Random Gaming Talk Thread

[iconoclast]

Donpachi finally got counterstopped 20 years after its release.

[Stoney Mason]

[Mr. Nobody]

Years after the fact, I've applied a patch that fixes Final Fantasy Tactics PSP's slowdown 

I wrote that version off early after playing it a few times because I always had the original but this is great.

Now the only problem I have is with the weakened sound effects. They'll have to do but the downgrade pretty noticeable. The male death cry had so much more pain in the Playstation version. 

[toku]

He's not the first to say but yea, thats Destiny.

[archnemesis]

It didn't click with me at all. Have you played the PS3 Ratchet & Clank games? Those are pretty good.

[demi]

Ratchet games are soooo better than Jak. Theres a lot of much better Platformer choices on PS2 as well. Unless you want exclusive only games.

[brob]

Jak1 is a sold b-tier platformer in the style popularized on N64/PS1.

Jak is often put alongside Ratchet and Sly Cooper because they are ostensibly playstation mascot type games, but Jak1 has more in common with Vexx and Haven imo. Jak2&3 attempted to get away from the basic collect-a-thon platformer, which I found less compelling.

[demi]

Sly is a good choice as well. Have to play 2 and 3 on the HD collection yet

I have Jak collection on Vita that I'll never get around to as well

[brob]

The later Sly games fall into some of the same issues that Jak did in trying to build out the sequels. While Jak adopted teenage angst, Sly spent more effort on a cast of characters where everyone had a role to play in a heist. In gameplay terms this means more minigames and small scale set-pieces most of which aren't terribly fun and often end up feeling like filler just to give the other characters some shine.

The Ratchet games bypassed all this bullshit by just being a third person shooter slash platformer. Improving the shooting and adding or modifying guns, etc throughout the series.

[cool breeze]

yeah, Sly 1 is a largely straight forward platformer with the rare brief mini-game.  Sly 2's concept is interesting by having each team member work towards the big heist, but other characters aren't as fun to play as.  Sly 3 gets ridiculous about it, more mini-games and side characters.  Sly 4 (PS3/vita, not by sucker punch) is mostly back to Sly 2's balance.

[brob]

A lot of these games also have unskippable cut-scenes which definitively feels like they're egging on a murder-suicide spree if you try to play them nowadays. 

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Jak 1 is an ok successor the the ps1/n64 era of platformers, yeah. Nothing really special, but its a run romp.

Jak 2 is one of the worst games I've ever played. Like I have no idea what compelled Naughty Dog to end up with such a humongous turd, more so praising it as the future of platformers. Ruined Jak's "character", has a sprawling but entirely soulless GTA style city with nothing to do in it, has tons of escort missions with hard fail states... man I could go on. I fell into a funk where I didn't want to play any more games for a while after beating it cause of how bad it was.

With Sly Cooper, I really really didn't like Sly 2. In addition to the other characters not being fun to play as, the game lasts at least three times as long as it needs to and the "hub" worlds are immense to the point where navigating through them over and over to complete story stuff isnt fun at all, even less so when playing as Murray or Bentley who have like 1/4 of the traversal options Sly has. Like, at one point Sly and Murray get kidnapped and you're forced to play as slow-moving and awful jumping Bentley all across this huge hub city where getting from point A to point B is an exercise in frustration. Sly 1 was infinitely better, imo, with 3 having a better balance between the hub traversal and making the secondary characters more fun to play as. Four goes back to 2's style, but makes the hub worlds way smaller/easier to navigate and circumvents the "shitty party member" issue by making all of them Coopers from different times.

Ratchet games are one of the few PS2 trilogies that are great all the way through. I do have my complaints about them, but they're really nitpicking in the grand scheme of things. Really fun games.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

I think I liked the idea behind Sly 2 more than the excecution, which is why I liked 4 as much as I did. I was ready for the game to be over right after the Jailbreak chapter, but the game goes on for four more worlds after that, with the Canada level being my least favorite "episode" by far due to how annoying the area is to traverse, even for Sly, coupled with its annoying missions. Pointlessly long just for the sake of being a long game, way past the point where you've seen all the tricks the game can do.

I still wish the series went back the Sly 1 method of unlocking safes for new moves. Actually putting in the combinations felt a lot more thief-like than what the other games did.

[brob]

Jak 1 is an ok successor the the ps1/n64 era of platformers, yeah. Nothing really special, but its a run romp.

