Gaming Confessions & Blasphemy

If I'm going to stop playing a game for a long time, it's going to be right before a big fight that I don't think I'll win.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Dakuna wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:
Dakuna wrote:

I don't recall the BG games being hard at all... I must be weird.

It was if you went off the beaten path. If you didn't go where the game told you to go, you'd encounter things well above your level.

BG2 was only hard in the optional areas, like the Mind Flayer Lair or a couple of the Dragon fights.

Yes, the Mind Flayer lair was balls. It's the only thing I saw in either game I would say that about though.

I'm not sure if I had more trouble with Mind Flayers or with Beholders.

Oh, the beholders were easy, just use the chainsaw or the chaingun, it totally stunlocks them. uhh... wait wrong thread!

MaxShrek wrote:

Why was there no sequel to Star Wars Republic Commando? I really enjoyed it, was I the only one?

I really liked it too. It was one of only three games I've ever taken a day off of work to play when it launched. I always hoped for a sequel called "Imperial Commando" a la the TIE Fighter follow-up to X-Wing. It would have needed to be set in the original trilogy timeline though. Could've been awesome...

MaxShrek wrote:

Why was there no sequel to Star Wars Republic Commando? I really enjoyed it, was I the only one?

No it was one of the better Star Wars games and I would love to see another one like it. I personally think that LucasArts has mismanaged the Star Wars games most of the time. There have been a few great ones like KOTOR, Republic Commando, Rogue Squadron, and the first Force Unleashed game but for everyone of those you got a Jedi Knight 3 or Bounty Hunter or worse one of the direct movie tie-in games.

Republic Commando wasn't that good.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

If I'm going to stop playing a game for a long time, it's going to be right before a big fight that I don't think I'll win.

Totally. I hate big boss fights for this reason.

Favorite Star Wars game: Shadows of the Empire. Loved that one, played it to death, did the speeder bike level a million times and got my time down to über fast, found every glitch reported and a few more I've not seen posted since.

Hobbes2099 wrote:

Crossing over form Shawn's front page about Sweaty Palms of the Swarm; I realized how much it frustrated me to play SCII;

Man, between this and my frustration regarding FPS; it seems I'm beginning to hate all games.

Hey, you figured it out! The secret about video games is that they are mostly horrible.

Here's my new confession: even the AAA games I like, I kind of hate. Tomb Raider as a very recent example; although I can marvel at its craftsmanship and appreciate ts design, I kind of do so in a mechanical and detached manner. I've seen enough of these things that when I look at them now I feel like they tell me everything I need to know within a few minutes, and there's almost no joy to be found going through the paces of actually playing them. I do give Tomb Raider some credit for having at least a little restraint before it turns into a murder sim.

Scratched wrote:

Republic Commando wasn't that good.

It wasn't great, but it was a lot of fun in its own way. After playing Gears of War co-op online, though, I imagined what a Republic Commando sequel could be with four-player online co-op.

It was pretty much a game begging for it.

BunbyHeri wrote:

Although I don't know whether the original Bard's Tale games were considered difficult, I remember being able to use wandering off the beaten path to my advantage in The Bard's Tale II. Wandering monsters would ocasionally offer to join your party, without any kind of battle, regardless of the relative power difference between them and your party members. I remember picking up a pretty strong wizard (who could summon fire demons, w00t!) this way, via a high level dungeon that you could access very early on in the game.

Yeah, this was true for me in BG 1+2. I always did every optional area and quest before returning to the main game and then I would lay waste to the story encounters. I also didn't find either game particularly hard although I died and reloaded an awful lot in the first 3-5 levels of BG1.

Demyx wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

If I'm going to stop playing a game for a long time, it's going to be right before a big fight that I don't think I'll win.

Totally. I hate big boss fights for this reason.

Hey, this is where I'm at now in my Xbox playthrough of XCOM! So I double-dipped and got it for PC! That's how this thing works, right?

Too many games series go on too long, or rather turn into a series of guest star appearances from fan favourite characters from earlier entries, but without giving them a good reason to be there. I guess the problem is that every publisher/developer wants their games to be a series, but the 'pilot' sucks, or the pilot is a big huge thing in limbo between being a standalone game in case it doesn't take off, and laying down groundwork. I guess the structure of game writing for a (potential) series could be better.

