Most Anticipated Video Games

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Eh, Most of the stuff you said aren't necessarily things that bother me. I don't care about texture pop-in, I don't really care about the stories in games either (though the 8-hour length seems disturbingly short for what's essentially supposed to be an RPG), I found the shooting to work just fine in the demo, personally, and the racing to me seemed like more of a side-thing in the game rather than a primary focus (but perhaps it plays a more prominent role in the full game). The game didn't receive a plethora of horrendous reviews from critics or fans and largely seemed to have positive opinions (though not THAT positive), but I'll take your word for it and stay away from the game. Its not like I particularly planned to get it anyways, but I was probably going to get around to it after I got past my back-log of 5 or so other games that I want to get around to playing first....and at my pace I probably won't ever make it though all of those games, either.

[Foggle]

The thing about the shooting is that the guns do feel good, but there isn't enough stuff to shoot. A good portion of the game is just walking around barren landscapes and driving your car back and forth. The levels don't connect together very well, so it just feels like an amateur mod for Borderlands. There are only a couple of enemy types as well, and they really aren't that fun to fight compared to most other shooters.

The racing is where the majority of the game's playtime comes from. While almost none of it is actually necessary, about 2/3 of the content is optional races.

As for the story, I don't care much about it either, but the game just suddenly stops halfway through. The final mission feels like the midway point, and then it abruptly ends with a 30 second cutscene.

I don't think the graphical pop in is an issue in the console versions, but on the PC it is completely embarrassing. You'll be staring at some lovingly crafted scenery, turn 10 degrees in any direction, and suddenly there are PS1 textures everywhere. It's actually kind of disorienting with the way in which it's constantly changing. The streaming system is a total joke, and those "mega-textures" that you almost never see are the entire reason for the 30 GB install.

[Foggle]

This is so awesome.

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/10/12/you-can-play-virtua-fighter-2-in-yakuza-5/

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Pshhhh, posers, Ninja Gaiden did it first with the original version of the game in which you could attain the SNES trilogy cartridge and play it on the arcade cabinet in Han's Bar....which doesn't make sense from a hardware standpoint, but the concept was still there.

Seriously, though, that's a cool touch with the VF2 in-game feature for Yakuza 5 that I always felt more games needed to do.

[Daxdiv]

I still find it interesting that in Donkey Kong 64 you can play JetPac and the Arcade version of Donkey Kong. Still beats all the other versions of Donkey Kong where they cut out that one level.

[Spark Of Spirit]

PLEASE be a new Gunstar Heroes...

That or something new would be nice.

[Commode]

I saw that, looks promising.

[Foggle]

Wow, Ayane looks really fun to play! http://www.siliconera.com/2012/11/02/ninja-gaiden-3-razors-edge-video-shows-ayanes-fast-and-furious-style/

Also, yay Suda! http://www.siliconera.com/2012/11/02/sine-mora-flies-out-next-week-on-pc/

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Out of all the side characters that they have stuck in these 3D NG games, Ayante suits them the best since her fast and nimble gameplay and combat mechanics fall right in line with how the action is supposed to play out in these sorts of games. Still, I'm curious to see if this game will still manage to fair any better than the original release of NG3 did. I mean, there is a lot added to it, but with this complete version being released exclusively on the WiiU, Team Ninja has pretty much alienated the core 3D NG fans since most of them probably won't own a WiiU, and the game will have to rely mostly on newcomers to the series for sales....which may not be such a good thing since if the original release didn't sell well with fans then I don't see how this full release, even with at least triple the content of the original, will sell any better than the first version did.

[Foggle]

Every hack 'n slash fan should get a Wii-U though, for Bayo 2 alone.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I mean, there is a lot added to it, but with this complete version being released exclusively on the WiiU, Team Ninja has pretty much alienated the core 3D NG fans since most of them probably won't own a WiiU, and the game will have to rely mostly on newcomers to the series for sales....which may not be such a good thing since if the original release didn't sell well with fans then I don't see how this full release, even with at least triple the content of the original, will sell any better than the first version did.

But isn't this basically like the 'Sigma' (of 'Black') version of 3? IIRC the re-releases have never been put out on the original system. I would hope after this they simply make good games the first time and stop with the re-releases on other systems, but who knows?

