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Post by Discoalucard on Jan 29, 2011 12:01:46 GMT -5
www.hardcoregaming101.net/bodyharvest/bodyharvest.htmThis one got delayed a bit due to emulation issues, but now it's up! This alien-shooter is basically the prototype to Grand Theft Auto 3, as it was made by the same folks and controls somewhat similarly, albeit in a more fantastical setting (and also on the N64).
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Post by aganar on Jan 29, 2011 13:45:19 GMT -5
Ha. My "Two vehicles crashed and I still can't cross the fucking bridge" picture made the cut.
EDIT: Some usual proofreading.
- The phrase "a RPG" crops up a few times in the forth paragraph. I am of the opinion that it should really be "an RPG" because I imagine that 95% of people who read that are mentally vocalizing the acronym "are-pee-gee" rather than "role-playing-game".
DMA Design and Nintendo made attempts to make Body Harvest over into a RPG, with DMA going to Nintendo HQ in a last-ditch effort to make it work, working next door to the Star Fox team for two weeks.
Alot of repeated verbs here. I'd suggest either "...and Nintendo attemped to make Body Harvest into an RPG" or "...made attemps to mold Body Harvest over into an RPG".
"...work, working" is also awkward. You might rework the clause preceding the comma to "with DMA going to Nintendo HQ in a last-ditch effort to salvage the project" or "to finish the overhaul," or something of that nature so as to avoid repeating "work."
Adam Drake Your silent protagonist, Adam is a soldier suited up in orange armor and capable of fighting with a wide range of artillery.
No idea why "your" is capitalized. Was this supposed to be the Characters section with icons and whatnot? If so, there should be a dash between Drake and Your. Otherwise, I'd suggest "Adam Drake, your silent protagonist, is a soldier..."
Same below with Daisy and Dark Adam.
The basic gameplay boils down to four major styles - Adam's standard controls, where he runs around the landscape; his shooting controls, which changes the camera to being behind Adam's back; indoors, where Adam interacts with NPC's, switches and treasure containers; and the vehicles, which there are four basic types (which I'll get to in a moment).
The dash should be a em-dash if it's going to introduce something, though a colon would really be better.
The action aspects are overall excellent for its time, with an auto-aim that works fairly well (which makes the shoddy aiming in GTA3 a more notable question) and the camera approach more than suitable for blasting.
"Overall" should either be set apart by commas or moved to the beginning of the sentence (followed by a comma). The shoddy aiming in GTA3 isn't really question, at least not in the way it's framed in the sentence. You might reword "notable question" to "glaring weakness/shortcoming". Finally, stay consistent on your use of definite/indefinite items: you have "an auto-aim" but "the camera approach". I would change the latter to "an".
All and all, this is the meat of the game, and is the most thrilling.
The traditional phrase is "all in all."
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Post by splatter on Jan 30, 2011 7:05:24 GMT -5
It's cool to see one of my favorite N64 games get an article. Although I like the GTA series, I'd like if Rockstar North would do something else outside the whole modern-day crime shtick now that they've refined free-roaming gameplay. Should be "Alpha Command Module." It's also kind of weird to say Daisy (*bleh*) spends the whole game in the thing, then follow with a sentence about how she's kidnapped, and therefore not inside the module from then until her rescue. I know a ton of games give the PC's evil clone the "dark" moniker, but this guy's name is Tomegatherion. It comes from the Greek text of the Bible, apparently. I understand what the writer's getting at - how water is a major obstacle in both titles - but you couldn't swim at all in GTA3. Also, the full title of that game should properly use a Roman numeral. This mission is actually called "Body Harvest." It also seems like a significant omission not to mention the fifth area the game, on the bugs' artificial comet in the year 2016. There are no vehicles to commandeer here, just your Alpha Tank, and fighting on foot is suicide against the aliens of this time period.
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Post by Discoalucard on Jan 30, 2011 10:00:47 GMT -5
Argh some of these were already fixed but it looks like I forgot to upload the fixed HTML file. I reincorporated the rest of these changes, though, thanks!
