The Gamer's Quarter

dessgeega · Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:55 am Post subject:

it's not a port, it's an original game. i've gotten the impression it's sort of a "dungeon master lite" - you get to choose from only like eight champions, and instead of one big dungeon, the game is divided into a bunch of three-level dungeons. i have to wonder if it's really playable with a two-button control pad, though.

i think a ds port could work brilliantly. a lot of dungeon master's imitators tried to design more convenient interfaces by allowing the inventory and dungeon view to be onscreen at the same time, but this made the dungeon view tiny when it should be the focus of the screen. a dual-screen setup would be pretty much perfect.
_________________

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Ok, god help me, but the inner table top nerd in me caught wind of Shadowrun on the 360 and I took a pile of things into EBgames and walked out with Shadowrun for just under $10. I don’t know, I mean, I am kind of hold great contempt for the game. I just happen to have the demo sitting on my 360 and gave it a whirl on Saturday and something clicked in me about how genius it really is, especially when taken into consideration that it’s a FPS game.

So the inner urge called me to get the game and I did, and it’s both exceptionally bad and amazingly good at the same time. It’s the ultimate example of concept over execution. Like you can have an Elf that can fly around and teleport into the highest room of the enemy building then pull out his katana and kill someone with ninja speed then teleport out before anyone besides the dead guy knows you were there. Alternatively you could be a dwarf who’s run out of ammo and gotten separated from the party only to find out the entire party got slaughtered, but the dwarf has resurrection so he goes in and raises his entire party which fell in the same spot and you can then effectively completely turn the tide of battle. I mean, there are just so many strategies and they are all so well implemented…

But then you realize that it’s just a multiplayer game. On top of that it only has 8 levels (6 levels have large and small versions). And the textures look terrible. Also there character model animations are terrible (and missing anything to identify them as going up ladders as they just float up). OH, yeah, also there’s only 4 different character types, and only two models per character (one per different team). As well as there only being one real mode of play which is pretty much capture the flag, and two variants of it. But by GOD it’s fun as hell to play because the options are so wide within these restrictions and they can be changed dynamically between rounds.

I want to recommend this game to people so that I have friends to play with, but it’s not worth more than $20 as it’s about as incomplete as a game can be. In fact, I’m surprised that it even qualified as a “retail release.” If ever there was a poster child for downloadable games, this is it. Shadowrun makes the single player of WarTech (Senko no Ronde) look fleshed out.
_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

Forgot to say I completed Twilight Princess.

It has roughly the worst first 10 hours of game, like, ever (fuck collecting those tears, man) But then it turns into a traditional Zelda game and is alright... Ish.

One thing I hated was the world layout. Teleporting with Midna was alright or whatever, I suppose, but that's only because of how segmented the world was. Hyrule field is like, 9 different pieces connected by little valleys, and it really feels weird and fake.

If they could have opened up the world and streamed the whole thing without the loading gaps it would probably have felt really cool and I'd have ridden Epona more than all of three times.
_________________
aerisdead

ApM · Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:23 pm Post subject:

I spent pretty well my entire weekend downloading Apple II and Apple IIgs games, transferring them over to an old B&W Mac via ethernet, and using the Mac to create funky 800kb 3.5" disks that the IIgs could read. (In the case of the Apple II games, the 800kb disk images were hand-crafted with smaller 140kb disk images embedded inside them, and there was a fourth step of turning those images into 5.25" disks on the IIgs itself.)

