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

[gunswordfist]

I got Street Fighter 3 when it was on sale. 

I've been playing Rayman 3....it might be the worst 3D platformer I've ever played. not outright bad but like in a 5 or 6 out of 10 territory bad.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I've been playing Rayman 3....it might be the worst 3D platformer I've ever played. not outright bad but like in a 5 or 6 out of 10 territory bad.

I've never played it, but I have heard it's a pretty big disappointment. I mean, it did almost kill the series so there must be a reason it isn't well liked, like, 2 is ported to everything, but 3 is rarely ever talked about.

What do you think are the biggest problems with it?

[gunswordfist]

I've been playing Rayman 3....it might be the worst 3D platformer I've ever played. not outright bad but like in a 5 or 6 out of 10 territory bad.

I've never played it, but I have heard it's a pretty big disappointment. I mean, it did almost kill the series so there must be a reason it isn't well liked, like, 2 is ported to everything, but 3 is rarely ever talked about.

What do you think are the biggest problems with it?

So they say 2 is good?

Where do I start? OK, R3 has a bunch of tiny, boring stages. You can explore a little but it's not much. The levels take about 2 minutes to beat. It started out promising with some decent platforms for a few levels but then they focused too much on making you go back and forth getting powerups that have a short time limit to advance. The enemies and platforming is too separated. Basically, you platform and then you fight enemies. They are decently intelligent, I'll give them that. Imo, they take too long to kill though, also, there's some horrible boss fights in this game. Ugh, I am about to try and beat it anyway.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, out of the four games that I got for Christmas, I decided to start with MGRR. I only played through the first mission so I can't say too much yet, but here are my first impressions.

Pros:
-Combat is extremely fluid and responsive
-Blade mode is a cool concept
-Music is kind of cheesy but also really gets you pumped up
-Aesthetically the game looks really sharp, and I love the character models
-Boss fights were kind of cool (a bit too scripted, though)

Cons:
-Story is full of crappy dialogue and makes no goddamn sense (but it's a Metal Gear game, so....duh)
-Environments are kind of bland
-Some scripted sequences are more annoying than fun (like running down the wall)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I played a little bit more of MGRR. I'm starting to get a better hang of the combat system. Parrying is surprisingly easy, but I haven't had much use for it so far outside of boss fights. At first I was getting my ass kicked by certain enemies until I learned that you're supposed to finish most of them off with Zandatsu, which itself is a really cool gameplay mechanic for a ninja game (and meanwhile, we had to deal with that SOB shit in NG3). My only gripe with the game so far is that the regular combat seems to be too button-masher friendly, in that I've found little need to properly time attacks or to use certain types of combos against certain enemies in certain situations. So far it just feels like button-mashing most normal enemies will win you most of your fights. I'm assuming that will change further on into the game.

As for the other games I got, I'm going to hold off on DmC until after I finish DMC3 on DMD mode. That said, I did just play through mission 1 of the game on Nephilim difficulty to sort of get a feel for it. Much like the demo I played about a year ago, the gameplay is certainly entertaining and not completely shallow, but so far the game clearly lacks the nuance of the older games, and the enemies are really unimaginative and generic, so I don't foresee this game having nearly as much replay value as the other games in the series (save for DMC2, of course).

As for Gears of War: Judgement and Vanquish, I'll probably end up playing GoW first if only because I'm so used to GoW games that I'll most likely finish it off rather quickly. I also want to separate my experiences with two PG developed games from each other, so I'm most likely not going to touch Vanquish until I beat MGRR.

[Foggle]

-Story is full of crappy dialogue and makes no goddamn sense (but it's a Metal Gear game, so....duh)

This is actually a plus, for me.

-Some scripted sequences are more annoying than fun (like running down the wall)

Eh, I thought that stuff was fun, but I can see why you wouldn't.

On Normal, you definitely can't mash your way through the whole game, but it's also not particularly hard as long as you know what you're doing. In that regard, I'd say the difficulty is comparable to Bayonetta, which was perfect for me (though probably too easy for you).

Be sure to download the DLC missions - they're free now!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, it's a bit too easy, but I'm also not that far into the game yet. Plus, I can always tackle the higher difficulties later on.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

MGRR gets progressively better as it goes on. I really like how insane and over the top it is. Combat still doesn't feel anywhere close to as deep or nuanced as DMC, NG, or Bayonetta, but I still find it more fun than shallow crap like Ninja Blade thanks to this game implementing unique gameplay elements that make it stand out and feel fresh, such as Zandatsu. I guess it does make sense that the game isn't balls out deep, though. I think they were keeping MGS fans in mind at least somewhat when designing it, and figured that a good chunk of them might not necessarily be fans of hack n' slash games, so they probably decided to make something that was very simple to grasp, but different enough from other games to still be fun.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Speaking of MGRR, this game really brings out my bad habit of feeling the need to break every breakable object in the room. In games like DMC and NG this is really simple. In this game, though, practically everything is breakable, and yes, I do break a lot of shit to stack up some extra BP, so for a short game that takes most people only 4 hours to beat, I can easily see it lasting me at least twice as long on my first run through it.