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Post by Wildcat on Jan 30, 2011 10:39:18 GMT -5
Yay! It finally made it up! ^_^ Thanks for all the corrections - sometimes you just stop catching things after re-reading something so many times. It's been a bit since I got all the way through the game, so there's a few things I forgot, like Tomegatherion's real name. I appreciate the help in making it more factual and readable. Kurt - Did I forget to send you character pictures? I also thought I sent you a few music samples...would you like me to re-send them, or is it unnecessary?
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Post by jorpho on Jan 30, 2011 11:30:26 GMT -5
DMA Design wasn't exactly "riding a high" from Lemmings by the time Body Harvest came out, was it? It may very well have been its most well-known franchise before GTA came out, but if I'm not mistaken it had actually been some time since DMA Design actually made a Lemmings game themselves. (Lemmings 3D was not a DMA Design product.)
Moar grammar: Nintendo was recruiting devs to join what they were pegging their the people at Nintendo were recruiting devs to join what they were pegging as their
over the system's lifeline over the system's lifetime
in their excellent history of the Body Harvest's in their excellent history of Body Harvest's
and there's times where and there are times where
The action aspects are excellent for its time The action aspects are excellent for their time
and once it's been run dry, it will need to be and once they've been run dry, they will need to be
Land-based vehicles will slowly drain health if they are accidentally A land-based vehicle will slowly lose health if it is accidentally
Harvester clutters Harvester clusters [?]
commander a fire engine commandeer a fire engine
able to strife in circles able to strafe in circles
terms of its rich sound terms of their rich sound
hopefully not be followed by more!) hopefully not be followed by more!).
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Post by Wildcat on Jan 30, 2011 13:09:55 GMT -5
Thanks, jorpho! If I recall, the EDGE article I referenced talked about DMA Design's success from Lemmings being somewhat fresh, but I'll double-check that. Edit - Here's where I pulled that from: Source.
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Post by jorpho on Jan 30, 2011 13:44:34 GMT -5
Oh. Fair enough.
I really can't name anything off the top of my head that they did aside from Lemmings.
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Post by lanceboyle94 on Feb 2, 2011 21:37:50 GMT -5
I remember playing this on Project64 back in 2008, but the emulation issues prevented me from playing it a bit. The only mission I could play properly was the one where you go in the hovercraft-like tank! So it's good to hear that they were fixed. And back when I played it for the first time it was cool to see that this was DMA's first open-world 3D game. Also, today I was playing GTA: Episodes of Liberty City and while playing it I thought of this, Lemmings and some of DMA's earlier games, and then said to myself "From Lemmings to this. Oh, how times change!". Not that I don't like GTA; heck, I love it (IMO Vice City is the best of the first three 3D GTAs), but it's kinda odd to see them making stuff like Lemmings, Body Harvest, Uniracers and Space Station Silicon Valley to start making GTAs and Manhunt. Speaking of which, in San Andreas they also referenced Lemmings. I saw it on a mag that was released around Vice City Stories' release, which had pretty much all easter eggs for all GTAs starting from 3 to Liberty City Stories. There's a building (can't remember where) where you can see people walking in a row on the top of it and falling down to their death, just like the Lemmings. Oh. Fair enough. I really can't name anything off the top of my head that they did aside from Lemmings. One I can remember they did before Lemmings is Blood Money, and for the opposite Uniracers. And the TurboGrafx CD/TurboDuo port of Shadow of the Beast
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Post by GamerL on Jan 6, 2015 7:54:05 GMT -5
I remember seeing this game on the shelf of Blockbuster as a kid, but I lacked an N64 at the time, not long after a buddy of mine in second grade who had played it told me about it and from his descriptions and my imagination (since I had no idea what 3D games really looked like) I pictured it as looking a lot more amazing than it really did.
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Post by kingfossil on Jan 6, 2015 11:36:52 GMT -5
The game is actually quite fun, tough the controls outside vehicles are terrible to the point I tought my N64's stick was the problem. It really pick up near the end of the first stage, after that military vehicles are easy to find.
However the game has a crapload of nasty bugs, and im talking about non emulated gameplay. One time I was about to enter a vehicles in the Java stage when all of a sudden I was teleported high into the sky to the middle of the forcefield, forcing me to quit the game because I was stuck. Other time in the America stage I reached a section of the game in a way I shouldnt had (basically managed to walk over a hill instead of doing something that destroys it), so the opening gate to the boss never appears.
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