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

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I wish there were more Zelda ripoffs. And Ninja Gaiden. And Halo. I mean that in a good way. Why aren't some of the best designed games receiving good copy cats?

Because every developer is too busy trying to copy cheesy summer blockbuster movies rather than making actual games. For action/adventure games AND third person shooters, most games try to copy Uncharted rather than Zelda (for action/adventure) or Max Payne (for TPS), for first person shooters it's Call of Duty rather than Halo or DOOM, and for hack n' slash games, it's God of War rather than Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry. Personally I don't have anything against those other games for being more popular, but they are easily much less interesting to me then the less popular games which I mentioned.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The only thing they kept was the two-weapon limit, and they only kept that so they wouldn't have to balance the difficulty if players carried rocket launcher through the game. Halo was much better about it.

[Avaitor]

I dunno man, Okami was a straight rip from Zelda, and I thought it was boring as sin.

[Foggle]

Okami is one of the best games of that gen.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I dunno man, Okami was a straight rip from Zelda, and I thought it was boring as sin.

I'm not a fan of Okami either, but I wouldn't call it a straight-up ripoff, myself. It takes the Zelda formula and executes it with its own set of gimmicks. It just so happens that it's execution can either make or break the game for you. Darksiders II is more of a straightforward ripoff of Zelda, in that it takes the formula but doesn't take any risks with any big gimmicks. The result is a game that can never be as truly great as Zelda, but still amounts to being far better than your average action/adventure game.

[Grave]

I actually like Okami. The only thing I thought Okami did wrong was go on for too long, and that tired me out in the long run considering I still haven't finished the game till this day because of it. Originally, I was hesitant to even bother playing it because I didn't like the idea of playing as an animal, but it plays as well as any other hack n slasher imo.

I don't think I'll understand the idea of ripping off Halo though. I would think Halo plays like any other FPS out there, but I'm just speaking from playing the single player campaign. Sure each FPS may have different perks, but at it's core they all look like they play the same, but then again, I shouldn't speak on what I haven't played. I guess Halo interests me more than the others because of an aesthetic appeal, but at the same time I'm also not fond of playing military shooters either. Despite all games being fiction, I like my games to not resemble "what could happen" (If that makes any sense at all)

Anyway, I think I finally reached that tiring point of fighters as well. I won't stop playing them this time like the last time. I'll probably play them every once in a while, but I won't be putting in nearly as much time as I have been. I'll continue to watch tournament footage (at least of japanese matches).

With that said I decided to start playing Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, and Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. While already discussing my dread over MGS2 I decided to start playing it again anyway simply because it's been so long since I've played a MGS game, and I've decided that I'm gonna tackle the series from the beginning (my beginning) of the series onward. I can already see that when I reach the swimming portion of the game along with being stripped, my patience is gonna be pushed to the limit.

I do remember playing NGS at one point and stopped midway through. MGRR, while I've already played and beaten the game this is probably the best game for me in dealing with anger.

I'm also stepping into a new territory somewhat. For once instead of turning a blind eye, I'm actually going to try the Ratchet and Clank series along with Jak and Daxter.

[Foggle]

I hope you like Ratchet & Clank! It's the bestest. Just keep in mind that the first game's shooting can be unintuitive. I still love it, but Spark doesn't. Be sure to at least try Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal, and/or Crack In Time before you form an opinion on the series.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I don't think I'll understand the idea of ripping off Halo though. I would think Halo plays like any other FPS out there, but I'm just speaking from playing the single player campaign. Sure each FPS may have different perks, but at it's core they all look like they play the same, but then again, I shouldn't speak on what I haven't played. I guess Halo interests me more than the others because of an aesthetic appeal, but at the same time I'm also not fond of playing military shooters either. Despite all games being fiction, I like my games to not resemble "what could happen" (If that makes any sense at all)

The difference between Halo and most other modern FPS games doesn't become too apparent unless you at least play the Campaign mode on Heroic difficulty. Most modern FPS games have heavy corridor-based level design (or only give you the illusion of large, open battlefields) and rely way too much on pre-scripted events that never alter no matter how much you play the game. All the while, the enemy AI are just cannon fodder that occasionally duck under cover to pretend like they are smart. The difference in Halo's campaign mode is that the enemy AI are very intelligent, and act differently depending on the enemy type. Furthermore, the play-style of Halo games are just far more free-style than most modern FPS games, and on the higher difficulties the challenge of Halo relies far more on strategy than just fast reflexes and memorization. Furthermore, Halo games have a ton of wide, open level designs in which you can actually use a lot of that environment to your advantage, either to gain a better footing in certain fights, or to skip entire fights completely. If you want to see what I'm talking about, you should watch Halo walkthrough videos by both Mythic Tyrant and RC Master, as they show you just how differently two people can play the same games (and how their styles differ from your own). You can choose to play these games patiently, guns blazing, or just flat-out speed-run through the game and disregard most enemies that try to get in your way. Or you could just have fun and mess around with vehicles and explosives to take you into areas of the game that you're not supposed to get to, or just use them to skip entire chunks of levels for the fun of it. The bottom line is that Halo games are dynamic and don't rely heavily on in-game scripted events to seem impressive. To me, that's very different from most other modern FPS games.

