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

[Spark Of Spirit]

I went out today for some groceries and found a massively good deal for some games (everyone seemed to be swarming EB and Walmart, and apparently missed out on some great deals at smaller stores) and scooped them up.

So basically, I got NBA Jam (Wii), Kirby Dream Collection, Spirit Camera, and Steel Diver. Each for $9.99 and all of which were brand new.

[gunswordfist]

My brother came to visit over the last few days (haven't seen him on Christmas in like 5 years ) so:

The first thing me and him played was Co-op on Doom. For some reason the game doesn't let you save on Co-op but whatever. We still had a ton of fun. I believe we got up to the  first secret level and stopped

He had Shank II so us and my baby brother took turns playing the hell out of Survival mode. So much damn fun. I definitely got to get this game.

I got to play Halo 4 since he had that too and we played co-op. (Unfortunately, the game doesn't have 4 player) The music sounded like it belonged in Skyrim, the main villain looks like he belongs in LOTR and there was like one part from up to where I got to that actually lets you have some freedom. I didn't get that far though (I'm on the level with the Mammoth.) and I do like the new weapons and enemies.

On Christmas, I started playing his copy of Max Payne 3. Interesting that they made the cutscenes like a Tony Scott (R.I.P) movie. Man, is this a sad story. As for the gameplay, yep I don't like the two weapon limit. It's annoying and Max Payne 2's controls didn't need changing. What I do like is being able to continue shooting during Bullet Cams (I abuse the hell out of that) and the New Jersey levels are so great. I got up to the second level. This game is so damn hard. Shootdodging eating up the BT guage, ammo being easily ate up and having to run around defenseless looking for some more ammo and Max not being able to survive one bullet sure doesn't help.

All 3 of us played N+ and my baby brother and me finally beat Gunstar Heroes

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Honestly, I don't think that 4-player co-op is well-suited to Halo games. It makes encounters way too messy and cluttered, and the game just feels far too easy, even if you're playing on Legendary. It kills the whole concept of using proper strategy. Halo is and always has been perfect for 2-player co-op, as it allows you to utilize really interesting strategies with your partner without breaking the level of challenge of the game since you both still have to be careful as its easy for either you or your partner to get killed, and you genuinely get the feeling that you're contributing toward you and your partner's progression through the level, whereas with more than 2 players it just feels more like you're competing for kills and nothing more.

[Kiddington]

Man, the graphical improvements on OoT 3D are incredible. Incredible. Never would I have imagined it'd look this good.  It's like playing an entirely different game.

They absolutely need to give Majora's Mask the same treatment at some point down the road here. Can you just imagine how good Clock Town would look, running on 3DS hardware? 

[talonmalon333]

Man, the graphical improvements on OoT 3D are incredible. Incredible. Never would I have imagined it'd look this good.  It's like playing an entirely different game.

They absolutely need to give Majora's Mask the same treatment at some point down the road here. Can you just imagine how good Clock Town would look, running on 3DS hardware? 

Really? I think it looks... decent. Surely better than the N64 version. But that's really not saying much. The only character model that got a significant upgrade was Link's, and even his was awkward. The other character models could fit into the original N64 version. As for the world, some parts look great indeed. Others look like they were barely improved. Flat stairs, for example, stick out nowadays.

[gunswordfist]

I also started Crysis 2 and Ratchet & Clank Tools Of Destruction this week.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Man, the graphical improvements on OoT 3D are incredible. Incredible. Never would I have imagined it'd look this good.  It's like playing an entirely different game.

They absolutely need to give Majora's Mask the same treatment at some point down the road here. Can you just imagine how good Clock Town would look, running on 3DS hardware? 

Really? I think it looks... decent. Surely better than the N64 version. But that's really not saying much. The only character model that got a significant upgrade was Link's, and even his was awkward. The other character models could fit into the original N64 version. As for the world, some parts look great indeed. Others look like they were barely improved. Flat stairs, for example, stick out nowadays.

The rock solid framerate and lack of blur/fog really improve the presentation, too.

I really hope mor eN64 games get the remake treatment like OOT and SF64 did.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm half-way into the 7th level on Halo 4, which means that I'm almost done since if I'm not mistaken the game is a total of 8 levels. As I said, though, I won't say any of my thoughts regarding the gameplay until I finish the game at least one time through. Even then, I won't have my full thoughts on it until I replay the campaign mode on Heroic difficulty, which I probably should have started the game on, but I figured I wanted to play this one at its default difficulty setting first in case it was a lot different from previous Halo games.

One thing I will say that doesn't involve the gameplay is how bland the soundtrack is. I can't believe people have been praising this soundtrack as being on par with that of the previous games composed by Martin O'Donnell. Its nowhere close to that. I haven't heard a single noteworthy or memorable piece of music in the entire game, and even though its all orchestrated and made to sound like a big symphony like in previous Halo games, no care is taken as to where or how this music is used, and a lot of times the music doesn't seem to fit in with the theme of the level its being played in. The music in this game is definitely a huge step down from previous Halo games, IMO, and the lack of O'Donnell's talent is all too clear.

Basically, just take everything I said about my beef with the music in most AAA games and apply it to this one. Its really rather disappointing, as the music honestly used to be one of the stand-out aspects of the Halo series, IMO.

