WHAT PLAY YOU?

[WHERES LEROY]

I quite like it. I played it for the very first time in 2009, too, so I'm not dribbling a load of nostalgic twaddle, either. I don't think it's amazing, but I enjoyed playing it through, and it certainly doesn't deserve to be singled out over the likes of ESWAT, Alex Kidd, Ecco The Tedious Dolphin, the overrated Vectorman games and Super Thunder Blade.

 

I'd put it in the 'solid but unspectacular' Kid Chameleon category, myself.

Edited February 4, 2010 by CheapSheep

[Chest Rockwell]

You are way out of line!

 

Kid Chameleon is awesome.

 

And I've not given it much of a shot yet, but on initial impressions Decap Attack is considerably worse than Alex Kidd. I'll give you Ecco being a boring load of shit though. I always hated that game. (though maybe I might have more patience for it now that I've grown up..?)

[Just Me]

Add me to the Flicky Appreciation Club.

 

Dynamite Heddy absolutely embarrasses that game.

Headdy. It's my GameCentral Inbox name so get it right or else. And yes, that's where people write in a lot about Shenmue, not Shen Mue...

 

You know what else is utter dogshit? Sonic Spinball. Yeah.

It's a heartbreaking one, this. The game desperately wants to be good. It has flashes of brilliance, and I've tried to love it, but it just handles so badly. If Sonic Team had lent a hand in that one area, all the dots would have been joined for a classic game.

 

While checking my facts there (to make sure Sonic Team wasn't involved at all), I found out there's a Sonic Spinball rollercoaster opening at Alton Towers this month, with several Sonic-themed rooms at the hotel. Holy cow.

Edited February 4, 2010 by Just Me

[JLM]

Kid Chameleon is significantly better than Decap Attack in my view. Golden Axe 3 is worse than Decap Attack though.

 

I think we can all agree on Ecco the Dolphin being pretty boring though.

 

EDIT: Also yes, Sonic Spinball is completely hobbled by the way Sonic controls. Talk about falling at the first hurdle. He's floaty and weightless, unresponsive and doesn't feel remotely like Sonic or a pinball. Couldn't they have taken some cues from Casino Night Zone and gone from there? Oh, and Sonic's jump noise is wrong. You just can't change that.

Edited February 4, 2010 by JLM

[seph]

Add me to the Flicky Appreciation Club.

 

Dynamite Heddy absolutely embarrasses that game.

Headdy. It's my GameCentral Inbox name so get it right or else. And yes, that's where people write in a lot about Shenmue, not Shen Mue...

 

You know what else is utter dogshit? Sonic Spinball. Yeah.

It's a heartbreaking one, this. The game desperately wants to be good. It has flashes of brilliance, and I've tried to love it, but it just handles so badly. If Sonic Team had lent a hand in that one area, all the dots would have been joined for a classic game.

 

I can't even make it out of the first level, thanks to those stupid acid pits

 

For GTA 5, something I'd like to see attempted would be a natural disaster- changing the landscape halfway through the game would be a damn good test of the engine (if the switch actually occurs during play) and make new areas to explore, thus rewarding players that explore and punish those that don't by destroying hidden collectables forever.

[Miamivenis]

I think we can all agree on Ecco the Dolphin being pretty boring though.

I don't think we can - Ecco is great fun. Or at least it was great fun when I originally played it back in the day though now it's just fun. ish.

 

The only good thing about Decap Attack Starring Chuck D Head is the name. It was the first game out of the Megadrive collection I played based entirely on this.

 

Flicky is brilliant fun, even the bonus levels are great.

 

Altered Beast not so much and I'm really struggling to see why anyone would play through it.

 

Gain Ground and Alien Storm are not games I would recommend to anyone though I find ESwat strangely fun despite its limitations. Not tried Dynamite Headdy yet but will be giving it a whirl based on the love in here.

 

This post has been formatted in loving memory of DJ Stevie C. RIP.

[JLM]

If he had Chuck D's head as a bit of multi-layered punning then I'd give it more love.

 

Altered Beast is a BAD GAME. I know it has tonnes of nostalgic love and the speech samples are legendary and you feel like a bad ass when you transform and the admittedly fantastic music hits.

 

HOWEVER! That only feels good because the gameplay when you're a man is absolutely dire. Your attacks don't work properly, most enemies are more agile, more potent or more capable than your character and it's all plodding and clunky and rubbish. I know that's kind of the point, but it makes for a pretty crappy gameplaying experience. Also it has that hangover from being an arcade game whereby it's primarily designed to steal credits from you.

[Just Me]

Altered Beast not so much and I'm really struggling to see why anyone would play through it.

In hope of more soundbites, obviously.

[Chest Rockwell]

I don't fully understand what's going on in Gain Ground, but the music is really good.

