What are you playing?

[fistfulofmetal]

Played some Darksiders, played some Bayonetta.

Darksiders > Bayonetta

i'm about 6 hours into both.
and I would agree.

Darksiders is more solid as an overall package. Bayo seems to just have a pretty good combat engine and enemy encounters. the rest of the game is kind of non-existent. Darksiders has better puzzles, pretty good boss battles, a better game structure holding it all together and better overall world and enemy design.



cry more tears himu

[chronovore]

Catch-22 is just page after page of text, ad nauseum

Play one of the Elder Scrolls games, and Catch-22 will seem like less text.

[Stoney Mason]

Played some Darksiders, played some Bayonetta.

Darksiders > Bayonetta

Aren't they completely different kind of games though? I hear Darksiders is Zelda and Bayonetta is New DMC. I mean personally I favor a Zelda style game over almost any action beat'em-up because that's my general taste but I haven't played Darksiders.

[chronovore]

just got 5.92 billion in Deathsmiles IIX mode. the achievement is for 6 billion. fffffffuuuuuuuuuu

No More Heroes 360 is bullshit too. Sometimes I can play for 40 minutes straight without any freezing or disc read errors, other times it's almost impossible to start the game. Almost done with the rank 9 boss anyway. If I do play this game to the end, I'll probably have beaten it 6 times by the time I've finished between all the freezing and replaying missions over and over.

Also the graphics in Wrestle Kingdom are way better than I was expecting. Not a bad game either - it's very AKI'ish.

There were some AKI guys on WK1 and 2, as well as the WWF/WWE Day of Reckoning series.

[Himu]

Played some Darksiders, played some Bayonetta.

Darksiders > Bayonetta

i'm about 6 hours into both.
and I would agree.

Darksiders is more solid as an overall package. Bayo seems to just have a pretty good combat engine and enemy encounters. the rest of the game is kind of non-existent. Darksiders has better puzzles, pretty good boss battles, a better game structure holding it all together and better overall world and enemy design.



cry more tears himu

it's an action game. 

[Great Rumbler]

Played some Darksiders, played some Bayonetta.

Darksiders > Bayonetta

hahahahaha 

Sorry, but it's true. Bayonetta's all style and no substance.

Played some Darksiders, played some Bayonetta.

Darksiders > Bayonetta

Aren't they completely different kind of games though? I hear Darksiders is Zelda and Bayonetta is New DMC. I mean personally I favor a Zelda style game over almost any action beat'em-up because that's my general taste but I haven't played Darksiders.

Yeah, they're different, but there's also a lot of similarities. Bayonetta is pretty much all action, just one enemy encounter after another for combos and more combos. Darksiders has combo-based combat as well, but it also adds in a lot of adventure elements [finding/buying power-ups, puzzles, exploring environments].

Bayonetta's got better action, but Darksiders is a better overall game.

[Himu]

[Great Rumbler]

I'd make a longer reply, but I need to get back to Darksiders and play some more awesome.

[iconoclast]

The whole point of action games is mastering the combat and scoring systems... Darksiders' strength is its Zelda-like dungeons. They're completely different genres.

It's like saying Naruto is better than Street Fighter because it has an adventure mode or something. I can't even think of an apt comparison for this.

[Positive Touch]

bayonetta has a complex battle system that requires gueniune skill as you progress.  it focuses on that because its an action game and all that other shit would only weigh it down.  havent played darksiders but the vids make it look like gow combat + items + gow-style exploration and puzzles.  in other words, a simple battle system that compensates with a lot of variety, "exploration" that involves interacting with shit like grappling hooks and rope that demands no real skill, and action game puzzles that require only a few seconds of thought to figure out.  

[fistfulofmetal]

The whole point of action games is mastering the combat and scoring systems... Darksiders' strength is its Zelda-like dungeons. They're completely different genres.

but they are still both games. and games and be compared to each other. and darksiders is more enjoyable as a game.

[Positive Touch]

sorry, but your opinion is wrong

[Great Rumbler]

The whole point of action games is mastering the combat and scoring systems... Darksiders' strength is its Zelda-like dungeons. They're completely different genres.