Jak 2 is one of the worst games I've ever played. Like I have no idea what compelled Naughty Dog to end up with such a humongous turd, more so praising it as the future of platformers. Ruined Jak's "character", has a sprawling but entirely soulless GTA style city with nothing to do in it, has tons of escort missions with hard fail states... man I could go on. I fell into a funk where I didn't want to play any more games for a while after beating it cause of how bad it was.

Perhaps they wanted to follow trends for the PS2 like they did on PS1 with the Crash games, but when they were making Jak1 it was too early to know? I have never gotten the sense that Naughty Dog ever attempted to brave new ground, they have always tried to one-up pre-existing types of games. In retrospect it's easy to say that GTA3 was a defining, template game like Super Mario 64 was during the preceding generation of consoles (in terms of the structure, mechanics, tone, etc) and that Naughty Dog were just doing their thing to the best of their ability, but idk.

I never bothered with Jak2 myself because I remember being real turned off by the demo, so idk tbh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Takao]

If it weren't for some garbage Sonic games, I'd definitely say Jak II is one of the worst I've ever played from a professional studio. The majority of the game feels like it's spent driving around a dreary city. Sometimes you forget the game has platforming sections. The driving isn't even fun because the controls aren't great and there's a gazillion things to crash into.

Reviewers must have been caught in the moment or something because I don't see how Jak II deserved this kind of reception.

[brob]

I love youtube so much

[toku]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/301251912304?lpid=82&chn=ps

[El Babua]

The entirety of the content of the open-world city of Jak 2 consisted of driving to the next mission marker hoping not to attract the cops (which happened anyway cause those vehicles were floaty and imprecise as fuck).

That said, the levels themselves were the best in the series and some of my favorite in any 3D platformer. Looking back on a technical level, I am more impressed with what ND managed to pull off on the PS2 compared to their next-gen titles.

[chronovore]

Jak 2 is one of the worst games I've ever played. Like I have no idea what compelled Naughty Dog to end up with such a humongous turd, more so praising it as the future of platformers. Ruined Jak's "character", has a sprawling but entirely soulless GTA style city with nothing to do in it, has tons of escort missions with hard fail states... man I could go on. I fell into a funk where I didn't want to play any more games for a while after beating it cause of how bad it was.

If it weren't for some garbage Sonic games, I'd definitely say Jak II is one of the worst I've ever played from a professional studio. The majority of the game feels like it's spent driving around a dreary city. Sometimes you forget the game has platforming sections. The driving isn't even fun because the controls aren't great and there's a gazillion things to crash into.

Reviewers must have been caught in the moment or something because I don't see how Jak II deserved this kind of reception.

The entirety of the content of the open-world city of Jak 2 consisted of driving to the next mission marker hoping not to attract the cops (which happened anyway cause those vehicles were floaty and imprecise as fuck).

That said, the levels themselves were the best in the series and some of my favorite in any 3D platformer. Looking back on a technical level, I am more impressed with what ND managed to pull off on the PS2 compared to their next-gen titles.

So much hatred for Jak 2 in this thread. I have never analyzed why I disliked it so much, and why I’ve never gone back to it. All I can remember is:

• driving isn’t fun
• outrunning cops isn’t fun
• falling to death and restarting isn’t fun

Years after the fact, I've applied a patch that fixes Final Fantasy Tactics PSP's slowdown 

I wrote that version off early after playing it a few times because I always had the original but this is great.

Now the only problem I have is with the weakened sound effects. They'll have to do but the downgrade pretty noticeable. The male death cry had so much more pain in the Playstation version. 

I have an idiotic question: How do you patch a PSP version of a game?

[Rufus]

CFW allows for that I believe, but you can also use an excellent emulator called PPSSPP.

[chronovore]

CFW allows for that I believe, but you can also use an excellent emulator called PPSSPP.

Oh.


My PSP is unmolested. Sho Nuff showed me his unlocked PSP during a visit, and I almost bit just for the overclocking feature, but alas.

[recursivelyenumerable]

wait, i thought people here liked jak 2??? i vaguely remember the consensus being "it's an awful concept but somehow manages to be good in spite of it!" i mean i bought it (for like $5 used lol) on my recollection of that!!

[Positive Touch]

CFW allows for that I believe, but you can also use an excellent emulator called PPSSPP.

Oh.


My PSP is unmolested. Sho Nuff showed me his unlocked PSP during a visit, and I almost bit just for the overclocking feature, but alas.

