I don't know why HR wasn't working with me. I've played Deus Ex 2x and consider it to be a fucking triumph for the medium. HR I went into with an immediate distaste for the overindulgent color-pallete as well as absolutely hating the fact that conversations always played out in some sort of separate game engine. And then the actual gameplay: Am I alone in thinking it was uncommonly hard? Seems like all the NPC's are unbelievably hyper-aware of whether I'm peaking out of the corners of things, and the fact that you were some superengineered megacyborg and yet required a candy bar each and every time you knocked someone out a bizarre game facet.
NPC's kill you seconds on sight and the hacking minigame assumed too much that the player was a william gibson fan and found natural joy making icons light up. it was just as bad as that tiring pipe-hacking minigame from bioshock. (funny enough, the only hacking minigame I've continually enjoyed is ME2's generic match-up: mostly b/c I feel like I've *earned* the right to hack into this and wasn't left to the devices of some randomized bs)
I'm a huge Splinter Cell/MGS fan and find both games far easier in terms of stealth... i eventually returned HR w/out having finished it b/c i was so frustrated with the idea that a bunch of generic 80s-mohawk streetpunks of the future were actively keeping their eyes centered on the corners of boxes so they could shoot whatever it is without first processing whether it was a threat or not. could've been mom, ffs, here to bring you your lunch.
― kelpolaris, Monday, 16 April 2012 05:32 (twelve years ago) link
best hacking game is still the droid takeover thing in Paradroid.
― Fizzles, Monday, 16 April 2012 05:50 (twelve years ago) link
Based on previous Zelda games I just have that much faith that it'll pull through and impress me in the end. Whether or not the way the game unfolds can make up for the terrible control system has yet to be determined. This game is proof that just because you can map controls to a Wiimote doesn't mean you should.
Also, having to battle 'the Imprisoned' not once not twice but THRICE!! was DUMB. Battles 2 and 3 are WAY too close together and it's a pretty ridiculous and unbelievable boss to begin with >:(
BUT I've really liked the designs and gameplay of the various desert/mountain/forest areas, the dungeons (esp the desert ship) and the dungeon bosses (esp the sword robot). I also like the silly side quests <3 <3 side quests
― salsa shark, Monday, 16 April 2012 14:43 (twelve years ago) link
Stoked.
― raw feel vegan (silby), Monday, 16 April 2012 19:14 (twelve years ago) link
Battles 2 and 3 are WAY too close together
otm. this pissed me off enough that i haven't really played the game since /:
― diamonddave85, Monday, 16 April 2012 19:17 (twelve years ago) link
i stalled during the tadtones bit, but i loved everything until that part. is it worth it to power through to the next part?
― fka snush (remy bean), Monday, 16 April 2012 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
The last dungeon was easily my favourite in the game. Don't remember anything particularly annoying between tadtones and there.
― if, Monday, 16 April 2012 19:32 (twelve years ago) link
later zeldas seem v keen on the repetition; i've seen at least one review arguing that the dungeon-repetition in the first ds title was A Good Thing, which strikes me as awfully strange
― thomp, Monday, 16 April 2012 19:38 (twelve years ago) link
remy if you loved it all up until the tadtones then yeah, do it. the other song gathering bits are good.
― salsa shark, Monday, 16 April 2012 22:04 (twelve years ago) link
this pissed me off enough that i haven't really played the game since /:― diamonddave85, Monday, April 16, 2012 8:17 PM (2 hours ago)
― diamonddave85, Monday, April 16, 2012 8:17 PM (2 hours ago)
― salsa shark, Monday, 16 April 2012 22:08 (twelve years ago) link
― thomp, Monday, 16 April 2012 19:38 (2 hours ago) Permalink
I never finished Phantom Hourglass for that reason. The Ocean King levels were fucking infuriating, and that you were being timed in the midst of all of them unbelievable. Plus, there came a point where it offers you a save-point/teleportation-device - but considering you gained that during your first haphahazard run-through of the temple's levels, you only have about a minute left on the clock. As such, it necessitates that you do the entire stage over again to gain a couple extra minutes - long story short, miyamoto had no qualms with fucking with you.