Scratched wrote:

Too many games series go on too long, or rather turn into a series of guest star appearances from fan favourite characters from earlier entries, but without giving them a good reason to be there. I guess the problem is that every publisher/developer wants their games to be a series, but the 'pilot' sucks, or the pilot is a big huge thing in limbo between being a standalone game in case it doesn't take off, and laying down groundwork. I guess the structure of game writing for a (potential) series could be better.

I like this opinion, and can get behind it. Did you have any specific series in mind when writing this?

The one that came to mind for me, was Metal Gear Solid. Hell, even in MGS4, the actual Metal Gear from MGS1 made a cameo. I actually liked that bit, but in general, yeah. Psycho Mantis / Screaming Mantis. It's like they knew they had come up with one of the ultimately cool bad guys in gaming, and thought rehashing it would work. It didn't. I think every character from the PS era made it in MGS4.

God of War. Yahtzee said it best: They worked the story into a wall and can't go further, so now...prequels! It's time to end the saga of Kratos. You want to continue with the God of War series? Tap new mythologies. Ditch Greece. I'd love to see one set in Aztec lore, or Roman, or Nordic, or Egyptian, or etc, etc. Give us new characters, new plot lines, all the colorful extravaganza of the myths. As long as they bring the boobs and blood, people will eat it up.

Whole essays could be written about Mario, and for the life of me, I can't think of a fresh way to reignite the series. I think I'm just personally past it.

Zelda on the other hand, could definitely use a refreshing. I could definitely get behind one were the title hero is actually Zelda, and not Link.

Metroid hit a bump, but nothing it can't recover from. Samus is everlasting, interesting, engaging. They just need the right writers behind one, if they decide to tack on the story element of the game. An "origin" story seems like the most obvious choice, akin to Tomb Raider, which I wouldn't oppose at all, but, I think it'd be even more refreshing to push the story forward. I'm not as interested in learning how Samus became from teen to Space Bad-ass, but I am interested in seeing what the consequences of her franchise-spanning actions are.

Final two thoughts before this post becomes even longer:

1. I think Silent Hill 2 got it. Sometimes, it's the universe you've created, the atmosphere, that deserves to keep going, rather than some characters.

2. I say this as a once hardcore, full on, obsessive, completionist, flaming Final Fantasy fanboy: The series needs to END. Right. Freaking. Now.

Great post, scratched. This could very well spawn a thread of its own, where we discuss on-going series and franchises, analyzing what they did right, and what they're still doing wrong.

kexx wrote:

I like this opinion, and can get behind it. Did you have any specific series in mind when writing this?

A few, but more and more games seem to fit it the more I think about it. I guess I'd like more games and game series to feel thought out rather than a happy accident that just managed to come together at the last moment and is held together with tape, but that also goes for other aspects of games too.

kexx wrote:
Scratched wrote:

Too many games series go on too long, or rather turn into a series of guest star appearances from fan favourite characters from earlier entries, but without giving them a good reason to be there. I guess the problem is that every publisher/developer wants their games to be a series, but the 'pilot' sucks, or the pilot is a big huge thing in limbo between being a standalone game in case it doesn't take off, and laying down groundwork. I guess the structure of game writing for a (potential) series could be better.

I like this opinion, and can get behind it. Did you have any specific series in mind when writing this?

The one that came to mind for me, was Metal Gear Solid. Hell, even in MGS4, the actual Metal Gear from MGS1 made a cameo. I actually liked that bit, but in general, yeah. Psycho Mantis / Screaming Mantis. It's like they knew they had come up with one of the ultimately cool bad guys in gaming, and thought rehashing it would work. It didn't. I think every character from the PS era made it in MGS4.

God of War. Yahtzee said it best: They worked the story into a wall and can't go further, so now...prequels! It's time to end the saga of Kratos. You want to continue with the God of War series? Tap new mythologies. Ditch Greece. I'd love to see one set in Aztec lore, or Roman, or Nordic, or Egyptian, or etc, etc. Give us new characters, new plot lines, all the colorful extravaganza of the myths. As long as they bring the boobs and blood, people will eat it up.

Whole essays could be written about Mario, and for the life of me, I can't think of a fresh way to reignite the series. I think I'm just personally past it.

