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

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Now, Ninja Gaiden addicts could probably help me out on this one since I don't own the 1st Xbox, and can't remember, but the camera. Has it always been like, tilt the right analog stick to the right and the camera would go in the opposite direction? I was playing Ninja Gaiden Sigma over the weekend and while I don't want to call it a problem, because I think I can overcome it, but it just feels really awkward. The combat still feels good though. I think it's going to be a long time before another great ninja game comes out so Itagaki should do would Megaman's creator is doing with Mighty No.9. I'd probably contribute if he do.

As far as the XBOX versions go, the first release of the game didn't have any manual camera controls whatsoever, but the Hurricane Packs DLC and NGB had the manual camera control feature. In those versions, though, the camera moved to wherever you moved the analogue stick. They were most certainly not inverted. I'm not all that familiar with Sigma's options, and I didn't even remember anything about the camera controls being inverted for that game, but if that's the case then try seeing if the options menu allows you to revert that feature to allow for normal camera controls. I'm surprised that they would've implemented inverted controls for anything in the first place, but then again seeing as how Hayashi was the director for Ninja Gaiden Sigma, it probably shouldn't surprise me that much.

NGS2, I recall playing through some of it, and felt that the extra bosses were unnecessary, along with the extra characters, but "shrugs".

A lot of people think that hardcore NG fans dislike NGS2 because it removed the blood and gore. That is in fact not the reason that really hardcore NG players who actually care about the gameplay are dissatisfied with NGS2; they instead hate that it was such a missed opportunity to fix what was really wrong with the original release of the game. The core problem with NG2 was that it needed to be tweaked for better balance in the gameplay. But with Hayashi being the untalented hack of a developer that he is, all he did was put a shiny coat of paint over the game and pretended like he made a masterpiece. The extra content he added was incredibly shallow compared to the main game, as can be seen by his uninspired new boss fights (though to be fair, the original release of the game had mostly shitty boss fights as well). The worst part though is that in his attempt to "fix" the balance issues in the game, he took things in an even worse route, IMO. On all of the difficulties except for Path of the Master Ninja, he just watered the game down, which made it both less infuriating but also less interesting to play. On Master Ninja mode, though, he just traded one evil for another. Instead of projectile spam which chipped away at your health, he had enemies that got grab-happy (and grabs on Path of the Master Ninja on NGS2 are usually OHK attacks). Considering that he did nothing to fix the hit-detection problems in this game, most hardcore fans found NGS2 to be even more infuriating, and just as cheap as Path of the Master Ninja in the original version of the game. So, basically Hayashi is so incompetent as a director that not only did he not fix any of the problems of the original game (aside from the projectile spam), but instead he just added a bunch of new ones of his own, and tried to disguise them with a bunch of shallow new features.

[Foggle]

Sigma is my go-to version tbh (mostly because my 360 has very little hard drive space, and I don't want to delete stuff just to spend hours redownloading NGB), and I don't really remember the camera controls being any different from the Xbox version. Perhaps there's an option to change it?

Speaking of which, I know a lot of people complain about the camera in Ninja Gaiden, but it's never been a problem for me at all. And y'all know I'm quick to talk shit about camera controls if I'm the least bit dissatisfied with them.

Personally, my biggest problem with NGS2 was the way they ruined the gameplay and level design, but I can't say I didn't miss the hardcore violence as well.

Vanquish isn't for everyone, but I do hope you enjoy it more this time around Grave. It's really a game about speed and running around the battlefield like a madman. It has more in common with stuff like Contra and Metal Slug than it does other TPS, I'd say.

The R&C HD Collection has some issues, but for the most part they're pretty minor, and only really noticeable by diehard fans. There are a couple of new game-breaking bugs, but the chance you'll run into them is quite small. It's a great deal, and a worthy investment. Just keep in mind that the first game is more of a straight platformer than it is an action game (Crack In Time is the same way), and that the first two games can be extremely challenging at times. Spark and I tend to agree that Tools of Destruction is a lesser entry in the series, but it's still great - be sure to turn off the Sixaxis motion control stuff from the menu, though. Those five games are fantastic, but you should avoid the rest of the series except for Quest For Booty and Deadlocked. Then again, the former is a short downloadable game and the latter is basically a straight TPS, so they may not be worth the money to you.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Sigma is my go-to version tbh (mostly because my 360 has very little hard drive space, and I don't want to delete stuff just to spend hours redownloading NGB), and I don't really remember the camera controls being any different from the Xbox version. Perhaps there's an option to change it?