otherwise, i loved that game and the ship sailing bits were almost heavenly
― kelpolaris, Monday, 16 April 2012 22:30 (twelve years ago) link
There's always been a (welcome?) element of repetition in the Zeldas though - one of their defining characteristics for me was the notes I was taking re "must remember to come back to this spot when I have arrow / bombs / hookshot"
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 16 April 2012 22:55 (twelve years ago) link
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/8047078/img/8047078.gif#5: Glitch – in browser – 104 pts – 7 votes - 2.25 top game votes- top in browser exclusive gameplay it hereglitch: a wacky new mmorpg played in browserhttp://i39.tinypic.com/m7xtfk.jpg
tomofthenest: totally addictive land of doing nothing at all except holding left or right. I'm not sure how it even functions at entertainment but yeah I'll give it some points anyway..
DJP: This game was super fun until it went live, at which point all of the whimsy and goofiness just seemed... pointless.
Remy Bean: I wanted to love Glitch. I was an alpha tester. A beta tester. I participated on the forums, offered a number of suggestions to the game, a half-dozen of which were actually, deeply, incorporated. I played and played. Different play styles. Filled out dutiful bug reports. But I was chastised by a reactive staff-member for interacting in the global chat, trying to deflect the damage done by a racist troll. The damned thing is, I really made a difference, defused a potentially injurious situation, and then got slapped for it, because they didn’t want to go after the actual troll. Then, I got in trouble for making fun of the Amish. No joke; I got called out for suggesting farcical gameplay adaptions for the Amish. Some dude (boyfriend of a dev, IIRC), called it ‘religious intolerance’ and all of a sudden the game, and community, turned on a dime. It became cuddly-mountain, San-Fran based moral one-upmanship, inclusivity-as-a-competitive-sport. Apart from a shift in the general feeling of the tester’ community, I felt like the gameplay direction itself changed. What had once been a fairly open discussion with regard to the goal and purpose of the game (and a lot of its draw) suddenly became about a discussion imposing limitations and proper play pragmatics, limiting the game to a number of Actual Functions. I have no idea whether the game is closer to what Tiny Speck wants/wanted it to be, but it is a lot farther from what I enjoyed. It was fun having an influence, an impact, a clue about the direction of the game – to feel like the meta-gaming aspects were encouraged and acknowledged, that I didn’t have to play “right” or “wrong” but rather that the world was a sandbox (unconstrained) –– and not a “sandbox” (with hard limits and proper, highly codified and politicized ethical/moral dimensions). Based on the early beta work, this would have been my game of the year. Based on its current incarnation, it’ll sulk at the bottom of the list. And I won’t be going back to playing it in any meaningful way, unless something big changes in the overall design.
Nhex: I didn't predict that the first MMO I would really play in near ten years would be some kind of cutesy casual collection junk done in Flash featuring giant headed unisex monster children, but there you have it. Like others here I funded the game during beta because of the promise it showed. Though it was one of the best games I played this year (in a great year) and I still love the writing and humor, after a long enough time, it falls prey to the same problems all over MMOs have - basically, what to do when you've exhausted the game's activity list, or when what's left devolves to endless chores. Still, before the reaching that point, it's a joy to see what the developers have cooked up. And as a living game, they still have time to add new stuff all the time, and I've got a year left on this sub anyway...
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Monday, 16 April 2012 23:14 (twelve years ago) link
planning on finishing out tonight, so hope that's cool!
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Monday, 16 April 2012 23:20 (twelve years ago) link
In retrospect it's hard to believe I spent so much time mining rocks in caves.
Luckily Skyrim came along and offered a more graphically impressive mining experience.
― polyphonic, Monday, 16 April 2012 23:22 (twelve years ago) link
xp yes so cool
― raw feel vegan (silby), Monday, 16 April 2012 23:32 (twelve years ago) link
so many MMOs, and other kinds of games, have somehow stumbled onto this truth: human being subconsciously crave mining rocks in caves
― Mordy, Monday, 16 April 2012 23:36 (twelve years ago) link
but only if you can do it at a rate of about 1 cubic meter per second.
