E3 2008 - Discuss!

[Arrqh]

Are you going to tell me that playing an NES game on an emulator and abusing quick state saves doesn't break the game?

I would happily tell you that, as it doesn't break games. Would you like me to?

I don't think the choice to forgo developing skill is all that wonderful. There's winning and losing, and without losing winning means nothing! And with Vita-Chambers the game doesn't enforce any sort of penalty for failing. The fact that you felt compelled to institute your own less retarded penalty system to me just confirms that the Vita-Chamber system was broken to begin with!

The choice to forgo developing skill?

And no, it does not confirm that the system was broken. It shows that the game was flexible enough to allow me to play it the way I preferred to play it, which happened to be different for each of the playthroughs. How can that possibly be a bad thing? Meanwhile, I could not play Dead Rising the way I wanted to. And somehow that's a good thing?

 

[rType]

Flower is looking very sharp, very peaceful. Oddly enough I think there are more PSN titles that I own or am looking forward to than Blu-Ray releases, PixelJunk Eden and Wipeout HD being two such PSN titles arriving shortly. LittleBigPlanet is still the biggest thing on my PS3 calender, though.

Nintendo. No F-Zero, Pilotwings, Pikmin, Starfox, or new IP that I can bring myself to care about. The future looks bleak.

Mirror's Edge is still looking sharp on the PC front, Starcraft II and Spore being my most anticipated games there.

 

[rType]

The Vita chambers in Bioshock hurt the atmosphere. When there's no penalty for death there's no reason to avoid it, all the subtle cues that build up a sense of dread and encourage a slow, deliberate pace become merely window dressing for one to admire on an abstract level, rather than an integral part of the experience. Maintaining that atmosphere once one becomes aware of how the Vita chambers function requires a conscious act of will.

(Would merge this post with the above if I could figure out how to delete this one.)

 

[Arrqh]

I certainly won't argue with that, though as firehawk said you can simply turn them off in the menu now. No conscious effort required.

And I think the point still stands that in Dead Rising, you are conceivably going to be wandering around the mall looking for a bathroom while Otis keeps calling you when all you want to do is turn the 360 off and resume later... and because the game is time sensitive, wasting time looking for a save point is going to affect your gameplay experience in the negative.

 

[TheBrew]

I certainly won't argue with that, though as firehawk said you can simply turn them off in the menu now. No conscious effort required.

And I think the point still stands that in Dead Rising, you are conceivably going to be wandering around the mall looking for a bathroom while Otis keeps calling you when all you want to do is turn the 360 off and resume later... and because the game is time sensitive, wasting time looking for a save point is going to affect your gameplay experience in the negative.

See, I liked that about DR. It pretty much made the object of the game to play perfectly. And since the main story is only 6 hours long, it's not that big of a deal to start over again.

 

[Aragorn]

FYI, PS3 owners, buy one game get one half-off at Toys R Us next week. Also good for PSP and PS2.

 

[Jim Steele]

People need to quit bashing Dead Rising.

No, I'll express any view I wish to. Thanks all the same.

I do think it's kind of pointless to port it to Wii though. I just don't think the system can generate enough zombies to do it right!

Agreed.

I also hated how the gun aiming was put on the left stick, and couldn't be inverted. Basically made firearms fucking useless to me.

It's kind of pointless to complain about the lack of inverted controls.

Notice the words "to me". I think it's kind of pointless to act all butthurt when someone doesn't enjoy a game that you like, but hey. Different strokes and all that.

It's not that hard, at this point you're just being stubborn.

Yeah, I'm going out of my way to hate a game that cost me £15.

Get a grip man, seriously.

I guess it's just too rare these days for a game to demand a level of skill to succeed at it.

Ah right, complaints about the save system and game design must just be because I'm shit at the game, right? Great line of reasoning.

Either way, I don't feel the need to defend my gaming prowess, so your troll failed.

I don't know, I played through it the first time realizing my character was pretty weak and I wasn't so great at the game, so I focused on the main quests saving the few people I could on the way. Then for subsequent playthroughs with a stronger character and a better grasp of how to succeed at the game I went for various achievements. After a few playthroughs I had gotten 1000/1000 achievement points and had fun the entire way.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Perhaps I'll return to it some day, but frankly before the shitty save system (maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough for save points) irritated me, I was already finding the game tedious.

To me, the way they designed the game gave pure value.

My mileage obviously varied.

I would take the Dead Rising system over say something like the Bioshock Vita-Chambers any day.

I'd take a system that doesn't suck over both of them (don't get me started on Bioshock - I can't stand that piece of shit).

