[option]

Some impressions of games I played today, a few hours each...I dont plan to finish any of them.


Ghost in the Shell: SaC,
The game is amazing in how average it is. Nothing in the game was done very badly, but not much really stands out.

The one interesting part that I do like a lot are the snipers. They are pretty exciting. Snipers having instant kills and perfect aim make you not want to move forward because your safe behind cover. but you do anyway because you know... its a video game.


Valkyrie Profile 2,
I dont have a lot of fun playing this game because the battle system has a Grandia vibe, but with a much slower pace and fairly complicated movement mechanics.

The battles were not fun but the 2D platforming was. I like the idea of freezing the enemies and ether trading places with them or using them as platforms. This part could be its entire own game and it would probably be really great if it was done creatively.

For some reason the awsome Goemon 2D platformer for N64 comes to mind...

The Graphics in VP2 are incredible aside from the "chucky face" that happens every now and again when Japan tries to translate anime faces to 3D. The visuals are the only reason I played it as long as I did.


Children of Mana,
Its exactly how good you think it is.

[Moogs]

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

So I've been playing some more Nox, mostly on the warrior path with a bit of dabbling in the wizard path. This wouldn't be that notable except I feel oddly compelled to talk about it.

When I first experienced the game, in the limited multiplayer demo, I was under the impression it was basically one of the nicer Diablo clones (as most reviews tended to label it), with a few tricks up it's sleeve gameplay wise. Now that I've spent some time in the actual single-player, I'm...somewhat confused. It's certainly got strong Diablo influences, but there are also...other things.

Like pushing things! It's not proper pushing, insofar as your character doesn't do the industry standard "pushing a big block" animation, but rather you sort of shove things along, like they were people in a crowd. When I first played the tutorial for the Conjurer path (which is the only path that seems to have a tutorial in the traditional sense), I thought that the only point of this was pushing water barrels near/info fires I had to cross through, and the inevitable barrels/rocks onto pressure plates that would later show up (and eventually did).

But then I got to a town, and I noticed that while I was looting people's houses, I was shoving around basically everything that wasn't nailed down - chairs, tables, beds, lampposts, etc. This seemed odd, and until Oblivion, I think the only other RPG you'd see that kind of thing in was Ultima. It seemed a very strange detail to add to a game that's basically a hack and slash. Maybe I'm expecting less quality then I'm getting?

Or maybe the game owes a bit to Light Crusader, which I'm going to force everyone with a Wii to play if it comes to virtual console, and which I should try and finally play through soon. Unfortunatelly, people don't stay pushed in Nox (they quickly return to where they were), so there's no delightful games of "push the important NPC into the lava they are standing dangerously close to".

Hmm, I'm rambling about nothing again. Maybe I should cut to the heart of the matter:

So I'm playing the warrior path, right? And I think I'm going to be kind of lonely compared to the Conjurer who gets neat summons. But then this guy offers me a trained wolf, right? And then another trained wolf! Now I have two trained wolves and I am really happy. I was kind of worried that there would be no way to heal them, but if I set a steak (one of the healing items) on the ground, they'll eat it and heal. The same goes for an apple, oddly enough. I haven't checked to see whether they are clever enough to uncork and drink a healing potion by themselves.

The only downside is they attack everything that isn't a human being. This is fine with monsters, of course, but I've been letting toads and rats live, since they can't hurt me and give no experience. I especialy feel sorry for the rats, who I often end up liberating from caskets of wine (???).

Anyways, I think I like this game!
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[fundogmo]

I really liked Illbleed's ridiculous combat. I really liked Haunting Ground's "YOUR-CHARACTER-IS-SCARED-SO-NOW-YOU-HURT-YOURSELF-IF-YOU-RUN-INTO-WALLS" difficult gameplay. I'm even looking forward to picking up Necro-Nesia one day for $10 so I can revel in all of its Blue Stinger-esque clumsy glory.

BUT...

Good GOD, the first "boss" in Rule of Rose is the most frustrating game experience in recent memory.

The boss swings around a stick in what is APPARENTLY a 360 degree pattern (though the animation suggests the angle is far less), which will knock you down and take away a fourth of your life, giving him time to saunter on over to you and hit you immediately upon getting up.