Also, despite saying that I wasn't going to play anymore DmC until I finished my DMD run on DMC3, I of course ignored what I said to play some more DmC. Honestly, the game is a lot of fun, and even though I already gave it credit for being an above average hack n' slash, it's still a great deal more sophisticated than I expected. The combos can be greatly varied, and contrary to what I've been told, the game actually does really seem to dock your style meter for taking hits (a single enemy hit usually knocks me down by at least 2 letter rankings). I think where the game hits a ceiling that prevents it from being as great as the classic DMC games, though, is in the fact that it takes little effort and skill to string together advanced combos, and the enemies are too lackluster to make it harder for you to get your timing down. It took a lot of practice and skill to get good at combos in the other games, and there was much more nuance and practicality to each kind of attack, so getting good at those games felt rewarding. With this game, it just feels like with a little bit of playtime, anyone can do just about anything that can be done in the game. Therefore it lacks the sense of self-improvement that you get from the other DMC games, which to fans such as myself is a really big deal in the long run.

[gunswordfist]

At about 1:00 AM (20 minutes ago), I beat Street Fighter 3. That was the first time I played the full (non-demo) game. I went o_O when Gill did Resurrection the first time I won...should have won a round against him. I basically beat him 2 or 3 times but he cheated. Thank God he only used that crap once during the last time we fought. i was going to hold off the game until I beat Rayman 3 but a few hours ago, I saw it was going to take me forever to try and beat a boss again so I gave up on the game.

[Foggle]

Speaking of MGRR, this game really brings out my bad habit of feeling the need to break every breakable object in the room. In games like DMC and NG this is really simple. In this game, though, practically everything is breakable, and yes, I do break a lot of shit to stack up some extra BP, so for a short game that takes most people only 4 hours to beat, I can easily see it lasting me at least twice as long on my first run through it.

I wouldn't say *most* people. That's just the folks who are skilled and like to rush through games.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

MGRR continues to be awesome. I love how tougher enemies slowly start to become the regular enemies that you face as the game progresses. One gripe I have is that I do wish there were more ways to transition into a Zandatsu animation when fighting them. Each of them require the same tactic of needing to be stunned and then Raiden has just one Zandatsu animation for each enemy type. A little more variety would've been nice, since it gets to feeling repetitive before too long. A good example of a game that varies things up with in-game cinematic-style animations is NG2/Sigma. In that game RYU has a 3 or 4 different OT animations per enemy type per weapon. That keeps a single mechanic from ever feeling too repetitive.

That's more of a nitpick, though, as other than that the game is still really fun. I just wish it had more interesting looking environments, but you can't have it all, I suppose.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just got past the Jetstream Sam boss fight in MGRR. It was a lot of fun but surprisingly easier than I expected since it was strangely easy to time my parries for this guy's attacks. Still, the fight went smoothly after my first try, and it was perfect how I didn't have any healing items left, making it a straightforward man-to-man affair.

Overall I've really enjoyed the game. My only major gripe is with that one section in R-04 when I was in that Japanese courtyard type room. The camera there was horrendous, and those stupid robots kept using that cheap jumping attack to knock me down, and I also got attacked a lot from off-screen. I really hated that section in the game.

As for DmC, I'm all the way up to Mission 16 now. The game is rather easy, even on Nephilim difficulty, but still surprisingly fun. Aquila is easily the most unique and interesting weapon in this game. I actually wouldn't mind seeing the proper series implement its own version of that weapon if they ever made a new game. Overall, though, the combat still doesn't hold a candle to DMC 3 and 4, and the enemy design is nowhere close to that of the classic games (minus DMC2, of course).

[Nel_Annette]

All that's left before I can go to the final final final world of SM3DW is that freaking dark version of the swamp level where you need to light all the torches to get the green stars. Tried it alone, tried it with friends. This level's obnoxious.

[Grave]

Street Fighter 3rd Strike
Played another set against my brother-in-law this past Thursday or Friday (don't remember). I got bopped, but they were all pretty close and fun games again. Again he busted out Ryu and Akuma and surprised me with Makoto (she scares me). I did try to play Yang this time, and he does feel easier to use I still had a fairly hard time combo-ing into his mantis slashes. The same with Dudley and Ken as well, I couldn't combo into anything because I can't react fast enough with my thumbs (and the placement on a regular controller is wonky for me right now) Don't get me wrong, I'm not using that as an excuse, I'm just giving more credit to him for being able to do combos and parry. Me, I have to switch to my fight stick (but I haven't unpacked anything, and I have to go digging through my box for it)

Batman: Arkham Origins
After beating Deathstroke (topping Ra's Al Ghul as best boss fight in the series) I've reached a point where I'm dealing with helicopters... I hated in Arkham City, and no doubt I'll hate it here, if I ever play it again. As much as I was waiting for this game, and hoping that I'd like more than the other games, I'm running into the same issue as AA and AC. And while I usually ignore comments complaining about something being the same. Here, it matters a lot since the combat wasn't/isn't great (it was good), but it led me to become very bored... I'm usually able to keep myself entertained because the blows were pretty impacting, but I've become bored with the game and I'm not even 3 hrs into the game.

Dynasty Warriors Gundam
No secret that I like the Musou games (and I hate the idea of Zelda looking like it's going to be one), and while this game is fun I am disappointed in it as well. I hate that Scwartz is in the Burning Gundam. I hate that the other members of the shuffle alliance aren't in this game, and I hate that the other Gundam Meisters are DLC and can't be played in the regular story. And then a lot of the Gundams feel clunky. Out of the ones I've unlocked so far, Athrun's Gundam feels like a DW character for some odd reason. Probably because his melee weapon feels more like something that belongs to Zhao Yun or Zhou Yu. All that being said, I'm still having a bit of fun with this one (but it's certainly no DW8 or WO3)