Zelda on the other hand, could definitely use a refreshing. I could definitely get behind one were the title hero is actually Zelda, and not Link.

Metroid hit a bump, but nothing it can't recover from. Samus is everlasting, interesting, engaging. They just need the right writers behind one, if they decide to tack on the story element of the game. An "origin" story seems like the most obvious choice, akin to Tomb Raider, which I wouldn't oppose at all, but, I think it'd be even more refreshing to push the story forward. I'm not as interested in learning how Samus became from teen to Space Bad-ass, but I am interested in seeing what the consequences of her franchise-spanning actions are.

Final two thoughts before this post becomes even longer:

1. I think Silent Hill 2 got it. Sometimes, it's the universe you've created, the atmosphere, that deserves to keep going, rather than some characters.

2. I say this as a once hardcore, full on, obsessive, completionist, flaming Final Fantasy fanboy: The series needs to END. Right. Freaking. Now.

Great post, scratched. This could very well spawn a thread of its own, where we discuss on-going series and franchises, analyzing what they did right, and what they're still doing wrong.

I am very glad that I never got heavily invested in either the MGS (2 being the last one I really played) or God of War series (only played the first one and never finished it). Same is true for Gears of War and Call of Duty. As someone who hasn't owned a Nintendo system since the N64 I do miss Mario and Zelda and Metroid but mostly I miss the old Mario and Zelda and Metroid. I was super into the Assassin's Creed series until it became a yearly franchise though. I am good with one every other year but the whole yearly release thing killed it for me. Revelation was out by the time I was ready for Brotherhood and truthfully the prospect of a never ending pile just for this game where I was adding 2 games for every 1 I finished killed most of the interest I had in the series. I may pickup the next one though. Pirate action FTW!!!

kexx wrote:

Zelda on the other hand, could definitely use a refreshing. I could definitely get behind one were the title hero is actually Zelda, and not Link.

Like this fan imagined game: The Legend of Zelda: Clockwork Empire? Linked to the Gonintendo coverage of a Kotaku article. I admit, I thought of GWJ's Clocky when I first saw this.

Granted it's just some reimagining of Zelda taking Link's role, and not Zelda being Zelda / Sheik which is how it probably should be. Also:

IMAGE(http://pics.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/1161218340-00.jpg)

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Like this fan imagined game: The Legend of Zelda: Clockwork Empire? Linked to the Gonintendo coverage of a Kotaku article. I admit, I thought of GWJ's Clocky when I first saw this.

Gender-bending Zelda games inspired by Zelda 2 with "clockwork" in the title. Looks like someone's been reading my Christmas list.

NO Linking to or posting images from the CD-i Zelda games on GWJ. Without acknowledgement they don't exist.

The one exception is the AGVN reviews of them. CD-i part 2 & CD-i part 3

Whole essays could be written about Mario, and for the life of me, I can't think of a fresh way to reignite the series. I think I'm just personally past it.

I thought the Galaxy games were excellent ways to reignite that series.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Whole essays could be written about Mario, and for the life of me, I can't think of a fresh way to reignite the series. I think I'm just personally past it.

I thought the Galaxy games were excellent ways to reignite that series.

I didn't read the quote, so I thought we were still talking about Zelda.

First I was like: "Legend of Zelda Galaxy? Squee! What is this game and why haven't I heard about it?"
Then I read the quote and was like:

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Whole essays could be written about Mario, and for the life of me, I can't think of a fresh way to reignite the series. I think I'm just personally past it.

I thought the Galaxy games were excellent ways to reignite that series.

My impressions of Galaxy was that it was Mario 64 with better graphics and worse controls. For me the most interesting looking thing (I say looking because I hate portables and so will never play it) they have done with Mario in over a decade is Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS.

kexx wrote:

I like this opinion, and can get behind it. Did you have any specific series in mind when writing this?

The one that came to mind for me, was Metal Gear Solid. Hell, even in MGS4, the actual Metal Gear from MGS1 made a cameo. I actually liked that bit, but in general, yeah. Psycho Mantis / Screaming Mantis. It's like they knew they had come up with one of the ultimately cool bad guys in gaming, and thought rehashing it would work. It didn't. I think every character from the PS era made it in MGS4.

