Things That Don't Bother You About Gaming

[Foggle]

They haven't announced a Wii-U version yet, but I'll be surprised if they don't make one. And it's coming out on PC, too, so there will definitely be at least one "next-gen" version.

They get smarter on higher difficulties, but yeah, I like that they don't instantly see you when you poke your head out slightly. Goddamn that last mission in Hitman 2...

Yeah, that's a health bar! Your health only regenerates a little bit, you need potions to actively heal yourself, I believe.

Part 2 is pretty cool as well, it shows the same level but with a full-on assault instead of stealth. There's shooting and sword-fighting, and you can also play the game completely non-lethal, something which isn't even an option in DX (bosses). And you can possess fishes and rats!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I agree that tutorials are best left as a separate option (Star Fox on the SNES did the same thing). I don't need my main game being bogged down by slow tutorial segments just because the developers think that I can't handle figuring things out on my own. The sad thing is that now that this trend has become so popular, younger gamers are being conditioned into expecting this hand-holding in their gaming experiences. I fear that not too long down the line tougher games will just fade into extreme obscurity and any game made to make any sort of money will be catered to the most casual of players, without any regard for those who want some form of challenge.

Western developers do it too, but I also remember Halo 1's tutorial amounted to little more than "Turn your head, would you like to reverse axis? Let's go" then the game started. And Halo was also not an easy game.

Well, except for when you play it on "Easy" mode.

But yeah, I get your point there. I feel like developers these days feel that if they don't hold a players hand and teach them everything there is to know about a game's controls and such, then the players will just never figure it out. The thing is, part of the fun of older games is that they only ever taught you the bare basics and expected players to be smart enough to figure the rest of the stuff out for themselves (that is the more advanced stuff). For instance, going back to Halo as an example, it taught you how to use the dual-analogue sticks to move around and aim your weapon and what buttons to press to melee, jump, turn on your flashlight, and throw grenades, and that was it. Stuff like hiding behind objects for cover, crouching to make less noise and sneak up on and assassinate enemies, and what weapons worked best against which enemies in specific situations were all left up for the player to find out for themselves through experimentation and just straight up playing the game and using their own intuition and common sense. These days, games don't do that anymore. They tell you exactly what to do when you need to do it and almost forcefully limit you to that. In Halo it was really cool when I first discovered that you could take out Hunters in just a single shot from the pistol by hitting them directly in the back, but in a modern FPS or TPS you'd get some disembodied voice telling you on a radio-link something like "hey, maybe you should shoot that thing in that area where it has less armor, that might be its weak spot!" Stuff like that is just insulting to the player's intelligence, and leaves no room in the game for any mystery or discovery, IMO.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I didn't even figure out how to walljump-dash in Mega Man X until I played Mega Man Zero on the GBA where the dash was mapped to a shoulder button already. Did that bother me? Not really, I got through the game just fine never knowing anything about it. I use it now, but I'm grateful I figured it out on my own (kinda) then having Capcom tell for fifteen minutes before I got to the Central Highway.

All in all, the best idea is always to give options to players, or at the very least leave them to figure it out.

But yeah, Foggle. The game looks interesting. Now if only we could get a game like DOOM with crazy labyrinth levels and death traps everywhere while crazed demons pour out of the walls trying to eat you only with modern technology.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I didn't even figure out how to walljump-dash in Mega Man X until I played Mega Man Zero on the GBA where the dash was mapped to a shoulder button already. Did that bother me? Not really, I got through the game just fine never knowing anything about it. I use it now, but I'm grateful I figured it out on my own (kinda) then having Capcom tell for fifteen minutes before I got to the Central Highway.

