping 150 Club Nintendo coins, that is. Definitely worth playing and very entertaining for puzzle fans.
8/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on January 03, 2012, 11:34:53 PM

I've made it a rule for myself to wait for the GOTY edition of Bethesda games because of this.  I just started Fallout 3 because of this same problem.


Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world of Skyrim, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRHh3Rx8c80&feature=related#t=11s)
[/size][/color]
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 04, 2012, 10:27:35 AM
I've finished my first game of 2012, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD off PSN.  Overall, it's an interesting title that's worth checking out if you're curious, but it's also one that infuriated me for at least 2/3 of my 12.5 hour playthrough.  The game starts out decently enough, pitting you as a mysterious bounty hunter running around taking down bounties with "live" ammunition to pay for an important "operation".  Unfortunately, the next 9 game hours are spent regurgitating the same formula: walk into town, get a bounty, go to the bounty's location (which you can usually only ever go to if you have accepted the mission, and you can never return there), take out all his henchmen, take out the boss, return to town to cash-in your bounties, wash, rinse, repeat.  This gets incredibly monotonous after about the 4th or so bounty (especially if you only use the non-lethal ammo to maximize your profit with live captures), and there are 9+ in the game.

However, 2/3 of the way into the game, some major (and genuinely good) plot twists are revealed and the gameplay gets changed up to...shooting/capturing waves of dudes in a glorified corridor shooter.  Ugh.  Granted, it's not the same "bounty capture" formula, but it's just as monotonous.  I was ready for this game to be over about 4 hours before it actually did, and the final few game hours are full of incredibly cheap sections of bad game design.  For an example, there's a race against a timer near the end where the game barely gives you enough time to reach the goal, while filling the "track" (which is not very well-marked) with high-damaging enemies you don't have time to stop and heal from.  Plus, because this game saves like an old PC game, if you don't make a save near the beginning of the "race" you can easily lock your progress 12 hours into the game by reaching the end of the race with too little time but having no previous save to return to to better your time.  I nearly did this, and I almost rage quit out of sheer frustration.  This sequence is followed by a double boss fight that's one of the cheapest I've ever seen, with both bosses having an unlimited combo if they pin you against a wall (which, considering their main move pins you in a single spot and that combo sends Stranger flying, happens a lot).  It's very poor game design, and should have been addressed when this game was picked up for a remake.

I also thought the story got pretty muddled by this point, as a lot of it is told through NPCs that are fairly difficult to understand.  I had to read on a Wiki later exactly what my character's motivation was during this point in the game, and what was going on with the villain.   The voice acting is also terrible.  I'd be shocked if there were more than half a dozen voice actors for the entire game, and Stranger's is particularly bad.  I can see what the voice director was trying for with him, but rather than a low; slow; western drawl he just sounds like he has some sort of mental disability.  In fairness to the game, though, it is an interesting and unique experience, just one that went on for way too long and had some cheap sections at the end.  This is also one of the best HD conversions I've ever seen, as the game looks great (including the cinemas, which look like they could be for a modern game).

It's a very uneven experience that's so reliant on formula it feels like padding, but it's not a bad game.  It's just a very frustrating one.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on January 06, 2012, 03:52:52 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/YTuPK.jpg)

Metroid Fusion

Since this is my first time playing through the game and I had already played thorugh Metroid: other M  I was initially surprised that the story wasn't horrible considering how this is another game where Sakamoto worked on the script. It helps that there was no voice acting with the story downplayed compared to the Prime series and especially other M.  This is definitely a case where less is more.

While it eschews the traditional format of flinging the player into a world with no direction in favor of objectives and story, Fusion is still a well made addition to the series as the tight controls, platforming and even exploration are still here.

9/10

I'd like to see a sequel to this game provided Sakamoto isn't involved with scriptwriting, there's some interesting places the story could potentially go placed in the right hands.

-----------

edit: January 7th 2012

Donkey Kong Country

Can't believe it took me this long to get around to it. This was an awesome game. (man old games are hard to write about in length)

9/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: FZeroBoyo on January 08, 2012, 01:29:08 AM
Mighty Switch Force! (3DS)


Controls are great, the graphics are fantastic, and I find it very replayable. There's not much of an incentive to get the par times unless you're a completionist. Recommended.


8/10 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on January 08, 2012, 05:54:47 PM
Earthworm Jim HD.

Look, I like Earthworm Jim. I know the game has some really horrible missions and questionable game design (don't let that submarine touch anything!) but this is a good HD remake, and it's basically the special edition of the original game with new content and completely remixed graphics. Good stuff, and it's on sale on the PSN for like $3. Can't turn that down!
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: lolmonade on January 09, 2012, 08:01:12 AM
As mentioned before, among the pile of games I got during the steam sale was Fallout 3: GOTY edition.  Playing it on the PS3 was a frustrating process due to glitches as well as what I thought was sloppy controls.  I repeatedly hear the benefits of PC gaming, and at a price point of approx. $7, I don’t feel bad about taking a 2nd look.
 
This is a game that feels like it was meant for a keyboard.  One thing I can greatly appreciate is being able to set hotkeys for the weapons, and being able to manually assign weapons to the number keys.  I’m not up to date on other FPS, but this is a design change I hope has become the norm.  I feel much more comfortable walking, fighting, and navigating the Pip boy with the keyboard/mouse than with the dualshock.
 
I was less impressed with the stability of the game.  In the 5 hours of playing the game, I’ve encountered a glitch that gets me stuck in the ground twice and one game freeze in the grocery store mission mid-combat, all forcing me to restart from my last save point.
 
In regards to gameplay, I do like the VATS system, as well as the RPG/FPS blend it provides.  A problem I have is that I seem to have no warning when monsters/raiders show up on the map, so they’re usually able to take a few pot shots at me before I can respond with my own attack.  Maybe it’s a sign of needing to upgrade my stealth attribute.  I can appreciate the sense of exploration I’ve gotten from exploring the wasteland, but it lends itself to getting lost.  Biggest gripe so far in gameplay mechanics is not having someplace to store all this stuff.  I get encumbered too easily, but I don’t want to sell/toss a lot of the stuff I find.  Anyone know a solution to this?
 
I’ll keep soldering on, because my overall experience has been more positive than expected, and I imagine that I’ll be more competent when I learn how to play the game better.
 
Tentative Rating: 7/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: FZeroBoyo on January 09, 2012, 07:10:05 PM
Kirby's Return to Dream Land (Wii)


People dismissed it quickly for not bringing anything new to the table, but I found it doesn't have to. It's a finely tuned platformer with a good amount of challenge and more content than I initially thought. The inclusion of The Arena and its harder counterpart brought back painful memories of Super Star Ultra.


9/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 11, 2012, 06:29:39 PM
Darksiders - I checked out the demo for this game a year or two ago, and I remember not being particularly impressed with the game.  But a couple of years later, the game's garnered a fair amount of critical praise and it was on sale on PSN for $15 so I decided to check it out (Platinum #47, btw  ;) ).

Overall, I had a fair amount of enjoyment with the game (certainly more than I did with Skyward Sword), but man this game hurts for any amount of originality, as it blatantly rips off its entire design document (without really adding anything new) from the likes of God of War; Zelda; and even (strangely enough) Portal; Gears of War; and Panzer Dragoon.  I still hate this game's gray and warm colors-centric art style, and the world is still not particularly interesting to look at (or particularly well-themed beyond generic "flames and destruction").  The story is pretty paper-thin as well, though at least there's some attempt at telling it well with above-average voice acting and some memorable characters.

Where the game succeeded for me is in basically how well it completely rips-off the better elements of Zelda: the emphasis on exploration, puzzle-solving, and discovering secrets.  It gets the Zelda "flow" just right, as the game moves very smoothly with only a minor 1 hour hitch at the end with a last-minute, gameplay-padding fetch quest.  It's basically what I found woefully lacking in Skyward Sword, and even if it does have a little padding it's far more enjoyable; shorter; and straightforward than what Skyward Sword did.  The boss fights are generally well-designed (complete with Zelda's emphasis on using your tools to exploit weaknesses), and the combat is...tolerable, if not very exciting.

I just wish the developers had narrowed their focus to only emulating the experience from 1 or 2 sources, such as the Zelda and God of War (easily the two most pronounced influences).  Instead, for what I can only assume is the sake of variety, we have elements like mediocre/monotonous Gears of War-style gunnery sections and a single lame Panzer Dragoon-style sequence.  These sections really don't add anything to the game, and they aren't very well-done.  It makes me wonder how much better the game would have been if the team had just focused their efforts on making the Zelda-style level design and God of War-style combat the best it could be.

So yeah, Darksiders is good but falls very short of "great" IMO due to the developers seemingly not sure what they wanted to make with the game.  Hopefully, Darksiders 2 (which I am now interested in) will be a much more cohesive and focused experience, rather than the shotgun approach taken here.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on January 11, 2012, 09:05:03 PM
Personally, I like the game's art style. It's all very post-apocolyptic without being Fallout 3. The Zelda elements are great--I've said before that Darksiders was the Zelda game that year. You're absolutely right about there not being an original bone in the game's body, but I don't care--the wierdest thing was the Portal Gun (that's what it is) but it's used well.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: jrlibrarian on January 16, 2012, 03:30:23 PM
Well, I WAS playing Final Fantasy III. I had just gotten to the Opera House boss fight, when the game glitches out on me. I reset the system... And my save file has been deleted. I love what I had played up to that point (I blasted through in about a 2 day period) but now I don't know if I really want to go back through all that right away. Can you guys help remotivate me to pick it back up?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 16, 2012, 03:37:46 PM
Well, I WAS playing Final Fantasy III. I had just gotten to the Opera House boss fight, when the game glitches out on me. I reset the system... And my save file has been deleted. I love what I had played up to that point (I blasted through in about a 2 day period) but now I don't know if I really want to go back through all that right away. Can you guys help remotivate me to pick it back up?

TBH, I really liked Final Fantasy VI, but you've seen all the best parts of that game.  You're nearing the end of the 1st half of the game, and the game's really downhill from there IMO.

On the flipside, FF VI is one of the best paced Final Fantasy games, so if you want to work your way back up there as you've seen it doesn't take long.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on January 17, 2012, 08:36:47 AM
I disagree that he's seen all the best parts if quitting at the opera house. Some of the most interesting (and most moving) parts of the story come in the second half*, and if you haven't made if that far then you really should pick the game back up and try again.

Of course, the second half is also where FFVI changes from a fairly linear, story-driven affair into a game that relies on you to explore and make your own decisions about where/how to progress. Sometimes that doesn't work out so well - and it definitely changes the pace of the game. But there are plenty of hidden secrets to uncover if that is your thing.

*Memorable parts that really need to be seen include (spoilers):
If the game had glitched out a little bit later - a little while after getting past the mid-point - then maybe it wouldn't be worth going back for more. But as it stands now there are too many epic moments missed to not recommend playing through again.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: HaloEliteLEGEND on January 18, 2012, 11:55:06 AM

The last game I played was probably Pokemon Soulsilver because I was feeling overwhelmingly bored, stuck in a random game, and started playing.


The game is pretty long. While I was playing, I beat the Pokemon league and took my first steps into Kanto. The cruise was fun.


I'm not sure this counts as a review.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 19, 2012, 06:18:33 PM
Red Faction: Armageddon - A pretty average game overall, though I did enjoy the mindless vehicle sections and I thought the overall sense of destruction was pretty good as well.  The story is bland and forgettable and only a handful of weapons are really worth using (especially the shotgun), but for a game that killed its franchise it's not that bad.  Its crime is being merely an average Dead Space knock-off with gameplay that really doesn't deviate outside of the vehicle sections, and I enjoyed it more than critical darling Red Faction Guerilla (which, as opposed to having a bland story just doesn't have one altogether).  It wasn't that hard of a Platinum, either (#48).

I did have to laugh, though, at the game's ending.  This series owes a lot to Total Recall, so it was hilarious to see the ending basically boil down to "Give these people Ayyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaarrrrr!"  :P:
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on January 20, 2012, 05:53:11 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/eh5QM.jpg)

Illusion of Gaia

 As someone who isn't wearing rose tinted glasses most accounts I've heard of the game's story are overblown. True it mentions heavy subjects like slavery, gambling and environmental messages it mentions these in passing and aren't really a major part of the story (save for environmentalism) which is really just the typical JRPG fare. That's not to say that the game's story doesn't deserve praise, because even though the story is only mildly different from your typical JRPG story its the presentation of the story that sets it apart, the famous raft scene comes to mind.  Just don't let people's nostalgia lead you to believe that this is a mature story. Like Little King's Story (http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brainy_gamer/2009/08/cute.html), this falls into the "kiddie, but macabre" category and considering the era that this game was released in this is fairly unique.

The music in the game is passable, it fits the situation it's placed in but the composition seems plain with a few tracks being overused. I ended up turning the volume off and listening to podcasts in the background.  Those looking for something similar to a Link to the past should give this game a shot. Though there is no overworld or much in the way of exploration, the combat is very similar to a Link to the past, the dungeons have lots of variation and the boss fights are pretty enjoyable.

7/10
 In the end it's still an enjoyable game, the gameplay isn't as tight as A link to the past and the music ranges from boring and generic to decent but people looking to play somthing like a 2-d zelda game should give this a shot.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: jrlibrarian on January 20, 2012, 06:10:02 PM
I actually just snagged Illusion of Gaia in an Ebay lot the other day. Should be here sometime next week.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 20, 2012, 06:45:02 PM
Bloodrayne: Betrayal - This recently went up for sale on PSN for half off (and still is for PS+ users as of this writing), and I'm really surprised at how much I enjoyed this game.  I've never played any of the PS2 Bloodrayne games or seen the reportedly godawful Uwe Boll movies, but I am now somewhat curious about the PS2 games.  I see this game compared a lot to the 2D Castlevania games due to its gothic, heavily-stylized visuals, but what doesn't get mentioned a lot is how similar this game is to the Mega Man X games.  Sure, you spend a considerable portion of the game slicing various monsters to ribbons or sucking their blood for health, but there's also an incredibly heavy emphasis on reflex-intensive, pixel-perfect platforming with wall-climbing and air-dashing straight out of the Mega Man X games.  You use perfect platforming skills to uncover hidden items ala the MM X games, as well.

Like both series, though, Bloodrayne Betrayal is almost sadistically difficult near the end of the game, with sequences that require swift and precise movement over and around spike traps; buzz saws; acid pools; laser traps; cannon balls; etc.  One moment of hesitation often means sudden and very violent death.  Checkpoints are fairly frequent; you can find hidden skulls to increase your maximum health and bullets; and Rayne can drink the blood of most enemies for a quick health restore, but this is a hard game reliant on quick reflexes and excellent pattern recognition.  Also, like WayForward's other works the animation is gorgeous and fluid, but unfortunately it is very easy to get trapped in animation routines that lead to cheap hits and death.  Thankfully, the dash and Rayne's aerial combat moves can help alleviate these problems, but it is a serious issue.

I also have to give WayForward praise for the game's final boss, which is both very strange and awesome: a giant minotaur that shoots eye lasers and shatters reality...with the power of WYLD STALLYNS! *air guitar*  I'm dead serious.  He's riffing on an electric air guitar as he's kicking your ass, and it's a surreal and awesome experience.   :P:

I can see how this game could not appeal to people, because it can come off as very cheap in its difficulty, but despite not being very fond of old 2D Castlevania for that very reason I really enjoyed this game.  The music's good, the art and animation are great, and the flow of the game is very fast and smooth.  Highly recommended if you're a fan of the old Mega Man X games or pre-Symphony of the Night 2D Castlevania.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on January 22, 2012, 06:42:47 PM
I'm at the bitter end of Bloodrayne and I love it, but it's a punishing game. I haven't played a 2D pixel-perfect platformer like this in a loooong time. The one thing I dislike about the game is that it's virtually impossible to get anything other than a C-grade on the levels in the 2nd half of the game. There's also kind of a dearth of enemy types. However, Bloodrayne's idle animation makes up for a lot (although it takes like 35 seconds to trigger).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 22, 2012, 07:31:37 PM
The one thing I dislike about the game is that it's virtually impossible to get anything other than a C-grade on the levels in the 2nd half of the game. There's also kind of a dearth of enemy types.

Yeah, the game is way too hard to get a good score on, which is why I abandoned trying to do a 100% trophy run on the game, despite really liking it.  I don't think I ever got above a C rating on any level, even ones where I got all the treasures I could find and really racked-up the points.

As for the lack of enemy types, I thought the variety was sufficient for a 5-hour game.  Here's a list of the standard non-boss enemies just for sake of argument:

- standard walking zombie/vampire w/ handgun
- fleshy mass that springs out of the ground and explodes
- electric frog w/ spawning eggs that litter the environments
- mosquitos/flies w/ respawning hives that litter the environments
- "Needler"-style zombie/vampire that charges at you on the ground
- Lady vampires in Victorian gown that throw ricocheting fans around the environment
- Lady vampires in Chinese dress & hat that throw explosives across the battlefield.
- Large, Monstrous blobs that spew toxic gas and wield a hammer.
- Armored vampires that charge at the player and wield a short-range weapon.

And because this is also largely a platforming game, I'd also note all the platforming traps I noted earlier as enemies to be conquered as well (but in a different way).  I think that variety's pretty good for a short game like this, and it's about on-par with the older platforming-based Castlevania games.  But I can understand wanting more enemy types to kill.

I've also completed another new game, but I'll go into that in my next post for the sake of ease of reading.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 22, 2012, 07:53:04 PM
Tomb Raider: Underworld - I'm really not a big fan of this series, but I did play Tomb Raider Legend on the GameCube and thought it was generally pretty decent (especially given Ms. Croft's bad reputation).  I've had this game sitting on my HDD for several months now since Sony gave it away as a PS+ bonus, so I thought it was about time that I finally cleared it off before FF XIII-2 arrived and dominated my game time.

It's been so many years since I played Legend that I don't remember much what occurred in that game, which is unfortunate since Underworld is a direct sequel to Legend as well as the "Anniversary" remake of the original Tomb Raider.  The game has a compilation video to bring the player up on the events of the last two games, but you can't watch it within game and the game itself makes no attempt to keep the player up-to-speed on previous events.  The end result is that I spent most of the 4-5 hours it takes to beat this game feeling a bit lost and disconnected from the story.  What's here narrative-wise is...ok, I guess, but the story feels shallow and poorly-told, and neither I nor the characters themselves seemed to feel any emotion whatsoever from the various narrative twists.

Despite some mediocre sections of the game centered around swimming (the bane of nearly all 3D adventure games), I thought the overall flow of the game was pretty decent.  The puzzles weren't difficult, and I enjoyed solving them and navigating the environments.  The sense of scale in some puzzles is truly impressive, the most notable of which being a particular section you have to navigate by climbing on and around pillars of stone and climbing and jumping from giant swinging hammers to cross the room.  The Uncharted series does what this game does better, but this game at least doesn't devolve into 15-minute long cover-based shooting sections like that series does.  In fact, there's a surprising and welcome lack of gunplay in this game, despite it apparently being a core element of the franchise.

Overall, this game didn't blow me away, but I enjoyed it better than I thought I would and thought the experience flowed very well.  It's short and to the point, and given how bloated some of the games I've played recently have been that's a welcome change.  It has an identity, which is what elevated it for me over games like Red Faction Armageddon.  If it weren't for how badly the levels flow together and the mediocrity of the storytelling, I would probably have enjoyed it more.

I also had some run-ins with some really poor glitches and bad design decisions, such as magic water you're supposed to be able to either stand on or jump out of, but that the game frequently treats like normal water (the result being that if you fall into it, you can't get out of it, leading you having to reload an old save).  Some levels also could have done with more player guidance, as I occasionally got stuck in some puzzles because I couldn't see how I could transition to another section of the puzzle.  Speaking of the save issue, this game has auto-saves but they're unreliable and the player can't manually load them.  That forced me to actually restart this game twice because of various issues I ran into, where my manual save was either after a glitch occurred that locked me out of a puzzle, or was several hours prior.  At least it was a relatively painless Platinum (#49).   ;)

(http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/1135/broodwars.png)

That'll probably be my last attempt at a Platinum until FF XIII-2 releases.  I'd like my 50th to be an especially notable game, and XIII-2 fits that bill nicely.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Mop it up on January 22, 2012, 08:15:18 PM
Well, I WAS playing Final Fantasy III. I had just gotten to the Opera House boss fight, when the game glitches out on me. I reset the system... And my save file has been deleted.
First, it sounds like your game or system could be dirty, unless you bumped your SNES to make it mess up like that. Things like that usually don't happen unless the contacts are dirty, so if you haven't already, you should clean your cartridges and system with a cotton swab dipped in electronics cleaner or surgical spirit (it should be damp, not dripping wet with it). Make sure to wipe it away thoroughly and allow to dry completely before using it again. Also, you should save your game into all three saves slots, as sometimes one can go bad before the others do.
 
 That said, I also agree that the second half of the game had some of the best moments, though I actually didn't like the Opera House scene. It was so random and uninteresting. Later in the game is when the gameplay really comes together, after you can customize your party and mix and match characters, plus there is some late-game equipment that should be seen to be believed. It'll make the game feel a little broken from being easy, but it's still fun to witness. So if it wouldn't be a pain to play through the first half again, then I say it's definitely worth it.
 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on January 23, 2012, 05:38:03 PM
Finally finished Radiant Historia (DS) and here's my quick review:

The grid based combat adds a new twist to the tried ole turnbased combat.  You'll come up with some killer strategies to taking care of the enemies by pushing them into groups and tossing them onto an landmine for example.  While I loved dissing out the damage I felt the AI was a bit weak--they didn't have grid attacks like you do nor can they change commands input (meaning they can't combo their attacks like you can). 

The story is pretty interesting due to the fact it has "spilt" timelines so you'll get to see events from different views.  While it's the "save the world" all over again, at least it had some interesting villains who are so corrupted you'll feel like killing them twice.

As for the level design, this is the breaking point.   The levels are pretty plain looking and you have to backtrack through them multiple times so you'll get sick of the handful of levels rather quickly.  It's one area of the game that needs to be improved.

Overall it's an solid RPG, an 8/10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on January 23, 2012, 10:35:37 PM
Tomb Raider Underworld

I've always like Crystal Dynamics' TR games. In my opinion, Anniversary was the high point--and that was pretty obvious when I replayed all the games on the HD collection. Underworld is good, but I always encountered wierd geometry glitches--Lara loved getting stuck in corners. Part of this is because the game's scope is so huge, but I also feel like part of it is because her animations are all over the place. I was itching to get the XBLA episodes that weren't (for some reason) on the HD Collection, so I actually bought a copy of the 360 version of Underworld (super cheap) and paid for the DLC. The extra episodes are good--the second one in particular wraps up the storyline MUCH better than the core game does.

