The Gaming Thread

[gunsage]

And see, that's another reason the second one irritates me so bad. Perhaps it's a lot like what happened with Devil May Cry...I don't know.* The original Jak was EASY...at least, IMO. Now, this could be because I've trudged through such other platformers with no/little trouble (Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, Conker's BFD, etc.), but I found it to be fun, funny, a weeeee bit short, but yeah, pretty easy in most instances. Therefore, the absolute CRANK in difficulty came as a shock.

Now again, maybe it's just me...but yes, I think they definitely needed more checkpoints. Even Ratchet & Clank was better than that!** In any case, Jak 2 is still fun, but driving sucks, racing sucks worse, and an absolute lack of checkpoints makes the game so overly frustrating that I have to play it in small bursts for fear of turning into a hulk and smashing everything in sight. On a positive note, at least it helps me acknowledge and work on one of my New Year's resolutions (channel my anger more effectively).

*Sources say that Capcom was concerned about the difficulty being "too easy" for the third DMC and thus, HEAVILY increased it. This is another reason why you unlock easy mode by DYING vs. Cerberus.

**Ratchet & Clank, while not done by Naughty Dog (creators of Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, etc.), has the exact same engine of Jak & Daxter and a lot of similarities as a result.

[Shangri-laschild]

I still need to finish the 1st Jak game. Years and years of not gaming and only recently being introduced to it means that I am not very good at it yet unless it's one of those easy hack them up games where there's not a lot of fine small movement. I had heard about the suckyness of the second one though save wise.

[gunsage]

I don't believe Portal will run on my PC as it's about 4 years old, but yeah, I'll check it out. Well, as expected, Jak 2 is already giving me headaches even to get back to where I was before I had deleted my file. I do like the fact that there are infinite lives, but come on...throw me a checkpoint or something every now and then! The game is TERRIBLE about not giving you checkpoints. I guess I shouldn't complain...the GTA games are like that, too...of course...I haven't beaten any of those either.

VJ is awesome, as usual, but I gotta ask, just in case anyone knows...how do you access things in the background? For example...the first area I know of that does this is the underwater level. There are blocks in the background and I can't figure out how to get over there. Is it a matter of going into mach speed mode and eventually a "copy" will hit it? If I recall correctly, this is also how I got stuck later. I'll have to review the instructions just in case there's something I missed, but none of the tutorials show you how to do it, so yeah.

Beyond that, I started rifling through my MAME titles. There were a lot of them that I had no idea that didn't work. Then there's still others that need tweaking or just don't work right anyway in some fashion. For example, Point Blank has no sound AND there's two crosshairs. I'm assuming this is for two players, but when you're playing with just one player, having the other one floating in the middle of the screen with all the frenzied action going on gets a little annoying. I guess that's about it for now.

[Shangri-laschild]

Hahaha. I've gotten portal as of this weekend and will be playing it very very soon.

[Gravekeeper]

Get. Portal. Now.

-.-

[gunsage]

Never tried Portal, but it certainly looks fun. I have tried the Flash version, but I don't have the link, sorry.

[RichS]

Third-ed. Get The Orange Box and play it immediately!

Short, yes, but oh so sweet. Like cake...

It's hard to overstate my satisfaction...

[Broomjockey]

Lemme put it this way.

Portal was worth the entire price of the Orange Box. The rest is like a treat to make up for it being short. PLAY! YOU MUST PLAY!

The cake is a lie! GLaDOS was awesome though

[Geek King]

Don't know if it's been brought up but has anyone here played portal? I'm debating playing it and was wondering what you all had thought of it.

Play it. Now.


There will be cake later.

One of the best games I've played in a long while, even if it is short. Must have the audio up to hear GlaDOS. Going back through it with the creator's commentary on is neat too.

[Shangri-laschild]

Don't know if it's been brought up but has anyone here played portal? I'm debating playing it and was wondering what you all had thought of it.

