What Are You Currently Playing? 5.05: You Are (Not) A Gamer

[Foggle]

Saddler is amazing for his banter with Leon alone.

"Writhe in my cage of torment, my friend."

[Avaitor]

kjdgngiulkhgiuduyiebitehykuibgoirgho Leon vs. krauser. That seriously shoulv'e been the final boss.

Seriously. The final boss is such a cop-out. It's set up well, but way too easy to take care of

That doesn't hurt the final game too much though. It's still easily one of the best of its kind

[Foggle]

Yeah, the RE final bosses are never very good. Saddler is actually better than most of them...

[Avaitor]

Hmm, I'll have to take your word for it, but now I wanna find the first 3 REs.

I'll start Aida's missions tomorrow. Can't wait to try them out!

[Foggle]

Separate Ways is cool, but kind of lazy and sloppy. It's worth playing all the way through, though, since the one mission that consists of nothing but new content is legitimately awesome and the final boss is quite good.

If you decide to play the old REs, make sure you get the GameCube/Wii remake of RE1. It's a masterpiece.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, that game is awesome and legitimately scary in some places from what I remember of it. I never actually played it myself, but I did watch a friend play through most of the game as Jill in one sitting (that was years ago, though, but I still remember quite a few moments very vividly).

Just be weary, when you first start out playing one of the old-school RE's, you will absolutely HATE the controls and camera until you get used to them, which admittedly takes a while (even I never got used to it after playing about an hour's worth of REmake, but once again, that was a long time ago).

[Foggle]

Definitely play as Jill on your first playthrough. Her story is more interesting and also easier.

[Avaitor]

I tried a bit of the first one years ago, actually. I liked it, but yeah, I can see how the tank controls would feel a little diffcult now.

I still don't see why Capcom hasn't remade the first 3 RE games in 4's engine. You'd think that this would be a really cool idea, but again, this is Capcom we're talking about.

[talonmalon333]

I think RE1 was the only game in the series with a final boss that was really good (RE2's pre-final boss was awesome though, but that tacked-on fight at the end of the "true ending" is lame). But even then, REmake kind of ruined it.

[Foggle]

They should at least remake 2 in RE4's engine. They already have about 85% of the art assets finished because of DarkSide Chronicles.

[talonmalon333]

I'll take REmake2 no matter what style it's in.

[Foggle]

I'll take REmake2 no matter what style it's in.

Agreed.

[Eddy]

All that talk about how epic the El Gigante fight in RE4 is just reminds at how badly the FUCKED IT UP in RE5 when you fight El Gigante.

"Hey, let's make the player stay in a non-moving truck the entire time and force them to use a mounted machine gun that overheats if it's fired for more than five seconds! That will be fun!"

[Spark Of Spirit]

Jak II. 70% done. (I've been playing since I platinum-ed J&D)

Everything I loathe about the game:

• The over-world and everything in it needs to burn. In a platformer with an over-world J&D was perfect, a GTA style map with bikes made of glass, traffic everywhere and infuriating missions are BY FAR the worst parts of the game.
• The tone. Oh wow, once they started swearing and Jak had his first lines I literally cringed. Jak should really have stayed a silent protagonist, and the gritty dark tone could lose the grit and it would feel way more darker organically instead of forced.
• Racing on glass bikes. I'm 70% in the game and I have hated everything involving racing in this game. It is terrible. Why did they nerf the bikes from the first game? It's a terrible downgrade from the original.
• There is no strafe button or aiming. There are shooting missions with guns that you can't aim and enemies coming from behind with a camera that doesn't turn very fast. Coupled with no hit stun and you die pretty fast. That boss on the roof was completely unfun.
• Checkpoints. There are either none or they are very badly placed and are very few. Another pointless downgrade from the original.
• The music... Okay, now I'm convinced that Naughty Dog needs a new sound team. Whatever doesn't sound as generic as the first game sounds like a pale re-write of a Crash 2 theme. Seriously. Listen to a Jak 2 jungle theme then listen to the Turtle Beach theme, or the Jak 2 industrial theme then the sewer theme from Crash 2. There are some good themes, but as a whole it really drags.
• Too much Point A to B travel. And as I indicated before... it ain't fun.

Now what I like:

• The sci-fi and darker theme. This doesn't really contradict what I said earlier. I like the fact that the situation seems more dire and the environments and enemies are totally different and more threatening than in Jak & Daxter, and without the deep voices and swearing it would feel more organic. And yes, I turned off Jak's goatee. That was really dumb looking.
• the levels are all fantastic. The core platforming is on par with the best from Jak & Daxter, and is a lot of fun still. I do like that instead of scouring the area for multiple orbs in one go you instead revisit the area later and travel a different path. It makes it different from the original.
• The added in action platforming. There are a lot of places where you have to scour crazy platforms while fighting off enemies, and despite occasional aiming issues, it is very exciting.
• the humor is still very Jak & Daxter. Other than the forced adult situations which make me groan, the humor is still funny. the new characters all work, and the story is pretty fun.
• The game is harder. This doesn't go with the checkpoints or dumb over-world with its horrible missions, which are an issue, but I really like that the platforming is harder here. It feels like a real sequel in how everything is harder.
• Despite the aiming issues, I like the weapons. The shotgun has insane spread, the gatling gun demolishes, the rifle is really powerful, and the peacemaker hits hard. Of course they all need insane auto-aim since there's no strafe or aim button, but using them feels satisfying which is most important.
• Surfing is fun. I loathe everything else about the vehicles, but the surfboard could have been in the original and worked great. I actually enjoyed surfing (NOT tricking, that felt too off) missions like hitting the bombs in the lake.

On a side note, the kid mission and invisible enemy mission didn't really give me any problems (beat them on the first go), it was anything that involved limited time on the over-world because the over-world is AWFUL.

I'm really split on this game. When it's good, it's on par with the best from J&D, but when it's bad... it's terrible. This is a hard game to properly nail down, but I will finish it and I am enjoying myself... but man, those over-world missions... if it wasn't for those this game would be up there for me.

[gunswordfist]

Ugh, it's taking forever to get past this Noir Spider-Man stage.