My biggest gripe with TR: Underworld is that it was pretty clear, by the end, that Crystal Dynamics didn't know where to go with Lara from a character design perspective. Her face looks completely different from how she looks in Legend and especially Anniversary. Those two games made her look a bit like British model Kelly Brook. But she's looks really wierd by comparison in Underworld. They also REALLY toned down the fanservice, which annoyed me because I'm me, but also because that's part of what makes Tomb Raider fun. It'll be interesting to see Crystal Dynamics take the series in a new direction with TR9.

Also, BTW, I actually think these recent TR games do environmental puzzle-solving and platforming BETTER than Uncharted, because those moments in all the Uncharted games are pretty short and separated from the rest of the game. And like you said, the damn gunplay. I would argue that Uncharted is a cover-based shooter FIRST, environmental puzzle/platformer second.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on January 24, 2012, 01:39:00 AM
Also, BTW, I actually think these recent TR games do environmental puzzle-solving and platforming BETTER than Uncharted, because those moments in all the Uncharted games are pretty short and separated from the rest of the game. And like you said, the damn gunplay. I would argue that Uncharted is a cover-based shooter FIRST, environmental puzzle/platformer second.

The reason I would give the Uncharted series the nod on the environmental platforming is that Naughty Dog are masters at ensuring that the player always knows what's expected of them and what they need to do next.  And they do this through largely subtle environmental clues like giving interactive objects an attractive color; maybe occasionally giving an audio clue from an NPC; angling the camera in a particular manner to show off an interactive object; or shining a noticeable light on the next link in the puzzle chain.  It's a lot harder to get lost in an Uncharted game than I've found it is in Tomb Raider Legend and Underworld.

By contrast, those games just throw the player into areas that often required substantial exploration (the two big swimming puzzles come to mind), without the aid of environmental clues and with the hinderance of a particularly obstinate camera.  There is a clue system in the game, but you have to pull up a menu to get it and I often found the clues either blatantly too clear or frustratingly vague.  It's just very clunky to me.  But I will give Tomb Raider this, though: it is really cool to jump off a ledge and engage that grappling hook to cross a chasm or rappel up/down a wall.

I just finished another PSN title, and it's...well...

Zack Zero - Do not buy this game.  I can't be any more clear on this point.  This game is lazy, generic, bug-filled; and it sports some of the worst voice-acted cutscenes with the worst storytelling I've ever seen in a game.  The studio reportedly set out to make a game reminiscent of the golden age of SNES 2D platformers, and they succeeded in replicating the incredibly lame and generic copycat platformers that were common back then. I realize this is the studio's first game, but there's no excuse for the sheer lack of effort obviously on display here.

You want examples of how the game is lazy?

- The game crashes when you trigger too many particle effects on-screen (like I frequently did using my Ice power to freeze and shatter enemies).
- There are a whopping 3 (admittedly decent) songs on the soundtrack.
- There's a trophy for beating the game on "any difficulty", but there's only one difficulty level.
- Every time you die by falling into a bottomless pit it plays the same unskippable 3-5 second animation with only slightly different backgrounds.
- When a boss kills you, the game usually respawns the player right in the middle of the same attack already dealing them new damage.
- I killed the (really cheap) final boss, and after the cutscene I spawned trapped underneath the boss' body, forcing me to restart the entire fight.
- The cutscenes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=LAoNnTGSQoA#t=1078s).  God God, those are phoned-in and terrible.  Seriously, watch that link, and see for yourself.

The music is kind of decent; the visuals are not unappealing; and there's some decent opportunity for exploration/discovery of secrets, but this game is so lazy and uninspired that I can't recommend that anyone play it.  The fact that a downloadable game this bland can not only exist in this age of downloadable excellence but also have a $13 price tag is just unbelievable.  That it doesn't even have a real ending, but just a setup for another Zack Zero game is just icing on the cake.

I haven't seen a game this half-assed in years.  Do not buy this game and reward developer Crocodile's utter laziness.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on January 25, 2012, 03:51:07 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/SFnxK.jpg)

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor

Finished it with Isa on Normal mode. The story in this game is batshit insane. EVERYTHING in this game is batshit insane and I wouldn't have it any other way. Chances are those interested in this game have already bought this game and/or sin & punishment 1 on the virtual console, if you have no idea what the gameplay entails just imagine starfox on crack, latter bosses aproach bullet hell levels of insanity. This game is short but honestly it's as long as it needs to be as the gameplay while well executed is pretty shallow once you look at the big picture.

7/10

It's fun, it's fleeting but i got it for $10 new so that's perfectly ok with me.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: TrueNerd on January 31, 2012, 09:54:04 PM
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX -

This was my first Zelda game, and one that I played at least a dozen times through. It had also been a high point in my mind of the series as a whole. This is my first go round with the DX version. Despite having most of it memorized, I still think this game does a lot of things well. To me, there doesn't seem to be much filler in this game and manages to avoid becoming a chain of dungeons like Ocarina and LttP can do occasionally. The trading quest might be filler, but I like how that encourages you to talk to everyone. Also it would suck if you find the monkey wanting the bananas and you hadn't even started trading and then you had to do all the trading before progressing. I'm sure that happened to people. But I really like how the game balances between stuff to do in the overworld and dungeons throughout. It keeps things moving along quite nicely. The dungeons aren't the best in the series. They're very segmented which is a limit of the Game Boy technology. Also disappointing is the Color dungeon which was new for the DX version. It's more like a mini dungeon that uses enemies not seen in the rest of the game. It's extremely straightforward. Link's Awakening does a great job of showing you things you can't get past long before you acquire the item necessary to pass them. It's kind of frustrating at first but it leads to many "Ah ha!" moments that are always satisfying.

Overall this game hasn't held up quite as well as my memory had led me to believe, but it's still quite good. Way better than the DS iterations, if that's saying anything. Hopefully Nintendo resumes putting stuff out on the 3DS Virtual Console (they took January off) and someday gets around to dropping the Oracle games. I think I played those both once. I'd love to take another swing at em.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on February 04, 2012, 07:57:06 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/rBf7M.jpg)
(http://[size=78%][url=http://i.imgur.com/rBf7M.jpg]http://i.imgur.com/rBf7M.jpg[/url][/size])
(http://[size=78%][url=http://i.imgur.com/GOSw3.jpg]http://i.imgur.com/GOSw3.jpg[/url][/size])

Legend of zelda: Oracle of ages

This is a fresh aproach to the traditional zelda forumla, with ideas and items that haven't been used since, the in between dungeon parts are filler-ish towards the beginning but thankfully the later game is more inspired.

the game is good for what it sets out to be: a zelda game. However it's a formula who's spell is wearing out, somthing i noticed after i finished skyward sword. I played this game to see if it was just a fluke but i gotta be honest with myself here, I just don't like zelda as much as i used to. 

7.5/10

-----------------------------------------
edit Feb 8th 2012

Rhythm heaven

Completed it in 9 hours. I sware to god at least an hour of that is dedicated to the last remix, and another hour to goddamn lockstep 1 and 2. I have no rhythm but it's still pure, unadulterated fun. I recomend it to everyone if you can find it really cheap like I did ($5!)
8/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on February 09, 2012, 01:06:32 AM
playing through Muramasa: the demon blade. I'm liking the fact that they only localized the text since this game is already overwhelmingly japanese anyways. I was worried when i first heard momohime's voice but thankfully it changes to a much deeper and badass voice within seconds.

As for the gameplay im only an hour in and already see blatant padding/kill rooms, in fact the game's combat takes place exclusively in kill rooms. The first boss isnt hard at all it just has a **** ton of health.

[youtube]https://youtube.com/watch?v=YehIaMRoCDs#t=3m40s[/youtube]


using tags in this forum is extremely frustrating...


edit: feb 10th 2012


normally i dont mind having to save at saverooms, but at least space them less than an hours worth of gameplay apart

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on February 10, 2012, 12:28:07 PM
...

Rhythm heaven

Completed it in 9 hours. I sware to god at least an hour of that is dedicated to the last remix, and another hour to goddamn lockstep 1 and 2. I have no rhythm but it's still pure, unadulterated fun. I recomend it to everyone if you can find it really cheap like I did ($5!)
8/10



Hmm... Local store has a couple new copies available for $7. I've been thinking about picking this up, but haven't been able to quite bite the bullet yet because have no sense of rhythm and that worries me.  But it's really fun even for people completely devoid of rhythm? Maybe I need to take a chance on this game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on February 10, 2012, 10:39:19 PM
yeah it's still great fun, and if you ever get stuck on a song it lets you skip it no strings attached. the gameplay is really simple, its all done through either tapping/holding the stylus on the touchscreen or flicking its just about the timing, In fact i'd recomend this as a gift to any casual gamers who have a DS. It's easy to understand but has enough depth in the music to keep hardcore gamers happy.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on February 14, 2012, 05:07:50 AM

(http://i.imgur.com/AgUwr.jpg)

Muramasa: the demon blade

 This game starts out on the wrong foot, like i said a few posts above it has some blatant padding at the beginning (and thankfully only at the beginning) where you're basically running back and fourth, but after that the game opens up and becomes more like a castlevania game (order of eccelisia specifically, only without separate stages).

 unfortunately however the game's combat takes place exclusively in kill rooms. you get smoke bombs to get out of non-boss battles but not very often. The combat isnt very deep at all, even in Shura mode (hard mode) you really can just get by with button mashing and the bosses wont really challenege your skills, they really amount to attacking them until they die and unfortunately the game just gives them a ton of health to basically make them a battle of attrition. The combat while lacking in depth is at least very cool to look at and makes you feel like a badass chopping down enemy ninjas and monsters.

 There's also a blade forging system with many branching paths that may look intimidating but is actually balanced so that you can only go down one tree at a time for the level your character is at, because of this the level system feels inconsequential, it would probably be better to streamline it so the game just upgraded your sword as you leveled up and cut out the forging.

 I only completed Momohime's/Jinkuro's story*, pandemonium of the demon blade (final time was about 10 hours) but there's also Kisuke's story to complete but i'll save it if i ever feel like re-playing it. The main difference between the two characters as far as i know is the story, which doesnt really make sense without knowing at least the basics about shinto-bhudism and japanese folklore, like I said in my post about this game above this game is overwhelmingly Japanese.


 If I wasn't such a whore for great art design I would be rating this a 7 but holy shitcakes this game is so pretty it looks like you're playing a feudal Japanese painting. Muramasa is  fully voice acted (which the localisation fittingly left the dialogue in Japanese with subtitles) and good music to boot.

8/10
the flip side of the coin to a graphics whore is an art direction whore, if you're like me and are looking for a game with excellent presentation in a way you're probably not used to anymore you'll want to give this game a shot, but based on what i said about the gameplay above your mileage may vary.

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

*edit: February 17th 2012
finished Kisuke's story line (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=29356.msg719674#msg719674) (7h 20m)
total time: 17h 21m
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on February 14, 2012, 09:06:24 AM
Haven't posted anything talking about what I've been playing lately, so a quick synopsis follows:
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on February 14, 2012, 09:35:53 AM
This weekend I finally busted out my copy of Punch Out! for the Wii from Christmas.  Mostly due to getting new battery packs for my Wiimotes.  I at first tried the Nunchuck controls.  Pressing up on the analog was to flakey for me so, being a veteran of the NES game, I switched to the NES control scheme.  Things went smoother from there.  I haven't made the space to try the Balance Board.

A lot of the characters are like there NES versions.  There are more sound queues and the flash red when you need to do something as well.  I like the practice mode though I wish your trainer would help you train.  I do miss the little info blurbs between rounds rather then them just talking.  I think its neat that they use the boxers language.  Though I'm concerned about the length of this game.  I didn't spend to much time on it this weekend and I'm up to Bald  Bull already.

Overall I'm enjoying it.  Its Punch-out.

I also snuck in some Final Fantasy: XIII.  Yes I haven't beaten it.  I got the game on December 6 and just haven't had time to go back.  Mostly getting the TV from the family.  I'm getting the Paradigm system much better then I did last time.  I'm having an OK time with the game but it's mostly amounted to walking.  What I played through last weekend I didn't hit any bosses even though I did finish about 2 character sections and started on a third.  I figure I hit at least one boss.  I did run into a harder then normal mob.

I haven't upgraded any of my weapons.  I keep going I will and then I go Why Should I?  I'm not sure if I like the leveling system mostly because it seems to contain abitrary locking.  I have 2 characters that have almost entirely fillled out there's and haven't had the next tier unlock so they are stuck at level 1 for all there Paradigm.

This game is fairly linear and disjointed.  I keep getting taken to sets of characters that aren't near each other.  To the Past.  Just here there and everywhere.  I'm not a huge fan of overworld's, but the world just seems relatively lifeless so its not that fun to look around.  Its to the point that I almost wish this game was just Cutscenes and Battles.  Much like Punch Out! is.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Stogi on February 14, 2012, 06:19:52 PM
Aquaria


Because I like this game so much, I am not going to give out a long review on its behalf. I don't want to spoil the sense of surprise, so you can enjoy it like I did. I will just tell you plain and simple that it is the best indie game I've ever played.

If you like Beautiful 2D graphics, Zelda, Metroid and Music, then give this game a chance. It should be right up your alley. It certainly was for me.

To leave you with something tangible from the game, here's one of the songs from its stellar soundtrack.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQWJBaWqIVA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQWJBaWqIVA&feature=related)[/youtube]

It took me about 10 hours to complete.



 :confused; :D ;D :cool;


EDIT: Changed the youtube vid cuz I found the actual one I wanted to show you.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on February 15, 2012, 12:16:06 PM
Rhythm Heaven (DS)


Wow. The game looks cute and has a fun soundtrack. It comes highly recommended - both higher up the thread and elsewhere. Yet I have never played a less enjoyable game. (Yes, I'm the same guy who stood up and made the claim that "E.T. on Atari wasn't really that bad...")


It's easy to understand how some people will really enjoy this game. Especially if you have a sharp sense of rhythm and timing, it might be a blast. I don't have that, and the only "blast" seen during my time with the game was a vein in my head popping when it told me that I failed yet again and would have to repeat the level.


A poor sense of rhythm doomed me from the start, and frustration grew quickly when I realized that practice doesn't make perfect in a game like this. Even if it did, playing the same lame flicking/tapping games a dozen times to progress is hardly enjoyable and any sense of humor or cuteness is quickly lost. After enduring just over an hour of punishment with this game I'm ready to trade or sell and never, ever look back.


So how do I rate a game that is obviously made with quality in mind but becomes a terrible personal experience?  It still gets a 1/10 from me, with the caveat that you might (in fact, probably will) enjoy the game more than I did.  Definitely not recommended to anyone unless you can try before you buy.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on February 15, 2012, 03:49:45 PM
Shame you didn't like it, guess it really isn't for everyone after all. Went on a limb to recomend it to you because I'm also devoid of rhythm and really enjoyed it. There's no point in telling you to stick with it (so I wont) since it seems like you don't agree with it on a conceptual level after reading your posts on the rhythm heaven fever review as well.


oh well, different strokes.

Quote from: my muramasa post
Only completed Momohime's/Jinkuro's story, pandemonium of the demon blade (final time was about 10 hours) but there's also Kisuke's story to complete but i'll save it if i ever feel like re-playing it.

lol, i felt like re-playing it XD

so far it actually seems like a different game, story and bosses are completely different for the two characters however there are no new areas  (so far at least), but you travel through the world in a different order.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on February 15, 2012, 04:07:06 PM
Shame you didn't like it, guess it really isn't for everyone after all. Went on a limb to recomend it to you because I'm also devoid of rhythm and really enjoyed it. There's no point in telling you to stick with it (so I wont) since it seems like you don't agree with it on a conceptual level.


I suspect that normal people would enjoy the game... in fact my wife thought it was fun and cute, despite not being her "type" of game. Saying that I have absolutely no rhythm would be an understatement, and obviously had a huge effect on my ability to enjoy this particular game.


Seriously. An hour in and I can't get past that robot level. There must be something wrong with me.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on February 15, 2012, 04:16:48 PM
At the end of the day, a review is an opinion piece, a summary of your personal experience with a game. It's important to be honest with that, and changing what you say based on how you think other people will feel is a bad road to head down. Just be clear with the reasoning that got you there and you're good. You said something that went against the grain, but you explained it, and sometimes that's the best kind of review.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Mop it up on February 15, 2012, 10:41:26 PM
Actually, I feel that the controls in Rhythm Haven are a little off. It just seems like the response from touching the screen is delayed, and even if it's only a split second, it's very noticeable in a game that essentially requires precision. I'm usually good with rhythm and timing stuff, and I know a little about music and can play a piano decently enough, so I'm certainly not devoid of rhythm.

You would probably still not like the game even if it were more responsive, but I do think that it wasn't just your personal issue and Rhythm Haven has some control response issues.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: jrlibrarian on February 16, 2012, 02:59:09 AM
I feel rather proud of myself tonight, Internet. Because I just crossed one of the big ones off my bucket list. Super Mario Bros 3. TAKE THAT LINDEMANN SYNDROME!! By the way, I beat this on an actual NES cartridge, which means having my Retron 3 left on for the past few weeks. I had been stuck on Pipe World for the longest time, but knocked that out last night, and then barrelled my way through World 8 just now. Bowser was rather easy, in my opinion, but that doesn't detract from the fact this is a fucking amazing game. But I'm now officially burnt out on Mario for the time being.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on February 16, 2012, 03:17:00 AM
nice, that reminds me I need to play that game as well (never got it as a kid)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on February 16, 2012, 08:50:37 AM
I feel rather proud of myself tonight, Internet. Because I just crossed one of the big ones off my bucket list. Super Mario Bros 3. TAKE THAT LINDEMANN SYNDROME!! By the way, I beat this on an actual NES cartridge, which means having my Retron 3 left on for the past few weeks. I had been stuck on Pipe World for the longest time, but knocked that out last night, and then barrelled my way through World 8 just now. Bowser was rather easy, in my opinion, but that doesn't detract from the fact this is a fucking amazing game. But I'm now officially burnt out on Mario for the time being.


*Standing Ovation*


Congrats on beating the game, and doubly so for completing it without skipping levels.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on February 16, 2012, 09:14:35 AM
In the purchase thread you can see I made a lot of purchases... all for $27.  My Wife got me for Valentines day Mario Kart Wii  I would have preferred 7 but she got me Wii so we could play together.

Its not as good as Double Dash or DS.  Just feels lifeless. Moving on.

I had gotten Bionic Commando.  Been interested in this game.  Here's a few things from what I played so far.

The Bionic Commando himself has a good kit of moves.  Plenty to play around with.  The gunplay is good.  The health system is hard to judge.  Swinging could be better.  It be great except if you release after the indicator you just drop down like you have no momentum.

The reason I split the Commando from the rest of the game is... Level design.  Its not super good.  A city has been bombed to smithereens.  So its irradiated and flooding.  The Commando Kit is so good that they had to make him sink in water and quickly die in radiation to confine the players.  Radiation is not indicated well and water is a rather slow death of you flailing to find a grapple point.  I would have much preferred that Water be an insta-death if there was no grapple options to get you out.  There are some places that are truly great. 

The city is pretty and bright for something bombed back to 1942.   Enemies talk and have average intelligence.  If you pick off someones buddy they don't stand there looking dumb.  I had a case where an enemy I would have not aggroed myself saw that his buddy was in danger across the way and went to help.  There is gating where you have to defeat all the enemies before being able to do x.  This is mostly hacking something.  You have to kill all the enemies before you can hack into something.  Which sort of bugs me but they should kill you when you are standing there hacking anyways.  What annoys me most about those kill everything one is I ran into an area where with some clever grappling I could get past all the enemies but then I'm confronted with a must clear all the enemy gate.  Back to non-clever level design.

My next biggest problem with this game is Load times.  It takes a while to load anything and this games loads often.  When your really get into the grappling groove you can go from load point to load point in minutes.  Which effective makes 50% of you time loading in those areas.

There is good in this game.  I don't want people to think I haven't enjoyed my play through.  I'm still waiting to have my full kit unlocked to me and for a boss.  I also think this game was done a generation to early.  On the Wii U I would expect this game to have half the loads.  Which would greatly enhance this game. Did I mention it was pretty?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on February 17, 2012, 04:00:11 PM
finished Kisuke's story on Muramasa (7 hours 20 minutes) anyways if you're only going to play one storyline play Momohime's.  Kisuke's storyline has a lot of backtracking while in momohime's storyline you're almost always traveling to new areas of the world.

personally if somone were interested in getting this game i would play one storyline and then save the other story for when/if you ever feel like "replaying" the game even  though pretty much everything is different except for the world (since both storys take place in the same region of japan that makes sense), i think there's 1 or two areas from each story that you don't go to in the other. Reason i say save the alternate story for a "replay" is because the gameplay is exactly the same.

It's very unusual for me to want to double dip on a game right after i finished it but i guess that goes to show how much i enjoyed playing this game, even with all the gameplay flaws i mentioned in my other post above. (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=29356.msg719096#msg719096)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 17, 2012, 09:55:10 PM
It's been a while since I've done one of these. I have a lot of games to cover, so I'm going to split them up for the sake of readability, the digital download games first:

The Simpsons Arcade Game - A freebie from PS+, I was very wary about playing this one since I've absolutely loathed the last few "classic arcade beat 'em ups" I've played (TMNT: The Arcade Game on XBLA and Turtles in Time: Reshelled on PSN).  I'm also not a fan of the Simpsons, having never found them particularly funny.  Now that I've beaten it, though, I have to admit it holds up much better than those games have.  The areas are short and have a fair amount of variety, the visuals hold up decently in HD, the enemies aren't as utterly cheap as they usually are in these coin-munching brawlers, and there's a good rhythm to combat and progression.  It's nowhere near the greatest brawler I've ever played, but it was tolerable.  I could see myself playing it again.

Inferno Pool - Another PS+ freebie, this is a nice and simple billiard game that's easy to learn (the default difficulty provides the player with guides so you can see where the balls will initially head upon impact, a very handy feature) and fun to play.  The control you have over your cue with the analog stick feels exactly right.  With only 3 modes (the survival-based "Inferno Pool", and standard 9 and 8-ball modes.  All are available in solo and multiplayer play) and no visual spectacle whatsoever, I don't think I could recommend it as a purchase but it's definitely not a bad game and is very accessible.