It's like saying Naruto is better than Street Fighter because it has an adventure mode or something. I can't even think of an apt comparison for this.

They're both games. I said I like one game more than another. But apparently that's WRONG because the two games AREN'T THE SAME ENOUGH. 

Darksiders > Bayonetta

Shower me in your tears. 

[iconoclast]

Sure, you can compare games and favor one over the other. Bayonetta excels at what it does, but it's not really comparable to what Darksiders is. It's just the preference of dungeons+puzzles over combat.

I think Ketsui is 50x better than Mario Galaxy but that comparison doesn't really mean much!

[Great Rumbler]

It's not like I'm trying to compare apples and cars here. 

[cool breeze]

haha, Darksiders was the game that made me hold off on playing Bayonetta (got them the same day).  Not because I wanted to play Darksiders more, but because I decided to play it first and the action combat was so dull that the thought of playing an actual action game after it was sickening.  Overall it was a great game, but the combat was tiring. 

[Great Rumbler]

I don't disagree with you there, but my position remains.

[Himu]

"This action game needs something more than action."

[fistfulofmetal]

the action/combat in bayonetta isn't as good as in other character action games this gen that i've played.

namely DMC4.

real talk

[Himu]

what is so great about dmc4? dmc4 is mash mash mash mash, enemy stands around, mash mash mash. It bored the crap out of me and I'm a huge DMC fan.

[fistfulofmetal]

DMC4 is not great. it's a mostly mediocre game. but the combat mechanics in the game are the best that series has ever seen. Nero's devil arm adds so much to the system plus the revving system is fantastic. playing him against enemies is the most fun i've had in this genre so far. that's not even mentioning Dante in the game who has everything and the kitchen sink from the start. and there are plenty of enemies in the game that do more than stand there. the base level enemies in Bayonetta mostly just stand there as well.

[Great Rumbler]

"This action game needs something more than action."

"This action games that's all style and not much substance isn't as good as this action game which has only a bit of style and lots of substance"

[Positive Touch]

bayonetta all style and not much substance

bayonetta suffers from the same problem as every other game with a deep combat system: you're forced to play on easy difficulties that don't require you to do much more than mash out simple combos.  the real fun comes when you get to the harder modes where enemies are all over you.

Nero's devil arm adds so much to the system plus the revving system is fantastic. playing him against enemies is the most fun i've had in this genre so far. that's not even mentioning Dante in the game who has everything and the kitchen sink from the start. and there are plenty of enemies in the game that do more than stand there.

nero's arm is great but i got tired of playing as him because he has a very limited moveset.  dmc3&4 dante has multiple weapons and styles to give him way more variety, and bayonetta plays very similar to him.  i find it way more rewarding to pair up various weapons in bayo and learn the new combos, then switch to something else when i get bored.  there's enough weapons to make sure i never have to repeat the same combos, so the gameplay always seems fresh.

[cool breeze]

I don't disagree with you there, but my position remains.

well I thought Bayonetta was better and apparently I haven't even played Bayonetta in the way that makes it even better yet (harder difficulties or something...I forget).  Darksiders was good for the Zelda/Soul Reaver stuff it did and the biggest weakness was the combat.  I wish they didn't bother just making it a poor man's devil may cry and stuck to the same old Zelda pattern combat.  At least it's quick and done and you're onto better parts.

[Great Rumbler]

The combat in Darksiders is okay, it's a lot deeper than any Zelda game and it's got enough variety [and upgradeable components] to keep it from really feeling like a chore. If individual battle dragged on for a long time, I'd probably think differently about it, but they move a long at a brisk pace so that the fodder enemies never feel like a chore to dispatch. That's how the first few hours feel anyway.

Bayonetta just feels like 1. watch a long cutscene about something that doesn't make any sense, then 2. mash some buttons for a while as hordes of enemies throw themselves at you in rapid succession. It's not a BAD game by any means and I do enjoy it [both the cutscenes, for their sheer absurdity, and the frenetic nature of the combat], but I don't find it as fun or as interesting as what Darksiders brings to the table.

[iconoclast]

bayonetta all style and not much substance

Wait, I thought he meant Darksiders is the all style and no substance game. Because that's the only way it'd make sense.

