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Post by dsparil on Jul 27, 2021 13:28:41 GMT -5
I'm a fair ways into Skyward Sword HD (after the third main dungeon), and is it just me or is this actually a poor port? Aesthetically, I don't think it directly adapts to HD as well as Windwaker or Twilight Princess as the art style for the textures seems like it was made with a certain amount of analog fuzziness in mind. More significant is that the motion controls stink. They lost their position so frequently in my experience that they needed to be recentered literally before every usage and sometimes in the middle if it was a longer Beetle usage. The sword controls are a little better but not perfect. It's really such a shame since the sword fighting was the best part in the original. The accelerometer+gyro chip in the JoyCons seems to be cheaper than the current price of the chip most similar to the one used in the Motion Plus from the same company, and I'm really hoping that some of the poor performance isn't due to Nintendo trying to lower the BOM by 26¢ or so.
If these were my totally initial impressions, I would rag on the button control but they actually aren't too bad. The big thing is that you only need to flick the stick in the direction of attack and don't need to do a "wind up" first. The only annoying thing is that you need to hold down L to rotate the camera which I do way more than using the sword. I'd be nice if an option for L to enable the sword with Z-targeting using the stick directly. It isn't a big deal, and it's more of a long term wear issue than anything else. It mostly just feels so weird to play the game this way.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Jul 28, 2021 6:07:34 GMT -5
Even when playing the Wii version on Wii U Skyward Sword didn't look as good. It's best on the original Wii, and they really should've put more effort in trying to get the graphical style to come across in HD. It's not the only game that looks worse in its HD remastered version, but it's especially sad with this one since it had such a unique graphical effect. I think if I ever replay SS I'm going to play it on a CRT.
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Post by spanky on Jul 28, 2021 9:18:32 GMT -5
Lukewarm take here, but I feel like the Wii controls do not lend themselves well to ports of games. Wasn't the recent port of Super Mario Galaxy awkward to control?
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Post by dsparil on Jul 28, 2021 12:05:06 GMT -5
It wasn't a problem in SMG since collecting and shooting star bits was the main usage of motion controls, and that worked without issue. It also wasn't as annoying if the position did get all screwy because it wasn't also moving the camera around. I do remember the parts where you control the ball with the JoyCon upright were a little awkward but they're fairly infrequent.
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Post by lurker on Jul 28, 2021 13:29:55 GMT -5
I wonder how well Godzilla Unleashed would port to the Switch if it actually got one.
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Post by mainpatr on Jul 28, 2021 17:08:31 GMT -5
Today's the big Activision\Blizzard walkout day,where streamers are encouraged to not stream any ActiBlizz games. I think it's better to play old Korean frankengames instead.
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Post by retr0gamer on Jul 29, 2021 3:34:22 GMT -5
This snuck up on me. Looks incredible and by cyberconnect2. Not surprised if it ends up being part of the tail concerto universe. youtu.be/CbjXMMH0JzI
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Jul 29, 2021 8:51:28 GMT -5
This snuck up on me. Looks incredible and by cyberconnect2. Not surprised if it ends up being part of the tail concerto universe. youtu.be/CbjXMMH0JzIReading up on it, I think it is based in the same universe as the other Little Tail Bronx games such as Tail Concerto and Solatorobo: The Red Hunter. I can't say the gameplay interests me, but I'm chuffed to see CC2 making and even publishing their own games, and I hope this does well to keep that momentum going. (It also reminds me that I really should play Tail Concerto and Solatorobo, as they mechanically sound up my alley and I'm a sucker for games with cartoon animals.)
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For a few days, I got well into playing Crackdown 2 on the Xbox 360. I'd always quite liked the original, but never bothered to give the sequel a look for whatever reason. Since it's been free on the Xbox Marketplace since 2019, I figured I might as well give it a shot.
It's a rather fascinating sequel, not for any innovations, but more for how it really does feel like an expansion pack for the first Crackdown. The map is carried over almost exactly with some slight tweaks and additions (mainly wrecking the place and including big caverns for the new missions), and all the mechanics are exactly the same. The only additions are the emphasis on four-player co-op, the wingsuit, a bunch of new enemy types based on the Freaks briefly seen in the original, and the new mission structure - which revolve around either defending an area for a while or killing a certain number of enemies.