"hacking" your psp nowadays is as easy as downloading a file on your sd card and running it under the psp menu

[kick51]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cubivore-Survival-of-the-Fittest-Hentai-Manual-strategy-guide-book-GC-/271542359394?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f392f9562

duuuude....wait what

[brob]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cubivore-Survival-of-the-Fittest-Hentai-Manual-strategy-guide-book-GC-/271542359394?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f392f9562

duuuude....wait what

Product Details:

Associated Names :
Condition : USED. Very Good. No missing page
Total pages: 127 pages
ISBN-10: 4757708483
ISBN-13: 978-4757708488
Release Date: March 2002

Description:

This is a book that can be obtained only in Japan.
There are a lot of illustrations in this book.
Even if you can not read Japanese, you will be able to surely to enjoy it!!
This book is never sold in the foreign country.
If you love it don't miss it!

[demi]

Cubivore sells for almost $100 average now

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=cubivore+gamecube&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc

Randommly finding it at a GameStop one day

[kick51]

yeah i gotta get a copy.  I used to have one and enjoyed the game a lot. 

the real mindfuck is Gotcha Force.

I don't get how that happens.  Like, those games have always sort of been rare, but those prices are dumb.  does someone at nintendo age make a hype thread, then everyone starts jizzing over it, then suddenly demand spikes or something

[brob]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/475384/miyamoto-explains-nintendos-renewed-passion-for-the-core/

"[These are] the sort of people who, for example, might want to watch a movie. They might want to go to Disneyland," he said. "Their attitude is, 'okay, I am the customer. You are supposed to entertain me.' It's kind of a passive attitude they're taking, and to me it's kind of a pathetic thing. They do not know how interesting it is if you move one step further and try to challenge yourself [with more advanced games]."

 

[kick51]

yeah but i'm not 10 anymore, i'm a grown man with responsibilities like a job, kids, a wife, and insurance payments.  I have 3.5 minutes a day to play video games and The Order is perf--



oh heavens look at the time, listen japanese man, just make me a 3 hour game without any gameplay and pretty graphics so I can feel like I'm accomplishing something in the 3.5 minutes of game time I have a day because I'm a grown up, mature adult with a job, kids, a wife, and insurance payments. 

All you kids and losers need to realize what a time commitment it is to be a grown up, mature adult with a job, kids, a wife, and insurance payments, like me.  I took time out of my day to come to this video game forum to tell you that, which is very generous of me since I am worth $300 an hour.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

I don't think Miyamoto has much room to speak about challenging players when Nintendo just sha out a Kirby game with this in it.

[recursivelyenumerable]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/475384/miyamoto-explains-nintendos-renewed-passion-for-the-core/

"[These are] the sort of people who, for example, might want to watch a movie. They might want to go to Disneyland," he said. "Their attitude is, 'okay, I am the customer. You are supposed to entertain me.' It's kind of a passive attitude they're taking, and to me it's kind of a pathetic thing. They do not know how interesting it is if you move one step further and try to challenge yourself [with more advanced games]."

 

SOMEONE SOMEWHERE MIGHT WANT TO WATCH A MOVIE OR BE ENTERTAINED HOW PATHETIC

spoiler (click to show/hide)

i pretty much assume all quotes i see from Japanese developers are mistranslated and/or taken out of context, tho

[close]

[archie4208]

I don't think Miyamoto has much room to speak about challenging players when Nintendo just sha out a Kirby game with this in it.

(Image removed from quote.)

Nintendo games have been doing something similar for awhile.

Rainbow Curse is actually pretty hard to get 100% on. 

[Takao]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/475384/miyamoto-explains-nintendos-renewed-passion-for-the-core/

"[These are] the sort of people who, for example, might want to watch a movie. They might want to go to Disneyland," he said. "Their attitude is, 'okay, I am the customer. You are supposed to entertain me.' It's kind of a passive attitude they're taking, and to me it's kind of a pathetic thing. They do not know how interesting it is if you move one step further and try to challenge yourself [with more advanced games]."

 

miyamoto just mad his casuals stopped buying wiifit nintendogs and have moved to phones

[Bebpo]

On the Axiom Verge pricing at $20 for a NES style retro metroidvania (aka a genre that's been done to death):


I think when you have a small dev who says I'm going to price my game, that I made by myself over many years, higher than 99% of the games on the market and I promise you I will never drop the price 1 cent for the next 6 months so it's $20 or nothing...it just turns me off.  Maybe the game will be great, but it just feels Phil Fish style ego "I am better than my peers before I prove anything".  Really turns me off.

If the indie thing I'm in the early stages of working on ever comes out I'll price it at what the market prices indie stuff at, probably $10-15.  I'm sure it won't be amazing or anywhere near perfect and certainly won't be better than 90% of other games out there, but hopefully it'll be good and enjoyable and people will get people interested in buying the next game I do after.  I feel like, like movies, that your first project should really just be about proving yourself and if it's good it'll sell something from word of mouth.