[Nel_Annette]

Thank you, X-Box, for freezing on me just as I was about to get a new high score on Spelunky. Two seconds. Before the final door. Where the credits roll. Must... calm... down... must... not... break... controller... 

[Grave]

I hope you like Ratchet & Clank! It's the bestest. Just keep in mind that the first game's shooting can be unintuitive. I still love it, but Spark doesn't. Be sure to at least try Going Commando, Up Your Arsenal, and/or Crack In Time before you form an opinion on the series.

We'll see. I was thinking about getting Crack in Time and Tools of Destruction.

snip

Ah, so we're talking more along the lines of level design, A.I. and whatnot. I was merely speaking from just a point and shoot aspect, so yeah, I definitely wouldn't know much about that stuff since I've only played Halo.

Whelp, just finished up Metal Gear Rising. Jetstream Sam that is. Lot's of fun, but the main problem is that it's too short. I'd say I just barely scratched 2 hours and that's a big problem to me, especially when this stuff cost $. I mean, if you're gonna add content that don't last no longer than 2 hours then you need to either put it in the game and have it unlockable or don't put it in the game at all. I like the idea of Sam having his own story, but my goodness this is ridiculous. Anyway, like I said, lots of fun.

Moving onto MGS2 and probably Uncharted 2.

[Foggle]

I don't really see a problem with 2 hour extra content as long as it's ~$5 or free, especially since most games these days are charging $60 for 8 hours. And let's not forget, back in the 80's, games were $80 (adjusted for inflation) for 2 hours.

Replay value is a big deal as well. If it's short, but encourages multiple playthroughs, then it can become much longer and therefore worth more money, which is why a lot of those old games weren't seen as ripoffs. Then again, if you aren't the type to play games more than once, it doesn't really matter.

[Grave]

That's a good point, and while I do love replay value, JSS, on the other hand don't really have much replay value imo. I could up the difficulty, but as far as I can see you get nothing for beating his story, and that plays a big role for me to replay my games. That being said, I did pay $9 for this if I recall. I won't call it a waste, and while it's fun, I do wish it was more of an unlockable instead of DLC.

Speaking of which, I ended up saving a new game over my old file, so now I have to redo the entire game. So I won't be playing Revengeance for a while.

I am starting up Ninja Gaiden Sigma though. This is gonna feel very awkward.

[Foggle]

I just finished a playthrough of Super Mario Galaxy (the first one). Now, it's undeniably an excellent game... when you're doing the core platforming. But the waggle and IR mini-games feel like something out of a fucking Ubisoft shovelware title. They don't ruin the game, but they come close at times. The camera can also be a bit of a nuisance, but it's not too bad.

Anyway, I still really like the game, but I'm not sure I'd consider it among the upper echelon of 3D platformers. Galaxy 2 fixed all of my issues and is about a million times better IMO.

[talonmalon333]

I just finished a playthrough of Super Mario Galaxy (the first one). Now, it's undeniably an excellent game... when you're doing the core platforming. But the waggle and IR mini-games feel like something out of a fucking Ubisoft shovelware title. They don't ruin the game, but they come close at times. The camera can also be a bit of a nuisance, but it's not too bad.

Anyway, I still really like the game, but I'm not sure I'd consider it among the upper echelon of 3D platformers. Galaxy 2 fixed all of my issues and is about a million times better IMO.

Was the waggle really that bad? It was only used for stuff like spinning, and I think it became natural with that. I don't know, I feel like people make a big deal out of waggle in general. As for the mini-game type things, they are pretty typical for platformers, and were present in Galaxy 2. I don't really think Galaxy 2 fixed anything (except the post-game content). It just slightly enhanced and gave a different take on an already perfect game. When people say it was "so much better" I just don't see it. I think they both represent the absolute peak of 3D platforming and are practically neck and neck.

Just my take on it.

[Foggle]

The ball rolling and manta riding mini-games are terrible. The spider web flinging and bubble blowing ones are even worse. The trash destroying mini-game with the bob-ombs that take 10 seconds to explode is one of the worst in VG history.

They don't take up that much of the game percentage-wise, but they're complete garbage, and I got stuck on them for far longer than any legitimate platforming gameplay. Outside of shooters, motion controls = shit in every single game I've played except MadWorld and NMH IMO. Nothing fun about that crap at all.