I've been having problems with the XBOX360 downloadable version of the game, myself. I kept getting error messages at certain parts of the game, and I got tired of constantly having to delete it and re-download it to get around those issues, so I quit playing that version of the game. I really wish I still had my original copy of the game along with my original XBOX console. I never had any technical problems with that set-up.

Speaking of which, I know a lot of people complain about the camera in Ninja Gaiden, but it's never been a problem for me at all. And y'all know I'm quick to talk shit about camera controls if I'm the least bit dissatisfied with them.

I agree with this 100%. For that matter, I never had much of a problem with the camera in DMC games, either. I just feeling that people who suck at these games have a tendency to blow these issues out of proportion. I know for a fact that in all of the DMC games, most enemies cannot initiate any attacks at you from off-screen (sadly, bosses are an exception to the rule, which is brutal on DMD mode). And as for Ninja Gaiden, I just never experienced that many issues with the camera in the first game, and while the 2nd game could get annoying with the projectile spam from off-screen, this problem could mostly be remedied by just taking cover behind a wall or large object, which downright forced the enemy AI to come to you and engage you in melee combat, at your advantage. Any enemies stubborn enough to remain with their projectiles could easily be dealth with when there was no other opposition left. If reviewers were complaining because they were too stupid to stop and think for a second and use a strategy that actually made sense, rather than rushing into an area where they were at a disadvantage, then it's no wonder that we don't get too many games like Ninja Gaiden and DMC anymore.

Personally, my biggest problem with NGS2 was the way they ruined the gameplay and level design, but I can't say I didn't miss the hardcore violence as well.

Looking back on it, I actually do think that NG2 may have gone a little bit too overboard with the violence level, but it never really bothered me that much, and I did enjoy the visceral feeling of the combat. I hated NGS2's lazy replacement for it, though. I mean, when enemies got dismembered, their exposed flesh was just colored over in black, rather than being replaced with some other graphical effect, so instead of a huge flesh would, exposed enemies instead displayed comical looking black voids in areas where they had limbs severed from. They looked like fucking walking plastic dolls.

[Spark Of Spirit]

What you really wanted was Ryu's sword to get stuck in enemy bones.

Thankfully, Team Hayashi is there for you.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

What you really wanted was Ryu's sword to get stuck in enemy bones.

Thankfully, Team Hayashi is there for you.

The correct terminology is actually Team Ninja Dog. You'd get that reference from the fans if you've played Ninja Gaiden Black. It's the lowest difficulty setting on the game, and even has a special cut-scene in the beginning in which Ayane insults you for sucking so bad as a ninja. I LOVE Itagaki's sense of humor for stuff like this. If the game were made today, he wouldn't be able to get away with such a thing because critics would blast the game for it, calling it "demeaning" and saying that it shouldn't poke fun at the player for taking the easy way out.

[Foggle]

I remember playing the first level of NGS2 at my friend's place. All the blood was removed from the opening cutscene, so the enemy corpses just kind of blew out smoke when Sonia shot them. Then in the game itself, entire chunks of the stage were removed, replaced by an absolutely terrible mini-boss. Itagaki must have been furious.

I've been having problems with the XBOX360 downloadable version of the game, myself. I kept getting error messages at certain parts of the game, and I got tired of constantly having to delete it and re-download it to get around those issues, so I quit playing that version of the game. I really wish I still had my original copy of the game along with my original XBOX console. I never had any technical problems with that set-up.

Maybe you can get another retail copy. It might be hard to find in stores now, but it probably won't be too expensive if you do.

I agree with this 100%. For that matter, I never had much of a problem with the camera in DMC games, either. I just feeling that people who suck at these games have a tendency to blow these issues out of proportion. I know for a fact that in all of the DMC games, most enemies cannot initiate any attacks at you from off-screen (sadly, bosses are an exception to the rule, which is brutal on DMD mode). And as for Ninja Gaiden, I just never experienced that many issues with the camera in the first game, and while the 2nd game could get annoying with the projectile spam from off-screen, this problem could mostly be remedied by just taking cover behind a wall or large object, which downright forced the enemy AI to come to you and engage you in melee combat, at your advantage. Any enemies stubborn enough to remain with their projectiles could easily be dealth with when there was no other opposition left. If reviewers were complaining because they were too stupid to stop and think for a second and use a strategy that actually made sense, rather than rushing into an area where they were at a disadvantage, then it's no wonder that we don't get too many games like Ninja Gaiden and DMC anymore.