Its kind of a shame, because the game had lived up to all of my expectations prior. It has the endless row of locked doors a la Silent Hill, but it also has a relatively novel use of a dog sidekick to guide you through where you need to go. The weird little girl anarchy is as disturbing expected, and the presentation of the game is wonderful (particularly the music). But euuuuuuuuuuuagh. For the first time in years, I turned off the console and then contemplated never playing that game again.

Oh survival horror. Sometimes so painful.

[remote]

I enjoy riding the subway in The Longest Journey. I suppose this is I've always loved subways and trains IRL. It also reminds me a bit of FFVII — running through the train in Midgar was one of my favorite parts of that game.

What are some other games (aside from FFVIII and, ah, RE2) with scenes in trains?
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[boojiboy7]

goldeneye had a train, right? I never played a lot of it.

Timesplitters 2 and 3 i think both have trains.

Gears of War rocks its conclusion on a train.

Half-life 1 starts you out on a train, as does part deuce.

[option]

http://www.microsoft.com/games/trainsimulator/

[RecessRapist]

Paper Mario TYD has an slmost entire chapter inside a train. Its my favorite after the Glitz pit.

[remote]

[falsedan]

Played some co-op Gears of War at a friend's place last night. Good gods! The character design for the cogs is sooo ugly! I dunno about you guys, but 'roided-up meatheads with necks twice the size of their heads don't do it for me. I might come around to guys with necks five times the width of their head.

Also the cutscenes are cheesy and it's frustrating to watch your avatar shoot a bunch of locust that really *I* should be shooting. But they're fun to heckle!

About the time of meeting the beserker I started seeing the game as telling a story of an incredibly messy break-up between Marcus & the locust. It fits pretty well! Also: extra heckling.
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[Mr. Mechanical]

Half-Life 2: Episode 1 has a train sequence near the end, I think.
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[showka]

[Koji]

showka, read this thread where the author pimped a beta version of his game. I made comments under the name Pikanya:

http://forum.gbadev.org/viewtopic.php?t=11072

I, too, asked about the buttons swap, but the author seems to find that it 'works' that way.

[showka]

Too bad he say it coming and couldn't have prevented it. From reading the post, it seems like he made this game very much for himself, which is OK, but in some areas (like the button assignment) perhaps he was a bit too self-indulgent. Btw, there's no animations for jumping or egg throwing.

I'm glad I got it, its still fun. Just hard to recommend.

[Leau]

[option]

I finally got a wii yesterday


I really like zelda's dungeons a lot.

Elebits is okay... but I dont think Its really that good for a full game. Very early DS tech-demo type feel about it.

I havnt played Wii sports all that much but I have made a ton of Miis.

I am playing through Mario Sunshine again as well, its still one of, if not my absolute, favorite games ever. I never understood the disapointment people have for it, but I am also not going to try to force my love of the game on others ether.

[Leau]

I opened up Point Blank DS today, as it's been sitting on my shelf for the better part of a year.

eh.

I mean it's fun. It's definatly got it's charm. And I like using a stylus much more than I ever liked using a light gun (it's soooo much more accurate). But in this day and age, you can't get by with just having an arcade mode in a game and calling it a day. I imagine I'll play it for the next couple of days and then be done with it forever. There's just nothing to shoot for (pardon the pun (or don't)).
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[GcDiaz]

[GcDiaz]

Guitar Hero II. On HARD. I actually managed to 5-star "Strutter", but the rest are all 3-star efforts. 23 out of 40 done so far.
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Steam/PSN/Xbawks: GcDiaz

Let's bring sexy back!

[Felix]

apparently i'm not nearly as bad at x-com as i was when i was twelve.

[diplo]

A speed-run I watched of Super Metroid made me start a new file in it.
I think I love this game, now.

Trying to get the hang of wall-jumping.

[BotageL]

I played Gears of War on Live for sevearl hours with the Select Button crew (NEXT LEVEL), got up to level 18 on Nordrassil in WoW, and played a few random rounds of Dicing Knight. All in all, a pretty good day for gaming.
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[Knurek]

Pop'n Music 12 - Iroha. On DualShock. Been playing this for about a week and now I think I'm up to challenge with easy 9 button songs. The whole game (when played on standard PS2 controller) is more like a real-time puzzle translation game (the kind of stuff the translators at UN do) than an arcade game.
Also the visual style is drop dead gorgeous.
Also it has Zankoku no Tenshi and a great Gradius Megamix.
I take it, that other Pop'n Music games are as good as this?