The same type of thing happened with me with Ninja Gaiden Black. There were several key things in that game I never realized I could do until after multiple times playing it. One essential skill in particular eluded me until around my second playthrough of that game, in that I didn't know that you could quick-charge Ultimate Techniques by absorbing essence dropped by enemies. That honestly never bothered me in the slightest, though, as it just made the game that much more interesting and dynamic when I discovered it, and it felt rewarding for me to have learned it on my own. Its the same thing with how I realized that rolls could be used to dodge unblockable attacks, and how I gradually picked up on various other skills during my time playing the game. Had the game stopped to teach me all of this in the first level alone, I would have grown bored and lost interest in it before it was even done with the tutorial (especially with how deep the gameplay can get).

But yeah, Foggle. The game looks interesting. Now if only we could get a game like DOOM with crazy labyrinth levels and death traps everywhere while crazed demons pour out of the walls trying to eat you only with modern technology.

Yeah, I'd love a modern game where you just get to mow-down hoardes of monsters while exploring labyrinth-like levels like in DOOM. In this case the game wouldn't need smart enemy AI or anything of that sort, as the combat would just be fun in terms of using your weapons for crowd control among a plethora of enemies, and the game would still hold my attention with lots of interesting items and secrets for me to find through exploration. It'd sure beat having yet another CoD clone.

[Foggle]

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/07/05/devils-third-ip-back-in-creator-tomonobu-itagakis-hands/

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This news just made my day! Of course, yeah, this game is still doomed without a big publisher to help market it (and even then it probably wouldn't sell too well), but at least Itagaki and his team can resume working on developing the title for the time being. I do sincerely hope that they can find a publisher who's willing to give their game a shot without exploiting and ruining their company like EA or Activision would be likely to do. In this case, Square Enix probably would be the ideal publisher for this game if they were willing to pick it up.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Here's a statement from VGS's CEO, Satoshi Kanematsu. It looks like their designing this IP with a planned franchise in mind. While I wish them the best of luck, I still think that the game will be doomed to poor sales, even if it ends up getting good critical reception.

[Rynnec]

http://www.zeldainformer.com/news/comments/rumor-nintendo-attempting-to-negotiate-its-way-into-ownership-of-banjo-and

I hope this turns out to be true. Its not like Microsoft has been putting any of those franchise's to use.

[talonmalon333]

http://www.zeldainformer.com/news/comments/rumor-nintendo-attempting-to-negotiate-its-way-into-ownership-of-banjo-and

I hope this turns out to be true. Its not like Microsoft has been putting any of those franchise's to use.

I didn't know you check Zelda Informer.

[Rynnec]

I don't, I just found this link from another forum I frequent. 

[gunswordfist]

I like games that drop you in the world and have clever enough game design for you to figure out everything just by playing.

[Rynnec]

https://twitter.com/PG_kamiya/status/233803787263959042

https://twitter.com/PG_kamiya/status/233802354036723713

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Kamiya is a true professional. He doesn't let bias come in the way of his gaming philosophy. In that regard, he's not going to single out capable platforms from Sony or Microsoft just because of how some fanboys thing that anything not made by Nintendo is pure crap. As a life-long Nintendo fan, that kind of thinking is downright childish and baseless.

Though, I will say that I far prefer Nintendo's output this generation to Sony and Microsoft's, but that's just personal preference. It does tick me off that there are a shit-ton of people who have completely dismissed Nintendo as just a "kiddy" console this generation, though. They clearly haven't even heard of stuff like No More Heroes or Mad World, among other great games besides just Nintendo-made IPs.

[Foggle]

Kamiya.

Though, I will say that I far prefer Nintendo's output this generation to Sony and Microsoft's, but that's just personal preference.

There really isn't even a competition at this point. The Wii has more first-and-second-party exclusives than the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined.

[talonmalon333]

This is basically how I compare the Wii to the other consoles.

In terms of quality: PS3 and 360 > Wii
In terms of value: Wii > PS3 and 360

Basically, the PS3 and 360 have more good games than the Wii. However, because the Wii has so many games that can only be played on it, the Wii ends up having more value. To me, there's very little reason to have all 3 consoles. Just makes the most sense either owning a Wii and a PS3, or a Wii and a 360.

Or, truthfully, a Wii and a PC, if you have one that's good for gaming.