What are you currently playing? 4.0

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just finished Episode Three of Alan Wake and it continues to remain extremely impressive. I'm not sure if its just me, but Episode Three seemed like a huge step up in design from the first 2 episodes, and even though were really solid and impressive. I didn't find myself having those same maneuverability problems that I sometimes found myself in earlier in the game, so the annoyance was gone, andthe pacing of this episode was absolutely perfect. It also felt extremely intense at a lot of moments, and there were some moments where I was actually legtimiately feeling a bit of dread of what was to come (not in the bad way, but in the way in which the game actually felt legitimately scary). That's saying a lot since its pretty hard for me to get scared by any video game or movie, anymore. The scale and scope of the enemy encounters has also gone up from before, and now the darkness posesses and hurls objects at Alan, in one case it even hurled a fucking truck (or some truck-sized vehicle, to be more accurate since I forget what its actually called) my way (and it really shocked me since it almost came from behind, and only missed me by a hair).

So far the game has almost always been consistently fun. Its definitely a great experience, but the real question is how well it would hold up to replay value, which I won't find out until later. Until then, though, I have 2 more episodes to go through which I'm really looking forward to, plus I have a code to download an additional episode for free from XBL Marketplace, so that makes 3 more episodes for me to enjoy.

[Foggle]

Been playing The Sly Collection. Beat the first one a few hours ago... Have to say I'm a bit disappointed. The platforming levels were absolutely amazing -- as I'd remembered -- but I can't believe I'd forgotten about all the godawful mini-games. The racing and the "whack-a-chicken" ones were the most heinous, and that's not even mentioning the horrifyingly bad Simon Says boss fight. The final world was also horrendous, with only 2 out of the 7 levels featuring platforming; one of which was a gimmick level and the other of which was timed. Great. The final boss was also a huge let down, came completely out of left field (the way you fight him, I mean), and basically can not kill you if you've played Star Fox or Rogue Squadron at least once in your life.

Overall, I'd give the game a 7 out of 10. If the final world hadn't been so shitty and they'd toned it down with the amount of terrible mini-games, it'd be a 9 easily. The second one is a lot better so far, though. Just got to World 3 and it's one of the better 3D platformers I've played, and just as awesome as I'd remembered.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Sly is a great fucking game, but yeah, the minigames really take away from the games. If they would just leave the platforming and stealth alone, it would be a perfect game. The controls are tight, level design is great, and the style is off the hook. If they could make a Sly 4 with the levels of 1 and the heist design of 2, it would be phenomenal and unique.

But as far as 3D platforming goes, it's probably my favorite outside of Galaxy 2.

I'm playing Banjo Kazooie on XBLA. Not really sure why, I just felt like it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I once had an opportunity to play Sly 2 since myself and a friend who owned a PS2 (I was staying over at his house for a few days) were looking for a new game to rent and take turns playing (something that we could beat in a few days, which wasn't hard for us since we spent almost all-day playing, each and every day). We came across Sly 2 an were thinking of getting it based on its platforming aspect, but it also seemed to be heavy on stealth to me, and that kind of scared me away from agreeing on getting it since I'm absolutely horrid at stealth gameplay in almost any game. Looking back on it I might have still enjoyed it, but then again I can't go too hard on myself for turning away since the game that we did get instead, Ratchet and Clank (the 3rd game in the series; I forget its title) was awesome, anyways.

[Foggle]

Up Your Arsenal? That one is badass. 8)

The Sly games have a lot of stealth involved, but it's really easy, simple stealth. Nothing like Splinter Cell, MGS, or Hitman.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The reason the stealth rocks in Sly is because it's easy. You feel like a master thief the way you hide behind things and steal from baddies and, IIRC, you will never be "insta-killed" when seen, the game just gets harder and only for a brief period. You never get swarmed by guards for like 5 minutes because you can't find a place to hide.

Oh, I just remembered the minigame I hated most. Remember the Simon Says boss battle? Ugh, I hope someone got fired for that one.  

[Foggle]

That boss fight was annoying as fuck, seriously. Her voice made me want to rip my ears off, too.

In the first one, you get insta-killed a lot... considering you die in one hit unless you have a Lucky Charm.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Ah, the key example was the last one. I can respect both Splinter Cell and MGS, even though I'm absolutely horrible at both. I fucking hate Hitman, though. I just don't "get" how its stealth works. I remember in contracts in the very first level I disguised myself in a swat team uniform and they knew it was me right away upon site. Then I disguised myself and tried to sneak around their view and remain out of their site, but they still fucking spotted me anyways. I tried multiple strategies until I just gave up. I honestly didn't understand what the hell I was supposed to do. It was so mind-boggling for me....or rather, it just didn't make any sense at all.

I may give the Sly games a try, someday, if I ever do get that PS2 that I've been meaning to get for years. I do know that I actually really enjoyed the stealth mechanics in Batman: Arkham Asylum, because they were so simple and quite easy for me to understand and get used to. I suppose that I don't mind stealth when its simple and easy, which is a sharp contrast to how I usually love a challenge, but in this one genre I'll have to make an exception since I utterly and hopelessly suck at it.

[Foggle]

Yeah, the old Hitman games are kind of broken. Blood Money is really good, though... one of my favorite games ever.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Well, being insta-killed by being hit is fine with me, but when it comes to stealth... Being insta-killed because someone sees you because you have like two awkward things to hide behind in a room is annoying. At least give me a fighting chance.

Even in Batman they made those parts easy because they knew if the thugs were too smart it would just frustrate people.

[Spark Of Spirit]

................................. Why the fuck can't I use the d-pad to move in Littlebigplanet??

This is killing me. I mean, it's a fucking 2D platformer!

[Foggle]

Call me heartless, but I've never been a fan of Little Big Planet. The gameplay is too floaty for me. I didn't really find it fun at all.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I don't mind the floaty-ness, but I hate using the freaking analog stick because I keep randomly switching between plains. It's really hampering enjoyment for me.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I honestly wasn't really a fan of what I got to play of LBG, either. It has nice concepts and it certainly has lots of its own merits, but I personally didn't actually find it to be much fun to play.

[talonmalon333]

Guys, what do you think of this? It looks REALLY bad.

http://www.gameinformer.com/blogs/members/b/sakabato24_blog/archive/2010/12/14/is-it-the-end-of-anime-and-manga-bill-156-passed.aspx

Those retarded hypocrites...