Shank 2 - I'm not the world's biggest fan of the original Shank, but it was a unique and fun experience for what it was.  The sequel is very odd, though, in that it is mechanically superior to the original in just about every way possible (aside from the lack of a co-op campaign this time), yet I found myself liking it a lot less.  The plot is nebulous and wandering, the mobs of enemies often feel "cheap" rather than "challenging", and there's just not a lot of momentum to the game.  It's a game that tries to present itself as cheesy, over-the-top 80s action movie fluff, but it doesn't feel as fun or interesting and I often finished levels feeling bored or disappointed.  Would I recommend it, though?  Eh, I guess, if you liked the original Shank.  The controls feel a lot more responsive and combat/dodging is easier to perform now.  The game just feels like it's missing that special "something" that makes the experience memorable.

(http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/1135/broodwars.png)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 17, 2012, 11:27:05 PM
Alright, now that the DD games are out of the way, let's talk about 3 PS3 disc-based games (all of which I've fully completed & Platinum-ed):

Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Platinum #50) - I really liked Final Fantasy XIII (it's up there in my top 3 Final Fantasy games, along with X and VI), but I can understand why many didn't.  It's a very divisive game that boldly tried to focus on its story, characters, battle system, and momentum rather than typical RPG filler and fluff.  As such, I was rather nervous when Square-Enix publicly announced that they were essentially following a checklist of FF 13 complaints to "fix" the system for 13-2.  The system wasn't broken.  It just needed to give the player more to do and introduce its systems quicker.

So as someone who really enjoyed 13, did its checklist and committee-driven sequel live up to my standards from the first game?  No, not really, but it is still an enjoyable JRPG with probably a broader appeal for those who thought the first game was a little lacking.  If you absolutely hated everything about 13, move along.  This game won't change your mind.

My big problem with the game is that in an attempt to "fix FF 13", the developers broke many of the aspects that made the first game interesting and unique.  For example, people complained that they didn't have enough control over their party in 13.  Rather than just give full party control from the outset, the developers limited the party to 2 fixed characters and a 3rd slot permanently devoted to captured monsters in the game's utterly pointless (but functional) Pokemon-esque monster taming system.  Instead of more freedom over your party, you actually have less.  You can change your party leader whenever you want (including when one falls in battle, rather than an instant Game Over), but as you can only have 3 single-role monsters in your "Paradigm Pack" (rather than a real 3rd party member with 6 roles) you are far more limited in your combat flexibility.

Throw in the fact that the game is so nonlinear (and nonsensical) in its progression and that tamed monsters grow in power very quickly, and you find very quickly that it is extremely easy to break the game.  For all the complaints about how FF 13 left the player with fixed parties in odd configurations, that game made you appreciate roles such as the Stat Buff-oriented Synergist and Status Effect-dealing Saboteur.  You needed to use those roles effectively to survive that game.  In FF 13-2, monsters are killed too easily (even in the post-game content) and there's very little variety in the Paradigms that are actually practical, meaning that there's really no reason whatsoever to use the Synergist or Saboteur roles.  You can simply power through confrontations with little to no strategy involved.  It's a major disappointment with me.

The story is also a disjointed mess, supposedly "inspired" by Chrono Trigger and yet learning nothing from it.  Cause and Effect are very rarely linked, and story progression often makes very little sense.  The main villain has a great motivation, but his plot is nonsensical and his relationship with Noel is very poorly explained until the last few hours of the game.  Serah is almost a complete non-character, and Lightning (and the other FF 13 party members, outside Hope) is barely in the game.  The entire plot hinges on the existence of a never-before-mentioned deity, who you would think might have come up in the previous game considering the master plan of that game's main villain.  The game ends on a massive cliffhanger, which is already notorious on the internet but really didn't bother me because I thought the story built a good momentum towards the end and wrapped-up in a bizarrely logical fashion.

Then there's the DLC.  Wow, this has to be one of the most blatant examples of content-cutting that I've ever seen in a modern game.  The game's battle coliseum is displayed prominently in the story, but there's nothing for the player to do there without paying for DLC battles.  The in-game casino has Chocobo Racing and a single useable slot machine, but characters will flat-out tell the player that the rest of the casino will be playable later via DLC.  There are several inaccessible Historia Crux locations that can't be accessed at all at the moment because they are dedicated to sidestory content about FF 13 characters that will come...all together now!...later via DLC.

Despite these issues, I did appreciate the greater degree of player freedom in what you can do and where you can go.  The monster catching system, while tacked-on and pointless, does function very well and can be fun at times.  Environments are bigger, the soundtrack is still excellent (despite all the internet bitching that was done over two songs from it), and sidequests are fairly plentiful for a Final Fantasy game.  I'm just disappointed in how weak and loose the story is until very late in the game.  It is a good game that I really enjoyed, but it falls short of being a great one.

Well, that's a lot of text for one game, so I'll put the other two PS3 games in a separate post.

(http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/1135/broodwars.png)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 17, 2012, 11:48:34 PM
The Darkness 2 (Platinum #51) - My only experience with the first Darkness was a brief playthrough of the PS3 demo, which failed to impress me with its wonky controls and somewhat boring progression.  After playing The Darkness 2 (which, by contrast, has an excellent and entertaining demo), however, I kind of want to go back and give the first game another chance.  The Darkness 2 is an excellent and inventive shooter that plays great and looks even better with a new cel shaded art style that's both visually striking and memorable.  And hey, it's a rare FPS with a strong focus on character motivation, development, and story that almost makes me want to pick up the comics.

Whereas the first Darkness was supposedly a free roaming experience, The Darkness 2 is a mostly-linear series of levels against mobs of goons with the occasional boss fight.  It's also a fairly short game at around 6-7 hours, and while I can understand why these design decisions would turn-off certain players, the game has a strong emphasis on experimentation and ends just when the game mechanics are starting to grow old.  I've seen complaints about "you just seeing the same executions over and over again", but from my experience the game is only as repetitive and tedious as the player wishes to make it, and as mobs increasingly start carrying light sources and shields to disable your darkness abilities I found that solid crowd control and target prioritization became increasingly vital.  I would often find myself desperately scrounging through environments for anything I could throw at enemies for a quick decapitation or to pick off a light source.  The gunplay became almost (as Greg Leahy would say) "perfunctory", and I was rarely bored.

The Darkness 2 is just an incredibly fun game, with plenty of gameplay variety for my tastes, a satisfying story that's told surprisingly well, and a healthy dose of incredibly violent and gory content.  Is the short SP Campaign worth the $60?  For me it was, though I can see most people wanting to wait for a price drop to $40.  There's a tacked-on Left 4 Dead-style multiplayer mode that's not completely terrible, but the SP campaign is the game's strength and that's probably not enough for most people.

(http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/1135/broodwars.png)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 18, 2012, 12:05:55 AM
OK, let's wrap this up:

Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (Platinum #52) - I never played the Jak & Daxter games on the PS2.  I was always a Sly Cooper fan, so it was nice to pick up the Jak & Daxter Trilogy HD Collection and finally try these games out.  I started playing this game yesterday, and I found myself looking up 12 hours later to see that I had 100%-ed the game in a single sitting.  Yeah, I think there's a pretty good chance I liked the game.   ;)

Super Mario Sunshine was to me Nintendo learning all the wrong lessons from Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, leading to an incredibly lame and boring game.  By contrast, the first Jak & Daxter to me was Naughty Dog learning the right lessons.  Like Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, the player has near-total freedom over what they do and where they go, and unlike Sunshine there's actual environmental variety in Jak & Daxter 1.  When the player enters an area (with no load times, btw), they are free to wander wherever they please, pursuing any given goal that interests them at that very moment.  It's very satisfying and addicting as the game enters a very relaxing and consistent flow.  Whereas Nintendo ignores "story" in their games as if it's a deadly plague, Jak & Daxter at least makes an attempt to tell a grander story with more-memorable characters.  It's annoying that Jak is a silent protagonist and Daxter can often be annoying, but over time I found both likeable in their own ways.

It also helps that the character animation is fantastic, and the game just looks fantastic in HD (though, IMO, not as great as the Sly Cooper games on their respective HD collection due to their cel shading).  Mass Media (who I really should have heard of before now given that they were the developers of the StarCraft 64 port that was the inspiration for my internet user name) did a fantastic job with the HD conversion.  Unfortunately, unlike previous Sony HD collections, there are no new extras, which is baffling considering the Playstation Blog recently premiered a 20 minute retrospective documentary on the original Jak & Daxter.  That really couldn't have been on the disc?

I found the later areas of the game more annoying and tedious than endearing, and the final boss is just downright cheap (I really don't like how this game handles health restoration), but overall I really liked the game.  It's a welcome walk down memory lane back to when 3D platformers were what the FPS genre is now.  I just hope I like the other two Jak & Daxter games as well, since I know they take a radical tone towards GTA-style open worlds and emo brooding.

Well, between the remaining two J&D games and Rayman Origins, I have a lot of games still left to play, so I'll leave this lengthy series of posts at that.

(http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/1135/broodwars.png)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on February 18, 2012, 03:51:06 PM
Final Fantasy XIII-3 (Platinum #50) -

Now hold on there. Are you from the future?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 18, 2012, 04:25:02 PM
Final Fantasy XIII-3 (Platinum #50) -

Now hold on there. Are you from the future?

Oops.  I usually catch stuff like that on my proofread, but I had a lot to proofread last night.  To be fair, though, FF XIII-2's ending does make it utterly clear that there will be a FF XIII-3, whether Square-Enix wants to admit it right now or not.   ;)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on February 18, 2012, 07:46:08 PM
At least we won't have to think about a Final fantasy XV until the next generation of consoles.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 18, 2012, 09:56:28 PM
At least we won't have to think about a Final fantasy XV until the next generation of consoles.

As I don't consider the FF 11 and 14 online games "canon" (if you will) in terms of numbered Final Fantasies, the way I see it...

FF X-2 = "FF XI"
FF XIII-2 = "FF XIV"

So by that logic, the presumed Final Fantasy XIII-3 will be "FF XV" on this console generation.   ;)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on February 18, 2012, 10:49:30 PM
Hahaha I see your point, but someone at Square Enix thinks differently and we can't do anything about it. Heck they even have Versus whenever that's coming out.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Oblivion on February 18, 2012, 10:55:24 PM
At least we won't have to think about a Final fantasy XV until the next generation of consoles.

As I don't consider the FF 11 and 14 online games "canon" (if you will) in terms of numbered Final Fantasies, the way I see it...

FF X-2 = "FF XI"
FF XIII-2 = "FF XIV"

So by that logic, the presumed Final Fantasy XIII-3 will be "FF XV" on this console generation.   ;)

Same here. I'm playing all of them in order and I  played X-2 instead of XI and I will play XIII-2 instead of XIV
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on February 18, 2012, 10:56:41 PM
Isn't the whole concept of canon irrelevant when most games in the series exist in their own separate universe, independent of any of the others?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on February 18, 2012, 11:07:08 PM
Isn't the whole concept of canon irrelevant when most games in the series exist in their own separate universe, independent of any of the others?

Yeah, I know, but it's easier to say "consider them 'canon'" (note the quotation marks, indicating that I'm using the term loosely) than "consider them real numbered Final Fantasies" (which launches the counter question "well, what is a 'real' Final Fantasy?").  To me, the online games should never have been numbered with the single-player entries.  In a given number of years, your copies of 11 and 14 will be completely useless as soon as the servers are shut down, and to me numbered FF is a story-based SP series.  Besides, I'd rather have a game numbered "11" or "14" than "10-2" or "13-2".  That just invites problems.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on February 18, 2012, 11:12:07 PM
I think calling them 10-2 and 13-2 is necessary to make sure people know they're a direct sequel when those are so uncommon in the franchise. Even if they hadn't given numbers to the MMO games I think they'd have called those games that.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Oblivion on February 18, 2012, 11:59:31 PM
So those online FF's don't have any sort of Single Player Campaign?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on February 19, 2012, 02:08:41 AM
I want to take Mutant Mudds out behind a middle school and get it pregnant. This game is just brilliant, old-school platforming at its finest, and I think it's easily my second-favorite game on the system (behind Super Mario 3D Land, which I've previously declared my favorite game of all time). If you own a 3DS and like platformers and haven't bought this game yet, rectify that immediately.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on February 19, 2012, 08:57:01 PM
I want to take Mutant Mudds out behind a middle school and get it pregnant.

Hold on cowboy. You sure you want to do that?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on February 19, 2012, 09:20:15 PM
It's a 30 Rock reference. It seemed like the best way to express my feelings at the time. Too bad it's a digitally-distributed game, because I think it'd be a hell of a box quote.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on February 19, 2012, 10:25:01 PM
Haha, I see.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: jrlibrarian on February 21, 2012, 02:02:10 AM
I just knocked another game off the backlog by finishing up Resident Evil 4 on Ps2. This was the first time playing through an RE game, or a survival horror game, or basically a third person shooter/adventure game (just getting into actually playing the games recently) but I loved it. Of course, I eventually just wanted to be done with it, which made the last few boss fights devolve into me pulling out a rocket launcher and yelling GET SOME!! . I might go back and play Ada's challenges and Pro mode eventually, but I'll probably just set it aside for now.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Dasmos on February 21, 2012, 03:28:13 AM
Oh god, you played the PS2 version?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on February 21, 2012, 09:23:12 AM
I just knocked another game off the backlog by finishing up Resident Evil 4 on Ps2. This was the first time playing through an RE game, or a survival horror game, or basically a third person shooter/adventure game (just getting into actually playing the games recently) but I loved it. Of course, I eventually just wanted to be done with it, which made the last few boss fights devolve into me pulling out a rocket launcher and yelling GET SOME!! . I might go back and play Ada's challenges and Pro mode eventually, but I'll probably just set it aside for now.


The final boss ended up being the same thing for me.  Not that I didn't enjoy the game immensely, but eventually it has to end.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: jrlibrarian on February 21, 2012, 10:31:47 AM
Yeah, I played the ps2 version. It came bundled with the system along with ffX at value village. Also, I still don't own a Wii, and didn't feel like tracking down the GC version. Ah well, I still enjoyed the hell out of it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Oblivion on February 21, 2012, 10:33:17 AM
I just beat MSG2 for the first time yesterday. What the hell did I just watch?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: jrlibrarian on February 21, 2012, 10:35:50 AM
I just beat MSG2 for the first time yesterday. What the hell did I just watch?

That reminds me. I need to jump into Metal Gear now that I have a ps2.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on February 22, 2012, 10:25:07 AM
fragile dreams

today i made a new bestest friend (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtlhm23lYoM#t=19m05s)


This guy's a playa
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on February 22, 2012, 10:55:12 AM
fragile dreams

today i made a new bestest friend (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtlhm23lYoM#t=19m05s)


This guy's a playa

We now need an additional button to go with Applaud and Smite.  Shoot lets just replace applaud.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium 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! :(
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on February 23, 2012, 02:53:53 AM
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: jrlibrarian 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.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on February 24, 2012, 10:42:16 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/eDBrA.jpg)

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 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYku-qn_rLk#t=6m21s), 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"



(http://i.imgur.com/lyATH.jpg)

The environments in this game range from extremely beautiful (http://i.imgur.com/QDN2Z.jpg) to generic and bland (http://i.imgur.com/KnqtI.jpg), 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 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCrY0y4RQ7M&feature=related). 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 (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.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: jrlibrarian 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..
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric 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.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: jrlibrarian 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.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars 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...

(http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/1135/broodwars.png)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars 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

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Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars 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.

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Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium 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.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: lolmonade 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?!?!
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium 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 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nExEyBROKFg#t=39s) 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! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBJNs-BIUdc&list=FLe6VSm040ALPtF3lv4nF65)


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.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Shaymin 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.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod 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.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric 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
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars 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

(http://www.yourgamercards.net/trophy/372/broodwars.png)
 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred 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.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium 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
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord 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.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod 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.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer 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
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars 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.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred 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.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on March 23, 2012, 10:05:39 PM
I actually think SH3 is the better game, overall--gameplay and storyline considered. Far darker, far creepier at times.

Same here, for the most part.  My big issues with SH3's story is that it kind of trades off a good father-daughter storyline for a desperate bid to make SH 1's ridiculously convoluted storyline make sense, a sacrifice that largely went in vain I'm afraid.  I would have preferred the game be a standalone story like all the other Silent Hills have been (For the most part. Origins is directly linked to SH1 and Homecoming dabbles in tying into the SH1 storyline as well).

BTW, SH Downpour does improve a lot when you switch from the sadistically-hard "Normal" combat difficulty to the much-easier "Easy" difficulty.  I'm playing it right now, and I'm digging it despite some major flaws.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on March 31, 2012, 06:29:50 AM
   I Just finished Mass Effect 3 I really liked it. However i really don't like how bioware forces you to play the boring multiplayer mode to up your galactic readiness. No matter how much sidequests you do it wont budge, in fact it pretty much nullifies the war assets you gather by cutting them in half if you dont play the multiplayer. I didn't even know that was the case until i got about halfway through Priority: Earth and then your galactic readiness drops if you're not constantly playing multiplayer, I'm talking a matter of hours here.


  That said, im not big on the combat side of the game, to me its just another gears of war inspired shooter but its the storyline that makes it for me (and i am very pleased with the inclusion of the "narrative" difficulty mode) I actually thought the story for mass effect was was alright, ME 2's didn't really do anything for me but Mass effect 3's plot is really enjoyable. The last few hours give a climatic end to the game, and as for the ending. It really isn't as bad as i was led to believe.


i was ready to give it a full 10/10 but the multiplayer left a bad aftertaste, a 9/10 would have to do.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on April 05, 2012, 08:56:07 PM
Alright, I'm finally going to get caught up on my impressions backlog with a look at 2 gaming "reboots" (of sorts):

GoldenEye Reloaded (PS3) - I really liked the Wii version of this a game a year ago, and the "Reloaded" version for the HD Consoles is even better.  I remember this game getting heavily criticized by the gaming press when it released for not looking sufficiently "HD", but I think the game looks outstanding (especially compared to the Wii version).  The lighting's much better and more atmospheric, and there are certain scenes that feel "finished" now compared to the Wii version like the Nightclub level.  In that case, what used to be a bunch of 2D sillouettes block off by invisible walls and minimal lighting now looks amazing with full character models and full bloom lighting. 

This is one of those cases where I think the graphical improvement had a major impact on my enjoyment of the gameplay, as levels felt more "complete" and atmospheric.  Aside from a horrible final level and boss, the SP campaign is still one of the best ones I've played in an FPS.  I haven't gotten around to playing the online multiplayer, but from what I've heard it's pretty decent if barren at the moment.  So yeah, I highly recommend this version of the game.

Silent Hill: Downpour - This game has been taking an unfair beating from the press and from certain die-hard fans.  However, I really don't think the game deserves this derision, as it's a very solidly-executed horror game that feels like both a big first step forward for the franchise and an homage to the older Silent Hill games.

What's funny to me about the criticism is how familiar it is: "bad combat", "little direction", "not scary."  Gee, all three sound an awful lot like Silent Hill 1, 2, and 3 (to some extent) to me.  Oh wait...those were developed by a Japanese team, so I guess they're immune to criticism, especially the sacred cow named Silent Hill 2.  No, let's instead have a double-standard and heavily criticize the Western-developed SH developers for trying to make better games.  ::)

Downpour is a very flawed game, but I really enjoyed my time with it and thought the story was one of the best in the series.  The combat is pretty mediocre, but it's serviceable; you rarely have to fight; and on Easy Combat Difficulty the monsters rarely try to block your attacks.  I could do without breakable weapons, but you find new ones so frequently that it really didn't bother me.  It's not particularly engaging, but combat has always been a problem in the SH series in one way or another and I didn't find it altogether detracting here.  The environments are well-designed and easy to navigate, and the new sidequest system offers some interesting SH short stories around the city.  The music by the composer of the TV series Dexter is very well done and very much in the spirit of previous series composer Yamaoka, though it's perhaps too subtle as you're wandering around the town.  There are also some really nice set piece moments in the game, my favorite being the sequence where you run a Hansel & Gretal school play (which goes to a very interesting place).

My big problem with Downpour is that there's a certain lack of cohesion to the experience, a unifying element that brings the game together.  For instance, when you transition to the Otherworld, you have Shattered Memories-style chase sequences where you run from a pursuing vortex, but the game never even attempts to explain the vortex or leave clues as to what it means.  It could be an homage to a similar sequence from Silent Hill 3, but it's never explained or hinted at and really feels out-of-place.  Water similarly is hinted to have a special resonance with the main character due to an event in his past, but it seems randomly malicious.  The story is well-written, but could have been tightened-up in places and certain elements could have been conveyed better.

Overall, Downpour is not a fantastic game, but it is consistently a good first effort from a new developer trying to bring new elements into the series while respecting its roots.  I think if more people could get past their nostalgia over Silent Hill 2 and acknowledge the flaws the old SH games had, they would also see that there's much more to this game than they give it credit for.  Instead, people go into this game presuming it sucks, and they see nothing more than what they wanted to see.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on April 05, 2012, 10:24:04 PM
The thing that draws me to SH games are the monsters. Even though the game was generally terrible, the last PS3 entry (whatever it was called) had some interesting creatures. I've looked at pictures of monsters in Downpour and...they don't look like monsters at all. Even the one that crawls around on the ceiling looks like a stretched-out person. So I do want to try this game, but at the same time, I feel like I'll be disappointed with the character and art direction. Is this a valid concern?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on April 05, 2012, 10:37:26 PM
The thing that draws me to SH games are the monsters. Even though the game was generally terrible, the last PS3 entry (whatever it was called) had some interesting creatures. I've looked at pictures of monsters in Downpour and...they don't look like monsters at all. Even the one that crawls around on the ceiling looks like a stretched-out person. So I do want to try this game, but at the same time, I feel like I'll be disappointed with the character and art direction. Is this a valid concern?

I think you would be disappointed with the "monsters" in Downpour.  They're not the most imaginatively designed things, especially by Silent Hill standards, though the "dolls" are pretty effective at being creepy (they stand in one place and attack you with their shadows, which you can only see with UV light).  I ran into monsters fairly rarely after the prologue, though, so I gave them very little thought.  They serve their purpose, but I don't think they're particularly memorable.  HOWEVER, the game also manages to avoid regurgitating enemies the series has driven into the ground, so that means no nurses; no dogs; no pyramid head (and his replacement is pretty effective); etc.