― raw feel vegan (silby), Monday, 16 April 2012 23:37 (twelve years ago) link
agent hibachi’s Biggest DisappointmentBattlefield 3 hey, the holidays are over, time to finally boot this up, i have a couple of hours to kill. (installing) one hours later: please insert disc 2 for hd content. sure, the graphics looked great in the promo stuff. (installing) two hours later: yes! title screen. no! title update. (installing) one hour later: yes! title..jesus fuck. 1.5 gig "multiplayer" update that it says i should install anyway because of single-player bugs. (three weeks later) finally! a few hours to try this. it's fully patched. it's gonna be awesome. (zips through first few levels) oops, that rooftop sniper just got me three times in a row. i dislike this loading screen already, it's costing me at least thirty seconds of my actual life every time i die in the game. oops, got me a fourth time. oops, HARD CRASH, xbox completely locked up. fuck this. modern warfare, you win.
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Monday, 16 April 2012 23:40 (twelve years ago) link
You have to patch shit on your Xbox?? what's the point of an xbox then
― raw feel vegan (silby), Monday, 16 April 2012 23:41 (twelve years ago) link
if you're going to install shit for hours on a frickin game console you could be downloading shareware from AOL in 1998 and probably have more fun.
― raw feel vegan (silby), Monday, 16 April 2012 23:42 (twelve years ago) link
i've got a sweet shareware Doom floppy if anyone wants it
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Monday, 16 April 2012 23:43 (twelve years ago) link
what? i think maybe u don't have a clear grasp of what an xbox is?
― Mordy, Monday, 16 April 2012 23:49 (twelve years ago) link
like, i've never heard someone tout the virtues of an xbox by saying that you never have to patch a game
― Mordy, Monday, 16 April 2012 23:50 (twelve years ago) link
remember when the xbox 360 cost $5000?
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Monday, 16 April 2012 23:51 (twelve years ago) link
It's a game console! Games come on discs or carts and you play them! I knew you could "install" Xbox games but I assumed it was mostly pretend or optional. Sounds like it's violating the game console social contract to me.
― raw feel vegan (silby), Monday, 16 April 2012 23:52 (twelve years ago) link
i think you can opt out of any patch, but in most cases (ie when the patch doesn't break the game) I don't know why you would want to. patches squash bugs!
― Mordy, Monday, 16 April 2012 23:55 (twelve years ago) link
oppet: The sequel to my favourite game ever, so had a lot to live up to.So just checking, is this some "Star Trek V never happened" happening here?― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 16 April 2012 05:14 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
So just checking, is this some "Star Trek V never happened" happening here?
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 16 April 2012 05:14 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Ha, I had genuinely forgotten about the actual sequel. In my defence, my ballot blurbs were done in a total rush.
Glitch really had me sucked in for about a fortnight but then I forgot about it. Seemed like it was getting too fiddly and less fun, I think.
― oppet, Monday, 16 April 2012 23:56 (twelve years ago) link
http://www5.picturepush.com/photo/a/8055333/img/8055333.gif#4: Tiny Wings – iOS – 105 pts – 6 votes - 1 top game vote - top iOS exclusive gamehttp://i39.tinypic.com/25pu2s9.jpgJeff: A perfect little game. I perfectly maddening little game. I think I spent the most consecutive hours playing this, at least 6 or 7 hours straight one day.
Sondrangerbot: more frustrating than fun, more evil than entertaining but still addictive.
silby: TINY WINGS, Andreas Illiger, iOS, totally my GOTYTiny Wings is yet another iOS game where your one interaction istouching the screen. You touch the screen to "make yourself heavy" asthe instructions say; your bird stops its feeble flapping and glidingand drops to the ground. The physics simulations required to do thischewed battery like crazy on my 1G iPod touch. A couple of theobjectives aren't fun to get.