[Himu]

that makes sense.

action games that have hard mode locked from the outset need to die.

[Great Rumbler]

bayonetta all style and not much substance

Wait, I thought he meant Darksiders is the all style and no substance game. Because that's the only way it'd make sense.

-Flashy/goofy cutscenes all over the place
-Mashing attack buttons everywhere else

Sounds like Bayonetta to me.

[Himu]

mashing makes no sense given that at its core, bayonetta combines defense with offense. that means it's kinda your fault you're mashing and not the game's, unless you're playing on easy that is.

I dare you to mash and attempt to get a perfect platinum on each fight on the first chapter in normal.

[Great Rumbler]

Sounds like too much work. I'll go grind so more souls in Darksiders instead.

[Beezy]

you guys suck

[Great Rumbler]

I'm just telling it like it is. 

[Groogrux]

I'm playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 right now because I own a Wii and no other console and my PC is shit for gaming.

FWIW, I really like this one better than the first though.

[iconoclast]

started playing Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. pretty good so far (just an hour or so in), but it seems like a pretty generic PoP game. at least there are no light seeds to collect this time. that automatically makes it better than PoP 2008.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I'm probably gonna boot it up and beat it now.  I like it a good deal, but it's really just Sands of Time with an HD facelift and without the imagination and charm of SoT.  It's pretty short and there aren't many locations or combat moves.  Seems like a bit of toned down effort since it was a movie spinoff.  But the platforming is good (for being auto) and the graphics are nice and the writing/acting is nice.

[Bebpo]

Finished it.  You'll like the last 30-40 mins of it I think.  Some real good platforming in there.

I like that the game is almost a pure speedrun game.  You can very nearly play the entire thing from start to finish while constantly running and just platform as you go like doing a Mirror's Edge speed run.  The only stops are the occasional enemy group that you fight for 20 seconds and then get back to running.  The game has a great pace outside the early areas that go on for too long I thought.  It's too bad you can tell the game had very little budget, a game with the gameplay of this but a bigger scope that took you across a ton of varied locations would've been awesome.  The scope is really small for the game and the whole thing just takes place in a palace pretty much.

Still a good game though.  Out of the 3d Prince of Persias I've only played Sands of Time, 2008, and Forgotten Sands but I've enjoyed them all.  Gotta play Warrior Within next!

[Stoney Mason]

I was bored so I bought and played a bit of hydrophobia on XBLA yesterday


yeah....I'm gonna say that was probably a mistake. I respect any dev who works to improve their product so the pure title update is a good thing but its still a really rough game that fits into an uncomfortable middle ground. Its not as polished and developed as a full retail product which it sort of superficially resembles and its not as fun or engaging on the gameplay side as a really good XBLA title generally is. 

If it was 400 points maybe its an acceptable way to spend some time but at 800 (and originally 1200) its a bit of a waste.

[Herr Mafflard]

That's a shame. I really hoped the title update would bring the game up another level.

[Stoney Mason]

That's a shame. I really hoped the title update would bring the game up another level.

It's not offensive to play. I mean its certainly not very good but its also not the worst thing I've ever played. I'll probably beat it. But there are better ways to spend your time than playing this.

[Herr Mafflard]

Yeah i think i'll check it out if it ever gets a sale. Still interested in it.

[cool breeze]

Finished it.  You'll like the last 30-40 mins of it I think.  Some real good platforming in there.

I like that the game is almost a pure speedrun game.  You can very nearly play the entire thing from start to finish while constantly running and just platform as you go like doing a Mirror's Edge speed run.  The only stops are the occasional enemy group that you fight for 20 seconds and then get back to running.  The game has a great pace outside the early areas that go on for too long I thought.  It's too bad you can tell the game had very little budget, a game with the gameplay of this but a bigger scope that took you across a ton of varied locations would've been awesome.  The scope is really small for the game and the whole thing just takes place in a palace pretty much.

Still a good game though.  Out of the 3d Prince of Persias I've only played Sands of Time, 2008, and Forgotten Sands but I've enjoyed them all.  Gotta play Warrior Within next!