[gunsage]

Well, I beat Jade Empire last night. The ending was...eh. The game itself is very fun and pretty long for an action/RPG. Definitely worth a play through if you've never tried it. Since I beat it, I decided to pick up some more stuff. Here's what I got...

- Viewtiful Joe (PS2)
- Genma Onimusha (X Box)
- Rygar (PS2)
- Jak 2 (PS2)

VJ and GO are the only ones I'm concerned about. I've played Onimusha on the PS2 and even the PC, but not the X Box...not sure if it's going to be better, worse, or what. Same thing with VJ. I played it initially for the GC and it was VERY fun, so hopefully the port is no biggie. As far as Rygar and Jak 2, I've played them and I like them. Unfortunately, Jak 2 is a bit difficult, so I may be looking at some controller throwage later.

I really enjoyed the first Jak and I wanted to beat this one so I could move on to the third. I only played Rygar for a while, but I liked what I played. Kinda like Devil May Cry with a little God of War thrown in. Unfortunately, it's not the best of both worlds, but still a fun game nonetheless. And if you haven't hopped on the Onimusha bandwagon, GET HOPPIN! Anyway, that's about it for now. See you guys later.

[gunsage]

Honestly, I never tried the XMen Legend/Alliance games. I'm sure they're good, but I'm not a big Marvel fan to begin with. Yeah, I liked The Punisher, but primarily because you're taking Manhunt-esque "negotiation" plus third person shooter with unlockables and upgrades...LOVE IT. I only wish it was longer, really. Morrowind is okay and I'm sure I'll like Oblivion when I get something that can run it, but I'm sure Oblivion shares the same problems Morrowind does in terms of combat, sandbox = SUPAR GAEM DEVELOPMENT style.

The revelation flow and factory aspects of Rogue Galaxy is where the game truly shines. I see what they were trying to do with the combat and I'm not saying it doesnt' work, but I'm not really understanding the purpose of having an action bar. I mean, if anything, if I'm not doing anything, let it refill or something! What was always annoying was it'd be down to virtually nothing, I just killed the enemies I was focusing on and I'm going up to support my comrades who are getting their asses handed to them, I do ONE MOVE...and it has to recharge!

Virtually every Level 5 game is done remarkably well. I'd go as far as to say they are as Squaresoft was in the 90s. I mean literally, I eagerly anticipated ANYTHING they made during that era but now? Not so much. They're very hit or miss. Still a very good company and founded on a lot of great games, but they may have lost their audience. Also, I'm not saying Touch Detective is bad. The slapstick and dialogue is quite nice, but yes, the puzzles are crappy. Where they'd probably counter with "Thinking outside the box," I say "Friggin' ridiculous and thank goodness for walkthroughs."

Played Just Cause a little more and what I'll say is this. I like driving uber-fast on my motorcycle, flying off a cliff, going into parachute mode, landing on a car, commandeering said car, wash, rinse, repeat. What I DON'T like is trying to land on a car and, fine, I get run over...but it's all glitchy so it makes it look like my character flew 100 feet straight up and...stays there. The game is glitchy. It's not always glitchy and when it works, it works well and is DAMN awesome.

Unfortunately, the difficulty ramps up a liiiiiiittle too quickly. No, I don't want all the missions to be ridiculously hard, but come on, they REALLY throw you right into it. I don't know...maybe it's just me. In concerns to Jade Empire, I'm doing pretty much what I was doing last time. I've got a balanced character following the open palm path, constantly working on legendary strike and golden staff, keep heavenly wave and spirit strike also on the speed dial for just in case, and have Dawn Star for support. Simple, easy.

Haven't really gone back to playing Gun Valkyrie or anything else, really. Mostly just Jade Empire.

[aniwahya]

I'm surprised that no one has brought up Xmen Legends or Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Or if someone has I've completely forgotten about it, which doesn't suprise me at all. Anyways, I think they are alot of fun to play, allowing people who don't play fighting games to play some awesome super heroes.