[Positive Touch]

I'm gonna be real sad when we finally move on from metroidvanias. it took so long for it to catch on ;_;

[recursivelyenumerable]

Are there good indie metrovanias? Which ones are they?

[Rufus]

Off the top of my head I can only think of Guacamelee!. I'm gonna have a look-see on Steam.

OK, d'uh, there's a metroidvania tag, so this will be easy. I've played: Dust, which is OK, if you can get over the furry visuals. More of a brawler though. Cave Story is great, I figure you know it already. Capsized is OK, but it has floaty jet-pack based movement and some annoying physics object manipulations. Aquaria has you controlling some kind of mermaid and is set underwater, so movement and combat is not as tight either. You use mermaid magic for both combat and puzzle solving. Nice music and an extensive cooking system. And there's of course La-Mulana, which is balls hard, not just because it's filled with traps, but also because it's obscure as fuck.

[Bebpo]

http://vsrecommendedgames.wikia.com/wiki/Metroidvania

Has some, but is missing some for sure.  Like I heard Valadis Story is a real good one.


http://metroidvanias.com/

An entire blog devoted to keeping track of all of them.



It's probably the most common game genre by indie developers these days.  It's like if you're doing a 2d platformer then you might as well design it around a metroidvania style map progression.

[Bebpo]

Personal recommendations off the top of my head would be Cave Story, Guacamelee, Outland (light Metroidvania).  Those are all excellent.

[Positive Touch]

la mulana is the game of the gods

[Bebpo]

maybe if it controlled like Cave Story! 

 


I know a lot of people like it, but I'm just not a fan of stiff controls.  Don't think I'll ever get back to Mulana or finish it.

[demi]

Are there good indie metrovanias? Which ones are they?

I'm going to second Guacamelee. Really well done. I suppose its more combat heavy than most.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Thanks everyone!

[fistfulofmetal]

Axiom Verge is out at the end of the month

[kick51]

la mulana is amazing but not really metroidvania.  it's based on maze of gallious (pre-sotn and super metroid) and isn't really focused on leveling up and grinding as much as it is about actual, difficult puzzles and heavy exploration.   

[Positive Touch]

it's a non linear sidescroller; close enuff

[Rufus]

I didn't know leveling and grinding were pre-requisites.

[Beezy]

[kick51]

it's a non linear sidescroller; close enuff

I'd say it's different enough that the average "recommend me a metroidvania" guy who breezed through Guacamelee, SM, and SOTN would need a hefty warning. 

[Bebpo]

la mulana is amazing but not really metroidvania.  it's based on maze of gallious (pre-sotn and super metroid) and isn't really focused on leveling up and grinding as much as it is about actual, difficult puzzles and heavy exploration.

I didn't know leveling and grinding were pre-requisites.

Yeah, I've never thought of Metroidvania as leveling or grinding.  To me it means a single connected world filled with areas and secrets you can't access until you acquire power-ups.  You advance through the game structure gaining one new ability after the other which unlocks new areas in the connected map and secrets in previous areas.  Even Arkham Asylum feels Metroidvania-ish to me in its progression.

[recursivelyenumerable]

I haven't played any of the Metroidvania Castlevanias but Metroid to me is about exploring and experiencing some strange world in a visceral way that makes you feel a bit disoriented and draws you in a bit more than just a linear progression of levels or RPG style exploration would. and becoming a bit strange yourself. So the controls, powerups and connected world help to achieve this by increasing your connection to the world.

[Positive Touch]

that's why I like la mulana. it's literally about exploring giant ruins, and the whole game is filled with cryptic clues that you have to decipher. it's a pain in the ass like an 80s game, but it's never nonsensical like a lot of old games are.

[kick51]

everyone stop bullying me  :'(

[Rufus]

Aw, there there.

[bork]

The very worst of the fighting game community, ladies and gentlemen!

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Smash bros players 

[Joe Molotov]

Smash bros players 

Wherever you are, you're a bitch.

[archie4208]

http://www.kxbm.net/article/?10360/all-clear-given-for-black-mesa-evacuation-zone

This is some brilliant ARG by Valve, right?

It's happening, right?

RIGHT?

[kick51]

http://www.kxbm.net/article/?10360/all-clear-given-for-black-mesa-evacuation-zone

This is some brilliant ARG by Valve, right?

It's happening, right?

RIGHT?

it was originally tweeted by a guy working on Black Mesa

[ferrarimanf355]

Anyone still playing NBA 2K14? I need to get the online league achievement before the servers shut down.