But everything else about this game, the art, the sounds, the music, thephysics, the way it makes my brain feel every time I hit a perfectslide, or miss one, or anticipate nightfall with mounting dread, is sofucking on point it's crazy. Doing well makes you feel unstoppable,doing poorly makes you feel like you are dragging your belly down thehill just like that miserably cheerful bird. Tiny Wings is intense andengrossing. It plays on the "die and retry" shtick employed by Canabalt,Super Meat Boy, vvvvv etc. by not even bothering to let you die...atleast not officially. But when you're chasing that 175,000 pointobjective, you can know halfway through the first island that you aredoomed. You can see yourself two minutes later, flopping down on theupward slope of some shitty hill on island 6, tucking your wings in tosleep, and you wonder why you didn't restart right away when you lostyour fever five islands ago. And then you retry anyway.
Tiny Wings is a one-button game but a full-body experience. You feel gravityweighing on your tiny bird body, you feel the timing of your descent andthe exhilaration of your cloud touches in your very gonads. Tiny Wingsis like playing on a swing, pumping your arms back and forth, shiftingyour weight around at the right moments to try to make the swing finallyflip over the top of the swingset, twirling you around like a rollercoaster.
There may be better games than Tiny Wings that came out in 2011, but Ididn't play them. No seriously I didn't, I did not play many new videogames at all this year. Maybe it was only Tiny Wings. But Tiny Wings wasall I needed.
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:15 (twelve years ago) link
tiny wings is that good??
― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:22 (twelve years ago) link
maybe i should try it, but if it's anything like angry birds you can forget it
― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:23 (twelve years ago) link
i played so much tiny wings im getting a lil sick just thinking abt it
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:23 (twelve years ago) link
a v beautiful and frustrating game
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:24 (twelve years ago) link
Definitely understanding what silby is feeling as regards the console social contract, but the sad truth is that this is how it's been since the first Xbox allowed installation and patching - consoles dropped the previously stringent quality standards in favour of PC's "ship it now, patch it later".
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:26 (twelve years ago) link
i also played way too much tiny wings. *barf&&&--__..
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:27 (twelve years ago) link
― raw feel vegan (silby)
you don't have to install the game to apply a patch to it. patches are generally welcome fixes to glitches and don't take long to download. you don't have to check for them either, it automatically does that and tells you when you boot up the game that there's a patch available and asks you if you'd like to install it. seems beyond obtuse to have a problem with this. i suppose this is ilx tho.
― zverotic discourse (jim in glasgow), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:28 (twelve years ago) link
tiny wings is nothing like angry birds. very beautiful and tranquilizing
― Mordy, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:29 (twelve years ago) link
i should definitely buy this "guide for tiny wings - tips and tricks" app i see in the itunes store for the same price as the game, right?
― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:32 (twelve years ago) link
Tiny Wings is on my top 5 list of "games I won't play because I will get sucked in and I actually enjoy the sun on my face and the sound of children's laughter".
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:32 (twelve years ago) link
The other four games are all Drop 7.
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:33 (twelve years ago) link
uh oh
― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:34 (twelve years ago) link
yay tiny wings!
jim I was mostly just reacting to whoever was lamenting how many hours it took to get Battlefield 3 working on their console. It just struck me as sad and weird that a console game required multiple hours of downloading and patching just to play single player. I don't play 360 or PS3 regularly (haven't owned either) so I was just surprised to read all that and then notice they were playing a console version.
― raw feel vegan (silby), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:34 (twelve years ago) link
oh the battlefield patch was fucking huuuuuuuuuge, which is unusual. i don't have it but yeah, takes a bunch of time because you don't get amazing download speeds. but it fixed a bunch of exploits so i guess people are happy.
― zverotic discourse (jim in glasgow), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:37 (twelve years ago) link
that person was doing it wrong
― sonderangerbot, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:37 (twelve years ago) link
silby's confusion is reasonable - i just bought a ps3 a couple months ago and was so confused as to why people kept advocating for getting the model's with larger HD's. i was like - do you guys really download that many fucking demos?