Forgotten Sands was alright.  Solid game that felt too clinical, but solid nonetheless.  Sands of Time is my favorite, then The Two Thrones, then Forgotten Sands, then Warrior Within; not really large gaps between them since I enjoyed all the games.  The Two Thrones always gets written off along with Warrior Within and it always confused me.  I can get if people hated the direction they went with the story in Warrior Within, though, that wasn't really my problem with the game and I thought it was mostly fine.  But The Two Thrones was a middle ground between the first and second game.  The game did a lot of smart things for the series that were outright forgotten for the 2008 game and Forgotten Sands.  Like, the worst part of a modern Prince of Persia game is the combat, right? the way they got around that in The Two Thrones was by introducing light stealth and surprise kills.  The stealth wasn't all sneaking around, it was doing additional platforming to get a better vantage point; if you liked the combat, you could just jump in and fight the enemies, and if you didn't, you could avoid a good bit of it.  They should have expanded on that and made the sequels entirely about platforming and stealth.

[Bebpo]

Actually I'd say the biggest problem with the modern games are that they play themselves like most new-age Ubisoft games 

The combat was definitely not a problem in 2008 at all since you fought like 10 enemies the entire game for about 20 mins total of the 12 hours.  2008's problem was the level design being repetitive for so long and lack of any combat at all didn't help the variety.

[cool breeze]

yes, but I didn't include PoP 2008 in my post because I didn't enjoy it 

Forgotten Sands focused more on reaction platforming rather exploring and treating the environment like a puzzle.  It felt like a mix between the three from last gen and the 2008 game, right down to input window you had (larger than the PS2 games, smaller than 2008 one).  I don't think it was too automatic, at least, but it's certainly not as strict as the modern Tomb Raider games.

[demi]

Finished Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. Definitely a sleeper surprise... yall should get on this.

[iconoclast]

I've had majin, splatterhouse, star wars TFU2, and fist of the north star in my gamefly queue since before they came out. Still waiting. It's a great service if you want to rent ancient games that are worth $10 or less though.

[Beezy]

Finished Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. Definitely a sleeper surprise... yall should get on this.

I'm gonna believe you on this one. I thought the demo was really good despite everyone shitting on it and saying how ugly it was. I knew it was gonna be a sleeper after seeing the price drop before launch. Losers.

[demi]

I aint gonna say sleeper hit... but a sleeper surprise for sure. lol

Easy 1k too... little grind at the end, but not too bad.

[Himu]

Didn't realize that was out.

[Great Rumbler]

Final Fantasy XIII

Only an hour in, but it's already very apparent what the problems are:

-Too many character and most of them are awful
-The game has absolutely no idea what emotion should be on display from one minute to the next
-"Here's a tunnel, now run through it! Here's another tunnel that looks the same, now run through it!"
-Painfully one-dimensional combat [which I'm really hoping changes soon]
-The game is constantly pushing you forward but isn't exciting enough to work with that kind of pacing

[Trent Dole]

Final Fantasy XIII

Only an hour in, but it's already very apparent what the problems are:

-Too many character and most of them are awful
-The game has absolutely no idea what emotion should be on display from one minute to the next
-"Here's a tunnel, now run through it! Here's another tunnel that looks the same, now run through it!"
-Painfully one-dimensional combat [which I'm really hoping changes soon]
-The game is constantly pushing you forward but isn't exciting enough to work with that kind of pacing

Do yourself a favor and stop playing now. It never gets better. NEVER.

[Positive Touch]

yeah there is absolutely no variation whatsoever.  just walk strait ahead and fight braindead battles for thirty hours. wheeee

[Himu]

FF13's pacing and variety

[Great Rumbler]

yeah there is absolutely no variation whatsoever.  just walk strait ahead and fight braindead battles for thirty hours. wheeee

Fun!

[Stoney Mason]

yeah there is absolutely no variation whatsoever.  just walk strait ahead and fight braindead battles for thirty hours. wheeee

Fun!

While I do think it gets slightly better as you go on, especially story wise, it never really gets awesome like you hope or really expect it to be. And when I saw what was supposed to be the awesome part, was a lot of grinding, I was out.