Considering the three-and-a-half year gap between the two games, I really can see why Crackdown 2 was viewed as such a disappointment when it comes across more as Crackdown: King of the Hill Edition than a meaningful expansion or development of what's come before. That said, it's perfectly serviceable if you want more of the same loops of jumping around, big explosions and getting increasingly stronger, though the difficulty is balanced more to suit the co-op modes and results in a much harder single-player game than the first. Combined with the "protect the thing" missions, I gave up fairly close to the end as I just didn't have the patience for it.
One area that did stand out to me was the sudden introduction of audio logs. Now, I don't mind audio logs as a method of storytelling within video games, since you can do some fairly interesting things with them to contextualize what's going on. However, I feel like developer Ruffian Games used them as something of a compromise. See, they came up with this surprisingly developed story and cast of characters that fleshes out the world of Crackdown 2 and shows what's really going on. But the way the game's designed, and more specifically the design it's carrying over from the original, doesn't lend itself to really getting into that story.
The original Crackdown emphasized player freedom, letting you take on any of the missions you wanted to do, and its story was designed to never get in the way of the gameplay - you'd have brief cutscenes and screens outlining each of the gang members and their impact bookending each mission, and nothing more. Crackdown 2 keeps that same freedom, but actually removes those little cutscenes, meaning that there's even less room for the game to try and flesh out its narrative. What doesn't help is that because all its mission types have to play out in the same way regardless of location, there aren't unique events or moments that could be used to progress the narrative.
Maybe Ruffian didn't want to restrict the player's freedom, maybe they didn't want to shake the boat seeing as they had inherited the series from Realtime Worlds, maybe it was a mandate from upstairs. I can't say. But the end result is that they stuck the vast majority of the game's story and characterization into these very optional and easily missable audio logs, and stuck them on random buildings and in random corners. So depending on what you do, you could totally miss what's going on until the very end of the game, and while the original Crackdown also did something similar, that was designed to be a deliberate end-game twist that recontextualized the whole thing. Here, it just feels like a compromise between what the team wanted to explore (a greater degree of plot and character work) and what they felt players wanted (the freedom to do anything at any time without being interrupted by a lame story).
In the end, Crackdown 2 is a really interesting sequel for the exact same reasons it disappointed many back then. It's more of the same, but in a half-hearted, constrained way that even actual video game expansions were able to overcome.
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Post by lurker on Jul 29, 2021 9:22:37 GMT -5
So Pokémon Snap is getting a free content patch Aug. 3.
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Post by retr0gamer on Jul 29, 2021 9:29:49 GMT -5
This snuck up on me. Looks incredible and by cyberconnect2. Not surprised if it ends up being part of the tail concerto universe. youtu.be/CbjXMMH0JzIFirst two reviews are full of praise. Noisypixel and RPGSite 9/10 I expect the big game journalist sites to ignore it unless it gets a cult following but would be great if it got some exposure. I would have missed it only for a Kat Bailey tweet.
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Jul 30, 2021 11:36:19 GMT -5
I expect the big game journalist sites to ignore it unless it gets a cult following but would be great if it got some exposure. You would think it's a gaming journalist's job to report on interesting things others haven't found yet. It's too bad a lot of games get practically no media attention. Often smaller games only get attention from sites because there's already a lot of word-of-mouth going on and by that time it's really too late and you're already just reporting on something that's already known. I get that articles on more well known games get more clicks, but surely it's not the smaller amount of clicks is worth the small amount of time it takes to quickly write up an article when something is announced? It always frustrates me when sites fail to take 5 minutes to write an article on an interesting small game and instead use those 5 minutes to write about the millionth Fortnite crossover update.
Got two new games I've been playing the last couple days. First is Crash Bandicoot 4 on Switch. I'll admit it's not the best time to be buying Activision products, but in my defense, I don't really associate Crash with Activision so I didn't even realize it was an Activision game until I had it. The intro logos are very laggy and it's one of those insane games where you have to agree to a license (two actually) before you play so it makes kind of a bad impression. Thankfully I already knew the Switch port was really good. It definitely feels like Crash. I'm not that far yet, but I'm already getting a bit annoyed with trying to get some of the gems. I mean, you don't have to get them, but they're kinda fun enough to go for, but also frustrating enough that it kind of feels like I'm wasting my time. There's always some crates hidden in ridiculous spots and you can never get the gem for all crates and gem for < 3 deaths in one try. Other than that it's been cool so far. The other is Snake Rattle 'n Roll. It's a pretty neat game, but the controls suck ass. The four directions on the d-pad correspond to the diagonals so the controls are rotated 45 degrees compared to what you see on screen. It's absolutely horrible and I can't see how anyone can ever get used to it. I had to resort to using the NES Advantage, and putting it on my lap turned 45 degrees. That works, but the Advantage is too finnicky and imprecise for the ridiculous waterfall stage. Every time I play I pretty much don't die until I hit that stage and then lose all my lives. I can't see myself ever completing this one.
