next »

[:^)]

Crowe you have too many games. Get help.

Har har

I'm playing Super Crate Box iOS.
God I suck at this game.

[SirNiko]

I would like an anecdote explaining why it is "Badly coded". Surely there is an amusing story there.

I finished Okami (PS2), though there's a new game+ mode I'm going to get suckered into. I still haven't found all the lost beads, and I need to do that. The promise of a "Special Reward" has really piqued my interest!

The immediately obvious thing about Okami is the gorgeous animation. Not only did Team Clover go whole hog with the cell-shading, but they've applied various filters to make the images look like you're viewing a painted scroll. That graphical gimmick is extended to the magic system, where you use ink to paint magic spells directly onto the screen to cause effects, like to summon a sun to light up the night, generate a bomb to blast walls and enemies, or summon gusts of wind to blow away flames or daze airborne foes.

The game is rather heavy on cutscenes and dialogue. The characters are all bouncily animated and though there is no voice acting each character has a little squeaky 'voice' effect unique to them. You'll quickly come to recognize a few of the common ones, like Issun's squeak or the wheezy tone of the narrator.

The setup is a bit like a Legend of Zelda title, but with a bit more linearity. Typically you'll arrive in a region that is suffering from some dilemma, you'll do some sidequests to help the locals, then delve into a dungeon to resolve their problem. Once the dungeon is done you'll unlock a new area with a new dilemma, though you can always come back (and you will eventually return to most areas at least once).

You collect an assortment of weapons and accessories and can purchase new attacks, but the powers that grant you the most variety and access to new areas are your brush techniques. The brush techniques are particularly clever in that they are all accessed instantly by painting the proper symbol, and the symbols are simple and varied enough that you can generally get off a spell without any error (though the optional Inferno spell is tricky to paint at first). The designs are simple and easily drawn with an analogue stick. These spells are handy both in combat to defeat foes, as well as to solve puzzles and navigate the world.

Combat is lovely. Unlike the roving foes of Zelda titles, Okami has wandering enemy scrolls that lock you into a small arena to fight if you touch one. There are a half-dozen enemy types (Like fliers or burrowing drummers) that all fit a base theme but otherwise are substantially different foes to defeat. Each one typically has a weakness, like a lute playing imp that becomes defenseless if you slash his lute strings, or a flying foe that drops to the ground if you summon a gust of wind. If you memorize their weakness and deliver the killing blow with that spell, you earn fangs you can spend on accessories. You get three different types of weapons in the game, and you can use them as both main and sub weapons. The combat starts out very complex, but towards the end of the game you can acquire powerful weapons and techniques that make combat pretty trivial. The game seems to recognize this, and the second half of the game seems to tone down the number of combats and focus more on platforming puzzles.

Another point to note is that the game is extremely long and large. You'll uncover dozens of sidequests that have you racing against mailmen, digging down into a mine while escorting a miner, or using the wind to race a lillypad across town. Many of the quests are completely optional, and offer all manner of rewards including money, "Praise" (Experience points) and lost beads. Hidden areas abound, including several hidden grottoes with strange sights such as hordes of rabbits, or a foe that you had previously thought was gone forever.

One of the more interesting sidequests is collecting "Lost Beads". You have a special section of your inventory for tracking how many you've found, and where they are located. If you're into exploration, scouring the dungeons and overworld to fill the missing slots in your inventory is sure to provide hours of fun.

Your bestiary consists of a single scroll that extends to a colossal length and gradually fills with the foes you fight. Descriptions of the monsters make them sound like Japanese folklore characters, with descriptions that hint at the spells that weaken them or defeat them. It's always a joy to meet a new foe, since it means getting a new detailed image to see in the bestiary.

This is definitely a game worth picking up if you're into adventure-platformers. It has plenty of meat in the main game to enjoy, and the numerous sidequests will keep you occupied for hours more if you try to solve them all.

[s0]

This is a great hack'n'slash by From Software. Varied (and often unusual for the genre) level designs, smooth combat, a main character who can practically fly and destructible environments, both used as important gameplay elements.. Awesome aesthetics too, graphics still look remarakably good and the soundtrack is nice. The tone of the game is somber and understated in a genre where most devs seem to aim for ridiculous action movie and/or animu badassery (BROTIP: if you liked the atmosphere of Demon's/Dark Souls, you'll find a lot to love here).

The only real negatives are the godawful English voice acting (the US version lets you switch to Japanese voices apparently), level recycling towards the end and the uneven difficulty curve. You get levels that are

alternating with almost trivially easy ones.

[saibot216]

Upon my completion of Deus Ex, I started chipping away at Veil of Darkness and then I got Azrael's Tear, so I got those two to work on.

[Faust06]

Playing a bit of Brogue lately, had some fun with it.

[SirNiko]

a main character who can practically fly

This seems weird. It looks like this makes the levels really easy, since in all the videos I saw the hero seems able to completely ignore the terrain and just jump-hover to the boss. How is this balanced out?

[s0]

most enemies can fly too duh. also most levels dont have defeating a boss as their goal (there are like 30 total).

if "all the videos" you saw were the ones i linked to, the first one was an early level and the third one is one of the easiest in the game (linked to make a point about the uneven difficulty curve) here's a level where you can't just jump over everything:

[Yougiedeggs]

Oh wow, I played Otogi years ago. Got stuck on a brutally difficult level involving near invisible flying serpents.