The IIgs version of Out Of This World plays inside a little postage stamp in the middle of the screen! Also it seems to have inherited the incidental music from the SNES port. Also I need a second 3.5" drive because the disk swapping was craaazy.
I have got to find some way of extracting the music from the IIgs version of Zany Golf. The 4-channel Amiga tunes are laughably inferior. EDIT! Seriously, listen to this.
Crystal Quest is pretty good, but man, do I feel dumb running myself into mines when there's not even any enemies on the screen. Double stupidity points for running into an open gate.
Someone finally uploaded disk images of Cross Country Canada to Asimov! If you grew up on the Canadian prairies, you'd know how momentous this was for me. Frustratingly, though I was speeding the entire game, I was never pulled over by the cops, and thus not able to outrun them by hammering on the space bar. I won a trip to Carnaval de Québec, I think? Bonhomme was waving to me, anyway!
Below The Root turned an hour into about five minutes, I swear to God. I found the "Sample Quest" movie particularly enthralling. Much better to watch the computer show you what the hell the "Pense" command is supposed to do than to try and puzzle it out for yourself. This game makes you feel like mapping it out using watercolour or something, I don't know. I couldn't imagine just filling in a grid with lines for ladders.

jjsimpso · . Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 94 Location: USA

Oh, so the pc engine version of Dungeon Master is Theron's Quest. I had heard of that but didn't realize it was for the pc engine.

http://dmweb.free.fr has everything you could ever want to know about the series.

I'm playing Etrian Odyssey now and have reached B3F. It's starting to get pretty interesting! The FOEs add a nice, natural puzzle element to the exploration. Also, the game would be much worse if it didn't have the random encounter threat level indicator.

dessgeega · Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:35 am Post subject:

half-life 2, xbox version. i played up to getting the airboat. the xbox version loses a bit of the seamlessness of the game - and has an actual title screen, with gordon looking heroic and alyx looking distressed, instead of the pc version's understated live camera of city 17. the load times are surprisingly quick, but it does sort of kill the subtlety of seeing a tiny nook and sneaking down it to be immediately told GOOD YOU'RE GOING THE RIGHT WAY NOW LOADING. i assume valve isn't satisfied with these issues and is going to be working them out in the upcoming 360 version.

anyway it's a pretty fantastic game. the level design is very smart. this is the first first-person shooter to have really engaged me since doom, i'll tell ya what. gordon freeman is a really likeable character. and he is a character, not an everyman or a cartesian observer. gorden is characterized by the way other characters react to and regard the player. he is driven more by his loyalty to his friends and by his vendetta with dr. breen than by the puppet-strings of his mysterious master. this is a very scripted game, and the player is just playing out gordon's part. that's why it's not jarring that gordon lowers his weapon when facing a friend or comrade.
_________________

aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

Ethoscapade · . Joined: 30 Oct 2005 Posts: 276

i'm curious as to how you'll feel about the airboat part, dess. i was playing half-life 2 extraordinarily slowly to begin with (it's just draining on a laptop but hell if i don't love it); it probably took me two weeks to get up to highway 17 and from there i played it at a rate of about half an hour a month, literally. there wasn't a moment i disliked, either.

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

Spider-Man 3 (PS3) is driving me insane. I can't believe how shoddy the end product is: choppy frame rate, pop-up, clipping, cutscenes with snippets of other scenes flickering in and out, a camera incapable of following while crawling or inside for more than 10 seconds without zooming in on a door or wall, and some infuriating missions. Damn them for getting the swinging down! Without it, the game would be nothing. I have to say, though, that the Green Goblin portion, as paltry as it is, is kind of fun with the controller. Just when I start to enjoy the game, it loves to remind me of how much it isn't worth $70.
_________________
Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

dessgeega · Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:25 pm Post subject:

alright, i've reached black mesa east. the airboat fits with the game's pace perfectly - it's always forward forward quickly quickly. the game is really good about showing you your next goal as soon as you've reached the last - you always know what it is you're working towards.

i have gotten stuck a few times. but it's never been for more than a few minutes. i've also died a bunch of times. usually when i die it's because the game just gave me a new weapon and i wasn't using it.

backing up in the airboat is sort of unweildy.

as for gordon freeman, i feel like we can say definitively who he is because the game is just so scripted: the game weaves through a lot of different places but it is one straight path, one continuous chain of actions. and anything that happens on that path can be ascribed to gordon freeman's character, and all of those actions serve to characterize him. i know that when i discover a bunch of bouyant cannisters and release them in the water underneath a wooden plank to prop it up and make a ramp for my airboat, i am executing gordon freeman's solution because gordon freeman is a crafty, resourceful physicist. and it's the same with character interaction: the range of actions available - listen thoughtfully to my friends, plug a switch back in when something goes awry - characterize him because his part is as scripted as anything else in the game. gordon freeman is not a man who bonks his friends on the head with metal cannisters for fun.
_________________

aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I've been playing lots of games on GameTap that I should have played a long time ago!

