Clearing the Pile is a Labor of Love

Oh great, so there will be two months where I don't have to feel guilty about buying new games since there won't be a fake deadline to finish all those idling titles. Sweet!

Vrikk wrote:

Oh great, so there will be two months where I don't have to feel guilty about buying new games since there won't be a fake deadline to finish all those idling titles. Sweet!

Except for you...

We'll make the Vrikk's Pile of Shame thread and I'll go dig up some stuff from the original Pile thread.

It'll give me time to finish off GTA. My enthusiasm levels are low at the moment.

P.S. My 360 is back. Yay!

Woohoo...finished up Crackdown. I've only got about half the achievements, but I just don't care about them...particularly drying to hunt down every last orb or whatever. The races as well...ugh. The game, though, was a blast. Totally campy and hit all the right notes as far as balancing difficulty and entertainment. Had to redo a bunch of the bosses several times, but it was always satisfying to finally beat them. Just a great game overall...

On to Prince of Persia on the 360 for me...likely will take me into October to finish that up.

Hey guys,
Just got back from a week in the Great Canadian North - just wanted to add that I polished off FFX just before leaving so I could enjoy my trip guilt-free.
Pros - fantastic boss combat, imaginative leveling system, cool endgame.
Cons - the plot, the characters, the cutscenes, the pacing - linear for far too long, too much freedom too fast at the end.

The Customization was in fact overpowered - I beat the game by spamming Ultima with Yuna and Lulu with 1MP items, which kind of took some of the fun away - but the rewards from the Monster Arena were just too crazy.

Ultimately, the game had so many flaws I can't really see how it can be considered a highlight of JRPGs, but rather is a prime example of the decline of modern JRPGs compared to classics like FFVI - to which it doesn't even come close.

Just as a post-script, I decided to check out the intro to FFX-2. So...Yuna is a JPOP star now?

How the mighty have fallen...I really, really hope FFXII redeems the series somewhat.

Dysplastic wrote:

How the mighty have fallen...I really, really hope FFXII redeems the series somewhat.

Famitsu gave it a rare 50/50. But I'm not sure they can be trusted. They rightly gave a 50/50 to Windwaker but dropped the ball by giving 50/50 to Ocarina of Time and 48/50 to Majora's Mask.

adam.greenbrier wrote:
Dysplastic wrote:

How the mighty have fallen...I really, really hope FFXII redeems the series somewhat.

Famitsu gave it a rare 50/50.

That is rare, they normally score out of 40!

Phew, Trine finally falls. That last level really is a Female Doggo though!

Gravey wrote:
adam.greenbrier wrote:
Dysplastic wrote:

How the mighty have fallen...I really, really hope FFXII redeems the series somewhat.

Famitsu gave it a rare 50/50.

That is rare, they normally score out of 40!

You're right. My bad.

Knocked Bone: The Great Cow Race off of my pile!
Only the second of the "Telltale style" games, released before even the Sam & Max episodes, Telltale was just beginning to discover its own way of doing adventure games, and as such this game isn't as streamlined as later releases. While longer than part one: Out from Boneville, it's still a brief experience that nonetheless provides plenty of light-hearted fun. Minor annoyances, such as the inability to speed up conversations and a sequencing of actions that isn't always clear, persist, but do not mar the experience overly much. As little-known property coming from a then little-known studio, Bone didn't receive the attention it deserved, and unfortunately it looks like we will never see the third part of the series.

I played Out from Boneville upon its release nearly four years ago, and was slightly underwhelmed considering its price at the time. Reviews stated that The Great Cow Race fixed most of the original's issues, and they were right. Unfortunately, few people appear to have given Bone a second chance, myself included until a few months ago. I'm glad I did.
---
Btw, did anybody else who finished Silent Hill and watched the credits find it ironic that the voice "actors" for SH came from an agency named STARS?

Mother Brain has been destroyed! All hail Samus!

It took me 6 hours to complete the game and I only found 81% of the items. I spent a good portion of the game running in circles trying to figure out where to go next. That was expected since I only remember small fragments of the game. I don't remember ever visiting Maridia yet I knew the exact layout of Ridley's boss room. Now that it's over, I've been making some comparisons between it and Metroid Prime.