And BlockSum. This will surely be a legendary game.

I've been also finishing Dragovian Trials in DQ8. I'm seriously underlevelled for that stuff (or chose a wrong path for Jessica) as Angelo is the only person with sure-fire revive spell. Blasted Dragons do a critihit on him just about every two rounds...

[falsedan]

Powered through Paper Mario this weekend but still didn't finish it. It's really dragging on! Playing as a hero is still worthwhile. Also Bowser's little interludes after each chapter are fun!

Also holy moley! The little quest you have to complete before the old sea captain Bob-omb joins your party was emotionally effective.
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[Clueless Gamer]

I bought Contact this friday and I've been playing it. Now I understand why some people disliked the combat system. Fortunately, I have no problem with it. I find the game relaxing and it seems full of small secrets.

Also, I played a bit of "Midnight Wanderer", just to see if I am still able to beat the game with one credit. I can't. It's sad, because Midnight Wanderers is the only arcade that I finished with one credit. It's still a great game though.
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[EU03]

[Deets]

[Brock]

I'm about to start the last case in Phoenix Wright: Justice For All.

Honestly I don't know what went wrong here. Maybe this last case will blow me away or something, but this isn't nearly as fun, humorous or interesting as the first game was. And I'm not even talking about the last mission that was tacked onto the first game, either.

[Broco]

[Leau]

Is your translation page still up by the way? I seem to have lost my link...
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[EU03]

Just started Justice for All (snagged it right when GameStop was closing).
The music is radically different. I don't know if I should be pleased or not. Also, I'm still undecided if losing your memory is a good enough of a plot device.

Also, the AI in RRXX totally cheats if you attempt to grab them on the turnbuckle. Also, Benikage won't gain popularity...
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[rabite gets whacked!]

Civ 4. I started off a couple random default games when I first got it, going for the Space Ending. First time I failed but won anyway with the highest score in 2050 (Ranking: Dan Quayle). The second time I made it in the 70's, and by that time I was feeling a bit of a slave to the tech tree: I was just building lots of cities and tech/research, and not attacking anyone or being attacked.

Then I went and played the tutorial and realized how massive and detailed the gameplay can be. About half the game seems to lie in micromanaging workers and citizens and everything. Now I'm a little scared to go back into it; I don't know if I can commit like that.

[Duckzero]

I beat Dynamite Duke, which I found at Half Price Books for cheap. Wasnt very fun or boring, but I would like to see a remake of sorts, maybe for the wii!

I've got the whole week off, I think i'm going to chronicle my attempt to finish a good portion of games.

On a side note, I'm still working on Yggdra Union, which is taking forever and a half.
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Keepin' it real like Oatmeal

[Capitan Smexy]

Phoenix Wright 2 is a horrible, horrible tease. I want to know what happened to Edgeworth, and I want to know it now, dammit (ok not really now--don't spoil it for me)! Also, this game makes me wonder how the series would fare if it followed actual courtroom rules.

[Lurky]

Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 2 (Raw Danger)
I started playing again and finished off the second story.

The third story starts you off with a taxi, it feels like an apology for the stealth parts at the beginning of the second story.

[stotelheim]

[Rud31]

[stotelheim]

yeah see the original got some kind of a release but this is the second game, which is supposed to get a western release sometime in the future
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go away extralife

[Lurky]

You might want to wait for the English release next month.
Pretty much everything is in Japanese; all the character dialogue and the epilogue for each story.

The language barrier isn't bad so far; I don't know any japanese, I'm getting the general idea of whats going on, but none of the details.

[nocturnedelight]

[Guitar Hero II]
On Saturday my friend and I finally beat Free Bird on Hard. For over a month we'd been getting 90% exactly EVERY TIME, no matter who was doing what part. That night, we tried it twice. First time I was on Rythym, second time I was on Lead. We passed the second time.

All that's left is Psychobilly Freakout. (for Co-Op, both on Hard)

[Mercs via CCC on XBox]
On Sunday, that same friend, one more, and myself played Mercs. It was totally stupid in an awesome way. I was the Red guy. The Flame thrower is awesome.
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[Koji]

For you guys that got Phoenix Wright 2, US release: does it still have the numerous typos that seemed to have plagued the Japanese release, or is the script revised?