Morrowind and Oblivion are alot of fun to play around with. Although I find the main story quests to almost be a chore. The scaling mobs aspect of Oblivion sucks. I hate how challenge in games is being not just toned down, but obliterated.

Speaking of challenge, yeah Shinobi is kickass, it is also just as hard as you've heard. When it first starts out, it doesn't seem that hard since the controls are intuitivem fluid and responsive. Then about the second chapter they cut the health orbs (health refil thingies you find) in half and to make things more fun somthing happens and if you aren't killing enemies to refil a thingabobit you start losing health. While this can be extremely frustrating sometimes, theres nothing quite like the adreniline rush of beating the levels. Shinobi gives you the "I'm a kick ass ninja" rush better than any other ninja game. Especially when you kill enemies back to back, only to have the screen freeze as you sheathe your sword, followed by showing the enemies you just killed literally falling apart. Like in movies how the protagonist delivers the death blow, but the antagonist doesn't realize it until their head falls off, or their whole torso.

Rogue Galaxy was fun, but it wasn't as good was i was hoping it would be.

Hmm, I have more to say. but since i'm faak I'll say it later.
Just remember I *did* warn you! =p

[Chanlin]

Well I can't add any to the present topics that Gunsage brought up, but as I just got my tax return (read money to spend on new games) I can add a new game to the frey

Rogue Galaxy for the PS2. This is actually quite the interesting RPG. It has a real time action combat system, but still has random battles. It's quite similar to the Tales series of games in this respect except that the battles are on a fully 3d field and many of the enemies have special means with which to do damage to them. For example some enemies require that you hit them with a charge attack before you can damage them. You can also pick up and throw enemies or objects on the battlefield.

Quite possibly the most unique point to the system I have seen is the suggestion system. During battle your allies will suggest a move to use for example "Healing Potion" or "(Name of Special Attack)" which correspond to L1 or L2 on the controller. You can then push L3 to reject the suggestions or push L1 or L2 in turn to confirm which one you want them to use. This in turn allows you to conserve AP for skills later on and also gives you complete control over which items the AI uses or does not use. Its also nice in when they suggest an item they show you how many you have left in your inventory. You can then select which special movies the AI has on its suggestion list. Even if you have a move off the suggestion list you can still pause the combat by opening the menu and then give a manual command to use an ability. Essentially you have complete control over your characters and quick access to common commands. The other nice thing is the AI prioritizes suggesting healing items vs special moves so you sort of don't have to pay attention to your HP because it will suggest a healing potion when its needed.

The system for learning new skills is rather interesting too. Common items that you find in the field go into what the game terms the "Revelation Flow" chart. Each block on the chart consists of a number of items and once the correct items have been placed in the chart you earn a new skill for that character. In this respect it is similar to the Sphere Grid system in FFX, however you don't require and exp to move along the chart, just the appropriate items.

The other good mark I give to this game so far is the voice acting is of a very good quality. That is the voice actors sound good for the character they voice and the actors can actually act. The overall story has been fairly engaging so far and the whole system of moves and art have been unique amongst many RPGs that I have played. I think this game is easily an instant classic.

[Gravekeeper]

Now that I've played Touch Detective a little more, I'm ready to hand down a more "educated" opinion. Okay, here's the deal. It's very cartoony. Now, when I say that, I don't just mean it's cartoony in the way it's drawn or the wacky hijinx. Yes, it has that, but that's not the point. The real issue here is that the puzzles are done in a cartoony style. The reason this presents a problem is you often end up having to think in a very obscure way in order to solve various puzzles.

Touch Detective was pretty bad, yeah. The puzzles typically make no sense. They're just being insane for the sake of being insane. Which made the game more annoying then fun to be honest. You end up just trying everything until some random item turns out to be the solution.

The art was nice though. Same with the sequel. It looks really cool but playing it gets annoying. -.-