I enjoyed Metroid Prime immensely but I couldn't help but feel like something was off. I really was too damn easy. After playing Super Metroid, I realized that the enemies in Metroid Prime were pretty much non-existent. There were very few creatures roaming the planet of Tallon IV and the ones that bothered to attack Samus did about jack to her. I spent the majority of MP with full energy tanks and it got to a point where I couldn't figure out why I needed the 10 extra tanks in the first place.

The variety of enemies in Super Metroid provided a great challenge while exploring. Nearly everything on planet Zebes wanted her dead. In Metroid Prime, I never had the feeling that I was in mortal danger until I finally encountered the Space Pirates (and even they aren't worth fighting). The majority of the creatures didn't even attack Samus. Most of them were just wandering around minding their own business. It's like she landed on a planet inhabited by puppies and song birds yet felt the need to commit mass extinctions because a deer looked at her funny.

Number of deaths in Super Metroid = 4. I had a few close calls due to poor timing, bad aim, enemies that gave a damn and OH MY GOD I JUST WANT YOU TO USE THE SCREW ATTACK PLEASE STOP FALLING.

Number of deaths in Metroid Prime = 0. One close call because the Omega Pirate brought his invisibility cloak and Space Pirate Ninjas. I should go back to it just to see what the Game Over screen looks like.

Well, I don't know what to play next. I'll have to examine the pile of doom.

Mystic, I bow to your much superior gaming skills. I've been playing through Super Metroid the last few days, and I've been dying a lot. I haven't kept an exact count, but it's certainly been more than four.

Oddly enough, I've also been comparing Super Metroid and Metroid Prime as I've been playing them, and I think I might be one of the rare souls that prefers Metroid Prime. I found the exploration in the latter to be equally rewarding but less frustrating. That is, you have to pull just as many tricky things and discover just as many odd environmental interactions in Prime in order to find everything, but you're not often completely at a loss as to what to do next.

In Super Metroid, I've had to consult FAQs a couple times just to figure out where to go next, only to find that the solution was somewhat counter-intuitive. The worst offender, in my book, was having to power bomb the glass tunnel to enter Maridia proper; how in the hell was I supposed to know to do that? Even something as subtle as showing cracks in the glass in the xray scanner would have been nice.

Overall, I can understand why Super Metroid is considered to be a classic, and I have a lot of respect for the ways in which it was deliberately designed to be breakable, but I feel that, as with The Ocarina of Time and Windwaker, Super Metroid might have done it first, but Metroid Prime did it better.

Got to the final area of STALKER (Chernobyl power plant) and I'm crashing upon the level loading. Very annoying and I almost felt like just giving up all together. This has been the only game breaking bug I've come across and there's no way around it. Did some research and it seems like the culprit should be one of the mods that I've install. Unfortunately I don't remember which mods I've installed (UI is different, weather effects and dark night, I believe I installed a user bug patch) and my saved games won't load in the vanilla game.

The upside is that I love this game. I just started a new game and I'm about half-way through. I'm skipping all the side missions, set the difficulty to normal, and just been plowing through it. My original play through was inflated due to hoarding and selling every enemy drop. I accumulated about half a million in currency with plenty of ammo and health kits. This time around I'm only carrying what I need and picking up health related items. Money is useless since the best weapons and armor can be easily picked up as loot.

After this I'm making it my personal policy to play all my games through mod-free, and only then experimenting with extras.

Congrats Mystic - Super Metroid was the first game I played exclusively from start to completion, and loved every moment of it!

I never got too far in either Metroid Prime 1 or 2. In 1, I ran into a crashing bug that was only alleviated once I put the disc into a different gamecube. I didn't realize the game was that much easier, but then again I was still battling the controls somewhat (fps only with kb/mouse for 8+ years at that point).

adam.greenbrier wrote:

Mystic, I bow to your much superior gaming skills. I've been playing through Super Metroid the last few days, and I've been dying a lot. I haven't kept an exact count, but it's certainly been more than four.

Oddly enough, I've also been comparing Super Metroid and Metroid Prime as I've been playing them, and I think I might be one of the rare souls that prefers Metroid Prime. I found the exploration in the latter to be equally rewarding but less frustrating. That is, you have to pull just as many tricky things and discover just as many odd environmental interactions in Prime in order to find everything, but you're not often completely at a loss as to what to do next.