As for the art direction, I think the look of the Otherworld is pretty inspired, but altogether it's fairly standard Silent Hill 2-style dilapidated buildings and foggy streets.  The way your flashlight or match illuminate very small areas does make for much more interesting-looking areas than they otherwise would have been, though.  This is a dark game when you actually turn the brightness down to what the guide says it should be (the default is extremely bright).  As with the monsters, Downpour also seems to go out of its way to avoid doing the same environments that have been done to death in the series like hospitals, instead opting for some new ones like a forest and cave (which you have to navigate by match).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: TJ Spyke on April 05, 2012, 10:46:09 PM
The GameTrailers review was pretty harsh on the game. They went after stuff like the QTE events, endless spawn points for weapons where you can just stand there and basically have infinite ammo, and making it clear when you are about to have swarms of enemies come after you. They also mentioned the lack of grain effects that most SH games have.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on April 05, 2012, 10:56:07 PM
The GameTrailers review was pretty harsh on the game. They went after stuff like the QTE events, endless spawn points for weapons where you can just stand there and basically have infinite ammo, and making it clear when you are about to have swarms of enemies come after you. They also mentioned the lack of grain effects that most SH games have.

OK, let's pick this apart in order:

1.  The most prevalent QTE events are for getting monsters off you when you get grabbed or get stunned by the Shrieker's scream attack, which are of the "wave the stick side to side" variety.  There are also some "mash this button" or "rotate the stick" QTEs for moving certain objects.  It's not a big deal, certainly not any more so than any other action game.  Where's their bitching about Resident Evil games using QTEs, or other beloved games like the God of War series?

2.  The only items that have endless spawn points are when that item has to be used to break a lock or remove nearby boards over door, or if they're simple items like bricks or stones.  It's another thing that's only a big deal if you choose to make it one.

3.  The game makes it clear that you should run from large groups of enemies because you're not supposed to be able to take them on in combat.  I don't know why so many people try it and then complain about the combat when they get slaughtered.  And yeah, there's a sidequest related to calling off the cop cars that roam the streets, spawning monsters if they see you.  Monsters also get more aggressive and numerous when it starts raining, which is fine because it encourages you to run for cover until the rain stops.  It builds tension in its own way, though I think it could have been a lot more prevalent than it was.

4.  I'm glad the grain filter is gone, as it makes the game look much better.  If you turn the game's lighting down to where it should be according to the instructions, the game looks fine and the fog's prevalent enough that your visibility is pretty limited out in the streets.

I have major issues with that Gametrailers review, as there are several points where I have to wonder how much effort the reviewer put into the game.  For instance, the reviewer bitches that there's no radio to tell you when an enemy is close, but there IS.  It's a walkie-talkie that starts emitting police band radio signals when a monster gets close.  Stuff like that AND the fact that the review came out two weeks after the game's release made me wonder if they even gave the game a fair shot.  The Invisible Walls discussion where they mindlessly praised the early Silent Hill games while mocking Downpour for having issues those very games had just confirmed it for me.

As I said, Downpour has some major issues, but critics are treating it like "it's the worst game EVAR" and the death of the Silent Hill series when it's a perfectly decent game like IMO all the other post-SH1 games were.  Weekend Confirmed even called it more damaging to its series than Operation Raccoon City is to Resident Evil, yet for all its problems Downpour is still more of a horror game than Resident Evil has been since RE2.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: TJ Spyke on April 05, 2012, 11:02:34 PM
I think (I am going from my memory) their issue with QTE's was when they happened in situations like the bridge you are on collapsing and you just happen to lose the flashlight you had (which led to them saying they didn't like how close-up the camera was when you had to use a lighter for light).

Yeah, they showed piles of bricks. It was funny how the video showed the enemies not really being hurt by the bricks.

I don't know who reviewed it for GT. Does Keighly actually review games or does he just provide the narration for the video reviews?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on April 05, 2012, 11:13:46 PM
I think (I am going from my memory) their issue with QTE's was when they happened in situations like the bridge you are on collapsing and you just happen to lose the flashlight you had (which led to them saying they didn't like how close-up the camera was when you had to use a lighter for light).

Yeah, the bridge thing where you lose your items (which happens twice in the game) is annoying, but it's only something that happens at the beginning and end of the game.  And I liked how close the camera came in while you have the lighter out, as it gives the game a sense of claustrophobia and removes your visibility so you imagine more horrors around you than are actually there.  Plus, you only need to use the lighter in the cave at the beginning of the game because you've lost your flashlight.  Once again, they chose to complain about something that you only need to worry about in the first few hours of the game.  Interesting.

Quote
Yeah, they showed piles of bricks. It was funny how the video showed the enemies not really being hurt by the bricks.

Yep, bricks are pretty useless.  You can knock enemies down much faster just taking the brick and clubbing an enemy with it rather than trying to take it down by pelting it with bricks for several minutes.

Quote
I don't know who reviewed it for GT. Does Keighly actually review games or does he just provide the narration for the video reviews?

I don't think Keighly does more than PR and the Bonus Round show.  I forget who was on the Invisible Walls episode that covered Downpour, but I believe he was the reviewer.

By the way, something else that pisses me off about the Gametrailers review (and several others as well): all the complaining about the Korn rock song (which I actually think is enjoyable and fitting).  The GT review treats it as a major issue, but do you know where it appears in the game?  The attract mode video, which plays if you leave the start menu running without controller input for about a minute.  That's it.  That's the only place in the game (except maybe the credits, but I don't think so) where it plays.  You could play the entire game and never hear it.  Silent Hill has a history of extremely out-of-place JPop numbers that play in the attract videos, and people didn't single them out for derision.  Like I've said before, critics have a major double-standard when it comes to Downpour.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Gato on April 12, 2012, 10:43:07 PM
"Journey" on the PS3 - 10

Amazing game. So relaxing and innovative multiplayer. Just awesome.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on April 14, 2012, 02:47:49 AM

(http://i.imgur.com/NFwDQ.jpg)

Hotel Dusk
the subtitle, room 215 has nothing to do with the game other than the fact that its where you're staying.

Is a decent mystery novel, probably like the ones you can find at your local grocery store book aisle. The writing itself is serviceable, sometimes unintentionally funny, sometimes intentionally. The plot seems to be progressed through unbelievable coincidences that just so happened to come together on that one night at the hotel, If you're like me and like to nitpick when it comes to these kinds of things it will take you out of the experience, but those able to sustain their suspension of disbelief might find uncovering the  mysteries enjoyable. The games strengths come from the illustrations and animation that brings the characters added depth taking advantage of holding the DS book style by using higher resolution art assets that would have been difficult to fit onto the screen otherwise. As for the music...Well, it has it. That's the most I can say about Hotel Dusk's forgettable soundtrack.

The game was a bit of a drag to get through at the beginning espesially chapter 3 which is as long as it is boring. Holding your hand at one minute and then leaving your stranded the next, Hotel Dusk forces you to go through the events in a very specific order even when there's no logical reason to do one thing over the next. Failure to do so just results in you running around the hotel and tapping on everything in order to trigger the next event. The dialogue trees can sometimes be as obtuse as trying to advance the plot since going along one tree can suddenly net you a game over screen. Sometimes it feels like you just have to click a choice at random and hope it doesn't end your game. Fans of classic adventure games may find this tolerable, but someone like me who has no nostalgia for that genre just found it annoying.

With the completion of this game I'm proud to say that my DS and Wii Backlog that I've been working on for almost 2 years is now complete. However im kind of dissapointed that the game to send off my DS lite was this average.

5/10
just read a book. (or a better visual novel)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on May 01, 2012, 03:47:28 AM
Rayman Origins - 9.5/10
Good lord, what a game. My first Platinum trophy (Vita) and possibly my second Platinum trophy in the future (PS3). I loved every second of it. It's beautiful, challenging but never frustrating, and speaks to the pure platformer fan in me. Nintendo forgot how to make games this good. In fact, the last one of this quality was farmed out to Good Feel (Wario Land: Shake It).
Aliens Infestation - 6/10
Now, at the other end of the quality spectrum is this half-assed effort from WayForward, a company I usually can't get enough of. The game is underwhelming in its repetitiousness, you fight the same creatures for the entire game, there's a space-walk segment that's so frustrating it made want to bend steel in anger, the final boss is a cakewalk, the credits last as long as the game did (that means the credits was long, not that the game was short), and there are no meaningful unlockables. There's a minigame that kind of sucks instead.
Skip this one, but DEFINATELY get Rayman Origins. I have it on Vita and PS3. I actually prefer the Vita one because it's portable, but there's a new thing to collect (basically puzzle pieces), an interesting Ghost mode, and some Near compatibility. But any way you can, get that game. Holy crap, it's amazing.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on May 01, 2012, 02:22:46 PM
...
Aliens Infestation - 6/10
Now, at the other end of the quality spectrum is this half-assed effort from WayForward, a company I usually can't get enough of. The game is underwhelming in its repetitiousness, you fight the same creatures for the entire game, there's a space-walk segment that's so frustrating it made want to bend steel in anger, the final boss is a cakewalk, the credits last as long as the game did (that means the credits was long, not that the game was short), and there are no meaningful unlockables. There's a minigame that kind of sucks instead.
...


Harsh. 


I've started playing this game recently and (apparently) am enjoying it more than you.  Nobody will accuse Aliens Infestation of being brilliant or exceeding expectations, but it's good enough fan service and seems worth playing once.


My biggest disappointment so far is the overall feeling that budgets were small or development was rushed since the game manual is useless, cover art unimpressive, and some of the level/enemy designs feel underbaked.  But the first two complaints don't really matter and the third one hasn't prevented me from enjoying the game so far.  (Note: I haven't gotten to the space walk yet.)


However, I only paid $10 for my copy and wouldn't have felt comfortable spending anything more. I also wouldn't rate it higher than 7 or 7.5 - not that different from your 6.  So take this post with a grain of salt.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on May 02, 2012, 02:00:45 AM
Yeah, I found it for $20 new.

I will say that, overall, WayForward just seems philosophically opposed to unlockable rewards.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on May 03, 2012, 12:14:50 AM
analogue: a hate story (http://ahatestory.com/)

I tried out the demo on steam since i played Christine Love's previous Visual Novel "Don't take it personally babe, it's just not your story" and liked it. This time however i was left dissapointed, the Interface for analogue is a mess (although starting the game up in a command prompt was pretty cool) mostly because it makes it very hard to find previous messages (like don't take it personally, you're pretty much eavesdropping on people's emails/chats) but in the end it's a library simulator. I couldn't bring myself to finish the demo out of sheer boredom (after 30 minutes).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on May 03, 2012, 12:25:47 PM
So a quick counter-point review of Aliens: Infestation (DS) since I finished the game last night.


The good points:
- graphics, sound, and animation are generally good and evocative of the series
- many different "characters", all with different dialog
- ending details change slightly based on which marine is used
- nice fan service
- end credits start with a cut of Requiem by Holy Light of Demon (youtube it)


The bad points:
- no meaningful difference between characters outside of cutscene dialog
- every new item outside of explosives is basically just a door key with no other in-game purpose; you never have a reason to weld doors shut or to use these items
- too many weapon upgrades makes looking for them pointless, or maybe just too few weapons available?
- ship design feels odd, with many "secret" areas that house only unnecessary health/ammo refills (especially when they are right by a save room that refills everything automatically)
- flamethrower is essentially broken by having no meaningful ammo limit
- very short and easy with little incentive to play though again


Personally I didn't find the space walk section to be that bad. It had loose controls, forced you to avoid aliens instead of fighting, and (at least for me) involved a couple of blind jumps to get to the end... but the whole thing takes 3-5 minutes and provides a badly needed change of pace.  In that way it reminded me of the in-vehicle section where you have to gun down aliens using your stylus.


So what is my final opinion?  This game lacks the love and polish needed to be really good. In fact, the feeling that Aliens: Infestation should have been much better was impossible to shake while I was playing. However, it remains entertaining fan service that is worth trying if you can find the game at a reasonable price.

7.5/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 24, 2012, 07:32:26 PM
Well, it's been a while since I've done one of these, but my backlog of reader reviews is getting pretty obscene so I have to put this out before I get too involved in anything else.  Just to preface this, I'm going to try to change-up my "reviews" a bit and make them a little more visually pleasing and useful.  It's just an experiment at the moment, but each game I'm going to talk about will have the game's logo, the platform I played it on, and a youtube video of actual gameplay.  That way, if what I'm saying interests you, you have some gameplay footage you can look at right there. 

You have no idea how hard it was to find youtube videos from some of these games that didn't have someone doing a running commentary, and there's no such thing as good Vita game footage b/c of the lack of a video output (but I tried to find some good ones).  I'm also going to try to break these things up more into separate posts so these aren't these massive walls of text.  Let me know if this stuff works for you, as it's just an experiment right now.

So without any further ado, I got a Vita last month and I've been playing a bunch of stuff on it and a particularly cool PS3 game:

(http://www.gamingboulevard.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/UnchartedGoldenAbyssLogo-300x150.jpg)
Vita (Platinum #58)

Some of you may remember that despite the gaming media's massive love affair with Uncharted 3 last year, when I played it I really didn't like it.  It seems appropriate, then, that Uncharted Golden Abyss on Vita rolls around, and the gaming media has spent a considerable amount of energy looking down on it with such phrases as "the direct-to-video Uncharted."  However, I went into the game without inflated expectations, and I found myself surprisingly invested in the experience.  I actually think it's a much better game with better storytelling; a better villain; a more consistent gameplay flow; and quite a few moments that may not be "epic setpiece moments" but were just as exciting and felt appropriate to the Uncharted Universe.

Alright, let's get the obvious hardware-mandate stuff out of the way: Golden Abyss is an extremely gimmicky game.  You'll be constantly rubbing the front touch screen to make charcoal rubbings; rotating 3D objects with the back touch to get a better look at them; tracing lines across the screen to do hand-to-hand combat finishers, cut down obstructions with your machete, and row a boat; and use the gyroscope to balance on most beams, take in-game pictures, and help adjust your aim while shooting.  Even the few boss encounters are basically cinematic QTEs with finger swiping instead of button pressing.  I think the only Vita hardware feature not used in some tacked-on way in Golden Abyss is, amusingly, the microphone (which is ironic considering how games went on the DS).  Yes, it's tacked-on and yes, these Vita features don't really add much to the experience.  However, on the flipside I also found that they really didn't detract from it either, and most of these Vita gimmicks were either blessedly optional (like using motion control to adjust your aim, something that often threw my aim off because I'd be subconsciously slightly tilting the Vita) or were mainly only used in optional side content.  I even found some gimmicks surprisingly useful at times like reloading by tapping the screen or doing platforming by tracing Drake's route with the touch screen.  I think it helps that the very first thing I did when I pulled my Vita out of the box was slap a screen protector on the thing.

With that out of the way, I found the 8-10 hour campaign very well-paced and enjoyable, and the game encourages probably more exploration and discovery within the levels than any previous Uncharted game.  The storytelling is textbook Uncharted, with extensive voice acting and a reasonably-cohesive and competent script.  And as you may have heard, the game just looks and sounds amazing (especially the outdoor environments), though I definitely saw some Uncanny Valley problems during cutscenes where the camera would close-up on a character and their eyes are just dead (which is not a problem the Uncharted games usually have).  Gunplay feels very solid and accurate (especially once I turned the motion control aim-tweaking off), and aside from a few areas in the game where you have to run from gunfire or shoot goons while hanging from a rope I thought the difficulty balancing was well-tuned.  And unlike Uncharted 3, most of the combat environments are designed to allow the player a variety of ways to proceed so stealth is very much an option.

My biggest problem with the game, though, is that it's more than a little buggy.  I frequently ran into an issue where I needed to climb a surface, but Drake would only climb part of the way.  At that point, the game wouldn't acknowledge that there were more surfaces to climb, and it often took climbing down and repeating the process to continue progress (and sometimes I even had to reload my game).  That's a crippling problem in a game where you spend most of the experience climbing.  There are also a few sections where you have to defend an NPC that can be a little annoying.  Despite these issues, though, it's a real credit to Sony Bend that when I finished the game for the 3rd time for my Platinum trophy, I still wanted more of that experience.  And to give them further props, they managed to avoid the series' biggest problem: the tacked-on and silly supernatural element.  Everything in this game can be explained logically, and the game ends on a very appropriate story twist.

In the end, Golden Abyss is not my favorite Uncharted game (that would be Uncharted 2), but it's an excellent first effort from a studio that has proven itself very capable of developing handheld installments of major console games (they also made Resistance Retribution).  I look forward to whatever this studio makes next.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 24, 2012, 08:08:40 PM
(http://beatenvideogames.net/game_images/320/img_320_949.jpg)
Vita

My previous experience with the tetris-esque Lumines experience has been mixed at best.  By the time I got my PSP, the Lumines games were getting hard to find and as far as I know they have no digital versions on PSN.  I played the PS3 Lumines Supernova and really didn't like it because of the high difficulty level and the horrible track list.  I never could get beyond the 3rd or 4th "skin" in Supernova's campaign mode.

However, I decided to give the franchise another try with Lumines: Electronic Symphony when I picked up my Vita, and I can't overstate just how much better this game is than Supernova.  The biggest improvement is the in the tracklist, which you can see here (http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/02/01/lumines-electronic-symphony-q-entertainments-love-letter-to-electronic-music/).  Instead of Supernova's terrible, screechy JPop, Electronic Symphony's music is geared towards more soothing traditional electronic music, often trance-based.  While I'm not fond of every song on the list, I'd gladly listen to most of the tracks outside of the game and that's something most video game soundtracks can't claim.  And the way that Lumines ES uses the songs is interesting and very tied into gameplay: each "skin" has a set number of blocks the player must clear to complete it, and the song progresses as the player moves closes to that goal.  So when you're playing extremely well, the song hits its most exciting point as well.  The block-clearing timeline also adjusts its speed to the beat of the song, and the very visually-pleasing background animations change per the music as well.  Sometimes in the more bombastic songs this can be a little distracting, but overall it's a very cool display of interactivity in a puzzle game.

After the improvement in the music, though, the best thing I can say about Lumines ES is that it feels extremely fair.  In previous Lumines games, you had to progress through the game's tracklist in a single sitting, in a single "life" to unlock all the skins.  For players who weren't Lumines masters, this was just impossible and it was frustrating to never be able to see beyond the first 3 or 4 skins previously.  In Lumines ES, though, when you finally fail a Skin in "Voyage" mode, the game merely asks if you want to stop now and keep your score, or if you want to lose your score but keep progressing from your current skin.  Now, even if you aren't an exceptional player, you can still see all the content in the game and that is a massive improvement.  Also, there's a new Shuffle Block that randomly appears to randomize all blocks attached to it.  When I had a screen nearly at the brink of failure, that shuffle block often popped-up and totally saved me by suddenly clearing half the screen and giving me a shot at a comeback.  You also have "avatars" you can equip to trigger game-saving powers on command, similarly giving you slight chances at comebacks and combos.

Lumines Electronic Symphony is an exceptional and very addicting game that I highly recommend to anyone who loves a good puzzle game and has a fondness of electronic music.  It has a great track list with a variety of licensed and original songs, and while the game can be deviously hard it also feels amazingly fair and welcoming to Lumines newcomers.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 24, 2012, 08:58:54 PM
(http://www.gamersnet.nl/reviews/pinball_arcade/logo.gif)
PS3 & Vita

Your enjoyment of this game and these tables is pretty much going to come down to one thing: whether you are a fan of wacky fantasy pinball that does things no real table could do, or whether you are a fan of completely faithful and realistic traditional pinball.  I personally lean towards the fantasy pinball of games like Marvel Pinball, which really take advantage of being "video games" to do some crazy things.  However, I still have a love for old-school pinball fueled by all those childhood weekends I would spend playing (and completely sucking at) pinball at my local (no longer existing) West Jordan Galleria, and to that end I really enjoyed this game.

Pinball Arcade is...simply that: a realistic simulation of 4 highly-acclaimed real-world tables from different eras and manufacturers: Ripley's Believe it or Not, Black Hole, Tales of the Arabian Nights, and Theatre of Magic.  Of the 4, the only table I actually dislike is Black Hole (which is both boring and cheap IMO), and more tables are on their way in the future in the form of monthly DLC packs.  Like the company's previous Pinball Hall of Fame collections, the tables look decent (but not spectacular, especially in the Vita version); the menus are amateurish at best; and the collection is pretty basic in terms of extras.  However, the ball physics are great; the tables look and sound authentic; and you won't find a better game for teaching the player how to actually play these tables.  Unlike Marvel Pinball, each table has an extremely detailed set of instructions as well as a set of in-game challenges that will actually make you a better Pinball player.

On a side note, if you're wondering where the movie/TV-licensed tables are, FarSight Studios currently has a Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1067367405/pinball-arcade-the-twilight-zone) set up to try to get the money to license the Twilight Zone Pinball table, as well as others like Star Trek: The Next Generation's Pinball table if they go over so you might want to check that out.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on May 24, 2012, 09:43:12 PM
I'm buying a Vita next week before I go off to E3, and I think you may have sold me Uncharted.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on May 24, 2012, 09:49:37 PM
If you haven't already played it, Rayman Origins is THE BOMB on Vita. Infintately more playable in a portable format. Looks amazing. Has some cool Near stuff and new collectibles to collect.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on May 24, 2012, 09:51:35 PM
Yeah, I was already planning on picking up Rayman and MLB The Show with it (and by with it I mean when I get home, because I <3 Digital Distribution).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 24, 2012, 10:01:00 PM
(http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/1992/2132207-talesfromspacemutantblobsattackfeaturepic0001_large.jpg)
Vita

I picked this one up on NWR_Neal's recommendation, and while I won't go as far as he did to call it "the best game on the system right now" I will say that Vita needs more games like this.  It has excellent pacing; the puzzles are inventive and use the system's features well; the controls are very responsive; the game is visually interesting with a unique art style; the levels are well-suited to "pick up and play" portable sessions; and the game is just incredibly addictive.  Also, the game is just legitimately funny without going overboard, and with each level there is this great sense of empowerment despite the gradual increase in difficulty.  While I would argue that the game is possibly too short at only 2-3 hours long, I do think the game ends just as it's starting to run out of ideas.

Sadly, I picked up this game's PS3 predecessor "Tales from Space: About a Blob," and after a couple of levels I can't say I'm fond of it.  Compared to the Vita game, it's noticeably slow and borderline boring.  Mutant Blobs Attack, though, is an excellent game and it's only $8 on PSN.

(http://www.livingps3.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Escape-Plan-Logo-300x163.jpg)
Vita

Escape Plan is unique in the Vita's early library: it's not a PS3 port and it's not trying to be a complicated AAA-budget console experience.  It's a simple puzzle game with a unique and eye-catching "1930s Black & White cartoon" visual style based around merely trying to get your extremely-fragile ink-filled characters from one side of a room to the other using touch controls.

Sadly, the touch controls are both the best and worst aspects of this game, although they've gotten considerably better after a recent patch.  To move your characters, you swipe them in the direction you want them to go.  One of the characters can blow up like a balloon to reach new areas, which you control with the Vita's surprisingly-accurate tilt functionality.  You move objects in and out of the environment by touching them on the front touch screen or rear touch pad.  Deadly fans can be started or stopped by twirling their blades in various directions.  I could go on with further examples, but overall the touch controls work exceptionally well...MOST of the time, and when they work they feel very intuitive and responsive.