I started with Sands of Time, which is a really fun platformer game, and a really tedious fighting game. Seriously, if they just cut out all the fighting, this game would have been awesome. It's not fun being stuck in an area fighting constantly respawning monsters for like ten minutes! And the rewind things is useless in combat, it's even worse than abusing quicksaves. It's great when jumping, though. I also don't get why they made it darker for the next game, it's already pretty dark as it is, I thought! I like how the Prince is a total dick at the start of the game.

I've also been trying the latest Tomb Raider which is... very similar to sands of time, so I get very confused with controls when switching between the two. The combat in the new TR is pretty sparse, and entertaining when it is there (some videogamey slow down crap, but I enjoy it) and it's mostly about exploring and jumping and puzzling. Solid remake of the first game which keeps most of the spirit, even if most places aren't recognisable. Everything feels a little smaller too... like some places in the original levels which were there just for the hell of it seem to be missing in this version, but it's still the best TR game to come out for a long time.

I also tried playing Uru with a friend last night. Man! They need to streamline that shit, SERIOUSLY. Also, I had to use a "free" account which means I can only go to very, veyr few areas. So I guess I'm gonna subscribe so my friend and I can adventure together (and play metal slug and final fight and what not together).

I've been playing those the most, but have downloaded other games to play once I'm done. Second Sight is next on my list, due to Drackos recommendation. I also downloaded Toy Commander, which hasn't aged as well as I hoped it would, but will hopefully still be fun once I get to it. I was dissapointed to find Cannon Fodder was the Genesis version, even if it's a pretty solid port, and controlling the cursor with an analog stick works pretty damn well. But still, Amiga version or something! Also downloaded some other games but I won't talk about them until I actually play them.
_________________

dessgeega · Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:55 pm Post subject:

aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

dessgeega · Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:19 pm Post subject:

because it goes against all of the design of half-life 2, i guess. this game is straight as an arrow. it's as on-rails as kingda ka.
_________________

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

We had a pretty good conversation about this when the Xbox version came out. Someone (Wes?) said that they felt that they should have taken all of the freedom of allowing you to run around and act like a jackass while Serious Business was going down since it 1) betrayed the mood and 2) highlighted the essentially inflexible nature of the game.

I liked the way it was handled personally because I felt that acting as I "should" (i.e. looking people in the eye, checking out papers or screens, not chucking trash at people, etc.) during what would normally be a cutscene reinforced my sense of character.

I didn't much like the actual game though, although parts of it are really impressive, mainly because I like messing with boundaries of games and HL2 was a little too much like an action movie in this regard (in that once you start trying to explore, rather than "run, shoot, run, shoot, blow shit up, run", you keep butting up against weird walls). I suspect this is why I find empty, reactive models like GTA to be so engrossing.

aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

SuperWes · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 12:50 pm Post subject:

dessgeega · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:38 pm Post subject:

i have been through ravenholm and come out the other side. now i know why nobody goes there: it's full of saw blades and explosive cannisters!

i downloaded the xbox live carcassonne, and i like what they've done with it. i'm glad they didn't turn the meeples into tiny renaissance polygon people. turns are much shorter than in settlers of catan, which probably means much less waiting around doing nothing while other players take their turn. i might be interesting in buying the full game if other people are down to play.
_________________

dessgeega · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 9:34 pm Post subject:

nova prospekt. i'm more scared of this place than i was of ravenholm.