Yeah, after actually learning how to play it, DMC1's camera became no problem for me.

Looking back on it, I actually do think that NG2 may have gone a little bit too overboard with the violence level, but it never really bothered me that much, and I did enjoy the visceral feeling of the combat. I hated NGS2's lazy replacement for it, though. I mean, when enemies got dismembered, their exposed flesh was just colored over in black, rather than being replaced with some other graphical effect, so instead of a huge flesh would, exposed enemies instead displayed comical looking black voids in areas where they had limbs severed from. They looked like fucking walking plastic dolls.

I may be sick, but I love the ultra-violence in NG2. It's so visceral and thrilling, and far too over the top to be considered grotesque.

The correct terminology is actually Team Ninja Dog. You'd get that reference from the fans if you've played Ninja Gaiden Black. It's the lowest difficulty setting on the game, and even has a special cut-scene in the beginning in which Ayane insults you for sucking so bad as a ninja. I LOVE Itagaki's sense of humor for stuff like this. If the game were made today, he wouldn't be able to get away with such a thing because critics would blast the game for it, calling it "demeaning" and saying that it shouldn't poke fun at the player for taking the easy way out.

I swear, NGS wants you to play on Ninja Dog. Every time you die twice in a row, it asks if you want to abandon the way of the ninja. EVERY. FUCKING. TIME. I never actually changed difficulties except once on the Xbox to see the hilarious pink ribbon/demeaning tutorial messages and cutscene, so I have no idea if the PS3 version still makes fun of you. (It probably does, but who knows. It's Hayashi, after all.)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I remember playing the first level of NGS2 at my friend's place. All the blood was removed from the opening cutscene, so the enemy corpses just kind of blew out smoke when Sonia shot them. Then in the game itself, entire chunks of the stage were removed, replaced by an absolutely terrible mini-boss. Itagaki must have been furious.

Itagaki has actually been really positive when he talks about Team Ninja. He says that many of the people there are still former colleagues of his, so he harbors no ill-will towards the team. When he saw the gameplay footage of NG3, he couldn't bring himself to downright admit that it sucked. He just said something along the lines of: "It's completely different from something I would make." That was basically his nice way of saying that it looked like a piece of shit. He did criticize the purple-mist replacement for blood and gore in NG2 as being really weird-looking, and when someone told him about the six-axis boob-jiggle controls, he was literally quoted as saying: "WTF?"

Maybe you can get another retail copy. It might be hard to find in stores now, but it probably won't be too expensive if you do.

Yeah, I can't find it at any stores nearby me, but I'll probably get it online sometime, eventually.

Yeah, after actually learning how to play it, DMC1's camera became no problem for me.

It also helped that enemies didn't really have too much in the way of ranged attacks in that game.

I may be sick, but I love the ultra-violence in NG2. It's so visceral and thrilling, and far too over the top to be considered grotesque.

I never considered the level of violence grotesque, but maybe just a little too over-the-top for its own good. Now, the Steel on Bone in Ninja Gaiden 3? That shit is just fucking disgusting, IMO.

I swear, NGS wants you to play on Ninja Dog. Every time you die twice in a row, it asks if you want to abandon the way of the ninja. EVERY. FUCKING. TIME. I never actually changed difficulties except once on the Xbox to see the hilarious pink ribbon/demeaning tutorial messages and cutscene, so I have no idea if the PS3 version still makes fun of you. (It probably does, but who knows. It's Hayashi, after all.)

Man, I wouldn't mind Hayashi so much if he at least didn't act like he was such a big-shot visionary for doing nothing more than tweaking Itagaki's NG games (and then leading the development of one without Itagaki, and having it totally suck). But, yeah, his game design philosophy could not  be more opposite from Itagaki's, and you can see right there the major problem that plagued NG3 from the get-go.

[Foggle]

Yeah, steel on bone was nasty and unnecessary. I can see that kind of mechanic working in some artsy samurai game where you're supposed to feel bad about killing people, but not in a hardcore action game.

[gunswordfist]

On Dead Rising 2, I couldn't get past the annoying chef boss so I went to another side mission to see if I could recruit anyone to help and ended up with a British rock band that I armed with two pistols and a Merc Assault Rifle. We went to face fatso and after I went to heal after he messed me up, soon afterwards the game went in slomo and I was like "WTF" and then I realized that the rock band killed him that quickly.