Unfortunately, the game has a problem of mapping too many functions to the same gestures, leading to the game getting confused at times as to which action to execute when situations overlap.  For instance, tapping on the back touch both moves objects to the foreground AND attracts or repels the attention of enemy minions and NPC sheep.  This leads to major problems when (for example) you have an extremely time-sensitive puzzle where you have to make the sheep cross a rapidly-retracting bridge of blocks.  You'll press the back touch to bring the next block out, and the sheep will interpret that as you indicating them to turn around and run away.  The block retracts, the sheep die, and you have to start over.  Speaking of the back touch, it can also be very tricky to pull a block out on command in timing-sensitive situations since it can be very hard to tell immediately where your finger is in relation to the front touch screen.  Some puzzles also make full use of the Vita's multi-touch capability, leading to sessions of finger twister where you have to move a character while simultaneously plugging leaky pipes or building block bridges through tapping.

That said, however, I think Escape Plan is a great puzzle game with a good sense of humor and (like Mutant Blobs attack) it ends when it starts to run out of ideas.  It's one of the very few Vita games that actually seems designed for bite-sized portable play, and even when the controls do mess-up at worst you're only set back a few minutes of progress.  Often the death animations are amusingly elaborate enough to warrant some intentional screw-ups.   ;)   Plus, the game has additional levels available as free DLC in the latest patch, so there's plenty of game here to enjoy for $15.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 24, 2012, 10:52:48 PM
OK, just two more left to go until I'm caught up for the last month...

If you haven't already played it, Rayman Origins is THE BOMB on Vita. Infintately more playable in a portable format. Looks amazing. Has some cool Near stuff and new collectibles to collect.

SPEAKING OF WHICH... :cool;

(http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/l1hisaka/imgs/9/e/9ec621bc.jpg)
Vita (Platinum #59) & PS3

I picked up the PS3 version of this game earlier this year, made it 3/4 of the way through the game, and then put it down out of frustration.  Fast-forward to a week ago, and I felt in the mood to play a real platformer on my new Vita so I picked up that version of Rayman Origins as well.  After playing both, to my surprise I actually vastly prefer the Vita version, as I found that the constantly zoomed-out view and shorter analog sticks actually made the game easier and faster than the PS3 version.  It also helps that you can tap on item bubbles and enemies on the front touch screen to "pop" them rather than having to run over and hit them manually.   :D

That isn't to say that Rayman Origins is ever an easy game, however.  This game may actually require more pixel-perfect platforming and strategic planning than Donkey Kong Country Returns, especially in the later stages of the game and the bonus level.  Like all great platformers, this game is all about the flow, that subconscious feeling of momentum where you're executing incredibly complex feats of acrobatics and split-second decision-making on pure instinct.  For the most part, Rayman Origins flows exceptionally well and has more imaginative level design than Nintendo's showcased in years, but I have a few major gripes with it.

1.  I despise the sidescrolling shooter-based Mosquito levels.  There's never the great sense of speed that the main levels have, their Electoon requirements can get pretty ridiculously hard (leading to a lot of retries just to get that one group of enemies you had to pass up earlier because 3 other things were flying at you at the time), and the shooting just isn't fun.  It would be fine if these levels only came up a handful of times in the game, but there's one in every world.  The experience gets old extremely quickly.

2.  That final, steampunk-inspired world is terrible.  The levels are long, tedious, and more prone to "unfair"-feeling trial & error than possibly every other level in the game combined.  It's a radical difficulty spike compared to the levels preceding it.  And it has 2 Mosquito levels.  Oh joy.  And I'm sorry, but that second-to-last level where you're chasing the eventual "villain" is pure unadulterated B.S., requiring you to execute complex platforming maneuvers often before the object you are supposed to interact with is even on-screen or in-place.  And if you don't pull off these moves with the exact right timing, you die.  I think I died more in that stage than I did in the "Night of the Livid Dead" bonus stage (supposedly the hardest stage in the game), simply because NotLD was fair with what it asked the player to do and where the checkpoints were placed.

3.  I really didn't enjoy the time trial runs you had to do to get on most levels to get an additional electoon and "time trial trophy".  Getting those time completions felt more like the game trying to teach me to play recklessly rather than actually teaching good platforming skills, and as a result those runs felt so stressful that I just couldn't enjoy them.  Rayman Origins is at its best when the momentum of the platforming feels "natural", and the time trials just felt extremely artificial.

I don't know if I'm going to try to get a Platinum on the PS3 version as well considering the problems I've had doing the time trials on the PS3 version, but Rayman Origins is still a great game on any platform.  It's an extremely beautiful, creative, and just plain fun platformer that (like DKCR) has a refreshing amount of faith in the player's ability.  The soundtrack is fantastic and full of musical variety, too.  Even the water levels are great (and possibly the high point of the game).  How often can you say that about a video game?  Like everyone else, apparently, I highly recommend it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 24, 2012, 11:42:54 PM
Alright, last one...

(http://www.gamefrontpage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Starhawk1-300x120.jpg)
PS3

I admit that this is an odd game for me to have played, especially since I never played this game's MP-only predecessor Warhawk.  I'm a single-player-centric gamer who values narrative, and this is a team-based multiplayer-centric online shooter.  However, I am also a Robotech; StarCraft; Star Wars: Rogue Squadron; and Firefly fan, and this game has elements of all of those franchises.  If that sounds like an extremely weird combination, it's because it is but all the disparate elements come together beautifully to create a fun and exciting game that's worth checking out both online and offline.

To break down the elements, this game's setting is what's commonly known as a "space western": mankind has journeyed out into the stars but people struggle to survive on the lawless new frontier (ala Firefly).  During battle, players can expend acquired "rift" energy to call down structures from low orbit to build vehicles and defenses (ala StarCraft).  Battle often take place on multiple fronts, necessitating the player to constantly switch from fighting a ground war to taking the battle to the skies in aerial dogfights involving fighter craft called Hawks (ala the Rogue Squadron series).  As for the Hawks, they can transform between a ground-based bipedal mech and an aerial combat fighter craft (ala Robotech).  These elements together give the game a unique and interesting feel I haven't seen in any other game this generation.  The player's ability to potentially change the flow of the game at any time by dropping new structures at almost any given flat terrain gives the game a tone of unpredictability that keeps the experience fresh.  You can even use your spawn-triggered drop pod or incoming structures as weapons if timed right to crush an incoming foe.

Unlike Warhawk, Starhawk does have a Single-player campaign, and while it's not the greatest thing I've ever played it's competently designed and does a really good job of teaching the player what they'll need to know for multiplayer.  The story is weak, but serviceable and it does feel like the developers made an effort to tell a story when it really wasn't necessary.  I also appreciate that the single-player campaign has its own unique flavor compared to the multiplayer: whereas the latter is based around the usual team deathmatch/zones/capture-the-flag structure, the single-player campaign is largely based on defending structures with elements of Tower Defense.  When the single-player works (as it does in the SP level in that youtube video, which is my favorite level in the game), it feels very similar to the old Rogue Squadron games with the constant switching between aerial and ground-based combat with some light base-building.

The multiplayer, though, is where the game really shines.  Maps are huge, and battles can get pretty chaotic with 32 players (16 on each team) running around; dogfighting; bombing structures; calling down new structures; shooting each other in tanks; etc.  I really only have a handful of complaints about the game:

1.  Although the sheer number of things you can tweak when creating a match is impressive, the game still only has 3 modes (team deathmatch, capture-the-flag, zones) and that can get a bit repetitive.  "Capture the Flag" also has some major issues since players can call down defensive structures, as I've seen many matches end in ties just because no one can get at the flag through the gauntlet of defensive structures BOTH teams throw around the flag.

2.  There is a co-op based "Horde Mode" called Prospector mode where your team protects a structure from 6 waves of enemy attacks, but there's no matchmaking for that mode.  Either your friends play it with you after you invite them, or you play it on your own.

3.  It can sometimes feel a bit random what the game determines to be "build-able" flat ground.

4.  While the SP campaign does a good job of teaching you the game's easy-to-use interface, it also teaches you bad habits when it comes to your life expectancy in combat.  For example, while Hawks can withstand a fair amount of punishment in SP and feel really powerful, in MP the things might as well be made of paper.  There's definitely still a learning curve going into MP.

5.  The SP campaign has a real problem conveying a sense of urgency in most of the missions.  When a campaign objective is under attack, it doesn't often feel like anything's actually in danger and it's easy to "game the system" by waiting to trigger events until you've farmed a suitable amount of rift energy to make things easier.

All that said, I'm surprised at just how much I enjoyed Starhawk, especially the multiplayer (though the single-player campaign is by no means "bad", and I'm glad it's there).  It's a game where, no matter what you do and no matter how you play, you always feel like you're making a valuable contribution and the action is fast and frantic.  It's a 3rd person shooter; a vehicular combat game; an aerial dogfighting game; and a strategy game to some extent, and somehow it all works.  I think it might be a tough sell to people at $60 and I think Sony threw it out into the marketplace to die with no marketing, but it's a quality title worth checking out.  Also, Sony has already announced that all map packs for this game will be free, so the online community shouldn't be fractured like apparently the Warhawk one was.

Phew.  That's it.  I'm caught-up at last, and I'm going to try to not build up a reviews backlog like that again.  :D
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on May 25, 2012, 12:19:16 AM
holy hell Broodwars.

(http://i.imgur.com/w7H2S.gif)


As for me it looks like im in the last act in Xenoblade. I swear to god if i have to activate another lift im going to choke a bitch.

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on May 25, 2012, 12:49:32 AM
Sony needs to put their money where their mouth is with all the talk of how easy it is to port to Vita from PS3 and port Starhawk to it, because based on broodwars' review I'd buy it in a second if it were available for that platform.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 25, 2012, 01:15:07 AM
Sony needs to put their money where their mouth is with all the talk of how easy it is to port to Vita from PS3 and port Starhawk to it, because based on broodwars' review I'd buy it in a second if it were available for that platform.

I think the problem with such a port would be handling the high player count, as well as the sheer amount of carnage that can happen in a given match at any time.  The Vita really hasn't had any games that have pushed team-based online multiplayer, so it's hard to say for sure how badly the player count would have to be cut.  As one of the keys that makes Starhawk multiplayer work is being part of this big epic battle that's constantly adapting, I think you'd lose that with a significantly smaller player count on Vita.

The idea has merit (especially since Sony isn't doing jack to hype Starhawk right now on PS3), but I'll have a better idea what the Vita can handle in terms of online play next week after I pick up Resistance: Burning Skies (which has a maximum of 8 players).

holy hell Broodwars.

Thank you.  *takes a bow*  :cool;   Yeah, as you can see there's a reason I'd been putting all that writing off for a month.  I have to be in a certain mood to write for almost 4 hours, though once I get past my usual writer's block with the intro things tend to move along nicely.  As I said, I'm going to try to avoid having to do so much writing in the future by getting these things out sooner.

By the way, you should know that it was your Hotel Dusk review that inspired me to try to add some visual flavor to my reviews.   ;)

I need to get back to Xenoblade at some point.  I got to Sword Valley sometime last year, but a particular plot point just before it disappointed me and I was growing tired of grinding Affinity so I put the game back on the shelf.  I did really enjoy that game, though, and I'll probably be in a "big, epic RPG" mood again sometime in the near future.

Incidentally, the PS3's new Move-only game Sorcery is probably going to be my next review, as I picked it (and Mass Effect 3, which was on sale for half off) up today.  I am looking forward to actually having something seemingly decent to play with my Move controller for once.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on May 25, 2012, 02:27:23 AM
Ah crap, that's right, I wanted to get Resistance too. Something is going to have to wait with all the money I have to spend in the next few weeks.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 25, 2012, 02:34:09 AM
Ah crap, that's right, I wanted to get Resistance too. Something is going to have to wait with all the money I have to spend in the next few weeks.

You should probably factor into your purchasing decision that apparently Resistance: Burning Skies' SP Campaign is, at best, 6 hours long.  That just leaves the multiplayer, & I don't know how much you're into online deathmatch multiplayer.

Between what I've heard about Resistance and what I've played of Uncharted, I'd probably recommend Uncharted (though it should be noted that Uncharted will cost you $10 more because...it's Uncharted).  There's more SP content there (though no MP at all), the production values seem better, and there just seems to be more overall polish.  Of course, I'll throw a big wrench into that clear recommendation by reminding you that Lumines: Electronic Symphony is awesome, and it has a demo if you need convincing.  ;)

The nice thing about Vita, though, is that most of the retail games on it cost $5 less if you buy the digital version off PSN.  Of course, though, Sony's $100 price tag for the only Vita memory card you should buy (32 GB version), is an extremely bitter pill to swallow to store those retail games.
 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on May 25, 2012, 02:48:43 AM
I actually already bought the 32 GB memory card. It's $80 on Amazon at the moment, much easier to swallow than the MSRP (still about four times what I could get an SD card of the same size for, though).

Lumines sounds interesting, but it's just not worth what they're charging to me. I'll check out the demo, though, maybe that will convince me otherwise. Do the Resistance games offer bots for multiplayer? That seems like a good feature to include in a handheld FPS, but they're pretty rare these days in any shooter.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on May 25, 2012, 03:03:53 AM
Do the Resistance games offer bots for multiplayer? That seems like a good feature to include in a handheld FPS, but they're pretty rare these days in any shooter.

None of the previous Resistance games have supported offline multiplayer with bots, and after some quick research just now it looks like the Burning Skies devs have confirmed that their game doesn't have it either.  Maybe that feature will come in a future Vita Resistance or Uncharted game, but not these ones.  But hey, Gravity Rush releases on June 12th, and that looks to be a pretty cool and meaty experience.

Incidentally, a cool thing about Starhawk that might interest you is that it's one of the exceptionally rare PS3 games (I've only previously seen it in LittleBigPlanet) where you can play online multiplayer with a friend in Split/Screen mode, each of you signed into your own PSN account (provided the PS3 has that account already loaded onto it).  You can play Co-Op that way as well.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on May 25, 2012, 03:20:23 AM
Well I'm definitely getting MLB and Rayman, and I'll have to look into the rest. Also, since I never owned a PSP, I've got a pretty huge backlog to work through, and if they ever get around to supporting PS1 games there's a good amount of stuff there I'd want to play as well.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on May 31, 2012, 04:10:35 AM
Xenoblade

lolend.
it's like if gurren lagan and evangelion had a baby....No scratch that, somebody at monolith watched Madoka Magica.
its too bad i couldn't save right before the final area, it was pretty cool.

best rpg of the generation/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Oblivion on May 31, 2012, 02:01:49 PM
I liked the first person ending.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on May 31, 2012, 07:27:16 PM
Just finished up Assassin's Creed Revelations (360) and here's my quick review.

First off the game really does a poor job of "recapping" previous events to help new players entering into the series, which really didn't bother me much since I played them all but for new players that might be a problem.  Also, for main plot stake it's a bit thin, like only two or three sentences at the end actually applies to Desmond the rest of it is just plain filler and it's nothing all that great.

Plot aside the gameplay is better tuned but you'll find most missions are a bit simple since you can call for reinforcements, use bombs, ect to blast apart the poor AI who really don't have a chance.  There's nothing really "new" to mission structure outside the new mini-game with is a type of defend-rts.  Overall it's all feels the same.

Overall it has high production valve but it doesn't have many epic moments where it's going set it apart from the 3 other AC games.  An 7 out of 10.

----------------------------------------------------------
For Broodwars since he mentioned the crossbow's poor aim.  The newest patches haven't fix the issues,  You have to just tab L2 to switch between characters but the autoaim seems to miss when there's a group of people and there's also issues with it failing to work at all when it comes down to locking on to enemies on the ground.  There was one mission where you had to protect someone from the rooftops and to get the 100% sync rate you couldn't let that person get hurt.  It seemed almost impossible but I found that throwing bombs down worked and it didn't hurt your squire or whoever it was so that's how I avoided that mess.
====================================
Next up, Uncharted 3--yeah, i'm still working on 2011 games :(.
 

 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on June 02, 2012, 12:10:37 PM
Finished up Uncharted 3 (PS3) and here's a few of my thoughts.

While it's still an great game a couple of odd decisions where made that kept the game from being a classic.  For starters the game's tone beomes to serious--with a couple of jokesters like Nate and Sully the game should have stayed in it's element with great one liners.  A couple of characters get dismissed early in the game, Chloe and whatever that meathead guy's name was let go 1/3 of the game in which really only leaves you with two characters to work with. 

Another odd design was the game's choice of "rail" sections.  Seemed alot of time you'll just guiding Nate down a tunnel or walk through a desert but it was a bit overdone. 

Still, I love the Uncharted series and while this game isn't the stellar game 2 was it's still an great way to waste an weekend.  An 8.5/10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on June 02, 2012, 02:51:05 PM
Deus Ex: Human revolution
not a fan of Jensen's voice actor, it really seems like they were basically trying to make the game star Keanu Reeves but didnt have the budget so they hired someone who sounded like him and based their character design off of him. That aside this game is really good at scratching my mass effect dialogue tree itch.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: lolmonade on June 10, 2012, 02:51:19 PM
LIMBO (PC)
 
 Picked up this game on the most recent humble indie bundle.  An indie puzzle platformer with a unique visual aesthetic.  The game starts simple enough with the puzzles, and build in complexity as you go along.  Near the end, the puzzles seemed to involve specific step-by-step solutions that needed to take place in perfect succession.  While I found the puzzles themselves to be challenging but not frustrating, most of my mistakes that led to my death involved a mistimed jump, which can be aggravating.
 
 The character designs and environments were for the most part visually pleasing and a nice deviation from other indie games, but I found at times that it was difficult to distinguish the foreground and background.
 
 I was surprised at how short the game was.  If the price is right, this is definitely a worthy investment of time, but I'm not sure how i'd felt if I had paid the full $15 price tag.
 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on June 12, 2012, 03:43:27 AM
Finished Deus ex: human revolution

a first person game with a good story? *gasp* it can be done! Don't get me wrong it isn't like the best thing ever but at least it wasn't the typical lowest common denominator stuff. I remember the marketing talking big game about how you can play this game any way you want but it was clear to me from the very beginning that the dev team clearly wanted you to go stealth. as a stealth game it was actually pretty good, i usually just end up getting frusterated at stealth games too. If you're still iffy about whether or not you should buy it just wait for a steam sale where its sold at a stupidly low price.

also this game suffers from mass effect 3 syndrome where all the endings are the same. well i wasn't THAT surprised since i knew the game was a prequel to the original Deus ex. the ride there was worth it though
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on June 14, 2012, 11:59:44 AM
Just finished up Metroid Other M (WII) and it truly is as bad as people claim it is.  First off anything to do with FPS mode in that game was freaking garbage, you're forced into this mode to look for clues and 90% I couldn't tell what the fook I was supposed to find.  I'm not the only one since the net is filled with 100's of people getting stuck and luckly since I'm playing an 2 year old game there's plenty of helping guides.

The other part of FPS mode is you have to track you enemies with the pointer which means Samus has to be standing still to use it and it's the only way for you to fire super missiles which is needed for shielded enemy types.  Hated it.  Takes too long to charge (though you can find items in game to reduce charge) and some of the later bosses don't pause long enough for you do get an lock anyhow.

As for the side scroller segements they weren't as bad to play but there's too much backtracking and there's plenty of places for you to get stuck in as well.  To many vents or doors where blended in with the environment that it was easy to miss them.

And then you have the story--there plot holes that just don't add up but overall it was an least somewhat enjoyable to watch. 

If you avoided this one then you're better off, if you still intend to play--use an guide. Pixel hunting = lame.
An 4/10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on June 14, 2012, 12:07:56 PM
Deus Ex Human Revolution had four endings?  Though you can choose any of the four regardless of how you played but there was four of them.  One of them you destroyed the station and yourself in the process to prevent people from ever learning the truth, other one you exposed the truth, one of them you side with the suits and hide the facts, and one of them was something like attaining the power all for yourself.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on June 14, 2012, 05:34:47 PM
Deus Ex Human Revolution had four endings?  Though you can choose any of the four regardless of how you played but there was four of them.  One of them you destroyed the station and yourself in the process to prevent people from ever learning the truth, other one you exposed the truth, one of them you side with the suits and hide the facts, and one of them was something like attaining the power all for yourself.


yeah except the outcome is the same no matter which choice you choose actually (video after credits)


1)you choose Sarif's message, which allows for company's to experiment with augs with absolutely no regulation


2)you choose Taggart's message, heavy regulation of augs are passed but you end up supporting the Illuminati as a side effect


3)you choose Darrow's message and it scares everyone into abandoning aug research

4)you blow up the facility with you inside it and society doesn't know why the augs went crazy, forcing mankind to just figure it out themselves


anyways you can see all the endings here (http://youtu.be/DibJL1F6S5k)


but no matter what you do this is the outcome (http://youtu.be/xPJCzMIsNt4)


now don't misunderstand, i'm not angry about since i went in knowing it was a prequel to the original deus ex and they had to tie the story together (and i loved the story up until then) it just destroyed the gravity of your final choice is all im saying (since i knew ahead of time).
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on June 15, 2012, 01:35:26 AM
Oh I see what you're talking about now, I must have nodded off during the credits because I missed the secret ending.  Really hope they plan on "remaking" the orginal, damn that would be sweet :) .  The orginal was pretty damn "flawed" but the story/setting/gameplay were all there.  The damn bugs/glitches/AI/crashes/slowdowns needed to be addresesd.  There was an fan site that used I think source engine and redone the whole game but I never did check that out.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on June 16, 2012, 06:50:16 PM
Nintendo really have 2D side scrolling games down and Kirby's Return to Dreamland (WII) is another gem in nintendo's platformer library.  It really doesn't have a plot and they teased me with four playable characters, namely there's no online play and you'll only get to be Kirby if you're playing single player like me.  It's to bad they didn't have specific stages for the different characters that way a least you get to try them all out.

Still I can easily recommend this one an 8.5/10.
(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSmnz-GVRudfx3tsKU0hh4pknl0fcXCZbNtaVLR4lW_nHW2OjJL5Q)

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on June 18, 2012, 01:16:20 AM
Just finished up my first indie game, Bastion (PC) and it's well worth the $10 I paid for it.  First off it's hack & slash which we seen hundreds of clones but where Bastion stands out is in the sound department.  The narrator to top notch and continues to talk thoughout your gameplay giving you little bits of data or giving you play by plays.  You fall off the cliff, he'll comment on it, upgrade you weapon and he'll mention how destructive it now is--the game doesn't miss a beat.  Also the music in the game has some of the best soundtracks I've heard in a couple of years--very original stuff--like this Zia song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-95BeFyMFYY).