I kinda wished I hadn't wasted the 30 hours I put into. I'm gonna regret that on my death bed.

But this is what I was kinda talking about in that other thread. Playing this game you really get the sense they have lost the plot. They don't really know exactly what game they should be making anymore. So what they are doing feels not consistent and weird.

[iconoclast]

Just 200'd Limbo. Think I died exactly 5 times while going for the achievement, with one death right on the last gravity/saw blade section. Was kinda thinking I wouldn't get the achievement, but alas.

Good game, would buy Limbo 2. Back to Prince of Persia/Demon's Souls.

[Bebpo]

Tried replaying Sands of Time but there are so many problems getting it working as it should on modern PCs  :'(  Looks like the only way I'll be able to play it is with the fog/bloom turned off and that is kind of the main visual strength of the game :\  Going to see if WW or TTT run any better.  After Forgotten Sands I'm in the mood for some more 3d PoP, but Ubisoft takes awful care of their franchises.  The PS3 HD remakes are supposedly shit with no fog/bloom, wonky framerate and tons of bugs/freezing.  The original set isn't Xbox 360 BC for the Xbox versions (SoT might be, but the other two definitely are not).  I wonder if the best way to experience the old trilogy at this point is to play it on Wii using BC for the GC versions.  Then again I have no idea how the GC versions were.  I just know the Xbox/PC versions were the nice looking ones with all the effects.

[cool breeze]

The Two Thrones works fine in Windows 7 and there was a widescreen fix I used when I replayed it last year.  If I find it, I'll edit it in this post.  edit: nvm, apparently the issue I had was that I was running it on a 16:10 monitor and it is supposed to be fine on a 16:9 one.


Finished up Donkey Kong Country Returns

Good game with big problems, but going off of Rare DKC games (which sucked) it was a treat.  The difficulty balance was terrible since most of the game was pretty easy until you hit one of frustrating level with one hit deaths and few checkpoints.  It becomes about memorizing the levels or inaccuracies with the controls*.  The worst had to be the rocket levels; it was almost comical with how often they'd put you in a stupid rocket with crap controls and one hit deaths.  It is the bad kind of difficult and it makes me realize how much team meat got it with super meat boy.  But DKCR a great first effort and I'd like to see Retro build on it.

*this game has some of the worst waggle I've played in a wii game.  In the platforming sections, failure to register the waggle was the cause of death 9/10 times.  Btw, this is coming from someone who liked the waggle spin from New Super Mario Bros. 

[Positive Touch]

Tried replaying Sands of Time but there are so many problems getting it working as it should on modern PCs  :'(  Looks like the only way I'll be able to play it is with the fog/bloom turned off and that is kind of the main visual strength of the game :\  Going to see if WW or TTT run any better.  After Forgotten Sands I'm in the mood for some more 3d PoP, but Ubisoft takes awful care of their franchises.  The PS3 HD remakes are supposedly shit with no fog/bloom, wonky framerate and tons of bugs/freezing.  The original set isn't Xbox 360 BC for the Xbox versions (SoT might be, but the other two definitely are not).  I wonder if the best way to experience the old trilogy at this point is to play it on Wii using BC for the GC versions.  Then again I have no idea how the GC versions were.  I just know the Xbox/PC versions were the nice looking ones with all the effects.

i played sot on the cube.  it was fine except the audio sounded muffled i think.  iirc the other versions didnt have this problem

[Bebpo]

Actually the audio is low/muffled on the PC version and PS3 HD remake versions and PS2 versions as well.  I'm starting to wonder if the game was a technical disaster when it was made ^^;

I just tried Warrior Within and it runs pretty much perfect on PC.  Played about 30 mins and the dialogue and music are pretty hilarious    Going to try Two Thrones now.

[Bebpo]

Wow, Two Thrones is like a modern PC game.  Native 1080p widescreen support, AA options, native X360 controller support.  Looks and controls perfect. 

I was planning on starting my adventure through the Sands of Time Trilogy by replaying SoT since it's been forever and I barely remember it, but considering it's a mess of a port and I've already beaten it in the past maybe I'll just start with WW and then do TTT.