Now I just got to get them to help me beat the drill missions without one of them dying. Last time Leanna died and they turned on me with a bunch of mercs also shooting at me.

[Grave]

Alright, it was probably just my head thinking something was wrong with the camera in Sigma, but turns out I just needed to adjust. Still feels a little strange though (probably feeling a little too loose, maybe. Doubtful). I guess this is what I get for not playing the game in years.

As far as my memory goes, the only time I can say the camera actually gave me a hard time was when it came to platforming segments, and that was at the end of the game. Till this day, that last bit seem so easy, yet gave me the most problems, and I still wouldn't be able to tell you why.

For the most part I don't recall having much of an issue in any hack n slash game that I can remember outside of NG2, and even then, to say that I had an issue with the camera in that would be a bit of a stretch.

With all that being said, and getting a little bit more adjusted to the game, it's feeling really good now.

Vanquish isn't for everyone, but I do hope you enjoy it more this time around Grave. It's really a game about speed and running around the battlefield like a madman. It has more in common with stuff like Contra and Metal Slug than it does other TPS, I'd say.

The R&C HD Collection has some issues, but for the most part they're pretty minor, and only really noticeable by diehard fans. There are a couple of new game-breaking bugs, but the chance you'll run into them is quite small. It's a great deal, and a worthy investment. Just keep in mind that the first game is more of a straight platformer than it is an action game (Crack In Time is the same way), and that the first two games can be extremely challenging at times. Spark and I tend to agree that Tools of Destruction is a lesser entry in the series, but it's still great - be sure to turn off the Sixaxis motion control stuff from the menu, though. Those five games are fantastic, but you should avoid the rest of the series except for Quest For Booty and Deadlocked. Then again, the former is a short downloadable game and the latter is basically a straight TPS, so they may not be worth the money to you.

Yeah, I used my brother as a guinea pig for Vanquish, and he said I should like it.

Noted.

Looking back on it, I actually do think that NG2 may have gone a little bit too overboard with the violence level, but it never really bothered me that much, and I did enjoy the visceral feeling of the combat. I hated NGS2's lazy replacement for it, though. I mean, when enemies got dismembered, their exposed flesh was just colored over in black, rather than being replaced with some other graphical effect, so instead of a huge flesh would, exposed enemies instead displayed comical looking black voids in areas where they had limbs severed from. They looked like fucking walking plastic dolls.

I may be sick, but I love the ultra-violence in NG2. It's so visceral and thrilling, and far too over the top to be considered grotesque.

I also didn't mind the violence in NG2. But then again, I'd say if you were to compare the violence to God of War's (especially GoW3), I'd say NG2 was fairly tamed. I haven't even bothered to play GoW3 yet (don't think I will either), but watching the videos nearly messed with my stomach.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, yeah, when you get down to it, Ninja Gaiden 2 just has a lot of blood. That doesn't really bother me all that much. But, God of War 3 has you literally ripping out some of your enemies' intestines, which I find to be just plain disturbing. It may just be because NG2 is intentionally cartoony in its approach to violence, whereas GoW3 tries to make it look as realistic as possible, which just doesn't appeal to me very much.

[gunswordfist]

Ugh, after trying to do a bunch of escort missions, I ran out of time to reach the next Case on DR2. I didn't save in between then because I wanted to rush and almost never save outside of the Safe House.

[VLordGTZ]

I saw a copy of Xenoblade at Gamestop today so I decided to buy it.  Looks like I no longer need to keep borrowing the game from my friends 

[Grave]

So I just got my first gameover in Ninja Gaiden Sigma. It's been a long time since I've seen a game over screen in any game. To be honest I'm pissed off about it too, but I did deserve it since I didn't see the guy and he ended up shooting me off the pole/wire thingy (I shot a barrel and it exploded and I thought I got all of them) on the airship. Also, wow, these folks do some massive damage, and then I think I like the DCTF in this compared to NG2, but then again, it's been a long time since I've played NG2 so I'll reserve judgment on that.

Taking a break from NGS for the night. Not exactly the game I should be playing anyway since I've had a rough couple of days. On to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Oh dear God... 

[Foggle]

You... beat Murai and the horse guy without dying on your first playthrough? You're a god.