Oh, and as for Devil May Cry 3, I would have actually opted to finish that game first before even starting Halo 4, but I forgot to bring it with me to my mom's house, So Halo 4 and SSF4 (which I left the disc for in my XBOX 360) are the only games I can play for right now.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I beat Halo 4 on Normal yesterday, but I have still actually refrained from posting my thoughts on it since, as with most Halo games, playing through it once on Normal is not an accurate way for me to gauge the game's overall worth as far as its campaign mode goes. Honestly, its the same for all Halo games. I need to replay them on at least Heroic difficulty (and if they aren't full of tedious combat, Legendary as well) to test their balance in terms of challenge and difficulty, how well adaptable their AI are, and the overall replay value of each game.

I'll say this much of the game so far. The first level sucks, and the last level sucks. They are both way too linear and restrictive, and the first level just feels like a glorified tutorial whereas the last level feels like a series of tedious and annoying enemy gauntlets. Mostly everything in-between that was actually quite fun on my first run through the game, though. So, overall I think its good....so far. But this is definitely no Halo: Reach, which as far as I'm concerned remains to be the best Halo campaign by far for this generation.

Also, today I played a bit more SSF4, and even on my by standard XBOX360 controller which is not adept for fighting games at all, I'm still having a ton of fun with this game's silky smooth combat and overall addicting gameplay. While I haven't gone online with it at all yet, the fighting system feels completely balanced and the enemy AI is just challenging enough at medium difficulty to put up a fair fight when I'm using my standard controller, which only offers me up about 70% precision in terms of doing what the fuck I'm trying to input with my commands, while it screws me up the other 30% of the time and does a move that lands me in a bad spot against the opponent. Overall, though, I can easily see why this game got the praise that it has gotten from fans and critics. As someone who sucks at fighting games, this game honestly offers me up the most fun experience I've had with a fighting game in a long time, which I haven't felt for any fighting game since Soul Calibur II. Its really easy on newcomers and from what I can tell its perfectly balanced for hardcore gamers as its still played very competitively in the tournament scene. I also love how special moves work in this game. They are reasonable to pull off without any of them feeling overpowered (at least not the ones that I've tried or had used against me), they each have their own unique strategic and tactical uses, and they are so damn satisfying to pull off successfully. This is easily the best fighting game that I've tried this generation so far, but to be fair I haven't played that many and I do suck at a lot of them so I can't really appreciate a lot of the well-renowned ones that are a lot harder on newcomers (or at least me ).

[gunswordfist]

I meant to comment on Halo 4's first level. It's a weak version of Halo's very first level. Just thinking about it makes me appreciate that level so much. It was perfect for what it was.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I really enjoyed the first level for Halo 1, with all the alternate corridors to find weapons (and sometimes a shortcut). That game had some fantastic level design.

Honestly though, I think Reach is the only one in the series with a last level I really liked. Though ODST's was fine enough.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I like the last level of Reach a lot, myself....except for on Legendary. Good god is that level a nightmare on Legendary; mind you I did both a co-op and a solo run through Legendary, but I'm referring to the solo run here. It throws wave after wave of the game's toughest enemies at you and almost always makes you feel like you're in a bad tactical position and have to work your way up to find a better position to fight from. That said, it does mostly still feel fair, since the game also gives you a ton of ammo for the best and most useful weapons, but that last fight had me suffer many deaths and retry it many times before I got it down (I'm referring to the fight with the Brutes). Technically the last fight is the one where you have to kill all of those high-class Elites to make it to the MAC gun, but that fight was nothing in comparison to the one with the Brutes. Those Brute chieftons are ruthless and I swear the AI for the Brutes in this last segment is way smarter than the AI for Brutes in regular levels. It may just be me, but those fuckers knew exactly where to hide and when to take cover when I had any sort of advantage over them.

As for HCE's first level, I really like it a lot too. I remember that Frank O'Connor said in an interview that he didn't much care for Halo 1's first level because it was mainly just a tutorial level and he considered Halo (the name of the game's 2nd level), to be the first proper level. While I agree that the game really got things going in terms of its big, open, and tactical environments with that level, I still enjoyed Halo's 1st level a lot. In many ways it feels unique to the rest of the series. It is mostly within the confines of tight corridors, but that doesn't make it strictly linear. A lot of times there are alternate interconnecting corridors, and if you know the game's level design well enough that gives you tons of opportunities to flank your enemies by taking alternate paths and winding up behind them where they are still unaware of your presence. Additionally you could find extra ammo, grenades, and power-ups if you looked into minor diverting halls within the level. Its also a very fast-paced level whereas most other Halo levels move a bit slower; albeit for a good reason thanks to the open level design and being encouraged to explore it and use it to your advantage, but it still gives the first level a nice touch that makes it stand-out from the rest of the game in a good way. Its also the perfect first level to the first Halo game as it makes sure to teach you all of the basics, but unlike how other games would handle tutorials, this one has you learn a lot of key skills that you'll need to apply throughout the game by actually encouraging you to apply it in some way or form throughout the level, either to make it through obstacles or to take out enemies. The only exception to that is in the very beginning where it just tutors you on how to use the dual-analogue sticks to control your aiming in the game, which was totally necessary since at the time this was the first FPS to ever utilize dual-analogue stick control, which to this day is use for every FPS game on consoles.

Halo 4's first level was just uninspired and bland, IMO. It did get to better stuff after that, but I find it funny how O'Connor criticized Halo 1's first level, yet 343 essentially made a pale imitation of it with Halo 4's first level.

[gunswordfist]

I really enjoyed the first level for Halo 1, with all the alternate corridors to find weapons (and sometimes a shortcut). That game had some fantastic level design.

Whoa, sounds better than even what I remember about it. I need to replay that game.

[gunswordfist]

Halo's really the first shooter to use dual analog sticks?

[Spark Of Spirit]

No, PS1 shooters like Medal Of Honor (possibly the sequel) were the first since it was the first controller with two sticks.