On some levels, flying around like that doesn't do a whole lot of good, as spawners can hit you with a ton of small flying enemies.
Would play again if the disc wasn't lost to time.

Ever play the sequel C.A. Sinclair? IIRC, that one had more playable characters, and focused more on boss fights.

[Alevice]

ROUND 2

[Shackhal]

Playing Terraria for the first time since yesterday. Oh my god, i didn't sleep last night. It's a drug

[Tuba]

Playing L.A. Noire, much better than I was expecting. I'm liking the "episodic" structure of the game, each case feels like an episode of a tv series and there are some smaller cases (usually just a quick chase) that don't break the flow like a lot of side-quests in other games, they fit right in like those scenes in House where he diagnose a patient in a single scene while there's a bigger case going on.

The only part I don't like is the interrogation, the face capture is pretty impressive but hard to read, simply because reading someone expression in real life is hard! Also, the the facial animation is so good that it gets creepy because the rest of the animation doesn't follow it.

[saturdaymorning]

I suppose I was thinking about it too much like a video game which sort of ruins the point, but anyway, the interrogation segments are actually pretty straightforward. The trick is to accuse the person of lying. Sometimes the dialogue post accusation signals what evidence to use against them (or what clues you missed in the investigative segments). When it doesn't reveal anything, you're never penalized for backing out of an accusation, and you can just believe/doubt the person accordingly.

I was a few cases into Vice when I called it quits. You're right though, the episodic nature works really well for the game. In fact, one of the biggest complaints I have (the biggest being the formulaic structures of the cases) is the overarching plot line. It's completely unnecessary.

[SirNiko]

The only part I don't like is the interrogation, the face capture is pretty impressive but hard to read, simply because reading someone expression in real life is hard! Also, the the facial animation is so good that it gets creepy because the rest of the animation doesn't follow it.

The dilemma is that there are no "Rules" for this part of the game. It's just a guess at whether or not the developers intended for that to be a guilty face or an innocent face. It even subverts later on when you encounter witnesses who have guilty habits (twitches or dodging eyes) that are red herrings.

When you fail it's not because you made a mistake, it's because you didn't interpret the game the same way the devs expected you to.

I did like how the case moves on even when you flub it, since that gives you a little more replay value. It was a nice reward to replay a case and find it moves more smoothly when I successfully accomplish the interrogations.

I disliked that the cases had often ambiguous endings. In Phoenix Wright, you wring out every little detail and at the end of the case you have tied up every loose end. In LA Noire, often cases end abruptly without you ever learning the true story. This is especially frustrating for the cases with two possible suspects where neither has a solid alibi even when you play it perfectly.

Exploring the city is pretty fun, since there's so much detail. Hunting down the film reels shows off the city, though I can't imagine anyone doing that sidequest without heavy assistance from a guide.

[saturdaymorning]

The dilemma is that there are no "Rules" for this part of the game. It's just a guess at whether or not the developers intended for that to be a guilty face or an innocent face. It even subverts later on when you encounter witnesses who have guilty habits (twitches or dodging eyes) that are red herrings.

Accusing the person of lying often reveals more and sometimes necessary information in determining whether or not you can/should use evidence against them. Cole says it himself: "Sometimes you gotta shake the tree and see what falls out."

It's not really made clear, and I'm not even sure they had this trick in mind, but it really helps make sense of the interrogation sequences.

I disliked that the cases had often ambiguous endings. In Phoenix Wright, you wring out every little detail and at the end of the case you have tied up every loose end. In LA Noire, often cases end abruptly without you ever learning the true story. This is especially frustrating for the cases with two possible suspects where neither has a solid alibi even when you play it perfectly.

This is part of the "mature, un-video game" theme. Your constantly drunk homicide partner makes these points pretty clear. Sometimes you place charges on the wrong guy, and sometimes the real culprit is never found. Sometimes you're encouraged to place charges on the greater of two evils, even if the lesser one seems more likely to have committed the crime. (In one of the cases, it's the difference between a 3 or 5 star case rating).

[s0]

This is part of the "mature, un-video game" theme.

Thats what I didn't like about the game. It's pretty heavy handed and takes itself extremely seriously when the theme and plot don't really warrant it. Just a tiny bit of humor would have helped.

The gameplay itself is fine but Phoenix Wright is better and the open world stuff seems kinda superfluous (not to mention the boring shooting sections).

[SirNiko]

I figured out the part where you always lead by accusing them of lying. Sometimes you know you can't use evidence, but it's still a crapshoot as to whether or not you go with trust or bluff.

I'm playing GITAROO MAN which is a nice change of pace from playing long, slow adventure games. The music is all original and really great, and the ridiculous hero goes well with the lighthearted story of a boy learning to overcome his fear of adversity. Sucks that it crashes on the PS3, you gotta have a PS2 to get it to work.

The second level pretty much sets the scene for the rest of the game. It also is breaking my thumbs playing on Master Mode. I think I need a new PS2 controller.

[iffi]

Started playing N again. Now I only have 3 episodes left until I've beaten all 100 episodes. Considering that I first started around four years ago, it's about time.

[Tuba]

Played Gitaroo Man on my PSP some years ago, one of my favorite rhythm games, so good to see people doing something different on the rhythm game genre.

[BoxedLunch]

I can only beat stage 3 on master mode. I haven't played in a while, but i think i'm at the last level.

[Manuel Magalhães]

Gimmick! rocks my world.