Gameplay the game really isn't all that remarkable but it's still serviceable.  You get a nice variety of weapons thoughout the game each with it's own challenges and tech trees.  The game is a bit short (roughly 7 hours) for an RPG but there's new game plus and challenges to give you a couple more hours. 

Overall, I was surprised by the quality of the game (my first indie game after all), great 2D drawn artwork and soundtracks that are easily ranked with the best in the business.  An 8.5 out of 10.
(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRuKj_5WqXzJySP17tuUkkh4e7Z4QrnqvqPFjuDLXvJBoPavtcw)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on June 18, 2012, 12:26:48 PM
I really enjoyed Bastion as well.  Though I actually found it sort of long in a way.

I'm in here to talk about Mass Effect 2.  I finally beat it this weekend and I have to say...  Meh.  I enjoyed different parts of it, but the overall package meh.  I enjoyed the original one much more.  The story is ok.  I started the third one after finishing the second and man does it do a horrible job setting up for the first 2 hours or so of the third one.  I just feel like Mass Effect 2 was a very long Side Quest that ultimately did nothing for me.  ME2 could go away and I think the Transition to ME3 would not have suffered in the slightest. 

I don't like how they keep tweaking the combat.  I'm fine with the system in the 1st game.  Adding in ammunition and greater cover emphasis was not a super great move I don't think.  Let me first state that Cover as an Idea I do like,  its just the cover system isn't implemented well.  For instance it takes an act of God to jump over a cover object on PC and you have to at different times.  From the first part of ME3 it doesn't look as if they changed that, because I can easily identify that the majority of my deaths so far are Cover related.

The end of ME2 did not even slightly transition into the Beginning of ME3.  I felt like ME1's ending was a better Transition into ME3.  ME2 just feels like a waste of my time after starting ME3.  I shouldn't feel that way with a Trilogy. Then ME3 is keeping with enemy swarms, but wants you to get in there and Melee.  Great I don't mind Meleeing if after I break stealth I get Lynched by the other 6 guys in the rooms.  Suffice it to say  that Bioware went off the deep end with the comments from ME1 when all they needed to really do was tone down the number of equipment drops and vehicle missions.  Drop in the planet scanning from ME2 into ME1, Give ME1 the Branching Exp Choices,, limit the Rover to the missions like the DLC in ME2 and a few places it makes sense, and don't flood players with equipment.  Bam.  Good game.  I just think this series seems to be narrowing in on being more generic each iteration.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 18, 2012, 12:54:44 PM
It sounds like the PC version of Mass Effect 2 is just a bad version of the game, because I had no problem with the controls or mechanics on my 360.  As for the changes, I greatly prefer Mass Effect 2's gameplay to the original Mass Effect's.  Seriously, **** that game's inventory system (lessening the drop rate would not have made that awful inventory management system any better), and ditto to anything involving the MACO and copy-and-pasted planet environments.  And the best change Bioware ever did was taking random number generators out of combat, IMO.

I often think the complaints over the ME2 changes are a little overblown, as I think even the original Mass Effect game seemed like a shooter with RPG trappings and dialogue choices.  The following 2 games just refined on that and stripped out what didn't work.

As for Bastion, I got that as part of the last Indie Bundle, and I'll get around to it...someday.

I have 4 reviews I need to write-up in the near future, as soon as possible because they keep building up: Sorcery, Resistance Burning SKies, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, and Gravity Rush.  I have everything I need to write them right here and I think I know what I want to say, but I just never feel like dropping several hours to write the things.   :-\   But I'd better get on it soon, because Mafia 2 is almost done as well.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on June 18, 2012, 02:04:46 PM
It sounds like the PC version of Mass Effect 2 is just a bad version of the game, because I had no problem with the controls or mechanics on my 360.  As for the changes, I greatly prefer Mass Effect 2's gameplay to the original Mass Effect's.  Seriously, **** that game's inventory system (lessening the drop rate would not have made that awful inventory management system any better), and ditto to anything involving the MACO and copy-and-pasted planet environments.  And the best change Bioware ever did was taking random number generators out of combat, IMO.
...
I'm trying to think of any real RNG in Mass Effect 1 and I can't think of anything but the drops.  Very possible on the PC to get over cover you have to press W (Forward) and Space (Sprint/Cover/Get out of Cover) which a lot of time makes it think you want to just get out of cover.  They really should have done Space to get into cover Space again to go over and just walking back to get out.  The generic planets to explore would be addressed by using the scanner from ME2 for the mining.  The combat got easily to a point that I felt like I might as well be playing a brawler.  The first one I could plan my approach and snipe targets from afar pretty easily.  The second one most of the time you get to an area and then the enemies show up and there much to close to snipe.  As for the gear inventory stuff.  They could just include a button saying put the best I can wear on.  Bam done.  Get you semi-optimal.  It just feels more and more like a hollow gameplay experience.  Another thing that bugs me is you start the 3rd game and where is your team?  I have this huge threat that is still coming and I disband my team...
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 18, 2012, 03:26:10 PM
I'm trying to think of any real RNG in Mass Effect 1 and I can't think of anything but the drops.

There's definitely some random number dice-rolling going on in the first game, because you can point your reticule right at a guy's face in ME1; pull the trigger; and have your shot miss because the invisible dice roll determined that your shot missed.  You can make that dice roll more favorable by increasing particular stats, but it's always there.  I was glad to see it gone in ME2.

Quote
Another thing that bugs me is you start the 3rd game and where is your team?  I have this huge threat that is still coming and I disband my team...

Well, in all fairness your team came together to perform a particular task, and they performed it.  I still haven't played my copy of ME3 yet (I recently got it when it was $30 on sale, but I'm holding it until the Ending DLC is released), but from what I understand your crew all has their own obligations to their people to perform.  Plus, after the events of The Arrival, Shepard had to cool his heels for a while under heavy guard, so it's not hard to imagine his team having things they needed to do in the meantime.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on June 18, 2012, 04:02:03 PM
I'm trying to think of any real RNG in Mass Effect 1 and I can't think of anything but the drops.

There's definitely some random number dice-rolling going on in the first game, because you can point your reticule right at a guy's face in ME1; pull the trigger; and have your shot miss because the invisible dice roll determined that your shot missed.  You can make that dice roll more favorable by increasing particular stats, but it's always there.  I was glad to see it gone in ME2.

Quote
Another thing that bugs me is you start the 3rd game and where is your team?  I have this huge threat that is still coming and I disband my team...

Well, in all fairness your team came together to perform a particular task, and they performed it.  I still haven't played my copy of ME3 yet (I recently got it when it was $30 on sale, but I'm holding it until the Ending DLC is released), but from what I understand your crew all has their own obligations to their people to perform.  Plus, after the events of The Arrival, Shepard had to cool his heels for a while under heavy guard, so it's not hard to imagine his team having things they needed to do in the meantime.
Ok, That is BS DLC.  No wonder the start of ME3 makes no sense.  What makes that more infuriarating is that it was not available for the PC.  I had all the DLC for the PC when I played through.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 18, 2012, 04:07:14 PM
Ok, That is BS DLC.  No wonder the start of ME3 makes no sense.  What makes that more infuriarating is that it was not available for the PC.  I had all the DLC for the PC when I played through.

Yeah, in The Arrival Mass Effect 2 DLC, Shepard ends up blowing up a Mass Relay, thus destroying an entire inhabited solar system to prevent the Reapers from coming through it and attacking the galaxy before they were ready.  As a result, the DLC indicates that Shepard will turn himself in to Federation/UN Spacy/etc. custody to face the consequences of his actions after the business with the Collectors was finished.  That's where Mass Effect 3 comes in.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on June 18, 2012, 04:32:26 PM
Alright so looking on the web I should have been able to buy The Arrival DLC for the PC, but no where says where I could have bought it and it wasn't there for when I bought all the other DLC so I would only have to do 1 run through.  This is frustrating.  Maybe I have it and I just have to continue my game or something weird like that.  I beat the game and just went to the main menu because I had done all the missions except 100% Planet exploring.  This sort of annoys me to no ends.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 18, 2012, 05:00:41 PM
Alright, let's get this show on the road.  4 games...GO!  :P: :

(http://thehut.pantherssl.com/design-assets/products/10215868/s.jpg)
PS3 (Platinum #60)

People on this site probably have a huge misconception that I hate Nintendo and I similarly hate motion control due to my various posts over the years railing against both.  They're wrong on both, but let's just focus on motion control for the moment: my problem with the Wii has never been the idea of having to do motion control for certain games, but rather that the technology flat-out doesn't work and it certainly doesn't work reliably.  Then Nintendo proceeded to shove it into games it didn't belong in, performing functions that correspondingly (due to waggle) were either obnoxious or unreliable at best.  Even Skyward Sword's motion control wasn't terribly reliable in my experience.

Now here's Sony with the PlayStation Move, a device I've found in the past to be even worse at motion control than the Wiimote, due to most of the games that support it using it as a pointer device whose usefulness is entirely dependent on the lighting in your room.  I've often considered getting rid of the thing but after playing the long-delayed, recently-released Sorcery I'm glad I held onto it because it's a pretty decent (if extremely flawed) budget title.

In Sorcery, you (naturally) play as a teenage Sorceror's Apprentice named Finn, apparently quite skilled in wrecking anything he manages to point a magic wand at.  After a misadventure in a nearby cave to scavenge for potion ingredients with his talking cat Erline, the Evil Nightmare Queen arises to attack the duo and reclaim Erline as part of her plan to Take Over the World.


So, young Finn and Erline set out to find a way to stop the Nightmare Queen, with Finn gradually growing from an incompetent, cocky spell-slinger to an earnest heroic figure.  As simple as this story is (it's "Fantasy Hero's Journey 101"), I thought the game sold it very well through the constant and entertaining Uncharted-style banter between Finn and Erline, as well as the simple but stylized 2D "storybook" cutscenes between chapters.  The characters are memorable, and the storytelling is rather gentle and earnest while still having just enough bite to it.  It's "child-like" without being "childish".  In many ways, this game reminds me of the similarly-budget titled "Majin & the Forsaken Fortress" in that respect.

Being a PlayStation Move-required game (and I'd argue a Nav controller-required game as well, unless you really like holding an entire Dualshock 3 in one hand and a Move wand in the other), obviously the big question is "how are the controls?"  Well, I'm surprised to say they work astonishingly well, especially for a PlayStation Move game: you cast spells by flicking the Move in the direction and trajectory you wish them to hit.  That means that if you want to hit someone off to the far left, you flick your wand in an arc to the far left.  If you want to hit an opponent above you, you perform a quick flick above your head with an arc heading upwards.  To switch spells, you merely have to hold a button to bring the game into slow-motion while making a quick flick or rotation to switch to the elemental type you want to use.  It's all very simple; fast; and largely intuitive, with the exception of switching to Wind Magic (which I eventually learned to do by raising the wand over my head and waving the Move like a helicopter propeller).  The motion control works because the developers were smart enough to limit the gestures to simple flicks, sweeps, and circles both the Move controller and the player can easily understand.  There's also a certain degree of finesse to how you flick the Move that just isn't there in other Move games.  It also helps, of course, that there's a very generous amount of aim-assistance on spell-casting.   ;)

Unfortunately, Sorcery's biggest shortcoming is that it has a lot of ideas, but none of them are fully-developed and they don't come together as well as they should.  For example, Sorcery presents this fantastic world to explore, but you have to traverse it in linear corridor levels (which largely don't let you backtrack) with the occasional branching path leading to a treasure chest or light puzzle.  I also found combining spells for greater damage to be quite satisfying, such as sweeping your arm to create a wall of fire; sweeping it again with wind magic to create a tornado; and then flinging my new fiery tornado at enemies.  Unfortunately, the combat scenarios in Sorcery are just too simple and there are only about 3 different combination spells.  Furthermore, the game has an unfortunate habit of letting each new spell essentially replace the last one in terms of usefulness (especially once you acquire Lightning Magic, which obliterates just about everything).  The game also waits too long to introduce spells other than the default "Arcane Bolt".

One key aspect of the game I thought was really cool, though, was the potion-brewing system.  Throughout the game, you can take ingredients you either purchase or find in chests, and use them to brew potions that grant Finn permanent stat increases (more health, greater fire damage, etc.).  When you do so, the game takes you to a separate screen where you actually brew the potion using motion control, sprinkling the magic dust; grinding the mushrooms; pouring the magic water; stirring the mixture; etc.  And once you're done, you use the potion just by shaking the Move controller until it's ready (with the light shifting from a light color to a dark one) and performing a "drinking" motion.  That all works really well and feels really natural.

I think the key problem with Sorcery is how Sony has decided to hype and market it: as this "epic, awe-inspiring, and immersive hardcore fantasy experience."  Having played the entire game to completion twice now, this game is not "that" in any way, shape, or form.  It's a child-oriented fantasy budget title where you flick various magic spells at waves of enemies in a way similar to a 3rd person shooter.  It's not a particularly polished game and it's not a particularly deep game mechanically, but I also don't think it's a bad game.  In fact, the game has some really solid and enjoyable ideas that probably just needed more time to develop into something great.  I wish some of the "kids' games" I played growing up had this much thought behind them.  Similarly, the story could have been something quite memorable with more time and levels to flesh out the characters.  As it is, the game is merely average altogether, but if you have kids and the equipment to play the game, I think they would have a lot of fun with it.  It's apparently a better "Harry Potter" game than any of the actual Harry Potter games have been.

Incidentally, it may only have been a coincidence but shortly after playing this game, the Dualshock 3 I normally have assigned to my PS3 broke...seemingly permanently.  It will no longer sync with my PS3.  It may just be a coincidence, but consider yourself warned.

Damn, that was a long one.  Thankfully, there's not so much to explain in the others so they should be much shorter.  And the others will be worse.   ::) But seriously, Sorcery is a decent game and I DO recommend it if you have the equipment to play it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on June 18, 2012, 08:06:05 PM
I'll probably check out Sorcery if the price is right. 

Found the DLC.  Its hidden on the Bioware social site...  They have The Arrival and Shadow Broker for PC now.  I know I looked hard for Shadow Broker when I got the game.  I have some really mixed feelings about this DLC.  If I want it it will cost me $12.60 which is getting close to what I paid for the first 2 games Deluxe editions. I felt like the game was missing chunks of it and well that would be it.  I like to play through it but I don't want to spend the money and I don't even now if they'll let me continue my game to do it now.  Then it would require reimporting my Character in 3 and I'm sort of steamed on how they hid it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 18, 2012, 09:39:33 PM
(http://psvita.net.pl/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Resistance-ikona-300x200.jpg)
Vita (Platinum #61)

Moving from one very mixed-reviewed game to another, I also picked up and finished Resistance: Burning Skies on my Vita.  Alright, let's get this out of the way first: I don't care what Professional Troll Jim Sterling says.  This is NOT a "2/10" game.  A 2/10 indicates that the game is flat-out broken when this game is merely average to above-average.  I know...I know...I damn the game with faint praise.  But consider this: this game was made by Nihilistic Software, makers of such stellar titles as the first incarnation of the never-released StarCraft: Ghost; the awful PlayStation Move Heroes (what did you do to my Sly Cooper, you MONSTERS?!); and Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.  Considering that pedigree, it's a goddamn miracle that this game is merely "average to above-average" in a series where at least half the games are "average to above-average and kind of generic" shooters.   ::)

The single-player campaign is about 6-8 hours long, about on par with most shooters these days, though definitely shorter than the 10-12 hour average of the rest of the series.  You play as a firefighter named Tom Riley, and this makes him totally distinct from the other Resistance protagonists in that...he wears a firefighter's helmet; wields a fire axe; very rarely talks; and his motivations are vague at best.  Supposedly he's trying to get back to his family after they were separated during the Chimeran siege on New York, but unlike Resistance 3's Joseph Capelli or Resistance Retribution's James Grayson, he only seems to randomly care about his family.  Oh yeah, and he occasionally carries people out of burning structures.  Because he's a fireman, you know.  After spending most of the game wandering from one action set piece to another, the game tries to go for the Hail Mary at the end with a "touching" scene between Riley and his wife that could have been very poignant, but it's just a case of too little too late.  The game even sabotages this characterization altogether by having Riley occasionally flirt with his fellow Resistance fighter Ellie...while he's supposedly out hunting for his family.  The rest of the game's story doesn't fare much better, largely being a series of vaguely-connected locations and a "mad scientist" sub-plot that is neither prevalent enough to be interesting nor throwaway enough to be ignored.

So obviously storytelling and characterization is not this game's strong point.  You'd think, then, given that this is supposedly a AAA Sony 1st party game that the production values would be pretty impressive, given what Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Wipeout 2048 managed.  Well...I hesitate to say that the game's visuals are "bad", but the environments and enemy character models disappoint with their low-poly counts and washed-out textures.  Human character models fare much better, especially their eyes (a major complaint I had with Uncharted: GA), but they still aren't up-to-par with what the Vita can do.  This game looks like a higher resolution PSP game, not a AAA Vita game.  The music is nice and very true to the series...on those rare occasions when it actually plays.

So if the story/characterization and production values are mediocre, why don't I hate this game?  Well, simply put I had a lot of fun playing this game and, honestly, aside from Resistance 3 I don't think any of the previous Resistance games had terribly impressive visuals, and only that and the PSP game Retribution had good storytelling.  The strength of this series has always been its crazy weapons and the chaotic gunfights that ensue, and on that front I believe Burning Skies delivers.  The dual-stick controls feel very solid, and the way that touch is implemented for sprinting (you double-tap the backtouch) and using your weapons' secondary fire modes is well-thought out.  My one big complaint about the gunplay (besides some stupid AI, which I think has always been a series problem) is that the guns are more subdued than usual, with their upgrades being more based around selecting small stat increases than dramatic changes like Resistance 3's flame-spewing Rossmore shotgun.  And while that last boss is total B.S. and I wish that the designers had placed more secondary ammo around the levels for weapons like the Auger (I think I found maybe 10 Auger Shield Ammo rounds the entire game), the chapters have a really good flow to them and keep you moving.  The levels are pretty frickin' big, too.

The game also has Deathmatch; Team Deathmatch; and "Survival" multiplayer modes, and overall the experience is extremely buggy by enjoyable in its simplicity.  It's not terribly well-designed since the matchmaking (when it works at all, and that's fairly random) will often throw you into matches with extremely high-level opponents who have unlocked the better weapons and their upgrades.  However, in all fairness this is the first handheld game of its kind and I did enjoy my time online, so I'm willing to cut this game a little slack in that department.

Overall, is Resistance: Burning Skies the "savior" of the Vita it was hyped to be? No, and neither is the other recently-released Vita game I'll be reviewing shortly.  But for all its buggy-ness; its shoddy matchmaking; its mediocre storytelling; and its mediocre production values, this game charmed me with its solid, enjoyable gunplay.  Would I recommend it to anyone seeking a shooter experience on Vita?  No, not unless you can find it heavily discounted.  But there's certainly an enjoyable experience in Resistance: Burning Skies if you're willing to overlook the flaws (you may notice a theme to these reviews, now that I think of it).  This game just needed several more months of development that Sony just couldn't afford to give it after how poorly the Vita's been selling, and an average and unpolished game is the result.

Well now, this just won't do.  I just gave overall positive reviews to two games with extremely mixed-to-negative reviews!  If this keeps up, I'm going to lose my image of "that angry malcontent who is never satisfied with ANYTHING."   ;)   Well, there's only one thing to do: call in the SPAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIICEEEEE MARIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNES!" :P: : : :
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 18, 2012, 11:33:38 PM
(http://www.gamer.ru/system/attached_images/images/000/360/063/normal/Warhammer-40000-Space-Marine-logo.jpg?1303962560)
PS3


"Just another Shooter game."  :P: : : :

Ugh...this game so thoroughly bored and frustrated me that I'm tempted to just leave this review at that (very obscure) review joke and move on to the much more interesting last game I have for tonight.  Really, just look at that name "Warhammer 40K: SPACE MARINE" and tell me with a straight face that it doesn't look like a colossal joke, like a parody of modern shooter games?  Well, let's get this over with.

Warhammer 40K is such a strange universe for me, in that it's probably the stupidest fictional universe I've ever seen, screaming every "stupid action movie" cliche of the 80s and 90s you could think of: hyper-steroid space marines, entire oceans of blood and gore, swords that double as chainsaws (which Gears of War was happy to steal), explosions left and right, and a setting where everything is nothing but "WAAAAARRRRR!"  And yet, despite its sheer, unbridled stupidity, the series also has some of the most ridiculously extensive and convoluted lore I've ever seen, and it's oddly fascinating to see in play in Relic's Warhammer 40K games despite not actually liking the games.

So here we have Space Marine, a game that I really did not like when I played the demo.  It just felt like a God of War game where the only praiseworthy accomplishment was the massive waves of "ORKS!" Relic managed to shove on-screen to die in hilariously gruesome ways.  I was content to leave my experience at that, but over the last year I just kept seeing review after review insisting that the game was "much more" than what I saw in the demo and much more complex.  Well, having played the entire singleplayer game now, I'll agree that there's more to the actual game...but not much.

I place a lot of emphasis in my reviews on the "flow" of the game, the speed the player moves through the situations and the feedback loop of the player's interaction.  Well, Space Marine has one of the worst, most tedious gameplay flows I've ever seen in a game.  EverySingleEncounter starts with a bunch of Orks (and it's always frickin' Orks in these games) seeing you in the distance; shouting some variant on "SPAAAICCCCEE MARINE!" in their hilariously over-the-top cockney accents; and then charging at you in such numbers that you're wading through a sea of the things within moments.  You shoot them as they charge, and you slice them when they get close until they stop coming 5 minutes later, because your guns are pretty much useless at that point.

That's it.  That's the gameplay.  That's all there is, and this game has to be at least 10 hours long.  The guns feel genuinely fun to use and the melee combat can be quite enjoyable (especially with how you have to do a finisher on an opponent to regain your health), but the sheer repetition and complete lack of creativity in the combat scenarios just kills this game.  It doesn't get any better, either, when the game switches from "laughably easy" to "ARGH! 5 guys off-screen just slaughtered me with rockets I couldn't avoid while I was swarmed with 8 other dudes around me attacking at once!" about halfway through the game.  There are occasionally moments of levity when the game just hands you a jet pack and Mjolnir and tells you to go wail away on easily-slaughtered enemies to your heart's content, but those are few and far-between.  As for the weaponry, there's very little variety and half the arsenal are just upgraded versions of the same guns, with no noticeable difference due to the increase in enemy difficulty.