the buggy is sometimes hard to control. the "don't touch the sand" part made me wish there were more options for manipulating things with the gravity gun. but i got through in the end.

the pacing of the game impresses me. the way there'll be a "quiet moment" after a long sequence of running and shooting, where you just hunt for batteries or play with see-saws.

the bridge really impressed me as a piece of architecture.

i like the vortigaunts a lot.
_________________

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

My dad pulled off some awesome 'don't touch the ground' shit when he played through HL2. There was a section where he worked out the big mommy would only turn up if you landed on the floor, so he stepping-stoned himself all the way out of the area using two crates.

dhex · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:17 am Post subject:

the vortigaunts are voiced by lou gosset jr.

i'm playing vampire the masquerade: bloodlines and i'm shocked at how good parts of it are. also the whole goth club thing is great. collide? yes! oh man.

the whole hall of mirrors bug from the early source engine, however, sucks the big one.
_________________

dessgeega · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 11:39 am Post subject:

nova prospekt is behind me. and wow, that whole stretch of the game was really well put together.

the citadel looms.
_________________

Lestrade · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 12:59 pm Post subject:

dessgeega · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:15 pm Post subject:

see, i liked that bit too, but when i picked up the other plank it would catch under the one i was on, which would start shaking, and i'd have to work the plank out from under that one before dropping it on the other side. i just wish there were more options for moving things with the gravity gun - like being able to set something slightly further away or rotating them to get around rocks or through doorways. maybe there are controls, i just havn't found them. i like the physical puzzles but actually rigging the solutions can be finnicky.
_________________

Scratchmonkey · . Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 1439

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

I've been enjoying Forza 2, despite not being too much into cars. I was playing online with a friend yesterday, just a friendly match so we could get the feel of online play, and was quickly reminded as to why I ignore multiplayer options in most games: MeOffJerk234. This person was a fan of slamming into other people and not much else. I had the volume low, so I can only assume the mutters coming from them had something to do with fucking my mom or something. They have been the only person I've marked as avoiding.

I beat Puzzle Quest as well. I still think the damn game cheats.

I also beat Spider-Man 3. Meh.

Next up: (more) Guild Wars.

A good thing I'm heading back home tomorrow, I need to replenish my game stock.
_________________
Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Six · . Joined: 15 Jul 2006 Posts: 313 Location: montreal

I'm finally playing Half-Life 2 after several false starts. I don't know if there's anything I can say about it that hasn't been said (though I don't even know what's been said, since I've mostly abstained from reading anything that goes into too much detail.) I will say that I like the amount of care that's gone into seemingly minor details, like the biology of the various species.

It's a bit irksome that the gravity gun's behaviour against living targets is inconsistent. How does it work? Four(-plus) legs good, two legs bad?

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Six, what's your avatar from? I really like it.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Six · . Joined: 15 Jul 2006 Posts: 313 Location: montreal

Yeah, I'm still planning to give that a listen when I finish HL2. Did you guys ever sort out those technical issues, by the by? I enjoyed the Noctis one.

Harveyjames: thanks! The avatar was just a quick sprite I made for a one-switch game I'm going to finish one of these years.

Swimmy · . Joined: 16 Sep 2005 Posts: 990 Location: Fairfax, VA

I just beat Spider-Man 2. That was a good time. I haven't seen a game since Jak 2 that would be more infuriating to actually complete everything, though. Fuck those challenges and the buoy tokens, man.

I'm thinking about picking Hoshigami Remix up, but I'm worried. The reviews all say, "Magic is too powerful, you can't play as an effective fighter, wah," which is fine by me. I love ridiculously broken RPGs, so I'll have fun with that. The problem is the story. Can I make it past the story? I'm not sure I have the patience these days. But I suppose if I loved Riviera so much, this can't be too bad, right?

I'm also playing Ultima 4. I hate sailing. I adore everything else.
_________________

"Ayn Rand fans are the old school version of Xenogears fanboys."
-seryogin

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

They keep adding new stuff to GameTap! I can't keep up with all of it. The Manhole CD Version was just added!

