The Gamer's Quarter

[helicopterp]

I picked up Beyond Good and Evil today. I have put in about 6 very deliberate hours so far, and I am fascinated by photographing all the planet's species. My favorite so far was a huge whale I just happened to notice leaping out from the water across a barrier as I was cruising around in my hovercraft. My breath quickened in astonishment. I whipped out my camera just in time to get a passable shot of it as it dove back in. It was very satisfying, and the scientific society lady rewarded me very handsomely.

And I'm sure the local hybrid species are getting sick of me snapping a few shots every time I see them. But can they blame me? I'm not the one who's a fucking Walrus sapiens.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[Lackey]

It helps that the creature designs in BG&E are all pretty neat. Flying manta rays are beautiful creatures.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[dark steve]

Yeah, the photography aspect is a blast. It's too bad a lot of the rest of the game isn't up to the same level.

[OtakupunkX]

I have to say, in the brief time I spent with BG&E, the photography was my favorite part of the game. I spent so much time taking pictures of stuff that I pretty much ignored the rest of the game.

[Harveyjames]

Yeah. It's nice that they improved on at least one of the ideas they took from Zelda, anyway.

Remember how people were disappointed how the level design of Super Mario Sunshine was full of invisible barriers? The very first thing I did in BGAE was to bump into an invisble barrier, like 0.05 seconds into the game. The last thing I did was switch the console off when I realised the game had a bug which made it incompletable. Oh yeah, and I unlocked the worst minigame ever.

I guess its heart was in the right place, though.

[wourme]

Taking pictures of animals is fun in real life, too.

But more on topic--I like just about every aspect of Beyond Good and Evil.

[Nana Komatsu]

I thought this thread would be about Pokemon Snap, but was pleasantly surprised anyway.

[Shapermc]

[helicopterp]

[Lackey]

I felt more empathy for Jade and her concern for the Lighthouse orphans than I have for a videogame protagonist in a long time. She just seems like a nice person!

Also: Taking pictures of animals in Duck Hunt: The Quest for Gold was by far my favourite part of that game. Granted, I was a child when I played it, but I still remember it being cool.

Has anyone seen that indie game where you go on a safari? It actually looked rather well done.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[ApM]

[Lackey]

Oops, my mistake.

And yes, someone should make this game.

edit: I'm also writing a Duck Hunt/Duck Tales crossover fanfiction.
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[wourme]

[Shapermc]

[Alc]

I really enjoyed BG&E. A lot of people complained about the length, but I was pretty much done with it by the end, it didn't need to be longer. A sequel would be nice, though unlikely given the first game's poor sales.

The only thing that got to me was the voiceover. At one point I changed the dialogue to Italian, but changed it back when I realised the subtitles were in Italian too. Durr etc.

[OtakupunkX]

[helicopterp]

Right. So I finished the game yesterday. I am happy to report that taking pictures of animals never got old, and I wish there were more animals in the game.

I applaud Beyond Good and Evil for its sense of context. The game's dungeon design was integrated well with the concept of my objectives at each one. The difficulties I encountered (rather, Jade encountered, because nothing in the game was terribly difficult for me) were all explainable within the game's universe, especially compared to Zelda games, which can feel utterly arbitrary, especially in dungeons. And I like that the objective for each dungeon (taking pictures for the resistance effort) actually connected with the surface narrative of the game. In Zelda, the objective always boils down to "you are to kill this boss because, er, that's what you are to do," and this resulting player narrative typically feels wholly disengaged from whatever link's quest is (although I didn't get this feeling from Majora's Mask, probably because of the bosses' art style).

The worst thing about the game was its pacing. Nothing quite feels as big as it should. Aside from my own rampant photography binges, every point in the game seems overly significant, with little downtime in between. It cheapens a lot of the biggest accomplishments, especially the very interesting last boss fight, which never quite felt as epic as it should have been.

So yeah, just thought I'd list some final thoughts.

Oh, and I really enjoyed watching the credits. I sat there and worked on my French pronunciation as the names appeared on the screen, which became really challenging as more and more showed up. I'm gonna have to beat more Ubisoft games.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

[Mr. Apol]

[SuperWes]

I'll see your Pokemon Snap and raise you a Dead Rising. In Dead Rising you get bonus points (exp?) for putting Kobun Heads on Zombies and fitting them all into the frame of a picture.

-Wes
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[Mr. Apol]