― kelpolaris, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:40 (twelve years ago) link
http://www2.picturepush.com/photo/a/8055425/img/8055425.gif#3: Batman: Arkham City – 360 / PS3 – 197 pts – 12 votes - 1.25 top game voteshttp://i40.tinypic.com/34rd5k6.jpg
EZ Snappin: A pleasure to play, and a sequel that should have left the original in the dust. However, I don't think it did. Arkham Asylum was tight and focused, whereas this is sprawling and padded. Too long (though the combat is a joy), with a lesser story though a better ending. Did like the Grundy boss battle better than any in the original.
DJP: There is nothing as glorious as leaping off of a building, soaring through the air using your cape as wings, only to fire off a grappling hook and swing onto a nearby gargoyle/ledge, then leaping off and doing it again, and again, and again. Even if they'd screwed up the story (they didn't) or had made the game viciously ugly (they didn't) and didn't have massive replayability in the various side missions and Riddler trophies and challenges (they do), the simple fact that they got swinging through a dangerous city so wonderfully correct would pardon lots of sins. That they did this and then went on to make every other facet of the game awesome is just staggering.
Nhex: There was an inevitable deflation, as much like Portal, the first one set a high bar on top being a total surprise. But let's get down to it, it was absolutely worth the wait, improved pretty much every gameplay aspect from the first game, delved further into the Batman universe, nailing that legendary feeling of being Batman. Zipping across the city to prevent Zsasz from killing a prisoner, delivering people from the Saw-esque Riddler death traps, taking time out to rescue political prisoners form being raped on the street, uncovering the political conspiracy behind Arkham City, all in a single night, of course. That near-perfect fight system is pretty hard to ruin, too. Bring on the next one.
bnw: One of the nice things about Arkham City and its predecessor, is that while it emphasizes stealth- it doesn't just limit that to "avoid guards and cameras" i.e. "move when you're supposed to, dummy". batman's stealth involves more planning and minding your surroundings.
Jeff: Enjoyed all aspects of this game. I found the fighting, both the straight up and stealth extremely satisfying. It is so blissful to string together a couple of dozen hits, batarangs, freezing, grapple, etc. Equally as satisfying to take down an entire room without a single person seeing you. Huge open world is just fun to zoom around. Catwoman parts were not as satisfying, but a nice add on to have.
Jordan: SO MUCH FUN. And then it's over.
Salsa Shark: I don't know what to say about this that other people haven't already said, so here are some scattered thoughts (very much tl;dr style):
+ Everything about this game felt so much more wider and expansive than Arkham Asylum, from the setting to the weapon and fighting repertoire to the characters who come and go throughout the story.+ Playing as Catwoman was fun and refreshing; I'm not sure everyone was a fan of this but I thought she was a good addition to the game.+ The side quests involving various villains were mostly fun and provided a break from the main storyline, although the punishing number of Riddler trophies and riddles is a bit overwhelming (the Riddler sidequest is the only one I haven't finished simply because I've maxed out the number of riddles and trophies I can get without using a walkthrough).+ The villains/boss fights included as part of the storyline were also mostly fun, and a couple were unexpected. I especially loved the subway city, both in design and in the way its villain contributed to the storyline. I was initially a bit disappointed that the Joker had such a huge role again (it goes along with my general tiredness towards the Joker in contemporary Batman canon), but I got over this by the end of the game when the Joker's story began to unfold.+ The controls were generally responsive enough that any of Batman or Catwoman's failures were entirely my own (unfortunately there were a lot of failures because I am a button-masher, not a strategic fighter).
The downsides... mostly I found myself thinking too much about the likelihood of an 'Arkham City' ever being set up -- would Gothamites not protest at losing their heritage and civic buildings to degenerates? It seems like an unlikely setup to begin with, and even more unlikely that something like Protocol 10 could be allowed to occur. Also, Hugo Strange felt a bit... non-essential.
― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:40 (twelve years ago) link
oh crap. did that pos uncharted 3 place yet?
― Mordy, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:56 (twelve years ago) link
wow
so... Portal 2 and...?
― an independent online phenomenon (DJP), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:56 (twelve years ago) link
oh right. portal 2. not uncharted 3. skyrim, obv
― Mordy, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:57 (twelve years ago) link
oh yeah, duh
― an independent online phenomenon (DJP), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 00:58 (twelve years ago) link