In Super Metroid, I've had to consult FAQs a couple times just to figure out where to go next, only to find that the solution was somewhat counter-intuitive. The worst offender, in my book, was having to power bomb the glass tunnel to enter Maridia proper; how in the hell was I supposed to know to do that? Even something as subtle as showing cracks in the glass in the xray scanner would have been nice.

Overall, I can understand why Super Metroid is considered to be a classic, and I have a lot of respect for the ways in which it was deliberately designed to be breakable, but I feel that, as with The Ocarina of Time and Windwaker, Super Metroid might have done it first, but Metroid Prime did it better.

I doubt it was superior gaming skills. I've been down this road a few times over the years so I knew what to expect through most of the game. I had a few close calls but not much trouble until the second and third bosses. They kicked my ass even though I had fought them before. I was sitting on my couch in disbelief like "WTF I died? I should be using muscle memory by now!" The truth is that I remember fighting them, I remember winning but I don't remember what I did to win.

There was one exception... I almost died within five minutes of starting Super Metroid. There's a room in Crateria that is full of flying gnats and they all hit me at once. I got to the other side of the room with my energy tank beeping. The very next room was a dead end meaning I needed to go back. At that moment, I said "If I die here, I'm turning in my gamer card."

There are about 3-4 moments in Super Metroid when moving forward is almost impossible without some assistance. I knew about the tube in Maridia from a past playthrough but there are two other instances later on in the game where I had to use a FAQ to continue. There's one in particular near the end of the game that is very ridiculous because it doesn't appear when using the X-Ray Visor.

It was never my intention to compare the two games and choose which one was better. Comparing Super Metroid to Metroid Prime really is apples to oranges. It would be like comparing Ocarina of Time to A Link to the Past. Both games are great but play very differently.

My issue with Metroid Prime is that it I felt it should've played a bit more like a shooter. Not like Halo 3, but maybe with more aggressive enemies. In Super Metroid, you couldn't go anywhere without running into something that was trying to kill you. Super Metroid was more of a shooter than Metroid Prime was. After playing both of them, I thought it was a little odd. I wanted to destroy enemies in MP but there weren't any. In contrast, I wanted the enemies in SM to leave me the hell alone.

I thought about trying Veteran mode but I have a feeling it's nothing more than a Zoomer causing more damage after accidentally stepping on one.

AUs_TBirD wrote:

Congrats Mystic - Super Metroid was the first game I played exclusively from start to completion, and loved every moment of it!

Super Metroid probably didn't belong on my pile but I don't remember ever completing it. I thought I had but I couldn't remember what happens at the end. What was so great about this playthrough was seeing the end for the "first time."

Spoiler:

I really thought the giant metroid was going to kill me. The more I tried to break free, the more energy I was losing. It got to a point near Samus' death when I started yelling at my television. The same thing happened during Mother Brain's second form. Of course, then I remembered what the metroid was suppose to do. :lol:

AUs_TBirD wrote:

I never got too far in either Metroid Prime 1 or 2. In 1, I ran into a crashing bug that was only alleviated once I put the disc into a different gamecube. I didn't realize the game was that much easier, but then again I was still battling the controls somewhat (fps only with kb/mouse for 8+ years at that point).

Seriously, if controls were the issue, then the Metroid Prime Trilogy is what you should pick up. "Point and press" shooting is vastly superior to the GC controls. I love it.

Having gotten stuck in Super Metroid—and still feeling intimidated by Mystic's skills ;)—I decided to try one of my pile games: Condemned: Criminal Origins. This might not be a game for me despite being exactly the sort of game I like. Don't scratch it off for me just yet, Hemi, but it may come to that.

Like I said, Condemned sounds like my kind of game: a horror game with an emphasis on visceral melee combat. Within the first few minutes of the game, I was sold. The atmosphere was great, the world was filled with nice details (like rings from old paint cans on industrial shelves; brilliant), the enemies were fairly intelligent, and the combat was decent if unremarkable. (The combat visuals were dead-on with the present but not obtrusive blood spatter on the HUD, and the controller had just the right amount of vibration on a hit. Unfortunately, the sounds are a bit off, and the physical controls feel detached from the on-screen action. Hitting alternate triggers doesn't really feel like combat, particularly not after the setup-and-followthrough style of combat in Alone in the Dark).