Though I do hope this does better than 3's flop if only to show how wrong their intentions were with the original release.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

But isn't this basically like the 'Sigma' (of 'Black') version of 3? IIRC the re-releases have never been put out on the original system.

Ninja Gaiden Black (the superior re-release of the first game) was also released on the XBOX and was still an XBOX exclusive. As for Sigma, the first one was basically there to extend the game to the PS3 owners. It had updated graphics and a few new additions, but it wasn't a huge overhaul in terms of content like NG3RE seems to be.

I would hope after this they simply make good games the first time and stop with the re-releases on other systems, but who knows?

Its Tecmo, so that'll never happen. Of course they'll milk a series out for all its worth.

Though I do hope this does better than 3's flop if only to show how wrong their intentions were with the original release.

Its like I said, though, they can only salvage NG3 so much. They can probably upgrade it into a standard action game at best. The problem is the groundwork behind the game is just completely uninspired, no matter which way you look at it. The level design is bland, and while NG2 was also linear at least that game had interesting looking environments to keep it feeling fresh. With NG3, the "real-world" locations look so damn boring. I want to go back to larger than life levels or at least have creative levels in which really allow you to exploit your acrobatics and maneuverability as a ninja.

The game also wasn't designed with the combat depth in mind, so the additional weapons probably won't mean as much in NG3 as they did in the first 2 NG games. Also, the sad thing is that even with this extended arsenal totaling 6 weapons in NG3RE, ALL of which were already in NG2, its STILL less than NG2's arsenal of weapons which had all 6 of those weapons plus 2 more, rounding out to a total of 8 weapons. How is it that even the re-release of this game still manages to have less story-mode content than the original release of the previous game in the series?

As much as I love the NGB and NG2, Tecmo and Team Ninja should probably just take a break from the 3D NG games for a while and carefully think about how they want to handle that side of the series. Meanwhile, they should outsource the development of a classic/retro 2D style NG game to a talented developer that is good at making games in that vein. I'd love to see Treasure's take on a classic side-scrolling NG game, or any other good developer, for that matter. It'd be the perfect low-budget game for Tecmo to produce and make quite a quick-profit on it with all of the old-school fans who have been itching for a new classic-style NG game for the past 2 decades. If it were put on up XBLA, I'd snag that game in a heartbeat, myself.

[gunswordfist]

I'm still surprised that Halo 4 is coming in just a few days.

[Foggle]

Gawd, Zwei's concept art is amazing.

Spoiler

[close]

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm still surprised that Halo 4 is coming in just a few days.

Even though I keep saying I'm going to stop playing the Halo series altogether, I'm not fooling anyone. I've been playing these games since I was a kid, so I'm going to end up playing Halo 4 eventually regardless, maybe out of habit more than anything else. That said, I'm at least glad to hear that the general consensus from people who've played the game is that despite initial previews, the game is not a heavily-scripted movie game, and retains the highly efficient AI from the previous games and still has plenty of open environments that are synonymous with Halo games.

Then again, one of the few good Internet reviewers from a big site, Shane from GT, said that he felt like this Halo game encouraged you to follow more linear paths through levels and actively punished you for trying out different routes and/or battle tactics, even though it did still technically allow them. That kind of puts me off as the whole appeal of Bungie's Halo games (at least all of them except for 2 which had way too many narrow corridors for my liking) were not so much getting to the objective you had to complete (which 95% of the time consisted of pushing a button to open up a path to fight through waves upon waves of enemies to push another button), but rather in HOW you got to the destinations of your objectives. You could use the open environments and plethora of different weapons and vehicles to your advantage in numerous ways, from skillfully and strategically taking out any heavy opposition that stood in your way to being really crafty and sneaking past/skipping large waves of enemies altogether. The challenge of the previous Halo games are all about finding the easier solutions to progressing rather than to just mindlessly shoot everything down. While what I've heard about this game doesn't paint it out to be mindless, it does seem like its a step back from the freedom that Bungie's Halo games allowed you. Either way, I'm still probably going to get it for Christmas, so I'll see how much I like it when I play it then. Although, even though I'm probably in the minority opinion about this, I think Reach's campaign mode will be pretty hard to top in terms of catering to my specific preferences of what I like to see in FPS games, and more specifically in a Halo campaign mode.