Alright the gameplay is incredibly boring, but the story and intricate lore is what...somehow...draws me to these games, so surely the story makes the game worth playing?  Eh, not really.  I'm starting to wonder if there's a law somewhere that states that Warhammer 40K games need to be about some moron screwing around with chaos energy and summoning demons and orks, because I've seen that plot at least a few times now.  I assure you, it's no more interesting here.  As for the characters, the game teases that actual character development may occur, but it never does.  There are a lot of references to the structure of the Human Imperium that could be very interesting, but like every other Warhammer 40K game that's all they are: references without explanation.  It seems no Warhammer 40K game is terribly interested in introducing players to this universe who aren't already Warhammer 40K fans familiar with how this world works.

As for production values, it's easy to call this a "Gears of War clone" and call it a day with its drab brown and red color palette and "ruined industrial" setting, but in all fairness that's what every Warhammer 40K game looks like.  That's just how that universe is, but it doesn't make it any more interesting to look at.  The very British voice acting on the human characters, though, is very well-done and lends a great deal of gravitas to a story that frankly doesn't deserve it.  I've already mentioned the hilarity of the cockneyed Orks.

Space Marine feels like a game made by a team that has a great deal of love and respect for the source material, but unfortunately has no idea how to make a compelling shooter.  It's a game that feels as generic as its name, and I don't recommend it.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 19, 2012, 12:54:14 AM
(http://jatekdoboz.hu/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/gravity_rush-350x169.jpg)
Vita (Platinum #62)

Alright, my last game tonight is also the second game lately to carry the banner of "Vita savior": the perspective-flipping, free-flying Gravity Rush.  Sadly, while the game is certainly enjoyable and new IPs as AAA Vita exclusives are definitely what the platform needs, it (like its predecessor Resistance: Burning Skies) just isn't good enough to be worthy of that title.

Gravity Rush takes place on a fanciful European-style city floating above the clouds because...that's where cities belong, apparently.  For some mysterious reason that is never actually explained, entire sections of the city and their citizens just vanished one day in a series of gravity storms.  Shortly thereafter, a mysterious girl named Kat (naturally) mysteriously falls from the sky and discovers that thanks to her magic cat she has the power to shift her personal field of gravity to whatever surface she pleases for a limited time.  Would it surprise you to know that she also has amnesia?  Would it actually surprise you to know that Kat really doesn't seem to care about her previous identity, and that she puts no effort whatsoever into uncovering it?

Yeah, Gravity Rush's story is a complete and total tedious mess, somehow managing to be both nonexistent and utterly pretentious, with characters fond of spouting cryptic speeches and metaphysical B.S. that the game never really explains.  The game introduces characters to just throw them away shortly thereafter, the story is made-up of extremely loosely-connected vignettes, and Kat herself vacillates between "stereotypical and somewhat-stupid Japanese teenage girl" and "bumbling, wannabe heroine."  The game ends on a story beat it does not earn with characters you never got a chance to know (unless you pre-ordered the game and got the "military costume" DLC, which only barely introduces said characters).  Don't play this game for its story, or you will be disappointed by the sheer waste of it all.  The game also feels at times like it's trying to "out-tutorial" the modern 3D Legend of Zelda games with the sheer number of times the game will pause to pop up tutorial text, which gets old fast.

Similarly, don't play this game for its combat, which (much like Space Marine) gets increasingly repetitive and monotonous as the game goes on.  Kat has a few different ways of taking enemy "Nevi" out, but the most useful is obviously the Gravity Kick and it's the attack you'll use 9/10 encounters.  And while the gravity kick has a fairly generous lock-on as you level the attack up (more on that later), it's still very easy to miss some of the larger and faster flying enemies through little fault of your own.  This might have worked-out alright if the game had a variety of combat scenarios to rotate between to keep the experience fresh, but sadly the game's answer to everything is to just spawn a swarm 2-3 waves of Nevi and move on to the next checkpoint or story beat after everything's killed.

Now, however, we do get to the reason I still say this game is worth playing: the sheer rush (pun not intended) of using the gravity mechanic to effortlessly fling Kat around the game world.  At any time after the opening few minutes, you can simply push the right shoulder button to make Kat hover, aim in any given direction, and then press the right shoulder button again to shoot Kat off in that direction.  I'm not sure it was the greatest idea to essentially give the player the mechanic that breaks the game right at the start, but it does a great job of enticing the player to explore the game world and find the level-boosting gems hidden in every nook and cranny.  And while at the beginning of the game your flight time is extremely limited, by the end with fully-leveled gravity shifting you're rocketing around the game world at mach speed and it just feels great.  That feeling of open exploration and exhilarating speed alone is just sheer joy to perform, and it makes me wonder if the developers were inspired by the Crackdown series considering all the emphasis placed on "gem" collecting.

In terms of production values, Gravity Rush is a refreshingly unique-looking game, with a cel shaded art style based on French animation.  Story sequences are conveyed in really cool stylized comic book-esque "panels", and in a neat touch you can tilt the Vita to shift the layers within the panels to give a cool illusion of depth.  The music is well-composed, but it feels like there's only 3-4 tracks in the entire game so it gets repetitive quickly as you explore the cities.

Gravity Rush just feels like a great idea the developers came up with without actually having any idea what they were going to do with it.  Using gravity to fling yourself around the cities is a blast, but the game world is just completely devoid of things worth doing aside from collecting gems to power-up your abilities (there are "side quests", but they're merely miscellaneous trophy-bait like timed races and score attack battles).  The main character is a cliche, the side characters aren't compelling, the story is at best confusing (and at worst nonexistent), and the combat needed a wider variety of combat scenarios to keep the experience interesting.  It's a good game, but not a great one.  Well, at least the developers had the dignity to not cave in to Japan's increasingly tiresome obsession with catering to fetishes...

Gravity Rush DLC:

(http://www.maxconsole.com/maxconsole/contents/RKLS0000006762/icon_xl.jpg)(http://images.gbase.ch/uploads/ci/cbild/Gravity-Rush_123694.jpg)(http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/08/products/videogames/2012/Store/GravityRush/GravityRushSC2._V150883991_.jpg)

GOD DAMNIT, JAPAN!  ::) Yes, all the Gravity Rush DLC is centered around Kat getting all Kawaii in various costumes for paper-thin missions.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on June 19, 2012, 01:25:15 AM
To be fair, if I had amnesia and then figured out I could fly, I'd be much more interested in doing that than figuring out my previous identity.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 19, 2012, 01:40:01 AM
To be fair, if I had amnesia and then figured out I could fly, I'd be much more interested in doing that than figuring out my previous identity.

Characters having amnesia is just a major pet peeve of mine.  It is such a lazy shortcut obviously there to introduce the player to the game world, and the Japanese have so thoroughly abused it in their RPGs that it's getting to the point where I feel it needs to be banned from fiction under penalty of death.  :@ (no, not really, but it is annoying and lazy)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on June 19, 2012, 02:09:13 AM
There should be a JRPG where every character has amnesia, and then the world-shattering twist two-thirds of the way through the game is that none of them ever had amnesia.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on June 19, 2012, 10:22:26 AM
There should be a JRPG where every character has amnesia, and then the world-shattering twist two-thirds of the way through the game is that none of them ever had amnesia.

that is fucking brilliant
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: oohhboy on June 19, 2012, 10:28:24 AM
So they have alzheimer's instead?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on June 19, 2012, 02:12:40 PM
Or it's a planet ruled by politics where everyone conspires against each other. Even the newborns.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: NWR_insanolord on June 19, 2012, 09:07:59 PM
They could have all been faking it. Combine the amnesia angle with some kind of conspiracy theory.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Shaymin on June 19, 2012, 09:13:13 PM
Sounds like y'all need to play Glory of Heracles. This is starting to hit that territory.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on June 19, 2012, 11:26:31 PM
Or it's a planet ruled by politics where everyone conspires against each other. Even the newborns.
And no one can talk about it?

I'm fairly sure there games that take the other angle where you play someone who remembers and no on else does.  Then there is Bastion.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Caliban on June 20, 2012, 12:19:08 AM
It's a planet of lies, Ceric. The truf is unknown.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on June 20, 2012, 10:19:57 PM
Will any of that sweet DLC be available on NA PSN?
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on June 20, 2012, 10:41:57 PM
Will any of that sweet DLC be available on NA PSN?

What, the Gravity Rush DLC?  Yeah, they've already announced that all 3 will be on the store within a month.  The Military Costume DLC, actually, is already available if you pre-ordered the game or buy the PSN version of the game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on June 22, 2012, 09:57:17 PM
Dammit, should'a gone Shiny Digital Future.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Pixelated Pixies on June 26, 2012, 12:16:32 PM
Mutant Mudds - 8/10
 
Having played the game from beginning to completion in two 4 hour sittings I can confirm that Mutant Mudds is indeed a fantastic platformer. As good and addictive as it is though, I had a few niggling issues. Too often did I find myself being hit by off-screen enemies I could not see, and I also personally thought that failing a level because I did not complete it within a given time was a little cheap. Other than that though, Mutant Mudds was thoroughly enjoyable.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on June 30, 2012, 05:07:23 PM
(http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSTlplbUupFK7OxAdt7NclplZW0d70HLp8DJvMkMnCTyHEMNzH_UA)
Knock another one off my WII list, Muramasa The Demon Blade and really had to force myself just to finish it.

In the past I loved Odin Sphere (PS2) so I fiqured Vanillaware will make this game more or less than same action/RPG that I loved but that isn't the case with Muramasa.  The game is broken into two characters, each with their own storyline but what's the point with dual stories when combined can't don't even make one good one?  Some say it was "lost" during the translation but the game's story make little to no sense other than some Japanese folklore.

Up next is the gameplay.  For stats you character levels up automatically so you're only able to change a few things like which weapons you have equiped and your one accessory slot.  You have 3 weapon slots and by the end of the game you'll recieve something like 90+ blades each with it's special attack but I found like 50 of them to be utter worthless.  Some blades are just to overpowered like the one with an "wind" special attack which leaves you as an immortal-spinning-killing machine getting something like 300+ hits. For the most part you'll be smashing one button down while taking down hordes of enemies. 

The game has to few enemy types so you'll end up grinding away the same group of baddies for an 20+ hour adventure.  And of course you get some major ass slow downs during combat?  Odin Sphere was the same but I expected that issue to be resolved on the WII.

On the good side, the game has Vanillaware's flare for art so there's plenty to gawk at. 

Instead of an action/rpg Vanillaware should have just cut out all the backtracking/grinding and made an 10hour action game.  Instead this game feels bloated for all the wrong reasons.  An 5 out of 10

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Next up is Boy and His Blob (WII) and I'm also playing Warhammer 40K Spacemarine (it's was free for PSN+).
 
 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Pixelated Pixies on June 30, 2012, 06:43:02 PM
@ymeegod
 
Is it weird that I don't disagree with anything you just said, yet I played through this game as both characters and loved every minute of it? I think I just enjoyed the art so much and I didn't find the gameplay to be offensively bad so I was willing to ignore some of the glaring faults.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Sarail on June 30, 2012, 08:27:18 PM
Oh, yeah. I even completed all six endings, too. Loved every second of Muramasa. So good.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on June 30, 2012, 10:04:15 PM
@ymeegod
 
Is it weird that I don't disagree with anything you just said, yet I played through this game as both characters and loved every minute of it? I think I just enjoyed the art so much and I didn't find the gameplay to be offensively bad so I was willing to ignore some of the glaring faults.


no its not weird, i loved muramasa as much as you did (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=29356.msg719096#msg719096),I even replayed it as Kisuke right after i finished Momohime's story despite the fact that i rarely replay games let alone back to back. However it seems to be a fairly polarizing game that has obvious blemishes, the difference seems to be whether or not the player can look past it's faults and enjoy a game which in my opinion is greater than the sum of it's parts.


and while i'm at it i'll just quote an old post of mine from this thread


finished Kisuke's story on Muramasa (7 hours 20 minutes) anyways if you're only going to play one storyline play Momohime's.  Kisuke's storyline has a lot of backtracking while in momohime's storyline you're almost always traveling to new areas of the world.

personally if somone were interested in getting this game i would play one storyline and then save the other story for when/if you ever feel like "replaying" the game even  though pretty much everything is different except for the world (since both storys take place in the same region of japan that makes sense), i think there's 1 or two areas from each story that you don't go to in the other. Reason i say save the alternate story for a "replay" is because the gameplay is exactly the same.

It's very unusual for me to want to double dip on a game right after i finished it but i guess that goes to show how much i enjoyed playing this game, even with all the gameplay flaws i mentioned in my other post above. (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=29356.msg719096#msg719096)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on July 01, 2012, 12:34:15 AM
Yeah, breaking the game into small dozes might have been the best option but with me if I stop I usually don't end up finishing :( .

Really hate backtracking.  I should have just used the shine stone or whatever but I treked acrossed the land by foot looking for fights (rarely getting any) to level up my character.  And the few fights I did get into was the 90% mostly the same type, either ninjas, monks, birds, or those pair of ghosts.  There's a couple of enemy types that I ran into less than 5 times but I ran into 100+ of those  6 man squad of ninjas.  Needs a better mix up.

Instead of 100+ blades, maybe they should have introduced multiple weapons instead?  For the most part I was using the same three hit combo into special attack (mostly spin).  Swords each had a unique special attack (and some of them were neat and useful) but for the most part your just slashing away in the same manner.  Odin Sphere had multiple characters but each had their own weapons/attacks so that helped break up the repetition.

For me I would have enjoyed the game more if it was shorten, get rid of the whole rpg level up, and just stuck with an action game.  Beat an boss, great here's 5+ swords to try, no need to endless grind and it's the bosses fights that make the game shine anyhow.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on July 03, 2012, 12:04:30 PM
Finished up Warhammer 40K Space Marine (PS3) this weekend as well.  Overall have to agree with Broodwars about how generic the game feels; the only new thing was to gain your health back is through executions but your health only drops once your shield has failed and that shield regenerates (Halo) so you really don't have to worry about your health.  Also you have an Rage meter when activated it will recharge your health as well do double damage or slow down time.

But Broods right about the AI (especial the orcs) and their three repeated dialog quotes.  It seemed like every orc had to say "It takes more than that to kill me Space Marine" before they died.  Relic should have limited it to once in a while or added more options then three different sentences.

Another mistake Relic made was the pacing, the first 4-5 chapters were a bore since you only had limited weapons option; pistol, assault, and melee.  Also they limited you to carring only 4 weapons at a time which wouldn't be an issue but there's never a loadout selection stash "when" you need it.  Ended up in areas that were loaded with snipers and only had the pistol to use (the assault gun had no ammo) or in other areas where there's hoards of enemies but I just the sniper rifle.  Before major battles there should have been an loadout selection either that or not limit us to what we can carry.

The online multilayer is where you'll find most of your enjoyment.  Plenty of people (since it's free for PS3+ users) and you find an (COD) level up system to keep you entertained for hours.

I would give it an 6 out of 10.  It's a run of the mills FPS but the best part was it's free.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on July 03, 2012, 12:59:17 PM
Finished up Warhammer 40K Space Marine (PS3) this weekend as well.  Overall have to agree with Broodwars about how generic the game feels; the only new thing was to gain your health back is through executions but your health only drops once your shield has failed and that shield regenerates (Halo) so you really don't have to worry about your health.  Also you have an Rage meter when activated it will recharge your health as well do double damage or slow down time.

But Broods right about the AI (especial the orcs) and their three repeated dialog quotes.  It seemed like every orc had to say "It takes more than that to kill me Space Marine" before they died.  Relic should have limited it to once in a while or added more options then three different sentences.

Another mistake Relic made was the pacing, the first 4-5 chapters were a bore since you only had limited weapons option; pistol, assault, and melee.  Also they limited you to carring only 4 weapons at a time which wouldn't be an issue but there's never a loadout selection stash "when" you need it.  Ended up in areas that were loaded with snipers and only had the pistol to use (the assault gun had no ammo) or in other areas where there's hoards of enemies but I just the sniper rifle.  Before major battles there should have been an loadout selection either that or not limit us to what we can carry.

The online multilayer is where you'll find most of your enjoyment.  Plenty of people (since it's free for PS3+ users) and you find an (COD) level up system to keep you entertained for hours.

I would give it an 6 out of 10.  It's a run of the mills FPS but the best part was it's free.

That sound eerily a lot like my experience so far with Mass Effect 3.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on July 03, 2012, 04:10:33 PM
@ymeegod
 
Is it weird that I don't disagree with anything you just said, yet I played through this game as both characters and loved every minute of it? I think I just enjoyed the art so much and I didn't find the gameplay to be offensively bad so I was willing to ignore some of the glaring faults.


It's not hard to see both sides on this one.  My complaint with Muramasa is that it really could've offered a more involved experience on the gameplay side - or a more streamlined experience. Either way would work and might feel better - at least that is my guess. However, what was provided was enjoyable enough and so beautiful that the gameplay faults get a free pass from me.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Oblivion on July 05, 2012, 03:09:23 AM
999 - 9/10

Once of the most depressing and confusing games I've played in a long time.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: lolmonade on July 05, 2012, 07:45:47 AM
Katamari Forever (PS3)

Having a lack of Katamari in my life since selling my PS2 and having an unusable copy of Katamari Damacy, I decided to get this game when a used copy dropped down to a decent price.  The game is a vast improvement visually over the PS2 games, which sometimes was a bit overly blurry and simplistic, but the game doesn't look too impressive for an HD game (very colorful though, so it can be mostly forgiven).
 
There is a bit of variation in the levels, but not much more than what was experienced from We Love Katamari.  Finding presents (hats) and cousins (character skins) are still part of the collection appeal, and it is still very satisfying to get to the levels where you're basically picking up continents and giant monsters, but you're not going to find much new here.  Basically if you enjoy more of the same, you'll have fun with this.  It's not going to win over new fans.
 
For me, i'd personally give it a 7/10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on July 10, 2012, 04:59:31 PM
(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQtA7l2FMwoWphBWZ4vZ3XKWdVe0AN_of_zrxWq4GSYmn_J-G5g)
Finally gotten around to beating Boy and His Blob (WII).

I assumed this was going be another casual-platforming game that was geared towards children but don't let the name or look fool you--this is an hardcore adventure/platformer that will drive you insane at times. 

The gameplay and levels design works great for the most part and Wayforward does wonderful job of keeping things fresh throughout the 40 level story mode.  There's a couple of hints about what powers you should use but for the most part it's trial and error which leads to frustrations or extreme joy.  In the story mode the game has a very generous amount of save points so you'll only have to repeat the area where you died but in the challenge mode (another 40 levels) you have to complete them 100% prefect since there's no save point--one of my gripes since the challenge levels really make you think but repeating them over and over caused me to ragequit a few times.

Overall the game looks great but Wayforwad really didn't add much in terms of story or presentation.  In short this game is for those looking for a nice challenge.  An 8/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on July 10, 2012, 05:26:16 PM
(http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSkrFI4Ge6ph3LZyDi2Laf5kTduMkB42b8v9RyuKnEmfYqb2JeP)
Speaking of Warhammer, finally gotten around to playing the RTS Warhammer 40K Dawn of War

It's been awhile since my last PC RTS game so I was a bit rusty with the whole micromanaging of troops/resources/ect but I found there's been a few changes/improvements that I liked.  The "Add" feature allows you to bolster up troop platoons with just a click; the troop will magically appear to where ever the platoon is so that works great to keeping squads alive after an intense battle.  You can add special troops or heroes to squads as well, like healers or commanders.  Everything is done rather well and you can access your specials easy enough.

Things I disliked:  pathfinding.  Damn AI had to led by the nose and there's no way to you to assign paths.  Where's my backup?  Oh there it is being blocked by one of my own tanks :( .

Another thing was the "hold" position didn't work 90% of the time.  To many times the enemy AI baited my troops into wandering into their bases by simply attack and retreat.  I have my squads set to hold yet when they are attack they go charging forward anyhow. 

And lastly my other major gripe, only one single player campaign ark out of three playable  armies.  You only got to play as the Space Marines, so there wasn't any SP missions for the Orks or the Chaos.  Of course there's skirmish mode and you can select any of the three but that's not really the same.

It's not going hold up well with current RTS but it great for it's time.  An 7.5/10  Right now I'm on to DoW 40K first expansion pack "Winter Assualt" but there's two more after that :) .

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on July 19, 2012, 09:57:36 AM
(http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT1JtzP0AWFwArh0PB9X01S4VLi8bsmonZbonXkb7PuIxkuHY9Gc-XeHwlk)
After a few weeks I finally finished off Final Fantasy XIII-2 and here's a few of my thoughts.

The story is just an mess, time travel paradox crap with a twist, instead of changing the past to change the future you'll be going to future to change the past? Your main villain is trying to "stop" time, he's immortal, and he's the one that taught Noel everything he knows.  Not only does the main story make little to no sense but it ends with a "to be continued".  It's not just bad, it's downright awful.

As for the combat, some people liked FFXIII style but not me.  The battles are mostly autoplayed, since you can only control one of the two main characters at a time, you do get an third "monster" AI partner but you have zero control over it.  Everything is realtime meaning you can't pause the game to go strolling through the menu looking for items or spells so you try to leave it up to the CPU to select the correct attacks or buffs but for the most part it fails when you need it the most.  FFXIII-2 doesn't have a gambit system like FFXII where you can pre=determine what spells/attacks the AI can use or how to fight, FFXIII use a more simplified version and I HATE it. 

Instead of selecting spells, most likely you'll be selecting stances/roles by the way of the paradigm system, which also used to level up your characters.  The reason most people like this new system is because it allows for quicker battles (most matches are done in 30 seconds without you having to hit a key) but when it comes down to bosses the system shows it's weakness--the poor choices made by your AI squadmates.  For example if the AI is controlling your magic user it will cast spells pretty much as random even though the enemy has a specific weakness.  Gambit system worked so much better.

Other things that annoyed me was the QTE, platform elements, mandatory mini-games, and then all the freaking fetching quests that required backtracking. 

Overall, the series (FFXIII) isn't for me.  Not enough excitement for an action game, and not enough depth for an RPG game.  An 6/10.



Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 19, 2012, 11:16:29 AM
I have major problems with how bosses are handled in FF XIII-2, but my issue wasn't with the AI but that it's extremely easy to just Power Level now and brute force your way through boss fights once you start acquiring some of the more powerful Monsters like the Blue Chocobo about halfway through the game.  One of the strengths of the original FF 13 was that because the game capped your leveling in each area, the designers knew roughly how strong your party was and they could implement some downright brutal (but satisfying) boss fights.  You had to make good use of the various Paradigms, and you had to fight "smart".  Now you can just blast your way through the boss fights, and it's not very satisfying.