However, one hour into the game, I might very well be done. It's the level design that's getting me. The opening level is a dark, dank construction site inhabited by addicts and violent transients. The rooms are laid out in a disorienting sprawl with one area looking much like another. I assumed that this was the point, but I found it to be more frustrating than fun as I muddled my way from area to area without a clear sense of why I was doing so. I hoped it was just the opening area, but the next level is ... a dark, dank metro station inhabited by addicts and violent transients. Once again, I found myself wandering aimlessly, getting turned around and confused but not really able to tell if I had actually gotten turned around or if I had simply entered another identical room. The only reliable measure I found for whether or not I was heading in the right direction was whether or not I was interrupted by a cutscene.

I suppose that I've been spoiled by the level design in games like Half-Life 2 and Thief, but I don't have much tolerance for being lost. It's one thing to not know where to go next in the game as a whole (i.e., being stuck; c.f., Super Metroid), but it's quite another thing to be so mixed up as to not know where to go in any given room.

I've finished "Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction" - or at least the first playthrough. I almost never feel like playing a game again, especially right after the first playthrough, but now I've got this ultimate weapon (the RYNO 4) that makes the whole thing just a simplified walkthrough with tons of overstimulating explosions. I may grow bored of that, but I enjoyed re-doing the first couple levels as an almost invincible killing and moneymaking machine.

Devil May Cry 4 is crying in a corner from the beating I gave it. On the easiest 'Human' difficulty at least. I'm halfway through beating it on 'Devil Hunter', which should then unlock the super hard mode.

It's surprisingly enjoyable - first DMC game I've spent more than 10 minutes with. Took a while to me to grok the flow of the combat, but for all it's anachronistic flaws, it's a riot.

As for my other pile game, Far Cry 2, it's been on my pile for the last 3 months, and it may well still be there come 2010. Damn my completionist streak!

adam.greenbrier wrote:

(Condemned)

However, one hour into the game, I might very well be done. It's the level design that's getting me. The opening level is a dark, dank construction site inhabited by addicts and violent transients. The rooms are laid out in a disorienting sprawl with one area looking much like another. I assumed that this was the point, but I found it to be more frustrating than fun as I muddled my way from area to area without a clear sense of why I was doing so. I hoped it was just the opening area, but the next level is ... a dark, dank metro station inhabited by addicts and violent transients. Once again, I found myself wandering aimlessly, getting turned around and confused but not really able to tell if I had actually gotten turned around or if I had simply entered another identical room. The only reliable measure I found for whether or not I was heading in the right direction was whether or not I was interrupted by a cutscene.

I suppose that I've been spoiled by the level design in games like Half-Life 2 and Thief, but I don't have much tolerance for being lost. It's one thing to not know where to go next in the game as a whole (i.e., being stuck; c.f., Super Metroid), but it's quite another thing to be so mixed up as to not know where to go in any given room.

I have the same problem with all of Monolith's recent games. They need better signposting, or at the very least, a map function. Being lost with no idea of where to go next is not fun.

Hey, in the games list at the top of the page, sometimes the finished game is crossed out, but sometimes the player (including me) is crossed out. Is this a hidden message about some of us?

philucifer wrote:

Hey, in the games list at the top of the page, sometimes the finished game is crossed out, but sometimes the player (including me) is crossed out. Is this a hidden message about some of us? ;-)

Name crossed out = Player beat the game

Game crossed out = Game beat the player

....aaaaaannnddd Prey is done!

I don't see what the fuss was about. Sure the "instant revive" mechanic is at times a bit tedious, but why were people so up in arms about a game element that allowed them to respawn in the spot they died without having to reload a save? This allows players to enjoy the game as they see fit without the frustration inherent in dying and retracing ones steps multiple times. The challenge is now simply trying to not die, without being punished if it does happen - especially later, when staying alive occasionally appears to be borderline impossible. I wish Far Cry had included this feature during its final level.

Graphics were nice (with the exception of Jen's elf-ears), sound was what it should have been, voice acting was good (Art Bell) to poor (Tommy and Jen), level design was mostly linear, the guns were satisfying, the length was just about right, and multiplayer was left unattempted. Now the portals and gravity flipping - those were cool as well as disorienting! Furthermore, the game had its fair share of really cool moments (bus, plane, etc), and I was frequently impressed by its imaginative settings. One of the better sci-fi games I've played.