Everything you say is true, but wasn't that sort of the point of MGS4? It was meant to be the last MGS game that Kojima would ever make, and so he went to great lengths to wrap up everything and tie up the series in a cute little bow. It was a little excessive, I agree, but given the series history I felt like it was good a circumstance as any for something like that.

Scratched wrote:

Too many games series go on too long, or rather turn into a series of guest star appearances from fan favourite characters from earlier entries, but without giving them a good reason to be there. I guess the problem is that every publisher/developer wants their games to be a series, but the 'pilot' sucks, or the pilot is a big huge thing in limbo between being a standalone game in case it doesn't take off, and laying down groundwork. I guess the structure of game writing for a (potential) series could be better.

I agree completely. The only problem I see is that historically when publishers go into a series thinking it will be a trilogy, the final game ends up not doing very well. See Advent Rising, Beyond Good and Evil, and Too Human.

Rykin wrote:

My impressions of Galaxy was that it was Mario 64 with better graphics and worse controls.

Wow. I didn't realize that a single sentence could be wrong in so many different ways.

Looking over games on Greenlight, I came to the sudden realization: I cannot stand games with 8-bit style pixel art. Irrational of me, but there you have it.

A lot of people seem to like that style. But I just hate it.

(And hey, I lived/played through the 8-bit era, before you ask/tell/declaim.)

Bioshock Infinite was incredibly thought-provoking and Elizabeth was the most compelling companion character ever, and the original Bioshock had a shockingly wonderful sense of design and that great moment when you first got into Rapture and saw the glorious world in front of you. That being said, the fact Bioshock 2 had such a personal story as well as the phenomenal Minerva's Den DLC means Bioshock 2 is still the best of the three Bioshock games.

tboon wrote:

Looking over games on Greenlight, I came to the sudden realization: I cannot stand games with 8-bit style pixel art. Irrational of me, but there you have it.

A lot of people seem to like that style. But I just hate it.

(And hey, I lived/played through the 8-bit era, before you ask/tell/declaim.)

Me too! I don't think its irrational either, it just looks ugly.

EvilDead wrote:
tboon wrote:

Looking over games on Greenlight, I came to the sudden realization: I cannot stand games with 8-bit style pixel art. Irrational of me, but there you have it.

A lot of people seem to like that style. But I just hate it.

(And hey, I lived/played through the 8-bit era, before you ask/tell/declaim.)

Me too! I don't think its irrational either, it just looks ugly.

It depends on the game and the art direction for me. All games don't work with it but for the right game with good art direction it can be cool. Personally I prefer at least 2x the bits.

I kind of agree on the 8 bit retro graphics, it's a style thing. I'd be interested to see what some of those designers could do keeping the style but losing the restriction on resolution/bit depth. The way it's used often comes across as trying to get a USP/unique selling point for their game or to get noticed. The art style needs to be important to the developer for the right reasons, for the game, and only the developer themselves can answer that one I guess.

Also relevant (he mentions art style) is Ron Gilbert on if he made another Monkey Island: http://grumpygamer.com/5777333

I think he does a good job of killing some darlings that need killing, yet recognising what's important to those games.

EvilDead wrote:
tboon wrote:

Looking over games on Greenlight, I came to the sudden realization: I cannot stand games with 8-bit style pixel art. Irrational of me, but there you have it.

A lot of people seem to like that style. But I just hate it.

(And hey, I lived/played through the 8-bit era, before you ask/tell/declaim.)

Me too! I don't think its irrational either, it just looks ugly.

I don't like the art style either, but I'm perfectly willing to overlook it when the game is otherwise interesting enough and seems like it couldn't have actually been made with anything better due to budgetary / time constraints (e.g. Hotline Miami, FTL).

I guess this isn't very blasphemous and restating old news, but heavily scripted singleplayer campaigns really are a blight.

I reinstalled BF3 in a case of "I might as well see how it runs on my hardware now after the upgrade" (sidetrack: Origin really is just the bare minimum EA can get away with, and WTF at a patch that increases the size of the install by 6GB. As far as I can tell it's not even as though they "accidentally" included all the DLC I don't have) and popped into the singleplayer to set options up.

It's hateful the amount they direct the player. They pretty much spoon feed you every single direction you're supposed to do in that game. It's as though they detest the idea of the player needing to choose or find out what they want to do themselves.