 

 

Something that hasn't been mentioned about altered beast yet - the blue baseball bat coming off your arms and legs looks really fucking silly. I never got what that was about at all.

Edited February 4, 2010 by Chest Rockwell

[seph]

I don't fully understand what's going on in Gain Ground, but the music is really good.

 

 

Something that hasn't been mentioned about altered beast yet - the blue baseball bat coming off your arms and legs looks really fucking silly. I never got what that was about at all.

 

Isn't that supposed to be a tongue of flame?

 

Also,

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

 

Out of every shape the evil sage/wizard choses to be as the final boss of the game... he picks a rhino. With Kung-Fu. In Ancient Greece.

 

 

[close spoiler]

");document.close();

[Duke]

So...I've been playing Mass Effect 2 and I wanted to set aside a brief moment to talk about it. Mass Effect 1 is one of my favourite games of the past few years. It's a Bioware game, which always makes me swoon as I've yet to play a game of theirs that isn't at least very good, but it was also their first attempt at creating their own sci fi world for an rpg and more importantly, left their traditional rpg combat formula and decided to make the game a cover based shooter. What is so interesting, looking back, is how well that game was received and is held, because there's a lot of actual gameplay that's really bad. As there's no button to get into or out of cover, you can occasionally stick to it, your squad mates have a tendency to fire at enemies regardless of there being, say, a solid wall in the way and there are numerous graphical issues that dog it from the beginning. The touted "explore other planets" feature led to driving around barren landscapes with pretty much nothing on them, and to top it all off, you had to drive in the MAKO. It's difficult to find a game where driving is implemented quite so badly. No. Stop. I know there has recently been in increase in people claiming they miss the mako but those people are wrong. I played through the first game again recently to have a renegade character for the second and the mako is even worse than I remember. Absolutely terrible.

 

However, the story, the way the game is shot, the fully voiced aspect all let the player ignore these flaws in the gameplay because of the immersive and cinematic nature of the product. Chasing after the main antagonist, the actual moral choices (rather than just give money to a beggar or punch them) were absolutely fascinating, so the second was eagerly awaited. I am here to say that is was worth the wait, and it is absolutely fantastic.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are still some problems. The cover system still isn't perfectly implemented (although it is much, much better) and the complete revamp of upgrading won't be pleasant for some rpg hoarders, but it plays like a "how to make a sequel". Other developers take note, Bioware seemed to make a list of what was wrong the first game. Texture pop up: Sorted. The Mako: Gone. Clunky inventory: Gone. The decision to remove the inventory from the game is part of the streamlining effect, making everything smoother and makign the action that much more fluid. The fact that you don't have to level up guns anymore helps too, meaning that the gunning is not just a break between each carefully crafted story section but is a huge amount of tense fun in of itself. Instead of a health bar, you now have the FPStacular regen o health to go with your shield, but this works, it means you can take some risks, and on characters like say the Vanguard (who's new Sonic like charge attack where you transform into energy is AWESOME) it's the difference between fun and no fun because you don't want to die.

 

The story, in typical fashion, is top notch. Martin Sheen's Illusive man is a great bastard andSeth Green's Joker returns. The story is absolutely fantastic as ever, mixing the serious with the comic (seeing the Salarian doctor sing Gilbert and Sullivan is hilarious) and, unlike a lot of stories, peaks at the end in absolutely fantastic fashion. Without giving too much away, you spend a great deal of time creating this team, and as Bioware have made clear throughout the build up, the game has no problem killing or all of them (and you) off. And I mean this not just within gameplay where it makes you reload, I mean it is entirely possible for you to not be allowed to import your shepard into Mass Effect 3, because Shepard is dead. On my first play through, I lost 4 crew members, and one of them in particular caused me to slam my fist into the desk in frustration. I have never been so immersed into a final level of a game, cliff hanger endings leaving me with my hands over my mouth as I panicked. That has *never* happened to me before.

 

One flaw I will say is that it is simply nowhere near as good if you haven't played the first game. Various story aspects, plenty of quests and emails you receive are directly related to events in the first game, andf if you haven't played that through, you won't enjoy this as much. However, you can consider that your punishment for not playing the first game. Despite the flaws, it's really good. The second is even better, I can not wait for the third.

[FLips]

I didn't know the blue things in Altered Beast were two headed dogs till I was 18. I always thought they were blue pigs.

[Chest Rockwell]

They're dogs??

 

I thought they were bulls, and the brown ones were cows.

[JLM]

I didn't know the blue things in Altered Beast were two headed dogs till I was 18. I always thought they were blue pigs.

 

I had that exact revelation at about the same age. I still call the blue ones Power-Pigs.

[MRMIdAS]

It's near!

http://www.bombergames.net/sorr_project/