Finally, Prey does one thing that should be game design gospel: When I double-click the "Launch Prey" icon, it takes me to the Title Screen/Menu - do not pass go, do not show me 20 middleware splash screens that I don't care the least bit about! Prey takes you straight to the game and that's wonderful!

Mystic Violet wrote:

Seriously, if controls were the issue, then the Metroid Prime Trilogy is what you should pick up. "Point and press" shooting is vastly superior to the GC controls. I love it.

I have no doubt that it is, but I just don't see myself rebuying 1 and 2 (never picked up 3) at the moment.....ask me how my thrift is holding up in a week though

Mark me down under "Game beat player"

Although really The Witcher didn't beat me, Empire: Total War did. I'm just having way too much fun with it. I'm about to invade the U.S. The Indians will ride in to save the Indians from subjugation! Then we'll subjugate them too probably. Subjugation for everybody!

Played through chapter 1 on Valkyria Chronicles. It has potential, but I don't know how well suited I am to this genre.

I crushed Left 4 Dead without even meaning to this week.

Only 4 campaigns? I desire more.

Jonman wrote:

I have the same problem with all of Monolith's recent games. They need better signposting, or at the very least, a map function. Being lost with no idea of where to go next is not fun.

That's so strange. Other than the Half-Life series, Monolith's recent games are the only examplpes of shooters I've played where I don't run into that problem.

kuddles wrote:
Jonman wrote:

I have the same problem with all of Monolith's recent games. They need better signposting, or at the very least, a map function. Being lost with no idea of where to go next is not fun.

That's so strange. Other than the Half-Life series, Monolith's recent games are the only examplpes of shooters I've played where I don't run into that problem.

To each their own, I guess. I've had this problem both in Condemned and the demos for Condemned 2 and FEAR 2. I had excused the demos on account of their being demos and being cobbled together from different parts of the game, but I'm wandering aimlessly in Condemned without a clear direction of where I'm going or why. It gets one more session, and if it doesn't grab me then, it gets moved from the play pile to the sell pile.

So I picked up Crysis - Warhead like 3 days ago and already beat it. So that's another pile pick gone.

Impressions? Crysis was great, and this is Crysis even more action-packed, which is great. Too bad they tried to insert some kind of morality tale in there.
Also, way, way too short for 30$. I think I got twice as much playtime out of Trine.

As for now? The rest of September is Devoted to Shadow Complex, which isn't a pile game, and some random D2D games that I'll sample here and there.

Please put me down for The Witcher as a case of "game beat player," despite my playing all the way through to the beginning of Chapter 5.

I have an obsessive need in RPGs to live with the decisions I make. I don't reload earlier saves when I don't like the results. Unfortunately, at the end of Chapter 4 of The Witcher I made a decision I came to regret and I've abandoned the game, at least for the time being

I felt, essentially, that I sided with the Nazis against the Jews. And I think the game fiction (which refers to atrocities committed against particular NPC races, and which was developed in the part of the world where the Holocaust occurred) encourages this interpretation. The game obviously wants you feel disturbed by the ramifications of making this choice.

In most RPGs I can live with the decisions because I don't feel the game fiction relates to the real world, and the results of decisions are usually inconsequential. Even in a seemingly realistic game like GTA, the situations are so absurd and removed from real life that I get great enjoyment from acting like the world's worst sociopath. (Although I haven't played GTA IV, which I understand has a similar effect on some players because it forces your character to do unpleasant things, and I couldn't bring myself to "harvest" the Little Sisters in Bioshock).

So I've abandoned The Witcher for the interesting reason that, for me, the game proved too successful in depicting the consequences of your choices.

kuddles wrote:
Jonman wrote:

I have the same problem with all of Monolith's recent games. They need better signposting, or at the very least, a map function. Being lost with no idea of where to go next is not fun.

That's so strange. Other than the Half-Life series, Monolith's recent games are the only examplpes of shooters I've played where I don't run into that problem.

Strange indeed. Monolith games and Half-Life 2 are the only games it does happen to me in. I'm stuck in Nova Prospekt because I have no idea how to get out of the bit I'm in. It's not even a big bit.