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I certainly won't argue with that, though as firehawk said you can simply turn them off in the menu now. No conscious effort required.

And I think the point still stands that in Dead Rising, you are conceivably going to be wandering around the mall looking for a bathroom while Otis keeps calling you when all you want to do is turn the 360 off and resume later... and because the game is time sensitive, wasting time looking for a save point is going to affect your gameplay experience in the negative.

See, I liked that about DR. It pretty much made the object of the game to play perfectly. And since the main story is only 6 hours long, it's not that big of a deal to start over again.

I, on the other hand, found it to be the worst aspect of the game, and I switched it off and haven't been back on ioften since. I'm all for a challenge, but the fact you have enemies who can be next to impossible to kill, unless you're in the right spot, but they can still attack you, and when you die you go back 15 minutes to your last save, is just mental.
You end up playing the same part 5 times before you figure out what you're supposed to do, then by that time you're sick of it.

 

[Jim Steele]

You end up playing the same part 5 times before you figure out what you're supposed to do, then by that time you're sick of it.

That is reason numero uno for it currently collecting dust on my shelf. I can't stand repetition.

Also, I firmly believe that in this generation there's no excuse for not being able to save anywhere. It even pisses me off in GTA4, and that game is an absolute cakewalk.

 

[Hermiod]

The best game for this that I've seen is Oblivion. You can save anywhere you choose.

In addition, the game allows you to adjust the difficulty as much as you like on the fly. If you want to just experience the story and don't want a challenge, push all those sliders down to nothing. If you want a game that will make a Team Ninja game look like Wii Sports, push them all to the highest setting.

That way, everyone gets to play a game that is exactly as hard as they want it to be.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

You end up playing the same part 5 times before you figure out what you're supposed to do, then by that time you're sick of it.

That is reason numero uno for it currently collecting dust on my shelf. I can't stand repetition.

Also, I firmly believe that in this generation there's no excuse for not being able to save anywhere. It even pisses me off in GTA4, and that game is an absolute cakewalk.

Yeah, consoles with a space ranging from a 256mb memory card to a 120gb hard drive, do not need limited save space, or save points. It's annoying enough when you get engrossed in the game so much you forget to save it, and have to play through again because of your own mistake, without the game telling you you can't save.

 

[Jim Steele]

The best game for this that I've seen is Oblivion. You can save anywhere you choose.

In addition, the game allows you to adjust the difficulty as much as you like on the fly. If you want to just experience the story and don't want a challenge, push all those sliders down to nothing. If you want a game that will make a Team Ninja game look like Wii Sports, push them all to the highest setting.

That way, everyone gets to play a game that is exactly as hard as they want it to be.

Oh yeah, absolutely agreed. Oblivion's save system is fantastic. I have more than a few quicksaves mid-sword swing, in the middle of 4 bandit fisticuffs, and it just picks up from the exact frame you left it. Pure bliss.

And there's none of this "can't save on a mission" nonsense. Well, that just wouldn't work considering that you usually have upwards of ten quests open at any one time.

 

[dragunzng]

Well, y'know, Oblivion IS the greatest next gen game ever. Until LittleBigPlanet at least.

 

[Jim Steele]

Well, y'know, Oblivion IS the greatest next gen game ever. Until LittleBigPlanet at least.

I'm not blind to its flaws, but yeah, I'd genuinely go with that. It's an experience like no other. The closest thing to it is Morrowind, which was arguably a better RPG but i'll take Oblivion's vast gameplay improvements over a few missing stats. Or pauldrons.

 

[dragunzng]

Yeah, the game's definitely got tons of flaws, but I've learned to either live with them or love them. I do believe Morrowind is the better RPG (never finished it though), I'm not really a fan of RPG's in general though, so Oblivion's streamlining suited me just fine.

 

[bigdaddy]

My final thoughts on E3...

*In Mortal Kombat voice...*

FAILURE!

 

[Jim Steele]

It has been pretty underwhelming this year. Still, Microsoft owned it.

 

[Arrqh]

Honestly, EA's presentation was better then all 3 of the console makers. And that's just frightening.

 

[dark angel_707]

Nintendo. No F-Zero, Pilotwings, Pikmin, Starfox, or new IP that I can bring myself to care about. The future looks bleak.

new Pikmin being made

And just when the audience thought that was it, Miyamoto added, "We're making Pikmin."
He didn't reveal when it'll be out, unamazingly.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=188888

 

[firehawk12]

KoTOR MMO by BioWare. Ugh.