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Post by dsparil on Jul 30, 2021 13:01:51 GMT -5
Speaking of finicky NES games, I played most of 𝒯𝒽ℯ 3-D ℬ𝒶𝓉𝓉𝓁ℯ𝓈 ℴ𝒻 World Runner, and has anyone ever actually finished this fairly? It's a Space Harrier-esque auto running game and a real oddball in Square's pre-FF catalog. The scrolling is actually very smooth and simulated scaling is very nicely done, but World 6 (of 8) seems totally impossible. The main thing is that you have to jump across pillars, but they're seemingly only a single pixel "long" so there's zero margin for error. I gave up not using save states at that point and still couldn't get past it.
I got even further in the sequel JJ having to give up at the World 7 boss. It's basically a harder version of the first game with a more alien and slightly sinister art style. The content of the levels is new, but they echo the originals. Interestingly, World 6 was made easier with all that pillar jumping removed. The main problem is that the end of world bosses were made significantly spongier. The bosses are where the Space Harrier inspiration turns into ripoff as you fly around the screen firing at a dragon that moves towards and away from you. They're easy to avoid even in the sequel, but I can't beat the World 7 dragon within the time limit because it takes so many hits.
What's a little interesting is that the 3-D part is actually literal! If you press Select, the first game switches to a Red/Blue 3D mode which is kinda neat. The first Rad Racer has the same 3D mode too. JJ instead used an official stereoscopic add-on instead so Select just enables that mode.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2021 21:13:22 GMT -5
Snake Rattle 'n' Roll is a childhood favourite and as one of the 10 NES games in our library at the time it is essentially automatically great, not to mention memorable. As for controlling it, I never had any issues with the direction - I guess being 7 years old and one of the first games I played on a D-Pad was advantageous in that respect. The game was a blast in two player mode.
I am having my own teething issues with a game I started though; and that's Star Ocean Till the End of Time. The dialogue is pretty awful so far, with too many lengthy scenes that don't make sense to me (we're in imminent danger and running for our lives, yet we have time to stop for a ten minute debate - seems to happen regularly) and I'm pretty unhappy about the presentation of female characters, so I don't have much hope left for enjoying the story. What I'm more just not getting is the combat. There was a tutorial, but like in many JRPGs it is both inappropriately timed and presented so it was of no help to me. Basically I feel like I'm pretty much mashing buttons, and that doesn't seem to be working out. My characters are about as durable as butter so I'm sure I'm missing what I'm supposed to be doing. I pretty much don't have a clue. The levelling and items are unclear to me too - basically all gameplay systems; I actually really don't get what I'm doing. Anyway, perhaps somebody here has some knowledge to give me some help? As is, I'm not sure I will progress much more unless it clicks.
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Post by shelverton on Jul 31, 2021 5:39:31 GMT -5
I also loved Snake Rattle 'n' Roll as a kid, but I also remembered loving the first few stages the most. After some time the game started getting very, very difficult for me and I never beat it. I remember thinking there was a slight shift in tone as the game progressed - from whimsy, colorful and lighthearted to sort of darker and just plain menacing. There’s one music track that I recall that probably had something to do with it.
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Post by Apollo Chungus on Jul 31, 2021 7:39:39 GMT -5
I spent the last day or so playing Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge for the GBA. It's a somewhat top-down platformer that manages to express the exploring and collecting gameplay of the N64 Banjo games quite well, with plenty of secrets about and a brisk pace that ensures you never spend too long in places. I ended up liking it a lot more than I was expecting given how little I'd heard about the game, and while it's not as charming as the main games (except for when Kazooie and Bozzeye slag each other off), I'd almost consider it my favourite of the Banjo series. Almost.
Considering the size of levels and the weird perspective, a map feature would really have been welcome in case there were areas you needed to return to or completely missed. Levels aren't too big, but it's fairly easy for me to get lost in them and I would've appreciated having a better way to orient myself. Also, the final boss encounter is needlessly cruel - you have to fight three bosses in a row, with no health restoratives and a cheeky quiz in between each one that could deal you some damage, and you have to do it in one go. Die at any point, and you have to do the whole thing over. Heck, you have to do the annoying jump pad activation puzzle all over again to even get back up to Grunty's Lair!
Sod that, I'm playing something else. It's a good game otherwise, but heck no.
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