I played Uru last night with a friend, but I'm gonna write about my experiences over at SB since it's already a topic.
_________________

ryan · . Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

The first Hitman was just chucked on last night! That's pretty awesome, I played through the first and second (the second was brilliant) but never got aroudn to the others. I already played through all the Thief games, but now my friend can play them. Sweet.
_________________

Lestrade · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:40 pm Post subject:

Finally got to Area 4 in Layer Section (flying through the clouds is so, so cool); I didn't last too long. Will play more.

JasonMoses · . Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 407

"AWAITED BY ALL SHOOTING GAME FANS"

I bought the Saturn port of Strikers 1945 off of a guy on the shmups forum a week ago, and it came in on Wednesday. Sometimes you can just feel the love, y'know? The port's also really good, with both an excellent conversion of the arcade game (as opposed to the saturn port of Strikers II which kind of sucks and the PS2 compilation of I & II which is even worse somehow) in addition to some weird little additions, like a voiced rundown of all the planes in the game and a really crappy-looking FMV intro.

It's still one of my favorite Psikyo games, too, for reasons I'm not entirely sure I can articulate. Mostly it's for aesthetic reasons - the lack of gross pre-rendered sprites, the awesome bosses who invariably all transform into robots of some kind, the floating trenchcoat guys + baby/witch/crab-thing in stage 7. And the saturn port's front cover is ridiculously great.

Good game.

Crazy Bacon Lips · . Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Posts: 88 Location: Ol' Virginny

Man, stop talking about how awesome the Sega Saturn is. I do not have any money.

Then again, Japangamestock's Saturns are only like $75 shipped. And if anyone asks, then I am pre-responding (an internet first!!!) with "why the hell would you want to play anything but a white Saturn?" because that's the goddamn truth.

Fred · . Joined: 18 Apr 2006 Posts: 99 Location: Iowa

White Saturns are cool, but they're not thirty dollars at the local used games shop. The games are the expensive part of the deal anyway. Dunno about you, but I have so little time to play videogames any more that Nights, Saturn Bomberman and I-don't-know-Fighters-Megamix-or-something could easily last me six months.

But not until I master Darius Gaiden on that excellent Taito Legends disc.

dhex · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 7:49 am Post subject:

i've played the ps2 strikers collection and i've played the mame versions and i'm kinda hard pressed to tell the difference.
_________________

dessgeega · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:25 am Post subject:

i've got the ps2 strikers collection. i want to replace it with the saturn port of strikers part II because it's too easy to accidentally continue in the ps2 version.
_________________

dessgeega · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 11:11 am Post subject:

"if you see dr. breen, tell him i said 'fuck you!'"
_________________

JasonMoses · . Joined: 15 Oct 2004 Posts: 407

dessgeega · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:55 pm Post subject:

i delivered the message to breen. wow, this game has quite the closing act, huh.

so yeah. that was a marvelous experience. the only times i got frustrated were when i was trying to do something that wasn't actually what i was supposed to. these moments were rare, though, since the direction is so strong. also frustrating: trying to manipulate things carefully with the gravity gun, getting caught on doorways while running from striders.

i honestly think valve would have done away with dying and ammo if they could find a plausible way to do so, and if they could do it without alienating the kind of first-person shooter fans who bought the first game. hell, they basically did it with the last two chapters.

so i'm going to listen to the podcast tonight, and reread a few other pieces of writing on the game. and then i'm going to start playing crackdown. kirk israel graciously donated a copy of the game that he was finished with. i might pick dungeon master back up, too - i left my champions on dungeon level six while i played through half-life.
_________________

aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

I hope in the next HL they fix it so the suit just regenerates its shield.
_________________
aerisdead

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

dess: http://www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/

Play this mod now.
_________________
"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

dessgeega · Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 3:53 pm Post subject:

ok i will get that installed on my xbox as soon as possible
_________________