As for the AI, in my experience in both FF 13 games, the AI has adapted its spell usage to account for whatever strengths or weaknesses you reveal (either by hitting the enemy with the spell or using Libra) during the battle.  The only exception I've seen is if the mage only has that spell elemental type.  Otherwise, I haven't had any issue with the FF XIII series AI and find it generally does what I would have had them do anyway.

I really should get to writing some reviews when I have a solid afternoon/evening free, as I have 7 games in my review backlog that are really starting to bug me.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on July 19, 2012, 11:20:00 AM
Personally experience with FF13 is that the AI is Dumb until you cast Libra.  So effectively you have to waste a turn getting intel.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 19, 2012, 11:23:14 AM
Personally experience with FF13 is that the AI is Dumb until you cast Libra.  So effectively you have to waste a turn getting intel.

I don't mind that too much.  Personas 3 and 4 are basically the same way, although 4 lets you directly control your teammates so you aren't at the whims of the AI if you want to be.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on July 19, 2012, 12:28:14 PM
Personally experience with FF13 is that the AI is Dumb until you cast Libra.  So effectively you have to waste a turn getting intel.

I don't mind that too much.  Personas 3 and 4 are basically the same way, although 4 lets you directly control your teammates so you aren't at the whims of the AI if you want to be.
I would mind it less if you could eventually chose to upgrade out of having to do it manually.  I might just have not reached that point yet.  Thats for another reason.
Also initially I didn't much like the Stance Dancing combat in and of itself but it sort of grew on me as a Psuedo Rhythm game.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on July 19, 2012, 01:15:04 PM
I noticed the Friendly AI had issues with a few ga spells (enhanced spells).  For example it never casted hastega or curga even though it costed the same amount of "CT bars".  Instead it used the single forms (and it usually just placed spells on itself.

And forget about Raise.  Spent tons of points leveling up one medic class monster (can't recall the name) but it didn't use Raise II once :(. 

So for the most part I ended up playing the medic/syn/sab role since it was the only way for me to get my party setup for the main boss battles.

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

If the game had a co-op mode I would have done that instead.  :0

Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on July 26, 2012, 11:05:52 PM
(http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTZ8PGgci5Vi-gxNMy4r2-A27zNJypMk3tKZHS8ezGLyL_nxvYF)
Just completed Mass Effect 3 Extended DLC (Xbox 360) and here's my thoughts:

First thing to get off my chest, the choice of endings still upsets most of us gamers, mostly because there's no total win-win solution no matter how many hours you sucked up it or what choices you made.

Other than that I found myself enjoying most of the game's story and characters and I loved hearing the NPC stories thoughout the game.  Tons of tear jerking moments and hell even some funny moments as well.  The dialog is well written for the most part.

The other improvements was no more mining operations, instead you get a quick scanning evade miniquest which isn't alot of fun but doesn't suck up the hours like mining did in ME2.  The combat system is vastly improved (you'll be able to throw out multiple combo chains with ease), but I found myself mostly sticking with powers at the end (if you unequip weapons your recharge rate doubles).  The friendly AI (squadmates) did have trouble with turrets and the Giant Reaper death beam but overall they were using cover and their powers on their own much better this time.

It's sad I didn't get to see the ending to the 150 hour triology that I wanted but hell Bioware did one hell of a job to keep me entertained.  An 9/10
Title: Short game impressions that are too short to deserve their own post.
Post by: Lithium on July 27, 2012, 02:43:41 AM

(http://i.imgur.com/eT1rL.jpg)

The Cat and the Coup

It's a short but sweet game that will outline the fall of democracy in Iran and the rise of the Shah and the current Iranian Regime, it's an 8 because it's a good game that's free and will only take 15 minutes of your time. try it out.
8/10


(http://i.imgur.com/SnZ2B.jpg)
Limbo

Yet another highly over-rated indie game steeped in "try hard" art house pretentiousness while actually just being something that any art student could come up with. The gameplay seems comprised of a series of cheap death traps that don't actually feel all that satisfying to pass through since you get the sense the level designer just wanted to say "HAHA KILLED YOU". Despite it's sloppy controls,the cheaply designed levels and the pretentious art school project vibe it comes together is a way that is at least a step above mindlessly flipping through TV channels as a way to kill 3 hours in a boring day. Sure, It's an above average game, but nothing more.

6/10

(http://i.imgur.com/abqnt.png)

Super Brothers: Sword and Sorcery
A game with an interesting world that draws heavily from the Legend of Zelda With excellent sprite work and good music, However the gameplay isn't there to back it up. with obtuse puzzles you'll end up wasting a lot of time literally hunting for pixels, most of the time even when you find said pixels they have to be clicked/touched in a certain order as well. While I understand that this was built with the limitations of the Iphone in mind the "puzzles" came across as poorly/lazily designed and fairly random. The game while only 4-5 hours long will actually end up taking a lot of real world time to complete since about half way through the game you can only progress the game during certain moon cycles in real life, seems interesting on paper until you realise that it could take a week or so until you can play the game again and progress the plot.

Try this game out if you got it in a bundle, but by itself I couldn't recommend it if it costs anything more than a dollar.

5/10

(http://i.imgur.com/bajDa.png)

Dear Esther

Never mind the narrative, while good the main reason to play this "game" is if you feel like going for a walk on a beautifully mapped island. While going through Dear Esther I got a big Fragile Dreams vibe from this game: melancholy, beautiful and very lonely. When i talked about Fragile Dreams (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=29356.msg720848#msg720848) i said that they should have taken out the combat (and filler) of that game and it would have been an enjoyable game. Dear Esther is just that. Get this game if: You can get it for very cheap (i bought it for $2 on a steam sale) and if you enjoy hiking, taking walks or just enjoy aimlessly wandering around environments in other video games.
7/10
-----
Decided to use a lot of images because if these games have one thing in common (besides being indie games) it's that they're really nice to look at.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Oblivion on July 27, 2012, 02:51:13 AM
Slender


**** this game.


10/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on July 27, 2012, 09:26:17 AM
I hope you listen to NFR ymeegod and Lithium.  We talk about ME3 more extensively and we are going for and Limbo.  If you haven't the Chapters are good on the M4A version.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on July 27, 2012, 12:13:16 PM
I'm listening to the forum cast in instalments, 3 hours is a lot to go through! I did enjoy the Mass Effect Conversation though but unfortunately the M4a format doesn't work on Zunes i just get an error message and it doesn't play. well, AAC files play on zunes but as soon as it has chapters it doesn't know what to do.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ceric on July 27, 2012, 04:03:43 PM
I'm listening to the forum cast in instalments, 3 hours is a lot to go through! I did enjoy the Mass Effect Conversation though but unfortunately the M4a format doesn't work on Zunes i just get an error message and it doesn't play. well, AAC files play on zunes but as soon as it has chapters it doesn't know what to do.
Really,  That's interesting because I listen to the M4A version of the whole NWR Family of Podcast through the Zune player for Windows. (iTunes molested me in college and has an old feeling UI.)
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Lithium on July 27, 2012, 04:35:35 PM
the zune player works, the zune mp3 player doesn't (I have the Zune HD)
which is why i've been listening to the "inferior" mp3 feed.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on July 28, 2012, 12:00:23 AM
Well went though Limbo (PC) this afternoon after reading Lithium thoughts and I found myself enjoying the game despite the flaws.  Thought the game had a few cleaver puzzles mixed in and I loved the whole ICO feel to the game--where they drop you off and don't explain anything to you so you have to explore your options on what your character can interact with.  To many games baby you along, highlighting what has to be done but not this game--hell they didn't waste a second with enough the basic functions (I had to use the menu to figure out the controls).

As for the controls being sloppy; I didn't run into any issue until the end chapters where the developers played around with the gravity which switched your prespective.  All I did was flip the keyboard around or to the angle of my character and that help me though it.

My only gripe with Limbo, is it's short with little to no replay value (3hours), so it another puzzle/platformer like Boy and His Blob but only 1/5 the gameplay--bit size.  Depending on how much you spent (I say $5 or less) then the game's alright in my book.  Loved watching my little guy die and loved the little twisted jokes in the game.

I'll give it an 8/10 myself. 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: AnGer on July 30, 2012, 01:26:34 AM
I finished the story of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] (3DS) just yesterday. There's still some stuff to tackle which I probably will NOT do with this save file since I apparently have a bug that prevents me from getting everything.

The game itself is still very good despite having a few issues that come with it. Like its predecessor and direct inspiration Birth by Sleep its balancing is... odd. In the beginning, the game throws relatively easy adversaries at you with the exception of a boss or two and its demands rise rather slowly until the last two worlds you visit – suddenly you need to face large numbers of fairly powerful enemies and a series of strong boss fights to end a up in a finale which is rather... cheap.

Considering the well told plot and the large number of possibilities concerning the use of Dream Eaters as well as the technical issues and the balancing, I'd give the game a 8/10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: tendoboy1984 on July 30, 2012, 02:14:40 AM
Wario Land (Game Boy - 3DS Virtual Console)

In Wario's first platforming adventure, you control the greedy bastard as he steals treasure and coins from the (evil?) Captain Syrup and her band of pirates. Wario is neither a good guy or a bad guy, he's just a selfish, greedy pig who wants nothing more but to be rich.

Like the Mario series, Wario can use power-ups to enhance his abilities. These come in the form of different hats (Team Fortress, eat your heart out). The Dragon Hat lets Wario breath fire; the Bull Hat makes Wario's shoulder bash more powerful, and he can use the horns to stick to ceilings; the Jet Hat lets Wario fly through the air, and he can even use it to move quickly underwater.

All of the treasures and coins that Wario finds are stashed in a vault at the end of every level. The more treasure you have, the better the game's ending will be. This coin count is very similar to New Super Mario Bros. 2, in that every coin you collect is added to a larger total.

1-Ups aren't earned by collecting coins, rather, Wario gets Hearts by defeating enemies and finding them in blocks. Similar to the Mario series, 100 Hearts = 1 life.

Wario can gamble the coins he finds in 2 minigames. The first minigame is a game of chance. In this minigame, there are 2 buckets over Wario's head. If he pulls the rope, either a weight will fall (causing his coin total to drop by half), or he'll earn a moneybag (causing his coin total to double).

The second minigame lets you earn Hearts or 1-Ups. Wario has to toss bombs at a duck moving back and forth in the background. The more points he gets, the better the prize.

There are dozens of bosses and plenty of secrets to find in Wario Land. It's a fairly long game, if you want to collect every treasure and get your coin count as high as possible.

My Score: 8/10
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Halbred on July 31, 2012, 09:41:56 PM
I just beat it with every treasure, and I thought the game was...boring. I remember loving it back in the day, but it hasn't aged well. Very slow-paced, the level designs are lazy, and the bosses are unbelievably easy. Wario Land 2 is where the series really started to take off.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ymeegod on July 31, 2012, 11:36:26 PM
(http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRFaDWXF4xj-1f3RUT-wo8GlwYgmGIbhH3zKgADK2nViBQr-Wj47w)
Just finished up my third indie game, Torchlight-the slash and hack diablo clone. 

A bit mixed about this one, first off it took me 1hr+ to get the game running.  Not sure why but the game doesn't run if you change your operating system's (windows 7 for me) DPI (meaning I use larger icons on my desktop).  Why?  I have to freaking idea and there hasn't been a game patch for this for three years?  So I had to change my DPI, logoff and on again just to play this game.  Oh, the solution wasn't even found on the website troubleshoot forum, nope found it on Ask.com.  *rolls eyes*

As for the game, there's zero story so all you'll left with is the combat.  You get an pet companion who can help in fighting but it also's doubles as a mule pack--you won't have to teleport back to town to unload equipment just send your cat or dog back instead.  There's a few neat spells to play with but there's not point reset option other than "retire" your character and start from the beginning, which brings up another point.  There's only one character slot option, meaning you can have multiple characters saves which might be troublesome if people share accounts with others.

Another thing this game lacks was multiplayer.  Not that I do much co=op missions with others but I wouldn't minded trading items with others, so often I found equipment that I couldn't use or missing one piece of that set armor (though I did get three of the same helmets for that set :( ).

Pro's: 
+diablo clone with plenty of loot
+the UI works great
+plenty of extra storage back in town

Con's:
=One save file
=no story to speak of
=no multiplayer

For the $5 that I paid, I did enjoy myself but I can't recommend this to many since it's just another hack and slash game--an 6/10  unoriginal and forgettable.   
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: broodwars on July 31, 2012, 11:45:52 PM
I just beat it with every treasure, and I thought the game was...boring. I remember loving it back in the day, but it hasn't aged well. Very slow-paced, the level designs are lazy, and the bosses are unbelievably easy. Wario Land 2 is where the series really started to take off.

I have to concur.  I'm playing the game off-and-on right now, and man I'm struggling to stay awake as I play it.  The game just moves so...slowly, and the levels just don't seem to have any flow to them.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: oohhboy on August 01, 2012, 12:55:06 AM
(http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRFaDWXF4xj-1f3RUT-wo8GlwYgmGIbhH3zKgADK2nViBQr-Wj47w)

This was made by the ex-Diablo guys on a shoe string back when Diablo 2 was still the only real game in town. TL 2  should address the flaws you have mentioned, except story. This is pon of Hack and Slash, the story is only really getting in the way.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on September 07, 2012, 05:55:54 PM
(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRmLeGYbHETb_S3PQgZRUfqqahY5pEoUT0qIGNSW4a5i_l_J2CBWg)
Knocked down a few titles in the past week that have been on my backlog for awhile now:

First up, lets start with the bad, Ninja Gaiden 3 (XBox 360).  When the first NG reboot was released on the Xbox I loved it and now, Tecmo might as well hand out pink slips to "Team Ninja" because when Itagaki left the developer (2008) they released two subpar titles back to back. 

In NG3 there's way to many QTE (quick time events, ie God of War), feels like even the lowest minor characters ending with an QTE.  Awful, not only is it in combat but in platform selections as well.  Instead of awarding challenging platform selections like in NG 1 or 2, you'll get QTE events instead.

As for the combat, you'll end up fighting the same handful of enemies and bosses over and over again.  No real skill is required.  You get this "rage" meter that fills up quite fast allowing you to plow over enemies.

So what's missing from the sequel?  Items/upgrades for one, you no longer have to look for weapons or items thoughout the map because there isn't ANY.  You'll get one sword and the same damn attacks from the beginning of the game and one bow you get about 1/3 in.  No upgrading weapons, no added additional combos, increasing health--NOTHING.

Nippo, NG's magic system is reduced down to ONE spell the entire game, and if you use it you'll refill you health to 100% while killing everything on the screen--not overpowered or anything *rolls eyes*.

And lastly, there's no dismemberment, which worked well in NG1 and 2 because it allowed multiple ways to defeat enemies.

In short, save you time and money and just skipped this dud, Team Ninja lost all it's magic, an 4/10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: Ymeegod on September 07, 2012, 06:29:02 PM
(http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRd_qIaxb-WM8spxFscb6KAIAk8BCxJjZZiBq9xQxC0iqttvPAUgw)
Next comes up Saints Row 3 (Xbox 360):

If you never played an SR game, it's an GTA clone with a sense of humor.  A couple of small gripes, for one the assassin's missions were an utter waste of time.  It was supposed to be a fun way to explore different options in the game but alot of times the game didn't defined the objection clear enough so you either had to waste a few hours guessing on what to do or use an guide.  Though "streaking" in front of window shops to lure out the target did get a giggle out of me.

Also issues with a couple of glitches, in a couple of missions where you had to escort the AI whores, they ended up running in place instead of entering the car.  In Insurance Scam side quest, anytime I went flying into the the air the game would reset my character back on the ground (kinda pointless in this sidequest since the whole idea was to cause major damage to your character to begin with).

Overall the game is just more or less the same, nothing really new but still good enough for us GTA freaks looking for more.  An 8/10.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: TheXenocide on September 24, 2012, 09:23:18 AM
I just beat a Boy and his Blob on Wii. I LOVE this game and I give it an 8.5! It's a great puzzle platformer and the puzzles are easy enough to solve if you just pay attention and take a sec to think about it. The controls, however, are a little janky and, in my opinion at least, there are far too many of those situations where you're parachuting through a minefield (which can be troublesome with the controls). However, this is a great game that every puzzle game fan should have!!!
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: ejamer on October 02, 2012, 11:06:50 AM
New Super Mario Bros Wii

Meh. It's a good game, and the co-op is an interesting addition even though it makes actually finishing levels more difficult most of the time. But it's also bland and something about the movement physics felt off - character momentum never seemed to click for me. Despite the complaints, a mediocre Mario game is still a better choice than most other platformers.

7.5/10

Monster World IV

Retro fans should pick this up. The game has some rough edges around level design but is a great example of late 16-bit games. Nice graphics, solid controls, and a simple but fun story. There are some unexpectedly nice ideas in the game - seeing the light RPG elements tied into the action/platforming, and watching the story unfold by seeing how the town changes over time - and the whold package feels like it received a lot of attention during development. That we are getting an official translation for the first time years later is a gift to fans of old-school gaming.

8/10

The Legened of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

I went in with low expectations, as the idea of stylus controls didn't really appeal to me. By the game's end my opinion hadn't changed: stylus controls are still unappealing, but I have to admit they did a good enough job implementing them into this particular game that it didn't make playing a chore. With that out of the way, I have to say I was impressed with Phantom Hourglass. Not one of the finest moments in the Zelda series, but a solid game that tried some new things. Be warned though: the repeated use of a single temple might annoy some, and the controls are not as accurate or convenient as using buttons.

7/10

WarioLand: Super Mario Land 3

Enjoyed this game greatly as a child, but was worried that it wouldn't hold up to nostalgia. Well... it 's still a good game, but just not as good as I remembered. Levels are very simple, although do contain some nice secrets to look for. Wario controls very slowly, making the pace an issue at times, but has some interesting power-ups including the Jet Hat that speeds up his general movement. Playing through and trying to get the best possible ending was still fun, but it's impossible to ignore how short and easy the game is. I had fun and would recommend for fans, but I would have a hard time recommending to everyone.

6/10




Bonus impressions: Mystery Case Files: The Malgrave  Incident


Really didn't expect much form this game, and it largely is what I expected. A few simple puzzles, and some large images that you have to search for a list of specific items. What I didn't expect (and was very pleased to see) was how much my non-gaming family members enjoyed playing. Not a game I would've bought for myself, but being able to game with my wife is something I always appreciate.
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: AnGer on October 16, 2012, 02:34:53 PM
     Since I was planning to unplug my Wii this weekend with every game I currently own finished (gonna buy a few more nonetheless, but keep them on-hold) I decided to play through one last game. My choice turned out to be the Gamecube version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, a game I have not touched ever since it came out about six years ago and I had mixed feelings about.


(http://i.minus.com/iFTpTsVEic11l.jpg)


The control schematics is easy to understand, since it is mostly the same as in The Wind Waker, with a few minor changes to it. A serves as the universal action button, B is for attacking, X & Y are for items, Z calls Link's sidekick Midna, R is a secondary action button and L is for targeting or placing the camera behind Link. Unlike in the other 3D installments of the series, Link uses his shield automatically when pressing L unless a different item like the slingshot is in use.

I found combat to be rather challenging, especially in the latter areas where you face off against foes that can not be taken down by one hit. It is also far more dynamic than combat in Skyward Sword which felt a little too puzzle-esque since the sword was controlled by the Wiimote instead of a series of button combinations. Despite that, I would have wished for more mass-fights as it rarely occurs that you are facing more than five to six enemies. On the other hand, the game's main bosses seemed a bit too easy for me and I've had more trouble dealing with the mini-bosses at times although even they did not do a lot of damage. Being knocked around by an Iron Knuckle isn't "fun" when it deals a blow that results in only 1 heart of damage.

The main quest's plot is overall good, but the way the main quest is executed is not the best I've seen. During parts of the game, I felt like I was being unnecessarily sent throughout the world just for the sake of getting to the next dungeon and it seemed to me that the makers just wanted to stretch the main quest. The dungeons were well-designed, but their structure is not vastly different from that in Skyward Sword – you still are given one single correct way to get through the dungeons. That being said, this is something the Zelda series has – more or less – always been doing, but it never was as clear as in the last two installments.

The game had much to offer aside from the main quest, but these tasks were not exactly thought out well. Yes, you get a lot of stuff to do, but many give off a vibe of being built in just for the sake of being there. Especially the two major side tasks, the bug catching and the collecting of poe souls. Both take a lot of time, the poe soul quest more than the bugs and the rewards do not live up to the time you need to pour into it. Because they're rupees. Yes. Fucking rupees which you have an abundance of throughout the entire game – I had to ditch a lot of treasure chests because I didn't have the space for all those rupees which I never needed because items like bombs were literally everywhere and since the enemies were quite "weak" (as in "not doing a lot of damage"). At least a piece of heart should've been in it for me.

Speaking of more positive things: The soundtrack is well-made and it is far better than Skyward Sword's, even though it isn't orchestrated. The graphics are really great and it has very beautiful lighting, even though the textures could probably have been a little better (which I won't count as it is a rather old game).
 
All in all, it is a good game, but it's lacking on the content side. A little less would've been better. Twilight Princess managed to positively suprise me in some ways, but disappointed me in others. Even after six years.
 
Title: Re: Rate The Last Game You Played
Post by: azeke on October 19, 2012, 12:46:25 AM
Hydroventure (Fluidity)

Beat the last influence ("boss") level. Damn it was hard. That place where you have to throw a cog over a very high rock and then come back is just brutal. At first i couldn't believe that this is what exactly i am supposed to do since it was hard at first and had to check walkthrough video to check if it's indeed what am i required to do there.

Collected all drops with just a few puzzles missing.

Loved the overall feel of the game, music, art all contributing to the look and feel of a school textbook or PSA poster. Clean, inoffensive imagery, soothing music and a great gameplay make for a great game.

Controls were okay, i saw many complaints for jump being tied to shake (which is BS cause it's fine imo), which makes me think these people didn't actually played the game up to world 3. Because cloud form you unlock there is much worse. I think i had to reverse cloud form controls it in options for it to start make sense. But once i did that, it clicked. A few of the challenges i felt were too harsh for this controls though (like that one spot in last influence level).

Still overall the game is built competently around controls and around the fact that you are a body of fluid.

Loved the upgrades system and how you unlocked more and more of your abilities to explore more of the world. I wish rainbow drops you already collected wouldn't get in the way, because if you touch them the game stops and you are teleported back to start point of the page. I get that it's kinda of Mario 64 system, but why would you do that in Metroid-style game?

Which Fluidity totally is. And i'm sad to see the overworld go in 3ds game.

I checked Nintendo channel yesterday and i think i clocked a whooping 20+ hours into it. Really enjoyed it.